Three cloaked figures walked in through the door of the bar, the hoods attached to the robes were raised, revealing only a portion of the pale faces. The skies were dark and the rain was heavy, walking around dressed like that was considered normal in this city. Hera, Rinae and the infected Erwin had left the cave in the search for a new source of food. Where they went was a city Northeast of Holden, Beka.

Beka was a two-day journey from the cave, seventeen hours if they flew but, Erwin made that impossible. The sole reason they had even brought him along was that he was a mobile food source. The parasites that were eating him alive, in a way hijacked his body and kept him alive, well, almost alive. He was in a state of perpetually dying. All the magic that was just floating around on the inside was practically just clinging to the already fed on organs and healing them. Most of his actions were not his own; the parasites inside had an instinctive behavior to follow the more matured of the species as to provide them with food. Mostly he was just a zombie that wanted to be fed on more than he wanted to feed. Elrich would have joined them if he also had more magic and skill towards healing, but the parasites within his body died from the low magic yield from the organs. They starved from overeating, Rinae had gained enough information from that alone, less magic equals fewer parasites and so on.

The trio walked in an order of hierarchy, Rinae leading, Hera slightly behind and next to her and Erwin shambling in the back. The whole city looked much more advanced when compared to Holden. There were actual sidewalks paved with stones and dirt roads that were very frequently traveled by carriages and patrolmen, this city had money. Everyone had somewhere to be, no one was lazing about, no one would stop to look at the bloated man and the females with white hair peeking from underneath their hoods.

Erwin had stopped them for the umpteenth time to throw up the black liquid.

“Sister, how long until we can find a new nest!?” Hera was growing agitated. As she should they had been traveling for multiple days and some hours in change. Even if they were a race that rarely needed sleep, it was still annoying to be constantly moving. She pointed at Erwin. “He’s also leaving a trail!”

She was entirely right, the side effects of the constantly healing and dying were that he’d create an overabundance of magic-infused goop making him vomit out the over the capacity amount.

“Not long, Hera. look for something big we can live in.” For the last couple of days, Rinae had been feeling more and more like she desired more than just eating. She felt the cave was impertinent to her image, she believed she needed more.

Hera watched as another robed figure dashed past in a blur of colors, they were in a hurry. Her eyes followed the pheromonal scent of magic, they ran down the street to what looked like a spire of magic, she pointed. “Sister, is that good?”

Rinae followed her pointing. Her magic orientated sense wasn’t quite as good in far distances but, with this much magic concentrated on a building, there was no amount of distance that could hide it.

“Perfect.” She said to Hera, she then took off running.

The building was large, maybe even bigger than the cave and gave off a feeling of mysticism, the effect was most notable when the sun was shining through the stained glass panes.

The trio descended upon the building in a matter of seconds, they scouted every inch. They took note of how many exits and entrances, what was the weakest points structurally and even the distance from the heart of the city. This was a church, it wasn’t built for anything more than worshipping the human’s gods but, Rinae was intent on changing that.

She slammed open the doors, multiple people gasped as the noise echoed, the main room was large, much bigger than the shaman’s room in the cave, She smiled but it quickly faded as she was reminded who inhabited it.

“Ah, Hello child! I see you’ve come to God's house to seek refuge from this storm!” A portly man, wearing extravagant clothing stood at the far center of the room.

She pulled off the hood of hers, a newer evolutionary trait had shown itself, a hunk of chitin that formed horn-like structures that curved outward, the rest of it formed around her head and flattened around the sides, like a crown. The residents of the church all gasped making assumptions.

“Is she a demon?”

“Mommy, why does she look like that?”

“Poor girl.”

“Don’t stare at her.”

“Tis’ a shame to live with a curse like that.”

The chatter went on and on. But the one she was focused on was the pastor. She walked down the aisle with unwavering, unblinking commitment.

She stood by the altar, face to face with him.

“Ah! I see you’ve come to seek help.” He stretched out his hand to touch her. The physical contact was cut short literally as she sliced off his hand. She didn’t even allow him to scream as the next action was slicing off his head.

The crowd was going wild. They started to scream and yell phrases claiming she was a demon coming to kill them. Most of them scrambled to reach the exits but that proved useless once Hera came from the shadows, any that attempted to leave were cut down, Rinae sat on top of the altar and watched the carnage. Her side for the dirty work was already over.

She would smash skulls into pews, rip people’s limbs from connecting joints and leave them to bleed out. Those that learned the targeting method Hera was using stopped moving towards the exits and sat down. Of course many were still crying and disheveled but, they still had their lives for now.

Rinae didn’t bother for words as Erwin stumbled in, his robe was removed, practically all clothing articles were gone, To the viewers, it was a bloated fat man that wandered in. Rinae got up from the altar and allowed him to lay down.

She made an incision on the stomach, black liquid poured out. The body began to visibly deflate from the release of pressure. Three waist sized black creatures were dumped onto the floor. At first, they looked like moving ink blotches but soon changed as features became apparent, they were snake-like, with pincer-claw like legs. Perfect for getting around on surfaces she couldn’t get to.

Rinae prematurely birthed them for one sole reason, make her throne. Her impatience may have cost them their armor and size, but in this environment, it was perfectly controlled.

The creatures hissed as they took their first glances at the new world around them. Their, pale unmoving eyes showed just how related they were to the girls. If anything they could see magic just as good as Rinae. They tried the black goop, but it wasn’t exactly what they wanted. The aggression they possessed when they fought over the food showed they wanted to eat flesh as well.

Rinae picked up the severed limb of the pastor. “Here,” she said tossing it into the crowd of cowering humans. The sound alerted the newborns into investigating the humans. They jumped onto the pews and observed each and every one of them. One of the creatures got into the face of a crying child. Shortly after, it dove in biting off everything that the child had. The rest became a frenzy as Rinae and Hera watched on the sidelines. They too would get their fill later, but for right now the girls would watch over the new workers of this hive.