The Ferryman

Queen's rampage

“Normally, I’d expect Ferrymen like yourself to kill demons like us.”

“The job of a Ferryman had been misguided and misinterpreted for too long. Ferrymen are to guide the souls of the lost and deliver them.” Grave answers again, as he walks forward to the castle with Cerberus leading the way.

Trudging through the poorly maintained roads to the castle, it is evident that no one has been here for quite some time as the path is broken with dead trees falling down. Grave pauses for a moment then drawing his pistols while Cerberus growls loudly.

“It is unusual for Ferals to reach here.” Grave immediately draws Deliverers, firing to the oncoming tall, skinny, blind creatures with claws that reach out to him. They are fast, if memory serves him right these Ferals. Wild and controlled by their desire for human flesh. It would seem these are the creatures that turned the townspeople into ghouls and most likely to have been from the Reidlanders army. Grave notices how some of them still have tattoos of a skull and a pair of shields.

“Reidlanders’s Raiders. It seems they wanted to claim Mastidfelt for themselves. Oh well.” Grave fires off the Deliverers at them, their speed makes it a bit harder to hit. Grave predicts their movements slowly, then firing off shots at them. Blowing their legs away to stop their mobility, but now they are literally crawling to him which is just as scary. Grave fires another 2 shots then reloading quickly. One of them is close to him, Grave fires off the shot and then curb stomps the head of the feral. Cerberus jumps to them setting them ablaze before they approach Grave, while Jaghateria crushes the skull of one of the ferals.

“Now that is done, shall we go visit my mistress?” Grave nods as Jaghateria opens the door to the castle, the interior had an open space, where the moonlight shines through the stained glass that forms the shape of a beautiful woman in tears. A majestic light shines through to a fair woman sitting in the middle. As still as a statue, her eyes glow red, beautiful silver hair that reflected the lights. A trident is by her shoulder, there is a stain on the floor. It is a stain of tears from her.

“She has been lonely for a long while now. Mistress Riella!” to which the stillness of the statue had disappeared, the trident is already at Grave’s throat. In that split second Grave lowers his legs, barely avoiding death in that split second. He briefly looks to the woman, seeing the glowing red eyes, the stream of black tears with a sad expression on her face.

“Mistress! Cease your hostility!” the woman lets out her demonly roar to come over.

“I expected a fight. Jaghateria. She won’t listen to reason, I need to calm her down.” Grave rolls to the side, dodging the high speed trident that is thrust towards him.

“Don’t kill her!”

“Not if she kills me first!” Grave shouts back as he ducks, avoiding a mighty swing that hits the wall. Grave could see the stone walls cracking and some of its pieces are crumbling. Grave can only imagine if he gets hit by that at full force, he might be ending up as a pile of mush. The woman swings it down, then her bat wings form behind her as she spins the Trident. Roaring at them again, Cerberus seems wanting to join the fight, only to be stopped by Jaghateria which wants it. The Mistress’s rage, that is already terrifying by default.

Grave is thinking of his options, using the Deliverers is out of the question. The multitude of blessings on it could poison her with the slightest graze. His machetes will not be able to withstand the force of Riellanzer’s power. There is one thing, a blade that Grave does not like to use. It may be the only blade that can disarm her without killing her, but Grave needs to be careful as the blade is known to cut everything and everyone without discrimination.

“No, there must be another way.” Grave thinks out loud, to which he jumps in the air. Only to find Riellanzer at point blank range, thrusting it at him. Grave flips, grabbing the polearm which Riellanzer tries her best to shake him off. This rage is already amplifying the super human strength which ends up sending Grave to the wall. Sending his mask flying to Jaghateria’s side.

“Ferryman!” Grave stands back up, lowering the hood as his fingers hold a hairtie. Tying his hair properly before doing anything else. Riellanzer charges at him to which Grave twirls to the side, letting her strike the trident to the wall. Riellanzer takes a good look at Grave as she struggled to pull out the trident, then stopping. Riellanzer goes to him, holding his cheeks. Muttering something in an old language that Grave has no idea what it means but her tears are no longer black as her eyes turn to their usual crimson alongside the cornea returning white. Her tears fall to being white, must be something nostalgic as her frown turns to a smile, as if she is relieved to see him. Grave pulls out a glass vial from his pocket and drops it to the floor. Riellanzer caresses his face, from his cheeks to his jaw.

As the vial breaks, the phantoms of the Demon Queens and Demon Lords appear, fair skin, beautiful red eyes, some had horns by their sides, they wear their battle armour as they stand by Demon Queen Riellanzer,she turns to face all of them. Jaghateria picks up Grave’s mask, then looking at him. Grave walks towards him with Cerberus approaching him.