The Prophecy of 9 Sins: Life, Death, and Hell

THE PROPHECY

of

9 SINS

Life, Death, and Hell

ALLISON M. DELGADO

Copyright © 2022 by Allison M. Delgado.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 09/08/2022

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CONTENTS

Prologe

Chapter 1    Death, Pride, and Chase

Chapter 2    Hearts, Ruins, and signs

Chapter 3    Bullets, Raiders, and Chains

Chapter 4    Plants, Beach, and Greed.

Chapter 5    Cardinal Sins, Cliffs, and Gluttony

Chapter 6    Adultery, Envy, and Love

Chapter 7    Wrath, Lust, and Death Again

Chapter 8    Roche, Magdalen, and Nephilim

Chapter 9    Reunion, Answers, and War

PROLOGE

God, Prophecy, and Eliza

M Y NAME IS Eliza Seer. It’s February 5 th , 2016, 7:24 am. I’m writing down what happened because the voice demanded that I put to paper what he said. I’ve never talked about my dreams before, not even in a journal.

I’ve dreamed of 9 people my whole life. I’ve seen their lives in snippets and highlights.

The first time that Father Kaiser met someone he loved. The time Harvest learned how to make daisy chains with her Mom. Little things that show me small windows into their lives.

I’m still not sure they’re real people, but either way real or not, what does that make me?

Sure, there is a Father Landon Jean Batiste Kaiser who lives in Brattleboro Vermont and despite the fact that their names and places of work are identical I’m still not wholly convinced that man could be the same Father Kaiser in my dreams. On the other hand, I mean, they’re both so pale, with jet black hair and dark almost black eyes and they’re both so tall... so... well... no, I’m not there yet.

Before last night I’d waffled about what to call those 9 people I see in my dreams. Since that voice spoke those fiery words into my mind, I know they’re the 9 Redeemers. Don’t ask me why I’m so sure, but I’ve never been more sure in my life.

I’m up so early because Father Kaiser was... dying in my dream.

I’ve never dreamed of one of the 9 Redeemers dying and I’ve defiantly never witnessed any dream deaths as if I was the one dying.

It’s like I had two dreams at once.

In my first dream, Father Kaiser or maybe I should call him the Scorpion as the voice did, is dying right? Then like... I also died? And I wake up in my dream and it’s like I’d blinked and then everything just ceased existing. All around me, an all encompassing near nothingness of dark and cold. The closest thing I could say it was like would be like I was swimming in a cave with no lights and no sound.

So I’m in this darkness and it feels like hours or like a day right?

Boom!

Eliza. A deep, rumbling voice called my name, if you could call it a voice. The way it rumbled though my very bones like I was a string on a bass guitar. The voice was way more of a feeling rather than a sound.

I was disoriented, casting my eyes around that impenetrable darkness as it dawned on me, I’d only been in that darkness for like a solid minute.

"You find yourself here in Purgatory at the time of judgment, but it is not yet your time.

Your day of calling has arrived. Remember the following words;" Then he, I want to call such a deep feeling voice a he, hits me with those red hot brands of word, they itch, like... like a burn!

"In a time before man remembers, a Meddlesome Beast opened her starry eyes.

From the Beast’s first breath, her last breath was set a time and place, but on her final day, the Beast fled her fate.

Away a Blossom from her home the Beast stole. Seeking to save her only treasure, but lost it in a place remembered for Knowledge.

In this place of enlightenment and cutely the Blossom grew and around it gathered two who were hollow yet different.

In an age of progress, the Beast beds a Lamb and by the Lamb it bares the first of 10 Monsters, the Father of Lies.

The Father of Lies is left in a distant place for his safety, but does not understand the reason. He becomes angry at his mother and swears vengeance on his blood line.

The Lamb is born the twin of a Goat and the Beast foolishly seeks them out hoping to change their fate, but alas the Beast fails to save the Goat on a night of Fire and Betrayal and the Lamb is set on his path to father a Monster and marry another, but also to father the beginning of his Bloodline’s redemption.

The Lamb will wilt at a prick from the Father of Lies on a stage of his choosing.

Next to see the light of day, the Mother of Cats will spend her life seeking freedom and justice, finding only darkness and betrayal.

She will witness the Ascension of the Golden Calf and will aid in felling the false God.

The Fortune, the Scorpion, and the Silent Voice will drink their first milk in the mater of month and although the Fortune will know both the Scorpion and the Silent Voice, the Silent Voice and the Scorpion will never meet on earth.

The next to arrive will be the Hammer.

He will know the Scorpion and the Father of Lies.

Then across the land, the Bitterness will grow.

As the Silent Voice, the Mother of Cats, and the Hammer fall, Man will fail to record time as the Hell rains on earth.

The Scorpion will be joined by the Blade and they will forge a weapon that Hell can not stand against.

But in arming the people, the Scorpion and the Blade will be slain by the 10 Monster’s forces.

Once the Scorpion becomes the Lord of Sloths Times enters an age of flux and change.

Under eternal twilight, Nine Redeemers stand united as one. A beckon of light in a place as dark as night.

On earth the Redeemed will be crowned and at the end 9 Kings will face 10 Eternals including the Father of Lies to rise from Hell thus finishing the Scorpion’s work.

In a distant time the Father of lies will sire the Blade and the cycle will begin again." He pauses, letting the weight of those biblical words sink into me, burning themselves into my mind.

It hits me, the real question Am I a Prophet?

"Now. Take these words and any that follow back to Earth and scribe them to paper.

We will meet again Eliza." That Deep Voice had said with this like, note of finality in it’s un-hearable timbre.

And that’s the end of the first dream, the second dream I had, I wasn’t just watching Father Kaiser. I was him and it went like this;

CHAPTER 1

Death, Pride, and Chase

"I T WAS OVER, right? It was over.

We ended it, like we were destined to.

So why?

Was this also destined?" Father Landon Kaiser lay on the ground thinking. His body feeling so heavy and his limbs quickly growing cold.

The sky looked ready to rain, gray, cloudy, and dark.

Landon Kaiser had been shot, practically torn to ribbons by machine gun fire.

He could barely hold a thought and felt as if he had even less a chance of even moving a finger.

How did this happen to me, to us? Suddenly Landon remembered Akihiko Oishi. He was also shot.

Landon managed to turn his head to the side with great effort, he had to see Akihiko, his adopted son, one last time before he died.

The white haired boy was still writhing, still clinging to life as his finger tips started to vanish. It was horrifying to realize the boy from the future was turning to dust and being blown away.

Landon couldn’t even muster up enough strength to pull himself closer to the boy, but he had to comfort him none the less.

Aki… His voice sounded so strange to his own ears.

The boy stopped writhing and looked over.

Landon. Oh fuck! They... He hissed through his teeth. The white haired boy turned onto his stomach. No. Not him!

He started to crawl the rest of the way to Landon. Landon... I thought... I can’t believe they got you. This looks bad, Landon.

It’s alright, Landon said on instinct, knowing it wasn’t alright. More than anything he didn’t want to boy to be sad, even now. It was irrational, they were both dying, but the thought of Aki being sad stung more than his now numbing fingers.

The boy lay his head on Landon’s shoulder.

It’s not alright… thanks though.

Thank you for traveling with me. His voice was no more than a hoarse whisperer now.

I... I thought I’d always be alone, thanks for that too and... Akihiko’s head was warm against Landon’s shoulder. And I’m sorry too… I didn’t think this was going to happen…

With any luck, we’ll see each other again. Landon felt his vision going dark but he held on. I can’t imagine us going to heaven, so…

Akihiko laughed weakly.

I can’t either… Landon’s hearing was fading he almost didn’t catch the last word as he slipped away.

The last thing he knew was he could feel Akihiko sobbing against his shoulder. He had failed, he had made Aki sad.

It was dark, cold, heavy. He found himself wondering if this was all there was. No light, no choir of angels, just nothingness.

Landon couldn’t tell if his eyes were open or closed. He blinked a few times, feeling l his eye lids move. Still nothing.

It felt like he was there for hours, but suddenly he felt more than heard someone speak and all the time he’d felt turned to mere seconds.

You have lived righteously, you sook to save the world, you fought for the lives of millions, alas still you have sinned and for this you must repent. You’ve killed, you’ve stolen, you’ve turned a blind eye, but your worst sin is Pride. Thus you must toil in hell in a demon form of your greatest sin. Repent and the kingdom of god awaits.

God? Landon turned to look for where the voice was coming from, but everywhere was dark. My lord, I repent!

But the voice did not speak again.

My Lord. It was silent again, the darkness was oppressive. I’ve been judged by God and found unworthy...

Even after his judgment had been passed, Landon found he had more questions now then before.

As a catholic priest, Landon knew better then anyone that without proper forgiveness the fires of Hell would burn one’s soul for eternity, right? So why had this... voice, why had God said he could repent in Hell and ascend to Heaven?

Then as suddenly as the voice had come to him, a light appeared. Blinded by the brilliance Landon found he was filled of fear at the sight.

Was this the radiant angel Lucifer, here to claim his soul personally?

As his eyes adjusted to the new light he realized it was a being made of white feathered wings, from what Landon could tell, the being was made of about 7 massive white wings.

He’d seen this angel’s form in a dream once, the dream had inspired him to get a tattoo of a spiral of 7 wings across his back, if this was true then the being before him couldn’t be Lucifer. Right?

He felt a new voice that seemed to resonate higher than the last.

Fear not my Charge. For you of all others have the will to repent! Struggle in Hell and make a way for yourself, your path will reveal it’s self to you! The angel called to him.

You’re… my guardian angel aren’t you? Landon needed to know. His 7 winged tattoo felt almost as if it burned at the thought that he’d known all along his angel’s form.

Yes, I was. The angel spoke calmly.

Even as waves of relief washed over him, Landon couldn’t shake the feeling of worry and fear for his son’s soul.

Can you tell me where Akihiko is? The words nearly fell from his lips almost faster then he could think them.

No, for he is outside of my reach. Repent my Charge and we will speak again! The light was fading now. Repent my Charge.

Please, don’t leave me. Landon needed the angel’s presence, something to see, he was more afraid of the nothingness and of being alone now more than ever before.

Repent. Was the last word the Angel mustered before it was completely gone again.

He wanted to sob, to shout and curse or to simply try to forget this new sorrow.

He’d lost many before Akihiko to the dark vail of death, but the teen’s death stung and stabbed him even more then his own death.

Unfortunately Landon wouldn’t get the chance to greave it this purgatorial place because he felt himself falling.

He did not cry out or scream as he fell, he could not. Landon was numb from his grief and from what he had just witnessed. He and Akihiko were both truly dead, he had met God and indeed been judged in his eyes and Landon had met an angel, his guardian angel.

The force of the fall left Landon feeling sick, he struggled to keep his eyes open, but the next thing he knew was that he must have passed out.

When he opened his eyes he saw a black and starless sky above him. He turned his head to look at the horizon and found the ground was pure white sand, dune after dune, peak after peak. He sat up and looked at his own body.

Landon was shocked, his skin was the color of porcelain. Where his numerous scars once marked his body now strikingly blue marks stood out against his skin and maybe stranger then his scars changing color, his tattoos had turned blue too.

On the side of his right thigh, the much more traditional looking Japanese demon with live fast, punch death written around it was the same shade of royal blue as his scars. He found himself reminiscing as he looked over the tattoo.

You sure you want it to say Live Fast, Eat Ass Fortune? Landon was in the tattoo parlor a month after the two had reconnected.

It rhymes better then Live Fast, Punch Death, I don’t expect you to get that written on your holy skin though Father! Fortune had said in a playful, mocking tone.

If nothing else, Landon was happy to be in touch with his best friend again, if Fortune had insisted, he would have gotten the tattoo exactly the way the Punk Rocker had demanded. It wasn’t like many people were going to see his body anyways.

The fairly cheery face of St. Jean Baptiste de La Salle smiled up at him from the tattoo on his right side, the tattoo had been like all of Landon’s tattoos, black and in a ink sketch style. It was strange to see it in blue now, the same style, but the color change made it feel like a new tattoo. On the other hip, his large ornate crucifix tattoo was now far more eye catching then ever in the same shade of blue. The rosary tattooed to look like it was laying on top of Landon’s left arm was prettier in blue, looking as if made of glass instead of dark wood and a quick glimpse higher on the same arm conformed his memorial tattoo for his lost best friend Our Fortune Rests in Hell 1971-1998 was also blue. On Landon’s right pec, his hastily tattooed declaration only in the eyes of God will I be judged looked a little better in the same shade of blue as the rest instead of the off black ink he’d used. On his left pec, his sacred heart tattoo looked odd, the glowing heart pierced by it’s sword now in a sorrowful blue. Landon knew without even a chance of being able to check that his 7 winged Guardian angel tattoo and the rather scandalous tattoo of his home state of Vermont on his bum were also blue.

Weapon. A thought over took Landon’s mind. He needed a weapon like a drowning man need air.

A turn of his head and he saw them. Beside Landon lay a pair of large hunting knives. Quickly Landon grabbed one, as he did the sand behind him was kicked up as if with a broom. He looked and saw a long tail, hairless except for the long, brush like hair along the bottom that started halfway down. The hair on his new tail was black like his own.

This is crazy… He muttered to himself as he examined the bite scar on his arm closer. The only reason his scars could be blue was if his blood was also, even if that didn’t explain his tattoos being blue. He had to know, he took one of the hunting knives and made a small cut on his left arm.

He felt like puking as he watched his blood come out in the same blue as the rest of his scars and tattoos.

I have to shake it off… he muttered. I’m... what did God say? A... a demon now. It’s not like I really knew what demons look like… Landon stood, taking the two knives with him. He looked around the strange white desert and found himself wondering how he wasn’t cold. The only thing he had for clothing was a long blue cloth tied around his waist and and fastened with a Lion’s Head shaped clasp. To make matters more concerning it looked like night time even if the sky was devoid of stars or a moon.

Then Landon heard something, it started small. A growl maybe, he thought to himself as the sound grew in volume into a roar of anger. There was the sound of fists hitting something made of stone or concrete, but the sound never became wet with the blood of the person doing the damage. Perhaps they were using a weapon to smash this mysterious structure?

Cautiously Landon made his way over to the sound and found a huge, headless man punching a wall from the ruins of some long fallen building.

The man and ruin alike stood at the valley of some of the sand dunes. Though it was fairly easy to see the ruins were once made of brick, it was hard to tell much about the man from this distance

The end of his neck was blue like Landon’s scars and blood, the white end of his spine was clearly visible, but his esophagus and trachea were no where to be seen. Landon skirted the man to get a better look at him.

Something scratched at his mind, like a memory threatening to take him into a dream. It felt just like his previous reminiscing, but in this stressful situation it was invasive, feeling almost insidious in a way.

He, what was once a he, hung from a tree. The noose around his neck almost as rotted as his head and chest.

Landon shook off the strange dream like recollection. If he was going to survive this encounter, he needed to resist the best he could. He hadn’t wanted to linger in that memory anyways, it was of a kind of zombie he’d met during the apocalypse, the kind he called Rotters because of the decay of their heads and chests.

This... man if you could call it that, was he a zombie or a demon? As he came around the man’s side he realized with horror that he had a huge mouth across his collar bone.

The monster’s mouth was twisted in an expression of rage. Worse yet was the fact that it’s mouth was filled to the brim of large, deep sea fish like, fangs and ran clear across the thing’s chest. The corners of the monster’s mouth stopped at the line of his shoulders.

A hollow sort of rumble came from his chest as it seemed to breath out through the gash. His limbs flailed as it seemed to sense Landon somehow.

Landon made a quick check of the area to see if there were more zombies, after he didn’t see any he pulled his gun out and fired a shot into the zombie’s head.

The bullet sent what was left of the poor things head in a shattered ruin no longer big and strong enough to hold it up in the tree by the noose.

The large, muscular body now almost devoid of a head hit the ground with a solid thump. It was so heavy that it seemed to leave a shallow hole in the already broken road.

Thinking himself safe again, Landon went to walk around the corpse, but to his horror the headless zombie did what no zombie before had ever done.

It stood back up. Taking rattling breath through the rotten gash across it’s chest, it turned to face right at Landon.

He shoved off the memory again. The thing still punching a wall in the middle of this Hellish desert didn’t seem to even know he was there.

Comparing this creature to the memory of the Rotters, he knew without a doubt this wasn’t a zombie. It was far to clean, like this poor bastard had been born this way.

Defiantly a demon… Landon thought aloud without realizing it. He stiffened as he realized what he had done.

So what if this demon didn’t have a head? That didn’t mean they couldn’t hear him, right? Landon had no idea how something like this could even move around, but this wasn’t his first time seeing something like that. That creeping, insidious, dreamlike recollection nagged at the back of his mind.

Landon let out a small sigh as he realized the man was still punching the wall, oblivious to Landon’s presence. The wall was losing now, as chunks of brick began to fall to the sand below.

He can’t hear you! A man called from atop a near by dune. His voice was heavily colored with the slur of midwest white trash.But I can.

Landon turned to look at the man. He was shorter then Landon, but very muscular. His skin was porcelain white and marked with blue scars and tattoos, with long blue hair blowing in the wind from his head and tail, He was also wearing a long blue cloth tied around his waist and most notably had a large tattoo across his collarbones that read ‘No Ragets’. Landon half hoped that the man had at least one regret, that tattoo.

He was also notably carrying a broken wine bottle and seemed to think it was not only a useful weapon, but a threatening one.

This man seemed at first glance to be a demon of the same kind as Landon. Something about the sight of the man made his blood boil, he wanted, no he needed to kill this man.

The overwhelming desire to murder was highly disturbing to Landon, he did his best to shake it off and start thing as civilly as he could.

You… you’re a Pride demon like me? Landon half asked half stated.

And you’re fresh in Hell aren’t you? This should be easy then! The buff demon slid down the dune toward Landon.

What will be ‘easy’? Landon asked, once again feeling like he already knew the answer. He didn’t want to hear this man say it, but his body knew what was coming.

To kill you of course! I want to kill you and eat your heart! He laughed. That way I’ll get even stronger!

Great… Landon shook his head. First, the actual zombie apocalypse is what did him in, then it seems not even death would get him away from being eaten by something no longer human.

As the Man reached Landon he took a strike at him with his broken bottle. Landon wasn’t going to be able to talk his way out of this one.

Landon easily saw the strike coming and dogged it. It felt like the man was moving in slow motion, but Landon knew they had both moved really fast.

The other Pride demon had to pull back when his bottle almost caught the Headless Demon’s shoulder.

You afraid of hitting that demon? Landon egged the man on, looking to get more info out of him.

It’s a Wrath demon, you should be scared too. He gave Landon a judging look as he spat into the sand.

Landon couldn’t help but notice that the man’s eyes were solid blue, no pupal, no whites, it made him wonder if his eyes were like that. This close, it was the scariest part.

The buff demon didn’t give Landon a chance to say or do anything else as he swiped at him again with the broken bottle.

Again Landon dodged, but this time he went into the man with his hunting knives. His instincts for battle had always been good, but there was something different now. Sinking into battle with this demonic body felt as easy as taking a dance partner in hand. Something was wrong, but this felt so good and natural, almost like this demonic body was made for this.

The man sidestepped one of the knives but practically walked into the second. His blood flowed from the wound and Landon’s mouth watered at the sight of it.

The two pulled apart, the man to recover as much as he could and Landon in the shock that he wanted to taste this stranger’s blood. What was this body? Is this what it meant to be a demon?

His heart thumped in his ears as Landon’s body moved almost without him as he brought the knife to his lips.

Taste the blood. He thought over and over. A singular thought overwhelming everything else.

Landon couldn’t fight it, he ran his tongue along the side of his knife. The other demon’s blood sung on his tongue with all the iron that blood usually does, but his body was all a shiver, his brain overwhelmed in pleasure. He wanted, no, he needed more.

As his vision tunneled on the other demon, he struck wildly at the man, crazed and craving more blood. The man swore and backed away.

You crazy son of a bitch! Why the hell did you lick the blood?

Landon couldn’t even think about responding and he pushed the man further and further back. All he could think about was the blood pulsing through this man’s veins, the taste of it, the warmth.

Landon drove the man farther and farther back, suddenly the man swore again as his back hit the shoulder of the Wrath demon. Quickly he ducked to the side to get away from the Wrath.

It turned and threw a fist straight toward where the man had been, not knowing he was long gone.

Landon was just out of reach for the first punch, the fist stoping a good 6 inches from Landon’s face, but as it swung with it’s other fist, the Wrath demon took a step toward him.

Landon already filled with rage, turned that murderous focus on the Wrath demon.

This demon was between him and the blood of the other Pride demon.

Landon needed to kill it.

He ducked around the other fist of the Wrath and dug his daggers into the Wrath’s chest under where it’s mouth was.

It opened it’s mouth and roared in pain and anger.

The larger demon brought it’s fists together to try and crush Landon’s head, but Landon managed to duck quickly enough that the Wrath’s fist found only each other.

He pulled his knives from the demon’s chest and ran one along it’s stomach as he dropped lower on his haunches.

The angry blue gash a crossed the Wrath demon’s stomach gushed blue blood onto Landon’s head as he dragged the serration of both his knives through the back of both the demon’s legs.

The Wrath fell forward onto Landon. Landon held his knives up between them and as the Wrath fell onto them and Landon he braces himself to hold the weight.

The fuck? The other Pride sounded frightened as the Wrath went limp over Landon. He shoved the Wrath off of himself and turned back to what he really wanted his body still in autopilot.

Blood. Landon growled, his deep voice sounded strange to his own ears. He didn’t even think about the demon he’d just killed even as he stepped over it’s body to take a step toward the other Pride man.

If it’s going to be like that then. It’s fight or die, as always! The man raised his broken bottle and met Landon halfway.

The bottle caught both knives as Landon went to bring them down on the other demon.

Landon roared with fury as he pushed the man back through the shifting sands.

The man parried as best he could against knives with a bottle and pulled back, being forced to nearly crawl backwards up the dune behind him.

Landon dug one of his knives into the man’s calf to stop him from fleeing. The man cried out in pain, striking wildly with his bottle. He caught Landon, leaving a gash down across his left collar bone.

The second knife was shoved into the side of the same leg, just behind the bone and pulled through the back with ease.

No! Bas-ter, Ahh! The other pride demon kicked at Landon, missing completely and falling to the sands in the attempt.

As the other man was trying to crawl up the dune, Landon dug a knife into his other leg.

The man flung his broken bottle at Landon. The edge of the bottle sliced Landon’s shoulder as he barely dodged it.

No! Ahh! The other demon shouted, his mind full of panic.

Landon’s mind was still blank, the only thought in his mind was the blood pumping through this stranger’s body and a thump, thump, thumping that Landon’s half conscious mind couldn’t determine if it was the other demon’s heart or his own.

Again, he slashed the man’s tendon cleanly in half with the free knife.

The man struggled, grabbing handfuls of sand to throw at Landon.

Thuh thump, thuh thump. The sound a beating heart was all that filled Landon’s mind.

Get off! The other demon shouted as he flung sand at Landon’s face.

Landon simply closed his eyes and let the sand fall off of him. His reaction time in this state easily fast enough to protect his eyes from the attack.

Thuh thump, thuh thump.

He took his free knife and dug it into the man’s thigh as high as he could reach. He needed to taste this man’s blood again.

The other demon shouted in pain and anger.

The knife Landon used to hold this demon’s leg still while he cut the tendon was pulled out and he used his other knife to half climb the man and the sand dune, half pull the demon closer.

One knife into the man’s thigh, one knife out, one knife into the man’s stomach, one knife out, he left the man crying in agony as he finally got close enough or high enough to plunge his knifes into the man’s eyes.

No! No! No! Plea! The man didn’t get to finish begging for his life as the blades smashed his eye sockets and cheek bones.

At last he was still and Landon could get what he needed.

No less blank and filled with the sound of a beating heart, Landon slammed one of his knives into the man’s chest, just to the right of center, throwing his whole weight into the blade, he could feel the bone crack and separate. He yanked the blade down to the last of his rib cage, every bone giving like paper under the unearthly strength of his new body.

He dropped the knives not caring where the fell.

Thuh thump, thuh thump.

Dug his fingers into the wound.

Thuh thump.

Like opening a clam Landon pulled the man’s chest open.

Thuh thump.

His eyes found the man’s still throbbing heart as it pumped his blood all over the sands. Weather it was true or not, Landon felt that he’s found the source of the heart beat as his vision tunneled on the other demon’s exposed heart.

Thuh Thump.

Drool fell out of his mouth as he wrapped his fingers around the powerful muscle.

Thuh Thump the organ’s throbbing pressed against his hand like a baby trying to push away unwanted attention. It felt to Landon that even now the other demon was still trying to survive.

He ripped the other Pride’s heart out of his chest, blue blood gushing out around his hand and still a now weaker;

Thuh thump.

He sunk his teeth into it like an apple, the membrane around the heart crackling like the skin of that very fruit.

It was like nothing he’d ever eaten before, the flesh was firm and irony as the major arteries popped under his teeth.

His body sang for more each bite he took, ecstasy and power coursing through his blood. Every hunk of heart he swallowed caressing his throat on it’s way down sending electric waves of pleasure though his whole body. He could almost swear he felt the barely chewed chunks of organ meat plop satisfyingly into his stomach.

Bite after bite, the pleasure built. His mind filled now with the irony smell and flavor of his prize.

All too soon, he’d eaten the whole heart, but his body was still not satisfied. He wanted, no, needed more. For lack of more Pride heart to satiate his appetite, Landon found himself licking the Pride’s blood from his fingers as he moaned.

He stayed there, straddling the dead demon’s body, surrounded and covered in blood until he came down from the near maddening high that drove him to eat this man’s heart.

His body felt full of energy as an after glow of sorts settled around him.

Suddenly it hit him what he had just done.

Landon pulled away from the man in horror, is this what it meant to be a demon? He wanted to feel nauseous, he thought it was the right thing to feel after one came too themselves after a mind altering stupor that drove them to cannibalism and the fact that he wasn’t and was still feeling that afterglow like affect made him sick in another way.

He grabbed his knives from the grounds and went to put them on his belt, but he didn’t have his belt, it took him a moment to remember that his clothing was completely different now that he became a demon.

I need to get a way to carry these… he caught himself talking to himself and not even about the man he’d just killed. He hadn’t talked to himself this much since before he had met Akihiko. Focus, you’ve just killed a man.

He tried to keep his mind on the other Pride as an individual, tried to think about the consequences of killing another person, but his body and mind had other plans.

He found himself taking the other Pride’s cloth and beginning to fashion the cloth into slings for his knives.

Weapons. The thought was so overwhelming Landon didn’t know if he just thought it really loud or actually spoke the word.

He considered the bottle for a moment, why did this man value this broken wine bottle so much?

He picked up the bottle, turning it over and over in his hands to see what drew this demon to use it as a weapon. Was this the item he had woken up to? Why a broken bottle?

Landon tested the sharpness of the edge with a finger. Even after their fight it was as sharp as if it had been freshly broken. Did this demon have many bottles and made sure to brake them right before a fight?

No. That doesn’t seem to be it. He had nothing else on him, no additional bottles, no other weapons. He spoke as if he’d been in hell for a while and he’d been in more than one Pride fight, so it couldn’t be the bottle was freshly broken.

Landon dug in the sand for a moment with the glass, attempting to dull the bottle’s edge.

When again he ran his finger over the edge it was as sharp and new as it had been when he’d started.

It stuck him again that he was treating this man as nothing but a way to get resources.

What’s happening to me?

Another overwhelming thought, this time a creeping anxiety that he’d been too still for too long.

Need to keep moving. He muttered to himself as he slung the makeshift knife holster across his chest, he needed to see what else he could find here in hell. He brought the bottle with him to ponder later.

He climbed all the way out of the dune before he remembered the man again.

I guess I just need to forget about him. It’s not like I have the time to spend all day trying to remind myself I killed someone. Landon didn’t want to admit it to himself, but there was much more important things to focus on than this demon with No Ragets tattood across his chest.

Resources… he muttered as he turned his mind to what he might need to survive down here.

The first thing that came to mind was weapons. Wait, but I should really take this time when I’m healthy to get water and food first… not weapons…

He walked quite some distance, his mind on the same loop of Weapons first! No. Water and food! No, weapons first! both the Pride demon and the Wrath demon he killed forgotten with far too much ease.

The desert stretched out ahead of him, he had spotted a few figures on the horizon, mostly the large and headless silhouettes of Wrath Demons, but a couple were different.

The first demon he saw that wasn’t another Wrath looked like a pregnant demonic woman. She was jogging along the top of a dune, her tail wagging as she made her way across the sands before she vanished behind the ridge.

After a while longer of walking, Landon caught sight of another woman, tall and intimating, her blue cloth and long black pony tail like a flags in the winds.

As he watched her, a memory clawed at his mind. It demanded to be witnesses and fought to make him relive the day in question.

Landon had been skirting the boarder of a city, he was seeing the sky line and had been wondering for a while what city this was.

Help! I need help! A weak voice called out. It was strange to suddenly hear a voice after such a long silence.

He didn’t have time yet to ponder why this memory and why now. His eyes were glued to the woman.

She was badly scared, most notably was her face, where a massive scar run down from her forehead to her chin in a meandering S like shape and her chest where her right breast had been gruesomely severed leaving a long, massively wide and jagged scar down her chest in a shape vaguely like a lowercase Y.

Help. I’m trapped. The voice stated more than cried. It was a strange voice indeed, but Landon figured that whoever it was simply that they didn’t have the energy left to scream.

Pushing the memory off again Landon looked at the woman more.

She held a sword with a curved blade and a C shaped hilt, for some reason Landon knew it was called a kopis. It seemed to him that she was testing him to see if he was a threat.

He went to the voice, not sure what he was going to do. If he saved this person, they were probably really hurt and he didn’t have the equipment to keep them alive.

He made his way to get out of her sight as quickly as he could, she had to be another