Beneath the collapsing cosmos, as Law consumed existence and Adam's flesh dissolved into cascading light, a broken shape dragged itself from the shadows.
A sound of someone approaching.
Then another step.
And another.
Zadkiel appeared, almost recognizable, barely alive.
His throat was carved nearly clean through, only ragged threads of flesh and sinew holding his head in place.
When he swallowed, blood poured from the open cut, bubbling and leaking like a broken fountain.
One eye was gouged out completely, an empty socket dripping blackened blood and shredded nerve tissue.
The remaining eye blazed red — pure hate, pure refusal to die.
His jaw was fractured, hanging slightly off-center. Each word gurgled through torn muscle and blood-clotted teeth.
Half his chest was ripped open, ribs exposed like white knives.
His heart could be seen beating, pulsing through torn muscle fibers, each throb spraying warm crimson.
His legs shook violently — broken, bent the wrong way yet still forcing steps.
Seraphina gasped — horror and disbelief twisting her face.
Don whispered, voice shaking:
"how is H-He still alive???"
Zadkiel stopped in front of them, swaying, bleeding rivers, body collapsing but spirit refusing to fall.
His voice came out like broken gravel drowning in blood
Zadkiel: "I… keep… fighting."
He coughed — chunks of red flesh splattering the ground.
Still, he continued.
Zadkiel: "I… break… myself."
His remaining eye blazed — madness and resolve.
Zadkiel: "Even… if there… nothing left… of me."
Zadkiel: "I… will win…the way I want to."
Finally, with a shaking, barely-attached arm, he lifted a finger at Law.
Zadkiel: "I'll destroy… myself…"
Zadkiel: "…before I accept defeat… at your hands."
The air ignited.
Hell-prime flames erupted around Zadkiel, black-red inferno laced with void fire — the heat so intense reality warped around him.
His skin burned away instantly — muscle bubbling, bone glowing red-hot — yet he did not scream.
Instead, he roared.
And then he moved.
A blur — body tearing itself further with each impossible step — bone splintering, organs bursting and healing at the same time.
And he slammed into Law.
A cosmic detonation ripped across existence.
Reality shattered like glass.
The gigantic explosion blew the others away.
The flames dispersed, and through the smoke.
Zadkiel still lived but barely standing.
A charred silhouette, flesh burned off in patches, bones glowing like molten iron.
His body twitched, spasming under the weight of his own existence. Reality hissed around him — like the universe itself wanted him gone.
Victoria, watching from afar, froze mid-step.
Her eyes widened.
Her smile faded.
Her weapon lowered.
For the first time since she was a child, she looked afraid.
Victoria: "I… killed you."
Her voice trembled — a crack in her insanity.
Victoria: "I know I killed you. I watched you die by my hands"
She stopped. Because the injuries he bore… the ones that carved through his throat, split his heart open, crushed his skull —
weren't hers.
Something else had tried altering his body him and failed.
Victoria whispered with genuine confusion, almost a child's voice:
"Where did… those wounds come from?
Zadkiel turned slightly — enough to see her. His remaining eye flickered with recognition, weariness, and something darker:
Pity.
Then he faced Law again.
Law, who had carved worlds like butter…
who had erased nations with a breath…
now stumbled backward an inch.
A tiny cut across his cheek.
His had bled for the first time.
Law touched the wound.
His eyes widened.
Emotion — real emotion — rippled across his face.
Confusion.
Annoyance.
And… fear.
Law: "Impossible…"
He forced his ruined throat to speak.
Zadkiel: "I am…"
His charred fingers curled into a fist, bones splintering under the strain.
Zadkiel: "…the final boss."
Even Law took a half-step back — an instinct, predator recognizing another predator.
Victoria clutched her chest, trembling.
Victoria: "Z-Zadkiel…"
A whisper, for once without madness —
just awe.
And dread.
Zadkiel's broken fingers dug into Law's throat — not strength, but pure will anchoring a god in place. His molten ribs cracked as he leaned in, their bodies pressed together like two dying suns about to collapse.
Law's voice trembled for the first time in eternity
Law: "W-What are you—"
Zadkiel didn't answer him.
He was somewhere else —
somewhen else —
drifting into fragments of a childhood stolen by destiny.
FLASHBACK — Paradise
A golden meadow.
Three children running through flower fields lit by divine light.
Little Eve laughing, hair like silver starlight as she chased butterflies.
Young Adam climbing trees and hurling apples like tiny meteorites.
Zadkiel — small, quiet, always a step behind them, always reaching.
Their laughter echoed like a memory from a world that never knew blood.
Eve's tiny hand pulling his sleeve.
Adam yelling, "Hurry up slowpoke!"
BACK TO PRESENT--
His burned lips trembled.
Blistered flesh peeled as he forced his voice to exist one final time.
Zadkiel: "Everything hurts…"
Blood boiled off him in steam.
Bone cracked like stone under divine pressure.
Zadkiel: "...while fighting in pain…"
His voice broke.
Not from weakness —
but from memory.
Zadkiel: "...trying to find some good in the world."
His grip tightened.
Law struggled — truly struggled — panic rising like a storm.
Zadkiel: "You guys…"
A ragged breath, choking on fire.
Zadkiel:"...are already old pros at this… right?"
His ruined eye looked past Law past the battlefield.
toward a childhood dream he never reached.
A faint smile — broken, but real.
Zadkiel: "Hey… Eve."
His voice softened, nostalgic, aching.
Zadkiel' "Can I still catch up to you…?"
For the first time, he looked at peace.
And then—
BOOOOOM
A mega explosion collapsing inward then bursting outward.
Light swallowed sound.
The earth cracked open.
Clouds evaporated.
A shockwave ripped across the broken city — tearing dust, metal and Buildings vaporized.
And where Zadkiel and Law once stood…
nothing. A crater carved into the world like the scar of a forgotten titan.
Ash rained like snow.
Far away, Eve felt it —
her hand tightening against her chest, eyes wide, breath stolen.
Adam's pupils shrank, jaw clenched, teeth grinding.
He did not speak.
Could not.
Seraphina whispered, trembling.
Eve: "Zadkiel…"