For a single moment, everything fell into complete silence, even the spiraling chains floating all around me, slowly weaving through whatever thin fabric was holding us in the abyss. Then… It started.

All at once the chains began to wind and whip, slashing at me. The movements were slower though, and the barbs on the chains had dulled. I ducked and dodged, blocking when I had to, slowly working my way closer to the monster as my eyes perfectly calculated the chain’s movements, keeping track of every link as if it were a piece on a chessboard.

I weaved through the chains in a fierce battle dance, moving like water, never staying in one place, and my feet never being on the ground at the same time.

Finally, I was getting close. The trick was what I did when I got there. ‘Close the distance, Pierce its heart, or cut off its head, those are the only two ways to kill a demon.’

It summoned two more chains, from the void, and they wrapped around its hands like snakes that moved on their own.

With a screeching howl, it whipped them towards me all at once, coming from both sides.

‘Time to see how good this armor is brother…’ I lay my sword across my back and turned to take the blow from the right, blocking my front with my plate arm guard.

The chains smashed into me like boulders rolling down a steep hill, but my body held up under the pressure. I felt my bones creak as I slid the chains off my sword and took one final step, twisting and thrusting my sword toward its heart, right next to where another blade still lay embedded in its chest.

Its movements quickened though. In a flash, its massive hands were inches away from crushing me. Ducking the first one I tried to get to the side but it was too fast. With no other choice, I drew my dagger, imparted dark energy into it, and blocked it by stabbing straight through its palm.

It didn’t make a noise as my blade burst through its hand like a bullet, but I did, still feeling the full force of the impact from its swat. I flew several feet away, only landing safely on account of there being no real ground in the abyss.

I coughed, trying to catch my breath as I stood up. “What’s wrong? Usually, you’re so talkative.” I taunted with a grin, forcing myself to stand. ‘If this is how we are matched right now, then I can win.’

It raised its hand, lowering its head at the same time. “You. Will. Die. Today.” It groaned, ripping the old sword out of its chest with its good hand.

Its other hand lay limp at its side, covered in even more chains, looking as though it were about to fall off.

“So I’m going to die… Is that a prophecy or just wishful thinking?” I raised my sword in both hands, just as I was taught, trying to make jokes to keep myself calm as my adrenaline spiked even further. Because of the weightlessness and lack of real gravity, even the hair on my head began to stand on end at how dangerous it felt. “I already met death, we didn’t really hit it off, sorry…” I gulped, swallowing my nerves. ‘Don’t tense up. Connect each movement… Find the hidden path.’

It ignored me completely as it started twisting again, mutating as something crawled around under its skin. Without warning three more chains burst out of its back and coiled around it like armor.

I didn’t think it was possible, but my adrenaline spiked further still and I felt a sharp pain in my chest. My heartbeat began to pound so hard it moved my whole body. ‘Come on…’ I let out a growl and held my ground. ‘I can’t give out… I need to go farther.’ I looked down at my dented metal armor.

‘What kind of knight doesn’t use a shield along with their sword.’ I felt more energy surge through me as the pain in my heart turned to fire and shot through me, imbuing my armor with the same dark fog I had been using on my sword.

Despite the burning sensation all over me, I could see my skin freezing over and make out the vapor of my icy breath. ‘One more hit and it loses an arm. One more… Just one more time.’

It leaped into the air, suspending itself with its chains that anchored into the nothingness of the abyss.

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‘If that’s how you want to play it.’ I quickly pulled out my bow and drew an arrow, running at full speed in an orbit around it, outruning its chains, and sometimes propelling myself off of them to doge. Each arrow I fired pierced its skin, but none of them could reach its heart through its thick hide. Since I had no better target I started filling its head with arrows, drawing out an outline for where its face should have been, but that only made it angry.

‘Come on… What’s next?’

It reached for my ankle from below me, but I quickly spun off my inside leg and rolled backward, twisting violently as I pulled my sword again, slashing at full strength to try and block. I flooded all of the dark magic I could into my sword and instead of simply blocking, the chain shattered to pieces the demons blackened midnight blood pouring out of it.

It growled and screamed, raging in pain as if it had just lost a limb.

My hands shook and rattled with the blade, but my grip stayed strong. ‘An opening.’ I turned and charged to meet it head-on. It raised its sword against me, crashing down on me with the full weight of the heavy blade.

It was fast, but it had no technique, on the other hand, I had practiced that move thousands if not millions of times… Laying my blade across my shoulder I slid to the side, redirecting his strike off my back and into the void below us, with all my strength I twisted and slashed over halfway through its arm using it as a leverage point to jump and twist, kicking the flat of the demon's sword and sending it flying through the void.

I quickly regripped my blade, sliding it out of the monster's arm and slashing straight through its other one, finishing my cut from our very first battle and severing it clean off as my blade tore seamlessly through the weak scar tissue.

‘Now I just need to make space again.’

I took a step away as I turned to face it, but I was too slow. With its other arm, it grabbed me and lifted me into the air, squeezing me until I heard my joints start to crack and pop. ‘How is it still so strong?’ I felt it’s hot blood cover me, pouring out of the hole in my hand and dripping down from the cuts in its arm as it only squeezed tighter.

I coughed, gasping for air as my floating ribs began to crack and break. ‘Come on… This can’t be it… I can do more.’

I grabbed an arrow from my quiver, covering it in dark fog and stabbing straight down through the monster's thumb, completely severing it as the energy burst out, leaving nothing behind but a hole, even obliterating parts of my own armor.

Gasping for air, I crawled to my feet as it continued to panic and flail, whipping its chains as though it had gone blind.

‘It's too dangerous. I need to get back… But I’m not fast enough…’ My mind suddenly split as time froze and my concept of reality began to change. I wasn’t on the earthly plane, much less earth. I was in the abyss. I was using a technique just to stand at all.

I held my breath, and at that moment everything felt as though it had stopped and gone silent, as I cut my tether, and began to sink through the floor, deeper into the void.

The ghoul raged and screamed, but it was all muffled, its chains unable to reach me as I sank deeper and deeper, feeling more at peace the farther I fell. It was like there was a thick layer of glass between us, and I was staring up from somewhere underground.

‘Siya.’

My eyes began to grow heavy as my body finally began to feel the chill that was covering me.

‘Siya!’

I could hear my name but it was muffled, as everything started to fade.

‘SIYA!’

The voice shouted in my ear, and like waking up from a bad dream I gasped for air, my whole life flashing before my eyes as Rafi’s voice cried out to me.

In an instant, I shot back up to where the monster was as if the abyss was slingshotting me out of the depths. I flew high into the air, right into its blind spot, and began to fall as I once again became tethered. ‘A perfect shot.’ There were two ways to kill a demon… Pierce its heart or break its brain.

“So then…” It whispered softly.

“Now die!” I flipped my sword, grabbing it in both hands and landing with it squarely jammed through the monster's skull, sticking clean out the other side.

“Angel or demon? I wonder which you will become...” Its last words turned to shallow whispers, like those that followed Rafi, nothing like its harrowing voice from before. It gave me chills.

A strange euphoria enveloped my whole body, numbing the pain. ‘Finally… Now it’s over… All of it… With this, I can finally be free…’

I felt my body start to shake as my breath wheezed out and I nearly went limp, hanging on the corpse.

Its body was still suspended in the air. I could feel its smooth leathery skin on my hands as it seemed to stiffen, rather than go limp. ‘I really did it…’ I started to laugh, even though it hurt. I couldn’t believe it.

The abyss began to fade from around me, and all of the black fog began to fade with it, even the marks on my skin quickly drained as I spent nearly everything I had. ‘Now I just use a bit of magic to toughen my body, and maybe I’ll even survive getting out of here.’

I loosened my grip on my sword, ready to slowly fall to the ground, but its neck suddenly started to jerk and twist, flipping all the way around with a screech that made my heart stop.

In a panic, and with one last rush of adrenaline, I slid off its back, grabbed the greatsword from the ground, channeled every ounce of manna I had into my muscles, and thrust the blade so hard into the beast's chest that a bloody explosion of gore burst out the other side, ripping it’s heart clean out and sticking it on the end of the blade.

Finally, it went limp and fell to the cold stone floor. We were both back in the dungeon, and now it was dead for sure.

I fell to my knees, so overcome with every possible combination of emotion that I didn’t know what to do. Whether I should laugh again, let out a hurrah, or just scream at the top of my lungs, I couldn’t decide.

In the end, I just sat on the ground, letting my arms fall to my side as I broke into tears. ‘It’s over, for real this time. Nothing could come back from that…’ My tears kept streaming down my face, but I didn’t even feel as though I had the energy to wipe them.

‘I won…’ “I won…” I said out loud. ‘Did you hear that Mom… I beat a monster that even you couldn’t handle. Are you proud?’ “What about you Aigis… Rafi… DID YOU SEE THAT!” I screamed, tensing every muscle in my body as I slowly folded over on my hands.

My voice quieted down again as I started to struggle just to breathe, although whether it was from my tears or the pain in my ribs I couldn’t tell. I pushed myself back up and sat between my heels staring at the monster's giant corpse to make sure it wasn’t just another ilusion. “I won...”