Chapter 22

Earlier.

He arrived.

Garou stood before the rickety wooden shed, but knew it was something far more sinister. He took a deep breath before he kicked down the door. Despite it's small appearance from the outside, within, the place was massive.

Full of exotic and very strange necromancer materials, he gave a small shutter to it all before he saw him. "I told those fools to forget about the dragon…"

"So, you're the asshole huh?" Garou called.

The man wasn't the least bit startled, he turned and then smiled towards him. "If it isn't the son of the Crimson Plague! My God, child… you are the spitting image of your father!" he said with great glee.

Garou sneered as he bared his fangs. "You must be Adus…" he said with a low growl. "I've waited far too long for this!" Garou struck hard and fast, he grabbed Adus by the throat and began to squeeze… yet in doing so, he felt his hand burn! He was quick to release the druid who merely smirked.

"Not that simple, is it boy?" he laughed. "Oh you have had me worried, after everything you endured, so many near death experiences. I am grateful my curse was stronger than all others I casted before. Bounding you to me was the best idea I ever had!"

"Bounded?" Garou demanded. "What the fuck do you mean bounded? How the hell are you bounded to me, let alone how can you live so long with just that small thread of attachment!" he demanded.

Adus smiled, he lowered his hood for the first time and revealed his face. His appearance didn't change since the vision Garou had, he had medium length silver hair and yet his eyes were dark and sinister red. "Oh dear boy, you have NO IDEA what you have done for me…" Adus laughed. "I forced a blood pact with your father, bounding the curse to me, as long as he lived, as long as the curse was still in place, I would live. As such, when he died, but you took his blood, the curse passed itself on to you… thank you for that."

"Fuck you," Garou muttered.

"You should be thanking me, dear boy. For you see, that little curse has ensured you lived for so long. Why the silver blades that should have killed you, never did. For you cannot die by that method!" he laughed.

"If that was the case, then how come father…"

"Your father was merely bleeding out, had your mother taken the blood the curse would pass to her… either way, I would live, it didn't matter who obtained it. As long as it was still in the world, that small thread of power that links to me… will never sever me from this world… unless…"

"Unless?" Garou asked.

Adus smirked. "Why would I tell you how to break it? Then again, you have so much to live for. A son… a lover…"

"Shut the hell up!"

"Oh?" Adus smirked. "Touching a sore spot am I? Lover's quarrel?"

"None of your damn business." Garou then shook his head to it all. "Why… why my father of all people!" he demanded. "He was a good man, he did no harm to others until you made him the monster that he is! All he wanted was water for his people!" Garou was nearly to the point of tears as he spoke of how server the punishment was for a man who merely wished to give his people a drink to survive.

Adus however smirked. "My spells only work on innocent people." He said. "The more innocent, the stronger the bind, as well as the curse. Your father was one of the most… kindhearted man I had ever seen in my many years. A selfless man, and yet the punishment for him was to be death anyways. You never steal from a King!"

"You asshole… you turned him into a vampire for the sake of your own life!" Garou began to look about. "I am putting an end to this, once and for all!"

Adus laughed aloud. "Putting an end to it?! Good luck boy! You don't even know how to break this spell! And why would you want to end your life like this? Your son will grow up without knowing his other father… your so called bond, Metal Bat… how will he take your death should you succeed? As well, who says this curse won't pass to your son?"

There came an odd pause over Adus, his hand reached behind his back as if he felt something, when he looked to his fingers, he saw blood.

He froze in fear as Garou smirked holding a blade and tracing his finger down it. "I know how to break this curse, as the old saying goes, if I am going down… I am taking your with me! Death told me how to break this, and when the deed is done, nothing will hold you to this world anymore… For the sake of my family… I will die for them!"

"He LIED!" Adus shouted as Garou began to tease the tip of the blade over his heart. "Death lies to you! He has always lied! He wants lives for his own sake of power!"

Garou smirked. "A blood pack is made by the one who initiated it. You forced my father to drink your blood, making one with him and the curse binding you together… However… the blood pack is severed, when the blood of the one who made the curse… is on the weapon used to kill those bounded to it… Can't say I wanted to do this either, but I know you will do this again, time after time until you achieve the power you desire… you will come after Bad, Zenko and Botan… I may want to live, but I will never live with that guilt on my mind… Fuck you!"

Adus froze as he saw the dagger puncture effortlessly through Garou's chest. Garou himself endured the pain for but a moment, until he felt his body shut down. The world was turning dark, he had one last bit of strength in him, enough to give Adus the middle figure before collapsing to the ground….

#

The room went dark…

Adus froze as he came out from the shadows, his face stained with bloody tears. A look that he has never seen on Death's face before. "No… No, you can't!" Adus pleaded. "YOU CANNOT TAKE THE LIFE OF ANOTHER OUT OF SPITE!" he protested.

Death however didn't appear vengeful. "No, I won't take this out of spite, nor will I truly be the cause of your demise. Simply put Adus, you dug your own grave…"

The druid suddenly froze as he found himself deep within a hole. "Wait… wait what are you…"

The hole suddenly deepened more, death leaned over as the tears began to flow from his eyes. "I have shed so much tears over the deaths of those you killed…" he said gently. "Now… you will drown in them…"

The hole began to fill with blood. Adus tried various spells to get himself free, but as he looked for his robe, he found it vanished. It was somehow in Death's hands as the hold continued to fill. "NO! PLEASE!" Adus begged.

He was up to his neck now. Death merely watched on as Adus slowly began to vanish into the sea of blood, however, he gave him a little leeway, Adus was just barely able to breath, but not by a lot. "Enjoy your hell, you will forever be trapped here, near the point of drowning, but not enough to completely suffocate. I'll decide when you are worthy of death…." With the snap of his fingers, the hole vanished, the shack disappeared as Death stood in wait.

It won't be long now.

Bad will be here shortly…