It came from the sky.

  Xavier looked up. What he saw looked like it came from the darkest nightmares humankind ever had. He’d never seen something like this before—never laid eyes on a demon.

  The beast was larger than the dragon Volkarin.

  Its bulk blotted out the moon and a vast number of the stars above. If it weren’t for Xavier’s superior eyesight and night vision, he likely only would have seen a black shape outlined in the sky.

  The demonic beast had wings that spanned five times as long as Volkarin’s. These were not the sleek, powerful wings of a dragon. These wings were grotesque. The very skin of the beast rippled with black ooze, which dripped down like fat droplets of rain wherever it flew, infecting anything it contacted beneath.

  The wings themselves were oddly shaped. They looked as though they’d been stitched together from the wings of hundreds of other beasts. There were feathers mixed with leathery skin mixed with translucent, bug-like material, and the wings were only black because of the ooze that covered every inch of them.

  The body of the demon was even more terrifying.

  The beast had five heads, each of a varying size, but all of them far too small. Two were troll heads, one was the head of a giant owl beast, another that of a wolven, and the final head was that of a rock worm.

  Each of the heads snarled, snapped beaks, or roared, and each felt oddly strained and raw, like the sounds were coming from the throat of a hundred-year-old woman who’d been smoking since she was twelve years old.

  The body itself was even stranger and more terrifying. This, too, was the stitched together remnants of other beasts. It was a massive, bulbous body that somewhat reminded Xavier of the body of a spider. The same black ooze rolled around the entire body, dripping down from it.

  Except there were things writhing on the surface of the beast’s skin. Things Xavier couldn’t help but recognise.

  They were beasts. Beasts that looked as though they were alive, their bodies whole but trapped like they’d fallen into quicksand—no. Not like quicksand. Like they’d fallen into tar. That was what this demonic beast’s body reminded him of.

  A tar pit that unsuspecting animals had fallen into.

  These beasts appeared conscious in a way that the infected beasts Xavier had fought hadn’t. If this wasn’t terrifying enough, it wasn’t just beasts that were trapped beneath the skin of The Nightmare.

  There were Denizens, too. Humans. Elves. Dwarves. Lizardmen. A few races he didn’t recognise. But they were, to him, quite clearly Champions that had fallen facing this thing.

  No wonder around our sector and the neighbouring ones knows anything about this C Grade demon. Anyone who’s ever faced it are probably trapped within this thing.

  A shudder of fear ran up his spine at the prospect of being trapped beneath the skin of this terrifying demonic beast, and being entirely conscious of what was happening. He could hear their screams and whines of agony, like dying men and women on the battlefield, but The Nightmare had prevented any of them from succumbing to death.

  They were suspended, alive, for all eternity, inside of it.

  No. Not for all eternity. Only for as long as this demon lives.

  Xavier was prepared to fight this thing. Prepared to kill this thing. He was also prepared to run, if it came to that—though he hoped to all hell it wouldn’t come to that.

  He’d taken in the sight of this demonic beast in a fraction of a second. He was about to move when his gaze locked on something in the centre of the beast. Another writhing Denizen. A Champion that had fought The Nightmare.

  Only, this was one that Xavier recognised.

  When Xavier had vowed to save Liana’s husband from The Nightmare, she’d given him a picture of the man so that he would know what he looked like.

  And he was staring at that very man right now.

  Ardon.

  It was in that moment that a voice sounded around the Dark Mountains, emanating from The Nightmare’s body, though Xavier could not see where the sound had come from, as it did not match the movements of any of the five beast heads atop the demon.

  The demon’s voice was deep and powerful.

  “I have seen into your mind, Xavier Collins. I know who it is you have come to save. If you quit the battlefield, Ardon will die. If you succumb to my will, the both of you will live within me for eternity. Life eternal, Xavier Collins. Is that not something you strive for?”

  The demon’s voice was surprisingly articulate. Xavier hadn’t expected that. He’d thought this thing was some sort of networked hivemind. He’d thought it wasn’t fully self-aware.

  Clearly, he had been wrong.

  This beast had a powerful mind that it spread across everything it infected, giving it more processing power to work with, but it was still one mind. That, right now, was more clear than anything.

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  Xavier had ruined The Nightmare’s day by killing so many of the beasts it had infected. He had put The Nightmare’s attention squarely on him.

  And now there was no turning back from this fight—not unless he wanted to fail Liana.

  Ardon may be Liana’s husband, but that doesn’t mean he’s worth dying for… Which means I better make sure I live.

  Xavier hovered in the air, his great black wings keeping him up. He stared at the demon that was The Nightmare, a beast more terrifying to behold than anything Xavier could have imagined on his own.

  And he laughed.

  He felt invigorated. A thrill ran through him, and he embraced a level of excitement he hadn’t experienced since he’d faced the C Grade Fetid Forest Troll while he was still E Grade. Except that experience, while powerful, had the added protection of him seeing his possible futures and building on each one that passed.

  The uncertainty of this fight was part of what made it so exhilarating.

  This was going to be quite the challenge.

  A loud, roaring laugh came from Xavier’s left. The dragon Volkarin threw its head back in manic glee.

  You are beginning to see things how I see things, young dragonkin. That is something that will get you into a lot of trouble. I hope you have not angered something you aren’t ready to face.

  Xavier glanced at the dragon. The beast looked formidable, but compared with the sight of The Nightmare… it was hard to see how it would be a threat to this thing.

  He turned his attention back on The Nightmare.

  I can defeat this thing. I’ve defeated everything else I’ve come upon. Again and again, I’ve fought the impossible and won. I’m not going to stop now.

  Xavier locked his gaze on Ardon. The man was conscious, but Xavier wasn’t sure how lucid he was. He didn’t know if the man understood what was happening right now. When Xavier had heard that Liana’s husband had been trapped by The Nightmare, he’d expected the man to be like one of the infected beasts.

  He’d wondered at how terrifying such an experience must have been, many times. He had felt bad that he couldn’t simply go and defeat The Nightmare right away, to free Ardon—if the man had indeed still been alive.

  But this… This seemed as though it was a million times worse than anything Xavier had imagined.

  Xavier burst into action, planning his attack. During the fight with the C Grade Infected Rock Worms, Xavier had brought back to life as many of the dead as he could manage. He had a great deal of soul puppets. Fodder that he could throw at this thing. But something told him that wouldn’t work. This demonic beast was far too intelligent to be distracted by his minions—especially as the demon had minions of its own.

  More beasts were flooding the area, coming down the mountain toward him.

  Xavier sent a mental command to all of his soul puppets, instructing them to attack the oncoming beasts. They wouldn’t be enough, he was sure of that. They wouldn’t be able to withstand an onslaught like this, even though they had three soul puppets of C Grades among their ranks.

  But the soul puppets wouldn’t be working alone.

  Volkarin. I need to ask you a favour, Xavier said telepathically to the dragon.

  Speak it, young dragonkin, and if it is within my power I shall do it.

  I’ve no doubt you want to face The Nightmare alongside me, but I need you to fight the infected beasts while I take on The Nightmare myself. Keep those enemies away from me as best you can. I’ll keep bolstering the ranks of my soul puppets as much as possible as the fight goes on.

  Xavier expected the dragon to grumble at him. Expected him to be frustrated at being given a task that it deemed beneath him—but he also expected the dragon to listen, so in the end, it didn’t matter what Volkarin felt, as long as the dragon spirit did as he was told.

  I will burn them to ash and freeze their corpses for eternity. You can count on me, young dragonkin.

  Xavier blinked. That wasn’t the kind of response he’d been expecting. Maybe he didn’t know the dragon quite as well as he’d thought.

  He could have sworn he’d heard a hint of respect in the dragon’s voice.

  Considering who the dragon actually was—one of the seven most powerful spirits in the Otherworld—and what Volkarin must have been back in life, to have this dragon’s respect… Xavier found it meant a lot to him.

  Xavier’s eyes were still locked on Ardon. The man had noticed Xavier now. He had started staring back at him in turn. The agony in his eyes was palpable, and Xavier could feel the fear. It wafted off the beast—coming from all the beings The Nightmare had imprisoned within it.

  And the fear was most potent from Ardon.

  The man must have heard what The Nightmare said. He must be aware of what’s happening.

  Xavier had to wonder about this demonic beast. It was powerful enough to infect the minds of its victims, and yet… it didn’t infect those it had trapped. No, it kept them alive and conscious. It wanted to torture them.

  Xavier just couldn’t for the life of him understand why.

  But he didn’t need to understand the demon. All he needed to do was kill it.

  He burst forward on powerful wings. Though he had surveyed the beast and the battlefield in a fraction of a second, giving out orders in another fraction, he knew he couldn’t remain hovering in the air much longer.

  Xavier soared toward his enemy. As he did, he finally scanned the beast.

  {The Nightmare - Level 380}

  The Nightmare is a demonic, parasitic beast that controls the minds and bodies of those it encounters. Its power comes from not only the beasts and Denizens it has command over, but from the cumulative power of those minds. Its physical form is terrifying and imposing, but it is its psychic abilities that one should truly be wary of.

  If you ever step into the domain of The Nightmare, know that it is in your best interest to flee. For if you are snared by the power of this beast, you might be trapped inside its body for the remainder of your very long life.

  The description didn’t tell him much of anything he didn’t already know, though he did find it interesting that it focused on the beast’s psychic abilities and mentioned nothing of its physical abilities. The beast looked formidable in many ways—psychic was only one of them.

  Staring at the beast’s body, he was finally glad that he had a single target, but he was starting to realise a problem—with Ardon and the other Champions stuck inside the tarpit of a body this thing possessed, it would cause their deaths if he was to cast his most powerful spells. They were not his enemy, but they were a part of his enemy. He didn’t know if this demon had a soul, but if it did and he shattered it… the trapped Denizens would be hit in the crossfire. Liana’s husband might very well die from an attack like that.

  The same could be said of Soul Strike. If Xavier slammed the full force of his Soul Strike at this thing…

  It would kill Ardon and the others.

  There was a part of Xavier that considered doing this very thing. A practical, logical part of him. If he couldn’t save Ardon, he might as well free the man from the misery that he was currently enduring.

  But that wasn’t something he would resort to unless he had to.

  Xavier had always had a penchant for saving people. He was sure it had gotten him into trouble in the past.

  But this was the most trouble he’d been in yet.

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