God of Hell - Chapter 48 - Soulless Eyes (Patreon)

Chapter 48: Soulless Eyes.

Nero was falling, the wind was roaring in his ears and the ground was rapidly approaching. He didn’t know how he got here, and put his mind to figuring out how to get out of it.

Above him was a monster, a skeleton with sickly red skin wrapped around it. 

“What the fu-” Nero would never get to finish those words as it slammed its fist into his chest, chasing the breath past  his lips and shooting Nero’s trajectory downwards like a bullet.

He hit the ground hard, back first, bounced, rolled and thought he felt his soul leave his body for a moment. His head was spinning, vision a stream of blurs, he just wanted to lay there for a while, but he saw the monster falling angrily towards him.

He rolled out of the way just in time to let its feet crack into earth rather than his ribs.

Nero summoned his Light as a ball of kinetic energy and shunted it at the monster. It tore through the air, cut through the space where the monster had just vanished from and exploded against the far wall.

Shit!

Ember called his attention and he turned to see it atop a building, letting out a sound like nails against a chalkboard from its maw.

Nero felt for his magic and found his tank filled to the brim, he’d regained what Light he’d lost from the rebellion down at the Hell Gate.

“So that’s a Hollow.” Nero murmered.

“That’s a Hollow…” Ember echoed nervously.

He’d heard Selvas talk about one before, a summoning beast, one that a great many men died attempting to claim. Nero would not be one of them. “Well then, let’s fucking kill it.”

The Hollow leapt at him and Nero caught it in the face with a kick. His foot cracked into its jaw, sending the monster stumbling back, it kept on with a maddened frenzy, as if pain wasn’t a thing it registered.

It swiped at Nero’s neck with deadly claws, Nero twisted and ducked out of the way, accepting shallow cuts to the face instead of a killing gash to his neck.

He swung his blade into the thing’s neck, spine really, due to lack of muscle. It caught a raised arm instead chipped into the bone but was refused any more damage.

Another claw chased Nero but he ducked out of the way and let it catch the tip of his hairs. His free hand caught fire and his fist cracked into the monster’s chest. The flame exploded at the end of his impact, shunting the creature backwards and sending it into a wall.

The same move he’d used on Mercury before he put the Demon down. 

This monster was still standing however. Its chest burned from the Light, but not how he’d come to expect it to burn on Demons, less ferocious, less eagerly, as if the fire were merely a weapon fashioned against it rather than anathema to its very existence.

Like when I use it against humans.

Come to think of it, his Light-coated blow had also been met with an unusual amount of resistance. He was expecting to break ribs with it.

Nero looked at the creature howl and screech, movements erratic, as if knives danced under its skin, it opened its maw wide, like a snake dislocating its jaw, a long brown tongue lolled out. 

“It’s not a Demon.”

A blast of something red and powerful erupted from the monster’s mouth. 

It slammed into Nero’s chest and lifted him off his feet. His back struck through something terribly soft before it hit a wall. Nero turned to see the mangled body of a stranger behind him, crushed by the impact and hopefully killed instantly.

Another person dead in the crossfire of his life.

He took a step forwards and dropped to his knees. His chest burned, throbbed and ached, Whatever this thing was, Demon or not, it was kicking his ass well and proper.

The Hollow vanished and Nero shot a ball of light at the closest building to him. He’d guessed that it would appear there and as the creature materialised in the projectile’s path he knew he’d made the right one.

The ball didn’t strike the Hollow however, not because it dodged, vanished again or because Nero aimed wrong, it just phased harmlessly through the monster as if it wasn’t there and struck the wall behind.

“What?”

To say he was surprised would be quite an understatement.

So it can go intangible too?

No, that didn’t make sense. How had he been able to last this long then? 

How had I been able to last against a teleporting enemy in the first place?

Oh? Oh, it’s so  stupidly obvious, why did it take me this long to figure it out?

The beast ran at Nero and he found himself grinning.

It clawed at him but Nero slid out of its path, he was the faster after all. A bolt of light spat out of his palm and struck the monster across the face, cracking its jaw on impact, but it kept on coming.

Nero expected that, so he didn’t flinch, he only parried its claw and struck again with a fist instead of a bolt. This thing didn’t feel pain, didn’t need muscle or tendons to move, but what it most certainly did need was a brain and Nero wouldn’t stop until he’d ruined it.

He roared as he attacked and the monster snarled back. 

It tried to grab him, failed, teleported and Nero expected it.

He looked around and saw it pop into existence atop a building.

Not sure how much time I have left.

He dashed at the monster while it just stood there, waiting for the moment it could interact physically with the world. Because that was what it had been doing, that was why it didn’t just teleport behind Nero and rip his throat out.

It was vulnerable, stationary, and there for the killing.

And Nero would kill.

He climbed onto the roof, covered the distance between them, waited for it to move and then slammed a golden fist right into its face. It smashed into an already cracked skull and broke it. 

The Hollow didn’t flinch.

With half its skull missing, Nero could see there was never a brain within.

The monster’s claws ran across hsi ribs, biting into the flesh, scraping the bones themselves, and erupting a spray of blood. 

Nero roared in agony, he saw the monster open its maw, saw that red energy begin swirling within its mouth and slammed his fist into the underside of its jaw, closing it.

Its head exploded in a violent blast of red, throwing Nero backwards, off the roof and down on his back.

He flexed his fingers and found that the ones on his left screamed in agony when he did. He’d either broken them or done something close enough to be indistinguishable for the purposes of using them the rest of the fight.

The Hollow leapt down from the roof, headless now but still coming after him. Sprinting on all fours, eager for blood, relentless and undying. Well, Nero was all of those things as well.

But I need to figure out a way to defeat this thing.

One more idea birthed in his mind, and he clung tightly to it.

He was on his feet when it leapt at him. With a golden flaming hand he slammed a fist into the thing’s chest.

It was sent into a wall but was dashing back again at Nero the moment its feet touched the ground.

They met with fist and claw, exchanging blows and ruining the other’s form ever more with each one that was dealt. 

The Hollow carved through the flesh in his arm, thigh, back and more but Nero only focused on its chest. Striking over and over like a blacksmith’s hammer against hot steel.

Over, over, over, over and over.

Even as he took damage, even as the ground ate his blood.

The Hollow teleported and he chased it.

Striking every chance he got and not giving it an inch to rest, because frankly the monster didn’t need it.

Nero struck once more and its chest cracked as it was shunted backwards. Inside he could see a crystal heart, beating in steady pumps. That was his target, that was his prize.

What made Hollows so important were their hearts, those were the summoning items, that was why men even dared to put themselves in the same path as these monsters. 

Perhaps, then, it was what kept them walking.

The Hollow came running and Nero stretched out his palm, he readied a kinetic blast, aimed it at its chest and then he saw the Light die in his palm.

Nero didn’t panic, he’d long since kicked that habit out of him. He just ran at the beast.

It clawed at Nero, he didn’t dodge, instead, he let its long fingers sink into his side, pulled his arm back, slammed his fist into the hole in the monster’s chest and ripped out its heart.

Instantly, the Hollow fell into the dirt, silent and unmoving. Just like any other pile of bones.

Nero’s hands were shaking, blood ran down from them, blood ran down from all sides of him really, his life force pooled beneath him and it was a struggle to breathe.

He stumbled back against a wall and slid down into a sitting position. He didn’t know how long he sat there, all he knew was that he blinked and then Selvas was there, wrapping painful bandages around him and forcing him to drink bitter potions, then Klaus arrived.

He looked at the corpse with wide eyes and then back at Nero, though he spoke as if he was looking at someone else entirely. “You… You killed a Hollow… On your own… Shit, maybe you really are the God of Hell.”

His thoughts felt like water and yet Nero caught them in cupped hands. “Bring me Defrid.”