Chapter 7:
“Every monster in the pit feared death. Only one feared forgiveness.”
Lichtfall: The Light At The Worlds End
Licht stood.
One arm hung uselessly at his side.
The other was simply gone.
Blood dripped from the torn stump.
His pearlescent hair hung over his face.
Only one pearlescent eye remained visible.
Cold.
Unmoving.
Watching.
The horde stood frozen.
Revenants.
Abominations.
Hundreds of them.
Not one moved.
Not one dared.
The pit had become silent.
A graveyard holding its breath.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
The heartbeat echoed through the darkness.
Wrong.
Not faster.
Not slower.
Wrong.
Like something had learned the rhythm of a human heart but failed to understand why it beat.
The sound bounced across the stone walls.
The monsters listened.
Licht listened.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
No words came.
Only the heartbeat.
Only the silence.
Then—
“I hate them.”
The words slipped from his lips.
Quiet.
Yet somehow every creature heard them.
“I hate the Nyxfel.”
The horde remained still.
Not hunting.
Not feeding.
Waiting.
His head lowered.
A strand of pearlescent hair shifted.
crimson.
A smile.
A laugh.
The memory flashed.
Gone.
“They took her.”
The words barely escaped him.
The heartbeat continued.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
“I hate humanity.”
His voice grew louder.
Not angry.
Not screaming.
Certain.
Like a verdict being delivered.
“I hate how selfish people are.”
His fingers curled.
Bones cracked beneath his feet.
“I hate how cruel they are.”
Another heartbeat.
“I hate how easily they betray.”
Crimson hair slightly different this time.
A smile.
A shove.
Falling.
The memory vanished.
His breathing deepened.
The pit grew colder.
“I hate weakness.”
His voice echoed across the mountain of bones.
“I hate fear.”
Another heartbeat.
“I hate despair.”
His remaining hand slowly clenched.I hate sadnessI
Blood ran between his fingers.
“I hate trust.”
The words caught in his throat.
For the first time—
His voice faltered.
Just slightly.
A crack.
Small.
Almost invisible.
But it was there.
“I hate kindness.”
The memory surfaced again.
Sharing food.
Walking together.
Talking beneath a ruined sky.
For a moment—
The smile wasn’t hers.
It was his.
The memory disappeared.
Licht’s jaw tightened.
“I hate sadness.”
His voice dragged across the pit.
Raw.
Broken.
“I hate anger.”
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
The heartbeat grew louder.
Or perhaps everything else had become quieter.
Licht slowly raised his head.
The monsters stared.
The dead stared.
The darkness stared.
And then he screamed.
“I HATE IT ALL!”
The words exploded from his chest.
The pit shook.
The mountain of bones trembled.
“I HATE MY WEAKNESS!”
His voice cracked.
“I HATE MY DESIRE TO LIVE!”
The horde recoiled.
Not from the volume.
From the pain.
“I HATE MY TRUST!”
Crimson hair.
A smile.
A laugh.
A shove.
Falling.
“I HATE MY KINDNESS!”
His knees nearly buckled.
“I HATE MY ANGER!”
The heartbeat thundered.
“I HATE MY SADNESS!”
His breathing became uneven.
Shaking.
Breaking.
“I HATE EVERYTHING!”
Silence.
The words faded.
The echoes died.
The pit became still once more.
Licht stood motionless.
Blood dripped from his body.
The heartbeat continued.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
His next words barely rose above a whisper.
Yet somehow they felt louder than the scream.
A realization.
A confession.
A truth.
“…that’s what it means to be human.”
The words lingered in the darkness.
Then silence returned.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Licht stood motionless.
Blood dripped from the stump where his arm had once been.
The black veins continued crawling beneath his skin.
Slowly.
Patiently.
Like they were waiting.
His smile faded.
Not because he was angry.
Not because he was calm.
Because something inside him had gone quiet.
The Nyxfel hesitated.
That alone should have been impossible.
These creatures hunted humans for sport.
They chased them.
Tortured them.
Devoured them.
Not out of hunger.
Not out of necessity.
Because they enjoyed it.
Moments ago they had been trying to tear him apart.
Now—
None of them moved.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
The heartbeat echoed through the pit.
Wrong.
Unnatural.
The nearest Revenant took a step backward.
Licht moved.
The mountain of bones exploded beneath his feet.
CRACK.
A crater formed where he had been standing.
For a brief moment—
He vanished.
The Revenant never saw him coming.
A blur tore through the horde.
Black blood erupted into the air.
The creature’s upper body continued forward.
Its lower half collapsed behind it.
The other Revenants screeched.
Too late.
Licht was already among them.
Not fighting.
Not anymore.
A storm.
A disaster.
A force of nature.
Bones shattered beneath his feet.
Rotten flesh burst apart.
The horde became a sea of black blood.
A Revenant lunged.
Licht twisted.
Its claws missed.
His hand didn’t.
Fingers pierced straight through its throat.
The creature collapsed.
Another took its place.
Then another.
Then three more.
Licht didn’t slow.
Couldn’t slow.
His movements had become erratic.
Violent.
Wrong.
No technique.
No planning.
No strategy.
Pure instinct.
Pure aggression.
The kind of fighting born when survival no longer mattered.
Only destruction.
The screams finally came.
Hundreds of them.
The pit shook with deafening shrieks.
The Abominations reacted.
One of the giants swung.
Its fist tore through the air.
Strong enough to crush stone.
Strong enough to flatten buildings.
Licht jumped.
The punch missed by inches.
The shockwave shattered bones beneath him.
Instead of retreating—
He landed on the creature’s arm.
And ran.
The Abomination froze.
Licht sprinted up its limb.
His remaining arm trailing behind him.
His body low.
Animalistic.
The giant tried to grab him.
Too slow.
It tried to crush him.
Too slow.
It tried to shake him off.
Too slow.
Licht reached its shoulder.
The Abomination opened its mouth and roared.
Licht answered by biting it.
His teeth sank deep into its neck.
Black blood exploded across his face.
The taste hit immediately.
Rot.
Decay.
Death.
The foulest thing imaginable.
He didn’t care.
His jaw tightened.
Harder.
Deeper.
The flesh tore.
The Abomination screamed.
Licht kept biting.
Like a starving animal.
Like a rabid mutt.
Like something that had forgotten disgust.
Forgotten reason.
Forgotten restraint.
He tore away chunks of flesh.
Chewed.
Bit again.
The giant’s scream became wet.
Gurgling.
Black blood flooded its throat.
Its legs buckled.
The massive body began collapsing.
Licht kicked off its shoulder.
The instant before it hit the ground.
BOOM.
The Abomination crashed into the mountain of bones.
Hundreds of Revenants vanished beneath its weight.
Bodies burst apart.
Bones exploded outward.
The entire pit shook.
Dust filled the air.
Screams echoed from every direction.
Licht landed lightly.
One knee touching the mountain of remains.
Head lowered.
Blood dripping from his chin.
The horde stopped.
Again.
Watching.
Waiting.
For the first time since entering the pit—
The monsters looked afraid.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Slowly.
Licht raised his head.
One pearlescent eye became visible beneath the strands of blood-soaked hair.
The other remained wrong.
Empty.
Hungry.
And the smile that spread across his face wasn’t human anymore.
The smile spread wider.
Wrong.
Hungry.
The Nyxfel finally understood.
One at a time wasn’t enough.
The Abominations stopped advancing individually.
The Revenants stopped rushing blindly.
They adapted.
A deafening scream erupted from the horde.
Hundreds answered.
The pit shook.
The mountain of bones trembled beneath the sheer volume.
Then they all moved.
At once.
The Revenants surged forward.
The Abominations charged behind them.
A living avalanche.
An endless wall of flesh and hatred.
Licht laughed.
The sound was barely human.
Then he launched himself forward.
The collision was instantaneous.
Bodies exploded.
Black blood painted the darkness.
Bones shattered beneath his feet.
A Revenant lunged.
Its head vanished.
Another reached him.
Its chest collapsed inward.
A third.
A fourth.
A tenth.
The horde swallowed him whole.
For a moment he disappeared beneath the sea of monsters.
Then black blood erupted outward.
Something tore through the center.
Licht.
No.
Whatever remained of Licht.
The battlefield became chaos.
The Abominations swung.
The Revenants climbed over one another.
The tunnel continued vomiting more monsters into the pit.
There was no end.
No bottom.
No victory.
Only slaughter.
An enormous fist cut through the darkness.
Licht was still airborne when it connected.
BOOM.
The impact detonated against his ribs.
His body became a blur.
Stone shattered.
The wall exploded.
Dust consumed everything.
The horde paused.
Waiting.
Watching.
The smoke slowly drifted apart.
Nothing.
No body.
No blood.
No remains.
Then—
A scream.
One of the Abominations convulsed.
The giant staggered forward.
Its massive hands clawed desperately at its own chest.
Licht stood behind it.
Half hidden beneath curtains of blood-soaked hair.
His remaining arm buried to the shoulder inside the creature’s torso.
The Abomination let out a guttural roar.
Licht twisted.
CRUNCH.
The sound echoed through the pit.
Something burst inside the giant’s chest.
The creature froze.
Its mouth opened.
No sound came out.
Then its legs gave way.
The giant collapsed.
Dead before it hit the ground.
The others became frantic.
The horde rushed him.
All of them.
Every direction.
Every angle.
Every monster.
Licht didn’t retreat.
He couldn’t.
The concept no longer existed.
A claw ripped across his back.
He answered with his teeth.
A fist crushed him into the ground.
He clawed his way back out.
A Revenant bit into his shoulder.
He headbutted it until its skull caved inward.
The fight lost all shape.
Lost all rhythm.
Lost all reason.
He clawed.
Bit.
Kicked.
Tore.
Screamed.
A wild animal trapped inside a human body.
Or perhaps a human trapped inside a monster.
The distinction was becoming harder to make.
Each time he was thrown aside—
He stood.
Each time he was crushed—
He stood.
Each time he was buried beneath bodies—
He stood.
Not because he refused to die.
Not because of determination.
Not because of courage.
Because something inside him no longer understood when it was supposed to stay down.
The battle raged.
Minutes.
Hours.
An eternity.
Time dissolved.
Only violence remained.
Black blood rained from above.
The ceiling dripped with it.
The walls dripped with it.
The pit itself seemed to bleed.
Licht stood at its center.
Motionless.
Breathing heavily.
One arm hung uselessly at his side.
The other ended at the elbow.
Blood covered every inch of him.
His pearlescent hair had become black beneath the layers of gore.
The ground was gone.
No bones remained visible.
No sludge remained visible.
Only corpses.
Thousands of them.
Revenants.
Abominations.
Nyxfel.
Layered upon one another until the pit itself became a mountain of dead monsters.
And atop that mountain—
One figure remained standing.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
The heartbeat echoed through the darkness.
Licht slowly lifted his head.
Beyond the rain of black blood.
Beyond the corpses.
Beyond the endless slaughter.
His eye found the opening at the top of the pit.
The exit.
The way out.
For the first time since the battle began—
His gaze lingered there.
And somewhere beneath the blood.
Beneath the corruption.
Beneath the hatred.
A single thought remained.
Not survival.
Not freedom.
Not hope.
Revenge.
End of chapter 7TYSM FOR READING
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