Or'do stumbled, his blade slaking its thirst upon the stones, driving itself up to the hilt in mired soil. The Dark surged on around him, and within his blood, the Cinder had grown cold. Breath misted from his jaws, curling around his hands and weaving a thin veil around his face as it rose. Another beast lunged toward him, and with impossible speed he wrenched the blade from its tomb and slashed from heel to shoulder, its blade a silvered arc that passed through the monster's twisted wrist, shattering bone and scattering beads of its foul blood across the heaving stone.

Like a jagged crack in its pitted face, the monster's jaws opened wide in a low, keening wail that reeked of agony, yet did not give him pause. One foot shifted forward, and in same moment, he was striking again: kneeling and pushing off his back foot, driving the radiant tip of his blade through its lashing tongue, and spearing its head with a horrid, resounding crunch! He twisted away, ripping the blade free and spraying his back with its coarse, steaming fluids. In the single breath he had spent slaying this beast, another score had risen.

Pain tore through him as a clawed hand snagged his trailing leg, laying bare his calf as it tore cloth and flesh with equal, terrible ease. He collapsed, folding his hands atop the pommel of Ludwig's Holy Blade as he drove it between the cracked stones, and leaned heavily upon it. He drew back his parched lips in a grimace, coughing the ashes of a crumbling world from his lungs. Now they fell upon him with ruthless abandon, their claws turning his cloak to ribbons, their fangs rending his flesh. Darkness rippled across his vision like vines of pitch poured over his wide, bloodshot eyes, and suddenly weak, he collapsed.

We sat at the hem of a Bonfire's soothing warmth, the night cold and dark at our backs. Aleorn leaned forward, his eyes bright with merriment. 

"No foe too mighty, eh?!" He gestured toward the distant lair of Aldritch, who lay fallen in his foul cavern, bleeding his last into the mire he called home.

"Indeed!" Or'do laughed softly. "But we haven't won yet."

Confused, Aleorn cocked his head by way of reply. 

"We've yet to slay the Soul. Again."

"Ah that. A matter for later!" He waved a hand dismissively. "We've for eternity served the Flame, slogged through countless planes and slain countless Souls. A thousand years we have lived, yet now is the first time I have felt alive. Let us revel in it, if only briefly."

Or'do smiled.  "I feel the same way."