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-Jeffery rested naked on his bed with Raven asleep on his chest. He stroked her hair affectionately as he gazed up at the ceiling without really seeing it. His other hand was supporting the back of his head on the pillow. The blanket had half fallen off of the bed, and the only sound to be heard was their steady breathing. Candles lining the room made the shadows dance on the walls, and in them Jeffery saw himself fighting with the newcomers. He knew that Ace was the leader, but Pyro was the one Jeffery had high hopes for. He had learned in a day what had taken so many others months to figure out. The thought of what he could achieve in six months sent a shiver of excitement down Jeffery’s spine that he hadn’t felt in years.

Raven rolled her head and snuggled against Jeffery, causing him to turn his attention to her. He brushed her cheek with the back of his finger, gently caressing her soft skin. Jeffery wondered how the newcomers would use their powers. He hoped that they wouldn’t squander them as so many others had. So many people just couldn’t let go of their rationality enough to truly embrace their powers, but Jeffery had a feeling this group wouldn’t have that problem. He wasn’t sure what it was about them, but there was something in the way they carried themselves that told Jeffery they weren’t weak like the others had been. This group was dangerous.

-A lock of Raven’s hair fell over her eyes, and Jeffery brushed it back with his finger. Raven sighed and a smile curled her lips. She was as content as a kitten.

-The door creaked open, and Jeffery saw a kneeling shadow beyond the room’s threshold. One of his generals wanted an audience with him. He gave a slight wave of his hand, and the figure backed away, closing the door. Jeffery looked back at Raven’s serene face and didn’t want get up, but he knew his general wouldn’t bother him unless it was important. He took a breath, and his body became translucent. Raven’s body slowly lowered through his chest down to the bed, and Jeffery sat up through her and the sheets. He got off of the bed, and his body became solid once again. It was the easiest way for him to get up without waking her.

-Jeffery stepped out into his throne room to find Siren kneeling, waiting for her master. Jeffery sat down upon his throne and looked at Siren with her head bowed low to him. “What is it,” Jeffery said at last.

-“Master, the transport carrying the new arrivals has been killed.” Siren said without raising her head to meet his gaze.

-Jeffery frowned at her. “How?”

-“The arrivals killed it themselves, Master. I don’t know why.”

-It took only a moment for Jeffery to reach out with his mind, little more than a glance, to know that Ace and his friends were still alive and well. They hadn’t drowned in the sea. A little more focus, and Jeffery knew that they were on the other continent and slaughtering the creatures there. Jeffery could feel his demons’ pain. He felt their bodies being torn apart. He heard their screams of frenzied agony as their blood soaked the ground. Jeffery felt his connection with his creatures severed one by one, and it was happening faster than it should have.

-Jeffery’s voice seemed to fill the room as he said, “Angel.” half a heartbeat later, a woman landed on the terrace. Her long golden hair seemed to glow even in the darkness of the chamber. She walked with a gliding grace as if immune to the taint of the Dark Territory. She tucked in large, feathery wings as she walked up to the throne. A white feather floated to the ground as she knelt beside Siren. She looked up at Jeffery with eyes as pale blue as the sky.

-Siren remained on her knees with her head bowed, not paying Angel a glance. Her eyes remained fixed on the ground in front of her while she waited for her master’s next command. Jeffery turned his attention to Angel and said, “Show me what the demons on the other continent see.”

-Angel said nothing. Her expression remained blank as she stood gracefully and spread out her wings. Her pale blue eyes bled completely white, and a light shined from them, coalescing into a ball in front of her face. The sphere of light swirled until it showed the clear image of demons, dozens of demons running and screaming towards something that Jeffery did not recognize. Jeffery stood from his throne and came closer to the sphere, trying to discern the object that his creatures were charging towards. It looked similar to a tank, but smaller and much faster. It smashed through the demons, crushing and breaking their bodies. They threw themselves at the mechanical beast, but failed to even slow it down. A flash of light came from the object and headed toward the demon that was sharing its vision, and then the image went pure white. The creature was dead.

-“Show me more,” said Jeffery, and the sphere’s image changed to another perspective. This time the Jeffery recognized what he was seeing. Ace sat upon some kind of motorcycle as he ran over, shot down, cut up, and blew apart the demons that were relentlessly attacking him. And he was doing it with a smile on his face. In fact he seemed to be having the time of his life, laughing with a deranged madness in his eyes. A madness that Jeffery recognized.

-“Enough,” Jeffery said as he turned away. The image dissipated, and Angel’s eyes returned to normal. Jeffery began to pace back and forth in front of his throne while Angel watched him, patiently waiting for her next orders. Jeffery put a hand on his throne and tapped his finger while he thought things through. Ace and his friends were making staggering progress. Even Jeffery himself had not learned to manipulate his reality through force of will so quickly. Granted he hadn’t been told the rules right away, but that hadn’t mattered with any of the new arrivals since Jason’s defeat. For the first time, Jeffery thought he might have to take these arrivals seriously.

-Raven‘s soft voice came from the doorway before she came into view. “They are learning too fast. I don‘t like it.” She stood half hidden in the doorway, naked from head to toe. Her bangs hung down, covering her right eye while her left watched Jeffery carefully. Her face was calm and neutral, but Jeffery had been with her long enough to spot that glimmer of concern in her eye.

-“You’re worried they can defeat me” Jeffery said. It was a statement rather than a question.

-Raven stepped all the way into the room and dismissed Angle with a glance. The winged woman turned and went to the terrace without a word, leaving her master and mistress alone. Siren remained kneeling on the floor until Jeffery nodded to her. She got up and slowly walked towards the large doors to leave. Raven walked up to Jeffery and pressed herself against her chest. He wrapped one arm around her and kissed the top of her head as she nuzzled against him. When she spoke, it was just above a whisper. “I fear that if they all work together, and continue developing like this, that they will hurt you.”

-“I have you looking out for me,” Jeffery said. His voice was soft and teasing. “I know that even if they somehow managed to defeat me in battle, it will cost them dearly, and your rage and love for me will give you all the power you need to annihilate them. It would be nice to have you rescue me for a change.”

-Raven looked up and Jeffery, and he smiled down at her. They swayed back and forth in each others arms, and Raven said, “I don’t want anyone to take you away from me.”

-Jeffery chuckled. “Not to worry. This is my world, after all, and here, I am God.” Jeffery tapped into his power, felt it swell up inside of him, and molded it to his will. His shadow rose off of the floor, crawling up his legs. When the living darkness reached Jeffery’s back, it expanded out like a pair of phantom wings that moved forward to engulf Raven. Jeffery’s darkness wrapped around Raven’s body, and she closed her eyes with a content smile curling her lips. She let out a sigh as the darkness swallowed them both like a warm black blanket.

-Siren stood half hidden through the door, watching her master and mistress entangled in the darkness and each others arms. The black shadow enveloped them like a living shroud with two hidden forms moving against it from inside. She watched as imprints of the two inside it pressed out against the shadows. Her master’s back, Raven’s face and breast. Their mouths open in silent moans, but no sound escaped the living tapestry. Siren wished that she were in the darkness with then as she slipped out of sight. The wooden door closed behind her with a creek, and she headed down the bleak corridors and descending stairways. As Siren walked, the denizens of the dark castle cleared a path for her, scurrying into cracks on the walls, hiding in the rotting corpses of the less fortunate which lined the floors. Siren paid them little attention, and would crush any of them under her heel that were too slow to get out of her way.

-When Siren passed by Jade’s room, she decided to peek inside. Jade’s room had no actual door. It was little more than an opening in the wall. Neither she nor any of Jeffery’s generals felt a need for privacy. Siren looked in to see her winged sister sitting on her bed sharpening her sword with her back to the hallway. The wall across from Siren was a large archway leading out into the open air several stories above ground which gave Jade easy access to spread her wings and take to the air. On the wall, across from the bed, a naked man was chained, gagged and blindfolded. Siren knew the man; his name was Ross. He had been Jason’s right hand man. Jade had defeated him in battle, and now he was her favorite toy. His body was covered in lacerations, and the lack of breasts were the only real indication that he was male. Only a bloody ruin hung between his legs now. The rest of the room was unadorned for the most part. The bed was black, which matched Jade’s clothing, several changes of which rested in the old wooden trunk in the corner. Jade didn’t seem to notice Siren’s presence as she slowly drew the stone along her narrow blade’s edge over and over again.

-Siren decided not to bother her sister. Instead, she elected to see what her other siblings were doing. Kikki’s room was the closest to Jade’s, just down the hall, so Siren headed there first. When she looked in, she found Kikki clinging to a young woman, suckling on her breast like an infant. Her tail coiled down one of the woman’s legs, and Siren noticed that Kikki’s eyes were closed; she was asleep. The woman that she was attached to was in the center of the room with Kikki’s staff running down out of her rectum, and up out of her mouth. The two ends of the staff were firmly embedded into the floor and ceiling like a pole. Siren wasn’t sure what direction the weapon had entered the woman from. Her arms and legs were sprawled out, held tight by chains with hooks running their lengths that wrapped around and dug into the human’s flesh. Blood streamed down out of the woman’s body from the wounds, and down the length of the staff to pool underneath the two. The woman’s face was forced upwards due to the pole coming up her throat and out of her open mouth, and Siren could see that she was still alive. Her eyes were wide and panicked as they flicked to the doorway. Siren wasn’t sure if the woman was afraid that she was going to join in, or if the woman was hoping for some kind of intervention.

-Siren felt no pity for humans, but she had no desire to join her sister either. Siren and the others were all devoid of remorse, but they understood that what they did caused pain. Kikki honestly didn’t know the difference between pain and pleasure. It was this lack of understanding, more than her actions themselves, that disturbed Siren and the others. Siren looked away from the display to take in the rest of the room. The walls were a mixture of different shades of red, Kikki’s favorite color. Siren suspected that most of it wasn’t paint. Kikki’s bed had two dead and rotting men on it, and the sheets and blankets were human skins. Jade’s room and been clean for the most part, but Kikki’s was littered with gory chunks of body parts. Most of which were unrecognizable. Siren decided that Kikki wasn’t the sister she wanted to spend quality time with, and headed down to the dungeons where Hellen, Scylla and Marrow stayed.

-Siren decided to visit Hellen first. Of her sisters, Siren got along with her the most. Both of them commanded beasts to serve their master’s will. When Siren went into her sister’s room, she found it dark and quiet. There were skulls of large demons and humans covering the walls, along with several vicious looking weapons. There was also a man hanging in the corner, horribly mutilated but still alive. He had once come very close to killing Hellen back when Jeffery had invaded Europe. His reward had been to become Hellen’s personal toy, just as Ross was Jade’s. Hellen’s bed was covered in furry animal skins, and several bones littered the ground, but Hellen herself was no where in sight.

-Siren decided to pass by Marrows den on the way down to Scylla, though it was more like a large cave underneath the castle. Wolves the size of cars lazed about the cavern. Most were on the bottom floor, but a few were resting on juts in the cave wall. Siren found the giant white wolf sleeping with her two-headed mate Oakram lying beside her, and Hellen was with them. She was asleep in a sitting position, resting her back against Marrow’s side as if she were a couch. The cave walls resonated with the sounds of a dozen sleeping beasts. Marrow and her brood, one big happy pack. Human skeletons littered the ground, and Hellen had a half-eaten leg loosely clutched in her hand. Siren sighed and backed out of the cavern’s entrance, not wanting to wake up her sleeping sister or Marrow’s family from their nap.

-Siren descended into the deepest levels of the castle to her last hope for conversation. Angel was mute, so if Scylla was too busy to talk, Siren would be out of luck.

-Scylla didn’t have a room so much as a lab. Siren navigated through shelves filled with jars containing various unidentifiable substances. There were detached heads, some of which were still alive, preserved demons, half-finished inventions, and all sorts of devices. The room was alive with the crackling sound of electricity. The flickering lights made the shadows dance on the walls. Siren found her one-eyed sister at a table with a man strapped down to it. There were two metal orbs hanging over his face, and lighting was being shot straight into his eyes. A gag in his mouth muffled his screams as his body shook violently. Scylla turned off the switch, and the lightning stopped. The man’s body lay still as smoke arouse out of his burned, bloody eye sockets.

-“What are you doing?” Siren asked. She approached the table and looked down at the dead human.

-Scylla turned to look at her sister for a moment before going back to what she was doing. She spoke while she worked. “I’m trying to infuse electrical energy into a living creature so it can be released at a later time. If I succeed, we can send these subjects to infiltrate the enemy and then detonate them.”

-Siren looked back down at the human’s charred sockets and said, “It doesn’t seem to be working.”

-“No,” Scylla said with an exasperated sigh. “Every specimen dies before the infusion is complete.”

-“How many times have you tried?”

-Scylla thought for a moment. “This was the forty-seventh attempt,” she said.

-“Want to take a break?” Siren asked. She gave Scylla a coy smile.

-Scylla returned the smile, but in a way that told Siren the answer was no. “I’m sorry, Siren, but I really want to finish this to present to the master. I’m certain it will please him.”

-Scylla let out a defeated sigh and shook her head. Scylla smiled at her and said, “If you’re feeling restless, why not go to the slave quarters and play with them for awhile. Don’t worry, we won’t have to wait long before things get interesting.”

-Siren’s face brightened up at the thought. She stroked Scylla’s cheek affectionately and said, “thanks. I think I’ll do just that.”

-Siren left Scylla to her work, and headed back up into the castle. As she walked, she stepped on one of the small inhabitants of the corridors that failed to get out of her way quickly enough. Siren paid it no mind, and as she left, its companions came back out to devour it.

-Moans and cries of anguish greeted Siren as she entered the long stretch of hallway lined with cages and cells that made up the dungeon’s prison block. There were iron maidens, crow cages, metal boxes too small for a dog, and hooks hanging from the ceiling. Every cell had at least one human, though not all of them were in one piece. The thick acrid smell of decaying flesh invaded Sirens nostrils, and she took it in as though it were perfume. She strolled past the cages, stepping in blood and other body fluids that soaked the stone floor. She looked in the cages like a perspective buyer window shopping. Her eyes passed over the broken and begging occupants of the cages and felt no pity for any of them. They were meat. things that existed for the amusement of herself, her sisters, and the master. She arrived at a cage that had three relatively healthy humans inside: two women and a man. A slight smile curled Siren’s lips as she opened the lock and slipped inside.