"So...anyone have an idea where that explosion came from?" Ted asked.

The normal human led the small expedition. Narissa, Death, Sid, and Azrail had gone with him. Og'drimun thought it sounded like too much work, the hollow king has already refused, and Abraham wasn't given much of a choice.

"I have an approximation of about one mile where I am certain it originated." Sid answered.

"A mile is a pretty big area to search while that girl is missing." Azrail pointed out. "Any way you can narrow that down some? Or is this more of a body recovery than a rescue mission?"

Narissa smirked, "Well, we could always lay out a trap. After all, our skeletal friend certainly would be a tempting treat."

Wait, me? Death replied. I know I agreed to come along, but not to be bait for some psychopath!

"I wouldn't call that strange creature a psychopath," Azrail mused. "Definitely trouble, but he seemed very aware, and stable. He even deferred fights at times."

Huh? We weren't talking about him. Death explained.

"Huh? Then, the trap would be for?" Azrail asked as he tilted his head at Death.

"Our psychotic little clown of course," Narissa told the frail man in a long frock. "She just can't resist piercing a knife straight in-between his awaiting bones."

Death shuddered. Uh, don't remind me.

Azrail grew quiet and simply nodded at this new information.

"It's not her we're worried about, it's you know who out here. If he caused that explosion, then we could be in real trouble. Pockets could be in real trouble." Ted said in a firm voice. "So why don't we just head towards that area it came from, and go from there?"

"A fair suggestion." Sid agreed. "The closer we get, the more likely we are to obtain necessary data to pinpoint the actual center of the..."

Sid froze in place as he stepped past an empty building. Past this were strange hills, as if someone had reached down and shoved their finger into the rock they were floating on. And, like a piece of clay, the sides around where the finger pushed in spread up towards the sky.

"I'm going to hazard a guess," Azrail offered as he joined Sid's side. "That that area is where you heard the explosion come from."

The strange creature reached a hand down towards the dirt. As they raised their hand up, a flower sprung to life and bloomed as they pulled their hand away. Around the flower grass and other life sprouted and bloomed as well.

They tilted their mask down towards the flower with a blank expression. And without a single emotion, then lowered their hand again, and crushed the flower. Black, corrupted ground spread out from where their hand touched the ground, and all the life they had created was quickly swallowed up and replaced with necrotic death.

"Uh, hey there!"

The strange figure tilted their body towards the noise as they raised their mask up to look in the direction of it. Ted was walking carefully down a large slope towards them, and beside him the others were also slowly approaching.

The figure was silent even as Ted walked right up to them.

Ted took in the strange thing that watched him. It was almost hard to pin down. They were completely headless, but otherwise seemed human, or something close. They had on an oddly ornate robe with jewels and gold covering it. The clothes even extended out and covered their hands, all kin seemingly a solid piece of cloth while it trailed along the ground, obscuring their feet from view.

Ted stuck out his hand fir a handshake. "It's nice to meet you," he said. "My name's Ted. This is Narissa. That's Death. This guy here is Sid. And last but not least, there's Azrail over there."

The figure only watched Ted. It made no move to shake his hand, or to signal that it was going to answer him.

Ted pulled his hand back and nervously rubbed the back of his head. "Haha," he chuckled. "So uh...what do they call you?"

An eyebrow formed on the mask and raised up at Ted's question.

There are many names I have been called.

The old serpant, the liar, son of the dawn.

Why, some say I was named before humanity crawled,

But you may call me Lucius when you mourn.

"Oh, uh...that's an interesting...accent you have there." Ted tried to laugh, but the strange chorus of voices was definitely unnerving him a bit.

"Sorry to interrupt this fantastic meeting Lucius was it?" Azrail walked forward and started to talk as his eyes jumped from one gem to the next on Lucius's clothes. "I was wondering, how exactly did you come to be here."

Ooh, ooh, Death chimed in. If we're asking questions, did you lose your head? If you dropped it somewhere, we could probably help you look for it.

The strange creature's mask contorted into a frown, but the entire face grew ridges and grooves, as if it was an old man's.

Your quest for answers I can offer some help.

My head I have never needed.

For how could I miss what I have never felt?

As for my coming here, it seems I was weeded.

I was cast out of my lands for reasons unknown.

Especially since I survived there alone.

Some children burst in and claimed my acts were a crime.

And banished me from my home without so much as a dime.

"You claim these children had unknown reasons for doing this, yet you also say they explained their reasons to you." Sid clarified.

The mask morphed again to one much calmer and smoother, as a cacophony of whispers flowed out of the mouth as loud as if they were talking normally.

They claimed me a criminal without any proof,

So why give it any more weight than a dog going woof?

"I mean, couldn't you have done something by accident? Maybe it was just a misunderstanding?" Ted suggested.

The face frowned and the creatures body began to twist and contort the same way the face did. Slowly it grew larger and larger until it towered over the new hills created no doubt by its arrival. It slowly lowered the now giant mask towards Ted, and the voices came outnot as whispers, but more like pained screams as it said,

I can do no wrong, for I do not know what it is.

Don't make me wait long, and tell me, is my ignorance bliss?