EXT. WESTERN RIDGE – HELL
The ridge was a ruin, scarred by Ozyth's Light Waves and Cassian's desperate, crimson speed. Cassian was bleeding from every joint, her left ear deafened, her vision tunneled by pain and the lingering Crimson Rage.
Ozyth: Ninety percent power.
The air shattered. Ozyth moved, and the speed was instantaneous teleportation. He sliced. The invisible attack shredded her armor and cut deep into her left thigh and abdomen. She cried out, but the Crimson Rage rejected the pain, demanding a final act of will. Her eyes snapped wide, blazing with two twin spheres of crimson light.
[FINAL ASCENSION: ALL-IN]
Cassian moved with the speed of light. She cut Ozyth's arms and legs from his body.
Ozyth (laughing, regrowing): A nice trick, Herald! But I killed three of your kind before the last Crusade! This is no big deal! What good is speed if your enemy is faster at healing?
His limbs reattached instantly. Cassian, fueled by absolute despair, launched her master blow: the halberd became a blur of pure crimson light that deconstructed the Sigil. BAM! BAM! BAM! She sliced Ozyth's body—head, torso, and limbs—into thousands of unrecognizable pieces.
Cassian collapsed, the Crimson Rage receding. But before the ichor could fully settle, the pieces began to reassemble.
Ozyth (regenerating): You lose, 6th Herald. I will show you what true power means.
Cassian, utterly spent and paralyzed, watched as the 8th Sigil coalesced, reaching for the leap to one hundred percent.
[The Arrival]
Then, a new sound: the smooth, quiet scrape of a heel against ash.
The air around the coalescing form of the 8th Sigil shimmered.
Kairo Veyra, Rank #1, emerged from the choking smoke. He held no glowing weapon, wore no powered armor, and exhibited no visible Herald-level energy. He was simply present, serene, and absolutely terrifying.
Kairo took a single, elegant step.
Ozyth, half-formed, saw Kairo's face. The demon's expression — a fleeting image of ultimate terror — contorted in recognition.
Ozyth (voice choked, a final, despairing whisper): ...Why you, Kairo?
Kairo did not react. He executed one single, impossibly swift, silent slash.
In that instant, everything surrounding Ozyth — the coalescing ichor, the jagged spire behind him, the very air itself — was sliced into millions of perfect, microscopic pieces.
The regeneration stopped. The fiery halo went out. The countless fragments of the 8th Sigil simply dusted into the abyss, utterly erased by a force that transcended dimensional healing.
Cassian stared up, tears cutting paths through the soot on her face, paralyzed by exhaustion and shock. The 8th Sigil of Halo was dead, executed casually, cleanly, and without effort by the human designated Rank #1.
Kairo Veyra slowly sheathed his katana, then looked down at the defeated 6th Herald of Crimson. His smile was kind, but his ancient eyes were the coldest thing in Hell.
[The 8th Sigil of Halo was dead.]
To be continued...