The God of War's cut had nearly separated Simon into two pieces.
It ran diagonally through his torso, passing through muscle, broken ribs, and the wall of his Demon Heart. Only the depth the attack had narrowly spared kept his body together.
He had not twisted away. He had not raised a defence.
He was still whole because of luck.
Blood spread beneath him, filling the cracks in the scorched road. His right hand had fallen open when he struck the ground, leaving the Chaos Blade beside it.
Simon tried to breathe, but something caught inside his chest. The attempt ended in a wet bloody cough, and his vision darkened around the edges.
'My heart...'
The thought broke apart before he could finish it.
Unholy Regeneration had already begun working. Torn vessels reached toward one another. Thin strands of new flesh appeared within the wound, trying to reconnect what the god had severed.
Then several of those strands parted again.
The god's foreign aether remained inside the cut.
