Suffer Not

No telling what she’ll be able to do to us if she gets her hands on objects connected to us. It’s not like she needs our random crap. Nyx shook her head confidently. “I don’t like those terms. Now, uh… how about you just get out of the way. We’ve killed one of you, we can stop you too if we have to.”

Their items dropped roughly out of her magic. Nyx caught hers carefully, slipping it away before harm could come to something so important to her.

“I don’t believe you.” Girtiya retreated a few steps, expression dark. She began circling like a predator, both hands extended into claws. But she didn’t lurch forward to attack right away. “We share the blood of a Goddess. Her heartbeat moves us to the revel. Laws that bind you can’t contain us.” Then she froze, her eyes settling on Pocky. They grew suddenly wider, and she stumbled back as though she’d just been struck. “They carry Katya’s spirit with them,” she said, her voice commanding. “We must kill the animal and free her.”

“She will join the Mother,” said the nearest of her servants, his voice intense. Several others whispered after him, repeating. “With the Mother.”

“You’re fools, intruders! You’re giving up a life of bliss in the Mother’s presence! Her pleasures would teach you to know yourself, as they taught me! You sacrifice your lives over nothing! Listen, I know you can hear it. Feel its embrace enfold you!”

Christopher twisted to one side, settling the flat of his massive blade against his shoulder. “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”

Girtiya laughed madly, lifting her arms. The space around them changed, broken wood melting into crushed stone. A different ceiling rose above them, with crumbling wooden racks around the walls. Racks weighed down with ancient weapons too large for humans to easily use. “They’ve chosen death! Wake from an eternity of senseless hedonism, and taste blood instead! Protect the Mother’s temple!”

They moved. Many of these men seemed unsteady on their feet, but still they moved. But they were strong, strong enough to lift even the oversized weapons without much difficulty.

Ai straightened her hat, pulling on her gauntlets one at a time. Beside her, Pocky’s horn cracked and sparked, filling the air with the harsh stench of ozone. “I hope you’re going to help, Nyx. Show us just how great esper-summoning is.”

Nyx gritted her teeth, slamming her staff into the ground with all her might. She hadn’t completely recovered since the day before, but she wouldn’t have come without some magic. “Something dangerous,” she repeated. “Maybe a lot of somethings.” Maybe she could even the odds…

Two different and strange creatures reached out...