The Last Soul

(Daniel sniffled, nuzzled further into the man's shirt. Spencer sighed, held the boy close. “Such a precious thing…” A strange smile turned the lips, “And so very lucky, you cannot imagine. Hush now, hush, things will be better again, very soon.” He stood, holding the child to himself. “They do not know it, but their salvation is at the door.”

Daniel quieted, nuzzled into the man, confusion stole into his thoughts. “You… you sound like…”

“Hush now.”

Daniel nodded, gave a tired sigh. Spencer watched the boy as he lulled further, until his breaths were deep with sleep. He placed the child on his bed; one hand brushed the disheveled mane of hair out of the boys face. “Like a lion and a gazelle, a strange meeting,” he murmured to himself, stopped, hearing a growl from the door. “…and a strange lion as well...”)

Topec glared at Spencer, Spencer looked back impassively. As the two held each others eyes they seemed to communicate silently, without word something passed between them. Xipe topec sighed, let his shoulders fall.

"...You appear to harass me."

Spencer smiled, it was strained. "No harassments this time I assure you, only the here and now. The labyrinth is dying." He continued despite Topec turning his back to him. "You cannot stop it, you cannot slow it, for once, demon, the situation is completely beyond your control."

A irritated hiss. "Let me have my last moments in peace, if that they must be."

Spencer laughed softly, "Are you due such a mercy? Leviathan calls, and the land goes dark. The void is claiming everything. Already Behemoth awaits outside the gaits, seeking to rejoin his fellow god so that they may perish together. The end came, and it has gone."

The Cenobite looked upon the spirit of his flesh. "I have died before, it is but another experience. I do not fear the void, spirit."

"That is only because you were not made capable of fear." Spencer's eyes were dark. "If you were, you would hastily retract that statement. I have seen that ledge and the abyss below it, you will find it inhospitable at best."

"And you, Spirit," Topec's own eyes were darker still. "...What of you?"

Now Spencer fell into a brooding silence, he said at length, "I do not know."
A soft sound from the bed drew both men's attention. Daniel, unawares of his surroundings or the cold conversing occurring over his head, slept on. Spenser looked back upon the demon. "What of him?"
Topec was still. Then, slowly, his gaze met Spencer's again. "You are hiding something from me, something of importance..."

Spencer made a gesture of dismission. "It is not possible, we are linked almost at the very brainstem. It is however possible that I have noted something you did not, caught a detail you overlooked in both your haste and your ignorance." Before Topec could retaliate he held up his hand for silence. "Something you will miss altogether if you do not let me speak."

Ebony eyes narrowed, "...Continue."

Spencer smiled, "On whose word, and what evidence, did you place the assumption that the world was ended?"

Topec's narrowed eyes slivered, his temper was thinning. "The God's distress, the mourning angel, the destruction of humanity itself. Need you more evidence?"

"Yes." Spencer sat himself before his darker half. "In all this time, you have overlooked that man was traveling among the stars, choosing to ignore their development in the field after our last embarrassing encounter with one of the LeMarchant's descendents. You closed your eyes to the rooms we entered when summoned, the changing technology was lost on you. You cared nothing for it."

Topec remained statuesque as Spencer leaned forward. "Humanity was not destroyed in the reign of fire they unleashed upon themselves. Eden was."

"You are suggesting that man still lives, souls still cling to their flesh, in the voids..?"

"It is my argument, yes."

"If that were true, it would matter not." Topec's eyes shut. "The Labyrinth is beyond repair, Leviathan is waning. Humanity will not find the doors to our realm in time-"

"To save Hell." Spencer nodded. "I am aware of this. We have only one option left. We must flee hell, take with us whatever cenobites remain, and knock upon the six great gates. We are refugees now Demon, but it is better than death."

Topec stood, his hand slashed forward. Spencer deftly eluded him, and moved out of easy striking range. "Demon, see reason..."

"Abandon Leviathan?" Metal glinted in the cenobites' fist. "Leave the Labyrinth, flee as the lost did, those cast out durring the anchient war? It it better to die!" His breath was frosing the air, and he advanced on his other self with suprising speed and grace given his decline. But Spencer could not fail to see how the others nostrills had flared, how flat his eyes were becoming. The order that had been molded over the centuries to the Pontiff's very core was chipping badly as ancient and primitive urgings were fueled by desperation and rage.

"Or die with honor?" Spencer spat it, "And what of the after, when the doors open again? Who will serve the God? If we remain, Leviathan himself will condemn this place to a vacant fate!"

Something almost broke in that following moment, something irreparable was almost ripped assunder. In those few seconds Order completely eluded him. For five seconds nothing stood before Spencer but a soul shredding beast in mortal skin. And that beast did growl, and loe, such a sound had not been heard in Hells walls since the fall of Behemoth, and Leviathan himself tilted askew on his rotation.

But that growl woke Daniel, and Daniel, blind to the danger, through himself upon the Cenobites legs. Spencer reached out, as though to stop the boy, but his finger fell short of their goal. The child buried his head in the demon's robe, and whimpered. The five seconds passed.

Panting, Toped looked down at the child, the frail thing that dared to hold him in his rage. The small form huddled closer to him. A long blade fell from limp fingers. "Daniel.."

The boy looked up. "...Pontiff? You're eyes pontiff... they're so..."

Topec shut them, took several steadying breaths. An odd ripping sensation as Spencer returned to his corner in the back of their mind. (Heed what I have said Demon, and I see that part of you now more than ever before. Leave Hell, or your mind will leave you. The Order of the Gash is no more.)