Blasphemy: Saga of the Blackgoat Prince

FAMILY REUNION

"You look like my brother." [Punishment] said as he walked around Cimeries, inspecting him from horn to tail. "If my Fallen Brother was a demon. Its the horns and tail I think that set you apart."

"Ya should come closer, y'kno? Just ta be sure." Cimeries said smiling from where he hung in space suspended by glowing white manacles. His goat's eye narrowed pleasantly, his other closed tight.

His smile turned savage as a rabid dog's. "So I can tear ya apart with my teeth if I have to!"

[Punishment] was unimpressed. "You don't sound like my brother though? He was so annoyingly well spoken. And this power is far too pathetic to be his. What do you think, girl?"

"I-I don't…" Akane said as she huddled in the shadow of one of the shrine's pillars. 

She shuddered beneath the blinding stare of the terrible god. Up close she was forced to reassess her thoughts on [Punishment]'s beauty. 

He was still a gorgeous being, but the ether he projected was awful. It slithered through her mind, forcing her to think terrible things.

"Hm? Not much help, are you?" [Punishment] tapped a finger tipped with a crafted silver claw to the bear-trap like jaws hiding the bottom of his face. 

He tilted his head towards her narrowing his eyes in a distorted promise of torment. "Don't worry you'll open up soon. In so many wonderful ways…"

He clapped his hands as he turned back to Cimeries. "Now back to you, Mr. Demon. Tell me, What is your name?"

"AAARRRGGHH!" Cimeries screamed as every fiber of his being was lit with holy fire. "AAAAAAHHHHH! THE PAIN! THE PAIN!"

His head sunk for a moment before it lifted again. The expression of anguish replaced by a goofy grin with his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth.

"Kidding, big bro." Cimeries laughed at [Punishment]'s annoyance. "After ya fed me to the Black Goat, something like this is just, y'kno, tickling me. Ya gotta do better'n that, b***h!"

"You really don't sound like brother." [Punishment] said as he lifted a hand palm up and summoned a sphere of needles. "But you know some dangerous things…. Well I do love a challenge."

"I'm sure I'll get it out of you eventually." He flicked his hand at Cimeries with lazy grace skewering him over every inch of his body.

"No!" Akane leapt to her feet and began running toward Cimeries.

She didn't know what she would do. What she could do. But she had to reach him! But a jolt ran through her body before she could!

Cold. Unbelievable, unbearable cold stormed through her flesh freezing her like a statue.

What is this feeling?! Akane's jaws wouldn't work so her words were trapped inside her head.

When she saw [Punishment] appear before her in a flash of light, beholding him gave her an immediate answer. She had only felt something like it once. The Eye of Absolute. The eye of a god burning on her with the full weight of deific attention. 

It was not as oppressive as the Goat's attention, but it was still wonderful, terrible, and paralyzing.

"No. No, my dear." [Punishment] said, his voice oozing with faux kindness. "He's still alive, and you have other things to worry about. Like… answering the questions he can't for one. So shall we begin? Ah! Before that! Have you heard my mantra?"

Akane couldn't answer. She could only tremble in terror.

"Brother, still picking on the weak? You haven't changed at all. Well that makes things easier." Akane wept at the sound of that wonderful alto voice that always sounded so much like singing. 

"T-that voice…" [Punishment]'s eyes opened wide. His voice hesitant even… even hopeful. "Little brother, is that really you?"

"I've missed you, big brother [Punishment]." The beautiful voice said from beneath the human shaped pincushion. "So much that… it's painful."

Where Cimeries's wolf eye was buried under needles, silver began to flash with the rhythm of a racing heart.

"Brother? No… no you're dead. DEAD!" The god's slight hope drained from his voice. Replaced by tumultuous rage and underlain by a quiver of terror.

The metal jaws of the bear trap opened with a screech and released a geyser of hooks, chains, pins and all manner of torture devices. The cacophony of metal clashing as it tore into the upper half of Cimeries was dreadful. Unable to bear it Akane could only cover her ears and scream.

"Yep." Cimeries, the other Cimeries, said. "You are not wrong. It was you and all of our brothers and sisters that killed me after all."

Torture devices, needles, and spikes sprouted from Cimeries's skin like thorns. But they didn't cause him pain. He shed them like old scales on a snake. 

"What remains," Cimeries said, brushing off the last of the hooks stuck in him. "Is just a fragment. Memories. Feelings. And..."

[Punishment] retreated as Cimeries advanced, his silver eye a blaze of light, while his goat eye was shut; his chest bared by [Punishment]'s attack made his BLASPHEMY scar gleam.

"HATRED!!!" Cimeries howled as the goat eye tore open blazing ethereal red. "I've missed ya bro! Missed ya so much it f*****g hurts! Just knowing you're alive. Knowing ya alive up here after ya desecrated my master. Just seeing ya face in frontta me reminds me OF HOW BAD I WANNA KILL YA!"

His hatred radiated out in red waves. Akane's stomach emptied itself after the waves crashed into her. The feeling was intense enough to blind her, but what awaited her eyes wasn't darkness. 

A woman… no she was too extraordinary to be a mortal woman. Her loveliness was magnificent enough to rival the Black Goat. But hers was no debaucherous beauty like Cimeries mother, this woman's beauty was rigid and cold. 

Images of the woman's smile, feeling that it was a rare, spectacular event. The thrill of her words of praise, of her kind touch. The warmth that these images contained instilled a feeling of intense love that was insurmountable.

A feeling that was ripped away as the woman was stripped, abused, assaulted and desecrated until, weeping, she unmade herself. While the smiles and laughs of her abusers rang out mockingly the whole while.

Akane had never felt hatred before. She never had a reason to. Japan was a peaceful place, and even though humans can be cruel, living in a developed country shielded her from the worst of it. 

So when the twisting, burning emotion was born in her heart, she wasn't prepared for the pain. Still, she knew the source. And though she could do no more than impotently glare, she funneled all these new despicable feelings at [Punishment], the face among the abusers laughing the hardest.

"We are gods, brother!" [Punishment] sounded desperate and accusatory. "Why should we be ruled by Law? We should be the ones writing it! When the Elder Gods left, we, their disciples, should have been free to do as we pleased! If we had allowed [Law] to pass on her power to you and Ascend with the others, we would have been nothing more than slaves!"

Both of Cimeries blazing eyes narrowed with disgust, as his conflicting sides spoke in turn, united in condemnation. "Ya shitty brother.” 

“You treacherous scum.” 

“Ya ain't nothing butta spoilt, shitty brat.”

“All you and the others desired was to toy with Alothas without being bound by rules.” “

“Don't try ta rewrite history, ya ain't no victim."

The silver eye began to dim though it still thrummed like a beating heart. "Ya just a shitty traitor, bro."

"HAHAHAHAHA!" [Punishment] clutched his face his burning eyes widened and contorted derangedly. "You're right, brother. You and your master were obstacles to our fun."

He spread his arms wide turning glazed eyes on the full glory of his palatial shrine. The terrible, awesome pillars of twisted bodies, the massive mansion that's ivory walls gleamed in glorious tribute to [Punishment] and his cruel beauty, he drank in with pleasure. 

"All of this…. Your master wanted to keep it from us. Sooo… you both had to be removed." [Punishment] straightened. Retreating no longer he towered over Cimeries, his shoulders standing more than double the height of Cimeries horns.

"I must admit brother, your little show unnerved me for a moment." He raised his hands above his head and Holy Energy burst forth from him; the explosion was like a dying star's death throes. So powerful was the Holy Energy, its light made Cimeries's form flicker. 

"But your power… what happened, brother?" The spikes bursting from his body surged as [Punishment] drew his energy to his body. "It's so tiny now. Pathetic! That must be soo terrible. You know you, me, [Justice], we were always so close. [Law], [Justice], and [Punishment]... No choice but for us to get along."

The bear trap's jaws creaked open to reveal a pearly white smile in the shadow beneath. "I was really torn up about killing you, brother. And now I must suffer through it aga-"

"Ya always did talk too much, yo!" Cimeries said as his foot sunk into [Punishment]'s stomach. "I gotta know, is that part of the torture?"

[Punishment]'s feet left furrows in the marble tiles as he slid backwards, only stopping when he reached the thorny steps before the steel doors of his palace. 

"Wow." The god said as he brushed himself off. "I knew you had fallen, brother. But that was truly uninspired. Is this what's become of Law's Black Wol-"

His words were cut short again as Cimeries's horns bashed him exactly where his kick landed. 

"Notta wolf any more, yo! Now I'm a goat. Neheheh."

[Punishment] blasted back, exploding through the steel doors of his palace, making the expressions of torture carved into them even more twisted.

Akane squeaked as Cimeries wrapped his tail around her waist and leapt over the stairs charging through the wreckage of the doors on all fours like a beast. 

"So rude." [Punishment] sighed as he got to his feet.

He stood in a crater covered in blood. Not that he was wounded. The blood was part of the decor...

Kind've….

The screaming prisoners hanging like butchered animals in a slaughterhouse were the unwilling source of the blood. Lacerations coated their skin, oozing red that flowed over their naked form combining to create rivers striking against white marble tile.  

Akane was glad she already emptied her stomach, because the impossible white brilliance emitted from the torches lining the walls gave her exquisite detail of things better left unseen. 

"My Lord!" Men and women in leather straps, silver piercings, and executioners hoods left their charges to scream and bleed to rush to their master.

"Lord [Punishment], are you injured?" A man in white blood splattered robes said as he climbed into the crater; the golden chains he wrapped himself in jingled with the effort. "No need to concern yourself with this wretched demon. Let your loyal servants deal with him."

"You'll die." [Punishment] said. "As I told you before, when I brought my brother to the shrine, this is a family matter, my loyal pope."

He tilted his head at the pope freezing him with his glare of displeasure. "And if you call my brother wretched again, I'll be finding a new pope. One who'll be proving his knowledge of my creed on your body."

"Y-yes, my Lord." The pope said bowing.

"But if you must amuse yourselves…" [Punishment]'s eyes locked onto Akane. "There's always that pretty little toy my brother's been dragging along."

"Like I'd letcha!" Cimeries said plunging a clawed hand before him like he was tearing a heart out of thin air. "[Pillaging Goat's Plunder]!"

The air over the hearts of every priest distorted as an ethereal copy of Cimeries hand formed, claws extended to tear their flesh.

"[Absolute Intervention]." A replica of [Punishment]'s bear trap jaws obliterated the newly formed ethereal claws before they reached their targets. "I didn't give you permission to play with my toys."

"Stealing their elder siblings toys is the prerogative of the younger, yo!" Cimeries said as he wisped away, becoming mist.

"How greedy." [Punishment] said. His eyes became hooded as he lazily leaned back to avoid the point of Cimeries’s tail as the demon reformed before him. The god snatched his brother’s tail before it could whip beyond his grasp and hurled him into the spines of one of his palace's spiraling pillars.

"Feels like ya ain't taking me seriously, bro." Cimeries said as he pulled himself free of his skewering, vomiting a little blood in the process. "What's up wit that?"

"Is there a need for me to do so?" [Punishment] said as he climbed out of the crater. "Power over this universe's law made you the strongest of the new gods. Without it, or the holy energy you possesed as one of us, what threat do you pose?"

The god shrugged his massive shoulders forcing the chains embracing him to clink. " I could have avoided each of your attacks. There just wasn't a point. I am a bit weary of you demolishing my palace, however.” 

The god snapped his fingers. “Tell you what. I'll allow you one more strike. I did feel terrible about what we did to you, little brother. So before I erase you once and for all, take your best shot. It's the least I can do for my precious little brother, after all."

The silver wolf's eye blazed in fury at [Punishment]'s gloating, but Cimeries smiled. He clawed the air in front of him making it sizzle as black energy ate at it. He grabbed the dark hilt it formed and heaved, pulling the awful sword [Broken Law] above his head like he had snatched it free of Apocalypze.

"Very generous, bro." Cimeries said pointing the squared edge of his blade at his brother's unconcerned expression. "Don't regret it now, y'kno?"

"I'm sure I won't." [Punishment] said stretching his arms wide to leave his chest open. "But before our final farewell, answer me two things."

"For sure, yo." Cimeries grinned as he rested his sword on his shoulder. "What up?"

"How did you survive being devoured by Shub Niggurath?" Punishment sounded genuine in his curiosity.

"Didn't. Toldja already, bro. The Law's Black Wolf is dead. Ya shitty siblings of mine really killed me good, y'kno? Took hundreds of thousands of years for me ta finally croak. But…"

"Hmm." Cimeries tail flicked back and forth cat-like as he rubbed his chin in search of fitting words. "Hard ta explain. Like I kinda died, but not completely. I mean I was pretty much dead, y'kno? But fragment of me remained, surviving as I was reborn as one of Mama's children."

"Mama?" [Punishment] narrowed his eyes. "You mean Shub Niggurath? Incredible. You are powerful for a demon, aren't you? Easily as strong as a demon lord. Well that answers my second question, how you became a demon…. So I'll ask another before our goodbyes."

When Cimeries bowed his acquiescence his tail arched above his head.

"A demon as powerful as you've become can heal almost any wound. Even the ones I've given you have faded away. So why is it you still have that scar across your chest? Is it significant?"

Cimeries grinned flashing his wicked teeth at his brother. "Ah… that's an easy one, bro. After big bro [Justice]'s goons carved it into me, I tooka liking to it, y'kno. It's perfect! It sums up my revenge so well. Blasphemy-"

He flickered and disappeared, reforming over [Punishment]'s head.

"-a sword pointed at the heavens themselves!" He said slashing the blade down.

Cimeries's speed couldn't be followed by most beings of Alothas, but for his brother, Cimeries's speed was a cheetah to a falcon.

He could have dodged but why? There was no danger, no threat. Cimeries might have been a demon lord, but so what? A demon was no concern to a god, not unless they were king-class; a king hadn't left Apocalypze in millennia, and his Fallen Brother was no king.

He would take this blow, then end it. He owed at least that to what remained of [Law]. 

Akane watched Cimeries and wept. Why was he struggling? He should just give up. At least then it would be over. After all she'd seen him do, she never imagined he could lose, but… this was a god. For all his power Cimeries hadn't even scratched [Punishment]. This was the end.

As the two brothers finished speaking, Akane covered her eyes. She wouldn't watch him die. It wouldn't make a difference. Even that sword…

Akane's head shot up. That sword! What was it Cimeries had said about it again?

The black blade struck down its edge grazing [Punishment]'s forehead, and…

Split the god's skin!

Impossible! [Punishment]'s mind reeled. His wide eyes sought his brother's and found them narrowed to slits of horrible glee. Time froze for the god as he stared flummoxed, at Cimeries. 

As a god his mind worked with speed that made human thoughts crawl at a slug's pace in comparison. So the moment [Broken Law] cut his skin, [Punishment] reacted. Then he moved.

The mortals watching witnessed this as the god’s image fading. Their brains unable to decipher the images their eyes captured. For them it was as though [Punishment], who had been calmly watching the demon descend towards him, vanished before reappearing meters away. Now the god was glaring at the demon with an expression that was anything but calm. 

The mortals may have been ill-equipped to catch the movements of gods, but Cimeries, a greater demon, was no mortal.

The demon was witness to the moment [Punishment] divulged the lethality of [Broken Law]. The moment his brother’s expression morphed into disbelief as his flesh was broken, Cimeries was waiting. 

It was time to cash in the nega-experience points he had held in escrow. 

You've lost a level! Level has gone down to level -1000[negative]. Level floor reached for class Demon Noble. 

Qualification for Class Demon Lord not reached! Further level drops [blocked]! Demon Lord class [blocked]! 

Level too low for class Demon Noble but until Demon Lord qualifying complete cannot class up! 

… …intermittent class achieved! Demon Cimeries is now class Faux Lord!

Black lightning rampaged above the demon’s head. Cimeries was baraged by the corrupted energy until he was completely consumed by it. The demon disappeared for a moment as he was devoured by the raging energy. 

Cimeries grit his teeth as his body was remade. Demonic energy flooded his body, deconstructing his fabricated body into a vessel capable of storing the immense new power. 

His bandana burst into black flames and was consumed, baring his face. It was exposed only for a moment. With a noise like shattering wood, a mask of bones replaced it, forming into a mask of a grinning goat. 

The black storm released Cimeries, reclad in his black clothes. The mask grinned maliciously upon the wide eyes of Cimeries’s brother from where it gleamed within the shadows of the demon’s hood. 

Dangerous! [Punishment] thought when confronted by that skeletal smile. He leapt sideways to prevent his brother from carving his chest in two. 

Whatever had become of his Fallen Brother… that sword… that new form…. Things had progressed to a point he could no longer laugh about. 

"That sword! It cut me! But that… there's no way!" Blood dripped down from [Punishment]'s head in a thick silver stream. "What blade is that?! To cut a god? Your level is too low to harm me it must be the sword!"

[Punishment] wiped the blood that dripped into his eyes. "It doesn't matter. Whatever cursed weaponry you conjure it won't harm me if it never reaches."

Behind the mask Cimeries's eyes narrowed in bliss as he wrenched his sword free of the floor. "I wouldn't be so sure of that, bro."

The demon rested his sword against his shoulder, where silver blood rained down from it onto his black clothes. Too much… 

"Far too much… blood…" [Punishment] said. 

"M… My Lord… your arm, it's…" his Pope said with his eyes drawn wide in morbid terror. 

The god followed his head priests eyes to the source of a dripping sound. 

"No…. No!" [Punishment]'s scream was so violent it caused every mortal ear that caught it to bleed. 

He shrieked his agony and disbelief at the arm he was missing at the elbow and the leg that was severed at his knee. 

"Ya always were a b***h when it came to eating pain, bro." The dark depth of his hoodie's shadow making the ivory of his mask appear brilliant, but not as much as the luminescence of his eyes. 

His boots echoed in whatever space they could find between [Punishment]'s screams, as he walked slowly towards his brother lavishing in the music of his dismay.

"Ya love causing it cuz, you're a sadistic s**t, yo. But'cha ain't no masochist. Wonder what ya i***t worshipers think of that f*****g mantra of yours now?"

"Kill… kill the demon!" Punishment screamed as he collapsed on the ground cradling his arm.

"Y… you heard our Lord!" The pope screamed. "Kill the demon!"

But as [Punishment]'s servants turned towards their god's tormentor, he was no longer there. 

Crunch! Snap. Tear. Riiiip!

He was busy munching on [Punishment]'s pilfered limbs. The skull mask he wore bulged outward; its jaws opening to tear and chew the flesh of a god, like it wasn’t merely covering Cimeries’s face. It was like it was a part of him. 

"Tastes like s**t!" Cimeries complained while snarfing down the limbs. "Should'a gotten the Boob witch ta cook it up first. Still, the power's worth the taste!"

Title gained! You've been granted the title [God Eater] by Alothas!

"Blasphemer! Heretic!" The pope had drool dripping from his frothing mouth as fury consumed reason. "Kill him!"

"Don't think so, yo." The demon said between bites. Two fingers traced the air in a loop summoning a demonic scythe to the necks of his clergic foes. With a grin and a flick of his wrist, his curse decapitated the entire priesthood. 

"Ah! So terrible!" Cimeries said turning a glare upon Akane. "You've ruined my tastebuds with your amazing cooking. How am I supposed to eat anything now?"

"What a stupid complaint!" Akane objected. 

"Your cooking is too delicious." Cimeries said pointing an accusatory finger at Akane. 

"Then! Then I guess I'll just have to… cook for you from now on!" Akane said finishing the last words in a rush.

"Hmm… that's acceptable, I suppose." Cimeries said, and Akane's heart began to race.

"What is this?" [Punishment] had gotten up, his rampant rage roasting the air until Akane began to sweat. "You bastard! I was going to kill you quickly as a mercy for a brother. Now millennia shall pass upon your suffering!"

Cimeries glanced at his brother and an expression of sorrow passed across his face fleetingly. 

His eye blazed silver as he spoke. "A millennia of torment? Brother, that's a holiday. You and the rest of our siblings condemned me to torture beyond anything even you could dream of, for years beyond count."

The silver began to fade as his ethereal red eye blazed brighter. "But'cha just starting your very own festival of despair, y'kno?"

"Arrogance!" [Punishment] howled. The god gathered power and stemmed the flow of blood, new flesh already formed around the amputation as his body rebuilt itself. "Do you think this crippling has made us equal? Don't make me laugh!"

Cimeries’s mocking grin died on his face as [Punishment]’s power blazed, surging high like a firestorm. The power was intense enough that it took all Akane’s will just to keep from fainting. 

Cimeries’s challenge was greater. His being was at risk at being dispelled, scattered into nothing as his demonic form was assaulted by Holy Power. 

“Tch!” Cimeries flicked a finger towards Akane, in a tortured scream a grinning goat’s skull answered his summons. Its mouth opened with a shriek as it devoured the harmful ether [Punishment] radiated before Akane’s mind was destroyed. 

“Ya think I’ma be blown away by ya f*****g ether?!” Cimeries said. “Get real!”

The demon grasped [Broken Law] with both of his hands and brought it down, splitting the encroaching ether apart. It stormed around him, raging in flashes of chains and spikes, blowing Cimeries’s clothes around, but [Broken Law]’s power kept it from touching him. 

“Ya broke the Law brother!” Cimeries said as his wings burst into existence. The blades spread out into wings that launched Cimeries at his brother. “Now take your punishment!”

“Kuh!” [Punishment] was forced to dodge while his body still screamed in pain. 

The god hadn’t felt excruciating agony like that in millions of years. Not since the Reject Wars, when the great spirits that had refused the guidance of the Elders raged across Alothas. The pain disoriented him so badly he almost didn't have enough presence of mind to avoid Cimeries’s blade. 

“Time! I need time to do something about these wounds.” [Punishment] glared at Cimeries’s back as the demon spun to face him. 

The god’s eyes fell upon the cooling bodies of his servants. “My beloved pawns, be more use in death than you were in life. Taste my blood! RISE AGAIN!”

The silver blood spilled over the floors began to slither around like eels, writhing over the ground like living things. The parted lips of the decapitated clergy, and the gaping mouths of the moaning prisoners were invaded by the holy blood of a god.

"s**t!" Cimeries's lips curled in a vicious snarl as he realized his brother's intent. "Ya just can't help yaself? Breaking another law, bastard! Gods' law number 5, the dead'll stay dead!"

He spread his arms wide, skidding to the ground. "[Lawless Blade Storm]!"

His wing-blades broke formation, whistling as they sliced the air. They shot off towards the bodies of the fallen priest order, who had begun to tremble as [Punishment]'s blood forced life back into their hearts.

Blades sunk into the first bodies, turning them to ash before their revival completed. When their task was complete, they took to the air again to seek new victims.

But those that remained did not stay idle dead.

Clang!

As a blade sought the heart of the pope it was rejected! Before it could penetrate, the old man's soft vulnerability had been replaced, bursting apart and reforming into something inhuman. 

"This body!" The frail voice of the old man was gone.

"Magnificent!" The pope screamed in a reverent screech of clashing iron.

It was a voice that matched the monstrosity he had become. The ground was crushed beneath his powerful limbs as they slammed into the ground. 

They supported a monster with a core of an iron maiden. The only remains of the human the pope had been, was his face. In the headspace of the maiden, the pope's eyes admired his new form alight with the fires of a zealot.

Clang! Bang! Ton!

Other black blades were deflected by the reborn priests, as they were remade. Reborn into incarnations of the torture devices they favored, the newborn children had become monsters; they rejoiced at the transformation.

"Ya i***t!" Cimeries glared at his brother's army of fiends in disgust. "Ya ain't learned anything, yo?! Turning men ta monsters ta fight ya battles! We been down that road. Ya only inviting disaster!"

"And that's why you had to go, little brother." [Punishment] said. He glowed with power as bits of discarded torture devices gathered around his torn limbs, replacing them. "You can't see the big picture!  I'm a god! I do what I please!"

[Punishment] cackled like a madman as his creations swarmed Cimeries. The tile beneath the demon's feet exploded as the pope's face split in half, his iron maiden body opening. Drool rained off rows of ivory teeth,  that crunched the ground into debris.

Cimeries gripped the top of the monster's head. He leveraged himself into the air; his blade-wings forming behind him, adding extra power to his downstroke to end the perversion the pope had become.

But chains whipped out to thwart Cimeries. The prisoners on the wall morphed into horrors like mummies forsaking bandage for chain, bound him around his forearms and ribs. 

They reeled the thrashing demon binding him in more chain. As they wrestled with the uncooperative demon they filled the air with shrieks so agonizing, the sound drove Akane to her knees. The creatures held Cimeries in place as the abominations, who once had been priests, gathered to end him.

They groaned, clicking and clanking, as their deformed bodies raised lethal limbs of spikes. Wet sounds of brutalized meat made gruesome music as Cimeries was buried beneath their thrashing limbs.

"You could have been one of us, brother!" [Punishment] said as he watched Cimeries disappear. "Part of the new order of Alothas! What's a bit of betrayal, when you achieve true freedom in exchange?!"

"The cost's too high when ya gotta buy it with ya soul." Cimeries voice rang out, echoing all around the chamber. 

The sound, or perhaps guilt invoked because of it, made [Punishment] flinch. Their was no mystery, however, to why the god's eyes went wild and wide. The pile of thrashing steel monsters exploded in concurrence with the voice. 

Shards of his deformed minions turned into deadly shrapnel. The fragments sunk into anything unprotected. Akane screamed at the chime-like tinkle that rained upon her goat skull barrier. But that scream turned into a cry of joy when a beast that could only be Cimeries emerged from the wrecked remains of Lord [Punishment]'s followers. 

A great black hound with a skull face and the horns of a hebridean sheep, let loose a savage growl. A massive paw crushed the mangled half of the pope's body; that is the half not currently occupied as a chew toy in the beast’s brutish jaws.

"My Lord…. Save me!" The pope's eyes were wide with terror as death loomed before him once more.

But his plea was only met with a crunch of wicked fangs as he was devoured. 

"Feed me more, bro!" Cimeries said as he swallowed chunks of pope. "Your servants are delicious."

"Be that as it may, they've served their purpose." [Punishment]’s eyes were gleeful as the last fragments of metal clinked into place, reforming his arm and leg into metal forgeries of what Cimeries’s had devoured. “Let me honor their sacrifices by reminding you what it means to face a god!”

A thrum of power pulsed through the air, blazing all in a torrent of holy energy. The intense power evaperated the hound form of Cimeries, leaving the massive body nothing but whisps of vapor clinging to his humanoid incarnation. 

Punishment hovered above Cimeries, looking down upon him like he was no more than an insect. Being met with those eyes made the demon’s heart race in rage, but the sheer brilliance of his brother’s power made just keeping his form intact a challenge. All he could manage was a defiant sneer, as [Punishment]’s radiance carved pieces of him away by its mere presence. 

“I am Glorious. I am Perfection. Here, brother, I am the Law.” [Punishment] held out his reformed hand towards Cimeries. “I stand at a peak, you once shared with me. It appears you have forgotten. Let me remind you, just how high above We stand. [Gracious Chastisement]!”

Akane went sprawling as the entire shrine began to buck like a ship in a hurricane. Cimeries weathered the turbulence, but he was less resilient when a forest of chains burst out of the ground. 

His boots never rested as he bounded from link to link of each of the chains. Each moment of impact with the shining silver metal resulted in a geyser of steam. Fragments of demonic energy was burned away in reaction to the contact, and Cimeries was running out of places to run. 

Smaller chains sprouted like vines out of the larger links. They slithered and struck at Cimeries, each strand erasing a bit more of his maneuverability. 

“HAHAHAHA!” [Punishment] crossed his arms as he looked down at the struggling demon. “You’re quite the dexterous little rodent! But there is no escaping this trap little rat. [Penalty Rose].”

Thorns grew out of the chainlinks and with a staccato popping began to fire like bullets. 

“s**t!” Cimeries’s skull mask shifted into a skeletal grimace of panic. “[The Lies of Billy C. Goat]!”

It was all he managed to spit out before being transfixed by a barrage of holy energy forged projectiles. Smaller chains attached to the thorns snapped taught as they were reeled in, crucifying Cimeries still form, as black blood fell like rain.

“Cimeries! No! Nonononono!” Akane’s legs trembled as she pushed herself to her feet and walked unsteadily towards the demon’s unmoving form. “You can’t be dead. You can’t be!”

“Oh, but I’m afraid he is.” their was a roar like thunder so intense that it whipped Akane’s hair around her head like she faced a storm. 

Akane slowly turned to face [Punishment], after his shadow fell upon her. The god’s wild hair had been tussled into a majestic mane by all the excitement. Even with his eccentric garb, and his imposing awful ether, he truly was glorious. He was, but...

Akane had never hated anyone so much.

“You know, with all the excitement I failed to notice it.” [Punishment] sunk down to a knee. Even then his blazing eyes were on a level with hers. “You are quite lovely, aren’t you? I daresay even my sisters would gnash their teeth in envy upon being transfixed by your alure.”

He reached a hand large enough to palm Akane’s entire head out to cup her chin, but she stumbled away from him with her teeth bared. 

“No need to be afraid any longer.” Akane shrieked as she cold chains pressed upon her back. She spun around to find her nose buried in the muscles of [Punishment]’s stomach. “The demon is finished.”

Akane shivered and not from the chilling feel of [Punishment]’s lifeless steel replacement arm running a barbed finger over her cheek, just gentle enough it fell short of drawing blood. “I don’t know why my poor, misguided brother abducted you, but worry not. I’m in the market for some replacement toys.”

Akane’s eyes flickered to the remains of the last “toys” the god had finished playing with. She forced sour spit down her throat, before terror resulted in it becoming bile. 

“Of course the choice is yours.” Akane felt the blood drain from her eyes as the god’s tone filled with almost innocent cruelty like a child right before it pulls off a bug’s wings. 

“It would be fun to parade your flawless looks before my siblings, and toy with you at night.” His eyes narrowed and Akane could hear the smile in his voice. “But its also fun when you break beautiful things.”

“B-born from the bursting hearts of sparks, flowers of lightning bloom in arcs!” Akane flung her hand forward as a bolt of frenzied energy. 

Shock drove the god’s arms before his face. The metal in his reformed limbs soaking up the wild energy, sending it through his body until he shivered. 

“Mm. That tickled a bit.” the god said as he lowered his gaze upon Akane again.

“I… I won’t forgive you for what you did to Cimeries.” Akane said holding her hands before her as her mind raced to create more rhymes. 

[Punishment] shrugged before giving her a crooked look. “Ok. A breaking it is. I can’t promise you, you’ll see my poor twice departed brother soon. But you’ll get their eventually.”

Akane screwed her eyes closed as [Punishment] stretched his massive metal hand towards her head, casting her deep within an ominous shadow.

“I… I’m sorry, Cimeries.”

“Ya need ta stop trying ta kill me off, Boob Witch!” Cimeries said as he jumped free of the shadow [Punishment] cast over Akane. “I’ve died enough for a lifetime, y’kno?”

“Impossible!” [Punishment]’s eyes flicked up at Cimeries’s crucified form just in time to see it sizzle and hiss, right before it bulged and exploded into a thousand shadowy fragments. “You were dead! An illusion?”

“That goddamn, lying ass Billy C. Goat!” The corners of Cimeries’s mask curved up in a grin, as the demon took advantage of his brother’s shock and savaged his remaining arm. “Can’t trust a thing he shows ya! Kuhahahahaha!” 

“ARGH!” [Punishment] grabbed the stub of his arm as he rent the air with his anguished howl. “It… HURTS!!”

“‘Course it does, yo! Surgery with no painkillers always does!” Cimeries said as he hacked [Punishment]’s crafted leg in half nullifying the desperate kick the god sent his way. “Now lemme finish the procedure! Come here! Doctors orders!”

“Stay… STAY AWAY!” [Punishment] said. “[Avatars of Retribution]!

Tendrils of divine power shot out of [Punishment] and sunk into available vessels. Statues of the god groaned as they came to life, shaking the ground as they charged towards Cimeries. 

The severed leg, already filled with divine energy, morphed into a eight legged monster and struck at Cimeries’s back as the demon spread his wings to finish the god’s desecration. 

“Damn persistent cockroach!” Cimeries snarled. He swung the Crook Cleaver to obliterate the pest. But its edge never reached, the creature the leg became broke into the fragments that formed it to rejoin [Punishment].

Cimeries shook the walls with a triumphant howl at his vanquished enemy, but his revel was cut short as his back was smote with by a giant stone fist with the weight of a mountain behind it. 

The giant statue imbued with divine power drove Cimeries ten meters into the floor. Chunks of tile rained onto Cimeries’s body as the fist lifted from the crater. The cavity wasn’t vacant long as another fist filled it delivered by the second statue to arrive. Soon a crowd of [Punishment]’s statues were hammering away with their fists at the crater, and stomping it out with their massive stone feet.

Akane mouthed rhymes, but didn't spit them. Cimeries was in trouble, she needed to help! But… even though the demon had given her the tools to defend herself, she had hardly done anything more than tickle the god when she tried last time. 

Could she do anything with her mediocrity?.

“Ya think a buncha rocks’ll be the end’a me?!” 

Cimeries was different from Akane. He was not a being restrained by such insecurity. He conquered all his obstacles in the same fashion. 

By letting his rage rampage!

“Ya shitty statues! Get outta my way and become rubble! [Lawless Blade Storm].” Even powered by a god’s divinity, the statues couldn't weather the rampage of the black wing-blades and were reduced to rubble as the demon had commanded. 

“Cimeries! You’re… ok?” Akane said. 

She had raced to the crater as fast as she could running around, jumping over, sometimes climbing lzthe shredded remains of [Punishment]’s statues. When she finally reached the crater Cimeries had already began to rise out of it, dark wings spread. 

Akane swallowed as she beheld him. His clothing was torn, exposing skin that was likewise ripped and leaking blood. His mask was fragmented, pieces falling off and disintegrating to dust, exposing the half of his face with the blazing red goat eye.

Even with an arm twisted and mangled from the assualt, he still held [Broken Law] steady at his side. With his wings spread out in defiance behind him he was as glorious as a battle-worn fallen angel. And in a way… Akane supposed he was.

The demon coughed blood as he stared towards his treacherous brother. "My revenge ain't so insignificant that ita be defeated by something like that."

Breathing hard ragged breaths [Punishment] sneered. "Then I guess I'll have to try a bit harder."

His bear-trap jaws stretched apart before his gaping maw unleashed a torrent of screaming metal. The barrage flowed into Cimeries in a wild tide.

The wave seized Cimeries forming a hand that smashed Cimeries into the ceiling again and again until his body was broken.

“B-born from the… bursting hearts…” Akane held her hands out in front of her, but as her rhyme sputtered on her lips and died, she sank to her knees. What could she even do?

“I will admit, brother, you were a far greater threat than I gave you credit for.” [Punishment] said. “But it’s long time for you and the [Law] to become a traumatic memory.”

“Cough!” Cimeries cough was wet and thick with his own blood. “Trauma, yo? You don't know the meaning of the word. Butcha gonna learn today. I’ma make sure ya never forget me, or the [Law].”

He trembled as he lifted his head to the heavens and grinned before he croaked out a summons. “It’s been a while partner… can’t call ya like I used ta. Got reborn as a monsta… na that ain’t right. It’s disrespectful ta mama. But I’ve changed ta something thats the antithesis ta everything I was. Ta what our master was. Won’t ask ya ta forgive me. But I’ll demand ya appearance... ta get our revenge.”

“No!!” fear filled [Punishment]’s eye as he drew back his shrieking metal arm to silence his brother.

Cimeries’s grin grew as he stared down at [Punishment]. “Time ta Pass Judgement! Get out here [Sword of Law]!” 

The corner of his mask  that survived his thrashing hid his wolf's eye. It exploded in a nova of silver. That flare was blinding. Then, it died. 

Then the ceiling shattered as it was struck from above by a brilliant fiery comet. It passed between the god and demon obliterating the torturous arm. The comet hit the ground in a burst of holy energy that washed over the shrine. Its power was so immense it dominated even [Punishment]'s incredible ether.

After the aura of the comet faded on impact, Akane, shading her eyes, could make out something sticking out of the crater it left behind. Like Excalibur, a magnificent blade was half sheathed in the floor of the shrine. 

"But… you're a demon!" [Punishment] said shielding his eyes from the brilliant blade. "That level of holy power! It should…"

"That's right." As battered as the demon was it was a mystery how he managed to keep his feet. "It's a battle ta just stand in its presence."

Even Akane could see that. As the sword pulsed, Cimeries would waver like his body was molded from salt. 

Cimeries glanced at [Sword of Law] with an expression of such pain it made Akane's heart ache. 

But when he faced [Punishment] the demon was all smiles. "It's worth the pain. I ain't gotta explain ta ya 'bout that swords power."

"The Rule Enforcer…" [Punishment]'s face lost the scant color it had.

"That's right! Ya broke the Law, bro, it's time for ya penalty!" Cimeries said.

Like the demon commanded it spiderweb cracks spread out from the sword, and the shrine fell apart.

"Yeeeeee!" Akane shrieked as the shrine's floor collapsed beneath her.  

"Give it a rest!" Cimeries snarled around the hilt of [Broken Law] as he held it between his teeth. He needed his arm free so he could carry Akane beneath it like a sack of rice. 

"Do you know what you've done?" [Punishment] said glaring at Cimeries as he stood on a tumbling fragment of his legacy like it was even ground. "In an hour you've leveled what it took me millinea to build."

"Don't worry it ain't gonna matter soon enough." Cimeries said. "Nothing will." 

The demon's wings flared as he touched down amid the roar of falling rubble. The chunks laid waste to Chastening. The stone buildings groaned as they were crushed. Great plumes of dust blew the shredded remains of his clothes, and his mane of dreads violently around him. 

"Ow!" Akane said, as Cimeries deposited her like a sack of potatoes at his feet. 

"Goddamn whiner." Cimeries spat though his burning eye never left his brother.

Bits of shrine, fragments of metal rolled across the ground gathering into shape of a hand to replace the latest limb stolen by Cimeries.

"Do you realize how long it will take to rebuild my city?!" 

"I'd be more worried about rebuilding my limbs if I was you." Cimeries grinned.

"They'll grow back." [Punishment] said flexing the fingers of his temporary hand. "I'm still a god, unlike you. As long as my Life Points remain above zero I can recover anything I lose."

The god's bear-trap jaws clanged as they nashed together in his fury. "But what I cannot regain is my tarnished pride. At least as long as you still breathe, brother."

"Kinda feel the same way, 'cept pride ain't got nothing ta do wit it. Ya face is just an itch I gotta scratch."

[Punishment] and Cimeries concurrently reached out their hands towards each other like something was drawing them to each other.

"[Headman's Ax]" [Punishment] said, summoning a silver ax with a halo of spikes around its head.

"[Goat 1 Baby Gruff's Greed]!" Cimeries said. His outstretched hand morphed into a goat's head.

"Ne-eh-eh-eh!" Bleated the head before its mouth gaped open. With a sound like a jet engine the goat began to siphon ether out of the air which was saturated with [Punishment]'s power.

"Do you think I'll let you?" [Punishment] said. 

Even with artificial limbs [Punishment]'s speed was blinding. Baby Gruff had just began its meal when [Punishment]'s shadow fell over Cimeries. 

"s**t!" Cimeries was able to move his wings just quick enough to cross the blades above his head before the ax fell. 

But before the supremacy of divinity his wing blades could only delay the fall of [Punishment]'s ax. Black blood sprayed as the ax opened a long wound in Cimeries chest after the weapon carved through the demon's wings.

Shattered fragments of his wings fell like shards of broken glass, littering the ground alongside puddles of black blood. Despite the grievous wound, Cimeries overcame his weakening body through will, and hatred, and madness.

The ground shattered beneath his feet as he endured the blow, and air hissed as his tail sliced through it, impacting the center of his brother's chest with power that would've liquefied a mortal's bones.

But [Punishment] was only blown backwards to the air, where he gracefully somersaulted and floated in place.

Baby Gruff belched loudly as his stomach filled before vanishing in a burst of smoke. The greedy kid's meal flooded Cimeries with ether.

Energy exploded from Cimeries's body knitting his clothes back together. The explosion was followed by the rattling of bones as his face was once again hidden away behind his mask as the demon restored his armor with his stolen ether.

"Couldn't steal enough to heal your body I see." [Punishment] said, as he watched fresh blood splash on the demon's boots. 

"Figured I stole enough ta kill a one limbed god." Cimeries sneered.

The truth was [Baby Gruff's Greed] was a useful spell for gathering a bunch of ether quickly, but its stomach wasn't infinite. While he had restored his armor, he hadn't enough ether remaining to fix his body beyond getting his arm movable. 

"Try it!" [Punishment] said, jabbing a finger at Cimeries. "[Penalty Box]!"

The ground erupted beneath Cimeries's feet as hundreds of thorns punctured his body.

"Kuh!" Cimeries gasped as he sagged. "Ya seem determined ta ruin my outfit."

"I always hated your sense of style." [Punishment] said as he flew at Cimeries with the ax above his head. "It's not metal enough. But we can fix that!"

Cimeries struggling couldn't free him from his prison. He met [Punishment]'s eyes and the god's heart slipped a beat at Cimeries defiance. 

There was no thought ofdefeat in his adversary's head. He had to crush the demon now!

"[Goat 2 Elder Gruff's Clamor]!" The jaws of Cimeries's mask stretched wide. "NE-EH-EH-EH!"

The Soundwave of the bray was so intense that even a god's bones were rattled to a breaking point. The shock hurled [Punishment] into a tumbling spiral that blasted him through boulders of rubble, burying him beneath tons of stone.

Cimeries vomited gallons of blood from the violence of what he unleashed as he watched [Punishment] shift himself from beneath the stone like he was moving pebbles.

"You just don't know when to give up do you?" [Punishment] said.

"Nope." Cimeries's smile was almost childlike. "[Goat 3 Eldest Gruff's Boasting]... ['cuz I'm stronger than you]."

Cimeries flexed his arms and burst free of the thorns, leaving [Punishment]'s iron jaw hanging loose.

"You can't do that!" The god complained. "Those thorns were made of my power! You aren't greater than me anymore!"

"Sure I am, yo." Cimeries said glad his hoodie hid his arms. Wouldn't do for [Punishment] to see his skin swollen from the burst vessels and muscles beneath them. "[I'm faster than you too, y'kno?]"

[Punishment] couldn't do more than widen his eyes and cross his arms before his face as Cimeries appeared before him. But Cimeries wasn't aiming for his face. [Broken Law] chopped through [Punishment]'s leg, severing the god's final limb with a meaty thud.

The hollow eyes of Cimeries's mask slid to face [Punishment]. Facing the fathomless depths of those hollow sockets filled the god with an inexplicable terror. 

Doom scythed towards him in the form of a black blade that made the atmosphere scream as it passed through. 

[Punishment] was paralyzed for a moment at the enormous pressure Cimeries exuded. He would have been consumed by it; his hesitation, though it measured in fractions of a second, had allowed the blade's edge to bury in his side.

Cimeries could taste his victory, his revenge, on the tip of his tongue…

Then his body broke. 

Cimeries's body was drenched in his own blood like he had just weathered a typhoon. Wounds opened all over body as his vessels exploded. 

Eldest Gruff was his most powerful ability. It was also his most costly. The Eldest Goat made any boast about himself true, but it came with both cost and limits. 

Cimeries had been briefly able to overwhelm [Punishment] because he boasted he was stronger, faster. But he had to pay the toll of the gap he surpassed with his body. 

Blood gushed out of his mouth, as the momentum in his sword swing dimmed. [Punishment], spewing blood between the bear-trap jaws from the damage Cimeries inflicted on his lungs, smote the demon's chest.

His ribs shattered in the front from his brother's blow. Then, they broke in the back as he impacted a boulder, sinking deep into its surface. 

The damage he received from [Punishment] was brutal, but what was inflicted by the Gruffs' was far more ravaging. 

The gap between them was too large. The cost he paid had been steep enough that his body was shredded. He couldn't twitch a finger, much less move. 

Growth equaled cost. Had he made that boast against a being as powerful as his mother, his body would have been consumed the moment he spoke. [Punishment] had been just inside the effective range of the spell.

"You tricked me, brother!" [Punishment] said. 

His artificial hand sizzled and smoked as the god gripped the handle of [Broken Law]. The Crook Cleaver had been left behind buried deep within [Punishment]'s lung after Cimeries had been sent flying. 

The god gave the sword a disgusted glare before tossing it away. "You're no lord… this power you've displayed… it's a King's power!"

"It… just seems… that way…." Cimeries gasped with a twitching smile. "Cuz you… a b***h! Argh!"

Cimeries roared in pain as [Punishment] flicked his wrist burying a long needle in the demon's shoulder. 

"Shut up!" [Punishment] said as he limped towards Cimeries. Bits of rubble rolled over the ground gathering into a new leg. "I've never been one to disparage bit of sadism, but you could've killed me a few times over had you not been aiming for my extremities."

"An easy death's too good for ya." Cimeries said with an insolent smile. "Raar!"

[Punishment] erased his smile with another well placed needle. "Did you become a mind reader when you became a demon? I was thinking the same thing about you."

Akane watched the pleasure in [Punishment]'s eyes as he tormented Cimeries. This was the end. Once the wicked god finished playing with his brother, she was next. 

Despite the dismal fate awaiting her, never once did she think to flee. For the first time since coming to this world, she was more concerned about another's fate than her own.

But another feeling she was more familiar with pumped through her. Helplessness. Even though she had gained power, she didn't have enough. 

"Aaaaaahhhhhh!!" Akane fell to her knees and covered her ears with her fists as Cimeries filled the air with his scream.

Rhymes filled her head but memories of her ineffective spell earlier kept her from giving them voice.

"Let's see…" [Punishment] said. He had hobbled before his brother and stared at him with malice. "I think I'll start with your fingers." 

Thumbscrew devices were summoned out of stone. The twirled autonomously and began crushing Cimeries's fingers.

Tears flowed down Akane's face as Cimeries was brutalized. If only his opponent wasn't a god! Maybe then she could've done something. 

If only there was magic so powerful even a god couldn't deny it! But there wasn't… or was there?

Determination filled her eyes as she lifted her eyes to glare at the god. Cimeries had said it hadn't he? Power enough to combust stars. The most powerful magic that exists. The magic of Law.

Cimeries had told her little outside of forbidding her from using it. But in this situation he wouldn't mind right?

She got to her feet and took a deep breath. Cimeries said to best mold magic she had to get in sync with the rhythm of her ether.

She closed her eyes and cleared it of everything but the memory of a beat Cimeries had made that she felt particularly in tune with. 

She crouched and placed a hand on each knee and began to sway back and forth while rolling her shoulders. As she moved she could feel ether rolling over her body. Instinct seized control her hips and she began to pop them up and down, side to side, while bars filled her head.

Her eyes snapped open, and she began to spit.

"The rules, the Law, it's doctrine in this hit.

If you're a violator, I'll divine your [Punishment]"

"What?! You fool! Did you teach a mortal [Law] magic?!" [Punishment] said spinning to face Akane.

"It's the only magic I know, y'kno?" Cimeries lied, spitting blood.

"My tools are universal, they weave the fabric of this plane

These bars about the Alothas Law is about to introduce some pain"

"No!" [Punishment] said.

He left Cimeries forgotten as dread filled him. The very magic that caused his siblings to betray their brother and his master flowed out of the beautiful human's mouth. 

Akane's eyes went wide as [Punishment] approached faster than thought. But her rhymes didn't cease because…

She had faith in her guardian.

Broken, bloody, and barely upright  on trembling legs, Cimeries rose out of her shadow and received the blow intended for Akane. 

[Punishment]'s hand was halted close enough to Akane's eye that when she blinked, she brushed the clawed nail of hooks with her lashes. 

Akane couldn't stop tears from flowing. Cimeries… just how far did the bond make him go to protect her?

Both of the demon's arms hung useless at his side. He hadn't any choice but to allow [Punishment]'s hand, his fingers extended like a knife, to plunge through his own shoulder to stop it. 

But when Cimeries turned his head towards Akane, his goat's eye, exposed by a half broken mask, wasn't pained. Instead it glimmered with pride.

"Ya doin' great, A-cane." The demon said. "Now rock out! Time ta finish this shitty brother of mine, yo!"

Her heart raced as thrills of pleasure shot through her veins. So he butchered her name. Who cared? He said it! Not Boob Witch. He tried to say her name!

With new vigor she straightened, rocking a fist back and forth beside her head while kicking a leg out in concert as she spat.

"Listen rule breaker, you're pretend, a god faker

"I've prepared in this hit I spit the Law that'll send you to your maker"

"I won't let you!" [Punishment] said. Fueled by desperation he lifted his free hand above his head and brought it crashing down, determined to cleave both of the pests in two.

But Akane's spirit was soaring too high to be distracted by something as insignificant as impending doom just then.

Traitors have to chill

All betrayers be still!"

Before his arm could harm a hair on Cimeries's head, [Punishment] froze. It was only an instant. Akane lacked the command over Law, or ether capacity to hold a god for long, but…

An instant was all Cimeries needed.

"Our jobs not done yet, [Broken Law]. Get over here!"

With useless arms Cimeries couldn't  wield his sword. At least not with his hands. 

With a pained roar Cimeries snatched his summoned sword out the air as it flew by, biting hard into its handle. Then he twisted his neck, cutting his paralyzed brother in half from shoulder to hip.

"RRRAAAAAWWWWRR!" Cimeries roared his victory, allowing his sword to fall free of his mouth and bury itself halfway to the hilt at his feet. 

"Cimeries!" Akane flung herself onto Cimeries back wrapping her arms around his chest. She ignored the blood that seeped onto her skin. 

It seemed like the blood was acidic to most things, but on her skin it was just wet.

"Erg…" Cimeries said as Akane pressed against his wounds, though he didn't protest the contact.

"I'm… a god." [Punishment] said weakly. 

The shock of him being still alive made Akane shriek and release Cimeries.

The demon didn't seem surprised. "Not for long, yo."

"You… you can barely stand." [Punishment] said. "You don't have the power to harm me anymore."

Cimeries's head fell back onto his shoulders. He didn't even have the strength to hold it up. Even his tail lost to gravity, laying flat on the ground. 

"Ya ain't lying, yo." But the demon grinned as he said it. "Guess I'ma needa snack."

[Punishment] watched in horror as Cimeries hobbled through the wreckage of his shrine foraging until he uncovered all of the god's amputated limbs. 

Then, the demon feasted.

"Tastes like s**t! But so worth it, y'kno?" Cimeries said wiping a bit of silver liquid off his cheek. 

He stood strong after his meal, his clothes and mask perfectly restored. His tail was especially lively again, it flickered back and forth behind his back.

Behind his skeletal mask his eyes gleamed while looking down on his brother. "Now shall we begin?"

"I'll kill… I'll kill you!" [Punishment] snarled.

"Only one'a us gonna be doin' any killing today, yo." Cimeries said. 

He snapped his fingers and black lines seared across reality in the space between them. After another snap, the lines parted like opening eyes forming screens angled just right for [Punishment]'s position.

"Thought ya might wanna bear witness to ya kingdom as it falls." Cimeries said as he crouched beside his brother. The demon snatched the god's long hair and forced his head up to better see.

"What is this?!" [Punishment] said. 

The three of them watched as the screens played out the exodus of Chastening's former residents. 

"My city…" [Punishment] said, tearing up as he watched the prisoners break down his powerless gates and rush beyond them in a flood. "My toys. N-no. No! Nooooooo!"

"Look there's boss!" Akane said pointing to a screen.

"Tenacious shitty boss ain't he?" Cimeries gave Akane a smile. "Looks like most of his people made it."

He looked down at his brother. "Even the cities of gods can crumble, bro. Ain't much time can't bring ta an end. Hell, even gods, right? Kuhahahahaha."

Cimeries wiped a tear of laughter from his mask. "But with endings come beginnings. Like now!"

He let [Punishment]'s head hit the ground with a thud as he straightened. The demon then began to stretch like he was preparing for a jog.

"K… hm…. Where to begin? I know!" Cimeries said. "I'll do the torture ritual from A-cane's world!"

"Eh?" Akane said, confused.

The demon began to do a little shuffling dance, very unlike anything Akane had seen him do before. But she recognized it immediately. How many times had she watched it with the demon during their journey.

"What are you doing?!" The movements seemed to terrorize [Punishment]. "What kind of ritual is this?!"

Akane sighed and shook her head as Cimeries shuffled over to his brother.

"Reservoir Dogs…" she muttered remembering the torture scene. Cimeries loved that movie a bit too much.

The demon flicked his wrist and dark knives burst into existence. "Let's have fun together, big brother!"

As Cimeries straddled his body, fear flooded the god like it hadn't in millions of years. 

He had forgotten. He was forced to remember as his terrible screams lit up the dead city's air.

This brother he was seeing before him now, wasn't some new abomination. No, it had been a while, but this cruelty was familiar. 

Back, before the Elders arrived to tame them, when he and his brother and all of their siblings had been nothing more than rampaging spirits terrorizing Alothas, long before the world even had a name… 

There was one of them that was far worse than the others. One of them that was wilder, crueler, and more wicked than any other being on this plane…

The dark storm that even they, the other powerful spirits, fled before, had been so violent The [Law], the most powerful Elder, took it upon herself to tame him… 

"It was just a glass jar…" [Punishment] gasped in a moment between his screams. A pause while Cimeries thought of a fresh torment. "Brothers, Sisters, we forgot, didn't we? [Law] had put something terrible in a glass jar. A jar she formed out of his devotion to her…"

Tears ran down his face as Cimeries loomed over him ready to start fresh. "And we smashed that jar wide open…. We were fools!"

"Yep!" Cimeries said happily, before the screams began again.

"Brother please." The god said after bearing hours of Cimeries's attention. "I'm sorry. H...have mercy."

"How many times did my master ask for mercy, yo?" Cimeries's voice was as emotionless as his mask. "How many times did she beg ya ta stop?"

"The others… the others made me!" [Punishment] said. "I would have never harmed you my beloved brother."

"Kuhahaha!" Cimeries laughed as he crouched next to the god resting his chin on a hand. "Come on, bro! I can still picture your face… laughing hardest of all while my master unmade herself. But don'cha worry. We still got hours ta help ya remember! Kuha…. Kuhahahahaha!"

"N-no more. Have mercy! F-forgive me!" [Punishment] said, gasping as he fought for every breath.

Cimeries's eye blazed silver, gleaming through his mask's eye slit. "The god of Punishment, begging for forgiveness?"

Red ethereal flames leaked from the other eye slit as he spoke again, his voice bouncing back and forth between the fragment of god that remained and the demon he'd become.

"How ridiculous."

"Pathetic, yo!"

The voices rang out until combining, harmonizing into solidarity of their purpose. "How blasphemous."

[Punishment]'s eyes widened in realization. "N-nooooooo!"

The denial was the last thing the god who ruled over punishment spoke before bursting into silver motes of light and ceasing to exist.

The bones of the skull mask split apart as Cimeries siphoned the silver light devouring every spark.

"What happened to him?" Akane said, stepping beside the demon. 

"He unmade himself." Cimeries said after he devoured the last light. "He was the embodiment of Punishment, begging for forgiveness goes against his purpose. So… he ceased existing."

I see…" Akane said. "Are you… ok?"

"..." Cimeries got to his feet, and pulled off his mask, revealing a wide grin. "Of course. Nothing tastes as sweet as revenge, y'kno?"

Akane nodded, staring at the ground. But if Cimeries was being honest, why had he been crying tears of blood?

"So where are we going now?" Akane said, eager to change the subject. 

"I gotta get stronger to kill the rest of my shitty siblings." Cimeries said. "But I can't until I complete the qualifications."

"Qualifications?"

"Gotta find my lieutenants, yo. Lieutenants that'll be loyal to me, body, heart, and soul. Then I'll be a demon lord!" 

"Where will we find them?" Akane said.

"Dunno. But I'll know my brides when I see 'em, yo!"

"W-wait" Akane said as the demon wrapped his tail around her waist and leapt off towards the walls of Chastening. "I thought you said, lieutenants!"

"Yes! Lieutenant wives! Kuhahaha! Now let's get outta here. My shitty siblings definitely felt [Punishment] dying and I ain't trying ta face anymore gods tonight."

"Explain what you meant by wives!" Akane said. 

Their bickering faded as they disappeared, leaving behind the scene that would change the fate of Alothas forever.