Cries of Envious Souls

"What do you think you are doing, Raz? You've hit the wrong person." Perdilius glared, wiping the fluid dripping down his brow. Raz seemed out of breath, hunched over clutching his wounded arm which by then appeared stained in red.

"That's enough." Raz muttered in a low tone.

Perdilius raised his brow in amusement. "What was that, boy?"

"I said that's enough!" Raz shouted with fire in his voice, the pool of blood circling around him as if by a gravitational attraction. Perdilius remained unfazed by this display, neither impressed or concerned by this scene before him. Looking past him, he could see the aftermath of the ritual as a soft glow of light formed into a tiny spherical orb. Raz whipped the tail of blood across the floor, it struck with such **** and velocity that it had sliced through a thin scar into the surface of the stone brick floor.

Felix ran over to check on Emyri, she shook her head and winced as his hands grazed along her bruises. Nyitzcha accompanied him while cautiously keeping watch of what was happening up ahead. Reta carefully inched around the circular chamber room, keeping away from the flow of spiritual hands reaching out from the cracks which crept across the room. Looking down from where those hands came from, she gasped as she could see an endless abyss of pleading weeping souls struggling and fighting to crawl out only to be **** back in by an unseen ****. It was difficult to listen to as each voice howled one after the other, but she could hear faint words like please and save us. It brought a nervous sweat to her as she hopped over them toward safety.

A bright flicker of light erupted from the orb behind Raz, grabbing everyone's attention. The orb began to spin around, growing wider before a shape began to **** itself through as if it were a doorway. Raz stepped back, Felix stood to his feet and Leone shielded his eyes from its blinding light before its glow began to weaken and wayne. Felix felt his eyes grow twice their size in shock, the orb had changed into some sort of spiral spinning at the center of the three platforms, which alarmed him as he realized those platforms were now empty. The figure who stepped through the light shook her head, her long wavy brunette hair bouncing lightly on her shoulders, her lean build granting her quite the hourglass frame, and her brown eyes settling into view with a smile on her face.

"Janette!" Felix called out, making his way forward when Nyitzcha stepped in his way with her arms extended. He looked at her in disbelief, she calmly shook her head.

"Don't." Emyri warned him, "She's... different. I can sense it."

"Dun need no sense to feel dat, sum tin's wrong." Nyitzcha added, looking back at Janette. Felix followed her gaze and realized what they meant, she carried a subtle glow surrounding her frame like some sort of outline. The white in her eyes blazed like white fire and her hair waved as if their were a breeze giving her an ethereal appearance. Even Perdilius tilted his head, stepping to his right with a look of bewilderment.

Janette looked down to her hands, clasping them into fists and opening them back and forth. She felt her face and slid her hands down her body, sighing blissfully with a wide smile on her. Tugging at her hair, she played with a bob of her head watching it bounce for her entertainment. Biting her lip, she pressed her hands on her waist and slid them to her ass giggling as if she were being mischievous.

"This is... exquisite." She began to hum a little tune, turning her head side to side and hopping on her toes. She began to erupt into a fit of giggles, hugging herself and spinning in joy. "This is true ecstasy! This... is life!"

"Janette?" Felix called, rather confused and concerned for his friend. She stood still, her hair dropping in a slow speed as her eyes locked onto his own. They widened before closing shut, squeeling to herself and combing her fingers through her hair.

"Mmmmmm she remembers you! Oh yes, she has fond memories of you, lover boy! Naughty, teasing her and catching her like that between the two of you. Oh, the feeling of it too is so filling! Mmm... magnificent."

She spoke in her voice, but those were not her words. Felix grew crossed, stepping forward with a scowl on him. "What in the name of the gods did you do to her?"

"You seek my name or that of my sisters?" She grinned, placing her hands on her waist. "Did you not do all of this for me? So much effort and upon my presence you raise your voice?"

Perdilius looked shaken, his knees wobbling like jelly as he nervously fell to one knee in her presence. "You're-!"

"That's right, so sorry my sisters could not join us but I alone will represent their wishes for you."

"Who are you?" Raz asked.

"Angels to some, Demons to others. We are many but together, we are one. But for me? You may approach me as Vy." Vy bent into a curtsy for them, her hands pinching at an imaginary dress. To their shock, tiny fragments of light began to form around her changing shape and color before she now stood in a change of wardrobe wearing an actual green dress. For a moment, people were silent with only the groaning of the souls making noise around them. Reta had abandoned her plan of ambush and slid against the wall, sitting down in disbelief. Vy looked around and sighed. "Who among you shall have your wish?"

Raz bit his lip and swallowed, finding his voice as he raised his head. "You're one of the seven, if that is true then I have several questions to ask of you."

Vy smiled. "You may."

"When my father sought out to fulfill this action, he carried this belief that he was doing the world a favor by cleansing the Monsters of their sin, and I being his kin believed him. Or at least, I wanted to believe him. I really do. But... is there such a way to separate Monster Girls from their dark essence, to split the Monster from the girl and save them as father intended?"

Vy chuckled in amusement, clapping her hands in retaliation. "You wish to remove the Monster from the Girl? Do you believe yourself to be a God now?"

"Absolutely not!" Perdilius rose to his feet, being careful not to speak out of line. "N-Noble High One, forgive me for raising my voice. What he says-"

She silenced him with a raised hand pointed toward him. "You are the one responsible for my presence, and for that you may come forward. Though the ritual demands three sacrifices of mixed essence, we shall accept the surplus of two you have included. I believe you approach with a wish in mind, yes?"

Perdilius nodded, smiling back to her. "That I am, High One. My wish is-dahh!"

Reta had pounced on him, covering his mouth with her paw as he hurriedly placed his hands on her waist to pull her off. Felix took advantage and decided to act as best he could, confronting Vy.

"What happens if you separate the Monster from their dark essence?" Felix asked, catching up as he stood beside Perdilius and Raz. "You didn't answer before, I would like to know as well. If that were to be the wish, what would happen?"

Felix turned back in time to catch Reta, the momentum proving enough to throw both of them several feet back. Perdilius winced and felt his body feeling wet, running his hand across the dozens of cuts marked into his chest proved that his wounds were taking its toll. His strength was fading, he felt light headed from the loss of blood as was evident from the red trail he had left for some time.

Vy answered, ignoring the others. "You ask us to tear out your heart from your bodies because of this false idea of a Monster Girl being an attachment of two beings. There is no such thing as cleansing a Monster Girl, such an act would undoubtedly prove fatal to all Monster Girls, ridding the world of them entirely. Is that your wish?"

Before Perdilius could answer, Raz approached him close by, providing him support so that he may stay on his feet.

"Father." Raz looked to him in disbelief. "If we do this, we would be sending them to their graves. We can't go through with this, this isn't the order of things, it's not the practice that you preach. They were right, we were... horribly mistaken. By the gods."

Raz shook his head, his eyes noticing his fathers condition. "This is madness, you're pushing yourself too far."

"Just hurry and heal my wounds, child."

"Don't!" Emyri cried out. "You do that and then what?"

"My father needs me-"

"For now." Nyitzcha added. "He needs ye, sure. Den what? I can't speak from experience but so far yer pa hasn't been a rather good sport."

"Don't listen to them, son. Remember who the enemy is, now focus!"

Raz felt his mouth go dry as he hesitated. He lifted his hand toward his father's much to Perdilius' delight, he smiled and closed his eyes awaiting for his son to heal.

"You never planned on saving them, did you?"

Perdilius opened his eyes and blinked repeatedly, looking down in a puzzled look. Raz remained absolute with an eerie calm tone to his voice, not once averting his eyes from meeting his own.

"You never cared about saving them, it was all a bunch of nonsensical malarkey and jargon. You knew this process would kill them, didn't you? So you spun this narrative about Monster Girls to me, and you appealed to other victims through shared pain, and then you sought out your mission proclaiming to be some sort of prophet when in reality, you seek to commit genocide to an unwilling species."

"Is it really genocide when you're killing Demons, boy?"

Raz shook his head. "These people are not Demons. I've seen them, they are more alike then you realize. They love, they protect, and they fear. They can be reasoned with, they can be befriended. Whatever mindless monsters you speak of, they are not them. I was under their hold as prisoner once, but I experienced no form of ****. Nothing was taken from me, not my purity nor my body and soul. This madness has to stop, you can't tell me this is worth it. We would be no better! What would Mother say if she saw you now?"

Upon his final words, Perdilius changed. His face shifted from a bitter scowl to something colder, his eyes turned malignant and the corner of his lip twitched. As he was being supported by Raz, his fingers closed around his shoulder delicately as he leaned in close until he was an inch from his sons face.

"Are you not going to heal your father, child?"

Raz felt a lump in his throat, now becoming aware of what was happening. Reta shook her head as she began to recover, Nyitzcha dug around and realized she had no other bombs left to use, just a dark fine powder as left over residue. Leone hurried to make a grab for his sword left at the opposite side of the room, while Emyri sat up and held her breath silently hoping things wouldn't go worse.

Raz shook his head. Perdilius had enough. With a sudden crunch, Raz squeezed his eyes shut and felt his weight turn light as an immense feeling of pressure centered around his shoulder. With his free hand he banged against his father's grip, his feet now kicking in the air as he was being lifted. Blood began to drip and stain his leather armor as Perdilius held him high, his fist covering from the shoulder down to his elbow. He only squeezed harder, closing his fist further, feeling the muscles and bone succumb to his immense Giant strength.

Raz opened his eyes wide as he was met with his fathers eyes.

"You are no son of mine." He proclaimed, throwing Raz toward the river of lost souls reaching out. He slid along the hard floor before falling in just as soon as Felix lept forward, reaching out and grabbing Raz by his uninjured arm. Raz looked around as his vision was obscured with weeping faces and haunted bodies, hands reaching and grabbing his legs, chest and feet to pull him further down.

Felix grunted hard, turning red as he struggled furiously to hold him. Nyitzcha lept over a few souls to help pull him back, with Reta pouncing in to assist. Perdilius brushed his hands and noticed from his peripheral vision that a hunter was charging forward. Leone stabbed his sword in the air, slicing left and right as Perdilius was **** to step back and stumble in an attempt to dodge. His hand felt for the shield of one of the fallen statues from before, swinging it to strike his face. Leone fell to the side, the trauma leaving a bloodied mark on the side of his head. Dazed, he rolled away on instinct before Perdilius could stomp his foot on him. Emyri witnessed the fight as she got to her feet, the blood rushing in her head as her legs lost strength and she fell forward. The injuries from not just this fight but her previous while under control left her in a poor state, she could only watch helplessly as Leone would manage to evade and throw his sword around. At one moment, he directed his sword below and cut at his leg, forcing Perdilius to fall back. As Leone raised the sword for one final blow, a wandering hand held his ankle and pulled him back. Felix, Nyitzcha and Reta were now pulling Raz back from the ravine of souls and into safety. Once they fell back, Felix turned around to catch view of the ongoing battle. The hand from the suffering soul had disrupted the hunter's attack and messed with his aim, Leone turned back to kick the soul away as Perdilius grabbed his sword and snapped it in two, twisted his hand and stabbing the edge through his chest until it erupted from his back side.

Emyri screamed in horror. Leone looked up with frightened wide eyes as Perdilius let him go. He fell to the side, out of breath and in shock as Perdilius stood before him. "Strong armor would protect the user from such a blow, disappointing. Now, for my wish."

"Not yet." Felix stood firm with clenched fists, standing opposite from him. Vy remained from her spot between the two of them at the rear of the chamber, clapping her hands together.

"You have a wish to make as well?" She asked, grinning as he nodded in confirmation. "Well then, don't let me prevent you too from continuing. Only one wish can be granted, so how about you two discuss who gets this gift? You may resolve this through words or by blood, it matters not but I personally am enjoying the show. Now, dance for me!"

She beamed, raising her hands and spinning with laughter.

Felix and Perdilius locked eyes, silently acknowledging her words.

"As you wish."