With everything finally in place, Seth took a deep breath to calm his nerves before turning his mind inwards. His mind plunged deep within itself, eventually turning black except for a single light shining in the distance, like a lone star in the depths of space.

Like an intrepid explorer, Seth navigated himself towards that light and once again found himself floating in an endless abyss, staring at the fragmented planet that represented his shattered soul.

Arriving in this place was much easier than the last few times, undoubtedly down to experience, as would be what comes next. A particular fragment of his soul was calling to him, so he answered the call.

He commanded the ethereal threads filling the Abyss to ensnare the fragment and slowly pull it over to him, all the while maintaining its connection to the central soul mass.

As Seth dragged it over, he began to concentrate on feeding it his intent, pushing his will into the fragment in order to forge it into the ideal form what he was wanting to create. He had his crafters and Bob generally acted as his right hand man, attending to any issues that needed him rather than fitting a particular purpose.

His people saw him as a god or a Lord. They looked to him to lead, and were surrounded by his puppets that they believed would protect them and keep them safe. They were an army that were controlled by his [Spirit Animal] and which he alone commanded.

But his time in the pocket dimension, the space between worlds where he had spent months with Astra only for seconds to pass here, had left him with a valuable lesson to be learned.

His crafter twins had already demonstrated they had the capacity to control lesser puppets. So if he was a king with an army, then that army needed a general. He needed a warrior. A knight of his own.

Intent flowed from Seth, pouring into the fragment as it pulled itself from his Abyss and entered the real world.

The dragons eyes widened in astonishment as, before her very eyes, a flickering azure flame floated out of Seth's chest and hovered above his outstretched hand. It was barely more than a candlelight, flickering so small that it seemed like it was ready to go out at the smallest breeze.

But the next second, a pulse of unseen energy emanated from Seth. The flame flickered again, pulsing with light for a brief second, before ever so slightly growing in size. It pulsed again and again, like the rhythm of a heart beat, as every pulse fanned the flames. Every pulse caused it to grow in size as it took on a new identity.

With his mind still focused on feeding intent, Seth's body moved unconsciously. He brought his hands together, a soul in each hand. One a visible flame, the other an invisible and impossibly intricate weave of threads curled together to form a sphere.

The burgeoning soul flame eagerly lapped at the threads of the sphere, and with each pulsation of intent it grew in double the size than previously. With each increase in size, and as Seth gently brought his hands together, the flame devoured and absorbed more of the Dwarven remnants.

The dragon was enthralled by the sight, watching the azure flame grow until it was close to a basketball sized ball of ethereal flames. She was so focused on the flame, she didn't notice the twitch in Seth's hands. An action so small and inconsequential, she would not be blamed for not noticing, especially in the presence of something more interesting.

But whilst she didn't notice, Julius did.

His eyes narrowed at Seth's hands as they twitched, only small movements as his fingers curled spasmed like he was being gently shocked every few seconds. He quickly looked towards Seth's face, which was twisted in a grim expression as beads of sweat trickled down his forehead.

He double checked that the sigil was still working, but when he reviewed his work he could only see everything working as intended. The lesser souls were being converted into energy and fed into Seth, acting as a sustenance to allow his body to adjust to having less of a soul.

Of course, he would never be able to understand that it wasn't an issue with his Sigil, nor even an issue with Seth's soul. Instead, it was an issue occurring within the depths of his mind.

What had started as mental images of great warriors and leaders both fictional and not, of valiant knights charging forth at the head an army, quickly took a turn when the flame first touched the Dwarven remnants.

The moment a single tongue of flame licked those threads, a deep and guttural laugh echoed within his mind, a laugh that sent his mind reeling back into memories of the inspiration of this Animas.

The image of a colossal figure appeared in his mind, cleaving through the air with an equally colossal axe. An axe that was cleaving towards Seth's own head, with the image dissolving into nothingness before the blade could take his head.

The colours swirled Infront of him, forming a new image. A figure, his back to Seth, stood atop a pile of corpses. Some fresh, twisted expressions of fear and anguish painting their faces, while others had rotted away until only viscera covered bones remained. Fresh blood dripped from the figures hands, who was breathing heavily as he overlooked the valley of carnage that they had caused.

Within the corpse pile, there were many faces he recognised. Erik, the blue skinned knight, Alfie, Ophelia, Fox. And there at the top of the pile, her face twisted into an expression of horrified terror, was Astra. Her eyes wide open, her last thoughts imprinted on their endless gaze. Eyes that overflowed with a sense of betrayal and despair, as her chest cavity had been torn open and her heart ripped out.

The sound of a skull cracking beneath a foot caused the figure to turn, a rageful expression on his face that quickly turned into a large, sharp toothed and sadistic smile.

"I missed one? Ohahahahaha, how could I miss one? This is good. This is goodgoodgoodgood. I was getting hungry. So very very very hungry~ I wonder how you will taste."

The figure let out a manic laugh before licking the fresh blood from his hands. He hunched forward, his unkempt hair fell into his face and slightly obscured his eyes, which were sparkling with sadistic glee.

Eyes that were silver, like liquid metal poured into a mold.

Seth looked on in horror as his own face was twisted with sadistic glee, hunched atop a pile of corpses of those closest to him. He stumbled back, tripping over the lifeless statue that remained of Alexandra, and fell into a pile of skulls that began to swallow him like quick sand.

Skeletal hands rose from the pile, latching onto his body as they began to drag him deeper and deeper. Blood poured into his mouth, flooding into his lungs as he coughed and spluttered. His view of the sky gradually being blotted out by crimson skulls as he was dragged deeper and deeper into the depths of death.

All he could see was his own eyes, filled with murderous madness, staring down at him. It was those eyes that was the last thing he saw, before everything went black.

***

Astra smiled softly, settling down into a stool as Titus began to work. It was fascinating him work, the way the obsidian flames within the forge rose and fell, the way their temperature was controlled so preciously so that the metal was always heated to the perfect point all the way through, no matter its composition.

His swings, which took the same movement, could be soft as a feather one moment and yet could crash like the hammer of Thor the next. All without ever breaking his rhythm or making a mistake. The rhythmic ringing of the metal was like music on its own, and could be considered a work of art on its own, never mind the fact that with each swing her desired project was slowly taking form.

Yet as she was content to watch and listen to the melody, a wave of power rushed over her, causing the hairs on the back of her next to stand on end. She glanced over her shoulder, looking towards the room Seth had disappeared into with curiosity.

She would have brushed it off as nothing, but then another wave crashed into her, followed by another and then one more. Like waves of the ocean, they collided with her repeatedly.

Her senses, which were more attuned to energy of all kinds thanks to her elemental stats, started to ring with alarm. With hastened steps, she strode over to the room and unceremoniously charged through the door.

She quickly took in the odd sight and between the strange sigil on the ground, the floating set of armour or the ball of blue flames within Seth's hands, she didn't know what to think or what to be more concerned about.

The dragon, who was standing to the side and watching like it was the most enthralling soap opera, raised her hand to halt Astra in her path. However, before she could ask the lizard what was going on, another wave of energy slammed into her.

But while those previously had been like oceanic waves, this one was more like a tsunami, physically throwing her back and slamming her into the door she had entered through.

Astra quickly regained her footing, having to struggle to push herself forwards against the unending torrent of energy overflowing from Seth as he began to lift off of the ground. His body was spasming and twitching, his face twisted in pain as a strained cry, a mixture of anger and agony, forced its way out of Seth's throat.