As for Baal... he had compromised. He had agreed to hand over the Essence of his brother, Mephisto, regardless of the outcome.
A short time ago, on the High Heavens:
Bul-Kathos, the Ancient One, and Johanna appeared before the Crystal Arch.
"What have you come for?" Tyrael stood before the gates, his hands empty as he looked at Bul-Kathos. He sensed a grim solemnity in the Barbarian King.
"I want you to go to the Burning Hells! This will be your payment for the return of Izual's soul!" Bul-Kathos growled, his fury flickering like embers.
"Do I owe you something?" Tyrael asked, confused.
"You owe the Barbarians three hundred thousand innocent lives!" Bul-Kathos stated flatly.
"The Worldstone? I can only say I am sorry." Tyrael's face was, as always, a void beneath his hood.
"Have you ever thought of making amends?" Bul-Kathos asked. Tyrael's answer would dictate how the Barbarians treated Heaven from that day forward. They were no longer a race surviving in the cracks; in this new world, they stood as equals to Heaven and Hell.
"I don't know. But I believe... I have thought of it," Tyrael replied. Behind him, Imperius watched silently, his arms crossed.
Imperius was an outlier among the Archangels. He knew how to avoid being marginalized: by acting rigid, reckless, and indifferent. Eventually, everyone got used to his abrasive nature and stopped questioning it. But Imperius was sharp; he had never lost out in his long life. He wasn't like Tyrael, who always thought he was "different" and thus was the first to volunteer for sacrifice—like leading the Nephalem or destroying the Worldstone on Itherael's "guidance."
The Worldstone was the only thing Anu had left for humanity. The angels couldn't control it, and the demons could only drool over it. Itherael feared the balance would be broken, so he staged a play, and Tyrael was the tool.
"Enough, Angel. It is time to pay the debt!" Bul-Kathos said. Behind him, Johanna stood silent, her shield raised—a clear statement of her stance. Crusaders were the holiest of Nephalem, but they were humans first.
"Then, Mortal. What do you require of me?" Tyrael asked.
"Tyrael, go to the Hells and guard Leoric! Protect his existence until he walks out of that abyss."
Bul-Kathos no longer called him "Archangel of Justice." He used his name, representing the limited trust he still held. It wasn't an unreasonable request; for an eternal being, a century was but a blink of an eye.
"Payment for Izual? I accept," Tyrael said. Izual was reviving; the defense of the Crystal Arch could be handed back to him.
"Second... I want to make a bet! I bet the very Essence of the Archangel of Justice!"
The pressure from Bul-Kathos's aura flooded the High Heavens.
"What is the wager?"
"I bet that if you hadn't detonated the Worldstone, the Barbarians would have defeated those two wretched Demon Lords on their own."
Behind Bul-Kathos, the War Banner flickered. Beside him, the Time Stone in the Ancient One's hand glowed. Tracking the past was far easier than searching the future.
"You want to construct a world?" Tyrael's voice finally betrayed a hint of surprise. Rifts were the most precious treasure of the Nephalem—gifts from the shards of the Worldstone. And with the Time Stone, a Rift could perfectly simulate the past.
"A world where you didn't pull the trigger," Bul-Kathos said. The Dark Soulstone in his forehead began to glow with a dark, violet light.
"You knew? Since when?" Tyrael asked. The Dark Soulstone was, in reality, a shard of the Worldstone itself.
"Since the first day I hammered it into my skull. Now, what will I pay? A bet requires stakes from both sides."
"The Prime Evil will never appear before you again, and you will have the right to walk upon the Holy Mountain of Harrogath," Bul-Kathos said.
Giving Tyrael access to the mountain meant he could try to influence Rorschach—the man Bul-Kathos had chosen as his successor. The stakes were equal.
"When do we go to Hell?" Tyrael asked.
"Immediately."
In the Burning Hells:
Baal and Leoric were in the midst of a brutal exchange, but Baal was transmitting a secret message.
"A deal? What kind of deal?" Leoric responded, his soul-fire flickering. He smashed Mephisto aside with his mace. He had been shattered three times already, but the Skeleton King always knit himself back together to rejoin the fray.
Nearby, Oblivion was in contact with Diablo. He didn't want to kill the Skeleton King only to be trapped in the Hells forever. If Destruction and Hatred combined, even Oblivion would suffer.
"I will consume Mephisto's power," Baal whispered. "I will hand the Essence of Hatred to Bul-Kathos in exchange for you and I being left in peace here."
"You? Kind-hearted?" Leoric laughed, smashing Baal's head. Baal responded by snapping half of Leoric's ribs. "You're joking."
"You should know by now, Leoric... I rarely joke."
"Gah! The pinnacle of Hell! The second-born of the Prime Evils! Baal, the Lord of Destruction! Your cunning is well-remembered!" Leoric didn't believe him for a second, but he kept swinging, his mace humming with vitriol.
"I can let you leave. Don't you want to be with that entity, Death, forever? I can give you that chance, provided you distract Mephisto. That is the trade."
Baal shattered Leoric's jaw, while his own arm lost chunks of flesh to Leoric's mace.
"You can do that? If you could, you'd have left already!" Leoric shattered into a pile of bones again under Baal's fist.
The diamond in his crown flashed. He was communicating with Bul-Kathos. He would do anything for Bul-Kathos's path to godhood, and Bul-Kathos would not fail him. Shadowfang's barrier blocked physical exit, but not information.
Suddenly, Bul-Kathos appeared at the gates of the Burning Hells, with Johanna at his side. He saw Baal slowly closing in on Mephisto. The betrayal was imminent.
"Bul-Kathos! Why are you here? Have you come to join this withered bag of bones against two Great Demon Lords?!" Mephisto roared, his foot planted on Leoric's shattered remains.
"I've come to collect a debt," Bul-Kathos said coldly.
"Bul-Kathos, do you still follow the path of Justice?" Tyrael's voice drifted in, ill-timed. It made Baal hesitate. Bul-Kathos couldn't seal Mephisto here alone, but with Tyrael, things were different.
"Tyrael, you've done something stupid," Bul-Kathos muttered. Then, he looked at Baal. "In the name of Bul-Kathos, I swear! What you seek shall be granted, provided the price is paid. Witnessed in the name of Courage!"
"By Shadowfang and the seven-headed dragon Tathamet, I swear," Baal replied. "Hatred shall be yours, and the destruction you witness shall be delivered!"
Baal lunged, pinning the confused Mephisto! " I have waited for this chance for a long time!"
Leoric knit himself back together with a cackle. His mace, Skeleton King's Wrath, drove straight through Mephisto's chest!
"Catch, Bul-Kathos!"
Baal used the power of Destruction to rip through Mephisto's will. Destruction could unmake anything—existent or non-existent. An identity was but a small part of that. In the heart of the Hells, the two Prime Evils were equals, but Mephisto had already lost much of his power cap. This betrayal brought him to the brink of true death.
A pitch-black sphere appeared—the Essence of Hatred.
Mephisto's power flooded into Baal. On the high platform of the Hells, Mephisto's throne crumbled into gravel, adding new ornaments to the Throne of Destruction.
"Don't make me surrender to my greedy younger brother, Bul-Kathos!" Baal threw the Essence of Hatred across the border, mixed with a sliver of his own Destruction power.
Baal kept a wary eye on Tyrael. Even with Mephisto's power, he didn't want to fight the strongest Archangel right now.
"Leoric will still be watching you," Bul-Kathos said. "Everything you do is within my grasp."
He turned to Tyrael. "You did more than we agreed, Archangel of 'Justice'."
The mockery in Bul-Kathos's voice was palpable. How much trust did Tyrael deserve? He was always silent until everything fell apart. Was his justice for the act itself, or the reputation?
"I am Justice," Tyrael said flatly, seemingly oblivious to the sarcasm.
"I thought you'd be smarter, but you're just another force of destruction," Bul-Kathos said, glancing at Baal. That one was the true Lord of Destruction, the one with the greatest killing power. "I will give you my will when the time is right. We shall see if your 'correct' choice holds up in the simulation."
Tyrael faded from view, but he did not return to Heaven. He remained outside the Burning Hells. He had given his word to Bul-Kathos: he would ensure Leoric's safety until the Skeleton King chose to leave.
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