The Knights of Grimm - Act 3 - Shattered Memory

Chapter 24 - The Mirror

Death

Embers float across the glowing red sky, the shattered moon hanging over the world. Like a field of asteroids that now orbits the planet, smoke constantly rising from the ground. Bones litter the black soil, the screeches of thousands of pained souls being endlessly tortured. Tall charred trees stand everywhere in the forest, the forest that was once known as Forever Fall. Roses dead in the Ashlands and ghostly mists patrol the lands and the boiling lakes. The Charred Forest is very real, but not in the eyes of the living.

Death stands there, his black cape blows in the wind as he stands there, holding Ferrum Arctus in his hand, the black energy trailing off it. Beside him stands Loss, they have been summoned here for some reason. Despite being unable to see his face, they are both quite afraid to be here at the Charred Forest, hearing the wails of Remnant coming closer. They both stare up at the shattered moon, unlike the one in the world of the living, it is completely blown apart. Just chunks of lunar rock floating away, dust trailing away from it. Loss holds her Bow in her hand, her long white hair blows in the wind as well, she has her black veil pulled back so then she could feel the wind. Loss turns and looks at Death, unable to see what he once looked like due to the Isomacium Helmet that he has for a head now. "Krekras?" She fearfully speaks, wide eyed, and he looks at her. The red eyes look at her but she is not afraid of him, they are not monstrous eyes to her.

"Yes, Starla?" Death asks her, the same voice he has always had but still sounds softer in her presence. Her bottom lip trembles as they stand there, looking at the destroyed world that they stand on, in the distance they can see chunks of land rising from the ground, the planet is quite literally destroying itself, or is being destroyed from the raining burning debris from the destroyed moon.

"I'm afraid..." She confesses with true fear behind her stuttered voice, looking out at the land. Krekras looks at the red sky, it should not be that colour, it is all wrong...no world should have a sky like that. This hell – is truly terrifying.

"I am too." He softly says to her, tightening his grip on the hilt of Ferrum Arctus. They both stand there, and then they turn when they hear his presence behind them. The sound of the screeches of the fallen rising behind them, so they face him as he emerges. He emerges from the shadows and he approaches them, his bald head and the clothes of a Soothsayer, the terrifyingly kind smile on his face, looking directly at Loss, not Death. He has his hands close together as he approaches them, smirking away, and Starla is afraid, but Death stands between her and Vir Nominis Umbra.

As if that would stop him from doing what he brought them there for.

"Hello, Starla Schnee..." Vir Nominis Umbra greets coldly and menacingly, approaching them. But he walks to the cliff edge and looks out at the destroyed world, the cinders that trail with the smoke from the flames that burn eternally here. Trees on fire in the distance, others just charred already. He looks at the souls of people he has claimed being tortured by their worst fears in the fog, some being swarmed and eaten alive by spiders, others being set on fire.

"Please! Help me!" One of the souls begs with a terrified voice as he is pulled into the ground, being buried alive. He grips onto the soil, trying to save himself from the deathly hands that grab his legs. He wails with terror, as one grabs the back of his head and yanks him into the soil. His screams become more and more muffled until they can no longer hear his voice, where he will suffocate endlessly in his worst nightmare, until he breaks and is under Umbra's control. The Evil Soothsayer smiles as he looks at the pain and suffering at his feet, and he turns to the two Knights that stand behind him.

Vir Nominis Umbra looks right at Loss, who is practically hiding behind Death's shoulder with fear. Death glares at the Soothsayer, wanting to strike him down with Ferrum Arctus to stop him from harming her. His metal fingers constrict around the hilt of the black blade, faint howls emerging from the base of the blade of all those he has killed. He stops in front of Death, but keeps his brown eyes on Starla who cowers behind him. "Oh Starla...Starla, Starla, Starla." Vir Nominis Umbra sighs, closing his eyes and shaking his head, pacing back and forth across the smoking ground. Every step he takes, the ground pulsates as his boot treads upon the hollow soil. "You know, I really had hoped I would not have to do this again. The last time you tried something like this...well...we all remember." Vir Nominis Umbra says, stopping and turning on his heel to look at them.