Amid the raging inferno, Gilbert’s wings trembled slightly as he held the line, golden flas straining against the endless surge of erald hellfire. His grip on the sword tightened, his jaw set, but a faint murmur slipped from his lips despite himself.
"I did not think... he would be this strong..."
The words were low, almost lost within the roar of clashing flas. But Duke Haborym heard them.
All three of his heads shifted at once, six burning eyes locking onto Gilbert through the storm of fire. A slow, deliberate smile crept across his faces, one that carried both amusent and contempt.
"Did you truly believe," his voices overlapped, echoing with oppressive weight, "that an archangel can defeat a demon noble?"
Gilbert’s expression hardened instantly. His wings flared, golden light intensifying around him as he pushed back against the inferno.
"Michael did," he shot back, his voice firm despite the pressure bearing down on him.
For a brief mont, the battlefield seed to pause. Then Duke Haborym scoffed. The sound was heavy with ridicule.
"Michael?" he repeated, as though the na itself was laughable. "Do not insult with such shallow comparisons."
The erald flas surged violently as his presence expanded, his green heart pulsing brighter with each beat.
"Lucifer was not defeated by an archangel," Duke Haborym continued, his tone turning colder, sharper. "He was brought down because the Supre Deity intervened. Power was channeled through Michael, elevating him beyond his station."
His six eyes narrowed.
"If not for that divine interference, the Prince of Pride would have never fallen to a re archangel."
The weight of his words pressed down like a hamr, leaving even Corbin who was hidden behind the archangel stunned. This was not a piece of information he intended to stumble on here.
Duke Haborym’s gaze sharpened further, piercing straight through Gilbert.
"So tell ... do you possess that sa backing?"
Gilbert’s jaw tightened upon hearing those words. For the first ti since the battle began, he said nothing. That silence was answer enough.
Duke Haborym’s smile widened, twisting into sothing openly mocking.
"So you leapt at the chance to challenge a noble of hell, without thought, without preparation... all to prove sothing." he continued, his voices dripping with amusent,
His laughter rumbled through the flas.
"To prove that you are not inferior to Michael."
"Shut up!" Gilbert roared, his voice exploding with fury as his flas surged violently in response.
But Duke Haborym only laughed harder.
The sound was deep, unrestrained, echoing across the burning battlefield as his hellfire intensified, pressing forward with renewed force.
"Look at you," he sneered. "Even the heavens harbor desire. Even you act upon it. Yet you dare to label demons as evil for doing the very sa."
His six arms spread wider, commanding the storm of flas as though it were an extension of his will.
"Hypocrite."
The word struck harder than any blow. At that mont, Corbin’s voice cut through the chaos like a blade.
"Gilbert will achieve his dream," he shouted, his tone sharp and unwavering despite the storm around them. "He will slay a demon noble... and I will make sure of it!"
As the words left his lips, the air around him shifted.
A strange stillness spread outward, subtle at first, but undeniable.
"Divine Art..."
His voice dropped, carrying a weight that resonated far beyond the battlefield itself.
"Cathedral of Absolution!"
BOOOOOOM!!!
The sky trembled.
A blinding surge of golden light erupted from Corbin’s body, expanding outward in all directions. The flas, the smoke, even the raging hellfire were forced back as sothing vast began to take shape.
Walls, not made of stone but of pure divine energy, began springing up.
They rose rapidly, forming towering pillars that stretched toward the heavens, each one carved with intricate runes that glowed with radiant intensity. Arches followed, connecting the pillars in sweeping curves of light, forming the skeleton of sothing grand, sothing sacred.
A cathedral!.
Its structure unfolded in seconds, enclosing the battlefield within its radiant domain. Countless arrays spread across its surfaces, spinning slowly, layers upon layers of divine inscriptions activating in perfect harmony. The air itself grew heavy with sanctity, vibrating with a power that did not belong to the mortal realm.
At the center, directly above them, a massive circular sigil ford.
It was an eye. The mont it opened, everything changed.
Duke Haborym’s flas flickered. For the first ti since his transformation, the erald inferno faltered.
The endless tide of hellfire that had once surged like an unstoppable ocean began to weaken. Its intensity dropped, its volu shrinking as though sothing unseen was draining it from within.
The green flas lost their dominance. They wavered and dwindled. Duke Haborym’s six eyes narrowed sharply as he felt it.
"...What is this?" one of his voices muttered, the first hint of irritation slipping through.
Corbin exhaled slowly, his chest rising and falling as the strain of the technique settled into his body. His cassock fluttered lightly as golden light continued to pour from him, sustaining the massive structure.
"Under the gaze of this cathedral, all that is deed evil will have its strength stripped away." he said, his voice steady despite the exhaustion creeping in.
The glowing eye above pulsed once and the effect deepened.
The hellfire shrank further.
"It required ti," Corbin continued, his lips curling slightly. "That’s why I needed you both to keep him busy."
"Now!"
Damian moved.
His eyes flared with savage excitent as the pressure against him lifted. The suffocating force of the hellfire was gone, replaced by sothing manageable, sothing he could finally dominate.
"Break!"
White flas exploded outward once more, surging forward with renewed ferocity as the Ninefold Samsara Firefox roared to life. Without the overwhelming volu of Haborym’s flas to suppress it, the white fire spread rapidly, devouring what remained of the weakened inferno.
Beside him, Gilbert did not hesitate.
Golden flas erupted violently from his blade and wings, surging forward in a brilliant wave that cut through the diminished sea of erald fire with overwhelming force.
The battlefield shifted.
What had once been an unstoppable tide was now being driven back.
The weakened hellfire shattered under their combined assault, torn apart by divine and primordial flas as the balance of power tilted at last.
For the first ti since his transformation began Duke Haborym’s overwhelming advantage was gone.
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