Lucifer crashed through what was left of a support pillar and came out the other side laughing through blood.
That laugh did something to Gabriel. He sat back down slowly, like he already knew this wasn't turning into anything gentle again.
The stage gave up.
Whole sections fell away.
The space around them trembled with the pressure of two firstborn monsters trying to settle something older than kingdoms.
Khaos stood.
Her eyes lifted once to the cracking edges around the arena.
Then she raised one hand.
Just a decision.
A sphere unfolded around the battlefield.
Clear at first, then silver at the edges, then gone in the sense that it was there but didn't want to be seen. It wrapped around Lucifer and Michael just as the last sections of the stage came apart.
Inside it, space deepened.
Then deepened again.
Then stretched.
The distance between one step and another widened into something that no longer obeyed shape.
Gabriel stared. "What did she do?"
