Not long after murdering Sloth, Everly realized that she’d grossly overreacted.

She really had. It was embarrassing.

Why had she killed him? Out of anger? But why? It was only natural that the seven kings would place a spy in her inner circle if they could get away with it. That was just how the political side of these things worked out. It was a sign of respect more than anything else if she thought about it. They considered her enough of a threat that they believed they had to keep an eye on her!

And how had she reacted? Had she made a cool calculated response designed to skillfully counter their play? Nope! That was something smart people did. Instead, she’d just blurted her ideas out in front of Ace and then brutally killed him when he pointed out a gaping hole in her logic.

“I mean, it was an awesome kill, and I delivered a great parting line as he died, but it was just…I could have handled all that a lot better. I want to be better,” she said to herself as she continued making her way to the black temple. “There were so many things I tried to do that I ended up half-assing because it’s easier to brute force everything instead of using my head. I want to be clever and cunning, but let’s face it, I’ve kind of devolved into a goon. I can’t keep living my life by just killing everything that annoys me. How am I going to continue my personal evolution if murder stays my first solution to everything?”

Everly sighed unhappily. Even narrating her personal circumstances like a character in a comic book, which was something she ordinarily loved doing, failed to ease her of the dissatisfaction she felt for her performance.

“I need to take these negative feelings as a sign,” she eventually decided. “This is a personal challenge I’m making to myself. I’m going to become more of a tactical thinker. I’m going to set aside my violent inclinations to dig deep down and connect with my inner Victor Von Doom. Then I’m going to become the intellectual thug that every whack rapper in the game pretends to be. I’m going to flood these streets with shooters, but their ammunition will be my mind!”

Inspired by her newfound resolve, Everly spent the remainder of her journey reciting the lyrics of every classic hip hop song she could remember until she finally reached the temple.

“Handcuffed in the back of a bus, forty of us, life as a shorty shouldn’t be so rough! But as the world turned, I learned life is hell! Living in the world no different from a cell,” she sang softly as she studied the entryway of the ancient building. There didn’t seem to be any complicated mechanism barring her path. Just a simple stone door she could slide open. No spells or keys were required.

“We got stick-up kids, corrupt cops, and crack rocks, and stray shots all on the block that stays hot,” she continued as she slowly forced the door open. All the stuff in that song sure sounded exciting. Not that she’d known from experience. Everly had grown up in a gated community in a wealthy New York suburb and had gone to private school her entire life. The only gangstas she’d ever met had been teen actors; classmates who’d invited her to the set of the episode of Law-and-Order: special victims’ unit they’d been shooting.

That had been a fun experience. She’d even gotten Mariska Hargitay’s autograph.

She’d have rather gotten Christopher Meloni’s. That dude was intense.

“Cash rules everything around me, C.R.E.A.M. get the money, dollar, dollar bill, ya’ll,” she concluded as she finished slamming the stone door into place.

“And now we blast off to the next level,” she said, even as she wondered how much longer it would take for her to reach her elementals.

Honestly, this whole thing was getting boring. One would think a journey into the underworld would be more eventful than running from or killing the occasional pack of primordial demons, all the while looking for warp gates to the next stage like she was playing a Mario brothers game.

Oh, well. The kind of extraordinary journeys that made for exciting fiction rarely mentioned the boring parts. For every ring that got dropped into the mouth of Mount Doom, there was probably an extended song break with fucking Tom Bombadil. The dude with the awesome last name who never blew anything up!

“Fake advertising, that was what he was,” Everly whispered bitterly to herself as she began to enter the temple. But before she did, she suddenly felt an intense sensation of murderous intent being directed towards her from behind which halted her step.

Everly turned in surprise and saw something completely unexpected.

“Hey dol, dilly dol, dilly dally duck. What did I just see here, what the fucking fuck?” she asked herself as Sloth of all people came shambling out of the dunes towards her.

“Ace?” she said in disbelief. “No fucking way! How are you doing this? Did you evolve a third mana core without telling anyone?”

The dead demon king said nothing and continued to approach her.

“So, what’s this? The silent treatment? Are you feeling out of sorts over our recent kerfuffle? If so, that’s so immature! Come over here and talk to me, silly. We can work this out, can’t we?”

Sloth remained silent as he drew nearer. Now Everly was beginning to feel annoyed by his silence.

“Is this about how our last conversation ended?” Everly asked him. “Gosh, I hope not! It was just a friendly disagreement over trivial matters, wasn’t it? Can’t two close pals have a scuffle every now and then? It’s a sign of affection more than anything else. At least, that’s what I think. You might have a different opinion, but I killed your ass dead so yours doesn’t count. Aren’t you going to say anything?”

Still, he refused to speak. Now all Everly’s remaining humor was spent.

“I said talk to me!” she growled as she stepped towards him and gave him a violent shove to the ground. Or at least that was what her intent had been. Instead, before her palm made contact with his chest, he grabbed her firmly by the wrist and began to squeeze.

“What the hell?” Everly said in amazement as pain caused by the pressure exuded from his grip began to envelop her arm. “Let go of me!” she demanded as she tried to pull away.

Now Sloth finally spoke. And to Everly’s alarm, his voice was dry, cold, and creepily alien to her ears. “I don’t take orders from you, you cow-handed tart.”

“Cow-handed?” Everly replied with genuine hurt.

Instead of responding, Sloth lashed out with his foot, catching her squarely in the abdomen and sending her sprawling backwards in the sand. As she lay stunned, he quickly grabbed her by both ankles and began spinning in a haphazard circle that built enough momentum to send her soaring through the air to smash painfully against one of the pillars standing outside the temple.

“Submit,” he commanded her.

“Don’t wanna,” was her pained reply.

“You’ll die,” he warned her. “I’ll kill you if you won’t surrender.”

“I don’t expect you’re planning to let me live regardless of what I choose,” she said as she climbed back to her wobbly feet and brushed the sand off her clothing.

He grinned nastily at her without saying anything.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” she said.

“We both know you deserve what’s about to happen to you, Kerri,” he said in his dead whisper of a voice. “You know in your heart that you’ve earned this. Why resist?”

“My name isn’t Kerri,” she told him quietly.

“Yes, it is,” he laughed at her. “Kerri Julia Sweet. That’s who you are beneath this childish pretense of power and dominance. A silly broken girl with a silly broken mind. You didn’t belong in your old world, and you certainly don’t belong in this one.”

“I’m not heeeearing this,” Everly said stubbornly as she covered her ears with her hands. “Lalalalala.”

“No one needs you, Kerri. No one wants you. You’re extraneous. A burden that no one asked for. You’re a pestilence to the innocent; a plague upon the very land. Just lie still and let me have you. It’s for the best. It’s what you want.”

“What I want is to rip you in half and deposit you in a sewage runoff,” Everly retorted. He laughed at her obstinance.

“You delude yourself, Kerri,” he said mockingly. “Like any other misbehaving child, you secretly long for the surety of order; the comfort of the whip,” he whispered. “Rejoice, child. I am the justice you sought. The punishment you’ve always desired.”

“All bad girls secretly want to be held accountable?” she asked him in a dazed voice.

“All of them,” he assured her as he stepped nearer.

“Bullshit. Stop talking as though you know anything about me,” Everly warned him.

“But I do know you, Kerri,” he replied. “Inside and out as intimately as any lover you’ve ever had. I’ve torn you apart so many times. Can it even be counted at this point? I’ve taken your final breath, heard your last confession, delighted in your whimpers of terror as I engorged myself on your writhing flesh. This time like all the other times, you’re going to beg me to stop but I’m not going to.”

“Go fuck yourself, freak,” snarled Everly without a trace of her normally calm demeanor. “I never beg. Never!”

“You will, Kerri. I promise you will,” the thing told her with a knowing leer as its taloned fingers neared her face. “Pride always cometh before the fall—”

Everly kicked him beneath his chin with as much force as she could generate and watched with immense satisfaction as he was sent soaring into the sky above them.

“A punt like that could have gotten me signed with the NFL. What do you think?” she asked him after he fell back to the earth with a tremendous impact.

He dragged himself forward on his hands and knees unable to speak, crawling like a wounded insect. Everly found the sight heartening. When he tried to stand up, Everly’s heel connected with the back of his skull, smashing him into a prone position.

“Is this it?” she wondered aloud. “Is this really all you have? That can’t be right, can it? It just can’t! To paraphrase the great Jamie Fox, you were talking all that good shit just a little while ago. Where’s your follow through? Where’s your response? Come on, you’re a tough guy, aren’t you? Aren’t you?”

Everly dropped down on his back and grabbed the sides of his head. Then she leaned forward and roughly pressed his face into the sand, causing him to choke on the granules that were forced into his mouth, as she slowly dragged his face from side to side.

“Is this bullying?” Everly asked him as she continued to sweep the sand with his face. “It is, isn’t it? Should I feel bad? Or is this just me begging for more punishment, like the wicked thing I am? I’m so unsure of myself.”

Sloth had no response for her.

“Nothing to say?” Everly said in mock surprise. “How unexpected! You were so talkative just a minute ago. Where’d all that energy go? Oh, you’re wondering how I could hit you so hard when I’m not supposed to have any of my magic. You’re also wondering why it hurt so much aren’t you?”

She switched positions to kneel before the creature and grabbed him by the back of his head, pulling it up until their eyes were level with each other. Then she smiled prettily at him and said, “Well, I’m not going to tell you. I’m just going to kill you. Because you really pissed me off just now. I mean, wow, the things you said…I’m going to be honest with you, most people don’t get to me like you just did. I’m a very calm person. So, I feel you should be congratulated for what you just accomplished, because on my mother’s name, it’s a rare achievement.”

“This is impossible,” he rasped. “This doesn’t happen. This never happens. I kill you. I make you scream; you beg me to stop but I refuse and throughout the night I daub myself in your fluids and you—”

He squealed in pain when Everly slapped him across the face.

“Gross. Didn’t ask for all that,” she said sternly. “God, I hate it when my opponents are nasty little creeps like you. This must be some kind of karmic retribution for teasing the real Ace so often these past few weeks. Now I feel as though I owe him an apology. But how can I make amends?”

Everly carefully considered her options for a few moments before sighing unhappily at the conclusion she reached. “Damn. I guess I’ll have to bring him back to life, won’t I? Goddamn it, I really wanted to blow up his family. I guess I’ll have to figure out another way to get at them. Thank you so much for killing my fun.”

“You won’t get the chance,” the false Sloth said to her. “The night approaches. This temporary respite means nothing. I’ll have you soon enough—ARGH!”

“You really don’t know when to stop speaking,” Everly said with a frown. “Also, your strategic thinking is somewhat flawed. How are you going to get at me when you’re about to die?”

“You can’t kill me,” the creature said confidently. “It’s impossible.”

“Of course, I can kill you, dummy,” said Everly with greater confidence. “You’ve already shown me how through your actions. And that last thing you said knotted the ribbon.”

The creature stared at her in dim bewilderment, unable to make sense of her claim. Everly smiled indulgently at him and began to elaborate. “It really isn’t complicated, silly. Anyone with moderate experience with a PlayStation could figure it out.”

She stood up and dragged him to his feet with her as she explained. “The sun’s going to set in an hour or so, isn’t it?” she asked him as she gestured towards the sky. “You alluded to being a lot stronger in the dark. But you were too eager to come after me. You didn’t want to wait! So, what did you do? You decided to puppeteer poor Sloth’s body. But why? Why would you need a shell to hide behind when you’re sooo powerful? Huh? Huh? Can you explain it? Can you? Just kidding, I already know the answer.”

She then forced his face in the direction of the sun.

“Don’t,” he murmured through Sloth’s broken teeth.

“What?” she replied. “Could you please repeat that? I didn’t quite hear you.”

“Don’t,” he said again. “Please don’t.”

“Well, now, I’m really confused,” Everly said. “I thought I was the one who was going to be begging for my life. Are we still on the same page? Was there a rewrite and no one told me?”

“This won’t kill me,” he promised her. “This won’t kill me. You’re just delaying the inevitable.”

“It might not kill you…but it’ll really hurt, won’t it?” she purred into his ear. “It’ll hurt baaaaad.”

“I’ll triple your agony for this,” he vowed. “No, I’ll make your suffering four-fold! You’ll die screaming in the dark, maddened from panic and pain and you’ll beg for your suffering to end, but relief will not come, it will not come, IT WILL NOT COME—”

“Good to know,” replied Everly. Then she dug her fingers deeply into the flesh beneath Sloth’s chin and tore his face off at the bone, removing the front half of his skull as she did, all while holding him before the sun.

The effect was instantaneous. A writhing black mass of shadowy something immediately sprang from the gory opening she’d ripped into the dead demon’s flesh. It screamed in a terrified voice that seemed to Everly like the combined sound of a frightened dog and a weeping child.

The creature tried to bury itself beneath the sands to escape the eradicating rays of the sun, but Everly was quick to drop Sloth’s body and grab the monster before it could escape her. Then she set her feet firmly to the ground, took a deep stance and slowly began pulling it backwards, dragging every inch of it into the light of day.

“It was harada that let me beat you, by the way,” she said conversationally as she struggled to keep the flailing beast in place. “Just because my magic is cut off doesn’t mean I can’t use harada in this form. It’s actually much easier like this! No flesh and bone to channel it through. Just instant results. That’s pretty cool, right?”

The beast sputtered madly and squealed something in a language she couldn’t understand.

“I’m glad you think so,” she replied after deciding it was a compliment.

The monster’s flesh began to erupt with horrendous pustules of bubbling pus that smoked beneath the lazy light of the evening sun, filling the air with the disgusting twin scents of rotting meat and stagnant water. Its tortured cries continued for what felt like ages before it finally went limp and stopped resisting Everly. A few minutes after that, the remains of the creature finished dissolving and poured into the sand, leaving nothing behind but the stench of its dying.

“Ugh. I’m glad that nastiness is finally over with,” Everly said. She looked at her palms, which now glistened with moist bits of the disgusting thing and made a displeased face as she brushed them away. She dearly wished she had access to a sink and a bar of soap.

“If you somehow survived that, don’t come back looking for a rematch,” she advised the empty air as she turned towards the entrance to the temple. “I’m serious. Next time, I’ll get nasty.”

With that said, she entered the blackened temple, ready to move on and be done with all this nonsense.

Who owned the night? Wu-tang, obviously.

But also, her.

Obviously.

__

Outside, the land remained still, apart from the blowing wind which caused the scattered trees to sway and bow in its passing. It was in this perfect silence that the sun gradually set, and the moon arose.

A moment afterwards, however, the sands exploded as the massive Hades erupted from the soil, regenerated by the darkness of nightfall, and filled with an unquenchable, unstoppable wrath. His twitching eyes and endless rows of teeth clattered and snapped, tearing viciously at the air as it roared its hatred at the skies.

“EEEEEEEEEVERYLY!!!!” he screeched before smashing his way madly into the temple in search of his prey.

She would pay.

She would pay.

She would pay. She would pay. She would pay. She would pay.

SHE WOULD PAY.