The arrival of the Council of Virtus' champions had caused the balance of the battle to shift. John could now fully utilize what army he had left and whittled down the enemy's overwhelming number.
In the sky, another incident tipped the scale further. Broidrireg finally defeated Suzaki. The immortal phoenix was unable to approach Broidrireg and used her immortal prison. Instead, she got trapped by Broidrireg's spell and was no longer able to flee. When she died, her fiery body burst into countless flame tongues before disappearing quietly into the air.
After slaying Suzaki, Broidrireg pondered about giving aid to Eoranth, but his responsibility was to the Themisphere army first. Additionally, he was sure Eoranth would be offended if he went to help.
Without a high-level eternal opponent stopping him, Broidrireg rained spells onto the Liguritudum and also Aurebor armies below, reaping countless casualties.
On the other side, Jack and the Archdemon lord did the same.
Master, who saw from afar how the battlefield situation changed to such a degree, was extremely displeased.
With the arrival of Arlcard and Therras, he was unable to break through the defense. However, even with so many opponents, they also didn't appear to be anywhere near defeating Master. With the help of the Necronomicon, Master's spells seemed endless.
Even though the zombie soldiers had been greatly culled during the battle, there were still more than enough for him to sacrifice to reduce his spells' cooldown.
Seeing the stalemate, staying around gave no benefit. Master chose to retreat. He left his minions to hold the enemies while he flew away using his demonic wings.
His demonic wings had no duration but consume stamina or MP each second. He had exceptional MP recovery which offset the wings' MP consumption. This allowed him to maintain the demonic wings indefinitely.
John watched all this progress through the projection above his war table. Though the battle had not ended, he heaved a relieved sigh. The most critical part had ended. As long as they could maintain this condition and no more nasty surprises appear, they should win.
He sent Jack a message, "Hey, give my thanks to your country guardian. Ask him if he could speed up his spell castings to quickly wrap this battle up. I prefer it to end sooner rather than later before any nasty surprises happened again."
"Dude, he is casting several spells at the same time. Is that not fast enough already? Don't ask unreasonable requests," Jack replied. "But I will pass your thanks."
Jack sent his thanks using his king badge. Broidrireg simply responded with a harrumph.
Without stopping his casting, Broidrireg glanced at the distant sky which was covered with colorful turbulence. He was one of the few who was aware that while the mortals were fighting their war down here, the divines were having theirs up there.
Broidrireg didn't think any of their victories down here meant anything if the battle up there went in the opposite direction.
If Fear was the one victorious, that God could easily wipe out the Themisphere and Hydrurond armies.
*
High in that distant sky ravaged by multiple conflicting energies, six divine beings were contesting and one giant black ball was inert.
Serenity battled Wrath. The energies they released blanketed all the spaces around them. Green and Red intertwined, causing spatial distortion and time to collapse.
Love was battling Pride. Pride should be more powerful, but he was somehow reserved. He was unable to use all his power. Love knew that and used it to her advantage. Pride was aware but he could do nothing about it. His guilt had truly eaten him up. It was most so when he caught a glimpse of the black ball floating not far away. Love knew this and kept their battle close to the black ball.
Fear fought Greed. These two who used to be comrades now fought on opposite teams. Fear was extremely vexed by Greed's action. His plan almost came to fruition, but this Greed just had to spoil it. Fear's face was constantly scowling.
Greed had an opposite expression. He was constantly smiling as if pissing Fear off was something fun.
"Stop this, Greed! We are finally going to be free. Why are you acting like this? You are being a fool," Fear scolded.
"If anyone is a fool, it is you, brother," Greed replied. "You have been used and lied to, and you are just happy about it."
"Nonsense! No one uses me! It was even more unthinkable for someone to dare to lie to me!" Fear yelled. The air around him was covered by corrupting energies that ruptured everything they touched.
"No? You have been dancing on that outworlder's palms ever since he sold you that lies about giving you access to the real world," Greed uttered. All the corrupted energies Fear discharged were absorbed by his, refined, and then directed back at Fear.
"How dare you! It is I who is using him! He is just a pawn."
"Really? Then tell me. Did you plan this? Did you entice Pride? Or did he? Do you know that although what he said that the outworlders came from the real world is true, it is also true that their world is no more? That our world right here is now the real world and the outworlders are here to stay?"
Fear stopped a brief instant from the words. This short window was exploited by Greed. Greed's energy penetrated Fear and sent him reeling back.
"You, vile traitor…!! I will tear you to pieces!" Fear howled. His power grew and he directed all this overwhelming force toward Greed.
Suddenly, all six of them heard a voice that caused their very being to tremble uncontrollably, "This ends… NOW…!!!"
The black ball that had stayed still for some time exploded into countless pieces. A blinding luminance showered everything within miles. Even the six Gods had to close their eyes from the radiance.
When they opened their eyes again, they saw Hope floating above them. His body glistened with brilliance. Holy light showered the spot he was floating at.
His glowing eyes locked with Fear's, who found himself difficult to move.
Hope spoke, "Your scheme has failed, Fear. Do you think you can take me out? It was but a fool's errand. I am Hope! And I am everlasting!"
