Kyle stared up into Seraphina's violet eyes, his teeth grinding together so hard his jaw throbbed. The crushing weight of the water chains burned against his chest, but the fire roaring in his soul was hotter.
He looked at Yua, bleeding and weeping at his feet. He looked at Elara, pale and slumping against Marcus, and at the forty-seven terrified humans trapped in floating bubbles.
"I told you," Kyle rasped, his voice dropping into an icy, primal register. "I don't sell myself."
Before Seraphina could react, Kyle detonated his dark energy.
He didn't care about conserving stamina anymore. The dark flames of his demon core flared out in a violent shockwave, turning the water chains around his chest into instantly vaporized steam. He lunged forward from his knees, his right leg fully encased in the black, void-forged armor of his shadow talon. He aimed a lethal, point-blank strike straight at Seraphina's sternum.
*BOOM!*
