Back at the portal
The demons growled, hissed, and bared their teeth, slowly tightening the circle around the elven children—but none struck first.
There was hesitation in their eyes.
Tension clung to the clearing like a storm about to break. Even the smaller imps, who usually lunged with reckless abandon, crept forward with caution. Their snarls were quieter than before. Fear was holding them back.
Dae stood at the front, his spear clutched tightly in both hands, body squared. Behind him, his siblings pressed close, forming a tight ring—Jae, Vee, and Lai bracing themselves with nothing but their fists and sharpened instincts. They couldn't match the demons in strength, but they could enhance their bodies, move faster, hit harder… for a time.
But it was still a risk.
On the ground between them, Weeping Phantom scowled at the standoff. Her voice rang out, high and shrill, "They're just children! Attack already!"
All four elf kids snapped their eyes to her, glaring—but her words had done their work. At her command, a group of demons surged forward: three imps leading the charge, followed by a drakorath, its massive limbs pounding the ground behind them, and two lanky sharaykthuns flanking wide.
Dae didn't wait.
He charged.
His feet thundered against the dirt as he sprinted to meet the imps head-on. The first he caught mid-leap, driving his spear clean through its chest. He wrenched the weapon free just in time to catch a claw swipe from the second, deflecting it with the shaft before twisting his grip and smashing the imp across the skull. Bone cracked under the steel. As the third came from behind, Dae flipped backward—legs tucking in, weight shifting—then landed behind it and thrust the spear through the back of its head.
The body dropped at his feet.
He blinked, startled.
The weapon felt natural. Too natural. His form—sharper, faster, more precise than it had ever been.
He didn't have time to process it.
"Dae, help!" Lai's voice cut through the chaos.
Lai's voice snapped him out of it. He turned fast—Jae, Vee, and Lai were locked in a desperate struggle with the drakorath. The demons's massive claws forced them back with every swing. Meanwhile, the two sharaykthuns had broken off and were creeping toward Weeping Phantom, beginning to undo the restraints that held her down.
Panic flickered through him.
Dae moved.
He hesitated—not in speed, but in decision. Help his siblings, or stop the sharaykthuns? If Weeping Phantom got loose, they had zero chance of winning.
SHHK-THUMP.
The drakorath's body split in half mid-charge, cleaved cleanly down the middle by Winter's axe—hurled from somewhere beyond the trees.
Its halves hit the dirt with a heavy, wet slap.
Dae didn't question it. The moment he saw his siblings were safe, he turned his attention to the sharaykthuns.
He lowered his stance, narrowed his eyes, and rushed—spear leveled like a drawn blade, the point aimed straight for their throats.
One of the sharaykthuns hissed violently as it slithered forward, jaw unhinging with a grotesque crack. It lunged to meet Dae's charge head-on. Dae aimed for its throat, thrusting the spear with a sharp, direct jab—but the creature twisted its body unnaturally, ducking the point with a liquid smoothness. It coiled around his flank like a serpent about to swallow his entire head.
Before its jaws could snap shut—
Boom.
The earth trembled. A violent quake rippled beneath their feet, the trees shook, and a gust of dust exploded upward from the direction where Winter and Yillhowyen were battling. The sharaykthun faltered, its head jerking off-course. Dae seized the moment, ripping the spear back and slamming the metal shaft into the creature's left kneecap. A wet crunch rang out as the bone shattered like it was made of brittle clay.
The creature screeched, body jerking wildly. Dae stepped back, pivoted, and drove the spear through its gaping mouth with brutal precision. The point pierced through the back of its skull—and the body dropped, twitching.
He started to yank the spear free—
—but the second sharaykthun was already on him.
It surged forward, slithering past its dead kin, jaws wide and angling toward his ribs—
"Don't forget about us!" Vee shouted.
She, Lai, and Jae rushed in, enhancing their bodies with mana. With perfect timing, they struck in unison—Vee's fist to the head, Lai's knee into its gut, Jae's elbow crushing the chest. The impact knocked the demon clean off its trajectory, sending it rolling backward across the dirt.
Jae turned immediately. "Are you okay, Dae?"
Dae nodded, breath steady. He yanked the spear from the corpse and turned to face the rest of the demons—still surrounding them, but now visibly shaken. Their snarls faltered. Their claws twitched with hesitation. They looked less like hunters now and more like prey that had overstayed their welcome.
Then—
Every single demon froze.
Weeping Phantom flinched as well, snapping her gaze in the same direction. The air had shifted—oppressive, unnatural. It came from deep within the jungle. From where Winter and Yillhowyen had vanished.
A cold laugh spilled from Weeping Phantom's lips. "Of course he'd use that," she muttered.
She looked back at the kids with a wild glint in her eyes. "That guy's dead, you hear me? No one survives Yillhowyen's Hellscape!" Her laughter turned sharp and manic. "Only a matter of time before I get free and—"
She stopped.
Her expression drained of all color.
She gasped once—then again—each breath more ragged than the last.
"N-No... no, no, no," she stammered. "That man also has a... Soul Chamber?"
Around her, the demons broke into a panic. Their fear turned to full-blown terror. One of the imps screeched something in demonic and jabbed a claw toward the portal.
The reaction was immediate.
Every demon turned and ran—trampling each other to get through the gateway. Desperate. Fleeing. Not even fighting anymore—just escaping.
Weeping Phantom thrashed against her bindings. "Where are you going!? Save me too, you idiots!"
But none of them listened.
They were already gone.
They had already lost.