The lock rattled and clicked, its tumblers shifting to allow entry into the dark room beyond. The members of Divine Blessing stood still, waiting for the baroness to lead them further into her manor but she did not move. Instead, she looked straight at Brivaria and spoke.

  “You and your friends were attacked after visiting my estate. I found that most peculiar and I’m certain the thought crossed your minds that I may have had something to do with it. I had similar thoughts and decided to have a chat with my staff, particularly my steward who has grown rather lax in his duties of late. I was certain no one in my household would have anything to do with your misfortunes but, wouldn’t you know it, I was wrong.”

  The door swung open and Brivaria’s eyes immediately focused on what was beyond the doorway. It was a storage room which had recently been freed of its contents. The dust on the floor still showed where boxes and barrels had once sat. Now it was devoid of whatever it once held save for a lone occupant. While there was little light shining into the room, Brivaria’s demonic eyes easily saw through the darkness. Seated upon a chair in the middle of the room was a man. His legs were shackled to the floor and he was strapped to the chair upon which he sat. He did not move. He did not shout. His gaze was distant as he awaited his fate.

  The finer points of the man’s features and stoic demeanor were lost on Brivaria as she was focused entirely on something else. Back before her team had formed, she had joined a group to head into the woods and save some missing hunters. They’d found those missing hunters at the center of some strange magical working that was draining the entire forest of life. Rather than be horrified by the magical decay, Brivaria had reveled in it. Even though she’d yet to take the Affinity (Decay) skill back then, it had still called to her. She felt something similar from the man but it was far stronger—corruption.

  The moment the door opened, she’d begun to feel it. It was like the warmth of the sun or the smell of a delicious meal. It oozed out from the door and tantalized her senses. It had taken a power capable of destroying an entire forest to reach her senses in her angel form but here, in her demon form, it was amplified many times over. She stepped forward, instinctively folding her wings to pass through the small doorway.

  The man’s eyes came to life the moment she passed through the threshold. What he saw, the angel did not know. There was no light from within the room so perhaps all he would see was the silhouette of a monster stepping into his cage. He did not shy away from her presence nor cringe in his seat. No, he did something far worse. He smiled. His was the look of a man who beheld not his doom but his salvation.

  “Horned sister, the time draws near. We have called them and the Others have come. Free me and join our feast.” The restrained man’s words were calm and spoken with perfect clarity. While his voice conveyed a man possessed of his wits, his writhing flesh attested to something wholly different. His body contorted oddly beneath the ropes that secured him. Hidden horrors caused his skin to rise and fall in odd places as though creatures moved about just beneath his flesh. Brivaria could tell that he’d shed his humanity to serve a new master.

  Yet these things were not what occupied the angel’s mind. It was his corruption that drew her closer. Many forces could corrupt a person and twist them into something new and terrible. Demons were experts at it. Torture could strip away a person’s mind as easily as their flesh leaving a bloody husk ready to be reborn as a demon’s puppet. Pleasure could tempt a person away from their path leaving them a willing thrall to their seducer. Mortals were easy to crush and mold into delightful playthings for their betters however such a path only ended one way.

  For all the sweet lies, insidious urges, and unrelenting torments, there was one singular truth of it all. Corrupting a mortal inextricably drove them to their end and, at the height of their twisted madness, a demon would be there to devour them. All along the way they were being fattened up like a pig or a cow for slaughter. They would grow wicked, debase themselves to the amusement of their corrupters, and then they would become food. Their souls would nourish the demon or entity that had created them.

  This man had been defiled and Brivaria could taste it. He was fat and ready to be consumed—a helpless meal gifted to her by the baroness. She lacked the skill necessary but that wasn’t a problem. The System helpfully located the one she needed for her. It was in that pile of demonic skills she avoided looking at but she had seen it there once. She knew its name—Energy Drain. Now it called to her. All she had to do was simply select it and then she could feast on this man’s twisted soul.

  “What?” The word escaped Brivaria’s lips as she found herself halting, mid-stride. Her train of thought was stopped in its tracks. She turned, claws extended, and looked down.

  Trixie sat there. The golden had Brivaria’s spaded tail in her mouth. She wasn’t biting it but merely holding it. The dog looked up to the angel-turned-demon with large, brown eyes. She whined softly and the fog that rolled into the angel’s mind began to recede. It didn’t vanish completely. The man was too close and too ripe for it to disappear but the worry in the dog’s soft eyes gave Brivaria clarity. Her claws retracted and she knelt to pet her dog.

  “Did we miss something?” Nyx asked, calmly walking past the angel and dog into the room. Everyone else followed suit. The entirety of the strange urge and compulsion had only lasted a few seconds. To everyone else, the winged girl had merely taken a couple steps into the room. Brivaria understood what she’d been about to do and, as she looked at Trixie, she wondered if the golden sunchaser didn’t also know, somehow.

  “No, everything is fine,” Brivaria answered and Trixie let go of her tail. The moment had passed. She still felt the man’s corruption. It still called out to her but the powerful craving was something she could resist. She’d been surprised and taken unaware but this was merely a side effect of her new form. She would get used to it.

  “Let us have words with this man and go then,” Kseniya said. The lamia sorceress’ orange eyes saw more than she let on but graciously took the angel’s words at face value. Brivaria silently thanked the other woman.

  Meanwhile Giselle looked very much like she wanted to pet Brivaria as she had before. The spirit girl didn’t know what the right thing to do was in a given situation so she defaulted to the things she enjoyed. So far that meant hugs and pets. Brivaria saw the hand rising and decided to take it, feigning Giselle helping her stand up. Giselle looked a little confused as Brivaria thanked her but replied with a “you’re welcome” as a matter of course.

  Dax was moving into a position to guard the prisoner but Brivaria realized Cordelia had been watching her the whole time. The noblewoman’s expression was unreadable. The angel wondered if Cordelia had some inkling of what had almost happened or maybe if the baroness had known it would happen in the first place. Ultimately, it didn’t matter. They had a prisoner to interrogate.

  Said interrogation was a mixed bag. Their captive was entirely lucid and willing to talk. He would give them nothing that would aid in the downfall of his co-conspirators but he did give them some useful information. Firstly, his cohorts were responsible for the attacks on Brivaria and her team. The appearance of an angel near the fruition of their plan was seen as Heavenly interference and she was to be dealt with. To no small amount of irony, Brivaria realized that it had nothing to do with her resemblance to Zenith Penrose and had all been about her identity as an angel. Next came the question of why.

  “You ask us why? We are born into the dark and we die in the dark, doomed to a meaningless existence. We awaken, we perform for our betters,” he spat the word and Cordelia’s expression hardened, “and then we sleep. We do this every day for weeks, months, years, decades, and then we die. We have chosen to do something with meaning before we die. My only regret is that not all the barons will be here to feel our blades open their throats.”

  There it was. It was a motive that Brivaria had heard many times across interventions upon Zlithia. It was something that her kin were very familiar with. The fires of revolution could take many forms. For some it was born out of spite and hatred, for others it was desperation, and for still others it was the hope for something better. Often, it was all three in varying amounts. She saw them in this man—she saw the hatred for his liege, the desperation to achieve something before his life ended, and the hope that this would be the start of some grand work.

  The angel saw everything the man desired and lamented the hopelessness that drove him to this point. Even as Nyx and Giselle pressed him with questions, Brivaria just stared at the captive. He stared back. Throughout the discussion, he only had eyes for the demon that stood before him. Why do you not unsheathe your claws and kill everyone in this room, his gaze seemed to ask. Why should a demon be so weak and subservient to lesser beings? What was her plan for the mortals that she would put up with this farce?

  “You will know when it’s too late.” His voice was dark with amusement. Nyx had asked what his plan was. He’d been willing to tell them everything else just to see them squirm and react. The prisoner delighted in disgust of his captors but his monologues ended when it came to giving them anything of value that might jeopardize his plans. “Demon, your place is with us. We will give you a worthy tribute when you join us and you may feast upon mortals to your heart’s content.”

  The man’s words became garbled as his body shook. All of the wriggling things beneath his skin began to rise. They pushed up the fabric of his clothes and caused bulbous growths to rise up his neck. They didn’t stop there. The grotesque display continued as the things slid up his jaw and then cheeks. His face bulged in a dozen places as the things beneath his skin made their way upward. Two went to his eyes and nothing seemed to happen.

  At once both of his eyes burst and tendrils ending in sharp spikes shot out from them. One was aimed straight for Cordelia. Dax moved to protect his lady but Giselle moved faster and brought her mace down upon the thing in mid air. The other one shot downward, cutting through his restraints. Nyx slammed a fist into his chest and he went flying back, only for his flight to be cut short as the shackles went taut and brutally slammed him onto the floor.

  What had been a man moments before changed. His body grew in size while his head simply burst like an overripe melon. Blood and viscera splattered the room while more tendrils emerged from his neck. Brivaria infused her horns with Bleak Radiance then her claws with decay and withering but she felt dawning horror as the transformation continued. The spikes at the ends of the tendrils weren’t spikes—they were beaks. The tendrils weren’t fighting, weapon-like appendages akin to the ones in her hell gaunt form, they were heads.

  The man had changed into an eldritch hydra. Eight long necks ended in large beaks with a cluster of bug-like, black eyes perched above them. His body grew larger until it filled the room and his shackle snapped. Nyx’s first claw attack drew blood but it was like popping a balloon only to reveal concrete underneath. Kseniya’s scepter extended into a large, balled mace. She and Giselle took advantage of the slow transformation to bash it in unison. The blow caused it to slide back along the now gore-slick floor. It hit the bricks at the back of the room and the wall rattled with the impact but neither monster nor stone broke. The man’s limbs grew longer, larger, and grew metal in place of skin. It was like those horse-shaped things from the forest.

  Dax and Cordelia had the good sense to flee the room. The warrior was certain to be a capable ally in battle but protecting his lady came first. She was no warrior, great or otherwise, and would likely die if she stayed. Kseniya and Brivaria pelted the creature with bolts of venom and decay respectively as it got back to its feet. Current Control was activated giving all four women and Trixie the wind at their back. Giselle grew as large as the room would allow and her mace grew with her.

  The room was filled with the cacophonous sound of all eight hydra heads shrieking in unison. Sudden vertigo struck Brivaria as the sound tried to dislodge something in her very brain. She staggered and the rest of her team fared far worse. Nyx fell to her knees, trying to cover her ears, while the spirit girl slumped against a wall. For Kseniya and Brivaria, it was like trying to remain standing on a ship that was tossing and turning in the waves. The hydra only needed six of its heads to shriek so two reared back to strike at the helpless catfolk girl.

  The twin strikes swerved off course as another equally loud sound battled the shrill cries of the bird-heads. Barking. Trixie barked and the monster was forced to follow the golden sunchaser. The dog’s barks were loud and louder still echoing as they did in the stone room but they weren’t empowered by a hostile skill. In fact, Trixie’s barking lessened the pain. The heads of the hydra screeched and the dog barked but, with each passing second, Brivaria’s balance was returning and her head was clearing.

  The hydra cornered the dog. The room was barren and the eldritch monster was too large for even the nimble pooch to escape. The beast’s heads struck like snakes, forcing the dog to jump back until there was no room left to retreat. As the hydra moved toward the cornered dog, a bolt of yellow magic struck its body. One of its legs seized up with Kseniya’s paralyzing magic holding it in place. Giselle tackled the monstrosity into the wall using her enlarged body plus super strength to drive it off balance and to the side.

  Brivaria and Nyx followed up with the winged girl diving down onto its back while Nyx darted into the midst of the thing’s heads. Brivaria’s claws instantly set about their grim task of digging through the creature’s thick hide. It was tougher than the forest boar yet weaker than the Dread Paw. As her claws had easily sliced the bear’s flesh, so too did they cut open the hydra. The twin magicks infused into them seeped into the beast. The raw power of decay slowed its movements while the withering effect began reducing its health.

  Nyx gave Trixie time to escape as the catfolk girl drew the attention of the heads away from the dog. She used a lesser Kinetic Discharge to partially cave in one head then began dancing amid the strikes. Brivaria hadn’t seen Nyx fight since before the party and the cat girl had gotten much stronger and faster. Slowed as the beast was by Brivaria’s decay, Nyx had no trouble evading the lunging strikes of its many heads. She dodged left, right, and then severed one of its heads with her feline claws.

  Brivaria saw Giselle winding up for a powerful strike so she threw herself off the body of the beast. Giselle’s enlarged mace came down with bone-breaking force. The beast shuddered and then a hidden pocket of flesh on its hide ruptured to release a cloud of toxic miasma. The deer girl stumbled back, coughing and retching, as her Great Hide defensive skill did nothing against this sort of attack. One of the regenerating heads discharged a stream of the stuff forcing Nyx back as her own throat suddenly closed, making it hard to breathe.

  Kseniya was using her scepter to project a magical bow and firing arrows of her own poisonous magic. They were larger than her magical bolts and flew much faster. Brivaria was certain each missile also contained a greater dose of the sorceress’ magical poison. While this was happening, the angel used one hand and her tail to anchor herself to the top of one wall. Improved with her Natural Weapons skill, both were able to easily pierce the stone wall and together they let her rain down Withering Rays on the hydra without risking an ally getting in the middle.

  The hydra was no mindless beast and understood its demise was imminent. The man inside the creature knew it had time to kill maybe one of the group and Brivaria understood its decision as it began to move toward the lamia. Nyx and Trixie were far too fast. Brivaria was too mobile. Giselle was too strong. The sorceress was its easiest prey. The angel had seen this last act of desperation play out many times. She took its sudden charge for what it was—an opening.

  Everyone moved in unison. Giselle’s mace swung low rather than high and broke one of the hydra’s bird-like legs. Kseniya’s magical bow became a great hammer which she swung with all of her strength, catching four of the hydra’s heads and pounding them into the stone wall causing each to burst like crushed tomatoes. One of the remaining heads dove toward Kseniya’s face like a spear only to be turned into bloody mist as Nyx unleashed her stored energy with a full-power Kinetic Discharge.

  Brivaria landed on the hydra’s back once more and drove her entire right arm into its body. She activated Meridian Fang on her claw and raked it through the hydra’s insides. The remaining heads were starting to tear into the sorceress so Brivaria pushed harder, willing her unholy magicks to take its life. They gleefully began doing so. The angel felt a rush of supreme, euphoric pleasure and then received a flurry of System messages.

  You have reached level 45.

  Gained +1 Physique, +1 Endurance, +2 Arcane, +2 Spirit, +1 Awareness, +2 Presence.

  Energy Drain activated, one soul acquired.

  Meridian Fang activated, memories retrieved.

  Name: Brivaria

  Race: Angel

  Class: Sronyan Valkyrie

  Level: 45

  Stats: Health 68/88, Mana 123/173, Stamina 82/117

  Attributes: Physique 73, Endurance 44, Arcane 82, Spirit 87, Awareness 44, Presence 91

  Active Skills: Current Control, Dark Caress, Energy Drain, Spiteful Aegis, Twisted Reflection, Wind Formation

  Passive Skills: Alternative Form, Corrupt Shapeshifting, Infernal Seed, Inventory, Lesser Flight, Lingering Decay, Natural Weapons, Rest, Traits (Angel)

  Magic: Light of Decay

  Affinity: Corruption, Decay, Unholy