Sixty-Nine † Bloody Hell

There were about a dozen guards, running across the black lake, which turned out to be watery and not viscous, splashing around like extra-runny mud. And it was just as chunky as mud too, it turned out. Solid bits of random shapes rose as their footsteps thundered.

Kat dreaded to know what those bits were, but what she dreaded more were the ones running towards them at top speed.

Calix, Thisbe, and Amicus didn't have such fears, though. Despite having come from a different battle just earlier and being heavily outnumbered, they poised their weapons and closed in for an attack.

She stayed back, not because she didn't want to fight, but because she was paralyzed by the chaos going on above her. The Hellborns were much more fearsome, yes, but the sheer aggression of the human souls bothered her in ways she couldn't describe.

They were spindly but surprisingly quick, agile enough to jump to the lower cages and hang on the chains as they cackled and jeered, their words incoherent and incomp