Baldrick watched the moon beneath its dark blood glow.
"They're really fighting," he thought.
A faint smile appeared on his face.
Michael was truly holding his ground against Vorthak.
Not far away, Fred stood beside his little sister, staring at the Vastyrion sky. The realm's ceiling darkened even further, the blood-red moon pulsing heavily above them. Fred felt a strange pressure he could not understand. He touched his head, confused.
Crowds filled the city with barely any space left. People stood on castle stairs, rooftops, towers, and walls, all watching the sky.
Even the generals could not hide their worry.
Baldrick moved behind the tower, far from his generals, and drank the potion that granted vision across distant realms.
He closed his eyes.
Sweat formed on his brow.
What he saw tightened his breath.
A plane of burning ground and endless void. Hell layered upon hell. A realm so vast that even his measurements failed.
"This place is far greater than infinite," Baldrick thought.
"Vorthak is truly beyond matter itself."
In that distant plane, the battle continued.
Vorthak's sword glowed on a massive scale as he swung it through the air.
A wind of glowing destruction exploded toward Michael.
The hellish ground detonated endlessly, shockwaves rolling without pause.
Michael was thrown back by the blast, his shoulder torn open.
He reacted instantly.
Within four seconds, Michael summoned the Soul Eater Hole, a void construct capable of absorbing not only souls but massive-scale energy and explosions. The raging destruction was pulled into it and erased.
He stopped afterward.
He could not absorb Vorthak himself.
Vorthak existed beyond conceptual definition. Even with a physical body, his essence was anchored outside causality itself. To absorb him would require erasing the rule that allowed his existence, something Michael had not yet reached.
Michael floated in the air, gripping his glowing heavy sword.
His expression remained calm.
Vorthak laughed loudly.
"I'm only getting stronger, kid. I don't have limits. Limits fear me."
He charged forward.
Michael vanished.
In the next instant, Michael appeared behind him and slashed downward. Vorthak was sent crashing into the burning ground again and again before finally recovering, regenerating the deep wound across his back.
Both possessed terrifying regeneration.
But Vorthak felt it.
Jealousy.
Michael's regeneration had evolved during the fight.
"This can't be," Vorthak roared. "The stone should grant me more."
His wings twisted, forming a massive hole-like maw that unleashed a poisonous blast toward Michael.
Michael tapped the ground.
Countless laser-like waves surged upward like lightning, countering the attack. The absolute plane trembled violently.
Hell erupted. The void watched in silence.
More mouths formed from Vorthak's wings.
Michael raised his palm and made a throwing motion. It was not a blast, but a continuous laser wave, followed by another, and another.
They collided.
This time, the plane distorted, not merely trembling. Entire layers of hell collapsed.
"Wihahaha," Vorthak shouted.
"I am Vorthak. You cannot defeat me, boy."
Michael replied calmly.
"You are no different from Malakor."
Vorthak snarled.
"Do not compare me to that failure. He was power without direction. I have a purpose beyond destruction."
Michael stepped forward as their swords clashed once.
"You are desperate," Michael said. "You call it purpose, but it is only greed. Entire civilizations died for your obsession."
Michael's cloak floated gently behind him, untouched by the chaos.
For a brief moment, the plane grew quiet.
Then it exploded again.
Michael punched Vorthak directly in the face.
The impact distorted space itself.
Vorthak was launched endlessly across the hellscape, smashing through layer after layer like a flood overwhelming an infinite world.
He recovered slowly, standing again with madness in his eyes, sword still in hand.
Their blades clashed again.
The fight grew more brutal.
Michael moved at insane speed, appearing far behind Vorthak and releasing a massive glowing slash filled with sharp, concentrated force. Vorthak summoned a skull-mouth from his sword to absorb it, but the collision shook the plane violently.
Michael followed with relentless attacks.
Vorthak countered by summoning a massive serpent-dragon from above, unleashing burning waves. Michael shattered the attack with a wind-infused punch that cracked the sound of the plane itself.
Another glowing strike from Michael wounded Vorthak badly, forcing him back.
Hell lay in ruins.
The void remained silent.
Michael stood on burning ground, sweat running down his face.
Vorthak was a terrifying opponent.
Michael walked forward, sword lowered but steady.
"Now," Michael said, "you're losing."
Vorthak laughed darkly.
"You're calm. Just like the Ninth Sentinel who defeated me millions of years ago."
"I'll take that as a compliment," Michael replied. "But you need to be erased."
"My destruction is different," Vorthak said seriously. "I will erase worlds to rebuild existence under my rule."
Michael sighed.
"You contradict yourself. You claim you are different, yet all you bring is destruction."
He looked directly at Vorthak.
"Why," Michael asked, "do demons like you always choose this path? You lost before. You were defeated by a Sentinel. Why never learn?"
Vorthak fell silent.
Then he spoke.
"You speak of learning," Vorthak said. "But existence itself was shaped to deny us meaning. Angels ruled. Order was enforced. We were never meant to rise."
His voice deepened.
"I do not seek balance. I seek supremacy. A reality where I stand above all law and judgment."
Michael listened.
Then he answered calmly.
"And that is exactly why you will always fall."
Vorthak's eyes narrowed.
"Power without restraint," Michael continued, "is fear pretending to be a throne."
They moved at the same instant.
Their swords collided.
The hell ground exploded endlessly, the plane cracking under the weight of their clash.
This time, even the plane itself began to break.