Nessus charged forward with his spear poised and his shield high. His armor was thick and covered not only his chest, but also his body with a chainmail skirt surrounding his legs. His helmet looked like an eagle’s face, with his mouth open showing his beard. He was almost like a tank.

Matthew rolled out of the way unable to stop or counterattack.

Nessus kept his charge, taking a wide circle and sprinting towards Matthew again.

Matthew dodged again with his superior Agility due to his Reckless Agility skill.

Nessus took a wide circle again to align himself one more time for another attack. At the same time, another centaur came charging from behind Matthew.

This one was not well armored as Nessus, nor as fast. Matthew managed to roll on the ground cleaving one of his legs with a sword coated in unholy fire. He fell to the ground screaming in pain as the blue flames consumed his leg and progressed to his body.

Nessus was soon over Matthew while he got up, taking advantage of the opportunity created by his subordinate.

Matthew defended himself using both swords, but the strike was powerful enough to send him flying backwards hitting a couple of tall rocks.

The rocks crumbled as Matthew took a step forward with his face contorted in pain. He looked around to see Ffyr still on the top of the tower fighting off arrows shot at her and countering with air blades down. Avariel was occupied with a score of centaurs, keeping them away from Matthew and Nessus.

Then Matthew looked at Nessus who was digging the floor with one of his hooves impatiently. He dared not to charge because of the stones behind Matthew. But Matthew knew that, as soon as he made a move, the centaur would charge again against him.

Matthew decided not to wait. Instead, he charged forward first.

Nessus accepted the challenge and charged as well.

When they met halfway, the centaur stabbed at Matthew with the full weight of his heavy body and armor behind him. He took some blood out of Matthew’s cheek, but Matthew’s Agility was too high for Nessus to follow him. He dodged the stab with a jump sideways and hit Nessus’s shield with his full strength, coating his sword with holy fire added with his Sharpen skill.

That was enough to cut the shield in half.

Nessus took another wide circle. This time with a cold shiver of fear. His shield, a small round shield made entirely of metal, was now cut in half on the floor between him and Matthew.

He was counting on his armor to be at an advantage over Matthew, but the holy fire added with his Sharpen skill was enough to trump the iron of his armor.

Matthew realized Nessus was now frozen in fear and utilized the little time he had to drink a mana potion he had on his Inventory that he found a long time ago in the hospital debris. He had only one more in there.

Nessus charged again when he beat the fear in him. Now, holding his spear with both hands, he was more precise with his attack. But he missed again.

This time Matthew didn’t counterattack leaving Nessus with a fleeting sense of accomplishment. However, when he looked back at Matthew, he didn’t see his enemy.

He moved his head to all sides searching for him, but he was nowhere to be seen.

It took some time for him to remember that Matthew could become shadow since he only saw him using that skill a couple of minutes ago.

The centaur focused his attention to the ground searching for odd shadows, but he was too late. Matthew came out of the shadow from under him stabbing upwards on his unprotected horse belly.

Nessus screamed and stomped at Matthew with his hooves. He managed to kick him twice before Matthew rolled out of there. He felt the unholy fire consuming his body. He ground his teeth. He took deep breaths to endure the pain.

"It’s over." Matthew said calmly, cleaning the centaur’s blood from him. "You know that unholy fire will consume you until nothing remains. You have no way to dispel it."

"Fuck you." Nessus screamed from both anger and pain.

The centaur stepped forward ignoring the fire burning under him and attacked Matthew desperately with his spear.

Matthew dodged and deflected all the attacks, taking steps back trying to get away from Nessus. The barrage of attacks kept him in the defensive, but none of them were truly connecting and dealing damage to Matthew.

Nessus, in his despair, was just screaming and attacking with no technique. Just blindly swinging his spear trying at any cost to kill Matthew before the unholy fire took his life.

Matthew had only to be patient. It was a matter of time for when a person attacking like that would open their guard and give an opening for a counterattack. A lesson he learned painfully hammered in him from his spars with Geovanna.

When Nessus’ blade hit the floor and his spear turned sideways, Matthew didn’t hesitate. He coated his sword in holy fire and decapitated the centaur, aiming his blade at the only unarmored place on his armor: the mouth, which was left uncovered because centaurs needed a lot of air influx to sustain their big and heavy bodies.

With Nessus dead and his war band defeated, any other centaur near them fled back to their river.

When Avariel came to Matthew to check if he was ok, Matthew smiled at her.

"That felt good. This creep has been after Ffyr ever since we first met." He said kicking the head of the centaur on the ground towards Avariel who just ignored it.

"Are you all right?" Avariel asked again.

"Just some small cuts and some bruises." Matthew said using his Heal skill to heal himself. "I’ve been through much worse."

"How’s Nanael?" Matthew asked Ffyr through their telepathy.

"She’s ok." Ffyr answered.

Matthew couldn’t purify himself from the unholy mana without hurting his demonic soul, but he did it anyway, used by now with the pain.

"I’m almost out of mana." He said to Avariel. "Can you purify the miasma around the tower?" He asked the angel who promptly did so.

After the miasma in the air was dispelled, Ffyr came out of he tower giving Nanael her shoulder to help her walk.

"Now, how do we take you to Elysium?" Matthew asked the angel, sitting down and drinking some water from his flask. He was almost out of water. He needed more and the only way he could get it was using a water purification machine he salvaged from the hospital and finding a spring around, a rare thing in Violentia.

Even if Matthew drank water from his Create Water skill, once the spell was broken and the water turned back to mana, his body would dehydrate again.

"I can find passage to the Elysium in the city of Dis. Or in the Limbo." Avariel said.

"Which do you prefer?" Matthew asked.

"It’s not much of a preference. To get to the Limbo, we need to pass through the other hells. Dis will be on the way." Avariel said while helping her sister sit down on top of an empty chest.

"So... From Violentia to Haeresis now?" Matthew asked.

"Yes." Avariel said. "Dis is in Ira. If we can’t find passage to Elysium there, we need to keep going until we reach Elysium."

"There are several gates to Haeresis. I don’t know any of them from this side of the Phlegethon." Matthew thinked out loud.

"Which is the closest?" Avariel asked.

"There’s one just upstream of the blood river." Ffyr said.

"Then let’s go." Avariel carried her sister.

On their way, they passed the dark forest again, but got no word from Elenore or Celaeno.

"How is Haeresis?" Matthew asked Avariel when they cleared the forest.

"A dark place. The soil is black, there is no light in the sky. The only thing that illuminates that place are the fires that burn the Damnata confined in their graves. I’ve never been there myself, but other angels said it had a terrible smell. Rotten and burned meat all over the place." Avariel explained.

"It’s ruled by the demon king Belial." The angel continued. "There are few demons there. Way less than Violentia."

"What sin did the Damnata there commit?" Ffyr asked.

"Heresy." Nanael was the one to answer. "To fight against the nature of the universe."

"How so?" Matthew asked them.

"Those who acted against the realms, against the rule of gods." Avariel said.

"So, if I act against a god, I’ll end up there?" Matthew asked.

"No." Nanael smiled. "Going against the gods is not enough to end there. It’s a sin much more sinister."

"Just promise you won’t try to unmake mana or to destroy souls." Avariel added. "It’s not wise to interfere with the laws of nature."