Chapter 47: One Command

A second screen appeared in his vision, and Ethan’s eyes shakily moved towards it...

```

[WARNING]

[Death Energy has been depleted]

[Raise Undead: LOCKED]

[Condition: Function unavailable until Death Energy recovers to minimum operable threshold]

[Current: 0/500]

```

Ethan stared at the text with his blurred vision, still on his knees, still bleeding through his mouth.

Each breath felt like wire dragging through his chest, the backlash from the severed control link eating away at him.

The shock pulsed through his body, and he grunted again in pain.

Lila was already in front of him, as she threw one fireball at the beast and turned to face Ethan.

"Ethan, hey. Look at me. Can you stand?"

"I’m... fine..." he said through shaky breaths.

He tried to stand, but his legs gave out and he tilted forward. She caught him, eyes searching the new chamber desperately for some kind of exist.

Across the chamber, the Alpha stood slowly and looked at them. It was not in a hurry. It had already killed everything else, what’s three more bodies?

Nora stood a few meters to the side, pale and unsteady as a blood construct was dissolving around her fingers.

"It won’t let us leave. If we run, we die."

Ethan wiped his mouth with the back of his wrist, and spat a mouthful of blood. He looked forward, forcing his thoughts into motion.

He had carelessly wasted his Death Energy right from the start. If he didn’t stop and try to raise those other corpses, he would have had enough to at keep moving.

He eyes the wolf. External force was failing. He knew that because the golem had traded clean hits and it had little to no effect.

Lila’s flames hurt it but they did not stop it and Nora’s binds snapped leaving only room for frontal assaults which ate away at her.

He gritted his teeth. There was only one way to beat this thing..

"Nora." His voice came out rough and unsteady. "We’ll need to use its blood to kill it. It’s the only way. Can you do that?"

She shook her head. "Not like this. I’m already near my limit, and we haven’t been able to wound it. If we’re going with your plan, I’ll need an open wound. Even a scratch should be enough."

Ethan pressed his lips together. They needed blood in the air. Living blood from a beast that had so far refused to bleed no matter how hard they hit.

Ethan opened the system again.

```

[Death Energy: 5/500]

```

Five. The passive recovery had already started, and it was slower than he wanted.

A plan began forming in his head.

Raise Undead was still locked. Fine. He did not need a raise. He just needed one intact command that would be enough to create some sort of opening.

The golem lay where it had fallen — a collapsed heap of metal and dust and exposed internal structure with dark fluid already pooling from it.

He turned to Lila. "Lila," he said. "Can you hold it? Don’t try to finish it. Just keep it busy. I need time."

She raised an eyebrow. "Time for what?"

"A plan. I thought of something crazy it just might work."

She was about to argue when the Alpha shifted toward them, then Lila clicked her tongue and dashed forward.

***

**BOOM**

The chamber became as hot as an oven with minutes...

Lila did not meet the Alpha head-on. She never tried to

She cut angles, used stone pillars as cover, and threw fire at any opening she could find.

Slowly, it got angrier. Claws carved trenches in stone. Fire blackened white fur and filled the air with the smell of ash.

The more Lila moved, the angrier it got as it kept failing to land a clean hit.

Nora stayed close to Ethan, looked at him once and spoke:

"You’re white as paper," she said.

"No shit."

```

[Death Energy: 8/500]

```

Too slow.

The Alpha drove Lila back toward a pillar of stone, and she vaulted it and shot another fireball towards it.

She landed behind the beast, it turned fast enough that a claw still caught the edge of her jumpsuit and opened a line along her ribs.

She hissed but she kept moving...

The beast’s roar shook the chamber again...

```

[Death Energy: 11/500]

```

Ethan tried to stand fully and made it halfway before the pain folded him. Instead, he stayed on one knee and kept the system open as he monitored it.

The fight dragged on, but that was the point. Dragging it on, gave him enough time to prepare for his plan.

The clashed for a moment, and the wolf slammed her hard after a front forced her left.

She hit the ground, skidded across stone and hit the wall.

"Any second now..." she said as she rushed back at the beast.

"I’m working on it..."

```

[Death Energy: 14/500]

```

"Come on..."

Ethan fixed his attention on the golem wreckage. Then at his Death Energy. It was still not enough for him. He needed more...

Nora needed an open wound and Lila needed to to not die in like the next twenty seconds.

```

[Death Energy: 17/500]

```

The Alpha caught Lila’s next fire lance on a forearm and walked through the explosion. It reared back, swatted her aside and prepared to come down on her like a building.

Nora flinched. If Lila doesn’t move out in time she could actually get killed.

```

[Death Energy: 20/500]

```

The system pinged.

```

[Ding!]

[Threshold reached]

[Emergency command capacity: 1]

[Raise Undead: LOCKED]

[Available: single-link order to previously bound construct]

```

One command. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

That was all he needed.

He focused on the golem heap and yelled one final order.

"GO!"

The Iron Golem’s corpse moved...

Green energy began linking parts of its body together until it had enough limbs to stand. Though it was ugly it was just enough to potentially end this thing...

**BANG**

The collision was ugly but perfect.

Claw met iron, Iron met flesh and something in the Alpha’s left hand and forearm finally gave out as the skin tore open.

It was not a serious injury, it was just a simple cut that was deep enough to make it bleed...

"Nora!"

The Alpha moved back a step, but Nora dashed towards it.

She raised a hand and activate her skill. Within seconds, the ability ran up its arm and then...

**CHING**

Several blood needles erupted from its hands and moved along it’s body.

The Alpha reeled back and howled in pain but the sound was cut off when a single blood spike tore free from its chest.

It fell.

Like a giant tree that was cut down, laying motionless in a pool of its own blood.

For a second nobody moved.

Then, Ethan’s arms failed to hold him up.

He collapsed forward but Lila was fast enough to catch him in time.

She wrapped her hands around him, holding him close to her as he breathed once

A shaky smile spread across his face as he saw the dead Devil in front of them.

"Bloody hell..."