But Flame of Cathexis was just the warm-up. Abaddon had other new abilities in his new form. Stopping and stretching out his arms, he began to form a solid orb of black magic, a Chaotic Rift, and a shimmering black hole formed beneath me, started slowly pulling me in. The damage grew as I got closer to the rift, and for a time I forgot about attacking, just strove with all my energy to get out. It was a good thing the boss was standing still with his arms outstretched, casting, not attacking, and I had Flight.
Redoubling his efforts, Abaddon struck me with Spirit Evulsion — a beam of light that I couldn’t dodge even in my quickened state. The light turned out to be a soul once absorbed by the demon. Angry and twisted, the entity sank into me in a battle for my body, dragged me to the great nothing.
There, left without my abilities, I screamed inwardly. What could I do? Nothing beneath my feet, nothing around me, I hung in a shapeless form of light, and the shining, black-veined soul, now forming into the shape of a reptiloid, started tearing into me. A bar appeared before my eyes:
A sinner’s soul is capturing your body: 4%… 5%…
Realizing that I might lose my body, I roared and threw myself at the foe. I tore, scratched, bit, punched, and soon got what I wanted: the percentages stopped increasing at first, then started to drop.
I fought myself free. The spirit of the sinner reptiloid floated away and I was returned to my own body. Before I could even get my bearings, the poleaxe came flying at my head. Just in time, I went into Clarity and the strike just slipped by me. In anger and fear, I shot toward the frozen demon’s monstrous face, fired a full Combo into him.
And then from all sides came the Crying of the Damned: groans, screams of pain, gasps for breath. Liberation freed me from Despair, and I continued the fight.
Now I fought with even more care — my spirit reserves were down by three quarters, and Flame of Cathexis had reached six stacks, increasing the boss’s damage against me by 90%.
With a quarter of his health left, my enemy covered himself with his shield and changed again, and in a way that made me want to give up. The shield disappeared, but I saw nothing behind it. Demonic flesh began to grow from all the surfaces — jelly-like, it moved, quickly engulfing the cave walls and hardening, growing defensive plates, spikes and horns. Hundreds of eyes burned into me, a multitude of maws cruelly grinning. The cave grew demonic arms all around me, stretching out for me, writhing, but Clarity let me escape them.
“The most nimble mortal of all I have seen!” Abaddon said in surprise, speaking through his many mouths all at the same time, making his voice seem to vibrate and permeate every cell of my body. “The Sleepers must have a hand in this!”
“Legendary Grand Master Oyama would give you a smack for those words!” I argued.
“So you are his student? I see… The style does seem familiar…” the demon chuckled. “The old man is still alive?”
Expecting to hear something interesting about my tutor, I started attacking less furiously, but Abaddon said nothing. His cunning at work. After getting me talking, he attacked: a tentacle arm caught me unawares, shooting out like back on the Pitfall floor, grabbing me and tightening its grip. I lacked the strength to free myself. My bones cracked, my health started falling rapidly.
“You bore me,” Abaddon’s mouths rumbled. “I should have killed you right away, but I wanted to stretch my legs.”
Abaddon the Destroyer dealt you damage (Death Grip): 173,405.
Abaddon the Destroyer dealt you damage (Death Grip): 198,864.
Ghastly Howl didn’t work, nor did Lethargy, and the massive damage grew with every second. Without my high-level Resilience and other defensive perks and rewards, I would have died right away, but with them, my torture only dragged out. It was so painful that I screamed, seeing nothing, not hearing the demon’s growl as he continued his monologue. The pain forced out all thoughts, made me want only one thing — for it all to end. In those seconds, I celebrated only that Diamond Skin of Justice hadn’t activated. I wouldn’t have gotten out anyway.
Death brought relief. My eyes had already burst by then, pressed out of my crushed skull. The world plunged into darkness even before then, but now I was at ease. It’s finally all over, I thought, not feeling the hellish pain any longer.
You are dead.
Remaining time to respawn 9… 8…
Inside me was an ember of hope that I might survive, but it was dying. There was no way Second Life could trump the mechanics of a final boss who delivered only ultimate death when he killed.
Remaining time to respawn 5… 4…
All the same, the timer gave me hope. Surely only those still in the game would see it! Everyone killed by Abaddon had said that they just got thrown straight back to real life!
Remaining time to respawn 2… 1…
Second Life! You managed to dodge death!
Would you like to revive where you died or go to your linked respawn point at Cursed Chasm Churchyard?
“Stubborn soul!” I heard as I came alive. “It does not want to leave its body!”
The demon raged. The flesh covering the walls, floor and ceiling swelled and shook.
“What?!” he screamed in surprise.
“Here’s what!”
Snarling, I went into Clarity and launched a full-fledged Combo! Like a machine gun, I fired off Hammerfists and Kicks, strengthened with Rindzin’s Ghostly Talon, the flesh shaking beneath my strikes, slowly trying to crawl away from me. The hands with their crooked fingers shooting toward
