Kralax faced an abomination beyond his wildest imaginations, an inhabitant of the Dream Plane. A plane that was not ethereal nor physical, but conceptual. A world born from memories, dreams, nightmares, fears, love, obsession, all of what made living beings what they were, it was an abstract dimension, born out of mere concepts that both existed and didn't exist. It was perhaps even worse than the Outer Gods, who were born from the Shadow of a Primordial God of the Void and Destruction.
Kralax, who came from Hell, was a powerful demon, considered just almost strong enough to be a Duke, he had been climbing towards his goal of one day becoming the King of a Layer his entire life, with tooth and nail, blood and tears, he had massacred everything on his way towards his goals. He was an in-born warrior, a cruel and sadistic one, but also one that had incredible experience in battle and knew when he had to...
Retreat.
"I will devour you... Delicious soul... dreams... hope... fear...! Scrumptious! I can see it... Ahhh!"
The Dream Plane inhabitant twisted reality around Kralax as the demon struggled, seeing countless images of his childhood, of the time Kralax was born in the wilderness of hell and had to survive to get where he was, the many battles he almost didn't win, the agonizing defeats and how he always barely escaped with his life.
"S-STOP...! STOP LOOKING AT MY MEMORIES! YOU DAMNED...! NNGGHH...!"
Kralax started vomiting blood as he felt his entire existence being drained, the Dream Plane Inhabitant was burning and being pushed back, but it endlessly reshaped itself to adapt to him.
When Kralax unleashed powerful physical attacks, the Dream Plane Inhabitant would transform, resembling a being made of distorted fragments of walls, houses, stone, and diamonds.
CLANK! CLANK! CLANK! CLANK!
"N-No damage?!"
Kralax saw his own claws being torn to pieces! He quickly exerted his flames next, gathering them into a single point and releasing them at once.
"BURN!!!"
FLUOOOSH!
The flames gathered and then exuded their strongest flame, exploding into a massive explosion that made the Sea of Clouds tremble!
BOOOMMM!!!
The explosion resembled a gigantic blazing pillar that emerged from below, hundreds of demons saw the pillar, sensing the demonic energy that Kralax exuded.
"Is Kralax... struggling?"
"What's going on over there?!"
"Has that Maniac meet his match?"
"We have to see this!"
Several soldiers that were on high positions and were therefore somehow surviving and fighting, rushed down to see what was happening, they rushed down, suddenly finding Zagreus and the group of Gods escaping.
"Oi! Aren't those the Gods?!"
"They are!"
"Bastards, they're escaping after everything?!"
"Catch them! We'll get rewarded by Lord Eligos if we do!"
"Are we even a match?"
"Of course we are, they're weak ass bastards!"
The group of around eight different High Demon Soldiers rushed towards Zagreus, who was desperately escaping with his friends, their Divinities merged with his own strange power, as thousands of souls merged into a mass of pure phantasmal and divine power.
RUMBLE!
Out of nowhere, the sky trembled as several serpents made of flames emerged from above, stopping their charge and beginning to rapidly rotate around them!
"W-What is this?!" Sindarin screamed.
"Flames shaped as vipers?" Glimmerdust wondered. "Demonic Magic, most likely!"
"Hey, over there!" Hanshuan pointed into the skies above them.
"Hm?!" Zagreus eyes glanced at the approaching foes, as he saw a group of eight High Demon Soldiers.
They were all the strongest soldiers within each battalion, right beneath a General in terms of strength and power. Each one of them was shaped differently, some resembled reptilian monsters, others were more humanoid with red, purple, or blue skin, and others looked like imps, birds, or muscular giant brutes.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" One of the High Demon Soldiers smiled, holding his long Infernal Spear tight with his right hand. He resembled a slender, and very tall humanoid demon, with purple skin, two golden horns, and black armor alongside a handsome face and long white hair. "Could it be that our chance to rise to Generals is finally here?"
"Kehehehe!"
"The Gods! We found them!"
"I'm going to crush em'!"
"If we bring their souls and corpses to Lord Eligos, riches await us!"
"Lord Eligos is fighting against that titan, but he's once he's done, we'll be rewarded if we bring them along, yes! Yes!"
Zagreus squinted his eyes as he saw these High Demon Soldiers, he seriously had literally no time to deal with these bastards right now, as he had just managed to narrowly escape death against Kralax.
"I don't have the time for this..." Zagreus said. "If you will continue pursuing us, then we'll
kill you."
"Hah?! Since when you have pathetic Gods been good for anything?!" Laughed the purple- skinned demon. "Without papa Hades, I guess you can't even deal with soldiers like us,
right?"
"!"
Zagreus' face suddenly distorted into anger, his eyes becoming bloodshot as his friends saw him, his aura suddenly changing.
The blueish colored ghostly souls around him suddenly transformed at the same time, screaming loudly, becoming black and red, looking like horrifying specters embodying
nightmares.
"W-What with that power?"
"Is that something he had before?"
"It's... that's a strong pressure!"
Some of the soldiers noticed something wrong was going on, but the purple-skinned demon
laughed, pointing his spear at Zagreus while licking his lips.
"What are you afraid of?! This bastard is just small fry anybody can kill!"
He rushed down, his purple and black aura encompassing him as his golden infernal spear
flared with purple flames.
"Give me your soul, pathetic God!"
As he reached Zagreus, Hade's son glanced back at him with his eyes full of hatred.
He was crying tears of blood.
BOOOM!
An explosion of purple flames and black phantasmal energies erupted, as both factions
glanced in silence for a moment.
"Oi, Hergler! You there?!"
Some of the soldiers called the demon, as the smoke dissipated.
"G-Gaaagh...?!"
Only to reveal Hergler's chest being punctured by a massive arm made of screaming, black
souls, specters merged into a monstrous, almost nightmarish claw.
"I-Impo... ssible...!"
Hergler vomited blood, glaring at Zagreus in utter disbelief.
"Did you think I was going to lose? I am not that pathetic as to die against some no-name fodder like
you..."
Crack, crack...!
Zagreus closed his fists tightly, destroying Hergler's demonic heart.
CRASH!