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Zelas served purpose with a topping of devilish blasphemy. Today's restaurant was the kingdom Zephyria, a reeking place that was a good for committing suicide if one were of the criminal bend, or at least get free vacancy and board behind bars.
Sight across the astral plane was often more limited than an open physical space, but Zephyria downright absurd. White magic littered the astral plane like bat droppings in a cave, even one as keen and powerful as Zelas had difficulty seeing. Worst yet, she would be seen all the easier by the Eternal Queen.
To reach Zephyr City she had to rely on physical landmarks, so she flew high and withdrew her expanse as tightly as possible. Near the city was a long stretch of forest, she dropped down near a town. There was only the slightest ripple in the magical flow. Satisfied with her lack of impact, she hooked her arms behind her back and walked.
To the east, Zephyr City cast itself against the young dawn, a tall silhouette filled with stars brighter than in the sky. A city of spells, yet ironically not the capital of white magic. The Eternal Queen surrounded herself with shamanic magic of all kinds, forging an kingdom on the willing backs of spirits as much as on humans. In the shadow of her might lay idyllic towns.
Blind eyed, Zelas passed the old forest where nymphs were ever watching so no predator harmed humans, passed orchards with ever healthy grapes curtsy of a pact with fayfolk. The hidden folk paid mind to humans and honor to the queen. No great crime would go unseen under the eyes of the Eternal Queen.
Zelas snorted at paradise. Convenient for the humans now, but if Liliane ever died the queendom would be left not knowing how to balance itself with natural order.
"Any misgivings, lady?" An early farmer leaned across an obnoxiously neat stone wall, eggs he'd gathered still in hand.
She would have liked to spell out her many misgivings with this land, but that would be useless. Instead, she smiled as she sauntered up.
"Misgivings with myself, mister farmer. I am to seeking to challenge the Knight of Siephied to combat, but I'm afraid I lost my way around here after taking a short cut. Please tell me where I am," she said.
"The Knight, eh, not just a knight? Figures. Didn't the parents give you a map?"
"Unfortunately, I have not had the honor to meet the Inverse parents. I was recommended by a man she fought at the time she was moving out of their home, he was aware of no such custom."
The farmer frowned. "She always has her challengers spend money in her parent's shop before accepting, that's common knowledge. Was it really a man you spoke to?"
Oops. Zelas could concoct a web of lies to make herself seem credible, but didn't have the patience. Liliane saw dark magic used on humans, but Zelas could make do with simply warping a tiny bit of space to deprive the heart of its oxygen.
Clutching his chest, the human fell to his knees. She returned oxygen just before Megiddo caught him.
"Tell me where she lives, please."
Horrified disbelief tinting his miasma as he looked up. Tasty. Would he already be considered devil nature, or was he trying to figure out what arcane spell she used?
"Sh-she's not on the official records, she's got this cottage over at Ineuris Wald's north corner, near the Maral village. Please don't—ghhhnnn"
She savored the moment he thought he'd die. There was no need to kill for one to harvest the emotions of dread, honestly. He fainted by lack of oxygen, and Zelas conjured the eggs he'd dropped back together in his basket. Let him assume he dreamed it all.
If Zephyria's Arcadia was an insult to natural balance, Luna's queendom was a kick in the groin.
Luna's home lay less so at the edge of the forest than it had dug into it. In theory, it was a quaint little cottage surrounded by a fitting rose garden and neat lawn, in practice it a prison compound. Fairies addicted to holy power lived in the hedges, working to keep everything neat with a disturbing rhythm for such freeborne spirits. The very flow itself was tamed into canals.
Flying from below her parent's wings seemed to have cut her loose from her last restraints, she now forged the world around her as clay. Oddly enough, this was no choice she had made on her own. After that little incident at the Eternal Palace, she'd been kicked out of Zephyr City.
Ironic, consider it was because of Liliane's titles and Luna's membership that it had become popular to refer to hosts of godly power as Knights. However, Luna was nothing more. The new Knight of Siephied was really young, a mere 26 years old. 27 years ago the previous incarnation had committed suicide, one more Knight who had gained longevity before learning loneliness.
There were no legends of Siephied Reborn, as there once had been. Not Siephied's Chosen, not Siephied's Child. Just Siephied's Knight, a title shared with other sorcerers. Luna had never left Zephyria to be either hero, mercenary or grave robber. Evil was only her problem insofar it bothered her simple life. How was she like this when her parents and sister had the blood of adventure? Was she as tamed as the flow around her?
Zelas leaped over the hedge and was instantly beset with by a guard of three trolls. They pointed spears at her that were designed more with elegance than with lethality in mind, complimented with cheap armor that couldn't be conceived useful even if one assumed their employer did not know trolls regenerated.
"Stop! In name of lady Luna!"
"I have already stopped, mister Troll."
"Eh ... right. Now what?" They shared confused looks.
"Now you may sleep."
Zelas astrally invoked their innate darkness. They started snoring before they even hit the ground.
The garden revealed a flippant yet militant vibe. All plants were in neat rows and the lawn was mowed perfectly, yet color coordination was far to be sought and many plants had no business standing at one another's side. Tacky lawn gnomes completed the disorderly order.
What was missing was the vibration of any sort of holy power from the house even as Zelas touched the walls. Luna was not home.
There was one other, however. The scent of werewolf was thick in the air, yet mingled strangely with troll. Curiosity got the better of Zelas and followed it.
On the other side of the house there was an stable sized doghouse, to which a hybrid of troll and werewolf was chained. He was asleep, but only lightly. When Zelas stepped onto the peddle path, his head shot up.
"Greetings, mister ..." She hesitated as she read the name printed over the doghouse entrance.
Spot.
He didn't even have any spots.
Now this was just unreasonable. Such a strong creature tied up like a common house pet, a vanity to show off? There was having fun with weaklings and then there was wasting potential.
"What is your real name?"
He hesitated, lips slightly curled up.
"Tell me yours first. What are you to get past the trolls without me hearing anything?"
"Tell me, mister, are you a dangerous criminal who can't be trusted to go free without disturbing order?"
He growled lowly. "You'd not know anyway if I told the truth or not."
"Creatures that lie are tickled by their own brain. I can taste the subtle change in their miasma when it happens."
His fur rose and aggression rolled off of him as he realized it.
"What does my past matter to a devil?"
"Your answer will decide how I will treat the lady who chained you up. A creature like you could be so much more useful, I won't think highly of a person who acts on whims."
"I used to be useful, it got me nowhere."
"Then perhaps your leader of once upon a time was not much better than the one you have now. Who was he or she?"
"Maybe I worked on my own."
Zelas shook her head. "No, that's not quite right. If you were the sort to be useful only to yourself, you would not be in chains you could break if you desired such."
"Hmm. You'd know my former master. Lezo, the red priest."
"Oh my. It is ironic that you come from the service of a host of Shabranigdu into that of the host of Siephied's corpse. Would you care to share the story?"
The memory must have upset him enough that he overcame his reluctance to talk.
"I was defeated by the defecting members of my team, who were loyal to that damn Zelgadis. I wandered off, unable to properly heal due to malnutrition. I must have collapsed, because I woke somewhere in a yard I had not seen before. She saved my life."
In other words, Luna had known nothing. She did this without real meaning.
"Yet denied you your name and agency. May I speculate she simply favors pets and did not act out of altruism? I hear she likes cats too. What do you owe her, that you don't try to leave?"
"I already told you, my life!"
Zelas smiled wryly. "If you wish to pay her back, perhaps you ought to do so in a way that suits you better than this."
"It's none of your business," he growled, rising to full height. The chain just barely allowed him to stand straight.
"You may be right about that. Well, thank you for your answers, if you'd please indulge me one more question? Where is your lady now?"
Her only answer was increased tension and an adorable attempt at a deadly glare. Zelas idly tapped her fingers on her hip. "I shall find her regardless of your silence, but the sooner, the better my mood, mister Not Spot."
There was a thunderous crash in the forest to the west.
"Never mind, I have my answer," Zelas said, turning on her heel in one graceful arc. "Is she trying to impose order on the forest? She may have great power, but that she never will manage."
"She's expecting guests."
"Oh? How nice," she purred. "Let's see whether I can guess before I ask her."
Guessing was very easy. As Zelas wandered into the forest, the flow thickening in rivers towards one point of holy power. A beacon was being set up. Most likely, Luna was expecting the Ul Copt pack to teleport in and did not want her prim and proper home wrecked by any full sized dragons. Was Filia's pack planning to escape Kataart, or had it been Luna's idea to prepare?
There was a general scarcity of details irking her lately. Even today, she was going on a trail of grains, most of them from the reports of Xelloss. He had traveled at her side for the short journey of Project Shabby Host 3.
After meeting Luna again, Filia had stopped feeling guilty over not praying anymore, replacing her zeal with trepidation towards the gods. What had she learned?
Liliane and Luna did not get along very well, with spite from Luna's side and a condescending disappointment from Liliane's side. Why exactly?
Xelloss had also told her that Luna was aware of the astral side, but the clarity of her sight was no better than the indistinct spells of elves. Likely, Zelas would not be able to hold a whole conversation with her purely on the astral plane, while former incarnations had been able to sink deeper into the astral plane.
How had Luna reacted when the barrier came down and the gods could contact her? Had they contacted her at all? Had she?
Her human form was visible before the shroud of vibrating magic allowed her to be seen astrally. She stood in an expanding meadow, directing trolls on clearing out trees. Aside of her was what appeared a simple stone hill, but it was embedded with a magical circle that found root in Luna's power.
Luna was beautiful by human standards, but had the air of one who didn't care. Casual loose clothes, bangs so low they covered eyes and her lips in a stiff line, she wasn't inviting anyone but those with a liking for mystery.
Zelas stifled a chuckle when the familiar sight of Luna's lovely mystery emerged. With regular souls, the form of the astral body conformed to that of their physical shape. Facial features and hair were details lost, but something like a missing arm and general build were reflected. Anomalies existed, Val's astral body was brimming with barely contained power that fluctuated every moment, but nevertheless his human form was visible underneath the feathers.
But Luna Inverse, she was a true chimera. The outline of her physical body was buried below a contorted astral form far larger than herself. A skinned, headless neck hang aside her and the four burning tendrils coiled without directing. Bony wings stuck out from the main body, which looked like a stretched ribcage with rotting muscles across it.
What a fate for the highest god of light, to have become a corpse sown to a mortal soul. Being Luna Inverse had done it no favors. A power such as this would have an advantage in this place of strong flows, but she noticed nothing.
What a disappointment. Zelas had known prior incarnations that had honed their potential to the point of sensing better than actual astral creatures. She deliberately stepped on a branch way too loudly, hurling herself up at the same time Luna's head whipped around.
Zelas flew across the clearing and landed on a high branch on the opposite side. Below, Luna ordered her trolls to fan out. Smart as a move, yet uncaring. She was vastly more powerful than her trolls, she did not need them here. Sending them away was the most reasonable.
A poor sense of pack added to her profile on Luna. It wasn't unexpected, considering her sister lived in fear of her.
Passing over the trolls, she jumped right behind Luna. The human whirled around at once, power flaring in a burst of white flames as she sensed what her opponent was. She drew her sword, filling it with force.
"Perhaps a friendlier welcome is in place, lady Siephied. You have no idea what you are up against," Zelas said, placing her hands on her hips and making a point of looking unimpressed.
"Heard that before. Let's get this over with," she said. No passion, no thrill, just irritation and the seed of fury. No fear or worry either, Zelas noticed. Xelloss was correct, Luna was really near sighted on the astral plane.
"I'm not here to fight you, lady Siephied. I'm here to tell you congratulations, you got the job."
"Ah, one of those morons who think I could take an immortality pledge. Waste of time," Luna said. "And stop calling me that."
Not would, but could ... she'd take it if she could? Perhaps she had already tried.
"I fear you're wrong. Why would I waste my time on such when I know as astral chimera, you could easily make yourself immortal?"
Luna gave off a sharp bitterness. Bullseye.
"So what do you want?"
Hmm, what exactly? Something to make this go smooth, something to entice her to silence rather than dropping a note to the dragons or Liliane.
Perhaps she had already tried.
Knights had an easier time than Sages in keeping their body young and healthy due to their level of innate magic, but their knowledge was limited and they needed someone to teach them. With the only Sage available being Liliane, it had been hosts of Shabranigdu whom had taught prior Knights. Laust had not educated her, Liliane had not either so it appeared.
How annoying must it be for Luna to be living right under the Eternal Queen and knowing she herself would die within a century.
"I want to hire you."
"Get off my land or I'll destroy you."
"Honestly, lady Siephied, I—" She twisted aside to dodge the wave of white fire thrown at her. "... will be gone all the sooner if you listen."
"No devil's got anything of interest to me," Luna said, jumping ahead with surprising agility. Zelas backflipped out of the way and landed on her toes, taking back two steps. Luna followed with one step, cautious but still reeled along.
"You say we can have no conversation as long as you can move to fight? I see, lady Siephied."
Luna gave a lopsided smirk, the obnoxious kind of an arrogant person who believes they got a fool to grasp something simple. Zelas wanted to claw that smirk off of her face, but that would be pointlessly violent.
Instead, she went for something a little more subtle.
One of Zelas's favorite forms of hunt was to reel in predators by feigned to be weakening prey, all the while chipping away at their defenses.
Dropping her human projection, she took the guise of a ragged shaman with a bleeding deer skill in place of a head and a bone staff in its hands. It was a form of her young days when spooking tribes had still been a fun pastime, hardly used now save for prey whom she wanted to unsettle. The form moved like a corpse, jerking unnaturally and just the right kind of wrong to be in the uncanny valley.
Luna knew what her own astral body looked like. She was a cold fury, but below her anger it unsettled her far more than the usual human because it reminded her of the mirror. It unsettled her, making her just a little too emotional in her combat.
Zelas played along in the battle dance by giving the illusion of an equal fight, feigning to be injured and driven closer to the trees. There was a trick to dispersing her power across a wider area, poor limited Luna only saw a core of power and never realized how much strength was before her.
When they were deep enough into the dark forest, Zelas began to trick her into leveling trees. Not because Zelas needed it, but because it annoyed Luna and her sense of order. Letting one fake wound gush darkness, she fell back against a tree. Luna went for the kill, burned sword impacting just as Zelas jumped away. The tree behind her took the brunt.
Rinse, repeat, bring the human off her balance. By the time seven trees had met this fate, the sun's first rays were crossing the forest threshold.
"You're making a mess out of my project," Luna said evenly, in spite of her building emotional feast.
"Am I? I beg to differ, Lady Siephied. If I may say so, you could pay off a country's debt with the amount you're underestimating the size of an Ancient Dragon."
"Don't call me that," she snapped after a startled, to Zelas's disappointment. She had hoped Luna would try to find out how she knew about Ancient Dragons.
"Well then, I shall call you lady Corpse."
Strike once, dodge then, curl away next. Luna's anger was delicious, she wielded it as a shield of concentration rather then being hindered by it. It would have been lovely if Zelas hadn't known it to be so wasted.
By now, Luna was started to realize her opponent was holding back. She stopped advancing and lowered the sword a little.
"What is your name?"
Zelas let her skull break away. On the astral plane, Siephied's corpse jerked.
"What did you want to talk about anyway?"
Zelas still said nothing.
"Cat got your tongue?"
Oh, that was just too good to pass up. She left the shaman form and drew together into another projection, all power focused on a small white cat with orange spots sitting on a fallen tree. On the astral plane however, she converged into her true form, that of the bright winged werewolf.
Behind her low bangs, Luna's eyes widened as she realized who she was looking at.
Now she felt fear and Zelas purred.
For one as powerful as Luna Inverse, there were not much chances to practice true courage.
Role reversal? Delicious for Zelas, unknown to Luna.
The human turned tail and ran for the beacon.
"Lady Corpse, do you truly wish the Beast Master to hunt you? Even if you active the beacon, the Sage of Ragradia will not be able to make a difference, and who else would you call?"
Luna didn't respond more than throwing up a force field around herself.
Zelas jumped off her perch, pushing her true form onto the physical plane. Luna was not quick enough by a long shot. A clawed hand dug into her back and with a sickening crack, the human was slammed against the ground.
Zelas hovered her jaws near Luna's head and said, "Now would be a good time to speak, don't you say?"
Luna didn't say anything.
She didn't move much either.
One of the trolls that still were around said, "Eh, dark lord beast master, I think she's unconscious."
Well, this was embarrassing. Zelas been instinctively hunted on her knowledge of prior incarnations, who had a lot more experience with automatic regeneration and using their power to strengthen their body. Luna was as breakable as a human underneath her primitive shield. Zelas had gotten carried away as if we she were a pup.
She stood straight, brushed some leaves off of her dress and flexed her wings. "It'd be much obliged if you and your companions kept this little incident silent, mister Troll."
"Eh ... what silent?"
Bless Shabranigdu for stupid trolls.
Zelas slung Luna over her shoulder, not willing to risk a warped space and tip off Liliane. At an easy jog, she reached the edge of the forest. She could have flown to the cottage, but to be contrary she just walked through the hedge and door, not moving aside any wood in her way. When she dropped Luna to the floor, the act came with a shower of hedge and wood splinters.
Off course, Luna's house was orderly. The garden was worse, but Zelas still found nothing to admire inside. There was a lot of practical treasure like an ebony coffee table inlaid with gems, a rack of expensive wine and a collection of colorful books. A picture of her family hung on a wall and there was a mace with a ribbon around it in a corner. Nothing really matched, the only universal trait being cleanliness.
Everything was square and linear, there was reason but no rhyme. With a gleeful look, she flared her wings and wagged her feline tail as she walked through the place, knocked over select furniture and breaking glass. She went out the other door without opening that one either, allowing her to emerge of the garden side with the doghouse.
The hybrid was on was already on his feet and snarling, the marks in the sand indicated he had tried getting loose. When Zelas approached, he slashed at her. She just grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back. A bone broke, but he could regenerate.
Her actual target was the chain that bound him. She snapped it off the doghouse and cut the collar with her nails.
Pushing him away, she said "I would say it is your choice to run or stay, but I taste it to be useless. Ah well, go ahead, she's inside."
He rushed past her, leaving Zelas the time alone to summon a sliver of red stone. She pushed it in the iron collar, along with a custom enchantment.
Inside, the hybrid had set straight the couch and laid Luna on it. She commended him for not being stupid enough to try to flee. Anyone who could deal with Luna could catch up easily.
Siephied's power was already stirring to heal her damaged ribs and spine, but she wasn't awake yet. At leisure, Zelas closed the collar around her neck. The hybrid watched her the entire time, but did not interfere.
This done, it was time to ransack the kitchen. She turned into her human form, the aristrocrat this time, for the benefit of taste buds. Having done so, she claimed the dinner room table, a stash of liquor, pretzels and wine soaked peaches. Luna had excellent taste in food, Zelas had to admit. Really good. It soothed down her irritation a little.
Luna regained the ability to speak around the time Zelas was halfway through the pretzels. She shot up only to cringe as the dark power in the collar flared. Both her hands tried to grasp it, but were burned.
"Don't bwodder, wady gworps. I'm swongur den you, you dun standa chanef breaging d' spell on it," Zelas said from the kitchen table.
Barely visible through her thick bangs, Luna narrowed her eyes. Not at Zelas, but at the messy house and the crumbs on the table.
"You're not gonna clean that up, are you?"
Zelas stopped chewing. She had expected a less blasé response from a person waking up to find their home taken over by a lord of darkness.
"Unfortunately, you are in no position to worry about trivialities."
"Was beating the shit out of me a triviality too?"
"Yes, off course. A rather relevant one, if I may say so. You are finally sitting still and listening."
Luna swung her legs to the ground, leaned back and spread her arms across the back of the couch. As if she were still lord and master.
"What'ya want?"
"First of all, your attention. I thought you might like to know that my people have decided that your little sister is an impassable obstacle to world destruction. The little lady keeps getting involved in such grand matters, it is difficult to ignore her. Do you get letters?"
"Our parents do. I don't care." Zelas tasted a lie, but only a mild one.
"You should ask them about it."
"Why? Lina can take care of herself."
"Can she really? This is the first time she is not a tool but the prime target, Garv non withstanding. He was limited in resources."
"I've been a prime target my entire life long. I have a hard time believing she'd be a bigger problem." Still a tasty lie, she was worried.
Zelas laughed, but it was a cover for deeper dissent.
"Bigger than you? Do not flatter yourself. We allow young devils to bounce off on you to see whether they grow wits quick enough to deserve more complex missions than cannon fodder. Now miss Lina, she is a true problem. Give her another 10 years and she shall have burned through the remaining three pieces of Shabranigdu as well. All we devils would have is an ice lolly."
"Get to the point."
"I can offer you something you want, which is up for your consideration off course. In exchange, I would like—"
"Good grief, can you talk normal? You use so much words when you can just say, like, let's trade or you stink."
Zelas gritted her teeth and did her best not to rise to the bait.
"My point is that I want you to search and find your sister in order to ensure her survival."
"Hmm. Ask Rangort."
"Earthlord Rangort is unfortunately detained in hell," Zelas said. "And even if they were not, we don't want the other gods to know we are seeking out miss Lina and we especially don't want the devils to know. Anything Earthlord Rangort or I do to find her will catch attention. On the other hand, you have a credible and unremarkable reason to ask a god to find your sister."
"Ask the bubbly one from Sailoon if you want credible. She's Lina's best friend."
"Unfortunately, they are already involved in the plan in other conspicuous ways."
"Are they now?"
"Would you like to know?"
Luna shook her head, and this time she meant it. "What's the offer? My life?"
Zelas abandoned the pretzels to pick up the end of the chain, playing the end between her fingers. "I would not offer such a drab thing. Hunting you down would draw too much attention, should you choose to double cross me. Make no mistake, this here is security, but I find my associates cooperate better if they work for a reward."
"Luna, don't listen to her," the hybrid said. "Just earlier she tried to convince me to ditch you."
"Oh, did she?" Luna crossed her arms. "Don't worry, Spot. I know how devils deal, especially her organization. Sneaky little bastards who pays theirs debts, but only in the ways they sees fit. Maybe she thinks rewarding me is 'spicing' up my life or something."
Zelas couldn't keep from growling. That little brat not only accused her of duplicity, she dismissed the actions of her priest as worthless, and acted as if he were just an extension of her. As if she'd failed to put work into his individuality.
"What? It's true, isn't it? Pretty easy to figure out how the devil wolves tick, once you met one."
"Your power may be great, but your wisdom leaves a lot to be desired if you think you're a master of minds. What is next, will you be telling me your mental age is so much further than your physical one?"
"You threw over the most fancy furniture, but not the table or the wine rack. Obvious method to your chaos, what you like stays whole. I'm not something you like."
With a few steps, she stood before the couch and leaned over, one hand against the wall. Turning her eyes to slits and spreading bloodlust through the air, she brought the human back on edge.
Luna was a quick learner. Fearful, but with enough self control to not let it show, save for the hairs rising in her neck. A true Inverse alright.
"Ruining things for the sake of ruin is ridiculous, but your farce of a home is a ruin in a different way. Yes, it disgusts me as do you," she said. "You are by all means and measures the most powerful human on this planet. You could hold your own against most devils, you could wipe out armies on a whim. Start a war, end a war, build an empire. Yet you are here without aspiration, gathering together nothing but this disturbed order. Off course you'd accuse another of meaningless payment?"
Luna tilted her head back so that her hangs fell away. Sharp red eyes glared back at her.
"You exist just to destroy all yet you preach to me about meaning? I squander a power I did not ask for and I enjoy life. What about it?"
"But you won't be doing that for long, now will you?"
Luna's emotional miasma betrayed the hornet's nest that Zelas had just set on fire. She decided to add some oil.
"Afterlife hardly was comfortable for anyone in the past five thousand years. Being able to hurl yourself into Megiddo despite your astral identity not having faded? Many wished for that under Fibrizo's rule."
"Is that supposed to make me feel better about my incoming cessation of existence? I chose nothing! Whatever past versions of this soul did has nothing to do with me!" Luna snapped. On the lower layers of the astral plane, Siephied's corpse roared.
"That is supposed to make you think about what you really want. See, Earthlord Rangort is rebuilding hell into elysium. You would not enjoy it at all, though. This god only plays nice, but only to those who behave. At best you are indifferent, and at worst ... well, you had a sapient creature chained up in the backyard."
"Hmm."
"I can arrange it so that you will get into elysium."
"Ah, I see. If I decide to stay dead, you avoid the risk that the next Knight of Siephied might actually do shit. Must have hurt, learning the Knight of Shabranigdu was so damn heroic."
Zelas leaned back and grinned. "You catch on quick."
She didn't catch on right, off course. Zelas felt an idle regret, how much less annoying would today have been if she had not killed the heroic incarnations of Siephied's fragment?
"How would you be able to arrange that with Rangort? How did you even get a god to listen to you?"
"Were you not there, at the fight against miss Lina's third Shabranigdu? You must admit my priest did some suspicious things for a devil. In fact, isn't he doing suspicious things right now over in Kataart?"
"Huh ... I just thought he was going mad. You all go mad when you figure out the fallacies of the system."
She thought for a long time. Zelas didn't move as she waited.
"... Okay then. I'm in. Now get this thing off."
"I shall have to decline. Should you choose to double cross me, that is my method to give you a quick ticket to reincarnation." She tossed the chain in Luna's lap.
Luna stood up slowly, eyes no longer visible. Zelas was a head taller than the woman, yet it felt like it didn't matter when on the astral plane, Siephied's corpse dangled before her. Then Luna pushed past her.
"Spot, start packing," she hissed. "We're going to have a chat with Valwin."
That confidence answered at least one question. She was wise enough to avoid Vrabazard, but Luna had not spoken to the gods or she would be far more weary of the idea that Valwin might answer her.
Not that it mattered. As long as Luna was on the move.
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