Red lightning screamed through the air and slammed into the cracked obsidian ground with an earsplitting crack. Fragments of black stone exploded upward and spun into the void, vanishing from view.

Noah staggered, doubling over as a wave of nausea washed over him. He ground his teeth and forced himself upright, drawing on his Runes as the crackling roar of a storm filled the air. More and more magical power gathered around Wizen — far more than any single mage ever should have been able to wield.

Fire, lightning, gray matter, and sickly red tendrils all mixed together with blades of obsidian and other swirling forms of energy. Noah’s skin prickled in a mixture of awe and horror. What Wizen was doing should have been impossible.

A mage could only cast a single spell at once unless they were using a Formation to draw from multiple runes. Noah had broken that ironclad rule with the Violin Moxie gave him, and even that only let him cast two spells at once. That alone was an enormous advantage.

Realization snapped into existence within Noah’s mind as he finally put the pieces of information he’d been given together. Wizen had thought Sunder’s name was Weave. Sievan had called him the Woven Man.

Wizen doesn’t have Sunder. His Rune is called Weave, and I’ll bet that it’s literally weaving people’s runes together like some form of zombie, letting him control all of them at once. How many mages worth of power does Wizen have?

A bolt of red lightning crashed down several feet away from Noah, ripping through his thoughts and snapping him back into the present.

Thick storm clouds had gathered over Wizen. They stretched out through the void like greedy fingers, staining the sky a ruddy crimson.

Noah had no doubt that Sievan could have killed Wizen by now if he’d wanted to. But the Lord of Death had no plans of doing that. He wanted to die — but Noah couldn’t let the demon bring the rest of them along with him into the afterlife.

“Zath!” Noah screamed, grabbing his gourd and flinging it to Moxie. “Get them out of here!”

The Rank 7 Demon didn’t miss a beat. He spun, scooping Lee and Moxie off the ground like they were children. Neither of them said a single word of argument. There were times when staying to try and help fight was a good idea — but in a ring together with Sievan and Wizen, the only winning move was to leave.

Zath tucked them both under one arm before springing toward the small demon on the ground and reaching out for her.

“No,” Sievan’s voice was gentle, but Zath ground to a halt in an instant. He spun and dashed down the stairs, taking a dozen of them at a time as he made for a small pinprick of light far below them at the base of the stairs.

Relief roiled up in Noah’s chest, but he didn’t let it distract him. He still didn’t know what it was Sievan wanted. The Lord of Death said he’d planned to die, but he somehow wanted Noah’s help with it.

Wizen seemed more than willing to take care of that on his own. There was something missing. Noah hadn’t caught some piece of subtext that Sievan had dropped for him, and it didn’t look like there was going to be much time to work it out.

Energy roared around Wizen as he let out a roar of fury, not so much as looking in Noah’s direction as he thrust his hands toward Sievan.

A sea of power crashed down toward the Lord of Death from every direction. Lightning plummeted from the sky. Shards of obsidian shot for his body. Red and gray magic enveloped him in a swirling tornado with such intensity that the ground beneath him shattered, sending shrapnel flying in every direction.

Noah darted forward, flinging himself between the demon girl and the explosion. He lifted his hands and summoned a wall of wind.

It was pointless.

Not a single fragment drew near to him or the girl.

Roaring magic drowned out Noah’s thoughts as Wizen rained down spell after spell upon Sievan, each one shaking the world with the ramping intensity of their might. It felt as if Wizen didn’t have any limit to his power, and every passing minute only made him stronger.

“Is he winning?”

Noah glance down. The demon girl squinted past him, her face pale and covered in a thin sheen of sweat. She looked like she had a violent fever. Her arms were trembling from the effort of keeping herself upright and her eyes fluttered with strain.

“Who?” Noah asked.

“Both of them,” the girl replied. A tiny smile pulled at the corner of her lips. “Wizen wanted to kill Sievan. Sievan wants to die. He told me. I… just wanted to help. Did I help?”

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Noah looked back to the storming magic covering half of the platform. He could barely make out Wizen or Sievan’s forms anymore. There was only an ocean of runic magic, so intense that he suspected he would have been vaporized the moment he tried to approach.

“I suppose you did,” Noah said, looking back to the girl.

The back of his spine prickled and the breath caught in his throat as a realization struck him.

Sievan had called her hollow. A demon without runes.

A demon without a Minuscule Fragment of Decras. Holy shit. She’s not broken. This girl is a pure demon. If she could make a Fragment of Self, I could learn how to help every single other demon do it. She’s the key I need.

“That’s good,” the girl said. Her features relaxed and she sank back to the ground, staring up at the cloud-covered void above. “Are you Sievan’s friend?”

A loud crack of thunder split the air as another bolt of lighting crashed down. The girl barely even reacted to it.

“Something like that,” Noah said over the crash of magic behind him. “Listen. I don’t know what you’ve been told, but I think you could be very important. I’ve been researching demons for some time now. I’ve discovered the problem with your runes, and I think I can fix it. You might be the key to doing that.”

“I don’t think so. You found the wrong demon.” the girl’s voice was weaker than before. “I don’t have any runes.”

“Exactly,” Noah said, taking her gently by the shoulders. “What’s your name?”

“Sticky.” The demoness blinked, heavily, trying to muster the energy to look up at Noah. “But I don’t have any magic.”

“You can,” Noah said. He put a hand on the grimoire hanging from his back. “I’ll help you. I can come into your mind, and we can make you a rune. The others are wrong. You might be the most important demon in history. Just hold—”

A powerful blast of wind slammed into Noah’s back. He staggered, nearly falling straight on top of Sticky. He yanked on Natural Disaster and blew himself back into position before he could crush her.

Noah spun toward Wizen and Sievan and the blood froze in his veins.

All the magic was gone. Wizen stood before Sievan, a sword made of woven red and gray energy clutched in both of his hands.

Its blade was buried directly in the center of Sievan’s chest. Blood bloomed like a flower around it and soaked into the demon’s gray suit. For an instant, Noah locked eyes with the Lord of Death.

A faint smile pulled across the demon’s lips.

Then Wizen’s voice tore through the room like the blast of a cannon.

“Open the way,” Wizen commanded. Mind magic poured from his words and slammed into Noah’s stomach like a physical blow. He drew on Empty Proliferation as he felt the words worm into his skull, but they passed by harmlessly before they could take root.

The command hadn’t been meant for Noah.

Strands of gray magic wound out from Wizen’s palm. They wound around Sievan and sank into his skin. The demon made no move to resist, even as Wizen ripped the sword free of his body.

“Very well.” The Lord of Death lifted his hands into the air. “It has been a long time coming, hasn’t it?”

All the energy in the air vanished with a pop. Ice crawled across Noah’s skin and wound into his chest. His heart missed a beat and the breath stilled in his lungs. An immense pressure rolled through the room.

Black coiled through the air above them. It was sheer, unimaginable power. Horrifying and peaceful. Silent and omnipresent. The inevitable end for all mortals.

It was Death.

Sievan clapped his hands together, but the sound made no noise. The void was utterly still.

A white rectangle split open between his palms as he pulled them apart. It expanded to float before him, twisting with whorls of smoke that faded away to reveal a distant, shimmering path of gold.

Ice gripped Noah’s throat.

The Line.

Wizen let out a shuddering breath. Portions of his skin peeled back and floated in the air as if he were made out of confetti, but the man didn’t even seem to notice. His eyes were firmly fixed on the white portal before him. “Finally. Await me, Bella. Your father comes for you.”

He stepped into the void.

“Did he do it?” Sticky whispered, her weak voice just barely making it to Noah’s ears. “I can’t see.”

His eyes jerked back to the girl. Noah swallowed the fear twisting in his gut and carefully looped a hand around Sticky’s head, lifting it so she could see the portal.

“Yes.” Noah’s throat was tight. “They did.”

“They’ll be happy now,” Sticky said, relaxing into Noah’s hand. “I did something good, right?”

“You can do a whole lot more than that,” Noah said, grabbing for the Fragment of Renewal with his mind and sending the magic flooding into her body. Power tingled at his fingertips as the rune worked into her. “Listen to me, Sticky. I can come into your soul and we can fix you up. You can save the entire demon—”

“Your magic is nice. So… warm.” Sticky’s lips twitched in a small smile, but she didn’t have the strength to keep it for more than a moment. “I’m sorry. I wish I could have helped you too.”

And there, lying in Noah’s arms, Sticky died.

The magic pouring from the Fragment of Renewal evaporated. It could do many things, but it could not bring back the dead.

“No!” Noah yelled, but death could not be reasoned with. It did not accept bargains.

Noah’s teeth clenched. He lowered Sticky to the ground, brushing his hands over her eyes to close them, and turned toward Sievan.

The Lord of Death still stood where he had been run through, the white portal buzzing between his palms. A knowing smile was still present on his face.

“Fuck,” Noah snarled.

Wizen had gotten through the portal and taken the key out of the Damned Plains with him. The best lead he’d found to help Lee had died — and she’d been a child. Noah had failed at every single thing he’d come here to do.

His hands tightened into fists at his sides.

The portal still stood.

“Hold on a bit longer for me, would you?” Noah asked, striding up to stand before the Lord of Death.

Sievan’s smile twitched wider. Blood trickled down from his lips and dripped from his chin. “Death waits for no man.”

“I haven’t been a mere man for a very long time,” Noah replied.

Then he dove into the void.