The matriarch blinked, as if unsure what she saw, then she screamed, but no sound came over her pulled-back lips – which was no surprise. In order to scream, one needed lungs, and the matriarch no longer had those, nor did she have legs, a belly, or half her torso. What she still had was her right arm – which she swiped after Echser – and right breast, which left a trail of black milk as she dragged herself ever closer.

Echser dodged her attack with little to spare, shrieking as if his soul was on fire. How by Science is she still alive?! How?! It was a stupid question, of course. Ghouls were a breed of the undead and thus not technically "alive" but still. The amount of sustained tissue damage was mindboggling! That this monster was still going after him was nothing but a marvel of tenacity. It would have been fascinating if she hadn't been that damnable close to him.

"Get away from me!" screeched Echser, crawling backward, not caring about the vile things that squelched under his fingers, not giving a damn that he sounded like a girl.

Away, just getting away from this monster was the only thing that mattered. At least it was not gaining on him in its handicapped condition. The matriarch said something, though without lungs, what exactly was anybody's guess. Then her remaining hand rose, a finger pointing accusingly toward him. It just was so unfair! What had he done to deserve that accusing finger?!

"I didn't even want to be here!" he screamed in a mix of outrage and defense.

The finger lifted, her palm now pointing towards him, revealing a tooth-lined sucker maw – from which a length of tooth-studded flesh shot. "Gah!" Too slow. The hideous thing wrapped itself around his ankle, and a screamed tore from his lungs as tiny teeth cut through fabric and flesh. "Let go of me! By Science, let go of me! Please!"

Of course, the matriarch didn't. She actually grinned as she pulled him ever closer.

"No!" Echser groped around in desperation, searching for something, anything that might save him from impending doom. "Please no!" His fingers sank into something squishy, and he let go with a yelp, nails scraping over the rough stone floor as the monster pulled him in another foot. Scraping, scraping, nails breaking, splintering, tearing from their beds – and suddenly he held something in his hand. A stone. He held a stone!

Echser rolled onto his back, drawing back to throw, screaming, "Let me..." trailing off and almost dropping his only weapon as he saw what waited for him.

The matriarch's face had flowered open once more, revealing that tooth-lined nightmare of a maw. Did she really intend to eat him? Why? How?! She doesn't even have a stomach anymore for Science's sake!

His mind stopped as understanding slapped him. Hope bloomed, a rush of insane giddiness filling him. Maybe she really had not noticed yet. Perhaps she would just swallow him whole, just as she had Hornbach, and he could quietly crawl out the other end. Disgusting and utterly unbefitting a person such as his, but one should never look a gift whatever in the mouth. In particular, if the whatever was a ghoul queen. His facial muscles contorted into something approximating a smile, breath coming in panicked, ragged gasps. Best not fight her then, best to remain calm.

Just stay calm. Just stay—

The matriarch's slimy tongue waggled towards him, twitching over the floor like some debased worm.

"Gyaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!"

He screamed – quite girlishly – and hurled the stone with all his might. It had to be said, it was a good throw, perfect even. It not only hit but also burst the matriarch's left eye as if it was a lacerated plague boil. Ichor and goo shot every which way, the stone actually lodging deep inside the cavity.

Impressive – and oh so stupid.

The Matriarch screamed wordlessly, her face twisting in anger. Echser screamed as well, making up for her lack of lung. He had no doubt that the abomination had no intention at this point to wolf him down in one – instead, she would tear him apart. Shred him out, wear his guts as a hat! He just knew it!

"I'm sorry!" he screamed quite fruitlessly.

Another savage pull saw him skittering the last few feet and bringing him in range. Her hand came up: huge, so huge! Like a shield with fingers – or a giant spider about to pounce. Echser squeezed his eyes shut, hardly able to hear anything apart from the frantic wham-wham-wham of his heart. He did not want to see the end. Did not want to. Did not—

Chink!

That telltale sound of claws penetrating flesh, that sudden, unbearable weight on his body... Echser twitched violently, a scream bursting from his throat. He waited for the pain, the agony, and screamed, and screamed, and screamed. Eventually, he ran out of air, sucked in a lungful, and gave voice to another cry, soon running out of air too. Still no pain – then he almost choked as a familiar – and hated – voice spoke out.

"My dear old friend... I am delighted to see you so chipper and chirpy."

Dead... I must be dead then... and since the devil is here, in hell.

Echser tentatively opened one eye – and there stood Craven. He was leaning on his uncanny saber, like some disheveled Liegeland dandy on his walking cane, that well-worn villain's smile on his gore-stained features. More importantly, though, was the fact that he had rammed his weapon all the way through the matriarch's skull.

"Is... is she dead?!" Echser yelped.

"Well... she has been dead before, but now she is extremely so."

Echser's gaze wandered from one monster to the other and back again. The bounty killer's once pristine garments were smoking and covered with all sorts of filth, his right arm hanging limply from his side. Overall, he was looking remarkably well, though, and the alchemist pointed an accusing finger. "And how are you not dead?! I saw what she did to you! She impaled you! Twice!"

Craven turned aside. "Well, strictly speaking, I still am..."

Echser gasped. It was true... The claw-tipped end of the matriarch's thumb loomed from his back, the last digit dangling as he moved. For the longest time, Echser just stared. "H... how?"

Craven shrugged in a lopsided gesture since his left arm did not move. "I dropped one of the bombs you crafted for me down her gullet and severed her thumb with my knife. It was not that difficult, but your distraction with the lamp was much appreciated nonetheless."

"No, I mean how in Science name are you still alive?!" Echser gasped. "Are you... are you one of them?"

Craven raised an eyebrow. "Them?"

Echser stabbed a finger into the matriarch's direction. "Them!"

"A ghoul?"

"No you obtuse fool! Are you one of the undead?"

"Me?" Craven started laughing – it sounded fake. "No, my friend, no I am not, though some might claim I am something far, far worse..." His smile grew a tooth wider. "A man on a mission."

Somehow, that didn't reassure Echser. In fact, when Craven strolled over to him, offering his hand, it took all the alchemist's severely depleted courage not to scuttle away. It helped tremendously that just then, a horrid noise resounded from the darkest area of the room.

"What was that?" Echser yelped and grabbed the offered hand, pulled himself up, and immediately seeking shelter behind Craven.

Better the devil you know, after all, much better...

"Hmm..." Craven retrieved his bone saber, which slid free with uncanny ease. "Let us find out, shall we?"

It was the last thing Echser wanted to do. Yet as with anything else in his life since the day he took one darn risk too many in the name of scientific advancement, he had no say in the matter, no say at all. Craven fashioned an impromptu torch from a gnawed on thighbone and some smoldering rags, driving back the darkness as they ventured into it. The flickering light revealed all sorts of distressing sights: ghoul bodies and corpses, gobbets of flesh, one of the matriarch's feet, then a whole leg – and then a picture of what damnation must truly look like.

Echser's eyes went wide. "By Science..." He gagged, unable to look away.

It was Hornbach...

In the cruelest twist of fate, the old undertaker had survived the explosion and his ordeal in the matriarch's sack-like belly, though not in a state Echser wished on anyone. He had halfway dragged himself from the flabby sack of flesh like some obscene infant crawling from the womb of its dead mother. The stench of stomach acid and half-digested meat was like a fist rammed down Echser's throat, trying to pull out his guts, and yet he could not, would not look away. He was disgusted by what he saw but also obscenely fascinated. The stomach acid had started to... to melt Hornbach. His garments were mostly gone, revealing skin sagging from his bones in obscenely huge folds, looking as if they belonged to a man trice his size. The eyes in his wilting face were as white as boiled eggs, his ears around his neck, his lower lip almost drooping to the floor, yet somehow, he could still sense their presence, could even speak.

"Help... me..." Horbach gurgled. Even his voice seemed to be liquefying. "Kill... me..."

It was the ultimate horror – or so Echser thought, until he cast a glance at Craven, and froze. The bounty killer smiled, eyes as hungry as twin abysses. He smiled! Smiled! What monster could smile at such a sight?!

"Calm, friend," said Craven, the tone of his voice disgustingly pleased. "We will ease your suffering, but first things first." His eyes turned towards Echser. They were no longer as black as the void between the worlds but had an almost feverish sheen. "Mortin, be so kind as to pull the matriarch's thumb from my back. There is a good fellow."

Echser shook his head. "You... you'll bleed to death. The finger is plugging your—"

"Worry not. I will be fine. Pull it out."

There was something in his voice, a compelling insistence barring any arguing. Before Echser had even made the conscious decision, he had both his hands around the last digit of the matriarch's thumb and pulled. It was as thick around as Echser's wrist and came free remarkably easy. For just a moment, the alchemist could see right through the hole in Craven's chest, and then blood sprayed from the wound in twin torrents.

It also gushed from the Lich Killer's mouth – which hardly seemed to bother him. "Thank you... friend." Craven took a stumbling step toward Hornbach, saber dragging over the floor. "Best you... do not watch." Another step brought him before Hornbach. "Better start," the weapon came up, "searching for your book."

Echser averted his gaze before the blade fell.

The book? His eyes went wide. My book!

From one moment to the next, Echser became a being of singular focus. He ignored Hornbach's agonized mewling, ignored Craven's contented grunt, the low growl laughter that followed. Better to ignore it and stay sane, much better. He almost stumbled over young Stefan on his search, only halting for a moment to make sure the boy wasn't hurt too badly. A nasty head wound from some flying shrapnel, perhaps a concussion, but he would survive.

Yes, he would survive – if Craven let him.

Echser pushed that disturbing thought aside and searched on, stumbling, falling, and rooting through the dirt, tense like a bowstring, and more than anything else, avoiding looking into Craven's direction. He didn't need to see, didn't want to see. All that counted now was to find his book, his book, his precious, damned book. He stumbled towards where he thought he had last seen it, digging through smoldering rags and body parts. There was no hope in him, not really. It was just a distraction. Just something to keep—

He pulled a smoldering rag away – and there it was.

"No..." The world became blurry as tears filled his eyes. "Oh, please, no..."

Only the spine remained – the rest was naught but ashes. Gone. His Magnus Opus, the great work of his life that had cost so many so much. "Gone..." he muttered. "All gone." Tears streamed down his face as perhaps for the first time in years, the crushing realization finally hit him. "They died for nothing. They died... because of me."

Enlightenment can be a brutal thing...

He sat there for how long he could not say, staring at the smoldering ruins of his life, tears streaming down his filthy cheeks.

Gone...