Armageddon

Chapter 25: Baptism of Fire

Its left hand held a golden shield, shined to capture their perfect reflections like a mirror, while wielding a sword with the other. Ethereal amethyst wisps danced like flames across the wicked-looking ebony blade, shimmering against its black diamond pommel, and the carved grip matched the very image of the massive titan.

That sword looks familiar.

Thor snaked his head and snarled upon closer inspection. It's Ragnarok, but how?

Confusion enveloped the two as Ragnarok had been destroyed within the abandoned dwarven ruin. Selena took a step back and held up Revelation in defense. "Who are you?"

The giant strutted forward with Ragnarok pointed away, its footsteps making the ticking glass clock platform tremble and quake. "We've met before. Don't you remember?"

She squinted her eyes, a deep crease in her brow when the titan sounded familiar. "That voice... I know that voice."

Only when she came to the startling conclusion did he confirm: "Yes. It is I, Xyaxon."

Both Selena and Thor immediately bowed before the Divine after realizing their error and misjudgment. "What is happening? Where are we, and why are we here?"

"We are currently outside your world. I summoned you both here to congratulate you on finally defeating the Lich, Liongod. I must say, what you two did was quite admirable. Thanks to your efforts, I'm finally restored to my full power, and now, it is time."

The Divine's words unnerved her as her mind raced to different conclusions behind his meaning. "What do you mean? Time for what?"

Xyaxon ignored her. Instead, he looked out towards the void. "Time is an illusion. It's nothing more than an idea that events occur in a linear direction—always moving forward, never back. It's our endless symphony, and now, I believe that the time has come."

Selena's face turned pale, her heart beating like a ticking clock trapped within her throat. Thor growled through clamped fangs when Xyaxon avoided giving an immediate answer, ember shards blazing through his nostrils. For what?

Before Selena could repeat his question out loud, Xyaxon calmly replied. "For my will to be done."

She dreaded Xyaxon's possible implications, and her voice cracked. "What do you mean? What will?"

The Divine pointed his sword at the floating ball of water and land, and Ragnarok shimmered. "My will as it has always been: you two will bear witness as I create a new world by issuing the destruction of this one."

His devastating news struck Selena and Thor as the two had been fighting back for so long to prevent this from happening; at first, she believed she misheard the Divine, but as he raised Ragnarok, the harsh reality of his words began taking root. Was this Xyaxon's cruel trick? "Wait, no... No! We were trying to avoid that by stopping the Lich. This isn't right—you can't do that."

"Yes, I can." In an instant, Xyaxon slashed Ragnarok at their world; the Divine's baptism of fire created a crack of light that spread across its sky, growing with each tick their clock stage made. "Your world is dying; it's grown stagnant. Its destruction will be the start of a new beginning."

"I don't understand. You first told me that if I wanted to save our world, I would have had to defeat the Lich before the eclipse."

"Indeed, yes." Xyaxon's stoic voice frightened her.

Selena couldn't understand it and refused to believe that what he said was true. Still, they deserved an explanation. "Then... why?"

"You see, I allowed Venexus to possess the one you called Aydin and for him to overthrow Azrael, watching and waiting while he took over Oblivion. I foresaw your existence as a threat to my gambit. Initially, I planned on you not surviving your birth, but Silver intervened. Then, Venexus was supposed to sacrifice you to awaken Thor as the Destroyer of Worlds. When that failed, the demon's blood poison was your next intended end, but somehow, you fought it off—time and time again, you and your friends seemed to save your pitiful life. Yet, when the time came in Snowhaven, I realized that you proved invaluable.