Zidane came sprinting through the gate to the Square in Alexandria, Steiner somewhere behind him, huffing breathlessly in exhaustion, his armour weighing him down. Zidane noticed the splashes of blood that covered the cobbles of the square and froze for a moment waiting for some kind of attack. He wondered whose blood this was but there was nothing to give him a clue, no corpse or shred of clothes remained only the blood. He glanced up at the castle in the near distance and then briefly back at Steiner who still had to catch up, but Zidane had already wasted enough time waiting for him, as he had started retching at the corpse field back at the carnage of Hilda Garde and now all Zidane cared about was getting to Dagger before the murderous monster did.

It had curled up on the stage of the mini theatre after it had devoured Vivi, returning to its natural form of darkness as its body felt full and satisfied from the huge meal of Mist. Its eyes closed as it drifted into sleep, lulled by the feeling of contentment from a full belly. In its sleep it dreamt, flashes of the memories of those that it had devoured flickering inside its mind, faces of those that it would hunt next appearing briefly and then fading away as the small scenes quickly played away. Then came the four wooden walls that had once constrained it, its world before it had truly awoken into light. Its mind panicked momentarily, thinking it had been returned to its pitiful origins, encased in the chest it was destined to carry like a hermit crab and its shell. But it knew it had cast off its hindrance of a shell, was now free to enjoy the pleasures the wider world offered it in the form of its new prey. It no longer had to wait for those foolish enough to be tricked by its appearance to approach but now had the mind to create so many different ways in which to snare its prey. It never wanted to go back to those dark days, it had tasted so much that it could never let itself be restrained in that state of ignorance. It pushed at the walls, claws digging at the wood until it creaked and splintered, small shafts of light piercing the darkness as each blow brought it closer to freedom. As the chest crumbled around it a sound of clanking metal could be heard, growing louder as it approached it and light poured into its world once more.

Its eyes opened in the gloom of the mini theatre and the clanking sound could still be heard, louder still. It blinked groggily as the dream faded from its mind and the sound triggered a flash of memory, of a person it had been hoping to meet soon enough. The energy of the Mist it had devoured from Vivi and his sons now made it shiver with exhilaration just like the coffee it had drank back on the airship, it really had no need to feed again so soon, but to let this one get away from it now would be too much of a waste and so with a twisted grin it made its way up the stairs and traced the sound that to it was a ringing siren.

Steiner watched Zidane disappear through the streets of Alexandria, leaving him far behind and alone as the town seemed eerily empty. His face was starting to redden again from exertion, having paled a few moments before when his stomach had lurched at the sight of the fresh blood that splashed the square, his heart fluttering as he wondered whether Beatrix was safe from whatever wretched thing was causing such carnage. A voice caused him to skitter to a halt, his armour jangling as his body suddenly jolted to a stop and the metal of his shoes rasped against the cobbles.

'Steiner…' the voice said weakly as a figure slumped round the corner of an alley, their clothes torn and bloodied, claw marks rending their flesh as an eyeball hung loosely from its socket, dangling by the thread that was the optic nerve, whilst the other pearly white orb looked out blankly.

'Beatrix?' Steiner almost stammered as his body jolted in revulsion and shock, his armour betraying his automatic reaction to the sight of her.

'Where are you?' Beatrix reached out with her hand, waving it in front of her as she took a faltering step forward in the direction of his voice.

'What happened to you?' Steiner replied frozen to the spot.

'Will you not come help me?' Beatrix said with a twisted smirk, countering his question with her own. 'Do I disgust you?' she taunted her hand now gently gripping her damaged eye and raising it up so it could stare coldly at him.

'Is this all your love amounts to? I stand before you close to death and you spurn me because my wounds disgust you?' she continued with a hollow laugh, tearing the eyeball from the nerve now and throwing it at him so that splashed on his armour near his neck.

Steiner flinched in horror and grimaced in disgust as the vitreous fluid trickled down his chest, his mouth flapping open and shut as he failed to find words to answer her.

'What kind of knight are you? Indecision always holds you back and yet you always blame it on others. You couldn't even save me!' Beatrix snapped bitterly, stepping towards him more solidly now, her legs no longer trembling beneath her but held steady. Her lifeless eye seemed to bore deep into him as her hand came up, the arm trailing an arc of numerous ribbons of flesh as she struck him, blood trickling down his cheek as four cuts opened up.

The pain stung him into action as he reached for his sword. 'Who are you really? Beatrix would never act this way!' he demanded, tasting the blood as it trickled into the corner of his mouth.

'So slow you stupid stuffy captain!' Beatrix cackled and her form faded, a clawed hand of darkness lashed out, scraping against the chain mail of Steiner's upper arm but still a spray of blood erupted from underneath.

'I am all you fear, all you love, all you hate. I am everyone and no one. I am oblivion' it told him as it now stood before him in all its true glory, a nebulous humanoid form of pitch blackness that seemed solid and glared at him with eyes that somehow impossibly gleamed with an even darker blackness.

Steiner grimaced as the blood flowed down his arm, the pain making it hard to use it to hold his sword up to this strange enemy. 'So you were the one who caused the massacre! Where is Beatrix?' he growled.

It smiled at him, a row of glistening white teeth suddenly appearing from the dark folds of its lips. 'She is here and here' it told him patting its stomach and tapping its temple.

'You monster!' Steiner roared and lunged at it with sword raised, his body flashing with the activation of Trance in mid air.

It sidestepped his heavy handed strike, his sword slamming into the ground causing the cobbles to crack and shatter, his blade visibly vibrating from the force of the blow.

'Still too slow, you rusty old man. Your woman was much better than you. How could a General like her ever feel anything but pity and contempt for a Captain as useless as you?' It taunted him from behind, a clawed hand again raking his flesh, this time that of his other arm.

Steiner hissed in pain as he spun round in retaliation, rising from a crouch and pulling his blade from the cobbles with a spray of grit, but the shadow had already moved again, only the flicker of movement from the corner of his eye to save him as he raised his sword to parry another strike to his side.

'Better… but can you keep it up?' it hissed at him as its other hand lashed out and tore a piece of his chest plate away, exposing the flimsier chain mail beneath.

Steiner leapt back slightly more nimble now as he was wearing less armour weighing him down, however the drawback was he was more vulnerable to attack. If this thing truly had defeated Beatrix he had little hope of repelling it for too long.

Another blow and the ringing sound of armour clanging to the floor as it tore the piece around his waist was enough to cause him to shake the voice of doubt from his mind. He couldn't just give too easily what would Beatrix think of him if he just laid down and died rather than stood and fought. He had saved this world from destruction, this fiend was nothing compared to that.

'But you were not alone then' the figure said softly as it stopped before him, no longer a dark blur in the periphery of his vision, one of its long clawed hands cupping its chin as it grinned malevolently at him.

Steiner used the moment to strike swinging his sword at its neck going straight for the kill, only to find his arm shudder at the force of his sword slamming into its waiting palm, its long fingers gripping around the blade tightly, bright crimson blood oozing from between the digits as Steiner struggled to tug it free.

'What good is strength if you haven't the speed to use it effectively?' it asked him, pushing the sword down and Steiner's arms along with it.

'But then what worth is speed if you haven't a strong enough will to use force with it? That was your friend Freya's downfall' it added releasing the blade and throwing Steiner back, spraying him with a sprinkle of its own blood.

Steiner landed on his back, eyes wide in shock, quickly rising up to defend himself but it still stood where it had thrown him from, watching him intently.

'You won't be the first to fall and you won't be the last, my dear rusty knight. Freya, Quina, Tantalus, Blank, Beatrix and Vivi have all so far succumbed to me, and the rest will all most undoubtedly follow. The question is how will you die?' I told him grinning slowly.

Steiner didn't waste any breath replying to the demon's rhetoric feeling that his Trance state was beginning to fade now he would soon lack enough strength to even try to compensate for his lack of speed. He had to do something to wound this monster if not slay it so he could send warning to the Queen and the others. He had to make a decision now, choose something for himself rather than wait for orders.

There was a clatter of metal as fragments flew at it, slicing and piercing its flesh as a now unencumbered Steiner stormed at it behind the shower of his remaining armour, his body clad only in chain mail and leather, the burden of weight now removed in this last ditch attempt to use every ounce of strength and speed he had remaining, driving his blade deep into its gut and out the other side before twisting and drawing it back out.

It hissed in pain, its blood splashing the dirt on the ground, mixing with it. It reached out for Steiner again but pain made it slower and he was able to parry its strike with ease. He had wounded it and should flee but the elation that he had been able to do so and the lust for vengeance of Beatrix's death drove him to strike again, pushing it back so it stumbled upon a curved piece of armour, his blade slicing its chest before it rolled away.

It rose clutching its bleeding wounds, its lips twisted into an agonised and enraged grimace. Steiner came at it again, his own lips a snarl of defiance, his bloodied blade making a crimson arc through the air at its neck once more, yet it ducked the blow this time, coming up under his arm as his body turned with the momentum of the swing, its clawed hand plunging deep into armpit before it ripped his arm from the socket, Steiner's blood gushing to join that of the fiend's, the ground now a canvas for the inkblot painting of scarlet.

His remaining arm flailed weakly as it tried to swing the heavy sword, the pain driving away all other emotions now and his head began to spin from the lack of blood.

'Nice attempt but still not good enough, at least you proved yourself worthy of your woman' it hissed in his ear before it tore it off with its teeth spitting it back down upon him as it pushed him to the ground so that he looked up at it splayed on his back.

It yanked his sword from his feeble grasp, his eyes blinking slowly as he felt himself slowly drifting away. A sharp burst of pain caused his mind to come back to focus once more as it plunged his own sword into his leg and twisted it viciously.

'Did I give you an order to leave yet?' it hissed, pulling the sword out and swung the point of the blade slowly over his face like a pendulum.

Steiner's gaze was drawn to the blade so he was unable to see that the wounds he had inflicted upon it were already starting to heal courtesy of the mist energy it had consumed from the Vivis.

It was strange what thoughts fizzled in his head as the end was all too clearly here. His arm was no longer attached to his body but he could still vividly feel it, the sensation of his fingers as they flexed and curled. This thought was destroyed as more pain flared within him, the blade slamming into the palm of his good hand and ground into the dirt as it had been the one he had felt moving, trying to make another attempt at an attack even as his life was fading.

A slap to his face and his eyes opened to the dim light above only to be met with opaque darkness. 'Still with us then?' it asked sarcastically, it now straddling his chest, holding his body down.

'It would really be a shame if you were unable to witness your own demise, to rejoice in the comfort of death and your assimilation into me with the rest of your friends' it told him.

'Raving lunatic!' Steiner muttered in reply, a mist of blood issuing from his lips with each syllable.

'Lunacy? I am merely doing what I was born to do, what I was chosen for. This is my purpose of being, there is nothing saner than that!' it retorted leaning down so its eyes filled the whole of Steiner's view.

It dug its claws into Steiner's shoulder watching with amusement as the eyelids slammed open and his pupils dilated. Steiner grit his teeth in pain yet he could feel the rest of himself go numb, all that remained was the warmth in his shoulder and the fuzziness that now begun to crowd his mind, each of his thoughts become fragmented, every train derailed. It was only each burst of pain as it twisted its claws deeper into his flesh that cleared the clouds away for a brief moment allowing him to see the sick enjoyment it was feeling in those obsidian orbs that were its eyes.

With each moment that their gazes met Steiner could feel it digging deeper into him, not just with its claws but with its mind as if it were probing his soul, searching for all his deepest darkest secrets. He tried to force it out, the cold chill that was invading his thoughts, tendrils of darkness wrapping around his memories as they tried to tear them apart.

'Why do you cling so desperately to your memories? Soon they will all be mine yet still you want to hide something from me before you go' it whispered softly, its voice hissing in his ear.

Another flash of pain, this time in his side, his eyes trying to shut tightly but forced open once more and the tendrils slunk deeper within, touching each of his memories before casting them away unsatisfied. Then there was a flash of light within his head as a tendril tapped a memory that lurked in a secluded corner of his mind, it then wrapped around it tightly before it pierced it and forced its way inside. He could hear a sigh of contentment and it hissed 'Yessss' before the tendrils suddenly tore themselves from out his mind, the darkness that filled his sight blurring as a view much more frightening came into focus before his eyes.

It was the visage of someone that couldn't possibly be real, a face similar to his own but more defined, more youthful unblemished by the ravages of time. Yet as he continued to gape at it he watched its pallor change to grey, fissures appearing in the flesh that erupted into gaping vents of green rotting flesh, the eyes clouding over from a pale blue to a milky white.

'It's been a long time my brother, I guess you didn't expect to see me after all this time, not after you left me to die on that battlefield' it said, its lips twisted into a malicious leer exposing yellowed stumps of teeth.

'That's not true!' Steiner stammered.

'Liar! You fled after the first volley, leaving me eviscerated by cannon shot, leaving me to die in fear and panic as the enemy marched closer whilst you and the rest of the battalion ran back in cowardice through the smoke and cries of the wounded. No wonder you could only make it to Captain of a rag tag guard. I'm surprised you made it that far!' it said scathingly, skeletal hands clamping the sides of his face, rotting scraps of skin rasping against his cheeks and bony points of fingertips digging into his temples.

'We were young! It was our first every battle!' Steiner said almost whimpering.

'So? I stood my ground and I paid for it. I thought you would at least have my back, attempt to carry me back to our camp but no you left me to be ravished by the enemy. My body stripped of anything of worth and prodded again and again for the amusement of the enemy troops by their swords as I lay there in agony, slowly dying. My soul could never rest and its been waiting oh so long for this moment when it would meet you again' it raged, putrid spittle issuing form the corners of its mouth with the hatred of its words.

'Delsus, forgive me!' Steiner said softly, his eyes pleading.

'Do you feel you deserve forgiveness? Do you think that because you fought to save the world; that you didn't just give in this time that you would be redeemed in my eyes? It makes no difference you should have behaved that way when I was the one who needed you, your own flesh and blood!' he growled, digging his fingers into Steiner's temples now so that his bones ground against that of Steiner's skull.

Steiner winced in pain, his will to go on slowly leaving him as his brother continued to wound and insult him, reminding him of the hurtful past that he had tried so long to cast away, dashing his hopes of his ever making peace with his part in his brother's death. 'Go ahead then, kill me if that would make you feel better!' he said in one final gesture of defiance.

'Oh I'll kill you dear brother but I'll be seeing you in the deepest pits of Memoria where you will be plagued by me for eternity!' Delsus hissed and with that he drove his fingers through Steiner's temples, the bony tips piercing and shredding his brain as the clouds descended upon his mind once more only this time they were like the black roiling clouds of a gathering storm and they quickly enveloped every single one of his thoughts and emotions, before devouring them and for Steiner there was nothing more.

The masquerade of Delsus peered down at the lifeless eyes of Steiner now, its spine tingling from all the emotions it had drawn from him before it had taken his life. It had been amazed at the strength of feeling it had managed to dredge up in those final moments with a single carefully selected memory, a strength that surpassed that felt during actual combat. It guessed it had lied to Steiner, in those final moments of torture he had at least been on par with that of Beatrix. Now all it had to do was devour his body to boost its energy supplies before it went on finally to the castle that towered above them where the rest of its prey surely awaited.