Page 89 of Devoured
He rolled off me, clutching his chest. The marriage bond had become a pipeline for poison, and he couldn’t close it. We were wed now—our essences mingling whether he wanted it or not.
“Impossible!”Light burst from him, trying to burn away the contamination.
The shadow curtains disintegrated, exposing us to the wedding guests.
“I am eternal!”he roared.
He doubled over and vomited. Black sludge that moved on its own, mixed with pieces of his divine organs. Where it hit the floor, ancient bones began to dissolve—releasing the screams they’d held for centuries.
“You’re a glutton. Always hungry for more suffering. Never satisfied.”I purred.
He lunged at me. Even poisoned, he was still a god.
His fist connected with my ribs—I heard them crack like kindling. The force sent me flying back into a spine pillar. Stars exploded across my vision.
“I’ll destroy you!”he groaned. He staggered forward, but his legs buckled. Black corruption poured from his nose, his ears—seeping through his pores like poisonous sweat.
His perfect form was coming apart—skin peeling away in wet sheets, revealing nothing underneath. Just absence. The void where divinity used to live.
“I’ll make you suffer for—”He collapsed.
“You taught me something,”I said, pressing my broken ribs. Each breath was agony. “Nothing stays dead here. You made sure of that, wanting your victims to suffer eternally.”
Now his own rules would damn him. I reached out with my mind for the Executioner’s essence. He was everywhere and nowhere, dissolved but not destroyed.
I grabbed onto the fragments and pulled. It felt like reaching into fire. Like trying to hold lightning.
Something tore inside me—not flesh, but deeper. Blood poured from my nose, my eyes, my ears. My vision went red, then black, then red again. But I kept pulling.
The ashes swirled into a column, spinning faster until they blurred gray. The bones throughout the cathedral sang—a high note that made my teeth ache. The column exploded outward.
And then—He stood there, gasping. Alive again. Leather pants restored. Helmet intact. Blade in hand. Every scar exactly where it had been. “You brought me back.”
“Nothing stays dead here,”I repeated, spitting blood.
The Judge turned at the sound of metal dragging across bone. His melting face twisted in shock. The poison had eaten away most of his features. “How? I control death in this realm!”he said, utterly shocked.
“You did.”The Executioner’s words were rust and ruin. “But you’re dying now. Real death. Final death.”
They clashed in the center of the cathedral, but it was different from before. The Judge’s divine fire sputtered. Each swing came slower. Pieces of him kept dissolving and reforming wrong—an eye would melt and regrow smaller, a finger would fall off and return with too many joints.
“Servants! Kill them!”The Judge tried to order.
Chaos erupted.
Father Gallows descended from the rafters, screaming about suffering. The Mirror Eater shattered into a thousand reflections. The Seamstress skittered forward on thread-spool legs. Hundreds of Mawkeepers poured through the bone walls. But their attacks lacked conviction. They could smell their master dying.
Some hung back, watching to see who would win. Predators always know when the alpha is about to fall.
The Executioner carved through them like smoke, always pushing toward the Judge. When he reached the altar, the Judge could barely lift his head. The poison had eaten through all his grandeur. “Please.”His hand was more bone than flesh, skin sloughing off.
“I can give you anything. Power. Worlds. Everything—”
The blade found his heart. Black corruption poured from the wound instead of blood.
The Judge looked down at the massive sword buried in his chest, then his burning eyes found mine.In them,there wasgenuine terror. “How? I am eternal. I am—”
“You’re done.”I stated.
