Fwish! Crash!
The sound echoed through the shattered battlefield as Alex's final strike toward the Hatred Demon's heart was intercepted.
Just as his claws were about to land the fatal blow, the heart, buried within the demon's monstrous chest, reacted violently.
From its core, hundreds of writhing crimson tendrils surged outward like living spears, erupting through the air with a sound that was part screech, part thunder.
They struck Alex all at once, crushing his body in a grotesque, grinding collapse of flesh and bone.
And just like that, he died.
But death wasn't the end of it.
While his shattered body hit the ground, the rest of those crimson tendrils kept moving, shifting their focus.
Half of them coiled around the Hatred Demon's decapitated head, lifting it off the broken terrain and dragging it upward.
The other half buried themselves into the cracked earth beneath, pushing and bracing to raise the demon's vast body back onto its feet.
