What's this? Actual art from me!? Yeah, I know...I actually started this about 2 months ago, started from the bottom up, got part of the boots done and then I left it for about a month before I then finished the boots...left it another few weeks, did some parts of the legs...and then a few days later I started working on it properly, a few hours each day.
This is the end result...it's still very flawed and there are a lot of things I'm unhappy about with it and many ways in which I envisioned it to be different but meh, can't win them all.

Due to the nature of my sessions on this being far apart, you may notice that the colours and style don't quite fit together as well as they should and just...yeah.
Sorting out the head and tail was a pain to do and I know they look horrible but I didn't feel like starting from scratch with them so I used some refs made by  Vosur and tweaked them a little. For the purpose of this image Flames had to be grey or at worst, a highly unsaturated orange with faded red streaks in certain places. Unfortunately this never looked good and this is the best I could do.

Originally this wasn't going to be so cliche and doomy, so no blood and the sword was going to be less...well, bloody and generally very different. I started off with the vaguely blood like markings in the blade and handle, finished the sword, moved on to the head and tail and eventually ended up just splashing more blood here and there and made a vaguely apocalyptic background, both of which actually have a purpose despite being done pretty much on the spot without much thinking (much like the design of the blade...nah, the art in general)

(Wall of text much?)
But yeah, time for explanations. There's probably only one person besides me who knows what this is and even that may be stretching it so basically...in Flames' story I once wrote an alternate timeline (which is actually the original timeline that was erased) in which there is a deadly virus unlike anything anyone has ever seen. Flames is infected on a mission, virus spreads, escapes, infects both ally and foe, etc, etc, Flames has highest concentration, unlikely to live, is put in coma...resistance finds a way to purge the virus and use it's physics-defying properties as an energy source/power enhancer/general McGuffin.
Flames, his wounds unable to heal properly after all his time under treatment awakens alone in the base and knowing that his time is short wishes to do all he can for the resistance. He stumbles upon the experimental Protovirus Armour which is highly unstable and uses the virus as its power source. It brings a great surge to the user's body but also drastically cuts their lifespan as it sucks on their very life force in addition to the virus.
Flames, with such a massive concentration (which is partly why his fur is grey) is essentially having his own body cells be destroyed by this armour and his whole body is now essentially an unstable bomb of otherworldly energy waiting to go off, any major damage being more than enough to kill him. With only a few hours left to live and the armour and the virus both the only thing keeping him alive (ironically, only by having them consume him can he remain alive at this stage) he grabs the Crimson Shinigami, an ancient blade, and rushes into battle as the world appears to end around him...


Sorry for the massive walls of text, I don't expect anybody to read most of that, let alone all of it. I had more stuff to say but I've forgotten >.<