By the time the third barrier collapsed, no one bothered pretending things were under control.
"Left flank, hold it, hold it, don't let it through!"
The shout cracked over the comms, immediately drowned by the sound of something heavy slamming into reinforced concrete.
The impact shook the entire street, a tremor that ran through boots and bone alike, followed by the wet, tearing sound of something giving way.
It was not the monsters."Barrier's gone!" someone yelled. "Repeat, barrier is-"
Static swallowed the rest.
A shape surged forward through the collapsing light, its silhouette stretching under the flickering glow of the remaining formation arrays.
Four meters at least, maybe more when it straightened. Its limbs dragged for a fraction of a second before catching up with the rest of its body, like reality itself was lagging behind it.
Then it moved.
Fast.
"Down!" The warning came too late. The creature's arm swept across the street, crushing a parked vehicle as though it were made of paper. The shockwave alone sent two exorcists off their feet, their bodies skidding across asphalt slick with something dark and thick.
Blood.
There was too much of it.
Not all of it human.
"Team Three, respond!" No answer.
A burst of gunfire lit the scene, the enchanted rounds striking the creature's torso in rapid succession. For a moment, it staggered, its body rippling unnaturally where the bullets hit, the impact delayed, like the damage needed time to catch up.
Then the holes closed.
Like the flesh simply decided it had never been injured.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," someone muttered, voice tight.
"Core! Aim for the core!" another shouted, though no one could clearly see where it was.
That was the problem.
These things did not follow rules.
Sometimes the core was where it should be. Sometimes it shifted. Sometimes it hid.
And sometimes, by the time you found it, you were already dead.
"Fall back to secondary line!" the squad leader ordered, his voice strained but steady.
"Don't engage head-on, buy time-" The ground lurched again.
Another one had emerged.
Then another.
The air near the breach warped, the space itself twisting as the abyss gate pulsed faintly at the far end of the street. It was not fully open, but it did not need to be. What had already slipped through was enough.
More than enough.
"How many is that now?"
"Seven confirmed! Maybe eight, no, wait-"
The number did not matter.
They were losing.
It showed in the way people moved, in the hesitation between commands, in the gaps forming where there should have been coordination.
Even the formation arrays flickered more often now, their light unstable under the pressure.
Another impact. Another scream cut short.
"Command, this is Unit Lead," the squad leader snapped, switching channels, his voice hardening. "We need immediate reinforcement. I repeat, immediate reinforcement. This is an S-rank breach, we cannot contain this with current personnel."
For a moment, there was only static.
Then a voice answered, calm to the point of detachment. "Request acknowledged."
The leader exhaled sharply. "Then send them. Anyone. We'll take anything at this point."
A pause. "Reinforcement dispatched."
Relief flickered briefly.
"How many?" the leader asked.
Another pause.
"One."
The word hung in the air.
The leader blinked. "...Repeat that."
"One unit is being deployed."For a moment, even the battlefield seemed to quiet.
Then someone laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because it wasn't.
"You're joking," one of the exorcists said, breathless, half hysterical. "That's a joke, right? One? Against this?"
Another creature tore through a barrier in the background, its roar distorting the comms into static.
"Command, clarify," the leader said, more sharply now. "We are facing multiple S-rank entities. We need a squad, not—"
"It is sufficient."The response came immediately this time.
The leader went silent for a second, jaw tightening as he glanced toward the breach, toward the towering figures advancing through the ruined street. "…Who are you sending?"
There was no answer.
The line cut.
"Oh, that's great," someone muttered.
"That's really comforting." Another exorcist wiped blood from his face, leaving a darker smear behind. "Maybe it's a miscommunication."
"Yeah," someone else replied dryly, raising their weapon as another creature stepped over a collapsed structure. "Maybe they forgot to add a few zeros."
"Shut up and focus!" the leader snapped.
"We hold until-" A sharp, cutting whistle, slicing cleanly through the chaos.
Something moved above them.
"Wait-"A figure dropped from the sky.
He landed without a sound that matched the height, his boots touching down lightly against the blood-slick ground, the surface barely disturbed beneath him.
The nearest creature reacted instantly, its massive arm swinging toward him.
The figure did not look up.
A flash of metal.
The limb fell, cleanly severed.
Silence followed, brief and disbelieving.
The creature staggered, its body struggling to process what had just happened. A beat passed, then another, before the severed limb hit the ground with a heavy, wet sound.
"…Oh," someone said faintly.
The man straightened.
Silver hair, stained dark at the ends. A dagger in his hand, unremarkable at first glance, until one noticed how little force it seemed to require. His posture was relaxed, almost casual, as if he had stepped into something far less chaotic than the battlefield around him.
He glanced up at the gate. His expression did not change.Behind him, one of the exorcists lowered their weapon slightly, still staring.
"…They sent one," he said slowly.
Another swallowed. "I think… that's him."
The squad leader did not respond immediately. His gaze lingered on the fallen limb, then on the creature that was already beginning to destabilize, its form shuddering as if something fundamental had been disrupted.Then he looked at the man.
"…All units," he said into the comms, voice steadier now, though something uncertain still threaded through it. "Maintain distance. Do not interfere unless instructed."
"…And try not to get in his way." Another creature roared, charging forward.
Just a single step forward, as though everything that had been overwhelming just moments ago was nothing more than something to be dealt with.
Someone let out a shaky breath.
"…Yeah," they muttered, tightening their grip on their weapon. "One's enough."
*****
The first thing Adrian noticed was the warmth.
The red liquid shifted with a slow, heavy drag, swallowing the sound of his movement while the faint metallic scent of it settled at the back of his throat.
He did not look down. There was no need. He already knew what filled the ground around him.
Ahead, the abyss gate.
It did not resemble anything that should exist. Even looking at it directly, Adrian found it difficult to hold its shape in his mind.
The edges seemed to fold and unfold in on themselves, like something breathing beneath a thin layer of reality. A pale mist spilled from within, curling low along the surface before dissolving into the blood pooled at his feet.
The ground closest to the gate moved.
Something was still pushing from the other side.
What had already come through stood waiting for him.
The creatures were shaped like men only from a distance. Up close, the illusion broke apart. They were far too tall, their bodies stretched into unnatural proportions, limbs hanging longer than they should, bending in ways that made the eye linger for too long.
Their skin gleamed, slick and unfinished, as though whatever had formed them had stopped halfway through.
When one shifted its weight, there was a delay, a fraction of a second where its movement felt out of place, as if it had arrived a moment too late.
Then they roared.
The sound did not strike his ears so much as it pressed against his thoughts, a distortion that made the world feel thinner, less stable.
Adrian did not move back.
"Are you scared, Contractor?"
The voice came from his right, quiet and composed, as though it did not belong to the same place as the creatures or the gate.
Euphine stood beside him.
She looked unchanged, untouched by the blood that reached his ankles, untouched by the weight in the air.
Her black hair fell neatly over her shoulders, undisturbed by the wind that passed through the field, and the faint glow around her form set her apart from everything else without ever drawing attention to itself.
He let out a small breath, something that might have become a laugh in another situation, and allowed a faint smile to settle across his expression.
"No, Euphine."
He turned his head slightly, not toward her, but past her.
Beyond the barricades, past the emergency lights and the scattered figures moving in hurried coordination, the city stretched out in quiet stillness.
From here, it looked untouched. The golden light of the moon rested over it gently, as if nothing had broken through the edge of its world.
For a moment, Adrian let himself look.
The reflection of that light lingered in his eyes, steady and calm.
"You might die." Euphine spoke without urgency, as though she were commenting on the weather, or the passing of time. A simple truth, placed gently between them.
The wind shifted, brushing against Adrian's coat, stirring the strands of his hair. It did not touch her.
He looked forward again.
"So that's all to it." There was no challenge in his voice, no dismissal. Only acceptance, quiet and unadorned.
He stepped forward.
The nearest creature reacted at once. Its arm came down with a force that shattered the surface beneath it, sending the red liquid upward in a heavy arc.
Adrian moved before the impact fully landed, his body slipping to the side as the chain wrapped around his wrist shot forward.
The metal links caught, coiling tightly around the creature's limb.
The sound that followed was sharp, a metallic bite that seemed far too clean for something so crude.
The creature thrashed, its roar deepening as it tried to tear itself free, but Adrian did not give it the chance. He pulled, using the chain to drag the limb off balance, just enough to expose the rest of its body.
He closed the distance without hesitation.
Up close, the thing's form made less sense. Its flesh shifted too slowly, reacting a moment after it should have, as though it struggled to keep up with itself. One of the appendages lashed toward him. He cut through it cleanly, the blade meeting little resistance, and moved before the severed length had even fallen.
Another strike, then another.
When the creature made a sound that almost resembled pain, he stepped back, putting space between them as the chain held it in place.
Behind him, Euphine spoke again.
"Aren't you afraid of dying?"
There was something softer in her tone now, not doubt, but curiosity.
Adrian did not answer immediately. Another creature had begun to move, its distorted form advancing with heavy, uneven steps that sent ripples through the blood around it. He turned to meet it, his attention narrowing as he moved.
Everything else faded.
The shape. The movement. The rhythm.
And beneath it all, the core.
"I am scared, Euphine."
He said it simply, as though stating something obvious.
The creature's arm swept toward him. He lowered his stance, letting it pass just overhead, and used the momentum of his movement to carry him forward. The chain tightened as he pulled himself closer, his body lifting slightly as he shifted his angle, searching.
"Then don't fight."
Euphine's voice followed him, steady, unchanged.
"They won't remember you. You will lose your mortality."
The words lingered longer than they should have.
For a moment, the world seemed to slow, the motion around him stretching just enough for the thought to take hold.
He could stop.
There was nothing binding him here except his own choice. The life he had been given again, the chance to exist without this constant edge, without the quiet understanding that every step forward took something from him.
He could leave but that's not even a choice.
"Euphine," he said, his voice low, almost lost beneath the distant noise of the field, "that's a price I am willing to pay."
The hesitation vanished.
The blade drove forward, slipping through the shifting layers of flesh until it struck something solid. There was resistance, brief and sharp, before it gave way.
Light burst from within the creature, its body convulsing as the structure holding it together began to unravel. For an instant, its shape seemed to collapse inward, folding into itself before dissolving completely.
Adrian withdrew his dagger as the remains fell away.
When he looked up, Euphine was watching him.
There was a softness in her expression now, something that had not been there before. She held his gaze for a moment longer, as if committing something to memory, then inclined her head slightly.
"Then may the blessing of Eternia be with you."
Her form broke apart into fine strands of golden light, scattering into the air before fading completely.
The absence she left behind was quiet.
The remaining creatures faltered, their movements losing coherence as the influence of the gate weakened. Adrian did not stop.
He moved through them with the same measured pace, until, one by one, they fell.
When the last of them collapsed, the field grew still.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then the sound returned.
Voices rose from behind him, uneven at first, then growing stronger as relief replaced tension. Someone laughed, the sound sharp and disbelieving.
Others called out, checking for injuries, for survivors, for anything that confirmed the fight was truly over.
Adrian remained where he was.
The dagger hung loosely at his side, the last traces of dark fluid sliding from its edge and disappearing into the red beneath his feet.
He let out a slow breath.
Only then did he feel it.
A faint chill crept along his arm, subtle at first, then sharper as it spread beneath his skin. He glanced down.
The black markings had extended further, thin lines branching outward from his wrist, weaving into his skin as though they had always been there. They pulsed faintly.
The cost.
He had known it from the beginning.
Adrian closed his eyes for a brief moment, letting the noise behind him fall away.
"Thanks, Euphine," he said softly.
No one answered.
The night remained calm, the city untouched in the distance, resting beneath the same gentle moonlight as before.
Only the abyss, still lingered at the edge of the world.