She stood in Lucifer’s room again, just like a few hours before, it was a disaster with blood and guts everywhere. However, this time Thanatos was alone. Of its own accord, her body moved forward until she was kneeling by the puddle that had been her Father. Tears unexpectedly burned her eyes. After so long of bottling up her emotions and hiding her weaknesses from the court, Thanatos couldn’t stop the sob that broke from her throat.

As her tears fell onto her Father’s body, Thanatos felt all of the emotions she had been hiding for years just began to swarm her. Sadness at her loss and angry at whoever took her father from her, Thanatos just let her tears fall faster and faster. She felt like she was drowning and just when she thought she couldn’t take any more, the scene shifted around.

It was several thousand years before. Thanatos was in a field in Isidor, the quicksands moving under her feet. In her hands was a scythe. Made of solid black material, the edge glistened with blood. Looking around, Thana took in the seven giants surrounding her. Feeling something against her back, Death stiffened and was about to turn around when she heard her friend’s voice.

“I wanted to go on vacation but nooooooo. You just had to drag me out into the middle of the 2nd Realm and force me to fight a bunch of giants. What a great birthday present!” Romena’s breathing was heavy but there was an unmistakable tone of excitement underneath the sarcasm.

“Now now Romena,” Thanatos said, wiping sweat from her brow, “I know how much you love to get your fangs bloody. This is a great gift. Not that it’s your birthday, mind you.”

“It could be my birthday!” Romena responded with a huff, shifting her feet so the blow she took on her daggers wouldn’t knock her over.

“The last time-” Thanatos stopped as she jumped into the air and slashed at one of the giants, a flash of black light marked her changing into her True Form. A long black cloak that seemed to be made of mist replaced her fighting leathers and her scythe seemed to grow even sharper and darker in its colour. The air became heavy as Death brought her scythe down across the giant’s face. “You celebrated your birthday,” she continued as she landed back on the ground, “Was what, when you reached 2100 years and you killed that dude for calling you old. After that we all just stopped paying attention to age.”

Shifting into her form of a red wolf the size of a small dragon, War jumped onto the shoulder of the smallest giant, ripped out it’s throat and jumped quickly to another giant where she took off an ear. Romena jumped down just in time for a giant missing a throat to topple and take two down with it. “Are you,” she began as she shifted back into her usual form with the addition of a bloody jaw, “Saying that I’m old Thana?” Thanatos was saved from answering as the last of the giants roared with outrage and attacked them. Right before she brought her scythe down for a killing shot, the scene changed again.

Now, Thana was standing outside of Hell’s Castle. It was formed of black marble that had veins of white running through it. Red pillars formed the entrance hall and held up the rest of the keep. Now a young child that had been alive a mere few hundred years, the equivalent of five human years, Thanatos felt a jolt of fear at looking at the castle that was shaped in the likeness of a skull. With the jaw gaping open in a soundless scream as the entrance and large windows made of tinted glass forming the eyes, it was a frightful sight for anyone to bare.

“Come now princess.” A man, tall with dark skin and hair, called to her. Catching up quickly, the princess of Hell grabbed the man’s hand and looked up to meet his eyes. Black soulless eyes that glittered with what a young child could take as love but was more likely just cold calculation and a hunger for something dark looked back at her. The girl knew who this was, it was her Father, the great King Lucifer.

Following Lucifer, Thanatos stayed quiet as he led her down different halls and stairwells until coming to what she was told were the dungeons. In a few centuries she would learn that this was just where people were kept for when high ranking members of court grew bored. Those who were truly convicted had a far worse fate.

The cell that they stepped into had enough room for a human to be chained upright to a wall, two smalls pits that were filled with water and fire, and a rack that was covered in a large arrangement of weapons and tools. The cell was dirty and musty. With no windows or vents there was no air flow which made it hard to breath. Looking around, Thanatos was glad that she had chosen to wear simple black pants and a shirt like her Father had suggested instead of the white dress she had wanted to wear.

Lucifer placed Thana in front of the form that was chained up and ordered her to study him. The human was maybe 18 years old, had a splatter of dark hair and was covered in dirt and mud. However, besides the unnaturally skinny form that was showed as he wasn’t wearing any clothes, nothing seemed to be wrong with him.

Then Lucifer told her what he wanted her to do.

She didn’t want to, at first. She had never hurt anyone before and she was sure that she’d vomit. But, Thanatos lived for her Father’s praise and didn’t want to disappoint him. Swallowing she approached the rack of tools. She listened and followed instructions as Lucifer guided her through what he wanted to be done. Her hands and face were soon covered in blood that was not her own. She did end up being sick after an hour of feeling the sticky substance on her skin. But Lucifer just nodded with a small frown and told her it would get easier with practice. And she soon found that it did. That first time was the hardest, and she never forgot the face of the man that she killed over the course of four hours.

However, Thanatos soon found that she enjoyed the praise she received from her Father for it, and she did it again and again. And the King always gave her encouragement and called her his Murderous Prodigy. During her 1600th year of existence, she was named the 1st general of Hell and earned the title of “Your Grace”. Her three siblings soon followed her.

The scene shifted once more to the day she was born. Even then she was aware of what was going on around her. She was aware of her mother, an especially beautiful reaper, slowly bleeding out on a bed not to far away as someone held her. The newborn looked up into black eyes that were bright with something she couldn’t name. She new, even then that this was the person she should always show loyalty to. And then he spoke a few simple words that made her small heart beat faster.

“Welcome, my child. Thanatos, you will cover the world in the blood of your enemies and you will be known as Death itself.”