I ran for hours, days, and hell, probably even weeks. After a while I felt like I had lost track, my attention focusing so much on moving forward, that I didn’t even try to track the passing of time. I couldn’t stop long enough to sleep, because if I did, I would freeze to death. The most I was able to get was a quick break here and there. So instead, my legs pounded along the white bone sand, each step blasting me forward to where the amulet kept on pulling me. I was just a small speck of a man, charging through the unending wastelands. It almost felt like it just never ended, but thankfully, the landscape did continue to change. Amazing architecture and buildings seemingly appearing at random, blowing my mind, and giving me a reason to pause, even if it was for a moment. Even though I knew I needed to keep on searching for the Boneknapper, I just couldn't help myself. Every time I would see a particularly cool building in my path, I would detour slightly and check out the interior, mindful not to spend too long either way. After all, most of them were empty, and the cold would quickly start to catch up to me and start to freeze me if I stood there for too long ogling the magnificent architecture. Still… they were all just so cool! Next time I saw Grim, I was gonna have to take them through a couple. I bet they'd love them!

That being said, I did have a couple of close calls, which really made me appreciative of Grim's shroud. I had a feeling that if it weren’t for it, I would have been turned into paste ages ago. There were so many different creatures that existed here, and though they didn’t cover the landscape, they did seem to enjoy hanging out around the buildings. Near one, there was this massive reptile that was wrapped around a dark spire that seemed to have been upside down. Where the reptile's head should have been, it split into a never ending stream of goat heads, their beady eyes full of a dark fire, and their odd howls scorching the air with black roiling flames. Then there was that really odd… Fish? I think? It was jumping through this river that had been winding through the air of one of the buildings. Instead of a tail, these explosions of dark water would shoot out of tentacles that would fly around, slapping into anything nearby, and every once in a while, a mass of hands would appear on one of the tentacles and rip out anything that it could. It was particularly odd considering it still had a dark scaled fish head. I even saw one weird creature that was just a mass of shining scales that spun around incredibly quickly and sliced through everything they touched. It was almost like a moving tornado, and as it had approached one of the buildings, a swirling scale arm reached out and pounded into it, demolishing it in moments. Not one of them noticed me, but I enjoyed seeing each of them. Even the slug that vomited up these weird fields of smoky white flowers… Well, maybe not that one, but the rest were pretty cool!

I wonder why Grim allowed each of them to hang out here? I'd have to ask them about each one of the creatures that I had seen later… well, unless they just zapped me back to reality as soon as I was done finding the Boneknapper… Ah, that was a problem I could worry about in the future! I hummed another little tune to myself as I kept on racing through the bone wastelands. The wonderful structures were seemingly everywhere, but I could tell that they were starting to thin out, and begin to become less complex, and less amazing, almost as if they were in their early stages of growth. I stopped seeing creatures inside them, and soon, I stopped even noticing new buildings. The solid bone ground became uneven, and then these massive grooves started to appear in the ground. They were leading off into the distance, in the same direction that the amulet was pulling me. That… was weird, maybe it was something the Boneknapper was responsible for?

I charged forward, picking up the pace so much that I could feel the tears in my leg begin to make themselves faster than my body could heal them. My breath came harder and faster and my lungs ached as I dragged in more freezing air. The grooves in the ground were everywhere now, and I had to watch my step as I flew forward. Then the grooves depend even more, and I started having to jump from groove to groove as the gashes in the bone became small valleys. I laughed and leaped across a divide, a mad grin spreading across my face. This could only mean one thing. I was close, I had to be right? I poured on even more speed, ignoring the pain as I tore through the wastes with a mad grin on my face, until I was suddenly forced to stop.

I dug in my heels and slammed each foot into the ground to slow me down, managing to stop about a foot away from the edge. In front of me there was a massive drop, straight into an enormous crater. I whistled as I came to the edge and looked in. The crater was unbelievably deep, ridged by the same gashes that I had been leaping over this whole time. I placed my hands on my knees and dragged in a breath, a smile growing on my face. My amulet was pulling unbelievably roughly on my neck, pointing straight at the very center of the crater. Not just the center though, but straight at an incredibly massive shape. I considered the edge for a second and frowned. Well I guess I had to get near there before summoning Grim, but that was a pretty steep drop. I walked closer, and then an idea occurred to me. I could just jump in, right? This was my end goal, I just needed to get close and then call Grim. Besides, it's not like I wouldn’t just regenerate the damage anyway. I shrugged before jumping in, laughing as the freezing cold air whipped past me, almost cutting up my cheeks. It was a pretty far drop, and I had the feeling that as soon as I hit, that I probably wasn't going to be able to move for a while. That was fine though, I just had to call Grim, and then this would all be over.

As the bone floor rushed up towards me, I was expecting my legs to shatter from the impact. I was okay with that of course, I figured that it would take a bit to heal, but better that than the slow descent that would take who knows how long. From there I would just hang out while my body slowly healed, recovering from the fall. I’d prepared for that as I fell through the sky, but what I hadn't been expecting was to sink up to my waist when I slammed into the bone floor. I groaned and struggled to move, but I was stuck fast.

I cursed under my breath and wriggled around, trying to get out of this weird quicksand. I leaned my head back and groaned. It was just my fucking luck of course. I twisted, pushed, and shoved at the ground as I struggled to move, but I had no such luck. Frankly, in the process of doing that, I was pretty sure that I had just managed to get even more stuck. I sighed and leaned back, staring up at the mass of swirling darkness that was the ceiling. If I stared for too long, I could make out dashes of sparkling light that flashed through. I stared at them, amused by their randomness as I felt myself relaxing again. I couldn’t get out of this… quicksand, using just pure strength, and not only that, I could feel myself getting colder and colder the longer I was stuck. I shivered and cast another look at the massive beast that was only twenty feet away. Regeneration wasn't going to break me out of being frozen solid. I frowned and looked down at my hands, an idea suddenly occurring to me. They weren't in the ground or stuck yet, and when I pushed on the ground they didn't sink immediately. There was just enough resistance that it was like solid ground still.

Hmmm… I laughed and closed my eyes, before letting out a long breath. All I needed to do was slowly relax, and that's what I was already trying to do in the first place, right? I took in another deep breath, and leaned backwards, a smile spreading across my face. Slowly, ever so slowly, I felt myself begin to rise up, until I was floating on the malleable ground. I eyed the shape in the middle of the crater and slowly began to roll towards it. It was not a quick process and I had to be careful I wasn't going to be noticed by it. I kept it quiet, and as I focused hard on each movement, I realized that I wasn’t exactly sure how long I had been rolling. But I couldn’t stop until I finally got close enough to the object in the center that I could make out more details.

After a long time, I finally stopped, and glanced up, my eyes instantly landing on the massive beast, which was only about ten feet away now. It was curled up, probably so that it wouldn’t sink into this odd floor, so I couldn’t make out much. From what I could see though, its main body had two thick limbs sprouting from both of its sides, with even more limbs sprouting from them at random intervals. Even while it laid there, curled up, the limbs kept on moving, almost as if they had a mind of their own. They reached out, grasping, clawing, gripping, and digging furrows more and more deep furrows into the ground. The bone floors were crushed and ground down until it was a fine powder, which was absorbed into a hundred little beaks that were around its body. The creature was covered entirely in vibrant feathers, and the little beaks absorbed the fine bone powder, a personal vortex was created around it. It swirled and tore at the surroundings, but it was close enough to the body that I still couldn’t feel it, even being this close. That wasn’t exactly what worried me though, what did was… that there were no eyes that I could see. Of course, they might have been under the feathers, but… I felt like that couldn’t be. No… I shouldn’t even be surprised honestly. The creatures in this place? Totally feasible honestly.

I just needed to call Grim, but… I pursed my lips, and rolled a little closer, mindful of the still moving massive appendages. I narrowed my eyes and looked down at my pendant. Was this really the same creature that had evaded Grim? I looked up at the curled up beast, and cocked my head to the side. Then I glanced down at my pendant again and frowned. Well… I guess it was pulling towards it, but… something wasn't quite right. I looked a bit closer and cocked my head to the side. Wait… no, that wasn’t totally correct. The pendant wasn't pulling exactly towards the massive creature. No, it was…

Suddenly, a massive cracking noise filled the air, shattering the silence. I groaned and glanced around, cursing to myself. Ah shit… What the hell was happening? The walls of the crater shook and rumbled, and I yelped as the pendant suddenly yanked hard on my neck, dragging me back towards the ground. The creature that had been curled up in the center of the crater froze as the whole crater rumbled, finally waking up. Its arms that had been swinging around almost as if they each had their own minds, started to work as one in order to frantically paw at the ground around it. Panic rolled off of the beast in waves, and it trumpeted once more struggling to stand up, but the ground cracked even more causing it to fall back onto its knees. It trumpeted again as the cracks became visible, rapidly growing larger and larger, until it was a massive spider web that spread across the entire crater.

I just rolled my eyes and sighed. Well of course this whole place would break and fall apart. Perfect for me, right? I laid back down and felt myself sink into the ground a little. The beast next to me continued struggling, but I just laughed. There really was no reason to worry about anything, we were stuck in this crater. There was no getting out of this place at this rate.

I turned to the stampeding beast and chuckled, “Oh I wonder where we're going now, eh?”

The beast didn't listen of course, but that didn’t matter much as the cracking noise became even louder, shaking the entire crater. Then there was a loud shattering noise that drowned out even the cracking. The ground beneath us vanished, and then we were both in free fall, tumbling through the air. My laughter and the beast's trumpeting intertwined with each other, becoming louder and louder the longer we fell until… Boom… impact. Dark liquid and bone exploded everywhere, and I screamed as it felt like every bone in my body shattered. The beast's screaming trumpets echoed through the air as I faded out of consciousness, pain and agony overwhelming my entire self. As it finally overtook me, blacking out my entire existence, the last thing I heard was a screeching noise that echoed throughout the pitch darkness that I had found myself in now.

I awoke with a gasp, letting out a scream as all the pain suddenly rushed through my entire body once more. I cursed to myself and slammed my fist into the ground. Ah fuck me! I fucking hated this part, with my entire soul and being! I winced as I felt my bones shift, then let out a long sigh and let my eyes wander. This place truly was weird… I could see the ground above me, almost as if I was looking at it from the other side of a mirror. Though, it wasn’t like I was just stuck in the ground. My hands and arms were healed enough to move freely, and at the same time I felt like I was still resting on something. It was soft and mushy like jello, and even with all my weight resting on it it didn’t pop. There was also light streaming in from somewhere, giving the whole area an odd gray glow. It wasn’t much, but it did allow me to see relatively well. From the ‘ceiling’ there descended hundreds of pillars that looked like strands of twined hair that had been braided together, almost like cables. Solid black obsidian like material rose from the ground beneath me, to the braided hair cables above me, connecting the two.

I winced as I felt my knee pop back into place, damn it, I wish I could’ve just stayed knocked out for this annoying part. I wouldn’t even be able to move for a while, I was just stuck here writhing in agony. A wail echoed through the air, shocking me out of my thoughts suddenly. I glanced to my left, curious if it had come from that same beast from earlier, but as I eyed it, I realized that it couldn’t be that same beast I had fallen with. It was still curled up in the same spot where it had fallen, its many limbs struggling to drag it along. I had shattered my whole body during the fall, but that poor thing was strong enough that it had only broken both of its legs. It wasn’t dead, but it was definitely crippled.

I sighed and looked away from it, checking the surrounding darkness. There wasn’t much to see, since the light coming from the hole above was pretty dim, and whatever seemed to be lighting this place up was pretty dim in the first place. Besides the weird braided hair rope pillars, I couldn’t see much besides that beast, everything seemingly just dissolving into the gray murkiness. I knew there was something else down here though. Namely the whole reason I had ended up down here in the first place! I glanced down at my amulet, which was still hard pulling off to the left. It was the same direction as the beast, but now I could tell it wasn’t actually the beast. When we had fallen, I’d watched as it had pulled away from it and towards the murky grayness. It was also the same direction that the wail had come from… I sighed and flexed my hands again, eyeing the shifting graynes. No wonder Grim couldn’t even find the Boneknapper, the damn thing was literally hiding under the floor!

I grinned as the wail echoed through the air again, this time closer than before. How easy was this? I didn’t even need to find or trap the beast, I just had to wait for it to come for its meal! I glanced down at my still healing body, and did a quick inventory. Most of the main organs, bones, and wounds had healed up at this point. Just a large portion of my legs was left, which could heal up pretty quick if I focused on them entirely. The ability that Verdant had gifted me was unbelievable… especially when I remembered the literal paste that most of my body used to be. I raised my arm and flexed it experimentally. Good, pretty much all good now. I just needed to grab the amulet and call Grim. What was it that I had to say again? It was something really odd, right? I pursed my lips and wracked my brain. Was it rigor naan? No… Drake? No…

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I sighed and rolled my eyes. Figures, of course I’d forget it. I groaned as another wail pierced the silence. I was almost healed, I could sit up now, but I stayed still. I was so fucking close to being free! I’d found the damned thing and everything! Fuck… Well at this point I would probably just have to kill the damn creature myself. I laughed and got up on my elbows. Not sure how I was gonna do that, but hey, maybe even unbelievably strong and powerful beasts could choke eh? I suddenly heard a loud slithering noise come from the darkness, and I froze, except for my heart which was beating a million miles a minute. It must be here…

I peered into the grayness, readying myself for whatever it might look like, but when it appeared, I realized there was no way I could have prepared myself for it. It had to have been the most unbelievable creature I had seen yet, and not only that, but it was absolutely massive, dwarfing the other creature I had fallen in with. It was stretched out on the ground just like a snake, and even as close as it was, I still couldn’t see all of it, the rest of its massive body vanishing into the grayness. The parts that I could see were entirely covered in scales, but on top of each and every scale there was a different beast's maw, all of their teeth gnashing in the air, creating a cacophony of teeth smacking into each other. It had twenty, thick, and hairy tarantula legs sticking out of its back, keeping the front half of its body aloft. From there, a strong humanoid-like chest rose up, sporting three muscular arms out of both sides. Each was chaotic, and instead of hands they had serrated bird talons which grasped and sliced through the air. Upon its shoulders, it bore an avian head, with a toothed beak reminding me of a mix between an alligator and a vulture. It had long dreads, with a sickly green ooze dripping from them, which sizzled as it hit the ground. Another wail came from its throat, and it slither- skittered closer to the poor beast, which had finally noticed it. The poor creature screeched and trumpeted, the various limbs sticking out of the sides of its broken legs struggling to drag it farther away. My amulet was burning and tearing into my neck now, biting into my skin as it desperately tried to get closer to what I now knew was the Boneknapper.

I paled as I looked upon it, wincing at the quickly fading thought of trying to kill it by myself. Oh hell nah, there was no way in a fucking thousand afterlives I was fighting that thing and even getting the glimmer of a victory. What the fuck had Grim said that I needed to say? Drama? Drag? Inari? Naan? Drake?

I frantically struggled to remember as the Boneknapper slither- skittered closer to the struggling beast. The Boneknapper loomed over it, turned its head up, and then wailed again, the wretched noise filling the air before it pounced on the beast faster than I could follow. Its six arms clawed at the beast, ripping its frantically struggling limbs off, each of them in a different, and more gruesome manner than the last. Then it peeled the skin and flesh off of each one, and crunched on the sparkling white bone, slurping it down and tossing the bloody, pulped flesh to the gnashing scales all over its body. As it tore off the last limb, it wailed again, drowning out the pitiful cries of the creature. Then it started tearing into the body of the poor beast, its bloody beak and arms creating a bloody massacre. I shivered, unable to look away from the horrifying scene. The wolves had ripped me apart and devoured me in every possible way, but this… This somehow just felt unbelievably wrong.

I glared at the Boneknapper’s back, and slowly sat up, testing out how my body was feeling. It was almost entirely healed up… good, I just had a few fractures left. I diverted the rest of my attention to fully healing my arms and closed my eyes, feeling the rush again. Okay, so I definitely wasn't going to win any real fight against it, and honestly I had no clue what I was supposed to say to summon Grim… But the medallion had to be connected to me in some way right? This was their realm after all, so if I managed to get killed here… it should summon them… right?

I grinned and cracked my neck, letting out a nervous laugh. Alright, now that's a plan! Just go and get myself killed! Should be easy enough… haha… I shook my head charged forward, circling around as it continued to hungrily tear into the poor beast. I charged around the massive tail, searching for a solid handhold. Maybe if I shoved some of the bone shards in the mouth scales I could just clamber up that way? I poured on the speed, and dashed up and on top of the beast. It didn't even shake or flinch as I clambered up the side of it, which was good. I wasn't a hundred percent sure how the hell I was going to get to its head without it noticing me, but hopefully it was going to be way too busy digging into that other beast for it to do anything. I made my way up, carefully clambering over its massive body as it wailed and munched on bones. It was pretty sickening if I was being honest, and if I wasn’t so used to it by now I probably would have thrown up ages ago.

As I reached up for the next scale, it suddenly roared, and shook itself, causing me to latch onto its side so I didn’t get sent flying. It groaned and wailed, before starting to slither- skitter away. I yelped in surprise and frantically looked around for any solid hand and footholds, but I couldn’t see any. I cursed under my breath and gripped the scales on the back of the beast's torso. It was the only option I had, but obviously the beast still noticed the new weight on its back now that it wasn’t tearing into the creature. It wailed and shook itself, its arms twisting and clawing at itself as they tried to grab and tear at me. I yelped as I felt one of its fingers graze my leg. Well, this was as good a time as any I guess! I reached up and started pulling myself even faster up its back, mindful of the gnashing maws.

The Boneknapper wailed again, and each of its six talons started smashing down on itself, crushing anything that was below them. I was able to dodge each one barely, but it was only a matter of time. Until finally it managed to catch me, crushing my left foot, pulverizing it into a red mist. I roared in pain, and pulled away, feeling my demolished foot get ripped off. I screamed and drug myself upwards, narrowly avoiding being crushed again as all of its hands slammed into its back right where I had been. I drug myself upwards, wildly flailing out with my hands and working leg, sending my blood everywhere.

As my blood flew everywhere, coating the entire backside of scaled maws, the talons suddenly stopped coming down. Then, the beast began rotating and shaking its body, a deep thrumming noise filling the air, and shaking me. I latched on, bracing myself for the sudden wild thrashing. Was the beast trying to throw me off? No, wait… it was laughing at me! It was literally shaking with pleasure as my blood poured down its back! I growled back at it, and spat a wad of blood, causing the Boneknapper to laugh even more. I slammed my fist into its side and then stabbed the piece of bone into its maw, beginning my cursed climb upwards again. The time of games was over, and it could sense that I wasn’t playing around anymore. The taloned fists came down once more, and I narrowly dodged one right after the other as I flew upwards, calling on every last bit of strength that I could. Then, somehow, I was at the top, my hands resting on its shoulder blades. The head thrashed around, still struggling to eat me, but I gripped its neck, staying behind the danger zone. I laughed and grinned, humming to myself. All I had to do was swing around to the other side, and the head had no other choice but to bite my whole body up in one go!

I laughed and loosened my grip, swinging over and onto its shoulder, a mad grin on my face. Finally within reach of its head, the Boneknapper didn’t waste its opportunity, and snaked its head around and bit down on my top half, cleanly snapping me in two. I roared in pain as I felt blood explode out of my torso and arms where they had been severed. Agony was all I knew, pain filling my entire existence, making me wish that I was still back with the wolves. My vision started to go dark, answering the question of if dying in this realm was even possible, but then the beast started to chew, grinding my bones and flesh into pulp. My vision went from black to pure red, and I screamed, amusement coursing through my entire body. Haha! I wasn’t just seeing red… Hahaha! That was just my blood! Haha… nice… I really hope this plan works…

The agony and sea of red blood overwhelmed the darkness, pushing it back, but it wasn’t long before the darkness began pushing back. I blacked out to the sound of wailing and crunches, and every single one of my nerves being awash in white hot agony. As the darkness rushed up to take me, I felt a pulse flash out from around my neck, and a part of me felt satisfied. I wasn’t sure about what exactly, but eh, I guess I’d figure that out when I woke up…

“Oh you damn idiot! I thought I was going to have to drag you back from some random afterlife! What were you thinking!?”

I groaned and stretched out, awareness and life flooding my limbs for the first time in what felt like ages, “Oh come on, it all worked out in the end, didn't it?”

I glanced up at the seething figure of Grim, waves of power flowing off of them. They stood there, much like how I had first seen them, wearing a simple dark robe and with a simple scythe held in one hand. A powerful being, whose waves of power could probably cause whole legions to bow… and as I sat up, I flashed them a grand smile. The being cocked their hooded head to the side, and then let out a long sigh.

Their voice rang out through the deep grayness of the underground, dispersing it in moments, “You forgot the phrase didn't you?”

I coughed, and looked away, trying to put on a casual air, “Ah well, I should've known better if I'm being honest. My memory hasn't been in the best shape for a while. The plan worked though, right? After all, you are here! How long have I been out by the way?”

Grim sighed even louder and leaned on their scythe, which was dripping a strange ichor. “I don't know if I would say it worked… The Boneknapper ate you and the amulet like I imagine that you wanted. Thereafter your body was instantly pulverized, but the amulet I created stayed whole. The amulet absorbed your soul into itself and sent out the pulse to summon me. However, that pulse also made the Boneknapper realize its mistake, and as soon as the pulse went out, it proceeded to try to escape to the best of its ability. It took me quite a long time to catch the creature, though thanks in no small part to the amulet, I was finally able to track it down and destroy it.”

Grim gestured in the direction of the deep grayness, and I sat up to see. My eyes followed where they were pointing at, finally noticing a smoking pile of flesh, bone, and scales. I couldn’t help but whistle at the massacre, growing to appreciate the power that Grim truly must wield. Whatever that was, it might have once been the Boneknapper, but it was so mangled and wrecked that even if it had possessed my ability, I doubted it could have regenerated from that.

I turned to Grim and cocked my head to the side, “So my soul was inside the amulet, but what about the rest of myself? How were you able to construct me?”

Grim shook their head and laughed, “You really think that I couldn’t reconstruct you from nothing but your soul? Ha! You do know who I am, right?” Grim chuckled again and tapped on their scythe. “By the time that I did finally catch up to you, you had been fundamentally reduced to nothing but flesh within its stomach. The reason that the Boneknapper eats primarily bones is because it cannot actually digest flesh and blood. Too much life within them for a creature of this realm you see. I was able to reconstruct you of course… but you are not the same as you once were.”

I cocked my head to the side and looked down at my body. I didn’t feel that much different or anything. My fingers moved the same, my flesh looked the same, and when I pinched myself, I felt the pain just like before. Though, as I ran my hands over my chest, I frowned. There did seem to be something there, though I couldn’t seem to sense it. I didn’t doubt what Grim had said, but… Hmm… I wonder if I’ll be that different when I go back to the land of the living?

I eyed Grim and flashed them a quick smile. “Hey, so no pressure or anything, but I fulfilled my side of the bargain, right? You’re totally cool with me going back to the land of the living now? I feel like there has to be some other little catch, or is it really that easy? Besides, won’t that damned goddess Malxonus be angry with you for letting me return?”

Grim let out another long sigh and stared at the Boneknapper’s corpse, “I AM the god of Death ya know, even that annoying goddess Malxonus cannot interfere with me or my decisions here. If I decide not to keep you, that is my decision to make. You did as I asked, albeit in a rather roundabout manner, and have fulfilled your side of the bargain. I shall fulfill my side, as I said I would. I also doubt that you are even remotely affected by this, based on your track record, but I should warn you, this is an unbelievably agonizing process. In order to leave this place, I have to reconstruct your entire being, starting with your soul. Part of the reason I had you find me the Boneknapper was because it was a particularly elusive and problematic pest, but also because I will need its remains and the powerful energies within them in order to return you to the land of the living.”

I looked back at the smoking corpse and raised an eyebrow, “So wait… You’re going to recreate my body and soul using another corpse? Didn’t you say that you were able to retrieve my soul from the amulet? I don’t mind of course, but how is that going to affect me?”

Grim tapped their scythe and sighed, “It's true that I was able to snag some of your soul, but there was some that was lost, and some that wasn’t even there in the first place. In other words, you were incomplete, and even with that ability of yours, you would not be able to make the journey back to the land of the living. In order to insure that you can make it back, I unfortunately have no other choice but to reconstruct you out of one of the creatures that are able to exist on this plane without being able to be destroyed. In this case, the Boneknapper. Don’t worry though, physically you may be different, but mentally and spiritually you will be the same as before you were sent here, the soul of this creature has already gone on to its afterlife.” Grim chuckled and tapped their scythe once more, “After I send you back, I won’t have much say in your fate, so do try not to end up back here too soon little one.”

I flashed Grim another smile and walked closer to the beast, “Sweet, sounds fair enough to me! By the way, I found some really cool creatures in the buildings near where the Boneknapper was. I don’t know how often you go inside, but they love the buildings. Maybe you could figure out a way to allow some of the lost souls that pass through here a place to stay, even for a short while? I find this place to be so quiet, especially for how truly beautiful and magnificent it is.”

Grim hummed at that, and tapped on their scythe, but didn’t respond to me. I shrugged and stood there for a while as he and I considered the smoking corpse. “Was there anything else you needed from me? I don’t mind sticking around and helping you out with some other little chores if you’d like me to.”

Grim sighed and turned their hood to me, straightening out and smacking their scythe into the ground again. “You are such an interesting soul, did you know that? I have seen so many souls pass by through my realm, so many souls that were struggling, lost, desperate, peaceful, frightened, rage filled, or just happy. So many souls that I had not been even interested in your arrival at first, the monotony of it all boring me. However… none have interested me as much as you have. With such an interesting soul, an unknown and complicated past, and still able to smile…” Grim laughed again, their deep voice booming through the gray, “No… I do not need you to stay here for longer, though I do appreciate your offer. I will reconstruct your existence now, close your eyes, small one, and when you awaken, know that you are one of my favored. Until you truly wish for death, I will not accept your soul. You will be a creature born and created of this realm, but bear a soul much like one of those that still live. You have intrigued me little one, I eagerly await the day that I may meet you again.”

With that, Grim waved their robed hand, and darkness swept over my vision in a flow, my body going weak as all of the energy left it. I fell to my knees and then the ground, my head still somehow pointed at Grim. I locked my eyes on them, fighting back the darkness as I saw them go to sweep the hood off. They were… gorgeous. Their skin was pale white like bones, but flashes of beautiful darkness swirled over it, somehow still full of color. Where there the eye sockets were, a fire burned, glowing a bloody crimson red. They had black, pierced lips, and silver and black hair. Someone might have said that they seemed terrifying, but there was a kind and peaceful look in their flaming eyes. They gave me one last smile, and turned towards the Boneknapper’s corpse, raising their bone hand towards it as the darkness finally won and washed over me.