Azrael’s fist was clenched tightly, hundreds of black holes forming just from the force behind the punch.

Crack.

Space shattered like fragile glass as his fist collided with Michael’s spear tip.

For a moment it looked like time had stopped, frozen beneath the weight of their combined power.

Then it snapped back into place.

Michael pulled his spear back, a vacuum forming in the air as it tore backward.

Azrael pressed forward, his fist detonating as a singularity formed over his knuckles.

Everything around it was pulled in, ripped toward him by sheer attraction.

Michael pivoted sideways.

Time itself seemed to bend around his movement, locking Azrael’s fist suspended in the air.

Without pause, Michael’s spear thrust toward Azrael’s chest.

A sharp sound tore through the air from behind, a golden line shooting forward.

The coin collided with the spear’s tip.

The air detonated from their collision, sending sharp gales of wind tearing outward.

The earth cratered, caving in from the impact.

Michael pulled his spear back, then turned to where Azrael had been.

He was no longer there.

Michael’s brows furrowed.

Then his domain alerted him to an intruder.

He twisted away, narrowly avoiding a bullet made entirely of singularity.

Boom.

The air was forced from his lungs as Azrael closed the distance and drove a fist into his stomach.

Michael was lifted off the ground, mouth falling open from the sudden blow.

He caught himself quickly, thrusting downward in response.

Azrael pulled his fist back, backflipping to avoid the strike.

Michael landed, his body staggering slightly from the lingering pain.

His gaze hardened as he stared at Azrael.

The power he had been holding back began to stir.

Space itself groaned beneath the weight of a being standing at the very peak of the universe.

The planet beneath them quaked, fissures spreading outward from every direction.

His spear began to vibrate, humming with the sudden power infused into it.

Its color shifted from plain silver to a glowing white that lit the planet even brighter than daylight already had.

Azrael swallowed hard at the sudden jump in power.

It was the same pressure he had felt the first time he glimpsed the being in the sky, long ago.

"There is still so much distance between us."

Azrael did not even realize the words had left his mouth.

Michael raised his spear, then planted his foot firmly into the ground.

The next thing Azrael saw was his own body, upside down.

The spear had already left Michael’s hand, driving straight through Azrael’s neck.

The distance between them had not just closed. It had been erased.

No.

Even that felt like an understatement.

It was as if the law of cause and effect had broken down entirely, the gap between action and consequence ignored completely.

Azrael’s neck exploded, blood and gore splashing through the air as his head was severed clean.

It began to regrow almost instantly, a new head forming in its place.

Azrael stared at Michael in shock.

Every instinct screamed at him to run.

But he knew better.

There was no escaping someone faster than you.

And there was no killing someone of Michael’s caliber at his current level either.

Either way, Azrael understood he was going to die.

"Hey, is that all you’ve got?" Azrael yelled, lunging forward.

Before he even closed the distance, thousands of coins shot out from behind him.

Michael remained motionless, his gaze unflinching.

The coins froze mid air a few meters from him, as though held back by some divine force.

Azrael ignored it, closing in with a clenched fist.

"Huh?"

He was stopped mid motion, his leg sinking into the earth beneath him.

Before he could finish the thought, his lungs began to burn, as though the air he breathed had turned to flame instead of oxygen.

"Argh," he coughed, spitting blood and charred organ tissue onto the ground.

His eyes fluttered, eyelids drifting closer together as he fought to stay conscious.

"There is one thing you do not know. You were never our match."

As Michael spoke, the billions of dead bodies scattered across the battlefield began to jerk violently.

Azrael fell to his knees, watching as the angels he had presumed dead began to rise.

"Every achievement, every angel you killed, every gap you believed you crossed. All of it was an illusion I forged."

A twisted grin spread across Michael’s lips.

The risen angels surrounded him, forming a wide circle enclosing both him and Azrael.

Then they began to advance, their footsteps sending tremors through the earth with every step.

Azrael’s eyes widened.

"Is this how it ends?" He muttered.

"That stupid system. Abandoning me in my time of need."

As he said those words, the system’s panel flashed briefly in his vision.

Like a glimmer of hope, Azrael’s face lit up.

But the panel vanished almost immediately.

"System," he called again.

No response.

"Stupid system."

He pushed himself upright slowly, forcing his regeneration skill to its maximum efficiency, healing every wound it could reach.

"If I am going down, I am taking all of you with me."

Azrael yelled, unleashing hundreds of singularities into the angels’ ranks.

Rip.

Bodies tore apart, flesh and blood flying in every direction as the black holes pulled them to pieces.

Azrael did not stop there.

A tornado of lightning fast coins surged outward from his position, slicing through angel after angel.

Azrael threw himself into the center of it, punching whoever he could reach, kicking whoever he could not.

He heaved a long breath, raising his blood soaked head.

By then his singularities and coin tornado had both dissipated.

The essence in his core was completely spent.

He had long since lost track of time in this hellish place.

Even after killing wave after wave, the angels showed no sign of thinning.

"Still do not understand?" Michael’s voice rang out from the center of the crowd. "There is no escaping this."

Something clicked inside Azrael at those words.

Something buried deep within him that had been waiting, as though Michael’s words were the exact trigger it needed to finally surface.

A crimson light exploded from Azrael’s body, shooting into the sky.