PAH-PA-PA-PAH

Kiara’s 1911 barked violently as one round punched into the ogre’s right breast as it loomed out the cover of the fog. Another bit into its shoulder while the third shot caught the monster in its right eye. The last one flew high, sparking off the ceiling before it disappeared into the darkness.

The ogre howled in pain, bringing its right arm up to protect its face. Its left hand reached out and grabbed at whatever it could. A single hobgoblin had been unfortunate to be standing in front of it. Its massive hand engulfed the hob’s lower body, then it smashed the goblin on the floor as it released its face. Pure murder and malice contorted the boar-faced ogre when it noticed it’d grabbed the wrong person, and threw it at the girls as Ester spurred forward. The dead mangled hob splattered several feet behind them before it rolled to a stop.

A single reaper had survived that ambush, and with him following close on at their heels, they scurried deeper into the temple. Wild angry howls shook the walls as the fragment’s light began to grow, it then fell silent. A few moments later, several goblins cried out before they, too, fell silent. None of the three humans felt that it was over. They didn’t know what the fog was, but it ate the moonlight before and they didn’t see their attackers before they crossed the light’s threshold.

For now, though, they seemed to have lost them.

They continued onward, following the tunnel. Oddly, as they delved deeper, the thicker the air became. Along with it, the light began to transform. No longer was it some light, similar to a lantern; now it seemed to be an aura. Light no longer stayed fixed around them but morphed slowly. It reached forward, still protecting them from the inky substance that was the fog, and illuminated their path. When an actual second path came up, the light would reach out and clear a path for them to take.

It was a strange development, one that Kiara and Ester were sincerely thankful for. Because, soon after the first fork in the tunnels, more began to appear. It was like a labyrinth as it began to snake in odd directions - through bare stone rooms to big chambers that looked like they’d once been classrooms or something of the sort. Nothing organic, like wood or plants, was found. Only bones and stones; sometimes a rusted piece of metal. Though, they hadn’t actually checked.

20 minutes later, they’d reached an oval stone archway, narrowing the path down to a circular 6ft diameter opening. It opened up to a short landing before a stairwell. Unlike everything before them, this archway was scarred from battle. It’d been chipped, scratched, and even several skeletons were sprawled out to the sides. The group stopped momentarily to assess the situation. Each of them eyed it wearily for a minute, then decided to push forward still.

Kiara was just glad that she hadn’t been the one running. Ester’s well-endowed chest rose and fell quickly as she clenched her jaw. Their speed was cut in half, just down to a normal human’s jog as they stepped into the stairwell where they found even more skeletons. A lot of them didn’t even look human. It was obvious by how discolored the stones beneath them that they’d rotted there for a long, long time.

The outer walls held faded murals of dragons, strange monsters, and knights. It rolled with the staircase where it transitioned into different battles, each of them more bloodied than the next. None of them held any peace or even just one scene where it wasn’t fighting. Kiara eyed the wall as she bounced in Ester’s arms.

A sudden guttural scream filled the stairwell “*************!”, followed by the clashing of metal. Kiara managed to turn in time to see the reaper tackled. He fell forward and crashed into the outer wall, along with a single hobgoblin garbed in black faded rags and a hood. It tried to shove an elongated knife up the reaper’s chin, but the reaper had clamped his head down. The hob let out a frustrated snarl as they rolled down several steps.

PAH ---

Kiara’s 1911 smoked as she fired a shot into the hobgoblin as it straddled their guard on the steps. It howled, turned its pig-ish green face towards them. Fury burned in its eyes as it bared its corn colored teeth. Green blood oozed from its left shoulder bleed as the reaper used his enhanced strength, and flipped the gob off him like. Ester didn’t bother to look back or even slow.

The hob followed them down, bouncing off the steps behind them. Kiara brought the 1911’s chrome-lined barrel down and fired three more shots into the monster. The reaper swooped in behind them as the hob crashed into the bending outer wall, bringing down its dulled arm blade down and stabbing it through its frontal lobe. It had already been gurgling blood as one of the shots had caught it in the throat. Only the reaper saw the fear in the goblin’s eyes.

A wall rattling roar came from the top of the stairs. Hatred and the promise of a painful death was in the air. Now, the stairwell was filled with the sounds of goblins. Their shrill war cries didn’t have the same wall-rattling effect as the ogre, but nonetheless, it was just as mind rattling.

The group began to take two steps at a time, careful to avoid the skeletons as the cries grew closer. Kiara kept the sidearm trained behind them, though it jerked up and down, it was the only thing she could do. She was dead weight all over again - just like that time before. Even the painkillers they’d injected into her was beginning to wane, and she could feel the stone shifting in her shoulder. It made her unsettled as her body urged her to remove it. Kiara peeked at it, and saw that even the gel around and dried and had almost already flaked off.

“Lit candles,” Ester called out, and Kiara was confused by the sudden call out when, of course, they passed actual lit candles. They were pure tall white candles, in glass housings; similar to candles her mother used to light in their old home in El Centro. Just without the religious icon stickers on them. They appeared in small carved out enclaves in place of where murals should have been. Kiara had just noticed those were now missing. Even the signs of battle and the skeletons disappeared now along with the murals.

Just when Kiara wanted to ask when the murals had stopped, Ester pushed off the last step and landed in another long hallway. The hallway was slightly larger than the halls above, however, the additional width was taken up with three-tiered shelves, all of them holding the same burning candles as behind them. The walls were also higher by 4 feet. The additional headspace allowed for tall, unmolested statues of men and women of different species. Elves, orcs, beastmen, and a few different races Ester and Kiara couldn’t identify.

The hall spanned nearly 100ft, and there were at least 50 statues on both sides. Resting in carved out ornate enclaves. Each one had a nameplate at their feet. Kiara just couldn’t read the words as they ran across polished starry black marble floors. Even the roof was made from the beautiful material, racing all the way to a room where a massive turning wall of grey fog waited. God’s Fragment also stopped its ‘ethereal’ light thing, leaving their surroundings illuminated only by candlelight.

THRUM - WHH

Ester jerked forward, nearly spilling Kiara out of her arms. Ester whined in pain as a long thin wooden shaft poked out of her right shoulder. “Fuck, fuck!” Ester spat the curses out as her right arm began to twitch. “It got some of my nerves!” Kiara sucked in air as she suppressed the urge to scream. Behind them, a black hooded hobgoblin was stringing another arrow in its half-bow. Two more hobgoblins, also garbed in black but with rusted shortswords, sprinted past the archer. Their reaper had already pivoted on his heel and tried to block the archer’s line of sight.

The group was caught in the center in the hall, with Ester trying to get a grip on her malfunctioning shoulder. Her prosthetics worked similarly to a real functioning arm. It read the signals fed through the muscles that would’ve moved a normal arm. The goblin’s arrow had punched perfectly into the muscle group that fed those signals. Effectively rendering the arm useless. There was a failsafe built in that’d rework the arm’s feed, changing from the muscle twitches to a bluetooth connector; that’d take a minute for that to happen though.

Goblins and human collided several feet behind them. The reaper danced backward as each hob swung for him, silently smiling as they did, striking for his legs and his neck at the same time. He stepped several inches out of their reach, and when he saw them resetting, he went in for the kill. They no longer smiled as the reaper swooped in on the right hobgoblin. It snarled as it tried to evade, slinking backward as it knocked over several of the glass candles. The reaper plunged its arm blade into the hob’s neck. He moved far faster than it had anticipated.

The second hobgoblin didn’t make that mistake. It faked a thrust for the reaper’s head, then slid in low. He thought it was going for an abdomen strike and went to intercept. It wasn’t and the hob slid around before he could pull back his arm. He twisted around, but that left an opening for the archer; an arrow whistled by.

Ester had already readjusted, though she hadn’t moved. She saw the arrow coming, sidestepped before throwing up a middle finger at the archer. The maid saw it snarl as it notched another arrow and took aim.

PAH-PAH---PAH

Kiara opened fire, careful not to hit her guard. He was pressing his attacker against the candles. Oneshot missed entirely, ripping through several candles beside the archer and another sparking off behind it. Her last shot landed in the hob’s upper thigh. She knew this because she saw it flinch and stare at the wound. Green blood ribboned across the statue behind the third hobgoblin. Its head spiraled close behind before splattering amongst the broken candles before the statue - like some twisted offering to appease the gods.

Without missing a beat, the reaper charged the last enemy as it tried to retreat. Seeing that it was outnumbered and outgunned. It only went up three steps on the stairwell when it stiffened. A green blade protruded from its stomach, then it was ripped violently out the side. The cries of its comrades so close, yet too far. It convulsed as its mangled intestines slowly slithered down the steps with its green blood.

The fight took a litter over 30 seconds to wrap up.

Ester reached the end of the long hall, which connected an antechamber. Two massive statues stood guard over the chamber, standing against the left and right wall facing each other. A man and a woman. The fog wall, a swirling dancing mass that was thicker than the black stuff above, was rimmed by an ornate archway. Strange runes had been engraved in it. The reaper caught up to them just as the goblin hordes stepped foot into the hall. No candle was left unbroken in their wake. As the horde came, so did darkness.

“Go - Go now!” Kiara squealed as she pulled on Ester’s neck. Her friend snarled in annoyance, at the insistent tugging, and that she didn’t have a choice in staying. Whether the fog was walkable wasn’t up for consideration anymore. The hateful rock had stopped its light guiding, receding to a deep warm glow that did nothing for them.

With a frustrated click of her tongue, Ester plunged them both into the grey fog. The reaper followed in their suit. It felt like walking through oil sludge, something both the girls had sadly experienced before. A heartbeat later, all three of them were plunged into an icy cold. Almost as if they’d been dropped into an industrial meat locker.

All three of them reappeared on the other side of the fog, to their surprise. To their shock, it wasn’t another hall full of fog, but a sort of… Privacy barrier? It didn’t matter, because what they found was… Unbelievable. They appeared into a grand massive chamber, one that reminded Ester and Kiara of the Milano Cathedral in Italy. Starry night marble spanned across the floor, and massive black pillars rose to support the ceiling. Golden runes had been etched into the pillars. The chamber’s walls were also made from the black marble, it was lined with gold-filled cracks. Giant clusters of blue crystals washed the room in dim blue light.

Piles of gold coins lined the walls, pouring out just a few feet past the pillars and reaching nearly half the height of the chamber. Gems of many different colors and shapes were mixed in. Even paintings and polished weapons were mixed in. And at the end of all this luxury, was a massive white crystal - exactly like the one in Kiara’s shoulder. It was of a woman who leaned against a massive starry night piece. The more Kiara looked, she noticed it wasn’t just a hunk of stone, but a massive chamber tall dragon statue. It loomed protectively over the woman, with its wings fanned out and its teeth bared; each one complete gold.

Lit candles circled the woman, illuminating the stature in an almost heartbreaking manner.

The feeling didn’t last long as the shrill screams of goblins filled the hall. Their feet rumbled against the cold stone floor, their breaths puffing out like murderous toy steam trains. One turned to ten, and ten turned into a hundred. More and more poured in before a single Hob appeared. Unlike the ones before, this one was clad in dirty half-plate armor. Then another, and another.

Kiara was about to unload the rest of her magazine when their reaper stopped in the middle of the chamber. It was a sort of chokepoint, in between two of the tallest gold piles that spilled out nearly 20ft past the pillars on both sides. This was further compacted as several large jade statues had been nonchalantly tossed on the left side, bringing the actual open walkway space to a short odd 20ft opening. The jade statue was of a beaver of all things.

Gold glittered in the blue light, sparking with a near diamond sparkle as a roar ripped through the chamber. Kiara looked on as the ogre walked through the fog veil at his full height. Even from a distance, he was massive. She calculated that he must’ve stood nearly 15ft tall. She knew full well that the reaper wouldn’t be able to stand against that. There was no comparison to that monster.

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“Fuck, fuck!” Kiara squealed as she looked to Ester. “We need to leave ASAP!” Ester only grimaced in response as they reached the statues at the chamber’s end. Now that they were closer, she could see that the woman statue was double the ogre’s height, and had a forlorn expression. Candles rested at her feet, making her look slightly haunted.

Ester looked around as the goblins cried out, as they were going to clash with the last reaper alive. From there, only Ester stood between the horde and Kiara. Neither of them liked their odds. The maid circled around the massive statues, frantically searching for some sort of hidden path or maybe a back door. None of which were to be found. Only murals akin to family photos, all of which were perfectly preserved, unlike the ones outside the cathedral chamber. One woman resembled the statue in front of the massive dragon. A girl with blue and purple hair and golden eyes. She was similar in build to Kiara but beautiful. Far too beautiful to be her actual appearance.

“There’s nothing!” Ester growled. “Nothing!” They ended up back in front of the statue, where Kiara was placed down at the foot of the white statute. She found it strange that the statue was… Warm. It felt like cement on a warm autumn day. The kind of warm that one could lay on, and fall asleep. From there, Kiara and Ester watched as the wall of short murderous goblins reached the reaper.

Carnage would be the only way they could describe it. The moment that horde got within arm’s reach of the man, blood was spilled. He lashed out at the first goblin, which led the horde by several feet with euphoric enthusiasm. Its head was liberated from its neck, where it thudded against the cold marble floor and rolled. The reaper lashed out again, skewering the next center-chest and using it as a meat shield.

Spears came next, allowed with a few misshapen arrows. Using the near-dead goblin, he intercepted what he could, sidestepping what he couldn’t. He allowed the projectiles that posed no actual harm to him clatter against his exterior arm and prosthetics. The next attack came from below - a spear that stabbed at his nether region. It only ripped through the soldier's cargo pants and through the artificial skin. After that, it just slid off and passed between the legs.

The reaper brought his knee up with a terrifying force that smashed the goblin's head in. Several spears and arrows were lodged in his meat shield, so he threw it at his next foe. A goblin with a dagger in each hand. It leaped at him with a fanatical scream of joy. His bald lanced through its

Neck, but it didn’t die quickly. It stabbed at the man’s arm with the daggers until it managed to catch some sort of leverage. He didn’t have time to deal with it as four goblins came at him.

One smashed into his right knee in an attempt to knock him down. Another thrusted a spear into his plate carrier, and another stabbed at his back. The last one came and tried to mantle his left leg with a rock. With extreme prejudice, the reaper flung the first goblin off his blade and sliced the climber’s head in half. Brain and blood spilled onto the starry marble floor along with the body. With his now freed blade, he punched the spear holder center-face before he caved in the second last one with his boot.

He missed the last one because now he was in the thick of their ranks as they tried to swarm around him. At this point, he disregarded his own personal safety and no longer tried to dodge or block. Heads, arms, and upper bodies splattered against the marble as ribbons of green blood flew through the air where they crystalized and glistened. After a solid minute, the reaper no longer had any clothes. They wear just rags along with his skin, revealing a streamlined cybernetic plating beneath. Only his helmet survived, though, that was being scratched to hell and dirtied. It had to stay that way. Only his head was human, only that could be killed. And he wouldn’t die unless he killed half of these --

The reaper slammed against the marble as his feet slipped from under him. He twisted to right himself but he now hung upside down. He met the ogre, and it ripped off his right arm before he could react. Sparks arced downward as ripped wires dangled freely, and his titanium control arm shifted uselessly. Silently, he struck out with his left, slicing through several inches of the arm that held him, which turned out to his ogre's left. That earned him another delimbing.

It ripped away the final arm before tossing it into a random pile of gold. The ogre then roared in the reaper’s face before he ripped his legs off him, like some twisted little child tearing apart a toy.

“No, no, no!” Ester screamed as the goblins neared them. Their crazed faces were all too visible now. Kiara watched in horror as the reaper’s remains arched through the air, past the goblins, and crashed off to their right. His metal body was twisted and broken, his head, still in the helm with a now partly broken visor, stared at Kiara. The laughing skull still recognizable covered in green and red splatter. Several arrows whistled overhead, pulling Kiara from her trance as Ester intercepted the only two that were going to hit her. The others clattered against the statues and surrounding marble.

Ester snarled with murder and took a protective stance 10ft in front of Kiara as the person in question pulled readied her pistol. There was nowhere for her to hide that those little monsters couldn’t reach her. She saw no point in trying to run regardless of how scared of dying she was. It was inevitable. Kiara may have cried and pleaded for her life, but she couldn’t do that with Ester there. The way she looked at Kiara with resolution before.

The horde smashed into Ester, all at once. She didn’t have the chance to fight back. They didn’t give her a chance as spears and daggers flew for her fleshy wounded abdomen, and she had to go on the defensive.

PAH-PAH-PAH-PAH-PAH--

Shots rang throughout the chamber as Kiara opened fire on the tsunami of green bodies that charged at them. Goblins dropped left and right, alleviating the pressure on Ester to the point she could reverse the situation. Her blades were still sharp and ready, and it showed. Her attacks were like a striking viper. There was no delay in her attacks as her sharp arm blades appeared. For a minute, the goblins were confused as the room began to warm. They were no longer eager to die.

Each goblin on the front began to push back against their comrades. However, they were still eager to throw themselves at the girls. The Holy Grail, and the statue, began to glow faintly. A warm aura had begun to build around them, charging the air with static. Blue light slightly retreated from the white. Frost festered on the skin of the goblins as they slowly began to retreat in earnest. Ester kept her ground as the ogre and his hobgoblins approached. They killed any retreating goblin in their wake as their bestial commands were thrown around. It was hard to hide but the girls could see it plain as day; they were losing control.

They snarled, growled, and threw a couple of the small goblins around. Yet, those on the fringes of the group were already slipping by. Only five armored hobs and one ogre were there, and they couldn’t hold the hundreds of goblins back. So, they turned on the girls. Ester smirked in defiance of their impending doom - earning the ire of the ogre.

He pointed his bloodied finger at her and spat out a string of guttural words that, to any other person, sounded like a demonic baby trying to have a conversation; expressed the monster’s clear intent to painfully murder her.

Ester lifted her arms, which were now blades, into the air in a challenging manner. She was dwarfed as the ogre got within 10 feet of her. His menacing over-grown hog face and bald wrinkled head were laced with pent up aggression. “What? You think I wanna fuck you? You’re an ugly piece of shit if I’ve ever--” Ester was cut off as the ogre lunged forward.

Its arm raced through the air with surprising speed, whisking through the empty air where Ester’s head had been. She’d ducked, danced around the monster only to encounter one of the armored hobs. It carried a longsword and lashed out at her. Even Kiara had noticed how clumsily it held it. The attack was slow and unrefined, which meant that Ester freed its forearms just below the elbows from its owners. Dirty steel clattered against the cold marble as the hob cried out.

Kiara took that moment to slip the empty magazine out of the pistol. It fell into her lap as she labored for breath. The painkillers were wearing off, and her wounds were beginning to burn. Still, she managed to load the last magazine and flick the slide release. Clack, and off to the races the bullets were.

The ogre had just pivoted on his heel, bringing his fist around to pummel Ester as a second hobgoblin struck at her. With each fiery bang that left the 1911, a hole appeared in the ogre’s back. It wailed in pain before it missed Ester by several feet. Its hand thudded violently against the marble, causing it to wail in pain once again. It stared at its hand as green blood dripped from the bone shards that protruded through its skin.

She didn’t give it a moment’s respite as she unloaded the rest of the magazine. Bullet wound dotted its back like bad acne as it stumbled forward and twisted. Ester, on the other hand, parried the next hobgoblin’s sword and cut its throat. She then kicked it over as another one came. Its legs were hacked off as it charged her, then she stabbed its head through the eye.

As she got to her feet, the last three hobgoblins appeared. Each of them with spears. In unison, they jabbed at her with 2-foot long iron spearheads. While they were slightly rusty, Ester wasn’t going to underestimate the damage they could do. She dipped and weaved around them as she tried to attack the left hob. It didn’t work. She then backpedaled and decided to attack the other side.

The air left Ester’s lung as a massive force rocked her back. She flew backward, landing on the marble before rolling to a stop next to Kiara. The ogre was breathing heavily as it’s red eyes burned with fury. Its corn cob teeth gnashed as it stared at Kiara’s smoking pistol. Slide locked back, and empty.

Ester struggled to her feet as blood oozed from her abdomen wound. Blood also trickled from her mouth as several of her perfect teeth were missing. She spat them on the marble where they left small dots of blood. “Fuck you,” Ester hissed. The hobs tried to advance, but the ogre knocked them back. It was clear they were his kills now.

“Ester,” Kiara squeaked, “What’s the plan?”

Ester only shot her a smile and charged at the massive monster with a shrill warcry. Her angelic voice made her sound like a valkyrie just as she was slashed at the beast. The ogre grabbed at her, but she slipped underneath the hand and managed to leave a long cut across its left thigh. It roared, pivoted as Ester was recovering for another move. Before the girl could come out of her slid, the ogre’s hand shot towards her, latching onto her right arm.

It clamped down on the cybernetic limb, crushing it. Ester spun up in alarm and tried to cut his hand. It didn’t work; the best lifted her into the arm, then smashed her into the marble in front of Kiara. Ester didn’t move as the massive green monster dug his foot into her side, ripped off her prosthetic. The metal creaked and whined as it pulled away, leaving a torn wiring harness on the marble. The arm flew off to their right as the monster had no interest in it. Only the two humans that’d earned its ire.

Ester tried to get up. Her pained moans tore Kiara’s heart apart, but she knew she couldn’t do anything. She was powerless, always so powerless… The ogre roared in annoyance, pinned down Ester, and ripped off her other arm. It then punted her off to the side where she landed with a wet thud and rolled a few times. Her chest convulsed several times where she squirmed slightly in pain.

Kiara watched it all, too stunned to move. This was the end, she didn’t doubt that. A deep, defiant urge bubbled in her stomach as the ogre approached her. Terror slowly began to turn into rage, and when enough of that built up. She spat in the ogre’s face as it brought it down to look her in the eye, maybe drink in her fear, or maybe something else. It didn’t matter, as Kiara grinned at her act, the ogre sizzled for a moment.

Kiara’s vision blurred as the ogre pulled her only leg away. The world spun and the air whistled in her air. She then crashed into the white statue’s chest, her nose broke along with teeth and her right cheek. Pain exploded in her face and her chest, where the Fragment had punched through her on contact with the statue; punching out her shoulder blade with it.

Half of her sight was blacked out as blood trickled onto the fake eye. With the other eye, she saw the statue fall away as the ogre pulled her off it. A thick string of blood tailed after her for a moment before it broke and drizzled across the floor. Kiara was now being held up by her left arm. She watched, pained into silence, as the statue glowed brighter and brighter along with the fragment.

She had, for a moment, heard the ogre shout something before the world fell silent. It was no longer warm and welcoming; only a bone biting chill proliferated the world now. Snowflakes began to slowly fall - slow at first. One. Then two. After several heartbeats, it was like standing outside during the first winter fall in Oregon. Each flake sizzled on her skin, releasing the pain with each cold kiss. And with her one clear and open eye, she saw a woman melt out of the statute.

The woman was naked, with blue and purple hair, white skin, and golden eyes that glowed like miniature suns. She melted out of the statue’s chest before she floated down to the ground as white feathery angel wings spanned outward. Her figure was even more exquisite than the statue implied - with its inability to capture just how regal she looked as those molten gold eyes locked with Kiara

The air crackled and hummed with unknown energy, almost as if Kiara had found herself at the center of a massive electrical substation. She could feel the ogre’s hand tremble as they both stared at the angel. Her delicate small feet almost hidden, yet clear as day, in the snow flurry that filled the room. Somehow, her angelic feathery wings were a purer white than the snow itself. The flakes darker against its regal feathers.

Crisp air pushed itself into her lungs. It was an odd mixture of deep winter, yet had the taste of a cool summer on it. All the fear and anxiety that had been pushed to the back of her mind began to bubble and pop. Tears began to stream down her cheeks, mixing with the blood that stained it. Her quiet sobs fell away into a blizzard as the angel solely focused on the massive green monster that held her.

The snow opened up, circling around the three with a monsoon ferocity. Individual flakes blurred until they all turned into a single twisting wall of blueish snow. Murder hung in the air, though this time, it was the angel’s anger that melded the storm around them. That was when Kiara managed to connect that the crackle in the air must’ve been the angel’s power.

She didn’t understand the concept of magic, nor did she believe it in as she believed in science. Yet, an angel stood in front of her; along with this ogre. A single glance at either of them spoke of who held the actual power among the two.

“Why does a child of Slilx standing in the heart of my temple?” The angel spoke up, her voice was as sweet as a songbird and smoother than a calm sea laced with death. “I thought it was a spoken covenant that the green children were never to step foot in my domain after his transgressions.”

“*******************!” The ogre dropped Kiara. She hit the snow-covered marble with a light thud and a pained whine. The monster then fell to its knees in a pleading gesture as warm yellow liquid dripped down from its crotch - a foul place covered in an odd mixture of metal and cloth. “*****************!”

Its eyes were wide with terror as it bowed its head down to the marble. Body trembling, it mumbled in its guttural tongue that, strangely, she could understand was apologies and promises. Or maybe it was spitting threats and murderous blood pacts? Though, with its fear-gripped expression, Kiara doubted it was the latter. Cold air-filled her pain-stricken lungs once again as she rolled onto her back. Pain gripped every inch of her broken body.

“Excuses,” The angel said before her eyes fell upon Kiara with a much gentler tone. “And you even chased your prey into my halls. I would have slowly tortured you, pretending I didn’t notice how my halls had fallen to time and war; or that all the priests and pages had long since been dead. I would have skinned you, frozen, and then burned you until you ‘confessed’ to ruining my temple. Yet, you killed the humans above and left these 2 girls on the brink of death. So, I shall give you mercy.”

“***********!” Kiara heard the ogre’s joyful tone while she looked up at the starry roof so high up.

“I didn’t say you were going to leave alive,”

“*****!”

Before Kiara could try and force a peek, warm liquid splattered across her side of her face. Something large rolled up against her hand, which she could tell was… A rough face. A heavy thud followed just as fear began to seep into her heart. It did not last though as the cold began to embrace her body, and her breathing slowed. For the first time, the wind howled throughout the chamber, as odd as that was. That was her final thought as the snow closed in around her.