Everything was bright and painful. My body felt stiff and I ached all over. I had the hazy impression that I should have been relaxed, in a place where there was no pain, no fear, no heat or cold, just unfathomable desire. That this was all wrong. It took a moment to realise that I was still in the confines of the estray’s spindly, over-jointed arm. And the pressure was releasing.

No, not just releasing me—the snake-like thing was reeling. Not from my strike with Everwant, but from its length being blown wide open in the middle so that it was barely held together by fleshy strings. Grey tendrils of viscous corporeal form writhed as it reached to reconnect with the rest of itself. Unlike demons, the estray didn’t spatter smoke and ash whenever it took a hit. It just remade itself in the form of traumatic memories.

That new bit of knowledge was one of the many “gifts” Everwant had bestowed upon me. Some of that knowledge is definitely more of a curse. Fortunately, the numbness from the ash had kicked in so I passed straight over shock and denial and into acceptance.

As though trying to get a rise out of me, a popup appeared right at that moment.

[Corruption] has increased to 8 (was 7)

Excellent. Whatever had happened in that nonsensical realm had caused my corruption to go up. I would have to worry about it later, though, when I was actually capable of worrying about it.

Everwant was in my hand. Möbius was still poised in the air where I’d left it. The estray’s form was writhing. Heads kept popping out of it and firing blasts at the cliff. Azure trails were sliding back and forth across it as Berlin ducked and weaved out of the way. The world was flashing between bouts of silence and riotous noise.

“Algier! The next shot is coming.”

I glanced over to see Enzi pouring more ash on Gale. She had an eye set on the cliff where Berlin was firing from. Meanwhile, Markus was practically forgoing the wall and focusing on burning down as many digressers as possible. Volce was spinning Malus wildly and Toll was alternating between stabbing with Myst and a thrusting with a shaky Briary, the latter of which seemed to not be penetrating the digressers all that well.

Getting a grip on myself, I leapt up and snatched Möbius out of the air. I had been pushed back to near shrinking fire wall. Digressers were pouring in, coming straight for me. Not having the time to deal with them, I ran to the nearest chasm, sliced up a couple of digressers along the way, then dived in. Before falling far I thrust Möbius into the earth and gripped on with only one arm.

More digressers poured down, completely oblivious to their impending fall into the void. I switched hands and slapped at them with Everwant and they exploded into black smoke each time the cane’s head connected.

Berlin fired. The explosion struck. My ears were assaulted with an heart trembling roar, which stopped and resumed each time the estray fired its beams. The heat passed over me, searing my skin, burning digressers to ash, but otherwise leaving me unharmed.

Once the earth and sky had stopped rumbling, I climbed back up out of the chasm. The demons were doing the same. They all looked haggard from the fight, their clothes torn to shreds and smoke pouring from a number of new orifices made by who knew what. But the estray made them all look like they were in top shape.

So far, Berlin had blasted four holes on the estray’s form: the head, the tip of the tail, its direct middle, and a spot half way along its sinuous body towards the tail. There was a pattern. The next shot would be half way between the middle and the tail. As evidenced by the fact this thing was still flailing about, all of those had missed its sigil. The next one, however, would hit the mark.

The sigil was tucked right under where its hood… used to be. It had chosen to forgo the single head in favour of nine, all sprouting in different directions from a common stem that rose into the sky like a naked tree. It was emulating a multi-pronged spear, I recognised, or trying to. The sigil itself would not have moved, however, since all of its form stemmed from that one spot. That was incredibly fortunate: not all estrays had static sigils, and some could choose to move it about. With this estray, all I had to do was stab thirty-three centimetres through thick layers of scale, and that figure would never change for this estray no matter how many times it changed its form.

All I needed to do was charge it, and with it so focused on Berlin, and Berlin accidentally wiping out any digressers that got to close to it, I had a relatively clear path. Berlin was going to hit that spot next, but I had plenty of time to get there. This was exactly what I was hoping for. All the loose ends were finally tying together.

“Oh, Algier!”

I sliced down another digresser before turning to the grating voice of Markus. He was holding Volce with his left hand, the one that he’d been using exclusively to spew fire. With his right, he pointed a finger at the deuce’s head. The fingertip was glowing red hot. The radiant heat alone was causing Volce’s temple to sizzle. That didn’t stop the deuce from struggling. Even without a rabdos, the little shit could be a nightmare. He gnawed at Markus’ left hand and flailed his legs like clubs into the haures’ gut. Naturally, it amounted to nothing.

“The fuck are you doing, Markus!” I screamed. “We need to get the estray. Now!”

“What am I doing?” the haures shouted back with a grin. “I’m not letting myself get fucked over by a disgusting human. At this rate, your friend is going to get that estray and there’s little we can do if we don’t want to get blasted in the process. I’ll admit, calling her was a cute little trick, but I don’t plan to come out of this a pauper.”

Enzi cut down another six digressers in a single swing. The air erupted violently in front of her. “Markus, you told me that I would take the demon hunter with Gale! I used all my remaining ash to prepare for the strike.”

“It was a suggestion, and you were stupid enough to fall for it. Now keep defending or we all get erased.”

Toll faded into view and hurled Briary at an incoming wave of digressers. The thorns shot out but the radius was far smaller than usual, only ranging about three or so metres. “We have twenty seconds left before the next shot. Hurry up with your scheming.”

“It’s a simple one,” Markus spoke. “You all defend me, and I kill the bitch.”

I was rooted to the spot. This was my chance to charge the estray, but even if I managed to erase the thing, I’d lose Volce and we’d all be swarmed by digressers. Markus—I didn’t know how he did it—never ran out of food for his rabdos. If that kept up and this wasn’t some desperate gambit, he’d just blast his way away from the horde, leaving Enzi, Toll, and I to fight an overwhelming force.

Not only that, but I was running out of time as well. My ash saturation had dropped to two percent. I couldn’t risk taking more because last time it had nearly killed me. Furthermore, taking too much ash when your body was unused to it was suicidal besides. Great. Now all my plans were out the window.

The estray fired a beam at me and, seeing it telegraphed so boldly, I dodged it with ease. I shouted out to Markus, “Send me the contract.”

Markus flashed his fangs. “Excellent. Here’s one I prepared earlier.”

A tablet appeared right in front of me, hovering like a ghost. Not only me, but all the demons, even Volce, had a similar red-backed tablets in front of them. I took one look at the thing and realised this was futile.

“It’s thirty fucking pages!”

“It’s a small one.”

Another beam shot right for my head. I brought Möbius up just in time to stop it. The beam vanished from existence. “Do you think I’m stupid enough to accept a deal that’s going to get me killed anyway? Fuck you. Let’s all get killed by the demon hunter.”

The haures rolled his eyes. “Fine. I’ll shave a few pages off.”

In an instant, the contract had reduced down to six pages.

“Ten seconds left,” Toll cried.

Really, what choice did I have? The moment that I resigned myself to the deal, my signature appeared on the bottom of the page. I didn’t even need to sign it, apparently, only to want to sign it. Markus had been bluffing in our last deal. He’d deliberately hidden the extent of his power.

The moment I accepted, I felt that burning sensation that was both familiar yet impossible to get used to. I didn’t need to see a popup to know my corruption had increased again.

The tablet puffed out of existence, as did all the other demons’. Immediately, I felt an uncontrollable urge to run over to Markus’ position. Hell, by the time I even realised I had that urge, my feet were already moving.

We formed ranks around him and swatted down digressers one after another. I took a position closest to the estray where I used Möbius to block any beams that came Markus’ way.

“Five seconds!”

Markus stood completely stoic in the middle of it all. He held up that one burning red hot finger. The tip turned yellow, then blue, then clear. Heat radiated off him in pounding waves. The air bent and swayed from the rising water vapour. Sweat poured off me in rivers. Though the ash had increased my body’s constitution to the point where the heat from the flame walls didn’t bother me, this was on a whole different level. If it weren’t for the ash, I’d have dried up into a raisin by now.

“Two seconds!”

The flow of vapourised ash rising from the cliff was reduced to a trickle. At that same moment, Markus thrust his finger at the cliff, steadying it with his other hand.

Right, I forgot to tell you what Markus’ rabdos is. Its name is Monk and Penny, Class 4. The left hand is Penny, and the right is Monk. They are an inseparable pair. Despite that, there’s an enormous gulf in power between the two. Penny is the faster of the two but is rough and uncontrollable. Monk is slower, but when it does strike, it can level mountains.

Seeing Markus prepared to do exactly that made me realise how foolish I’d been. There were several unknown conditions for activating Monk and given that Markus hadn’t used it once up until this point, I had assumed he couldn’t.

“One second!”

At once the heat was sapped from the air and a refreshing chill passed over me. A string of blue light needled towards the cliff. I saw Berlin pop out at the last moment with her ashen face fallen in panic.

There was no sound. Not because the estray had silenced the world, but because I was knocked back so suddenly by the force of the explosion that it left my ears ringing. Whatever rationality remained due to ash saturation was all that kept me moving. I thrust the knife into the earth and gripped like my life depended on it.

Heat poured over me like an ocean. Rocks soared in every direction and smashed into the land, fell down chasms, struck the estray in a symphony of booms and unnatural silence. Distantly I felt my skin searing off me, watched my knuckles bubble over and turn a furious pink as the flesh was exposed.

At once it passed. I quickly scrambled up, ignoring my body’s protests. The cliff was now a small hill. Its top was jagged from the blast and becoming more jagged as rocks crashed down onto it, then tumbled earthward until they were caught in a divot. Smoke obscured the full extent of the damage, thankfully. Just thinking about that carnage was more terrifying than anything the estray could throw at me.

Then light erupted from within the clouds. Thin beams shot out like the wings of an angel. The smoke cleared, and there was Berlin, tumbling through the sky, with Wrongtonk locked and ready to fire, the gun blasting funnels of light from the length of its barrel in eight directions.

Regardless of how torn up my body was, I needed to slay that estray. Now! Before Berlin stabilised her fall, aimed, and landed the last shot. If Markus’ contract was holding me, it was over. Berlin would get the points and all of this would have been for nothing. With a howl, I took a tenuous step towards the estray.

I felt it immediately. The need to protect Markus was clawing at me. Berlin was alive, therefore I had to protect Markus. But I refused to give in. There had to be a loophole. I scoured my thoughts for any excuse I could find, and it leapt out at me. The next shot would explode on the estray and harm him. Nobody could stop Berlin from firing. Even with Möbius, I couldn’t deflect an explosion. But if the estray was gone, the bullet might pass right through. I fixated on that possibility, believed it with all my being, made it my truth.

I took another step on shaky legs. Then another, and another. Soon, I was stumbling towards the estray. Despite my newfound freedom, I couldn’t get enough strength into my legs and practically tripped over chasms. Ash or no, a human body had its limits and I was right at the edge of mine.

As I approached the estray, it tucked its heads back into its body and fired beams haphazardly in all directions. They weren’t hard to dodge, given that it was hardly aiming. Digressers swarmed in from all sides, but I didn’t have the strength to cut them down.

Then the air pulsed with pressure and a half dozen digressers were carved down in an instant. I peeked over my shoulder and caught Enzi preparing another strike as Markus berated her. The haures aimed his left hand, Penny at her, ready to burn her.

He was stopped when Toll appeared beneath Markus and sliced upwards with Myst. Markus ripped his hand up and the flame shot off harmlessly into the sky. In that same motion, Toll hurled Briary at the estray.

Growling, Markus began charging another shot with Monk, when Volce slid along the ground with Mallus trailing behind him. He howled, “Logic’s a bitch, ain’t it?” and brought the oversized hammer sideways into the back of Markus’ knees. The haures toppled, and in a desperate gambit, he blasted the ground beneath him.

All four demons were flung in different directions, a rainbow of smoke rising off their forms. The blast struck me in the back, but it wasn’t powerful enough to do any damage, only cause me to stumble momentarily. I pressed on as Briary soared just above me.

It was simple logic that had fucked over Markus. Since we were all following the same contract, then any action taken by one member of that contract was an acceptable action that others could take. If I found a reason to charge the estray, then it stood to reason that I was helping Markus by doing so. Therefore, the other demons came to a conclusion: to help me was to help Markus in the long run.

I dived into the estray’s striking distance, however no swipes came. Thousands of small, blackened and charred arms were growing out of the estray that it wrapped around itself—disposable bits of armour to absorb some of the next blast. It was afraid—afraid to be grabbed and turning that fear into its defence. That I understood about this beast, and I also understood what it would do next. I took a deep breath and drank just a little deeper from Volce’s power.

I heard laughter in the back of my head—Volce was cackling madly at having messed with Markus’ contract. It was intoxicating. I began to cackle with him, which made it harder to breathe, harder to run, but that was all the effect it had. The ash allowed me to stay relatively sane.

Then in strobing silence, arms shot forth from the estray. Five, ten, twenty, all lancing out to skewer me by force of numbers alone. I tripped on a rock and rolled in the air. Three arms passed over and under me. Three more curled in from the left. My bad shoulder collided with one of the fallen boulders and the impact spun me back round, correcting my position. The stone also acted as a barrier, slowing the hands as they carved through it. I laughed at the pain, not voluntarily.

The estray curled its tail around itself and a wall of charred arms shot out from it. Cackling like a fool, my foot flew forward as my shoe slipped over loose stones. I fell back slowly with one foot bent under me. That was when Briary landed.

The arms were torn to shreds before they could reach me and took out a chunk of the clump of tail that it had surrounded itself it. The javelin’s reach was shorter than before we’d started the fight so it missed me by a few centimetres. As branches retracted into Briary’s shaft, a path was revealed in the estray’s torn up form heading straight to the spot where its head ought to be, and where the sigil definitely was.

Using the foot caught under my body, I twirled and was up in an instant. As I spun, I caught sight of Berlin now falling head first through the sky like a twirling torpedo. She brought the gun up and spread her legs wide, shifting her angular momentum outwards so that her spinning slowed. She was going to shoot soon.

I leapt onto the estray’s curled up tail. Hands rose out of its form to grab at me. I planted my foot down in a spot free of grabbing hands. However, now its skin or scales or whatever the fuck this thing was made of was undulating all over, making for bad footing which I kept stumbling over. Each of those erratic movements made it too difficult for the estray to catch me, and I cackled at its struggle. The few hands that nearly caught me were carved down by Möbius almost by accident. It was like I was stumbling up the thing’s body in a drunken stupor, and my wildly flinging arm just happened to cut at anything that was about to get me.

When I reached to the spot where the estray’s sigil was hidden, I tripped in earnest. A number of things happened. First, the bottom of Everwant stabbed into its form. Next, I fell atop it. From there, I twirled all a full three quarters of the way around. Then finally, using the momentum, I plunged Möbius deep into the estray’s scaly hide, howling madly with glee.

I admit that I was foolish enough to think that I’d luck into a victory. Reality can be a real devil sometimes.

Möbius hadn’t gone in deep enough, but that had nothing to do with it being too short or not being sharp enough. Even the body of an estray would part from the knife’s way—that much I’d realised. Of course, that was only true when that estray wasn’t trying to remove the knife from reality.

Thousands of tiny hands had emerged from the wound. They were coiling up around the blade, gripping it like a vice. From the way light bent and disappeared into them, I realised they were trying to swallow the thing into whatever void the estray sent the things it struck. Möbius, however, was unyielding.

Both the tiny arms and the knife remained perfectly still, like time had come to a stop. They were stuck in a paradoxical stalemate, an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object, and it seemed the universe didn’t know how to resolve it.

In a panic, I checked on Berlin. She’d managed to slow her spin and was quietly turning to face us. She was approaching the ground at a rapid pace and her shot would come in low. But it would come, and soon.

I shouted my frustrations at Möbius, try to will it into moving, but even if I could form a coherent sentence in that maddened state, it was all taken by the silence. I planted my foot into the knife, trying to force it in just a little more. It didn’t budge. It was like slamming my foot into a stick of concrete and I achieved nothing but a sore foot.

I wanted this thing dead. I wanted to live. I wanted those points. I wanted those fucking demons bowing at my feet. Each kick became wilder, as did that uncontrollable laughter, which rose higher and higher as the ash gradually wore off.

That was when it occurred to me. Want.

Hands were taking Everwant into the estray’s form. I reached down and scraped it up, tearing it out of the estray’s grip like it was made of putty. I took a stance and reeled back to slam the cane’s brass head onto Möbius. At that moment, a claw reached out of the estray’s body and hooked straight through my leg. I cackled from the pain as it dragged me back. Fighting it, I tried clawing into the estray’s form with my bad arm but it was no use. Its form tore away under my nails, offering me no purchase.

More arms sprung from the estray’s body and sought me out, hooks aiming for my legs and chest. Spinning around, ignoring the pain that exploded up my leg, I swiped at the arm. The cane’s head connected and there was no resistance. At the moment of impact, the clawed arm retreated back into the estray’s form, as did the dozens of other arms all seeking me out.

Though I expected to be transported to Everwant’s realm, nothing of the sort happened. That made me laugh madly again. I raised myself up using the cane. From the corner of my eye, I could make out the opening in Wrongtonk’s barrel. Any second now and Berlin would pull the trigger.

With another cackle, I shouted, But what I want most is to win this fucking tournament and have an endless orgy. My voice was swallowed by the void.

Summoning up the last of my strength, I swung Everwant at Möbius. At that same moment claws sprung from the estray and charged at me, moving as though in slow motion. Everwant was flinging just as slowly. I couldn’t tell if the claws would hit me first or if my mind was just playing tricks on me. But even if I did strike first, there was no guarantee those claws wouldn’t just carry their momentum right through me and pin me like a slab of meat.

I embraced that thought and all fear left me. Closing my eyes, I threw everything I had into making that swing go just a tad faster.

Everwant struck first. Despite the oppressive silence, there was a clear and penetrating gooonnng that rang into the smoke-laden sky. A ripple ran up my hand, and with it came a strange sense of familiarity. Though of what, I couldn’t say back then.

I stumbled back from the impact, expecting a claw to run me through any moment now. My eyes slammed open and I watched the knife sink in just a bit deeper. As I fell back, though, I felt no pain. The claws weren’t moving; they’d frozen. No, the entire estray had completely stilled its movements. Its thousand heads stared into the sky with their mouths stretched open. The hands protruding from its form stopped writhing. I slipped back off of the estray and fell so slowly to the earth that I thought I was back in Everwant’s realm, soaring endlessly through blank sky.

Then the erasing began. Slowly. Far too slowly. First from the sigil and gradually creeping out, like paper catching alight and taking its secrets with it into the clouds. I leaned my head back and saw light erupt from Wrongtonk.

I watched helplessly, begging with everything I had to please go through, please tell me I was soon enough. A streak of fire scarred my sight. The air above me pulsed and the force accelerated me faster to the floor. I braced for my death, wondering if it would come so soon that I wouldn’t even be aware that I was gone.

The bullet exploded. In fact, I watched it explode, on a nearby hill, blasting away a chunk of the ocean of digressers. The force of the blast followed and struck me from in front, causing my legs to tumble over my head. While I flipped, I caught a brief glimpse of the estray. An enormous hole had already opened up beneath the head, drifting smoke into the air. Wrongtonk had fired right through it.

I landed hard on my feet then rolled back. Everwant flung out of my hand and skittered across the earth. I came to a halt against a fallen boulder. Every part of me was too sore and strained to move so I rested there for a moment, taking it all in. Sound was returning to the world. The roar of Wrongtonk’s fire was fading already.

And I’d just slain a fucking estray.

A beast beyond law; a demon without limit. Erased by me, some nobody human whose only reason for even being here was because I couldn’t keep my shit together.

I was going to need a lot more ash to get over that little shock. In fact, I was going to need more ash period, because the fight wasn’t yet over.