Chapter Text

"I read of a man who stood to speak

At the funeral of a friend

He referred to the dates on the tombstone

From the beginning...to the end

He noted that first came the date of birth

And spoke the following date with tears,

But he said what mattered most of all

Was the dash between those years

For that dash represents all the time

That they spent alive on earth.

And now only those who loved them

Know what that little line is worth

For it matters not, how much we own,

The cards...the house...the cash.

What matters is how we live and love

And how we spend our dash.

So, think about this long and hard.

Are there things you'd like to change?

For you never know how much time is left

That can still be rearranged.

If we could just slow down enough

To consider what's true and real

And always try to understand

The way other people feel.

And be less quick to anger

And show appreciation more

And love the people in our lives

Like we've never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect

And more often wear a smile,

Remembering this special dash

Might only last a little while

So, when your eulogy is being read

With your life's actions to rehash...

Would you be proud of the things they say

About how you spent YOUR dash?" -Champion Monch of The Sect Of Death.

~~~~~~~~

March 30th, Year 199 AR (After Rebellion)

Several hours after the defeat of The One Who Waits.

In the heart of The Gateway…there was a large, open spot…just a few hours ago, it was occupied by The One Who Waits and his faithful servants, Aym and Baal. The One Who Waits had been defeated by his former vessel, and converted to her cult. And as for his servants…you might think they were killed…

… But what’s already dead cannot die again.

With a loud, piercing scream, the arm of a black cat erupted from the cloud-like floor, followed by the other, and out of the ground crawled Aym, the guardian of impurity.

The feline got to his paws as fast as he could and looked around for someone, soon spotting the arm of another black cat, and upon seeing it, he ran over to it.

“Hey! Brother! Are you okay? Make a fist if you’re stuck!” On cue, the hand of the arm made a fist.

Aym gritted his teeth and grabbed the arm. “Alright, come on, on the count of three, one…two…three- HEAVE!” And with a mighty tug, Baal, the guardian of purity was pulled forth from the ground.

Upon being pulled out, the brothers immediately embraced, both of them panting heavily.

“Aym…? What happened?” Asked Baal, his voice shaky.

“That damned lamb betrayed father! Sh-She killed him and then she killed us!” Aym shouted.

Baal growled in worry. “What are we going to do now?!”

Aym was silent for a moment or two. “...The only thing we CAN do…and that’s take over the domain of death in his abscence…” 

Baal nodded and separated from Aym, calling on his staff, which materialized in his hand. Aym called on his own as well.

“I suppose we’ll…just do our jobs…as if…father were still here.” Said Baal

“And just…take over his duties as well.” Responded Aym.

“But how-” Aym cut Baal off before he could finish his sentence. “We’ll figure it out as we go along. Now come on. Who knows how much has gone wrong since we’ve been dormant.”

Baal sighed and nodded, stepping through a portal to go search for any lost souls in needance of guidance to The Gateway.

Afterwards, Aym popped his neck and walked to a deeper level of The Gateway…all the sinners down there had gone a bit too long without any pain.

July 18th, Year 200 AR

Aym stood at where one of his father’s old chapels used to be, long before it had fallen into ruin. Aym, with a scowl on his face, spat on what was once an altar.

Soon after, his brother, Baal teleported next to him, and placed a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “Aym…It has been months since we found out what happened…you have to m-”

Aym whipped around, his face filled with pure wrath. “Move on? MOVE ON?! Do you even know what he did?! He…He abandoned us! Married the very beast who betrayed him! HASN’T MENTIONED EAR NOR TAIL OF US WHILE ALL FOUR OF HIS SIBLINGS WERE REVIVED!” Aym gnashed his teeth at Baal, black acid dripping from his jaw.

Baal stepped back. “Aym…what’s done is done…there’s nothing we can do about it.”

“...No, Baal. We MUST do something about it. Father betrayed us and went on to live a happy happy life where he just gets to sit on his tail and listen to that lamb blabber, while we’ve been running practically everything for him! And don’t even get me started on that lamb…she left everybeast who wasn’t in her cult to rot away!”

“A-Aym…you’re being irrational! I’m sure she’s trying to work things out behind the scenes!”

“...And what proof of that is there, Baal? We’ve been running the entire domain of death for father’s lazy ass because he was too weak to fight his own vessel, meanwhile, said vessel has done nothing but stand on her stage and go ‘Baa Baa! I’m the Lamb! You should listen to me because I slaughtered the bishops!”

Baal squeezed his eyes shut, unable to formulate a response to his brother.

“Baal. We need to kill The Lamb. Permanently. We need to take over the world. If we don’t..things will only slip deeper and deeper down the chamberpot. We need to teach father a lesson.”

Baal didn’t want to go along with this…but he couldn’t deny…Narinder’s actions had been crappy…and The Lamb’s too… “...Very well, Aym.”

Aym smiled and patted Baal’s shoulder. “Good. Glad you understand, bro. I’ll think of something to do, and then I’ll get back to you, alright?”

“...Alright..”

Aym nodded. “Talk to you later man.” Aym then melted into a puddle of acid, teleporting back to The Gateway.

Baal looked up into the starry night sky…He could already tell the coming days were going to be very…very long.

Chapter Text

July 25th Year 200 AR

Backwoods Of Darkwood

Narinder Thanatos Van Shamura

Narinder, former god of death, sat down on a log in front of a roaring campfire, watching a tuna cook. Recently he had asked Magdalene, also known as The Lamb, to send him on a mission to get some peaceful alone time. 

Of course, Narinder had lied and told her he wanted to go get berries, but something told him she already knew that.

Narinder sighed as he waited…ruminating on past events. In the past few months, not only had he and his former vessel been wed, but his siblings had all been brought back from the dead.

And through it all…his mind had been perfectly quiet. No constant whispering from The Red Crown..encouraging him to commit atrocities in the name of power…almost forcing him to act on his darkest desires. Narinder himself was struggling a bit. For the longest time, the crown had dictated every action he took, if it demanded a sacrifice..Narinder would oblige. If it wanted him to get rid of his siblings-

Narinder shook his head, trying to push those thoughts away. It was just like Magdalene had said. He cannot focus on the past…only look towards the future.

Narinder tried to keep those words in mind..but every time he looked upon his siblings, all he could think about was the day he betrayed all of them. The day he ruined everything for all of them…

But one memory of his was always stronger than the rest…the memory of an atrocity he never had the chance to make up for…

And that was his treatment of his two sons during their childhood.

Narinder recalled taking out every bit of anger he had on the two poor kits, screaming at them for the slightest mistake…barely praising them when they did well..among other things…

Narinder clutched his head, beginning to cry silently from the guilt of it all…How could The Lamb ever have mercy on someone so horrible…? Why does he even bother staying around? All he does is make the lives of those around him worse.

Narinder was snapped out of his thoughts by a sudden rustling behind him. He quickly wiped his tears and straightened himself up…if someone wished to harm him, he couldn’t show any weakness.

Narinder stood up, grabbing a stick and lighting it in the campfire before turning towards the source of the noise.

“...Who’s there?” Narinder said, getting into a defensive position.

The rustling continued until out of the brush…stepped Aym.

Narinder backed away as if he’d just seen a ghost, nearly dropping the burning stick on his paws. “A-Aym-! Y-You’re…!”

Aym smiled unnaturally wide. A smile that almost quite literally went ear to ear. “ Miss me, father? Heheheheh…don’t answer that. I already know the answer.” Said Aym as he began to walk threateningly towards Narinder, who backed away, not being able to get much distance due to the campfire.

Narinder’s  fur bristled out, and his tail began to whip around nervously. “Aym..please..We can work this out. I-I’m sorry I-”

Aym cut him off. “Oh don’t worry father. I’m not going to hurt you. Not yet at least. I just wanted to make myself known, y’know? Check in on you, see how well you were doing since you abandoned me and Baal.” Aym said, gently rubbing the blade of his crescent moon-shaped staffpiece.

“H-How are you alive?”

“Oh I’m still very much dead. Remember? Your sibling stole us away from our mom and crushed us in their hands like grapes. We can’t die again. Only be made dormant.”

“ Aym…look. I’m sorry for ev-”

“It’s too late for that, father. Me and Baal are going to destroy everything you’ve built up. While you’ve been sitting on your fat arse screwing that sheep, me and Baal have been picking up the slack from everything you’ve left behind, and we’re going to take control of this world, and rule it like you never could.”

Narinder began to pant fearfully. “Aym please…I’m sorry for everything…if I’d known you could come back I would’ve told The Lamb about you so she could find a way to bring us back together!” Aym shook his head. “Look at you, floundering…trying your best to make up for actions which are unforgivable. You’re disgusting…father. You really are. You and that lamb are going to suffer, and by the stars you both deserve every bit of it.”  

“ Bloody hell, A-Aym! Please! You’re being-” “Irrational, right? Yeah whatever. Heard it before. Say whatever you want…”

Aym reached right into the campfire and took the tuna right off of it and began to eat it. Neither the fire nor the heat of the tuna appeared to bother him. “Well… Enjoy the coming days, father. Because they’ll be the last days for that miserable cult you ran off to. See ya round.” Aym then melted into acid, and Narinder was alone.

At this, Narinder instantly began to bolt back to The Cult Of The Lamb…he had to warn Magdalene…

Chapter Text

≪•◦ ❈◦•≫ Act One ≪•◦ ❈◦•≫

≪•◦ ❈◦•≫ The Relic Master ≪•◦ ❈◦•≫

July 25th Year 200 AR

Deep In Anura

Magdalene “The Lamb”

The sun was shining, the summer heat was making all animals with thick fur wish they were dead, nobody needed anything around the cult, so Magdalene had decided to go gather some pumpkins from Anura to keep herself occupied.

Magdalene took her time throughout the whole endeavor, attempting to stay in the shade a lot. Under normal circumstances she would just be rather warm, but nowadays she was downright overheating. This could be attributed not only to the thickness of her wool, but the color, seeing as how it had recently, inexplicably turned grey. 

Before Magdalene could complain about the heat to herself some more, she spotted a ruinous but still standing building in the distance, and upon catching sight of the very distinctive stained glass, Magdalene immediately recognized the building as Chemach’s temple.

Magdalene sighed a huge sigh of relief. Chemach’s temple was usually very cold. As Chemach had once told Magdalene; “Chemach needs the temperature low so her followers don’t get sick and die!” Magdalene had never bothered to break Chemach’s delusions, as that might have caused her to stop giving out relics.

Either way, Magdalene was burning up, so she hurried into Chemach’s temple, and of course, hanging from the ceiling and bound by multiple chains, was the woman herself. Mumbling and giggling to herself.

Chemach always had an eerie aura about her, but something today was even more off to Magdalene. She assumed the heat had just made her tired.

It was just then that Chemach noticed Magdalene, and the manic bird snapped her head towards Magdalene and floated over to her. The sounds of chains rattling as she did so. “AAHhhhhhhHHHH! Why helloooo there little lamb! Chemach is pleased to see you again! Chemach had gotten very lonely in her imprisonment. Chemach’s followers are so satisfied in their little lives they don’t even speak to Chemach!” Chemach sputtered out, not even looking at Magdalene, as her eyes were each spinning individually in their sockets.

Magdalene gulped and stepped back, Chemach was already making her uncomfortable.

“Ah ha…Hello there Chemach..I got a bit too hot outside, mind if I just hang out in here for a while?” 

Chemach stared silently at Magdalene for what felt like an eternity before her creaky voice spoke up again. “OOOOOOOOF course you can little lamb! Ahehehehehehehehe! Chemach is always happy to help out a friend!” Chemach then proceeded to do what she thought was gentle ushering, but instead it was more shoving Magdalene over to one of Chemach’s “followers”.

“Sit! SIT DOWN! Chemach insists you stay for S u p p e r.”

Magdalene held her hands up defensively and sat down. The Red Crown was angrily prodding her to strike Chemach, but Magdalene ignored it, as she really was not in the mood to fight, so she complied with Chemach.

Chemach pulled an extremely dirty bowl out of her feathers and proceeded to vomit in it. Afterwards she brought herself down to the ground and began scraping the stone with just her fingerclaws, breaking several of them off in the process. Subsequently, Chemach put both the stone shavings and her fingerclaws into the bowl. Finally, she stirred it all with Kudaii’s Toenail and handed it to Magdalene, who looked at the bowl of indescribable disgust and then back at Chemach with an expression that said ‘Do you really expect me to eat this?’ 

At this, Chemach appeared to be genuinely offended, snatching the bowl away from Magdalene as if she were a spoiled toddler who wished to eat dessert before their main course.

“YOU EAT IT THEN!” Chemach screamed, throwing the bowl at one of her ‘followers’, who fell over, the burlap covering it split open, revealing a molded, almost completely decayed corpse. Festering organs and brown blood spilled all over the ground as maggots and flies swarmed out of the corpse.

Magdalene gulped and stood up.

“Well…thank you Chemach, but I think I’ll be taking my leave now…” Magdalene kept her eyes locked onto Chemach as she turned around, but as soon as she turned around fully, Chemach was standing right in front of her, blocking the exit.

“ But you’ve barely stayed a few minutes. I’m so lonely, little lamb. Ever since my brothers cut my legs off and chained me up here I haven’t any company besides the corpses I pretend are my followers. I can feel myself slipping further and further into madness every day. I’m so far gone I doubt even that cat-”

Chemach suddenly stopped talking and began twitching. Magdalene gulped and nervously tried to back away to the other exit. She already felt unsafe, but now the feeling was even worse than before. But unfortunately for Magdalene, Chemach cut her off again.

“Oooooh…! Chemach sees your horns have grown…”

Magdalene nodded. “Yeah…they uh, started growing like that a while after I beat Narinder. N-Now I really need to-”

“And your grey wool…would make such a nice handle…break your horns off..wrap them in the wool…yes….YES! THAT’S WHAT CHEMACH WILL DO!” 

Magdalene immediately let loose a death’s squall, freezing Chemach long enough to bolt past her, though it wasn’t a large window of time, it was a window of time nonetheless, and Magdalene kept running, Chemach on her heels the whole time. Laughing and screaming at the same time.

Magdalene ran out and slammed the door right in Chemach’s face, who proceeded to strike the door repeatedly in an attempt to break it down. 

“THIS IS NOT OVER LITTLE LAMB! CHEMACH WILL HAVE YOU! AND SHE WILL MAKE THE MOST EXQUISITE OF RELICS FROM YOUR LIFELESS CORPSE!!”

The banging eventually stopped, and Magdalene sat down on a mushroom to catch her breath.

“I told you you should’ve attacked her first.” Said The Red Crown, its voice echoing in Magdalene’s head.

“Shut up..” Magdalene said breathlessly.

“What a failure of a crusade. You didn’t gather any pumpkins, almost got heatstroke, and almost got your organs eaten by a maniac bird.”

Magdalene sat there silently as the crown insulted her for minutes on end, calling her an idiot for doing something so menial in such heat, for letting her guard down, as well as several other things.

Finally, she snapped at it and told it to shut the fuck up, and it grumbled and said no more.

Magdalene stood back up. “But what I want to know is why Chemach is attacking me now…She's been helping me out so much for the past few years.”

The Crown grumbled. “Perhaps the effects of your ascension beginning has enticed her too much to resist…Quite obvious if you ask me.”

The Lamb rolled her eyes and began charging omnipresence. “Whatever. Let's just go back home.”

Chapter Text

July 26th Year 200 AR

The Cult Of The Lamb

Narinder Thanatos Van Shamura

“Out of my way, wanker!” Narinder yelled as he brutishly shoved a follower out of the way. After a day straight of running, he had finally made it back to the cult grounds. He stopped for a moment, taking a moment to thank Lamb for the fact that his vital functions never resumed working after he became a mortal, and then ran into the temple just as the follower he shoved tried to confront him.

“Magdalene! Magdalene! I need to talk to you, NOW!” He shouted, slamming the doors shut behind him.

Magdalene looked up from her podium at Narinder with a shocked expression.

“Huh? Narinder? You’re ba-aa-aa-ack already? What the heck happened?” Magdalene tilted her head in concern at her feline husband.

Narinder slowly walked over to Magdalene, almost falling over several times, and right as he got to her, he tried to speak, only for her to pick him up and lay him over her shoulder, proceeding to carry him to her room and sit him down on her bed. 

“Tch-! Damned lamb, the hell was that for-?”

“Narinder, you look like you’ve been running straight here without breaks for like an entire day- Don’t tell me that’s exactly what you did.”

Narinder crossed his arms and grumbled. Damned lamb…such a bloody know-it-all.

Magdalene rubbed her face before sitting down next to Narinder. “Well look, even if you can’t feel any pain, that doesn’t mean you’re immune to the effects of an entire day of physical activity with no rest, so just lay down and tell me what happened.”

Narinder groaned and laid down, explaining the meeting he had with Aym. Once he finished, he looked back up at Magdalene, who had a worried expression on her face.

“Huh…that’s funny. Because just yesterday…I went pumpkin gathering in Anura, and I ran into Chemach, who tried to kill me. And right before she attacked, she mentioned a cat…”

“...My guess is that Aym convinced her to attack you..” Narinder responded, groaning.

Magdalene was silent for a few moments longer. “Well what do you suppose we do?” She asked.

“I say we bide our time and wait to see what he does next. If Chemach’s all he’s got up his sleeve I daresay we’ll have little to worry about.”

Magdalene sighed and got up. “Alright...Want me to let everybeast know?”

Narinder shook his head. “No…No…It’ll just make them worry.”

Magdalene nodded, giving Narinder a kiss on the head and turning to walk out. “Alright, have a good rest, Nari.”

Narinder looked away shyly. He would have blushed if he could. “Ah- Um, my thanks, Lamb.”

Magdalene giggled and walked out of the room. Narinder went back and forth on whether or not he enjoyed his wife’s affection. Sometimes when he was having a shite day it was just the thing he needed to cheer up a bit, but other days it just reminded him of his lost godhood…something he had been trying to move on from for the past year or so.

Gods…He could almost still hear the voice of that star-forsaken crown..

Narinder shook his head and slung the covers over his head, squeezing his eyes shut and falling into a restless sleep…

May 9th Year 120,022 PL (Post Leshy)

Leshy Debrovko Van Shamura

Darkwood Temple

Leshy stood in his personal chambers, giving his leaf-fur a good grooming. Usually he wouldn’t bother to make himself look all fancy, considering Darkwood was all about chaos, it was a given that he just appeared as he already was, ungroomed and messy.

But today was a special occasion.

For today was the day he was to be wed. He was going to be married to his most loyal follower, Witness Agares.

After a bit longer of grooming, Leshy set his brush down and stared out the open window. He let out a joyful sigh, thinking of his soon-to-be wife and listening to all the hubbub coming from the courtyard. People screaming out lyrics to a darkwoodian powerguitar song under the clear cyan sky.

Leshy was suddenly snapped out of his thoughts by a haunting yowl from behind him. He let out an incredibly girly scream and jumped about ten feet in the air, swinging around to see his older brother Narinder standing there, with a shit-eating grin on his face.

Leshy scoffed and ran over to Narinder, biting him on the hand firmly, but not enough to actually do any damage.

“Cyka Blyat! You scared the shit out of me!” Leshy huffed, stomping his feet childishly.

Narinder simply laughed smugly. “Maybe if you spent more time being aware of your surroundings and less time staring into wankerland you wouldn’t have this issue yeah?”

“You know that’s really hard for me! I have Hey-Dee-Aych or whatever Shamura calls it. And you can’t say anything! You have ass-burgers!” Leshy crossed his arms and let out a ‘hmph!’

Narinder let out a laugh and rolled his eyes. “ADHD and Aspergers.… And that's an extremely outdated term y'know. But in all seriousness though, I’m proud of you. I can tell you and Agares are gonna go a long way together.” He leaned down on to ruffle Leshy’s cheek leaves, resulting in the bushworm unwillingly letting out a few contented squeaks.

“Awwh. Thanks brother.” Leshy said, giving his brother a wide smile.

Narinder suddenly had a serious expression on his face. “Also, uh. Heket wanted me to let you know that if she finds out about you abusing Agares, then she’ll come down to the temple and tear you limb-from-limb.”

Leshy’s eyes widened in horror. “Wha-? But she knows I’d never do that!”

Narinder sucked some air in through his teeth and tilted his head in an arc. “Yeahhhh, but you know the experiences she’s had with romance. She just wants to make sure it doesn’t happen again to somebeast else.”

Leshy sighed and nodded. “Yeah. Guess you’re right.”

Narinder then went over to the window and stared out of it for a few moments. “...How do you listen to this shite, Leshy? It’s so bloody loud it hurts my ears.” 

Leshy scoffed. “Well at least it has lyrics. Unlike that dumb piano music you and ‘mura listen to. That crap’s such a waste of time!”

Narinder turned around to face Leshy once more, raising an eyebrow. “Waste of time, eh?” Narinder then swiftly walked over to Leshy and put him in a headlock. “H-Hey! Let me out you asshat!” Leshy began playfully struggling against his brother, punching him in the side lightly.

Narinder laughed and gave his younger brother a noogie. “Just like you used to say romance was a waste of time huh? Well look at ya now!”

Leshy squealed and wrestled the cat to the ground, his tail wagging happily. Leshy’s playful instincts were beginning to take over, and he hopped up and belly flopped onto Narinder, who yelped and lifted Leshy up by his sides, beginning to spin him around horizontally.

Leshy made indescribable sounds of joy before wiggling out of Narinder’s grasp. He tried to pounce once more, only for Narinder to scramble on top of Leshy and cover his eyes with his arm.

“Ack-! Hey! I can’t see!” Leshy squealed out, trying to push Narinder’s arm off.

“What in THE WORLD are you two doing?!” Rang out a regal voice all of a sudden.

The brothers scrambled to their feet with the knowledge that they were both likely  about to get in trouble. They looked up to see their eldest sibling, Shamura. Standing in the doorway with their hands on their hips and glaring at the brothers in a very disapproving way.

“You two. I expected better conduct from the both of you. Especially you Leshy. I understand that chaos is your domain, but this is your wedding day!”

Leshy scratched the back of his head, embarresment welling up in his chest. He looked over to Narinder, who was pinching a patch of fabric from his robe and rubbing it against itself. His tail was whipping back and forth as well.

“Aha…Sorry ‘mura..” Leshy sputtered out.

“Yeah..we got a bit too carried away.” Narinder mumbled.

Shamura sighed, a ghost of a smile was on their face. “Alright…Just please try to clean yourselves up before the reception starts. And when you roughouse, please try to keep it down. I believed Leshy had gotten hurt somehow.” They then walked away.

Narinder snickered, slowly turning towards Leshy, who began snickering as well.

“Well…I suppose I’d better head out before we start pissing around again.” He said, giving Leshy a wide grin.

Leshy nodded in response. “Agreed. Wouldn’t want Shamura to take away your scythe privileges.”

Narinder sighed. “See you in a bit.” He then sank through a teleportation pentacle, and Leshy quickly got to work re-brushing himself.

July 26th Year 200 AR

The Cult Of The Lamb

Leshy Debrovko Van Shamura

Leshy awoke from his midday nap, sitting up in his bed and stretching his arms. He couldn’t really judge what time it was, but he could feel the sun on his face, so he hadn’t slept past day.

He ‘looked’ to a random spot and sighed…’What a pleasant dream..’ He thought to himself. Had he dreamt it a few years or even weeks back, he would’ve considered it a nightmare; cursing his subconscious for even dredging up the name of that traitor!

But lately, things had changed. For the first few days of being here, Leshy shut himself off from everybeast else, not even bothering to eat. The Lamb all but had to force him at knifepoint to do anything. And one day when he was getting something to eat..he smelt him.

The One Who Waits…Narinder…his brother.

Almost as soon as the two ran into each other, Leshy began screaming at Narinder, giving him the dressing down of his life, telling him off for each of his horrendous actions.

To which Narinder tried to explain, but oddly, not excuse, his actions. Apparently, his crown had been prodding him the whole time..compelling him to commit his atrocities…

Leshy remembered telling his brother that he may never be able to fully forgive him…but he also could never hate him.

Narinder was his brother, he loved him.

The two embraced right then and there.

And over the coming days, the two had gradually begun to repair their lost bond. Narinder was much more of a hardass than he used to be, but Leshy supposed that came naturally with being chained to one spot for over a hundred years.

Leshy even managed to rope Narinder into another roughhousing session.

Leshy chuckled and smiled at the thought.

Leshy then thought of something else he wanted to do, so he hopped out of bed and snagged his walking stick (The Lamb had given it to him a few days after his indoctrination) and headed outside. He sniffed the air for The Lamb. Once he had gotten her scent, he quickly followed it, waving his stick around in front of himself to make sure nothing or nobeast was in his path.

Soon he heard The Lamb’s voice. “Ah, greetings Leshy, is there anything you need from me?”

Leshy cleared his throat. “Yes…If it’s alright with you, I’d like to head out on a walk. I wish to see- or rather smell the nature outside of here once again.”

“Ah…” The Lamb said hesitantly, causing Leshy to tilt his head in confusion.

The Lamb was silent for a bit longer before responding. “Very well then. Just don’t stay out long, okay?”

Leshy nodded. “Of course. My thanks.” He then turned and began heading out of the cult. He’d lived in the cult long enough to know where the entrance was, so he needed no help.

Using the cane, he felt himself out a path into the forest. Taking his time to relish in all the sounds and smells of nature. He couldn’t see any of it, but his other senses allowed him to form a vivid picture in his head of everything.

…And then another idea came to Leshy. He sniffed around to make sure nobeast was watching, and then dropped his cane and began rolling around and flopping in the dirt. He let out joyous yells and laughs, feeling the most alive he had in quite a while…He was going to get strange glances galore once he got back to the cult, but oh well. He couldn’t see them anyway.

Unfortunately, his merriment wouldn’t last long.

Without warning, Leshy suddenly felt chains wrap around his body, restraining him completely. Alarm bells rang out in Leshy’s head as he desperately tried to struggle against the chains.

“WH-WHO’S THERE?! WHAT’S HAPPENING?!” Leshy fearfully screamed out.

A calm, silky voice responded. “I am Baal, first son of The One Who Waits. My brother, Aym, has use of you, so I am bringing you to him.”

“WH-WHAT?! NO!” Leshy tried to scream out for help, but another set of chains wrapped around his mouth, preventing him from making any sound. Leshy felt himself be thrown over Baal’s shoulder, followed by the feeling of being carried at a high speed. Leshy continued trying to struggle against the critter’s grip…but unfortunately, it would end up being no use.

July 26th Year 200 AR

The Gateway

No Point Of View In Particular

Baal, with Leshy still bound but no longer struggling, arrived in an empty building in The Gateway. A chamber that Aym typically used to torture sinners. Today it would see a much similar yet different purpose.

Baal set Leshy on the ground and unbound him. Leshy considered trying to attack Baal at this time…but he knew it was futile.

Baal sighed and got Leshy to his feet. “I’m sorry, uncle.” He whispered to Leshy, who didn’t respond.

Baal looked up. “Aym! I’ve got him.”

A sinister laugh could be heard as a black mass dripped from the ceiling, forming into the scarred cat Baal called his brother.

Leshy ‘looked’ up towards the scent of Aym, and no matter how much he tried to hide it..Leshy was scared. He had no crown..no physical strength…no beast was around to save him. He was all alone. “Wh-What do you want with me…?” Leshy said with thinly-veiled angered bravery.

Aym smiled widely and gently pushed Leshy with his staff, causing him to almost fall over. “Heheh. Fear not uncle. I’m not going to kill you. You’ve already gone through that…besides. I need you alive for my plan.”

“And what is this “plan” of yours, Сволочь? (scum)” Said Leshy.

“Well…” Aym spun his staff around like a showman. “..I want to send a message to my and Baal’s father…The One Who Waits…teach him a lesson for abandoning us…his position…and his destiny as rightful ruler of this world.”

Leshy didn’t respond for a while, only growing more and more nervous. “What are you…going to do to me then?”

“Well from what my dear brother has told me…you and him have been getting along the best since you reunited. I daresay you two’s relationship is pretty much repaired. So I figured out that doing this to you would hit him the hardest.”

“That doesn’t answer my question damn it!” Shouted Leshy.

“Ooh, excited are we? Well let’s go ahead and get started.” Aym’s staff began to glow, and Leshy felt his body be overcome with an extremely uncomfortable feeling.

“Aghhh…! Errrghhh! What are you doi-AHHHH!” Leshy screamed out in pain as all areas of mouth split open with several slits, allowing for several more rows of teeth to slide down, feeling as if knives were stabbing through his gums. Leshy tried to speak, but his words were choked out by his changing mouth.

Leshy could feel his insides churning as his eye sockets slowly and painfully moved to the side of his head, and his mouth turned into a gaping circular hole and moved to the center of his face. Leshy tried to scream, but it only came out as gargled roars, he tried to speak, but found he no longer could.

Leshy’s limbs began to feel light, and he fell to his hands and knees, and when he did..he found he could see somewhat, the same as when he used his eldritch form against The Lamb.

This gave Leshy a front row seat to the next part of his change. His index and ring fingers fused together and his thumbs rotted off. His remaining fingers shifted into claws, rendering him completely quadrupedal. Leshy screamed out in pain from it, tears beginning to form in his eyes.

Baal had been watching from the other end of the room, but at this he turned away and covered his ears. Baal hated doing this…but he badly wanted to make his brother happy…or maybe he just didn’t want to risk making him angry. He didn’t know for sure. Maybe he wanted revenge himself…Maybe he didn’t…He just couldn’t tell.

And as for Leshy, his change was far from over, he let out another pained roar as his body began to grow larger and more beastial, tearing his robe and blindfold to shreds. Leshy was about to try and speak again, to beg Aym to stop, but…something in his mind wouldn’t let him. 

His mind began to rapidly regress, being driven only by instinct. And one instinct was stronger than the rest; listen to Aym.

Leshy didn’t even have any time to resist before his mind was completely shattered, and he looked up at Aym, awaiting his orders.

Aym smiled again, and walked over and began petting Leshy, who huffed in enjoyment. 

Baal came over to the two, looking over the scene with a saddened expression. “..Brother…Is this all really necessary?”

Aym looked back up at Baal and sighed. “Look…Look bro, I know you don’t like doin’ this kinda thing..but if we want to take the place of our father…then drastic measures gotta be taken.”

Baal didn’t respond, causing Aym to wrap his arms around his brother to try and comfort him. “Look man…I promise this’ll all be worth it in the end. I know I don’t really act like it…but I love you. I wouldn’t do all of this if it was just to hurt you.”

Baal nodded and hugged back. “Very well then…I…I love you too, brother.”

The two hugged for a while longer before Leshy nudged himself between them, causing them to separate. 

Aym chuckled. “Alright alright…c’mon Lesh. Let’s go cause some havoc.”

Baal tilted his head. “What exactly are you going to do with him?” 

Aym had begun giving his monstrous uncle head pats, which Leshy seemed to enjoy. “Hmm…probably gonna just have him wreck some shit to see what he can do, then I’m gonna set that Chemach lady free and give him to her.”

“...So you’re going to frame Chemach for all this?” 

“Yeah. It’ll give me some time to assemble some students. Father and The Lamb will think she’s behind all this, and think I was just bluffing when I went to intimidate father. So then while they’re on a wild goose chase with her, I’ll be busy breaking down everything they’ve built!” Aym then let out a devilish laugh. 

Baal sighed at his brother’s theatrics. “Very well. Call me should you need anything, brother.”

Aym nodded and gave his brother a thumbs-up. “You got it man.”

Baal gave Aym a light smile and walked out of the shed.

Chapter Text

July 27th, Year 200 AR

The Depths Of Darkwood

Clauneck

Clauneck had been sitting in this one spot for around an hour now. His usual tranquility shaken.

He drew cards for others often, most commonly for The Lamb, typically to give her a little aid on her crusades, and once he had been approached by Shamura to draw cards pertaining to the future of The Old Faith. But today, he decided to do something he very, very rarely did. And that was draw his own cards.

And so he did, shuffling them like he was drawing for anybeast else. And once he drew, the results shocked him to his core. It had shocked him so much he continuously redrew, just to see if maybe, just this once, he was wrong. His shuffling grew sloppier and sloppier as his nervousness and acceptance rose.

He set the deck down, by now it was less of a deck and more of a pile of cards with one at the top. By this point Clauneck had just taken cards and haphazardly thrown them on top of each other. Like a child learning to play a card game for the first time.Clauneck pinched it between his thumb and index claws and brought the backside up to his eyes where all he could see was it, then turned it around. It was the same card he had drawn for the past hour or so.

Death.

Clauneck’s breathing quickened as he looked at it. Yes, all things died eventually, but that thought did little to comfort oneself when one knew it was coming. Just how swiftly would it come? How painful would it be? And by whom?

Suddenly, he heard the rustling of the bushes, and the sound of a very familiar cackle, and he shakily put the card down…and was met with his sister, Chemach, who had been sealed inside her temple several centuries ago. Her chains lifted upwards into glowing black orbs, which floated high up to lift her off the ground. 

She was clutching two yellow-handled swords. The blades of each were stained with black-tinted blood.

‘You cannot argue with the draw. One might as well argue with the ocean.’ 

Clauneck’s own words rang in his head as he looked to Chemach.

“...Greetings, dear sister…Is there…something you need?”

November 1st Year 198 AR

Temple Of Bishop Leshy

Magdalene “The Lamb”

With one final slash, Magdalene sent the hulking form of Bishop Leshy reeling back. The giant worm let out a monstrous roar of pain before falling to the ground. He let out a pained grunt as he looked around in fear, before finally bursting, sending blood and innards everywhere.

Magdalene covered her face to prevent the gore from getting in her eyes. She herself was almost as beaten up from the battle as Leshy was. Her left eyelids were so swollen she could no longer see out of that eye, and her entire body was coating in punctures and cuts.

She made the axe in her hand back into the form of The Red Crown and then took a long look at her handiwork.

Her heart leapt with joy upon seeing the lifeless corpse of Leshy, and she began to run around the temple while cheering wildly. She laughed heartily and let out several bleats along the way, almost like a child who had scored the winning run in a kickball game.

After a while of running, she stopped and looked at the corpse of Leshy, and a new feeling entered her.

Guilt.

She was reminded of how she’d found most of her followers, alone, afraid, completely abandoned, with no purpose in life. Had she left all of Leshy’s followers in that state? She then was reminded of just how many she had killed thus far…People who had family, friends, lives..was she really any better than the Bishops that killed her species?

“Don’t worry about that. You are nothing like them.” The voice of The One Who Waits rang out in her head.

Magdalene instantly fell to her knees. “A-Ah! Master I-”

“Spare me the excuses, Lamb, and scrub such heresy from your mind. Your duty is holy, striking down the heretical traitors and all those lost enough to follow them. Now, extract Leshy’s heart and return to me.”

The guilt started to leave Mag- The Lamb’s body. She didn’t need her name anymore. She eagerly trotted over to Leshy and pulled his still-beating heart out from his body, her tail wagging in excitement from the thought of pleasing her master.

…But even still, she had to wonder…

Was she doing the right thing?

July 28th Year 200 AR

The Depths Of Darkwood

Magdalene “The Lamb”

Oh sweet herself she had not done the right thing at all.

Leshy had not been back for an entire day, and Magdalene’s worry had grown to the point where she had decided to go out and look for him personally as opposed to sending out a search party…that and she couldn’t afford to let more of her followers be snatched up by Aym…

So here she was..running through Darkwood and calling out for Leshy…Sweet herself how could she have been so stupid?

Unfortunately, all the calling out for Leshy had drawn in several of his old cultists, who had believed that Magdalene was trying to mock them. As a result, the cultists had been swarming around her constantly, and she had taken some damage from the sheer number of cultists she had had to deal with thus far.

But a slight ray of hope hit her once she looked up to see several different weapons hanging from ropes, which only meant one thing.

Kudaii.

The crown had elected to become a dagger today, which was very useless when it came to crowd control. Magdalene kept her fingers crossed as she stepped closer to the forge, hoping for a better weapon.

But as she got closer, she realized something was very off. The usual sounds of clanging and crackling of the hot forges was nowhere to be heard. And there wasn’t even any heat coming from the area to begin with. Only the heat that was already present from the summer.

Magdalene stepped into the forge, and instantly found out why everything was so off. She covered her snout in horror.

Kudaii was dead.

Bloodied weapons were all over the floor, as if he’d been stabbed once with all of them, and his face was shoved deep into one of the forges. Magdalene dared not see what it looked like inside the forge. The swords that were usually stuck in Kudaii’s back were also missing, and dried blood caked in his feathers.

Magdalene let out a fearful bleat, she had seen many a dead body in her time, but this was one of her most helpful allies.

Magdalene immediately turned tail and ran. She had to let Clauneck know what happened…If only he stayed in one spot…

Magdalene ran for a long while after that, having to stop a few times to avoid getting overheated.

“You should really just find the damn worm and get out of here you fucking moron.” Whispered The Red Crown.

Magdalene growled in response. “Look, Clauneck deserves to know what happened to his brother, and besides, maybe he can help us find Leshy.”

“You’re wasting your time…”

Magdalene sighed. The Red Crown…ever so dismal in its approach to life…

Suddenly, Magdalene was hit with the scent of freshly burned lavender and lilac incense, and that could only mean one thing; Clauneck was around! And sure enough, the usual hanging stars that signified Clauneck’s area came into view. Magdalene felt a slight sense of optimism well up inside her, and as she stepped into Clauneck’s area, that optimism was instantly crushed.

Clauneck was nowhere to be seen, and blood coated just about every corner of the area. Several stars lay broken on the ground, smashed and scattered to pieces. Clauneck’s usual neat tarot deck was now little more than a pile of torn paper, but one card was still intact, and nervously, went over to look at it…

It was the ten of swords. Magdalene didn’t know much about tarot, but she could only assume that it meant something bad.

As she looked at the card, something began to drip onto the back of her head, and slowly she looked up, and saw something that almost made her scream.

Far above the ground was Clauneck, hung by the neck by his own intestines. His limb appeared to all have been messily hacked off and were dripping blood all over the ground.

Magdalene covered her snout and let loose a muffled scream of horror. That was two of her longest allies gone. 

“Would you calm down you fucking eejit?! You can revive them at the damn-”

Magdalene snatched The Red Crown off her head and began shaking it. “SHUT UP FOR ONCE! FOR THE LOVE OF MYSELF! WHO’S SIDE ARE YOU ON?! THE DAMN RITUAL WON’T EVEN WORK ON THEM BECAUSE THEY WEREN’T INDOCTRINATED!”

Magdalene kicked the crown into the forest and just plopped herself on the ground, taking several deep breaths to calm down, and once she was calm enough, she recalled the crown.

“Very stupid decision on your part. Someone could’ve at-”

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Magdalene roared out, her voice barely even sounding like her own.

The crown abided by Magdalene’s wishes and stayed silent.

Magdalene began pacing around the area for a while…pondering on where she could go to look for Leshy…anybeast she could ask for leads…

“...Do you think Aym is behind this?” The Crown asked.

“Maybe…but why attack Clauneck and Kudaii?”

“Likely to handicap you by restricting you to your base powers…”

Magdalene nodded. “Yeah…you’re right..guess we’ll just keep l-”

Suddenly, a loud scream-laugh pierced the air, and out of the woods flew Chemach, held in the air by her chains, and clutching two swords. Before Magdalene could react, Chemach began rapidly slicing at her with the swords. Magdalene rolled away, but not before sustaining several deep cuts.

“Ch-Chemach?! How did you get out?!” Magdalene sputtered out.

“AHEHEHEHEEEE! CHEMACH WOOON’T TEEEEEEEEEELLL!!!” She shrieked out, proceeding to let out another scream-laugh and launching herself at Magdalene, trying to stab her with both swords, which Magdalene was able to parry, which caught Magdalene by surprise, as a dagger wouldn’t be big enough to do much parrying…but upon looking at her weapon, she found the blade and handle had grown exponentially, resembling a broadsword by now.

Magdalene had no time to think on that however, as Chemach was unleashing yet another flurry of slashes. But with her newly lengthened sword, she was able to hold back Chemach’s onslaught and even get some cuts on Chemach as well, who backed away.

Magdalene held the sword in a defensive stance. “Giving up already?” She said breathlessly.

Chemach began laughing once again. “Oh no no no! Chemach merely wanted to allow her newest toy to show up!” And just as Chemach finished speaking, a series of tremors were sent through the area, as if something big, something very big was approaching. And soon, something big did approach.

Magdalene’s eyes widened as she looked upon what appeared to be Leshy, in a form similar to the one he fought Magdalene in, only somewhat smaller and with limbs.

“Oh my-! L-Leshy?!” Magdalene cried out, backing away from the beastial ex-bishop.

Chemach laughed once more. “He belongs to Chemach now! He does whatever Chemach says! AND SHE SAYS KILL KILL KIIIIIIILL!! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!” 

Upon Chemach’s command, Leshy lunged at Magdalene, clawing wildly at her, which Magdalene barely avoided. 

Magdalene slashed at Leshy, but it was a restrained one, so it did little damage. “Leshy please! You’re still in there! I know it! C’mon, you’ve got to break through!” The whole predicament reminded Magdalene of when she crusaded in Silk Cradle, and how Shamura would force one of Magdalene’s own followers to attack her, and how the only way to spare that follower’s life was to warp away…

And of course, Leshy didn’t listen to Magdalene’s attempts to defuse the situation, and lunged at her again. She rolled out of the way and slashed at Leshy’s forelegs in order to cripple him. Leshy let out a pained roar and fell onto his belly, his forelegs seemingly hurting to stand on now.

Magdalene quickly ran away, needing to get enough distance to execute a successful omnipresence. Chemach didn’t like that idea however, and she began flying after Magdalene while screaming in rage. She cut down any and all brush in her path, giving her a clear path to Magdalene.

Magdalene sustained a severe cut to her leg, but she immediately got back up, summoning several patches of tentacles from the ground to hold Chemach in place while she got some distance, Magdalene sat cross-legged and closed her eyes, charging up omnipresence. The sound of Chemach’s screaming could be heard, and was drawing ever closer, but just as Magdalene could feel the blade of Chemach’s swords mere centimeters away from her wool…Magdalene escaped.

She had arrived in her temple, where Haon, a deer who was her tax collector, was sweeping. He looked towards Magdalene with concern once she arrived.

“Yo…uh, leader. You okay?”

Magdalene nodded and stood up. “Fear not, my child. I’ve been through worse…summon the rest of the clergy. I have some…unpleasant news.”

Haon’s eyes widened. He proceeded to nod and leave the temple to go do what he was told.

Magdalene turned around, looking out of the stained glass window. She wondered…just how much worse were things going to get?

Chapter Text

July 28th, Year 200 AR

Magdalene “The Lamb”

Temple Meeting Room

Magdalene stepped into the meeting room of the temple and sat down at the head of the table.

She opened with a sigh. “Good afternoon, members of my cler- Haon get your hooves off the table- clergy. I have some very unfortunate news to share with all of you. Our former ally, Chemach, seems to have had a change of heart, and has kidnapped Leshy and killed both Kudaii and Clauneck.”

The 6 members (Minus Narinder) all let out varied noises of shock, and once they quieted down, Magdalene spoke again. “Now…I need you all to be on guard. I’m not sure if Chemach knows where we’re located, but we also don’t know the extent of what she can do at the moment. Perhaps one of her relics can guide her to us, and she could strike at any moment.”

“Man, I’m so at ease after that. Gonna love trying to sleep tonight while worrying that a big fucking blue owl thing’s gonna burst into my room and kill me.” Haon snarked, resulting in the whole table glaring at him.

“ Have you no faith, Haon? Do you believe I would just simply stand by and allow you to be killed like that? ” Magdalene spoke harshly.

Haon’s tone immediately softened. He sighed. “Sorry leader. I’m just…scared. I remember going on a crusade with you and seeing how fu- freaking…bizzare she was. Just imagining that thing coming here and…wreaking havoc just…” Haon shook his head and grumbled, clearly not enjoying opening up like that. 

Magdalene sighed and nodded. “I understand, Haon. But understand that I have not failed you before, and I will not fail you ever. All you need do is have f-”

“Not to be rude Magdalene, but this isn’t a sermon. We’re here to discuss business.”

Magdalene bit her tongue to prevent herself from yelling at Narinder, then got back to the point. “Now then…I am currently debating with myself on whether or not to tell the rest of the cult. On one hand it could help everybeast to stay alert and be ready for a potential attack, but on the other, it could cause a mass panic among the members. And we’re all aware of how volatile some of our brothers and sisters can be.”

Haon fake-coughed. “Heket.” He coughed once more. “Bathin.” 

Magdalene took a deep, growling breath. “Haon, would you like to spend the rest of the day in the stockades?” 

“....No.”

“Then I suggest you hold your tongue and act like the beast I believed you to be when I selected you for your position.”

After Magdalene finished talking, Lee, Haon’s brother and Faith Enforcer, raised his hand.

“Yes, Lee?”

Lee cleared his throat. “So..If I recall correctly, Chemach was bound by chains the last time I saw her. How on Earth did she get free?”

A murmur of agreement washed over the gathering. “At the moment we don’t know. My guess is that it has something to do with the death of Kudaii and Clauneck. I can’t be sure if she herself killed them or somebeast else is to blame at the moment, however.”

Gusion, head of farming, raised her hand. “Look, you sent Narinder out on a crusade earlier this week, and he sure came back suddenly and in a hurry…”

Narider’s eyes widened. “ What’s that supposed to mean, yank?!”

“Look, all I’m saying is that it’s a little suspicious.”

“What fucking reason would I have to let that nutty fucker out huh?!” Narinder shouted back.

Before the argument could escalate, Magdalene interjected. “Okay, both of you, silence. I will not have you accusing each other like children. Narinder is my husband, and I doubt he would want to try and take my crown, considering what I could do to him if he tried.” Magdalene had a bit of a strain during the last part of her sentence. She indeed could do whatever cruel thing she wanted to Narinder if she wanted, though even the thought of acting on them made her uncomfortable.

“Why don’t you give them an example? Show them just how little of a chance there is of Narinder trying to retake his position.” Spoke The Red Crown in Magdalene’s head.

“ Not now. ” Magdale retorted.

Magdalene prepared to say something else, but then Gerno, the cult’s head chef, spoke up.

“Alright look, it’s a possibility that Narinder may have let Chemach out. But it’s also a possibility that Haon found a girlfriend-”

“Hey!”

“-So being a possibility doesn’t mean it actually happened. So stop acting like dickheads.”

“ Thank you, Gerno.” Magdalene sighed.

An awkward silence washed over the meeting for a moment before Magdalene spoke up again. “Now then…all in favor of informing the rest of the cult, raise your hand.”

Four out of six raised their hands. (Narinder and Haon were the ones who didn’t.)

Magdalene nodded. “Very well then. It is decided. Everybeast be safe. This meeting is adjourned.”

An air of unease hung over the room as everybeast stood up and left. And Magdalene was once again left to wonder if she was doing the right thing. 

January 9th, Year 116 AR

The Gateway

Aym

It was another day…? Aym couldn’t tell how time worked here. It was always just blindingly white and bright at all times, he couldn’t ever tell if it was day or that night thing he’d learned about.

Either way…time for another lesson from his father…another round of beratement  and dismissal. Another round of working endlessly for somebeast who didn’t love him and would never, ever be satisfied with anything he did. Another round of learning to serve The One Who Waits.

Aym walked up to the spot where his father stood and knelt down. “Master.” He said, addressing The One Who Waits.

The One Who Waits nodded in return. “Aym.”

A moment of silence passed before The One Who Waits spoke up again. “Rise, and summon your staff.”

Aym nodded and did as he was told. 

“Today we will continue your tormentor training. Today, I have a very special specimen for you today…this one has killed several of my previous vessels to the point where I’ve dismissed them…but today, he was finally caught.”

The One Who Waits conjured a portal, and out of it rose a fox, one bound in chains.

‘Now then…you know what to do.” The One Who Waits menaced.

Aym recalled the training he was given, to make himself appear as intimidating as possible to inflict as much fear on the victim as possible, so he put on an unnaturally wide smile. One of his favorite intimidation tactics. ‘Why…hello there little fox-”

Aym was cut off by what appeared to be a stifled laugh from the fox. “THAT’S the best you can do? I’ve seen smashed spiders that were scarier than you. A kitten. Seriously. Is this the best The One Who Waits can-”

Angered by the fox’s lack of fear, Aym ran forward and stabbed the fox in the chest with the tip of the staff, causing the fox to howl in pain and instinctually lunge forward to bite Aym on the side of the head. Aym screamed out in agony as he felt his eye be pierced by the fox’s teeth. Aym prepared to try and stab the fox again, only for The One Who Waits to take care of that for him. The One Who Waits summoned two tendrils which wrenched open the fox’s mouth then dragged him back.

Covering the side of his face that was bitten, Aym watched as The One Who Waits grabbed the fox by the throat and lifted him up.

“Impudent creature. For that I shall bestow upon you a fate worse than death. You will roam the Earth forever as a demon of insatiable hunger. Cursed to eat and hunt but never be rid of your hunger pains.” The Fox’s robe turned pitch black, and he began to cry out in pain. Aym assumed something else was happening to The Fox, but he couldn’t quite tell.

Once The Fox had finished screaming, The One Who Waits haphazardly dropped The Fox through another portal, then looked to Aym disappointedly.

Aym shakily got to his knees. “M-Master please…f-forgive me-”

The One Who Waits cut Aym off, speaking to him in a cold, uncaring voice. “Spare me the excuses, Aym. You allowed yourself to be blindsided by your victim, and you must suffer the consequences of your inadequacy.” The One Who Waits waved his hand, and Aym’s injury healed itself, but he could no longer see out of his left eye. 

“A-Ah…my…my eye…” Aym began to tear up, which The One Who Waits immediately picked up on. “Dry it up, Aym. Your tears mean nothing to me. If you cannot handle the consequences of your own failure, then perhaps I should cast you into the domain I’m training you to overtake.”

Aym’s expression shifted to one of fear. “N-No! Father please-”

“ You are not to address me like that.” The One Who Waits boomed out, and Aym bowed to him out of fear. 

“Now…back to your room, Aym. I am running out of patience, if you don’t shape up I will be forced to take drastic measures.” Once The One Who Waits finished talking, a trapdoor opened up in the ground.

Aym nodded and stood up, shivering. He then skittered back down the trapdoor to his room. A mixture of fear and hatred welling up inside him.

July 28th Year 200 AR

The Gateway

Aym

Aym stood in the middle of his and Baal’s old room. It was empty and derelict, all of the items having been taken out and destroyed when they were old enough to stand next to Narinder until he was freed. Aym snickered to himself as he reminisced. He remembered the days when he believed Narinder loved him. When he believed that there was a point to the abuse. But now he knew. Now he knew that Narinder was just a piece of shit.

But that was alright. It was all going to work out in the end. The plan was going swimmingly thus far, Chemach was willingly taking the blame for Aym’s misdeeds, and Aym only had more on the way.

That reminded him…he still needed to make that relic he promised her.

Oh well, he’d get around to it. In the meantime though, he needed to head to the meeting hall, for he’d assembled a few select beasts to get on his side.

Aym teleported to a medium-sized, rundown, stone brick building and stepped in. There was a circular table in the middle of the one room with a few old chairs around it. Aym plopped himself down on a random chair and waited for the three he was waiting on to show up. Luckily, he wouldn’t have to wait long.

Four critters filed into the room; Baal, a vulture, a moth, and a horned ferret. They all sat down. 

Aym smiled and looked to the moth. “Champion Monch.” Monch nodded in response. 

Aym looked to the vulture. “Witness Ritizo.”  Ritizo responded with a feather-finger gun.

Aym looked to the ferret. “Damon.” Damon smiled and waved in return.

Aym cleared his throat. “Now then, you three-”

Damon interrupted Aym. “Uh boss, there’s four of us.”

Aym took a deep breath. “Pay no mind to Baal, he’s here to watch.”

“Oh.”

“As I was saying….thank you for joining us today. As you already know, Narinder, The One Who Waits, has abandoned us, leaving us to fester in the afterlife with no guidance while he gets to enjoy the light of the sun and all life has to offer. He gets to live his life like we never existed, he gets to have a lovely ol’ life with that coal-wooled (Aym said a word that caused Baal to exclaim Aym’s name), meanwhile we’re trapped down here with nothing.”

Ritizo nodded. “I was his most trusted followuh, and look where that got me. Fuckuh dubbed me his witness only to toss me to the fucken wayside when I died in the war he waged.”

Monch nodded as well. “His champion I was, I realized how immoral he truly was..I helped that lamb once or twice, believing her to be more righteous than he, but seeing as how she spared him and even married him…I see I was wrong about that as well. I may be the only one here with the luxury of being alive, but it’s been a hollow existence.”

Damon spoke up next. “The woman who made me a demon…She was in one of those Narinder-worshipping witch covens.”

Aym nodded. “As you all can see…In one way or another, he ruined our lives. Had he not came to be, we could’ve led normal lives. Had The Lamb killed him, we would at least have some sort of closure at least. But no. We know what she did.”

The group mumbled an agreement. 

“And me and my brother are here to help you! Join us, and together we’ll get revenge on the one who wronged us. We’ll kill that unworthy vessel, and start a new world order! One without the Red Crown! ”

Damon let out an excited cheer, causing the others to look at him weird. He awkwardly calmed down.

“Sounds damn good, I’m in.” Said Ritizo.

“Eh. Not like I have anything better to do.” Said Monch.

Aym let out a hearty laugh. “Welcome to the- uh, um- Brotherhood Of Duality!”

“Wish we had some wine glasses. I’d offer up a toast.” Chuckled Ritizo. 

“Just act like you got some.” Monch said, miming drinking some wine from a glass. Ritizo rolled his eyes in return.

After that, Baal stood up. “My apologies, everybeast. But my duty calls, and I must be off.”

“Ah damn. See ya later bro.” Aym said.

“Until we meet again, brother.” Aym could tell there was a hint of sorrow behind Baal’s words. Internally, this frustrated Aym, but he was careful not to show it externally, in case any of the others picked up on it and saw him as weak. 

The other three members left soon after, leaving Aym alone in the building.

He sighed. He wished Baal could just understand how necessary this all was. He was at a loss for just what he could do to convince him…

But oh well…If Baal wanted to be a stick in the mud, he could be a stick in the mud. Aym had important things to do.

Chapter Text

July 29th Year 200 AR

Magdalene “The Lamb”

The Temple.

It was bright and early. The sun was just barely poking through the tops of the trees, and bathing the sky in a vibrant orange hue. While her followers were all still asleep, Magdalene was already preparing for another search for Leshy, and now that she knew what to expect, she could face the danger head on.

But just as she was about to leave, she heard someone clear their throat behind her. She turned around to see it was Gerno.

“Ugh- Gerno, what are you doing up so early?” Magdalene asked.

“Listen…leader, I know I may be stepping out of line here, but I have been the only member of the clergy to not have gone on a crusade with you. And I wish to fight by your side today.” 

Magdalene was about to deny Gerno’s request, but then she figured it wouldn’t be all that bad. Magdalene knew what to deal with after all. Besides, her followers in demon form were typically impervious to damage.

“...Very well then Gerno, but the next time you know you’re stepping out of line; don’t step out of line. Understood?”

Gerno nodded. “I understand, my leader.”

“Good.”

Magdalene then led Gerno to the demon summoning circle and lifted her hands into the air, attempting to draw power from the Underworld and infuse it with Gerno.

…But nothing happened. The black haze that would usually surround a follower’s eyes never showed up for Gerno’s, nor did the crimson fire blaze upon the circle.

“..Odd…” Remarked Magdalene, tapping her hoof on the ground confusedly. She then looked up at Gerno. “Feel any different?” She asked him.

The rooster shook his head and shrugged. “I don’t. Something must be wrong wherever the demons come from.”

Magdalene groaned, pinching the bridge of her snout. Gerno groaned as well and crossed his wings. “Suppose this means I’ll be staying behind.” 

Magdalene shook her head. “If you REALLY wish to come along, you can come along. You once confessed to me that you killed somebeast with a frying pan.”

Gerno looked away and nodded awkwardly at that.

“My point being, you can clearly hold your own in a fight. Besides, we shouldn't face all that many enemies in our journey…Oh, but please. If we encounter Chemach, run and hide. Understood?”

Gerno was about to open his beak to say something, but he shut it and just nodded. “Of course, my leader.”

Magdalene gave Gerno a warm smile and nod. “Very well then. Fetch a frying pan and whatever you may need, then meet me at the entrance.”

—

Backwoods of Darkwood

It was now midday, and so far, Magdalene and Gerno hadn’t managed to find anything but a trail of chopped up shrubbery that seemed to go on forever. They had followed it in the hopes that it would eventually lead to Chemach or at least her temple, but all they had to show for it were sweaty clothes.

Magdalene was sitting down a rock and internally cursing herself for letting one of her followers accompany her in a wild goose chase in the burning heat of summer. If there was one silver lining to this whole thing, it was that they hadn’t been attacked the whole time. But even that still felt wrong to Magdalene…She knew that they wouldn’t have many fights, but to have none at all…

She was snapped out of her thoughts by the smell of berries hitting her nose. Cooked berries that is. She looked up to see Gerno a few feet away, pan-frying some berries using a rock that had been in direct sunlight as a stove. The sight caused Magdalene to chuckle a bit, and she walked over to him. “Goodness, is it truly that hot out here?” Magdalene asked jokingly.

Gerno slightly smiled in response. “I suppose it is…Didn’t feel like eating raw berries, and I happened to bring a pan, sooo.” He shrugged.

“Ahaha…how convenient.” Magdalene snickered and sat back down. A minute or so later, Gerno finished the berries and ate them. Magdalene assumed they didn’t taste very good, judging from his face scrunching up after he ate one.

Magdalene sighed and stood up. “Well, I suppose we’ll just head ba-aa-aa-ack home. We’re not finding anything.” 

Gerno sighed and nodded. “Very well then.”

The two began heading back, but it wouldn’t take long before an unnaturally cold wind began to blow through the tenebrous forest.

Gerno shivered. “What the bloody hell is that wind..?” 

Magdalene began to scan the surrounding area for any hostile beasts. “....I don’t know, but be on guard. Chemach may have finally decided to show her face…I know she possesses a relic relating to ice…”

“Heh..not quite.” Rang out an odd voice…one Magdalene had never heard before. 

Just then, six glowing, inverted pentagrams appeared in the air, and then formed into pitch-black portals. And out of them came the five demons that had helped Magdalene with her crusades before. 

Her eyes widened. “You…!”

Gerno pointed accusatorially at the demon. “Double crossing us aye? So that’s why nothing happened at the summoning circle!”

Paean floated closer to the duo and laughed. “Indeed…a certain bird enlightened us to how you were holding us back…by binding us to your pathetic followers, you prevented us from realizing our true power…” 

Fornax spoke up next. “For hundreds of years we’ve served the Red Crown and its bearers, with the wool pulled over our eyes of how weak we’d truly been made to be…pun intended.”

Orcus rolled its eye. “Fornax…now is not the time for jokes.” 

Fornax groaned. “Fine…”

The demons then circled around Gerno and Magdalene. Magdalene called on her crown, and it morphed into the same broadsword as the last time it was used to fight.

In the blink of an eye. Orcus began spinning rapidly and flung itself at Gerno, and he just barely managed to avoid damage by smacking it away with his frying pan, but he was struck from behind by an ichor shot from Vesta, causing him to cry out in pain and fall to the ground.

As soon as Magdalene saw what happened, she was filled with an intense sense of rage. She let out a hellish roar and rushed at Vesta, slashing at it intensely and rapidly, but Vesta floated out of the way of each slash and shot another shot at Magdalene, which she ducked out of the way of. Unfortunately, Orcus flew up from behind and cut deeply into Magdalene’s back. She screamed in pain and whipped around and slashed Orcus in half. 

She looked back to Gerno, who was trying to crawl away into some bushes. She could also see Fornax getting closer, preparing to explode next to him. Immediately she ran over to get between Fornax and Gerno, taking the brunt of the explosion. Magdalene was flung back against a tree, somehow still alive. Despite it all, she managed to get back to her hooves, still running from adrenaline and protective instinct alone. Looking back up, she saw the remaining three demons open up another portal and begin levitating Gerno in the air helplessly. The demon’s goals were clear, and Magdalene would not be having it. She tried to rush at the demons, only for Orcus to come rocketing back out of the woods and crash right into her chest, beginning to rapidly saw into her. Yelling out in agony she grabbed Orcus’ blades mid-saw, stopping it in its tracks and causing Magdalene more pain. 

She held Orcus up and prepared to frisbee it at the other demons, but an ichor shot hit her right in the back, causing her to spin around and throw it at Vesta instead. When she turned back around, she saw Gerno being dragged through the portal, wing outstretched and crying out for Magdalene’s help. In a flash, any demons that hadn’t gone through the portal fled the scene, and the portal closed. Gerno had been snatched away by the same demons that once were valuable allies to Magdalene.

Magdalene let loose a deep, guttural roar of rage and shame that caused the trees around her to shake, and she fell to the ground and began slamming her fists into the soil repeatedly. She realized her judgement had been clouded by her own rage, something the crown tended to accentuate, and something she had still yet to be able to manage. She internally and outwardly cursed herself, wishing she would’ve done something, anything else but charge wildly.

Before she could figuratively beat herself up more…her senses began to dull, and the pain of her injuries finally began to set in, and something happened that hadn’t happened for months.

She died.

The Cult Of The Lamb

Magdalene woke back up at the entrance of her cult. She could already feel the confused and shocked eyes of her followers bearing down upon her. She internally groaned, not only had she lost a follower for an indeterminate amount of time, but she had also failed her entire cult by failing to keep her promise to protect them all. She had foolishly allowed one of her followers to come along on a dangerous mission completely unprepared. And now Gerno was in who-knows-where having who-knows-what done to him.

She stood up finally, shaking her head. She would need to call an emergency meeting and come clean about it all, but she needed some time to mentally prepare for it. 

She sighed and walked towards the temple.

March 17th Year 120,122 PL 

Narinder Thanatos Van Shamura

The Gateway Temple

Narinder sat in his study with all of the lights put out and the curtains drawn. He had isolated himself from the outside world, determined to not let the foul object sitting on his head get the better of him…

He hunched over his desk, clutching his head so far it nearly cracked his skull. By this point his own thoughts were indiscernible from the Red Crown’s voice. It refused to shut up. No matter how much Narinder screamed, begged, pleaded for it to shut up, no matter how far away he threw it, no matter how hard he tried to break it, it would always return. Plopping itself back onto his head to speak the same sweet whispers over and over again.

Narinder couldn’t remember the last time he’d done anything he enjoyed, or made a decision independent of the crown. By this point he knew he was too far gone. He knew he should’ve gone to Shamura for help, but in his idiocy and pride, he had let it get this bad. And now the only thing he could do was hide and pray that somehow, someway, his own domain would take hold of him and grant him the mercy of death.

Just then, the door to his study opened, Narinder instinctually looked up to see his eldest sibling standing in the doorway, a look of pure worry and concern painted across their face.

“N-Narinder…by the stars above…!” They immediately rushed over to him, placing an arm around him and using the other one to pet the back of his head. “Narinder, please. Tell me what’s wrong. No one has seen you in days…we’re all worried sick about you!”

In his state of mind, Narinder barely managed to sputter out: “Sh-Shamura…g-g-g-get away…please…”

Shamura made a noise of concern. “Narinder please. Just tell me what’s wrong. I…We can help you. If you’d just tell me what the matter is.”

“‘Mura…p-p-please…I don’t…don’t want to hurt you…”

Narinder began to grip the desk. The Red Crown was as loud as ever.

“There they are, right there. Their guard is down. KILL. THEM.”

Narinder snapped. He ripped The Red Crown off of his head and began smashing it against the table repeatedly. He wailed “SHUT UP!” With every  time the crown bounced off the table. Shamura was shouting out something. Narinder couldn’t tell. Likely words meant to try and calm him down. Eventually even that was drowned out by The Red Crown.

Narinder’s arms soon tired out, and he pinned the foul thing against the table. Its eye was locked with his. Shamura was gripping his shoulder and probably still trying to reassure him.

Narinder shoved Shamura away. “WHY CAN’T YOU JUST LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE?!”

Shamura was on the floor.

There was a puddle of ichor around their head.

It was on Narinder’s claws.

He was horrified.

He enjoyed it.

The other’s deserved to die.

He laughed.

Still cackling like a madman, Narinder slammed the crown back on his head and left the study, leaving Shamura to bleed out. They didn’t deserve a quick death. They deserved to feel every prick of pain possible.

….

Shamura awoke an unknown time later. Their head was filled with agony, their mind clouded, their sense of hearing filled with ringing.

Shamura barely even knew who they were. They clutched their head, desperately trying to wade through the fog to think of something. Anything.

It took a little while, but soon they were successful. They thought of their family. Their siblings…Leshy…Heket…Kallamar..

…Narinder…He wasn’t their sibling. Not anymore. He had thrown everything the two had to the wayside…

Remembering how to do so, they summoned a teleportation pentacle and sank through it.

The members of the Old Faith must be notified…

Dark days were ahead. Dark days indeed.

Knock knock, The Lamb comes to raze. End of days, end of days. Five becomes four becomes three becomes two becomes one becomes nothing.

 July 29th Year 200 AR

Anna Van Shamura

The Cult Of The Lamb

Shamura was snapped out of their reminiscence by the sounds of the temple bells ringing, which signified the beginning of a sermon, which confused them somewhat, as today wasn’t a sermon day…but oh well. At least it brought them away from stewing over their past mistakes…

…But even then, they were just reminded of Leshy’s vanishing, and how Magdalene had described what became of him…Shamura could only wonder what he was being used for…and what was being done to him…

Shamura shook their head and sighed, a sudden headache spurring them to quit swelling on their thoughts and head to the temple. They filed in along with all the other followers and sat down on one of the cushions all along the floor. Magdalene stepped up to the podium and took a deep breath. 

“Good afternoon, my children. As you may notice, one of these seats behind me sits empty.” Magdalene motioned to the three chairs on either side of her where her clergy sat, and indeed, one was ominously empty…

“Once again…I’m afraid I have more grave news to share with you all. Not only have we lost more allies, but we have also lost a loyal follower, for due to my foolishness, Gerno has been taken from us.” 

A rabble of panic and shock spread throughout the crowd, as followers expressed a mix of shock at the fact that things had gotten worse, and that Magdalene had called herself a fool. Shamura themselves could only shut their eyes and shake their head.

Once the rabble had died down, Magdalene spoke up again. “Now…I know I have said in the past that not even I can control everything, and no matter how much I keep you all safe, some misfortune will still slip through the cracks. But I failed a basic promise to you all, that no one else would be taken from the safety of the cult and dragged off to experience Leshy’s fate. And for that I extend an apology to each and every one of you.”

Shamura shook their head and stood back up. “Magdalene, if I may-” Before Shamura could finish their sentence, a whisper of indignance fell over the crowd, bemoaning Shamura for speaking out of turn and addressing The Lamb by her name. Magdalene turned her head to look at Shamura, waving her hand to hush the crowd.

“...As I was saying, I believe this apology is unwarranted. You said it yourself, you cannot account for everything. Some things simply happen, and it cannot be helped. If anything, it is the force of fate itself that owes us an apology.”

Magdalene took a deep breath and then nodded. “Firstly, thank you Shamura. And secondly, you are sentenced to the stockades for a day, and I will be having a serious discussion about your repeated disrespect.”

Shamura nodded and sat down. 

“Well…That is all I wanted to say today. Be sure to be watchful at all times, and parents, keep your children where you can see them. Praise The Lamb.”

“Praise The Lamb!” The crowd echoed. The followers all then began to head out the doors of the temple. Shamura turned around to watch them as they left, having not much else to do as they waited to be taken to the stockades. 

“Uh…Magdalene instructed me to take you to the stockades.” An ever-so-familiar voice said from behind them. Shamura looked behind them to see Narinder, looking incredibly nervous.

The memories of what had happened between the two flooded back to Shamura, but they tried their best to push said memories down, to not much success. Judging by how Narinder was looking, it appeared he was going through a similar situation.

“S-So uh, come on then.” Narinder began to walk to the temple’s jailing room, not even bothering to make sure Shamura was following him. Shamura was sure that if they were to just walk out, he wouldn’t care, but they followed him anyway.

Narinder shakily locked up Shamura in the stockades and stepped back, beginning to breathe quickly and heavily. 

A sorrowful look spread over Shamura’s face as they tried to speak to their estranged brother. “Narinder…”

Unfortunately, they would be cut off again. “I’m sorry Shamura…I…”

“Sorry for what , Narinder?”

“...Y-You know…everything.”

“Everything is not something Narinder. Be specific.” They knew already what Narinder was getting at, but they just wanted to see if he’d actually take accountability for it.

Narinder took another deep breath and began running his hand through the fur on his head. His tail also began flicking back and forth nervously. “I…I’m sorry f-for attacking you, Leshy, Heket, and Kallamar. I’m sorry for rebelling.” Narinder gulped deeply and looked away, his breath continuing to quicken.

Shamura gave a long, wistful sigh. “Narinder, please calm down. I already gave you an earful and a half when I first saw you here. Besides, I assume having spent two hundred years alone in a prison realm…you have learned your lesson already.” Shamura said, though they weren’t sure of how much they believed their own words. They wanted to believe Narinder had changed, but every time they looked at him…all they could think about was how savagely and callously he had thrown everything he had with his siblings away…how he splintered the lands near irreversibly with his lust for power…

“....Just answer me one thing, Narinder. Why did you do it? What…What did we do that caused you to hate us so much?”

Narinder hesitated for a moment before speaking. “My crown…It…It whispered to me…It would..tell me that you were all holding me back from my true strength…that without you to hold me down…I could become stronger than any other god before or any other god that would come after. It never shut up. Eventually I began to believe it…”

Shamura at first was about to disregard Narinder’s story and give him another bout of angry screaming that barely sounded like them telling him off, but then they thought about it a bit longer…

They knew the crowns were capable of talking to their bearers, and that each one seemed to have a distinct personality… and when Narinder first attacked Shamura, they remembered he seemed to be trying to break it…

“...Why…Why did you never tell me…? Any of us for that matter..? We could’ve helped you…We…would’ve been more than happy to do so!”

Narinder squeezed his eyes shut. “I…I thought I could handle it on my own…And when I finally realized I was about to go over the edge, I…physically couldn’t. I would try to come over to your temple and tell you what was wrong…but my body just…wouldn’t obey.” Narinder began to look down at his hands as he spoke, flexing his fingers repeatedly.

“Narinder…I’m so sorry I never recognized what was happening…I’m so sorry I didn’t try to help until it was too late.”

Narinder made a vague noise of disagreement. “No…No Shamura. Don’t blame yourself. I am the fool here for trying to deal with it on my own. I am the fool for letting myself be blinded by my own pride.”

Shamura sighed. “I suppose…in our own ways…we’re both at fault.” 

Narinder opened his mouth, presumably to disagree, but Shamura held their hand up to silence him. “No, Narinder. The blame does not fall on you entirely, and I will not hear another word otherwise.” Said Shamura.

Narinder groaned and shut his mouth before opening it once more. “I just…every time I see you, I can’t help but be reminded of what I’ve done…” His voice quivered lightly as he spoke.

If Shamura weren’t locked in the stockades right now, they would’ve placed their hand on Narinder’s shoulder. “I understand Narinder…but it is just like Magdalene says…we cannot dwell on the past…for it has already transpired. We can only hope to make our futures as best as we can.”

Narinder nodded slowly. “I know…but it is hard to focus on the future when there is so much in the past that weighs on me.” 

Shamura gave Narinder an empathetic expression. “Narinder…I…just please try, okay? I believe in you. If you can recognize your wrongdoings and take accountability for them, then you will be able to move on.”

Narinder shut his eyes again. “...Thank you Shamura.” He then turned around to leave.

“I love you, brother.” Shamura suddenly said, causing Narinder to turn around in shock. He mumbled out some gibberish before calming down. 

“I love you too, my sibling.” He said, a weak smile forming on his face.

Shamura chuckled, smiling back. “On that note, let me out of here?” They said jokingly.

Narinder snickered. “Oh piss off.” 

“My, how cruel. Keheheh.” Shamura snarked.

“I would know. I- Nevermind. I’ll see you later I suppose.”

“You as well. Take care, brother.”

“I will.”  Narinder then left the room.

Shamura sighed jokingly and settled in for their hour of pure boredom in the stockades.

…Oh, there was also that talk with Magdalene to look forward to. That would be pleasant.

Chapter Text

August 1st, Year 200 AR

Baal

The Gateway

Baal had watched as Aym slowly but surely amassed more allies. Baal had watched as he plotted and schemed. Baal had listened as he rallied his followers with the passion of a madman. He had watched with increasing disgust as he continued to lump his wrongdoings onto Chemach.

And he wouldn’t stand for it any longer. 

He travelled throughout The Gateway until he finally found his brother, who was busy playing frisbee with Damon using Orcus as a frisbee.

Baal stepped over to Aym and tapped his shoulder.

Aym turned around. “Oh, ‘sup Baal.” He said casually.

Baal took a deep breath. “Brother, we need to talk. And I will not take no for an answer.”

Aym squinted and leaned his head back in agitation, seemingly already aware of what Baal wanted to talk about. He then looked back at Damon. “Damon, bandage your hands up. We’ll continue this tomorrow.”

Damon nodded and then teleported away along with Orcus.

Aym took a deep breath and then turned back around to face Baal. “Alright man…lay it on me.” Said Aym.

“Brother. You have to stop this. This is going too far.”

“The fuck you mean this is going too far? With all the shit Narinder did to us, I’d say it’s only right we retaliate like this!”

“I mean exactly what I said, Aym. This is going too far. I know your job is to lead mortals astray, but you are overstepping your boundaries heavily. Surely you remember what you’ve done to Leshy.”

Aym growled lightly. “And what did I tell you when I transformed him, huh? That I wouldn’t be doing this just to make you feel bad!”

Baal resisted the urge to growl back. “You and I both know that reasoning makes no sense at all. You were only saying that just to keep me on your side.” 

“No I fucking wasn’t! I legit want the best for you dude! I’m doing this all for YOUR sake!”

“If you were doing this for my sake you would’ve stopped the first time I showed resistance to it. Scratch that, you would’ve never done it to begin with, because like you said yourself, you know I don’t like doing immoral things like this.”

“Dude! Do you not get it? We’re giving him what he deser-”

“What is the point, Aym? What’s done is done. He has already forgotten about us, the only fair thing to do is forget about him!”

Aym was seemingly about to shout at Baal, but he reeled in his temper. “...Alright, so say a beast is good his entire life. Say everytime I come around to tempt him, he looks me dead in my eyes and tells me in no uncertain terms to fuck off. He treats everybeast well…serves his master faithfully, all that jazz. Wouldn’t it be right for him to receive a peaceful and blissful afterlife? Wouldn’t it be right for him to avoid the fires of Hell?”

Baal’s tail drooped as he caught on to the point his brother was making.

“So then…What difference is it if we give an evil beast what he deserves? Say he hurts anybeast and everybeast in his life, abuses his children, manipulates and uses people, wouldn’t it be right for him to suffer a deserving punishment? Wouldn’t it? So what’s the difference? Hm? Bottom line…now to answer your question…What’s the point of this all? It’s to give Narinder, and by extension, the world what it deserves. We’ve been wronged Baal. Snatched away from a peaceful life by our piece of shit father to suffer under his thumb and live in his shadow for eternity, all facilitated by a world who hates us. When we take over, we’ll hold a middle finger to it. We’ll scream at it; ‘Fuck you! We made our own path in life! We didn’t follow your fate for us! What’re you gonna do about it, huh?!’.”

Baal sighed in defeat. “...Very well..”

“Look…I know I’m overstepping my boundaries here, but you can’t resurrect somebeast without desecrating a few skeletons first. I promise you this is all necessary, Baal.”

Baal nodded slowly. “Very well then, brother…Just…please keep the use of the Moon Phase Tome to a minimum. It’s one thing to kill somebeast close to Narinder, it’s another to transform them into mindless monsters and deny them an afterlife.”

Aym nodded. “Got it…Got it.”

“Thank you.” Baal said.

But just as he was about to leave, Baal thought of something else.

“Oh, Aym, one more thing.”

“Eh? What is it now?”

“The champions of The Old Faith, did you ever let them out of Hell?”

Aym opened his mouth to speak but then shut it. He then gave Baal an innocent smile.

“Aym.” Baal boomed.

“I know! I know! I would’ve let them out after Narinder killed The Lamb but then all this other crap happened and I forgot. I’ll let them out the next time I’m down there.”

Baal rolled his eyes and sighed. “Thank you, Aym.” And with no more ground left to be covered, Baal turned around and left.

October 1st Year 2 AR

Forneus Van Shamura

Coven Campgrounds

Ever since the rebellion of Narinder had ended with his loss, Forneus and her coven of witches had been hiding from the watchful eye of the bishops, for they were still loyal to him, and the bishops were tracking down and killing any who still worshipped The One Who Waits. 

Tonight, the coven had nested in a quiet spot in Anchordeep, where they were all sure nobody would bother them while they all slept. Forneus of course stayed awake. For a couple reasons; she didn’t need to sleep at all, she had to be on watch in case any late-night attacks DID happen, and lastly…she had to make sure her two kits, Aym and Baal, were safe and sleeping like..well, kits.

After a while of patrolling around the campgrounds, Forneus decided to head back into her wagon-house to check on her kittens. Just as she expected, the two were sound asleep in their kitten-bed. Each laying on top of each other and purring away happily. 

The two were two years old by now…it amazed Forneus to know that she had been able to sustain a coven, keep it hidden, AND raise two children all at the same time….A tiring set of tasks, but simultaneously very fulfilling. And she had all managed it while Narinder was imprisoned. She wondered what he’d say if he could see all of this…He never even got to see his children before he was locked away…a sentiment that saddened Forneus somewhat.

As she thought, Forneus had been absentmindedly staring out the window of her house, watching as the ocean’s current blew the coral around and messed with the fabric of the tents. It was then she saw something…odd…

A hooded figure with a bag on their back had come upon the grounds…and was checking inside every tent for…something. Every tent they peered into they backed away from just as quickly as they looked in. And once they finished looking inside of the last tent, they began to approach Forneus’ house.

Almost instantly, Forneus stormed out of her house and stood in front of the hooded figure. Forneus conjured some lightning in her hands as she got into a fighting stance. “You, what are you doing here?” Forneus hissed.

The figure pulled their hood down, revealing that they were a purple bat with what appeared to be spider legs protruding from their head. Forneus’ fur instantly bristled as she recognized the bat.

“I am Witness Allocer of Shamura. Are you Forneus, who was wed to The One Who Waits?” Allocer asked, not appearing to be afraid in the slightest.

Forneus growled, her eyes beginning to glow red. “ What’s it to you, freak?”  

Allocer was once again seemingly unphased as she glanced towards Forneus’ house then back at Forneus herself. “Lord Shamura demands you hand over your children, as a gift for the one they love most. Do this and no harm will come to you and your coven.”

“Not a CHANCE!” Forneus spat at Allocer.

Allocer sighed. “I understand your reluctance, Forneus, but how can one say no to a god?”

Growling once again, Forneus cast out the lightning at Allocer, who proceeded to fly up to avoid it. Allocer then flew right at Forneus, snatching her up with her feet and then crashing her against the wall of her own house, causing it to shake. Allocer then swooped in the air, pulling out a knife as she did so, then flew forward and stabbed Forneus in the chest. Forneus screamed out in pain and unsheathed her claws, then slashed fast hard at Allocer’s face, knocking her back.

All of the commotion caused the rest of the witches to wake up and scramble out of their tents. As soon as they saw Allocer, they all began firing projectiles of black magic at her. All of which she ducked and weaved around expertly. Forneus then stood up and unleashed a blast of red lighting at Allocer from behind, successfully catching her off guard and knocking her to the ground.

The coven then surrounded Allocer. Each witch began to conjure the most powerful magic they could, getting ready to let it all loose at Allocer.

Unfortunately, Allocer wouldn’t be going down that easily.

Flapping her wings, Allocer got back to her feet and let out an ear-splittingly loud screech, causing the witches to stumble back and cover their ears in a vain attempt to block out the cacophony. 

The spider legs on Allocer’s head shot out silken webs to ensnare four of the witches, then quickly fired balls of ichor at the remaining two witches, knocking them to the ground.

At that moment, Forneus was finally able to recover from the shriek Allocer let out, and just before Forneus could retaliate against her, Allocer whipped out a dagger and slashed Forneus across the legs. Forneus let out a hiss of pain and fell to her knees, but still fired a bolt of lighting at Allocer, which Allocer still managed to avoid.

Allocer ran by Forneus and right into Forneus’ house. A mix of adrenaline and Forneus’ own parental instincts overtook her, and despite the maddening pain in her legs, she stood up and hauled herself into the house to see Allocer slipping the two kittens into the bag on her back.

Forneus prepared more lightning spells, but then she realized that if she hit Allocer with one, it would end up hitting the kits as well. So instead she ran forward to try and slit Allocer’s throat from behind. Unfortunately, Allocer spun right around just before Forneus could make contact and plunged her dagger right into Forneus’ midsection and shoved her back against the door. Forneus watched in horror as Allocer sunk through a portal before she could get back up, taking her precious kits with her.

At this very moment, Forneus felt her heart shatter into a million pieces.

Her children had been stolen from her.

Forneus began to cry, guilt and sorrow swiftly welling up inside her. She was a failure. She had failed to protect two little children, how did she think she could protect anybeast else in her coven?

In shame, she hobbled outside of her wagon house, where all the members of her coven watched her with silent concern. Without a word, Forneus picked up the handles of her mobile house and began walking away, leaving the coven behind. Forneus wept deeply throughout her entire walk.

August 1st Year 200 AR

Anna Van Shamura

The Cult Of The Lamb

The last couple days had been rather uneventful. Shamura and Narinder had tried to interact with each other more, to considerable success. 

Though throughout it all, Shamura couldn’t help but worry about dear Leshy…despite knowing that Magdalene would eventually rescue him, and that they could have never known this would happen…they still felt the blame fall onto their shoulders…just like-

No nevermind. They couldn’t keep dwelling on that…What’s done was done…

They shook their head and looked out the window of their house. It was a dark night, the moon wasn’t shining at all tonight, resulting in the only light coming from the lamps hanging along the paths in the housing area. Shamura sighed, figuring they’d better get to sleep, for it was obviously very late. Sleep was something they didn’t really like doing all that much, but in their mortal body, it was a necessity.

Just as they sat down on their bed, their door suddenly crept open. Shamura narrowed their eyes at this. “Odd..” They thought to themself. They didn’t recall locking their door, but it wouldn’t have just been blown open by a simple gust of wind, right? So what…?

Their questions were quickly answered by the very thing that opened the door. A black cat in a black robe stepped his way into Shamura’s house with a malevolent smile on his face. Shamura backed into the wall fearfully, something about this cat was oddly familiar to them.

“heheheh…Remember me? The one you gave away to The One Who Waits?” The cat spoke, and Shamura immediately recognized him. He was one of the sons of Forneus.

Shamura tried to speak. “L-Listen, please-”

The cat cut them off. “Shut up. I don’t want to hear your excuses. It’s all the same. You did something shitty, now you’re gonna pay the price for it.”

Before Shamura could even call out for help, Aym rushed over to them with blinding speed and grabbed them by the throat, clutching it extremely tightly to prevent them from making a sound. Shamura felt themselves sinking through the ground…the last thing they saw before their vision went completely black was the unnaturally wide smile of that cat…

…

The Gateway

Shamura awoke an indeterminate time later, finding themselves in an odd stone-brick building. They stood up and looked around, coming face to face with the same cat from before…

“Rise and shine, Shamura! It’s finally time to face the consequences of your actions!” The cat held up his staff, which began glowing.

Shamura could feel their body twisting and snapping painfully. They slowly closed their eyes and accepted their fate…they supposed they did deserve this…they were the one who killed the cat while he was still an innocent child…

Their thoughts began to blur…and soon enough, they fell into Aym’s control.

…Just like their dear brother, Leshy.

August 1st Year 200

Aym

Swamps Of Anura

Aym led the monstrous Shamura through the murky and humid swamps of Anura. The night was pitch-dark, but luckily for Aym, being a cat, he had good night vision. Unfortunately, his transformed auncle didn’t seem to have that luxury, and had trouble keeping up with him, much to Aym’s frustration. But after a long and annoying trek, Aym finally arrived at a clearing in the fungus-ridden swamplands, then whistled.

On command, a loud scream-laugh could be heard as Chemach swung out of the woods. “WHHHHYYYyyyy! Helloo there Aym!! Has Aym brought Cheeeemach another giiiift?!?” She said, she twitched rapidly, almost convulsing as she spoke. A sight that almost unnerved even Aym.

“Indeed I have!” The black cat responded, motioning to Shamura.

“Now then, until I say otherwise, listen to Chemach. Got it?” He told Shamura, who chittered in response. Aym took this as Shamura understanding the order.

Chemach cackled loudly and shook herself around disturbingly. “AAAAAAAAAOOOOOOHHH! CHEMACH JUST LOVES THESE new toys YOU BRING FOR HER TO play with….kehehehehe! Ehehehehe! But Chemach wants to know… When will you bring me that relic you promised. The danger I’m in only grows more and more every day, and I’m tired of waiting.” 

Aym internally spat. His students still weren’t ready, and he still hadn’t managed to get that relic. “I uh- Look, I don’t have it yet-”

“Then I’m done. I’m done being your scapegoat. I will tell The Lamb everything you’ve-”

“Heyheyheyheyhey waitwaitwaitwait! If you keep taking the blame and just wait a bit longer…..I’ll give you TWO relics! How does that sound?”

Chemach was silent and completely still for a moment, then suddenly got right in Aym’s face while shivering. “CHEMACH IS SOLD!!! TWO WHOLE RELICS?!?!?! OH DEAR YOU SPOIL CHEMACH! AHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!”

Chemach then turned to Shamura. “COME NEW TOY! CHEMACH WILL SHOW YOU HER OTHER TOY, AND WE WILL BEGIN TO PLAY! AAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

Chemach sped off back into the forest, and Shamura bounded after her. Aym shuddered and then went back to The Gateway…he’d need to hurry up with his students’ training…

But unbeknownst to Aym, the entirety of the conversation…he had been watched. 

A very special somebeast had hid in the brushes and eavesdropped on the conversation, something about it awakening something within them…and with their white crown glowing softly, they floated away to who knows where next…

Chapter Text

August 2 Year 200 AR

Magdalene “The Lamb”

The Cult Of The Lamb

“FUCKING TWAT! MOTHERFUCKING FEATHERED FUCK! I’LL ‘AVE ‘ER GUTS FOR GAR’ERS YOU ‘EAR ME?! YOU ‘EAR ME?!” Narinder shouted from the private bathroom of the temple while Magdalene sat on the bed in the adjoined bedroom she and Narinder shared. She had her face buried in her hands, shaking her head dejectedly. Every time. Every single time she thought to let her guard down just a bit, something went horribly wrong. She had decided to actually sleep for once last night, and now Shamura had been kidnapped. Likely to suffer the same fate as Leshy.

The sounds of glass breaking echoed from the bathroom, and then Narinder stepped out, his fist slashed and bleeding significantly less than a normal beast should. “I can’t FUCKING do this any more Magdalene! I CAN’T DO IT ANYMORE! I WAS SO CLOSE TO FIXING THINGS WITH THEM!”

Magdalene stood up and placed her hands on Narinder’s shoulders. “Narinder, please just calm down. I’m pissed off too, but we have to stay as calm as we can! We won’t get anywhere just shouting at things.”

Narinder had begun crying at this point. He practically fell into Magdalene’s arms, clinging to her like a lost child. She responded by hugging him and petting him simultaneously. “I don’t know what to do anymore, Magdalene. Whenever I try to fix things with them, some bullshit like this happens. If it isn’t Heket beating me to shite whenever I come around her…o-or Kallamar inking himself every time I so much as look in his bloody direction it’s this.”

“I’ll get them back, Narinder. Don’t worry. I’ll make sure Chemach pays for her crimes…I’m going to go out and hunt for her, and I’m not going to come back until she’s-”

“I’m coming with you.”

“Wh-What? Narinder-”

“I’m coming with you.”

“Narinder the last time I took a-”

“ I’m coming. With you. ” The sorrow and anger in Narinder’s voice hung so heavy it threatened to break his lower jaw from the sheer weight of it.

Magdalene sighed and relented. It did involve his siblings, after all. “Very well then…I’m going to have to make some prepare everybeast for our trip…”

Magdalene held Narinder in her arms for a few moments longer until he had calmed down, then she left to go prepare everybeast for the coming days.

…

Once again, Magdalene had called her followers to an emergency meeting, and was back on the stage in front of them all.

“Greetings once again everybeast, I’m afraid I have more bad news…Shamura has been kidnapped in the night-”

Before Magdalene could even finish speaking, the loudest rabble she had ever heard fell over the crowd of followers, even the clergy members joined in on it.

“Chemach knows where we are?!” A rabbit shouted

“What are we going to do?! What are we going to doooo?!” A dog added on.

“SILENCE!” Magdalene nearly literally roared out, and the crowd immediately quieted down.

“...Now then. Chemach’s menace will no longer be tolerated. I have let her run rampant for FAR too long, and it is time to end this madness. Me and Narinder will go on a crusade and not return until we have killed Chemach. Now, before you all begin to panic, I will have my clergy enforce some new temporary rules. Until further notice, you will all spend most of your time inside of the temple, time outside of it is to be heavily monitored by one of the clergy to assure that nothing goes awry. Before we leave, my clergy and I will move all of our food inside, as well as bring in some sleeping bags, and we will also be applying a circle of salt around the temple in the hopes of dissuading any potential future attacks. While the clergy will do their best to watch over you all, I want you all to be looking out for each other as well, we must not allow any more of our fellows to fall into Chemach’s hands.”

The followers hesitantly nodded and agreed with their leader’s words, and Magdalene adjourned the meeting. Immediately she and her clergy immediately began to start the preparations, fitting as much food as they could into warming containers and moving it inside, followed by the bags, and then finally emptying out the cult’s supply of salt around the temple. Magdalene blessed the circle, whispering an incantation of protection to complete it. And with that….Narinder and Magdalene set out. Narinder brought along a crossbow and several bolts for it.

August 2

Witness Allocer

The Cult Of The Lamb

Several uneasy hours later and it was now nearly sunset. Allocer was outside of the temple, sitting near the entrance of the cult and writing in her journal.

“Dear Journal.”

“These days the thought of what I helped damned those two kits to all those years ago weighs on me heavily. Not that it doesn’t already, but lately it’s been on my mind a lot more. No matter how much I try to rationalize or justify what I did, I can’t escape the fact that I indirectly killed two children and left their mother heartbroken. I understand that Lord Shamura wasn’t of sound mind back then, but”

Allocer’s writing was suddenly cut off by the sounds of flapping wings, then the sounds of talons scraping against stone as somebeast approached. 

Allocer stood up and quickly looked over. She could see Haon immediately rushing into the  entrance path with his dagger drawn. Allocer immediately followed after him. She would’ve gone in front of him if not for him blocking her off with his arm. He moved forward and aimed his dagger at the stranger, who held their wings up slightly to indicate they weren’t a threat.

“Hold it, who are you and what do you want here?” Haon boomed. And as Haon spoke, Allocer’s eyes were immediately drawn to the white, X-eyed crown sitting on the stranger’s head. And that’s when it clicked.

“...Haro?” Allocer said, to which Haro looked shocked that she recognized him.

Haon bore a confused expression. “Al? You know this critter?” He remarked.

“I do…” Haon lowered the arm that blocked Allocer and she moved closer. “Disgraced bishop…what brings you to this place…and how have you grown independent of your curse?”

Haon made an unintelligible noise. “I knew I should’ve listened to Lee when he told me to pay attention in history class.”

Allocer took a deep breath and looked towards Haon. “Haro was the original bishop of Darkwood. However, he allowed his sect to collapse due to his incompetence, and he was cursed for it.”

Haro nodded slowly. “I became little more than a living library, only existing to spout knowledge to any passers-by…”

Haon was silent. He opened his mouth to speak but then shut it as he seemingly had nothing to say. Allocer sighed and then looked back at Haro. “Now then…answer my questions, disgraced one.”

Haro rolled his eyes. “Listen, I must speak to The Lamb, I have urgent news I need to-”

Allocer cut him off. “Impossible, she has left with her husband in order to go and hunt down the traitor, Chemach.”

Haro’s expression changed to one of slight distress. “That’s the thing, she has been tr-”

“Hey! SHH! …I heard something.” Haon suddenly and urgently said. The trio tensed up and began scanning the area for threats. Allocer looked around for a moment before she spotted two glowing, red eyes staring back at her from the forest. She nervously motioned to the other two, who turned to look at them.

“Begone, demon. These grounds are hallowed.” Allocer growled, to which the demon laughed.

“By your standards maybe…but the magic used to make this cult ‘holy ground’ is just as unholy as the underworld itself.” The demon stepped out of the bushes, revealing itself to have been taking the form of a black and red moth.

Some more rustling could be heard behind the trio, and they looked back to see another demon. This time a diseased-looking raven, appearing to be a young child as well.

Allocer gritted her teeth, looking back to the moth demon. “Have you been sent by Chemach?!” She shouted.

“Indeed we have.” A voice spoke, followed by yet another demon appearing in front this time. A horned ferret. “The name’s Damon.” He spoke. He then motioned to the moth. “That there’s Hellmoth, and the raven’s Alarius-”

Alarius cut Damon off. “Enough with the intros! Just ATTACK!” As soon as Alarius finished speaking, the three demons immediately rushed at the three non-demons. Allocer very quickly let out a deafening shriek which caused the demons to freeze in place and cover their ears. Unfortunately, it also stunned Haro and Haon.

Allocer took a moment to congratulate herself on still having it and then grabbed the arms (or in Haro’s case, wing) of the two non-demons and began sprinting with them back to the temple. She could hear the sounds of wings beating and flapping behind her, getting louder and louder each passing second. Soon she heard the sound of an ichor projectile being launched, but before she could feel the aftereffects of that, she successfully burst into the temple with Haon and Haro and slammed the doors shut behind her. Screams of frustration were plainly audible as the demons were presumably attempting to break past the protective circle. 

This was quickly followed by the panicked rabble of the followers inside the temple at not only the three’s sudden and fearful entrance, but the fact that another crownbearer was inside the church.

Haro held his wings up, trying to signify that he wasn’t a threat, but that did little to calm down the flock, as those with weapons quickly rushed at Haro with them drawn.

Allocer flapped her wings to fly up high, and then screamed. “EVERYBEAST CALM DOWN!” The rabble then died down.

Allocer flew back down. “This critter is not our enemy. His crown does not work, and he is powerless. See the X that is its eye?” She pointed up to the crown.

The rabble quieted down somewhat, though the nervousness in the temple was still palpable. 

Before any more questions could be asked, a loud BANG sounded throughout the grounds, and everybeast rushed to the large window to see if they could see what the sound of the noise was.

And that’s when the crowd let out a mighty, fearful, and disgusted gasp. Allocer flew up and looked out the window, and that’s when she saw what had happened.

The statue of The Lamb in the middle of the plaza had been completely destroyed. The stone was shattered into what appeared to be thousands of small pieces and scattered all across the ground. The statue had been destroyed so forcefully that the rubble was spread far beyond the plaza.

But that wasn’t enough. Those who could see out the window watched in horror and those that couldn’t inquired in a frenzy what was happening as the demons began to set fire to everything they could see. They burned decor and memorabilia to The Lamb…farmlands…houses…the demons appeared to be determined to cause as much destruction as possible. If not for the protective circle around the Temple, all beasts inside the temple would’ve been sitting ducks. 

Unfortunately, that didn’t assuage the followers’ fears at all, and they began to scream and ramble with untold alarm. 

“It’s the Old Faith all over again!”

“Why did The Lamb have to leave us like this?!”

‘ QUUIIIEEET!” Allocer and three other voices shouted at once. Said voices were her three sisters, Agares, Bathin, and Astaroth.

“Look, we all need to calm down. I know we’re all scared but all we’re gonna get  by acting like motherless puppies is more trouble.” Agares shouted.

“Yeah, so let's all just calm down and take a while to think of something we can do.” Bathin added.

It took a while, but eventually the crowd died down, and only the sounds of crying children and consoling mothers came from the inside of the temple.

Allocer took this time to go over to Haro who was sitting against a wall, and ask him some much needed questions.

“What were you saying earlier, about the reason you needed to see The Lamb?” She asked.

Haro sighed. “She has been tricked, Chemach is only a pawn in a greater evil’s scheme.”

“...And how can I trust you’re telling the truth?”

“I saw what happened to Shamura. Aym, son of The One Who Waits, led them out to Anura where he gave them over to her.”

Allocer felt her heart drop nearly to the heart of the Earth. The One Who Waits’ son lived? And was the true culprit of this all? “B-But how…?” She tried to stammer out.

“I do not know, myself.” Haro said, shaking his head slightly. “And to answer your other question…I believe when I saw Chemach…some memory deep in my mind managed to pierce through the rivers of information that drowned it out..and that led to a chain reaction of more memories flooding back to me…drying up that river and flooding the banks with another.

Allocer was silent. In a way, this was all her fault. If Chemach was just one of many servants to Aym, then that meant that the demons currently ravaging her and everybeast else’s home were of him as well…no doubt he had come to take vengeance on her. She almost considered walking right out and letting the demons take her.

At least then she may be able to see her brother again.

…But no. She couldn’t do that. She couldn’t bear to put the burden of losing yet another sibling onto her sisters.

“Are…you alright, Allocer?” Haro asked with his head tilted to the side slightly.

Allocer nodded. “You need not worry about me, Haro…thank you for telling me this. I’ll…I’ll be sure to let everybeast else in the cult know this.”

Haro gave Allocer a look of moderate concern and then nodded. He then looked away from her and began blankly staring at the other wall across from the one he was sitting against.

Allocer sighed, walked away, and pulled out her journal.

“Dear Journal.”

“Some days I believe that everybeast around me would be better off without me. Today is one of those days.”

Chapter Text

Magdalene stood in the middle of a black void. Well, ‘standing’ may have been a bit of a stretch, there wasn’t really anything underneath her.

It was cold, and she was alone. Her thoughts immediately began to drift, back to the days of her teenhood. Entire days spent running and hiding in fear, desperately clutching clumps of leaves and grass to herself in order to staunch the bleeding of fresh wounds.

And soon after those thoughts began to intrude, Magdalene saw that she wasn’t so lonely anymore.

Corpses, hundreds of them. All of them sheep. All of them were floating around her, blood dripped from them all and stayed stagnant in the air.

Magdalene began to cry, covering her face in an attempt to block out the horrid sight that lay in front of and all around her. But it was no use, she could not pry her eyes away from it all. She was all but compelled to look upon the sight…

After a while of staring at the grisly scene in front of her, three giant, glowing, red eyes opened in front of her. The eyes of The One Who Waits.

“You are an absolute failure of a vessel, and as a leader. I would’ve never let myself sink to the lowly state you’ve lowered you and your following into. I should’ve let your worthless soul drift into hell where it belonged. Along with the rest of your worthless kind.” 

Magdalene began to weep harder upon hearing those words, and the tears would only increase as the corpses all turned their heads towards Magdalene and began to speak.

“ Your. Fault. Your. Fault. Your. Fault.” They all began to chant at her in unison. They chanted in one, monotonous choir, like water droplets constantly dripping into a bucket. Never getting louder, yet never getting softer as well.

The debilitating rhythm of the chanting began to wear Magdalene down. All she could focus on were the chants, and the fact that this WAS all her fault. If Magdalene had never been born, she would’ve never been selected to be Narinder’s vessel. The sheep genocide would never have happened. Magdalene would be able to live a normal life. Magdalene-

“Magdalene! Wake up for fucks sake!”

August 3, Year 200AR

Magdalene “The Lamb”

Backwoods of Darkwood

Magdalene awoke with a startled yell, nearly shoving away Narinder as she jolted up from her sleeping bag. Narinder placed his hands on Magdalene’s shoulders hard enough to get her to calm down but light enough to not hurt her.

Magdalene panted lightly before speaking. “A-Ah. Narinder. I-”

“You had another nightmare?” Narinder interrupted, and Magdalene nodded sheepishly (Pun not intended).

Narinder sighed and gave Magdalene a few headpats. “There has to be some way to stop this shite…it happens every time you try and sleep.”

“It’s been happening for years, Narinder.”

“Me standing in a white void pissing my knickers in rage also happened for years but that didn’t make it any better, now did it?”

Magdalene made a noise of exasperation. There were times when Narinder’s bluntness annoyed her somewhat, but she tried to keep her patience with him. It was something he had minimal control over.

“Well…even still, I’ve made it this far in my life while dealing with it-”

Narinder interrupted her again, causing Magdalene to throw her hands up in annoyance. “I made it longer than your p- longer than you were alive, but that doesn’t make things any better.”

“...Narinder, these are two completely different things. What you went through was a consequence of your own actions, and what I am going through is just something that comes with running in fear for ten years of my life.”

“...And that was my fault too.”

“Ugh-! Narinder, I’ve told you, you can’t keep dwelling on th-”

“I know! I know…but you can’t deny what I did fucked up your life and got thousands of others ended.”

“All we can do is move on Narinder, everybeast else has-”

“Shamura, maybe. Leshy, yeah. But everybeast else? They all still want me dead. Hell, everybeast I’ve reconciled with has fallen into the talons of that fucking bird.”

“Narinder.” Magdalene said sternly. “Let me finish a sentence. Please.”

Narinder clenched his teeth and nodded.

“Look. I understand what you’ve done is horrible. I understand if a lot of beasts haven’t forgiven you. But what matters is that you’re making the effort to change. If some beasts are not willing to accept that, then that is on them. Not you.”

Narinder sighed and shook his head. “Magdalene, you make it sound like I merely dumped a bucket of water on somebeast’s head too many times. I started a war, Magdalene. I caused thousands of lives to be lost. I ruined your life, your family, and granted you that accursed object upon your head.”

She glanced over at the Red Crown, still sitting on the floor of the tent where it had been left last night, then looked back to Narinder. “Alright look, no matter what the magnitude may be of what you’ve done, that still doesn’t change the fact that constantly slitting your throat over it will only make things worse. All you can do is keep moving forward.”

Narinder held his eyes shut after Magdalene finished talking, then gave her a slight nod. Magdalene could tell he wasn’t really taking her words to heart, but she hoped she at least made some amount of progress with him.

The two then wordlessly got up and out of the tent, quickly packing it and all of their supplies up and continuing out on their search…

—-

A few hours later, the two had found very little. They had found a trail of cut trees that they hoped would eventually lead to Chemach, but they had come up empty handed. 

“...Fuck’s sake, you think we would’ve found SOMETHING by now.” Narinder whined.

“It’s our second day of searching, Narinder.”

“Still, we should’ve found something other than fucken cut plants. Didn’t you say she was loud as hell? If we were on the right track, don’t you think we would’ve heard her doing anything?”

Magdalene sighed. “Look, Narinder. This is the only place I’ve seen her, it’s the only lead we have. Now please, just-”

“Wait.” Narinder immediately shushed Magdalene. Magdalene immediately began to listen out for what Narinder could’ve heard.

The two pulled out their weapons, beginning to circle around with their backs to each other. “...Are you sure you heard something?” Madalene whispered.

“Yeah…sounded like…laughing…”

Almost on cue, a slow, drawling laugh resonated throughout the area…whatever was laughing continued doing so, but every time it laughed, it would come from a different direction. It was clear that this being was toying with them both…

But finally, the being made itself known, a black and red miasma appeared on the ground, almost liquid in its nature…and out of it rose a figure…wearing a familiar, tattered black robe. The figure began to laugh again…

“...You…!” Narinder called out.

The Fox looked up at them both, a hungry, wild look in his eyes, and a twisted smile on his face. 

“...What do you want? It isn’t even night.” Magdalene boomed.

“Oh it’s dark enough here…Now…as for what I want…you won’t give me Ratau… So I’ll take the next best thing. ” Fox then savagely lunged forward at Narinder with blinding speed, biting deep into Narinder’s arm. Narinder screamed bloody murder and fired a crossbow bolt right into Fox’s eye.

Magdalene let out a growl and cast out Touch Of Turua, summoning a crowd of tentacles which wrapped around Fox and tried to wrench his mouth open, while others attempted to hold his arms back so he couldn’t claw at Narinder. After a few moments of struggle, they were successful at getting Fox off of Narinder, and Magdalene made the tentacles throw Fox into a nearby tree.

Fox however, appeared unscathed by it, and quickly stood back up and rushed at Narinder again, but before Fox could do any more damage, Narinder bashed Fox in the snout with his crossbow, throwing Fox off course and allowing Narinder to gain some distance away from Fox.

Magdalene ran at Fox and began to slash him repeatedly with her sword, yet he still appeared to be unfazed. “ I grow very sick of you, Lamb. You really aren’t the leader I hoped you were…” He then clawed at Magdalene, who parried and slashed back, yet Fox parried that as well. “Well…At least I’m not a monster like you.” Magdalene snarled, slicing at Fox’s legs. The slash landed, yet once again, Fox was unfazed.

Fox then vanished and reappeared behind Magdalene, digging his claws into her back, then raising her up on said claws and throwing her into the mud a few feet away. “Ah heh heh heh…you call me a monster..yet you have killed thousands of critters in the name of a traitor…and then married him…”

Pounding the ground in rage, Magdalene stood up and summoned more tentacles, which all attempted to bash Fox. Fox effortlessly ducked and weaved out of the tentacles’ way and slashed at Magdalene. Magdalene took the slash but then followed up with a series of slashes of her own, and ending it off with a powerful overhead chop, cleaving Fox’s head in two.

Fox crumpled to the ground, and Magdalene stopped to catch her breath. Once she did, she looked to Narinder, who was frozen to one spot in fear, his tail bristled and standing straight up.

“I…Have…several...questions…” Magdalene heaved out.

Narider gulped. “Alright, look, I d- SHIT LOOK BEHIND YOU!”

Magdalene spun around to see The Fox looming over her, laughing the same laugh he always did. “You can’t kill me, lamb. I was merely humoring you.”

“Urrgh!” Magdalene slashed Fox again, and her blade once again seemed to barely phase him. He began to walk closer to her, and Magdalene feverishly stepped back. “You’re no better than I, Lamb. You’re no better than the faith you ruthlessly slaughtered.” He croaked.

“I had no choice! I-”

“No choice? You could’ve easily refused that crown and moved on to have a peaceful afterlife and whatnot.”

Magdalene roared out and shot a ball of caustic ichor at Fox. He was struck by it and stumbled back while growling. Magdalene took this as a sign that he was beginning to finally be damaged by her attacks. “Do you not understand?! I was his only hope, even if I refused, he likely would have crowned me anyway!”

“At least then you really wouldn’t have had a choice, and not have to grasp at straws to justify your own sick actions.” 

“Well what’s YOUR justification then?!” Magdalene shouted accusatorially. 

Fox lunged forward and pinned Magdalene against a tree. A crossbow bolt pierced through his eye as he did so, yet he was still undeterred, and appeared to be even more angry. “ I have to. ” He choked and sputtered from rage as he spoke. He had even begun to froth in the mouth as if he was rabid. At this point Magdalene figured that would be a reasonable assumption. “ A result of this lifelong curse placed upon me. If I don’t kill, if I don’t eat, if I don’t deal, I die. ” Fox then gripped Magdalene by the throat and threw her to the ground. Magdalene jumped back to her hooves and whipped around to face Fox. They locked eyes with each other, panting and shaking from the fight.

“...The best part? I can’t even kill either of you. I know who you both are.”

Magdalene sighed. “What does that have to do with anything…?”

“I physically cannot kill you, fool. Only wound you. Yet another side effect.”

Magdalene clenched her teeth in frustration. “ Then why bother attacking us?! ”

Fox looked over to Narinder, then back at magdalene. “Him…Narinder..I remember he was the first thing I saw when I became a demon…he…he is the reason I’m like this. Even if I can’t kill him…it would fill me with such joy…” Fox began breathing harder and snarling as he spoke. “To…to rip an arm…or a leg, or a few chunks of flesh-”

“That’s enough!” Shouted Magdalene. 

Magdalene looked over to Narinder. “Explain this later.” She then looked back at Fox. “Well…now that you’ve pulled this, we’re probably miles behind Chemach n-”

“Chemach eh…?” Fox interjected.

“...I suppose you have history with her as well.”

“I do…she met with me many scores ago..wanted help making her own crown she did. So we made a deal…but she swindled me, and I have been unable to track her down since.”

Magdalene took a moment to think…their goals were similar, and it could be very useful to have Fox on board…She would just have to make a quick deal with him…

“Alright…well I have a proposition for you.” Stated Magdalene.

“Lamb, what in the hell do you think you’re doing-?” Narinder tried to say, only to get cut off by a glare from Magdalene.

Fox’s ears perked up upon that notion. “A proposition you say…? Go on…”

“You help us track down and kill Chemach, and in turn, I’ll help you get rid of your demonhood. If that’s possible.” 

Fox looked rather surprised at that side of the bargain. “You would do that? Legitimately?”

Magdalene nodded. “Look, I’m no stranger to lifelong curses…” She glanced up to The Red Crown. “...So I can understand your position…But I will not tolerate you making another attempt on our lives, understood?”

Fox grumbled but nodded. “Fine, but I want one more thing out of this.”

“...And what is that?”

Fox leaned in closer, smiling a sharp-toothed grin that quite literally stretched from ear to ear. “ You know who I want.” 

Magdalene sucked in air through her teeth as she considered going through with the offer. She glanced over to Narinder, who was shaking his head no at her rapidly. The thought of giving up Ratau to this beast was unfathomable…but if she could somehow find a loophole…!

“...Deal. But only after Chemach is dead. ” She made sure to emphasize the latter part of her sentence.

Fox scoffed. “Fine then. It’s a deal.” He then held his hand out for Magdalene to shake. She cautiously did so.

“Now then…I shall head on ahead and sniff for her scent…I shall meet back up with you when you set up camp…I shall know, trust me.” Fox laughed once more and faded away into the dark woods.

Narinder then ran up to Magdalene and grabbed her by the shoulders. “Are! You! Mental!? Do you know what you’ve fucken done?! Those damn things always find a way to twist thing in their favor-”

“Hey! Hey! Hey! I know what I’m doing, that’s why I specified that I’d only give him Ratau after we kill Chemach! If we can find her and capture her, but keep her alive, we can search for a way to get rid of his demonhood, and by then he won’t have the power to hurt Ratau or anybeast else again!”

Narinder panted and let go. “...Sorry…I..wasn’t thinking of that.”

“It’s fine, Narinder. Now then…why does Fox hate you so much specifically?”

Narinder made incomprehensible mouth noises as he tried to formulate a response. Eventually, he managed to settle on something. “...I don’t know.”

“Ugh- Narinder, you have to know-”

“Well I don’t, Magdalene. You try spending 200 years in the same location with the same two beasts, standing in the same spot, with the days all being nearly the same, and you see if the days all don’t blend together.”

Magdalene sighed and nodded. “You have a point…my apologies…I suppose we’ll worry about it later.”

“...Magdalene, you’re beaten to fuck and back, you need to stop and rest.”

“I’ve been through worse, Narinder, but thank you for the concern.” She gave Narinder a quick kiss on the nose. To which Narinder looked away shyly while nodding.

“Uh…yeah…alright then.” Narinder kept walking.

Magdalene chuckled and followed. 

Chapter Text

August 4th Year 200AR

Witness Allocer

Temple of The Lamb

The atmosphere had only been getting heavier and heavier in the temple. It had been two whole days, and the flock of The Lamb were still trapped in the temple. An air of worry hung over the interior of the temple, and it only grew worse as time went by. Through the windows Allocer watched as the group of demons outside grew larger and larger, and their attempts to get past the barrier grew more and more intense.

Allocer looked away from the window and slunk against the wall. She had debated with herself several times on walking outside and allowing the demons to take her, but every time she managed to talk herself out of it each time. Something inside her told her that it wasn’t the right course of action…but another continued to tell her that the siege would mercifully end once she had finally been taken.

“Yo, Allocer.” Haon suddenly said, snapping Allocer out of her rumination. She looked up at him with a small “Hm?” of acknowledgement. 

Haon leaned against the wall casually as he spoke. “The clergy’s having a meeting. Well, it’s more like an interrogation of that Haro guy, and I figured since you probably know more about him than us, I figured that we could get some reliable info out of him from you.”

Allocer nodded and stood up. Haon got off the wall and led Allocer down the tenebrous halls of the temple, only lit by a sparse window or flickering lantern every now and then. It wouldn’t take long for the two to reach the meeting room. The attendants were sitting around a rectangular table, with the clergy gathered around one end and Haro at the other. Allocer and Haon took their seats and began the interrogation.

Much of the same information from before was rehashed as to bring the others up to speed. Soon after, though, the conversation came to an unexpected point of interest. 

“Alright, and how do we know YOU aren’t the one tricking us? That you didn’t lead all those demons here?” Haon asked. Allocer’s ears perked up at the sound of him asking that question.

Haro looked absolutely dumbfounded. “Wh-What? How could you suggest such a thing?” 

Another member of the clergy, a bat named Judas, spoke up. “They showed up right as you arrived here, and they’re still here, as are you.”

Haon nodded and then proceeded to add on to Judas’ claim. “That, PLUS you showed up out of nowhere saying you needed to speak to The Lamb, now I’m no scholar, but that seems preeeetty suspicious if you ask me.”

Haro scoffed. “I walked right through the circle! If I were really a threat it would’ve blocked me out-”

“There are ways to get around that. You could’ve always applied some sort of charm to yourself to bypass it.” Interrupted Gusion (Head of Farming)

“Fool, his crown is inactive! Did I not make that obvious the first day he arrived here?” Allocer snapped, causing the clergy (Minus Lee, who had remained silent the whole time) to glare at her suspiciously. 

“...What?” She apprehensively said.

“...You’re really quick to defend him.” Judas said.

Allocer’s jaw dropped and her eyes widened. “ What are you saying?!” She shouted, a rhetorical question.

“You’re working with him, aren’t you? You’re working with all those fuckers! You, Leshy, and Shamura made some kind of a deal with those demons to masquerade this whole thing, and you’re using Chemach as a scapegoat!” Haon snarled.

Allocer slammed her hands on the table and shot to her feet. She was about to retort, but Haro beat her to the punch. Noticeable strain was in his voice as he yelled.

“What on Earth would they have to gain from this?! Nearly the entire Old Faith is dead, so they would have next to none of their former power, The Lamb could easily just kill them again-” 

Haon interrupted him. “Who fucking KNOWS what’s going on out there?! For all we know they’ve been secretly gaining all their power back plus more!”

“Well Gerno was kidnapped as well!” Allocer objected.

“Yeah! Probably taken when he got too close to the truth!” Haon objected back.

“Or…he’s just a dissenter.” Judas added.

The conversation broke down completely shortly after that, devolving into a giant match of ‘See Who Can Shout Louder Than The Other’. It didn’t take long for Allocer and Haon to lunge at each other with the intent to hurt…but before they could fully connect…

“SHUT UP! STOP IT! JUST FUCKING STOP!” Shouted Lee. Haon stumbled back with a look of pure, unadulterated shock on his face. 

“H-Holy shit Le-”

“SHUT UP HAON!”

“alright then-”

Lee panted rapidly, looking horrified at himself for shouting like he did.

Lee gulped and finally said something. “My apologies for shouting like I did…but we all need to calm down. You’re all just shouting baseless accusations at each other…I-I get we’re all stressed out, but screaming at each other is just going to make things worse…” 

Everybeast looked at each other and nodded. Haon and Allocer sat back down.

“Now…It is entirely possible that Haro MAY be lying and plotting against us…but I believe that whatever he may have been planning would’ve come into effect, considering he has been here for two days now. It is entirely possible that Leshy and Shamura MAY be plotting as well, but they’ve been in the cult for around a year now, and have shown no sign of such things…that, and Kallamar and Heket are still present at the cult. If the bishops were plotting, don’t you believe that they would be gone too?”

Haon nodded in defeat, and looked towards Allocer and Haro. “Yeah…I’m sorry for accusing you two like that.”

Judas nodded as well. “Same here.” He said.

“Worry not, worry not. I understand your concerns…But I must make it clear that I have no intention of undoing your cult or your leader’s rule. I merely wished to warn her of the true enemy.” Chirped Haro.

An uneasy silence fell over the room for the next few moments, before Haon spoke up again. “So…from the looks of things…it’s only a matter of time before those demons break through the barrier. We oughta start preparing for an attack. We’re gonna have to defend the temple.”

Those present at the meeting nodded nervously. Haon then began to speak again. “So my plan right now is to gather up everybeast who can fight, be it in magic or otherwise, and have them all hold down the fort so to say, while everybeast else hides in the dungeons.”

The critters in attendance nodded and made noises of agreement, but then Haro raised his wing. “If I may…” He hooted. “I don’t mean to be a pessimist, but I fear that the magic you all may know will likely do very little against the demons.”

“Why do you say that?” Questioned Gusion.

“Well…no matter how righteous your intentions may all be…the nature of your magic is inherently impure, and those demons are made of impurity, born from it.” Responded Haro

“Well if that’s the case, then how did the barrier keep them out?” Lee asked politely.

“Well, salt in of itself is a pure substance, and therefore, a barrier made from it would repel the impurity of the demons.” Allocer explained.

“Huh….okay….so what are we supposed to do? Throw salt at them until they fuck off?” Snarked Haon.

“Well that’s one way…but if anybeast here knows any magic that will do damage to those things, we carry on with your initial plan, but exclusively use them above ground…” Allocer said.

“Shit, wouldn’t that put you and your sisters out of commission though?” Asked Judas.

“Well no actually. We know a little bit about other branches of magic.”

Haro nodded. “There is always physical combat as well. I understand that the witnesses are suited mainly towards magic…but you are no slouch with standard weaponry either.” He added.

Allocer nodded in response.

Haon sighed. “Well, I guess that just about wraps everything up. Just…be ready to fight at a moment’s notice, everybeast.” Haon didn’t have a gavel, so he adjourned the meeting by striking the table with his hand. Everybeast cleared out soon after that. As everybeast walked out, Allocer could just barely hear Haon muttering something to Judas…

“Man, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Lee get that mad before…”

August 4th, Year 200 AR

Magdalene “The Lamb”

Cavern Halls of Silk Cradle

“YOU’LL NEVER CATCH CHEMACH! AHAHAHAHAHA! CHEMACH IS ABOVE ANY PUNY CROWN! ABOVE ANY LITTLE CROSSBOW! ABOVE ANY MINISCULE DEMON!”

The loud, haunting voice of Chemach echoed through the systems of caves in Silk Cradle as Magdalene and her company chased her down. Even with Fox’s demonic speed they were all still having a hard time keeping up with her.

“Urgh-! Fuck! Bastard knows her way around those relics!” Narinder, who was riding on Magdalene’s shoulders, shouted.

“Well yeah, she made them after all!” Magdalene called out in response.

The three continued chasing Chemach through the winding cavern halls, inches away from losing her at all times. Narinder attempted to shoot at Chemach with his crossbow from time to time, but Chemach would always either dodge out of the way or use a relic to retaliate and send the group further back. Unfortunately it wouldn’t be long before Chemach would ditch the group entirely. 

Fox snarled in anger. “Impossible! Foul thing is leagues more powerful than I imagined.”

Magdalene sighed and got down on her knees so Narinder could get off. She then sat down on a rock to regain her breath. “It’s…clear…that…our current…approach… whew isn’t working.”

“Well what else do we do?” Narinder asked.

Magdalene was silent for a few moments as she thought of something, but then Fox began speaking before she could. “One thing I’ve learned during my time hunting is that patience is a virtue, and to never be afraid to play dirty to catch your prey.”

Narinder responded, holding up an index finger. “That’s two things.”

Fox slowly turned to look towards Narinder, snarling in an incredibly threatening way. Narinder then put down his index finger and shut up.

“ As I was saying… ” Fox continued. “We need a wide open but difficult to escape space, then we’ll need to set up a trap, for that we will also need bait.”

“Something potentially valuable that Chemach can make into a relic.” Magdalene added.

Fox gave a toothy smile in response. “Exactly. Then we set up a way for the bait to trigger a restraint of sorts, be it a cage or ropes.”

Magdalene nodded. “Now all we need is a wide open but hard-to-escape place…”

“Silk Cradle’s Temple.” Narinder piped up, causing Magdalene and Fox to look at him with slight confusion.

“Oh don’t give me that, Lamb. You’ve been there before, you remember how maze-like that place is.”

“I haven’t been there in a year-and-a-half, Narinder. And I was too busy focusing on killing Shamura to pay attention to the layout.”

“Well still, I know the shithole like the back of my paw but I still get lost every time I go there, so even if Chemach avoids whatever trap we pull, she’ll be stuck in there for hours.”

“Perfect!” Magdalene said. She then looked over to Fox to gauge his reaction, and what she saw caught her off-guard a bit. Fox had a very odd expression on his face, like he was straining his brain to try and remember something he’d long forgotten.

Magdalene and Narinder exchanged knowing looks before looking back to Fox. “Is everything alright, Fox?” Magdalene asked.

Fox shook his head, immediately returning to his typical malevolent expression. “Oh yes, yes. Just had a sense of Deja Vu. Now then…we have an owl to hunt.” 

And thus the group continued onwards, course-correcting their path to head to the Silk Cradle temple.

~~~~~~~

The group walked along for a while, and soon enough, a familiar sight came into view, the small, yet cozy and friendly splendor of Forneus’ Caravan. Magdalene smiled as she approached. “Forneus! How wonderful to see you again!” Magdalene called out, getting the attention of Forneus who turned towards her with a smile. “Magdalene my dear! It’s been so long!” The two then gave each other a hug, Forneus hugging Magdalene significantly tighter. The two then separated with slight chuckles. The Red Crown made retching noises in Magdalene’s mind.

Forneus was seemingly about to say something else to Magdalene, but then glanced behind her catching sight of Fox. Forneus’ ears angled back as she narrowed her eyes at him.

“...Has he been accompanying you?” Forneus asked Magdalene, not breaking eye contact with Fox.

Magdalene turned around. “Ah yes, we’ve been having some trouble with some former allies lately, and we’ve enlisted his-” It was then that Magdalene noticed somebeast was missing. “...Where’s Narinder?” She asked with noticeable concern in her voice. 

“... What? ” Forneus snapped.

Fox chuckled and then sidestepped, revealing Narinder, who had been hiding behind him the whole time.

Narinder gulped and waved nervously at Forneus, his tail flicking back and forth. He also gave Fox a pissed-off glare.

In the blink of an eye, Forneus ran over to Narinder and gave him the hardest slap across the face Magdalene had ever seen or heard, knocking Narinder to the ground in the process.

“HEY! HEY! BREAK IT UP!” Magdalene shouted as she got between Forneus and Narinder amidst a chorus of boisterous laughter from Fox.

Narinder shakily stood back up while holding the side of his face in pain, the sheer force of Forneus’ slap having left an indent in his fur. “What the FUCK?!” He shouted at Forneus.

“OKAY!” Magdalene yelled before any further arguments could spiral. “It’s clear you two have some history with each other-” 

Unfortunately, Magdalene’s efforts would be in vain as Forneus interjected. “Some history?? I was his wife! I was the mother of his children! I was a part of the family he turned his back on so he could wage a pointless war against his siblings!”

Fox made an ‘oooo’ sound as if Narinder was a grade school child who had been ordered to the Headmaster’s office.

“Okay, but see here-” Magdalene was interrupted yet again, this time by Narinder. “ Well I’m SORRY that I had a fucking mental parasite attached to my head telling me what to do all the time!” He cried, bitterness palpable in his voice.

The argument quickly devolved into a shouting match while Magdalene held the two back from each other and tried and failed to interject. 

Magdalene eventually had enough of the two bickering and called forth a Touch Of Turua, wrapped the two up to their mouths in tentacles and keeping them restrained away from each other.

“ Now… ” Magdalene strained out, trying to avoid shouting in anger as she pinched the bridge of her snout. “We all know that Narinder has done horrible things in the past, however, the blame cannot be fully placed upon him, what he says about the Red Crown is true, it manipulated him into doing much of what he did in the past. I would know, it speaks to me as well…” Magdalene sighed. She then sent the tentacles away, and Forneus and Narinder stared dead at each other.

“And while Narinder may have been a..for lack of a better word, a shithead, in the past…what matters now is that he’s moving on and making the effort to improve…”

“..I suppose so.” Forneus said, finally relaxing her posture.

Narinder stared down at the ground, but upon being prompted by Magdalene, he looked back up at Forneus, beginning to wring his hands slightly nervously. “I…I’m sorry for abandoning you like I did. A-And I’m sorry for dragging you into that war.” He stammered.

Forneus sighed. “I don’t know if I will ever forgive you, Narinder…but I appreciate you admitting your faults to me.”

“...I understand.”

“...Tch.” Fox said disappointedly. “My, how disgustingly sentimental. But may I remind you that we have important prey to hunt?”

Before Magdalene could say anything, Forneus interrupted her yet again. “That reminds me, what ARE you all doing out here?”

Magdalene sighed and brought Forneus up to speed on everything that had happened so far. Her eyes widened as Magdalene regaled everything.

“...My goodness…that certainly is a pickle…” Forneus spoke.

“Indeed…” Said Magdalene with a nod.

“Well, perhaps I could accompany you? I have plenty of assorted knick-knacks in my caravan that Chemach may be interested in. I’m sure she positively wouldn’t be able to resist such an offer as tempting as this.”

Magdalene beamed. Glad to have some more friendly company. “That would be wonderful! Oh thank you so much.” 

“My pleasure, Magdalene. My pleasure.”

And thus, with their new ally, the group set back out on the path to the temple.

Chapter Text

August 5th, Year 200 AR

Haon

Cult Of The Lamb Temple

The air in the temple was stiller than an ages-old stone statue as all the critters inside waited with agonizing anticipation. Haon stood in the main room of the temple with about twenty other beasts, among which stood the remaining clergy members, the witnesses, and Haro. Leaving only a few other critters that were willing and able to defend. Their force was ragtag at best…but they’d all have to make it work. They HAD to. This was all any of them had. And they couldn’t rely on The Lamb to bail them out this time…

Haon watched outside through the window feverishly, eyeing the demons’ every move to try and predict when they’d attack and how much they’d have to defend against…Now the demons had brought in a new cohort. A moth. One wearing a bright red robe. Oddly enough, the moth’s appearance rang a bell in his head…

But with the moth’s appearance, it seemed now would finally be the time the barrier would be broken. Haon turned around to address the defense force he and the rest of the clergy had cobbled together.

“Well, everybeast. I think the time’s nearly on us, you all ready?” He asked, but before he could get a response, a loud croak could be heard from one of the halls. And he and the other critters in attendance turned to the source of the noise, which was Heket. All but dragging Kallamar behind her.

Haon tilted his head and raised an eyebrow. “Heket? Kallamar? What’re you two doing up here?”

Heket stepped closer to the group, brandishing her fists, which were adorned with iron knuckles. “...Defend…Kallamar….coming along.” She croaked hoarsely. To which Kallamar nodded nervously and pulled out a surgical dagger.

Haon sighed and rolled his eyes, wishing the two had joined up earlier, but whatever. The Cult could use all the help it could get.

“Fine, you two get into formation with everybeast else.” Haon said, motioning to said beasts.

Heket nodded and did as instructed, prodding Kallamar along with her. 

Once she did, the sounds of glass breaking followed by loud cheering could be heard outside. Haon’s blood ran cold, as he knew that could only mean one thing.

The barrier had been broken.

Just to confirm his fears, Haon took one more cursory glance outside, and just as thought, the demons were bouncing around and cheering, as if they’d won the battle before it had even begun. They were all rapidly moving around to the front of the temple, no doubt to break down the door.

Haon turned back to the defense group, all of which stared at the door in anticipation.

“Prepare to fight, all of you. If we die, we die with honor.” Haon called out. He then locked eyes with Lee for a moment. The two of them shared a nod before looking ahead again. Haon could also vaguely hear the sounds of other critters whispering words of encouragement to each other. 

The silence that followed was utterly deafening as everybeast waited for the moment of attack. It felt like hours, but eventually the door would begin to be struck repeatedly…the striking grew harder and harder, until eventually the door flung open, nearly falling off its hinges.

“FOR THE LAMB!” Haon screamed, followed by the rest of The Cult’s fighters screaming it back to him. The demons that formerly worked with The Lamb poured in subsequently, and the fighters rushed forward to meet them head on.

Haon whipped out a dagger and jumped off the stage, trying and failing to do an action roll. Once he looked back up, he saw Orcus spinning right at his face, but just before it could make contact, it was knocked off course and into a wall by Witness Bathin with a battle hammer. 

“Come on, we don’t have time to act like a stageplay protagonist.” Bathin said as she helped Haon get back to his hooves. Before either of them could say anything else however, Orcus came back for another round, and this time, Haon would be the one to knock it away, kicking it through the window. Although this would end up cutting his leg in the process.

He wouldn’t have time to worry about this however, as a couple of followers were quickly being overwhelmed by two demons (Hathor and Vosegus). Haon quickly ran over and drop-kicked Hathor, getting the attention of both demons, who tried to slam their bodies into him. Haon managed to roll out of Vosegus’ way, but took the brunt of Hathor’s attack. He cried out in pain before stabbing Hathor in the eye with his dagger. It let out a hiss of pain before one of the followers it was formerly attacking began stabbing it as well. 

Haon scrambled away and stood back up, resuming his assault on the demons, though now switching his attacks to Vosegus in particular, but before he could do any substantial damage…

“AAGH-! No-! Get off me!”

Haon immediately snapped towards and ran towards the sounds of distress, for it was coming from his brother, and anyone who dared hurt Lee might as well have stabbed themselves in the head.

Haon didn’t even pay attention to what the demon was at first as he rapidly punched and stabbed it. Unfortunately that wouldn’t do much to damage it as it grabbed Haon by the throat and lifted him up, slamming him into the floor and then stomping on his arm. Haon let out a sharp cry of pain as he attempted to flip over onto his stomach to get back up. He managed to get up without much resistance, and that was when he found out why. For Lee and Haro had begun double teaming the demon. The demon, who Haon could now see was the moth demon from a couple days ago, proceeded to poof into a small plume of smoke. When it faded, a spear similar to the ones used in The Old Faith remained.

Lee was about to pick it up, only for Haro to kick it away into the stage. “Don’t use that! I’ll explain later!” Haro said urgently.

The three then quickly went back to defending. They and everybeast there fought with all their might, but it was clear that they were getting overwhelmed. No matter how many times they beat back a demon, it would always come back for more. And now another fighter had entered on the demons’ side, another moth, though this one may not have appeared to be demonic in nature, he was by no means less powerful, firing off repeated blasts of fire and explosive ichor, and a couple of followers had even died by now. Haon knew that something had to be done…or else all would be lost.

“Everybeast! Fall back! Fall back! Into the west hall!” Allocer called out, leading everybeast who was still standing into the hallway. Haon and Allocer’s minds seemed to sync as he added onto Allocer's plan. 

“Haro! Can you make like… a wall of stars?” He shouted.

“Uh, Yes, I do believe so.” Haro responded. 

“Make a wall of stars to block off the hall!” Haon started.

“We’re going to try and outlast them, raise a wall of stars and lower it periodically so we can take potshots at them.”

“Hopefully they’ll give it up after a while!”

Allocer and Haon shared a look for a moment, surprised at their moment of sync, but they would have to worry about that later, as the moth sorcerer was sending another ball of explosive ichor. Haro quickly threw up a wall of stars which blocked the brunt of the blast, but the rubble and force of the blast still sent the group back a bit. 

This cycle continued for a while. Haro would lower the wall, anybeast who could would sent projectiles out at the demons, the moth would fire one of his projectiles, causing Haro to throw the wall up, as well as making the group back up a bit, repeat.

Eventually the group would be pushed back so much that they were all standing directly above the entrance to the dungeons where the rest of the followers were hiding. It was so cramped that they struggled not to hit each other with their own projectiles. An air of hopelessness began to descend upon the group…the end seemed to be near…

But then a miracle seemed to happen, for the group of demons retreated.

Haro lowered the wall of stars, and the group cautiously slinked out of their choke point, fully seeing the destruction that had been wrought by this point…

The cult grounds were little more than a bowl of rubble and debris. The temple was almost completely wrecked, and everything else was reduced to mere piles of ash, rock, and wood.

Haon fell to his knees in despair, looking out at his destroyed home. In his sadness he couldn’t even muster up any tears…

Haon could see Lee kneel down next to him and felt Lee gently hug him.

“It’ll be alright Haon…it’s alright…we won…” Lee said, trying to reassure Haon.

“At what cost dude…at what c-”

Haon was cut off by the sound of a loud, horrifying screech that vaguely resembled the crow of a rooster. Haon shot back to his hooves and whipped out his dagger once again, looking to the sky to try and spot where the sound was coming from.

And then it showed its horrid face.

A giant, flying, rooster-like bird flew out from the forest. Its feathers were a diseased off-white, and its legs and talons were a sickly gray. At the end of its shriveled wings were talons that were just as sharp as the ones on its legs. 

The rooster then dived at the group, causing them all to run away in different directions. Haon could see Judas trip over a piece of wood and fall over. Haon quickly ran over to help him up, but then the rooster dove at them again, resulting in the two of them being forced to leap to the side. However, Judas’ leg was heavily cut by the rooster’s beak in the process.

“AAAGH-! Shit-!” Judas cried out, gripping his cut leg tightly.

Haon gently sat Judas against a wall of a ruined house. “J-Just sit there dude, G-Gusion! We need help over here!”

Haon patted Judas' shoulder before having to run back into the fray. He hoped Gusion would be over there to help Judas soon…

The rooster prepared to dive once again, and Haon watched to try and guess where it would go, and waited. When it dived, Haon tried to get just out of its reach and hold his dagger out, scratching it as it swooped by. Haro and the Witnesses fired multiple stars and projectiles at it as well as it sailed by.

The rooster crowed loudly and dropped to the ground, slapping Haro and the Witnesses with its wings and knocking them over. Haon ran over and stabbed it in the leg several times. It responded by kicking Haon away as if he were an ant.

A horrible pain then shot through Haon as the rooster stomped its horrible, clawed talon into Haon’s back, pressing down with more and more force as if attempting to shatter his spine completely. He screamed out in complete and total agony, feeling as if his back was about to explode…but then it stopped.

He looked up to see Haro firing an absolute tidal wave of stars at the rooster, forcing it off of Haon as it writhed around in pain before finally falling over, defeated.

Haro offered his wing to Haon, which Haon gladly took, and Haro helped him back up.

“Aheh…see now? Would… pant somebeast who led all those demons here pant do…that?” Haro said jokingly

“Heh…ah shut up you dick.” Haon chuckled.

Haon and everybeast else looked towards the grounded rooster, which began to glow a bright white, before a mini-explosion of ichor happened, and Gerno was sent flying upwards before landing on the ground. He was dirty and unkempt, and his clothes were torn.

Haon and several of the other beasts in attendance rushed over to Gerno, calling out his name. Astaroth slid over to him on his knees and tried to hold his head up.

Gerno slowly opened his eyes and looked around weakly. “E-Eh….? What…h-happen…ed…?” He then passed out again, and Astaroth urgently placed two fingers on his neck…

“...Still a pulse.” She said before placing a hand on his chest next. 

“...Still breathing. He’s still alive.”

Everybeast breathed a huge sigh of relief.

“Wh-WHAT?! WHAT ON EARTH?! WHAT HAPPNED HERE?!” The Lamb called out, and everybeast turned to the entrance to see that The Lamb had finally returned from her and Narinder’s expedition. She fell to her knees with an expression of absolute horror on her face…

Chapter Text

Hey all, first of all I wanna say I'm sorry for how silent I've been for the past few months, and I'm sorry that I haven't updated anything in forever. My depression and other assorted mental issues have been resurging lately, and I've also been cursed with being caught between hyperfixations. Namely COTL, Mario, Original Works, and Poppy Playtime.

Rest Assured, THIS FIC WILL NOT BE DISCONTINUED, I am working on the next chapter as we speak! But I'd also like to branch out and write works for other fandoms as well, because they won't leave my head, and I feel like writing about them will help me better work on this fic after I write for the other fandoms. This fic has been such a big part of my life for so long, and I would absolutely hate to just up and abandon it, so I will not be doing that. The next chapter WILL be coming!