Solomon said, “There is no reason to harm them. Let them overcome with their own will.”

As he finished his words, a dollop of drool drained from Ara’s gaping mouth. Her head twitched several times before I said, “Oh yes, they look more than able in that regard.”

Solomon sent me a look of disapproval before Krakowah stood from her paralysis. Her head hung low. In a granite voice louder than war, Krakowah said, “I first thought it was a fluke, but no, someone is here taking away from parts of me. What is your aim?”

I replied, “Care if I ask a question first?”

“State it.”

Solomon gasped with disbelief as I asked, “How are you controlling Krakowah?”

“She entangled her soul in mine.”

I replied, “And Solomon did not?”

“Yes. He resisted the joining. Now answer me.”

I stated, “I'm taking the fragments of your soul back from the surface. They're causing problems.”

And Krakowah’s face morphed into a mask of skepticism before she said, “Hmmm. I couldn't regain them from the humans. How are you doing so?”

I shrugged before saying, “A little force with a pinch of deception.”

She turned to Aether as she said, “I see this must be the force. How did your undertaking fail? You and I could have coexisted.”

Aether said, “What?”

A haunting laughter escaped Krakowah’s throat before she said, “You must have forgotten. You are old. I shouldn’t feel surprise at the discovery.” She turned towards me and said, “You are too young to have forgotten, however. What is your undertaking, fledgling?”

I sighed before saying, “I’m as confused as Aether. Hell, maybe more.”

Krakowah stared at me with a blank, empty expression for several seconds before saying, “Are you...human?”

I tapped my temple as I said, “More or less, though I’m not quite normal.”

Krakowah stood tall before she said, “You humans have been quite unstable. So I can’t allow a false eldritch to run amok. If you harness your function, you will become annoying.”

I said, “I’m a little disappointed. Am I not already?”

She nodded before saying, “Perhaps a little. Now stand still.”

The blue fire flared on her fist before Krakowah shot her fist towards me. The attack met metal as Aether blocked Krakowah’s fist with his palm, crushing her knuckles against his invincible body. Cracking bones and splitting skin gushed around us. A mild displeasure etched onto Krakowah’s face as she said,

“You are protecting him?”

Aether replied, “Yes.”

She replied, “Well, that complicates things.”

She turned towards Solomon and Ara as she said, “Are you his allies as well?”

Solomon and Ara slammed their knees onto the cobblestone road as the stammered, “No, your grace.”

Krakowah nodded before laying her fingertips onto the edge of his face as she said, “You rejected me before. Will you now accept me?”

With tears in his eyes, Solomon shook as he choked, “I...I would do anything.”

I rasped, “Even after what I told you? Even after learning who deformed you and your family?”

Solomon’s eyes met mine as the icy cold of before heated into a familiar warmth. The tops of his cheeks creased as the stripe of visible face smiled, knowing and sincere as always. His eyes closed as Solomon said,

“I’ve waited for three hundred years, Jericho. You can’t turn the tides of fate with a few words, but thank you...You were a son to me, if only for a few days. You gave me a spot of sunshine in this gray life of mine.”

I grit my teeth as I snarled, “She is no god. She is the corrupter of worlds. You will become a broken doll. A hollow, empty plaything of hers.”

My words sliced through the air between us like swallowing shards of a broken sword. Solomon replied,

“I remember when my last daughter died so long ago. She was 89 years old, heaving on her deathbed. I can recall watching her convulse in agony, sweat pouring down her forehead. A dreadful fever left her hot to the touch. Do you know what I was thinking the entire time?”

After a moment of silence, Solomon continued, “I thought to myself, ‘Please don’t go.’ She was only a tightly wound ball of pain, yet I wanted her to stay with me. I believe those feelings are much like your own. Don’t let them consume you like they consumed me.”

I ripped my words, “You want me to forget? To let all the misery melt away? I swallowed a darkness, and it grows in me. I leave that dark wherever I go, and you want to glow bright in that dusk? You want to shine in Gaia’s false light while I bask in blackness?”

Solomon’s peace cracked as he held no answers. He stayed mute, so right as Gaia tapped into his soul, I glowered at him. Wayward and wicked, I said,

“You want to burn bright in the wake of my shadow?”

“I’ll swallow you whole.”

Razor landed beside me as she said, “Sounding more like The Darkened One now, aren’t you?”

My voice dulled as I said, “Everything’s just a different shade of gray. Mine happens to be a bit darker than the others is all.”

She shrugged before razor replied, “It doesn’t really matter to me, but you may alienate Joan and Sophia at this rate.”

I frowned before I turned to Razor and said, “Why haven’t you joined Gaia’s side yet? I thought you’d do so once she exposed herself.”

Razor replied, “Well that’s insulting. I’m more than just an animal, you know.”

I nodded before a slight smile crept up my lips as Razor continued, “I’ve a culture and...What brightened your mood?”

I said, “An unexpected surprise.”

As I finished my words, Krakowah’s fingers dug into the side of Solomon’s temple. The squirming squish of sound made my stomach sink faster than a roofed tile that hits your head on the way down. I ran forward before Razor lifted me from my shoulders as she said,

“Let’s let Aether handle this. You need to get that remnant.”

I frowned as we lifted like swooping falcon.

Ignoring her complaints, I watched from above as Solomon’s skin regrew into the dull yellow from a sickly green. The wrinkles disappeared from around his eyes as the mounds of meat scattered across his face remolded into smooth, strong features. His armor bent as his chest and arms and legs expanded until the metal cracked open.

Solomon pulled the plates off, rupturing the metal with ease. As the silver scales scattered on the cobblestone, a chorus of clanks resonated. I was glad for the white noise since the sound of grinding bones and slopping gums hurt my ears. Just as quickly as the monstrous lines and humps of Solomon’s deformed frame became clear, they evaporated.

Lumps of contorting muscle that pushed his bones from their sockets readjusted into a stable physique. His joints realigned. His hands turned from calloused bricks into lithe limbs capable of holding a pen instead of only club. Teeth that jutted from his lip and cheeks receded and adjusted. The wisps of gray hair turned to a white mane that fell down his shoulders.

Sweat dripped off him before he raised his head, and his noble voice fit him as he said, “I feel young again.”

Krakowah nodded as Gaia said through her, “I can’t have my servants so disorganized. You wouldn’t be able to fight this eldritch then.”

Solomon lunged upwards as he said, “Of course, your grace.”

She pointed at Aether as she said, “Kill it then kill that other one.”

Solomon pounded his chest, booming a sound like giant drum before he said, “Of course. I’ll rip them apart.”

“Good.”

At her last word, Krakowah’s body wilted into a pile on the ground. After a second or so, she raised her head and glanced around, confusion painted across her face. She said, her voice normal, “What the fuck just happened?”

Solomon placed a hand on her shoulder as he said, “You harbored a peice of Gaia within you. She spoke with us and restored me. She commanded we kill them.”

Krakowah nodded before standing. She smashed her fists together before saying, “Then let’s get to it.”

My blood boiled at their lack of concern over their decisions. In an instant, both of them had no concerns over killing me. All our time spent together became null, like a void replaced their memories.

My teeth grinded as Solomon said, “You two kill the other one. I’ll handle this behemoth.”

Aether stepped forward as he said, “You will not.”

Ara and Krakowah leapt towards Razor and I before Solomon charged Aether and smashed his fist into Aether’s waiting hand. A shockwave shot the metal scales outwards like a heavy hailstorm. A sound louder than an eruption passed through me before echoing off Nelastra’s barrier. The stone under Solomon’s feet crushed to powder. Blood poured from his hand as the bare bone of his exposed knuckles grinded on Aether’s unmoving hand.

Aether said, “Is that it then?”

Solomon pulled the fist back before grabbing his shield from the cracked cobble and smashing the thousand pound slab of iron into Aether’s side. The shield collapsed around Aether as the metal squealed like a banshee before Solomon reared back and slammed the iron into Aether again.

The shield split in two before Solomon cupped the leftover plate in his right hand and slapped the steel against Aether’s temple. The crisp clap collided with deafening boom that left a sharp ringing in my ears as Aether stumbled sideways. Rather than Aether fumbling from damage, the ground had collapsed beneath him, causing him to lose balance.

Even though Aether’s invincibility ensured his victory, Solomon could stretch out the conflict for at least a few minutes by decimating the nearby terrain. Razor just idled as she gazed at the tremendous conflict, keeping us afloat. I snapped her from her trance as I said,

“We need to get to the remnant. I won’t be able to fight after absorbing it, and I doubt I could do so if I fought Krakowah and Ara. Come now, let’s go.”

She nodded before we darted across the tops of buildings with the sounds of clashing titans behind us. As I turned around, the chapel in my name collapsed while a molten chain wrapped around a brick chimney. The interlocked links snapped taut before Krakowah leapt onto a ceiling.

She brandished her chains as though they were extensions of herself as she whipped and pulled herself across each rooftop. Ara followed behind her as she crawled along a growing pillar of pink ice. She held two hooks in each hand, long as crowbars that she stabbed and pulled herself forward. They traveled far faster than I ever imagined they would, so I snapped,

“We must go faster.”

Razor replied, “Then I’ll slice through the wind, little one.”

Blades sprouted from her, literally cutting the air ahead of us as we gained speed towards the central well of the city. A wind crashed pushed against me as buildings shot past us from below. Like the winding of a snake, hills moved up and down, as if the very ground were alive. After a mere minute of our flight, we reached the palisade’s headquarters with white marble gleaming.

An enormous, Aether-sized hole jutted from the side of a collapsed wall. We swooped through the gap before entering a well of red in every direction. The slivers of several guards painted the walls crimson while their organs rotted across the floor. Clean cross sections gave a perfect view of the human anatomy as we passed, proving the lethality of Razor’s weapons.

Rats ran towards shadows as we passed, their feasting interrupted by our intrusion. Broken furniture piled in defensive lines, useless against either Aether or Razor or I. Long, winding gash marks carved into the walls while chips of rock and even boulders laid across the hallways.

An eerie stillness chilled the air, leaving the whole area cold and lifeless, besides the rats. Gems lit the each hallway with a melody of different shades, but Deluge absorbed the glittering souls as we passed. In a tangible sense, we were finally living up to our nickname of The Darkened One.

After we finished spreading darkness and all that, we reached a damp room stuffed with pipes and gages. The far off sound of water hinted at why the gap beneath Nelastra existed. Such a large gap in defenses needed a powerful reason for existing, but it proved a basic need - water.

These pipes pumped countless gallons of spring water from a spring beneath us, giving Nelastra water as it needed it. This is why we could attack from an angle of surprise. This network allowed our plan’s ongoing success.

Other sounds leaked into the roar of rushing water. Clashing swords and sticks. Snapping bones and clapping of iron against iron. Pained howls and shouts of victory. Beneath us was a war between two forces. As we swept down an angled tunnel towards the noise, I asked,

“How did you and Aether leave this much of a mess behind?”

Razor replied, “They thought Aether was a member of the palisade’s golem army. They didn’t trust me really, but they believed in Aether.” She giggled. “It’s funny how firmly they believed that the tribes lacked the intelligence to craft a golem, especially considering how effective the tribes were.”

I nodded in reply. Nelastrian’s held a great pride in their heritage which bolstered their ambition, but it left them arrogant. Chaining and other advanced techniques could cause havoc in the body, but so could a wooden club caving in your chest. Crossbows with aerodynamic designs could plunge through a man’s skull, but so can a stone spear.

The three tribes could easily crush Nelastra without the saint’s assistance. Their soldiers evolutions left them able as an army of demons. Whenever we lowered into the chasm, their effectiveness became apparent.

The cave sported a pit of magma at its center. A wall of black metal separated the glowing lava with a set of four pipes, each large enough for a man to stand in. The black, ropey rock surrounding this pit offered the battleground for the tribes and chainers. There last stand took place here.

Walls of wooden spikes covered in corpses pointed towards a new opening, the broken rock a more vivid gray than the older rock surrounding it. Dozens of maces and spears and even bows stuck out of dozens of corpses. The sweltering heat drained any stamina and left the air thick and hard on the lungs. Patches of the black shell covering the magma lay opened, leaving a gentle orange glow on the scene. Long shadows let the imagination wonder, turning even normal faces sinister. The globbing of lava left a constant reminder of how close death was wherever you stood.

The more sane members of the tribes roamed around killing any stragglers left over from their battle. The less human ones carved off trophies like scalps and teeth and noses. A small portion even ate the human corpses. I’ve done the same, but not in the eyesight of others. It reduces moral, to say the least.

A small pocket of the palisade continued fighting near the back, beside a sealed doorway. A battalion of shield bearers guarded a row of chainers behind them as they crafted pyres of ice and spikes of earth. Several cracked rock underneath approaching tribesmen, others flew overhead, using wings and swords of light. The whole scene felt surreal, like walking through a garden with death.

Reality set as one of the chainers screamed towards us,

“Thank Gaia, there’s Saint Jericho. We held on!”

I sighed sadly before I spoke towards Razor, “Let me down at the edge.”

She let me go from under my arms, and I fell downwards beside a bloodied line of wooden pikes. The black rock beneath me cracked and crumbled before I walked towards the fighting tribesmen. When I landed, the fighting stopped as the resonating thump of my landing left the battle still.

The forgotten eased aside while I walked past them, their bloodied gazes transfixed. The chainers stared in surprise before Deluge gre my arms out till they dragged on the stone floor like chains. A spike grew from my palms and the tips of my fingers. The chainers stood stunned, so I whipped an enlarged hand around a man’s chest using my right arm.

The man gurgled blood for only a moment before the pressure crushed him. The officer leading the defense shouted, “Fight, you cowards.”

Before they could retaliate, I crushed another man with my left arm. Wielding the corpses as clubs, I slung the balls of metal and meat in my hands, pulverizing the crowd of chainers. The violent, extreme speed of my blows crumbled chests and ripped through limbs. I stole life with these carcasses, pounding them to powder.

Razor used enormous blades that dart through thick slices of soldiers. Clean cross sections became clear before fountains of crimson sprayed through the air. The choking cries of the dying danced in the air. The red rain doused a dark red atop every body, leaving dripping torrents of thick, coagulating blood on every surface.

Razor laughed like a spawn from hell while we disposed of the palisade. As much as I’d like denying it, I relished in their torment. These people destroyed my life by ripping it apart. Now I’d reply in kind, though in a more physical form.

A few chainers survived my assault, so the pained moans of the fading filled the cavern. As one of the strongest members grabbed my ankle, I turned as he spit, “Why? Why did you betray us?”

I leaned close as I said, “I’m not quite a saint, as you’ve seen. I’m more a monster in human skin.”

A tribeswoman stomped his chest, spewing blood out of the man’s nose and mouth and into his eyes. The thick coat covered my face before I stood, blinking the gunk out of my eyes. As I glanced down at the woman, she trembled before I laid a hand on her shoulder and leaned close. I said,

“Now is the time for violence. Well done. What is your name?”

She trembled before she whispered in a heavy, hoarse voice, “I am known as Maeve.”

I frowned as I said, “You’ve lost many members of your family, haven’t you?” She nodded before I continued, “Remember, these are the demons who tore them from you. We’ll find many of the missing above here, if you search with the others.”

She gasped as Deluge absorbed the blood from my face, clearing my complexion. With a glowing grin, I said, “Keep your humanity. Give the innocent mercy and the weak kindness. Lead the others in finding your fallen, but know this. Now is the time for violence, but the time for peace will come later.”

She nodded, her attention rapt. I stood tall before shouting, “You are free from your oppressors. You may live without unrelenting mutation or horrors lurking in the trees. The city of Nelastra is yours now, but how will you take it?”

The faces around me glanced back and forth before I said, “Will you kill the kind? Will you bathe in cruelty or live with malice crawling from your insides like a skin of maggots?”

I roared after a short pause, “No. Do not live like your oppressors. Rise above them. Show them your humanity with compassion. Give their lies no ground to stand on. Fight against the divisive. Embrace your freedom, but do not take it from others.”

An old, angry voice snapped between my words, “They don’t deserve a damn thing from us.”

I replied, “Then neither do any of us deserve from them. Remember why we came here. To end the tyranny of the palisade and cease Gaia’s corruption, not to kill a city. That being said-”

As the last guard of the palisade gurgled on his liquefied organs, I stomped his skull to mush. The slop scattered across the ground like a thick, pulpy paste. I said, “Show no member of the palisade mercy. Kill them all. Bathe in their blood.”

I took the silence as an agreement, so I turned before I said to Razor, “Would you mind opening the door.”

She nodded before partially evolving her hands into her full form. She gouged her claws between a lockless plate of iron before leveraging her claws like crowbars. The metal howled as it bent and crumpled before Gaia’s energy exploded from the hole. A gray mush covered the inside of the door. The substance blocked the energy, not the iron.

Pushing myself up with stretched arms, I leapt up before hooking a hand into the crevice she created. Deluge melted our body before I pushed myself through the gap. Razor followed not far behind before I fell onto the floor like a sack of flour. I laid on the ground for a second before Razor floated beside me and quietly murmured,

“Why did you fight. You didn’t have to. I could have killed them all.”

I sighed, my breath scattering a thick layer of dust. I welcomed the coming cold of the floor beneath me. A subtle breeze brushed on my back before I murmured, “I wanted to add some umph to my speech. I think it worked well.”

“Why would you want more umph?”

“So that I may save Nelastra from genocide. I never wanted to kill every citizen. I never wanted to create a rebellion. In the end, I just wanted to help people. I haven’t forgotten that yet.”

Razor giggled as I raised a hand, and she dragged me towards the remnant. A mushy gray substance covered the walls and the pipes on the far side of the wall. Hundreds of mechanical pipes dug into a clear, crystal plate.

Liquid energy flooded into the barrier in waves. This fragment released enough radiation that my eyes watered and my nose bled. Razor shined in the glow, feasting on the outpour of energy. Pushing my hands through the gray putty, I lifted myself slowly, like lifting lead. After I stood, Deluge said,

“This remnant contains far more energy than either of the other remnants. You won’t be able to control it with what’s left of your feeble mind.”

I nodded before saying, “Sometimes, we choose our fate. Sometimes, we’ve already chosen. Let’s get this over with. I’m so tired.”

Deluge grumbled, “Avoid letting your mind crumble. I’d lose all confidence without your weakness here for comparison.”

I grinned as I said, “I’d miss you too.”

Deluge grumbled before I stepped beside the remnant. I breathed deep before slicing my hand through the gray mush covering the alexandrite. As my hand touched the crystal, I crumbled.

Arcs of electricity ripped out of my skin, darting across the room like weaving branches. My blood evaporated. My muscles tensed until the little blood left squeezed from me like a squeezing a rag. The lightning left long lines of open wounds and burned flesh behind them. My hand clasped onto the gem like a curse, gorging my body with immeasurable force.

My tendons tore and my bones snapped. The radiation vibrated through me, turning my body to a sloppy, slimy jell. My conscious lept in and out of my skull. Every piece of my existence burned until ashen embers remained. My soul brimmed and burst. My will decayed and crumbled.

No amount of will could overcome such agony. No amount of perseverance could stomach such pain. I cried like a newborn baby, but my tears choked in fire and my cries drowned in lightning. Like cut open guts, I laid bare and open for all to see. Every part of me wasted away until a slate of white remained. Even with all my experience dealing with pain, I’d never felt anything of equal caliber. Time ceased as every piece of existence fell into a single, penetrating point - torment.

Yet when, where, or how the pain ended, I still don’t understand. Pain like that, it never ends. It tears parts of your mind away, replacing the missing parts with an enduring fear. Like rain, memories of that moment come, ruin my day, then leave me cold and wet and alone.

Yet the surge left me. Every muscle had ruptured, every bone left splintered. All my skin burned and split and cauterized like a leather shoe forced through a meatgrinder. My hand dropped from the remnant, black as night and brittle as chalk. Deluge whispered in my mind,

“The portion of Gaia’s mind jumped into our subconscious without a fight.”

My body crinkled like a lump of petrified wood. Razor floated over, her hands clasped against her head as she cried,

“What just happened? Are you alright? What am I saying, the child’s a piece of charred coal.”

She laid her hands on my thin, crumpling back. As her smooth palms touched my skin, the cells across my back shot outward like needles. Draining her, they slowly sucked out her insides for a moment before she ripped her hands away. Blue ooze poured from her hands before Deluge came into conscious. My mind receded into the subconscious where I licked my wounds. Deluge cracked his fingers into fists as I faded into the black.

And so I came into conscious. My body numb, I rose like a shambling, flakey piece of jerky. I said like leather, “What just happened?”

Both hurt and relieved, Razor said, “You exploded in a giant ball of white for several minutes before trying to drink me.”

I turned towards the sound of her voice, bits of skin falling from me. Blind and nearly deaf, I said, “I’m sorry Razor.”

Using the flat edges of two claws, she lifted me into the air as she rose. She replied, “I thought you died.”

In a whimpering whisper, I replied, “No, I did. My body revived itself. I was lucky.”

She tore the remnant from the canister and pipes before taking the remnant from the wall. We slid through the gap she leveraged as a pounding noise raged in my ears. In the edge of the room, Krakowah pummeled a tribesmen into cream with her chains. Razor set me onto a pile of corpses at the center of the room as Krakowah roared,

“Nelastra is no more. The barrier is gone. The palisade is destroyed. Our king is dead, and you’ve even taken our god from us. You monster.”

As tubes grew from my body and invaded the bodies beneath me, I said, my voice dry,

“And so the city you built on the backs of slaves and the bones of lost children has received my judgment. The palisade has received retribution for their crimes.”

The sickening sound of draining blood and flaying skin and moving meat echoed off the cavern walls along with my voice,

“Now you ignore your crimes and feign justice. Is enslaving countless humans in golems and letting them labor not enough? You needed the young and weak of the tribes for experiments as well, even after gouging their lives for your own needless luxury.”

Another set of arms jutted from my back as my strength revived. Like a monster rising from the corpses of their allies, I bloated off the decay beneath me until I brimmed with material. Using these substances, I rebuilt my body until a heaving monster drooled in front of them.

Yet another odd aura emanated from me. The energy of the barrier caused a strange reaction with Jack’s soul. Over time, his soul had steeled into a dense metal of energy, reflective of his iron clad will. However, instead of condensing into a single, finite point, it dispersed throughout his entire body now.

Like a haze of steel, his soul rooted into every pore of his skin and every blood cell in his body. It gave access to a unique usage for the souls I stored. Sophia and I hypothesized using the souls I carried for empowerment since long ago, but they would destabilize my flesh. Without any means of controlling the will of the souls, my body would deform into an abomination within seconds, just as Petra’s had.

With Jack’s soul dispersed throughout our flesh, I could use it as a net that holds the souls of others within our body. Just as Petra before us, we would use the innate tenacity of a human spirit for strengthening our body, yet without the horrific consequences.

So I tested five souls spread evenly through this body of ours. The results were palpable.

Like Razor, a subtle gow emanated from my skin. Unlike Razor, the glow devoured the light around me. The aura blurred the air, and just like the remnants, a radiation ebbed as well, though with far less power. Unlike my own consolidation, Jack’s soul controlled them within our body, not our mind. The soul’s will had become flesh.

Controlling the five souls still required intense focus, but with practice, something like this would become second nature. In a few years, we would be able to use hundreds if not thousands of souls at a time. In decades, we may stand as strong as Aether. For now, we stood strong as doors of stone.

Ara snapped, “Now you reveal your true form, Darkened One. Enough with the lies. I’ll snap your blood apart as it freezes.”

An excited, sharp laugh escaped me before I said, “And I’ll sip on the sweet, succulent taste of your marrow miss Bloodglacier.”

Krakowah screamed, “I trusted you.” She whipped a chain through the air that slapped flesh from my face. She took another step forward as she said, “We trusted you.” She snapped another lumbering blow across my cheek, the chain etching out my skin. She whipped both her chains into the air, streaking like thunder as she roared, “And you betrayed us.”

Before the hooked pikes stabbed into my flesh, I grabbed the chains with both my hands. After gritting my teeth, I roared, “You betrayed me.”

Confusion snapped onto her face as I pulled the chain an arm’s length closer as I said, “I told you how Gaia has poisoned all that surrounds us.” I pulled her another arm’s length closer as I said, “I showed you how the palisade decimated what their church stands for.” I pulled her another arm’s length. “I opened my soul to you and Solomon.” Another pull. “I showed you my family, and let you meet me for who I really am.” Another length, “I spoke of the injustice your kind commits to the tribes, and of your faith’s true evil.”

With another pull, she reached within an arm’s length, so I lifted her from the ground with a single hand. I pulled her face close, mirroring my own deformed maw as I said, “Yet you chose to give your soul to a faceless, unforgiving god instead of believing this masked monster. You chose to embrace what you’ve known. To take a path that is easy and simple, instead of taking the thorny path leading to retribution.”

I glanced downward as I whispered, “You abandoned Jack for an empty promise.”

My arm shook like a tree in a storm before I tossed her aside. Krakowah cracked the black rock around her before Ara howled, “You and your words. Beasts shouldn’t speak. They should sit down and die.”

I snarled back, “Sorry to disappoint you, but I already have.”

She rose her arms, her white and silver chainmail clapping on her wrists as three shards of red ice formed over her head. Slinging her arms, she lobbed each of them towards me like bullets of red. I slapped the first aside, the shard shattering with a crisp crash of sound. Turning my hips, I grabbed another from mid air before clapping the shard into the other, creating a cascade of orange ice.

Stomping the ground beneath me with my right foot, I snapped up an enormous plate of basalt covering the magma. Exposed lava lit the cavern in an orange light as I stepped my left foot forward before torquing my hips and forcing the plate to move.

Like a flying meteor, the rock slab shot through the air before Ara howled and slammed her hands into the ground. Massive crystals of ice stabbed forward, meeting the plate with a deafening crash. Superheated steam exploded before the heavy hailstorm darted towards me.

Like diving through a storm of needles, the hail stabbed into my skin, expanding into my blood, freezing my flesh. Crashing forward, I leapt into the lava, creating another explosion of steam. Lava lobbed all around me as Ara heaved for breath.

Swimming through molten magma, I slithered beneath them, safe from the heat around me thanks to the moth’s film. Underneath Ara’s previous position, I stabbed my four hands into the rock shell above me before stretching my legs back. Pulling forward, I lobbed my legs into the rock.

An eruption of liquid rock detonated from underneath before I hooked my legs into the rock, deforming the joint. My spine bent backwards as I pulled my gargantuan body out of the magma like a real, living demon.

A cloud of icy air crashed against me as I rose up. The lava crystallized on top of my skin, locking me in place. A wave of cold ice rushed over me from outside my makeshift prison, but Ara’s exhausted breathing echoed from outside. I could hear her chest heave as sweat dripped from her chin and arms. She fell onto her knees as she said to Krakowah, “Finish him. I doubt that’ll kill him.”

After a adjusting myself, I forced my jaw open, cracking open my muzzle. I laughed for a while before I said, “Come now. Is that all you have, Saint of Snow?”