A voice colder than the grave slithered from the shadows near the gate. "Your search ends. I am here."
A figure detached itself from the gloom, moonlight carving details from darkness. Clad head to toe in obsidian scales, long black hair cascading down his back, he possessed an unremarkable face frozen in emotionless rigor. An aura of glacial, predatory intent radiated from him like radiation. But the most terrifying detail was the dagger sheathed at his chest. Barely a foot long, its hilt boasted a black gem that pulsed with a sickly, soul-sucking light. A miasma of pure malice seeped from it.
Horton sucked in a breath, icy dread coiling in his gut. The one man he prayed never to face stood before him.
A'Dunce surveyed the manor's elite guard – hardened mercenaries, battle-mages glimmering with power, Halton's loyal killers. No fear, no regret stirred within him. Only a crystalline, deadly calm. His mind held a single, consuming thought: *Kill*. Only by purging this nest of vipers would the raging storm inside him subside. Halton was here. Kitty was here. *Frostbone… grant me your vengeance. Watch as I cleanse this evil.*
Halton's own broadsword flickered with holy light, encasing him in a protective sheen. Yet, the invasive tendrils of corruption emanating from the stranger's dagger made his bones ache with cold. One man. Yet the pressure A'Dunce exuded felt like facing a living avalanche. Impossible. Unfathomable.
A'Dunce's right hand closed around the dagger's hilt. His cold, analytical mind recognized the impossible odds. Against so many? Alone? His inner life energy, potent and bright, flared through his being – the power he called the *Gift of Renewal*, honed to its eighth manifestation. It roared through his meridians, pushing back against the encroaching darkness.
But Kitty? Her transformation was instant. Gone was the lithe dancer; in her place stood a predator. Emerald energy enveloped her, claws elongated into wickedly sharp talons dripping poison, pupils slitted vertically like a cat's. Pure hatred burned in her eyes, fueled by the memory of past humiliation before this man. She raised a clawed hand. "Was it you?" she hissed, voice sharp as broken glass. "The fire at the Nocturnal Fortune?"
A slight, chilling nod from A'Dunce. His eyes narrowed at the poisonous green aura surrounding her. His own killing intent exploded, his *Gift* blazing brighter, white light contending with the rising darkness. "The Nocturnal Fortune? It smolders as we speak. Likely just ashes by now. Horton," A'Dunce's voice dropped even lower, promising annihilation. "Your loyal dogs lie dead in their chains. Their damned souls call for their master. Your time has come."
Halton ripped his broadsword free, a roar tearing from his throat. "You *dare* destroy everything I built!"
"Crafted on the suffering of hundreds!" A'Dunce snapped. "How many lives, exactly, did you crush? Frostbone died! Because of me! Because of *you*! Her final breath was your name, cursed. You stole her life. Tonight… you pay the price in blood." His voice vibrated with icy fury. "Though even drowning this city in yours wouldn't cleanse your stain enough."
Halton's broadsword blazed, holy energy bolstering his faltering courage. He pointed the glowing tip. "KILL HIM! 50,000 GOLD TO THE MAN WHO BRINGS ME HIS HEAD!"
His elite, pampered killers who'd scoffed at the rumors about last night's chaos, saw only an insolent teenager trespassing in strange armor. Halton's command was the spark. Four figures blurred forward - sword, axe, two spears – power rippling as they unleashed their Auras. Battle-mages chanted corrosive spells. The rest, cloaked in varied energies, pressed inward, locking A'Dunce in a killing field.
A'Dunce's slit eyes flashed with lethal blue fire. The immense pressure ignited the seething fury locked within. *Frostbone's death*. The dagger hilt burned in his grip. The *Gift of Renewal* roared through his meridians and slammed into the dagger.
DARKNESS EXPLODED.
The wave of pure, soul-chilling malice crashed over the courtyard. The charging quartet staggered, movements faltering under the weight of corruption. The surrounding pressure immediately lessened as every fighter instinctively recoiled, pouring energy into shielding their own souls.
A'Dunce MOVED.
**"First Flash: Heaven and Earth Sundered!"**
A streak of ghostly sapphire lightning tore through the gloom. For an instant, A'Dunce became pure velocity – a phantom blade. He *rippled* past the lead attackers.
Silence. Utter, frozen silence.
The sheer weight of the malevolent energy released when the dagger was drawn had paralyzed them all. Like insects caught in a glacial wind, they shivered, every ounce of strength channeled into resisting the soul-numbing frost crawling through their meridians. Some vomited. The weaker guards behind crumpled silently.
*THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD.*
Four desiccated husks hit the flagstones. Each bore a single tiny wound on their brows. Souls? Gone. Life Rockforceforce? Drained. The two battle-mages, their spells unfinished, stood rigidly, eyes vacant husks – their spirits torn away long before their bodies stopped breathing.
Kitty and Halton gasped in unison, recognition chilling their veins colder than the lingering death-aura: **"Hades Sword! Hades Sword!"**
A'Dunce stood amidst rising dust and horror, the dagger pulsing darkly. "Too late for that epiphany." He hadn't pressed the attack. Killing four elite warriors had pushed the dagger's corruptive energy back into him with overwhelming force. Staggered, he'd needed precious seconds, burning his life-energy furiously to purge the invasive darkness. He'd felt it, almost recoiled in surprise – the absorbed corruption being *sucked away* by the white gem on his neck guard. Its sacred light flared brightly before subsiding.
Halton swayed. Terror was a tangible shroud tightening around his heart. Even sheltered by his blessed blade's aura, the evil's touch had seeped through his defenses. Frostbone water seemed to replace his blood. Kitty, even more vulnerable to the dagger's aura despite her power, reacted faster. She *yanked* Halton backwards, using his bulk as a shield against the worst of the lingering miasma. Cold sweat plastered her fur. Hades Sword's legend was ancient – wielded by the Ghost King, the assassin who had never failed in three decades, who vanished without trace years ago. Now its heir stood before them. Not just a Dragoncaller… but the heir to the Netherblade itself! Helplessness, raw and primal, threatened to buckle their knees.
"How?" Halton stammered, voice cracking. "How do you possess it?"
A'Dunce's smile was a glacier's heart. "Fear gnaws at you, doesn't it? Good. The why is irrelevant. My name is your reckoning. Your sentence is signed." He raised the dagger again, the gem flaring hungrily. **"Second Strike: Phantoms of Fallen Gods!"**
Ghostly sapphire light wreathed him. Not a straight dash this time, but a shrieking *presence*, a specter of pure vengeance moving in impossible lines. Dozens of elite killers, their nerve shattered, their bodies still trembling from the initial shock, were trapped. Precious seconds for the Netherblade were eons.
Another streak of death blue passed.
Ten more bodies, drained to husks, crumpled. Panic became pandemonium. In desperation, the seven or eight strongest warriors snapped. Survival instinct overpowered terror. They screamed, burning every last scrap of their Auras, weapons swinging wildly as they charged the momentarily grounded A'Dunce. Strike now, or wait for the inevitable third flash that would surely claim their souls!
As they lunged, Kitty *acted*. Her green eyes locked onto A'Dunce's momentary need to recover. *His weakness!* Her clawed hand slammed hard into Halton's back, shoving him violently forward towards the charging group while she *sped* backwards like a shadow retreating. Distraction. Sacrifice. Survival.
A'Dunce felt it too. The backlash from the second strike was *worse*, a tsunami of darkness battering his inner core, his silver life-core shimmering desperately under a thickening grey fog. No time to purge. They were upon him. The dagger demanded more.
**"THIRD ASCENSION: NETHERSOUL'S EXECUTION!"**
He roared the command, pouring his soul into the blade. Upwards he surged. Hades Sword pulsed, and above him, a massive scythe of compressed necrotic energy *screamed* into existence – a shard of the void itself. It descended with apocalyptic fury.
The leading attackers vanished. Simply *erased*. Kitty's tactical shove became Halton's doom. He flew into the storm. His blessed blade, raised in a futile defense, shattered. The white light flared, resisted for a microsecond… then died. The grey-blue tip cleaved downwards. Cold, impossible cold… then an indescribable *wrenching* sensation as his life force tore away, sucked towards the glowing dagger. His world faded, the last image burned into his dying eyes: twin crimson orbs of pure, unadulterated vengeance burning in A'Dunce's face. Dunce's gaze.
A'Dunce landed, gasping, the scythe vanishing. Kitty was gone, fleeing into the predawn shadows. The dagger's unleashed corruption, uncontained now, had become a killing fog. It had seeped into every corner of the Lord's Manor. The guards, the servants, the terminally ill Lord himself – all who lacked sufficient Aura had perished silently, minds wiped blank, hearts stilled. Hades Sword had feasted, claiming hundreds in its wake. A'Dunce stood, lungs screaming. The dagger was sheathed, but its corrosive presence writhed within him. His silver life-core pulsed weakly, grey tendrils clinging like parasitic vines. *Why? Why is it worse than Master Prometheus predicted? Three strikes… I'm fading…* Panic, deeper than any he'd faced before, seized him. To lose control *now*, to the Netherblade… the consequences were annihilation. More than his own death.
"NO!" The cry tore from him. His left hand flashed – the Ring of the Sacred Promise. Warmth, blessed and potent, flooded his arm, battling the invasive chill, cleansing his energy pathways. It shielded his core! And then… a *tremor*! Deep inside, in his chest where the secondary seed of Prometheus's power resided, something resonated. It shuddered. The clinging grey taint was violently expelled! A hair-thin filament of golden-silver energy pulsed, bridging the core in his chest to the fading silver core in his gut.
EXPLOSIVE POWER!
Unbidden, A'Dunce's arms flung wide. A thick, choking grey fog burst from his pores. Instantly, the white gem on his neck guard blazed like a captured star, *sucking* the expelled corruption into itself. Rockforce fled. A'Dunce collapsed, breathing like a bellows.
But he had won. Halton was dust. Frostbone's primary tormentor was extinguished. Only Kitty remained free. A cold satisfaction warred with the exhaustion. Pushing himself up, he touched the cool scales over the dagger's sheath. A double-edged weapon indeed. Power… at a terrible cost.
He walked to Halton's desiccated corpse. From within his armor's inner space, he withdrew a small, beautifully carved wooden head – Frostbone's likeness. He held it facing the dry shell of her tormentor. "Frostbone," he murmured, voice raspy but clear. "See him? Justice, served cold. He can hurt no one else. I swear, Kitty's fate will mirror his. Her reckoning comes." He traced a finger over the wood, imagining a smile of peace. The weight on his heart… shifted. Slightly.
He raised his right hand, yellow-gold energy coalescing around his finger. With precise strokes, he carved deeply into the manor's soot-streaked outer wall. Two massive, defiant symbols glared outwards:
**死神 (Sǐ Shén)**
DEATH GOD.
Surveying his work, a grim, predatory smile touched his lips. *Let the underworld tremble. Every slaver, every trafficker, every rotten soul feeding on innocence… the Reaper walks. And the Netherblade hungers.* He carefully replaced Frostbone's portrait, secured it. Then, like a shadow retreating from dawn, he scaled the wall and vanished into the awakening city.
\*\*\*
News of the massacre at Horton's manor spread like wildfire, amplified by terrified whispers about the fire at the Nocturnal Fortune and the cryptic, chilling inscription left behind. **"Sǐ Shén!"** Survivors confirmed the figure who had called himself the 'Death God' in the casino. The rumors merged: the golden light, the inferno, the silent annihilation of an entire noble house. Panic gripped Blackstone City. The criminal underbelly went to ground, terrified they were next. To them, it wasn't a man – it was an avenging force of nature, a divine punishment incarnate. Only the intervention of the powerful Saint Church, using its vast influence and declaring it the work of dangerous, aberrant magic, eventually quelled the public hysteria. But the name… *Sǐ Shén*… etched itself onto the city's darkest soul.
Conversely, in the poorer districts, where Halton's corruption had been a daily torment, muttered prayers of thanks rose. Finally, freedom to breathe. They watched the shadows, hoping the rumors weren't ended.
\*\*\*
Deep in the woods outside Blackstone, Dunce, Rockforce, and the newly freed Elven girl waited with growing unease. Dawn tinted the sky. Dunce had been gone too long. Rockforce shifted restlessly. "We gotta check, Dunce! He could be—"
"Wait," Dunce cut him off, voice tight. His gaze scanned the dark tree line endlessly.
A flicker of movement. A shadow detaching from the approaching dawn. Moving with uncanny speed. Rockforce tensed, axe in hand. Dunce drew his broadsword silently. Maiden Cloud, the Elven girl, paled. Though her magic was still recovering, she murmured ancient words, coaxing protective thorny vines to coil around them.
The figure closed rapidly. As the rising sun caught the dark scales of its armor, Dunce sucked in a breath. "Dunce!"
The figure leaped the last distance, landing before them. He looked pale beneath the helm, but his eyes… they held a terrifying, fervent light. "Brothers!" Dunce and Rockforce rushed forward, their iron grips locking onto A'Dunce's armored shoulders, crushing him in a desperate embrace. Solid. Alive. The tension dissolved in a wave of profound relief.
Dunce returned the fierce hold, the cold resolve inside thawing fractionally at their loyalty. "I'm here. Safe."
Dunce pulled back, scrutinizing him. "What happened? Blackstone...?"
A cold, triumphant smile touched A'Dunce's lips. "The Nocturnal Fortune? Ashes. The Manor?" His hand tapped the scaled armor protecting the hidden dagger sheath. "Cleansed. Halton is soul-dust. Justice for Frostbone… half-served. Kitty slipped the net."
Dunce, Rockforce, Maiden Cloud – they stared, stunned. They understood the monstrous scope of what stood before them: the Dragoncaller who had single-handedly gutted Blackstone's criminal heart.
"How?" Rockforce breathed, awe warring with unease.
Dunce's finger tapped the hidden sheath again, a grim finality in the gesture. "Its touch. Souls claimed."
Dunce's eyes narrowed, seeing the icy fury beneath the calm. "Brother… you swore not to rely on that thing."
A'Dunce shook his head, the earlier warmth vanishing. "I adapt. A cleansing fire requires the right tool. Hades Sword deals death… but only to the deserving. From now on? Mercy is a luxury I grant sparingly." His gaze held Dunce's, unflinching. "Justice demands a sharper blade."
Dunce gripped his shoulders again, urgency vibrating through his voice. "Dunce, I know Frostbone's death broke something in you. But this path… becoming an executioner… that's not who you are! Remember the brother we knew?"
"NO!" The word ripped out, raw. Anguish flooded his eyes, momentarily replacing the cold fire. "I *was* weak! My weakness got Frostbone killed! All my fault! If I'd ended Kitty when I had the chance… Frostbone might still…" He choked, body shaking with suppressed rage. "NO MORE WEAKNESS! I will *cleanse* this world of the rot! One soul at a time, if I have to!" He wrenched himself free of Dunce's grip, a palpable wave of killing intent radiating from him, eyes bloodshot and terrifying.
Dunce staggered back, arms aching from the violent release. He saw the abyss yawn in Dunce's eyes. Reasoning now was useless. "Alright. Later," he said heavily. "Rest. Heal. We need you whole. Our presence here is poison now. Kitty's got powerful allies. We need to vanish. Duncept."
Dunce's ragged breaths slowed. The volcanic rage subsided, leaving exhaustion in its wake. "My anger blinds me. Apologies, brother." The admission was quiet, strained. Hours of relentless battle and the dagger's drain weighed on him. He sank against a broad tree trunk, sliding down to the forest floor.
Dunce surveyed them. "Recover. Then, we find supplies. New identities. Commoner's garb. We stay off the main routes. Our mission requires ghosts."
He turned to Maiden Cloud, who watched them with large, anxious eyes. "And you? We haven't been properly introduced."
"Thank you," the Elven girl murmured, her voice like forest wind. Tears welled. "Without you… my fate… I'm Maiden Cloud." She knelt, overcome with emotion.
Rockforce gently helped her up. "Names: Rockforce. He's Dunce. Our brother here, Dunce. We carry a debt to your Queen. Her request." He quickly recounted their mission's origin in the hidden Elven sanctuary, the kidnapped kin.
Maiden Cloud wept freely now, gratitude washing over her. "Thank you… Thank you for aiding my people! Those monsters..."
Dunce softened his tone. "You're safe now, Maiden Cloud. We'll see your kin freed. Where might they be? How many were taken?"
Maiden Cloud managed a watery smile through her tears. "Riverake, warrior. This face looks young? I've seen one hundred and forty-one winters."
Dunce blinked, remembering Elven lifespans, momentarily flustered. Rockforce laughed. "Elven elder, then?"
"Perhaps… twenty summers by your counting," Maiden Cloud amended softly.
"How many captured?" Dunce's voice cut through, calm but edged with purpose, his eyes closed where he rested. "Do you know?"
Maiden Cloud's brief levity vanished, replaced by deep sorrow. "No… I know nothing of their fates." Her voice trembled. "Taken with my sister… deep in the Greenwood… hooded men. They gave us something… our minds swam, clouded… many weeks in carts… then a dark cell… cold stone. Sixteen of us… including Princess Petal Mystic Moonbeam. Magic bound us… helpless. Too weak even to deny them by choosing death. One by one… they took my people. Only two others and my brother remained when Kitty brought us to that cursed place… Nocturnal Fortune. Then… just me." Tears traced paths down her cheeks. "The others… gone. Their suffering… unimaginable! Please… you must find them!"
Dunce exchanged grim looks with Rockforce and the resting Dunce. "As we suspected. Sold across the Empire. Like ghosts, we track them city by city." A question struck him. "The Bondstone..." He gestured towards Dunce. "How can it seek others if you're here?"
Dunce opened his eyes. The jade-green circlet he'd shown earlier lay in his palm, inert.
Maiden Cloud wiped her eyes, focus returning. "Its bond to me must be severed. A drop of my lifeblood will release it." Moving forward, she bit her fingertip and pressed a shimmering drop of crimson Elven essence onto the cold jade.
Instantly, its deep green light dimmed, then vanished completely, leaving a dull, dark stone. Unbound.
"Rest," Dunce commanded, the weight of their mission settling heavily. "Dunce needs time. Then, supplies. Disguises. Then… we hunt."