"So yes, Jay, you have my attention. You're a glitch in reality. And that makes your soul incredibly valuable. Since outsider souls don't follow the normal rules, they're pure potential and chaos."

  His yellow eyes blazed brighter.

  "And I'm going to add you to my collection."

  Jay felt something crack inside him.

  It was his composure.

  That belief shattered and broke apart like glass under a hammer.

  But he couldn't surrender. Because surrendering meant damnation, and it meant Domino and the others would be next.

  So he attacked with hope & desperation.

  Jay raised his weapon and channeled everything into it. Every ounce of Lightforce and every drop of anti-magic.

  Holding nothing back, he swung.

  The dimensional slash erupted from his blade, a technique he'd refined in Kamar-Taj. But this time, amplified beyond anything he'd attempted. Fueled by desperation and the absolute need to hurt this thing.

  The blade cut the dimension itself.

  The slash expanded. Growing from knife-edge to highway-width in seconds. The pocket dimension itself began to tear.

  The attack would have killed anything mortal, banished most demons and erased a god's avatar.

  It should have worked.

  But Mephisto was not most beings.

  Mephisto just clapped.

  The sound was thunder as two giant hands manifested from nothing. Each the size of a building and made of living hellfire.

  They moved with impossible speed and came together and caught the dimensional slash between their palms.

  Like catching a fly.

  The clash created a shockwave that shattered what remained of the platform as the entire dimension screamed.

  The impossible attack and impossible defense ground against each other. Reality screamed from the strain as the dimensional slash tried to cut through, but the hellfire hands refused to be cut.

  Then the hands closed completely and crushed the attack like tin foil.

  The dimensional slash vanished and simply ceased to exist.

  But when the hands dissipated, Mephisto looked at his palms with surprise.

  A single cut marred the perfect crimson skin of both his palms.

  It was shallow and barely bleeding, but there and proof that Jay had hurt him.

  Mephisto stared at the wound for a long moment. Then, slowly, he threw his head back and laughed.

  "Hahahaha!!!"

  The sound was terrible. Just genuine mirth and pure delight.

  "Ah, Jay!" He licked the blood from his palm. "I thought you'd lost your spark! The power you displayed in New York! But look at this!" He held up his hand like a trophy. "You did this to me! You actually hurt me! You really are special! You really are worth collecting!"

  Jay didn't pause to celebrate.

  He activated Kim Il Sung's evolved functionality manipulation. Combined it with his null field and channelled both through the Muramasa blade, focusing everything into a single point.

  The attack was invisible. A wave of pure negation that unmade mystical frameworks and disrupted demonic essence. Scrambling the fundamental functions that allowed Mephisto to exist in this dimension.

  It should have forced him back to hell.

  But Mephisto waved his hand dismissively, casual and bored even.

  The attack hit him. Splashed against him like water against stone as some got through, leaving shallow cuts across his skin, but only surface damage.

  He looked at the new cuts with mild interest, then at Jay and finally back at the cuts.

  "Is that all?" His tone was genuinely curious. "I expected more after that opening. That dimensional slash was art. Pure, beautiful art. But this?" He gestured at the shallow wounds. "This is just disappointing."

  Jay's heart sank.

  He'd used everything. Everything. And it had done nothing.

  Mephisto's attention turned to Selene. She stood behind him, trembling. The collar pulsing as her eyes fixed on Jay with something that might have been pity.

  The demon's eyes gleamed.

  "My beautiful External." His voice was silk and pure seduction. "You've given me such a wonderful gift. A rare soul of an outsider untainted by this reality's karma." His smile widened. "Once I'm done with him, once I process his soul and add it to my collection, I'll be gentle with you." He paused. "Instead of infinite servitude, how about finite? Say, seventeen thousand years? As long as you've been alive? Isn't that generous?"

  Selene's smile was the rictus grin of someone with no choice.

  "Of course, Lord Mephisto. I'm just happy my offering pleased you."

  Her eyes met Jay's. And in them, Jay saw his own future of eternal servitude and torment without end.

  Jay felt it then. The true weight of despair pressed down on his soul like mountains.

  This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

  His key attacks had failed. Everything he'd thrown had been blocked, negated, or dismissed. And Mephisto wasn't even trying.

  Jay was going to die here. And worse, his soul was going to be claimed.

  His hands trembled, as his form flickered and his breath came in sharp gasps.

  This was it, this was how it ended. Not in glorious battle or in Domino's arm, But In futility.

  But he had one more trick. One recent power he'd stolen. Jamie's reality warping.

  It was his final desperate gambit.

  Red strings materialized from his palms. Reality-warping threads that pulsed with Jamie's stolen power. But Jay didn't just copy what he'd seen. He evolved it by combining it with Muramasa's anti-magic and infused it with Lightforce while wrapping it in the null field. And finally channelled his functionality manipulation through it.

  And made it something new.

  The result was a spear. Woven from red strings that glowed white at their cores. Each thread carrying the will to unmake and reject Mephisto's existence.

  Jay poured everything into it. All his rage, fear and desperate need to protect Domino and everyone else.

  He threw it.

  The spear tore through the pocket dimension like tissue paper as reality parted around it. Other realms became visible as Dimensions colliding became visible.

  The spear crossed the distance in a microsecond. It was perfect, unstoppable and absolute.

  It was his ace in the hole.

  But Mephisto caught it.

  With both hands as the demon examined the spear with genuine interest.

  His fingers moved, and the reality-warping strings began to unravel. Their fundamental nature rewritten.

  They reverted to strings, then morphed and transformed into threads and fabric.

  The red strings reformed themselves into an overcoat. It was perfectly tailored and stylish.

  Mephisto shrugged it on, settled the garment across his shoulders and adjusted the collar.

  Like he had all the time in the world.

  "Selene, darling." His voice was pleasant. "How do I look?"

  She stared at the overcoat. Then at Jay, seeing the devastation in his eyes and then back at Mephisto.

  "You look... magnificent, my lord."

  "I thought so too." Mephisto admired his new coat. "The craftsmanship is exquisite. The desperation woven into each thread gives it such character. I'll have to thank Jay properly before I claim his soul. Maybe I'll let him watch as I process his loved ones."

  Jay felt something else break inside him.

  The part of his soul that said "I can win" just... broke.

  He'd thrown everything at this demon. Every power, every trick and every desperate gambit. And it had done nothing.

  His legs trembled. His hands shook. His vision blurred. His throat closed. His chest felt like it was caving in.

  This was it. This was the end. Not just death but Damnation.

  Unless...

  There was one thing. One last desperate, pathetic, humiliating thing. Something that made his pride scream and his ego recoil.

  But pride didn't matter when the alternative was damnation.

  So Jay made a choice. The only choice left.

  His hand moved to the ring the Ancient One had given him.

  But he couldn't just activate it quietly. Mephisto would notice and intercept.

  He needed a distraction. Needed to confuse the demon and buy seconds for the portal to form.

  So Jay did the unthinkable and tattled.

  Jay raised the ring to his lips and took a deep breath. And then, in the loudest voice he could muster, with all the melodramatic desperation of a child who'd just been bullied, he shouted:

  "Teacher! Teacher! There's a big scary demon here and he's being mean to me and I tried really hard but he's too strong and I don't know what to do and please come help because I'm scared and I don't want to die and he's going to take my soul and I can't beat him and please please please come help your student who's very sorry for getting into this mess and will definitely listen better next time I promise!"

  The words tumbled out in a rush. Childish, pathetic and completely unbefitting someone who'd challenged gods.

  Both Selene and Mephisto froze and turned to stare at him with identical confusion.

  Then they began to laugh.

  Mephisto's laugh was rich, full of genuine amusement. "Oh, that's precious! That's absolutely delicious! The mighty Power Broker, the man who defied Death herself, reduced to crying for his teacher like a schoolchild! I haven't been this entertained in centuries!"

  Selene's laugh was more relieved. If Jay was resorting to this, truly begging his teacher like a child, then he was defeated and no longer a threat.

  "Did you really think," Mephisto wiped tears from his eyes, "that calling your teacher would save you? That some 'Sadhu' could face me? Oh, Jay. This just makes it better. He'll arrive just in time to watch me claim you. The tragedy! The poetry!"

  But Jay wasn't listening.

  He was watching the air shimmer as reality part like curtains.

  The Ancient One materialized as she stepped through a portal of her own making in her pristine yellow robes.

  Her expression was long-suffering patience mixed with resigned acceptance. The look of a teacher interrupted from important work to deal with her problem student's latest crisis.

  Her first act was to sigh. A long and deep sigh.

  "Jay, my student." Her voice carried that tone. "Couldn't you have asked for my help in a more dignified way? Must you always resort to the most embarrassing methods? Could you not have simply activated the ring quietly?"

  Jay, as his Muramasa form faded, leaving him bloodied and too exhausted for his Healing Aura to work, could only shrug.

  "I needed them distracted, and it gave you time to come through without interference. And honestly, Teacher, dignity seemed less important than not having my soul claimed. Priorities and all that."

  He met her eyes. And in his own, she saw the truth. Saw what this had cost him.

  The Ancient One's expression softened fractionally.

  "You did well, my student. Surviving always matters more than pride. Though we will be discussing your tendency to get into these situations later. Extensively."

  Her gaze shifted. First to Selene.

  "An External. Draped in demonic corruption like a cheap cloak. How far the mighty have fallen. Tell me, Selene, was eternal servitude truly worth a few more moments of life?"

  Selene couldn't answer. The collar stole her voice.

  Then the Ancient One saw Mephisto. And her expression changed completely. All trace of gentle exasperation vanished, replaced by something colder.

  They pointed at each other simultaneously in perfect synchronization.

  "You goat-legged infernal!"

  "You bald bitch!"

  The words came out in perfect unison, delivered with identical venom.

  Then absolute silence followed.

  They glared at each other with the intensity of old enemies who'd fought too many times to count.

  Jay blinked. "Wait, you two know each other? Of course, you know each other."

  "Know each other?" The Ancient One's voice could have frozen lava. "This creature has been attempting to claim my soul for the past four hundred and seventy-three years! Every decade like clockwork! Always with some new bargain!"

  "Attempting?" Mephisto's tone was genuinely offended. "I've come very close, several times! That business in Calcutta was within a hair's breadth! And the incident in Paris was mere seconds from success!"

  "Those were minor setbacks, carefully orchestrated to make you overconfident."

  "You were on your knees! Begging!"

  "I was buying time while my backup spell activated! Time you wasted gloating!"

  They glared at each other. The air between them crackled with power, history and centuries of mutual hatred.

  Jay felt hysteria bubbling up. Here he was, having just sacrificed his dignity, about to be claimed by hell, and his teacher was bickering with the devil like divorced spouses.

  The whiplash was visceral. From absolute terror to absurdist comedy in seconds.

  "So..." Jay ventured carefully. "You can handle this, right? Teacher? Because I'm completely out of tricks and he turned my best attack into a coat and I really, really don't want my soul claimed by hell."

  The Ancient One turned her glare on him. And for a moment, he saw exasperation so profound it transcended mortal understanding.

  "Handle? Handle?! Jay, my dear, foolish, impossibly reckless student. Do you have any idea what you've gotten into? Mephisto isn't just some demon you can outsmart. He's THE demon. Lord of Hell. Master of Bargains. The single most dangerous entity I've explicitly, repeatedly, with emphasis and visual aids, forbidden all Kamar-Taj from interacting with!"

  "To be fair," Mephisto interjected pleasantly, "I was summoned. By that one." He gestured at Selene. "I didn't come here of my own volition. Young Jay here is technically innocent of breaking any rules. He's just an unfortunate victim. Wrong place, wrong time, wrong demon."

  "Don't you dare defend him!"

  "I'm merely stating facts. I am nothing but quite clear on summoning protocols."

  They glared at each other again.

  Jay watched the exchange with growing something. Not quite hope and not quite relief but something between.

  The dimension groaned under the weight of two cosmic-level beings.

  And Jay, exhausted, terrified, barely holding together, could only watch and hope his teacher was as good as he believed.

  Because if she wasn't, then everything he'd sacrificed his pride for would be meaningless.

  And he'd be damned anyway.