"Ragnarok!"
Erta yelled out that one word so loudly that everyone in the battlefield stopped what they were doing for a moment and looked at her. Of course, excluding those who knew what it meant.
Lancelot and Gawain quickly retreated from the front lines and let their soldiers handle the fairies. Galahad picked Isaac up and retreated to Merlin who healed them of their wounds.
Tristan was the only one who continued attacking with her archers, but it was not a problem since they were protected by Merlin's barrier.
Erta immediately retreated to them as well. She had bought enough time and have even killed a satisfactory number of enemies to lessen the threat.
Before long, the chains binding the riders of the Wild Hunt broke, finally letting them rush into the battlefield. However, the deep droning sound of a horn rang out, freezing the battlefield in another state of confusion.
[This sound… Odin, you bastard! How dare you interfere with my hunt!]
[That's rich coming from a dead man! Aldurin, come! Let me deliver you to Hel!]
A voice full of power responded to the dullahan Aldurin's words. Soon after, a cavalry of female warriors riding on winged horses arrived. Together with a horde of warriors and barbarians, they joined the battlefield, turning it into a much greater disaster.
It turned into a cesspool of vicious murder and feral madness that it was a wonder how they remained an organised army.
Above that battlefield, a large man with a spear rode on an eight-legged horse. It was Odin wielding his legendary Gungnir and riding his mythical steed, Sleipnir.
[Hah! Aldurin, you call this mess a hunt? I suppose you haven't learned anything from me even after all this time.]
[Do not flatter yourself, Odin. Or do you still think yourself to be a god, little man?]
With that exchange, the two leaders charged toward each other. Odin swung forward his spear and Aldurin responded by lashing out with a whip made of human spine, parrying the attack.
The impact resulting from the clash of weapons exploded outward, knocking back most of those fighting below them. The already chaotic battlefield had become even more chaotic as the madness that seemed to overtake them blazed even more fervently.
Meanwhile, Erta was protecting the others with a barrier. There was no one who could even attack due to the amount of pressure the two leaders were exerting as they clashed. Galahad worriedly asked.
"How are we going to find Rachel?!"
"We can't! Not like this! Just pray that she survives until we find her! Cal is already on his way here!"
"Will he even be able to do something about those two?!"
At this point, they were beginning to doubt that they would be able to clear this dungeon. They were dejected remembering how they naively thought of the two leaders as mere dungeon bosses.
They failed to realise that the dungeons they have always cleared were much different than the dungeon they found themselves in this time. Naturally, the dungeon bosses were very different as well.
One of them was considered a disaster while the other was a literal god. The Chosen were mere ants compared to them. However, Erta just smiled as she watched the battle. In truth, she could fight these two on her own if not for the fact that she was conserving energy.
"Just trust in Caelum."
The clash between Aldurin and Odin continued. Neither of them paid any mind to their surroundings as they continued to attack each other with the sole intention to kill.
With each wound on their bodies, the ground shook and split. With each missed strike, hundreds of soldiers from all three factions died below. Their battle was destroying the land itself.
They were truly a calamity. Unrelenting in their pursuit of devastation that they cared little for the consequences. Because at the end of the day, the consequences would still be part of their grand ambition—the annihilation of their enemies.
But just as much as a force of nature they were, they could recognize that another calamity just like them was coming. They could feel it in the air that has been quivering in fear. They could taste it in the mana that grown stale from being tainted by death. He was coming.
[To think I won't be able to finish you before that bastard comes! How hateful, Aldurin!]
[Silence! Had you not interfered, my hunt would have long ended! And that man would have ceased to be a threat!]
They stopped clashing weapons but still glared at each other. Their words resounded throughout the battlefield which went silent in anticipation of the new calamity that was soon to come.
While everyone was confusedly looking around in search for the newcomer, only Erta was smiling brightly. And as though to break the silence, the horses of both Aldurin and Odin died instantly, not even leaving a trace behind.
[My steed! You dare act so cowardly before a god! I will kill you, human!]
[Pathetic! You think I cannot do without a horse? A hunter needs only his body to hunt! Now show yourself, coward!]
"Okay, why don't you two cool down. I just made it fair since I don't have a horse. And, Aldurin was it? You're a ghost anyway. You can fly all you want. And Odin, why don't you go grab your son's goats if you want a steed. Or you can ride your son instead. I don't mind either way."
[You damned arrogant human! I will show you the wrath of a god!]
[I will devour your soul and take your body for my own, human!]
"Try it, if you can!"
Suddenly, Caelum erupted in a brilliant and majestic light that seemed inviolable and sacred. It covered his body in a golden radiance that painted him a pure being of innocence and virtue.
His colourless wing now contained a mix of gold while his black wing contained streaks of white. But the most fascinating change was his dark brown hair.
As the light died down, it gathered toward his hair and changed it into torch. A white golden flame blazed radiantly, spreading its grand splendour all across the battlefield.
His blue irises became white with golden rims. In an instant, his aura began to bear a heavy pressure upon everyone on the battlefield including the two leaders.
Everyone except Erta and the other Chosen. Someone asked in a quivering voice.
"Is this… the insurance?"
"No. This is just something we've been working on together for a while now. I'm also only seeing it for the first time as well."
"He's like... a god."
"Not exactly. What you feel is just the trace of Divinity contained within his flame. It's a flame that he created for himself using my Holy Flame. That's his Eternal Flame."
The idea came from when he fought against the bulimeus. The demon ate its fellow demons and transformed their life force into heat energy which it then shot out like a bomb or like a flame thrower.
Its ability was a perfect guide for Caelum's use of his Serenity allowing him to fully claim the troll's vitality for himself. But there was another question that came to him when he thought of that.
What if he took in a pure fire and transformed it into an even greater fire?
And so, he proposed the idea to Erta who readily fed him her Holy Flame. Using Serenity and Chaos, he contained the Holy Flame within him and tried to mutate and harmonise it over and over.
He even fed it his mana and the life force of those he killed until eventually, the Holy Flame within him had changed drastically and became a flame that can never die, an Eternal Flame.
This achievement allowed the flame to scratch the surface of an entirely new power, claiming a hint of Divinity for itself and Caelum as well. And even just a small trace of Divinity was enough to overpower most beings.
Erta did not bother explaining this to the others. They were still far too weak to even be able to comprehend such things. Instead, she focused on one other objective they could now complete.
"Alright, this is the perfect time. Galahad!"
"Right! Rachel, where are you?! It's me, Thomas!"
A Valkyrie somewhere at the edge of the battlefield flinched and looked toward them. Erta did not miss it and rushed toward her immediately. She knocked her unconscious and brought her back quickly. When Galahad confirmed that it was his friend, Erta purified her in the same way.
[That bitch! How did she find out about the curse?!]
[That woman is sharp. She had already done it to the one I had.]
[Damn you, Aldurin! You're as useless as your horse! I'll kill that woman later!]
[Don't you dare, Odin! That woman is mine! I shall make her my queen even if I must kill her to do it!]
"I suggest you stop while you're ahead. That's my wife you're talking about."
While the two were arguing over Erta, Caelum, who had been listening calmly, rushed toward them like a golden phoenix.
His fists, clad in white golden flames, hit both of their faces. A tooth flew out of Odin's mouth along with a spatter of blood while Aldurin fared relatively worse.
As the Eternal Flame was derived from Holy Flame, it contained just as much purifying power if not more. The ghastly existence of Aldurin could not resist against it as he screamed in pain.
[How could a mere human wield such powerful divine flames?! I'll have to take that for myself!]
Odin recovered quickly and dashed forward as though he was on the ground. His Gungnir cut the air dangerously. Caelum dodged it by letting himself free fall before shooting back up again for a counterattack. His fist hit Odin's chin before kicking him back.
Aldurin seemed to have recovered in that time as he lashed out with his whip. Caelum caught it with his left hand, but it coiled around his arm and dug into his skin.
Aldurin pulled him toward himself thinking he had won, but Caelum let himself be pulled. For a moment, he did not need to use his wings for flight.
Smiling wickedly, he changed his wings into several tendrils and tentacles and used the momentum of the pull to stab and pierce Aldurin in several different places. The Eternal Flame burned Aldurin from the inside as he screamed in agony once more.