"See?" the Dark One said, staring at the massive head in the sky. "You are no human. If anything, you are something that should not stand on the side of humans."
The sky split further.
Then something burst out of the rift.
Ethan.
He tore through the dimensional crack and dropped toward the village. The moment he landed, the ground shook violently as if a meteor had struck the earth. Asphalt cracked, dust exploded outward, and the entire street trembled under the impact.
His monstrous wings unfolded behind him, casting a massive shadow across the ruined diner.
A long, armored tail moved behind him like a living weapon.
The next instant it struck.
The impact struck the Dark One like a battering ram and hurled it straight through the diner wall, sending the creature crashing into the air outside.
For a moment everything went quiet.
Then the blood around Ethan moved.
Enid, Wednesday, and Selene slowly lifted from the ground as if gravity had loosened its grip on them. Crimson streams rose from the pavement and flowed back into their bodies.
The wooden pole piercing Selene's stomach crumbled into dust.
Her wound closed instantly.
Enid felt the pain leave her body as the blood returned to her veins.
The cuts across Wednesday's arms sealed themselves as the last drops of blood lifted from the ground and flowed back into her skin.
They touched the ground again seconds later.
Wednesday straightened slowly.
"You look charming," Wednesday said.
Only she could look at a towering monstrous predator capable of flattening a town and calmly call it charming.
Ethan shook his head and let out a long sigh.
"Wednesday, now isn't the time to flirt."
The air around them shifted.
Blood rose from the cracked pavement and wrapped around Wednesday, Enid, and Selene. The next instant the three of them vanished, pulled away from the battlefield.
The next fight would erase everything in the area.
Ethan spread his wings fully as he turned toward the Dark One.
—
Far away at the edge of the woods, Ash sat inside the car with Lucy.
He had driven them away when the sky started cracking open above the village. Even from this distance the storm was visible. The clouds twisted violently while red lightning flashed across the horizon.
Then the sky itself seemed to split apart.
Something massive moved above the village.
Ash gripped the steering wheel as he stared at the distant scene.
He had seen some insane things in his life.
But this…
This felt like the end of the world.
The sky was tearing open.
A massive storm spun above the town like a typhoon, and the flashes of red lightning made the entire horizon glow.
Ash swallowed slowly.
"Yeah," he muttered under his breath.
"That's definitely not normal."
Ethan looked up at the sky.
The crack had finally stabilized. What had been a chaotic tear moments earlier now hung open like a wound in the heavens, its edges glowing with deep red lightning.
From within the rift, dark shapes began to pour out.
They looked like ghosts made of shadow—thin, twisted forms slipping through the opening as if the sky itself had become liquid.
The first wave drifted downward toward the village.
"You cannot stop us now," the Dark One said, climbing out from the rubble of the diner.
Its body was damaged but still intact.
The creature stared at Ethan with a twisted smile.
Ethan didn't even turn his head.
His tail moved.
It shot forward like a spear and pierced straight through the Dark One's chest. The creature froze for a second before its body disintegrated into ash that scattered across the ruined street.
"Stop yapping," Ethan said coldly.
"I'm already in a worse mood."
He looked back toward the rift.
Then he opened his mouth.
Blood energy began gathering in front of him, condensing into a glowing sphere. Crimson lightning crackled violently around it as the power compressed further and further.
The air shook.
Nearby buildings trembled as the pressure from the growing energy distorted the space around it.
The sphere expanded until it was large enough to swallow half the street.
This was the first time Ethan had gathered this much power in one attack.
Normally a blast like this could flatten entire cities.
Now all of it was being concentrated into a single point.
The energy stabilized for a split second.
Then Ethan fired.
The crimson beam tore into the sky.
For a moment it looked like a second sun had been born above the village. The energy carved straight through the rift, and everything pouring out of it was caught in the blast.
The shadow creatures didn't even have time to react.
The first wave disintegrated instantly, their bodies ripping apart as the beam passed through them. The second wave tried to scatter, but the energy swallowed them as well, burning through their forms like they were made of smoke.
The beam kept climbing.
Everything beyond the portal was consumed.
The creatures behind the rift screamed as the energy tore through them, wiping out entire clusters of the nightmare entities before they could even cross into the world.
Then the portal began to shake.
The edges of the rift trembled violently as the pressure from the blast forced the dimensional tear to widen. Cracks spread across the sky like shattered glass while red lightning erupted through the clouds.
The crimson beam continued pouring into the opening, tearing through everything beyond it. The gateway struggled to remain stable as the immense power battered the dimensional barrier.
The entire sky trembled.
The rift twisted violently as if the world on the other side was being ripped apart from within. The energy flooding through the tear began overwhelming the ritual that had forced it open.
Then the cracks changed.
Instead of spreading outward, they began pulling inward.
The edges of the portal started to fracture and fold back toward each other. Jagged pieces of the rift snapped and collapsed like broken glass being pulled together.
The gateway destabilized.
The enormous tear that had split the sky moments earlier began shrinking as the ritual holding it open collapsed under the pressure.
Lightning flashed wildly as the opening continued to crack.
The portal was closing.
*****
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