Lief began his journey back to Del in the early morning. Before the sun had risen more than a line above the horizon Lief left on foot, journeying east. At least, he thought it was east. It was so difficult to figure out what was what with all the different colours. He followed what he thought was the rising sun; which was blue; over what he thought were plains; which appeared red. 'At least this keeps an otherwise boring and lonely journey interesting. I can busy myself relearning all my colours and remembering how they appear to normal people. Huh; normal people. I was one not so long ago... Barda, Jasmine and I... No; stop! Only look forward or you'll go mad with grief... oh Jasmine!" Lief broke down and tried to cry. He really did, but of course he had no tear ducts. 'No tears, no children... What kind of monster have I become?'
There were no answers. Funny then; in the blackest pits of one's self hate; Lief found a reason...a purpose. 'One step at a time; I will answer all these questions. First the library..."
In Limbo, another member of the Eight was being chosen. A vampire in life, it had come closer than any to dying a true death, briefly entering the hellish part of the afterlife. Fighting tooth and nail after peering into its depths, it had absorbed part of that world. Now free of death, the mindless, but not shapeless, darkness became known as Nightmare. A twisted, black and purple knight in appearance, it spewed poisonous vapours from its not-quite-touching joints.
Its opponent was the legendary Dark Knight Sparda; the slayer of all manner of creatures. Sparda's sword was crackling blue with a myriad of sparks. A blade of both fire and lightning, it had slain countless enemies. Sparda, unlike any other member of Limbo; had never died. He just wondered in by accident and had remained trapped there for countless millennia. But the legendary Dark Night was outmatched. Nightmare's sword could triple its range in an instant, becoming long and thin like a rapier. Nightmare's blade could be broken, but it took less than a second to repair itself, drawing substance from Nightmare's own darkness. Sparda couldn't even get close. Nightmare's strength and endurance was unreal; the endless twilight of Limbo was perfect for it. The Dark Night was finally slain, and Nightmare took his blade for itself.
In the forgotten underground below the Shifting Sands where no light reached and the dead slept their final slumber, The Lord of Curses, Tarnel, was once again...experimenting. Many thought that the tiny animals of the Hive built this jewel pyramid to house themselves and their Queen. In a way they were right. But no one would have never guessed that the Queen was a human. Or a male. Tarnel had found a way almost a decade ago to make himself the Queen of the Hive, killing the previous one in the process. The Hive workers were simple creatures and easily created artificially. So long as he kept their numbers up; Tarne had complete privacy. The inside of the jewel pyramid in the centre of the Hive made the perfect hideout where he could conduct his experiments in peace.
'However many times I do these, they never get old. Hahahaha...' Tarnel thoughts found their way to his face, which cracked into a large grin. Whistling a merry tune, Tarnel started the experiment.
"This is experiment number 999. Testing the Snake Curse with vampire blood. Subject is a Captain James Gant, captain of the Lady Luck and also known as the loan shark Laughing Jack. Stand by for immersion." A hovering quill and notepad wrote down everything Tarnel said, as well as the results of the experiment. Laughing Jack, looking starved and quite simply, dead, was lifted up with Tarnel's Magic and dropped into a tank of blood. A glowing ghost of a snake wrapped itself around the tank and froze in place. The tank sealed itself; now there was nothing to do but wait.
After being forced to man the oars of his own ship, Laughing Jack had been desperate for respite. When Tarnel sensed Laughing Jack's predicament, he gave him an ultimatum. Either to stay there, rowing for eternity, or die a true death and let Tarnel harvest his body. It wasn't much of a choice for Captain James; he'd accepted in an instant. Tarnel was interested in Laughing Jack because of the strength of the spell that was put on him. To keep him alive, forever, that took some serious magical strength and it will have left its mark on his body. It was Tarnel's passion to experiment with such marks and magical residue to see just how far magic could change the host. Tarnel was very excited with this experiment for two reasons. He had never seen a magical mark this strong, and it promised to produce spectacular results. He had also never tried a combination like this one. Tarnel's mutations were based on blood and a curse. The person or animal would take on the physical attributes of whatever the blood was from, but its magic would take on the attributes of the curse. Because of the near infinite combinations, Tarnel had honed the skill of predicting the outcomes of his experiments. Both the vampire and the snake used on fangs to feed and attack. Whatever the outcome of this experiment; it was going to have one hell of a bite...