Kharveth stood over the fallen body of the God of War. Three of the creature's four arms lay severed across the shattered battlefield, and the massive torso had been nearly split open from shoulder to waist by its own cleaver. Blood pooled across the broken stone. For a moment the Knight Commander simply stared down at the corpse.
Then his gaze shifted to the longsword still in his hand.
The blade was snapped halfway along its length, the steel jagged and ruined from the final exchange. Kharveth studied it briefly before tossing the broken weapon aside. It clattered across the stone and disappeared into the rubble.
*His death was felt throughout, and people came almost immediately to see who killed him,* he recalled.
Behind him, the faint sound of something splitting echoed again.
Crack.
Kharveth stepped off the body of the fallen god and slowly scanned the battlefield. The war below had not stopped. Thousands still clashed across the plains, unaware or uncaring that one of the era's most feared gods had just been slain.
He narrowed his eyes.
*The rule of three should work here as well. I just need to find one more inconsistency.*
His gaze moved carefully across the horizon, searching for anything that did not belong in this moment of history.
Then he sighed quietly.
Because he saw a mountain flying toward him.
The massive chunk of earth tore through the sky, spinning as it hurtled directly toward his position. Kharveth didn't panic. Instead, he watched it approach with calm recognition.
*This happened,* he thought. *People just aren't around this time.*
He bent down and lifted the cleaver he had used to kill the God of War. The weapon was enormous, easily larger than his entire body, but he hoisted it onto his shoulder with both arms before launching himself upward to meet the incoming mass.
Stone rushed toward him.
Kharveth swung.
The cleaver tore through the mountain mid-air, splitting the massive slab of rock apart and scattering its remains into a storm of debris.
Through the collapsing fragments, he saw the one responsible.
Silver hair. Blue eyes. A plate-jacket resting over armored shoulders. In his hand was a long weapon resembling a katana.
*Time to witness my own defeat again,* Kharveth thought calmly as the man surged toward him.
The Knight Commander raised the cleaver to block.
The man's katana slid from its scabbard in a single smooth motion.
When the blade met the cleaver, it cut through the massive weapon as if it offered no resistance at all. The steel split cleanly down the middle.
Kharveth wasn't surprised.
He simply released the ruined weapon and allowed his body to fall.
The ground rushed up toward him. Just before impact, he twisted his body and rolled across the stone, narrowly avoiding the downward stab that followed as the man continued his pursuit.
Kharveth came up from the roll and snatched a random axe from the battlefield. Without hesitation he rushed forward and swung.
The man slipped aside effortlessly.
The pommel of the katana slammed into Kharveth's stomach. The impact forced the air from his lungs and made the demon buckle forward. A knee crashed into his helmet an instant later, launching him upward into the air.
Before he could recover, the man swung again.
Not with the edge of the blade—but with the blunt spine.
The strike hammered Kharveth straight back down into the ground.
The demon lay there for a moment, panting heavily, but beneath the battered helmet he was smiling. He looked up at the man standing over him, the blade raised high.
*So many inconsistencies with this one,* he thought. *I never lasted this long against you. You didn't have that sword yet. You didn't even have that armor.*
His gaze locked onto the figure above him.
*All of this… is what you look like now.*
*My Lord Devil.*
Everything stopped.
The battlefield froze mid-motion. Soldiers halted in place. Falling debris hung suspended in the air. Even the wind seemed to die.
Then one final sound rang out.
Crack.
And the illusion shattered.
---
Kharveth reappeared at the base of the demolished mountain where he had been fighting Violet. One moment the battlefield of the past had surrounded him, frozen in the instant before it shattered, and the next he stood once more amid broken stone and scattered debris beneath the ruined slopes of the mountain. His eyes immediately locked onto Violet standing several paces away with her arms crossed, watching him.
There was no hesitation.
Kharveth lunged forward the instant he saw her, bone greatsword already raised as he surged across the shattered ground. His intent was simple—cut her down before she could use another one of her abilities.
But Violet had been ready for that.
Her eyes shifted from amber to grey.
The moment the color changed, Kharveth felt the world tilt strangely. His charge stopped mid-step as his body suddenly lost all weight. The ground vanished beneath him as he began drifting upward, his entire form lifted into the air and angled toward the sky as though gravity had simply let go of him.
*Telekinesis?* he wondered, trying to force his body downward but finding no traction against the invisible force lifting him.
Below, Violet chuckled.
"I'll admit it," she said, tilting her head slightly as she watched him float upward, "I don't think I'll be able to beat you. Not without destroying a good chunk of Aetheria anyway."
A grin spread across her face.
"So I thought… why do I have to defeat you," she continued lightly, "when I can just send you away?"
Her eyes shifted again.
This time they turned purple.
The air around Kharveth suddenly compressed with terrifying force. Violet unleashed everything she could muster through her gaze, and the invisible impact slammed into him like the strike of a god.
Kharveth was launched straight upward.
The ground vanished instantly as the world blurred around him. Mountains, clouds, and sky streaked past in a violent rush as he was hurled higher and higher. Within seconds his body ignited as friction set the air around him ablaze, flames trailing behind him as he rocketed toward the sky.
The fire didn't matter to a demon like him.
But he understood exactly what Violet was doing.
Moments later he punched straight through the atmosphere of Aetheria and burst into the cold vacuum of space, still traveling at tremendous speed with nothing around him to stop his momentum.
*I… respect this…* he thought despite his situation.
Now there was only one way for him to stop. He would have to collide with something solid and use the impact to bounce himself back. Otherwise, he would continue drifting endlessly through the void. Even his gun didn't have enough force to counteract the velocity currently carrying him away from the planet.
Far below, Violet collapsed to her knees and grabbed her head.
"Ahh, shit! My head's bloody pounding from using my ability so much and so long. Goddess, I feel like I need to dunk my head inside snow!" she groaned.
Technically, she had won.
Now she just needed to recover from the migraine splitting her skull before heading back to Arcadicia.
"I'm sure they can take care of themselves against those weak demons," she muttered as she pushed herself back to her feet and began walking away, completely unaware of what they were actually facing right now.