Chapter 8: The Lady Bleeds Backwards
> "When a god comes to bind you, she arrives with scripture in her veins. When you bleed in front of her, your blood becomes her law. But what happens when the heretic is louder than the Word?"
— Fragment from The Gospel of Bone-Split Verse
---
Arrival: The Cocoon of Scripture
The sky turned silent.
No birds. No clouds. Just parchment-colored air, slowly unraveling.
From above, a cocoon of layered scripture descended.
Each layer was a prayer nailed into flesh, fluttering in windless air.
Inside it, curled like a fetus of wrath, was the Lady of Nails — god of law-through-pain, of commandments that scream.
When her cocoon hit the earth, it did not crack.
It unfolded, like a courtroom of skin.
And then, she stood.
Her body was parchment-stretched muscle, her face veiled in torn rosaries, her limbs wrapped in thorn-wire.
She didn't speak.
She bled scripture into the air.
And it read:
> "The trial begins."
---
Nero's Throne of Marrow
Nero sat atop a throne of fused bones, arranged from the skulls of saints and spinal columns of preachers.
The throne breathed, slow and wet.
At his feet, Cultists of the God-Eater knelt in silent reverence, mouths sewn shut with sinew, their eyes replaced with beetles that clicked in time with Nero's heartbeat.
Nero stood.
> "A second god walks."
He rolled his shoulders. One of his ribs snapped outward like a blade.
> "Let's see what scripture tastes like."
---
The Opening: Cage of the Word
The Lady lifted one blood-slicked finger.
The air cracked into commandments.
Literal laws — written in celestial dialect — carved themselves across the battlefield.
> • NO HERETIC SHALL MOVE UNBOUND
• NO FLESH SHALL DEFY THE LAW
• NO GOD-EATER SHALL BREATHE UNJUDGED
Each law became a brand in the air.
And then the brands turned into nails.
They screamed downward, embedding themselves into the ground in a perfect circle around Nero.
The Halo-Tomb activated.
Nero was caged.
Scripture swirled. Chains of liturgy wrapped around his arms.
And for a moment…
> He could not move.
---
The Binding Begins
The Lady walked toward him.
Her steps rewrote the ground.
Where she stepped, the soil formed verses.
Her veil lifted slightly.
From beneath it, a second mouth opened — one made not for speaking, but for reciting punishment.
She chanted in a dialect that made reality tremble.
> "He who eats the holy shall be sealed within the Codex of Blades."
"He who turns angels to pulp shall be reborn in stillness."
> "Thus speaks the Law."
She raised the Wordlance, its tip glowing with the memory of divine order.
She drove it toward Nero's heart.
---
Nero's Counter: Flesh Rejection
It struck.
His body twitched, locked in place.
The Wordlance began to carve scripture into his bones.
It burned through flesh and marrow, etching divine edicts into every inch of his insides.
His eyes bled black.
His mouth filled with ash.
And then…
He smiled.
> "I told you."
> "I'm not breaking laws."
> "I'm replacing them."
With a burst of sickening wet noise, flesh tendrils erupted from his chest, grabbing the Wordlance, melting its script with acidic prayer.
The etched laws in his body? Unreadable.
He had reversed them.
Rewritten divine commandments using blasphemous grammar.
> ERROR: GRAMMATICAL VIOLATION. DIVINE LAW CANNOT PROCESS PARASCRIPTURE.
The chains flickered.
The Halo-Tomb groaned.
And then—
It exploded into verses that screamed.
---
Battle Unleashed: Pain vs Faith
The battlefield became an opera of agony.
The Lady summoned choruses of commandments — shrieking hymns that flayed the air itself.
Nero answered with symphonies of sinew, hurling weapons forged from tongues and angel-teeth.
She struck him with the Decree of Stillness — a command that freezes the heart.
He responded by growing another.
Then three more.
Each beat disrupted her rhythm.
He moved like a wound, twisting through scripture.
She moved like a sentence, stabbing between breaths.
They collided in a spiral of law and laceration.
---
Scripture as Blade, Flesh as Ink
Her Wordlance cut deep — each stab embedded a new commandment.
But every time she drove it in, Nero's body responded — absorbing the meaning, corrupting it, and birthing something unspeakable.
Her blade whispered:
> "Thou shalt not ascend through flesh."
His wound answered:
> "Then I will descend through godhood."
---
Her Mind Begins to Fracture
For the first time in millennia, the Lady faltered.
Nero's body began to recite counter-verses.
They weren't spoken.
They were screamed through his pores, his blood, the fibers of his torn skin.
Each word was a question the gods could not answer.
> "Who judges the judge?"
"What binds the binder?"
"If flesh dreams of freedom, is it still sin?"
Each syllable unraveled her veil.
Underneath, her second mouth wept.
---
Final Move: The Reverse Commandment
Nero raised both hands.
Behind him, the Cult knelt deeper — their wounds opened willingly.
Their blood rose into the air.
It formed a glyph.
A counter-commandment.
A law not written, but bled:
> • ALL GODS SHALL ANSWER
• ALL LAWS SHALL DROWN
• ALL VOICES SHALL BURN IN HIS NAME
The glyph exploded in lightless fire.
It slammed into the Lady of Nails.
Her commandments sputtered.
Her Wordlance snapped.
And for the first time ever—
She screamed.
---
[GOD CONSUMED: LADY OF NAILS]
Nero surged forward.
His ribcage opened like a cage.
Tendrils wrapped her wrists.
He pulled her forward, into him.
Her mouth opened in final protest, but instead of words…
Scripture poured out — in reverse.
> He un-wrote her.
> He un-lawed her.
> He devoured her truth, until all that remained… was silence.
---
Abilities Gained:
Reverse Commandment – Can reflect or invert divine orders if spoken near him.
Tongue of Lies – His voice now erases lesser laws when uttered aloud.
Nail-Rain – A ritual attack that summons scripture nails from the sky.
Writhe-Script – Allows him to carve laws into flesh… but with his meaning.
---
Final Scene: The Skies Panic Again
The sky bleeds parchment.
Holy cities see scrolls falling from the sky — blank, torn, and screaming.
Priests look up and vomit ink.
One prophet goes blind and declares:
> "The gods are being rewritten."
The Cult of the God-Eater builds another cathedral of bone.
Etcha whispers:
> "Two down."
> "Ten to go."
---