Upon getting home, Richard took another quick shower then walked down into the basement.
Usually, he didn't have any need for this space, but seeing as he was about to do something rather messy, he would rather not get the carpets and rugs upstairs dirty.
Cleaning them would be a pain afterwards.
Although the warm feeling was nice, the coldness of the mansion had been quick to pull him back into his bleak and lightless reality.
He chuckled as he slowly walked down the stairs.
"It the end, it all comes full circle, doesn't it..."
He sighed and flung the doors open.
It was dark.
He chanted quickly.
The electric lamps on the walls flickered to life.
He glanced down. Lying in a rather large cage were five humans.
The moment the lights turned on, they groaned as they stirred awake.
"What the hell? Where are we?!"
"This is..."
The largest of the five, the leader glanced around, quickly spotting Richard.
His expression fell and his eyes became dark,
"Oi, punk. You think this is a joke? I'll fucking slit your throat!" He barked as he lunged forward.
Richard remained still, a small smile on his face,
"Will you all please calm down? We don't want the neighbors calling the cops, now do we?"
The large gang leader shot to his feet, his teeth bared,
"Do you have e any idea who you are messing with?"
Richard's grin took of a strange, eerie edge,
"A bunch of nameless thugs, I presume. Who'd have thought I'd have such an encounter. How lucky of me."
The rest of the thugs let smashinther feet and bodies into the iron bars of the cage agitatedly as they hurled curses and threats at him.
However, Richard didn't seem fazed at all.
Instead, he kept staring at them.
Smiling with that same eerie gaze.
The gang leader suddenly shivered.
His memory suddenly became clearer.
He remembered confronting the punk in front of him. He had only intended to mess with the ladies a bit, but before he knew what had happened, he had suddenly fallen unconscious.
And when he woke up, he had appeared in here.
"Demons are strange things..." Richard began.
His tone was low and shifting, making it hard to tell if it was coming from him or not I. The dim lighting.
It made the situation even more fmeerie and frightening.
Slowly, the thugs began to fall silent.
"B-boss... What does this guy want with us?!" One of the thugs whispered, his voice trembling with fear.
"With thousands of years of in information gathered, sorcerers have created many a hypothesis for the existence of various abyssal creatures, the most common being for the Devils and Demons."
'What the hell is he talking about?' The thug leader thought to himself.
He pulled at the bars, but realized it was just a waste of time.
He gritted his teeth, 'Damn it!'
"But before all that, I might as well tell you what the abyss is." Richard said absentmindedly.
Then he clapped his hands together.
To their amazement and shock, a chair seemed to magically appeared behind their young captor.
Their captor sat down in a refined manner,
"Since the beginning of time, the Abyss has always been. In a way, it is a mirror world..."
Richard paused for a moment.
That brief moment of silence stretched out, pulling at the seams of their sanity.
"Our world and its Hell. Quite literally a tenebrous conundrum if you could call it that. Both are connected through a strange, ever changing, ever twisting pathway most refer to as The Veil. Every day, Devils, Demons, and vile horrors of the abyss pass through this corridor, summoned by human hands, or by sheer happenstance."
"Hey, what's your name, Kid? I swear we didn't want any trouble earlier. We were just teasing you a bit. Come on, dude!" One of the thugs pressed his face against the bars to yell.
Richard turned to him.
His dark smile lightened up a bit,
"My name? My name is Richard. Richard Bane. Still, what does my name matter to dead men. Am I right?" He added with a light chuckle.
The banging on the iron bars became more intense.
The large thug, also known as Dan, more commonly known by his street name, Killer Dan, pressed himself against the bars and roared furiously,
"Why?! Why do you want to kill us? All just because we teased you a bit? Isn't that being unreasonable?!"
Richard paused for a moment. Then he shrugged,
"It might seem that way to you now, but wait until you hear the rest of my story, okay?"
'Damn you and your story!' Killer Dan thought to himself.
However, on the outside, he settled down.
Turning around, he barked at his men,
"Shut it, all of you! Let's here what he has to say!"
He turned back to Richard, his gaze frantic, but calculating.
"So? Get on with your story."
Richard grinned,
"How nice of you. Then..."
He crossed his legs and continued,
"So then, if the abyss is a mirror of our own world, what exactly are these creatures and where are they from? The right answer to that question would be I have no clue."
He chuckled,
"That wouldn't be any fun, would it?"
"And so, we can play around with the idea a bit. What exactly are the creatures of the abyss? Are they nightmares given flesh, or are they beings of another world created by God. There are so many tasty options to choose from."
There was another long stretch of silence.
In the dim lighting of the basement, the shadows seemed to swirl.
The heavy, panicked breathing of the people around him added to his anxiety.
The gang leader wiped the cold sweat off his brows and asked with a smile,
"It is fun to guess, but why not just ask the real deal?"
Richard's brows shot up.
He paused for a moment then burst into laughter.
"That is indeed a good idea."
'You crazy dipshit. Demons? Devils? All those crap only exist to scare people. Let's see you—'
Richard muttered a few words in a low, guttural tone, speaking in the tongue only the damned would recognize.
The atmosphere in the room immediately shifted. If it has been cold, not it was bone chilling.
"That... is—"
The shadows looming behind Richard rose slowly, rising until they completely covered the walls and ceiling.
They were shifty and unnatural. It was as though there something now occupied them.
Richard's smile had vanished and his expression had turned cold,
"You ask me why I have to kill you? It's simple, really."
He pointed to his head,
"In here, there a four Demons. The first three aren't really high maintenance. All they require are a few origin essence cores every once in a while and they are relatively content. However... the last one is a bit troublesome."
He pointed at them,
"Your greatest sin, is your uselessness. You do not matter to society, so no one in this world would care if you are gone."
"So what better use would you serve, if not to feed this terrifying creature."
Out of his shadows, a terrifying creature stepped out.
Its fur was as dark as midnight. No— darker than that.
Its eyes were the color of blood, remarkably striking against its thick, dark coat.
Then the sound of metal scratching the floor struck their ears like a death sentence.
The thick stench of ammonia filled the room.
Someone had wetted himself.
However, the others didn't seem to take notice.
Either that, or they had all wetted themselves.
"W-what is that?!" The thug leader muttered as he took a step back.
"A blood Demon." Richard answered.
"Unlike most other Demons, this breed actively rely on consuming blood. If not, they are liable to go on a rampage and cause even more chaos. Luckily for me, I happened to find you all. Isn't that right, Fenrir?"
The enormous wolf in the darkness spoke in the human tongue,
"This is a decent harvest this time. I will savor it slowly."
"Why?! Why does it have to be this way?!"
"Please, spare us!"
Richard's face remained cold,
"I can only imagine these were the same words all your previous victims cried out as you murdered them coldly."
Killer Dan grimaced, his expression fearful,
"Huh? What are you saying?"
Richard clicked his tongue,
"Not anyone will suffice as Fenrir's sacrifice. He especially loves humans with a strong smell of blood on them. So tell me, how many lives have you taken?"
Dan gritted his teeth as his mind spun.
"Did the Rose Falcons send you?! Don't listen to those bitches! Whatever they've paid you, I can give you double— no, triple!"
Richard raised a brow,
'Roee Falcons?' Although the name sounded familiar, he had no idea what it was.
'Maybe a rival gang?' he guessed.
He shrugged,
"As I told you earlier, this was a stroke of fate. If you want to blame anything for your demise, blame your own ill fortune for running into me."
He glanced to the side and gave the nod of approval.
Slowly, Fenrir walked forward.
The enormous wolf bared its fangs, its long, blood red tongue falling through its dark maw.
"Eat."
It lunged forward.