Herald of death

Anders comes from the monster's side, swinging his glaive wide. The winged monster levitates away from the blade's path with detached indifference. Anders follows up with fast thrusts, but the devil dodges each of them with minimal effort.

'He is using Prescience,' Ethan thinks. He lunges forward, his own Prescience still predicting the monster's movements. As Ethan swings, their opponent glances at him. The exchange of gaze immunizes the monster against Prescience.

A blade springs from the flesh of the monster's right hand, made of the same carbonized, organic black as his arm. He parries Ethan; the impact shatters the outer layer, revealing an obsidian edge. The guardless, straight blade billows with blinding fire. The flames lick Ethan's sword, heating up its handle.

Anders comes for another slash, the blade of his glaive releasing dripping frost. As his opponent glances away, Ethan's Prescience returns to full effect. Seeing it in advance, Ethan deflects a blow aimed at parrying Anders. The glaive bites into the devil's abdomen, shooting ice through his flesh and out the back.

The devil counters Ethan's parry and cuts him on the chest, slashing his coat and unbinding Russ. With a flap of his wings, the monster flies a hundred meters back. He breaks the ice with a punch before spreading his arms and wings.

Anders kicks a rock with the butt of his glaive, sending it flying like an arrow, covered in dripping frost. The projectile breaks upon the devil's leg, shattering into dust. Frost creeps along his armor around the impact, freezing him.

"You shall not escape my realm," the devil thunders. Fire spreads along his wings as the surrounding Ether rushes to him, rising from the well of islands. "You will perish; return to your eternal torment, punished for your sins until the end of times!"

Ethan looks back at Russ, still paralyzed by the debilitating hex.

Fire pools in spheres along his wings; they shoot in the forms of scorching arrows. The projectiles rushing at them, Ethan casts a shield large enough to engulf the three of them. Flames radiate on its surface with each impact, shaking the ethereal structure.

"How long will it last?" Anders asks.

"He is drawing Ether continuously, so he may be able to continue as long as we allow him to," Ethan answers.

"I meant you," Anders corrects. "I can't sense your aura."

"I'm in the same situation as him; unless he strengthens his spell, I can hold it forever," Ethan answers. He unsummons Phantom Reaver and holds both hands before him, fingers spread into a funnel. "I will cast another spell, but two being my limit, I won't be able to restrain my dog any longer. He may attack you; grab him by the neck, kick him if you must, but don't wound him."

Ethan cancels the debilitating hex and visualizes the Lightning Bolt spell. Threads of Ether circulate from his heart to his mind and into his hands. Closing his eyes, he forces the threads to thicken to transport more Ether than they should. "I don't have time for you," Ethan mutters, more worried about Russ' state than about the fight.

Under Anders' watchful gaze, Russ stands up. He shakes before sitting to scratch behind his ear, ignoring Anders.

Electric arcs crackle between Ethan's hands, his veins burned by the pooling Ether. It springs onto the ground, hitting it like whips of lightning. Suppressing the burning pain of holding tremendous Ether, Ethan restores his reserves.

Fire projectiles still raining on them, Ethan cancels his shield and unleashes his spell. The lightning bolt hits the devil in the chest, blinding everyone with its blast of white light. The strike propels him to the ground, his spell ending with the impact.

Unable to see, Ethan snaps his fingers to cast Silence. His hand protests the sudden move, numbed like his arms by his overuse of Ether. The last of the scorching arrows dwindle in the spell's area of effect, turning into dying sparks.

As Ethan's sight returns, Russ runs off to a rock before Ethan can resume his hex.

"It wasn't enough," Anders comments, hefting his blade towards the downed monster. He breaks into a run, leaving Ethan behind to reassert control over his arms.

With a flap of his wings, he rises from the ground, his flesh still sizzling from Ethan's spell. Pain contorts his face. He coughs black blood, bending forward as he holds his stricken stomach.

Anders burst forward; his glaive hits his dark sword, the clattering of metal echoing in the well. Despite his precise parries relying on Prescience, the devil struggles to move. Anders comes close to overpowering him in their clash.

Ethan rolls his shoulders as his strength comes back. He glances where Russ was and only sees a wet rock. He triggers predator's sight and sees him sneaking in plain sight with his abilities. Prowling, he's seconds away from lunging at them. The shadowy, monochrome ocher of the island makes him almost invisible. Ethan bursts forward and warns, "Behind you!"

Anders leaps to the side, avoiding Russ as he lunges forward. Despite Prescience, the monster does not see Russ until he bites down on his left wing.

The winged devil rolls over, still levitating, and kicks Russ into the sky. Russ holds and tears off a bloodied chunk in his forced ascension. Fire grows in his wings as the Ether rushes to him, his body aimed upward.

Anders blade comes down like a guillotine, hitting the monster in the chest. The blow craters him into the ground. Not sharp enough, his blade acts like a blunt weapon against the monster's skin. Ice spikes burst from under the monster, piercing through his chest, legs, and wings.

He cries in pain, his screams shaking the air. The fire pooling in his feathers unleashes a hailstorm of scorching arrows. They curve to strike Anders in an orchestra of smoldering explosions.

Anders flies above Ethan, propelled backward by the spell in a smoke trail. Resuming Prescience, Ethan lunges at the downed opponent with a downward slash. The devil levitates backward, breaking the ice spikes and avoiding the blow. He spins on himself to stand up and resumes his stance.

'Martial skill echo,' Ethan thinks. His specter appears on the other side of the devil, wielding Zhiznezhret. A swing of the growing great sword breaks the monster's wing, cracking its main bone as it fails to cut.

Ice spikes burst from inside the devil's body, piercing through his chest, legs, and arms. Ethan glances back, seeing the smoking form of Anders making a fist in their direction. Anders turns the fist into a thumbs up, informing Ethan of his alright condition.

Ethan closes the distance and follows up with a two-handed strike, aimed at the chest. The devil hurls his blade with a desperate scream to parry Ethan's. Phantom Reaver breaks the obsidian blade into shards. Ethan bursts forward to transform the blow into a thrust to the heart. The blade rattles against his spine, and Ethan forces it upward. It cuts his ribs in a series of cracks, exiting by the neck.

The devil stumbles, still standing despite the halves of his torso arching away. Ethan's specter cuts back down at the broken wing, clipping it as fire started to pool into its feathers.

Ethan dismisses his aid and opens his left palm towards the monster. Visualizing the sigils of the Flame spell, Ethan imagines the flow of Ether bulging. He unleashes a fiery torrent that swallows the winged devil.

'It's like getting better with Ether; I can only increase the amount of fire,' Ethan realizes. A red strand released by Zhiznezhret rushes to him, springing out of the tempest. His heart, already full, refuses the life force, and it mixes with his Ether. The fire brightens and turns blue, his heat melting the ground into a dark, bubbling sludge. The swirls of overlapping flames mesmerize Ethan's mind, made light by the power coursing through it. 'I must take the time to study spells; they are my most powerful weapons.'

His Ether dries up, the absorption of the surrounding threads insufficient. He closes his hand, and the stream of flames shuts down, revealing a cone of molten slag. The ground coalesces into patches of red molten sand and dark glass. Lightheaded, Ethan closes his eyes to regain control over himself. 'More training to assert my limits, that's what I need.'

"Melee Weapon (Long Sword) leveled up. Melee Weapon (Great Sword) leveled up (x2). Ether manipulation leveled up. Life force manipulation leveled up. Russ leveled up," the system announces.

"You said you could cast flames, not that you were an Archmage," Anders comments. He rises from the ground, removing his smoking helmet as the last of his clothes' embers die down. He is surprisingly unharmed; the barrage of fire seemed more dangerous than that.

'Was it that impressive?' Ethan ponders. Akeron's Flame spell was far more powerful and didn't come with Ethan's backlash.

Death Ether forms from nothingness, surrounding them. It shimmers into the visual spectrum, creating swirls of dark green that dive to an empty spot. Light bends there, refracted by a mass moving along the darkness.

'No,' Ethan thinks. He triggers predator's sight to see Russ crawling there, waiting for Anders to turn his back to him. The runes on his skin burn, and he yelps, his abilities cancelled by the pain. The death Ether seeps into his body, decaying his fur where it enters.

Ethan bursts forward to reach his companion. Fire fills his lungs and throat, forcing him to cough uncontrollably. A spatter of his blood hits the ground as a shiver echoes through his body, sapping his strength. A red window appears in front of him.

A bond has been broken. Both parties will suffer the consequences.