Albert….what is it to be human? What is it, to be what you are?

The smell in the room is rancid, I have only smelled it once before – it is the decay of flesh.

When I was a child we went to the beach. There was a sea lion, rotting. It had been dead for weeks. Flies zipped around it crawling into and out of his flesh.

Are we built to be in pain, love….Albert, why do we bother existing this way? Humanity hurts.

As the creature enters, I can feel something change. Our minds are not far enough apart. We are in and around; there are no boundaries between our thoughts, as if they are broadcasting over a speaker at a ballpark.

Gods…I am so hungry.

It is red, as if on fire. It does not speak, and it does not look at me. When it makes a noise I hear gun shots, screams, explosions, sobbing, pain….so much pain. Its flesh is burnt, half of its face hangs off of bone, its naked genitals bleed and ooze puss. There are infants crying….or is it me?

The air is hot, humid. I feel rain, snow, ash, and sun on my skin in the cold empty cavern. This thing bends at awkward broken angles, and an armada of ships attacks us, for ten horrible minutes we are evading cannon balls. Jadea is rocking in the corner, chanting.

The armada is destroyed in a flurry of shredded wood and bodies; they decay, fetid, withering from flesh, to bone, and to dust. Overhead there are awful planes and mechanisms of war. Missiles fall on us, we hear them whistle and we cannot move.

It opens its mouth. Franz, and my father die again. I vomit, seeing the smile on my friends face fade, and his eyes turn cold. My father's lifeless body, like a doll or some awful stuffed creature, no longer him, dead - gone.

It opens its mouth. Edmond's father starves to death. He shrieks in rage, and his body is emaciated. They are starving together, bound by the same awful fate. He looses his life, everything, himself, his sanity, in darkness - in another man's hate.

I am starving. There is a hollow awful ache, a terrible dizziness, and I feel nothing but a burning in my body.

When it enters the ring, the purple face of the count lights up in several sets of dangerous eyes. His writhing stops, and a creature climbs up in Edmond, with his body, and the form of a spider encases him. It bellows my name, it bellows for my sex, my body, my blood, and my soul, yet it does not look at me.

The being of war, and of destruction stumbles forward, clawing at him. The cavern king strikes back, a bolt of blinding white and purple energy slices up and through the creature. It knocks me back, and holds me down.

Beneath me the ground becomes a bed of nails, there are hands all over me, ripping at me, violating me. I feel the heat and pain, and the desire in the room as these two opposing forces struggle for dominance.

As Gantkutsuo is released, and the spider takes the form of an old god like demon my mind snaps, and I cannot longer understand what I'm seeing. Am I looking into space? Is that a nebula, or a man? There is so much beyond it; an infinity of darkness, of emptiness, and loneliness. We have come to the end of all things, and I think I can hear nightmares singing.

They exchange blows that I can barely follow. Stars and killing other stars, engulfing them and imploding, abstract things are entwining and biting and clawing. There is so much blood, and yet that blood is not in this room.

In the panic, the frantic battle (the one I cannot be sure is taking place) I think of Edmond, of my mother, and I close my eyes. Who am I but a mortal, tossed around by fate and forces larger then myself?

The room is awful. This is hell, if any hell does exist…it is created by the deeds of man, by what we do with the gifts we carry, when we pervert pure entities, and ourselves, in cruelty and aggression.

I have learned forgiveness, and great compassion. These are the entities born of a humanity that does not recognize itself. They bleed for us, because we bleed. Pain should never be forced to live without peace.

I weep, not out of the fear or horror, though those feelings do course through me. I weep, though not because I hear my ancestors begging me to live, but because this is who they are, this is what they are, they do not have the privilege of painless sleep.

I have been a spoiled, selfish child. My life has not been hard.

We are so hungry. We need it all, and we cannot share.

0-0-0-0

The lines blurred between Edmond and Gankutsuou, enmeshing them into one entity: a thing both human, and not. Through Edmond the demon king experienced light and love, things he had never known, and Edmond saw the workings of the stars. Their purple flesh, no longer cold, responded as they urged it to, for Albert, and for much more.

The war demon seemed barely conscious, far gone in its nature, over stuffed and filled by the shier amount of human destruction. It came from a human world, brimming with conflict, where humans had forgotten how to be humane. No world should see such wars as those the Earth has seen.

Yet, in their unity, they lacked the fundamental understanding. Closer then ever before, the journey would not end here. Gankutsou was tired, worn out from an act of compassion, and he did not yet possess the capacity for another act of compassion now.

So they battled, and it became obvious that the battle was futile. Though they raged on with heart and might, he grew ever weaker with every moving star and the force of energy. Edmond felt himself slipping into a terribly familiar starvation, and his legs buckled.

A sound of rage to match the screaming, Gankutsuou lashed out, but with every blow the demon grew larger, and its cries louder. One cannot end war by fighting.

0-0-0-0

I can see what is happening, and I can feel all this pain. The circle is cracking, and I can see Jadea fading slowly away.

Her eyes meet mine, and she smiles, nodding.

"It is time to give my mantel to another." She says gently. "We are tired of being human, and ready for the next."

A large beautiful black raven seems to fly out of her soul, two entities are born, the bird and a very old woman. They crack, fracture, embrace in happy tears. Then, they fade.

My throat strangles a cry for her and I manage to roll onto my hands and knees. Without another breath the circle crashes down, and the force of the dueling demons shoves me against the cave wall.

I touch the wall, and Gankutsuou shudders.

I am so hungry; I can hear his voice, weak and small.

"Edmond!" I scream, "Edmond let me help you!"

The sound of my voice turns both sets of eyes on me. But they do not stop their fighting. I cry out, begging them to stop, but they either do not hear me – or they do not care.

I look at the poor beast, the poor war beaten disgusting repulsive beast. My stomach threatens to lurch again; I am tempted to condemn it. But something in me cries for it, and eventually I cry openly.

Through the noise, and it is extremely raucous, there are so many things I can not hear, and so many sounds blending together. Yet, I beckon to the creature. "It does not have to be this way! You don't have to be this forever. We can stop the wars! If this world saw you! If we could make everyone understand! You don't have to be this anymore!"

The war creature shrieks and Gankutsuou falls to the ground, spent. It means to kill him.

And, somehow, I know it will not be allowed to kill Edmond.

Edmond, could be free.

0-0-0-0

Gankutsuou looked up to his demise. There was no coming back from this kind of death. It would be the end. Why had he agreed to this? What strange curiosity and flawed emotion had formed within him to justify this battle?

Ah….Albert's voice….and the way Edmond's heart beat.

So….

Human.

He closed his eyes and smiled.

0-0-0-0

Albert found himself suddenly able to move, as if something new found within him had broken free, a will – a desire - a design.

Edmond knew it well, that moment, for him, had come in the Château D'if.

The boy flew forward, stood between the two demons with heroic resolve, hands out stretched like a martyr.

Concern for his lovers filled him, and protectively the older man grabbed at him, the blow that landed on the small, delicate, human frame knocked him back several feet in a flash of blinding red and yellow, smoke, and billowing energy.