Chapter 324: Necrobix (1)

“I will kill you,” Ketal declared.

He did not raise his voice, yet the intent rolled out of him like a tide. The will to kill pressed down on Necrobix with such weight that what little brush had survived the previous blast withered in an instant. In the same breath, the Tower Master flicked his sleeve and slipped backward, widening the gap between himself and the two combatants as he began to cast.

“Mirror World,” he chanted.

Space folded as a second sky blinked into being above a second earth, and the new horizon locked into place around Ketal and Necrobix as the Tower Master shunted their battleground aside. His first task was to bar escape and keep Necrobix from fleeing until Ketal arrived. Now he took up the second task. He would cage the spillover of the battle so it could not leak into the world and turn cities to powder.

“Whether this will hold, I cannot promise,” the Tower Master muttered, layering seal upon seal and stitching the seams.

Necrobix did not interfere. It spared not a word for the mage at the perimeter. It fixed its attention on Ketal as if nothing else existed.

“You were on the far side of the continent,” it said. Even its quiet felt like iron.

“I ran as fast as I could,” Ketal answered lightly.

Ke had sprinted from the continent’s other edge and arrived within minutes. Necrobix let out a dry, almost human sound that might have been a laugh.

“So flight is not an option,” it said.

If it tried to run, Ketal would be on it in a blink. The Tower Master would hunt as well, and once the two joined, pursuit would never end. Spending power on a hopeless retreat would only weaken its hand.

“The losses are acceptable,” it judged.

Managing the puppets had drained its strength, and enduring the Tower Master’s opening barrage had cost even more. The loss wasn’t great, yet the foe before it was one of the few against whom victory could never be certain, even at full power. The inefficiency stung, and Necrobix exhaled a thin sigh.

“There is nothing else for it. I will kill you,” Necrobix said.

Killing intent radiated from Necrobix like heat rising from a kiln. Ketal’s own intent surged to meet it, and the collision shook the Mirror World, making the Tower Master’s spell lattices groan in protest. No words were needed. Ketal bared his teeth and tightened his grip on his axe, while Necrobix smiled—the cold, distant smile of a blizzard upon spotting a light in a lone cabin far below.

Just then, Ketal vanished. The step came so fast that even Necrobix’s perception lost the thread for a fraction of a heartbeat. However, it did not matter. Necrobix had no need to rely on ordinary senses.

“The shadow seizes the enemy rushing toward me,” it chanted.

The words left its mouth unhurried, yet they split the moment in two. It was not a declaration of what would happen—it was the act that made it so.

Shadows erupted like nets flung from all directions. They caught Ketal around the wrists, the ankles, the shoulders. Even if Necrobix did not track his exact path, the language made the contact inevitable.

“The shadow that seizes my foe becomes a cocoon.”

The black bands thickened and wrapped Ketal as if to seal him shut. Ketal laughed and set his jaw.

𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Necrobix’s spells resembled scripture, yet they were something different. The faithful recited what had already been spoken, invoking the past to shape the present in its image. However, the difference from every scripture he had seen before was that Necrobix was not speaking of the past—it was uttering words about the present. Necrobix was no god, but as one of Hell’s Four Pillars, it stood close enough to divinity that when it spoke, the world itself obeyed.

It made sense to Ketal. A Pillar of Hell held the authority to define the order of things—whatever it chose to do here would not simply happen; it would become a miracle by its very nature.

So this is what I am fighting

, Ketal thought.

Necrobix was a Demon Lord—one of the Four Pillars of Hell, a being that moved as gods do. Ketal trembled, not from nerves, nor from fear, but from the fierce exhilaration coursing through him. His spirit blazed, and Aura surged down the length of his axe in a brilliant wave. The shadows tore apart like soaked cloth as he burst free, charging forward with unstoppable momentum. Necrobix, unruffled, raised a hand and snapped its fingers.

“A wall unfolds before me,” it said.

A slab of living darkness stepped out of nothingness to bar his path, but Ketal did not slow. He swung once, and the axe cleaved through the wall, shattering it with a single, thunderous stroke.

“Shattered stone gathers into a single sphere,” it chanted again. The fragments rolled together and knitted themselves into a black pearl the size of a wagon wheel. “It pierces my enemy.”

The sphere screamed through the air. The force inside it would have broken an Elder Dragon’s spine, yet Ketal’s axe came up cleanly. The pearl split in half and spun away.

Ketal had brought forth the Abomination’s authority. The power that annihilated all things collided with Necrobix’s spellcraft, which etched itself into the fabric of the world and carved through it as if it were living flesh.

“And it explodes,” Necrobix finished his incantation as he raised his two fingers.

The shattered pearl bloomed, and fireless flames poured forth as darkness devoured the very air. Ketal could not both empower his axe with Myst and shield himself at once, a truth Necrobix had already discerned from their earlier clashes. Seizing that knowledge, it flooded the field with a sweeping assault meant to tear flesh from bone.

Ketal slid back on the edge of the blast and let it pass. He took no wound. He gave ground, and that gave Necrobix time to draw another breath of power.

“Earth and sky turn over.”

The world inverted. The ground hung above like a ceiling, and the sky yawned below like a vast pit. Ketal found himself falling toward the stars.

“Wow, you can do anything!” he said, and the laugh in his voice sounded as real as a heartbeat.

He recalled the Aura and let Myst harden his body. He threw force through his frame and into the world itself. The Mirror World rang like a bell. The Tower Master hissed between his teeth as the shock traveled through his seals.

“Watch your hands, old bones,” he told himself in a voice too low for anyone to hear. “Hold the seams. Do not let the fold slip.”

It was not an exaggeration to say that power of this order could bruise a continent. Without the Mirror World and the bracing nets around it, the echo of that one shake would have turned the region below into a rippling lake of stone.

“This is unbearably hard,” the Tower Master grunted. “My bones are going to break.”

He poured more force into the frame and tightened the locks.

Ketal struck the ground, turning Myst inward once more before reopening its flow through his swing. He charged forward. Explosions of darkness tore across his path, but he slipped between them, skimming past their edges when evasion was impossible. Each movement drew him closer, the distance shrinking with every measured breath.

He closed the distance and brought his axe down in a crushing arc. Necrobix lifted a hand to meet it. The impact rang out like a struck bell, the sound rippling through the air. For the first time, Ketal’s expression shifted.

He wielded the authority of the Abomination. Whether mountain or sea, steel or flesh, the power within him recognized no boundaries. It moved only toward the absolute. Yet the axe failed to cut. A cloak of darkness hung over Necrobix, and the blade sank into it as though into thick resin. It left only a shallow crease, never breaking through.

“At last,” Necrobix said. “I am ready.”

Something flickered at the edge of Ketal’s vision. Space folded open like a page being turned, and within that tear, he saw a book.

“A book?” Ketal murmured.

“This is my book, Lemegeton. I require it to wield my full power,” Necrobix answered. It extended a finger and pointed at Ketal. “Dark light rises upon the earth.”

Black radiance gathered at Necrobix’s fingertip. It did not shine—it devoured the very notion of light. A chill ran through Ketal’s skin, and a sharp warning surged down his spine. He knew that a single unguarded touch would mean death. In the same instant, he brought his axe around and set its edge in the line of the attack.

The light struck the blade and screamed, the collision ringing through the air like metal torn apart. The pressure drove Ketal backward, forcing him to give ground step by step. His eyes widened as his Aura bit into the black light but failed to consume it quickly enough. The torrent pouring toward him exceeded what he could destroy, and sheer weight overwhelmed him, pushing him back by the force of its volume.

Ketal managed to block the attack. In return, the distance between him and Necrobix widened considerably, and the Myst within him had visibly thinned.

“You are strong,” Necrobix said. “The Abomination’s authority threatens even us.”

The demon sounded almost affectionate when it said it, the way a craftsman appreciates a rival tool. It had spent immeasurable time in Hell studying that authority.

“But I fought your kind and I lived,” Necrobix said. It had crossed blades with the Primarchs and with the Abomination. It had wagered its existence in that war and walked away. It remembered what worked.

“I know every answer I need,” Necrobix said, then it began its chant again. “Endless thorns rise in chaos and turn my enemy into a skewer.”

The air thickened with spikes. Ketal raised his weapon to cut, but understood immediately that striking them all was impossible. Their sheer number had woven the air into a solid sheet. He chose movement instead, slipping through the narrow gaps between the lines, letting strands of hair and shreds of cloth take the wounds his body could not, and burst free on the other side.

“You are the defeated side,” Necrobix said, almost gently.

Once, the Oldest Ones had ruled the world. Then the gods and demons united and waged war against them. The conflict dragged on without end, but in the end, it was the gods and demons who prevailed. They sealed the Oldest Ones away within the Demon Realms.

“I could not kill you then,” it said. “But, I will kill you now.”

“Good,” Ketal said, and his smile gleamed like a knife as he tightened his grip.

***

“There were stars in Hell,” Necrobix began its chant, and its voice made the Mirror World shiver. “They were not ordinary stars. They were small and heavy. Even a soft touch wrung an explosion from them.”

The stars of Hell fell. They touched the false earth and burst, and raw demonic energy flooded the field until the air seemed to clot.

“In the black world of Hell, one line of flame arose. It began to burn Hell itself.”

The first hellfire answered its summons. It flowed across the ground like a river and climbed the air like creeping ivy. Everything it touched sought to become part of it. The Mirror World turned into Hell itself. Cracks spread through the Tower Master’s barrier, racing faster than he could contain them. He cast new circles with every breath, layering one upon another, yet still fell behind the relentless breaking.

Ketal moved untouched. He stepped between explosions and rolled through flames that should have consumed him, carving open new paths with his axe whenever the way closed. Every motion carried him forward without waste, each step measured, each strike precise—movement distilled to pure efficiency.

At the end of that corridor of avoidance, he reached Necrobix again and struck. The axe rang off the cloak of black. Lines of stress crawled across the surface and then smoothed themselves away.

“Hellfire melts the enemy before me,” Necrobix said.

Flame lunged with a predator’s hunger. Ketal stamped and threw himself backward. However, he did not clear the grasp entirely. Fire clung to his left forearm and began to walk across his skin toward his shoulder.

“Hm,” Ketal murmured. He snapped his arm hard. The hellfire tore free and fell, writhing. Blisters rose on the skin it had kissed. “You defend well, Necrobix.”

“I told you,” Necrobix said, and there was no boast in it. “I fought the Abomination and survived.”

It had loved that authority well enough to imitate it. It knew how to put its weight where it mattered.

“You cannot attack me at will,” it declared.

Power collided and burst outward, the impact driving Ketal back half a step before he steadied himself and held his ground.

“Closing is not simple,” he admitted.

Each fragment held enough power to kill a Hero outright, and even a stray shard could shatter ribs through a guard. He could not afford to take a direct hit. Yet the air between the fragments churned with power so dense that every step forward consumed more Myst than he could spare. Even if he closed the distance, the cloak of darkness would still make every strike shallow.

That demon is strong,

he thought, and for the first time since the Abomination’s authority had settled into his hands, the word lit him.

Ever since he was able to wield Aura, a quiet boredom had begun to take hold. He could kill too easily, end too much with too little effort. Even if he were to face the Ugly Rat again, the battle would be over in minutes. He had not wanted to admit how profoundly dull that thought was.

However, Necrobix stood firm on the far side of that dulled edge and pressed back against him. It was a Four Pillar—one of the five greatest powers in Hell. Astonishment welled up in Ketal, warming slowly into gratitude.

Behold!

he thought, and the word had the lift of a hymn.

This was a demon! This was the world! This was the power of fantasy itself! If this is a fantasy, then I cannot yield to the monstrosities within it!

He planted his foot, and the ground rippled beneath him like the skin of a drum.

“I acknowledge you. You are strong,” Ketal admitted as he bared his teeth. “But I am the one who wins!”

He charged straight toward Necrobix.