Prologue

The gun shot was silenced, coming out barely louder than whisper. The shot went unnoticed by anyone except the shooter and Grimwald.  By the time his body hit the ground the shooter had left already, leaving just as swiftly and silently as he had arrived. The only traces he’d been there was a hole through his victims head, and a bullet casing.

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Grimwald woke up in limbo. Looking around frantically Grimwald groaned. 

“Not again,” he complained as he took in the landscape. 

All around him the barren landscape of the “dead world” as he called it surrounded him. In the distance he saw the palace of gold In the distance gleaming and all shiny. It seemed a little further away this time for some reason. As usual he felt drawn to go towards the palace. Getting up he brushed his body off getting rid of the dirt on him. Then he stopped. 

“Wait if I’m here that means,” he said, standing up straight and looking around frantically. 

Even as adrenaline filled his veins and he frantically looked around he couldn’t help but shiver. It was cold here, no beyond cold would be a better way to describe it, and to make matters worse he was naked. It was 50/50 on if he was dressed when he came to limbo. His breath froze in the air before him as he started to calm down. 

“Maybe he won’t show up this time,” he said putting down his guard and raising his hands to his mouth trying to warm them. He let out a jump of surprise as he noticed the color of his hands. They were purple and frostbitten. 

“Well thats new,” he muttered to himself. 

He inspected his hand and hesitantly he bit his hand. Hesitantly he let out a cry of pain. 

“Fuck, that hurts,” he yelped. “Aren’t I not supposed to feel anything on frost bitten body parts?!”

Why did he feel pain in this dream? That was unusual, in limbo he shouldn’t feel any sensations. Looking around he saw him, a person approaching. 

“Hey this is unusually nice to meet…,” he began until he saw the person's face. 

Pale white, red eyes, long hair and yellow teeth. It was the most feared monster of them all. Cursed to fight in a pit of filth and beast for all eternity it was a... 

“Ro-Ro-Rodeo C-c-clown!!!,” he yelled as turned and started sprinting toward the palace in the distance. 

The clown let out a maniacal laugh as he started to Chase Grimwald. The heavy footfalls of the pursuing clown filled the air.His every step with those damned giant shoes like a slap to the earth. Grimwald looked back at his pursuer seeing how much distance was between them. He immediately regretted the decision as he saw the clown frothing at the mouth his eyes glowing red;  well he was pretty sure that he was, but Grimwald had to admit he was someone who tended to over dramatize things. Anyways.... Despite his frost bitten limbs  being clumsy and awkward he managed to keep up optimal clown escape speed thankfully.  It didn't particularly make sense, but Limbo never did, especially after he'd been drinking… or shot in the head. This situation was crazy, along with this clown. What mad man could think of a situation like this? He silently cursed his partner, he'd definitely been dead for a while, he should have already puled out the bullet and healed him up.

"Come here Grimwald I only want to show you a nice trick, it’ll be over in only a few moments," came the clown’s crazed voice from behind him.  

"HELL NO," he called back, “I’d rather be stung to death by a hornets nest and go to hell before I would willingly get within a 100 miles of one of you psychopaths!!! You small penis, I swear the moment I get the chance I will kill you and all your kind!!!”

The clown only seemed more amused with this notion and let out a wicked laugh. 

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“Kill, Kill, kill, killing is so much fun!!! First you chase them, then you cut them; and then you kill, kill, kill!!!” 

“This is why clowns should be banned from all planes of existence!!!” yelled Grimwald as he ran away. 

He ran through the barren desert screaming several obscenities as the clown chased after him for what felt like eternity before suddenly he felt a pull under his armpits. Letting out a triumphant yell he jumped turned around and using both hands flicked off the clown as a magical force carried him away into the sky. 

“Ha ha, suck on my average sized cock!” he yelled as he disappeared into the grey twilight of the sky. 

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He opened his eyes with a gasp. The harsh light of the ICPDs morgue filled his vision. He sat up groaning, his body having re-entered rigor mortis in the hours since he had been shot. He looked over at the hulking giant in front of him. The hulking mass of muscles that was his partner Naud stood with his back to him inspecting the bullet that had killed him. His pink apron speckled with the black icor that now acted as his blood. 

“A forty-five this time bud,”He said, turning back towards Grimwald as he  placed a small sliver of the bullet onto the tray. 

“A magnum?” asked Grimwald, groaning as he tried to sit up. 

“No colt, I recovered the casing at the scene, but no conventional evidence was found on it, “But it was loaded with magical residue from a one…” 

He leaned over the nearby terminal to quickly check something. “A one Nicholas Ardent, known silver hands associate and convicted in two cases of assault, and one attempted murder.”

“I thought we locked up the silver hands leadership,” said Grimwald attempting to stretch only to fail as his body refused to move as he intended it to instead spasming eradicatly and fall off of the table he’d been lying on. 

“ There are always other organizations that will take their place. People need structure and once they fall out of society's good graces… well they have a hard time reintegrating,” said the giant pulling off the apron. 

In contrast to his giant size, he aptly folded the apron in an intricate little swan and placed it on a nearby countertop. 

“That's a new way to fold it,” said Grimwald, finally managing to move his body as he wanted and pulling himself up off the floor. His balance shaky to say the least, he did a weird penguin waddle/walk towards the counter and picked up the staple gun that sat there besides several other tools of the trade that Grimwald couldn’t name for the life of him. He walked over to a mirror and looked up at the bullet wound on his forehead. A relatively small entry wound remained despite what he could only assume had been mid tier healing magic being used to fix him up to a reasonable state for revival. Another downside to being a zombie, healing magic wasn’t something that worked very well on him. Squeezing the wound closed with one hand he lined up the gun to the wound to his forehead and stapled the wound closed with two quick pulls of the trigger.

“Being a Zombie must be pretty nice,” said the giant watching Grimwald as he posed in the mirror. 

“It's not too bad, but it's not the greatest,” Grimwald said, chuckling darkly. 

“I don’t know, immortality and you don’t feel pain. Besides that you can eat all the foods you want and never gain weight,” he said laughing. 

“ Yeah, but I can't taste the food except for very strong flavors, I can't have kids though that might be a plus, but let's not forget the crazy witch that brought me back to life still can control me Naud,” he said, shrugging and laughing. 

“Ah yeah, I forgot you’re not a natural, but isn’t she locked up and her powers sealed” said the hill  giant picking up his jacket from the wall hook. 

“I mean yes, but all it takes is one slip up and that monster will get free. She’s a wily minx that one,” he said, shuttering.

The hook let out a noticeable creak as the weight of the giant's crude leather jacket was pulled off of it. The jacket's size and quality often made Grimwald wonder if the jacket wasn’t just a whole cow skilfully crafted into one giant sized jacket. The hill giant's pink 'princess unification’ shirt showed clearly underneath as he put it on. 

“You really love that human inspired stuff man,” said Grimwald walking past his partner and out into the empty hallway beyond. 

“Humans are quite imaginative, and they  have such a great knack for plots and schemes,” said the giant, closing and locking the door behind them. 

“Isn’t that supposed to be our job?” 

“We really have to do that anymore, the humans kill themselves well enough and I heard they even triggered a mass melt down on the surface on their own so everyone in infernum has a lot of free time now,” said Naud, walking fast to catch up with his partner. 

Grimwald hit the up button on the elevator controls as Naud caught up with him. 

“Well this isn’t hell… but it's pretty close to it,” said Grimwald as the door opened up and walked into the glass elevator. The elevator looked out over a lively underground city illuminated by neon, street lights. It would have reminded him of Chicago and it’s beautiful skyline at night if part of the city wasn’t on fire. 

“Is it just me or did I nail that timing?” he said, turning to Naud for a high-five.