Threads of the Soul

People say that when you die, you are finally at peace, that you can see it on the faces of the dying as they finally slip into that eternal sleep. But that was just a lie. Maybe it was true once upon a time, when the majority of people would die from old age without a care in the world left. That time, however, was long past.

Now, a peaceful death was a blessing. A miracle. Now, you would die scared and in pain, the only hope would be that you wouldn't be alone when it happened, but Seth had failed to give his teacher even that.

He could see it in his teacher's eyes, which were still widened in horror and overflowing with despair. Seth knew what had been going through his head when he finally slipped away, because he had been on the verge of doing so himself.

Why did all of this happen? Why did it have to end like this? Why did it have to be me? Why? Why. Why... There were no happy memories of days gone by, there was no life flashing before your eyes. It was hard to even think of your regrets. All you could do was ask that question. Why?

But of course, he would never get the answer to those questions. Even now, Seth still didn't have the question as to why it happened. Not the attacks, those were obvious. His own was from simple hunting, while his teachers was caused by the infernal scourge of the Hemogoblins, something he would have to wipe out sooner much rather than later.

No, it was not that he was questioning, but why the apocalypse even started in the first place. Why this 'system' or whatever it was seemingly chose them and put them through all of this. He had asked Angel, multiple times in fact, but he never got a straight answer.

The best he got was that it was for his benefit. But he hardly believed that.

Even if it was making him stronger, he would have never even needed that strength if it wasn't for the interference of this damned system in the first place. So why? He still didn't know... But there had to be an answer, there had to be more to this. There had to... to make all these deaths worth it, and all of the ones yet to come.

He just hoped he would be alive when they finally found out that answer.

Until then, He'd just have to do his best to ensure as many survive as possible. No... not survive. He'd make sure these people thrived. Make a world in which people could imagine a peaceful death once again.

Reaching down, Seth gently closed his teachers eyelids, finally ending his eternal stare of terror and giving him the peaceful look that he rightfully deserved. Yet it was in that moment, that Angel whispered an unexpected sentence in his head.

[You have been offered a bequeathment, Will you accept?]

'...Yes. I accept.'

Seth rose to his feet, catching movement in the corner of his eye as light gently flickered and flashed. However, despite his agreement to this 'bequeathment' whatever that was, nothing seemed to change. At least not that he noticed here. But that didn't matter right now.

Stepping forward he gently placed his hand on top of Astra's, ignoring the sensation of the crackling lightning biting at his fingers, as he tenderly pushed her hand down to stop her from firing. The Puma which she had been aiming at just a moment before eyed them carefully, the scruff of clothing still clenched tight between its teeth as it dragged yet another body towards the shadows.

"Leave it."

Despite the anger practically pouring off of him in a haze, when he spoke it was calm and cold. Her eyes snapped to his, boring down onto him with her usual soul chilling glare as her pupils glowed with an intense light. They stared into each others eyes for a moment, even if she couldn't see Corvus' behind his mask, her eyes narrowing as if she was looking into his very being to understand his reasoning. Eventually, her gaze softened ever so slightly and she slowly lowered her arm, before taking a step back.

Seth gave her a slight nod, to thank her for trusting him, but he didn't turn to finish the beast himself. In fact he didn't turn at all, he kept his back towards the shadow puma. He simply it slink away into the shadows as it dragged the body along with it, completely unaware of the little passenger he had snuck onto its prey when none of them were looking.

He could feel her questioning gaze on him, but he just ignored it, they didn't have time to deal with such things right now. As if to confirm his suspicions, or simply because the fates had it out for him, the earth beneath his feet trembled even more violently than before as something burrowed its way through. If the rats felt like an earthquake, this was more like being at the peak of a volcano in the midst of its eruption.

Outside, the road leading up to the library, which had once been the sight of a great battle, simply collapsed. The earth giving way to the gap that had been burrowed underneath as it crumbled and caved in. But as chunks of road, half scavenged corpses and scraps of cars disappeared into the sinkhole, something else emerged out of it.

A mass of pink, fleshy tendrils swirling together to form an arm, topped with a three fingered hand, lunged out of the collapsing earth, sending chunks of destroyed road cascading throughout the air, many of which slammed into and collapsed different sections of their precious wall.

As the hand, which was big enough to make a car look like a toy, slammed down and clawed into the road, it began to pull the rest of its body free from the sinkhole. The spectacle of this giant beast emerging had, undoubtedly, drawn a crowd. Many of the best warriors, as well as basic looky-loo's, came to witness the emergence of this unholy crime against nature.

The body that followed the tendrilled arm was a mass even more tendrils holding together chunks of undulating flesh, which were spattered with clumps of matted grey fur. The tendrils seemingly acting as stitches, holding together this frankensteinian monstrosity. Throughout the different chunks of the flesh, one would be able to see parts of the rats, such as their upper half or simply their head, jutting out of the mass and fused into it at the bisecting point.

The fused pieces, still moved and gnashed their teeth, if they had any, as they had become one with the whole. The monstrosities other hand, which it was using to further drag itself from its earthly tomb, was made up of thousands of paws from the regular rats. At the fingertips of this amalgam hand, the orchestra of paws fused together and morphed into nothing more than lifeless rat heads with elongated front teeth that tore apart the head and acted as the beasts claws.

The creatures teeth were much the same, rows and rows of serrated teeth, each formed from dozens of buck teeth clumped together and broken in different ways. Its head, which was made stitched together clumps of fuzzy flesh like the rest of its body, was formed in a way that seemed like someone was trying to construct a rats head purely from a hazy memory.

The Rat King had returned, and he had transcended since they last met.

Seth clenched his fist tight as he observed this horrific thing pull itself from the ground in front of their home. It was almost as big as the Shelled Drake, and just as tough to defeat no doubt. However, he expected this thing wouldn't be as slow, but wouldn't have that impenetrable defence either.

Tough... but not impossible.

He had grown since then as well, they all had. He was stronger than before, had more at his disposal than a few measly skeletons.

Glancing over his shoulder at those who had gathered around him, he narrowed his eyes and scanned the crowd for some particular faces. Only once he had found them, did he nod and begin to bark his orders.

"Fox, Amazonian and Astra. You're coming with me to keep this thing at bay. If you have some way to summon that dog of yours, I suggest you do it now. You're gonna need the power to light this fucker up."

He looked to each of the members as he picked them out, directing the last sentence to Astra, who simply gave him a curt nod in response. Acutely aware of how close the beast was to freeing itself, he whipped his head around to Cynthia, who simply sighed.

"Let me guess... You want me to go big mode?"

"It would be useful, yes. Then I need Erik to flood the tunnels, make sure nothing else gets out behind us. As for the rest of you, make sure to keep the rest safe and ensure all those damn shadow cats are dead. We cannot have any more ambushing us. Everyone clear on their role?"

"Yes Sir!"

The words echoed out as dozens of voices responded in sync, swept up in the heat of the moment and not even questioning why this person was giving them orders, or why their supposed leaders were following them. They didn't have that luxury.

Yet just as they were about to break and get to their jobs, a single hand jutted out from the crowd as it was raised high in the air. A timid voice soon following, as the hands owner spoke with fleeting confidence.

"I want to help too."