Damon didn’t wait to be told twice.
He turned and ran.
Or tried to.
He slamd face-first into an invisible barrier so hard his vision burst into white sparks. The impact snapped his head back and left his ears ringing.
"Where do you two think you’re going."
The voice ca from the little girl standing calmly at the top of the stairs.
Damon’s scalp tingled.
You two.
That ant she could sense Ashcroft inside him.
"Hmph. Don’t be so surprised. If a creature from the taverse cannot sense a taphysical entity, it would be a disappointnt," Ashcroft said inside his mind.
Of course.
Ittorath was a nightmare.
And nightmares were not physical beings.
Damon straightened slowly, wiping blood from his nose with the back of his hand.
"How did you end up here, Ittorath," he asked, forcing his voice to stay level despite the anger boiling underneath. This was the entity that had once cursed him. The one that had damned him to a path where survival itself had beco a burden.
Ittorath’s expression remained calm, almost adorably confused, like a child who didn’t understand why adults were upset.
"Whatever do you an... It wasn’t difficult to co here. This Nexus is marked by the power of a god whose nightmare I was born from."
She spoke of it as if explaining sothing trivial to insects.
"Buy so ti. I have a plan," Ashcroft’s voice echoed in Damon’s head.
Damon’s eyes stayed on Ittorath, searching for a flaw. Taking this form had to co with a weakness. It had to.
"Yes. I was thinking the sa thing," Ashcroft added.
Damon exhaled slowly through his nose and, for once, chose to trust him.
"Why is it that you stopped us?" Damon asked, tilting his head slightly. "I hope you realize a Demon Lord can co through that gate any minute now. I doubt you can beat soone in the Seventh Class the way you are now."
Ittorath scoffed and placed her tiny hands on her waist.
"Yes, this body has limited power. For that reason, I got so help from so friends. No matter. I’ll be taking sothing from you."
Before Damon could react—
Ittorath vanished.
Ti seed to slow.
Damon raised his hand to strike, but she was already in front of him. Sothing slamd into his chest with crushing force and tore outward.
He didn’t even feel pain at first.
He only felt the impact as his body was hurled backward into the wall. Then the pain ca all at once. He coughed violently, blood flooding his mouth as he slid down the stone.
He forced his eyes up.
Ittorath stood there calmly, holding two small vials.
One was filled with a blackish-reddish energy that pulsed like a living heart.
The other glowed with a silver-gold light that shimred softly.
Damon glanced down at himself.
His ribs had caved inward. His chest felt hollow. His throat was thick with blood.
"I see..." Ashcroft said slowly. "He was after your demonic energy and your divine energy. But why?"
"What... are you trying to achieve..." Damon forced out as he pushed himself upright, one hand pressed to his ruined chest.
Ittorath waved her hand and the vials vanished.
"I simply hope to free so friends. For that, I need to perform a ritual. This is magic you lower-realm creatures would never understand."
She lifted her hand casually.
The ceiling shattered.
Stone the size of carriages broke free and fell toward Damon. The ground beneath his feet cracked and gave way at the sa ti.
Then, to make it worse—
Ittorath turned and destroyed the Nexus she had used to co here.
The fragnts exploded outward as space behind it collapsed into a forming black hole.
"Hurry, move, move!" Ashcroft yelled.
The gravity hit like a god’s hand.
Even at this distance, anything that drifted too close was stretched into thin strands and swallowed by the event horizon.
Damon scread as he pushed himself away, activating [5x] and forcing his body past its limits. His speed exploded as he clawed his way forward through the crushing pull.
He broke free—
And then sothing appeared in the air behind him.
"Don’t look at it!" Ashcroft scread.
But it was too late.
Damon had already seen it.
His eyes locked open.
His body froze mid-motion.
His mind filled with a horror so vast it had no shape, no form, only the certainty that what he was seeing should never be seen.
He could not look away.
He could not move.
He could only watch as death approached him.
Then—
Sothing sharp stabbed into his shoulders.
Pain tore through him as blood sprayed from the wounds.
His body was yanked violently to the side.
He crashed into a wall as soone grabbed him and dragged him out of the pull.
"What are you doing, let’s go!" Wendy scread, pulling him by the arm with desperate force.
Damon stood stunned for a mont. Wendy’s lips moved, but he could not hear a single word. The horror he had just witnessed had not yet reached his thoughts. It lingered inside him like a silent scream.
Only when his palms pressed against solid stone did his body finally react.
He staggered forward, grabbed the wall, and vomited violently. His shoulders shook with each heave. His eyes turned bloodshot as his stomach emptied onto the floor.
Wendy glanced at him, then stepped closer and rubbed his back in slow circles.
He dragged in a shaky breath.
"Thanks."
His knees buckled and he dropped to the ground. He pushed his hair back with trembling fingers. Around them, the sounds of battle intensified. Steel clashed. Stone cracked. Distant screams echoed through the temple. Seras and Paimon were still fighting the expedition force and the priestess, but the battle had turned desperate.
"We have to find Ittorath," Ashcroft said inside Damon’s mind.
"What. Shut up. You didn’t do anything. I almost died," Damon snapped aloud, anger spilling out with the last of the bile.
"Erm... I’m sorry I didn’t say anything. I was actually looking all over for you," Wendy said awkwardly.
Damon glanced at her and shook his head.
"Not you. I was talking to sobody else."
She stepped closer and placed her palm on his forehead, checking his temperature out of old human habit, making sure he was not feverish or delirious.
"I’m not sick," Damon said, irritation flaring even though he knew she was worried.
"Could’ve fooled ," she replied once she confird he was fine.
Damon pushed himself to his feet.
"Ittorath is here. And if I’m not wrong, he is here for the Ouroboros Coil."
Wendy frowned. "Isn’t that only useful to demons? He is not a demon, right? Why is that thing even here?"
Damon shook his head. That was exactly what he needed to understand.
"Hey, you bastard. What do you know about him being here? You have been all around the world."
Ashcroft sighed. There was no ti to argue.
"He is probably looking for a way to tamper with the Boundary Maker authority."
"Boundary Maker," Damon muttered. He had heard nas like that before. Dream Maker. Titles that ended with Maker.
"Is that an authority of the Unknown God?" Damon asked.
"Yes. Gods can grant their authority to their followers. Mugu was a prophet of the Unknown God. You could say he agreed with that god on everything, so the Unknown God was not stingy with power. Only chumps like us get a system. Mugu received sothing far greater," Ashcroft said with open mockery as Damon ran through the battle-torn temple with Wendy close behind.
"What do you an?" Damon asked.
"Mugu had a falling out with the outsiders. There was a conflict of interest. He used that authority to seal them away, but he supposedly perished afterward. The fledgling demon race he created was left for a future of suffering until I ca along," Ashcroft said with a low chuckle.
"When I was born into this world, this continent was a wasteland. Demon kin were hunted by other demon types and by humans. I made the difference. I united the demon races. I built on the foundation he created. This temple was one of them. Of course, I took credit for most of it."
Ashcroft paused.
"The more I learned, the more I realized there was no nobility in my actions. I was not a savior. I was a tool leading toward the Unknown God’s design."
"The Ouroboros Coil was part of that design. It contains a fragnt of the Unknown God’s authority, the Karma Maker. That is what allowed demon lords to pass power from one generation to another. They inherited the fate of previous demon lords."
"So he can control fate?" Damon asked.
"No. Cause and effect. Fate and everything between. More importantly, only an authority can cancel out another authority."
Ashcroft fell quiet for a mont before continuing.
"I know so things, but my knowledge cannot compare to those who have seen farther horizons. There could be more."
"I get it," Damon said as he took a sharp turn, ran up a broken pillar, then glided down and crashed through the ceiling into a lower chamber.
"If he succeeds, this is bad for us, right?"
Damon raised his head.
Ittorath stood in front of him.
Behind the entity rested an object shaped like a dragon eating its own tail.
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