Butcher’s sack hit the stone floor with a wet thud. There was writhing, desperate movement from within. The smell hit Mitch first. A rancid stench of rotting flesh mixed with charred metal.

  His stomach turned as he gripped his sword, bracing himself between Sable and the sack. She was still too weak to fight.

  The Warden didn’t flinch from behind the Abyssal wall, only watched with curiosity. He adjusted his notebook, pen poised. “Begin, Mitch,” he said smoothly, voice resonating through the Pit. “Show me what you can do.”

  From the sack spilled out a mess of small, hunched figures. Their limbs were bent at unnatural angles. Gray skin stretched over bones that looked half-melted. Hollow, dark eyes stared out as if something haunted was locked in. They trembled and shifted on bony limbs, emitting high-pitched giggles and distorted cries.

  A memory flashed through Mitch’s mind. These things–their faces–held traces of humanity. Reforged souls. Twisted together to serve unknown purposes by the Abyss.

  One of the imps looked up at him, head tilting as if studying him. A choked, gurgling laugh escaped its throat as it lunged forward on all fours. Unnaturally long claws scraped the floor as it rushed Mitch.

  He reached for the imp’s minds. His Abyssal Bind faltered out, just as it did with the Snake.

  There was no time to hesitate. Mitch’s inherited battle instincts took over.

  He swung his sword, and the blade sliced through the imp’s brittle body with ease. It fell apart, split down the middle. Black ichor splashed across his boots as the creature died.

  “Take it,” the Warden’s voice echoed through the pit, cutting through the chatter of the imps circling Mitch. “Its soul, Mitch. Absorb it. And the flesh.”

  Mitch’s pulse quickened. He could feel the soul in its malformed body. If he let it drift away, he didn’t know where it would end up. If he absorbed it, it would surely go to the Warden.

  He pulled the soul and flesh into his core. Black tendrils ripped from both halves of the body as the already withered creature curled in on itself further, remaining flesh taken.

  Settlement Amount: 38(+1) Souls, 0 Beast Soul, 0 Credits, 109(+1) Flesh

  The soul was weak. He could feel its fragility as it slumped into his core, almost exhausted. The others within him shied away from it, as if it were a sick animal.

  Mitch also noticed that it wasn’t a beast soul.

  Another imp leapt at him from behind. Mitch let the claws rake his skin as he spun. With a vicous chop, the imp fell. The remaining monsters leapt at him in unison. Small scratches nicked him, Agony’s Embrace flickering as his body strengthened slightly.

  Each kill brought another faint soul and more flesh as he quickly dispatched the handful of creatures.

  Settlement Amount: 42(+4) Souls, 0 Beast Soul, 0 Credits, 113(+4) Flesh

  Sable watched from her position, offering no aid.

  The Warden’s voice continued, calm and clinical. “Good doggy. Fascinating, truly. I knew you were able to absorb souls and flesh, and that you have a debt with the Abyss, but this is new. Now what is that debt from?”

  He doesn’t know?

  Mitch met the man’s gaze, not answering. The Warden waited patiently, and then offered a shrug, looking down at his notebook.

  Pen scratched against parchment as the Warden gathered his notes. When he was finished, he met the man’s piercing and emotionless gaze.

  “Not going to tell? Hmmm. We will see about that. As you can see, I love gathering information,” his gaze sharpened, lips twisting in a faint, satisfied smile as he raised his ringed hand. “Now, let’s see how you fare with emptiness.”

  Mitch’s chest constricted. A wrenching pull yanked on his core as the Warden activated his ring.

  Burden Updated

  Burden: Pay the Abyssal Debt

  Status: Incomplete

  Active Debt: -1,002,664* -> -981,664*

  Thank you for your payment. Visit a Collector to make another.

  Do you give up?

  Settlement Amount: 0(-42) Souls, 0 Beast Soul, 0 Credits, 113 Flesh

  The torrent began. The souls were ripped out of him in a rush, and each one carried its own agony. They were all pulled out of him in an unstoppable wave. Tendrils, black and white and every shade in between flowed out of his chest.

  He tried to pull back, but it was like holding back an ocean of pressure. Impossible.

  Memories, pain, terror, it all flooded in. Tangled and vicious and fraying his mind.

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  The subdued souls clawed at the walls of his Abyssal Vault, unwilling to leave. They were helpless under the power of the Collection, and were yanked out, howling in his mind as they were forced out of their safe refuge.

  Desperate, Mitch shoved as much as he possibly could into Devoid, hoping to shut some of the memories out.

  Affliction Skill Upgraded

  Devoid

  Level 3 -> 4

  Lock away undesired emotions and thoughts. Feel only what you wish.

  Your sacrifices are rewarded with power.

  All emotions and thoughts must be addressed eventually.

  The Skill pulsed as the emotional onslaught intensified. All of the soul’s emotions passed through his mind, leaving him raw and overstimulated. He saw the souls' lives flash before his eyes, reliving all their most important moments.

  Mitch staggered to one knee, his vision blurring. The Warden analyzed him, his notebook still open as the souls zipped into his ring.

  “Now that’s very interesting. You tried to keep them all back, hmm? All that emotion? That’s the thing about emotion–it never truly goes away. Especially not here.” He stood, snapping the notebook shut and tucking it under one arm.

  “This has been very informative. I’ll be returning to collect more. After all, souls must be recycled well; the Abyss demands it of me.”

  Mitch looked up at him, the weight of every stolen soul leaving him completely hollow. He fought to speak, but no words came. His thoughts were a jumbled mess filled with other people’s pain.

  The Warden turned, waving a dismissive hand up to Butcher. “Keep them busy while I tend to other matters. Powerful, strong souls. They are always required. And we don’t want to pay off that debt quickly. If ever. Now would we?”

  “Got it, boss. You know we don’t lack bodies.” Butcher’s lips twisted into a sneer, and he stomped away from his perch.

  Mitch clutched the floor. He felt noticeably weaker. The profound strength he captured from holding the souls was gone. Mitch still didn’t understand where that feeling of power came from, but now that it was missing, he felt horrible.

  Ragged breaths came as he tried to push away the foreign emotions that forced their way onto his mind. The memories still flashed in his mind. It was a raw, unfiltered nightmare clinging to him.

  Sable crawled beside him, her body trembling from her recent patch job. She leaned against him, pulling him into a fragile embrace. “I’m here,” she whispered, “Just… just breathe, Mitch.”

  He sank into the moment, letting her presence ground him. Her hold was gentle and steady. His hands shook as he wrapped them around her, feeling the frailty of her body.

  “You saved me,” she said softly, her breath warm against his neck. “I’ll stay by you until you’re ready. I just need to heal and I can help.” She tightened her arms around him.

  He finally looked at her. “I wish I could do more,” he murmured. “My healing Skill, if I could just… it’s called Agony’s Embrace.”

  A memory flickered as he held her tight.

  Something distant, but tied to his Skills. His heart pounded as his body recalled the feel of transferring that morbid ability of healing. Of somehow shaping it around someone else. Perhaps…she would be willing. It came to him as an instinct. Of something he had once done. Or his body had.

  No…she wouldn’t.

  A deep rumble echoed through the pit, shaking them from the moment. Shadows rippled across the walls. Mitch instinctually reached for the empty soul sword. The darkness coiled at the edges, and faint growls were heard from above. From where Butcher would send more down.

  Rex growled in response, raw fury forming within the Shadowshroud. During the torment, the creature had been furious at what was happening to his master. It was eager to return the horrific favor, to lash out against their enemies. Rex may be an Abyssal creature, but he was inextricably linked and loyal to Mitch alone.

  We’ll need you, boy. You will get yours. See just how strong you can become.

  “More,” Mitch whispered, pulling back from Sable and standing. His gaze hardened as the rumbling continued. “They’re sending more.”

  Sable reached out a trembling hand, placing it in his. He looked down, feeling her exhaustion through her touch.

  “Do you trust me?” His voice was laced with resolve.

  The Warden might think he had Mitch and Sable completely trapped.

  He will learn.

  She nodded, her gaze steady. “I do, Mitch. You can be a cold bastard. But I believe in you. I’ve got your back just like you have mine.”

  Something shifted inside him as he met her eyes. A pull that went beyond words. He tightened his hand around hers.

  There was trust there–a peculiar, beautiful surrender. Trust, he realized, was a gentle obedience, one that asked nothing but demanded everything. He wanted to heal her more than anything, and she knew that. She believed it.

  Sable knew it so deeply in her core that she let the connection build. She didn’t understand what was happening, but she let it come.

  He could feel her. Sense the faint spark of her will. She would do her best by him, he could feel it in his gut. In his Skill.

  I can trust her. She can be the First.

  The rumbling from above grew louder, and Mitch glanced to the perch where the Abyssal creatures would come. They would be forced to fight monsters, and then Mitch would have the souls ripped from him. Lurching shadows trembled the ground as the monsters were about to appear.

  A plan began to form in Mitch’s mind. The memories told him he could do this. With the onslaught they were about to endure from their captors, they would grow strong. Together. They did not know about half the Skills Mitch possessed. Or what he could endure.

  The Warden thought himself so smart. But Mitch would figure this trap out.

  Kill them all together. Save Hathgar. I like the sound of that.

  Perhaps it was Devoid speaking. Or his own arrogance. Yet his body’s memories pulled him on, something telling him this was what must be done.

  Always forward. Right, Mathilda? The key, pressed to his chest and on the chain, had been lightly vibrating and drawing him past the Abyssal wall the entire time.

  Mitch reached out and grazed Sable’s mind as the Abyssal monsters sent by Butcher appeared above. Her yellow and red eyes went wide as she felt his mental touch.

  He felt her acceptance like a distorted beacon of light.

  Affliction Skill Upgraded & Modified