"That… that's an Abyssal Artifact!" Skarion's voice came out wrong, "The Sorrow of Time! That's Temerith's natal artifact. How can you wield it?"
"Who told you only a Dimensional Demon can wield it?"
The Abyss Law source sat in Haru's godhead alongside nearly two hundred others. Contained, mastered, his. Every other alien who'd tried to master this law had been assimilated into a demon. Haru's attributeless Godhead had simply absorbed it like everything else.
Haru drew the bowstring to the full and Divine Power dipped in the Divine Laws of Time and Abyss poured into the weapon simultaneously, feeding and amplifying each other.
The [Sorrow of Time] had never been activated to this degree, not even by Temerith, because she had never been this strong. The bow's power peaked at what it was always capable of but had never reached: full output equivalent to a peak Supreme God's strike.
A blood-red divine arrow materialized from pure Divine Power. Skarion stared at it, "You're not human. You can't be. No alien race can master the Abyss Law. It assimilates anyone who tries. You must be a demon possessing a human body. A Demon Lord. That's the only explanation."
The arrow released and moved faster than time, literally, since 'time' was what it was made of. Skarion's dodge reflex triggered and completed, but it was irrelevant. The arrow was already past his Supreme God Tier armor's defenses, through his forehead.
Suddenly the world ran backward. The destructive storm compressed. The expanding violence retracted. Malakar's exploded Divine Body and soul pulled itself back together, Godhead fragments reuniting, divine power returning to its source. Every effect of the detonation reversed, undone, as if it hadn't happened at all.
When it finished, Malakar was alive and whole, and Skarion had a divine arrow through his forehead. The arrow's combined power of Time and Abyss obliterated Skarion's Divine Body and sealed his godhead in the same motion.
His soul began to collapse from the force, Haru caught it before that happened. A late-stage Supreme God's soul was definitely worth keeping. The Holy Grail and the Angel Reincarnation Pool would handle the rest.
"You're not human." Skarion said, from the hand that held him. His voice had gone strange, the ranting quality of someone whose worldview had just collapsed, "The whole Endless Continent has been deceived. You're a Demon Lord. Facing a Demon Lord, losing isn't embarrassing. I can accept this."
Haru gave him a sideways look and said nothing. He sealed Skarion's soul, collected what remained, and turned to Malakar.
Malakar had taken several steps back. His expression was doing complicated things.
"You reversed time." He said.
"I did."
"I remember the attack. I remember my Godhead exploding. After that—" Malakar shook his head, "Nothing. I was already dead. But I'm here."
He'd also heard Skarion's final words. And he'd seen the bow. 'A Demon Lord.' Skarion had insisted, 'That's what he is.'
Malakar looked at the [Sorrow of Time] in Haru's hand. He had no better explanation.
"None of it changes your situation." Haru said, "Your friend is sealed. Do you want to keep going, or are we done?"
The Lord of Destruction, who had been ready to surrender before Skarion's blade found his back, thought about it for approximately one second.
"I admit defeat. Do with me as you will." Haru reached into the void, drew Malakar's soul cleanly from his divine body, cut off the Divine Body's vitality, and sealed it. Malakar didn't resist. He'd made his decision and he kept it.
Two of the most powerful Evil Gods in existence. Both sealed. Both bound for the Holy Grail.
…
Outside the battlefield, the Gods came back to their senses. They confirmed what they'd already suspected from the absence of any shockwave: Malakar alive, Skarion sealed, the battlefield intact. Haru had reversed time and done it cleanly enough that most of them had missed the whole thing.
"He hid his strength the entire fight."
"Obviously. His Majesty's true power is far beyond anything we've seen."
"Malakar surrendered without a single act of resistance. He just… let it happen."
"What else was he supposed to do? His Majesty doesn't kill them completely. Malakar understood what the sealed soul means—resurrection in the Great Aetherium, rebirth as Haru's believer. That's a better ending than a permanent fall."
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