Devils That Hide in the Shadows of Humanity Bleed Freely (Shi or Yam)

It was the rhythm to herald the coming of a savior whose feet blackened the earth with each soundless footfall. A rather muscular man with foreign clothing strutted along the streets with a strange and ornate blade of dark composition but sacred persuasion, his well-toned arms and barreled chest staying upright and straight with every step taken. The sword in the sling on his back clanged and clicked as its makeshift sling shuffled against the man's bareback. He walked, naked and with purpose through a vast desert towards a shining, bright gem of a city.

"Las Vegas," he muttered under his breathing. He had much to learn of this era, having only recently awoken. In his time as a paladin, he had known that large cities festered with sin. Where there was sin, there were dark creatures. He could not have been certain that these creatures were off the undead under usual circumstance, but he could feel them. All around him, in every direction like little needles pricking his head. These little pricks were like markers, or signs that lead to them. The undead festered in the desert, but the creature he sought was not so far away from the streets of mortals.

No. He strode along towards a single point in space. A little, tiny dot that seemed to linger in the same exact spot. He had been walking for days, and now finally he could see it-- the festering wound on the skin of this country. Or at least, one festering wound that drew him in. Occasionally, he would see the eyeless little girl, black pits in her skull that were as the greatest abyss he had stared into. They crawled right back into him, and his sword shivered. She would be off in the distance, pointing the way for him. He had been walking for days, maybe weeks and now, before him he felt his quarry stronger than ever. He tried to anticipate what it may be. Perhaps, a werewolf? A strong, brutal creature that fed on the corpses of men it had slain would not hide so easily in a city. Perhaps, a traditional Vampire, or even a Ulpyr? No. He assumed these people were of the same caliber of religiously paranoid that his long dead affiliations had been. They would notice if their was a vampire in their midst.

This was all conjecture however. The more he pondered on what his prey might be, the closer he came to the edge of the city. As hours passed and day turned to night, desert sand became as cement. Soon, his naked form walked down the Vegas streets, catching glares from the populace before he found himself invited down an alley way by a man in a long, black coat.

"Lose something?" The man's words were the hiss of a snake, coiling around the Death Knight's feet with an intent that he recognized. He approached the man, no warning to his actions and grabbed the stranger by the throat and pinned him to the wall, his face revealed in the dim light cast from an out of view street lamp. His features were fair, his hair long and black. His eyes were wide with terror. The little girl appeared next to the Death Knight, and nodded, whispered thoughts into his head that only he could hear. Talis' mouth opened wide, his glistening fangs revealed his ravenous appetite to serve his master. A scream rang out briefly and was silenced in due measure, like the wind dying to make way for the still of the storm's prelude.

He emerged from the alley, wiping blood from his mouth. He took now pleasure or disgust from the action, and had already donned the stranger's clothes. The pants were a bit large, but a length of the man's still bleeding intestines proved enough to hold the strange material around his waist. The fabric of the man's gray shirt was light and comfortable, but did not feel as though it would last. The most important thing was the mans black long-coat. It fit over his body just right, and concealed his sword underneath after he re-positioned it to his side. He began to move down the sidewalk again, leaving the man's corpse to be discovered nude in the alley that shrank into the darkness behind him. He felt that his prey was growing closer and stopped, raising his head to the surroundings and taking a sniff. So much blood, in his former life he may have gone mad.

His prey was still a long way into this den of debauchery the humans called a city. He ventured further down the side walk, bumping into people and paying them little-to-no mind, focused on his singular purpose. Come out from hiding, he thought eagerly. You can not escape death forever, creature.

His feet were swift as he moved on the roof-tops of Vegas. The bustling was so full of vibrant colors and lights, and with all the glorious ‘sins’ that the humans indulged were enough to make a spirit sick. But it was not these ‘sins’ that brought Shi here. No in fact what brought him here was the feeling of life. IT gave off a vibe, an aura that just let him relax and finally feel at peace. The sins did not bother Shi, they would answer for it one day…the day that the grand Dragon spirit Death judged them and was able to take punitive actions while forming their next life for them.  
Of course no ‘vacation’ would be complete without taking out a few bad guys. Shi would prowl the streets, dressed up in his traditional armor, wearing the straw hat. He even made the mistake of going to an ‘Authentic’ Japanese restaurant. They mistook him for the entertainment. Some man began insulting him asking him if he had even seen people make sushi before. Shi removed his mask and gave the man a heart-attack on accident. Put at leas the guy knew the answer…which was oddly enough ‘no’. Shi had never seen traditional sushi making. He was a trained warrior, not a housewife. 
Now Shi was busy just walking around, trying to ignore the several prostitutes that petitioned for his attentions. He just kept walking, refusing to give attention to those who touched him. He eventually found himself at a hotel and casino. He had heard of these places but never visited. He decided to ‘test his luck’ while there, and ended up at a blackjack table. Apparently you needed to get all the cards to reveal twenty one. Needless enough to say Shi lost a little money, than hit it big. On his way out he handed the slip to a person and just walked away, not even thinking of the monetary gain he would have just gained. Then again, Death had no need for money. But it had hit him. There was another presence in the distance. Not too far, but close enough to make his hair stand on end. To hide your energy amongst the normal living was a clever strategy, and it reminded Shi of the time he tried to draw out and confuse Rai. Sadly, for this thing, it was pretty awful at hiding, or it was dead since Shi could hone in on it quickly.  Shi knew not what it was, but he made a normal haste to it, not bothering to shadow step in public or draw attention. Shi did it as fast as he could and he made it to the point where he believed that the eerie energy was coming from, only to find that it had moved. He let out a little snarl as he looked to feel yet another quickly approaching energy, but this one was much harder to feel. But WHY it was harder to feel is what made Shi nervous. This second energy was so similar to Shi’s, he had not picked up on it earlier. To the mortal expression ‘My blood ran cold’ finally made sense. Someone or something was here and imbued with his energies. He hurried to the edge of the city, in the same direction as the other energy.
Low and behold Shi now felt the energies moving ever faster. Shi began to try and calculate where he believed they would next go, and so he went to head them off. The energies became much clearer as he came closer and closer. He finally resorted to going into an ally and Shadow Stwpping his way to the cut off point.
Shi had a vision, a little girl, but beyond that image he could see nothing else. There was sudden overwhelming power of Death in the area, to the point that any ‘human’ attempting to dabble in the arcane could have felt it with little focus. Shi stopped his shadow step to see a black robed man hissing curses as if he were a snake. It had just been utterly decimated by a man who just unsheathed his sword. This however was no normal man. He was a Death Knight. The feeling of his own energies coursed through this ‘man’ and it made Shi wary.  His Knights were all dead, were they not? Shj himself began recounting the names of the Death Knights he had ‘called home’ to enjoy eternity with him as his guests and family.
  ”Seith, Jahruun, Frodnir, Sevlan, Kex and Hex, Mara, Hermonia, Porothin, Latias…” Shi’s eyes widened in shock. As the Dragon spirit inside him suddenly came to the realization that there was one Death Knight un accounted for. ”Talis…” The spirit said longingly, as if he were a child, and Death the father. The Spirit was sick that it had forgotten its favored son. 
”There is another? But My clan is dead…and he was not one of them.” the human incarnate wondered to himself. The Spirit shook his head.
”Your clan was only in your lands. Death Knights were almost omnipresent. They were my favored…the ones that I believed I could use.  In my time as Evil, My Death Knights were my most loyal soldiers…. The Spirit reminded. It was hard, being a human that was becoming the spirit of Death. In a few centuries Shi would be Death itself. A time long off, but not as long as one would think.
  ” The first duty is to glorify me. This demands that all foes the Death Knight faces in battle fall before his blade. He is not to spare anyone, the exception being at my command. The second duty is to the Sanctity of Death: The Death Knight must control the undead when they rampage, and end all mockeries to death without discrimination. The Death Knight is never to engage in necromancy; I shall strip them of their powers and curse them in ways so dreadful I only needed to make an example of one. They must never attempt to take my power for their own, as Necromancers do. In fact I ordered all necromancers be killed, If they needed MY powers I would grant them and be sure to make it clear that it was my blessing. The final duty is to my honor. Regardless of views of morality and such petty things, a Death Knight's word is his bond. It is the most sacred of the three duties I had instructed. If the Death Knight makes a promise, it is kept no matter what. Even if the Death Knight falls, he would rise again as an abomination to carry out his task until the time had come to an end. However, the Death Knight's honor demands that he repay acts against him. Likewise, kindnesses he shall repay with kindness. The only permissible breaking of the first two duties is under oath, and in those cases if the infractions are severe, retribution is more than justified. The Spirit clarified. Shi didn’t really even listen. He subconsciously already knew this. He saw Talis’ eyes and he smiled, like he was looking at his own brother for the first time.
  Talis was now in civilian clothing, and so Shi followed him, silently and quickly. He was so eager to meet this Talis, an apparently great Death Knight. The only thing Shi wanted more, was to see what he was doing.

As Talis proceeded to walk down the street of Las Vegas a small chill crept up his spine, climbing it as a ladder into the attic of his mind. It was akin to a feeling of being watched, as though something greater was peering through the clouds and starring down at him. He shook off the chill as a dog would water from its fur, his stride only breaking as he traveled into a crowd of civilians. These creatures were so disorganized that he was almost appalled. They traveled in vague directions en masse, writhing together in one ever-changing entity as human beings are so apt to do. He cared not to commune with the mortal rabble. They were simply casualties in his mission that had yet to be.

It was an accepted duty of a Death Knight. Beyond enforcing death, bearing it upon their shoulders. It was why Death Knights were all but stripped of emotional ties when they were changed. The emotions yet remained at the core, deadened so that the Death Knight's hard choices were made easier. Some of the undead-- vampires, werewolves... innocent victims. They struggle for survival, grasping at straws from humanity they've long lost. Talis was charged alongside his brothers with ending their suffering, though many of pleaded for their lives. He did not comprehend why he was different as Vampire that death would choose to evolve him, though he imagined it would be because of his refusal to feed.

These thoughts were trivial and quickly diminished in the Death Knight's mind. The creature he was tracking still thrived deeper inside of the city. He felt his soulblade pulse-- the soul that rested within ached for its objective to be filled. His mighty strides forward cleaved a path open through the crowd, and he paid them no mind as he travelled ever forward.

There had to be a time and a place to meet this Talis character. It was far too coincidental that out of the entire world, Shi would venture from Japan to Vegas and run into the last of the Death Knights. Suddenly, an idea sparked into Shi's mind. The Death Knights were a more elite form of warrior that were had selected by Death right? So since Shi was the Death Incarnate could he not select more to rally for his cause? Of course this is a long stretch, but Shi had the intentions of reforming his clan, the ring od Death. Couldn't he just bring the two concepts together? Death Knight and those who revered the spirit of Death fighting for the same goals. This had him all warm and fuzzy inside, but that was odd for him, so he thought of more morbid things.
Shi continued to follow his 'Favored Knight' with a burning desire in his abdomen. It was a wonderous thing to behold. Every walk sent out a spiritual echo, as if you were in a darkened hallway, endlessly stetching out to each side of eternity. With every step, the spiritual echo could be hearrrd, and while it was heard you could see nothing. It send a chill down his spine, and he loved it. This Death Knight was always the most favored and most beloved because of how seriosuly he acted, how determined he was.
Shi continued to follow, until they would meet the creature this Knight was pursuing. Then Perhaps it would be time for a more formal 're'-introduction.

Talis found himself pausing as he strode through the crowd, a terrible sensation starting to overcome him. In the distant part of this den of humanity's ugly motivations where the creature he hunted lie in wait, he felt several more split off from that singular point. Multiple undead had seemingly split off from the one he had been following, and this gave him pause. He started to run over a list of possibilities in his mind as the busy city sidewalk parted around him while ignored the few rude comments some had slung at him.

The ability to multiply gave him some idea what he could be hunting. He narrowed down the most likely handful of monsters that were likely lurking about now. It could be classic reanimated corpses, spreading infection via bites or other open wounds. Also it could be a certain type of vampire. By the volume of undead that just came from its location, it was likely feeding them its blood to convert them en masse if this proved to be the case. Those two were the most likely with exception to each group. The classic undead wouldn't be an issue if it did prove to be a Draugr or a Ghoul of some sort. The Vampires might be a problem. Certain kinds were stronger and could regenerate, making them more lethal than mere moving corpses by whole leagues.

He steadied his hand firmly upon the blade the rested under his coat and strode forward, heading towards a bar at the end of town though he had yet t realize this was his final destination. If they were indeed vampires, all he would need to do is kill the parent Vampire before sun down the following day. This would kill the others it had created if they'd indeed drank its blood as he had suspected. If not... then there was a whole different issue to be concern about.