It was funny, regardless of whether it was warm blood or the cold muddied water, soaking through one’s clothes, the shiver was still the same.

That slight, uncontrollable tremor traveling through your limbs, reverberating and steadily building up force till your teeth began to chatter.

She was tired, so very tired, so tired that she wouldn’t have been able to lift a finger, even ‘if’ that damn clown hadn’t already torn her arms off.

Edna stood, leaning against a fence post, her eyes replaced with two glowing yellow-white suns, that burned manically within her skull.

Her breath huffed out of her as  a glowing yellow white fog that crackled and cooked away the surrounding .

Everything hurt, she’d never been in so much pain, and yet she couldn’t stop smiling.

“Got you, fucker.”

*****

Elena lay in a heap, just barely hanging onto consciousness, using will and an energy that impossibly and insidiously seemed to endlessly fuel and drain her, to stay awake and keep the blood flowing through her veins.

She had to, she’d pushed herself farther than she’d ever pushed before. Never mind throwing punches that managed to incinerate her arms, she’d even managed to sort out her cardiovascular and autonomic nervous system.

Just barely managing to function on willpower and what seemed to be a sudden and inexplicable understanding of human anatomy. Though she sort of knew a certain worry wart who might be responsible for that last bit.

The new knowledge base even giving suggestions on how she could improve on what was there before. A wide, if greatly pained, smile, spread across her face, as she mentally directed her body to repair itself.

Using a mixture of that new knowledge and the old instincts that used to be in charge of helping her pull herself together before.

A little under fifteen minutes later, she was just barely able to sit up and when she did, she gazed at her handy work.

A massive crater had been dug into the earth, there was a massive groove dug into the soil. One many miles long and many miles deep.

With only a few stray fragments of gray metal remaining to show where her former foe was.

“Heh~...Not bad, me. Not bad at all.”

*****

*Knock! Knock! Knock!*

After a few months of continuous, and slightly ‘unmerciful’ peacekeeping, steady development and expansion, Aria Village had finally progressed to the point where it had started to get visiter.

Newcomers from the wastes, scattered family who’d splintered from the main group just in case, silent friends from the tribes that were too small for the Aria to have specially offended in the past, and tradesmen.

One would think it was a good thing, but for whatever reason it seemed like Billy’s stress levels had gone up recently.

*Knock! Knock! Knock!*

The only time anyone who wasn’t Billy or wasn’t invited, could enter the inner-glen was when there was emergency. Unfortunately it seemed like there were emergencies every other day.

“Nh...I’m pretty sure I was clear, on this...Pretty sure I even put it on the list twist. Do. Not. Bother.Me. Is that so hard…?” Billy grumbled to himself.

Rising up from what was effectively a cocoon of endless paperwork. The hope was that finishing the forms would help the company rise like a butterfly but right now, it was just toil and a lot of hard work that he couldn’t seem to get done in peace.

There was always something, a fight, attempts at a coup, attempts at assault from the so called friends and new allies they let in, even though both he and Alma had advised the village to continue isolating itself for just a little bit long.

For at least a generation or two. The elders wouldn’t listen because ‘they’ wanted trade and wanted to get started in rebuilding a base of influence for the Aria tribe.

And there was only so much that lectures and bumps on the noggin could do. So the village was opened and do to the craftiness of the old woman’s terms, Billy was obligated to keep them from destroying themselves.

Not by the accord of course, any attempts to use contractual obligation to bind him wouldn’t have worked, not with the way it was setup, anyway.

No, the old woman was clever enough to hit his conscience, purposefully building her new school, close to his inner-glen.  Right across from his home.

Close enough that he could see all those little children that his vestigial conscience wouldn’t let die. Thus whenever something happened Billy had to act, he might not have always acted personally, but he still had to act.

A thing that meant constant breaks in his concentration and interruptions in whatever he was doing, whether it cultivation, product creation, paperwork.

“....What?” said Billy. The word spoken as softly and atonal as ever, but imbued with all of the menace of a thousand, hungry direwolves.

He poked his head out from behind his front door. Glowering or at least doing his flat faced version of glowering. His eyes were filled with cold, green, star light.

The millions of bright green pin-pricks. flaring chaotically, like a swarm of angry fire flies.

He stared at the one who stood at his door and felt a surprisingly murderous impulse.

It came unbidden, and passed so quickly that he might have even thought he’d imagined it, but he knew what it. He knew that if he hadn’t stopped everything, if he hadn’t stopped breathing, moving, speaking, thinking,...everything.

If he hadn’t stopped then the person at the door would be dead. He wasn’t sure how he’d have done it, but he knew that it was so.

He could only imagine that it was some new kind of backlash from his experiments with trying to boost his cultivation. Some atavistic, instinct born from his innate omnicidal nature, perhaps.

Whatever it was, he was glad he’d suppressed it, because the person at the door was one of the few people he didn’t mind in the entire village. One of the few, who’d gotten on his good side by leaving him well alone.

Seeming to even go out of their way to avoid him for some reason. A very considerate individual indeed.

“Nh...Hello, Alessa.” said Billy.

“Uh...ev-...evening, milord.” said Alessa.

“How are you doing, today?” said Billy. Idly trying to see if he could raise his mastery of the fine art of small talk.

“Fi-..fine?”  said Alessa. Answering as if she were no longer sure.

“Jolly good. In any case, might I ask what the problem is now?” said Billy.

“Problem?”

“Why you are here….At my doorstep?” said Billy.

“Ah...that. Th-...there’s someone here to speak with you, sir.”

Billy felt a presence, he looked past the girl and saw a figure standing right at the edge of his inner-glen. At the boundary of his externalized inner-world, at the edge of his territory. His change in expression was as subtle as always but this time it was clearly one of bemusement and complaint.

*****

Two hours of walking and one teleportation gate spell later, and three people found themselves standing in a clearing. A stretch of hinterland, where nothing lived and nothing grew. Arid and brown, with all the grass burnt away.

Billy turned to the lesser of the two headaches in his life, turning to Tamra, who stood by his side, wheezing and panting and sweating profusely. Having clearly pushed herself, to keep up with, Billy and the other one’s idle stroll.

“Nh...Did you really have to come with me?” said Billy.

“...You didn’t say I shouldn’t.” said Tamra. Her face red from her exertions, the look she gave him, accusatory as if ‘he’ was the one who’d decided to make her follow him like she’d made of a habit of doing.

Still unsure what to do about her, or what his own intentions were, as always Billy simply looked away, turning his attention to other fellow. A handsome young man, with sky blue hair, and eyes that were both older and colder than the mountains that currently surrounded them.

A demon wearing the guise of dandy, who wore the guise of a simple wasteland ex-pat.

“...It’s Angelo, right?” said Billy.

“Yeah and you are named Asphodel.”

“That what they call me.” said Billy. Shrugging.

Angelo just shook his head.

“No...I wasn’t talking about what they called you, I was talking about who and what you are. You are Asphodel. The thing from nowhere, the being of vanitas and black and white. The one who straddles the line between, nothingness and everything.” said Angelo.

“Ah….Well...I guess that’s true too... Watcher. Fallen Angel of the third choir. Your sort have always been...observant.” said Billy.

Angelo frown, displeased, to have his ‘dark past’ brought up.

“Hey, hey, come on now. I’m just trying to have a friendly chat. No need for ‘name’ calling. ”  said Angelo.

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His expression light though his aura was already rising, growing ominous and thick, forcefully affecting the way the air moved. Quiet down the winds, with its mere presence.

“Ah...Fair enough, bad manners on my part I guess...In any case, what’d you call me out here for? It’s nothing serious I hope.”  said Billy. His words slightly sarcastic, though their atonality made it hard to hear.

“Hm...No, nothing serious. Not for people like you and I, anyway I just wanted to ask a teensy little favor.” said Angelo.

“Okay...shoot.” said Billy.

“Abandon the Aria.” said Angelo.  

*****

Silence, there was dead silence. Three people stood in the deep, dark heart of the hinterland jungle yet nothing made a sound. No insects chirped or buzzed, no birds sang or thrilled, no tree climbing rodents and apes called out to each other. There was nothing, not even the sound of a passing breeze.

“Ah...I’m sorry. I don’t think I follow you. Mind running that by me again, friend.” said Billy.

“Abandon the Aria. If it’s followers you want, then I of at least ten tribes that would be happy to bend knee. If your aiming for godhood here, there’s a whole hinterland of unwashed masses you can indoctrinate. I could even help you, just leave the Aria tribe be and I bet I could find you loads of worshipers.”

Billy chuckled, scratching at his brow.

“First, You’re the third person of our sort that I’ve met down here, who’s assumed that I’m aiming for godhood. I’m really not. I value my life too much. Second,... ‘Leave the Aria be?’ I was under the assumption that you hated them. Last time we met you were with the warband that was about to destroy them.” said Billy.

Now it Angelo’s turn to chuckle. His laugh, both good natured and charm, his smile full of invitation and promise.

“Oh...I do  hate them. Very much in fact.  They took something quite precious from me….Which was why I ask you to abandon them.”

“So you can destroy them?”

“Destroy them? Me? Maybe...but not likely, and definitely not immediately. No I’d rather they destroy themselves. Under your auspices they’re prospering, growing ‘bettering’ themselves...I can’t have that. But if you leave them, it might take some time, but eventually they will fall. Eventually return to the beasts that they are. And besides being a humble merchant, I Angelo, am a hunter of beasts, a slayer or ‘vermin’. I only ask for the chance to deal with the inevitable before the worst comes to pass. Like any good janitor I believe it’s best to do away with bad rubbish before it can do more harm.”

Billy seemed to consider the fallen Angel’s words, his expression slightly thoughtful.

“You know...My agreement with them, ends in a thousand years or so, maybe even sooner if they piss me off and break the accord. Couldn’t you just wait till then?”

Angelo sighed, his look apologetic, tossing his shoulders in a slightly helpless, yet very affable manner.

“Alas...I can not. I’ve lived with the mortals too long and my patience is not what it used to be. Besides, heaven only knows how much those little rats will multiply if you give them a whole thousand years to breed.” said Angelo.

“Nh...Yes...Yes….I do see what you mean.” said Billy. Nodding, his chin cupped in his hand, while the other hand gestured to the girl at his side.

Singling that the time had come for her to use the umbrella he’d made for her. A parasol created for keeping out sun and rain and...other things.

He waited for Tamra it up and hold above her head, before speaking again, satisfied that she’d be safe in the altered space that lay within the shadow of her umbrella.

“...Unfortunately I’m afraid I can’t do that.” said Billy.

“And why the hell not?” said Angelo. His tone a little less affable, and a little more sharp, than it had been before. His aura growing increasingly sinister.

“Because...a deal, is a deal, is a deal. And what our beings like you and I if our words no longer count for anything?” said Billy.

The frightening aura disappeared and the handsome man’s look softened and brighten again. The sun came out and  a halo of light cascaded over his head and pooled around feet. Consuming his shadow and leaving only radiance.

“Ah...I guess you’re right, friend. One must keep their word after all.”

“Nh….Otherwise the whole world goes crazy…” said Billy.

“Right. You get it....” said Angelo.

*****

Skyblue fire fell from the heavens, raining down and creating pools of glowing radiance that ate at everything around them. Incinerating earth stone and trees and anything else that happened to be in the way.

The once silent woods were filled with the panicked and awed, cries from the nearest beasts and men, who watched it from it a distance praying that it spread to where they were.

There were rumbles and groans from the earth, as it shook weathering the ruinous storm. As it weathered all else.

The winds howled and sky shrieked as a great blue blade that was at least two times longer than its master was tall, was swung around like it was a light fencer’s foil.

“You know. I ‘really’ didn’t want to have to kill you. You seem like a decent sort.” said Angelo.

His expression light and extremely friendly though he swung his blade like wild man, mincing the air, and cutting it into nothing. Filling the empty space around him with light blue, aetheric slashes.

Billy chuckled mirthlessly, his own look similarly light, while he danced about using tight footwork and countless small teleportations to keep from being burnt by the rain or slashed by the sword.

Flitting about like a life in the breeze and taking harbor in any empty spaces that he could find.

“Oh, pish...Neither of us is a decent ‘person’, let’s stop ‘that’ nonsense, right now. No need for farcical sentiment, we are what we are. It’s easier for all involved if you call the aces, aces and the spades, spades. ”

“Hmph!....”

Angelo snorted, not even bothering to argue on that point. Perhaps this was because he knew it was true. Or perhaps it was because he was too busy, keeping up his relentless attack and renewing his offensive spells.

In either case, the attack intensified and Angelo added a new echoing invocation that called up columns of blinding white light that punched holes in the sky as they rose upwards.

The spells converged on his position and enough power to destroy a thousand Monde’s was gathered over Billy’s head.

Billy was barely  able to defend, by wrapping himself up within a semi-complete Jormungandr-Cocoon. What should have been an instant kill was turned into something was merely devastating.

The mountain sized serpent boiled away, becoming wisps of iridescent smoke and nothingness. Beneath the serpent was a doom, a great pyre made of shades, the creatures were charred black, similarly fading to nothing as a  stiff breeze blew over them.

Billy lay at the bottom of everything, beaten and bleeding,  his clothes burnt to ash, his blood steaming, his flesh cooked raw. His eyes had popped, and runny red liquid ran down his cheeks.

And yet….he was smiling. Two eerie clusters of dark green fireflies remained within the two holes in skull. His hair writhed, the tendrils that were mixed amongst them, moving in agitation and excitement.

He wasn’t sure... but he thought that he might have found the solution to his problem. In that moment where he’d been desperately trying to preserve his little life he’d found it. He’d found the solution to how he’d get stronger and push past the current bottleneck that he’d found himself in.

“You know...It’s not too late to give up. I really don’t want to kill you. Just abandon them. Just let the Aria go and this can all be over.” said Angelo.  Leisurely striding towards the bowed and broken man before him.

“*Snrk*...kehehehe….”

Billy’s response wasn’t what the fallen Angel was expecting. At first he was angry when he found himself being laughed at, and then there was some pity as he thought that fear might have made the other man crack.

Then came a certain trepidation, a certain building unease, the cane growing worse as the laughter continued.

“Hey...you! You with half your ass burnt off...What the hell’s so funny?”

Billy looked up, a rare grin on his face, his pointed teeth, glittering like polished knife points and starlight on a clear  night. A rare break in his normal impassivity though it was mainly just a consequence of his skull being more or less completely stripped of flesh.

He kept laughing, both his shrinking patience and a feeling that it would be best to end things while he was ahead, lead Angelo to run Billy through.

His massive blade, tearing into the other man’s torso. A shower of sparkling red, showering down on the fallen angel as he impaled his foe.

“Why the fuck are you still laughing?!” said Angelo. Eyes narrowed, searching, sensing was amiss but not sure what or how.  

“Nh?....Well, I’m laughing ‘cause, it’s kind of funny...Not 'haha' funny, but y'know...'funny'….You’ve come this far and lived as long you’ve lived and no doubt you’ve experienced countless trials, yet you still can’t tell when you’re in over your head….Since I came here willingly, it should have been obvious I wasn’t afraid of you and yet you still picked this fight….Little Watcher are you perhaps some type of masochist?”