I stared up at her body in disbelief.

What had just happened? Why did this happen? Why did she die? These questions began streaming into my head.

The spikes formed back into liquid blood, I saw her body fall down. There was no life remaining within her.

I just sat there, on my knees, surrounded by blood.

The lifeless bodies of Mark, Hiba, and Larkan laid where they had been before time stopped moving.

Rey wasn't grabbed by that hand, she must have already been dead, I figured.

And then, suddenly, my body began moving on its own. I had no control. The blood around me began moving and started circling around me, like snakes.

As my head moved around I saw what happened during the time I was unconscious. It was a field of corpses. Those who survived were fighting each other.

But all I could think about was what I just did. My body doing something entirely out of my control. I watched as I, or rather whatever was controlling me butchered everyone, regardless of whether or not they were ally or foe. The blood pierced them and they dropped to the ground. But this time there was no feeling of freedom. I only felt empty. As if a part of me had been ripped out by this power surging throughout my body.

"Why? Why? Why? Why?" I asked over and over.

"Because great power has a great price," the voice responded.

Still sounding as out of this world as before. I watched on as many kneeled, begging for mercy only to be denied. No one was saved before whatever this was.

"Run! Run!" I began screaming, with tears in my eyes.

But no one could escape. I noticed the archer unit standing on a hill in the distance, just observing. The commander was with them. I didn't know why they had run. But I figured that that must be the reason everything ended up like this. Because they ran I had to accept this power, I told myself.

"Was that the reason?" the voice asked.

"I don't know," I answered.

I kept watching as my body butchered people all around me. Sometimes I overheard some people say something before they died.

"He's the reaper!"

"The Reaper? Heh." It made me laugh. What a ridiculous nickname.

I wasn't even the one doing all this. By the time my body had nearly finished, I didn't even care anymore. I didn't know if anyone had gotten away. The commander and the archer unit had long since left. All my body was doing was killing some stragglers.

Five ships were now at the stony shore. All abandoned. Some of them were slightly charred due to the enemy commander's fire. At that point, I just began laughing. I laughed as if I were a maniac. I laughed as I stood atop a mountain of corpses.

"Erebus! That's enough!" a strangely familiar voice yelled.

My body turned on its own.

"Oh, Vindictus. The greatest of all our champions," the strange voice said through my body.

"Leave the boy alone," Vindictus said. "Hasn't he suffered enough?"

My body jumped down from the mountain of corpses. Vindictus was about twice as tall as I was. His massive wings nearly disappearing in the darkness.

"You might be right," the voice said.

I felt a strange feeling. As if someone was pulling my head. It ended as soon as it had come. I felt the power within me dwindle and the blood circling around me fell to the ground, creating a massive puddle.

"You have made a grave mistake boy," Vindictus said as he put one hand on my head.

"Have I?" I asked. Still laughing. "Why? What did I do to deserve this?"

I broke down and sank to the ground. The smell of blood and death filled my nostrils and clouded my head. I felt the warm feeling of tears running down my face.

"I know what it's like to lose everything," Vindictus said. "I have lost many things to the twelve in the past as well . . ."

He embraced me. His massive wings covering my entire body and providing me with warmth. I didn't even know what to do.

"What . . . What should I do now? What can I do now?" I asked.

"Keep on living . . . or kill yourself," Vindictus said. "If you want me to I could do it for you . . . it would be over in no time at all."

I shook my head. "I don't want to die . . . I don't want to live either . . . I just don't know."

I began screaming and kicking and grabbing my head, pressing it as if I were trying to press the juice out of a fruit.

I just couldn't find an answer for why this had to happen. Was it just to please the whims of a god? Was it because I was a bad person? I just didn't know.

"Calm down boy, this will get you nowhere," Vindictus said. He pulled me up.

I could barely stand.

"If you want to keep on living then burry your friends. Give them the respect they deserve for what you did to them," he said.

I moved, this time at my own will but it still felt as if someone else was using my body. I grabbed the bodies of my friends one by one and carried them to a small hollowed-out area on the side of the mountain. I laid them down next to each other. As I carried Ivara's punctured body the necklaces around our necks faintly glowed. This was the only light in my life right now. I picked up a nearby shield and began digging. I dug until I made holes deep enough for each of them. After I had carefully put each of their bodies into the holes I had dug and covered them up I looked around for large stones. I put a large stone over each of them, the biggest over Ivara, and carved their names into them with a blade I found lying around. I made sure that the necklace around my neck would glow whenever I would get close to Ivara's grave.

I did all this, crying the entire time.

"What will you do now?" Vindictus asked me.

"I don't know . . . become stronger maybe . . ." I answered.

"Become stronger? What good would that do?" he asked.

"This all just happened because I was too weak . . . I will become stronger, no matter what," I said, be it rather undetermined.

"That won't do any good, boy," Vindictus said calmly.

"Stop calling me boy," I said.

"My name is Zane . . . Zane Larcadia!"

"So I was right, you're one of his descendants . . . but still. Becoming more powerful won't solve your problem."

"I don't care . . . there's nothing else I can do," I said as I walked over to where the commanders corpse laid. I took a nearby sword and cut off her head.

"What are you doing now?" Vindictus asked.

"The commander said he would pay one hundred gold coins for her head," I said, with a wide grin on my face.

And so I made my way back to the path that led to the city of Hirmal. Leaving the mountain of corpses, my dead friends, and Vindictus behind me.

As I walked the head I carried left a trail of blood behind. It was already day by the time I reached the gates of the city it was already day. As I approached the guards were looking at me as if they had seen death itself.

"W-Who are you?" one of them asked.

I looked him in the eyes and lifted up the head I had cut off.

"Here to collect my reward," I said.

The guard gulped and signalled the others to open the gate. I couldn't be angry at him, after all, I was completely covered in blood and I smelled like dead people. People were staring at me as I walked along the main street. I heard a few of them whisper.

"That must be that reaper they were talking about," a few people said.

The Reaper, maybe I'll make it my title, I thought as I walked.

I quickly reached the plaza which was filled with the surviving soldiers. Some stared at me with bright eyes. Those must have been the ones that saw me, or rather my body go on a rampage, I concluded.

I entered the building and turned to the woman that sat at the desk. She looked at me with fearful eyes.

"Can . . . can I h-help you?" she asked.

I threw the head on her desk. "Reward," I demanded.

"Ah, this must be the enemy commander . . . yes of course . . . the reward."

She reached down and pulled out a pouch filled with gold.

"This is the reward. One hundred gold coins. As promised," she said with a forced smile.

"Payment," I said.

"Ah right . . . could you tell me your name?" she asked.

"Zane," I answered.

She looked through her documents and got another, much smaller pouch after she found my name on one of them.

"What about the others?" she asked.

I stared into her eyes, not understanding how she wouldn't have been able to tell by now. She immediately looked down in embarrassment.

"I'm sorry . . ." she said as I was already leaving the building.

I followed the street up to the inn. As I entered all heads turned to me but I ignored them. I went upstairs and rummaged through Hiba's and Mark's room until I found the one thousand gold pieces. Then I went to mine and Ivara's room picked up my cloak that we had left behind, put it on, and left the inn. I walked back down the street and past the soldiers resting in the plaza.

One of them approached me.

"Hoi, Reaper. Why did you do it? Why did you kill your own allies?" he asked, with tears in his eyes.

"That wasn't me . . . that was something else . . . he called it Erebus, yes Erebus . . . the Lord of the Deep . . . that one . . . yes, that one . . . he did it," I answered in a crazed tone.

The soldier looked at me in shock. He stumbled backwards.

I turned away and continued on my way back down the main street to the gate. I passed the merchants who all tried to avoid eye contact and many citizens who all stayed away from me.

I left the town and followed a wide path leading along the edge of a forest to one side and a wide-open field where they were growing wheat to the other side.

I looked over the golden field. I thought it was a beautiful sight. Tears began running down my face. The golden colour of the wheat reminded me of her hair and the blue sky of her eyes. I began breaking out in tears and sank to the ground. I held the crystal I had around my neck in both hands.

I felt as if a storm was brewing around me as Vindictus descendant from the sky and landed behind me.

"There you are Zane," he said.

I looked up.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"You just stormed off, with a head in your hand," he said.

"What about it?" I asked.

"First of all, you gotta wash that blood off, you reek."

"Why does it matter?"

But instead of answering Vindictus just picked me up and flew up into the sky. Instead of complaining I just accepted it, knowing that there is nothing I could do. He brought me over to a wide river.

"Here, wash yourself," he said as he put me down on the ground.

"Fine," I said.

I slowly took off my clothes, feeling slightly unconformable with Vindictus watching.

"Do you have to watch?" I asked.

"Nothing I haven't seen already," he said.

"Just turn around," I said.

"Fine," he responded.

I could hear a faint disappointment in his voice.

I took off the last pieces of my clothing and dipped into the river. The water was cold and began to become red from the blood. I noticed in my reflection that my hair was almost entirely red at this point. Once I finished washing myself I got out of the river and put my clothing back on. But I hesitated when I was about to put on the necklace.

Vindictus observed me as I looked at the necklace in my hands.

"What will you do with it?" he asked.

"Don't know . . . keep it . . . throw it in the river," I said.

"Are you sure you want to throw something so precious away?" he asked.

I thought about it for a few seconds. Trying to come up with an answer. If I were to throw it away no would I regret it later? Or would it just keep reminding me of her, of them? Was I sure about keeping it when I dug those graves? What should I do? I couldn't decide.

"Vin, would you hold on to it?" I asked.

As Vindictus heard how I called him he nearly fell off the boulder he was sitting on.

"What did you just call me?" he asked, a bit confused.

"Oh . . . sorry," I responded.

"No, it's fine . . . just that the last time someone called me that was a long time ago," he said.

"Anyways . . . why me?" he asked.

"I don't know . . . you just seem like someone I could trust," I said.

Vindictus looked up at the sky for a few moments.

"Fine."

He stood up and took the necklace which he then put in a pocket on his pants.

"We'll meet again, Zane," he said as he took off.

"I'm sure we will."