The Broken Halo

The Furnaceback Centipede’s scream tore through the cracked lands.

”SKRREEEEEEEEEE!”

The sound was sharp, metallic, and completely different from the furious cries it had released before. It scraped across the air like thousands of blades dragged against iron.

The ground trembled.

Loose stones jumped repeatedly, and the remaining black glass along the broken ridge developed thin cracks.

The white-red fire gathered inside the beast’s mouth collapsed. Flames burst wildly from the vents along its segmented body instead and they struck the earth in uncontrolled streams while setting the surrounding dust ablaze.

The Furnaceback Centipede slammed its head into the ground.

Once

Twice

Then it began twisting and clawing at the stone as though something inside its skull was tearing it apart.

The Biggest Kev lowered the arms he had raised to receive the fire attack. Behind the narrow eye openings of the Blood Jaguar helmet, his dull-yellow eyes narrowed.

”What’s going on?”

The centipede answered him with another agonised scream.

Kev remained still for a moment, watching it writhe.

The attack had collapsed before it was released. None of his recent strikes had landed on its head at that moment, and the injury Sonya caused to its eye should not have suddenly produced this kind of reaction.

His helmet tilted slightly.

’Something happened inside it?’

The Prime Calamity Crag Hound it swallowed might have still possessed enough life to tear an organ. The beast’s own fire could also have gone out of control and burned something important.

Then Blackmoon entered his thoughts.

Korran’s reports had described the one-horned recruit as strange.

A Minor Archfiend with a High S-grade wind affinity. Abnormal strength. Exceptional control. Sharp instincts. A demon who remained calm even when Greater Demons fought around him.

Kev had also watched Blackmoon lead Sonya and Akaza against a Prime Calamity Beast as though he had fought beside them for decades.

The young demon was talented.

Perhaps frighteningly so.

But talent did not erase the difference between a Minor Archfiend and a Half-Step Abyssal Beast.

The centipede’s jaws had crushed the Prime Calamity Crag Hound into meat. Its throat was hot enough to roast most Archfiends alive, while the pressure inside its body could grind their bones apart before they reached its stomach.

Blackmoon surviving was already difficult to believe.

Causing the Furnaceback Centipede this much pain was ridiculous.

Kev dismissed the thought, and just as he did, the beast turned away from him.

Its hooked legs struck the ground without rhythm. Stone flowed around its lower body, and several front segments began rotating in opposite directions.

Kev’s eyes widened.

”Oh, no.”

The centipede drove its head into the earth.

”Oi! Don’t run after starting a fight!”

The chain around Kev’s right arm shot forward.

It crossed the distance like a black serpent and wrapped around one of the centipede’s rear segments just before half of its body vanished underground.

Kev closed his fist and the chain tightened.

For an instant, the enormous creature stopped.

Then the centipede rotated violently.

Earth surged around its body. The damaged plate trapped by the chain cracked and tore free, remaining inside Kev’s grip while the rest of the beast disappeared underground.

The ground rose in a long wave as it fled beneath the cracked lands.

Within moments, it was moving away from the convoy.

Kev stared at the hole it left behind, still holding the torn plate.

”You cowardly worm.”

Inside the Furnaceback Centipede, the situation was completely different.

Simon’s six Mind Spears had struck far harder than they would have from outside.

A Half-Step Abyssal Beast possessed a powerful mind, but its demonic aura and the natural energy surrounding its body normally disturbed hostile mental energy before it reached anything important.

Simon was already past those outer layers.

His mental energy travelled through the creature’s living tissue and nervous system before striking directly toward its brain. There had been little distance for the Mind Spears to weaken.

The attack had not destroyed the beast’s mind.

It had thrown it into disarray.

Rage, hunger, pain, and scattered instincts crashed together. Its concentration broke, leaving survival as the clearest thought remaining.

However, the centipede’s instincts were still working.

It now knew that something alive was inside its body.

It knew the pain had come from within.

And now its entire body was turning against Simon and the thief.

The throat contracted.

Thick rings of muscle closed around the compressed wind sphere Simon had created. Hard ridges hidden beneath the flesh pushed inward, trying to grind both demons into smaller pieces.

Burning digestive liquid poured from above, causing Simon to curse.

He quickly strengthened the wind sphere.

The spinning current forced most of the liquid aside, but the pressure around them continued increasing. He poured more spatial energy into the thin spatial shell surrounding the wind and reinforced every section that began bending inward.

The shell trembled.

The rebel thief floated beside him, held in place by several currents of wind. His burned skin had split in several places, and one of his legs no longer looked straight.

He was barely conscious, but Simon did not care.

The demon was still alive, and the dull-grey spatial ring remained on his finger.

That was enough.

The centipede suddenly turned underground.

BangI

Simon and the thief were thrown sideways. The spatial shell slammed against the throat wall, and cracks spread across its surface.

Simon repaired them immediately.

’I just need to hold on.’

The beast burrowed deeper.

Earth thundered against the armour outside its body. Every movement shook its throat, while the heat continued burning Simon’s skin almost as quickly as UnholyRegeneration repaired it.

’Not yet. Hold on a little longer.’

Simon understood what the beast was doing.

It wanted to create distance between itself and the Biggest Kev. It wanted to return to its territory or find another hidden place where it could recover its damaged mind and focus entirely on the living threats inside its body.

That was exactly what Simon wanted.

Through the ShadowEye beneath Wagon Eighteen, he could still see the battlefield.

The Biggest Kev stood beside the newly opened hole with the torn armour plate hanging from his chain. Sonya and Akaza remained around the damaged central wagons, while the fighting between Black Horn and Black Banner continued around them.

The second ShadowEye travelled with the centipede, but it now showed little beyond rushing earth, darkness, and brief flashes of red heat.

Simon divided his attention between both views.

His expression remained calm and cold despite the burning liquid, crushing muscles, and violent movement surrounding him.

He did not attack again.

Every moment the centipede fled carried him farther from the Glass-Eyed Demonic Eagle, the recording crystals, and every demon who had watched Blackmoon die.

’Keep going till you no longer have any usefulness.’

The Furnaceback Centipede believed it was carrying two wounded pieces of prey toward a place where it could kill them safely.

Not knowing that it was carrying a predator that was waiting for the right time to strike.