#echidans

"Malus is dangerous, she doesn't know what horrors it holds! He is trying to protect her from what those fiends would do to her, use her for! Don't you know why Leere's back has that horrid tattoo upon it?!" Bonegrinder was worried and actually looked panicked. "He is going to find her! Stay here!" And with that, he slithered off in the direction of the Temple of Ruin.

“Wait a damn minute!” Malik grabbed him by the tip of his tail, having just barely finished getting into uniform. Holding on, he was dragged by the back as if he were on water skis.

Bonegrinder was old, but he was still damn fast when he wanted to be. When he tried to go through the opening corridor for the temple, the Anagari nearly lost his balance and released a loud 'OOF'. Looking back, the young lord had grabbed onto the side of the stone, halting the shaman's slithering. Lifting his tail, Bonegrinder watched as Malik still held on dangling there.  "... why are you covered in mud and leaves? You have to be presentable for Mother---wait... did you hold onto Bonegrinder's tail?"

Malik arm muscles were pulsing as he held onto the stone to stop Bonegrinder’s advance. “You stupid, ugly mother fucker.” Malik was glad he wore armour, but being splashed through mud, smacked by branches, and over all being dragged about was a completely unpleasant experience. Letting go of his tail, the only thing he could do was strip out of his armour, magically summon a different set of armour, and get changed into it. “You just had to run off like a child. Didn’t you. Your fat ass didn’t even know I was holding onto you.”

"Bonegrinder has little to no feeling in certain areas of his body, too much nerve damage." He wiggled the tip of his tail. "And you're just jealous that Bonegrinder has all the looks and you have none."

“Oh, don’t get me started on that topic you bastard.” Malik slapped his helmet angrily down onto his head. “Let’s go, I can see storm clouds forming. However, if I’m honest, I’d love to see god strike lightning down upon you.”

"Heheheh, you're just angry cause you know he is right." Bonegrinder had that smug grin on his face. "Come. Leere is this way..." He followed her scent into the library... then out of the library... and... "Huh? Oh. OH. We... might not want to interrupt this."

“Why? Where is she?”

"In Mother's bed."

"Nothing. Leere knows a fine piece of ass when she sees it." Bonegrinder then said, poking Malik's helmet with his claw. "You went after Asakonigei, so you know a lovely lady when you see one too."

“Don’t you dare bring up my wife. I’m not fucking the Queen of Danjur, Zarazu, or anyone else when I’m on diplomatic missions.” Malik growled deeply through graded teeth.

"Mother is not a queen, Malik. Mother is many, Mother is all, and Mother is a guardian." Bonegrinder truly did not see the problem. "This will not influence her decisions. Besides, he doesn't smell any arousal... they might just be sleeping."

Bonegrinder felt a punch in the back. “Open with that. God, you really are crazy.”

~

Inside the temple, Leere steered awake, yawning loudly. Seemed she was being held like a little stuffed bear.

Mother was still sleeping soundly until Leere started to stir.

"No bad dreams?"

“None. Yourself?”

"No, I don't dream very often now." Mother told the princess. "When I do, it's often visions of the future to come, the past which haunts me, or what will happen in the present."

“Well, it was nice.” Close enough, Leere snuck a quick peck in. “We should probably get back to the-” Before she could finish her sentence, there was a sound of lightning outside. “That’s odd. I don’t remember signs of a storm forming yesterday.”

"... you are brave to kiss an Echidnan of many like me, Leere." Mother then heard the rumble of thunder. "Hmm..."

A feeling, a shiver, was felt. To Leere, it was small. A coldness. To the Mother, something wrong was taking place in her homeland. “Do you feel something?”

"... something evil has made its way into my land." Mother had a dark frown on her face. "I must handle this situation. I cannot have it harming my children."

Leere stood up, immediately concerned. “I’ll go investigate.”

When Leere descended from Mother's nest, Bonegrinder was there with his arms crossed. "Bonegrinder would like to know why you were up there."

“I was researching the Mortuus. Your mother let me see the remains of your brother and father. Afterwards, I was very tired, so I offered to sleep beside Mother in her nest for the night. Why are you so concerned?”

"They are not his brother nor father, he is not of Mother, Mother considers us all her 'children'. Her people." Bonegrinder was... uncomfortable, being compared to Mother. It showed on his face. "You are in a strange land and trust others too easily here. While Mother said for you not to be harmed, that does not mean you are completely safe. You should have stayed in the hut. The library holds nothing but pain for you."

Leere knew that Bonegrinder was getting under her skin. Did all his people keep secrets? As a way to calm herself, she remembered an old lesson from her mother. ‘Take a deep breath Leere. Don’t let him get under your skin. Just count down. 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1, deep breaths.’ Clasping her hands, she felt ready to confront her feelings. “Bonegrinder. I’m going to tell you now that you are pushing my boundaries. I can make choices for myself.”

"He knows you can make choices, but there are some issues you are best left in blissful ignorance." Bonegrinder told the princess. "He does not keep this knowledge from you because he does not think you cannot handle it. He keeps it from you because he does not want you hurt further."

“You want me to stay ignorant!? Are you joking me?!” That certainly cut deep into Leere, with the voice of her reassuring mother shattering from her mind. “You’re contradicting yourself! It would hurt if I couldn’t handle it! You can’t keep information about my past from me! What kind of friend does that? What kind of friend are you if you’d actively deny the truth from me?”

"He does not mean mental hurt, Leere, he means physical hurt. The more you know, the more susceptible you are." Bonegrinder did not know how to explain more without revealing too much to the princess. "There is a reason he removed what he did from your tattoo those years ago. He is trying to keep evil from being drawn to you once more. He wants you to be safe and far from harm. Please believe him, tiny princess, he is trying to help you."

“Physically harmed? On that you couldn’t be more foolish. I’m one of the most committed fighters you’ll ever know, you better believe that.” Leere was going to say something else when she paused. Her face slowly changed to clear and focused attention. “Bonegrinder, Mother. There’s a cart of dead bodies out east not to far from here.”

Malik was the only one who couldn’t pick out the sense of undeath from so far away. “Are you saying Omisha is under attack?”

"Leere, Modoc, you two will have to finish your conversation later." Mother felt the dark magic on the exterior of her lands. Someone was using Mortuus magic and... there was something else. A mixture of rage, hate, and... unbalance. Chaotic magic. This was unsettling. "Modoc, go with the guards to investigate."

Bonegrinder was not going to argue. He nodded his head in agreement and then slithered off to gather some of Mother's most precious treasures; the deadliest of the deadly. These would aid him if there should be any trouble.

Then Mother turned to Leere, "My dear, please do not get too upset over Modoc's intentions. I do believe they are pure, yet at the same time, you do deserve your answers. I ask for only your patience."

“He should have more faith.” Leere turned her attention to Malik, who was already getting prepared to leave. “I’ll need my scythe back Lord Malik.”

The Gerudo chuckled, excited to see how the princess would fight with a weapon. He’d never had the chance before. Handing the hilt to her he kept for safe keeping, he pointed out to the east. “We shouldn’t spare an extra moment if innocents can be in the crossfire.”

"Perhaps when one needs more faith, he must first see the faith others have him. Give Modoc time, Leere." Mother then waited for her precious ones to gather before heading out with the humans. "We must be cautious."

~

The area was a flat plain that made a patch in the jungle’s of Omisha. Fresh green grass whistled with the wind from the storm brewing. Down at an old, crumbling sanctuary near the center of the plain, a Mortuus was channeling a ritual. The sky darkened with the blanket of a storm. Rain fell and thunder boomed after flashes of lightning. From the jungle growth, she saw two figures approach. She needed more time to fulfil her magic. “Kill them.”

As Leere and Malik approached, bodies that sprinkled off the cart and onto the ground came to life. Some shambled towards them with snarling teeth and claws. Other held weapons, brandishing spears and swords.

Malik drew his sword, cleaving through rows of zombies, hurling flesh into the air. With his shield he cracked some skulls open with merely the flick of his arm. He was a wrecking ball that obliterated the fragile bodies of the dead. The princess couldn’t help but remember how brutal he was when she first laid eyes on him as a child. Even amongst the living, she felt very little soul from the man when he was engaged in combat.

Leere could sense the sway of the Necromancer over these victims. These bodies were flesh, as well as human. On the clothing she recognized symbols and styles from Al-Daida. Raising a hand into the air next to three, she squeezed her fist. The heads squashed inward like a crumbled paper ball. Focusing her energy, she over took the will of five others to turn on other undead, chomping at the bits to devour one another. The other Necromancer must have caught on quick, because like a door shut in her face, Leere felt herself unable to enforce her will on more undead. With more time she could break down that door, but she needed to fight immediately. Activating her scythe, the staff extended outwards, a blue blade of energy shimmering with ancient technology. Spinning around she surgically cut down various zombies’ limb by limb. With her hilt, she’d push any that tried to grab her, giving them a lashing of her blade to rip their heads from their body.

When the time came to fight, Mother was going to ensure no one escaped. Trespassers would die. Her precious deadly ones ripped into the zombies easily, flanking the humans that led the charge. Most of the undead could never hope to penetrate the flesh of an Echidnan. It was too easy. What was coming next?

The Mortuus felt she had found the time she needed. These Echidnan’s would be trouble, but that’s what the ritual was for.

All the fighters on the battlefield saw a red glow pierce the sky, and on the ground next to the caster a pentagram pulsed wicked energy. From out of the earth hellfire spat out, and, with the smell of brimstone staining the air, demons set foot on earth. Many were vile, disturbing creatures. Some were humanoid, with edged weapons, but that’s the tamest they were in appearance. Some didn’t have eye sockets. Others had exposed craniums. Most were the size of Echidnan’s. Three had crab like lower bodies with bizarre hooked sails and jagged claws. Worst of all, a few sprouted wings and choose to fly off and cause havoc in the rest of Omisha.

Leere and Malik certainly felt fear, pausing in their advance. However, in a moment of reflection separate to both of them, they dug deep and found their courage to move onward.

Leere broke her promise to Mother. With her own magic, she summonsed forth her Dead Hand. An undead pale monstrosity burst from the earth, with dozens of bloody hands shooting from the ground to pull a demon towards the mark of its jaws. Other demons quickly jumped the undead, clawing and biting back at the creature.

Malik gave into his rage, fuelling his physical strength as he parried the strike of a sword-demon, plunging his blade into the gut of the abomination, and pulling upwards to cleave it in half.

A particular demon with its eyes sewn shut held a staff with an orb on top. With the storm brewing in the sky, it spun its staff around before thrusting it toward an Echidnan. Lightning crackled and snapped down at the pointed target, tearing apart an old warrior. Between that caster and the two humans needing to put a stop to it, a demon with no skin on its muscly arms bounded its chest at Malik and roared.  

The Gerudo Lord tapped his shield at Leere, hoping she’d understand what would need to be done. “Catapult maneuver!”

Leere nodded, already running towards the man. She had witnessed her siblings practice the technique enough times as well as watch Rinku perform it in live combat to know what she needed to do. Jumping on his shield, the princess was thrown over the muscular demon straight towards the blind lightning caster. The demon hissed at her as she flew towards it. With a glare in her eyes, she struck downwards, cutting its head open like a cantaloupe down in vertical swing of her scythe. Landing on her feet, she quickly spun around to snap its staff in half, cleaving its body in good measure.

The other demon threw a punch at Malik, who in the motion of throwing Leere, swung his shield arm down at his opponent. The shield stabbed in between the knuckles of the demon, causing blood to squirt out onto Malik’s armour, as well as rewarding his ears with scream of pain. Least Malik could only hope it was pain; damn things roars sounded nearly identical. Under its screaming, Malik plunged upwards into the demon’s mouth, his blade piercing outwards the back of its skull. With a jerk, he pulled with his sword and shield out from its body, quickly moving with Leere to enter the grounds of the old sanctuary.

The land was full of blood now. The dark magic was tainting the ground and Mother was using her magic to push all of the demonic nature backwards. The leader of her people even used the storm of the enemy to sway lightning to crash upon demons that dared believe they could fly out to cause chaos. She had held the barrier separating Malus and Omisha. Now, she was using a shield to part her children from the demons. This foul magic would not hurt anymore, would not take hold of anyone, would never risk the lives of her people again! As Leere used her necromancy magic, Mother was very incensed. She would speak to the girl about the usage of such dark forces in her kingdom later. For now, she had a job to do; push back the intruder.

Bonegrinder was as deadly as ever, fighting beside of his brothers and sisters. Yet, he was more so experienced with these fiends. It sickened the Anagari to see the destruction, though he was more so worried. These demons were smarter than a zombie puppet. Once or twice, he used his long tail to swat a smaller demon from Leere or Malik, before being engaged by more of the larger abominations.

As Leere and Malik entered the grounds of the sanctuary, the intruder magically constructed a ring of fire around the area to keep anyone out who didn’t want to risk being burned, as well as to keep the two of them in her company. When she dropped her hood, Malik steadied his sword. “I know you.”

Leere felt an odd sense of curiosity towards this woman. She was taller than her, but still had the same red eyes and a similar shade of hair colour as her. This didn’t diminish her caution, however.

The woman raised a finger to Malik, frowning at first. Quickly, she shook off her frown with a light laugh. “Look at that. No longer able to be my puppet. No matter. When you die all over again you shall be a slave to my will once again, Dio!”

“The woman who tried to kill Zarazu.” Malik’s grip on his sword tightened. Leere felt this information was shared to give her clarity, but was also the man giving himself a reminder of why she was a serious threat.

“Indeed. She does not deserve to be the Goddess of Death. I will become the God of Death with her death.”

Malik didn’t take the threat to Zarazu’s life lightly. His hatred of the gods was deep enough, no need for this bitch to have grand dreams of ascending to godhood by taking the life of his friend, especially since Zarazu wasn’t an actual god. “You won’t touch her.”

“You’re right. I’ll probably have someone else rip out her intestines and snuff the breath out of her. Perhaps her husband.”

Leere readied her scythe, familiar with the madness of cultists enough from her travels. She knew there would be no reasoning with this woman. “The first Mortuus I met since my adoption, and you’re revolting. There’s a small hope that the people of Omisha are wrong about those that come from Malus, but I can see in your expression and wordplay that you’re a monster they fear.”

Dio turned her attention to Leere, a glow of examination filling her. “So… you’re the target. Heard stories about you. The Mortuus who escaped alive. You’ve made friends in high places. From what I understand, even a snake who can’t keep himself from destroying everything he loves.”

Leere and Malik knew she was speaking of Bonegrinder, but before they could ponder on this more, a flash of lightning was shot towards them both from a demon that made itself know behind Dio. It’s form Malik raised his shield to defend himself, but Leere had to throw herself to the ground to avoid the attack.

The woman laughed, a mad glee in her eyes. “My master is going to make me a god. I’ll use you both as slaves to build a temple in my honour on this very land.”

Mother knew not of the past incident with this Mortuus, but could put together enough pieces to realize that there was most definitely bad blood between the her and Malik. This demonic magic made her feel uneasy. It was the same kind of magic which was used to torment the souls of her mate and her child. Bad memories were there to help her, the Echidnan ruler reminded herself. She had to be cautious. She had to be faster. She had to be the smart one. With a slam of her tail, the Mother separated the earth between her children and the demons, a rift appearing in-between them.

The demons hissed; their attention being drawn to the Mother now that they were cut off from the rest of Omisha. One flashed frilled quills at the Echidnan. “The souls of your children will be our nourishment. But first, let us embrace you.”

Inside the sanctuary, Dio commanded her demon to attack Malik. It had the appearance of a flying eyeball with flower peddles surrounding the body. With a glow, black lightning shot towards the Gerudo, forcing him to take cover behind his shield and retreat amongst the rubble as the demon gave chase.

Dio herself locked eyes with Leere, her hands glowing with magic ready to destroy her enemies. There was a presence that felt familiar to Dio about this woman. Why? “A pampered princess can’t kill a god to be.”

“You are just another mad cultist.” Leere ran forward with her scythe to strike down Dio. Her blade met the empty air as the devilish woman danced around her strikes. Finally, she retaliated by snapping her fingers. At both of Leere’s sides, two Floormasters, man sized sentient hands, flew towards her to grab her. They were nearly identical to her Wallmaster, simply having a different function. She found herself being squeezed tight together in their grip. Dio snorted in amusement at her conjuration working out flawlessly. “Looks like the Destroyer is going to lose one of her friends.”

Leere felt her skin being torn into, blood leaking out onto the Floormasters. Good. Blood magic made the hands lose their grip, and before Dio could react, Leere threw the two hands together to make an icky battering ram of monster flesh. Both monsters forced together and hurled into Dio had the effectiveness of a giant fist punching her whole body. The woman was flung backwards into ground, blood flying from her now broken nose. Rising to her feet, her mood was soured to see Leere’s hands glowing red with cursed blood magic.

“You dare strike me?”

“I’m going to drain the life from you is what I’m going to do.”

Dio couldn’t imagine how a Mortuus who left the capital of Malus could have so much power. “Ha. We’ll see about-HCK!!!”

Suddenly, Dio wasn’t laughing. Due to Leere’s blood making contact with her skin thanks to the battering ram the princess threw at Dio, she was now able to levitate the body of the other necromancer. Taking her time, she started to squeeze the oxygen out of Dio’s lungs with her magic. This startled the intruder to Omisha greatly. She could taste the thick amount of iron in her mouth as her breath was being taken away.

As Leere stepped forward into Dio’s shadow to get a closer look at bitch she was about to kill, the woman cocked her head to the right at the princess and thrust her arm upwards with all the strength she could to get through Leere’s blood magic. Leere felt her rib cage be violently stabbed as a shadow pierced into her. Taking a few steps back, Leere struggled for breath as Dio rose from the ground. With a cruel smile, Dio made another slash with her shadow. The bladed arm cut into Leere’s back, spinning her around with the force of the impact.

The princess breathed heavily from her injuries. The only thing that felt good was the smell of the rain that started to fall down. Every drop that hit her lacerations stung like hellfire instead of cooling water.

As Dio approached from behind, she paused, her expression being frozen on Leere’s back. “That tattoo… I didn’t think it plausible. But it is it. Schwanz des Teufels: Tyrannin.”

“What?” When the woman spoke to her, there was frightening chill in her voice, as if two people were speaking at once, viewing her body with nefarious intent.

“Rejoice Leere Dragmire. You have a purpose now, a reason to stay alive.” It was defiantly a different voice coming from Dio now, however, when she spoke again, Leere heard the smugness of the woman return. “Doesn’t mean I don’t get to cut you apart so thy can keep still forever.”

Tendrils of darkness lifted from Dio’s shadow, shooting towards Leere with the precision of whips. They crackled through the air as the Princess drew the knife as her side to repel them the best she could.

Mother was able to contain the fiends easily with the help of her deadly children. Most of the demons were massive mounds of flesh without proper training. It was easy to rip into the fiends and dispose of them. Once Bonegrinder had completed his duty to Mother, using his own dark magic to contain the demons where they stood, he turned his attention to Malik and Leere. He had seen the two duel opponents before, yet, this was different. Malik was struggling to obtain an offense with his foe. Leere was holding her own against the Mortuus bitch, yet there was... shadow magic being used. Too much darkness...

When Dio attacked Leere with her assault of shadow whips, Bonegrinder shot forward through the fire. His body smelled of burnt flesh for only a moment before regenerating. It was time to end this now before anymore lives could be lost. Lunging forward, he tackled Dio and had his jaws opened wide. His coils wrapped around Dio's body and his fangs were ready to clamp down on her head.

The eye demon that had Malik pinned behind cover flew in to assist Dio. Before Bonegrinder could kill the woman, the shadow fired a powerful stream of dark lightning into the back of his head. As his coils unfurled, Dio scuttled on her back away from the freak of nature that nearly devoured her.

Leere was quick to try and stop her, claiming and swinging her scythe at the bitch’s head. Dio barely escaped death once again, returning the attempt on her life with a kick to Leere’s wounded stomach.

The pain Leere felt was unbearable, and her scream was shrill and high as she stumbled back. She even dropped her weapon from the kick. Looking up, Leere quickly was electrocuted by a stream of red lightning launched from the fingertips of Dio’s raised right hand. Leere had been electrocuted before, but this felt different. It was of her life force was being drained from her, the very soul being stolen. And its agony she felt from it was unreal.

Malik saw the demon firing a continuous stream of electricity at Bonegrinder. It wouldn’t stop firing down upon him, shredding flesh right down to the bone. Looking the lightning storm above, he quickly thought of a plan. Raising a metal sword to the sky, Malik put just enough of his own energy that the blade started sparking. The sizzling increased volume, until finally, Malik felt it was ready to throw. Launching the blade right under the shadowy demon like a boomerang, a lightning bolt from the heavens struck downwards in a path towards the metal blade, piercing the demon through its entire body to reach it. Its form crumbled into the earth, turning into black goo.

Dio channeled her masters magic. Magic was his domain, so it was only natural he could take it away. He taught her his ways. It hurt like hell to use, but she knew it hurt her enemies even more. Seeing Bonegrinder get up, she fired her other hand of magic draining bolts towards the monster. “Come now. Transform. I know who you are. My master told me. It also so happens you are the enemy of all Mortuus.”

Malik ran forward, throwing himself in front of Dio’s bolts towards Leere with his shield. It gave her a moments recovery to breathe as Malik struggled against the anti-life magic. If he was going to protect anyone, it would be the princess over that bratty snake.

"MODOC!!!" Mother shouted when she saw him being attacked by the life draining magic. If he was unstable... if he lashed out, he could hurt them too. She yelled at the pair, motioning with her tail for them to get behind her barrier. "Malik! Leere!!! Get away!!! Get away from Modoc!!!"

Bonegrinder's body twisted and contorted, his coils seemingly ready to break. His mind was jumbled. Nothing was clear. Where was he? When was he? Why was he fighting? Who was he with? These questions, he knew he had an answer, but could not formulate one. Groaning, he held his head. The Anagari's body was starting to form... particles. Floating particles surrounded him. Ironically, not of dark magic, but of pure energy. Light energy. His eyes were glowing a solid white, and he spoke in a language that no one understand.

"You will not hurt them! You are done hurting innocents! We banished you once and we will banish you again!" Bonegrinder simply shot his hand through Dio's fiendish magic and grasped her by the throat. "You serve a false god who takes pleasure in the torment of others. I will wipe you from existence for your crimes against this world!" With a blast of pure energy, the celestial magic exploded... and threw everyone backwards. Even Mother was knocked off her many centipede legs. All the demons either were obliterated by the magic, or retreated back into the portal that returned them to the deepest pits of the underworld and Hell.

In Bonegrinder’s grasp, Dio tried to speak. Her face was turning dark purple from the tight iron grip around her tiny neck. Celestial magic had burned her body from head to toe. She’d have died outright if something inside her watching deemed her ready for death.

To be completely honest with herself, she was terrified. If her body still had the capacity, she might have been pissing herself from fear, at least, if there hadn’t been a nugget of confidence in returning from the dead. Dio didn’t like the idea of dying regardless, but she’d serve one last purpose first. “My master will r-resurrect me. He will-”

Her eyes suddenly rolled back, and the air grew bitterly cold. The voice that left her mouth was clearly not her own. What’s more, it was the only one that could communicate with the being that inhabited Bonegrinder. “I found you at last. I don’t think you were the brother I expected though.”

Leere’s back was burning with pain and her magic sizzled from Bonegrinder’s explosion. She was flown far away, and when she tried to stand, she found her left leg was broken from the blast. It was hard to tell at sight, but she knew something was terribly wrong with both Bonegrinder and Dio. The air was phased around them like a mirage, the ground crackling with sparks.

Malik was lucky enough to be thrown into some rubble, so he wasn’t launched far. Closer than Leere, he could hear the voice that escaped the Mortuus. “Teufel.”

Teufel simply ignored Malik, as one would ignore an ant on a mountain hike. “I am God. I have subjects in all corners of this realm and others. This dear girl, played her part admirably. I will consider resurrecting her. Your God has one last task for you Dio. The Mother of Omisha insulted me by saying your pathetic tribe of life worshipers could ever control me. Deal with the matter.”

The Mortuus’ voice spoke out in the same tone as a broken note of a recorder. “Yes, my lord...”

Dio’s hand rose, and with magic not her own, a beam of celestial magic shot from her finger towards the Mother of Omisha as a way to pierce her heart. The magic already started to disintegrate Dio’s body as it left her being, too much for a mere mortal to handle such power.

"You will never win. Not as long as Kaksa is here. Not as long as I am here." Bonegrinder, no... an ancient god snarled at the voice of Chaos coming through Dio's body. It was a brother of Creation or Destruction who was in control of his host now. The celestial god of creation had laid dormant in his Echidnan host for a long while. Rarely did he surface. "You became greedy and tried to disrupt her beloved world. Now, you will never be at her side again. The Mother Goddess has wiped her hands of betraying filth like you---!!!"

When Dio shot magic at Mother, Bonegrinder reacted. He could only deflect it. Using a huge blast of his own celestial power, he knocked the beam sideways and it slammed into the side of a hill, exploding the earth. Hunks of grass, rock, and dirt flew through the air and the sudden force of casting his own magic caused the Anagari to sail through multiple trees, breaking the plants in half, before settling into the mud.

"MODOC!!!" Mother rushed to Bonegrinder's side and collected him into her arms. His body was disintegrated in some areas, but was slowly starting to repair itself. "Modoc? Modoc!!! I command you to open your eyes! Modoc!"

“Your goddess, Hylia, and the other gods have already failed. Already have I dominated a few myself. Join Ponca, Osage, and Akihara in Hell Modoc. I look forward to killing the last of your people Malik… Mother… Leere…. Hehe… Hehehe. HahahahaHAHAHAHA!!!” With a final defiant laugh, Dio’s body disintegrated into earth, her masters taunt being heard by all. The silhouette of her body left a black stain in the earth of Omisha.

Malik made his way to Mother, concerned about Bonegrinder’s condition. The last time he’d seen his body so damaged was when he himself detonated a highly volatile powder keg in his face. “Is he alive?”

"He is alive, but he's going to need some time to recover." Mother looked... worried. A huge, intimidating being like her being anxious was surely not a good sign. There was still a bit of celestial magic floating around Bonegrinder's body, yet now, it was harmless. As it sunk to the jungle floor, it actually rejuvenated the tainted parts of the ground. "He took a direct hit from Chaos... that stupid fool." The Echidan of many took a deep breath, fighting back tears. "You've been around as long as I have, yet have suffered more torment. Why do you continue to do such idiotic things when you know we all will need you?" She told Bonegrinder in his comatose state. "I fear that one day your body will not repair and what will we do then?" The other children of Mother made a makeshift stretcher and began to carry Bonegrinder back to the Temple of Ruin.

She then finally looked at Malik, and said, "... you have questions. I will answer. But not here."

Malik looked to Leere in the not too far distance, seeing her still on the ground writhing in pain. “Questions can come at a later time. Let us attend to our wounded first.” Malik walked past the bodies of demons and undead to reach Leere. Seeing the condition the princess was in, he winced behind his helmet. However, he respected her tenacity as a warrior for not complaining from the physical pain. “That leg doesn’t look good.”

“No... shit...” Leere was breathing as steady as she could to get through the pain. “I think my femur is broken.”

The Gerudo lord looked down to see some bone poking out of Leere’s skin. Between that and the gut wound, he wondered how she was still breathing.  “You need a Doctor.”

“No... shit...”

Carefully, but not enterally painlessly, Malik scooped Leere into his arms and carried her back to the rest of the Echidans. “I think a Bonegrinder is this Destroyer god we have heard so much about.”

“We can’t know for sure.”

“We both saw the magic he possessed. He tore through demons and Dio like they were nothing.”

Leere pondered on this theory, noting the facts. Bonegrinder surrounded himself with those that eroded the will of people. He was rather ravenous in his hunger, seemingly having no sight in his growth. Leere was read a tale that one of the known symbols of the end of the world was a giant snake. His own people held rumours about him. And given his powers, it wasn’t hard to imagine the type of destruction he could bring to the world. But he was still her friend, wasn’t he?

“Let’s... save that thought for later. I need rest for now.”

"Bring the princess into the infirmary. My healers will care for her." Mother instructed Malik. "And if you have any injuries that need tending, please tell my children. The Tlanuhwas will be sure to care for you and the princess tonight. Though if you rather have a Kokyangwuti, please tell me. There are many options to treat you, whatever you feel more comfortable." She then said, "I will visit after I ensure the barriers are stable."

“Understood.” With great haste, Malik took off with Leere in his arms. The battlefield they left behind had a remarkable effect. With the rain fall, life started to come back to land, all except marked by the hell and chaos left behind directly by Dio. Her death bed sizzled, whispering promises of more suffering and discord to be pulled in Omisha. Far, far away, a primordial evil was still laughing. The Devil found out the identity of one of its greatest enemies, as well as part of their very being thought forever lost. And if Teufel knew where and who they were, it would be all the easier to control the threads of fate for when its time would come. All in due time…

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