Tobias pressed his hand into the blanket, leaning precariously over it. Light flickered as he cast some sort of spell over the Qilin’s corpse, the lines of the sigil on the blanket dancing with glittering flecks of silver.

Eve’s blood pooled in the smaller circle that Tobias had rearranged out of the sigils. Pouring into the lines, they changed from pure glittering silver to bright red, which spread along the lines, staining all of them. They glowed, warping and twisting and seeming to rise out of the ground for a second. Tobias never lifted his finger from the blanket, his face twisted in concentration as the ritual lines rose, and then in one violent motion, slapped down on the Qilin corpse.

It bounced off the ground, knocked into the air for a single second as the sigils were burned onto its skin. It let out a sound between a mewl and a roar, then fell back down, moving in slow twitches as it attempted to adjust, its head hanging limp with its neck no longer being able to support it.

Tobias released his touch on the blanket, pulling out a bottle from his bag of reagents. He stepped onto the blanket, the sigil embedded on it rapidly deforming, and tilted the bottle over the Qilin’s neck. A single drop fell from the bottle, hitting the hole in its neck. The viscous liquid ballooned up and outwards, looking for all purposes like a green, glowing, insulation foam.

“It’ll last a few days…” Tobias whispered to himself, recorking the bottle and stepping back. He turned to Eve’s corpse. “Drag her away. And eat her. No mana left…”

The Qilin dragged the corpse away, chewing on it. I stepped carefully out of its observed maximum range.

“Drag the Templar corpses here.” Tobias said to me, and I got to work pulling them into the circle. Tobias had to take a break between each one, and by the time we finished with the Templar corpses, the sun was beginning to rise. The glow from Tobias’s drug had faded completely, and he was left shaking through the morning.

I aided him in tearing apart the remaining corpses, arranging the motley mix of parts into a ritual beyond my understanding. The circle occupied nearly every inch of the blanket, filled with body parts in states of decay. Some had been chewed on by the Qilin before we arrived. Finally, Tobias activated the sigil. Instead of just imprinting on the mass of flesh, it pulled it together like a net. Flesh rotted away from the monster, and bone bent into shape, before rising to a height even taller than I was. Balanced on 6 legs with a towering torso, the automaton reminded me of OFF03. The feet even bent inwards, the bones melding together to end in a sharp point.

Four spines, complete with ribs, made the torso, and four multi-segmented arms hung from each one, ending in spikes. At the top, a skull’s eyes glowed with green fire.

The monstrosity stepped off the mat. The red lines of the blanket shifted until barely any of the red was left. Based on my conjecture, it seemed that Tobias was capable of extracting Eve’s energy for use in the rituals. I remained unconvinced that it was a maximum efficiency use of resources.

Tobias had to take a long break after that, going so far as to stop for breakfast, pulling free jerky— or a smoked meat equivalent— from the wagon, eating. I stood to his left, while the towering bone golem stood to his right. Eventually, Tobias went back to the blanket, less shaky. He sent a look towards Eve’s body, or what was left of it, with a lot less conviction and anger in his eyes. If I had to quantify the expression, I would say it was worry.

Then he was back to identifying body parts to drag into the circle. We finished a second bone golem, sending both marching back towards the town. They were too large to fit in the wagon, and too slow to keep up with us. Tobias freed the reigns from the zombies , cutting the segment of them that had melted into slag off and tying the hard leather back together, before throwing it around the neck of his Qilin.

I packed away the blanket and headed back to the captured village, the sun now rising above the sky. The Templar bodies were able to keep pace with us, trailing behind the wagon. Even the headless ones, in death, carried their sword and shield with them.

The eyes of the acolytes on the bell tower were wide as they stared at us approaching. They were staring at the Qilin driving the wagon. They forgot to ring it in signal, some of them paling and running down the stairs, disappearing into the church as the wagon pulled up.

Tobias jumped down, hurrying through the doorway. I followed him, ducking down to get inside before rising back to my full height. The room was, as always, crowded. The acolytes seemed extra tired— though I wasn’t sure if it was because of the early morning or the three risen Templars outside.

“Mat— Mathias!” Tobias shouted. Mathias walked out of the study at a sedate pace, rubbing his eyes and yawning.

“They’re up.” He said. “We raised all 3 of them.”

“Good.” Tobias breathed. “We will be prepared. Have you ran any scryings?”

“No. Everyone’s mana is pretty much exhausted.” Tobias frowned. “Where’s Eve?”

“Dead. We found a Qilin chewing on the corpses. It chewed on her too.”

I observed that none of those statements were lies, but that neither contained the truth of what happened.

“And you… killed it?” Mathias whispered, seemingly more concerned at the fact we killed one than at Eve’s death. Multiple people had now reacted oddly to the death of one of the creatures. Reviewing my historical knowledge, I found the reason, but hadn’t made the connection.

Qilin was a bit of a mistranslation, but the closest analogue. The Qilin were apex creatures, ruling vast swathes of territory on the continent. The reason they were of lower importance here is that the local Empire had all but exterminated them in their borders. Other empires more frequently chose to coexist with them. An old, individual Qilin could represent the fighting power of an entire army. On top of that, as they aged, they become sapient.

“Relax. It was just a juvenile. Its parents won’t even care.” Tobias rubbed his nose, then grabbed for the bag at his waist, before realizing he had left it in the wagon. He talked to me without turning. “Fetch my pack for me.”