Demon continent Alsace in the year 307 in the 10-month Asmodum on the 26th day after the shattering of the empire.

The situation was desperate, a fraction of the priesthood as well as parts of the population of Ahaztuta had turned against them. That they thus rebelled against Diva's wish did not seem to bother them at all, they all continued to talk in a chorus about redeeming them and that they, like them, would also be led into a life of eternal labor for the great Redeemer.

None of those gathered around him believed for a moment the lies of Meinoume, the eternally hungry one, or the words of his followers. Those they had lost to his.

They had been pushed back to the prison chamber of Diva. Which raged in her prison and tried to break out to defend hers against Meinoume. He might not walk among those who attacked her, but she would be able to. Titans could walk among their own without needing a champion.

The chamber was filled with the weeping and sobbing and soft whispers of parents trying to calm their children.

At the thought of the children, all his fur stood up; when the renegade priests had first converted, children had been among them. Which had turned against their families without an instinct of self-preservation. The soldiers had hesitated to attack them, some being the father or mother of one of the children. But anyone who hesitated was seized by the swarm that had been created and sucked into it, where they were then converted and became one of them.

That it was not a conversion was clear to him, but it frightened him to speak the true word. Because that would mean that even in Diva´s chamber, where he could feel her protective aura most strongly, they were not safe from Meinoume's clutches.

They could only hope that they could withstand the onslaught of Meinoume's followers and that they could defend themselves and Diva until that onslaught wore down. Which, who knows how long, it was possible that they would run out of people before then, long before they ran out of food.

That was probably the situation Meinoume wanted to achieve, though he would certainly have wished to get them all, but what were a few thousand Larrua less to the eternally hungry? Not even other gods had been able to satiate his hunger.

And now he had it in for them and their deity, and there was nothing they could do.

A wave washed over him, with which the dark thoughts that had crept into his mind were washed away. His eyes wandered to the center from where the wave had come. It was Diva in her prison, who seemed to have given up trying to break out of it and was instead busy fighting the influence of Meinoume. Which tried to worm its way into the thoughts of everyone present.

He turned his attention back to one of the tunnel entrances, where fierce fighting was going on.

He only wished that they had not lost control of the Golems. Meinoume would not have been able to influence them. However, as the current situation showed, he had found a way around this little problem and had simply taken over the Larrua, which he had left behind in the golems' control center, and that was exactly what he must have done. He did not convert anyone, this he had thought only thanks to the influence of the Meinoume, not to see the brainwashing as a deprivation of free will.

An energetic shake of his head and even the last remnant of Meinoume's influence was gone from his thoughts.

He would not let it come to this again, he set off to the front, he would personally support the soldiers in their fight.

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Something had to be done, after all, to raise morale. Diva would keep the Meinoume influences away, but they still had this fight to win if they wanted to get out of here alive and with Free Will, and for that, they all had to fight.

Had this been your plan all along Diva? Oh, creator of Larrua?

He only wished that they had not lost control of the Golems. Meinoume would not have been able to influence them. However, as the current situation showed, he had found a way around this little problem and had simply taken over the Larrua, which he had left behind in the golems' control center, and that was exactly what he must have done. He did not convert anyone, this he had thought only thanks to the influence of the Meinoume, not to see the brainwashing as a deprivation of free will.

An energetic shake of his head and even the last remnant of Meinoume's influence was gone from his thoughts.

He would not let it come to this again, he set off to the front, he would personally support the soldiers in their fight.

Something had to be done, after all, to raise morale. Diva would keep the Meinoume influences away, but they still had this fight to win if they wanted to get out of here alive and with Free Will, and for that, they all had to fight.

Had this been your plan all along Diva? Oh, creator of Larrua?

He couldn't help thinking. He doubted that she had not known that some of her priests here and elsewhere had enslaved her people.

He did not have more time to think about it, because he had already arrived at the tunnel entrance.

The noise of clashing metal, splintering wood, and the occasional cry of a wounded man were enough sounds that the chanting of the enemies could not be heard in the hall, but here at the entrance he could hear it and by Diva was it grotesque.

From hundreds of throats sounded a song of praise to the eternally hungry Meinoume. Among this chanting, he could also hear a single voice, which seemed to come from far away.

He did not know what it was, but he could hear that it was Meinoume's voice. It had to be his. Whether it was because it sounded like the voice of a sick and broken person, he did not know. But it made him think back to the stories in which the hungry one was defeated by the pantheon of demons.

So it was true that he had been injured. Which is little consolation to us, and he seems to be concentrating all his will on getting his hands on us.

The soldiers Rotated to allow each other to take a break and recover.

The swarm of Meinoume's followers didn't seem to have this problem, however, because they simply fell over and their comrades stepped over their bodies. Whether they were dead or not, at the latest after the tenth Larrua, which had risen over them, they were dead.

Diva's influence was also waning here, and he could feel Meinoume's increasing.

He murmured some quick prayers to Diva and could immediately feel a weight that was on him fall from his shoulders.

"Apprentices to me." He called out into the hall and moments later five of them came rushing to him.

"I want you to carve the prayer texts into the ground." He ordered them, not wanting to risk any more priests defecting, which is why he assigned the apprentices to the job.

He grabbed one of the apprentices by the arm.

"You're going to help carve runes of the faith behind the ranks of the soldiers." The apprentice just nodded in a duty-conscious manner and, despite the fact that he was shaking all over, joined him in the work.

If I have to, I will declare this whole hall a sacred place of the Diva.

It surprised him that Meinoume had such an easy time wiping away Diva's influence, even though she had been soaking this place in her influence for millennia.

"When you have finished, one of you- " He interrupted himself as more apprentices came out of the hall and he reconsidered his instruction. - "No best you go back and instruct the priests to hold a service. Have everyone pray to Diva." He looked briefly after the one he had pointed to.

"The rest of you take care of the armor and weapons of the soldiers, I want to see on all of them several runes of protection and sanctification. If you don't know which runes then ask one of the older ones and copy them." With that, he turned back to his work.

Praying would save all of their lives at the moment.