The tall, regal, and commanding elven king stood completely still, watching with a careful gaze, but his eyes held no fear.

  Only Confidence.

  One hit? Surely he’s not that powerful…

  [Let me at him. I could do it by myself.]

  Let’s see you try, then.

  I wasn’t against using the parasite as a test dummy, so I summoned Joshua with a thought, and he immediately shrouded himself with his Spirit Unity form, the heat of his flaming aura licking at my tense form.

  “A fun trick, demon. We will see if it is worth using one of my skills on,” Calenvir taunted, but it held none of the cockiness that Lirien had, no, it was simply a fact of the world from the elven king’s mouth.

  “Spear! Distract that stupid elf!” Joshua shouted, belligerently teaming up with the golden glaive that had appeared beside him in a flash of golden light.

  “Of course, bestie! However, I am in fact a glaive!”

  “Shut the fuck up,” Joshua muttered, then he summoned a horde of razor-sharp blood lances, sending them screeching forward with a wave of his hand. Simultaneously, Finnlen flew from a different direction, activating Radiant Burst and causing those in attendance to recoil from the bright flash.

  Whatever happened next, I wasn’t even able to comprehend it.

  Are you kidding?

  Finnlen was dug deep into the floor, the blade of his long point completely encased by soil, while Joshua had been flung backwards and was slowly trying to get back up from the ground beside me. Calenvir stood completely unbothered as one of his six curved blades returned to its spot behind him, pointing dangerously towards me.

  “What just happened?” I gasped aloud in disbelief.

  Joshua wiped his mouth, and a smear of bright blood appeared along his hand. Then, the parasite smiled evilly. “This will be fun.”

  An explosion of blue fire marked the entrance of my next companion, and I immediately buffed the fire spirit with Willing Host. “The elf king?” He questioned, and I nodded once.

  “Be careful, Signeir. Our goal is only to hit him once.”

  “Once? Why don’t I just kill him?”

  “Good luck with that,” Joshua retorted. “Even this stupid voice in my head probably couldn’t kill him that easily.”

  “We’ll see,” Signeir responded, aiming his gaze towards Calenvir.

  “I wonder if you could really consider this a duel,” the elven king began humorously. “Considering you have brought so many friends.”

  My companions elected not to respond; instead, each of us dug our feet into the ground, preparing to strike.

  With a flash of movement, all three of us charged forward. Joshua used one leg to flip Finnlen out of the ground, while drawing his dagger with one hand and sharpening his claws with the other. Signeir activated his Runic Hellfire skill, forming a barrage of blue flaming spheres that tore across the sky towards Calenvir. Sharpening both claws, I joined the assault, charging head-on towards the elf.

  Three blades shot forward from the elf, so fast that I could hardly see them move. One impaled directly into my shoulder, while another blocked simultaneous attacks from Joshua and Finnlen.

  “Let’s see how you deal with this!” Signeir proclaimed, channeling Hellfire Draw and igniting his blades with blue flames, but one of his arms was immediately severed before he could even move. “What?” He gasped in confusion.

  Calenvir had still yet to move an inch. Joshua and Finnlen struggled against the singular floating blade, but they were no match, being sent tumbling backwards unceremoniously as I ran towards them.

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  Thinking quickly, I issued a command as Signeir engaged in a deadly melee with one of Calenvir’s blades, releasing hisses of fire against metal as his three remaining arms worked in tandem to defend against the onslaught. “Stab me.”

  “With pleasure,” Joshua replied, sitting up and sinking a claw into my arm.

  He repeated the gesture a few times, and finally, he reached the maximum bonus for Accelerating Hemorrhages special effect.

  “My turn—” I began, but Joshua was already gone.

  “Sucks to suck, loser,” He called out, and I shook my head, channeling several blood lances above my head and aiming them directly for the elven king, who was observing the intentional friendly fire with a calm gaze.

  The lances flew forward at the same time that Joshua and Finnlen struck, but it wasn’t enough.

  One blade flew out from behind Calenvir, deflecting each blood lance, then shattering them when they attempted to reroute their flight paths. Despite the minor distraction, Joshua was still too slow to make any real difference, only barely able to dodge a swing from one blade before having his clawed hand severed by a second.

  “You bastard!” Joshua roared, ducking underneath one of the curved, silver blades and sliding directly next to the elf king. He threw his dagger, which bounced away harmlessly as another of Calenvir’s blades moved up to meet its flight path.

  Maybe he can do it!

  Finnlen flew forward, and Joshua grabbed the glaive midair, aiming the blade downwards towards Calenvir’s head. Signeir also activated Hellfire Draw, grabbing three, flaming blue swords from his waist and back and charging forward.

  Calenvir caught one sword in his hand, while another held Finnlen by the blade. The other two of Signeir’s blades were held back by two separate swords.

  “This is ridiculous,” I mumbled in disbelief.

  “Lucivar! He is too strong! Let us help you!” Zorrack screamed in desperation, but even he seemed scared at the overwhelming presence before me.

  He hasn’t even activated a skill. What the hell do I do?

  But I had no time to think. In a flash, all three of my summons were batted away, hurtling through the air and bouncing off the ground like a set of tennis balls. A sharp pain emanated from my shoulder, and I glanced down to catch a silver blade jutting out from my shoulder plate, which cracked and groaned against the powerful sword. A second curved sword plunged itself deep into my stomach, hurling me through the air and impaling me to a tree as my gathered companions all stepped back.

  Kril and Azazel began to make a move to step in, but I shot them a hard glare. “No!” I roared.

  My friends all froze.

  Then, the elf king was there, moving so quickly I could barely even process that he had done so. “I expected more from you, demon, considering how terrified my son was of you.”

  “You’ve seen nothing yet,” I spat, although I knew it was a lie. I briefly contemplated summoning Lunarius, but it seemed entirely possible that the Primordial would have cancelled the summon.

  Eztara is still somewhere…

  But I had one more plan.

  “Why?” I asked suddenly.

  Calenvir tilted his head. “What?” He replied in confusion.

  “Why are you doing this?”

  The elven king smiled, then glanced upwards at the crown on his head.

  His smile faded away. “The… the voice,” his voice cracked, and my eyes widened in confusion.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Why do you need to know?” He shot back, regaining his steady composure.

  I shrugged once, wincing at the pain from the silver blades digging deep into my flesh. “I would prefer to know why I’m dying before I die.”

  Calenvir narrowed his eyes. It seemed as if his very consciousness was battling against itself. “It… it tells me of the future. One where my people burn. I was given this crown,” he pointed toward his head. “So now, I can see.”

  “And it tells you I need to die?” I questioned, slowly attempting to wrench myself free from the tree.

  “I…” Calenvir faltered. “It shows me many futures, demon, yet, I cannot see yours.”

  “Then why? Why did you attack?” I pressed, but Calenvir was done giving answers, snarling intensely as he stared into my eyes.

  A new voice interrupted, although I could’ve recognized the deep, sinister timbre anywhere.

  “It is good to see you, demon. I should’ve known that our time in heaven wouldn’t be the last time we meet,” Isarion, the Aspect of Chaos, laughed casually, slowly striding towards us with Noctulus, his sentient spear in tow.

  “Are you sure about this, Isarion?” Notctulus questioned quietly, but the Aspect ignored his weapon.

  “You!” Eztara suddenly flew outwards, scythe in hand, then shot out a wave of black energy.

  Isarion raised an arm, and the wave broke against his armored gauntlet. Eztara activated Severed Radiance, disappearing in a flash of light and reappearing next to the Aspect, but Isarion was ready.

  Eztara choked as the impossibly strong grip of the Aspect held the wraith by the neck.

  “Lucivar! What do we do?” Cedric exclaimed, eyes darting between the new intruder and the already indomitable elf king.

  “Run!” I shouted, eyes wide as I took in the Aspect. I was only moments away from activating Shadow Mark and having Lunarius come to the rescue.

  “No.”

  [Chaos Lord Tiamat]

  My vision was completely consumed by darkness, and the world around me fell away into nothingness.