The towering buildings above bled into the puddles, painting the grimy concrete in garish strokes of purple, green, and electric blue.
The air, though cleaner than the choked lobby, still carried the faint, metallic scent of the advanced city, a sharp contrast to the familiar damp earth of his own time.
Kane, still reeling from the jump and the intense adrenaline of his first kill, felt the desperate thirst for water intensify, a raw rasp in his throat.
He raised the Scale of Penance, its brass pan now bearing a faint red glow from the absorbed soul.
He expected it to twitch, to point him toward the next target, but it remained still, a dead weight in his hand.
A cold dread settled in his gut.
This was oddly unusual.
The Scale was relentless, always pulling him to the next demon.
Why was it silent now all of a sudden?
Just as he was about to lower it, a low, harsh-sounding hiss rippled through the alley, a sound that seemed to suck the very moisture from the air.
The faint, disgusting scent of decay, subtle at first, began to prickle his nose, growing stronger, fouler, by the second.
The neon lights on the surrounding buildings seemed to dim and flicker, and the air grew heavy, unpleasantly excessive as if everywhere became a graveyard.
Kane instinctively clutched Zigor while almost crying because he needed to drink water, Zigor's weight a proper distracting comfort against the creeping terror.
From the shadow between two massive, humming ventilation units, a beast-like demon made itself known with a hefty right uppercut.
Kane was launched 5ft into the air and landed on his spine.
Ahhh! " What in the sect hit me" Kane exclaimed in pain.
As it drifted closer, the already dying weeds pushing through cracks in the concrete shriveled instantly, turning to brittle dust. A plump rat, scurrying across a puddle, convulsed once, its fur flattening, before it collapsed into a dried husk, all moisture drawn from its little body.
This was no ordinary demon. This was a gas demon, a being of pure atmospheric destruction, its very presence stripping oxygen and accelerating decay in the environment.
Kane felt his lungs burn, a sudden, desperate need for air overwhelming him. His vision blurred, and a dizzying wave of nausea washed over him.
The stench of the decayed corpse was overwhelming.
He stumbled backward, fighting the overwhelming urge to gasp or vomit. The tendrils of the demon's green vapor reached for him, cold and suffocating. Just as he felt the first touch of its deadly chill, a flash of bluish-red streaked past his peripheral vision. A blur of movement, followed by the sharp crack of a whip, cutting through the heavy air like a lightning strike.
"Stay still, Hey!" a sharp, feminine voice commanded.
Kane blinked, his eyes struggling to focus through the oxygen-deprived haze. Standing between him and the advancing demon was a figure cloaked in sky blue, her hood pulled back to reveal a striking face framed by fiery red hair.
Her eyes, the color of indigo, fixed on the demon with an intensity that felt like a personal fury.
....like this wasn't her first time doing this.
In her hand, she wielded a long metallic braided staff, it stood twice her height, its tip crackling with faint mystic energy.
This was Nala Verne, a name whispered with a mix of awe and reverence in certain circles of his own time.
A rogue enchantress, unpredictable and undeniably powerful.
A time watcher, and also a servant of the Elder Gods.
Before Kane could react, Nala snapped her staff again, sending a forcefield of dark energy directly into the heart of the gas demon.
The formless cloud recoiled with a shriek that echoed like a thousand dying breaths, its form momentarily disrupting.
But it was only a momentary relief.
The demon, though wounded, began to reform, now specifically targeting Nala.
Kane knew he had to act, and fast.
But not because he wanted to save her (the lady who just scarred a demon on his behalf), but because it had to be him that killed the demon for his kills to take count.
The demon was too potent, its aura too strong to fight head-on in his current state. He needed to create a diversion, something that would buy them time.
His mind raced, sifting through all the knowledge he had painstakingly acquired over his natural existence as an Exorcist before the curse.
In a desperate gamble, he extended his hands, palms open to the sky, and began to chant, the words ancient and heavy, tasting of ash.
He was making a forbidden ritual.
Dark energy surged within him, a burning current that hummed with a dangerous promise.
"From the depths of the fractured veil, I summon thee!" Kane's voice, though strained and hoarse from the lack of air and aching dehydration, resonated with an unholy power. "By the threads of darkness and the whispers of the Tamed, heed my call!"
The air around him warped, vibrating with an unnatural purple hue. Shadows lengthened, twisting into grotesque caricatures of themselves.
From the distorted reality, figures began to materialize...spectral, translucent, yet undeniably present.
Their forms were vaguely humanoid, their eyes glowing with a faint, sorrowful light.
They were in the hundreds.
These were the Elliptic Souls, entities trapped in a purgatorial state, bound by an ancient pact to perform good deeds in the mortal realm to bargain some sort of redemption, perhaps a way out of damnation.
They were evil entities, yet they now sought to change their terrible sentence of being sent to the Realm Of Avoidance, a fate far worse than true oblivion, by serving.
They intermingled around him, their immaterial forms phasing in and out of existence, their presence radiating a strange, melancholic energy.
They weren't evil in the conventional sense anymore. They were beings of sorrowful penance, compelled to do good. And for the next three minutes, they were his to command.
All Kane had with them was 3mins before they got pulled back into the Realm Of Avoidance.
"Distract, but do not kill it!" Kane roared, pointing towards the reforming gas demon. "Engage it! Keep it from us!"
With a silent, collective nod, the Elliptic souls surged forward, their spectral forms phasing through the concrete and the very air.
They didn't engage in direct combat, for their touch was fleeting and their power primarily disruptive.
Instead, they swirled around the gas demon, their sorrowful cries echoing through the alley, their ghostly forms momentarily mingling and then dissipating, creating a chaotic turbulence of mystic energy.
The demon, confused and agitated by the constant, intangible harassment, thrashed wildly, its form flickering.
Nala, seizing the opportunity Kane's dark art had provided, launched another powerful strike with her staff.
The combination of the Elliptic souls' distraction and Nala's concentrated attack caused the gas demon to shriek once more, a sound of pure agony, and then Kane seized the opportunity created for him.
He launched into the air with zigor above his head, coming down on the gas demon with immeasurable force.
Striking the demon right on the chest, while still in a gaseous form, it stood no chance against such a powerful hit from Zigor.
It began to dissipate, its malevolent mist dissolving into the rain-filled air.
The Elliptic souls wailing, their three minutes almost up, began to fade, their sorrowful gazes lingering on Kane for a moment before they vanished entirely, returning to their purgatory.
The air slowly cleared, and Kane gasped, sucking in great gulps of oxygen, his head throbbing. He looked at Nala, who stood poised, her staff still crackling with residual energy, her indigo eyes narrowed in a mixture of suspicion and grudging respect.
"What was that?" she demanded (pretending to not recognize the gas demon), her voice sharp, yet tinged with an unexpected tremor.
"And who are you, to command such... paraphernalia?"
"You perform a forbidden ritual?..."
Kane muttered like someone passing out... "Water".