It would be a gross understatement to say that Elliot was frightened to see Flyte's headless body hit the ground. He felt an entirely different type of fear when he saw the boy grab ahold of his head and reattach it, a thin glowing line being the only evidence that it was ever off to begin with.

  Flyte's standing body was fairly slack, as though he were a marionette controlled by a lazy puppeteer. He dodged strike after strike of Will's scythes in an abrupt manner that looked like he was simply being yanked away from them.

  Elliot leapt into the fray. He'd been idle long enough.

  Sharp as they were, Elliot's swords simply could not cut through Will's chiton anymore. The Herald took the attacks head on, his shell having been reinforced at some point during the fight.

  "Ander!" Elliot called. "Can you get me a hammer?"

  "Yeah, just give me a second!" Ander answered.

  "Got it."

  Elliot pulled his new greatsword from his back. It would by no means give him enough force to break through Will's chitin, that is what the hammer would be for, but it would help Elliot control the space around him, restricting his foe from approaching Flyte or Ander.

  As Will tried to pass Elliot, he was continuously rebuffed, by sword or by body. Of all the weapons Elliot wielded, the greatsword was the one he'd most mastered.

  "Are you truly prepared to impede me?" Will asked.

  "That," Elliot smiled. "And any consequence attached."

  Will swung both scythes at Elliot in the very same way he removed Flyte's head.

  Elliot stepped closer, wrapping his hands around the scythes just below their blades. Wrenching, he managed to pull one, the clone, from Will's hand.

  "You held onto my scythe? You must have accepted power from Lord Rush as well!" Will said. Eerie smiled appeared on his face as he tilted his head. "Show me."

  Dozens on dull red projectiles punctured the Herald, knocking him down.

  "Did you forget about us?" Flyte's body said. His eyes shone like the sun, and he wore a frighteningly hungry smile. He burst into uncontrollable laughter. "You have no clue how long we've waited for this!"

  "Shut up," another voice, again through Flyte's mouth, said. "Or I'll kick you out. I need to concentrate."

  Elliot was confused, but he did appreciate the support.

  Sand blades slashed Will as Ander walked over.

  "I'm got your hammer now."

  "Thanks."

  Will looked between the three. Sighing, he pulled another copy of his scythe from the shadows and breathed in.

  "Soflor!"

  The strange, twisted word echoed through the whole desert, and everything began to feel more intense. The void and purple mouths within Will's chitin helm were instantly replaced with a blood red sheen. Despite the temperature of the Rift, the heat of Will's breath created a deep fog. All around the Herald, the Rift grew hotter and hotter.

  As Will bolted for Flyte, Ander and Elliot moved to intercept. The Herald reached Flyte in a blink, easily getting past the pair who defended him, but whatever controlled Flyte dodged Will's scythes narrowly by letting his torso slacken. Still, he maintained eye-contact with a frenzied look about him.

  'Will's too fast for us now. We'll have to milk this numbers advantage for all it's worth.'

  Ander formed blocks in the sand for Elliot and him to push off of. As they burst toward Will, he twisted Dancing Flames' hilt, wreathing the sword in a radiant golden light.

  All three struck Will at once. Flyte's fists, which he punched his opponent with, were also covered in the same golden light. Elliot could only guess that this light is what burst the Herald's chest, as Flyte had never exhibited such a physicality before. Elliot's hammer, while still effective, clearly did the smallest amount of damage.

  'I just can't keep up with these two. Maybe if I remove the mask for just a moment?'

  Elliot silenced the though as quickly as it popped into his head. Once his mask was gone, he was as good as dead. There would be no controlling whatever lived in him.

  His hammer would simply have to do.

  Will stayed focused on Flyte, unleashing attack after attack in a bestial style, his scythes become blurs of motion as the boy kept dodging them. The Herald gave absolutely no care to the wounds Ander and Elliot caused him, being too incensed to swap opponents.

  Seeing this, Elliot stepped back a little way.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  "Hey Will!" he shouted. "If you want to see what Rush has done to me, you'll need to take off my mask! Focus on Me!"

  "Or do you not care who your Lord loves more?"

  If Elliot wasn't going to be as helpful at attacking, then he would let himself be bait.

  Will, too enraged to even truly parse what Elliot said, but still able to understand that he had been shouted at, charged at Elliot.

  Despite the Herald's movement speed, his tactics were incredibly simple, and Elliot capitalized on that. Though a spear would have been optimal, he placed his greatsword's hilt on the sand and pitted Will successfully. Although the sword shattered, Will's halted movements caused his scythes' heads to just barely miss Elliot's head, and Elliiot's friends were able to strike him instead.

  Will's wound nearly instantly regenerated, but despite that, the trio was still whittling him down. If any of the three got a good enough read on WIll's movements, they could safely use the Balesian death knife on him, but until then, whittling was the best they could do.

  The Herald fought with beastlike ferocity, his attacks having no rhyme or reason beyond efficient slaughter. Elliot was able to avoid his own instant death, but his weapons were suffering. He was down to just one sword and the hammer, and his sword was only barely hanging on.

  Flyte and Ander did their parts to keep Elliot alive as they attacked Will, with Flyte trying to tether his foe's limbs with magic and Ander creating walls of sand to at least cushion Will's attacks.

  Elliot was not simply idle as he worked to escape from Will's wrath. He took every opportunity he saw to strike Will with his hammer and did not allow the taller creature to stop focusing on him.

  "Honorious?" Elliot asked. "Are you still with me?"

  "Always," his mentor was quick to respond.

  "Elliot smiled. "When I ask, can you attack Will with everything you've got? I'll need him as restrained as you can possibly make him." Elliot was confident that Will wasn't really hearing anything he had to say.

  "Yeah," Honorious exhaled. "I can do that."

  Elliot dashed in close to Will, grappling with him, trying to push his blade through some chink in the scourge fiend's chitin. He was being burned by the second, but if his plan went well, it would be worth it.

  "Now!"

  Honorious bore down on Will, restricting his struggling further as Ander ran in with the Balesian death knife.

  Ander thrust with the knife, aiming it right at Will's heart.

  But while the knife did cut Will, it slipped on his chitin.

  "Shades!"

  Ander tried again, but the red gleam had let Will's visor. His scythe impaled Ander's wrist, forcing him to drop the dagger as he fell to his knees.

  As Flyte ran in to salvage the situation, Will bellowed loudly.

  Nightmares and monstrosities crawled from the Scar as the fiends surrounding Will began to approach. Their flesh was the Herald's to mold, and so he sealed Elliot and himself off within it.

  Wordlessly, Will ripped Elliot off of himself and plucked the mask from the human's face before removing the walls.

  "Let's see this gift of yours."

  The darkness was free, and with Rush so near, it would not lose its dominance.

  Just to be sure, it shattered Elliot's silly mask, scattering its pulverized dust to the wind.

  The darkness tore up the runes on Elliot, now its, gauntlets before covering itself in shadows.

  Ignoring its Herald, the darkness sniffed the air, ccatching a scent it longed or on the winds.

  Blood.

  Its source was the stone armed man. Ander. Elliot would not be in control again, so the darkness had no issue with killing this man now.

  As the ddarkness crept over, it saw the light honorsoul ,Flyte, or rather Lith, as that is who was piloting the body, turn towards it. Demons burst desperately from his gauntlets, trying to slay the darkness, but Lith turned away violently. He did not want to kill Elliot even if the demons were indiscriminate.

  The darkness bounded to Ander, striking him with many shadowedd needles. Then, it saw the knife.

  Sparing Ander for the time being, the darkness chose to grab the Balisian death knife instead of killing its foe.

  It burst toward Lith while he was still distracted, carefully avoiding its hateful light.

  Knife gleaming, the darkness smiled to itself. It wasn't every day an honorsoul was killed.

  "No!" Elliot screamed, throwing his body to the side. Even as he did so, he felt his curse trying to take over.

  'Not while they still believe in me!'

  "Honorious!" Elliot could see the spirit stuggling against phantoms. With his summoning rune destroyed, Elliot's mentor had no way to escape to his own home. "One last fight!"

  Honorious was by his side in a heartbeat. "Got it."

  Elliot winced as shadowy barbs punctured his skin, but the pair continued on, flying straight to Will.

  They rammed into him, pushing him back towards the cliffside.

  'Even if this knife doesn't kill him, the fall should.'

  Elliot fought on two separate fronts, his mind against itself and his body against Will's. Still, he at least had Honorious to help him with both.

  Blade after blade punched through WIll's chitin, forcing him back as Elliot grappled with him.

  "Let me out!"

  "No!" Elliot and Honorious shouted as one.

  Flyte shot a spear through Will's leg, falling over to the side as he did so. Elliot quickly guessed that Flyte's possessor would have to be Lith and smiled, thinking that his friend was in good hands.

  Short a leg, however short a duration it was for, WIll stumbled backwards, just barely hanging above the abyss.

  Elliot stabbed the Herald with the Balesian death knife, putting as much force and as many shadowy slashes as he could into the attack.

  "I won't die alone!" Will screached, his voice already starting to die.

  Will's body began to unravel, but he grabbed onto Elliot and pulled him into the chasm to fall with him.

  Elliot tried to fly out with Honorious as his wings, but it was no use. Will, desperate for his own revenge, pierced Elliot's chest with his scythe's blade.

  With no more reason to try and escape, Elliot and Honorious dove further into Will, stabbing the scourge fiend over and over with the slowly vanishing knife.

  'Sorry Flyte. It looks like I have to break my promise.'

  "Elliot!" Flyte cried out, coming back to his senses.

  He bolted for the chasm's lip and leapt out, holding himself in the air with disks of light. It seemed the spirits were already back.

  "Lith!" Flyte screamed. "Nelar!"

  Light, more brilliant and blindind than any Flyte had cast before, encompassed the whole canon, and Flyte saw Elliot and Honorious falling.

  He dove.

  "I'm sorry Flyte," Ontin's voice rang out. "But I can't let you do that."

  He caught the honorsoul midair.

  "Ontin! What are you doing? Elliot's falling!"

  "I know."

  Flyte was so shocked that he could not think of what he could say for a second. "Let me go after him."

  "I can't," Ontin's voice was not flat anymore. The altruin Flyte once saw as immovable was shaking. Flyte was too.

  "Why?"

  Ontin sared straight into Flyte's eyes, his pity tangible.

  "I can't let you die too."

  'This can't be happening.'

  Elliot saw Flyte's light come and go, and it brought a smile to his face.

  Will had stopping breathing. Honorious had grown unresponsive. Elliot was the last one left and he was bleeding out.

  'Flyte and Ander, thank you for accepting me as your friend.'

  Elliot smiled. If he was going to die, he'd die as himself. Rush would not take that from him.