Let's end this, I thought. Kallisto, tell me exactly how much Ether reserve I have left.
[Notice: Due to repeated applications of Event Horizon and the activation of Shadow Weave, you have enough Ether for exactly two more spatial manipulations before complete depletion.] [Suggestion: You may draw upon your Cenotaph to bypass this limit if you wish.]
Nah, I instantly rejected, my inner Constraint flaring at the very thought. I am not using the primordial Cenotaph of Pride on some small-fry pirate.
Across the stage, Isaac was genuinely struggling. He was visibly exhausted, panting as he deflected another wave of suffocating darkness. "Lucifer! Come on, help me out here, man!" he yelled.
"Coming!" I shouted, sprinting toward the red-haired captain.
As I closed the distance, the captain manifested two jagged spears of pure, condensed darkness and hurled them viciously at Isaac. Isaac barely managed to dodge, rolling across the stone, but it was just a distraction. The captain immediately snapped his head toward me.
"Why?" the captain roared, his eyes bloodshot and wild. "Why are you hunting us?!"
"Because we can," I replied coldly, though honestly, I was just saying whatever sounded intimidating.
Enraged, he thrust his hands forward, sending a massive shockwave of solid darkness crashing toward me like a tidal wave. I activated Event Horizon just in time. The invisible shield absorbed the brunt of the kinetic force, but the sheer momentum still launched me backward. I went sliding across the stone floor, ending up far away from both him and Isaac.
Shit. I don't have time for this, I hissed, immediately dropping the spatial shield to conserve my final drop of Ether.
The captain was completely focused on me now, his guard temporarily shifted away from the sword-wielding Hunter.
"Now, Isaac!" I roared.
Isaac flicked one of his final matchsticks, instantly teleporting right above the captain. He brought his ornate sword down in a lethal, sweeping arc aimed straight for the captain's neck. But the instant the blade grew close, that thick wall of absolute darkness flared up automatically, violently deflecting the steel with a loud clang.
But as I watched the collision, something clicked in my mind. Every single time Isaac attacked, he aimed high—the head, the neck, the chest. The darkness always surged upward to protect those vital areas.
I narrowed my eyes. The automatic shielding is prioritizing his upper torso. His legs are exposed.
Isaac leaped backward to create distance, gripping his sword tightly. I caught his eye through my Oni mask and subtly shifted my gaze downward, staring pointedly at the captain's boots. Isaac, despite being an idiot sometimes, had incredible combat instincts. He understood immediately.
Isaac charged right back in. This time, he unleashed a furious, non-stop barrage of heavy sword strikes, aiming exclusively at the captain's head and chest. The captain laughed, letting his automatic darkness shield absorb every single blow, pulling all of the shadowy Ether to his upper body.
Let's see how long you laugh, I thought.
I channeled every last drop of my remaining Ether into the heavy frame of Bad News. The crimson runes on the barrel flared a blinding, violent blue. While Isaac kept the shield occupied up high, I aimed low.
I pulled the trigger.
The condensed Ether round tore across the amphitheater. The darkness, entirely focused on Isaac's sword, couldn't stretch down to his legs in time.
BANG.
The shot connected perfectly. The captain's left leg was completely blown off at the knee in an explosion of blood and bone.
He collapsed to the stone floor like a broken puppet. I noticed Isaac patting his pockets—he was completely out of matchsticks. We couldn't risk him using the Weeping Gluttony again, either. Fortunately, the suffocating aura of darkness around the captain instantly evaporated. He was finally out of Ether, too.
I walked over, keeping my empty gun trained on his chest. But as I looked down at the defeated pirate, a cold chill ran down my spine.
He was lying in a pool of his own blood, missing half his leg... but he wasn't screaming in agony. He wasn't crying. He wasn't even angry. He just stared up at the ruined, upside-down spires of the cathedral ceiling, a peaceful, haunting smile spreading across his pale face.
"Thanks," he whispered.
The moment the word thanks left his lips, a pitch-black, suffocating darkness erupted from his ruined body, swallowing him whole.
I immediately fell back, sliding in next to Isaac. "I'm completely out of Ether," I panted, my chest heaving.
"Me too. Almost," Isaac gasped, clutching his side. "I don't even think I can use my trump card now."
Wait, you had a trump card and you didn't use it?! I screamed internally. But now wasn't the time to argue about his terrible decision-making. I kept my eyes locked on the violently shifting cocoon of shadows transforming the captain.
"Give me the sword," I demanded.
Isaac quickly handed over his ornate blade. Grunting with exertion, I hurled the heavy steel with all my raw physical might straight into the center of the darkness.
Thwump. Nothing happened. The shadows simply absorbed the sword like quicksand, swallowing it without a sound.
"Shit. We can't do anything to him right now," Isaac muttered, panic finally bleeding into his voice. "What should we do?"
I let out a heavy breath and raised both my fists, settling into a raw, grounded fighting stance. "We'll do this the old-fashioned way."
"Huh?" Isaac blinked, completely dumbfounded by my decision. "The old-fashioned way?"
"Yes. Fists."
Suddenly, the swirling vortex of darkness violently dispersed. The man standing before us was no longer the red-haired captain. He was a monstrous, humanoid silhouette of pure, undulating shadow. Thick, black liquid constantly dripped from his flesh, sizzling as it hit the stone floor. Even his blown-off leg had perfectly reformed out of the viscous sludge.
"Ah... you made a mistake," a distorted, echoing voice rasped from the entity. "You shouldn't have pushed me this far. But... this body is perfect."
He paced erratically across the stone. We didn't rush in to interrupt him. My core desperately needed time to generate even a single drop of Ether, and Isaac was in the exact same boat. If talking bought us seconds, I would let him talk.
"You see, we of the Devil Pathway possess a hidden gift," the shadow-thing giggled, his sanity clearly fractured by the transformation. "It's called Despair. When we are pushed to the brink of true death, we resurrect ourselves from the Sea of concept."
This is going to be incredibly tough without Ether, I thought, keeping my guard up.
"Even as low-rank Awakened, we inherit this absolute physical power!" He raised both of his dripping arms toward the inverted cathedral spires above. "Thank you, Lord Devil, for bestowing this blessing! I am invincible!"
BOOM.
The stone beneath his feet cracked. He didn't just move; he vanished.
Before my eyes could even track his speed, he materialized directly between us. THWACK! A devastating left hook buried itself deep into my stomach, while his right fist cratered into Isaac's ribs. The sheer kinetic force was unbelievable. It lifted us clean off our feet, sending us flying backward like ragdolls until we violently slammed into the cathedral's stone wall.
"For five minutes, my physical body is practically indestructible!" he roared, throwing his head back in a maniacal, gurgling laugh. His mind was completely gone, entirely consumed by the berserker rage of his Despair state.
"Isn't this guy a bit too overpowered, man?" Isaac groaned, coughing up a heavy mouthful of dark blood onto the floor.
My vision blurred from the impact, but pure survival instinct forced me up. I grabbed Isaac's collar, hauling him to his feet as we desperately raised our guards. It was just in time.
Whoosh. He was right in front of us again. A blurring black leg swept up in a brutal crescent kick aimed straight for my gut. I crossed both of my arms, bracing for the impact.
CRACK. The kick slammed into my forearms with the force of a speeding carriage, nearly shattering my bones and driving the breath from my lungs. I managed to hold the block, but beside me, Isaac wasn't as lucky.
The shadow-creature pivoted flawlessly off the blocked kick, channeling the momentum into a heavy, brutal uppercut that connected flush with Isaac's jaw.
The sickening sound of the impact echoed through the hall as we were both launched backward once again, our battered bodies crashing heavily into the cracked stone wall.