Written by: Epicstu Wyyvernwriter

Before Hell froze, “You use my shit and still you do not bow?” the Devil said to the hooded Coyfox standing before him. Ember smirked in reply. “I bet you think you’re special, don’t you? You believe that you are destined for greatness simply because you can summon phoenix and gol…”

“Actually I summon dragons now, not phoenixes,” Ember interrupted.

“Dragons,” the Devil laughed, “I’m the original.” The Devil stepped out from the sigil Ember had drawn, “what was the point of this? You are in Hell, I am literally right up th…”

“I can also summon rams,” Ember interrupted, “but keep going. Whatever you were saying was very interesting and I would love to hear more.”

The Devil picked Ember up by the throat, “what do you want?”

*          *

After Hell froze, in a random bar, on a random cliff “In order to speed up your twenty-four-hour mortal period here in Hell, I had to make a deal with the Devil,” Ember said to Edward after regaling the conversation to him. “Then you went and froze Hell. Now all I need is your permission,” Ember held out her hand, “she needs her shield, Edward. She needs you.” Edward took her hand and she shook it and let go, “first I feel I should give you a few fair warnings. Come, Edward,” she gestured for him to follow, “I will explain on the way.”

Edward followed, walking next to her so they could talk. It had been so long since Edward had seen or heard from her, “where are we going?”

“To your new hall,” she replied, “Lord of Iron Ram.”

*          *

The Rattler Inn was filled with the nastiest criminals in the West, but Johnny Slim saw none of them as he left. The bar was empty. He smiled and took one step out the door. “Slim! You are surrounded. Please come quietly,” Collin Fray shouted with a rifle aimed at his face from a distance. Men and women of every race in the lands wearing uniforms of the N.L.C.E. or New Cathedrals Law Enforcement aimed fully automatic rifles at Slim, who put his hands up and smiled. Collin walked up cautiously as Slim stared into his eyes, then Slim turned his back on him. Collin lowered his rifle and grabbed Slim’s arms when Slim spun him around, took his rifle, and held him like a living shield pointing the rifle at his head.

“You think you can take me?” Slim grinned. “I am going to murder all of your friends in uniform and I am going to do it without firing a single bullet,” in mere seconds he disassembled collins rifle. Then he headbutted him, knocking him to the ground.

“Collin is down! Open fire!” shouted one of the N.L.C.E. Slim smiled, they were all aiming for his head from every angle, and he could hear where each bullet would come from before it made it out of the barrel. Each duck and dodge he made as he moved from officer to officer put the bullets that would have hit him in the path of another officer instead. Each officer he ran into he disarmed and killed with his bare hands or the environments. He could hear everything and had reflexes to match, there was nothing going on within a one-mile radius that he wasn’t focused on. It was like a literal map he could read and he used everything around him to his advantage.

As Slim finished off the last of Collins officers slowly and painfully, forcing Collin to hear her screams. He disassembled the last of their rifles and walked up to Collin, “told you.” He pulled a revolver from his coat pocket and shot Collin in the head before Collin could reply. “I can’t wait for your daughter to find out,” he found footprints he recognized, “Rya and Ty already left and they’re heading South, hmm? Must be where Skinner is,” he was about to follow the trail when.

“What have you done, boy?” Mordecai asked him.

Slim smiled, “You know my evil ways, Father.”

*          *

The earth rumbled across the now empty battlefield, then it stopped. Zesrial looked around but saw nothing, then a howl followed by thousands more. Zesrial unfurled her wings and took to the air, from there, she saw them. Feral wolves, one of many different species of wildlife on this world. Then she saw that all wildlife in this world was soulless meaning her power as an Underrealm would be all but useless against them. Only with Edward, only as the Wyyvern Knight of Deceit would she be able to fight them. The wolves stared at Zesrial as she flew above them with eyes consumed by Vampiric Will. “Alexandria, what has he made you do?” Then she heard a prayer, “Thy Kingdom Come.”

*          *

Vladamir Korvachoff readied his sword and clicked a trigger on his crossbow causing incendiary bolts to be loaded into the chamber. He fired three bolts out in a triangle. Lines of fire connected them together and kept the wolves, which shared the red-lit eyes of hungry vampires, at bay. He could not know how long the fire would work so he fell to his knees and prayed, “Thy Kingdom Come.” A bolt of lightning, purple and brilliant, struck him and wings of black feathers carried him off. He thought he was dead.

*          *

Ember had brought Edward to the snow-covered Iron Ram Hall built atop one mountain in the middle of thousands. It was just like Edward had remembered on the outside, forged of iron and wood with too many depictions of rams all over it. Edward started to laugh, “let’s go inside, I wonder if that giant statue of a ram,” he stopped when he saw the giant living ram made of iron drinking lava out of a fountain, which acted as a fireplace, in the center of the hall. “It’s bigger inside than I remember.”

“Edward!” the entire hall shouted in unison, “the Wall has returned!” Then they started to sing of him of his history.

In the midst of song, dance, and mead flying out of mugs being waved in the air by drunk Fennec Foxes of the Northlands a hooded figure put a paw-like hand on Edward’s back. “Come on, they are waiting.” Edward did not recognize the voice. The figure brought him to a set of doors at the bottom of several spiraling stairs, “go on in.”

Edward opened the door to a room with a lava pit in the center that lava poured into from the ceiling. “There you are,” Ember greeted him. “What took you so long?”

“How’d you beat us down here?” Edward asked.

“Travel in Hell for me is like super easy,” Ember replied. “Now, these are all people you know.” She took a swig from the wooden mug in her hand, she had had quite a few already and was reasonably drunk by now. “Of course you remember Pip,” Ember pointed at Pip with one arm around Edward.

“Always my pleasure,” Pip bowed his head.

“Then there’s me!” Ember jumped out in front of him, fell on her bum, and got back to her feet quickly. She gestured to the final hooded figure who wore a blackened iron reinforced chainmail hood, her ears pocked out the top. Her thick pure-bred Northlandish Fennec fur covered her body head toe. She wore no gauntlets or gloves, no grieves or boots, just the hood and a chainmail scarf with a thick and durable cloth-like material along one side for the wearer’s comfort. The harness around her waist held her short-sword’s sheath, she had been sharpening its blade with one of her six-inch retractable claws since they had arrived. Then Edward recognized her as the figure who had led him there.

“Edward, my Lord, how goes things?” the hooded figure asked as she sheathed her freshly sharpened short-sword.

“Sarah?” Edward questioned, “but you died before I even existed. Only the living can be Warpriests.”

“The future version of your current girlfriend gave me life anew at the cost of spending it serving you,” Sarah leaned back, put her hands behind her head and spread her legs as she stretched and yawned. “So, is there anything I can do for you?” She brushed the fur on her belly with her fluffy tail.

“Not unless you can return me to my Hell form,” Edward replied.

“Nope,” Ember answered for her and held out a hand for Edward, “but I can.” Edward took her hand and a great pain overwhelmed him.