The screams dissipated, anguish and agony a stain ‘pon the empty battlefields history, the scar of war a distant memory on this plateau.


Yearly they would make a pilgrimage, a cult of man numbering in the millions with nothing but blind hope, a symbol of what man was capable of, a legend.  


The masses gathered around a statue erected in honor, not of the man they came to revere but of the woman who lead. Twenty feet of chiseled marble, it bore no imperfections, from the bountiful breasts to the battle hardened scowl across her lips. It’s inscription read Nulla. But it wasn’t her they came to pay homage too, it was to another man who’s name could be found on the plaque, and whom could be seen in the statue, in the form of man held high above her head, enclosed in her fist.


I was in the crowd, it would be hours before I could make it to the statue, but that was when I heard our leader speak up, megaphone in hand he pointed to the tiny object held in the statues hand as his words blared over the crowd. Story time had begun.


“An army of demons devastated, they would tell you it was the work of the witches and the nerds! But we know it was the neverending pounding of mankind, and one man in particular, not a witch, not a nerd and her guns, it was Fross Wrathblade who took on the hordes of Hell, an enemy that sought to deny us the very right to even Exist!”


I relaxed, taking a seat on the grass imagining what it must have been like as I listened to our leader speak, he had a way with words, and I sometimes wonder if his words may have more power than even the witches and the nerds that let us congregate here on the anniversary of that battle. What did they have to gain from letting us come?


“The stench of death told of the scores of humanity that had marched, a mistake our enemies would never make again! This was the war to end all wars. For hundreds of years we fought against extinction. No, we would not go quietly into the night!”


I questioned him in my mind...was he right? Did a man really defeat the Demons? Our witches had empowered their servants, grew them to monstrous sizes, shrunk them to unseen assassins, and enchanted their weapons with the might of all the elements. They even allowed their wizards meager powers to become something fierce. Our foe never stood a chance.


“In the throes of battle there was one man who stood out from the rest, the witches had enchanted his flesh to withstand the elements and the blades of the demonic, they ensured his blade would cut through anything, and his stamina would never end. He was a demon in his own right, but he was our demon on the battlefield, and commanded to by his mistress he charged through the hordes of Hell. It was without fear that he waded through throngs of Demon Soldiers, decapitating, de-limbing, and disemboweling them without thought, and in his wake flow a river of the dead!”


I sometimes wonder if it could really be true, how could a man hold so much power on this world dominated by women? Was it possible for someone like me to do the same, could I fight the demons, the vampires and the faye that merely tolerate us because they can’t wipe us out? ? Could I even hope to stand up my mistresses? I sometimes wonder if I might be stolen in the night by a vampire, or enslaved by the faye, or devoured by a demon, they...I...how could I hope to fight such beings as Fross did?


“She commanded from a far, talon esque digits pointing to the heavens where it would rain fire upon humanity, out soldiers were incinerated, all who opposed her were cut down by her blades, she called them Infernicus and Elfs Tooth!”


I had heard the stories about Elfs Tooth, forged from the teeth of an extinct race of magical creatures, it’s slice not only cut, but severed the strings of existence. Those who it touched were never born, objects it cut were never created. Infernicus had the essence of one of the old in it. A Demon Lord, beings we had not seen in a millenia, yet this demoness welt a sword that housed it with in.


“Emerging upon a peak, a wall of the dead, demons and man alike, he stole her gaze, indifferent to fear, remorse, and all emotion. There was something different about him, and she knew her time had come. But it was in that moment that he saw his best friend cut down by her that sealed his fate!


I blinked, what was that? “Meph, don’t!” I yelled, and brought my hands to my head, massaging my temples. When an odd ringing in my head ceased I looked up, my compatriots were all staring at me, including our leader.


Embarrassed. “Sorry...I don’t know what….” Suddenly I saw it, I smelled it, and I heard it. Screaming, I ran through the crowds of my compatriots. No, these weren’t my compatriots, this was a war.


“Fuuu!” I yelled as I leapt to the side, she had been at least thirty feet tall and stomped right where I had been, nearly crushed by the same bare feet that I saw wiping out scores of man and demon alike. Scrambling to my feet, in shock I looked up and realization hit me, it was Nulla, but how?


Staring down at me, electric eyes pulsating in whites and blues she proceeded, her giant foot moving directly over me and crushing another demon whom had been ready to cut me down from behind, the terrible sound of crunching bones so close the ground quaking all around.


Screaming, I fell to my knees, hands over my head. “What’s happening?!”


“Meph Don’t!” I yelled as I saw my oldest friend friend vanish, how did I know who he was, how was he my friend? a silvered blade cutting through nothing but air, nothing remained, not even blood ‘pon her blade, and oddly enough I soon forgot what his name was, and then I forgot the terrible power of this blade it was as if her victim never existed.


Like a passenger in my own body, my head lowered. Looking down at my blood caked hands, wrapped in torn gauntlets, I realized this was not my arm, chiseled in muscle and flesh it gripped a sword, larger and heavier looking than I could have ever hoped to wield with any kind of grace.


Involuntarily I looked back at her, this woman, she didn’t look like a demon, a woman standing nearly 12 feet tall, her thin body wrapped in armor, spiked at her knees and elbows.


She readied, stepping from a mountain of the dead, no doubt slain by her. Metal clad feet crushing the skulls and bodies of her fallen foe and friend alike. “So you’re what humanity sends against me?”


I no longer felt like a passenger in my own body...no this was my body, and when I stared into this woman’s eyes I had confidence I never felt before. Her voice was so bitter, condescending,  and she leveled a silvered blade directly at me, cocking it’s hilt as if calling me.


Anger, uncontrollable rage built up with in me, no words, action my language. I launched myself from the wall of the dead directly at this vile demoness and brought my enchanted sword down from above, and just as suddenly it was gone.


Clumsily I slammed into this mountain of a woman, hands grasping at her shoulders, I bounced off of her and landed at her feet, she had only parried my blade with her own.


Laughter filled my atmosphere staring at my empty hands I realized I had no weapon. Why did I confront this beast unarmed when the ground was littered with weapons?


Scrambling on my hands and knees to a near by sword I grunted as I launched myself to the side as her sword came down next to me, nearly cutting through my back and chest.


With Dexterity and instinct I never knew I held I leapt to my feet only to lunge directly at her, ducking ‘neath her gloved hand that had been thrust at my face, vaguely aware of this black essence rocketing from her open palm, it’s surface darkened by pulsating energy, it was then that I realized it was a blade bound in some kind of dark energy.


I had no idea what I was thinking, somehow I thought I could tackle this 12 foot tall vixen but instead I met a wall of muscle and a spiked knee removed several inches from the side of my neck, it was already over, cursing my luck, hoping that I would somehow awaken from this dream, and I’d be back in that field with my compatriots, or better yet in my bed.
It was so warm, so cloudy, body tingling, vision stained by tears, blood and sweat. It was so peaceful, was this what death felt like?


Screaming, my eyes dilated in their expanding sockets, I felt my body compressing in on itself, somehow an eye had cleared and what I saw to my horror shook me to the very core of what I deemed reality, I was really here, and this demoness, now gigantic, several stories tall had me trapped under her foot.


“Little man...did you think?” And she pressed harder, I don’t know how I still held a solid figure. “That you ever stood a chance?” My lungs had compressed, air non existent, bones threatening to shatter, my entire body slowly beginning to cease holding a solid shape..


“Your screams, you will never stop, even in death I will make you scream!”


Her face twisted into a monstrous visage, where once she was attractive, even beautiful she now bore horns ‘pon her head, fangs in her maw, crimson in her eyes, and a forked tail which snaked between her feet. Realizing it was wrapping about my head, the only part of my body not beneath her foot I struggled, bit, anything I could. It had been for naught, that leathery appendage cinched about my head, ceasing all movement and I felt her foot lifting off of me as I felt myself being drug into the air by her tail.


“Welcome to your afterlife!" I felt myself lifting again before being lowered and then I felt humid air rushing past. My hands free came to life, grabbing at her leathery flesh about my head, feet kicking wildly, had I been able to scream I would as I felt something sharp wrip into my shin moments before I felt another appendage began to prod the length of my body leaving a sticky trail in it’s path, and then it began wrapping about me, pinning my arms to my side, my legs together, consuming me entirely in it’s girth.


Slowly her tail began to unwrap itself from my head as I was being pulled somewhere by this wet appendage, what I had been greeted with was beyond comprehension, her open maw was wide, accepting me into it’s cavern, her horrible red eyes narrowed in excitement, relishing in my horror, one of her incisors already crimson with my blood.


It erupted all about me, deafening, my captress screamed as her head shot back, her tongue  lolling further out of her mouth as it unravelled from about me and tossed me to freedom several stories in the air. Free falling, I noticed my captress had already fallen to her back, flattening scores of battling humans and demons beneath her gargantuan body, and before me the silvered blade fell in perfect unison, as if it were calling me, asking me to take it, and I did.


Inverting the tip, in my descent I saw a cauterized hole in this giant female beasts stomach, it became my tarrget. And whence I came down, landing perfectly on one knee I drove the blade directly into it, sinking only momentarily into her flesh before it regained shape 'neath me.
Her scream, genuine fear before I even struck felt so good, so natural, like I was born to do this, and when the blade found purchase it ceased, and so did this woman I was ‘pon, falling clumsily the several feet that occupied space between the ground and where she at one time had been. It was in that moment that I leanred what the sword was capable of, it told me everything, and I knew every man, woman, child, and entity it had destroyed, they were all with in it, and they were all with in me. Through them I learned of all they had known.


Before me, as I got to my feet the ebon sword lay, pulsing. Terrible energy wilting the ground ‘pon which it lie, I couldn’t help myself, I had to have it, and greedily my other hand took it's hilt with in it's firm grasp.


The energy, that terrible energy overwhelmed me, falling to my knees screaming, sword in each hand thrust into the earth. I couldn’t stop screaming, using either blade to hoist me, keep me from falling to my stomach. “I thirst, I thirst…” I whispered before screaming “I THIRST!” and I was going to feed, I was going to fight! The demons and the humans, they all looked so delicious, appetizing, like food to sate my hunger, the wound in my neck and legs throbbing be damned.


A sudden strike from the ebon blade impaled one of my own, a warrior of mankind’s horrible scream withered into nothing as the ebon blade fed, and in turn so did I. I could feel the blood, and the essence of this man flow into me, the blade devoured this man, and gave me just enough to sustain, not to quench. “I thirst...I thirst..”, the gash on my neck healed over, it was then that I  knew I would hunger always.


Both blades in hand I strode towards battle but something wasn’t right, forcibly I knelt, against my will, unable to rise. Before me stood my commander, her fingertips alight with snaking energy, beautiful, nearly 6 feet tall, white hair, pale skin, blue eyes, thin, scantily clad in leather armor that would do nothing to protect her from a blade if it weren’t magically enforced.


Palm outstretched, her face so calm, yet so intense, I had to...lower my head, I had no choice. and found myself staring at her bare feet, only inches away. I couldn’t help but notice the crimson stains of the dead she had trod over, and then I remembered how she stepped right over me, only then she was gigantic.


I didn’t see it visually, but something told me she curled her fingers, something told me to get up, to fight her, to devour her and then I knew it was the ebon blade, still in my hands. It screamed, consuming every thought, every sense, it drove me insane, and with it’s scream I too did, as I found myself staring at toes half as big as me, feet three times as long as me, defeated, the ebon blade retreated into my hand, as well as the silvered blade, and I fell to my stomach.


Flinching, a shadow cast over me and I  found myself  being taken ‘twixt her fingers, some form of energy restricting my arms to my side and my legs together before I was deposited in a leather sack at her side.


“Oh Fross, you weren’t meant to have those...what to do what to do.”


I heard her say, almost singing before I felt the warm leather I lie trapped with in brush against my body as fingers touch me from the outside, causing me bob with them.


And then it dawned on me, she called me Fross, but how…? How was I Fross? He lived centuries ago!?


“This battle is won, we are no longer needed.”


Nulla  appeared in her bed chambers, a loud pop resounding from the heated and expanding air following her teleportation. Removing the sack from her side she spilled it’s contents, Fross onto her bed. Still restrained he rolled a few times before being allowed to rest on his back, staring up at her.


“You should be thanking me for saving you from that demon’s gullet, but don’t get too happy yet.” Her tone changed as she finished the sentence, leaning over his diminutive form, her face only inches away,


I felt her warm breath brushing over me, still unable to comprehend that I was living the life of Fross, the legends really were exaggerated, and I was finding out first hand.


“You have no idea what you have...do you? Those were meant to be mine!” she screamed directly into my face I felt so helpless, her mere words, the tone of her voice tearing down all thoughts of bravado. “You...you...can take them…”


“Silly Fross.” she stood back up, fully towering over me, her imposing form making me realize just how insignificant I was in comparison. “They have imprinted on you little man, for me to take them you must die!”


“But!!! I don’t want to die Nulla!”


I plead, still unable to move my arms or legs, paralyzed by whatever witchcraft she had restrained me with, and she leant over again, her eyes leveled on either side of my face, inches away.


Terrified I tried to squirm, move, anything to remove me from her sadistic gaze, but there was nothing that I could do.


“Then I will allow you to live, if you submit to me, as they were meant to be mine you will be mine, and used as they were meant to be.”


“Yes...Yes! Anything, please don’t kill me!”


With that she wrapped her fingers around my body and lifted me to her face, as if she were searching for something with in, those terrible eyes still glaring at me, I broke down, it was to much, my resistance, courage, and confidence had been crushed and I wept.


I heard her laugh, and when I looked up I saw myself rising to her lips, puckering she took my entire face with in, sucking on it for a moment before her hand simply flicked and I was tossed. Screams that I knew I should have had were masked by my cries, landing on her pillow I never saw her walk away, all I could see was the white all around me as I sunk into it.


“I will be back later, I have to see to the return of our soldiers, we will talk more about your arrangements then.”


As Nulla walked through the door to her bed chambers she thought to herself. “What a fortunate turn of events, he’ll do anything for me, and he’ll have so much power when Infernicus fully roots itself with in him, I will have to of course take measures to control him.”


And as I lie there in her pillow, I felt it emerging again, Infernicus it called itself, and it told me we would play along for now, and then we would devour her, I smiled. “Yes, yes we will.” I was no longer Brad, a member of some hopeless cult that hoped Fross would come back and save us, I was Fross, and I knew the legends were hyperbole, but what if they didn’t need to be?