Corvus’ eyes opened sharply. The colosseum that surrounded him blurred and distorted. He shook his head, trying to re-focus his vision, but the more he moved, the weaker he felt.

The sands around him warped and shifted, creating shapes that twisted and settled, as if dancing in the dark. The fires lapped upwards, writhing masses of violet blaze.

Corvus tilted his head in dazed confusion.

‘The fires were green, weren’t they?’ The thought boomed out through the hazy arena.

His eyes darted down to his cast, and his heart nearly stopped.

It wasn’t there.

His dark hand pulsed with evil light, the cracks and cinders twisting into a cruel grin. Corvus panted in sudden terror, as he looked down to the circle of dark runes. They were being swept away in the shifting sands, sighing as they crumbled to nothing.

Corvus tried to get to his feet, but he couldn’t move. Johanna was sinking into the ground beside him, her sleeping grip was like steel around him.

He tried to call out to her, but his voice made no sound. He tried to tug himself free, but his body felt like paper.

The dark security on Johanna’s neck, the same as Corvus’ necklace, began to emit a low laughter, goading Corvus as the purple fires engulfed his arm. Corvus was desperate to escape, he couldn’t move, the fire was close to him. Thoughts overwhelmed him, dragging him further into the dark sand.

The violet fire crept up his shoulder, spreading over his body, stretching up his neck.

Corvus wretched for a gasp of air before the curse engulfed him, the laughter from the tattoos deafening him.

Corvus curled into a ball, begging for the end…

***

“You would succumb?”

Corvus’ eyes flew open, the dark arena stretching out before him.

“You would give in?”

His gaze darted around himself, his sling was intact and undamaged, the circle of runes quietly pulsed rhythmically.

“You would let yourself die so easily?”

The voice echoed inside Corvus, originating from both within and without.

“Who’s there? Gilgamesh?” Corvus spoke quietly to himself, glancing down at Johanna, who had rolled over in her sleep, hugging herself in the warm sand.

“Gilgamesh is not here. And we have met before, child.” There was a slight amusement in the stoic voice.

Corvus cast his memory back. The voice did sound vaguely familiar, as if it had passed by him mere minutes ago.

“You’re not a crow by any chance, are you?” Corvus stood up, dusting the sand off himself and steadying his shaky body on the wall.

There was a loud flutter of feathers as a dark shape swooped down from somewhere in the arena, landing onto the dark sand. It was larger than most birds, its black feathers were a shadow in the darkness, making it impossible to see it perfectly.

“So you are a crow.” Corvus nodded, slightly taken aback by the sudden arrival of a bird. Wasn’t Desperius underground?

The bird tilted its head, slightly offended.

“You would brush us off like mere beasts?”

“You’re saying that you’re not?” Corvus raised an eyebrow, breathing heavily to try and steady his weak legs.

“You should know that we are far more than we seem, child. Did you also ignore our services to you?”

“Services?” Corvus was sceptical. But in his scepticism, flashes of memory appeared in his mind. The crows that surrounded him and Cleo when they fought. The crows that held his knife for him when he fought the Entity. The crow that put him to sleep when his curse almost killed him.

The crow nodded, as if seeing these memories.

“You mean more to us than you know, child.” The crow’s voice was a strange mix of wise and grizzled, with added gravitas as the voice spoke from inside his mind as well.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Corvus forgot some of his shock about what he saw and looked at the bird with sheer confusion.

“We first lived to serve, but now we live to fight by your side.”

“Yeah…That doesn’t help.” Corvus sighed, trying to stand up straight.

The crow did its best to shrug but then turned its beady eyes directly to Corvus.

“Neither do you.”

Corvus was taken even further aback. Did it just threaten him?

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“No. It’s a question.” The bird spoke forcefully, as if reading his mind.

“What—” Corvus began.

“Do you think you’re helping yourself by submitting to death so easily? We both know what lies on the other side, we’ve both seen the depths of nothingness, and you would let yourself go back?”

“I…” Corvus had nothing to say to that. He knew what death felt like, and he should be beating himself for even dreaming about going back. A thought pricked in his mind. “You’ve died too?”

The crow nodded solemnly.

“We crows are not like most birds. When our lives end, we cling to this world like no other. We fly back from the abyss of death and live again. You know this.”

“I do, but…” Corvus was stumped. What the crow was saying made sense, but he couldn’t wrap his head around why it resonated so deeply within him. “Why are you telling me this?”

“So I can measure you, child.” The crow took flight and landed on the wall just above Corvus.

“Measure?” Corvus tilted his head. He blinked and memories filled his head again. When he fought the Entity, the words he yelled before killing the ‘unkillable’.

“You said that you could survive anything.” The crow noted, reading his mind again. “Did you forget this, or did you just give up?”

“No.” Corvus was adamant about that, using his growing anger at the bird to help him stand straight. “I haven’t given up.”

“Then you would let that bear kill you?”

“Never.” Corvus clenched his fist.

“You would die to a blade cutting a measly piece of cloth?”

“I’d break the blade.” He felt a bubble of rage rise inside him, echoing with determination around the void inside him.

“You would let that curse control you?”

“I’ll make it mine to control.” Corvus’ voice rose, a battle cry within his hollow heart.

“You would die?”

“I can survive anything.” Corvus growled at the crow, staring daggers at the dark bird.

The crow wasn’t intimidated, instead it looked like it was smiling, as much as crows can.

“It seems we chose wisely.”

“What?” Corvus tilted his head, the building anger in his chest faded and his fist unclenched.

The crow didn’t answer, instead taking flight into the shadows of the colosseum, where the beating of its wings vanished into silence.

The dull green fires flickered, sending a shadow across Corvus’ face, causing him to blink. He took a breath in and went to steady himself, but found that he already was. That pep-talk of sorts had given him renewed vigour and determination to seal this damn curse and survive.

Johanna shifted in the sand, mumbling as she began to wake up.

“Corvus…” She yawned, looking around the dark arena, rubbing the sleep out of her ruby eyes.

“You’re awake.” Corvus noted.

She stretched, cracking her neck. She glanced around the arena and smiled at Corvus, lazily getting to her feet.

“How long were we asleep?”

“Well, I assume it’s night time. The fires aren’t as bright as before at least.” Corvus shrugged, still looking at where the crow had disappeared to.

“Huh. We should probably get out of here, shouldn’t we?” Johanna shrugged, chuckling slightly.

“Hm? Oh, sure.” Corvus turned to her, tapping his swords. “I’ll take these to the smith first to get sharpened.”

Johanna nodded, beginning to walk to the exit.

“I’ll bring everyone to the chapel in the morning. I think there’s a conversation due with you lot.” She smiled, putting her hand on his shoulder.

“Fair enough. I’ll probably be sleeping by then.” Corvus shrugged.

Johanna chuckled, blinking sadly at Corvus. She nodded goodbye as she walked to the exit of the arena. Corvus followed her, looking back to the shadows where the crow vanished one last time, before stepping into the void of the door.

The chapel was exactly the same as before, though it was slightly darker and there was no one inside.

Johanna waved goodbye and began walking through the tunnel that lead to the dorms, while Corvus took several seconds to remember which door lead to the smiths.

He took a guess and stepped through one of the black stone doors.

He was immediately met with a wave of sweaty heat that slammed into him. The hammers slamming down and beating into the scorching metal filled the room.

Corvus took a total of four steps before a large figure stepped in front of him. Daeden stared down at him, a serious expression on his face. His serious face shifted to excitement as he recognised Corvus.

“Oh! It’s you! I really like your regenerating and your anchor and all that!” He was practically bouncing with excitement.

“Yeah.” Corvus stated simply. He drew his blades out of his belt and held them out to the excited smith. Daeden took them quickly, admiring Cleo’s work and drew the blades out to assess them.

“Slightly dulled and several nicks. You want me to sharpen them for you?” Daeden was beaming.

Corvus nodded, raising an eyebrow at his over-excitement. Daeden clutched the blades to his chest, grateful for the work from such an ‘interesting’ person.

He took his leave out of the smiths as quickly as he could, in hopes to avoid any more of Daeden’s fawning. He walked out to the centre of the chapel, sitting down on one of the rows and sighing. He closed his eyes, listening to the low crackling of the green braziers.

He thought back to his dream about his curse. The cruel grin of his curse stuck in his mind, the Entity that he had killed was still tormenting him, even from beyond the grave. The thought of Gilgamesh, using his vast array of incredible magic to fight a powerful creature in a realm that doesn’t exist would give Corvus a headache, if he could feel pain.

There was a sound of scraping stone, on the other side of the chapel. Corvus raised his head, looking for which door is opening. It was a larger door in the far-right corner of the chapel, with a line of dark writing above it that spelt something along the lines of ‘entrance’.

“Hm.” Corvus stood up, tapping his belt in various places. He had five knives left in his belt and one bullet left in Raven. Less than he’d hope for but what are the chances he’d have to get in a fight?

The door opened wider, and the two children that he’d seen playing with each other stepped out, looking around and giggling to each other. They spotted Corvus and smiles beamed across their faces. They ran over to him and hugged his legs.

“Hi.” The tanned, blonde boy on his left leg giggled.

“Hi, Mister.” The pale, silver haired girl on his right said it in the exact same way.

“Isn’t it late for you two?” Corvus raised his eyebrow at the children.

They both pouted but then caught each other’s gaze and burst into laughter. They let go and ran back towards the door, opening it wider.

“Sorry, Mister. We had to help our friends get back in.” The girl giggled, holding the large door open.

“Friends?” Corvus tilted his head, trying to look into the door to see who walked through.

Whoever Corvus thought would come through, he was wrong.

A large, orange-haired man walked through, with white, padded combat robes and short claws on his hands. His body was that of a sprinter, and his eyes glinted with pale-blue charisma. He looked familiar to Corvus, as if he was seen in a large crowd somewhere.

He was followed by several more people, wearing similar clothing but carrying different weaponry. There was about thirty of them in total, all of varying heights and builds, some wearing hoods and others not. The large, orange haired man spotted Corvus and held his hand up, causing the group to stop in their tracks immediately.

“Evening.” Corvus nodded politely.

“Uh…Evening.” The man hesitated, looking around the chapel slightly confused, but nodded honourably anyway.

The stare-down continued, the children looking back and forth between the group and Corvus, slightly confused.

“Ugh. That took longer than I intended.” Gilgamesh appeared in the chapel, collapsing onto one of the stone benches. “I swear, the next time I see a bear I’m going to take a spear and…” He stopped, raising his head in slight confusion about the tension in the air. He looked over to the group and his eyebrows shot up.

“Oh. Priests. Good luck with that.”

Then he dropped his head back onto the bench and started snoring loudly.