"~When I see your faaaace~" the white-haired man sang, his voice a gravelly tenor, "~there is no sorrow~"

  He walked through the burning wreckage of multiple vehicles on the street. Behind him, several of his borrowed 'automatons' were carrying out hostages.

  Their flesh had been grafted with a metallic substance and their bodies had been outfitted with mechanical armor. Their limbs were replaced with cybernetic parts and they had cables snaking through their skin. It was at the tail end of rush hour and he had struck a city bus, as well as two other vehicles. Their victims had been dragged from their vehicles and were being carried off, kicking and screaming.

  Damian's sing-song voice carried over their screams. "~I see only love, you are the sun that lights up my heart~"

  A man was struggling, and the automaton carrying him swung his hand, slamming the man across the head with enough force to stun him.

  Damian turned to look at him, smiling, a cold gleam in his eyes. He hummed a soft, haunting melody as he tossed his athame up and down in his hand, the curved silver dagger catching the moonlight. His face was hidden by an intricate bone-white mask that resembled the skull of an alpaca, and the horns were covered with silver that gleamed with magical runes.

  Damian turned to the side. A few dozen feet away, the bus was on fire. The front was completely smashed in. Its windows were shattered, the front end had a huge gaping hole in its side was billowing smoke. The defeated, unconscious bodies of the pair of Magical Knights sent to intercept him were tied up in front of it, their clothes mostly burnt off from the fire. A pity, that it had veered off and slammed into the building, but he was at least pleased by his work.

  They were being prepped for transport by several other automaton soldiers. A third figure, a teenage Pioneer who'd attempted to intervene, had been stripped of his clothes as well.

  "~I swear that I will follow you~," he continued, singing softly, stepping up to the bus. "~Wherever you may go, no one can take you away~"

  Damian peered into the bus. Inside, a dozen or so passengers were laying around, all of them injured to various degrees. None fatally, thankfully. It would do him no good to waste spare parts and materials, after all. Damian looked down at a woman who had been sitting up near the front. Her face was bruised and her body was limp, unconscious. She was a thin, but athletic in her early forties. She had on a bright yellow blouse with a monarch butterfly pin and a black skirt, but a bloody hole had been ripped through the side of her blouse where he'd blown a hole through the bus with his spell.

  He reached in, brushing his fingers against her hair and he smirked. She was Asian, and she was quite lovely despite the injuries he had caused. His fingers lingered against her skin. It was warm and supple.

  He pulled back and glanced down at his hand.

  It was slightly discolored from where he'd touched her.

  Damian glanced up, looking at his reflection as he removed his mask.

  The face that belonged to a corpse, or at the very least, a man on death's door.

  He slid his hand up the woman's neck to the curve of her cheek, smearing her skin with gray and black. The skin of a dead man. His skin was flaking off in some parts, revealing rotting muscle and tissue.

  No matter.

  "Please..." a voice whimpered from the back.

  Damian looked up and saw a small, frail-looking teenage girl in a Kaleidoscope Middle Preparatory school uniform, sitting up. She had black hair that was cut short and curled around her face, her dark brown eyes wide.

  Damian smirked. "Yes?"

  "Please," she repeated. "Please... my dad..."

  The girl had her arms around a tall, muscular dark-haired Caucasian man in a white gym shirt. He was bleeding badly from a wound on his leg where the metal from his seat had impaled it and was barely conscious.

  Damian leaned in. "Oh?"

  He smiled cruelly and glanced down at the unconscious father, before his gaze slid over the woman he had touched.

  He would return for her.

  But for now? His attention was focused on the frightened little girl. She looked terrified. It made him feel alive, just looking at her. He smiled as she looked up at him, her expression pleading. Multiple other passengers were starting to stir, moaning and crying out in pain. The smell of smoke and ash was starting to fill his nostrils. His automatons were still moving, carrying out their tasks of rounding up survivors for his 'work'.

  "I can help him, yes. Would you like me to help him?" he said.

  "Yes... please..."

  The man groaned weakly as he struggled to speak. His face was covered in blood.

  "Daddy..."

  Damian grinned and stepped forward, reaching out with his right hand and touching the girl on the shoulder. He could sense the magic coursing through her blood. So weak. Barely even a blip. He would not need the Gem of Desolation here.

  Damian chuckled. "Oh, I will help your father."

  His fingers gripped the girl and a soft, crimson light glowed in his eyes.

  She let out a soft gasp. Her body went rigid and her muscles tensed up as he held her. His fingers pressed against her shoulder and the girl screamed in agony. Her eyes rolled back into her head and she started convulsing violently, her body spasming and jerking wildly.

  The man was too injured to fight, and his daughter was a mere civilian.

  He would leave her with her mind intact to witness his canvas. She was too weak to resist.

  Damian let out a low laugh. His fingers tightened and he drove them straight into the man's wounded leg, his hand pushing into his body and ripping at the flesh. He let out a strangled cry as his hand dug into the wound. Damian pulled out, his fingers covered in blood. His hand dripped crimson liquid as the girl continued to thrash, and her screams filled the air. The girl's face was a twisted mask of pain, her features contorted into an inhuman expression of agony and horror. The girl's father's face was pale as the moonlight.

  He looked up at Damian, his eyes wide, his mouth hanging open in shock. His eyes were filled with pain, confusion, and anger.

  Damian smiled.

  This would be a beautiful work of art, he was sure of it.

  His smile widened.

  "~The stars will fall to the ground~," Damian sang. "~when you are not around, and angels will die just to get my attention~"

  His eyes shone with a gleeful glimmer. "~so come on, baby, please, I want to be with you tonight!~" He laughed, his voice rising as the girl screamed.

  The sound was almost deafening. The man struggled, pulling himself free from the metal rod that impaled his thigh. The blood gushed from his wound and the girl screamed, her cries of terror filling the night air as he pulled himself up.

  "~I can't help the way I feel, I want you and I need you here tonight,~" Damian sang, his voice carrying over the sound of the flames crackling.

  "Fuck you... sick freak," the man growled. "S... Stay away from my daughter."

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  "Oh? But she's so sweet. She's so... beautiful. Supple, like clay in a artist's hands."

  Damian laughed as the man struggled to crawl to his feet again. His eyes were filled with anger and hatred, his teeth clenched together. Damian's eyes flashed crimson as he channeled his mana.

  "So beautiful and so innocent," he mused. "A shame she has a weak will."

  Damian glanced down at his hands and his fingers twitched, the girl screaming again. Blood gushed out of her mouth and nose as she fell to her knees, her eyes rolled back in her head, and her body spasmed violently as her heart failed.

  Eh, whether she lived or not wasn't his concern. But she would serve for decent spare parts if she were to live.

  The girl collapsed to the ground and lay motionless, blood trickling from her nose, her chest heaving erratically, her breath coming out in short gasps. The father tried to reach for her but the wound in his leg made it too painful to stand fully and he could only reach out helplessly as she stopped moving.

  "A shame, really."

  He turned to the man, whose eyes had widened in shock at his daughter's collapse. Damian stepped towards him and reached out his hand.

  "You, on the other hand..." Damian's fingers twitched. "You will do nicely for my art project."

  "Sanguine Curse: Transfiguration," Damian intoned.

  His hands glowed with dark red energy. It flowed into the man's body and the man screamed. He fell and collapsed to the floor. His flesh rippled and bubbled, turning brown like it was cooked. The flesh of his hands stretched and contorted. The man's face was a grotesque, distorted mass of bone and muscle, and the skin on his arms and legs split, exposing bloody tissue. The man screamed in agony and his eyes widened. His mouth was a twisted grimace, and his tongue hung from his lips. His hair fell out in clumps, leaving his scalp bare. His clothes were stained red, his skin had turned a dark crimson. The man screamed in agony as his bones dissolved and his eyes and other organs shifted inside him, causing him to writhe in agony.

  "Stop!" a woman shrieked.

  Damian ignored her, his attention focused on his subject.

  "Beautiful. I think I will keep this one."

  Damian grinned, his teeth showing. His eyes were black as the void as he turned to glance at the floor.

  The girl was laying in a heap, her breathing ragged.

  She was barely alive.

  He would have to move quickly to salvage her. Wouldn't do to have his art supplies be too badly damaged. He had to have his supplies in good shape to begin with if he was to work his magic properly. A pity that he was so rushed. If he had time, he'd turn the father into a masterpiece.

  Damian laughed. His voice echoed across the bus.

  "Now, crawl out of my sight. I have a work to complete and a message to send to our friends in the city."

  The man's screams were a distorted shriek, a sound of agony and pain, a sound of pure terror. His screams echoed across the city, filling the night air with the sound of his suffering.

  Damian grinned and turned back to his 'canvas' as the man dragged himself out of the bus.

  Then, he paused.

  "Hmph. Let's take care of that mouth. Wouldn't want anyone getting distracted from the piece, now would we?"

  The Crimson Scholar, Sanguine Sorceror. The one and only Damian Drakkar. A villainous mastermind and the former head torturer and interrogator for the Crimson Order.

  Damian smiled and walked over to the moving pile of flesh, stepping on it with his boot. His eyes gleamed as the man's muffled screams echoed out into the night.

  Damian reached into his suit jacket and pulled out a silver vial of liquid, and popped open the lid. His eyes shone as he took a sip from the flask. His smile was wicked as he savored the taste, and he closed his eyes in contentment as the man writhed under him.

  The screams grew louder, the sounds of the dying bus and the muffled whimpers of the girl on the floor adding to the ambiance. Damian leaned over and picked up the body of the man, his hand gripping the flesh tightly. His eyes flashed and he passed over the gelatinous blackened hole that served as a mouth, and the sounds grew even louder, the man's flesh quivering and shaking under him.

  "Let's go ahead and stop those screams. We don't need you waking up the neighborhood, do we?"

  "Sanguine Curse: Transfiguration. Again!" Damian said.

  His fingers twitched again, his eyes glinting.

  And in an instant, the hole sealed shut.

  The man's screams were now silent, and his eyes were wide in terror. The man was struggling against the curse. His body was a quivering mass of flesh. Damian grinned, then he flippantly tossed what used to be a man out the door and watched it roll onto the sidewalk. Men were fun to play with when they had some will and mental fortitude. It made the magic so much more satisfying when the subject fought. But he really preferred his males younger, especially when he had time and the ability to groom them. Children were so much easier to mold.

  "Let's get back to work."

  He glanced over at the other passengers who were still in shock and then at his automatons.

  "S-So cruel," a woman clutched her son and her voice trembled. She was bleeding, her face pale.

  "Momma..."

  The little boy had his head buried in his mother's chest.

  "Shh. Don't speak, darling."

  "Cruel?" Damian chuckled, glancing at her, his voice soft, his eyes cold and his expression devoid of any emotion. He gestured towards the father, who had collapsed onto the street, his limbs and organs having shifted to places that were certainly not their original locations.

  "Cruel would be if I'd had the time to make that work of art more elaborate. He should consider himself fortunate that I had to leave a calling card with time to spare."

  His tone was flat, his face a mask of indifference. He stepped forward, walking to the middle of the bus and looking at the woman, who had her back against a seat. She shrank back, clutching her son tighter.

  "Such an ugly look on such a beautiful woman," Damian remarked.

  He stepped forward, kneeling next to the woman. "You're quite pretty, aren't you?

  "P-Please..." the woman sobbed. "I have a family. My son... he needs me."

  "Does he now? Such a pity," Damian said.

  "Y-You... you're a monster."

  "I've been called many things. I suppose 'monster' is just another title," he said. "But I am an artist, a sculptor. I have an eye for the human body and how it should look. I see what lies beneath and how to make it shine."

  "Please, spare us."

  "Hmm, perhaps..."

  He reached down, touching the woman's face. Her body jerked as his fingers brushed against her skin. Damian's fingers traced the contours of the woman's cheek.

  "All you worms can do is plead. You really want to live so badly?" he asked.

  She whimpered and Damian's eyes flashed.

  "Well? Answer me!" he snapped, his tone harsh, his voice echoing through the bus. "Do you wish to live?"

  "Yes!" she sobbed, clutching her son tighter.

  Damian smirked, his fingers caressing her skin.

  "Crawl on the floor and act like a pig. Make it convincing and I will let you live," Damian commanded. "Do this, and I shall let both of you go free."

  "I... I..." her lip quivered and her voice shook.

  Damian grinned, his teeth showing. "I'll make sure my men won't touch you. And I'll even heal you up so that you don't bleed out on the street."

  "Momma?" the boy whimpered.

  The woman sobbed. She was shaking and her cheeks were wet with tears. "Please, at least let my son live. Don't hurt him. Please."

  Damian's lips curled into a sneer. "Then get to it. Now, before I decide that the boy is the one that must come with me."

  The woman sobbed. "Mommy... she's sorry, baby."

  She knelt down, her body trembling, and her eyes closed tight.

  Damian's lips curled into a sneer, and he watched as the woman began crawling on the floor of the bus. Her hands were on the floor of the bus, her knees were bent and her back was arched as she crawled.

  "Oink," the woman pleaded.

  "Good girl," Damian smirked. "Now, make it convincing."

  "Oink! Oink!" the woman's voice was desperate.

  "Very convincing."

  Damian laughed as he watched the woman crawl, his eyes glowing as he reached for the blood stain on the seat she had just left. He dipped a finger in it and raised it up to his lips. His tongue darted out, licking the blood, savoring the metallic taste and savoring her despair.

  "Sanguine Curse: Transfiguration."

  With a simple chant, a flash of red light filled the area. Damian grinned, feeling his body surge with strength. The woman shrieked in terror as her body contorted, her bones snapped, and her flesh rippled and transformed. The boy screamed, his mother's screams of agony and fear filling the bus. Her skin turned pink, her face elongated into a snout, and her ears grew large, round, and floppy. Her nose and mouth twisted and morphed, turning into a snout, and her eyes became beady and pig-like. She was now on her hands and knees, her arms having been transformed into the front legs of a porcine.

  The woman screamed and writhed, her eyes wide in shock. She tried to scream again, but she only let out a series of squeals.

  "Die, piggy, die..." Damian whispered.

  He raised his athame, but stayed his hand.

  Eh, what good is a man who goes back on his words as spoken?

  The boy's eyes went wide, his mouth gaping open, as he watched his mother crawl around on the floor in terror. He screamed, and Damian's smile grew wider as he watched the child's fear. He'd left her lower half human and she was wearing her torn-up skirt.

  Damian snickered, walking to the front of the bus where two of Lunatrix's automatons stood, holding their machine pistols at the ready.

  "Round them up back there. Let the boy and his porky mother go. The girl's back there is still breathing. Bring her to the truck. I want to see if we can keep her alive and make use of her."

  He turned back around, stopping at the lovely Asian woman who'd caught his eye. She was still out cold and her face had been bruised and bloody from the 'accident'. Her phone lit up from the floor next to her where it had fallen.

  "Hm?" Damian said, reaching down to pick up the woman's smartphone. The lock screen photo had caught his eye.

  It was a photo of a teenage boy and this woman, sitting next to each other, smiling, happy, at what appeared to be an outdoor picnic. A scrawny olive-skinned teenage girl was on her other side. The boy was dressed in a green plaid flannel and the girl was in a black sweater.

  The boy was rather unremarkable, but his eyes caught Damian's attention. Those dark, almond eyes, and the way they looked back at him in the photo.

  Damian stared at the phone, his eyes wide.

  He recognized the boy. The same boy with no remarkable magical potential that had managed to resistance his magic. Even when he had enhanced it with his former benefactor's Gem of Desolation.

  Damian laughed, his eyes glimmering with delight. He stepped up to the woman and looked at her unconscious form.

  "So you know that boy, don't you, you lovely little thing?"

  His eyes flickered and he glanced at the phone, his lips curling up into a smirk. His fingers twitched, and the phone glowed, his fingers brushing against the screen.

  Damian smiled, looking at her face and his eyes narrowed. "Oh, my dear, we are going to have so much fun together..."

  End of Arc IV