"A tedious trick. Now, Barbarians, how will you face an explosion?"
Baal's voice echoed from within the hollow center of the giant rock, dripping with malice. He knew that even though the "Hellish Baron's" body had been shattered, the rules governing his power hadn't vanished. Baal had broken the structural integrity of those rules; an explosion was inevitable.
Whether the resulting fireworks were spectacular enough to turn him to ash alongside his enemies was irrelevant. The outcome of this battle was already decided; Bul-Kathos would win. Baal and Tyrael had already achieved what they came for.
"You are the one being finished," Olungus's voice rang out.
His body finally descended from the heights, landing firmly atop the boulder. As he touched down, a series of War Cries erupted in rapid succession.
"Ha! Hah! XIA!"
As the three cries echoed, the weapon in Olungus's hand shifted—he was now wielding the Blade of the Tribes. Under the power of this legendary artifact, his War Cries triggered the Earthquake skill. Molten fragments of rock, trailing tails of fire like a meteor shower, began to rain down incessantly.
The giant boulder began to glow with an internal, furnace-like heat.
A natural crucible. And this was only the beginning of the end.
"Kor! It's up to you!" Olungus roared at the top of his lungs.
His very flesh began to smoke and ignite. His fury was being generated and funneled at an impossible rate. He was using his own body as fuel, sacrificing his physical form just to raise the temperature of the stone beneath his feet by a few more degrees.
The boulder began to char and blacken, shrinking rapidly as it condensed.
No one was truly going to die here. That had been established from the start. Zoltun Kulle, Vorusk, Bul-Kathos, and Orek had orchestrated everything. Even if the arrival of the "Hellish Baron" was an unplanned variable, Baal's scheme was destined to fail.
Orek was the true anchor of this "Rift." He was the final fail-safe. The rules within Hellboy's body would remain in the Rift, but his soul and flesh would be returned to where they truly belonged.
"Interesting..." Baal's voice drifted out, still eerily calm.
His Field of Destruction began to expand from within the boulder. Resignation was not the style of the Lord of Destruction. The giant rock began to shed tiny granules of stone as it crumbled under the pressure.
"Aaaaagh!"
Olungus let out one final, piercing howl that drowned out Baal's murmurs. The boulder began to creak and groan, warping under the strain. It contracted further, shifting into its most concentrated, lethal form.
In the extreme heat, the very nature of the rock transformed.
Ancient Spear: Boulder Toss!
Usually, this strike was only considered "released" once the user let go of the stone. But Olungus wasn't letting go. Countless ancestors on the Holy Mountain could use Boulder Toss, but only Olungus possessed this level of meticulous, agonizing control.
Nearby, Kor raised the Fury of the Vanished Peak high above his head. He held it in an awkward, ungainly stance, preparing to swing. The form was far from textbook, but it was Kor's favorite. It was the stance that allowed him to strike with his strongest, most uninhibited intent.
His flesh, too, began to burn.
In an instant, the sheer power reduced him to a skeletal figure, looking much like the Skeleton King himself—a frame of armored bone held together by sheer will. Immense power coalesced around his heavy hammer.
"Charge!"
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