[Salone]

Lev writhed upon the ground. Agony and pain wracked his blood soaked body. He thrashed in puddles of blood and bone and organ, smearing himself crimson. Inside his skull his brain pressed against itself, swelling from the massive hemorrhaging caused by the venom coursing through him. Blood vessels burst, spewing their precious fluids in to his skull. His mad lashing out became uncontrollable movements as his brain became overloaded. Neurons fired off in insane patterns before dying out. His senses betrayed him with false information, assaulting him with sights and sounds that were now there before they began to slowly fade away. Even the pounding headache threatening to split his head open had began to dull. Everything was so far now. So dreary. So grey and blurry and so hard to...

To see...


Lev Gurevich closed his eyes. The fire in his veins was burning, but not so close now. The rupturing veins spilling out in to his brain were too numerous, too severe. He was too far gone now. The parts of his brain that were in charge of motor control were dying out. His entire nervous system was failing. Breathing became erratic, quick in disjointed breaths, and then ceased.

It was there, in that hellish domain of indescribable torture and torment that Lev Gurevich met his end. After countless wars, famines, torture, he had finally come to rest his fury at the hand of the snake, deception itself made manifest.

It was there that Lev Gurevich died.

No! I will put it back together!

Organs sputtered, choked lazily as they attempted to restart. The heart inside the body of Lev began to pulse weakly. With a low rumbling inhale, his lungs breathed in the putrid, fetid air. Bloodshot eyes opened once again, taking in the ceiling above him but not understanding. The brain itself was still dark. Neurons fired off in to nothing, portions of matter still swam in blood. The actual body was moved as if being controlled by some unseen puppeteer, not by its own will. With jerky movements, an open hand with arched fingers was raised in front of the body's face. It stared in curiosity as it turned the hand slowly one way and then the other. It then placed the hand upon the ground and gave a mighty heave.

The body rose, standing upwards. It stumbled as it brought itself to its bearings. Eyes no longer sending messages to a brain surveyed the scene of chaos before them, the other beings of note that inhabited their view. Then with a voice like oil and grit, it spoke.

"I. Am. MANIFEST! I am FLESH! I am NA'LSA!"