Krel raced up the stairs after getting Kyrlas to a relatively safe place. Something told her, some force, a pulling force, that Sxorces would be here. And as the darkness seemed to get stronger, she knew she was right.

She stopped at the top of the spiral staircase, staring at the scene laying out in front of her.

Xana being a ghost, he had found Sxorces first. But he was now lying on the ground, weak. There was a deep claw mark across his face, spectral blood spilling from it. His eye was completely gone, a mess of wet, sticky crimson. His other, functioning eye was struggling to stay open as he shakily tried to stand.

And there was Omen.

Or what looked like Omen.

The white cross burning in his left eye confirmed that it wasn't the demon she knew in his mind.

Sxorces hadn't noticed Krel. He was laughing wickedly in Omen's voice, wild pleasure filling his gaze.

"There you go," Sxorces seethed, "Now you know how that felt."

Sxorces sharpened the fluff on one of his - Omen's - tails, and drove it through the spirit's abdomen. Xana gasped, coughing up blood as he collapsed. His form's glow flickered. Not extinguished yet. But very much close.

Xana's gaze flickered to Krel.

A mistake.

Sxorces saw his change of focus, and turned to Krel, standing at the entrance. He smiled in a sickly sweet way.

"Kreeeeellllll!" He dragged out the name, "Decided to join the fun, have you? Or did you want Omen?"

Sxorces laughed. "Too late for him. You're not getting him back. Not if I can help it. I'm getting quite attached to this body."

He lashed one of his thin tails as to prove his point. It make a supersonic crack like a whip. The sharpened fluff at the end was thin enough to be used as such.

"Just let him go!" Krel snarled.

"Hmm..." Sxorces seemed to think for a moment. "No."

Sxorces lifted his hands, and Krel was pinned to the wall by an invisible force. She writhed, trying in vain to throw off the unseen weight that pinned her to the wall.

"Now," Sxorces turned his head back to Xana, not taking his hand away from where Krel was, "Where were we?"

————

Krel's voice was faint, but unmistakeable.

I perked my head up, thinking I was mistaken. But I heard it, I know I did. Krel was somewhere, somewhere near Sxorces in the physical world.

I remembered the small flash of a vision I had. Krel was dying by my hands.

All of my visions have come to reality until now.

This one must be soon.

Slowly and agonizingly, I dragged myself to my feet. It was still hard to breathe, I coughed as I tried.

Have to... get out of here... have to save them.

I chuckled slightly, shaking my head. Damn... I guess the angels had more of an impact on me than I thought.

Desperately, I grabbed the strings on my wrist and started to gnaw at them.

————

Sxorces grabbed the still recovering Xana from the ground, holding him tightly by the neck. Xana was a spirit, he couldn't die this way, but one slash to his chest and he would fade away.

"You were always the weak one, Xana," Sxorces growled, "So now it's time to dispose of you. Goodbye."

His claws sank deep into the scar on Xana's chest, reopening the fatal wound. Xana coughed, blood dripping from his mouth as Sxorces let him fall.

"Xana!!"

Krel watched as her guardian fell limply to the ground after struggling and struggling to break free from Sxorce's grip.

No, no, no, not Xana, no-

Xana wasn't moving. His shuddering breaths were shallow and punctuated by long periods of silence between.

Sxorces turned to Krel. "Now that he's out of the way... it's your turn."

He shifted his hand's position, and Krel floated across the room until her face was inches from his. Krel growled, and spit in his face.

Sxorces wiped her saliva off of his face. "Feisty one, you are. Too bad I have to kill you. We could've been good friends."

"What, friends like you were with Xana?" Krel snarled.

Sxorce's grin faded. "What are you-"

"I've known Xana half my life. You think he didn't tell me?" Krel said. She knew this would do nothing but anger the angel. But it bought time. "He still remembers when you first became king. You weren't this power-hungry vessel of insanity, you wanted what was best for the kingdom."

Sxorces glared at Krel for a moment, as if processing her words.

And he laughed. An unpleasant, maniacal laugh that sent shivers down Krel's spine.

"Yes, I was good friends with Xana," Sxorces grinned, "But that was before. Before all of this. Xana believes that what I'm doing here is wrong. But this place, this city... it must burn."

Sxorces flicked his wrist, and Krel sailed across the room. She cried out as she hit the wall, a crack ringing out as she made impact. Her hand flew to her side, struggling to breathe as she clutched the place where her rib had broken. Sxorces picked her up again, throwing her across the room again. This time Krel screamed, the pain becoming more and more agonizing with each passing breath, each passing second.

Now the possession walked across the room to stand over Krel, look down upon his victim. His grin never ceased as he picked her up once again. Krel's breathing was shallow, the light in her eyes less bright than before.

"Sad about Xana over there?" Sxorces said, "That's alright. Now you can join him."

He raised his hand, claws aimed to strike her chest.

But something, someone, caused him to freeze.

His glee turned to confusion, anger. His hand shook slightly, like he was straining it, trying to move.

Krel dropped to the floor as he suddenly began to screech, clutching his eye in pain.

————

Even as Sxorces screeched, burning holes in my eardrums, I still held fast to his head. My claws were buried in his scarred eye, soaked in crimson blood.

"GET OFF OF ME, YOU PATHETIC PIECE OF-" Sxorces swore between his screeches, thrashing and writhing to break free. I dug my claws into his skull to get a good grip on him before throwing him with all of my strength to the ground.

Before he could recover, I grabbed him again, this time wrapping the strings, the very strings that had been tied to me, around his neck. I tightened them, cutting off his airflow.

It wouldn't kill him. But it would distract him.

I sharpened the fluff of one of my tails, a thin one so that it could move swiftly.

Sxorce's eyes widened. Blood poured from the reopened stab wound in his chest. His breathing was shaky as he stared in disbelief at the bloodied hole. I pulled my tail from its place, and Sxorces fell to his hands and knees.

"No..." I heard him seethe. "Not... not now... no..."

His arms gave out. He fell to the ground.

Our gazes met, mine stoic and his furious, before he gave his final, shuddering breath. His eyes glazed over.

He vanished, fading into nothing as I watched.

————

I could hear things now. Fire, it roared in the distance. Faint screams could be heard. Someone was calling my name.

Krel. Krel.

My eyes opened slowly. My vision was blurry, but I made out the faint outline of Krel's pale figure over me. Her purple eyes were fainter than usual, but they shone nonetheless.

"Krel...?" I mumbled. Every part of me hurt to high hell.

Krel's panicked expression turned to relief. "Omen."

She winced, her hand covering her ribs as she spoke.

"You're... you're hurt," I said.

"Don't worry about me, I'll be fine," she said, her voice strained.

My vision was still blurry, so Xana's appearing figure was more of a glowing green blob. Krel helped me get up, and I looked over at him.

Krel stared for a moment at her guardian before running up and hugging him. Xana looked at her for a moment in surprise before awkwardly hugging back.

Something told me they didn't really embrace much.

Xana's gaze landed on me, his eyes narrowing. I averted it, looking to the floor. He was angry, there was no doubt about that. Plus, angels tended to generally have a grudge against demons.

Krel cleared her throat, stepping away from Xana. "Xana... how are you still alive?"

I had to hold in a chuckle. The statement was quite ironic, seeing that Xana had been dead for hundreds of years.

"Sxorces made the mistake of not cutting deep enough," Xana said, not taking his eyes off me."You sure this one won't cause any more... trouble?"

"I swear on my soul, Omen is good," Krel said.

It felt good having her assurance. I nodded, agreeing with her. "I may have originally come to destroy Norxentor, but now I want no part in that. I don't care if you'll never forgive me, or won't ever trust me."

Xana seemed to observe me for a moment before nodding. "You better not be lying, demon. You hurt her, and I will find my way back here to kill you myself."

Krel's smile faded. "You're leaving?"

Xana turned to her and nodded solemnly. "I'm afraid my duty here is complete. The only reason I stayed was because of what I feared Sxorces would do. Now my purpose is complete."

"No, no, you can't leave now! We need your help to push out Sornax and the demons!"

I winced. I - no, Sxorces - must've let them in.

"Sxorces would've killed you if it wasn't for your demon friend over there regaining control," Xana stated, "And he might've hit his mark on me had Omen not been trying to get back control. Believe me, he is all you need. Plus, they're demons. They listen to other demons."

He thought for a moment before restating, "Or I think they do." He turned to me. "Any confirmation on that?"

I shrugged. "It depends."

Xana looked back at Krel. "Okay, if they don't, feel free to kill them."

Krel sighed, looking at Xana before holding him in another embrace. Xana expected this one a bit more, so he just stood there and hugged back.

"I'm gonna miss you," Krel said to Xana through the hug.

Xana sighed. "I'm... I'm gonna miss you, too."

She held onto him for a moment more before finally letting him go, standing back and looking at the floor. Xana's gaze landed back on me.

"Take care of her, okay?" He commanded.

I gave him a salute. "Your orders, captain."

He smiled at that.

And at last, he nodded us both farewell as he faded away.

Krel exhaled sadly.

I put my hand on her shoulder. "I doubt there's anything we could've done to stop him."

She took a deep breath. "Y-yeah. You're right."

I looked out the window. The city still burned. "We need to stop the demons and put out this fire. Come on."

Krel nodded, and followed me as we flew through the smoke outside through the balcony.

————

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