Chapter 64: Enterance Exam: End.

Caelus drew the moisture toward the creature’s exposed eye, pulling the mist into a dense knot until thousands of droplets trembled around the target.

He sent Death Stalker through the haze.

The water bullet flew straight for a heartbeat before Caelus shifted the compressed moisture across its path. The dense pocket dragged the projectile sideways, bending its trajectory around the creature’s head.

Death Stalker punched through the eye.

It burst from the back of the skull in a spray of black fluid.

The creature screamed.

Flesh crawled across the ruined socket immediately, muscle swelling and folding over itself until a fresh eye pushed through the bloodied tissue.

Caelus was already moving.

He drove through the mist, boots sliding over wet stone as Water Sheathe tightened around his blade. He twisted his hips and drove the sword upward beneath the creature’s ribs, the water coating the edge cutting through layered muscle before the flesh could close around it.

At the same instant, Eve came from the opposite side.

Shadow poured around her legs and compressed beneath her feet. She vanished into darkness for a fraction of a second before shooting upward, both blades raised over her head.

She brought them down with her full weight behind the strike.

One sword buried itself in the creature’s shoulder.

The second punched into its chest.

The impact dragged Eve forward.

The creature lurched.

Then its arm moved.

The flesh along its forearm tightened with a series of wet cracks. Bone shifted beneath the skin, the limb lengthening as muscle compressed and hardened. Its narrow hand became a massive, rigid block of flesh.

It swung.

Eve barely pulled one blade free before the strike smashed into her side.

The impact lifted her from the ground.

Her body twisted through the air and struck the cavern wall hard enough to shake dust from the ceiling.

Caelus ripped his sword free and stepped aside as the same arm swept through the space where his head had been.

It struck the ground.

Stone detonated beneath the blow.

The cavern floor cracked outward.

Caelus felt the impact through his boots.

The thing was destroying whatever happened to be standing in front of it.

Behind them, Lucian continued chanting.

"Sael’or... ith na’Vera... Elun kha’reth..."

His voice strained beneath the weight of the corrupted energy building inside him.

He crushed another core.

Golden light burst between his fingers.

Caelus looked toward him.

"Keep charging."

Lucian nodded, his expression strained.

The creature turned back toward Eve.

She pushed herself away from the wall more slowly this time.

One hand went briefly to her ribs and her fingers came away wet with blood. Her breathing had become shallow.

The creature lunged.

Eve twisted aside as its claws tore through the space where her head had been. She vanished into shadow before its second hand could catch her, then reappeared behind it and drove both feet into its spine.

Shadow erupted from the ground beneath the creature.

Chains burst from the stone and wrapped around the creature’s torso, one crossing its chest while another locked around its arm.

The chains tightened.

For a moment, the creature stopped.

Then the muscles beneath its skin contracted.

Its joints shifted.

The restraints snapped apart, and the creature surged forward.

Caelus thrust one hand forward.

Mist tore around him.

Death Stalker shot through the haze, a compressed spike of water vanishing between twisting currents before Caelus pulled a pocket of moisture toward the creature’s mouth.

The pressure shifted.

The projectile curved through the mist and punched through one of the faces covering the creature’s torso.

Black fluid hissed across the cavern floor.

Eve came through the smoke low to the ground, planted one hand against the floor, and drove her remaining blade beneath the creature’s jaw.

Steel tore through its throat.

She pushed with both hands.

The creature’s body jerked.

Its hand closed around her shoulder.

Eve’s feet left the floor.

Her breath caught.

The creature drew her closer, its mouths opening around her as if the entire mass intended to swallow her whole.

Darkness erupted from her body.

Shadow swallowed her from head to foot, spreading through the creature’s grip before collapsing inward.

She disappeared.

Then emerged above its shoulders and drove her blade straight through the top of its skull.

The steel punched through bone.

Dark blood cascaded over the creature’s face.

Caelus rushed the opening.

Water Sheathe gathered tightly around his sword, so dense that the blade seemed to vanish beneath a thin, shimmering layer of water.

He swung.

The cut ripped across the creature’s chest.

Mottled flesh opened from shoulder to ribs.

Organs rolled beneath the wound before spilling onto the stone.

One of the embedded faces stretched into a distorted scream as Caelus’s blade passed through its mouth.

He withdrew before the creature could grab him.

It staggered.

For several seconds, neither Caelus nor Eve moved.

The torn muscle of the creature began to squirm. Strands of flesh writhed beneath the exposed ribs, stretching across the gap before recoiling and trying again.

Caelus stared.

Its torso twisted.

The broken ribs beneath the wound shifted into place with a series of dull cracks.

The creature suddenly lunged.

Eve slipped beneath the first strike, shadow swallowing her legs as the blow tore through the mist above her. She came up beneath its torso and drove her blade into the exposed joint of its rear leg.

The creature staggered.

Caelus moved with her.

He drove his sword through the opposite thigh, Water Sheathe cutting through muscle and tendon.

The creature dropped for half a heartbeat.

Then the muscles around the wound constricted.

Torn fibers knotted together.

Its weight shifted.

It caught itself with one hand.

The impact cracked the stone beneath its palm.

Caelus backed away.

The creature rose again.

It should have been crippled.

Eve attacked from behind, slipping through shadow as the creature swung blindly after Caelus. Her blade carved into its back, but the creature’s shoulder twisted unnaturally, muscles snapping into place as it turned with impossible speed and struck backward.

Eve crossed her arms.

The blow caught her.

She flew across the cavern and crashed onto the stone.

She did not rise immediately.

Caelus fired Death Stalker.

The water bullet entered the mist.

He compressed the moisture beside the creature’s jaw.

The projectile curved.

It shattered the eye buried beneath its jaw.

The creature recoiled with a wet, choking shriek.

Moisture trembled around Caelus.

Every droplet in the mist seemed to pull toward the creature’s moving flesh.

Caelus felt it.

It wasn’t simply healing.

It was reshaping itself.

Then it stopped.

Its head slowly turned toward Caelus.

Several of the faces across its body followed.

The mist around him went unnaturally still.

Caelus felt the moisture around him tremble.

The creature was looking at him like an obstacle.

Then it moved.

Caelus barely got his sword up.

The impact drove him backward.

His boots tore through the wet stone as he struggled to absorb the force. The creature followed immediately, its other arm sweeping toward his chest.

Caelus twisted.

The blow grazed his ribs and sent him stumbling sideways.

His injured side throbbed.

He forced himself upright.

Eve attacked before it could follow.

Shadow chains erupted from the floor and wrapped around its arms.

The creature strained against the restraints.

Stone cracked beneath its feet.

Its muscles tightened.

Then it tore free.

Eve staggered, breathing hard.

The creature turned toward her.

Caelus saw the opening.

"Eve, right!"

She moved without looking at him.

The creature’s arm swept past her chest, close enough to tear her clothes.

Caelus stepped through the opening and drove his sword into its thigh.

The blade punched through.

The creature screamed.

Eve came in low and buried her remaining blade beneath its ribs.

It twisted toward her.

Caelus released Death Stalker.

He compressed the mist beside its chest.

The projectile bent hard around the creature’s body and struck the exposed section beneath its arm.

The wound opened with a hiss of boiling corruption.

The monster staggered.

Behind them, Lucian’s chanting reached its final sequence.

"Zhae’lor... Kha’Renn... Ael’Vora..."

The golden light surrounding him became almost unbearable.

Blood seeped from cracks along his fingers.

His sword trembled in his grip.

The sacred energy coiled around his body so densely that the air itself seemed to strain beneath it.

Caelus turned.

"Not yet."

Lucian’s eyes met his.

"The prayer is complete."

"Wait."

Lucian hesitated.

His gaze flicked toward Caelus, then toward the creature.

"But you’re still inside the—"

The creature tore through Eve’s restraints.

She was thrown backward, her body spinning through the haze.

Caelus moved to intercept it.

He never saw the hand coming.

Five fingers punched through his abdomen.

The impact drove the air from his lungs.

Bone cracked.

Flesh tore.

The fingers emerged from his back slick with blood.

Caelus’s mouth opened.

Blood flooded it.

His sword nearly slipped from his hand.

The creature pulled him closer.

His vision shook.

He looked down at the hand buried inside him.

Then at its leg.

His fingers tightened around his sword.

He drove the blade downward.

The steel punched through the creature’s thigh and kept going until it struck the stone beneath them.

The monster lurched.

Caelus leaned his full weight onto the hilt.

His legs trembled.

His stomach burned around the creature’s arm.

It tried to wrench him free.

He refused to let go.

He dragged himself forward along the sword, every movement sending another wave of pain through his abdomen, until he was close enough to see the corrupted flesh moving beneath its chest.

His breath came in ragged bursts.

"Now."

Lucian stared at him.

His grip tightened around his sword.

"But you’ll be caught in the—"

Caelus’s remaining breath came out as a scream.

"NOW!"

Lucian’s eyes ignited.

He raised his sword.

Miracle Sequence: Divine Judgment.

The cavern disappeared beneath gold.

A pillar of Sacred Light crashed down with enough force to shake the stone beneath Caelus’s feet.

The light swallowed him along with the creature.

Corruption burned away in sheets.

Caelus screamed as the radiance tore through his wounds, forcing blood from his body and boiling it against his skin. The flesh around his abdomen split wider beneath the pressure.

The creature convulsed.

Its fused chest cracked open.

Burning layers of flesh peeled away.

Beneath the flames, the exposed muscles began to squirm.

Strands of flesh writhed desperately across the open chest, crawling over one another as they tried to pull the torn body back together before the Sacred Light burned them apart.

Something pulsed beneath them.

A core.

Caelus tightened his hand, water gathering along it.

Water Sheathe.

Blood streamed from the corner of his mouth.

His fingers trembled.

He forced his arm deeper.

His hand drove through the weakened chest.

Flesh parted.

Bone snapped beneath his fingers.

The creature’s scream became something no human throat could have produced.

Caelus’s fingers closed around the core.

The core tore free.

The scream stopped.

Caelus crushed it in his hand.

The last traces of golden radiance faded from the walls.

Darkness flooded back into the cavern.

The mist began to settle.

Caelus collapsed.

His sword slipped from his fingers and struck the stone beside him.

Lucian dropped to one knee, his sword falling from his hand as he struggled to breathe.

Across the cavern, Eve pushed herself upright, one arm pressed tightly against her ribs.

No one spoke.

Caelus’s blood spread slowly across the wet stone beneath him.

The creature was nowhere to be seen.

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A/N: Vol. 1 End.