"What the actual fuck does THAT mean?" I snapped, staring at the other man with hostility. "First of all, HOW would you do that? Second of all WHY would you do that? Hatescream I get, he's your boss, but most of the vanished gods have been gone for ages. Why would you want them back hogging your boss's spotlight? Hell, how do you know you could even get them to play nice."

Felix shrugged. "We naturally have our own methods of ensuring such things. As for the how...I assume you have a basic idea."

I grimaced. "The shit in that cup. The weird ritual liquid leaking off the skull. What IS that skull anyway. If you're here for the liquid I assume you know?" I felt deeply uncomfortable being around that thing earlier. Sure it was enchanted, but it was more than just enchantment. Something was WRONG with it. My Danger Sense was going off like crazy when we were near it, though that might have been the poison muck.

He shook his head. "I'm afraid not. Lord Hatescream knew of this place, and left record for accessing it. This particular plan has been in motion for many years."

"So why now?" I asked. "Why wait all this time and do it at this exact moment. I refuse to believe my luck is that bad."

Another smile graced his lips, this one more mocking. "Do you know what 'the shit in that cup' is, Shane? What it's capable of doing?"

"It's spiritually reactive biomass." Said Chelsea grimly from behind us. "Of some kind. It eats material and then uses the fuel to create physical mass matching the attributes of the last spiritual influence it came into contact with." She held up the book. "But that's just the end goal of the experiment. It was on the first page. WHY would you need something like that? What would you even do with it?"

"Why, feed it, of course." Said Felix with a laugh. "It's why we waited. See, the Sanctophage material, the name of that substance, requires physical mass of a similar type to be useful. It has to eat something similar to the spiritual input to create the matter." My blood ran cold, and he grinned at me, shedding his aloof pretense, eyes shining with fanatical glee. "I see you figured it out."

"Suvaya." I said hoarsely. "You needed the flesh of a god to use this stuff. The guy who bought that mountain was one of you."

He nodded eagerly. "Of course. Lord Hatescream was a power in his own right. His adherents do not simply belong to dregs and niche organizations. We needed the biomass to fuel the conversion. Once we had that, all we had to do was recover the Sanctophage and not only would our lord return to us, but he would bring along all his friends. Vanished gods whose fragments and spiritual essence he secretly collected over all those years."

"That's not how it works!" Snapped Benny. "I studied that ritual. Mass only helps. The physical body is the least important part. Those spiritual fragments need STATS. Impact. Without the ritual how would you feed one, much less a half dozen?"

I thought back to the description Callen gave me of the substance Billy was carrying. "Lamentation liquid." I said in horror. "You've been ritually sacrificing people to gather that disgusting muck and using it to nurture the spirit shards. You feed it the remains of tortured souls to grow stronger, then feed the biomass to the Sanctophage and let each fragment inhabit the thing so they can make a suitable body."

"The conversion rate is admittedly less than ideal." He said with a shrug. "We require an absurd number of materials. Luckily, there are always places to acquire scraps. The Black Sorrow Cult does a brisk trade in heretics and blasphemers. It's taken us centuries to collect them all, but we had patience. Just as our lord did. He foresaw this day. From the moment he realized how strong the others were growing, he knew he would never be able to achieve his goals."

I tried to follow what he was saying. "So you're saying that since he couldn't beat them, he ENGINEERED his own death to throw off suspicion while he gathered his resources? That's...that's fucking insane."

"SILENCE!" Roared the catlike man. "How dare you question him! The patience, the cunning, the sheer determination required to concoct such a scheme. They're beyond what your petty mortal mind can comprehend. But still. Your willpower and improvisation are impressive. We could allow you and yours to live. Simply hand us the Sanctophage. With it, my lord and his brothers and sisters will rise, they will take back the universe from the six, and we will know paradise in the mortal world."

I stared at him, taking in his peaceful, fanatical expression. "Wow, you are like, completely, bugfuckeringly insane. He's a MURDER god. Or did I get that wrong? Who the hell wants to live in a universe ruled by a guy who thinks 'Blood Murder Palace' is a catchy name for his crew?" I looked at the others. "Is this just me here? Like if you guys think we should do it I guess we can discuss."

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Callie rolled her eyes. "I'm pretty firmly in the no column on this one hon'." The others all piped up, nodding and agreeing with her statement.

"You heard the lady." I said, jerking my thumb at my girlfriend. "We're going to opt out of your crazy murder society, thanks so much."

"Fools." He spat, hackles rising like an actual fucking cat. "To spit on HIS generosity. Very well. Then I see no need for your nonsense. Kill them. Kill them all and take the Sanctophage. Kill them if you have to die in the process. We must complete our mission."

With that, the wave of cloaked figures blurred forward, and we were all lost in a sea of violence. My staff flicked up, lashing out to begin deflecting the attacks of the hooded figures into each other, but my eyes went wide as the closest one fucking WRAPPED himself around my staff.

The green corrosion of Belial crept over him, but he just ignored it, weighing down my staff as he slowly died. I was so thrown off by it that I didn't have a chance to dodge the second one as he hit me head on, with two more piling atop us. I panicked, but still had options. I used a shadow jump, sliding into the dark and then stepping out a few feet away to take in the scene of the rest of my people.

Chaos. We were all used to fighting rational, sane humans. Even cultists CARED if they died. Sure, the brainwashed sleepers would tank hits like that, but they were also dull and kind of slow in terms of reactions. These guys were living thinking humans who gave no fucks if they survived as long as they could accomplish their goals.

Bethy was under attack from all sides, ten of them having circled her and holding her down. My sister and Callen were penned in the same way, and Abel was on the ground, several of them on top of him until he slipped out with lubricated space and pulped a head, looking genuinely pissed. I looked around for Felix as I saw Nat and her friends grouped around a now full sized Randall who barely fit in the large office, batting away the others.

I caught a flash of yellow heading for the cup and dashed after him...and then I wasn't. I was across the room, throwing myself aside to avoid a punch from Abel that might have actually killed me. He blinked, confused, as did I. Looking around, I saw a hooded figure where I'd been throw itself in front of an attack from Mel that was aimed at Felix, before she vanished, appearing behind Chelsea and barely avoiding getting bisected by Callen.

"Fuck." I snapped. "Everybody careful! They have a translocator!" I'd heard of the ability, like teleportation but it worked on other things instead.

Spatial abilities were a bitch to deal with. I saw a few binding powers at work, starting to slow down Randall, a couple of poison users Chelsea was offsetting, and various elemental and energy based tricks, but the translocator wasn't obvious. I couldn't figure out which one was doing it. The fucking hoods made them impossible to tell apart even with my Perception and Eye of Revelation. Something about the cloaks was blocking it. Like the one Nat had when I met her.

"Back off." Snarled Callie as she stepped from the shadows, swinging an attack at Felix. Nat and the others had managed to slip Perit through their encirclement and she was winding around the pedestal to line up a shot. Felix ignored Callie, shifting into a cat and blurring forward as she sprang at him to attack.

I saw what was going to happen before it did. Pattern recognition, fate sense, or maybe a lucky guess, but I knew. Felix's paw touched the cup on the pedestal, and he was gone. Callie landed a second later, both her black daggers thudding home. One in Perit's back, and one in her throat. She stared up at Callie in shock as my girlfriend looked on in horror. Felix had appeared on the other side of the pedestal, retaking human form to catch the falling cup, then stashing it in a ring.

The pedestal began to glow, red lines pulsing as they emanated from the center. Felix bolted out the open door as it slammed shut, having already been moving before the defenses activated.

The floor started to glow, and I felt heat begin to build. My eyes wide, I blurred forward, grabbing Callie and yelling for the others. She wouldn't let go of Perit's body, even Vitality wouldn't fix that (she was definitely dead) but Callie just clung to her in panicked desperation.

I didn't have time to fight her on it. I had my Eye of Revelation active, looking for any space that didn't have the sewer system below it. The thing was spatially expanded, so it didn't cover the whole floor, just most of it. I found a section of now glowing stone that didn't have anything under it and I dragged Callie over to it.

Jessie shrank down the bear again, and the others helped fend off the figures so they could all make a retreat after she did it. They were still attacking, desperate to slow us down. I was almost hyperventilating, but I forced myself to calm down. Perit was dead, that was bad, but I was in charge, and if we didn't live no one would mourn her. I had to keep it together.

When the rest of them arrived, I triggered Pit of Despair. And nothing happened. I stared at the ground in rage. We needed out of here, but the floors of this office weren't random hallway floors. They were clearly warded against things like this. Smart call but REALLY unfortunate for us since my feet were starting to burn.

Wait...burn, defenses. I shifted into Mephistopheles. Nat was beside me, shaking her friend, crying as she cradled the body, and I tried so fucking hard not to look. Not to imagine that was me holding Benny, or Jessie, or Callie. Not to let my heart break for my cousin.

I raised my staff, which had absorbed a shocking amount of life force from that crazy fucking initiate who decided to play pencil topper. Then I focused Pit of Despair into it, shoving in as much of my super destructive armor breaking black flame as I could while I did. I slammed the staff down, releasing the attack, the death energy stored, and the flames all at once.

The floor beneath us flashed black, and I felt like it became a bit less stable. I slammed it down again. Pit of Despiar. Pit of Despair. Pit of Despair. The ground collapsed under us, the black flame mixing with whatever flame enchantment apparently destabilizing the structure enough for the attack to finally work. All I could see as we plummeted into darkness was hooded figures bursting into flames as the floors finally got hot enough, and all I heard was my cousin sobbing for her friend.