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A hoard of black figures appeared around the forest clearing. Some stumbled, others crawled on all fours. Some were missing limbs, others cradled their own body parts in their arms. There were some that looked older, others were children as young as three. Resentment clung to each one of them, seeping into the air and turning it unbearably rancid.

Over two hundred of the black figures gathered, blanketing the area in a thick wall of translucent shadows, wailing and moaning like they were left in eternal suffering for centuries. Like they were calling for help but couldn’t speak.

They were the souls of the victims of the Great Sacrifice.

The people who apparently died at Xen’s hands.

Knox outstretched his arms in a warm gesture. “Welcome, my friends. We finally unite after centuries of waiting,” he sighed, pity dripping from his tone. “It must’ve been so painful, wandering in this wretched place, in this world that doesn’t see you as anything but pests that need to be eradicated. That ends today.”

The resentful spirits shrieked back in greeting, hollow mouths gaping wide. A sight truly horrifying to behold.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Quaking the ground and following after the spirits was a hoard of Hellguards and other low-level demons. Lumps of meat with dozens of eyes stuck onto them rolled on the ground. Tongues spanning over five meters dragged along. Hopping and drooling and growling, they charged forward, at least a hundred in number. Combined with the resentful spirits and Knox standing at the forefront, it was an army straight from hell.

Against them stood a lone figure, red robes bellowing, fire ablaze in his eyes. For some reason, even the hundreds looked meager standing before him. The air of hostility and venomous look on the Eternal’s face made some low-level demons reel back in fright.

“On this day, you can finally cross over to the afterlife, end your sufferings, and attain the peace you deserved centuries ago,” Knox said to the spirits, expression empathetic, almost sorrowful. A tear slipped from the corner of his eye. “On this day, I shall help you return to your rightful places in heaven.”

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 embedded into 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, humans can keep 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-shattering bellow, 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.

Humans and demons alike shrieked, cowering away as the fire blazed hotter. Some fell to their knees before the fiery pillar and bowed in reverence.

While Knox’s cackle of glee and the terrified cries of the cult members rang behind him, Xen’s eyes were transfixed on the figure that lay just a few feet away from him, within the barrier of the Heavenly Spring Water.

The Hellfire could defy the divine water’s powers. But Xen couldn’t. All he could do was stare at Evan’s body lying so close, yet so far beyond his reach.

It was such a familiar scene. That same face, lying in the same crimson pooled around him.

For a moment, Xen froze.

A vision of bloody, lifeless eyes flashed through his mind, yanking him back three centuries.

“You said you’d wait for me…” Blood trickled from between pale fingers as they cupped an equally bloody face. A pair of brown eyes shone lifelessly in the flickering flame.

Those pale fingers traced that face, trembling. “Little Storm…”

Xen’s breath hitched. “No…”

He’d only whispered the word when the Hellfire crackled violently and began pelting out balls of flame.

Screams rang out. The huge army scattered like ants.

Several cult members and demons couldn’t dodge in time and were engulfed in the flames of hell, reduced to ash within seconds.

Within one blink and the next, the fire spread wildly, almost swallowing the entire Tomb in its jaws. And yet, not a speck of it grazed Evan who was lying just at the foot of the Tomb.

“What are you doing?” Knox clicked his tongue as he stared at Xen. “Control it! Don’t you see your beloved is still inside the circle? Do you wish to burn him alive too?”

Xen blinked slowly. “I can’t.”

Knox gritted his teeth. “Bullshit! You can’t or you won’t ?”

“Eternal fire can only be summoned, not controlled.”

“Stop lying!” Knox bellowed, his mask of ease finally shattering when he saw the uncontrollable flame roaring in delight as it pelted and ate away at humans and demons alike. A rare sight of uncertainty flashed in his face.

With a frosty glare at Xen, he turned back to the spirits who couldn’t feel the heat and were confused as to why everyone was running around, fire chasing their tails.

“It’s time, my friends!” Knox cried over the commotion, a maniac gleam in his eyes. He glanced at the group of fifteen men who were stumbling and huddling behind the tree to which they were bound. Because they were blindfolded, they couldn’t see what was happening. But the heat of the Hellfire drove them to take shelter behind the tree, their cries of help drowned by the screams and shrieks of Knox’s army.

“This was what we were waiting for. It’s time. Off you go into the flames of redemption,” Even in his frenzy, Knox easily manipulated his speech to sound favorable towards the spirits. Calling the flames of hell, flames of “redemption,” as if the spirits would really be sent to heaven after this.

The band of over two hundred resentful spirits charged towards the Hellfire, howling out their bliss. Knox waved a hand and the group of the fifteen men were yanked out from their shelter behind the tree. A purple binding wrapped around the group and dragged them towards the flames, readying the sacrifices.

“Rejoice! Your ashes shall become the foundation of a new age. A new era. A new world that I would create,” Knox smiled softly at the blindfolded, sobbing group of men like a father seeing off his sons to die in a battle. “Sacrifice your lives for the birth of this immortal.”

“Fuck you!” A ginger-haired man with snot and tears running down his face cried. Robbie. “When my brother finds you, you’re dead meat!”

Xen was still staring at Evan’s limp body when, with an abrupt jolt, he stumbled forward an inch. His vision—once filled with Evan—now held the gleam of a long, blood-slicked golden spear, driven straight through his chest.

Giving the weapon a cold glare, Xen turned his head, watching the army of resentful spirits, fifteen bound men, and Knox closing in.

He slowly turned around, the golden spear still embedded in his chest as he stared at Knox’s approaching form. Other than a look of forced restraint as he tried to control his fury, Xen didn’t react. “Let him out.”

With an amused smile, Knox tilted his head. “Who?”

Xen’s fiery eyes blazed. His forefinger twitched and the golden spear shot out of his chest, flying towards Knox. It struck the ground right at his foot.

Knox and his army stopped as the earth tremored, propelled by the force of that spear’s strike.

Xen seethed, “Let. Him. Out.”

“Oh, Xen, you foolish little love-struck puppy,” a laugh bubbled out of Knox, thoroughly enjoying the scene. “Did you really think after I suffered being bound to that old tree for three hundred years because of you and your lover, I’d let you have what you want?”

He pulled the golden spear from the ground and grinned at Xen’s chilling expression. “Do you want to kill me? Go on. This body belongs to your beloved’s friend. Even if you destroy it to save him, in the end, humans would only cry over what they lost instead of being grateful for what they have. He would hate you.”

Xen knew that was true yet he moved a step forward, intending to end Knox once and for all. But suddenly, a warning rang out in his head.

Don’t fucking move. Stay still.

Xen froze. His blazing eyes flickered.

Knox quirked a brow at him, regarding his frozen stance, then scoffed, mistaking his look of relief for resignation. “How did such a weakling become a King of Demons, I do not know,” then he inclined his head and the resentful spirits charged forward once again, heading towards the Hellfire with all their might. Those spirits were once humans, so crossing over the Heavenly Spring barrier shouldn’t have been a problem.

And yet, when the dark figures reached the channel of water circling the Tomb, they slammed into an invisible wall. Screeches of terror erupted into the night, but before they could run away, something strange happened.

As soon as the resentful spirits crashed into the invisible wall, they dissolved. Dispersed into nothingness.

A shimmering blue barrier glowed to life, spreading outward until it covered the entirety of the Tomb of Ascension and the Hellfire blazing inside it, sealing everyone out.

Some spirits hadn’t yet realized the appearance of the wall of spiritual light, or perhaps weren’t smart enough to gauge the danger, and continued forward blindly. One touch was all it took for their souls to dissipate.

Knox stilled, then his brows furrowed. “You’re a stubborn one, aren’t you?”

From behind Xen, who stood as still as a barrier himself, a figure stepped out, limping slightly. Black hair tussled in the wind, with flakes of dried blood hanging from the strands. One hand pressed against his abdomen, the other reaching towards Xen’s shoulder for support.

“Well, what can I say? I’m infamous for a reason.”

A pair of blue eyes glowed, in stark contrast against the backdrop of the blazing Hellfire. Evan stumbled out of the circle of Heavenly Spring Water, supporting himself on Xen’s shoulder as he cocked his head.

“You’ve finally exhausted my patience, fucker.”