The molten rock flowed down slowly, but steadily. And he was left to lay there, waiting for it to consume him. There was nothing he could do but think.

Everyone was going to die. Yurt was going to kill all of them. He wouldn't spare a single soul.

Time passed. And he thought of Yuria.

He was hers in every sense of the word, and she was his. There was no denying or escaping it, it was just the way it was. And if he allowed that to happen…he wouldn't. He couldn't. He had to do something.

And then he remembered.

In his pack there was a fragment of a broken archstone. Energy radiated from it, and he had held onto it more because he could than for any actual reason. Maybe it would be useful; after all, it was magical.

Now, it was his only hope.

His head craned, and he saw his bag, lying under another mound of rocks, across from him. He reached, and his hand wouldn't make it. It wasn't even close.

He groaned.

He tried again, still not there.

Come on, he thought. He clawed at the dirt, and realized that with his enhanced strength, slowly, he was pulling himself forward.

Very slowly.

But slow was better than nothing. And he kept straining, desperately, held down by the weight of the rocks.

He rose from the center of the Nexus, at first looking just like the bound champion before him. And for a moment, everyone seemed to think he was.

Only the blind Maiden frowned, and knew what was about to happen. She dropped her staff, and her mouth opened. Words almost escaped her, but she remained silent.

The soul of Yurt briskly walked toward the religious side of the Nexus. He drew his blade and swung it with him in each of his powerful steps.

There was no stealthy way to do this. He had to move fast.

The blonde woman approached him first, he had never bothered learning her name. He had seen her using a miracle once.

"Excuse me…" she murmured. "Could you-?"

She didn't finish. He brought up his blade and slashed through her neck in the same way he had killed Urbain. The recognition dawned on her, but it was too late, and she slumped forward, gurgling.

Then, there was a panic.

People ran, they clawed at the sides of the Nexus trying to escape, but it was a small area, and Yurt was fast and efficient. He grabbed a running man by the back of his shirt and slit his throat. Another he stabbed in the abdomen, bending his body over his dagger and then throwing him off.

Urbain's former apprentice stood and tried to pull out a mace. He didn't even manage to swing it. Yurt decapitated him, and his headless body floundered.

One after another, blood stained his weapon and his armor, every person who could potentially know anything about the soul arts. Boldwin, the Blacksmith put up the most fight, but he was an old man, and a small, scrawny old man at that. He went down easily enough. Stockpile Thomas hid, cowering. To be expected, but Yurt had no interest in him, the man was clearly a commoner, and incapable of using the Forbidden Arts.

In less than five minutes, the entire left side of the Nexus had become nothing more than a series of bodies. Yurt didn't stop to examine his handiwork. He just flicked some of the blood off his blade and moved on.

And found himself face to face with the Maiden in Black.

She stood there, staring without eyes. This was the one thing he had been afraid of, the one risk that he would have to take. He held back.

"Why doth thou hesitate?" she asked, calmly.

Her hands came up, and stroked her long hair, then moved it aside. She bent her thin, pale neck, baring her jugular to him.

"Takest what thou came for," she murmured.

He pulled his weapon up to her throat cautiously, as if it might be a trick, and then cut across her vein. Blood sprayed out along a trail his blade left, and she smiled softly at him as she fell forward. A pool quickly formed beneath her.

And Yurt kicked the Maiden in Black's body. It rolled down the entranceway stairs, leaving a trail of red behind it.

The mages heard the screams, but by the time they realized what was going on, Yurt had already killed the Maiden. Yuria watched on, wide-eyed, speechless. She wanted to do something, she wanted to stop him, but she was struck dumb by a single question, running through her: Where is he? What happened to him?

Freke's apprentice acted with more agency. "Hide," he said to his master. "I'll kill him."

Freke looked at the young man, and blinked. "No…you're insane. Did you see what he just did? Boy, you don't stand a chance."

"I didn't stand a chance coming here," the apprentice answered. "But I came for you. Hide. Your knowledge is invaluable, and I won't let it be erased without exhausting every option."

"If I'm hiding," Freke said. "Then you're-"

"He's coming over here. Go." The Apprentice said. And when Freke didn't move, he shoved him. "Go! Go now!"

And Yuria saw it. Freke, in his younger days, may have been willing to stand with his apprentice, to fight next to him, but he was an old man and his willpower wasn't what it once was. He backed away, and cast a spell and his body blended with the stone of the Nexus.

The apprentice turned to Yuria.

"I never expected to see you as an ally...but that's how it's become."

"I guess so," Yuria said, grinding her teeth as she looked at the form of Yurt striding across the Nexus, toward them, blood dripping from him.

He killed him. That's what happened. He killed him.

"I have no illusions." The Apprentice said. "I'll distract him. Use your most powerful magic. I don't care if you kill me in the process, kill him."

Yuria just nodded.

He frowned, probably uncertain of her, but he nodded too, and they came out from the pillar they were hiding behind.

At once, the apprentice fired a soul arrow. Yurt swerved out of the way of it and charged the young man. So fast. Yuria thought. Before she could even react, Yurt's dagger had struck. The Apprentice coughed up blood, and along with it, the word, "now."

And inside her, something snapped.

"You have no idea how lucky I am that I found you," he said.

She laughed.

"Why is that funny?"

"Because you think that I'm something you were lucky to find," she said.

He turned to her then, and removed his helmet. Again, she saw his handsome face, his blue eyes and his golden hair. She didn't think he understood how attractive he was. That self-awareness had probably been lost with everything else.

And he looked at her, his gaze intent on her.

"Yuria, you love me. Even though I don't have a name. Even though I'm barely a person. When I first felt something for you, I didn't expect you to return it. I didn't expect you to ever show an interest in me."

"I didn't expect you not to want to kill me," she said. And murmured, "…I'd kill me."

She regretted the words as soon as they left her, "I mean, I wouldn't…I…"

But when she looked up at him, he was staring at her in a way he never had before. The awareness had dawned on him. it was true, he had no identity. But her identity was something black. Something sinful and irreparably flawed. She would never escape her shame for it, and if she could erase it like he'd erased his, she'd gladly do so.

"Listen," he said. "You don't have to worry about that anymore. No one is going to kill you. If Urbain even tries it, I'll take your side in an instant. I'll kill him if I have to."

"You wouldn't," she said.

"No, I would. I'd kill anyone for you. I'd spare a demon if you asked me to. I'd give up my entire purpose. Everything, just so you wouldn't die. I will not let you die, I promise."

"That's not a promise that you can make in this world, not as it is."

"I just made it."

She smiled, despite herself.

"Fine," she said, meeting his gaze. "But I promise you the same then: you won't die."

"That's not fair, I can't die," he said, almost teasingly.

"Exactly how I intend to keep it," she said, her coy eyes batting at him.

He grabbed her, and she felt his lips, then. Warm, and every bit made of flesh. The times when he was ethereal hurt her deeply. He felt like an image of himself, then. Not something that she could cling to.

Not something that she felt safe with.

He killed him.

He killed him.

And then the façade she had been performing shifted and vanished. The walls she held up crumbled, and from within them emerged a beast indiscernible from a demon.

"You killed him!" she roared, in a shriek that didn't sound human. She stretched her arms out, the temperature shot up so fast that the stone surrounding her cracked and softened, and in an instant the air itself began to ignite. Columns of fire burst around her.

Yurt abandoned his dagger in the apprentice and dodged backward so quickly that he didn't have time for elegance. He slammed into the ground and rolled awkwardly. Despite that, he wasn't fast enough. The fire scorched his being and the wispy sound of his soul being damaged rang out. The apprentice, left behind in the flames, was incinerated. His remnants fell to the ground as a charred skeleton.

Some of the fire cleared, but it still burned along the ground and on the pillars. Yuria stood there, her eyes filled with black rage. The stone surrounding her glowed a faint orange, and she stepped over it, ignoring the burned soles of her feet, walking toward Yurt.

Her entire body recoiled with her right hand, and Yurt got up just in time to save himself. When she came forward, a massive blast of darkness and fire flew toward him. He dodged again, and the ray hit a pillar, shredding it as if the stone were parchment. It kept going, and left a massive crater in the wall of the Nexus.

"Yurt!" Yuria screeched, and he covered his ears. There was something else behind the voice, something speaking through her. "You will die…no, no you will not die! You will suffer! I shall hold your soul in agony for all eternity for what you have done! I shall find every person you have ever loved, everyone who has ever loved you, and murder them before your eyes!"

Yurt threw a knife at her, and she glared at it as it flew. When it passed within a few feet of her, the heat incinerated it.

"Really? Yurt, really!?" she screeched. "A tiny blade! That's all you have at your disposal!? You think you can kill with that!? No…let me show you how to kill!"

Again her body reared back, then visibly enlarged. And when she came forward this time, it exploded out of her mouth, as if she were vomiting, a swirling trail of dark, fiery power. Yurt tried to dodge it, but this was not a straight shot. It turned, and it followed him. He ran, he jumped, he ducked and weaved, but it wasn't enough, and the energy kept gaining.

And Freke watched over the side of the stairwell. Awed and fearful.

Is this it…? He thought to himself. Is this really the power of an unrestrained demon's soul?

And while Yurt was an excellent fighter, with excellent reflexes, the dark serpent catching him was only an eventuality. When it did, it wrapped itself around him, the scorching heat burning him even as it crushed him. He cried out, but his cries were swallowed as the energy covered him. The fire burned away at his semi-tangible form.

"I want you to feel it. Yurt," she said. "I want you to feel what it is to be hated. Do you feel my hatred? DO YOU FEEL IT!?"

From inside the swirling mass of destruction, there was no response. Yurt's soul lost its solid form, breaking down, and becoming entirely ethereal. The invisible wisps of Ectoplasm flew toward the center of the Nexus, and there began to reform.

But Yuria couldn't hear that, not over the sound of her own screaming, "I said, do you feel it!? Or are you dead already!?"

And then she felt the dagger thrust into her back.

"Yes, and yes," a voice behind her whispered. "Your hatred for me is rather obvious…but it's also blinding."

No…

"Now I wonder what would happen…" Yurt murmured. "…If I did…this."

And he twisted the blade inside of her, dislodging her spine. She lost the feeling in her lower body, and crumbled.

And on the way down, she roared, she shot more blasts of dark fire, but he avoided them easily. She was stationary. It could only be coming from one place. Finally, he swung his hook, and caught one of her wrists, cleanly severing it.

She screamed in pain, and as she did he cut off her other hand. Then he grabbed her by the neck and pounded the back of her head against the floor of the Nexus.

"Now that you're thoroughly crippled," he said. "Where is Freke?"

She roared, and the surrounding temperature increased. There was another hiss of his soul being damaged.

"That's nice," he said. "But I can't die anymore. Tell me where the Sage is."

"You…you stole it…you stole it from him and you killed him!" she yelled.

"How astute. Freke. Now."

As the blood drained from her wrists, she went pale. Her body began to jerk repeatedly, and she made sharp hissing sounds. It was unclear whether she was laughing or crying, "I'm not going to live long enough for you to interrogate me…may your soul be swallowed by the Old One and fade into nothing."

"Then so be it," Yurt said, and prepared to finish her.

At least a half hour passed, probably longer. But he was making progress. In fact, given the circumstances, he was making a stupendous amount of progress…it was almost there.

His outstretching hand reached the bag, and went inside of it. Moongrass, moongrass, always more moongrass. Actually that could be useful right now. He grabbed a wad of it and stuffed it into his mouth, and he felt some of his pain soothe over, but his hand shot back immediately, even as he chewed. A bunch of useless rocks fell out of the bag (It was the blacksmith's fault. He encouraged him to pick those up.) but he still kept reaching out…and finally his fingers wrapped around something small, but surging with a buzzing energy, as if it were full of static electricity.

He bowed his head to it, as he would an entire Archstone, and whispered:

"The Nexus…take me to the Nexus…please."

And the stone exploded. Tiny fragments shredded the inside of his bag, but energy ran through his finger, and then across his body, and he looked over one more time, to see that the lava had almost reached him. He broke apart into energy, and floated away.

-

His body rose from the circle, gaining material form, and before it was even fully there he saw them. Yurt stood over Yuria, blood dripping from his hooked blade, preparing to swing down.

He yelled out, "stop!" the moment that he could speak.

Yurt turned, "How in the hell did you get back here!?"

Energy shifted, and formed his legs, his arms, his shield and his sword. Once he was no longer suspended, however, he stumbled. Some of his bones may have been broken…the moongrass hadn't fixed that, but he put his weight on the blade of his sword, and carefully helped himself to stand.

"That doesn't matter…get off of her, Yurt. Point that weapon at me," he growled. "To hell with whatever friendship we had. I'm going to kill you."

-

Attention Maiden in Black fans: If you have any Demon's Souls knowledge you should not be discouraged by what just happened.

Attention fans of any other character in this story: Sorry.

Reviews plz.