He walked through the ashes of what had once been a structure. His rage, along with that of his partner, had destroyed it. Cement supports and braces had shattered, long gouges left in the foundation amidst the cracked rubble and drifting cinders still aglow with heat. The bodies had been removed, but he thought back on the night with a bloodthirsty smile. It hadn't been enough to simply kill them, to watch them torn apart. No, he wasn't satisfied. The blood spilled hadn't quenched his thirst, hadn't sated his hunger. For what had been done" there was only one price, only one retribution.

Looking up at the stars, he sighed" the slow exhale releasing arcane energy. A series of dark orbs materialized around him, midnight blue and whispering tongues of black flames. The orbs could be heard faintly, the sounds of men burning. Their screams echoed softly around him, and he smiled. There was no ceremony, no circumstance or incantation. No, not for these souls whom he had pulled from the blazing corpses as they bubbled and blackened. He had no mercy here, no pity, no conscience. There was only retribution, and he would have it. One by one, he tore it from the souls" ripping them apart until he found what he was looking for. The eternal spirit. And one by one" he devoured them.

Standing in the rubble, he nodded with grim satisfaction. They would not pass on to a better place, they would suffer, so long as he lived in the void within him. They would serve, bound to black flames and an all consuming void that would rob them of will, of peace, of sustenance. Theirs would be a world of gnawing hunger, raging thirst, and a madness born of suffering.

Now, it was enough.