The BroadcastThere was silence after the Seraph had asked his question. Billions of humans around the world stopped breathing, the horror of the moment reflected in their eyes. The Seraph of the End in the luminous glass pit of Geneva wasn't looking angry. Rather, he looked bored, which was even more frightening.The Seraph of the End's unflawed face slowly turned back towards the broken news camera."The mud-king cowers," the Seraph said, his voice resonating with a godly tone that blew out the remaining windows for miles. "He believes he has triumphed by laying waste to my father's kingdom. But balance creation with destruction. For every minute that the Dragon King conceals himself, I will erase one of your human hives. I shall begin with Europe and I shall not cease until this world is but a speck of dust."The broadcast suddenly jolted as the Seraph held up one, luminous finger, pointing it to the north.The Prince's DepartureOn the other side of the world, in the courtyard of

The Heart of StarlightEven a god of the apocalypse can feel fear when he looks into the eyes of a monster.The Seraph of the End did not breathe, nor did he bleed, but he screamed, and the last of the tectonic stability of the Swiss Alps cracked in response. The arm of Alex, encased in the dense, impenetrable blackness of gravity, and blazing with deadly red magma, had pierced the god's pristine white-gold armor.Within the Seraph's chest, Alex's demonic fingers clutched the god's Aether core, a literal, beating mini-star of pure original creation energy."You…" the Seraph choked, his flawless, perfect face twisted in unheard-of pain.Alex did not speak. The Black Blood Magma coursing through the God of War's veins began to seep into the pure starlight. The Seraph's neck and face were quickly covered in sickly, dark red and black veins from Alex's hand. The pure creation energy was being voraciously and violently infected by the sheer, radioactive toxicity of the Earth's core.The Se

The Flight HomeThe universe is cruel, it will remind you that you are alive through pain. For Alex, it was a painful reminder that he was not a god.The inside of the heavily armored transport ship shook wildly as it plummeted towards the ground, back to the Dragon Continent. Alex sat on the metal bench, grunting and gritting his teeth. Old Ghost was binding Alex's chest with thick, white bandages.There was no golden glow. There was no magical healing of bone and flesh. As Ghost pulled the tape tight, Alex felt the searing pain of his broken ribs rubbing against his own skin."Easy, Alex," Ghost crooned, his voice tight as he tied the dressing. "You have a thick bone structure, but you have normal cellular regeneration now. You're healing like a normal guy."Alex looked down at his hands. He flexed his fingers. They felt incredibly light. He couldn't feel the heavy, warm weight of the Twilight Singularity, the universe he'd felt in his chest. He couldn't sense the Earth's magnetism.

The Bombardment ResumesThere is always a bottom to the deepest pit.Orion had landed on his knees on the black, wet sand. The 18-year-old Prince of the Dark collapsed onto his hands, his black eyes returning to their normal, tired brown. The ominous presence of the Void that frightened the gods was gone. His dimensional core was exhausted."I'm sorry," Orion choked out again, blood dripping from his chin onto the mud.Overhead, the short-lived hacked advantage came to an end. The Global Council's cyber-warfare units had finally tracked down and removed Old Ghost's overriding program. The hacked drones fell from the sky, engines cut. On the Pacific Ocean, the Aegis destroyers cleared their targeting algorithms.The Dragon Capital's momentary quiet was broken by the thunderous roar of a hundred missile silos.The human fleet's cruise missiles finally hit. No longer rotting in Orion's Void and no longer being deflected by Alex's gravity, the Dragon Capital was pummelled by an unspeakabl

The Slaughter in the Dark.Fear is an instinct of primitiveness. When the elite human shock-troopers ended up in the pitch-black cavern with the horrifying, glowing Avatar of the Earth, their discipline was shattered completely."Open fire! Kill the anomaly!" the squad leader screamed, his voice cracking with sheer panic.Dozen after dozen of the assault rifles sprang to life and their muzzle flashes strobed and violently strobed in the darkness as a hail of armor-piercing bullets tore through the air at Alex.The God of War was not shy. He didn't need to dodge. He merely held up his left hand with its palm blazing with the raw, molten-gold light of the earthly diamond melted into his chest.CRACK!A thick, foot-thick, wall of jagged black obsidian immediately burst out of the cavern floor, and fell perfectly across the barrage. The earthly bullets flattened harmlessly against the unassailable rock, and sprinkled the dark room with useless sparks.Alex didn't wait for them to reload.