Across Eternity: Book 7 - Chapter 14

THIS STORY CONTAINS SEXUAL CONTENT AND ADULT THEMES AND SHOULD NOT BE READ BY ANYONE UNDER 18.

Afterparty

Voraith dragged himself across the floor, wincing and hissing in pain. The wounds that Seraph had inflicted were throbbing and refused to heal, leaving him with only half of his organs and two limbs. His jaws were spread, and he was trying to suck up as much ambient energy as he could, but all that did was keep death at bay. He also tried cannibalizing his fellow dead ghouls, but that accomplished little. He needed to find some real food if he were to have any chance of regeneration.

“Well, well, what do we have here?”

Voraith felt a shiver crawl up his spine and looked back, seeing Noah approach. At that moment, Seraph’s warning was echoing through Voraith’s mind, and as he felt the aura exuding from Noah, fear pierced his heart.

“Get back!” he hissed, grabbing a piece of glass from a broken window and throwing it at Noah.

“From the look of those charred wounds, I’d say you tangled with Seraph, and he left you crippled. That’s good. He remembered that your death belongs to me.”

Voraith caught himself. This could actually work to his benefit. Fresh meat had arrived, and all he had to do was leave him too weak to fight back. He opened his jaws, once more devouring all the energy he could pull from the environment and channeling it into the ground. Andromeda got fussy anytime someone overwrote her Cursed Earth, but she’d just have to live with it. Yet the magic that had worked so well against Noah’s friends in Wahr Village seemed to have no effect on him at all. He walked across Voraith’s Cursed Earth without shiver or shudder, as if he were going for a stroll through the park.

“How?! How are you fine?! Why isn’t this working?!”

“Thermal regulating coat, and a headband that binds my mana within my body. You can’t do anything to me. I also prepared this just for you.” Noah then pulled out a length of wire, even tougher than Lupin’s chain. He stepped on Voraith’s chest and wrapped the wire around his neck, forcing his jaws shut, while leaving him able to speak. “I take it that since Seraph went to the trouble of crippling you and leaving you alive, he told you that I would come looking for you. Did he tell you why?

See, you messed with something beyond your comprehension, and there are always repercussions for that. I am your reckoning. Oh, but don’t worry, I’m going to help you first.” Noah then took out a dagger and cut his wrist, sending his blood running onto Voraith’s face, who greedily began drinking it up. “I’m glad Seraph left you nice and helpless for me to find you. That said, for what comes next, I need you whole with all of your nerve endings intact.”

Noah continued feeding him blood, allowing Voraith’s wounds to heal, and slowly, his lost limbs began to regenerate. Once he had gathered enough strength, Voraith tried to force Noah off him and attack, but Noah injected him with a paralytic, leaving him unable to move.

“Five million kilometers,” Noah then said as he took a sip of a healing potion to mend his wrist and restore his lost blood.

“What?” Voraith growled, trying to resist the chemicals flowing through his body.

“Five million kilometers. In one of my past lives, that was the record for the closest an unmanned craft had ever gotten to the sun. I decided to break that record and do so while personally flying it. It was a voyage I planned not to survive, as I wanted to experience the full nuclear force of the sun. I have to tell you all this now, because soon you won’t be able to understand me.”

“What are you talking about?”

“That drug I injected you with does more than just leave you limp as a rag. It also speeds up your thought processes, making it feel like time is slowing down. It was developed as an alternative means to regular incarceration. A single dose leaves you stuck for a few hours, but in your mind, it’ll feel like weeks have passed by, weeks of staring at the wall of your cell, unable to move, while you go insane and your thoughts eat each other. A convict could serve a complete lifetime sentence in a week.

It was phased out as being deemed cruel and inhuman, with the recipients emerging more psychotic and mentally twisted than when they started, but not before I did what felt like a twenty-year stretch. Very unpleasant, and incredibly difficult to manufacture, even with alchemy. It takes some very rare ingredients, but I was able to create at least one dose for you.

Now, as I was saying about the sun, I designed my ship and suit to withstand as much heat and radiation as possible. Of course, eventually everything burns and melts, and when my ship was finally destroyed, I experienced several glorious moments in which the full force of the sun was unleashed upon me, before I, too, was completely disintegrated. Since you’re a Profane, and the sun does that simply on a casual summer day, I wonder what it’ll… feel… like… for… you.”

Voraith blinked his eyes as Noah’s words slowed to a crawl. Noah stepped off Voraith’s chest and moved back, but to Voraith, he did so at a snail’s pace.

“Faaaallllsssse… Wooooooorld,” Noah then cast.

The mansion around them was replaced with the openness of space, and behind Noah, the sun burned in all its glory like a great wall of golden light. Noah was showing Voraith what the sun looked like up close through numerous filters on his ship, lowering its intensity so that it could actually be viewed. Voraith didn’t understand what was going on, but he stared in wonder at the sun, the thing he had feared for most of his life. The tongues of plasma looping across the surface, the bubbling and churning of fiery waves, it was magnificent. But that was only because Noah’s illusion was at its lowest level of potency.

“Nnnnnnooooooooooooooowwwwww… buuuuuuuuuuurrrrnnnn,” said Noah, as he looked into Voraith’s eyes and sent the Rune of False spreading through his mind like a cancer.

In that moment, the sun’s brightness reached levels beyond description, and Voraith felt himself being hammered by all of the heat and radiation the star could produce, with every single nerve ending in his body being subjected to as much pain as it could possibly experience. Noah was condemning him to the few final moments of his life when his ship was blown up and his suit was burning away, but was applying it continuously, and with the drug in Voraith’s system, each second felt like an hour.

He wanted to scream with every fiber of his being, but his body would not obey his will, left unable to function due to the agony and the drug. However, not even its paralyzing effects could stop his body from mindlessly writhing in agony. Everything from his big toe to his scalp to the very back of his heart felt like it was being submerged in molten steel, as he felt the sun’s radiation penetrate his flesh layer by layer and burn him both on the outside and inside simultaneously. Were this an actual physical attack that inflicted damage, it would at least be burning away his flesh, destroying his pain receptors, but since it was an illusion, everything remained fully intact, with every nerve in his body free to torture him.

He wasn’t just experiencing this as Noah had, either. The pain was more than a simple memory from Noah’s past. Voraith felt the sun’s intensity as a Profane, felt it burn the darkness inside him. His mind could not process the pain, for he was experiencing complete sensory overload. It was the absolute maximum threshold of agony any life form was capable of experiencing. He should have passed out, but the pain would not allow him to lose consciousness. The only thought capable of maintaining its shape in his mind was the desperate desire for the pain to end, whether that meant the spell would stop or he would die, but that wouldn’t happen for a long time. Voraith felt his very sanity being burned away, as if his brain was trying to sever its link to reality to save itself from this hell.

In his delirium, his life flashed before his eyes, showing him every cruel act he had ever committed, every evil thought he had ever entertained, every mocking word he had ever spoken; anything and everything in his life that wasn’t saintlike and flawlessly good. Was he being punished for his sins? Was this divine judgment? This level of agony could only be bestowed by a vengeful god. Was Noah such a god? It was the only explanation. What chance did the Profane have against the fury of a god?

He remembered what Seraph told him, about the fate that awaited him for crossing Noah. In that moment, he despised Seraph with blinding intensity, simply for selling Noah short. He didn’t tell Voraith that it would be this bad. He failed to properly convey just how much he would suffer. Had he known the truth, he would have killed himself so that Noah couldn’t catch him, but now it was too late, and all he could do was lie there and hope for death. Seraph got that part right, at least. Voraith silently begged and prayed for death, willing to undergo any other form of suffering so long as it would save him from Noah’s wrath.

Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die!

Voraith screamed this order at his body over and over again, trying to will his existence to end, but the pain would not stop. All the while, Noah stood over him, watching Voraith suffer with cold, indifferent eyes. With this, did he truly understand the weight of his crime against Noah? Did he understand his foolishness and why he deserved this pain for getting in his way? Fortunately for Voraith, Noah couldn’t spend all night torturing him. Part of the reason he went to the trouble of making that drug was because he knew he likely wouldn’t have enough time to inflict all the pain he wanted. He still had to find Lupin and everyone else.

After several minutes, Noah released the illusion, freeing Voraith from his anguish. He lay there, catatonic from the pain. His eyes were glazed over and hollow, but he was still alive. Even if he wasn’t still under the effects of the drug, his mind was still broken beyond repair. Noah ended his life and then stabbed him in the eye with a syringe, piercing the venom gland in the center of his brain and siphoning off every last drop. He then removed the wires he used to bind his jaws and opened them, driven by curiosity. Alexis and Seraph had described Voraith as having some kind of metaphysical dark pearl in the depths of his throat that Noah wanted to examine.

He reached into Voraith’s gullet and wrenched out a black orb, looking like it was made of polished obsidian. However, it was so dark that light could not reflect off it. Whether this was its natural form, or it had undergone some kind of crystallization upon Voraith’s death, Noah wasn’t sure, but he could sense a vast amount of power in it. He wasn’t sure what he would use it for, but Noah could tell it was too valuable a piece to simply throw away. He stored it in his ring and got back to his feet. Now that Voraith was taken care of, he had to find Lupin and the others. Hopefully, Valia wasn’t having too much trouble.

Unfortunately, Valia and Cynatas were struggling against Ragar. Neither of their attacks was having much effect on the massive undead blob pursuing them, and the more slain ghouls they encountered, the more flesh their foe could harness. It also didn’t help that the Cursed Earth was sapping their strength, and no matter how much they damaged his necrotic mass, it didn’t mean anything if they couldn’t reach his actual body, and the damage always mended itself.

Using her Avagath spell, Valia tried to find Ragar’s main body, realizing he was hiding well out of range of her attacks. She couldn’t get past the undead mass in the hall, so she tried busting through the wall into the adjacent room, hoping she could circle around. Ragar was quick to intercept, filling the room with necrotic flesh and forcing her back into the corridor. She tried again with the floor and ceiling, looking for some angle she could use to get closer to Ragar, but he was well adept at protecting his main body. For now, all they could do was run and wait for some new variable to change in their favor, but it wasn’t looking good.

He pursued them down the winding corridors of the mansion like a living wall, reaching out with spiked tentacles to try and trip them up. One tentacle managed to grab Valia’s ankle and attempt to drag her into the fold, but she managed to sever it and get away. If she or Cynatas were swallowed by the mass, it was over. Valia was confident in her steel body and super strength protecting her from physical injury, but she didn’t want to be suffocated in that disgusting bog of rotting flesh, and Cynatas, despite her wind power, would be pulled through a meat grinder. Finally, their luck changed as they were running down a hallway, where they saw Sophia and Foley sprinting towards them from the opposite direction.

“Valia!” Sophia exclaimed in relief.

“Are you running from someone, too?” Valia asked as they both came to a stop.

“The black smoke guy. He’s right behind us with a lot of poison gas and friends!” said Foley.

“Cynatas and I are fighting Ragar and losing. You two, switch enemies with us!”

Sophia and Foley understood what she meant and nodded. They split up, with Sophia and Foley continuing on towards Ragar, while Valia and Cynatas went after Miasmarda. The two elves spotted the gangly ghoul approaching, joined by several comrades wrapped in unholy smog.

“Cleansing Breeze,” Cynatas cast, sending a blast of enchanted wind at Miasmarda.

Her spell cleared away the poison gas and purified the air, freeing Valia to pounce with her sword swinging. She managed to cut off Miasmarda’s arm, but with a hiss of rage, he grabbed one of the ghouls at his side and threw him at her. The others attacked as well, armed with weapons scavenged from throughout the mansion. As Valia fended off their combined attacks, Miasmarda fled, realizing the tide had turned against him. He was remarkably fast, and by the time Valia slaughtered the ghouls, he was gone.

Valia turned back and looked at the other end of the hallway. There, Foley was holding back Ragar with the same shield magic he had used to contain Miasmarda’s poison. Sophia was standing behind him with her hands on his shoulders, imbuing him with light energy and giving his spell a holy enhancement. Ragar, controlling his amorphous undead goliath, threw himself at the barrier, only for the reanimated ghoul flesh to disintegrate on contact. He was pushing with all his might, but with each passing second, more and more of the undead flesh was burning away, with black flames spreading throughout the entire mass.

Then, it suddenly stopped, the mass suddenly going limp as the magic that reanimated it halted its flow. Ragar, realizing he couldn’t win and was outnumbered four to one, had abandoned it and escaped like Miasmarda. With both threats neutralized, Sophia and Foley rejoined with Valia and Cynatas.

“Good to see you’re both still alive,” said Valia.

“You as well,” replied Sophia.

“I twisted my ankle while running back there, so it’s not all well and good,” Foley grunted.

“I don’t suppose you’ve seen anyone else?” Cynatas asked.

Sophia shook her head. “This place is like a giant labyrinth. I feel like we might as well be scurrying mice.”

“Good thing Noah gave us those bells,” said Valia, pulling hers out. It was pointing to the nearby wall. “I’ve never been one for labyrinths. I prefer straight paths. Zodiac: Baom!” With her fist wrapped in silver mana, she punched the wall, busting it open and letting them into a tea room. “Come on, this way.”

As they stepped into the room, they felt an impact shake the floor, as though answering Valia’s destructive punch.

“What in the world was that?” Cynatas asked.

The cause was Roc, crashing into a gargoyle statue perched along the edge of one of the estate towers, sending the statue plummeting down and crashing through the roof and several floors below. With desperate strength, he clung to the ledge of the tower, though desperate strength was the only kind he had left. Umbra was pursuing him relentlessly, barely giving him any time to think or even breathe. If it wasn’t for the enjoyment he seemed to take in thrashing Roc, the young warrior knew he would have been killed a while ago.

Out of the corner of his eye, Roc spotted Umbra approaching, reminding him of the jets Noah had shown him with his magic. Roc let go of the ledge and flapped his wings, trying to get away. He had repeatedly learned that it was hopeless to try to outrace Umbra in the sky. The best he could do was just land on a place with sure footing. He dropped down onto the roof below, gripping the tiles with his talons. Umbra swooped down and lashed out with his claws, scratching Roc’s arm, adding yet another of countless bloody wounds. Considering how hard he had tried to dodge it, receiving those scratches was basically getting off easy.

Umbra landed nearby and spun around, launching himself back at Roc. The two of them began exchanging blows, with Roc using his eagle eyes to try and match Umbra’s speed and avoid his attacks, but the best he could accomplish was lessening the damage he took with each punch, kick, and slash. He tried to counter with powerful kicks and his Monk Spear technique, but the closest he could get to actually landing a hit was being blocked. At the very least, it meant that Umbra had to defend rather than dodge, but other than a few lucky breaks, he had yet to truly wound the Profane warrior. What little damage he managed to inflict instantly healed, and while Roc was running low on mana, Umbra had yet to use a single spell, dominating Roc with nothing but regular hand-to-hand techniques.

Umbra then managed to slip past Roc’s defenses and deliver a bone-breaking kick to the side of the ribs, knocking Roc through the air and crashing into a chimney, knocking it over like a dead tree. He collapsed atop the crumbling bricks, unable to move. His ribs were shattered by the kick, and both of his shoulder blades were in pieces from hitting the chimney, meaning he could no longer use his wings or even stand up. Umbra stepped over to him and sighed.

“So, I’m guessing you have no more fight left in you? That’s a shame. You were doing pretty well back there. Well, not good enough that you had a chance of winning, but good in the sense that you can die with dignity.”

“Fuck you,” Roc coughed. Considering that he was sure one of his lungs had collapsed, two words were all he could utter.

Both he and Umbra’s attention were then drawn to the broken chimney, and the sound of coughing echoing from within the darkness. Something shot out, causing Umbra to step back, and it landed next to Roc.

“A cat?” Umbra mused while sniffing the air.

It was Cyrilo in her feline form, covered in soot and coughing. “I thought I was going to die in there!” She then looked around, spotting Roc and Umbra beside her, and assumed her human form. “Am I interrupting something?”

“Only if you can put up a better fight than he did. Otherwise, I’ll get to you in a moment.”

Noticing his blindfold and animal characteristics, Cyrilo figured out Umbra’s abilities in an instant. He couldn’t see, but his sense of smell and hearing compensated, making him hyperaware of his surroundings. Cyrilo conjured her grimoire from her ring as quietly as she could. “Well, see, the thing about that is… Holy Radiance!” she then cast, summoning a golden magical circle and firing a blast of light energy at Umbra.

“Night Mantle!” he cast, shrouding himself in a dark aura. Cyrilo’s attack splashed off him, being repelled like oil and water. Umbra reached out and grabbed her by the throat, lifting her off her feet. “I guess you didn’t hear the part when I told your friend that I’m Lord Curcio’s masterpiece. It’s not just because of my strength, speed, endurance, or power; it’s because I am one of the few Profane who can shrug off paladin attacks! It is the rarest ability among our kind, unlocked when I was turned. I am a unique specimen, one in a million. But by all means, try hitting me with fire or lightning next with that little book of yours. They’ll fare you no better!”

Cyrilo clawed at his hand, trying to loosen his grip, with Roc lying below her, unable to do anything but curse his weakness. “I… really wish I had known that sooner….” Cyrilo gasped, struggling to breathe. “But what about water? Bubble Prison!”

She cast the spell from her grimoire, gathering all of the moisture in the air and condensing it into a sphere of water that formed around Umbra’s head. He dropped her and staggered back, clawing at the suspended liquid. As a powerful Profane, he could survive without air for a while, but while a fiend with functioning eyesight could at least see through the water, Umbra was left in a sensory abyss with both his ear canals and sinuses flooded. The spell broke his concentration, and his Night Mantle broke, exposing him.

“Holy Radiance!” Cyrilo cast again, blasting Umbra with a holy ray. His skin burned under the divine blast, and he fell back, dropping off the roof and landing on the ground below. However, it had not been enough to finish him off.

“I don’t know how long he’ll stay down. We need to move fast,” said Cyrilo, conjuring a healing potion and feeding it to Roc. “Come on, let’s go!” she exclaimed as she returned to her feline form and hopped onto Roc’s chest. Roc, having recovered enough to fly, grabbed her and took flight, soaring to the other side of the estate and crashing through a window. The moment he touched the floor, he took off in a run. There was no telling how long Umbra would stay down, but he wanted to get as far away as he could.

“Though it hurts to admit, thanks for the assist back there,” said Roc.

“Young men like you, always thinking that the only way to win is to punch as hard as you can. When brawn fails, you need to use your brains.”

“Let’s just find everyone and get out of here before he comes after us again.”

“Do you have your bell?”

“I can feel it in my pocket. It got crushed at some point.”

“Fortunately, I still have mine.” Roc paused so that Cyrilo could hop down and assume her human form. She pulled out her bell, giving them their heading. “This way!”

They continued running, following the direction of the bell. But there was more than just Lupin ahead of them. Not too far away, Shannon and Daniel were fighting against Andromeda. Shannon charged towards Andromeda, swinging her sword with trained speed and honed skill, sending sparks flying as it collided with Andromeda’s. Andromeda countered with a flurry of stabs and slashes, banking on her heightened Profane abilities to dominate Shannon. However, Shannon was holding her own. Though she lacked Valia Zodiac’s elven grace and magical augmentations, she had received ample training in swordsmanship. Again and again, their swords collided, with Andromeda unable to ignore Shannon’s skill.

“You’re quite adept for someone so young.”

“I train every day, pushing myself to the limit just so that I can defeat people like you! The Profane killed my family and took my home, and you will all pay!”

“And now you seek to do the same to me!”

“Precisely! So you know how it feels!” Shannon tried to kick Andromeda, but she blocked the attack and shoved Shannon in the chest, knocking her onto her back and leaving her struggling to breathe.

“I see now. You’re from the Petosic horse tribe. I’m guessing you were also with the Wandering Spirit when he killed Carthace. Carthace and I were old friends, cut from the same cloth as you might say, but she couldn’t do this!” Andromeda then sent black lightning streaming from her fingers, wrapping around Shannon and making her scream in pain.

Nearby, Daniel struck a chord with his guitar, sending out a wave of magic that interrupted Andromeda’s attack. With only two strings, a quick blare was the most he could hope to accomplish.

“Looks to me like you want to die first!”

Andromeda stormed towards him with a furious gaze, but Shannon reached out and grabbed her ankle, tripping her up. Daniel tried to kick her, but just as Shannon had done, Andromeda grabbed his ankle, and with superhuman strength, she threw him against the wall. She then wrenched herself free from Shannon’s grip and got to her feet. She raised her sword to finish Shannon off, but she rolled to the side, dodging the decapitating chop and rolling to her feet.

Shannon lunged for a stab, and Andromeda simply smirked and let her blade pierce her in the gut. Instantly, Shannon had the breath forced from her lungs by blinding pain and collapsed, covering her stomach and trying to stop the bleeding of a wound that wasn’t there. Andromeda scoffed and pulled out Shannon’s sword slowly, with Shannon crying out in pain.

“Do you know what pain is? When your body is damaged or experiences distress, electrical signals, akin to biological lightning, are sent from your nerves and interpreted by your brain as sensation, signalling that something is wrong. You’ve seen the black lightning I can produce. Do you want to bet there is a correlation?”

Shannon, doing her best to ignore the stabbing pain in her gut, grabbed her dropped sword and got back to her feet. She lunged at Andromeda, hacking and slashing from all directions, but Andromeda fended her off until she decided to let Shannon land another attack. Shannon slashed Andromeda’s arm, but it was she who staggered back, gripping her own arm and trying to hold back tears, while Andromeda’s arm healed in seconds.

“The mansion and the surrounding grounds are more than just cursed; they’re electrified. Anytime someone harms me while standing upon my Cursed Earth, that lightning attacks their nerves, so they feel like they were the ones who were harmed. I cut you, and you suffer. You cut me, and you still suffer. And let’s not forget that my pain tolerance is also far greater than yours, as is my resilience to injury, and my wounds heal much faster. So, by all means, keep fighting. Your suffering has only just begun.” She again tried to shock Shannon with her lightning, but Daniel, woozy but on his feet, interrupted her with another chord. “You!” she hissed.

She aimed her hand at Daniel and unleashed her lightning. He wasn’t fast enough this time, and he was shocked to within an inch of his life, unable to even scream. Wrapped in Andromeda’s lightning, he was lifted off his feet and pulled over to her, similar to Harrigan’s telekinesis. She grabbed him by the throat, keeping him off the ground as she strangled him.

“Any last words?”

“If you’re going to choke me to death, could you please use your thighs instead?”

Andromeda was momentarily confused, then the meaning dawned on her, and her face contorted in disgust. During that moment of distraction, Shannon brought down her sword and cut off Andromeda’s arm. Andromeda staggered back, hissing in pain, while Shannon struggled not to scream in agony, feeling like her own arm had been severed. Daniel caught her as she collapsed, the two of them racked with pain.

“I see you’re a glutton for punishment,” Andromeda scowled. She then stabbed her severed arm with her sword, picking it up like it was a piece of trash. She held the two ends together, and her arm reattached itself.

“Can you still fight?” Daniel asked.

“I can, but words can’t describe how much I don’t want to.”

“Well, as much as I would love to be able to say, ‘leave it to me,’ and then beat her with some awesome new magic, you’re kind of our only hope.”

Shannon took a deep breath. “If it’s only pain, but not damage, I can bear it, but the only way we can win is if you give me an opportunity to cut her head off. Any other injury will just be a painful waste of time and energy.”

Like her, Daniel took a deep breath to ready himself. “Well, it’s not some awesome new magic, but… leave it to me.”

Daniel stood up and faced Andromeda. As she strode towards him, Daniel began throwing out raw chords as fast as he could, bombarding Andromeda with sound. Though it was far less helpful than an actual song for disarming her, her grimace and the way her steps slowed proved it was having an effect. However, it was still regarded as an attack, and the disorientation was being turned back on Daniel thanks to her Cursed Earth. He tried to hold on and endure, and Shannon, having regained her strength and her balance, lunged for her.

Like before, she attacked from all different angles, but all of her slashes and stabs were merely feints. Inflicting superficial wounds would do more harm than good. She had to force an opening where she could swing at Andromeda’s neck. With Andromeda distracted, Daniel slung his guitar and reached into the nearby dwarvish grandfather clock, yanking out the pendulum. To his credit, he had the sense not to scream when he went charging in, attacking Andromeda from behind, and managed to smash her on the back of the head.

Andromeda staggered and turned around to see Daniel collapsing as her pain was transferred to him. Not satisfied, she brandished her sword and stabbed him through the gut. Shannon suppressed a yelp of shock, both from Daniel’s wound and from him pulling himself further along the blade and grabbing Andromeda in a bear hug.

“Hey, pretty lady,” she said with blood running down his chin.

“Let go of me, you filthy mongrel!”

Daniel had given Shannon the opportunity she needed, and she wasn’t going to waste it. With Andromeda’s back turned and held in Daniel’s embrace, she lashed out for a decapitating strike. However, Andromeda could not be trapped so easily. She wrenched herself free of Daniel’s hold and spun around, putting him in the path of Shannon’s blade. She slowed down her blade and lowered it away from his neck, but was already past the point of being able to stop it. She ended up slashing Daniel across the back, making him scream. Andromeda kicked him off her sword and sent her knocking into Shannon, then hit them both with a charge of black lightning, sending them sprawling back and landing on the floor.

“Now you’re both going to die,” Andromeda said, standing over them and raising her sword. She then jumped to the side, narrowly dodging a blast of light shooting down the hallway. She looked up to see Seraph and Lupin arrive.

“Are you two all right?” Seraph asked.

“Where the fuck were you guys thirty seconds ago?!” Daniel shouted.

Lupin stepped past them. “The three of you, leave this to me.” He then turned Andromeda. He did not speak her name, yet she could read it on her lips.

“So, this is it, huh? This is the side you’re picking?” she asked with a scowl.

“I’m picking the side of my brother, my friends, and my country.”

“Going back to Uther, right? And, of course, the returning hero needs an epic tale of him slaying the evil Profane witch. They’ll put that crown on your head and you’ll forget all about me.”

Lupin paused to swallow the lump in his throat. “I don’t want you to die. You can believe that.” Andromeda’s expression softened, and she watched Lupin crouch down and pick up Shannon’s sword. The hallway was too narrow for him to use his whip. “But this war won’t end until the Profane are extinct. I wish I could save you from this, cure you from being one of them, but if there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that things don’t go the way you want them to. If I die here and now, at your hand, I won’t hold it against you, and I’ll go to my grave without hatred in my heart. I only hope you can say the same.”

Andromeda paused to take a deep breath, then raised her sword. “It would have been a wonderful life.”

“Yes, it would have.”

Lupin stepped forward, and Shannon sat up. “Be careful. Any pain you inflict upon her will be transferred to you.”

“After everything that has happened, there is no pain that I cannot bear.”

Lupin and Andromeda faced each other, each with heavy hearts. When they first met, they hated each other. Andromeda saw him as helpless vermin, intruding in her home, and Lupin saw her as a sadistic tyrant, watching the end of the world from her balcony. But over time, they had learned to see more in each other—the strength in Lupin and the kindness in Andromeda.

Without another word needing to be said, they both attacked, and their blades met. Again and again, they clashed and repelled each other. Andromeda was an adept swordfighter, but she was no Tysinger, while Lupin had been thoroughly trained growing up and diligently honed his combat skills all his life, but was still bound by the limits of his human body. Seraph, Shannon, and Daniel watched them duel, feeling the weight in the air. Although they did not know what had happened between the two of them, from their exchanged words, it was clear that they could not be so simply classified as enemies. The striking of their swords was not steel against steel, but steel against stone, each clash chiseling away at the multitude of possible futures they could have shared. 

The first wound was inflicted, Lupin managing to cut Andromeda across her collarbone. He winced as he bore her pain, but did not stop or slow, having come too far to quit. The next wound landed on Lupin’s leg, delivered by an elegant thrust from Andromeda. The sight and smell of fresh human blood should have excited her, whetting her thirst and appetite and making her fight even harder, but there was only pain in her eyes. Wielding Shannon’s sword, Lupin then cut Andromeda’s arm, only to notice that it didn’t heal like her other wounds. The wound on her chest wasn’t healing either. Was she restraining her Profane healing on purpose? Perhaps for the same reason she wasn’t using her lightning to defeat him. He felt her pain, but it seemed duller than before.

They continued to fight, but Lupin couldn’t help but notice that Andromeda’s movements were weakening and slowing. It wasn’t due to a lack of power; that he was sure of. Her spirit simply wasn’t in the fight. She could sense that all of her peerage were dead, leaving her house silent and empty, and she was fighting against the first man she had ever loved since becoming a Profane. The storm in her soul had cleared, and the thunder would never again roar. Finally, Lupin tackled her, slamming her into the wall and driving his sword into her heart. He gripped it with trembling hands while leaning against her, his head resting on her shoulder.

“Can you feel the pain of that sword in my heart?” she whispered as she reached up and stroked his hair.

“It’s not the sword that makes my heart hurt so much,” he replied as his tears dripped onto her chest and mixed with her blood.

“I could bite you right here and now. I could turn you. We could leave this place and find a new home, away from all this, away from Uther and the Profane, away from war and pain.”

“Do whatever you think is right.”

Andromeda pulled down the collar of his shirt to expose his neck, opening her mouth with her sharp fangs ready to pierce his skin. Watching them, Seraph stepped forward, about to intervene, but then stopped as Andromeda abstained from biting Lupin.

“You’re free now, Lupin. You can finally go home,” she murmured.

“Twice in this place, I’ve had to kill the women I fell in love with.”

He then raised his head and kissed her, and as her lips joined, Lupin took Andromeda’s sword from her. Finally, he stepped back and swung, slicing her head off. As it rolled across the floor, no one dared say anything. They were dead silent, with Lupin trying to hold in the pain. He failed and dropped to his knees, howling in anguish. His pained voice echoed through the halls of the estate, leading Valia, Cynatas, Sophia, and Foley to his location, with Roc and Cyrilo soon arriving. They all stood in silence around Lupin as he sobbed beside Andromeda’s corpse. They didn’t know who she was, or what had happened between them, but from the pain in his voice, they could assume. When he finally fell silent, Valia looked around.

“Where’s Noah?”

Where’s Noah? That same question echoed through Bella’s mind as she ran through the mansion with Alexis hot on her trail. She thought she had his scent and clung to it for dear life like a rope ladder, but the ladder kept snapping, his scent vanishing, and dropping her into a chasm of uncertainty. She knew Alexis was wrong about her Darling, that she was wrong about how much Noah loved her, but she couldn’t help but feel this itch in the back of her mind, sending shivers of unease down her spine.

Try as she might to pick up the pace and escape Alexis, she could not gather the speed she needed. The Carthace daggers had done a number on her, and even though the wounds were minor, they refused to heal and throbbed with agonizing intensity. During her rampage in Colbrand, she had managed to sprint effortlessly with one leg, but after being stabbed in the thigh by one of the black daggers, all she could do was limp. It was like she had been robbed of her Profane powers and returned to a normal person. She feared those blades, feared the one who wielded them, and her poisoned words, feeling like a wounded rabbit fleeing from a mountain lion.

Behind her, Alexis was doing her best to keep up, but it was taking everything she had not to lose track of Bella. She was inhumanly fast, and Alexis had to keep her guard raised in case any other Profane leapt out and attacked. However, in every corridor, the only Profane she found were already dead, hacked to pieces. She recognized the pattern of the deaths and the messiness involved, seeing Bella’s handiwork everywhere. After she killed the king, when all the bodies of her victims were being collected, Alexis saw up close the horror she wrought. The sight was burned into her mind, something she could never forget.

Bella had slaughtered all these ghouls, but what concerned Alexis was the timing. If Bella had done it while running from Alexis, she would have seen or at least heard it. They had been killed recently, but not so recently that the blood hadn’t started to dry. It had to have been around the start of the battle in the ballroom. But what reason would Bella have to turn on her own kind like this, especially with such precise timing, when Alexis and everyone else were trying to save the prince?

It dawned on Alexis when she remembered what Bella had said earlier. She was told not to harm Alexis or the others, and the only one who would give her such an order was Noah. When he was conducting reconnaissance and obtaining a layout of the mansion, did he encounter Bella and convince her to help them? It was certainly possible, but Alexis knew that when it came to Noah, things were never so simple. It was much more likely that they had been in league with each other for much longer, with Bella following his orders.

At the very least, Noah wouldn’t have told her to kill the king, considering the mess it caused, so they must have reunited after he returned to Colbrand, but it didn’t matter when they crossed paths, because either way, Alexis felt the fires of rage burning in her heart. Noah knew what Bella had done, knew what everyone would say about her and how they would react, and still pulled the ravenous demon into his employ. He might as well have recruited Gradius. To consort with Bella after everything she had done was an insult to Alexis and everyone else who fought her and were slain by her. How many more secrets was Noah keeping?

Up ahead, Bella perked up as she ran, finding a familiar scent. It wasn’t Noah, but Duska. She reached an intersection just as Duska flew by.

“Duska!”

“Bella!”

“I can’t find Darling!”

“Follow me! He’s activated my mark!”

Bella’s heart filled with joy, and she chased after Duska. Soon enough, she’d be reunited with her Darling and everything would be made clear. He would explain everything to his friends, and they would accept her, and she could finally be with him. What would they do then? Retire from fighting and build a warm cottage in the countryside, spending their lives in love and leisure? Or would her Darling continue adventuring, and she’d come with him, using her powers to keep him safe and make his dreams come true? Either way, the moments they’d spend together, the memories they’d share, they’d make everything worth it.

 It felt like she had spent so much of her life waiting for Noah, waiting for him to visit her at the Knight’s Sheath while he was at the academy, waiting for him to return to Colbrand after he fled the city, waiting for him to contact her and Duska, but finally, all of her patience, hard work, and secrecy would be rewarded. She’d finally get the life she dreamed of. She didn’t even care anymore if there were other women in her Darling’s life, just so long as she wouldn’t have to be apart from him anymore. When they were together, life was beautiful and the world made sense.

Beside her, Duska was thinking the same thing. They were so close to the end. Once Lupin was safe and returned to Uther, she’d be free to openly serve her master without the lies and secrecy. There would undoubtedly be conflict with Helena, but Duska would find a way to be loyal to them both. Though Helena wouldn’t like it, Noah had changed Duska’s life, for better or for worse, and she could no longer imagine life without him. Because of him, she now truly understood herself, remembering why she had become a Profane in the first place and how she had become the person she was. His cruelty, his tough love, had broken the shell around her heart, while his kindness healed her scars and reminded her what it felt like to be in love.

She had betrayed her own kind, and the mansion was filled with her slaughtered kin, but she didn’t care. If anything, she was glad they were gone. All this fighting and pain were because the Profane got ambitious and decided to wage war on the world. Duska, Helena, and Bella; once the Profane were reduced to just the three of them, they could disappear back into the shadows and be forgotten once more, living quiet, peaceful lives with Noah. Soon, it would all be over.

They eventually found him, standing over his fresh kills and extracting their venom.

“Master!”

“Darling!”

“Girls, I’ve been looking for you,” he said with a smile. They rushed over and hugged him. “I’m glad you’re both all right.”

“Please, forgive me, Master. I lost track of Lupin. We were separated when everyone shifted locations.”

“Don’t worry about it. The Cursed Earth is coming undone, and I can sense my friends. The fighting is over. Any Profane still alive are wisely retreating. You’ve both done your jobs perfectly.”

“Darling, Alexis found me. I know you told me not to do anything, but she attacked me and I had to defend myself! But then she started saying all these awful things about you, and I had to run and find you so that you could prove her wrong. She’s right behind me!”

“Don’t worry, I’ll explain everything. Once everyone knows how you two contributed, they’ll welcome you with open arms. Oh, there’s Alexis now.”

Bella and Duska both turned around, and in that moment, their heads were severed. Had Duska been beheaded by a regular sword, she could have just pulled herself back together, but the angel blood on Noah’s sword severed her link to her body and cauterized the two wounds. She couldn’t regenerate, and since it was her body that contained the bulk of her power, her head would not last long.

Their bodies collapsed as Noah cleaned their blood off his sword, but their heads still had a few moments of life in them. They stared at Noah with tears streaming from their eyes, silently demanding an answer. This couldn’t be happening. After everything he had told them, everything he had made them feel, the love and passion they thought they shared, was this really how it was going to end? Or was this the fate that awaited them from the very beginning?

“I was hoping your deaths would be instantaneous, so you would get to die hopeful. Sorry about that. Unfortunately, no one would be willing to accept the Profane as an ally, even for helping to save Lupin. You’ve both served me well, but from here on, you’re just liabilities. Duska, I appreciate your loyalty. You were an exemplary slave, and I thank you for your service. I won’t kill Helena if I can avoid it, as a reward for your obedience.

Bella, it’s a shame that things had to go the way they did, you becoming a Profane and all. I’m sorry if I said or did anything at the Knight’s Sheath to make you think we were anything other than courtesan and client. When I left Colbrand, I had hoped you’d be able to let me go and find a better life, find a man who loved you the way you deserved, but it couldn’t be me. If it’s any consolation, I did enjoy seeing you again.”

Noah then conjured his Carthace blades and stabbed Bella in the skull and other vital organs, finishing her off, with Duska succumbing to her own death just a moment later. Noah stood there, still as a statue, trying to figure out what kind of grief or remorse he was supposed to experience. Alexis then appeared around the corner, but there was no joy in her eyes when she saw Noah, nor Bella dead at his feet.

“Don’t worry, she’s dead. Finally seeing me after so long, she dropped her guard, and I managed to kill her. It’s unfortunate that—”

“Don’t,” Alexis said coldly. “I know.”

She saw it in Noah’s eyes, the façade dropping like a curtain.

“What do you know?”

“I know that you and she were working together. After everything she put us through, you still thought you could buy our forgiveness with a few good deeds? What would Seraph say if he found out you were working together secretly with the monster that killed his father? And what about Lupin?”

“Lupin already knows. He argued against it as you’d expect, but once he took a step back and looked at the bigger picture, he realized it was the right choice. He swallowed his anger and his pain so that we could save him, so we could get him back to Colbrand and change the direction of this war, because that’s what’s at stake. Should I have let him stay here and die to spare his feelings?”

“And what’s this one here?” Alexis asked, motioning to the succubus. “Another demoness you conned into serving you, thinking that no one would bat an eye because you made her into a useful tool?”

“That’s right. They were both my spies, leaking information on the Profane’s activities to me. If I hadn’t done what I did, we never would have known Lupin was still alive, let alone saved him. I’ve been going through this mansion, slaughtering the higher-level Profane thanks to the intel she gave me on their abilities. You really think I’d start this battle without proper information and planning? This victory is thanks to them.”

“How much do you think you can get away with just by—”

“They’re dead, Alexis! It’s done! Get over it! They were assets that I utilized to get the job done, and then they became loose ends that I tied off! What more do you want from me? I served you both Lupin and the Profane on a silver platter, but you still want something to get upset about. You can preach and argue as much as you want, but nothing will change. They’re dead because I killed them.”

Alexis bit her lip and averted her eyes. Noah had never yelled at her before. They’d had plenty of disagreements, but this was the first time Alexis did something that actually angered him. It was a strange, uncomfortable feeling, but she wouldn’t back down just because he raised his voice.

“They loved you, didn’t they? I know Bella did. In her own messed-up way, she loved you with all her heart, and you used her feelings to get her to do your dirty work. And this one here, I bet you played with her emotions the same way, made her think you loved her, made her believe in a happily ever after so that she would betray her own kind.”

“And yet the events of today will reverberate throughout history. This battle, rescuing Lupin—what we’ve done here may have just won us the war and saved this world, and every living being that calls it home. Are you really going to weigh their lives and feelings against the whole world, after calling them monsters and demons? You’re going to hate and condemn them, and then turn around make them the poster children for how evil I am? Either they were soulless, irredeemable monsters, or they were innocent women I took advantage of to fulfill my goals, but they can’t be both.”

“Did you tell them you loved them? The same way you say you love Valia? Or Shannon? Or Elisandra? Does that word actually mean anything to you anymore? After this, any time you tell Valia that you love her, all I’m going to imagine is what happened to these women who were told the same thing, and I’ll have to swallow my fear that you’ll do the same thing to her the moment things go south.” Alexis then held up the Carthace daggers and tossed them aside. “I wonder what kind of weapon you’d make, using Valia’s corpse.”

“Are you really going to make such a false equivalence just to justify being angry at me? You wanted to kill Bella, and I stole your thunder. I ruined your defining, heroic moment, so now you want my head on a pike instead, so that you’ll get the victory I cheated you out of. All you’re doing is arguing over corpses and trying to paint everything in the worst possible light, and for what? What do you hope to accomplish? Lupin’s safe, the Profane are dead, and everyone that Bella killed has been avenged. How is that still not enough for you?”

Alexis gave a bitter laugh. “You’re right. You’re completely right. I’m just wasting my time and energy arguing with you about this, because no matter what I say, you’re never going to change. It’s 7000 years too late for that. Just tell me one thing, Noah. Lying to us, hiding your master plan, manipulating these two, making them fall in love with you, and then killing them without remorse, all this just to win… was it a hard decision? Or your first instinct?”

Noah paused and took a deep breath. “It was easy, but I truly wish it wasn’t.”

Alexis shook her head and turned away. “We should rejoin the others.”

“Are you going to tell them?” Noah asked.

“What would it accomplish?” she countered without looking at him.

She didn’t bother to wait for him and set off. As with Carthace, Noah harvested pieces of Bella that could be used to create powerful weapons and tools, then used one of his tralt gems to incinerate her remains and remove any last chance of her survival. Once his work was completed, he went off after Alexis. Following their bells, they reunited with Lupin and the others. Now that everyone was together once more, sighs of relief were made by all.

“Lupin, glad to see you’re still in one piece,” Noah said, shaking his hand. He then looked over to Andromeda. “My condolences.”

“You knew?” Lupin as wearily.

“I saw the way you looked at her when I pulled you away, and your grief is written all over your face. It’s not a sin to bond with your captor, nor a sign of weakness, disloyalty, or anything else you might think.”

“Bella is dead,” Alexis then said bitterly.

“Well, I can’t say I’m sad about that,” Lupin sighed.

“Good riddance to that she-beast. It’s just a shame I couldn’t kill her myself and avenge our father,” Seraph muttered.

“I also killed that split-jaw ghoul you two encountered earlier. Thanks for leaving him alive for me.”

“Knowing you, he got what he deserved. Anyway, we should get out of here,” said Seraph.

“Wait, Noah, Ziradith is here,” Lupin then announced, surprising everyone.

“What? How is that possible?” Cyrilo asked.

“She must have somehow survived the dungeon crab emergence in Colbrand and was taken prisoner by the Profane,” Noah pondered.

“Not just taken prisoner, but welcomed as a guest of honor. She’s pregnant with Galvin’s child and offered it to them so that they might use it to control and then corrupt the Wassengel. Then, she’ll be turned into a Profane.”

Lupin’s words shocked and reviled everyone.

“With her own son? I’m going to need to do some heavy drinking to forget what you just said,” Foley grimaced.

“We can’t leave here until we’re sure she’s dead. She’s too dangerous to be allowed to live, and she has too many crimes to answer for,” said Lupin.

“Agreed. Let’s do one last sweep of the mansion and see if we can find her, as well as any Profane stragglers.”

“There is a bat fiend somewhere out there that we need to be careful of,” said Roc. “He’s fast, strong, and nearly impervious to paladin attacks.”

“He’ll meet the same fate as the others,” said Noah. The group then set out to extinguish the remaining Profane embers. However, those embers were gathering in the dungeons below the estate. Ragar, Miasmarda, Ziradith, and several surviving ghouls and fiends moved past prison cells and torture chambers. Ragar had his skeletal daughters close by his side, and one of the ghouls was also carrying Helena on her back, still unconscious from Noah’s sedative.

“Are you sure he can get the job done?” Miasmarda hissed.

“Most certainly,” said Ziradith. “Curcio slaved away to make him the ultimate Profane, even stronger than Scyler. However, I strongly suggest we not be close by once he’s set loose.”

“Let’s just get him to the surface and let him do what he does best. I had the idea to use him as part of our scorched earth tactic, and this seems like a perfect field test. The Wandering Spirit and his friends will pay for what they have done, and Uther will lose its princes. Congratulations, Ziradith. You and your child are about to become far more valuable to us.”

“I just hope I get to watch them die,” she muttered.

They arrived at a chamber at the end of the hall, where a massive steel coffin rested, large enough to entomb a wyvern. Its design was similar to containers for nuclear waste, but still, so much dark energy was flowing from it that Ziradith had to keep her distance. There were handles along the sides so it could be moved, but it took the combined strength of all the ghouls and fiends in Ragar’s employ to lift it. Simply by being close enough to carry it, their clothes were disintegrated and their flesh molted from the radiating malevolence. They hissed and snarled in pain, but obeyed Ragar and helped carry it out of the dungeon. They brought it up to the ballroom, and as soon as they set it down, Ragar’s subordinates collapsed, struggling to breathe, with their bodies wasting away.

Ragar looked around the great hall. “Andromeda truly loved this place. It’s a damn shame.” He then turned to a combination lock on the side of the coffin and entered the number sequence to unlock it. The opening process was slow, with several mechanisms and hatches inside clicking as they opened. “It’s done. We need to move, now!”

They ran off to reach a safe distance, and soon, Noah and the others arrived at the ballroom, following the aura of Profane power. However, the moment they laid their eyes on the slowly opening coffin and felt the evil emanating from it, they all shared the same instinct: run.

“Out of the mansion, now!” Noah shouted.

Without another word, they turned around and sprinted away from the ballroom as fast as they could. None of them knew what was in the box, but they knew that its opening would unleash a level of destruction they could not hope to compete with. As always, Noah had a theory as to what was inside, and like so many of his theories, he desperately hoped he was wrong. The first window they found, they smashed open and climbed through, escaping outside and continuing to sprint. They raced through the gardens surrounding the mansion and reached the stairs leading down the mountainside. Roc took the sky with Cynatas, knowing that Umbra would likely come after him, but he had to get her away from the mansion as fast as he possibly could. Umbra called himself Curcio’s masterpiece, but that was only because, unlike this new threat, he wasn’t as great a threat to his creator as he was to his foes.

As everyone ran down the stone steps as fast as they could, just maintaining enough control to keep from tripping, it happened. The coffin fully opened, and in that instant, black flames rushed throughout the entire mansion, filling every corridor and room, and in the next moment, it was all disintegrated in a thunderous explosion. The whole estate was reduced to ash as a mushroom cloud was spawned by the dark power. The mountain now looked more like an erupting volcano. Noah and his friends ducked down as low as they could as a titanic shockwave swept across the mountain and the surrounding areas, shredding stone and erasing all life with hurricane force. It felt like they were hiding from the shockwave of a Wassengel blast.

Up above, Roc grabbed Cynatas, using his wings to shield them both from the corrosive mana that filled the sky. His feathers were scorched by the blast, and the tumultuous air force made it impossible for him to fly, sending them plummeting to the ground. If not for Cynatas activating her wind powers to slow their descent, they would have fallen to their deaths, but seeing the condition of Roc’s wings and hearing the pain in his voice filled her with worry.

Eventually, the explosion died down, but everyone was left coughing and sick from the Profane fallout, which had poisoned the air just like when Kaisen exploded at Welindar. Toxic mana was falling from the sky, killing that which the flaming shockwave had not reached. Seraph used his powers to purify the air and protect everyone, with Cynatas doing the same for Roc further down the mountain.

“Andromeda’s collection. All that art, all those books and antiques, collected and cultivated over the centuries… gone,” Lupin whispered.

Cyrilo and Sophia shared his pain. In between moments of chaos and combat, they had noticed Andromeda’s extensive assortment of cultural pieces and had silently admired her taste and dedication to preserving such priceless treasures. Her book collection could have been the foundation of their reborn literature program. For so much art, history, and knowledge to be lost was a tragedy beyond words.

“What the fuck was that?” Foley asked.

“I’ll check it out,” said Noah.

He dispatched his clone, sending it climbing back up the stairs to investigate the ruins. Surveying his surroundings through its eyes and ears, he reached the mansion, where nothing was left behind but a sea of rubble, burning with black flames. All that remained standing was the one who unleashed it.

“Gradius,” Noah cursed.

The former gold knight had been missing since the Colbrand battle, assumed dead, but his remains had never been found. It seemed now the mystery had been solved, with Gradius being captured by the Profane and turned. His armor, once used to contain his destructive powers, appeared to have fused with his body, turning black as charcoal, with dark flames streaming out of every opening. The only part it didn’t cover was his left pectoral, exposing his molted skin, and with it, the mark of Byrnstoir, the God of Fire. However, the mark had been overwritten, with the Rune of Corruption stamped over it.

Noah had heard that Gradius and Tarnas were considered equals in almost all categories, and now it made sense. Gradius had been an Emissary, same as Tarnas and Seraph, but now that divine power had been twisted into the ultimate Profane weapon. Fueled by his rage and insanity, Gradius’s unholy might had the potential to grow almost without limit.

Gradius, having destroyed the mansion, raised his fists and howled at the sky, causing a tornado of black flames to surge up and stir the clouds. He then turned and spotted Noah’s clone, and for a moment, Noah’s instincts told him that even while looking through this clone, he was in danger. He’d regret not listening to those instincts. Gradius snarled in fury, seemingly having lost all sense of coherent thought. The burning tornado was absorbed back into his body, being condensed within his helmet.

He took a step forward and unleashed a blast of black fire from his helmet, similar to the laser he used in the past. However, this one was far more powerful and expanded upon its release, enveloping Noah’s clone and erasing it, similar to paladin magic. Down on the stone steps, Noah suddenly writhed in agony, feeling like Gradius’s black flames were burning him away, layer by layer. He had never felt pain through his clone before, and this felt like it was scorching his very soul.

Everyone raised their heads in shock and horror as Gradius’s blast soared across the sky, striking a nearby mountain and burning a hole straight through it, several hundred feet in diameter. It carved through several mountains like hot steel through a snowbank, continuing to soar higher and higher due to the planet’s curvature and reaching the vacuum of space.

“What the fuck is going on?!” Daniel exclaimed.

“It’s Gradius, he’s been turned into a Profane,” Noah grimaced, still lingering with the after effects of the juggernaut’s attack. “He’s now as powerful as an angel. None of us can hope to defeat him. We need to get out of here, NOW!”

Nothing more needed to be said. Noah and his friends raced down the mountain steps, collecting Cynatas and the wounded Roc on the way. They reached their horses and hurriedly got into their saddles, kicking them into a full gallop. They set out as fast as they could, seeking to escape Gradius. They had succeeded in rescuing Lupin and breaking the back of the Profane operation, but considering what they were running from, this new monster unleashed upon the world, they felt more fear than relief.

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