"Stop them! There are intruders in the castle!" A Grim Reaper shouted out as he wielded his Reaper weapon alongside five other Reapers. He stood in front of them, blocking the corridor with his body and blade. He watched as a pale human with crimson eyes and silver hair approached, moving with deliberate purpose. Then in that singular instant, he was slashed in half. The cut was so clean, so precise, that for a moment the Reaper didn't realize what had happened. His upper body slid sideways from his lower half, and only then did the pain register. The pale human appeared behind him, already moving toward the next target. "Reap." Azel's voice was cold and emotionless. The body was completely sucked into his Reaper weapon with a pop, like air escaping a sealed container. The scythe glowed brighter as its Death Charge increased. "Damn you!" Another Reaper charged at him alongside a companion with their weapons raised high. The Reaper that had just shouted was hit in the head by a dagger before he could close the distance. The blade buried itself in his skull with a wet thunk, and he dropped instantly. "Reap!" Mira's voice sounded from somewhere to Azel's left. The dagger returned to her hand like it was tethered by invisible string, bringing the soul of the Reaper with it. The body collapsed into an empty heap of robes and armor. Azel slashed the remaining charging Reaper, beheading it immediately with a horizontal cut that sent the head tumbling across the floor. He reaped the soul before the body even finished falling. After that, he could feel it. The Death Charge for his weapon was completely full, thrumming with power that made the blade vibrate in his grip. "How dare you?!" The other two Reapers shouted, their voices cracking with rage and fear. Something shot through the air with a whistle… a lance, it was sleek and ethereal. It landed on the ground directly in front of them and immediately turned translucent, the metal becoming see-through like glass. Then there was an explosion that followed. The blast consumed both Reapers in a sphere of destructive energy, their screams cut short as their bodies were obliterated. Irielle stood on a railing above, her own Reaper weapon raised high. Smoke curled from where the lance had detonated. "Reap." She reaped their souls from the dissipating explosion, pulling the essence into her weapon before it could escape. "That should be the last of them..." Azel muttered under his breath, surveying the carnage they'd left in their wake. Bodies and empty robes littered the corridor. Blood stained the stone floors and splattered the walls. They'd cut through at least forty Reapers in the past few minutes. As they had been tying up and stuffing Vaal's body into an alcove, they had been noticed by a passing Reaper. Right before Azel had killed it, the creature had triggered an alarm that echoed through the whole castle. Every Reaper stationed here… both the ones coming from outside patrols and from inside guard duties had descended on them at once. But they were all dead now… All of them. Azel looked ahead at the massive door that loomed at the end of the corridor. The only thing that now separated them from the final part of this mission was that door and whatever lay beyond it. 'Gwen.' He reached out with his thoughts. Gwendolyn had been shaking while floating around during the fight, staying out of the way but clearly terrified. She looked at him now, her ghostly eyes somewhat bloodshot. It was clear that she was afraid of what came next. 'Return to my soul.' Azel thought. 'I'm sure he'll be able to see you if you stay out here.' Bael'zaroth was the King of the Underworld. A ghost hovering around would be immediately visible to someone of his power level. 'No matter what happens... don't come out.' Azel continued. 'You can perform whatever spell you see fit from inside my soul, but don't manifest. Stay hidden.' Gwendolyn didn't complain or argue. She gave him a single nod, understanding the gravity of the situation, and then returned inside his body. She entered his soul directly, and although Azel felt weird… like having an extra presence nested inside his very being, it was for her safety. He couldn't protect her and fight Bael'zaroth at the same time. "Alright, take the tags off." Azel looked at his team. "He must already know we're here. No point in pretending anymore." Everyone reached behind themselves and removed the tags that had been affixed to their backs. These were the items that Azel had used to emulate that they were not part of the living, masking their life energy without needing to wear the Reaper robes constantly. The tags had served their purpose. Everyone took them off and Azel returned them to his inventory with a thought. Who knew when such items would be needed later? Better to keep them than discard them. "Let's go." He started toward the door. They approached it together, moving as a unit. The closer they got to that massive barrier, the more oppressive the Death force became in the air. It was sickening, pressing against their lungs and making it harder to breathe. The ambient energy was so concentrated it felt almost solid. Azel placed both hands on the door and pushed. It swung open silently, revealing a throne room beyond. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦 A wide throne room with each edge leading to a staircase that branched off to doors leading to other chambers. On the throne at the far end sat a man… a handsome middle-aged man with flowing black hair that fell past his shoulders and two curved horns protruding from his head like a crown. His eyes were even more crimson than Azel's, so dark they looked like congealed blood. They held an intelligence that was ancient and terrible. Azel stared at the man alongside the others. The pressure in the room seemed to intensify immediately, the Death force multiplying until it felt like invisible hands were pushing down on their shoulders. Azel spread his divinity outward instinctively, creating a barrier of his own power to make sure his team was not forced to their knees by this overwhelming presence. The two forces… Death and Life clashed invisibly in the air between them. They stepped down the staircase that led from the entrance to the main floor and finally stood on the smooth stone ground of the throne room proper. Bael'zaroth looked at them with eyes that seemed to see through flesh and bone directly to the soul beneath. "You are not worthy of being Grim Reapers." His voice was deep and carrying the weight of absolute authority. The next instant, a wave of destruction spread outward from his position. It didn't harm them physically, but the Reaper cloaks they were wearing were completely torn to shreds. The fabric disintegrated into black strips that fell away like ash, leaving them standing in their regular clothes underneath. Their life energy was revealed immediately, no longer masked by the enchanted garments. The warm glow of living souls became visible in the Death-saturated atmosphere. Bael'zaroth raised one eyebrow, an expression of genuine surprise crossing his features. "Oh... so you brought my grandson here? How marvelous." His gaze fixed on Rene specifically, and the boy trembled under that attention. Was this demon his grandfather? It was impossible. They didn't look alike at all. "We don't look alike?" Bael'zaroth's lips curved into a smile that showed too many teeth. "Have you looked at yourself in a mirror?" A mirror made of congealed blood materialized in the air directly in front of Rene. The boy stared at his reflection and froze. His hair was very black, no longer the light black it had been when they entered the Underworld. His eyes were crimson, glowing faintly with light. With this concentrated Death force saturating the air, his body was brimming with mana that changed his very appearance. He looked like a young version of the man on the throne. "I have to admit... I'm surprised that the cursed woman even had a child. She was too much of a brute to be honest." Bael'zaroth leaned back in his throne, completely relaxed. Rene's pupils shrank to pinpoints… His entire body went rigid. "Are you talking about my mother?" The boy's voice was trembling with emotion. Then his eyes glowed brighter, power surging through him involuntarily. "Don't talk about my mother like that!" "Oho, he even has a mouth on him." Bael'zaroth raised one hand casually. Something floated forward from behind the throne, brought into view by invisible force. It was a woman, except she was divided into two distinct pieces… upper body and lower body, separated at the waist. It was Aria. Azel could recognize her even in this state. Her eyes were bloodshot, wide with agony and terror. Somehow she was still alive despite being bisected. Her organs at the point of severing were bleeding continuously with her intestines hanging loose and glistening. Her eyes met Rene's first, then swept across the rest of them. Recognition and despair filled those eyes. "I'm..." She coughed violently, blood splattering from her mouth to spray across the polished floor. "Sorry." Bael'zaroth reached out and grabbed her upper body with one hand. He opened his mouth wide and took a bite, severing her head and neck in one go with teeth that could crush steel. He crunched her skull in front of them. The sound was horrible… it was the sound of bone breaking and wet tissue tearing. Blood trickled down his chin as he continued feasting, chewing and swallowing before taking another bite. He finished consuming her upper body methodically, like someone eating a particularly messy piece of fruit. "She attacked my son with a Reaper blade." He spoke with his mouth still full of Aria's flesh, showing no shame or discomfort. "And reaped him completely. But honestly, I'm not even angry anymore about that." He swallowed and reached for the lower half of Aria's body that still floated nearby. "That deadbeat prince had it coming. He was worthless." Bael'zaroth broke off one of her legs with casual strength, the bone snapping like a twig. "However, I'm more interested in this child." He took a bite of the leg, chewing thoughtfully. "I will spare the surface world if you let me eat him." Azel's hand immediately tightened on his weapon until his knuckles went white. Bael'zaroth moved to the other leg, breaking it off at the hip and bringing it to his mouth. "You are not eating Rene." Azel's voice was like steel as his glare fixed on the King. "I will not allow it." Rene however was boiling with rage. Death force came off him in visible waves, black energy crackling around his small frame. "How..." He bit his lip so hard that blood ran down his chin and dripped to stain the floor beneath him. He pointed both hands at Bael'zaroth, fingers trembling with fury and grief. "Dare you?!!!" A blast of death magic erupted outward toward the King. It was harsh and powerful, containing all of Rene's pain and anger condensed into raw destructive force. The beam of energy screamed across the throne room. Bael'zaroth casually backhanded it. The death magic reversed direction instantly, reflected back toward Rene with even greater force than it had been launched with. Rene saw his death approaching in that beam of his own power. He couldn't dodge nor could he defend. He was too young, too inexperienced, and too weak. He couldn't help but cry, tears streaming down his face as the blast came closer. Azel stood in front of him and took the full force of destruction. 'If I let him die... Veyra will never forgive me.' The thought flashed through his mind even as the pain hit. The two of them had grown too attached to each other to even try to separate them now. Rene was family, in all the ways that mattered. Azel's body was destroyed by the destruction. His skin charred and peeled away, his muscles burned and his bones cracked and splintered. However in that split second, his divinity surged. He began reforming, flesh knitting back together and completely reversing the damage. His reversal worked faster than the destruction could spread. The smoke cleared and Azel stood there whole and unmarked, while Bael'zaroth stared at him with genuinely intrigued eyes. "You..." The King leaned forward slightly in his throne. "You have the ability to reverse damage, huh?" He tore another leg off of Aria's lower body, the flesh coming away with a wet ripping sound. "However, at your rank, you won't be able to spam it indefinitely. That's very good information to have." Bael'zaroth stood from his throne for the first time, his full height revealed. He was massive, easily seven feet tall. "I'll kill you first, then." He smiled, showing teeth still stained with Aria's blood. "Now come, all of you. If you give me a good fight, I will spare your world."