Chapter 29

Ashes To Ashes

'You… Do you have any idea what you have done, you… you little bitch?!'

Seeing all of his efforts to make this world go down with him, the fruits of his seemingly endless search that balanced on the edge of being a cruel quest of torment for the key that could grant him this wish, literally crumbling to dust in front of his very eyes, watching the creation he had shaped with the use of the incredibly rare ability the blonde ghost hunter had no idea he had always possessed and the powers he had literally given away his very soul and heart to falling apart like a faulty-build structure with its jaw fully slacked when it hunched over as if it emitted its final, unheard, dying breath before this part of the colossal skeleton too would disintegrate into fine, off-white dust and add more to the piles that were quickly swallowed up by the pools of black liquid below… it all came rushing back to Malakai Black with an intensity that burned with the flames from Hell itself, unable to be held back with any sort of restraint. With nothing else but the purest kind of rage spewing from his eyes, it instantly gave them a way more frightening appearance, more so when his cold stare could instantly freeze one's very soul to the core; it gave the sharp blue-greyish hue in his eyes something downright demonic. Slipping away from the eerily composed air he had always carried himself with, having held onto that mindset during the moments he had come this dangerously close of giving into the same anger he had blindly fallen into many times before in the past had affected his hair in some kind of way as well, with a few long, dark brown strands falling in front of his face that had formed the most horrifying of enraged masks. Veins in his neck and the sides of his head swelled up, bulging underneath his reddening skin.

This was her fault.

All of this was because of that wench in front of him, kneeling into the mix of black ooze and ashes with her semi-unconscious traveling companion in her arms, who had refused to die not once, but twice.

Cora wasn't going to lie about it; looking straight back at Malakai instantly struck her with a huge sense of dread, all because of the rage that was radiating from his face like a toxic, burning wave of radiation, making her slightly back away and hold her breath. She had done it now, she knew. Nearly all of the Infected he had sic upon her like bloodthirsty hunting dogs had been destroyed by her flames (and the spirits behind the glowing tear in the sky that was the gate to the afterlife were not yet safe from being pulled out of their world and be corrupted, seeing how transparent, humanoid shapes were falling through the tear and tumbling down from the sky while screaming in fright at the top their lungs) and he could have still been willing to send them after her again with the order of ripping her to bloody pieces, but judging by the rage that had clearly engulfed him at this point, something inside Cora was telling her that this might not be the case. Not anymore. Something absolutely monstrous had been awoken deep inside of Malakai Black, and she was the one who had done it, having put the kibosh on his misanthropic grand plan by laying waste to the towering abomination he had briefly turned Darby into; the same abomination he had needed to pull off all of that.

Malakai's breathing had grown heavy and rapid, losing more and more control over himself by the second.

'You have done this!' he bellowed at the ghost huntress, sending droplets of saliva flying out of his mouth. 'I knew I should have killed you from the moment I brought you here! Vuile teef! All of this is your fault! All of my work, everything that I have done to make this happen… only to be brought to ruin by the likes of you?! You… You will taste death for this!'

There it was again; the sharp, painful, stabbing pain behind his eyes, poking at the soft tissue with their sharp tips, almost begging him to be let out, as if they could feel that their time had come at last, egged on by something that had been growing inside of his body ever since the night where he had given up what had made him human. The darkness inside of Malakai black knew it was coming. It knew that there was nothing left that could hold it back anymore. Feeling this, it clawed itself all the way up to his throat, causing his voice to distort into an unnaturally deep, highly disturbing pitch, which would become apparent soon enough. Blackness traveled through every vein in his body, spreading itself like the cancer it had always been, decorating his entire body with visible veins that rotted underneath his skin, from his hands to his face. As soon as this happened, Malakai began to violently convulse uncontrollably, but not once did his irate, hateful, piercing glare shift away from Cora and Darby.

'Die… all of you… die…!'

Malakai was then literally blinded by his own rage, letting out one last scream when his sight was taken away by a pair of long, curved, sharp, hard protrusions that burst through his eye sockets. Immediately after this happened, his whole body was swallowed up by an explosion of black mist that was strong enough to make the entire building tremble and send a gasping Cora sliding across the ruined concrete with Darby still in her arms, who in turn emitted a soft groan and parted his eyelids for a few millimeters, though thankfully not far enough to come this close to be knocked over the edge. The ghost huntress quickly covered her nose and mouth and those from Darby as well with the sleeves of her jacket, squinting her eyes and feverishly darting them from left to right in an attempt to catch a glimpse of Malakai, or anything else in the thick, fog-like blackness, though this turned out to be next to impossible; for one split second, she feared that she had gone truly blind this time. However, it didn't take all too long for the dark mist to die down, thinning out before disappearing in the air that had grown significantly colder as this hellish night went on. Where… Where did Malakai go? What happened to him? What the hell was all of this? All these questions wildly danced around in Cora's head, and all of them were promptly silenced when she could finally see of what exactly had happened to Malakai Black.

In wide-eyed horror, Cora realized that whispering a barely audible 'Oh God…' wasn't going to do her any favors right now, because looking at the half ghost's new appearance would only go on to prove that there was no God in this universe. This… This was the embodiment of everything that was unholy. Crawled out of the deepest, darkest, fieriest pits from Hell and surfaced into a world where the existence of this eldritch creature being would simply be considered being only possible in fiction and nightmares. But it was right there, standing in front of her, having shed whatever shreds of humanity it had possessed mere moments ago, all because it had given into the darkest of rage, amplified by the most abominable kind of magic.

Malakai Black was gone. Or at least, his previous form was now gone. He had fully given himself over to a transformation that would reveal his strength in its true form, at the cost of losing all of his self-control. The size of the colossal monster in front of Cora and Darby noticeably dwarfed that of the giant skeleton he had previously turned the latter into, which was complimented by the pair of thick, gigantic antlers that had sprouted from his eye sockets with a massive splatter of black ooze. No, they did not resemble those that the Infected possessed in the slightest, instead shaped like the massive horns that grew from the skull of what could only be described as an ibex, strongly curved, ridged from the very tip to the bottom and sharp enough to impale anything on it. The abomination still held onto his humanoid form, though now completely void of any sort of muscle, causing his inky black skin to wrap itself so tightly around every single bone that it looked like it could tear open if any more pressure was applied, rendering his stomach as an empty, hollow cavity covered by a thin sheet of skin. All fingernails on his elongated, massive hands had shaped into razor sharp claws that could rip apart anything in his path. A single, deep, inhumane, ragged breath escaped past the two rows of countless teeth stained with pitch black rot, now fully exposed since there were no longer any lips to hide them. No nose could be spotted on his face either, but what could be seen however were the few strands of hair that remained glued onto his skull.

This is what blinding rage infected by black magic had done to Malakai Black; this is what had been growing inside of him all along, waiting for the moment to finally come to fruition and destroy anything that contained life, one way or another.

Just as tiny, brightly burning flames began swirling around Cora's fist, something began to ominously rumble underneath the roof, which was quickly followed by the loud sound of breaking concrete and creaking metal. Malakai's new, towering form may have strongly resembled a humanoid who had been left to starve for months on end, but the weight that was created by his gigantic size proved to be too much for the aged, highly neglected structure that had kept Blackthrone Asylum standing for so many years to successfully support. And before Cora could even let out a gasp of shock, everything around her literally fell apart with an ear-deafening crash, even right underneath her own feet. Looking down, she watched in terror as the rooftop gave way, crumbling into massive chunks and dooming her to plunge down into the shattering depths below that was quickly filling up with thick clouds of dust, feeling the wind rushing by her body as she fell. But she wasn't the only one who was falling down into the rising clouds of dust from this startling height; the towering frame of Malakai's new body was first to disappear into the dusty depths, but thankfully her grip around Darby was strong enough for him not to slip away from her arms. Sure, feeling the incoming wall of black fog brushing against him may have helped him to regain some of his consciousness, but what truly turned out to be the key of fully snapping him out of his was the feeling of falling seemingly endlessly into nothingness, accompanied by Cora's high-pitched scream. The blonde ghost hunter's eyes immediately snapped open, only having mere seconds to fully realize what was going on. Looking at the fast-approaching ground below them, it instantly became perfectly clear to him, letting out a soft gasp as the realization struck him. It was these same few seconds he needed to make an ability that hadn't made itself apparent not once during the years he had been living the ghost hunting lifestyle emerge in the blink of an eye, and it sure as hell couldn't have come at a better timing. As Cora firmly squeezed her eyes shut but Darby's sight remained focused on what was coming to them, slightly transparent purple energy manifested itself around them in the shape of an orb, completely swallowing them up before it finally disappeared into the clouds of dust and struck the ground with an astounding impact. It was right after this that purple energy vanished, like an oversized bubble pricked by a needle that matched its size, leaving them to lie down in the midst of debris and dust of varying, earthly colors… miraculously without a single scratch or bruise to be found on either of them.

But despite this, Cora's head still felt like it had been relentlessly kicked over and over again, causing her to let out a weak groan when she slowly sat up and opened her eyes, immediately forced to rapidly blink them by the fine particles that were floating around them. They found their way in her lungs too, making her loudly cough, her throat feeling raw and painful. Once she managed to part her eyelids for a little bit, just enough to keep her eyes protected from the lingering dust, she could see that Darby had already been able to fully sit up, looking around in a slight daze but thankfully appearing unscathed as well.

'Darby…' she said before letting out another cough. 'How… How the fuck are we still alive?!'

'Don't look at me, this is all new to me too.' the blonde ghost hunter groaned in response, having to let the realization that he had unlocked the ability to shield them from lethal impacts sink in for a brief moment. Whatever amount of dazed sensation still lingered in his head instantly vanished when he finally got a good look at what exactly had caused the entire asylum to come crashing down like a house of cards once all of the dust had settled down, which only took a few seconds at most. Rustling dust and the smallest bits of debris could be heard all around them, which fit in perfectly with this new environment of chunks of concrete, dented metal, broken furniture, snapped wood, shards of glass, shattered tiles and crooked iron wires, stretching as far as the eye could see. And right there, in the midst of this wasteland of ruin and debris, the new form of Malakai loomed over it all like its gigantic, malevolent ruler, appearing to have survived the fall as well. This, however, did not mean that he had been able to fully absorb the devastating impact. Both of his kneecaps had gotten the brunt of it, rendering them into a shattered mess of large shards of bone and black liquid, forcing the colossal abomination to support himself by using his arms. Ooze bubbled in the back of his throat as Malakai let out a gurgling, unnaturally low-pitched, furious growl, allowing said ooze to cascade down his slacked jaw.

'No, wait. Don't tell me.' Darby said as they both stared into the direction of the ungodly giant that was only mere meters away from them. 'Let me guess… That thing over there is Malakai.'

'Yes. Yes, he is.'

'Thought so.' Letting out a brief, strained groan, the blonde ghost hunter managed to get back up on his feet and brush off a layer of dust from the legs of his black jeans before he looked back up; the skin on the right side of his face had grown transparent in the blink of an eye in the meanwhile. 'Well, this is going to be pretty fucking interesting. Don't you think, Cora?'

'Jesus Christ, just look at him… How the hell are we going to take him down?'

'Simple. We kick his ass, like we do with every other ghost. You see those kneecaps? Yeah, he won't be standing up anytime soon. That should make things a little easier for us. So, what do you say? Still got some fire burning in you?'

The ghost huntress gave him a short but determined nod. 'You bet your ass I do. How about you?'

'I'll be good, don't worry. Watch it!'

Those last two words were emitted with a loud yell as they both saw what was coming to them. Malakai had raised his massive hand high in the air and brought it down with the intention of smashing them into a gory paste, but seeing his hand coming straight at them, both ghost hunters managed to duck away just in time before it could strike them, sending puffs of dust flying everywhere and reducing chunks of rubble into smaller pieces. Cora was the first one to come up with an attack of their own; while she still laid down between the pieces of concrete, wood and tile, she aimed her open palm at the giant hand and succeeded in hitting the malformed appendage with her brightly burning flames, casting a wide, orange glow on the destroyed surroundings in the meanwhile. A deep, rumbling, unholy sound escaped from Malakai's throat that indicated that this did indeed cause pain, immediately pulling his hand back. He then sat up on its shattered knees, arching his back and let out a bellow that was loud enough to make the rubble tremble as roughly three gigantic chains, entirely made of black ooze, shot through his hollowed stomach without breaking an inch of skin, shooting straight at Darby and Cora, the latter being barely able to roll out of the way from one of the incoming chains while the other had to jump away, landing onto the rubble on his stomach. From that moment on, it was like the chains had gained a life of their own, each of them raising high in the air before coming down with a mighty smash in a fashion that was anything but synchronized, altered by sweeping over the entire area every now and then, some of them succeeding in smashing leftover debris into smithereens. All that Cora and Darby could do at this moment was to try their hardest to dodge the attacks by running, diving and rolling out of their destructive paths as much as they could, unable to create a counter attack to buy themselves more time and inflict a good amount of damage.

Cora had been able to avoid an incoming impact from the chains for some time now, but unfortunately, she couldn't get away this time when one of the links struck her ankles with full force when she leapt over them one second too late, causing her to land face-first into the rubble. She looked up just in time to see the chain above her towering in the air, almost like a triumphant predator that had just incapacitated its prey and was ready to put an end to all of it, which was probably exactly what it intended to do when it swung itself down. Darby saw all of it happening, calling out his companion's name from the top of his lungs and running as fast as he could, unsure on whether he could make it, judging by the distance there still was between them, all while jumping over chunks of concrete and metal and at one point being spared from being hit by a striking chain by a hair's breadth. Cora knew what was coming to her. Letting out a shriek, she stretched out her arms in front of her, aiming both of her palms at the chain above her, clenching her eyes shut as two flamethrowers were combined into one and swallowed up the glistening links, making the liquid bubble under its immense heat. As it turned out, the combined flamethrower was hot enough to make the links lose their hardened structure, turning them into nothing more but bubbling, steaming hot blobs of black tar to drip down to the ground before it could swing down on the ghost huntress.

'Son of a bitch…' she heard herself breathlessly say out loud when she saw what her powers were capable of as well. Turning her head, she saw that Darby was only a few feet away from approaching her, but didn't seem to notice another chain that was coming down at him with an alarming speed.

'Darby, look out!' Without wasting any time, she aimed a wide, steady, continues stream of orange flames at the chain, only managing to slightly slow it down this time. An alarmed Darby looked up just in time to see what was heading to him, and in the blink of an eye, the ghost huntress could see his lower arms lighting up in bright lavender, which seemingly protected the skin on his hands from burning as he took a firm hold on the chain once the flames disappeared, even yanking it down. Now grabbing it with both of his hands, he let out a strained grunt as the muscles in his upper arms visibly tensed up underneath the black fabric of his jacket. A few seconds later, the links snapped with a loud pop as they were ripped apart as if they were made by old iron; the chain was immediately reduced to a massive pool of liquid that trickled between the cracks of the debris.

'That was a close one…' the blonde ghost hunter panted as he got to Cora at last, helping her to get back up on her feet. 'Thanks, Cora.'

'Don't mention it. Just one more to go!'

And just like they both predicted, the third and last chain came at them like a giant, severely pissed off snake, shooting straight at them but was avoided when Darby and Cora quickly darted away into two different directions. Believing she had found the perfect way of weakening them, the ghost huntress immediately unleased yet another stream of fire upon the links, hoping to soften it enough for Darby to break it with his own powers. As soon as these flames vanished as well, the blonde ghost hunter held onto the massive links again, ready to snap them in half as well. But just when he held onto the softened ooze that had been hard mere moments ago, the long chain was suddenly pulled back towards Malakai, taking Darby along with him. Somewhere in the rushing wind that deafened his ears, the blonde ghost hunter could have sworn he heard Cora calling out to him. Seeing the kneeling, colossal abomination that was Malakai getting closer and closer by the second, he saw his chance, having seen the perfect opportunity by being dragged towards him. If the strength in his arms could be multiplied by the powers that were coursing through his veins, then it would be the same for his legs as well. The blonde ghost hunter managed to find a steady footing underneath his feet despite the surface being completely made of slightly softened, black liquid, his feet beginning to brightly glow with lavender. When he was only meters away from touching Malakai's skin and before the chain could be fully retracted back into his stomach, Darby jumped up as high as he could, launching himself towards the dark, corrupted giant. An unbearable stench of rot and disease instantly filled his nose when he clung onto him, digging his nails into his skin deep enough to draw small droplets of black liquid, feeling his body going painfully cold upon touching the dead skin, but focused on pouring all of his energy into his arms and pumped load after load of energy into Malakai's body, going as hard as he possibly could. A bellow of pain emerged from the transformed half ghost as it traveled throughout his entire body like raw, agonizing electricity, resting the back of his head against his neck as he did so. From down below, Cora could see the energy coursing underneath the blackened skin, closely resembling lightning on a summer night. Darby had held onto him for as long as he could, but could eventually feel himself slipping away, knowing exactly how to land safely. The blonde ghost hunter allowed himself to let go, and just earlier before, managed to land in the midst of the debris with lightly bend knees thanks to being protected by a short-lived layer of purple energy that had briefly formed around him.

A twitching Malakai would be forced to support himself on his hands and knees once more, ragged, raspy breathing escaping from his mouth; how the ground trembled underneath the impact his hands made as he did this, with Darby gaining some much-needed distance between them by running off. Cora knew that this was going to be one hell of a bold move, but hey, the chance was there and she was going to fucking take it. As fast as her legs allowed her to while trying to maneuver her way through the vast landscape of rubble, dust and debris, she ran towards the weakened corrupted giant with the plan of launching a flamethrower straight into that monster's wide-open maw with the hopes that this could be enough to take him out once and for all, but was this dangerously close to slowing down in her pace when she heard a collection of unnaturally pitched howling and snarling behind her. Malakai's backup, she immediately guessed, oh, for fuck's sake. She didn't need to turn her head to see who, or rather, what was after her right now, knowing damn well that these must be a few of the Infected that had been left to sit on the sidelines up until now, now only deciding to join the battle in an attempt to aid their master. She didn't have any damn time for this. Without the thought of bothering to turn around for this crossing her mind for one moment and to keep on running, the ghost huntress created a number of movement-detecting fireballs to float behind her, and of course, it wouldn't last long before a good portion of them would strike an Infected that came too close to her for her liking, accompanied by loud, pained screeching. By the time she finally got to Malakai, no other sounds which indicated that corrupted ghosts wished to meddle with her plan could be heard, but then saw that Darby was a little ahead of her with the next step in defeating the transformed half ghost.

It almost hurt Cora's eyes to look at them, that's how brightly Darby's arms shone as he unleashed a barrage of hard-hitting punches on the left wrist, clearly trying to weaken it before moving on grabbing onto it with both of his hands, once again trying to overflow Malakai's rotting veins with powerful energy. And once again, this worked, causing it to buckle and his massive lower arm to land into the rubble, angling his upper body.

'Darby, I got this one!' Cora called out to him. 'Hang in there, I know wha-'

But just when she was this close to reaching her traveling companion, the rotting abomination brought down his right fist down between them with a tremendous force, knocking the ghost huntress back to the ground. And just before she was able to launch off an attack of her own, her body was ensnared by the tight grip of Malakai's hand, effectively squeezing all air out of her lungs and feeling her ribcage suffering under the immediate pressure, hearing herself letting out a strangled scream. She was then relentlessly flung away with startling speeds like she was some sort of ragdoll, flying straight into one of the few walls that had survived the asylum's devastating collapse, hitting it hard enough to shatter it into pieces and bury her in it.

'Shit! Cora!' Darby exclaimed, running towards her. But this attempt to get to her came to a prompt end when it appeared to be his turn to be found by Malakai's hand, clenching itself around the blonde ghost hunter's body, putting it through the same pressure as it did to his traveling companion. Before he knew it, more and more distance was created between his dangling feet and the rubble below as he was lifted into the air. Fuck, he hoped that she hadn't been knocked out cold and would hear this, he hoped this so fucking badly, because right now, she was going to have to give it her all.

'Cora! Get up and burn the fuck out of him!' he yelled as hard as he could at the pile of crumbled bricks down below. 'Don't worry about me, I will figure something out, just burn him! And don't you dare to hold back! Get up! Cora! Burn him! Burn him!'

He couldn't see it anymore at this point, but thankfully enough, some movement could be spotted underneath the rubble, which was quickly followed by Cora crawling out of there, hair and clothing whitened by the dust that had showered her upon impact. Despite her head feeling like it was this close to exploding into pieces and she had to suppress the urge to spill her stomach's contents all over the ground, she could hear her traveling companion loud and clear, even during the very few seconds she had been covered by shattered bricks, and even when he was being lifted further into the air. There was no time to lay there and stare up in utter shock, no time to nurse her pounding head while attempting to fight off the dizzy spell that clouded her mind. Each time she inhaled and exhaled, her breath strongly shuddered, but she managed to get up. Her pace first began with a stagger, but the longer her eyes remained fixated upon the shape of Darby trapped within Malakai's fist, the faster it became, eventually turning into a sprint. Every single Infected that sought to lunge at her during this run would be met with a movement-detecting fireball to their disfigured faces, which in turn would knock them straight back to the piles of debris, writhing in pain until they would be reduced to thin, black fog. Determination that burned just as brightly as the flames she could produce grew inside of her as she ran towards the colossal abomination who had once again found some support in his ruined knees, which allowed him to raise Darby higher in the air. The ghost huntress didn't even want to think about what could happen to him next, but whatever it would be, she could prevent it from happening if she would get there as quick as possible. The insides of her throat stung with pain and her heart was beating with the power of a jackhammer, but she kept running whilst gritting her teeth, flames emerging through the skin of her hands and swirling around them. He did not see her coming, too fixated on the blonde ghost hunter who failed to break free from his grip despite shooting load after load energy into his hand, all of them lasting too short for them to have any effect. This was her chance, Cora knew.

Now that she was standing right under him, she raised her arms, aiming both of her palms at him. Holding her breath, Cora shot the longest streams of fire she could produce, merging them into one once again. But just as the first flame could touch Malakai's gigantic, emaciated body, she saw something that made her heart instantly drop to her feet, widening her eyes with horror.

Darby could feel himself being flung in the air like he weighed nothing, feeling the entire world around him spin for a few seconds. Damn it, he couldn't help but think, much to his frustration. Of course those attempts of breaking free from that fucker's hand weren't going to work, because he had nearly used up all of his energy. Not only had his last-ditch attack back at the stairwell eaten up a good chunk of it, but he had also poured another massive portion of it into Malakai's body as well earlier. That's why he felt a heavy sensation clouding his mind as soon as he released those short bursts of energy, that's why none of them were powerful enough to blast this fucker's hand into smithereens. Then, when the time came for gravity to do its work and abide by its law, Darby could feel the wind rushing past his body once he fell down. Staring down at the approaching ground, he quickly realized that Malakai's throwing angle had been a little off, to say the least. Because as it looked like right now, it was almost entirely safe to say that he was going to land on the colossal abomination himself instead of crashing into the wasteland of debris that had once been the Blackthrone Asylum, more than likely to land on one of those horns.

The blonde ghost hunter knew that he was running low, really low, but then again, if he would scrape together all the strength, stamina and energy that was still left within… there would still be room for one more, after all.

One more attack that would be a surefire way to lay waste to that half-dead, giant motherfucker that had the gall to use him for his fucked up little rituals.

As he managed to turn himself around in the air, now with his back facing the rapidly approaching corrupted creature below him, he could hear a long, enraged scream from the depths, loud enough to overlap the whistling of the air rushing past his ears, undoubtedly belonging to none other than Cora Jade. She had definitely heard him yelling at her to set the fucker on fire, because the scream that rang through the night was immediately accompanied by a massive cloud of scorching flames, striking Malakai in the chest. As a response to this, the abomination fell down once more while bellowing in sheer agony, this time only able to support himself on his lower arms. The blonde ghost hunter may not have seen this, but this had caused Cora to fall onto her back, forcing herself to keep the flames coming now that there were only a few meters between her and Malakai, not once ceasing to scream in absolute rage, with a fiery hint of determination mixed in it. Just then, as Darby glanced over his shoulder, he could swear that he saw the flames change their color from a bright orange to sky blue, causing him to widen his eyes in surprise, unable to hold back a light chuckle of surprise.

'Holy shit… who knew. Keep it going, princess.' he mumbled before looking up at the sky, knowing that it was only a matter of seconds now. Right when he closed his eyes and crossed his arms in front of his chest, a purple glow enveloped his entire body from head to toe. Any moment now… and all of this would be over.

Two powers brought along by the ability to see ghosts were bundled together on that very moment, trapping the monster that was Malakai Black between them. Burning blue and bright purple, working together as one… bringing out all the strength their wielders possessed, empowered by their determination and bravery.

Parts of Malakai could briefly be seen disintegrated right as a blinding flash of purple struck his back before falling completely silent.

It all came to an end at last in an explosion of purple and ashes.

How long had she been forcing herself to keep using her fire? How long had all of this lasted before the last bit of strength she needed to come out and dyed every flame into sky blue?

Slowly lifting her head, Cora found it hard to remember, feeling like she had been doing it for an eternity, while in truth it had only lasted for less than a minute. Her limbs felt numb, especially her arms, which she was nearly unable to lift, as if they had been filled up to the brim with lead. She took a deep breath, focusing on regaining some sense in them. It took a little moment, but it worked. The ghost huntress carefully moved them around, positioning them to get ready to support her upper body. This too took a little moment, but she surprisingly regained enough strength in her muscles to pull this off too. She opened her eyes, letting out a soft groan, hearing herself slowly panting afterwards. Bits of concrete and wood were poking into stomach and legs, which just so happened to be the only pieces of debris not to be covered by a fresh layer of black, fine ashes, which continued to fall from the sky like dark snow. There was no longer any eldritch being that was being torn apart by darkness inside to hover above her that tried to claim her life, only the silence. Nothing else but that. So much so that it was almost unsettling to her.

That's when she saw it, right in front of her, so close that she would only a have to crawl for a bit to get a better look at it. The ashes that had once formed the towering, demonic creature moments ago gently rained down on what was left of the man who she could recognize as Malakai Black despite the fact that there were two empty holes in his head where his eyes once had been. His legs and lower body may have very well been turned into one of the millions of floating particles that covered everything in their proximity, and the rest of his mangled remains would possibly suffer this fate as well if they were to be touched by a mere finger. This was most definitely why his breathing was short, shallow and controlled, his crumbling, blackened lungs trying to breathe in whatever air they could get at this point. But even if there was nothing to touch it, it didn't stop his body from slowly disintegrating into black ashes either way. This was the crumbling shell that had once been a human being; a man that had been consumed by the purest kind of darkness and was relentlessly spat out by it once it was done with him, having taken its toll on him at last.

Needless to say, Malakai Black was dying.

Even though he had been capable of the worst things imaginable, even though that he had gone to such great lengths to accomplish his goal… Cora still felt the need to slowly crawl towards him, dragging herself through the ash-covered debris. The closer she got, the more labored his breathing grew, which would prove to be disastrous on his insides, deteriorating and adding to the fine ashes around him. When the ghost huntress laid down next to him, it seemed that could still sense her presence, because he let out a weak yet surprised gasp when Cora reached him.

'Go to Zelina…' the ghost huntress calmly said, her voice soft with a genuine hint of comfort. That was all she had to say to him. She could have yelled some truly horrendous things to him, yes, but after everything that he had told her earlier, after seeing all the pain and suffering he had gone through in the past… this felt more fitting to her.

Despite missing his eyes, Malakai still looked up towards the darkened heaven above him, inhaling one more time before his lips parted. It was so odd to see that he was not suffering the worst pain imaginable, his rotting face instead radiating with something that was strangely… peaceful.

This was because he didn't need any eyes to see the light that was growing larger and larger in the darkness, taking him back to the mornings where he experienced the best kind of tranquility… by watching the sun rise behind the many buildings of the cities, feeling the warmth of the first rays of sunshine peeking into the bedroom. That same sense of peace washed over him now, along with the sensation of Zelina's warm, soft body pressing against his, swearing that he could actually feel this.

'The sun is rising…' he softly spoke.

The ghost huntress frowned in confusion upon hearing this, looking up at the night sky that was many hours away from being lightened up by the morning sun. What was he talking about? Looking back down, Cora found out that there was no longer any opportunity to ask him this, because whatever was left of Malakai Black had disintegrated into a large pile of black ashes. Her eyes slightly widened as she let out a gasp, covering her mouth with her hand. The pile of ashes remained next to her until a strong gust of summer evening wind swept it away, scattering it into the night.

Several pairs of antlers promptly fell to the ground as there was no longer any corruption to infect them as the very few souls that had remained here after they had been ripped out of the afterlife were able to shake off the dark magic that had corrupted them to the core, regaining their original bodies in the blink of an eye and ascended back into the sky in a silent stream, heading straight towards the glowing tear that would lead them back home. Immediately after the final spirit had found its way through the gate, it seemed that there was nothing needed to close it back up, healing itself like a wound on a living being until it completely disappeared.

'Darby!' Cora suddenly exclaimed, looking around with widened eyes. Oh God, where was he? Had that explosion been because of him? Where did he go? Was he still… Trying her hardest not to think of the worst possibility she could think of, the ghost huntress got up and stumbled through the ash-covered landscape of debris, hoping from the bottom of her heart to catch a glimpse of him, no matter how small it would be. And it didn't take long before this happened, but the sight made her heart drop to her feet as if it had been turned into stone.

Lying there in the midst of the rubble was Darby, his eyes closed and his limbs spread out as if he was caught in a deep sleep. There were no traces of blood to be found anywhere, but still… why didn't she see his chest raise up and down? Oh God, no, please… Exclaiming her companion's name once more, Cora ran towards him, almost coming close to tripping over chunks of concrete and wood a few times, falling down to her knees as soon as she got to him.

'Wake up, Darby! Please! It's all over now, we have won! Darby, please! Wake up, come on! Darby… Darby…'

But the blonde ghost hunter didn't open his eyes; she couldn't see him breathing either.

'No… oh God… no…'

Burning tears welled up in Cora's eyes as the worst outcome had seemingly become a reality for her. Her breath heavily shuddered as she carefully hooked her hands underneath Darby's arms, pulling him in for an embrace, burying her tear-stained face into his dusty shoulder as she sobbed her heart out. This couldn't be… This wasn't real… Darby couldn't be…

The man who she had grown to love so much couldn't be gone…

The wet eyes of the ghost huntress flew open when she suddenly heard a soft groan escaping past Darby's lips and felt a pair of arms hugging her back, tighter than she did. Squeezing her eyes shut, she allowed more tears to flow down her cheeks and soak into his jacket.

He felt that same strange but pleasant, comforting warmth in his chest as well, but he didn't need to say it with words to let her know this. They both could sense this. They both knew. And they fully accepted it.

Not a word was spoken between them for what felt like the most beautiful, wonderful century in existence, only holding each other in their arms.