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The resentful spirits, not sensing his deceit in the slightest, moaned and shrieked in delight. Some even clumsily started throwing their arms around each other.

They didn’t know that after entering the Hellfire, a human spirit could attain nothing but eternal suffering, burning every day until the end of time, until every last shred of their souls dissipated into oblivion, severing any chances of rebirth.

There was no heaven for them. No peace.

Knox’s eyes returned to Xen, who stood rigidly before the Tomb of Ascension. “It’s a shame everything was so easy. I’d have liked to see you summon your kin. Like old times.”

There was a hunger in his eyes. An unsettling desire for chaos that one could only describe as insanity. He was doing everything in his power to provoke Xen, but the Eternal remained as stone-faced as a sculpture.

When he couldn’t elicit any reaction from him, Knox lowered his hands, smug and somewhat disappointed. “Shall we begin?”

Xen cast a long look at Evan, lying completely still inside the Tomb, eyes closed, chest barely moving. The shard embeddedinto his abdomen was still faintly glowing. Which meant his spiritual energy was still channeling through his body.

The only sign that he was alive. Just barely.

Knox waved a hand and the barrier around the Tomb lowered. With another crook of his finger, Evan’s unconscious body lifted off the floor of the Tomb of Ascension and floated out to lay in the space between the channel of Heavenly Spring Water and the Tomb. Close enough, but still out of Xen’s reach.

He took a step closer, as if to reach for Evan, then stopped. Without a word, he tore his eyes away from him, towards the array instead.

As he raised his hands, palm facing up to the skies, he wondered whether Evan would ever look at him the same after this day. Whether he’d forgive him once. Just this once. If he gave him an excuse that he was forced to do it while Evan was unconscious, would he give him another chance?

Was he bound to lose Evan in every life?

Red sparks crackled between Xen’s fingers, and the forest floor hummed, rumbling beneath his feet. A foreign heat enveloped the air, making it almost suffocating. Outside the Tomb of Ascension, the cult members shuffled and cast worried glances around, moving away from the circle. The bodies of their dead fellow disciples were strewn around.

One figure broke away from the lot, pale with panic, voice pitched high. “I…don’t wanna die! I’m sorry, I-I-I don’t want to die. I have…I have a family…”

Knox glanced at him, unmoved. “You do?”

The cloak slipped from the guy’s head, revealing a head full of white hair, and a wrinkle-laden face. Blood trickled down his nose. “I do… Let me go, My Lord… I b-beg of you.”

Utterly apathetic to the man’s tears, Knox sighed. “But you vowed to serve me until death, did you not?”

The man backed away, joining his hands as he pleaded, “Please… Please, I beg of you…”

Purple eyes took in the old man’s haggard state as Knox strolled closer to him, hands in his pocket. “Humans do enjoy breaking promises, don’t they?” He paused. “Alright, you’re free to go.”

The man’s eyes widened in disbelief before he staggered back with a hopeful smile. “Thank you… Thank you so m—”

But his next words ended in a bloody gurgle, eyes bulging as something burst forth from his chest; a long slithering tongue. It crawled up his body, stopping right in front of his gaping mouth before piercing straight through and out from the back of his skull.

Knox observed with an indifferent expression as the man dropped dead and the demonic tongue sucked his organs dry. “So, with a little help, humanscankeep their promises. Now you served me until death.”

He shot a look at the rest of the members, and they froze in their retreat, before bowing their heads miserably.

Xen’s demonic energy channeled through his body in waves of black smoke, sinking into the earth and spreading like fire. Lightning roared through the sky as the ground cracked around the Tomb of Ascension, following the path his demonic energy was paving.

Xen’s scarlet eyes flashed, too bright. Almost golden.

His lips parted. “Come.”

From the just-formed cracks, four zaps of current erupted and struck out, meeting atop the Tomb. A blazing red ball of demonic energy formed at the junction, crackling with an otherworldly light.

Xen curled his fingers into a fist and that blazing ball struck the floor of the Tomb of Ascension, right at the center. The ancient array lit up, coming alive. With an earth-shatteringbellow, a pillar of fire burst forth from the array, shooting for the sky.

The flaming pillar was so bright that a human eye couldn’t stare directly at it, so hot that the trees around the clearing trembled, their leaves wilting and branching turning limp before cracking away.

The Heavenly Spring Water shimmered at the intrusion but never tried to attack the pillar of Hellfire. While the Heavenly Spring might have been thousands of years old, the Hellfire was as ancient as time and creation itself. The divine water could not battle the eternal flames.