The skull of the Narghul Sorcerer came away from the body with strips of neck flesh still attached, the spinal column protruding from the base of the skull in a wet, ragged column of demon-bone and connective tissue, the throat structure dangling from the underside of the jaw in flapping pieces.
The Narghul Sorcerer’s body fell to its knees, and the shadow construct dissipated, leaving behind a cube-shaped core.
The body was in a kneeling position for two seconds before the torso fell forward with the arms still extended in the configuration of the terminal cast that would never be completed.
There was a sound as if gas was escaping a container as the hide of the demon began to smoke, as a result of the demon’s life-substance escaping through the catastrophic vascular rupture at the neck.
Demonic screams and shrieks were erupting from the body of the demon as his life force escaped. This was the final soul death scream that made Narghul Sorcerers be feared since their deaths would lead to the end of everything around them.
The screams spread out from my position, and I could see endless waves of Khaaz demons beginning to collapse in the distance, as the death cry of this demon killed them in mass.
It was a shame that I could not gain their essence, or I would have broken through all seven Earth Gates and unlocked my Celestial Origin, then finally changed the status of all my broken celestial skills to their true state.
Well, with the state of the loop and the growth of my body and spells, unlocking all seven Earth Gates would not take long.
I held the head in my chitin claw, and it was still alive.
Five...
The Narghul Sorcerer’s three remaining eyes were tracking my face, the mouth was moving, and the frequency from the hollow place was producing speech that I should not have been able to hear.
The demon’s neural connection to its body was severed, the lungs that powered the standard Narghul voice were no longer connected to the throat, the throat itself was attached to nothing, and yet the voice was emerging.
"Cattle... cattle, you have... You have killed... but the Achon are gone... they are gone, and you will not be... You will not be enough..."
The severed head was speaking through demonic-language compression that did not require the body’s standard speech infrastructure.
Some part of the demon’s voice operated at a tier above standard physiology, the soul-frequency, perhaps, or the Abyssal heritage’s primary communication channel.
Without the Stone Oracle, I could not be sure of which of my theories were correct.
The demon was crying out, and the frequency carried what the standard ear would have registered as a wail.
His voice sounded like a long, sustained note of distress. The demon was in the grip of terror with the realisation of approaching final death.
The essence of the demon would be taken by me, and his Abyssal Mark would not return to the Blood Ocean. This was the fate for demons that perished under the power of a celestial, and he knew it.
The remaining eye on the left side rolled in the socket to track my movement as I raised the chitin claw, and the mouth continued to speak.
"Cattle, listen... the worlds are not what you... the worlds are... your masters left because... they left because of... do not try..."
The demon was warning me, or trying to bargain. Or producing whatever its final consciousness could assemble before the connection between the severed head and the rest of the demon’s substrate finally failed.
The information density of the speech was high, and the frequency was clear. The demon was telling me something that mattered, but I did not listen.
I brought the chitin claw down on the skull, and the first impact crushed the right side of the face. The remaining functional eye on that side burst open as the pressure released through the eye socket when the chitin’s tapered point drove through the demon’s frontal structure.
The mouth continued to move as the frightened demon continued to plead its case,
"...do not... cattle, do not... the Caelith is not your concern... please..."
I brought the claw down again, and the second impact collapsed the top of the skull.
The bone structure, denser than human bone, was layered against impact damage, fractured along three lines simultaneously, and his brain-equivalent structure inside the skull was exposed.
It resembled a mass of dark-red tissue threaded with channels of yellow light, and the brain was constantly moving and vibrating, as if it were trying to leap out of the skull and run for its survival.
The demon continued to beg for mercy, as the pain and horror in its eyes could no longer be hidden.
"...please... I will tell you... I will tell you what is in the Caelith... I will tell you what the Achon were... cattle, listen..."
The Avatar did not listen and smashed the head of the demon a third time, and the skull collapsed inward completely. The dark-red tissue with its yellow channels splashed outward across the corpse pile and the charred earth. The remaining eye on the left side, which was the only functional eye that had survived the engagement, was crushed in the third strike, the socket caving inward as the chitin claw drove through the frontal structure.
Finally, the demon was silent, and I held what was left of the skull.
The structure was no longer recognisable as a head, pulp mostly, dark-red tissue, yellow-channel fluid, bone fragments, hide strips, and the cracked stumps of the two horns.
I opened the claw, and the pulp fell from my grip onto the bowl’s floor. In the centre of the pulp, at the position where the demon’s brain-equivalent structure had been, something remained.
A crystal.
It was shiny and red, approximately the size of a child’s fist. The surface was smooth, and it had no facets or edges. The crystal had been at the centre of the Narghul Sorcerer’s skull, embedded in the brain-equivalent tissue, and the three impacts had crushed everything around it without damaging the crystal itself.
The crystal was pulsing as if it contained life, and this was not far from the truth, because this was the core of a Narghul Sorcerer.
I glanced at it for a moment, and then looked at the core of the shadow limb that was not lying too far from me, and the remnants of the demon’s flame essence lingering in his torso.
Before me were all the ingredients for a reforged shell framework, and I continued to reach out for the Stone Oracle for the next five seconds if I should take this step.
My task was clear: kill every demon, and with my current shell, it would be an impossible task.
I waited another five seconds, and then I bent down and began my task.
The demon was right... I will not be enough.