And now, to ignore everything that has been written. Divinity is not humanity, there is little to discuss here. Although we can practice various stances and train our reflexes, the simple fact of the matter is that physical fights between Divines largely come down to raw power.

Take Fer for example, no matter how much I train, I will never beat her in a melee.

– Excerpt from “The Philosophy of War”, written by Goddess Kassandora, of War.

“TO ME!” Kassandora shouted again. Labrys suddenly landed next to the Goddess of War. The Goddess of the Axe dropped her mischievous smile, her slow, rolling movements and her entire persona. She stood up tall and straight, before Kassandora as the Goddess of the Sword took the other side. The entire camp went silent as men assembled to crew the defensive positions, others fell back to the second, third and fourth lines. Humans raced in between the tents and down the roads like streaming water. The two Godwielders Labrys went to get slid on the dark stone as they came to a stop next to their Goddesses. Aslana let hers almost fall over, Labrys caught her man by the shoulder.

And from ahead, just out of range of the blinding floodlamps, that laughter kept on coming. It was louder this time. For a moment, Kassandora considered calling up the Orchestra. She kept her cool though, demons took inherent pleasure in taunting others. This wasn’t her first time fighting against the forces of Tartarus. “HOLD!” Kassandora shouted. “HOLD FIRE!”

Fire filled the far side of the tunnel. “AIM!” Kassandora shouted. Tartarus used flames in the same way her army used the blinding floodlamps and smokescreens. “Labrys, Aslana, change now!” The pair of Weapon Divines did not need to be told twice. Labrys turned to her Godwielder, just an infantry man from the looks of it. The rank on his arm said the Second Expedition must have been his first engagement. The Goddess of the Axe, half again his height, bent down to embrace him with her soul body and then disappeared, her entire body shrunk and twisted as it forced its way into his chest, and then spilled out of his back as if the man was growing a pair of wings. Follow current ɴᴏᴠᴇʟs on novel✶fire.net

Labrys, now ethereal, appeared in the air behind the man. Around her, two dozen axes of varying shape and size appeared. The Divine herself wielded a great two-bladed weapon in her own hand as a perfect copy appeared in her Godwielder’s hand. Aslana grabbed her soldier, again just a common infantry man, by the hand. Their fingers overlocked, her hand swallowed his, and then his hand swallowed hers as the Goddess of the Sword entered the man and then, just as Labrys had done, spilled out of his spine. Rapier and cutlass and greatsword and gladius spiralled out of Aslana as she hovered in the air behind her Godwielder. The weapons formed a halo around the man like the petals of a flower. An unadorned, simple straightsword appeared in Aslana’s grasp, and a perfect imitation of it materialized in the palm of her Godwielder.

Kassandora took a step back, ready to summon Joyeuse at a moment’s notice, when she heard a gust of wind and an explosion that sounded like Fortia’s spear going supersonic. A black object erupted from out of that wall of flames and smashed into a machine gun emplacement. Bodies were broken, a few men released a few rounds into the fire in panic, they quickly stopped themselves without the need for extra order from Kassandora. The Goddess of War, for a moment, was stunned as her mind processed what she just saw.

Bodies broken, concrete and sandbag slit open as if they were butter. Dust. No charring, no flameseer support. Well, the flames in the distance said that there were flameseers about, but not close. Aslana and Labrys both quickly moved to cover the gap between the Goddess of War and the attacker. Kassandora tried to scan her memory for what sort of demon moved so quickly and so decisively.

Was it new?

Kassandora saw the figure that had just smashed through the frontlines at incredible speed slowly lift himself off the ground. He had some huge bladed glaive that was more blade than shaft. The figure was taller than Kassandora, with the white horns of demonic nobility, although that was the only colour on him. His armour was darker than even Kassandora’s and the slits in his armour were pitch black. One of the nearby men turned to fix their rifle on him, the huge figure threw a dagger at the speed of lightning and knocked the fellow down. Other soldiers began to turn too. The gunners on tanks and the rapid turrets of armoured fighting vehicles began to fix their aim on the figure. Kassandora caught it though, from the distance, more flames. And above the clatter of the men around her, Kassandora could just about make out the rapid drumming of unorganized boots and hoofs and paws slapping against the ground.

There was a horde coming.

“Labrys, Aslana, kill him.” Kassandora said as she took a step back and called upon War’s Orchestra. Her mind travelled into her men, she saw through their eyes, heard through their ears, smelled through their noses, tasted through their mouths and they did through hers. The Imperial camp fell silent as Kassandora’s will entered all under her. All save Aslana and Labrys, they were already sharing a consciousness with their Godwielder, it was sickening to try and command to try and play the third wheel to a pair caught in a dance already. “Ignore the front. I’ve got it.”

Not through her own eyes, but through the gazes of her men, Kassandora caught the huge demon that had just drawn first blood. The screaming of a panicked violin warned her about the attempt on her life. In an explosion of speed, the figure burst forward and straight at Kassandora. The Goddess of War did not turn to look at him, she twisted her arm back, her black greatsword Joyeuse appeared in her arm but the figure never got to her. Labrys’ Godwielder took a step forwards, Labrys’ ghost, hovering behind and above the man like the tail of a scorpion above its host, swung her arm. A chain of axe appeared in line with her swing, ready to intercept the target.

Kassandora fell to the ground in an attempt to dodge when the screaming violin warned her that she was still in danger. And again, not through her eyes but the eyes of the men, she saw only the flash of the huge demon drop down onto the ground and begin to slide underneath Labrys’ blow. Aslana silently moved in, her Godwielder’s eyes went black as the Goddess wholly took his instincts, he thrust towards into the ground, a dozen ethereal blades launched themselves into the air, spiralled upwards in the arc of artillery, and then fell down to impale the demon as it slid out from underneath Labrys blow.

Too slow. Kassandora had just enough time to instinctually call upon her armour and twisted Joyeuse parry that huge glaive. She felt metal hit metal, and then felt a fist slam into her gut. Without the suit of black that momentarily paused its materialization after receiving the blow, she would have broken ribs. Instead, she was just thrown backwards as she heard more laughter this time.

Kassandora pirouetted through the air using the weight of Joyeuse to manoeuvre. The blade disappeared from one hand, appeared in the other, and the momentum of such heavy melting pulled Kassandora back onto her feet. She landed deftly, spinning Joyeuse around and pointing it at the figure as Aslana’s attack rained down from above to stab into the demon’s back.

Flesh. Good. If it bled, it could be hurt. If it could be hurt, it could be killed. Blades from above ripped through the finger. And then Kassandora narrowed her eyes. Not blood but metal and dried flesh that immediately reformed. The figure burst out in laughter once again. It stood up straight as Labrys came slamming into it from behind. The human channelling her moved with her, six massive axes appeared in line with her blow. They smashed into the figure’s back.

And he stood, arms in the air, still laughing. “Kassandora! Do not say that you have forgotten me!” He shouted in a scraping voice that pained the ears yet managed to sound utterly in love with itself.

Aslana came in to stab him the vitals. Through the neck, the head, the heart. Rapiers dashed through the air to snip at heel as daggers came to severe calf and tendon. Kassandora caught it. He ignored all the blows save the one for his chest. She couldn’t let it be said and trying to connect with the two weapons would slow them down. She hoped they caught it too but if they didn’t…

A slow piano playing through War’s Orchestra, a tune that played only in the mind, directed the gunner of the closest tank. Kassandora stood up straight, lowered her blade and saluted. “Well met!” She shouted, now was a matter of buying time. “But I must disappoint.”

Aslana and Labrys saw the two talking and immediately made distance. Kassandora didn’t know why, they had far too much honour for their own good. The figure stood even higher, he was almost as tall as Fer. And wide too, in black armour that resembled Kassandora’s, save for the fact that his helmet had an opening for the two white horns sticking out of his head.

Pure, bone-white. Nobility then. A prince. Kassandora tried to recall. A new prince. “You know me.” Kassandora said. Why were tank turrets so slow? “What is your name?”

“You do not remember the oldest Knight in all Hell? It breaks my heart!” Kassandora didn’t know what she was supposed to do with that information. Oldest Knight of Hell? What, was she supposed to be the encyclopaedia of everything?

Kassandora couldn’t help herself. She replied back with all the snark she could muster. “Apologies for missing you then.”

The demon’s smile dropped but it didn’t matter. A single high note told the tank’s gunner to fire. A high explosive crashed into the demon’s back. Or rather, a high explosive should have crashed into the demon’s back. The monster spun around, wielding that massive glaive-sword of his, and knocked it to the side. It crashed into the nearby ground and exploded, sending men and fragments of stone flying. The demon, turned back around utterly unfazed. “Truly the Crimson Snake has not changed one bit in a thousand years. Do you think that’s the first time you’ve done that to me?”

Kassandora held her greatsword in both hands and adopted a posture that would allow her to parry the next blow. “Is that what you call me demon?”

“Is it not fitting?” The white-horned kept his eyes focused on Kassandora entirely, but she could see his movements. As Aslana and Labrys spread out to be on his sides, he twisted his entire body to allow him to dodge away. Did he have eyes on the back of his head? Or just a sense for danger?

“I’d prefer a rose.” Kassandora replied back. The longer she could get him talking, the higher a chance she would find something. The men were operating by themselves now. She directed them to open fire into the wall of fire. There was no reason to wait for the demons to cross the distance, ammunition wasn’t particularly scarce.

The demon laughed in a rather jovial manner. If Kassandora had not just seen him deflect a tank shell, she would think he was underestimating her. “Roses do not hunt people down, do they?” He asked and spun his glaive around. It became a blur of whistling wind before Kassandora’s eyes. “Roses just sit there and look pretty. No rose has ever slithered into a room at night to poison an entire family, has it?”

Kassandora kept her blade raised. Her helm materialized over her head and cut off the collar of her coat. “Your name demon, you obviously know who I am, who are you?”

“Do you not have enough hints already?”

“You have given none.”

“Battle of Agen. Who faced the charge of your lancers?” Kassandora readjusted her posture. “Who broke your vanguard at Illinheim?” Labrys and Aslana both took up defensive stances. “Who took down the dragon in Erdely?” Oh. That one Kassandora didn’t need to struggle recalling. “Who represented Tartarus at the siege of Rhomaion?”

“I know who you are.” Kassandora shouted back.

“Then say my name.”

“Furcas.”

And Furcas burst out in laughter. He raised his hands into the air and howled. “Excellent! Excellent! The Snake remembered me!” That was all the warning Kassandora got. Furcas accelerated from zero to a hundred in the span of an instant. The Goddess of War barely had time to move her blade and let herself slide backwards to deflect the demons’ blow from that terrible glaive of his. Aslana and Labrys both moved in, and yet Furcas ignored them.

He jumped towards Labrys, the Goddess of the Axe readied to parry a blow, and then hit nothing as the demon shot past her, landed on the ground, and aimed for Kassandora again. And this time, Kassandora was not so fast. She raised her blade as quickly as she could, but Furcas twisted his glaive at the last moment. Instead of trying to cut her with the blade, the bottom half of the shaft slammed into Kassandora’s sighed and launched her into the air. Kassandora slammed into the side of an armoured vehicle and just managed to roll to the side to dodge the blow.

Kassandora called upon War’s Orchestra. It didn’t matter at this point. Furcas had to be injured enough to slow him down for Aslana and Labrys. He had been injured once already by Aslana, it couldn’t be impossible. Kassandora spun on the ground, called upon War’s Orchestra, and kicked off the vehicle to slide along the ground as a set of organs issued a command for everyone in the area to open fire on the demon. Tank shells and missiles and rockets were directed just slightly at the ground, so that they wound explode underneath Furcas’ feet instead of letting the demon deflect them again.

Kassandora felt herself be knocked even further by the force of a dozen explosions. She slid along the ground again, although this time she materialized Joyeuse and used her greatsword’s tremendous weight to slow herself down. And she saw Furcas again, standing there, slowly turn around. His armour smoked as his dead skin regrew to close bloodless wounds. Labrys and Aslana both positioned themselves before Kassandora.

The demon burst out in that mocking laughter once again.

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