Grinding and screeching, the cage halted alongside a stone outcropping, and with more energy than I thought my weary body capable I sprang out of that rickety contraption that seemed more deadly than anything waiting beyond. I turned left, and charged through a dark corridor lined with the same squat pillars that crouched below, my keen eyes alit with what remained of the Cinder's waning strength. Fire rolled through my veins as I discerned the gaunt creature who manned the cannon, and surging forward, I shouted a warning to my comrade below.

He glanced up, and his eyes widened in shock; then his face was crushed beneath an orb of beaten iron, tearing his head from his shoulders and shattering his spine. I knew nothing of Olek, knew his name only by virtue of the Keeper, knew his past only through guesswork, yet I felt a sharp pain roll through me, felt the dying fire in my blood swell and writhe; a tidal wave trapped inside my body, smashing furiously through my weary veins. I saw not Olek, but Or'do in that crumpled form, heard his voice when the Hunter cried out in agony, saw Or'do's blood stain the flagstones. I roared in furious challenge, and surged forth.

My blade crunched through the monster's armpit, and with a hydraulic bellow, the stake exploded from its opposite shoulder, hurling the beast from its perch and slamming its limp body against the ground far below, where it burst apart like an overripe melon flung from great height. The tolling or anger's thunderous bell echoed inside me as I turned on my heel, eyes that glowed with hate fixing upon the black clad woman whose bell conjured these foul beasts.

Again, that inhuman roar thrust clawed hands up my throat, and hauled itself from my gaping jaws. I sprang, unconsciously stoking the Cinder, flaring it to a blinding crescendo as my blade arched through the air in a silvered scythe, cleaving through cloth and passing through flesh with similar ease, smashing her head from its mount and casting both nearly three meters away. Flame seethed from my flesh, smoke burned from my jaws, and with a furious cry, I loped along the wall-less corridor behind her, smashing through the bronze door without pause, my form leaving its edges wilting and molten.

Surprise clear on its fat laden face, an obese creature turned upon short legs and leveled its blunderbuss, clearly thinking itself immune to my wrath. It fired, the volley striking my molten flesh and punching through with a sickening crunch, yet I was not slowed, much less halted. I sank my blade into the fleshy jowls that hid his neck, and fired the jagged stake through his skull. Before his obese frame had slumped to the earth, I had already surged past, grasping the lever he guarded, and with its movement unlocking the gate to this realm's Lord.