Teleporting from one bone building to another, Virgo and her group passed by the undread patrols with ease. Even the tigers that didn’t have the ability to move through space like them jumped from building to building silently, unseen by the skeletons below.

It had already been twenty minutes since they began scouting the area, and they’d gleaned great amounts of information on the skeleton’s numbers and the terrain within the castle walls. The three fox-kin were currently signing to one another in silence, arguing whether to proceed further in or not.

“We’ve only scouted the outer area; we at least need to see some part of the core area. I suggest we keep going and gain more information.” Virgo argued with an eye twitch.

Tarius snapped back, “We don’t have time to keep exploring, the day grows short and we’ll miss our exit time. I say we’ve done enough and should head back.”

Tarius looked to Skit for help only to see him shake his head and respond, “Virgo is right, we need as much of the layout as we can get so that we can attack effectively. Otherwise we might lose lives due to the lack of information.”

Tarius rolled his eyes, “You just wanna get into her pants, you fucking pervert. I’d rather live than give my life to stupidity,”

“Wha!?” Virgo blushed heavily as Skit sent Tarius a death glare.

“If you wanna leave then leave. We’ll complete the mission by ourselves and tell our people how much of a coward you are. Come on Virgo, let's leave this gutless wimp and go.”

Skit rose and teleported away to the next structure without another word. Dazed, Virgo looked at Tarius, torn between trying to convince him and following after Skit.

Tarius refused to look her in the eye. Virgo just stared at him, disappointed, and ported away. Two of the three tigers followed after them.

Tarius wanted to yell at them for being foolish, stupid, and foolhardy, but he couldn’t bring himself to do such a thing. He turned away and started to teleport his way out of the castle, going back the way he came.

Not even one hundred meters away from where they had parted, a cold female voice rang out from the shadows, “So, this is where you vermin snuck to. Great, I’ve been wanting to blow off some steam for all the brothers and sisters I’ve lost.”

Tarius’ blood ran cold as he turned to the voice and saw a necromancer surrounded by bone whips getting ready to charge at him. A commotion of clattering bones sounded below him, and his flickering gaze turned to see that he had been surrounded by a horde of armed undead. Every single one of them was aiming their guns at him.

***

Meanwhile, Skit headed deeper into the castle grounds, fuming with frustration as Virgo silently followed in tow.

With the way he’s acted in the past d-does he truly like me? W-what do I do!?

Caught up in her thoughts, Virgo almost didn’t notice when Skit stopped on top of a construct and stared downwards. Awoken from her thoughts, Virgo teleported next to him to see what he was looking at, and her eyes instantly widened with disbelief and soon turned to utter hatred.

Spread out below them were their missing clansmen, hung on crosses and looking more like skeletons than actual living people. Virgo instantly picked out her parents among them, more thanks to the decorations they wore than their features. Their once lush and colorful hair had turned white and scraggly, matted and covered in who knows what. Her mother's once bountiful curves had decayed away and her father's previously strong fame had caved, leaving behind only a shell of his former self.

Virgo saw red and wanted to scream, but resisted the urge and she attempted to rush down and untie her parents. It was only thanks to Skit holding her back that she didn’t dive downwards.

Throwing his hands off her wrists she snarled with anger, “What the fuck are you doing?! We have to save them!”

Skit replied calmly but his eyes also burned with fury, “It isn’t our mission and we have no way to extract them safely. They’re also not in any condition to be moved safely. We’ll probably kill them if we move them without special care!”

“You want me to leave them like that after we finally found them? To let them go again only to suffer more?! Don’t you love me Skit? How could you ask me to leave my parents to die?!”

Skit grit his teeth, “I don’t wish to see you die senselessly! We cannot save them with our current strength. If we go down there we’ll only seek our deaths. Please see reason, Virgo!”

“Easy for you to say! Your parents aren’t the ones still captured, hanging down there like lifeless corpses! If you were in my shoes, you wouldn’t stop me.”

Before Skit could retort and convince Virgo to leave, a cold female voice rang out.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Well, well, well. So you didn’t sneak in alone after all.”

The two turned to see a necromancer with yellow eyes hanging off the side of a construct, held there by the bone whips coming out of her back and hanging around her body. Wrapped within some of her whips was the coward Tarius, who had pissed his pants and was crying his eyes out.

With a twitching, nervous smile, Tarius started speaking, “I told you that I wasn’t bullshitting! Will you let me go now, Mistress?”

Tapping her chin with her finger the female necromancer seemed to be deep in thought. But soon a fiendish smile appeared on her lips, “Sure, you're free to go on your way... after I collect the toll, that is.”

“W-what are yo—”

Tarius couldn’t finish his sentence as the whips moved in a flash, cutting off his hands and feet and causing blood to jet out like a fountain.

“There. Toll collected.”

Blood drained from Virgo and Skits' faces as Tarius’ screams of pain and despair echoed into the night.

For the necromancer his screams were merely music to her ears, “Now off you go! My babies below are starving so make sure you give them a good hunt, ya hear?”

She dropped him like a sack of screaming potatoes and watched as he fell down into the streets filled with chattering bones that hungered for fresh flesh.

Not wanting to die despite knowing that he had no method of survival, Tarius began to teleport away in hopes of living.

Virgo and Skit knew that he was a dead man on borrowed time.They had no time to worry about him, however, as they needed to figure out how to survive this sudden enemy.

“Now, now.”

Eyes lightening up with dirty yellow flames, the necromancer’s smile widened to the point of showing her elongated teeth.

“How shall I play with you~?”

Pushing the stunned Virgo behind him, Skit pulled out his sword and signed to her with one hand. When I give you the opening, run.

Skit walked forth and began to speak, “So you're one of the monsters that invaded our peaceful lives.”

“Hoo? I pegged you vermin as cowards after most of you surrendered without a fight and that coward sold you two out. Who knew that one of you actually had a spine. Oh how I can’t wait to hear you scream! I promise not to make it quick.”

The necromancer's bone whips lashed chaotically through the air surrounding her, yet Skit didn't stop moving forward. As he drew closer to the lashing bones Skit called out, “Though today is the day that death calls my name, I, Skitto, one of the twelve priests of Strone Village, will stand firm before the foes before me!”

A silver light started to leak out of his body and clash against the necromancer’s vile yellow energy. Then he vanished, instantly appearing further away before vanishing once more. Skit teleported around dozens to hundreds of times in order to confuse the necromancer with illusionary shadows.

“You think the power of an oath like that will bring you to my level? In your dreams!”

“I, as an agent of god, burn my current life down to a minute in order to slay my Lord’s and people's enemy!”

The silver light exploded forth, evenly matching with the corrupted yellow light and attempting to devour it.

Skit’s teleporting increased exponentially and thousands of silver shadows moved ever closer to the ball of lashing bone whips. His brain activity and eyesight had been improved drastically, allowing him to basically see everything in slow motion.

The necromancer finally started to feel fear bubbling in her chest yet she kept on smiling, refusing to show her terror.

“Y-You think that’ll be enough to kill me? Skeletons, fire! Fire!”

The sky filled with randomly fired purple bullets as the skeleton army attempted to get a hold of Skit’s position. Yet despite their efforts and the bullets shooting around like rain, Skit dodged the purple balls with a little effort that unfortunately closed off his chance to easily attack.

It isn’t enough. Skit thought as he watched the necromancer’s hundreds of bone whips change their patterns to counter his teleportations.

I’m going to have to sacrifice more to protect her.

Skit spoke with a hollow fury, taking his final oath, “I, as an agent of God while I live and forevermore once I die, sacrifice my left arm forever.”

SIlver light exploded forth from Skit as his left arm shriveled away into dust and his body began to crack apart like glass. Time felt like it had been trapped within quicksand, moving so slowly that Skit could even spare some attention to Virgo’s retreating figure.

I really wish I could’ve spent more time with her... I could’ve married her, had children with her, watch our children grow and teach them how to hunt. God... I know it’s selfish... but please protect her once I’m no longer in the land of the living.

Skit turned away from Virgo, fully focusing on the necromancer before him. Her once smiling expression had long since turned into one of horror as she desperately tried to use her whips to block his incoming attack.

How trivial.

The thought flashed through Skit’s mind as he stepped past her defenses and stabbed a blade into her head. But he wasn’t done there. Once the knife was stuck in the necromancer’s skull, Skit pulled the wire on his chest and activated his explosive vest. He then wrapped his free arm around the necromancer's body, holding tight even when her bone whips impaled his body.

Before the whips ended his life, before the explosives went off... Skit had a chance to utter his last words as he stared into the eyes of the necromancer, “Glory to God.”

…

Looking back at the pillar of flames in the distance, Virgo had tears running down her cheeks. She felt powerless. She had to run away from the battle, from her parents, and most importantly, from the boy who fell in love with her and risked his life for hers.

By the time Virgo left the castle walls her self-hatred and anger had faded away, leaving a hollow feeling in her chest. She stood and stared up at the sky as she waited for the others to return to the meeting spot. One by one they came back. Only... of the twelve that went in, only six had returned.

Virgo didn’t say anything. No one said anything. Everyone had lost someone.

It took a long while before Virgo broke the silence.