The dust slowly settled over the shattered village.
Constant lay face down on the cracked road, ribs broken, blood dripping from his mouth.
Every breath burned like fire.
Every muscle felt torn.
But through the ringing in his ears…
He heard her.
Blood Reaper's distorted breathing — heavy, unsteady, monstrous.
He forced his hand to move.
Then his arm.
He dragged himself upward onto shaking elbows.
"Blood… Reaper…" he whispered, coughing.
She stood in the center of the ruined street — a towering shadow, obsidian skin cracked with molten fury, eyes blinking in chaotic patterns across her monstrous face.
She had no awareness.
No memory.
No restraint.
She only had one thought—
Kill everything.
Constant put a hand on the shattered ground and forced himself onto his knees.
He nearly collapsed again, but he didn't stop.
He crawled toward her.
"Please… come back…" he choked.
Blood Reaper's heads snapped toward him — all of them.
Her chest expanded.
A sound built inside her — low, rumbling.
Dyren suddenly gasped awake a few feet away, blood coating his chest.
He sat up, dizzy, then saw Constant crawling toward her.
"No… no NO—" Dyren staggered to his feet.
"HE WILL DIE—!"
Blood Reaper lunged.
CRACK—!!!
The ground shattered as her claws slammed down, inches from Constant.
He was thrown backward — air knocked out of him.
She raised her arm, claws glowing brighter, ready to SLICE him in half.
Dyren roared and threw himself onto her arm, trying to drag it away.
"NO—!! STOP—!! LOOK AT ME—!!" he screamed in pain.
Blood Reaper jerked her arm violently, slamming him into a stone wall with enough force to crack it.
Dyren coughed blood but still stood.
"I'm not leaving you!" he shouted at her.
"You want to kill me? DO IT!"
Blood Reaper's massive foot lifted—
She aimed to crush him.
Constant saw it.
"DYREN!!"
He dragged himself between them, shielding Dyren with his own body.
Blood Reaper's foot slammed down—
BOOOOOOM—!!!
Both men were pinned under the force, bones cracking, the ground cratering beneath them.
Constant screamed—
Dyren choked—
Blood Reaper pushed harder, crushing the life from them.
Dyren snarled at Constant, struggling to breathe:
"Idiot… why are you protecting me…?!"
Constant groaned through the pressure:
"Because… she'll blame herself… if she kills us…"
Her massive talons ground deeper, the earth splitting under their bodies.
Constant's vision blurred.
Dyren's wings bent at an unnatural angle.
They were seconds from death.
A small shadow hopped onto a broken lamppost.
Spider Boy.
His young demon-spider eyes widened at the sight.
"No… no, no, no—she's going to kill them—!!"
Blood Reaper pressed down harder.
Constant gagged.
Dyren screamed.
Spider Boy's small hands shook.
He didn't want to do this.
He really didn't.
But he knew one thing—
If she killed them, she would never come back.
He leapt.
Landing on her neck.
"FORGIVE ME!" he shouted—
—and bit down HARD into the base of her skull.
Blood Reaper roared so loud windows exploded across the village.
Her foot lifted off the men.
She staggered back, claws flying wildly, trying to rip the spider off her.
Poison pulsed through her veins — silver, burning, ancient poison made only by his kind.
Her body trembled.
Her molten cracks flickered.
Her fangs dripped black.
She tried to roar again, but it cut off in a gasp — the poison spreading like frost through her fiery form.
Her legs buckled.
She fell to one knee.
Then another.
Constant collapsed beside Dyren, gasping for air.
Spider Boy jumped off and skidded across the ground, panting.
"I—I'm sorry…" he whispered, trembling.
"But I had to… I had to stop her…"
Blood Reaper's claws dug into the earth as she shook violently.
Her monstrous form flickered in and out.
Her breath came in ragged, broken snarls.
She lifted her head slowly—
—eyes fading from black…
—to a soft, confused gold…
—and then to closed.
She collapsed fully.
The earth shook as she hit the ground.
The entire village went silent.
Spider Boy crawled to her hand, trembling, placing his small hand on her fingers.
"I'm so sorry," he whispered.
Constant dragged himself forward despite bleeding internally.
He touched her arm with shaking fingers.
"Blood Reaper…?"
Dyren stood, staggering, coughing, staring at her fallen form.
He wiped blood from his lips.
"…She'll kill me for this," he whispered.
Spider Boy whispered back:
"She'll kill all of us for this."
Her breathing slowed.
Her monstrous body twitched once… twice…
Then the poison fully overtook her.
Her form evaporated into black smoke, dissolving into thin air right in front of them.
Constant gasped and reached forward—
"Blood Reaper—!!"
—but she was gone.
Spider Boy collapsed on the ground in panic.
"She's…she's been pulled into the nightmare realm," he whispered, voice shaking.
"The poison didn't kill her… it dragged her inside her own mind."
Dyren froze, eyes wide in horror.
"A nightmare realm?! That poison wasn't supposed to do THAT—!"
Spider Boy glared.
"She was going to KILL YOU BOTH. I had no choice!"
Constant stood to his feet, shaking, bruised, but burning with determination.
"Where is she?" he demanded.
"She's in the Dark Cave," the spider boy whispered.
"A void. No light. No sound. No escape. Only… her."
Constant clenched his fists.
"So, she's suffering alone."
Dyren snarled.
"She wouldn't suffer if you didn't keep confusing her emotions."
Constant turned slowly toward him.
His face hardened.
"You don't get to say that."