As Evodil's body kept falling through the endless darkness of the abyss, the drone followed him, looping around his falling body from a few meters away. He looked down as he fell, arms spread wide, his grin fully on by now. The strain behind it was obvious to anyone watching through the screen. He was waiting for something, or rather for someone.
His black cloak billowed in the air as he fell, dragged upward by the force of the descent, making the fall feel like it stretched on far longer than it should have. There was nothing around him. The shadows were completely wiped off his body, stripped away the moment he crossed the threshold. Yet there was no light either. Not a single ray. No direction. No source. He glanced around, but from the camera's perspective there was nowhere to look. Nowhere at all.
His expression shifted. Just slightly. The grin shrank, no longer stretched wide for them to see. Frustration crept in where confidence had been a moment before.
Then, finally, he landed.
One knee sank into the darkness below him. It moved like water when he touched it, rippling under the impact, yet it did not flow. It behaved wrong, like a fake texture layered over something solid. His boots didn't sink. They didn't get wet. He pushed himself upright, standing fully on the surface as if gravity had simply decided this was enough.
He sighed.
He didn't say anything.
That alone felt wrong. This was not the god of chaos they knew. Not the talkative one. Not the infuriating one who filled silence just to spite it. This time, it was Evodil who seemed irritated, staring at something none of them could see yet. The drone stayed focused on his face, hovering obediently, failing to capture whatever stood in front of him.
Finally, he moved.
As he stepped forward, the camera angle shifted, and what stood before him came into view. A sight far too familiar. The same car. The same shape. The same twisted metal that had once wrapped itself around a tree. Only now, there was no body inside it. No Caroline. No blood.
There was a heart.
A single, beating heart rested in the wreckage, untouched. No veins trailing outward. No blood staining the metal. Just the organ itself, pulsing steadily, surrounded by bent steel, shattered glass, and torn fabric from the seat it had been placed on.
Evodil didn't comment on it.
He didn't slow either.
He looked past the car and finally took in the rest of the void, now that he stood level with it. Faint outlines emerged where before there had been nothing. Boulders. Jagged rocks. Even small pebbles, barely visible, suspended or embedded in the darkness. They were placed unevenly, almost deliberately. Sharp edges jutted out at precise angles, positioned perfectly to impale something that fell wrong or moved without knowing the layout.
It was a terrain designed to punish mistakes.
Evodil turned away from the car.
His grin was gone now.
He took a deep breath and raised his hands, blowing warm air into them. The motion was absent-minded, almost human. As if he were cold. As if the body he wore could feel it, even though it wasn't his to begin with.
He tilted his head up, staring into the darkness above. The cracked glass he had fallen through was nowhere to be seen. No opening. No sign that the way back even existed. He sighed again, then lowered his gaze to his hands.
"This is a nice place," he called out into the void. His voice carried farther than it should have. "Shame I didn't get to see it up close sooner."
He waited.
Nothing answered.
He clicked his tongue and raised his voice again. "Before we start, I should probably ask," he said, turning slightly as if addressing an unseen audience. "How should I refer to you?"
Still nothing.
"A he?" he continued. "A she?" He paused, then smirked faintly, though it didn't last. "Or should I go with names instead."
He took a slow step forward. "Harold. Jessica. Stephen. Mark. Matthew."
The drone hovered closer.
Evodil's voice lowered, sharpening.
"Or perhaps," he said, eyes lifting toward the darkness ahead, "Amanda?"
There was quiet for a long moment.
No movement from Evodil. No sound. He stood exactly where he was, facing forward, saying nothing. The void didn't react either. No shift. No tremor. Just silence so complete that, for a second, everyone watching through the screens thought the broadcast had glitched. Or ended.
Then the screen flickered.
Pure white flooded the room.
The light was blinding. Jasper groaned sharply, jerking back and rubbing his eyes with the heel of his hand. James reacted instantly, lifting his arm to shield his vision, heat flaring faintly around his fingers. Ethan nearly slipped out of his chair, catching himself on the armrest with a sharp inhale, his balance thrown off by the sudden brightness.
Only Noah didn't move.
He stared straight into the white screen, unblinking, his face slack and unreadable, as if the light hadn't touched him at all.
After a moment that stretched too long, the image snapped back.
The drone's position had changed.
It hovered low now, closer to the ground, angled upward as if it had almost fallen into the dark surface of the abyss before stabilizing. Evodil was still there, standing unmoved. But he was no longer alone.
Another figure stood across from him.
It wasn't fully visible. Not properly. The void swallowed most of its shape, refusing to give it definition. Only fragments could be seen. A single, gigantic eye stared out from beneath heavy, dark bangs that blended seamlessly into the darkness around it. The pupil trembled, wide and unstable, shuddering with something that could have been excitement. Or hatred. Possibly both.
Its torso was visible next. White. Smooth. Like carved marble. A long crack ran down the center of it, splitting the surface as if it were a fractured screen. The white extended down to its knees and elbows before dissolving into darkness, the black creeping upward like smoke or fire, clawing at the visible parts as if trying to reclaim them.
Evodil stared at the creature.
It tilted its head slightly, studying him in return, the massive eye unblinking. Then its voice filled his head.
It wasn't one voice.
It was many.
Men and women. Young and old. Some voices were trembling with grief. Others were sharp with rage. They overlapped and bled into each other, speaking as one. The sound of it pressed against his skull as the thing laughed, the noise echoing inside him.
It didn't speak yet.
They simply stared at one another, separated by roughly ten meters of warped ground. The laughter lingered for a moment longer, then faded. When it spoke, it sounded pleased.
"So you came," it said, the layered voices resonating together. "You gave me the chance I've been waiting for."
The pupil quivered again.
"To finally speak to you," it continued. "Once. Before you die in agony."
Its tone softened, almost fond.
"Just like always."
Evodil didn't laugh.
He exhaled sharply through his nose, his hands hanging low at his sides, fingers curled tightly into fists. Anger sat heavy in his posture, coiled and restrained, even as his voice came out unnaturally calm.
"We're both dying today," he said. "Azraem."
The thing laughed again inside his mind. Shorter this time. Tighter.
It took a single step forward.
As it moved, it twisted its head further to the side, the angle wrong, unnatural, until it was nearly turned ninety degrees. Its gaze dragged over Evodil's form, lingering on the unfamiliar armor and the altered silhouette before snapping back up to his blindfolded eyes. The pupil widened just slightly.
"So confident," Azraem said. "Even dressed differently."
It raised one hand and clapped once. The sound echoed far too loudly for the motion.
"Impressive," it added. "Truly. I almost believed you were calm."
Evodil's expression twisted into a sneer. It was sharp. Unfiltered. A look James usually reserved for him when patience finally ran out.
He lifted his hand and pointed directly at Azraem.
"You think this is calm?" he said, his voice still steady, still controlled, betraying none of the fury burning through him. "I'm done laughing. I'm done watching you kill them. Again. And again."
His finger didn't waver.
"I've had enough dying," Evodil continued. "Enough killing everyone I ever cared about just so you can enjoy the outcome."
He lowered his hand slowly.
"And right now," he said, his tone flattening further, "I just want to show you how much a man can change."
Azraem laughed again, the sound flooding Evodil's head in layered voices that mocked him openly. "Kill us?" it said, amusement bleeding through every overlapping tone. "Is that what you're calling this now?" The laughter dragged on before shifting, sharpening. "I wonder though," it continued, "will your little family grieve once you're gone? You're so kind, after all. Sacrificing yourself for them. Again."
The laughter stopped abruptly as its head twisted back into a natural position. It took another step forward, the eye fixing on Evodil. "Did you tell them yet?" Azraem asked. "Did you tell them about every time you killed them with your own hands?" The voices pressed closer, cruel and insistent. "Or do you still pretend I'm the evil one," it went on, "when you needed no encouragement from me at all. Just the death of one human. One pathetic woman."
Evodil's composure cracked. His hand twitched, muscles tightening, already ready to throw a punch before anything had even properly begun. Azraem's pupil narrowed as it stared at him, then its presence vanished without warning.
Evodil moved instantly. He turned toward the stone behind him as the air rushed toward his back, cold and sharp, grabbing one of the flat edges of a nearby boulder and wrenching a chunk free. The rock tore away with a rough snap, leaving behind a jagged spike as he spun toward the source of the movement. For a fraction of a second, Azraem's eye appeared behind him, its long black hair surging forward like something alive, already forming into a piercing strike aimed for his neck. Evodil swung the stone back just in time, the blow slamming into the creature as the eye turned, blocking the attack.
Azraem hissed, the voices overlapping in irritation. "Sneaky little trickster."
Evodil didn't answer. His focus narrowed, thoughts racing as he looked at Azraem, knowing it was too full of itself to dodge properly, not yet. He took the chance. He lunged forward, grabbing a fistful of its hair as it lashed again, the strands writhing like sentient blades, and yanked it toward himself. The stone drove into Azraem's shoulder with a brutal crack, scraping dangerously close to its neck.
The scream that followed tore through the abyss and burst from the speakers in the Manor. A mouth split open beneath Azraem's jaw, ripping sideways into darkness, revealing rows of spiraled teeth with layers of nothingness between them. The sound wasn't human. It was raw and animal, like something wounded for the first time, its first true contact with another being reduced to violence.
The eye snapped wide, locking onto Evodil. From his left, another strand of Azraem's hair coiled and hardened into a spike, shooting forward and piercing straight through Evodil's palm. He grunted sharply, pain flaring as his grip broke and he released the hair, stumbling back as Azraem tore free and created distance between them. The creature grabbed the stone embedded in its shoulder, the mouth already gone, swallowed back into marble and shadow, and pulled it out slowly. The wound sealed as it did, flesh and condensed abyss knitting itself back together as it stared at him, unblinking.
Azraem hissed at Evodil, the sound scraping through his head as the voices mocked him again. "You're really using that?" it said, its pupil narrowing as it glanced at the stone still in his hand. "The same thing that's killed you over and over again. Bold choice." The voices layered together, amused. "Especially now, when the shadows you hide behind aren't here to help you anymore."
Evodil answered without hesitation. He looked back at it, clutching his injured hand with the one that hadn't been pierced yet, dark essence still seeping slowly between his fingers. "I don't need help anymore," he said shortly. "Not from them. Not from anyone." His jaw tightened. "It's just you and me."
They stared at each other.
The moment stretched, heavy and unmoving, as if time itself had stalled to watch. In the Manor, no one spoke. The drone hovered far enough back to keep both figures in frame, small against the endless void. James leaned forward, his arm resting on the back of Jasper's chair, fingers curled tightly into his hair without realizing it. Jasper sat straight for once, silent, no joke escaping him, eyes locked on the screen. Ethan watched from the other side of the room, gripping the fabric of his pants so hard his knuckles whitened. And Noah. Noah's mind was empty for the first time in memory, all the calculations gone, all the thoughts stripped away until only one question remained.
Who would last longer.
The time for words ended.
Azraem moved first.
Its hair twisted and hardened into spikes, dozens of them lunging forward as one. Evodil broke into a run, charging straight at the creature, weaving between the attacks as the spikes tore through the space around him. Azraem didn't retreat yet, didn't dodge, watching him approach with that unblinking eye. One spike clipped Evodil's face, tearing a shallow gash across his skin. Dark essence spilled down his cheek, but he didn't slow. He kept moving, forcing Azraem to finally take a step back as they closed the distance, nearly face to face.
Evodil grabbed Azraem by the scalp. The eye widened instantly as the creature reacted, its hair snapping back around Evodil's forearm, another strand whipping around toward his back, sharpening as it aimed to pierce straight through his torso. Before it could land, Evodil drove the same hand with the hole torn through it into Azraem's gut. The impact knocked the creature backward, the force breaking its concentration as the hair snapped loose and fell limp, no longer condensed into blades.
Azraem hit the ground hard.
Its hair spread beneath it, then surged upward, pushing it back to its feet. It turned, scanning the endless expanse of the void, searching for Evodil, trying to find the right moment to strike before being struck again. It was already too late.
A roar of pure fury tore through the abyss behind it.
Before Azraem could turn fully, it was slammed back into the ground. Evodil grabbed its left arm by the elbow, wrenching it violently as if trying to rip it clean off. In his other hand was another shard of stone, jagged and sharp. He leaned down over it, blindfold hiding his eyes, the only thing keeping the full weight of his rage from spilling into the open. He forced the spike closer and closer to Azraem's eye.
Azraem thrashed, hands clawing at Evodil's shoulders and ankles, trying to drag him away, trying to create distance. It wasn't enough. Panic bled through the layered voices as it struggled, strength failing it for the first time.
Desperate, it reached up with its free arm and grabbed the fabric around Evodil's eyes, fingers digging in as it yanked. The white cloth slipped loose and fell away.
That moment of surprise was all it needed.
Azraem kicked him hard, launching Evodil backward. He crashed into a distant boulder, stone cracking on impact as one of the jagged spikes grazed his arm and bit deep into his flesh. Dark essence poured from the wound, the same black substance that had spilled from Azraem's hair before, as Evodil hit the ground hard and the void swallowed the sound of the collision.
Evodil grabbed the boulder lodged in his arm with his left hand and tore himself free with a grunt, dark essence smearing across the stone as he pushed off it. He straightened and looked at Azraem. Its eye was blown wide and twitching, the pupil jerking erratically between constricting and dilating. The sight made him laugh.
"Not doing so well, are you?" Evodil said, voice rough but steady. "After killing me so many times, I thought you'd be a master at this. Some perfect executioner." His grin sharpened. "Instead, you're just a lazy, mysterious lump of shadows trying to excuse murdering trillions by pretending I did it all for you."
Azraem didn't answer.
It stood there in silence, one clawed hand flexing slowly, shadowy fingers scraping against each other as it waited. Its posture tightened, coiled, ready to counter the moment Evodil moved. For a brief stretch of time, neither of them did. They watched each other in the stillness, the only sounds Evodil's heavy breathing and the faint wet pull of his wounds as they strained against his movement. The damage was there. It hurt. But it wasn't enough. Not even close.
Then Azraem lunged.
It was exactly what Evodil had been waiting for.
He snapped another shard from the same boulder that had pierced his arm, the jagged tip slick with dark blood. Azraem didn't hesitate. Its hands shot forward as it closed the distance in a blink, hair whipping and curling into dozens of spikes as it towered over him, its larger stature offering no fear at all. If anything, it made the target easier.
Just as the spikes were about to impale around Evodil's shoulders, he drove the first stone straight into Azraem's gut. The creature staggered, its body jerking back, but the blow wasn't enough to stop it. Not in that state. The spikes kept coming. Two struck, then four, then nearly all of them, punching into Evodil's arms and shoulders, some biting into his sides. Pain flared violently as Azraem laughed, its voices overlapping again.
"When you die," it said, mockery dripping from every tone, "I won't reset the loop. I'll go to the Manor. I'll kill every one of them." The pupil trembled. "Your little friends. Your family. Especially that new boy you made." It sneered. "Congratulations. You dug up something that should've been buried with respect and turned it into a monster that obeys your whims."
Evodil didn't answer.
He lowered his gaze to his arms, impaled and shaking under the weight of the spikes. Where his eyes should have been, now uncovered without the blindfold, there was only darkness. No glow. Just two tiny white dots, pinpricks of light no larger than a toothpick, floating in the void of his sockets.
Azraem watched him closely.
It thought he had broken. Thought he had finally accepted it. That the fight was over and the god had realized he couldn't win against something stronger.
It was wrong.
Evodil smirked.
He lifted his head slowly, meeting Azraem face to face, and let out a short, breathless chuckle. "You can try," he said. "I might not even remember what happens if I die right now." His grip tightened. "But I'm not giving you an easy path to them. And there's no chance in hell I'm weaker than anyone when it comes to a fight to the death."
Azraem tried to react.
It didn't get the chance.
Evodil's hand shot up. The other still held the stone, now aimed higher. Azraem's own hair blocked its movement, trapping it inches away in a forced face-to-face as Evodil plunged the jagged rock straight into its eye. The surface flickered like a broken screen before the spike disappeared into the darkness of its head. A mouth split open beneath its jaw as the drone caught the sound of another roar tearing through the abyss.
Evodil didn't stop.
With the spike still embedded in its stomach, he turned and ran, dragging Azraem with him as it screamed. The spikes buried in his arms locked him in place, a prison the creature had built for itself. He slammed Azraem into a boulder with brutal force. Another jagged spike punched through its torso from the back, joining the others as its screams grew louder, more distorted.
Evodil tore the stone from its eye.
Then he stabbed it again.
And again.
And again.
The screams echoed endlessly as the blows continued, each one driving deeper into the thing that thought it could never be hurt.
It went on and on. Evodil's movements grew rougher, less controlled, grinding the stone from eye to eye as his own pupils widened, almost swallowing the void inside his skull. He stared down at the creature, now unmistakably in pain, and felt something he hadn't felt in a very long time. Joy. Real joy. Not since the moment he realized he was trapped in a constant loop of death, one it controlled completely. One it could have stopped. One it never did.
All because it was hurt for the worthless, pathetic humans that had trapped it. Humans that carved into his body, used it, stripped planets bare with it, convinced a god's flesh would save them. They died anyway. Every single one of them.
And now the result of their hubris was here, pinned and screaming, its single eye being torn apart for crimes committed not just against humanity, but against reality itself.
Evodil didn't stop. He didn't want to. It felt good. Like tearing open a long-sealed wound and finally letting it bleed. Like blaming something real. Something tangible. Something right in front of him.
Finally, his movements slowed. He drove the stone as deep as he could into Azraem's eye and felt the spikes release from his arms. Dark blood poured freely now, slipping from the wounds as the creature went limp against the boulder it was impaled on. Evodil sagged forward slightly, drawing in a deep, shaking breath as the blood loss caught up to him. Getting out of this place would be hard. Painful. But he could do it. He would survive. He knew it.
He kept the blade buried in Azraem's stomach, refusing to let go just yet, and let out a last, unsteady laugh. "You really thought you were invincible," he said hoarsely. "That you could rule everything you trapped in this place." His grip tightened. "Not anymore."
He stared at the creature for a long moment, then closed his eyes, convinced it was over.
It wasn't.
White shimmered beneath the darkness of Azraem's face. An eye opened in the corner of its cheek. Then another on its forehead. Another on the edge of its skull. And another. And another. Until its face became a slate of white shapes, pupils forming and locking onto him all at once.
Evodil tried to pull his hand free.
He couldn't.
The white marble of Azraem's chest had sealed around his wrist, trapping him in place as the creature stared silently. Its mouth vanished entirely, swallowed by marble and shadow. Then the abyss surged.
Darkness exploded outward from its cracked torso, slamming into Evodil and hurling him away. The force drowned him, crushed the air from his lungs, set every wound on fire as if alcohol had been poured straight into them. He hissed under his breath, crashing into the ground and clawing at it, unable to stand.
He forced in a breath that shook his entire frame and looked up.
Azraem was already there.
A dark foot loomed in front of him and came down hard, slamming him into the ground and ripping the breath from his chest. The many eyes merged back into a single massive one as it stared down at him, then its hair wrapped around his body and lifted him effortlessly.
This time it didn't sharpen.
It smashed him into the ground like a ragdoll.
"You're useless," Azraem screamed, its voices overlapping and shrieking. "You never change. You never win. This fight was over before you ever stepped into my domain."
It slammed him again. And again.
"You think this mattered?" it continued, hurling him across the dark floor. "They're watching you. Every one of them."
Its eye flicked upward toward the hovering drone, the damage clearly visible now, a section cracked like shattered glass. Then it looked back down at Evodil.
"You're going to die," Azraem said calmly. "Over and over again. And next time, I'll make sure you stay aware. I want to see how much pain you can feel before I finally kill you."
Finally, it lifted Evodil higher, forcing him to look at it. The god's pupils, which moments ago had nearly swallowed the darkness of his eyes whole, were gone again. Reduced to nothing. Just a faint flicker. A single white speck floating in the void of his skull.
This time, Azraem felt joy.
Real joy. The kind that came from certainty. From knowing it would get to do this again. And again. And again. To the being it had hated since the moment it was born. The being it was born from. The god whose flesh had been torn away by a human hand wielding that stone. The same stone now scattered all around them, broken into boulders and jagged shards, the only shapes interrupting the endless darkness of the abyss.
Azraem walked slowly as it held him there, watching Evodil's consciousness crawl back piece by piece. It didn't rush. It never did. It knew this moment too well. It had practiced it countless times. Every time Evodil stood somewhere else, promising a grand plan. A salvation. A future. And every time, it ended the same way. A god dying like a man. Alone. In the dark. Drowning in his own blood.
It stepped up onto one of the larger boulders and lifted Evodil higher still. The jagged spike at the edge pressed against his back, cold and unyielding. Azraem pushed him harder and harder into the stone, its massive eye curling just slightly at the edges, almost smiling as it savored the moment.
"You will remember this," Azraem said, its voices low and deliberate. "Not like the others." It leaned closer. "You will remember every single one. Because I want you to remember."
The pressure increased.
"Remember the name," it continued. "Azraem."
The spike pierced his skin.
Evodil screamed, not in words, not in defiance, just raw pain tearing out of him as black essence spilled from his back. His breathing turned wet and broken, darkness leaking from his mouth and staining his pale skin as the spike drove deeper. He coughed violently, blood and shadow pouring out together, his body convulsing against the stone.
Azraem didn't care.
It watched calmly as the spike pushed through him completely. The jagged tip burst out of his mouth, slick and dripping with black blood. His back was destroyed now, nothing left but a ruined cavity marking where the wound began, his mouth nothing more than the exit point.
Slowly, Azraem released him.
Evodil's body slumped forward, hands instinctively clutching the stone as if it were the only thing keeping him from collapsing entirely. Azraem stared at him for a moment longer, admiring the result like a decoration placed just right. Like a star atop a tree.
Then it looked away.
It took a few steps back and turned its gaze upward, fixing its damaged eye directly on the hovering drone. The mood around it was sickeningly happy, so strong it bled through the screen and into the Manor itself. It stared straight through the lens, straight at them, as if daring them to try their turn.
After a moment, it lost interest.
Its gaze dropped to the space beside its hand as a small, white glowing square materialized in the air. One clawed finger extended slowly and pressed against it.