Asher stood barely twenty feet from the greater demon as it blinked and turned to look at their surroundings. Immediately outside their small bubble, the world grew pale and washed out, making it clear to anyone who’d ever wandered between realms that they were surrounded by the astral realm.

  “How interesting,” the demon muttered, reaching out and running a single claw down the wall of the barrier. “It’s been a few centuries since I last killed a human with the Spatial element. Though they didn’t have a skill quite like yours.”

  “You’ve met other Spatial element holders?” Asher asked, taken aback for a moment. He knew he shouldn’t have been so surprised, seeing as demons essentially lived forever. But the thought of hearing about another person yanked from their own world and dropped on this one intrigued him. Hell, they could have even been from Earth.

  “A small handful over the years,” the demon admitted, now tapping his claw against the barrier as his tri-forked tongue flicked out of its mouth and licked its lips. “Though few of them ever manage to survive to the point of skill evolution. I will enjoy adding another one of their number to my many victories.”

  “Are you sure it’s going to be that easy? The others you fought might not have known all that much about demons, but I spent the last few days devouring every bit of knowledge I could get my hands on about your kind,” Asher said, standing absolutely still as he spoke. Pulling his entire Spatial Lock into the astral realm meant the energy expenditure of moving around within it was lessened compared to his normal Astral Dips, but every bit of movement added up. He was more than happy to chat as the demon kept tapping away at the barrier, so long as it didn’t start trying to destroy it. “I very well may have stumbled upon a secret or two of yours you’d rather kept hidden.”

  “Oh? Dare I ask what you think you’ve found?” the demon asked, its smirk only growing wider, showing off its jet-black teeth. “If I recall, the last Spatial element holder I killed seemed absolutely convinced throwing water she’d had blessed by a priest in my face would kill me, for some strange reason. And the one before that had been shocked when a wooden carving of my own likeness didn’t scare me away. I’m curious, what silly trick will you show me in desperation to try and prevent me from ripping out your heart and eating it as you watch with your final few seconds of life?”

  God, that paints an image. Asher shuddered despite himself, silently praying that his research hadn’t been all for naught. He really hoped the greater demon was just showboating and that it hadn’t already forgotten it was supposed to be capturing him alive. “Alright, but I don’t want to hear any complaints when I lop your head from your shoulders. You did technically ask for it.”

  Already holding Crescent in one hand and his cold iron dagger in the other, Asher didn’t need to make any preparations. Taking one last shaky breath, he darted forward. One of the downsides to fighting within the astral realm was that he wasn’t able to extend or compress empty space with Distortion for whatever reason, which meant he’d be forced to rely on his own agility for movement.

  Though if his plan worked out like he thought it would, that would be more than worth what he’d get in exchange.

  The demon watched with amused eyes as he rushed in close, extending Crescent into the length of a full-blown longsword at the last moment as he slashed at its unguarded waist. While he would have rather gone straight for the neck, the demon absolutely towered over him at around nine feet tall, so direct attacks on the head were a bit out of his reach.

  He’d have to settle for simply cutting the monster in half.

  At this point, while his blade swung at the demon’s mid-section, Asher was literally face to face with the demon. Everything seemed to slow down as he watched, waiting for the moment the demon realized what his plan was, and what his combination of skills had actually done. It wasn’t until his mithral blade was mere inches from the demon’s side when it happened.

  Secret Seeker drew his eyes to the minute stabilizer muscles in the demon’s torso, and he spotted the exact moment it tensed, in a way remarkably familiar to how Asher himself slipped into the astral realm. Yet unlike Asher’s own Astral Dip skill, nothing seemed to happen, and the demon’s red eyes widened as the realization finally hit.

  Asher controlled what realm the space within his Spatial Lock was trapped in, and he’d yanked their little bubble directly into the astral. If anyone or anything within his small domain were to try and access a different realm, such as the realm of ages, for example…

  Well, they were in for a nasty surprise.

  Unfortunately for Asher, the demon realized what he’d done just a split second too soon, and it snapped a hand down with the speed of its own flesh and blood form, catching the base of Crescent before he could fully bisect the monster. But even if the demon had saved itself from being cut in half, its folly had cost him.

  “Impressive trick, worm,” the demon hissed, glancing at how Asher had cut a good couple of inches into its side before he’d been stopped. Already, thick, foul blood that looked more like tar was slowly pouring out of the demon’s side, bubbling and hissing as it tricked down its leg and spilled across the ground. “Few mortals have ever managed to figure out that we can travel to the realm of ages just as freely as any other. But do you know what happened to the last mortal who discovered that secret?”

  Asher had a pretty good idea of what the answer was going to be, and he didn’t bother to reply as he continued his attack. While the demon postured, he slashed with his other hand, angling his cold iron dagger to slice into the other side of the demon’s torso. The blade wasn’t nearly as deadly as his mithral one, but he was banking on his demon hunter class to make up the difference.

  Not wanting to take any chances, the demon’s other arm snapped down, moving to grab his hand and rip it clean off rather than try to stop the blade itself this time. Unfortunately for the demon, that was exactly what Asher was hoping for. While the demon focused on this other attack, Asher instead attacked with his mithral blade once more, snapping the dagger back to regular size and freeing it from the demon’s grasp, before reangling the blade and extending it yet again.

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  The demon let out a howl that shook the very confines of his Spatial Lock and rattled Asher’s very bones as his mithral blade punched straight into the monster’s abdomen, slicing clean through the flesh that had managed to deflect one of Samantha’s enchanted arrows with ease. Before he had the chance to slash his dagger to the side and rip through half of the demon’s torso, it leapt back, freeing itself from his elongated dagger.

  “Impudent worm!” the demon roared, no longer seeming all that amused by him or his skills as it held a hand over the wound gushing that thick, foul-smelling blood everywhere. “I will slaughter you and everyone you’ve ever cared about for that!”

  “You’re welcome to try,” Asher taunted, grinning at the sight of the demon’s blood actively pouring out of it. He knew from experience that bleeding within the astral realm counted as movement, and he knew with every pulse of the monster’s rotten heart its energy had to be growing weaker and weaker.

  As confident as he was beginning to feel, Asher tried not to let it go to his head as the demon bellowed a battle cry and launched itself at him, its deadly claws extended and reaching for his flesh. Even if it was already wounded and losing energy far faster than he was, the demon was still a nine-foot-tall killing monstrosity. One wrong step and it would be his head rolling around on the floor, regardless of what the liches had ordered it to do.

  Despite that, Asher couldn’t help but feel that burning excitement in his core as the once-hopeless fight turned into something he actually stood a chance at winning as their battle began in earnest. Now that Asher had separated the demon from accessing the realm of ages, his odds of survival had just gotten a hell of a lot greater

  Asher fell on the defensive, focusing solely on deflecting the demon’s erratic slashes and dodging its powerful blows. The demon’s massive claws proved to be just as strong and deadly as his own blades, as their weapons continued to clang and scrape along one another. Though even if he’d nullified the demon’s speed, Asher still had to be incredibly careful. The demon was far stronger than he was, which meant if he tried blocking even a single attack rather than letting it slide off his blades, he’d probably shatter bones and lose a limb in the attempt.

  Still, he was more than happy to dance along this razor's edge as the demon went berserk and tried fruitlessly to rip his spine from his body. While every shift in his body and each movement within the astral drained a bit more of his energy, tiring him out and making his movements just a little bit slower with every passing second, the expense had to be tenfold for the demon’s massive frame, especially as it continued pumping blood everywhere from the two wounds he’d already inflicted upon it.

  After around thirty seconds had passed, the demon finally leapt back once more, panting and visibly shaking as its eyes flicked down to the wounds still freely bleeding in its midsection. Placing its hands on the open wounds in a futile attempt to stop the bleeding, it looked at him, its expression finally showing one of the few emotions he knew demons could experience.

  Fear.

  “What did you do to me?!” it roared, taking another hesitant step back, its foot squishing in the tar-like blood covering the ground. “These wounds… they should have healed in moments!”

  “I know you don’t care much for your subordinates, but clearly you should have paid them more attention,” Asher laughed, his heart racing with excitement and his body flooded with the joy of going toe-to-toe with his deadliest opponent yet. “Didn’t you hear? My attacks don’t heal. They never heal. They don’t give a damn about your own abilities or how you’d normally reform in perfect health after a while back down in the nine hells. Once I kill you, and I will kill you, you’ll be gone. Forever.”

  The sight of sheer terror on the greater demon’s face was perhaps the most beautiful thing Asher had ever seen, and he drank it in as the demon turned and tried to run away. Watching it flee, Asher couldn't help but momentarily bask in the sensation of having finally bested his foe.

  Right up until the demon hit the wall of his Spatial Lock and threw a devastating haymaker into it.

  The impact of the demon’s fist on the invisible barrier ripped a gasp from Asher’s lungs as more than half of what little energy he still had left in him was ripped from his grasp, causing him to stumble forward. Damn it, he swore, realizing he’d gotten cocky in the end, having thought the battle was already won. It wasn’t as if the demon could heal from the wounds he’d inflicted upon it, but the monster’s strange blood poured out remarkably slowly, and he had no doubt if it managed to escape and retreat back to the nine hells, it would find a way to restore that missing blood faster than it fled its body.

  Not willing to risk its survival, Asher sprinted forward, lunging at the demon’s back with an elongated Crescent.

  Which was exactly what the demon was waiting for.

  At the last possible moment, the demon twisted back around, not even attempting to stop his attack as it focused solely on killing him. Even as Asher’s own extended dagger stabbed up and straight through the demon’s heart, he barely managed to jerk his head out of the way of the demon’s maw as it tried to crush through his skull.

  Though while he’d kept his head intact, he hadn’t managed to dodge the demon’s other attack.

  Asher blinked as he felt a white-hot pain around his waist not quite like anything he’d experienced before. Dropping his daggers, he suddenly toppled backward, feeling far lighter than he could ever remember. It wasn’t until his back hit the ground hard, causing him to bounce slightly and nearly knocking the wind out of him, that he realized what had happened.

  The demon had cut him cleanly in half, separating his torso from his legs in a single swipe of its deadly claws.

  “The thing about skills,” the demon rasped as it shook and stared at him with Crescent lodged deep within its heart and lungs, black blood already pouring out of its mouth as it collapsed to one knee and struggled to breathe, its back pressed against the barrier. “…is that they only work… so long as the wielder… is alive.”

  Laughing and coughing up blood at the same time, the demon grinned down at him, its giant form shaking even harder as it struggled to get one last word out.

  “Once… you’re dead… I’ll be back.”

  With that, the demon finally collapsed forward, falling face first into a puddle formed from both of their blood as the last of its life left its eyes.

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