As he heard the soldiers retreating silently, every fiber of his body started feeling sour. How could another man dictate his soldiers? How could another man even dare to question his actions? But he seemed like no ordinary man for he had the eyes that spoke that language of death.
"Silence!" yelled Nubeous and raised his hand up in the air.
His pitch was so shrill and acute that Eva staggered back for a moment.
"How do you dare to question my authority?" yelled Nubeous and moved close to Morpheous and stared into his eyes with all his cold-bloodedness and mocked, "But if you are devastated to lose them, shall I help you to meet them instead?"
His tone was a jeering one and that angered Morpheous.
Those two men looked like they were going for a head-on fight like two bulls snarling at each other, ready to pounce on the other the next second.
But Nubeous lost it all when he heard him say - "You are no one to have authority on me. I dare say, but I deny to even consider your authority for you are not the man suitable for the throne. You are a man who should be thrown into purgatory and be punished for every innocent life that you have taken."
Morpheous had toppled the limit of his patience.
"You vile..." yelled Nubeous and raising his hands up in the air he snapped his fingers. And it was at that moment as if all the darkness in the world had been conjured. The sky split open, illuminated in a bolt of red. In the death of the night, it seemed like blood and gore had spread across the sky.
It was for the first time in his life that Nubeous had seen his bolt turn red and he himself was astonished as he looked up at the bolt which perched up in the sky.
This bolt looked fierce, relentlessly unforgiving in all its glory and it sucked away all the power of the souls who were fueling Morpheous. He staggered back for a second and closed his eyes as they turned back to amber again.
Seeing the man in front of him stagger back and lose the ferocity that he had in his eyes, the grin on the face of Nubeous widened. He felt different as if a new level of power had been accompassed in the bolt of death.
He looked at the ingot that was lying next to his right foot and said,
"You might have escaped the bolt of death before, but not this time. This time I will be the one who will dictate the terms and time of your death. You shall taste what it means to defy my authority. I will not only wipe you but your entire clan away."
In the meanwhile, the trio had almost reached the cropland area after being redirected by the villagers but suddenly their horse halted. It was reluctant to move no matter how much Nicholas tried and while he was trying to pull his reins he looked up at the sky which had suddenly turned into a shade of red.
"It cannot be!" mumbled Damianos in desperation.
"He has found the ingot," said Balthazaar and turned to look towards Damianos.
Even though Balthazaar's every cell yearned for Morpheous, he could think of nothing other than protecting Nubeous and seeing that he had found the ingot a part of him was partially relieved as now he would become invincible, but the part of him, which was righteous, which was noble couldn't accept the fate that Morpheous was going to have.
Nicholas helped them get down and they all marched towards the cropland holding onto their breaths as they knew that the fight was going to catastrophic.
"Nubeous stop!" yelled Balthazaar as he reached close to Eva who was rattling like a leaf in fear and suddenly the attention of Nubeous turned towards Balthazaar.
"How are you even here?" he muttered under his breath.
"You have to stop him, you have to belive me Balthazaar," said Damianos and held the hand of Bathazaar like a father who was begging for mercy for the life of his son. But without even replying or acknowledging his request, Balthazaar shirked off the hands of Damianos and turned towards Nubeous again and said,
"My master, I urge you not to waste your potent in this fight."
But his words were like an insult for Morpheous who yelled,
"I told you to stay away from me. Damianos take him away, else I will finish him first."
A grating laugh echoed around and Nubeous mocked his words and said,
"You will not dare to lay a finger on my man. How do you think you can finish him when I am here to finish you off first?" and saying that he swayed his hand and the bolt swayed along like an angry whiplash, ready to lash Morpheous to death.
But before he could move his hand, Morpheous gripped them in his own. The air around them started freezing up and that chill ran through the spine of Nubeous.
"Hiyaaaaahhhh...."
"Arrrggghhhhh...."
Gritting their teeth, they both were now locked hand in hand with each other. But the power in each was so strong that instead of moving each other an inch, they moved the air and earth around them. A tornado of air whirled around, lifting away all the matter that was in and around.
"You have to stop them," said Damianos as he saw the black metal block next to Nubeous and begged again,
"For the sake of Vanaheimr!"
Balthazaar stopped for a moment and then turned back and said,
"I cannot save Morpheous until I die!"
There was a distinctive singular weirdness in his voice this time. He shot a look to Damianos which neither Eva nor Nicholas could decipher, but Damainos did.
And thus ran Balthazaar with whatever remaining strength that he had in his body, towards the tornado, and the very next second, Damianos also pulled the hands of Eva and ran behind him.
The earth around them had slowly started to crack open and through the cracks, they could see hot molten lava underneath. This fight was not just happening in this one realm, it was a fight that was happening in parallel in all others.