Another cave in the lair of Utopia collapsed. This was common enough under the ravaged plains of Alunra. That no monster died from it, however, was notable.
Cultists had fled the temple first. By the time their prisoners escaped in turn, they were long gone. Lost in a maze of dark tunnels where peace meant little.
Of those prisoners, few wanted to remain.
After days and weeks spent wounded in dens, they were defiant of their captors and of each other. Some would go feral from the experience, and rightly so. Some would need a whole new faith to recover.
The legged rapt was enjoying her moment of triumph.
"Shoo! Shoo!" She told the beasts passing her by. "Go elsewhere! Yay! Everybody lives!"
I crouched next to her and patted her head.
"Good work, Caline."
My clay hand wasn't the most enjoyable think to have brushing one's back, but after a shrill she let me do. By now the last stragglers were disappearing in those distant galleries, so she could afford to just let the invisible golem pet her.
I could, however, hear the rumors around.
Two hundred beasts had been gathered in the same temple, heavily stressed and released in the wild. Of course fights would break out. They avoided killing but black blood would be drawn all the same. It was inevitable.
And, closer to us, I could perceive one of the first victims weakly wailing all alone.
"What do you want to do now?" I asked her.
"Oh! The killer! Where is the killer?"
In all this, that horned hare had had little trouble slipping out of focus. He could escape others but I had his trace and that humanoid had not gone far.
"Wait a little and we will meet him."
He too had heard the wails of a wounded beast. Like any predator, there was no choice but for him to approach it.
Down on his flank was the magnal, his plates scraped and the scales pierced. There was no trail, so he had been beaten up where he stood. The lizard was too hurt no notice that hare approach.
And the hare, in turn, stopped short of him. He still had his glass blade at hand. I could tell from the vibrations alone that he was considering striking.
Because the magnal on the ground had been a cultist.
But he closed the distance instead, crouched and poked the fire lizard's head.
"Yo."
And the magnal, turning his eyes, saw that beastly face on him. He let out a weak laugh.
"Of course it would end like that... Why did I think it would be any different..." But no matter how much he braced for it, the lethal blow would not come. "Go on... I have nowhere to go anyway..."
"You sure complain a lot."
And the horned hare stepped back to sit on the other side of the tunnel. The blade dug into the rock to stay fixed there.
He had been hiding it pretty well, even once nobody was looking anymore, but the hare's scrawny body was taking its toll. The monster had weakened himself for battle, then pushed himself to the limit. It was only talent and willpower that kept him standing at all.
They remained there in an awkward silence. Both breathing their life out.
"You should have killed us all..." The magnal complained.
"That can be arranged."
Whatever dread the lizard had at those words quickly vanished. Fear to a monster was indecision and he knew exactly what to do, which was nothing anymore.
"The cult will kill me as traitor. The lair still thinks I'm a killer..." He clenched his fangs a moment, exhaled. "And the humans reneged me. To think I believed! I could get a lucky break..."
"Go feral already."
The horned hare put his hands behind his ears. He could have used even a little magic right now.
"You will see, it's an enjoyable life, if you can stand the loneliness."
"Are you that bloodthirsty..."
"Mh, yes." The beast closed his eyes and smiled. "I can't imagine living without black blood on my hands."
Yet his coat, so drenched during a fight, had turned pristine again. The monster wasn't concerned about beauty: the stench could simply have him found and cut. So his spirit could force the black blood to flow off his hair.
His face dreamed of bathing in another fight, breathe that heavy liquid and feel bodies resist his strikes. It could make him shudder.
We interrupted them around then.
The legged rapt showed up in the tunnel, rushed to them and saw the magnal's grievous wounds. Like everyone else, she missed how equally dire the hare's state was.
"Is that you Coquin?" She put her tiny forelegs on his scales. He winced. "Heal!"
I let the magic circle form again, right under that lizard to close the wounds in instants.
"What happened?!" The rapt was still panicked.
"Nothing." Her new friend groaned.
He had begged for monsters to vouch for him. He needed them to tell the lair he was not the killer, even if his time had expired and he would be found guilty anyway. He had tried.
The prisoners, in turn, had found he had been among the sect. The rest was only natural.
"And you!" She had turned her focus on the hare slouched against the gallery. "Stop killing you meanie!"
Very convincing.
He snorted, put his hand on the blade's handle and used it to get back up. To them he seemed still in top shape. I could tell his limbs were on the brink.
"Stop me." He offered, a wry smile on his muzzle for a second or two before he turned away. "I am off, enjoy your peace."
"No no no!" She pursued him. "I am coming with you!"
"Suit yourself."
The cute rapt was practically in his legs, short of making him stumble. He kept going regardless and the magnal, still shaken, watched the trail of glowing crystals they left.
He wavered, groaned once more and forced himself to go after them.
We climbed up, through galleries of worse and worse shapes. The tremors around, rather than grow their ceiling, was slowly collapsing them. But the hare treaded there undeterred. He didn't even stop for the glow of a shard on the wall, no matter how rare they were.
Just the presence of the rapt was giving him some breathing room, so maybe it was that. Or maybe he needed the duress of depravation.
Then, I felt it. As we approached his den, the pressure changed to resemble more that of the surface. A soft and stable light pierced from the entrance.
The inside looked more like a shaft, with stalagtites merging toward the top. Small holes let rays of light filter down on a rocky ground where the second glass blade was still stuck.
He sat there and closed his eyes.
"Eh, Caline." I could not help but share it. "There is a heart above us."
There also was a red beak who could see me but he would have to wait.
Long ago, the plains of Alunra had seen the fall of the glass fleet. Humans traded blows for three days. In that battle, beasts of old had joined the fray. One of them had fallen and sunk through the ground all the way there.
Her heart was just a dead rock, yet just the memory of her was enough to cause this light and offer the mana this hare craved, along with an ancient rage never satiated.
So, the red beak.
That crow opened its four wings and circled down to land on the blade stuck in the ground. He had been looking at me during the whole flight.
I, in turn, had put my finger in front of my mask and he had understood the message.
So now his focus was on the two others, the lizard and cute rapt who had stopped when they had spotted the bird.
"This rapt is trouble." His hoarse voice complained.
The hare waved him off: "I welcome trouble."
"Hi! I am Caline! Nice to meet you!"
"And... I am Coquin." The magnal admitted.
"Feral beasts care not for names! All that matters is the blood pulsing in your body."
His head was twitching between the two of them. He was trying his best not to look at the clay golem standing right in the middle, with his caparace on the back.
"You let the monsters live! What do you think will happen next?" And he didn't wait, opened his wings for emphasis. "They will kidnap again! They kill for Kaele and you let them go!"
"I still would like to know your name..." The rapt rubbed her forelegs, pouting a bit.
She really didn't mind how the red beak knew of it already? Or was she already aware of the powers those old messengers possessed?
The fire lizard, in turn, went to lie as far away from the others as he could.
"If you just wanted us to die, all you needed was to wait." He pointed out. "We were going to join the humans."
"What ignorance! You were going to be sacrificed for nothing! Just to feed the preacher and his ilk!"
"Not for nothing." I corrected.
Both the rapt and crow heard me and both tried hard not to react to it, but their attention was on me. While the magnal answered with more complaints, I brought forth my arms and let a fiery light appear between my hands.
This was the preacher's essence. But my companion didn't need to know that.
It had already told me everything and now, I would let it speak again for the two of them to hear. What had really transpired in that sect.
"Kaele told me the truth!" The essence's thoughts were filled with certainty. "Long ago our ancestors betrayed the humans and trapped them in a prison! They thought we could live free, but we decayed and the prison was forgotten!"
What were monsters to believe? What was most convenient to them.
"We tried to tell the believers! But they want to preserve that prison, thinking it is a haven for them! They fear the treacherous words of the priestess!"
She was utterly lost. He, on the other hand, was too wise of a crow not to get it.
"Lies? They live in lies! At least we offer them a way to redemption! Their sacrifice will break the chains holding our masters imprisoned! Their black blood will repair the mistakes and pave the way for a new realm!"
I let the essence wane, lowered my arms and looked at the read beak's expression.
Seven chains had kept the humans' haven stable. Three were broken. For how long had that cult assailed the fourth, trying with dozens, then hundreds of sacrifices.
And as mana rose, as the balance changed those chains had become more visible; more vulnerable in turn. The skeletal wyvern, ruler of the anti-magic domain, had confirmed the fourth chain was cracked.
Maybe those two hundred sacrifices would not have sufficed. But it was best for the realm that it was stopped.
And it would be best for the realm to keep stopping them.
"Ahem!" The crow cleared his throat, but his voice remained naturally hoarse. "I suppose I can be ignorant as well. Maybe sparing beasts can do some good."
That made the horned hare open an eye and the fire lizard shake his head, taken aback by the sudden about face.
"Oh?" The hare was amused. "It's not like you to be humble."
"And it's not like you to rest!" The black bird shot back. "What is the self-declared savior of the realm doing there when evil is afoot?!"
"Savior?"
The legged rapt had become suddenly very excited.
"Yay! You are saving the realm! Caline is doing that too! Can you see Kaele, can you?"
The hare huffed in response.
"Kaele is a myth. And if he exists, the day I find him he will fall by my sword. Without him and his humans the realm would have been so much better off."
The crow was barely able to hide his sudden panic, glanced at me and could not tell if my stillness, akin to a statue, meant indifference or rage.
But me? I liked that hare more and more.