A/N: Warning: Dark Chapter


    "So you and my Father were enemies…" Altair said, floating aimlessly through the Vale. His blood-red eyes slowly alternated between a mist of ck and red.


    "Your Uncle Zariel, I considered to be my enemy, though through no fault of my own. Fate decided that." Aldrich replied softly. "Once I became a thrall to the Silver Devil, I was predestined to die."


    "He hated you?"


    "Hate is a powerful word, Vale Lord. Zariel loathed my existence, but I was nothing more than a pawn—a tool bound by causality to wage war against him. That was the oath we took to return to thend of the living. I can say for certain he did not hate me. Respect maybe. But hate?


    No. Not Zariel, that was reserved for someone else."


    Altair''s arms folded across his chest, and his lips twisted to mirror that of a childs pout. "Then you''d be against returning with me as my Shadow."


    "Without running the risk of being utterly annihted in a way I cannot fathom, I would say no. And I would be no help to you, my Lord. I am from the Lower Realms. My perception is far too lower whenpared to—"


    "That won''t matter. All my Shadows possess my perception." He threw his head up, mulling the matter over. Tenebrae had always mentioned that a True King needed to carry himself with pride. If he were to ask again, it would be no different than begging. And he was no beggar.


    "I could force you, you know."


    "Then I would forever resent you…" Aldrich said softly. "I lost… Zariel Snow bested me. I haven''t the will to return nor the face to look him in the eye."


    Altair stood up, flushed with rage. "I—" He stopped, covering his mouth, recognizing his action was unbing. He couldn''t even understand why he felt so offended.


    "You''re still in a state of Soul Exhaustion," Aldrich exined. "It''s a nasty affliction, but the Vale is somehow protecting you. Your memory is also still absent in many ces. Give it time."


    "It''s frustrating. You obey me, yet you refuse me."


    Aldrichughed. "I cannot refuse amand. Your authority binds me. If you really wish to revive me, I would have no power to stop you. None… I just hope you don''t."


    "Was your defeat so bad?" Altair asked.


    "In one-on-onebat, I have never known defeat. When I fought against the Silver Devil, the shing of our des brought forth Dead Laws, tore asunder the wall to the Thirty-Three Heavens, and ruptured fate itself. Iluthath burned. The Twelve Realms were torn asunder, and the Seraphim and Kings of Hell were forced to act lest we annihte everything. In the end, I was defeated.


    I, Aldrich, the Eternal King, who faced Seven Chaos Lords to a standstill. Who once shed against the King of the Hell, Amara Ardens Asmodeus, as an Empyrean-born for my right to escape the Hells, fell to a boy less than a chaos cycle."


    "Age has no ce on the battlefield."


    ''No… it doesn''t. You sound just like him,'' Aldrich said, a dryugh escaping him. "But that defeat shattered me. If Zariel had merely killed me, I might have epted it. But I was made to watch his ascent through the Thirty-Three Heavens. I watched himbat creatures my mind couldn''t even fathom.


    All the while, I longed for my end. And to die to all things an Incarnation of a Demon within the lower realms. Pathetic. I''ve lost the will, Vale Lord. I haven''t the will to continue. Leave me to the Vale.


    Let me rest in peace. I''ve earned at least that."


    "I…" Altair''s voice trailed off as he looked down at his hands fading back and forth. He frowned, suddenly taken back by a force pulling at him. "It looks like my time is up. Aldrich! This is not over. I''ll be back."


    "... It''s called Rest-In-Peace for a reason, you know."


    "Not in my Vale!" The Vale King shouted gleefully.


    ***


    "What… are you doing?" Tasha asked beside Altair''s bedside, throwing her head back to drown a mug of cold ale. She gasped, unsure when shest felt so exhausted.


    Nia''s slender fingers pressed against Altair''s cheek, intrigued by how vibrant they were. "Masters very… bouncy."


    "...Bouncy?" Tasha looked at her.


    "Yeah. Look. "Nia stared intently. "It''s weird how sometimes he''s extremely hard, while other times he''s so fluffy."


    Tasha held back herughter at Nia poking and prodding her master. She seemed so lost; Tasha was sure she didn''t hear when she asked, "Do you want a taste?"


    As night fell, a gust of winds sent the windows into a shudder. A boltnced through the skies, bringing about a downpour that sent the world into silence.


    ''This would be a fine time to make the offering,'' Tasha told herself. She took her leave, having seen enough of Nia''s growing intrigue.


    It had only been three days since the operation took ce, but in that time, the Three Sisters of Sepith had lived in a horror that stripped them of their fate. They''d lost their voice from the hundred or so men that shattered their maidenhood. Mounted and road by every man in the vige, the maidans of Sepith slowly faded from their minds as pain and humiliation turned to pleasure.


    Tasha smiled, looking at the sanguine lust. She opened her palm as a pink mist arose, shrowding the men and woman so that their lust only grew.


    "What is better than when a good man turns to evil? Muardral shall be pleased by this offering," she noted, throwing her head back into crazedughter. She looked on with tion, writhing through her being, sinking deep into the marrow as the moans grew louder. She watched as the three fell deeper and deeper into sin.


    Suddenly, mothers carried out their sons and daughters, the youngest being nothing more than babes that still needed their mother''s milk, while the oldest was barely on their third term.


    They were all crying, sensing what was toe.


    "Please…" a woman strained, clutching her babe beneath her swollen breast, screaming. "Please don''t make me…don''t make us do this!"


    Tasha offered them a smile that took the breaths of gods and mortals alike away. "your young one is teething. Poor thing. Slit its throat. Make it clean."


    A/N: Tasha is a DEMON! Damn!


    Despite the mother''s mournful wails that could shake even the cruelest of hearts, Tasha watched as, one by one, the women of Ravine Fort reached into their robes to the hunter''s knife they carried and ran the de across the small throats. The incision was clean, turning the cries into gasps and the gasps into wheezes before even the sound of rain vanished in the face of such horror.


    Wildughter deafened the drum of the rain and the arc of lightning. Tasha''s eyes were as red as blood and as cruel as the Hells.


    "Good! Laugh with me! Bash their brains in with your feet. Let us bathe in your children''s blood!"


    "Muardral!"


    "Muardral!"


    "Muardral!"


    A bolt of fiendish red lightning split the skies as if to anoint the ritual below. From north to south, east to west, the winds howled, snapping trees like twigs. Thend trembled as hundreds of thousands felt the hairs on the back of their neck stand on end.


    Trow within the region knelt, feeling the power of Deathless King fall upon the realm. One by one, they raised their heads, shouting for the Eternal One''s Blessing.


    "Muardral!"


    "Muardral!"


    "Muardral!"N?v(el)B\\jnn


    Isgar trembled. The runes on his eyes illuminated the night beneath the rain as he lowered his head in recognition.


    Blood rose from above Tasha''s head as she spun towards the Sisters of Sepith being savaged. Gram shed into her palm as she sauntered over. The men making way before their new Master.


    "Your soul might belong to Ariandel, but Master has a special Authority over the dead. So it doesn''t matter who the soul belongs to. In the end, once it''s calmed by my Master, it will rightfully be his. So don''t be surprised when you enter the Hells. You three will make perfect whores. Good luck."


    The three looked confused, their lips opening as they said in unison. "Cock?!" like fiends on drugs.


    "Lovely," Tasha said, gliding Gram through their flesh in one sweeping motion, staining the mud red. Gram devoured their souls only to deliver them to Tasha, who offered them to Muardral.


    Another bolt lit the skies aze, sprawling across the clouds like tendrils.


    "Grant thee thy blessing, oh Deathless King!" Tasha shouted, raising Gram towards the heavens. It zed shadowy mes of Vale Qi.


    As if the heavens acknowledged the words of the Lilm, a bolt of infernal light pierced the veil, striking Gram. Tasha drained of color as blood trickled down her lips. Seven Runes of Cmity formed across the de spine, illuminating Ravine Fort with a scarlet light so radiant it appeared to touch the skies.


    Tasha grimmed, bowing her head. "I thank the Rider of the Pale Horse. May you one day find Primal Death."


    Name: Gram


    Race: ??? [Unnamed]


    Str: 150 → 635 Enjoy new tales from empire


    Dex: 150 → 635


    Con: 150 → 635


    Wis: 150 → 635


    Chr: 150 → 635


    Mana: 100 → 410 → 500


    Skills:[Unbreakable], [Attribute Share], [Infernal] [Seven Circles of Cmity (New)]


    Soul Rune: 25 [+ 25 Points To All Attributes per day]