Time seemed to slow to a standstill. There was no doubt that that was Filwin. Even amongst the jostling crowd of demons and the dozen or so other captives, the bright pink pigtails were a dead giveaway, matted by blood though they were. Her goggles hung limply around her neck, with the right lense shattered. As she was hauled towards the treeline, her eyes locked with Kyle’s. And in them, Kyle saw only one thing. Something he had never seen there before. Unmitigated terror.
And then she was gone.
He didn’t remember roaring. He had no memory of jumping over a smoldering doomguard in one leap, nor shoving his soldiers out of the way. He didn’t remember the shouts behind him, the sheer panic and confusion he left in his wake. All he remembered was plunging headlong into the Everfree Forest in pursuit of the Legion that had taken Filwin and his men.
Never before in his life had Kyle wished so badly that he had dedicated himself to becoming a hunter. Though the trail was only minutes old, Kyle was no tracker. The prints from the Demons were easily concealed beneath the dense foliage that covered the forest floor, their path twisting and turning seemingly at random through the forest. Only the red splotches of blood from the prisoners kept him on the tail of his quarry. And even that was increasingly difficult to follow as the canopy became thicker and thicker, plunging him into darkness. Soon, it was only instinct and the occasional glimpse of blood that kept him on track.
Eventually, the trail of blood began to fade away. Search as he might, Kyle could find no trace of which direction the Demons had gone. He ran in increasingly larger circles looking for a sign - any sign - of where the Demons had gone. But the blood trail had ended, and their tracks were completely erased by the thick undergrowth.
As he sprinted around a particularly large tree trunk, a flash of movement caught his eye, just on the very edge of his vision. The movement flashed again a split second later, quicker this time and more pronounced. On instinct, Kyle threw himself to the ground. The rushing whistle of an axe slicing through the air overhead confirmed his instincts, and he rolled to his right as the massive axe-head slammed into the ground right where his spine had been a fraction of a second earlier. Laying on his back, Kyle caught a glimpse of his attacker - a large Felguard that had been lying in ambush
With a quick backwards roll, Kyle was on his feet again, both hammers at the ready to meet this new foe. But not fast enough. With surprising speed, the Felguard was on top of him again, forcing Kyle to parry a blow from its oversized axe. A second, vertical strike was sidestepped, but Kyle was forced to leap to the side over the blade as the Felguard brought it sweeping to the side low to the ground.
For several tense moments, Kyle and the demon squared off, trading blows back and forth. Though large and heavily armored, this Felguard was surprisingly agile, able to stay on top of Kyle with little difficulty. Kyle attempted to strike back as he could, but the demon’s extreme aggressiveness kept him off-balance and his blows continuously glanced off of its heavy armor. Every time he thought he had a second to catch his breath, he was forced back on the defensive as the Felguard continued its onslaught.
One particularly vicious horizontal strike sailed over Kyle’s head as he rolled backwards. The axe cleaved straight through the trunk of a nearby tree and lodged itself in the trunk of another. The felguard turned to yank the axe from the tree, and Kyle wasted no time in taking advantage of the distraction. He leapt behind the demon and slammed both hammers into the unarmored back of its knees, sending it crashing to kneel on one knee. Using the Felguard’s hip as leverage, Kyle flipped himself high into the air above his larger foe and brought both hammers down upon its skull, shattering it and ending the Demon’s life.
Kyle’s breath was ragged as he dragged his hammers from the Felguard’s broken skull. He flicked both of them to the side, shaking loose bits of bone and brain matter. He took a few steps to the side before he let his hammers fall to the ground. His own knees soon hit the ground as well, and he fell to a sitting position, gasping to regain his breath. That had been too close.
A loud crunching sound behind him forced Kyle to throw himself to the ground once more. An instant later, he was on his back, searching for his latest attacker. Instead, All he saw was a large tree shuddering, then falling towards him. The metallic clang of the Felguard’s axe falling from the trunk was drowned out by the groaning of the toppling tree
Kyle rolled to the side seconds before the trunk of the tree crashed to the ground beside him. The earth trembled from the impact of the blow, and a massive cloud of dirt and dust was thrown into the air. Kyle threw his arms over his heads as the branches slammed into his legs and his back. A grunt of pain was drawn from him as a large branch slammed into his hands, thankfully shielding his head from the worst of the blow.
Though only a minute or two passed, to Kyle it felt like hours before the violent rustling died down and the cloud of dirt and dust began to settle. Carefully, he removed his hands from the back of his head and began to feel around. His hands bumped the heads of his two hammers and he pulled them out from beneath one of the large branches. He slowly dragged himself out from beneath the twisted mass of broken branches and leaves.
Kyle rose to his feet, clipped his hammers to his belt, and began to brush the dirt and dust from his armor. “Too close. Again,” he murmured. He gave his pants one final sweep and took a step away from the fallen tree. He quickly retracted his foot, however, and threw himself back behind a nearby still-standing tree. A flicker of movement had pierced through the dust cloud that still surrounded him. Something was out there. Likely attracted by the commotion of the battle and the falling tree. And it was getting closer. The steady sound of hard footsteps stepping through the underbrush echoed loudly through the silence of the forest. And they were getting steadily louder. Slower, more cautious, but louder.
Kyle took a deep breath and closed his eyes. The anger, the sorrow, the pain, he took it all and accepted it. Just as he had been practicing for the past few months, ever since his realization while fighting the Sha of Hatred, he didn’t shove his emotions to the side. Instead he accepted them and moved past them. Instantly, the world around him lit up as his mind became more open to the Chi around him. Hundreds of thousands of Chi signatures shined brightly beneath him, each one the life force of some creature - an insect, a worm, a spider...
One signature, however, was stronger than any other present, by a long way. A much larger creature than any other in the area, slowly approaching Kyle’s position. It was fifty yards away. Then thirty. Then twenty. Soon, it was just on the other side of the tree. Kyle let out his breath and unclipped his maces. He crouched…
And let out a mighty bellow as he leaped around the corner
“AHHHHHHH!”
“AHHHHHHH!”
“Wait… Lyra?!”
“...Kyle?”
Sure enough, cowering before him was the familiar mint-green unicorn. She had dropped to the ground, and her front legs were covering her face. Only one eye was visible, peeking out from beneath her hooves.
Kyle gave the area another quick sweep. Sure enough, he couldn’t see any other movement, no signs of anything or anyone else besides himself and Lyra. He lowered his hammers and clipped them to his belt once more. “What are you doing out here?” he asked.
“Looking for you,” Lyra explained as she rose back to her hooves. “You just ran off into the forest after those Demons without telling anypony what to do. Somepony had to go in and find you.”
There it was again. Her demeanor… it was so unnerving. Her brow was furrowed, her tone sharp and cold. It was all he could do to maintain eye contact against her glare. For a few tense moments, they simply stared at each other, Lyra’s glare never faltering.
“Lyra, what’s going on?” he finally demanded. “What’s got you so upset?”
“I saw you last night.”
Kyle felt his blood run cold. It must have shown on his face as well, for Lyra’s glare only intensified. Still, he did his best to keep his composure. “What do you mean?”
“At the Gala.” There was a brief pause. “Do you remember who was performing the music for the Gala?”
“Um…”
“The Ponyville Symphonic Orchestra. From Ponyville. The one which I just so happen to play the harp for.”
“Shit.”
“And I just so happened to see a certain Human there. A certain Human who, ten days prior, had adamantly professed to not have an interest in mares. A certain Human who just so happened to be on the floor dancing with a certain Princess Twilight Sparkle.”
By this point, Kyle was fervently glancing around, looking this way, that way, any way but at Lyra. She took a step towards him. He needed a distraction. Something, anything. “Look, Lyra -”
“Explain.”
“Lyra, now’s not exactly the best time…” Kyle began. “Though I’m sure you can see that. You know, forest, demons, missing people…”
At that moment, Kyle felt something sharp poking into his back. Without realising it, he had been backing up away from the angry unicorn before him. Now, his back was to the tree that had mere moments before nearly crushed him.
And then he sensed it. Just out of the corner of his mind. Open as he was to the Chi around him, he could sense the life signatures of every living creature nearby. The forest was practically aflame with the glow of Chi, with millions of creatures swarming through the earth, through the air, up and around the trees. But there, on the very edge of his senses, there was something else. Amidst all the light of life, there was a patch of darkness.
Death.
And as he pressed himself deeper into the branches of the tree, the patch became ever so slightly larger. It was as though all sources of Chi, all forms of life had been extinguished from this place. It was a hostile place, far more hostile than even the rest of the Everfree Forest.
“WELL?!”
Lyra’s voice snapped Kyle back to reality, dragging his sight from the Chi around him back to her. She was only a half dozen feet away now, staring at him intently. Waiting for an answer of some kind. “Lyra. I will explain,” Kyle began calmly.
“But not now.”
And with that, Kyle leaped backwards into the branches of the tree. The wood tore at his already maimed dress shirt, poked at the skin and flesh underneath, but Kyle paid it little attention. Within seconds, he was on the other side of the fallen tree and rushing towards the dead zone. His eyes saw nothing but trees and undergrowth ahead, but his sense continued to reveal more and more dead land.
Behind him, he could hear the sound of hooves racing through the forest. Of course Lyra wasn’t going to let him go that easily. But right now, this was more important. There was only one thing that could possibly inflict such damage to the forest, cause such a large and absolute swath of death. It was near. He was getting closer and closer. He shoved his way past a dense bush…
And came to a standstill.
There before him was the desecrated land. There was no other way to describe it. The rest of the forest, though eerie and dark, was distinctly green. Plant life flourished within the forest, providing a host of homes for its many inhabitants. Here, where the dead zone began, the earth was black. The grass, the undergrowth, the leaves, all had withered and died, fading into little more than blackened husks. Even the tree trunks were dry and brittle. There was no life here. Nothing could live here.
“Got you!”
Kyle let out a yelp as Lyra leaped through the bush and slammed into his back. Together, the pair tumbled to the ground, coming to a rest right on the edge of the dead zone. In an instant, Lyra was on her hooves again on top of him, fury burning in her eyes. “No more running!” She yelled. “Answer me! What… what the…”
Kyle glanced up at Lyra as her voice trailed off. Sure enough, her gaze was no longer on him, but instead looked out over the blackened landscape before her. She gave no resistance as Kyle nudged her to the side and rose to his own feet once more. “What happened here?” she finally whispered.
“Fel magic,” Kyle replied. “And strong fel magic, at that. It must’ve been present here for a while to affect the land so absolutely.”
“What caused it?”
“If it wasn’t Zinju, I’ll eat my own boots.” Kyle bent over and peered at the dead zone. He reached back behind him and grabbed a branch, tearing it from a nearby tree. He tossed it into the dead zone and watched as the branch landed in the blackened undergrowth.
Nothing happened.
“Well… it looks like whatever foul magic did this, it’s not instantaneous…” he murmured. Tentatively, he took a step forward, his boots touching down amongst the dead plant life. Nothing happened. He took yet another step.
“What are you doing?”
Kyle glanced back over at Lyra. “I’m going to find the source of this corruption,” he announced. “It might lead to his hidden lair. And… and maybe to the prisoners. YOU, on the other hand, are going to go back to Ironwall and get help.”
“No,” Lyra shook her head. “You’re not going in there alone. And you’re NOT getting away without answering me for a third time,” she added defiantly.
“I’m not talking about it until we get back to Ironwall. Where it’s safe.”
“And I’m not letting you out of my sight until you answer me.”
“Damnit Lyra…” Kyle swore. Still, he knew there would be no reasoning with her. Not while she was like this. “Fine. But stay quiet, and if things get bad, get out.” Without waiting for a response, Kyle began creeping forward, farther into the dead zone.
It wasn’t long before all signs of life faded out of sight. And a mere moment later, the last Chi signature faded from his senses. It had been years since Kyle had felt so vulnerable. Unable to sense even the slightest amount of Chi besides that radiating from himself and Lyra… it was as if he had suddenly gone blind. His muscles were tense, his steps measured and precise, ready to react to any threat that might emerge. Judging by the short, shallow breathing he could hear behind him, Lyra was hardly faring any better.
Past a set of twisted, desecrated tree trunks, a large cliff face rose from the ground. And nestled at the bottom of the cliff, Kyle could see a cave. A cave that looked uninhabited… or would have, save for the small flicker of light from around a corner that indicated a torch.
“In there?” Lyra asked, her words barely more than a breath.
Kyle nodded. “He has to be in there,” he replied, equally quiet. “The taint of fel magic is strongest here. This is their base of operations. We’re going to finally end this threat.” Lyra was silent, and when Kyle looked down at her, he could see her front legs trembling. “Last chance to back out,” he hissed.
Lyra gulped, but shook her head. “No way.”
And so the two quickly covered the distance between the dead trees and the entrance of the cave. Kyle gripped his hammers tightly as he proceeded down the tunnel. Surely there would be some kind of resistance awaiting them.
But there was nothing. Nothing as they crept through the darkness, nothing as they turned the first corner, nothing as they passed the torch embedded into the stone wall. There was no sound, no movement save for the shadows that flickered against the tunnel. There wasn’t even a Chi signature around that would indicate another creature in the area.
It was only a few moments before the tunnel opened up into a small chamber. Numerous torches were embedded into the walls, illuminating the shelves that occupied the vast majority of the outer edges of the room. Many of the shelves were empty, their contents either gone or strewn hastily about the floor. A few crates were still present, but emptied of all their contents and shoved haphazardly back onto the shelves. Three passages branched out on the back wall of the cave, leading deeper into the hideout
“Well, something’s been here…” Lyra murmured as she poked an empty glass vial with her hoof. It rolled away underneath one of the shelves, where it rested against the back wall with a clink.
“Aye. But they’re long gone now,” Kyle replied. “Looks like they were in a hurry to get out of here.”
“Maybe they’re coming back?” Lyra suggested.
But Kyle shook his head. “Doubtful. The desecration outside was going to lead anyone who went looking for them straight to their hideout. And now that we’ve repulsed their attack, they know we’ll be looking for them. They’ll be fools to return here.” He paused for a moment as he glanced about the room. “But they were in a hurry. Maybe… just maybe, they’ve left something that could tell us where they’re headed.”
“So… spread out and look?”
“No,” Kyle replied. “Stick together. I don’t sense anything or anyone lurking around, but there could be any number of traps in here. Stay in this room for now. Look for anything that might tell us where they’ve gone. Or where they’ve taken the prisoners.”
And so the two took to opposite corners of the cave. Kyle bent down and scooped up a handful of papers, glancing over them and discarding them just as quickly. Instructions for extracting the life essence from a creature, a recipe for a poison that would inflict agonizing pain before killing… plenty of instructions for dark spells and vile concoctions, but nothing that might indicate where Zinju was headed.
It had only been a few minutes, yet Kyle could already feel frustration welling up inside himself. Every second they had to spend trying to find where Zinju had fled to was another second that Filwin and the other prisoners were in danger. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, releasing it slowly in an attempt to calm himself. He finished scouring the last of the papers before dropping them back to the ground and wandering back over to Lyra. “Anything?’ he asked.
Lyra shook her head. “Nothing but dark magic and the like,” she murmured. “Honestly, some of these spells… who’d be twisted enough to even come up with this stuff?”
“The Legion.” Kyle nudged Lyra to get her attention, and he pointed towards one of the passages leading further into the cave. “Let’s head that way. There might be something deeper in.”
The passage that they started down started off level, but soon curved to the right and bent sharply downwards. Kyle took the lead as they descended down the spiraling tunnel. Here too, the foul energy of the fel magic had left its effects. The dirt beneath his boots was dry and cracked, kicking up dust with every step. Even the torches had been touched by the fel energy, their flames burning with a tinge of green.
The spiraling tunnel soon leveled and straightened out again. A long stretch of darkness lay before them, illuminated only by the glow of a torch from around the next bend. Kyle’s eyes strained against the darkness, searching for any signs of a trap that might have been hiding in the shadows. But no triggers or pressure plates or tripwires presented themselves, so he slowly crept down the hallway. Every step, he expected some unseen trap to spring - a rockfall, poisoned darts, two logs swinging down to crush him in the middle. But none of that happened. Instead, he quickly found himself at the corner. He poked his head around, peering into the room beyond. He froze. Lyra tapped her hoof impatiently. Still he didn’t move. She poked her head past his hip and peered into the room. She froze as well.
“Light help us…”
“Celestia…”
Unlike the rest of the cave system, which had felt cramped and narrow, the cave before them was massive. A circle of 8 pillars held up the ceiling of the room. Torches lined the inside of the pillars, illuminating the inner circle but casting deep shadows in the corners of the room. In the center of the room lay a black onyx altar, with the ground around it covered in dried blood.
But that was not had drawn Kyle and Lyra’s horrified gazes. On the far side of the cavern was a large, mangled mass. Though partially obscured by the pillars and shadows, there was no mistaking what the mass was composed of. Bodies. Dozens of them, some Ponies, some Humans, some of other various races of the Alliance, all flung against the far wall and left to rot.
Kyle barely remembered walking into the room. It was as if stumbling into his darkest nightmare as he approached the pile of bodies. They were carelessly flung on top of each other, some fresh, some clearly not. A good number of them were obscured by the newer corpses that had been piled on top. Each one, he dimly noted, had had their throat slashed open, the blood allowed to flow freely. Many of the bodies had been mutilated beyond recognition, or had chunks torn out of them. One particular corpse’s throat was still trickling blood, the red liquid swirling towards a low point in the ground near the altar where the blood was pooling.
And there, in the pool of blood, Kyle spotted something. Without thinking, he walked over and knelt down to pick up the object. It was a small head, severed from its body at the neck. Its once-pink pigtails were now stained with blood. A pair of goggles with green lenses covered its eyes, and Kyle slowly pulled them off. One of the lenses was smashed out, and the blood had already stained the leather strap that had been snapped, and the face of its wearer had been mutilated beyond all recognition, but there was no mistaking whose goggles Kyle had just discovered. After all, he saw them every day.
“Filwin…” he murmured. His fist clenched around the goggles as tears threatened to overtake him. One slipped down his cheek as he clenched his eyes shut. “I was too late. I should have been faster…”
Kyle felt something land gently on his shoulder. As his eyes opened, another pair of tears fell to the floor. Past his watery eyes, he could see that Lyra had draped one hoof over his shoulder. The frustration, the anger that she had shown before out in the forest - it was all gone, replaced with sympathy. Without thinking, he reached over and pulled Lyra into a hug, wetting the fur on her shoulders with more tears. He felt her pat him on the back as he pulled away.
“I know she was a good friend of yours…” Lyra began, somewhat awkwardly. “I… I’m sorry. She didn’t deserve such a fate. None of them did.”
“Zinju will pay for this,” Kyle managed to growl out. His next few words were cut out as he choked up, and it was a few moments before he could speak again. “Celestials as my witness, I will hunt him down and make him pay for every life he has taken. I’ll -”
“BEHIND YOU!”
That was the only warning Kyle had before Lyra barrelled into his side. A yelp was torn from his throat as he fell to the ground, but his yell was drowned out by the screech of energy from behind him and. An instant later, that too was drowned out by Lyra’s bloody scream as a bolt of green fire slammed into her side, sending her flying backwards. She slammed into the onyx altar with a resounding THUD! and fell motionless to the floor below.
Kyle rolled to his left as a second bolt of fire slammed into the ground here he had just laid, shattering the stone below. He barely managed to scramble to his feet as a third blast exploded right before his feet. With a couple of quick bounds, he took cover behind one of the pillars as yet another bolt blasted into the pillar.
For what felt like an eternity, silence reigned. Kyle could hear his own heart pounding furiously in his chest, his breath coming short and quick. And then, the slow, plodding trod of hooves on stone. Kyle shrank back into the shadows cast by the pillars as the sound drew closer.
And then, it stopped.
“I know you are there, Slater,” came the thick accent of a female Draenei. “Come, reveal yourself, before your friend pays the price for your cowardice.”
“Damn… Lyra,” Kyle muttered under his breath. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, drawing himself up to his full height, and stepped out from behind the pillar and towards the altar.
On the other side of the altar, with Lyra’s still-motionless form at her hooves, was indeed a Draenei - “No, Eredar,” Kyle reminded himself. They might look like Draenei in form, but their red skin and the twisted energy rolling off of them easily separated them from their non-demonic counterparts. This one was as tall as Kyle, with twin horns rising further still from the top of her head. She was coated from neck to hoof in fel-green steel, with a wicked-looking axe strapped to her back and a dagger to her belt
“Just as Zinju predicted,” the Eredar sneered. “You cannot leave a friend behind, even to save yourself. I already know your name, Slater, so it is fitting I share mine. I am Mihalun, Eredar captain of the Burning Legion.”
“Not for long,” Kyle hissed. “Soon, your name shall exist only as a memory.”
“Kill…”
Kyle jerked back, and his head whipped back and forth. He could have sworn he just heard something… something dark…
“You talk tough.” Mihalun laughed. “But you cannot back your words up. You have no power that can stop me.”
“We’ll see about that,” Kyle thought. He closed his eyes and stretched out one hand, reaching out to unleash a blast of Jade Lightning at the demon. It was a technique he had utilized many times before. It was a familiar motion, almost routine.
What wasn’t familiar was the lack of anything happening.
“Confused?” Mihalun cackled as Kyle’s eyes snapped open. “Zinju has done a very good job of corrupting this land. Not a trace of life remains, save for you and I and your friend here. Without life, there is no Chi. And with no Chi, you have no power.”
Kyle’s eyes widened for a split second before he snapped them shut. Just has he had done many times before, he reached out with his senses, searching desperately for any Chi that he could find. And yet, just as Mihalun had said, there was none. Not a single trace of Chi was to be found anywhere around save for the three masses of Chi within the room.
“Fool… Finish her…”
There it was again. Louder this time. More forceful
“The perfect trap. And you walked right into it.”
Kyle’s eyes snapped back open. As he had been searching for any traces of Chi to draw upon, Mihalun had moved. Now, she had Lyra placed on top of the Onyx altar. From this angle, Kyle could see where Mihalun’s attack had struck. The fur had been burned away, and the flesh below seared black and red. With one hand, Mihalun held Lyra to the table. With the other, she reached to her belt and unclipped the crooked dagger from her belt.
Time slowed to a crawl. Kyle’s vision flashed red. Suddenly his head erupted in agony. Unable to even scream, he fell to his knees and clutched vainly at his head, trying to end the pain.
“Hate…”
“And now, we bleed another soul.”
Kyle managed to look up as Mihalun drew her knife. It rose over Lyra, and then slowly down. It came to rest right on top of her throat. Slowly, Mihalun looked up at Kyle. She flashed him a wicked grin before returning her gaze to Lyra.
“Weakling… I will do… what you cannot…”
Kyles’ vision went dark.
His vision, his sense of smell, almost all of the feeling in his body, nearly every sense in his body abandoned him. Even the splitting pain in his head vanished But his ears remained as functional as always. He heard boots against stone, moving faster than he believed any Human capable of. A startled gasp cut short. The sound of a dagger clattering against the stone floor. The muffled clang of padded steel armor slamming hard against a wall. Gagging, strained breathing, struggling…
“How… impossible…”
“You underestimate me.” There was Kyle’s voice. But he hadn’t tried to say anything. “Your final mistake.”
Then the rushing sound of energy swept over Kyle. He vaguely felt its power swirling around his right arm, and then leaving through his fingertips, but even this slightest sensation sent shivers down his spine. An instant later, his ears were assaulted by an agonized scream. A scream which continued for what felt like a lifetime, and left his ears ringing when it finally ended.
“Merely a taste of my hate…”
Another scream, this one shorter than the last but just as loud and powerful. Then, a brief moment of silence, broken only by Mihalun’s ragged breath
“What a shame. It seems my time draws short. Perhaps my host will be merciful and end your miserable existence. I hope not…”
And just like that, Kyle could see again.
The first thing Kyle noticed was that his head was no longer in agonizing pain. He was on all fours, pinning the Eredar to the ground right below one of the pillars. His right hand was clenched firmly around her throat, and he could see black marks on the flesh around his fingers where she had been burned. But what drew his attention most were her eyes. Though he couldn’t see her pupils, her glowing eyes were wide with horror, fixed purely on him.
“W-w-what are you?!” she managed to squeak out. It lacked any of the smug arrogance that it had once held, now holding only absolute terror. She wasn’t even trying to struggle against Kyle’s grasp.
Slowly, Kyle began to realize the situation he was in. He glanced over his shoulder. Lyra was still lying motionless on top of the onyx altar, the knife lying unused near its base. As he returned his gaze back to the Eredar below him, his brow furrowed. He unclipped one of his maces from his belt and gripped it firmly in his left hand.
“Your end.”
Kyle removed his right hand from Mihalun’s neck as his mace came crashing down. The first blow split her skull open, and the second shattered it completely, destroying the brain matter inside and ending her life. The third, fourth, and fifth blows were simply to make sure.
Kyle slowly clambered back to his feet and shook the bits of bone and brain that clung to his hammer. He clipped it back to his belt and looked down at the dead Eredar. His eyes widened in shock as he realized what he was looking at. Not Mihalun herself, no, that’s not what he was paying attention to. Instead, he was looking at the ground below her. What had once been grey stone was now burnt pitch-black. looking outwards, Kyle could see that a small ring of ground around him and the Eredar had likewise been scorched. The outer edge of the burnt circle was a horribly familiar ring of white energy. And then, the familiar burning from his chest, right over his old wound.
Kyle felt his hands trembling as he stumbled backwards. “No…” he gasped.
“Yes…”
“NO!”
“Hatred lives… Inside you…”