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“Get out,” Xen rumbled, scarlet eyes ablaze. “Get out before I rip you out myself.”

Knox coughed then cackled maniacally. He was battered and bruised, one eye swollen shut. One of his arms hung loosely from his sides, detached from the shoulder socket, and his left ankle was twisted backward. But it didn’t seem like he cared about the body he was possessing anymore since it had already been broken. And with that realization, he went completely nuts.

“Go on. I’d like to see you tear this body to shreds with your bare hands. Put on a show,” he laughed. “But that won’t kill me and you know that. Nothing can kill me.Nothing!”

He continued to cackle and the grave look on Xen’s face deepened.

Evan, noticing the change in his demeanor, cautiously stepped forward. “Xen…?”

Xen blinked, the fire in his eyes flickering ever so slightly as he turned to Evan. It seemed as though he was here, but his mind wasn’t. As if at a distance, he was arguing with someone in his head. And he was losing his end of the debate.

Evan stepped closer. “What is it? What’s happening?”

Other than pressing his lips into a line, Xen didn’t react.

Knox chose that precise moment to chime in. “Oh, boy, you have impeccable timing! Quick, come closer. Let me tell you the tale of how this puny demon became the reason for your demise—”

Xen slammed his free palm into Knox’s chest and he choked on his words. But before he could dismiss it as another useless attempt to shut him up, Knox froze. His good eye slowly widened. “You can’t…”

Evan’s eyes widened too, seeing the red shimmering through Xen’s palm and into Aaron’s body. “Wait, what are you doing?”

But as the question left his lip, Evan realized the answer and his heart dropped.

Knox was a conscience without form. A conscience could only survive in a living body by possessing its mind. And a body couldonly live with a soul. If the soul was ripped out, Knox would be forced out too.

Xen was going to detach Aaron’s soul from his body to drive out Knox.

With a renewed need for survival, Knox clawed at Xen’s hand around his throat. “Youcan’t! This boy’s injured body wouldn’t survive having his soul ripped out. Do you really wish to kill him? Didn’t you promise your beloved that you’ll not kill his friend?!”

Evan’s jaws tightened.

With a growl, Knox twisted the golden spear deeper into Xen’s chest with one hand, the other still trying to pry the hand from his throat. “You are, after all, just a pesky demon who can’t even keep his promises!”

“Shut your mouth!” Evan barked before turning to Xen and softening his tone slightly. “Listen to me… Don’t act rashly. You can’t rip Aaron’s soul out. He won’t survive that.”

If a soul was separated from a body without a natural cause like death, or a controlled method like projection, the soul could lose its memories, unable to return to its original body because it could no longer recognize it. And if the soul removal was rough, it could also damage the soul irreversibly.

Xen stared up at Knox, unhearing, as he curled his fingers into Aaron’s chest, breaking through the skin like butter. Blood flooded Knox’s mouth, through his tightly closed lips and trickled from the sides of his mouth.

At that moment, desperation finally surfaced in his beet-red face. “Please… Don’t kill me. I’ll leave the boy alone. At once. I…I won’t return. I promise…” Blood spurted from his nostrils and ears. “I want to live… I deserve to live as much as you! Let me go!”

Xen’s face remained apathetic.

A rumble shook the cliff surface and Evan, with his already weak body, stumbled to his knees. The three-eyed hound whimpered, ducking to the ground before taking off into the woods.

From a distance, a deafening howl rapidly approached the cliff. It was like a train was roaring past Evan’s ear as he frantically shouted over the chaos at Xen. “What are you doing?!”

Xen didn’t answer. Didn’t even glance at him. That look of crazed concentration was etched permanently onto his face, sending a shiver down Evan’s spine.

Whatever he was calling onto couldn’t be good.

With a frustrated grunt, Evan unsteadily made it to his feet but as he moved to interject, a pair of hands grabbed his shoulders. Startled, he whipped around only to find a pair of green eyes staring at him.

“You—You’re alive…” he blinked at Zeev for a moment before another quake violently shook the cliff. “Let go. What are you doing? Get off!”

Zeev silently continued to restrain Evan as he struggled and protested. It seemed as though he had in fact absorbed the spiritual energy Evan had supplied to him earlier. The same one he was now using to hold him back.

If he could summon a spiritual attack, Evan would have hit Zeev without regrets. But his body had already surpassed its limits, too weak to initiate an attack. So he turned his attention back to Xen.