The air above the Throat of Ash turned black.
Cinders twisted in violent spirals. Eruptions of flame burst from vents in the crater wall as the molten rivers below pulsed and surged. And high above them, between the fortress tower's spires and the black sky, Raum rose to the sky avoiding Mike's initial attack. He floated in the air with wings like shattered glass and feathers of obsidian.
His voice echoed across the crater.
"You've come far, Dragon. But this is my sky. My dominion."
Mike bared his fangs. "Then I'll tear it from you."
He lunged again.
The first clash cracked the air like lightning. Mike's claws met Raum's twin scimitars, curved blades of black iron and serrated with shapes like feathers. Sparks scattered, and the two spiraled into the sky, locked in a spinning duel.
Raum was fast.
His wings didn't beat like a bird's, they cut the air like razors. Each flap propelled him with bursts of speed, vanishing and reappearing in different locations. Illusions flickered in the ash, mirages of his form that struck at Mike's sides, trying to disorient.
Mike countered with force.
His wings flared wide, creating shockwaves to scatter the illusions. When Raum appeared behind him, Mike twisted, catching the crow king with a tail strike that hurled him downward.
Raum caught himself mid-fall and blasted upward, blade's first.
The scimitars scraped Mike's scales. Sparks and blood flew.
Mike roared and snapped his jaws, forcing Raum to dodge again. Their exchanges became a cyclone of fury, sparks, black feathers, red flame, and winged violence that shattered the upper spires of the fortress. Rubble fell into the Throat like meteors, crashing into the lava lakes below.
Demons screamed as they fell to their demise.
Mike turned hard and rammed Raum midflight, both of them tumbling across the sky like cannonballs before breaking apart again. The impact leveled another tower, stone and bone crumbled in flames.
"You're not as blind as your rage," Raum snarled, hovering above the collapsing spire. "But you're still easy to predict."
He snapped his wings forward, glyphs of black and grey essence circling him, and sent barbed shadows screaming through the sky. They stabbed into Mike's wing joints, cutting his lift. He faltered.
Raum dove.
Mike twisted to meet him, and they collided in mid-air, claws tearing across armor and bone. Raum dragged Mike down, spinning them like a drill into the crater wall. They hit with a deafening explosion, ripping through the black rock and creating a landslide of debris crashing down the crater walls. The cliffs below the fortress began to crack.
Mike pushed himself out of the crater wall, half-buried.
Raum emerged from the plume of smoke, bleeding but still smirking. "You bleed like all the others. Where is your absolute now, dragon?"
Mike looked at him with a low growl.
His aura exploded.
A pulse of red and black engulfed him. Essence surged through his body, melting the barbs from his wings. His wings snapped out wide, and in a burst, he launched through the air like a meteor.
Raum tried to react. Too late.
Mike slammed into him and drove him into the obsidian ridge that curved around the Throat of Ash. The cliff face cracked. Lava burst upward from below.
They were spinning now. Wings locked. Claws digging. Raum's feathers ignited from the heat as Mike tore into him with fangs and claws.
"I'm done asking," Mike growled. "Where is Hecate?"
Raum grinned through the blood. "Burn in the Pit."
He twisted his body and plunged both scimitars into Mike's chest.
Mike roared, then grabbed Raum's shoulders and bit through his left wing.
Raum shrieked, tumbling backwards as blood sprayed in arcs of black steam.
Mike dropped to a crouch on the ridge, panting, the blades still embedded in his chest. He tore them out and hurled them into the lava below.
"All you fucking demons just ramble! Unless you're answering me, shut the fuck up!" he growled.
He advanced.
Raum stumbled back, trying to lift off. But the missing wing ruined his balance. Mike grabbed his leg, slammed him into the ground, and dragged him across the black stone, carving a smoking trench as demons fled in terror.
Then he lifted him high.
And bit down on Raum's torso.
Raum screamed as Mike devoured him, tearing away armor and flesh, ignoring the acid-like venom that spilled from his wounds. With every bite, he took felt more power, felt closer to what he was in the trial.
Mike felt the power continuing to grow in his muscles but still no answers on Hecate's location.
He ripped Raum in half and consumed the rest, burning the black feathers to ash.
"Good a bird, I grew tired of the taste of bat." Bahamut growled
Silence followed.
The fortress behind him was in ruins. Half the crater wall had collapsed into the Flame Lakes below. The sky above was choked in smoke.
Mike knelt for a moment, one claw digging into the stone.
Bahamut growled again in his mind. "You're chasing shadows."
"Then I will keep killing them till I find her," Mike growled. "Thanatos will release her and I need to be there to take her away from the demons."
"Good, eat them all."
Mike's jaw clenched.
From the shattered hallway of the fortress, the wounded Amit's chosen staggered forward, leaning against the blackened wall. Her golden tattoos pulsed weakly under the blood. Her eyes, though half-lidded, locked on him.
"You survived," she rasped.
Mike walked over and offered his clawed hand. She hesitated, but took it.
"Come on. We're getting out of here."
They walked down the obsidian slope as the firestorms died behind them. The crater wall collapsed further, swallowing much of the fortress ruins into molten light. The Throat of Ash would not survive another battle like that.
Mike stopped at the ridge, where the land split between road and flame.
"What's your name?" he asked.
The woman, still leaning on him, looked up. "Dina," she whispered. "I am Dina. Chosen of Amit."
Mike nodded.
"I'm Mike."
"You're… different," she said. "Than what I expected. Than what she warned us about."
"She?"
"Hecate," Dina said quietly. "She knows you're coming."
Mike turned his eyes toward the black sky.
"Good."