Adam burst through the doors of Terra's lab, twin blades flashing in his fists.
Naberius stood waiting, all teeth and mockery. "Who told you a stitched corpse could stand before a prince of Hell? Did Frankenstein forget to sew in fear when he built you?"
Adam bared his teeth. "I didn't come back to kneel. I came to end you—and every experiment you've defiled this world with."
The demon prince unfurled into his full form, wings spreading like a storm. "Do you think this is my only laboratory? My reach stretches across the globe. And humanity?" His grin split wide, jagged. "They'll fall with you."
Adam struck first, his speed blurring. His blades bit shallow grooves into Naberius's hide before the demon caught him by the throat and hurled him like a rag doll.
Terra slammed at her console, desperate to shut the system down. Naberius's hand clamped around her neck, lifting her like a doll. "Doctor, you've already given me everything I need." He flung her into a sparking machine.
Adam dove, shoving her clear. The current arced into his body instead, ripping through his patchwork frame.
Naberius sneered. "A monster with sentiment. How quaint." His claws traced bloody runes across Adam's brow—summoning marks, binding scripts meant to call spirits into empty vessels. "You'll never be alone again. I'll fill the earth with legions like you."
The chant rose.
Outside, Li Feng crouched with a sealing scroll, watching a figure in a hazmat suit hurry from the lab clutching a hard drive. Too nimble, too sharp. Li Feng snapped his fingers, folding the alley into mirrored glass.
The old man faltered, eyes darting. "Please… I'm just a caretaker."
Li Feng's blade flared to life. "This is the Mirror Dimension. You don't walk out unless I let you. That drive? It's Terra's data. Two options: step into the seal, or I cut you into pieces and stuff the scraps inside."
The man dropped the act, flesh unraveling into a snarling demon. "When Hell claims you, boy, eternity will be your pyre."
It lunged. Li Feng's cards sliced through the air, his blade carving deliberately shallow cuts. Not to kill—just to maim. The creature fought like a veteran, forcing Li Feng to burn every trick he had. Finally he snapped his fingers, time magic lacing the demon in syrup-thick drag. Limbs fell beneath Li Feng's sword. The scroll flared, swallowing the fiend whole.
Panting, Li Feng pocketed the sealed parchment and the stolen drive.
From the lab, red light pulsed like a heartbeat. Chanting swelled. Li Feng's eyes narrowed. The gargoyles' copied grimoires were flaring, burning lesser spirits—but the stronger ones kept breaking through. Diluted. Incomplete.
He dashed inside, waving the original Key of Solomon. "Leonore! Use this!"
She snatched the tome and opened it, voice rolling through the banishment rites.
Light poured through her. Stone skin dissolved into translucent flesh. Feathers unfurled from her wings, radiant, holy. She wasn't a gargoyle anymore—she was becoming an angel.
Li Feng staggered back. Even looking at her felt like sacrilege. "What the hell—? Beauty's one thing, but why crank the charm aura to eleven? I nearly converted on the spot."
Power roared out of her, annihilating spirits by the dozens. Li Feng's own magic recoiled, his veins burning. His dark affinity screamed under the sanctity. "Great. God's not just frying demons. He's frying me too."
Cursing, he bolted from the chamber. "I bring the damn book and this is my reward? Figures."
Behind him, five blazing soul-fires split the sky, fusing, plunging into the depths.
Inside, Adam's body arched, his true soul tearing free. Naberius's spirit clawed for him—only to be shoved back as Adam seized a shard of metal and carved a final stroke across the demon's chest.
Four lines now crossed Naberius's form, forming a crude sigil of abundance—丰.
The mark ignited like a brand. Naberius's scream shook the lab as his form ruptured, splitting into five spheres of hellfire that tore back to the abyss.
Li Feng, catching his breath outside, muttered, "A doodle takes down a prince of Hell. That's this world's rule set. Don't ask me to explain it."
Naberius didn't die quietly. Lesser demons slipped back into Hell as faint soul-fires, vanishing through cracks in the earth. But the prince's vast spirit tore free like a volcanic eruption, ripping his own fortress apart in a cataclysm of collapsing stone and screaming wraiths.
Li Feng watched, unimpressed. Really? You couldn't just leave like everyone else? You had to rip the wallpaper, floorboards, and dirt out on the way down? Prince of Hell or broke squatter—hard to tell the difference.
He spat in the dust. I was hoping to loot that lair. Payback. Instead, you torch the whole place. Petty bastard.
But when he turned, his sarcasm froze in his throat. Leonore still glowed, wings feathered, skin crystalline, radiance streaming off her in waves. The fight was over, but Heaven's current still ran through her veins. Li Feng twitched. Dear God—or Grandpa, whoever's at the switch—cut the power already. I'm turning into an ice sculpture over here.
Leonore touched her own wings in wonder, then glanced toward the ragged chasm Naberius had torn in the earth. Without a word, she soared into the rift.
Li Feng sighed and opened a portal. "Off to rescue Adam, huh? Beauty saving the beast. Hope the poor patchwork idiot doesn't crisp under all that holy wattage."
Back at the monastery, Li Feng stumbled onto a strange scene: Mordo circling a female gargoyle with laser focus. The warrior flinched under his stare.
Li Feng rubbed his temple. Please don't tell me he fell in love mid-battle. How do I explain that to the Ancient One? 'Sorry, Master, Mordo stayed behind to shack up with a stone statue.'
He half-raised a hand to tease him, then stopped when Mordo snapped, "Look."
Li Feng followed his gesture—then blinked. Sigils glowed faintly across the gargoyle's body, knitting wounds back together before his eyes.
His jaw dropped. They've only had the Key of Solomon for days, and they're already carving runes into their own stone skin? Give them a year and they'll all be Wolverine with wings.
He shook his head. "I'll be in my room, restoring mana. You can keep… studying."
Later, Li Feng sat cross-legged in his quarters, sipping sparingly from the silver flask of holy water. No telling if this stuff will even survive the jump home. Might just turn into poison on reentry.
At one sip a day, he had ten left. Ten days before he had to leave. He eyed the monastery's glowing halls and grimaced. Trapped here, broke, friendless, soaking in divine glow. Maybe being a vagrant's not so bad.
A knock. Ophir stepped in, Key of Solomon in hand. "The Queen asked me to return this and thank you personally. She meant to come herself… but after channeling Heaven's power, her aura overwhelms even us. She remains in seclusion until she masters it."
Li Feng accepted the tome with a bright smile, relief hidden beneath. Perfect. Stay in your room forever, please.
He glanced toward Mordo's chamber. "Still scribbling runes?"
Ophir shook his head. "No. He's on the roof, speaking with Adam. By the way…" His gaze sharpened. "Is it true you saw Adam's soul?"
Li Feng smirked and nodded. Plot knowledge beats eyesight every time.
Ophir muttered about divine rewards, then added, "Before she withdrew, the Queen ordered me to take you to our vault. You may select tools or materials as a token of thanks."
Li Feng's eyes lit. His enchanted cards were running low. Still, he held up his flask. "Any chance of a refill?"
Ophir winced. "The rites are costly. Even if the Queen agreed, too much would blunt the effect. She calculated the safe limit when she gave you that flask. Beyond it, purification fades."
Li Feng sighed. So no infinite grind. Figures. He named a few base materials instead, then returned to his studies. The sealed demon inside his scroll could wait. No chance he'd risk cracking that open inside monastery walls.
Ten days later.
On the training grounds, Li Feng drained the last sip of holy water. Energy surged through him. He raised his hand. A fireball the size of a soccer ball roared into life, circling his body before streaking across the field. It clipped the bullseye and fizzled.
He rubbed his temple. "Fifteen meters? Tracks fine. Beyond that, it's a dumb arrow. Too slow. In my world, arrows don't cut it." He grinned anyway. Progress.
Time to head back. Forge new cards. Refine aim. Faster fireballs. Bullets, not arrows. And next time—real spells. From demons, if I have to.
Leaving the yard, he found Mordo chatting with Adam and Terra. Li Feng smirked. "Making friends, huh?" He shot Adam a sly look. "Congrats on the soul. And the girlfriend."
Adam flushed, Terra turned pink. "Being human feels… good," Adam admitted. "I'm not alone anymore."
Mordo's eyes tracked Li Feng's aura, sharper now. "Heading home?"
Li Feng nodded. Mordo clasped Adam in a firm embrace. "Then so am I. My flight's boarding. Take care, my friend."
Adam hugged him back. "I will. You too."
As Li Feng and Mordo packed, Ophir arrived, offering Li Feng a scroll and a small wooden box that pulsed faintly with power. "From the Queen. Her analysis of the Key of Solomon, and a gift for you." He glanced toward Mordo's quarters. "She's prepared something for him too."
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