— Back to Azrael —
The moment shattered into silence.
Azrael and Raum locked eyes across the distance, and for a breath—just one—the world seemed to vanish.
He took a deep breath and his eyes started glowing of an intense crystal blue.
There were no flames.
No corpses.
No watchers.
Only predator and predator.
His heartbeat was steady and slow, the blood in his veins cold.
He was ready to counter everything.
Then, after licking her lower lip, Raum moved.
A blur of speed wrapped in primal fire and malice.
Her body dashed forward like a bullet of pure heat, golden hair trailing behind her like streaks of sunlight warped into flame.
Her lips curled in a grin of ecstasy.
"You'll burn for me, darling...~" She said, with a very aroused tone of voice.
Her hand swept forward — claws wrapped in red fire.
"Thar'Vel Shaurn!" she screamed.
The crimson flames roared into a sharp arc, cutting through the air with a searing hiss toward Azrael.
But he didn't draw his blade.
He didn't even reach for it.
The greatsword stood in the earth like a monument behind him, unmoved.
Instead, Azrael's body shifted with inhuman reflexes, ducking the wave of flame with grace that no human should have had.
He twisted low, slid beneath the blaze, and sidestepped Raum's next strike — a flurry of clawed swipes glowing with dark fire.
"Why aren't you burning?" Raum snarled, her grin cracking into something deeper, more unstable.
More aroused.
"You're supposed to scream... to melt for me...! I want to see you... in pain... your beautiful face..." These were her words, spoken with a bit of anger in it.
She launched a barrage of slashes, each paired with a burst of red flame from her fingertips.
"Nir'al'Zhar!" (Fire of Ardent Agony!) she incanted, and threads of blazing magic burst forward — razor-thin ropes of fire trying to wrap Azrael from every angle.
But he wasn't there anymore.
He was behind her.
As always, Azrael took advantage of his enemy's casting time to act.
And as Raum spun, confused by his sudden disappearance, a fist met her stomach.
It came from below — a rising blow that lifted her off the ground.
A perfect, brutal uppercut that drove directly into her solar plexus.
CRACK.
Raum's eyes widened.
Her mouth opened.
And a spray of blood erupted from her lips.
The punch wasn't just strong. It was cataclysmic.
The impact was so strong that even the air cracked behind her.
After that, Azrael kept hitting her with a combination of kicks and punches.
He moved like a black flash through the haze.
Raum barely had time to widen her eyes when a devastating punch slammed into her face, cracking the air with a sharp, whip-like snap.
"GAAAH—!" she screamed, blood flying from her mouth as her head snapped violently to the side.
A brutal kick to the gut followed instantly, sinking deep into her abdomen with the sound of thunder compressed under flesh.
"UHGHH...!" Raum choked, her body folding in on itself from the blow.
Azrael didn't pause for even a breath. He dropped low, fingers digging into the scorched ground, and with a silent roar, he launched himself upward.
His body twisted into a rising spiral of shadow and fury—then, like a black cyclone, his two legs struck Raum's chin with a dual tornado kick that erupted from the earth like a storm given form.
"—AAAAAAHHHH!!"
Raum's scream tore through the air as she was hurled upward, her body spiraling amidst flaming trails that Azrael left behind—streaks of fire cutting across the sky, searing the air in his wake.
Her figure vanished into the burning clouds above, while Azrael landed on one knee, cloak fluttering behind him.
His gaze remained cold, unwavering, as the battlefield still shimmered with the phantom fire of his assault.
The force echoed like thunder.
Her body twisted mid-air, but rather than scream in pain… she laughed.
Laughed.
"HAHAHAHAHA!"Her voice was pure madness.
Blood streamed from her lips like wine, and her eyes gleamed with ecstatic pleasure.
Her face was a complete mess, and her body probably had a lot of broken bones.
But, despite that, she didn't care.
Instead, she liked it.
"YES! YESSS!! That's the Azrael I wanted!" she cried as her body spun midair.
She was probably waiting for that moment.
To feel pain.
That's what she wanted.
To feel emotions , for the sole purpose of satisfying her ego.
With a burst of flame, she caught herself before hitting the ground — her body surrounded by spiraling fire.
Her body returning to normal.
She hovered, wrapped in her family's cursed gift.
Raum smirked after seeing that Azrael didn't reach her in mid air.
She "calmed" herself down and she spit some dark blood on the ground,
"You're smarter than I remember, darling... You know that getting close to me is risky, don't you...?" She said, with a hint of teasing in her voice.
"I don't think that there's time to talk, monster." Azrael said, with a cold voice-
The hunter, was still staying on guard.
His eyes never left Raum.
For some reason, he didn't even care about Shandrath's presence.
Azrael felt that he woulnd't have done anything.
Raum smirked at his words.
Her eyes started to glow of an intense gold.
"Let's dance properly now, slayer..." she whispered.
After hearing her voice, Azrael didn't say a word.
He didn't smirk.
Didn't flinch.
He simply cracked his knuckles, then rolled his neck.
Raum's smile widened.
Her eyes flashed red and black as she opened her arms wide, speaking the next words in the ancient tongue of her bloodline.
"Yrrh'Nael Thurn! "(Flesh reborn from Fire!)
Her wounds ignited — and from them, black fire poured, burning her own blood, searing her flesh… and giving her a new skin.
An enchantment to empower herself.
A magic used by her family in hard situations.
The user sacrifices his own blood to gain a temporary boost.
To be specific, this thing applies to a human.
Raum, instead, could use this power everytime she wanted, with the cost of her sanity.
Too much power would've been hard to control.
And in these cases, the only one who could do something was only Maria.
She gasped.
The pain... the bliss... overwhelmed her thoughts.
"Every nerve is a song," she whispered to herself, after jumping in the air, disappearing from the eyesight.
The arousal in her soul made her body twitch every now and then.
She was feeling so many things that a strange , transparent liquid streamed down her legs.
Shandrath, meanwhile, was still being silent distant from the battleground, staring at the ground on his knees.
His hands clenched but he did not move.
He knew better.
He had seen Raum like this before.
And he knew: no one was allowed to interfere.
Raum was lost in her ecstasy.
Azrael was her prey — and she'd allow no other scent to mix with his blood.
Hovering above, Raum looked down at Azrael again.
Still standing.
Still breathing.
Still human.
He was standing still, but his eyes were closed.
"You make me feel like a girl again, Love. Just like that time where you defeated me...~" she whispered, descending with a flaming spiral of claws and fire.
The air roared with heat as she shouted another incantation:
"Zurn'Eth Vhaal!" (Living Shadow of Fire!)
And from her body, a flaming doppelgänger burst out — a perfect, burning copy of herself racing alongside her in mid-air, doubling her strikes.
That was one of her main black techniques.
Azrael met them head-on.
He had already faced that, so he also knew how to act.
Azrael was still unarmed.
"I'M COMING FOR YOU, AZRAEL NOCTIS!" Raum screamed from above, with all her might.
A double attack , from two monsters.
But Azrael didn't care.
He managed to dodge the first and parry the second.
He even pivoted between their slashes with perfect economy of motion.
She was faster than anyone had the right to be.
But he was probably faster.
Then , Raum's real body darted around him, claws poised for a killing blow—
And for the first time, Azrael moved aggressively.
He spun low, caught her wrist in his left hand, and with monstrous force, slammed her over his shoulder into the ground.
The earth cracked.
Again.
Raum coughed blood — again.
But her laughter never stopped.
"More…" she whispered. "Give me more! MORE!" She then screamed.
Her voice was so strong that she even hurt Azrael's ears, breaking his balacne.
After that, her doppelganger attacked Azrael from behind, with its claws.
He immediately turned and managed to block the hit, but he didn't have the time to parry it perfectly, so his arms got hurt.
Azrael managed to absorb the impact, but he claws had cut some flesh from his forearms.
Then, he jumped back and reached for his blade now.
Blood dripping from his arms down to the ground.
The only thing he could do was eliminate the clones as fast as he could.
Something told him this fight had just begun.
And Raum?
The original one stood up slowly, with fire rising around her body and her beautiful face twisted in something too hungry to be joy.
"You're going to be the last man I ever touch…" she whispered.
Then her voice turned cold.
"And the first one I rip apart with love." She added, while licking her lips.
Her wounds healed again.
Then four doppelgangers stood beside her.
They all looked the same.
And, for the first time, Azrael felt at risk.