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Bargain Infernal Episode 1: A Devil's Bargain
The rain hammered against the windshield, the wipers doing little to clear the deluge. Alex Mercer gripped the steering wheel, his knuckles white, his jaw clenched. The old car groaned with every turn of its worn-out engine, struggling against the slick highway. His mind was elsewhere, replaying the argument he’d had earlier that night. Words he couldn’t take back, a door slammed in frustration. He barely noticed the curve in the road until it was too late.The tires skidded, the car spinning out of control. Time slowed as the guardrail loomed closer. Metal screeched, glass shattered, and then nothing.Alex woke to heat. Stifling, suffocating heat. He opened his eyes, expecting the sterile lights of a hospital room, but instead found himself surrounded by an infernal landscape. Rivers of molten lava snaked through jagged black rocks, and the air was thick with the acrid stench of sulfur. Screams echoed in the distance, chilling him to the bone.“Ah, finally awake.”The voice was smoot
Bargain Infernal Episode 2: Shadows in the Dark
The city never slept. Its streets buzzed with life, but beneath the surface, something dark stirred. Alex Mercer walked among the crowds, his hood pulled low to hide his glowing eyes. Every step he took was accompanied by a faint pulse at the edge of his mind, a sickening rhythm that guided him toward his next target.It had been a week since his first encounter with a demon, and the memory still haunted him. The fight had been brutal, but the aftermath was worse. The satisfaction he felt when the demon disintegrated into ash had left him questioning his own humanity. Was this what Lucifer wanted? To turn him into a monster?Alex shook the thought away and focused on the task at hand. The pulse in his mind was growing stronger, leading him toward a derelict apartment building on the edge of the city. The place reeked of decay, its windows shattered, and its walls covered in graffiti. The air around it felt heavy, oppressive, as if the building itself were alive.He hesitated at the en
Bargain Infernal Episode 3: The First Hunt as a Team
The night air was thick with tension as Alex and Evelyn made their way through the city. The faint glow of neon signs reflected off the wet pavement, casting eerie shadows that danced around them. Alex’s mind raced with questions about his new companion, but he held his tongue. Trust was a luxury he couldn’t afford, not yet.“So, what’s the plan?”Alex asked, breaking the silence.Evelyn glanced at him, her green eyes sharp and calculating. “There’s a demon nest in the industrial district. Small-time stuff, but it’s a good place to start. We’ll clear it out and see what we can learn.”“And by ‘we,’ you mean me doing the heavy lifting,” Alex said, his tone dry.Evelyn smirked. “You’ve got the hellfire and the shadows. I’ve got the brains and the strategy. Seems like a fair trade.”Alex rolled his eyes but didn’t argue. He’d seen enough to know she was capable, and her confidence suggested she had plenty of experience dealing with demons. Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that she was
Bargain Infernal Episode 4: A Heart to Protect
The sun dipped below the horizon, casting the city in a muted orange glow. Alex leaned against the counter of a small diner, sipping a lukewarm cup of coffee. The events of the past few days weighed heavily on his mind, but a rare moment of peace allowed him to let his guard down if only for a little while.The bell above the diner door jingled, and Alex’s heart skipped a beat. In walked a woman with auburn hair that shimmered in the fading sunlight. Her eyes, a soft hazel, lit up as they met his.“Lila,” Alex said, setting his cup down and standing to greet her.She smiled, a warmth in her expression that Alex hadn’t felt in what seemed like an eternity. “Hey, stranger. You’ve been hard to find lately.”Alex shrugged, trying to mask the turmoil beneath his calm exterior. “You know how it is. Life gets… complicated.”Lila tilted her head, her gaze searching his. “Complicated doesn’t even begin to cover it with you. But I’m glad you’re okay.”Her concern was genuine, and Alex felt a pa
Bargain Infernal Episode 5: Shadows of Doubt
The next morning, Alex sat on the rooftop of a nearby building, his eyes scanning the city below. The fight from the previous night replayed in his mind, each moment etched vividly in his memory. Protecting Lila had been instinctual, but it also cemented his fear she was now a target. The demons knew about her, and that changed everything.Evelyn’s voice broke through his thoughts. “You look like hell.”Alex turned to see her standing behind him, arms crossed. Her usual smirk was replaced by a rare look of concern.“Thanks for the pep talk,” Alex muttered, running a hand through his hair. “What are you doing here?”Evelyn shrugged. “Checking on you. Word travels fast in the underworld. Sounds like you had quite the night.”Alex’s jaw tightened. “They went after her. Lila. She’s innocent in all of this.”“Innocent doesn’t mean untouchable,” Evelyn said, her tone matter-of-fact. “You’re in this fight now, and anyone close to you is fair game. You need to be ready for that.”“I’m always
Bargain Infernal Episode 6: The Hunter's Prey
The night’s silence was broken only by the crunch of gravel underfoot as Alex, Lila, and Mara trudged down a desolate road. The fiery glow of the collapsed church still lingered on the horizon, a grim reminder of the battle they had barely survived. Alex walked ahead, his shoulders tense, scanning the shadows for any sign of danger.“Where are we going?”Mara asked, her voice cutting through the oppressive quiet.“There’s an old safehouse a few miles from here,” Alex replied without turning around. “It’s warded against demons. We’ll rest there and figure out our next move.”Lila quickened her pace to walk beside him. “Are you sure it’s still secure? After what we’ve seen, I wouldn’t put it past these things to break through wards.”“It’s our best shot,” Alex said, his tone clipped. He glanced at her, his expression softening. “We need somewhere to regroup. You… need to rest.”Lila raised an eyebrow but didn’t argue. She could see the exhaustion etched into his face, the lines of worry
Bargain Infernal Episode 7: The Light Within
The aftermath of the battle left the forest eerily silent. The faint glow of Mara’s hands slowly faded, leaving her trembling in the doorway. Alex and Lila exchanged a glance, their exhaustion momentarily forgotten as they processed what had just happened.“Mara,” Alex began, his voice cautious but firm. “What was that?”She shook her head, her expression a mix of fear and confusion. “I don’t know,” she whispered. “It just… happened. I felt something inside me, something I didn’t even know was there.”Alex stepped closer, his eyes narrowing as he studied her. “That wasn’t normal. Whatever it was, it’s powerful. And it might be the reason those things were after us.”“You think they were hunting her?”Lila asked, her tone sharp.Alex nodded. “It makes sense. Demons don’t attack randomly. They’re drawn to power, especially something as strong as what Mara just did.”Mara’s hands clenched into fists, her voice rising in panic. “I don’t even know what I did! How am I supposed to control it
Bargain Infernal Episode 8: Bonds in the Darkness
The night settled uneasily over the cabin, the aftermath of the battle leaving an oppressive stillness. Mara sat by the window, staring out into the dark forest. Her hands trembled slightly, the memory of the celestial light she had wielded still fresh in her mind. She wasn’t sure if she feared the power itself or what it meant for her.Alex entered the room quietly, his footsteps barely audible on the wooden floor. He held two steaming mugs of tea, setting one down on the table beside her.“Couldn’t sleep?”he asked, his voice low.Mara shook her head, her gaze not leaving the window. “Every time I close my eyes, I see them. The demons, the light… it’s all so overwhelming.”Alex pulled up a chair, sitting across from her. He studied her for a moment, his expression softening. “You’re stronger than you think, Mara. What you did tonight… it saved us. Don’t doubt that.”She turned to him, her eyes searching his. “But what if I lose control? What if this power hurts someone I care about?”
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Episode 224: One Final Strike
The world fractured.At the moment the boy lunged towards him, his sword clashing against the Hunter’s blade of shadow-steel, reality shattered like glass.His feet were no longer standing on solid ground.The battlefield the stars, the ruined earth pulsed, tremblied, shifting like an unënded painting.For one terrifying second He felt himself being torn in two.Not by a blade.Not by the Abyss.By time itself.He staggered back, gasping, his vision going double, reality fracturing into two separate lines of incident at once.One he stood here, fighting, existing.In the other he had never been born.Never consumed mermaid flesh.Never imagined, never suffered, never fought.Just gone."This is the correction."The Hunter’s voice remained steady, uemotional."Your existence is an error."Kaiza bared his teeth, pushing forward, screwing his sword back alight."You talk too much."And then he attacked again.The Impossible DuelThis time he moved faster.He could still taste the Abyss
Episode 223: The Last Throne
It was no longer their place of battle.The sunless sky was now a filthy mirror of a world that had perished before history.”Under Ethan and Asha’s feet, the ground shook, not with ruination but with something trying to rewrite existence itself.And the whole thing revolves aroundThe light wasn’t from this world, and now it burned behind their eyes, finally exposed by the broken perishable mask.They weren’t human.They weren’t divine.They’d been something before all of those things.And the closer they got, just their walking warped the air next to them.“You have walked too far, Hollow King.”“You’ve shattered too many chains.“And now you will see what should have been forgotten.”Ethan’s hands made fists.Asha inhaled slowly and deeply.They had no time to think.Because the First King moved.And the final battle began.Before Ethan even had the time to react, he found the First King in front of him.Their move defied space itself—not teleportation, not speed, but the here and
Episode 222: The Ones Who Devour
The sky was breaking.Helena became the epicenter of the battle that should have never been.The Firstborn were no more, their sacred monarchy rent asunder, their celestial kingdom fallen to ruin.But the universe had no love for vacant thrones.And now.It had been supplanted by something else.Reality tore, the sky splitting open like a wound that wouldn’t heal.Out from the void, they came.Not Hollowed.Not firstborn.Something else.Older than war itself, something.They did not have names.They did not have faces.They were churning, writhing aspects of the consummate void, their nacreous flesh contorting into a thousand forms at once—humanoid, monstrous, holy, forgotten.And when they spoke.It wasn’t with voices.It was with thoughts that did not belong to Helena, curling into her thoughts, unwinding her like leaves of an old book."You do not belong here."Helena’s entire body tensed.The Hollow King did not move.The Old One merely watched.Silver fire sizzled along the edge
Episode 221: The Thing That Should Not Wake
The Silence Before the EndThe battlefield was quiet.Too quiet.Helena found herself in the ruins of a war that had rewritten history. The Firstborn's God-King was vanished, their form crushed into void, their heavenly horde blown away like dust.The Hollowed had won.And yet.The heir was wrong.Heavy. Tainted.Like something was waiting.“Yup,” Cain gasped, running a bloody hand through his hair, his silver eyes showing some signs of uneasiness. “Please tell me it’s not just me that feels this.”Helena gripped her throbbing fingers, the black-fire dagger still buzzing in her hand. "You’re not."The Hollow King hadn’t budged.They froze there, their shape like a void, their head cocked slightly, listening.Helena stepped forward slowly, the ground crackling beneath her boots. The Firstborn were disappearing, their godly light blinking out like red stars in the firmament.They had lost.So why did it seem like something worse had just begun?Then.The world shifted.The Veil Splits O
Episode 220: The Forsaken vs. the Divine
Helena did not kneel.Not to kings.Not to gods.Not to the Firstborn, who had cut history to shape and made it fit.She had stood against death.She had stood against fate.And she would stand now.Even as the God-King of the Firstborn loomed before her, his celestial fire coiling in the air like an executioner’s blade.As the burden of their command bore down upon reality itself, compelling everything to bend.Helena stood tall.Her dagger blazed with black flames, oscillating between the Hollow King’s strength and something more ancient.Something that was hers and hers alone.The battlefield was silent.Even the Hollow hesitated.Because no one had ever disobeyed the Firstborn’s command and survived.Until now.The God-King’s expression did not change.They took a slow step forward, their silver eyes calm and infinite, burning with cold.“Then I will break you.”The world shattered.A void pulled inward, the air itself ripping apart as the God-King began his assault, faster than l
Episode 219: The Forsaken Queen
Helena felt everything.The Hollow King thrummed through her as she surged forward, a scintillation of wicked pleasure that burnt in her blood like a fire that would never run soft. Not only did it fill her, it transformed her.No longer was she Helena, the fighter who had resisted destiny.She was something more.Something that never was meant to exist.And as she stood at the very center of the battlefield, surrounded as she was by another ruin crumbling around her, one of a war older than time itself, she understood.The Firstborn knew it, too.They had expected a rebel.They had expected resistance.But they hadn’t expected this.They had not believed she would survive the Hollow King’s might.And they did not expect her to turn it against them.”His silver eyes, previously flooded with naught but icy apathy, now sparkled with another emotion.Fear.And Helena?Helena smiled.Then she attacked.Her movements were like a storm, her new blade slashing through the Firstborn’s ranks.
Episode 218: The Moment When the World Picked a Side
The battlefield froze.Helena’s voice still rang in the ruins, suspended in the air like a blade poised to fall."I will fight for the truth."And just like that.She had chosen a side.The Hollow King turned its void-like eyes to her, unreadable.Cain gaped, his breath ragged, his silver eyes bouncing between disbelief and something else. Something closer to fear.The Firstborn did not speak.They didn’t scream in rage or throw accusations of betrayal.Instead.They smiled.And Helena learned something a little too late.She had walked into a war older than she could understand.And each side had been waiting for her to make a choice.Now.There was no turning back.The Gods Strike FirstThe Firstborn moved first.Helena didn’t have time to react before the sky itself lit on fire.The clouds parted, hurling javelins of heavenly fire onto the battlefield. The Hollowed howled, their flesh caught alight, their bodies liquidizing beneath the assault.The pallor of the air cracked apart b
Episode 217: The Gods Must Bleed
A Sky That ShattersThe heavens collapsed.The sky literally ripped apart, opening like a wound in reality itself, and Helena hardly had time to scream. The battlefield below was engulfed in golden fire and infinite darkness, as though the universe itself was tearing in two.The Firstborn were the falling stars, their weapons blazing with heavenly fire, their silver eyes lit with righteous fury. The Hollowed howled back, their broken voices rising like a war hymn, thair void-forged blades craving vengeance.This wasn’t a battle.This was annihilation.Helena moved.She ducked, avoiding a sweep of a Firstborn warrior that cut through the air where her head had only seconds before been. The heat of their blade seared against her skin, too near, too quick.But she was faster.She spun, her dagger slicing through their divine armor, and, for the first time, she heard the sound she never thought she’d hear.A firstborn screamed.Helena’s breath hitched.She could kill them.And if she coul
Episode 216: The Ah Which Ends Worlds
A Throne of Lies, A War of TruthHelena’s breath was quick and brittle, her heart pounding against her rib cage.The Hollow King knelt before her.Not as an enemy.Not as a monster.But as a warrior awaiting a response.The gods had walked the earth before her, and the earth had been their altar. They stood behind their King, all soulless eyes on her, waiting for her to make a choice.And in the distance.Something else was coming.Something worse.Cain moaned next her, spitting blood from his mouth. “Well,” he muttered, “this complicated fast.”Helena barely heard him.Because she wasn’t looking at Cain.The throne of the Hollowed, upthrust from the ruins, split reality like a jagged wound.It was waiting for her.And deep inside, she knew.If she did that, if she chose the Hollowed, there could be no undoing it.She would not only be battling the Firstborn.She would be waging war on the very gods themselves.And it was a war no one had ever won.The Hollow King’s voice was gentle,
