The effect was immediate. A black haze poured from Hunter’s body and collected above him like a malevolent cloud. Hunter could see sinister red eyes and a Cheshire grin of fangs within the fog. It silently scowled down at Hunter before it floated toward the Keeper.

The demon had its eyes closed while it continued to chant. Its arms were upraised, and its wings were spread wide. The miasmic Lord drifted on an invisible breeze as it closed on the Keeper. When it surrounded the unsuspecting demon, it struck. Black smoke poured into the nostrils, mouth, eyes, and ears of the Keeper. The chanting abruptly cut off, and there was replaced with the wailing of the reptilian Keeper.

Hunter’s eyes were wide as he looked around the room for some means of escape. He didn’t have a plan at this point. He had been operating off of the Sentinel’s instructions, but now he wasn’t sure what else he needed to do.

As he peered around the room, he noticed that it was slowly changing. Whatever was on the other side of the portal was transfiguring the throne room. The walls transformed from stone into pure gold. Blood started dripping down their lengths like the wild paintings of a psychopath. The huge pyres of candle flame died down until they were their usual flickering selves. After that, the candles floated into the air and became a verdant lighting for the room. Each pillar within the chamber started to morph and undulate like gray pillars of sand. Faces appeared and disappeared within the grain. Their mouths were open in wordless screams. Agony was writ across their features. Thousands of souls cried out from within the pillars and silently begged for release.

Hunter dropped his gaze to the floor. Each tile turned black and glossy like obsidian. He watched as the Lord of Hell’s sigil etched itself into each one. Blood poured from the ragged sigil and filled it. The liquid hardened and crystallized until it looked like ruby inscriptions to a demonic god.

The emerald light brightened as the Keeper was transformed. First, it wings fell off and turned to ash. Its tail dropped away like a lizard’s before turning to ash as well. The scaled hide of the Keeper smoothed and softened until it resembled a man’s. He had a perfect physique with chiseled musculature of supernatural proportion. The former Keeper looked like one of those Hollywood actors that bulked up for a superhero movie.

The man’s face melted and reformed until it became a perfect facsimile of a middle-aged man with a broad jaw and sharp cheekbones. Black hair sprouted from the man’s scalp and became a dark curtain of long, straight locks. Golden liquid manifested above his head and bubbled and roiled as it formed into a gleaming crown. All at once, the crown caught with emerald flames.

More of the miasma spun around the man and coalesced into plated armor dark as night. It slowly brightened until it shone a lustrous gold. It had hulking plates that looked like it could stop a tank round. Combined with the crown, the former Keeper’s vestments exuded power and wealth.

Finally, the man’s eyes opened and fastened on Hunter with a brilliant green hue. There was an inner light to them that flickered like hot coals. A grin spread upon the man’s face before he spoke his first words.

“Fear not, Human. You may have disrupted my ritual, but it hasn’t finished just yet. I will wait for the spell to pull the life force from your body and fully consume the Sentinel’s soul, and then…then, I’ll rip my mask off of your face.”

Hunter shivered as he felt his life force being drawn away from his body. It left behind an immeasurable fatigue that tired the body and sapped the soul. The teenager frantically pulled a soul gem from his storage ring and absorbed the energy within. There was a lessening of pressure, but it soon continued.

“Oh?” The Lord of Hell remarked. “You didn’t absorb the soul gems from the tiefling outpost?”

Hunter’s eyes widened.

“Yes, I know about the Outpost. I’ve been watching you for a while from the other side. Please, continue. Drain all the soul gems—you’re just delaying the inevitable.”

Hunter pulled out another soul gem, but instead of immediately absorbing the soul gem, he coalesced a Black Tornado and poured the stolen energy inside of it. The storm swelled in the palm of his hand until the wailing of the wind countered the chanting and the screaming of souls. Hunter gritted his teeth while trying to contain the power of the tornado in his palm.

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When the storm had absorbed all the energy Hunter could provide with the gem, he flung the tornado at the demon. It rocketed from his body with the power of a gale-force wind. Hunter had a satisfied smile as he pulled out another soul gem and consumed its contents to stave off the hungry ritual.

The Lord didn’t seem even slightly bothered as the attack rushed toward him. He held out a gauntleted palm, and the winds were sucked into the armor. In a matter of seconds, Hunter’s Black Tornado was rendered inert. The Lord wasn’t the worse for wear. He granted Hunter a small smile.

“Well, that was an interesting attack. Maybe there was more to you than meets the eye, boy.”

The Lord turned away from Hunter as if he were a pet that had been properly disciplined. His gaze fell on the three pilfers that were still in the chamber. At some point during the ritual, they had bent one of their crab-like legs and bowed toward the Lord in supplication.

“Ah, my loyal servants. It is good that you’re here. I need more nourishment if I’m to turn this Rift into a Fracture, and I don’t know if the young Hunter will be enough.”

With a careless wave of his hand, green fire billowed from the pilfers. They didn’t cry out as the flame swiftly consumed their bodies and rendered them to ash. The particles blew away as Hunter saw more soul energy flow from the pilfers and into the Lord. It was more soul energy than Hunter had ever seen. It dwarfed the amount of energy provided by a tiefling.

For the first time since the ritual began, Hunter felt desperate. He only had three dozen soul gems, and he was consuming them one after another. Despite their assistance, he could feel death shadowing him. It waited just beyond detection, ready to usher him into whatever passed for an afterlife in the aftermath of the apocalypse.

Hunter narrowed his focus. He couldn’t think about anything else but surviving. Focusing on his survival was what Aquila would do. He was sure that the Sentinel’s plan couldn’t have been only this. She had to have known that disrupting the ritual wouldn’t truly prevent the Lord of Hell’s passage into Earth. There had to be something more. He just had to survive long enough to find out.

He quickly ran through ten soul gems, then twenty, then thirty, and finally, he was getting to his last few soul gems, and nothing had happened. In the meantime, the Lord hadn’t moved from his position. He merely watched and waited for Hunter to run out of energy. The teenager didn’t know if it was due to a lack of strength or some arcane rules that he didn’t understand. In any case, Hunter had died yet, and that was all he had going for him.

When he pulled out the last soul gem, a sob shuddered in Hunter’s chest.

Maybe I was wrong. Maybe this was all a game that I didn’t understand.

“There it is. You’ve finally realized that you didn’t have a chance. You were fated to die from the moment that meddling Archivist pulled you into this Rift. You don’t need to worry. Your power is mine, and soon your would will be too.”

Hunter felt the gem in his hand crack into dust as the demon’s words ended. Something broke in his heart at the same time. He dropped his hands to his side and fell to his knees. He hung his head in defeat and waited for the ritual to consume the energy he had left.

He felt two cold hands settle on either shoulder. Hunter looked up, fearing the worst. On either side of him, ghostly images of his grandparents had placed a hand on him. They were no longer tieflings but typical human beings clothed in everyday clothing. They were young and in the prime of their lives. Hunter imagined that this was the version of themselves that they identified with the most.

Grandma Blair looked down at him and smiled. She seemed to be telling him that it was going to be okay and that she was sorry. It wasn’t words, but a series of images and feelings that composed her message.

Hunter glanced over at his grandfather, and he saw the spectral version of the man staring daggers at the demon. His jaw was clenched, and the muscles of his arm were straining to hold onto Hunter’s shoulder. He shoulders were proud, and his back unbent. He looked like everything Hunter had wanted in a grandfather. Hell, it was everything Hunter had wanted in a father. It was unbearably sad that he only saw them at this at the end.

Maybe when I’m gone, I’ll be like them. Maybe there’s a place after this where I can be at peace.

The Lord broke him from his grief-stained thoughts.

“This is so boring. They can’t protect you in death any more than they did in life. They’ll always be creatures of greed. They’re slaves to me even after their passing. You can’t—“

An earthquake rattled through the building and interrupted the Lord. Dust rained from invisible seams in the ceiling, and some of the candles were extinguished and fell to the ground with a clatter.

“What?”

The demon showed his first outright expression. His mouth opened in awe as the crack in the center of the room slowly closed and fused together. Meanwhile, the shaking grew more intense. When the gouge in the fabric of reality disappeared, the rumbling of the building sounded like it was going to bring the entire fortress down.

A brilliant white light appeared in the doorway to the room. It was so bright that Hunter had to shield his eyes for fear of blinding himself.

“No, you can’t be here. You’re breaking the rules.”

The light faded, and a heavenly figure appeared in their midst. The man’s tone was casual as he replied.

“You broke them first.”