Devon’s blade was still descending.
His legs refused to move.
Heat crawled up his spine, heavy and wrong, dragging his limbs down as if the very air had thickened around him. His gaze remained locked on the steel cutting through the candlelight towards his neck.
He forced his muscles to move, but the surge inside him twisted against his control.
A pulse tore through him, sending all that heat crashing into his chest.
For one breath, Gabriel felt nothing but the thump of his own heartbeat.
Hanitz planted his feet in the ground, cracking the floorboards beneath him. The shock of the impact shook the contracts hanging on the wall.
And lunged. He wasn’t going to make it.
Gabriel’s eyes widened, just slightly, as all his senses snapped back all at once.
It was too late, Devon’s blade came down with full force.
The edge bit into the fabric of the demon-eyed adventurer’s shoulder.
A violent burst of red smoke exploded out of Gabriel’s body, blasting outwards with the force of a ballista. It spiralled around him in a sudden vortex, swirling into a dome and shrouding him in an impenetrable blanket of crimson fog.
The shockwave crashed into Devon like a hammer.
The scarred man was hurled backwards, his boots leaving the floor entirely before he smashed into a table, splintering it on impact. Sending tankards and chairs exploding across the hall.
Hanitz didn’t escape its reach.
The blast caught the giant mid-lunge, ripping the ground out from under him and throwing him onto his back with a thundering crack. The entire guild hall trembled from the force of his fall.
The air in the hall thickened. Filled with a magical buzz that felt forbidden, circling Gabriel.
Hanitz raised his head.
A suffocating pressure rolled outward, humming with a kind of magic that felt ancient and outlawed. It circled Gabriel like a warning, vibrating against the guild, rattling the pictures on the walls.
The giant stared in awe.
For a moment, the world froze.
The vortex around Gabriel continued to spiral, violent and pulsing. Tiny embers appeared and disappeared around it as though something was trying to spark to life.
The spiralling surge began to slow.
The crimson blanket thinned, its wild rotations fading into lazy coils that slithered their way back into the former Paladin’s body.
The last tendril of smoke sank into his skin.
He stood unmoving in the centre of the hall, his breath came slow and deep, as though each inhale was anchoring him back to his own body.
Hanitz pushed himself onto one knee, gaze still firmly placed on him.
"Lad..." the giant mumbled, voice barely above a whisper.
Gabriel didn’t turn.
His hair hung forward almost to his eyebrows, now fully black, dripping with sweat.
Both swords hung at his sides, still slick with blood that hadn’t yet begun to dry.
A faint humming lingered around him.
His eyes fixed forward.
A groaning noise came from Devon.
He pushed pieces of the shattered table off his chest and rolled to his side, coughing as he forced air back to his lungs. His arms trembled. Not from pain, but from the memory of the shockwave that had launched him across the room.
He planted his hand against the broken table and dragged himself upright. Slow. Teeth clenched as he steadied his footing.
His chest rose and fell in ragged breaths, eyes flickering to the last fading wisps of red fog that still curled at Gabriel’s feet.
He spat, the thick bloody lumps in his throat exited, spreading across the floor.
His eyes lifted to Gabriel.
He took a step back, adjusting the grip on his sword. "You’ve seen him!" his arrogant voice shattered into a timid wisp.
Hanitz watched him rise, jaw tight, fists curling into the shattered wood beside him as if preparing to intervene again.
Devon took another step back, breath quickening, his head snapping from side to side as he searched for an escape.
Gabriel moved.
He appeared in front of Devon, closing the distance before the scarred man could even finish turning his head. Devon couldn’t track the movement at all.
Hanitz did.
His eyes followed every step Gabriel took.
"No... no, please," Devon stammered, stumbling back until his shoulders hit the bar behind him. "I’m not with the Order, I wasn’t one of them. I didn’t know what they were going to do. Please... they’re hunting me too."
Gabriel didn’t respond.
He simply stood there, swords lowered at his sides, eyes fixed on Devon with a steady, unblinking stare that stripped every lie bare.
Devon’s breath quickened.
"I- I only took you from the woman," he continued, hands lifting in a shaky surrender. "It was a job. I didn’t-, I never wanted any part of that!"
His breath tightened for a fraction of a second. The sensation wasn’t real, but the memory was.
He stepped forward.
Devon’s voice cracked as he scrambled for anything that might save him.
"I know where Dannis is!" he shouted, desperation spilling into every word. "He’s in Galveston, I can take you to him!"
Gabriel didn’t slow.
Devon stumbled backwards, shoulders hitting the bar again as panic finally drowned whatever lies he had left.
"I can show you, just listen, please-"
Gabriel reached him.
One sword rose, a clean, precise motion.
The blade cut through Devon’s throat before he could finish the plea.
The sound was soft, barely more than a wet gasp. As Devon’s hands flew to his neck, eyes bulging, legs buckling beneath him. He collapsed against the bar, then slid to the floor, blood soaking into the splintered wood.
Gabriel didn’t watch him fall.
He turned away from the dying man, both blades still in hand, breath steady, eyes fixed ahead.
Behind him, Devon’s final, wheezing choke faded into silence.
Hanitz slowly shook his head.
"Gabriel... lad."
Gabriel didn’t answer.
"We could’ve found the bastards, we could of found out the reason," the giant muttered, pushing himself fully upright.
"You need to show more restraint."
He finally met Hanitz’s eyes.
"You promised me you’d find them years ago."
He stepped past the giant without another word, boots tapping through the crimson pooling across the floor.
Hanitz watched him reach the corridor, his silhouette framed by the storm outside.
"I told you I’d find them when you were ready," he said quietly. "And you’re still not."
Gabriel didn’t turn.
He simply walked into the darkness beyond the doorway, disappearing like a fading storm.