“Nyx!-”
Everything burned. Her entire body screamed in agony as lights danced against the back of her eyelids-
*crash*
*chink*
*chink*
*Crash*
“Nyx! You need to get up! He’s here!” A familiar voice cried out from afar.
“Hhmegh…Fuck you’re heavy.”
Nyx opened her eyes and she shot upright. Overhead the sky churned as bits of metal and debris rained down over the area they had just been. It took her several moments to realize where she was and Ander’s voice to reach her again.
“Nyx! We need to help him!”
Still stunned and burning all over she turned to look at him and gasped.
[Ander Haln | Null | Human] [System Protection 49s]
[System Protection 48s]
Nyx’s eyes widened as she finally came back to herself and took in the situation. Ander looked completely unharmed but his face was white with fear and it was only then that she realized he had been dragging her toward something.
Just behind Ander was the corpse of a man, no, not a corpse.
[Kalum Lesta | Slayer of Fate 74 | Human]
His body lay broken impaled upon a jagged plate of dark metal, his armor almost completely melted or otherwise destroyed and much of the rest pierced his body further. Most of the skin of his upper body was completely burned away revealing charred muscle and bone. His face was barely more than a skull, his teeth were visible beneath tightened charred skin and one eye was completely missing.
Somehow his dark blade remained tight in his grasp welded in place by melted skin and black bone.
Despite his appearance, Nyx had no doubt that he was alive. She could feel his malevolent wrath only growing stronger even as he lay completely motionless.
“K’hal Zeeschal!”
Nyx’s paled as the undeniable voice of the Shadow Lord roared across the destruction that had been wrought. Nyx turned to face the direction of the voice to find the entire cliff and fort were gone as if they had never existed and along with it the abyssal anchor. It was gone.
She couldn’t see the Shadow Lord but the ground shook as several jagged shards flew into the sky-
*Boom*
*Boom* *Boom*
*Boom*
“It’s coming!” Ander yelled, tripping backward as a shard of metal sailed into his chest.
Nyx tensed, expecting blood but the shard bounced off his chest and shattered a nearby rockwall, “Gods! We need to go! Now!”
Running over to Kalum’s limp form, she grabbed hold of his arm and flinched as his aura weighed down on her. She cursed herself for hesitating, “You’re not leaving him this time coward!”
Nyx pulled and dark blood sprayed from his gaping chest wound as he slowly came free of the shard. His blood spilled down her back aggravating the new burns but she just hissed and dragged him across her shoulders.
Even badly burned to the point of seeing bone, the man was huge. Much larger than the boy she had seen near Farninghold, “Ander I can’t carry you! Start running!”
Ander paled at the sight of Kalum’s broken form, but his head remained clear and he turned to run into the maze of metal shards as more debris rained down from overhead. Nyx followed but her middling strength made running Kalum difficult.
*Boom*
Nyx tumbled into the air as the ground beneath her feet tore apart, only Nyx’s reflexes saved her skull as she hunched her shoulders an instant before a hammer flew passed to shatter a wall of metal. Kalum slipped from her grasp as she hit the ground and rolled, hitting the ground hard beside Ander. Nyx glanced back only long enough to see the Shadow Lord already visible through the chaos.
Reactivating Shadow’s Grace, Nyx raced to reach Kalum’s unconscious body. Ander stood glaring at the Shadow Lord, the fear that was plain on his face before not completely gone but subdued.
“It’s injured!” Ander shouted.
Nyx didn’t stop moving even after hauling Kalum off the ground but she did a double take on the monster hunting them. Ander was right. The demon’s perfect black plate mail from the roof of the tower was nothing but shreds now. A dark skeleton of shadows dragged itself after them much slower than she had seen it move in the anchor room.
It was still fast. But its injured state gave Nyx a second wind as she shoved Ander forward, “Go! We can escape! Go!”
Ander began to run again, his eyes widened a moment later before he leaped behind Nyx. Nyx turned just in time to see the Shadow Lord’s hammer arc through the air and into Ander’s head. Nyx gasped but caught herself as the hammer shattered on the boy’s head. The ground shook from the force of the collision but Ander didn’t even flinch and simply scrambled back to his feet.
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The Shadow Lord roared in pain and staggered backward, grasping at its skull with one hand. The destruction of its shadow hammer must have come with some serious backlash to slow it down. Nyx didn’t waste the opportunity they had been given, “Ander! Run!”
[Ander Haln | Null | Human] [System Protection 38s]
Darting between the metal walls and stone the two of them managed to break the line of sight from the demon but every moment the Nyx could feel it gaining on them. Metal walls thirty feet high bent or tore as the Shadow Lord threw itself through the obstacles separating them.
Shrapnel exploded from one of the walls as the demon’s hammer appeared once more. They were both showered in the metal fragments. White and orange sparks bounced off Ander but Nyx took several in the side, and a large chunk careened into her shoulder with a crunch.
Nyx cried out as Kalum once again fell from her grasp and she saw the dozens of new wounds covering his body from the shrapnel but she scrambled to pick him up again she saw his other wounds were improving remarkably. His face was almost fully healed and his missing eye was well on its way.
[Ander Haln | Null | Human] [System Protection 22s]
Looking into Kalum’s eyes amplified the fear already weighing down on her. It was getting worse, much worse. It was not just his weight that started to slow her down, every step she took her legs wobbled with both fear and fatigue. How Ander could stand it she didn’t know but still Nyx pushed forward.
*Boom*
*Boom* *Boom*
Twice more the maze of metal shook from the demon’s pursuit and twice more they were showered in deadly shrapnel as it collapsed around them. Ander took the brunt of one explosion almost completely protecting Nyx from the blast but the second threw Nyx into a wall, knocking the wind out of her.
She gasped for breath as she fell to the ground, Ander had been thrown away beyond a pile of rubble as another wall shifted and Kalum was just as far in the other direction. Nyx struggled to get her breath back but her stamina was nearing its limit.
*Boom*
The Shadow Lord shattered the wall just beside Nyx as its arm speared through. Before she even got the chance to move the demon snatched her from the ground by the throat. Ander cried out from nearby but Nyx couldn’t see him as she was turned harshly to face the demon.
Its dark skull was covered in hairline cracks that pulsed with shadow and several of its teeth were simply gone. Nyx could see the shadows condensing around it, the cracks slowly but surely fading.
“Human… How do you live?”
Nyx would have told the demon to fuck off if she could but the demon's grip was like a vise around her throat. Ander jumped out from the rubble he had fallen behind and charged toward the demon, “Let her go!
[Ander Haln | Null | Human] [System Protection 9s]
Faster than Nyx could blink, the demon’s fist slammed into Ander’s face. Her ears bleed as the concussive force shook the area around them but again Ander stood completely unharmed.
The Shadow Lord growled as it withdrew its fist, “Ah… Now I understand. System protection. To think your failed system would stoop itself even further to protect the weak,” the demon’s skull tilted slightly considering, “I wonder how long your protection will last.”
[Ander Haln | Null | Human] [System Protection 8s]
Nyx gasped as the demon’s grip grew tighter. She desperately tried to pry away its fingers with her good hand but they may as well have been made of iron. The demon’s skull clacked shut with a puff of shadows and in one smooth motion, it reached down a flick her shin with its finger.
Nyx screamed her leg snapping like a twig hard enough that she felt the bone puncture the skin of her calf. Ander cried out and grabbed onto the demon’s arm it just ignored him as it shattered her next leg before tossing her to the ground.
[Ander Haln | Null | Human] [System Protection 7s]
She gasped in agony but kept her gaze on the demon, “Ander… Run!”
Ander froze for the first time as the demon moved its attention to him, its skull clicking several times as more of its shadows began to swirl around its fists, “It has been decades since I’ve had the pleasure of killing an unascended. Watch, mortal…”
----------------------------------------
Kal’s mind fell through a plane of flesh and bone, gore and viscera. His gaze fell upon endless writhing forms, all of them reaching out toward him, desperate, hating, betrayed. Tears fell from his face as they reached out to take him, make him theirs… No, not theirs.
The world shifted, twisting the plane of flesh into a cacophony of blood and the crimson hand returned as it always did. Its fingers ran over his chest blood, “Don’t you see Ender? Don’t you understand?”
Months… Trillions swarmed over mounds of living flesh consuming, empowering, ripping, tearing, and killing. All died. All died as they should. To die like that was better. Better to be a corpse. They were corpses, everything was corpses. It was all there was…
Years… The endless swarmed, all of them corpses. Corpses that refused to die as they should. He yearned to end them faster, to kill them all… Kill… Kill… Kill… Kill… Kill… Kill… Kill… Kill… Kill… Kill… Kill… Kill…Kill… Kill…Kill… Kill…Kill… Kill…
Decades…
Kal opened his eyes as he screamed. Tears fell from his eyes as he spun through the empty void of his core space, his core and soul sending pulsing flames throughout. His perception slowly returned to him as he fell and the memories of that place returned to him. He felt himself giggle even as his throat tore from his scream.
His external sight flashed into his mind. Some corpse- Nyx carried him through the darkness, Ander running behind her-
Kal’s soul raged, its flames leaking from his core like it was barely there and every moment he felt it grow stronger but that wasn’t what tore at his mind. His heart pounded as the memories continued to flood his mind. Decades of bloodshed. Decades of torment.
He couldn’t take it. He would have been sick if his body obeyed him instead he was forced to relive the moments again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again.
“None of it makes sense! I was just a fucking kid!” Kal roared toward his soul tears of crimson flame trailing down his core projection.
Kal’s soul flared to greater heights with his rage and sorrow. Each memory was more fuel to his undying wrath. Each memory is a lesson on the futility of the weak. The killing would never stop, should never stop.
“No!” Kal roared, his head arching back as his soul’s flames pummeled him.
Kal lurched to his feet the roar tearing at his throat as his gaze fell on Nyx as she fell to the ground screaming, her legs shattered and bleeding. The world lurched as he saw their forms writhe like the infinite flesh.
His vision darkened, the little color in the world vanished, and only the red light of corpses in front of him held any warmth-
*Flicker*
Health:
3240/5140
Stamina:
2012/8380
Wrath:
14021