I sigh as I sit at the feet of my Tamer on a rather familiar boat for the second time. It's a larger boat than usual to accommodate for all of us, but no matter. On the left side of the end of the boat, Sebastian rows, and Claude does the same on the right. Envy is sitting at Claude's feet as well. Laying in the belly of the boat, at Hannah's sitting form is Ciel's sleeping body. Her voice sings out a song that I hadn't heard in years. Alois Trancy had contracted Hannah while controlling Ciel Phantomhive's body, therefore making Ciel unable to resurface. Apparently, the contract between Alois and Hannah is mostly a secret save for the fact that he plans on either Claude or Sebastian ending his life. This will somehow fulfill the contract between Hannah and Alois, therefore freeing Ciel from Alois' hold. If we kill Hannah, Ciel will live again. That's what we learned before we left for our destination. Over all, Hannah has the upper hand for now.
"This is an island of death, a sanctuary for demons," Claude speaks up once we're on solid ground with Alois-Ciel in Hannah's arms. The four of us stand before her on this death filled land of black and gray and rubble. "Two someones released their anger in the form of demonic energy and destroyed the place".
"They did a pretty good number on it, Sebastian Michaelis, Phobia Syn," Envy grins to us.
"What exactly are we doing here?" I tilt my head, ignoring the two.
"Sebastian and Claude will perform an official demon's ritual here," the woman answers, laying Alois-Ciel down on a bench and stroking his forehead as she kneels at his side and doesn't take her eyes from him. Another duel? How boring. And so, once Sebastian has Leviathan pulled from Hannah's form, she stabs it into a mid point in the roof above us in the cave that we stand in- green crystals glow light for us to use to see.
"No wounds can take a demon's life. However, if wounded by this sword, they never heal. And if cleaved away by it, a demon's soul is done for," Hannah shortly explains.
Three of the four of us take off our gloves, but only one out of four of us actually has a purpose for doing so. My claws come to their full length as I crouch at Sebastian's side, a low growl emitting from my throat. I see Envy release his barbed blade claws, and slide into his own fighting stance. The fight begins. And while the butlers' fight is much more graceful by the sound of things, mine and Envy's is much more...Animalistic. We charge at one another without a second thought and duke it out through and through. Sounds of any other canine based animal comes from our lips as claws and fangs meet flesh and bone. Hands are shoved through lungs and guts, however those wounds take no time to heal. Even as Sebastian decides to crack the entire island and send it into chaos, we don't pay attention to things around us. Crashing into walls and snarling as we go. The only time we stop is when...
"Claude!" The smell of my Tamer's enemy's blood travels through the air.
"You're not going any where!" I howl after the fox hell hound, and race after him. We bounce this way and that, heading further and further into the depths of the island, into a crevice that has been created thanks to Sebastian's doing.
"No!" Red stains the dark rock, and crouching above a dead body is my victorious Tamer. Envy's body erupts in a bright light that seems to flow around him like a never ending ocean. And when the light is gone, in his place is a not so different yet different being. From his tail bone has sprouted nine tails the color of his hair, tipped in black with matching ears. The metal that had made up his barbed claws now look like my own, sprouting from his wrists and doubling his fingers' length. As I race at his side, I can see fangs that are much too big for his jaw, over lapping his lower lip without a care. His sclera have become black, and his eyes are glowing that signature magenta with slitted pupils. His legs have become like that of an animal's back legs, his knees turning backwards to do this and his feet becoming larger and longer so that he's basically walking on his clawed toes. His red hair, once windswept yet slightly messy, is wild and ragged like the rest of him. His vest and pinstripe shirt are gone, and so are his slacks and shoes. Replacing both are red furred paws and fox legs, the fur almost like pants when it comes to his groin area. "Die Sebastian Michaelis!" He demands, his voice lower and gravelly. A clawed hand lashes forward, swiping at the air and beams of light follow his gesture. Sebastian's head snaps to the side upon hearing this declaration, and I take the duty of protecting him with a wall of darkness.
"I don't think so!" I snarl out. I find no reason to fall into my true form. I can take this guy down without it.
"If you're going to get in my way, then you go down first!" Envy turns to rush at me full blast.
"That was the plan!" I roar out, and our bodies clash again, the result sounding like thunder almost. In the mean time, Sebastian goes to take care of Ciel; I wonder how he'll turn out? I grunt as a hand slams into my cheek via a metal covered fist, and I slam into a wall creating a crater. A hand then sends itself half way through my gut and then basically liquifies my innards through rapid claw movement. Not a good feeling at all. The hand is pulled out, and then shoved all the way through my body, while the other hand wraps around my face and pulls my head and therefore my torso closer to him. My liquified organs spill out the hole that he makes bigger by pulling my torso up to his shoulder and then letting me slide off like some slab of badly cut up meat. My body hits the ground like rotten meat, and my blood's all over the place for a moment or two. In this time, Envy makes his way for my Tamer. I snarl and sink into my shadow only to appear from his and take him down from behind.
"You're still alive without releasing yourself?" Envy gets up from his downed spot. "How?"
"Tch, I don't need my true form to take you down," I growl out, bone claws splayed. However, he quickly proves me wrong. I sigh and purse my lips as once again I get thrashed around at the speed of light. It's been going on like this for the passed ten minutes and it's getting rather boring. Sebastian didn't have to take to his true form to take down Claude, but he did have to in order to take down Ash...Then again I think if the fight had lasted longer, they would have taken to their true forms. My head is ground into the earth below me harshly and again I sigh. Fine. My muscles relax and a burst of power bounces Envy away from me. "Fine. I'm tired of this," I sigh out. Darkness dances around me like wild fire, and my body shifts. I have to admit that my form isn't too different from Envy's own- sorry if you're disappointed. Ten blue, red and white tails sprout from my tail bone, my knees become backwards and my feet become paws. My ears are now atop my head and black, and my eyes glow the signature magenta. It's as though I'm wearing eyeliner, as my eyes are surrounded by a thick black line on my water lines. Bone claws stay, going from red and black to all black, and fangs become longer to the point of over lapping my lower lip. Where my heart once was, there is a hole that goes through my body even though I don't bleed out. Longish red hair now goes to my butt, fading from the original reds to to light blue and then darker until the tips are black. No longer do I wear that black suit with a red button up shirt underneath. Instead, on my person is simply a pair of red baggy pants that fit loosely around my waist, leaving my entire torso bare. With the help of my new legs, which under the pants are covered in black fur if my bare paws are any sign, I stand at a new height of 6'9". I grew a whole eight inches.
"That's all you've got? You're nothing but show!" Envy laughs out at me. "It's like nature has made you look strong but you really aren't!"
"Hmm," I tilt my head before rushing him at a speed that I didn't have in my human form. As Envy laughs his smug mug, my fist finds itself in his mouth causing him to choke and fly back. It is now that as I look around that I realize something interesting. "This island is sinking...Thanks a lot brother," I grumble and run a clawed hand through my hair. A dusting of bullets made of light come my way, only for me to simply dodge most of them and raise a singe shadow here and there, some near me and others just above him. The bullets of light enter the shadows near me, and disappear in them only to reappear by dusting my opponent. He screams in shock and pain and I sigh. "Hey Envy!" I call.
"What?!" He demands as he pushes himself to his feet.
"I'm gonna finish this. Sorry but you're gonna join your Tamer at the bottom of this ocean," I tell him with a shrug.
"I refuse to die until Sebastian's beating heart is crushed in the palm of my hand!" Envy snarls.
"Yea...You see, that's where we differ. You let your Tamer get killed, but I'm not about to let the same thing happen to mine," I tell him casually. I smirk, fangs glinting in the light we're working with. "I'd say we have about a minute until this island is completely done for. So how about this? We each use one last attack in our current states. The one who gets a fatal blow is left to die, and the one who wins can do whatever they want with the body whether they're still alive or not. Deal?"
"Deal! You're going down! I refuse to let that bastard live!" Envy snarls.
"Wrong. I'm the one who won't let you live," I state back with a growl rumbling from my chest.
"You won't survive this. No one has!" Envy insists as he clasps his hands together as though holding a ball in the middle of them. Instead of a real ball though, there's an orb of light that seems to hold a heat comparable to the intensity of the sun. The light that breaks through the cracks between his fingers is honestly blinding, however I don't look away. Now, with one hand around this orb and his arm winding up like he's a baseball pitcher, he throws it at me, its speed rather impressive for something so small yet dense.
"That's all you've got?" I mutter to myself as the small orb about the size of his fist flies towards me. There's a snap of my fingers, and a dome of darkness appears around me, keeping me safe from the light that is really starting to overwhelm my eyes. However, with this translucent dome of darkness, I can easily snap my fingers- and I do- and another shadow portal appears in front of me. My other set of fingers snap, and behind Envy one last shadow portal appears behind him. At the last second, the orb of light enters the shadow, and makes its way through the portals as though burning a path through space itself. It slams into Envy's back with a rage like no other, and the man screams in agony. There's an explosion, and I have to make a boat of darkness so that I don't fall into the water. Luckily for me, as the light finally goes away and I can uncover myself from my dome, I see that Envy is sprawled out in the water, having yet to sink. With a paddle of darkness in my hand, I lead my boat to his downed form. I pull him onto my boat letting him rest on the floor. "Looks like I win," I grin out.
"So it does," Envy sighs, blood dribbling from his mouth, "Do with me what you will". His downed body is limp and battered, his nine tails soaked to the core and his claws chipped and cracked.
"Oh trust me, I will," I crouch as in this state I can't really kneel, cooing to him. His eyes watch me carefully as I let my claws trail down his bare chest ever so gently. Even as I touch him as gently as I can, my claws still leave red lines as they go lower and lower. My hand, upon reaching his waist, runs along his hip until I reach under him and grab at the base of one of his nine tails.
"...No," Envy's eyes widen, his eyes filled with fear. I don't know if anyone knows this, but I don't have the name Phobia for nothing. I'm very good at finding someone's deepest fear, and then acting on it in just the right way. My mind is twistedly sadistic when I allow it to be. This fox's fear...Is losing all the tails he had worked so hard in obtaining. After all, a Hell Hound is first born with one tail, and the stronger they get the more tails they obtain. "Please no, anything but that. Not my tails," he whimpers out through a bubble of blood that pops on his lips.
"Ahh," I smile out cruelly," but we agreed that the winner could do whatever they pleased to the losers body whether they were alive or not".
"I know I know! But please! Have mercy! Not my tails! Anything but my tails!" Envy weakly squirms in an attempt to get away, rocking the boat as he does so. His tails try to lash out, however the best they can do is wiggle.
"No can do. A deal's a deal. Just because you're not a man of your word, doesn't mean I'm not," that said, with a sharp jerk and the sound of ripping skin and popping bones, the first tail is gone. Envy screams in agony, a song that I haven't allowed myself hear in much too long. The tail thrashes as though it has a mind of its own and is looking for its owner. However, I toss it into the water. "Ready?" I ask him as I grab at tail number two. He screams as I grab the base of the tail, and thrashes wildly. "Oi! Stop it!" I demand, firmly placing my free hand on his chest and planting him in place, tendrils of darkness helping me to get him to stop by wrapping around his waist, neck, wrists and ankles and pinning them down. "Sit back and enjoy the pleasure of an agonizing death," I taunt him even as he still tries to thrash. With the same sickening ripping sound of flesh, and the cracking-popping sound of bone, another tail comes from his person, and I'm covered in more blood. "Your blood reeks of spider. What'd you do, have sex until the cows went home before you and Claude made your big move? Disgusting," I shutter, and throw the tail over my shoulder. The process of taking away the last seven tails was similar to the first two times. Him thrashing, me pulling off the tail and making a rude comment, him crying in agony. Me waiting for his cries to calm down, and then the process begins again. It only stopped after I took the last tail. "That was as tedious as plucking feathers off a chicken," I sigh, but I'm pleased despite my words. His screams of pain are like a lullaby.
"Kill me...Kill me...Kill me...Please...Kill me," the demon begs.
"Of course I'll kill you," not. A demon cannot die by any wound. We are forced to live through even the worst of pain. I think we can starve to death, but I've never heard of such a thing so I'm unsure. Then again, without a heart one cannot live. So I guess I'll end up killing him...Meh. I pick him up by his throat, the tendrils of darkness that had been pining him down releasing him upon my command. "It was nice knowing you. Time to join Claude. Send him my regards will you?" I smile pleasantly, the sight of me smiling not at all that pleasant. My right hand is shoved through his chest and comes out of his back holding his heart. I pull my hand and his heart back through his front and then crush his throat in the hand holding it. His heart is sputtering in my hand, however as I look to my victim I see sightless eyes. Aww he died before he got to see his own heart. I sigh, and look to the hole where my heart should be. I don't know why I don't have a heart- I used to have one, but when I earned my tenth tail I went through this transformation of power and lost it. Is that the price of being the strongest of my kind? To not have a heart even in human form? A shame really. But it is a shame I have learned to live with, and even embrace. Carelessly I toss Envy's body over the edge of my boat, "Sweet dreams, fox," I tell him. And from there I continue on my way.
Where I end up a few days later is a place I predict to run into Sebastian at some point. I want to know if Ciel has been eaten yet or not; I assume he has been. The island that I'm currently dwelling on is covered in nothing but black, white, and blood colored roses. Every now and then a gust of wind will come along and take petals of all three colors and lead them into a dance in the wind. It's the third day that I begin to hear familiar voices, and I sit up with a raised brow, and then eventually stand.
"He's here too?" Ciels voice speaks up as he looks my way from the area they walk through maybe five yards from me.
"Oh? You're still alive, Master?" I raise a brow. "Sebastian, what happened?" Not at all that sensitive about it, bit I figured that Sebastian was gonna eat his soul as soon as he saved him.
"Alois' contract was for his soul to be taken by Hannah, and for no one to be able to have Ciel's but also have him live. He has been reborn a demon," Sebastian states simply.
I look the boy over as I stand, my body long since gone back to my normal human form, however I've decided to keep my claws extended and therefore my hands uncovered for a good while. The boy's eyes are red, just like Sebastian's and my own, the pupils slit. Magenta flashes at me for a second, and my eyes are drawn to the...Faustus contract that's still in his right eye. My brows furrow. "Why do you still have the contract?" I ask him.
"I ordered him to always be my butler," Ciel states, "While I was human. He acknowledged it. His my butler for all eternity".
"A blessing for a curse," I sigh out, "You sure know how to pick them, Tamer".
"Apparently I do, Tamed," Sebastian states. "You will be his guardian for all eternity, just as I am his butler".
I smile, "I can deal with that. As you command, Tamer".
And there you have it folks, the story of Phobia and his life as the tamed Hell Hound of Sebastian. I know this was a little on the short side, however this is more of an Epilogue if nothing else. I hope you enjoyed reading my work, as I had a fun time writing it!