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Evan was busy shaking Zeev’s legs, and the quakes beneath his feet had been constant for a while so he didn’t detect a Hellguard approaching him.

Xen’s scarlet eyes flashed amidst clashing with Knox, who wielded the golden spear with impressive agility. “Behind you!”

Evan jumped slightly then spun around. Just as the Hellguard raised two fists overhead, intending to plummet him into the ground.

But before it could, a ball of flame exploded in its face. The demon roared as the Hellfire burnt it to a crisp.

For a moment, Evan simply stared at the demon’s remains, dumbfounded. Hadn’t Xen said he couldn’t control the Hellfire? Was he bluffing to stall Knox?

Evan glanced at the red-clad figure moving like a gale, each step as light as if stepping on the wind, each attack as deadly as a tornado. Xen looked engrossed in the fight, making sure he only injured Knox and didn’t accidentally kill him. That must surely exhaust more focus than a usual attack meant to simply annihilate the opponent. It didn’t seem like Xen had launched the attack just now.

Evan’s focus unintentionally shifted to the Hellfire blazing from the array inside the Tomb of Ascension. Had the fire justrandomly targeted the Hellguard who was attacking Evan? Or was it trying to…

No. That was absurd. Even if Evan had earned the favor of an Eternal—somehow—assuming that the ancient, eternal flames of hell would try to save him was beyond Evan’s usual vivid imagination.

And yet, as he stared into the depth of the eternal flames, he could almost make out the shape of an eye—a huge scarlet eye staring at him.

“Ugh…”

Evan’s head snapped up as Zeev stirred, and instantly coughed up blood. His demonic energy levels had fallen so low that Evan couldn’t sense any on him. It was as if he’d turned human.

“Zeev! Zeev, wake up. Your master needs your help,” Evan wildly shook his leg again, almost dislodging it from his hip.

Amidst the curtain of long dark hair, two green eyes peeled open, staring directly at Evan. “My Lord…”

“Yes, he is alive. But he might not be for long. Can you transform into your original form?”

Zeev’s half-lidded eyes lifted, locking onto the exact spot where Xen was battling Knox. Even through the haze, he located his master without fail. With a muffled growl, he started thrashing, grabbing onto the ends of the bident and trying to rip the fork from his chest. The fierce determination to return to Xen was evident in his eyes. But he was way too weak. After a few desperate attempts, his hands fell limp at his sides.

His head dropped. “I am…useless to His Lord. I—I might as well…perish before showing this…this disgraceful face to him,” he heaved after every few words, weakly pushing out broken sentences through a bloody mouth.

Evan rubbed his forehead, then sent an energy blast to a demon who was approaching them. “Okay. Can you absorb my spiritual energy?”

Zeev’s regret-filled gaze lifted, and a subtle glimmer of hope flickered in them. “But I couldn’t…possibly ask—”

“It’s a yes or no question.”

Zeev dropped his head again. After a long pause, he mumbled out, “Forgive me for…what I said, sir.”

Evan paused. “…what?”

“Earlier…I didn’t mean to…upset you. I shouldn’t have…suggested killing your friend…to recover Reth… Forgive this servant for overstepping…”

Evan blinked up at him, then sighed. “That’s not—Okay, I forgive you. Now, can you transform using my energy, yes or no?”

“I could try…if you could lend me some…”

“Good,” Evan tiptoed to reach up and Zeev extended his hand. Blue light set course from Evan’s arm and traveled up, seeping into Zeev’s pale hand. Through his tattered robes, glimpses of his skin shimmered with blue light, slowly blurring into red as it coursed through his chest and spread up his neck.

But before it reached his temple, Zeev jerked, then slumped once again. The light faded from his skin.

Evan’s breath hitched. Had he accidentally sent too much spiritual energy and killed him?

“Hey! Wake up!” Evan shook his legs but Zeev had turned into all but a barely breathing corpse.

With a resigned exhale, Evan turned back to face the Hellguards now surrounding the tree beneath which he stood. His fists trembled on his sides as he stared up at the figures towering over him like buildings made of rocks.

Well, he was most efficient when fighting alone anyway.