A figure, bent over with cackling glee, licks his lips as he removes the last piece of bone carefully.

Renold shudders momentarily as he looks at his work, both in fear that he may have overdone it and in ecstatic pleasure.

The figure, dissected to only a mass of veins, arteries and capillaries strewn in a human shape, lies limp on the floor.

Though Renold’s worries are dispersed when he hears a small thump; which he takes to be the beating of a heart but is actually the man’s still heart slipping off the lungs and onto the floor.

However he had thought wrong and didn’t realize that actually the man was dead, unbeknownst to him.

With new fervor, he skirts around the body checking for flaws, for undisected pieces. But he finds none and with a tinge of sadness leaves his impeccable work alone.

He doesn’t understand how it is possible for he has never seen such a phenomena before.

He does not understand why the man hasn’t died, why he hasn’t given into to the lull that baited the rest of his subjects as he slowly dissected through their muscles and bone.

Shaking the thoughts out of his mind as they are not going to be answered by a pile of veins, heart, brain and a partial respiratory system, he stops skirting around the man.

Grabbing the many jars of eyes, tongues, lips, ears, fingers, toes and other small body pieces along with a crateful of bones and muscles, he takes them over to the piles of crates he has and begins sorting them out.

Finishing the job within a dozen minutes, he has one last look at the piles of crates that contain many dozens of each body part the man had. He has muscles by the hundreds, from triceps to thighs. Bones, piled high all sorted into respective crates due to the number of them. Jars, overflowing with eyeballs, tongues and other small body parts come by the dozens.

The crates are only stacked three high, however they stretch from one corner of the room to another, eight rows deep.

Grinning from ear to ear, he wastes his time counting each one, ending with four hundred and eighty six crates.

Though, by the time he finishes counting them, his grin turned sour because he knows that he cannot take any of this with him due to the way the portal works.

Sighing deeply, he finally turns back around to see the man has regrown once more.

Renold is amazed, thrilled by this man: His organs and tissue show signs of nothing but an ordinary human; however no ordinary human can live when reduced to a pile of veins, heart, lungs and brain. And no ordinary human can regrow their entire body in a ridiculously short span of twenty two minutes and six seconds.

Though if he had looked back beforehand, he would’ve seen the man revive and lie there taking much needed rest.

He had skinned the man, slowly dissecting him to this point over and over and over again for the past month.

Since it only took him about three hours to do so and the man regrew in twenty two he had much time to practice and to play.

Getting to that stage with his subject still living, stirred the loins of Renold in such a way that he’d almost forgotten the feelings that lustily crawl through his skin as he watches them writhe in his hands.

It had been a long time since Renold had gotten to play and never had he found such a rare, unique even, treat.

It had been such a long time since his hands carved through flesh digging into the raw juicy underneath with savage yet controlled pleasure.

The man is already conscious, and his eyes look fearfully towards Renold. Fearful yes, but never has the man taken action upon that fear, not once. That always makes Renold wander what is going through that man’s brain; why the man does not complain or try to run away but faces this hell with a determined look in his eyes.

However, it is always just a passing thought for him as he prefers to concentrate on the memories of eliciting the most bloodcurdling screams from his subjects.

With a desiring sigh, he puts away the memory of the man, bloody tears pouring out his eye sockets while screams splurge out his mouth as Renold pricked the soft fleshy tissue of the man’s soles and walks up to the man.

“Come, it’s time we go” He says to the man, offering a hand, grinning maliciously as the man rolls away to his feet, sweat already drenching his naked body.

Removing his own clothes, he motions towards the portal and watches the man unhesitatingly dive towards the portal, still naïve to its actual purpose.

Renold gulps as he watches the man slowly meld with the portal. To Renold, this is a gamble which could make him join the ranks of the Apocalypse.

That man is a gold mine to Renold; due to his never ending source of body parts and astounding regenerative powers, Everyone will want to have control for both income and pleasure.

Swallowing his nervousness one last time, he follows the possible human through the portal, giving prayers to Aegi to keep him alive, if only barely.

Walking into the portal, it begins to meld with him.

…

Gravekeeper Aelus hears the moan of another one waking up and stands up, grabbing his shovel.

Shuffling over to the grave, he spots a hand, raw from the clawing of dirt yet still fresh looking, sport out of the ground.

Leaning on his shovel, he watches a man claw his way out, spitting dirt out of his mouth.

The man wore a white shirt and brown trousers but what caught Aelus’ eye was the fact that this zombie was looking extremely fresh, in prime condition even.

Though he shrugs it off as the man being a newborn, which is not common to see rising from the graveyard but still plausible.

“Good awakening brother” one of his rotting teeth fall out onto the dirt

The man looks around curiously ignoring Aelus for a small while and he waits patiently.

Finally, the man seems to register Aelus

“Forgive me, but where am I?” His voice is gentle, almost calming

Aelus can’t help but chuckle as he thinks of the possibility of the man’s insides being rotted away while his outside is fine.

“We are in Hellderworld, and you’ve woken up a couple of hours before the harvest, brother”

“Harvest?” The man cocks his head and Aelus is assured the man’s brain has rotted considerably.

“I will tell you over food, because you should be hungry no?” Aelus offers a small bowl of dead maggots, almost looking like brown rice to the unobservant or uncaring eye.

The man takes the bowl and gulps down the maggots with the fervor of one who hasn’t eaten for very long.

“more”

Chuckling at the man’s ravenous demeanor, he produces a few more bowls, watching the man ravish each bowl clean before throwing it all back up due to shoving too much down there at once.

The grin that was plastered on his face wipes off as the man vomits up the maggots because zombies do not vomit due to lack of gag reflex.

Though Aelus does not immediately act as Hellderworld is filled with strange demons aplenty. He just observes the strange being with his deteriorating eyes.

“Say, what are you?” The curiousity gets the better of him

“A priest” The man wipes off some lingering vomit from his mouth and grins

Aelus grins back, not full of malicious intent, like one would suppose would happen, but a grin due to the fact that he took the response as a joke.

“Very well, if you don’t want to say I’m not one to push” Aelus stops leaning on his shovel and walks back to his cabin

“Um, could you tell me what this Harvest is?” the man calls after him, causing him to remember what he had promised.

“The harvest is the day when all residents must pay the world with part of our soul”

“Part of our soul?”

Aelus turns around, slightly in worry for the man

“Have you killed many things in your past?” he asks curiously

“No, not a single thing”

“Have you ever used a linker before?” He begins shuffling towards the man with more than a tinge of worry in his voice

“Linker?”

“Did you drink the blood?” Aelus grabs the man by the shoulders and shakes him slightly

“I’ve thrown up blood not drunk it”

Aelus backs away from the man and shakes his head, wondering how many parts the man has if he has not done any of the three ways to gain them.

“Go see the Soul Watcher, she will help you” Aelus points towards the east, where the soul watcher lives.

The man bows gratefully and starts walking off in the general direction.

Aelus just shakes his head at the man who is most likely going to turn into a soulless in a few hours.

He wonders whether he should have just used his shovel to spare him becoming one, but he is neither merciful nor kind.

Perishing the thought, he shuffles away to continue his duties

…

Renold walks briskly through the street, his bony feet clattering on the cobblestone floor.

Cursing violently, he ignores the masses of people which flit about their own business, for he is focused on solely one thing; the man.

There was no sign of his death at the portal exit, so he could assume the man was alive.

But somehow the man had escaped within seconds of being out his sight.

Of course finding him won’t be hard due to him still looking like a human, but if any learn of the man’s abilities they will take him for themselves.

However his worries are for naught as some strange fate causes him to turn down a street and hear something going down in an alleyway.

Walking closer, he hears the angered voice more clearly

“THYOU THUNY LITTLE STHCUM! THOW THARE YOU WASTHTE MY TIME THY THALKING AROUND THOWN LIKE YOU THUCKING OWN IT” A large, spittling, troll with a heavy lisp looks down at the human looking man in furious anger

“I was jus-” he beings gently

“STHTOP WATSHTING MY THIME WITH EXHCUTSHETSH YOU LITTLE STHHIT! I STHEE YOU IN THIS THUMAN THORM WALTZHING AROUND, I SHEE YOU. THWHAT ARE YOU DOING? THWHAT THHE THUCK ARE YOU THLAYING AT? BECAUSTHE THWHEN I LOOK AT THYOU I KNOW YOU’RE UP TO STHOMETHHING. SO THUCKING THELL ME AND STHTOP WASHTING MY THIME” He roars at the man, cutting him off with masses of spittle launched from its slimy, thick tongue.

“I came to find a friend” The man quickly interjects as the troll takes a much needed breath

“BULLSTHIT! YOU’RE THUCKING WASTHING MY THIME!”

The troll swings a meaty fist at the man, connecting with the chest and sending him crashing into the alley wall with multiple audible cracks.

It does not stop there as it lets the man drop to the floor before stomping on the man a few times cracking and snapping sounds of breaking bones accompanying each stomp.

Finally satisfied, he turns and walks out the alley screaming “THUCK YOU, I’M OUTH OF HERE!” towards the man as he leaves.

Renold waits outside the alley way, letting the quite insane troll leave and walk into the distance.

Once satisfied the troll is gone, he slips into the alleyway and sees the literally smashed body of the man on the floor.

Feeling a wave of anger direct towards the troll due to his prized income being beaten so badly, he quickly runs out into the street, but alas the troll has disappeared.

Gritting his teeth till the anger abates, he then moves back into the alley and carries the man over his bony shoulder.

Setting off to his original destination, he notices quite a few stares head towards his way, though most turn

uninterested as human looking monsters are not common but they are still a thing.

However, he notices the eyes of a small brunette human-looking girl with large chocolate brown eyes observe them and follow them somewhat until he dodges into an alleyway and through a few of his better known routes.

Still somewhat thoughtful on the strange girl, he finally arrives at his destination and walks inside, dropping the man unceremoniously on the desk.

The clerk, an ash, grey skinned woman with spiky grey hair and wearing a black corset, looks quite shocked by the sudden action and skitterd back a step in surprise.

“H-How may I help you sir?” She quickly composes herself with the air of a professional

“I have a gift for the Mistress”

The clerk grins deviously and Renold tries to replicate the grin with his jaw and teeth as best as possible. They both know only two kinds of people call a certain woman here by that name: those who were taught and those who were trained.

She quickly looks over the ‘gift’, twirling him around with two legs while two more hold him up.

After the inspection, she nods towards Renold and skitters out the back, giving him a good view of her large black spider lower body.

A few minutes later, the clerk comes back with a pale skinned woman with sleek black hair, a prominent collarbone, a small nose, plump red lips and two intelligent and cunning crimson eyes.

She wears a black corset, lowering intensely at the large bust and peaking off in the shape of a bat’s wing at either side. Her hands are bound in tight black leather gloves while her lower body is covered by tight black leather trousers. To finish off the outfit, she seems to have a black choker ringed around her neck.

“Ah Renold, my dear” He accent, thickly Transylvanian, permeates the air with a lustful hint of sensuality.

She walks up to the skeleton of a man and gives him a kiss on his neck cartilage with a small “hgaaa” sound while she hugs him.

“Mistress, it has been too long” He remains still, letting Mistress finish her long hug

“Yes my dear, but I see you’ve brought me a gift” She becomes almost uninterested in him as she lets go and walks up to the man, who is lying still on the counter.

She looks him up at down, raising an arm and letting it drop before she turns back to Renold.

“Dear, it’s broken” She pouts, sticking out her lower lip slightly.

“Ah, you see, this is the fun thing about this toy” Renold, mentally finishes the countdown and points back towards the man.

She turns back round, a thin eyebrow raised. She soon gasps in wonder as the man starts to move, sit up and look fearfully at everyone around him.

“Twenty vials” She directs to Renold while she stares intensely at the man, a soft tongue sliding over the edges of her mouth hungrily

“Twenty five” Renold answers back

“Deal” She grins lustily at the man, revealing a pair of pointed teeth

“W-Where am I?” He manages to let out after he finishes gawking at the spider body of the clerk and the beauty of Mistress.

“You are at the House of Sin, dear” Mistress licks her lips sensually, distracting the man from the clerks stinger.

Unconscious, the man does not feel being wrapped around in spiderwebs and then being taken out of the room.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author's Corner:

Heyyyy guys! Hope you enjoyed this bit of mc which you all seem to be craving for :')

Anyways, How did you find it? And hope that you'll keep on reading :D

-TRUE NORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRD