When Lily ran into Ega as she ran through the tunnels, she panicked. As much as she wanted to turn back and join back with her family to fend him off, she had a mission to complete, the one thing that would insure their victory.

  She pushed herself, sprinting as hard as she could out of the sewers. Tears began to well up in her eyes as she thought of the worse case scenario, of the Blood Hunter ruthlessly killing her family. Still, she had to believe in them, she had to believe that they would be fine on their own.

  These tunnels were her home, she knew this place inside and out, and in no time, she arrived at the entrance located closer to the center of Ashier. Crawling her way out, she ran down the only path that she knew of outside of the slums, the way to the Stormkeeper’s Inn.

  The streets were dark, hiding her monstrous figure as she ran. Arriving at the back entrance to the inn, she furiously began knocking at the door.

  “Vin…” She weakly croaked, trying to get the owner’s attention.

  After a few seconds of knocking, he had finally arrived. His sunken eyes pierced through Lily, a clear indication of irritation.

  “What?” Despite his thin figure, his presence felt overwhelming, as if he could kill you with just his stare.

  “Under attack… Blood Hunter… We need him…”

  Before she could finish, Vin understood what she was trying to get at. “Room 205, and be quick about it. I don’t want anyone seeing…” He paused, needing to pick his words carefully to not offend Olian. “I don’t want them to catch sight of you.”

  But maybe it wouldn’t matter anymore, especially after tonight.

  Slipping into the building, Lily began to search for room 205. It wasn’t long before she had found it, the key to their victory. Breaking down the door she scanned the room for a second before seeing Ella. Snatching her up into her hands, she pressed her hand over the child’s mouth and quickly escaped.

  Lily ran through the night, running faster than she ever had before.

  …

  “You destroy my wife’s soul and I’ll kill your daughter!” Olian yelled out, suddenly flipping the table on Ega. But the table was still in the air, ready to tip on either side depending on how everything tumbled down on either of them.

  Looking over to Ella, he could see her shivering with tears in her eyes. Despite this, Ega could read her expression. It was a strange expression, one that, for a second, was tearing up with fear and panic. But as she met his eyes, it quickly twisted into acceptance.

  She already knew a day like this would come. Ega had even said so himself, that when it came to either her neck or his, he’d always choose his own. Closing her eyes, she began to take in a deep breath, ready to accept her face.

  “Shit…” Ega cursed under his breath as he read her expression.

  He knew what the right thing to do was. All he had to do was intimidate them. He could tell that this soul was of utmost importance to them. There was no chance they would trade Ella’s life for this soul. And yet…

  “Fine! You give me back my daughter and I’ll give you back your wife’s soul!”

  Ella’s eyes suddenly opened. What was going on? Was he going to try and save her? Or was this just part of some elaborate plan?

  “You let her take a step closer to me, and I’ll do the same.”

  Olian looked over at Lily, nodding his head. “You do anything to that jar, and I’ll make sure your daughter dies before she can even fall into your arms.”

  Picking up the body, he took a step toward them. Lily had finally let go of Ella, slowly nudging her forward with her tendrils. Each step that Ega took toward them, Ella took a step toward Ega.

  The tendril continued to trail behind her, making sure that he wouldn’t try and save Ella while still keeping the body in his hands. One step. Another step. It all repeated in utter silence.

  One step. Another step. Finally, Ella stood just three meters away from Ega. Just as he was about to take another step however, Olian banged the metal operating table, ending the moment of tense silence. He didn’t just make some random noise just to make a sound, no, it was a signal.

  Lily’s tendrils suddenly shot forward, one aimed straight toward Ella, and another aimed straight at the jar in Ega’s hand.

  Ega was too far away. Charging forward, he slashed at the tendril aimed at him. Still, there wasn’t enough time for him to save Ella. There was nothing that he could do.

  But, just because there was nothing Ega could do, however, didn’t mean that Ella couldn’t do anything. Hearing the sudden bang of metal, she turned her head. Her eyes were able to make out a blur as the tendril shot at her, but that was enough.

  Ella leaped forward, narrowly escaping death as Lily’s tendril left a shallow gash on her back. Dropping the jar and scooping her into his hands, Ega burned a soul and dashed away, trying to create as much distance as possible.

  As Lily narrowly picked up her mother’s soul into her tendrils before it shattered onto the ground and Lliam charged toward Ega to keep him at bay. Without any time to even check on Ella, Ega was quickly thrusted back into battle. Letting Ella rest against a wall, he faced Lliam as he charged at him, swinging like a wild beast.

  Ega tried to strike back as he dodged, but before he could carry out with his counter, another tendril shot right toward him. Flicking his wrist, he slashed them down, giving up his strike on Lliam.

  As he fought against Lliam and Lily, he noticed Olian escaping off in the distance, taking some sort of secret exit inside of the room with a body and jar in hand. He couldn’t chase after him, not with Ella slowly bleeding out behind him and two monsters constantly attacking him.

  All Ega could do was dodge and block, unable to strike back. As he dodged Lliam’s flurry of swipes, he had to cut down Lily’s tendrils aimed both at him and Ella. It was only a matter of time before he made a mistake or his stamina ran out.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Despite their constant attacks, those two monsters showed no sign of exhaustion. Ega however, was beginning to lose the grip on his sword.

  ‘Shit. Shit. Shit.’ He began to curse at himself internally as he witnessed death’s scythe slowly approach his neck.

  And that was when it happened. While Ega was blocking an attack from Lliam, his grip had loosened and his sword had been knocked away. Panic had not yet settled. He couldn’t let it pierce his heart just yet.

  Burning another soul, he turned back to grab Ella and ran away. Before he could make any meaningful distance, Lliam caught up to him, swatting him across the room before he could escape.

  Just before he crashed into the metal tables, he twisted his body, trying his best to prevent Ella from getting hurt. As his back slammed against the table, all of the sharp, bloodied instruments began to spill off, tearing into Ega.

  Thankfully, Ella hadn’t gotten hurt from that, but she was bleeding, shivering in his arms as they were about to reach the end of their journeys.

  Ega could still continue struggling, he could still mix his souls even deeper, but he knew that at that point, there would be no turning back. Either he’d fracture his own soul, or he’d never be able to pull them apart from his own.

  ‘I have to…’ Even if he would die here, he had to try and carve out an opportunity.

  Just as he was about to mix his souls even further, a voice suddenly echoed across the room.

  “Feathers, fall.”

  Steel feathers suddenly shot towards Lliam and Lily, stopping their advance toward Ega. Hearing that voice and that phrase, Ega couldn’t help but grin.

  Hela had finally arrived with the soul of a steel swan already mixed into her own soul. Sprinting forward, the knights began to follow her, holding back the two monsters as their commander pinned them down with steel feathers.

  Arriving before Ega’s side, her expression began to harden at his condition.

  “Ega, are you—”

  “I’m fine…” His wounds were already healing under the salamander’s soul. “Get someone… for Ella, quickly.”

  Finally noticing her in his arms, she yelled at one of the knights to provide medical attention. Once she had been plucked from his arms and being taken care of, Hela spoke again.

  “You did something reckless again.”

  “Had no choice, they were going to escape if I didn’t hold them down for a bit.” Struggling back to his feet, Ega pointed at where Olian had escaped from. “There’s still one more. Ran through that secret exit.”

  “Just sit down and rest, we can take it from—”

  “No.” The look in Ega’s eyes was fierce. “I caving that bastard’s face in myself.”

  Dragging himself over to his sword, he picked it up. He couldn’t just kill Olian, afterall, they still needed to interrogate him after all was said and done, but he’d be able to extract the blood another way.

  “Right, you and your salamander soul.” Hela remembered how resilient Ega was, always relying on his black salamander soul to regenerate any and all injuries. She didn’t even put it past him to continue fighting even if he lost an arm.

  Once the knights had secured Lily and Lliam’s capture, Hela and Ega began to move up the secret exit. It was a long flight of stairs, stained with a trail of blood from Olian’s bleeding hand, but soon they broke through to the otherside.

  Cutting open the trapdoor, they quickly ran out into what seemed to be a house located in the middle of the city. Olian stood just in front of them. Holding his bleeding hand over the dead body, he gave it the final ingredient to finally bring his wife back.

  Hela shot steel feathers at him, but it was already too late. Though he was pinned to the wall by her feathers, he had successfully brought his wife back. The hole in her body began to regenerate at an incredible speed, even faster than Lily’s regeneration.

  Not wanting to discover just how monstrous she was going to become, Ega charged forward, hoping to chop off her head before it was too late. Just before his sword could connect, Olian’s wife had awoken, and in a split second, she grabbed his sword with her bare hands.

  “Elise? Are you…” Olian couldn’t believe his eyes. After all of these years of research and experimentation, he had finally brought his family back together.

  “Olian? Is that…” Her sudden revival had sent her in a state of shock. “I thought I…”

  As touching as the moment was, Ega didn’t give a shit. Pulling out a dagger with his other hand, he thrusted it at Elise. However, just like his sword, it was blocked.

  “Who are you?” Tearing the blades from his hand, Elise threw herself upright, ready to strike back.

  Hela fended her off, shooting more steel feathers to try and keep her in place. But not even that would stop this monster. Dodging the attack, she picked up the table that she had been laying on and threw it at Ega and Hela.

  Flying faster than even an arrow, the two of them couldn’t help but take the full force of that throw. With some time to themselves, Olian and Elise began to have a heart to heart.

  “Olian, what have you… How am I…” She began to approach her husband, his bloodied and disheveled figure almost unrecognizable.

  “Our children made it Elise. They’re alive! They may be a little different from what you imagined, but we can finally be a family.” There were tears in his eyes as he spoke.

  “No… No that… This isn’t…” Elise suddenly fell to her knees lurching forward as he held her stomach.

  “What’s wrong?” Olian began to panic. “Elise, what’s wrong!”

  Blood began to pour out of her mouth. Her skins and flesh suddenly began to contort, suddenly rupturing before regenerating back in an instant.

  “Elise! Elise!”

  However, as she regenerated, she began to grow larger. Mounds of flesh continued to grow from her skin at an unprecedented degree. Suddenly, she had grown to three meters, then five, and suddenly, she had become too large to fit inside of the building.

  She bursted out from the roof, screaming and wailing in pain. What once was a beautiful woman was now a giant mass of flesh standing two stories tall. No, would it even be right to say that it was standing?

  “No no no no no.” What had Olian done wrong? Did he not calculate something correctly? Maybe the soul was put in incorrectly? Too much Mithril Blood? Too little? Maybe the soul was already too fragmented. Whatever it was, he had damned his wife to this monstrous cage of flesh.

  Bursting out from the rubble, Ega laid eyes on the giant creature, horrified at the giant mound of flesh. Seeing its creator on his knees, staring at the monster, he tackled Olian and pinned him to the ground.

  “What kind of hellish monster did you bring to life?”

  “No, no… I… she wasn’t supposed to…” His dream was beginning to crumble before him.

  “You bastard.” Ega smacked him across the face, trying to knock some sense into him. “How the hell do I kill that thing?”

  “No, no! Don’t kill her! Her soul is still in that body, I just need to—” Ega smacked him again, silencing him.

  “Shit, he doesn’t know.”

  The hideous monster began to swing its bloated arms around wildly, knocking buildings down. People screamed as they were buried under the rubble of their own homes, waking all of those around them. People began to light lanterns only to see that god forsaken creature towering before their windows.

  Even if Olian didn’t know how to kill that thing, Ega had to come up with something. As he watched people light their lanterns, the warm glow of light pouring out their windows to give them vision, that was when it finally struck him. Fire, he would kill that thing with fire.