Typhon had never imagined an end like this for him.
Across countless battlefields, through ages soaked in blood and conquest, he had stood against angels, demon kings, and beings born to rule. He had clawed his way out of Hell itself, survived a Throne's blade, and conquered entire civilizations. To fall here, in a foreign, weak dimension, that too by the hand of a mortal, no matter how monstrous that mortal had become, was an insult that hurt more than any wound Arthur had caused him.
He staggered upright amidst the molten ruin of the planet, his body was trembling as blackened blood dripped from wounds that refused to close. The severed arm lay somewhere beneath the lava seas, his body screamed with pain, and yet his eyes burned brighter than ever. Rage, hatred, and something colder settled into them.
If this was the end, then he would decide how it ended.
Typhon ground his teeth together until the sound echoed like cracking stone. Slowly, he drew every shred of remaining power, and every ounce of energy he had left towards his core. The air around him began to explode outwards as energy collapsed toward a single point which caused the heat to increase manyfold.
Arthur who was hovering above him felt something was amiss, the hairs on the back of his neck rose as his instincts screamed in alarm, the ground started trembling under the sudden, violent compression of power. Arthur's eyes widened as he felt Typhon's power increasing violently, and condensing into something unstable.
"That's not good…" Arthur muttered under his breath.
Cracks spiderwebbed across Typhon's body, glowing lines of molten cracks spreading through his scales as though his form could no longer contain what he was forcing into it.
CRACK!
BOOM!
The ground beneath him caved in further, magma spiraling upward as if unable to bear the pressure he was exerting to his surroundings.
Arthur didn't hesitate and was ready to teleport away, knowing instinctively that whatever Typhon was about to do wasn't something he wanted to be anywhere near. Space folded around him, and just as he was about to teleport away he felt something latch on to Behemoth's leg, breaking his concentration.
Arthur's eyes snapped downward just in time to see a chain of condensed hellfire coiled tightly around Behemoth's ankle, its links burning with infernal energy that damaged Behemoth's body. And before Arthur could sever it with his sword, an overwhelming force yanked him downward.
"What…!"
Typhon roared as Arthur was dragged violently toward him, Behemoth's massive form tearing through the air as the ground buckled around them.
Then Typhon smiled. It was not triumphant, but more like he had accepted his fate.
"Die with me, mortal!"
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
The explosion erased everything.
For an instant that stretched into eternity, the world turned completely white as energy detonated outward in a sphere of annihilation. Light brighter than a newborn star swallowed the battlefield, space itself tearing as Typhon's core collapsed and detonated in a final act of self-destruction.
A few moments later the blast subsided. Nearly a quarter of the planet was obliterated in the blink of an eye. If one looked from orbit, they would see the once-devastated world now had a huge chunk of landmass gouged out of it. To compare, it looked like an apple only that someone had taken a huge bite out of it.
Entire landmasses were gone, vaporized into nothing while some drifting debris was floating in space around the now destroyed planet. The atmosphere bled away into space, molten fragments of the planet flung outward in spiraling arcs, while the planet's core was exposed and unstable.
And there was no trace of Arthur and Typhon in the place they were a few moments ago, there was only silence.
…
Far above the ruined planet, amidst a slow storm of drifting debris and shattered landmasses, a lone suit of armor floated aimlessly through space.
It looked scorched, and its color dulled as fragments of debris collided with it again and again. The armor spun slowly among them, tumbling end over end, while appearing lifeless.
Some time later, one of its fingers twitched.
The armor jolted, its rotation slowing unnaturally as if an invisible force had steadied it. A moment later, the helmet slid open with a soft mechanical hiss.
Arthur coughed violently, blood spilled out into the vacuum before freezing instantly, becoming red crystals that drifted away from him as his body spasmed inside the armor, his vision swam as he regained his awareness.
"…Damn it," he rasped.
If anyone had examined his body moments earlier, they would have assumed he was dead, and they wouldn't have been wrong. The blast had annihilated him completely, his flesh had been vaporized, organs reduced to nothing, and his bones had shattered into multiple pieces under the force of the blast even while being under Behemoth's protection and inside the Godbuster Armor.
Only the Godbuster Armor had remained intact in the blast which at least saved his bones. And his Superior Regeneration had dragged him back from nothing.
Arthur clenched his jaw as sensation returned to his body. But he could clearly feel there was something wrong with his body.
His body had already repaired itself, and strength returned to it as it always did. He couldn't put his finger on it but he felt weaker, and not physically, it was like he was exhausted and it was not due to his fight with Typhon.
And that was the reason he coughed up blood, he felt he needed to hurry and try to find a solution for it, otherwise he had to live by randomly coughing up blood and always having this feeling of weakness.
He coughed again, blood bubbling up from his throat which he swallowed back despite the lack of any visible injury.
"…That's new," he muttered grimly.
Arthur pressed a hand against his chest, focusing inward, and the unease deepened. His Aether reserves were recovering, his body was stable, but something within him was wrong, he felt it must be because of his soul, the feeling he was experiencing was like a thin rope pulled too tight for too long.
Steve's warning echoed in his mind about the imbalance between body and soul.
He exhaled slowly, forcing himself upright as the armor sealed again around him. Whatever this was, it wasn't something he could ignore anymore. If it worsened, if his strength continued to grow without addressing it, he didn't know what the consequences would be.
But first… Arthur's gaze hardened as he looked back toward the ravaged planet and teleported back to its surface.
He wasn't about to make a rookie mistake. Arthur spent over an hour scouring what remained of the planet and the surrounding space, his senses stretched to their limit. He searched through drifting debris, molten surface of the planet, and residual energy signatures, methodically ruling out the possibility of survival.
There was no life force on the planet other than him.
Only one thing remained. A severed hand, which was enormous and blackened, drifting slowly through space, it was Typhon's last remnant.
Arthur stared at it for a long moment while thinking what to do with it, then raised his hand and erased it with a burst of fire, reducing it to nothing.
Only then did he relax. "…It's over," he muttered quietly.
Whatever Typhon had been planning, it ended here. The Sovereign of Monsters was gone.
Arthur turned away from the ruined world and vanished into space.
…
Arthur took the next few weeks to take care of the remaining Apostles.
Arthur moved through Chimerian-controlled space like a ghost, his presence was masked, and his methods were efficient and merciless.
He hunted down each of them by hacking into the Chimerian systems, hijacking surveillance, cross-referencing movement patterns, and isolating targets one by one.
The early ones never saw him coming, and only after a few were killed the Apostles found out someone was hunting them.
After that fear finally took root. Communications between them became sporadic, coded, and short-lived. Entire sectors went dark as they abandoned strongholds and dismantled bases they had relied on for decades. Arthur intercepted fragments of their messages, and hastily encrypted transmissions.
And they strongly believed it was the same entity that killed their god. Even though there was no news of their god dying, since they lost their connection with Typhon and someone was hunting them, they guessed either their god was somehow imprisoned or killed.
So, they went into hiding, they fled into deep space, hid among neutral systems, buried themselves beneath layers of false identities and decoy presences. Some tried to erase themselves completely, abandoning everything they once ruled over.
It slowed Arthur down, forcing him to dig deeper, chase difficult trails, and dismantle entire intelligence webs just to isolate a single target. And this was the main reason it took him so much time to hunt them down
But one by one, Arthur found them. Sometimes after days of searching, and careful manipulation that forced them to reveal themselves.
By the time the last Apostle fell, the Chimerian power structure had collapsed entirely. Whatever remained was leaderless, fractured beyond repair.
…
After taking care of Typhon's Apostles he left for Thyrandel, and arrived on Avalon through the inter-dimensional portal.
Arthur barely had time to settle in before Selene found him, and the moment she saw him she knew there was something wrong with him.
She grew extremely worried and asked, "Arthur…" Her voice wavered despite her effort to steady it seeing Arthur's pale expression. "What happened?"
He sighed slowly, his shoulders slumping as the tension he'd been holding finally loosened. "Yeah," he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "I figured you'd notice." He had previously decided to not tell Selene about his condition, but as he found out he couldn't hide it from her any longer.
Selene stepped closer immediately and hugged him, her hand rubbing his back. "You don't feel injured," she said as she looked up, and frowned after seeing no visible injury on him. "But… you don't look okay?"
Arthur looked away for a moment, then he sighed and told her everything, about Typhon, his battle against him, his condition and all about dying and reviving back.
He didn't sugarcoat it knowing Selene was also a warrior. When he finished, Selene was silent for a long moment, her expression was pale, and her hands clenched tightly at Arthur's shirt.
"…We should ask grandpa," she said finally with urgency in her tone. "If anyone…"
Arthur shook his head gently before she could finish. "He won't be able to fix this."
Selene froze. "What do you mean?"
"He already knows about it," Arthur replied quietly. "This isn't something that can be solved with artifacts or techniques."
Her lips parted, but no words came out.
"I pushed too far," Arthur continued. "My body keeps adapting, and evolving, getting stronger every time I fight someone stronger. But my soul didn't get the chance to catch up, Steve warned me about it, but I ignored how close I was to the line."
Selene asked worriedly. "What would you do now?"
"I need to find a solution soon," he said gravely.
Selene wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into a tight embrace. Arthur stiffened for a second before relaxing into it, and held her in return.
Selene could already sense that Arthur would need to find his own path by himself, and rested her forehead against his chest. "Promise me you'll come back soon."
Arthur closed his eyes for a moment, drawing strength from her presence, then he nodded.
"I will," he said softly. "I don't plan on losing to my own limits."
Both of them held onto each other as the day was finally coming to an end.
***
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