[https://i.imgur.com/IgLgxmL.png]

NEAR THE CHURCH OF APOSTATE FAITHS

DISTRICT OF PROFANERS, THIRD RING

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If there ever was a contest for fanatic zeal, the priest-creatures had it covered. When it came to Annabelle, that was all they had going for them. Although she felt unease when she saw their limbs bend beyond any reasonable leeway. She checked the scarf around her face and moved it slightly to the side to get a better view of these things. The three priest creatures had fallen to the ground in the meantime. With an audible crunch, they bend their arms and legs back and then used them as legs.

Annabelle saw Tharia come closer until there was just enough space between them to swing their weapons. The lead priest suddenly crunched back his own head. The tongue stretched up to the sky and started shivering. The other two beasts spread out to the side, circling the two women.

“It’s screaming for help”, Sisi remarked with a bored tone.

“Let’s take it down first then! Annie?”

The goddess nodded. One moment she was observing calming, the next she lunged forward with increased speed. Her movements approached the peak of human ability as she took long strides towards the lead priest. The scythe dragged along the ground, leaving scratch marks on the ground. Pure energy pulsed in her veins, prepping her up for a storm of destruction. All that force gathered in the golden gloves and from there spread throughout her arms and legs. Her strides grew longer and icy wind rushed past her.

Its tongue started to quiver like a spring pulled to its maximum. When it finally struck, Annabelle had read its movement. She moved the Scythe to block the whipping tongue and then wrested it aside with a twisting motion that both caught the leathery organ and deflected it. Holding the tongue by using the Scythe onehanded, Annabelle closed in on the head priest and punched her golden glove straight through his skull. A red mist was all that remained. A loud explosion drew her attention back to Tharia.

Walls of fire had sprung up around the woman and a puff of fire evaporated into the air. One of the priests was a burning pyre on the ground. Loud screeches came out of it while the tongue lashed out aimlessly. The second one danced around the barrier of fire and waited for an opportunity that never came. While Tharia kept it distracted with the staff, the glow inside had vanished. Golden light suddenly came from within the priest and a moment later, Sisi floated where the creature once had been. Giving them a nod of acknowledgment, Annabelle turned around to examine their surroundings. None of the other priest groups had paid any attention to them.

“Annie!” Tharia suddenly shouted. Just that second something sharp cut through some of Annabelle’s silver hair. She blinked and realized the hook covered tongue around her Scythe had struck her. A numbing sensation spread from the cuts on her cheek. With a motion almost too fast to be seen with the eye, the tongue unwrapped from the weapon. It then wrapped around the body of the headless priest and dragged it off towards an ornate staircase in the ground.

Feeling the thrill of the hunt, the goddess gave chase. Her mind clouded by the sensation of pain and an urge for destruction. She closed in with three large strides and then used her motion to kick the main body of the priest of the ground. It lifted up a meter and came crashing down. The tongue whipped around but suddenly found itself in the grasp of golden gloves. It wriggled helplessly as the goddess crushed it one finger at a time. Soon, all life faded from the organ. Motion at the periphery drew her attention. Groups of the priests had formed a shield made of bodies around the staircase leading down. Excitement took hold of Annabelle as she let go of the tongue. She cleaned the blood of her Scythe with a quick flick of her wrist and then fletched her teeth. Her body leaped forward and excitement turned to euphoria as she came crashing down in the group of priests, her Scythe crunching through flesh.

[https://i.imgur.com/ZPzywxR.png]

Tharia had trouble following what happened. All she saw was a mass of robed bodies and occasional glimpses of a white-haired human monster in between. The blade of the Scythe cut three of the priests down in one swift motion, the momentary hole in the wall of bodies revealed an untainted Annabelle dancing from one body to the next, bringing swift death with a punch, strike or slash.

“That puts the blood in bloodlust, doesn’t it?” Sisi said while puffing a ring of fire from its small mouth. The sprite slipped back into the staff and flopped down on a miniature doll bed. Tharia shook her head and made haste for the wall of priests. An arm flew past her face and underlined the absurdity of the situation. The barrier of bodies suddenly broke and Annabelle casually stepped out of it. Not a single priest without an unclipped tongue remained. They writhed and clawed at their cracked throats before collapsing onto the ground.

Tharia fought down her panic. The last time Annie had flipped this badly, she got lost to the Dreamreaper moments later. Yet this time, the goddess looked lucid, if a bit disheveled. Something of her expression must have leaked out since Annabelle stopped.

“I’m still me”, Annie said and pointed a thumb to her chest, “More of me.”

The human girl gulped and put up a smile that could not be seen because of the scarf. She moved towards Annabelle and then started pulling her along towards the staircase.

“Aye, of course, you are you”, Tharia said and then lied, “That was never in question”

A momentary pause followed before Tharia continued, “Let’s go, I don’t like standing in a mountain of monster corpses. So the tongues are their thing, eh? You know I kinda don’t like tongues. Bad memories of my first kiss. The essence is down there and we...”

“You’re nervous”, Annabelle said and sounded hurt.

“Nah, Annie. I’m just happy to have you with me again. If you wanted nervous, you should have seen me sneak around a bunch of judgemental priest types. I’m not even sure how they know all this stuff. Is there some sort of moral register floating about? But listen, can we please turn around? There are bound to be hundreds more down there”

Annabelle shook her head and freed herself from Tharia’s grip. The beauty with the Scythe was first to enter the underground church.

[https://i.imgur.com/ZPzywxR.png]

Tharia quietly followed in Annabelle’s footsteps. They hadn’t seen another priest in several minutes now. Their path took them past the entrance hall that looked like Tharia would expect from an underground church. Large grates to siphon off excess rainwater from above. Comfy chairs, a pit for the orchestra of course and the large communal bathing pool near the altar. Many smaller rooms followed with amenities for guests and monks alike. Now they were on a slope leading further down below with Sisi offering both of them enough light to see.

“Annie, are we getting close? This is creeping me out. Let’s turn around and find a better way of dealing with this”

Annabelle nodded in reply just as the slope described a gentle twist ahead. Tharia suddenly heard a sound. It was a strange burbling that increased in intensity. Her feet started to feel cold and when she looked down, she saw a faint trace of water run past her shoes.

“Hold on to something”, Tharia shouted but it was too late. The burbling turned into a flood of water. She felt a heavy impact dislodge her legs and the pain was bad, but it was nothing compared to what her chest felt when the water threw her against the wall and then dragged her along with it. Tharia got flashbacks of drowning and started to kick and scream, only to get more water into her mouth. Without warning, she felt oddly weightless. Her surroundings had opened up into a large cistern. She came crashing down along with the water, another impact cracked the rib further and pain overwhelmed her.

When next she came to, only a few seconds must have passed. The water had drained further down. A grate had filtered out her, Annabelle and luckily the staff with Sisi as well. Tharia felt the spark try its best to heal the rib but her stubbornness had re-broken it so often, that the essence was becoming faint. She would need to tell Annabelle about this but there was no time yet, not while the goddess herself struggled with her inner demons.

The human woman noticed figures on a bridge up above and stood up with the help of the staff. They wore black and golden robes and had their tongues outstretched. The organs formed a sort of throne and upon the throne sat a strange creature that looked like an oversized human baby. Tharia had gotten so used to seeing strange things that she had expected something even more outlandish. A look into the adult face of the baby proved her right in the end. Judging by how Annabelle stared daggers directly into the thing, this was related to her essence. The creature held up a black scepter and grinned triumphantly. Around it, the priests got to the ground and started praying to the overfed something they carried.

Annabelle suddenly brought out the Scythe. She then snapped the weapon in two. Tharia could barely follow the speed of the motion as the broken off handle flew off with the speed of lightning. It impaled the blob of flesh and hammered it to the wall like a proclamation of war. Silence fell over the congregation and even Tharia held her breath.

“No sense in hiding. I know who he is”, Annabelle shouted up to the priests. They suddenly hunched together and then huddled off, dragging the dead creature along with them.

“You do?”

“Luciano, priest of the apostate profaners. This was just a fragment of his”

Tharia sighed and pulled down the wet scarf. There was no more need for it anyway. She mulled over what she heard and then wrinkled her forehead in contemplation.

“The profaners hate your kind. Why would one of their priests accept divine essence?”

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Annabelle gave no answer and left up the scarf that hid away her expression further. Tharia sighed at the clear sign that the conversation was over and shrugged her shoulder. She spun around and took a closer look at her surroundings. The cistern was of a circular build. Massive round pillars of stone held up the ceiling while the grate they stood on served as a sort of filter for anything larger than a small finger. The only light in the room came from the bridge above and from Sisi in the staff. Seeing as Annabelle had grown quiet, Tharia walked towards the edge of the cistern and then traced her hands along the wall.

It was just a hunch. The grate was in a rather unusual place with no obvious way to reach it for maintenance. One option might have been the bridge above but it was quite a drop. Following that instinct, she walked the room once until she suddenly felt a patch of rough stone. Going by the way it looked, it was identical to the rest of the wall but the touch was quite different. She heard Annabelle’s voice from behind.

“Have you found something?”

“I’m not sure. This patch of wall is different from the others. Could be a walled-up section or could just be a coincidence. No way to be sure”, Tharia answered and then suddenly jumped back as the golden light appeared directly above her right shoulder. A weapon manifested right next to her face, most of it disappeared inside the wall.

“Are you trying to scare me to death?” Tharia snapped but Annabelle actually chuckled.

“I’m sorry. A bit of payback for your teasing”

That took the anger right out of her. She had pushed her a bit too far earlier. Her eyes saw the weapon disappear into thin air again. Tharia then gently covered the cage of the staff until Sisi’s light was dimmed to a subtle glow. A strong flicker came out of the hole the weapon had left.

“Walled up it is. Sisi?” Tharia said and tapped against the staff. The sprite opened one of its eyes and sighed.

“Slavedriver”

“Always”

With that, Tharia took a step back and then traced the staff along the wall. Golden dust came out of it while she traced a rectangle that ended just above the grate. After they both took cover behind one of the large pillars, Sisi rolled her eyes and clicked her tongue. A bright flash momentarily blinded them and then revealed the place behind the wall. Tharia walked closer to the edge and looked through the hole.

“Uhm, let me guess, the essence is all the way down there?”

Down there meant the several kilometer large caves that had opened up in front of them. Even though Sisi could only light a short way, just by the way sound traveled, it was obvious this place was large. A stone bridge with no handlebars on either side led away from the hole, indicating that it really had been walled up. Tharia took a careful step onto the bridge and tested it with the staff first.

“Looks stable enough to... okay why don’t you just walk ahead. That works too”

Her grumbling reached the back of Annabelle that had simply stepped out onto the bridge. Tharia quickly followed while fighting down the slight panic in her stomach. The cistern they had come from was part of a larger underground catacomb. Snaking pathways lead up and down, they winded around large pillars. When they got close to one, Tharia lighted the staff close and saw rows upon rows of skulls neatly placed in long rows.

“Do you think Valarn has a fetish for burying things? First an entire part of the city, now just about everyone from however long ago they died. If all these pillars have skulls, the sheer amount of dead people must have... I can’t count that high”

“Lots of secrets”, Annabelle said in reply and Tharia nodded in confirmation. Their steps echoed throughout the large catacomb. Occasional drips of water and far away sounds indicated they weren’t alone. This far up though, there was no one else. Not even the monks and their dead baby monster.

They approached what looked like a large bowl held up by four pairs of hands. Each of the fingers was several meters in width.

“You know Annie, this looks like the perfect place for hideous traps. Swing blade, pits with spikes, explosive...”

For the first time, Sisi and Annabelle both told her in quite clear words, “Shut up, don’t jinx it.”

Tharia closed her mouth shut and put on a pouting expression. It really did. If she were to build a large building like this, there’d be traps everywhere. For example, stepping into the bowl would need a complicated balance of weight to not trigger a flame trap. Tharia glanced up with a skeptical look. There was nothing in range. So it wasn’t a flame trap. Perhaps it opened up underground – but the ground looked solid.

Even when they had reached the center of the stone bowl, Tharia still expected traps. A massive ball of stone would crush them right about now. Worse, when she heard a clicking noise underneath her foot, she jumped back in instinct. Annabelle, however, grabbed her by the collar and dragged her along.

“I’m just saying I would put traps here. It’s perfect. We can’t really run away and with how dark it is, they could be heading up on some archery towers and pelt away.”

“There’s nothing here but dust”, Annabelle said and pointed towards the stone below. Tharia nodded and then knelt down to pick up a handful of dust. This felt quite familiar. She let the dust run through her hand and suddenly froze.

“Annie”, she said.

“No more talk about traps!” Annabelle demanded. Tharia spoke anyway.

“Don’t cause any sparks. This ain’t dust. We’re standing in a bowl of black powder. And listen”

When they both fell silent, they hurt a silent trickling sound. More and more black powder collected in the bowls. Loud shouts suddenly echoed through the catacomb and three nearby structures suddenly lit up by the light of torches. Priests stood on wooden archery towers. At the same time, the bridge to either side of the bowl suddenly turned away as if moved by giants. They were trapped. She looked up at the priests and saw them use the weirdest bow technique where they drew back the string of a burning arrow with their tongue. Burning. Arrow.

“Annie, deflect any and all fire. If even one hits the bowl, we’re done. Sisi, can you get out and take them down?”

The sprite yawned, then looked down and suddenly opened its eyes wide.

“You jinxed it!”

“Not now!” Tharia shouted and gave the staff a shake. The sprite quickly left and with it disappeared what little light they had. After but a few meters, the fire elemental dimmed its flames further until it was barely visible. The only thing they saw were the lit up towers and the priests with their fire arrows.

Anticipation took hold of Tharia. How in the god cursed world would they deflect burning arrows in a field of black powder? One priest suddenly raised the bow and let loose just one such arrow. It described a perfect arc to splash directly at the center where they stood.

“Oh damn it”, Tharia said, dumbstruck. Should she try to bat it away? This might cause sparks too, besides, the arrow would just fall down a few meters to the side and still send them flying in gibs. She saw the shadow of Annabelle leap up, no summoned weapon was in her hands, safe for those golden gloves and something Tharia could only make out once the arrow was closer. It was the scarf. The goddess somehow caught the arrow with the overly large cloth and then proceeded to suffocate the flame from oxygen deprivation. A brave act and a one in a million chance to pull off. Still, trying was better than just holding still and dying.

Tharia unwound the scarf and then held it like a net. Her eyes darted back and forth between the three archery towers. What was Sisi doing? She should be acting by now. Yet the sprite was nowhere to be seen. Two priests pulled up their arrows and took aim. One arrow, they had managed to stop by sheer stubborn idiocy. Two would spell their doom. Flames licked along their shafts and with a singing ping, the two arrows were let loose. Tharia held her breath.

Not good.

Panic.

She dashed towards one of the arrows and opened her scarf wide. Imagining it like a butterfly she wanted to catch in a net, she waved the scarf towards the arrow and felt something impact the cloth. The arrow was remarkably stopped before it could hit the ground. Those were the good news. The bad one was that it took a detour through her shoulder, because really, a normal human is too slow to catch an arrow otherwise.

Annabelle, on the other hand, batted away the second arrow with an inhumanly fast swing of the Scythe. Still, this merely altered the course of the arrow and it got stuck in a bit of stone not too far away. The Blackpowder hadn’t filled up that far yet, but it was getting dangerously close.

“I’ve got this”, Tharia shouted and ran towards the arrow. She blinked for a moment and suddenly saw Annabelle throw the arrow over the edge. Tharia’s vision was strangely tilted. A loud explosion came from below and all three towers collapsed at the same time. Sisi’s triumphant scream echoed up from where the makeshift towers had been. Tharia blinked again. Why was she lying on the ground? The arrow. Aye, best pull it out.

“One shouldn’t pull the arrow out. It could lead to a bleed out”, Tharia heard someone say. It sounded quite a bit like herself. Of course, she wouldn’t listen to such a person. Her hands reached for the back of the arrow and pulled until sudden blackness swallowed up her consciousness.

[https://i.imgur.com/ZPzywxR.png]

Annabelle knelt on the ground with a fire elemental hovering several meters above. She barely heard the fire elemental chastise her. Tharia lay down on the ground in a pool of blood. Her face was deathly pale, even though the spark had finally closed the arrow wound after the idiot pulled out the arrow herself.

The goddess rested a hand on Tharia’s forehead. Intense heat radiated out from her.

“That’s on you”, the fire elemental said and then shrunk down to hand-size, “She’s alive for now. But she really, absolutely needs rest. Yet it’s your stubborn arse that forced her out on this adventure. The girl is madly in love with you to the point she is obsessed with doing right by you. So it’s your responsibility to see whether she can actually keep up.”

Annabelle let her shoulders hang. The sprite had a point. It was easy to forget just how frail Tharia could be. Especially after weeks of pushing on. They should have rested a bit longer.

“We can’t get back up from here”, Annabelle said.

“So now you’re willing to listen? There indeed is no way out but forward and she can’t keep going the way she is. You can leave her behind and she’ll die soon. Or you carry her along and you both die in some ambush”, the sprite said with a matter of fact tone to her voice. It then floated down and sat on Tharia’s shoulder. Annabelle grit her teeth. Her insides hurt, she had killed her love again. This time through neglect.

“Oh can you stop moping already? You will do two things”, the sprite said and then floated close to Annabelle’s face. The tiny eyes fixed her gaze.

“You will ask me for help. You will give me part of your essence”

“And then?” Annabelle asked.

“We merge. It will bring very ugly memories for both of us, your fairy and me. But I’ve done it before, I know her body inside out. I can consciously repair it with the essence you give me, much more efficiently than the spark. In the meantime, her body will follow you but it will be me inside. Don’t expect any fighting from me either”

Annabelle took a closer look at the sprite and then nodded. However, the elemental did nothing.

“Yes I agree”, Annabelle emphasized.

“Uh-uh. I want to see you beg for it”

“Tharia is dying, gods be cursed”, Annabelle growled. She pulled back her lips into a snarl.

“And so is my pride. I’m risking everything for this, including what makes me myself. So the only thing I ask is that you bloody beg for it”

The goddess stared at the sprite and then got down on all fours. She lowered her head to the ground and spoke the words with an unusual clarity for her.

“Please save my Tharia, I beg of you”

In response, the elemental clapped its hands.

“Ain’t that grand? Good enough. It’ll be interesting to have a living body again”

Somehow, this sounded ominous to Annabelle, but at that moment, she only cared about getting Tharia back on her feet. The process of essence extraction was quick, even though it included a kiss with what was for all intents and purposes a living flame. It made Annabelle feel dirty inside. Moments later, the elemental started hovering just above Tharia and then vanished inside of the human girl. The body suddenly shot up.

“Why are you kissing other girls?” the body of Tharia said with wide open eyes, yet the tone sounded strange. It was as if someone had no idea how to operate vocal cords. Annabelle frowned as she realized it was Sisi talking through the mouth of her beloved fairy.

“Oh man, your face. This was so worth it already”, Sisi made Tharia say and then grinned.

Annabelle clenched her fists. She only stopped when she realized sparks emitted from her gloves. Needs must, but this was a situation she struggled to come to terms with. Her eyes burned holes through Tharia, yet the human girl stood up easily and brushed off her clothes.

“Let’s get this over with. Oh hoh, let me just say, your aura of lust is quite something else. It’s like I’m basking in an ocean of impulses and urges”, the sprite commented and Tharia’s body shuddered.

“Shut it.”

“This is going to be fun”, Sisi said and rubbed the hands of the possessed body.

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End: Church of the apostate faith | Coming up: Matters of faith