Bon Appetit

"It seems to me that I'm more invited than anyone else." Erebus rebuked him back with a taunt.

"Hoh~? Then enter."

-"Is this another trap?" Erebus flinched.

"Seems to me that you don't trust me enough to come into the room."

The black mist cleared and he saw a youth with pale skin and black hair sitting on the couch with a book in his hand.

He didn't speak or look back at Erebus. He wore black robes befitting of a reaper but less than that of a lord.

Erebus realized that this man was not the lord of Alaksad. He was a wrinkly old man with grey hair except that he had no skin or muscle around his lower jaw. Yet he seemed to talk like any normal person.

"Where is Bacia Alaksad?"

"That old man?"He scoffed putting the book on the table made of rosewood.

"He's no more. And he named me his only son and heir Hel a rightful master of Alaksad."

Erebus scowled after listening to his words. He had known that Bacia never fathered any sons or daughters. He was a demon who raped women and killed them by lacking off their heads and displaying them on the walls of his mansion's hallways after preserving them.

The smell of rot still lingered faintly around the mansion.

"Truly I'm a bastard born," he confessed.

"Just like you." he grinned raising his arms.

"So you're just as rotten as the old reaper." Erebus provoked him with a taunt.

"Think what you must."

"So the request was from you to exterminate the wildlings."

"Oh no, it was a mere jest..." he chuckled. The air grew chilly as the black mist started to rise once again engulfing the room.

"It was to lure you into my domain to have your head."

Erebus saw him open his eyes only to find out that they were a pair of black hollow sockets without eyeballs. The faint mist escaped from empty sockets from time to time. A huge scythe appeared in his hands with the skull shape joining the blade with the rode that was red as blood.

-"He intends to hack off my head for real." he realized when he blocked the blow with his war axe.

He spun, blocking the second blow with his trench blades, barely escaping the third.

"What is the reward for this head you mean to hack off?" he called out while switching to attack from defense.

"Title!" He disappeared into the mist.

Erebus turned back and forth looking out for a surprise attack.

"Why a title when you're bathing in riches?"

"A beggar like you wouldn't understand." he rebuked and attacked him up front.

-"He's gotten faster! I need an open space or I'm done for good." he looked for the door barely keeping up with Hel's attacks as they got faster at each heartbeat.

The mist wasn't that thick. He threw knives in every direction to make out the door through voice.

"I've got you now." he laughed out loud.

Erebus crashed open the doors and rolled out of the room hardly able to escape the last blow.

The mist escaped the room after him into the hallway as he followed him. The air became eerie. The chandeliers swung back and forth responding to the vibrations through the red-painted walls.

Erebus got up when he felt his shoulder throb and an intense sensation of pain rushed into his arm.

"Almost had my reward." he frowned. Yet it was disturbing for Erebus to make out his expression with hollow sockets if not for his repulsive grin.

He shattered the glass windows in the hallway and escaped the mansion.

"Come now have you finally decided to run away?"

-"It's too early to feign cowardice." Erebus leaped for the 'orchard of silence'.

-"He's a fool to pull tricks on me by luring me."

The orchard of silence was another name for the orchard of death.

The servants don't go near the trees because of the rumors.

He could hear the sound scythe being dragged on the black and grey cobblestone pavement.

Erebus stayed low behind venom bushes that glowed red at night and looked like normal shrubs during the day.

The flowers spat venom when they sensed the predators. It was too risky to stay for long behind them if they caught his scent.

The sounds of the screeching of metal on the stone stopped. He gulped and turned around. His eyes opened wide as the scythe was on him descending upon him at a robust pace.

He felt a pull on his cloak and the faint purple patterns appeared on the air.

"Glad I made it on time," he said in a shaky voice.

He looked up at his aide who focused on maintaining the barrier as the scythe hit it with intense force.

"A fruitless attempt. It will suck the life of your sorcery."

Jafar grinned after hearing his boisterous claims.

"Did you think you're the only one with the tricks? " he retorted and raised his hands forming a bow out of fire. It glowed bright purple as he drew the arrow.

" Your scythe can suck life only when it comes intact with the body."

He gritted his teeth and landed another blow on the barrier sending purple sparks up in the air.

"Save your foolish prattle."

Jafar shrugged in response and loosened the flame arrow from the shaft of his flame-lit bow.

Before he could react the arrow flew past his head up into the afternoon sky.

The air felt heavy around them.

"Missed me!" he caused his scythe to transform into a serpent by leeching blood from his arm.

It reached fifteen feet higher almost to the size of the trees.

It had four hollow eye sockets. But there was an eye looking in all directions popping out on the back of his bony hand. He covered his head with his hood of a black cloak.

"Dinner is served." The scythe that seemed half alive as an individual being reacted to the words.

"Bon Appetit."