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He walked slowly over to her, noting that the others were unconscious, almost comatose... although their naked bodies breathed easily, and despite the gushing flow of blood from their vaginas, they didn't seem to be in pain. The Drakkaren, on the other hand, was shivering and twitching back and forth, as if in the grips of a nightmare... and as Zerrex slowly walked around to stand on the stone platform in front of her, undoing the fly of his pants, he looked into her face, saw the resemblance to Cindy in body and soul... she was shorter, though, her scales lighter, and almost white over her chest... smaller breasts... but lither as well, with curving, firm buttocks that he reached out hesitantly to touch, his hands sliding back along her hips to grasp them gently.

She didn't awaken, and as he looked at her, he remembered how they'd met... it had been a party at the barracks, almost a rave, and something Zerrex rarely bothered attending, but he'd felt... a particular urge, a thirst that night, and it had been easy access to a place that would undoubtedly provide him with prey; whether innocent girls, drunken, drugged whores, or dick-hungry soldier girls just back from training who thought they could handle him, he didn't care. He just wanted a raw, hard fuck, and from someone who would scream loud, because he'd been training overseas at that that time and no one spoke the same frigging language. So he wanted someone who would speak the primal tongue with him - screams of ecstasy, grunts of power, growls and claws digging deep to draw blood, and the terror in their eyes as he plunged into them and ripped them apart, the thrill of the predator taking down his prey after a successful hunt. And something messy and traumatizing, since he'd be heading back home soon and they'd never get a chance to find him...

So he'd gone there... a few girls had flirted with him, and he'd almost been tempted to drag one outside... or what the hell, both, he could restrain both easy in the alley. But then she'd caught his eye... and they had stared at each other, and she'd slid away from the soldier she'd been dancing with to approach the bar and grin at him, and he'd ordered her a drink... and then they'd gone out on the dance floor under the flashing, scintillating lights, pushing together... kissing then, him clutching her hips through the too-tight, too-short dress, loving the flash of panties, and this, yes, this was the one... he had to have her... he had to make her his, and his alone... his only, she would be all his for that night, and he would own her...

They pushed, rocked, moved in synchronization, and he let her be the aggressor, let himself move back with every time she ground against him, then suddenly pushing back... letting her slip a hand under his shirt to feel his chiseled abs, and then tease below his waistband to rub the scales of his crotch, and she responded in turn to him, and he'd grasped her buttocks like he had now and suddenly turned, shoved himself against her as they'd moved off the dance floor, and she'd laughed when they'd staggered together through a door into a bedroom and he'd kicked it closed...

They'd gone to the bed... kissed, she'd rubbed his chest, pressed against him, moaned, her breath smelling of peppermint and tequila, and his shirt was open, his muscular chest bare, and her hands played over it, rubbing at it, teasing his body and looking almost awed by his physique as he'd take a breast roughly into one hand and hiked her skirt high up with the other, almost to her breasts, to slide two fingers between her legs and tease her, making her moan, and she was wet, and he knew it was for him... but she'd teased him, tried to draw back...

And slowly, in this hell reality, Zerrex did the same thing to the bound Drakkaren, reaching two fingers down and pressing them against the closed, tight lips of her sex, drawing his fingers up her naked crotch instead of against the silk fabric of a pair of panties, and her eyes - blue as the morning, but with a strange green fleck in one, the imperfection that had drawn him in even before she'd become such a willing victim - reflected his memory, and he saw it play out like a show on a dark stage, in the most secret of theatres. Him shoving her down, her screaming, and him ripping his pants down, grinning savagely and letting her wrestle with him, letting her think she had a chance so she'd keep struggling... and then suddenly laughing and easily pushing her down, dominating her... then finding she was a virgin, kissing her... and oh Gods, she had bitten his tongue, and he had bitten back, clamping his jaws against hers, and she'd screamed into his maw as he'd pulled himself free and ripped her panties off, and then he'd torn down the front of her dress...

He'd raped her hard, fast, brutally, slammed into her over and over, so powerfully that when some idiot good Samaritan had been attracted by the screams, he'd simply blushed and apologized and left quickly after he saw him ramming her on the bed... her back arched, eyes rolled up in her head, jaws agape and hands clutching at his shirt... and it had been more fucking than rape, and that had been how he'd truly taken her, truly raped her, and truly made her his property. He'd forced her to get into it... forced her to enjoy the rape, the battering, the bloodletting, the raw fucking.

He could see all that reflected in her eyes, and he smiled with strange tenderness as he reached his hand up to stroke her face tenderly, letting his pants fall around his hips, knowing she wouldn't kick, wouldn't struggle this time... her breaths already hard, breasts heaving on her chest as she stared at him with terror, then she whispered: "No... not again... not this time. I won't play your game this time... you won't pass. I didn't give in to those bitches, and I didn't give in to the incubi... you're no different..."

"I'm the Boss. And I'm different from when I raped you as well." Zerrex gently stroked her face with the back of his hand, then he tenderly kissed her forehead... as he ground his body against her at the same time, stroking his shaft to its full thirty-two inch erection... and oh, yes, he was bigger now than he was then... more muscular, and far, far more experienced. Back then, he'd been little more than an infant with hungers it didn't bother to control... now, however, he was truly a master of his craft. And as he tested her, pushing the bulging head of his obsidian tower of flesh against her tightly-closed gates, he wasn't surprised to find that the lips of her sex were sealed like steel, and that even a firm push forwards with his hips wouldn't open them. He felt faint amusement roll through his body as he looked into her defiant eyes, and then he gently stroked under her chin, leaning forwards and whispering in her ear: "You have no idea how fun you're making this already. Squirm or be silent. It doesn't matter... it comes out to about the same."

She trembled a bit now, her eyes losing some of their assuredness, and he laughed softly as he reached both hands up, grinding his thick shaft against her and letting out a pleased sigh at the feel of her scales rubbing against his huge member. This was step one... the emotional attack. Talking her into it, without really talking her into it at all... shaking her foundations, making her doubt herself, attacking her very core with precise words. It was all a cold, calculated game, and he knew that despite how erotic it was, the power and pleasure rolling through him, this particular rape had to be played more like a game of chess than an idiotic, animal rape.

But that exhilaration, that new thrill... made it more fun, more wonderful, and more exotic than any other rape he'd performed in the past. Before he could get too caught up in his sadism, however, he paused for a brief moment to let her feel the tension build, then he whispered into her ear: "You do know... that I think of you a lot. You were my first Drakkaren... I won't lie and say you were my first rape. And you're a favorite memory, because I remember you responding to me... when I... touched your body..."

He accented these last words by gently settling his hands on her breasts, letting his palms barely skate over them before rubbing slowly down her sides, and she let out a soft groan and shook, the chains restraining her jangling and her legs bucking a bit... and then he settled his hands firmly on her hips, looking down into her eyes and keeping his expression serious but soft, his eyes locking with hers... and another door had been knocked down, another wall defeated, her defenses yielded further.

But he still had to keep going... and he knew that he had to avoid torturing her. Sure, it would be fun to mention Cindy, see her anger, her rage, her hate, her spite... but it would also be idiotic, and a step in the opposite direction. He needed her to give herself to him willingly... and then willingly allow him to slam her with those tortures; he didn't know how he knew this, but perhaps it was just on silent instinct. And he could feel the three demons watching, judging him with their playfulness gone and instead expressions solemn and interested, like marksmen at a hunting competition... and really? That's all this was... he was just hunting a different kind of prey with a different kind of tool.

He slid his hands back up her sides: now was the time to gratify her and appear to submit to her, to cause her to open up more towards him... literally and metaphorically. He leaned in, sniffing her neck before kissing her throat gently, and she let out a short, quiet pant, clenching her eyes shut and gritting her teeth as his hands slowly moved out to grasp her breasts again, rolling them slowly together, and then brining one hand massaging down her stomach, feeling her body tense, tauten under his touch, then slowly relax as he idly played with one nipple. He rubbed his fingertips over it, back and forth, before pinching it gently between thumb and forefinger to squeeze it lightly and pull on it teasingly, making her give a little gasp as he twisted it, and feeling it harden in response... another good sign... just like the blush he saw creeping into her cheeks as his hand rubbed her stomach, the other moving from her best to play gently under her armpit, tickling her teasingly to make her twitch and the faintest of smiles appear on her face before he rubbed up her arm... and then back down to gently cup her face, leaning in and kissing her cheek... the bridge of her muzzle... and looking deep into her eyes, letting himself appear to hesitate before chastely kissing her hips.

He stayed cupping her face... and she seemed to forget for a few moments the position she was in, that she was chained up, that she was a victim here of his... and her eyes revealed another yield towards him as his hand slid to cup her hip, the other staying against her face. And then she leaned forwards ever so slightly, and he pushed his muzzle forwards to meet hers, his cock throbbing and erect between them, the black, hot flesh pulsing lightly with power and arousal as their mouths met.

They kissed hungrily, mouthing each other first, tasting each other... and then she hesitatingly slid her tongue forwards, and he gladly moved his own to meet hers. They danced and writhed in their maws, chasing and falling over each other before she suddenly ripped away with a moan, teeth grit, eyes clenched shut, whispering raggedly: "You motherfucker... you bastard... you fucking bastard..."

But her cheeks were still flushed, and Zerrex allowed himself a bit of a chuckle as he moved his hands to grasp her hips lightly... and he could tell she was half-looking at him through one peering eye, likely not wanting to, but unable to simply keep her eyes closed, her body trembling... and the Drakkaren moved on to the next stage of the game as the succubi murmured in soft approval.

He kissed down her exposed neck, and she shuddered, closing her eyes and tilting her head away, but unable to stop her back from arching slightly, her body from responding in those tiny, giving movements, her breath from quickening as her arms rattled the chains that kept them bound above her head... and then she moaned quietly and lowered her muzzle, and he could feel her hips trembling harder as he drew the kisses down the swell of one breast, then settled his muzzle against it, closing his eyes and suckling back on the firm mound, lapping his tongue around the rock-hard nipple. His own shaft throbbed for attention, painfully hard... but at this stage, it was most important to give her all the attention, despite whatever his own desires called for.

She reacted, twitching again, murmuring softly: "St... stop it..." but making no move to resist, and panting softly as her eyes opened in slits, watching him work his mouth gently at her bosom... before her slid slowly down further, sliding his hands back to grasp her buttocks lightly, then rolling down to grasp her thighs gently as his mouth trailed soft kisses down her stomach. She tensed, and relaxed, then tensed up again, before letting out a surprised grunt and trembling hard as he breathed softly on the lips of her sex. The folds of her labia, however, were glistening with wetness... and she had a rawer tone to her voice as she whispered blankly: "Oh... I... just..."

And Zerrex smiled... reassuringly, encouragingly... as he guided her legs up over his shoulders, then pushed his muzzle gently up and licked slowly at her vagina, guiding his tongue lightly between her folds... which now separated with a divine, amazing ease. And even just the stimulation of his tongue was enough to make her pant softly and shake her head from side-to-side, as if trying to deny the pleasure, the desire he knew was rolling through her bodies now. He lapped at her, kissing the lips of her sex gently with the lips of his muzzle, teasing her lightly, and her legs bucked slightly and squeezed her forwards against him, and now she was squirming, panting softly, as his hands kneaded her buttocks ever so gently and lovingly.

He nudged her clitoris with his muzzle, causing her to twitch harder and bite her tongue with a murmured denial... but then he drew his tongue around it teasingly before moving his muzzle back to nuzzle her vagina, smelling her, tasting her, and then breathing softly back out to cause her to tremble in pleasure, head rolling back. Once the Drakkaren had toyed with her enough, he finally stood, wiping lightly at his muzzle and then looking into her eyes firmly: now was the shortest but hardest step... to take control passively.

Their eyes met, and something in her still wanted to resist... but then a tear rolled down her cheek, lower jaw trembling, and her legs shaking hard as he gently pushed his muscular body forwards, dangling loosely by her arms as he reached a hand back to grasp his own huge member and guide the head of his cock against her trembling vagina: his engorged, throbbing, needing shaft. But no... he didn't want to just ram her. He wanted to make her his all over again... he wanted to do the rape fully, and he wanted to do it right, which meant a bit of restraint and self-control. Then, finally... she bucked her hips ever-so-slightly, and gave a broken, weak sob as she nodded and lowered her gaze from his, almost rasping a single word as her will broke and she gave in to him again, as he knew she would: "Please..."

"Thank you." He said softly... and then he smiled down at her as he felt his body flexing, spreading her legs and holding one open by the thigh. She swallowed thickly, looking up at him, trembling violently... and then screaming and arching her back as he rammed forwards into her, piercing her once-impassable lips, ravaging her vagina, stretching her passage and tearing apart her hymen like a truck running through a wall of paper. She screamed again, arching her back, as he growled hungrily and grunted as he thrusted forwards, eyes rolling up in his head, the pleasure massive, amazing, and all but wanting to make him orgasm on the spot... but there was still half the battle left to fight, and he wanted to do it all, and do it well.

But he could already feel a steady flow of her blood streaming down his obsidian shaft, as he slammed to the hilt in her with another grunt and his body flexing powerfully, both hands now holding her legs open, claws digging lightly into her thighs as she jerked against the chains and shrieked again in pleasure-pain, head rolling back but the expression on her face wondrous and horrified at the same time. And he loved the feeling of her bleeding over him, knowing his shaft was already coated in her blood, which was flowing in a free stream, like water coming in a steady but weak flow from a damaged tap. Zerrex didn't just want that tap damaged, though, as her hot life-stuff flowed down his grapefruit-sized testicles, over his crotch, down his thighs and pattered to the stone platform and into the trench below, much of it eventually joining the blood of the other raped virgins... no, he wanted to break that tap.

So as he stayed hilted in her, panting, his muscular body flexed, feeling her looking at him with delirious and hateful adoration, he drew slowly back, then plunged forwards again as he forced his voice to remain calm and easy, saying casually: "You know your daughter, Cindy? Our daughter, I should say..." she tensed up, her eyes opening, her face paling as she looked at him in horror and froze, but the clenching of her vagina just felt wonderful... and now, no matter how hard she pushed with her passage, he once more was the one in control, and he could rape her to his heart's content with her flails just adding to his pleasure... "I had sex with her too... because she fell in love with me..."

"You liar..." she began to tremble violently, bucking against him, but he laughed and ground back, grunting hungrily as his shaft tore deep into her again, once more on the psychological attack as he moved easily back and forth, cock squelching in and out of her tight passage as he murred and closed his eyes, holding her legs wide and easily open. All she could do was shiver and jangle her chains, then she screamed, her spit pattering onto his chest and face: "Fucking bastard liar!"

But her vagina clenched, more blood poured free with her rage, and he opened his eyes to meet hers with a cold smile as he began to pump a bit faster, pistoning his massive penis firmly in and out of her body as he kept up the casual voice, only letting it roughen slightly: "Oh am I? Then why is she... married to me? My loving wife... as well as my bitch, my toy. We even have our own little girl, Marina-"

"St-stop it, stop it, s-s-stop, just stop..." The Drakkaren began to tremble violently, shaking her head back and forth in denial, sobbing more than speaking now, voice broken, her hips bucking hard back, her passage clenching even harder around Zerrex's huge cock as her body responded to the pleasure automatically, despite the pain in her eyes, the tears running down her cheeks... and Zerrex licked it all up, hated and loved that he could enjoy this torture so thoroughly, as he worked his gigantic tower of flesh in and out of her... and he grinned sharkishly, grunting hungrily and working even harder, even faster now, feeling the pleasure building as her blood poured down his shaft in a gout, his crotch soaked with it, his steely-cock tearing her apart inside, stretching her violently as he slammed into her again and again, testicles smashing against her anus over and over as his claws sank into her thighs.

"-And she's growing up to love her Daddy too, and she'll love her Daddy in a whole new way one day, and Cindy just can't wait... she polishes up my cock every night with her mouth and just can't wait until Marina's big enough she can take it in without ripping her apart!" he shouted, then he laughed as he slammed into her harder and harder, pounding her with the massive, black flesh hard enough to cause her body to slap limply against the pillar again and again with loud, fleshy smacks, before she tilted her head back and simply screamed in despair and agony.

At the same time, she hit orgasm, her passage clutching the male's massive member and squeezing it, causing Zerrex to roar and tilt his head back with a wide grin as he continued to piston viciously in and out, his eyes clenched tight in pleasure as blasts of her sexual fluids, mixed with blood, shot down the huge shaft in a disgusting, powerful flow, bursting out in waves that splattered long gouts of blood over the back of the cement pillar and the reptile's legs again and again. The pleasure increased five, ten, a hundredfold for the male, his body flexing, working hungrily, powerfully and roaring, flexing as he slammed into her harder and harder, cock stiffening up as she shrieked and cried and moaned.

Then he arched his back and grinned down at her cruelly, locking her eyes with his own burning emerald, dominating her entirely and completely as he released thick jets of his seed into her again and again, and her body spasmed, breasts bouncing, the female screaming like it was fiery acid he was pouring into her and not his seed, which had ironically brought the most beautiful, innocent girl he'd ever met into the world... he slammed hard forwards, her hips rocking violently as she bounced lifelessly on his cock, her eyes full of hate and despair and agony before she shrieked again as he suddenly jerked down and free with a snarl, reaching down to stroke his bulging cock rapidly as her hips fell and bucked, now releasing a steady waterfall of blood in a massive, continuous torrent.

She twisted back and forth as several more volleys of his seed splattered over her features and body, along with a few droplets of her own blood, and then he grunted softly and closed his eyes with a grin of deep, primal bliss as his orgasm came to an end, lowering his muzzle and then looking up to smile coldly at her, her stomach, breasts, and face all splattered with his thick load. She snarled, but it was hopeless, broken and lost, looking up at him with a terrible emptiness in those beautiful blue eyes, and he leaned down to kiss the cheek he'd just smeared with her own blood before meeting her irises and putting their muzzles side-by-side, whispering: "I promise I'll take care of her."

And with that, he reached down, pulling up his pants and holding them idly up with one hand as his black shaft still-throbbed, still hot and erect, as Cindy's mother dropped her muzzle and broke down into deep, lost sobs, her legs spread wide, her hips bucking every so often as impossible torrents of blood gushed down and into the river below.

Zerrex approached the succubus triplets slowly, glancing idly over them: their breasts had swelled up, their bodies had thickened with muscle but become trimmer, more shapely in other places, their wings had grown larger, and long, shiny black bull horns had sprouted from their heads... and now he realized a fourth had joined them that looked the same as the other. A pause, and then Zerrex glanced at their collars, realizing the symbols on them had changed from spades to the same elemental signs as on the pillars... and one different for each of them.

And the four stood looking at him with gratitude, love, and trembling... and then one slowly licked along the top of her own muzzle with a long, forked tongue as she said softly: "Please Master... let us..."

Before he could say anything, they slid forwards, and two gently kissed at his face, giving him the deepest, most passionate kisses he had ever had when he turned his head towards one or the other - that tasted of brimstone, sex, and blood - and the other two licked hungrily at his shaft with their long tongues, cleaning it of blood and trading back and forth on suckling the tip, suckling out whatever spare seed the reptile had left to offer. Then the four stepped back, forming a square around the reptile... and Zerrex shuddered a bit as they all spoke softly: "Hail to our Father, hail to our Master."

The worst part, though... was when he realized they were all crying red-tinted tears as they looked up at him with joy, their beautiful, angelic features almost too perfect, too unbearable to look at with those shining rubies rolling down their faces... and he closed his eyes for a moment as he forced his thoughts on something different, tasting the air of the hell world he was in, feeling the red sky burning his scales, the black ground beneath testing his balance with its cracks and rocks. When he opened his eyes, they were all facing him, looking at him lovingly again, all holding different objects.

From left to right... a dark metal necklace, with a silver, crescent-moon amulet dangling from it... a cape and cloak of red and black, with golden tassels... a huge, deadly rectangular cleaver sword, made of rusted steel and dark metal... and a single red rose. They all smiled at him, then the leftmost spoke: "We offer you these..."

"To let you know you are monarch and god of us..." said the next in line, bowing a bit towards him.

"And that we shall forever serve you, milord, in prostration..." spoke the next, bowing her head respectfully and looking at him adoringly.

Then the last finally spoke, and her muzzle smiled wide as her eyes shone, holding out the rose. "To let you know that we shall never break your trust..."

"If I can pass the last test of temptation." Zerrex finished quietly, and the four quadruplets looked surprised as he smiled ironically. "You know, I should have known that I'd have creatures like you in my mind... nothing as pathetic and weak as a succubus... but demonic elementals, Hez'Ranna high-order demons. The four sisters of the judgment cross... earth and material temptation, fire and lust, water and wrath, air and greed."

The four looked at each other... then they laughed and smiled, donning the items they had just offered. Earth with the silver necklace, Air with the heavy, royal cloak with the golden tassels, Water putting the deadly, rusted cleaver upon her back like a feather, and Fire now wearing the rose upon her head with the thorny stem twisted to form a tiara, the brilliant blossom off to the right. They bowed to him respectfully, then said softly in unison: "And you are Lord of both Darkness and Light. What is your wish, Master?"

Zerrex glanced at the river... but was surprised to see that it had already filled, and that his raped victim had fallen into slumber; the flow of blood from the vaginas of the females had all slowed, still coming in a steady, impossible river, but no longer in great, gushing waterfalls. Then he walked a bit down the walkway, and they followed behind, the four temptresses not making a sound as they smiled to one another, whispering amongst themselves: Zerrex picked up words like savior, patriarch, and freedom, but... he didn't think they were tempting him this time.

He found the bridge had floated back into place now, and the bloody river had risen back to such a height that it was sloshing against the banks... and then he turned and rubbed the back of his head slowly, running his hand through his ivory locks and saying softly: "I need information on this nightmare world. You four are the only ones I've met thus far who haven't just groveled or tried to kill me. And I guess I should also ask the real reason why you wanted me to rape Cindy's mother all over again."

Air smiled a bit, looking over her shoulder coldly at the ruined city and the strange creatures milling in the distance inside it, then she shook her head slowly before looking back at Zerrex and smiling faintly, explaining quietly: "We needed someone who would be able to prove that he was truly the Master... you, in other words, who holds inside him so many levels of universe, who has all our lives in our hands. But I know." A slight smile as her eyes half-lidded, and then from her voice came a perfect imitation of Zerrex's: "You don't like philosophy."

He blinked, and the other sisters laughed before Water continued the story, picking up as if she'd been the one to tell it from the start: "The dark essence, the thing that calls itself Drake, came through here a few times... but no matter what form he assumed, it was easy to pick up who it was, and we booted him out every time. Unfortunately, we didn't have the power to... do other things to him that we would have liked to." She made a slight face at this, looking at the others as they nodded grimly, and Earth looked down and blushed. "Littlest sister here was trapped by the Sheep God."

"Sheep God." Zerrex said blankly, and the others looked at him curiously, before they glanced at each other, seeming to trade some silent message of confusion. Then they all shook their heads and looked back at him with faint amusement.

"It's the second-in-command of the High Commander, who rules over this twisted world, and the dark path that stretched beyond, leading to his mansion." Earth explained in a soft voice, and then she smiled, and as Zerrex looked at her, he realized there was one difference between the quadruplets, and it was their eye color: beryl, aquamarine, gold, and ruby, instead of the light blue. "The Sheep God, on the other hand, guards the Gate leading into the dark path, what he calls the Walk of Sins.

"The Sheep God imprisoned me, because I'm the weakest." Earth murmured with an embarrassed blush, rubbing the back of her head, then she straightened and glanced back and forth at her sisters as they all reached out a hand and gently touched her back. "But he was ordered to, by the High Commander.

"You see... It's a terrifying thought, and it does require some philosophy... but you aren't the only person in this collection of universes you call your body, and you aren't the only person who wishes to control these universes and see what you refer to as... the outside world, which we understand is... a reality like this, but with other different multiple world-collections in it as well." Earth continued, then blinked as Zerrex stared at her. "What?"

"Uh..." he said stupidly, then shook his head quickly and waved a hand dismissively, looking embarrassed. "Nothing, nothing. Er. Keep talking, go on." Ugh. The people in my head are smarter than I am.

The four elemental demons of desire traded looks again, then Fire shrugged and took up the story. "Across the bridge is the other half of the city, though... and stranger, darker things loom in that world than this one. Other monsters that thrive and feed on havoc, and... well, ever since you, who we call the Lord of Light and Darkness or the Conscious Walker, was imprisoned in the illusionary reality... the High Commander has been making his own bids for supremacy, as well as Drake. So although we only wished to test you, to make sure that you truly were the Conscious Walker, and not some other fool bent on taking over the universe of countless worlds..."

Zerrex held up a hand: although a lot of this was going over his head, he thought he caught the gist of what that last bit meant fairly well. "So the High Commander... is being guarded by the Sheep God in a palace past here?"

Air snorted softly at this, then she smiled a bit as the others glanced down. "If only it were so simple... no, the High Commander is through the Gate, in a world that's even more corrupt than this one, that he's ripped out of the fabric of other different realities. He used to rule this world... but when Drake's darkness was added to your own, he fed on that and his powers grew greatly. Now he sits in his Estate at the end of the dark path, through the Gate... and he guards the key to you regaining full control of these worlds, we believe. But only by defeating him will the worlds inside you knit together again..."

"I'm in a freaking comic book." Zerrex said dazedly, looking up at the red sky, and the four demons of temptation blinked, before Water muttered, Air rolled her eyes, Fire shrugged and Earth merely blushed and smiled shyly. He looked back at them for a few moments, then shook his head and laughed dryly. "Well, I'd best keep following the metal-brick road and go deal with... myself, then." He shook his head slowly as he turned, muttering under his breath. "Of course this all makes sense and everything."

Then he blinked as the four females leapt forwards at his back, each seizing a limb, then looking back and forth as he saw that Air and Water and each grasped an arm, and Fire and Earth a leg, leaning against him and smiling up at him, the other two - he had never realized they were the same height, almost perfectly, until now - with an arm around his shoulders and another grasping his wrist, before they whispered softly: "We'll keep you company."

The reptile blinked... then he twitched and let out a grunt of hot pain as a shock ripped through his body, staggering forwards and grabbing at his head as pain pulsed sharply in it for a moment... before he blinked and straightened, turning around to look at the four females, who were gazing at him lovingly with their hands clasped between their breasts, eyes glowing... and he quietly reached up to touch a choker that had appeared upon him: a thick black collar with an emerald, ruby, topaz and sapphire inset into it. Then the four laughed and vanished in a black mist, as a whisper went up from the air itself around the Drakkaren: "A key for the Gate, and some protection through the darkness ahead. Those who still serve their true purpose in this world, as your slaves and soldiers, will bow before you and make way for your power, and it will allow you to pass through the Gate that the Sheep God guards."

"Thank you." He murmured softly, reaching up to touch the choker collar with a bit of embarrassment... but here, of course, at least there would be no one to ogle him, no one to mock him for wearing such a bit of jewelry, and no one to laugh behind their hands at him. Then again... a pause, and another touch at the jeweled choker as he began to walk back to the beginning of the bridge over the river Styx, glancing up and muttering: "It's probably called the Boatman or Grim Bridge or something."

Then he shook his head before beginning to walk across the slippery wooden slats, which creaked and swayed under his weight: not rotten or weak, but sponge-like and thick with absorbed blood from the river. Somehow, though, knowing he was crossing a floating bridge on a river of blood... made it easier than not knowing if the frothing, churning waters beneath him were blood or just coppery water.

Zerrex's eyes roved over the thick mist that lay ahead, then he winced slightly as he found himself walking into it, the world suddenly becoming obscured in thick clouds of white. He could barely see the outline of the bridge as he walked along it... and worse, he thought he could see that of prancing figures in the distance, and hear them faintly yelling and jumping back and forth. A few moments later, however, they vanished... and then the reptile found himself walking through a mist so deep and thick that he couldn't even see his hands when he paused to look down at them.

Then Drakkaren winced, then he closed his eyes, took a slow breath, and kept himself moving straight, tapping the slats in front of him with the toe of his combat boot to make sure that he wasn't walking into a hole or off the edge of the bridge and into the flow: he could hear the river raging all the stronger here, the current apparently more vicious near the middle... or what he hoped was the middle of the bridge. After all, it had been... who knew how long that he'd been walking in this white mist? Time and space seemed to stop functioning in this white, consuming fog...

Something flickered in the distance, a lantern through the mist that caught Zerrex's eye. It slowly seemed to be making its way towards him... and the Drakkaren lowered his hand by his revolver, cocking back the hammer with his thumb so it was ready to fire the moment he drew the gun. Bit by bit, the light drew closer... and Zerrex realized he was looking up not at a lantern, but at a small, glowing blue ball.

It shimmered as it moved towards him, swaying slowly up and down and twisting and turning every now and then... before it dropped down in front of the Drakkaren's face, and the reptile winced, half-covering his eyes as the orb seemed to inspect him. Then it slowly floated away, dropping low enough that it revealed the engorged wooden slats over the bloody bridge before rising back into the air and moving down a relatively straight course.

The Drakkaren was tempted to follow it closely... but he quickly shook his head and instead looked down, focusing his will and his feet on not moving. It was so hard to not chase that shimmering orb of light, that one lantern in this wilderness of white nothing, but he knew that doing so would probably lead to death. It shimmered, it was pretty, and it was tempting... but it was also floating back and forth almost teasingly through the fog and there was a sense of both melancholy and malevolence about the strange bluish sphere.

Zerrex figured he knew what it was... a will o' wisp, a spirit lantern, a nasty trickster made of bits and pieces of pissed-off spirits or perhaps just born of nature's unnecessary cruelties in the deepest nights and fogs. It would lead him true for a while... then bend ever so slowly, and Zerrex would find himself following it right off the edge and into the red river of blood to drown. He smiled faintly as he shook his head slowly, then murmured quietly to himself: "I need to stop reading all the fairy tales and ghost stories that I do. Apparently all my arcane and occult knowledge is coming back to bite me in the ass."

He sighed a bit, rubbing a hand through his hair, but he kept his eyes and senses sharp as three more of the small orbs floated up from behind him, a pair to his left, and one to his right. All about the same color, some brighter, some darker, but all of them radiated the same sense of hopelessness, like they had once been lost themselves and lured to their deaths... but the Drakkaren kept his head down, one hand touching the choker idly to remind himself that not everything here would try and kill him, at least, and the other hand by his cocked revolver.

There was another way these creatures could have come about, though... but he hoped to hell it was impossible. A few moments later, however, as the fog began to clear, he snorted quietly and noted the figure standing ahead, now drawing his revolver again, but fearing it would be useless this time around. Maybe it wasn't just useless blathering...

Ghost stood ahead... and now he'd become his namesake, as he levitated with his toes just touching the ground, head down and arms drooping, a twisted smile on what remained of his features, eyes burning... the latter being composed of an eye still in the socket of his skull, the other floating where it would have been had his head not been blown off. His military uniform looked filthy and streaked with blood, and will o' wisps circled him with almost reverence... after all, the other thing Ghost had always been good at was calling the little freaks to him and using them to confuse people, controlling them with the ease Tinny had manipulated metal.

He laughed softly as Zerrex drew the revolver, floating a bit higher in the air and spreading his arms with a twisted smile, saying in a soft, eerie voice: "Go ahead, Captain Ravenlight. Pull the trigger, see what happens."

"Fine." Zerrex fired, and the round tore a hole through Ghost's stomach. The image of the ex-soldier flickered in and out of view, distorting with static, and then the spirit reappeared, his arms lowered, a grin back in place, his horrible eyes glaring at Zerrex; and now there was no hole left in his body. The Drakkaren snarled in frustration, then pulled the hammer back with his thumb and aimed again as Ghost laughed once more, and the grisly lanterns around him bounced and seemed to shake with their own merriment.

"You can't hurt me, Ravenlight... but I, on the other hand... can hurt you plenty." Then Ghost raised a hand as he levitated a bit higher, and Zerrex grunted as an invisible force seized him. He found himself lifted into the air, twisting back and forth with a snarl as the horrible, broken grin on the half-gone face of the snake grew wider, raising his arm above his head and causing Zerrex to float high into the air. "Spirits killed by violence... have such rage that it unlocks certain very powerful abilities from deep within...

"I warned you, did I not?" Ghost squeezed his hand into a fist, and Zerrex's back arched as something horrible constricted his body, his limbs bucking and almost losing his grip on the revolver as his head tilted back, hissing with pain and coughing blood into the air, feeling himself being slowly crushed... and then the force released from around him, and instead he felt as if he was being held by the back of the neck, body going limp and dangling in the psychic grip of the spirit as the desert snake tilted his head and continued to speak in almost a playful tone: "But I'm not going to kill you right away..."

Then Zerrex suddenly brought his gun up with a snarl and fired again, and Ghost's eyes widened in surprise as the revolver round passed through his image again, causing him once more to flicker and distort with a snarl. Whatever else, it broke his concentration, and Zerrex found himself falling back towards the bridge... and the reptile realized too late how high he'd been, and that his impact would-

He smashed through the wooden slats and into the river of blood below, vanishing from sight as Ghost reappeared with a snarl, the spirit's eyes glaring back and forth before he cursed as he saw the hole. He landed softly on his feet, then walked over, the will o' wisps floating around him, and he ignored the whispers of the creatures as he closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment, causing his body to solidify so he could kneel down and put both hands out on the side of the hole, muttering: "Where did he..."

Then the spirit's eyes bulged as a huge green hand shot out of the water and snagged him by the top of his broken skull: there was no pain now that he was dead, but the horror and surprise more than made up for that, before he screamed as he was dragged down and into the bloody water. A foot slammed into his back as he struggled, and then he was twisting and rolling down the river, jerked along by the heavy current, shrieking angrily into the bloody water as he was once more cheated of his prize.

Zerrex slowly climbed out of the river, his body soaked in blood, coughing and vomiting, the revolver soaked and useless now... and the reptile snorted as he crawled onto the bridge, looking to the side to see the will o 'wisps floating quickly along the surface of the water, overtop their master, and then suddenly stop. And the Drakkaren rolled his eyes, then winced as another of the spirit orbs that had stayed behind brushed against his cheek and gave him a small electrical shock. Annoying at best... and Zerrex reached up his hand and crushed it, the thing giving a small squeal as it zapped his hand before disintegrating into broken bits of dark fairy dust that pattered down onto the wooden slats. The reptile shook his head slowly, then he glanced up as he saw the collection of other orbs floating back, muttering under his breath. "Gee. You're not obvious at all."

He watched the group of orbs float over the bridge... then Ghost slowly rose up through the broken wood, a snarl on his features, body once more non-physical. Zerrex noted, however, that he'd done quite a bit of damage just touching the spirit while it was in physical form... and it brought back the old question to his mind; could he kill something that was already dead?

More of Ghost's skull had been broken away, and he could see a few nasty bruises on the dead body, as the ghost lanterns flickered and danced around him, as he levitated a foot or so above the bridge. Zerrex snorted as his eyes travelled over the obviously-frustrated desert snake before bracing himself as Ghost rose a hand and said furiously: "I'll just crush you, here and now!"

As Ghost tried to close his hand, Zerrex closed his eyes, imagined the blocks of force coming towards him, and slammed his own hands out, hitting the psychic force squarely with his own brutal physical power, and Ghost reeled backwards, falling to the ground and grabbing his head with a shriek of intense mental agony, body flickering into physical reality with horror at how easily Zerrex had smashed aside his telekinetic attack. Then a hard fist mashed into his face, crushing his muzzle and dissolving it into dark, flickering lights, and another slammed up into his guts, causing the spirit to gag and cough, before screaming and grabbing Zerrex's shoulders as the hard fist ripped through his stomach and out his back: there was no blood, no organs, but just black smoke... and the spirit looked at Zerrex, trembling violently before he whispered: "How?"

Zerrex looked back coldly into Ghost's eyes... and then he simply smiled a bit and shook his head slowly, saying softly in return: "No clue. Maybe for the same reason that Drake, and all the rest of you can't beat me. Maybe I have some other demon in me, darker or lower than all of you, or I've learned over the years to strike even down to the very soul with just my fists. But don't feel bad, Ghost... you tried, right?" And then Zerrex paused, idly batting away the will o' wisps that were flying around him, trying to protect their master, before he smiled into the horrified desert snake's eyes and said gently: "Don't ever come back, okay? Hell has a special place for you."

Then he flicked his arm hard to the side, and Ghost shrieked, flying through the air and off the bridge, passing completely through one of the tiers before hitting the bloody water with a splash, his body bursting into dark smoke. The spirit lanterns tried to follow him out, then suddenly halted, and instead trembled violently before dissolving themselves with humanoid shrieks of agony, shattering like balls of lit glass into bits and pieces of black energy.

Zerrex looked out at the bloody river with a quiet snort, shaking his head slowly and closing his eyes, then he blinked as he heard quiet footsteps on the bridge. He looked ahead... but there was no one there, despite the fact that the footsteps grew louder... louder... then passed. He turned back and forth, then shook his head slowly before glancing up as the mists began to clear, and he smiled grimly as he noticed the end of the bridge was now in sight. "Good. I was getting sick of this."

He hurried quickly off the damned wooden bridge over the torrential river of blood, and found himself once more stepping into the ruins of a city, glancing up at the now too-familiar red sky and the skeletal black, jagged structures. But he thought that down the road, he could see something else... something with different colors, and built well. So the reptile started quickly down the narrow, damaged path he'd been following the whole way, taking out his revolver... and blinking as he saw it was clean. Not only dry, but free of rust and damage... and now almost shining silver and black instead of red and tan. He paused to pop open the cylinder, then pulled out one of the rounds inside, looking over it slowly and then glancing at the bottom of the casing and murmuring: ".62 caliber, 150% gunpowder rounds, T-coated." A pause, then an amused snort. "Holy crap. No wonder this thing is so powerful... at least in my mind, anyway." Another pause as he walked along the road... then he glanced down as he realized it had become an actual road, of grey concrete and with a plain yellow median. He never thought he'd been so glad to see a bad paint job of a pair of yellow lines... and with another quick look around, he noticed that the buildings in this area had all been crushed down into brittle heaps, looking like piles of broken black bones... hell, even the sky above had turned from red to blue.

And then he looked ahead... and spotted two things that made his emerald eyes narrow coldly. The first was a church, with massive, locked iron gates barring entrance to the huge pair of red oaken doors that took up almost the entire front wall of the church. These were slightly recessed into a large stone archway, and the gates lay across the front of this, with heavy iron bars going back and forth in a checkerboard pattern, with random strings of what looked like grey vines running through it... but another look, and Zerrex could tell it was barbed wire that had been designed to look pretty, or someone's twisted idea of a joke. Likely mine, in some way.

The walls were made of grey stone, with two towers on either side and a long walkway between them, made from golden wood... and towering above wall, including the red-shingled rooftops, was a simple, hexagonal bell tower, with a single massive, golden bell dangling inside. Zerrex looked up at this for a moment... then down at the steps leading up the gates of the church, before asking softly to the second thing he'd noticed: "This the Gate, isn't it?"

"A Gate to God, perhaps." The priest standing at one side of the stairs replied with soft benevolence. He was clad in all black clothes... from shoes, to dress pants, to buttoned-up shirt and buttons, to the casually-open dress jacket... except for the white collar around his neck. He was holding what looked like a bible from Ire, with a single golden tassel hanging from the bottom, and gold-edged corners. He was also tall, but that was to be expected... after all, despite the warmness of his ruby eyes and the expression on his face, he looked exactly like Narrius.

Zerrex paused for a moment, then he glanced up and asked mildly: "You know, it's strange, that this bit of paradise should exist amidst all this Hell... would you open the gates for me, so I can sit inside the church?"

"I'm afraid that the church is closed for now, but we can sit on the steps and talk awhile if you like." replied the priest courteously, then he sat down on the steps and smiled again calmly. "You look like you have the weight of many sins on your shoulders. Let us relieve that weight if we can, how would that be?"

"Why do they call you the Sheep God?" Zerrex asked calmly, glancing up at the golden bell. The priest didn't look surprised... but thankfully spared him the insult of feigning surprise, instead looking at him for a few long moments. The Drakkaren, however, kept his eyes averted, not wanting to look at this monster that dared to take on the guise of his father to try and toy with his emotions, instead studying the bell and adding mildly: "Bet I could shoot that from here. It's a good distance up, but a big target. From the angle, I might even be able to get a shot in under the balcony and a round inside... probably ricochet all over the place inside."

"I'll ask you to refrain from that, if you will." The priest said with a bit of a disapproving frown, then he shook his head and calmed a bit, responding to the reptile's first question after a few moments of silence. "The disbelievers and the enemies of the High Commander call me the Sheep God because they think I am nothing more than a foolish, iconic herder of other fools. But I alone command the true path as told in the holy scriptures, and I alone hold the key to salvation and Heaven, and to the worlds beyond and above... as well as those below."

Now Zerrex smiled a bit, and turned eyes sparkling with entertainment towards the being. God or not... now it was time to test its 'infinite patience.' "No. That's not why." he said mildly, then paused for a moment, as if to say nothing more. It made the Dragokkaren's eye twitch, as if exasperated, but when he opened his mouth - perhaps to say he wasn't going to take the bait or maybe resign himself to the inevitable question of asking why, Zerrex steamrollered him with what seemed a different subject. "And disbelievers? You mean nonbelievers. A disbeliever is someone who may partake in your religion and customs, or simply wants evidence before they choose to believe anything. An agnostic, perhaps, who believes in divine order, just not you... not an atheist.

"What you meant was nonbeliever... a nonbeliever has no faith in you, or anything else. They don't believe anything, because they believe there's nothing to be believed. People who are willfully ignorant, of religious teachings, you, and everything else... a nonbeliever would call you the Sheep God. A disbeliever would just call you an unproven reality that may or may not exist... or use your title in a different context.

"The nonbelievers and enemies of this... High Commander, they call you the Sheep God... because they don't believe you are iconic, or foolish. That's both giving you too much credit." And now Zerrex smiled patronizingly at the creature on the steps, which was snarling angrily... which made it resemble his father a whole lot more, he thought. "They call you the Sheep God because they think that's all you are. A god, mayhaps... but an idiot god. You aren't important enough to get a capital g, really, but they just throw it into the name to not hurt your feelings. And from what I see, I agree.

"What's this whole getup? A 'respect thy father,' thing, something to try and convince me that Narrius isn't as bad as he is, or that I still love him? I hear the talks from other people too... but I keep my mouth shut because they don't understand that I know he is bad, and that there is no lost love between us, and they never will." A pause, and another cold smile as Zerrex rose his revolver, aiming it at the god's masked face. "You're just a weak-kneed son of a bitch, though. Abandoned by your daddy, were you, god or not?"

"Be silent, you are in the presence of-" The Sheep God began, voice thunderous and the entire world twisting, but Zerrex just laughed as the skies above turned from blue to red, and the road beneath them blackened. After all, he could do that too, if he wanted.

"Shut up." He said curtly, and the thing looked shocked as Zerrex made a rolling gesture with the huge gun, snorting. "You're nothing more than a sheep yourself. You're the founder of a trademarked, corporate religion used more often than Santa Claus - who, by the way, is not just Saint Nick and a product of your stupid, crummy beliefs - to sell kids toys and books and fuel the self-important psychiatrist's ability to tell every patient they meet, 'don't worry, it's not your fault, you can't control yourself because god made you that way, now write me a check for two hundred and fifty and come back next week to discuss all the mistakes you made after you left this office.' You're not the team mascot, but the backup loser who the coach wouldn't put into play unless he had to, because all he does is fumble the ball and pass to the other team.

"You, are the washed-up, fucked-up bastard child of the first attempt at a botched happily-ever-after-if-you-behave-yourself story and a carnival clown with a type-A personality and moral OCD out the ass. And yet here you are, being immoral yourself... showing such pride, servility, idiocy, and arrogance, and hiding your face behind the mask of my father because you're nothing more than a butt-ugly, cowardly maggot. And by the way, Sheep God, I don't like playing make-believe."

With that, Zerrex suddenly pointed the revolver to the side instead of towards the Dragokkaren, and he fired a single round into the bell high above them: the round slipped just under the cusp and slammed home inside the bell, ricocheting around and causing it to reverberate and clang loudly several times, and the entire church blackened and twisted, warping and corrupting: a tower collapsed, the barbed-wire ivy mutated and grew, curling back and forth and spilling down the steps, and the symbols on the doors glowed before they cracked open slightly and revealed a horrible, sucking blackness as the road cracked, narrow streams of steam spitting up from the Earth as giant black towers laced with dark vines rebuilt themselves all around the narrow square the church stood inside, looming high into the air and covered in glowing red symbols.

The Drakkaren glanced around mildly as the Sheep God stood up with a snarl, throwing his bible away and glaring at the reptile, trembling in fury as dark energy rose off him like smoke. Then he snorted and grinned, red eyes turning black as he whispered: "Oh, you want to see my true form, is that it, Conscious Walker? You want to do this the hard way, is that it? Then I shall reward you with a slow and agonizing death, and the High Commander will rule over all!"

Then the creature stepped backwards, wincing and clutching at its chest, before letting out a shriek as its head twisted violently to the side, and a long, multiple-jointed leg tore from its shoulder, covered in sharp barbs and shaped like the leg of a grasshopper. Then it bent forwards, clutching at itself and clenching its eyes shut as its lower jaw dislocated and mouth opened wide, throat bulging as another head slid out, the creature undergoing a horrible mutation as Zerrex snarled and stepped back, gun raised gamely.

Then it was laughing... dark, echoing laughter that seemed to make the world reverberate as the changes finished, and Zerrex was left looking at a horrible, disjointed monster. It had a long, six-legged lower body with two tails, one of them multi-joined like a scorpions and ending in a pair of vicious whips, the other a longer, flexible reptilian tail that had what looked like a massive axe blade stemming from it. The creature's back was covered in long spikes with the sacrificed body of a male and female Drakkaren slammed through on spikes, their eyes sightless but mouths moving impossibly fast in recitation of a thousand passages and prayers, scales an impossible, ugly white and both bodies stretched out in cross-crucified formation, laying one beside the other with the vicious, single-barbed spikes sticking through bloody tears in their bodies like pincushions: this section of the beast's body was shaped almost like a teacup, with a deep pool of blood from the two bodies swaying back and forth, small, clawed hands and damned faces constantly screaming silently in the never-splashing pool, the spikes rising up from the bloody water and the edges of the bloody pond.

Every one of its legs was different: one hooved but with a double-jointed, brown leg with a long black mane down the underside, one ending in a huge canine paw, another an elephant's leg with ivory nails, another hairless and pink with huge hooks, and the last a horrible, mottled, boneless purple tentacle that ended in what looked like almost a black hand with sharp, hooked talons. The last two legs were near the front of the creature, where it narrowed after the strange, wide teacup formation and twisted upwards into a thinning curve, leaving a thin, monstrous waist that looked like the thorax of a praying mantis.

Then the despicable monster's body widened impossibly, covered in a mix of bristly black hair, torn green scales, and greasy brown fur, the upper body massive and muscular, then bridging out to a huge, scaled arm covered in black tattooed crosses and ending in a strong, flexed hand with two jutting bones like hooks curving out from the wrist, serrated and forming a natural pair of vicious wristblades, and the other arm was naked, pink, black and fleshy, almost looking as if it hand been burned, and ending not in a hand, but a massive, vise-like lobster claw. Worst of all, though, was that in the middle of the thing's chest was a recessed, massive pair of jaws that looked almost like a tumor with a pair of X-shaped slashed through it, but then it opened its jaws and roared, revealing it had been nothing more than a set of four mandibles, and inside was a black tunnel lined with what looked like millions of teeth, like a gigantic leech's fearsome maw.

The skull was broken and twisted, a dead-white-scaled, eyeless Dragokkaren's head with jaws broken open wide to reveal a long, white-fleshed neck like the body of a worm that pulsated and moved back and forth like a turtle, with the face of a black stallion: one eye, however, bulged from the socket and was bug-like and twisted, and the other was red and glaring, with no iris. It was perched between a pair of long grasshopper legs with barbs and multiple joints that seemed to serve almost like feelers, and had a maw filled with sharp teeth, then it opened this to reveal a long, twisting tongue covered in strange warts. It licked at the air slowly, then grinned horribly before it hissed and spoke from the jaws on its chest in a terrible, rasping voice: "Do you tremble in terror? Do you see now that I am far greater, far superior to-"

Zerrex didn't let it finish, instead raising the revolver and blasting off five shots with the revolver in rapid succession, other hand fanning the hammer and causing the thing to squeal like an injured pig, staggering backwards on its six horrible legs as the second head retracted and blood and teeth exploded from the thing's central mouth, the four mandibles closing tight to form that strange, tumorous white mound that took up most of its chest. Then it snarled and charged, and Zerrex grinned before running forwards himself and slipping into a slide as it slashed both arms downwards, smashing a crater in the road instead as the reptile slid below the monster.

It stomped, whinnying and howling all at the same time, six legs clawing and flailing underneath it as it turned around, but Zerrex's slide has carried him behind the creature, and he snarled as the tails whipped, trying to catch him. Then he grabbed either tail at the base, and as the Sheep God looked over its shoulder in surprise, the reptile twisted and tore backwards and downwards at the same time, causing it to howl in agony as both tails spasmed before falling useless.

Zerrex grinned... then he let out a grunt of agony as the thing donkey-kicked him with its two back legs, sending him flying more than twenty feet through the air before he crashed and skidded on his back a short distance, before the reptile managed to roll backwards and get to a crouch, holstering his magnum revolver in the same liquid move and landing in a runner's stance. He snorted, his emerald eyes glaring coldly ahead as the thing ran forwards and then cantered around in a wide circle, almost overbalancing its crooked body as it turned to sharply, and he quickly took another look over its freakish body, letting himself get his breath back and rest a moment even as it charged at him.

Then he stood as the god continued to move towards him, not showing any fear, waiting, waiting as the monster opened its central jaw hungrily, screaming hungrily in a thousand voices, scaled arm locked down at its side with the wristblades of bone out to spear him, lobster claw raised to crush him, tilting its heavy body back so it could bring up the front two legs to rip him apart, both already twisted up to seize him... and then Zerrex snarled and booted a piece of pavement at his feet hard forwards and into one of the four working legs.

Its eyes bulged and it let out a loud whinnying scream as its massive, unbalanced body tottered forwards, arms and legs flailing as it twisted to the side and Zerrex leapt smoothly to the other, but the damage was already done: before it could catch itself, its huge upper body had already leaned too far over to be recovered, even as all six legs clawed at the ground... and then it collapsed and slid heavily on its side, smacking its outer Dragokkaren head hard against the concrete road and blood spilling out of the pool filling its back.

As Zerrex watched with both shock and something like twisted joy, ghosts began to climb out of the puddle, fading in and out of reality as they fled in all directions, flew into the air, sank into the ground, the damned spirits escaping from the Sheep God's prison, and the two praying Drakkaren stuck on the spikes writhed and screamed promises of retribution, their empty sockets giving only blank threats. Then the thing began to totter back up to its feet, and Zerrex dived through the parade of still fleeing ghosts, leaping over the puddle of glassy blood and going into a roll, landing on his back as the monster looked over its shoulder and automatically gave the only defense it could to its backside, a hard donkey kick at waist level, glaring over its shoulder... but the reptile had landed beneath the level of its kick, and a moment later, the Sheep God screamed in agony as Zerrex seized its ankles, holding its legs straight out, then slamming both his knees hard upwards.

Before it could move, the reptile used his own knees, positioned just above the god's, as an axis, and jerked hard down, and the legs snapped like toothpicks as they were forced to bend in opposite directions, falling limp and useless. The reptile felt a faint burst of triumph... then he blinked as something clawed and vicious seized his ankle in a viselike grip, looking down to see the tentacle arm had managed to stretch far enough backwards to grab him with the claw hand on the bottom... before he grunted as he was torn along the ground and lobbed easily into the air, the Drakkaren's form spinning and leaving him defenseless in vertigo.

Then he was smashed away by the massive lobster claw, grunting in agony as it connected with his face and upper chest, head twitching to the side and his eyes filling with agony, body flying backwards... and then something slippery and horrible seized his already-damaged ankle and he felt it crack like a whip, slamming him down onto his back. He looked up with a snarl, agony burning through his body and spine as he realized the thing had wrapped its tongue around him, before it jerked him back towards it, and the maw opened wide, grasshopper-leg feelers reaching out for him and arms ready to seize him in a death hug as the Sheep God grinned terribly...

Zerrex forced his body to remain straight, refusing to flip... then kicked out his leg to the side of the maw, feeling its barbed feelers ripping at his legs and waist uselessly as the arms tried to close and the mandibles reached out for him, straining... but Zerrex put out his own hands, his muscles flexing as sweat rolled down his body, snarl curling down his maw and into a hellish grin as the head stared at him in disbelief, hands holding the monster's wrists firmly and stopping it from capturing him in its death hug. It was still stunned by sheer surprise, if nothing else... and Zerrex took the moment of slack to smash it across the face with his foot, causing it to squeal in agony before he slammed his heel back the other way, then he drew the free leg up as blood flew from its mouth, tongue twitching from where it was around his ankle, and he simply stomped hard forwards.

The thing's head was obliterated, the neck crunching, the monster screaming in pain as it shook back and forth, arms flailing up and down but unable to get loose of Zerrex's death-grip on its limbs, to either squeeze him or throw him away... and then the tongue from the somehow-still working mouth slung him hard upwards with another long whipping movement before releasing him to the sky.

The Drakkaren flew into the sky, his body rotating a few times before he managed to stop himself, snarling and looking for some other weak spot as it grabbed at its crushed face, even the Dragokkaren skull behind the real head broken and twisted from the force of his kicks... and then he drew his revolver as his eyes settled on the bleeding, praying Drakkaren lodged on its back, hanging upside down in midair as he began to fall and taking aim before he began to fall, more than fifty feet up from the thing's vicious throw as he began to fire, fanning the hammer as he emptied six shots into the impaled creatures on its back.

The Sheep God screamed, back arching and its body twitching, arms and legs flailing as both of the long dead bodies spasmed and finally gave their own screams of pain, two holes in the female's chest and three in the male, including a graze that had torn away most of its shoulder... and then the thing slumped forwards, crashing to the ground on its face with a thud that shook the world and sent up a plum of dust. A moment later, Zerrex landed in front of it in a flexed crouch, roughly a dozen feet away from the fallen, monstrous Sheep God, one arm out and the other over his bent leg, gripping his revolver tight, cold emerald eyes locked on the monster's corpse.

It twitched a few times as blood began to roll out from its body, and then it began to shrivel and steam darkness into the sky, the reptile snorting in disgust and straightening as he holstered the huge gun and said quietly: "The strength of a god, is in the faith of its people." A pause as he looked towards the church, the iron gates crumbling and the vines of barbed wire shivering before they rusted and rotted away into nothingness, and then the bell tower of the roof trembled before collapsing with the rest of the structure with a few loud, final tolls that rang through the entire cursed city.

Spirits, cloaked figures, slaves, demons, monsters, and creatures of the darkest night alike slowly gathered as the rest of the Sheep God went up in black smoke, many of them staring. The raped and rapist stood side-by-side, and all the devils and monsters of Zerrex's own personal hells exchanged whispers and murmurs with the victims who stood nearby. Some of them had fallen to their knees, and others were wiping tears of joy away, as Zerrex slowly approached what was no longer a church, but a pile of rubble with a set of massive wooden doors standing alone in front of it, cracked open slightly and the murmur of madness coming from within. Zerrex paused to look around at the crowd that was gathering into the square, and then he smiled a bit as he saw their looks, their admiration, their thankfulness and their relief, even if was only for a few moments before they returned to the normal hells of this nightmare world. But even a monster has feelings... even a demon may love... Zerrex thought quietly, looking slowly over them all, before he simply nodded and turned, reaching up to undo the choker he was wearing and throwing it at the doorway.

It bounced off the cracked-open door with a clink... and then it was sent flying away as both doors exploded open with a rush of dark wind that made Zerrex grit his teeth, his white hair blowing back as hellish laughter rose up for a few moments. Then there was only the sound of the hellish maelstrom that was blowing out of the portal, and the reptile slowly walked into the darkness that lay between the Gate without looking back, and a moment later, it swallowed him up, before the massive wooden doors slammed closed and crumbled away to dust.