—1—

East of the core territory of the Mathers Estate, the flat fields gave way to more rugged terrain, dominated by steep canyon faces and sandstone ridges pockmarked with craters from past magic battles and devoid of much life aside from the odd shrub clinging to the red rock. There were no villages here, no permanent settlements for miles as the climate was simply too inhospitable for non-magic people to live in with any permanence.

However, it was not impossible to traverse, and atop a miniature mesa jutting out over a cliff squatted a short, dark-skinned boy whose face, heavily creased from the strain of his eyes being held shut, was illuminated by the bright light of the moon above. He gave a wide, toothy grin down at his companion slowly climbing the rock. "I told you going this way was difficult. If you didn't insist on going 'straight there', we could have gone on a main road and been there already. Hurry up, I'm starving over here!"

The lack of shade caused his companion's pure white hair and clothing to practically glow in the night, sticking out like a sore thumb from the environment around them. His build was perfectly average, lacking any sort of definition to suggest him capable of the task of climbing the steep cliff. However, the footprints left in a nearly straight line behind him, preserved by the lack of wind, proved his ability as his hand reached for a rock near the top.

The boy tapped his foot, and his companion's gold eyes narrowed as a tremor went through the ground, before the rock split from the cliff face and tumbled out of his grasp. Before he could fall, though, the boy's left hand gripped his own, dragging him up the rest of the way and leaving him on his knees on the mesa.

"Greed's pretty useless on its own, isn't it? Can't do a thing if you're not getting attacked, you pain-loving sadist. Regretting picking it all those years ago?" The cadence of his voice was strange, smoothing stressed syllables and keeping a constant volume, and each word came at a rapidfire pace like he wasn't sure he'd be able to finish speaking. Coupled with the stiff motions of his limbs and the bony points of his shoulders and hips raised from his hunched back, he was almost golem-like, though with his long brown hair parted down the middle, his large forehead bore no lettering or tags that would suggest such an unnatural background.

"Are you claiming I can't climb a simple wall? That is a slight against my independence." Regulus said, pulling his hand from the boy's grip and glowering down at him. "Why should I desire one path over another? They're all equal, I would expect Gluttony to understand that."

The boy moved to pat the Archbishop's back, though he was rebuffed by Greed's reflection, stepping back with a faux-hurt frown and raising his hands up. "The stomach sees all food as the same mundane mush, but the mouth doesn't. Sure, anything is better than starving, but there is always a more fulfilling dish!" His mouth lifted in a Cheshire smile, showing off the wickedly sharp triangles of his teeth, though Regulus was unbothered by the display of Gluttony's best weapon.

"You let your Authority control you. Desires like those are only obstacles to a complete life." The man lifted his hand to his forehead, tilting to look up at the stars before his eyes trailed back to the side. "Gluttony is as despicable a sin as any other. Simply standing next to you is lowering my reputation."

"A life with no goal is a meaningless one. I'd rather spend my days hunting new prey than aimlessly wandering with nothing to do. My stomach may be empty, but I know that someday, I will find that one bite that is so perfectly filling, nothing afterwards will be worth experiencing anymore. I'm always hoping that my next meal will be the one!"

"Is that why you dragged me all this way? You forced me to break my resting time so that you could have company in your sickness?" Regulus turned away, his foot sending pebbles tumbling down the cliff face as he stepped towards the edge. "You can fight your own battles. I will not be dragged into the sins of mortals."

The user of Gluttony grated his teeth from side to side, the scraping of the edges producing a sound like a cicada that dissipated in the air before it could produce an audible echo. He raised his hands in a motion like he was going to embrace the man, stepping forward as his nostrils flared, his forehead scrunching around his closed eyes "Ehehehe~You're as entertaining as ever, Regulus…Let me take just one bite, please-"

His hands hovered around Regulus' neck, cracked fingernails curving their sharp tips inward as he reached, but before he could grab the man's throat, he found himself blasted backwards, landing on his rear in the hard dirt as Regulus looked down on him with disgust. "Keep your hands away from me, I know what you're capable of! I will not have you defy my Authority!" With an exasperated exhale, he started to walk in the direction they had already been going. "I'm only going because even I am impressed by Roswaal Mathers. Do as you like, but don't touch him."

His companion stood up, unharmed despite Greed's power, and rolled his shoulders in an exaggerated shrug. "That's fine by me. I have more important prey, after all…"

—2—

In its 65 years of existence, Arlam Village had never experienced true hardship. Though its population was low and it remained isolated and unnoticed by the wider world, it rested in a flat, fertile region free of natural disasters, and its residents had always enjoyed a tranquil, predictable life. Every time the sun rose, it brought with it only conversations of the day's work, and the most exciting events were the occasional visits from Lord Mathers and his servants.

Roswaal's gift of the unique crystal barrier protecting it from the fiends of the forest granted an extra layer of protection rarely seen by small villages, and with the backing of the strongest mage in modern Lugnica, the townsfolk were accustomed to their idyllic circumstances.

This day had been different from usual. The afternoon attack that injured Petra had left a sense of uneasiness hanging in the air, and investigations had found the pillar that was missing its crystal. Though only one ulgarm had managed to enter, it still meant that there was a weakness, and until word could reach Roswaal, they had to make do with patrolling the weak point and searching for more.

Arlam's detached lifestyle became apparent as the single ulgarm they had expected hadn't appeared. Now, at midnight when the stars should be the only light, the sky was red with the glow of flickering torches, waving in the hands of panicked villagers as they fled.

The ulgarm had come not as one oversized rogue, but as a huge pack, trampling crops and barreling through the wooden walls of houses as they set eyes on their targets. Though the villagers had been prepared for something to happen, they simply had no way of dealing with such a massive attack without any magic.

"Three! Two! One! Lift!" On the call, a group of four who had their hands wedged under the beam of what was once a roof stood up, forcing the structure to rise as another leaned underneath to drag out the woman who had been trapped inside. The beam was splintered and heavy, and the supporters lost their grip only a split second after she had been pulled to safety, a cloud of dust kicking up as the wood cracked to pieces.

Elsewhere, Lucas cowered behind a well, hands on his head and eyes screwed shut as an ulgarm stood on its hind limbs, heavy paws pressing on the stone wall of the well as it sniffed the air. There were already droplets of red sticking to its fangs, but a single bite wasn't enough to interest it anymore.

Another person staggered away from the ruins of what was once his house, clutching his arm, which had been crushed at the elbow by one of their mace-like tails. The one that had afflicted the injury was slowly approaching, in no rush to catch up to him in his limping state, and its red eyes were narrowed, focused on its target.

Its attention was drawn away by the thumping of boots on the ground, and the father of one of the children leapt at the monster with a broken broom handle in his grip, giving an agonized yell as he drove the sharp end into the beast's eye. It reared back, yelping from the pain, and though it wasn't wounded enough to fall, it still gave him enough time to grab the other man's good arm and take him away.

"We have to go!" he shouted, gritting his teeth as he tried to ignore the man's pained cry as his injured arm was flung behind him. "North, to Lord Mathers' estate! They won't follow us there!"

"We can't just leave everyone behind! What about Meina?!" responded the one he'd saved, and he threw his head back to glare at him. The man was about to keep talking, but the pained look on the grieving father's face already confirmed all he needed to know, his cheeks wet from tears and his lip bloody from biting it.

"Survivors come first! We can mourn when we're all safe!"

Near the entrance to the village, a number of villagers were gathered, moving as quickly along the street as they could while carrying the injured. Petra's father was among them, one hand gripping his daughter's while she walked alongside him and the other around Milde's shoulder, helping the old woman to keep standing.

A makeshift bandage had been wrapped around her leg, but the elder was still alert, robust for her age. She barked orders to the people in the evacuation efforts, her half-opened eyes scanning back and forth between the group and the village. Arlam Village was a place where everyone knew everyone else, so she could immediately tell who still was unaccounted for as she tracked the people she'd designated to go back in and find anyone able to move.

"They're following us!" called one of the lookouts in the group, and at the sight of a duo of fiends stepping into view, the people picked up their pace, desperate to get a little farther away as one of the dogs lunged.

The villagers were so focused on the ulgarm that they weren't looking ahead, and from the side, a long chain appeared, bringing with it a burst of wind as the air was pushed aside by the spiked ball at the end. In its focus on the hunt, the ulgarm was also caught unaware, given no time to so much as whimper as its skull was smashed in, sending it flying backwards and colliding with its partner.

Rem had arrived, leaning forward with one leg in the air after pitching the weapon, and with a flick of her hand, she pulled it back to her side before turning to Leo, who had kept his distance to avoid being caught in the crossfire of the deadly morning star.

"Stay back and just help them escape! I can handle this on my own, you'll just get yourself hurt!" she ordered, and Leo frowned, raising the kukri he had taken from Elsa. He also had the cultist dagger in a small sheath on his belt, but it would have been a bad idea to wield that in front of normal people with no context of why he had it.

"I can fight too! I might not have magic, but they're just beasts! You can't fight a whole pack on your own!"

Though they had an amicable relationship at the mansion, here, where there was actual danger, Rem was not in a good mood, raising the handle of her flail as she grit her teeth. "I have actual training! It's better that I handle this than let you get involved!"

"You're that boy from earlier…" Milde said. "Why are you here?"

"Just get away from here! I can handle this!" the two said simultaneously, glancing at each other, before Leo grinned, pointing the dagger's tip towards the ulgarm that had managed to stand up after being barreled over by the dead one.

"They're dogs, right? I bet their sense of smell is much better than a human's."

Rem narrowed her eyes, shouting his name and raising her hand before he bolted forward and sideways, and as the ulgarm's head snapped to his direction, the maid gave a frustrated sigh and spoke under her breath. "That works, but it's still ridiculous…"

"Does he already know?" Milde asked, and Rem turned her head, surprised by the old woman's question. She hesitated for a moment, before responding with a stilted tone.

"I haven't had any reason to tell him. He's only a guest." Rem blinked, before shaking her head, her grip tightening on the handle of her weapon. "But that doesn't matter! Master already knows you're coming, so bring everyone you have there safely! I'll do what I can here!"

As she started to move towards the village, she was stopped by an apprehensive "Wait!", and she looked back to find Petra's father staring at her, shifting Milde's weight on his back to speak. "There's a strange one that hasn't appeared yet. It's bigger than the others, and it came out during the day. Get revenge for Petra." His hand gripped his daughter's tightly, the girl staring with a blank expression, her eyelids drooping and her step wobbly as the blackened bite mark on her hand pulsed. Anyone could see that she had been afflicted with magic, but until Roswaal could look at it, all she could do was keep moving and hope that they'd reach the mansion in time.

The maid gave a solemn nod, before moving on to catch up with Leo, who had been running around the corners of houses, kiting a pair of smaller fiends that had been attracted by his loud shouting, his hands wrapped around his mouth to amplify his voice.

"You should be faster than this! Come on, Elsa was way harder to dodge!" His voice was high-pitched and mocking, and he had gathered the attention of two more whose eyes were fixated on him as they bumped into each other, snapping at each other's ears but not turning their full attention away.

With their focus on him, they were caught unaware by Rem's attack, spinning in place to send her weapon in an arc that struck their flanks. "These aren't human! Don't treat them the same way, or you'll be caught unaware!"

"Mindless beasts, chasing anything that smells interesting! I don't remember much, but I get the feeling I've dealt with these kinds of things before! If they think everyone they meet won't be able to fight back, then they have a surprise waiting for them!" He clambered up onto the ruins of a house, a hand on his hip as he swung the kukri to slash at the throat of one of the dogs that had dared to lunge at him. The fiend collapsed with a gurgle, twitching on the ground as the others backed up to avoid its corpse as it fell back.

"Be careful! Look around you, they've already done so much damage! Do you think they won't hurt you too?" Rem's voice strained from the effort of swinging the weapon, her feet kicking against their backs as she jumped around the battlefield. "They're not dogs, they've already killed dozens of people here!"

"People who couldn't fight! Who knows how long these monsters have been sitting around doing nothing, waiting around for a chance like this? They expected villagers who don't have weapons, not a trained warrior and a wild card!"

Rem's mouth dropped at the callous remark, and it took her several seconds of stunned silence before she frowned and turned away, her grip tightening on the handle of her weapon as she grit her teeth. "I was starting to think you were just confused in a world you didn't understand, but I can't accept you saying something like that so casually. Those aren't the words of a stable man."

If they had the luxury of time, Rem would have continued to seethe where she stood, but with more approaching, she shook her head, pointedly keeping her gaze away from him. "You may have just come to fight fiends, but I'm here to save people." With that, she turned away to continue onward, cutting down the dogs if they came too close as her eyes scanned the rubble for people.

Leo jumped off the broken roof to follow after her, keeping his distance away from her effective radius while they pressed through the sparsely built main path into the town square, where they had a direct view of the entire village. From here, there weren't actually as many ulgarm as there seemed to be from the tight spaces of the rubble surrounding the village entrance, and most seemed busy with their successful hunts.

"There's a large one here somewhere." Rem said, forcing down the lump in her throat from being in full view of the carnage Everywhere around them, the low-density buildings had collapsed, and dark stains were splattered across many surfaces, though there were no visible bodies as they ran. Nothing but the ulgarm eating their fill in spaces hidden behind wreckage, no injured people outside the group who were already escaping. "It's…probably leading the rest of them. Ulgarm are pack hunters, they have to have an alpha guiding them. It might be-" Her voice caught in her throat as four more appeared in front of them, but one look at the monsters made it clear that something had gone terribly wrong.

They were cowering low to the ground, canine lips curled and ears pressed backwards to their heads, and on their brown bodies were several large gouges, ripped in long, jagged trails and leaving them with heir exposed red flesh pulsing with the glowing energy that powered their unnatural bodies. They didn't growl at the sight of the two warriors, nor did their mace tails raise, as if they were waiting to be acknowledged.

The two were speechless for a few seconds, before Leo cleared his throat, his knife hand lowering as he relaxed. "You said something about an alpha…do you think it tried to attack them instead?"

Rem shook her head, her knuckles white as unlike him, her senses were on high alert, suspicious of the bizarre scene in front of them. "These ones are smaller than the others. They might be puppies who tried to rebel and were punished for it."

Leo blinked, turning to her. "Huh?! Puppies, at that size? But, still, they might be trying to show us where the alpha is! If we find it, we can kill it and the rest will scatter, won't they?"

Rem's brow twitched in annoyance, and she looked in his direction. "There's a limit to how stupid you can be, even if Master approves of you. It's obviously a trap, fiends don't have any interest in allying with humans. They probably think we won't notice that the rest of the pack are trying to surround us."

Leo's eyes rolled around the village, and he whistled, before grinning as he raised his knife hand up in front of him, letting the sun glint off the purple blade. "If that's their plan, it's a terrible one. It's true that we wouldn't stand a chance against a whole pack, but the whole pack isn't going to come for us."

"What makes you think that? You already know about your scent, don't you?" she asked, and he laughed, shaking his head.

"There haven't been any reports of missing people or ulgarm attacks in years, right? That means they've been spending all this time sitting around in that forest, fidgeting around with nothing to do, for at least that long. They're animals, so they have animal instincts. There's something they're way more interested in than sniffing strange smells."

Rem was confused as she pondered what he was saying, before her back stiffened, and she took a step sideways away from him. "You…Are you suggesting that the only reason we aren't being overrun is because they already have…food?" Her voice caught in her throat, sickened by the statement she was forced to make, and the devious look on his face only served to add to the unsettling feeling she had.

"We were late getting here, so they've spread out around the village already, and the strongest ones got the highest priority on anyone they caught. These puppies were probably trying to break the pecking order and got punished for it, and now they want revenge against the big guy. I don't think this is a-"

Her hand lifted, the chain rattling as she spoke. "Hold on! I won't just stand here quietly while you're suggesting something so…gruesome! Are you saying these people are just decoys to keep them away from us? Are you seriously acting like they aren't real humans dying as we speak?!" Her stance changed, facing him now instead of the injured ulgarm, who had by now slunk around them, their bodies shielding them from the keen eyes of their packmates while they kept their eyes fixed firmly on the ground in a strangely synchronized tempo.

Leo frowned, before he raised the kukri to point at the village behind him to enunciate his point. "Yes, they are dying, but that is what happens to the unprepared! I would know! Death isn't something anyone wants, but it does no good to imagine you can undo time and save everyone!"

"Shut up!" Rem's normally pretty features were contorted with anger, glaring at him with her teeth grinding together in a scowl. "We are walking through a living nightmare, people desperately attempting to escape as their friends and family are being eaten, and that is where your mind went? Did you not see that little girl's exhausted face? The elder putting on a brave front while she was going through shock from her injury? Were you completely deaf to the fact we haven't heard a single human voice besides your own since we entered the gate?"

His hand faltered, the knife pointing downward as he sighed. "The truth is, we were too late to save most of these people to begin with. Their lives were forfeit the instant these beasts attacked, and we had no way of preventing it. I saw the same things you did, and I noticed that there haven't been any corpses around here. But where you're caught up thinking of the horror, I see an opportunity. The ulgarm are distracted and scattered, and they're starting to succumb to infighting. Didn't you see them snapping at each other and doing nothing to help each other when you were swinging that thing around?" He smiled, though the corners of his mouth didn't lift as he finished his argument. "The village is gone, but the ulgarm are tearing themselves apart from the inside. Feasts make animals frenzied, and they'll eventually eat each other alive. The people who did survive, they'll make it to the mansion and outlive the fiends who disturbed their peace."

Rem stood in stunned silence for several moments, struggling to comprehend the cold statement made with such a confident tone, like he couldn't think of any holes in his own words. With a shout of rage, Rem's foot stomped down, kicking up dust as she crushed a fallen fencepost under her shoe, and she leapt forward, grabbing his collar and glaring up at him, steam starting to flow from between her teeth, a pale red glow coming from her eyes as she spoke with all the venom she could muster.

"You talk like you understand them. Like you're a fiend yourself, come to help them finish what they started. I didn't completely believe you to begin with, but now I'm certain. Your memories aren't really lost, are they? You're just playing some game with yourself, seeing how far you can push it before Master realizes what you really are. Felt and her grandfather, I won't let you corrupt them with your poison. Whether you're a Witch Cultist or just a tainted man, I should kill you here so you can't harm anyone else."