The same swords of light snapped into his hands like lightning. The air blurred around them, the scorching light bright enough to blind. Without fear, I charged towards him, my feet crushing stone beneath me. He ducked down and circled low to the ground, dodging my first hook before hammerfisting the side of my temple.

In flash of force, I flew sideways. The earth beneath him caved while I dented the steel lining and crushed the vein covered walls. A wet wall surrounded my back before Galen turned towards me and stepped forward. He bent back and tensed his arm backwards, keeping it close behind him. Pulling an unseen force, he pulled the arm up and over his head before a pillar of spawned at the same angle as his fist.

Reeling from the blow, I pushed myself from the wall before the column crushed the side of my jaw. The earth had hardened, letting the attack dislocate my bottom jaw. He turned again, this time upward. Another column collided, though this time with my stomach.

I slammed into the roof as he pressed a palm. I expected soft earth above me, but I met a cruel, solid layer of stone. He’d changed the material midway through his assault. I learned of that after.

I couldn’t focus during. I was distracted, you see. The pillar peirced my own chest before Galen howled, “How does it feel?”

He jerked his arm down sideways before ripping a portion of my chest out. He stomped his forward, sending a swarm of spines from the roof before slamming his swords together over his head. He turned them around before slamming the sword down.

A wave of gravity lobbed my limp, skewered body from the roof. As I landed, the earth turned to water. I slapped against the wet water like a foot clapping cobble. It was hard as concrete and cold as a coma. The pool swallowed me before freezing.

Shards of glassy cool invaded my body. A numbing agony took over as Galen thundered, “I know your weaknesses. I spoke with Ara. You’re made of flesh and bone, just like us.”

I dealt with the pain while Deluge went to work. From our body sprouted a dozen long, sharpened horns, cracking the ice. Jerking my arms, I shattered it from me before leaping from the pool. As I landed, Galen charged me.

He stampeded like a landslide. Bending down, I steadied myself before meeting his charge with my own. We were cataclysm as we collided. The Wormwood’s testing turned Galen’s flesh to steel and made his arms like an angry bear’s paws. They gripped against mine with unyielding pressure.

Deluge attempted melding our flesh with his, but they set up defenses for it. Like Petra, Galen’s blood had a mind of its own. Deluge described it as if every single cell fought for its life. That made assimilation impossible.

The Saint’s unlocked powers poured into Galen. Now he had the body of a mutant, the mind of a master, and the soul of a Saint. This was no enemy we could fight.

But fight we did. His hands crushed the bones in our hands, so Deluge changed them in deformed daggers from the mush. I whipped four hooks like swinging scythes. Galen ducked and dodged before bending down. His foot slid across the floor as I jumped, but he plated the ground with ice.

I landed on the slippery surface, falling on my face before Galen finished his turn. He lifted his right hand up, then slammed the fist down into my back. He howled, “Do you like the pain? How about now?”

As he lifted his hand, gallons of my blood burst from my back. He pulled it out before changing it into a dark, cold spear. Glancing up, I saw him pull his hands apart, splitting the spear. With my own frozen blood, he stabbed the four pieces into my limbs.

I grit my teeth while he stomped my face and said, “Gaia has heeded our call. Can feel her power?”

I grinned before saying, “No. I feel pity for your corrupted mind and corrupted body.”

He grabbed my hair before slamming my face into the ground while saying, “You've lost your mind. Your flesh is frenzy. You morph and deform with the mask of a human face.”

He lifted my head, slamming my face again and again and again. My face pulped as he leans over and says, “You should have killed me while you had the chance.”

I growled, loud and long as Deluge split our sternum into a set of teeth. I feigned a weak struggle, disguising our chest’s excavation of the dirt beneath us. I said, “I was ignorant then. I gave out mercy. I assure you, it won't happen again.”

Galen released my hair as he said, “I won't make the same mistake. I will be a hero. You will be remembered in history as true evil. As a monster with no face. As a demon with no soul.”

“Have you forgotten who I am? I’ve become the abyss that stares into you. I undertake the trials that make men tremble. I fight against forces unknown and unseen.”

Galen raises his heel as I said, “I am The Darkened One.”

As his foot lowers towards my chest, dirt exploded from the hole in the back of my chest. My back folded backwards into the hole Deluge dug right when Galen stomped. His leg caught in the hole we dug as I burrowed under the ground. My chest chomped at the dirt, spitting it behind me as Arms from my chest pulled me further downward.

Within seconds, I reached outside the cavern and underneath Nelastra. I burrowed for minutes, reaching far away from the Wormwood’s lair before unveiling myself from the ground. Cobble tore as I lifted chest first from the ground as Deluge said,

“We cannot fight that thing.”

I nodded as my chest reformed. I stood tall before cracking my neck and saying,

“We don't have too.”

“He will become a thorn in our side.”

“You’re already a pain in the ass, what difference does another make?”

“I will not kill you or Joan or Sophia.”

I frowned as I said, “It’s true, though you've tried.”

“Not with any recency.”

I waited there, standing for along time. My left hand twitched before I glanced down and said,”What have we unleashed...”

Deluge chided, “An abomination.”