"If you asked me, Tigreal's going about it the wrong way," Helcurt mused.

Gusion looked up from his dagger. "Come again?"

"Tigreal shouldn't be hunting Alice," Helcurt said. "Yeah, if we take out Alice, there won't be any organisation, but then Alice is quite strong. What's he going to do? Stab her?"

Gusion frowned. "Why wouldn't that work?"

"Regenerative properties-you've got to decapitate them to kill," Helcurt reminded.

"Well then, Tigreal's got a pretty big sword, he can take her head off."

"My point is," Helcurt continued, his tone sharpening. "Tigreal should be trying to get the smaller guys. Do you see Dyrroth trying to take out Tigreal at the start? He's going for people like you-easier prey."

"Tigreal actually started out that way," Gusion recalled. "He cut Lylia up."

"Then what happened?"

"Nothing. That's why-Tigreal kept killing people, and they were replaced time and time again. Tigreal figured to go for the head of the snake."

"Alice."

Gusion nodded grimly.

And suddenly his head exploded.

Gusion keeled over to the side and voices began clamouring in his brain. He screamed incomprehensibly before he realised that the voices were shouting the same thing over and over again.

Kill the girl. Kill the girl. Kill the girl.

Gusion pushed himself up onto his feet and gripped the armrest of his chair as he focused on clearing his thoughts.

"Who's in danger now?" Helcurt's raspy voice dimly sounded, and Gusion punched the wall. Pain flared up his arm and his head cleared, and Gusion breathed heavily as he collapsed back onto the chair.

Helcurt looked at him incredulously. "Are you going to just stay here?"

Gusion finally regulated his breathing and snatched up the landline, before dropping it and running out of the house.

He was aware of Helcurt clambering out of the window behind him, and dashed forward as he reached Lesley's doorstep.

"I swear, you're obsessed with her safety," Helcurt rasped mockingly.

Gusion rapped on the door twice, and Harley opened the door.

"Where's your sister?"

"She's out, hasn't come home for a long time." The door slammed in his face, and then it opened again. "I don't know where she is-she said she'll be back by three."

"You realise it's 8pm?"

"She'll be fine," Harley insisted, but Gusion caught the tremor in his voice as the door closed again.

Gusion turned tail just as his yellow car erratically swerved in front of him, roaring furiously.

It charged right at him and he dived onto the pavement as the car missed him by a hair's breadth, finally coming to a screeching halt.

Gusion stormed up to it and pulled the door open to reveal Helcurt climbing into the backseat from the driver's seat.

"Who the hell taught you to drive?" he angrily asked while closing the door and turning the keys.

"No one taught me," Helcurt replied as the car shot down the road.


It took them twenty minutes to realise that they had no idea where Lesley had gone.

"Well, damn it all to hell," Gusion spoke as they stopped near the pavement. His head was occupied with the ghosts ecstatically screaming.

"Ghosts throwing a party in there?" Helcurt asked as he looked out at the darkness.

Suddenly, the noise subsided and Gusion sat up. "Helcurt," he asked slowly. "Can you sense any dark energy here?"

"Nope," Helcurt replied.

"If Lesley was getting killed, she'd have been killed in ten minutes or less. We've been driving for around half an hour," Gusion continued.

"I didn't know you would be so calm about your crush dying," Helcurt offhandedly commented, and Gusion turned to him. "She's not my crush!"

"Sure she isn't," Helcurt snorted, and Gusion felt the blood rush to his cheeks.

"Shut up!"

"You were saying," Helcurt probed.

"My point is," Gusion said. "Why have the ghosts been screaming in my head for that long, and they've suddenly quieted down?"

Helcurt froze. "It's a trap!"

Gusion heard the sound of a vehicle horn and turned left right as a lorry rammed into his car.


Gusion pressed the red button and the seat belt came loose, and he opened the lock of the car door, wincing as the movement sent pain surging through every muscle in his body.

The door was ripped open, and a purple hand with a bronze razor around it came through and grabbed Gusion's scarf, yanking him out.

Gusion hit the floor and his entire body screamed in protest as he tilted his head and saw a familiar and extremely unwelcome face.

"Oh, come on," was all he had time to say before Dyrroth pulled him to his feet and punched him on his forehead.

Gusion's head snapped back and Dyrroth kicked him solidly in the chest.

"Don't you have anything else to do?" Gusion asked, and his knees buckled as Dyrroth hit him in the throat.

"You and your friend have eluded me for much too long," Dyrroth hissed.

"Give it a rest," Gusion snapped and received a kick to the abdomen for his advice.

"Bold words for someone staring in the face of death."

Gusion pushed himself up. "If you're going to kill me, please don't. It's not good for my health."

"Oh, I'm not going to kill you. Vexana requested that privilege."

Gusion turned to his left to see the necromancer herself gliding towards him, and the puzzle pieces jumped together.

"Lesley wasn't ever in any danger, was she?" Gusion looked at Dyrroth, whose mouth twisted in a wry smile.

"Not for now, at any rate. Vexana manipulated the echoes in your head after we realised that you used it to save the elf," the Prince of the Abyss elaborated.

Gusion tried to stand up but Dyrroth shoved him back, sending him sprawling.

"Not even a fighting chance?" Gusion goaded.

"No, actually," Dyrroth grinned. "I'll save that for your girlfriend."

"Not my girlfriend," Gusion instantly retorted.

"Aw, look who's blushing," Dyrroth mocked.

"Enough," Vexana interrupted. "The time has come."

"Could you please refrain from talking like some whacko priest?" Helcurt's raspy voice cut in as he clambered out of the car.

"And our guest of honour has arrived," Dyrroth's smile impossibly widened, exposing a pair of sharp canines, giving him an oddly vampirish look.

"Guest of honour? He's more of a heathen, actually," Gusion said, his hand going to his knife.

"Thanks a lot."

"Vexana, all yours," Dyrroth turned on his heel towards Helcurt.

Helcurt pounced and Dyrroth dropped into a fighting stance, but Helcurt disappeared in mid-air and reformed behind Dyrroth, landing on his back and raking his claws across it like an angry cat, right as Dyrroth threw him off.

Dyrroth turned around and was strangely unfazed.

Helcurt's tail flicked upward and Gusion realised that Dyrroth's tail was already in motion.

Helcurt's next attack was something Gusion was familiar with.

Dyrroth's was not.

Five stingers burst from Helcurt's tail just in time to meet Dyrroth's barrage of darkness emitted from his tail, which overwhelmed the pink light and hit Helcurt so hard the Shadowbringer was sent flipping end over end before he landed on his side.

Helcurt scrambled to his feet as Dyrroth strode over, and tensed his muscles before howling as blood exploded from the cuts on his limbs where Dyrroth's attack had hit.

Gusion sat up with mounting trepidation as Helcurt visibly grit his teeth and stared Dyrroth down, his blood staining the floor.

Dyrroth's eyes suddenly glowed red, and Helcurt's widened as if he was surprised. "Oh no."

"Oh yes," Dyrroth whispered and Helcurt began shrieking, and his blood began spilling out at an accelerated rate.

"What are you doing?" Gusion shouted at Dyrroth, whose gaze was focused on Helcurt alone.

"Look at the sky," Vexana spoke in that high-pitched whisper, and Gusion looked up.

The final part of the Dyrroth's plan clicked into place as Gusion realised that the moon was full.

He looked at Helcurt, who had arched his back and started screaming, and the red glow in Dyrroth's eyes kept intensifying.

"FIGHT IT!" Gusion shouted at Helcurt, and Vexana's fist hit him, knocking him over.

And then suddenly, the screams stopped.

Helcurt turned to Gusion, his eyes as red as blood.

"You," he spoke in the same chillingly raspy voice that haunted Gusion's nightmares, and he scrambled back to get away from the thing that was once his friend.

"There's new prey this time," Dyrroth called, and Helcurt's head snapped towards him.

"To me," Dyrroth smiled and Helcurt teleported next to him.

"Where are you going?" Gusion shouted, just as Dyrroth tapped the jewel on his chest, opening a hole in the air in front of him.

Dyrroth turned back, and grinned malevolently. "To Lesley's house."

And then they were off, and the ghost of Dyrroth's manic cackle resonated in Gusion's head.

"NO!" he roared as he sprang to his feet, running in the direction they had been in.

A chill ran through his body and Gusion recognised the feeling of Vexana's black-hand attack right as it passed through him.

He collapsed on the floor like a puppet with its strings cut, unable to move of his own volition.

A sharp fingernail dug into his chin and he felt his head being lifted to face Vexana's.

She raised a hand and Gusion felt his heartbeat drop as his vision blurred and a buzzing rang in his ears.

With a muted terror, Gusion realised that she was sucking the life out of him.