Serpent Reaper Lyrics

What vision, what spectre beguiles my night?
The serpent, the reaper, the slithering scythe
Why do you seek me, what summons this fright?
I've come to collect you, for that is my right
What madness! What horror!
What cruel hand of fate
Come now, don't linger, the maker awaits
Dark menace, harsh master, you fill me with dread
Perhaps then another to fall in your stead?

With stinging fang and deadly coil
A brutal scythe that clefts the heart
Soon your blood begins to boil
Your fraying sanity departs
And as you face your bitter end
The answer cuts just like a knife
All he asks is for your soul
He'll gladly give you back your life
Hand you your life...

What have I become now what must I remain?
An agent of fortune, humanity's band
To skulk in the darkness, the shadow of fear
To revel in dying and bask in the tears
Of innocent victims and battle-torn foes
To lead them to death and to suck out their souls
A god among vermin with death's grinning face
Both master and slave to this fool human race

With poison tooth and writhing coil
A killing tool without a heart
Eternal, fierce, deadly and loyal
My scant humanity departs
And as I face their final hour
At times I'm torn with bitter strife
I steer them down the darkened path
And then I take away their lives
I take their lives...

The days, the years, it's centuries now
Yes, still I did die on that day
Now withered and wise I've grown to despise
Creation and man's wicked ways
Fathers and mothers, their children
Scorned lovers, dear friends
The meek and the mighty
I've taken them all to their end
Princes and beggars my touch is a fate they will share
My one regret is reserved for the wretches I've spared

There was a time I believed in the lie
In honor, in fairy tale dreams
These visions of lives
Shattered in fate's cruel heaving tides
And I can't get them out of my eyes
My blade shapes a race of futility, loss and despair
This gift now a burden beyond what I ever could bear
I can not I will not suffer eternity bound to this place
To rain death and damnation
And end this foul human race!

(Solo - Richards Solo - Corrick)