Aclysia’s hands worked steadily, but slowly. The state Reysha was in was grave. Most of her body, she could save. There were little marks all over her, lines of demonic fire that had found its way all through her. With the careful healing the metal fairy was putting forwards right now, there wouldn’t even be scars left from that.

Her right arm, however, was nothing that could be salvaged. There wasn’t even an arm to speak of anymore, just a molten solid, long piece of bone. Her shoulder was terribly scorched, something Aclysia could at least mend, but those marks would be on her flesh even after the remains of her limb were separated.

More worrying than that, at least immediately, was the state Reysha was in mentally. She was clearly awake. Her eyes were open and followed things that entered her vision, sometimes she blinked, her breathing was steady, and her ears reacted to sound. As a matter of fact, she reacted to all of these things at remarkable speeds. However, she didn’t speak, she didn’t make as much as a single sound, and although her body was clearly wrecked, there was no sign of pain.

All she did was lay there and let herself be treated. “Help me get her out of here,” Aclysia said, her voice calm. This whole situation was too much for her, she was worried for Apexus, worried about the consequences of today and what would happen to Reysha. The burden of it all made her cave in and take it all with an oddly intense clarity. Although that determination came at the cost of her usual foresight. Her mind was too occupied in dealing with the current happenings to make any plans.

Neither did she manage to give thought to what she said and who she said it to. Mehily was standing frozen over Reysha, Berholdth behind her. The brutish Warrior knew even less about what was going on than anyone else, but he held the corpse of Evmeria in his arms and there was no doubt about who was responsible for the violent demise.

“We should just bring her to justice right now,” Berholdth growled. “Spare us the trouble.”

“It’s not your place nor right to judge her,” Aclysia simply responded with something she had said before. “After all you did, you should know how terribly misguided you are.”

It was a stupid comment to make at the current time, only succeeded in straining the situation. A vein popped out on the dark-haired man’s forehead. “Well, we didn’t break some ancient seal that the Cardinal himself kept secret and make the SKY CRACK!”

“Berth, please,” Mehily stated, sounding just tired. “We don’t know what’s going on. We just found this room. I am sure whatever is happening, the Cardinal is going to take care of it and…”

“Cardinal, Cardinal, Cardinal,” a mocking, guttural voice echoed from the darkness. “You servants of the Church and your hierarchy based on trust. There is only power.” Whenever it pronounced an S there was an unpleasant hissing to his tone. "Your Cardinal doesn’t have enough power to stop my master. He has already failed. Your beloved Cardinal is dead.”

They turned around and went pale as a group as the Deathhound peeled itself out of the darkness of the hall and walked into the dimly lit room that had housed the seal. When the creature had almost reached them, it changed to a bipedal stance, towering over even the Warrior. Berholdth dropped the body, drew his sword, screamed, and swung at Terlash. The weapon was swept away with such force that the steel shattered into a hundred pieces.

“Master didn’t say anything about you… and what Master doesn’t know, Master won’t misssssss,” the Deathhound let out a number of forced cackles and let Berholdth take a number of fruitless swings at him, before grabbing his arms and spreading them open. The Warrior’s head was left unprotected. Light spells dissolved on Terlash’s skin like water when hitting a hot piece of metal. The abomination’s elongated maw opened wide and wrapped around Berholdth’s head. Then, with a crunching sound, the jaws closed.

The chewing motion was even worse than the bite, as the headless, armoured body was left to drop to the floor on top of the mangled form that had been Evmeria. The Deathhound had no lips to seal and its teeth clearly weren’t designed for the task. Furthermore, it seemed it didn’t have any traditional jawbones. The teeth moved almost individually, as the mouth opened and closed. Shards of a skull, a squished eye, pieces of brain, tongue and skin, they fell down to the floor, as the head was reduced to a messy pulp and swallowed by the demon.

Mehily failed to retain her composure or even the contents of her stomach. Vomit splattered over the floor. Aclysia couldn’t blame her, had she had the same biology, her reaction would have been the same. Dropping back on all six limbs now that the other tall person in the room was nothing more than a bleeding carcass, the Deathhound sniffed at the two bodies.

“Inquisitor,” Terlash hissed, swiping the two bodies away without any respect for the fallen. They flew across the room and bounced off the curved roof. Stinking with fresh blood, the Tharnatos class demon moved up to Mehily. The Priestess stepped away from it as quickly as she could, Terlash hissed amusedly and followed. “Do you fight? Tell me you fight. I am hungry.” The long tongue darted out and licked across Mehily’s face, spreading a mixture of black saliva and Berholdth’s blood over her. Still, no reaction. “You bore me.”

Mehily couldn’t believe her luck when the Deathhound turned away. It seemed to ignore her. ‘Oh, thank the Divine,’ she prayed silently. ‘I will… I don’t know what I will do but…’ her offerings and prayers came to a sudden end, when she was grabbed by the head in a decisively uncaring motion. Without as much as a single moment of hesitation, the three claws of the creature secured a grip and the two thumbs gouged her eyes out.

“Kssssshhhhksssshkshhhh,” Terlash let out a series of amused sounds as he left the Priestess on the floor. “Yes, pain, yes, that’s what I hungered for. Aaaah, yessss, wait and blind and die of nature. Am I cruel? No, I spare you, I spare you, I am no Parasyte.”

One of the four eyes of the creature fell on Aclysia, the other three quickly followed. “Ragressian and exiled angel, the Master calls for you,” the demon skittered towards them, but Aclysia didn’t step away, instead protectively cradling Reysha’s body. Terlash reached out, enjoying the distress the creeping motion caused the angel, but its hand stayed closely before reaching them. Moving at the speeds he could actually display, the Deathhound suddenly dropped and begun sniffing the molten bone at the hand. “Master, Empress is here, Empress is here!” its fingers clacked on the floor an unnerving staccato, moving in excitement. “I see, I see, tools of the Master, not toys, good, good, fallen angel, good angel, a being born holy turned good, yes, yes. Bury yourself in Roots, come, come, the Master beckons.”

Aclysia had no idea what misunderstanding the demon was falling prey too, but clarifying it seemed against her immediate interest. “We will come in a minute, please, go ahead. We will meet you there.” She had no idea where ‘there’ was, but if she could convince the creature of leaving, there was a chance they could make an escape.

“Master’s command absolute,” Terlash shook his head.

Aclysia turned her head and looked at the two corpses in the corner. “What Master doesn’t know…,” she very carefully suggested, “Master won’t miss, right?”

“Kshkshkshksh,” Terlash laughed. “I like you, yes, yes. But I can’t oblige it all. I will wait two door from here. You will come too where else you couldn’t be.” It was the pettiest of resistances against Apotho’s orders and it loved to do that. Turning around the creature turned away.

Aclysia felt as if she was about to shatter. “What is Apotho, really?” she mumbled to herself. She was absolutely helpless. Today had promised to be so hopeful and now that thing was here. In the face of it, she couldn’t do anything, but a small good. “I’ll be back in a moment,” she promised the motionless Reysha and got up. “My deepest apologies,” she mumbled, when she reached Evmeria’s corpse and only desecrated it further by removing the glass orbs from her eyes. Then she moved over to Mehily.

“Divine, what is happening?” the Priestess was in shock, mumbling desperate prayers. “Did trying to question your tenets do this to me? Do you wish complete obedience after all? Jersoja, Lord, tell me what it is you want?”

“Mehily,” Aclysia softly spoke, as she reached out and healed the Priestess eyes. A useless endeavour, the demon’s touch had ruined them so thoroughly the healing spell actually identified them as a harmful entity and healed the remains of flesh away like it would a blistering plague bump. At least the bleeding stopped and that was what she was immediately concerned about. It didn’t ease the blonde’s whimpering though. “Listen,” the metal fairy said regardless. “I don’t know where it will take us, but I think you’re safer here.” She forced the artificial eyes into her hands. “I don’t know if you can use these, but they’re the best I can do for you. Survive… and I am sorry.”

Aclysia didn’t know why she apologized. She had only ever gone the difficult path of the fewest victims. If everyone else involved had kept it the same way, none of this would have happened. Yet she felt like she should shoulder what she could. “Thank you, angel,” Mehily mumbled in a tone, clutching the orbs. Her tone had nothing of someone in this reality.

“Come, Reysha,” Aclysia said, herself not sure how to handle what the tiger girl had released in her thirst for vengeance. For now, it was enough that the redhead was alive.

A state that might not persist.