Morgoth's charge should have been decisive.
A blade infused with the full weight of his darkness, aimed straight at Rowan Mercer's skull.
Instead, Rowan's draconic face split into something dangerously close to a grin.
"After all that bombardment, you finally came out."
Two massive claws snapped shut.
The colossal sword was caught between them.
Bare-handed.
Before Morgoth could react, Rowan triggered two forces simultaneously.
Consumption.
Annihilation.
The darkness coating the blade thinned instantly, stripped away as if scraped by an invisible tide.
In that same moment, space folded.
Morgoth vanished.
The battlefield fell silent.
Morgoth reappeared inside a foreign sky.
A strange world.
Wrong laws.
Wrong structure.
Not Arda.
Not anywhere he recognized.
"What is this place?"
He had helped shape the universe through Ilúvatar's Music.
He knew the feel of Middle-earth's foundations.
This realm was artificial.
Patchwork.
Built from alien principles.
Rowan appeared opposite him.
"Welcome to my world."
Before Morgoth could swing his blade, golden chains erupted from every direction, inscribed with countless runes.
They wrapped around his limbs, torso, and neck in an instant.
"World-Sealing Chains."
A construct modeled after the divine-binding artifact once wielded by Gilgamesh, reinforced with sealing systems from multiple realities.
Chains meant to bind gods.
Morgoth felt it immediately.
His power was being crushed.
Suppressed to less than half.
"What have you done…?"
He roared and poured power into his sword.
Instead of striking the chains.
Instead of striking Rowan.
He slashed at space itself.
If he could tear open a path, he could escape back to Middle-earth.
Rowan moved first.
A blade of light formed in his grasp.
"Excalibur."
A replicated manifestation of the Sword of Promised Victory, produced through Infinite Blade Works.
Rowan swung.
A colossal wave of holy radiance tore through the artificial sky and crashed toward Morgoth.
Morgoth had only two choices.
Finish tearing space apart.
Or defend himself.
He chose survival.
The dark sword reversed course, colliding with the descending wall of light.
The explosion shook the entire pocket world.
Morgoth staggered.
For the first time in countless ages…
He felt genuine danger.
"Is this… the potential of humanity…?"
He had always viewed humans as fragile.
Short-lived.
Inferior to elves.
Inferior even to dwarves.
Yet the being before him radiated power comparable to Morgoth's own prime.
"I am the master of Arda's fate!" Morgoth roared. "I will not fall to a mortal!"
He unleashed everything.
His form expanded.
A towering giant of shadow and flame.
The chains shattered under brute force.
Darkness flooded outward, meeting the holy light head-on and canceling it in a violent stalemate.
Rowan answered in kind.
His dragon form swelled to its maximum scale.
The laws of the pocket world bent.
The environment itself turned hostile to Morgoth.
Lightning.
Tempests.
Gravity distortions.
Spatial shear.
Time-lock fields.
Mental pressure.
Light sorcery.
All converged.
At the same time, Rowan slammed into Morgoth in close combat.
Claws.
Fangs.
Fists.
Raw, merciless impact.
Morgoth endured.
But the strain was mounting.
"This world of yours can't hold forever," Morgoth growled. "Join me. With your strength, we could rule Middle-earth together. Half the world will be yours. Anything you desire."
He had corrupted Maiar.
Twisted Balrogs.
Shaped Sauron.
Seduction was his oldest weapon.
Rowan laughed.
"You really think that works on me?"
His eyes burned.
"This ends now."
A surge of consciousness thundered outward.
Rowan unified his mind with every incarnation of himself across countless worlds.
An ocean of will condensed into a single point.
Morgoth's mental assault shattered.
Then reversed.
His thoughts seized.
His body stuttered.
For the first time…
Morgoth froze.
The opening had been created.