This chapter begins with madness and torture. You have been warned. Oh and also sexual innuendos here and there. In case you haven't caught on yet, shit has officially hit the fan, where have you been? Skipped a chapter? It's been a nonstop freight train these last few chapters. Oh and one more thing that I need to address. Character death. Kill count: 2? *makes a troll face* you're just going to have to read it.

You know what *POV means by now

P.S. This is going to be a long ass chapter, just saying.

Chapter 14: Warrior of a New Kingdom, Dein Reich Komme

Urie screamed until his voice gave out and kept on screaming. It hurt but he couldn't care less. His goddess was cutting him again. Every ounce of agony brought meaning to his existence. Her rinkaku traced along his joints and carved smoothly through his muscles. The pain was his existence. The pain was his life. The pain was the ultimate pleasure. Omega had pulled her spider like limbs from his twisted flesh and hummed happily. "How do you feel, Urie." He loved it when she said his name. Her perfect voice always filled his mind with flashes of tantalizing torments yet to be experienced.

"M-my ears," he was panting too heavily to speak properly, "something that… really… really… hurts." She smiled her purest smile for him. Just for him. She only played with him. Only inflicted pain on him. Her rinkaku twitched before folding around to his right ear.

"Sing for me," she commanded, driving her needle sharp kagune into his ear. It wove through his head piercing his skull and branched down into the flesh of his neck. Agony exploded in though his body. Urie convulsed in brutal ecstasy. She snapped off her kagune letting the rc cells that made it up absorb into his body while he healed. "I'm going in the other side, okay?" The process was repeated for his left side.

When the limbs snapped off again bloody froth had collected at the corners of his mouth. His goddess leaned in to lick it away. Sometime she would kiss him. That was the only part of her torture he disliked. It was to gentle. He wanted her to bite him, tear into his flesh, rip him into pieces. He wanted agony. He wanted suffering. He wanted her to stay and bring him hellish toys to experience. When she left and he was alone the shadow would come back. The shadow, he didn't say anything, just stared with his glowing eyes and bright smile. Sometimes he would pace around Urie, show him memories of before he had met his goddess. They were "happy" memories but that had become true hell for Urie. All the faking. All the pointless effort. All the wasted time. There was a deep sense of wrongness that Urie didn't like when the shadow came. It came from inside himself, told him his goddess was an evil monster that needed to be killed. He wanted to crush that. Remove that voice from inside him. The pain was what silenced it. The pain freed him and he lusted after it.

"Urie," she whispered in his newly repaired ear, "Do you want to be more." Her fingertips were fire against his stripped skin. "You could be like me. More than human." The wrongness came back. The shadow stood by his feet eagerly watching him. The voice from inside cried out against it.

"Yes." His voice was stronger than it should have been. The shadow stepped forward and became flesh. His flesh, raw and cut and torn. It was him, the whole time, the shadow was him. His goddess had vanished and the image of him spoke with her voice.

"Do you want to become more?" it asked again.

"Yes," he roared to drown out the small voice begging him not to. The Nightmare laughed and lunged at him, ripping through his left shoulder with its teeth, eating him bit by bit. It hurt. He screamed and all was black.

Urie panicked thrashing against his bindings before realizing the darkness was caused by a silk cloth tied over his eyes. He must have passed out from bloodloss after Omega kissed him. His breathing came in gasps but he felt much stronger than ever before. The throbbing in his shoulder had stopped. With a concentrated pull he snapped the cuffs holding him down. His wrist was cut slightly by the force it took but he could feel his flesh closing. Urie reached up and removed the blindfold. Where was his goddess, we wanted to show her how strong he was now. He wanted to embrace her and feel her nails cut through his skin again. The shadow was gone, no, that wasn't right. Urie was gone and he was the shadow. He ate Urie, the week and selfish human. He was more now. More for his goddess to play with. More to please her. He was more. So much more. He was a ghoul.

*POV

Uta was twirling his pencil, staring at the sketchpad in front of him, an eye in his other hand. There was a strange man with a mechanical arm that smelled like kagune sitting on his measuring stool. "So, you were an investigator for the CCG?"

"Yes." His voice was strong.

"How did you wind up like this, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Kaneki Ken."

"Ah, I see. Poor kid never could kill anyone. Least not until Jason… nevermind." There was an awkward pause. "Why do you want a mask?"

"I'm supposed to be dead. Having someone recognize me would be, inconvenient…"

"Hm… What about this kid?" Uta picked up the picture his patron had given him. He was really sour looking and had two moles under his left eye. His hair seemed dark purple. "You want me to make a mask for him, too?"

"Yes. All the personal information that you would ask for is on the back."

Uta flipped the image over and perused the data. He could certainly make something interesting from this. "I'll let you know when I'm done, Amon-kun. Expect a call by the tenth."

*POV

Sasaki was looking more than a little frustrated and the sudden standstill on the investigation. Mitsuki wrung his hand briefly "He is probably concerned about Urie." He whispered to Seiko. The cubby investigator nodded in agreement. The team redoubled their efforts to solve the puzzle. With the discovery that the tiles had some kind of device inside them it was know a matter of opening it. They had tried to force one open, they had quite a lot after all, it exploded and whatever was inside vaporized. The thought of however they got an explosive inside something the size of Mitsuki's pinky disturbed him. For the past hour Seiko and himself had been discussing what they contained and how to open them.

He glanced over at Sasaki again. His mentor was hunched over his desk, so frustrated that he bit into his finger trying to contain it. It dawned on him so suddenly that Mitsuki leapt out of his chair with a loud, "I've got it!" Everyone turned with a start to stare at him, with the exception of Shirazu who wasn't in the office yet. Mitsuki flushed slightly but continued, "It's an rc reader. Like the blood sugar monitors except it reads the rc content in a sample."

Sasaki seemed to get it as he glanced down at his finger. "Mado-san," he said and she tossed him the tile she was studying. He pressed the "eye" to his cut. There was a soft beep followed by a click. Sasaki stood and looked at Mitsuki with a grin. Everyone maneuvered through the desks to a large table by their activity bored. The calendar marked the date in the center of the table, November tenth, but was swept aide. Sasaki tipped the tile and the side under the five white dots slipped out, depositing a thumb drive onto the table. They all stared for a moment at the small piece of hardware, before Seiko scooped it up and plugged it into her laptop. Everyone leaned in around the device. The drive contained a single game file.

"Seiko," Mitsuki begin, "you don't recognize that game, do you?"

The shut in shook her head, "No, but I'm going to uncover every secret I can." Her jovial expression died as soon as she opened the file. The title screen was off black with a red back glow. A simple black mask took up the center focus, the gaping eye hole showed sunken in, discolored flesh surrounding a ghoul kakugan. The only other feature on the metallic surface was a jagade toothy smile. "Oh, it's a horror game." She seemed disheartened.

"Sasaki," Mado said before pulling the senior investigator aside. Mitsuki couldn't make out what they were saying but it wasn't good judging from their expressions. She handed him a folder. "Seiko, see what you can gleen from...that. Mitsuki come with me, we need to make preparations for tomorrow night. Remember to send Shirazu to the conference room, if you see him Hiase."

"Yep." Sasaki called back. As Mado practically dragged Mitsuki off he couldn't help but voicing his curiosity.

"Um, Mado-san, when did you start calling Sasaki-sensei by his first name?"

"Last night."

"Hu?"

*POV

Urie whipped around when he heard a stone wall slide out. So that's how it works. A ghoul, about thirteen, walked in. The boy was caring fresh clothes and what looked like armor. "Omega-sama instructed Rin to bring articles befitting your lordship," he said bowing.

"Lordship?"

"You are the goddesses' consort, are you not?"

While that was true, Urie didn't like the feeling it gave him. "Don't call me that." It was like he hadn't earned the position, or even manipulated his way in.

"Then what should Rin use for a name?" He stared at the boy for a while, unable to answer the question. "Is it possible that my lord has yet to receive a name?" Urie noded, "Tis problematic… May I call you thus until your new name is given?"

"I suppose."

"Rin is here to serve your lordship until the naming ceremony is complete then." His little head bobbed again in a bow. "Please allow Rin to assist my lord." He placed the armor to one side and passed the various pieces of clothing to Urie as needed. Once the elder was dressed, Rin busied himself fitting all armor to him. The steel was surprisingly light. He had a chestplate that connected to shoulderplates, the left one had a large slit to allow his kagune to pass through; Unlike the archaic designs of medieval armor, this set was minimalist and formfitting, excluding the upper chest, shoulders, belt, gauntlets, and greaves everything was a plain white cloth. It was a long sleeve, long necked, trench coat-like jacket. The belt was worn on top, weaving through loops in the overcoat and rings on the white slacks beath. There was a dress shirt tucked in under the coat. The silver metal, with its' gold tinted trim was placed over the coat as well. Urie's skin was covered completely with the exception of his head.

The fabric was cool against his skin and the plate added back the weight balance he had before. He would undoubtedly be faster without it but this would train his body and he was fine with that. The little boy tugged lightly at his sleeve. "Please, follow Rin."

He was lead through a network of tunnels into what looked like a blacksmith's forge. Several burly ghouls were hammering away at metal. Everything was covered in ash. They didn't stay there but continued moving ahead. The workmen stopped their projects and followed. Several more rooms were like the last, housing different professions, with the occupants of the rooms following after. Sometimes Urie would catch glimpses of people streaming in behind to pick up the work.

Seemingly out of the walls young women in flowing greek inspired priestess garb, each carrying a lamp, slipped into the possession. They danced in a circle around Urie, singing without speaking. The only beat to dance to was the rise and fall of his own steel encased feet.

Soon they had reached a large chapel decorated in stained glass. He looked up towards the arched ceiling covered in massive murals. He marveled at the ghoulish depictions. A human might call the red tinted windows and bloodied paintings the chapel from hell. He laughed to himself a bit. The mix of ghouls and humans, indeed some were humans, parted to let his scarlet clad goddess through. Rin had disappeared. "You look stunning!" she elated, painfully pulling at his cheeks.

She whisked past him and up to the pulpit area. Everyone one, with the exception of Urie bowed. A tall scared human, wearing a ghoul mask, stood from the crowd, and making his way passed Urie, approached Omega, bowed, and presented a package. He turned, giving the younger man a view of his quinque steel. His eyes seemed to apologize for something.

His attention was pulled back to his goddess as she plucked a mask from the box and discarded the brown paper, lifting the helm up. He felt some unseen force pull him forward. "Kneel." He did as Omegan commanded. She slid the helm on, locking into place with straps from his jacket. There were two parts, the metal casing around his jaw and neck, and the tinted glass shielding attached to a hinge. Then the front plate was locked onto his jaw it formed an airtight seal and redirected his breathing through filters located along the sides of his neck. Breathing wasn't difficult but felt strange.

Omega took a step back from him, beaming. "Now, rise and claim your new name, Paladin*!"

/\

November 11th: The ghoul Auction operation, commence!

\/

Mitsuki was breathing heavily, they had just taken down Nuts. Now they had to find Big Madam and the two major targets would be taken care of. Juuzou was occupied with White Suit Naki while Mado was covering him, keeping the Three Swords ghoul off. Rabbit was running amok. There were casualties on both sides. He shifted the dress uncomfortably, hating being dressed like a girl. It was just his luck that Torso was also here, looking for him.

He looked over at Seiko. The shut in had just destroyed Nuts in an instant. Once again he reminded himself not to make her angry. That's when something unexpected happened, over the CCG's intercom system a report of an unknown ghoul, slaughtering humans and ghouls alike rang out. Ther officer giving the report sounded panicked. He fell deathly quiet. "No… please! No N-ahhhhghha!" Everyone who could afford to be still was, the agonized scream of their fallen man echoing in their ear.

"Good evening," a distorted voice sounded from their comrade's headset, "I'm looking for the Quinx squad and their mentor Sasaki Haise. Killing grunts has gotten stale so I'll be waiting on the main stage."

The three investigators looked at each other in mixed anger and fear. A ghoul killing their comrade, or just anyone really, and then calling out the quinx squad? The fact that it was an unknown ghoul as well was very unsettling.

"I'm going alone." Sasaki's voice cut through Mitsuki's growing concern, "Finish the operation, then come back. Rescuing the civilians takes priority."

"But-" Mitsuki didn't have a chance to finish.

"No Sasan is right. We need to get them out of here first."

"Okay."

*POV

Sasaki didn't have to wait long for Mado to clear him for combat. Naki tried to stop him but he cleared the White Suit with a single jump and kept sprinting. As he approached the main hall something in the back of his mind told him not to go in. Not to cross that threshold. He was going to lose something today.

He slowed to a stop at the door and hesitated. Sasaki could hear his heart pounding in his ears.

"What are you waiting for, officer?" a rich female voice called out of the darkness. He turned to face the source. She wore a long blood red dress with a plunging neckline, long slights ran up to her mid thigh, showing off her legs. Her mask was red like her dress, the black letter "Omega" marked her left eye, while her right alone was visible.

"You work for Domino?"

"Hm? I'm not telling." The points of her high heels tapped the ground as she walked. Sasaki suddenly couldn't move. When he looked down a long, web-like rinkaku had snared around his legs. She was suddenly very close. "Look at you," she forced his head up, "all grown up but still a little kid inside, playing soldier. It's a pity Domino-sama didn't let me break you. I bet your screams would be beautiful."

He gritted his teeth, eye shifting into kakugan. "Let. Go."

The she-ghoul pulled back er hand and shuddered, a smile on her face. "Kanou was right about you, Ka-ne-ki-san. It's too bad he's not around to see it anymore. Oh, but I really must thank you, you did such a good job of raising my cute little friend. I'm sure you're going to love him."

"What are you-" The sense of dread choked his words and she laughed. A cruel, mirthless laugh. Her kagune ripped up out of the ground and threw him into the main hall.

Humans, civilians were being ushered out by ghouls in domino masks. There were also a few humans that were helping the other ghouls. Sasaki stared at the procession in awe and confusion. Domino was rescuing civilians? He didn't have long to ponder this, as a metal gloved hand seized his collar and lifted him into the air. "That's one, now where are the others?" He recognized the voice for the head set. There was something unsettlingly familiar about the ghoul, though there were no distinguishable features to be seen under his armor.

Sasaki struggle to breath as the Armored ghoul's grip tightened. "I asked you a question. Answer."

"I-I don't k-know." The vice grip released and he was slammed onto his back.

"That is so like you, go running ahead like that just to fight on your own."

"How do you know me?"

Before the ghoul could answer a whizzing buzzing projectile launched through the air, nearly hitting Sasaki. The target dodged and the shell exploded on stage. The Armored ghoul pointed at the exit and bellowed to the others in the room, "Get those people out of here already. You'll ruin Omega-sama's plan." Both ghoul escorts and civilians rushed out of the room and the plated ghoul returned his focus on Sasaki. "Looks like you're missing a member."

Sasaki clicked his tongue and stood. Shirazu, Mitsuki, and Seiko filing in. "Sasan, squad one is taking care of the combat front, over half the civilians have already been evacuated. I guess this guy's friends have been busy while we were fighting. Mado-san ordered us over here."

"Okay then, Formation one then." Sasaki informed the squad and they spread out. There were six formulated formations for almost all varieties of combat. The first was a group assault on a strong target. The pattern was long so that the strikes would seem random. It was an idea Urie came up with to reduce vulnerability, Sasaki had to make a few tweeks to the numbers but they were the regular combat drills the Quinx practiced.

Shirazu attacked first. The Armored ghoul took two steps forward and, without even looking kicked Shirazu's side sending him flying out of the circle. Before Mitsuki had his chance to attack the ghoul was already in front of him. "Formation one only works if the target isn't anticipating your movements," he seized Mitsuki by the hair, "You look better as a woman," and flung him into Seiko.

"What the hell?" Shirazu growled.

"I think I hated you the most," the ghoul had lifted a hand to his mask, shaking his head, "Always so gullible and easy to manipulate. You won't make it as a squad leader." He was walking over to Shirazu. "That is, if you can even survive today."

"U-Urie?"

Bishop to E2

DUN DUN DUN! Sorry if you didn't catch that, There will (probably be a character death in the next chapter though. I have a really great scene lined up.

*pronounce "pa-ra-djin" for maximum Japanese-ness xD