HELLFIRE!

Vanitas cut off the seven heads of the hydra as fast as he could and turned around in the direction where Dominique and the others were.

Suddenly, a large horde of monsters had gathered and attacked the trio trying to get away. They were in a pinch. He had to help them. Elina was in no condition to fight properly and there was no telling how much longer Dominique will last. The only one capable of fighting properly was Eleanor and the number was too much for her to handle alone. Vanitas decided to help her thin the numbers out while he had the small time frame that the hydra took to regenerate its heads. Then once it gets back to normal, he will once again behead it and do the same. Vanitas knew that his strategy was a foolish one that achieved no results. All it did was shave away at his energy. But right now, he had to do this until he came up with a new solution.

He had only run a few short steps when he felt something charge towards him at immense speed. His honed senses made him able to react in time and dodge the black spike of the hydra.

Shocked, he turned around to see that the hydra already had all of its heads back to its necks.

'How the hell did it manage to shorten the regenerative time?!' The answer to that question was in the air. A thick demonic essence filled the entirety of the area. The essence was strong and it felt suffocating. Vanitas hadn't encountered demonic essence this strong before.

'So this strong surge of demon essence is that cause of it all, eh?' Vanitas thought as he dodged the black spikes that had become faster than before.

The human body consists of two fundamental things: the material body and the spiritual body. The material body is only a vessel to house the spiritual body. The most important thing for survival is one's spirit or 'core' and 'soul' as some may call it. The spirit contains everything: the character of a person, their personality, their feelings, and the powers that humans have. It is the essence of life. When the material body is destroyed, the spirit will lose the vessel to contain itself, and thus, they wander in their spiritual form in places where they have died. If the spiritual body is dead, then the material body will have nothing to support it, thus, it dies along. However, when the material body is unfunctional, it doesn't necessarily mean the spiritual body is dead.

These spirits - when they come in contact with the essence of a demon (a part of a stronger demon's corrupted soul), there is a high possibility that they will be corrupted by the evil energy in it which provides the soul with a demonic form along with supernatural powers. That's what gives birth to lesser demons. In some cases, the demonic essence can invade a soul within the material body if both the body and the soul are weak. That is what technically makes a monster.

The process by which humans become able to contract a demon and borrow its power is similar. Humans invite the soul or part of a demon's soul into our world down from the underworld through various offerings. The kind of demon depends upon the type and the value of the sacrifice. The soul of the demon and the soul of the human fight for dominance inside the material body and those who succeed in suppressing the demonic soul become contracted with the demon. The stronger the soul of the demon, the stronger the person with that soul is. However, if the original soul losses to the demon's soul, the demon takes over and runs rampant until it is felled.

This was exactly what had happened with the hydra. It had somehow managed to get more of its demonic essence and grown equivalently stronger.

The hydra this time was giving a really hard time to Vanitas. Although he managed to cut all of its head, it would regenerate almost instantly, giving no time for Vanitas to think of a solution. He was pressed for time and he was equally worried about Eleanor who was fighting an impossible battle a few meters behind him.

While once again cutting off the hydra's head, he looked back to check on Eleanor. And that was exactly when he saw Eleanor get burnt by the fire of the chimera. And...

...that was it.

That was the trigger.

He clicked his tongue.

There was no time to waste.

There was no leeway for him to choose an option.

It was do or die.

Thus, he beheaded the hydra once again with the swift swing of his sword.

In the short span of time he had, he immediately brought out his quill and the sheet of paper from his pocket and quickly wrote down something. Then, clutching the paper in his hand, he rushed straight to where Eleanor and the others were as the now fully regenerated hydra chased after him.

*****

Eleanor was fighting desperately.

She was running out of strength and her body was threatening to give out any moment. But her mind refused to give up. She fired vortex after vortex of wind at the chimera while cutting down one monster after another.

The number of blood swords Dominique had had reduced from three to one.

"Haah.....Haah.....Haah....."

Eleanor wiped the blood off her mouth as she supported her weight with her scythe. Her body was in shambles as were her clothes - torn and shredded into pieces.

Her vision was getting hazy and her eyelids felt heavy. She wasn't able to shoot more of Wind of Choas as the long battle had a significant impact on her soul, wearing it down. She looked at Dominique behind her. Dominique was even worse off with her whole body shaking and trembling.

Maybe the chimera noticed the state they were in as it opened the small mouth in its tail and spewed fire at Dominique. She saw it coming but she couldn't move her body. She had no strength left. The last of the blood sword also vanished and she was down to the ground. The taste of the soil spread in her mouth as she lay helpless on the ground.

Eleanor saw something red approaching her friend. Her vision was hazy and she couldn't immediately make it out. But as the red trail got closer, she started feeling hot. Whatever it was, it was extremely hot.

In an instant, she realized what it was.

'No. Don't. I don't want to experience the same thing again. I don't want to see anyone die in front of me again.' With the horrors of the past flitting in the back of her eyes, she forced her body to move to take immediate action.

She bit her tongue and as the ironic taste of her own blood spread inside her mouth, she plunged herself in front of Dominique and pushed her together with Elina out of the way. The two were pushed back towards a thick bush far from the fire's range.

"Eleanor!" Dominique let out a weak cry as she watched her friend get burnt by the flames of the chimera. Tears rolled down her cheeks as the flame lapped around her body.

Eleanor was not yet dead though.

With the last of her remaining energy, she had managed to create a thin veil of wind all over her body that was now protecting her from the raging flames.

However, she wasn't sure how much she can hold out. There was no way for her to put the flame out and the wall of wind was getting thinner by the moment. She felt the fire burn her right ankle as the veil broke there.

'I am going to die?' She wondered as she felt the veil disappear from all over her body.

For a moment, she could feel the immense heat that was about to consume her whole. She closed her eyes shut in anticipation of the heat and the pain, but...

But, it didn't come.

Her imminent death never came.

The red raging flames had disappeared and she could see something she had never seen before in her hand. It was flame. It was a fire. But it was a fire she had never seen before. It was black. The color of the flame was black and it was eerie. It disappeared before long so she wasn't sure whether it was the truth or it was just her eyes playing tricks on her.

As she stared into the distance, bewildered and confused, a pair of black eyes stared at her that reminded her of the black flame she had seen moments ago.

"I want you to do one thing for me, Eleanor."

She recognized the voice. Deep, kind, and familiar.

"Vanitas..." She muttered his name.

He smiled in return. Then, he handed her something. It was a white sheet of paper. The paper he had written down those symbols on the wall on. But why was he giving it to her?

"Immediately after the battle ends, hand this paper to me. And without fail. Please. Can I entrust this role to you?"

He asked seriously and sincerely.

She tightly clutched the sheet of paper and responded in kind.

"Okay, I will."

She didn't know what it was Vanitas had to do with this paper or why she had to hand it to him immediately after the battle but she will do it nonetheless. From the gravity of his voice, it was clear to Eleanor that this task that seemed simple and meaningless to her was something that was very important to Vanitas. And he had entrusted her with this job. So, she will do exactly that without asking questions. After all, she felt that even if she were to ask him, she wouldn't get the answer to her question of 'Why?' that was stuck in her throat. And the question of why she had not died from the chimera's fire was not as important as what Vanitas was about to do. She could feel the power surging from him.

"Thank you."

He smiled at her and stood back up.

The hydra was right in front of Vanitas and it was opening all of its seven heads targeting him.

But before it could do anything more, it was engulfed in black flames as the words Vanitas spoke reverberated inside the whole forest.

"Ye who is mortal shall burn till ye die; ye who is immortal shall burn till ye live; one thing is for sure, that there is no escaping the clutches of these black infernos that have burned the Heaven and survived the Hell -

- HELLFIRE!"