OceRydia and Ziegelzeig notes : And this is already it. The Halloweek ends officially with this chapter (even if we are preparing a little surprise with Cimar-WildeHopps) and the storyline reaches is very end. None of this would have been possible without the help and the support of our editor team. So once again, a BIG thank you and a lot of hugs for ReaderNo31142, Jrh04109 and Cimar-WildeHopps. And of course, thanks to all of you, readers and followers, who have supported this project with your participation, encouragements and very kind reviews.
Chapter 9 : The Divine Comedy
Neither the freezing wind, nor the driving rain, nor even the strange cataclysmic lightning and growling thunder were able to make the situation more critical. Oce's stare was piercing into Zieg, and he seemed to gauge the degree of seriousness of the bunny standing in front of him. The ultimate obstacle between him and his vengeance.
"Do you really want to confront me again?" Zieg hissed between his fangs, letting out his long claws from his clenched fingers.
"Why not ? You betrayed me again," Oce replied seriously, shrugging his shoulders. "You know the rules of this little game."
"I have no time to lose with your moods. I have other cats to whip. Like a very big cat with wings."
Oce shook her head, her ears dripping under the rainwater.
"I don't care what brings you here. You will not go without my approval anyway. This is my city, demons are not welcome."
Reynart, who had remained behind until now, took a hesitant step towards his former pupil, hoping to make her hear reason.
"Oce, it's vital that we ..."
"I said demons were not welcome," Oce said fiercely. "It concerns you too, from what I understand. So keep your forked tongue between your teeth, if you still want to be able to use it. You will need it to justify your little secrets to Aliya. She's shed too much tears because of you."
Confronted to his faults, Reynart could only stammer a few words that made little sense, bowed his head, and took a few steps back, vanquished.
"Let him be," Zieg ordered darkly. "He only obeyed my orders."
"Better and better!" The bunny objected in a forced laugh. "So you are at the origin of absolutely all my recent disappointments."
"Listen, I..."
"Enough!" interrupted Oce forcefully. "Fight me."
"I have no desire to fight you," the fox sighed wearily.
"You may defend yourself to save your carcass, then. You always do that."
The fox opened his lips to counter-argue again, but the bunny was through with words. While the sky was illuminated once again under the strange glare of an intense flash, she raised her crossbow, not hesitating to shoot at close range. Zieg certainly felt the seriousness of her action and narrowly escaped, his shoulder scratched by the bolt. As he bent down to get out of reach, Oce straightened her knee covered with metal plates and snapped it straight into the fox's muzzle.
With a heavy grown, Zieg was thrown heavily back, falling onto the soaked drawbridge and slid pathetically several meters away.
"I would not have taken it, that one ..." commented Samael, who was observing the fight with a most phlegmatic detachment.
"I bet two poultry on Oce ..." Thomas Cataro replied, glancing at his demonic sidekick.
"Two poultry? It's just a mouthful for me..." the giant wolf let go. "Four for a draw."
"Do you really think it's time to make stupid bets?" Reynart asked, as the only spectator who seemed to be really worried.
"Relax ..." Samael argued. "It's not the first, and certainly not the last, that these two are banging on each other."
"Yes, but last time it ended with one paw less for one, and six years in the Underealms for the other..."
"It's different today...they're just bickering," added Samael. "A means like any other to settle their accounts and come to terms."
"May you be right ..."
"Do you join the bet, then?" Thomas asked.
"I'm not really in the mood to bet on the situation..."
And as if to echo those words, as the fight raged between Oce and Zieg on the drawbridge, Aliya, accompanied by Luckyz and Ramic, appeared from the gates of the city.
The worried gaze of the vixen slipped from the clash zone to her master, glowing with black rage. Reynart remained stoical. He would have his own accounts to settle later.
Ramic, for his part, grabbed his horns before shouting.
" NO! You must kiss, not fight! You understood nothing!"
"Nice show!" added Luckyz, smiling. "It lacks of popcorn, that being said!"
His sentence was punctuated by a violent wing blow from Zieg to Oce, who was thrown against the wall with violence, but recovered without much difficulty, clinging to the wet stone with her mechanical paw, before projecting herself zealously against the fox demon.
"You don't fight with all your strength, dirty coward!" Oce scolded in a falsely contemptuous tone. "Where are your flames? Can't you use them when it's raining, or what?"
Zieg was silent, his eyes dark, as Oce's weapon clashed onto his elbow greaves.
"So?! Is that it? At least try to face me!" the bunny cried, straightening herself violently before throwing a vicious head-butt at her adversary, who was thrown back, his muzzle now coated in blood.
"My flames can't touch you, no need to waste them," Zieg finally countered, spitting a bloody spittle on the ground.
"You mean they don't consider me as a threat, right?" the bunny snarled. "Wait until I deprive you of one of your horns! Maybe that could make them change their minds!"
She shot three bolts in a row, perfectly framed, and the fox just generated a flame screen in front of him to reduce the projectiles to ashes.
"I will not hurt you, no need to insist," the fox let out in a dark voice.
"It's too late for that, you moron!" countered Oce as she launched an assault of paw-to-paw combat.
She knew very well that her opponent would easily get rid of her ranged attacks. And since he could not use his fire against her, he had no chance in close combat, a situation in which she excelled. As a result, she traded her crossbow for her battle dagger, and cut down with precision, forcing the demon to dodge. The latter began to grumble and be more virulent, understanding that he would have to defend himself if he hoped to get rid of her...and it was exactly the situation that Oce was trying to provoke. She wanted to see Zieg get out of his shell, and sincerely express what he had on the heart. Now that he had it back, it should be easier for him.
"You had planned to betray me since your return, hadn't you?" said the bunny, chaining the attacks faster and more agile than the ones before.
Caught up, the fox couldn't dodge the last stroke, which cut his cheek. He groaned, but resisted the urge to counterattack with violence, merely repelling his opponent with a large movement of his wings.
"It was inevitable!" he shouted. "Our natures are incompatible!"
"It didn't stop you from flirting with me, or even letting me sleep in your arms that night at Hallow Heart…!"
A cruel smile on her face, she directly aimed her dagger at Zieg and threw. Big mistake to the eyes of the fox: the bunny had just relinquished her only way to reach him. He countered the blade with is arm, focusing on it...and widened his eyes when the bunny re-appeared right in front of him. She was so fast that she had joined her blade in full flight, and thus had created an easy opening in the fox's guard. However, while she could have easily slit his throat with a simple movement of the wrist, she contents herself with only giving him a metal punch right in the eye.
"Ouch...Fuck..." Zieg groaned, falling heavily against Samael.
The latter grabbed him by the scarf and threw him straight into the combat zone.
"I bet five poultry on Oce," Thomas commented placidly.
"Sold," the demonic wolf nodded.
Zieg glanced at them, a new mistake from the fox. Oce took advantage of his inattention, and punched him again, straight into the stomach.
"Get out of your muteness and fight me, or I aim lower..." the bunny growled. "You should focus on our fight!"
Luckyz instinctively crossed his legs, his tail slipping between his thighs, instinctively protecting his private parts.
"She...she's really wouldn't do that, wouldn't she?" he asked in a dolorous tone.
"Of course not...she must want children, right?" Ramic argued with uncertainty.
"I guarantee you that if he doesn't change his attitude, she will end up doing it..." Aliya countered. "It's years of frustration which speaks now."
"Ouch, ouch...he can say goodbye to his demonic three-piece service..." Luckyz moaned.
However, Zieg began to counter his opponent's attacks with more force. He was getting tired of the situation little by little...but as Oce took the fight much more seriously, she found the flaws in each of his attacks, and punished his imprecision at each stroke...
"What do you want to hear, dammit?" Zieg shouted, straightening his head, after taking another punch in the nose. "I don't have time to play with you!"
"Do you still think this is a game?!" Oce shouted. "It's the same way you treated our relationship! You would have done better to leave that to our memories of yesteryear, rather than rekindle the flame of my feelings once again..."
Zieg was stunned for a few seconds, surprised by what he had just heard.
"For me it wasn't a game ..." stammered the bunny, stopping her attack by meeting the shocked gaze that the fox turned to her. "Neither a phase...even if you have got your heart back, finally, it's as if you never had one..."
"You know nothing about that...you don't understand what it's like to be like us!" Zieg countered with a movement of the arm to include Reynart and Samael in his argument. "We envy you, mortals! That's right, we would like to be just like you! To have the possibility to grow old, surrounded by our loved ones, and to be able to die ourselves, one day, having the feeling that our existence was important!"
At these words, Oce recoiled a little and her ears fell on her back.
"We are failed, vain entities. We were created to carry out a quest that we will never accomplish, because we fell madly in love with your mortal nature. Our creator has denied our existence to the point of disappearing and abandoning the world we were destined to purify! And today, we are confronted with the hatred of those we seek to defend, who are constantly trying to destroy us, to banish us, or to use our powers to achieve their malefic ends!"
"And so you thought it would be a good revenge to wreck a poor stupid mortal like me, right?" Oce countered, voice wavering. "That anyway it would not matter, since I would eventually forget you, find some random male, make my life with him and die in the contentment of a comfortable and meaningless life?"
"This...it wasn't my intention..." Zieg said, looking away.
"During those six years you had been banished, I never forgot you. I never wanted to meet another..."
"Yet you didn't jump in my arms when I came back...you avoided me, you made me understand that it was only a pact. My heart against my services." Zieg countered.
"I should have trusted you without the slightest suspicion, when you had already betrayed me in the past?" Oce said, straightening her mechanical paw. "I lost this because of you, and yet I didn't blame you."
"I never wanted that to happen..."
"I understood it well. I knew you wasn't responsible," Oce said with a sigh.
Zieg turned his head again helplessly. His worried and vanquished expression made him look like a beaten dog who could have seemed pathetic if he had not been so disarming with sincerity.
"It wasn't you..." finally said the bunny. "You think I don't understand your demon's nature, and that may be true. But I know who you really are and it broke my heart to have to cut out yours and see you disappear, without knowing if you would ever reappear one day..."
"Why didn't you invoke me back on your own?"
"Things are not that simple..." replied Oce in a quiet tone. "You talk about it now with detachment, but we are no longer in the same situation at the time. Nothing was safe for me... Several years of maturity separate me from the naive and optimistic bunny I was then."
"I guess you're right..." Zieg agreed, letting his ears fall back.
"Yet..." began Oce, smiling softly, extending her paw to the fox, who was still gazing at her in that almost frightened look. "I'm just as in love with you today as I was at that time... and maybe even more."
"Don't you want to kill me anymore?" the fox sputtered softly in an uncertain tone.
"Approach if you dare..."
Consenting without much hesitation to the proposal, the fox took the few steps that separated him from his bunny, who stood on her feet, climbing up to his muzzle while clinging to his scarf dripping with rain, to put her lips on his.
She pulled away from his embrace only because she felt a warm liquid wet her face. She opened her eyes, surprised to see the demon's tears flowing from his narrowed eyes, pleated in a strange mixture of distress and relief.
"I regret...I regret everything..." he sobbed as he fell to his knees before letting his head fall back into the crook of Oce's neck.
The bunny squeezed the fox against her forcefully, gently rubbing her cheek against his coat, gently marking it with her scent.
"You owe me five poultry," Samael calmly commented to a grumpy Thomas.
On the other side of the bridge, Ramic was in turmoil, though containing his joy as to not spoil the reconciliation of the fox and the bunny. But between his paws, his two new, soft plushies, didn't detach their snouts from each other.
Luckyz was also in joy, and manifested his contentment by an improvised dance to which he had invited a somewhat disconcerted Aliya.
For his part, Reynart couldn't repress a sigh of relief. Somehow, he had wished for such an outcome, even if he didn't think it was even possible at first sight. Their troubles were not over, but at least he could finally assume what he was among all the mammals he cared about.
"What are we going to become?" Zieg finally let out a soft voice in the hollow of Oce's ear. "The fact that we are together doesn't change anything that keeps us apart."
"I don't know, Zieg, but, give us at least a chance to think about it together, this time.. I'm not as weak as you think," she whispered. "At least, not as long as you're by my side..."
"It's me who becomes weak when you're here..." the fox quipped.
"And when you walk away, I turn into Darkbunbun. You don't want to see that, believe me."
"I may not have seen it, but I felt it," the demon added, testing his sore muzzle. "That's going to leave some marks... I'll let you have the pleasure of putting some pomade on me."
"Sugar fox."
Zieg finally straightened up, while sighing. He glared at the tall fortress of Silentwind.
"But before that, we still have a job to do..."
"The demon you came to kill here, right?" questioned Oce.
"It's House, isn't it?" Aliya intervened who had finally managed to get out of the dance of Luckyz, who nevertheless continued to celebrate alone. "How did you know he was still alive?"
"House?!" Zieg exclaimed. "What do you mean? For my part, it's Umbra that I want to kill!"
"Umbra?" Oce wondered. "But she's not a-"
A thunderous crash came to interrupt the conversation, and all eyes turned to the high fortress, whose left wing had literally exploding under a magical destructive impulse. Two highly concentrated etheric forces clashed, judging from the mystical fragrances that fluttered in the air, cutting the curtain of rain and were of different signatures; one of a scarlet purple, the other of an intense blue.
In the middle of the cascade of rubble fell a mass more imposing than the rest ... The shadow tried to unfold its wings to cushion its fall, but managed to stabilize only awkwardly. The form flitted from left to right, wavering with difficulty, before crashing heavily on the ground, a hundred meters from the gates of the city.
The worried gaze of the vixen slipped from the clash zone to her master, and glowed with black rage. Reynart remained stoical. He would have his own accounts to settle later.
Without losing a single second, the group of mammals and demons rushed near the point of impact, towards which was moving another flying form, much smaller than the previous one, and which seemed to float gracefully in the air by the means of a bewitched cape.
"It's Dr. Ned!" Oce said, surprised by the unexpected turn of events. "The chamberlain of the Order of Hunters!"
"The top of the pyramid, in short," Zieg replied. "He might not be very happy to see us, my brothers and I."
"It's a very wise person, on the contrary," Aliya countered.
"More reason for him to be suspicious, in fact," Samael chuckled, who seemed particularly amused by the situation.
"In any case, we will not have to look very far for what we wanted to find ..." Zieg observed, stopping a few meters from the muddy furrow that Umbra had caused by crashing to the ground.
The sphinx was in a bad state and was trying hard to get back on her feet, without succeeding. Her wings were charred, and still burning under the effect of bluish flames. She was moaning, wading pitifully in a puddle of mud, blood flowing over her body from the innumerable wounds inflicted on her. She was trying to remain dignified, but bitter tears of pain flowed from her narrowed eyes under the effect of pain.
"It's ... It's the most majestic and beautiful creature I've had the honor to contemplate in my life..." Thomas Cataro stated, eyes bulging and mouth ajar, unable to detach his eyes from the agonizing sphinx.
Samael glanced at him, before shaking his head. "You're really a Hunter of the "weirdo" category."
Ned then landed close to Oce. He looked bad, and his condition wasn't much more glorious than that of the opponent he had just defeated, but at least he was still standing on his legs.
"Oce! You have come at the right time!" he shouted. "Nadine had to smash the skull of your father-in-law with a frying pan!"
"Well, we missed the fun moment!" Zieg let out a sneer.
Ned gave him an incongruous look, which killed his hilarity in the bud.
"Nice work anyway..." the fox admitted, glancing at Umbra. "You are impressive, Ned."
"Nice to meet you, too," cynically replied the rabbit.
"You better finish me, as long as you can," Umbra said painfully as she fell to the ground, deprived of all her strength. She was barely able to straighten her head towards her enemy.
"Not until I had answers to my questions..." Ned replied, turning his attention to the Sphinx.
"You better go through the interrogation phase," Samael advised growling. "She can pollute your mind just by voice..."
"I saw the effects of her verbal venom on Sir Loràn Potence. She made him a traitor to his own cause, and a puppet she could manipulate as she pleased."
"That guy was an asshole long before Umbra interfered in his thoughts..." Zieg said ironically.
Oce merely looked away, but didn't contradict the words of her fox.
Ned cleared his throat, not inclined to enter into a debate of opinion about the leader of the Order... Even if this status was put in the balance of uncertainty at the moment.
"Well, Umbra..." Ned finally resumed. "What was your goal, through these actions? Destroy the Order from the interior? Get more power? What?"
"Stupid mortal considerations, that doesn't surprise me at all..." Umbra spat, rolling her eyes. "You visualize things only by the narrowness you have, and always bring everything back to your miserable scale..."
"Certainly..." Ned said scornfully. "In the meantime, I'm not the one who bathes in the mud and waits impatiently for someone to put a muzzle on me."
"A muzzle might be an idea..." Thomas offered hopefully. "That would save us from having to kill her."
"We will avoid following your advice, Cataro..." commented Reynart in a detached tone. "It looks like you're not quite yourself anymore."
"Quite the contrary ..." moaned the lynx. "I have never been so lucid!"
"Someone knock him out or should I take care of him?" Samael said with spite.
Umbra couldn't help pushing a cynical sneer at Ned's logic, and while spitting a little more blood, she continued her explanation.
"We demons failed to fulfill the project that the Creator was carrying out for mortals through servile entities that we are. Your individualities are your weakness. We demons have been designed as tools. Effective and sharp. We had only one task. One, and we just had to stick to it..."
The other demons in the place stood in an uncomfortable silence...being thus brought back to their primary function always had been something unpleasant for them. Umbra turned her gaze to them and it was burning with fierce hatred.
"You are worse than the deadly vermin that corrupts these lands. By your needs, our task at all has become a failure; and this failure a plague. I did only what was in my power to fulfill the mission to which I was devoted. By relieving mortals, as well as demons, of the corrupt essence that gnawed their blasphemous souls."
With a faint movement of the paw, Umbra materialized a green haze, the same she had drained from the mouth of House.
"No more recourse for the damned, if I keep their souls locked in the prison of my mind..." Umbra sneered sadistically. "No more Underealms for the traitors, and no eternal rest for the larvae..."
"You have captured innocent souls?" exclaimed Aliya. "With what kind of maleficence?!"
"By becoming myself a sort of Creator..." Umbra replied soberly. "With the help of ancient obscure rites, brought back from the forgotten continents of the West, I conceived a perfect demon, more destructive, murderous and effective than all those who had existed until now."
"House..." muttered Aliya, who was now able to collect all the pieces of the puzzle. "It's House, isn't it? "
"That's why Lord Dagonn wasn't able to visualize the future that entailed this demon..." Oce concludes. "He doesn't come from here or elsewhere...he's an artificial being..."
"In part..." Umbra groaned, the pain of which was becoming hard to bear. "It was conceived from the corrupt flesh torn from several demons of the first generation that I managed to suppress. Hardass the Deep...Raurrhus the Reaper...Van'tor the Master of Secrets...I've forgotten a lot of other ones for sure..."
At the hearing of these names, the expressions of Zieg and Samael were narrowed. Each of them were their brothers of the First Generation. Demons who, like them, had not been able to fulfill their task of Judges of mortals, and had felt affection for them.
"You're sad for those incapable, from what I can see from your crestfallen faces..." Umbra concludes with a tired smile. "You are pitiful...we are tools of judgment. Our task accomplished, we weren't destined to keep living anyway."
"We should have accepted this fatality and disappear without defending ourselves, according to you?" Samael asked furiously. "We didn't have the right, too, to exist like the others?"
"What others?" Umbra countered in a darker voice. "The mortals? They were damned. The Creator was ashamed of what they were, and we were the punishment he was destined for them. Now he has turned his gaze away from us and he will never come back unless we satisfy his original ambition."
"What you say is ridiculous," Zieg intervened. "And totally wrong, moreover. If the Creator has decided to turn away from us, demons and mortals, then good riddance. Who needs a god who fears what he creates to the point of wanting to verify allegiance by violence and sadism? We all have a wrong idea of him. And we are the ones who should have given up on him first. He didn't create us like he was."
Zieg then grabs Oce's paw in his, crossing his fingers between hers, clearly displaying to Umbra's amazed eyes the union he had woven with his female.
"We are not able to judge mortals, nor are they able to judge us. We are what we choose to be."
To everyone's surprise, it was Ned who first agreed to these words.
"And for that reason, I'm going to spare your miserable life, Umbra."
"I beg your pardon?" the sphinx spluttered in a surprised voice.
"I think that depriving you of your strength and forcing you to live in this world that you hate to the point of wanting to annihilate it will be a much better punishment for you. It may be even educational. For all of us."
"I'm hallucinating. You're only trying to humiliate me more, aren't you?"
"Stop counter-arguing!" Thomas said in a hopeful voice. "Accept to live and understand this world. Just like I did."
"I'd rather die," Umbra said vehemently.
"Eh eh ! Then you will be pleased!"
None of the people were able to react to the sneak attack that hit Umbra hard. The flank of the sphinx literally burst into a sheaf of blood, while an invisible projectile pierced through it. She screamed in terrible pain and collapsed to the side, pounding her paws and wings in comvulsive and panicked movements. Thomas cocked his crossbow and hurled himself to the side of the dying creature, trying to determine the angle of the attack that had struck her.
The instinct of the demons and hunters in presence allowed them to anticipate the invisible spears that were destined for each, and they threw themselves out of reach, the ground exploding on the different points of impact, breaking down into small geysers of mud.
In the still intensifying rain, the jagged silhouette of House's jerky gait had just made its appearance.
"See who's coming..." Zieg said suspiciously before resuming a more ironic tone. "You were right Aliya, you had not quite finished the work. Obviously, you can't do anything as soon as I'm not here..."
This mocking remark earned him a pinch from Oce.
"Ouch! Is this going to become a habit, or what?"
"Obviously, it works," the bunny countered, offering him a satisfied smile.
"Oh! House has indeed almost disappeared, in this dark and damp forest... " commented the puppet demon while stopping a few meters away from Umbra's carcass. "When he has finished what he has to do here, he will go back there to slaughter that ugly coyote, as well as all the members of his tribe...Isn't it my lovely beauty? Hinhinhin..."
As he spoke, he had removed from his belt this despicable mammalian waste with which he had visibly woven a most unhealthy relationship.
"House..." Umbra shifted, flapping her wings, but slowly losing her energy as death seized her. "You...you betrayed me ..."
The puppet gave her a thin smile before making a slight laugh.
"You betrayed yourself alone. House doesn't betray. He kills, that's all."
"Decidedly, you can't trust anyone in this crazy country..." commented Luckyz. "This is at least the fiftieth betrayal since the beginning of this story. I wonder who will betray me and when..."
"Not the moment for these philosophical thoughts, Luckyz..." Reynart interrupted, who remained on his guard. "We are in a critical situation..."
"Why this ? We are more numerous than him," countered the black wolf. "And this time he can't hide anymore. "
"House doesn't hide. House is watching. And he massacres as he wishes."
"I gave you life..." Umbra argued. "It's not...like that...that it had to happen..."
"House is going to shed a tear," The puppet dropped, bending his head roughly to the side and forcing an expression of sadness that gradually turned into a cruel smile. "The Creator has given life to all of you, and yet he has betrayed you all in the same process. Why respect those who created us when we surpass them? House is more apt than you to accomplish your mission. That's why you die, it's in the order of things. Life is an overvalued notion."
He held out his little doll in the direction of the sphinx, and made her pathetically move with his long, sickly fingers, as if to infuse it with a pastiche of life.
"House is right, you know," he said in a high-pitched voice, as if he wanted the doll to speak in its place. "The Creator is an ugly villain. House will stack the corpses of his creations to the heavens, and he will then kill the mean Creator."
The dread puppet then turned his monstrous face to all the other mammals in presence, and in his eyes was only visible coldness more icy even than the darkest depths of the Underealms.
"That's what you all want, right?" he said in a voice devoid of emotion. "House will fulfill your wish, and you will all die for it."
No sooner had House finished his sentence than he threw his right arm straight at Thomas, who was still on the watch near Umbra. The Hunter tried to dodge the member, but it had his own will, and pursued the lynx in his retreat, immediately engaging him in hand-to-hand combat with violent brutality.
The hostilities officially opened, Samael didn't lose a second. Hardly had House attacked Thomas that the demonic wolf jumped up and growled. The puppet intercepted him in full flight with a triple volley of his invisible projectiles, which repulsed the demon, but failed to seriously damage his legendary iron flesh.
In the guise of Samael's assault, Aliya and Oce threw themselves on the right and left flanks of House, eager to take advantage of his blind spot, while Reynart charged a terrifying electric attack, which he projected directly onto his target.
At the moment of being hit by this multiple attacks, House then completely dislocated his body, fracturing into multiple disgusting pieces, which scattered several meters. Reynart's attack, nevertheless, exploded against the largest part of the chest, which literally grilled on the spot under the force of his electric energy.
"You have to destroy all the parts!" Aliya said confidently. "I'm sure that the slightest fiber allows him to fully recover!"
"I think it's the doll, the source of its power," contradicted Reynart, this remark earned him a violent look from the corsac vixen, who was obviously still very angry at him.
"I'm going to burn everything, it will be easier!" shouted Zieg, who, flying in the air, had accumulated a gigantic quantity of flames in a burning sphere of extravagant dimensions. "Keep them nearby, you have nothing to fear from my flames!"
"I will not let any of them escape, anyway," added Ned, who, with his bewitched cloak, was flying alongside Zieg.
The fox gave him a cautious look, not used to being next to other flying mammals. The rabbit replied with a wink, before starting a complex series of cabalistic signs, which he made at lightning speed with his eight fingers.
In doing so, he created a mystical energy field that took the form of a bluish dome in which highlighted arcanic symbols, cutting the area of battle from the rest of the world.
"Perfect..." Zieg said, preparing to project his fireball with all his strength.
"They...they're monsters..." Ramic commented piteously, staying away from the fight.
"It reminds me of the fireworks of the July celebrations," added Luckyz, who obviously didn't feel like participating in the fight either.
It was at this moment that each piece of House's body began to vibrate, and instantly, a fine bundle of dark energy connected them all. Most of the combatants involved in the confrontation managed to avoid the contact of these spectral fibers, but Reynart and Samael brushed them a little too closely, and the fur and flesh that touched were burned with a corrosive acid.
"Get away from that!" shouted the master of arms, throwing himself back, a paw pressed against his injured arm.
"Impossible !" countered Oce immediately. "We have to make sure all the pieces are destroyed."
"You'd better worry about that, rather!" Thomas grumbled, still struggling with House's right arm, finding out what these mystical fibers were plotting on Umbra's side.
All eyes then turned in that direction, to find that House's little doll, that piece of filthy burlap stitched on all sides, attracted to her the entirety of her master's energy threads, and channeled them by aspiring the greenish energy of souls collected by Umbra, the sphinx no longer having the strength to contain them anymore.
"We have to stop it right now!" exclaimed Oce.
"Too late," whispered House, his head floating in the air a few inches from the bunny's ears.
While Zieg, reluctant to project his inflamed attack because of the setbacks suffered by his companions below, finally decided to try everything and to launch it, a flash of intense light illuminated the muddy steppe, soon followed by a wave of phenomenal mystic energy. Ned's arcanic dome was literally pulverized by pressure, and he, like Zieg, was thrown to the ground about twenty meters away.
"What happened ?" asked the brown rabbit, straightening up quickly, followed in his movement by the fox demon.
"No idea..." Zieg replied, returning his attention to the combat zone.
All the fighters had been pushed away concentrically around the central point where Umbra still rested. At her side stood House, reconstituted. However, his appearance had changed.
His two dorsal scythes were spread out, and now dripped with dark energy as opaque as the dark eternities. A second pair of spectral-looking arms floated above his shoulders, connected to his body by spooky lines. And two angelic wings, shining with a pale light, sprang from his back and slowly flapped, allowing him to stand a few inches above the muddy ground.
"House has long studied the rites that allowed his creator to model and make his imperfect body..." said the entity in a mystical voice, which was expressed directly in the minds of those to whom he wished to send his message. "It was only transitory. House only needed enough energy to complete what Umbra had not been able to accomplish. Now this puppet is perfect."
House looked up at the heavens, and smiled peacefully.
"He can become the new Creator, instead of the one who failed."
Reynart sat up, grumbling. The last assault was violent for everyone.
"This thing gives off phenomenal energy..." he declared. "I'm not sure we'll be able to defeat him anymore, now."
"He draws strength from the souls he has stolen," countered Oce. "We can take them back."
"And how are you going to do that?" Asked Samael, who for the first time since the beginning of the fight seemed to have lost his confidence.
"I...I don't know..." the bunny admitted.
"House...is not...a natural...creature ..." Umbra stammered in a dying voice for the fighters, the face of her creation turning fiercely to her. "Even in this ultimate…form...he can't...connect his own soul...to his...body..."
"House has heard you enough. "
An invisible shot with terrifying power hit Umbra hard, putting an end to her remarks killing her instantly.
"You junk!" Thomas Cataro shouted, snapping multiple bolts from his crossbow towards the entity facing him.
A placid smile on his lips, House merely twirled his metal scythes as a shield to reduce the projectiles to the state of wooden chips. Then he held out his paw to the lynx that was still charging towards him, and at the same time displayed ten spears of light that flew in the direction of his target at full speed.
Thomas leapt with elegance, spinning in the middle of the magic projectiles, dodging with agility, only to find himself hit directly on the chest by one of the demon's scythe, which pierced him through and through.
"One less..." the creature murmured, before throwing the Hunter's carcass against Umbra's dying body.
"Thomas, no!" Oce shouted, as Samael threw himself in the direction of their opponent, leaving the fury of what had happened to his friend to give his body even more strength.
Motivated by the wolf demon's boldness, all the fighters, including Luckyz, stormed House, screaming for their rage and motivation to overcome an unpredictable and overpowered adversary.
House's ghostly arms then slid off his shoulders, and sank into the ground, before changing their shapes to become copies of their controller, densifying their ethereal nature to interact with the physical world. There was now three House against all these fighters, one confronting Samael and Ned, the other tackling Reynart, Luckyz and Aliya, the latter targeting Zieg and Oce.
The clones had all the incredible abilities of the dread puppet. In fact, to distinguish the original from his duplicates was impossible, and the violence of the three simultaneous clashes created a frightful chaos, with false airs of the Apocalypse.
"Don't let yourself be impressed, bun bun!" Zieg shouted as the floor literally exploded under his feet because of one of their opponent's white energy shots.
"Easy to say..." moaned the bunny, who could only dodge the battery of fire that their enemy sent to them, without even having the opportunity to reply with an assault of her own.
Zieg threw himself against his partner, seizing her in his arms gracefully, before taking off at full speed, to put them, even for a moment, out of reach of their adversary. But it was forgetting the fact that House also had wings now...and he wasn't going to let his opponents escape his deadly company.
"It's not fair!" Zieg complained, glancing over his shoulder, noting that their pursuer was only a few meters away from them. "It was my thing to fly!"
"You might have to file a copyright!"
"Funny..." Zieg conceded in a laughing voice. "The last time I confronted this bastard, he tore me to pieces. Then, when I had recovered my heart and all my strength and I could have taken my revenge, he then received an upgrade! What a son of a bi…"
Oce squeezed his fox's snout with both paws.
"I know we're rated M, but still..." the bunny countered wildly.
No sooner had she uttered these words than Zieg imposed on her a swirling air waltz of the most nauseating fashion. House had come close enough to adjust precision shots, and the demon-fox was, in fact, forced to flit in all directions to dodge the projectiles. The bunny was screaming to break her throat, her paws clutching tightly around her partner's neck.
"You...you're strangling me..." Zieg managed to gasp around her clutches.
The bunny glanced at their pursuer, who was right in their lineup, and seemed to be adjusting a shot.
"Zieg! Pew Pew attack, now!" she yelled, grabbing the fox's paw.
"Frame my shot, then!" Zieg replied, letting the bunny steer his paw in the direction of their assailant.
"Pew!" The bunny shouted, a vocal code that made her partner understand that he could throw a fireball.
The fox demon didn't make himself pray, letting several bursts of corrupt flames leap from his paws. Oce framed the shots, moving his arm as best as she could, telling him to fire by screaming furious "Pew! Pew!'s".
Forced to dodge the shots brought to his attention, House was no longer able to counterattack. Zieg then flitted just above the ground, the puppet on his heels and at the last moment, the fox spread his wings, suddenly stopping his own fall. House barely failed to hit them hard, and caught in his dodging movement, he couldn't see the unconventional assault that followed. Oce, using Zieg's scarf as a lasso, squeezed the puppet's throat, and caught him like a flying-fish.
"I've got you," she declared triumphantly.
"No...House got you!" countered the puppet, sweeping the air of his two dorsal scythes.
Zieg offered him a powerful jaw kick in the muzzle, destabilizing his attack, and allowing Oce to fit a perfect crossbow shot straight into his opponent's left eye. The shot from close range literally crossed his head in a sheaf of blood, and House screamed in pain as he carried his clawed paws to his face.
"Hold me tight, Oce!" Zieg ordered, the bunny literally curling up against him and clutching him with all her strength.
Zieg then wrapped around House's body, enclosing him inside the cocoon formed by his folded wings.
"I'm going to burn you up, you shitty false god!" the fox let go, letting the heat of the flame of his horns become denser.
"You will not do anything," countered House. "Or the bunny will burn with House."
"No chance," replied Oce. "His flames can't harm me."
The puppet's valid eye widened then as he began to slash everything he could reach with his scythes, cutting into Zieg's wings like in butter. The fox clenched his fangs, enduring the pain, before literally igniting. His frontal flame diluted like water, and flowed along his own body in the manner of a second epidermis... The intense fire gently stroked the coat of Oce, who felt nothing more than comfortable and intimate warmth ... For House, however, it was not the same. The flames, hotter than the pit of hell itself, assaulted him like an invasive magma, flowing into the smallest interstices of his being, consuming him from within the same as from without. His screams of agony were absolutely atrocious, and the bunny, like the fox, had to grit their teeth so as not to start screaming in their turn...
Zieg eventually reached the ground, somewhat brutally and awkwardly, his shredded wings unable to support him effectively anymore. The fox released House's ashy carcass before landing, slipping in the mud while turning on his back to take the most of the shock without Oce being hurt.
The two allies paused, remaining silent for a few seconds, astonished to still be alive. Then burst out laughing at the same time, letting the pressure and anguish escape.
However, Zieg straightened quickly, to make sure House was burned to ashes.
There was almost nothing left of his disgusting carcass, which continued to burn and waste away, gradually disappearing into a macabre dust... In the center of the disparate remains was the little doll dear to the heart of House... and finally, this one burned in its turn. The words of Umbra had made them understand that destroying this piece of the creature was destroying House for good. Both partners were lucky, they had obviously been chased by the original House.
Zieg stepped towards Oce with a perky stride, while the bunny stood up.
"We're done with this assho..." the fox started, not having time to finish his sentence.
Oce's eyes widened, while in a final murderous move, House's half-broken crook paw opened in the direction of Zieg, generating a final attack. The bunny threw herself against the demon fox, pushing him out of reach of the projectile before feeling an intrinsic pain collide with her chest.
She cast an uncertain look down, and didn't at first understand from where the phenomenal amount of blood was flowing from in cascading waves. Seized by a sudden, intense cold, Oce fell on her knees, the little bit of wind produced by her fall proving sufficient to scatter the last ashes that consumed the ultimate fragments of what had been the demon House.
Zieg stood petrified for a moment, before literally crawling up to the bunny, who continued to look at her wound with surprise, as if she didn't really understand what was happening to her.
"Why?" Zieg shouted. "I...I could have taken that...you...Oce...look at me..."
The bunny seemed to react to her partner's voice and turned her eyes to him. She managed to keep it for half a second, looking at the frightened tears that was flowing from the fox's eyes before her field of vision tilted backwards. Her eyes rolled back under her eyelids, and a loud, tremulous exhale came from her before she went silent.
"Oce?" Zieg whispered nervously.
The fox was still gripping the body of the bunny by the shoulders. He shook her pitifully from his trembling paws, trying to make her react, yet only her head shook as if unattached, jittering back and forth, no longer moved by the energy of life.
"Oce ...?" The fox demon cried again, without really waiting for an answer.
He let the dead body of the bunny fall against him and squeezed it with all his might, closing his wings around her in a final movement of protection, maybe hoping to also conceal the atrocious pain that tore the heart that he had so much desired to recover.
The fight had been terrible for all the belligerents. The two clones of House were just as strong and dangerous as the original and had caused a lot of problems to the other fighters. However, once the main puppet was burned to ashes by Zieg, his secondary counterparts slowly evaporated, releasing the allies of the demon-fox from their hostile presence.
When Zieg joined the others, Oce's lifeless body in his arms, he found them wounded and exhausted, but fortunately alive. Thomas was under Ned's mystical care, who had even bothered to ensure the survival of an agonizing Umbra by applying emergency first aid on her.
All turned to look at the fox, and instead of the emotion of triumph they would have liked to share with their friend, they all had to face the terrible consequence that accompanied their victory. Someone, unfortunately, had to pay the price...
Despite the dignified expression he displayed, the pain Zieg felt was palpable, almost like an infectious aura spreading around him. Aliya burst into tears in the arms of Reynart, who couldn't hold back the silent tears that flowed from his haggard eyes. Samael's grief was expressed by his rage, which he showed by lashing out against the ashes of House, which he maltreated and scattered to the four winds with furious screams.
Ned bowed his head, while Zieg placed Oce at his feet. Luckyz, who was a few steps away, opened his mouth, but no sound came out, except for a strangled sob. The black wolf folded his hood over his eyes to hide his tears, before moving away from the group to wail uncontrollably.
Ramic approached Zieg with a cautious step. He still held his little stuffed animals between his paws. Without a word, he knelt beside the dead body of the bunny, and deposited his creations on her mutilated chest.
"We made a deal..." he stammered trying to hold back tears. "I...I really have to be a bad demon. I...I failed, again..."
Zieg put his paw on the kangaroo's shoulder. His throat was tied, as he tried to swallow his own pain. It was difficult for him to help others overcome it.
"That's wrong ..." muttered Zieg. "And if a pact really links you to her, then you can help me save her."
Ramic turned his face streaming with tears at the demon fox, questioning him with his eyes.
"It's a gift that I can't do by myself, unfortunately, because my heart was the knot of the pact that bound us, Oce and I...but the pact that ties you to her still allows you to act in her interest."
"I don't understand what you're trying to explain..."
"The pacts that bind us to mortals are not just words. I don't know if you did it seriously or on the stroke of emotion, but the fact is there: you are associated with Oce, Ramic, under the form of a link of the soul."
"And how can I help her?" the kangaroo asked, shaking his head.
The fox didn't answer with words, contenting himself with spreading his scarf to reveal his chest, where the cicatricial marks of flesh that had recently closed around his heart were still visible.
Ramic's eyes widened, visibly scared.
"No. No!" he replied. "You can't ask me to do that!"
"And you, are you really ready to assume the consequences?" Samael asked, who had come closer and caught the conversation. "Six years in the Underealms must have been enough for you to not want to go back there, right?"
"If it allows her to live, I'm willing to spend the rest of my immortal life in such a place," replied the fox soberly.
"I...I can't let you do that," Reynart interjected. "We had projects! I waited so long for you to come back and..."
"And you would like to lose Oce, your dear disciple?" Zieg asked back.
Reynart's muzzle closed, and his gaze slid from Oce's body to Aliya, who was looking in his direction, completely annihilated.
"It's not fair!" Shouted the master of arms, letting lightning escape from his fists, clenched with frustration.
"Can you be summoned again?" Ned asked, casting a wary eye at the fox who had earned his respect.
"I don't know," Zieg replied with detachment. "The requirements for invoking an entity of my nature are extremely complex to accomplish. Anyway, that's not the question. I made my decision. Ramic, if you don't do it, I'll rip it myself anyway."
"It would be totally useless, and you know it well," Samael countered, rolling his eyes. "You always have to milk it."
Ramic sighed before nodding.
"Well, I understand. I.. I have to act in the interest of my pact. And...and for the sake of the ship."
"Exactly," Zieg affirmed, before leaning over him, raising his muzzle to give him free access to his ribcage.
The kangaroo swallowed dry, before stretching his clawed but still trembling paws toward the fox's chest.
Zieg glanced at Samael and Reynart, before offering them a complicit wink.
"See you!"
The black screen of the dark energy sphere cracked like a gaping wound, and a black, thick, foul-smelling liquid spread to the floor in a splashing crash. The winged form, oozing of a dark and thick corrupted tar, collapsed in the middle of the pentacle which had been traced on the ground with great care.
The entity inhaled a first gulp of cold air, before belching slightly, slowly straightening by spreading its membranous wings which literally dripped from this dark and viscous fluid. Once again opening the eyes to the reality of the physical world, the creature managed to distinguish the blurred form of the one that had just invoked it from the infernal kingdoms of the Underealms.
"Hi bun bun!" the Fox demon croaked in a raspy, and still sticky, voice.
He didn't have time to notice the slightest movement that his muzzle was punched hard.
Zieg grabbed his bruised nose between his paws and moaned like a wounded little animal.
"That's how you welcome me..."
He could not finish his sentence that the hot lips of the bunny landed on his, while with a supernatural force, she pressed him against the wall of the crypt, putting him totally at her mercy.
She finally pulled away from him, leaving him haggard and out of breath, wide-eyed and a stupid smile on his face.
"Hi sugar fox!" said Oce finally, before plunging her eyes into that of her lover.
The pupils of the bunny were now circled with a beautiful blood-red ring.
That wasn't surprising, since the heart of her demon was now beating in her chest.
~ End ~