An Unlikely Vow

Michael stood over the kneeling figure, his dark, leathery wings still pulsing with residual power, casting flickering shadows across the blood-soaked clearing.

The sheer shock of the situation momentarily silenced even Umbra.

"Get up," Michael said, his voice a low, dangerous growl.

He retracted the wings, the oppressive aura of his domain receding but not vanishing entirely.

"Start talking. Now. Why does my family name make a man like you kneel?"

Jude Crestfall slowly rose to his feet, his usually stoic face etched with a grief so profound it seemed to have been carved there over centuries.

"Because, my lord," he said, his voice thick with unshed tears and a burning hatred, "the Blood Divine Sect is my sworn enemy, too.

They took everything from me."

He told his story, the words tumbling out in a raw, painful torrent. He spoke of a quiet, peaceful village, of being a boy with a talent for cultivation, of a kind, traveling monk who had gifted him a Sunstone Charm for protection.

"One night… the sky turned the color of rust," Jude whispered, his eyes distant and haunted, seeing a nightmare only he could perceive.

"The air filled with the smell of burning flesh and the sound of screams. Hellfire.

A sea of it. It consumed my home, my family, every man, woman, and child. It burned them all."

He choked back a sob, his powerful frame shaking.

"I hid. I watched. I saw four of them.

Four figures in the black robes and smiling, faceless masks of the Blood Divine Sect.

They were standing around a massive, grotesque shield, a thing of bone and twisted metal, and they were feeding the souls of my people into it.

I saw… I saw my mother's face, screaming on its surface as the fire consumed her."

Michael's blood ran cold. The Hellfire Shield.

One of the five chaotic evil treasures, a weapon of such immense evil it was on par with the Silence Sword itself.

"The monk found me again in the ashes," Jude continued, his voice regaining a sliver of its strength, fueled by pure vengeance.

"He gave me a scroll. It told the ancient story of the Ashborne Clan, of the Shadow Domain, and of a prophecy.

It said that one day, I would meet a descendant of the Ashborne line.

And that if I followed him… I would finally have my revenge."

He looked at Michael, his eyes blazing with a fanatic's fire, a desperate, drowning hope.

"You are the one from the prophecy.

My lord, I swear my life, my sword, my very soul to your cause.

Command me.

Let me be the weapon you point at our enemies."

Michael was silent for a long moment, the weight of this man's oath settling on his shoulders.

This wasn't the simple recruitment trial he'd expected. The world was weaving its tangled, bloody threads around him once more.

"We're not friends," Michael said finally, his voice hard.

"But we share an enemy. For now, that's enough. Get your partner and the girl. We're moving."

Just as he finished speaking, a desperate, blood-curdling scream echoed through the trees. It was Silas.

They raced toward the sound, arriving in a large, open area to a scene of utter carnage.

Silas lay mangled on the ground, his chest torn open.

Elara was battling a massive, blue-eyed tiger demon, her attacks barely scratching its enchanted hide.

This is bad, kid, Umbra's voice was sharp with alarm in his mind.

That's no Lo Refining beast. That's a Great Demon! Foundation Establishment, at least!

The rules were a lie!

This is a trap!

This whole trial is a setup!

As if to prove his point, a colossal python, its scales shimmering like dark jewels, dropped from the trees, and a hulking, silver-furred ape smashed its way out of the undergrowth, blocking their only escape.

The demons were intelligent, coordinated.

"This is a slaughterhouse," Jude breathed, his face paling.

"Then let's be the butchers," Michael snarled, his earlier frustration igniting into a cold, battle-ready focus.

He charged, the God Whipping Whip a black blur in his hand. He met the python head-on, his Aether Forging power roaring to life.

The whip cracked with a deafening sonic boom, and the python's head disintegrated in a spray of green blood and shattered bone.

Jude engaged the ape, his sword a whirlwind of steel, while a terrified Elara tried desperately to fend off the tiger.

But the ape was a monster of pure, brute force.

It swatted Jude aside like a fly, then swallowed a small, red pill it produced from a pouch.

Its muscles bulged, its eyes glowed with an infernal light, and its power surged to the very peak of Foundation Establishment.

Oh, great, Umbra groaned telepathically.

He's popping steroids. How original. Can't these demons come up with any new tricks?

The tiger, seeing its chance, ignored Elara and bolted for a dark cave at the edge of the clearing.

The situation was desperate. The ape roared and was about to crush the stunned Jude when a flash of brilliant red light tore through the clearing, silent and beautiful.

A figure descended from the sky like a falling star. Chloe Virelle.

She moved with an impossible, ethereal grace, a long, shimmering Celestial Ribbon dancing around her like a living thing.

The ape roared and lunged, its fists like battering rams meant to shatter mountains.

Chloe didn't even seem to notice.

With a delicate flick of her wrist, the ribbon shot out, faster than sight, wrapping around the giant ape's neck.

There was a soft hiss, the sound of silk on steel, and the ape's head simply… fell off its shoulders, its body collapsing in a heap.

She landed lightly on her feet, not a single hair out of place, her flawless eyes fixed on the cave where the tiger had fled.

Without a word, she sprinted after it.

As she entered the cave, the entrance shimmered, the dark opening twisting and contorting into a swirling, golden portal of unknown destination.

Michael hesitated for only a second, staring at the impossible display of power he'd just witnessed.

Are you just going to stand there gawking?

Umbra yelled in his head.

The pretty girl in the fancy dress just saved your collective asses!

Are you going to let her face whatever's in there alone? Go!

Michael took a deep breath and plunged into the portal after her.

The world dissolved into a dizzying, nauseating tunnel of light and darkness.

He felt himself tumbling end over end, with no up or down, no sense of time or space.

Then, abruptly, he slammed into something.

It was soft. And warm. And distinctly… feminine.

He landed on top of it, his hands flailing for purchase in the pitch-black darkness.

His right hand closed around something soft, round, and surprisingly firm.

There was a sharp, scandalized intake of breath from beneath him.

Then came the slap. It was hard and fast, cracking across his face with stinging, expert precision.

It was followed by a furious, indignant voice shouting in the dark.

"Get. Off. Me. NOW!"