Warm, crimson blood poured from the decapitated legs of the mutilated soldier onto the cold earth; between his shallow, pained wheezing he incoherently stammered for mercy to the towering amorphous shadow that looked down over his crippled body. “Ahhh, your soul will be an excellent addition to my collection.” The entity spoke slowly and its words hung in the air with vaporous enunciation. The voice bellowed deeply, seemingly comprised of innumerable human voices.

“Wha– what are you?”

“What am I?” The being seemed delighted to answer. “I am the physical incarnation of fear and anguish. I am the stygian void that wanders between dimensions to devour the life essence of sentient beings. I am the destroyer of worlds. I am Mara and Kaliyan and Ravana. I am the 9 Headed Beast. I have consumed entire cities, and I leave nothing but the withered bones and stinking, rotting husks of beings like you.”

“I am Shadowfiend, the necromantic amalgamation of souls like yours. Your most intimate memories, your most heroic achievements, and your most detestable desires. Everything that characterizes your pathetic, vacuous humanity will be absorbed into the immortal hive-mind. Now tell me, are you afraid?” The man could not respond. His enormous eyes were opened wide, staring up inexpressively. He was shaking erratically, and his jaw was clenched with such pressure that one could hear his teeth cracking in his gums.

“Do you believe in god.” Shadowfiend slowly drew closer to the crushed man. “Pray now. Your gods cannot hear you in the void.” The man was physically and spiritually broken. Like a spider syphoning the digested fluid from a crippled insect, Shadowfiend began to draw out the seething, ectoplasmic life force from the man’s marred flesh. Leaving nothing but a blanched corpse, the evil creature left in search of more souls to assimilate into its aphotic shapelessness.