Carol felt a heavy divine presence in the chamber now, it made her want to get to her knees. Nicholas bowed his head and said "Oh Great One, may we have the honor of knowing your name so we may spread it among the world again."

The statue glowed brighter and the goddess said "I am Skydia, Goddess of Wolves and bringer of song to the world. Let the world know once more of my howl." A powerful howl filled the room and forced Carol to the ground.

"Skydia, we praise your return." Nicholas said while bowing. The others had been forced to the floor, except for Frankie who looked a bit awestruck.

"The scent of the Goddess Everlai is all over you. I do not smell corruption on you, has she returned to normal?"

"According to the one I have contracted with, a piece of her soul that was uncorrupted was cut off and is now recuperating."

"That is good news. We were friends a long time ago. Then the corruption broke her in twain and set off a chain of events that led to a great war. Many of my children died, as did a great deal of life. Even now I can still smell the taint of death upon the land. There is also a new smell now, something foul is acting upon the land."

"We discovered your statuette being used in a ritual to rip Goddess Everlais power out and instill it in an elder vampire. He was also doing a ritual to break her seal."

"He was a fool then. We were not the ones who sealed her away, we only called forth the Great One to seal away the two and their armies. The process took a great toll on us, and I lost my connection to the world. I spent a long time in the void. He would only have succeded in ripping a hole in her seal and setting them free on the world again."

"We were only able to stop them due to Jack the system I am contracted with."

"Who is this Jack? Is it the odd smell coming from you and your friends?"

"Jack is a System God. Though he prefers not to be called a god. I have signed a contract with him and gained powers as have these other three."

Carol felt Skydia glance at her as if looking directly at her soul. The whole process lasted a second yet to Carol it felt like days. Shaking her head, she was startled as she realized she could sense the goddess thoughts for a very brief second. Not enough to make out the thought, but it was scary to think she could read even a goddess's mind.

"While I am grateful for you summoning back to the world, it is obvious you do not intend to be my followers. Why have you come to me?"

Nicholas stood and bowed deeply "My friend Frankie made a terrible mistake and was cursed by one of your group. He changed to become a woman, and now we ask for your help in convincing your friend to remove the curse when we summon her."

"I thought I had smelled my old friend Luksami upon your friend. It is an unpleasant smell as if she had died."

"It is as you say, Goddess Luksami appears to have died."

Skydia was silent for a while and said "Gods do not die the same way as mortals. To truly destroy them, you must destroy their souls. It will be almost impossible for you to summon her as is. Even with my help, I do not believe I alone can help you. You will need to awaken the others of my group."

"Thank you oh Great Skydia." Nicholas said.

"I see you care deeply for your friend. For awakening me, I will grant you this blessing to you and your friend."

A glow began floating off the statue and enveloped both Frankie and Nicholas. It seemed to focus on Nicholas right arm and Frankies left arm. A flash of light later, Carol watched as Nicholas pulled back his sleeve revealing a tattoo of a wolf howling. Frankie said "Hey look we got matching tattoos!"

"I have given you my blessing. While I am willing to aid you in breaking the curse, I must ask a task of you, I ask you bring my Token to a nearby wolf pack. They will not harm you."

"We can do that." Nicholas said.

A light appeared on the altar and a necklace appeared. Nicholas took it and put it away.

"Good. Now for you young one." The Goddess looked at Carol, and she felt the weight return.

"Yes, Great Skydia?"

"I see the mark that has been placed on your soul, it smells like the same thing as haunting this land. I cannot remove it. What I can do is modify it. I warn you it will be painful."

Carol was silent for a moment thinking. "I will accept it Goddess, I will not have this mark hanging over me causing me to fear walking alone in the forest."

"Step forward and place your hand on my statuette."

Moving forward, Carol placed her hand on the cold moonstone. A surge of divine power flowed into her arm and deep into her soul. Pain exploded in her mind, it felt as if something was carving directly upon her very being. Flashes of images came and went, things she was picking up from Skydias mind.

When it was finished, Carol found she was standing with sweat dripping off her. A eerie feeling was now running through her. "Your previous mark aroused your enemies and drove them to find you. Now they will only feel fear when they smell you, for you smell like a predator."

"Thank you goddess." Carol said bowing before the Statuette.

"For you two who smell of metal, I cannot bless you. When you deliver the token to the pack, have them escort you back to their lair. At that place you will discover what you lack."

Debra and Denise bowed as well.

"I have been gone a long time, and my power is low. I will be going to meet the other gods, perhaps I will stop by to see my old friend. Farewell, remember to sing with your hearts open!" The glow began disappearing from the statue when they heard Skydia voice fainter then before,"I warn you child, something foul is approaching my temple, it smells of corruption, it seeks to harm you."

Frankie said nervously, "What does that mean?"

Just then they heard something coming down the tunnel. Carol reached out with her mind and recoiled from the hatred coming off the thing. "Whatever it is, it's pissed." Carol said activating her psionic blades. A heavy pressure started coming from the tunnel as something powerful began to get closer.

A withered old hag stepped out from the darkness of the passageway, and Carols heart skipped a beat. This thing felt extremely deadly, she had never faced something so malicious before. Examining brought her even more terror.

Nicholas frowned and said "Stay back from this thing Frankie, this thing will rip you to shreds." He pulled out a red blade and began to circle the Banshee. The banshee tracked Nicholas, as if he was the thing that drew her here in the first place.

"My Enemy, You Smell like her... Must kill!" It growled out and let out a horrific shriek that made Carols ears hurt and forced her to cover her ears.

Shaking his head from the pain, Nicholas roared out and charged at the Banshee with his Blade. Snarling it reached out and grabbed the blade and tore it from Nicholas hands. Tossing it aside, it reached out at an insane speed and tried to grasp Nicholas. He seemed to disappear and reappeared in a dark corner and flung a knife at the banshee.

Seeing the Banshee distracted, Carol rushed in and swiped at it with her psionic blades. Sensing Carol, it fliped to the side and swatted at Carol. Blocking as best she could, Carol felt herself being flung across the room and into the wall hard shaking her.

Pushing herself up, she was startled to see the Banshee leap towards her with a claw coming down to strike her. A metal shield suddenly slammed into the monster and forced it to tumble to the side. The shield slammed down upon it pinning it.

Denise yelled "Attack it now. I can't keep it down for long."

Carol dashed forward and began furiously slashing at the downed banshee, with Nicholas following after he picked up his blade again. They took off a good chunk of health from the hideous creature. Then the Banshee let out a howl, and ripped the shield in half causing Denise to cry out in pain.

It leaped up and pounced on Nicholas. It began to tear him up and was cackling in joy as Nicholas blood began to splash it. "Get off him you bitch!" Frankie yelled and using a double handed uppercut hit the banshee off of Nicholas. It was surprised and landed on its ass.

Growling it rolled to its feet and charged Frankie. Nicholas reached and grabbed it's legs "No you will not fucking touch her!" The Banshee roared, and Nicholas jammed his blade into it's back. Using it's claws it began to slash Nicholas as he struggled desperately to keep her still.

"I will feast on your insides!" it cackled. Carol slashed the creatures back. The banshee simpy swatted Carol away, and grabbed Nicholas's arm. As Carol forced herself back up, she heard a sickening snap and saw his arm was now bent at a terrible angle. Nicholas screamed in pain and tried to punch the Banshee off him.

As he did so, the monster opened its mouth and bit down and his punching arm. It ripped a sizable portion of flesh of his arm. Reaching out with her mental powers, Carol shoved the monster off him, and began to pour heat into it. Carol found her mind struggling to keep ahold of the thing. Debra summoned the floating hammer and began to strike it several times in its face.

Nicholas struggled to his feet and said "Let's see you deal with this hag!" With that he pulled out a Black Staff. When the Banshee saw the staff, it began to freak out, and Carol could not keep it contained anymore. Tearing free it fled down the tunnel yelling "I will come for you again!"

When it had fled, Nicholas took a step and fell to the ground. "Nicholas!" Frankie said and dashed towards his laying body, and cradled him. Carol came up next to him and examined him. His HP was near critical, but was strangely slowly starting to recover.

Nicholas wheezed out, "Holy shit, that stings. I think it's going to take time for me to heal from this. I think I'm feeling a bit woozy." With that he passed out.

"There is a healer in the Elf Village we can take him too." Carol said and grabbed the Black Staff and examined it.

This thing was scarily powerful. Carol could feel a faint divine energy about it, like it had been made by a god. "Lets quickly take him to the village. I don't want to have to fight that thing in the dark." With the twins carrying Nicholas they began the journey back to the village.