Samael himself didn’t fully understand how he’d neutralised the formation of the hall, but had Uriel been present to watch him work, he would’ve found it fascinating.

It had gone through three steps; the first step formed the anchor, the second step terraformed the hall and the third deployed the mirage.

But why? What did each step do?

The first, very simply, formed a foundation of control. It gave Samael nearly absolute control over the hall, its space, its flows of energies and laws.

Though, evidently, he had no control over such forces. At his scale, the most he’d be able to do was sense coming attacks within the bounds of the anchor.

But then came the second step, which built atop the foundation of the anchor to transform the hall into a heaven of his own path and affinity.

Not only did it deepen the control he had over the hall, but it also eroded all previously established pathways of energy in the hall.

This massively weakened the formation, but also, essentially, cut off its methods of control, whether it be resonance, harmony or dissonance.

And then, the third step came. The Mirage.

It was the simplest of all.

Now that Samael fully controlled the hall and all its parameters, and now that he’d also transformed it into his own heaven, all he needed was a proxy.

A proxy to control all that he couldn’t. A sort of... regulator for the whole hall.

And that’s what the Mirage was. It controlled everything in the hall, and since it was born from Uriel, Samael had hoped it’d have as much control as Uriel would.

And though it didn’t, it was close. Close enough for it to work. Close enough for the Mirage to easily disable the formation.

But the most important result of this was one thing.

Within the hall, the Mirage was God itself.

"..."

And, beyond that, since the Mirage was born from Uriel, its Will, though normally supposed to be subordinate to Samael, only followed Uriel.

Uriel’s Sin and Formless Will Origin made it impossible for anything to be torn from him anymore.

So, it could easily sense the schemes and plans Uriel had in place... then make them better with its current control.

And it all culminated into this.

Uriel was in control.

"..."

KAH! KAH! KAH! KAH! KAH!

The Mirage pointed at Uriel’s corpse, and suddenly, seas upon seas of the primordial fabric’s primordial energy soared into his broken body.

The question was simple. If Uriel was alive even without a beating heart or working lungs, how would tearing his spine out kill him?

It wouldn’t.

"Acting dead really isn’t fun, I’ll tell you that." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Kael’s eyes widened, but it happened too fast for him to react.

The primordial energy sank and wove across the layers of Uriel’s body, fueling his evolution, which had slowed to a crawl, and pushing him to a new strata.

His bones snapped back into place, then collapsed into ashes, as his flesh wove back into firm muscles, only to rot into dark mist.

He collapsed into a horrifying pile of darkness and ash.

And then, the very world and its fabrics wrapped around him, forming a cocoon that fit the proportions of his body, almost like a suit of pure white silk.

Within that cocoon, the sheer amount of primordial energy that flowed and churned would drive any ascendant mad.

The fact that both Uriel and Samael had been able to handle primordial energy was shocking enough... but for Uriel to handle so much was simply impossible.

And yet it was.

"..."

Uriel stood up, now a featureless and slender figure of white silk. He brought his hand up to his face and chuckled.

"I suppose I shouldn’t complain."

With this cocoon suit the Mirage had formed for him, his evolution would accelerate by a thousandfold and he’d have a constant and endless supply of primordial energy.

The fact that even with so much energy flowing in him he could feel that his transformation had barely taken a single step towards completion shocked him.

Just how much energy would he need?

But it also excited him. How powerful would he be when he was finally done evolving?

What did his past self have in store for him?

For now, though, there were more urgent matters at play.

SHOOO!

Seeing that Uriel was fine, the Mirage moved, slicing a hand across the air and—

SHING!

—severing Kael’s arm from his body with a sharp arc of flowing light.

Samael fell back onto his feet, the hand that’d been choking him being the one that was cut. As he fell, runes fluttered around him and he appeared beside Uriel.

Falling to his knees, heaving for air and choking on spit and blood, his face red, he looked up at the horrifying figure Uriel had turned into.

A silken slenderman of pure horror.

And yet, for some reason, all Samael could feel beneath it all was a warm smile and a tranquil gaze full of tenderness, the usual easygoing and calm aura he bore.

He didn’t even think twice, jumping into his arms, hugging him tight as tears welled up in his eyes.

A moment ago, he’d thought he was dead.

Uriel chuckled and hugged back, tapping his back to comfort him. Samael wasn’t used to violence, nor was he used to pressure as he was, so though he found the act a bit strange, he understood it.

When he was a boy, getting beaten black and blue, getting torn and then stitched up, he’d hoped someone was there to comfort him, but there had been none.

The least he could do was try to be that for him, regardless of how little he knew the boy.

"Hey, hey, hey. It’s alright. Everything’s gonna be okay," he said gently. "But we have to get going, alright?"

Samael separated from him, turning away to wipe his tears, partly embarrassed but mostly relieved.

He didn’t seem to care that Kael was still present, most likely enraged due to the loss of his arm. Nor did he seem to care about Korynth and her strange behavior anymore.

The struggle was over because there was hope now.

...

Kael stared at the stump his arm had become for a long while, staring at the blood that gushed from it and basking in the feeling of weakness that slowly crept into his mind due to blood loss.

TAH!

He felt the thrall Uriel had put on him, again without him noticing, shatter, but he didn’t react. How many times was it now?

He didn’t even know. Perhaps he’d been thralled since Uriel’s unconscious body had been brought into the guardian headquarters.

Perhaps his thralling ability was like a poison, spreading from guardian to guardian until it reached him.

It was honestly ridiculous.

"..." He sighed. Then, his white phoenix flames surged over his stump, regenerating his hand in a beat.

He turned to stare at Uriel, the silk figure he was, and the latter was already staring at him, ready to explode at any moment.

Kael shook his head. He waved a hand, and a spare prosthetic he had in his abode mark appeared. He fitted it onto his face just as his crown of worms and fingers vanished.

He snapped his fingers, and his bloody and torn clothes vanished, replaced by a pristine set of white tunics, loose and comfortable.

He clasped his hands behind his back. "I think that by this point, battle is pointless."

"As much as I’d like to tear you apart, you’re too resourceful for that, and as much as you’d like to leave, we’re too numerous and powerful for you to handle."

"We both stand with much more to lose than to gain."

He walked until he stood face to face with Uriel.

"So, let’s negotiate."