Chapter 122: Avallion Devil (2)

"What a delight!" the creature said, and its voice arrived layered and wrong, three overlapping tones speaking in near unison, one pitched low and grinding, one sharp and hissing, and one almost gentle in a way that made it worse. "So many of you gathered in one place. I haven't had an audience this size in my life"

It landed on top the ruined section of wall, folding wings that resembled, on inspection, something closer to a bat's than any bird's. It was leathery, veined, stretching wide enough to cast the entire courtyard in a unsettling shadow.

Its body held a rough, humanoid shape beneath the crimson ands molten cracked scales, its limbs too long and too many joints that did not belong to anything that should walk upright, and its face, when it turned toward them, carried a smile, or something disturbingly close to it…

"You can talk," Eleanor said, her blade raised, and disbelief bleeding into her voice despite the danger.

"Of course I can talk." The creature tilted its head, amused. "Did you assume intelligence stopped evolving somewhere below your own species? Ha! How charmingly narrow minded indeed."

"What are you?!" Darian demanded, his fists clenched and eyes narrowed.

"Ashmaw," the creature said, almost fondly, as though it was introducing itself at a dinner party rather than perched on top a wall it had just blown open. "And I would think the pattern is obvious by now. Entities evolve into Golems. Golems, given enough time and enough killing, evolve further still — into Devils." It spread its wings wider, priding itself in it's form. "You've been fighting my lesser cousins for weeks now, haven't you? Adorable, really, watching you struggle against creatures that hadn't even finished becoming what they were meant to be."

"That's not possible," Eleanor said, though she knew, that "impossible" was probably the most used words in this hell.

"Possible is such a limiting word for creatures who insist on calling themselves the pinnacle of evolution." Ashmaw's layered voice carried something like contempt now, sharp beneath the amusement. "You built machines to think for you. Screens to entertain you, so you grew soft, predictable, convenient and you call that progress."

It scoffed, then said again with a tone of annoyance. "Disgusting."

It moved before either of them could brace properly, faster than something its size should have managed, and a clawed hand caught Eleanor across the chest while the opposite wing hit Darian, sweeping him off his feet. As both of them came crashing down hard into the destroyed courtyard dirt.

"MOVE!" Darian gasped, already scrambling upright, coin still clenched tight in his fist.

Eleanor forced herself up despite the pain screaming across her body, the flame igniting bright around her blade, and Ashmaw watched her rise with a delighted expression on its face.

"There it is," the creature said. "The stubbornness. I do so enjoy that part."

Eleanor gritted her teeth. Whatever this thing was, beating it only meant that they would face stronger enemies from this point onwards.

She struck first this time, refusing to give it the chance to gloat further — flame lashing out in a wide arc, then water surging up from the courtyard's floor to reinforce the blow, stone rising in jagged spikes from the earth to catch the creature mid dodge and a gust a wind to push it back down when it flew higher.

She jumped toward the beast again, her fists covered in stone as she hit the beast with a blow that rattled its jaw.

Ashmaw flew upwards, trying to recover and she manipulated the wind again, forcing the beast down before she punched it again, lept after it and slashed the beast across its chest.

All four elements at once, layered and coordinated in a way she'd only managed a handful of times before, the full weight of everything she'd built herself into since the fortress first rose from nothing.

Ashmaw staggered.

It was the first genuine reaction the creature had shown, its wings faltering as one clawed hand pressed briefly to a scorched, cracked wound along its ribs, and for one second Eleanor thought she might actually be winning.

Then it straightened, and the wound was already sealing shut, its crimson scales knitting back together with unnatural speed that made her eyes widen.

"Impressive," Ashmaw said, genuine now as something almost respectful threaded beneath the layered tone "Truly. Four elements, perfectly synchronized as well. I don't believe I have honestly never seen a mortal manage that particular trick since I evolved. You should be proud of that." Its expression sharpened, a sadistic smile spreading across its face. "It is, unfortunately, still not enough."

It surged forward before she could reset, and Eleanor barely deflected the first strike, staggering back under the sheer overwhelming force of it, her earlier confidence crumbling fast against something that simply refused to stay hurt.

"You fight well," Ashmaw continued, almost conversational despite the violence, as it started circling her in a predatory way. "Better than most I've encountered. It changes nothing about the outcome, but I do appreciate the effort. Makes me believe that a few of you actually try to do anything instead of simply dying."

"We're not simply dying," Eleanor snarled, flame roaring hotter around her blade despite the exhaustion dragging at every limb now.

"No," Ashmaw agreed, almost gently. "Not simply. But dying regardless."

It raised a clawed hand, gathering some dark, crackling energy at its center, and Eleanor stepped back as she saw that whatever came next was going to end this far faster than anything that had come before it.

"Darian—" she started, already bracing.

He didn't answer with words.

Instead, from where he'd finally dragged himself back to his feet a short distance away, blood painting one side of his face, Darian withdrew his coin one final time, expression settling into something calm and focused.

"Well," he said, flipping the coin high into the darkening sky above the ruined wall. "Let's see what fate says about this one."

"Heads or tails…"