Shadow Menace: I Live Among Mortals, I Kill Among Gods

"They called it the end of the world. I called it the beginning of mine."

The gates stood open.

A breach between realms. A mouth wide enough to swallow continents.

From it came the heat of a thousand screams, and a pressure that made even the gods flinch. The sky turned black. The clouds peeled away. The sun? Gone.

It had begun.

The Hellmarch.

And at the center of it, Vermund, slouched beside his cracked throne, bleeding—but smiling.

"This world," he said, "will remember my wrath through your ashes."

They came like thunder.

The first wave spilled out from the gate—Ashbound, ancient soldiers cast into fire, skin turned to coal and hate. Their eyes glowed with red symbols. Their weapons weren't steel—they were bones of fallen saints.

And there were hundreds.

Eve stood beside me, bruised but ready. Her blade shimmered pale blue, and her breath steamed in the cursed air.

"You've got a plan, right?" she asked, dry.

"Yeah," I replied, stepping forward, wiping blood from my chin. "Survive."

Our allies—mortal mercenaries, broken demi-gods, arcane scholars, even one drunk with a cannon—formed a ragtag line across the ruined throne platform.

Weapons raised.

Spells chanted.

No speeches. No rally cries.

Just survival.

I mounted my R6, the engine rumbling in sync with the storm behind me.

I revved it once, the tires screeching on ancient obsidian.

"You're not really going to fight them on that thing—" Eve began.

"I'm not fighting them," I said. "I'm mowing through."

The Ashbound screeched like collapsing towers and charged.

I twisted the throttle and became a meteor.

300 km/h inside a divine ruin. The R6 roared like a dragon born in Tokyo.

I slashed low with one blade, swerved to parry a spear, leapt off the seat, flipped mid-air, and stabbed one through the face.

The next ten went down in a blur of purple flashes.

From the sky, Eve dove in, slicing through multiple with fluid elegance.

Behind us, mortals screamed and died. But others rose and fought.

The Ashbound weren't mindless.

They coordinated.

One roared, forming chains of flame to bind my legs.

Another summoned spikes of rusted light from the ground.

I blinked out.

Then in.

Then spun mid-air, severing heads in a fountain of ash.

One caught my side.

I dropped, rolled, screamed.

Then laughed.

"You're making me work for it, bastards!"

The next wave was worse.

Ten giants.

The Obsidian Guard—Vermund's high-tier sentinels.

Each over nine feet tall. Covered in immovable armor with glowing sigils.

They moved like statues.

But when they struck—

The ground exploded.

Eve and I hit the deck just as a hammer obliterated the space we stood in.

I rolled. Threw a void grenade. It fizzled. Useless.

They were immune to dimension-based attacks.

"Go for the eyes," I called out.

"I can't see any!" Eve shouted back.

"Then guess!"

One of the Obsidian brutes stepped toward me, dragging a black slab-sword.

I rushed in, blades in hand, dodging a slow vertical swing.

Got under it—slashed upward—

My blade bounced off.

He grabbed me—lifted me—and slammed me down.

Skull ringing. Vision splitting.

I thrust both blades up blindly.

And by some miracle, pierced the underside of his jaw.

He screamed. A terrible, mechanical howl.

I rolled away as he exploded in violet fire.

Around me, the battlefield turned red.

Dozens of our fighters fell. Screaming. Burning.

But they fought.

One arcane monk detonated herself with divine runes to take out two Ashbound.

A demi-god shattered both arms just to hold a magic shield over a fallen child.

Eve fought through her wounds, spinning like a dancer in death's final waltz.

And still—

More came.

I stood on a mountain of bodies.

Exhausted. Numb. Rage pulsing with each heartbeat.

We weren't winning. Just delaying.

I looked up.

Vermund still stood. Untouched. Watching.

Waiting.

Smiling.

I blinked next to Eve.

"We can't hold this forever."

"No," she said, breathing hard. "But we don't have to."

I raised a brow.

"Remember the relic cache?" she asked.

I grinned.

"Detonate it?"

She nodded. "All of it."

I signaled the twins in the rear to activate the rune charges.

We bought time. We bled for it.

And now—

We'd turn this war into an inferno.

I looked back at Vermund.

His eyes narrowed.

He sensed it.

The final play.

"You should've killed me when I was weak," I whispered, slicing my palm to trigger the blood sigil bomb.