Maximus

The second demon came from the left, silent as smoke. I caught its wrist mid-swing, bones cracking in my grip like dry twigs. The creature screamed, an awful layered sound that shook the molten air. I drove my claws through its throat, dragging gold and black blood in twin streams down my arm.

They did not bleed red down here. They bled memory, flickers of faces and voices and firelight that burned away as soon as they appeared. Every drop hissed when it hit the molten ...