Darkness and Hellfire

Chapter 39 Psychostasia.

“You have been judged.” The demigod of Judgment pronounced with his gaze locked onto Isaac.

Isaac started boosting himself as much as he could as quickly as he could. He knew that Judgment would annihilate him in an instant if he wasn’t careful. The presence of the man was enough to make Isaac feel heavier than he was. With Judgment’s words, however, Isaac felt like his weight had just doubled. Isaac was ready to teleport as soon as he noticed something that he would need to evade. He didn’t risk going invisible for fear that it would either do nothing at all or Judgment would target Lenna. Isaac knew that Judgment would target Lenna eventually because she was already chanting to summon her Armor of Ire.

“Psychostasia.” Judgment continued with a scowl that seemed to bear physical weight. Light coalesced above Isaac and formed into a massive gavel whose head was the size of Isaac’s torso.

Isaac teleported out of the way only for the gavel to move with him. It slammed down with such incredible speed and power that Isaac barely had enough time to get his arms up before it impacted him. Isaac’s forearms took the impact square and the full force of it was sent down through Isaac’s body. The weight of every one of his sins, in both worlds he had lived in, sent him to a knee. Isaac’s entire body cried out in pain as he stopped what felt like a stack of bricks with his forearms. Every joint in his body suffered even though he was boosted. Luckily Isaac could already feel the weight lifting as the gavel faded away.

Judgment looked mildly surprised that Isaac was not flattened out of existence with that singular attack. “You have committed less sins than I expected.” Judgment conceded. “But still far above average for a human of your age.”

Due to Judgment’s height, Lenna was severely limited in her offensive options. She had a few but she wasn’t sure which one to use because she didn’t want to catch Isaac in it if he went on the offensive at the same time that she did. She did have one thing for him though. Lenna reached into her Bottomless Bag and withdrew the Orb of Shadow Projection. She injected mana into it and tossed it so it would land directly under Judgment.

Judgment’s eyes shifted to her as Isaac was still recovering from his first attack. “You should not have interfered.” He stated coldly as shadows exploded out of the orb in all directions. The shadows burned away as soon as they got within five feet of him as if his radiance was far too much for them to coexist with. “Psychostasia.”

Isaac’s head snapped towards Lenna as the light started to appear over her head. Isaac’s mind was working far too fast to even call out to her. He teleported in front of her as she raised her sword to block the incoming attack. They both knew that it couldn’t be dodged, only weathered, and Isaac wasn’t going to let Lenna weather it alone. The gavel slammed downwards. Lenna’s sword caught it first, then Isaac’s raised arms, then the side of Lenna’s face, then her shoulder, then Isaac’s face as his legs hadn’t even had enough time to buckle under the attack yet, then Lenna’s legs gave out and she dropped to a knee while Isaac was thrown onto his back. The gavel finally stopped as its full force had been bled away by both of the pair.

Even though the orb of conjured shadows entirely enveloped Judgment his eyes still followed the pair as if it wasn’t even there. Unfortunately Lenna could not see through the shadows but she had summoned them in hopes that it would help Isaac and that Judgment would move out of them. Isaac groaned as he teleported back up to his feet. His head had hit the stone pretty hard but any injuries he had sustained were already healed. “Submit.” Judgment told them. “You can still make this painless.”

Isaac shook his head to clear it and Lenna pushed herself to her feet. “I would have survived it.” Lenna told Isaac. “It’s all physical force. My armor can take it.”

“Good.” Isaac said. That was one worry off of his list.

“Fine then.” Judgment raised his hands above his head as if he was holding an executioner's ax. “Blade of Raguel.” His voice resonated with existence once more. A beam of light started to appear inside of his hands. It connected one hand to the other and then started extending upwards. Soon the beam of light was ten feet long and a crossguard formed just above his right hand and a pommel formed just below his left. Past the crossguard, a blade started to form as the entirety of the sword continued to scale upwards. In the first three seconds the blade had gone from nothing to a fifteen foot long sword of hardened golden light.

Isaac knew he had to act before Judgment could swing the attack so he went on the offensive. Isaac appeared behind Judgment and immediately planted both his knees on Judgment’s kidneys and grabbed both sides of the demigod’s head. Isaac immediately felt his own face melting. The cellular death of a non dark creature coming into contact with death flames was getting copied and forced onto Isaac. Both Judgment and Isaac were healing away the damage as it was being done but it was still painful for both of them. Isaac tried to figure out a way to deal with Judgment without killing himself in the process while precariously balanced on the demigod’s back.

Judgment continued to charge his attack even though his target was clinging to him. He knew that Isaac was not alone so he had decided to fix that. Isaac realized it right before Judgment started his downward swing. Isaac cursed himself for missing the opportunity to remove Judgment’s hands but the radiant light was already burning him from a few feet away. He knew that he would have to wait until the sword was gone to target the demigod’s hands.

The sword of compressed divine radiance, justice, and vengeance swung downwards. Isaac teleported next to Lenna with his back facing the ground. He kicked out with both feet as hard as he could. Lenna tried to dodge in the same direction that Isaac tried to shove her and they both went flying apart. Isaac felt the death flames in his feet start to cook off like boiling water just from the proximity of the sword as it cleaved through where Lenna had just been. A massive sliver of the stone had been removed entirely. A line fifteen feet long was cut through the stone and on the edges of the gash in the world the stone glowed and smoked. The sword had burned all of its energy in that attack and was completely gone. The Orb of Shadow Projection had been half a dozen feet away from the closest part of the sword yet its shadows had completely gone out.

Lenna rolled to her feet and whipped her sword at Judgment. The blade flew end over end and slammed into the top of his shoulder. The clothing held but his bones did not. Judgment was forced downwards a few feet and pain overtook his features momentarily as Lenna let out a grunt in pain. Her sword dropped uselessly to the ground. The clang of the steel on stone restarted their fight as Isaac teleported back towards Judgment. Isaac grabbed Judgment’s right hand and forced a proverbial bucket of death flames into it. Judgment and Isaac both lost their right hands. Both men recoiled in pain but one stayed aloft as the other fell. Isaac felt his vision start to swim as his hand was rapidly replaced.

Lenna’s healing poured through her broken shoulder and knit the bones back together. She ran forwards towards her fallen sword and the falling Isaac but Isaac was going to hit the ground long before she got there. Judgment gestured down towards Isaac. “Retribution upon the sinner.” He declared and Isaac was instantly hit with all of the damage that he had just done to Judgment, again.

Isaac’s still forming hand was deleted from existence once again. Isaac focused through the pain and teleported back towards Judgment before he reached to grab his other hand. Judgment recoiled backwards as blood poured out of his other handless arm. His magic was trying to regrow it but it was not nearly as fast as Isaac’s so his demi-deific blood was gushing out towards the ground. Judgment’s power was blazing as he tried to heal himself through the injuries he was taking. The fact that Isaac was still coming after him without slowing down was clearly surprising him. Judgment’s constant look of disdain that he had been throwing Isaac and Lenna had turned to one of surprise as he was suddenly on the back foot.

Isaac appeared behind Judgment with his arm wrapped around the demigod’s neck. Isaac’s weight was dangling free and helping his arm try to force Judgment’s airways closed. Isaac felt his own throat close up so he knew that it was working. The skin on their necks was decaying, though Isaac’s was healing a fair amount faster than the damage he was taking. Isaac had also used his handless arm, the hand had just started regrowing for the second time, to wrap around Judgment’s neck so he would be free to use his other hand.

Judgment reached out with his remaining hand and balled it into a fist. His fist started to glow with power. Isaac held his hand a few inches away from Judgment’s back and death flames started to coalesce around it. Lenna jumped into the air and clamped her hand around Judgment’s ankle. Isaac’s shadow opened up and a familiar draconic form launched itself out of it with its mouth already open wide. Time almost seemed to come to a halt as their entire battle came to a head.

Judgment was yanked downwards by his ankle from the sudden increase in weight as his fist impacted Isaac’s arm.

Isaac’s arm was removed at the elbow as his hand slammed into Judgment’s back pushing them apart.

Kahtesh fired a lightning bolt into Judgment’s side and his own body started sizzling.

Lenna’s boots almost hit the ground as she reached up to grab Judgment by the calf.

Judgment tried to inhale a deep breath but no air came. His heart had been burned away by an incredible amount of death flames. He took solace in the fact that Isaac would have died from the attack as well, and let himself drop to the ground.

Kahtesh landed gracefully on the ground as the three humanoid figures crashed into it. Isaac was focusing all of his power inwards to reform everything that had been destroyed and struggled to maintain consciousness. Lenna quickly rushed over to Isaac and started adding her own healing to the mix but they both knew that Judgment wasn’t gone yet.

Around the time Isaac’s heart started beating again and he took in a gasp of not so fresh air, Judgment’s voice came out in a rasp. “You won this time.” He said and then went still. His entire body started to glow brighter and brighter until it began breaking apart into wisps of light. Millions of tiny golden stars broke away from his form and faded into the mana that pervaded all. In a matter of moments he was gone, almost as if the entire battle had just been a bad dream.