Adam was thrown to the ground with a loud slam that reverberated through his bones. Both of his arms, as well as his hands, were broken in multiple places. Still, he struggled to climb to his feet using just his knees and legs.

  Sequence laughed. Like an animal toying with his food, he had no care for the spiritual barrier fluctuating behind him. Inside, Juhend was nearing his limit, and Hellig and Hrime had started to turn partially transparent.

  Mustering as much energy as he could, Adam stood. Spitting out blood, he managed to climb to his feet.

  His head stopped just before he could bring it up to look at Sequence. As if to encounter a physical barrier, the very order of events themselves twisted, forcing his ascent to halt abruptly.

  Sequence flicked his hand forwards, and Adam was flung backwards as if drawn by a powerful string. The momentum pulled at him with enough force to wind him, clanging his feet against the snowy ground in jolting motions that sent impact tremors through his legs and up into his hips and back. He stopped just as suddenly, causing his mind to briefly lose focus as blood rushed through his head. His body strained against the inertia, but he had no time to rest, for he was pulled back in again as Sequence flicked his hand back towards him.

  The target of the inertia of a small drop of water on Sequence’s glove was shifted to Adam! Again and again, Sequence utilized his mastery over events to swap the target of certain effects, pushing and pulling Adam, sending him flying into the air and slamming him down into the snow. Each impact caused blood to spew out of Adam’s mouth and onto the snow, and pain rippled through his entire body. His ankle broke next as he was sent on an awkward angle towards the ground.

  Sequence laughed.

  SHUNK!

  A ripple of sonic energy shot towards Sequence. With a mere wave, the energy froze in place. Condensing itself, it formed the form of a spear, its presence visible in the air. Shooting back, it struck Gusto in the chest, puncturing through his lower ribs. Gusto spewed blood and collapsed to the ground.

  Adam struggled to scream for him, but the words got stuck in his throat. He felt the sound make its way through his vocal cords and into the nearby air, but it was swiftly flattened, as if the waves themselves had changed their form. A disc of air, made solid by the change in the sound frequency, found itself formed inside Adam’s throat. Slowly suffocating, tears welled in his eyes.

  Sequence laughed.

  Inside the spiritual barrier, Hellig’s hair had turned black, and Hrime’s face had regained the vitality of color.

  Juhend’s face had gone as pale as a sheet.

  …

  The Composer dashed backwards to dodge a slash from the Red Oni’s katana. Sliding across the blood-colored snow, he swiped his charred arm in front of himself, sending a flurry of bone spikes rushing towards the Cherubim. The katana slashed fast enough to blur into afterimages as each was sliced out of the air individually.

  Behind the Oni that had overtaken Streng Ezel’s body, Bruenor Flos lay slumped in the snow, exhausted. To fight a demigod was taxing for anyone, and Bruenor had no divinity. Mounds of undead surged, beaten back by the royal guards. Though a hundred had come to this Realm, they had already suffered casualties, mostly from the higher tier undead like the dragons or giants. Spitting blood on the snow, Bruenor panted as he got up to his feet. Wiping sweat from his brow, he clenched his fists and sprung back into action.

  As the Oni slashed down the bone needles, Bruenor darted in and hammered a powerful blow into the Composer’s side, taking the demigod by surprise. Careening backwards from the force, the Composer slung his left arm down and out like a whip, slashing Bruenor across the face and forcing him to retreat.

  The Oni pushed forward in his stead, cutting off the Composer’s hand with its blade before the demigod could retract. Going in for a body slam, the Oni tangled itself in the spindly arm of the Composer. Struggling to resist, the demigod was cut a dozen times by the Oni’s katana before the arm was severed entirely, allowing him to retreat.

  With both arms severed and the left half of his body charred by lightning, the Composer’s smile was entirely gone from his face. Dozens of Chosen still clashed with the nearby undead, slowly making progress against the waves of the horde. Vendos Aurelus was still meditating in the distance, and the Red Oni was fresh and ready to fight.

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  The Composer wasn’t naive, nor was he stupid. He backpedaled, sending scores of undead to interfere with the Oni’s onslaught in a bid to gain enough time to perform a chant.

  “A splinter of bone-”

  The Red Oni slashed through a trio of giants and a dragon, closing in on the demigod.

  “An eye wet with tears-”

  The Composer continued to retreat, stopping for but a brief moment to spew out a geyser of yellow, pus-like water from his mouth which forced the Oni to slow down its advance.

  “A graceful extension of your Lord-”

  Bruenor tensed his leg muscles, intent on breaking his limits to intercept. With a boom, he splattered straight through undead towards his target.

  “I am the Composer of the Corpse Symphony”

  Darkness shot out of the Composer’s eyes, blinding Bruenor and forcing him to give up accuracy. The Chosen blindly hurled himself in one last effort at stopping the demigod.

  “Lord of Squirming Tendons.”

  Pillars of bone sprouted up out of the ground. A dozen Chosen weren’t able to dodge in time and were skewered by the bone structures as they rose. A giant dome of skulls and bones loomed over the field, causing an intense spiritual pressure to descend. Bruenor, still blinded, bled from his ears as a painful ringing sensation, similar to a church’s bells, tolled in his ears. He felt his body get skewered by a large spear from underneath him as he was flung into the air. His breathing became more labored and stressed.

  Vendos Aurelius was still meditating…

  …

  Adam’s tears failed to fall to the ground, instead pooling in his eyes and preventing him from seeing. He was utterly powerless against the demigod before him. Sequence’s black gloves slowly clapped as Adam gently floated through the air. Unable to breathe, he struggled in vain as he was brought to what would have equated to eye level with the demigod, if he had had a face to be eye level with.

  “You think you are interesting because you are special. You are not.”

  Sequence lowered Adam to the ground, smashing his body into the snow and yanking his head to face upwards, all without so much as moving a finger more.

  “You are interesting because you are not special.”

  tatatatatta-!

  A series of sonic waves emanated from Gusto’s form. He was kneeling in the snow, unable to so much as stand. Blood spewed from his mouth as the spell took effect and swiftly failed. Collapsing unconscious to the ground, blood continued to trickle from his mouth.

  Of course, not a single shockwave managed to graze Sequence, who merely laughed.

  We can’t win… I can’t hold Him off, what was I thinking? He’s a divinity, after all…

  Wait, I know honorifics too!

  Adam wasn’t sure it would work, seeing as he couldn’t even breathe, but he was determined to try.

  Closing his eyes, he remembered the smell of copper and bronze, the whistle of air through many crevices and cracks, and the intense spiritual pressure of a Cherubim.

  Emaciated Seraph… Please…

  He felt a wave of nausea nearly overtake him as his skin pricked up with goosebumps and his face flushed. The wind picked up, and he felt a powerful presence swoop down towards him.

  Suddenly, he dropped to the ground with a soft thud, his breathing restored, tears finally able to stream down his face and crystalize in the cold chill.

  Sequence had been forced to dodge a barrage of razor-sharp feathers launched from the sky.

  In the air, a massive figure hovered. Its face was akin to a plague doctor’s mask, and its form was emaciated to the extreme. Two large wings stretched out from it, though they looked fragile, and its legs were thin and ended in sharp talons on the feet.

  It spared a glance towards Adam, nodding, and dove towards Sequence like a bird of prey.

  The demigod laughed as his father’s face continued to grow more pale within the ever-weakening spiritual barrier.

  …

  Hannah thought she was dead. She drowned, she burnt, she froze, she felt every pain she had ever felt in her life and then some. It was enough to go mad. It was wrong- too much input, too much data. She felt herself be pulled taught like a string about to snap. Then, one sensation overpowered all the others. The vague sense of drifting, like a spore on the wind. She thought she heard the sound of a SNAP from somewhere nearby, but that would be impossible during a Shift. She was a purely spiritual essence.

  Still, with that strange sound, that sensation, forcing its way into her mind and soul, her misharmonization was stopped.

  She managed to struggle against the current of the black waters as they drained down.

  …