In the skin of a raven, Hearne witnessed something that should not be and that was a pure black hole that was floating above his grandfather's forest with the echoes of beating war drums a horde of red demonic warriors burst forth from the black hole, and slaughtered every being that sheltered beneath its trees from beasts to people, and only a rare few could even put up a fight, a particularly memorable group were the White Wolves, a group known and feared by Herne's worshippers and the rare outsiders that knew of them as peerless warriors now fought against scores of the blighted creatures but they all eventually met their ends until the last member who released one final howl before being cut down by a nameless demon's black blade.

Upon witnessing the death of the White Wolves, Hearne flew away hoping to find more people that he could potentially help but all he found were corpses and he slowly began to lose hope until he found another person who dared to fight against the rampaging horde was Aife, his mother.

She was now surrounded by the corpses of five of the unholy abominations. She looked exhausted and ready to drop any moment. After dropping to the ground and resting against a tree, and before Hearne could guide his mother away from this place, another demon arrived dropping after making an incredible leap which caused Hearne to hide away. Still, this one's appearance and attitude differed considerably from its brethren's.

The creature had red skin and horns like the rest of its accursed siblings, but this one's skin was several shades darker and its horns was bigger and curled similar to that of a goat's. Unlike its brethren, this creature was covered in bronze armor from the waist down and its hair freely flowed in the breeze and it was white as snow. It had skeletal wings that remained restricted. This creature was bigger and taller than its siblings and most certainly stronger than them as well, but the most startling difference was that it could speak.

"Pray to whatever god you think will protect you from our wrath, woman." The demon said with a condescending voice, making fun of Aife for her beliefs but knowing that she could not fight anyone in her current state she quickly prayed to Herne, her father-in-law, and the god who had saved her life and exposed her to a new way of life through worship of him.

But she did not make her prayer long as she was currently on a battlefield and she did not trust that the creature before wouldn't kill her while praying but the demon did not move and neither did it make any other attempt to do anything, it simply watched her pray with a mocking smile as if knowing something that she didn't.

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The demon waited some time for her prayers to reach her god, and they did reach Herne, who rode a red stag, a symbol of his godhood. While his appearance remained the same, all who were present knew that they did not need their eyes to see that the god before them had weakened with age.

"Rider of the Red Stag, did you not hear the prayers of your people as my army slaughtered them?" The demon asked but Herne did not react to the question almost as if he was not paying attention to the demon at all but to someone else, unknowing of Herne's disinterest in his questioning the demon continued with another one "Why did you only respond to the prayers of this one woman?"

"Demon, what do you see when you look at the night sky?" Herne deflected, causing the demon to look up. After staring at the sky for a while, it lowered its head and replied to the weakened god.

"I see your fading constellation, I see your death at my hands, I see the end of an era"

As the demon's words echoed in the air, Herne erupted into a hearty, booming laugh that filled the room. Aife couldn’t help but join in, her laughter ringing out like sweet music. She laughed so intensely, her cheeks flushed and her eyes gleaming, that she soon felt overwhelmed. Finally, unable to contain her mirth any longer, she collapsed to the ground, unconscious from the sheer joy of it all. After a while, once the echo of laughter had faded, Herne composed himself, wiping tears of mirth from his eyes, and turned his attention back to the demon, ready to respond.

"You are so focused on my end that you fail to see the new beginning, but it's not like you'll live long enough to see it," Herne said, conjuring his bow from thin air ready to fight the demon before him but he quickly realized that Aife was there, and if she remained there, then she would hold him back so she needed to be removed

"Hearne, take your mother out here"

Immediately Hearne morphed and twisted the raven through which he saw what was happening into an exact copy of his physical copy. He picked up his mother and ran away leaving only a green blur, taking her to a far enough distance that she would no longer be a liability. Still, he did not just leave her without protection. He left her with an adult brown bear he conjured and after its birth, Hearne commanded the bear to guard his sleeping mother which it obeyed.

Seeing that his mother was as safe as he could make her, he immediately ran back to assist his grandfather in combating the demon general, leaving both the bear and his mother in his dust.