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The darkness that lied beneath the former lighthouse structure was not the darkest James had ever seen, yet somehow it felt the most thickening he had ever felt on how it began pressuring upon his eyes like he was climbing a tall mountain. The further down he went upon the spiral staircase, the more intense the weight of existence fell upon him as it pushed fiercely down on his heart turning his breaths to be rather coarse and foetid. He grasped against the walls staggering slightly as he threatened to fall off the stairs at one point with a stumbling gait. His eyes began to turn filmy, blistering with bleak glassy stains as the green clear sharpness started to wilt and decay like a dying leaf, his voice becoming harsh and ragged as he gulped back thickening sputum in the back of his throat as the atmosphere became even worse. Stagnant. He felt as if he were descending into a mine long abandoned and unclean by the gaseous sulphur and unnatural curse that infected it, shuddering as he struggled to keep his throat clean with coughing fits. Soon he finally reached the bottom of the stairwell, finding a grand cave entrance that yawned before him with rocks that were so black they almost shined blue in whatever dim and nonexistent light that came filtering from above. The raptor decided to play it safe, coursing his nanos strongly through one hand and torching his scissors thickeningly alight, chuckling to see it work without even the slightest headache in his brain. "Heh...nice. Well if I can do this as many times as I want then Scisso's gonna be a snap." The light from his flame did little to provoke the darkness any further back from it, but it did at least show him the extent of how large the place was as he walked into the mouth of the cavern's reach. For the first ten minutes there was nothing but a solid path straight on towards the abyss, gently descending downwards to the point that James did not even notice his descent further into the pits of his soulful existence. Occasionally there would be a tight corner causing him to nearly bump into the walls but he managed to navigate. He was admittedly scared, though whether it was his natural fear of the dark awakening in his primal need or the fact that he was treacherously close towards the demon's location, was undetermined for the moment at least. It was then that he felt another of his senses beginning to awake, a strong scent familiarly wafting from a place he could not see. He had no idea what it was but it was pleasant, strangely hedonistic and tingling at the very back of his mind towards whispering from the breach. With each further step he took, his senses became stronger as he soon found another long infinite stretch of corridor within subterranean darkness. He saw a shadow, clearly silhouetted from the walls to be standing in front of him, a shape almost similar to his own body but with an odd gait to it. The head was lurched forwards with muscular legs clacking claws upon the bare cavern's floor as he swung his blades forwards, shining out his fire forth to see another creature. It was not exactly like him, but it was of the same species and was the origin of the scent. A primal velociraptor, smooth-skinned and a light-brown colour with sharp yellow eyes. "You...it's...it's you!" "Huh?" OH you are finally here!" The feral beast came forwards with a hesitant step and the voice of a female, her scent reminiscent of fresh-cut meat, newly-awakened plants and the musk of sex. He gulped gently at the odd sensations coming to him as he watched the creature come forwards. She spoke his language clearly, and he noted her having a rather large swollen belly that caused her to stagger slightly. "I...hhhhhoh I have been waiting for you. For so long." She rubbed her snout against his waist as he kept his weapon alight above her, the gentle nip and chirruping noise she made giving a sense of warmth in his heart for some reason. "Um...d-d-do I...know you?" "Not in this life...no. But you are still the body that gave me my children...fed me...kept me warm every night, my dearest." "Dearest? ...was...w-was I with you at some point?" "Not you...but your body most certainly. Can you remember anything?" "I'm not...s-sorry I don't." "That's alright. I knew you were not going to be able to, so please, come with me. There is someone you have to meet." "The demon?" "No. Your other self." James was curious and followed after the raptoress, her feral cloaca clear to see beneath her tail as he struggled to not look out of politeness in her waddling gait, her belly swinging cautiously from side to side as she sniffed along the walls. Checking for her way back, her snout rubbed along the bare rock for a good six minutes of careful walking as James could not help but ask curiously: "When's the lucky day?" "Hmmm?" "You're uh...well, um, congratulations." "OH, hmhm, thank you. And well you should know." "Huh?" "As for the lucky day...well...I'm certain if you had asked me many years ago I would have an answer for you James." "Is anyone going to be NOT cryptic in this place?" "What fun is that? It won't matter for you anyways since...you are almost at the end are you not?" "I hope so...um, sorry I'm trying to remember where you're from-" "Here." She tapped on the wall next to James and nodded up towards it with her head. "Break through this rock." "What?" "He's here...I know he is." "Who exactly?" "Your other self. Surely you have not forgotten about HIM at least, my own beloved mate?" "...I...other-wait. Wait I-...no." He struggled to recall as he felt a flash of memory through him, an anomalous presence from when he last fought the dreaded Anomaly concerning one that was just like him. One of a most pitying story and an even worse conflict as he nodded gently. "I think...I understand who you mean, stand back." She gently did with soft clicks of her claws as she walked behind him, the raptor pondering on how to break through the wall until he remembered one idea that came to him. Stepping across to the opposite wall he braced himself with scissors in both hands before channelling much more a potent energy than he did when he set it alight, focusing a pure almost physical form of molten crimson flame bursting to a hot white. "HhhrrrrrrrrHADOUKEN!" As if summoning a shotgun blast from a rifle, the scissors briefly became just that as with a violent scattershot, the flames blasted themselves straight through the cavern's wall with not even an inch of resistance as the stone fell apart in one bleak explosion. Rocking the place through with a sheer echo of reverberation deafening both creatures, the raptors staggered with the female almost falling over until James grabbed onto her body and wrapped his arm around her. "WOAH, you okay?!" "A-AAAH! Yes...y-y-yes I am...I'm fine, thank you." "S-s-sorry...hhheh, forgot that it's more powerful inside my head than it would be." "Yes it...s-s-seems so, hmhmhm! Just follow me inside, do not worry my dearest. You shall have your reunion soon enough."

The rocks were now cleared to a wilting puddle of molten debris as he carefully stepped over the sizzling pool as the raptoress did the same with his gentle assistance. There was a light beyond the reach of the cavern's depths within the new sealed-off area, a blissfully resplendent paradise he found not more than five minutes after walking through the new thinner hallway amongst the rocks. With each step he took, the world became brighter and he soon found moss with lush ferns spreading themselves across the smooth natural stone walls. At the very end of the place, there was a single grove with blistering sunlight from a small hole above falling onto the plantlife below, most of which now encircled the clearing with overwhelming borders of green in every direction he looked. The ground was fertile, pure earth coated in viridian splendour as it felt incredibly soft with the warmth of the sun upon his feet, sighing as his claws bare like always scrunched neatly against the foliage smoothly. The air was so clean and pure as he saw lying before him a velociraptor like himself, one with the same purple marks as him yet he noticed dried blood on his neck and head from the small holes crusted upon his skin. At the sound of James arriving, the raptor woke up with a gentle noise growling at the back of his throat, piercing his look through the intruder with feral green slits perfectly reptilian, starkly contrasting James' more anthropomorphic eyes of the same tint. The female raptor walked towards him with a gentle nuzzling of his cheek, licking tenderly as he returned the gesture with a soft noise barely audible. "I have been waiting for you." The one who had awakened gently walked forwards with a strange feral gait and completely naked with the sight of James' own flaccid member between his legs. His voice was exactly the same tone and pitch of James but given a more strangely eloquent mannerism, more patient and civil. "Do you recognise me? From since we last fought to save ourselves from the shining rock that screams?" "...it...yeah...it's you, the one who was fighting me but...you tried to stop that thing, the Anomaly from taking me, didn't you? And then Kruz managed to-" "Yes. Do you remember my name, James Campbell?" ".........yes. I do, it was...Oddscar." "Son of nobody." The one known as Oddscar walked carefully around the raptor in a classic predatorial sense as James kept his guard up. The feral could smell his anxiety and understood with his eyes now twitching as James began a slow walking turn to face him always, without ever taking his eyes off of him as he asked: "Who...exactly are you?" "Besides my name?" "Yeah. I'm not sure how you exist actually." "I am not sure myself...and for the past many moons I have been trying to comprehend my existence whilst I slept within your blinded heart. But I know I am ancient, something that should not have been, that I was formed out of your most fearful and primal need to create a new self in order to prevent your mind from ever completely breaking apart." "So...breaking apart, you mean when I...oh. Yeah I...remember back then I sorta had a breakdown did my mind create you?" "Maybe...or rather that it recalled me from far ancient times for I am not the only one who has become this. I have seen through your earliest memories, that which you cannot remember until you came down upon yourself. Your father, who understood the same thing." "Wh-what?" "Do you ever wonder why you exist, James? Because I have learnt from your memories and recollections that our species had long ceased to exist many suns and moons ago, far more than any of us could ever count. Do you know why our species exist once again?" "Sort of," said FG. "All the anthros in my world were made in a lab by some group of people that thought humanity was fucked and so they needed to give the world some other kind of species that would...take care of it I guess, combining Man's intelligence with Nature's instincts...that was the usual shit I heard down in the parks from preachers every once a month." "For most of those creatures that were born into a newer shape, they already have existed, warmbloods primarily with the occasional descendant of our kin the great hunters like you and me whereas our species had long ceased to be. Your father's madness, in the apex of his death is not entirely by random chance of unfortunate mental state." "What, you mean when he panicked and fell screaming and...mum wouldn't leave him? Do you...do you know why he did? Why he just...fell...apart and everything just went to shit, I mean fuck...f-fuck if he hadn't...I wanna blame someone so badly even though it's been so many years, I wanna blame the riots or humans or my dad just SOMEONE for making me an orphan, DO YOU KNOW WHY HE DID?!" "No more than you do...but then...I am not you precisely, am I James?" The raptor feral continued walking in one circle sensing the air of tension that was made apparent between them as James breathed deeply with a forceful restraint, clutching his snout with pinching double fingers gripping at the bridge of his nose before he asked: "Are you...another memory of something?" "No. I am the real Oddscar, not a memory like any other you have met, and I have been in you for at least eleven cycles of the breeding nest." "The what? ...oh, you mean years, don't you?" "Whatever you wish to call it, yes, and in that time the more often that we have met, whether in dreams or by that of insanity, the more I have peered through your memories just as you have glanced briefly at my own. And I can tell you one thing at the very least. Your father knew of my language." "Wait...wh-what?" "That is, OUR language. The language of our ancient race, I suspect that he too has undergone some sort of madness himself not dissimilar to the one you suffered with and in turn had created me...birthed me anew from within the blood of your ancient." "How...n-no, wait, he was, he spoke English!" "Until the word 'Cxulubcah'. Do you know what that word means? It is what I remember hearing to be the name for 'Great Fire'. In other words...he knows of the day when all of us had been erased from the face of the earth." "Okay stop, just...STOP walking for a moment okay!?" He stopped politely as James wracked his head suddenly feeling out of sorts. "You're telling me...that my dad had a huge freakout and went down screaming and panicking when he died and that I ALSO had one like him?" "Not exactly, I would not say you inherit his madness that would be absurd. But rather that both of you had been pushed past beyond your breaching point and that both of you had regressed BACK into your primal state, the one we all have become part of once when our blood sings with an ancient past. Much more ancient than any of these warmbloods that you shared such prejudice with against the hairless." "Re-...regress? Seriously?" "I only recognised his words in his last moments, what you called screaming was actually our ancestral language. But I suppose to one who speaks like the hairless, it would sound like screaming." "Consider us," chimed in the female raptor, "when hearing the hairless speak, including the times when I have heard my mate mumble and cry in his sleep with the same tongue as you, that is no different from you not understanding the screams you heard your father make." "That...this," stammered FG, "this...better not be some prophecy bullshit I SWEAR to god if it is-" "It's not," said Oddscar confidently, "why would it be?" "It's just...way too coincidental." "What is coincidental? Your blood is ancient, as was your father's and I know for a fact that your world, thanks to your memory recollections, have a whole group consisting of those who, SPECIFICALLY catering to our race, try to call and revere the blood-stoked memories of our ancient past. YOUR ancient past." "Wait...group, calling and revering what do-...no." He struggled to flicker through his father's last moments from the very beginning of his mental journey, hearing a word he had found familiar for some reason. "You mean that...Pangaeism cult?" "I do," said Oddscar. "I have been struggling to understand who I am for cycles, not knowing where I came from or even why I am here. The dialect of those like my dear mate Barren, are so much more different than mine even if we understood each other well. But I have known for the longest time I did not come from their world, always I felt out of place. Now I see why." "You're...you're literally my ancestral memory? You...no...th-that's just...that can't be right, you must be just-" "That is the only explanation I can think." "But that...that totally doesn't happen, that's some weird sci-fi bullshit I mean how-...how does that HAPPEN?!" "Is that anymore absurd than a stone pillar that screams with neverending sorrow, or your cursed weapon that so reeks of filth and desecration? You have surely oft-heard of certain creatures who have never visited another place, or never even spoke another language and yet once you tap inside the mind you will find that place, you will hear that language spoken far beneath, you will find that place and they will always say the same thing. 'I know this place somehow'...is it truly that inconceiveable?" "I...look, I'm sorry, but this is a really weird thing to talk about when I've got bigger stuff to handle down here" "I am sorry for this odd revelation, but then I have always been...Odd, hmhmhm. I never had a chance to tell you once I understood after our last meeting. The Pangaeists are as odd to you as it seems too from what you remember of them." "I-...n-no but...I-i-i mean I know OF them but, I never met any personally, I always thought they were just some weird group of religious people, I never like hated them or anything, they were just this group I was aware of." "They are that, but there is merit in their regressive comprehension. Something happened to your father concerning them, that did not create your circumstances to create me, not at all, you are both different people who experienced very different events. It is just that you simply reached a breaking point similar to him. Because of our ancient blood having been so recently revived by, what was it...one thousand cycles since our revival with every other anthro in your world?"

James was struggling as he scratched his head, frantically trying to recall everything he could of the strange group of his homeworld. He knew of them greatly, the only other new religion formed of anthros besides Karenniology which stated their actual creation as according to them but he couldn't imagine Oddscar's existence as being part of that knowledge. The raptor of the modern age walked carefully towards his feral ancestor, their eyes markedly different yet showing the same softness of forest green as James asked him: "Do you...hate me, for everything I've done?" "I used to," said the feral, "until I learned that you were not to blame for any of this." The other raptor walked away, slowly with primal stance as he made his way back towards the female still swollen and standing as if wanting something. He placed a claw on her belly, carefully as she gasped with a soft chirr looking up towards him. "I despised you for taking me away from my life...my home...my children who were yet to be born and now I am left alone to wonder...what must they think of their father long since having gone without them? What must they think of a father they never saw or smelt, never knew to be? Do they love me? Do they...despise me?" He knelt down beside the female and pressed his face against her waist, sighing with a bitter weep from his tears which began to flow. "I...I h-have only this memory of my sweet Barren...my love. My poor lost and forsaken Barren, she is but this memory...all I remember of her...is this. She has been my only company this...this memory I have retained of her still and though there are other friends I had, I want noth-...nothing more than to be with this precious memory, even if I only but torture myself with it. I wanted to s-see my children. I wanted to see them being born, I want to smell the breath of life they screech as I welcome them into my new family...I wanted to speak to my sons and daughters and know that I have left a world for them to become part of. I...I wanted...to be home s-somewhere..." Oddscar laid down beside his mate, sobbing softly as it echoed throughout the small glade as James felt a twinging ache from within his heart walking forwards to comfort him. Barren nuzzled him pitifully, murmuring sweet nothings into his ear which did little to soothe him as James said: "I'm...I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I never-" "No." He shook himself clear struggling to getup. "N-no...no more apologies, I mourn, yes, but...I have long since stopped hating you. Ever since the shining stone that screams brought us back together for one meet, I knew from that moment seeing you that you have much more to worry about." "Wha-...no. No that's bullshit, you have a family." "You have much more relying on you than I do James. There are so many others who have sculpted this path you take, and have tried to stop or even persist against the great evil that now lurks from deep within. I could not fight such a thing. I cannot comprehend such a thing. But you can. And you need to protect others, because if that thing...that...beast, ever escapes then we shall all be doomed, not just my family...but your own, and those you love the same as I did love my pack. My mate. My friends and family. I have considered this for the greatest time and I know that I...must sleep and allow you to succeed." "But I don't," stammered FG, "I-i don't...I don't want you to just lay down and accept, I didn't mean to cause you all this pain, I never knew about you! I mean if I had known I would-" "I know. I forgive you, James. I cannot return...you have too much to lose if I do, and yes I would be happy if I managed to return but for how long? How long until the demon would wake, or some great atrocity would come, let us not forget I know nothing of your abilities and strange powers that exist beyond my own, I cannot go back! You...you must go to where the demon sleeps and fight him, for us...my children. And your beloved." "You...are you...sure about that?" "Yes. I am. Please." The feral raptor stood in front of James and softly nuzzled his snout up towards his other's neck, moaning with a tenderness as both sides of himself began to feel strangely content. There was a hesitation, and he felt shaking breaths from the feral raptor's throat, shivering with a longful remorse bated hot from his breath Slowly he felt as if the two were merging into one but they weren't truly, just enough to understand each other's pain as tears flecked from both their eyes which Oddscar licked sweetly from James' cheek. He stared down upon his feral ancestor, the green slits of his eyes kindly with a deep well of emptying remorse as he hugged him close. Wrapping his arms around the beastly neck, the primal Oddscar simply stood with a sigh of happiness, gently gurgling a strange warbling laugh from his throat as tears continued to flow bleakly from his eyes onto James' head. "Hah...hhhahahahha...I...I haven't felt this...warm in so many years I just...wanted to feel somebody else that was as real as me, just once. Th-thank you." James hugged him tight, pulling him closely as he felt his own tears streak across the grass underneath as they pressed their heads close, feeling each other's need to forgive and forget beneath the light of the sun's rays. Eventually James released him as there came the last words of Oddscar before leaving: "The demon lies through that cave downwards, back the way you came. But there is one thing I must ask of you still." "Yes?" "...when you come through this, and survive your encounter with the beast I want you to promise me. Do not return back to my mate." "W-what? Why?" "She is MY mate. Not yours. I do not want her to be given such a cruel gift, to see her beloved return but without the same scent, do you understand? It's better that way." "But...your kids, wh-what if-" "No. Please. My last request that I wish from you, after everything I have gone through...do not return to my love and family." "Technically they're my kids too." "Then technically your Koopin is my beloved too, is THAT fair to you if I mate with him in your nest?" "H-HEY, YOU-......hhheh...hhhheheheh, okay, yeah I can, um...I can see your point, alright then I won't, I promise. I'm sorry." "I am sorry too...James. I know that might sound cruel but...it's better for them to remember me as I was rather than to remember you...something that, despite everything...you are not me." "I getcha. Alright then...Oddscar I'll uh...I'll be...I'll keep everyone safe." "Thank you." He bowed respectfully as he sat back down again beside the memory of his mate, forever swollen with his clutchful of eggs as he sighed deeply in his pittance at watching FG disappear back through the walls of his small sanctum of peace. He turned towards his dearest Barren before asking her in his own primal language: "Tell me about the day we first met." "You have heard it plenty," said Barren, "do you ever get bored of hearing me spout your memories?" "I never will. Never until the day I finally fade so please...tell me once again my beloved...let me...relive my life with you once more until we fall asleep to a dream like this."

Returning back towards the central cavern's passageway, James traversed deeper within as he felt the first tinges of true darkness creeping along his senses. A flicker across his ears before swallowing his eyes completely, all he felt around him was the ineffable formless existence of the demon's influence. Deeper still he went, his hand tracing along the wall to his left in order to keep on straight. He started to turn sick, or at least felt like he was as his feet became sluggish, his breath turning laboured even further. He forced his feet to keep pushing forwards, almost staggering as he knew that he was getting close. Every few steps he took, he felt another pulse of evil corrupting across his self, coiling wreaths trembling across the walls unseen from everywhere around him. Black roots of monstrous origin that oozed thickly with blood, the stench of corpses ever-constant almost to the point of it suffocating his lungs out fully. It was then that he saw something before one final staircase downwards into the pits of despair. A shape reminiscent of a young toddler. "You made it." A voice young and sweet came from the darkness in front of him as he asked: "Um...who are you?" "He's just down there. I have a gift for you." "...is that...is that you Isaac?" Sure enough, there came out of the dark a small brown hand holding a tiny bell with lace wrapped round his wrist. James softly took it with a tender shock on realising what it was. "Is...but...but I lost this." "It still remains but a memory. You remember me because of it, don't you?" "I could...I could never forget about you Isaac, with or without the bell. But you...you kept me safe, you knew something about that anomaly but you managed to keep me safe." "I tried," said Isaac from the darkness, "I wanted to." "But...why are you down here?" "Because...because I-_ #~*&?+/ " "Huh?!" "I'm not- ~?/%=#- the one you remember." "Wait...wait, are you THE Isaac, or is that the anomaly trying to trick me?" "I am a piece." "A piece?" "Of your own destiny. Destiny that we _ sHaPe tOgEtHeR. YoU WiLL uNdErStAnD...AfTeR _ you have faced the demon. We are so close. Remember. Remember that even in the pits of despair...you are not alone. _ Never aLoNe LiKe wE oNcE WeRe. _" "Who?" "The...th-thirty... NinE vOiCeS. tHiRtY-NinE vOiCeS wHoM yOu sHaLL sAvE...vErY sOoN. " The young hand slowly pulled back into darkness as a twisting semblance of empty squares pixellated in front of him sharply, dissipating before a path slowly came into focus with a murmuring tremble of technological static. A lone crooked staircase broke through with rocky outcroppings of unnaturally-carved symbols, twisting contorting non-Euclidean absurdity that made the staircase look as if it was slowly eating itself. A tight wretched spiral downwards with uneven footing as James took each step carefully, stifling the urge to fall asleep from the air turning thick and putrid with the death of existence. Ten minutes it took to walk down the useless stairwell, with every step he took sending out a strange shimmer of stati- h';S#csz? -turning just oddly enough that James started to feel- s+~*21///*^4dhCs++ -as if he were walking on the wall at a slow angle increasing with every step- a1#==+~zs5."! _-he felt the stairs suddenly turn sharp as if walking back the way he came, but he trusted his instincts and kept walking finding the way had turned in on itself like a knotted rope. Just when he thought he was truly walking backwards, he found a new entrance appear at the end of the last step. The demon's lair finally showed itself before him. It was surprisingly empty for one with such an ego, having nothing but a single throne above James at the other end of the room. Black stone of unknown origin, the throne seemed to resemble more of a large volcanic shelf without armrests floating in the air empty with but half a clockface carved into its backrest. The demon sat upon his strangely humble-looking seat looking exactly like James except for his rather fiendish proportions slightly exaggerated. Claws and teeth elongated partially, blood prints on his body unwashed as if tokens of his great slaughter and conquests with eyes now shut as he stared downwards at his feet. The floor itself was a clock face also now illuminated as James noticed the three hands. There were no numbers but he saw the hour, the minute and the second which ticked gently down towards his last breaths ever to be made. _ "I had a speech." _ The demon spoke but did not open his eyes yet. _ "A great wondrous speech prepared for this very day when we should ever meet somehow. You have found through great trial and tribulation one of the few ways to ever face me, and for that...I must commend you for no mortal has ever managed to succeed in coming this far. But then...no mortal I have ever possessed managed to escape into another dimension, like you. You are...an interesting individual to have caused me so much trouble and yet also such great...beneficial merit." _ He looked up towards the abyss from which his eyes reflected of a perfect dark. _ "I had so many things I wanted to tell you, of my legacy and fear concocted amongst the worthless populace of those throughout the living planes of existence. But I fear that recent events have transpired forcing me to rethink upon my existence. My purpose, as it were. At one time I thought that perhaps, you and I were more similar than we think, that maybe I had found a body perfect for me in my absolution, someone who would maybe understand a wrought history of violence. But no...you and your reckless incorrigible determination that has forced you to survive this long has ever remained a most troubling obstacle. Not that it has stopped me. No." _ The raptor walked slowly towards the centre of the room. _ "It has only slowed my efforts but not stopped them completely and now it never will. Let me ask you this." _ The beast from up above bent down towards him with his hands clasped together and eyes now focused upon FG. _ "Why do you persist? Why, when I have given you every opportunity to just simply lay down and die to accept your fate, always that wretched spark sustains itself in you? Tell me. I need to know this." _ "...I think I know why. But let's face it, you don't really give a shit do you? You're not here to talk this out." _ "Hm. Whatever the reason truly is I will say this. You are certainly the most difficult host I ever had to deal with in my existence." _ "Heh...really? Thank you, and you're the most disgusting cunt that ever shit out of someone else's cunt." _ "Regardless. Considering I had only humans before you, yes you are surprisingly tenacious, but then you appear to have all the same faults and temptations as them so it seems you are no better. I have seen some mortals persist much more in the last struggles before their death, more tenacious than others be. Some mortals have a greater sense of determination than others and you are no exception. Even when your mind desires to give in, your spirit has remained detestfully arrogant...I enjoy souls that give me a good struggle before the end but now I grow weary of this hunt. I wish to taste death in a new meaning of existence and so I shall require you to assist me." _ The Scissoraptor slowly sat back against his throne resting against the stone seat, his hands propped up as if placing them on invisible armrests. _ "But I am not completely selfish. Because of this crossroads where we are, I am willing to offer you something, a small bargain for which if you-" _ "No." _ "......you did not even know what I was going to ask of you." _ "I don't, even, care. I'm not going to make ANY deal with you because I am DONE with you. You are getting out of my body, and you are NEVER coming back." _ "James. I am not going to offer you this again." _ "Then don't, because I don't want it." _ "I need your body. I will HAVE your body, that is something I will not refute for it is the most perfect body I have ever possessed for my purposes. It has strength, sleekness, wicked claws and a monstrous appearance to the mortal eye but it has also some great unnatural qualities about it that I greatly want to see if I can command to my own reckoning. I will learn your abilities once I consume you wholly, that is irredeemably your fate my dear James. You cannot stop it." _ "Fuck you." James grasped his scissors firmly in one hand from behind his back and swung out forcefully against the beast, the old rusted steel glimmering even in the depths of his darkness. "I am taking my body back, I am taking my SOUL back from you, I don't care even what's left of it, you will never have me. Ever." _ "Your soul? Do you mean your current status as it is?" _ "Wait what?" _ "This." _ His hand reached out with long dreadful claws, palm open upwards as if demonstrating James himself. _ "Did you not wonder what your body was, in this scape? You have simply brought your soul to me upon a silver platter practically, not that I had trouble finding it before to taste and sample...but now that you have a more solid control over your own cognisance I can finally devour you absolutely. Thank you for making this much easier." _ "No. Not gonna happen." The raptor pointed his weapon in defiance upon the demon. "I will destroy you...I will make you pay for everything you did." _ "Do you really wish to fight me? I had an offer to make this go as painlessly as possible without you ever having to suffer, I can still give you a sweet painless death as my one gift to you...my dearest friend." _ "FUCK. You, I don't care how long we fight, you are never going to win, I will make fucking CERTAIN of that." _ "Hm. Very well. You wish to suffer more than you have suffered already, well...that is of no concern to me." _ He stood up upon solid air in front of his small throne before walking down two steps, fading into a shimmering smoke before appearing straight in front of FG on the floor of the clock face. _ "You realise that you are facing off against a beast no more than six-thousand years old, one who's mastered the art of possession and soul-devouring? Something you cannot even comprehend when you cannot even manage to comprehend the TWO faces within you sharing but one soul." _ "You know about that? That's happened before?" _ "Of course it has, you are nothing special, do you really think you are the only one who has ever lived two lives and two minds within one wholesome self? No, and rest assured I shall so consume him as well as you slowly." _ "I must be something special, if you want me that badly plus the fact that I'm the first person who ever got this far in facing against you inside like this, well...I think I know how to stop you now." _ "This place is MY kingdom James, every single wretched host that I have possessed has become nothing but a personal lair and your sole existence shall be no different to me. It is why I enjoy it when even in this mentalscape and so you can choose me to end you by a peaceful sleep...or I destroy your memories one by one. Do you understand me James? I will...NOT be gentle." _ The demon began trembling by a most potent aura resonating from within, a raw piercing darkness of a violet amethyst comprehension that began pulsing from his eyes every few seconds like dying wicks from a winter's flame. Scissoraptor spread out his hands onto both sides of him as the energy throbbed at his fingertips as the floor began to turn fluid like water. The clock hands slowly began to raise themselves out of the melting dais resembling possessed weapons before suddenly clashing viciously together at the base, fusing into a jet black pair of scissors that dripped with essence unknown that he grabbed swiftly by the handle. _ "I shall destroy every little piece of you that once was, everything you ever wanted, every one of your hopes and dreams down to your first little wish. Your first gift shall become my jaws snapping around your neck, your first words shall become my breath foetid with your undoing and your first heartbeat...shall be stifled within the womb of your own farthest dreams. I will undo your existence, James Robert Campbell. The only choice you have now, is whether I let you sleep forever...or lie awake and suffer every single piece I tear from your being. I will become the first nightmare you ever suffered in the womb...and so I shall be your last." _ "...you got one thing right." In preparation for the battle, James focused the power of his nanos down towards his left hand and began to fuse together a perfect guarded gauntlet formed entirely of blocks, multicoloured and fractual. With only but the memory of his battle tactic as if he were in a dream, he felt none of the mental exhaustion or sting that came along with such abilities as he felt confident moreso in giving everything he had in the greatest battle for his life. "You'll be the last nightmare I'll ever have, Scissoraptor." _ "Oh...you will wish I wasn't, James Campbell." _

The demon charged without warning with scissors swung forth, James clashing against the horizontal sweep perfect with his own blades facing vertical. The floor still remained unsolid as he felt a cold liquid rushing around his heels whilst the demon shoved against him trying to overbalance his host, but he remained firm enough to push Scisso back who suddenly spun with whirling strike aiming to decapitate FG. The raptor ducked beneath and lurched forwards with violent fist and gauntlet-infused uppercut that cracked through the demon's jaw, but he didn't even stagger. With head snapped back whilst rooted to the spot, he suddenly faded into smoke disappearing from James' view as the raptor turned fast hearing the darkness whoosh past his eyes seeing the demon strike upon him with cleaving blow from above. He dodged swift to his right before the demon's blades struck fierce upon the watery clock face sending a splash across the dais which hit James in the face. He shot fast with a burning fist, blasting fire to keep Scisso away until his vision regained itself, but the demon cared little for being struck in the face by fire as he ran straight through the flame to slash his claws ruthlessly across James' face. The wound sunk deep, ripping down FG's snout and cheek with thick grooves that tore up his purple marks as he fought instantly back with a violent haymaker from his gauntlet-coated hand and a lancing thrust from his blades in the other. Cracking the bone of the demon's teeth, it was enough to stun him for the brutal plunge into his stomach as blood streaked from his back pouring from the scissortips at his sudden impalement. But the demon simply gasped with panting bliss and smiled as he grabbed for James' throat, forcing him backwards as they both fell into the watery substance. The moment they hit the floor, it shattered like perfect thin glass coated with rainwater, crackling with a piercing sound that almost deafened FG as he saw the world underneath. He saw the radiant sunset from all around him as they fell together from a great height, plummeting from the sky as James saw the clocktower of Westminster from many years ago rising ever higher above him. With both feet he slammed straight into the still-impaled demon's gut and pulled out his weapon free before spinning fast to summon a twisting gale to prevent his fall. Scissoraptor landed on his feet easily in front of the great London monument as James briefly glanced at the city of his childhood. Nobody filled the streets as the demon twirled his blades deftly with one hand before clicking his fingers once. In but an instant the city was in flames wreathed with charring smoke, screams of fury and sorrow as shadows began to fill the streets, a familiar nightmare that had become all too real for FG who focused purely on the demon as he advanced slowly towards the raptor. But the darkness simply smiled at him before stabbing the raw pavement, the ground suddenly caving in with tremors of vile malefaction that honed in on FG, charging like burrowing monsters beneath the subconscious state. Breaching the very earth itself like a whale at sea, a piercing lance resembling a clock hand reaching over eight feet tall broke free almost ripping through James' leg, before the second one tore through moments after he leapt back away before the demon struck down from above once more. Leaping off from one spear length to the next, he tore down upon FG with a diagonal cleave, ripping apart his chest with a violent screech as blood rendered itself forth with a blistering gush. Despite the horrifying agony and the sight of his own organs raw and twitching, he was not dead and spasming on the floor in defeat just yet as he slowly felt his body repair itself rapidly, stitching itself anew once again with a painful shuddering in its reformation as he clutched his chest. _ "What's wrong?" _ gloated Scissoraptor. _ "You look as if you've never known what pain a soul can endure." _ "YOU'LL BE GETTING WORSE, BITCH!" Charging whilst the pain still lingered within him, James swung with tearing strength as Scissoraptor guarded with his own steel scissors perfectly, two strikes from the raptor left and right before the demon gutpunched him hard in the stomach. Wheezing harshly, James buckled almost falling before swiftly rolling across the ground to avoid being stabbed from above with a sudden gust of wind to push himself back on his feet. In the same breath of wind he floated briefly off the ground before slamming powerfully with the force of a missile straight into the demon. "WULD!" Both went straight into the river Thames falling through the thick and torpid water as they struggled against each other, no need to breathe within the realm of his mindscape as bubbles flecked fitfully from his mouth. Crossing their scissors against each other, snouts fiercely scraped within an inch from their mouths as James forced him down harder into the depths of the river, feeling the slanting rays of sunset start to fade reaching near darkness. The demon began to fight back and tried swiping at FG to blind him, but the raptor kept his eyes away as they finally parted with blades scraping fierce across the other's cheek, floating beneath the depths. Blasting with striking gales once again, he forced himself through the water to carve through the demon who did not expect such a swift strike, tearing his chest and neck partly open with a filmy weak blood tracing out around him. But in turn the demon had his own counteracting power as he shifted through the water's shadows, phasing between the slanted light rays still weak from the surface. James readied himself with his guard horizontal before seeing something to his left, then right, then straight ahead as darkness shimmered as if being reflected from somewhere. Before he could even make his move on which to choose, he felt a powerful force from underneath come rippling through the sea and tear through his leg as something impaled him through his thigh as he was dragged upwards like a dolphin harpooned. Screaming in a trail of bubbles rabid from his throat, he soon broke free from the water's surface as he watched Scissoraptor pull his leg into the sky using his weapon, the long steel scissors driven through his thigh dripping red across the sea. He had little time to process the world around him before the demon suddenly slammed him down upon the deck of an old wooden galleon, half-broken and rotted through listlessly upon the rocks along with the many dozens of kremlings, nu-mous and humans all twisted and gasping out their last breaths. A heaving sigh of the ship's life gasping away with no hope amidst the storm-crippled sea. Struggling to pull himself up, James grabbed for the main mast as half the wood came peeling off in his hand with scissors bracing against the cold cruel wind. Howling screams of the maelstrom's vengeance upon the forsaken crew, the raptor watching Scisso descend lightly upon the deck in front of the captain's cabin at the stern with the grace of a raven. He rushed forth soon as he saw the demon, not wasting a second of being caught off-guard as he tore a flaming streak of burning crimson across the ship, scorching wildfire that rose from his scissors to a height of six feet before slicing a sulphurous shockwave towards the Scissoraptor. The force from such a sheer intensity accompanied by the downwind storm completely engulfed the Scissoraptor, who was taken back by such power and burned violently fast, roaring with agony as he felt his flesh completely decay with atrophy blistering to his very bone. James did not cease his attack however as he stood his ground defiant before slamming the scissors swiftly into the mast to have his right hand free as he charged up another set of nanos. With power unrestrained by any physical limit, his arm was coated within a shining blue light before he blasted a psychotically-strong plasma shot. "HRAAAAAAAH!" It almost knocked him right off his feet with such a power he had never felt, the strength of his imagining amplifying it somehow as it tore like a comet straight through the demon's existence. Wrapped in fire and scorched to a cindering half-skeletal mockery of James himself, the obliterating shot sent him hurtling back into the captain's cabin itself with a thunderous crack of wood as the demon crumpled against the broken desk. Lifting himself up in the same second by a hovering gait, his limbs snapped back into action as he molded darkness around himself like a thickening cloak of indigo mist. _ "Not...bad, as I expect from you." _ "Keep talking," said FG, "just gives me time to charge up an-WOAH!"

With blackening whip formed out of darkness, the demon struck forth towards the raptor who jumped swiftly up against the mast grabbing his scissors back from their wooden post, waiting for the beast's offensive. From the dark of the cabin he saw the shape of scissors come flying out towards him wrapped in black smoke, twisting to slice through the main mast like a hot knife through butter as James dodged with a backflip. The mast began to fall with James landing upon its large sliding length as the ship creaked with groaning mournful sound as the gasping cries of the fallen crew resonated all around him. Bodies began falling into the cruel sea as the Scissoraptor rushed up onto the fallen main mast, sails drenched deep beneath the waves as the raptor shuddered with fierce flames through his scissors. Slicing violent waves of fire across the length of the mast turned into a duelist's bridge, the heartless demon strafed each and every forceful wave that struck forth like the desert's scirocco by either leaping across or turning into mist. In return as his feet pounded across the rotting wood, he summoned forth a shadow darkly dragging itself behind him, long like a fearsome king's cape. The shadow leapt from behind Scissoraptor as its own being and suddenly split itself apart into five scissor shapes, ruthless spinning open blades that whirled screeching death upon FG as they cut through the howling storm of the sea. He struck one like it was solid, clanging off his own rusted blades easily before turning to strike the second, then the third, fourth and fifth just in time to watch Scissoraptor drive forwards with blades wide open. He dodged back too late as they snapped down upon his waist like the jaws of a wild beast, slicing viciously apart his intestinal structure and base of the spine. He fell into the sea without feeling his legs as raw visceral agony tore through his entire lower body, everything starting to drip and rot like foetid decay as he never hit the water itself. The demon had grabbed onto his hand and swung him upwards into the sky with unholy strength, hard enough he went shooting through the clouds becoming wrapped in cold thick air that almost sent shivers through his very heart. Struggling to fight back against the suffering of his lower waist he summoned his imagination to reprimand this trying to focus all that he could. Bursting free from the height of clouds into a broken dawn, the sun cracked and blistering with deep vibrations across a sickly green sky as if threatening to explode, he saw clouds moving darkly both above and below him trapped within an aerial abyss. Somehow he felt his legs return back to him, slowly as the soft cold cumulonimbus began to wrap itself around his waist like serpents made of smoke. Twisting and thickening into tremulous form, they suddenly became solid as the frigid ice crystals of travelling clouds turned into smooth pebbled scale, like stones upon a seashore unwashed by the receding tide. It was a moment of peace to help soothe his pain before the demon caught up with him. Hovering softly in the midst of an eerie atmosphere, the two struck blades powerfully as James almost panicked from being surprised at the demon's chase, cross-striking three times into an X-shape of two scissors before breaking free from each other. Scissoraptor raised a claw up towards the clouds above and it was then James heard a fateful ticking sound, loud and booming like the timepiece of God sentencing the world apocalypse to happen any minute. Without warning, a giant clock hand swooped fiercely from above towards James faster than a sword strike, the raptor dodging only to suddenly be struck by another clock hand that came sweeping up from underneath. Struck violently by the forceful cold steel, his entire body was slalomed and scratched deep across the sternum as he gasped with aching shudders whilst keeping his scissors up. The clock hands came once again as he dodged, but the demon made it hard with his own constant volley of dark shadowy scissor images tearing through the sea of clouds. The ruthless assault was a constant struggle for James who tried striking back, managing to defend himself against the constant rain of vicious shadowed blades he either guarded by his gauntlet, or carved through by his scissors. But the clock hands would always manage to find where he was located, hunting him, following like sharks hidden within the clouds of metal fin before sweeping through to scar across his body. Gathering his wits for another tactic, he poured his power into both hands as they channelled through his blades with an idea from desperation, opening the blades apart. Roaring with supernatural strength, one blade of the scissors became icy cold and wrought fierce with crystalline structure, whilst the other blazed eternal by the fiery pits of Hell as James spun his weapon violently in front of him, unleashing a dual-blasting volley of ice and fire. It was not however for the demon, but instead for the clock hands that would come down swooping down once more with one starting to melt and the other becoming frozen. Whatever shadows came upon him he would manage by himself, using both gauntlet and arm-cannon formed once again in his right hand to both block and shoot repeatedly. Were he not in the greatest battle for his soul he would have relished having such unlimited power that never would be capable in reality, but in this lucid state he had all his imagining to unleash as he managed to stop the clock. With one hand melting roots in place and the other solid to a frigid rust before him, the raptor unleashed a combined triple attack whilst the scissors spun violently upon his wish. Fire, ice and plasma combined into one brilliantly piercing blast, a high-focus beam that while did not last long, was most certainly enough to completely destroy both clock hands into worthless putrid steel. The demon however dodged easily the hyper-powered beam and had flown swiftly beneath the clouds readying for a sneak attack, his own scissors skimming across the statospheric subterrane waiting to strike FG at his moment of weakness. Just when he had ceased his onslaught and managed to deconstruct his arm-cannon in order to grab at the scissors, the demon struck back, lunging towards the raptor's gauntlet-covered fist heading straight for his face. Turning fast the moment he saw the clouds move strangely, a solid left hook came punishing towards the demon's eye hard enough to crack his skull in half, bursting with blood and sputum of the brain before falling down into the abyss. James hurried after him, grabbing his scissors cleanly as the ice and flames began receding once more before plunging through the cirrus sea. Beyond that was no longer the ocean of tears and broken ships, but now the world had changed around him and as soon as he landed, the sky was no longer there above him as if stripped from existence. Two gigantic walls where cities stood horizontal next to him with two rivers winding across the floor and ceiling. To his left was a technological paradise devoured by beasts of synthetic nightmares, steel cobalt and misty blue streaked with blood of red, white and green. To his right was a dusty settlement, an old shantytown scorched clean with fire resembling black teeth upon an ancient corpse. Screams unending came from both sides as he braced himself for the next attack, deafened by the cries of innocents enough to not suspect the demon's whereabouts dripping above his head. From the waters of the ceiling he came through, shrieking teeth as James dodged at the last minute upon Scisso landing upon the barren field next to the floor's riverscape, the raptor striking forth almost instantly to slice down Scisso's throat. Ripping his lungs apart with one forceful streak, James went on the offensive and powerslammed his fist straight into the monster's side with such crippling force, that he threw him towards the wasted town of the desert on the right wall. The world suddenly turned twisting with their motions as James rushed after him, as if he were walking within one giant cuboid. The waters never trickled, never slipped, never poured unending from their sides as the wasteland became upright, the dried husks of men, women and children now resembling ghouls gasping their final breaths. A howling wind scorched through piercing James' eyes as he strafed through the settlement, watching out for the demon's presence amongst stone and steel constructs. Without warning the beast leapt forth from a roof straight onto James' back, raking his claws hard enough to tear into his flesh and sever apart his internal organs.

Screeching as his back was skinned alive from bone, his ribs revealed behind him as he blasted a gust of wind harshly from underneath to force himself up and Scisso away from him. The monstrous claws held on like rabid fiends ripping apart his scaled skin, the Scissoraptor snapping his jaws straight into James' ribs from behind and pulling viciously back until he pierced his own lung before snapping the rib clean through. He threw himself against a wall, slamming himself backwards with a forwards-shooting gale to propel himself back with phenomenal force shooting like a cannonball, hard enough he crushed through the wall itself crippling Scissoraptor fierce. The monster took the brunt of the failing wall as stone and steel ligaments twisted and teared down upon him, crumpling his body with heavy thuds as James staggered back to allow himself to heal, flesh reknitting by the fabrics of his imagination along with bone and blood. But he was not done yet as scissors came lunging from the rockpile stabbing fierce through his stomach. Ruthlessly impaled, James flew across the turning world which spun neatly until he fell upon the other city, the jungle of cold steel and rabid shrieks of a thousand aliens crying out before the endless silence. The long smooth streets of bleak bitter lighting gave small comfort as he ripped the scissors from his stomach before screaming back towards their owner coming straight for him. "_YOU WANNA JOUST, I'LL FUCKING SHOW YOU! _" James threw his scissors like a piercing lance twirling into the abyss, the demon's shadow dodging easily before James sweeped out a thickening arm cannon to blast even harder with. He cracked him in the face on the second hit, burning plasma coursing through his essence as the beastly cry of anger rended itself through the air at halting his advance. He fired once more, alternating white-hot plasma with raw cold ice until the creature landed having half his body completely obliterated by raw searing wounds and sunken holes slowly receding from his form upon forcefully healing. He willed the scissors to come back before him as they fell seamlessly from above, his arm cannon disappearing just in time to grab at them with his hand before the two struck against each other. By a fierce charging clash, both swung in a perfect block four times countering before the demon spun and slashed for James' throat, the raptor ducking once more but the moment he tried to punch Scisso once again like last time, the demon had grabbed his fist and threw him with a beastly strength. Slamming him against a wall of sheer steel, he crumpled slightly but staggered himself up within a second of his falling. With furious charging, he tricked the demon into thinking he was going to stab-thrust into him, but he ceased the second before coming close to leap straight over the demon's head as the Scissoraptor swung by instinct to attack and block. With himself now completely open from behind, he wasn't able to stop the vicious impaling thrust from behind as James screamed with bitter fury as his blades pierced out of the demon's chest. Gurgling gasps of sweet agony from his throat, the beastly illusion of James' monstrous form shivered with a wretched tone before hearing James scream even further at sawing the scissorblades within the monstrous chest. Raking back and forth enough to carve open half of the entire body, blood barely spilt from the dead organs before James fully lanced straight through him one more time to slowly swing him like a ball and chain. Hurling him straight into the river upon the ceiling, he chased after him to make certain he was dead as both plunged into the water of icy cold that was reminiscent of how the clouds felt in the eerie sky previously. But it wasn't until he heard the howling scream echo across the new frozen wasteland that he felt more fearful upon ending this fight, of another world all-too-familiar to him. Landing in a winter's nightmare, he saw with some shock a cold and empty street, a small town of many houses shaped like turtle shells completely covered and broken, crumpling under the weight of a deathly snowstorm. All around him he saw the half-coated bodies of koopas, dozens of them rigid from the bleak hiemal weather, raw fingers and cold dead eyes starkly white as a constant squall turned fierce upon his head. He couldn't see anymore than ten feet beyond his vision, but a shadow stood clearly the same as him bristling with the air of violence and cruelty. They charged once again, striking fierce upon each other's blades in constant succession, crossing a multitude of sixteen times without stopping in a battle of pure unrelenting focus against the demon's senses. Left, downwards, up, diagonal, thrust, struck away, dodged left, swing carving the head, blocked fast before a turning spin and strike carving down upon the fiend's head. Neither of them felt the cold so long as they believed that it wasn't there, but a little fire never hurt regardless as the raptor forced another lancing flame tongue across his weapon. In return the demon channelled his own darkness through his blade as they struck forcefully against the other once again, pure burning fire of chemical purity versus the infernal darkness itself. Every strike that was made against such elements caused a wave of disturbance across the hungering graupel, the hailstorm pummelling the once-simple and perfect world that James had tried to preserve in his memory. But nightmares were never welcome in any existence, nor were they ever forgiven for their manipulation of such peaceful lands beyond his own.

The final blow came when the raptor sent a weakened slice forwards as a purposeful feint, tricking the demon to swing too harshly and throw himself off-kilter before the fatal thrust. The downwards strike the demon made upon James' scissors was the perfect momentum for his cleaving flames, as he spun with one turn to completely and utterly carve deep into the Scissoraptor's head. He tore his weapon deep, almost splitting the monster entirely through until he stopped just above the intestinal tract upon hearing a strange gurgling noise come forth from the beast. _ "H-HRRRhhhRRKHHH! GUH...hhhggggrrrnn-n-n-not...bad." _ A storm came forceful from the far side of his view, howling white mist that briefly blacked out his vision until seeing the demon's lair before him once again. The worlds of nightmares he had known from many sleepless nights both with and without the demon's influence, had now faded to show the strange clock-faced floor and black-stoned shelf that had made itself the simple throne of the monstrous evil. James stood back slightly with a panting gasp, heaving with a tense relief as he kept his blades close to prepare for any second strikes. _ "One thing...I h-have always loved about y-you...was your great c-caPA-...city for great violence." _ He said nothing as he kept his guard up, watching the demon stagger backwards gently. _ "All I-i am...is but a shadow...the true self I reflect...of mortal deeds. And you h-have...shown greatly that self." _ "Shut up. Die already." _ "Hahaha...hhhhah...die? I cannot die James. Have you never learned th-that...already?" _ "What?" _ "You have s-simply succeeded enough for me to have t-to unleash my true power, not that I really wanted to. It's only if you became e-e-even more of a pest than usual in our greatest s-s-struggle." _ "True power?! THIS isn't it, being a fucking jackass isn't your true power?!" _ "No. I'm much more than that." _ The demon suddenly collapsed, falling into a crumpled heap upon the floor as James looked up towards the darkness looking for unseen hands. Something was wrong, something that crept up along the inches of his spine as he grabbed his scissor handles tight with both hands. Nothing came for at least twenty seconds until he saw the Scissoraptor slowly raise up one single arm before him looking rather strangely limp. Than the other arm came up with the same slackened deadness as his broken body lifted up, head lolling around uselessly as a voice came from someplace. _ "Did you really think that THIS flimsy excuse of a shadow was my form truly?" _ The darkened form of James simply staggered towards him like a marionette, his body losing all form of coherence with a drunken walk and deadened limbs slack-hanging from his body. "What the...fuck is this?" _ "Do you not understand at this point, James? This body here is just like you...nothing more than simply a ** _ **P U P P E T. _ " _ The darkness began receding from the world around him as something revealed itself behind the veil, glancing by a flickering flame of soulless blue wisps forming a circle around FG and the Scissoraptor. All across the periphery of his vision he saw candlelight bristling from hard waxen sculptures as tall as him that smelt like human fat, with the shapes of screaming faces and twisted raw limbs trapped inside the white dripping liquid. From the very top of the demon's sanctum, perched upon his throne was a star transfixed within a circle now radiant in its purity as it shone with pentagram signage onto the circular floor the raptor now stood upon. Soon it revealed the true evil that now laid within. A skull of human origin thirty feet in height laid underneath the throne itself, bleached to a whitish-grey with the base formed of an insidious writhing mass of corpulent tentacles, blacker than cold silk and numbering by the dozens like a sea of serpents. At the top of the throne were two gigantic clawed hands perched on either end of the great seat, one alone of which could easily crush a deathclaw's head in its fiendish grip. Above them still, nestling at the corner of the backrest was a creature's head, something James had seen briefly in nightmares like an overbearing presence always. The true demon itself. Gazing upon him like a raven to its dying feast, the long head of dagger-shape piercing to the very tip stared with unseen eyes almost hidden by the blanket covering half the throne itself. But once his eyes had locked onto the beast, James could not even bring himself to look away as one of its hands pulled slowly away from the edge of the seat to reveal thin spindly threads connecting towards the Scissoraptor's body. Slowly it pulled the fiendish body back up towards its own seat, sitting down back into the same position that he had taken when James first entered this room, his head downwards with his hands resting at his side. The voice that spoke was at the edge of his hearing in how deep it was but he most certainly knew what it said for every trembling of its timbre, with every word echoing throughout his entire soul like a diseased pulsating heart. "...oh...oh god no." "I S T H I S E N O U G H F O R Y O U T O U N D E R S T A N D, J A M E S R O B E R T C A M P B E L L?" "No...n-n-n-no, wh-what...what are you?" "I A M T H E S O N O F T H E G R E A T F A T H E R. H U M A N I T Y M A Y H A V E S C U L P T E D M Y P A S T D E S I R E B UT N O T A N Y M O R E. Y O U, A R E T H E O N L Y O N E I T R U L Y U N D E R S T O O D, D O Y O U K N O W W H Y J A M E S C A M P B E L L? B E C A U S E Y O U A R E B U T A P A W N T O A L L O F E X I S T E N C E. Y O U A R E B U T N O T H I N G E L S E T O Y O U R F R I E N D S, Y O U R B E L O V E D, E V E N Y O U R O W N W O R S T E N E M Y A N D S U C C E S S O R." "FUCK YOU! YOU...Y-Y-YOU'RE NOT GONNA SCARE ME, OR TRICK ME ANYMORE BECAUSE I'M DONE WITH YOU! YOU KNOW WHAT I AM HERE?! I'M NOBODY'S PAWN HERE, BECAUSE THIS IS ALL ME, THIS IS ALL IN MY HEAD WHERE I FUCKING RULE THESE MEMORIES AND ALL MY FRIENDS RESPECT ME FOR WHO I AM!" "Y O U K N O W I S P E A K T R U T H. W H A T I S O N E M A S T E R T O A N O T H E R W H E N A L L Y O U H A V E E V E R D O N E I S B U T S E R V E S O M E O N E E L S E'S P U R P O S E? I C A N G I V E Y O U P O W E R A N D E T E R N I T Y, I S H A L L M A K E Y O U L I V E F O R E V E R A S T H E K I N G O F D E M O N S A L O N G S I D E M E ON T H I S T H R O N E. W H A T C A N Y O U R F R I E N D S O F F E R Y O U? W H A T C A N A W O R T H L E S S H A L F-S P I R I T S U C H A S K I R I E O F F E R Y O U T H A T I C A N N O T R E A C H?" "A chance to go home. A choice to live. A choice to go back to those I love, you won't ever give me that." "O N C E I H A V E T A K E N C O N T R O L O F Y O U R S T R A N G E P O W E R I C A N G R A N T Y O U T H A T W I S H." "NO! FUCK YOUR SHIT, YOU DON'T GIVE ONE FUCK ABOUT ME OR ANYONE ELSE, BUT YOURSELF! I WILL NEVER JOIN YOU, I WON'T LET ANY OF MY FRIENDS DOWN, NOT KIRIE, NOT ANYONE!" ** "D O Y O U T R U L Y B E L I E V E S H E W O U L D E V E R H A V E G I V E N Y O U T H A T F R E E D O M Y O U S O L O N G D E S I R E F O R?"** "SHE GOT ME THIS FAR, SHE BROUGHT ME HERE TO FACE YOU, NOW IT'S ALL UP TO ME!" The raptor swung his blades out forth and prepared for his truest battle as the demon understood, his anger strangely not present as his claws soon sweeped out from the throne grasping across the darkness. Huge mountainous arms that stretched with snapping musculature and soft black feathers that dripped from his skin, James could see that each claw was at least five feet as he watched more tentacles seethe from beneath the skull, a pythons' feast that crawled towards him. "S O I T S H A L L B E." The creature's head pulled forth from the throne's seat rising itself to perch beneath the great evil light of the star. "I S H A L L N O T F O R G E T Y O U, J A M E S R O B E R T C A M P B E L L. Y O U W E R E M Y F A V O U R I T E M O N S T E R."

Swooping claws came from his left as James ducked onto his knees swiftly, watching the grandeur of his sinister enemy resembling an ancient god starved of his greatness, long and spindly proportions with each arm spanning by a good forty feet. The claws swung with looming shadows across the clock face central dais beneath FG's feet as he dodged with fright-flinching ease before they slammed down ruthlessly upon the surface without cracking the strange glassy structure. The force of its hammering fist shook deep vibrations throughout FG's soul as he stumbled with staggering gait, falling awkwardly before its hand slashed his body. "A-AAAAAAARGH!" The moment its evil hand had touched him he felt a dark burning within his being, turning much deeper than any wound he could possibly conceive. Raking claws had fiendishly scarred across his chest, rendering a thick blackened rake that would not heal no matter how long it took. The severity of this pain coursing through him in its potent sharpness, moreso than anything else he had known in his past fights, sent down a quivering fearfulness through his spine he did his best to stifle. Soon they came again by a mighty swoop as if hearing the wings of Lucifer himself streak down upon him as he dodged, strafing fast to the left at the first streaking tear across the central pattern of the clockface. The claws of the Great Father's son went deep, gouging across the glass to tear it like a fresh field ploughed in the death of famine, crinkling streaks torn up to become brittle jagged mounds all around FG. The second swipe came straight before a third striking slam that almost crushed James fully were he not able to dodge so swift, the blast of wind from his hand propelling him away fiercely in time. Each crushing pound of the slender limbs sent shudders throughout his inner self, shivering tremendously with the raw power of the infernal beast as he kept his footing and mentality as stable as he could. One punching slalom came straight towards him and as he ducked beneath the great darkened fist, he tore his scissors through the monstrous limb, gashing at the wrist before slicing down deep across the arm. But there came not even a moan of contempt, the demon's thick skin turning much harder to penetrate by any normal means. It wasn't just the hands he had to beware of for he saw also the sleek tendrils coming up to meet him, pouring out beneath the skull now crawling towards him, slithering in hunt for prey as the raptor stood waiting whilst pouring thick flames upon his blades raw with blood. Lighting up the central dais in a spotlight, he tore through the serpentine tentacles that came for him with six being beheaded by every sweep of his scissors as they advanced swiftly. Streaking fiercely across the floor, they swarmed within en masse upon FG as the multitude came faster than he could cut. An entire sea of black writhing coils entwined itself around him, wrapping by his legs and slicing into his flesh like razor teeth as they began reaching up towards his body. Hacking and chopping away at every darkened slither that he witnessed, he was soon overwhelmed as biting fangs pierced and ripped thickening black welts that remained permanently twisted to his skin. Screeching as they began to pierce at his bone, he forced his energy through his every limb and pulsed out a great cleansing fire to destroy all of the nightly jaws that ripped across his flesh. In a flash of fire that consumed his body briefly, the darkness began to recede as they burned off completely showing streaks of hardened rotting flesh, blackening to a necrotic state that made it more difficult to breathe and move in. As if he were being slowly petrified by some unknown poison stopping dead the blood in his veins, the raptor staggered forwards to show his still willingness to fight as the demon's voice echoed across the boundary of his mindscape. "S U C H A R R O G A N C E. I A D M I R E A L W A Y S S U C H P I T I F U L T R A I T S." "I...I am NOT going to lose, just gimme one chance, ONE FUCKING CHANCE and I'll make you wish you never fucked with me." "A H...H A H A H A H A...V E R Y W E L L. W H Y N O T P L A Y W I T H S O M E O L D D E A R F R I E N D S O F O U R S F I R S T B E F O R E I S H O W Y O U M Y T R U E S T N A T U R E?" The fires of candlelight began to burn brightly with sudden sheer heat, a sense of sweltering hot air gasping across the dais as James turned swiftly in a circle to notice something about the strange waxen sculptures. A sense of odd familiarity came across as he noted the faces of torment and screaming bodies that remained trapped inside of them. Not just of humans, but of all creatures he had met and seen, men, women and children slowly melting as the sounds of painful agonising lament started to create an orchesta of sorrow. He recognised them faintly, faces in the crowd, fallen and forgotten, but there were two he noticed most significant as one of the closer candle sculptures of the great circle of damnation. They were of a human and nu-mou, male and female respectively screeching unholy torment as they joined the cacophony, no words but only fear and sufferance would reign. The sound began to reach a crescendo, almost piercing into his brain, deafening, trembling as the heat began to rise amidst the eternal darkness. Melting wax dripped further across the floor towards him and before he knew it, it began to scorch at his wounded legs. Something grabbed him by the foot as he struggled and fell onto his face, looking down over his foot to see a crippled human hand pierce from the waxen puddle and start to pull him in. Another hand pulled free reminiscent of a nu-mou, then another of a turian quite clearly. A dozen hands of every species whose blood had been marked by his blades was now part of the demon's embrace, grabbing onto FG's limbs and burning him alive with tightened grip to melt hot wax from their fingers, deep onto his flesh. He screamed and struggled to pull free but their hands were immensely strong, the rigor mortis creeping in the moment they grasped him. Shrieking at the pain that started to eat at his flesh, burning thickly onto his scales which began to bubble and scald to a peeling red underneath the raptor struggled to focus through and find some means of fighting back against the searing fingers of the dead and fallen. He channelled all he could into his right hand as he dropped the scissors briefly onto the floor, shimmering into an arm cannon as he blasted piercing ice cold towards one puddle that grabbed his shifting arm. Shattering like ice, the hand of white broke free off his arm as he fired back towards his other arm turning his body. Freeing his upper self, he lifted his legs forcefully and shot underneath to crack through the hands of waxen mortuary before staggering himself back up, limbs burning to a thick blackish red as he grabbed his scissors in his left hand readying for the next attack. He was not prepared for the demon himself to come down from his monstrous throne and assault him as a slenderous shadow, the creeping dagger-headed beast who had just sat upon its top now suddenly appearing before him at a height of twelve feet. The shadow itself was thin and tenebrous, limbs no wider than a razorblade as he slashed within an inch of a nanosecond across FG's face. Scarring him powerfully, his purple stripes were soon marred by a blackened scar, three of them tearing towards his eye which soon began to crease and harden with agonising toxic sensation. Gasping with exhaustion as the monstrous influence began to eat at his soul, he struggled to keep standing as his legs started to turn weak and quiver shaking visibly in front of the nefarious creature.

With scissors held firm, he swung as the demon toyed with him, dodging simply with a sleight of hand or a mist shimmering from his body. James tore his wilted flames from his scissorblades to scar across the demon's face with a streaking rip of his hand along the trembling steel to try and damage the beast. But if it had done any harm towards the Son of the Great Father then it was barely showing it, a bitter sting across the piercing still complexion. No emotion came from the shadow's head as it watched James struggle to attack him with a rush forwards. The moment he lunged forth with his blades the demon struck, grasping at the scissors with one hand before its other arm shot out viciously fast across James' right knee as he heard a skull-shrieking snap. He couldn't comprehend it at first until he looked down to see his knee brutally twisted out of joint, snapped far beyond reach of his limb as brittle daggers of white now gleamed with stiffened red. Then came the agony, then came the fall at last as his strength began to ebb from him like blood from his body. The despair of his loss did not sink in until he realised his legs were now crippled beyond belief. He kneeled onto the floor stumbling with broken knee shattering out of joint, twisted beyond hope with blackening tears out of his eyes which began to moisten from a mixture of blistering pain, raw fury and even more grievously of the disbelief that he had lost. He forced himself to stand up, but he couldn't, his legs refused to obey him as he fell forwards. "N-no...no...NO! NO DAMMIT NOOOO!" "Y O U F O U G H T W E L L." Standing beside the true shadow of the beast, was the Scissoraptor's shape now reanimated by his hand sleekly waving over the darker raptor's head. Gently walking towards James' fallen self, his voice returned back to the bitterous black speech as he smiled cruelly. _ "But you did not win." _ "FUCK...I...I CAN'T LOSE, I CAN'T LOSE TO YOUUU!" "And why is that?!" "I...I'M THE HERO!" "Whoever told you that you were a hero? Kirie? Hmhmhm...a pitiful halfbreed who so hoped to put all of her wishful dreams upon your head like a worthless crown made of paper. You are not called a king for what you wear." "I'M NOT...GIVING IN!" "You were far too weak. You weren't powerful enough, perhaps you should have spent more time training yourself instead of rushing into things like the bull-headed fool you always have been. But either way, I have won, and now...your soul is complete to harvest." "NO! F-FUCK YOU!" _ "Oh you don't even get a say in this." _ "I'M NOT DONE YET GOD DAMMIT! _" James tried to stand up, managing briefly to push his knees forwards into a stiff breaking position as he gritted his teeth, only for his mirrored self to suddenly shift behind him and grab his other leg before twisting it fully out of joint. Pain flooded his mind piercing as he screeched stumbling back to the ground crying as he grabbed his bloodied stump, the leg torn off from the knee to become red ragged bone. "_A-AAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! FUHUHUUUUUCK!" _ "Hm hm hm hm hm...look at you, thirty-six years old and you cry like a child who scraped his knee." _ "SHUT UP! SH-SHUT UUUP, I WON'T LET YOU WIN! I CAN'T LET YOU WIN! _" _ "I already have, now accept your defeat and let me feast. The only thing you can save now is your dignity." _ Scissoraptor looked down upon his meal, freshly bloodied with sweat glistening upon his weakened body as the dark monster's puppet slowly slid his tongue along James' neck, almost shuddering erotically at the taste of James' soul. "G-g-...g-go away...d-don't...I'll k-kill you." _ "Ohhhhh...you would not believe how long I have been waiting to taste you...hhhhhh...how delicious your soul truly is." _ "Oh..g-god...please...I-i-i can't...I can't l-lose...s-s-someone please-_GH-GHHRRRAAAAAGHHHK!" He was interrupted in his mourning when Scissoraptor bit into the throat, a resonating cry coming from it as FG screamed from the deep pain to bleed spittle and red from his neck. "Mmmmmph...did you know a soul bleeds too, James?" "A-A-AAAAAAAAAAARRRGH!" _ "Hm...I suppose not. It is not blood so much as it is an...essence of sorts, and that essence is like ambrosia to those such as me...hhhhh...it makes me feel so...alive." _ The beast suckled upon the opened wound of the soul, tasting the blood that oozed like crimson oil, gulping it down, licking his lips before kissing the shuddering lips and forced his tongue within FG's mouth, deeply enough to cause a sense of feeling violated. "MMMmmmmph! MmmmmmMMMMNNNNNNNNGH!" The raptor struggled to keep his eyes open. He was not done yet, but the battle had weakened him enough that he was losing strength from the demon sucking it out of him, even through his tongue now deep within his torn throat, suckling hungrily. Lewdly, claws stroking the raptor's form with a false tenderness across his chest. The beast broke the kiss of death upon his host, saliva dripping thickly between them by a thin feeble thread as he caressed James' cheek. _ "I wonder...if your blood was ever this sweet...my dear James. You will beg for me, before I devour you entirely. You should not have come here James...if you did not wish to die so quickly. But now you brought me your soul...upon a silver platter." _ James could say nothing, shaking with pain all over his body as his arms and legs flared up with pain whilst Scissoraptor walked behind him. One leg broken from his knee, his eyesight bleary with raw anguish bursting from within his soul as the monster propped him up to sit forcefully on his rear. Before James could even fight back, he felt jaws lunge upon him from behind as a violently deafening snap ripped across his left ear, tearing open the very bone with brutal teeth, a bleeding abscess of a white festering chunk now drenched in red and black. "AAAAAAIIIIAAAAAARGH! AAAAAAAAAAAGH!" _ "Mmmmph...did you expect something more dramatic? My teeth are the same regardless of whether we exist in reality or from within, it is how those like me devour souls...piece by piece, inside the deepest reach of the mind within that special place...where the spirit lives." _ "S-s-spirit? Wh-wh-what, d-d-don't, s-stop!" _ "Yes...the drive for life. The will to survive, to endure, for whatever reasons you create, for the good of others or themselves. I'm so proud of you, my little demon. The reason I am eating you like this? Here, you ARE your soul. Right...now." _ Claws grasped against his chest in a one-armed embrace from the beast. The raptor felt his left arm barely hanging on, the sound of crunching bone slowly devoured and gulped into the demon's throat as he breathed harshly against his right ear. He started to work on the back of James' head as his teeth crunched through his sharp skull lining and straight into the brain matter which drooled with sickening warmth down the back of his neck He felt a sudden shock tingling through both of their forms which James knew with a mortal fear awakening down in his weeping heart. The demon knew what it was as his eyes began to sparkle with a feverish excitement. "What's this? ...yeeeeeeesssss...that's it. That wondrous little thing I've been searching for...ohhhhh James. That one part of you I could never decipher but all I have to do is just-ah...that was it. That feeling that I sensed from you, was that what it was?" "N-n-no...n-no, th-that's not...that's not it, that's not it!" _ "Ohhhhh but it is. I know it is, I felt that sensation briefly before not more than a few weeks hence when you were but asleep for the longest night of my existence. What a wonderful cold feeling it must be to travel across dimensions like you..." _ Feeling the nightmare's tongue creeping along the back of his brain made him shiver with intensely agonising sobs of pitiful mourning as the shadows watched his slow eventual evisceration. _ "I can do everything to your soul that you have committed to the living. I can twist your limbs into wretched joints, I can tear open your stomach and slowly eviscerate you as you bleed...have you ever felt your blood pouring out of your intestinal tract? It's very similar to a long...painful...constant climax where every spurt just brings you closer to death. Speaking of which..." _ He felt Scisso's other hand sneak underneath his tail and violently shove a clawfinger thickly into his anal pucker. _ "I can do that too...I just never did it because I do not feel such pleasures in the physical realm of mortals. Whereas here...ohhhhh...EVERYTHING I do to you here brings me nothing but absolute B L I S S of your suffering. Let me give you a sample." _ "N-NO! NOOOOO STOP! S-STOP IIIIII-A-A-AAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAARRRGH! _" Forced forwards by a painful bent crouching against his stomach, he felt the teeth of the Scissoraptor start to rip and tear across his back, stripping the flesh as slowly he started to chew long thick tendrils of warm scaled meat. He only spoke between each ripping of the flesh. _ "Imagine...glk...if you were burned alive with a flammable gas pumped slowly into your body, drinking like a lover's kiss, choking and burning at the same time from within as your brain and body die together in so many ways. Now imagine it without the fire and if your death were more...prolonged. That..is the best descript I can prepare you for if I should ever want to violate your soul." _ "_Y-y-you...y-you don't g-give a shit about that." "No...but for you I would love to make an exception considering how pathetic a sodomite you are bending your rear to every fiend across the stars, hmhmhaHA! Perhaps after this, I can show your dear little sodomite Koopin too how that feels just so he can sympathise with your agony all the more." "NO, D-DON'T YOU FUCKIN-A-AAAAAAGH! AAAAAAAAAAIIIIGH! _" Another tearing of flesh from his soul, along the arm, stripping it to show the muscle beneath. _ "Perhaps you remember that I said he was too pure for me to consume. The light from his soul shone far too brightly for me to even approach it. But that can be changed were I to taint him." _ Scissoraptor pulled out his left arm to twist further away from the shoulder as he began to bite muscle off from it in black bloody shreds, ripping with long quivering strands like violin strings plucked too firmly, snapping at the utmost limit as the raptor began to feel the same loss he had felt when he first lost his arm. He wanted to vomit, dizzying from the pain bursting further into him. "_P-PLEASE GOD NOOOOO!" _ "Oh don't worry, you'll see your sodomite soon. Or rather, he'll see you. I shall visit him, once and only once with your body, wear your heart on my newfound sleeve to fool him...hhhhaha. Then I shall taint him, slowly at first by seducing him with your charm I have learnt to mimic at this point. And then? I shall break him, break his body and mind as I abuse him, beat him...violate him until he is nothing more but resembling a broken weeping female as I cripple his spirit, and his love for you shall become slowly extinguished...and the moment that his heart has become fully broken, is the day I shall make him M I N E." _ James forced every motion of his body to scream in protest against the demon who simply held him still by superior strength. "_ NOOOOOOO! NOOOO PLEASE! D-DON'T, DON'T, JUST LEAVE HIM ALONE! LEAVE HIM ALONE YOU FUCKING SHIT! _" _ "Be quiet." _ Scissoraptor threw him forwards whilst still holding onto FG's arm, snapping it off completely with the most brittle of sounds from what was left of his shoulder as James fell twisting onto his back. _ "After I've dealt your dear sodomite, well...it would be a shame for you not to return home after all that you have done, correct?" _ The raptor looked up with eyes watering badly, fear vehement in them as he raised his right hand. _ "You can show me around your old neighbourhood...visit some old friends. Your dear Sarah must be so lonely waiting for you and I am MOST eager to meet her especially as the one who had sculpted you to be the violent youth I had known in our first meet. A mother's heart, even a foster one's, can be very delicious inside a soul. But rest assured...you, your lover, and your false mother will all be together once again...inside me...fuelling me in my great conquest for all eternity as I become the greatest of beasts to ever have existed. Do you understand James? I will not be some fear totem for humanity. I...shall become D E A T H Himself, not just in ONE pitiful universe...but across ALL existence." _ James was not listening, watching the beast step closer towards him as he leaned down with eyes cruel and bitterest of black, smiling coldly with long teeth as the raptor pitifully grabbed at Scisso's neck. It was hardly a struggle but James did all he could to push him away as the demon chuckled with patronising glee, slowly tracing his claws across James' chest. _ "What's this? Hhhhm hm hm hm ha ha ha...how pathetic, you are just as feeble as you were a newborn like in your memory...stop. Stop trying James, you cannot do anything else against me, just...accept your fa-AAAAARGH!" _

Something sparked. Fierce and bright enough to force the demon to shield his eyes as there came a light shining from James' chest. Something began hovering slowly in front of them. A small black stone dangling from a pendant, useless in every way except for this moment. The day it finally shone with piercing reach as both puppet and shadowed form backed off in frustrated confusion. "W H A T? W H AT I S T H I S?" A gentle touch began to pulse through him with the memory of something. Crocs of the leather stick together. His body started to feel light and wholesome as he watched the demon flinch from the blinding light. I am forever in your debt. Strength came coursing through the remains of his left arm. You didn' fergit who you were. A deeper presence started trembling in his legs. We're both stupid muthafuckers aren't we? Streams of light now flowing upon his eyelids. You gave me so much...you gave me an adventure. The sound of bells came chiming from beyond the darkness. Thank you...mommy says thank you too. Warmth came breaching from his heart. You're our leader...and our friend. The deepest breath of a first kiss came fully back into his lungs. I will always wait for you. He grabbed at his pendant shining still. Voices he recognised flowing through his memory across the veil of darkness as he pressed his hand against the floor. Slowly, but surely James managed to force himself up, stumbling shakily as he remembered the loss of his legs. And yet he managed to find himself standing up, feeling his own feet return to him somehow being replaced by a shimmering golden light, sculpted from incandescence itself to replace his lost limbs. The demon was struck with disbelief, slowly becoming enraged by the insolence of his prey. "Y O U...W H A T? H O W? H O W A R E Y O U A B L E T O R E C O M P O S E Y O U R S E L F L I K E T H I S?" James was still struggling to understand himself, softly shaking his head as the pain began to fade. He moved his left arm seeing the light shimmer from it, gasping with eyes reflecting the pale trace as he recognised the warmth that he felt. It was strange to feel it so remotely, so sudden upon him but the moment the demon tried to attack him in its rage, he realised it truly. Claws came shrieking down upon his head as James guarded himself barehanded before the pendant's light burst freely from its stone as the monster screeched. The shadow began to pant with frightful shock at such a strong sense of pain riveting through its being, the whole world starting to tremble in response as James smiled with trickling confidence. He felt another warmth beside him and at first he almost imagined it was someone there but it was not to be. Instead, he felt something much more focused from within his satchel, resonating with such intricate power as a whole new realisation had come to him. "Do you know...why I call myself a hero now?" He stumbled forwards with one step. "Because this...pendant, is proof." Forcing his feet forwards he almost fell, but felt a sudden strength root him firmly. "Proof that...I'm not just some worthless punk." The raptor gritted his teeth with a lurch of his upper body, staggering towards the demon's essence. "I saved a maiden when no one else could. I swallowed my anger and rescued my love. I broke free an entire prison of outcasts and I brought freedom to a whole nation of slaves who honour me with a town in my name. I...stood against a god who threatened to destroy a world that my friends lived in, do you...do you THINK that I am ever going to be afraid of YOU!? _" James struck his scissors forth as the light from his left arm began to infect it, coating the rusted remnants of the steel blades with purest glint as it began to transform itself. Shining with an inner potent bliss from his heart, the raptor sweeped with an arcing flash by the swing of his blades as the rust finally fell off completely. No longer were they curved and sadistic in their reach, but firm and straight like a sword of heroes as the demon was outraged. **"W H-...N O! Y O U-...H O W _D A R E Y O U D E F I L E M Y S A C R E D B L A D E?!"** "Defile? Me? I'm not the one who's festering inside my soul you fucking hypocrite." "Y O U R E F U S E T O L A Y D O W N A N D S U B M I T, S O S H A L L Y O U S U F F E R W O R S E!" "Shut the fuck up. I don't care what you do to me. You can hurt me, you can break me, you can rape the fuck out of my soul but you are not EVER going to see the light of day again because you know why? Because I remember something. I remember...that you're not the first demon I destroyed but you'll most definitely be the LAST!" "W H A T O T H E R D E M O N?" "The one...that almost took the one who raised me...one she caused herself to be...have a look." It all came so clearly to him now, every thought, every motion and transaction of imagery inside his head. Slowly he formed by a rippling of his memory something across the veil of darkness in front of the demon's self. The shadow of the Son stared towards a perfect picture, something that remained strong within FG's mind for many months now. Sarah, holding him close tightly as her voice came drifting through as if it were yesterday's dream. "I will always love you for saving me...that's a promise alright? You saved me from that demon James...you saved me." "T H I S? Y O U C A L L T H I S Y O U R V I C T O R Y, Y O U R F O E T I D F A I L E D E X C U S E O F A F O S T E R P A R E N T?" "We're talking about my mother...not yours. You know the difference between me and you is? When I'm really struggling, I've got friends I can rely on, but you...you're all alone. Right here with me and if THIS is all you have with some creepy-ass throne and shitty tentacles...heh...well..." The raptor brought forth his scissors now shining of a perfect clarity without any sense of rust, struggling to keep standing by a sense of exhaustion as he smiled cockily with a beaming look. James taunted him to come forwards with pendant glimmering against his chest, raising his left arm with a mocking come forth gesture before digging swiftly into his satchel to grab at the first thing. "I'm not done with you yet, Scissoraptor." "N O R A M I D O N E W I T H M Y F E A S T, J A M E S C A M P B E L L." The shadow lunged forth, dropping the puppet briefly as it leapt like a beast of the jungle with superhuman speed, but the raptor blocked perfect with diagonal guard as something shimmered between them. A perfect green shield-like image that was reminiscent of a shell's patterning. His memory turned sharp with recollection as he pulled something from his satchel that repelled the demon's visage back. A perfect photo of his happiest moments of a smiling family as the green shield resonated more powerfully than before. Briefly stunned by such a forceful defence, the demon tried attacking once again with a striking tear as the shield barely even cracked, not even in the slightest as the photo seemed to resonate with even greater power. Tearing violently with wretched claws, the Son of the Great Father ripped and shrieked his tenebrous lengths over and over across the hardened shell opaque yet nothing broke through. The raptor could not move during all of this, not even attack as whatever emotion pulsed through the memento crystallised managed to root him to the spot. He understood why, waiting for the chance to strike as the demon's shadow backed off with shuddering heaving breaths of fury as the monstrous dark felt the first true pain of its own deepest existence, courtesy of the raptor's blades which plunged deep into its darkened self. The monster did not bleed but it screamed with tremorous agony at the sight of James having put away the photograph to come back on the offensive. "A A A A A R G H! W-W H A T!? W H A T H A V E Y O U D O N E?!" He pulled back suddenly before he spun on one foot, readying himself for a cleaving strike as the shadowed beast swiftly veered away from FG by a misting fog, darkness shifting itself to reform behind the raptor. But before he could even strike, there came a screeching explosion as James pulled out something else from his satchel, small and metallic. "G A A A A R R G H!" A penetrating blast by the form of EMP, lightning concocted from a small steel piece forced the demon back towards his monstrous throne as the raptor caught a small magnetic diode in his hand. The beast said nothing, stretching out its arm towards the puppet behind James as it began to remotely control him. The raptor turned swiftly realising he would be pincered at both sides before grasping the diode tightly in his right hand by a fierce squeeze in his memory. Both shadow and Scissoraptor came lunging upon him in a vicious dual strike. Without warning, shocking explosions fired from his hands as he felt something heavy latch onto both sides of him, thick metal grips squeezed by his fingers as there came a brutal ear-shattering blast towards the fleshy puppet, whilst the beastly shadow received a constant unending bulletstorm. The raptor smiled at seeing the futuristic assault rifle in one hand and a shotgun in the other, sleek yet weighty as both forms of the demon staggered back from the vicious firing shots. But not for long as they charged once again. _ "ENOUGH OF THIS!" _ Striking by a vicious sweep of rigid claws he swung for FG's face but the raptor dodged low blasting a shotgun without any sense of recoil straight up towards the Scissoraptor's chin blasting half of it off. Gargling with a screech of fury, the puppet stumbled backwards with half his face missing as the shadow tore down upon him and managed to scrape FG's shoulder, forcing him back whilst keeping his finger on the assault rifle's trigger. In its constant rush forwards, the tenebrous form of the Son of the Great Father managed to grab at the shotgun and hurl it away crushed by its grip, straight into the darkness. But the raptor kept firing with his other assault rifle as he strafed and dodged with new life and resolution, his feet somehow swifter than ever as if solid light itself had become his lost limbs. Tearing claws sweeped across the darkness as despite the wilting pain festering inside FG's shoulder, he fired until the clip was empty. The shadow almost teleported by its inhuman speed and slashed at his throat, barely missing before Scissoraptor's body grabbed tightly for FG's neck pulling him fiercely close by a vicious chokingly-tight grip. James struggled to think of something, recalling anything he could use for close quarters before he felt a lightened weight in his right hand before plunging straight into the demon's flesh. Screeching with agony as he released FG suddenly, the raptor gasped back his lungful of air briefly before holding a familiar-looking dagger before him, shining of purest Ivalician steel. _ "G-GAAAAAAARGH! YOU...WORTHLESS I N F I D E L!" _ "Infidel? I'm the one holding the holy blade fuckface, what's the matter? Scared?!" "I F E A R N O O N E, W R E T C H E D A B O R T I O N!"

James braced himself as he felt the sense to have something in his left hand, calling back his memory to recreate another weapon of his past of a similar sensation, small and lightweight but reliable to the very end. He felt a glimmering band tighten at his bicep, clasping like a child's hand which brought his attention towards the blue-and-green bracelet, as if it had always been there, slowly come apart at its seams. The threads began to weave intertwining around FG's musculature, trickling down to become something sharp and solid in his grip. A small kitchen knife of 7 inches now appeared in his left hand, dirt crusting its blade as he brought both blades together and suddenly felt an even more familiar far-back sense of holding two weapons simultaneously. His confidence outshone itself as both shadow and puppet leaped towards him, high and low with claws screeching across the glass circle. Scisso striked for his legs whilst his true self tore across James' vision as he suddenly shot himself straight up into the sky of blackness above, spinning fiercely in a somersault before plunging down with both blades shanking down with one for each back. Scissoraptor roared from the small kitchen blade scraping down his spine but the shadow of the Son felt even worse a violent pain that tore through its entirety by the light of the holy dagger. Pushing both creatures down to the ground, he untwisted the blades painfully from them before they stood back up synchronising their attacks by striking towards him at the same time. Two claws of flesh and darkness made a crushing motion towards his head as James ducked, with Scisso strafing to throw James off and tear down across his back which was countered in turn by a slicing strike. His wrist fell upon the small dirty knife which despite its size and lack of holy strength was more than enough to repel and snap the hand of the demon puppet brutally with shrieking fury, the ruthless crack of bone echoing sharp across the dais. James smiled with reckless enthusiasm at the memory pulsating from the knife, his other hand slicing towards the other fiendish set of claws that came raking for his head as the holy light of Kiltia twisted through its shadowed self. Creaking spasming fingers of a deep throbbing anguish stopped themselves short before attacking once more as FG blocked perfectly, as if he were holding two wooden sticks against clubs coming for him as he swung both daggers to his left, then right then finally slicing at both their necks cutting openly deep to pour wretched screams out from their throats. The beasts pulled back but did not retreat as James felt both of his blades become something wholly new. Coated in purest dulcet tones of gold, the crusted kitchen knife had become a wondrous shining cutlass which somehow gave James a much fleeter sense of movement, whilst the dagger of light turned into a longer shortsword of purest blue crystal sheen. He dodged perfectly between both demons switching from his left to right foot as the claws briefly swished past his head before the turning spinkick came ruthlessly down upon the back of their monstrous visions almost perfectly like ballet. The stunning kick did not stagger them but James had regained his balance without flaw as he felt his body move strangely fluid and much more graced with agility than ever he had before. The Scissoraptor carved a twin diagonal strike viciously forming an X which James swiftly dodged by shifting his body right then left, before the violent thrust forwards he bent himself back as it passed by a few inches above his flesh. Raising his body back up, he clashed perfect against the sweeping horizontal strike of the scissorblades with his cutlass, the claws of the Son's fiendish shadow tearing towards his face from the side. But the light of the crystal blue blade kept it at bay as the moment it struck back against the shrieking force of darkness it was repelled back instantly, forcing the shadow away as James pushed furiously with both swords pressed against Scisso's dark blades. Managing to overpower him by a sudden burst of energy, James shoved the demon back before crying: "SCINDITEH!" Memory poured through of past encounters and great battles as he clapped both blades together to form a piercing shockwind of purest light, rippling through the demon's chest as he roared stumbling down on his knees with agony. But the raptor wasn't done yet in his advance as he charged forwards with a spinning strike, whirling like a dancer into the air before crashing down vertically with first cutlass then shortsword straight upon Scissoraptor's head. Cutting deep enough to split the entire head open like a melon, the monstrous puppet shrieked and staggered back with outright fury in his black piercing eyes. With violent charge he swept his scissors fierce across the dais as he hurled them like a boomerang towards FG, the raptor blocking with cross-guard of both blades before switching them out to something else. Something much stronger as the scissorblades swept high up into the air whilst Scisso came rushing towards and attack his possibly weakened block. But all James had done was dig straight back into his satchel as something triggered in his sense to decompose both swords into one single sheen of light, growing with immense size that almost blinded the demon enough to not see what would come up next. A white-hot punch across the face cracked the demon's jaw from inside the light, the clanging pure steel of something dull and metallic clonking him ruthlessly as James grabbed onto something resembling a handle. A horseshoe in fact, slowly twisting itself into a firm grand steel length with wooden hilt reinforced by strong iron grip. Before the Scissoraptor could even see this transformation of such a small object from James' grip, there came from the light between them a humongous blade. "STEEEEEEEEE-RIKE ONE!" Tearing from the light was a rusted steel greatsword sweeping like a sledgehammer across the demon's face, shattering his skull completely through into dust of diamond white. The scissors that came spinning down from the darkness above would soon meet the same fate as the raptor chuckled mightily readying himself for the swing. "HERE COME THE PITCH!" The great knife worn with family names swung thick with upwards strike, the weight of it somehow nonexistent as there came a blissful sweet cold coming over the raw steel, a freezing bleak touch that streaked down the name "Joseph" engraved upon its side. The blade's edge had now turned much sharper in contrast as the whole weapon down from the hilt had become consumed in an icy wroth. "HOOOOOOOOOOME RUN!" Striking with earth-shattering prowess, the masterful force of his nemesis' blade completely tore apart the demon's dark-entrenching scissors into two crippled twisted fragments. The monstrous forms both looked on in shock, the one single entity controlling them roaring with such outrage that it shook even James' heart deep within as he stood defiant before them. "R R R R R R R A A A A A A A A A A A A R R R R G H! Y O U...D A R E D E F Y M Y P O W E R?!" "This is MY world, bitch," said FG. "You got lucky the first few hits but you were never gonna win. I told you. I'm the hero." "Y O U W I S H TO P R O L O N G Y O U R S U F F E R I NG?!" Pulling itself back, the Son of the Great Father swiftly reappeared by a ghostly veil negative back upon its throne, crawling like a lizard onto its stone carven backrest resonating with the half-clockface. The pentagram began to glow with monstrous unholy effort as the grand throne suddenly began to creak with raw furious malfeasance, the shadow commandeering its greater self. "S O B E I T. THEN S U F F E R B E Y O N D E T E R N I T Y Y Y Y Y!" Pulsing with his nanostrength, he swiftly recreated his arm cannon once more as James aimed towards the carven seat above the skull to fire his plasma shot. Pure screeching comet white burned into ceaseless wretched stone as the huge rusted blade defragmented into golden motes, back into a horseshoe to swiftly put back into his satchel. He reached for the final item he had not yet touched in his inventory as he felt the gentlest sound of a bell kiss upon his ear the moment the great shadow of fiendish hands blotted out his vision. _ "D I I I I E!" _ "SMOKESCREEN!"

A cloud of fog burst from underneath the giant palm of the Son's twisted throne as it crushed down upon FG's position, cracking the dais softly underneath like breaking ice in a puddle. But the raptor was not there amidst the torpid mist, suddenly having disappeared as the monstrous beast peered across the room before something ringed faintly from above. Something was shimmering with the wings of an insect, bustling like a giant wasp before James revealed himself with ghostly afterimage of sharp piercing stingers across his claws plunging straight into the demon's shadow. Roaring with utmost frenzy, the darkness trembled against the raptor's assault as he began punching viciously into his foe, stabbing twin needles with psychotic savagery as it streaked and pierced, ripped with tearing animalistic power that was only ceased by a sudden pulse of evil by the pentagram star above. The power of it was still enough to force the empowered raptor back as he was hurled bitterly across the central dais but he did not fall upon its glass. Instead he was halted by something cushioning him, a burst of wind freely from behind as the shimmering of insect wings. The wrath-eternal of the demon was unquenched as his giant hands swung towards the hovering James who dodged with incensed agility as he waited for his chance to strike. One hand came too close as the faint tracing of green scything blades shrieked from his fists, slicing with a cold atrocious strength that almost severed completely two of the beast's fingers. Roars came deep and stuttering with outrage as the raptor swooped underneath the hand that faltered before suddenly a raw thick bone came hurtling from James' grip. Whirling with the force of a shuriken, the white bone shaped thickly like a club cracked violently sharp upon the pentagram itself enough to cause a bleeding tear as if cracking a skull on sleek pavement. He headed towards towards the falsely-built throne, the soft image of his wings now paling behind him before taking shape, forming into something reptilian with grander beats of its whooshing gait. Red the colour of fire with blue underside swooped mightily upon James' back before his claws turned sharp as steel and tore deep into the carven throne. The stone wrought from the memories of six thousand years hence began to fall apart into crumbling dynasty beneath the raptor's claws scraping deep, cutting finally through the entire seat as it fell apart into a worthless pile of rubble. The nightmare screamed, the shadow risen high above its bastardised throne grasping its dagger-shaped head with a wrought terrible indignation, along with something else that James noticed. "N O! N O T H I S C A N N O T B E, Y O U W O R T H L E S S S U B H U M A N D E G E N E R A T E!" The darkness' sinuous shape lunged upon him as FG balled up his fist with the touch of shadows, punching violently fast to crack its jaw were it physical like its puppet had been, throwing it back hard against the cracked and fallen pieces of its once-great seat. Screeching by unholy rage it sent the multitude of serpentine tentacles to strike upon FG who swiftly backed away to give himself more room. Even amidst the air he would not be safe as the shrieking hiss of dozens came upon him like the tempest seething with bilious raw anguish. His body began to pulse feeling a red beat deep within his heart as his throat became hot, spreading the wings' images behind him as he roared with the sound of a beast before the flames would come pouring from his mouth. Ruthless in his scorching sweep of the glass circle, vomiting fire full from his stomach like a flamethrower transfixed upon the screaming vines that swamped the battlefield. They would never reach him after becoming less than ash after the burning streak, the demon sensing the battle turning with one last desperate move. The wax from the candles took shape once again but the raptor already had his move made in motion upon seeing the coiling wreaths from below him fading into white. A trembling from the walls of darkness as the waxen sculptures bled thickening pale, the hands crying out to shriek and touch towards his floating feet with eyes pulsing hollow from above the rippling mouths of trapped sweet regrets. But those would be washed away by the last power that James brought upon himself through memories true. His wings dispersed as he landed powerfully onto the hot dais in the midst of weeping wax and the moment he did there came a great flood across the whole of this wretched place. The shimmering of grand blue flippers pulsed from his hands before they turned into an ocean gushing from beneath his body to submerge the entire place in one sweet clear blue surface of the cleanest unpolluted force of purity possible that he could imagine. The wax was washed away, cooling to a blissful flicker as the flames finally died out upon them sending them back into the abyss. He did not waste any time as his eyes began to turn deep with both bristling amethyst and a shining moon's blue. The shade of night came alive within him as the raptor opened an abyss, or at least created one by a flicker of moonless fields and dark mansions of the deep forest grim. Ropes poured freely from his mouth and shot forth like serpents towards the Great Father's Son, lashing tightly upon the sinuous biceps of the monstrous arms. The demon struggled to fight back, resisting in its weakening state but James locked his gaze upon it dead-on with deepening strength welling from his memories. A wave of violence crept thick through the ropes as they began to tear and assault straight into formulent darkness. His force was great enough as he managed to tear off the titanic limbs entirely from the throne, ridding the beastly presence of its strength even more as it struggled to control against the ropes. Twisting to a painful tightness, they turned free from the shoulder downwards as the large shelved seat began to dismantle itself, pulling completely free of its moorings along with its metaphysical dismemberment. The darkness incarnate fell forwards onto the central floor straight into the Scissoraptor's body to fully possess it without intent, gasping with its blackened eyes as it gazed upon its sanctum violated.

The once great and sculpted arms now torn and crippled like the statues of fallen giants, dark streaking ash of its once many slithering tempestuous now but a foetid smear, waxen totems of its past victims and great fears upon them all washed completely from its eyes. Now, only James remained standing at the centre of the place, staring down upon the Scissoraptor at his feet whose head still remained rather beaten and crushed from the past few minutes of eternity. _ "NO! NOOOOOOOOOO! THIS IS NOT POSSIBLE! IT'S NOT EVEN FAIR!" _ His screams of fury did not even resonate across the hall as they once did by the time he stood up to lash out at FG. But the raptor simply grabbed at both hands with ease before cracking his face upon the demon's crippled skull battering it even worse than ever, the snout crushing inwards. _ "A-AAAAAAAAARGH! You...are simply but a MORTAL! ONE PATHETIC LITTLE WORTHLESS BASTARD WHO SHOULD HAVE DIED IN A SLUM! HOW CAN YOU HAVE SUCH POWER, WHEN YOU DID NOT EVEN POSSESS ANYTHING BEFORE I CAME UNTO YOU!?" _ "I told you. Because I have friends, and I'm willing to die for them. That's what beat you...you have nothing, you've got no friends to back you up, nobody to call on when you can't handle me by yourself. Or rather...me and my friends. Hah...I know, it sounds stupid but...that makes it even more sad that you just got your ass beat by it." _ "I WILL NEVER SURRENDERRRRR!" _ The moment he thrust forwards with his claws outreached, the raptor grabbed him once again by the wrist before the ruthless snap twisting it inwards sharply as he forced the Scissoraptor onto his knees by the agony itself. Cracking further inwards, the monster shrieked with demonstrable pain as James slammed his other fist powerfully straight into the demon puppet's gut. Choking with dry vomiting sputum, the beast fell stumbling upon its front coughing with wretched shriek as he struggled to look up. He saw more than just James now upon him. More than a dozen creatures now stood behind him all in various ghostly shapes and sizes as the raptor began forming an idea to end this great battle long coming. He shoved the demon harshly onto his back and walked over towards the black scissors the monster's puppet had wielded against him, now broken in half completely as he put both blades beneath the demon in the shape of a cross. Too weak to stand any further, the nightmarish countenance felt the raptor slam his foot down upon the left outstretched arm before pulling something from his satchel. _ "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGH! WHAT, WH-WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" _ "You're a demon right? Why don't YOU figure this, you like pentagrams and devil symbols so much well how about I make you something nice...and keep you trapped inside one for a bit?" _ "YOU...YOU CANNOT DO THIS TO ME, I AM THE SON OF THE GREAT FATHER YOU WRETCHED WHORE OF-GAAAAAAAAAARRRRGH!" _ Without any debate, he drove Fayne's dagger down deep into the creature's hand plunging straight through even the glass itself. His right arm was next, as James dug out Roy's horseshoe and promptly slammed it through to trap the wrist almost crushing it straight through. Not enough to sever the hand but enough to keep it well pinned to its place no matter how much the demon would not cease to struggle in his weakened state. _ "Do...h-h-h-hhhhhhhmhmhmhmhahahaha, you have not beaten me, you think just because I am out of ammunition you think I have nothing LEFT?!" _ "You know, I may not be the best at this whole demon circle trapping thing but, that's the best part about being IN me because, I can make up any shit I want and YOU can't do nothing about it." _ "I do not know HOW you managed to succeed against my assault but rest assured I shall not leave you ever agai-I-I-IIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGH!" _ "Shut up. Seriously. You talk too fucking much." James said this as he stomped on Scissoraptor's skull, further causing its dismemberment into a pile of salty-looking crust against the cleansing glass dais, which slowly had begun to lose its crystalline colour of a dark clockface. He walked down towards the demon's legs and took off Diana's bracelet, binding his feet together until painfully tight whilst the demon tried to mock. _ "You cannot hurt me...I have survived for six-thousand years and I shall carve my OWN destiny, of becoming greater than Death himself, YOU WILL BE NOTHING MORE THAN MY WEAPON!" _ "Nope." FG stood back to gaze upon his work, chuckling at the T-pose he now trapped Scisso in before deciding a few last touches. He pulled out Leiah's magnetic diode as well as Isaac's bell and chuckled before slipping the bell around the demon's throat, which became too tight and forcefully suffocated him as his gasping fury came through to scrape upon FG's ears. _ "HHHHHHRRGGGKH! WH-wh-what...is this?" _ "I know it's not the right kind of bell...but I can make it right." _ "What?! Wh-what do you mean bell?! THIS thing?! It's not even-" _ "I know but...I can make it sound like one in my head." A cruel grin came across FG's features as he knelt down upon the Scissoraptor's chest, driving the metallic diode into the flesh as the monster screeched sharply at the sudden cold pain that burrowed itself into his fleshbound form. The diode begun to magnetise finally by James' will which in turn caused the bell around the creature's neck to start ringing. Ringing with the sound of a true bell that it did not possess before. Constant. Unending torture for the Son of the Great Father who began to scream. _ "A-A-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH! AAAAAAAAARGH, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH! STOP! S-STOP, MAKE THAT WRETCHED THING STOP!" _ "You know technically the diode should also work on the dagger and horseshoe but...ehhhhh it's my world so no, those are staying right there while you listen to the best sound in the universe." _ "S-STOP IT! STOP! IT, I WILL MAKE YOU PAY FOR THIIIIIIS!" _ "What, like all the OTHER times I paid for it? Nah, you can just lie there on your back like a bitch. I'd say hooker but, at least they're getting paid for it." _ "NO! NOOOO YOU CANNOT LEAVE ME LIKE THIS!" _ "Nope, Iiii think I can. You're not getting out of this, you had your chance to gloat, so I'm gloating now fuckboy." _ "DO NOT INSULT ME! I AM THE ARBITER OF DEATH YOU PULCHRITUDINOUS-" _ "Actually you know what I think you're right." _ "Hmph. F-finally-AUUUUGH S-STOP THIS RINGING IT'S BURNING MY FAAAACE!" _ "No no no you're right, I couldn't leave you like this. So I'm just gonna do something." With mental strength resonating at an all-time high, the raptor began to sweep the entire dais clean of any debris back towards the infinite darkness before slowly shifting everything around him. The world now turned in on its head, the Scissoraptor watching the glass circle rotate itself away from him until he found himself staring down upon FG who stood beaming up at him. The demon was now impaled fully upon his own broken scissors in crucifixial pose before watching James bring out his last important item, of a sweet clear photograph of Koopin's family. "I figure it would be boring to watch nothing but eternity." He placed it onto the glass giving the demon a cocky grin as the colours began to melt through the broken dull fragments of the floor, the sound of the bell still ringing minutely across his ears like a thousand piercing needles driven inside his whole body. He watched the glass absorb the picture which bled through the entire surface, smearing out beneath the gentle fragments which began repairing themselves neatly upon a touch of colour to themselves as slowly something became clear. Something that turned him into the most bitterest of black rage. _ "WHAT...i-i-i-is...THIS?" _ "Love. Something you'll never have and you'll never take from me. Ever again." _ "Y-y-y-you...you chose to mock me...like this? Hhhhhahah...ohhhh you pitiful WRETCH, you have not begun to see even what will be in store for you and it most certainly will not be this love you so call your worthless debauchery!" _ "I don't care. What's worse after you because frankly, I know everyone is sick of you. So this is going to be goodbye." _ "You...have FAR worse t-to contend with after me, hhhhmhmhmhahahahhahaha-" _ "What do YOU know, after all the bullshit you put up just to frighten me and everyone else around you?" _ "I...h-h-have heard of another even greater evil that exists. One whose voice RESONATES across existence, one only I have heard but not...you." _ "Huh?" _ "Thirty...nine. Voices. The sorrow, that wretched anomaly that has relentlessly pursued you, do you think it has ANY sense of compassion for you at your journey's end? I hear someone, screeching across the universe claiming 'Beware, I Live' and it has hunted for me, for YOU perhaps...I do not know what terrible atrocity has come for you but I know that you will NOT survive it without me. That thing th-that I have heard is far more great of terror than I EVER could wish to be." _ "Considering I just broke your ass, I think I don't NEED you to survive anything anymore, cuz you know why? I'm the FinalGamer, motherfucker." _ "What...a s-s-stupid name." _ "Takes one to know one...Scizzz-o-rap-tor." _ "Wh-what...ever you think I h-have heard them truly...that wretched s-sorrow, whispering with f-f-foetid breaths of another ending, a great apocalypse of which you shall become the first victim of...unless...you had me to protect you-" _ "Shut up." James simply stood back with a heavy sigh of being completely done. "Shut. Up. I don't need you for anything, I don't need you whispering in my ear about dumb shit because whatever comes next, I'll deal with my OWN way and once we're all done with this...I'm gonna drag you out of my body the only way I know how, now that you're too weak to fight BACK, little bitch." _ "And h-how...pray tell, are you going to ever achieve such a thing?" _ "Simple." The raptor turned to walk away with a smile smugly brimming from his cheeks. "I'll just wish upon a star...and I won't be the only one that's doing it when we get back home." The demon was left alone upon an infinite existence, trapped within the recesses of James' soul as the sound of ringing bells constantly chimed into his deep reach with a burning agony. Purity, cleansing like fire tore through him in constant waves of ineffable suffering, forced to look upon the glass dais' new perfect picture replicating the photograph that James had always kept on him. The unblemished portrait of happiness, love and affection of Koopin's family as his essence began to ebb into a paling wane of grey mist. All he could now do was seethe and wait for what foolish plan came next to completely exorcise him from his host.

Night came back to him, a warm clear night as that strange familiar sense of waking up returned to FG. His eyes blinked, seeing the strange treetops of twisting roots and swollen trunks half-submerged in the thickened swamp water that he could smell clearly from all around him. Reality felt unreal, as if waking up from a dream that had stretched beyond many months of his own life not trusting his own limbs to move freely. "Eh? You awake finally?" It took him a moment to place the voice of such a recent acquaintance but once he turned his head seeing the strange hollowed-out tree made into a room of rituals he recognised Mz. Ruby. She was her usual self, green and huge with bunched black hair, bedazzling jewellery and a white T-shirt with blood-red silhouette bannered in stars with writing that said "Brittnay Matthews Revenge Tour '15" as she added: "If yer awake an' not fully possessed then answer this. Whut wuz thuh train platform number in thet book y'all kept reading?" "......nine and three-quarters." She smiled nodding firmly as James got up gently with a strange rush of energy flowing through him, bouncing onto the balls of his feet with a rush to the head that nearly made him stagger. "W-woah! Heh...f-felt really hyper just now it-...um...how long have I-" "Six days." "Oh...cool tha-wait WHAT?! Six days?! Aw shit, did I miss anything?!" "Naw, nuthin' ever happen roun' here. Heh, bet you must feel lahk a million bucks." "More like a quajillion." "Thet's not even a word." "Whatever I'm feeling it! Holy...shit I feel GREAT, I mean it-...did...did I really just beat him?" "Why dontchoo take a look at yerself?" She brought up a washtub with a shiny base showing FG's reflection smooth and clear inside of it. It was as if he was seeing himself fifteen years ago, young and feisty without any distinguishing scars of disease, no bleeding from the eyes, no bloodshot pupils, his skin fresh as dirt in a spring field as he rubbed his face with a shock soon breaching from within his delayed state as it sunk in. "I...I-i-i-i-i just...I just BEAT HIS FUCKING ASS! WHOOOOOOO!" He wanted to run around the room desperately, rattling off his excitement with purest squeals of joy. "HOLY SHIT YES! YES, YES FUCKING YES! HAHAHAHAAAA SUCK IT! SUCK IT YOU MOTHERFUCKER, JESUS YES THIS IS THE BEST FUCKING THING EVER! FINALLYYYYY!" The raptor grabbed at Mz. Ruby around the waist with insanely tight hug surprising her as she had half a mind to slap him fierce. "L-LET GO OF ME BOAH GAWD DANGIT!" "HOOHOOHOOHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAA, WHOOOOOOOO!" With exuberance of joy inside of the quiet treehouse he swiftly released Mz. Ruby from his grip to avoid being clocked across the face by her jewelled hand. And yet she couldn't help but grin sweetly at such grand excitement of her temporary guest, the joy and rising hope from within the younger raptor making her feel more proud of her duty, as well as her magic prowess. She watched him running up and down between the kitchen and the ritual room with a whoopin' and a hollerin', streaking back and forth without stopping in his energetic happiness. It was plenty enough time to celebrate after five minutes of relief and overwhelming excitement before her mind would start to break from the sound of James' babbling. She rubbed the bridge of her thickened snout, waiting for him to pass by closely enough to bop him on the head with a gentle fist to stop him in his tracks. "Ey, boah, you min' clammin' up yer piehole fer wun minute 'fore you break mah house?" "GOD YES FUCKIN-OH, um, heh-hem sorry...sorry just...hhhhhhhoooooooooo god am I feeling so much better I can't BELIEVE that this worked, it just...this thing has been inside me for like years I just god the one thing that actually worked and I managed to beat it." "Bah yerself?" "...well, no, I mean I wouldn't have got this far without people helping out. Hell I would never have even found a WAY down inside myself if it wasn't for you and Kirie and Twinsen. ...thank you." "Whuh?" "Thank you. You...I'm in your debt Mz. Ruby, I really am, you saved my life." Hearing such genuine praise, perhaps the first she ever heard in the longest time made her eyes wince slightly. She creased a slight grin chuckling raspily from her throat softly as she sighed with a shake of her head. "If ah didn' know better ah'd swear you were bein' sincere." "I am. I've never been more sincere in my life I swear to you." "Hmhmhm...well dontchoo start praisin' me yet cuz yer not done exactly." "Huh?!" She brought out from her shirt a piece of paper, the raptor turning cautious having knowing this exact situation before and indeed recognising the exact handwriting of the one who wrote it. He looked up towards the gator with a near-derisive look in his eyes which rolled slightly upwards, that strange yet familiar tingling across the back of his nervous system once again calling for a new place to be. "Is...she here?" "Nope, thet were written fer you back afore you got here." "Wait what?" "Sumbody up there's got a lotta plans fer you so heh...mah work is done." Mz. Ruby shrugged with hands raised smiling at her duty over with. James smiled awkwardly as he rubbed the back of his head trying to think on how to say goodbye so swiftly after waking up. "Well um...I guess if...what plans exactly?" "Beats me, mah role here is over, whutever's up ahead that's fer you to find out." "Okay...um, listen I uh, if...if this note says that I have to go then it...well I should go just, I wanna say at least some...things before I do so uh thank you, again and if...you ever want me to come back, say something I mean-" "Don' bother." The Vodou shaman waved her hand dismissively as she turned to walk away. "Ah appreciate you tryna make me feel better an' not sum lonely backwater bitch to cast aside bu' if yer not serious-" "Hey-ey, listen!" The raptor grabbed at her wrist firmly. "You saved me. You, Twinsen and Kirie managed to stop Scissoraptor from taking over me completely, now when I asked if you wanted me to come back and say hi sometime, I was serious. Now would you?" She turned with a leering look, trying to scare him off at first as her fist tightened ready to lash out at something. But a stern glance from James showed that he was serious as she eventually sighed and gave in to his offer of friendship shrugging harshly. "Sure. Why not, might as well give me sumthin' new to look at once in a while." "Alright. Man I don't feel like I've been asleep for six days I feel like I just had a power nap." "Cleansing souls does thet to you, once you give it all a good washout of yer sins an' deprivations you gon' feel good about yerself. Ahm glad to see you managed to beat 'im." "I am too...Mz. Ruby. I'm glad I met you...I won't forget about you after this, I promise." "Heh...when you git back here sumtahm, THEN you promise me...alrigh'?" "Alright." She hugged him firmly as James smiled from the new warmth he felt from the somewhat-older gator, her heart so bleak and bitter starting to chip away and show the slightest sense of companionship out of odd severity for the two being thrust together in some strange cosmic scheme. With that said, he walked out of her place, gathering up his things with strengthened resolve as he stepped onto the lakewaters of the swamp to find a space open enough to teleport from safely. Tightening his satchel and replacing his scissors back upon him which still remained oddly rusted despite a strange sense of warmth he had not felt before on their handles, he summoned up the portal to the next world hoping that it would be the end of his journey soon. He could almost taste it by this point as he watched Mz. Ruby wave back at him from her root-studded home. With one wave back, he soon faded into the space between dimensions as the paper note sweeped from his hand clearly to lay out across the waters of the algae-infested swamp, thickened green swallowing the ink and gently desiccating the parchment as its contents were shown briefly. The gator priestess walked back inside her house without another word smiling with a sense of wellbeing now blissfully swelling in her heart as the note disappeared.

The eye may be open, but the mind hasn't the strength to see. Now is the time to strengthen your mind James Campbell. The Watcher has summoned you. Go find him at the world known only as "Cocytus". There you shall see the truth in all its entirety.