The Angel and The Butcher: Part 1

“Where… where the hells am I!?” the man said with an exaggerated tone of confusion. “I could’ve sworn I was still with… wait,” he replied to himself as he advanced closer to what appeared to be an empty ghost town; he would notice an increase of trees around him the closer he got, paired with snow below his feet that got denser and more compact. “This place… it’s familiar,” he thought to himself as he got closer and closer to what was seemingly unreachable. And when he finally got to the ghost town, he looked back and saw… nothing; nothing but forest and falling snow, turning back around… only to see that the town was gone, as if it was never there to begin with; being left in an endless forest of trees and snow with someone calling… “My name?” he said to himself as the voice got louder and less distant. But who was calling his name? He thought as he tried approaching wherever that voice was coming from. As he approached the voice, the environment became more dull and red pastes would be hung on trees and be consumed by the mushy red snow around it… and the closer he got, the worse everything would become.

Eventually, he got close to what appeared to be a shadowy figure being concealed by the sudden blizzard; hiding any facial identity that could have been made out other than a purple and red eye that pierced through his very mind… saying his name over, and over and over again. He would yell at the top of his voice “WHO ARE YO-” only to get cut off by his face being grabbed and pulled down by what were disembodied hands that had seemingly been torn off by the wrist, creating a sort of chain made up of broken spines and torn muscle. Leaving him unable to move, speak or even turn his head as he was being smothered by the limbs. “William,” a hollow and dreadful voice spoke; “William…” it said again but with a more seductive and heart pausing tone. “William,” it said once again… oh could this end for him? And as soon as he thought that… “Zenith!” said an enthusiastic voice from behind, “Zenith, stop daydreaming!” said the voice again, but this time it would be made out to be a distinguishable female voice; “come on, you’ve been like that for 20 minutes now,” the female voice would reply to her previous comment.

“What do you want now, Lilith?” Zenith would reply in an annoyed tone as the tall and monochromatic woman would stand up to him with a stern expression, “so it really does take anyone being over-the-top to get your attention, huh?” Lilith said in a tone matching Zenith’s, “can you at least stand up for the love of the lords,” she objected to Zenith. Zenith, who had originally been sitting down with his arms crossed, finally stood up after his daydream; towering over Lilith and placing his arms behind his back, only looking his eyes down at her with his cold and lifeless expression. Lilith would look up at Zenith, reaching her arms out and grabbing him by the face; following up with “is someone grumpy again?” giving Zenith a slightly seductive look, only to be responded with “let go of my face now,” as he didn’t even budge from his original position. Lilith would free Zenith from her grasp and watch as he walked away, sighing with displeasure.

“Y’er no fun, Zenith. And I stuck around thinking you’d entertain me more than my husband,” Lilith would say the second part of her statement under her breath, which Zenith had ignored as he looked down at the cliffside. “It appears it’s down here, so I’ll just make this quick… don’t get into trouble, or I’ll make that trouble the least of your worries,” Zenith would command as he watched Lilith stay put with even more displeasure than before… even though Zenith would stand beside Lilith still, but now holding a luminous cube in his hand with several other versions of him appearing where he had originally been. “Now we can leave,” said Zenith before a dark arm protruding from Zenith’s back would carry the cube.

Lilith would get ready to leave with Zenith until she saw some skeletal figure with severe damage inflicted upon it slowly approaching the duo. Abruptly, Zenith would grab Lilith by the arm and teleport them into a quantum world created by Zenith himself that appeared to exist above and unbound from The Outside itself, isolating the two in a place to keep them hidden until Zenith’s further notice. “I’ve always wondered how large this place was,” Lilith said, getting an almost immediate response “it doesn’t matter if distance is merely irrelevant,” Zenith would reply sternly as he looked at the extra-dimensional cubic object from earlier. “I wonder why the king wanted this so bad… welp, it’s ours no-” Lilith would have gotten cut off by the sound of the world being torn open and revealing that same skeleton from earlier.

Lilith would punch Zenith on the arm to get his attention and point out the stranger. As Zenith turned over, a flash of memories would flood his mind as he realized who he was looking at… he wasn’t sure if it was truly him as it had been eons since they last interacted, but he was very similar to the one person who made him the man he had become. “Zenith… are you alive?” Lilith would ask while Zenith and the other skeleton stared directly at each other; as Zenith continued to stare blankly at the stranger, a sudden memory struck him… the same one reminding him of the day he lost his humanity. The moment that struck, Zenith was filled with unrelenting anger and disgust at the sight of the person; feeling nothing other than that same hatred he felt oh-so long ago.

The stranger couldn’t help but maniacally laugh at Zenith’s reaction towards him, having nothing to say other than finding him amusing; nobody being able to hear anything other than his laughter. Abruptly did the laughter end as Zenith punched the skeleton directly below the jaw, sending him across the entirety of his personal domain; Zenith was no longer having it with this person. While the two never knew each other's names, it was as if they were drawn to each other in some way.

Zenith would catch up to the stranger before even an instant, delivering an axe-kick to the head while he was still on the ground; the stranger then appearing to pass out immediately from those two blows to the head. Zenith would then transport himself back to Lilith with an enraged look on his face. “So, what was that all about?” Lilith asked, getting no response from Zenith who just stood there… as if he was waiting for something.

As Lilith tried to relax Zenith, Zenith would erect a large arm from his back once again and had blocked a purple explosion that appeared from seemingly nowhere before getting hit in the side of the face by a cleaver being wielded by the stranger; that same cleaver seeming to smile back at Zenith with a demonic face the same way that the stranger had appeared to enjoy the rush of adrenaline. “You should’ve stayed down,” Zenith said in a highly angered tone before grabbing the cleaver and tossing the stranger like a ragdoll to keep a distance before preparing to tussle with the person again. Lilith in the back seeming to enjoy Zenith’s blind anger, shouting at him and encouraging him. “Kick his ass for me, will ya’!” only for Zenith to snap his fingers and restrain Lilith to keep her quiet so he could focus.

“Here’s the funny part, I don’t even know who you are! But for the laughs, my name is Infected; the Harbinging Blight… and I’ll make you scream that name as I RELISH in your blood and ashes,” Infected would say with minor sadism, only to get his legs kicked backwards and disfigured by Zenith; who would follow up with with an elbow to the face and a punch to the back of the neck being empowered by the Mainframe itself, completely erasing a portion of Infected’s body as if his hand was an eraser being dragged across a drawing; pulling Infected’s torso with chains that had abruptly appeared around him. Allowing Zenith to freely toss Infected around while creating invisible walls to time his swings better… though, Zenith would begin to notice that Infected had completely regenerated his wounds, including the part of his head that was erased completely.

Infected would finally break free from the chains and look back at Zenith whilst grasping the hole in his head, “oh this is going be FUN!” Infected would shout, creating a massive shockwave that would flake bits and pieces of Zenith’s body into the void; stunning him and stabbing Zenith in the chest completely bypassing his armor and defenses before breaking off the blades of his cleavers and creating purple chains to connect the blade and handle of his cleaver so he could toss Zenith into the ground and explode the blades themselves by turning them purple, even the explosions themselves seemed to shriek in agony. As Infected prepared to explode Zenith again, Zenith’s Arms of Belial would grab the chains and rip them out of the heavily damaged Zenith who just about instantly regenerated his wounds… to each other, they were damn near unstoppable forces… but this wouldn’t stop them in the slightest.

Zenith would rush at Infected who gladly took the damage that Zenith would deliver, as Zenith’s hand passed through Infected and erased over half of his body; but Infected would grab Zenith while he was still going through him and self-destructed his arms using dozens of wisps, vaporizing a portion of both of them as they continued to clash. “I HAVEN’T HAD THIS MUCH FUN IN AGES EVER SINCE THAT DAMN KING CAME TO POWER!” Infected would shout in a state of mania, each blow they delivered shook the quantum world and crumbled the very fabrics of it, each time they collided would reveal a small portion of who they were.

Zenith would appear to have transparent angelic wings floating behind him as his energy got punched out of him; while every time Infected’s energy got punched out of him, it curved into a black and purple flame that surrounded his face and cleavers for a brief moment. As if they were destined to be… the Angel… and the Butcher.