Mystic Heart Odyssey

Part 5: The Cult of the Crimson Isles

Chapter 20

Time to take down a demonic duo!

-Llox

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After everyone finished eating, they began to pack up, albeit somewhat reluctantly. Aside from Kuna’s nightmare, the stay in the remote cave had been relatively pleasant compared to the previous night. But as much as the group enjoyed just spending time together, chatting and goofing around, they knew they couldn’t stall forever. They had a shrine to reach, and a mission to complete.

Fortunately, despite his upsetting dream, Kuna had managed to get enough rest to more or less recover his energy- although he knew his life essence was still on the low side and would take longer to replenish no matter what. Still, with a deep breath, he set out from the cave and, while waiting for the others, searched the ground nearby. It took him some time, but when everyone else had left the cave, he finally spotted a suitable branch and picked it up to use as a walking stick.

Their food was starting to get low. All of it managed to fit into one basket. On the bright side, that meant that they could stack together. Kani ended up carrying them on her own, leaving Kalei’s hands free. He ended up grabbing a walking stick along the way as well, shortly after they all started their hike.

Sunshine flew up high in order to survey their surroundings. Over the next few hours, the group continued to climb the mountain, with the kikomanu helping them to stay on track. It was by far the most challenging part of their hike so far, especially given that they’d moved around to the steepest and trickiest part of the mountain to climb in order to find the cave the previous night and avoid detection. They ended up having to zig-zag their way up even more than usual, winding around various sheer cliffs.

Eventually, they finally reached their destination. They weren’t at the shrine itself yet, obviously, but Sunshine swooped down to let them know they were close. Everyone stood by while Kalei crept up past a rock outcropping and peered around a patch of bushes. When he came back, he confirmed that he could just see the shrine complex in the distance.

“We better get a closer look. We need to know how many guards they have on patrol before we plan out the attack,” Lykou said. “There’s probably a bunch of them, so we’ll have to be extra careful.”

“I don’t know about that,” Kalei responded. “They probably think this is the last place the three of us would come. After all, you two are the first ones to have ever escaped, as far as I’m aware. They’ve probably sent as many people as possible out looking for us all round the island, especially down near the coast.”

“Unless they’ve spoken to Anaru’s group by now, or something,” Kuna pointed out. “It seems like they managed to get word around the island shockingly quick.”

“Not to mention they seem to get around fast, too,” Lykou added. “From the shrine to the coast, to where we camped the night before last, in such a short time- that’s just suspicious.”

“Maybe,” Kalei replied. “But remember, they’re using the trails to get up and down the mountain, and don’t have to avoid villages. And they’re under a lot of pressure now to find us, so they’re probably not taking breaks unless absolutely necessary.”

“I just find it strange that it was Anaru’s group that just happened to come across us down there,” Kuna said.

Hoku frowned. “Honestly, I think he was starting to suspect I was in contact with you anyway. It’s possible he was searching around near my place again and saw us leaving through the woods when we set out. Otherwise though, yeah… that is strange. Wish we’d thought to ask him when we had the chance.”

“Well either way, that’s not important right now. Point is, we need to get a closer look so we can plan things out,” Lykou said. “I’ll scout off around the left side of the village.”

“I’ll follow along and help,” Kuna said. Lykou opened his mouth to object, but the sereva shot him a look that made it clear he wouldn’t take no for an answer, so he just smiled.

“Alright, just be careful.”

“Hoku and I can scout the right side, then!” Kani announced, then dug out Kalei’s old cloak and threw it on. Lykou had gone back to wearing his old shirt, now that it’d been fixed up a bit. “I’ll take the lead, just watch my back.”

Hoku arched a brow in amusement. “What, think you can pull off pretending to be one of them if they spot you?”

“Sure, why not?” Kani said, then made a face and altered her voice a bit. “Praise Tuimana! He’s definitely not a demon! Oh hi mister Speaker, don’t mind me- I’m just on my way to my fifty-seventh prayer of the day at the shrine!”

Kalei smirked and rolled his eyes. Hoku snorted and snickered. “Oh yeah, you’ve definitely got it worked out...”

“Right, well… on that note, I guess I’ll... what, stay somewhere in the middle and just keep an eye on things?” Kalei pondered.

Lykou nodded. “Sounds good. You can make sure none of them come scouting out this way towards our stuff. Sunny, mind helping with an overhead view?”

Sunshine whistled and clicked in affirmation.

“Alright, let’s go then. We’ll meet back here after we’ve scouted around, okay? Take your time, move slow- we don’t want to alert anyone ahead of time,” Lykou said, to which the others all agreed. The group then split up to begin their little scouting trek.

*****

Lykou crept up to the left side of the village. Much to his chagrin, he found himself near the building that’d previously held him as a prisoner. It’d been damaged by the rock-slide like several others, but not as much. On the other hand, it didn’t look like they’d gotten around to starting repairs on it either, choosing to prioritize the others first. The meal hall was also nearby, and looked to have avoided any damage at all, despite its size, thanks to other buildings catching the brunt of the disaster before the debris could reach it.

Since the holding cell was clearly not in use, there was no guard stationed outside. In fact, there was a surprising lack of any Order presence around that side of the village, though it occurred to the konuul that there may have been more in the meal hall itself, especially with noon approaching. Still, it was relatively quiet. He glanced back over his shoulder and waved Kuna over.

The sereva had been standing a few yards back, focusing on sensing for any approaching guards that might be patrolling the village perimeter. When he saw his friend gesturing for him, he peered around one more time before creeping over, keeping a low profile in the brush at the edge of the village.

“Can you use your magic to tell how many are in there?” Lykou asked in a very hushed voice, gesturing to the larger building.

“Sure, hang on,” Kuna replied, then closed his eyes and concentrated. After a few minutes, he re-opened them. “...not many, actually. Three, four… maybe five at most. Most of them are clustered in the middle, but there’s one at the back.”

“Strange. Would have thought there’d be more this time of day…”

“These ones are probably getting lunch ready for the rest. Still not quite noon, you know?”

“Maybe… or maybe they’re taking turns getting lunch in small groups.”

Kuna rubbed his chin. “That’s a good point.”

“Hey, that works in our favor though. Should be easier to ambush them bit by bit.”

“...that’s also a good point.”

“Alright. Lets scout around back a bit, then join back with the others.”

*****

Kani’s ‘stealth’ mode was a bit more style than substance- she bolted between bushes with an exaggerated ‘sneaky’ posture until she got near the edge of the village. Still, she thankfully managed to avoid detection regardless. Hoku crept along a half dozen yards behind her, anxiously keeping an eye out for any patrolling guards that might get close. Truth be told, she’d wished their positions would be swapped- she didn’t have the highest confidence in her friend’s stealth abilities. Still, things were going well so far.

When they got close enough, Kani started peering around the camp gathered in front of some of the larger buildings of the village. She could see the damaged shrine building in the distance. Another large building sat closer, with significant damage to its rear. As they slowly made their way around the edge of the village, she finally caught a glimpse inside through a large whole in the wall, where she could just make out a bed half-buried under a pile of rock and dirt, suggesting that it was some kind of barracks for the Order members. “No wonder they’re all camping out here,” Kani quietly mused to herself.

“Yeah,” Hoku agreed, startling her. She quickly clasped a hand over her excitable friend’s mouth before she could make a sound. “Shh!”

“I thought you were gonna stay back there and watch my back?” Kani whispered, after Hoku removed her hand.

“I was. Which is why I’m here now,” Hoku said, looking off to the side. “Someone’s headed this way, so we have to keep moving. There’s another building back away from the rest of the village, kind of strange looking. We can duck behind it if we need to, but I want to get a closer look.”

“’kay!” Kani said, pulling off a playful salute before slipping off in that direction with Hoku close behind.

The brush was getting more spaced apart the further they went, but fortunately the further they got from the shrine building and the barracks, the fewer raptuva they saw. Eventually, well away from the rest of the village, they came to the somewhat ominous-looking all-stone building Hoku had seen in the distance. It had no windows from what they could see, other than a few thin skylights in the dome-shaped roof. Being so far out, it was of course completely untouched by the rockslide. There also didn’t appear to be any raptuva nearby.

Hoku didn’t know why, but she felt the need to check it out. So after having Kani stand watch nearby, she approached the ominously heavy-looking door. Fortunately, it was facing away from the rest of the village, so she didn’t have to worry about someone seeing her in the distance as she did so. She listened at the door for a moment, then slowly, with some effort, opened it and peeked inside. With the dim lighting, she couldn’t see anything, so she opened it a little further and peeked her head inside. Her eyes widened when she finally got a look at the interior.

The single room that took up the entire building was dimly lit only by the skylights. It was dark, quiet, stark, and lonely. Even the ground was smooth stone, as if even the relative comfort of dirt and grass was forbidden from entering. It was a place meant to represent one thing- a lack of hope. Despair, and nothing else. But what really caught her attention, was the cage in the middle of the room.

Lykou and Kuna’s explanation of their ordeal came back to her, and she realized she was looking at the place Kuna had been held before he was to be taken for… ‘purification’.

She quickly drew back out and rejoined Kani, frowning deeply. “Let’s go.”

“Wait, what’s in there?” Kani asked curiously. “Is it some kind of storage thing? Maybe there’s something useful we c-”

“No. Let’s just go,” Hoku insisted, leaving without waiting for her friend. The thought of Kuna waking up in that dark, isolated place, and waiting to be taken to his doom, weighed on her mind. It was made that much worse when she considered how many others had shared a similar fate, and not been fortunate enough to escape. Meaning that miserable, awful room was the last they’d ever sleep in.

Kani was a bit startled by her friend’s shift in demeanor, and hurried after her. “Wait! What is it, Hoku?” she asked with concern. “Are you okay?”

“…I’ll be fine. The sooner we destroy those bastards, the better,” Hoku replied, leading her further into the woods so they could circle back around the village without the risk of running into any patrolling guards. When they were far enough away, she paused and took a deep breath. “Sorry, just… I’ve never seen a building I’d call ‘evil’ before. But that…” she trailed off and shuddered. “To think, they kept poor Kuna in there… and all the others they’ve… taken.”

“Really?” Kani asked, arching a brow. “That bad, huh?”

Hoku held herself and rubbed her arms, though it wasn’t from the cool mountain breeze. “I don’t know if it was all in my head, or if there’s actual magic there. But just looking inside, it felt like it was trying to suck the joy and hope right out of me.”

“Damn, Hoku…” Kani replied, frowning. After a moment, she pulled her into a hug. “You gonna be alright?”

Hoku nodded, returning the embrace slightly. “If anything this just gives me all the more motivation to end their lies once and for all. I don’t want another single person to be stuck in that cage, in that room, ever again. When this is over, we’ve got to find a way to destroy that place.”

*****

“So did anyone see Kairangi anywhere?” Lykou asked after the group met back up.

“Not on our side,” Hoku replied.

“He must be up at the peak again or something,” Kalei suggested.

“Good. That’ll give us time to set things up. Kuna and I checked the meal hall, and it looks like they might be eating in small shifts.”

“That’d make sense from what Sunny and I saw,” Kalei said. “I took a look at the area near the shrine itself. Looks like they’re staying pretty busy working on the shrine. They’re camped out in front of the building and from the look of things, they’ve been staying pretty busy. Probably on edge, too- the overseers and high watchers running the others ragged. It’s obvious they’re pissed that you guys got away.”

“So everyone is stressed, exhausted, and going to the meal hall in small groups,” Hoku observed. “Sounds like it all should work out in our favor.”

“Not to mention there’s less of them than I would have expected,” Lykou conceded, glancing at Kalei. “Looks like you were right. Most of the ones here are more worried about fixing things up than watching for us.”

“I figured they would. We’d have to be insane to escape, just to come right back, right?” Kalei said with a smirk.

“The tents and such also obscure things a bit so we have more obstacles to hide behind,” Kuna pointed out.

“Or stuff them into once they’re bound up,” Lykou added.

“So I guess we should-eep!” Kuna started, then yelped in mild surprise when Hoku suddenly grabbed him into a hug. “Uh… hi?” he said with an awkward smile.

“Sorry, just,” Hoku said, pulling away after a moment with sheepish expression. “I saw the place they uh… kept you.”

“Oh. Yeah,” Kuna said, then shivered slightly. “Pretty bleak place.”

“That’s putting it mildly. You think they have some kind of magic over it?”

“Er… I… don’t know? Why?”

“Yeah, did you see something odd?” Lykou chimed in.

“I just… I got to peek inside and maybe it’s just in my head, but I’ve never seen a room that felt so… I don’t know, evil before. I felt like it was trying to make me feel hopeless somehow.”

Kuna deflated a bit. “To be fair, I already felt a bit like that at the time, so I guess I wouldn’t have noticed.”

Lykou quickly embraced the sereva. “Well, thank fuck we fixed that.”

“You can say that again,” Hoku said, placing a hand gently on Kuna’s shoulder. “I’m glad you got away. We have to find a way to destroy that place after we deal with Kairangi and Tuimana.”

“Sounds good to me,” Kuna replied, his smile returning.

“On that note, let’s get down to it,” Kalei interjected. “I assume we’re going to start with the ones going to lunch?”

“Makes sense to me. They’ll be hungry and tired, so they’ll be easy to grab! Heck, they might even appreciate the excuse to stop working for a while,” Kani said with a smirk.

“Honestly, with the initiates at least, that’s entirely possible,” Kalei agreed.

“Still, we should be careful. Once a few groups fail to return from lunch, they’re bound to get suspicious,” Kuna pointed out. “We should probably pick off one or two guards first. They’re patrolling individually, so they should be even easier than the lunch groups.”

“Sounds reasonable. Only saw the one on our end, how many did you guys see?” Lykou asked the girls.

“Same thing. Seems like almost everyone is focused around the middle right now, with the shrine and such.”

“Yeah, there were a couple guards keeping watch there,” Kalei pointed out. “But almost everyone is involved with grunt work right now, mostly repairs. Well, that or… ‘supervising’,” he added, frowning at the word. “You know, Tane-style.”

“Sounds like they’ll be exhausted alright,” Kuna said, arching a brow. “You and Kani might even be onto something about them not putting up much of a fight.”

“Still, we can’t take any risks. When you grab someone, make sure they can’t call out to the others before worrying about anything else.”

“Alright. So. We’ll start by the meal hall and capture the guard there. Between Kuna and I, we should be able to bind him up before he can even let out a peep,” Lykou said. “The rest of you start setting up an ambush for the first lunch group. Remember to gag them quickly.”

“Sunshine can keep watch from above,” Kani said, then smiled at the bird. “Right Sunny?”

The kikomanu bobbed his head and clicked.

“And remember, once we start, we have to move quick,” Lykou reminded everyone. “Be as sneaky as possible. Everyone ready?”

“Yep!” Kani eagerly responded.

Kuna nodded silently and glanced around at the others.

“As much as I can be,” Kalei said, then took a deep breath.

“Let’s do this,” Hoku said, steeling herself.

Sunshine whistled and took off, leading the way.

*****

The first guard ended up being almost laughably easy. As he rounded the corner at the back end of the meal hall, a root that he didn’t remember being there before tripped him and he fell face-first into the dirt. Before he could get up, Lykou had pounced on him and tied a vine around his snout, while Kuna used his magic to bind the rest of him. He grunted and squirmed, but before he knew it, he was almost completely buried in vines and roots. He never even saw his attackers by the time even his eyes were covered up.

Meanwhile, Hoku, Kani, and Kalei waited around the corner near the front of the meal hall with lengths of thick vine and patches of makeshift fabric they’d collected ahead of time. When the first group of raptuva left the meal hall to return to work, the trio waited for them to finish filing out before ambushing them from behind. There were four of them, however, and when the one at the front turned to see what the commotion was, his eyes widened when he saw his friends being bound up.

Luckily, Kani proved to be surprisingly fast and tackled him right as he was about to cry out, toppling him to the ground and knocking the breath out of him. Her previous target had her mouth bound up, but her hands were still free, so she was trying to tug the gag off. Sunshine swooped down and quickly distracted her with a blue of scratching, nipping confusion.

Once Kalei had his target sufficiently tied up, he hurried over to Sunshine’s victim and quickly bound her arms and legs. Once all four of their victims were tied up and squirming on the ground, the trio dragged them off to hide in the prison building that’d previously held Lykou during his last visit. The back end was damaged and unusable, but the front still had enough space to hide their squirming captives for the time being.

Lykou and Kuna met up with them to check in on things. With the guard out of the way, all five were able to work together on the next group that came along, making things even easier. By the time that group was tucked away, however, the little prison building was full- or at least, as full as they wanted to make it. They weren’t cruel, after all.

So when a guard came to investigate why the first group hadn’t returned from lunch, she was quickly captured and temporarily tucked away around the corner. A short time later, the cook exited the building to look into where the next lunch group was. Then, after he was captured, they were both brought back into the meal hall and left in the back storage room.

The next meal group similarly ended up tied up in the meal hall. But after that, the group of stealthy abductors decided to press onward, knowing their next targets would be getting quite suspicious by that point. Kalei and Hoku crept around the back of the encampment, standing by as backup while Lykou and Kuna crept around the front and started ambushing isolated raptuva, one at a time, and stuffing them into the closest tent or other hiding spot they could find. Feeling somewhat bad for them, Kuna uttered hushed apologies to them on occasion, letting them know it was just a temporary situation, for whatever comfort it might bring them. Kani crept along the middle, occasionally serving as a sudden distraction right before another victim suddenly found themselves wrapped up in vines and, occasionally, whatever blankets and similar materials they found laying around.

The work force’s fatigue definitely worked in their favor. Other than the two or three other guards that remained, an overseer, and a couple of high watchers, most individuals went down relatively easily. The guards and the overseer put up a fight, however, and one finally managed to shout out and raise the alarm, causing a full-on fight to break out. The three of them, combined with the remaining work force, outnumbered the five attackers by more than double, but fortunately most of the workers were not good fighters, and their fatigue made them even less of a problem.

After a bit of chaos, the workers, guards, and one of the high watchers had all been bound up. The remaining two individuals shared a look, then split off in different directions. Sunshine swooped down and attacked the watcher before she could escape down the trail that led down the mountain to another village, just long enough for Kani and Kalei to run over and tackle her to the ground. Meanwhile, Lykou tackled the overseer as he fled to the trail up to the peak, and Kuna used his magic to bind up him up.

Finally, after a quick search around the village, the group determined that they’d managed to capture everyone and tuck them away somewhere. They all breathed a sigh of relief and took a moment to rest up and even steal some food and drink from the meal hall- though they were considerate enough to consume it out of sight of any of their captives. After taking the time to recover a bit, they finished dragging the rest of their captives out of the camp and into the meal hall. All except for one- the overseer that’d been running, presumably, to fetch Kairangi.

When the rest were tucked away, the group met up in front of the shrine, by the front door. “Alright, go ahead and release him. By the time he fetches Kairangi and gets back, we should be ready for them,” Lykou said.

Kuna nodded and crept around through the camp, then ducked behind a tent. The overseer was thrashing around in the vines that bound him to the ground. He’d intentionally left the vines a little looser than a lot of the others. And now that they were ready, he used his magic to subtly weaken and loosen them further, gradually making it seem like the overseer’s own efforts were working. After a few minutes, the Overseer had managed to break free and get up. As they’d all hoped, he immediately bolted for the trail again and ran off to seek the cult’s leader.

After watching him go, Kuna returned to the others and informed them.

“Alright, time to get busy,” Hoku said, then looked around. “Where should we set it?”

Kuna glanced around, then down at their feet. “Here seems as good as any place. But I was thinking we should each make a separate circle, that way we have a backup.”

“Makes sense to me. We might just get in the way and confuse each other anyway,” Hoku agreed. “So one here in front of the door? Where should we put the other one?”

“What about inside?” Lykou suggested, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “No reason it has to be outside, right?”

“Er. The floor will be harder to make the marks in,” Kuna pointed out, a bit uncertainly.

“Maybe, but you can borrow my knife for it. Should also make them harder to accidentally scuff in the confusion.”

“Good point. Alright, so,” Kuna said, turning back to Hoku. “I’ll do the inside, you do the outside?”

“Works for me.”

“Alright, the rest of us should keep watch for any signs of trouble,” Lykou suggested.

After borrowing Lykou’s blade, Kuna went inside and began etching the symbols he and Hoku had practiced the other night in a circle in the main chamber of the shrine- after first moving some debris and junk out of the way. Hoku, meanwhile, did likewise right outside the shrine’s entrance. Lykou kept watch on one side of the village, while Kani patrolled the other. Kalei guarded the edge of the encampment in front of the shrine, making sure nobody showed up from the trail down the mountain and attacked their magical friends while they were preoccupied. Sunshine circled around in the sky overhead.

Hoku finished first, using a pelenock-tooth knife she’d grabbed from one of the guards to make sure the markings were etched deeply into the dry earth. It was surprisingly tiring work, but when it was done, she was reasonably confident that they weren’t likely to be easily scuffed away. She then set about lightly covering them up with debris, to keep them hidden from sight.

In the shrine, Kuna grunted and grit his teeth as he carved the symbols in the floor, sending occasional sparks up from Lykou’s knife as he went. The stone floor was considerably harder to cut than the earth outside, and the markings weren’t nearly as deep. But at least he knew they’d be harder to mess up in any potential fight, too. Hoku came in to check on him just as he was finished the last symbol, then helped him use various junk to hide them. With that out of the way, he breathed a sigh of relief and leaned against the wall. “Well… now we just have to wait.”

“Yeah… hopefully it won’t be too long,” Hoku said, sighing heavily.

“Depends on how far up the mountain Kairangi is, and how quick he comes down. I just hope he doesn’t suspect anything.”

Hoku frowned. “Let’s just… try and be optimistic.”

Kuna nodded slightly. “Considering the stakes? Yeah.”

Kalei opened the door and peeked in. “I take it you two are finished?”

“Yeah,” Kuna confirmed. “Mind letting the others know?”

“Sure.”

Soon, everyone had gathered back inside the shrine building. The main chamber was better lit than the rest- even with the repairs, there was still a lot of extra light coming in from gaps in the wall at the back. Still, the building offered precious obscurity so that any raptuva that approached the village wouldn’t immediately see them.

“Hey… we should prep this place for a fight, just in case,” Kalei suddenly suggested. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the Speaker had a group with him up there, so it may not just be him and that overseer that come back down.”

“What did you have in mind?” Lykou asked, curious.

Kalei looked around and thought for a minute. “Well, for one, there’s a loose window in the one room. I suggest we make sure they’re all loose, in case we have to pop through them suddenly.”

“Sounds good to me. I’ll take the right hall,” Hoku volunteered.

“I’ll take the other one, then,” Kani said. “Anyone see another one of those fancy pelenock-knives around here?”

“Sure, there’s plenty scattered around the camp out there,” Kuna pointed out.

“Remember, we just want them loose, not obviously damaged,” Kalei reminded the two before they walked off.

“Got it!”

“Hey, while we’re here, can you show us the room you stored our stuff in here?” Lykou asked. “I’d like to go ahead and grab it while we have some time, assuming nobody did anything with it.”

“Sure. Plus, we can see if there are any other useful supplies in there.”

*****

A while later, after their work had been completed, the group sat in uncomfortable silence, waiting. By that point, they’d made sure each of them had a pelenock knife or dagger either in their hand or sheathed at their side. Lykou had changed back into his more durable armored shirt and kilt that he’d gotten in Clovaria. He and Kuna both had been pleased to find the rest of their belongings in tact and set them in a secluded spot in one of the side-rooms for the time being. After patrolling around a bit, the group hunkered down in the shrine building while they waited, with Sunshine waiting outside to keep watch from the roof.

The hours ticked away agonizingly slow. They felt a bit bad about their captives being bound up for all that time, but at least most of them had long since given up trying to escape. Most of them had, in fact, opted to take the opportunity to doze off, even if they were in far from the most comfortable situations. As worn out as they were, it didn’t surprise their captors much.

Kani started pacing anxiously. Hoku practiced grasping her soul magic, wanting to be ready to do so at a moment’s notice when the time came, just in case Kuna couldn’t activate the runes in time. Kuna meditated to steel his nerves. Kalei and Lykou had opted to return to the storage room and rummage around a bit more, eventually finding some shields, clubs, and spears buried under other junk that the group could use, just in case.

Afterwards, Kalei settled into one of the side-rooms adjacent to the main chamber, to keep watch through the window, while Lykou went to sit with Kuna.

Finally, around mid-afternoon, Sunshine dipped back into the building and whistled to get everyone’s attention. “Kairangi coming!”

Everyone straightened up and mentally prepared themselves. “Alright, let’s-”

“Shit, they’re not the only ones,” Kalei called out. “Looks like they got some reinforcements coming through the camp! They must have come up the lower trail from one of the other villages...”

“Dammit,” Lykou swore, getting up and rubbing his neck. “Alright. We’ll have to be extra careful then. Everyone lay low- they don’t know for sure where we are yet.”

The group huddled together and quietly discussed the plan, occasionally shooting wary looks at the door. Afterwards, Kalei returned to the room he’d been in, activating the bracers on his arms, since Kuna insisted he hang onto them for the time being. Kani entered the room next to Kalei’s, wielding a club and a small shield- more of a buckler, really. Lykou activated his own bracers and slipped into a room on the other side of the central chamber, ducking down near the window. Lykou and Kuna, meanwhile, stood against the wall on either side of the door.

The group all listened carefully as Kairangi approached the shrine building and soon began barking out orders to the gathered group. In addition to the overseer, the reinforcements had brought a dozen more armed watchers to join him. One of them informed the Speaker that message had been sent further down the mountain and more reinforcements would be arriving soon.

“Good,” Kairangi’s voice replied shortly. “You three, check the barracks. And you three check the meal hall. Report back if you see anything, don’t try to take them on your own,” he snapped out. “The rest of you, with me.”

Peeking out of the corner of the window, Lykou could see the group approaching the door, with Kairangi stalking along, surrounded by armed guards. He backed out of the room momentarily and signaled Kuna and Hoku, then returned to the room and waited until the group was right outside. Suddenly, he burst out of the window and attacked the nearest raptuva, tackling her to the ground. His fist hauled around to slam into another one’s face just as they were lunging forward to aid their comrade.

Hearing the commotion, Kalei and Makani likewise burst out of their rooms and each picked a fight with another guard. Sunshine swooped down and started causing chaos and confusion by flitting around, pecking and scratching at any enemy he got near- except for Kairangi.

The Speaker himself quickly dodged and weaved his way out of the fray, backing away from the shrine- or at least he tried. Suddenly, the door burst open and Kuna conjured a set of roots around his legs, nearly tripping him. As one of the other guards lunged at him, they suddenly dropped their weapon and started frantically stumbling around as a stream of water swept up from a nearby water jug and surrounded their head, trying to force its way up their nose. Hoku nodded at the sereva, then tripped the drowning guard to the ground, where Kuna quickly tied him up in vines.

Kairangi glanced around, then grinned. “Good to see you again, boys,” he said, then raised his hands. “And you brought some friends this time, I see. Good, good… the more the merrier.”

“Awful cocky for someone who’s-” Kalei started, then grunted and threw off another guard that’d tried to tackle him. “Losing!” He then swung his heavy wooden fist down onto the attacker’s head with a loud ‘thud’.

“Oh, my foolish little traitor,” Kalei mocked him. “You really know nothing.” Suddenly, where bloody spots had splattered from the fight all over the dirt, thorny, twisted vines sprouted up and started lashing out at the group. At the same time, having heard the commotion, the other two groups he’d previously sent off to search other areas of the village came rushing back to join the fray.

As much as Kuna wanted to focus on the bastard, he knew he had to play things smart. So for the time being, he worked on using his magic to tie up the guards as quickly as the others could knock them down.

Hoku, on the other hand, had no such hesitation. She wanted him to pay for all the suffering he’d caused. Using her magic, she drew more water to the Speaker and attempted to start drowning him just like she’d done to the guard. Much to her surprise, he seemed unphased and just arched a brow at her from in the rippling, watery orb.

Suddenly, she noticed one of the bound up guards shuddering and gasping on the ground. She quickly withdrew the water, realizing that somehow the two were connected, though she didn’t understand how.

“As a leader, it’s always good to keep close ties with those that serve under you,” Kairangi said ominously, winking at her. Suddenly some vines shot up and ensnared her. She shouted obscenities at him as she tugged at the thorny bindings.

After trapping another guard, Kuna looked over to check on her, then glared at Kairangi. “Let her go, bastard!”

“Hmm… nah,” the speaker taunted. Hoku cried out as the vines squeezed down on her more.

Kuna dismissed the green aura and drew the pelenock dagger at his side.

“Kuna, no!” Hoku cried out, then grunted in pain as she vines clenched tighter. “His… blood… magic!”

Seeming to not listen, the sereva lunged at Kairangi- only to ‘trip’ on one of the vines holding Hoku and send the knife flying out of his hand, landing at the speaker’s feet.

“Oopsie! Bit clumsy, aren’t we?” the speaker taunted, then cackled and bent down to pick up the knife. “You shouldn’t steal peoples’ things, you know!”

Kuna scowled at him as he started picking himself up- and discretely conjuring up his soul magic just enough to imbue the runes hidden under the broad leaf he’d landed on. But then he noticed some unexpected resistance- much to his chagrin, it seemed that some of the runes had been scuffed slightly in the fight despite how deeply Hoku had etched them. So instead he called out to the others and picked up another fallen knife to start hacking away at the vines holding Hoku up. She did her best to focus on the blurry band of water as she whipped it around to try and confuse and distract anyone that got too close.

The others fought their way over to join them. The two groups Kairangi had sent off to check other areas of the compound returned, with one of them bringing along some freed guards. Kairangi stood back, laughing as he watched them frantically trying to fight their way back into the shrine they’d just burst out of. Once Lykou had helped Kuna free Hoku, the group rushed back inside and Sunshine flew off somewhere out of sight.

Lykou, Kalei and Kani slammed the door shut behind them and worked to hold it shut as guards pounded on it from the other side. Knowing they didn’t have much time, Kuna bent down to imbue the runes inside. Just as he did so, the door burst open, sending the other three stumbling back into the main chamber. Hoku looked around and grabbed the nearest objects she could- various decorative urns, candle holders, and repair tools- and started throwing them at their attackers while Lykou, Kalei, and Kani fought to keep them at bay. It looked like still more reinforcements had arrived, meaning they were now massively outnumbered, even with the eight or so individuals Kuna had previously managed to bind up.

Kuna was soon surrounded as the sheer number of attackers forced his protectors back. He mumbled something quietly under his breath before looking up and saw the speaker right in front of him, holding the knife he’d dropped before in his hand. “-our blood,” he finished.

“Your blood, hmm? You’re right, everyone’s been spilling some but me here. Seems a bit unfair doesn’t it?” Kairangi declared, getting a malevolent glint in his eye. “I think I’ll… even things out a bit.” He grinned and brought the knife to his palm, then sliced it open. “Much more fun that way, don’t you think?” He held his hand over the ground and let the blood drip into the dusty earth as he reached for the sereva.

Immediately, Kuna’s scowl shifted to a grin. “Gotcha bastard.”

The moment the blood touched the ground in the middle of the hidden circle, Kairangi’s grin vanished. He could tell something was suddenly very, very wrong. “W-what-? No… NO! What’s hap-?!”

The ground began to shake all around them, and the light from the now-glowing runes flared up brightly under the debris still covering most of them. As the building shook, already damaged parts began to collapse- thankfully away from the central chamber rather than inward- and the remnants of the shrine statue itself cracked and broke apart.

The demon-accomplice dropped the knife and fell to his knees, screaming as strange glowing lines started to appear on his flesh. The fight came to a standstill as the remaining guards stopped in their tracks and gawked at their leader. Everyone started stepping away from the circle as the wind whipped up around its edge and cracks formed in the floor.

Suddenly, a large, somewhat anthropomorphic form burst through the cracks and clawed its way out of the ground below. It shook the dirt off of its large, almost perfectly spherical head, then opened its ruby eyes to look around. Its jaw opened up slightly as the dagger flew up off the ground and slotted into place in a gap between its teeth. A happy little gout of fire puffed out as it grinned and looked itself over, checking its obsidian clawed hands, then its feet, as if it hadn’t seen them all in a long time. Overall the thing was a little… derpy looking. It almost would have been cute if it wasn’t so big and armed with such sharp appendages.

But it, too, soon started backing away a bit warily as Kairangi thrashed around and stumbled back out the door, glowing more and more intensely with a bright light pouring from the lines weaving their way across his form. Everyone gave him plenty of space as he collapsed to his knees outside, screaming incoherently and clutching his head. Several streams of ethereal, reddish energy suddenly soared into the lines on his body from the air, seemingly having been drawn down from the mountain’s peak. Eventually, a number of the lines covering his body merged on his back and started forming a huge, burning crack. Out of the crack, another screaming, angry form began to emerge- a face made of flowing lava and fire. Kairangi and Tuimana’s cries of pain and anger filled the air all the way out to the edge of the compound as the world’s underlying weave began to forcibly separate them.

“KAIRANGI! You mortal FOOL!” the deep, distorted voice of the demon managed to cry out. “What did you DO?!”

All the others present, save for the somewhat confused-looking pelenock, felt the sudden urge to duck. Just as they did so, there was a massively explosive burst of energy that sent Kairangi hurtling through the air until he slammed into the wall of the meal hall a way off. The much larger fire spirit- or demon, rather- was hurled into the barracks in the opposite direction, immediately causing it to burst into flames. Where the two once stood, there was a large scorch mark on the ground.

As the ceiling of the shrine building started to creak and hint that it was about to collapse, everyone came to their senses and rushed out just as the dome collapsed in on the main chamber behind them. Outside, they looked in either direction and saw the two former pact-partners slumped against their respective buildings.

Tuimana was the first to recover, a moment later. He got up, with the barracks burning away behind him. Seemingly realizing what had happened, the massive, imposing entity looked around frantically, then scrabbled away, fleeing up the trail to the mountain’s peak, leaving a path of smoke and fire in his wake. Kairangi, on the other hand, lay motionlessly slumped against the building he’d slammed into, leaving a large, noticeable bloody crack in the wall where he’d impacted it.

The group of heroes quickly grouped back up and checked each other over, with Lykou and Kuna embracing each other in relief. The various members of the order were mostly standing around in a dazed state of confusion and disbelief. Some were staring off in the direction their ‘god’ had very visibly fled in fear. Others were busy staring at the motionless body of their former leader slumped against the far wall. A few were cowering before the pelenock, which just looked confused, yet happy to be there.

One of the guards finally snapped out of her stupor and pulled her eyes away from the now burning trail up the mountain. When she saw the pelenock, as if having forgotten about it until that moment, she scrabbled for her weapon with a terrified expression. “DEMON!” she cried out in fear, pointing at the pelenock.

“It’s not a demon!” Hoku retorted, then stared up at the spirit with wide, wonder-filled eyes, a grin slowly creeping across her face. “...it’s a pelenock… an actual pelenock…”

“Yeah! We just DEFEATED the only actual demon around here!” Kani declared to everyone present, grinning with her hands on her hips. “It was Tuimana! He and Kairangi have been fooling everyone this whole time!”

One of the more dim-witted guards that’d managed to stay standing nearby snapped out of his confusion and glared at her, pointing a spear at her. “Hey! That’s heresy!” he declared, against all evidence. But a large, obsidian claw reached down and snapped the spear. A moment later, a large head loomed down uncomfortably close to his face and a tiny jet of fire burst in front of him for a brief moment. Finally, he decided to let his self-preservation instincts override his dogma and backed down. “...I c-could be w-w-wrong, though.”

“Hey, speaking of the bastard, we better make sure he’s dead,” Lykou pointed out, turning to look towards the meal hall.

The overseer was at the speaker’s side, with a group of recently-freed captives grumbling and shuffling out behind him. He was trying to help their leader up, and Lykou quickly rushed towards them. “No, wait-!”

Suddenly, the overseer tensed up and gasped as Kairangi placed a bloody hand over a scratch on the overseer’s neck. The color drained from the overseer’s body as he shuddered and started to fall to his knees, while Kairangi began to stand up on his own. By the time his victim slumped lifelessly to the ground, he was looking in much better shape- still badly cut up, but no longer slumping limply against the wall. He glared across at the konuul, who’d stopped just a short way off, with the others hurrying up behind him.

The other recently-freed order members stepped away, gawking in horror at their former leader. “Did… did you just…??”

“You may think you’ve won,” Kairangi said in a raspy voice, glaring past Lykou, at Kuna. “But this is just a setback. Even without Tui, I am not powerless…”

Suddenly, the other Order members started gasping and slumping over nearby, with vines bursting out of their skin and spilling more blood on the ground, mixing with the splatters Kairangi had dripped as he was sent flying past.

“...as you can see,” he continued, chuckling darkly.

More vines burst up around the others, lashing out at them. But then they were immediately disintegrated by intense beams of light that pierced down from the sky.

“What the-?!”

As everyone looked up, Sunshine swooped down and pecked at Kairangi’s head a few times before flying up to perch on the nearby roof. But he wasn’t the only thing that descended from the sky- a large, spherical shape was forming in front of the sun, then plummeted down and landed with a burst of wind between Kairangi and the others. The orb slowly unfolded into a very tall, yet slender humanoid form, seemingly made of pure light. The entity towered over everyone, even standing above the nearby buildings, and had a plethora of wings jutting from its back. Its face had over a dozen eyes and no other features, and a shimmering, ethereal mist surrounded its body, obscuring chunks of it.

“KAIRANGI OF THE CRIMSON ISLES, YOUR DEMONIC PACT IS BROKEN. YOUR TYRANNY IS OVER,” the entity stated with a booming, androgynous voice. It didn’t have a mouth, but rather the sound seemed to emit from its entire being all at once. “YOU ARE FULLY MORTAL ONCE MORE.”

Kairangi gawked at the newcomer and scrabbled back against the wall behind him. “Y… y-you’re-” he stammered, then shook off his fear and glared at the being. “You can’t hurt me! I know that m-much! It’s in the rules!”

“TRUE. I CANNOT SMITE YOU DIRECTLY UNDER THESE CIRCUMSTANCES,” the god replied. “BUT THAT DOES NOT MEAN I CANNOT PROTECT MORTALS IN SEARCH OF JUSTICE.” He then turned to glance back at the gawking group behind him. “SHOULD THEY BE SO INCLINED, OF COURSE.”

Lykou was the first to snap out of his awestruck status, and narrowed his eyes as his gaze returned to Kairangi. Suddenly, the fact that he was in the presence of a literal god felt like a second priority, taking a backseat to thirst for revenge. The anger he remembered at nearly having Kuna taken from him came surging back. He recalled the helplessness he’d felt in that cell, and how much worse it had apparently been for his dear friend. And the terrible fate he’d planned for him, that many others had previously suffered. And the disgust over the perversion of spirituality in general certainly didn’t sit right with him either. He grinned and cracked his knuckles. “With pleasure,” he said, then started stalking towards the suddenly panicked speaker.

Kairangi frantically tried to summon up more vines to stop him. But every time, the god projected a sterilizing column of light from one of his hands that obliterated it and erased the bloody splotches on the ground they came from. “S-stay back!” He quickly bolted off to the side in an attempt to escape.

A wall of vines suddenly surged up to block his way as Kuna came stalking over as well. “The fuck you think you’re going?”

Kairangi turned to flee a different direction, but by that point, Kalei had hurried around to cut him off. “What, no pompous speeches? Fancy fire tricks? Aw come on, I waited for so long!” he said, then punched him in the gut.

He stumbled backward and turned to flee, clutching his stomach, only to be met with Hoku and Kani approaching him from behind.

“You’re going to pay for all the suffering you’ve caused,” Hoku said, glaring at him as she conjured up a stream of water from another discarded water jug. It wasn’t much, but it made him gag, cough, and wheeze horrendously as it was forced up his nose and down into his lungs. He tried using his magic again to lash out, this time trying to drain the life force of the closest underlings in the order, but the water forcing itself into his lungs proved immensely distracting.

Kani, meanwhile, took a far more playfully sadistic approach, practically skipping over to him with her club in hand. “You’re going to hellll, you’re going to hellll~” she said in a sing-song voice before spinning around and bashing the backside of his head.

As Kairangi stumbled over, clutching his head, a hand grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him around. A wooden fist decked him squarely in the face. The dizzy raptuva fell to the ground, and was then pinned down by Lykou’s foot on his chest. “Any last word’s, ‘speaker’?”

A vine burst out of the ground and wrapped around his neck, strangling him. “Sorry, you’ll have to speak up a bit,” Kuna said with a wicked grin.

Lykou spotted a heavy axe nearby nearby and picked it up. “On second thought, I think people have heard enough of your bullshit,” he said, then hefted the weapon into position. “Have fun in Dalzai-Nar, bitch.”

With a sudden messy spray of blood, the Order lost the head of its organization.