Diablo continued to walk forward in a blind rage as Anzu sat underneath the debris from the shed he was launched into.

However, before Diablo could reach the shed, something emerged. A large black wing pushed the rubble away as Anzu emerged completely healed from Diablo’s previous attacks.

Anzu now stood as two large midnight black coloured wings spouted from his spine as a hazy red mist surrounded him and his pupils shone red. His forearms were covered in solid, feathers appearing bone like in texture but black in colour. His hands were black, and his nails had become almost talon like as he underwent some form of demonic transformation.

“So, you’re a Vocem. That would explain your raw strength and speed.” Said Diablo.

Anzu appeared mildly surprised.

“So, humans do know of our existence?” Replied Anzu, stepping out from all the rubble.

“Of course, however, telling the public that a multitude of god like demons exist would cause mass hysteria. Only the higherups know.” Replied Diablo.

Anzu chuckled.

“How much do you know about us then?” Asked Anzu.

“Just enough.” Said Diablo before leaping forward to attack Anzu.

Diablo’s blade shone white as he swung it at Anzu who flew up and around Diablo, dodging his attack as it cut through the wall that encased the courtyard along with the ground in a sudden metallic ringing sound accompanied by the sound of rocks crumbling to the ground.

Diablo turned to see Anzu standing behind with a smug smile plastered across his face.

“It was 8 years ago was it not?” Said Anzu in a malicious tone. “You were tasked with defeating an unknown demon that had wiped out several villages. You, and 4 others?”

“Shut up.” Muttered Diablo, gripping his sword in anger.

“Before you could act; one at a time they each were murdered in horrifying ways.”

“You vowed yourself to at least save your two closest friends but…”

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Roared Diablo as he stepped forward to approach Anzu, but it was too late.

Anzu had dashed forward, so fast Diablo missed the movement, and unleashed a powerful kick into Diablo’s right arm, sending him straight into the wall of the mansion.

Anzu followed up with throwing a punch at Diablo’s face however, Diablo skipped time and managed to evade, putting distance between him and Anzu, finally reappearing a few meters away.

“You’re pretty sturdy.” Chuckled Anzu at Diablo who stood down on one knee a few meters away, watching Anzu carefully.

Diablo’s uniform was ripped where Anzu had kicked him, the edges appearing burnt due to friction. Once Diablo had regained his breath, he stood up onto his feet. But before he could make another move, Anzu leaped forward again, this time Diablo was more adjusted to Anzu’s speed and managed to dodge, ducking under Anzu’s leg as he unleashed another powerful kick.

Diablo stood up after ducking, ready to swing his sword at Anzu but he was a second too late as Anzu had already swung himself around again and flung his back leg around into a devastatingly snappy kick straight into Diablo’s stomach, Diablo managed to block however, he was still sent catapulting through the courtyard wall and out into the open field; skidding across the ground before coming to a halt a few meters away.

“I’m clearly faster than you in that form, any reason you aren’t transforming?” Teased Anzu.

Diablo appeared stunned for a moment as his brow twitched and he clenched the handle to his sword.

“You bastard, you’ve been getting me mad on purpose.” Scoffed Diablo.

Anzu grinned menacingly. “I realised after our last scuffle that the technique you were using was one that comes at a great price. You need to focus with every fibre of your being on maintaining it. I reckon while you were skipping time back then you were turning it off simply because you couldn’t hold both. Am I right?”

Diablo gazed back with a fierce notion brimming up within him, tittering on the edge of explosion as he slowly came to his feet.

“I can beat you easily in this form. You are too slow, even if your attacks are powerful. They aren’t any good if they don’t land anywhere near me.” Laughed Anzu as his confidence heightened.

Anzu watched on as Diablo stepped around him for seemingly no reason. “What’s this? Stalling to get your breath back?” He joked once again before his face suddenly dropped into a complete and utter sense of unadulterated seriousness.

The air thinned as their eyes met across the grassy open field. Diablo continued to walk around Anzu who watched him like a guard dog protecting his master. His gaze showing no signs of flinching as the jokes stopped and a serious tone struck the air like lightning.

The ice-cold wind blew through the intense air as Diablo’s jacket fluttered behind him; his eyes like a demon’s, showing only pure detest as Diablo took step after step across the grassy plains as his heavy boots brushed against each grain of grass in his path.

And then, as the two hawk’s eyes met for the final time that day: A temporal dilation took place as everything happened within the second.

-TICK-

The clock on the all shifted to the next hour as we glanced down it. A dimly lit, menacingly long hallway. Its flickering candle lights saw perched upon its walls as it seemingly cut us off from the entrance to the house.

Moving past it, just before the hallway on the second floor was a wooden bench that was sat in between two cube sized desks. One of which being smashed thanks to the fight that had just taken place.

“Okay Zane, you sit here. This way you can’t be picked off from the middle hallway below.” Said Jace.

“Anthony, can you stay here and heal him as best as you can?” Asked Jace as he helped Zane sit down on the chair.

Anthony rolled his eyes before letting out a sigh and sitting down next to Zane preparing to start doing his best to heal him.

Liam stood quietly behind us, seemingly pretty shook after seeing Zepar be obliterated and sliced in half. He had been quieter than normal since that happened and his face said he was anything but alright.

“How are you feeling, Liam?” I asked crouching down a little bit to reach his height. He didn’t even speak he simply nodded. I shot a concerned glance to Jace who was taking charge since Zepar was clearly not the leading type; I peeked over at him to see him staring at a painting on the wall instead of being bothered with coming up with a plan at all.

Jace walked over after I looked at him and leaned down to Liam to speak to him.

“Liam, everything is going to be okay. Right now, we need you to help us. How accurate do you think you can get with finding people.” Asked Jace.

Liam seemed hesitant still, looking off away from Jace trying to negate eye contact. However, after a few seconds of silence he spoke up.

“I- I don’t want to be a burden to Diablo…” He muttered as he turned and pointed down the hallway.

“So, it is down that way? Thanks Liam, you’re not a burden at all, trust me.” Said Jace smiling at Liam who seemed to cheer up a bit after talking to Jace.

“Alright, Liam you stay here with Zane and Anthony. Make sure to tell Anthony if anyone is coming okay?” Said Jace patting Liam’s shoulder as he stood back up.

Jace turned and looked at me. “Me, you and Zepar will check out the rest of this house. It will be a 3 versus 3. That is if Mr Picasso over there actually fights this time.” He said as he motioned his head to Zepar who was still standing looking at a painting but now with his hand on his chin, nodding while looking at it as if he knows what the fuck he is looking at.

“Zepar, are you ready?” Asked Jace.

-Hm?-

“Oh, uh yeah.” Said Zepar turning around and making his way to us.

“Okay.” Said Jace as we begun making our way down the dim hallway. Mine and Jace’s eyes glued on the room at the end of the hallway. The room at the end was dark, with no light seeping through at all. There was no door at the end but what looked like another open room like the front foyer.

Finally, we made it to the end of the hallway and glanced around, I was right. Another large open area like the front of the mansion but this was a lot smaller in comparison and lacked the stairs leading to the lower level, it was only a balcony that hung over the lower level with a large window that of course was also fogged out and so it let in little light which is why the room appeared darker than it was.

We walked around a little bit, Jace went to check the door on the right but it was locked. I tried the door on the left and it was unlocked so I opened it and entered a large library. It must take up the entire side of this floor.

“This might be a useful place to get some information.” Said Jace, walking over to a desk that sat close to the entrance. Jace begun looking through the papers that lay on the desk to try find some clues while I surveyed our surroundings to make sure we weren’t being watched.

I glanced over at Zepar who had sat himself down in a chair and begun staring off into space, as to wait for Jace to finish looking for information. Glancing back at Jace I noticed he was gone.

“W- wait. Zepar, did you see Jace go anywhere?!” I said running over to the desk he was standing at and glancing over it.

“No, I wasn’t watching.” Said Zepar still sitting in the chair, not bothering to help look. “Where would he have gone, the exit is right here. He is probably looking to take out a book or something.”

I shot him another one of those ‘are you serious’ looks before turning and glancing around frantically, calling out Jace’s name, but to no avail. Jace had vanished completely.

“Zepar! Are you really going to just sit there? What is wrong with you. You are way too relaxed right now!” I screamed as Zepar finally stood up out the chair.

-Sigh-

“I don’t know what you want me to do…” Muttered Zepar.

“HELP?!!? IS ASKING HELP MUCH IN THIS SITUATION?” I roared at the top of my lungs.

Zepar began walking over to a case of books.

“What now?” I asked as he put his pointer finger on the books then started to pan it across, sliding it along the leathery covers of the books before finally stopping on one and picking it up out of the bookcase.

My brown twitched as I felt blood pulse through my veins and around my fist as I clenched it harder than I ever had. “ZEPAR!? I can’t believe you right now. How is a book going to help us right now! You are useless unless someone is beating you up!” I shouted in recoil to Zepar’s actions.

“Heh, how to cure boredom. What I stupid book, what is this?” Said Zepar as I turned around, not being able to even look at him without getting angrier. As I turned away, I heard the sound of the book being shut then thrown onto the ground. A long thud echoed throughout the large library.

“Unbelievable you act like a child; you don’t like a book, so you just throw it onto the grou-“ I stopped mid-sentence as I turned around to see the book lying on the ground alone. Zepar nowhere to be seen.

“Z- Zepar. H- hey where are you?” My mind begun racing as my pulse quickened but no longer because I was angry…

My breath shortened as I ran around searching for my two comrades however, neither were anywhere to be seen.

“I have to go get Liam; he will be able to tell where they are.” I muttered to myself as I hobbled over to the door and reached out my hand to open it…

It was locked.

I was trapped…

On my own…

I turned frantically and pushed myself against the door, my breathing pulsated as I was surrounded by the unknowing. My eyes darted around like frightened insects as I tried to justify what was going on.

I felt my whole-body tense up in a mass panic attack as I fell to the ground and wrapped my arms around my head and curled up into a ball and screamed at the top of my lungs.

- I wanted out… -

Tears streamed down my face.

- I screamed… -

I held my hands on my head tightly as my whole body tensed up.

- I shivered -

My mind felt like running water, it wouldn’t… STOP

That someone – would help…

Is this… Insanity ? ? ?

* * *

“Shay?”

* * *

I froze, all my worries faded, and my body calmed as I felt compelled to listen to this voice.

It echoed through me, almost as if I were in a dream. I felt like I heard this voice somewhere.

* * *

“You’re weak, Shay.”

* * *

Those words ploughed through me as I felt my soul drifting out of my body and warping into something else. I stared straight into the wooden floor, then the smudges on the floor, then the specs of dirt in the smudges, then the germs and bacteria within that. My mind wandering through an endless array of realities as everything came back to me.

“I- I’m dead…”

“I- I died…”

I began touching my own body, my face, my arms, my legs, my torso. I felt uncertain of myself. I recalled my endless torment within that hell, images of my own mutilated organs slapping onto the cold misty ground below me as the blizzard like air hellishly stung my wounds and I tried to scream in pain, but I couldn’t.

I couldn’t…

I couldn’t…

And then… I remembered… ‘Her’.

She spoke to me. She said she would speak to me again. She comforted me.

I calmed down.

- “I remember.” -

I said standing up with a new sense of determination in me. My resolve burning bright. I recalled my steps, what happened before everyone disappeared, what had I not done that they had.

Jace went straight to searching for information then disappeared. Zepar stood up to search for Jace then disappeared. Is it if you search for something you are transported somewhere?

No that can’t be right, I was also searching for Jace. This is a library, they had both read something before disappearing. Have I read anything?

I paused and retraced my steps in my head, thinking if I had read something and which I hadn’t.

Okay, so things to avoid, reading. What else. If I’m wrong and that’s not it then I’m in trouble. Was there anything else? Anything, anything?

I continued to ponder as I begun to walk around the library, which was beginning to feel endless, being sure not to read anything along with touching any of the papers or books and various other ideas I came up with.

This is most likely an ability and so if I defeat the user the effects will wear off.

And, if that isn’t the case. Then I’ll torture them until they negate the ability.

I continued to walk around, searching for someone in this labyrinth of a library. I couldn’t help but keep thinking back to my repeated loop of agony while alone with my own thoughts. Was that real? Why did I completely forget about it…?

I feel dead…

But I’m alive…

Cruel…

This world is cruel.

* * *

I feel empty, a complete shell. But why? To be filled with so much hope after seeing my grandfather again then to have it ripped away and shoved into an endless cycle of death only to be swept up out of nowhere by someone and comforted, clamed then allowed back to live again.

Did I dream it or was it real? Was it an illusion? These questions I can’t get out of my head, it feels like my heads spinning but I’m not dizzy. It’s an infinite loop, the running water that runs infinitely from a tap. That is my mind right now.

Water that no longer flows or runs out of this tap, but blasts out, an unrelenting force. Never ending tenseness.

To stop this despair, I just need to grasp the handle and turn it off.

. . .

. . .

. . .

So WhY iS tHaT sO hArD?!?

I felt tears once again swell up in my eyes as I swallowed my own thoughts and emotions. Drowning in the infinitely blasting water as it torrented down into me and it grew ever so harder to breath as every second ticked by…

. . .

I dropped to my knees and yelled straight from my wrenching gut in mental agony for what felt like hours.

I couldn’t do it; I couldn’t turn the handle. I couldn’t grasp it. I was trying but the water continued to bomb down, endlessly exploding out of the tap and its pressure became stronger and stronger. My hand becoming weaker and weaker as I tried but to no avail.

I tried to clench my fists in anger, but I just couldn’t. My body deactivated slowly, shutting down in the most painfully hopeless way, as I tried to fight the ever-seeping presence of death; but failed to turn to fight in my feeble mess.

Quickly, I felt myself sinking. I felt a heavy presence loom over me as my muscles ached in a worthlessly pathetic manner as I watched as my opportunity to grasp the handle and turn off the water evade me. And it was in that moment that I began feel myself drowning; cold and alone.

Growing stiffer and stiffer as the freezing temperature surrounded me, and I felt the last of my air escape my lungs.

My voice reclining deep into me as I felt a lump in the back of my throat emerge as the most primal of tears reaped from my eyes and I fell into the dark empty abyss surrounding me.

And finally, I let myself drift.

All alone, in a cold empty abyss of sorrow, the empty void collapsed around into me. My internal fears capsizing as I drifted through the heart wrenching, blood churning painful nightmare scape that indefinitely surrounded me.

For hour’s and hour’s and hour’s and hour’s and hour’s… Until…

Until…?

* Slowly…

I felt it.

* Gently…

I felt it.

Her arms wrapping around my shoulders, her warmth surrounding me as I felt her presence linger behind; out of my vision.

…

My eyes widened and my body shook as my lava-like blood began to run through me again.

“You...”

“You…”

I muttered uncontrollably as I felt the sweet release of death tinker away through my fingertips.

. . .

“You really…”

“Came…”