The beast disregarded his presence as it approached the egg stored safely in its macabre nest, whether it was out of apathy for his existence or simply because it didn't realise he was alive was unclear.

Only when he let out a dry cough that ripped up his throat, hacking up a lungful of blood, did the corvid turn its attention towards the pale, corpse-like young man sitting against the wall.

It laid its black, beady eyes on the dishevelled state of Seth, who was looking no better than itself. Yet despite his haggard and weakened appearance, the Raven let out a low rumbling growl, like it was mimicking the engine of a muscle car.

The Corvid prowled its way over to him, taking slow and measured steps, never taking its eyes from the foul wretch that had dared to invade its nest after killing its mate. With its wings in such a state, it couldn't throw its bladed feathers, but even starved of its main weapons it was still a formidable beast. Nature had seen fit to grant it talons for tearing flesh and a beak, even when broken, that would crush the prey's puny skull.

Yes… that sounded perfect. It wanted to feel that pathetic head pop inside of its mouth, to taste the last thought that was running through its mind as it was splattered across its tongue.

Just the thought of it was making its mouth water in anticipation.

***

Seth sat as still as the corpse he resembled as he watched the wounded beast stalk closer to him. By the way it was licking its beak, causing globs of viscous saliva to drip to the floor as it prowled towards its prey, it was clear what was running through its mind.

He couldn't help but chuckle at the lack of subtlety in its eagerness to satiate its gluttony.

As the beast drew closer, it passed harmlessly through the fragment that was drifting the furthest from Seth. He had to be thankful, in some way, that it was the other one that died instead of this one.

The fire breather would probably swallow his soul fragment whole and try to cook it on the way down.

He glanced down to his left, where a large fragment of bone was sitting amongst a small pile of other discarded remnants. The bone shard was larger than his forearm and seemingly from the leg of something huge. He could only imagine what kind of horrific beast this thing had come from, perhaps it was for the best all he was facing was an overgrown bird. But perhaps, it would have been an easier target.

One end of the bone was still intact but it was the other end, which was broken and forming a deadly point, that was the interesting end.

After fully reeling in the second to last fragment and having secured it in his soul net, he could finally release his threads and put them to good use.

He let out a low groan as he extended them out, every inch he made them elongate made him feel like someone was ripping out his fingernails, before he sent the ethereal threads to their next target.

They passed harmlessly through the encroaching raven, the beast none the wiser to their existence, however it wasn't the final fragment he was aiming for. Instead, he cast his line towards one of the discarded mannequins that rested beside the nest.

Even though it was just a torso with a single arm and a head, it was all he needed.

As the vile bird loomed over him, casting its shadow across his pale and decrepit form, he could almost feel the rage and sadistic pleasure radiating out of it. The beast raised one of the talons of its non-injured leg, before plunging it into the flesh of Seth's own leg.

He grit his teeth, creating a wall that held back the cry of pain that tried to escape the prison of his ruined body as the talon pierced his feeble flesh. Even though he could feel the natural dagger scraping against his bone, he didn't give in.

Using the pain to his advantage, giving a clear target to his last remnants of focus. Channelling everything through the threads; every ounce of agony he had felt, every moment of torment, every curse to the gods, every fibre of rage at whatever entity forced this existence upon his world.

He pushed it all through the threads and forced it into the discarded mannequin.

The plastic mouth cracked as it forced itself open for the first time in its existence and, despite the lack of lungs, it drew in the air like nothing else mattered.

As the raven leaned down, strings of spittle bridging the gap of its gaping maw as it moved closer to Seth's head, the mannequin released all that air in a single, bone chilling wail of hellish agony that would make banshees tremble in fear.

RRAAAAAAAAAUUGGHHHH!

The deathly scream tore through the building like a tidal wave, barrelling its way out into the street where it echoed throughout the surrounding area of the city.

Whipping its head around, the raven let out a cry of its own, filled with fury at the appearance of a new intruder that was interrupting its meal.

But before it could even process the fact that there was no one else there, Seth snatched the bone shard from the ground and plunged it towards his target, the still blood seeping wound on its neck from where Sirius had burned it and Coal had pierced his whip.

Ramming the sharpened bone deep into the wound, he kept a firm grip on it. The beast let out a wail of pain, yet it was nothing compared to its own, and as it stumbled back it dragged Seth onto his feet along with it.

He tore the bone before mercilessly stabbing it back in, never giving the beast a moment to recover. Even when it stumbled over its broken foot and collapsed to the ground, Seth never relented.

Pinning its head down with his foot, he rammed the makeshift sword into it over and over, blood splattering across the room and painting his face.

A single word echoing through his mind every time he plunged the bone fragment deep into the throat of the raven that had cut off his arm. The one that had killed so many of his friends.

'Die. Die. Die. DIE. DIE! DIIIEE!'

Even when it had stopped moving, when the fire of its soul was extinguished and more of its blood covered the floor and Seth's clothing than remained in its body, did he keep stabbing it.

His mind clouded in rage as it all flooded back to him, the red veil smothering out all sense and reason.

He stabbed its neck, its eye, its head, its chest. And when the fragment broke and lost its edge, he simply wailed on it and bludgeoned its corpse with the other end.

Only when his fingers trembled and no longer had the energy to hold on to the weapon, did it finally clatter to the ground. His chest heaved up and down, his lungs burning with every laboured breath.

He stumbled back a few steps before his legs turned to jelly and he collapsed once more. Soon the red of his vision was replaced with black as the last slivers of energy slipped out of his body and he returned to the sandman's warm embrace.

In the last moments before he lost consciousness, a familiar and comforting voice whispered in his mind, calming his turbulent emotions as it uttered a single phrase.

[Congratulations, You've earned a Requital.]