“So, you’ve failed.” They stated, a voice devoid of humour, evil, nor divinity.

  The Fae Queen stared blankly at the Devil King, or more accurately, His occupied avatar, as she slowly healed Her body for returning the luxury of movement again.

  The darkened patches of bloody ash, which had once been skin, muscle, intestines and bone scattered across the still glowing rubble under Her feet.

  It seemed that it was still impossible to completely erase the scars of the branches of electricity that had burned Her in the moments prior, as the criss-crossing lines of tender skin grew in the parts of the body that had been struck just moments before.

  Archsage Livia stood, her smile finally gone, as the voids around her churned in foul blackness, the devils dancing against the barriers of worlds.

  Her eyes glared intently at the two gods standing in front of her, ready to strike them down once more at a moments’ notice.

  In the skies above, another figure materialised, crafting a platform of metal, staff in hand and face full of confusion and worry.

  “What’s going on down there Yeltz?” Archsage Andrew asked, his staff ready to start blasting the two deities standing off against her.

  Archsage Livia simply ignored her obnoxious colleague, instead opting to go on the offensive once more.

  With another swipe of her staff, she conjured a thick, black gooey mass of darkness, and muttered darkly under her breath.

  “█ █ █ █”

  As the world darkened, the Fae Queen was completely unfazed.

  “Are you trying to burn fire you filth?” The Fae Queen snorted, getting up unsteadily to Her feet as the world around Her died.

  The Devil King simply stood there, deflecting the attack without strain.

  Archsage Livia simply attacked once more, summoning a barrage of hellfire down on the pair, stepping into the void once more.

  “Enough.” They pronounced,

  That simple tap was all it took to slice into the spirit realm.

  They stretched Their two hands out, unfurling Their fists into Their palms. And with a sharp, decisive clap, sparks flew everywhere, and magic ignited all across Their vicinity.

  The space around the Fae Queen and the avatar immediately became incorporeal, creating a pocket in the space between the two realms.

  Archsage Andrew, a little belatedly, started chanting spells, and summoning golems from the rubble around him with a grimace.

  However, all of the Archsages’ attacks now simply phased through the two entities, unable to muster up enough magic to decisively break the anchoring of Their physical space against the barrier of the realms.

  “Failed? You ins- I gave you Oscarion up on a silver platter! Look what they’ve done to ME!” The Fae Queen screamed at the avatar, ignoring the barrage of attacks coming Their way.

  Both archsages were actually pushing their limit quite a bit at this moment, given that they had both gone all out in the 20 minutes of battle that had just passed.

  In fact, they were equally, if not more exhausted than the Fae Queen Herself.

  And Archsage Livia now opted to call in reinforcements.

  “Call Valentine bac-” She yelled into the spirit realm.

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  However, she instantly paled, finally becoming aware of a horrifying terror that had started to encroach on the world.

  A mountain of… corpses had started to fall from the sky.

  ???

  “...” Aurelius stared, the pain still throbbing through his hands, yet far too afraid to make a squeak. He had been suppressing his coughs for a horribly long time too… It was almost unbearable now, and he absolutely had to cough!

  However… There were 4 liches in the damn room PLUS a literal DEITY. The smallest noise could mean that he would… die… Wait… Huh…

  “What the he-koff-ll are you supposed t-koff- be?” Aurelius yelled out, coughing as another round of dust made it past his nostrils.

  The effect of the dust was now actually actively worse, as the concrete powder lining his nose and throat had now become as dry as bone.

  Not only was this uncomfortable, but this led to the dust entering him becoming more than twice as likely to trigger a coughing fit, as it directly travelled and scraped against his lungs…

  The 4 liches looked in horror towards Aurelius, Dr. Varian’s mustache quivering in terror at the sound from their prisoner and his loud mouth.

  The avatar of the Devil King, on the other hand, looked emotionless, staring at Aurelius curiously as They gauged what to do with the question.

  “What do you want exactly, apostle of the Lost God?” They asked back, eyes flickering with interest at Aurelius’s sudden boldness.

  “Me? Apostle of Quetzalcoatl? Don’t make me laugh. I’d rather die!” Aurelius replied, scoffing contemptuously at this statement.

  All four liches simultaneously looked upwards with a worried gaze, tensing as if expecting divine judgement to befall Aurelius for his blasphemy.

  The avatar looked even more interested in Aurelius, Their eyes burning in contemplation.

  “...So, would you prefer to be my apostle?” They offered.

  Aurelius looked towards the god, becoming slightly tempted by the offer…

  …Anything has to be better than that ASSHOLE god right? He thought…

  “Nope, please kindly fuck yourself.” Aurelius replied curtly.

  “Ah-” One of the liches actually yelled out in terror at Aurelius’s impudence. What was the boy doing! Courting death?

  The god looked taken aback by such a rude statement. Perhaps They had misjudged Aurelius’s character…

  “So… you would not be amenable to serving me and my mission?” They asked.

  “Nope. I don’t even need to hear your question, freak. Oscarion? More like… err… Dumbass?” Aurelius replied, quite literally pissing his pants now.

  All 4 liches immediately knelt down to the ground, kow-towing before the avatar in horror.

  If Aurelius was courting death, they would certainly not become involved in this… dispute! In fact, all 4 of them would have very much liked to LEAVE!

  “...I am not Oscarion, blessed one.” They responded, eyes now filling up with disinterest.

  Clearly, this boy had gone defective, or something strange along those lines. Perhaps he had suffered a head injury somewhere…

  Aurelius was confused by this statement.

  He had expected that this ‘individual’ standing before him was Oscarion, since the Fae Queen had commented that the Commission had summoned Him.

  He had actually been confused that Oscarion was here together with the liches, since gods usually upheld their contracts, and the Commission was definitely too wise to not create ironclad contracts. But that would imply that this… thing in front of him was either not divine, or that the Fae Queen had a spirit world ally…

  Oh well, no point overthinking it!

  “Well, you’re a cunt either way.” Aurelius yelled out, sticking his dusty tongue out to catch the air to blow a pathetic, dry raspberry.

  The avatar, at this point, was completely done with the whole situation, as They stepped forward for the first time since Their entrance into the room.

  “I suppose we do not need to… preserve you whole.” They stated.

  Each step seemed to flicker in heat and cries of the damned, as They approached Aurelius threateningly.

  Aurelius’s pants became rather… wet… as he stared at the… avatar…

  “Y-You’re still a-” Aurelius yelled out at the moment the avatar reached him.

  And he was dead.

  ???

  One Minute Before Aurelius’s Death

  “...Oscarion. Yes, you did keep that promise. But did you not almost die?” They stated, matter of factly, their lips curling down ever so slightly.

  “I-What kind of-No. Nonono… NO. NOT YET. NO-” The Fae Queen screeched, falling back from the intimidating figure.

  Her legs seemed to give out as She started to literally crawl away from Them.

  “Was it not said that you were to clean up after yourself?” They stated once more, tone void of all emotion, or feeling.

  The creepy indented mouth moved with every word, enunciating it factually for the Fae Queen.

  “You have Him and you’ll obviously achieve your objective! This is not fair! You cannot simply take this away for a technicality!” The Fae Queen screeched.

  In fact, She actively started to try to dismantle the barrier that the avatar had set up for Them.

  Even the Commission was better than that.

  “Enough.” They commanded, sending chills up the Fae Queen’s reformed spine.

  And with a simple step, The Fae Queen was no more.