Ethan's burning gaze remained fixed on Sirzechs. Hellfire continued to burn around his skeletal frame, twisting upward from his body without consuming him.
Sirzechs stood opposite him, watching Ethan with a seriousness that had been absent from his expression earlier. He had already seen enough to understand that the creature before him was unlike anyone he'd encountered before.
Ethan tilted his skull slightly, studying Sirzechs in return. He could feel a faint pressure from the man before him, enough to tell him that Sirzechs was on an entirely different level from Riser.
But that didn't matter, or so he told himself — as far as Ethan understood it, the Spirit of Vengeance was an angel, which meant he should have the advantage against devils. The problem was how he was supposed to fight him while he remained on the ground and Sirzechs stayed in the air, completely beyond the reach of his hands. His burning gaze remained fixed on him as he searched for a solution, until a familiar image suddenly came to mind. Heatblast. Without wasting another moment, he pointed both hands toward the ground and released Hellfire, expecting the flames to propel him upward. Instead, the Hellfire simply erupted beneath him without giving him the lift he needed. He pushed harder, but the result remained the same.
Frustration began to build as he realised the idea simply wasn't working. Fine. If fire couldn't send him into the air, he would just have to jump. He bent his knees and launched himself upward with all his strength, releasing Hellfire from both his hands and legs at the same time. This time, the additional force pushed his already powerful jump even higher, carrying him toward Sirzechs as the flames continued roaring from his body. It wasn't flight, but it was enough to bring him within reach. He pulled back his fist and drove it straight into Sirzechs' face.
Sirzechs simply moved his head aside, letting the fist pass by his cheek, and immediately drove his own fist into Ethan's chest. The blow sent Ethan crashing toward the ground, but before he could hit it, a portal opened beneath him. Ethan dropped through and emerged directly above Sirzechs, already bringing his fist down with all his strength. Sirzechs met the attack head-on, and the moment their fists collided, the Power of Destruction tore through Ethan's arm, destroying it completely. Ethan didn't hesitate. With his remaining hand, he immediately grabbed Sirzechs and pulled him closer, the empty sockets of his burning skull fixing directly on his face.
"Look into my eyes."
Sirzechs didn't need to understand what Ethan was doing. His battle-hardened instincts made him react instantly the moment those burning sockets fixed on him, and without thinking, he immediately closed his eyes. Ethan's remaining hand tightened around him as if trying to force him to look into his eyes, but Sirzechs, even without looking, drove his fist straight into Ethan's skull. The impact cracked the bone violently and sent him crashing into the ground.
After a few seconds, Ethan's body twitched as Hellfire crawled across the cracks in his skull. His arm was still missing, but he barely registered it — the pain radiating through the rest of him was more than enough to drown that out. Not wanting to lose, he forced himself onto one knee, his remaining hand pressing against the ground as he struggled to rise. The Hellfire around his body flickered weaker with each passing second.
Sirzechs watched him in silence. Ethan was badly damaged, but he was still trying to stand, and something told Sirzechs the man would recover soon enough if given the chance. That meant the fight wasn't over yet. He braced himself for another exchange.
Grayfia approached from behind. "The barrier is ready. You don't have to hold back anymore."
Sirzechs glanced toward the protected area, then back at Ethan. If the man could recover from injuries this severe, there was no reason to hold back any longer.
His expression remained calm as he raised his hand. "Let's talk with something small."
The Power of Destruction gathered in an instant, and Ethan barely had time to look up before the crimson energy engulfed him. There was no second exchange, no chance to test another attack. One moment he was bracing for the next round; the next, the destructive magic had consumed him along with everything around him.
When the Power of Destruction finally faded, the space where Ethan had been standing was completely empty.
Sirzechs lowered his hand and stared at the empty ground. From the look of things, Ethan hadn't seemed like an easy kill — he'd expected the fight to drag on longer than this. But the moment he'd thrown his first serious attack, it was already over. There had been no real resistance, no second exchange. His opponent had simply been weaker than he'd judged.
Still, for him, that was good enough — the fight was already over. He turned away, already considering the matter settled, then stopped as an unfamiliar sensation passed through his chest. His hand rose to it slowly, his gaze still fixed on the empty space, his expression shifting.
Grayfia noticed immediately. "Sirzechs?"
He didn't answer.
Elsewhere, Ethan opened his eyes to an endless black space with no ground, sky, or sound. Instead of fear, excitement slowly took hold of him. After all this time, he might finally get to see what was actually behind the Ghost Rider.
He began walking through the empty space, searching for whatever he believed was waiting for him. There was nothing in any direction — no landmark, no sign to guide him — and after wandering for a while, his patience started to wear thin.
"Where am I supposed to find you?"
An arrow appeared on the ground ahead of him, pointing deeper into the darkness. Ethan stared at it for a moment before following it, and each time the path ended, another arrow appeared to guide him farther into the void. Eventually, four enormous pillars emerged from the darkness, countless thick chains stretching between them and crossing over one another to bind a massive figure at their centre.
Ethan approached cautiously and reached out to touch one of the chains. The moment his fingers brushed against it, his nose twitched. Hell. The scent was faint but unmistakable — he'd smelled it enough times to know exactly what it was. His gaze shifted to the creature bound between the pillars, taking in its monstrous, skeletal frame, its dark and charred body, its skull-like face, and the faint traces of Hellfire curling around it. This wasn't the angel he'd come looking for. The smell alone confirmed that.
His attention settled on the countless chains wrapped around the creature and the pillars, and one thought immediately followed.
The realisation came all at once.
There was no angel.
The thought left Ethan strangely hollow. He had spent so long treating it as fact that he had even boasted about having an angel behind his power, carrying himself with a sense of superiority whenever devils were involved. Now he stood in front of a demon who was also the source of his power.
Then Asia came to mind.
He remembered telling her that one day he would give her a pair of beautiful white wings. In his mind, she had always been heading toward something angelic. But now, instead of the white wings he had once imagined, he pictured her with horns and black wings, looking every bit like a devil.
The thought was enough to make his pride sting.
What was he supposed to do now? Everything he had believed about the being behind his power had been wrong. Of course, he didn't have time to stand here questioning his entire existence until he made himself miserable.
There was still a computer sitting right there, same as in his dreams, so he decided to take this time to push his abilities to their limit, then finish the fight and leave this stupid country.
With everything decided, he turned toward the desk and started walking, but the demon's voice suddenly echoed through the empty space.
"You came here seeking the power behind the Ghost Rider, yet you are about to waste this opportunity on that machine."
Ethan stopped.
The demon's gaze remained fixed on him. "You don't need it. You don't need to search for answers or spend your points on another ability. Free me, and I will give you the power you came here looking for."
Ethan slowly turned back toward him. The offer immediately reminded him of Mephisto, and he couldn't help wondering when the demon had started making deals like him.
"When did you start making deals like Mephisto?"
The demon didn't react to the name. "This is not a deal. You need only break the chains."
Ethan stared at him for a moment before shaking his head. "Don't bother. I'm not stupid enough to release a demon and cause unnecessary trouble for myself."
He turned back toward the computer, but the demon continued.
"You misunderstand. This place is separate from the world you came from. These chains bind me here. Freeing me will not simply release me into your world."
Ethan glanced back at the chains, considering the words. That certainly changed the situation, but it still didn't make freeing an unknown demon sound like a good idea. He turned back toward the computer.
"Still sounds like a terrible idea."