- Underworld -
Death's panting had everyone's attention. It was Lucifer's footsteps that broke the tension.
["Stay out of this, boy,"] Chronos threatened.
Lucifer kept walking. He leaned down, inches away from Chronos, and picked Lao up.
"All yours," Lucifer said to Death.
Suddenly, all the things that had been frozen in time began to move again. Chronos faced his palm toward Lucifer and unleashed a torrent of blue flame.
Lucifer threw Lao to the others and redirected the magic with his one hand. He and Chronos's eyes were locked as the blue flames roared to the side, creating a plume of steam as the fire traveled.
["Fire was never your specialty,"] Lucifer mocked.
Before Chronos could respond, Death's scythe sliced diagonally along the time god's collarbone. Chronos spat up blood and faced his palm toward Death. The two began their rematch, meanwhile, Lucifer was shambling to his team.
"HIS HEART STOPPED!" Yvere shouted.
After hearing that, Lucifer sprinted. He was grabbed by Dimitri before he could see Lao.
"WHY DID YOU FUCKING THROW HIM!?" Dimitri was shaking Lucifer as he shouted.
"Not the time!" Peter peeled Dimitri off of Lucifer.
Yvere was giving orders to everyone, "Heinrich, I need cover. Elijah, start focusing your electricity to be about the strength of a defibrillator, if you know what that is and how to do it."
Elijah and Heinrich nodded. A stone platform rose beneath the group's feet as a triangular roof formed overhead. Yvere put her hand on Lao's chest and started CPR.
- (Past) Saint, Yvere -
"Why should I care about human medicine?" Yvere asked. "No offense, it's just...I think that kind of stuff should be taught to beings who don't have healing magic."
Saint sighed. "You know what the most popular forms of poison are in this world? The type that stops the heart. Do you know why?"
Yvere made her own sigh, "Because if the heart has stopped, healing magic doesn't work in most cases."
Saint's tone shifted to a seriousness that made Yvere flinch, "What would you do--what would you think of yourself if you lost someone simply because you didn't know basic CPR? The healer's curse isn't real, incompetence is. Too many lives have been lost because beings think they're too good for human methods."
"I...I don't think," Yvere didn't finish.
"Good," Saint's tone got lighter. "Then you should have no problem learning this. The first thing I want you to accept though is that you can't attempt resuscitation on the battlefield any longer than twenty minutes. It's vital to know who you can and can't save."
- (Present) Underworld -
"Elijah," Yvere said.
"I'm not certain about the voltage..." Elijah responded.
Yvere snapped, "Worst-case scenario you burn a corpse, best-case you save a life--So COME ON!"
"Yvere..." Heinrich mumbled.
Lucifer couldn't help with this situation. He needed more healing before he could return to help Death, and he couldn't help Yvere. All he could do was watch, believing in his allies' strength.
Death's fight with Chronos was sloppier than the first. The strike he had landed was giving him a leg up but there was still something off about him. His swings had less weight, his pursuit was less ferocious. Chronos took advantage of this, for he was fighting at full strength after his last revival.
A set of footsteps approached the mini stone hut that Lucifer's team was in. Lucifer immediately popped out, hand up and ready to fire. He breathed a sigh of relief as he saw who it was.
"I need to tell you about my father's magic," Hades said.
"WE ALREADY KNOW!" Peter shouted from the hut.
"AGAIN!" Yvere yelled at Elijah.
"What's going on?" Hades worried. "Persephone let me go once she saw Artemis and Apollo defeated."
"Go help Death," Lucifer responded coldly.
Lucifer turned back to the hut. He felt a pit in his stomach as he watched Lao's body twitch when Elijah shocked it.
"Yvere..." Lucifer said.
"TWENTY MINUTES!" Yvere's tone was bitter and angry. "TWENTY MINUTES! IT'S BARELY BEEN TWO!"
Hades rushed over to Death who was being knocked back by Chronos's swing. As Chronos turned his eyes to Hades, a bone-chilling smile filled his face.
["Son,"] Chronos said gleefully. ["So good to see you again."]
Chronos noticed Hades's missing arm. His smile seemed to grow wider. Death's sudden weakness combined with Hades's current condition was the greatest joy for him.
Hades swallowed. He couldn't hide his fear as his father stepped closer to him. He didn't know what was going on with Death, only that he needed to help. He felt his blood freeze as the rain stopped in time once more. He nearly flinched as Lucifer tapped him on the shoulder.
"Here," Lucifer handed Hades his dagger. "Your father isn't unbeatable, just persistent."
Lucifer pointed Peter's sword at Chronos. ["Well, Zeus's mistake, are you ready?"]
Out of the corner of his eye, Lucifer noticed something about Death's scythe. A small black crack along the base where Death's hand was. The crack seemed to be pulsing.
"Persephone's cleaning up the rest while we handle this," Hades informed Lucifer and Death.
Before anything else could be said, Chronos was rushing toward Hades. Lucifer went to the side and aimed for Chronos's leg as he passed. In an instant, time began to move again in the surrounding area as a large blue serpent shot out of Chronos's hand and slammed into Lucifer's sword, flinging the archangel back.
Hades went to respond with his own magic, only for time to stop once more.
'His skill is returning,' Hades noticed.
Death slammed his scythe's blade between Hades and Chronos. Chronos jumped back.
["Weakness?"] Death's voice reverberated. ["Even at your prime you couldn't beat me at my weakest."]
["Please, hunter,"] Chronos taunted. ["You will fall with the rest of my family."]
Lucifer was moving back to Chronos. He conjured a wing on the left side of his body to compensate for his missing hand. The black wing drew Death's attention.
'Just one problem after another,' Death moved towards Chronos.
"Come on, come on," Yvere was mumbling as her eyes filled with tears.
Dimitri grabbed Lao's hand and closed his eyes. 'He deserved a better life on the other side; please don't let this be his end...please.'
The fighting between the four outside grew more intense as the minutes ticked down for Yvere. Every second she counted in her head felt like a needle in her skin as she continued her compressions. There was a part of her mind that told her she should help Lucifer, Death, and Hades since if they lose, all of this would have been for naught.
She had no plans to stop even one second before the twenty-minute mark. That didn't mean she was immune to the thoughts creeping into her head that told her she was making a mistake. The stress of everything happening led to her stopping the compressions.
"Please..." She cried. "Please Chaos, Kos, whoever might be listening. Please."
She wiped her face and told Elijah to shock Lao's body again.