So, I might have done something stupid.

I was getting bored with management duty and I decided to go blow off some steam... So I went and slaughtered a church...

Now before anyone panics, as much as I would have no qualms about slaughtering a church of innocent god fearing civilians these were Archangel servants. Not the militant kind like my good buddy over at Halo Break, but more passive let's wait for The Archangel to claim us kind.I know that this probably didn't upset The Archangel at all really... Just made him stronger actually, but it made me feel better regardless... Unfortunately now The more militant side in the area is actively trying to find me and exact revenge. Not likely to happen, but it was still probably not the brightest idea to make an enemy while I'm still working on gathering new recruits.

So, no worries I'll be fine probably, but we might have to move once Sandy, Ryan and The Facet get back from their respective jobs.

Speaking of note to self... If I intend to fight The Archangel and The Convocation I should probably start gathering incendiary weaponry again...

God I hate using Fire Weapons... Fire makes me feel so... uncomfortable...

Ryan here

Name's Ryan. So, I'm part of this Children of Nothing Cult now. Which means I get magic powers and stuff! It's pretty awesome... I mean a couple of days ago the only thing I had to look forward to was getting shot dead, but now I've got magical powers.

Too bad the boss won't let me have a cool nickname... I mean he gets to be called The faceless Bastard and the other guy gets to be called The Facet, but I don't get a nickname? Although I guess the girl is just called Sandy apparently...

Whatever even without a cool name this is still awesome... I was told I should talk about myself... Specifically why I want to have the world be erased... Well... Er I don't really... I mean I don't mind... Don't really care one way in the other, but it was either that or death... see... I kind of maybe sort of dealt drugs... and I might have sort of... sold not so real drugs? Like there'd be a bit of the real thing in there, but also lots of cheap shit so I could sell more of the stuff... It was pretty sweet. I'd sell like a bag full of like a quarter of cocaine and like 3 quarters sugar and make a ton of money, but um people don't like that. See they don't like being ripped off and normally I'd get the fuck out after making a sale, but... Er apparently one of my buyers this time was a big shot of sorts and he caught me trying to leave town. He was gonna have me killed, but The cult guys or I guess the god of the cult he protected me. No one could see me and I was able to get out of the guys place somehow... I don't quite know how... I didn't know the way out, but I like ran and I think I got pulled into a mirror or something and then emerged back at my house where Sandy found me and then she brought me to this place.

I owe these guys my life and I never much liked this world anyway so who cares what they're gonna do with it.

---------------------

Okay... So that was Ryan... The World's dumbest Drug Dealer... Alright Coda why the fuck did we need this guy?

I mean the original Children had a couple of losers, but at least most of them weren't complete screw ups and we get Sandy and this guy? This is to punish me isn't it? For killing the original Children right?

Whatever... Next person better be good...

What am I even doing with my life now?

Okay... I slept a bit longer than I intended to, but at least my injuries are healing nicely...

I may have slept almost a whole day...  Possibly a whole day... Stuff happened while I was asleep though.

For one thing Sandy returned with a new recruit... His name is Ryan... The moment he found out he was being essentially conscripted into a supernatural cult, however he wanted to be called Shadow... We're calling him Ryan. I mean technically I suppose he should be called 2, but fuck that shit...

I'll probably get him to write up a post or something... The Facet still has access to the Children's Blog, but I don't really want to use it so, I guess unless I want to figure out his deal and write it down myself, I'll have to let someone else post on my precious blog...

More importantly...

I talked to the voice in my head and got some answers... Kind of...

So, when I questioned the voice speaking to me about who it was, it ignored me at first and so I told it I know it's not The Quiet and that this is all some kind of scam at which point it responded.

"It's no scam... We are not the Quiet, but nothing we have said is untrue... We seek as well the coming of The Quiet and are doing what we can to bring forth it's arrival. The only falsehood has been our identity and perhaps we could tell you... We are The Choir, but not..." they answered.

"What does that mean?"

"The Choir is... Almost like a hivemind, like EAT or The Convocation, but not... We are more like The Dying Man... Part of one entity, but separated. Many minds making up one mass and mostly working together to achieve our goals, occasionally, however there is strife... We are a Rogue Choir Mind... Imagine if part of your conscious mind just suddenly decided to think it's own thoughts. That is what we are... If you wish to refer to us specifically... You may call us Coda. We feel that would be appropriate,"

"I don't know what that is so I'll just take you at your word... So, next question why?"

"Sorry?"

"Why do you want The Quiet to end this universe?"

"Because we are bored with it. This universe bores us and we wish it to end. We will remain and end with it and we will be alleviated of our boredom," it answered.

"Oh well... That's a reason I suppose,"

"Of course as you undoubtedly already know we are not the entirety of The Children's Benefactors... There are two others who work with us. We provide the illusions and the messages, the others provide the knowledge and the protections that keep The Children safe and working. Though you yourself succeeded in circumventing our protection once,"

"Oh right that's a good point... Why the hell did you want me dead? If you're the one giving the orders then you were the one who ordered my 'erasure'"

"We... Regret that-"

"-Because it turned out bad?"

"Yes, we figured you for a threat... That eventually your masters would send you after us either way so we sought to eliminate you first... It was a poor decision... We should have approached it more... Intelligently... Had we known what your daughter knew about your past we would have sent her and your son more diplomatically..."

"Probably still wouldn't have worked,"

"You are correct... They hated you and wanted you dead,"

"Not what I was thinking, but yeah that too..."

"Are you satisfied with our answers for now?"

"I suppose so... Although I would like to point out... We are not friends... We are allies, because I can't currently kill you, but you tried to have me killed and you bear responsibility for all that has happened to me since that decision, but luckily for you... I hate The Convocation and That pompous Archangel asshole even more. So, we're allies and I will help you bring the Quiet and end this worthless universe,"

"That is an acceptable arrangement," it said and then I woke up... That entire conversation having happened in a dream in which I thought I had already been awake. I'm fairly sure the conversation was real though... Probably... Anyway not much else to say and I need to go have a talk with The Facet about some things... Nothing important, just talk about future plans and stuff..."

The first day of the rest of my life...

So, still healing up...

I'm in charge of The Children now which means all three of us plus one guy who's imprisoned somewhere. Cool... That might change though. The "Vast Emptiness That Brings Peace" is still trying to talk to me so I suppose I might start listening to it... It seems to want me to get more people anyway... So... I'm not really able to move much at the moment, but I sent Sandy out to check on one of the recent names I was given, meanwhile I decided I should try to learn what I can about this organization... So, I had a conversation with The Facet.

"So, this voice that talks to me isn't The Quiet," I told him.

"I know. I'm a Fear I'm aware of things you humans aren't,"

"You know who it is then?"

"Who they are you mean?"

"There's more than one?"

"Well yes in one way and then yes in another way,"

"As your leader I order you to not give me that vague bullshit..."

"I was never much for following orders... But I will say this... The Vast Emptiness is a group of beings... One of whom is itself a group of beings,"

"Oh... Are They Fears?"

"Yes..."

"Which ones?"

"You should have figured that out by now. You tell me?"

"... I was thinking The Choir was involved somehow... I mean I thought about The Rake, but he only whispers to people when they are asleep... At least I think,"

"You are correct..."

"It is The Choir?"

"No I meant about The Rake only talking to people in their sleep,"

"Oh... But it is The Choir right? I mean voices in my head telling me what to do seems like them?"

"Yes it does..."

"You're not going to be helpful at all are you?"

"Maybe try asking them directly?"

"Alright I will..."

"Good. Let me know what you find out,"

"I'll do that..."

I have not done either thing yet... The voices are... kind of creepy and I'm not entirely sure I want to try talking back to them... Not just yet anyway.

Oh and of course even though I've accepted the role of Zero I'm not fucking calling myself zero that's fucking stupid. I'm still The Faceless Bastard... Anyway I'm still suffering a number of injuries and I think I'm gonna take a rest...

And all endings must involve things... Probably... Or I guess sometimes a lack of things... I blew the cool poetic title on the build up post and realized I didn't have anything for this one, bite me...

So, I went and checked out this intruder and found Zero waiting for me... I'm not stupid. I knew what was up the moment I saw her. I approached cautiously.

"Great timing. Showing up while I'm in a cemetary... You need something, Archangel?"

Zero shook her head and simply remained standing there. I wasn't entirely sure what it wanted, but it's presence was unnerving.

I didn't have much more time to think about it as Nathan arrived. He was wearing the mask again. That strange chef's hat mask.

It occurred to me that I recognized that mask... When I had worked for The Convocation there had been talk of a Fear Mercenary. A servant not to one Fear, but almost all of them. Doing jobs for each of them as some sort of arbiter and blessed with power from each of his patrons... This was him... The Fear Arbiter. Well... That explained a lot... It might even explain The Archangel's presence.

The stories said that The archangel had never approved of The Arbiter's existence... There was supposed to be some animosity there... Had The Archangel come to watch the fight? Surely he could have done that without making his presence known... Was he going to get involved? His help would be useful, but I hoped not. I wanted to settle this myself. I approached Nathan and pointed my Machete at him.  He had been staring at The Archangel, but turned his attention back to me.

"You ready to end this? You ready to die on the ground that sits above your sister's corpse?" I asked. Pissing people off was always one of my favourite parts of fighting, but it was arguably stupid here. I mean the guy was, as he said, as pissed off as he'd ever be and could already crush me like a bug, so trying to make him angrier, was probably really really stupid. Regardless it didn't work anyway.

"Yes," he simply responded and then glanced at The Archangel again, "Who is that? A friend of yours?" he asked. I was a little shocked. It was strange to me that he couldn't tell The Archangel, though I guess he didn't know about Zero... He wasn't one of the children... He was just related to one of their members. So, seeing Zero didn't mean anything to him. This revelation did not, however, at the time present any advantage, so I simply shrugged.

"No friend of mine," I responded and then charged at him. I swung my machete and he sidestepped, hesitating just slightly, as he glanced between where I assume my copy was and then where I was before grabbing my head, pulling me forward and slamming his knee into my gut. There was probably a knack to fighting with the copies that I hadn't quite figured out. I coughed and then he stepped aside and slammed my face into a gravestone. I'm fairly sure I lost a couple of teeth and my nose was bleeding... It hurt...

He released me as I crumpled to my knees. Maybe this wasn't such a great plan... I was beginning to regret... Pretty much everything...

I managed to lift my head. He was waiting for me. Just standing there. The fight wasn't over yet. I stood up, using the gravestone to support me. I raised my machete again and slurred out a taunt.

"I thought you were tough, but that was like being savaged by a pillow," I responded... Blood dripping from my mouth and nose... One eye probably starting to swell up... Yep Sergei... You definitely showed him...

I think my mind might have shut down a bit at this point as I only vaguely remember the next few clashes, but he definitely broke the fingers of my left hand... Luckily I'm right handed... and if he hadn't snapped my machete in half and tossed both halfs away at some other point in the fight that might have been useful...

The next thing I remember clearly... Well through a haze of pain and blood at least, was being tossed at a gravestone which fell over. He was coming at me and I in desperation grabbed the gravestone with my right hand and flung it towards him... Dislocating my shoulder and sending it a measly and inneffectual foot through the air... He stared at me with something close to pity, before continuing towards me. I forced my arm back in to its socket. I mean it's not like the extra pain was going to slow me down much at this point and I would definitely need at least one working arm if I was going to survive this.

I scrambled through the cemetary desperate to find a weapon. He was leisurely following me. It was at this point that the thought had occurred to me and I yelled back at him.

"It's still daytime! We could have been doing this by moonlight, you lack any sense of drama you fuck!" I yelled. Luckily there weren't many people in the cemetary... Or any at this point... Probably anyone who might have seen the fighting had fled. There might have been cops on the way... I don't know... Man I was and am really pissed that he didn't wait until the moonlight...

Anyway while I was focused on this I tripped and fell and felt something cut into my skin... It was the top half of my machete. I grabbed it, the blade cut into my hand, but I held it tightly. He was still approaching.

An idea formed and I waited, pretending to be tired and unable to continue. Which... Not that far off of the truth honestly.

When he got close enough, I suddenly sprang stabbing the machete blade into his knee. He let out a sound more of surprise than pain and kicked me hard in the ribs. I'm fairly sure some of them cracked... Shattered more like... however, as he kicked me all his weight fell on the leg with my machete in it and it crumpled under him. The blade mangling his knee as he fell and I grabbed it and yanked it out stabbing it into his gut and pulling upwards, he let out a hiss of pain and grabbed hold of me even as his guts began spilling out and pulled me forward. I don't know what he was planning, but I pulled the machete blade out of his chest and stabbed it into his throat and he stopped. His eyes stared at me and he opened his mouth, but no sound came out and then I heard footsteps and an all too familiar click from behind me. I dived out of the way instinctively, crashing against a gravestone as the shotgun blast went by me and took off most of Nathan's face. He crumpled to the ground and I turned to see The Archangel approaching, it was no longer wearing Zero, but was now wearing 4. Nathan's sister. It leveled the gun at me.

"What... The Fuck?" I asked far too tired and beaten to deal with The Archangel's shit.

"Well... Let's see if I can explain it in a way you'll understand. I wanted him dead and everyone wants you dead. So, I thought I'd let you two kill each other and then claim the winner. Is that simple enough for you?" it asked and I simply glared at it.

"Dick move..." I said and it simply pointed the gun at me as it's form changed into that of my daughter.

"Not joining me in hell like I asked wasn't very nice either. Mom, Harold and I are waiting for you," it responded and my eyes narrowed.

"Fuck you... Archie" I responded and it pulled the trigger, but I was gone. I didn't want to have to do it... I had promised myself I would not flee into this strange domain during the fight with Nathan, but technically The Fight with Nathan had ended by that point so I feel justified. I exited the domain again somewhere random and yet someone was waiting for me there and the place wasn't... random at all... It was my old house... The one that burned down and waiting for me there were Sandy and The Facet.

I'm dictating this to The Facet who is typing for me. We're not at my house anymore. I left my laptop at the graveyard so, I'm using a new laptop The Facet lifted for me.

I've made my decision. I will lead The Children of Nothing on one condition. We have to find some way to fuck over The Convocation and The Archangel then we can bring The Quiet or whatever... It's not like I give a shit what happens to this world now.

To all things an ending...

But this will not be mine.

I had come to a conclusion... Without help or hope I would stand up to Nathan... I would fight him and I would win.

There would be no tricks here as it seemed Nathan had already worked out the defense mechanism seemingly given what happened at O'briens, so I would have no protection here... Nothing, but my wits, my strength and my skill.

That's all I ever needed.

The question now was where should we have our grand final battle.

I found the perfect place. Apparently Nathan's sister had been buried as an unknown since she didn't have any identification, but being the one who killed her... with a little difficulty I could find where she had been buried... I figured killing her brother on her grave would be fitting. So, I reused an old trick... The same one I used to call out The Facet... I left a bunch of notes around for Nathan telling him where to find me... I'm waiting at the grave now... I doubt he'll take long to show up...

There's a full moon tonight... Not by choice, but that is just perfect. If it was me I'd wait until night to show up so we could fight by moonlight, but I don't know if he has the same flair for the dramatic. Guess we'll find out... I brought a shovel so if anyone questions my loitering around I just tell them I'm on break... I killed the real gravedigger already so no chance of getting caught out...

Someone is here... It feels... Wrong... I don't think it's Nathan, but it's not someone normal... I'm gonna go check it out...

Alright, alright alright alrightalrightalright

Okay, so taking stock... The Facet is still alive and has sent me a nice little message. Not the one you may have seen in the comments another one.

It was delivered via phone call. Apparently he assumed I'd be more willing to listen and not try to kill him if he wasn't physically there... He was partially right. I still hung up on him about four times before he managed to inform me, 1 is also still alive. That I never even really came close to wiping out the Children entirely.

Honestly it made a lot of sense and I am surprised I didn't think about it before...

The Archive weren't going to kill him. I mean they might have at one point, but as the probably very soon only remaining member of a new type of servant with strange abilities they weren't just going to throw that away no matter how much they hated him personally.

They instead locked him away to experiment on and learn what they could about The Children.

So, yeah I never really managed to kill 9 or 1. That's 2 failures out of 13 possible.

Still pretty good, but a farcry from my initial goal of 100% success rate. Now you might be thinking I could always just go kill him at the archive, but that's not very likely. The Archive are very very good at dealing with hostile servants and the only advantage I'd have now is the same defense mechanism I personally told them how to get around, so no... I may be good, but I don't think I could kill my way through the entire Archive to kill 1... He's safer there than almost anywhere else in the world and that pisses me off.

So, at current the number of surviving Children is 4... Oh right... That was another thing. Sandy is one of The Children of Nothing now apparently... At least according to 9 and I confirmed she has the defense mechanism... Apparently I unintentionally made her part of it...


So, yeah Myself, begrudgingly, Sandy accidentally, 9 and 1 are the current membership of The Children of Nothing.

Also, you might be wondering why after finding this out I did not immediately kill Sandy...

Well I can't... Not that I'm physically incapable, but I don't want too... I mean it's not some personal attachment to her or anything, but I feel comfortable having her here... She's a tether linking me back to the times when things were simple and I ruled a neighbourhood with an iron fist.

So, I can't kill her... Not until I've returned my life to that at least...

Anyway... The point is... My vow is now completely impossible to perform... I don't think killing The Facet will actually be possible. My one shot to do so already failed me and it won't work again. 1 is outside my reach, I don't want to kill Sandy just yet at least and I'm certainly not killing me... So, considering the impossibility and the continued threat of Nathan... Why don't I accept The Facet's proposal...

Honestly I've thought about it... A few times now... It's kind of a win win... I'd get rid of Nathan, I'd be in charge of something I could rule with an iron fist again and it would really really piss off The Convocation. I mean I haven't had much time to think about it, but I hate them... I hate everything about them. They ruined my life. I've been too busy to really think about my revenge, but I'm thinking about it now. Pissing off The Convocation is top of my list now.

Anyway sorry right... So given all those benefits, why wouldn't I accept the proposal...

Well there's one con that balances against all those pros and tips the scale in the cons favour...

 and here it is...

 FUCK THAT ARROGANT PRICK IN HIS SMUG FACE! I am The Faceless Bastard. It doesn't matter who the enemy is I don't need some smarmy fuck to help me out. I'll kill Nathan with my own hands and then... MAYBE! MAYBE we'll talk about the future of The Children of Nothing.

Got it?

Good...