The Devil's Puppet

[Zapp]

And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, 'Come and see'. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, 'A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.'

Most normal people would not have known what monstrosity approached; they merely would have assumed it to be another creature of the Phantoms. But Looper had versed himself as well as he could on the Phantoms, and had especially given heed to the Rheinland and Kusarian reports filed about this particularly nasty specimen.

If you could not describe most Phantoms as entirely human on the inside, Syn was the embodiment of the Phantom soul in physical manifestation. His countenance was alien, and as he entered the room (purposely treading heavily upon the metal floor-plating), he favored Looper with a sneer; it looked entirely more malevolent and evil than any form a normal human could take.

"If it isn't the little morsel," he said in a voice that made a mockery of what he was by sounding all too human. He looked on Black Rose's rigid corpse with disdain and barked for an underling to remove it. A Phantom in full armor ran in and ran out faster than humanly possible. "Now that we're alone, maybe you and I can talk..."

He approached Looper with an ease that embodied a cat toying with a cornered mouse, if this fiend could ever be compared to a cat. More like a pack of ravenous wolves toying with a cornered squirrel. "It seems that fate has finally caught up with you, morsel..."

---