Written by Epicstu Wyyvernwriter

The Seventh was always hungry.

*          *

It had been his longest and most grueling battle, but Aleister Keith Dimir had done it. The Wyyvern of Fate defeated and its power absorbed, he and the Horsemen were now the Wyyvernforged of Fate. Suddenly he found himself in a Realm of complete darkness with no illuminating light, yet he could see clearly. His ears perked straight up proudly with his seven weighted rings no longer weighing them down, then his ear twitched, “Wyyvernwriter, I was expecting you.”

“Of course you were,” the Wyyvernwriter replied.

An intense pain overtook Aleisters ears as the seven weighted rings pierced to them began to change. One became a ring of fire another a ring of ice. Another became a ring of life and another a ring of death. Another became a tiny sphere that moved so fast it looked like a solid ring while another became a cloud of dark purple and black that flickered in and out of existence. The seventh and final weighted ring pierced upon the tip of his left ear became like stone and dirt rolling in thunder and wreathed in lighting as brilliantly purple as Heaven’s. “Saw that coming too,” he said as he slowly got back to his feet.

“Then why didn’t you resist?” the Wyyvernwriter questioned.

“We are Fate, we have a plan,” Fate replied, “and there is something we must show you.”

*          *

Edward, still on all fours, walked out and a spotlight hit him. It was heavy, made of metal, and did not feel good when it impacted his face. Edward did not flinch as Hell’s hordes booed him from up in the stands surrounding the enter circle that held the Seventh. “Edward Michael Dimir,” the Devil said over the loudspeakers, “the occasional wondering of damned souls into this particular circle has become somewhat of an event for the residents of Hell. Mainly because it’s rare and always entertaining.” A deep bellow of a rawr echoed, “If you stand there and do nothing, it will come and eat you. If you run, it will hunt you down, and it will eat you. If you stand and fight, you will fall and it will eat you.” The rawr echoed again. “You were never worthy of being Hell in the first place, you have failed the multiverse, and you have failed Zesrial,” like a blur, the Seventh charged at Edward. “The Nine will be released, and it is entirely your fault, you are not strong enough.”

The Seventh shot at Edward like a bullet from a high powered rifle,  but Edward saw it all in slow motion. Its mouth wide open, there was no opening for a headbutt. It was moving to fast for him to even react and it was big enough to swallow him whole. He saw his entire existence flash before his eyes. “This is the End?” The jaws snapped shut a few inches from Edward’s face. His eyes still wide he watched the monster struggle to reach him as though it were being pulled from behind. Then the Seventh flung back and tumbled across the ground before recovering and rawred angrily. Then the circle shook as a thundering rawr echoed back at the Seventh, “Ilean?”

“Edward?” said Dolan in a weak voice. Edward ran to him, he had been shot by the Sixth’s gun’s last miss fire and was bleeding. “I will be fine,” he said as the Wyyvern of Blessedness tended to his wound, “she will need your help.”

Edward turned and saw that the Seventh already had Ilean pinned to the ground. He unsheathed his six-inch retractable claws and remembered he was missing one. He dug the claws he had into the ground and focused on the Seventh. Ilean was on her back barely holding the Seventh back with her legs as it clawed and bit at the air towards her. Its gruesomely designed claws were jagged with spikes that went in every direction, and they covered the majority of its body. The Seventh drove its claws deep into the ground, and Ilean could not move it. She was undead, and so was the Seventh, she ate Wyyverns, and the Seventh ate anything. She tried to keep it back, but it slowly inched closer and closer snarling and breathing its rancid breath of infinite screaming souls. Then the Seventh was pulled off Ilean, and she quickly got back to her feet. The Seventh searched furiously around for what had attacked it, “Iron!” Edward’s voice shouted, and Ilean chomped down on the Seventh’s tail and flung the beast in the direction of Edward’s voice, “Ram!” Edward’s skull impacted the Seventh’s with a loud clap and a shockwave that the now very excited audience felt pass by. Edward’s momentum caused him to slide a ways as he stuck the landing of his attack. Facing the Seventh, he growled and Ilean rawred from the opposite side of the Seventh as the two circled it slowly. The Seventh got up slowly but was met with Edward’s “Iron Ram!” which sent its face back to the ground as Ilean put her foot on its back and rawred ferociously in its ear.

“Was that it?” the Devil’s voice echoed over the loudspeakers. “That was rather boring. I mean, I used to watch this thing reak havoc and devour beings, both good and evil, who had power you have never known. Then you waltz in here and headbutt it? Good fight all done? NO!” Then he spoke softly, “this fight is to the de…” then a loud grunt was heard as Ilean tossed the head she had torn off the Seventh’s body to Edward’s feet.

“Now are we done?” Edward asked and Ilean rawred from behind him. Dolan limped to Edward, the Wyyvern of Blessedness on his shoulder. “Ready for the Eighth?” Edward asked him.

“Actually, If you do not mind,” Dolan sat down near the Gate of the Seventh. “I’d like to take a breather. You can fight things if you want, this circle is just one massive arena.”

“Hey, Satan?” Edward shouted into the now empty stands, “still there?”

“What do you want, Fennec?” the Devil replied angrily in irritation. “Go and defeat the Eighth already!”

I want a warm up first!” Edward shouted. “Got any tough demons who have nothing better to do?”

“The Devil leaned forward, “Possibly.”

*          *

“I’m sorry,” Aleister said to the Wyyvernwriter with honesty, “but the only Fate that ends well requires him to live. Forever.”

“We will lose so much,” the Wyyvernwriter replied.

“If we kill him, we lose everything,” Fate rebutted.