chapter 20

"the hell happened here?" A man wearing a black hoodie, pants, gloves and a black balaclava like-mask with a skull on muttered out. In his right hand was a bloodied karambit.

"no clue. Maybe that guy killed Frank." A woman with pink hair, a grey blood adorned hoodie, red and white cross patterned skirt. Her mask looked greatly different to the two near her. It looked as if it had been through many fights and had to be sewed back together.

"he better not have. Or... I'll gut him like the rest." The third member wore an identical apparel to Frank but her voice was quite obviously feminine.

"hey! Tall guy! Where the fuck is frank!" Joey, the leader of the group without frank and the one in all black shouted towards our protagonist.

Hans glanced at them. He didnt stand up from his sitting position, but the mans shadow expanded and out came three figures.

Kommandant

Monsoon

And frank

Needless to say, the trio were surprised at this strange ability. But most of all, they were surprised by frank.

What had happened to him?

They knew that frank wasn't weak. Not by any means. But to think he'd end up like this.

It's just...

"Not possible!" Julie's inner thoughts had leaked from her deranged mind and seeped through to her tongue. Concern was audible in her voice, her hubby had been changed.

The woman leapt forth in an identical fashion to the late frank. Determined to end the man who had summoned the one she loved in a state like this.

Only for frank to easily block her blade with his own.

"wha-" frank struck her in the cheek and she stumbled backwards. Julie couldn't find the words to express herself. Frank, the man she loved.

Had just struck her.

"susie! I got the knight-lookin fucker!"

"kay!" The two murderous teenagers rushed their respective opponents but with two very different results.

Monsoon split apart, easily avoiding susie's sharpened ruler.

Kommandant caught joey's swing and snapped his wrist.

Joey let out a mild scream of pain, kommandant raised his sword with the other arm, preparing to end the poor fools life.

Only for his wrist to snap back into place and side step the blade.

Joey quickly kneeled down and grabbed his karambit. In one swift motion, sliced off kommandants arm.

The legion member dashed backwards and watched the shadow soldiers arm reform.

But susie was growing angry, no matter how much she slashed, she couldn't hit him.

'this bastard is annoying. But what can I do? Hmm, joey cut off the knight's arm and that just regenerated.' The teen looked at hans and noticed something.

'he's gotten paler. I see. If I take him out, then these... things... will disappear.' Monsoons arms segmented and susie found two sai firmly planted within her kidneys.

"shit! You bastard! You ruined my hoodie!"

Going back to the two lovers Julie had retaliated against frank, swinging in a desperate attempt to defend herself. But each swing was half hearted.

No matter the appearance, Julie couldn't bring herself to harm frank.

But he could.

The shadow Frank swept her legs out with a swift kick and straddled her. The man went for a swing straight to his former lovers head.

But Julie dropped her knife and used both hands to keep the blade at bay.

The two brooding figures stared at each other intensely. Joey looked at kommandant, confused as to what exactly this creature was.

"it seems like whoever or whatever he kills can become one of these. That man has the eyes of a murderer... that all but guarantees he killed Frank." Joey was mumbling and kommandant placed his newly reformed hand on his greatsword.

Kommandant dashed right towards joey, raising his sword high, much to the soldiers shock, joey managed to block the greatsword with his karambit.

It confused hans, a magical greatsword with lighting based abilities shouldn't be able to be blocked with a simple karambit. Kommandant let go of the blade and ducked as low as he could before delivering a swift punch to joeys chest.

Right where his heart should be.

Joeys breath hitched in his throat, his heartbeat slowed.

Him, joey the mass murderer. Had been killed with one punch. He was stronger than frank, physically speaking. But he wasn't as fast nor as mad as his leader.

Kommandant stared at his dying form, he grabbed his blade and decapitated the teen. The knight kneeled down to pick up his head and calmly returned to his King. Satisfied with the results.

Presenting the head to him.

Susie stared in shock, joey wasn't weak by any means. But she didn't think he'd be beat so quickly.

Hell, he could've bought her a bit more time!

She'd been slashing away at this bastard for a hot minute!

Julie was struggling against Frank's knife, the blade slowly inching closer to her forehead.

But frank was no longer in the mood to make his King wait. The newly made shadow soldier placed his other hand on the blade and drove the blade through her skull in a single thrust.

The look on her face was one of pure fear, but the new frank didn't care.

He lives only to serve.

The legions leader pulled the blade out before planting it back into her throat. The mad shadow slowly but surely carved through her throat like an amateur butcher, each motion was slow and made to ensure that the target would be in pain.

It seems his sadistic nature remained untouched.

But eventually, he had successfully but messily cut off his former loves head.

Susie only watched in shock. How? How had this all gone so terribly?

'the white lady gave us power. She made our bodies stronger and allowed us to regenerate. But it was useless in the front one man. His minions murdered my friends so brutally. Its amazing!' Susie heard coughing and saw that her friends murderer was coughing but she could faintly see blood seeping through his fingers.

Monsoon quickly leapt back into his kings shadow. Aware of his kings current state.

"Entstehen..." The two severed heads were quickly devoured by his shadow before re-emerging as fully fledged shadow soldiers.

Their all black appearances were in identical clothing to their original clothes.

Susie could only look at the coughing man in awe. His blood continued to leak as the coughing worsened.

His soldiers descended back into their residence and he slowly walked forward, right towards susie.

His eyes became more bloodshot and susie stared at his hands.

Black shadows were beginning to cover them, creeping to the tips of his hands.

He reached out for susies head with his free hand.

The girl could only gape in fear, but she looked deep into his eyes... and she saw the same eyes that she had.

A murderer's eyes.

"how many have you killed?" Her eyes quickly changed from fear, to admiration.

Susie was never a normal child. She always had a fascination with murderers. But that's obviously not normal for a child.

As a result, she was shunned by those she knew. But susie never cared for others. Not her parent, not her friends, hell, not even the legion who took her in.

But this man had awed her, he killed her friends with what she could only assume was his semblance.

He didn't even have to move a finger.

"how many have you killed?" Genuine curiosity was all that could be heard in her voice.

Hans continued to stumble forward until he planted a hand on her head. His pitch black hands trembling.

"too... many..." His head began to ache as the familiar word rang through his head.

But she wasn't dead.

The darkness seeped from his hands and sank into susies body.

'well done, my apostle. You have gained yourself a servant. Though it seems you have unintentionally accessed powers not yet ready for you. Fear not. All will be explained in time.'

The captains head began to calm as the pain slowed.

But a jet-black choker was tightly wrapped around susies throat and she stared at him with admiration.

'worry not. There is no longer a need to kill her. The girl now functions much like a shadow soldier while retaining her autonomy. This is due to becoming one with a parasitic type grimm.' The strange voice within his head spoke again in a calming tone.

However, this didn't calm hans one bit.

No one does things like this without ulterior motivation.

No one.

At least, that was his experience.

"what is this?" Susie felt the choker around her neck and felt a strange sense of subservience towards him.

As if he had suddenly become leagues above her in terms of power.

Hans could only stare at the choker, awful.

Now, she was enslaved to hans.

Just like he had once been.

Hans was disgusted. Not with himself, but with whatever being was responsible for giving him these powers.

Hans started to stumble past her, but he fell.

Susie reacted on pure instinct and caught hans a fraction of a second after he started to fall.

'She wasn't this fast when she fought monsoon. Nor could she react this fast. Have her abilities been augmented by that choker?' He cut his train of thought short when he heard the very faint police sirens arriving.

He no longer had time to think.

The apostles shadow stretched until tier clambered out of the pit of darkness.

Susie planted herself under her new lieges right arm, the 5ft 10 girl casually helping him to walk.

This was rather surreal for the girl in question.

Susie had always idolised murderers ever since she had watched a scorpion faunus murder her parents. But above all, she admired hans.

A man who had murdered so many that he had lost count. At least, that's what she believed.

The entire fight, the legion, a band of murderers.

They were dancing in the palm of this man. Much like son wukong and the Buddha.

But there was no longer time for discussion or contemplation.

The duo began to walk towards his wyvern in silence, susie could tell he was irritated. It was just an instinctual feeling but she knew, he's irritated.

The two reached the beasts tail.

"my name's susie. Its nice to meet you." Tier launched the two onto its back with a flick of the tail.

"hans günsche..." Tier smashed through the roof with a headbutt before ascending past the nearby trees.

Susie looked down below them.

"this must be a good way to calm down. Oh, by the way, mind explaining this choker?" Her gaze returned to her idol but she was shocked to see he was in even worse state than before.

"don't... know..." His skin was chalk white and it seemed like he could drop dead at any given moment.

His vision was blurry, smell muffled, hearing faltering, taste numb and his sense of touch was failing to the point he could no longer sense changes in the air current.

The familiar cold grasp of death was close once again.

The darkness that once plagued hans's skin had now receeded but thinking back to his previous fights gave him an idea.

His shadow soldiers have been able to manipulate and form shadow into weapons before.

Hans thought back to the sensation of the shadow encroachment and focused on mimicking that feeling but with an altered form.

The shadows covered his hands once again but segmented lines began to form on his hands going all the way to his forearms. The lined section pattern covering the entirety of the gauntlets.

His lip twitched upwards at his success, oblivious that susie had been trying to speak to him the entire time. As to why...

Well the kingdom of Vale had suddenly found itself engulfed in fire.

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