Chapter 454: Hollow Vein XVIII
The beast’s leap tore the valley open. Stone shattered under its weight as the three jaws snapped shut around him, not only to crush but to bind, dragging him toward the pit’s yawning mouth. Chains surged upward from below, coiling like living serpents, reaching to drag him down alongside the monster.
Asher met the rush head-on. His cloak snapped behind him as he vaulted upward, boots pushing off the beast’s lower jaw. The scythe spun once, its arc traced in bloodlight, then cut down through a coil of chains rising to catch him. Sparks burst, links scattering like shards of black glass.
The monster twisted, its three jaws snapping in different directions, trying to corner him midair. One hooked jaw closed in, the bone teeth scraping against his side as it clamped shut. He shoved his boot against a jagged molar, forced space open, and rammed the scythe upward again. The blade split the jaw’s hinge, snapping bone with a wet crack.
The beast screamed, ichor flooding down its chest. Its arms swung wide, claws tearing trenches through the earth, trying to drag him toward the pit’s black center. The zealots below shrieked louder, their cries no longer words but broken howls. Each voice fed into the chains, making them move faster, hungrier.
Asher landed hard, knees bending to absorb the force, cloak throwing up dust. Chains erupted around him, dozens at once, all striking from every angle. He dropped low, spun his scythe in a circle that burst in bloodlit arcs, severing them before they could close. Even so, one caught his ankle, yanking hard.
Instead of resisting, he lunged with the pull. The chain dragged him upward, closer to the beast’s chest where the ragged wound still gaped, lined with screaming mouths. He rode the momentum in, scythe reversed in his grip, and slashed deep across the open wound. Mouths tore apart mid-scream, ichor spraying outward in heavy streams.
The beast staggered back, clawing at its own chest, ripping more of itself open. Dozens of eyes inside its flesh rolled toward him, all focusing, all glaring. Its many voices bellowed as one:
"VESSEL—YOU CUT TOO SHALLOW!"
The pit pulsed harder, cracks racing outward from its edges, ribs of black stone collapsing into the abyss. More chains surged free, not only lashing at Asher, but coiling around the beast itself, dragging it toward the opening as though something deeper below demanded its return.
Asher planted his boots, scythe raised high. His breath came steady, unshaken, as the black ichor steamed off the blade.
"Then I’ll cut to the root."
He sprinted forward as the pit widened, the ground trembling beneath every step. The chains struck again, the beast’s jaws came low to devour him whole, and the abyss opened wider, waiting to swallow them both.
The valley broke apart around them. Whole slabs of stone fell inward as the pit yawned wider, its black air pulling like a tide. The zealots were dragged screaming into it, their bodies snapping as chains coiled around them and dragged them below. Their cries only made the abyss pulse harder, each scream feeding its hunger.
The beast pressed in with its full bulk, jaws snapping wide enough to blot out the sky. Its claws scythed down on either side of Asher, boxing him in, and the chains from its back lashed forward like whips, aiming to drag him in alive. The abyss wanted him whole.
Asher didn’t slow. He cut straight through the storm, cloak trailing fire-red light in the darkness. His scythe moved in vicious arcs, severing chain after chain, breaking through the wall of bone claws. One claw slammed down close enough to gouge his arm, another raked the ground inches from his boots—but he didn’t falter.
He planted his foot on the claw’s wrist, pushed upward, and launched himself straight into the monster’s jaws. They snapped down, bone hooks closing like a prison. For a breath, it seemed the beast had swallowed him whole.
Then the bloodlight flared.
A single brutal arc tore out of the monster’s throat, splitting it open from jaw to chest. Black ichor rained down in a torrent, soaking the chains and burning the stone where it landed. Asher burst out through the wound, cloak soaked black, scythe screaming with light.
The beast reeled, collapsing back toward the pit. The chains tightened around it, pulling it lower, dragging its bulk into the abyss. Still it fought, arms slamming into the ground, eyes rolling and glaring, every mouth screaming in fury.
Its voice, broken across all those mouths, rose once more—louder than the collapse of stone, deeper than the roar of the pit:
"IF I FALL—YOU FALL WITH ME!"
Chains burst out of the abyss, hundreds now, all striking at Asher at once, each one barbed and heavy, each one meant to drag him down alongside the monster. The ground beneath his boots was gone, falling into the void. Only a jagged edge of stone remained between him and the endless dark.
Asher stood at the brink, bloodlight burning off him in waves. His scythe hummed in his grip, the blade trembling with the weight of what he’d carved. He set his stance, eyes narrowing at the collapsing mass of flesh and chains.
"Then I’ll cut the abyss itself."
And he leapt—straight into the storm of chains, straight toward the monster as both were dragged down into the pit’s heart.
The air inside the pit was not air at all—it was weight, crushing down on his chest like the pressure of an ocean turned to stone. The blackness swallowed all sound for a heartbeat, only the burn of bloodlight cutting against the dark keeping Asher from vanishing completely.
Chains coiled from every direction. Some struck like whips, others wrapped like serpents, trying to bind his limbs and throat. The beast thrashed in front of him as it fell, its bulk tearing free slabs of rock that spun like meteors in the void. Its mouths never closed, shrieking without pause, voices overlapping until they became a single endless howl.
Asher cut his way down. Each swing severed links, sparks bursting like dying stars, bloodlight spilling across the abyss. His cloak streamed behind him, a smear of red flame in the black. One chain wrapped around his wrist—he let it tighten, then dragged himself closer to the monster’s chest wound and split the chain along with another row of screaming mouths in a single stroke.