"What is that thing?" Quinn blurted, his voice rough with disbelief.
Rate's gaze never left the towering abomination. "That is a dweller from the Void dimension. A Voragnathe, An Abysskith."
Quinn's heavy brows furrowed. "Have you encountered one before, Captain?"
"Once," Rate answered, voice low and measured. "A smaller specimen. This one is far larger. Far worse."
"How strong is it?" Quinn tilted his head slightly toward his captain, golden aura flickering with restless energy.
"Deadly." Rate's reply was flat, final.
Quinn pressed, impatience bleeding into his tone. "Can you be specific about its capabilities—"
"Now's not the time for that." Rate cut him off, his posture shifting as dark energy surged across his back. "Change of plans."
Thirteen thick tentacles of dark energy regenerated from Rate's spine with wet, snapping sounds. All fifteen tentacles lengthened rapidly, doubling in reach until each serpentine limb stretched over fifteen feet. At their tips, the darkness condensed and hardened into wicked, curved blades, each one a full 120 inches of razor-edged death, gleaming with unstable black energy. The tentacles wavered and coiled in the air like living weapons tasting blood, hungry and precise.
"Camilla," Rate commanded, "you slip past the magic assault range. Draw the Voragnathe's attention and stall it. Keep it occupied."
Camilla's lips peeled back into a savage, delighted smile as she turned her head toward him. The heat rolling off her molten greaves intensified, making the air around her shimmer. "I get to play with Velly?"
"Who the hell is Velly?" Quinn jumped in, exasperated.
"The big black pet, you numbskull," Camilla shot back without missing a beat.
Quinn's face twisted in disbelief. "That's not a pet! That's an unknown threat to all lifeforms. You'll die if you don't take this seriously."
Camilla clenched her fists, molten energy flaring brighter along her greaves. Her eyes burned with reckless hunger as she stared at the colossal beast. "No. I'm going to tame it… and I'm taking it back with me."
Quinn let out a heavy sigh, turning forward again. "There's no hope talking to you at this point."
"I'll handle the imps and join you afterward, Camilla," Rate said, his voice steady.
"Take your time," Camilla replied, flashing him a wild grin that showed too many teeth.
Rate's dark gaze shifted to the larger man. "Quinn, I need you to keep the witch's attention on you while Camilla deals with the Voragnathe. Do not storm forward like an idiot. You'll die next time if she lands a clean hit. Avoid the traps on the ground and the magic attacks. We have no time to spare, our lives are in her hands, and we're taking them back."
Quinn gave a low sigh of disapproval, the sound rumbling deep in his chest. He's saying it like it's easy. I'm really starting to hate this.
For a heartbeat, the three of them stood in the ruined floor, three battered warriors facing an army of nightmares. Then, as one, they moved.
Both Quinn and Camilla dropped into low running stances. Golden aura exploded around Quinn, surging outward before condensing and merging with his armor in a radiant second skin of power. Camilla's greaves flared white-hot, molten rock dripping from their edges and hissing violently as they touched the broken stone floor. Rate followed half a step behind, fifteen bladed tentacles undulating behind him like a cloak of living shadows.
The assault began instantly.
Dozens of orbiting elemental magic circles frontline spun faster, their colors bleeding together into a deadly rainbow. Crimson flames roared to life. Icy shards formed and launched like gunfire. Crackling lightning arced wildly. Howling emerald winds screamed forward in cutting gales. More than a dozen condensed violet Lances hummed with lethal intent, then fired in synchronized volleys.
The air itself turned hostile.
Quinn charged like a golden battering ram, weaving side to side with surprising agility for his massive frame. A lance of ice shattered against the floor where his foot had been a fraction of a second earlier. He ducked under a screaming jet of flame, then shoulder-checked a howling wind blade that tried to knock him off course. Each step sent cracks racing through the already devastated stone.
Sixty meters in, disaster struck.
Quinn's left foot came down on an invisible magic trap. The sigil flared bright violet beneath his boot. He reacted on instinct, brute force, as always slamming his weight and raw golden power downward to smash the trap. Instead, the magic bloomed violently, redirecting the force outward. His leg was wrenched wide, throwing him off balance.
"Seriously?!" Quinn roared.
In that single moment of vulnerability, four violet Lances struck in rapid succession. The first slammed into his reinforced shoulder with bone-jarring force, detonating in a shockwave that lifted him off his feet. The second and third hammered his chest and side, cracking armor and sending golden sparks flying. The fourth punched into his thigh, spinning him violently through the air. He crashed hard into a shattered pillar, stone dust exploding around him.
Rate moved like liquid night.
His blackened eyes saw the faint glow of the traps before they triggered, allowing him to glide between them at terrifying speed. When an elemental spell came too close, his bladed tentacles lashed out with reflexive precision, slicing through flames, shattering ice, and dispersing lightning with bursts of dark energy. The more destructive violet Lances he avoided entirely, slipping through their deadly paths with minimal movement, conserving strength.
Above and around them, the sky inside the pavilion had become a nightmare.
Nearly a thousand imps poured from the widening dread portals, their leathery wings creating a deafening cacophony of flapping and high-pitched shrieks. The twisted little demons scrambled across broken pillars and clung to shattered ceilings, red eyes gleaming with malicious glee. Their claws scraped stone as they dove toward the intruders in a living black tide.
Rate soared upward.
Fifteen tentacles exploded outward in a storm of violence. Dark energy flared along their lengths as the blades sang through the air. The collision was cataclysmic.
A dozen imps died in the first heartbeat, sliced clean in half, their bodies tumbling downward in sprays of dark ichor. Rate twisted mid-air, tentacles elongating with unnatural reach. One blade impaled three imps at once before whipping sideways to decapitate two more. Another tentacle lashed in a wide arc, carving a bloody crescent through an entire cluster of the creatures. The severed wings and limbs rained down like grotesque confetti.
The imps fought back with feral desperation. Razor claws raked at his tentacles. Jagged teeth snapped inches from his face. One particularly bold imp managed to latch onto his shoulder, only for a tentacle to coil around it like a vice and crush it into paste.
Rate's expression remained cold, almost detached, even as dark energy flared brighter with every kill. The tentacles moved with beautiful, horrifying efficiency, striking, retracting, extending again in fluid, continuous motion. Each swing carried the full weight of his resolve. Every time a tentacle retracted, it dripped with imp blood and viscera, only to lash out again before the creatures could regroup.
Below him, Camilla was already breaking past the outer range of the magic barrage, molten footprints burning bright trails across the ruined floor as she closed in on the colossal Voragnathe. Quinn was forcing himself back to his feet, golden aura blazing with fresh fury as he prepared to draw Agatha's direct attention.
Meanwhile, Camilla exploded forward like a living comet of molten fury. Her greaves pounded the shattered stone floor with earth-shaking stomps, each impact sending cracks racing outward and leaving trails of glowing, bubbling magma in her wake. The buckles and reinforced plates of her battle armor clinked and rang rhythmically, a chaotic war song accompanying her charge. Sweat, blood still clung to her skin, but none of it slowed her. The heat radiating from her greaves turned the air around her legs into shimmering mirages, making her lower body appear almost ethereal.
She tore through the outer kill zone of Agatha's magical barrage. Elemental circles spun faster in response to her aggression. Jets of roaring crimson flame lanced toward her. She slid low, the fire passing inches above her wild hair. A barrage of ice shards followed, she vaulted sideways, planting one blazing foot against a boulder and using it as a springboard. Violet Lances screamed past her like guided missiles. Camilla twisted her body mid-leap with acrobatic grace, one Lance grazing her armored shoulder and drawing a thin line of sparks and blood.
Magic traps glowed ominously on the ground ahead, their violet sigils pulsing like hungry eyes. She didn't hesitate. With a powerful leap, she mounted the nearest crumbling wall, her superheated greaves fusing briefly with the wall stone. She sprinted horizontally along the vertical surface, defying gravity for precious seconds while dodging a fresh volley of howling emerald wind blades that carved deep gashes into the wall behind her. Her wild laughter, reckless, and full of life echoed across the devastated floor.
"I'm coming for you, big guy!"
She launched off the wall, clearing the minefield of traps in one fluid arc, and landed hard on the other side. The impact cratered the floor, sending shards of stone flying. Dozens of imps immediately descended upon her in a shrieking black wave, their leathery wings beating frantically, red eyes gleaming with sadistic hunger. Razor claws reached for her face and throat.
The first imp met its end in spectacular fashion. Camilla spun into a devastating roundhouse kick. Her white-hot greave connected with the creature's midsection. The imp didn't just die, it exploded. Flesh melted instantly, bones turned to slag, and superheated ichor sprayed outward in a gruesome arc. She followed with a leaping axe kick that drove another imp straight into the ground, crushing it into a molten puddle.
More came. Dozens. Then hundreds.
They swarmed her from every angle, clinging to her arms, clawing at her back, snapping jagged teeth near her neck. Camilla roared with delight. She slammed both palms together and unleashed a violent internal combustion. A roaring sphere of superheated air and raw kinetic force erupted from her Greaves in all directions. The explosion was deafening. Nearly fifty imps were torn apart instantly, their bodies ripping into burning fragments that rained down like hellish confetti. The shockwave hurled dozens more backward, their wings igniting as they tumbled through the air, screeching in agony. The stench of charred demon flesh and ozone thickened the already acrid air.
Camilla didn't slow for even a second. She powered forward through the smoke and falling corpses, eyes locked on her true target.
The Voragnathe.
The colossal Abysskith loomed ahead, a living siege engine of blackened carapace and void-born malice. As she crossed into its personal range, the faceless horror slowly tilted its grotesque, fan-shaped cranial crest. Though it possessed no eyes, an overwhelming wave of alien awareness washed over Camilla. The air grew heavier, colder, wrong.
She grinned like a maniac.
"Come on, Velly! Let's dance!"
Without breaking stride, Camilla launched herself from the wall in a bullet-fast dive. She spun mid-air, white-hot greave extended in a drilling kick aimed at the creature's head. The Voragnathe reacted with horrifying speed. Its thirty-meter segmented tail shot forward like a striking viper, spearhead tip gleaming.
BOOM.
The collision was apocalyptic. Camilla's molten greave met the hardened bone tail with a thunderous detonation. A visible shockwave exploded outward, shattering nearby stone and sending debris flying in every direction. The impact was followed by a roaring heat wave that distorted the air and warped sound itself for a moment. The force pushed Camilla backward through the air, but she twisted gracefully, flipping once before landing in a ready stance.
The tail whipped around again instantly. Camilla countered with a blazing side kick, her greave leaving a trail of white fire. The segmented limb rebounded from the blow only to strike a third time. Then a fourth. They exchanged three rapid, brutal blows each clash ringing like a demonic forge hammer striking an anvil. Sparks of molten metal mixed with dark ichor flew wildly.
Camilla finally dropped to the ground, landing in a low crouch that cracked the stone beneath her. She dashed forward again with explosive speed. The Voragnathe fully pivoted its immense bulk toward her, its drill-lined maw clicking and rotating with wet, grinding hunger. Its tail lashed in a wide, lethal horizontal arc meant to cut her in half.
She slid beneath it at the last possible instant, molten greaves carving twin glowing trenches into the floor. Rising smoothly, she delivered two rapid, powerful kicks to the underside of the tail before using the rebound to flip herself higher. The creature slammed its tail downward where she had stood, creating a new crater and sending tremors through the open area.
Seizing the moment, Camilla landed directly on the massive tail. She sprinted, spinning along its segmented, armored surface like a flaming acrobat on a living tightrope. Her greaves burned bright molten tracks into the carapace, glowing orange footprints that sizzled and faded after three seconds. The sensation of running on living void-beast made her blood sing.
The Voragnathe roared in irritation and swept its tail violently upward, launching her high into the air.
She had anticipated the move perfectly.
Twisting her body like a drill, Camilla launched herself forward in a blazing, spinning kick aimed straight at the creature's fan-crested head. The Voragnathe wasted no time. Its segmented maw expanded with grotesque speed, splitting open to reveal thousands of rotating drill-teeth spinning like a nightmarish industrial grinder, ready to chew her into paste.
"Not today, Velly!" Camilla roared, voice thick with battle-lust. "I'm taking you with me!"
At the absolute last heartbeat, she unleashed a powerful combustion from her Greaves. The explosive force propelled her backward just beyond the maw's reach. The Voragnathe swallowed a portion of the blast instead, its throat flaring with superheated flames. It shook its massive head, irritated but unharmed.
Camilla slammed into a nearby wall with enough force to dent the stone walls, then dropped down and exploded forward once more with terrifying speed. The Voragnathe's tail sliced through the air where she had been, gouging a deep, smoking trench in the floor. She was simply too fast, too unpredictable.
She closed the distance in a blur of motion and leapt high, aiming a devastating side kick at the side of the Voragnathe's head, over 3000°C of concentrated, armor-melting fury.
The creature reared back and unleashed a hollow, reality-tearing roar.
An overwhelming tsunami of raw psychic energy slammed directly into Camilla's mind, mental seizure.
The world froze.
Instead of collapsing or screaming in agony, Camilla hung suspended mid-air, body locked rigid. Her eyes widened dramatically, pupils blowing wide until only thin, manic rings of color remained. Every muscle in her body tensed like steel cables under extreme strain. A slow, twisted, ecstatic grin spread across her bloodied face, feral, unhinged, and overflowing with violent joy. The psychic assault had overloaded her nervous system completely. Rather than shutting her down, it had plunged her into a state of pure, homicidal euphoria. Pain became ecstasy. Danger became bliss. Her mind burned white-hot with the overwhelming urge to destroy.
Because of the trance, her kick lost its lethal momentum and speed.
The Voragnathe seized the opening without mercy. Its massive tail whipped around and smashed into her like a falling skyscraper. The spearhead tip pierced straight through her reinforced armor with a sickening, wet crunch, driving deep into her abdomen. Camilla's eyes remained wide and manic even as bright arterial blood sprayed from her mouth and the wound.
The creature dragged her across the ruined floor like a broken ragdoll, her body carving a long, bloody trench through stone, dust, and debris. Ribs cracked. Organs protested. Pain flooded her system, feeding the ecstatic trance even further. Then, with a contemptuous flick of its tail, the Voragnathe hurled her toward the far wall.
Camilla smashed into the stone wall with bone-shattering force. She slid down the wall, leaving a long, gruesome smear of blood, and collapsed onto her knees. Blood poured freely from the gaping puncture in her abdomen and bubbled from her mouth. Her breathing was ragged, wet, and labored. Yet that horrifying, ecstatic grin still clung to her lips, wider than ever. The pain only made her want to fight harder.
The Voragnathe reared up to its full, terrifying height. Its tail rose high, poised for the finishing blow, a wide, sweeping arc that would pulverize her against the wall and end the fight.
From across the chaotic battlefield, four bladed dark tentacles streaked through the air like black lightning.
They intercepted the descending tail with perfect, violent timing. The clash of dark energy against void carapace rang out like the tolling of a funeral bell. Dark energy exploded outward in a violent burst, deflecting the monstrous limb just enough to save Camilla's life.
Rate descended from above like a vengeful shadow, fifteen tentacles flaring wildly behind him. He swooped in with blinding speed and caught Camilla's battered, bleeding body in both arms before she could hit the ground, cradling her protectively against his chest.
"Camilla!" he called out, voice sharp with raw urgency.