Chapter 7: Death's Visit

Half a leather couch flew across the room like folded paper, finished paintings covered with new splashes of red hung off hinges to cracked marble walls. Broken ceramic and Body parts added to the seasoned battle decorations as did the demons in human form being slashed apart.

In a fluid motion, the sword in Grey's hands poked in and out of a demons skull and sliced through the throat of the other standing next to him.

Only Hermes was left standing, he didn't look afraid watching his comrades fall. If anything he looked as if everything was going according to plan.

Grey pointed a bloody sword tip towards Hermes, he was bleeding black liquid from just one point, a stab wound in his lower back.

Hermes stood with a smile as he watched Grey approach him. His fury fading with every step. The adrenaline pumping through his veins, a perfect pain killer that made him feel numb all over. Oblivious to the fact that he had been poisoned by the Obsidian a dagger he left laying on the floor.

The sword fell from his hands sliding to Hermes's feet. Sweat colonized his face mixing with demon blood, he lost all control, falling to the ground on his back.

"I will kill you! All I can promise is to make it quick!" Hermes pulled a handkerchief from the chest pocket of his black suit and laid it over the bloody handle of the sword before he picked it up.

"You remember when you said those exact words to me?" He slashed into thin air. 'test run before the actual event' he thought.

"You must have felt all powerful ignoring the actual truth! You are small and insignificant just like the rest of us.. but my master, my master is a true god. A powerful being beyond the boundaries of your insignificant mind... And that's why I am up here and you are beneath my blade!" He raised the sword in the air parallel to Grey's neck. His eyes open but non of his other faculties were active..

"In the name of my master!" He was about to strike when a deep howl tore through the air.

A wolf with black coloured fur lept over Grey's body tackling Hermes to the ground. The sword skid far away to the left as the wolf growled with Savage intent in it's eyes. Instead of reaching for the sword he reached for a broken piece of the wooden dining chair using it to hold the wolf away as it powerful jaws kept snapping.

The wood gave way against it's weight earning Hermes a bite in the leg, ripping out a small chunk of his flesh.

With pain ridden strength he pushed the wolf away from him far enough to disappear in a puff of heavy smoke.

The sound of bones snapping took over as fur receded into skin leaving a naked Ten on her four limbs in place of the wolf.

She approached Grey's lifeless body too gone to recognise her.

"He still has a heartbeat..." She said with joy of new found hope as she turned him over to the hole in his back oozing black blood...

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Grey appeared in a space full of trees, shrubs and grasses. It was a flat land with the drumming of water hitting water echoing from a waterfall nearby.

An oak tree stood in the distance, it strong branches connected to a heavy trunk. He recognized that tree except it was missing a key detail.. a carving in it's thick trunk. A carving born out of pleasure between two soul mates.

He remembered the scent of her arousal strong and captivating. He remembered her moaning as they became one pushing his wolf into a frenzy, it's claws boring into the sides of the tree.

Heavy paws thundered digging into the Earth as they landed. A huge grey furred wolf ran. He jumped over a fallen three trunk carrying his weight with ease coming to a stop in front of the tree...

"I knew I would find you here!" A man in a white cloak walked to him. Grey was so engrossed in watching the grey wolf sit in front of the tree. He didn't bother asking who he was. The wolf reminded him so much of the day he lost everything. The day nothing but vengeance fuelled his anger so much, he couldn't take back control from his wolf side..

"You keep coming back to this memory, why!?" He asked in a deep baritone. His tone came across like a friend bringing solace.

"This memory isn't right.. there are carvings on the sides of tree!" His eyes didn't leave the wolf as he spoke.

"The memory is exactly as I remember, this happened before the carving. This is the first time you died!" From the mention of death he instantly knew who he was speaking to. 'Thanatos finally here to whisk my soul into the pits fiery of hades' he thought.

"Am I Dead?" Grey asked.

"Yes and No!" Thanatos answered taking a sit on a fallen trunk.

"Where am i?" He didn't wonder because he felt at peace with the stillness of time ending. He has been for a long while. But he needed to know for certain.

"You are on the verge of death. This is the point where I carry your soul back to life!" He pulled down his hood to reveal a symbol of an inverted torch branded into the caramel skin at the back of his neck.

"You have been bringing me back?" Grey asked taking a sit next to him. He was about to ask a question he spent decades asking himself but could never find an answer to.

"Yes!" Thanatos said. Knowing where the conversation was leading. During the numerous times he had carried his soul back to life there was never a reason for a chat but this time he felt they could share words before he went back.

"Why!?" He dropped the question. Three lettered words that carried all other questions..

"Because it is not yet your time, you haven't fulfilled your destiny!"

"What destiny takes centuries to fulfill?" His voice rising. That cannot be the answer why he was sent through time alone. What destiny was worth that amount of pain.

"It is not in my place to ask or why! Though I know when It is time you shall meet the end you so much crave..." He wanted to say more but a feeling of another presence approaching interrupted..

"I have to send you back, now!"

"Wait... I want to stay, I feel at peace with this being my end!"

"It is not in your place to choose!" Thanatos placed a hand on his forehead and in a flash of light Grey gasped back to life...

"It's okay, you are fine!" Soft, aged hands pushed him back to bed. Her voice low and hypnotic washing over him like a pain reliever.

"You are going to be okay. Go to sleep!" The voice came again putting him to sleep immediately.

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Thanatos pulled his hood back over his head. Immediately he stood up from the trunk the whole image turned to vacant space.

"You had orders not to send him back!" A voice said coming from a man in the distance behind him.

"Since when do father's orders interfere in the will of fate?" He asked turning towards his brother, Hypno the god of sleep.

"He was key to opening the gates and securing our freedom!" He boomed.

"Brother, it is not father's place to interfere in the words of Moirae! If it is not his fate to open the gates for us then so be it but if it is his fate then I shall stand by it no matter what!" He stood his ground. His voice came on strong but peaceful.

"It has been centuries Thanatos. Centuries since we have been trapped in this forsaken land! We want freedom again!"

"If it is your fate to freedom then so shall it be!" He commanded wings to sprout from his back and took to the air flying away into the void...