"What thing could have caused this level of destruction?" Valra muttered, her voice low but edged with disbelief.

Her brow furrowed, eyes wide, scanning every shadow as she walked the ruined street, boots crunching over broken asphalt.

The entire street was ruined beyond recognition.

Chasms split the ground where the asphalt had once been smooth; the black surface was now torn and carved by something unnatural, something impossibly strong. Buildings stood gutted, walls cracked and hanging at impossible angles, windows shattered and spilling glass like fallen stardust.

Everywhere, there were strange remains: black metallic fragments.... Most grotesque of all was the lower half of Fallen Nergal's body—his legs and a sliver of hip, sprawled across the shell of a ruined building as if some ravenous beast had bitten him in half.

Black blood dripped steadily from the mangled remains, pooling on the concrete.

Drip...

Drip...

Each drop echoed in the silence, the sound unnaturally loud in the dead air. The only light came from a flickering street lamp overhead, trembling as if it, too, feared the darkness below.

She swallowed, voice trembling as she tried to reason through the horror. "What could have killed Fallen Nergal like this? What could it be? Was it the Relic? Or... something worse?"

With a little hesitation, Valra stepped forward, "Azrael? Leo? Is anybody here?" she called, not loudly, but enough that it cut through the uneasy hush of the broken street and the guttering light above.

As she walked down the street, hoping desperately to find someone alive, anyone—

Thud!

Valra spun around, her breath catching. Standing behind her were black, sticky, humanoid monsters, their bodies a slick, glistening sludge.

They were tall, hunched, and faceless, their forms twisted as if made from tar and nightmares. Hollow, lightless eyes stared out from misshapen heads.

"Tsk." She clicked her tongue. Flames burst from her palm, licking up her forearm as she swept her hand forward.

Valra's flames struck them, wrapping their black bodies in roaring fire. The scent of burning tar and something fouler filled the air. The flames poured from her like a living thing, a torrent of gold and orange, burning everything it touched.

As for the monsters, they didn't even flinch. Despite their bodies charring and melting under the magical flames, they pressed forward.

"ARRH!" she shouted, blasting a monster that lunged at her from the right. Fire engulfed it, and it writhed for a heartbeat before collapsing into a puddle of black sludge, nothing left behind... not even ash.

But the monsters kept coming, more of them oozing out from alleyways.

She thought, 'I need a way out. If I get surrounded, I'm dead—worse, I'll become like them...'

Meanwhile, far above her, the Relic hovered, gliding in eerie silence at the height of the tallest building. It pulsed with a dim, otherworldly glow... Suddenly, it flinched—

Thuck!

And the next petal parted open, blue energy inside pulsing and then pouring out in a furious torrent, so intense it shimmered through the sky.

The Relic glided slowly down from above, trailing energy in its wake as it descended toward the shattered earth. When it reached the ground, it simply hovered at the very heart of the ruined province… except for a single crimson spark that fluttered out from its core.

Meanwhile, Valra, who was still unleashing her flames upon the relentless black sticky monsters, suddenly felt a strange shift—

Thuck!

A subtle, cold wave rippled through the air.

Valra flinched.

The flames in her hands flickered, their strength wavering, guttering like a candle's last gasp.

For a moment, everything stilled. The monsters that had been rushing her just a second before froze in place, their limbs locked, dripping tar pooling beneath their feet.

"What? What's going on?" she muttered, her expression twisted with confusion and dread. She took a cautious step back, watching the frozen creatures, but not a single one moved.

Crack!

Without warning, a thin crimson fracture appeared... The crack pulsed with an unnatural light.

Suddenly, all at once, they started to move—not towards her, but in a synchronised movement towards the remains of Fallen Nergal.

Those black, sticky figures groaned and moaned in unison as they crawled, dragging themselves across the broken ground.

Their many small hands trembled and twitched, reaching hungrily for Nergal's massive, lifeless foot. As they moved together, their sludge-like bodies rippling and squelching, Valra felt her skin crawl.

It was like watching a nightmare!

One by one, they began to pull on what was left of Fallen Nergal's body. The ruined corpse tumbled from its precarious perch with a sickening,

Thud!

As the mangled body landed, its insides slipped free from the mutilated hip, half-chewed intestines and bladders spilling out in a grotesque, glistening heap. The stench hit Valra hard; she choked back bile, her eyes watering as she watched the black sticky monsters swarm the remains, inching toward the mangled flesh.

Slucckkk!

Cllluccckkkkk!

The sound was wet and sickening as the monsters began to drag out the inner organs.

Valra stared, frozen in shock and horror, as the monsters melded with what was left of Nergal's body, their forms flowing over and into the ruined torso.

Blackness crept over him, smothering what little remained of flesh and bone, covering the corpse in a glistening, shifting layer of living sludge.

For a moment, nothing happened. But Valra's instincts screamed at her—Run! Now! Something was awakening!

But her legs would not move, locked in place by terror and awe.

Just as she feared, the once-fallen body began to twitch, the ruined legs jerking, spasming as if trying to remember how to move.

Above them, the top half of the body began to reshape itself, black sludge bulging and folding, reshaping bone and sinew.

Her eyes widened in horror as, right before her, hundreds of black, sticky monster faces pressed together... merging, shifting, blending until they formed something horrifyingly familiar: the likeness of Nergal's real body.

"What the…" she started, but her words died in her throat.

At that moment, the newly formed Fallen Nergal reared up, towering and grotesque, its body a mass of writhing, glistening black. With a roar that sounded like a hundred voices screaming at once, it slammed its massive, sticky hands onto the ground.

BOOM!!

The earth shook with the impact, cracks spiderwebbing through the asphalt. The force of the blow sent dust and debris flying.

Valra was thrown by the force of the impact.

Gritting her teeth, she managed to right herself and landed hard, sliding across broken asphalt. Her boots sent sparks as she skidded to a stop. She pushed herself up, breathing heavily, eyes locked in a glare at the monster looming before her—the thing that was once only a dead, half-body, but now…

It stood fully formed, a towering, black, sticky, grotesquely huge humanoid monster—muscles bulging beneath a shifting surface of oily darkness, eyes glowing with crimson sparks.

"Grrrrllll!"

It growled, the sound grinding out from its monstrous chest.

Should she run?

But the memory of her champion's sacrifice flashed through her mind—every scar, every pain, the moment he stood to protect her against impossible odds.

"Thank goodness I still have a chance to kill you… Nergal!" she roared.

For too long, she'd wanted to destroy whoever was responsible for this nightmare. Seeing Nergal dead had nearly broken her—now, seeing him remade into this abomination, her resolve only hardened.

She let her left hand drag across the ground, fingers brushing broken stone, and as she did, embers sprang to life. She called the fire up from deep below, swirling it around her body, spinning it in a tight vortex at her feet before snapping her hand upward.

"Fuck you, FALLENS!" she screamed, voice echoing through the ruins as her magic surged.

Fire spun around her in wild arcs.

She circled, feet light and quick, her entire body moving with the rhythm of the flames, then hurled the inferno straight at the Nergal-thing or... at the mass of black sticky monsters that made up its form.

BOOM!

The flames hit with the force of a magical cannon, exploding against the monster's chest. The black sticky fluid rippled and trembled, as if the blow had struck stone. For a moment, the heat and light made the entire monster glow at the edges.

But when the fire cleared, Valra saw—her flames hadn't left a mark.

She gritted her teeth.

Nergal charged, the black sticky fluid dripping with each thunderous step. He crashed down at her with all his monstrous weight, one huge foot raised to crush her completely.

BOOM!!

The ground shattered beneath the force of the stomp, broken earth and concrete flying in every direction. But as the dust cleared and the monster looked down, there was only a crater—no sign of Valra's body.

"Grrr?"

The beast's head tilted, an almost confused rumble escaping its throat.

That was all the time Valra needed.

"Hey! Just because you've got a big body doesn't mean you're fast!" she taunted.

The monster turned, twisting its bulk to follow the sound. Behind it, Valra stood, a wild grin on her face.

Three great circles of flame spun in the air around her, swirling like saw blades, their edges burning blue and gold with raw magical energy.

She raised her hand, eyes burning with determination, and uttered:

^Ignis Rotare^

The three circular flame saws whirled faster and faster, growing in intensity and size. She pushed her palm forward, guiding them with razor focus as they tore through the air, spinning toward Nergal.

SSsssccckkkkk!!

The flaming saws smashed into its body, cutting deep through the black sticky liquid. Chunks of dark sludge splashed and flew in every direction.

"GrrrLLL!"

Nergal's monstrous hands tried to tear the saws away, but they just dug deeper into its chest, spinning, slicing, burning. Each rotation sent another gout of black sludge splattering across the ruined street.

And even as one drop fell onto Valra's skirt, she flinched, eyes snapping down to the black liquid hissing against the fabric. The sludge instantly tried to eat through the cloth.

With a snarl, she snapped her fingers.

The flames roared to life, incinerating the sticky drop before it could touch her flesh.

"Seems like only long-range attacks are good," she muttered.

She backed away, boots scraping over the shattered street, widening the distance by several meters. Nergal thrashed in place, trying to swat the spinning flame saws from his chest—like a furious human swiping at a swarm of mosquitoes.

So annoying!

Suddenly, a crimson spark flashed through its body, rippling across the surface.

The monster froze, and its head snapped toward Valra as if it sensed something.

Valra's brow furrowed. She didn't let her guard drop for even a second, her hands raised and ready. She drew a sharp line in the air, sending the flame saws swirling deeper.

Just as they bit down harder, Nergal suddenly lunged forward, charging at her without the slightest concern for the flames tearing him apart.

"Shit!" she shouted. She spun on her heel and bolted, fire pouring from her legs in an explosive burst to fuel her sprint.

She raced across the ruined street, but suddenly, the monster leapt after her with bone-shaking force.

BOOM!!!

The impact slammed through the ground, sending a shockwave rippling out in all directions, shattering concrete and tossing debris into the air.

"KYYAA!" Valra screamed as she was thrown by the blast of air, her body lifted off her feet. She tried to right herself midair, but before she could regain her balance, the monster snapped its fingers.

Five black, sticky, smaller monsters shot from its hand, shrieking through the air.

Valra clenched her fist, forcing herself to focus. She called her flame saws back; they reversed direction.

The saws whipped through the air, slicing through three of the monsters before disappearing.

Clucck!

Clucck!

Clucck!

But two monsters were almost reaching her. Valra reacted instantly, thrusting her hands forward. Flames erupted at close range, a deadly wave of fire lashing out.

BOOM!

BOOM!

The two monsters exploded into pieces... at least, that's what she thought until she caught movement behind the smoke.

A sixth one?

Her face turned pale; she barely had time to raise her arms before the sticky creature reached her, groaning and moaning with a mindless hunger.

"Shit, I don't have time to cast a spell again—"

BANG!!

A single bullet zipped past her. The round pierced the monster's head, shattering the ooze as it dropped motionless to the ground.

Thud!

Valra tumbled onto the asphalt, rolling once before forcing herself up, breathing hard.

She blinked, eyes darting through the smoke—until she saw a familiar silhouette through the haze.

Azrael.

"Miss me, darling?" Azrael called out with a smirk, twirling her gun before snapping the cylinder open to reload.

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