"Sephtis~ Sephy sweetie, wake up."

Sephtis' heavy eyelids cracked open, blinking a few times to get rid of the tiredness that was still dragging them down, as he turned over in his bed. He rubbed his eyes and blinked in confusion as he looked up at the sweet, smiling face of his mother.

"Mum.. what are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to go to the ceremony today. You were the chosen one."

He whispered back, a mixture of confusion in his voice as well as a hint of pride in his tone when he spoke of being the chosen one. After all, it was a great honour to be the chosen one, so they had been taught.

The one who would be offered to their Lord in the most grand spectacle and heartwarming ritual. That was what he had been taught, at least. He had yet to see the ceremonies. He was only 11 years old after all.

In a few years, when he was as old as Ophelia, then he would get a chance to watch one.

Sephtis shifted in his bed, sitting up and glancing around the room. Dozens of beds littered the large, spacious room. These were the dorms for the children. Every child in the Church of the Blessed Serpent slept here.

A few beds down he could see the twins sleeping soundly, they were barely 2 years old, but were so well behaved. Especially little Woe. Pastor Lucifer saw great things in him, and often spent a lot of time with the twins himself.

Almost enough to make little Sephtis jealous.

A gentle touch on his chin brought his attention back to his mother. Her hands were cold, and for some reason when she smiled at him he couldn't see any happiness in her eyes. She instead looked at him like she was almost... sad, but what did she have to feel sad about? Everything was fine.

She was the chosen one!

His mother was dressed in the beautiful white dress that he had seen a few other chosen ones wear, but her version had an odd addition. A circle of deep crimson on her chest contrasted against the white of the dress, although in Sephtis' mind it reminded him of the different coloured belly of a teddy bear.

She also, for some reason had some strange words written on her forehead. It must have been something the pastor did, written in the divine language.

His mother gave him that strange smile again, leaning close as she looked deep into his eyes, which were the same silvery colour as her own. She whispered softly to him,

"My dear boy. You have no idea just how special you are. But I do... I knew the day you were born. The Angels told me. They whispered to me, telling me how special you are.

Your time will come my sweet Sephtis. I promise you. I've seen it.

You will always be my special boy, and your Angel will always look over you."

Sephtis frowned softly, wondering why she had woken him up to tell him this. She could have just told him tomorrow after the ceremony. But he was too tired to ask her, his eyelids were already starting to droop once more.

His mother brushed his hair to the side and stood from his bed, prompting Sephtis to lay back down and snuggle tight against the thin bed sheets.

Through tired, slightly blurred vision, he watched his mother glide away in her almost pristine white dress, looking just like one of the angels she always talked about.

"That is the boy?"

"Y-yes sir."

From across the room, Sephtis could hear his mother talking with someone in hushed tones. He tilted his head, not wanting to raise it off his pillow again, and tried to get a look at the figure.

It was a man, he knew that from the voice, but his tired eyes were blurring his vision too much to make out the details of his face. What he could make out, however, was the crisp black suit he was wearing.

A suit that allowed him to almost melt into the shadows, becoming nearly unnoticable, as if he was a shadow himself. If it wasn't for his pale skin and the fact his mother was talking to him, young Sephtis might not have realised he was there at all.

However the fact he was wearing a suit was strange. No one wore such clothes here... they were only allowed the clothes that Pastor Lucifer gave them, and none of them were as nice as a suit like that.

Was this... an outsider?

Just as Sephtis was analysing the strange man, the young boy shuddered as he felt the strangers eyes lock onto him. It must have a trick of the light, or perhaps his lack of sleep. Because when the stranger looked towards Sephtis, the young boy could swear that his eyes were nothing but pools of pure silver. Iris, pupil and all. Pools that seemed to glow softly as he stared at him, sending chills to the depths of his very soul.

"Sephtis was it... You named him well. Come, it is time for us to go."

Silence once more hung in the air as the pair left the doorway, disappearing into the shadows of the corridor without so much as their footsteps to say goodbye. However just as Sephtis was falling back into the embrace of sleep, he heard a whisper in his ear.

"Until we meet again... Brother."

***

Agony tore through Seth's body as lightning poured through his nerves, ripping his mind from the comfort of memories long forgotten and into the torturous existence of the present.

A scream poured from his throat, ripping it to shreds in the process, as his body was pumped full of energy and once more forced to undergo the gruelling process of evolution.

A pulse of spiritual energy erupted from Seth's soul as it began its changes, the energy rippling through the air like a pebble had been thrown in a tranquil pond. If he was back on earth, that wave of raw spiritual power could have easily caused serious damage to the souls of any unevolved individuals nearby, for those who had evolved it would have been more likely to only cause a sharp bout of agony followed by nausea.

But Seth was not on earth, and for the only individuals nearby, a soul ripping wave of spiritual energy passing through their bodies was only enough to rouse them from their sleep, and even then there was still a chance they would fall back asleep.

As for the man himself, sleep was the last thing on his mind. Black ooze forced itself from every pore of his skin, but this was not the black blood he had become accustomed to. It was somehow even thicker than the blood, resembling mud more than liquid, and smelled of death.

In fact, the smell of death - that is to say the stench of a freshly rotting corpse acting as the festering feast of maggots and flies, would smell like a lovely bouquet of roses sprayed with the most delightful perfume next to this abomination of a stench.

It forced itself from his skin, pouring out like sweat and schlopping to the floor beneath him, only to burst into emerald flames the moment it touched the floor, as if the universe itself was declaring such a substance was too foul to exist in the world.

The first time he had evolved, Seth had thought that someone was drilling into the tips of his fingers to hollow out his bones. Now, that feeling had returned with a vengeance. First it drilled into the bones of his fingers, then tunnelled itself up his forearm and hollowed out the bones of his biceps.

But while his first evolution stopped there, this one kept going, eager for more. Every single bone in his body; from his ribs, to his shins and even the tips of his toes.

The non-existent drills forced their way into his jaw and erupted from his gums, causing his teeth to wiggle themselves free and clatter to the floor. His eyes burned in their sockets, as if they had been dropped in boiling oil, and his soul was twisting in knots.

It felt as if it was trapped inside of his chest, and desperately wanted out. It pulsated and squirmed, fighting against its flesh prison and threatening to burst from his chest just to be free.

Then, all at once, the pain simply... stopped. It all ceased at the snap of his fingers, as if it had never been there at all.

Seth panted heavily on the floor, the air he sucked in tainted with the rotten and repulsive taste left behind by the burned black ooze. Tenderly, Seth raised his hand and looked at it curiously.

It trembled in the air as he flipped it back and forth, checking for any changes or strange growths. He couldn't help but let out a small chuckle when nothing bad had appeared.

'That wasn't so bad...'

Just as the thought crossed his mind, a speck of dust drifted down from his trembling hand. Dancing through the air before scattering as it hit the cold, metallic floor. Then another, and another... and another.

Like sand falling from his fist, trails of dust scattered down from his trembling hand. Only... the sand wasn't falling from his fist. It was his fist.

Seth watched in horror as the skin dissolved from his fingers, followed by the muscles and even the bone. His hand dissolved to dust, leaving nothing behind.

"Dad?! Daddy? Is everything okay? I thought I felt something weird!"

Nixie's voice echoed through the ship. Seth dragged his eyes away from his hand, which was easy since it didn't exist anymore, and quickly rolled over to face the sound of Nixie's voice.

He tried to shout her name, but all he managed to do was sputter out a mouthful of dust. He clambered to his feet, before his feet gave out from underneath him, as they too disintegrated into nothingness.

By the time that Nixie found her way to the control room, all that was left was Seth's prosthetic arm laying abandoned on the ground, and a few trails of dust drifting off into the air.

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