Yes

Few minutes later you were both dizzy, almost stunned from the constant noise. The vibrations that were going through the air made you think like you were on a rollercoaster. But Carmen sustained it without issue, and continued solely focused on her task which was tearing down more and more books in this nightmarish library.

"By my estimations, Khaj should be here in about a minute. We should hide."

You gave her a quick nod.

Both of you found a fairly dusty corner, right behind a bookshelf that still had its contents intact. Few moments passed without talking, so you broke the relative silence with a question.

"So, can you explain?"

You spoke directly to her cat-like ear to overcome the noise, your face was essentially buried in a storm of her red hair.

"Oh. I forgot, how silly of me. Books are physical manifestation of Khaj's spirit. By destroying them we can cause him pain, but completely obliterating them doesn't mean he will cease to exist. The body has to shut down first."

She explained.

I love a little bit of **** every now and then.

Ishtar purred in your thoughts.

Then, the noise, the vibrations, everything stopped.

It felt eerie, a bit like you were talking to a certain Eldritch being called Agnes, but infinitely less frightening. Actually it was almost funny, because you knew that it was all for theatrics, all for show. All meant to scare both of you.

It was somewhat working on your partner. The chimera looked around nervously, expecting an attack coming from anywhere, clearly dealing with situation that was currently a bit much for her.

You just raised your head and laughed.

"Come on, tin can, I'm sure you can show yourself."

You commented, knowing that he was listening.

Tin can?

You ignored Ishtar, and reached for another one of the books. You opened it and started to rip pages out of it, one by one, not paying attention to what was written there.

You could've sworn that you felt a ground shaking each time you did it. It wasn't strong compared to what you experienced previously, more like he tried to suppress it.

"What's going on?"

Carmen looked panicked.

You tossed the book away, and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"He is trying to play with us. Scare us. It won't work, obviously, so can we fight already?"

That last sentence was meant for Khaj's ears. Or whatever he has to hear stuff with.

Seemed like it worked, because suddenly he materialised, a few meters away from you.

His previously spotless black and purple armour bore now red, rusty marks. The glowing eyes almost looked like they were scorching hot embers, leaving a certain smoke. You couldn't tell whether it was for show, or sign of him readying for battle.

"Freak and prisoner. You'll both get skinned alive, boiled in oil, but I won't kill you, no."

A quick glance at Carmen told you that his words were working on her, chimeras knees were shaking, and considering she was this guy's pushover, a prisoner, a **** for so long, it was understandable.

"You are never going to leave this castle. First I'll break your bodies, then you will be tortured mentally, for years, until you are at the depths of despair. I will give you pain to the full extend of the word, I shall..."

He started but you just picked up one of the books and threw it at his face. It bounced off a helmet and dropped to the floor, interrupting his monologue.

If you didn't do this, I'd stop him myself. He is so boring.

"Yeah, yeah, you'll **** us. I know this all is want to terrify us, and that would work if you were maybe a little bit original."

You stepped forward. Khaj seemed to observe and react to your every move, changing his stance to react to whatever you wanted to do.

"You aren't even in top ten scariest things I've ever met. Hell, considering how easy was to escape, kill your soldiers, fuck my way through your harem and even convince your own people that they are better without you, I think you are just one giant, fucking clown."

You looked at Carmen, and moved to hold her hand, giving her a little squeeze on contact. She looked up, her nerves settling, her eyes were looking left and right, already calculating the best possible outcome.

"Of course, I couldn't do all that without her. She was the first one to defy you, clown. And she will be the reason why we're ending you to right here and now."

"How dare you!"

He attacked as soon as you were done talking, shooting some sort of spike from his armour right into your chest.

It was so fast, there was no way a normal human could have reacted. No way you could've blocked or dodged it. For a fleeting second you thought if that was what Agnes had in mind when she told that you would die.