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Darkness falls as he awoke from his sleep. It had been years since he had slept like this. A warm peaceful sleep, but one that did not soothe him anymore than usual. He looked up, the ceiling a soft blue with plastic bars on either side of him. Soft quilted covers wrapped his entire body, but he always felt cold. It never made a difference to him. There was a strange tranquility in having a body that could not speak, no need for reticence, no means of fearful expectations upon him. His very nature would speak plenty about him. "Sweetie?" The door opened from nearby from which he could barely comprehend, his voice rasping of a little death as he saw that dear creature. The human in blue trimmed coat and brunette hair pinched into a schoolteacher's make. "Are you resting well? Hohohoho...what a brave little thing, I have something for you." She brought up in one hand a small cage with a crow inside of it. The bird flapped violently with croaking panic muffled by the tape around his beak as his hands reached up before his vision, tiny and frigid, stillborn but creaking with his essence. "Look...look how afraid he is. Look at his little beady eyes, he knows you're not human. They can sense that about you Bobby, not like humans could. Humans are so stupid, and ignorant of the way things are, not like some beasts that can sense your true nature. Go on...that's a good boy, you know what you must do." His hands shook with a feverish anticipation, the crow crying out shrieking desperate to be freed but he would not live through this night. The child's hand wrapped firmly on the bird's neck, and slowly began to twist. Screams turning to strangled gasps, crying for his flock as the boy managed to crush his windpipe between surprisingly strong thick fingers. The rancid gasp of death escaping the little bird made him happy, gurgling as he saw the woman approve deeply with a growing smile as he saw something that she could not see. But she knew it was there. A soul, sharp with intelligence of the corvid family but lamenting of its painful last moments before the child opened his mouth wide as a hissing scream escaped him. The soul could not resist the eternal pull of its great predator of the spiritual plane as the crow's spirit faded out of existence, devoured whole with a final cry of help to be consumed forevermore as if never he had been. He felt so full, the boy of a cursed bloodline. "Was that good? Mmmmmmm, I know you like it Bobby, you are so cute when you're a happy little monster aren't you, hmhmhm! Corvids are wondrously intelligent so they have greatly strong souls for such small beasts, aren't they my sweet baby? When you're a bit older I shall start feeding you humans, but they are much too rich for you so...give it time...do you want to hear your favourite story before bed?" She sat up in a chair after placing down the cage with dead bird inside of it on the floor, before grabbing herself a book off the shelf. A collection of old Germanic stories one of which she had memorised completely, but always loved to read once again by its old pictures of a young boy in red clothes who would constantly suck his thumb, scolded by an old faceless woman in blue. "One day, Mamma said, "Conrad dear, I must go out and leave you here. But mind now, Conrad, what I say, don't suck your thumb while I'm away. The great tall tailor always comes, to little boys that suck their thumbs. And ere they dream what he's about, he takes his great sharp scissors, and cuts their thumbs clean off and then, you know, they never grow again. Do you know what little Conrad did, hmmm?!" He understood perfectly well, clearly responding with a vile shriek of excitement, like sandpaper on a corpse's flesh before she continued the story. "Mamma had scarcely turn'd her back, the thumb was in, alack! Alack! The door flew open, in he ran, the great, long, red-legged scissorman. Oh! Children, see! The tailor's come, and caught our little Suck-a-Thumb." She turned the book around showing the scene in action, the young boy of red clothes suddenly being attacked by a long sinister-looking man in bouncing legs and lean green waistcoat, holding a pair of scissors. A giant pair of scissors like garden shears slicing off the boy's thumbs with bloodied drops upon the carpet, before revealing the boy broken and dismayed as he wept for his now-useless hands. "Snip! Snap! Snip! The scissors go, and Conrad cries out, oh! Oh! Oh! Snip! Snap! Snip! They go so fast, that both his thumbs are off at last. Mamma comes home there Conrad stands, and looks quite sad, and shows his hands. "Ah!" said Mamma "I knew he'd come, to naughty little Suck-a-Thumb. The...end." But before she had even reached the end of this story, his eyes had started closing as he drifted into another sleep. Dreaming of long scissors and worthless little boys to die for their refusal to adhere to the way of things as a gasping soft wind drifted throughout his memories until reopening once more. He now sat in front of a piano, his hands small but now matured to a tender young age as his long fingers glided across the ivory keys moderately. The woman now seated herself beside him cautiously trying to teach. "That's it, very GOOD Bobby! Hohohoho, you are so clever, you know just how to make someone feel creeping fear along their tingling little spines. Humans are so afraid of everything, sound, smell, sight, always they must be so aware of their own pitiful surroundings of the world they sculpted. Like rats in the parlour, if there is one thing off they must investigate always. And that's when you strike. The piano starts playing, they must come and see. The stove starts burning, they have to come and see. Their friend is hanging off the edge of the foyer...they must stand and weep before you come in behind them." She placed her hand upon his stopping his playing momentarily as she looked serious at him for a moment, the boy's head turning towards his mother's face. "Do you understand Bobby? Humans are worthless pathetic creatures, and I know that you will be able to have them answer for their sins. All of them, every single one of them shall all pay for what they did to my family...I shall make you...my own special little weapon. An angel of death. For me, and me alone." The woman planted a kiss on his head as his eyes closed once more, feeling a strange glimmer of warmth radiate through him that he never felt in his recent memory. But then he felt the thunder, the cold bursts of shocking rain from outside as a gust of wind came howling across the corner. He heard the sound of gears creaking and churning throughout the ancient clock tower, the scissors aloft before his vision as he saw the young victim he had hunted for so long. She was fourteen, long black hair and a plain face he could never forget. A face that blurred when she pulled the switch and reactivated the tower that his mother had turned off for so many years. It upset him greatly, and he soon remembered why. The bells. That constant shrieking sound that ripped through his very body's unholy existence, groaning through his parched undeveloped chords of his host stillborn yet somehow grown to a dishevelled child's corpse from his influence over many years. He struggled, gasping, staggering as he called out for help, throwing his scissors down as he grasped his head violently. He fell from the tower into the gears below the service platform. He couldn't remember how, everything had become a blur the moment he heard the bell, but there was one image that he remembered. As the sounds of the clock tower continued to cry above him like the voice of angels tearing at his sinful flesh, he heard his mother's voice. "YOU BITCH! YOU KILLED MY SON, I'LL MAKE YOU PAY!" Lightning flashed from up above, the mangled twisting remnants of the child's body cracking within the gears filling his ears as his vision slowly faded from him. He could see the silhouettes fighting up above, the long-haired girl in white versus his mother's stiff short-haired appearance. The two wrestled within the thunderous sky, the sounds of bells dulling his senses as his eyes softly closed. But then there came a cloud of feathers, black and vengeful crowing with fury upon the older woman, tearing at her face, ripping claws into her hair. She fell to the abyss as he woke up, to the sound of his mother's anguished scream.

He awoke back into reality, the sound of a rainstorm battering against the windows from outside as he laid curled up into a foetal position. A bed within a nursery, next to a cot presumably for the wet nurse to not leave the infant's side at all hours as lightning struck from outside. Flashing the room with brilliant white, he saw many things in the small child's room of pale walls and soft velvet carpeting of a gentle pink faded colour. The raptor slowly moved from the bed, knocking away a few blocks with letters of Romanian carved upon each side. The demon walked towards the window, feeling the lightning sky trembling with a thunderous peal that brought shivers through to the very halls as the glass seemed to shudder against the force of the wind and rain from outside. Lost was his reflection, flickering droplets upon it as he pressed his forehead softly against the cold windowglass hoping to feel the moisture from outside burn trickling into him. He said not a word before leaving this room and headed on towards the one lone door of the place. A grand turning hallway curving towards the left in a soft elliptical route, the windows lining up along his right side had curtains fluttering red against the tender whistling of a breeze beyond some unknown place. The raptor walked with eyes dead in neutral state, long teeth and claws glinting in the light of the thundering storm that made him feel somewhat a sense of peace. Not by any measure but it was enough to help him keep any of his thoughts from coming forth to disturb him with memories of his past. His shadow passed between windows struck briefly in the flash of light from outside, hearing the rain no matter where he went. The patter of drops soothed him, yet also burned deep into his foul recesses at a memory of the past, that one fateful night his world had come down upon him by the spirit of human determination. He did not know why the previous loss of his former body hurt him more than anything else, after six thousand years transferring from host to pitiful host and yet this was but a different experience. He felt a strange pang inside of his being, a warm tightness he had never felt in his existence of late, seething like a sharp burn that twisted into a heart-shaped crevasse down beneath turning empty and cold. He clutched at his chest but said nothing more still, shivering from the pain he could not heal. Not even his own intrinsic aura could manage to heal this wound unseen. It terrified him. The more he thought of it, the more fearful he became, staggering harshly as he found the next door. Another room the demon found, this one much more feminine in its touches as he walked through with sluggish steps, dragging his feet as the pain weighed down ever further upon him. A gorgeous four-poster queen-sized bed with eiderdown quilt in soft luscious red surrounded by curtains on each pillar, next to a large comfortable writing desk with quills stocked and a book placed carefully on its top. A mirror, part of a white dressing table with surprisingly humble ingredients for beautification. Hand creams, removers, a simple lipstick, nothing of lush tallow or the upper fineries in life. The walls were the same as the child's bedroom, like the colours of a wedding cake as a window cracked open suddenly buffeting the room with bilious gusts of wind above the writing desk as Scisso walked sternly towards it. Slamming the window shut and fitting the latch back on, he saw the book had been flipped open by the wind as curiosity beckoned him to read its contents.

_June 6, 1442 A.D. A new diary for a new start in life. My old diary was getting rather full and I want to christen this book with the most wonderful news I could ever imagine. It has now been one week since I've given birth, and a more beautiful boy I have never seen in my life. But I suppose that's what most mothers would say. I admit I was rather terrified of the prospect to being a mother, after having moved to this castle several years ago, but that fear is now gone from me the moment I saw Vlad's face upon seeing our new son. I have never seen so happy until this, as if I had offered him all the gold in the world to be his but he was so gentle with him. His strength I know could defy kings yet he held our son in his arms with such precious care as if he were made of glass. If I had ever forgotten why I loved this man, and to me he shall always be a man regardless of his origins, I would remember that moment forever.

June 8 Vlad wanted me to make sure that I felt safe in his castle along with our new son, so he introduced me to three people. A man called Zead who he has employed as a priest for my needs and care as one of God's children, as well as two strange beasts. One was a giant bird with a spear named Slogra, the other some sort of winged bat the size of a human named Gaibon who swore fealty to me and my son. The boy smiled at them, couldn't keep his hands away from the bird who smiled simply and laughed. I have never seen a bird laugh and smile but I have learnt many things since my engagement to Vlad. The creatures in this place admit to having a hard lot in life, being as they were abandoned by God or forsaken by His ways, and whilst I disagree with them on many certain matters, I at least understand their strife in life. I'm certain they did not ask to be born or become this, and they are not to blame for being condemned by men of God as creatures that do not fit in their vision. I believe God loves all creatures upon His earth, even those within this Castlevania. But they are all very sweet to me, and are most respectful in obedience to their master._

September 30, 1446 A.D. I've forgotten to write in this diary for so long, I must remember that I even have this when so many things have happened! Our son's first words, his first walk, he even made a little spark shot out from his hands which was quite a fright at his age! The poor thing started crying all fearful of his power, and I spoke to his father about it worrying that he might hurt himself with it. But he reassured me by saying that he was much too young to start any fires, or even hurt himself. It did not stop Adrian from getting rather upset everytime he shot out fire almost to the point of not wanting to look at his hands, tousling his pure snow-white hair but thankfully someone was more able to assist. Slogra and Gaibon started to make a little game with him, playing patty cake with him to show that he couldn't hurt them with his hands. He even started making up names for them calling them "Birdy" and "Bon-Bon", which I thought was simply precious. I don't think the two appreciated it very much but they said nothing in front of their master. I could see their little grimaces, they're rather sweet for being such demons. Though not as bad as when Father Zead came down to first greet Adrian, and the boy called him "Granddad". He was so insulted, but Vlad simply laughed and cackled at his old friend and started calling him the very same! I do hope he wasn't offended, I should make him something. I never did ask what his favourite food was. Actually, I don't think I've ever seen Father Zead eat anything, period, always was quite a patient man rather quiet and reserved to himself. I should have him more involved with Adrian's life.

March 12, 1448 Adrian has become very rambunctious, always exploring the castle in every nook and cranny he can find. I should worry about him, but he has such adventurous enthusiasm I can never refuse his darling little face. Slogra and Gaibon have assured me utmost that he is always protected, and I know as creatures that they are underneath Vladimir's service they would never feign to forget their duty. Adrian loves them though, he's always playing hide-and-seek with "Birdy" and "Bon-Bon", they love playing in the hedge maze. A werewolf guards that place, Jason his name is, rather sweet individual. He said he was once a painter, but found it rather difficult to continue with his current predicament so he suggested that we spend time at the villa painting together as a family. Vlad thought it was wonderful, we all started taking classes with Jason as our teacher. It was rather funny seeing Vlad taking lessons for once, even if Jason was very reserved and uncertain about educating his lord but he said nothing of it. He said he was going to be a student of art and nothing else and if he made mistakes then he was like anybody else. Adrian keeps trying to draw bats for some reason, I think he's rather fascinated by them or he just kept thining about Gaibon and finds birds harder to draw. I love the villa, but it is rather disorganised with too many things to do, art, games and music, it's no good to be shut inside all day, especially not me. I always spend my days mostly in the garden courtyard anyways, Vlad is not particularly good at gardening but perhaps Adrian might be, at least he found a growing passion in art for I saw him starting to really focus on some particular dark-shaded pieces that were almost incredible to see when he started to achieve better practice at it. He always has very sad paintings, lost faces and forgotten places, he never tells me who the people are in the paintings and I never wish to pry for I know he's had a long life. It must be such a terrible thing to be immortal, the curse to live forever which makes me start to ponder some things I should not dream upon. But those people in his paintings are always so vivid, he even painted one that was a striking imitation of me but in much older clothing. I asked if it was me and he answered in the strangest way back to me. He said: "She was my heart. Now she is again." He then smiled at me. A very thankful smile, one I know comes from a deep weariness wanting to just collapse into my arms and feel me to be warm against him. I think I understand Vlad a little better now, I have an idea for a painting in future.

July 20, 1450 Adrian helped me in the garden again today, he had become very fascinated in all the strange and interesting plants that I have gathered over the years with some help from Vlad's many comrades in arms. He's always such a sensitive, thoughtful boy, his father jokingly calls that "his gentle human side is clouding his better judgement". I see no reason why taking care of plants is such a terrible thing, he may not want to admit it but I know that he loves this garden. When he suspects I am not watching him, I saw his face radiant with peace at such a garden, his heart content finally after all those old wounds I see lurk inside of him desperate to be healed. The courtyard used to be such a barren place bereft of anything until I came to this castle. And he's not the only one that appreciates such a place. There are so many of these beasts, strange and alien to me both living and unliving, flesh and bone with even some made of pure souls and plant-like beasts. I like the plant creatures actually, there was a very lovely lady-like one here named Alura who I befriended many years ago, she even had the courtesy to cover up her nakedness in the presence of my son. Such manners I appreciate, I never knew that plants were so good-natured upon such things! She was very sweet to Adrian, surprisingly motherly as she told me of many new mixtures she made with her nutrients and pieces from the garden. I could call her my assistant by this point for how helpful she has been in healing people, the villages have never been healthier thanks to us and there's not a single sniffling of any nose within six miles of us.

January 3, 1451 I have been wanting to move away from the castle more and more for some time. Over the years, despite the wondrous company of Vlad's people and this castle, I feel it is not for me, and it shouldn't be a place where Adrian should grow up in. I had hoped that in time perhaps the meaning of a new family might change my outlook on living within such a place, but alas it has not really. I am a girl of the village, not of this great winding palace. I expected Vlad to be upset with me, insulted even, but he was much more patient than I thought. He understood my fears of being in this place, having known that I still believed in God and that I wanted Adrian to experience both sides of life, both mine and his. I do not want Adrian to be seeing humanity from a window, I want him to be amongst both people, both humans and demons, to understand them better and to at least maybe understand one day why some creatures turn on each other for all these terrible reasons. I admit that I was very reticent to his purpose of defying God, and in truth I still am. But that does not mean I want humanity to suffer under anyone's yoke, I fear if I am away too long that I might forget that and I certainly don't want Adrian to forget it too. Of course I will still visit the castle and still see everyone, but I want to live closer to the human world. I want to remember my humanity, and impart it unto Adrian as well. Vlad has assured me that he will not harm any humans unless they so choose to directly attack him. I made him promise that, I told him and Adrian as well: "Do not hate humans. If you cannot live with them, then at least do them no harm, for theirs is already a hard lot." I will always remember what Vlad told me when I had him promise this, and he said to me: "If humanity could create someone as beautiful as you, then I know at least they deserve a better chance in life." I feel happy knowing this, and I am thankful that he told me this, for I know at the very least that Adrian will learn to love both lineages that he inherits from us. I want him to be proud of himself, for who he is and what he shall become. Perhaps after all this, if someone as wonderful as Adrian can come out of both humans and demons joined as one, then perhaps there is hope for this world...for all of us.

He closed the book, eyes wide open in shock upon realisation of who was being mentioned as he turned to walk away, softly towards the next door that stood past the bed. Further down the halls he went, turning over everything in his head piece by piece reflecting on what he had just read, a deep sigh shuddering as he felt all sense of eagerness effortlessly slip away from him. His arms fell forwards hung beside his waist as he found the next door to what felt like the outside due to its more sturdy construct. He pulled out the map with weakening urge upon him. He was actually closer to his destination than he thought previously as he remembered his map, scanning over it to see he was indeed but a few flights away towards the top of the castle reach. It was the only thing that could make him feel happy to just focus on his feastful reward in its shortcoming, but the door was locked by some strange force of magic. Even with his strength it was impenetrable much like the door to the catacombs was as he noticed something on its frame. An elegantly written note wedged into the door's hinges.

Reflect Upon Your Thoughts Before You Open This Door

It took him little time to realise as he walked back the way towards the lady's bedroom, seeing the mirror on the dressing table which he sat down at to face. Sighing heavily, he looked through the various drawers of the white table to try and find something resembling a key, but there was no luck. Nothing but a hairbrush and some pins and handkerchiefs as he looked back upon the mirror. His face had been replaced by a long white beak beneath eyes of slitted red for but a brief instant. "Oh...are you looking for something?" The face had disappeared showing Scissoraptor once again as he blinked slightly, the sight of too sudden a different face making him feel slightly light-headed before the mirror slightly bent forwards of its own will. Turning by its revolving hinge, he saw that the last drawer he had opened reflected itself in the mirror, but it had a different set of contents. A key, shining gold perfectly despite the demon not seeing it in the actual drawer as a voice whispered across the room. "Your eyes must be so...sleepy right now." The raptor's hand dug inside the drawer thinking perhaps he was not seeing properly, but despite his hand in the mirror also doing the same, there was no key he felt inside the drawer. He looked back up to see his face grinning in the mirror. But he wasn't smiling. "Little boys should not be playing with mummy's things." The mirror spun fast to its opposite side, showing a different room with two beds separated next to each other on the left, with a door directly opposite. A small bird cage could be seen covered over by a cloth as the demon saw someone sleeping. A woman's body, recognising the coiffed hair as the door opened. The scissors shining through the light of the hall could be seen as a little boy in old Victorian-style clothing snuck in through with soft buckled shoes and blue coat, his face disfigured by natural flaws. He approached the bed, the woman's body raising and lowering in warm peace as the child gently stood between the beds facing her back, looking over her curiously as if she were a new strange species undiscovered. Fascinated, he dared not touch her as he rose up the large set of blades above her head ready to plunge into her neck. His hands started trembling. "What...are you doing?" The Scissoraptor watched with fearful intrigue, seeing the past play out before him as his claws gripped fierce upon the dressing table. "You know what you are here for...now do it." The boy was hesitating. He had never hesitated in his life as the scissors shook even further. "Do it. Kill her. D-do it. That's what you are here for...do it. KILL." But he never did. He couldn't. His blades rose ever higher shadowing across Mary Barrows' neck but they never came down upon her. She slept blissfully unaware of how close death had come to her. _ "DO IT! WHY ARE YOU STRUGGLING TO KILL HER, SHE WAS NOTHING BUT A FEEBLE HUMAN, DO IT! DOOOO IIIIIT!" "Is she but a feeble human?"_ The voice spoke once again as the demon looked around the room viciously. _ "STOP IT! STOP WHISPERING YOU INCESSANT LITTLE FLEA!" "If she is so feeble, why does she have such power over you? You are so afraid, more than you think." "I have never feared anything in my life, I AM Fear itself." "Then what does Fear fear? You have seen such things beyond your world, you have seen creatures greater than you. A soul devourer not even at the apex of his food chain." "SHUT UP!" "Let us just reminisce about such things."_ The mirror spun once again despite the raptor's protests, a dark underground chamber filled with trembling souls. He was looking through somebody's perspective as their head turned peering along the cavernous labyrinth, turning corners along passages all with strange white souls resembling formless orbs. Then he heard the sound, the crunching screaming abyss that moved by itself. An enormous spherical creature, faded into a paling colour with giant mouth of twisted broken teeth, like a bare forest in snow after cruellest blizzard. Its once perfectly round shape was now chipped and scraped across every part, its eyes were that of feasting effortless hunger, staring from above its enormous mouth which stretched out to 1/5th of its entire body size. Only hatred remained within as it swallowed the mirror's sight, rippling vile fear through the demon's memory as he shook in panic. _ "N-N-NO! THAT NEVER HAPPENED, TH-THAT THING WAS BUT AN ANOMALY!" "Anomaly? Ohhhhh thank you for reminding me, you have also faced those beyond your comprehension haven't you?" "ENOUGH OF THIS! ...give me the key, that is in this mirror and I shall leave." "Ohhhh but I haven't given you enough reflection my good sir." "Do NOT test me." "This is not a test, it is simply your answer for your new struggles that lurk within, now let's look."_ A foul pit at the very depths of a ruined basement, radioactive to the point of corrupting through the tiled floor into the foetid earth beneath it as he saw a trembling pillar of destruction. Pulsing with a sudden aura of amber and purple, his body shook with fears reawakened at the sight of the totem rearranging itself, twisting and distorting with numbered shapes coalescing as walls began crumbling around him. He felt the pain returning back to him with every blast of energy it resonated like a tesla coil as darkness consumed the entire room until only the mirror was shining forth. _ "NO! NNNNNNNO! THAT WAS BUT A VISION, A HALLUCINATION, N-N-NOTHING LIKE THAT THING EVER EXISTED?!" "I do not create illusions for you demon. I create memories with a whole new...perspective on things, things you never considered. What if perhaps...you are not the monster you wish to be?" "SHUT UP!" "What if you are but another beast, lurking in corridors like some little rat no different than to the worm that festers upon a corpse?" "I AM NOT A BEAST!" "What if...what if you are...what if? What if? What...if?" "N-N-NO! YOU know nothing, you are but a trickster, a presdigitarian!" "Hide behind your words, but I see no words in my mirrors to protect you."_ A hand swung through the mirror to grab at the wall beside it, slender and red in gloves before its arm followed through as the demon backed off with surprise in his moment of weakness. Something scrabbled out like a spider from a human skull, crawling with long limbs and a cloak with little bells tinkling softly. Not the sort that Scissoraptor hated, for these were jingling bells rather than the ones that clanged, but still a sound that made him nervous before the long red-legged creature wearing a bird-shaped mask. "That's better."

He sat upon the mirror crosslegged like a tightrope walker sitting on a wire, smacking his lips underneath his mask with a voice so sweet, like melted caramel yet oddly calm. "Now...what do you want?" "I want...to be free from this place and obtain my reward!" "No...that's not it." "What?!" "You want something else, don't you?" "I do not know what you are talking about, what trickery is this?!" "No tricks my good sir, only truths lay outside of this mirror. A mirror can reveal many things such as lies and surreptitions, but only when I'm inside of it. Now...what do you want?" "ENOUGH!" _ The demon threw his scissors harshly at the long-legged humanoid who simply flickered turning into glass as the blades suddenly disappeared within him, before reappearing violently hurled almost instantly out from the mirror nearly severing through the Scissoraptor himself. _ "WHAT!?" "Lies...and surreptitions." The voice was now behind him as he turned to see another mirror now appearing before him, a long-lengthed smooth layer of glass showing his entire body. But his self inside the mirror began speaking with the softer voice, showing the bedroom still behind him as if the demon were on the other side of the looking glass. "They are always created by another's voice from within, a voice everybody knows but is too afeart to admit." "Don't try to manipulate me into any of your stupefying paranoia!" "Yes." "What?!" "That is me. But we have a reason for me existing, don't we my dear newcomer? It is paranoia that invites one to fear, and it might be that fear that you wield in order to save your life. But one like you, who has nothing to fear reasonably..." He felt a sudden weight on his head like a feather upon his brow as he saw the mirror show his reflection once more, the red-legged Paranoia sitting cross-legged perfectly atop his skull. "Then why have I come to you?" "G-GET OFF!" _ The raptor swung his scissors violently sharp, spinning fast but found nothing upon him, not even a shred of cloth. The limber-looking human stood bowing before him in the mirror. _"As much as I am honoured to have been part of your psychosis, I must stress that I am only here until you solve your riddle." "What riddle?!" "The one you so create yourself...for as to why you have summoned me." "I would NEVER summon you!" "No. Nobody summons me willingly. I am...a fearful presence." He clasped his hands together before peering at something inside breathing hotly once. Spiders suddenly appeared as a blackening swarm from his fingertips, crawling over every little part of his body which in turn the Scissoraptor felt too. Creeping manipulative little limbs running up and down his entire host's skin setting off a thousand nerves all at once all over his flesh, tingling despite not a single thing appearing upon him. "I am not there. But I am there. Creeping along your dead skin." "Yes...I can....ssssseeee that." "The eyes in your brain can see me." "Brains do not HAVE eyes you simpleton." "How do you know? Have you ever-" "Yes I have seen what a brain look like and they do NOT!" "But what about YOUR brain? Have you ever seen it?" "I don't HAVE a brain, I am pure virulent essence I have evolved beyond such worthless flesh!" "Then how can you see...without eyes?" The creature known as Paranoia dug into the eyesockets of his mask and suddenly carved out both his own eyes, ripping with a severing of flesh as he tore two thick melting strips of rubbery white goo before snapping the reddened tendrils out. Scisso could see nothing of this as he suddenly felt the dark consume him looking around with scissors fully out. _ "WH-WHAT DID YOU DO!?" "You cannot see without eyes, can you?" "STOP TRICKING ME, SHOW YOURSELF TO ME!" "Hm. Alright."_ He saw another mirror, this one was more elegant than the last of rich silver embossed frame and the most sturdy-looking glass as he saw himself within it. The problem was that it was not his body, or rather not the body he was currently inhabiting for while the Scissoraptor was within the mirror, the demon itself looked down upon himself and saw he was now in Paranoia's long-limbed body. _ "ARE YOU-...STOP THIS, YOUR STUPID WRETCHED INFANTILE TRICKS ARE WASTED ON ME!" "Did I not show yourself to me?" said the raptor in the mirror. "I MEANT-...hm...wordplay, oh, how pathetic of you to be like some flimsy caricature, now give me back my body!" "Your body? I thought you were formless." "I mean my HOST'S body!" "Mmm...yes, host."_ The demon's host within the mirror walked plaintively through the room he had once been in as his voice continued trickling through the glass. Literally, in the sense that his words were now forming as wet condensation spelled out upon the mirrored surface. _"Are you always stealing bodies, because you cannot see yourself?" "STOP this!" "Not until you tell me what you want." "I WANT YOU DEAD!" "Good, that's good, your honesty is a miracle upon you. Tell me why." "Because you are INFURIATING!" "Why?" "Because of your stupid tricks!" "Why?" "BE-...are you seriously going to trip me up into some confession?! I am not a child!" "Do you think you are one still?" "I HAVE NEVER BEEN A CHILD, I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN LIKE THIS!" "Even in your first moments of existence, cold and empty?" "My first moments were of joy and curiosity upon these worthless creatures, the human race who so offered to make me a totem of their fear of death!" "Ah...then the humans gave you purpose." "WHA-WHAT?! THAT IS NOT TRUE!" "You just said they did, they offered to make you a totem of their fear embodiment...were you already one before?" "I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN-...SH-SHUT UP!" _ Striking the mirror down, he scarred deep within his reflection as a huge tremendous gash sliced apart at himself, gasping with sudden shock at the pain running through him before he looked down at himself. He was back to his own body, and his reflection remained too whilst the red-legged creature sat gingerly on top of the mirror. _"What...do you want in life?" "For you to cease this charade, I am tired of this wretched castle and I am ESPECIALLY tired of YOU and this nonsense!" "Only because you make it nonsense. The only one who ever made it difficult, was you." "ENOUGH OF THIIIIS!" _

He swung once again, shearing his long bladed tips towards the whispering creature who simply jumped over the scissors as he kicked the mirror's top hard enough to spin it, thwacking Scisso hard on the chin before diving inside the mirror. Now the bird-masked one was standing in the reflection itself, rubbing his hands all along the deep cut of the raptor's body as Scisso felt his fingers creeping, digging into his wounds. "You only hurt yourself...you only cause pain to everyone, even those who want to befriend you. Why are you so eager to prove you are the strongest at the cost of everyone you know?" "It-...wh-what are you on about?! What sort of question is that you STUPID little beast?!" "Why do you wish to prove everything? Does it really matter being the strongest?" "OF COURSE IT MATTERS YOU FEEBLE WRETCH, ALL DEMONS DESIRE STRENGTH, IT IS WHAT MAKES US MORE FEARSOME THAN ANYTHING!" "Is it? When has anyone in this place ever felt the same need?" "Pardon?!" "No one else has ever spoken like you...no one else ever needed to prove their strength, not Dullahan, not Slogra, not Gaibon...none of those you meet ever felt such insecurity like you." "Insecurity?! HAH! HHHHAH, oh that is rich, how pathetic of you to try and psychoanalyse me like I'm some HUMAN with flaws of their PITIFUL anatomy!" "You believe in your strength?" "Of course I do! I have only just consumed seven-hundred-and-FIFTY SOULS in the last two weeks, my essence has become stronger than ever! I could have had a more mitigating struggle in this place, if it wasn't for those I've slain, for all the wretched mortals in the town of Pordana, and all I so took in that village before the bell's accursed ring! If it was not for all those seven-hundred-and-fifty suffering I MIGHT have had a more difficult time without all this great STRENGTH inside of me, burning through all of the souls I have slaughtered and consumed recently!" "Then why...are you so upset?" "Because I am INSULTED by you!" "If it is not true, why be insulted?" "Because you DARE to think that of me, regardless of its truth!" "Regardless of its truth...interesting." "What?!" "For I suppose if one beast desperately believes something that he was told he, is that any reason to think he's a liar?" "What the hell do you mean?!" "Imagine..." The mirror began to fog, flickering with images of his past rampantly with signs of ancient craters, long forgotten humans dressed in ancient clothing as fire and torment sweeped across the countryside. Monstrous visions and apparitions permeated through their minds bursting from their throats and slowly becoming fed into a single idol. A totem, small and carved enough to fit in one's hand of a thin dagger-like beast perched upon a human skull as the creeping Paranoia walked through this triptych of terror. "Being told all of your life that you are fear...you are terror...a monster beyond reckoning. A child can only believe what he has been told by his mother and father. What were you told to believe in?" "I-i...wh-what are you drivelling about, what is this?!" "If I had a son, and told him that he was the son of God since birth, constantly, unendingly throughout his entire life, would he still believe that I told the truth? Would he be truly a liar for the truth that he so believes from me, that he makes a part of himself, and so the lie I have told him that I believed myself would so infect him with this belief? Or would he manage to break through and see the lies I have told him, and realise that those he trusts have only ever wanted to use him as but a legacy of delusion?" "Only a human could be so pathetic to believe such puerile manipulate of words." "Yes. A child is born with no state of mind, blind to the ways of mankind, so anything they are told will become truth but only if..." The limb dexterous demon sat down upon the floor in the mirror's room and softly crossed his wrists before trickling fingers across his vision as if about to cast a magic spell. "Their family believes it too, or society does in sync. All of which, are fuelled by those like me, whispering throughout generations of the weak-willed and fearful. God loves you for who you are, God hates you for your choices. Women are worthlessly stupid and have no place above a man's station." "What?!" _ The demon saw red strings suddenly appearing from between Paranoia's fingers as he began to form crosses webbing between his hands. _"People from that country are filthy degenerates, people of that religion are subhuman scum. You will never be more successful than your father, your dog ran away to the circus." He stopped moving his fingers before leaning close, yet the demon felt his beak brushing against his ear from behind him. "You are the son of Fear and Terror." "WH-OF COURSE I AM!" _ The Scissoraptor turned slashing across thin air itself before turning back towards the mirror now showing the room with Paranoia as his words softly trickled deep into his being. _ "I AM THE SON OF THE GREAT FATHER!" "Your mother is too busy working to come home." "I exist to rend unto humanity their suffering as deserved!" "Your love for men is but a disease." "I HAVE TO KILL BECAUSE I EXIST TO KILL!" "This medicine will cause your child's brain to turn retarded." "I HAVE TO KILL! BECAUSE! I EXIST TO BE!" "You were always my first child." "I! HAVE! TO KILLLL!" "You have...to kill." "I...I have to...I have to kill, I m-must...I am the son of the Great Father, that is my purpose...I was born to kill, I was created to be an avatar of death, of Fear and Terror!" "That is my purpose." "I...h-have to...m-mother told me...th-they all told me...all of her family...told me that-" "You were born to become Fear. Terror. Monstrous beyond anything humanity shall see." "E-every human...must...fear me. Must...fear me." "Why?" ".........because...I have...to kill." "Why?" "......I don't know." _ It was then that his voice dropped sharply to a soft whisper, staring in disbelief at himself now reflected back in the mirror. **"I don't...know why I do this. I was told, long ago by those who worshipped me when I came upon their civilisation, from a fallen star I came from within infinite darkness...a creature unnamed and unknown...but they were the ones who told me that I was but their mitigator of death...of Fear and Terror. Humanity...the humans made me what I was. No...n-n-no...they can't...but no one else came before me, not in my homeworld...the humans made me...their monster."** He sat down shaking with the sudden weight of the truth, seeing himself in the mirror mimicking him. The demon closed his eyes wrapping his hands around himself as a great pain throbbed within his stomach cavity. _ "It...is all I know. It...is everything I know, only...myself. Me, myself, there is only myself and nobody else but me, so I kill. I have to kill. Me, myself, I was born a child of the Great Father. And so, I have to kill. Ripping stomachs, rending arms, lopping legs, gouging eyes, and snipping necks. I have to kill. Me, myself, I have been born again. Here, in this manner, for this purpose. Mother. I need you, mother. Wait for me. I'll come to you...right away. I have to kill. I have to kill." "Thank you...hmhmhmhm...hhhhaaahahahahahahhahaha, ha ha ha ha ha ha..."

The voice whispered with a soft gentle cackling that rose to a sheer deafening intensity from within his ear as he opened his eyes at the room now returned back to him. The mirror stood on the dressing table perfectly untouched, the bed still soft of eiderdown with diary still on its seated desk. There was a golden key in front of the raptor as he softly picked it up, now more confused and distressed than ever he had been. He was lost within his own senses, without a purpose now being taken from him as he began to question everything that he believed. He walked towards the locked door with robotic gait, formless in his empty mind without a single thought to take from his odd experience. He wanted to dispel the Paranoia's thoughts completely, but like the namesake itself it would always creep back in whenever he managed to debate himself out of it. All his purpose was, everything he had been built to be by both those who had summoned him and those he had terrified around him, becoming nothing more than an echo chamber of his own fearsome ego. But for the first time in his life, he didn't hear anything return back to him. No terror-frought screams, no pitiful elegies, no soothing words of destruction from his maternal summoner but now only questions about himself. Questions about his very nature and existence all permeating around inside his head like a thickening mass swamp to drown himself into. He had no idea how to comprehend this, or even fight back against this enemy inside himself. The door unlocked diffusing its magic aura the moment he twisted the key into its lock. Beyond the door was but a long high-walled bridge made of stone between two towers, one higher than the other with thick tall ramparts on either side of him to prevent any falling off. He felt the mist start rolling in before his vision, as the storm began coming to its fruition closer evermore towards the tower peak. It was as thick as a blizzard, as well as cold enough to sap heat from his already cold body. His face never moved from his blank sallow cheeks, hung morbidly black eyes and a heavy brow as thunder began booming shorter after the lightning strike, tingling a soft nerve within James' body reminding Scisso of his weakness. Then he heard a voice that he would recognise instantly, bellowing from the other end of the tower bridge. "FEARG AR AN SPEIR!" Resonating thickly with the bolt of lightning, thunder struck upon a shapely form within the mist briefly silhouetting against itself as a tall bulky-looking shadow that swung thickly with a wild crackling weapon of pure electricity. A loathsome trembling conflagration that warped thickly the air around itself with little sparks of shock fury as the voice called out to him with one simple question asking: "You ever heard of The Epic of Gilgamesh?" The raptor said nothing, staring blankly through the vision who simply walked forwards with soft clanking steps, his razor-sharp sword of lightning now shimmering traces of itself behind it. "It's an ancient story from Mesopotamia, about four thousand years ago, one of the great first works of human literature. A grand and powerful hero king called Gilgamesh is bored with life. He's almost two-thirds a god, he's handsome, gorgeous, beautifully strong, enough so that he sleeps with every woman in all the village and the husbands aren't too happy about it. But hey, he's the king." The shadow shrugged nonchalant in his step towards him. "Eventually the populace complain enough to the gods to help Gilgamesh have something to distract him with, to stop fuckin' their wives constantly and so they give him a wild manbeast man called Enkidu, who lives amongst the animals terrifying the farmers. Gilgamesh and him first meet, and then beat the everloving shite out of each other until they're both still just barely standing, struggling to outlast each other's blows and soon became inseparable friends. They decide to take life by the horns, to grab everything they can out of it, to fight against the great and fearsome beasts that plague the land within dark forests and bottomless pits all whilst fighting alongside each other through thick and thin. "And throughout all this, Gilgamesh would see the wonders of living, without being bored and tiresome fucking with other people just sitting around being a nuisance, but instead he finds fulfilment, he finds wonder, he finds JOY and excitement alongside his new best friend who he proclaims that he loves more than any woman he could ever be with. ...I." The mist began to clear. "Could have been your Gilgamesh...my dearthair."

Dullahan stopped within twenty feet of him as his form showed at last with hung shoulders bleak and heavy with his heart bowing forwards slightly. The Scissoraptor said nothing simply standing and waiting for him to finish politely, his mind still wracked with trembling sensations of doubt. "I saw in you something strange and wonderful, a wild beast that had been thrown into this place, and I thought to myself of that same fable from ancient times past...I always wanted somebody like you, someone who didn't care about the rules and just wanted to jump out and have a good time fucking up foreign beasts and spitting in the eye of God...but then you went off and killed people I knew, those whom I served alongside of, even my own superiors. I believed in you...I...I believed you could be better than that. But not anymore." The dreaded knight swished his sword out to the side with crackling lightning stirring from within. "My orders are to kill you, and if that's something I cannot do then at least I must stop you, prevent you from travelling upwards to my master's lair and all that lies within. I know what your weakness is...you hadn't a chance against that creature in Galamoth's quarters and I know that this blade of thunder I hold could easily fuck you up. Which is why..." He pressed his hand firmly upon the blade before swishing it fast across with a deep yet gentle murmur, suddenly rendering the electricity inert as his blade returned to sharpest bone. "I'm not going to use it. Because I want to show you something. I want to show you that you can still trust me. All I need to now know is...that I can trust you. You have that golden key over there don't you?" The unseelie pointed towards the door behind Scissoraptor as his neck turned slightly away with gross fearful irritation. "I can see its...glint, I can tell it's right there in the door and everything. I know that you know it's my weakness, you're not stupid, I know you're not. So I want to trust you. I won't use your weakness against you, if you shall not use mine against me. You can call me an idiot all you want, but there is one thing I am not. And that is dishonest. I will not betray you, even though you've already betrayed me." "...why?" _ The raptor looked firmly towards Dullahan. _ "Why are you doing this? Why do you insist on being my friend, when I have already committed such great atrocity towards your new stately home?" "Because you and I are practically the same! You and me, banished from God wherever He may roam His light upon the world, you and me could stand up against that fuckshite, we could become something BIGGER! Maybe others see you as some kind of rampaging beast or some kind of soul scavenger but I see you more as Enkidu. You only need a purpose, a direction in life, somewhere that could put you someplace where you can achieve your real destiny. I want...to give you that purpose. Please...dearthair...p-please." He said nothing for a few short moments, the thunder turning soft as it seemed to roll on by or at least stop trembling across the very sky of Romania, dark with bleakness in the two last hours before dawn. The most magic and terrifying of hours where anything could have happened to somebody as the raptor spoke. "Do you truly think, that I would ever consider you a brother? My brother...the one whom I was born with into the Barrows family, was the only who ever understood." The Scissoraptor turned towards the ramparts of the bridge, stepping over to place his hands on the cold stone as he sighed deep with a mental exhaustion. "We were of the same lineage, both sons of the Great Father. He devoured the flesh, whereas I devoured the soul, and yet despite our resurrection into the next generation, our bodies were deformed in the initial birth. We were able to escape the death of our first hosts by our combined power to stop time itself, at least upon our hosts when they were but children. But we were forever trapped by the mansion's power preventing us from moving anywhere else, for if we ever did, our bodies would completely decay. We needed something healthy and fresh...like this one. But...I could not find my brother." He walked slowly back to the centre of the bridge facing Dullahan. "He tried to break free, creating a perfect body that was free of impurities by forming a coccoon of human flesh and blood, transforming through metamorphosis with every perfect part he took from many victims. And yet, the one who destroyed my new family had undone all of this, for I could not feel his presence after all that had happened...that...worthless BITCH Jennifer." Sneering violently, his eyes began to pierce through the unseelie as he met his gaze unseen. _ "Worthless FOETID human through spirit and sickening arrogance managed to cripple my host before this one, burn my brother to ashes and even have the audacity to cause the death of my mother...summoner. I had everything. A perfect life, alone with the only two creatures I ever needed. One to supply our fresh victims and keep feeding us with their terror and mortal fear...and one who made me feel complete. Whole again." "Do you miss him?"_ asked Dullahan. "I do not know. I...I have never felt this...pain in my heart until the last room I went through, it is a......this." He tapped at his chest feebly with shaking hand. _ "It feels heavy...my heart, rather this creature's heart I feel...it hurts everytime I think of...my mother, my brother, that is not-" "That's sorrow." "What?" "It's sorrow you are feeling. That sorrow is what you feel for having lost your dear mother." "That...that is not possible, it cannot be, I have, I-i-i do not have any mortal weaknesses to even feel such emotion!" "Is it not possible? She loved you surely, in fact she was the only one to ever love you, even you said so yourself." "She was delusional!" "And yet she cared for you. She loved you, taught you, praised you and fed you, gave you back life into this realm of mortals. You knew that she was the only woman, the only mortal whom had done anything to ever care for you...love you."_

All of a sudden he felt something build up in his throat, a strange breathless gasp as his eyes winced tightly. His heart ached more deeply as the sensation turned harshly in his stomach, biting his lip, struggling to compose himself as he murmured: _ "No...sh-she...she did not do this for me...she was only in it for herself." "Is that really true? Cuz the way you spoke about her makes me think-" "HUMANS ARE NOTHING MORE THAN SIMPLY CATTLE, THEY ARE FOOD, THEY ARE BUT PREY BENEATH ME, THEY CANNOT GRASP SUCH GREATNESS AS ME! I...I did not...I did not need her." "That doesn't mean that you did not WANT her to be with you. You loved her too...didn't you Scisso?" "...that is not possible. I cannot...I cannot ever feel love." "What?" "I am not even capable of it. It is not...an emotion I can feel, through every century I have lived, I have never loved anyone in that way but she was...Mary...Mary Barrows. She loved me far more than anything who ever could want me. All the others before her, all of her lineage, her previous ancestry that brought me upon them as a curse, they treated me like some dog, a pet, a monster but she so treated me as her own breathing son that I cannot feel anything but-...wh-...wh-wh-what?" _ He felt his cheeks turn wet as he rubbed a claw up towards his eyes feeling a pitiful drop of water as he stood back in horror. _ "No. No, no this...this isn't even possible, I have never...n-never felt like this, I am not-" "You cannot be incapable of sadness. Every creature feels it, you must feel something at knowing loss. You can be joyful, angry, jealous, I've seen emotions from you-" "THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE! SEE THIS?! THESE SHOULD NOT EXIST, I HAVE NEVER FELT THIS-...THIS PAIN INSIDE ME WHAT IS THIS?! Wh-why is my heart...s-so tight and bitter in its warmth as if-I DON'T EVEN HAVE A HEART, IT SHOULD NOT EVEN FEEL LIKE THIS!" "It doesn't matter whether you have a heart or not physically, you can still FEEL can't you?" "...I...I-i-i...I don't WANT to feel." _ Snarling fiercely as he focused on his anger, he did everything he could to pull through his confused state of grief long neglected and further still to be neglected. _ "I...am the Son of the Great Father, the great terror of all that mortals fear, I feast upon death and TERROR that I so exhude from humanity's wretched rotting corpse, I do not FEEL anything. Nothing but the joy of seeing their lives expire from pure fear, the frustration I have felt upon my impedence by those too brave or foolish to comprehend but not...not love. Love is but the opposite of fear, and as such I...I have never known such other than by a weakness amongst my prey." "A weakness? You call Love a weakness?" "Empathy is but a wretched spell causing simply death and ruination upon those in numbers. Do you know what empathy DOES? It forces you to rely upon others, those in arms beside you and when one of them falls you shall fall too with them, no matter how well-experienced that you are!" "THAT'S NOT TRUE! There's strength in numbers Scisso, that's why we all band together here, to defy GOD!" "DO YOU THINK YOUR RANK AND SUPERIORS WOULD HAVE DIED, IF SUCH WORDS WERE TRUE GAN CEANN?! Your wretched little bird and bat, worthless to the very end when if they had not so deeply cared for each other, would have given me a MUCH more stressful fight worthy of my attention!" "...no. You know what would have happened if they hadn't cared about each other?" "What?" "You would have killed them in at least half the time it took you. But you didn't, because they united against you, they fought to protect their home bravely because they LIVED for each other. If you and I had fought together...I would have done the same thing and last just as long as they did against you, I guarantee it." "No you can't, you don't care about me and you are still but yourself!" "WHY DO YOU FIGHT THEN!? WHAT DRIVES YOU ONWARDS, WHAT POINTLESS QUEST ARE YOU MAKING YOURSELF IF YOU HAVE NOBODY TO TRUST IN, NOBODY TO BELIEVE IN?!" "I DO NOT KNOW, ALRIGHT?! I LITERALLY DO NOT KNOW WHAT MY FUCKING PURPOSE IIIIS!" _ He fell to his knees shrieking loud enough to wake the very dead as thunder boomed above them. Rain started falling, trickling at first to dapple along the Scissoraptor's back and dribbling off of Dullahan's raw wounded neck before the downpour started to increase, drenching them slowly in the cold bitter Carpathian rain. _ "I...I-i-i do not know...why I am here. All I ever listened to was my masters, my summoners, the ones who brought me back time and time again like some wretched monster, a vile BEAST of burden! But then she...sh-she was...the only one to ever...care for me like something more than just some tool, or just some weapon but why? Why did she care for me? I was to be feared, a monster, a wretched harbinger of death to be on her own species, that she WANTED it as her ancestors did, to be the great death of humanity that she allowed all for a taste of its great destruction and yet she CARED for me! WHY!? WHY WOULD SHE DO SUCH A THING?!" "Because she gave you her son's body...does that not make you her son in turn? Do you really not understand love and empathy? Don't you even have any for your brother?" "I...I-i-i respected him. That is all." "Bullshit, you talk about him like he was, well, your brother, you don't just RESPECT him, you loved him. You just never understood what love was until then and you simply never realised, did you? And now...you're too proud to admit when those feelings come rising back up again, because you're nothing but a fucking arrogant CHILD!" "SHUT UP! SHUT UP I AM FAR MORE ANCIENT THAN YOU DULLAHAN, YOU BOW DOWN TO ME!" "I don't CARE how old you are, you're pathetic! Why can't you just accept your feelings and stop fighting everyone, YOU'RE EVEN FIGHTING YOURSELF!" "I AM NOT FIGHTING MYSELF, YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT MEEEE!" "Then stop it. Just...please stop this, there's no need for all of us non-humans to be infighting with each other, it's us against the word of God, we can stand together and UNITE to bring His worthless light out of this world and usher in a new age of improvement, a greater power for all including you! There's no shame in being part of something big, you're not weak. You won't be any weaker if you just join me and become part of our group, our people...our world. I can make it happen dearthair, I can make you part of greatness, I can make you the strongest demon in all existence if you just please stop fighting. Submit yourself to me...let me...just...kneel before me and accept at least once in your life. Please."_ He spread his arms openly with the most tender smile he never did, one that Scissoraptor felt burning furiously into his seething essence despite the hardened knight's shaking voice. _"I-i-i promise...that I...w-will make you part of our glory, g-greater than anything you could ever have been if you just become friends with me. I'll let you be whatever you want, we'll rule like kings together, greater th-than the giants ever could, greater than the Tir Bolg themselves ever could, you remember? You remember S-scisso? P-please...please-" "SHUT UP! SHUT UP YOU FILTHY IRISH DEGENERATE, I DO NOT CARE WHAT YOU WANT FROM ME ANYMORE! YOU TRY AND STOP ME, THEN I SHALL FUCKING KILL YOUUUU!" _

The raptor shoved Dullahan violently back onto the floor with one push of darkened burst as the thick steel clattered powerfully onto the cold rain-slicked bridge, before he made over back to the door and grabbed the gold key shining fiercely before Dullahan. He balked slightly, the tantalisingly sharp piercing glint burning into his body as his sword started to quiver, rattling softly with every step the demon took towards him as he gently began getting back up. He snarled fiercely, crushing the key almost in his grip as he held it aloft like a torch ready to burn upon Dullahan's body. His sabre shook violently, a hot rising fear that almost brought him to tears with hot shivering breaths as he dared himself not to turn away, before Scisso threw his hand out. He hurled the key forth into the darkness below the bridge. "You want to fight me?" The demon drew out his scissors much to Dullahan's surprise. "Then let us face each other in our final encounter. DON'T. Disappoint me." The great knight of Celtic lore stopped shaking as he mustered his strength, forcing his resolve to protect his lord and master before swiping out his long bone rapier amidst the thundering rainstorm. Thickening wet upon each other's bodies cold as the devil's heart, they charged against each other almost simultaneously against the backdrop of an early Romanian morn, the sun not even daring to show its face beneath the Carpathian Mountains struck silhouetted by the flash of lightning. The forests shining like teeth from the fifth circle of Hell beyond amidst the rainstorm as the monsters clashed, sword against scissors scraping briefly before they backed off a foot away from each other. They struck once more as Dullahan swung overhead with the raptor crossing horizontal, guarding himself fiercely before punching raw fist of demon strength harshly into his armoured chest. Staggering slightly, the raw beheaded unseelie pulled back his blade before his lunging thrust straight through the raptor's eye. Shrieking from the sudden jab as six inches buried deep into his socket, his ball popped bleeding thickly with water now indistinguishable from the cold drenching shower that did nothing to affect either of the undead. Scissoraptor retaliated with full force, carving low and deep towards the unseelie's abdomen as he shanked through half his gut, scraping past the armoured steel with trembling darkness pulsing from his scissorblades. Dullahan gasped from his throat as the corpseflesh beneath began to thicken and bleed slightly, before he swung down harshly upon Scissoraptor's head forcing him to back off and guard. The moment he did, the tall knight began to charge like a bull, slamming him against the side wall of the bridge by his shoulder as he cracked the raptor's neck back against the rampart. The demon pushed up his legs whilst getting a grip by his claws upon the wall, wrapping them around Dullahan's waist and plunging his scissors directly from above a few inches into the monstrous neckwound. Crying out with shocking pain, the knight swung his elbow into the raptor's stomach and punched him fiercely off of him before they stood facing each other once more. Cautiously pacing their steps, they made a brief rush towards the other with blades swung low almost simultaneously until they struck. Clashing violently in an X-pattern of bone and raw steel, they clashed once again forming another X, then a T, always blocking against the other by at least five consecutive strikes. The fifth time they struck, Dullahan had his sword horizontal to force against Scisso's vile vertical strike, carving downwards to almost split the rain in half by his cleaving swing that the unseelie managed to resist. Pushing back with one gauntlet hand on his hilt and the other upon the blade itself, his strength was more than enough to resist the unholy possessed as the two forced each other away once again before instantly clashing another sixth. The seventh attack amidst this was the same as the previous, scraping each other's blades off of each other by a feinting glance, hoping the other would let down their guard enough to open for another attack. Scissoraptor misread for a second the unseelie's move as the knight double-cut across his vision first to the left and then right, knocking away his scissors before carving up viciously across the demon's chest.

Tearing through his stomach before the lunging pierce deep into his intestine, he pulled out swiftly whilst Scisso was busily trying to keep his guts from falling out to boot him fiercely across the head. The raptor was sent with blistering headache down to the floor still clutching his open gutwound to keep his organs from dismembering fully as Dullahan stepped up towards him. Stomping violently upon his head, he missed as Scisso rolled to the left before the raptor swung out his scissors to strike violently in midair against the knight's bone carving rapier. With demon weapon now out fully, he was forced to attack against it without any true enemy of flesh to pierce as he went into full defensive, blocking every attack that came from bladed fury upon him. Sweeping left then right, downwards then horizontal once more, Dullahan blocked against the first two before dodging swiftly against the third and fourth by the bend of his leg and rearing his body back heftily. He watched the scissors open before striking down on him like a bat, cutting and snapping viciously with bone-snapping crunch at his arm. Twisting ruthlessly even through his armour, the monstrous unseelie roared furiously before he slammed his fist into the scissors' handles knocking them away before they swooped round and stabbed at the back of his leg. He wasn't fast enough to jump away as twisted tips scraped fiercely down his back tendon, slicing it openly beneath his greaves and causing him to stumble sharply onto one knee. But he wasn't going to stop, pushing himself up against the walled side whilst standing back onto his good leg as he beckoned Scisso's demon blades to come forth. Thrusting violently into the stone, the cold steel vibrated fiercely with rage at having missed their target who dodged out of the way hobbling on his bad leg, before spinning on one foot to reassert his balance. The moment he did, he swung his rapier upwards in a shrieking uppercut clanging fiercely against the scissorblades themselves as they spun wildly upwards. The raptor had managed to reheal his body from the essence before the scissors came back down upon his grip, summoned back into his hand before he charged violently once more with lunging strike. Dullahan dodged deftly turning on one foot before thrusting in return deep into the raptor's chest, crosslancing through his breathless lung that became half-severed by the piercing sharp tip. The raptor possessed simply pushed forwards further impaling himself as he took the hit, grabbing Dullahan by the shoulder and biting deep into the hideous neckwound. Rotting flesh of acrid taste filled his entire mouth as he violently tore at the one flesh remaining exposed upon Dullahan, who stumbled back at such fierceness before Scisso climbed onto his body. Throwing his body weight upon him, he forced the unseelie to fall laying directly on top of him, biting harder with the strength of a rabid wolf snarling with bared teeth as Dullahan cried out, the pain screaming through his very body. Bracing himself through the flesh-tearing constant, he slammed his good knee straight up into Scisso's crotch, which even when possessed caused enough pain to make him stop briefly with a wincing gasp. That was all he needed, as the knight slammed his fist from above directly upon the back of the raptor's head crushing him against his armoured plate before rolling on top of him, smothering him under the weight of his cold steel visage. Dullahan did not stop punching, too close for sword but in perfect range for fists as his hard thick bristling gauntlets were like two fiendish hammers, crunching the raptor's skull into a coma scale patient were he alive. Pounding ferociously up to six times, his final blow came by an overhead swing of both fists coming down crashing hard enough to crack Scisso's jaw wide open, snapping the hinges off fully until the demon had enough space to shank-thrust his blades straight through the unseelie's abdomen. Plunging deep until both bladed tips snapped wide open from his back, his insides parted like the Red Sea in a vicious flowing of blood upon both demonic entities, gasping roars of furious agony from Dullahan who forced himself off. Staggering back with the scissors still imbedded inside of him, he grabbed at the handles before wrenching them viciously out and hurling like a giant shuriken towards the Scissoraptor himself, who caught them deftly in both hands with a spinning grab and thrust that the knight almost did not notice was coming straight for his chest. Once more it plunged straight into his chest, but he soon reached his limit as the grand unseelie felt a pulse of energy from inside of him. A burning thick green fire harkening of the Emerald Isle, the very blood of his ancient mythos permeating through like blood-steeped trembling vines scorching across his breached steel armour. He grabbed Scisso's throat viciously by a fearsome death grip, lifting him high up until his legs kicked at least two feet above the cold stone floor. _"Bathaidh uisge...teth TEINE!" _

Hurling Scissoraptor far across the bridge, the great Dullahan suddenly became wreathed in flames burning out from his hollowed chest wound. The fires turned green like grass upon the moors as his arms blazed with potent fury, the coiling streaks of hot burning soul essence almost tantalisingly potent to the demon who watched in shock at this transformation. The fires soon reached his neck from both arms as the two serpentine flames met, twisting and crackling against each other into one gloriously thick fireball from which a skull's shadow could be seen. A human skull, burnt to a blackening char constantly by his raw fury. "So you shall burn...against... MEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" _ The fire reached through his sabre turning black along the spinal blade as he rushed violently towards Scissoraptor who braced himself guarding, but did not expect the speed at which Dullahan would rush him. The moment he took four steps pumping feet across the rain-scattered bridge, his entire body became a mass inferno of pure unbridled rage. Even more strangely terrifying was the fact it had suddenly become the very image of a horse's head, shrieking with fire-white teeth and jaws open wide before powering straight through the demon Scissoraptor. It was a force unholy, not the most powerful thing he had felt but it was incredible strength still that not only slalomed Scissoraptor against the wall behind him, but also entirely through the wall itself. Crushing fury completely annihilating the brick structure and the fortified door, Dullahan's enraged self pounded the demon into a crumpling heap rolling violently fast across the floor interior of another hallway. One almost adjacently similar to those previous next to the living quarters at the opposite end of the bridge down to the windows flashing lightning fiercely across the red carpet between curtains rustling in the breeze. But the demon was not out for the count, staggering onto his feet with jaw still entirely missing and untwisting his crooked leg straight back into place before staring down his fiery former friend. Dullahan swung forth with a violent sixteen slices, whirling his demon blade across Scissoraptor's vision as he blocked within absolute focus, striking back against no matter how hard that Dullahan striked back. Left right, crossed X, dual thrust, turning spin to swipe and decapitate but Scisso pulled through with eyes piercing into the burning skull shrieking against him. But it was all to be for naught, as soon Dullahan had reached his absolute before the flames started flickering out whilst Scisso pushed into his own outer limits of strength. Burning with raw vivid indigo darkness across his scissorblades, he struck out forcefully against the rapier blade of the unseelie and twisted it from his hand before slashing ruthlessly across the waist. Pure essence from his being came forth finally as his true strength plunged deep carving effortlessly through the great knight of Celtic lore as the flames started to cool and dissipate. He fell onto his knees with a heavy clunk of steel, gasping harsh as the flames bled out of his wounds trickling like warm liquid molten to the touch as he gasped shivering with a fearful remorse. The raptor stood waiting for another attack but there came nothing else, rasping breathless voice from Dullahan struggling to regain his second wind but he found there was none. He grabbed at his rapier but the raptor stopped him with his scissors slammed into the floor threateningly close to the unseelie's trembling fingers. _"HHHhhhhhh...guh...g-g-great...m-master...I...f-f-forgive me...aghhhh..." The raptor walked past him after kicking the sabre away, strolling with half-limp crippling his broken leg which managed to reheal itself by the time he reached back at the bridge through the torn hole in the wall. He grabbed at the broken jaw of the raptor still laying upon the ground before he cracked it back into place, settling it firmly by his darkness before returning back to where Dullahan was still kneeling at his last efforts to even keep his neck up straight, the burning skull now fading away softly with the flames crackling down to a murmur back into his cracked and gaping armour. "G-go on...do it. K-kill me...that's all you ever want to do isn't it? Just kill...nothing but kill until you're on yer own, nothing to keep you safe...not...anyone to be with. I didn't w-want you to be alone, I wanted...t-to be your f-friend because I know th-that wretched loneliness will...drive you in-s-sane without anyone to-" "Be quiet." _ The words came coldly from Scissoraptor as he looked upon the forsaken knight of Dracula's brotherhood as he contemplated through all he had gone through the past few hours of this odd twisted maleficent night. Once the battle furore had left him fully, he saw simply a begotten knight on his knees waiting for the end to come. He raised his scissors high aiming for the raw neck wound slightly shaking from the fearful prospect of being exterminated from this world, heaving shoulders on the edge of tears barely able to look up at the one who would slay him. The scissors never came down upon him, and the next thing he heard was the demon slowly walking away from him. He sheathed his bladed possessor as Dullahan looked up, watching the bleak silhouette of Scisso begin to fade into the darkness of the hall, crying out: _"WAIT! W-W-WAIT, DON'T, STOP!" The footsteps stopped as the demon turned softly in the light of the morning rain, glinting from his dark-consumed eye like a black marble towards Dullahan. He found himself not even able to say anything to protest until Scissoraptor spoke in turn for him. _ "Farewell...dearthair." "...f-farewell...d-dearthair. ...forgive me, master."_

The demon soon left his earshot before ascending the staircase, determined in his own short quest to reach the soul prison he had been so promised for a good many hours since. It was all he cared for at this rate, feeling nothing inside to redeem his own needs, his satisfaction and urges focusing on food. Feast. To consume and sate his festering hunger as he began to accept his bestial needs. His purpose was lost except for his desire to feed, like a wild beast prowling the great planes of existence. As he made his ascent, he could feel a deep presence emanating from the very top of the castle walls trembling with a thick unholy reverence that made him quiver at his core essence. The grand carpeted stairs were lush with red thicker than blood as torches began to ignite in his passing on both sides of him, walls flickering with empty shadows of themselves at the light of flames simply forming out of nothing. It was a long flight, almost six minutes it took but the demon cared not for how long it took anymore at the yawning emptiness that had formed inside of him. He had nothing but his weapon and the host, the only thing giving him any certainty was one day this soul would be completely consumed from its short remaining life by his essence corrupting him. He had plans for this creature, this raptor odd as he was but with strange power he had never seen before that could become his at his complete control. But even then he started to feel his desires slow down, his raw eagerness for destruction ebbing away with each step he took upwards to his final destination, as he felt a bitter absence consume him evermore from within. Soon he managed to reach the top, ignoring another passageway to the side by an automatic step with one foot after the other and the least enthusiasm he could muster before he saw his true objective, at least according to the map itself. Silence reigned the last hall of the great Dracula's castle as he found a ginormous red wreathed iron door. Carved steel vines wrapped thickly across the double-door surface of utmost piercing crimson, almost blindingly red enough to make Scisso's eyes water from even gazing at its grand visage. But it was the magical strength of this door's guard that deterred him much more strongly. Beyond this door he felt an intrinsic great fiendish power, one that almost felt like a god was sleeping within as the raptor walked forwards gently, with each step slowly faltering as his demon essence felt an urge to submit. All demons understood the sense of greatness, the power of dominance from superior beings upon the same hierarchy and Scissoraptor was no different. Despite being from another world his nature was still clear enough, that he struggled to not bow in deference to this all-powerful master from beyond the door. "No...n-no...NO! Who...wh-what power is this? Wh-wh-what can...what monstrous being must live within this castle hall that must send fear through me? It...i-it hurts...a-aaagh..." Pain built within him as he tried to resist, and the more he struggled the more it would hurt but he pushed through regardless, walking to the door as he grabbed at his key from within his pocket. The large bronze six-inch weight trembled with a thin energetic vibration of its ritualistic binding as the demon stepped forth. He felt the gravitation of submittance from this dreaded door as he stomped through, feeling the weight of refusal crush his body essence from within. It was agonising, and to a human it would be the most unbearable torture. But to a demon it felt worse. Whereas only a mortal could feel their organs and flesh being crumpled underneath a solid weight, this was the same feeling for a soul, trampling, stomping, crushing down onto his very existence by intense atmospheric pressure of a fiendish presence from beyond the door. A darkness unmitigating at its rest as he felt enthusiasm return to him. Whatever power laid within had to have been the perfect reward for him to have such strength of deity, perhaps a grand swarm of souls screaming unto one voice to swallow whole as an even greater source of strength than Pordana had ever been. As he pushed himself against the solid oak, thickly wrought with steel from inside he pressed the key into its lock which fit perfectly inside of it. Grinning eagerly with a strained gasp of excitement slowly coming back to him, he gently turned within the lock. Click. The lock started to tremble yet something was not right, a shuddering sensation that came rattling through the key itself. It started to creak and twist gently against his own will as the power from within the door started to overwhelm him, trying to grasp onto the key before something shot him back. "AAARGH!"

Falling onto his knees by a stumbling gait, he watched the key shudder violently before it simply cracked. Snapped in half by the very essence of the door before it was completely exterminated by an unholy blast of repelling magic from within the keyhole. A shattering powerful flame burnt the pure bronze into putrid molten ash, dribbling out of the keyhole before falling into a pathetic brown smear of half-liquid dust. The raptor was in shock at first, struggling to comprehend what just happened as he trembled softly crawling towards the former remnants of his key. "Wha...wh-wh-what...what just......no." Lost and bereft without a single means of way forward, he sat on his knees staring upon the grand indomitable door towards an inner sanctum that he now would never reach. Hope shattered completely within him, before the overwhelming sensation of rage came fiercely from his being as he clasped his hands tightly. Twisting his face into a wretched sneer of deep hate, he slammed his fists upon the door despite it being so thick he would barely even make a sound to disturb anyone within. "NNNNRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! YOU! YOU FORCED ME TO TRAVERSE THIS ENTIRE CESSPIT JUST TO FIX A KEY THAT DOESN'T WORK?! YOU FUCKING SUBHUMAN DEGENERATE! I WILL MAKE YOU PAY FOR THIS! ALL OF YOU, ALL OF YOU WILL PAY FOR WASTING MY TIME, I DID NOT EVEN NEED TO BE HERE FOR THIS PATHETIC CHARADE! YOU...y-y-you........rrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Screeching towards the heavens before the door, none would ever hear of his lament in fury as he raged crying and shrieking like a wild animal clawing at the gate, raking his claws viciously but to no avail for what lied within. It was only then in his most deepest ebb that he heard a voice chuckling from behind him, an oddly human voice deep and resonant. "Hhhhmhmhmhmhm...having problems are we?" "WHAT?!" The raptor turned towards the voice, seeing the black-cloaked friar from the cathedral as he stood up bristling with fury. "YOUUU!" "Hmhmhmhm...did you enjoy your little preening session in the mirror, hellbeast?" "DO NOT INSULT ME! I DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR YOU YOU FUCKING WHORE OF GOD!" "Ha ha ha...oh...you must be mistaken, I am anything but a servant of God. Or rather, not yet I am." "STOP TOYING WITH ME!" "Very well." "WH-what?!" The human let his disguise slip, as his face parted slowly to drip from his skull dissipating the skin into a seething wisp of ash burning blue within his eyes, hollowing themselves to blackened abscess as his black robes pulsed furiously behind him. By a gust of wind unseen from a demon's trace, the cleric shuddered in his self-immolation before his skull pierced through the raw spiritual flames revealing his true self, his height towering above the Scissoraptor as he pulled from empty space a scythe beneath his cloak. "You...you TRICKED ME!" "I am not the only one to have fooled you, wretched beast." "WHY ARE YOU HOUNDING ME?! I CAME FOR MY REWARD AND YOU ARE BUT AN INTERFERENCE!" "Reward for what? A pat on the head for retrieving small gifts like a dog? Perhaps I was wrong about you. You are not vermin, but a useless cur without its master." "SHUT UP! SHUT! UP! I have destroyed your feeble servants and I shall take YOU for my own next!" "Do you wish to challenge me once again, when I have so obliterated you the last two engagements with me? You are perhaps immortal, but you are most certainly not immune to being encased within suffering which I shall exhibit unto you." "YOU THINK YOU CAN FRIGHTEN ME, YOU FILTHY LITTLE WISP! I MAY NOT KNOW MY PURPOSE ANYMORE, BUT I MOST CERTAINLY CAN CREATE ONE BY DESTROYING YOU!" In that moment, something clicked within the Scissoraptor. Softly but surely, something clicked as Death slowly grinned. "Then if you so want to challenge me, come to the very top of the clock tower up the staircase down the hall. I shall be waiting for you there." "NOOOOOO! YOU FIGHT ME HERE, I AM DONE WITH FUCKING CLOCK TOWERS!" "My master's manor, MY rules. Be thankful you have not woken him with your ceaseless racket or else HE would have destroyed you far beyond any existence?" "THEN WHY NOT SUMMON HIM THEN?! If you hold your fearless master in such high regard then have him face me!" "Because I do NOT want to disturb him, especially for one so inferior as you. Do you know how insulting it would be to my lord to have him come and exterminate you simply when I am tired of you? Imagine God being pleaded to destroy an ant, THAT is how infinitesimally beneath you are to Him." Death suddenly disappeared from the demon's vision but he saw his trail of dust, an ashen mist that could only come from a disturbed mass grave as he hounded after him, chasing from the door towards another passage that he passed previously of yet another circling cylindrical stairway. The reaper's voice came briefly as a deep trembling echo from above as the demon chased him down, haunted by his words. "If you so want to be sated by your lust for chaos, come to me at the top of the roof. We shall soon see who truly is more powerful just before the dawn." "COME BACK HERE YOU WORTHLESS WIGHT, I'LL SEVER YOUR EXISTENCE!" "You could not even sever a headless fool, let alone one whose blade has severed plenty before you ever came." "COWARD! FACE ME NOOOOOW!" As he ascended the final staircase of the great castle, he heard that most dreadful sound reminiscent in his memory. The turning of gears heavy upon his head, grinding incessantly with a constant mechanical aberration never stopping. Always the sound kept in rhythm with itself, hearing three then four different sounds of grinding metal creaking all around him. The world above him was an infinite maze of steel teeth that never ceased in its eternal feast of Time, devouring precious seconds upon minutes cautiously slipping away from this world with each passing instant. The Scissoraptor trembled slightly at the reminiscence. He had been in a clock tower only but a few years ago, but that one at least was deactivated for him to traverse without fault but not this one. He felt visions drifting through him as he steadied himself, trying not to lose himself and thinking only one purpose was left to him. To kill Death itself. He had nothing else but this, and if he had to traverse the nightmarish tower that had once destroyed his very livelihood then he had no other choice. He began his ascent, gripping onto a large gear as it slowly turned upwards for him to grab upon a horizontal disc of sheared metal rotating by a giant pole through its ringed central point. He had to be careful, knowing that one wrong move would render him crushed within the gears as he scaled further up. The climb was much easier than he expected once he started teleporting, swiftly making jumps through the steel plates, grappling onto walls like a spider to bounce off onto the next level, occasionally clambering onto rickety platforms well-constructed over wood with thick reinforced girdering for security. The demon could see Death's trail up above him, catching brief snippets of his cloak trailing off into the fading darkness as he climbed upwards without stopping for an instant. He heard the gasping sounds of some poor wretched creature from around him, breathless but clearly somewhere nearby as he ignored it, struggling to pull himself upon another turning wheel crunching its way upwards. The moment he hopped across the abyss now halfway up the clock tower, something began to assault him from behind. "AAARGH!" Turning fast he saw something shaped like a human head with shrieking vile serpents nestling in its hair, a woman's face cold with gangrenous blue skin and a nest of vipers twisting within her scalp. Yet the head itself managed to float as it lunged upon the raptor, who found much to his sudden shock and frustration that his left arm had become petrified by the bite. "YOU WORTHLESS ABORTIONS!" Slashing through the head of the medusa-like beast, the demon kept his ascent despite his petrified arm become deathly stiff by some strange poisonous infliction. It was only brief but enough to deter him from climbing until his essence was able to consume the poison with violent bacterial force, a psychotically-strengthened immune system borne of pure evil. The higher he climbed, the worse the assaults came from all directions of his body, lunging and biting at his heels literally as he staggered falling onto a large turning wheel, his legs having frozen solid in dead rigor mortis. "ENOUGH! GET! AWAY FROM ME!"

But the medusa heads were relentless, flying upon him like a swarm of wasps as their fangs pierced from both their mouths and the dozen serpents within each head of hair rampant with disease infernal. Striking viciously with whole decapitations across the face, he severed through them easily for they were not particularly strong but simply dangerous by hording numbers as he clambered up further. The scissors kept watch for anything glaring to attack as the body of his host reached towards the last quarter of his journey as the tower became thinner. Amidst the flying heads of contagious beasts, he found a set of bells three of them waiting to be rung as he set to work without delay. He was not going to be fooled this time as he swiftly went underneath each bell within the clock tower, and cut out each tongue with brazen force as he twisted the metal out to hurl down into the abyss of the clock tower floor. When all three had been silenced permanently as the screeching creak of bronze-cast tones echoed throughout his ears without harm, he reached to the very roof of the tower itself. Death was waiting for him at the top gently floating above the misty parapets of the slatted roof. There was a long walkway the width of three people across the top, between both slanting sides of the roof where one could walk freely back and forth without slipping off of either side as the storm began to recede slightly from the castle, but not by much. Rain still came bearing down upon both demon and reaper incarnate, the light of the Romanian sky clearing up slightly into a deep sea-green colouring as the sun still hid beneath the Carpathian mountains. The raptor stood snarling with head low, his eyes fiercely glimmered amidst the drops of rain between them as he extricated the last of his poisonous wounds from his body with full recovery, before he proclaimed: "If you think I was going to fall for your tricks again then you are SORELY mistaken!" "When dawn shall come, we shall soon see." "HAH, indeed we will, by your pitiful arrogance we shall see, do you not think I saw the bells below primed and ready to sing?! I have silenced them all, each and every one of them to be muted forever! Don't TRY to manipulate me, I am sick and TIRED of your wretched master's place, and I am tired of your long-winded self-indulgent battle of wits!" "What battle of wits? Yours?" The reaper grinned callously as his scythe twirled softly in his bony hands as the Scissoraptor did everything he could to focus on his anger, completely ignoring his bickering doubts that ate deep into his being. "When you shiver in fear upon my master's doorstop without a single purpose, I have only but contempt for you. You do not even know why you exist, nor have you formed your own existence properly, you are but a slave to humanity's dark emotions and nothing more." "If there is one thing I am not afraid of, it is YOU you grovelling little SHIT! You may have dared to put me into a fugue state with your mad parlor tricks and foetid little servants but I create FEAR within humans! Beneath me they grovel and BEG for my mercy upon their short, pitiful lives!" "Only because they themselves have told you such. Completely pathetic, your attempts to hide your wounded ego remain but a comedy to me." "What do YOU know about fear, you are not even the master of this castle, you are but a servant!" "I AM Fear. I am the absolute presence, the awe, the religion and the dark god for whom I shall serve and as you should know, none have ever survived opposing a god." "If you are a god, then what would you call your 'master'?!" "Fate." The lightning struck far from the castle illuminating the sky briefly, a crackling shot tearing across the mountain reach. "The fate of this world that not even God could ever stop. Nothing can stop it, especially not some passive little whelp as spineless such as you." "Spineless?! ME?! You call me, a pure demon spineless when your MASTER is not even worth his purity untainted!" "What?" "You think I was blind in my own misery, when I found some interesting little stories thanks to your useless mirror tricks!? I see everything now as to what 'master' you have for this great magnificent castle. And I am SICKENED by it. YOU CALL YOURSELF THE REAPER OF SIN, WHEN YOUR PRECIOUS LORD HAS DEFILED HIMSELF!?" "DON'T." Death swung his scythe almost whistling past the Scissoraptor's eye as he stood unblinking. "Blaspheme ever within my master's domain, for you shall find nothing but pain beyond your next words chosen." But the demon simply grinned seeing that it was hitting the right place as his confidence grew once again. "A mother to a son, hair as white as snow, a caring kindly wretched little HUMAN that wanders through this place and yet has such reverence to be almost considered sacred...I see it all now. The villa full of children's toys, the garden resplendent with mother's love...that village you so deeply care for its safety of, you do not care about those mortals at all do you?! You care about ONE thing entirely don't you, because it's master's orders." "You cannot possibly comprehend the great ineffable workings of my master's mind." "To think that your GREAT master would ever spawn such a sickening halfbreed, that BOY you so care for like you were but his servant, serving the spawn of a HUMAN that he laid in bed with, that he took for a WIFE! Do you know what that makes you?! The great Death himself, reaper of innocents serving his master and his human piece on the side, DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MAKES YOU!? DO YOU?!?!" "I warn you beast, do not dare speak-" "It makes you but the stablehand to the farmer who FUCKS HIS CATTLE!" Death became silent. The storm suddenly ceased, thunder and lightning stopped as the world gently began to halt with not even a soft breeze to accompany their meeting as he spoke very calmly. Too calmly for a reaper such as him. "Do you know...who I truly am?" He clasped his fingers even tighter on his length. "Why...I even exist?" The hands of the reaper gently began to twist on his scythe's staff creaking with unholy strength. "Because Man himself created his own darkness from the evil that lurks within him. You exist because you were a puppet for some feeble woman who wanted vengeance upon a world that spited her. I...have always existed. Long before even when Cain spilt his brother's blood." The sounds of the sky began to return with a different trembling of fear upon them. God felt this anger from below as Death spoke still. "I am the death of millions upon a scorched earth, I am the regicide that shall bring kingdoms to their knees and turn rivers into mass graves full of unknown soldiers. I am the massacre of innocents, I am murder and I am desecration of one's self. I am the sole extinction of entire races upon nations where not even their names shall be written ever again." The staff suddenly clicked. "I...am D E A T H." If ever a sound permeated across human history, it was the sound of untold millions suffering within Death's blade screaming unto one form as a bloodied mist began pouring from his staff's length. The untwisting had allowed the sordid anguish of humanity to pour through the very central part of the staff silver, clambering upon the reaper himself as a hateful red began to consume him. His cloak started to change vividly, sleek with crimson as his eyes burst forth with a deepening gaze of sharp brilliance that would kill angels by a single look. A brilliant soul-piercing colour undescribable except for its sheer intensity as the rain began to resume its constant, the raptor bracing himself for a fight as scissors swung forth before the reaper transformed. "G O D W O U L D N E V E R W I S H U N T O Y O U, T H E P A I N I S H A L L M A K E Y O U F E E L." Death stood upon the roof with formless gait as he gripped his scythe with one hand twirling it behind him, the blade neatly hooked just above his left shoulder as the scythe elongated, to a sharpness that cut through light itself. "D I E."

He rushed forwards, leaving a trail of bloodied ash behind him like smoke from the killing fields as the raptor guarded himself, blocking fiercely against the ruthless scythe that swung forth like a katana. But the strength of the reaper was far more than it ever was before and he obliterated Scisso's block, knocking through before slicing rapidly within six sharp movements transfixed in but a second. Yet never did Death touch the demon's flesh, for his scythe was now sharp enough to rend through the actual demon's soul-devouring essence. Scisso gasped shuddering with violent pains running through him, twisting the grip of his scissors to remain focused as the wraith stood watching with cloak wrapped round his unseen feet. Rushing towards him once more, the raptor dodged beneath the swinging scythe and carved fiercely through the reaper's essence as blades tore into the ragged red cloak. He barely felt it, unflinching despite the severing slice before cracking the blunt end of his scythe across Scisso's face, striking the rain from his body with his purest force. His strength was unholy, powerful enough with one strike to send the raptor flying across the roof a good seventeen feet from the spirit of Death itself. Stumbling back onto his feet, the Scissoraptor decided to keep this a long-distance battle as he hurled his scissorblades across the ramparted roof like a whirling chakram as Death simply struck against perfectly. But the moment he did, a foul essence burst forth from the demon blades that began shimmering seven forms of itself as burning indigo shadows, plunging viciously all at once inside of the phantom. It hurt, but not enough, stinging fiercely within Death as he snarled bitterly before striking the scissors back towards its demon host. The moment he did, he teleported across the way in a fiendish mist crashing down his scythe upon Scissoraptor who had no time to guard upon grabbing his blades yet again when they were struck down from his hands to bury deep into the stone cobbled floor. The reaper's wicked blade severed entirely through his body cleaving him in two, or rather his entire darkness which began screaming with ineffable agony. "A-AAAAAAAAAAAARGH!" Falling backwards with a pitiful gait, the raptor's body shuddered in a brief loss of control, the puppet's strings cut simply for but a moment until the darkness swarmed once more through his veins. Death smiled upon such pitiful reaction to his greatness as the demon pulled his blades out of the stone before charging violently, burning all he could of his dark power into the twisted scissortips. The phantom in red mist shimmered out of existence to reappear behind the raptor, who turned fast and ducked the horrid swing that left a trace of screaming souls behind it, mouths crying with broken teeth mangled within their last moments. Seven cuts rend through the air in but a millisecond that the demon dodged, before tearing his blades twice through Death's existing metaphysical form with dark blazing fury dripping off his scissors like black fire wreathed. It was enough to hurt the wraith slightly, sneering with distaste at the softening wince he made. But his vengeance was swift, clocking Scissoraptor hard across the face with a bony hand punching him back seven feet, before he swung his scythe through the air towards him. Scissoraptor knew this trick well and did not even try to dodge it, rather leaping straight over the whirling death blade harmlessly to run straight towards the crimson banshee. But Death was not so easy to let his guard down as he clicked his fingers and faded from existence before the mighty swing of terrible scissors. He vanished into dust with the scent of scorched earth and famine, reappearing at the other end of the roof to grab at his scythe perfectly before rushing straight across the walkway with head hung low and scythe reared back like an assassin for the kill. Scissoraptor jumped and so too did Death in turn before the aerial battle commenced, fiendishly clashing blades for one moment against each other, the breath of stillness rasping from each other's throats as scythe struck fierce against scissorblades loud as a bell throughout the morning sky. The sound of their clash had sent the raindrops bursting outwards from the impact, a resonant shockwave that for a moment left the roof empty and dry of all precipitation forced completely from the rafters. Both creatures landed without a sound before rushing forwards but not before Death summoned his potent magic of untold piercing agony of human fate. From his cloak in mid-drift, he spun ducking low beneath the lunging thrust of the Scissoraptor's blades to strike viciously upwards, sending the blades high above before grabbing the raptor's throat perfectly. "I N F I D E L." Death screamed from his maw a sound the demon would have once relished, but now being directed towards him was a most terrifying insufferable torment. The thousands upon many who had known Death intimately in their last moments unleashed themselves upon Scisso, tearing at his face as a single swarm of howling red abyss twisting and tearing across the inside of his skull. A storm of anguish rendering parts of his essence to be shed like filthy dead skin. Screeching in return, he was unable to pull himself free from the icy cold grip of Death as the rancorous breath formed from many unfortunate soul remnants still within eviscerated his very darkness. His eyes burned deep, his scissors violently forcing themselves free from the raptor's grip to strike down upon Death's head. His other hand grabbed at the scissors by the very blades themselves feeling their shivering hatred force against his bony fingers desperate to try and shank him viciously. He threw the demon back across the floor like a child's toy before hurling the scissors towards him, slicing his chest cleanly in two by his own weapon that almost completely impaled through him. The handles stuck coldly out of his still unbeating heart, shuddering as he fell to the floor with gasping hot pains riddling through his entire system. Pestilence in its purest form devoured at his essence, tearing from within like foul venomous fungus growing inside his darkness. It almost looked as if he was out for the count, but Death kept watch on him with scythe kept close. "HHhhhh...hhrrrrggghhkhh...hhhhmhmhmhmhmhm...hhhhha ha ha ha ha ha ha...you...y-y-you th-think that exposing me to s-s-such raw s-suffering can inflict ME with surrender?!"

He said nothing, watching the demon burn and channel his fury straight through the raptor's body. Darkness slowly rebirthed through him as the last of the 700 souls of Pordana became lost forever inside of him, nothing more than his potent formless evil strength as claws sunk into the cobbled floor, cracking beneath his fury. His scissors, not unlike that of Dullahan's last resolve, became wreathed by a cold eternal fire darker than the furthest echelons of space and existence. One almost unseen by mortal eyes except by a small flickering shadow constantly tracing behind the weapon. The raptor's eyes bled with the colour of nightmares that traced across your eyes upon awakening from a horrid dream, the senseless shapes like an oil slick dappled in broken rainbows darkened to a desaturated hue. He reached into his deepest strength as his voice attained almost human inflection, a voice that thousands of years ago had sent human beings to a bleak and utter despair. "Do you think...that I would EVER submit to YOU, servant of human filth?" The scissors pulled from his chest forcefully, becoming their own entity as both body and weapon stood together perfectly combined into synchronised voice, revealing the true demon itself. A shadow hung above them, its head resembling a sharp bladed dagger, claws of feet and limb clasped thickly upon the raptor's head with eyes beyond darkness. "I...am the Son of the Great Father, do you hear me reaper? I realise now...thanks to you and your sordid tricks that I had no purpose of my own, whilst humans made me their totem of fear but it was not my own decision. So I have a new purpose...I shall become YOU instead, when I sever your existence from this world and devour you as my feast, I came to this castle for a banquet of souls and I have found one within you. I shall become Death, Destroyer of Worlds." "Y O U S T I L L H U N G E R. W R E T C H E D S U B H U M A N B E A S T." "I can live FOREVER. Not even Death can take me no matter how much you so try to hurt me." "W H E N W O R L D S S H A L L E N D A N D E X I S T E N C E I S M A D E U N D O N E, G O D H I M S E L F S H A L L W E E P A G A I N S T H I S T R U E N E M E S I S. T H AT, W H I C H M Y M A S T E R H A S B E C O M E T H E V E R Y E S S E N C E O F." "And what worthless nature does your master so embody?" "N O T H I N G N E S S. T H E A B S E N C E O F L I F E A N D I N D E E D G O D'S L I G H T." "Wrong. I am ETERNAL. When life itself has been consumed from existence, and only I remain, I WILL SHOW YOU WHAT-" "N O." The reaper struck him down with his scythe by a speed that tore through a shred of existence, a blade so thin from which a soul could bleed from its very cut. "N O T H I N G N E S S......I S E T E R N A L." The two made their final battle at utmost capacity, their ultimate strength shining through as the harmonious evil from within the Great Father's son tore through Death's defence. He struck through his scythe, tearing claws viciously from the shadow above James' head. It was not the scissors that attacked Death, or the demon-possessed raptor. It was the very darkness itself, rending its fiendish talons across the cloaked wraith who was repelled for the first time of this encounter. Such strength was unexpected, but not overwhelming as the phantom struck his blade back against, slicing from the back of his head to whirl seventeen strikes upon a single second. Seventeen soul-tearing strikes shredding through the Scissoraptor by an instant iota of Time itself as it severed his darkness violently apart, like blade upon water slicing the moon's reflection to shatter it briefly into a dozen pieces. But the raptor's possessor fought back with tooth, nail, scissors and talons all combined into one force all possessed by the very same entity. The host striked with eyes bleeding of his pain; the scissors plunged and thrust like swords snapping open wide before shutting tight upon Death's neck to twist and crack; teeth of frenzy leapt upon the reaper to shred his skull with gashing tears scarring deep into the bone; whilst the darkness itself raked across the phantom's vision, shattering his eyes briefly to throw him down upon the floor. If ever Death could bleed then it was now, for the first time in centuries he felt his own essence drip softly out from his skull, a ghostly taint that breathed from his new wounds as he clasped his cheek in some strange surprise. He simply chuckled, laughing at such small pain that only tingled at his form rather than hurt truly as he forced himself up. Spinstriking with the scythe in one full swing, he felt the darkness of the demon's true self clash his talons against the scythe and block him perfectly for both scissors and raptor to stab and lunge upon the reaper. Scissors thrust through his chest and forcefully tore up into his spine itself, violently snapping his jaw wide open, the raptor clawing with hands of darkness potent enough to scratch and tear across the lower region. Wounds opened up, the reaper feeling actual sense of pain for the first time in many years but he simply laughed, forcing Scisso's darkness away with one screeching voice of red bloodthirsting fury from his maw before grabbing at the scissors in one hand and the raptor in the other. Hurling first one, then the other, the scissors stopped in midair upon being thrown to double back striking against the vicious scythe that had been thrown after to rip through the essence of the demon. But the clash against scissors prevented it from reaching halfway before both evil and Death rushed forth to grab their weapons and face each other truly. Twenty-seven times the scythe tore into the Scissoraptor's self within the space of two seconds, amidst forty-nine actual strikes. Twenty-two of them blocked fiercely by the twisting stoppage of Time between them as their powers grew monstrously, the raindrops slowing down to a crawling standstill by their unholy strength emanating from their forms, bleeding out as ghostly-white from Death and foul infinite black from Scisso. The twenty-two strikes he blocked were in the blink of an eye, claws suddenly appearing when there had been four or five arms almost seamlessly from his darkness to counter against the scythe. But in turn Death's defiant nature stood firm as twenty-seven rending tears ripped through his pestilent enemy, deep gashing wounds ripped with blackening smog bursting from his body.

Twice more Death came, but he sliced through a dimensional tear before Scisso almost instantly without him even realising. Fading from his world to sweep his cloak outside of it in the cold empty eternity within the rifts, he reappeared behind the demon who felt the pull of dimensional anomaly and turned to strike against another forty-seven instantaneous attacks, severed through by twenty-six of them eviscerating his reforming darkness. The final strike came when Death roared by a sound that rippled through existence itself, a sound so severe to the human mind that it could not even be comprehended as an actual sound but instead as something to be seen. A great light at the end of a tunnel that beckoned the unfortunate unto it with its overwhelming power to trap souls close to the end of their existence. But to the Scissoraptor now facing him, he would be facing something much more horrifying as Death summoned a deadly tempest of flames, pure and crimson from the very reaches of Hell itself. The flames of Hell were much sharper than those of mortal plane, for these were flames that would burn the soul itself to a charring crisp, grappling the demon in his bony hands to forcefully trap him amidst the shrieking inferno. The demon of the Great Father had never felt such pain, he had never known what Hell truly was until that moment when Death himself showed him the truth of a demon's suffering. One he had not felt since his very creation as he screamed with a sound that not even nightmares could recreate. With the power of the inferno overwhelming finally, he fell back onto the roof as both scissors and body fell down as one beast, the raptor landing upon one knee with staggering gasps as he reached the limit of his power. With all his wounds as well as pushing to his very zenith of strength that could decimate an entire town of people, he struggled to face Death who simply hovered before him with cloak spreading deep crimson across the sky in front of him, his wounds bleeding faintly as nothing more than simply scratches. "You...w-wretched spirit of a master's whelp." He could not even bring himself to stand up as he felt his strength ebbing in desperate need to rest. "I may not...be able to stand but I shall not be exter-minated...hhhhhrrrrrkkkhhh...the Great Father runs through me still." "And so you are but a child, trying to outlive his father's shadow." The spirit of Death began to fade from his crimson strength back to his night-blue cloak as the sorrow of thousands began to collect neatly back inside of his scythe's staff, coalescing like a plague of rats red as the dawn sun now creeping over the horizon. "You have marked me, barely, which I admit I did not expect as much from you. But it is still a fruitless attempt." "Then...I will but rest and fight you again." "You will not be rewarded for sheer tenacity, arrogant subhuman." "You shall be...my prey...that shall be my reward when I have taken your place, as this world's rightful condemner of Fate and Circumstance. I have my own purpose now, to become Death as I see it. Nothing more." "Now you are trying to mimic that which you cannot even comprehend, impudent to the very last." "You can destroy my host...but you cannot hurt me for it is darkness we are both from...and even so you must realise that you cannot wound me truly." "Perhaps not." "GHHRRRKH!" "But I can."

Something plunged into the demon's darkness from behind, not even into James' body but somehow straight into the actual essence of his evil intrinsic. He turned with eyes widened as both body and shadow looked upon the face of Rozalia, a dagger shining pure as the sun itself from her hand thrusting into his self. Pain had become far worse inside of him than even Hell's fire itself as a shrieking holy light burned deep from within. A sudden agony rent through his entire form which in turn convulsed through James' body as the "hands" of the puppeteer fell into raw shrieking seizure, straight through his ethereal essence like a shattering of nerves. Staring down upon his near-translucent darkness, a dagger was now impaled within it shining with silver hilt as bright as the moon itself as he snarled at the marked woman. She simply smiled innocently back at him as his power began to weaken. "Y...y-y-you-" "Oh, does that hurt FINALLY?" "You treacherous WHORE!" "I am far more than that." "WHAT?!" It was then a voice came telepathically to his mind from the woman Anghelescu. For someone who possesses such a sharp blade, you can be awfully dull of wit. She smiled sweetly as her body began to melt away, swarming thickly into dissipating wisps of tendrilled air revealing some strange purple clouded form harbouring within. Eyes opened forth wide before the demon with soft tufted edges spiking on all sides of its spiritual form, claws spread open upon limbless hands with a smile from its long tongued mouth. With presence fully revealed he now tasted its scent, far more than when she masked it by her disguise as it was not even a full spirit, but of something else along ghostly origins. She even had James' satchel full of his things that she placed gently down behind herself. _ "What...ARE you?" I...am James' friend. And you've had your fun, little demon. "What...wh-wh-what...wh-what pathetic friends he has when he sends...a h-half-spirit to fight a DEVOURER of them!" _ He lunged for the spirit but she swiftly faded back, knowing he was far too weakened by rending agony as the dagger burned deeper within. He could not even touch it, far too wounded by horrifying pain to even scream as he gasped choking foul blackness from his throat. _ "What...h-hhrrrrrrrRRRRGHK! This...th-th-this light it h-h-hurts." Ivalician steel, bonded with the Light of Kiltia but I also added some extra properties to it thanks to your little quest-gathering. A little Christianity, Islam, Judaism...I never knew of such beliefs but I find either way they are all the same blessed light of purity...all of which are...hmhm, SUPER effective. "G-GGRRAAAA-a-a-aaaaargh! You...y-y-you...so...the g-great Death himself would even desecrate his title to join a HALF-SPIRIT!" Your night is over, demon. "MY night?! HHhhhnnnngh...you know far too little you treacherous SNAKE!" Snake? I am a haunter, not an ekans...I knew you were dull, but even James understood how to tell apart my species. "RAAAAAARGH!" _ He struck out once more but she dodged perfectly, whilst Death simply watched with a strange gleeful expression from seeing such torment upon the intruder at his depths. _ "But...b-but I marked you, I took your child from you, how could you even-I TOOK YOUR CHILD F-FROM YOU, YOU WERE A HUMAN!" You took HER child, yes. But not ME, for the real Rozalia is still in the village, fearful and lamenting of her grief thanks to YOU and your cruel choices. I was the one that rang the church bell stopping you from your ceaseless slaughter of the entire village and I only hoped that I could have come sooner to stop you entirely. I saw her bereft and marked by you and I realised I had to act quickly to stifle your movements and so I met you after crossing the broken bridge...as a spirit, before assuming her identity as you see before you. "HOW...did you even manage to deceive me you worthless farplane crawler?!" In order to trick a wild beast, you must first take his senses from him. I had some help from friends down beneath that managed to take your sense of "smell" away so I could not be detected by you. I was able to make James appear human so it is no problem turning me into an illusion for you. "You...w-wait...the smell? ......that...that tonic...that worthless merchant-" You made quite a very agreeable friend once we made arrangements. I help you gather all of the holy items and craft this to destroy you with._ She pointed at the holy blade piercing white inside his chest. It already was holy enough but I wanted to make it stronger, a far more potent craft of multiple religions. There must be at least four different veins of purity running through that thing, Kildean, Christian, Islamic and Hebrew...so many strange things I had to learn to play the part. "You think that this little THING could kill me?! I AM INVINCIBLE!" No you are not, immortal maybe but all I had to do was weaken your strength enough for phase two of this plan...of which you shall become the main event for your destruction finally. "Destruction? YOU!? HHHHHAH! HHhhhhahahahahaha, HAHAHAHAHAHA, ohhh this...th-this is wonderful, I didn't think that one such as you would be so USELESS!" Says the one who was fooled by a haunter masquerading as a human. Admittedly it took a little subterfuge but I have always been very good at manipulating others far more than you...you worthless little ekans. "THAT I can agree with," said Death mockingly. "Since you are now at your lowest point by which you have no choice but to recede into your lair of cowardice that you call a 'host', I shall explain to you of your folly. This odd creature you see before you, told me about your presence after I had dealt with you at the bridge, telling me of your strengths and weaknesses. After that we only had but a few hours to act and set up a small arrangement of things." If we had not any holy relics then my most gracious and wondrous of kind sirs would simply beat you down to a paste until you were rendered inert. Do you know what is the worst part about you, Scissoraptor? You cannot even swallow your own pride enough to make friends and bartering deals that could have made things easier for you, perhaps even manage to assuage our plan altogether! Like me with my arrangement with our great illustrious master of the spirit realm. "A very short agreement, but one nevertheless useful when dealing with such loathsome pests. My only regret is that I had to sacrifice my own most faithful servants who I hoped were more able to stop you...but they will not have died in vain. I must also thank our most graceful Paranoia in torturing you mentally." I made an arrangement. I pretend to be your marked servant after our mutual friend nullified your senses so you could not detect me. Imagine, you could have killed me at any point if you had not believed that I was really Rozalia Anghelescu. So many times you almost slaughtered me and you never knew...hmhmhmhmhm...hhha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Kirie laughed cackling to a ripe crescendo as the demon struggled to keep still and standing but alas it was no use. The power of Fayne's dagger forced deeply into his shadowed form hovering over James' body as he gasped his last words to the fiendish trickster spirit. _ "If you think...you have succeeded in trapping me y-y-you are ssssorely misSTAKEN you wretched fucking BITCH." Language...I thought demons had better vocabulary than just simply "wretched", "worthless", "whore", try to be more original and perhaps I'll give you some credit. "ENOUGH. YOU...I shall destroy you first when I attain full fruition of this pathetic host, your dearest friend is almost at his time so unless you have something planned within the next three months...I am coming for you. And when I come...I shall make you see your entire world become desiccated by my screaming fury." I'm not afraid of you. You are everything's pawn, you were my pawn, you were my good sir's pawn, you were even Galamoth's pawn which was something we never planned but STILL you became his pawn. You are pathetic, I have seen creatures in my world far more noble and fearsome than you ever shall be. "I am above such BEASTS!" At least a beast can still act of his own free will, YOU cannot seem to do anything on your own. Now...my most gracious host."_ She turned towards the reaper himself as she bowed with deep respect. Would you like to do the honours in forcing this pest back to his hidey-hole? "Gladly. Die monster." He swung his scythe glaring towards the head of the demon's darkness with one spiritual decapitation. "You do not belong in this world." As he reached the peak of his raw soul-seething agony, he had no choice but to recede back into his bladed self as the monstrous dark poured into FG's body once again. Burning down his throat with a rasping howl of hatred as the scissors trembled with his fury untold in blistering pain, he would soon disappear from their sight before James completely fell upon the cold rain-slicked roof completely unconscious with his body unharmed with the dagger falling down beside him. And yet the demon's creeping influence could be seen upon his flesh, faded to a terminally ill cracking paleness that Kirie gasped at the sight of, clasping her hands to her lips. Oh...o-oh Arceus...he looks...s-s-so much worse than I thought. "THIS pathetic creature you call your friend?" He is much more than that...he...h-h-he is...very important to me. She swept down towards him softly stroking at his head, feverish in her emotions having long restrained themselves for the previous extrication upon the demon. Slowly she picked up the dagger and placed it within James' things into his satchel. "Do you plan on telling me exactly who crafted this blade?" Technically the blade does not exist from this world, so it would not matter my good sir. "Are you certain? You must have had some assistance, and I wonder how you can even handle such a thing without it rending your spirit completely in half." I am weak against psychics, not the holy type which...I am certain does not exist even in my world. "Regardless, if there are dissenters within this place, then I must act upon them decisively." There are no dissenters in this castle...I can assure you that, my most gracious host. "Hm. And this creature, your supposed friend...he shall be gone too?" When he awakes, thanks to you wonderfully I have managed to repel his demon enough that I can now speak to James properly. I must tell him some things, but I assure you I shall be gone before the dawn shall rise fully. "Good. Considering your 'friend' destroyed my armoury, crippled our alchemy research, slaughtered my servants and worst of all INSULTED my master's lineage, I should exterminate him now. But as we have made a deal and you have proven your end of the bargain I shall honour this. On one condition." Death swooped down towards Kirie, towering above her even when facing her directly with his skull bleeding of raw ghostly essence "You...NEVER return to this castle, not even in passing, you or your friend or else I shall hunt you down like the filthy little half-spirit that you are...and E R A S E your existence. Is that clear?" Y-...y-y-yes, sire. "Good." He swept his cloak turning away from her and James as he planted his scythe's end upon the stone floor of the roof firmly, defiant before the wilting mist of the rain as dawn slowly creeped upon the Carpathian mountains. Thank you...u-um...f-for your assistance. Death did not turn but still spoke in response to her. "If I am to make certain my master's place is not disturbed by such interlopers, then I appreciate your assistance in eradicating this beast in but a single night." I only wanted to save my friend, I don't...wh-whatever plans you have for this world I shall not interfere, whatever you are going to do, it is not my place. "That is good, you understand the hierarchy of this earth. That is why I accepted your assistance, you knew to respect." I only...wish that I could have saved your servants. I'm sorry for what happened to them. "They are not gone forever. I shall grace them with resurrection as their infinite reward unto servitude for me." I also want to...forgive me but, the only thing we could not predict was that Galamoth. I...I did not plan on that to have ever happened I feel, if it had not been for that then maybe your servants would- "That is precisely why I DETEST time travellers, along with dimensional vagrants such as THIS one." He whirled his scythe sweeping down upon James' head stopping only an inch from his throat as Kirie gasped with fright nearly shrieking to stop his hand. But the reaper simply walked away as he tore a hole within existence of his realm, burning a dark rift to another place within the strange castle of madness. "You have one hour and a half before you must leave. If I see you still here when dawn has risen...I shall make you both part of my master's feast." The grim reaper disappeared into darkness before the hole snapped shut behind him, closing at his will as Kirie gently placed James next to one of the ending strutted chimneys of the tower roof. She rested his head upon the cold stone wall and waited hoping that he would wake soon. It was half an hour until his eyes opened in the midst of a gentle shower of rain, seeing the dawn's blighted existence for the first time in what felt like months. Even when in his weakest ebb of a long fearsome sleep, he still knew who that strange purple spirit was. "...K-...K-kirie?" ...James?

She smiled softly with her eyes wide in bliss, struggling to hold herself from breaking at the sight of her friend gasping on the edge of his life. He asked with voice feeble: "Wh-what...where am I? What...what's happening?" I told you we would meet again, did I not? I always...honour my promises. The clock tower continued to turn its gears beneath them, the hands slowly but surely passing with each second between them. It was then she realised something horrifying about his greeting. You...you can see me can't you? Even without the...silph scope. "What?" The only ones that can see spirits like me are either those with the right tools...or already becoming close to death. "...r-really? Was...was I dead?" Not...not yet. His eyes had sunken, his green pupils now fading into glass. His arms, while strong, were becoming more and more infected with the Scissoraptor's horror inside of him. Scales were starting to peel, barest of muscular flesh soon revealing underneath, thickening spots of a spiritually toxic nature affecting his very presence. His greying brown shade all over now looked the very image of deathly pallour. Every breath he took, gasping and ragged brought him closer to the end. "I...I-i-i can't breathe." I know...I'm sorry. "I...I've done so many things Kirie. I've killed so many people." No, no you have not, don't ever think that. You are not that demon, you are but his puppet, you are NOT responsible- "Stop it." He forced his hand up with quivering fingers trying to push her away. "I don't deserve your pity. There's nothing I can do to stop this demon, I've tried everything. Nobody can find a way to get him out of me." That's because you haven't found the right key. When you are given a lock, you must try every single key until one of them fits, but I know the right one. I KNOW the key that shall free you James, please...just, please. "What makes...you think that this will work?" Because...b-b-because I......I-i-i-i've been planning all this for eight years! "What?" I have been struggling to make everything fit, I have been trying to make this plan work ever since I needed someone to be a hero for me. I need...I need you James, I need you to be my hero, p-please...please...don't give up on me...not here...not this. She slowly began to break through with tears bearing down upon her face, pressing her hands against her quivering eyes as she struggled to maintain her thoughts but James was far too tired to think through as he bore his resignation. "I'm not a hero." Kirie looked up. "I'm not your hero Kirie. I'm sorry...I couldn't save Isaac like you wanted me to, what makes you think-" STOP IT! S-STOP IT JAMES! I DON'T WANT TO HEAR THIS FROM YOU, YOU ARE MY HERO, I KNOW YOU! "What do you fucking know about me?" Everything. She rooted through his satchel beside him as she pulled out various trinkets desperately trying to change his futile disposition, starting with a horseshoe. You refused to kill a boy younger than you, who hunted you down for a crime he BELIEVED you committed! "He died because of this demon in me...who also killed half of my friend's crew." Kirie pulled out a small metallic diode next faintly magnetic in her grip. You befriended a lost vagrant and stood up against a fearsome terrorist organisation. "She died alone in the ice unloved, my friends were all wounded and nearly killed and the terrorists got away." You destroyed their plans from rending apart the galaxy! "Fine, but people still died because I fucked up." ENOUGH OF THIS! She grabbed feverishly at a small bracelet woven with blue and green fabric. This was from the child you rescued in the wastes. The child you PROMISED to save her mother and you DID, you freed an entire populace from destruction TWICE and you don't call yourself a hero?! "Heroes don't...have the blood of children on their hands." THAT WAS NOT YOU! THAT WAS THE DEMON! "I still heard them...I can still hear them screaming-" STOP IT! Kirie slapped him violently out of sheer frustration and sorrow. STOP! IT, YOU ARE MORE THAN YOU THINK YOU ARE! You stood against an ancient evil in the depths of that wretched mansion, you saved the life of the one you still love, THIS precious boy here! Her hand dug into the satchel pulling out the photo of Koopin. James' heart faltered in his surrender. Are you going to tell him that you gave up? Are you going to look at this sweet little face of s-someone you love and tell them 'I give up, I'm not a hero', is that what you want?!" "...I...I-i-i can't.....K-kirie...s-stop this, what are you trying to prove?" I am making you realise what you are and have always been! It was not even a day after you left my world that you braved an apocalypse to save but ONE CHILD! "Because you told me to! You sent me to that fucking city to stave off the demon inside me so I then murder probably dozens of people, and I end up saving a kid because YOU sent me there!" NO! I knew the city was cursed and lost to its own world, but I did not predict you would ever save that child, or any of those people who managed to escape from the city. You saved people, because YOU were there. "W-wait...what?" You did that of your own will. That was not a test. That I did not even plan. ...you did that all by yourself, and I know exactly why. You still felt guilty about Isaac, you still have a heart to care about other people." James pressed his head back against the cool stone wall as he slowly began to weep. Exhaustion had overcome him, and he wanted to sleep deeply more than anything else. But there was a pang of frustration within that was making him stop fully accepting everything, that even despite his words he was not entirely believing in what he said. He searched from within himself to try and form his truth gasping as he took Koopin's photo. Reminding him of his love and the demon's sin by the blotchy stain of blood upon his own face. "I...I just......I don't want to be helpless and selfish anymore. Anyone could do that. I...I had reasons, I had to survive, I-" You even gave hope and purpose to machines left for the scrap heap. Of that you had no reason to do so. What could you have possibly gained from that? There was no guilt, there was no empathy from you for them that you could ever relate to. Why did you save them? Why do you save anyone? "...I...I don't know. ...I just...I can't leave people alone anymore." Because you have become a hero James. You are the FinalGamer, as I have always known you to be. "...no. No I'm not." S-s-stop saying you are not! "I wasn't LIKE this originally! I was a punk, I was a stupid selfish punk who had a bad upbringing, I wasn't BORN like this, you know what made me a hero?! All the people I met, all the heroes I met and friends I made that were better than me!" B-but you- "NO, Kirie. N-no...Glenn made me realise what it meant to be a hero, before I knew him I was a coward, I ran away from everything, I left people behind, I abandoned them, th-there was a time I was in this...this prison, these two cops I was helping and I left them behind, it was in another world but I ran away like a coward! I killed the bastard that killed my girlfriend and I murdered him and I didn't even stick around to face the police! I'm a fucking SHIT!" You still had a sense of good in you, somewhere! You just needed the right person to coax it from you! "Yeah, K-koopin! Koopin made me understand what it meant to be good. Ever since I met him...I stopped wanting to be angry anymore, I-i-i stopped...I wasn't meant to be for all this."

He clasped his head in his hands as Kirie managed to recompose herself fiercely to debate against what else he could plead from the depths of his exhaustion. "I'm just a stupid punkass kid who got way over his fucking head, and alright I may have done a lot of good but that wasn't because of me, th-that was because of...people I met. People that changed me for the better, I was just...some awful kid when I first came out of my world." But even so you must never forget all you have done. Never disregard your acts as but survival. You made a promise to become a hero to someone in your past, and you are fulfilling it wherever you may roam. "You have...no idea what I've been through." Really? Do you remember a dream you had much further back, a voice in your head when you first met your primal self? Perhaps long before you ever encountered this demon inside you, the first words I ever spoke to you was...'James...wake up'. Something triggered inside his memory. Words flickered briefly as something cried out from within his mind of another existence, a sudden sense of recognition. "...no. I don't....w-wait...I...wake up? ......you." He slowly began to stand up, or at least tried to before his arm barely stood itself up from the floor as he went down onto his side, his eyes widening faintly as he rested against the wall. "It was you. That...that dream I had-" I never stopped helping you. I...I-i-i have been with you...longer than you think. I have watched over you, gone insane when you killed a feral member of your species. When you overwhelmed yourself, lucid on morphine and traumatising memories of recent months finally snapping your self, I was there. "That...that other raptor that I...I shot. That raptor tribe who escaped with me, you were there!?" Yes...I was there too...when you are always near death, just as you are now, or ever lost beyond your needs I was able to reach out to you...inside your dreams. "...h-hah...hhhaahahaha...I...r-really? All this time you...a-a-all this time back then I thought, it was Daisy. But...why did you pick me? Why me, why have you been following me like this?" I...I pitied you. I simply pitied you lost and alone, your orphaned ways having thrown yourself completely beyond your depth in a world far away from your own. The moment I first saw you was when you just departed Crossville. All I saw were your bloodied hands, all I felt was your incessant sorrow masked by a cooling rage amidst the snow. A musician sensed me, a travelling soul who mistook me for someone called 'Daisy'...I started to connect the pieces and I asked him what was wrong about you. He said that you thought 'the whole world is against him most times except when a bit of it shows love'. I could not leave a creature to suffer, not in passing, you are not the only one I have tried to help as I travelled across existences as a spirit. But you are the one I stayed with the longest. "But...b-but why?" I...I cannot explain, it is not love, nothing like that, I do not feel like that...towards you especially. I felt something more...similar to that a mother would feel to her son, if that makes sense. "I don't...I don't quite get it, was it because you...want to...protect me?" Maybe. But once I became part of your story, I could not leave you until your arrival in a strange beautiful place, a dream land of sorts when I saw you happy and helping someone other than yourself. I thought you had become able, when you had managed to help a lost little sailor return his way home I thought that was it. I returned back to my home world, to Kanto. I made friends with the Mother Marowak, and her children over the next three years after having wandered to so many places. But I was naive and foolish, I thought...I thought there were far more kindly people than there actually were. "What...wh-what do you mean?" ...it was me. She turned away with horrid shame, gasping as she broke down completely unseen as her hands clasped desperately. _I w-was the one...wh-wh-who killed Mother Marowak. I m-made friends with a human, a trainer th-that I didn't realise w-was scouting for...f-f-for profit. I told him about my friend, and her family...I was s-s-such a naive fool and he manipulated me...I lead his people in, and they k-killed all of them...you c-call yourself a monster, you don't think I feel the same as you?! YOU DON'T THINK I HAVEN'T ANY SINS UPON ME JAMES?! I KNOW WHAT YOU FEEL, I AM RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS! _

Her piercing screech was like a banshee almost deafening his ears as he clasped feebly against the wall of stone before what she said had managed to sink in. His eyes widened grossly showing the filmy diseased sclera of his dying body. "You...wh-...wh-wh-wh-...what?" I MURDERED THEM JAMES! I KILLED MY FRIENDS BECAUSE I WAS A FOOL, I THOUGHT MY FIRST HUMAN FRIEND WAS GOING TO TREAT ME AS A FRIEND, BUT HE USED ME AS BAIT, HE MADE ME-...I...I h-h-had no choice...I ran away...I heard that a young trainer, a brave little child training into the world of Kanto had managed to break through the Mother's sorrow, managed to...t-t-to dispel her from the Lavender Tower. But it was not enough, f-for she roamed across the farplane of the spirits and made her way to Himuro Mansion...a mansion long since abandoned of its former residents, both living and long deceased. "You...you can't be the one behind all this, n-not you." Yes I was James! The haunter turned back to him with eyes burning red from tears, hands struggling to close fists. The reason I brought you to Himuro Mansion was to absolve myself, I couldn't do it alone and I understood you. I remembered you and your suffering, so I went to find you. I felt you almost dead within Silent Hill, I saw what that machine had done to you and I traversed into the town's essence to come save you...I told you to wake...UP, and you did. "No...n-n-n-no this...holy shit." It was becoming almost too much for James to take in as he suddenly gasped sharply, breathing in desperately as Kirie started remembering how much time they had. Another half hour left before Death would come take them, literally as she explained the truth as if bursting from her chest for so many years. I followed you from Silent Hill when you succeeded, I was the one that told Firebrand about Himuro in order to guide YOU towards it whilst you were struggling to comprehend your new demon. I was the one...who...wh-who lead you away from the home world of your love, I was the dark spirit that prophesied to send you to the island of mist, I was the one who guided Twinsen and Monty towards their own prophecies so that the three of you would meet. "What?!" I told Gruthar about you and had him follow you in the wastes, I found your dear friend Kruz within Ivalice and told him about you, I hunted down for something to help you and I discovered the Song of Souls to help him rend you apart from the Cinnabar Anomaly completely! I was the one who even had Roy follow you telling him in his dreams that you hold the key to finding out his TRUTH and he couldn't even bring himself to kill you by the end of it because I KNEW he had doubts and I fed upon those to make him NOT kill you! I DID EVERYTHING! YOU ARE MY HERO BECAUSE I MADE YOU MY HERO! _ She screeched before him with a burning fierceness that struck deep into his soul, or what was left of it. The raptor staggered gently, not even able to gather the energy to get mad or upset or even insulted by her years of manipulation. But he was too tired to care anymore and instead he simply placed his head back and sighed asking: "Why? Why manipulate me?" _Because I then met the Watcher. I remember telling you about him surely, on our first true meeting back in Kanto and he told me about...a great evil. "What?" Something more monstrous and terrifying than even that which burns within you James Campbell. Something that can consume both your world and mine, both spiritual and physical if it can gain enough power. If I could find just one hero, one sculpted enough through hardship and sorcery or technology...then maybe...maybe all would be safe. You...are my hero, James Campbell. I have no one else to rely on by this point. "...this...this watcher...I've heard of him before. But then, what does he want? What does he want from me, has he been watching everything since we met back then?!" He will tell you everything himself. I cannot let you stay here any longer, we are running out of time and we must leave before the dawn so you MUST listen carefully, and use your powers to focus on what I say next. The sly ruby lies hiding within the swamp." "...sly...ruby...hiding...w-wait." Again that familiar flicker came unto his brain. "That...I remember...I...I-i-i see it now, the ruby, wait...someone told me this before." Yes...someone did. Now go...please. Go. Find the ruby and speak to the one you shall meet, for she has the power to unlock the key to your heart...and I promise you...that you shall be free of the demon finally. "R-really? ...I've heard that too many-" Don't. P-please...do this for me. I promise I will make you whole again, I will give you back a life, I will let you return to the one you love and you shall have a happy ending. I have done everything I could, now do this for me. "I...have done plenty for you." This is for yourself...NOT me. Now go...please...destroy that demon for everything he has done with my last gift to you. "Right...ruby...swamp...sly." He staggered onto his feet as he remembered the words softly as he felt the need to commit to this, seeing Kirie's struggling form and desperate words beckoning him onwards. The desire to walk forth, to keep moving rose up inside of him as she handed him his satchel, placing everything back inside with one or two exceptions. The friendship bracelet from Diana of the wastes she slipped neatly back onto his left arm before she pulled out the pendant of Dar-Ma, black and listless like a worthless stone that she placed firmly on his neck, over his head. THIS alone proves that you are a hero to somebody...doesn't it, James? James couldn't help but smile at the last time he had honestly looked at it, softly clasping it between his fingers as he felt the renewed strengthened wire that Gruthar had made personally for him. A gentle chuckle came from his lips as hope renewed itself in him, before that rippling light of another world opened up before him, one he did not even question. He knew from the severity of Kirie's words that he had to go, a rift began forming as the shimmering crack within the darkest hour before the dawn that glimmered like a shard of the moon. "You're not...coming with me?" No...I have business elsewhere James. I must see to other things and I am afraid I won't be any use to you in this next world unlike your new friend shall be. But until then...I hope we shall meet again and for what it's worth...I'm sorry. For everything. "...if I survive through this...I'll tell you if I forgive you or not. Agreed?" Agreed. Thank you James. As the raptor began to disappear within the rift, the halting steps of his being slowly fading out of existence, Kirie struggled with both fear and anxiety for James. A tear began to shed from her cheek, but not from either of these two emotions. She wasn't afraid for James now. She was afraid for herself. You are my salvation...for everything that I have done.