CHAPTER 07-ECDYSIS

Ouroboros stared Sawyer down, his face now lighting up with confusion.

"Do you think that knowing my name will change anything?"

Sawyer spun the Deep Purple, resting it on his shoulder.

"Well, you can't hide much from a Vitch."

Ouroboros smiled, showing his deformed fangs.

"Paimon's Flail? Are you using spellcasting against ME? My Penance can easily cancel out your Heriata. Your spells are useless."

Sawyer pointed the Deep Purple in his direction, reflecting both of their faces in each of the blade's edge.

"That is true. Penance cancels out Heriata. That doesn't mean YOU can cancel ME out."

Ouroboros rushed against Sawyer with incredible speed. With no time to react, Sawyer had to resort to yet another incantation, surrounding Ouroboros with Heriata.

"Lilith's Moonbath!"

Sawyer's body emitted a blinding light flicker that completely overtook Ouroboros's eyes. As the snakeman's vision was stolen, Sawyer rushed him yet again, spinning the Deep Purple on its own axis. Before the snake could react, Sawyer sliced his arm clean off. As the blackish blood gushed all over the daycare's floor, Ouroboros screamed in agony, shaking his head frantically, trying to regain his eyesight. Sawyer then ducked underneath Ouroboros, placing the Deep Purple inside his stomach. With the blade already plunged inside, Sawyer shifted the blade, opening Ouroboros's abdomen.

"For your own good, stay dead."

Ouroboros fell, gushing blood, barely being able to see straight. All of his strength was dedicated to speaking angrily, as his voice gradually distorted itself.

"What do you think you know about me…Vitch?!"

Sawyer flicked the Deep Purple, making the black blood on the blade's edge fall off, cleaning it perfectly, regaining its shine.

"I do know for a fact that your name is William Kerchner. Born in Houston, Texas. Son of a nurse and a local sheriff. Your mother had postpartum depression and tried to kill you in your cradle. She dumped a bucket of steaming hot oil on you. Somehow, you survived. Over 90% of your body was burnt to a crisp. You were unrecognizable. The cartilage inside your nose and ears was deformed from the burns, leaving you partially deaf and with serious breathing problems."

Ouroboros grunted in anger. His voice seemed to distort itself even further, gaining a deeper tone. The more he tried to regenerate the cuts, the faster they opened themselves right back, leading to twice the pain.

"GET OUT…OF MY HEAD!"

Sawyer reached for his pocket, grabbing a picture of young William Kerchner and his parents.

"This was you before your mother had her psychotic episode. You were two in this picture."

Ouroboros stood up, forcing his healing to maximum, reattaching his lost arm and gluing it together with his venom.

"What are you doing with this? Where did you get it?"

Sawyer threw the picture on the ground.

"This is Baal's Hindsight, one of the most complex spells a Vitch can learn. Through simple touch, I can read key events of your past without you even noticing. Or, I can use a link to your past and find out everything about your entire life. No one can escape this spell, not even Burdens."

Ouroboros's arm, now glued in place with a sticky concoction of his venom, grew more and more deformed, creating many sharp needle-sized scales.

"Shut your mouth and fight me."

Sawyer took a step forward.

"The Deep Purple won't allow you to regenerate properly. Even if you kill me, you will die from the wounds eventually."

Ouroboros smiled, letting out another small stream of poisonous saliva.

"In this case, I'd be doing both of us a favor."

Sawyer held the Deep Purple with conviction, now leaving the blade sideways, trying to understand how Ouroboros would circumvent the powerful artifact in his hands.

"Fifth of August. That's the day you killed yourself."

Ouroboros's unquenchable bloodthirst seemed to cease for a second, being replaced by a shocked expression.

"Don't you…Don't you dare."

His feet gripped the ground, making the floor creak.

"You killed yourself when you were fourteen. You were relentlessly bullied in school for your disabilities and your wounds. You never had a friend, never loved anyone. The most people could do for you was feel pity for your existence. That day, you were getting humiliated…As usual. Your classmates grabbed you, slapped you around and threw you into a cave inside of a forest. You couldn't see anything. All you could partially hear was the hissing of the dozens and dozens of snakes. You felt their cold bodies against your skin. All you could do was slither like a maggot. Crawl on the cold, rocky bottom of the cave. As they hissed and hissed, you finally noticed who you truly are. A monster, hiding in the skin of a frail young boy. That's why you decided to shed your skin. Embrace who you really are."

Ouroboros emitted a loud, agonizing sound. His skin was tearing itself open, leaking the venomous fluid. His voice was distorted and duplicated, as if a single body was being shared by two consciousnesses.

"YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT ME!"

Ouroboros's body transformed into a huge, deformed snakeman hybrid. His build, already muscular, was even tougher. His muscles and veins were popping out of his skeleton, and his yellow eyes turned into snake-like retinas, indicating his full body transformation. Sawyer's eyes widened, shocked at the fact that Ouroboros seemed to be really familiar with his demon. He gripped the Deep Purple, holding it close to his face.

"You're no savior. You're just repeating the cycle that created you. Ouroboros…The snake eating its own tail."

Ouroboros rushed Sawyer with a speed impossible to keep up. Sawyer's eyes could barely understand what was moving towards him. His only reaction was to raise the Deep Purple, defending Ouroboros's attack. Although Ouroboros's claw slash to his face was defended, Sawyer's exposed abdomen was immediately pierced by a thrusting chop using the fingertips, lodging the claws from his remaining hand deep into Sawyer's organs. The Vitch cried out in pain, letting out a giant gush of blood through his mouth, staining Ouroboros's pale snake skin with crimson blood.

"You already talked enough. Now you listen."

Ouroboros said, taking his hand from Sawyer's stomach, letting the wound bleed as much as it could.

"I'm not repeating a cycle."

Sawyer tried a sloppy, desperate slash against Ouroboros. The snakeman parried the attack, stopping the slash by taking his forearm to Sawyer's wrist.

"I'm breaking it."

The Burden headbutted Sawyer, breaking his nose and zygomatic bones. The Vitch instinctively recoiled, gushing blood from his newly inflicted wound. The Deep Purple fell to the ground, disarming Sawyer.

"Even if that means I'll have to kill every single slut, crackhead, neglectful piece of filth that ever had the audacity to bring a child to this world…"

Ouroboros punched Sawyer's face with a lethal right cross, strong enough to drop him on the spot. Sawyer was shrieking in pain, barely able to understand what was coming so fast to hit him. Ouroboros stepped on Sawyer's head, pinning him against the ground with his bare and reptile feet.

"I'll make sure that no child goes through what I had to endure. The most egoistic act one can take is to bring life to this world without consent. We are born suffering. We are brought into this world for the selfish aspirations of others."

Sawyer, gagging in his own blood, looked up to Ouroboros. He reached his hand out, shouting a spell with a certain tone of desperation.

"PAIMON'S WEST WINDS!"

A huge surge of wind emerged from Sawyer's body, lifting Ouroboros high in the air. As he was suspended up, his snakeman body was torn to pieces repeatedly, destroying his scales and piercing his skin and meat deeply. Sawyer quickly recomposed himself, reaching for the Deep Purple once again, securing it in his hand. As he did so, he took his left hand towards his wounds, as Heriata started to emanate from his fingers. Ouroboros fell to the ground, severely mutilated. He hissed in pain, as his scales and meat started stitching itself back in place.

"Stupid Vitch. Fight like a man!"

As Ouroboros affirmed angrily, Sawyer's body was also recovering from the wounds inflicted by the Burden.

"Us Vitches have the capacity to combine sin and virtue in order to create Heriata. If sin is the source of all destruction, virtue is the source of all creation. Although Heriata does not specialize in either, it has sufficient amounts of both. By isolating the virtue present in my Heriata, I can take advantage of its healing properties in short uses."

Ouroboros smirked, showcasing his fangs.

"Do you always fight lecturing the enemy about your own abilities?"

Sawyer smirked back, pointing the Deep Purple towards Ouroboros, now with an icepick style grip.

"Part of the Vitch's charm."

Ouroboros formed a two-horned head symbol with his fingers once again, taking his hands towards his chest. Sawyer stared, confused. A huge amount of Penance started building up on the Burden's body, ready to be released in a devastating attack. Ouroboros inhaled deeply, shouting.

"Oh, peasants, hear thy king! Come forth, Aspericus and Demeritus!"

As the short incantation finished, the shoulders of the Burden started contorting themselves, forming two humanoid shaped heads. After a few seconds, the heads took the form of a green toad wearing a jester's hat and a cat wearing a leather hat. The toad opened his mouth, letting out a giant swarm of flies that quickly infested the entire daycare. These flies swarmed Sawyer's vision, leaving him completely blind from the high amount of bugs and deaf from the horrendous buzzing cacophony they emitted from their wings. As Sawyer grunted in annoyance, flaying the Deep Purple around to try and kill some of the pests, Ouroboros used the bugs to perfectly hide his presence and prepare for his next attack. The cat's eyes glowed yellow and immediately closed themselves right after. The Penance around the Burden was absorbed by the feline, and Ouroboros's body became entirely invisible. As the invisible presence walked through the swarm of bugs, perfectly cloaked, he sneaked towards Sawyer's back. Ouroboros, with a single, perfectly calculated lethal slash, impaled Sawyer through his abdomen. The poison sacs beneath his skin immediately started pumping out large amounts of poison inside of the Vitch's body, generating a widespread infection. Sawyer's body started falling limp, and Ouroboros whispered in his ear, still totally invisible.

"I have mastered all of Baal's abilities. Even with your Deep Purple, you will never be able to outclass my abilities."

Sawyer, with his last strength, pulled out a small voodoo doll from his scarf.

"Selfless Tribute!"

The voodoo doll, perfectly knitted to resemble Ouroboros; Or William Kerchner; started flowing with huge amounts of Heriata. Instantly, Ouroboros's body was overwhelmed by a stabbing and burning sensation. The exact same damage he inflicted on Sawyer was being reflected on himself. Even though he had immunity to his poison, the lethal slash promptly started an extremely severe bleeding.

"I GOT YOU NOW!"

Even though he was limping tremendously, the Vitch gripped the Deep Purple with extreme strength and plunged it into Ouroboros's head, splitting his skull open. Even though his monstrous resistance and healing factor would surely keep him alive, the tremendous brain damage was enough to make the snakeman unable to see more than a single meter in front of him. His thoughts were pointlessly flooding his mind, and he could barely keep control of his body. Aspericus and Demeritus went back into Ouroboros's shoulders, disappearing.

"BETHANNY…BETHANNY…WHERE ARE…YOU?!"

Ouroboros exclaimed, slapping his own head, trying to think of a single working line of thought. Sawyer held his abdomen slash, using his Heriata to close it the most he could. However, the high sin expenditure of the Deep Purple was clearly showing. Sawyer held the Deep Purple in his right hand and the voodoo doll on his left. He raised the doll towards Ouroboros.

"This is my Via, Selfless Tribute. I didn't know everything about you just out of convenience. I studied everything about you and your life. If I get to know you enough, I can knit a voodoo doll and use my Selfless Tribute. With this technique, every single damage that you inflict to me will be directly and inevitably reflected onto you as long as the doll is in my possession. With the doll, I'm also able to influence your mind, emotions and senses as I wish. Because of this…I'm telling you to surrender to OPACT and face the punishment for your crimes. And, I'm not talking to William or Ouroboros right now. I'm talking to you…Baal."

Ouroboros's frantic behaviour was suddenly replaced by a classy, nobleman behaviour. His split brain was forcibly stitched together by Penance, using sheer gravitational pressure to squish his brain back into its appropriate place, showcasing a huge amount of Penance control. His eyes, yellowish beforehand, were now entirely white. The pupils were also gone and his voice was now entirely distorted, showcasing the complete erasure of his humanity.

"And who am I talking to, peasant?"

Baal affirmed with a pompous tone.

"Sawyer Maplewood. Representative of Paimon."

Sawyer affirmed, gripping the doll.

"Paimon can go sniff sulfur from the most dirty pits of Limbo. I do not owe him anything."

Sawyer stared at Baal, paying attention to every move of his.

"You and your Burden are creating way too many problems. OPACT is on high alert because of the kidnappings."

Baal scoffed.

"OPACT? As far as I know, you were the one that sold out our location to them."

Sawyer looked down.

"You're right. I did, and I don't regret it. These kids have nothing to do with this."

Baal took his fingers to his eyes, showing disdain.

"William can do whatever he wants with these murky little brats. As long as he is feeding me with sins, I shall lend him my strength. Speaking of sins…Thanks to him, I am becoming stronger every single day. So, I imagine Paimon must be envious."

As Baal provoked, Sawyer held the doll by its head, showing some sort of conflicted intention.

"If that's how you think, then…You are not worthy of the title of King."

Baal's Penance grew larger and larger.

"And who are you to decide that?"

Sawyer stared with determination.

"If a single particle of your Penance touches me, I am shoving this sword deep inside my own heart and killing the both of us."

Baal shook his head in disbelief.

"As if you had the courage to end yourself only to slightly irritate me."

Sawyer raised his eyebrow.

"Try me."

As their staring contest became more and more tense, not a single word was spoken. However, before their bloody conflict could come to a resolution, the deafening sirens of OPACT troops approaching the daycare could be heard. Sawyer showed clear hesitation and fearfulness, while Baal just seemed angry. Sawyer commented, surprised.

"Seems like my anonymous tip was very effective."

Baal once again replicated his two horns symbol, indicating the usage of another technique.

"You are cowardly. If it wasn't for your dirty cantrips, you would have been dead the second you looked at me, peasant."

Sawyer blinked at Baal, playfully.

"In this case, you better prepare yourself better next time."

Angered, Baal finished his incantation.

"Hear ye king, peasants! Come and take me home, Bracaddarius, the royal steed!"

As the incantation was finished, a golden camel was summoned from no apparent direction. As he did, the demonic sigil now explicit on his back shined with Penance, teleporting Baal to an unknown destination in a mere second. Sawyer fell to his knees, completely exhausted from the usage of Heriata. As he heard the heavy steps from the soldiers approaching his room, he couldn't help but fear for his own life.

"I should've shut my mouth…"

On the eastern side of town, Elias is sleeping soundly on a couch in a poorly kept apartment. His senses and memories, still dull from the massacre at the Red Lace, slowly crept back to him. The first thing he could feel was the charming smell of freshly made coffee. He stood up, seeing the person responsible for the beverage, carefully passing it through a strainer. Elias saw a weirdly charming woman. She was somewhat short in size, wore very appealing shorts that showed the beginning of her plump glutes, a cropped top that could barely hold her breasts in place and was currently barefoot. Her hair was yellowish, probably dyed blonde but gradually lost its color. The main appeal of that very exhausted and poorly combed hair were the six blue strands on the left side of it, along with a blue star tiara. The woman's face was not that visible, but still contemplatable. Her face was delicate, smooth, but somewhat beaten. She had big eyebags, wore heavy and messy blue makeup and had many cigarette burns, indicating that she had a heavy habit of smoking. As she strained the coffee into two mugs, she took a quick glance at Elias, letting out a short scream, as if she wasn't expecting him to wake up so soon.

"O-Oh! H-Hi!"

She said, smiling awkwardly.

Elias stared back, paralyzed from both the sight of the gorgeous woman and the sheer absurdity of his situation. He was currently unaware if the massacre was nothing but a twisted dream or even if he failed to pay for his debt and was now in some sick torture game in Hell.

"H-Hello. Where…Am I?"

The woman laughed with a certain amount of shame.

"W-Well, you're at my place. East side. You know, near the Mojave?"

Elias took his hand towards his forehead.

"My head…"

The woman walked towards Elias, placing the back of her hand on his neck, trying to see if he had some sort of fever.

"Well, no fever. You're just tired. Did you eat anything yet? I'm not much of a cook, I usually order stuff for me, but I could see if I have some leftover from the Thai food I ordered yesterday."

Elias could barely believe that he was touched by a woman, let alone by a woman of that level of beauty. He glanced at her, totally speechless, as if every word that came out of her mouth had just been said by some sort of entity. He mustered up the strength to respond, blinking many times, still trying to find out if anything around him wasn't yet another hallucination.

"I…I could eat. Yeah."

The woman let out a soft smile, bending to open her fridge. Elias stared at her posterior for a split second, before trying to focus his attention on anything else in order to distract himself from the view he desired so much.

"Oooh, check this out! I got some spicy chicken noodles left, AND a half eaten cake pop for dessert. Hooray!"

She playfully grabbed both items, closing the fridge with a playful hip sway. She took the noodles to her poorly maintained microwave, letting it heat up, slapping the device a few times before it finally turned on.

Elias, still trying not to focus on the woman's almost naked body, looked around the house.

"If you don't mind me asking…Who are you, exactly? Why did you bring me here?"

The woman messed around with a strand of her hair, pulling it back.

"Well…Uh…You're a Burden. But you saved me from my pimp."

Elias's eyes widened in shock. That phrase just confirmed his biggest fear; Last night was not a dream. He immediately stood up, running through the house, almost taking the woman down as he sprinted frantically towards what he deduced was the bathroom. He opened the door rapidly, shutting it behind him, before kneeling over the toilet and vomiting viciously. As he was able to push out the very little he ate, he coughed repeatedly, standing up after a few minutes of intense nausea. He stood up, still dizzy, going to the sink to wash his face and mouth. As he did so, he looked at the mirror, seeing his current state. Messy, dirty, bloodied and even more beaten than when he tried to end it all. As he contemplated his pathetic self, his own reflection started slowly transforming into that of his Burden demon. The caprine skull started taking over his face, and his heart immediately dropped. Shocked by his own possession, he rushed out of the bathroom, only to see the woman looking at him, with clear worry in her face.

"Are you okay?!"

Elias muttered.

"I'm fine. I just…I want you to tell me what happened."

She looked at Elias, as if she also disliked remembering the events of the night.

"Well…I was one of Rudy's strippers. Hell…One of his prostitutes. One of the best, as he said. I pushed his drugs to the customers, I pampered the richest and most insufferable of men…Whatever. I would do anything I could just to get by. But, recently, I figured I wanted more for my life. After I had an abortion, I never felt the same. I felt that I deserved better. I managed to get some savings and help from my parents and I joined university. But, because of this, I started lacking on the job. I wasn't feeling it. I also started dumping his drugs down the toilet to pretend I sold them. He noticed it. He was going to…punish me. In his own twisted way. But then you showed up."

Elias heard the story, recalling the massacre event by event. He didn't believe for a single second that he was a hero to somebody, let alone a figure to be inspired or grateful for.

"I killed all of these people."

Elias affirmed, with clear disgust.

The woman looked to the other side, trying not to overwhelm Elias with visual contact.

"They were all criminals. Thanks to you, that place is finally shutting down. My other friends that worked there are leaving Vegas to start over. I thought about joining them, but…I feel like this big city still might have something to offer me."

Elias leaned against a wall.

"You should've gone with them. This place is a shithole."

She shrugged.

"Yeah, well…At least the parties are cool."

Both of them laughed slightly. Elias was clearly just trying to make conversation, as he clearly never went to a party his entire life. The woman decided to break the awkward silence, grabbing a mug for herself and one for Elias.

"I'm Gianna, but don't call me that. Call me Glitter. And you?"

Elias held the mug, taking a generous sip.

"I'm Elias."

Glitter also took a sip of her mug, before questioning Elias once again.

"So…What are you going to do now?"

Elias stared at his own reflection in the coffee.

"I didn't know the answer to this question even before I got turned into a Burden."

Glitter let out a soft laugh.

"Yeah, I feel you."

Elias stopped staring at the reflection, shifting his eyes towards Glitter.

"I'm a wanted criminal. I…I did lots of crazy shit. OPACT will kill me anytime soon, and you'll be caught in the crossfire. I should go."

Glitter laid her mug down.

"Go where? Get killed? You don't seem to have anyone waiting for you out there. No offense…"

Elias looked down, ashamed.

"I don't. But I'd rather die alone than drag a good person with me. I'm used to being lonely anyway."

Glitter's cheeks turned slightly pink after the comment about her good nature.

"You…You think I'm a good person?"

Elias looked at her, smiling, trying to mask his profound sadness.

"You are. If you weren't, you wouldn't have been lucky enough for me to save you that night."

Glitter clapped her hands together.

"I…I don't know how to thank you. But, you're right. OPACT will be on you soon. If…If everything goes right…Can we see each other again?"

Elias was completely frozen in place. That mere comment ignited a fire he never knew he had. He was quick to muster up a response, one of which he would probably remember for the rest of his frail life.

"Sure. Can I have your number?"

Elias felt like a complete highschool movie jock completing this sentence. But, unexpectedly, Glitter just went towards him with a lipstick, writing her number on Elias's palm, just smiling. As she finished, she looked at him.

"That's my favorite lipstick, you know? Pineapple. The smell is almost impossible to get rid of. That way, you'll always remember me when you smell pineapples."

Elias smiled back at Glitter, going to the door.

"I'll see you soon, Glitter."

She waved to Elias.

"I hope so."

They waved to each other, and Elias left the woman's house with clear excitement. He ran through the half empty streets of the Las Vegas east side, laughing loudly to himself, looking at the phone number in his palm. In his entire life, he had never felt so happy and self fulfilled. As he finally reached his home on the southern part of town, he ran towards his phone, calling Vulva Venaris. As he rhythmically tapped his toe on the ground, waiting impatiently for the owner to pick up, he finally heard Harper's voice.

"Hey, cutie. This is Vulva Venaris. What can I help you with?"

Elias laughed.

"Harper, it's me!"

Harper audibly sighed.

"Oh, fuck me. Elias? Where the fuck were you? OPACT is everywhere. They even knocked here about twenty minutes ago. Were you behind that shit at the Red Lace?"

Elias sat down on his bed.

"Yeah, I…I needed sins. I went after my old boss, Rudy. I fed on his contracts and his henchmen's. B-But it got way too messy. I never meant to kill anyone. N-Not anyone besides him, at least."

Harper seemed to be reading something. The sound of a page turning could be heard.

"I've been reading a lot about your demon. I found out lots of useful stuff."

Elias raised one of his eyebrows in curiosity.

"So tell me!"

Harper scoffed.

"What do you think am I, a tarot reader that does web consulting? I ain't talking about vital shit like that over the phone. Bring your bony ass here when the shop is closed."

Elias stood up, nervous.

"Yeah, I'll…I'll be there as soon as I can. But, uh, by the way…I got a girl's phone number."

Harper didn't seem to care.

"So? I got plenty too. Are you that desperate for some pussy?"

Elias shook his head, probably regretting bringing this up.

"She was one of Rudy's prostitutes, you know? I saved her…Indirectly, kind of. He was holding her hostage. Then he shot me and…The shot ricocheted back to his own head."

Harper laughed out loudly.

"YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME! THAT'S THE FEARED RUDY JUDD, LORD OF THE LOCAL COCAINE TRADE? DUMB ASS FATSO!"

As Harper continued laughing, Elias remained serious.

"She…She saved me too."

Harper ceased her laughter.

"Okay, dude, good for you. Can I go back to reading now, please?"

Elias coughed, trying to break the tension.

"I think she's into me."

As Harper had just recently got out of a laughter attack, she just had another one, even more extreme. She was cackling entirely, screaming in sheer awe as she couldn't believe her ears.

"INTO YOU? REALLY, HOW MUCH ARE YOU PAYING HER?"

Elias, ashamed, just sighed.

"Forget it. S-She, uh…She's pretty nice. She said that she was thankful for me."

Harper slowly recomposed herself. Remainders of laughter could still be heard.

"Forget it, man. She's a whore. Her entire career is based off saying trigger words to dudes to get their dicks hard, suck 'em and then earn her cash. That's just her hustle, no offense, but even the dumbest motherfucker knows not to get attached to sex workers. Specially the female ones."

Elias thought about it, looking at the street.

"So…I'll see you soon, then."

Harper giggled.

"If OPACT doesn't kill you or your new whore friend doesn't sell you out until then, yeah. I'm out now. Buh-bye."

Harper hung up. Elias laid in bed, going to sleep.

In a random alleyway, Ouroboros is laying down, screaming, as dozens of snakes crawl out of his body, along with many deformed limbs.

"GET OUT OF ME! STOP…STOP CONTROLLING ME!"

As he exclaimed, Baal, the voice in the deepest pits of his mind, talked back.

"You are lacking the grit you once had. You have gone soft. I'm unlocking our full potential."

Ouroboros was clawing his own skin, frantically trying to remove something.

"I'LL LOSE MYSELF IF YOU DO IT! WE HAD A DEAL, BAAL!"

Baal laughed.

"Kings don't make deals. We give out orders."

Ouroboros screamed in agony, as Baal laughed. The snakeman's body started peeling itself off, becoming a much more thin and elegant version of his past form. The disgusting sound of skin and meat melting could be heard from across the street, and the disturbing screams made many dogs in the neighbourhood bark. By the end of the transformation, the Burden was standing in a puddle of blood and dead skin. His frame was now much thinner and classy. He had long black hair, softer scales, a pair of pale wings and a giant tail with a snake's head on the tip.

"Now, William…You let me do the work. We're going after the Throneless. And this time, you won't be able to sabotage me with your petty savior complex."

The figure stepped out of the alley, smiling.