"Great, now it's up to me..." muttered Uriel with a resigned sigh, as his wings spread wide with a powerful gust of wind, scattering dust and small fragments of stone around him. In one swift and silent motion, he took flight, cutting through the skies toward the location of the guard.
The guard, who until then had maintained a relaxed posture, was quickly alerted by the sound of wings slicing through the air. He stood up abruptly, his eyes narrowing as he focused on the winged figure approaching rapidly.
"Who are you?! How did you get in here?!" he shouted, gripping his broad-bladed axe firmly, his muscles tense and his sharp gaze tracking Uriel's every movement in the sky.
Uriel, however, said nothing. There was no time for explanations, and frankly, he didn't care for them. The only thing that mattered at that moment was eliminating the obstacle in his path. The seal had to be broken — what Hela would do with the world afterward was irrelevant. In the end, he thought, only one would emerge victorious: himself.
With a glacial glint in his eye, Uriel raised one hand and activated his ability: [Breath of the Giant Ice Dragon]. An ancient roar seemed to echo from his throat, though no sound escaped. From his wide-open mouth, a colossal torrent of freezing energy erupted, taking the form of a dense bluish mist, sharp as crystal blades.
The guard, in a final act of desperation and strength, grabbed a large stone from the ground with both hands and hurled it at Uriel with all his might.
But it was useless.
The stone didn't even make it halfway before it was engulfed by the freezing wave. In a matter of seconds, it was completely frozen, transformed into an ice sculpture that fell to the ground with a dry crack.
The cold spread violently, reaching the guard shortly after. He barely had time to scream. His body was enveloped in ice, frozen mid-expression in a look of shock and horror. In mere moments, he was nothing more than a translucent statue, glistening under the dim light of the overcast sky.
Uriel frowned, disappointed. That had been far too easy. Too easy to be real.
He landed lightly on a nearby rocky ledge, silently observing the result of his attack. The guard was completely frozen, as still as a perfectly sculpted statue. But something inside him warned that this wasn't over yet. And indeed, it didn't take long.
The first crack was subtle — a sharp sound that echoed through the cold air. Then, fissures began to spread across the surface of the ice, as fine as strands of hair at first, but quickly multiplying and deepening. Translucent fragments broke off and fell to the ground with dry clicks, scattering in irregular shards. The guard's body began to move within the ice, as if an inner force was breaking the frozen chains.
Uriel's visible eye gleamed with a cold, predatory light. A smile curved his lips — not of joy, but of anticipation. It would've been far too boring if he'd won with just one attack.
With a powerful flap of his wings, he soared into the air once more, slicing through the sky like a silent blade. His eyes locked on the figure of the guard, now partially freed from his icy prison, Uriel shot forward like a projectile.
The guard barely had time to react. His fingers instinctively stretched toward the fallen axe beside him, but before he could even touch it, he was struck head-on by Uriel's colossal head. The impact was brutal. His body was flung into the air like a ragdoll, bouncing across the rocky ground with force, raising clouds of dust and shards of stone with each collision.
He barely had time to catch his breath or grasp what was happening — a colossal shadow fell over him. With a muffled roar, Uriel's claw descended like a divine hammer, smashing the warrior into the ground. The pressure was immense. The guard screamed and tried to resist, the muscles in his neck and arms contorting in maximum effort, but it was useless.
Uriel pressed down harder, feeling the bones beneath his claw begin to give way with muffled cracks. The ground beneath them fractured, wide cracks spreading like webs as the crushing force of the winged being pinned his opponent like an insect beneath a celestial predator's paw.
The fight, if it could be called that, was over.
"Ahhhhhh!" The guard's scream tore through the air like a blade of desperation. He struggled, pushing with every fiber of his body, eyes wide, teeth clenched, but it was no use. Uriel's claw, cloaked in a dark and oppressive aura, remained locked around his body like an inescapable prison, slowly pressing down with cruel intent, bones snapping one by one under the pressure.
"Goodbye," Uriel murmured in a voice cold as the void. Without hesitation, he pushed down with brutality, crushing the guard against the stone floor. A dry and grotesque sound echoed through the area, followed by an explosion of blood that stained the ground around them in a scarlet blur. The lifeless body lay there, contorted and unrecognizable, like a sack of shredded flesh.
Then, the silence was broken by cracking sounds coming from all directions — subtle yet menacing noises, as if invisible chains were breaking. Uriel slightly turned his face, his eye glowing with a cold flame of understanding.
"The seal has been broken... Hela is free," he thought, showing no emotion. There was no fear, no relief — only a heavy calm, almost numbing. He had done his part, as promised. Now, he could only hope she would honor the pact and stop trying to impose her will upon him.
Even so, Uriel knew it wouldn't last. No matter how free she was now, her time was limited. And when the moment came, he would be the one to undo it all. He would drag her back himself, even if by force.