“Why?!” Evelyn began to yell out at Adrith, her eyes were wide in both shock and confusion.

The man did not respond as he continued to charge up the stairs. His steps were unsteady at first as his strides were clearing multiple steps at once and he had not quite gained his focus back. His arm moved in strange ways as if it was not responding like it used to. It seemed to move, yet it looked like it was being waved around more than being properly moved. Evelyn gritted her teeth, she could see the energy within Adrith being funneled away.

Every time he circulated the energy within himself to increase his speed, the energy that came near his arm and where he was wounded was then lost. Drawn out and away from his own body and control.

Evelyn cast her eyes back, she could see the energy flow directly into that thing.

The sound of both a constant sound of clicking and clacking layered with a wet dragging sound marked how it moved. The sounds of chittering and squelching noises were then reverberated with an almost inhuman bellowing screech which not only shook the ears but the core. Evelyn could barely describe the horror of this creature, it had countless thousands of azure pearl-like eyes that glowed brighter when it was absorbing energy. It was covered in a deep purple skin that looked both wet yet also shriveled as one half of the body seemed entirely composed of a strange liquid that transformed and changed shape, as it took the form of many tentacles that assisted its climbing.

On the other side of its body, this creature seemed to have hardened into gleaming purple scales with a hardened shell that took on different forms. From a sword to a bird claw, to even a hoof, the arm constantly was changing forms, yet the thing she was watching for was when it was going to do its terrifying attack.

It was a horrific sight the first time she saw it nearly killed her. It would form its arm into such a wicked scythe that even the gods of death would envy it. The blade dripped and oozed as it was comprised of its oozing liquid body and covered in the terrible energy that nearly took Evelyn’s life. Seeing it in her mind for just a moment made Evelyn squirm.

She couldn’t imagine what the feeling must have been like the wound that was now crippling Adrith’s overall effectiveness. Yet it wasn’t those thoughts alone that terrified her, what unnerved her the most of this creature, was its maw that was positioned on its face to jut out like a snout. This maw was a strange and constantly changing array of tentacles, mandibles, shifting teeth, fangs, and even jaws, of humanoids and otherwise, all changed and shaped to create something that Evelyn could not comprehend. It was as if she was staring into an abyss of constantly fluxing energy that she could not even begin to comprehend.

The Revenants that were chasing after them seemed to have now redoubled their efforts, now they seemed much more coordinated. Anytime the strange purple creature moved in a certain way, the Revenants followed. The Revenants attacked in unison now instead of haphazardly.

They seemed to try and trap you with a wave of attacks all at once rather than a constant stream of single attacks with them each taking turns. it was then Evelyn realized that must have been the creature that made the Revenants. It must be siphoning the energy of its target to feed itself and leaving a husk of the body would leave only the soul. At which point it forms a Revenant which will act and perform the bidding of the monster.

“Why didn’t you tell me more about the Soul Reaver?!” Evelyn called out, she gave it a name to at least make sure that they were clear about what each was being called.

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“Would it matter?” Adrith grunted out, Evelyn could tell as much as Adrith that when he stopped focusing even a bit to just say that, the strange energy that was within his arm pushed further through his arm.

Evelyn winced much the same as Adrith did, for her, she couldn’t think of what it felt like, nor why he even tried to defend her. Why would he keep something so dangerous from her when they need to know what they are fighting? He is obviously strong enough to make it out on his own, so why? What purpose did it bring for him to not tell her such a fact?

For Adrith, he winced the moment he reached the top of the stairs and saw there was a closed stone door. He rushed directly towards the door and focused his energy on his functioning arm as he rushed into it and bashed it open with such force he knocked it completely down.

It revealed to the rushing duo they had exited a town hall-like building in the center of a city much similar to the city the floor below, but now there were 4 towers spread across the city. Adrith looked towards the closest one and rushed towards it. He couldn’t stop moving, he could feel the corrupting energy trying to seep in, he couldn’t fight the Soul Reaver, he knew he didn’t have what he needed. They didn’t have the manpower to brute force the fight. But he knew what could.

Evelyn began to fly much faster to catch up with Adrith. She couldn’t begin to comprehend what he was thinking, yet she flew beside him, “I’ll fly ahead and force the monsters to follow me”. She couldn’t let him be the one facing the most grueling of tasks while injured. He may be hiding things, but he may also be the only thing making sure she can make it out.

She began to fly off at a speed much higher than he could even muster, she flew off faster than an arrow as she was able to get monsters to notice by using her magic lights to lure them out and then blasting off past and around them. It left Adrith without needing to dodge monsters coming from in front of him, however it left him at the mercy of the multiple Revenants and the Soul Reaver chasing him.

Adrith couldn’t look back, he had to keep focused on running, he completely focused on the running. His feet hammered into the ground and launched him with such force that each footfall sounded like thunder. He knew how the Soul Reaver fought, it could target its prey with attacks that would corrupt and kill the target over time as it tried to rip them apart or hideaway. It was the Revenants who were dangerous after the fight because if the Soul Reaver was not killed before moving on the Revenants would spell their doom.

The Revenants would speed up the process of corruption and once the prey dies, the Soul Reaver will reappear. Adrith knew the risk he was playing with, however this may be the only way they were to make it to the surface. All he had to do was weather the storm and pray.

Adrith gritted his teeth as he felt one of the attacks finally hit him, he had made some evasive maneuvers to try and dodge as he could, but the attacks were so numerous one eventually hit him.

He could feel a constant pulsating pain pass through him as he saw an orb of red energy pass through his chest. It left his chest bare as all the armor that was in the way was turning into nothing, reducing his work to nothing. Yet that was the least of his worries. As he felt the pain in his arm flare up so much it nearly made him pass out. His stride was staggered, the pain pulsated out and stretched across his chest. The pain spread nearly as far from being localized in his right arm to nearly spreading across his entire torso, stopping around the stomach area, and right next to his heart, where he had focused a high amount of energy to try and stop the spreading. This was a pain that felt like it could kill, if it was even a bit more painful, it probably might have.

Even with all this pain, Adrith rose his head again as he slammed his foot down with such force it cracked the stone as he continued his charge. The pain was unbearable, the Soul Reaver’s blade never cut the flesh. It didn’t make the arm feel numb, with just a stinging pain like a normal blade does. It made the wound scream out in pain constantly, like every piece of flesh, bone, sinew, and even blood was on fire, dipped in acid, and frostbitten. It was hard to put the pain into true words, all Adrith knew was that he couldn’t keep this up.

Yet he had to.

As he could see the base of the next tower, he noticed a way was already open, but more importantly, he could see Evelyn flying back to him.

With a gray abomination of a creature following behind her.