Infernal Pursuit

Sawyer heard what he recognized as the residue of battle now crackling in the clearing. The guardian's essence was drifting, dispersed into the wind like a foul mist, hanging putrid in the air, parting to give a final impression of a corporeal vessel. Alex locked his pained eyes on the group in the vortex, panting in strung-out bursts, his body bruised and bloodied. The seal on his chest flared in sync with the thumping of his heart, still thrumming with the force of the Abyss, but he pushed the pain to the rear of his brain.

The Abyss had not been defeated—not yet. آلکس مگس را شکست اما می دانست پیروزی آنها موقتی است. He sensed it in his bones. The gate was still out there, still pulling at him, still awakening each time they hung around it.

"Move," said Alex, his voice hoarse but authoritative. "We're not safe here. The Abyss is closing in."

Mara nodded eagerly, daggers still slick with the dark ichor of the shadow creatures. Her cheeks were stained, one with dirt and the other with blood, but her eyes blazed with fire he knew well. She was still up, still fighting. The battle had not broken her spirit. But when her eyes crossed his, there was something they both knew and didn't have to say. They both knew the stakes now. They had to either defend everything they loved, or lose it all.

The others followed with similar urgency, in their wake. Blood glittered on the edge of Lila's sword, her eyes slid to the thick trees that stood around them like sentinels. Gideon began an incredulous mutter, dragging his staff as he traced runes upon the ground, eliciting glow from them, using his staff as a conduit to erect a shimmering barrier around them to shield them from the creeping dark. Ella stood beside her, hands raised and preparing a shield spell to defend against the last of the creatures.

"We have to find the gate," Alex repeated, louder this time. "Now."

"We know," said Lila, with a trace of edge in her voice. "It's not going to be a walk in the park." "We don't know where we are or how far we've gone or what else is out there for us."

"We just keep moving," Alex said, his gaze flicking to Mara, his love, his ballast in this crazy-ass world. He still existed after all this because of her. When he could not keep himself together, she kept him together. He just couldn't, wouldn't, let her go. He would set the world on fire to protect her.

And the moment their toes hit the dirt, the live dirt began to burn toward them, as if it were trying to fight against their feet. The trees grew darker, their twisted branches shrieking in pain, and the previously ordinary woods turned into a catacomb of horrors. A heavy shroud of The Abyss had thickened to the point they could scarcely make heaves in their lungs.

"They're coming," Gideon said grimly, the staff in his hand glowing more brightly as he muttered an incantation under his breath. "We can't hide from them forever."

Alex's pulse quickened. Now, he could feel it, the acrid, choking vitality of the Abyss approaching again and again. The whispers had come back, too, scratching at the inside of his skull like a million voices that needed to be heard. But Alex wasn't about to let them break him. Not now. Not with so much to protect.

"We don't have to outrun them," Alex said to the others. He locked eyes with Mara, an unspoken promise exchanged between them. "We'll fight."

He raised his hands above his head, hellfire crawling around the tips of his fingers, jumping with rage and passion. The air was torn and rippled around him through the violent symphony of dancing flames. His power was still bound to the Abyss, only now it was a weapon. A weapon he would turn on everyone who would dare oppose them.

"Murder and magic; the only way to truly end a cursed life," and she sauntered forth, her own blades drawn, harnessing the sharp light. "Let's end this," she said, the voice icy with determination.

Without another word the group plunged further into the forest, each step a struggle to survive. The shadows sprung to life, twisting and curling like living things, and the earth beneath their feet rumbled as if an entity was clawing its way from the ground below them. Alex was just reunited, and his eyes burned, collecting torches of hellfire, slicing through the gloom with cruel accuracy." Each burst of flame was catharsis, as welcome a release as any the Abyss's grip on the world would permit.

Mara, behind him, was a whirlwind of flesh. Her twin daggers blazed through the dark creatures so rapidly that if she had remained stationary, I would have believed her to be dancing. She was a force of nature, and through the chaos of the battle, Alex saw something in her eyes something fierce and unyielding. It was, she wasn't fighting just for the mission, for survival. She was advocating for him, for the two of them, for their future.

A roar pierced the night, and Alex's focus returned to the fight. A writhing mass loomed from the gloom, its grotesque body emitting a murky light. The gatekeeper, a guardian more monstrous than anything they had ever seen before. Its body was a writhing, roiling mass of tendrils and precise claws, its eyes burning with otherworldly flame.

"Prepare yourself," Alex said, the hellfire in his palms flaring hotter. "This one's bigger."

The guardian let loose another roar, and a tide of darkness crashed toward them. Alex just managed to get his arms up to deflect it away, but the force of it was enough to throw him stumbling back. He struck the earth with a grunt, his vision swimming for a moment. He was being scratched at by The Abyss, but he was bloody NOT going to let it win.

Mara was there in a heartbeat, hauling him back to his feet as she met the guardian's ripping claws with her blades. "Stay focused," she said cheerfully, ferociously, gently. "We've got this."

They went back to challenge the guardian, but not only the two of them. The rest stood with them, shoulder to shoulder. Gideon's staff pulsed with energy as he summoned a barrier to shield them from a second explosion. Inky black, Lila's sword sliced the air — every blow an act of nature. Ella fired bolts of energy at the guardian from her hands, distracting it long enough for Alex to attack.

It was a struggle to stay alive in every moment, but Alex felt it. They were growing closer. They were stronger together.

With one last bludgeoning blow, Alex lunged, sword held high, on fire with hell's flames. He drove it into the guardian's heart, and the creature howled in pain as its form fell apart, ashes in the wind.

What follows is a combination of silence and noise. But it wasn't over. The Abyss was far from finished.

Alex turned to Mara, breath erupted from his chest, his cognition stuck in a fog. "We are almost there," he said, his voice low and determined. "We have to get to the gate."

Mara nodded, her eyes steady. "Together."

They were ready. They had already come so far, they could not falter. Not now. And not when all they loved was at stake.

The Abyss was coming down, but they would halt it. Together.