Every swing of his huge wing was throwing Ashwa away, leaving no room to attack.

He is holding back from using his ability to draw out mine. Ashwa deducted.

"Why so much of an effort just to eliminate a witness?"
Ashwa asked as he raised from the ground where he landed after another thrust.

"You are not an Airentine are you?" Worgoff asked

"What gives?" Ashwa replied while struggling to breath.

"I see you mages are far more pathetic without flight" he mocked.

Ashwa was tempted to unleash. But restrained and expressed a fake smile.

"Says the Helldweller without magic"

Worgoff was given the taste of his own medicine. He felt cocky and acted like he fell for it.

He spread his wings wide and wiggled them. Ashwa noticed that each and every feather on his body turned into a sharp shiny metalic thread making him look edgy and more terrifying then before.

Ashwa dropped his makeshift sword at the sight and kneeled dramatically.

Worgoff laughed at his "helplessness" and savoured the arrival of his foreseeable victory.

Ashwa laughed louder then Worgoff as he spread his hands across while looking up at the sky. Worgoff stopped to look at his pray behaving inappropriately.

"Luck. It's a thing of beauty isn't it?" Ashwa asked.

Worgoff was puzzled by his opponent's doings.

Ashwa was reassured of the fight's outcome, but decided not to hurry. He unfolded his left leg and pressed his left hand over the knee to lift himself up. He then proceeded to wipe all the bloody bruises and cuts calmly as Worgoff watched.

"I've seen many people who accepted their deaths, who gave up, stopped fighting. But such.... carelessness.... is a first" Worgoff praised optimistically.

Ashwa didn't even care to look at him.

Worgoff's body ringed with every bit of movement. Like a wind chime. He swept his wing towards Ashwa to launch a bunch of needles.

Ashwa ran towards the barage of needles piercing at him. He bent backwards and then forward to dodge a couple. He then did a spin off of the ground to avade a few more all the while smiling.

Ashwa stopped at once and froze all the flying needle with a blink of his glowing blue eyes.

"Impossible" Worgoff whispered.

The needles turned towards Worgoff slowly as Ashwa confidently walked forward. They mimicked his speed. Ultimately all the pins hanging from worgoff's wings got heavier, one by one they detached and were stuck to the ground, the force of which brought Worgoff to his knees.

"WHO ARE YOU?" Worgoff exclaimed.

"Im Ashwasena of Terrotrophe. A Guardian of Heavensworth"

Ashwa claimed as his eyes got brighter.

Soon Worgoff was flat on the ground as his needles jiggled under the magnetic resonance of Ashwa's reach.

"Congratulations. You're lucky" Worgoff struggled to speak under the pressure.

"I won!" Ashwa answered.

"Won? You just eliminated one among the infinite, we're not going to stop coming for her. He's always gotten what he wants...this is no different. If it isn't us, it'll be the carnivores"

"He? Who is he?" Ashwa asked and Worgoff giggled as he coughed blood. Ashwa increased the pressure gradually forcing more out his mouth.

"Ark'A'ton!" Worgoff whispered. Ashwa scrunched him into a ball of flesh and needle as soon as he heard that name. He wheezed and sat down out of exhaustion.
That name did not sit well with him.

"Who are you Mrs Ayame?" He said under his breath.

***

Aignet felt the line of communication fading from Worgoff's consciousness. He was frustrated. The anger fueled by his lack of progress or a definitive strategy to capture Ayame crossed the threshold of his patience. He screamed while being dog-piled by dead bodies. the core of the pile began to radiate a golden glow which got to the point where it was blinding for a few minutes. When the light dimmed down, the undead walkers were all a group of shiny sculptures, a detailed dome made of solid gold.

Ayame started to feel uneasy. Aignet struggled out of the dome of golden statues by breaking some limbs and heads on his way out. He was in a blinding rage, he shouted and cursed Ayame.

"No pray of mine ever forced me to use Almadis, until today" he said and proceeded to walk forward.

"Tell me. What is your purpose?" He asked.

Ayame continued chanting but all the undead were turned to gold. She tried to widen the area of her spell but her body wasn't allowing. Whatever prize she was paying seemed to be having a lethal effect on her.

"All this charade. Learning magic as a mortal? Not to mention dark magic. Protecting a Demonoid? Where did that get you? Where's your 'boyfriend mage' now? Dead probably, just like your father. The same fate will be shared by your son. All because of you" He said.

"You have no right to speak of my family" she exclaimed. Her blood ring stopped glowing and gravity acted upon her soon after. Aignet was inching towards her without hesitation.

"See that's your weakness...your disorder. The bondage. All humans share this aggravated reason to clump together. Like fungus" he took a few more steps before turning his golden body back to skin. "Procreation is just multiplication. Why do you have the need to cling...to tie done one another, in the name of affection....and love? It's Disgusting" he added while looked down on her.

Ayame crawled away from him, panting. He crouched before her.

"You should just come with me, or I can drag you down like I did to your ancestors" he added.

"This isn't over" Ayame mumbled. She had found her relief at the corner of her vision. But refused to look.

Aignet laughed and slowly stopped. He took a moment to contemplate.

"Your associate is dead" he lied.

"Then who is that?" She finally glanced over at Ashwa who stood far away like a glimmer of hope on the horizon.

Aignet's refusal to turn showed his concern. But he did eventually and saw the murderer of his companion.
The one who ignited fear in him.

"We'll what do we have here?" Aignet turned to Ashwa.

"The rogue mage? I presume... " Aignet's words were cut short when Ashwa kicked Worgoff's corpse towards him. The mushy, prickly ball of needle and flesh almost got unraveled by the time it rolled to his feet.

"Who do you work for?" Ashwa asked to desperately debunk his assumptions.

Aignet slowly raised his head to look at Ashwa once again. "Your kind is not allowed to interfere with our deeds" smiled disturbingly "I can look past the unfortunate demise of my associate. As long as you stay outside of this matter" he said while joining his fingers.

Ashwa's intrigue grew larger by each second. "What deed do you have with an undead human?" Aignet's smile disappeared he freed his fingers with a drawn out sigh. "IT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS" Aignet shouted.

"FOR THE LAST TIME WHO DO YOU WORK FOR?" Ashwa shouted back. Aignet chuckled and looked at the sky.

"There are rules of mortality which are woven into the fabrics of finite life. Those who break the rules will face us. The dwellers of hell. The Gaurdians of the Demonworld. We feed on the damned souls to maintain the balance between right and wrong" Aignet explained.

"All that is after death. Her soul is intact and it belongs to her" Ashwa said.

"True. But what we have here is a rare anomaly. Which requires... uncustomary treatment" Aignet replied.

Ashwa knew what he was talking about.

"You have yet to answer my question" he said.

"I have given you enough information, and time. Now either get out of the way or die" Aignet threatened.

Suddenly Ayame who sneaked up on Aignet splashed her blood on to him from a fresh cut wound on her hand. She then started chanting under her breath which set him on fire.

Aignet had quickly turned golden to endure the flames. He was surprised at first but nothing changed. He stood where he was, A flaming golden figure turning red hot. He laughed manaicaly, soon he started to ooz molten gold from his bodily surfaces. He was steaming up the air also creating a visual weavy mirage around him. Ayame turned around and ran but Aignet was facing difficulty in doing the same as was slow and sticky. Ayame hid herself before a wall and continued chanting.

Ashwa did not waste any time. He lifted all the metalic debrie around and blasted them towards Aignet. Iron needles, nails, tubes, bolts, pins, anything small just melted together with his body but bigger things like pipes and rods only impacted for a bounce off.

Although it was an act of desperation. The outcome gave him an idea. He ran to left without closing any distance to place himself amongst more scraps. He performed the same attack but with small objects than before. He repeated this along the circumference of their distance while Ayame maintened her spell.

After a few successful rounds he stopped and had a moment of heavy breathing. Aignet was confused by his odd and meaningless actions.

"It's pathetic to witness a mage like you throw away his life..."

"You can stop now miss Ayame" Ashwa called her out. Aignet was once again cut short of his speech. Ayame finally stopped her unholy whispering and peeked from behind the wall to find Ashwa.

The Helldweller's body cooled gradually as the red hot glow of his body faded. He was gold again but with patches of other metalic shades.

"Both of you have wasted enough of my time" he yelled. Looking back and forth at both of them.

"You scared me a little in the beginning" he turned to Ashwa. "But it's unfortunate, with your set of abilities it would have been a match if I was made of a different metal. Alas the same can't be said about Worgoff"

Even after Aignet's taunts, Ashwa gleamed with confidence.

"Yes he was surprisingly weak for Helldweller and you are no different" he commented and started walking forward, Aignet froze immediately.

"Yes gold is not suited for my Reach but...you are not fully gold now are you?" Ashwa said casually.

Aignet slowly pulled his hand infront of his eyes, rapidly flipping his palm front and back. His golden arms were not just gold anymore. He looked Ashwa and back at his hands with a baffled expression.
He touched his own face as if he can feel the change in compounds. His eminent doom had finally reached him.

"I'm an alloy now" he said under his breath before Ashwa made everything magnetic in his body to repel,
tearing him from the inside into chunks of metal parts like a broken golden statue.

Ayame came out of hiding and faced Ashwa refraining herself to embrace him out of releif and victory. She knelt down as Ashwa approached her. He looked up at him with a thankful smile, at the brink of tears.

"How are you still alive" he asked.

"The price of dark magic can be signed over to a different source by marking with my blood" she answered.

"So that's why he was burning, thanks for that" he said and sat down with her. Both contemplated on what just happened by taking a long pause.

"Why is the King of Hell looking for you...miss Ayame" he asked without looking at her.

She turned to face him and he did the same.

"I'm too damned to be alive but I'm not ready to die" she replied in tears.