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Xen smirked. He didn’t need to be told twice. He flashed forward, a blur of red, eyes gleaming with barely withheld anticipation. Knox raised the golden spear and they clashed.

Flashes of purple and red and gold flew in all directions. The army of demons surged forward too but instead of Xen, they ran toward Evan.

An Eternal was terrifying enough, but an angry Eternal was certain death.

Evan scoffed, anger from God knew how many hours of pain and torture boiling over. Two orbs of spiritual energy conjured in his palms, growing bigger and brighter. “You fucking pests from hell, don’t underestimate me!”

When he shot the energy blasts, the blue light crashed into the low-level demons and instantly set them on fire. The ones with even less demonic energy were blasted into a bloody mess.

One after another, Evan hurled blasts of spiritual energy into the hoard of demons, driven entirely by unadulterated rage. Every time the wound in his stomach throbbed, his attacks grew more violent. He’d been kidnapped by his friend, tied to tree, trapped in a barrier, and stabbed with his own spiritual weapon, all without lifting a finger in retaliation. Now, every ounce of that suppressed fury exploded, unleashed on the swarm of pests before him.

Seeing that he didn’t intend to stop or slow down, several demons turned and started fleeing.

Evan’s nostrils flared. “Get back here! Where the fuck are you running off to?”

He pelted them with spiritual energy blasts, growling at them to stop and face him, cursing when they preferred to save their lives instead.

The fifteen men who were still tied together shrieked, trying to break free from the purple binding. Some of their blindfolds had come loose and they screamed even louder when they witnessed the creatures of distorted shapes and sizes slithering around, resentful spirits madly dashing into the barrier.

Evan sent some demons flying with spiritual energy blasts and dodged the pelting flames the Hellfire casually tossed every now and then. Rushing towards the men, he ripped off the binding which, surprisingly, wasn’t as indestructible as it’d seemed.

“Get out of here. Don’t look back!” The first fourteen had already fled before he could finish the sentence, but a ginger head grabbed Evan’s hands, eyes brimming with gratitude amidst the shock and terror of the situation.

“Evan—”

“Not now, Robbie,” Evan grasped his shoulders. “You won’t mention a word about what you saw here to anyone. Not even Tiago. Do you understand?”

Robbie nodded fervently. “I won’t.”

He was nodding yes but saying no. A baffling sight.

“Good. Now run.”

After Robbie disappeared from sight, Evan’s shoulders slumped in brief relief. At least now his debt would be waived off.

But then he looked up, and the relief faded.

It was utter chaos. Sparks flew from Xen and Knox’s fight, and the Hellfire spat fireballs everywhere, howling demons and humans on fire ran for cover. And following the low-level demons were massive rock structures stomping everyone and everything in the way. The ground trembled as Hellguards of various sizes and shapes charged forward.

A sharp pain shot up his abdomen and Evan staggered, grunting. “Fucking hell.”

The only possible weakness of a Hellguard in his true form was the opening to his demonic core. However, the placement of the core differed in each demon. If the target was missed, it would only piss him off. And the Hellguards weren’t exactly stationary at the moment, so locating the opening to their cores and hitting the exact spot while they were raging in that form wasn’t exactly easy.

Evan raked a hand through his hair, then looked around as if for inspiration, and spotted a figure impaled against a tree. With a huff, he sprinted to the tree, holding onto his abdomen.

He craned his neck at Zeev nailed way too high for him to reach. “Hey, stone-head! Are you alive?”

The figure didn’t respond, head hanging limp.

“Zeev?”

No response.

Evan inhaled deeply then cried out, “Your master is about to die!”

Zeev’s bloody fingers twitched. His eyelids fluttered. But he didn’t immediately come to.

Instead, a nearby Hellguard, short and thick like a boulder, heard Evan’s scream and rushed towards him like a mad bull.