What could only be described as the remnants of a man glared down at them, a grimace frozen on its undead face. Wherever skin showed, it was charred and blackened, or red and festering, oozing a fluid that may or may not have been blood. The clothes were as ruined as the skin, and black flakes cracked and fell whenever it moved. Each breath came with a rattling wheeze.
These were all aspects of the creature Eva had noted in the moment before she looked it in the eyes, and that was what held her in place. The pupils glowed red, the whites were dark, almost purple.
“You…” spoke the gravelly voice. “You have been chosen above all humanity to witness my rebirth and ascension. Here, where I triumphed in my first life, so shall it be my throne in my second.”
Then for no apparent reason, it tu
