Without any hesitation, Malik threw a punch.

His massive fist connected with the Demon’s chest before it could fully form, sending it flying even further away from the unconscious women still resting upon the now-small tree.

The Demon crashed hard into the snow, carving a trench through the ground.

Malik was already moving.

He reached the Demon in two strides and brought his foot down on its torso.

But the creature rolled aside at the last moment, and Malik’s boot slammed into the earth instead, forming a crater.

The Demon came up swinging, its bladed arm arcing toward Malik’s throat.

Malik caught the blade with his right hand, the edge biting into his palm, and punched the Demon in the face with his other fist.

The Demon’s head snapped back, but it did not fall.

It kicked out, catching Malik on the knee, making him stumble.

Stepping back, the two giants circled each other, only to attack once more.

Malik did not care to block; he only attacked, lashing out with punch after punch, each one thrown with the full force of Goliath’s Fall.

The Demon matched him, blow for blow, their fists colliding with sounds like cannon fire.

He took a hit to the ribs and felt something crack but ignored it and drove his forehead into the Demon’s face.

It staggered, and Malik pressed his advantage, grabbing its arm and twisting.

The limb bent at an unnatural angle, but the Demon did not scream.

It simply swung its other arm and caught Malik across the jaw.

His vision blurred for a moment, but he held on.

He could not waste a single second against this monstrosity.

His seemingly infinite Rukh would deal with the consequences of his injuries, but only if he ended the fight before the Soul Glyph ran out.

Letting go of the Demon’s arm, he dropped low, sweeping its legs out from under it.

The creature crashed onto its back, and Malik was on top of it in an instant, his fists raining down.

Left, right, left, right—each punch drove the Demon deeper into the earth, burying it alive.

Before that could come to pass, the Demon managed to grab Malik by the shoulder and throw him off, sending him tumbling across the snow.

Malik rolled to his feet and charged again while lowering his shoulder like a battering ram.

He slammed into the Demon’s midsection, driving it backward, and the two of them crashed into a nearby Tree of Life.

"Fall! Fall! Fall! Fall! Fall! Fall! Fall! Fall! Fall! Fall! FALL!"

Malik pinned the Demon against the tree and resumed hammering it with both fists, a relentless barrage of blows that left craters in the creature’s chest.

The Demon’s eyes flickered wildly, unable to do a thing.

Its Corruption weakened with each impact.

But it wasn’t the only one.

Goliath’s Fall was beginning to fade.

Malik only had a few seconds left, and he had to make them count.

Stepping back, he grabbed the Demon by its crown and pulled.

The jagged ring came loose, and the Demon finally screamed...

"..."

It was a sound that couldn’t be properly described, much less heard.

Simply a horrible wail that echoed across the wasteland.

Forcing his mind to forget it, Malik did not stop.

"I SAID FALL!"

He brought the crown down on the Demon’s head, again and again, until its skull caved in and its body began to collapse into a pool of ichor.

"..."

"..."

"..."

Finally, it was dead.

Goliath’s Fall ended.

Malik’s size returned to normal in an instant, shrinking from a giant to a man.

Suddenly, he was falling through the air from high up, the ground rushing up to meet him.

Apparently, the Rune’s gigantification worked from the core down, thus letting him free fall like this.

He twisted his body, reached out, and caught the now-utterly destroyed trunk of the tree.

Sliding down the trunk with burning palms, he roughly crashed into the snow at the base.

He lay there for a moment, breathing hard, his body aching from the rapid size change and the accumulated damage of the fight.

Eventually, he pushed himself up and looked at what remained of the Crowned Demon.

There, next to the barely alive tree, through the dissipating Corruption and ichor, he saw... a snake?

Yes, a dark snake, coiled on the ground, its scales glistening with the same ichor.

But that was not the only strange thing. No, there was something else that was much stranger.

A sword stabbed the snake.

This blade was driven through its body and into the earth beneath, pinning it in place.

Malik slowly approached the snake, his eyes fixed on the blade, feeling a sense of... familiarity with it.

He reached down, wrapped his hand around the hilt, and pulled.

Ding!

The moment he did, a notification popped up in his vision.

—

[Holy Relic — Spine Splitter]

[Once, a treacherous gift by IT, wielded only by The Sultan of Blood and Fire.

"I am he whose mother named Malik. A king from Zawaya, grim-faced and tight-lipped. I repay a drop of venom with the weight of a mountain."

Witnessed by all on the bright day of its wielder’s return.

"Fall."

Only to then be sacrificed beneath an olive tree in the far depths of Hell, its true purpose served.]

—

’It seems I was quite a poetic man.’

Besides that obvious observation, he had also confirmed what exactly he had severed in Hell.

It was the roots connecting their planet to the main Tree of Death.

This sword had been the instrument of that act, and now it had returned to him.

He planned to think about the details later, but for now, he confirmed that indeed, this land and Hell were directly connected.

Otherwise, his sword wouldn’t have appeared here.

With time, his theory seemed to be more and more correct.

’Hm. I’ve got a pretty loyal sword, it seems.’

Smiling at that thought, he pulled the sword fully from the ground and inspected it.

The blade was curved and double-bladed, the same shape as the one on his sultanate’s banner.

Its metal was unnaturally white, almost glowing, and inscribed along its length were Arcane symbols that seemed to shift as he looked at them.

Ding!

’Hm?’

—

╔═════════════╗

║TRAIT UNLOCKED!║

╚═════════════╝

[Trait — Wielder Of Spine Splitter]

[Description: A title belonging to the only man who wielded the Sword of Lions.]

—

’Another trait. It seems I am truly and slowly regaining what I had.’

Malik looked back down at the snake, then at the sword in his hand.

On a whim, he stabbed the blade back into the snake, fully piercing it.

The snake dissolved into mist, disappearing as if it had never been.

Following that, the world shook.

In the distance, a bright light flashed.

A point of white that grew larger and larger, traveling toward them at impossible speed.

Malik did not have time to do anything but watch as the light swallowed everything.

Ding!

—

╔════════╗

║OVERFLOW!║

╚════════╝

[Fear Points: 0.2 → 14]

[You’ve felled an Accursed Demon.]

—

That was the last thing he saw before everything went white.