Daxon froze on the counter where he stood, every limb arrested by dread. The beast flipped its head, and for a fleeting moment, it felt something.
God, if only he could silence his rebellious heart. It thundered with such brute force that it felt as though it were vibrating through his entire frame. It wasn't just a heartbeat anymore, it was a war drum, betraying him.
Of course, the beast could hear, his loud breath, and maybe even the sound of his foot when he lost balance, torn between two minds: one that wanted to jump, and one that still lingered in doubt.
The beast stood there, sniffing the air, as if tasting the very atmosphere, gauging Daxon's next misstep, and waiting when he'd throw off his own guard. But…
After a while, the beast turned back and resumed its glacial prowl toward the source of the earlier noise. Its growl was tense, and its fur stood on end.
Dax exhaled deeply, a painful jolt shooting through his stomach. The agony was immense. He endured, it was just one more pain among many.
He took an idyllic breath, shut his eyes, and opened them again, trying to clear the fear and doubt lingering inside him. He leaned forward once more, this time with resolve. He tightened his grip around the long shard of glass he had pulled from his stomach.
Fear crept in again, but he ignored it. All he could do was hope he didn't miss his target, which was the beast's hindbrain.
With all his might and agility, Daxon leapt off the counter, ignoring his quivering legs. The glass raised high in the air, and with all his strength, he drove it into the beast.
He missed.
Instead of the hindbrain, the shard struck the beast's neck. Still, it was a good hit, the glass pierced flesh. A guttural roar echoed in the room. This time, it wasn't a furious growl; it was one choked with pain. Gothic blue blood drizzled, sizzling as it painted the air. The beast spasmed, spinning and thrashing violently.
Daxon clung to its neck, refusing to be thrown off, and in turn had yelled loudly releasing a loud
"AAAARRRRGHHHH!"
A yell so loud, he believed it might've even overpowered the beast's own cry. Though the pain was for his palm, but it seemed it made up for all the pain he had been going through.
When he had driven the glass into its neck, it had also cut into his palm. The shard had no hilt, no handle, only sharp edges that bit into his skin. His hold faltered. The wound he'd inflicted wasn't deep enough to be fatal, only a surface rupture.
Because of that, the impact hadn't been deep. It was a shallow wound, not enough to choke the beast with its own blood.
Now enraged, the beast threw its arms backward, trying to grab him. It flung itself side to side. Its spine arched and twisted violently, attempting to dislodge Dax. He held on, though the beast's wild bucking made his head dizzy, and his vision spiral.
Then, with a final vicious lurch, the beast slammed its back against the wall, but it wasn't his back that received the impact it was Dax, who was caught between the monster and the hard surface.
The pain was excruciating.
Since that was were he had used to hit the wall before, when the Nexer went all out on him. Now the pain was something else since it had triggered the former pain. It was now the kind that tears nerves apart. That cracks bones, that cleaved nerves and rewired agony.
A deafening ringing filled his head, and for the first time, his pulse slowed. His skull had hammered against the wall as well.
As he reeled from the agony, the monster gripped him by the leg. But Daxon was determined to act before being torn off. Through the haze of torment, determined and furious and in the nick of time.
He raised both hands and hammered the glass shard, driving it deeper into the beast's neck with a slushing sound.
SHHLURK.
The sound was wet and satisfying. But .. But..
Suddenly, he was airborne.
The monster had flung him with brute force. Daxon crashed through three different panes of glass doors and hit the wall with a chiming clang before crumpling to the ground with a weak thud.
The beast had thrown him out of rage and pain, not carrying out its true intent, to suck out his soul. That had always been the plan. Not just for this beast, but for all the Parallax Servers. They didn't just kill. They harvested souls.
***
Parallax Servers.
Their aim: to feed the Parallax.
The Parallax is a dimension created by God, the father of Lucivar and Elivar, to destroy Earth from within. It is a curse, a divine failsafe, a catastrophic mechanism to annihilate, bestowed upon mankind to rip the world apart.
The Parallax Servers are the twisted entities that make up this dimension, the sentient agents, the evil that lives within it. They strengthen the Parallax by feeding it the souls of Earth's people, both living and dead. They ranged from monstrous beasts, Demons, Devils, Monsters, Shadefields, Dreadlords and the Velmares/nightshades.
Every soul fed to the Parallax makes it stronger, and bolstered the Parallax's power.
That's where the Trinity comes in, the Transcended, the Beyonders, and the Veilbounds. Humanity's only hope. Their purpose is to protect mankind, to make sure souls are sent to their rightful place, not devoured.
As the Servers drain souls, they evolve. With enough souls consumed, a Soul Thread forms, and the beast ascends to a higher form. And at times to a whole new rank. Like when a beast soul thread is maxed up it evolves to the next rank and becomes a demon. so also a demon and subsequently.
Nevertheless evolution in every parallax server is constant as they drain people from souls, they needed not wait until their soul thread is maxed out, with each soul they can evolve and keep evolving until they finally evolve to the next rank, but that is when the soul thread is maxed up.
In the sense that with every soul gotten comes an evolution, depending on the will of the soul. If it is a strong willed soul then the evolution will be high, and if it is a weak- willed then it would be low, and subsequently
But not every soul gives the same power. The stronger the will of the soul, the greater the evolution.
***
Blue blood still oozed thickly from the beast's neck.
It could no longer growl, the glass had ruptured its windpipe. It clutched its throat with one hand as it staggered toward Daxon, eyes wide with vengeance. Its right hand stretched outward, clawing for him, limping forward with uneven steps.
"Oh… oh God. Can't this thing die already?" Daxon muttered, panting hard. He breath ragged.
He was about to crawl away, enduring wave after wave of pain, when he heard it:
A mechanical hiss.
He turned, and to his shock, a metal door slid open. An elevator.
Then it hit him.
The chime he'd heard when he slammed into the wall? That was the elevator activation. He must have hit the button by accident.
Daxon knew he had to move.
He crawled toward the elevator, and though his back protested violently, he pushed through the pain, managing to stumble to his feet. He scampered in and hit the button to go to the highest floor. but ...
Nothing.
The elevator didn't respond.
He stood there, stunned. Squirming. Desperate. He shut his eyes, took a shaky breath, and pressed it again. Still nothing. Then, like a maniac, he began to slam the button repeatedly.
Behind him, the beast drew closer, its eyes like voids. Just a few feet away now.
Still the elevator stayed still. And the doors were open.
Just as the beast came within arm's reach
Ding.
The elevator chimed.
The doors began to slide...
But it was too late.
The beast was already inside.