Prologue: The end is the beginning.

Do you ever think what life would be, where you will go , after you die.

I pause the holographic image, she freezes mid stride..... I reach to touch her face.

Hair the colour of blood in the deepest twilight, eyes as striking as a mountain glacier and skin…. skin like the purest of snow in the light of dawn.

My love, my life , my alabaster goddess.

Her smile brings a tear to my eyes, and my sight falls to her belly. A bittersweet smile spreads to my face.

The day I took this she had told me the greatest of news, Me a father. But the war started and took them away " This world, this world and those god damned creatures have taken too much" I growl.

AsI turn off the holo processor my gaze lingers on her face as the image fades. Turning up the collar of my coat to ward away the chill that didn't only come from the mountain air. Picking up my sword,I strap it to my back, I pick up my cane turning to my destination.

A massive structure clearly in ruin and decay, its home in the middle of the largest mountain range on the oldest of continents.Ruins that are old,so old that….. Ruins that have become a home to bandits,betrayers and scum that wouldn't fight. Taking a deep breath I spit on the ground in distaste.

They won't stop me.

As I near the entryway I draw my sword and start to sprint, within meters two heads pop out from within the entrance as they see me they cry out a warning. I push myself forward and lash out with my blade cutting their throats. They fall to the floor clutching their throats as their life drains away.

Entering the ancient hallways I follow the maps in my head taking other routes as collapsed ceilings appear.Nearing the inner sanctum I hear the drum of boots echoing along the stone corridors, as I turn the corridor, doors to the sanctum there are five men arranging themselves in a semicircle behind a low barricade.

I raise my cane, one of the men dares to chuckle, I flick the release on the side and the lower 2/3 fire off crushing the larynx of the amused bandit, a blade giving off a chilling aura is left in its wake. I dash in vaulting off the barricade taking the head of two men, landing. I reverse my grips on the swords while pivoting and ram the blades through the hearts of the last of the men. The swords come loose as the men fall to the floor, I clean the blades and re-sheath them.

I proceed past the corpses and a colossal set of doors appear before me, the doors contain a mural too damaged and worn to really tell what it depicts,except for a clock of monstrous proportions spread between the doors.

" It may be as I hoped." My voice echoes along the bloodied corridor.

Through a crack brought about by time or defacement I enter.

The inner sanctum of the ruins is a cavern so vast that the sides can not be seen. The path from the door can fit three men abreast then drop off into an abyss, the path leads to a peninsula, at its center lies a dais and a way behind a wall with a statue twice the dimensions of a man. The cavern is in a gloomy light no source is visible, columns spread out into the darkness even into the abyss.

Pulling the blade from the cane I cut my hand letting the blood trail across the floor, a faint hum began to pick up." Hahahahaha this is the right place."

I lay my cane across the dias and take off my sword.Taking up the cane's blade I slit both my wrists and let the blood flow over the dias, with a hiss, much like an airlock, its top slits open revealing a hollow interior, resheathing my cane i place it inside. " Hopefully you may follow my old friend." I say to my trusted weapon.

I head towards the statue undressing my upper body. With my blood spilling along the ground the container closes, the hum that started when I first drew my blood is slowly rising.

A grinding sound can be heard as the statue splits in two revealing an iron maiden like interior.

This place The Reaper's Clock runs on blood and sacrifice of the willing. I enter the statue turning to face out, it begins to close.

I do not fear death.

I begin to remember you, the way you look.

The spikes begin to pierce me, I shut off the pain.

The way your skin feels.

Blood runs down my body.

The way.. your...lips...…..

….Tasssteeees.

Outside in the cavern bright blue lines of light begin to run from the maiden, a few at first then hundreds and thousands.

Lightning starts cascading between the columns inside the vast underground kingdom. An orb appears around the statue engulfing it, it expands covering the peninsula.

Then all the energy turns black then explodes into a flash,

And in the silence.

The Cloistering of bells as if a giant clock tower has rung can be heard.