"Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made."

― Immanuel Kant, Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose

"We cannot risk all our gains, just for your petty feud!"

Ame-no, leader of the eastern gods, cast aside Odin's request without thought. The rest of the pantheonic leaders nodded their agreement.

"The Relic World provides us with too much," Brahma leaned toward Odin, his three faces in agreement. "Vengeance on a single mortal is incomparable."

"Our Religious empires have begun their moves," Jok's body shifted between a dozen forms before it settled on a dark-skinned man. "If we push the timelines, all so you can destroy a single continent..."

"That mortal has to DIE," Oden slammed his fists onto the stone table. "He's taken what's mine, and destroyed one of my avatars!"

"Calm yourself, Allfather," Zeus's voice delivered a thunderous clash to the angry god's ears. "The mortals of the world will soon belong to us, patience is justified until..."

A harsh crack stole his words. A sharply dressed old man, suit pressed into tight lines, stood before the table of gods.

"Greetings, Gods of Faith," The butler bowed, a slight angle of his ridged spine. "A new command has come from on high."

The pantheonic gods turned to the unassuming man, respect, and fear in their eyes. To speak out of turn now, would mean instant destruction. A God of Faith could die a true death, unlike a Conceptual True God.

"The Lord of Balance demands a full-scale purge of the Relic World's population," The butler waived a hand and several pristine orbs appeared, one for each god. "This compensation should make up for your losses. Now go, burn the mortals to ash and bring me any above a Nirvana Lord in power!"

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"I SAID OPEN!"

A tidal wave of blood slammed into the devilish gate. Ven entered, but when Cain tried to follow he was rejected. A strange purple light resisted his attacks.

"If you want to play hardball, then I'll play..."

His aura of blood thickened, coagulated until it was nearly black. His dagger pulsed, enraged by the doorway that shrugged off its blows. Nothing could stand before it and live, it was written in the laws themselves.

"By the blood of my brother, YOU WILL OPEN!"

Cain stepped forward, a simple shift that thrusted his weapon into the purple shield. Air collapsed into a vacuum a thousand miles wide, created in less than a second. A fine crack, an inch across, vanished under the tip of his blade.

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"Getting there..."

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"So... how do we get out of this place?"

Ven peered at the plains of shadowed flame, lit by the Dragon God's light. Everything was the same, with Dante nowhere to be found.

"We must find the door that you came through, I was brought here by different means," The Goddess frowned. "Tell me the direction, it will be faster if I carry you."

"That might be a problem..." Ven rubbed the back of his head. "My way in, is tied to Dante's belt."

"Yes indeed!" Dante stepped into existence. "I've got the trinket right here... a shame that!"

"I see you approached from the front this time," Ven stilled his stressed heart. "Now, try being visible from further away."

"Hmmm... understood," Dante nodded seriously. "Now, what would you like to trade in exchange for my door?"

"We don't need the door," Ven shook his head. "We just want to use it to go home."

"Ah, home..." Dante tilted his head at an unnatural angle. "It's where the heart is, certainly, a place to be treasured!"

A flicker of red gleamed from the shrunken gate, ignored by the skeletal man. His yellow grin loomed in Ven's face, gums a pale green.

"But this door doesn't lead to my home, or yours," Dante clicked his teeth. "We share something there, we're both the lost children of Earth, tossed into the horrors of the greater worlds!"

"You're from Earth?" Ven turned a skeptical glance to the devilish humanoid. "You don't seem very... human..."

"Hahahaha," Dante's head jerked back in a mechanical laugh. "Neither do YOU, but I can smell it on your soul... the taste of home..."

"Yeah, I'm not trading my soul," Ven edged back, behind the Dragon God's petite frame. "And I don't really have much else I can give away."

"Then, I suppose we've come to an impasse," Dante nodded as he sat on the ground, eyes turned to the Dragon God. "Do you have anything to trade?"

"How about the blood of this weirdo?" She hefted Ven up like a chicken. "It's a mess of magical creatures, a collector like you would..."

"I'm afraid I've already gathered some," A large jar appeared in Dante's hands, big enough for several gallons. "It's quite interesting, I may be able to revive several extinct species..."

"How did you get that!" Ven snatched at the crimson-stained jar. "Are you ALL vampires?"

"Sometimes..." Dante held his prize out of reach. "But most of the time I just walk around, looking for interesting things!"

A deep black flickered over the three of them, a pulse that crawled free of the shrunken gateway. Dante raised it to his eye, interest on his face.

"Oh..." A wicked smirk flitted over Dante's lips. "It looks like someone from your end is worth my time!"

He cast the door away as it expanded in size, its purple coating lost to an ocean of muddy red. Space trembled as the tip of a stone knife pressed through the gateway. A fist, wreathed in blackened red, followed.

"Where the hell are you, Vendak," Cain's aura exploded as he passed the threshold. "We've got work to finish!"

"You're an interesting one," Dante tapped his walking stick as he strode toward the red-eyed Cain. "You've stolen the power of a concept!"

"You're the one who blocked up the door," Cain raised his blade. "I have a debt to settle with you..."

"That's a unique weapon," Dante appeared before a startled Cain, fingers clamped to the end of his knife. "It's taken on more laws than any construct I've seen, and holds the concept of Murder..."

"LET GO!" Cain grunted, his full strength placed on his dagger's hilt.

The blade stood firm, clasped in Dante's iron grip. He scraped at the blade with a fingernail, disgust on his face.

"It's so dirty... why don't you wash it?"

An ocean of crimson flooded from Cain. It thicken to black, wrapped around Dante's skeletal form. The man clicked his teeth, his grin stretched far too wide.

"Touched a nerve have I..."

A protest of metal cut the air with a thunderclap. Cain's dagger twisted, no longer still in Dante's grip. Ven's red-eyed master pried his weapon free.

"I've had no children, but I'm a father all the same," Cain's aura condensed, layered like armor against his skin. "A Patriarch to countless members of an exclusive clan..."

The blood in Cain's eyes turned black, pupils a shadowy red. He placed both hands on his blade, which shifted and swelled. A dagger became a pole, finished with a wide, curved blade. The half-moon of sharpened steel was mirrored by another. This brother blade floated free, locked in orbit around Cain's blood-robed form.

"I killed my brother... I killed all who claimed my name and story, throughout all of time and space," Cain's face was lost to the shadows of a red hood. "I stole nothing, Devil."

Cain raised his scythe high, two points of red lost in the shadow of his hood. The Dragon God's light dimmed, suppressed by a sightless force.

"I am the father of murder... the Red Hand of Death!"