Church of the God of the Moon and Night - Peril Harbour

The young novice slowly made his way over to the shabby-looking person sitting at the very back of the church pew. Even as he approached, he could smell an unpleasant odor, and there was no doubt where the smell was coming from.

He had to suppress his disgust and put on a face of divine grace even in front of a person like this, but it wasn't easy. He stopped a short distance from the person, and before he spoke, he heard the person whispering shakily.

"Cold... Cold..."

The novice sighed inwardly and asked amiably, "Welcome, my friend, to our sanctuary. I see you are a person in trouble. Have you come to ask for the favor of our God of Moon and Night?"

The dirty person twitched slightly and raised his head a little, but the novice still couldn't see the face of the poor person. "Warmer..." the person whispered.

The novice was beginning to wonder if this person had some mental problems as well and looked back slightly as he sought the help of one of his older brothers or sisters, but they were all busy with their duties.

When the novice looked again at the person in front of him, he flinched in fright as the person raised his head, and in the darkness of the hood, he saw a disfigured face with too many sharp teeth.

"Aaah!" he cried out in fright and backed away, but the creature had already rushed forward.

"Fire!" It slashed its claws at the young novice's neck.

Fortunately, even novices go through training now, so he managed to dodge so that the weak spot on its neck wasn't hit, and instead, its chest and shoulder were torn into bloody shreds.

The young novice fell onto his back and screamed in pain as the fabric of his robes became heavy with blood.

The Warmseeker, instead of pouncing on the wounded man, dropped to all fours and quickly ran down the aisle between the pews deeper into the church.

Marik, who had been waiting for this moment, quickly jumped to his feet and drew his sword. "Monster! There's a monster!" he shouted to all present. "I am the Monster Hunter! Everyone evacuate immediately!" he shouted while running after The Warmseeker.

People and novices panicked and ran to the sides like frightened chickens; a few people fell and tried to crawl to get away from the danger. The problem was that not everyone could see what was going on or where the monster was, which created even more panic.

Marik ran after the Warmseeker, which circled the pulpit, but Marik went to meet it and they collided head-on.

The Warmseeker skidded to a halt and quickly changed direction while Marik struck with his sword, missing though not intentionally. Hellcage had told him that he didn't need to fake anything, so Marik acted naturally and actually tried to kill The Warmseeker.

Marik hurried after the monster, and out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at the altar Hellcage wanted to get to, but he couldn't tell if Hellcage was already there, so he turned his attention to his task.

People continued to scream and run; Marik was sure the ones panicking the most were the Wendigo, but it didn't really matter.

"Novices! Help evacuate the civilians! Snap out of it!" Marik called, using his authoritative voice of a former ship's captain.

The novices, who were used to taking orders, recovered a bit and began to guide the civilians towards the outside or side corridors not normally reserved for visitors.

Marik took his pistols in his other hand and fired towards the Warmseeker, who was still running wildly. By this point, the alarms must have gone off on the upper and lower floors, and the more powerful members of the church would be arriving soon.

Marik was right. Soon the Priests, Deans, and the Vicars came running to deal with the problem. The Priests and some of the Deans who still didn't have the blessing and couldn't use any divine powers began to help with the evacuation but held their weapons to possibly protect themselves.

The Vicars, meanwhile, went to aid Marik in pursuing the Warmseeker. The fact that they had come higher in position helped stabilize the situation a bit, but the Warmseeker was sticking to the ground and running really fast, so everything still looked chaotic.

The Warmseeker, who was already smarter, was starting to realize the danger with the arrival of more people, so it was trying to get to the exit to escape. But everywhere it headed, someone was in the way.

Gradually, the Warmseeker was cornered. It panickedly turned from one side to the other and watched as people with glowing talismans approached it, as well as the man with the head the color of fire.

The Warmseeker suddenly straightened up and spread its arms. It revealed a skinny body with two dominant legs and many smaller ones growing on the sides of its body.

"Fire!" it shouted, and the few priests who were closer suddenly felt a chill. It was as if someone had suddenly sucked out all their body heat until their skin turned white, their lips turned blue, and their holy symbols fell from their freezing fingers.

With just a glance, one could see the emaciated body of the Warmseeker become more rounded, the sharp edges of the protruding bones smoothed out.

Marik, who had not been hit, lunged forward and struck out with the sword that pierced the Warmseeker's body.

"Eeeek!" the Warmseeker screamed in pain, but Marik knew that so little wouldn't kill this creature. He already knew from the first encounter that the creature wouldn't just die until the head was hit. Marik drew his sword and retreated to attack again, but three streams of silver energy flew past him, hitting the creature in the body and blasting it into the wall.

The Warmseeker staggered, but before it could fall, the legs on its body bent and bounced off the wall. The Warmseeker pushed off the wall and flew at unexpected speed through the blocking priests, knocking them aside and leaving several injuries in its wake.

The Warmseeker landed on all fours, leaving dark stains on the floor behind it as it rushed for the exit. Everyone who could immediately ran after the fleeing monster.

Marik was among them, discreetly checking the time. Only about five minutes had passed. He hoped Hellcage had already done his thing because they couldn't buy much more time. Either the monster would escape or perish.

---

Hidden from everyone's view, Hellcage slipped stealthily to the high altar located at the back of the pulpit. He was oblivious to the chaos and just took care to avoid approaching any of the priests present, though he didn't believe they would be able to detect him; better not to take any chances.

Hellcage, in the form of an intangible shadow, made it to the altar and hid in its shadows, waiting a few seconds before he began to make his way into the hollow interior of the altar.

Two red eyes and an evilly smiling mouth opened within the darkness, illuminating the dark horned head in red for a moment before the terrifying face disappeared into the darkness once more.

It was only a minute or two before Hellcage slithered out again, his movements no longer as agile as before.

He moved quickly to the moving Marik and slipped into his shadow. Marik hesitated for a second as he sensed something and looked down before walking again to speak to the incoming team of Monster Hunters that had arrived due to the incident with the Warmseeker that had managed to escape.

If anyone looked inside the altar right now, they would probably be disgusted. A black gooey substance with tumor-like lumps covered the hollow interior of the altar. But no one knew about it.

Marik made an excuse to the children waiting for him at home so that he would not be forced to follow the hunting party.

He felt he needed to hurry.

---

House on 22nd Street

Marik arrived quickly back home and walked to their altar, where he stood and waited. He looked at his shadow, frowning. "Hellcage?" he addressed him, but nothing happened for a moment longer.

Marik was beginning to worry. Had something gone wrong? Maybe he'd made a mistake and Hellcage hadn't joined him? No... he was pretty sure he could feel him in his shadow. If Marik had to compare it to anything, it was probably a psychological weight.

Like when a person pretends to hold something until they convince their own brain that they're really holding something and start to feel the weight of the object. It was a similar feeling when Hellcage snuck into his shadow.

It was only after a moment that Marik saw his shadow move and the piece detached from him, slowly moving towards the altar. Marik watched the shadow and only approached it when the shadow stopped close to the altar and a slightly deformed hand emerged from it to touch the altar.

"Hellcage? What's wrong with you?" he asked, but no answer came.

Marik was getting really worried; he hadn't expected this to happen. Hellcage had said that what he wanted to do was a bit more complicated, but he hadn't thought of reducing him to this state. This isn't a bit!

Marik ran a hand through his hair and looked around. Was there anything he could do?

---

Baa Domain

After the attack on the Evil God was over, Baa no longer cared about the rest of the weaker believers who were stuck somewhere. As night fell, the Night Sermons were to begin in all his churches and shrines.

That was Bao's favorite time, when most Prana flowed to him. Since he was the god of the Moon and Night, this was the time when most of his worshippers prayed. During the day, there were not so many.

Baa adjusted the mask on his face before leaning back comfortably in his chair and waiting. Waves of voices soon began to rise in his mind; after all these years, he naturally knew how to deal with the amount of prayers so it didn't disturb him.

He didn't naturally answer any of the prayers. How little he cared for the silly concerns of insignificant people who had only one use for him. Little work was needed to keep the faith of the people; all he had to do was to answer someone now and then, to give a sign, to perform a minor miracle, and then the people themselves would see to it that word of his actions spread.

Sometimes he didn't even have to do anything, and people interpreted the things that happened on their own as his divine intervention. Baa could only laugh at this. Baa had some sympathy for Luan, who tried to be a hardworking goddess, but Baa knew that wouldn't last forever.

Mortals were perhaps even more greedy creatures than gods. You give them a finger and they'll rip your whole arm off. They always want more in the end. And when you finally draw the line, they rebel and get angry like the gods owe them something.

Baa wondered how hard Luan would fall.

Soon he felt a soft, cool, and vital feeling. Of course, like any god, Baa received Prana pretty much all the time; it was only at times like this, when there was more of it, that he was able to really take in the feeling.

It was pleasant, like a refreshing splash of water on a hot summer day. "Hmmm..." Baa let out a satisfied hum. But under the mask, his face quickly contorted.

Baa opened his eyes and straightened his back in confusion. "What the...." he muttered, as the fresh feeling suddenly disappeared and felt more like... dirty, musty, and burnt.

He stood up quickly and shuddered, starting to feel sick. "What is that!?" he snapped, stunned.

Baa began to shift, his hand pressed against his stomach, wondering what to do and what was going on. He had never encountered such a problem before.

However, the dirty feeling built up until finally, he couldn't stand it. He quickly removed his mask, which he discarded before he bent over and began to vomit.

A black and red stream rolled out of his mouth and hit the ground, unable to stop. "What... ugh... no... ugh... enough..." Baa was beginning to see where it was coming from, but he couldn't stop vomiting, and it was distracting him from getting into his Divine Space and stopping prayers.

The black and bloody water was spreading more and more across the floor. It was still a while before the time of prayers ended, and finally, the intense feeling of nausea stopped.

"Haaa... haaa..." Baa sighed with effort, wiping his dirty chin with his sleeve before he froze and saw that the black glass space had been disturbed.

From the puddle, red cracks began to spread across the floor and wall, covering everything and getting wider and wider. Baa slowly straightened up, and at that moment, red eyes began to appear and blink in the cracks.

Baa frowned and quickly found the mask he had put on. "Seriously... someone is trying to attack me in my own domain?" The mask quickly clung to his face, and he spread his arms.

A wave of silver light shot from his body, sweeping away and destroying the hideous puddle on the ground, but to his surprise, it did nothing to the red cracks and eyes.

Baa did it again, but the cracks shrank only momentarily after his hit before growing larger again.

"Hahahaha...." Suddenly, a dark laugh rang out, and Baa tensed up.

"I wonder how you'll handle this one, Baa," the voice said, and Baa looked around to find the source of the voice. Then, a short distance away, he saw a silhouette on one of the cracked black glass walls.

Baa couldn't quite make out the shape, only recognizing a torso and a red eye, but it almost looked like it was missing a head.

"Who are you?" Baa asked, but despite the bad situation, he spoke calmly.

"Just a servant of a higher being. I hope you like my little gift. It took some effort, but I think it was worth it," the man spoke mockingly without a single mocking tone in his voice, which was a bit of an odd contrast.

"Indeed... you have the courage to attack me in my Domain. Do you have a death wish?" Baa frowned and clenched his hands.

"Interesting. Strange that you felt it was okay for you to do something like that and get off scot-free," his voice had cooled off noticeably.

Baa didn't have to think long. "So you belong to the Evil God. I see."

The voice trailed off. "I can't say I like what you did with the Moon Domain. This is too bare and lacks style. I really liked his red tree," he commented, and Baa, who had started to relax a bit, became alert again.

"What?" Baa asked cautiously, a little startled. How did this being know anything about the Domain of the previous god? No... how was that possible? He spoke as if he knew Moon!

"Who are you?" Baa asked again, but now he was more insistent.

"You don't need to know. For now," the creature replied before suddenly disappearing from the wall, but the red cracks with the blinking eyes remained. Baa tried again to smooth them out, but again, nothing happened.

He then tried to step out of the domain, but to his shock, he was stopped. He couldn't get out. He looked around for a moment before noticing that the cracks covered the entire area, joining together in places to look a bit like a net.

"A curse?" Baa muttered. "Damn. What was that?"

---

End of the World

Caila was alone in the hall again. The attack was over by the time everyone began to return, cleaning up the mess, and Lambert and Zenobe went to count the damage. Lambert was already muttering numbers about how much money needed to be set aside in the newly created fund for unexpected enemy attacks.

Finally, Caila had time to think things through. She looked at the newly unlocked door of the Shard and tried harder to make sense of everything she had learned in such a short time.

Supernova was indeed a woman of action. What was she planning? All Caila could think was that maybe she was trying to find a way back to her home planet. After all, that was probably her ultimate goal, right?

Caila had learned so much in such a short time that she needed to analyze it all properly. So... Supernova could manipulate DNA to create fantastic and powerful creatures. Isn't that literally called unlocking potential?

She began to raise new gods, gods that humans would worship, and those gods would in turn worship Supernova. As far as Caila understood, Supernova was thriving in this. She has created a very strange but powerful community. But she still didn't know what had happened, that everything had been destroyed and the humans and herself had ended up as statues.

Next. Supernova became a Higher God, yet she did not leave her planet of birth. Why? And why was she opening the Shards? Why build satellites and send them into space? Caila felt an idea forming in the back of her brain, but it escaped before she could grasp it.

She was disturbed by the feeling of a call. Caila sighed and frowned before stepping quickly into her Divine Space.

Caila saw the light belonging to Hellcage flicker. She recognized it immediately, not only because of the feeling, but also because she moved that light away from the others. It was like a VIP area that she reserved for her favorites.

She reached for his light, but to her surprise she heard nothing. Normally Hellcage would greet her immediately with a cheerful voice, but now it was silent. Caila frowned and glanced at the flickering light again. She immediately remembered that Hellcage was planning to carry out an attack on the church of the god Bao today. Could something be wrong?

Concerned, Caila immediately entered Hellcage's consciousness.

And an omnipresent feeling of nervousness surrounded her.

Also missing was the usual collection of memories that are usually there. Instead, the place was dark, and there was a single large window in front of her that emitted a red light.

"Ah... Hellcage, what did you do?" Caila may not have been that experienced yet, but she could still tell something was wrong. She stepped into the memory.

Caila looked around, and all the red made her head hurt a little. The place she was in looked strange. Everything around was black to grey and red, and that was mostly because of all the red eyes.

She was in the middle of some sort of ruined city, the ground was moving as if it was water with a large number of lidless eyes swimming in it. There were eyes in the ground, in buildings, and even in the sky.

It looked like some horrifying, dystopian world of the apocalypse.

Caila was also getting the strange feeling that this wasn't just some memory. She hadn't seen Hellcage anywhere in the first place, and all the memories she had ever seen always had their owners as the main characters.

And in the second row, as soon as Caila began to walk forward, monstrous hands or faces began to emerge from the red sea of eyes that stared at her. And for all she knew, nothing and no one in her memories was supposed to know of her presence.

Caila began to move faster, but the creatures from the red sea began to follow her.

"Ah!" Caila exclaimed in surprise as the things suddenly grabbed her cloak, and one even grabbed her ankle. Caila was more surprised than frightened, as this was the first time she had felt someone else's touch.

I mean, she'd been touched before, but no one had touched her yet, so her reaction was somewhat confused considering the creatures had started trying to pull her down into the sea of eyes.

"Oh." When Caila realized this, she immediately let her blue flame flare and hit the creature with it, which immediately retreated. Caila was careful, however, to just fend them off and not do any real damage. This was still just Hellcage's subconscious, and she didn't want to cause him any harm.

"So... where are you?" Caila asked once she was sure the creatures weren't bothering her anymore, preferring to surround herself in all-consuming flames and start looking for Hellcage. She was sure Hellcage was in some sort of trouble; otherwise, he wouldn't have called her, would he?

She walked around for a while, looking for any clues as to where to find Hellcage. She looked at the ruins, which were awash in a red sea of eyes and looked very damaged and dilapidated.

Caila wondered what the place was like, but could only determine that the buildings were quite tall, so it couldn't be any place resembling the Medieval era.

However, she couldn't make out anything specific from the ruins, so she simply moved forward. Finally, she focused on the eye flow and headed in the same direction. The city that Caila was passing through was really big, and strangely enough, not repetitive in any way. The ruins had a certain unique style, so she didn't feel like she was going in circles.

Eventually, she got out of the grip of the tall buildings and into what could be considered an outskirts. Here she found an already solid bed of what looked more like old dead skin combined with cobwebs and dust. And there were no shortages of red doci here either, blinking dully and looking at nothing in particular.

"A really... cheerful place," Caila commented quietly, walking forward. The fact that she still couldn't find Hellcage worried her. Where could he be?

As if the world had decided to answer her unspoken question, something suddenly loomed in the distance. And it was huge.

"There?" Caila stopped and stared at the thing.

It was one giant red eye that seemed to have been plucked from its eye socket, and there was a hint of a nerve root in the tangle of red and black fluid. The eye was partially covered in grayish, dead earth, and it swayed slightly back and forth.

"Eh... okay," Caila didn't really want to go there, but it was the only place that drew attention to itself like that, so she could only assume that there was a Hellcage somewhere.

As she approached, the giant eye slowly looked at her, causing Caila to shudder inwardly. She cursed her head more and more, trying not to break eye contact with the creature as she approached it.

By the time she was standing underneath it, she even had to wedge herself backwards so she could see the eye. "Hellcage?" She tried to address the eye.

"Hellcage! I'm here! Where are you?" Caila called out.

The creature suddenly began to fall, and Caila had to quickly back away as the giant eye landed in front of her.

"Liege..." A drawn-out sigh came from the eye, and it distorted slightly as if it were smiling.

Caila was shaken. That big eye belonged to Hellcage? Well... she had a hunch, but it was still a bit shocking. However, she quickly shook off her surprise and walked closer to the eye before reaching out and lightly patting the eye on the side.

"There, there... I'm here. It's okay now." Caila felt a moist, disgusting sensation on her hand, but it didn't stop her from trying to comfort Hellcage anyway.

Anyway, Caila had gotten pretty used to her followers being a bunch of weirdos and monsters. She liked them anyway. And she also knew that Hellcage was some powerful being.

But it hadn't occurred to her that Hellcage, who was so reliable and reasonable, would actually be the biggest monster of all. But what was she really supposed to do now? And what had happened to him in the first place?