And so, we begin.

"Bind her limbs with those restraints, make sure you get them tight!"

"Oof! Watch those claws!"

"You don't have to tell me."

The knights exchanged looks as they snapped the steel cuffs over KuliKuli's paws, restraining her onto the dirty platform uplifted from the ground littered with strange markings.

"Let go of me!"

One of the guards snapped a leash around her neck, leaning back with a hoarse confident laugh echoing through the metal of his helmet.

"Not so tough when you have 'em tamed, see?"

"Olaf, watch the tail!" The other man shouted, retreating several paces.

Her tails slithered around the Olaf's neck, squeezing and pulling him to her as she struggled against her chains. The knight began to choke and gag, his leather gloved hands grasping her tails and fighting to free his throat. Two more men hurried forward, one pulling at her tails and the other aiding in freeing his neck from her hold.

The Nekomata grunted and moaned as the men were rough with her tails, managing to save their friend through a tiny bit of space for him to squeeze his head from her hold and slipping the helmet off in the process. The young man carried dirty hair and a messy brown beard with soft blue eyes and a reddened face. He turned around with eyes of hatred at the Nekomata who stuck her tongue back at him.

"Crazy woman! You dare make a mockery of me!"

He tightened his fist and raised it over his head when he felt an overwhelming shadow cast over him, emasculating him from any presence of threat he may have wanted for himself. Anger, aggression, ridicule, all of them escaped from his form and were quickly replaced with the feeling of fear shaking his very bones.

Perdilius let out a gasp of air, appearing in a tired manner as his large hand fell atop his followers shoulder. "Fools lay their heads down for the beast to feast upon their empty heads. Raise a hand to them again and you will lose it, understand?"

"I... s-sir?"

"Fetch me my tools." Perdilius' voice echoed as he shoved the man aside, raising dust as his back struck the wall with an audible grunt. His helmet kicked to him, Olaf clumsily reached down to fasten it on before he hurried out the door away from sight. The other guards positioned beside the doorway watched and exchanged looks before regaining their still composure.

Perdilius sighed, his men stepped around him as he stepped through and began to pace. KuliKuli stared with wide eyes, this man had grown twice his size inexplicably by two heads! His followers barely reached above his elbow in comparison. Perdilius leaned onto the slab where KuliKuli was chained to, his large pupils reflecting her shocked face back to her.

"You've been a pest for months, and today marks the three-hundred sixty-fifth day since the last time you were bound to this place. You've done well avoiding your sentencing, monster, but now comes your reckoning. Xander!"

"Aye, sir?" The knight stomped his heel down, ready at arms with his spear in hand.

"The fiends have given themselves to me. They are on their way here as we speak." He smiled maliciously as KuliKuli shook her head in disbelief. "See to it that Raz does not disappoint me once again."

"As you wish sir, but if I may... your..."

Perdilius turned back. "A minor set back, it changes nothing. In my state I can still continue the ritual, now go!"

The heavy guard spun around and paced down the hall as soon as he could, leaving the father alone with the girl and three remaining followers.

"You're... monster." Her voice shook as she spoke those words to him. His eye twitched immediately, yet he leaned back with a deep breath which puffed out his broad chest to calm himself. Her eyes glanced at the numerous cuts to his body, three cuts paired to each wound. She was caught staring as his large hand raised to his abdomen, concealing her view.

"We share nothing alike, when the ritual is fulfilled you and I shall tread the path to glorious salvation. But I alone will be the one to welcome our mothers, our gods, to the land of old."

"What the heck is it you talk about anyway, its just fancy talk. What did we do to you to make you so mean?" KuliKuli asked sincerely, tugging at her limbs, her heart sinking to the sound of restricting chains restraining her with little room to wiggle in. Her nose wrinkled and twitched, a familiar scent surrounded this behemoth. She recognized it as two, it wasn't long before she deduced who it belonged to as her ears stood up with glee.

"That's my Felix, and Na'Vi too!" She smiled in awe, amazed as to the state they had left him in. "They cut you up, and now they are going to kick your butt!"

Perdilius snorted and dismissed her naivety, turning his attention to someone entering the chambers with a chest in hand. It was Olaf, he placed the chest down with a heavy thud, groaning and stretching his back briefly before presenting the item to him. Perdilius shoved him aside, staggering the man as the priest gently opened the chest with his large hands.

"The keys to the soul, it took nearly a decade scouting kingdoms and dungeons for these findings. Do you know what these are, creature?" He stepped aside, allowing her a glance to his findings. In the chest settled atop a comfortable cushion were three fancy looking daggers, forged out of a shiny silver metal with gold engravings and an empty crystal placed at its hilt. There was something peculiar about its design, not just the fashion but the blade itself. The knife split partway through and forked to look like two sharp fangs, and the interior of both tips carried a strange tube which attached back into the hilt.

Perdilius picked out the left knife, his girthy fingers pinching the hilt to hold it steady as he wiggled it between them. Her eyes remained fixed, she shook her head and felt the hairs on her fur tingle nervously. Something inside her was pleading that she get away, her muscles tensed and her legs went stiff. He took noticed and enjoyed her reaction, tempted to raise the knife closer to her.

"It's a ceremonial dagger, its purpose serves as the key ingredient necessary to initiate the ritual. As a humble servant, I have no right to seek their attention above. Shouting for them with no offering of my service would be a childs act, an insult of their time. To them, I am but fodder. But with this, this is my instrument, my gift to them. This is no weapon, its a tool designed to store the sample of any who fall to victim to it. Allow me to demonstrate."

KuliKuli flinched and squeezed her eyes tightly when his hand became a blur to her, disappearing below followed by a sudden prick to her thigh. Looking down, her leg suffered a soft cut across the fur exposing a small drop of blood. She leaned back as he held the blade in front of them once more, bringing attention to the tip with a tap of his finger.

"You see it does not require lethal means, just a passing of the blade is enough. Just a few drops of your blood have gathered around the teeth and are collecting down the feeder only to be stored here." He dragged his finger down the tubes, tapping the empty crystal at the hilt. "There, watch carefully."

She did so, staring until several drops of blood pooled into the tiny crystalline sphere. It was not enough to fill its container, yet somehow it did not collect to the ground surface. The four drops stuck together forming a tiny red ball, hovering at the center of the crystal somehow.

"Impressive, isn't it? Unfortunately, the next step is quite vexing. I don't just need your blood, I require a sample of all Monster Girls. Of course, I knew better than to travel the world stabbing every Monster I would find. Religion never connected fondly with science, but I thank the gods that most kingdoms fund laboratories with a fair collection of samples from their local creatures. Faith and Facts share one interest in common, your existence. They wish to understand how your kind are born but I wish to seek the opposite. It wasn't easy, vampires were the most challenging as I had to seek it myself. Curious little creatures they are, with unmatched power the likes of which convinced me that this is the only way. Do you know what I have witnessed, creature? I have seen a monster single-handedly wipe out a kingdom's existence overnight. That kind of power has haunted me, filled my head with cursed dreams of a doomed existence. To think, at any point you creatures can wipe out every race and their wouldn't be a damn thing we could do. Just continue living in ignorance, storing our faith and safety at the hands of hypocrite hunters who sleep with the enemy they are tasked to kill!"

Perdilius slammed his hand onto the surface pedestal, fracturing the stone from where KuliKuli stood. She moved her paw away, staring at this giant as every nerve in her body screamed to run away. In a moment, he regained his composure with a meditating method of controlled breathing. A soft intake of breath, he exhaled and stepped back in silence before clearing his throat.

"But no matter, as a raven told me if I desire a change in life I shouldn't wait for a change to come unless by my hand. And now, after two decades my actions and commitment has been rewarded. Now I am here. The first step was discovering this structure, but it had to wait. The second was collecting the samples, its convergence would form a magnificent creation with interesting side effects. I couldn't help but notice it when you fell under as if it were hypnosis. My Nityri, my own pet, and thanks to you I managed to discover where your kind hid away. Do you remember, Nityri? Do you remember how you led me to your people? All it took was the curiosity of a little cat too greedy to be content with her life that she seeked more in the outside world. I can say trapping you was difficult, but it wasn't."

"Sure seemed difficult finding us when we got away." KuliKuli countered, inflicting a sting to his facade as evident with how his eyes narrowed.

"Yes, well that I have myself to blame. I don't need all of your kind, only three. Three of a kind who share the same mix of blood, of purity and impurity, isn't that ironic? The ritual works if three beings of mixed essence partake, but the manifestation of such means someone pure of light magic must sleep with a Monster themselves. It's much like an Angel needing to bed a Demon, it's weirdly fucked up. But what a miracle it is that I find not one but three of you from the same parents. The three beings don't have to be siblings, but it makes it essier that way. Speaking of, where is that hunter?"

"Sir, your s-" The knight stiffened and cleared his throat. "Raz has arrived with the other Monsters."

Perdilius began to form the most sinister grin KuliKuli had witnessed thus far as he returned to gaze at her with irritating confidence. "And so, we begin."