The sky didn't just change color. It pulsed. It was a rhythmic, sickening throb of deep red that made the entire horizon look like an open, infected wound. Lexi stared up at it for a second too long, her neck aching from the tension. The air around her had turned thick, almost oily, making every breath feel like she was inhaling wet wool.
"Yeah... that is definitely not good," she whispered to herself. Her voice sounded thin, swallowed by the oppressive silence of the graveyard.
The smell was the worst part. It wasn't just the rot she had smelled before. Now, it was the copper tang of fresh blood mixed with the sulfur of the red dimension's pressure. It was the smell of a slaughterhouse that had been left to bake under a dying sun. Lexi lowered her stance, her boots sinking into the dark, soggy soil that felt more like flesh than dirt. She gripped her bow until her knuckles turned white, her fingers twitching near the string.
"Alright," she growled, her eyes darting between the leaning tombstones. "Whoever is in charge of this hellhole, you have my attention. Stop hiding like a coward."
Silence followed her challenge. Then, a sound started. A wet, heavy dragging noise, like a bag of meat being pulled over jagged rocks. Lexi spun around, her heart hammering against her ribs.
Two figures emerged from the crimson haze. They were demons, but not the mindless ones she was used to in the yellow zones. These were taller, their skin a bruised shade of grey, and their heads were tilted at unnatural angles as if they were studying her like a biological specimen.
"Great. More of you idiots," Lexi muttered, though the bravado was starting to taste like ash in her mouth.
They didn't rush her. Usually, demons were all teeth and rage, but these two just stood there, watching. Then, the air behind them rippled. Two spirits, translucent and jagged, drifted forward and slipped into the demons' backs. The transition was violent. The demons' bodies contorted, bones snapping and reforming in seconds as the spirits took control.
Lexi exhaled slowly, trying to steady her hands. "Yeah... of course you did. Why make it easy for me?"
Then, they vanished.
Lexi didn't wait to see where they would go. She relied on her fighter's instinct, throwing herself into a desperate roll. A fraction of a second later, claws tore through the space where her throat had been, the force of the swing whistling in her ear. She came up on one knee, gasping for air.
"Too fast..." she hissed.
One of the demons appeared directly in front of her. There was no time to draw an arrow. Lexi saw the flash of a claw and tried to twist away, but the demon was a blur of supernatural speed. A jagged slash tore across her chest, ripping through her leather armor like it was paper.
Blood sprayed across the grey tombstones. Lexi staggered back, her vision swimming for a moment as the white-hot pain flared up. "Shit!"
She hadn't even recovered when the second one struck from her blind side. Another slash, this time across her stomach. The impact knocked the wind out of her, sending her tumbling onto the wet ground. She lay there for a second, her face pressed into the cold mud, tasting the iron of her own blood.
"Tch..." Lexi pushed herself up, her movements sluggish and heavy. Her 100 percent mana was screaming at her, the energy pool drained by the constant tension of the red sky. "You are enjoying this, aren't you?"
The demons didn't speak. Instead, their chests heaved with a low, broken sound that could only be described as laughter. It was a grating noise, like two stones grinding together. Lexi wiped the blood from her mouth, her red lipstick now a messy, crimson smear across her pale face.
"Yeah... real funny. Let's see if you're still laughing after this."
She raised her hand, focusing every scrap of her mana into her palm. Lightning sparked out, blue arcs snapping through the red air as she channeled the energy into a direct blast. It hit the lead demon square in the chest.
The demon didn't even flinch. It stood there, the lightning dancing harmlessly across its skin, and slowly tilted its head to the other side. Lexi stared, her eyes wide with a fear she hadn't felt in years.
"Seriously? That doesn't work either? Great. Just great."
They moved again, and this time, Lexi was too late. Claws tore deep into her shoulder, and she let out a raw, jagged scream as she was thrown backward. Blood poured down her arm, hot and sticky, making her grip on her bow weak.
"Think, Lexi... think..." she told herself, her breathing becoming a series of panicked stabs.
They weren't slowing down. They weren't getting tired. But she was. Her mana was flickering, the 100 percent limit she had lived with for six years finally proving to be her death sentence. She watched them move, her eyes tracking not their bodies, but the way the red light distorted around them right before they vanished.
"It's the spirits," she realized, her voice dropping to a whisper. "Not you."
She ignored the agony in her shoulder and forced herself to form a ghost arrow. The mana drop was instant and brutal. She winced, her vision blurring as her internal reserves hit the red zone. She didn't move. She didn't even try to dodge when the first demon charged.
Closer. Closer. She could smell the decay on its breath. At the last possible second, she turned and released the string.
The ghost arrow didn't hit the demon's skin. It pierced straight through the physical shell and hit the spirit nesting inside. A high-pitched, soul-shredding scream echoed through the graveyard as the spirit was ripped apart, shattering into glowing fragments. The demon froze, its eyes going dark for a heartbeat.
That was all Lexi needed. She grabbed a regular arrow from her quiver and jammed it straight into the demon's eye socket. It dropped like a stone.
"One..." she panted, her body shaking from the effort. "Two more to go."
But the second demon didn't give her a chance to breathe. It slammed into her with the force of a truck, sending her flying into a massive stone grave. The impact shattered the stone and sent shards of rock digging into her back.
"Ghh—" Lexi tried to stand, but her legs felt like lead.
Claws flashed again, tearing across her ribs. Her body jerked with every hit, more blood soaking into the dirt beneath her. Her bow slipped from her numb fingers, clattering onto the ground a few meters away.
"Shit..." she reached for it, her fingers clawing at the mud.
The demon stepped forward and kicked the bow away, its expressionless face looming over her. The spirit inside it was shifting, moving under the demon's skin in a way that looked almost like a smile. Lexi let out a dry, hacking laugh.
"Yeah... okay. Guess we are doing it like this then."
She forced herself up, her hands empty but her jaw set in a hard line. She was a fighter first, a mage second. She stepped in, dodging a lethal swing by a hair's breadth. She grabbed the demon's arm, using its own momentum to pull it close, and snapped her foot upward into its knee.
A loud crack echoed through the cemetery. The demon didn't care. It didn't feel pain. It slammed its forehead into Lexi's, and her vision exploded into white light. She staggered, her brain rattling inside her skull.
"Fuck..."
She was too slow. The demon's claws went deep this time, straight into her side. Lexi choked, the air leaving her lungs as her mouth filled with blood. The demon lifted her off the ground by her waist, its grip crushing her ribs. She tried to breathe, tried to strike back, but her strength was gone.
"Not like this..." she wheezed.
The demon threw her with effortless cruelty. Lexi hit the ground hard and didn't get up. Everything felt heavy. Everything felt cold. Her fingers twitched, brushing against the wet grass.
"Move... please, just move..." she begged her own body.
But there was nothing left. The pain was fading into a terrifying numbness. Her eyes found her bow, lying just a few meters away, but it might as well have been on another planet. The demon walked toward her, its steps slow and confident. It knew it had won.
Then, the ground began to shake.
Both of them stopped. A deeper, heavier sound started to echo through the graves. It was a wet, rhythmic thud that made the tombstones rattle in their sockets. Lexi turned her head with agonizing slowness.
A third figure emerged from the crimson mist. It was massive, much bigger than the other demons, its body twisted into a nightmare of muscle and bone. Two spirits were visible under its skin, fighting for space, their purple energy burning through the demon's eyes.
Even the other demon stepped back, sensing the raw, uncontrolled power radiating from the newcomer. Lexi stared at it, her heart sinking into her stomach.
"That... that is not part of the mission..." she whispered, her voice breaking.
The big one didn't look at her like prey. It looked at her like it already owned her soul. It moved with a speed that defied its size. Lexi couldn't even blink before it was on her.
A sharp, cold impact.
Lexi looked down, her breath hitching in her throat. A massive, jagged claw had pierced straight through her side, emerging from her back. It was a clean, deep wound. Her body went rigid, the shock overriding the pain for a few seconds. She watched her own blood spill out in a dark, steady stream, soaking the earth around her.
Her mouth opened, but no sound came out. The entire world went quiet, the red sky pulsing above her in a blur of motion.
"Ah..."
The claw pulled out with a sickening squelch. Lexi dropped to the ground, hitting the mud with a dull thud. The earth felt distant now, like she was floating away from it. Her vision blurred, the edges turning black. Her breathing was shallow, a desperate whistle in the silence.
Her mana flickered one last time. Low. Too low.
She tried to move her fingers, but they didn't respond. She was paralyzed, her body shutting down to protect itself from the trauma.
"No..."
The massive demon walked closer, each step slow and certain. It stood over her, its purple eyes burning down into hers. Lexi looked up at it, and for the first time in her life, she felt real, unadulterated fear. The ego, the pride, the six years of survival—it all evaporated, leaving only a scared girl bleeding out in a graveyard.
"I'm..." her voice broke into a whisper. "I'm not getting out of this."
Her hand moved weakly, reaching out for nothing, her fingers curling in the air. The sky pulsed red above her, the demon raised its claw for the final blow, and Lexi knew.
She was out of time.
To be continued