I suppose this is as good a time as any to write something.
My grandson is almost a year old now. He's slowly, but surely, growing into the man who will one day inherit this great house and everything in it. He nearly said his first words, as well! Oh, the joy was infectious that day, even if he just kept babbling on as usual. I haven't seen such great smiles on our faces in a long time.
Recently, my dear daughter has been busy with work and Siobhan has been feeling a bit unwell. It's been up to me to take care of the baby for most of the day. As I've said before, I feel rather nostalgic caring for a little one once more and while I do cherish the opportunity, I will admit that Siobhan was a better caretaker than me.
Still, I feel a great sense of pride holding the future in my hands. An entire generation's success in the form of something so fragile. Our little Moray. He has his mother's hair and I think I see a little bit of Siobhan's nose and my cheekbones.
I don't like looking in his eyes, though. He has his father's eyes and it reminds me too much of that night.
I wonder how his father would have turned out had that night not happened…
Hunter tried to get up, but the pain in his ribs was too much to bear. He grit his teeth with every movement, no matter how small and had to lay down there like a wounded animal as he began losing consciousness from the shock.
Spawn turned his head to Hunter. The Golden Guard caught wind of this. The former only nodded at him as his vision faded away….
Something told Hunter he was on his side.
The Hellspawn charged forward with the speed of a striking cobra, catching the brigadiers off guard and sending them back dozens of feet. All three of them recovered and spread out, dodging several chains from Spawn.
From her belt, Meera pulled out several throwing daggers, holding them like decks of cards before tossing them all at him, while Gendry charged shortly after.
The Hellspawn raised his cape to block the onslaught of knives, but while most were deflected away, just a few grazed or embedded into his flesh, making him grunt in pain. He pulled out the blades and focused on the charging Gendry, who came in hot with a mighty swing of his hammer.
The vigilante dodged the swing before Gendry jabbed him the head, making Spawn grunt a fall back a couple of feet before he dodged another swing and caught the next one, holding it steady with a grunt before he shoulder charged the orc, knocking the hammer out of his grip.
The orc grunted and settled for CQC. His punches looked strong and he was deceptively fast. Spawn was forced on the defensive as he blocked and parried the punches thrown at him, being sure to counter with some of his own, as well.
Spawn dodged another flurry of swings before he knocked him down on the floor with a shoulder charge, grabbing the knives embedded in him and tossing them one by one into him, intent on skewering his eyes or neck, but none made their target. They just got stuck in the thick skin of his forearm.
The brute got up and picked up his hammer again, sprinting with a yell and swinging his hammer as though it was made of cardboard towards Al. Every swing, he dodged by a close shave, with the exception of an overhead swing that he simply parried with a hard jab to the orc's stomach, knocking him back towards Meera.
Meera growled and flipped the handles of her swords and clicked them together, forming a double-bladed staff. She twirled the weapon around like a dance before jabbing and swinging at Spawn, who dodged most of the attacks, but her unpredictable movements made it hard to keep track.
It wasn't long until a stray swing grazed his chest, splashing necroplasm on the soil below. Spawn leapt back a considerable distance away as Meera sneered beneath her mask. "Why don't you just keel over and die already?" she mockingly asked.
Spawn raised a glowing hand as the slash at his chest healed, "You first." He retorted before blasting a necroplasm orb at her, which she dodged with a cartwheel. Of course, the Hellspawn didn't just shoot one orb, but several. The beast demon began spinning her sword staff around like an electric fan, reflecting the orbs away from her and forming a spell circle.
She stopped the defense and went straight to offense. A jab of the sword opened the spell glyph to reveal a large portal. Almost immediately after said portal appeared, a great beast the size of a road roller leapt through it with a mighty roar.
"The fuck!?" Spawn shouted as the beast landed in front of him with a hungry snarl. It resembled a lion, with its long mane and cat-like tail, but it had horns like a goat's, three-digited paws, leathery skin with no fur, and scaly patterns reminiscent of reptiles.
"Meet one of the fiercest predators of the Boiling Isles!" Meera introduced like a showman, " Vastator leo ! The Ravager Lion!"
The lion roared and lunged at Spawn, swiping with a powerful forearm. Al braced for impact before being sent skidding to the side. He quickly recovered to see the lion hit him with another slash. This one hit him and hit him hard. Nasty gashes several inches deep cut into his flesh and the wounds began to bleed profusely.
'This goddamn lion…' he thought to himself as his wounds healed. Ravager was an apt term, indeed. He braced himself for another swing, but the lion opened its maw and tried to bite him in half. Spawn grabbed the top and bottom of its jaws and pushed against being eaten alive by this thing as the creature roared and shook its head to get him down. He pushed back against the lion, whose feet dragged on the dirt and kicked it up into small piles.
Eventually, with enough struggle, he managed to physically overpower the beast and knock it down to the floor. He pinned its face with his foot and grabbed onto its horn, pulling hard enough to snap it in two. "Sorry, kitty," he mumbled as the lion growled in pain before he flipped the horn in his hands and thrust it downwards in its skull.
The lion briefly roared in intense pain before a simple twist of the horn ended it instantly.
He backed away from the dead feline before turning his attention back to Meera. "How!?" the demon yelled, flabbergasted, "that was one of the most dangerous creatures in the Boiling Isles!"
"I've fought worse." Spawn responded, nonchalantly.
The beast demon grunted in frustration and tossed her sword-staff at Spawn, who dodged it with a clean weave. His hands were lit with necroplasm again but he failed to notice that the sword worked like a boomerang and headed straight towards him.
The sound of the whooshing blade made him turn too little too late as the blade sliced through his shoulder, nearly cutting it clean off!
Spawn screamed as his necroplasm leaked everywhere and the sword went back to Meera, who grabbed it with a smirk. The vigilante growled some more and allowed his healing factor to take over in fixing the wound.
Beneath her mask, Meera flashed a bloodthirsty smile, "I wonder what the exact limits of your healing abilities are," she muttered loud enough for him to hear, "How about I slice and dice you to tiny pieces?"
"Don't forget to tenderize them after!" The voice of Gendry made them turn just for Spawn to barely block a mighty fist from the orc. Maybe it was just Spawn, but his punches felt harder than before.
The orc backed up and pulled out a glyph with the logo for the Construction Coven on it. He placed it on his body and the glyph seemed to activate a fiery battle aura that he screamed like a berserker at. He then tossed a punch towards Spawn, hitting him hard enough to shatter stone and dent metal.
Spawn was sent flying to a tree, the trunk shattering into splinters upon impact as he hit the ground with a thud. That little glyph made it so the bastard was hitting as hard as that ogre he fought two nights ago. Or Overtkill and Cy-Gor.
The orc leapt like a pouncing predator with a hammerfist that Spawn dodged with a dash, the fists kicking up dust and dirt on impact. With a snarl, he swung a haymaker at the vigilante, who countered with his own fist, a small shockwave cracking the air when the fists collided.
They quickly went into a pummel rush, each punch thrown faster than the naked eye, resulting in dozens of blurry afterimages, and each fist strong enough to puncture steel as the air distorted around them from the dozens, if not hundreds of shockwaves that occurred from the impacts of knuckle upon knuckle.
Spawn then went for a few quick jabs, forcing Gendry on the defensive before giving a jab with just a bit more force than usual. Gendry countered it with a fist of his own, but the increased strength made the veins in his hand burst with bloody cuts. But if he felt the pain, he certainly didn't show it as he continued to engage Spawn in CQC.
The orc kept Spawn on the defensive before suddenly shifting his weight just enough to stagger his enemy. He took advantage of this brief open window and grabbed his head, taking him to a few trees and rocks and smashing his enemy against them. The vigilante was dazed long enough for the orc to grab Spawn by the shoulders, slam him on the ground and literally drag him through the dirt, kicking up the soil, uprooting the grass, and sending pebbles flying everywhere.
Eventually, the orc lifted him up off the ground and sent him flying to the old ruins, Spawn impacting the ancient walls with the grace of a missile and smashing apart the stony exterior upon impact.
He groaned in pain, shaking the cobwebs in his head and getting up. But just as soon as he got up, he heard rapidly approaching footsteps heading towards him. He looked to see Hyden with his halberd in position and making a beeline at him!
Spawn attempted to stop the impaling, but the blade dug into his stomach. He grunted through the pain as he was lifted up by the polearm, Hyden straining a bit to make him dangle like a hang like a piece of meat. Spawn hissed as the blade went in deeper into his guts before letting his cloak wrap around himself and spread out into tiny pieces.
The pieces of cloth flapped around the area like a swarm of agitated bats, all converging onto a single spot where they merged together to reveal the Hellspawn free of wounds and a very pissed off attitude.
He snarled like a beast and saw Hyden fire several icicle spells at him, all of which shot at him like high caliber rounds. He used his vambrace to deflect most of the ice, dodging one by moving his head mere inches away.
He looked to his side to see Meera coming in for a leaping thrust. She impaled the dirt below him as her adversary got ready for round two. She swung her weapon faster than she ever had in her life before, even unhooking the two ends and surprising him with a duel wielding style.
This dance of blades was either dodged or blocked by Spawn, using his vambrace at just the right angle to deflect the blades off him, but just as he got used to one fighting style, she switched back to her double-bladed one just to throw him off-guard, but he still played it safe and on the defensive.
Meera yelled in both frustration and exertion as she tossed her sword at Spawn, who reacted just in time to grab it, shocking her. The undead spun around and chucked it back at her, an act that she barely dodged by swerving under it. As soon as she repositioned herself, she was kicked in the face, the force of the impact shattering her mask like ceramic and turning her around, revealing her cat-like face.
Before she could even realize it, the sword's boomerang effect kicked in and began flying towards her! "Aaaagh!" she screamed before the edge of the blade hit her square in the forehead, embedding itself in her skull. She fell forward with a limp, the other end of the blade holding her in place as she coughed up blood and her eyes rolled to the back of her head. The weight of her upper body then slid her down the blade's edge, slicing the head open as she fully fell to the floor.
"Meera!" Hyden exclaimed before Spawn turned to him. He froze for a fraction of a second before steeling himself. He yelled as he thrust the point of his weapon towards Spawn, only for him to sidestep and grab the handle, tugging it hard while the brigadier still held it. He was sent forward where his stomach met Spawn's fist.
His breath was knocked out of his lungs, his grip on the halberd's handle loosening as Spawn snatched it from him and slammed it on his knee, breaking it in two.
Hyden then recovered and grabbed his chakram from his belt and tossed it at the vigilante, who dodged it with ease. The witch traced a spell circle and encompassed the chakram in the magic blade, where it immediately began moving towards Spawn.
The Hellspawn turned and widened his eyes as the magic blade headed straight towards him. He dodged and kept his distance, but the blade turned in the air and chased him. He ran across the arena and into the forest, where the magic chakram mowed down the foliage like hedge clippers on its way after him.
Spawn kicked up a boulder and tossed it towards it, but that didn't slow it down by any merit. If anything, it was going faster.
He quickly formulated a plan and disappeared in a green flash.
He reappeared… right behind the witch.
He held Hyden in a nelson hold, the witch struggling in his grip as in the distance, the blade turned around and homed in on its target - who was right behind him, "Let go of me!" the witch demanded, "Are you trying to kill us both!?"
"You'd be surprised what I can live through." Spawn retorted, leaving the witch in a state of even greater fear. The blade was closer, cutting through the air at high speeds. Hyden quickly depowered the blade just as it was about to make contact. Spawn disappeared and Hyden just barely swerved to avoid the blade hitting his gut or chest, though it did graze the side of his arm.
"Dammit!" He growled, turning to see the blade embed itself on a rock… only to be picked up by Spawn. Before he could even register this ploy, he was right in front of him in a blur.
Spawn brought the bladed ring down on both of Hyden's arms in a clean motion, slicing them off. It happened at speeds so fast, the witch couldn't even register it happening until he realized his arms were now bloody stumps.
He screamed in horror as he realized his state. Only pausing briefly as he saw the Hellspawn leap back with a spin and toss the bladed disc at him. His resumed screams were cut silent as the blade passed through his neck with a cut so clean, there was hardly any blood on the blade itself.
Hyden's body collapsed, but not before his head did so first.
Spawn huffed in brief exhaustion before a yell behind him made him turn quickly and he saw Gendry swinging his hammer around like a maniac once again. He barely dodged the onslaught of swings that moved at impressive speeds, so much so that he found his face meeting the blunt weapon, forcing him to stumble around a bit before planting his foot down on the ground.
He managed to recover just in time to catch the hammer's face, stopping it in its tracks in spite of Gendry pushing with all his might. The undead flexed his muscles and pushed him back, grabbing the handle and trying to pry it from his hands. But Gendry's grip was as strong as his will, so Spawn settled for reeling in a fist and punching him square in the chest, creating a small shockwave and sending him reeling back several feet and clenching his body in pain.
The brute coughed up blood inside his mask before he saw Spawn grab his hammer. The Hellspawn swung the hammer to Gendry's knee, causing it to bend at such an unnatural angle, his bone stuck out of his flesh. The brigadier screamed at the top of his lungs from the pain as Spawn gave him little time to recover. With a hefty grunt, he swung the hammer at his head with such a force that it not only shattered Gendry's mask, but also rendered him essentially unconscious.
His body collapsed with a limp, the orc's blue face revealed to the world. He just barely managed to gain enough consciousness to see Spawn stomp on his body, point the hammer's head down towards his face and raise it upwards.
"Wait, no!-"
His head was turned to a red paste as soon as those words left his lips.
Spawn took a few deep breaths, recovering from the battle rush and sighing in exhaustion as he looked upon the carnage he committed. He allowed a few more heavy breaths before calming down fully as he fully took in what he did.
A headless and armless corpse, one with a split open head, and one with a crushed head. Yet more bloodshed, more high ranking officers deaths that will no doubt paint a bigger target on his head… and now Hunter's own.
He sighed, knowing he just dragged another person into his war. Hunter reeked of sin, yes, but he was just a kid. He knew he didn't know better. Living as the Emperor's lackey has no doubt harsh on his psyche and morality. He can't blame him for anything since he was likely brainwashed to do Belos' bidding.
Of course, he also considered the possibility that he did it of his own volition. That was a different story, one he hoped wasn't true.
A sudden grunt broke his concentration. He saw Boris get up with a groan. Narrowing his eyes, he walked up to the demon, outstretching his hand and placing it on his head before he could even figure out what was going on.
Spawn read his mind and played through the most recent events in reverse; He was running with the Golden Guard, then he was being hired by the brigadiers, something about a failing monster catching business, then a house with two legs-
Wait a minute.
Like a VHS tape, he paused on the image of the house with two legs. It was the Owl House! He didn't know Hooty had legs, but what was really important was the frame of one of his hunters attempting to kill three kids: One was chubby and had glasses, the other was the youngest of the trio with a sepia brown skin and the final one was….
"Luz…" He whispered with a barely contained rage.
He exited his memories and grabbed Boris' head with his other hand, lifting him up like he weighed nothing and began to slowly squeeze it…
Boris entered consciousness far too late and began to panic when he realized his situation. He punched the Hellspawn's chest to no avail as the pressure increased with the pain. He felt the air leave his lungs as he scrambled before his one good eye popped out of his socket and onto the floor.
With a final snarl from Spawn and just the right amount of applied pressure, Boris' head popped like a melon, his now headless body falling to the ground like a sack of bloody rice.
The vigilante let his hands down and huffed one more time. He hoped Hunter wasn't awake to see that.
Speaking of Hunter, it seemed he finally got up and was frankly, speechless about everything that had transpired. He looked at the viscera, his face cringing in disgust with each corpse he glanced at. While he has seen his fair share of gruesome imagery (and committed some of it as well) it was never truly a pleasant thing to look at.
He heard a chirping sound and saw that Flapjack was a-ok. A heavy sigh left his lungs as he leaned down to pick him up, "Hey, buddy!" He whispered, "You ok?"
The palisman chirped happily. He smiled knowing he was safe and sound. His ribs still hurt like a son of a bitch, but that didn't matter right now. The danger was over.
He blinked and suddenly saw the Hellspawn in front of him, his hands dripping with blood like an animal that had torn into a fresh kill.
He stood corrected.
"AAAH!" Hunter screamed rather effeminately while jumping back, Flapjack flapping his wings in surprise as the Hellspawn just stood there, watching his movements like an amused spectator at a theater.
"Calm down." Spawn said, shaking the blood off his hands like he just got done washing them, "I ain't gonna hurt you."
"You know, I find that very hard to believe!" Hunter spat, referring to the four corpses that lay around like trash.
"Kid, if I wanted to kill you, I would have done so already." Spawn retorted.
Hunter didn't have much of a response for that. He looked at Flapjack, who just gave him the bird equivalent of shrugging his shoulders. He turned back to Spawn, "Ok… You won't kill me."
"I ain't killing a kid."
Hunter noted this. He wasn't sure why, but he believed him. It was a bit refreshing to know that the Hellspawn had limits, in spite of his brutality. But now, one question was on his mind, "Well, what now?"
"Now?" Al asked, almost sarcastically before he approached him at speeds faster than a blink and put his hand on his head.
"Wh-what are you doing?" Hunter asked, tensely..
"That fight cost me a lot more power than I care to admit," the vigilante responded, "I'm gonna have to recharge and you're the perfect battery."
"Wh-what does that even meAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!?" Hunter dragged out his words as a glowing green aura accompanied by a ghastly sounding wind enveloped him and went upwards into Spawn's hands. The Hellspawn's body took in the energy and flowed with such power that his eyes glowed brightly and streamed a long and flowing mist.
Slowly, the aura dissipated around both of them and Hunter felt like he just took one heck of a trip. Physically, he was fine. But mentally? He felt… cleaner. "Wha-what did you do to me?" he asked before seeing Spawn's hand glow with a fiery necroplasm.
The Hellspawn clenched his fist, extinguishing the flame, "Your sins have been cleansed." He answered, "I have absolved you of them and made them my own, fueling my necroplasm."
"What?" Hunter dully asked, confused at such a statement.
Spawn sighed, "let's just say I made your burdens my burdens, how about that?"
His burdens? Hunter looked to his hands and clenched them a bit before looking back at the Hellspawn. "My sins… Are yours?"
"Yes." Al droned, "the evil of every bad deed from littering to assassination are now mine."
He turned to Hunter, "no kid should ever have this much weighing down his consciousness." He said in a grim and remorseful tone, "consider this a second chance at life, kid. Not many get one."
Hunter strangely didn't feel at peace with this…
"Let's get a move on, kid." Spawn said, flourishing his cape and headed west, "it won't be long before the Emperor's forces get suspicious and send scouting parties."
"What?" Hunter flatly asked, "what are you talking about?"
The undead turned, "You don't seem very popular in the Emperor's Coven. Those three idiots were just itching to kill you already," he explained, "now that they're dead, when they find the bodies and you aren't one of them… well, they're going to send out a little manhunt."
"Manhunt!?"
"Yep. You're a wanted criminal, boy. You best get used to it." Spawn then turned again, walking back to the direction of the Clawthorne Estate, unaware Hunter wasn't following him for a bit before he turned and saw him standing still, "Well, what the hell are you waiting for, kid? Come on!"
"No way." the blonde witch rejected, "you think doing some 'sin cleansing' is gonna get me to go with you? Over my dead body!"
Al sighed, "Would you rather take your chances with the cops?"
"You obviously don't know me." Hunter intoned with a prideful sneer, "Besides, the only way I'd go with your ugly mug is if you kidnapped me and tied me up like a hostage."
Not even two minutes later….
"Let go of me!" Hunter screeched as he rattled in the chain jail he and Flapjack were in, "let go!"
The hellspawn grumbled in response, "Sorry, kid." he muttered as he snapped his fingers, a roll of duct tape was summoned in a green flash, "but I can't have you causing a ruckus the whole way. Besides, if I have to keep listening to your annoying voice, I'm gonna lose it."
"My voice is not annoy-MMPH!"
Just as soon as Hunter blurted out his words, Al covered his mouth with the tape, leaving only his muffled grunts. Al did the same for Flapjack as the palisman struggled in his own tiny chains.
"Alright, kid, let's get out of here." The Hellspawn said, lifting Hunter up and hauling him on his back like a knapsack. Hunter tried to kick and struggle out of his grip, but Spawn wouldn't budge an inch.
Eventually, after at least ten or so minutes, Hunter just gave up on the struggling thing and just let Spawn carry him like a sack of potatoes. If he didn't have duct tape stuck to his mouth, he would have tried to make conversation with the freak, at least, but he couldn't even have that.
Whatever. Just take the kid to the house and get them ready for the shitstorm that was inevitably going to be unleashed. The ruins weren't that far away from the estate and Spawn wasn't going to take chances that the Emperor's forces would let the Clawthornes be bygones.
He cursed himself knowing even more people had been caught in the crossfire. The best he could do now was making sure they all lived.
The sun began to set by the time Spawn and Hunter arrived at the house. The perpetual purple skies slowly taking on a twilight setting
Spawn took a deep breath and raised a foot, "Sorry about the door," he apologized in advance before kicking it, nearly knocking it off its hinges and shocking everyone inside.
He saw some familiar faces in the form of the Owl House members, Eda, Luz, King, and that thing known as Hooty, as well as Lillith and Gwendolyn. But he also saw some new ones: One was a girl as pale as Lilith herself with magenta dyed hair. Upon closer examination, she was holding hands with Luz. Another were the two witches he saw in Boris' memories. Finally, there was the old man with a scarred face and mighty beard as gray as a raincloud. Based on his talks with Eda, that was no doubt her father.
As everyone backed away, he decided to be straightforward. He tossed Hunter and Flapjack's tied up bodies to them, a few exclaiming shock at his appearance, no doubt they had past encounters with him, and he took a step forward to address the issue at hand to the crowd.
He cut the bullshit, "All of you need to leave. It's not safe here anymore."
The silence and tension filled the room as quickly as water from a flash flood. None dared take their eyes off the Hellspawn. It wasn't until Eda stepped forward and said something.
"Did you have to break the damn door!?"
The Crypt
Draven watched the projections in the mist showing everything that had transpired near the Clawthorne estate. Including the Hellspawn's possession of Orin Clawthorne's diary
He growled, clenching a fist so hard, he would have popped his joints if he still had any in his decaying body.
The noise from the cauldron interrupted his viewing. With a snarl, he rose from his throne and rushed to it, the fog emanating from it revealing Griffin, "What is it!?" the lich yelled, gripping the lip of the pot with such force that he's surprised he didn't bend the metal.
"I'm here to inform you that all family heads have been safely relocated to the safehouse." Griffin responded, slightly amused by Draven's anger, "Despite this change of scenery, all of our operations should continue normally."
"Good…." the necromancer hissed, "the last thing we need is yet another derailment to our plans."
"Indeed. I take it you won't make it to the safehouse?"
"I will be there of my own volition," the lich responded, "I still have a few arrangements to make before I make my leave. How is progress on your end?"
"As smooth as butter," the scientist smirked, "Truth be told, I would stay along and chat, but I can see I've caught you at a bad time. I won't delay you any further. Good day."
Draven growled as the mist dissipated into nothing. He would take a deep breath to calm down, but his lungs rotted out a long time ago.
With another snarl, he headed to his bookshelf, placing a finger on the decaying shelf, observing the aged spines of each book, the letters having long worn out to near incomprehensible smears of ink. But he found what he was looking for.
He opened the book, flipping the pages and not caring about the fragile state they were in until he reached one section of the book that was hollowed out and held a small mirror-like item with the emblem of a crescent moon.
He grabbed the mirror and traced a decayed finger on the emblem, allowing it to glow for a moment before a shadow on the wall appeared. It was a simplistic face with a notable golden moon shape on it like a tattoo. Its eyes moved downwards to see its summoner.
"Oh… it's you." It said, rather bored as the rest of the body forming beneath the head, showing off its robes and staff, a crescent shape tipping said staff, "Hello, Draven."
"Hello, Collector."
Kikimora and Flora, along with many Coven scouts observed the viscera and gore that dotted the old house ruins. Already, flies were swarming the corpses and feasting on the bloody giblets.
"Disgusting." Flora commented, narrowly stepping on the remains of Boris' head, "and you think the Golden Guard had a hand in this?"
"I don't think, I know ." Kikimora responded, observing a notable green stain on the dirt.
Flora rolled her eyes before she adjusted her glasses, "Do we have any leads on where they might have gone?"
"Beyond the blood, no." the imp said, sadly, "and I have no interest in using worm hounds like what the hunter did, considering they are nowhere to be seen, ergo they were useless.."
Flora was about to scoff, but Kikimora kept speaking, "Buuuuut, we do see that there's more of the Hellspawn's blood staining the area than most of the other massacre sights. That is good."
"Why?"
"You're a beast tamer, Flora," the imp teased, "you don't know the universal rule for all animals?"
Flora placed a hand on her hip, "Enlighten me." She sarcastically droned.
"If it bleeds, we can kill it…"