Page 143

As they started walking again, Xen fell in step beside Evan, and Zeev trailed behind quietly. Patting the Shadow Hand, on his shoulder, Evan asked, “By the way, what exactlyisReth?”

If it was so important to an Eternal, then surely it was something powerful. Maybe like a magic wand or a crystal ball.

Zeev piped in at that. “It’s His Lord’s—”

“Don’t worry about it,” Xen cut him off, tone dismissive. “It’s a vial filled with ash, just remember that.”

Evan wanted to probe more, like what was the ash or why was it so important, but when he noticed the faint clench in Xen’s jaw, he dropped the topic.

A few minutes later, they stopped near a huge rock structure. Zeev tore off the dangling vines to reveal the shape of a head, with two closed eyelids and a huge gaping mouth.

Evan squinted into the mouth and realized it was, in fact, a cave. “The Giant’s Belly, I’m assuming?” A chill snaked down his spine as a cold breeze blew from the cave, rustling his hair. With that gust came a faint, rancid stench like a rotten corpse. Evan’s face hardened. “Are the kids in there?”

“Not inside,” Zeev said. “But above.”

With a lingering irritation from their earlier argument, Evan didn’t turn around to look at him as he asked, “Elaborate.”

Zeev seemed to pause at his frosty tone, then lowered his head. “There’s a protection circle erected around the Tomb of Ascension so no inhuman creature can enter it. There is no way to go around or over, so we’re going through the only remaining way possible.”

“Underground,” Evan glanced at the cave.

“The protection circle I mentioned is a channel of Heavenly Spring Water. It’s deadly against our kind,” Zeev explained. “We will surface fifteen paces outside that circle.”

That was oddly specific. Evan glanced at Zeev, noticing his head hung low as if in remorse for his earlier words.

With a sigh, Evan soothed the icicles from his tone a bit. “How do you know the exact distance? Have you already dug through?”

Zeev slightly raised his head. “I haven’t yet, sir.”

When Evan stared at him unblinking and Zeev awkwardly shifted under his unwavering gaze, Xen explained, “He is a Hellguard, a demon of rocks. He can sense and accurately place the distance and position of another rock and similar elements in his proximity.”

Evan’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh?”

Of course. The Tomb of Ascension was a structure carved of rock. If he could place the exact location of the Tomb, then measuring fifteen paces outside would be a piece of cake.

When Evan looked at Zeev again, the black-clad demon lowered his head further. It could have been Evan’s imagination, but he felt like Zeev was blushing hard under that mask.

Was it because talking about his abilities was awkward for him, or because his master had done it in his stead?

What an odd duo.

The trio walked into the cold cave, Evan shivering ever so slightly. After a few moments of burning his brain fuel, he frowned, “Why not just burst through the floor and destroy the summoning array? Then the Nightshade freaks will have no way of summoning anything.”

Xen pressed close to him with his hands still clasped behind his back, and a sudden heat blanketed Evan’s shivering form.

“If something inhuman bursts through the array without going through the complete summoning ritual, they’d be disintegrated to ash within a blink. That’s the power the circle of Heavenly Spring Water lends to the array: protection.”

Although he was speaking of himself getting possibly toasted to grey powder, Xen’s face barely twitched, as if discussing the weather.

“Besides,” he continued. “They’re not summoning any creature in the Tomb. They’re going to summon fire.”

Evan blinked up, “Fire?”

Zeev replied, “Hellfire.”

Even though Xen was supplying a constant and stable amount of heat to Evan’s body, a sudden chill pricked the surface of his skin.

Hellfire…