Chapter 425: If it bleeds

"K-killed? I’ve never killed a God before! I know I’m stupid and forget a lot of things, but I think even I would remember killing a God!" Beans’ bell shook dramatically as Belladonna shouted through it.

"Chill out little kitty." Raev chuckled, "I know you didn’t, and neither does the Elarian. He might call you a murderer, but he knows you weren’t like the actual person that held the knife, you know?

It’s just that your people, the Fell-dudes, all come from the killing of his mother. So he’s like totally mad about it, you know?"

"Fell-spawn come from a dead goddess?" Figg asked with a frown.

"Oh yeah totally. Why do you think they were called that? Oh you didn’t think they like fell over and hit their heads and just wanted blood one day, did you? I knew a dude once who thought exactly that. He ended up killing himself falling head first off a cliff to try transform. Cool dude." Raev nodded, his mind drifting off as he lifted his hands to his lips and took a drag of yet another joint, that simply manifested between his fingers already lit.

"I’m surprised you didn’t know about that. I thought all the spooky dudes told the story to each other around the campfire or something."

"I... I’m not really associated with them all that much. Do you know the story?" Belladonna asked, her voice soft in contemplation.

"Yeah yeah... Well, kinda. I know like the basic version. It’s a real old story and it’s been passed down through the Avatars, but I doubt most people in the world will have heard even the basic version.

But the story goes that there was a group of warriors, some of the strongest in the world and supposedly favoured by the gods before they did the... you know." He paused to make a stabbing gesture with his hand, before continuing on.

"One day, these five Warrior Heroes grew unsatisfied with their power. Even as the strongest in the world, who had slain a true dragon in their prime, was not enough for them. They saw the Gods reigning above them, and wanted to join them, or perhaps tear them down and take their place.

No-one really knows how, some suspect they tricked her into descending into the mortal plane or did something to her Avatar at the time. But these five heroes somehow killed the Moon Goddess and stole from her.

They tore her body apart, using it to fuel their own ascension in the hopes that using the body of a god would make them gods themselves. But it didn’t work.

Instead, they became cursed. Living eternal lives, sure, but like... no longer what they were before. No longer real people. They had to eat people’s flesh or drink blood to survive. It twisted their bodies and warped their minds into the monsters that they revealed themselves to be.

In their new lives, they took on new names. Sanguine, Nocturn, Whisper, Ossein and Gurr. In these new lives, the heroic party split apart, living solitary lives as monsters. Although many times throughout history they met each other on the battlefield to duel and fight it out with each other.

You wouldn’t believe how many wars these guys have had. Guess even now they aren’t satisfied with the power they have and want it all for themselves." Raev said with a resigned shrug, before taking a few drags again and spewing out the smoke.

On the other side of the bell, Belladonna grew quite. She glanced at the Goddess’ face on the stained glass windows, her face serene and peaceful as her three eyes stared towards the skies. It was a face that Belladonna had never seen before, she knew that for a fact, and yet she also knew that it was incredibly familiar. Especially those lifeless eyes.

The words swirled around in her head, as her mind drifted back to the strange recurring dream that she had.

She remembered the Colossal, impossible corpse laying across the tree tops, as its blood spilled to the ground and formed a crimson river. The four figures that stood around it, holding the strange objects in their hands, each one brimming with a strange power, whilst the final knelt by the river and drank from it.

The Matriarch.

That was it, that had to be it. That was the moment she had stolen the power from the dead Goddess, by drinking her blood. It was no wonder the Elarian hated her. She was the same race as the one that had killed his mother and used her in some kind of twisted sacrificial ritual.

He had every right to hate her, but although she completely understood that hatred, Belladonna wasn’t just going to let him kill her. Although with his power level, she might not get much of a choice in the matter.

"Figg," Belladonna said through the bell, "Find the portal. It should be in the church somewhere. In fact, I bet that is the disturbance Sylvi and the Elarian had detected and why the Sacred Beast was being corrupted."

"That makes sense," Figg nodded, "They needed a protector of their own, to make sure we didn’t mess with the portal and to guide the infected creatures into it. What better way to do that than corrupt the guardian that already exists."

"Dude... That is so not cool of them." Raev said with a shake of his head, and another deep puff of his latest joint.

Figg cast the supposedly powerful Avatar a disappointed look, before shaking his head with a sigh and moving away from the statue to search for the portal.

The Church itself was rather small, so it didn’t take them long to search every nook and cranny until they finally found the crack in space and time. The trail of beast footprints and blood also helped, as they led right up to the portals location.

It was in a small garden plot, just out the back of the church. It was a gorgeous little plot of land, filled with silver Moondrop lilies, which glowed softly in the moonlight that they were bathing in.

Aside from the lilies, there was a short path leading up to a pedestal that had been created to give offerings to the Goddess, there was even a small bowl with the long decayed remnants of fruit laying inside. The last offering to the dead Goddess.

It would have been a mournful sight, if it was not for the ugly and twisted tear in reality that hung above the offering pedestal, sucking in the air and the mana that filled in and spewing it all out into their world.