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Cursed Reincarnation
Iron Maiden III

Iron Maiden III

Rias eventide

I still had to admit to myself that I took Kaliryn’s deal. Why she was so willing to give me everything, still wondering about it in my head several times over, the way kaliryn was adamant she would give me everything. The way she looked at me, seemed to convey how much wants to either see castil dead or have another reason for giving me all this power.

Thunk. The sound of something heavy reached my ears, before I could take note of what it was my entire body was thrown several feet. Hitting the ground, I looked to where I was previously standing and saw two figures with one dressed regally. The other well they were more on the side of gothic. The first of the two figures began to move with a glint in his eye. He was getting a thrill of ecstasy from this, Imra wore the usual grin that was seen in every meeting. The other figure stood still his head bowed to the ground with a mixture of black liquid dripping from his eyes and wounds across his body.

“You like it?” Imra asked turning his attention towards the figure that sprouted wings according to its own free will. At first, I didn’t recognize such a prestigious figure due to its bowed head, but being flat on the ground with a gaping wound through my chest allowed a clear view of the figure. The figure who had his head bowed was a willing subservient to Imra. Looking back I had noticed him once before when I was a queen’s guard, never figured out his origin however. Now it was clear who this figure was.

“He’s been serving me for some time. Willingly as well unlike Talia who was meant to be mine! You took my pet away from me!” Imra exclaimed clutching the chest area of his clothing, whether he was trying to get a rise out of me I couldn’t care, focusing more on the second figure along with my injury that had just missed my black heart. Imra continued to talk stepping closer within arm’s reach. “I find it amazing how much hate you show towards me without knowing the truth right?”

“I know you didn’t do anything because I asked. I can see the liar’s hand through my golden sight.” Imra froze hearing my half-dead tone, right now bluffing wouldn’t work against him knowing he had an angel beside him, one of the strongest but corrupted. Disregarding them both I attempted to heal the wound that was currently forcing me to the ground, as mana surged through my body, Imra halted my healing by plunging his arm into my back. I could feel his grip against my heart. With every beat, his hand strengthened around my beating heart which slowly began to have a few paces between each beat.

“Maybe so, it was all Imkli then again he didn’t do much as he is a dullard who couldn’t even save his lover.”

“It's like you're talking from experience, care to elaborate? Was one of your cousins I killed… a lover? Or maybe when I tore your uncle’s head from his shoulders?” The air around us froze with that same blistering hate I felt gazing upon King Lyron whenever we met in any regard. Before my words could reach my mouth I felt that grip tighten so much that if my heart began to beat quickly it would explode. “At least… Imra isn’t seeking love from a man who never loved him.” ‘If I’m going die, I’m gonna go out swinging’. The momentary silence from Imra gave me the chance I move and even fight back. Pushing Imra away without tearing my heart from my body, I engaged the angel in fair combat with my limited strength which was slowly fading.

The angel with his superior strength got me to my knees but he paused waiting for an order from Imra, this was a mistake on his end. Gripping tighter around my glaive I brutally swung it cutting deep into the angel’s wing and forcing it back to Imra’s side. ‘Ah, fuck’. Imra pierced my chest with a large formation of crystal ice, freezing my heart to a stop. ‘Gotta admit to myself, I don’t want to die… fuckin’ ‘ell’. The crystal ice covered my entire heart completely and then my vision faded to black.

Like many will or would have predicted only my body was dead yet my soul and mind remained to ever wander in another plane of existence far removed from the eyes of mortals or eldritch far above it. The place I found myself in is a place reminiscent of what Hela’s primordial realm is believed to look like if you are able to understand the primordial truth and all things that spew from its maw. Wasting no time, I walked through the wintry wasteland of ruined angelic architecture towards the large gothic keep under the heavy dark moon of Ran.

At first, I had thought this place was empty but the more I walked through the ruins, the more everything shifted, and I began to see this ‘realm’ for what it truly was. A place where the rebirthed would go when they had extinguished the last flame inside their hearts. People’s rebirthed souls looked at me in surprise or straight terror. It wasn’t a welcoming feeling then again was seeing me in a place like this ever a good thing? Though I couldn’t see my reflection I knew from the looks I was given it wasn’t a good appearance to them. Beginning to understand the primordial truth that shaped the realm around me from simple things like the rebirthed to even just the language. An archaic form of rune. Rune to my limited understanding was the main language used by Themis Narmorian, the Nornians.

It’s a language lost to time, forever lost with the knowledge of how to enter that lost advanced realm. Through my mind, I even became able to understand the primordial truth enough to understand the language including to see the realm for what it was in a limited capacity. Walking from street to street, soon I came to realise that these people ‘the rebirthed’ lived more than one like myself meaning the death I felt just was indeed real. Dropping my head, I looked towards the ground seeing my reflection. The face I had come to this land with.

It was identical to the appearance I have currently with a few differences such as the ashy white cracked skin, blue sapphire eyes and bandages that cover most of my upper body. My lower body is in an outfit I don’t recognise from any of my lives I know of so far. Over my eyes was that familiar ribbon that Marin gave me. My spiked crown was placed neatly on my head over the now-present white fade to black highlighted hair. Aside from all this, my glaive wasn’t present on my person nonetheless another weapon was my odachi, which I've had for so long something which has been present in all my lives. Gripping it tightly I felt the blade like it had done in the past just like my glaive. This blade of black death is waiting for a name.

Moving on from the now clearer ruined city of the rebirthed I moved towards the large gothic keep that resembled Camelot in its former glory just bathed under the moonlight from that dark moon. With odachi hanging from my waist, I kept walking in that direction having to adjust to the bodily changes that this body now had which were different from the Valkyrie body I've had since my birth in my current life. My six-foot-two frame of the Valkyrie matched the one of this body but that was where the body similarities stopped, this body was more leaner having a more defined muscle structure for a lean build. This body also being lighter meant I was quicker on my feet however I’m not being able to pack that much of a punch.

Standing before the large gothic gates of the keep, a voice sang out from the courtyard just inside. The voice was female soothing with a motherly tone that could be heard when cradling a child to sleep. Hearing the singing reminded me of the singing that I would hear as Marin whenever my mother of that life would sing to me from either by my side or as an apparition from the grave. The figure didn’t stop at my presence, being undisturbed by me opening the gates and entering the courtyard that clearly belonged to her.

“Þat mælti mín móðir.” I stood silent listening to the figure sing whilst she sat under a large black-leaved tree in the centre of her courtyard. Taking a step closer seemed to grab the woman’s attention and for a moment I saw a sombre glint in her eyes that turned into happiness at the sight of me. This female figure was someone I had seen in statues or described briefly in notes from beings long dead. ‘Those descriptions really don’t do her justice’.

“Your Hela?” I questioned the figure with long auburn hair complemented by her fair pale skin that happened to be hardly covered by her clothing, which was a thin dark blue or black dress with silver embroidery. Unlike me, she wasn’t covered in runes or had any marking of any kind on her body aside from a few that stretched down from her chin to the centre of her chest which covered her entire neck. On each hand, she wore two silver bracelets interlocked by a serpent head which was followed by the metal armbands on the upper left arm.

Three metallic silver bands carved with decorative wolf heads. Through the thigh slit on her deep V-neck dress, I noticed she had an ankle bracelet with the runes spelling deathless engraved deeply.

“I am yes. And you are Rias pendragon? No… now your Rias eventide. How should I address you? I’m also unsure how to say your name properly is it like ree-uhs or Rhys.” Hela’s voice wasn’t just soothing like a mother’s lullaby, it had a beautiful tone like a siren’s song or a seductive melody of an angel. I had to admit it was a strange feeling to hear such as a warm voice from a primordial being that could rip my soul apart at a moment’s notice. Nevertheless, I slowly thought of a response, yet this came with some difficulty since I couldn’t take my thoughts from admiring her beauty like Talia’s own beauty.

“Well to the people of onrath it's ree-uhs the same goes for Tramon but I prefer Rhys, it's how my father said my name… I've just stuck with it. No need for honorifics… it's more like I should speak honorifics to you.” Hela seemed disheartened by me bringing up that I think I should use honorifics in her presence. From the statues I've seen in my lifetime even once meeting a priestess in servitude to Hela, honorifics seemed important but from her reaction, it seemed like she wasn’t fond of them.

“Rhys it is then. You know of me as Hela, correct?” she questioned beginning to stand on her own two feet. I nodded in reply to her question watching her dress sway in the wind that picked up, seeing someone even taller the Orin who eight feet was is quite a bit daunting. From my estimates, I could gather that Hela was between nine to ten feet tall without wearing heels. “Throughout history from the universe’s beginning to now, I have been known by many names… taken on many forms. Hela, Thanatos, the first Shinigami… I've lost count.” She paused raising her hand towards me showing me a slight glimpse of her power.

“Many like the witch’s coven under call me, Curish. However, that isn’t my true name… I am but a blade clutched in the hand of eir. Before I was primordial, I went by another name Helgan.” It felt like the world around me froze seeing one of the many old gods before me, the pressure I felt just by looking at her rose inside my heart. It was a feeling of nostalgia and favour, yet a motherly feeling long forgotten. Helgan was the seventh old god which also meant that she was a transmigrator. “I had long forgotten my vow to Malfera. It seems seeing the face of you has reaffirmed my memories… unlike those zealot believers and the witches. Please call me by the name I was first born with. Anatashia or Nat either is fine.”

“Tell me why I'm here and who I am just this much is fine.” Raising my fingers I placed my index above my thumb maybe an inch or two between them. Anatashia smiled and began to recall her past stating, it was important if I knew that first before she told a little about myself.

“Long ago in times now absconded. The old gods came from a world not belonging to this ever-expanding multiverse, as an advanced race born with exceptional abilities we gained godhood. Sealing away the mother of nothingness we were given an object to Mold which became this ever-expanding multiverse however we slowly left our roles as guardians until only one remained. Hae-son, Xaoi even Jin left to be rebirthed new lives, yet Yuson stayed to watch over the seal.” She paused looking towards the dark moon which now had shifted in appearance. “Yuson… spent years watching the seal. Waiting. Eventually, it did open… we all felt it as reawakened beings, but we weren’t strong enough. After we left Yuson to fend for herself the mother of existence stripped us of our godly power.” The story Nat was telling was unknown to me even Rold’s notebook didn’t outline such a memory of this kind.

“The mother of existence all told us that this happened because we left. In the end, I killed Yuson with no other choice. I knew I'd become hated by all the old gods even Yuson’s family but that was something. A burden I was willing to carry. The mother of existence in response with the last of her power sealed away her sister and gifted me the power of the primordial crucible. Becoming the first primordial I forged everything with my own hands, every concept, every being even rebirthed Yuson with a vow. An oath that I'd stand by her if she needs me. Ah sorry I got sidetracked.” Hela looked back towards me no longer gazing up at the moon.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

It was a lot to take in a short period. The fact Nat well Hela was the seventh old god Helgan who came from another world who had fought and sealed two beings beyond even primordial understanding. She was also the creator of everything contained to this ever-expanding multiverse of known and unknown, just trying to understand all this was giving me a headache. Before I could ask any questions or even try to understand it any more Hela continued on to speak.

“You Rias are a fragment of divinity. Your body, mind and soul is a fragment, coupled with the other fragments you have found that have brought you here, feeling the connection with your next fragment. Raven’s eir, the eclipse core and the spider lily have felt the pull towards your second strongest fragment. The eye of grace has been calling to you, its pull saving you from the angel’s death blow. However, who you are is something I can’t tell you only in truth’s benevolence will you know.” Nat held out her hand and in the palm of her hand was a small teardrop-shaped sapphire violet crystal. ‘Here goes nothing.’ With a deep breath, lifting my left hand towards my eye.

With my right hand gently holding the sapphire-violet crystal in its palm ready to place in my left socket the moment I'd pluck out my left eye. Shaking ever so slightly I plunged my index, middle and thumb into the left socket of my eye, with a groan through gritted teeth bearing the pain. Slowly placing the sapphire-violet crystal in the left socket, the pain was more bearable as the crystal slowly embedded itself as my new left eye. For a few seconds I felt nothing and then the lives I’ve known about even lives I'd forgotten flew through my mind.

Many were incomplete but the lives as Marin, Artura and Sif were complete I could remember everything. The good, the bad and the ugly. Lives I shouldn’t have remembered appeared only as blurs, but I saw a few distinct memories. In one life I stood tall beside two people who could have been sisters in another blurred memory, I made out the memory of myself living in Torosk the capital but there was one clearer than the rest. Standing before an altar in a wedding dress with jet black hair and crimson eyes of fire, subconsciously I spoke a name Marin said to me. “Raven.”

“No. That’s not possible how could I forget that life? HOW?!” I cried out clutching my left hand over my left eye. Of all the millions of lives I’ve lived doomed to this repetition over and over again, the life that my heart cherished the most was the one I had forgotten out of the belief it would be good for me. Falling to the ground onto my knees, Hela placed her hand on my shoulders as a sign of comfort what little it could do at a time like this? Keeping my head bowed I listened to Hela speak

“In that life just before you died you called out to me, knowing those fragments would be one day recovered you asked to be rebirthed. I did bring you back every single time even when you asked to come back after you died as Artura, every time you always told me to force you to forget that life why?”

“Because I became what I feared… became a monster.”

“I see. Would you like to go back with the knowledge of who you are, though it isn’t much? A lot is still missing.” Hela asked helping me stand.

“Yes but before that can I ask you something Nat?” she smiled and with a nod, I asked what had been on the back of my mind since I had got the sun fragment. “Can I become your einherjar?”

“Yes.” That word filled with confidence wiped away from gaining that fragment though the everlasting feeling of sorrow remained, I wanted to take it in stride. “Then before you go… ill make you my einherjar. You won't be my puppet like you were with Arachni but my marionette. Under the oath of the dark moon under the voyage of the falling star will you give your all to protect the vow that you're beholden to? Speak the vow.”

“I swear to never break the primordial oath of rebirth. I will always be beholden to the vow. I swear to protect it. To protect my friends, family and the people I'm empress to. I’ll sacrifice myself if I have to. Upon my life as rebirth’s marionette, I shall never fall from your embrace.” With the vow spoken it was complete I had now become the einherjar of Hela.

“Though our time was short here it was good to see you again. My chained raven.” In many of the lives I could clearly remember Hela was never present she only watched on in the form of a black cat with green eyes or the form of a formless wind just far enough away that I couldn’t make out the shape. However, as I remembered the life of the Raven she was present quite a bit, she was a friend, a teacher. Even my pet cat. Someone I could speak to if needed. She was my goddess, and I was her iron maiden.

“See you soon. My SunKiller.” A gateway opened up back to the land of the living. Stepping towards the portal I turned back to face her however I saw no one just an empty courtyard. With a sorrowful smile turning back and speaking under my breath, the gateway closed behind me as my return became an eventual resurrection of life.

“Unto death, bound in blackened chains of raven steel. My heart of grey bleeding the divine gold, lest we forget… holden to our sins. I bind my fears into nightmares… come forth black death.” A blade of pure black primordial iron formed from the space in my right hand’s grip. Using the body and frame of my odachi, a new weapon had begun to take form. Amore gothic, more brutal one. The once pristine-looking blade now took on a textured kintsugi in between the black. Much stayed the same around the tsuba, handle and pommel there were a couple of differences such as the thorns wrapping around the top side of the handle and blade.

My body had shifted in appearance as well, to the one I had whilst in the realm of rebirth was currently present with an additional four runes glowing just above the skin on my right arm. Wyrm runes or as they were mostly known will runes. The wyrm runes didn’t take on the conventional type of mana they took another type of power focused on emotions two at least did. Fear, shadow, abyss and nightmare. The wyrm runes of fear and nightmare did things differently than the wyrm runes of abyss and shadow.

“Shadow is the sorcery type that your grand commander Nox can use, and the abyss is what Artoria can use. I made it so that you can use the wyrm runes never seen before on anything other than those two and well fear is unique to kaliryn. The nightmare wyrm rune I have no idea what formed that other than your burning hate.” Hela spoke inside my head like Arachni once did but Hela talking didn’t feel like I was being constantly stabbed by a thin set of one-millimetre needles.

While I was distracted, the corrupted angel of time attacked hoping he could get an early attack even a win. whether I span on my heel and blocked or not I'd still get stabbed or killed. The corrupted angel was taken aback when his attack was blocked by an equally sized claw blade on the end of a metallic ligament. The metallic ligament belonged to a rather large beast maybe nine to ten feet tall, with two arms and two claw blades protruding from a long spinal cord that flowed to the ground. Atop the metallic spinal cord was a horned metal skull of a bear, the whole silver metal body glowed with a slight red hue all originating from its crimson eyes.

“Welcome back Reaper.”

Reaper stood proud over me with his spinal cord tail wrapping around me delicately. He didn’t speak just watched the corrupted angel of time stand back in response. The crimson blood-red hue of the fear rune burned through Reaper's eyes, like a desert heatwave under the cindering sun. Reaper kept quiet still just observing, the only noise that could be heard was the crawling pulse of his metallic body slithering over my body. To my surprise, the sharp edges of his spinal tail weren’t cutting the bandages and thin material that covered the upper part of my body.

Reaper and I stood opposite the prince and his angel who drew his blade to his side igniting it with an amber flame, his white wings spread dripping that familiar corrupted oil those angels had. The prince stood a few inches before his knight shadowed by its height but that didn’t stop his determination. Clad in the silver armour that his father wore in his late teens to early twenties Imra began to conjure a storm. The silver Faulds of the armour began to float at the sudden change in the wind’s pressure. When the storm was fully conjured, he threw it right at me followed by a large uppercut from the angel who seemed to teleport.

“False leaders should be purged.” The angel of time spat as his blade clashed against my own, the air cracked and the ground erupted beneath our feet. The air rippled cracking apart, kicking up my left leg pulled some earth up toward the angel. Swinging widely, he narrowly missed the fabric covering my eyes, the wide swing from his blade cut through the air more than our blades clashing. The snow sizzled becoming just mere puddles of frost, aside from the wild attacks, his skill with the blade was strong but far from what it could be.

“You are not god.”

“Well… I’d rather be a demon or a monster.” In a moment of quick decision, I pushed myself forward towards the angel. As he froze unsure what to do, I planted my head against his, this surprising act even sent Imra into momentary shock. The angel of time began to laugh clutching his forehead with his free hand, time froze for everyone aside from myself and him. In the past it would’ve been great to see this in action… now it was just tedious to deal with, quite frankly using divinity would take the fun out of beating him senseless in frozen time.

“Dazai’s vault.” Hundreds of angels appeared out from time streams long forgotten. Somehow my dumbass had forgotten this fucker had an entire army of bitchless fuckwits at his beck and call.

“Alright then… the hard way, shall we?” The black blade became enveloped by golden flames mixed with Marin’s silver lightning. All the angels charged at once under the command of the angel of time whom I was beginning to recognize, Reaper becoming free from the time stop engaged the angels with me. He was like a shark in an open ocean just swimming from prey to prey devouring them without a second thought in his head. All I could hear was the screams and reverberated crunch of snapping bones, twigs under the force of hammer an’ anvil.

“Just you and me old man.” Taking step after step the angel descended from the skies to look me in the eyes. “Time to feel the weight of what time feels like.” with a smile I clutched the blade in my grip tighter, the flames becoming roaring dragons, lightning spat in thunderous beating pulses. With a rift-step infused with lightning, I tore the air to shreds as I drifted in space, as I left the rift-step the ground beneath crumbled as my foot landed. The air burned with a heat that was scolding even from afar. The snow softened, beginning to melt, wood became kindling, and then the air began to sink with a rotten smell of flesh.

“Impressive young one but this is still nothing. I’m the one in control. Micheal’s light!” Light flashed in my mind, making me stumble to the ground, spitting blood I reared my body to the left dodging the attack just enough to be scraped on the arm. With my left I pressed it onto the ground pushing myself up. “Cheap. Azrael’s bolt.” A hundred bolts of death rained down nearly striking me in every place of my vital organs.

“Nice. Flames of hell.” The air exploded with numerous small bursts of violent screaming wisps, time’s angel was hit by a few scorching his armour melding to his body from the heat. With that unfaltering smile, he readied himself for another attack that I didn’t chant… just conjured. Three hundred blades of silver appeared above my head all covered by golden flames. “Raining chimes of heaven.” The angel’s eyes flew open wide seeing the three hundred blades fly just towards him but all the angels.

“Angel magic is just child’s play to me.” Fear began to cover his eyes as he watched maybe two hundred blades or all three hundred just mow down every angel in a ten-metre radius. A spell he had learned of, created by Samael and used in heaven’s war was now being used against its creator’s kin. “Flesh for the kindling.” Using the wyrm rune of fear, I could shift how others see me, from looking into his eyes I saw what he did. I was nothing more than a burning shadow with crimson eyes and a wide smile that made a jester’s look small.

“God from darkness and light answer my call.” The angel of time conjured a perfect manifestation of a dead primordial not a concept but a primordial who served the nemean lion.

“Rias… can you hear me?” Marin’s voice was quite small, but I couldn’t hear enough through all the screams and chomping of Reaper’s maw. “DODGE!” she screamed. It took a moment for it to register in my head but thankfully, I wasn’t erased from existence. ‘I need to get close enough to use--’. My thoughts ran wild of ways I could iron maiden to kill such a thing since it could kill a primordial.

“Reaper! I had a hand getting to its heart.” Shouting through the space, pointing directly at the centre of the dead primordial before the both of us. Shortly after he hurried over to me killing the angels that got in his path, not giving them a second glance he grabbed hold of me. In the past, we would use a similar tactic to traverse large caverns, with his arms he threw me upwards towards the large white figure that loomed over everything. Using rift-step I pushed myself back to the ground feeling an onslaught of spiked shards shoot out from the dead primordial’s raised hand.

“Suns of antique light.” the dead primordial spoke with an ethereal husk.

“It's impressive… I’ll give it that. Bit fucking annoying though.” Reaper groaned biting down on the neck of an angel whilst sticking his clawed blade through another. I agreed with Reaper though it was one attack I know if I don’t deal with it soon, it will become a major problem in the future. Pushing a lot of the excess mana throughout my body into my feet fusing it with the lightning mana aspect whilst conjoined with rift-step I forced myself to enter the dead primordial’s heart.

The beating of the dead primordial’s heart was ear-piercing, a curdling pitch similar to nails on a chalkboard. With my free hand, I reached for the centre of the heart as dead cells dripped onto my arm staining it blackened crimson. With my hand against the centre of the dead primordial’s heart, I felt it try to worm its way into my head using eldritch and archaic whispers of fortune and luck. Not falling for its tricks, I poured a lot of divinity into my spell. The bottomless pit of divinity knew no end.

“Iron maiden.”

The strings of time and strands of fate tore at each other ripping as they were cut by iron maiden. The dead primordial began to scream in agony as thousands of thorns a few hundred feet in length erupted from the centre of its heart. With an outwards spread of no direction, the thorns danced on every part of the dead primordial, it screamed as everything continued. Time became an unfettered stream of diverging paths, the strands of fate became fearful with no puppet to control. The cracked ground became a blood-covered open field, the uprooted grass became littered with the corpses of dead angels and a three-hundred-foot-tall statue of a dead primordial with a spiked visage.

The thorns of pure metallic black steel consumed all light that approached. Anything in a ten-metre radius was killed or decayed beyond the point recognition, from the closed eyes of the dead primordial a constant stream of blackened crimson liquid formed a lake beneath it. Its two hands covered in spikes waned and croaked at any tap of the wind. Branches of steel forced themselves out of the ground causing breaks in the very earth we stood upon. The inner side of the crimson lake was filled with grey-silver trees made entirely of steel.

“This isn’t possible how?!” The angel of time screamed in bewilderment watching as the dead primordial became silent as more silver trees of steel formed from within the crimson lake. Stepping beside him I answered his question in a light tone of stillness.

“Haniel.” The angel of time looked at me hearing his name be spoken from my lips. Fear consumed him, he began to laugh and cry simultaneously. It seemed the death of his god drove him over the brink, in his fear he swung wildly trying to attack me. With time slowly breaking apart to resume there wasn’t much that he could do all on his own which made him fearful even more.

“Will strike you down! False god!”

“They fear which they don’t understand. Fear of the unknown.” My words hung in the air. With one single swing of my black steel odachi, I plunge it through his core then his heart out of his back. With a ‘nother movement, it became free of the vice-like grip he tried to put on my blade. “Beholden to their virtues of twisted nature. Death is a punishment for the fallen.” Holding Haniel by the throat I covered various parts of his body in flames and a violent twisted curse of my own making.

After time had resumed all that was left of Haniel was his upper body, the upper portion of his left arm. His entire right arm, and his neck with his head firmly attached. A large hole remained in his upper body with no core or heart present. On the lower quarter of Haniel’s remains was a slightly exposed rib cage devoid of colour besides the dripping crimson. I hadn’t expected this but with time resumed Imra was silent, he didn’t move. Imra just knelt covering his mouth to muffle his screams. In his eyes, I could see more than the fear that I currently instilling.

Seeing me hold the corpse, the erupted feeble remains of Haniel sent Imra into shock.

To him, it was a waking nightmare.