"Do demons have feelings too?" Spider-Man murmured from the sidelines.
Seeing was believing, and witnessing the end of that battle had left the young hero with a lot to think about.
"Demons are sentient beings. Of course they have feelings," Cassius said, appearing in his spirit form. He looked around with an air of irritability.
He was here to watch over Constantine and the "kid," Peter. The moment Hailab exited the fray, he had alerted the others of his status. The Conqueror had gone to rest, and he had no intention of participating further.
"Then why can't we just... get along?"
"Are you an idiot?" Cassius snapped, cutting off Peter's naive question.
"Is a human's love for their pet fake? No. But have you ever seen a human treat their pet as an equal? Unfortunately, in the eyes of demons and angels, humans are exactly that. Pets."
Cassius glanced at the scorched earth before walking over to Spider-Man. A Soul-Feaster demon nearby, unable to lash out with its tongue, retreated several steps to give him space. Even these monsters understood that attacking an Ancestor in spirit form was a recipe for disaster. The Soul-Feaster chose to yield, despite being a creature specifically designed to prey on spirits like mages and witch doctors.
"Pets, huh?" Peter muttered, his brow furrowed. He found the concept hard to swallow.
"Are you leaving or not? You look like you're at your limit," Cassius said, crossing his arms. He didn't seem particularly interested in the wall-crawler. To an Ancestor, this battle was becoming tedious.
"I want to fight a bit longer. Bul-Kathos said we aren't in any real danger," Peter replied.
"And that's exactly why I say a fight without the risk of death is worthless," Cassius grumbled as he turned to leave. "It just makes you lose your reverence for life."
He had other places to be.
"End this battle, Bul-Kathos," Johanna said softly.
The fighting seemed to have lost its purpose. Tyrael had conceded, and the recruits had already experienced the reality of combat against demons. It was time to wrap this up and rest.
"Diablo is coming. I want to meet him," Bul-Kathos replied, patting Leah's head.
He had a debt to settle with the Lord of Terror. Once they left this isolated environment, their actions would be much harder to hide from the eyes of this world's "Gods."
Auriel narrowed her eyes and smiled. Bul-Kathos was already factoring in the "Eternals" of this world as potential enemies. That was good news. It was already certain that Oblivion stood on the opposing side. The merging of two worlds was always a process dictated by the stronger party.
"Have you finally learned to compromise?" Auriel asked, hoping for an affirmative.
She would be disappointed. A Barbarian compromising? That was a punchline to a joke.
"I will make Diablo understand how he should face me," Bul-Kathos said, his tone clipped.
It wasn't time to end the battle yet. Kanai had not yet completed his sacrifice. They had to wait. The Ancestors would provide a battle worthy of Kanai's departure.
"As stubborn as ever," Auriel sighed. She wasn't just a projection; she was here in her true form.
"Stubborn like Itherael? 'Balance'? What kind of balance does he represent? He's just a fool who drags both sides down to keep them even," Bul-Kathos scoffed. Itherael's way of maintaining balance wasn't to make the weak stronger, but to hobble the strong. He was an expert at being a dead weight.
"He's like Imperius," Auriel said, mentioning a name that caught Bul-Kathos off guard.
What was the point of bringing up Imperius now? The Archangel of Valor's stubbornness was legendary, but so was his purity. Dealing with Imperius was always preferable to dealing with someone like Tyrael.
"What did he do?" Bul-Kathos asked. He had a hunch Imperius had done something reckless.
"He distributed his power into those rings—the ones derived from the Power Ring of Justice," Auriel said casually, clearly testing Bul-Kathos's reaction.
"His motive?" Bul-Kathos's gaze was piercing, brooking no evasion.
Seeing his seriousness, Auriel dropped the games.
"The remnants of another world. It seems this world encountered another reality long before it met us. And I suspect that encounter was far less 'peaceful' than our arrival."
Auriel raised an eyebrow. "Hope is everywhere. When I arrived here, I felt that the hope in this world... it felt as if it once had a master. But that hope has dimmed until it is nothing more than a flickering ember."
Bul-Kathos went silent, his expression becoming unreadable. "So... our 'allies' might have lied to us?"
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