“I know it’s you,” Kafe called out to Crow’s back. “No matter which face you take, you can hide your aura and essence, but not your Spirit.”

Crow turned back, despite the situation and danger. “That day. You knew?”

“Not at first. I don’t have your Mind, so it took me some time to figure it out. You felt familiar, but I didn’t have the control back then that I do now. Now that I’ve memorized it, you’ll never escape Unhulde.”

“I already have,” Crow laughed and pointed toward where he came from originally. A multi-limbed abomination covered in black, tar-like skin jumped across the chasm. It stumbled and crashed into the altar while its limbs scrambled to grab onto the statue Crow tossed over. More alarming was how much the platform swayed, despite the size of the chains.

Kafe’s eyes widened upon seeing the strange abomination near the altar. After it slid into the altar, the lid shifted, creating a gap.

“What did you do? You damned fool!”

“You’ll be fine. You’ve already stopped all my other disasters,” Crow chuckled. “You could say this is karma. This sect is hurtling toward its destruction. As a Spiritualist, you can’t tell me you don’t see it. Nor can you claim to deny that all the evil doesn’t go away, which forces the Heavens to rectify the balance due.”

“Not that, idiot,” Kafe growled and pointed toward the central area again. “That.”

The lid blew off the altar, and an emaciated man in a dark burgundy robe stood up. In his hand, he held a reddish brown staff that was polished until it practically shined. On top of it was a crystal filled with writhing smoke.

“Waerloga,” Kafe said.

Crow knew Warlocks existed, but they almost all lost their minds. They were all husbands of a coven that murdered their wife, the High Priestess. That isn’t to say they were all evil because Hex Witches were often the reason a Warlock was born. It was clear they had sealed this one for a reason.

While they were watching the battle between Irnan and Waerloga, more people were arriving. Unable to ignore the growing threat, Crow left. Kafe was so distracted he didn’t even see him go. The rampant magic inside the crypt was too high profile, so he entered the closest copse of trees and shifted into another face.

He moved into the growing crowd of outer disciples staring toward the crypt. Even if they couldn’t see what was happening, they all sensed the mana disturbance because it wasn’t light. Many people were talking about the events. While the event drew more people, Crow silently slipped away.

***

Inside the crypt, whenever the abomination had a limb blasted to dust, the Irnan became more precise and deadly. The warlock had slept too long and struggled to match against it. However, it survived this long out of sheer will, intelligence, and a need to exact vengeance.

“Who do we aid?” Kafe asked the sect leaders.

“Never expected Vassily to become this weak.”

“The Waerloga?” Kafe asked.

“Yeah, that is Vasily Kalakov. When he lost his wives and blamed it on us Hex Witches. His methods were brutal but effective, and he hunted us down like dogs. Our magic only strengthened him, so we couldn’t deal with him then. We decided to seal him away for eternity.”

“Was he that powerful?”

“You don’t understand. A coven’s husband that kills his High Priestess gains all the coven’s power. The other witches become mortal, their powers completely stripped away. It is why we consider them enemies. Men aren’t supposed to wield the powers of the Moon Goddesses.”

“If he only gains the power by killing the High Priestess, why does he blame you?”

“Supposedly, she was cursed and dying. Vasily ended her life to gain enough power to contend against us. Whether his words are true is irrelevant. He had to be stopped.”

Kafe wasn’t so sure that was correct. If they created him, then the Heavens were clearly aiding him. As he thought that, his eyes strayed to where Crow had been. His thoughts were oddly reminiscent of what the Druid had just said, and Kafe quelled the regret in his heart. He made his choice and had to live with it.

“What is the other thing? You called it an Irnan?”

“Another of our sins.”

“That’s it?” Kafe shook his head.

“All you need to know is if you shatter all the bones, it’s harmless. The problem is, the more bones you shatter, the faster and more coordinated it becomes.”

Kafe had to admit Crow’s ability to create chaos wherever he went was unparalleled. Robbing the vaults, leaving behind strange traps that were oddly effective and all the mayhem that followed. Kafe understood his intention. Distract the sect enough, and they’ll lose sight of him and his wives. They wanted the Python’s Tongue, but if they were too busy putting out fires, how would they have time to look. The mists were helping him because, if it was any other time, there was no way he’d pull this off.

“Why are you in this crypt?” The old witch asked. Finally, realizing that Kafe had been here long before she arrived—she lived in a secluded nearby cabin.

“Setting a trap for someone, but—ah, clever girl. She lied to me.” Kafe mused.

“Who did?”

“Zoe and Minnie,” Kafe didn’t hide anything. It didn’t matter because whatever they were after, they already got. Crow’s appearance said it all. This was his signature gift. No matter how much he tried to best Crow, Kafe realized he’d probably never beat him at his own game.

Almost as if the Heavens were helping him, he suddenly had an epiphany. The forbidden area! That was where they all congregated, so they were most likely there. Another, more mind-blowing thought entered his brain. What if that place was the entrance to the Temple of Pythons? The place they’d been searching for all this time was under their noses.

Kafe ran for the exit.

“Kafele! Where are you going?” His uncle shouted, and Kafe stopped.

“The people we were waiting for did that.” Kafe pointed at the two monsters fighting each other. “They are leaving.”

“Where? The mists would kill them. Not to mention, the sect leader, along with the ancestors, is guarding the keystone.”

“The Temple of Pythons! It’s been here in the sect the entire time.”

All the elders ignoring the two were now all paying attention. Kafe’s words sparked waves of commotion as the elders who overheard the conversation communicated with their people outside the tomb.

“Are you sure?”

“Not completely, but the key is here, and the man carrying it just left. We need to hurry. He is already heading for the temple now.”

“Then we best finish this,” the old witch chuckled mirthlessly. “Activate the formation.”

A dozen witches approached individually approached the arched doorways of each passage. Cutting their palms, they placed them on a square stone twice the size of the other blocks. Every stone in the arch glowed ominously until a green flame rose out of the chasm. It kept climbing upward until it formed a dome over the central platform. Then it shrunk inward, becoming more condensed the smaller it got.

Those more powerful could see through the flames and those that couldn’t still heard the shrieks of horror as the beings caught inside tried to escape. A long bony arm pushed through the fire, but the black substance corroded away before the bone caught fire.

“HAHAHA!” Booming laughter came from within the dome of green fire. “You think I haven’t prepared for your nasty trap? Nearly a thousand years, and you still use the same tricks.”

Vasily flipped the lid of his tomb over and revealed a complex formation he had created with his own blood essence. The patience required to do something on that level was unreal. A person could recover blood essence if given enough time. Still, to use it in a complex formation—Kafe couldn’t even guess how many years it’d take or how many this guy used waiting.

A circle of energy appeared that even Kafe could see. It was absorbing the fire dome, and while it was activating, he grabbed the Irnan by the throat and roared in its face.

“Become my slave or die here! Choose.”

After which, he released the abomination. It shuffled back before staring at the warlock in front of it. Slowly, several legs bent until his head was nearly on the ground.

“Mmmassster.”

Vassily nodded, bit his thumb, and smeared his blood across its forehead. Before allowing it to stand once more.

All of this seemed to take quite some time, but everything happened in less than a minute. When the witches realized what was happening, they couldn’t stop their formation before it collapsed.

Knowing he couldn’t fight against them in his weakened state, Vasily smiled at everyone. Under their vigilant gazes, he climbed on the back of the Irnan and straddled it like he was riding an Elkan beast.

“Pray to your worthless gods that we don’t meet again!” Vasily said calmly before riding through the red teleportation ring. Based on the ripple in space, it took him beyond the tower, but no one could be sure where. The other side looked like they painted the landscape in blood and didn’t look like it belonged to the mortal realms.

Kafe couldn’t help but tremble at the thought of someone like that returning. Maybe Crow was right. Accumulating evil only invites greater disaster, but he wasn’t convinced that accumulating good didn’t do the same. Luck was fickle like that, and it always paired fortune with calamity. Sighing, he left the crypt and couldn’t avoid being brought before the panel of an emergency council. No one seemed to care that a potential threat to their wellbeing had just escaped.