The air reeked of charred meat and madness.
Nyxia's body trembled—not from fear, but exhaustion twisted into wrath. Her blood pulsed like wildfire through her limbs, feeding her strength. Around her, the battlefield had dissolved into hell—smoke, screams, the stink of offal and void magic thick enough to choke on. Her claws sunk into the blood-soaked ground as if to keep herself from slipping into that open-mouthed abyss overhead.
Loque.
He prowled ahead like a ghost set ablaze—graceful, spectral, divine. His glow stuttered every time he passed too close to the rift's radiance, like the void tried to eat him.
A silent growl trembled in her chest. "Stay close."
His voice answered her inside her skull, tender but fierce. "I will not leave you. Never again."
She staggered to her feet. Her tail lashed behind her, flicking droplets of blood. Her mouth tasted like copper and broken promises.
Then came the howl.
The kind of sound that didn't belong in any world she knew—a choir of jaws tearing open at once. Demons surged from the wound in the sky like pus from a cyst, their limbs stitched from suffering, their eyes mirrors of the Void.
Nyxia didn't hesitate.
She leapt into them.
Her void scythe sang as it cleaved, each strike paired with a snarl or a scream. A succubus lunged, whip raised—and Nyxia drove the scythe through her mouth, twisting until the spine cracked. The body thrashed and died, spilling innards that steamed on the stones.
Loque snarled at her side, dragging a Dreadstalker down by the throat, ripping it open with spectral fangs that burned like starlight. His paws landed heavy, swift, merciless.
The void tried to eat them both.
Perseus
His lungs burned, voice raw from screaming Nyxia's name through the chaos. When she vanished into that storm of blood and light, his heart cracked.
He'd seen her fight before. But not like this.
Not with her soul on fire.
Not with that look in her eyes.
The look of someone dancing on the blade's edge—half god, half ghost, ready to fall.
Nyxia felt the shift. Not with her eyes, but her soul. The rift's pulse was changing—quicker now, desperate. The void was starving.
And it had tasted her.
Her nails dug in deeper. Her breaths came in ragged, steaming gusts. Blood slid down her spine where a Felhound had grazed her—its acid saliva still bubbling against her skin. It hurt. But pain grounded her.
Until his voice came again.
"Why suffer for them?" it crooned.
"Look at them. Boo, bleeding on the stones. Perseus, too proud to admit he's broken. Eurydice, giving her light away one scream at a time. Let them burn. You are not theirs."
Her vision flickered. The edges of the world bled violet.
Loque shoved his head beneath her hand. "Stay with me."
Tears burned her eyes. Not from grief—but rage. This was hers to bear.
She slammed the scythe into the skull of another demon with a howl that wasn't even words—just pain and fury torn loose from her lungs.
Boo
She saw Nyxia through the firelight.
Not the battle. Her.
The woman she'd once mocked for being too cold.
Now covered in ash and guts and godhood, roaring like a storm.
"Fuckin' finally," Boo whispered, coughing blood and laughter.
She grinned through the pain. A dagger lodged in her thigh. She didn't care. This was living.
A blast rocked the ground—one of the infernals exploding, its carcass split by Draj's axe and Light-born fire.
Nyxia's ears rang. Her knees buckled.
She felt it before she saw it.
The tether between them jerked—violently.
She turned.
And screamed.
A mass of living shadow had her beloved.
Loque'nahak, her heart, her fury, her brother in spirit—dragged backward into a vortex of screaming nothing.
He snarled, claws raking gouges into the stone.
He tried to speak to her—
"Nyxia—run—"
Nyxia's scream broke the air like glass.
"NO—!"
Perseus
He felt her soul snap. The void cracked it. And for one horrible moment, he thought she would fall.
He started running. Didn't care how many demons were in the way. He ran.
But Loque's voice was still inside her. Faint.
"Don't mourn me. Fight."
She howled. Not like a hunter—but like the beast inside her had risen.
Her tail lashed. Her form shimmered.
Void and Light warred inside her like twin gods.
Eurydice's Light washed across the field then—burning, beautiful, holy. It touched Nyxia like a mother's touch—searing and sweet.
And it wasn't enough.
The void's claws tore at her, they attempted to claim her heart.
Nyxia surged forward—eyes glowing purple, scythe trailing arcs of voidfire.
She killed everything in her way.
Boo
She saw it happen.
And Boo whispered, voice hoarse with awe:
"Burn them, snowcat."
And in the silence after—
A shimmer.
A pulse.
Every beast born of the rift above—every demon, malformed construct, twisted spirit, and shadow-walker—stilled.
They'd been scattering like blood-slick locusts, killing indiscriminately. Biting into children. Tearing out throats. Sucking marrow from still-warm bones.
But now...
They turned.
Dozens of burning, bleeding, soulless eyes fixed in unison on one figure.
Nyxia.
The moment her voice defied Arioch, she felt it—
His presence recoiled, like a serpent surprised.
Then, it returned.
Stronger. Smiling. Watching.
And the beasts turned with him.
Her knees trembling, her hands sticky with blood—not all of it hers. Her breath came in short, sharp gasps, each one carving its way through the ache in her ribs.
Her gaze darted—Boo, limping but still moving, mouth pulled tight in a grim line. Eurydice, radiant and flickering like a dying star. Draj, bleeding from the eyes. Perseus—
She lingered.His jaw was clenched, hands bloodied, armor cracked.
Her family.
They were going to die here.
Because of her.
Unless—
"Let me in," the voice purred, sweet and rot-rich."Let me show you how to be what you must.""You don't have to fall. Just… open the door."
Her hands clenched, claws digging into her palms.
Her tail curled tight.
Her body shook.
She was so tired.
"P-please forgive me Loque.."