Chapter 2a: Fight or Flight
Spring of 1426 ME
"…And done." Anon looked at the new fence surrounding Sharon's garden. Recently he had issues with rabbits and other pests trying to destroy her garden, so the two of them had decided to spend the day constructing a way to keep them out. Life had been peaceful ever since he had met Sharon. The two of them, while not having the relationship expected of a monster and a human, still enjoyed each other's company. Sharon had been living most of her life alone and Anon had been on the brink of death when she had found him.
"Thank you, Anon. If you were not already married, I would've taken you already." Sharon said wistfully, a smile with a hint of sadness on her face. "Where is your beloved, I wonder?"
"No idea." Anon had read that mamono would always be able to find their beloved once they had sex once, because of how they could sense mana. Yet for five whole months, Sharon and a few townspeople visiting them were the only people he had talked to. "Whoever they are, they've been taking a very long time to catch up to me. Do you think she, uh… is dead?" Anon asked, his voice weakening at the end of his sentence.
Sharon looked back at him with an expression of sadness. "Hel would not allow them to stay dead for long. Dragons will often rise as zombie dragons because they regret not finding someone they love during their life. She will be reunited with you, dead or alive."
"Well, that's reassuring. But it's still been a long time." Anon sighed. "On a lighter topic, is there anything you need me to get from the town? I'm in the mood to take a walk."
The unicorn nodded. "Do you think you could get us some fresh apples from the store in Aliville? We just ran out."
"Will do, see you later." Anon went back into the house and got ready to leave, picking up several bags as well as some coins. Waving goodbye to Sharon, he set off along the path.
The forest had changed to reflect the changing season. The birds were singing, having returned when winter ended. The bare, leafless trees of winter had mostly vanished, being replaced with numerous bright green leaves. Although the trees mostly shaded the forest floor from the sunlight, some of the sun's rays still managed to get through, forming a sort of light show with beams of sunlight reaching from the ground to the sky.
Anon noticed something he hadn't ever seen when he had left Sharon's house before. Some of the grass had been trampled, as if a large group of people had walked over it. He observed the trampled grass, and out of curiosity, followed it for as long as he could. Eventually, the path just ended, his destination being an inconspicuous tiny clearing in the forest. Not thinking much of it, he continued his trip to the town. Anon eventually reached the tree line that led to the path to Aliville.
"…Help…!"
Anon swerved around and observed the forest again. He swore he heard someone screaming. He knew foxes would usually make noises that sounded eerily like a human during the nighttime, but it was the middle of the day. There was also the possibility that a human had wandered too far from their home and gotten snatched by a grizzly or a werewolf looking for a husband, but very few mamono lived in the forest besides Sharon, and the town was rather far for someone to get lost while wandering around.
"It's the foxes. Yeah… The foxes." Anon reassured himself as he turned back around and began walking towards Aliville. Sharon would question where he had been if he was late. "No need to worry, maybe one's just having a bad day…"
About thirty minutes later, he arrived at Aliville. It was a small, quaint and neutral town that allowed mamono to live there peacefully. From talks with the shopkeepers there had been attempts by both mamono extremists from Lescatie and the Order to attempt to establish a foothold in the town, neither of them being successful. From what information Anon had gathered from the books, the Order weren't the kindest people, and the Extremists were, well, too extreme for his liking.
Walking to the usual vendor that sold fruits, he greeted the shopkeeper with a friendly wave. The shopkeeper, a bald man with a well-trimmed beard, immediately began to gather several apples and placed them in a bag for Anon to take home. Anon took the silver coins out of his pocket, dropping them in front of the shopkeeper.
"Apples again, Anon? You and Sharon go through these like no tomorrow."
"Yeah. Sharon especially. She said it's her favorite fruit. I'd be willing to bet that she spends most of the money she earns on buying apples."
"Well, by all means, keep buying them." The shopkeeper laughed. "Anyways, have you figured out your real name yet? 'Anon' is a weird name, no offense."
The shopkeeper's comment put a slight damper on Anon's mood. "No. Can we please not talk about that?"
"Fine, sorry about that. Here's your apples." He handed the bag to Anon and waved him off. As Anon was walking away, he heard yelling coming from a nearby street. Curiosity getting the better of him, he ran over to investigate. But as quickly as it started, it stopped. Dismissing it as a minor argument between two townspeople, he began the mostly uneventful trek home. As he reached the tree line again, he remembered the screaming he had heard. Part of him wanted to believe it was just a fox acting strange, but at the same time he felt something was wrong.
As he walked through the forest, it was quiet as it usually was, the chirping of a bird or a squirrel jumping through the trees breaking up the usual silence. Just as Anon was about to reach the clearing where Sharon's house would be, he heard something behind the usual forest ambience. It sounded like moaning.
He could no longer ignore the noises. Anon swore the voice earlier was calling for help, but he dismissed it as a coincidence. He ran towards the source of the noise, the moaning getting louder. It sounded like whoever was there was in pain. Anon pushed himself harder to get to the poor person.
Finally reaching the source of the noise, he was greeted by the disturbing sight of a hornet crawling on the ground, the mamono having several deep gashes on her legs, along with parts of her insect wings having tiny holes in them. "Are you…" Anon began to ask, then cut himself off. She was obviously not okay.
"They just came out of nowhere… You must help me!" The hornet wheezed out, reaching for his hand. Anon grabbed the hornet and hauled her over his shoulders. Sharon would be able to help heal her.
"Just hold on a little longer, I know a unicorn that can help you. Who did this to you?" Anon asked the injured hornet.
"The damn Order! They did this to me! I don't understand, there's no reason for them to be here!" The hornet choked out. Anon thought back to how Aliville had stopped the Chief God from forming any sort of foothold there. Is the Order retaliating? Are they upset that we turned them away?
"Sharon! I need your help, right now! I found an injured hornet on the way home, she's not looking good, and I think she's losing a lot of…" Anon yelled, when he realized that the front door was not only wide open, but it looked like someone had broken through it. The fence he had constructed had a hole torn in it. "Fuck…"
"Please! I can't stay conscious for much longer!" The hornet said, her voice becoming more of a whisper. Anon nodded, doubling his efforts to get to the house. Finally entering, there was no sign of Sharon anywhere. The dinner table was overturned and there was broken glass everywhere. The back door had been opened, and hoofprints in the dirt led out to the forest.
"Sharon!" Anon yelled as he ran in the direction Sharon had presumably gone in. As he was about to cross the doorway, someone appeared in the door. Anon looked up, and their eyes met for a moment. It was a man wearing a white jacket and light armor, with a gold and blue cross on his chest. He raised his fist and slammed Anon in the face, knocking him backwards and sending the hornet into the ground. Another person wearing similar clothing dragged the now unconscious hornet away by the legs.
"Where did the unicorn go!? Tell us, now!" Anon's assaulter roared at him, pressing his boot into the side of his head. Anon grunted in pain, not knowing how to answer. His eyes darted to a medium sized shard of glass lying a couple inches away.
"I…" Anon said, waiting for the right moment. "Don't…"
"Spit it ou-" Anon grabbed the glass shard and jabbed it through the man's pant leg. He screamed in pain and stumbled backwards. Anon quickly got to his feet and kicked him hard in the chest, sending him to the ground. Anon took a quick look around the area. The hornet was nowhere to be seen, and neither was Sharon. He was on his own.
Anon sprinted out of the house and back towards the town. The trampled grass and the screaming was a sign that something was wrong. If he could get back to town, he could get help and rescue Sharon. But it had taken him about thirty minutes to get out of the forest and another thirty to get to the town, taking two hours for a round trip. Anon wasn't willing to bet on Sharon lasting that long. Neither of them knew how to fight, really.
He looked at the sky. The sky had turned a beautiful orange, something he would've appreciated if he wasn't being hunted. Now, all he could think about is how he wouldn't be able to make it to the town before nightfall. Anon stopped at a tree to catch his breath, scanning the surrounding forest for his attackers. Listening closely, he could hear shouting in the distance. He needed somewhere to hide before they caught up to him.
Sunset gradually gave way to night, and in a cruel twist of irony, his stomach began growling and he began feeling thirsty. Anon laughed bitterly. He was back to where he was five months ago, starving to death in the forest. But it was even worse now that there were people trying to kill him.
"We lost him." He heard one of the soldiers say faintly in the background. "Well, he couldn't have gotten far. Both of you spread out and search." Their leader ordered. Anon quickly got up and began running as fast as he could in the opposite direction of the voices. But in his mad scramble to get away from his hunters, he had lost the path to the town.
Anon cursed himself. He had been planning to get help for Sharon from the town's guard. Now he didn't know where to go. He thought about yelling out for Sharon, but that would just get both of them killed. Walking some more in what he thought was the direction of Aliville, he came across a familiar place. The cave he had rested in, right before meeting Sharon, just as he had left it. There was even a small pile of leaves, where he had laid down to get some sleep. Quietly, Anon sneaked out of the cave to get some more leaves to replace the ones that had been blown out of the cave. Laying down, it was just as uncomfortable as he remembered it. It was not easy to sleep back then, and it was even harder to sleep right now. He found himself worrying over Sharon. He knew she was in danger yet if he went to find her in the state he was right now they would both be killed. She just needed to hold out a little longer while he regained his energy.
Just like five months ago, fatigue eventually won out, and Anon fell into an uneasy and restless sleep.
…
You're a monster? What kind?
Wow. I never would've guessed. You fooled everyone. But this doesn't change anything. We… No, I still have a job to do. So I'm kindly asking you not to get in my way.
…I knew you would say that. So be it!
…
Anon awoke, gasping. The dream he had was so vivid, yet he couldn't remember anything from it. From outside the cave, he could hear footsteps in the distance, slowly getting closer to the cave. Listening in, he could also hear voices.
"I found a cave. The monster sympathizer could be in there. I'm going to go check it out, you guys keep searching."
"Be careful, that bastard is resourceful. He managed to get the drop on poor Briggs. That guy is going to have a hard time walking from now on."
Anon could hear the footsteps getting closer and closer. He weighed his options, neither of which sounded very favorable to his situation. He could either play dead, or try to run. If he ran, the one Order soldier would call for help. Anon decided that he had to deal with this situation quietly. He dropped to the ground in the most convincing death pose he could muster, and began to hold his breath.
He could hear the Order soldier enter the cave as the sound of walking on grass changed to the sound of walking on stone. He quickly sprinted over, presumably standing over his body. Anon hoped that they wouldn't hear his heartbeat. He laid as motionless as he could and held his breath. Maybe if he played dead well enough, his visitor would just go away. The order soldier came closer and began poking and prodding at him with his boots. Anon began to feel his heart beat irregularly. The soldier took his sweet time, walking around him, looking around the cave. He eventually squatted down next to him, and started reaching his hand out to his chest.
As soon as he made contact, Anon opened his eyes and sprung up. He was met with a similar looking Order soldier to the one that had ambushed him in Sharon's house. The man was staring at him with an expression of shock, but quickly began to raise his sword. Anon reached out, and with a great deal of strength, wrenched it out of the man's hands. The man quickly retaliated by drawing his knife and slashing at his arm. Anon grunted in pain, and dropped the sword. The Order soldier attempted to retrieve his fallen weapon only for Anon to kick it across the cave behind him.
Growling, he took another slash at Anon, but Anon leapt out of the way. Grabbing hold of the man's knife arm he tried to pull it out of his hand, but the Order soldier kept his grip tight, grunting in exertion. Anon pushed him to the ground and tried to force the knife into the man's exposed neck. Slowly, the blade got closer and closer to the Order soldier's throat.
"Stop! You win, I'm sorry for attacking you." Anon refused to listen, intending to end the man's life.
"I know where the unicorn is! Please stop!" The Order soldier cried out desperately. Anon shook his head. He knew that Sharon had run in the opposite direction that he had. Pushing harder, the blade eventually pierced the man's throat. He let out a few gurgles, and his arms dropped to his sides. Anon let go of the knife and leaned against the side of the cave, realizing that he had just taken his first life. He now understood why monsters had developed weapons that could incapacitate someone without killing them. Anon stared at the dead body in a trance for a few minutes, trying to recover.
"Hey, you alright?" A voice came from outside the cave. "You've been in there for quite a while now. We need your help looking for the sympathizer." Anon quickly looked up, seeing a group of three people armed with spears and swords walk up to the cave entrance. His heart dropped.
One of the people charged forward and slammed his fist into Anon's face, pushing the already tired man onto the ground again. Anon saw the edges of his vision begin to turn black, as he felt the men lift him up by the legs and the arms and carry him out of the cave.
"The Order usually shows no mercy to those who murder one of our own. You are lucky we need you alive."
Anon was rudely awakened as a bucket of cold water drenched his face. He gasped in shock, shaking his head to get rid of the water. He looked around the room, noticing that he was tied to a chair. The only features of the room were a small gray table with two chairs in it, a candle providing a small amount of light to the room. Next to the table, was a barred window.
"Good morning." Anon turned and saw the man that he had stabbed in the leg earlier in the day, looking absolutely furious at him. A bandage covered his leg where Anon had stabbed him.
"You ally with monsters. You stab me in the leg. And worst of all, you killed my friend." The interrogator said angrily. "Like I said, you are lucky that the Order needs you for information. You have been quite the topic of discussion lately, Adrian Walker."
Several hours ago, Anon would've been happy at finding out his real name. Calling himself Anon just felt weird and unnatural. But now, he just wanted to get out alive.
"Let's get down to business, Adrian. First question. Where is the scroll?" The interrogator asked, staring at Adrian judgmentally.
"I don't know what you're talking about. What scroll-" The interrogator slapped Adrian across the face, cutting him off.
"You are the last one that was seen with the scroll. Why are you lying to us?!" The man yelled in his face. He got up from his chair and began strangling Adrian. "Tell us! Where did you hide it?"
Adrian tried to speak but all that came out was gurgling noises. He was going to die over something he had zero knowledge over. He shook his head desperately, trying to signal that he didn't know anything. The man simply began tightening his grip on his throat.
Suddenly, Adrian heard a loud bang come from somewhere outside of the room. The interrogator let go of his neck and walked over to the door. Alarmed shouts and sounds of conflict came from the hallway leading to the room.
"Damn it!" The interrogator exclaimed. "Don't think for a second that I'm done with you. Once I deal with whatever's out there I'm going to go right back to-" The door flung open, knocking the man to the ground. A deafening bang rang out, and the interrogator laid still.
Adrian turned his eyes to his savior. A woman wearing a dark red shirt with a black coat and backpack with brown trousers stood in the doorway, a smoking revolver in her hands. Adrian instinctively put his hands in the air.
"It's okay, I'm not here to hurt you." The woman walked to Adrian's chair and cut off the ropes tying Adrian to the chair. He rubbed his wrists, the skin raw from the rope pressing on it so tightly. He shook the woman's hand.
"Who are you?" Adrian asked, curious.
"My name is Saralyn. I came here to investigate a mysterious marker. It led straight to you." Saralyn introduced herself.
"Well… Thanks for saving me. I'm sorry, but I don't have any answers for you. I woke up five months ago in this forest with no idea of how I got there. I never even knew I had a marker on me."
Saralyn looked slightly disappointed at his answer. She shook her head, turning back to the unconscious interrogator. "That's a shame. I spent a long time traveling here. And speaking of 'here', this place is awful. They're keeping both monsters and humans in terrible conditions."
"Really? Most of the Order's military has a kill on sight policy for a majority of monsters. Why are they keeping monsters prisoner?" Adrian asked, confused.
"That's what I'm trying to figure out. I can't just leave these poor people here under these conditions. I want to do something."
Adrian suddenly remembered Sharon. "Did you happen to see a unicorn on your way here?"
Saralyn shook her head. "No, I haven't." Adrian sighed in relief. That meant Sharon had evaded capture, at least for the time being.
"Well, I want to blow the lid off this place. Deliver some justice to these zealots. You wanna help?"
Adrian nodded, despite also wanting to escape. "It'd be selfish of me not to."
Chapter 2b: Conspiracy
Aperia
Ophelia took a deep breath. Tomorrow would be a day that the Order would remember forever. The last time she had ever done anything like this was when she made the choice to abandon heaven for life on the surface. Unbeknownst to the public and any outsiders, she had been waging war on the Order for a long time now, sending her forces to destroy supply convoys and burn churches dedicated to the Chief God. But that would change, for the war on the Order was about to go public.
The Order was on the decline and Ophelia was fully aware of it. Every day, former citizens of the Order lined up at Aperia's gates to start a new life, stating that they wanted to see what monsters were like. Ophelia took it as a sign that the Order's lies were finally becoming less effective.
Ophelia heard yelling coming from the streets. Looking down, she saw two valkyries dragging a dark priest away and into a building, the dark priest screaming. The seraph sighed, shaking her head in annoyance. The acolytes of the Fallen God viewed Aperia as foolish, ignorant and in need of corruption to open their eyes to the "pleasures" of becoming a dark angel. Aperia had pushed back, resisting them every step of the way, yet, they were still losing good angels and valkyries to the menace of The Fallen God. It was a problem that made it difficult for Ophelia to relax.
"Now is not the time. I must prepare for the speech." Ophelia murmured to herself. She walked over to the mirror in her throne room. She pulled out a piece of paper, containing the contents of her speech about the war against the Order. She had rehearsed this several times, both in her head and out loud. Looking outside, it was late at night. Everyone had gone to bed, but not her.
Ophelia took a deep breath, and looked at the mirror. "Good morning, cherished citizens of Aperia…
"...And all we ask of you is that you have faith in our brave soldiers, heroes, and angels. We are on the verge of creating a better world, a world where priests and nobles do not abuse their power at their subjects' expenses. A world where corruption is stomped out at the first report. That is all. Thank all of you for coming." Ophelia finished her speech. She imagined the Aperians clapping and cheering her name.
"Hello, Ophelia."
Ophelia whirled around and looked around the throne room. Everyone, including a lot of the angels and valkyries, should have gone to bed, despite the fact that celestial beings didn't really need to sleep. Any visitors to Ophelia were required to knock and get permission before entering the throne room. A feeling of rage filled Ophelia's entire body as she realized who was talking.
"Fallen God. Get out of my head." She growled out, clenching her fists.
"All I want is for you to be happy. You want to be happy too, right? What you're doing right now is harming you and your fellow angels."
"You and I have very different definitions of happiness. I don't think becoming a shameless animal is happiness. Angels are meant to be graceful creatures, not an object for a man to act out all his fetishes on."
"But that would be fun, wouldn't it?" The Fallen God said, her voice dripping with filth. Ophelia shuddered slightly. "That man you turned away. He genuinely loved you, you know that right? The only reason Eros hasn't sent a cupid to shoot you with a lead arrow is because a doppelganger felt sympathy for him."
"Good for him." Ophelia remarked. "He was beginning to get on my nerves."
"Going dark isn't as bad as you think it is, Ophelia. You know that hero and dark valkyrie you banished earlier had been harboring feelings for each other for a long time. I simply gave them the push that they needed, and look at them now. They learned of the love, the happiness, the pleasure I could give them. And now, both of them are happy. They've even had their first child." Ophelia began clenching her fists so hard that they began to turn white.
"They broke the rules, so I punished them. And if you're trying to tempt me… You're going to have to try much, much harder than that, Fallen God. You and your followers will never be welcome in Aperia."
"My, so cold. You're a source of inspiration for ice queens all around the world." The Fallen God replied snarkily. "Well, you're a seraph. You've pretty much immortal. You have an infinite amount of time to come to your senses and realize what you're missing out on." With that, the Fallen God stopped talking. Ophelia sighed in relief, relishing the silence in her head. She walked over to one of the windows in her throne room and opened it, to let some fresh air inside.
A flash of green appeared in Ophelia's peripheral vision. Ophelia turned her head to one of the nearby buildings, and caught sight of a werewolf with green hair staring at her from a nearby building. A telescope was placed near the window, looking directly into her throne room. The two made eye contact for a brief moment. Then, the werewolf turned heel and began sprinting as fast as she could away from the window.
Ophelia growled and immediately jumped out of the window to pursue the werewolf. She stretched out her wings and launched herself from her castle to the window where the werewolf was spying on her. Numerous notes were scattered around. Ophelia picked one of them up, only to immediately crumple it up and toss it to the side. They had been spying on her, taking notes on her routine.
The seraph spotted the werewolf on top of one of the buildings, deftly jumping from roof to roof. Ophelia launched herself in the air once more, this time firing a bolt of holy energy with the intent to incapacitate the spy. The canine monster rolled to the side, the beam missing her by mere inches.
Ophelia screamed in frustration. She refused to potentially harm anyone by using explosive spells. Clearing her mind and focusing on the target, she launched herself at insane speeds at the werewolf. Making contact, she put her boot on the monster's head.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"Mimil, now!" The werewolf shouted. She was suddenly surrounded by white particles, and vanished.
Ophelia was livid. She recognized that name. She was one of Lescatie's heroes, before it had fallen to monsters. Extremists. Extremists had somehow managed to get into Aperia. Ophelia's mind raced. Why?
The werewolf had also seemed rather familiar at first contact. One of Lescatie's heroes had green hair, a half-elf archer by the name of…
"Primera Concerto."
Ophelia knew she had to get to the bottom of this before she gave her speech. She refused to let the Lescatians spy on her and ruin everything when victory was this close to being achieved. Focusing her energy again, she began to send out telepathic commands to several of her valkyries and angels.
"Valkyrie Cassandra, spread word that I'm delaying the speech by several days. Something unexpected has come up."
"Increase the security by the gates. Use cloaking spells to trail and survey anyone who you suspect to be an extremist. Make sure to be on the lookout for a green haired werewolf and a pink haired witch."
"Valkyrie Novak, make sure to watch the areas of Aperia that have high concentrations of mamono closely. Apprehend anyone that appears to be collecting information on what I'm doing. We cannot afford to have spies ruin our plan when we are this close to achieving our goal."
Ophelia finished communicating to everyone she needed. Her plan needed to move forward and she was not going to let anything or anyone get in the way of it.
Lescatie
Primera Concerto and Mimil Miltie reappeared in Lescatie's College of Sorcery. Primera rubbed the side of her head where Ophelia had been stepping on her gingerly. Mimil gently pulled her hand away and began casting a minor healing spell. The bruise slowly shrunk and then vanished completely.
"Too close, Primera. What did I tell you about spying on beings with near godlike power?" Mimil chastises Primera.
"I simply wanted to get a better look at what she was doing. I heard her talking to someone, but there was nobody in the room with her. Plus, I didn't think she would see me." Primera responded.
"And what was she saying? Not all of us have werewolf hearing."
"Something about moving on from her friendship." the half-elf half werewolf responded.
"How exactly are we going to use that to shut down whatever she's planning?" Mimil asked, irritated. She stared at the ceiling in contemplation.
Primera let out a sigh. "Listen, I'll make sense of it later. I just want to cuddle with Elt. Tell Druella to wait for me, I'm going to blow off some steam."
"Well, good luck with that. Wilmarina and Francisca have been hogging him lately. Tell them that they're not the only ones who love him."
Primera walked out of the college and out onto the roads of Lescatie. The city was quite dark, a stark contrast to the bright sunlight of Aperia. The ludicrous amounts of mamono mana in the sky blocked most of the sun's rays from reaching the city. For some reason, it was brighter at night than it was during the day. When she had first become a werewolf, this was somewhat annoying for her to adjust to.
Speaking of which, it had been 30 years since she had been turned into a mamono. Time flew when she was enjoying herself, or when she was in Pandemonium, or when she was in Pandemonium enjoying herself. She had even become friends with the werewolf that had turned her.
Primera began a slow jog towards Druella's palace, which slowly became a full sprint. Elt was close by, and she needed him. Badly. She entered the palace, waving at the kikimora and shoggoth maids as she ran through the hallways. Eventually she reached the large room where her fellow wives and Elt did most of their lovemaking. Knocking on the door, she waited a couple seconds and then came in.
As Mimil had predicted, Wilmarina and Francisca were enjoying themselves with Elt. The rest of Elt's brides let this slide as the three of them had been childhood friends. Yet, Primera couldn't help but feel just a little jealous.
"Mind if I join in? I've had a hard day." She asked with no shame whatsoever.