The first thing Death saw as he came to consciousness was a spiked iron ball hurdling for his head. Rica pushed him away and ran for her brother, he struck her with a chain like a whip, blinding her, then kicked her into a tree.

  So much for that attempt, Death thought. I have two minutes to kill him or my life is forfeit to fate.

  “Aleirica,” Aleion shouted. “Rise to your feet.”

  He released a growl like a lion after seeing a puddle of red form in the snow under her head. He sucked the chain into a portal in his palm, wrapping his long fingers around the ball and chain. “How dare you touch my sister!” he screamed. “I’ll rip out your fucking liver and make you eat it!”

  Delusion, blaming me for his own actions, will not see reason, no point to talk to him… taunting will make him angrier, get him closer to me, with my lack of time, the closer he charges to me means more opportunities for me to kill him

  “Three seconds to surrender,” Death said mockingly. “Is that weapon of yours summoned or bound to your soul?”

  “Fuck you!” he boomed, charging.

  What a pitiful answer.

  Death twirled under the throw of the iron ball like a dancer and rattled Aleion’s skull with an arced kick to his antler. He stumbled back, he repeated the same move on the other side, then stabbed the cambion in the neck with the sharp stick.

  Ninety seconds, Death thought. His neck is too thick for this stick to go through his muscles… but he’ll be dazed now. “When I kill you, do you get sent back to Hell, or is that it?”

  Aleion grabbed the chain and hit death in the torso, the spike piercing his lung and making his breathing difficult. Death stayed in the snow for five seconds, wheezing, gathering his thoughts.

  Eighty seconds, this damage to my lung means nothing when compared to my skull.

  Death ran out of time to think, he rolled away from Aleion’s stomp aimed to crush his head. “Insect,” the cambion yelled. “You are puny, a rodent!”

  All he could do was counter Aleion’s brute force, he adapted his fighting style to allow him to be close, countering with an efficient blow to the root of his antler. This continued for twenty seconds, then once Death realised Aleion knew his tactic, he swapped to an even better stance, bouncing on his feet and keeping his opponent at a distance where he couldn’t reach him with his fists, leaving him permanently vulnerable to Death’s perfect kicks hones into power over centuries of practice.

  Sixty seconds, roughly, I can feel my head going faint if I strike too hard… I have to him to attack me with that iron ball, use it to my advantage, I can sacrifice my left arm to exert such a force and pray my bone snaps into a sharp weapon. I need to enter his mind to get him to attack me in such a straight-forward way that doesn’t show I want him to do the move… I can get into his brain and make him vulnerable by throwing an outrageous accusation to stun his thoughts and leave him open.

  “I bet you fuck little boys!” Death blurted. “Three at a time, you filthy sinner!”

  “So what?” Aleion yelled back. “I’m from Hell, you dumb fucking overgrown cum stain, I don’t give a fuck what sins you think I do.”

  Well, it’s not often that I am repulsed by my opponent, ‘tis not possible for me to think of a second accusation to tower over the first one. I kill children all the time, but that, a jest or not, is the boundary none should cross… he must die for it.

  “What’s wrong, nothing to say to me now?” Aleion taunted.

  “I have nothing to say to the little boy fucker.”

  Aleion swung the iron ball for Death, the ball struck him in the chest purposefully. That shattered my ribs, no doubt about it, but I have a hold on the chain… if he pulls me back to him, he is one step closer to losing.

  Just as planned, Aleion pulled the chain back into his palm and fell into the trap laid out.

  With all his remaining power, Death swung his broken arm into the cambion’s mandible, so powerful that his wrist split open like a hungry mouth and allowed a jagged bone to protrude out like a white tongue. It pierced Aleion’s cheek, driving upwards into his eye and poking it out like a grape on a skewer.

  Thirty seconds, Death thought. I still have hold of the chain, if Aleion throws me too far a distance then there will be no second chance to finish this. I must end this now.

  He looped the chain around the thick neck like a lasso. Aleion thrashed and struggled, trying to hurl Death away with a throw, only tightening the pinching links against his own skin as Death used every bit of his weight like an anchor to a ship. “Fuck… you…” he spluttered. “Human scum… I’ll cut you… into pieces!”

  I refuse to lose; you will never win against me.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  Death slammed both hands onto a spike on the sides of the iron ball, cutting his palms, ensuring it couldn’t be pulled away. He then kicked Aleion’s antler, doubling the chain around the cambion’s neck, and choke him harder.

  Panic took over the cambion’s actions, frantic reaches behind his back to try and swat Death like a fly, he desperately tried to summon his conjured weapon back into himself, but in doing so, only made his chain noose even tighter.

  Good, this dim-witted spawn’s own strength is going to be his death.

  Death’s conscious quickly became unpromised, fading in and out several times a second, quick flashes of white and black spots in his vision that made him unable to focus. No, the chains will loosen and he will be free if I do not keep this position perfect. His feet slid against the snow. If I’m going to slip into unconsciousness, then I will trust that fate does not will me to die here, Aleion will have to fight against my dead weight and I will not lose!

  Death’s move, although awkward, was executed perfectly. He wrapped the chain around his own neck and attached himself to the back of the cambion, his feet dangling inches from the floor, forcing Aleion to constantly be leaning forward.

  The struggle became a race. Who would choke to death first? Who was more determined to stay alive?

  Both faces went purple, and by this point, Death was already at the mercy of the situation—he was unconscious, paralysed from the neck down, his neck snapped, alive purely from his stubborn soul.

  Aleion released a roar, releasing all the air in his lungs. At the same time, he used all his might to try return his weapon and hammered the final nail into his own coffin. The chain sunk into his flesh, snapping his bones, crushing his muscle, decapitating his head with a whip of blood that sprayed off the chains.

  Aleion fell dead, and after a moment, Death took a breath as he removed the chains from his neck. He stood slowly, his body slowly and painfully repairing itself. His arm grew back, his broken skull fixed, the holes in his body sealed shut one at a time. Normally, he was excellent at hiding pain, but the torture of his bones snapping into place made him yell out in anguish and fall to his knees.

  “Death!” Snow yelled. “Are you—”

  She was silence as Death’s hand grew back and shown his palm. “Don’t come near me,” he growled. “I’m thinking.”

  I have never come so close to dying before, unless you count my sealing by the scarred man… I don’t feel scared, I feel strange, like I was ready to mourn myself, what an odd feeling.

  The inhales soothed his freshly formed lung, the cold vapour coming from his warm breaths were earned. He never knew that death could be so… beautiful… the steam coming from the flesh of Aleion’s exposed neck, the stunning red against white, he almost felt jealous of how artistic it was.

  The chain fizzled into ash and Death’s arm burned, the iron ball fell from out his palm and into the snow, the weapon now his.

  Finally, he thought. A weapon that is mine to summon… but how useful is it if someone can grab it and use it against me? I could give it to Snow or Vera… no, I will keep this one, even the physical strength of that cambion has made me feel strong. This is good, if I face the Cum Master again this extra power will make it easy.

  Vera summoned her daggers and growled like a dog. “Cambion bitch!” she yelled at Rica. “There’s the second one!”

  Death joined his two companions and made Vera surrender.

  “Oh, you damned fool.” She fell to Aleion’s side and pulled his head to his neck, covering it with a conjuration of a red cloth. “You didn’t have to die so stupidly… all you had to do was have a little faith in your sister.”

  “Why aren’t you killing her?” Snow whispered.

  “This one is not our enemy,” he said bluntly. “She entered my mind and we struck a deal.”

  “She entered your mind?!” Snow squealed. “You put a hand on my Death again and it won’t matter how powerless I am, I’ll rip out your eyes!”

  Aleirica held out her hand. “The deal,” she said. “I meant what I said, this bargain can still be struck; he attacked first.”

  Death took the tear of the angel and gave it to Snow, who huffed in annoyance as she placed it in her palm. “I mean it,” she threatened in a whisper. “Come near my husband again and it will be the end of you.”

  Snow gave her back the family heirloom, Rica tried to offer it back as collateral, but Death assured her that he trusted her.

  “You trust that pink-skinned whore?” Vera scoffed. “You trust her and you barely trust me? Wow, I must be a piece of shit.”

  “You are,” Death mumbled. “Now be gone, cambion.”

  Aleirica conjured a pentagram and opened a portal to Hell, one that closed as quick as it came, taking herself and Aleion’s corpse away from the forest.

  Snow hugged him. “I thought you were going to die, I thought I would lose you.”

  The hug felt welcomed this time. Hm, I usually feel disdain when Snow touches me, am I tired? I must be tired.

  Death recalled his new weapon into his palm.

  “You got a weapon!” Snow exclaimed. “That’s good, right? We can kill more people now! What deal did you make with her?”

  “I asked her to steal the crystal that the Valan family stole from me, my trophy, and all information about it. With luck, she will find the name of the scarred man, as he is the only one who could have given it to them.”

  “We can talk in the hut!” Snow yelled. “It’s cold here!”

  The conjured hut had disappeared with Rica’s exit. “Oh,” Snow continued with a giggle. “Well, we have the cart!”

  “I need rest,” Death said. “The horses will freeze if we stay still for too long. Vera, you mentioned the city of Lakevalor, you shall start our journey to there.”

  “Yes sir,” she said excitedly.

  “And you, Snow,” Death said. She looked at him with a glow in her eyes. “Your thighs were comfy to sleep on, there are no pillows in the back of the cart, you will rest with me.”

  She squealed in joy.

  I feel weird after seeing that girl in my memories… I don’t like it when I don’t know what my body and mind is doing. I will figure it out once I have rested.