- Heaven's Last Breath -

Grim Reaper

- Death -

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"Atten-tion!"

The resounding salute of tens of thousands of soldiers rang out for miles around, filling the air with a sense of purpose. Each and every soldier moved their feet to attention, the booming echo drowing out under the pitch black sky.

I stood at the forefront of my section, in line with the other commanders of the great army behind us. On an elevated platform before us stood our army's general in command who served directly under the King and only the King of Hell.

"Section commanders are to meet by the Castle Gates at sixteen hundred hours. Everyone else is dismissed."

After another salute, the massive group of soldiers behind me all turned away going back to the whatever they were doing before gathering here. That left only myself and the nine other section commanders standing before the army's general.

"Is this about the Queen?" A voice called out from out of my view but the moment those words were spoken, the general immediately glared at whoever had just spoken.

If I had to guess, it was our newest commander. As history would have it, the newest commander would always make the common mistake of mentioning the Queen outside of the castle walls.

The army's general jumped down off the elevated stage, his tall frame now in clear view. His left eye was covered with a black eyepatch, the right side of his face terribly scarred from the countless battles he had fought through.

"This is your first time, section commander so I will excuse this mistake. But I will not be so generous next time. Do not forget that."

At that, the army general looked over to me, a more serious look in his eye as he continued, "This will be the last time you will take orders from me as army general. In a matter of days, my role will be passed onto young Death here. While he is still young, he is the strongest warrior our people have ever seen and I am sure he will lead us into a new era of prosperity, even greater than the era of this generation."

I felt everyone turn to me, a drop of seat beading across my forehead. As the general had just stated, I was the youngest of the ten section commanders, joining at age thirteen. And now, three years later, I was next in line to lead the King of Hell's army.

"That is all. You are dismissed until you are required to meet again."

With his parting words, the army general disappeared into the shadows of the black sky, leaving ten section commanders to their own devices.

Before I knew it, I felt an arm around my shoulder, a familiar face looking to me with a smile. "Who would have thought huh? Young Anubis is going to be army general in less than a week!"

I turned to man at my side, his hazel green eyes looking into mine. His silver hair fell past his face, covering his right side. The young man's skin was dark, a tone darker than mine and we were only separated by an inch in height.

He was wearing a steel spiked collar around his neck, an unbuttoned army shirt clothing his top half. His lower half was covered by a pair of black camo combat pants and his feet in a pair of black ankle high heavy duty boots.