The heavy trudge of footsteps squished the mud beneath their feet. As Ephram hung his head down to his chest, trying to catch his breath, he heard their arrival far too late. Dozens of grotesque demonic monsters had heard the brawl unfolding in the graveyard and had gathered towards it. Upon seeing the remnants of the fight, however, they were all sorely disappointed for being left out of the fun.

  As Ephram's chest slowly rose and fell, he looked up weakly to the now surrounding force of demons. There was no possible way he could beat them all by himself, it had taken every inch of his strength to beat the two now lying dead upon the ground. All hope had been lost, and Ephram knew that his time had finally come. It was a good run, and he could at least take pride in knowing he had died fighting.

  "Just... finish it..." He spluttered angrily, waiting for one of the demons to step forward and end his suffering.

  He felt ashamed of himself for giving up at the sight of this overwhelming force but knew that there was no other option. Both Silvia and May were on the brink of death, and he knew he was running on fumes himself. Even those fumes had begun to dissipate, leaving Ephram completely helpless as he felt his body go cold.

  As he watched three of the demons approach his body, he noticed their eyes were the same orange hue as the other four eyed demons. These three, however, had only two eyes peering down at him. The dozens of demons surrounding him seemed to be similar to each other, but each were just as grotesque as the last in their own unique way. One in particular caught Ephram's attention as he stared at it angrily. One demon in particular had golden eyes as bright as the sun and was obviously under the control of Aberlain.

  It's jagged tooth grin instilled a terror inside of him he thought he had vanquished long ago, the fear he suppressed for so long had finally come unbottled at the sight of the monsters around him. Ephram didn't want to die, he wanted to keep living with Silvia and May and the others by his side. It was cruel to have been stomped into submission like this as soon as he finally saw the light at the end of his journey, but somewhere deep within his mind, he knew. The world is a cruel and unforgiving place, always looking for an opportunity to shove others down to raise itself up. Reality was nothing more than a bully, picking on its inhabitants as if it were better than them in every way.

  He watched as the demon with yellow eyes bent over to inspect the two dead demons, poking and prodding at the jaw lodged through the skull of the demon with knife-like claws. There was nothing Ephram could do now but watch helplessly from the gravestone he had propped himself upon. As he looked over his shoulder to inspect the stone, however, he began to chuckle hoarsely.

  The demons all turned to face him curiously, wondering why he seemed to be laughing in the face of misfortune. Ephram didn't care what happened to him anymore and had found it absolutely hilarious knowing he was about to die in this exact spot. The gravestone holding him up now was none other than his own, with both his name and Silvia's etched into the stone like a cruel reminder. He was supposed to be dead long ago, but Ephram had defied his own death by turning himself into a demon. It was as if reality had forced him back to his grave, the place he should have been all along.

  "I hope... you all rot..." He said to the demons, his raspy voice filling with a tiredness as his shoulder started to slump forward with his head.

  Once he had finished speaking, the yellow eyed demon angrily approached him, grabbing his shoulders with its claws and bending down to snarl in Ephram's face. Its scalding hot breath reeked of decaying flesh and sulfur, as if its jaws were the last thing hundreds of humans had seen since arriving upon Earth. As the creature sunk its jaws into Ephram's left arm, it began violently shaking its head back and forth like a dog ripping an animal to shreds. Crying out in agony, Ephram tried desperately to get away from the jaws of the creature but could do nothing as it ripped his left arm clean off his shoulder, hurling the arm away into the dark fog upon the ground.

  Not having any anger nor pain left within him to scream any longer, he felt his voice slowly fade away as his vision blurred even more. The blood flowing from his throbbing shoulder rushed out quickly, pulsating into the ground beneath him. It was ironic to him as he thought of what laid underneath this spot, his and Silvia's decayed corpses. The blood of his demonic body soaked into the mud as it reached through the ground, crawling towards the coffin below.

  The demon smiled happily at the sight of its dying prey, preparing itself to lunge once more. It lunged forward with its sharp teeth bared, aiming for Ephram's throat to kill him instantly. As the demon nearly reached his jugular, however, it began bellowing out in agony.

  As Ephram's vision tried to focus once more, he could see the blurry outline of a small dark field mouse with white beady eyes clawing at the left eye of the monstrous demon.

  "Silo, no... run!" He tried to shout, but the hoarseness of his exhausted voice could hardly be heard as the mouse ripped out the left eye of the demon.

  Scratching at its face angrily, the demon tried to rid itself of the field mouse as he leapt over to the right eye, chewing frantically through it to stop the demon from hurting his friends any longer. Ephram was confused as to how the mouse had gotten here but realized he must've snuck into the graveyard after seeing the three of them nearly die from the previous two demons. As the yellow eyed demon screamed in agony, searching for Silo with its hands, it collapsed to the ground in pain.

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  "Don't worry! I'll think of something!" Silo suddenly yelled, but in doing so, had revealed his location to the demon in search of him.

  Snatching up the field mouse in its claws, the demon roared with fury as it began squeezing Silo tightly in its clutches. As he tried to wiggle and knaw his way out of the demon's grasp, however, he felt the bones in his body start to rearrange. Squealing out in pain, Silo tried once more to chew his way through the demon's hand, but to no avail.

  Ephram watched in horror as the other demons crowded around the yellow eyed demon, watching as it slowly squeezed the life from Silo's small and frail body. They hollered and screamed with joy, jumping up and down in the graveyard as they watched the show unfold. With one swift motion the demon closed its hand entirely, crushing the field mouse within. He was no longer able to fight back against the demon's grasp, lying limp inside the palm of the monster as it continued to squeeze. Silo felt the life drain from his body as the demon crushed his bones to dust, and his flesh began to drip from the clutches of the monster like hot wax dripping from a burning candle.

  The flaming torch of life Silo carried within had been snuffed out entirely now, killing the field mouse as the fire went out. The demon slowly opened its right eye, it had only been scratched at enough to leave a few marks but was still operational enough to see that it had won. It had killed the nuisance of a creature digging through its eyes and began laughing madly with joy as it dropped the dead mouse to Ephram's feet.

  "Now what will you do!?" The demon screeched in Ephram's face, but a reaction could not be found anywhere among him.

  Thinking Ephram had simply gone silent from shock, the demon turned to face both Silvia and May as it approached them slowly. Trudging its dark mangled feet through the fog and mud of the graveyard, it peered down evilly at Silvia's body. The large bite marks encompassing her shoulder had dried with blood, scabbing over crudely as she laid unconscious upon the ground next to May, who was still bleeding out from the gaping hole in her abdomen.

  As the now one-eyed demon bent down to pick up Silvia's body and finish draining it of blood, the air of the graveyard seemed to go stale. Standing back up slowly to inspect what could've caused the change, it looked over to another group of confused demons who seemed to sense the change in the air as well. It was only when it turned around to face Ephram that it understood what it had done.

  Death.

  The only word capable of worming its way through the mind of the demon. Death. It stared in horror at the creature before it, its radiating waves of unfiltered hatred flowing from its body like a corpse without a soul.

  Ephram stood tall above his own grave, staring directly at the one eyed demon with an indescribable amount of rage and fury. As he slowly walked over to his hat lying upon the ground, he placed it upon his head and turned to look at the surrounding demons. The venomous hate pouring from his soul had begun to manifest itself in physical form. A deep crimson red flowed from his body in each place it had been destroyed. The gaping hole in his mid-section had fused itself together with his glowing crimson rage, as his left arm slowly grew back with the twisting red vines of pain and anguish.

  As his arm healed slowly from the base of his shoulder, he looked down at it without a thought in his mind. The intellect Ephram once commanded had been discarded by the overwhelming fury he now harbored, overflowing his body to the point of physical manifestation. The demons around him took a few steps back from the sight of this creature, unsure of what kind of demon they had angered. The demon in the hat before them was no longer a demon, and that fact burst through the minds of each surrounding monster as they stared at him with eyes full of fright.

  As Ephram pointed towards the one-eyed demon with the reddened hand of his rage, he felt another change beginning to occur within himself. For as long as he had been born again as a demon, his face had been featureless just like most of the others. He had always missed being able to properly see his surroundings, and had finally gotten his secret wish. As the dark skin tore from his face where his eyelids hid, two hellish red eyes pierced through. Darker than blood, his red eyes bore through every demon in sight as they glowed violently, lighting up the entire graveyard. The surrounding fog reflected the crimson light well, turning every inch of the mist into a hellish red cloud floating softly through the wind.

  "Make peace with your creator." Ephram said, his voice calm and collected as he stepped towards his first target, the one-eyed demon.

  As the demons looked frantically around, they watched in horror as Ephram leapt forward with astounding speed. Grabbing the throat of the one-eyed demon with his red left hand and squeezing tightly, he began slowly crushing the windpipe of the creature. Taking his time in killing the monstrosity, he forced the demon down to its knees as he continued squeezing with all his strength.

  The one-eyed demon began choking out words of mercy, looking up at Ephram with a pitiful weakness behind its eye. The amount of pity the monster begged for was disgusting to him, and upon seeing the hypocritical nature of the beast, he crushed the demon's throat entirely.

  As the body of the one-eyed demon slumped to the ground, Ephram wasted no time attacking the next thing in his line of sight. Silo was the first person to ever help him after losing his memories. He was the first good thing to ever happen to him in such a long time, and these disgusting abominations had taken him away. Every single one of them would pay. He would destroy the entire world if he had to, burning through his soul to command the power he needed. Killing these weak excuses of life was nothing more than child's play now, ripping through each demon he saw with a ferocity he didn't know he held.

  As Ephram lost himself to the rage of his heart, the demons surrounding him began to fight for their lives. There was nothing they could do as he ripped through them like cardboard, tearing them to pieces in his violent ballet of fury. A never ending battle of flesh and bone tore through the graveyard as Ephram killed demon after demon, beating them down relentlessly.

  The tick of his pocketwatch slowed to a steady pulse as he sent ribbons of dark flesh flying through the air. With every second that passed, he knew that the march of time was struggling to catch up to him. He had finally outweighed the cruelness of reality with the storm of his madness. As he fought to hold back the clock from overtaking him, he felt his hands sink into the flesh of yet another demon.

  Reaching deep within the rib cage of this demon, he brought it close to his face as he stared directly into its eyes with his own, feeling nothing as he ripped the demon's torso open with his bare hands.

  "What... are you..." The orange eyed demon asked as it was dropped to the ground beneath Ephram, trying desperately to hold on to him as it slid down into the hellish red fog.

  "I'm the fucking Devil."