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Bargain Infernal Episode 36: The Edge of Fate
The ground shook beneath Alex's feet as he ran towards Mara, his heart pounding in his chest. The light surrounding her was blinding, a beacon in the darkness, but it felt like it was slipping further away with every step. The creatures of the Abyss had been vanquished, but the battle was far from over.The fear was so much mixed with determination in Mara's voice that echoed in his mind. "Alex! Hurry!" The urgency in her tone was enough to fuel his every movement, even as the world around them seemed to unravel.The sky above them tore apart, revealing a tear of swirling black clouds. It was as if reality itself was being ripped apart. From the jagged edge of the tear, a dark energy poured forth, suffocating the air and distorting the space around them. The light from Mara seemed to flicker, growing weaker as if it was fighting to hold against the rising tide of the Abyss."Mara!" Alex's voice cracked in desperation as he pushed through the chaos. His legs burned from exhaustion, but
Bargain Infernal Episode 37: The Final Trial
The world around Alex rippled and buckled, making reality warp to fit its needs. The last remnants of the dark power of the Warden lingered in the air, a heavy, almost oppressive weight that seemed to breathe in with Alex's every inhale. Each breath he made was like gulping poison into his lungs; the shadows clamped down, squeezing him alive under their pressure. His heart thudded in his chest from raw, unrelenting fear, not from a physical exhaustion."Mara?" he called, a hoarse, raw effort. He hunted through the dimness with bleary eyes until all he made out was Warden poised, cold amusement spreading wide in its visage."You arrive too late for Alex Mercer's Mara, either," said the Warden with a deep, rumbling voice. It sounded as guttural to him, gruff with indifference. "And she's doomed to never leave here behind."No!" Alex yelled, his eyes blazing with fury. You can't decide her fate! You don't get to take her away from me.The Warden's laughter vibrated in the hollow of sound
Bargain Infernal Episode 38: The Portal
The stillness shattered the moment Alex heard Mara’s voice. Her soft plea pierced through the chaos, cutting deeper than any of the Warden's claws ever could. He froze, his heart pounding as he scanned the endless darkness for her.“Mara!” Alex shouted, his voice cracking with desperation. “Where are you? I’m coming!”But before he could take another step, the Warden's mocking laughter echoed around him. The monstrous figure stood tall, its glowing eyes narrowing in amusement. "Ah, such sweet devotion," it sneered. "She calls for you, but does she truly want to be saved? Perhaps the darkness has already claimed her."Alex gritted his teeth, his grip on the hellfire sword tightening. "You don't know her. You don't know us."The Warden’s smile widened, its shadowy form shifting, tendrils of darkness wrapping around it like armor. “Perhaps not,” it replied coldly, “but it doesn’t matter. You’re too late.”With a swipe of its claw, the Warden summoned a portal that crackled with sinister
Bargain Infernal Episode 39: Fractured Vows
The golden light of dawn cascaded over the trees, casting the clearing in a soft glow. Alex lay on the ground, his chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath. Mara knelt beside him, her hands gripping his, her tears streaking the dirt on her face.You're not doing this again," she whispered firmly, her voice shaking with barely contained fear. "Throwing yourself into battle like you're indestructible. You're going to get yourself killed."Alex turned his head to meet her eyes, a faint smile tugging at his lips despite the pain wracking his body. "I'll take a thousand risks if it means keeping you safe.Mara's furrowed brow was now matched by the flow of her tears. "And what if you don't make it next time? What am I supposed to do then, Alex?"She didn't let him answer as the ground shuddered slightly and drew their attention. The air became unnaturally still, as if the world itself held its breath."They're not done," Alex muttered, pushing himself upright despite Mara's protests.
Bargain Infernal Episode 40: Shadows of Betrayal
The flickering campfire cast a long, wide shadow across the forest clearing as Alex leaned against a tree, eyes scanning the horizon. He'd been through a battle with the Devourer and was battered, but his determination was unbroken. Mara sat beside him, her head resting lightly on his shoulder, a soothing anchor against the chaos of his thoughts."Do you think we'll ever have a moment to breathe?" Mara asked softly, her voice laced with exhaustion.Alex sighed, wrapping an arm around her. "I don't know. But as long as you're safe, I'll keep fighting."Mara tilted her head to look at him, her gaze steady. "You can't keep carrying this burden alone, Alex. I'm with you always."Before Alex could get a word out, Kael's voice punched through the silence. "As moving as this moment is, I think you two should rest while you can." He stepped forward, his coat swaying subtly with his gait. "The next assault won't be waiting for you to heal."Alex frowned, his tiredness immediately being set asi
Bargain Infernal Episode 41: Moment of Peace
Dawn broke, and for a moment, there was peace. Alex knew that would not last. The Circle's envoy, Seraphina, had retreated, but her warning clung to him like a curse. He gazed into the dying embers of their campfire, his hand closing over the hilt of his hellfire blade. Mara sat beside him, her head on his shoulder, though she had not slept either.“You should rest,” Alex said softly, his voice hoarse.Mara shook her head. “I can’t. Not when we’re constantly looking over our shoulders.”Her words weighed heavily on Alex. He felt the crushing responsibility of protecting her, knowing that every step forward was another step closer to danger.Kael stepped out of the darkness, unreadable as always. "We can't remain here. The Circle doesn't take much time to rally, and Seraphina is definitely not a woman to let a blow to her pride go unreciprocated."Alex scowled at him. "As if I forgot.Kael raised an eyebrow, but instead of retorting, he nodded towards Mara. "She's the reason you're sti
Bargain Infernal Episode 42: Shadows in the Light
The air was thick with tension as Alex, Mara, and Kael pressed deeper into the forest. Alex leaned heavily on Mara, his body still weak from his battle with the Shadowborn. Every step was a struggle, but the resolve in his heart kept him moving. Mara’s hand never left his arm, steadying him as they followed Kael’s lead.“You’re pushing yourself too hard,” Mara whispered, concern etched across her face.Alex smiled weakly. "I've faced worse. Besides, if we don't keep moving, they'll catch us."Kael had been scouting ahead but had returned to them. "He's right. We are hardly out of the woods, and I don't mean just the physical kind. The Circle will send out reinforcements, and in this case, with Seraphina involved, there's no way it'll remain low-key.Mara's grip on Alex's hand tightened. "How much further to the safe house you mentioned?"Kael paused, his eyes roving the trees. "Not far. But the closer we get, the more likely we are to run into traps. The Circle doesn't take kindly to
Bargain Infernal Episode 43: The Calm Before the Storm
The quiet of the safe house was like an ominous, oppressive blanket: it wrapped itself around all of them and created a kind of silence where each creak of a floorboard or rustle of clothing seemed more pronounced than it should have.Alex's sleep was fitful, as it had been all night; his body was screaming for the punishment it had endured earlier in the evening, but it was Mara's expression an uneasy blend of relief and worry that made his chest tighten."How long was I out?" he croaked."Only a few hours," Mara whispered, her fingers caressing his hand. "You needed it."Alex shifted up onto his elbow, wincing. "Where's Kael?""Out there, watching the door. He hasn't said much, but I can tell he's on edge," she said.Alex sighed. "He's right to be. That Shadowborn wasn't random. They're hunting us, and Seraphina won't stop until we're either captured or dead."Mara's eyes searched his, fear flickering in their depths. "And what about you? How much longer can you keep going like this
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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,
