[Location: Dungeon—Vampire King's Castle]
"You are a BLASPHEMY."
Veyrath spat the word like a hymn of worship and hatred fused together. His wings flared, feathers trembling with golden-crimson mania, eyes glowing too brightly for a sane creature.
I rolled my shoulder, wiping a smear of blood down my ribs.
"Well," I lifted Muramasa, "it's all natural—"
Veyrath vanished.
No buildup.
No aura flare.
Just nothingness.
The marble behind me exploded—
BAAAAAAAAAAM!
I turned—too slow.
A claw the size of a shortsword tore through the space where my heart had been half a second earlier. The shockwave alone ripped my coat and left three smoking lines of cut air behind me.
"Faster than before…" Veyrath whispered behind my ear. "GOOD."
Erebus appeared between us in a blur of shadow.
KLANG!!!
His obsidian spear caught Veyrath's second claw mid-swing.
The collision blasted both me and Veyrath back a few meters—
Except that Erebus didn't move an inch.
