The Maw pulsed. Weaker. While it walked away with his heart, it turned back to look at him. The air was different than it should've been. It was almost as if it's actions weren't rational as it should've been.
Asvard lying lifeless. His lifelong memories flashing. Or so it should've been. But he didn't. He was standing there. He met a man. In a world of dark. The darkness clinged onto him. All he saw was his back. The man wasn't human. It stood there. Like a lifeless statue left to rot.
Asvard stepped closer.
He kept on closing the distance. Eventually he was right behind him.
"Who're you?." He muttered
The man stood there.
Asvard clenched his fist and punched the figure.
It disappeared. As if it was an illusion.
He woke up. As if he had fallen asleep.
The thing walking away. Time didn't pass alot.
It holding his heart.
He tore through the things chest. From the back. Ripped out it's heart.
It lying , "how?." muttered the thing.
"The same way you did" Asvard whispered to it while grabbing it's head close to his.
He shattered it's head. Crashing the head into the ground.
He looked at his own heart in it's hand.
Asvard wasn't simply living. Something else kept him alive.
The heart was now in his hand. Still beating.
Not loud. But enough to feel it. Enough to know. It shouldn't be.
His chest had a hole. But no pain. No blood either. He wasn't in agony as he expected.
He waited. To close his eyes. To lay rest.
But he couldn't close his eyes. He wasn't dead yet.
Instead… his fingers felt stronger. His eyes clearer. He could hear something. Not sound. Something else. Like the air had a voice of its own.
The Maw stood still. Watching. Silent. It didn't come back. It didn't run either.
Asvard stared at the thing. Chest hollow, eyes sharp.
He let the heart in his hand burn. Black smoke rose from his palm as the heart melted away like candle wax.
He was still standing.
Still alive.
No, not alive.
Different.
He took a deep breath.
It was colder than before. The wind in the Maw wasn't just air. It was like a whisper crawling through his skin. His veins. His mind.
Something had changed.
A step. Behind him.
He didn't move.
Another step.
He turned.
There was someone there. Couldn't see the face. Shadowed. Tall. Still. Like it had always been there. Watching.
"You died." the figure said. Calm. Almost bored.
Asvard didn't answer.
"Or you should've."
Asvard blinked. The figure didn't move.
He clenched his fists. Ready. Even if his body wasn't.
"You're not complete." the figure said again. "But something woke up, didn't it?"
Asvard narrowed his eyes. "Who are you?"
But the figure didn't reply.
Just one word, before it vanished into the dark.
"Remember."
And then silence.
Asvard looked down at his chest. Still open. Still hollow.
But it didn't matter.
Whatever had kept him human. Was fading.
And something else had taken its place.
He didn't know what.
But he knew.
He wasn't going to die here.
His chest still felt empty.
But it didn't hurt.
Not anymore.
He touched the spot where his heart used to be. Cold. But it pulsed. Not like a beat. More like... a knock. Faint. From the inside.
He didn't like that feeling.
Didn't trust it.
But he didn't drop dead, so he kept walking.
The Maw stretched out, quiet. Too quiet. The ground was smooth, but wrong. Like skin stretched over bone. Sometimes, it twitched. Like something underneath was trying to move.
He walked anyway.
The silence started whispering again. Not voices. Just thoughts that weren't his. A storm of noise rushed in the cracks of his mind.
"You were touched."
"Echo doesn't forget."
"Not yours. Not yet."
He kept moving.
His hands shook. Not from fear. From something else.
Something was building. Slowly. Like heat before a burn.
Then he saw it.
A wall. No doors. No cracks. Just black stone, rough and pulsing like a heart. It blocked the path, towering over everything.
But the moment he looked at it. It opened.
No sound. No light. Just space parting, letting him through.
He stepped inside.
The room was cold. Dark. Still. The floor reflected his body, but not like a mirror. It showed him... wrong. A version of him with horns. Eyes like void. Smiling with cracked teeth.
He looked away.
"Why me?" he muttered.
But no answer came.
Only a low breath.
Behind him.
He turned quick.
Another figure.
Not the one from before.
This one had wings. Burnt. Ash falling from its feathers. Its eyes were stitched shut. But it looked at him anyway.
"You wear the hollow well." it said. Its voice felt like nails dragging through gravel.
Asvard didn't flinch.
"What is it that you want?" he asked.
The thing smiled, its mouth full of broken black teeth.
"I'm just here to see if you'll fall."
Then it disappeared too.
He was alone again.
Only the echo of its words stuck around.
Fall.
He looked back at the wall behind him.
It had closed.
No going back now.
He kept walking.
No path. Just instinct.
Something was changing inside him. Slowly.
And whatever he was turning into. It wasn't human.
Not anymore.
The walk felt endless.
Like the Maw didn't lead anywhere. Just spiraled deeper into itself.
Asvard didn't know how long it had been. Minutes. Hours. Days. The Maw didn't care about time. Only what it took.
And it took from him.
His memories came in flashes. Sometimes he couldn't remember his father's face. Or what his mother's voice sounded like. His brother's laugh,gone. Then it'd come back again. All twisted. All broken.
But he kept walking.
Because something inside him refused to stop. Maybe it was pride. Or ego. Or hate. Whatever it was, it wouldn't let him crawl.
It made him stand.
His feet finally touched something different.
Ground.
He looked up.
A crack in the Maw's walls. Dim light bleeding through. Not sunlight. Just a dull, red glow. But it felt real.
It felt like out.
He walked toward it.
The passage opened with every step, like the Maw was done with him. Or maybe... it couldn't hold him anymore.
The Maw closed behind him.
It didn't crack, didn't rumble. Just sealed. Like it was never there.
Asvard stood still.
The cold air of hell brushed against his skin, but it didn't sting anymore. It sank in. Like it belonged there. Like he belonged there.
He blinked once. Looked down at his chest.
No wound. No blood.
But something still pulsed underneath.
Not a heart.
The shard.
Alive. Embedded. Quietly burning.
He didn't speak.
And then.
a sound.
Soft. A stone shifting.
Krelith crouched by a scrunched rock nearby. Leaning, arms resting on his knees. Not smiling. Not frowning either. Just… watching.
"Didn't expect you to come back so soon." Krelith said.
Asvard looked at him, eyes cold but calm.
"Didn't know I needed a schedule."
Krelith chuckled low. "Fair. Most don't come back at all."
He stood up, brushing off dust from his cloak.
"You went through one hell of a adventure" he chuckled. "So I'll do something rare."
Asvard raised an eyebrow.
"I'll answer any 3 questions of yours. Anything. I won't lie" Krelith said. His voice was flat. Too calm.
He stepped forward, hands behind his back. No tension in his body. But something in his stance was... too careful. Like a man standing near fire, pretending it won't burn.
Asvard didn't question it.
"Three questions," he muttered.
Krelith nodded.
"Alright." Asvard said.
His eyes flicked to the cracked sky above. The reddish glow. The breath of ash in the air. He was still adjusting to it all. But he didn't feel out of place.
Not anymore.
He asked the first question.
"What is this place? This part of hell."
Krelith turned slightly, staring at the broken landscape stretching beyond.
"This? This is the Diminished Cries. Edge of hell's oldest bones. Where echoes feed, where time limps, and where the Maw sleeps when it's done feeding."
Asvard didn't speak. Just nodded once.
Second question.
"What was that... thing I killed in there?"
Krelith glanced at him. "A Mawspawn. The kind that shouldn't be born unless hell's starving."
Asvard tilted his head. "The hell's starving?"
Krelith said nothing to that. Just smiled faintly. "Next question?"
Asvard thought.
He didn't ask right away.
He just stared down at his hands. Same skin. Same lines. But he could feel the difference. He didn't know what he was anymore. Only that he was more than before.
He clenched his fist.
Then looked up.
That shard pulsing in his chest… it was quiet now. But not gone.
He looked at Krelith.
The demon stood still, watching.
"Asvard" he said, "last question."
Asvard exhaled.
Eyes sharp.
Voice calm.
"What was that man in the dark?"
Silence.
Krelith didn't smirk this time.
Didn't blink.
Something in his jaw tightened.
His shoulders didn't move, but his stance shifted,barely, like a reflex he didn't mean to show.
He looked away. Just for a second.
Then back at Asvard.
And finally, he spoke.
"…Impossible."