Page 85 of Crimson Skies

How could I ever think of letting him go? Chaos is right. I would not have survived our separation.

He switched his gaze to the dark God, his brow furrowing. “How about we finish this?”

Elios’s eyes flared. The shadows around him thickened.

His scream of rage tore across the heavens. “I WILL END YOU, ICARUS!”

“Yeah,I don’t think so,” Cassius retorted coldly.

Loki let the Eternity Key go.

It floated toward Cassius. He looked at Morgan and the wielders of the rest of the artifacts designed by Chaos’s children. “I’m afraid I need to borrow your weapons for a moment.”

He raised a hand.

Morgan sucked in air as the Sword of Wind left his grasp. Theo similarly gasped when the Spear of Light levitated from his hand and the Book of Rain dropped down from the distant firmament.

The devilwood staff escaped Eden’s hold.

“Woody?” the Magus mumbled.

The Frost Crown and the Horn of Flames followed, much to Boreas and Pyri’s surprise.

Elios glowered at Cassius. His corrupt blades throbbed with violent power. He charged toward him on an incoherent sound of wrath.

Time slowed. In the infinite moment before the God of Darkness reached him, Cassius finally saw what had lain hidden within his core ever since he’d become an Awakener.

“Come,” he said quietly.

The weapons of Chaos’s children dove inside him, as if they’d been waiting for this moment all along. Air locked in Cassius’s throat as they merged seamlessly with his soul and the seeds of power the Gods of Old had planted within it.

His core detonated with a radiance that lit the world of man and all the realms.

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Morgan’s crysounded dimly in Cassius’s ears as the divine energy roaring through his veins resonated across their sacred bond. A blaze surged through Cassius’s blood and every inch of his being until he became a figure of pure, white light.

Elios recoiled, his eyes rounding at the celestial glow pulsing from Cassius’s skin and eyes. The acrid scent of his fear reached Cassius.

The dark God dove, a portal to the Hells ripping open beneath him. Cassius blocked his path. Elios flinched and shot back.

“I won’t let you escape, Elios,”Cassius said calmly.“Like I said, this will be our final battle.”

A shocked gurgle left the dark God. The shadows around him were slowly evaporating.

“What—what is this?!” he rasped.

“I am absorbing your darkness,” Cassius replied. “I do not need to stab you or wound you to defeat you. All I have to do is…be.”

Though the moment of their victory was upon him, he could not help the pity that tightened his chest at Elios’s growing despair.

The dark God tried to escape again and again.

Cassius curbed his attempt every time, his movements so fast he was certain no God could keep up.

Elios trembled in terror as his form gradually unraveled where he floated in the sky above San Francisco, revealing his original appearance. He was identical to Hypnos in every way but for his eyes.

A tortured whisper reached Cassius.

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