The Godsfall Chronicles
Book 8 - Requiem Chapter 8: Dilemma

The Abyssal God found itself trapped in a small area, no more than a thousand square meters. Four walls, a roof and a ceiling. Featureless, white, with no way out. It was one of many identical cubes in this pocket-dimension. After Cloudhawk’s sneak-attack, the Marshal found itself caught.

Although it was a blank slate, at least this portion of the cube was stable. Disrupting the spatial flows was easier here, but destroying it completely was not. The Abyssal God wielded tremendous power, but its spatial talent was geared toward compression of energy rather than teleportation. Only someone with transference abilities like Cloudhawk’s could escape easily.

Breaking out? Not easy! But the Abyssal God was not flustered. Its species was known for cold, calculating logic in all circumstances. Firstly, dozens of black orbs sprang to life at the Abyssal God’s behest.

These were exactly the same as the orb it used to defeat Greenland’s shield. Not a true black hole, but still possessed of strong gravitational pull. In the instant it reached its target, every orb would drink in whatever energy was available and start to grow.

The Marshal gently stretched out its arms. In response, the orbs spread through the area and pressed against the walls. It wasn’t just ordinary energy these orbs drank up, but spatial energy as well. Soon after they stuck to the walls cracks began to appear.

This place was a little piece of another dimension inserted into reality. If it was destroyed, the Abyssal God would be spat back out into the world. So while the orbs did their work, its eyes gleamed with a burning light. Beams of luminescence carved through space, causing even the sturdy barriers of this dimension to tremble.

Crrrrrack!

Fissures appeared on the walls. They spread quickly until spiderwebs of cracks covered every inch of space. As the Abyssal God’s power filled the room everything started to fracture. But as pieces of the walls started to fall away the god was confronted with an unexpected scene. Its anticipated escape was foiled, since on the other side of the walls was another chamber, similarly featureless but larger.

More precisely, this interspatial prison was a series of sub-spaces nestled inside one another, each one existing independently from the rest. They were connected, however, constituting a complex array of cube-like building blocks.

Destroying the chamber was easier than the Abyssal God thought – but it was one small part of this place. Obviously, defeating the entire dimension would be much harder. But that wasn’t all. Within each cube there were a number of demons. Hundreds upon thousands of them, as far as the Marshal could see.

They were placed here, prepared for this moment. Somehow Cloudhawk had planned this confrontation, expertly setting a trap. Surrounded by demons, the Abyssal God’s escape was presented with another obstacle.

Current circumstances were poor, so the god determined that drastic measures were necessary. Two beams of power were released from its hands, ten times more powerful than previously. It punched through the barrier and into the hordes of demons beyond.

Boom-boom-boom! A series of explosions followed.

The beams detonated before the demons – but not among them. An invisible barrier of spatial energy cracked under the Abyssal God’s power but did not shatter. Another shield!

The demons were all in different sections of this dimension. Cloudhawk had prepared by turning all the barriers transparent. But invisible did not mean nonexistent, so the god’s efforts were all for naught.

It prepared to attack again, determined to shatter the already weakened walls. Only in that moment an invisible power flooded the area. Each cube began to shift and rearrange, preventing the Marshal from focusing all its strength on one area. When everything was in constant flux there was no way for the Abyssal God to break out of its prison or attack the demons locked in here with it.

But the demons were not prisoners.

A hurricane of attacks came from all directions. Most were sucked up by the Abyssal God, but it was too much. Enough got through the god’s natural defenses to begin causing damage. Even a god as powerful as the Marshal couldn’t face thousands of demons alone. What’s more, a number of Elders hid among the lesser fiends. This was their territory, a dimension that worked to their benefit.

However, that was not to say the Abyssal God was helpless. If the demons wanted to attack they had to lower the barriers between sections of this subspace. In other words they were exposed in the moment they attacked – that was when the Abyssal God could fight back. Piece by piece it could eliminate the demons and conquer their sections.

At that time the Marshal sensed two demonic soldiers preparing their next attack. This time it was ready, so at just the right moment the Abyssal God charged forward.

The demons were caught off guard by the brazen offense.

Dual beams of light fired from the god’s eyes and blasted the demons to pieces. Then, with the speed and intensity of a jet craft, it punched through into the next section.

Cloudhawk’s subspace dimension was complex, but there was a limit to how intricate it could be. With some thought, escape was possible. At least, so the god believed. However it’s assumptions were too simple. Behind the scenes Cloudhawk was manipulating reality to his whim. As the Abyssal God prepared to continue its rampage, the cubes all shifted again. The section it now occupied became the center once more.

Beyond all doubt, from the moment the Abyssal God was caught in this demon-infested trap, escape was improbable.

In the midst of all this, Third Seal Korath appeared among the demonic soldiers. Power from his eye pierced two cubes and slammed into the god’s body, once again sealing its energy. This meant defenses too, so those attacks that reached the Abyssal God hit much harder.

Signs of damage appeared on the armor of this invincible Sumeran general. If it didn’t find a way to turn the tables, the Abyssal God would perish. No solution was immediately obvious.

Cloudhawk was using his spatial powers to hide somewhere in this place, incessantly changing the battlefield. Meanwhile thousands of demons hid in hundreds of cubes, all attacking their target nestled in the center of a killing field.

A lesser god would have been eliminated already. The Marshal was fighting a demon army single-handedly and finding it very difficult to fight back. So it tried to reach out to its troops, looking for aid – only to find this impossible. The odd way that space and time worked in this place prevented the god from reaching its allies in a short time.

The Marshal was alone, with its hands tied. It could not fathom any way to free itself from this execution chamber.