The Abandoned Angel, Antithesis, stands before the angels that were tasked with watching over him on his last mission. Zadkiel, the archangel of benevolence, freedom, mercy, forgiveness, exchanges a look with Gabriel, the messenger archangel. They nod at each other and address Anti.

“We thank you for completing your task. Speak with our brother, Michael, for your next one,” Zadkiel tells the Heavenborne. Anti slightly bows his head and begins to walk away. Gabriel stops him.

“Wait.”

Anti turns around.

“Don’t you wanna know where he is?” the archangel asks.

 

Anti walks up to Michael as the archangel finishes clanging away at a pair of hooks made of Angelium with a hammer, as if he’s a blacksmith. The room is dark and dim, the only light coming from the white glow of the fire Michael is using to heat the metal to craft his weapons. The fire flickering in the room makes the shadows dance and the shapes of everything solid in the room constantly change. Michael looks to Anti and scoffs, smiling.

“I know, I look like a blacksmith,” the archangel leader says. Anti says nothing in response. “I’m guessing you’re here for the next task, not to say ‘hi’, right?”

“Correct.”

“Well, let me start with this. You…might wanna take a seat,” Michael tells the Heavenborne. Anti looks around at the room as there are, of course, no seats. Michael realizes this. “Ah, well, then just brace yourself. You have already been forgiven for what you have reported to have done in the universe you come from, before you even began your quest with Lucine. Unfortunately, some angels thought you should do something to prove that you’re on our side. And, I didn’t blame them. You’re not obligated to do this next task or any of the tasks we have lined up for you, but you’re more than welcome to.”

Anti doesn’t answer. He stands before Michael, keeping the same face, in his own head about the information Michael just gave him. 

“I accept the information you have given me--”

“Rather than…reject it?” Michael interjects.

“I am willing to continue carrying out the tasks lined up for me,” Anti finishes. Michael’s tone becomes a little more serious.

“Make sure you know why you want to continue the tasks. It’s not an answer you have to give anyone, just find an answer for yourself,” the archangel of the military tells the Heavenborne. Anti nods. Michael exhales and grabs the hooks off the cooling table and walks over to Anti. “All right, here you go.”

Anti looks at the hooks, then at Michael. Michael chuckles.

“New weapons. Straight from the weapons master himself. If you guessed the weapon master is me, then you’d be correct,” Michael jokes. He hands the hooks off to Anti. Anti takes them and when he does, the hooks glow and inscriptions on both them light up. “These are the Hallowed Hooks.”

“The inscription--”

“Blessed be the one that wields these weapons in the name of retribution,” Michael tells him. “So, basically anyone, like you, that wields these has an edge over someone using these not for retribution. Since I have reason for that, that’s why they didn’t glow in my hands. Oh, and one more thing…”

Michael holds his palm out at Anti and a glowing white energy surrounds Anti and the Hallowed Hooks. Then, the energy dissipates as quickly as it was formed. 

“There you go. I’ve blessed you and the hooks so now you have a connection to them that no one else in any universe has,” Michael explains. Anti says nothing. “Meaning you can call them back to you from where or whenever you are. I’m guessing the same happened with your daggers, sword, and chain there.”

Michael points at the rest of Anti’s arsenal, the Daggers of Deception, Dimension Splitter, and the Chains of Sacrifice. 

“Just the sword,” Anti says, unsheathing it. Michael takes it and looks it over. He nods and lightly lifts it up and down, weighing it.

“Yep, that’s my energy connected to it, alright,” Michael says. He hands Dimension Splitter back. “If you want to add more to your arsenal, just talk to some more of the angels around this dimension. I’m sure they’re willing to help. But…first, let’s talk about the mission.

“You’re to travel to Egypt--which, I can get you there--to awaken a Heavenborne, like you, that made a deal with Apothael before… what happened, happened. The best way to go about finding Dius is to get into contact with the Egyptian gods.”

Michael opens a portal to Egypt behind Anti. Anti nods and begins to it.

“I thank you for the weapons,” the Heavenborne calls out. Michael stops him.

“Wait.” Anti turns around. “Do you wanna leave those daggers? You don’t have to use them.”

Anti removes the Daggers of Deception from their respective sheaths. He stares at them, deep in thought.

“These represent my past, to which I am no longer chained to,” the Heavenborne says aloud. He tosses them to the archangel leader and walks through the portal to Egypt. 

“And make sure you go see Grim for your next mission!” Michael calls out behind him. The portal closes and the archangel grasps the Daggers of Deception tightly. 

 

Anti exits the portal and appears in the center of a dim hall. There are torches along the walls providing the only source of light. He looks beneath his boots and sees a summoning circle that appears to have been drawn with dried blood. He looks to each of the smaller circles on the edges of the summoning circle and begins piecing together what must be done. If one method of summoning did not work, he would try another. 

He walks to one of the smaller circles of the summoning circle, withdraws a Hallowed Hook and slices at his palm, letting blood drip onto the smaller circle. 

“Dude!”

Anti turns to see two beings clad in black, white, gold, and blue. He closes his bleeding palm and begins to heat his fist up, ready to fight.

“What are you doing?” the one that cried out before asks Anti. Anti says nothing and the two beings exchange confused looks. “‘Cause to me it looks like you’re trying to summon something.”

“I am,” Anti answers, not sure if he can avoid a fight still.

“May we ask what?” the other being chimes in. Her voice is soft, but her presence is something Anti takes note of. He pauses before revealing the reason he has come.

“I am attempting to get into contact with the Egyptian gods,” Anti informs the two. The one that first caught Anti’s attention lightly chuckles and the chuckles turns into a roaring laugh that echoes throughout the hall. Anti stares at him intensely, but the being doesn’t seem to notice or care about the Heavenborne’s death stare.

“That’s rich, man,” the being finishes as he wipes tears from his face. “You could just ask, ya know.”

Anti furrows his brow and the female being nods and smiles. 

“We know you come from the angels, Heavenborne,” the female being says. “Follow us.”

Anti begins to walk with them further down the hall.

“Where are you taking me?” the spectre asks.

“To meet Dad,” the male being says. “I’m Khalid, by the way, Egyptian demigod of wind. And this is my sister Khet, Egyptian demigod of fire.”

Khet salutes Anti and they continue walking and making conversation.

“So, what’s the Heaven Dimension like?” Khet questions. Anti furrows his brow in confusion. Khet realizes why Anti is confused and clarifies. “I’ve never been. Neither of us have.”

“I mean, we have our own version of Heaven that Grandpa rules. But, I like staying on Earth, where everything is…not so perfect,” Khalid rants. 

“It is beautiful,” Anti says. “Bright, sunny, all the time. Clouds everywhere. Godlike structures. I have yet to come into contact with the souls that spend their afterlife there, but the angels, they treat me well, regardless of what I have done to them in another universe.”

“Well, angels will be angels,” Khalid adds. “Curious. Are any of them…not like that?”

“There was one.”

“And--”

“He is no longer living.”

“Are angels technically living? ‘Cause of the whole ‘halo’ thing and that being associated with the dead--”

“Khalid,” Khet interrupts.

“Yeah?”

“You’re rambling.”

“Oh. Whoops. Haha. Curiosity can get the best of me sometimes,” Khalid explains. “It’s fun to learn about the other mythologies.”

“Here we are,” Khet announces. There’s a door in front of them. Khalid raises an eyebrow at Anti.

“You gonna sacrifice a lamb to open this door?” he jokes. Anti ignores him and watches as Khet holds out a palm at the door and speaks in a foreign tongue. When she does this, a symbol appears on her palm almost like a glowing tattoo. The door, in reaction to Khet, lifts vertically and opens directly to a staircase that leads upward and out of sight. 

Anti follows the demigod siblings up the staircase to a throne room with multiple mountain-sized chairs. Each chair looks like it is designed for a specific Egyptian god. Anti is unable to count the amount of thrones before his eye catches the only present, enormous god in the room. A falcon-headed being looks at the small beings before it, stands from its chair, and shrinks down to their size. Anti is wary of the being, for it has not said anything yet, but based on the reactions of Khet and Khalid, this must be their father, Heru, commonly known as Horus. The siblings walk up to their father, slightly bow then stand at his side and turn to face the angel in the room.

“You must be Antithesis,” the lead Egyptian god says to the Heavenborne, extending a thick hand. Anti shakes it, getting a feel for the god’s strength. “Welcome to the hall of…actually I think we named it.”

The falcon places a hand on his chin, attempting to recall a name for the throne room, while Anti tries to get straight to business.

“I’m here to release Dius.”

“Straight to business, eh? Fair enough,” Heru says. He waves a hand and opens a portal directly to Dius’s self-constructed cell. Khet and Khalid go through immediately, Heru is next, but stops to see Anti giving the other thrones one last glance. “I wish I could tell you where they are, but most of the time, they’re off doing their own thing.”

Anti says nothing and follows Heru through the portal. They all come out on the other side in a brightly lit area. The air is thin and frigid and the lack of it reminds Anti of a mountainous range of some sort. He looks straight ahead to see the cell Dius has stayed in since his deal with the archangel of deception. 

“Well, here he is,” Heru says, placing his fists on his hips. Anti glances at him, trying to read the god and figure out exactly what type of immortal being he is. He’s gotten nothing so far. Then, he looks around at the area which is pretty much all white crystals. Anti turns to Heru.

“Is the only way to reach this place by portal?” Anti asks.

“Sure is. And only those that are granted access may create a portal here,” Heru adds. Anti furrows his brow. 

“I have never heard of such a thing.”

“Limiting the beings that are able to travel somewhere? Oh, that happens all the time. At least, here on Earth. Don’t really know how they do it in the Heaven and Hell Dimensions,” Heru says. “On Earth, we have to limit it otherwise the gods from the other mythologies would clash with each other constantly and Earth might suffer because of that.”

Anti grunts and approaches the crystalline structure in the center of the area. He doesn’t see a traditional door and turns to the Egyptian gods.

“Can he hear me from out here?” the wraith asks. Heru shrugs.

“No idea. Never actually talked to the guy. I just assumed he didn’t want to be bothered…ya know…with the whole crystal structure thing going on shutting him off from the outside world.”

“You could try knocking,” Khalid suggests. Anti frowns at the demigod and turns back to the structure, igniting his hand with plasmic holyfire. He places his palm on a section of the structure and causes a hole to melt in it, allowing him to step inside. The being in the center of the structure sits with his legs crossed meditating. This being is Dius. He [description of Dius]. Anti stands still, ready to fight at a moment’s notice, but not in a fighting stance.

“Apothael has been slain. I am here to release you from your prison,” Anti tells the Heavenborne being similar to him. Dius slowly creaks open his eyes.

“By whom?”

“By my hand.”

Dius closes his eyes again and stands. He crosses his arms and opens eyes once more, glaring at Anti. 

“Prove it.”

“There’s probably a way to avoid conflict here,” Khalid chimes. Heru holds a hand up at his son and shakes his head.

Anti withdraws his new Hallowed Hooks and wraps the Chains of Sacrifice around them. He finds it easier to use the chains to manipulate rather than need to call them back every time they’re thrown at the opponent. Before Anti even moves though, he feels pain in his chest as Dius has just protruded a crystal spike from the ground and angled it so it went through Anti’s chest. Anti gasps for air as Dius calmly walks over and chops the back of the spike off from behind Anti. He then coldly pulls Anti off the broken crystalline spike and kicks Anti into a crystal wall he raises behind the spectre. 

Anti’s back slams against the wall and he tries to refocus on Dius, wondering why he’s feeling pain the way he does currently. Then he remembers that Dius is like him, so there is likely something different about the makeup of the crystals. Perhaps they are holy. 

Anti pulls the crystal chunk from his chest and sets it ablaze as his chest heals. He chucks the crystal chunk at Dius while continuing to sprint at the mirroring Heavenborne, but all Dius does in defense is raise several crystal spikes before himself so Anti runs into them. However, Anti uses his hidden technique and disappears before Dius’s eyes, and reappears above him, Hallowed Hooks drawn. Dius doesn’t even look up as he sidesteps Anti’s aerial assault and steps onto the back of the Heavenborne’s head, crushing his face into the ground of the crystal structure. Anti teleports again, first behind Dius, but fakes the teleport as he teleports once more in front of Dius. All Dius does is straight kick the Heavenborne into the back of the crystal spike wall, as Dius did not fall for the faint teleport attack from behind. 

Anti stands and drops his Hallowed Hooks to the crystalline ground, letting the chains loose. He winds up and swings both hooks from opposite sides at Dius. Dius does what Anti was hoping and catches the hooks instead of dodging. Anti, in turn, tries two attacks. First, he ignites the Chains of Sacrifice to try and burn Dius. But before Dius can even react to this, Anti teleports behind Dius and attempts to sweep kick. However, Dius stops Anti’s sweep kick with his own foot and raises a spike through Anti’s shin, while letting go of the Hallowed Hooks before the fire Anti sent can reach his hand. 

Anti shoots a fire blast at Dius, but Dius raises a crystal wall between them to block the attack. As soon as the wall reaches its peak, Anti shatters it with his fist, causing Dius to flinch at the crystal shards coming at his eyes. He freezes the crystal shards in place using his crystal manipulation and goes to send them back at Anti, but Anti has disappeared. Dius feels his feet heat up and he leaps from the spot he’s standing on. While in the air, Anti uses this window of opportunity to send a heated Hallowed Hook into Dius’s rib. Before Dius can react and snatch the hook out of his own body himself, Anti tugs and snatches a chunk of Dius’s body from him, causing guts and blood to spill onto the crystalline ground, staining it. Dius holds the hole with his left hand and glares at Anti who has called the hooks back to him. 

Dius removes his hand from the wound and Anti can’t help but look. The hole Anti just worked so hard to tear into Dius’s body has almost completely healed. 

“We’re hoping that would cripple me?” Dius asks. Anti stays silent and glares at the other Heavenborne, plotting his next attack. However, before he can finish thinking a crystal spike shoots through his back, placing him directly in front of Dius. Dius grabs Anti’s arms and tears them off before creating a spike from the ceiling and dropping through Anti’s body, skewering him in place.

“Hmph. So much for killing Apothael,” the supposed victor adds. He slams Anti’s arms on the ground and goes to walk back to his original starting position where he was meditating. He stops mid-stride though and turns around to see Anti’s body has disappeared again. He exhales as he dodges a surprise Hallowed Hook attack from behind. Anti calls it back himself and gets into a fighting stance with two new arms. Dius looks to where the old arms were and sees a pile of ash. He glares at Anti and decides to finally get serious against his opponent, getting into a fighting stance of his own. 

The two Heavenborne rush at each other. Anti has his hooks in hand. Dius has formed two crystals to use as blades in this fight. They initially clash hook to crystal. Anti leaps back from the clash and swipes his right hook out at Dius. Dius ducks and shoots a crystal blade through Anti’s kneecap. He tries to call it back, but it is lodged in Anti’s knee. Anti comes down Dius with both hooks and Dius uses his other crystal blade to clash against both hooks. Dius reaches for the crystal and tries to physically remove it, but Anti steps back on this leg so it is out of Dius’s reach. 

Anti removes a hook from the clash with the crystal blade and swipes at Dius’s throat, successfully cutting through and causing the Heavenborne to temporarily begin bleeding out. Dius pushes the hook clashed with this blade off and flips backwards away from Anti. However, he falls to his knees as the feeling in the back of his feet momentarily disappears. Anti has teleported behind Dius and sliced his Achilles tendons. 

Dius rolls on his back and shoots multiple crystals to the spot Anti was just in, but then he sees the ghost has disappeared again. To be safe and heal for a second, Dius punches his fists into the ground, causing the entire crystalline ground around him to spike upward like a blooming flower. Because he has done this, he knows Anti can only attack from above, so as he heals, he keeps his sense focused on an attack from above. But instead, he hears the crashing of crystals falling to the ground from all around. It’s as if Anti is punching the spikes on the outer edge of the crystal flower. In the second that Dius focuses his attention to the outside of the flower, Anti teleports from above, like Dius predicted and wraps a Chain of Sacrifice around Dius’s neck. As it heats and Anti remains airborne, Dius grabs the chain and swings it downward, forcing Anti onto the flower spikes. Of course, this only temporarily stops as he disappears once again, causing the chains around Dius’s neck to teleport with him. 

Dius keeps track of where Anti is teleporting on the outside of the flower because of the several crystal shards lodged in his chest. He’s waiting for a moment where Anti stops teleporting on the outside to raise a spike into the spectre’s body. He gets his opportunity and thrusts a spike from the ground through the spot Anti supposedly is. However, his eyes go wide as a hook pierces the back of his neck and protrudes on the outside of his mouth. He chokes on the Angelium metal initially, then calms as he removes it from his head. Anti calls the hook back and stands ready to fight more, but Dius holds a hand up and waits for his own mouth to heal before speaking.

“You teleported your body outside of the crystals lodged in your chest because you knew I was tracking them,” Dius finally says. “With quick thinking battle smarts like that, I believe it possible you could have slain someone as tricky as the archangel of deception.”

Dius lowers the crystal flower and walks towards the Egyptian gods. Anti has not completely lowered his guard, but walks over to the gods with Dius. Khalid speaks up.

“You coulda just knocked.”

They all give him a look. It’s Heru’s turn to speak.

“Did you both get that out of your system?” the god asks. Neither Heavenborne answers. “Good. Well, I wish you both luck on your journeys to other worlds and dimensions, etcetera.”

As soon as Heru finishes speaking, a portal to the Heaven Dimension opens behind the two Heavenborne beings. They both walk through to the other side, side-by-side.