Dancing on the golden ashes

With my command, the flood of demons surges into the enemy capital, striking where none expect us. And I do not linger in the back like some cowardly commander. No. With a single step I tear through time and space, appearing in their radiant world where even breathing alone feels like swallowing fire. The air scorches my throat, every breath thick with holy venom, but we know this already. Thanks to our spies, we gather enough to prepare.

I need nothing more than a breath. I snort, and the Pride within me blazes, refusing to let the angelic energy suppress me. The others are not so fortunate. They quickly activate the secret technique I forged for this moment, burning away the suffocating pressure so they can stand tall beside me.

"Flatten them…" I say coldly, my sins igniting within my chest, each one burning bright—Wrath licking through my veins, Envy clawing for blood, Pride roaring like a furnace—craving the taste of destruction.

At once the legion of demons charges their strongest attacks. The sky itself blazes with ruin, a storm of black fire and crimson lightning, of blades and shadows, blotting out the heavens. On the horizon, enemy auras stir in shock, surging like a tidal wave as they sense the dreadful might of our army.

"NOW!" My command splits the air, and the storm falls. Countless attacks rain down like meteors, bombarding everything in sight. The proud city of angels cracks beneath the onslaught—ivory towers split in half, golden spires collapse like sand, radiant walls buckle under rivers of flame. Even the ground beneath their streets fractures, sinking into oceans of molten stone.

"WHO DARES?!"

The roar thunders across creation. In an instant, more auras than even our vast legions erupt, the brilliance of heaven tearing through the darkness. Blinding radiance floods the skies, so vast and suffocating it threatens to erase shadow itself. Their divine defenses rise like walls of suns, clashing with our storm in a cataclysm that shatters the horizon.

But not all are fortunate enough to defend themselves against our might. While billions of angels manage to withstand the first strike—of course they would, with their endless years of foundation—many others instantly regret ever having lived. Their wings burn and fall like ash, feathers raining through the firestorm. Cries of holy hymns twist into screams, cut short as blades pierce throats and flames consume bodies. Radiance sputters and dies mid-flight, leaving broken angels to crash into the streets below.

The world itself shakes. The clash of armies becomes deafening: the thunder of collapsing towers, the pounding of billions of feet, the roar of demons answering heaven's hymns with curses. The ground splits like drums of hell, each quake echoing louder than the next.

Blood flows like rivers, staining the immaculate marble streets scarlet. Screams mingle with hymns, steel with thunder, prayer with curses. And I—standing in the heart of it—am the executor of their downfall, flowing with the carnage, savoring every single moment as my sins sing for more.

"ENOUGH!" A powerful holy shout booms from within the main palace, the only structure untouched by our bombardment. A wave of energy erupts outward, gathering the attacks of my demons and hurling them back toward us.

"Childish." I snort, and with a single flick of my hand I disintegrate the storm as if swatting aside dust. To me it is nothing, no more than a walk in the park.

The air itself begins to burn. Below us, an ocean of angels manifests from the flames, wings blazing as they take shape. And in front of me a man appears, a figure of perfect, flawless features—the same face I once glimpsed in the distant memory of the past me, the day she was betrayed and slain by the Creator. Yet where is he today? I expected this carnage to draw him out, but… is he hiding, scurrying like a rat in his own domain?

"How dare you filthy demons step into my domain?!" His roar shakes the capital as a wave of suppressing power crashes from his radiant body, a holy tide trying to bend me to my knees.

But I do not yield. My aura bursts forth, swallowing his suppression whole, and I watch his expression falter—his perfect face twisting into disbelief.

"Who are you?! You're not Kaelthira…" His voice cracks as his eyes lock onto me. For the first time, his arrogance is gone. Is that fear? Has there truly never been a demon who could match him? No… not match. I am not his equal. He is nothing compared to the current me.

"I'm Lee Gaon." I say coldly, and his face freezes.

"Impossible. You're… you're supposed to be dead. How did you—?!" He points a trembling finger at me, his entire body shaking with disbelief. Suspicion coils in my mind. Did the past me ever fight him? Why would he be this afraid?

"Ask your good friend—the one who calls himself the Creator." My voice drips with contempt as I speak lazily, my gaze sweeping over the battlefield. "Speaking of him… where is he? I've come to end this once and for all. To seal this blood feud. To eradicate the angels from this world. To take revenge for the demons."

My words echo across the battlefield, rolling through the demon world like the decree of a god of destruction.

"I'm right here, my dear child."

The world rumbles as his voice descends, the pressure so immense it makes even my bones feel as if they are being crushed. At last, I stand at the point I have long awaited—the day I face him at my full power, the day I no longer need to run. Today, I will kill him.

"You trash…" I grind my teeth, Wrath burning inside me, threatening to tear me apart if I don't summon my scythe and slice him in half. "Come and meet your death—for me, for her, and for all those you betrayed!" My body erupts with power, forcing back his suffocating might, and the once-arrogant angel legion trembles beneath my aura.

Two forces clash, the one who gave me this power and the one who now wields it to bring about his end. This is my final stand. My last battle to the death.

"Die, Creator!"

I hurl myself at him, sins blazing, and my demons surge forward behind me, colliding with the endless angelic legions. Heaven and hell shatter as the war begins—the war that will decide who claims the throne of eternity.