Her quiet words reached me even as I knelt at her feet.

"Welcome home, Count."

Her soft tone tinged with relief threatened to make my undead heart beat inside my armor. Yes, this was a welcome that I could get used to. I lifted my face to look up at her and reply with an equally simple expression. "I am home, Countess."

I stood up to my full height, surrounded by the impaled corpses of her enemies. I had only barely arrived and they had not wronged me; if I had annihilated them and raised their bodies up in stakes it was not out of any personal animosity, but because it was her desire. I would kill again and again just to please her, or cease altogether for the same reason.

She did not flinch, neither at the intimidating figure that loomed over her nor at the grotesque backdrop to our encounter. Her lips still held the trace of a smile and her gaze was sharp, like ice piercing into my own.

"So, my Master," I stared at her through the dark tendrils of my hair that coiled around me in a manner that could not be natural. Flaming speckles danced around both of us like fireflies flying up from hell to greet us. Fitting, really. "It seems to be over." I gestured around us with my hand, ignoring the growling and clashing of weapons of the men that tried to get to us through the barrier of souls I had summoned. "Win or lose, the world as you know it is ending." She just waited for me to finish with a raised eyebrow. There was no malice in my voice, only curiosity. "This is the end of times, Integra. What will you do once the foundations of your world have crumbled?"

She took some time to give me an answer. I could not see doubt on her features,only determination and her own amusement at my question. Was it forbidden for someone like me to hope that she may carve a space for me in this imminent new world of hers?

"There is no end until I deem it so." She turned her back on me, platinum strands flying every which way with her movement. "We will talk when we have finished this."

I chuckled at the commanding tone in her voice, more out of bewilderment than out of mockery. Oh, yes, that conviction; she would be able to open the gates of heaven if she so wished. Perhaps this was my Kingdom Come.

"Yes, my Master. However long it may take us."

She turned her face back to me only enough to look at my expression from the corner of her eye. Then she, again in one day, graced me with the faintest of smiles. "However long."

She kept walking and I followed, forever her faithful servant, carrying behind me countless souls as our retinue.