Chapter 57: Crimson Bloom - 5
"RAAAAAAAARGH!"
The demon screamed, a sound not of pain but of undoing, a guttural wail that tore through the ruins like the death throes of a collapsing star, its body cracking open like porcelain under a hammer’s blow.
Shadows bled from the fractures, spilling like ink from a shattered vial, each split singing with the groan of dying stone, the city’s towers echoing the agony as if they shared the demon’s flesh.
The sky above—what little sky the Abyss allowed—shuddered and darkened, swallowing the last threads of its twisted light, the air thickening with the stench of rot and despair.
Nyxsha held him down, her massive claw pressing into his chest with unyielding force, her violet eyes blazing like infernal stars, flames dancing along her black fur as she snarled through bared fangs.
The demon thrashed beneath her, its horned form convulsing, one broken horn crumbling to dust as shadows writhed from its wounds.
Sylvara raised her hand, her thorn-crowned head tilting, her amber eyes cold as she summoned her vines—hundreds of them, slick with crimson sap and dirt, erupting from the ground like vengeful roots.
They curled inward, lashing around the demon’s limbs with brutal precision, dragging it toward the heart of its own crumbling city, the tendrils piercing shadow-flesh and pulling taut, ichor spraying in arcs that sizzled on the stone.
"No!" the demon howled, half of its face melting away in a cascade of black sludge, one horn snapping off with a crack that echoed like thunder.
"You’re—aberrations! I was supposed to—cleanse this filth!"
"Funny," Virelya purred, her hydra heads weaving through the air like serpents in a storm, her golden eyes gleaming behind her cracked masks.
"Because we were just thinking the same thing." One head struck, fangs sinking deep into the demon’s shoulder, venom pumping like liquid fire, sizzling through its veins as it writhed in agony.