Hey Guys. Sorry about the wait. I updated Chapter 6. I made some of the dialogue make more sense in relation to the characters' personalities. I also figured out why there are so many Italian readers. You would think a story with the words "Testament" and "Isaac" in the name would garner an audience from a predominantly Catholic country, wouldn't you? I hope no one sues me for false advertising. Just to reassure, this is not a bible story.

Please favourite, review, follow and most importantly enjoy!

Chapter 7: Just a suggestion

The dim red light beamed through the tall window and onto his tired face, as his head rested on the bench top. He could see the glow through his thin eyelids. It was distressing enough to wake him.

"Is there even a sun in hell?" he thought.

He pulled himself up, leaning over the worktable, gaining his bearings and rubbing the sleep from his eyes with the heel of his left palm.

"Not these damn dreams again." He murmured. "Can't…forget"

He looked at his other hand to find that he was still holding his revolver. He closed the cylinder, placed the weapon in its holster then strapped the gun belt around his waist as he stood back up.

"Mr Isaac!" a voice called from behind the door, followed by three knocks, "You are needed!"

Isaac opened the door to find that Pain was the one making the racket.

"Ugh! My head…" he said as he rubbed his forehead "What…what's going on?"

"If you will follow me Mr Isaac." Pain replied "I will lead you to the briefing room."

Isaac followed Pain down the corridor to the left as he left his room, closing the door behind himself.

"Uhh, would you perhaps like a bath first Master Isaac?"

"No, I'm fine thanks."

"As you wish." Pain said fanning the smell from his face.

"Any idea what my mission is?"

"Very little Master Isaac. As far as I know, it has something to do with re-establishing communications with a watch outpost, a few kilometres out"

"There are outposts out there?" He asked laughingly "in that desolate, rocky wasteland?"

"We have many! Far away, all along the perimeter of the caste. Precautions to protect the Masters."

"The Reapers are your Masters?"

"Oh yes! I live to serve the Masters! I would gladly die for them if need be."

"Well, that makes one of us."

They reached the door with the words 'Briefing Room' written on it in raised letters. Pain held the door open for Isaac as he entered. The room was wide and quiet. All the walls were covered in pin boards and white boards, all with something written or pinned onto it. To what the information on the boards regarded he didn't know. He assumed it had something to do with the war, but it wasn't within his immediate interest. In the centre of the room was a large, square table with no chairs around it. Mandy and Grim stood on the opposite side of the table, conversing and looking at photos of what looked like a well-established military grade camp or outpost.

"…you smell like ass." Mandy greeted.

"Morning" greeted Grim.

Isaac grunted in response and leaned onto the table, scanning over the contents on the tabletop.

"So what am I getting into? Something to do with communications?"

"Basically" she replied, "twice a day we receive reports from the twelve watch outposts we built three kilometres out around the castle's perimeter. One report at noon, one at night."

"Dis outpost…" Grim added, sliding the picture of the base over to Isaac, "…south of deh castle, reported in some strange wildlife activity last night. Deir report was due two hours ago."

"Neither have they replied to any communication attempts. We need you to go there and investigate what's going on."

"Hold on a second" Isaac interrupted, "Did you just say it's two o'clock?"

"…you didn't JUST wake up did you?" Mandy replied.

"Uhh, I didn't say that. Okay so, has this sort of thing happened before?" Isaac asked, examining the photo.

"We built these very recently, ever since we had an intrusion a few months back. So no, this hasn't happened before."

"We presume dis is some sort of scare tactic."

"So you think this might be HIM's doing?"

"Confident, but not certain." She replied "We're wasting enough time as it is. Here's a radio" she handed him a slim but sturdy long distance radio communication device "contact us when u get there. We have a helo on the landing pad outside. Pain will escort…"

"Nah, I can get there myself." He interrupted.

Mandy paused, rolled her eyes and massaged her brow before saying, "No Isaac, we need you there NOW. You can't just 'walk' there. There aren't any roads!"

"I didn't say anything about walking."

Isaac turned then made his way out the door. As he left the room as Mandy and Grim looked at each other curiously, then followed him to the yard. Outside, Isaac walked out into a space where there was nothing and no one within a five meter radius of himself.

"Oh yeah." Isaac muttered before facing the Reapers, "I suppose I need your permission?"

Grim outstretched his forearm and said "you have our permission to leave deh castle."

"Under the condition that you return, ASAP. Once your mission is complete, that is." Mandy clarified.

He sighed, then nodded in their direction, before reaching over to the rolled up, right sleeve of his trench coat and pressed the button on the sleeve strap twice. Almost immediately, two metal appendages extended from his sleeves, travelling the underside of his arms until they reached his wrists. As they stopped, a handle flipped out from both the appendages and slotted into his palms. He flipped open the covers on the top of the handles, revealing big red buttons, and activating some sort of thin metal frame that travelled through the seams of the coat's stitching, stiffening the coat's previously malleable material.

He planted his feet and pressed down hard on the buttons, activating two concealed rockets under his coat, launching him into the sky effortlessly. As he flew higher and higher, he corrected his course and flew to the south.

"Now where did he get something like that?" Mandy thought aloud.

"A lot of nifty toys lying around after Megaville" Grim replied "though, it does look familiar now dat I'm seeing it in action. 'Squirrel'. Dat word comes to mind."

Mandy looked at Grim, perplexed.

"Squirrel?" she asked "and rocket powered trench coat?"

"It isn't a crime to tink aloud m'dear."

"I'm no hypocrite" she replied "Let's get to the communications room. He'll be there shortly."

Isaac glided through the smoky air and punctured the ash clouds that filled the skies of the underworld. He struggled to breathe and at points had to fly close to the ground, sparing himself from the unbreathable atmosphere, risking being clipped by the protruding, hazardous rock that was scattered across the hellish wastes. He believed that hell was some sort of holding room for all the terrible and inexplicable otherworldly dangers and beasts that were hidden from the mortal realm. Like God's own portfolio of mistakes, and all who dared to defy the lord or spend their life in sin would be sent there, to spend eternity locked in the same room with those things. From his current point of view however, it looked like a massive, desolate wasteland, like a meteorite, earthquake, tornado, and a volcano laid waste to one place all at once. He thought, perhaps, that sinners that go here aren't made to suffer at all, instead the damned are extradited from paradise to this dead place.

Or maybe he was just overthinking things. This is just one part of hell. Maybe the worst over the horizon somewhere.

As the rock and dead trees began to clear, and the outpost became visible through the foggy landscape. About a kilometre out, he reduced the propulsion of the rockets by angling his wrists and pivoting his legs downward. As he got closer and closer to the ground, he slowed more and more, readying his feet to make contact with it. The outpost was just ahead, and he was nearing the ground. He planted his boots onto it, scraping across the dirt and gradually slowing down. The rockets had deactivated, the appendages had receded back into the coat, and the metal frame with it. He skidded for a few more seconds before losing his grip, falling forward and tumbling a few feet. His body slid across the surface for a second before he finally stopped.

"Argh!" he muttered as he pulled himself up slowly. "…at least the take-off looked cool."

The area was heavily fortified. Scattered across the site were sandbags, tents, stone watch towers, even some large rocks chipped away and even detonated to make some more space. The site seemed like it was pretty lively, that is before everyone vanished. Isaac found no one there, and it seemed as if everyone had just stopped what they were doing and left. As Isaac investigated further, he found some signs of struggle. Torn tents, flipped vehicles, some destroyed ones as well, and bones and armour from the royal soldiers scattered about.

Isaac pulled out his radio and reported in.

"Hello?"

"Yes, we hear you Isaac." Mandy replied.

"I'm here, no one else is though. Clearly something went down."

"Wait, they're gone?!"

"Not a soul. No offence Grim"

"Ergh" Grim mumbled.

CRUNCH!

"Hold on…", he paused.

CRUNCH!

"I hear something. I'm gonna check it out."

Isaac put the radio away then made his way towards the noise. As he got closer, the noise got louder and louder, so loud that whatever was making it had to be pretty big. He moved around the tent that concealed it, to find that the noise was the crunching of bones in the maw of a Chimera.

"Shit" Isaac whispered, "I've heard these are a bitch to kill."

The beast was tall, about four meters high. The red light shimmered off its thick bronze mane and coat, and lightly reflected of its scaly hind legs, rear end and whip like tail. Its sharp teeth and long fangs pulverised the bones in its wide mouth at the end of its snout. It had two long horns protruding from the back of its head that ended in gradual curves. It stood on its hoofed hind legs as it shovelled handfuls of bone into its mouth with its paws bearing razor sharp claws. Its four soulless eyes scanned the environment as it chewed.

Isaac had heard about the Chimera's thick hide and impenetrable scales, and was surprised by its muscular upper body. He concluded that bullets would bounce right off it, and that the sword would be the better option, but where to strike? The legs are a lost cause, the upper body was covered in tough muscle, so the neck had to be the spot. He snuck around the beast, making sure he wasn't within its field of view, then crept closer and closer. When he was close enough, he pounced onto its hunched over back.

It snarled as it looked over its shoulder, trying to see what had grabbed onto it.

"Woah!" Isaac shouted as the beast attempted to shake him off.

He grabbed onto its mane to balance himself, before he slashed the right side of its neck, making only a shallow gash into the muscle. It roared in pain, before reaching over its back, grabbing Isaac's arm and tossing him 15 meters away. He planted his feet into the dirt, keeping himself from tumbling as he skidded across.

"The nape's too tough" he thought, "What spot has no muscle…"

The beast was already charging in his direction, pounding its knuckles into the ground as it galloped towards him.

"…and no bone?"

It was closing in, he needed to think quickly.

"…THE THROAT!" he shouted, before dodging the beast's slashing claw.

He blocked every blow from the beast's flurry of attacks with his sword. Sparks flew as the claws and steel collided. The beast panted in a ravenous and wild fashion, as if it had an instinctual need to eviscerate him, like all it knew what to do in that moment was to kill, and nothing else. Isaac noticed the blows were getting faster and heavier. He couldn't keep this up, he needed to strike. As soon as he was able to, Isaac swiped at the beast's neck, missing as it dodged. He continued, mixing a combination of jabs and swipes, hoping to slice or penetrate its throat. Though all efforts failed, thanks to the beast's surprisingly good dodging ability, and its thick mane concealing its throat.

An idea came into his mind, "Maybe…" he thought before he pulled out his bottle of lighter fluid, something he often used when burning remains, or occasionally having some fun.

Isaac made some distance from the beast before hurling the tin bottle of fluid at it. As he predicted, it sliced it in half with its talons, covering its face in fluid. As it continued to charge him, Isaac blocked the next attack in a way that the sparks from the parry deflected into its face, lighting the fluid. Its face burst into flames, before it recoiled and roared in agony. It clawed at the ground, digging up dirt to bury its face in, to no avail. The fluid continued to burn, also burning the mane away. He could finally see its charred throat, so he positioned his sword, leapt forward and swiped through the beast's neck, nearly cutting its head off. It ceased it's screaming and slumped over onto the ground, its head still burning.

"That was a bit..." he panted, "…complicated".

He noticed something else about the carcase now that the mane was burned away, a metal collar. It was too large and flashy to be a regular collar, it had some sort of utility. Perhaps a shock collar he thought. This thing being here was clearly intentional.

He pulled out the radio and reported in.

"Mandy?"

"We're here. What was the disturbance?"

"A Chimera. It wiped out everybody, but I killed it."

"You killed…a Chimera. A fucking Chimera."

"Yep"

"O-okay…"

"Someone clearly brought it here. Hence the big ass collar on its neck."

"Interesting, but that doesn't explain why they didn't report in."

"That's what I was thinking. I'll check out the radio tent."

"Uh yes, good idea."

He then put the radio way.

"He seems to know his shit." commented Mandy.

"You'd be surprised." replied Grim.

Isaac went over to the tent with the radio dishes and antenna protruding from and surrounding it, which was left mostly unharmed. Inside he found two staff dead, skulls crushed like walnuts.

The equipment was severely damaged as well. One of the fallen staff had his dagger drawn, and he clearly got a hit in. He picked up the blade and inspected it.

"…necroplasm. Poor fucks didn't have ghost of a chance. No coms, an unstoppable beast running rampant. Convoluted plan, heh! Fucking worked though." He pulled out his radio, "Mandy"

"Status?"

"Radio's sabotaged. Staff are dead. Necroplasm on one of their knives. Clearly all plotted."

"Any suspects?"

"I don't know, someone with access to rare exotic mythical beasts and professional assassins maybe?"

"Hmm, I might have an idea about who. Come on back."

"Some advice…"

"Hmm?"

"Your guys need better weaponry. My suggestion? Flamethrowers. Lots of Flamethrowers."