The sound of Varkos's roar was low, rough, and full of effort.
The Master struck the Fallen Devil from the side, his axe carving through the creature's ribs and armpit with enough force to knock it sideways. Invisible pressure followed the blade and tore the wound wider, but the Ashen Gatekeeper twisted and caught Varkos by the chest before the Master could step back.
It yanked him in with brutal force, folding the distance between them in an instant, then slammed and threw him into the black stone. Varkos crashed through the first wall like a thrown boulder, iron reinforcements snapping around him as dust, stone, and metal shards exploded into the tunnel. The second wall cracked a heartbeat later and gave way as he was dragged through it like a ragdoll. A third impact sounded farther away, then a fourth, each one quieter but no less violent.
For several seconds, Varkos was gone.
The strongest person in the tunnel had been thrown through multiple walls.
The Ashen Gatekeeper turned back with a low, heavy breath. But Eirwen's body was still reforming on the wall.
His spine pulled itself together with disgusting cracks. One arm fell free from the stone, hanging from a shoulder that had barely finished existing. His chest inflated for the first time, drawing in air that immediately turned into a wet choking sound. He slid down the wall, half-formed, his legs still nothing but red ropes of muscle and growing bone. His Flaw drank even more Essence, dragging him back together as quickly as it could.
The Fallen Devil moved toward Seraphiel, who was barely pushing himself up.
His white hair was soaked red on one side, and his left arm hung uselessly. Still, silver light flickered around him as he raised his good hand. A weak pressure wrapped around the Devil's ankle.
It did not stop the creature.
But somehow, purely by a miracle, it slowed it for one single step.
Eirwen forced his body forward before his legs had properly healed. He collapsed immediately, caught himself on one newly formed hand, and dragged himself through blood and ash toward a human corpse lying nearby. Half of it face was gone, the chest was open, and one arm was missing, but that did not matter.
He only needed Essence.
His mouth stretched before his jaw had finished healing. The motion tore his face open again, cheeks splitting in wet lines. He grabbed the corpse by its broken neck, pulled it close with trembling fingers, and the body folded toward him.
The corpse vanished into his mouth.
[You have Devoured an Awakened human.]
[You grow stronger!]
Alien Essence surged into his Cores again.
Eirwen's legs snapped into place with a series of wet cracks, his spine finished knitting, and his chest closed as his lungs finally filled properly. He pushed himself up, swaying from the immense pain, blood dripping from his chin and from the edges of his newly healed face.
The Ashen Gatekeeper had reached Seraphiel meanwhile, each step slow and deliberate to scare his prey.
Eirwen summoned [Hydra's Choice] and dashed forward.
His eyes were wide now, not with wrath alone, but with immense focus. His fangs showed through the blood on his lips. The Soulrune beneath his uniform stirred again, heat gathering around the tattoo, but he held it back.
It wasn't the proper time to use it, so it just remained there, only a little effort away from activating.
Eirwen reached the Nightmare Creature in a heartbeat and his blade cut into the side again where Varkos had already damaged the creature twice already. It opened the blackened hide, but not deep enough to cripple it. The Devil stopped reaching for Seraphiel and turned.
Eirwen tried to move away, but the Fallen Devil simply stomped, and the floor beneath him erupted upward.
Stone, blood, ash, and old metal blasted up together. Eirwen's lower body vanished first, crushed between the force of the impact and the stone breaking beneath him. His legs were gone, his hips were gone, and his stomach burst open, organs spilling across the floor before being crushed into paste a heartbeat later.
His upper body flew backward and hit the ground several meters away.
And this time, he remained conscious through all of it.
Eirwen screamed, but it came out as a wet, broken sound as blood pooled inside his mouth before spilling out like a waterfall. His hands clawed at the floor, his lower half began rebuilding, but far too slowly. Essence burned through him faster than he could even think about it.
The Fallen Devil raised its claw over Seraphiel again. The young Sleeper's eyes narrowed, his lips pursed as he desperately tried to save himself.
Boom!
A dull grey axe burst through the wall.
It spun through the air and struck the creature's neck, sinking deep enough to make the Fallen Devil stagger. A moment later, Varkos came through the hole after it.
One side of his black armour was crushed inward. The shoulder plate was cracked, his helmet had a deep gouge across it, and his exposed red eye looked even worse than before, blood leaking from the scarred skin around it.
But he still moved like a giant goliath.
He reached the Ashen Gatekeeper and slammed both gauntlets into the handle of his axe, driving it deeper into the Devil's neck and draggin it down. Invisible force detonated inside the wound and the creature reeled and tried to strike back, but Varkos pulled the axe free and swung again.
At the last possible moment, the Fallen Devil caught the blade in one hand as black liquid flowed out from the wound on its neck and side.
The impact sent a shock through the tunnel, the floor and wall behind the Nightmare Creature exploding into debris.
For a heartbeat, the Master and the Devil strained against each other. Varkos's armour groaned, and the Devil's fingers cracked around the axe blade, black bone splitting under the pressure.
After a moment, the Fallen Devil leaned in and headbutted the Master. Varkos groaned and lost his grip. The Devil used the moment to strike down at the top of his head.
This time, Varkos did not go through a wall. He went through the floor instead.
The stone beneath him cracked open, and the Master vanished waist-deep into the broken ground, armour crushed and axe somehow still in his grip. The Fallen Devil raised one claw to finish driving him down completely.
But Seraphiel acted quickly enough to intervene.
Silver pressure wrapped around the raised claw, not stopping it, but at the very least twisting it just enough for the strike to miss Varkos's head and slam into the floor beside him instead. The impact shattered stone and threw Seraphiel backward again. He hit the ground hard, rolled once, and stayed on his side, coughing blood.
Eirwen's lower body finished reforming, and he tried to stand, intending to help, but his knees refused to hold him. Something inside him was regenerating far too slowly.
'I need Essence, fuck!' he groaned as blood dried around his mouth.
His Cores felt hollow. His regeneration was still working, but sluggishly now, dragging skin over muscle with terrible reluctance. He could feel every wound clearly.
The boy's golden eyes scanned his surroundings, and he immediately noticed something beside him. With a stroke of immense luck, a Gravehound corpse was lying right next to him.
Eirwen stared at it, breathing hard, before pulling himself forward with one hand and crawling to it.
He grabbed the dead Gravehound by the throat, making sure not to accidentally get clipped by the spikes, and opened his mouth.
His cheeks tore again, wider than before, jaw stretching far past anything human. The hunger beneath his Cores answered desperately. The corpse folded inward, spikes, hide, bones, and meat twisting toward the darkness inside him. The taste was foul enough to make his eyes water.
[You have Devoured an Awakened Demon: Gravehound.]
[You grow stronger!]
Essence flooded him, and Eirwen inhaled sharply.
His body finished healing in a rush so painful that his vision went white for a second. Bones cracked into place, his legs steadied beneath him, and he finally managed to stand.
The Ashen Gatekeeper had pulled Varkos out of the broken floor and slammed him into the wall again. Not through it this time, but against it. Once, twice and then a third time too. Each impact left a crater in the black stone and drove dents deeper into the Master's armour.
Varkos still held the axe, though.
His gauntlets remained locked around the handle, and with the fourth slam, he finally moved.
He let the Devil push him back, but then he drove his foot deeper into the floor and pushed forward.
The hand holding the gigantic axe flashed, moving so fast that neither Eirwen nor Seraphiel could follow it. The Master swung upward, and the axe itself barely reached the Fallen Devil's chest, but the invisible force struck it anyway.
It slammed into the creature like a speeding train, caving in part of its chest and throwing it back from the Master. The actual blade followed a heartbeat later, cutting through the already collapsing hide. Black bone cracked, and orange light flickered violently inside the hollow chest.
The Ashen Gatekeeper screamed, nearly falling backward as one of its hands tried to stop the orange liquid from spilling out of its chest. The ash around it swirled faster.
Varkos did not let the ash stop him.
He advanced with heavy, uneven steps. His axe rose again, and the next downward swing did not cut. It smashed like a meteorite, or to be precise, his Aspect smashed down.
The invisible extension hit the Devil's knee, making it buckle just a little. The muscles in Varkos's arms bulged so much that even the armour around them dented. With a guttural roar, he redirected the blade as it tore through the the creature's chest once more. His Aspect activated again, and the inside of the Fallen Devil's chest exploded, forcing an ear-piercing scream out of it.
'There!' Eirwen's golden eyes widened as he understood. This was the opening he needed!
The Ashen Gatekeeper's hollow chest was exposed, cracked wide from Varkos's constant strikes onto the same area over and over. The orange thing inside pulsed weakly, visible through broken ribs and collapsing hide and skin. The creature tried to rise, but Varkos raised his axe for another blow with a loud growl.
'If he strikes now, he'll get the kill!' The boy thought, panic painted across his face.
He did not scream or warn anyone. He simply blurred forward like a bullet as [Hydra's Choice] formed in his hand. He dashed over blood, ash, broken stone, and pieces of his own body that had not fully dissolved yet. His dark coat snapped behind him, his eyes were wide, and his breath came sharp as a grin started forming on his lips.
The Soulrune started to burn harder as he got closer. The black pentagram beneath his chest flared with heat, not fully active yet, but close.
The Fallen Devil saw him and swept toward him with its remaining good arm.
But a chain whipped forward and wrapped around the wrist.
The white-haired boy was still on the floor, barely propped up on one elbow, blood running from his mouth.
Eirwen slipped under the strike, close enough for ash to scrape across his cheek and dry the skin until it cracked away before his Flaw fixed it, but he ignored the pain. It couldn't compare to getting turned into a red spot anyway.
Varkos's ruined red eye shifted toward him, and for a heartbeat, the Master did not swing. Something moved in that ugly eye. Then, instead of finishing the strike himself, Varkos drove his axe into its folded knee.
Invisible force erupted with the strike, forcing the Fallen Devil to scream and stay knelt.
Eirwen whipped forward with all the speed he could get out of himself and drove [Hydra's Choice] into the hollow chest with both hands.
The blade sank into the cracked orange core, but that obviously was not enough.
Eirwen knew that already. His plan wasn't that simple.
His mind connected to the Soulrune, and the pentagram started to burn in black flames.
Heat surged through him as the Soulrune activated. It moved through his body, into his arms, into the hilt, through the blade, and into the wound.
The Ashen Gatekeeper's flesh began to rot.
The blackened hide around the sword dried, cracked, and sank inward. The orange glow dimmed as grey decay spread through the hollow chest in branching lines. Bone crumbled around [Hydra's Choice]. The creature's body began falling apart around the wound, and the Fallen Devil could do nothing but scream in absolute pain, thrashing its arms and head everywhere with as much force as it could muster.
Eirwen roared with it, hoping it would not accidentally swipe him away.
His hands tightened around the hilt, and the Soulrune burned happily, sudden whispers crawling in the back of his mind.
The Devil's claw struck his side and tore him open from chest to hip. Blood poured down his leg, and his organs threatened to spill out. His body healed, but his entire focus remained on the Soulrune.
He pushed harder, his mind fogging as the Nightmare Creature grew weaker and weaker, until the Ashen Gatekeeper suddenly froze.
A small, broken moan escaped it before it fully crumbled, rotting away from the inside.
First, the chest folded inward and then the rest of the body followed.
The massive frame sagged around Hydra's Choice, its claws scraping weakly against the floor before the arms lost their shape completely. Bone collapsed into powder and the orange glow died out fully.
Then the Spell whispered into Eirwen's ear.
[You have slain a Fallen Devil: Ashen Gatekeeper.]
[You have consumed a Soul!]
[Devour the Flesh for more!]
For a moment, Eirwen could not move.
His side finally began closing, flesh dragging itself together with a wet, painful pull. The Soulrune cooled slowly, leaving a deep ache beneath his chest.
The Ashen Gatekeeper collapsed in front of him, no longer a creature, but a pile of blackened remains, ash, and crumbling bone.
Behind him, Seraphiel lay on the floor, breathing shallowly.
Varkos stood a few steps away, armour crushed and cracked, axe lowered in one hand. His ruined red eye moved from the Fallen Devil's remains to Eirwen. The Master said nothing, only breathed in heavy groans.
Then the Spell whispered again.
[You have completed the Deal! Your reward can be claimed at any time.]
Eirwen's lips slowly curled into a bloody smile as he fell onto his knees, the silver longsword still tight in his hand.