FSE

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"AAAAAAARGH!"

The crack of a paddle against hard scale echoed throughout the room.

"A-AAAAAAAARRGH!"

A second crack even harder became wet. Desperate panting, ragged breaths and the whimpering of wolves that came down the hall created an oppressive scene reminiscent of the Italian Renaissance. In a circular room lit only by torches, the gasping lizardmen were tied and naked to the world, their clothes cast aside in a box as Karam was being flayed by a steel paddle heated up to a deep crimson.

"AH-AHHH AAAAAAAAARRRRRGH!"

"STOP IIIIIT!" Ravinder's scream pierced through the air. "STOP IT, PLEASE!"

"Silence." The wing of Malphas struck her face with a deafening crack. "I will not warn you again, lizard."

"DON'T YOU TOUCH HER!" roared Zhao from her chains. "YOU TOUCH HER AGAIN, I WILL GUT YOU YOU FUCKING SHITSMEAR!"

"ENOUGH!" He rushed with a dark smoulder to her with a tightening clawed hand strangling her neck. "You have no place to speak, degenerate."

"H-hrrrRRRKH!"

"All of you, are traitors to this castle and you shall be punished as such."

He gave one last squeeze to suffocate her with a hoarse screech before releasing her, coughing hard with a shudder as she felt her neck become a deeper shade of purple. The lights of the torches made their shadows dance like tortured puppets, between racks of various instruments that they now sat within. Karam was suspended to be flayed with the paddle; Chanoch was forced on his knees with a golden pear-shape in his mouth; Zhao was lying upon a table covered in spikes where a weight pressed against her chest; Ravinder was on a rack with rollers attached to her hands and feet; and lastly Gregory was bound by ropes inches above a metal pyramid-shaped stool. The raven walked between them, his hand gliding across every one of their faces with a stiff contempt as a minotaur stood guard as the jailer.

"Do you know why I despise lizardmen? Because you never LISTEN."

He dragged a thin scar across Gregory's face.

"Every single scaled beast I have known beneath my command has this constant vein of arrogance run through them. That detestable spark in their soul that forces them to protest, to refuse to obey the whims of their masters. I have tried, for hundreds of years, to make those such as you learn. But there is always another. Always...there is one like you."

He hooked his claw into Karam's nostril with a vicious eye-watering pull.

"When I ask one of you to obtain me a relic, you disobey. When I ask one of you to take a child from a village, you disobey. When I ORDERED you to burn down a church and stifle the God-sent propaganda unto the hapless sheep, you disobeyed me. At least...one of you did before you would finally listen."

He knelt before Chanoch and gently twisted the pear-shape's key. The object opened inside his cheeks, stretching the skin of his mouth with a slow but agonising creak as the metallic flowering fruit dragged its sharpened tips across the back of his teeth.

"I have given you every chance to reconsider your positions...but instead you spit in our faces and turn your back upon your masters."

"N-nnnnrrrrgh!"

"I will not shed any tears for you, when I have flagellated your bodies to half-death before I watch you burn beneath the council in our courts. You may call me cruel, you may disparage me all you wish but the fact remains that you have all committed treason, and by breaching your contracts."

"NNRRRR_RRRRRRGH!_"

He felt his flesh tightening inside his mouth, widening the lips until his head shook with a seething anguish with the quiet sounds of pain rippling through his cheeks. His eyes watered as there came sleek tricklets of blood through his teeth.

"But I am not unkind." The crow stopped turning the key as he stood back up. "Here is what I shall do. I will offer you pardon, if you admit the sins of your brothers and sisters and tell me everything of your plan to insurrect. I shall corroborate your accounts, I will find whoever is the leader of this group..."

He looked back towards Jarogniew with a burning glint.

"And if you so offer me their head, I shall reward you by reducing your sentences and therefore appeal for a suitable service of slavery, rather than turn your souls to become wretched dragons of bone in the deepest catacombs. Unless, you would rather wish to meet your friend monsieur Seraine once again."

"F-fuck you," muttered Zhao, "fuck your head up a fucking ass' cunt you FUCKING BIRDSHIT!"

"Hmph. You are definitely not the leader." He swished his cloak upon her head and pushed it down against the spikes as she screamed silently. "A thief who runs her mouth as clumsily as her feet."

The marshal moved back as he looked towards Gregory who had not said a single thing. He gave a look curiously to him but the fear was evident from his scent as he shook and sobbed above the wicked stool that pointed so close to his exposed anus. The lord of ravens slowly turned a crank to watch him lower upon the chair of metal, seeing the point pierce his rear and slowly push it open with a hot burning sensation. Pepper dust and chili had been scattered over the metal to grind and smear across the sensitive sphincter as Armistead screamed with frantic tugs of all his limbs in desperate need. But it was only the tip that Malphas put and nothing else as he let him sit upon it firm, contemplating a painful agony as the hunter turned to the room of punished beasts to try another crank near Lihua.

"Who is your leader? Tell me, or I shall prolong your bodies' anguish by means beyond these wretched instruments."

Zhao was slowly feeling the weight push onto her, piercing the small spikes into her back as one single wall of pain that pricked and scraped, digging in rivulets of blood that started to run thickly through the table's slats.

"A-AAAAAIIIIGH! AAAAAARRRRRGH!"

"All you must do is confess. It is the simplest thing for you former humans, all of you have done this at some point yes? A child's plea to their Father to beg for mercy for His cruelty."

"STOP IT, F-FUUUUCK, FUHUHUUUUUCK!"

"No? Hm."

He stepped over to the other female, gliding his feathers across the rack's turning wheel and carefully forced the handle watching Ravinder wince with a tightening of all her limbs. The rollers pulled her arms and legs slowly apart from her torso, stretching them further and further as she clenched her teeth with grinding creaks as her eyes squinted to resist. She struggled to breathe as she felt one of her arms pulling just a bit too much through the most agonising two minutes of her life. There was a crack, then a pop as she felt her left arm dislocate as she opened her mouth and gave the most heart-rending scream as her fingers spasmed uselessly.

"_NOOOOOOOAAAAAA AAAAAAGH! _"

"LEAVE HER ALONE!" screamed Karam. "YOU BASTARD, YOU WORTHLESS CORPSE WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS?!"

"Have you forgotten your crimes, lizard?"

"THEN LET US ANSWER FOR IT, SEND US TO COURT, STOP TORTURING US LIKE A PATHETIC COWARD!"

"Hmph." He stepped back from the rack and the sobbing Jandhu. "If you confess to me then I will cease."

"NO YOU DO NOT! You have laws in this damn castle surely, I know you do!"

"For your souls yes. Your bodies are strictly speaking another matter entirely." There was a sound he heard as a light behind his eyes gleamed. "I am needed elsewhere. Forgive me but there are matters of my station I must attend, your guard shall deal with you until my return and then we can start again."

He gave a nod to the minotaur as he faded from the dungeon, fluttering a thousand feathers that spirited away into the darkness. The bull-headed beast stepped forth towards the painting of Bosch they now called their prison, pulling out a knife from his belt.

" Alright. Let's begin." The guard cracked his knuckles with a snort from his bovine snout. " One of you is the leader, and one of you is going to tell me that you planned this little revolt. Whoever speaks up first will be rewarded best and given the lowest sentence. If the leader him, or herself, speaks up and admits, the rest of you will be pardoned. If none of you speak, then you all will be punished to the fullest."

They said nothing, pursing their lips to become thin and pale as the minotaur looked over each of them. Ravinder sobbed quietly from her broken arm left stretched to its tautness much to the grief of her friends and husband all around them.

" No? Perhaps I should break THIS one's other limb since you all seem fond of her."

"A-AAAAH!" She felt him grab her head to pull it up towards his thick snout.

" Maybe YOU are the leader of this little group. Your friends feel for you...but they will suffer far worse unless you are so pious as to sacrifice yourself for the greater good IF they love you so."

He gripped her other arm and squeezed it gently. Ravinder gasped and made a panting breath, whimpering louder as his fingers pressed into the tightened muscle like a foot stepping onto thin ice.

" You only have to say two words. I. Confess. And then at least some of you shall be free, now isn't that what a leader does? Just say it. That way you won't have to suffer the rest of your limbs."

"I CONFESS!"

Their eyes all turned towards Gregory.

"I-i...I CONFESS!"

" Huh? Really now?" The minotaur trotted towards him with a finger along his blade. " Go on."

"W-w-we...we...Zhao, sh-she's the leader of this!"

"WHAT?!" shrieked Lihua. "Th-tha-what, the FUCK?!"

"She planned everything, sh-she's a thief, obviously she planned everything, she stole the relics, SHE was the one who, who, poisoned our minds with the taste of freedom!"

"YOU FUCKING LIAR, YOU'RE TALKING SHIT-"

" SILENCE BITCH!" He struck her with the flat of the blade leaving a scar on her cheek. " I shall deal with you in a moment, now, you in the chair, tell me more."

"We..." Gregory gulped trying to pull himself up above the stool with his legs strung tight, "we were just...Zhao, promised us, someone on the outside was going to help us leave, someone on the silk road."

" And why did all four of you decide to follow her?"

"Because...b-b-because...she, she promised she would lead us to a kingdom of thieves, a place in the...the...s-somewhere in China, a place of refuge where beasts such as us can live beyond humans and demons."

" I see. And you all thought that..." the bull turned towards the rest of them, " after all we had done for you, took you in when God had left you to rot, and you decide to betray us for the vain promise of a THIEF?"

He spat a thick wad on Lihua's face before putting his knife away to untie Gregory.

" At least ONE of you knew the right thing to do." The taur hoisted him off from the pain chair and set him on his feet. " Your penitence shall be rewarded."

"Th-thank you, kind sir, please f-forgive me I was, they, they forced me!"

"Gregory you FUCKING SNAKE!" shrieked Zhao beneath the press. "I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU FOR THIS!"

"Wh-why are you...s-saying this?" muttered Karam. "You know that was not-"

"I AM TIRED OF YOU INGRATES!" the Christian barked. "ALL OF YOU! Dragged me through HELL and back and I refuse to parlay with your arrogance! Jailer, please, I will testify against them to the fullest extent I can give!"

" Good." The minotaur patted his head and turned to the exit. " I shall inform Malphas then and we shall put all this behin-GH-GHRRRAAAARGH!"

He suddenly felt a deep pain stabbing him through the back of his kidney. He tried to turn and see Gregory just pull out of his sight to stay behind him as another dark thrust came near the base of his spine. The beast snarled and swung his hands behind him frantically to try and hit the lizard, but Gregory ducked and cowered with shaking vigorous stabs of adrenaline as blood dripped in porous spurts around their feet. The lizardman suddenly slipped on the blood as he grabbed for the minotaur's keys and raced towards Chanoch to open his locks first.

"Qu-quick, quickly please, just get-"

"GREGORY LOOK OUT!" screamed Karam.

"A-AAAAAAGH!"

" FILTHY CUNT!" The minotaur yanked his tail back to drive his fist into Gregory's face. " YOU THINK YOU CAN FOOL ME LIKE GOD DID TO YOU?!"

"NO, N-NOOOO PLEASE-A-AAAARGH!"

He flinched from the hard-furred knuckles crunching into his snout, grabbed and pulled by the bleeding guard towards the wall as he slammed into Gregory's face and stomach.

" For this...you shall suffer WORSE, than you would have had, if you just kept quiet."

"GAARGH! A-AAAGH!"

" You thought you could be clever, hmm?! You, were a fool, the moment you defied our great master-HRKHH-GHHKH-AAAKHH!"

A large pair of hands gripped the minotaur's neck, strangling him violently with a hard pull to the floor as he felt someone's weight on top of his back, legs squatting as his head was snapped back with fingers plunging into the meat of his larynx. Slowly the skin started to separate, tearing like curtains as the voice behind his head snarled with a deep guttural roar to crack his throat in half like a cheap plate. The bull slumped with a strangled gasp in a pool of crimson around his hooves as Chanoch stood up above him and pulled Gregory up from the wall.

"Th-tha...thank you," whimpered the beaten lizard, "see? I do respect you."

"Hm." He patted his shoulder a little too hard. "You respect my strength. Not me."

"O-ow...alright, I admit but that is good enough yes?"

"Are you...s-SERIOUS?!" cried Lihua trying to crane her neck. "That was your plan?!"

"It worked did it not, I do not see you escaping miss Thief of the Orient!"

"JUST GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

"Not until you apologise for ever thinking I would betray you!"

"Alright alright I'm sorry, I'm sorry fuck, just get this bastard thing off me!"

Chanoch went over to turn the gears and lift the press up from her body whilst Gregory took the keys to release the Jandhus. Karam lifted Ravinder carefully up from the rack as she whimpered from her arm dangling uselessly against her side.

"A-AAAH!"

"Shhh do not move, do not move it just sit up here."

"H-hoh, aaaah god!"

"Someone find me a fabric or cloth!"

"Did they not put our clothes somewhere?" asked Gregory looking around.

"They burned them," said Chanoch pulling Zhao up to reveal her back covered in red puncture marks, "we will have to find armour."

"Wait wait what about our weapons?!" she cried. "I made that rope dart myself I'm not gonna lose it to those shits!"

"They will be in the armoury. I will get them."

"Be careful," said Ravinder clutching herself in pain, "you are our captain still. We need you."

"No," he said taking the minotaur's knife before ascending the stairs, "you are more important than me. Wait here."

Stepping into the main corridor of the dungeons he looked carefully both ways as the flames draped the walls with his shadow twice. Various rooms and prison cells lined up before him where the most wretched beasts sat in misery and loathing as he passed through briskly, careful to avoid their looks by hugging the walls between cells until they turned away. He remembered where the armoury was when they took his sword, making a beeline towards the left-reaching path as the sounds of sobbing prisoners rung through the place. Guards with purple steel and great blades of fire would walk lengths as the naked lizard slipped into doorways and kept himself still in their passing. It took him a whole twenty minutes to reach one of several armouries where he found his blade, sitting on the wall alongside the rest of his friend's armaments. A spell however had been cast upon it, scarring the Hebrew glyphs as he clenched his fists with silent anger. There also were suits of armour lined up as he carefully took one that would most fit him, sliding the chainmail on first with as sleek stillness as he could to prevent their shivering sounds alerting any presence. With body protected except for his tail and feet he took his sword with its scabbard along with his friends' arms in a box for easier carrying, along with a few leather straps and some cloth before sneaking back with more effort to quieten his steps amidst creaking scraping metal joints.

"He's back!"

He clunked down the stairs and quickly gave everyone their tools and the straps and cloth to Ravinder.

"I have these, will they help?"

"Yes thank you."

She let her husband take them to gently move her arm into a sling position, forming a makeshift sling before they were ready to move.

"You couldn't get US any armour?" asked Zhao wrapping the rope dart round her wrist.

"I could not carry everything," said Chanoch blunt.

"We can make it to the armoury ourselves then."

"In a group we will be caught, we should fight instead. I will protect you."

"Dammit..." she turned towards the rest of the group feeling more naked than before. You think the librarian ratted us out?"

"No," said Karam finishing up the sling, "a merchant's word is honour in itself, he understands the need to uphold a contract be it verbal or oral."

"What DID you trade with him exactly that he would give us those hands?"

"I cannot say, again a merchant's word is honour."

"We were unlucky," said Ravinder standing up cautiously, "we managed to get far with that spirit's help and her demon as the pawn, but Malphas...if only we went to a different portal."

"We are leaving regardless," said Mr. Jandhu fitting his kaduthala sword with belt round his waist, "after Crizbav I cannot think any of us want to be here."

"I am glad to see you all regret your actions," Gregory added with a cold squint, "regardless of what orders you had, you are still monsters worse than me."

"We are a unit," said Chanoch handing him the knife, "we fight together. Take this."

"Wha-pardon?"

"Until we leave this castle, I am still your captain. We leave, now."

"How the shit we gonna get out?!" sputtered Zhao with arms wide.

"The chapel. It is at the edge of the castle, I have friends who will help. Gregory, which way is southwest?"

"Um...that way," the portly lizard poked a finger towards one wall.

"Stay close to me," said Chanoch unsheathing his sword, "you will guide us that way, tell us where to go, we reach the chapel soon."

"A-alright."

"Zhao, move up with me, Karam, protect Ravinder. We leave this dungeon they will fight us. We fight back."

"Seriously?!" muttered Lihua. "We're just gonna say 'fuck it' and kill anyone in our way?"

"Cannot kill them unless we break their souls. This is fine."

"Fine, whatever, gonna die we might as well go out fighting, see THIS is why you're my favourite captain!" She slapped his back with a hardy clank. "Not giving a fuck, that's always been your style."

"Ready?" he asked his group. "March."

They stepped out from their dungeon as Chanoch went in front, his sword gleaming with gold and amber hues from the flames with his party up behind him. Karam protected the rear with his wife flanked by Gregory and Zhao. Prisoners paid them little heed, too wrapped up in their own sorrows amidst numerous wounds that had rendered them either deaf or blind. They turned a corner to find one of the guards patrolling as Zhao rushed towards him, whipping out her rope dart to latch onto his arm and pull him hard for Chanoch to thrust his blade forwards for a swift impalement, cracking the armour like an egg shell as porous ectoplasm sputtered from the faceless knight. His screams would alert others as they hurried out of the dungeon with Armistead leading as he pinpointed to the most southwesterly passage, a flight of stairs that stretched to the length of three men.

The bells of the dungeon rang in cries of protest, monsters shrieking amidst cries of confusion and fury as the depths of the castle awakened fully. One werewolf came sneaking up behind as Karam swiftly rushed to crack his curving sword upon its ruthless claws, slashing with a barking rage as he parried both fists before a turning spin to drive his sword straight into its gut, kicking it hard down the stairs to free his blade. At the front were several zombies roaring with swords up high that Chanoch blocked two at once and with a mighty sweep tore both weapons out of their rotting arms. Zhao plunged her dart into one of their decomposing eyes and pulled them down the stairs with a screaming crunch of bone as Gregory frantically jabbed at an unsuspecting soldier with a horrid neck-slash that spewed black bile onto his chest, much to his disgust as he frantically rubbed it off.

"TH-THIS WAY, HURRY!" he cried towards an exit.

"KARAM WATCH OUT!"

The monstrous roar of a minotaur signalled a greater foe behind as Jandhu pulled his wife quickly up the stairs to avoid a crushing mace, a giant orb on a stick that cracked against the central pillar of the stairs that Chanoch soon rushed towards to intercept. His friends hurried on but stayed at the top of the stairs with Zhao and Karam defending against another group, whilst their captain went against the bull-headed beast that swung his mace upon him. Chanoch swerved to avoid the mace as it whooshed past his arm, crunching into the stone steps as he cut low at the cloven hoof, the beast kicking out towards him like a mule as he blocked with the flat of his blade. The minotaur made a huge swing as the lizardman dodged underneath, pulling his sword back for a horrendous chop as if cutting down a tree that shanked the entire length of his sword sideways into the bovine's gut. Howling with agony the creature tried to punch Chanoch's head but he headbutted against his knuckles to resist the impact, sawing viciously through the mesentery and sending a river of blood out of the minotaur's abdomen. With a sobbing mewl he clutched himself and slumped, draping his body upon the stairs as he rejoined his friends currently battling a small army of skeletons that they kicked and cracked their way through.

"G-GET, OFF YOU FUCKFACE!"

"YOU SHALL NOT TASTE OUR BLOOD TODAY!"

Lihua made spinkicks across their heads to send their skulls flying, sending out her rope to latch round their tibias and snap them straight off their pelvises. Ravinder did her best with one arm wielding a katar but all she could do was punch back the enemies that threatened to swarm them in a sea of bone until Chanoch barged through with his colossal strength, crushing femurs underfoot and cracking spines open with his tremendous claymore. Within two maybe three swipes, he carved a path through the skeletal horde as splinters of white scattered like caltrops across the floor as he barked:

"GREGORY, WHERE NOW?!"

"U-UHH, TH-THIS WAY COME ON!"

"ZHAO, WITH ME!"

"LET'S GO!"

They hurried on into the halls where stone became marble as curtains fluttered in the midst of a stormy night. Lightning flashed across the windows that silhouetted their bodies as another horde approached, the red carpets torn under the feet of four demons whilst three swords hovered in the air before them, gripped by poltergeists as their nefarious energies made the curtains slip and shudder from their railings. The lone-armoured lizard stepped forth as his naked group marched behind him, Zhao twirling her rope dart in preparation as Gregory pointed towards one of several doorways.

" Surrender now," said one of the looming demons scraping his claws against the glass with a screeching hiss, " and you shall be spared a greater horror than beyond ourselves."

"Fuck you!" cried Lihua pumping her fist in mid-twirl. "Get out of our way and you won't get fucked in the gut!"

" I think NOT!"

The first demon hurled a fireball from his fingers straight towards them, her captain rushing forwards to deflect the shot with his blade horizontal as the flame burst across the steel. Zhao dove between his legs in a sliding fwip of her rope dart to plunge straight into one demon's throat, the creature gasping with a stuttering choke as she pulled hard to send him staggering forwards before he wrenched the dart from his neck. Heaving a thick gasp of bubbling blood his companions hurled out a volley of flames as they dodged with Chanoch guarding against. The three swords however flew straight towards him with fiendish cackles from beyond the grave as Chanoch struck one sharply to crack against the wall, the other two managing to cut into his armour with a deep dent.

"CHANOCH!"

Karam leapt into the fray with an aerial strike after wallkicking up high to carve through one of the sword hilts which made the phantom scream and lurch its blade.

"AIM FOR THE HILT, SEE?!"

"GOOD!"

Standing side by side the Persian and the Pole braced themselves for the poltergeists' assault, three swords shimmering above their heads with the four demons warming up balls of fire between their long fingers. Jandhu went for one of the ghostly blades as it scraped against his curved sword, shearing sparks across his head as the faintest sight of a spirit's form could be seen gripping the hilt. The phantom swung his blade downwards as Karam dodgerolled fast to swipe his sword against it, hooking it past him in order to reach for the hilt and slice across its underbelly. The ghost screamed with a rippling of anguish through its hand before it flew back and let its demon friends burn the reptile with a swathe of horrid flames that Karam leapt over in a pouncing motion.

His friend Jarogniew had a much easier time with his own spirit fiend as the wight struck against his blade with singing steel of pure darkness. His larger sword pushed back against with tarnished glyphs of once-holy script that made the phantom balk slightly from its sheen, which was enough for Chanoch to twist the blade at an awkward angle away from him before slashing straight into the hilt with bone-shattering force that severed the ghost from its possessing weapon. The ghoul screamed a piercing cry as it faded from existence, leaving Chanoch to deal with the other sword that tried swinging down upon his head before he blocked with a hard horizontal sweep above his head, forming an arc of pure light from glinting steel as he spun with the momentum to cross his sword against the spectre's own. They clashed with a purest song that rang free before separating once again, the geist sweeping low to cut at his legs which Chanoch guarded with his own low cut before punching the sword's hilt to stifle its spirit briefly. It countered with a backhanded swing by turning its sword almost completely round in a 180 to come from the other direction, spinning with a deep vorpal cut that the lizardman ducked underneath and carved wholly through the spirit's form itself with a cleaving strike coming straight from above and through the hilt itself. Two swords down with the shrieks of banishment as he turned towards the third whilst Zhao and Karam focused on the flame-wielding demons.

"LOOK OUT!"

She pushed Gregory out of the path of two fireballs hurtling towards his head, whilst Karam sliced another two in half to singe past his cheeks. He nodded to Lihua as they rushed together, the Chinese lizard running along one wall to flip up high and wrap her dart rope round one of their necks like wrangling a bull. The creature snarled and flapped its wings to swoop up high into the air, but she only held on tighter as she climbed her own rope and leapt onto its back, stabbing the dart violently into its neck to puncture every side of it as it became weaker from blood loss pouring deep crimson rain upon the hallways. She rode upon its back straight into one of its friends, as Karam took the chance to plunge his blade deep into a monster's stomach, roaring fury trembling through his weapon as the demon slashed across his face, scarring across his snout and cheek. With two wounded, one dead and one still untouched, the forces were turning slightly as the reptiles swerved round the struggling claws of the bleeding devils, whilst their last unscathed friend made a furious burst of flames that crept along the floor in a wider shockwave. Zhao grabbed the carpet and threw it forwards to smother the flames, leaping over them to swing her rope at one of the monster's legs and knock it down with a yanking pull whilst at the same time slamming both her feet into its chest with a drop kick. Karam came rushing from behind with a brazen stab, tearing his sword down into its chest with a gurgling cry as he severed its heart in half.

"THIS WAY, HURRY!"

Gregory had taken Ravinder down the southwestern passage as they followed after leaving three broken swords and a bloodied unit of purple demons. They raced down the gothic corridor as thunder boomed from outside sending rumblings of deep fury through the place, as if the castle itself were reacting to their rebellion. Armoured knights approached, six of them with spears they twirled deftly in their gauntlets but all of them shorter than Chanoch as he stomped forth with aggressive stance.

"Let us free...or else."

They stood their ground. His eyes became thin to form feral slits as his throat tightened with his chest, burning an anger inside of him borne from a deeper place than that he knew.

" DIIIIIIIE!"

His voice suddenly roared with such intense volume that it deafened all around him and even cracked one of the windows beside him, a furious dragon's breath that blasted back two of the guards and even frightened his allies as he stomped even harder towards them like a kaiju on the warpath. One of them balked, slinking to the back with trembling panic as the others shook their spears before him until one brave soldier came rushing with a cry of desperation. Chanoch sidestepped and slammed his foot on the spear before elbowing the soldier hard with his steel-plated arm, sending him staggering before his mighty blade drove through the guard's chest. He had no time to scream from whatever essence he had inside of him being carved in twain as he wrenched his sword free from his body, releasing a spectral vapour that hissed a soft scream. Two more guards approached in pincer formation, swinging their spears diagonally opposite of him on each side as he blocked both in a backstep with vertical blade that resonated sharply.

Stepping back he slashed the spear on the left to knock it against the wall and chop his arm clean off, before slicing through the right soldier's abdomen.

With his friend slain the one-armed guard tried to swing his spear clumsily, but without the strength of both limbs he was overpowered easily by Chanoch grabbing his throat and hurling his body towards the other four guards, crumpling two of them before rushing the other two still standing with one furious swing of his broadsword, cutting one of them in half and the other through their legs in one fell swoop. The last two guards decided to run, fleeing towards the door they came from as Chanoch hurried after them with his friends in tow Gregory kept up the pace moving towards a thinner passage where floating eyes assailed them with piercing laser blasts, Jarogniew guarding once again with his impenetrable blade as the laser ricocheted against the wall and zapped through a curtain to slice it clean in half.

He barged into the first orb with a brutal stab into its oculus, bleeding hot white goo as Zhao fwipped out her dart to impale the second one's retina and Karam stayed back defending his wife from any misfiring lasers that threatened to rebound off the walls and strike them. Gregory was hit by two scorching down his back and leaving a deep black scar along his tail.

"A-AAARGH! GOD, H-HELP ME!"

"STAY CLOSE TO ME!" cried Jandhu.

Hugging close against Ravinder, Gregory sheltered behind Karam's blade deflecting the lasers that came zigzagging through the halls. Chanoch and Zhao led the assault, slashing through eyeballs and stabbing pupils clean through with piercing darts as they advanced towards the cathedral. The black lengthening shadow of the Carpathian mountains yawned across the windows beneath crackling lightning, the ancient spine of a god-beast in slumber that almost seemed to move between flashes of light. The moon was partly-clouded, gleaming its silver with crafty eye upon them until they burst through the chapel's doors amidst the sound of screeching gargoyles and frigid wings. The monsters hovered above them gauging the intruders as they readied to attack, a massive flock at least numbering more than twenty as Chanoch stepped forth with shining sword. The cloisters were full of beasts roosting like vermin, gleaming eyes of red that lit up the place like crimson stars in the sky.

"O-oh god," whimpered Gregory, "th-there are so many!"

"Get to the window," he muttered to Zhao, "I will fight them."

"Wha-what?!" She looked at him stunned. "No, I'm fighting with you-"

"Take them and run. That is an order."

"But...but what'll happen to you?"

"We will find out."

"STOP!"

A voice boomed from the heavens startling the winged beasts.

"CEASE THIS MADNESS IN THE HOUSE OF OUR LORD!"

The shape of Tabris appeared with his single glowing eye of a fool's gold and green-copper wings, broken legs hovering above the granite floor as thunderous peals made the chapel vibrate all around them. Chanoch put away his sword and motioned his people back, whilst the angel bade his own forces back to the rafters in a grand dispersal of light from his wings.

"Tabris. I am sorry."

"What is this?" The angel came closer to him with arms spread peacefully. "Why are your friends naked, I heard tha-...oh. Oh please do not tell me you are the fugitives."

"We cannot stay here. We have to leave, may we open one of the windows?"

"Chanoch, no I cannot, this is treason!"

"I know."

"Surely you must realise the consequences of this! Please, return to your cell and trouble no more, I do not want to fight you."

"I do not want to hurt you either. But I cannot let my friends suffer." He looked towards his group with a gentle nod. "Gregory, Karam, close the door before they come."

"No, no you will cease this insurrection now!" Tabris flapped straight towards the chapel door and barred their way. "I will not be a part of this, I will NOT disobey Lord Dracula not after all He has done for me!"

"We had no intention of disobeying Him!" argued Karam with his hands up. "We cannot live like this, not after what we were forced to do."

"What do you mean?"

"They assaulted a village," said Gregory with a hurtful look to the lizard beasts, "they were forced to burn down a church and kill everyone inside, I-i was there. I was...I was...I-i was able to survive but I do not know if this life is better than death."

"You...oh, I see. But you must understand those chapels are but God's prisons, they can blind one all too easy-"

"THERE WERE WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN THAT CHURCH!" screamed Armistead. "WERE THEY BLIND, HEATHEN?! WERE THEY DESERVING TO SUFFER, BURNED TO DEATH AS THEY PRAYED TO GOD TO SAVE THEM?!"

"Wh-what?! No, no that is...that is not what Lord Dracula would have wanted, burning churches yes but not KILLING civilians e-especially not now with his new family!"

"I was there, I watched those corpses BURN, the only fortune I had was that I could not hear their screams as unconscious as I was from fright, but these MONSTERS that I am part of they were forced to do it by that bastard Malphas!"

"He is right," said Ravinder cradling her arm, "it was not burning down the church we protested against, but the killing of people inside who could not fight back. It was the first time we had ever done such a thing, normally we were always fighting soldiers or acts of vandalism, but never the killing of civilians. Matthieu tried to protest. Malphas killed him for it."

"He...Malphas killed monsieur Seraine?" gasped the dominion with a hand to his beak.

"Not just that," said Zhao with bitter clenched fists, "he made Chanoch kill him or else he would've killed all of us for not obeying his orders. We're done with this. We don't want to be part of an army that makes you do this."

"That is...punishment I would understand but forcing one of his own to kill him?! Th-that is horrible, you could have told one of us, a superior, or even!"

"Do you really think that anyone is gonna listen to a bunch of low-class soldiers over the fucking marshal superior?! Nah, don't think so."

"Did you even try to protest?! I would have vouched for you-"

"This is not your concern," said Karam rubbing his head, "this is our problem. We made a choice. We do not want to be in this army, not when those like Malphas can force us to commit such crimes against humanity. Fighting God is one thing, but killing humans who cannot fend for themselves is never excusable. We were too frightened to speak up, knowing what authority Malphas had."

"Let us leave," said Chanoch with a hand to his chest. "Does not matter who you side with. What matters is your heart. That is what you told me."

"Yes...but still," Tabris faltered with trembling fingers, "Even so, I do not endorse this-"

"I am not asking for approval. I am asking for help. You want to help humans, yes?" He walked towards his friends and pulled them close with his arms. "We are human too. We made our choice. Please."

The former angel sighed with a trembling from his throat. He carefully considered with a thumb to his beak as his heart struggled between two choices back and forth, the sound of enemies approaching from the halls behind him. He looked upon the escaping beasts and slowly moved out of their way, allowing Greg and Jandhu to close the door with a huge push of the grand hardened oak that scraped against the marble floor. The doors closed shut with a colossal thud as they leaned against the strong frame with some relief as Tabris floated to one of the windows.

"I do not agree with what you are planning," he said placing a hand on the gorgeous glass, "but I understand your struggle. I am not aiding you in this, I am simply exposing a weakness of the castle to teach others not to use."

"Thank you," said Ravinder bowing softly, "we are very grateful-"

"AH!" Gregory leapt from the door with a flinching hop of his feet. "S-something touched me!"

"Oh get a grip," said Zhao puffing air up her snout, "the doors are closed nothing's getting through tha-"

"Th-there it is again!" He jumped back from a ticklish little black thing that crept across his toes. "What is that?!"

"I dunno it looks like a feather I guess, why do you-h-HEY!"

"Get back!" Chanoch grabbed her arm suddenly. "GREGORY, KARAM GET BACK!"

"Wh-what are you- GH-GHRRRKH!"

The sound of a horrid choke came from Armistead as they all looked towards him with a horror on their faces. His body lurched backwards, thrust up into the air from a long impaling length that came from inside a cloud of deep dark feathers that slowly creeped inside the church from beneath the doors' frame. The sword thinly breached through the English reptile's spine and left a jagged sharp tip poking out his back where blood poured freely down his tail.

"GREGORY!" Karam rushed over to the crimson-bellied Christian.

"H-h-hhHHHRRKH! A-AAAAARRRHHHHH!

"No no no." The black fog became a wrothful maelstrom of pinions. "Only I...shall be the one to decide your FATE."

"GHHRRRR RRRAAAGGHHHKH!"

Gregory was torn in half by a second blade driving through his gut, ripping his body apart at the abdomen as his legs fell down first before the rest of his upper body. Gasping with shock he spasmed and slumped feebly as his entrails bled into a crimson pool at the feet of Malphas.

"GREGORYYYY!" screamed Karam.

"So this is how it ends," the raven swept his blades to create a stream of red across the walls. "Not with a sentence but an execution."

"YOU FUCKIN' BASTARD!" shrieked Zhao. "WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM WITH US?!"

"I will deal with YOU eventually. But first."

He sheathed one of his blades back inside his darkness before ripping a golden orb from Gregory's corpse. With failing screams the reptile's soul slipped into Malphas' body to be imprisoned by his power.

"That is one more of your unit I shall send to stand before the judge. Stand down dominion, you are not needed for this."

"S-sir, please-"

"That, is an order. Now get back to your cage."

The angel flapped morosely to sit against the wall next to Ravinder. Karam rushed over towards his wife as Malphas gazed across the empty hall of the grand cathedral with a scanning motion, making certain that only the four lizardmen were left to capture.

"What was your plan, infidels?" he asked with disturbing calm. "After you somehow escape from this castle, to live your life in fear where both Man and Demonkind shall hunt you? A world entirely against you from both darkness and light?"

"We're not your slaves," said Zhao boldly spinning her dart like a lasso rope, "Matthieu was right to tell you to go fuck yourself, I don't care about burning down some church, but I DO care about killing innocents."

"No human is innocent. That is our mission, to purify this world of God and his wretched mongers."

"That, is not," protested Tabris, "sir I must disagree! Our purpose is to FREE humans from God not to send their souls to hi-"

He felt a cold rush of wind as Malphas suddenly appeared before him with a blade against his throat.

"I. Warned you once. Do NOT speak again, orphan of God, or I shall have you tried for treason like the rest of these forsaken curs."

Tabris shook with quiet upset before perching upon a statue, huddling against the cloistered plinth like a poorly pigeon as the raven grabbed Ravinder by the throat.

"HRRRKH!"

"N-NO!" cried Karam. "NO, PLEASE!"

"I will give you one last chance. Either you surrender now, and I will allow you the chance to be together once more until your sentence...or I kill you now, and your souls shall be kept separate for all eternity."

"NO, PLEASE I WILL...I-i will surrender. Please, do not hurt her."

"K-karam no," whimpered Rav.

"I cannot live without you. I cannot." He dropped his sword pitifully. "A thousand years of torture do not equate to one single day without you my dearest rose."

"...I know. That is why I am sorry."

"S-sorry?"

"HRRNNGH!"

The beast-crow felt a sudden thrust puncturing where his stomach would be, gasping slightly more in shock than actual pain from Ravinder slamming her punch-dagger straight inside him. She frantically slashed across his face immediately after and scrabbled to Karam's side when he released her in surprise.

"You...filthy lizard BITCH!"

She grabbed her husband tight and awaited the end as he pushed himself in front of her. The long thin blade came high above but never reached them as something fwipped through the air and snatched it back, yanking it off-course as a stomping foot signalled a hard punch straight into Malphas' skull.

"Get the FUCK AWAY FROM MY GIRL!"

Zhao pulled her rope dart back with Chanoch standing by her with sword raised full against him. Malphas burned a red glimmer beneath his sockets as he turned to the two armed beasts.

"So you do wish to die. Not even try to plea at the courts for mercy."

"There ain't no fucking mercy when you're around," said Lihua beckoning him with taunting fingers, "if we're gonna die here I wanna at least punch your fucking skull right up your shitcrack."

"And you?" He turned his head towards Chanoch. "You too defy me? Even after the lesson I taught you at Crizbav?"

"I am not afraid of you now," said the captain of his group, "we chose this path, we will fight together, and we will die together if we have to."

"In that case I must thank you." He swished his bone-tempered sword before them. "You have made my task MUCH easier when I shall rend your paltry souls apart from your wretched bodies."

He marched towards them in a fencing stance, swishing his blade back and forth to form a brief infinity symbol as Zhao lashed out towards his legs. Her first mistake was assuming he had any when he flapped with mighty wings above and struck down hard upon her head, blocked by Chanoch's sword raised horizontal between her and the blade as he twisted its sharpened edge away. Lihua spun herself downwards and spun out to his arm to pull it viciously down and leave him exposed for her captain, but the raven was much stronger than she thought and pulled her straight towards him with a slashing cut that tore down her arm from the shoulder, pouring a river of blood straight down to her fingers.

She staggered back clutching herself, spinning the rope back round her other arm as Malphas swept open a wing to send a flock of vicious crows spiralling towards them. Black swarms of beaks and talons crossed the length of the chapel floor as Chanoch quickly spun himself with a huge sweep of his sword, carving through as many as he could whilst Zhao frantically dodged and stabbed her dart into as many of the bird-mimics as she could, fending off the dozen beaks that stabbed for her open wounds desperate to taste her blood. She was able to plunge her rope through one of the crows and swing it round her head to hurl its corpse back towards Malphas, briefly blinding him as Chanoch tore through the sea of wings to try and cleave the hunter's body who floated back out of reach and struck the lizardman'is sword off-course with a vicious strike of his thin rapier. He summoned the birdfiends back into his body with a surging rush of darkness filling his form with strengthened muscles before taunting them forwards with gesturing finger.

Karam and Ravinder stayed close against the wall beneath the stained glass window, fearing for their freedom beneath the eye of Tabris who watched the fight with nervous grip against the statue's scalp. Chanoch ducked beneath the shimmering sword but Malphas followed with a hard buffeting of his wing to knock him down as Zhao jumped forwards to drive her dart into the raven's eye socket, pulling his skull forwards with a hard yank as she tried to grab his beak and twist it violently. He flapped hard into the air and carried her upon his back, reaching above into the cloisters as she struggled to hold onto him, shanking his face to no avail as whilst she managed to draw blood he barely flinched from her assault. With grand ebony wings he spun furiously fast above the church marble floor as Zhao quickly wrapped the rope round his neck to viciously strangle him as well as to hold on tighter. But the raven disappeared into a thick smog as Lihua fell back to earth, before Chanoch grabbed her with one hand to break her fall and gently slide her off his shoulder.

"Th-thanks, LOOK OUT!"

The dark cloud tore towards them as a wicked sharp blade pierced from within as Jarogniew struck in a crouching pose to avoid the lancing sword and swung a huge vertical arc to send it off-target when he landed. Malphas came down vertically, then diagonal in an attempt to throw Chanoch's sword off within an awkward slanting parry he would be forced to guard against, but the lizardman countered with a hard punch to the raven's wing between strikes to stagger him and step back to guard properly on the second cut. He twisted the blade enough to come forwards with a hard slam of his pommel into the bird's skull before slicing ruthlessly through his entire abdomen.

"Hhhhmhmhmhmhm...pathetic, is it not?"

The demon simply watched Jarogniew cleave his body to reveal it was only a semi-solid state.

"What the FUCK?!" cried Zhao. "B-but, but-"

"Your weapons cannot harm me, especially not your so-called 'holy blade'."

He punched Chanoch hard in his armoured chest with such shocking force that he sent the Pole flying across the chapel floor, crumpling his armour inwards with a hard clang that echoed throughout like a broken bell. He melted into a fog of darkness before reappearing in front of Chanoch's winded form, striking down upon him as the lizardman rolled fast and blocked the sword with his own while still on one knee. Pushing himself up Jarogniew winced from the warped steel against his midriff as he sucked in through his teeth and steaded his sword. Malphas swung both blade and wing in unison as Chanoch did not fall for either, stepping back to turn his entire body round in one giant swing to slash through the monster's throat. But again, it only caused vapours to spread from his form and only the smallest slivers of blood following with it. What little flesh he managed to scar was not enough as Malphas grabbed him by the throat and tossed him against one of the statues with such power, that the column cracked against his back and sent the granite falling upon his body, burying him within a pile of small rubble as the face of a gorgon shattered on top.

"CHANOCH!" Ravinder gasped.

"Oh, did you wonder who was responsible for defacing your Father's words?" said the raven towards the struggling mound of pebbles. "You cannot defeat me with such basic strength, and I made certain that the only possible threat would be deactivated by a hex of mine. God shall not save you, lizard, not his words nor your beliefs."

"I-I'LL MAKE YOU BLEED INSTEAD!" cried Zhao rushing towards him.

"A true demon cares not about how much blood he's spilt."

He dodged her swiping lasso of a rope as he turned towards the female lizard.

"Do you truly think that I am some basic mortal beneath my wings of graceful darkness, that I would care about BLOOD?"

"A-AAAAAGH!"

She felt the sudden strike of a vicious wing slicing up her other arm and severing the rope she had tied around her wrist, rendering it useless as she quickly grabbed the dart and dodged beneath his second wingslash, blood streaming down her arms as she stabbed him in the back above one of his wingstruts. Lihua dug as hard as she could into the bone, twisting and tearing at the fleshy marrow until the raven burst into a dozen corvids before her eyes, leaving her to stab at thin air as the birds swirled into a cyclone above her, looming like a pillar of black salt before thundering down upon her head in a flurrying shriek of feathers that cut up her face in a thousand scratches. Struggling to cover herself, she closed her eyes for a fatal moment as the next time she opened would be the last thing she would ever see. Malphas grew two swords from his body, one in each hand before he sliced them towards her.

"NOOOOOOO!"

Her head fell from her body in shock. Zhao Lihua's body stood for a moment transfixed to desperately pump blood through the hole in her neck now pouring with thick richening ichor that the raven savoured upon his beak, dripping porous crimson upon his wings until she slumped at last. The life in her legs faded, her mouth stuttering for a few seconds in silent death behind her feet at the end of a bloodied trail.

"YOU MURDERER!" screamed Karam. "YOU HEARTLESS-...AAAAAARGH!"

"KARAM NOOOO!"

In desperate fury he charged at him, picking up his sword and rushing with frantic speed as he dodged beneath the twin blade-strike skirting around the body of his fallen friend. He clashed against the first sword of Malphas in a vertical rising cross, before dodging the second sword to his right and carving at the demon's back trying to cut off his wing before Malphas stretched them wider than before and sliced across his face with razor sharp pinions. Jandhu flinched but held his ground before ducking low to stab hard through the very centre of the crow-beast's chest. There was flesh in there surely, he felt it, heard it twitch and sever with his ruthless cuts as Malphas gave a wheezing gasp of indignant mirth.

"Useless."

"GUUUH!"

He turned with a backhanded fist that knocked Karam down to the floor before pressing one sword tip against his throat.

"The only thing that can truly hurt me is if you wound my soul, and none of you shall ever come CLOSE to that...except for one way."

He stretched one of his swords out towards the body of Zhao, piercing into her heart and extracting her golden essence, trickling around his blade upwards like a serpent against her will, screaming as her soul became part of his necrotic embrace. He turned his head back slowly towards Karam to push his other sword's tip gently against the bob of his throat.

"If you wish to speak your last words to your beloved, before eternity meets you both, then-GHHRK!"

A giant blade thrust entirely through his body, splitting the paltry flesh that laid hidden beneath the feathers as a deep voice snarled behind him.

"Get...away from my FRIEND!"

The blade pulled out fast as Malphas turned to strike with both his weapons upon Chanoch's face, blocked by his broadsword that forced both swords back with a brutal shove and a hard bootkick that snapped straight into Malphas' beak.

"NGH! Hmph, now you fight like a child, how fitting."

The lizardman moved himself to stand between Malphas and Karam who pulled himself back up with sword at the ready.

"Protect Ravinder," was all he said to Jandhu.

"But...Zh-zhao is-"

"That is my last order. Now go."

He dared not disobey the temper in his voice, hearing something he had not heard in his captain before as he slipped back to his wife's embrace.

"If only you had such loyalty to us," said Malphas raising a sword towards him. "Die traitor. You do not belong in this house."

"Was not by my hand I was given this form," replied Chanoch gritting teeth, "I was brought here to pay tribute to a demon."

"Tribute? You are naught but a thief, and now you confuse betrayal for emancipation."

"Same could be said for your angels," he nodded to Tabris still perched near the windows, "like others who once lived with faith."

"And so your words mean nothing. The night has no need for a pathetic child of God such as you."

"And what are you? A miserable little pile of secrets. Enough talk, either you die here or I will."

"So be it." The raven crossed his swords with one full slash of wind that scored across the marble scape. "Embrace your death just as your family did...son of MOSES!"

The thunderous roar of heaven echoed throughout the church, lightning flashes across the windows stained their shadows against sculptures and glass-framed portraits of unsaintly beasts. Malphas blurred his body into darkness, zigzagging across the floor with puffs of smoke before striking Chanoch's blade. He saw only one blade however and ducked immediately to avoid the second one that sliced from behind the raven's back to try and gut his throat, charging the demon with a cleaving cut upon his head that cracked a piece of his skull off to the floor. Malphas shrugged it off with a hard smack of both wings from each side, clubbing Chanoch's shoulders with a dull burning throb that briefly stunned him enough for a ruthless deep cut to this waist.

"NNNRAAGH!"

The blade of darkness sliced through his armour, breaking some of the dent as blood began to flow from a freeing wound just above his kidney. He stumbled back resisting the urge to clutch himself, hands grasping his sword with a deep swallow of strength as he rushed with a rising diagonal cut, not intending to hit with it as he watched Malphas flap himself back ready to plunge his blade straight towards his head. The lizard dodged instantly, bracing his muscles to turn and spin on one foot to crack against the sharp fencing sword and knock the raven off-kilter, bullrushing him with a shoulder charge to grab his throat in one hand and toss him viciously against the wall. The crow-fiend dissipated into a dozen carrion feeders as soon as he hit the granite, monstrous screams of guttural maws tearing towards the fugitive as he started spinning his sword between his hands, back and forth in an alternating motion that while slow was effective in cutting through the faces of ravens, talons hungry for flesh as Chanoch's sword became a blur of silver and bronze.

The former soldier stood waiting for his opponent to reform, the corpses of corvids slithering back towards each other into one single seething mass of entrails. Malphas re-emerged as a smouldering heat, wings bursting from the black mist that screeched a horrid song like sawblades sweeping against Jarogniew's face as he swung his sword against. Sparks flew across the blade as he felt the force of the wingstrikes knock him asunder, pushing his foot hard against the floor as he crouched into a full-thrusting stab towards Malphas' abdomen. In mid-thrust he pulled his blade up to crack off the tip of his beak, shockwaves through the skull as the raven fiend staggered back and reacted with a dual-cross of both swords to slash twice towards Chanoch. The first missed him by a few inches but the second sent a vile burst of wind that threw the lizard hard towards the pulpit at the end of the hall. Malphas followed with a shimmering dark step as he faded from existence, but only for a moment as Chanoch rolled himself free before a lethal blade came carving through the pulpit, severing it in two to clunk uselessly on the floor.

Tabris looked towards the window beside him with fingers tapping across the sculpture's head below him, the sound of evil winds and blades clashing against sent a rippling temor throughout the inhuman chapel. He looked towards Ravinder and Karam grasping each other as if waiting for their sentence. He clenched his fists and raised a hand towards the glass window which began to fade like spirits of the night.

"What, what are you-"

"Go, now."

"Wh-what?!" gasped Karam. "What do you mean-"

"I said GO, did you not hear me?!"

They looked to each other briefly as the battle raged on between their friend and the hunter, feeling guilt sting their hearts as Ravinder asked:

"What...about Chanoch, will he be-"

"Trust in your friend, child. He would give his life for you, wouldst you rather he die in vain?"

"No, of course not!"

"Then leave this castle and never return, do you understand?"

She felt the hand of her husband upon her shoulder as he nodded. With trembling sigh and a shaking hand they stepped towards the window as both Karam and Tabris helped Ravinder up and out through where the glass had once been before he joined her. They landed upon soft grass, strangely different to the gardens within the castle.

"Thank you," said Karam to the angel, "please tell Chanoch we are safe."

"Be safe on your journey," said Tabris bowing softly, "wherever it may take you."

"We shall not forget you," said Ravinder holding herself close to her love, "tell him we are sorry."

"I know he shall forgive you...I already have."

With heavy heart he sealed up the window once again with stained glass forming through the air and crackling like ice, twisting its patterns into mosaics familiar to him as he shook with the fear of criminals inside him before pulling up back to his perch. He watched the battle between Chanoch and Malphas as the cracking sheen of bone on steel rung through the chapel, darkness creeping through between the gasps of lightning that struck the earth as they clashed once with such unparalleled strength that they came to a standstill. The eyes of the reptile burned into the hollow gaze of the raven, parts of his skull revealing a horrid skinless face and disturbingly human teeth.

"What could your god have given you that we could not?"

"Mercy, and peace," snorted Chanoch.

"And you had neither here, for all the hundred-and-forty-four years you took our liberty?!"

"You took those away from us! You killed my FRIEND, you forced me to stain my blade with his BLOOD!"

"And you think God would not have forced you to do the same?!" barked Malphas with a creak of his teeth and fingers. "The wretched soldiers we fought in Crizbav, they were born from the same Father as you and look what their order did to your family!"

" NOOOO!" He forced him back with a furious scream as Malphas staggered against the pulpit. "I am a son of Elohim! I was taught to love, to protect others and to feed kindness unto the earth, JUST AS HE TAUGHT US!"

"Then what do you call the humans that SLAUGHTERED YOUR HOME?!" he roared back pushing himself forth.

"DID ELOHIM FORCE CAIN TO KILL HIS BROTHER?! NO, HE DID NOT! HUMANS ARE NOT TOYS OF HEAVEN OR HELL, THEY MAKE THEIR OWN CHOICE BE IT GOOD OR EVIL! THIS IS MY CHOICE!"

He swung his sword above his head as it caught the light from a flash at the window. Malphas struck lightly against its downward crash, parrying to slant it off his blade and gouge through the fugitive's armour to score a wretched wound across his sternum, blood dripping down his chest as he snarled with silent fury in his throat. He carved two diagonal strikes across Malphas' wings which shielded his form, letting his blade bounce off one wing when it snapped out to throw him aside as he braced his momentum, roaring when he struck the flat of his blade straight into the raven's face like a hammer cracking half his skull. More fragments petered, crinkling gristle showing more of the fleshy muscle underneath as he made a fake double-swing of his swords before bringing them together like scissors to plunge forwards into Chanoch's throat, the reptile blocking with greatsword caught between both crossing tips that gleamed cruelly for his eyes. Bone creaked against warm steel as he forced his clawed feet against the granite surface.

"You...are nothing more than a puppet to your father."

"My...my heart, my mind was given to me, by Elohim. My family...sculpted me to become all that I am now."

"A pathetic orphan who mewls for heaven's milk!"

"I will not surrender to your darkness. The only reason I am here, was to keep my family safe and I will not regret that."

"What?! What do you mean?!"

"I gave myself to your kind to protect them. I gave everything to protect those I love, even if I never see them again, AND YOU WILL NOT, HURT, THE ONES I LOVE, EVER AGAIN!"

He felt a soft heat resonating through his fingers. His sword captured the light from some unseen source as Malphas gasped with confusion. Tabris watched with his orb glinting in shock, startled by a familiar gleam as Chanoch's sword became wreathed in a purest blue.

"WHAT?! WHAT IS THI-GHRRRKH!"

The raven faltered from the light when he felt it burn across his face, pouring like acid into his skull as his swords weakened against the mighty blade, shining from beneath the scarred etchings which suddenly shattered the moment Chanoch tore through his defence and ripped one of his guarding wings in half, burning as Malphas screamed from a torrent of vapours that poured from broken feathers like blood in the water. Fragments of infernal ash began to fade from Chanoch's steel, spirited into the air as the Hebrew script burned with solid gold much to the awe and fear of every creature around him.

"My...God is...is that what I think it is?" shuddered Tabris.

"WH-WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" screamed Malphas clutching his torn wing. "HOW?! HOW DID YOU BREAK MY SEAL?!"

"Because I would die for those I love," said Jarogniew with a slow advance, "not because Elohim tells me to. I understand now. I have to fight...for myself, that is the gift He gave me. I will protect those you have tried to kill and I shall see you burn the break of dawn."

"Y-you...filthy spawn of ABRAHAAAAM!"

He ground his teeth into a vile sneer and roared the cry of demons, the force of which caused the bells above to start ringing in discordant tongues as the raven tore towards him with a spinning multi-strike of his twin swords, whirling like dandelion seeds as Chanoch rolled aside and defended himself. The light of his sword blinded Malphas' face, searing his sockets as he struggled to look straight when he swerved through dark mist, rippling feathers back and forth to try and confuse the lizardman who focused his thoughts into his blade. Steeling his mind and bracing his heart, he swung a tremendous light through the chapel hall as a glorious shockwave of purest cyan ripped into Malphas' semi-visible body. He stopped his teleporting to avoid it, leaping over its holy force and straight towards Jarogniew's tearing sword that swept upwards to the sky. His other wing became torn asunder at the halfway joint, snapping the bone as the raven roared with savage fury and smoke-bloodied limbs.

"RRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"

Frenzied with violence, the crow-beast struck with a vicious sea of blades that appeared before Chanoch's eyes as he tore his two swords towards him, slashing and carving the air between them with such maddening speed that the very molecules split, forming gaseous sparks that exploded in small pockets before the lizardman who stepped back cautiously. He waited for his chance, focusing between the swordtips whilst guarding against one that reached too far every so often, testing the strength and rapidity of his attacks before he felt one smack upon his blade at the perfect moment. Immediately he countered straight into the other sword and shattered it in half like a broken twig. Malphas was shocked but he never faltered as he went single-handed, scarring the air with a deep darkened cut that briefly obscured Chanoch's view of him, before reaching forwards to grab the lizardman's throat and plunge his sword hurriedly into his lower gut. Chanoch screamed as the bellow of his voice made the sword vibrate inside his belly, slamming the flat of his blade upon the raven's skull and burning him with light most pure, causing him to screech and fall back pulling his remaining blade out of him.

Clenching his muscles to ignore the searing pain in his stomach, Jarogniew came out swinging with a hard feint that missed just short of where Malphas' legs would be causing him to hover by instinct, before the holy blade came tearing upwards to sever one of his arms fully. Gasping a foetid cry of rage as his wingless body fell back to earth, the raven had little time to nurse his broken stump before he was forced on the defensive, stumbling from the burning agony as he separated himself into a dozen crows trying to skirt round his opponent for a surprise attack. Chanoch stood waiting, watching when the clouds would thicken and where he would appear with his eyes moving away from where he knew Malphas would be. He thought he had him at last. The raven saw his eyeline and shivered from the fog of black to reappear instantly at Chanoch's right, raising his sword back for the final strike.

"_RRRRRAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRGH! _"

The soldier turned two seconds before Malphas could realise what he had done. The giant blade cleaved through his entire body in one purest strike, a single cut of light that severed something much deeper than anything he possessed. His soul came apart in half with the most horrifying pain he had suffered in centuries.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRHHHHHH!"

He fell to the floor with gaping wound exposed in his chest, a searing silver gleam of shattered spirit that began fracturing like glass, his one remaining arm desperately clutching the pieces from falling apart.

"Y-YOU...YOU, BASTARD! YOU WORTHLESS SEMITE-a-a-a-aaaAAAAAAAAAARRRRGH!"

But Chanoch said nothing. He watched his tormentor burn as his cloak melted along with his feathers to become nothing but a wrinkled carcass, his half-torn beak showed a gasping mouth.

"I...I-i will...be avenged...you sh-shall never escape the night, infidel. I hope...when I am revived in centuries from now, I will watch you and your friends...mindless broken beasts that suffer in the pits of Sheol...h-hhhhrrrkh...savour this. This...will be the only peace you shall ever enjoy in your worthless existence."

He slumped his head back as his body became a wretched skeleton, draped with oily rag as a silver mist spirited from his core. His soul faded into the chapel's cloisters, lonely and adrift without a body or even most of its essence to contain it full. The reptile watched with a hand clutched to his bloodied abdomen, feeling the struggle of his body that dripped crimson down his legs until he finally saw two golden spirits weave out of the corpse. He looked to where the Jandhus had once been, fearing the worst as Tabris noticed his gaze.

"Be not afraid Chanoch," said the angel floating over towards him, "they are gone now. You wish to follow them?"

"Yes...you are helping us?"

"I do not help fugitives or traitors. I help only those to find their place, and I suspect those such as you...do not belong here."

The souls of two yellow streams filtered around between them. Chanoch shook with regrets as his sword became dim once again.

"I could not save you. Forgive me."

"They have," said Tabris kindly offering a hand for the souls to light upon, "they are happy your other friends escaped."

"Can you help...them?"

"As I said before, I do not help fugitives. The three of you do not belong here."

He walked the limping lizard over towards the window as Tabris undid the glass from its structure, showing a gaping hole that Chanoch climbed through with the greatest efforts and blood trailing behind him. The soft-fingered dominion slipped his hand through to watch the spirits float off into the sky and towards the new dawn that glinted in the hills.

"It seems perhaps...God does love some of his children."

"Does not matter," said Chanoch breathless at the morning view, "Elohim gave me this heart, this mind to do what I could with them. He would believe in me to do what is right...that is what you taught me."

The soldier turned towards the angel staring at him through the windowsill.

"Thank you."

"They will hunt for you," said the fallen heavensent, "you know I have to report to my superiors."

"I know. I do not hate you. I respect you."

"That said..." the angel looked towards the bodies of three scattered across the hall, "I shall have to clean this chapel and that will take some time...enough that if anyone escaped, twould make a good head start."

He turned back to the fugitive with a gleam in his single golden orb. Chanoch understood and made his way towards a valley where green forests and a grand lake with various islands upon it could be seen. They said nothing further as the angel watched him walk to the horizon, clouds parting with rosy cheeks and the sounds of birds chirruping with purest glee. Tabris looked towards the rafters and nodded with cold patience to the fiends in waiting.

"His night is finally over...no one may speak of what happened here. We are God's children still, and if one of His flock can survive through such darkness, then it is our sworn duty not through God but by our own existence to do nothing that would impede him." He took one last look to the horizon as the silhouette faded. "I pray that you find peace again...Chanoch Lieb Jarogniew."