They watched on as the crown slowly grew larger, nodding in excitement.
"Do you know any cleansing prayers? None of mine can unseal this," Gregory shouted from behind Surthell. A constant stream of white light was surging out of him towards the black goo, however, it didn't seem to be doing anything.
"Leave now, child. The sky is about to come alive," Surthell warned, still focusing on the leviathan's charging attack.
"What? And sully my honor? We came on this quest as partners, I will not leave while there is still enough time for me to do something."
Surthell laughed at that. "As if your presence matters here. Go now, you have proven yourself worthy of acknowledgment."
The leviathan's crown became larger and more volatile as threads of lightning struck it from all over the sky. Soon, it was akin to a web of red streaks permanently attached to it, feeding it more power.
Gregory stared at it with a blank expression. He understood that this was not an attack he could ever hope to survive head on. And even if he left now, there was no guarantee that he would survive.
"This isn't a normal juvenile. Something's wrong here. Skyblights aren't supposed to produce leviathans this powerful," Gregory whispered.
"Leave now. Every mortal that dies under my watch is a stain on my glory," Surthell barked in response.
"It must be someone in The Plains. I'll go back, and tell them the mission was impossible. I'll tell them you died as a knight should," Gregory said, before snapping at Jinx's reigns and blitzing off.
The crown quickly grew to cover the sky, it was larger than even the leviathan's final form. The crackling sound it released every second were like mini-explosions, and the low rumble in the background was akin to a breathing god.
For a moment all went silent, and the leviathan let out a soft wail. It sounded almost like it was saying something.
"Sky ruler."
A massive red portal opened, spanning the entire inner part of the crown. The rumbling got louder, shaking the skies... No... shaking reality itself.
A hand emerged out of the portal, its index finger slowly moving to touch Surthell.
Simply looking at it, caused Surthell's eyes to sizzle and burn. Their armor began to peel back against the energy it radiated, and the air was too hot to breathe in.
"Taranis," Surthell whispered. Even if this was just an echo of the empyrean's finger, it was still something comparable to the actual god's powers. A small taste that most mortals would never even get to see.
Gregory was right. This wasn't a normal skyblight. Someone powerful had sent it here, someone who knew they were coming.
"You have done well," Surthell shouted, staring up at the approaching finger. "As reward, I shall let you witness ours."
The greatsword's flames flickered from crimson to black, and Surthell flickered from black to crimson. The flames burned through the goo that restrained Surthell and lifted them into the air against Taranis's finger.
The weight of the world seemed to sit above that finger, pushing the clouds and air down with it. In fact, even the sky itself seemed to be getting pushed down, as once straight lines became curved.
Still, Surthell laughed at this. The attack was slow, but running away was impossible. The distance between them and the finger could never increase; the empyreans like to bend the laws as they see fit. And perhaps that was why no mortal ever thought to slay the gods.
Surthell clapped their hands, and their armor came undone, revealing their naked body. It was slender, with hundreds of scars etched all over the porcelain glass skin. Surthell's hair was still white, the same as Vondell's, though it was constantly burning at the tips.
"Urth, witness the greatest mortal to ever walk these realms." Surthell stretched their arms wide, letting the red light bathe their scarred body.
"Flames of wrath, from ash you rise. Purge the land, burn through the skies. A cleansing blaze, of the purest dye. Unleash my covenant... Wildfire's cry."
Surthell was engulfed in pitch-black flame, and at the same moment Taranis's finger met its mark.
Yet...
Nothing.
The world had paused, or at least in this area. , followed by the clouds, and then the land down below, and finally the sky itself. The entire world was consumed in pitch-black darkness; and all that remained were Taranis's finger, the leviathan, and the unflickering black flame.
An instant later, Taranis's finger caught flame as well, and that was when the cries began. Screams of terror, of wrath. Howls of suffering and deliverance. These were the final bellows of the mortal men, eternally memorized on that still-burning land. They gave life to these fragments of wildfire, this cleanser of the world, both mortal and divine.
As the cries got louder, the fire spread, and Taranis's finger began to melt. Raw energy seeped out of it as liquid lightning —glowing with red power, yet too frozen to emit it. The flames had already burned them to aether, however reality had not caught up.
The leviathan was consumed next. It's flesh withered away in fragments of ash, leaving behind a black orb, which oozed with unworldly green energy.
It glowed for an instant, and sent out a green streak, however, even this was set on fire too. Oddly, it did not wither or melt. Instead it cracked. The cracks extended past its dimensions and onto the black abyss around it.
The flames burned those cracks as well, and soon even they were turned to dust.
Once all was burned, the world was slowly freed of its dark prison, one flaming wisp at a time.
Vondell fell back to the ground, Surth plummeting right beside him.
The once-green plains had now been reduced to desert land as far as the eyes could see. The clouds were gone, and the air was dry. The sand had been heated to glass, and even the clear blue skies seemed a shade darker as if they had been scorched by the flames.
However, something remained here remained unscorched. A creature; hovering high above the sky, a butterfly with six wings of black and green. Eyes gleamed from each wing, staring down at Vondell.
It stared silently for a moment, as he got closer to the ground. Then, with a sudden snap, it vanished—leaving behind a scar in the heavens.
On this day, the gods have watched.
But something far older has seen