Chapter 3: Six Statues

Arthur opened his eyes with a sharp breath and found himself on his back inside a very dark, empty space. He quickly sat up and looked around before standing up, his movements echoing. "Hello?" his voice rang out.

"Arthur..." someone whispered behind him.

He jerked around and saw Lilly's back to him. She was on her knees and she was whispering to a marble figure on a pedestal. Arthur rushed closer and saw that the figure was himself.

"Did you make me a shrine?" he asked himself with a chuckle. "Oh, you clever woman." Lilly's body shook as she raised her head back suddenly, slumping over on the side and sobbing silently. Arthur immediately bent down to grab her but his hands went through her. "Can you hear me, honey?"

Lilly continued to cry on the floor quietly, her eyes squeezed shut as she bashed her fist on the ground. Arthur felt his eyes water as he watched his wife cry in agony. There was nothing he could do and he hoped to the gods that this was just a memory and not something that was currently happening. After a while, though, Lilly seemed to calm down and she held up a palm slowly as she started making gestures with her fingers. Arthur carefully examined each motion, immediately realizing that it was sign language, something had he had to learn so Lugh could teach him, Sean and others to speak a made up version of sign language.

"F...R...E...E...D...O...M..." he said out loud before bursting into tears.

Arthur had tried so hard to remain optimistic, thinking that maybe his wives were okay. Obviously, they were far from it if the scene before him was true. He situated himself behind her, putting his arms in her body in an attempt to pretend he was holding her.

"I wish I was really holdin' you right now, honey," he whined sadly. "I miss you so much. If you can hear me, we killed Dubh and the door is open. Darrach's workin' on a way to get you and the others out, but I'm comin' for you. Ain't nothin' gonna stop me, even if I have to die to get to you." Lilly placed a palm on the foot of Arthur's shrine, still remaining as quiet as a mouse while crying. "I didn't even know you knew how a shrine worked. I was gonna show ya all about that after our...after the vow renewal and royal inauguration ceremonies." Arthur rested his forehead on the floor as he wept. "I never showed you the mine and I never took you flyin' in Big Boah. I thought we had time for all that, but...fate seems to wanna keep messin' with our lives."

Lilly raised her hand and started signing again. This time, she spelled out "karma". Arthur couldn't help but chuckle sadly.

"Yeah, I reckon we brought this on ourselves, what with all the reckless killin' and robbin' we done. But...I like to think that you, at least, have done enough good in the world to make up for all the bad. You have your flaws, but underneath all the scars and the temper and all the...heh heh, remarkable but crazy powers you got, do you know what I and a lot of others see?"

Arthur knew she couldn't hear him, but he felt like maybe, just maybe, she could feel his emotions come through.

"We see a hero. I ain't gonna lay here to tell you that you have some sort of big destiny that needs to be fulfilled because, well, that's a lot of weight to put on anyone's shoulders and you already got too much to carry. But we need you to be a hero right now, okay? Some of the gang got locked up in your head somewhere and we need to get them out, too."

The shrine sunk into the ground and Lilly felt around for it, lifting herself and shaking uncontrollably. Arthur sat up as he watched her. "What are you doin'?" he asked.

Lilly turned around and Arthur's jaw dropped when he saw her face. She had no eyes, her ears were bleeding and her throat had instrument strings hanging out of it, and they were dripping with her blood. "My god, what did he do to you?"

Lilly froze and sniffed the air, her eyeless sockets blinking. She sat straight on her knees and perked her head up, tilting it as she sniffed again. Arthur laughed a little at her behavior. "You got a good sense of smell now, too?"

The deaf, blind and mute woman crawled closer to where Arthur was, still smelling the air. When she got right up in his face, she took a big, long whiff and a big smile grew on her face. Her butt started wagging back and forth, making Arthur laugh even more. "Why are you actin' like this?"


Violet sighed as she watched the wolf rummage through some bushes, her tail going a hundred miles a minute. She wasn't sure what her pet was so happy about, but whatever she smelled made her jump out of the black '69 Camaro Violet was driving. At a hundred miles an hour. Violet was leaning against the car, dressed up in a 50's style housewife get up, silk, pink scarf and all. She took out a joint and her lighter before lighting the blunt and smoking on it.

"Gods, just kill the fuckin' varmint already!" Violet shouted before stomping over to the red wolf. "Hey!" she said before smacking the large wolf on the rump.


Lilly suddenly turned around, her vocal strings rubbing together to make a very odd sound. Arthur heard some yelling but it was extremely muffled. The woman visibly relaxed before running off on her hands and feet. Arthur didn't want to laugh at how ridiculous Lilly looked running like that, especially considering the circumstances, but he couldn't help himself. He fell over as he cackled, an arm draping over his face. "Oh my god!" he wheezed joyfully. "You sure are somethin' else, mo stór!"

Arthur took a couple breaths before looking around for his wife. "Lilly? Where'd you go?" he asked before sitting up. "Darlin'?" he croaked.

Before he could look around again, Arthur heard an ominous sound behind him. He suddenly felt cold and a chill went up his spine when a series of animalistic clicks echoed around him. Arthur got up, ready to fight, but then he saw something that made him absolutely terrified.

It was a woman, and yet it was not. She had a relaxed stance but her face had a scowl on it. Six large, black, ribbed demon horns that curved out and up and out again rested atop her head and her skin was the color of granite. Her eyeballs were black but her irises were an electrifying color of blue. She was garbed in an elaborately designed black long sleeved corsetted dress with a v cut neckline that stopped at her midriff, exposing a large scar in the middle of her chest. She had a long, thick braid of black hair that was lazily displayed over her shoulder and she wore a gold chain around her neck that held two rings. Her fingertips had black claws and her hands were clasped together in front of her.

Arthur gulped as he took the woman in. While her face was beautiful, she still radiated an enormous amount of evil. When he looked into her eyes, he saw nothing but coldness. He'd never seen anything like it.

"Who are you?" he asked out loud, a quivering in his voice.

The demon lady just continued to look at him, unmoving as she glared at him with disinterest. Suddenly six large marble statues appeared behind her. Two were of wolves standing next to oak trees, one was of a knight on a horse, one was of a large songbird, one was a lion, and one was a replica of Lenny holding a spear and wearing a shield of the sun on his arm. Arthur blinked a few times.

"I don't understand," he said. "What's with the statues?"

The lady still said nothing. If it wasn't for the horrifying aura this woman had, Arthur would say she was a statue herself. But no, this evil creature was alive and aware of what was going on. He slowly walked towards her, his fists clenched and his jaw tight.

"Who are you?!" he snarled before getting right up in her face. "Where are my wives?! What have you done with my family?!"

The scenery changed to a field of fire and blood, and the six statues were now six crosses with six mutilated bodies on them. Arthur could feel heat and the air was thick with smoke and the smell of blood. His eyes went wide with fear as he stared at the demon woman, who appeared unphased by all of this. Off in the distance was a field of stakes and bloodied bodies were impaled on them. The area was large and the impaled dead stretched for as far as the eye could see. Monsters of all types appeared out of nowhere and settled around the woman who now had black chains in her hands. Arthur gaped at who the chains were connected to.

"Dutch?" he asked as he approached him.

Dutch was on his knees, looking defeated and beaten. He looked into Arthur's eyes with a frown.

"Things ain't what they seem here, son," he said before the woman pulled out a highly decorated dagger and stabbed his stomach.

Arthur watched in horror as the dagger dragged across, spilling Dutch's insides along the ground.

"Arthur!" he heard Darrach yell. "Come back!"

The ground started to shake and Arthur saw fire form in a circle around him. The heat was almost unbearable but the demon lady walked right through it to stare down at him as he sunk to his knees. Arthur glared into her eyes even though he was truly scared of this being, but he wouldn't let it show. He would not bow down to his enemy so he slowly stood, his eyes never leaving hers.

"I don't know what you're up to, lady, but it's gonna stop today," he said viciously.

The next thing he knew, Darrach's face was in front of him. "Arthur! Arthur!" Arthur took some deep breaths as he felt panic set in and he started flailing his arms. "Arthur! Relax!"

Arthur hummed with hysteria before blinking his eyes a few times and looking around. Konstantine and others were encircled around Arthur while Darrach was knelt in front of him. "W-What happened?" Arthur asked, breathing heavily.

"You got hit by a big pile of prayers, Arthur," Darrach chuckled as he lowered his shoulders. "Were they from Lilly?"

"I...I think so," Arthur replied with a confused voice. "I really only saw the one, but then it changed to-" Arthur stopped talking suddenly and he struggled to get up.

"Easy," Darrach said as he and some others helped Arthur to his feet. "Now, what else did you see?"

Arthur frowned, trying to go over everything in his head from what he saw. "There's someone else in there with her."

"You mean Mallacht?"

"No. Someone much worse," Arthur explained. "We have to get them out now, Darrach! I didn't see Rose or O'Callaghan but they're all in trouble! And..." Arthur suddenly looked around. "Dutch!"

The crowd parted a little and Dutch came walking through. "Yeah?" he asked. Arthur grabbed him and opened his jacket. "Hey, what are-"

When Arthur pulled up Dutch's under shirt and saw no marks, he sighed in relief. "Good, you're okay," he breathed.

Dutch laughed quietly. "Of course I'm okay, Arthur."

"What you see?" Vu asked curiously.

"There was some demon lady in there and a bunch of monsters, and there was fire and...and there were statues and one of them was of Lenny. And there were crosses with bodies on them, and a whole fuckin' field of impaled bodies! And monsters and...and she killed Dutch."

People gasped in horror as Darrach stepped up to Arthur's side. "How many statues?"

"Six."

"What were they of?"

Arthur glanced at Darrach before swallowing hard. "Uh, a knight on a horse, uh...a-a lion, Lenny with a spear and a shield, a songbird, and two wolves attached to...trees..." he said, a scared look on his face. "I think Brian and James are the wolves."

Darrach sighed. "Mallacht and this...demon woman you mentioned must be using the power of their family names for something, but for what?"

"I dunno but we gotta get 'em out."

"Agreed. Anything else you saw?"

Arthur was about to tell Darrach about Lilly, but then he decided against it. It was a personal moment he didn't really feel the need to share and he remembered what happened the last time people laughed at her being adorable. "Before she killed Dutch, he said, "things ain't what they seem here, son." I..." Arthur shook his head as he felt a migraine coming on. "I...I don't feel too great."

"Let's get you home, Lord Morgan," Darrach said. "I'm pretty sure there are more prayers in your head so we should take them out to ease the strain on you. I'll drive Big Boah."

Arthur nodded and everyone began to depart towards Big Boah except Konstantine and his pack.

"Thanks again, Konstantine!" Arthur yelled with a wave as he walked.

Konstantine waved back. "Don't forget I whoop your ass in poker game next month!"

"Look forward to it!" Arthur chuckled then flinched while grasping his forehead. "This really hurts."


So, yeah. This new villian I decided to put in looks pretty much like Lilith from Diablo IV. Initially the game was supposed to be released this year, but, you know, fucking Covid. And just...the all around look of Lilith is so fucking badass. I had to use it for the fic. Think of it as...a taste of what's to come, video game wise.