· · · · · · ·

The gods had spent the last six thousand years consuming positive emotions without having to share, never turning it into armies the way the devil clan did. Vrabazard was so much more powerful than her, his only hindrance being his disconnect with the flow.

Zelas blocked and dodged, keeping her form small, exploiting his poor experience with aiming by eyesight. With no hope of defeating him, her best shot was escape.

At least, until Vrabazard figured that since e couldn't hit her with an aim, e might as well scorch the entire area.

E breathed out a spiral of fire that covered the area on both planes. The blaze singed her and she shot up, into the cloudcover

Vrabazard plowed through, only to be met by Zelas's charge. She bore her sword into one of the eyes and tried burning the other out with her own blue fire, but Vrabazard shook her off and flared out hir wings.

She folded her wings around herself to protect against the inferno. Gravity helped her down, sheering past Vrabazard to dive into the sea.

The water only obscured her for the moments it took to boil away under the fire god's heat.

One thing saved her, and that was the mutations taking over the god. The eyes grew back wrong.

Just as Zelas tried to spin that to her advantage, Luna flew by with Leyunso in one of her projected claws.

Diving right at the god, she dropped Leyunso near a mutating part. Careful not to harm the Sage, Luna burned away the malformed snakes trying to emerge. Growing from a god only made them out of fire that incinerated themselves, but the flare was dangerous to humans.

Leyunso held on till she found a solid spot to crawl into, at which point Luna hurled herself away. Vrabazard spun around with hir other eye, but she remained clear. Zelas followed her lead. When Luna noticed her, she swooped around and covered Zelas's ears. Astrally she folded a thin holy field around her. Both ways to hear were obscured.

Leyunso said something to Vrabazard, who turned away, searching in any direction not this.

Rather than let go, Luna leaned to her right ear.

"Hey, Zelas. Guess what, I'm on your side now," Luna said, so smug she astrally dripped. "Who would have thought that giving me the full story would do that? I, the loyal servant of the gods who worships their every move, who would never do anything to harm them. Gods, so unreal, no?"

She had expected Xelloss and Filia to give Lyos the upper hand and detain Luna, not this.

Zelas shook her off. "And pray tell, what caused this change?"

Up close, Luna looked more mortal again, but the thing on the astral plane now moved in tandem with her more than ever before. Every word Luna said had a heavy, inhuman undertone.

"My priest got your priest to talk. Met my little sister and know my fate," Luna said before raising her sword. "That and we need you to operate the damn machine."

Looking where the sword pointed, Rangort hurled towards them at terrifying speed. Valwin had been shaking off somewhere beyond the island.

"Oh look, a volunteer for keeping Vrabazard occupied," Luna said. She shot back at Vrabazard, vanished from sight.

Vrabazard spun towards Rangort, locked sight and went for Rangort. Shortly after, Luna returned with Leyunso, whom she set on Zelas's back.

Then she dared to kick Zelas in the neck.

"You foul little—"

"Yeah, yeah. Look, I'm gonna be busy getting these gods to fight, you take care of our, ehm, mutual ally. Go make sure we can summon Lina back."

The gods were already on course, she didn't want to be there when that happened. How Luna planned to survive kindling their aggression against each other ... no, no time.

Zelas flew to the beach without looking back. Leyunso held on tight, and didn't speak.

Gathered on the beach were elves, dragons and Sailoon soldiers. Amelia argued with Milgazia, one in a loud voice, the other dreary and drawn out. She had expected to see Xelloss and the dragons with him, but they were nowhere to be seen.

Without ceremony, Zelas dropped down in full form. Leyunso jumped off, ran up to Milgazia and whispered something in his ear, then darted off inside.

To Amelia, Zelas said, "I still seek the rebirth of Ragradia. What will you do?"

"What's best for justice, of course. I happened to notice your devils aren't attacking ours, but Milgazia doesn't think it's worth the effort to make Ospirias stop attacking them."

That her devils weren't hostile right now didn't mean they were allies, but Zelas didn't look given horses in the mouth.

"I don't know what possessed me, but I actually do believe you are right," Milgazia said. "Me and my people will do as you suggested, but I am afraid we do not know to recognize which devils are hostile."

A beat for Amelia, and a moment of quiet terror for Zelas — Leyunso's influence would never not disturb her.

"Ehm, I think Zelas can tell you," Amelia said. "Is Azonge gonna agree, though?"

Leyunso gave an all too serene smile, and only Zelas noticed.

"He will have to," Milgazia said. "What's going on over there?"

Across the sea, the gods collided, froze for a moment, then decided they were enemies. A bright star shot away from them; Luna in full firepower.

Luna dropped onto the beach with a smug grin and struggling gods far behind her. Zelas swore she did it to make an impact, which worked for the lesser beings around them.

"Why aren't we in yet?" Luna asked, looking right at Leyunso, who didn't answer but slipped into the nearest tunnel.

The battle between Dolphins's devils and cult versus the invaders had drawn close to the center. Milgazia explained they'd feigned a weaker invasion first, using only dragons in human form and elves. To the devils it made sense that this was the best dragons could send, since not all dragons could transform to fit into the small halls. They had sent their stronger ones to deal with them, at which point the Sailoon forces had been brought in; small distance teleportation could be done relatively safe.

The stronger out of the way, the risk of any of them destroying the machine diminished, but they still had to hurry. Hurrying didn't work very well when half the dragon soldiers picked fight with Zelas's troops while Dolphin's soldiers and cult human slipped away.

If Milgazia couldn't command them to stand down and she couldn't threaten Ospirias, and killing dragons wasn't any option if anyone would take her serious, she was in even more trouble. At least Lyos and Claire were in position, kept secure by Lyos's power and some woman on a Zanaffar.

Zelas poured more power into her projection and dealt with the moronic dragons by means of broken wings. It was slow and painful, as she took several laserbreaths, and withdrawing to the astral plane was trickier this way.

Closer to the center of the machine, they met a cluster of frantic magicians trying to fend off anyone from the control blocks.

The elves went ahead, most mobile in their Zenaffa armors. The Sailoonians were close behind, no doubt having careless treatment of humans in mind.

Zelas let them deal with that and projected herself full form in the middle of the gigantic hall. Any enemy devil that recognized her fled at the sight. Intimidation was much easier than picking them off one by one.

The elves chased the lower ranked devils while the Sailoonians tried dealing with the humans as nicely as they could — pacifists punches instead of incineration, of course.

Once the floor was cleared, Zelas expected to have to convince anyone she meant to let Ragradia reincarnate without issue, so far. There was no need; somewhere in the chaos Leyunso had found Azonge and now had her sights on Ospirias, who came barged in with all the pompous zeal of the west. Zelas didn't hear what she said to him, but all that zeal got redirected to stopping the infighting of the Wolfpack and his dragons. He himself chastised anyone of rank for not informing him of the new state of plans.

It didn't take long after those orders were out for the key players to appear. They'd gone ahead, but carefully due to Lyos's poor state. Zelas half suspected Filia had insisted on breaking of the wrong fights, because she sported her mace and a few new bruises.

Getting everyone arranged on the platform passed in painful silence. Ospirias's ravings died down, and there was little else to say when all dragon generals and a few elves had just been spoken to be Leyunso. Zelas wondered whether she could leave quick enough, if Leyunso spoke to her. Luna meanwhile stood by, the only one in this place even close to being amused.

Without a word, Filia helped Lyos onto the platform. Lina's reflection wasn't around. Xelloss took his place there too, and spoke softly with Claire. He looked and felt worried.

"What is the matter?" Zelas asked.

Almost at once, Claire said, "Valwin's coming this way. Rangort's still fighting Vrabazard, but we need to put Valwin somewhere right now. E's vaporizing the water, and an awful lot of people here are mostly that element."

"This god's pretty simple," Filia said. "We may be able to speak rather than imprison."

"Are you sure?" Luna asked from the side. "Valwin seemed pretty irritated when I brought'em here already, and more so now. Though, we did cut off a piece of hir and e didn't even care to find out what happened ... hmm."

"We can draw him in with the pillar before we do anything with Ragradia," Zelas said. "Where is miss Orun?"

"I know where, but why?" Claire said.

"That fragment of power from Valwin, if I am not mistaken, miss Orun has it now? It was meant to navigate and flow, she may be able to use that to connect to the god when close enough."

"I'll go fetch her," Luna said, to Zelas's surprise.

Claire gave Luna directions to correct hall; the woman had been in the rearguard. Luna returned with her just as the island got its first tremors from the approaching god.

Zelas landed before her.

"Miss Orun, Valwin is susceptible to take the forms imagined by those e interacts with. You should be able to push an impression on in this process. Ensure it is a form condensed enough to be out of our way," Zelas said to her, assuming Luna had briefed her in.

"I understand," Orun said.

Lyos and Claire waited at the side of the wide platform while Orun went to the center. Zelas took position at the control panels, set the pillar to pull and

The pillar was already activated, albeit dim, presumably because the cult had been experimenting with it. Now the light turned bright at once, but care had to be given. It took nearly a minute to ensure that only the signature of Valwin was called in, not the other two. Orun had to steer it, which left Zelas unseeing of its success.

Her first sign it worked was Orun's sharp intake of breath.

With a sudden burst of silver wind, Valwin twisted into the hall from above. Like a moth to flame, the god drew closed to the pillar's core, only to find nothing there and be confused why e even came.

Though nervous, Orun did not hesitate to approach. The wind turned to her first, then the dragon's massive head.

Zelas could not perceive anything of the connection between them — a whole world kept from her.

When the twists of the dragon lessened, Zelas loosened the hold of the pillar a little. Valwin poured down around Orun, but didn't harm her. Good, Valwin saw her now.

The god fell into a mere human form, one without clear gender as Rangort was wont to take. E had many similarities to Orun's people; brown skin and simple clothes with colorful patterns and a long headdress with sleek feathers. The form had something of nobility, which Zelas did not think befit the careless god. It better not mean Orun had the wrong expectations, rather than some obscure cultural meaning.

Orun did not bow, did not revere the god in any way. She just took hir hand, whispered a few words and pulled hir along. Zelas turned off the pillar, but kept her focus on the two.

Valwin looked around, cautious and on high alert, but made no move to attack. His lips moved without producing sound. Still, Orun responded; now her words were quiet too.

Claire took her middle aged form and approached Valwin.

"You'll have your evidence right now," she said.

Valwin nodded. And that was all, or perhaps something had passed that she could not witness.

This probably meant the god wasn't about to go trash things into pieces. Zelas waited to see whether anything else happened. Valwin hardly paid attention to anything; more occupied with learning how to plant feet on the ground than the mechanics of the machine.

Xelloss cast her a look, and she nodded.

"Let's get everything in place now, shall we? I doubt the other gods will be so communicative."

"I may not be communicative for long, either," Valwin said, more to Claire than anyone else.

Xelloss and Filia had been instructed before they left the island, and Claire caught Lyos up. Anyone else wasn't relevant.

Withdrawing her projection, Zelas became a connection right within the machine itself. It was reliance on outside force, but with a god looming nearby she had some leeway in what harmed her ego.

The green light flickered on and the earth groaned. The ray shot up from the walls and from the center platform, right through the walls of the world this time. From here on, she would have to leave it to Xelloss. He again activated the talisman, while Claire and Lyos went to the center of the platform.

Assuming there wouldn't be unexpected things, Lina Inverse would be called back any moment now.

It wouldn't be the Red World if everything could be expected.

The program reeled. They didn't notice anything, but Zelas did.

Something reached through the rift they had created and the machine pushed the power further. The sensation of another side announced itself, a world that had no astral plane, but something else ... a great deal of pain there ...

Something began downloading itself. Frantic, Zelas shut down the main program, but it wouldn't stop.

Old fashioned way, then. She reached through the material, projecting a hand straight into the core that handled the wireless connection and busted it.

Fanning out her essence, she took over various functions of the machine.

To Xelloss and Claire, she said in a whisper, "What can you sense?"

"The Black World," Claire said, her hand clutching Lyos's arm. "Don't let it in. Godly matters."

On the side of the platform, Valwin's projection didn't move, but did disappear for seconds at a time. It was Luna's power that flickered and flared far more.

"Volphied," Luna whispered at first, but her voice rose to a scream right after. "Stop it! Volphied's trying to get in!"

Wasting no time, Zelas reached down the roots to the captured beings that provided the energy, forcing them to lower output.

The pillar weakened to just grazing the Ragnarok. The pull stopped, but she had to cut a few more connections before everything was back to normal.

"What happened?" Xelloss asked.

"I cannot bring back miss Lina," Zelas said to him, loud enough that it everyone in the hall could hear. "If we go beyond the world walls, Volphied will try again. Xelloss, bring miss Lina here by remote projection."

That was easy enough.

"Hey, what's going on?" Lina asked when she faded in. "We got all packed and nothing happened!"

Xelloss pointed up a finger and happily announced, "Volphied's trying to hijack the machine if we breach the world wall."

"It's rather inconvenient," Claire said with similar mismatched ease. "I suppose if we could harvest Valgaav's mind we might find out how to run the machine right, but alas. Miss Lina, can you attempt to recreate us as Aqualord across the distance?"

Lina scratched her head, or tore hair in frustration, it was hard to perceive in Zelas's dissolved state. "I suppose I can try. Y'know, Zelas was right about me walking in the footsteps of chaos so I think I can cheat a little if Lyos and— who's that weird guy with the feather hat?"

Valwin had stepped onto the platform, eyes unfocused; Orun seemed to see for him. "Are you truly Lina Inverse?"

"Pretty much," Lina said. "What are you doing in that form?"

"Waiting to see what unfolds with this island."

"The gods aren't well, Vrabazard is still out there fight Rangort," Orun said.

Lina floated closer to Valwin and poked a golden finger on his forehead. "There, can you tell what I am now?"

He jerked back, but nodded. "You are the Apostle."

If Zelas had had a physical body right now, she'd flared in joy — the gods also knew. The rumor must be true.

"Zelas's plot here is Rangort's plot too," Orun said to Valwin. "There were misunderstandings, but we're here to rebirth the Aqualord."

"Got her over there," Lina said, pointing behind her. "Valwin, how about you go stall the gods out there while I work?"

"Without full projection I cannot do much, and full projection would interfere with this area," e said. "But I can deflect some things, I suppose."

"Good. Orun, take him where he's needed."

Lyos didn't sit down right away, he put a hand Orun's shoulder first, whispered something and only then sat down; as if they had time. Orun didn't look back as she led Valwin out.

Lina cracked her fingers and said, "Xelloss, Filia, one big fat serving of Phied and Igdu power. Now. Claire, fly Lyos up a little."

Claire turned to her middle form and grew wings with tail to lift Lyos. Up they went by a hundred meters or so, while Lina's projection stayed right below.

Filia raised her arms and Xelloss let out Shabranigdu's power.

On the astral plane these forces looked like shredded paper that rivers flowed into, Xelloss moreso than the dragon. He hollowed out to give way for the energy — she'd seen it before, but not so close.

A set of magical circled, stacked with some space, circled into existence between the triad. Lina's ghostly form expanded and arranged them as she desired, led by her hands in complicated forms.

At last, she clapped her hands together. On this sound the fusion turned to threat, then to veil, then to all encompassing haze. It caught all the godly energy at her command. Everything pulled together into nothing, only to return as gold.

No attack it was, but rather expansion, almost soft.

This became the egg of the god.

In the middle of this, Lina chanted :

"Lords of the Darkness and the Light of these Worlds,

Following thy bonds of fate; Merge all thy strength,

Grant unto me greater power!"

Zelas had no more room for doubt now. The Apostle of Chaos existed.

It could drive her mad, this feeling. Maybe this was what Phibrizzo had hoped to achieve when the world ended — she could no longer remember what she had strived for once, when still a devil at Shabranigdu's intent.

Lina did not outright direct the gold, the way she had done the initial fusion. Rather, she swam along in its currents, and somethings against the stream.

Lyos died first, but his soul stayed with Claire. Blue light leaked all around them until nothing humanoid remained, and a mirage of a twisted blue dragon filled the hall.

"Do you want to ..." Filia asked, her voice so small none would hear except those close, or with wolf's ears.

Claire laid her claw tops on Filia's hand, and said, "Yes, let me remember."

Zelas activated the pull of the pillar and hoped what she'd just heard would not be a problem.

Lina formed a sword of energy in her hands, akin to the Ragna Blade, but golden.

Claire died next.

The Ragnarok thinned and split with the unfolding of the spire. In its light, Lina's ghostly form become near solid gold.

The vacuum between worlds was their hold on the godly power, the inversion of the flow hooked onto it to tempt in the deities. Something within the pillar had a command right to the mind, which Zelas could not understand but had once assumed to be Lina's chaotic doing. Maybe it had been Volphied all along, but Lina was the Apostle of Chaos. She should be.

Tendrils of black and light wove around the blue power, cutting and drawing it back together. The light shrank, vaporised, and passed into the nothing before creation once more. Silence passed for seconds, then the black and white reemerged into pure gold. Raw creation, colored like the sea of Chaos. The eternal beginning.

This became the god within the egg.

Simple like a candle flickering awake, yet infinitately out of Zelas's reach. She could only observe as structure and form sprung from nothing.

An astral's soul has no eternity like those born from Megiddo, for it is the soul itself that bears the marks of identity. Until the demise of Ragradia, it had been insubstantial a concept to Zelas, which bore her a wish to see.

Only Lina Inverse was left in the gold, commanding chaos without even a hint of what she did, let alone how.

Zelas could learned nothing from this, yet Xelloss watched, entranced, smirking like he did when he saw wicked power. He had experimented with soul gates and life law, twice now. Had that given him anything that Zelas lacked? She'd have to ask, but that didn't allow her to see now it mattered.

The pillar turned brighter and the gateway opened without bridging worlds. Within the hollow, on the flow of chaos itself, a blue light unfolded. At intervals, the outlines of life law circles could be seen. The walls of the worlds contracted with every cycle.

Over time the motion diminished into a steady eb and tide. When all became still, the single blue light remained. Small at first, it pulsed wider until it became a stream around its own core.

Coils unwound into a serpentine dragon with seven leathery light wings. The same blues and greens as before, but she had scaled patterns across her sapphire back, the colors on her wings mingled like dawn, and the weak jaw made way for a dense row of teeth. The new god had the aura of a saint and the look of a predator, beautiful even to Zelas.

Ragradia shot to the sky, out of the open ceiling. Almost at once, the noise and tension outside vanished. Only the underside of Ragradia was visible for a moment, but the change in atmosphere could tell everyone, even the weakest sensor, the tide of the gods had turned.

High tones like whale song echoed down combined with the hollow wails of Valwin, soon joined by the lower rumble of Rangort. Vrabazard's bestial roar joined in last.

On the platform below, Xelloss and Filia were on their knees, exhausted but whole despite the devastating magic. Lina floated over them, speaking to them of nothing important, almost jest and joke. Zelas shifted over, hoping to speak with Lina, but was denied. Lina vanished after yawning in a most lax manner, mumbling about catching some sleep and Filia doing the same.

That was not very appropriate behavior for someone who had just revived a god and changed the fate of the world.

Luna sauntered up to them, hands behind her head as she looked up. A whistle escaped her.

"So, this god worth serving?" Luna asked Filia.

"That depends on what she does," Filia said. "I'll have to see it first, but I think I'll take up miss Lina's suggestion first. Are there any beds here?"

Oh, do be so casual about all this.

Zelas turned off the machine with no ceremony. The hall flocked empty as the holy clans flocked outside to observe their gods, most of them at least.

Filia and Luna didn't care to watch the gods, instead they went to a little side room that one of the Wolfpack reported had tea; the message had been for Xelloss but they took it.

Xelloss returned to Zelas and bowed before her. "It has been done, lord Beastmaster."

"You did well," she said, as usual. Almost she asked what he could see that she did not, but he was in bad shape. Intense questioning could be fore later. "You may depart."

"Thank you, lord Beastmaster."

And of course, he went to the same kitchen where the tea was, as well as the dragon ladies.

Zelas gathered up the remnants of her pack. Three sub leaders had died in the conflict, most of the others were injured. A handful had been attacked by "friendly" fire. There was no way to investigate who had done it when, without raising a fuss.

Her pack asked what to do now, and she told them to stay. Wolfpack Island was not safe anymore, though Elmegiddo didn't feel so either. Too much the sting of holiness. She asked them to endure. They would regrow their trees here and survive for now, it was time to rest.

Dilgear asked where Luna was, but only so he could avoid her. She sent him away as a scout.

Zelas could think of other things to do, but she had time.

Milgazia made his way to the kitchen. How curious. She drifted closer as a wolf, using natural eyesight and hearing to observe through the open door.

"I wonder what exactly makes you Siephied's channel," Xelloss said.

He got no answer, since Milgazia stepped in at that moment. Taking one look at Filia, he asked, "Why are you covered in blood?"

"Valgaav attacked me," Filia said. "I know what you're thinking, but this wasn't caused by the Wolfpack. Others things they did do, like not being able to provide me a decent replacement dress."

"Then why are you hiding the blood behind that cloak?"

"To avoid people jumping to the conclusions you just did!"

"I was there, I saw it, Valgaav did it," Luna said. "Wolfpack's not into mindless torture. I think. Anyway, Filia, why did you bleed from that attackl? Dabbling with the planes again?"

"Maybe. Don't mind it, I'm fine."

"Yeah, and I not rotting inside out," Luna said, reaching for Filia's stomach.

"Really, it's fine. I already am healing," Filia said. "I'll be fine after some sleep."

"But are you healing right? Lemme try a trick."

"What trick?"

Luna jabbed her finger at where Xelloss, if he were organic, would have a rib cage. For the astral creatures that took a humanoid form, it was a focus area to control their projection.

A small life law circle spun open below her hand, and she pushed her hand through. Xelloss flinched, but didn't seem alarmed enough to step back.

"Huh. Green specks," Luna said. "Anyway, it's a trick to see the transition astral ... whatever, the fancy shit that makes your body move. The thing that Shadow Snap affects. It won't hurt."

Reluctantly, Filia allowed Luna to place a hand through her solar plexus.

"Yep, you're patching. Not a corpse like me though. Hey, Milgazia, do some standard healing."

Zelas perked up at the word corpse and the casual way Luna said it. Almost, she dropped in to remark on that, but stopped herself.

Milgazia cast the requested spell, but sitting behind her, with as much distance between him and Xelloss. And perhaps Luna too.

"I take that neither of you will explain me what you're doing?" Xelloss asked.

"Of course I will! I'm a highly gullible and naive person willing to share my vast bastions of knowledge," Luna chirped. "Speaking of gullible ..."

Luna stood straight and tapped Filia and Xelloss in the heads. "So, what did you do to get along again? Just spilling the beans can't have done that."

"I'm not really sure what happened," Xelloss said. "She didn't seem very impressed with what I told her."

"He did a priestly sermon on the nature of chaos, while in the form of a few hundred clattering cones," Filia said. "It was ridiculous, but the context mattered. At least he's talking now."

"You poor clown, so desperate you'd try being serious?" Luna laughed and rubbed Xelloss on the head with one of her projected claws, like one would do to a dog.

As always, Xelloss just let the mortals do as they pleased; one thing he had not inherited from Zelas was a sense of regal dignity.

"Clowning aside, that can't be it. What's the context?" Milgazia asked.

Filia half turned. "There's power in holding the truth, and all your physical strength doesn't matter if you're living by a lie. Secrets are weakness in the shield. Say, did miss Claire get around to speaking with you yet?"

He didn't get around to answering, because Luna cut in. "Such philosophy. I gotta hear this in a dreamscape or something to see whether you've got sense below it. First your organs though. How's it going, Milgazia?"

The dragon tensed up when addressed. "Well, it was ... not severe, but strange. I have not dealt with such a disbalance before. It did not feel like an injury."

"It's all holy stuff, just the wrong kind," Luna said. "Ever saw anything like this with devil wounds?"

"No," he said. "If I may ask, what is it that happened? The area this wound is at and the kind of damage, it implies a spiritual attack meant for astral beings."

"You may ask but you may also not get an answer," Xelloss said through gritted teeth.

Luna shoved him. "No touchy with questions for me, unless you're volunteering to demonstrate it for Milgazia?"

Luna conjured up an astral lance, because sure why not, she learned all sorts of things all the time anyway.

Filia gave Luna a look. A needless look, as she knight made no move to throw the thing. She did dangle it awfully close to Xelloss, who considered whether or not he had to flee.

Zelas had the sense of standing outside. To Xelloss it had become natural to mingle with people like it was normal, but Zelas had no role to fit here. Nothing to say, input or add; would she go down there she would dominate the atmosphere regardless of her form and that bizarre ease would be gone.

The dragons would close up and the knight would go back on her subtle high alert. Zelas usually enjoyed the effect she had on people; less so now she knew that prickling the dragons might be her end.

Owing her life to dragons and knights wasn't so simple to place in her life, or her plans, or her philosophies.

From Filia to Xelloss, that came easy. Filia wouldn't kill him without a very good reason, and that reason would never be her own comfort. Creatures of mercy could be terribly useful, but that had been a crisis situation where Filia had been reduced to a state where her emotions were the most relevant. That she and Luna wanted to prevent Valgaav from getting their hands on them had sound logic behind it, even without mercy. How those two mingled, that Zelas could not even begin to guess.

Luna chose Zelas over Lei, which might have its own logic, but Zelas suspected a Storkhelm Syndrome.

Reason and mindless instinct met to get similar results : the wolfpack lived. Zelas wasn't typically in a situation where she owed her life to anyone; Xelloss had that experience a few more times, but not by much. He felt something close to gratitude, where Zelas just had an intellectual concept of debt.

Xelloss was in, she wasn't. In its most practical form, that meant certain people cared whether he lived now, and that was ... useful, but she hadn't invited these people.

· · · · · · ·

Xelloss handed the angelsblood talisman to Zelas before retreating to the astral plane for rest, Filia found herself a bed somewhere, Milgazia went on to try and get a word with his god.

Amelia and Zelgadis had walked into the central hall some time during the reincarnation, heard from Luna that Lina had been around and demanded to speak to her. Zelas didn't indulge them; Xelloss needed his rest.

There were a lot of pieces to be picked up, damage to restore, and the insufferable transformation of her island into a busy ant hill riddled with dragons, humans, variations of humans and a hefty dose of elves. Too many of those had a stuck up nose and covert contempt for her and her pack.

She had to dissolve the first fight no less than an hour after the Aqualord's rebirth.

The gods themselves could not be bothered to attend to mere mortals, naturally. The Aqualord had nary a moment to spare to organize Milgazia and Azonge's confused clan, as she spent all her time helping Rangort reconnect with the flow.

After the third conflict, she decided to send away most of her pack to scout for escaped devils. More than needed, way more, but it'd give her a timeframe to reach an agreement with dragons on sticking to a side of the island.

Under the surface, she also hoped her pack would catch all errant devils that might report her treachery. This was highly unlikely, but whatever chance there was for ... well, a dramatic reveal should be preserved.

Honestly, her breaking off the devil clan should have been a grand display of defiance with a moderate speech on the nature of chaos and dripping with contempt on how her fellow devils had failed to see the true path of the Lord of Nightmares.

Not a covert message delivered by some no name demon.

While she sent away her pack on the beach, Orun appeared from the caves with Valwin in tow. Close behind them, but at a decent distance, was Leyunso on some weird magical construct, a humanoid hunched thing that she sat on the back of.

Between Zelas and Valwin, nothing had to be said, but Orun stopped for a moment anyway.

"Miss Zelas, I ... how much of this all was part of your plan?"

"Too little," she said, knowing Orun wasn't really asking about the plan. Her own god stood behind her, disoriented and relying on her for sight. "I am the wrong one to ask. The lady Lina Inverse can answer you better. Once Xelloss has healed, we will summon her spirit. You may schedule speaking time, the Sailoon royals already have a reserve."

Not at all what Orun had wished to hear, but it didn't matter.

Orun took Valwin out to sea, or maybe he took her along. They danced as humans, until he became the dragon again. If the flow got better, Zelas could not see it.

No use staying wishing she could see, so she went inside to find dinner and information.

The leader of the western dragons, Ospirias, had an interesting combination of crisis of faith (for Valwin paid heed to a human and hadn't spoken a single word to him) and panic of what the former would mean for his credibility as the chosen leader — he was a dictator, but the kind that relied on assumed providence to be credible.

Neither Rangort nor Ragrairyos — what an ugly name — had any care for solving that issue. Rangort's monks assumed themselves to be in charge of organization, while Ragrairyos took aside Milgazia and Azonge for updating their tribe. Zelas suspected that sooner or later, someone would oust Ospirias. Until then, he provided some of the best miasma on the island.

Sailoon's people wanted to return north as soon as possible and assist in the protection of other countries. With hesitation, Rangort agreed to send along hir angels, but Ragrairyos meant to go herself. As she was the only god in the world still connected to the flow, she had mass teleportation available. They just needed a beacon to link to any devil invested areas.

The risk existed that Valgaav might attack — with two pieces of Shabranigdu, it would be more than an even match. Ragrairyos had to be unpredictable.

After that, the plan was to lay low until the other gods had restored their flow. Until then, they would work on growing new talismans in the hopes that with two, Lina could be returned. Vain hope, Zelas believed. The risk that Volphied would take over the machine was very real. She had no solution to this yet, and hoped (prayed?) that Lina might work her chaos.

Zelas killed about an hour with nicely persuading dragons to leave a quarter of the island for her pack to live at. That done, Zelas started tearing down Dolphin's abominable adjustments. Aside of the disgustingly tacky ornaments, the layout had been changed from neutral to lulling into a false sense of security. Zelas preferred to unbalance and unsettle, and now the island was to be populated by dragons and humans and elves, it served to redecorate for more than just artistic taste.

Her pack dripped back in over the course of the day. A few of them brought her the seeds of her island, which she planted in a few unused halls on her side of the island. For now, they could feed on the terrified remnants of Zelas's cult.

Her people weren't actually harming them, just intimidating and poking a little, but Amelia took offense anyway and she actually got Ragrairyos to come down for this.

"They cannot stay here. They must have better care," Amelia said. "Go annoy someone, I know you can eat that just as well."

"Why do that when they are here already?" Zelas said.

"Their quality of life is abominable," Ragrairyos said. "There is a decent prison maintained by Rangort's monks down south."

"That's your only concern? They have done a great deal of evil, but it was because they were brainwashed," Amelia proclaimed. "We should work on making them see the error of their ways, miss Claire! Not just imprison them!"

"I don't care for justice or redemption, it'll do you well to understand that," the god said. "All that matters to me is that as much life continues in the best state possible. If that means keeping certain people separate from others, so be it. This cult is a danger."

Amelia was eager to take that as a challenge to justice, but Zelgadis put a hand on her shoulder. "If that's the way you are, Aqualord, then consider this : Deep Sea Dolphin probably used thought reform. The best state they can live in isn't with her lies in their minds. They won't just become mentally healthy by being away from her or society."

"I am aware, but right now cannot afford to care. We have more pressing concerns."

That dissolved into a debate between the two what pressing concern meant, and why both the protection of the north and the care of the cult couldn't be done at the same time.

Zelas shot off and found Orun. By now, Valwin had retreated back to the sea and circled the island.

"Miss Orun, how is your god doing?"

"E is doing what e can, though that is very little." More than a little baffled, she added, "I do not believe e understands how to restore flow. I have had to explain him one can use their own energy to connect, and e did not believe it would work on gods. But it does. I had to answer him."

"You must have known all along that the gods are not the wise protectors of mankind," Zelas said.

"I did, but ... I don't know whether I hoped for more, but I certainly did not expect to be a caretaker for, well, a handicapped creature. Not that I mind, but I don't know what to tell my people, or how to help best," she said with a sad smile. Not the perfect mood to take on more cases, but she had the attitude to bear it.

"You'll find that a little bit of guidance is hardly caretaking compared to what actual humans would need. Can you take on a few more under your wings, perhaps?"

"What do you mean?"

Zelas brought her inside without more than arbitrary explanation, to the quarters of the cult. Waiting for agreement wouldn't serve her, so she just shoved Orun in the middle of the ongoing argument, fell back and watched.

This doubled as observation on Ragrairyos's nature; Lyos had been friends with Orun, if anything still existed, she might hold sway.

There was no noticeable sign of affection in the god; Ragrairyos didn't lean to her, didn't even look right at her, but neither felt the subtle irritation she had at others trying to get her involved in projects she didn't believe in. Unfortunately, Zelas could not tell whether this was ingrained confidence in Orun's judgment, or a remnant of attachment.

Orun didn't have much heart for the task, that much Zelas could tell. Oversee a bunch of strangers, when she had her own people and her own god to attend to. She had the compassion for it though, and Amelia supplied the willpower. Perhaps she could wheel in Shizuku and the western holy orders, they reasoned, but only after Valwin was less ... embarrassing for a god.

Zelas left them to sort it out to go do ... something else. After building a secure location to store the angelsblood talisman — keeping it with herself burned — she was out of somethings to do.

Xelloss didn't need anything, he hung at the edge of a very dragons with faith anxiety and fed on them; he informed her sometimes they made lousy jokes but not to the degree of Milgazia. One day she would have to investigate his jokes.

Filia had gotten three hours of sleep in before noise woke her up and the scent of conflict drew her out. This scent was gunpowders, since Jillas had thrown a bomb near a dragon he didn't like. Zelas could tell that much just from arriving.

"Just keep the rug out of our way. It stinks," Ospirias said, apparently on the end of a raging rant.

"Keep your face out of ours and you won't smell it," Filia spat.

"That's actually a decent idea," Azonge said. "The Wolfpack has half the island right now, but we should divide it across four, or whatever number of groups we have."

"Horrible idea," Leyunso said. She passed by Filia, dropped the hell gem in her hand and walked on to Zelas.

Not a meeting she wanted to have, so she left.

And having nothing at hands left her to think about everything, absolutely everything that had gone catastrophically wrong.

Starting with the demonsblood talisman. It had needed over a year to complete, slow even in the care of Lezo and Laust. In retrospect, the timing of the alleged war staring coincided with its completion. From there on, she could mentally torment herself on every subsequent mistake or unwitting ploy she had engaged in.

Dwelling on how much of a pawn she herself had been to Volphied was like a knife to the mind; she needed a distraction. Something to look down on.

Luna had already found herself a room, after confirming the owner hadn't survived the invasion. When Zelas arrived, there was a low key debate going on between her and some northern no name knight.

From the sound of it, Luna had been told by Liliane to return north and resume her work as a knight for the kingdom. Luna didn't care to go near Valgaav and the human was torn between encouraging her cause it would help people, and the very real possibility Valgaav would target her. Luna took that as good enough acceptance of no and kicked them out.

The human stumbled past Zelas without noticing her, but Luna saw her clear on the astral plane.

"What brings the devil to my door, hmm?"

A failing ego stability, but she wouldn't be alive if she couldn't think of excuses on a whim. She projected as the aristocrat and said, "I desire to know what you did to divert Vrabazard into Rangort."

"Sure, the dead have time and this knowledge you can have," Luna said. "See, there's this thing, this very complicated thing. You have this big animal that you want to go somewhere. You take a carrot, you tie it on a stick and you dangle it before the beast. Super complex. Imagine how suspicious I must've looked flying around there ... noticed the pillar was a little on when you got here? Had made sure devils on the island had spotted me, then got the gods to see me, voila. Instant carrot stick."

Zelas wanted to see whether banging her head on these walls worked. She had noticed the inactive pillar, and had dismissed it as a test run. Not a feeble attempt at drawing in Luna. This was not helping her self image.

"Now I wanna know something. What possessed you to go straight to Valgaav? First you won't risk anything, then you do that?" Luna asked.

"It is none of your concern. You have become trivial as of now."

"Ha! Yet you're talking."

"I do that with a great many to drive away time," she said, turning to leave. What a mistake, she should have shifted away. Quick and composed.

"Talk with Milgazia some time, I hear his jokes are fantastic," Luna said with a chuckle.

Zelas accidentally snapped her cigarette holder in half. "I have enough time to get to the bottom of whatever I want, now."

"Bottom of my dragon too? Any pieces gonna be left?"

"And what would you be insinuating?"

"What happened on your island?" Luna asked. "Did you push her into being part of your pack?"

"You have heard all there is to be said," Zelas said.

"Yeah, and I don't eat emotions at all. Nope. None ... She's still afraid, Zelas."

"I merely told her the plot in the hopes she would make you listen. I had actually hoped she might do so by telepathy, but alas, here we are."

"No no, bad dog. Don't change topic. After the lengths you went through to not tell us anything, I don't buy that just told her. Also, you were surprised when I showed up on your side."

"I was surprised due to how little time it took and admit my mistake there. My lack of communication beforehand was for practical reasons. Given your response to Valgaav, I was correct in assuming you would do the wrong things."

"Oh, get real. It's not about you, bitch. Filia and Lina won me over within 10 minutes of truth."

"Yes, but now that the game has changed. See, I had no way of proving that the process might take the power of Siephied out of your soul, and at the time I was unaware you would trust miss Filia enough for it to matter. Be honest, would you have cooperated when I walked in months ago?"

"... maybe not back then, but after I started dreamwalking with Filia? I actually like the god killing parts of the plan."

Well yes, she should have split and explored other options, perhaps, but she was not about to indulge Luna with this.

"Zelas, if you break my dragon, I have a few things I can tell gods that'll make them hate you. Like, say, I followed your instructions to experiment on Valwin."

"Oh, so possessive? I take that the dragon is your replacement for mister Dilgear."

"Nah, Filia would make a terrible dog. I think she's more of a hamster. She hoards. You? You're like a salamander. The fire kind. You coax and slither, and you can burn down what you want. Who's to say you didn't snap all the way this time, and decided to break her down. Put her back together the way you can use?"

"Oh, you have the nerve to assume this on me, when I have shown consistent restraint in face of your transgressions?"

"Yeah, and I also manage not to burn the countryside every time someone pisses me off. Doesn't mean I never made anyone bleed when it suited me."

"Do not dare to compare us on this front, lady corpse. I am aware of my temper being a problem, while you revel in rage with only enough caution to not break your toys through. Tales I hear of you evidence naught but a spoiled child molding matters into the way she wants. You have not lived a life where merely feeling an incrimination emotion can endanger your life. It is not only in making bad choices, it is in being seen for what we are by the other devils. Do not preach to me when you have broken people further than I ever have, for lesser reasons."

"Oh, I'm fine, thank you for your concern," she said, folding her hands together in mock adoration. "Thing is, maybe I do feel guilty for shit I did. Do you? I've made a chose to try things a little different, you know. That's why I listened this afternoon when people tried talking. It's why I left to save Lyos too, damn the bastard for not wanting it. For all I know, you chose to be your worst because it is useful to you right now."

If anything, Luna seemed frustrated with herself as much as with Zelas. Without a good read on her emotions, Zelas couldn't guess.

Luna tilted aside her head to reveal an eye, coupled with a smug smirk. Like she'd let herself feel just a little to get a response. She would know all of Zelas's emotions easily.

Zelas answered with a cold look. "You spoiled child. What I would give for the power you so abuse on yourself. For you it is a lazy comfort, for me the ability to hide the wrong emotions is a matter of life and death."

"Wrong. I don't live them."

"Same matter as far as I am concerned."

"Yeah, whatever. Look, I'm gonna do some self exploratory bullshit, okay? You gotta know about that at least. I mean, you turned against the very thing you were made for. Doesn't make you nice though, you didn't choose to be that. Say, how did you change anyway, Zelas? How much of Xelloss's weird is intentional and how another damn accident, hmm?"

"It is not your concern," she snarled, half irritated because Luna's stream of questions didn't quite connect right. It felt like she missed something, again.

"Sure you changed enough, Zelas?"

Damn it all, Luna had a hook in and played the game back. This was unacceptable, regardless of how fragile the hook was.

This was one of those moments Zelas knew she had changed enough to count, because she did not waste energy on living out her what her temper suggest; a heavy mauling of this disrespectful mortal thing.

She left, simply, and then had nothing more to do than think about everything she had failed, including changing enough. It was better than being lectured by that disgrace.

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