Episode 21: "The Mark of the Beast"
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**INT. SAFEHOUSE – NIGHT**
The room is dim. A full moon casts eerie light through cracked windows. Kael paces, shirtless, sweat gleaming on his skin as the mark on his back shifts like it's alive. Lana leans against the wall, watching him cautiously.
**LANA**
You're burning up again. That mark... it's moving.
**KAEL (gritting teeth)**
It's not just the mark. It's the bite. Everything's... louder. Stronger. And something's coming.
**RHEA (entering)**
He's right. Another summoning just happened near the Blood Rock Ridge. Something big. Tunde's already scouting.
**LANA**
And you let him go alone?!
**RHEA**
He insisted. Said he had jokes to test on the enemy.
**KAEL (chuckles, then groans)**
Of course he did.
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**EXT. BLOOD ROCK RIDGE – NIGHT**
The wind howls. The ground is cracked and scorched. TUNDE crouches behind a boulder, watching as **hooded cultists** gather around a glowing red vortex. Strange demonic creatures are chained in a circle. One by one, they're slaughtered—feeding the ritual.
**TUNDE (whispers)**
Okay. This is fine. Totally fine. Just a cult summoning hellspawn. Tuesday vibes.
Suddenly, the lead cultist slices his palm and lets blood drip into the vortex. A dark shape begins forming—*massive, horned, radiating heat like a furnace.*
**TUNDE (to himself)**
Oh no. Nope. Big nope. Time to call in the cavalry.
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**INT. SAFEHOUSE – MOMENTS LATER**
**KAEL**
We don't have time.
**RHEA**
Kael, you're not stable—
**KAEL**
That's exactly why I have to go. This power—it's waking up for a reason.
**LANA**
Then we all go. Together.
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**EXT. BLOOD ROCK RIDGE – LATER**
The team arrives just as the summoned demon—**Krr'vhal'thrak**, a name only the cultists dare whisper—fully emerges. It's a towering, obsidian-skinned nightmare wielding a **cutlass with a bloodred core** that radiates destruction.
**KRR'VHAL'THRAK (roars)**
I HUNGER FOR THE CHOSEN.
Kael steps forward, eyes glowing.
**KAEL**
You want me? Try me.
The demon charges. Kael meets it head-on—his speed blurring, his claws extended. They clash with a *BOOM* that sends shockwaves across the ridge.
Rhea conjures ice walls and arcane bolts. Lana opens a portal that swallows two cultists whole. Tunde leaps out of nowhere, swinging a flaming chain.
**TUNDE**
Surprise, you ugly goat-headed barbecue reject!
He gets smacked mid-air and flies into a rock.
**TUNDE (groaning)**
Worth it.
Kael slashes at the demon's chest—it bleeds black fire. The wound sizzles, but heals.
**KAEL (panting)**
Why won't you die?
**KRR'VHAL'THRAK**
I AM BORN OF THE PIT. YOUR PAIN FEEDS ME.
The demon grabs Kael and slams him down—*twice.* Bones crack. Kael screams. His mark glows violently.
Suddenly—his aura explodes.
**KAEL (eyes glowing silver)**
No more.
Kael roars—**a hybrid of wolf and raw arcane force.** He leaps back into the fray, moving so fast he seems to blink through space. The demon tries to swing—but Kael's claws dig deep. He **rips out the demon's core.**
**KRR'VHAL'THRAK (shriek)**
YOU CANNOT CONTAIN THE—
Kael crushes the core. The demon collapses into ash, sucked back into the vortex.
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**AFTERMATH**
The team limps away. Everyone is injured—burned, bruised, bleeding. Kael collapses to his knees.
**RHEA**
That power—Kael, are you okay?
**KAEL (breathing hard)**
No. But we're alive.
**TUNDE**
Barely. My ribs have ribs now.
**LANA (kneels beside Kael)**
Your power... it didn't just hurt him. It almost hurt us.
**KAEL**
I know.
He looks at his hands, trembling.
**KAEL (whispers)**
I don't know how much longer I can hold it back.
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**INT. DEMONIC REALM – SAME TIME**
The Devourer watches, amused.
**DEVOURER**
He rages like a storm. But all storms die eventually.