Hey Guys. I'm really sorry about the long wait. Shit in your life, plus writer's block, and lack of motivation can really do a number on you. I just want to let you know that I do sometimes update previous chapters with better dialogue or maybe I remove things that I feel shouldn't be established at that point in the story. So I recommend that whenever I upload a new chapter, please go back and read the previous chapters, or at least read the ones I've changed. Them being chapters 1, 2, 3, 6 and 8.

Please leave a review or a favourite. Thank you for reading.

Chapter 9: You'll see

The adrenaline in the room started to die down, as the undead corpse of the mutated assassin laid in a pool of necroplasm on Mandy's bedroom floor.

Isaac holstered his pistol then said "I would come in and close the window, but you haven't invited me in."

Mandy walked over to the open window and shut it, before replying with "No need."

"Isaac!" shouted Grim as he ran in through the doorway, followed by Pain, pushing passed Isaac. "What have you…? …oh." Noticing the corpse.

"You didn't think Isaac tried to kill me, did you now Grim?"

"Of course not. Dat is…impossible."

"Hmm" Mandy replied, "Well this 'zombie looking' prick tried to take my head off. I would have been dead had Isaac not popped his top"

"Tank you Isaac." Grim said, "Come in".

"You're welcome" he replied before entering the room, "Does this armour look familiar to you two?" pointing at the corpse's attire.

Mandy crouched by the corpse and examined it.

"Definitely Kære's"

"Who's Kære?" Isaac asked.

Mandy looked surprised for a second, looking up at Grim in response.

"Uhh, dat's HIM's real name."

Isaac looked at them both, before asking "Kære? That's his notorious 'true name'?"

"Never phased me." Mandy admitted.

Mandy turned the head over, revealing the devastated flesh, allowing one of the eyes to fall out. One was clearly a different colour to the other.

"What do you make of this?" she asked, "If they have Nergal to pass on their power, why don't they just use the Nergal?"

"Nergal." Isaac repeated, "That's an ancient word."

"You prefer demon?" Grim asked.

"Potato Potahto. Now, when I was back on earth, the last hit I did was on this facility. They kidnapped humans, cut out an eye, and then plucked another from this demon, which was just covered in the things. They took the eye, popped it in the victim, bing bang boom, homemade hybrid."

"What's the point of that?"

"Perhaps it's meant for taking over deh host's body while retaining deir memories and knowledge. Like a sort of 'hijacking'." Grim presumed.

"That sounds concerning." Mandy admitted, "We should probably get a research team on that."

"Hold on a second." Said Grim, "I remember dis man, reaped him hundreds of years ago."

"You can recognise that mess?" Isaac asked, pointing at pealing and dangling flesh on its face.

"Somewhat. He was interrogated to death by men seeking information on his employer. He was a prolific assassin. He should be burning in deh fires of hell for his misdeeds."

"So why is he going around, all demoned up?" Isaac asked.

"Because Kære is in charge of the land of tainted souls." Answered Mandy, "Where the dead go to pay for their sins. He must be recruiting famous warriors to fight for him."

"That doesn't explain the Chimera." Isaac added.

"Actually, I just got word from our analysts on dat collar." Grim informed, "It was used to domesticate deh beast. Control it. And deh only place it could have come from would be deh Nightosphere."

"So Abadeer must be on Kære's side now." Mandy assumed.

Isaac was about to ask who that was as well, but Grim answered ahead of him.

"He's deh oldest and most insane demon lord ever."

"Oooof course he is." He responded sarcastically.

"Okay" she announced, "I think I've got a game plan. PAIN!"

"Yes Milady!" Pain shouted.

"Clean this shit up, and box up the corpse."

"Of course Milady!"

"No!" Grim commanded.

"No, what?" she replied.

"You are not mailing it back, Mandy." Grim instructed.

"Didn't ask for your opinion bonehead." She replied, following the guards as they dragged it out of the room.

Isaac snickered, then asked "Bonehead?"

"If you call me dat, I'll mail 'you' back."

"Heh! Sure. I'm going back to bed. Wake me up when…actually. Don't."

Isaac left the room, bumping into Jr and Minnie who came out to see what the commotion was.

"We heard shots!" Jr said.

"What has't thee done?!" Minnie demanded.

"Just saved your mother from being assassinated. You're welcome." He replied as he walked passed them, not making a big deal out of it.

The two looked at each other, frowned, and then went back to their rooms.

Isaac took a shower then snacked on a breakfast bar that he found in his coat. Not concerned about how long is was in there. Finally, he took a nap in that big, beautiful bed he hadn't used yet.

"Good dreams this time." He said to himself.

Despite his hopes, he again found himself in that room, with that man and woman.

"No. He…he couldn't have." She replied.

"I found him unconscious, right in the epicentre, unscathed, and the only survivor! You want evidence?" he grabbed the boy's right arm and held it up, then shouted "Look!"

His arm looked completely normal, except that his hand was a brighter tone compared to the rest of the arm.

"How do you think he grew that back?!" he shouted.

"That's impossible…" she murmured.

"I didn't want to." the boy sobbed, "I…I don't remember."

"SHUT UP!" he shouted, jabbing the boy's head with the muzzle of his pistol.

"Stop it!" she yelled, "You're scaring him!"

"Yeah! I am aren't I! How does it feel?" He asked the boy, "To be the ant, and not the boot?!"

"What do you want from him?!" she yelled.

"For his kind to see that they don't scare us! That we're not at their mercy!"

"Please!" she begged, "Don't do it!"

"I've hunted monsters for as long as I can remember! Then that bitch planted one right under my nose! Who's responsible for the lives he takes?! Whose shoulders does that fall on?!" he asked before cocking the hammer to the pistol, "If I don't do this, it's on me!"

"DON'T!" she shouted.

He placed his finger on the trigger, ready to pull. His breathing accelerated as he gritted his teeth. He's ready to do it, but the trigger becomes heavy, and he can't. The boy sat there, looking straight down, tears falling to the concrete floor, ready to die, but still, he can't do it. For a second, he looked at the boy not as an enemy, or as monster, but as a son. There's no way he could do it. How could he? But in a brief spike of adrenaline, with the thought that the boy could never come back from this, and with tear in his eye, he said,

"I'm sorry boy." raised the pistol again, and without thinking, he pulled the trigger.

Despite his efforts, his finger was too slow. She had already dashed across the room, disarmed him, and clocked him over the head, knocking him out instantly. As he fell to the floor, she unloaded then crushed the pistol in her hand, wrapped her arms around the boy, rubbed his back, then told him,

"It's okay. You're okay. You're alive. You're safe."

"Why…why…" the boy whimpered.

"It wasn't your fault." She told him, "It wasn't you."

"Why…did you stop him?"

Isaac's eyes flung open. His body was still, and calm. He wasn't sad, or angry, just disappointed. Checking the time, he found that the next day had come. It was early this time, and he smelled something amazing coming from outside his room. So he got dressed, made his way to the dining area, and behold, a table covered in remarkable food.

"Uhuhugh fuck yeah." He mumbled.

"Master Isaac!" greeted Pain from behind Isaac.

"SHIT!" he shouted in fright as he turned to around.

"Apologies Master Isaac, breakfast is ready!"

"I'm not BLIND Pain."

"I…said I was sorry."

"No it's….fuck, never mind. Sorry. I'm gonna pig out. Don't watch."

"Oh! Well, of course. Enjoy!"

Mandy and Grim came to the table I little later, finding Isaac had eaten about a third of its contents.

"Seems like dat apatite has come back." Grim assumed

"You gonna leave some for us?" asked Mandy.

"Leave me alone *burps*, I'm depressed."

"Yeah?" Mandy responded, "Well go be sad in the briefing room, and wait until we're done eating."

He got up and made his way there, not before saying "You know you haven't truly lived until you've eaten a mouldy hotdog out of a trash can. Just sayin"

Later, in the briefing room, Mandy and Grim came in to find Isaac and his bloated stomach lying across the centre table.

"Off!" she commanded.

"Shit. Sorry." He responded, hopping off the table.

"Isaac" Grim said, "We need your head in deh game today."

"Sorry. What's the mission?"

"We believe that the demon lord of the Nightosphere, Hunson Abadeer may be working with Kære, but we need to be sure. You're going to infiltrate his castle and find out if he is. If he is, kill him." Mandy briefed.

"I don't tink we should have him killed straight up, Mandy." Grim interjected, "I tink we should convince him to work for us instead, or at least just stop him from backing Kære. If he refuses, den we should consider assassination."

"What? No way am I letting Abadeer warm the bench while we're all killing each other. He's either with us or against us."

"Fine." Grim replied, "How about we offer Hunson our allegiance, if he refuses, he dies. Better?"

"Better. He could be a valuable asset, considering his power over the Nightosphere and those within it"

"Okay." Isaac interjected, "So I go in and try to convince this guy to join us, or I kill him. Easy."

"No, not easy." Mandy replied, "Abadeer is unkillable. Unless you first take off his amulet. That gives him his power, and his rule over the Nightosphere. Only then could you finish him off with that sword of yours."

Isaac drew his butterfly sword and flipped it open, before asking "You know what this thing can do?"

"I don't care what tricks it can do, Isaac. All I care about is whether you can use it."

"Oh, I can." He replied.

"And if you do end up killing Abadeer, bring me his amulet."

"Bring US deh amulet."

"Yeah, whatever."

"And give you rule over a whole realm and all the beasts in the underworld?" Isaac asked.

"Exactly" Mandy replied, "You've got a problem with that?"

Isaac sighed, then said "No, I don't."

"Good. Now, about getting there."

"Right." Grim added "You can't just fly dere. It is in a very deep place hell."

"So, how do I get there?"

"We need to summon a portal for you to get in, and you'll have to summon anudder to get out."

"Oh this isn't going to involve shit like virgin blood or something, is it?"

"No" Grim replied, "It is actually quite tame, albeit a bit odd."

"Okay!" Mandy interrupted, "Now that we're all filled in, your mission begins now."

Mandy walked over to a tarp on the wall, then pulled it down, revealing a smiley face drawn on the wall. Grim then pulled out a carton of milk from his cloak and walked up to the smiley face.

"What the hell is this?" Isaac inquired.

"Just go with it." Mandy replied.

"After we open deh portal, it will take you to a random place in the Nightosphere. Den you will have to find his pyramid castle."

"That place is filled with all kinds of monsters." Mandy warned.

"Beasts dat you may have seen, known of, or not known of at all. Multiplied tenfold." Grim added, "So be carefol."

"Feels like a lot of pressure is on this." Isaac commented.

"You don't know the half of it." Mandy replied.

"Lastly, you won't be able to contact us via radio either. So you're on your own." Grim informed.

"Well, let's not think about it too hard." Isaac said, "Let's get this over with."

Grim nodded, before opening the carton, dousing the smiley face in it and chanting "Maloso vobiscum et cum spiritum!"

A portal quickly opened on the wall, revealing a hellish landscape within. Screams and indescribable sounds echoed from it.

"This is the weirdest fuckin thing I've ever done." Isaac commented.

"In you go." Mandy said, gesturing Isaac to enter the portal.

He sighed, before saying "This was a mistake." Then sprinted at the portal and leaped through.

Immediately, Isaac began to fall. The portal had opened on a Cliffside, a very high one. He panicked for a second, until he remembered his rocket jets. Quickly he drew his stabilizer handles and blasted off into the unknown. As he soared over the land, he managed to pick out a few beasts he knew, like the chimera, Lycans, flocks of harpies and things that could only be described as lovecraftian and inconceivably strange. Suddenly, he heard a humming sound approaching from behind, or like a bellow. Looking behind himself, he found he was being pursued by a leviathan. A serpentine beast that could fly, its mouth wide open as it grew closer.

"Nope! Not like this!" Isaac shouted before he drew his heavy machine gun from his coat, and fired at the beast.

They bullets bounced right off of its scales, only making it angrier, and faster. He needed the upper hand. To do that, he had to outsmart it. Quickly, he put away his gun, gained altitude, and then disabled his jets, sending him flying back. Just as he flew over the leviathan's head, he reactivated his jets, drew his sword, and then dove straight for its unprotected neck, slicing half way through. It howled a deathly call as it fell toward the ground. Isaac then continued his mission.

The Nightosphere was a terrifying place. There wasn't a single place as far as the eye could see that wasn't coloured an evil shade of brown or red. Mountainous formations and deep crevices littered the landscape, as well as the numerous beasts, and small creatures unfortunate enough to encounter them. It took a while before Isaac could pick out the tall pyramid structure out of the hundreds of mountains. He headed straight for it, keeping his eye open for an entrance. He noticed numerous port holes at the tip, then landed on it, scanning through each one for Abadeer.

After looking for a while, he found the sky light to the main area of the pyramid. It was well decorated and maintained, featuring rugs on the floor and numerous pictures of who he thought was Abadeer and many strange and historical figures. At the other end of the room, he saw Abadeer, talking on his large video call screen to none other than Kære.

"How is the Chimera herding going, Hunson?" Kære asked.

"Really great! My slaves have located many of their breeding grounds and forced them into captivity. All you have to do is knock one out with tranquilizer gas, and slap on a collar!"

"Excellent work." Kære praised, "My portal is always open for more beasts."

"Good to know! I'll contact you tomorrow!" Abadeer advised before hanging up the call.

Abadeer got out of his desk chair and proceeded to the kitchen, until he heard a faint thump from behind him. He froze, then listened for the faint tip tap of feet on the stone floor. It grew closer and closer, then he quickly turned around before his head transformed into a large bulbous mass of teeth and tentacles, swinging one of them at the intruder.

Isaac was surprised by the sudden transformation and couldn't react fast enough. Abadeer had wrapped his tendril around him, flailing Isaac in the air as he squealed a high pitched screech. Isaac flipped out his sword and severed the tentacle, freeing him, but flinging himself across the room, slamming into the wall.

"Argh!" he grunted, before falling to the floor.

Abadeer squealed louder, as fiery liquid sprayed from his tendril.

"That sword!" he shouted, "GIMME!" then immediately leaped at Isaac, reaching for his weapon.

He swiped at him with his toothy tendrils, trying to slash the sword out of his grasp, but Isaac mixed a combination of dodges and parries that kept Abadeer from striking him.

"WHY AREN'T YOU DYING?!" he shouted, ramping up his efforts.

The faster he got, the further back he pushed Isaac, and was close to cornering him. Isaac grew desperate, this guy wasn't a good fighter, but he took up lots of space, with a wide field of attack, and an unlimited amount of stamina. He needed to outsmart him, and strike at his weakness. As Abadeer pushed him into the corner, Isaac jumped onto the wall and sprung off of it, quickly launching himself over Abadeer's shoulder and snatched the necklace right off of his neck. Abadeer quickly transformed back into his regular form, also losing his suit and tie, in its place a wife beater and jock shorts.

"Dammit!" he shouted, "Give that back!"

Isaac threw the medallion on the ground, striking it with the tip of his sword, not hard enough to break it, then shouted "You've got two choices! You leave Kære and join Grim and Mandy, or I destroy this thing…!" tapping the medallion with the sword, "…then I kill you!"

"No way!" He shouted, "Why would I join that crazy bitch and her lapdog Grim?!"

"Because you'll be alive."

"You'll need a better bargain then that, son!"

"Okay, I'll give you five seconds, or I break this, then you. Five."

"You wouldn't da…"

"Four"

"Do you know what will happen if …"

"Three"

"WAIT!" Abadeer shouted.

Isaac paused his countdown to hear him out.

"Is there a third option?"

Isaac gave him an annoyed look, before saying "Two" then raised the sword, building up for the strike.

"OKAY!" Abadeer shouted, waving his hands in surrender, "I'll play ball!"

Isaac smiled, before flicking up the medallion with his foot and catching it.

"Let me just call Kære first, yeah?"

"Sure" Isaac replied, "But I'll crush this thing if you warn him."

"Don't worry, I believe you." Abadeer said before walking over to the monitor.

He pressed the call button on the dashboard making the little dial animation pop up on the screen. It rang for a bit before Kære's face appeared on screen.

"Hunson?" Kære asked, "What is it?"

"Hi Kære, um…how do I say this?"

"Why are you in your underwear?"

"Ah, you know me! Us bachelors do as we please, right?"

"Wait, are you bleeding?" Kære asked, pointing out the necroplasm on the side of his mouth.

"I….I uhhh….bit my lip."

"What's going on Hunson?" Kære asked, "Who else is there?!"

"No one! I swea…"

Without warning, Isaac speared his sword from the other side of the room through Abadeer's back, and out his chest. The burning necroplasm spurted from the exit wound, and out his mouth.

"HUNSON!" shouted Kære.

Isaac walked up to Abadeer from behind, before he gurgled,

"COUGH! ...Hehe…you're a real kidder! COUGH!"

Isaac ripped the sword from his back before slicing through his neck, beheading him.

"NOOOOO!" Kære shouted.

Isaac turned around to not show his face, before Kære shouted,

"YOU BASTARD! WHO ARE YOU?!"

Isaac looked over his shoulder, before asking "Did you get my message?"

Kære's face changed from pure anger to shock, as he recoiled into his chair.

"You! How did you get into the underworld?!"

"Same way everyone does." Isaac said, "I died a little."

Kære snarled, then asked menacingly "What do you want?!"

Isaac stood there for a second and thought about his answer. Should he reveal his allegiance with Grim and Mandy, or should he leave Kære in the dark, and allow his paranoia to fester?

After thinking it over, Isaac responded with "I'm going to dismantle your whole world, and when you have nothing left, that's when you'll pay."

"Pay?!" Kære asked, "For wha…?"

Isaac quickly slashed the dashboard, destroying the computer and ending the call.

"You'll see."