In the last five years, the city had become more dangerous. Crime had always been a broiling sub-surface infection, but then it'd burst the thin veneer of civility and rolled into the homes and streets, spreading the pus of corruption and disorder.

Had it been half a decade? Yes. Half a decade ago is when the syndicate got their new leader.

Karen stood at her front door, keys still in hand, contemplating this rapid turn into anarchy and not entering.

She was quite certain that she'd made two more revolutions turning the key after the door had been locked when she went out this morning. Just now, it unlocked in one.

Call the police? Too slow. The landlord? What was she going to do?

She rummaged through her bag for her derringer.

Hopefully, they'd ransacked her apartment already and weren't still inside.

As she opened the door, she could hear the television was on. The 24-hour news cycle getting all the mileage they could out of the recent crime wave.

Pistol in hand, she pressed herself against the wall, inching closer towards the corner with the living room.

There were five people there.

Five!?

Having heard the door open, one of them stood up. "Who's there?"

Karen lowered her weapon and came around the corner. "Good heavens, it's just you guys. You scared me."

In her apartment were Benesant's five apostles. Five young people between the ages of twelve and sixteen with bright technicolor hair. They didn't drop their guard upon seeing her.

"Are you our ally? Can you prove that to us?" Sanadora said.

She was the fire girl, the red one and their leader.

The others were behind, all but one rising to their feet.

"What are you saying? Turn that off." She pointed at the flat-screen TV, still droning on about super-powered vigilantes.

"It turns off?" Galia asked.

She strode into the room and pushed the 'off' button. The room fell silent. She noticed how they'd been huddling around the white-haired girl, Noora. She'd been crying.

"How can we be certain you're on the side of justice?" Sanadora said, more insistently this time.

"How can I be certain you are?" She answered, somewhat offended. "I mean what is this? You break into my home and I'm suspicious?"

"Sorry about Sanadora," Galia said softly, "it's just... we were deceived by another comrade recently."

Noora covered her face and buried it in her lap.

Sanadora went back to her side. "It's not your fault Noora. We were all deceived."

"You mean... the potion?" Karen began to put it together.

Sanadora nodded. "We believed to be adding a champion of justice to our roster, but it was the enemy."

"Of course..." Karen sighed. "That must be the new don."

"How do you know?"

She sat down. "The syndicate leader has been in a mad panic ever since I wrote the big exposé about his entire enterprise- with your help of course. He's convinced that all he needs to do to regain control is kill the six of us, and he knows how your fire doesn't work on 'old souls'. I don't doubt for a second that he'd create a fake persona to get his hands on that potion, that's exactly in his wheelhouse."

"We cannot let the greatest source of corruption in this world to enter the goddess' domain." Galia said. "It'd be a permanent blemish."

Karen mulled it over. The apostles' magic was real, but this one crime lord could hardly be called the greatest source of corruption in the world. Their knowledge was patchy and unpredictable... what could a potion actually do?"

"Miss Muldover," Sanadora said, "can you help us find this person?"

"Are you going to kill him?"

"...yes."

She folded her hands together. Would she be complicit in extra-judical killing? Five years ago, this idea would have disgusted her, five years ago she would have refused with all her being.... "Alright. I have a source inside the syndicate for my reporting job, we can use her to pinpoint his location."

"Then we will do the rest." Sanadora said. "Before he takes the potion."

----------------------------------------

The sky was black with smoke, the sound of chaos and violence was everywhere, as the steel mill at the top of the hill was being torn apart.

Bright lights flashed against the blackness, magical warfare rending the stone apart as resistance fighters squared off against the hobgoblins.

The kids were keeping bravely silent in the old monastery. Though some had tears wriggling down their faces.

Noora sat down with them to soothe their fear. "It sounds scary, doesn't it?" She said. "But those are my friends out there, fighting for light and justice."

She held out her hands and a little diorama appeared, light and shadow coming together to create an image. As she now willed it, it showed a man in a long wizard's coat with roots and vines encircling his limbs.

"Galia is the smartest of all of us. He and I are from the world of Hallow, and there he learned the secret art of controlling plants!"

As she described it, the illusionary puppet held up his arms and summoned grasping roots from the ground, which tore apart a goblin train.

"Galia finds out how the forces of darkness make their weapons and he tears apart their buildings of stone and metal, rawr!" She played it up for the kids.

"My parents mix steel for the goblin all-father." One of the girls said.

"They won't have to anymore, after today." Noora said. "Because we've also got... Muzzy!"

She showed the jovial elven boy in his leafy clothes, staying airborne on a gust of wind. The children were fascinated and drawn in by the display.

"Muzzy is from this world! The world of Lite. And he's good at wind magic. With his back-wind, the resistance will push back aaaall the goblins and make this barony free again. So you can grow your own food and don't need the all-father's mean money anymore."

She changed the shape again.

"And you know who else is out there protecting you? Only Techrius from the world of Marm! Doesn't he look big?"

Techrius was a tall suit of armor with two embers of light visible in the darkness of his helm.

"He's actually a good guy. Techrius can create as much elemental metal as he wants, and no magic ever comes close to him. So the dark sorcery of the traitor legions are..."

The tiny wizards in her illusion threw all the bolts of color at him they could, but the metal man just laughed and shrugged them off, making the children laugh with joy.

"But that's nothing..." Noora said dramatically, "compared to our fearless leader. The great phoenix Sanadora!"

Now the image showed a great plume of fire, split in two to resemble the wings of a bird. It soared over the Reddington lands and everywhere where its light shone, human figures burst into flame.

"She travels the land to root out our enemies and cleanse the world."

A particularly intense fire spell exploded just outside the window, scaring the children.

"Don't worry," Noora said, "only those with evil in their heart are hurt by the cleansing flame. Now let's all get away from the window. Maybe the nuns were able to hide a real statue to Benesant in the basement somewhere, how about we race who'll find it first!"

----------------------------------------

"Did you hear that?" Scratch said through the voice amplifier. "She'll root us out and cleanse the world!"

The crowd laughed and jeered.

They were in the troll garden, underground, all prominent goblins and hobgoblins from the Promise metropolis.

Noora's name was etched into a talisman inserted into a light-box, so it projected a clear view of her onto the tall canvas that formed the backdrop of Scratch's podium. The sound had to be projected at various places among the large crowd.

Her words to the children had had more of an audience than she could ever have imagined.

He received a cue from his son.

"I'm getting word all of your suggestions have been handed in, let's pick one from a hat!" Scratch said. "Just as a reminder, Noora is a healer, a bit naive and very sensitive. Let's see what we have here."

He was presented a top hat and stuck his hand in to grab one of the paper slips at random.

He read it to the crowd. "Werewolf's curse... hmm. Let me take a look at Alpheba real quick... I believe she's shaking her head... No. The goddess' blessing is too strong for Alpheba's curses. Let's fish for another one."

Someone from the crowd yelled something.

"What was that?" Scratch asked. "The kids? The kids aren't blessed, we've falsified the baptism ritual all over the world. However... I don't think some peasant werewolves would be a danger to her.

Let me check with Alpheba."

The green-haired woman, standing off to the side, put up a thumb.

"So we can curse the kids via Noora's connection," Scratch said, "but it'd be regular warg wolves and they'd have to rely on the element of surprise."

The same goblin spoke again.

"What? He said 'they can use her feelings for the kids'." Scratch relayed. "That's evil, I like it. Alpheba, let's give it a shot. But if this doesn't work she'll know something's up."

It took a few minutes for the former witch's apprentice to contact the spirits trapped in her werewolf curse, to tell them the plan. In the meantime, a musical band played tunes to keep the goblins from getting bored and starting fights.

-

After not too long, the sounds of wolves growling began to emerge from the magical speakers, and the band stopped.

"What was that? There's something here." The goddess' warrior could be heard saying.

They were in a dark basement and the wolves managed to dodge in and out of corridors, hiding their true numbers while slowly making an approach.

Noora quickly filled the halls with magical light. "Children, to me!" She said hurriedly.

But as the beasts darted around, suddenly appearing to nip at her angles, she was never able to confront them. Running around the corner, the wolf was gone and she found a scared child curled up.

Someone had started a fire, and smoke filled the basement, so that she couldn't see two feet in front of her.

She shepherded the children towards the exit, turning her back to them to shield them from whatever was still inside.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

That's when they found their opening.

Scratch winced. "Well I think that's enough, we can move on to the next one."

"Gotta make sure she's dead." His son said.

"...cut the sound."

The visual feed stayed up and Scratch averted his eyes, but the sounds of screamed and flesh tearing died down.

The crowd cheered, then booed as the silent movie went the other way. Noora healing herself and fending off the wolves with elemental light.

However, she couldn't bring herself to hurt the children. And, being kept occupied by them, wasn't able to escape the room as it filled up with smoke and she suffocated.

The canines fled the building as the screen went dark.

"Will the kids remember what they did?" Scratch asked Alpheba without his voice amplifier.

"No." She shook her head. "This early with the curse, the spirit has to put the host to sleep to manifest."

"Good. Put the sound back on." He turned to the crowd. "You happy now, you bloodthirsty maniacs!?"

They cheered.

"Great! But that was just the appetizer. We've got mr. Trees over here ripping up our factories right next door. Switch out the names."

As a new talisman was inserted into the magical device, sympathetic magic found the person who's true name had been carved into it and projected their face on the screen.

"Galia is Benesant's hero of Hallow." Scratch recited. "He is known for summoning roots, tearing cities apart, and returning lands to the rule of nature. His greatest strength is his tenacity, his greatest weakness... a lack of intelligence. The hat will be going around again, feel free to recycle ideas, but not just werewolves again, keep it interesting."

The band began to play again as they watched Galia lay waste to the industrial village.

----------------------------------------

None of the five had a clean death. Over the quarter century that the Promise had stood on the world of Lite, it had amassed great economic, military, and magical power and it leveraged that power in the most direct, surgical manner possible.

The healer was beset by werewolves.

The wood mage was levitated upwards by gusts of wind he could not fight, until they took him high enough to be swallowed by a sky serpent.

The wind mage was poisoned by the generals of the rebellion, who had been bribed with land and riches.

The metal mage was trapped in a flood plane when a dyke was broken. Even with the perfect defense, water could not be blocked or parried and he drowned.

As such it came to be that the mighty phoenix encountered the goblin army at its full, undivided power, suffering no setbacks in machinery or sorcery.

She screeched as her cleansing flames were first extinguished and then blocked all-together from the lands below.

She balked at the black balls of tar and straw launched at her from the surface, ammunition designed for flaming dragons that might just as easily have dragged her down as well if she did not possess the flying skills and grace that she did.

The crowd in the underworld watched on with bated breath as she drew closer to their location.

With every thrust of her mighty flames, her opposition grew more dense.

Ogres hurled spears and elemental air.

Dark sorcerers chanted curse after curse of increased weight.

And the weather itself was turned against her, sending hail against her direction and striking with lighting infused with elemental death.

It slowed her down, but it did not extinguish her flame.

One more day and she would reach the throne of the empire.

One more day of enduring the constant barrage of destruction, one more day of constant unceasing exertion.

It was an impossible feat, no matter one's power.

Or was it...?

On the screen, they could see her continue on, flinching, but unfettered by the storm.

-

After a few hours- the goblin crowd had gone nervously quiet- Scratch orchestrated the ability to speak to the woman directly.

"Ahem. Wonderful effort old gal, you've made it farther than any of us ever expected. I mean that."

Her expression remained focused as she dove lower to the ground to avoid two sky serpents with sorcerers on their backs.

Scratch turned to his support. "Can she hear me?"

"I can hear you," said the woman on the screen. "I can hear the fear in your voice, that you hide with your condescension, I can hear you realize the depths of your sins and the flaming intensity of my judgment."

Scratch laughed. "Really. Twenty-five years and you haven't changed a tack. You do realize you're fighting the entire combined power of all this world's nations? Forget being her champion. If you believe you're going to keep this up for another fifty miles you must've convinced yourself you are Benesant."

She found a lull in her enemy's barrage and looked around herself. "This is... some sort of long-distance communication method, like the ones on Cradle?"

"I didn't sneak a cellphone into your pocket, if that's what you're asking. Most people on Lite are considerate enough to carry paper with my face on it wherever they go."

Panickingly, she dug into the folds of her robe. "Sympathetic magic. Nine HELLS!!" But she didn't get the chance to empty them out as the airborne sorcerers began pummeling her from above with elemental lightning.

"I do think we'd have gotten eyes on you either way sweetheart," Scratch said, "your friends got caught by surprise though."

The crowd laughed.

She shook off her attackers. "Your witch magic will not help you in battle."

"Aren't you going to ask what happened to them?"

"No. You killed them. Cruelly, most likely. But you have achieved nothing, five spirits have returned to the goddess today, you shall be the sixth."

"Okay, okay," he took from the side of the stage and sat on it backwards, "we've both said our threats. Let's get down to business, how long have you been working for Benesant?"

She blasted a few aluminum ballistas out of the sky. "What?"

"How are the hours? What's the compensation? You've turned down my money before, so I won't even start with a bid. You name your price, how much is your loyalty worth?"

"Again you insult me. What use is your secular gold in the light of the eternal?"

"Nonono, forget money, forget gold. What are you getting out of this arrangement? You can't brush me off this time, it's still a day's travel to the seaside."

The grimaced and rolled her eyes. "I serve unconditionally the cause of justice."

"Serve uncon- Okay, let me rephrase. What put you up to this path? What happened that made you want to devote lifetimes to flying around like this?"

"...I was once part of the world of Lite. That was when the god of evil, Malsidious, still darkened the night. My family... my community cowered in fear of him. It was in the service of the goddess that I was able to take up arms against evil."

Her own words strengthened her resolve and she shone holy light to break open the clouds and banish the serpents.

"Ah, so all you needed was comfort and peace of mind. There are other avenues to achieve this." He proposed.

"Silence. A greedy monster like you could never understand. We warriors of Benesant fight not for ourselves, but for the mission of justice."

He lowered his voice. "Then let me ask you this; when will you be finished?"

She furrowed her brow. "I... when the work is done."

"But Malsidious has been defeated. When is 'done'? After me, what's the next source of corruption? And after that? You're not planning to keep fighting like this for eternity are you?"

Sanadora closed her eyes, she had just come across an enchanted area and was beset by illusion, but her other senses carried her through the fight. "Silence. I will listen to no more of your words.

You are a tempter and a deceiver."

"If only... You see I believe nobody does anything for no reason. You say you don't take payment, fair enough, but you're getting something out of it. Perhaps it's an excuse to indulge in sadistic bloodlust, or maybe your ego is stroked by the title of righteous avenger. Don't think I can't outbid her on that front as well, I can."

She raised an eyebrow over her closed eye. It could have been interpreted as interest, or at least morbid curiosity.

"You and your friends will get to keep your body-hopping immortality once Benesant is out of the way," he proposed, "and I shall grant to you even greater titles. How does 'goddess of fire' sound? I've exchanged divinity before, I can make that happen for you."

"Remarkable..." she said, now in a more free air space, "...just when I thought you couldn't get any more despicable."

Scratch sighed. "Again with the performative- listen, it's time for you to start thinking about your future, right? Even if you kill me, my god-daughter will eventually form her team of dragonslayers and force her to incarnate on this physical plane as a wyrm. What will you do then, huh? Hang out in the empty void for the rest of eternity? Then nobody gets what they want. I am about to recreate

Benesants reincarnation potion here in my refineries, and I plan to take all of my goblin offspring with me to the celestial realm. You could be a part of that. Just imagine: a big city in the clouds. We'd have a birthing station from where I could send you to any nation in need of a hero."

"This is getting increasingly preposterous." Sanadora spat. "You can't genuinly believe this will convince me to betray my cause, you're just filling the air to... to distract me." She looked around, "from noticing that I've been turned around! You've changed my direction!"

He laughed like he'd been caught in a prank. "Illusion magic. Maybe I am a bit of a deceiver. Do you realize why I led you towards the Eston capital?"

Sanadora stopped to turn around, but she held pause seeing a stark white figure in some sort of colorful jester outfit contrasted against the black smoke sky.

"Rita's little sister just got married before her, so she's in a bad mood." He winked at his crowd. "Between the two of us, I don't know who's in more trouble. Me, for making her rush the last stages of her revenge scheme, or you for, well, you know... just kidding, it's you. Still, bad timing with your attack. Was that on purpose?"

Rita moved so fast that she was behind her in an instant and kicked her into the ground with a spinning dropkick.

The earth shook and the air compressed at the sheer force, uprooting most of the surrounding vegetation. Sanadora was propelled straight down through several layers of rock and dirt.

She produced a mighty fire spell from within the crater, but it was instantly dispelled and her attacker came crashing down.

The screen went black.

-

"She didn't hold back." Lydia later commented. "I still think Rita has it in her to defeat the wyrm by herself."

"A vyrm is more zhan just a large dragon," Noss said as he collected the magical equipment, "as long as she relies on her strength and mana alone, she vill never be beyond zhe level of a legendary hero. And it took four heroes to defeat zhe last vyrm. Tell her to apply dark sorcery, tell her dark sorcery is zhe creation of new spells as needed, not merely zhe reproduction of exist ones."

"Well she's certainly proven adept at curses, what do you say Scratch?" She asked.

Scratch puffed thoughtfully on his hookah. "What did she mean with 'five spirits have returned to the goddess'?" He said.

"Vhat else? All five varriors are part of her heavenly domain, zhey vill attack again in twenty more years if ve do not vanquish her."

"But she hadn't returned yet. Why would I be the sixth, unless she'd be expecting to die before me?"

"You don't think she was planning something, did you?" Lydia asked.

"No, I almost seemed like she believed that- Oh no." He jumped onto his feet. "A sixth warrior. Why didn't I think of that? Benesant can pour her essence into anyone, all they need is one of those potions."

As he said it, Lydia suddenly clutched her chest. "I just felt death among the wolf spirits. Some of our werewolves just drowned."

"Hopefully it's an unfortunate accident and a coincidence. Alpheba, no chance you could quickly whip something up so we can zoom in this character real quick?"

"No true name, no talisman." She said.

"Lydia, take me topside, we're putting the whole base on red alert."

----------------------------------------

The sea was pouring into the cavern when they'd made their way up.

The underground creek had been fattened by salt water and the entire forest of stalagmites came sticking out a layer of water.

Steam filled the air, from the tide smothering the fires of the foundry. When leaving the warp circle, they waved their arms in front of their faces trying to clear the air, but they could not banish the omnipresent mist.

"Chaos." Lydia summarized quite neatly.

"Grab all valuables, evacuate the people." Scratch said. "I'll go to the devil altar."

"Have you gone mad? We ought to stick together at least."

"Whoever's doing this is nearby, I can see the magic go haywire everywhere. If I can guess their true name, Bregornatis has enough magic to kill them. We'll figure out how to pay later. If I can't guess their true name, I need you to prepare for the worst."

"Scratchie, I can't leave you here to die-"

"Do as I say!" He shouted.

From sheer shock she turned fully into a wolf. Then she ran off.

-

Scratch ran through the stone passages of the trading hall. The water already up to the shins of his short legs.

He went over all the names of enemies he had had over the last twenty years. The obsessive goblin slayer, the adventurers, bandits... he hadn't often bothered learning their full names.

"Siebrand... no... Mabel..."

He stopped muttering to himself when he came to the mirror room. Haerwynn was gone and there was a stranger in front of the reflective surface. Some sort of merfolk examining herself within Bregornatis' golden frame.

She'd noticed him. "I never was a killer." She said, without turning around. "Can I still say that? Now that I've caused the death of so many on one day? Now that I'm going to, pointedly and deliberately, kill you."

As she said it, frost raced along the sides of the wall, freezing shut the door and locking them hermetically into a box of ice. Elemental water began pouring from between her scales, adding to the physical liquid already in place and rapidly raising the waterlevel.

She turned around, a blue fish woman with cold murder in her eyes.

He didn't recognize her.

Scratch's mind raced, narrowing down his enemies for those that hadn't killed before. "How did you know I'd come here?" He asked, strafing to the side, ice cold water up to his waist.

She followed him with her eyes and raised her hands. "I've had twenty-five years to prepare, of course I'd watch you from the depths, see you slink into these halls. Is this where you keep your poisons!?"

A magic circle appeared in front of her, but before the spell could resolve he flicked his white wand out of his sleeve and reversed it on her, so that a freezing cold locked up her own arms and torso.

"Twenty-five?" He asked, not able to suppress a slight smugness.

She immediately broke out of her icy jacked and propelled through the water towards him.

She had all the grace of a dolphin and he had none, so he easily closed her hand around his face and forced him into the water. His head banged against the stone floor and the weapon slipped from his grasp.

"This is momentous for me," she said, as clear underwater as she had been in the air. "I've had to spend a lifetime on the ocean floor 'cultivating' my 'power' just to be able to kill you. After this, I'm finally free."

His fingertips touched the wand, but she yanked him away and out of the water's surface again. Dizzying him.

He kicked his legs, but the water had risen so high that he couldn't touch to floor.

"Wait. Wait. Don't you want to know what happened to your friends? You can still save them." He pleaded, lieing to her.

"They're not my friends," she hissed, "they're the ones that got me wound up in all of this in the first place."

Then she threw him across the room, towards the far wall and readied another spell.

"Oh, I know. I know who you are!" Scratch yelled out, out of breath, fighting to keep his mouth above water. "Bregornatis!"

Although half-submerged, the mirror lit up with a white mist behind the glass.

"It's that meddlesome journalist that wrote the exposé about my syndicate in the first place. You were here earlier because you didn't die in a police shootout with the others, you died from a hit I orchestrated." He gasped for air. "I didn't know the damn freaks had given you a potion as well. Bregornatis, he true name. Ms. Pulitzer! Wait, no-"

Three beams of pressurized water shot through his torso. One in the stomach, one in his left lung, and one through his dominant shoulder. He rolled back into the water in considerable pain and with no chance to take another breath.

The woman was charging towards him again and he was about to die regardless. He was in no state to think clearly, but the goblin body had perfect verbal memory, including a name underneath a true crime article from thirty years ago.

He forced what air he had out of his lungs, barely tasting the salt water, and screamed at the mirror.

Karen Muldover

Karen's image appeared within the mists behind the glass.

She stopped in her tracks, guarding herself against whatever it was the mirror was about to do.

It spoke. "My master must provide tragedy and lamentation to the court of shadows... this is the way of abyssal dance."

Scratch clawed at it, in the process of drowning his fingers slipped across the glass. It merely watched him.

"...What is happening?" Karen asked.

"The goblin lord has made a bid for our power," it said, looking at Scratch fading out of consciousness. "But he has nothing more to offer us. In two decades, he never earned the title of demon king. Now, his empire will spawn more suffering in pieces than whole."

"What do you mean, Good won, didn't it?"

"...As the court of shadows sees it, Good is not the opposite of Evil, Good is merely one of the faces of Evil. Your Good will drain the blood from the lands of corruption and demonkind will bathe in the gutters."

"I have orders to sink this dungeon into the sea. Are you going to stop me?"

"Of course not."

"And the goblin lord?"

"His last action was to grant me his soul, so that he would avoid the fury of Benesant for a little while longer."

"...How long?"

"That is not for me to say. Until Good triumphs."

With a small doubt in her heart, she broke the mirror and escaped the building.

----------------------------------------

Special Event: Reconstruction

Adventurers from all regions are called upon to re-apply for adventuring status at the central adventuring bureau in Grienice, or lose their license. Candidates must disavow all gods but the true goddess of light, disavow the practice of status by birth, whether through blödschicht or nobility, and reject the authority of the old guilds.

While reconstruction is ongoing, only the following quests are available:

Purging the Corrupted Blood

Adherents of the old regimes must be captured and brought to trial. Squads will be deployed by level of ability to take down former nobles, military holdouts, and adventurers that have become enemies of the revolution.

Clearing the Cities

All population centres that do not fall under the twelve great cities are to be cleared out and burned. Adventurers must direct civilians and possibly defend against agitators loyal to the old regime.

Culling

Low ranking adventurers will be send out among the tribes and warrens to exterminate all goblins. Each squad will be chaperoned by a high ranking case worker from the bureau to defend against ogres.

Please observe the accompanying list of subhumans and their corresponding threat level. When spotting a goblin leader while within enemy territory, do not engage, inform a case worker.

Glory to the revolution!