I changed into something that I had thought that I would never return to. No, it's more like I went back to how I was originally. I donned the form that the Creator gave me, and also the one that He forever changed when I fell. An old body. My body.

The fragile guise that I wore since the day I fell out of grace dissipated, evaporating into the air like the evening dew. My pink, human skin washed off the surface of my body to be replaced with a dry pale husk. My raven-black hair burned off my scalp in an inferno of fire, and once that blaze died, a permanent ashy smog remained, acting as the hair that it consumed. The smoke danced up and down as if it had a will of its own, and with each movement I could see flakes of ash fall freely upon my side.

I felt a familiar feeling growing out of the back of my shoulders. My wings. Or, what was left of it. Where once feathers of scarlet gold sat, now rested the same dull grey smog. The once radiant appearance of life and vigour was replaced with the gloom of industrial pollution and destruction. This appearance was what I deserve, having rebelled against the very being that created us all, and it represented every mistake and every failure that I have ever done.

After the change I was physically fine again. I no longer had to endure my mortal flesh's wounds and sufferings, yet I did not feel any better. I sat there, on the cold hard ground, for what seemed like an eternity.

After a while Alexei broke the sombre silence, and said, “Are you ok, my friend?”

“Yeah.” I answered, my voice feeling alien, “I'm fine.”

“Your appearance...”

“I'll explain later, Alexei.”

“Are you-”

“I said I'm fine.”

I exhaled a long breath that I didn't even know I was holding, and got up from where I was seated. I noticed that Alexei retrieved my sword sometime after the chaos, and I slowly picked the thing up. It felt oddly nostalgic in my old hands, even though I had it all this time.

“Let's get going.” I continued, “We've wasted enough time.”

Although I was worried about Alexei's condition, I also knew the man would rather die than give up. I didn't bother asking if he was up for the task. I owed him that much trust.

“Of course, Mark.” Alexei said, the same old smile starting to appear once again, “We will talk about this after this is over, yes?”

“Yeah.” I muttered.

Alexei and I made our way past the broken bodies – it seems that he took out 8 more of them on his own while I was out – and continued through Frankenstein's manor. We searched every room that we into, but there was no pass. When we were searching, we encountered a few more of those creatures, but they never came in numbers, and Alexei and I were able to mow them down with relative ease.

That was the case until we arrived in the dinning room. The room was spacious, which was good for for a battle, especially when there were 12 of those monsters greeting us. Alexei grinned when he saw them. With a though, I summoned a tiny little ball of Hellfire and flicked it at the lavishly decorated dining table. I willed the little speck of fire to expand, and it quickly consumed the beautiful table, making space for us.

Without hesitation, Alexei transformed into a blur and immediately charged towards the bunch. I didn't want him to do all the work again, and I followed suit, attack the ones not in Alexei's proximity.

Although I wasn't any faster or stronger than I was before, there was still a huge difference between my current body and the one that guise I always wore. The change came with control. With the body I was created with, I could control the Hellfire that I summoned as if it were an extension of my body, so even though I couldn't make more of it than I could before, I could use it a lot better. Likewise, my physical body now was a lot more sturdy than the previous human guise, and I no longer had to worry about maintaining a human shape.

I willed a thin, continuous line of fire to appear out of Lucifer's ring, and I shot it out towards one of the bastards that was starting to charge up for its beam attack. As I expected, the front line – three of them – ran forwards to try to intersect the attack for the ones in the back. I was expecting them to do this, and with a thought I made the flame bend mid-air, bypassing the fellows desperately trying to block the hit. However, my aim wasn't to hit the foes with the line of fire like I did with the fireballs that I normally made. No, instead, I kept the flame line burning, and extended it past every single one of the creatures.

Once the line was sufficiently far, I fuel the Hellfire with more of Hell's energy, and as it grew hotter and hotter, I swung it like a whip, lashing through every single one of those monsters. The Hellfire whip arched beautifully, burning through everything that it touched, and it neatly sliced through four out of the six creatures before running out of fuel and dissipating.

I wasted no time after, and brandishing my sword, I charged towards the remaining two. As I neared, the creature in front went in to intersect me like always, but this time I was ready for it. I willed concentrated Hellfire into my left hand, forcing it to mold around the skin of my hands. With some more concentration, I willed the flame into the very pores of the flesh, and into my hand. The Hellfire was screaming to be released from such a concentrated state, and I felt like my hand was about to explode. The whole process took less than a second, but when my fist landed on the creature, it didn't even take a fraction of a second for the Hellfire to explode outwards.

As the fire expanded, it took chunks out of everything in front of it with the sheer kenetic energy that was released. Everything that didn't get obliterated from that was subsequently burned from the fire itself. Sufficed to say, the thing that I punched did not have enough time to explode on me this time. I didn't stop my advance, and after imbuing my sword with concentrated Hellfire, I thrust the blade deep into the final creature's chest. The final creature died in an instant.

After I extracted my weapon from the corpse, I checked to see how Alexei was holding up. He was having a pretty hard time, but I could how he managed to take out so many of them before by himself. In his incorporeal form, Alexei was phasing in and out of the material world; he wasn't materializing his body into the creatures as a form of attack any more, having learned that that process expanded way too much energy, but instead, he was using it to confuse his targets. The charging dudes at the back was really were unsure as to where to aim, and likewise, the ones in the front were having a hard time trying to protect the more vulnerable creatures in the back. This left Alexei free to slowly widdle down his opponents, even when he was vastly outnumbered.

Right now he had already crippled all three of the beam monsters, and was facing off the bodyguards. I rushed after him, helping my friend out.

I took one of the creatures out immediately when it had its back towards me by thrusting my sword straight into its head. That left only two left. I summoned a tiny amount of Hellfire, the shape and size of a sewing needle, and flicked it into one of the creatures. The tiny amount of fire went in easily, since its surface area of the pin was so small, and once the needle was in far enough, I forced it to expand outwards. The result was like sticking a grenade into a life body and setting it off, but instead of the creature being blown to bits, it instead had thousands of tiny holes littering its body. Either way, the results are the same.

At the same time, Alexei had managed to decapitate his own opponent. Without wasting any time, we finished the three crippled ones on the floor.

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“You have improved, my friend.” Alexei remarked, “Have you been holding back all this time?”

“It's not like that.” I answered, “I just...”

Alexei shook his head, and said, “It's ok, Mark. If you do not wish to tell me the reason, then it is up to you. We all have things that we do not want to say, no?”

“Thanks, Alexei.”

“Not a problem!” the big man answered, “Now let us get going.”

I was about to agree until something in the corner of my eye caught my attention. Oh boy....

“I don't think we need to search any more...” I muttered, gesturing to Alexei to look behind him.

He turned around, and saw what I meant. Running directly towards us was a terrified Becca, and an equally miserable looking Irina. It was also pretty clear why, because chasing them from behind was a huge juggernaut of a man, easily over 12 feet tall and half as wide, and the thing was built like a wrecking ball. It also acted like one, since it was crushing over everything that got in its way.

Instinctively I threw a huge ball of Hellfire at it. The strange thing was that instead of hitting the creature like I thought it would, the fireball instead curved around it. It wasn't that my aim was bad, but instead, there was something around the huge creature that interfered with my attack.

“Boss, holy shit, is that you?” Becca yelled. She seemed to have been able to see through the new form that I took.

“It's me, Becca.” I answered.

“Cool. But you should still probably fucking book it out of here! That fucking thing is crazy.”

“Good idea.” I yelled back, and as soon as Becca and Irina caught up to us, I took Becca's advice and ran like I've never ran before. “Let's get the hell out of here, Alexei!”

Alexei nodded, and followed my lead, “Normally I would fight to the end, but this looks like a fight that will not end well. Even I am not suicidal.”

“Shut up and run!” Irina said.

“But the pass?” Alexei asked.

“We have it.”

“Then we run like no tomorrow!”

Shortly after retreating like a madman, I realized something. It seems like the hulk behind us was actually slightly faster than we were, and it was steadily gaining ground on us. Every now and then I would chuck another fireball at the thing, but the results were the same. The fire would bend away from its actual body, and land somewhere behind it. Alexei tried to slow it down by knocking as many things to the side as possible, but he quickly gave up, since the hulking creature just ran over everything as if it wasn't there at all.

I knew that if we continued to retreat like this, we were going to be screwed.

“Guys!” I yelled. “I'm going to make some short cuts. Follow behind me.”

“I don't know what you are going to do, my friend, but do it fast!”

I willed Hellfire into my skin once more, like I did at the fight earlier. But this time, I forced the flame into my shoulders. After I made my way in front of everyone else, I charged at the nearest wall, and the second my body made contact with the stone surface, I forced the fire out of my body. The results were as I expected, and I made a new exit.

Every time I slammed into a wall, I was hit with a wave of exhaustion. It took a lot of concentration to force Hellfire to behave like that, and it was even harder when I was being chased by that thing. Thankfully, it only took five walls before we made it out of the manor, because if there were any more in the way, I would have passed out. By the end of that, I felt like my skull would erupt and my heart was on fire, but we made it out.

The walls exploded with another impact, and out came the huge beast of a man. As soon as we were in open grounds again, I willed more Hellfire and I set the ground ablaze. The thick smoke clouded everyone's vision, but thankfully, my company and I didn't need to see to run away. The huge creature, however, was essentially blind, and when it finally realized that it couldn't possibly stop our escape, it screamed in rage.

“YOU WILL REGRET THE DAY YOU DECIDED TO PISS ME OFF!” A huge voice screamed. The source of the voice was obvious. I was just surprised by the fact that it could speak at all. “I WILL EAT YOUR STILL BEATING HEARTS AND TURN YOU INTO SLUGS! NO FUCKS WITH FRANKENSTEIN AND LIVES!”

Ah, it seems that huge thing was actually Frankenstein himself. I will probably regret pissing him off later. No, I definitely will.

It also seems that the hired help had long finished their job, and they were not slow in realizing the new situation. Without wasting a single breath, everyone that came out today ran like their lives depended on it, and with a lot of luck, we all managed to make it out safely.

* * *

When everyone made it back safely to Alexei's residence, and I had my hands on my pass once again, I explained the nature of my change, and what happened in the manor. Everyone was silent when I told them, and didn't question me when I was done. Well, Becca did, but that was expected from her.

Sara also greeted us, and brought some drinks and food for everyone to relax after. She was happy to see the group doing well, and I could see the relief wash off her face. The poor girl probably had a lot on her mind, having had her whole life turned up side down, but she was taking it relatively well.

“That is so fucking awesome, boss!” Becca said, after having her various questions answered, “You look pretty damn sweet without the guise on, er, but I prefer you the way you are now.”

I laughed at the girl could take everything so lightly. She could just accept anything that came her way, and I loved her for it. I moved to sit beside her on the couch, and gave her a friendly pat on the head, ruffling up her hair.

“Stop treating me like a kid, boss!” She said, feigning annoyance.

I smiled, and answered, “Maybe when you start acting like an adult.”

“But then I'd lose my charm!”

I laughed again, and agreed with her. I guess what made the girl so enduring was her attitude, and I really wouldn't want her to change.

“Yeah, Becca. I guess you're right.”

I noticed that Becca was pouting, and I guess she was expecting my reaction to be a little different after she did so much for my sake. I guess she deserves that much. This time, instead of ruffling her hair like I usually do, I bent over slightly and gave the angry looking girl a firm kiss on her lips.

Becca turned crimson, and looked at me in disbelief. She started to speak something, but her tongue was tied up, and all that came out were a bunch of gibberish.

So instead, I spoke up for her, “I guess I can't treat you like a kid this time, Becca.”

“Um... Er. T-Thanks, boss.”

“By the way.” I said, ignoring the reactions of the people around me – Alexei was grinning like a mad man, Irina was blushing slightly, and Sara was tastefully ignoring what happened, “How did you guys manage to find the pass?”

“Well, Mark.” Irina said, “We found it in Frankenstein's bedroom rather quickly. After we managed to get it, I'm sure that you can guess what happened after.”

“Was he always that big, my wife?”

“No, he was normal sized until he saw us.”

“Ah. Then I am glad to see you two doing well.” Alexei said, before turning to the still embarrassed Becca, “It all ended well, no?”

Becca's response was just to punch the big man.

We all laughed at that.