Eclipse's body twitched. His lungs slowly sucked the air, screaming in pain. It wasn't enough. They needed more. The demon felt this desire wasn't coming from his lungs. It was emerging from deeper of his being. From a presence, he wished for the last half of the year to remain back in his mind and to never come back.

The world never worked according to your wishes.

The yellow eyes noticed another moving shadow. A huge figure stepped on the roof. It was a mystery how it got there undetected with so many witnesses. However, the people below had no idea what was happening around them. They were immersed in their games and debts, only an immediate danger would wake them from it.

Eclipse held his breath, concentrating his inner energy into all corners of his body. It was a small technique he picked at Master Tikal's lessons. It helped to get rid of the worst fatigue and recovered him a bit. If he wouldn't have such problems with it during the lessons, he might find himself on his feet by now.

He never could concentrate enough to efficiently use it. It never listened to him, the flow either stopped completely, or he got more tired than before. Master Tikal examined his body and found no flaw on his inner circular system. There shouldn't be a problem, yet something was preventing him from doing so. His buzzing head was making the processes harder, but he had to try.

The big creature lifted his body and let the flyer rest on its shoulder. Their faces were silent, unmoving like a stone.

Eclipse's fingers jerked.

The creature tossed him under its armpit.

Eclipse gasped.

He knew he had to get away. He couldn't let Amy or Silver down. Not again. The small demon roared, using his last resort to take them down.

His body got bigger, his muscles grew on number and strength. While he was still smaller than the Black Arms Giant, he pushed it away. The creature barely recovered its balance when Eclipse rammed it.

He needed to take this monster down and fast. A second ago was already late. He no longer could stay in this form. Each second was bringing the small demon closer to him, to Ashyss inside of him. Eclipse was too concentrating on his fight, he overlooked his collar was shining with inscriptions.

Amy leaped back, avoiding a big fist. Her right wrist started to burn. "What's this?" She checked on it, seeing patterns like never before. In all honesty, she never saw her bracelet to shine like this.

Her thoughts were directed toward her demonic partner. This couldn't be a good sign. Eclipse's energy was widely swirling. Something bad had to happen to him, and he had to transform.

Her Master instructed her to not let Eclipse keep this transformation for too long. In it, he was at the peak of his power and could possibly break the link between them. Such action would result in a big backslash wave on her inner energy. In the best scenario, it would leave her devastated from inside with a minimal chance to recover her energy paths.

Amy's crystal blue eyes frowned. She didn't want to forcefully abort the transformation, but if this would go for too long, she might have no other chance. The only way to keep the bounded demon in check was to push against his power, chaining him from inside. She hid the glow under her sleeve. She might tell about this to Silver at a later time. Now they needed to beat their enemies if she wanted to head to Eclipse.

"Keep them busy!" gasped the psychic. "I may have got an idea." His breath was a bit irregular, but his body wasn't controlled by fatigue yet.

"Leave it to me!" Amy leaped forward, pummeling them with her deadly accurate hits.

The lass was agile, so they had a harder time to catch up to her. On a rare occasion, she forced them to collide, but such victory was short living. Their moves were gradually becoming more synchronized, exposing her weak spots in the defense.

'Silver, hurry!' she sent her silent prayer toward him.

Eclipse roared and punched the Black Giant in the stomach. It's huge body stopped moving, recovering from the shock. The flyer attempted to attack from behind with electricity. The smaller demon grabbed its antennas and showed them to Giant's face.

The electric shock numbed them all for a short while, but Eclipse shook it off sooner, uppercutting Giant. Its body was lifted in the air and landed with a loud thud on the roof. It dangerously screeched, threatening to collapse under their weight.

The demon gasped for air. His lungs were burning, and the world around him was dyed crimson red. The creature inside of his head was demanding blood and madness to spread in front of its eyes. Eclipse bit his lip.

'Just a bit longer!'

He needed to last a bit longer. Just one hit, he only needed one hit to take this monster down. With his hand, he crashed the squirming flyer. Its body fluids fell on Eclipse's legs, but he wasn't giving it any thought.

'Where is that spot?' he asked himself, focusing on his enemy. The feeling from inside was raising, endangering his own mind, but he needed it to find the weak spot.

He deeply inhaled, letting the foreign energy circulate his body. The burning feel brought him an unpleasant memory from his training days when he realized there was more in him then his Brother Sirius admitted before he had become a spy.

Eclipse gasped for air. The area around him was mostly dark, with just dim lights barely illuminated the area around them. He listened, and since the silence was deadly eerie, he let out a sigh. His back leaned against a cold stone wall.

His legs were sore, throbbing with pain as he was constantly running. He was trapped here for what felt like an eternity. The time didn't exist in this forgotten place.

He felt the rough surface of the wall with his back. There was something carved on it. He guessed it was an ancient language of race that flourished here centuries ago, but it was equally long since it perished. Only silent rocks remained as witnesses.

He rubbed his belly, trying to silence the rumbling that escaped it. He gulped the sorry excuse for saliva to soak his throat a bit. Nothing satisfied him now.

Eclipse was here for only two reasons; to survive and reach the exit. He only needed to solve two tiny details. He had no idea how the goal looked like or how much time passed. The fact he was half-dead and beaten wasn't helping him.

Master Tikal transported him here with a magical circle, and he appeared in mid-air. The landing was really hard since he was blinded by darkness. He had no tool or weapon with him, and he could use only his physical strength. He was glad he could unseal his demonic powers on his own, thought the wings remained hidden for safety reasons.

The corridors here were narrow, and not just once he rammed into obstacle completely shrouded by darkness. Injuring his wings would only slow him down. If he would just need to navigate through this place, that would be fine, but he was constantly hunted down by Stone Golems.

They didn't look like any mortal he had seen. Their bodies were broad with base shape and round heads with big ears. Their mouths were constantly open, but no sound came from inside. Eclipse was sure they were just puppets controlled by simple circles planted inside of them.

Master Tikal once spoke about such guardians. They could protect a specific area for centuries. The best or worst part of the circle was, it depended on how one looked at it, the puppets were able to reconstruct themselves upon suffering damage. Destroying the circle inside of them was the only way how to stop them for good. Eclipse tried to figure out where their weak spot was, but they rebuilt themselves every time. It was tiring him down.

'Shoo, down there,' he rebuked his protesting stomach. His body jerked, and he grabbed his head. 'Not again!'

For the past days, hours or maybe just minutes he had this feeling growing inside of him. It started as an occasional sting in his head, and the feeling somebody was hiding just behind his peripheral vision. At first, he thought it was because of the golems, but they weren't always close.

He wondered if it was somehow connected to his nightmares he started to have about a month ago. In them, he was mauling and ravaging everything. Each dream ended with him gasping in his bed, feeling the fresh blood in his mouth. Rest of such night was always the longest one.

A few stones fell next to him, and Eclipse's body bolted forward. The golem's fist missed him by hair width. The small demon looked over his shoulder, there was five of them. Eclipse showed his teeth, dashing forward. He had no strength to fight with them.

Every time he brawled with one, more soon appeared. It was like they called each other once one engaged in a battle. Eclipse's best strategy was to retreat before they could circle him. Thankfully, they were quite slow, but it was hard to avoid them in a huge crowd, as the small demon noticed on his own jaw.

Eclipse ran into an area with a lot of destroyed sculptures. It was hard to recognize the original shapes since most of them were missing torso or only legs remained with the rest smashed under pedestals. The small demon hid behind the biggest one with its crushed head laying meters from it.

'Okay, I seriously need a plan! And fast!' He had enough of this tag. 'I have to find that circle in them!' He bit his index finger in an attempt to calm down. 'Smashing it should destroy them for good.'

He took a few deep breaths. He was still tired, but the worst anxiety was at least gone. 'I can smash them easily.' He bumped his tightened fists together. 'I just need to pay attention to spots that won't leave them on the ground for good.' He nodded. After a long time, he felt calmer.

He stood up. It was time to finish this game. Eclipse made a step but halted in the middle of the motion. "Wha--!" he groaned as his throat was suddenly burning. He grasped it in a futile try to do something with it.

His small body collapsed on the floor. The subtle feeling that nagged him for past days returned in enormous strength. He felt something was crawling under his skin, trying to escape. Eclipse bellowed and yelled in pain. His body was boiling, and steam was evaporating from him.

His screams engulfed the sound of closing steps of Stone Golems that were heading to eliminate the intruder. Eclipse had no idea, and even if he had, his brain was filled with a perception of suffering it never experienced.

Everything turned pitch black.