"Move it!" Synder commanded shoving Greg along the hard cobblestone like path that they'd been walking on for the past day and a half. "You keeping moving this slow and we'll never get there."
"I'm sorry-" Greg said almost letting his temper flare up on the woman that stood behind him. "I'm just tired.."
That earned him absolutely no sympathy from the woman who shoved him again only this time Greg couldn't keep himself on his feet. He stumbled forward and tried throwing his arms forward to catch himself but only managed to slow him down, but not quite enough to keep himself from scrapping his face on the stones. He let out a groan of pain as he unintentionally touched his face and felt a sting spread throughout the left half of his face, but he didn't say anything just got himself back on his wobbly legs and kept on walking.
The two of them had been walking for over five days and had just gotten on this unforgiving path a yesterday. Greg had no idea where it would lead them too, he had no idea where on Earth they even were anymore. They were no longer in the Void, that much he knew, but that didn't mean that he had a clue about where they were. He was just glad that they weren't in that dark world any longer because Greg would've gone insane not being able to be within the sun's light for one more day.
He never knew just how much he'd appreciated the light from the sun until it was taken away from him and he was plunged into a world where the only light was a faint red glow from the sky. It was just barely enough to see a few feet in front of him. And at times there wasn't any light at all leaving Greg in total darkness. He didn't like to travel in the void during those times, but Synder woulnd't allow it. Whether Greg wanted to or not she'd grab him by his sweater as if it were a scruff and dragged him out.
Yet despite this, Greg had grown to trust Synder because they'd run into several Devil's much larger than anything Greg had seen before. But Synder had fought with and killed off every single Devil that had tried getting at Greg. He'd wanted to try and help her out from time to time and apparently could do it if he truly tried because a lot of Devils try to avoid him at all cost. But with Synder it was a different story. All of the Devils seem to be exited to go toe to toe with her, yet none of them have been able to put up much of a fight for her.
There was even a time with some strange Devil with four spider legs coming out from it's back with large spear-like ends on them. It was one of the only Devils to have nearly killed Synder, or at least it appeared that way to Greg since he saw her getting impaled several times. But fortunately she'd somehow managed to fight it off and killed it after several more minutes of fighting.
She'd still refused to tell Greg the full reason for her saving him but he wasn't really inclined to ask because she did have quite the temper. He'd once witnessed her tear apart a smaller Devil that showed no interest in fighting, it simply just bumped into her and she completely destroyed it. Greg had wanted to ask her what made her have such an explosive temper but he had a feeling that if he did that she'd turn her anger towards him.
"How much further?" Greg asked turning around to see Synder in her human shape. She wore nothing except for a long brown cloak that looked like it had been put through a shredder making her look too much like a hermit.
"We'll get there when we get there boy." She said shouldering past him giving Greg a view of that wicked looking dagger that she'd used to cripple Cerberus with when she'd rescued him from Logan. "But we'll get there faster if you quit complaining and walk."
"I'm sorry for being human." Greg said shooting the Devil a hard look.
"You're not a human boy," she said looking off into the woods after hearing a twig snap. "And the sooner you accept that, the easier things will be for you."
"Whatever that means."
This is really how their conversations went over the past couple weeks it seemed like. Greg would ask an innocent question, and Synder would shoot him down with an aggressive answer. It's not like Greg was trying to get some serious information out of her, he just didn't like walking in silence all the time because then he would start to think about everyone that he'd met in the last month. Namely Flannery and Sonya, he'd find himself wondering what they're doing and if they'd been looking for him and if they were thinking of him as much as he was.
It pained him to think about the two of them especially since he did indeed like them both and got the feeling that they returned his affections. It made it all the worse whenever he'd think about the pain he'd caused Sonya by putting her into a mini coma when he touched her. It hurt to know that the only one that he knew of that'd be able to stand his touch was Flannery and he'd find himself wondering if tht was the only reason he liked her. It scared him to think that, especially when he'd find himself dreaming of her almost everyday. Occasionally Sonya would appear in his dreams instead, but Flannery was the one who dominated his dreams.
And now that he was sitting here thinking of those two another face came to mind. One that he wished would go away and just leave him the hell alone. It was his face, only he knew that it wasn't him. It was Gage that had begun to invade his mind like he'd done so often before, when they were bound to each other. He hated the other boy now because he'd been the one who'd told him to drink Logan's blood and afterwards he'd woken up a hostage to the boy. There were times when Greg's mind would turn dark and sadistic, when he'd think about being able to get his hands around Gage's throat and watch as the life fled from his eyes.
While he was fantasizing over strangling Gage, he felt the slightest of tingles in his left shoulder where the Singed mark was. It acted up every now and then whenever he started thinking like this but it was never as bad as it had originally been. Crippling him with a burning pain that he could on;y describe as someone taking a hot brand to his shoulder over and over until finally either it'd stop or he blacked out. It was during this small tingling when Greg began to notice his body grow cold like it did whenever he touched someone, only this time the very air around him would cool down to a chill and Greg could swear he'd see his breath sometimes. It was a strange and dark feeling but it wasn't something that he shied away from. He liked it, and that scared him a little but he truly did enjoy feeling this strange new darkness come over him. It made him feel stronger and more secure which only made the feeling grow until finally Greg just had to let loose on something.
But he never did. Not until recently at least. He'd get so wrapped up in this darkness that he'd actually lose a bit of himself and he'd find himself waking up far away from Synder with the rotting corpse of some unfortunate Devil laying at his feet. It was almost as if he'd black out and his body would act on it's own and venture off on his own to reek havoc. He'd wondered why Synder never tried stopping him when he did this, or even if she could. Greg's power did work on Hellhounds but it didn't have an immediate effect unless he was experiencing a lot of powerful emotions like fear or rage. But now it almost seemed like he was getting..stronger. Then he remembered Gage's words from that night when he drank from Logan: '..Logan's own Devil blood will mix with yours and you'll be more Devil than human..' The memory of those words was unnerving and Greg felt the air around him grow even colder and soon he saw his breath in the form of a small cloud but he himself wasn't cold.
"Synder- what's happening to me?" Greg practically begged but got no responce, so he turned to look her in the eye but saw that she had vanished. "Synder? Synder? Synder!"
"What?" Her harsh voice said far off to the side and Greg turned to see that she was deep in the trees but was still within eye shot.
"Why're you in there?" Greg asked blankly but she didn't answer him. She merely stayed where she was her face as stoic and unreadable as ever. "What?"
"I don't have any intention of getting swallowed up in that cloud of yours." She finally said and began to back up slightly more.
Again a rush of freezing air now began to wash over Greg's back as he called back. "What do you mean?"
"Look at the tree to your left boy," Synder said still backing up which confused Greg but also slightly angered him. Why was she backing away as if she were afraid of him? "As soon as you become less lethal to the world around you I'll come back. But for now, keep your distance."
She turned around and Greg watched her shift back into her real self before bolting in the opposite direction, putting a lot of distance between the two of them. "Wait what do you-"
Greg stopped and found himself unable to speak when he looked to his left and saw a large oak tree that he knew had been full of life just moments ago, was now withered and rotted as if a century had just passed in mere moments. Greg stared wide eyes at the tree who's bark had once been bright and strong, was now a dark grey color and was blowing away like ash. What's going on with me? Greg thought as he began to back away from the tree and quickly turned around only to find all the other nearby trees were in the exact same condition. Leaves, and bark was falling off of them and blowing away like ash in the wind. The sound of crinkling below his feet brought Greg's attention to the ground and he let out a gasp as he saw that all the grass had been rotted and was practically reduced to dust.
Greg felt his breath begin to quicken as he looked all around him and saw that anything that was even remotely close to him was beginning to wither and die. Fear began to stir with his gut as he turned up the stone path just in time to see a bright butterfly coming out from the woods and began to fly towards him. Greg couldn't help it, his eyes were suddenly glued to the butterfly as he silently prayed that it just flew past him. But he didn't pray hard enough because as soon as it got within five feet of him Greg saw it's bright blue wings darken to a shade of grey before it's entire body just dissolved, rotted away into nothing. And deep within his head almost to the very edge of his consciousness Greg heard someone let out a scream of absolute terror before his eyes shut on him.
He blinked his eyes awake finding himself kneeling down in a clearing somewhere off the stone path and all the grass around him was dead. He felt a wave of confusion wash over him at the sight of this beautiful little clearing had been turned to a field of dead grass. He looked up at the sound of footsteps crunching through the dead grass coming closer to him and saw that Synder was approaching. She was back in her human state her dark unwavering eyes steady as she knelt down in front of him, her cloak's hood drawn off of her head revealing wavy black hair and a surprisingly soft face.
"What happened here?" Greg asked feeling a tear begin to fight it's way through to the surface. "Why am I here around all this dead grass?"
"There's a lot more than just grass that's dead around here Greg. Just look," Synder gestured with her head for Greg to look behind him and so he did though he wish he hadn't. For all around the clearing were the rotting corpses of dozens of birds, squirrels, and even a deer was laying on it's side just a few feet away from him, it's fur and skin had been peeled off leaving nothing but bones. A dead clearing littered with the bones of dozens of animals. "You did that Greg. You killed every single one of them, and you laughed as they lay there dying."
A/N: :O... What did Greg just do?!?! Okay so I won't be making the regular Author's Notes anymore only on important chapters like this. All you guys wanted Greg to be stronger...now you have your wish. :O So sorry for the short chapter but I couldn't think of how I really wanted this to start, is it good enough? And I think I answered a few questions that you all had about Greg drinking Logan's blood. What's happening to our sweet innocent Greg?!?!?!?!?! Pic is David Lambert aka the NEW Greg Allen :D