"SHOW YOURSELF, ARCHON ETHAN!"

The din above the mausoleum was enough to awaken the dead. Literally.

"YOU THINK THESE HUSKS CAN HOLD ME BACK!?"

Artorious' blades shone with vengeful fury as he cast down another Corpse Mound, exploding its skeletal structure from the inside and vaporizing another as it shot a set of jagged bone-teeth towards his flank.

"I. WILL. KILL YOU!"

The Angel's fury was unleashed. Now, he was passed patience. Both his blades disappeared as he summoned up his [Angel-Arms] to replace them with the purifying light of his Lord. He shot both out at the jaws of two undead worms as they raced towards him, blowing out their faces and scattering bonemeal and limbs across the blasted landscape of the Twilight Sepulcher.

The Broodlord and two of its comrades swarmed him, all revealing their rows of glittering teeth and firing a collective burst of splintered limbs and chewed weapons at him – items they'd half-digested from Delvers that had tried to best their realm. In response, the angel merely activated another [Divine Shield] and sent an [Azure Arc] beam towards them from his burning eyes. The two lesser worms were consumed and burned – their massive bodies becoming charred mounds that slowly broke apart and withered away before their leader. All that was left was the Broodlord itself, and, if the undead could truly feel fury, it charged at Artorious with nothing but that on its mind.

And the Angel raced towards it with a roar that cut through the skies. He brought both his blades to bear as the beast opened its massive maw and then felt its bone-structure come apart, ruptured as the Angel tore right through it and emerged at its back.

"I cannot – I will not be defeated by the likes of you!"

Artorious spun in the air to avoid the scything set of talons that the creature sent his way from its shambling midsection. With a deadly pirouette, he sunk both his blades into the creature's back and tore out the limbs and skulls that were keeping it upright.

"The Light of Kaedmon will not yield to the dark!"

As the Corpse Mound writhed, knowing its un-life was at an end, it did the only thing it could do to harm the angel – it reeled back, commanding the skeletal limbs that still remained at its bottom section to hold the angel in place.

And it let itself collapse like a tower of bones, silhouetted by the blackest night in all of Argwyll.

Artorious found himself bearing the brunt of its weight as it fell, its HP finally depleted. Purple lightning arced in the skies to signal the death of the Delve's champion as it finally hit the ground, kicking up ash and dirt, bonemeal and tainted musculature in equal measure.

Then, for a crystal-clear moment, there was silence in the domain of the dead.

Such silence was not to be. Slowly, the sound of rumbling began to run up the barren fields again – vibrations that seemed to be emanating directly from beneath the fallen Mound itself.

The bony-flesh of the creature began to coagulate and crisp – each white limb and weapon blackening as a fire hotter than Argwyll's blazing sun shot through it. Then, with a sound that ruptured the land apart, the creature's torso was split open and vaporized.

Rising from the ashes of its death was Artorious, the Angel of Kaedmon.

His eyes were glowing silver as he immediately started sweeping the area again, seeing nothing but smoke and echoes of the dying and the dead that now knelt before him.

"Pathetic," he scoffed. "Just as pathetic as your sniveling, tainted Lord!"

He swept his blades through the smoke-filled air to punctuate his declaration, cutting the heads from a few zombies that were in the middle of shambling away.

"Come and fight, Archon!" the angel roared as he began marching through the dust-cloud. "Stand before your destiny and meet it like you know you must! At least your predecessors had the good courtesy to die on their feet!"

From somewhere in the darkness, Artorious heard a growl.

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He spun, sent an [Azure Arc] through the clouds to his right, searing through the mansion in the distance. As it exploded, he turned his attention back to the battlefield.

"I will watch the light leave your eyes, personally!"

Once again, the earth began to shake, this time from behind him. And this time he turned, slowly, to see something that honestly surprised him.

There the Archon stood, healed up and staring at him with all of its three heads.

But the Angel did not meet the eyes of its beastly Host. Instead, he looked into the crimson eyeball peeking out from the tiny hat on the lion-head's skull.

"The last Archon has come to die," he said with a snarl.

Ethan formed all his mouths into a set of toothy, mocking grins.

"We've had a battle of wits, battle of words, and battle of brawn," he said. "But you know what we ain't ever had, Arty? A race!"

[Blink]

Ethan took himself right into the Angel's face with such speed that Arty was momentarily taken off-balance.

"You want me? You'll have to catch me, first."

[Skitter]

Artorious tried bringing both of his angelic blades to bear against him, but his strikes met nothing but air as Ethan launched his massive form off the angel's chest and sped towards the horizon.

In response, Artorious let out a scream of rage and pursued, flapping his quad-wings with a [Wing-Buffet] that broke apart the heads of the remaining undead.

Ethan dodged the [Azure-Arc] beams Arty sent his way, spinning effortlessly out of their narrow range and activating [Repulsor Shield] or [Blades of the Vigil] whenever he stopped to send an [Angel-Arm] blast towards him.

Remind me what the point of this is?!

Have to lead him back to Sanctum! Ethan roared, effortlessly avoiding another two beams of light streaking out from the dust-cloud behind him. It's risky but…killing a God's champion involves a risk or two, eh?

More light rays shot out from the ash behind, an Ethan's shield kept the attacks at bay. In truth, he found that he was more than capable of dodging them even without the safety net of such defensive measures.

You're getting sloppy, old boy, he thought as he sped towards the purple haze he could just make out from the cloud in front. And you're getting tired of this crap. That's what's gonna ruin you in the end. That's wha-

ETHAN!

A flash of golden light shone right in front of the portal. Ethan watched Arty's wings unfurl, both his blades coming up to strike him down.

…and then go right through him.

[Ethereal Form]

He let out a shrill laugh as he passed right through Arty and entered the portal, smashing one sword away from him with a well-timed [Wing-Buffet].

Now all he had to do was stick the landing and –

"ARGH!"

Pain.

He felt the sting of something completely unnatural slamming into his back and causing him to double over in agony. As Sanctum came back into view, he forced himself forward, through the portal that was quickly beginning to fade away from the blast the angel had just sent through it. Ethan tumbled forward, guiding Revok right into a crumbling wall in the center of the city. Smoke and dust were kicked up around him, and he felt like a hole had been torn clean through his entire soul…

He hit me with an [Angel-Arm], he grimaced, trying not to keel over right then and there on the street.

but he was alive. And he'd made it back.

He could hear Fauna and the others calling out to him from an alley. He could swear that Mara's voice had joined with them, as well as others he could faintly recognize.

That fact gave him pause – he'd assumed they'd fled by now. He couldn't know otherwise.

But he didn't get a chance to dwell on that fact now. Artorious stalked through the portal, slicing it with his one remaining blade and closing it up for good.

"Even now, at the end, you just can't stop running, can you?"

He took flight and landed almost instantly, causing mighty cracks in the already riven earth. Ethan felt his paws slip on the ground.

But more than that, he saw what was happening in Arty's eyes. The Lightborn might talk a big game. But he'd let his unbridled fury slip through a little too much.

He deals with attacks as they come. He brute forces his way through anything.

But he doesn't think ahead. He never has. He believes now, more than ever, that his God will fix him no matter how broken he becomes. And that's what I have to exploit.

As he formulated the next stage of his plan, however, a chill laugh echoed from the Angel's luminous lips.

"You are as transparent as the rest of your ilk, Archon," he said. "You think to probe me for weaknesses – to find the one chink in the armor of a God. But you also realize, don't you? The conflicts that once existed in my mortal self are gone. Extinguished by the guiding light of the one true God. My doubts and fears which once held me back have been replaced by conviction. I have overcome my weaknesses. But the same cannot be said for you, Ethan."

Before Ethan could put his plan into motion, Artorious swept his blade through the air and sent an [Azure Arc] towards him, forcing him to [Blink] out of sight to dodge the incoming Spirit Damage.

And at the same time, the Angel launched another attack with his free hand. He sent a burst of divine energy trailing through the dead city right towards the one thing that he knew the Archon couldn't ignore: his Hybrid team.

Ethan watched the attack like he was watching a dream. He activated [Blink] again. He activated [Skitter]. He used every skill he had to take him right to them.

But no being on Argwyll could move faster than light itself.

And the realization came over him as he felt the searing heat of the death-ray rush past him towards his friends:

He wasn't going to make it in time.

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