The Fiend #56

The Fiend #56

Link(very first image btw):

https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/59691678

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"We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope." - Martin Luther King Jr

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The pews were filled with many of the villagers, revived as undead spawn by the mystic powers of Mother Darkness. Their wounds that were fatal remained present on their bodies with empty and drained expressions, their skins sickly pale with veins which blackened underneath, and their eyes glowing a dimly green glow that showed their loss of life.

All of them were silent and watching their mistress emerge from the side to rise to the altar. A bowl was carried by her; filled with the fresh blood of Vinok, who was close by and chained to the wall in her weakened state.

Darkness placed that bowl down on the altar, then turned to face her the idle undead that observed her.

Darkness soon turned to address them.

"The time is nigh. This hours will be the coming of a new era governed by one who will shape the world to come; a better world which will not bear anymore suffering from those who have profited from it, made orphans to children and widows to spouses. This hour is the time of change - of liberation - for all who reside in this world...and a damnation for the ones who seek to oppose it. Raise your voices, children of Chernobog, my spawn of undeath, raise your voice!!!"

Her command made those acolytes raise their voice with a sound, almost as if it were of triumph; a bellowing and groaning sound erupted in the cathedral. Darkness, their "mother" who gave them their undeath, felt a glory from them, and then commanded them to bring forth her captor.

The Fiend.

Two large creatures, barely human as the flesh on their faces hung barely to reveal the inner face beyond the skin and muscle to expose bone, entered through the doors at the back of the cathedral. They had dragged in the chained woman Daniella Reynolds, the Fiend, towards the altar while in chains.

She had willingly allowed herself to remain bound out of guilt.

The foreigner had killed villagers in a fearful madness. It was by Mother Darkness's scheme; a poison being exposed to Daniella when stabbed by her loyal servant Upiór. In that madness, Daniella ripped apart the villagers who dragged her out and had shot Elizabeth, seeing them as cultists who once had terrorized her and made her into the being who was both human and demon. When her madness fell with the aid of Behelith, Daniella found herself surrounded by the haunted image of the innocent who were frozen in fear even in death by her ferocious power. So now she remained still, unwilling to act because of her actions.

Daniella was led to the altar, held down by one of those large creatures, right at the feet of Mother Darkness.

Mother Darkness looked at her and approached down the steps towards her to examine her. She saw in those brown eyes a broken woman consumed by guilt. It was uplifting to see her enemy become this way. And yet, for some reason or another, the demigod couldn't shake this brewing anger from seeing Daniella; unsure of it since she and her spoke about the value of the mortals and their lives, which to Darkness was a means to a justifiable end for her plans. This woman, this foreigner, this half demon, was somehow an opposite to her... almost ironically.

She lowered her hand to touch Daniella's chin and lift it her head up to meet her eyes.

"You will witness my ascension," she said softly, "and when it is done, I will prove to you that the bloodshed will justify the good to come."

Daniella didn't bother to say anything, and looked away, which Darkness allowed as she focused on the altar and prepared for what was to be done for the final act of her plans.

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In the dark and dimly lit lair of Vinok, a crypt hidden in the forest and beneath the earth, Elizabeth Sharpe had observed the ground that had a symbol that reeked of blood.

She and Behelith the half-demon had arrived to find a means of revealing the dimensional door that hid Mother Darkness and their allies whom the demigod had captured just a few hours ago.

That symbol was what Behelith wanted to show the sorceress, as it may prove to be a means for their success to infiltrate Darkness's location.

Elizabeth kneeled down, examining it with eyes focused on the symbol, with an index and middle finger trailing it. The blood was dry from time having ed since it was drawn there on the old stone floor. She then turned her head to Behelith there a few feet away.

"This symbol has magic radiating from it. I assume this was what Vinok had done?"

Behelith nodded. "It was how she managed to detect Darkness before we were attacked by her," answered Behelith to her. "I believe this is the key to tracking her down and breaking the barrier to her domain."

"Hmm..." The blonde beauty continued to examine it and sense the powerful magic from it. It was potent, and from what was described to her by Behelith, Vinok had bled terribly when performing the spell. If she could understand how the spell worked, then maybe she too could perform it.

Elizabeth was concerned about the safety of the woman she cared about, who remained trapped by their enemy. She had to be quick if she wanted to save her and end the madness brought about by the self-proclaimed deity to be.

After observing it for a time, a voice lurched into her mind, telling her, "stretch out your hands, Elizabeth. I will aid you in your endeavor."

She paused and ed it from the clinic, leading her to casting a hypnosis over all it's occupants. The voice guided her, with her body raising her hands over the blood symbol on the ground, and was then told to focus all she had on it.

And then, it began to glow suddenly.

Behelith's eyes widened to the sight of the feeling of great magic spreading throughout the crypt. How Elizabeth managed to do this was shocking...and rather chilling. When she witnessed Vinok perform it, she bled and grew weak from the power, and yet this human sorceress was showing no signs of weakening nor being in pain by it.

At the same time, right before her eyes, Behelith saw what could be a faint figure hovering over Elizabeth as she focused on the magic symbol that glowed all the more, until I t was causing the dimly lit lair to become bright.

What she saw was something hard to explain, but if she had to, it was though a radiant guardian angel was hovering over Elizabeth. And for some reason it haunted Behelith truly down to the bone. But she managed to withstand that feeling and remained watching Elizabeth, who then spoke the word of the spell, which surprised even herself - the language she spoke being new to her.

Then her vision was suddenly met with a different place altogether. A place in the middle of the forest, a sliver that made a line in the middle of a clearing somewhere. There was the answer, the location of their enemy and their allies.

When she saw the location of that rift, strength left her and forced her to a knee, releasing the spell to allow the room to return to it's dim shade made by the torches along the walls. It was amusing to have been able to do such a thing from her own eyes; powerful magic and incantations she had never known were so easily done in one go. Her strength quickly returned, with her nose bleeding only a little as she then got up and looked towards Behelith.

"I know where the rift is," she proclaimed to her. "But we must move now, before it disappears and appears elsewhere."

Behelith nodded, keeping in mind what she had saw hovering over the sorceress, and asked where this rift was, to which Elizabeth stated it was towards the east of their location.

Both would leave the old crypt to make haste towards their goal of finally reaching Mother Darkness.

While they traversed the woods together, there was an awkwardness that both couldn't deny was present. It annoyed them to experience it, as the two had cared about the woman Daniella Reynolds; both having feelings for her that made them at odds, and yet because of those feelings, tolerated one another's presence.

Behelith looked at the back of Elizabeth's head as she followed the sorceress, wondering to herself before stopping in her tracks, and said, "wait a moment," which the sorceress heard and glanced back as she stopped as well.

"I want to understand something before we proceed," said Behelith while keeping her eyes on Elizabeth. "You appear different than before. Not exactly sure, but there's something about you that isn't like before; you are human, but something is lingering that I can't grasp. So tell me, what is it that's changed about you?"

Elizabeth heard this while giving it thought herself. Ever since she had woken up and healed from the mortal injury that should have been her end, Elizabeth noticed several things that were different about her; her lack of emotion being felt when it came to those who have died around her, as well as being the one to orchestrate the death of a married couple who had caused her ire. Nothing seemed to faze her nor did she feel anything for the things that transpired - all except for Daniella Reynolds, who she had kept in mind with a great concern. It's what convinced her that whatever has happened to her, that she was still herself, that she was still Elizabeth Sharpe and no other; that no strange thing has altered her from being herself, despite the strangeness of coming back to life.

She didn't have an answer for Behelith though, and was unable to speak.

However, she wouldn't need to now as the sensation of a flashing bolt caught their attention, and their gaze aimed towards the clearing that was just up ahead. Both of them knew now that their time to face Darkness was drawing ever so near.

"It's near - the rift." Elizabeth led Behelith out of the trees and towards the clearing where the field Elizabeth had saw in that vision.

As they moved closer towards the center, the sorceress felt the connection draw nearer to her like a flash of lightning that caused her to wince and tense up.

"Be not afraid, Elizabeth," said the voice that guided her before. "Be not afraid, and reach out towards it."

Elizabeth no longer felt the voice to be a stranger with a familiar tone, and listened rather easily to it; like a child with a parent or an old and trusted friend one hasn't seen in years, she became obedient to it and managed to obey with the raising of her hands and telling Behelith to stand back. Then it happened. Magic bursted out of the air where her hands aimed, with the feeling of wind swirling around her and Behelith, with the latter covering her face from the repeated blows that came with it.

Through her wincing expression did she witness Elizabeth interact with the air that soon formed a rift; energy of mystical powers manifesting wildly and crackling. The air slowly morphed in front of her a blue and white slit that began to grow right before their very eyes, until it suddenly widened into a portal and revealing on the other side a dark corridor that resembled medieval architecture.

"Here it is," said Behelith in awe of the sight.

"Yes," responded Elizabeth as well.

Without hesitation would they enter it.

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Mother Darkness would have all her acolytes in attendance there inside the cathedral, with both Vinok and Daniella there at the side as her captives. She would be speaking to them about what was she about to perform - a ritual which would finally ascend her to the path of godhood she so believed to deserve. It was in the middle of her speech that made her pause but for a moment, feeling a disturbance strike her thoughts. Interlopers had broken through the veil and has begun their roam of her domain. Darkness knew time was short, and she must begin the preparations for her plan to work.

"My dear servants...it appears we have unwanted guests. See to them, and make sure to welcome them with gnashing teeth and jagged nails. Go!!" Her command reached each of the undead present, who began to move immediately from their place there in the cathedral, while those two large creatures that accompanied her would remain there at her side, in case the Fiend was going to act against her - which she believed was a slim possibility at best - as well as Vinok, who was slowly regaining her strength.

Vinok looked over at Daniella, who did not lift her head since she was dragged there. She wondered why she had not transformed and engaged their enemy with a ferocious tenacity.

"Daniella, what are you doing, we have to stop her," said Vinok.

But Daniella did not respond, her eyes closed with a somber face. "If we do not stop her, she will become a creature of unholy power! You got to snap out of it, Daniella!"

Daniella still did not speak. Not yet anyhow.

It was after a moment that she finally spoke, softly and almost quietly that came from sorrow.

"I can't... I can't do it. Not after what I have done to those people."

Vinok knew what she was speaking of. She had heard about the village Akim being in total chaos, and that many deaths were made by Darkness's undead horde; and being told of the Fiend being deceived by the poison that once effected her by Darkness's machinations. She couldn't deny that it was a feeling that was weighing heavily on the mind, as Vinok herself knew this long ago, when starting to be afflicted with Baba Yaga's curse that to this day has a hold on her. But what could she say to Daniella now to help her now at this time? What could a demigod say to a mortal in need of guidance during her hour of sorrow? Somehow she managed to find the words, knowing what to say, and spoke.

"I understand your grief, Daniella. Really, I do. I know what it is like to have innocent lives lost to me, after what I had become. When I first became what I am, I would fly in a great frenzy that led me to seek out bloodshed for the sake of appeasing my appetite; it didn't matter who it was - friend or foe. All that mattered in the heat of the moment was to satisfy it and regain my senses. But when I did, I found myself wrought with guilt over it because I knew that there was good among the dead I've made, and for that I wished to atone. My father, Perun, would stop me and allowed me to sleep under a spell. I knew it was for my own good and for the good of mortal men that may come across me. However, despite that, I felt the need to seek out my redemption with my own hands, not by the hands of others. Daniella, I know how you feel...and that feeling can gnaw at you. But right now, the people who are alive, the ones still here, need help, and there's no one else but us to do so."

When saying all of this, the demigod saw the woman's head lift slowly with her eyes opening just a little to look at the ground beneath her. She would say, "But I'm a monster... I've tried to convince myself, but a monster I am."

"If that were true," said Vinok, "then you wouldn't be feeling the way you feel now. A monster does not feel any remorse for their actions. A human does."

Daniella would look at Vinok and found this to be startling to her. Her heart ached at the thought of those villagers who died by her hand, and left her unable to get away from that weighing feeling of guilty that had consumed her mind; believing herself unredeemable for her actions. And now she found herself slowly being released from that guilt, and seeking to pay back to those she had killed...

And that meant taking down Mother Darkness.

Her body began to grow, tearing through her already torn clothes as she started to transform right then and there.

Darkness turned and found this alarming as she watched the human morph into the 6ft+ giantess endowed with claws, facial markings, and her hair that now resembled the blackened wings of a bat.

She had overcome her grief and had become the Fiend!

This wasn't good, thought Darkness as she turned to the two creatures at her sides, commanding them to defend her. She needed more time to perform the ritual; she could not afford any disturbances now, not when so close to the crowning achievement she would so long for.

She must transcend the half nature and become full - to become a god!

Her command was absolute, an arm outwards as she loudly told them to attack her and to break her down.

The Fiend would growl at the sight of those two running at her, carrying themselves with their forms being close to her size, though just barely.

She quickly turned to rip the chains that bound Vinok, telling her to keep away, before turning to face the two undead monsters that attacked simultaneously; one striking her across the face with a hard punch, the second striking her her abdomen to stagger her backwards. Yet she didn't appear to be harmed by such attacks. Only annoyance boiling in her heart as she let out a loud roar. She reached out to grab the head of one of them and drew them in closer to deliver a powerful blow right through the chest, with her fist piercing out the back, bloody and covered in gore as she then pulled it back and tore it's body in half with a furious warcry that shook the room she stood in.

The other creature rushed in and bashed her with a hard shoulder from the back that sent her flying forward, rolling and yet recovering quickly to grapple with the creature; fighting against it's own strength with her own that made her snarl and bare her many fangs.

Vinok made distance from the battle, and looked towards Darkness there on the altar. She had barely regained her own strength, but did not wish to give her relative a chance to complete her plan. So she moved forward, grabbing the side of a pew to snap it off to have a makeshift stake that she intended to use on her, to stop her from fulfilling that self-proclaimed destiny.

Darkness would be busy chanting to not take notice, hands holding the bowl of blood that she soon began to drink down until it was empty; casting it aside to then draw from her pocket the vial she safeguards with great desperation. The blood of her father Chernobog, the final piece to it all. She did not waste time in consuming it. At the same time, a pain then met her senses from behind her.

"A... Agh... You...!!"

Darkness turned, bleeding through a corner of her mouth, seeing Vinok stab her with that broken piece of wood. She staggered and grinned with her back leaning against the altar. This troubled Vinok who saw the grin and a glint of triumph appearing in her eye.

"F-Fool... It's... It's too late...!! I have won...!! I have won!!!!" Darkness said with a laugh as her body radiated with a strange power that forced Vinok back and landing hard into the pews.

The Fiend would then be finishing off her adversary by ripping off it's head, all while suffering from mild injuries that came in the form of bruises and scratches, which already started to heal. She sensed the sudden power that forced her to freeze in place; whirring her head to see a sudden flash of light consume Darkness through her eyes and mouth, until it became blinding to all present. Neither the Fiend or Vinok could understand this sudden wave of distress that came over them soon afterwards, from there on the altar where a shadow now loomed.

A voice soon spoke from it as the late grew dim, but radiated for the two to bear witness.

"I am renewed...born anew. I contain the moon and stars; in my hands do I hold the darkness and it's many children. I have come to oppose and to triumph over the light that ostracizes the weak and innocent....I am a goddess eternal!!"

What the two saw on that altar was Mother Darkness, but she had been changed.

Darkness no longer looked human as before:

She had dark-grey skin, almost silverly in appearance, with eyes that were a deep red color resembling blood, with her once long blonde hair now like the color of a raven's feather, with ears pointed sharply like knives.

It was a transformation that was somehow haunting to the duo who bore witness to it.

"The time is at hand," said the newly made being softly. "It is time to push forth for a new era for the world...and a deity to lead it's people. But first, you must be purged for your insolence."

To Be Continued

Me: *Stares at a goat*

:goat: :.....*chewing on a piece of shirt*

Me:... Where the hell you get this from?

Elden: I got on sale! You wouldn't believe how much of a sell it was! :grin:

Me: how much? :neutral_face:

Elden: About ten bucks from your wallet. :relieved:

Me: I see...send it back. :neutral_face:

Elden: What - no! She's precious!! :triumph:

Me: Well your precious just ate one of my shirts...that one was a gift by the way.

Elden: So? She's hungry. You gonna be mean because she's hungry, you bully? Besides, you tried to replace me with Ms. Pyromaniac over there. :angry:

Me: *Sees Bombette playing with a Lego tower* Are you seriously jealous that I've let another oc hang around? 🤨

Elden: I was in your noggin first! So I should be special.-)3)-

Me: Man, I forgot how immature I've made you...anyway, what's the goat's name?

Elden: She has a name tag that said "Ate", but I'm not sure it's like...eating or aut-ee. So pick either one! Now you'll excuse me, I've gotta set her room.*pulls the goat away*

:goat: :.... *Shows glowing purple eyes*

Me:... This isn't gonna end well.

Side Story To Be Continue!

(But seriously, we are ALMOST done with this arc of the Fiend....crazy how I've been typing blog stories for over 3 years in this community. Not sure if it's an achievement or a testament of the time I have when I'm not streaming....either way, I enjoy it since my OC are apart of me :grinning: like a father or a mother tending to children. Anyway, that's all for now, and hope to see ya again!)