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THE CHRONICLES OF FINALGAMER So Shall He Consume Me

"What is better - to be born good, or to overcome your evil nature through great effort?" Paarthurnax, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

It was a night like any other for the small village, nearing the start of March. Dusk was almost upon them, the last remnants of winter to be shed still from the coccoon of hibernation, the sky a luscious amber across the Carpathian Mountains like teeth dripping with blood. Church was now in session. The village had many people work tirelessly throughout various times of day from ironsmiths to bakers, and it was because of this good work they had to keep unabated that there were two congregations made every day. One for those who worked on the morn, and one for those who worked at night. The church, whilst small was surprisingly gorgeous for such a small village of at least a hundred people. It had only a capacity of at most thirty people, of which there were now only twenty filing in beneath the three golden-peaked domes, topped by a cross on each. The orthodox design had a small slanted bar along the bottom of each cross, glistening in the last failing rays of the Romanian sun. The churchfront had small circular images of Christ Himself, the doorway a thin perpendicular arch engraved with Greek scripture of the Septuagint, a later translation of the Good Book. The church interior was resplendent befitting of their creed with white and gold altar where a glistening tome sat, and upon the back wall stood various images of the great Gospels themselves. Everywhere one looked, they were reminded constantly of the grand cast of the New Testament as the people sat before their priest who walked in full black attire, with rounded hat and a large cross necklace beneath his immaculate grey beard. "Good evening," said the priest. "Good evening," said the village folk. The faces of the people were hidden underneath dappled pale robes of flowers and leaf patterns on the women, whilst the men had straighter monochrome fleeces of red, white and/or black. Only adults were present, the children off to bed already. "It has been a mild winter, and we have managed to succeed with a fair harvest more than last year. And that is because of our grace, our diligence towards the Father Almighty, that we shall see the spring with a bountiful cornucopia. Just to remind you all, Ash Wednesday begins on March 8th, and despite our fair harvest that may tempt many of us, this is but a test from God. To see such a rich feast of God's earth in this time of year, moreso than usual, is to know and appreciate it all the more without needing to taste, without needing to savour. For one must respect and be thankful for what God has given us an-" The door burst open as someone staggered into the room, turning heads all around revealing the dark strong eyes and dusty skin emblematic of southeastern Europe. A person in a brown cloak stood gasping before them, his face obscured as his feet clacked barefoot beneath the large robe with a panicked voice. A voice in a language that none of the Romanians understood. "H-HELP! HELP ME! S-SANCTUARY!" "Wh-what's happening?!" "Help me please! S-sanctuary!" "Someone help him!" The priest immediately rushed down the aisle along with several other more caring people, two women and one man trying to soothe the belligerent. "What has happened to you?" "What language does he speak?" "It's nothing I've ever heard." "Is it French maybe?" "Sir," began the cleric, "sir, please, do you speak Romanian? Sir, my name is Father Ionescu, can you understand me?" A moment of hesitation came from the person cloaked before he nodded, trying to keep people away from moving too close to his garments. "Yes...I speak Romana." "Good...now, what has happened?" "A-a-a mad beast...attacked me...I barely managed to escape, I am not hurt b-but I need to...may I rest someplace in the back of your church?" "Of course," said Ionescu kindly, "I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice." "A-ah...Ezekiel...is that not correct?" "Indeed, you are a Christian?" "I...perhaps once, I was...u-unnngh! NO, d-don't look!" The stranger pulled himself away back against the door closing it behind him with a clearly pained voice. "F-forgive me...I have suffered great burns, my house was...flames...I can't see anything but flames." "How terrible," said one woman, "please, sit here by me good sir." "Thank you...please, forgive me for interrupting your sermon, father." "No need," replied the cleric, "weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning." "Ah...a ps-psalm...a-aaagh..." "Are you certain you do not need medical help?" "I am just...exhausted from running, I just need to...rest, thank you." The cloaked foreigner sat himself to the side next to the kindly woman, his hands binded within the brown robes as the priest returned to his sermon walking back up towards the pulpit. "A perfect example of God's testament to our Faith. That even in a time of when fasting is upon us, and there are more mouths to feed, we must stand firm and show Him our grace, our remaining spirit against all of the world's evils. Come. Let us become whole once again within the earnest of spring."

He raised the book of Gospels from its immaculate stand before making the sign of the cross over the altar with it. The altar had already been prepared with the rituals needed for the liturgy, and all that was needed were the actual congregation to be part of it. Five small loves marked with a cross and small letters along with one square block of bread in the centre cut into smaller individual cubes that could easily be swallowed. "Blessed is the kingdom of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. In Peace, let us pray to the Lord." The ritual began by a marked solemnity as Father Ionescu recounted various gospels as was befitting to the rites of Eucharist. Hymns were sung, words kindly came from the recounting of those who witnessed Jesus with very little mention of the Old Testament. The entire service lasted for an hour and a half as the people sung, they read, and recited their sacraments. Soon there would come the piece de resistance of the Divine Liturgy, which was the creed of the Orthodox Church, along with the actul consecration as the church resounded with their doctrine. "I believe in one God, Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages; Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten, not created, of one essence with the Father through Whom all things were made. Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became man." It was here that a dark wind began howling from outside as if threatening to defy them, but that only resolved their spirits as the candlelight of the church began to turn frail and whispering. Shadows slowly engulfed the walls, the images of Christ and his disciples bearing down on them with a look of haunting eyes darkened by the shriek of banshees. A storm had become enraged now buffeting against the building with solid force, frightening some of the more gentle parishioners. But their faith was unwavering despite their hands starting to tremble. "He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried; And He rose on the third day, according to the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father; And He will come again with glory to judge the living and dead. His kingdom shall have no end. And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Creator of life, Who proceeds from the Father, Who together with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified, Who spoke through the prophets. In one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the age to come. Amen." The wind stopped. The light of the candles returned to them fully as the priest smiled upon his congregation with hands open as his flock began to recite the preface to the ritual. "Let us stand well. Let us stand in awe. Let us be attentive, that we may present the holy offering in peace." "A Mercy of Peace, a sacrifice of praise." He walked amongst the congregation sweeping his hand across their heads in blessing. "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all." "And with thy spirit." He raised his hands upwards. "Let us lift up our hearts." He stopped moving after one voice responded: "You lift them up unto ME." "GH-GHRR RRRRK! _" A vicious agonising pain tore inside the priest's chest, violated from behind in the very centre of the church as people found themselves suddenly transfixed by a silent shock. The stranger in brown robes had a weapon of some sort, now impaling out fully through the cleric's heart as the blade rose upwards. Blood poured gasping as his heart was forcefully lifted up his ribs, staggering on the tip of his feet before the weapon unsheathed itself fully from the priest's back. It was only when he fell clutching desperately at his bloodied cross that everyone began screaming. "Wh-wha-_HHHOH MY GOD!" "WH-WHAT IS HE-" "OH GOD IN HEAVEN!" They ran for the door fleeing as a mob but before they could even reach there was something already there with a slicing darkness across their vision as they recoiled in panic. A pair of giant scissors had completely shoved themselves through both handles of the church door, trapping them all within as one large shepherd of pale fleece rushed forwards in desperation. The moment he tried to touch the blades, he was burned by a sharp ruthless acidic scald on his hands as he fell back, his wife hurriedly rushing to his side. "AAAAAARGH!" "WH-WHAT'S WRONG?!" "TH-THAT...thing it...b-burned my hands but it-" "Won't be removed until I say it shall be." The stranger stood behind them with voice dripping of foul intentions, his face still obscured as the shepherd walked forwards with bleeding red on his fingers, bristling moustache and large shoulders daring to intimidate the foreigner. They noticed a dark smouldering essence lifting off of his back like burning steam as the shepherd ranted: "BEGONE, DEMON! THIS HOUSE DOES NOT BELONG TO YOU!" "I care not for your paltry shrine, I care only for what lies within." "GOD WILL PROTECT US!" "Like he 'protected' his son? Hhhmhmhmhahahaha." "You dare blaspheme of our Lord, within His very sanctuary!?" "God has left you...within my shadow He has gone." The twenty-strong congregation cowered behind the shepard who took himself on as advocate of this group. He readied his fists as he strode forwards despite his wife pleading behind him: "Adam, A-adam PLEASE DON'T!" "Why have you come here? What business does a monster like you have with such a small village?" "I wish to perfect my art...a small playground for practice before hunting such greater prizes." "We are not your prey, demon." "Your sheep would say the same to you, shepherd." "I warn you now. Leave this place or I shall make you pay." "And I give you two choices. Submit peacefully and accept the end...or face me in what little time you have and I shall make you suffer far more than Christ once did." "WORTHLESS HERETIC!" The human lunged towards him with a violent swing that the demon simply dodged, hands now revealed to be dark scale the colour of dirt with black claws that latched onto the shepherd's wrist. A simple snap sharply of firm strength cracked deafeningly across the small church as the man screeched with agony. "G-GAAAAAARGH!" "ADAAAAAAM!" He tried to fight back with the other arm but the creature ducked as he twisted the hand of the broken arm even further back revealing the sharp broken bone pointing white and red. There was little time to process such agony before the shepherd felt the bone of his wrist being plunged into his eye, the snapping of his arm turned towards him as his torn ligament dripped feverishly across his gasping face. Spasms of death soon followed as he dropped before the demon, completely overridden by a focused concentration of pain hearing his wife scream in his last moments. "_ADAM! OH GOD ADAM NOOOOOOOOOOOO! _"

Something faint began to drift from Adam's body, twisting around the air before being sucked into the demon's cloaked face by a gasping scream. No one had noticed in their horror and grief before he soon approached as other men tried to fight back and protect the women. None of them could withstand against the unknown beast. Those who swung fists with desperate frenzy soon found their tongues ripped from inside their mouths to block their own throats suffocating with vile gasping moans. Those who tried to kick with their feet would be hurled across the church violently crashing against the pews with broken necks, or their spines shattering upon the face of John the Baptist. Another had his leg twisted off revealing only the sharpest tibia and fibula which the demon violently impaled one of the women with straight through the stomach, shrieking with howling tears as her husband laid bleeding forced to watch. Yet another had the demon's hands dug into his chest, ripping his ribcage wide open to snap and shatter across the room as he brought another woman forwards to slamfuck her head straight into the man's heart. "Eat...or else I shall claim your womb as my own." The sounds of chewing would commence by a horrified moan of sobbing pity as she was forced to devour her brother's heart, hearing his sharp breaths turning raspy and almost bestial in his death throes. The taste of human flesh was never good the first time as she did everything she could not to swallow. But the demon eventually forced her too by a disturbingly gentle rubbing of her throat. And it was only once she did that he ended her life softly slitting her throat to bleed sweetly out. One unfortunate baker, whose hands were still dusted slightly with yeast didn't even try to fight back having become overwhelmed by the other eight men having become ruthlessly executed. The demon simply dragged him by the neck over towards the altar and shoved one of the small loaves in his throat completely until his larynx snapped like pitiful string. "Enjoy your last supper, little folly of God." "HHRR-RRRRRR RRRRRGHKKH! _" Whilst the man suffocated choking to the bitter end as blood poured from his nostrils, the demon stood behind him and plunged both hands into his kidneys, ripping them violently from his body to squish like supple fruits in his claws. The last dying shrieks consumed what little air he had left, forced to exterminate his own breath at a faster pace whilst consumed in agony. With the last man of the church completely rendered worthless, there now only existed six women struggling to move back towards the corners of the room. One of them, a young lady almost 30 with blonde hair, sallow cheeks and a dress adorned by patterns of wheat, had run in the midst of chaos towards the belfry. But he rushed instantly by a smouldering veil of dark indigo before he stood straight in the doorway to block her path. He grabbed her head almost threatening to crush it completely by the achingly-tight vice-like grip he had. **"Ah ah ah."** "_A-AAAAAAGH!" "You almost ruined the surprise for the rest of your village you naughty little thing." With beastly strength he hurled her across the room to shatter her back across the table, spilling bread and ornaments all across the floor. Whilst her head was now bleeding, she was not yet deceased until he leapt across the pews with claws raking across the wood until he grabbed for her neck, stopping the breath in her throat as he dragged her over towards the table. "Pick up that book. NOW." Grasping it with a fierce panic, she held the gorgeously-bound relic in her shaking fingers before the demon who asked: "Who is your favourite Gospel?" "I...I-i-i-i...wh-why are you asking me?" "I can kill you now if you prefer." "N-NO, NO IT'S LUKE, IT'S LUKE!" "Tell me why. Consider me now as a teacher and you are my student." The demon walked back and forth with hands clasped behind his back, his face still covered by the cloak but she could see the glint of an evil smile full of monstrous teeth. "You are to give me an essay, young vlach, of why you enjoy Luke's gospel, compared to the other three. If you give me a good enough motivation, I will not make you suffer." "...why...sh-should I believe your lies, Satan?" "Hhhhha ha ha ha ha, very true. Simple. I am not Satan, I am something...MUCH...worse than he." "I...what demon are you then?" "Tell you what. Tell me why you enjoy Luke's gospel, and I will tell you my name. Is that a deal, young vlach?" "I...v-v-very well. What I...enjoy the most about Luke, as opposed to the other Gospels, i-is that...he has a greater focus on the human side of Jesus. That Jesus was a real person, with a genuine interest in people, h-h-he knew what it was like to live in a world full of strife and contempt. He wanted to associate with those less fortunate than him, he came to bring hope and salvation in a world that was dying beneath the weight of avarice!" "Very good. But why him as opposed to the others?" "Well, h-he was a doctor, he was very observant and noticed details, he was not so...in debt to the light of God, he was a man of science, he understood, he could reason!" "As opposed to Matthew, the friend of the Semitic?" "Matthew is...more of a deliverer, he was rather um-...o-oh god." "Andrea!" One of the five women remaining called out from the barred exit, an older matriarch around 50 in a red dress with tightened face. "D-d-don't, give this THING the time of day, he is a worthless charlatan I-A-AAAAAAAARGH!" "Quiet, please."

The woman's tirade had been cut short by the scissors that had unstuck themselves from the door impaling ruthlessly through the woman's back, her shriek of agony resounding in the span of seconds as the blades wedged themselves once again between the handles. Her blood extricated itself down her back, bending herself from sheer excruciating pain as she stumbled before falling onto her side revealing the ginormous gash that revealed her lung, heart and half her stomach torn with one sweeping tear of her dress. The others remaining began to sob, pitifully as they crossed themselves begging for salvation. "The next one that speaks out of turn shall suffer even worse, now...Andrea, was it?" "Y-y-yes?!" "Recount to me, why you prefer Luke, the doctor, over Matthew, the tax collector? After all, both were rather analytical of their fantasising of your forsaken Son's so-called 'miracles'." "F-fantasy?! NO, he was real, the Son of God was not a myth, you know NOTHING you b-BLASPHEMER!" The demon grinned from beneath his hood, allowing her tirade to exist. "Matthew was t-too above everything, he considered people l-like numbers and called Jesus a deliverer, the one CHOSEN by God! But Luke he...he made Jesus sound like...like an everyday person who...who had the ability to change the world through kindness and compassion, and it was BECAUSE of that he was chosen by God, not because he was fated to be!" There came a dark chuckle from the beast's throat, rancorous like the dragon in his cave who dreamed upon worlds burnt from his fire. "Hmhmhmhmhahahaha...hhhhhhh ohhhhh I missed people like you." "Pardon?" "Genuine christians, those of another time and place, so very long ago, so rich with their pathetic god-fearing piety, I never SEE that anymore. The last ecclesiastic I met was a worthless contemporary who was too cowardly to end his life, I...hmmmm...even this pain I am feeling, that slight burning sensation within your God's resplendent little backwater house, is something I have been missing all those years. This place...what year is this?" "Um...i-it's...1452, in the year of our Lord around the...second of March." "Ohhhhh that explains it, and yet here I am unfortunately late to the Nativity. Very well." "What?!" "I enjoyed our little diatribe Andrea, too long has it been since I heard a good Christian tirade that was worthlessly vapid." "Wh-WHAT?!" "You will not suffer. And just so you know..." He grabbed the woman's head with cold gentle claws. "My name...is the Scissoraptor." She felt not a single moment of pain when he suddenly snapped her neck, twisting violently to the left as her body convulsed from the overwhelming shock, the spine severed from her brain along with every nerve by a disturbing perfection. Her face remained unchanged in blanket shock as he dropped her to the floor, beckoning the next one up. "Now...you." The demon pointed to another woman in her 40s with bundled black hair who was more oddly pale in her skin than the others around her. She wore a rather thick overall, greyish but well-cleaned with the scent of a home kitchen about her. "What is your name?" "...Lucia." "Come here. Come here, or else I will kill the other three by your hand whilst they watch." "Y-y-you cannot...do such a thing." "...do you know I cannot?" Fear overwhelmed her too much as she walked down the aisle before the cloaked beast. "Pick up that gospel book. And open it to your favourite passage. Do not speak it, just simply show me it." "...alright." Walking around to pick up the book, she held it in one hand prying it from the deadened fingers of Andrea but not before her other hand slipped into her pocket. As she slowly got up, she lunged violently for the demon with a knife, plunging into his eye powerfully as he fell back snarling with rage. He slammed his head backwards upon the image of Peter, son of Jonas which scorched the monstrous evil coursing through his flesh like hot burns as his hood fell off. "A-AAAGH! You...stupid old BITCH!" The monster was revealed as some strange lizard beast that stood on both legs like a man, smooth snout and brown scales like dead leaves of autumn with purple marks long since faded into his flesh. His black piercing eyes stared into the middle-aged woman's soul who stood before him, defiant with vorpal blade as his blood didn't even try to drip from his left eye. "I...am NOT afraid of you," cried Lucia, "there are far worse creatures out there than you, you worthless BEAST!" "What...can you POSSIBLY have known that is far worse than your new predator?" "One whose shadow you would simply cower in, dog. Do you think you are the first wolf I had to fight off from my home, DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?! I...have the blood of Syracuse in me, just like my namesake, I am not afraid of you!" A forced smirk of vile fury came from the beast, who was half-impressed by her boastful nature and yet also even more frustratingly insulted by her claim as he clasped his claws tight. "Hhhhm hm hm hm hm...well. Now you've ruined it." "What?!" His claws reached out to snatch the knife from her hand managing to twist her fingers to a sharp breaking snap, her shriek very brief until he forced her back against the table. In a moment of reflex she swung out with her other hand still holding the Book of Gospel, its holy binding smacking across the demon's face who in turn reacted badly to its almost acidic-like strength of purest scripture. Clasping the side of his face fiercely, he struck her across the face hard enough to pop one of her eyes straight out of its skull as Lucia shrieked from the sudden sensory loss. The monster forced her hand down with book onto the table as he grabbed her from behind, squeezing her belly tightly as he grabbed her still-working hand with the other dominantly. Using her hand to flip open the Gospels, he stopped upon a random page somewhere in John's accounts, and promptly slammed his fist into her stomach forcing her to violently retch upon the holy scripture. "HRRRUUU UUURRRGHK! _" **"Here I was, wanting to make this more PERSONAL for you Lucia, but now you had to be a spoilt little BRAT and make things less fun for me. See this?! This masturbatory account of your GOD, look upon it! Smeared in your own effluence where I shall gladly regurgitate whatever pathetic teachings they so easily pour down your throat like spoonfuls of sugar!"** "_HR-HRRRUUU UURRRGHK! U-U-URRRRRGHHK! GOD! OH GOOOOOD H-HELP MEEEE-RRRUUUUURGHK! _" He didn't stop punching her until she was empty of everything, completely perforating her bowels as she spewed her thick yellowish contents across the entire gospel. The demon even forced her hand to turn the page to defile another part of scripture, her shrieking agony only briefly interrupted by her stomach's urge to vomit with pained sobbing, her eyes gasping to breathe until the point of her heaving with dry throat and acid breath, her hands shaking quivering upon the stench-consumed table of the liturgy. **"Pathetic,"** said the demon sighing, **"you can barely stomach your own sanctimonious without pleading your lord's name in vain...how can a species so weak even hope to comprehend the many facets of a god to even invent one?"** "_YOU! BLASPHEMERRRR!" "It is hardly blasphemy when non-existent. Now bow to him...bow in your penitence of NEED!"

His claws grabbed her head and slammed her violently through the gospel book with his entire strength, crushing her nose into her skull before the second slam broke through the actual table itself. Lucia stopped moving, bleeding from her face mixing with her bile between two halves of the table crushed inwards by a V-shape as the book of holy lore became further destroyed with the parishoner's raw fluids, coating across the sacred words. He turned towards the last three, walking to the door as he noticed two women of similar look and long black hair, clearly related. But the third woman that cowered behind the pews kneeling on her front interested him more. "You. The one prostrating herself." "H-h-hoh...g-god." "Show me your face. Now." She dared herself to look, turning slowly to show her long brown hair and exorbitant dark features, almost too dark for this region, with eyes of soft misty blue as her body was covered in a rather plain white frock with black epaulettes. She was pregnant, a bloated warm belly with child within as he grabbed a large candlestick of brass, replacing his scissors in the door with it and bending to a knot to keep the three women trapped alongside him before placing his weapon firmly downwards at his feet, like a knight with sword at his rest. "A mother-to-be, are you not?" "P-please...please...h-h-have m-mercy upon my child." "That is not up to me, mortal. But it is up to you." "Wh-what?" The creature smiled at her trepidation. "There is a law amongst demonkin, at least concerning echelons I am known in, that only one soul can be taken from each creature that one meets. If a soul is offered in bartering, then one can be spared BUT...if there is one who is with child then it is the mother's choice for whose soul I shall take." The scissors snapped open as he leaned on the handles watching her panic. "How far along are you?" "N-n-n-no...p-please, please d-d-don't, n-n-not my child, a-a-anything but-" "Now now. I said before it was up to you, here is my offer. Since you and your son are both connected to each other's life force as it were, I cannot take one of you without harming the other due to the technicality that I can only take one soul from each creature that I meet. Technically as of now, you are holding two souls." "You...you c-c-cannot kill me? Is that true, demon?" "Not as of now, no. Here, allow me to show you." "NOOOOO!" His scissors swung up into the air possessed by dark forces as they violently cast down to impale the woman's belly. But it could not even break through her clothing stopped somehow, despite it quivering intensely with a brusque force behind it as the monster forced everything he could before giving up. "See? It is not because I cannot permit myself to...it's LITERALLY I cannot." "O-o-oh...g-god...please, p-p-please spare me, please, demon, I will tell no one of you, I swear, I will do whatever you want me to, please! PLEASE!" "Your willingness to submit I enjoy but it is now up to you...unfortunately I cannot do anything until you so decide." "Wha-...wh-what...b-b-but...if you...i-i-i-if you k-kill me, what will happen to the child?!" "I will be forced to nurture him, mark him with my protection and so send him to a family that shall care for him. I will not be allowed to take his soul as my own, even if something happened to him later on in life. But I shall not be responsible for it." "Do...g-god in heaven, wh-what if...I say no, I do not want to choose?!" "Then I will follow you for the rest of your short miserable life until you do. I will hound you, I will be at your side every waking step of your existence whilst I slaughter everyone you know and meet, and love and ever will love until your choice is made." "Y-YOU MONSTER!" shrieked one of the other women. "WHY DO YOU DO THIS?!" "Believe me, I would want this over with more than either of you but it is up to this dear lady now here, to either demand that choice now or else suffer my existence for the rest of eternity." "And when the child is born!? What will happen then?!" "Then I kill both of them. They are no longer bound by the same life force meaning that contract will be made null and void and I suspect you are perhaps around the seventh month of your birth cycle. Choose, either I take your life in two months and put the child into safety upon my bounded word...or I take this child now and spare you a life of fear because the moment you have given birth to him then you are BOTH forfeit. So it is here and now that you must make a choice to spare one of you. You...or your son." The two siblings with black hair cowered from across the aisle sobbing with empathy, the demon greatly enjoying having a small audience before this mid-30s mother-to-be as she shook trembling with a fearful comprehension. Slowly digesting what he spoke, her life flashed trembling before her very eyes at all the potential outcomes. The demon was incapable of killing them both, but only when her son was still within feeding from her body so she couldn't wait it out. She rubbed her hand with tears down her cheeks crying out of a much worse regret. "I...I-i-i-i choose...please spare me." "What?" "I want you...to spare me a-a-and to take my son instead." The slightest twitch came a trembling from the demon's lip, snarling as he curiously cocked his head. "You want...to sacrifice your unborn son to me, in order to live without harm from demonkin?" "YES! Y-y-yes, p-please, t-take my son, t-take him, I don't want to be-p-please don't kill me, take him! TAKE HIM!" "......as you wish." He slammed his blades into the wooden pew beside her impaling them straight through as he kneeled before her. Forcing her to open her legs, he watched the woman's look of horrified shame as her limbs shook with feverish sorrow in anticipation. Gently he began to place his claws underneath the women's dress and pull her cotton undergarments down to reveal the sweltering fearful vulva, hidden beneath a mesh of hair. "What is your name?" "M-m-my...my what?" "Name. Surname and first." "...Rozalia. R-rozalia...Anghelescu." "You are about to perform a rite with me. I will tell you the exact words you must repeat after me, as I take your son's life in order to spare yours. Is this what you want?" "Y-y-yes...please, l-let me live, I want...I don't w-want to die." "You won't. Not from me at the very least, now repeat after me. By the eye of the Great Father, I offer my child's soul to his own in order to spare my life." "B-b-by the eye of the Great Father...I...I-i-i...o-offer my ch-child's soul to his own...in order to spare my life." "Death shall be our weapon. Death shall be our shield. Death shall be our fear against the great unknown from whence we once came." "D-death...shall be our weapon...death, shall be our shield. Death...sh-sh-shall be our fear against the g-great unknown from...from whence...whence we once came oh g-god Radu, R-radu I'm s-s-so sorry f-forgive your m-mother-" "Quiet."

The demon slowly pressed his hands into her vagina, pushing them open as she gasped from the intensely cold claws against her walls, the thickening ripple of her tunnel pulsing her body warmth against his scaled flesh. Moving in closer, she started screaming from his arms beginning to force her open, stretching wider apart the lips of her quivering femininity as she writhed shrieking from the vaginal intrusion. He felt the fleshy obstruction of the cervix, gently tearing through as he pushed deeper into the womb as his claws crawled across the burning hot form of the unborn infant. His hands softly wrapped around the throat, Rozalia feeling the sudden distress of her child within as she cried harder, the demon unblinking as he looked up towards her demanding: "QUIET! Now...repeat after me. May my soul be forever immortal, my spirit never fade from eternity. Whatever I may suffer from this flesh, my soul shall be saved upon this great sacrifice, a soul worthy of your blessing." "M-may...m-m-my...my, myyyy Radu, OHH GOD RADU I'M SORRY, F-FORGIVE MEEEEE!" "SILENCE!" The scissors suddenly came at her throat as they opened like the jaws of death, snapping almost entirely shut upon her breathless larynx pinching it tight. "Repeat. What I just SAID, your child cannot hear you NOR can he understand you so do not even try to plead for his forgiveness!" "May...m-m-may my...soul be...be forever im-m-m-mortal...my spirit, never fade from eternity...wh-wh-whatever I...may s-suffer from this flesh, my soul sh-shall, shall be...saved upon this great sacrifice. A soul...worthy of your blessing, hohgodforgiveme..." The church began trembling, the walls vibrating by a ruthless intensity far below that of mortal hearing which to those three women resonated in the form of a deep dread that pulsed within their minds. Far within a primal sense that all creatures possessed, there came a deep intrinsic fear of the unknown, the incomprehensible, the terror beyond the bleak still of night. Rozalia watched as there came a colour whispering across her face, of deepest green and amethyst blood trickling upon the edges of darkness. The colours one saw in that brief instant, when monsters of your dreams infected the real world. The voice of the demon now came with a whole new strength, one perfectly human but one that everyone understood. A voice humanity had heard in their deepest, darkest of follied dreams, a voice that many had mistook for either God or the Devil himself. All people have heard this voice. Including you, when you were a child on a restless night. "Rozalia." She looked through the pain of her stretched lower region almost certain she was bleeding, to see the eyes of the demon now smouldering of that same colour she had seen. In a sudden flicker, she saw a shadow above the reptile's form terrifyingly gaunt, with thin dagger-shaped beak and claws stabbing deep into the reptile's skull. "H-h-hoh...g-god what have I done?" "Rozalia...Anghelescu. You have made a pact, and so too shall I protect you by a mark, which shall keep your soul free from the influence of demonkin. Though your flesh may be weak, your spirit shall forever be intact and never to be rendered extinct. So you have granted this, in exchange for your son's life." "_NO! NO PLEASE, I REGRET IT! I TAKE THAT BACK! I TAKE IT BACK PLEASE! RADU! RADU NOOOOOOO-O-OOOOO! _" But it was too late. The monster's claws gently squeezed the infant's throat testing the panicked muted cries within her womb until he waited for the right moment. She felt her child struggling to fight, trying to push back with tiny hands punching blindly against the walls of his birthplace as she cried even more. Then, she heard a snap, a sudden twist of the monster's wrists. Her child stopped moving. She couldn't even bring herself to scream. Her face fell backwards slowly warping itself into a transfixed silent howl of anguish as the demon gently began extricating the child out of her womb. Pulling very cautiously, the demon had managed to force her vulva apart enough despite Rozalia's agony to produce the miscarried infant from her with little more pain to the former mother. He brought his scissors forwards to cut the cord, cradling the premature son with one arm as he gazed upon his face. Soft brown eyes and tiny mouth gasping its last breath, the child's soul screamed softly as it poured out of its broken neck, slowly devoured into the monstrous maw. His eyes looked down blankly upon young Radu as something flickered softly behind his gaze. A gentle twitch of something deeper as a memory came through. "It's a boy...no...two of them...they are not human at all." "They are my sons and so too shall you call them that." "Madame...these things are NOT of this world." "This house IS my world and if you will not pay tribute to it then you shall become PART of it." The memory began to flicker, fading away as he heard the two sisters hiding within the corner whimpering to themselves, too horrified to look upon this great travesty, clamouring of their hope praying towards God. He placed the son onto the floor with an oddly tender touch, placing a cloth underneath as he sat upon Rozalia's chest, pinning her arms down after opening her dress as the scissors raised themselves above her. She did not even try to fight back, far too gone with grief. "I must carve my mark into your soul's prison. Do not move, for this will hurt."

She said nothing, eyes closed wishing the world to completely consume her existence. Her deep sorrow unending, the demon cared not as he opened her dress and began to slowly pierce into her heart by the cold twisting tips of the scissor's blades. "By the eye of the Great Father, I offer you a taste of immortality. Death is our weapon. Death is our shield. Death is our fear against the great unknown from whence we once came. The sign upon your heart shall protect thee from demonry, and all creatures beyond mortal realms who shall never harm you. Your light shall remain constant, your fear shall never wilt to the point of extinction. Whatever body you may take, whatever form you may inhabit next from this world...your soul shall never disappear." There was pain inside her, and there was agony of a far greater sense than any physical pain could ever be. Despite the burning agony of her heart being carved into by a hot scorching demonic incision, and the voice of the monster now turning towards a guttural ancient language, she never said a single word. "At-ta in ben meh bled...ni beir in claideb. Ni marbad Rozalia Anghelescu...ni beirid in bled." With that, the ritual was now finished. The monster pulled back to gaze upon his handiwork, a small symbol that resembled a monstrous winged beast sitting atop a skull, minute but it was there beating upon her heart pulsating softly. She said nothing else, and neither did the best as he stood up and slowly picked up the child's body into his arms. His scissors began to hover before him as they tore through the brass candlestick that had trapped the door tight as he turned towards the two sisters. "Go." "Wh-wha...wh-what have you...what?!" "As part of the ritual, I must attend to this child's place. You have five minutes to warn your village of my coming...and then I shall come. And kill every last one of you. Go." His command was their desire as they fled as fast as they could, shrieking the entire place through as they ran throughout the streets. Cries of the demon that would come to visit the small village that night as the creature strode off towards a simple forest glade nearby. Without a single word he buried the child beneath an apple tree specifically, even though he himself did not understand why as he turned back towards the village with a growing grin on his features. "Hmhmhmhm...let's see how long the morning sun shall take, to vanquish this horrible night." With scissors clasped in one hand he walked back into the village as so he began his path of destruction. Despite all the sisters had done to warn people by their rampant screams and clamouring panic, there would still be at least 60 people of the 150 inhabitants who would not live to see this night end. He walked into the midst of town, a stridant reptilian beast of cold black eyes and foetid skin with long fiendish scissorblades dragging upon the ground. Before they could even muster a horde, he walked into the baker's house. From house to house he went, blood splayed across the walls and at first his methods were cruel, violent and long-suffering. Fathers forced to bury their daughters' graves, sons dared to fight against the demon himself as their mothers watched with helpless screams at such ruthless execution. Dogs and cats cowered in their final moments as children watched their pets desperetely try to chew their own legs free, whilst screaming from the monster's jaws snapping shut upon them. He revelled in their empathy, their suffering, their grievances. And yet, the more souls he took, the less enthusiastic his torture became as their ends began turning swift. The hearts of lovers impaled to forever be together, cattle beheaded by nothing more than a single sweep as their agony began to shorten, as well as what little time the people now had left. A mob was forming upon the streets by the time he had killed 20 people, not including the ones he had already taken from in the church. With scythes, forks and sickles of their farming trades, they came against the demon en masse. Most of the men tried to fight him, but any that did would soon be cut down in their prime by a ruthless set of blades. The longest surviving fighter was a powerful former veteran, who now found a new life as a tailor of short brown hair with strapping arms beneath immaculate-cut striped cloth, who had taken for himself a sword from his old military days. Whilst other farmers, butchers and bakers were wild beasts, swinging their tools of penitence as they screamed monstrous fury the demon would simply dodge once and carve through their torsos neatly. Every swing the mob took, was answered by a bloodied smear across their faces. But the tailor stood the longest, with bastard sword bold of purity he struck out against the beast as the two clashed, the twilight not yet ceased as the yawning Carpathian mountains peered upon this reckless carnage grimly. The monster and the soldier struck fiercely against each other as the demon played with him, wanting to see his endurance as he swiped fast horizontal with his blade and suddenly countered against the demon's strike from overhead, managing to slant off the scissors to the side before slamming his sword hilt viciously into the beast's face. It did little to dissuade the demon who swiped with claws tearing across the man's face, forcing him to fall back as he spun forwards with one sweep to decapitate by a huge swing. The monster plunged his blade forwards the moment he ducked underneath, and so ended the longest fight of the village's inhabitants in the span of only five minutes. His heart stifled short, so cleaved in twain before the beast decapitated him in turn to make certain he would not return before devouring his soul. The only thing that stopped him in his rampant carnage as the dusk made it seem as if almost the village was in flames, was the sound of a bell. Someone had managed to sneak past him, someone he had not seen in a desperate attempt to warn the countryside of a monstrous presence in its midst as the sound tore through his skull with such pure timbre. He lost his focus, vision blurring as he found himself a little too far from the church to comfortably run all the way back to it so he fled. Into the forests he went fading from the wrathful screams of the village survivors. "DEMON! RUN FROM GOD'S WRATH YOU CURSED MONGREL!" "Wh-what...oh god, s-so many of us." "What curse upon us brought such monstrosity?!" "Someone has to have brought it here. Someone of dark SIN and depravation!" "But who?!?" "Someone who is part of us and yet isn't in the eyes of God." "But f-f-father Ionescu said-" "Father is DEAD! We must now take matters into our own hands, we must find the one whose sinful wicked heart attracted such a beast!" "Who?! All of us are God's children, how can we possibly have-" "We are...but one person isn't. That bitch in wolf's clothing." "Th-the...but she is a healer, she would never-" "I have seen shadows move around her house, not human, almost as if...something was guarding her, perhaps that thing was one of her guards?!" "She does live near to the castle than most of us would...that monstrous creature of chaos." "How natural ARE her medicines in the eyes of God?" "How could you even question her kindness!? Sh-she cured your son of that fever, you should be thankful!" "Or did she simply WILL it out of its body? She has a darkness that woman." "What do we do?!?" "...she has not been to the village in a while, she might not suspect, let us account for our dead and give them peace. Then we shall make her pay."

Far away from the tormented villagescape, there was a boy upon the midst of the brisk twilight hour searching for something. Within the woods he searched, feverishly darting his eyes across the silhouette of trees as he stepped into a clearing. A shiny emerald glistening beneath the moonlight as the boy murmured: "I'm interesthted in thisth." He cautiously pinched the charming green lustre between his slender fingers revealing it to be a strangely gorgeous beetle almost reflecting his face on its shell. Pale long face of slender chin and white hair, his eyes a perfect wintry grey as he gazed with pure fascination. Grinning excitably, he carefully brought out a small jar and put the little beetle into it before checking the ground further for more of such beasties. A cold wind came gasping across his shoulder but he did not move. There came two slivers of steel sharpening the light of the moon glinting upon them before fading to the dark but the boy did not notice. He hummed to himself a sweet little ditty as he crawled a little further on his hands and knees curiously staring towards the dirt. Two blades opened wide behind him being held by a monster's claw as a cold grin of blistering cruelty came upon its features. A demon from the shadows as his feet made not even a single sound upon the soft earth. The scissors slid forwards like teeth around the child's throat like vipers in the nursery. SHIK. There was no blood. No flesh, but only mist suddenly fouling the beast's vision as the boy puffed with smoke and he found himself cutting sharply at a foggy thinness. "Wh-what, where did he-" "HELLFIRE!" "A-AAAARGH!" Fire burst with a tremendous shock to his system as if a firework had blasted him in the face, ruthlessly scarring him with a scorching hot pain. Feverishly scratching his snout to put the sparks out, he snarled looking around himself to hear the boy whistling across the clearing to call his attention. The child simply smiled in an immaculate-looking coat of black, sweeping to his little shins with red lapels wrapped round his neck. "You have to do better than that," said the boy with confidence. "Nnngh...little magic tricks will do barely anything against me, little runt." "Hehee, you mustht be new, granddad tellsth me that you never hunt alone." "You outlive your friends one day, dear child, and then what will you do when you are made to fight alone?" "I don't need to fight. You have to catch me firstht." Before the demon could make his response, the boy ran off straight into the woods as he began to hunt after him. Storming through the trees dodging left and right, he kept on the boy's scent knowing a human could not possibly outrun him with this body and strength. The creature hounded him into the darker etchings of the wood, hearing animals flap and squawk past with fearful tremblings of his infernal presence, branches crackling underneath with the pounding of footsteps as he was certain he heard the boy up ahead. It was only when the sound of two feet stomping began to turn into four tinier feet that the demon began to turn cautious, expecting trouble from the fauna as his blades remained viciously in his grip. Coming upon a large log where he heard the footsteps stop, he waited to hear the panting breaths of the child trying to hide from him as he neatly stalked around the side of it. The demon leapt over and struck down hard upon the other side cleaving fully into the ground, but found no trace of the human. He did however see a small furred body run instantly off with the same scent. "What?! DON'T play games with me BOY, now come here and accept your FATE!" His response was a surprisingly frantic excitable yap of some small beast but it was clearly insulting enough to force the demon to chase after the odd scent. Racing off with pounding claws underneath the dappling of moonlight, he sweeped over fallen trees and latched onto the harsher coniferous trunks to get a good view of his prey. A wolf puppy, purplish-blue with a tinge of grey but the scent was very much the same as the monster hopped between trees shimmering through the branches. With smouldering essence of a deep crimson indigo his form flowed through teleporting between the treetops, keeping an eye on the wolf pup as it raced deviously between the logs and across a small riverbank. Constantly heading towards one particular direction no matter which path it travelled, he was determined with pounding heart in his little furry chest as tiny paws dug up clumps of earth behind him. Soon the shadow of the beast was upon him as the scissors soon came, plunging down from the heavens. "ENOUGH, CHILD!" The fiendish blades dug deep by at least two feet into the earth powerfully crunching through the stone within the dirt but still there was no boy. Instead he found himself being slapped harmlessly across the face by a cheeky red wing from a mawkish little bat. "...what." It squeaked at him mockingly before flapping away higher than the demon could reach in one move as he pulled his blades out and went after the odd shapeshifter, now more than just insulted and outright offended by such a display of arrogance. The trees began to thin out, which only made it difficult for the beast to really climb up and attack after him but he did his best, whirling his blades towards the tiny form as it dodged beautifully swift by a sweeping of its leather wings. The scissors themselves even dared to levitate at the end of their swing into the air but the moment they tried to counter back and strike down upon the infant night-glider, it simply burst into a white mist further infuriating the demon. "STOP TRYING TO EVADE ME YOU LITTLE BASTARD!" Fire struck down by a magic burst that forced the reptilian to evade as his scissors returned to him, the boy now reappearing on the ground before him as the mist reassembled itself. "Didn't anyone tell you it'sth not very nithe to insthult people that you play with? Not my fault you're bad at thisth." "This is not a game you empty-headed changeling, if you dare run from me now I will make you SUFFER for it!" "...if you keep going the way you are now..." The boy smiled sweetly showing his teeth. "you're going to have a baaaaad time."

With bristling little chompers under milky white fangs slightly growing in, the monster stomped forwards as the boy ran once again with the creature chasing after as they soon made their way out of the actual woods. He was too impatient to realise they were now approaching a bridge, the wide open depths of the water almost resembling that of an ocean. The boy stood stopping about fifteen feet from where the bridge would meet earth with eagerly panting breath. "Good," said the demon, "after I have your soul I will dispose of your body into this wretched lake." "That'sth my granddad'sth line!" squawked the strange child. "You're a big sthtupid lizthard to not even know THAT!" "I...am FAR MORE than some 'stupid lizard' you wretched albino FREAK!" The boy was taken aback by this, almost hurt as he stiffened his lip with deep insult as he powerfully resisted the urge to shed a tear. His fists clenched with a powerful bitterness as he swept his coat behind him, suddenly dodging back a few feet with his shadow blurring in front of him rapidly. "Do...you know what...happensth to people that try to hurt me?" "I don't CARE you spoilt brat, no one will come save you here now let us end this pathetic chase!" He swung his scissors freely from his grip, whirling violently towards the child who simply stood where he stopped. Grim determination focused on his enlightened face as he watched and waited. Before the blades could pierce into his heart, a darkness flooded overwhelming across his vision. "GRANDDAD!" "DON'T!" The scissors struck harshly upon a perfect steel. "Call me that, Adrian." The demon could barely register what had happened in the span of mere seconds by a clash of reflective blade. He looked down upon his chest, seeing his own scissors had been firmly impaled right through with an intensely sharp agony coursing through both his host and his weapon of origin. Shock registered briefly as he struggled to breathe, eyes pulsing before he rasped from the back of his throat. "Y-you...what? Oh...you are definitely going to suffer f-for THIS!" Grasping the handles of his blades, he ruthlessly pulled them out of the reptile's body showing a thick gaping wound torn through his entire cardiovascular system, large enough to show the forest behind him right through. With intense agonising efforts, he slowly began to reassemble the heart, the ribs, the stomach and part of the bronchial lung as the bone resnapped back into its place, the flesh gently knitting itself through its dark pulsating essence before the demon could look at his opponent properly. His cloak whispered by a blackish-blue formed from the last breaths of those he had taken. Every sound that came from its movements was a gasping scream reminiscent through the ages, one that everyone had known in their last moments. His face was of a perfect human skull, grim and peerless white unblemished by the passage of time for it was not even that of an actual human skull, but a representation of such. A concept given the most dreaded form of all. The spectre stood by a height of at least eight feet, the boy safely clutched against his body with its left hand upon his chest now wrought with skeletal fingers. The faintest will o' wisps remnant upon its cloak, shimmering as its hollowed eyes stared upon the demon. A grand wicked scythe firmly gripped in his right hand, its length the height of its wielder carved from what appeared to be a perfect silver, but in truth caught the light far more mysteriously than any other natural mineral should. Behind the spirit was a grand beautiful castle perfectly captured upon its own mountainous island, with the moon behind it high above in the midst of rushing waters of the lake. It was difficult to tell how enormous it was, but it was a kingdom unto itself with a great eminence of deep that the monster noticed by the scent of evil drifting down from it upon the deathly still breeze. The creature of reptilian scale knew what this spectre was, like all those who existed should, even by those of immortal stance. "...do my eyes deceive me?" "If they do," **said the phantom,"you are far more weak and pathetic than I expected you."** The monster grinned forcefully, trying to maintain his composure. "Hmph...am I right in assuming you are a reaper?" "No. THE Reaper." His scythe swung above as he twirled it deftly by his fingers, the blade so sharp that the wind itself across the bridge had been sliced in two as if it were nothing more than flesh, ending upon a claw-like hook. "I do not recognise you. Nor do I ever want to." "You are truly the Reaper himself? Hmhmhmhm...hhhahahahaa, ohhhh I have been waiting for this day, you certainly have the aura for it. I am a great admirer of your work." The demon bowed dutifully, but even doing so he had a rather mocking gesture by the sweep of his hand rather too courteously, overgesturing by the hollow bend of his body. "You are the great equaliser of all these worthless mortals to know their true existence, as nothing but dirt beneath the heels of those like us." "Define 'us', beast." "Those who are immortal, naturally. Those who do not feel the effortless trappings of age slowly wilting their useless physical forms, whereas those like you and me...are to be inheritors of this world." "Hmhmhm...that is one thing I can agree on, but why are you here? From what forsaken venture have you dragged that misbegotten carcass of yours from?" "I am simply here to partake in a little expedition...of mainly practicing my art." "And what, pray tell, might that art be?" "Why...the art of hunting, of course." The creature grinned with effortless pride as the reaper slowly nodded. "I see. Do you realise whose home that this is, creature?" "Ah yes, the castle? Very fascinating, I appreciate such use of gothic architecture, it is very reminiscent of such tastes that I-" "Were you hunting this boy?" "...yes. I was, perhaps you may not have heard of me. My name in a former life was the Scissorman but in this current guise I have now called myself to be known as the Scissoraptor, a name that far too many to speak have already begun to cry and shriek of their fear towards from at least ten different worlds, and by a great many more species beyond that of human comprehension." Even without eyes, Death managed to roll them by a soul-rotting distaste. "A name such as that would have people shriek with laughter instead of fear. I do not care for jokes." "I assure you I never joke. I simply wish to take that boy's soul for I have been hunting him for a bit and he has become a great annoyance upon me." "Really?" The reaper looked down upon the child with a wicked grin, the boy smiling back with jovial smirk. "In that case...I shall reward you for such diligence." "Thank you. I am glad to see that another immortal given such a great reputation as you might now see-"

The only reason he stopped talking was because of the scythe that had lunged out across the bridge far too fast for him to see. Like a razor sharp wind slicing across his throat, there was only but a trace of thin shearing light before he felt his head slowly begin to slide off of his shoulders. The Scissoraptor grabbed onto it before it completely fell, feeling the bloodless air gasping through his severed throat whistling across the black stone pendant the raptor still wore as he snarled rasping: "WHAT...wazzzh that?!" "A lesson learnt in humility, scavenger." "Y-y-you...you dare to think that you have any authority to inzzzhult MY exiszzzhtence?!" "I never 'think' because I already know." "Do you even KNOW who I am?!" "I know an insect by its name of species. Not by what other insects call it, filthy scavenger." "I...c-cannot even be k-killed, I cannot fear death for I am immortal, you have NO dominion over me! If...anything you zzzhould bow down to ME!" "There is only ONE who has any authority over me, and you are not even worthy of his recognition." "I-it...better not be zzzhome filth of a Chrizzzhtian god, you w-worthlezzzzh WIGHT!" "No...not God. But he will be soon." To see the reaper grin would have killed any mortal from fright. But to a demon it simply incensed him with his arrogant plight as his essence finally managed to rearrange the flesh of his neck sewing it back completely. "You swing your scythe like a child picking from a tree, I assure you I am much more an adversary than some dull feeble human ever will!" "The only adversary you have ever defeated is my patience, vermin." "RAAARGH!" The beast lunged forwards with blades up high as the spirit struck fast against the scissors by his scythe, using simply one hand to wield it whilst holding the child close with the other. His strength was unbearable, perfectly clashing against the demon's blades before forcing him back across the bridge almost throwing him completely. The Scissoraptor landed upon his feet and rushed once more, but the reaper simply twirled his scythe in a perfect circle before him as a dark burning ether formed from behind him. Slowly, the fog of evil had formed into seven smaller scythes the colour of bright reddish blood that suddenly hurled themselves upon the raptor. He dodged the first, struck the second out left and the third to his right before jumping over the fourth. The fifth had gone in an upwards swing and tore viciously into his stomach, ripping it open like a botched caesarean section. Gasping harshly, he felt the raptor's organs hung pathetically over the fold of his gut lining as he forcefully pushed them back in. His darkness began sewing up the wound, striking the sixth and seventh scythes away by one reflective upwards swing. The demon cricked his neck readying himself for the next attack as Death waited for him to approach, the beast charging forth by a sudden burst of darkness but the reaper was ready. One vicious cut of the scythe had become seven at once, and there came the sound of four strikes all simultaneously scraping upon the Scissoraptor's blades now wide open ready to cut. The other three strikes however had succeeded in slicing across his shoulder, halfway through his knee as well as cutting straight into the left eye. With the appearance of a fresh zombie, the creature snapped forwards shutting violently sharp upon the throat of Death but the spirit simply dodged back by a spiritual force. The shadow you always felt passing between doorways of your own house on a dark night empty and alone, was the same shadow across the demon's eyes upon Death's subtle evasion. The wraith spun briefly his scythe before whirling it across the bridge, a shining moonlit sliver one could almost barely see as the demon struck fast with violent bladed uppercut. But even without its master's hand, the scythe was ungodly powerful by its own strength and sharpness for even after being struck against by the scissors, it simply tore through his counterattack at an upwards angle and sliced the reptile's head open. Gasping sharply with his skull left in twain, the demon struggled to force his dark smouldering violet energy into focusing on the reparation of his head, settling back the grey matter that now bled dripping thickly down his throat. Death soon began to murmur, a sound that would drive gods insane with thoughts of conspiracy as the trembling flames of spirits that hovered upon his cloak began to burn wildly alight, bursting to a monstrous size in the form of a howling shriek. Screeching like harpies, the flames tore across the bridge towards the demon as he dodged the first two, shadows fading as he teleported to the side until the third and fourth flames began turning tricky. Two of them at the same time, interweaving like a double helix that soon combined into one enormous skull burning with the fires of hell. The Scissoraptor shrieked, torn through his being by a rampantly destructive fire that burned through not just the flesh, but the very soul itself as he felt even James' heart gasp with sudden agony. The jaws of spectral skull clamped shut upon the instant they disappeared, a strand of mist like caustic acid soon dripping into his very essence as he screamed by an utter anguish. Even the scissors themselves cried with raw furious suffering as he staggered back from such a new sensation, bleeding into his own darkness as the boy chanted: "GET HIM GRANDDAD!" "Do NOT call me that Adrian!" "Well you ARE old, what elsthe would I call you?!" "You will call me by my name respectfully!" "It'sth more fun to call you granddad! You're like an old man!" "I AM NOT AN OLD MAN, I AM DEATH HIMSELF!" "YOU WILL BECOME DEATH ITSELF WHEN I AM DONE WITH YOUUUU!"

A violent roar trembling across the bridge, the scarred burning demon forcefully put out the fires of spiritual suffering upon his body as he rushed forwards with the tiniest of whites at the very back of his eyes blistering from a sheer fury. Teleporting suddenly halfway across with a burst of energy, the beast swiped fast across Death's vision as the reaper countered by a block. But the moment he did the raptor thrust his blades powerfully into Death's absent heart, a gasp of shock with a sharp pain as the scissors struck. Once across the reaper's arm, second time went across the throat before a third teared into the ribcage by a twisting plunging thrust that burned powerfully with a dark incendiary rage from the demon's essence, powering his blades briefly with the source of darkness. But before he could attack any further, a burst of hot flames scorched his eyes out blasting themselves from the child's hands. "HELLFIRE!" "A-AAAAAAAAARGH! YOU...WORTHLESS DEGENERATE!" Before he could strike upon the child, Death had recovered himself from the harsh blows and countered by a ruthless upswing of his scythe, tearing forwards to strike the scissors out of the demon's hand before ripping his face apart. The slicing uppercut split the demon's face in twain, his scream muffled briefly as nothing more than garbled noise from its torn throat as it tried to attack once more with bare hands until the reaper pushed forwards by a sudden swoop whilst still clutching the child close to him. The scissors twirled in the air briefly before managing to adjust themselves as the raptor's body tried to grab at the reaper's scythe, desperately fighting the wraith to take it from his hands but it was useless. Death struck back with a flaming attack poured forth from his cloak, a burning skull that physically pummelled like a solid cannonball into the barely-recovered stomach leaving the body completely open and exposed. It only appeared to be one strike, but it was actually more than five sweeping from the scythe as the flesh began to stagger almost to a standstill. But the moment it tried to walk, its feet began to fall off, then the raptor's shins crumpling as its body fell onto its knees, arms severing fully from the shoulders with barely even a single drop of blood along with half his stomach, rendered into chopped meat. But the scissors were still actively in battle as they would soon come piercing down upon the reaper's head. Death waited with all the time in the world until the final second, teleporting himself away by a ghostly shimmer along with the boy tightly in his grasp with scythe swung up high like a sword. Or, more fittingly, like a hammer upon the nail that the scissors would be. Driven powerfully deep into the stone of the bridge until only the handles remained showing, the demon's form had been trapped like a cursed Excalibur as it struggled to pull itself free against the impossibly sturdy granite. Death however simply grinned at the possessed weapon along with its sliced-and-quartered corpse behind it, prepping his scythe for the final blow. "Immortal you might be, but there is an old saying that humans possess. Pride cometh before the fall." The demon could not even speak before the soul-cutting blade swung through the bridge stone itself, a final arc that glinted with perfect circle thin and whitish like a spider's web before Death himself. The bridge started to collapse around the Scissoraptor's essence, a tectonic shift that pulled it down even further towards the lake. Desperation to come free could only have come sooner as a quarter of the entire bridge began falling completely, rumbling thick cracking itself apart into six giant pieces as a cloud of dust before them. The monstrous scissors fell, impaled still within the granite along with its host unfortunate, to a demise unknown from the spectre of Death himself who simply peered over the edge along with his small charge. The boy grinned with rather excitable enthusiasm befitting one his age at the feeble splashes in succession. "Sthervesth him right for being a bad losther." "Indeed," said the reaper, "a miserable beast worth nothing of my contempt...Adrian?" "Yesth?" "Where exactly were you when that beast turned up?" "In the woodsth, about um...a mile from the village?" "I see. I must attend to my duties, as for you..."

With a brief shimmering of existence, both child and reaper found themselves upon the other side of the bridge back onto solid earth, the cold hand of Death finally releasing the boy as he snapped his fingers twice in succession. Almost instantly there came a dark wind of bitter fiends as a light mist hovered across the child's vision, turning thick until Death became but a shadow. From behind his shadow, as if they had always been there, were two other creatures growing from underneath his cloak formed by existence. "What is thy wish, master?" The voice that spoke was of a reedy pinched tone from a tall gangly-looking beast of human limbs and a long pointed beak reminiscent of a vile hawk, his body emaciated to the point of showing ribs holding a spear as tall as him at a height of 6'8''. The other was a smaller but nevertheless intimidating giant bat of 6'2'' with front muscular limbs in the shape of great wings ended by a claw on each, its face reminiscent of a hound. Death commanded them by his next order. "Slogra, Gaibon, take the boy back to his mother but don't approach the village. I sense great misfortune on the wind and we must act swift in order to protect ourselves from any incident." "Anything else?" asked the winged one with deep baritone. "What if the villagers come for them?" "Report back to me, if worse comes then take them back to the castle but make certain that no one sees you, is that understood?" "Yes, master." Slowly the spectre of Death began to fade from existence as his shadow became the light of the moon peering down above their heads, leaving the boy now with his two demon guardians. Carefully the hand of Slogra, the birdlike with spear, placed itself upon the child's shoulder asking: "Come along child, your mother is worried." "Awwww...but...the night isth sthtill young Birdy!" "As are you little one, now come. You can play tomorrow, if you are up bright and early we can then play hide-and-seek in the hedge maze." "Promisthe?!" "I swear on my master's name." The boy grinned widely showing the cutest little teeth of two long canines before adding: "You'll never find me thisth time, I bet I can hide even longer than when we lastht played before!" "We will not allow Mist or Bat," said Gaibon walking with wings wrapped around him, "that makes it TOO easy for you." "Pfffft, you're justht upsthet that I found you stho quickly lastht time we played, Bon-Bon!" "I...I was not ready, you knew I wasn't!" "Hhheeehehehehehee!" "Did you find anything today on your little adventure?" "OH, yesth, I did! I found a beautiful beetle, it looksth justht like a jewel!" He dug into his pockets and brought up a small jar showing the pudgy emerald-tinted beetle. The two demons peered into it to see each other's faces upon its back. "Interesting," said Slogra earnestly, "is that an emerald ash borer perhaps?" "No," replied Gaibon, "those are much longer, perhaps a ground beetle?" "Noooo the legs are different, this one's legs are black, perhaps a perotis unicolor." "Maybe it'sth undisthcovered!" cried Adrian. "What if...nobody hasth found it before, do you think...what if they named it after me?!" "Hhhahahaha, that might not be a bad idea. Perotis Adriantepes!" The child happily giggled with satisfactory glee as the creatures walked him back home, to a little cabin far away from the village and yet also quite a way aways from the castle. The young Adrian opened the door back into the warm light of his house, seeing briefly the two demons sitting up high amongst the trees constantly on the watch for any signs of disreputable intruders as he gave them one last wave. They saw the hand of the boy's mother beckoning him in with worry before it closed. "Why have we become child minders?" "Because Death himself wishes it," replied Slogra. "My powers did not exalt that of rearing children." "No, but they ARE contracted to our master and if so he wishes us to keep this boy safe then so be it." Gaibon stretched his wings with a mild vespertilial chitter from his throat as Slogra deftly twiddled his lithe fingers around the staff of his spear. The bird-beast asked turning to his friend: "Sooooo...you have any plans later?" The winged monster glanced at his companion with irritable side-eye. "Is this REALLY the time, Slogra?" "It has been more than three months." "A pittance!" "You seem tense...rather have been over the last several weeks, it would be good for you to relax with our-" "I know VERY well what your idea of relaxation is." "Well it works...doesn't it?" Slogra smirked, or at least as best as one could with a beak which turned his smile into a Cheshire Cat grin of horrifying length as if about to devour a single family. Gaibon simply rolled his eyes before the bird-beast tapped his shoulder with his long spear chuckling. "Come nooooow...I see that look." "I would rather wait," added Gaibon. "Maybe I should ask the Librarian to concoct some more ointments that you need, perhaps some more of that milkvetch you quite enjoyed last week." "Hmmmm...that...that was a really nice ointment actually, that would be good of you for getting me some...very well, I would appreciate that." "Then it's settled," confirmed Slogra, "tonight is bath night!" "Wh-what?!" "No point wasting the water now is there, having separate baths." "I-i-i did not agree to communal bathing!" "You never argued the past years, Gaibon." "Could we...discuss this more privately when we are NOT watching over this youth?" "Very well...my sweet 'Bon-Bon'." "Oh be quiet, ' Birdy'."

Far beneath the castle amongst the rushing waters of the grand lake, the deaths of many souls and bodies cast would find their way down here circling upon a drain. All evil that flowed from within the castle, along with death and depravation, would soon be left to rot within the many underpassages of the great island it had built itself into. From the torrential waters something came, perhaps more than half an hour after the collapse of the bridge as a clawed scaly hand stabbed itself upwards from the water's surface onto a rocky ledge. Pulling itself with powerful muscle, a heaving gasp of pain came searing throughout its entire body that followed as the Scissoraptor dragged himself onto the ledge. "HHHHHHRRRRRRRRRRKKHHH! A-aaaagh...useless...what good is a reaper like him that he c-c-cannot...hurt even the wretched soul that now festers within me?" Vomiting up the water from the deathly still lungs of his host, the demon crawled onto a safe surface as he felt his essence turning weak with exhaustion. The struggling battle along with being drowned and discarded across the lake, having to find the various pieces of his host and bring them back together as one was, even to him, a great effort of strenuous need. He even managed to retain onto James' satchel, which while it was waterproof up to code for Ivalician standards, was leaking a bit extensively. He found himself in a cavern of black rock near a great waterfall, gushing from way above onto the loch water and what appeared to be an arduous climb as the only way into the castle. The sounds of monsters with guttural snarls came further along behind the waterfall but he paid them no heed. "I must...rest a little, that worthless wraith managed to trick me once too often but I shall not be so easily manipulated, from this point on. I shall let James see if he can find a way further in with that marvellous curiosity of his...hmhmhm...it was only because of it I was able to come this far with him in the first place. He can handle this bit...until I am once again ready to perform my own needs to this place...hhhhhh..." The demon began to withdraw himself into James' body, as the raptor slumped onto his back with scissors and satchel dripping wet still. The darkness faded from him, his body still rendered sick by its ghastly curse as his teeth began to shrink along with his claws, the bulge in his pants wilting to his original size along with his muscles atrophying. His skin, no longer pulsating with the course of evil, would now look anaemic even further than it had been back the last few weeks when still in Ivalice. When the raptor would wake up, it would not be because of his own intervention. The sounds from within the caverns came closer as something picked up his scent. A set of glowing lights peered from beneath the water's surface underneath the rushing white foam of the waterfall. Two sets. Then three. Then six as something began crawling up from beneath the water's depths. A hand almost disturbingly human, but with thick webbing between the fingers of a sickly bluish-green, almost the same colour of a drowned corpse. Pulling itself up with ease, the thick scaled muscles began rippling with water as the padded sound of feet began gathering around the still-sleeping raptor. Croaks of muted guttural sounds almost beneath human hearing started communicating as they bent down, grasping the body as James flinched from an instinct. Cold, clammy and thick-fingered as the creatures sniffed over him, before one of them pushed two others out of the way and pulled his clothes down. A spicy scent filled the air, wet and musty but at the same time full of heat as the hands webbed managed to pull both jeans and underwear off from the raptor showing his flaccid cock of ball-less sheath, foreskin-like. The monsters picked up the scent, with teeth the size of steak knives raspily breathing a hot scent like rotting meat across the twitching penis. It wasn't the only penis that was twitching either, as the musk grew to a potent smog trembling from their slits.

A leathery snout dripping wet placed itself against James' pucker, sniffing with rapid curiosity before licking eagerly at the hole, slurping as a moan gently came from the raptor. The creatures understood, and so it began to lick deeper, suckling at the winking rump pulling FG's legs up to hungrily dive its tongue in and savour the taste. The stench of musk turned greater, almost acting like smelling salts as James' eyes began to flicker open. The more he opened them, the more horrified he became. Vapid eyes staring upon him with an eerie light that only spoke of needful things, of feral urges and primal beasts completely devoid of any emotion. Wide snouted lips with wretched long teeth panting of an eager greed and lustful desire from their breaths twitching in their supple aquatic bodies of lean scaled fish. The fins on top of their heads spiked slightly whenever they noticed something, and it was only when James saw their long green tongues slithering down their lips by a length of at least a foot that he noticed the squirming sensation in his rear. "O-ohhhh...Ohhhhhh...ohhh g-god...no...n-no please...stop." He was too weak to speak louder, watching the merman suckle at his rump with fiendish precision as he fucked his tongue further in making James writhe and gasp with agonising resistance. He felt his cock start twitching at the slurp across his prostate, slowly rising itself to attention by automatic needs. "N-n-no...no s-stop, s-stop it please...p-p-please I don't...I don't want this." The creatures did not understand him, or perhaps even they did not care as he watched their throbbing cocks exhude an odious pungent musk that tingled with incredible strength at his nostrils. They all had firm erect lengths from their slits at around 7 inches each, the one who had manhandled him to be rimmed showing his own at a much heftier 8 inches. It grabbed his legs still before slowly pushing forwards his crotch onto his rear. "S-stop...d-don't...d-d-don't d-do this p-pleaaaas-a-aaaagh! Aaaaagh!" His pucker tightened up in resistance, but he was so feeble in his strength now robbed from him that he was barely able to even reject the invading meat. The monster slid in without any effort, thrusting all the way in as the raptor gasped with a soft warbling scream at the sudden pain forcing his ass apart. Tearing slightly as he winced, he pushed his hands up towards the merman's face, trying to punch at him, slap him, anything to shove him away but it was no use. The beast simply wanted a hole to fuck and would not be sated. James sobbed gasping as his eyes turned up towards the cavern ceiling, feeling the powerful thick length slam into him with unkindly strength. The beast's grip on his legs tightened further as blood drew thinly from the scars made by its claws, the cock not even particularly warm inside of him as it felt more cold and leathery. Wet, almost slimy as it drooled all over his anal walls marking him with its musky coating, panting with lustful desires that all creatures could feel. The slickening walls rippled with painful spasms further inciting the beast to a sweet blissful moan of monstrous guttural noises. Once it found its rhythm the monster began fucking to the hilt, slapping wetly as the pain became less physical and more psychological. James broke down quietly, covering his eyes with his hands as tears streaked down his fingers, that feeling he had wished never to feel again. He struggled to think of those he loved, those among his friends trying to make the pain and feeling go away, wanting to displace himself far away from what his body was now feeling. "K-kruz...Kruz h-help me...h-h-help me...help me please...F-fayne...Baldwin...D-dahlia, Roy, Navarro I need you...I need you help me.........s-s-stop...s-stop f-fucking me please...I'm...I'm sorry I ever did this t-to someone...I sh-should never have done this, p-please stop! I d-d-don't want to g-go through this again! No...don't, n-no don't don't cu-A-AAAAH! GOD, DAMMIT YOU F-FUCKING MONSTER!" He felt halfway through the desirable shudder all males possessed when nearing a climactic bliss, a raspy quiver from the beast's throat as the merman gasped croaking of a deep hellish noise. Trembling across the cavern halls, the alpha of the group had claimed his next breed as he pumped his essence into the raptor's weakened pucker, forced to swallow his cock and virile seed. The twitching flex of the rigid length scraped against his deepest walls as the raptor began wailing, loud enough to send echoes across the waterfall of his sorrow. And even worse was the fact that the second he opened his eyes through the tears of pain and worthlessness, he would see five more of them ready to violate him. He had no energy left in him to fight, the monstrous evil within having robbed him of such as he tried staggering onto his feet but the mermen pushed him back down. The alpha had slurped his cock out of his running hole now dripping shameful seed as he was thrown onto his belly. James cried further, louder still as he felt another beast mount him, grappling his waist filthily as it began to fuck him powerfully, shrieking with foul groans of defilement and pleasure for its sloppy seconds. The sounds of its leader's cum squishing inside the raptor's tunnel only further incensed it to a deepening arousal as his cock grinded against his own stomach, leaking pre to smear upon himself with a filthy animalistic hunger fed from the beast unto him. The musk tried to tempt him, made him want to submit and accept his place amongst them and soon he would have his unwanted wish. By a thick pulsating length before him from one of the bloated mermen, he opened his mouth simply without another word and allowed it to throatfuck him, choking harshly as it shoved as much it could inside of him. Gagging violently until he almost wanted to puke, it grinded the tip against the back of his throat as its slimy pre slathered all over the inside of his cheeks. He wanted to spit it out, the taste of the foul beast almost making him retch everytime it pulled out but always he had to save his breath with every thrust back in. Soon his ass felt another pumping splurt of seed, coating the inside of his walls evermore with the sickening semen which now dripped heftily from his anus, a hot clear white drooling to a puddle underneath. At least that would spare him from having to taste it, unlike the beast before him that had groaned a gurgling gasp of lust before stuffing his cock entirely within. The raptor was made to swallow every single drop, gulping vile milk of the fishmen with a horrid almost acidic taste to it as he dry-vomited the moment the cock had left him. His lips dripped gasping of saliva and raw seed before the third cock went into his rear, pounding just as viciously as the second one. With his ass now well-loosened the pain was a little easier to handle as he watched the last two mermen stumble forwards with their own two cocks pulsating before him. One forced into his mouth, grasping the back of James' head before hungrily stuffing his hips wretchedly against his snout. The musk was unending but his nostrils soon adjusted to the stench as he moaned weakly upon the dick before it slurped out from his throat. The merman's partner then took its turn grabbing FG's head to fuck him. The two beasts before him alternated, making him switch and slurp between their meaty flesh as he ran out of tears simply accepting what he was to them. The braying sounds of minds riddled with primal needs resounded in his ears as they turned him into their bitch for breeding. It was not too long until one of the monsters fucking his throat, a younger creature it seemed, got too excitable and splattered its hot seed all over the raptor's face smearing him plentifully of its thick milk. Whimpering with disgust, the raptor soon felt the throbbing spurt of a thickening pre into his throat and rabidly deepthroated best as he could just to not taste anymore of the cum on his tongue. The fishman seemed pleased at such obedience as James swallowed everything, taking it like medicine as he felt the last monster empty its seed into his well-used male cunt. He laid on the ground defeated, stinking of merman jizz as they all simply left with their fill having had before they drifted back into the waters beneath. James began to fall asleep, blissful in that the pain had ceased but never able to forget from the filth and musk that he could taste and feel sloshing inside of him. His words began mumbling as he tried to think of something pleasant, someone sweet, someone who could have comforted him. It was the worst thing he could ever torture himself with in that moment. "Koopin. I'm sorry Koopin...I'm s-s-so sorry I couldn't...I know I didn't promise b-but I tried Koopin...I tried t-to be f-faithful...I...I'm sorry...I'm sorry...f-f-forgive me...f-forgive me..." The raptor fell into a deep sleep, exhaustion of his body being used taking him along with his own strength wilting before his very eyes. Dreams became his escape from a cruel new reality he had found himself in, underneath the castle's shadow.