Episode 20: The Fall Festival Part 4: The Evil Rises

Lantorn said, "Why... Why would you mention this now? You've been keeping it hidden forever, I thought that was your plan! Why are you revealing this all now?"

Owlis said, "My goal was to make sure the public didn't panic. And now they know the evil situation is being dealt with, so why would they panic?"

Rhed pulled out a halberd, while Blhu got into offensive position. Lantorn brandished her sword of lightning, and said, "I've defeated better gods than you."

"Who?" Owlis asked with a snort. "Lhyna?"

Lantorn slashed the sword at Owlis, who flipped backwards from it, before bolts of lightning came down from the sky. However, it wasn't from Lantorn. Instead, Owlis unleashed them, and they were strong enough to scar the ground and kick up dirt and debris.

"We have to get down there!" Mosor told Vanos.

"What, why?" Vanos asked. "We're going up against some major forces. We need to save Baynana."

Kyofi said, "I'm not important in this battle."

"Kyofi," Mosor said.

"No, it's true," Kyofi said. "Mynt and I will go back for the hostages. You, Vanos, and Ahmond, it's up to you."

Ahmond remembered something. "Mosor, before, when we were facing Lantorn and Lhyna, you were able to summon up... Prisom? Do you think you can use her again?"

Mosor stared down at Owlis, who squared off against the three. "I sincerely doubt Owlis is that much better than Lhyna. Yeah, fuel me up."

Vanos and Ahmond stared at each other, before all three unleashed their waves to see if it would summon Prisom.

Mosor felt a burst of physical energy from Ahmond, a burst of mental energy from Vanos, and a burst of her own feelings... Feelings of wrath long left buried.

The forces exploded, and all three were repelled by their own waves.

"Oof!" Vanos got back to all fours. "Mosor, what in the heck was that? Did it not work or something?"

Mosor stared at the ground, and said, "I don't know! I was just so angry, Vanos. Maybe I was too angry..."

"You're not in tune with your emotions!" Ahmond said. "You have the willpower, you have the dependability, you're just not into your own emotions! Get out of your head and into your heart now!"

Mosor thought about her cousin's cheesy words, and nodded. "Okay." She allowed them to fill her with waves again, before focusing on her own emotions. Why was she so angry?

Owlis dodged several slashes from Lantorn, only for Rhed to nick her leg with the halberd, but Owlis propelled herself with a gust of wind. She rocketed towards Blhu, but he turned to ran. And the Empress achieved flight temporarily, before fox jumping on the back of his head. He grunted, and electricity filled him.

As she slammed him into the ground, she got back up, only to see something in the distance.

A wolf like beast, black at night with star patterns on running down her body. To add to the galaxy theme, a star shaped crest rested on her forehead, which had orange, purple, and green tassles dripping whencefrom.

Prisom jumped down into the stadium, and howled.

The audience gasped at the sight of a ten foot tall wolf fox, whose yellow eyes beamed at Lantorn.

Lantorn's eyes widened, as she had already dealt with this beast before.

However, instead, Prisom's gaze went to fixate on Owlis, and Owlis realized something. Something Mosor had realized just seconds prior.

She was angry at the Empire, and most important, Prisom was angry at Owlis.

***

Baynana fell asleep.

When she woke up, first thing she did was prick her thumb on a flower, and say, "Nightmare, Nightmare, Nightmare!"

The familiar horse appeared, but snorted as she saw Baynana. She didn't want to fall for that trick again, and turned to buck Baynana, only for Baynana to say, "Wait, I really need your help now!"

The Nightmare raised an eye, and Baynana explained the situation.

"So, I have this Dark Quality known as Worthlessness, and some people are going to try to rip my family's hearts out and, uh, I dunno, take my Worthlessness for power and stuff. Is there any way you can make me into a Wight again, and I can have someone save us?"

Baynana didn't know how her family was already arriving to save her.

Nightmare glared at Baynana, but instead of denying her request, lowered down to suggest Baynana hop on. Baynana nodded, jumped onto Nightmare's back, and slowly fused with the horse.

After the proper wightification was finished, Baynana flew out of her own dream, and tried to observe who was asleep in the middle of the day. Someone had to be asleep.

It seemed no one, however, took a morning nap, as she wasn't having much luck, until she came to the palace. Lucky.

"Rosod!" Baynana said as she appeared in Rosod's dream.

"Do I have to drown you again?" Rosod asked. Her dream was about school.

"Huh, this dream's not exciting," Baynana said as she walked down the hallways and saw all the school uniforms. "Hey, Rosod, aren't you naked?"

Rosod's eyes widened, and she said, "Oh no!"

"I mean, you're always naked outside of school," Baynana said, "just, you're not in the uniform thing. I kinda like the uniform. Looks cute on you."

Rosod blushed. "Anyway, why are you invading my dreams, again?"

"How do you know I'm a wight and not just a normal dream vision?"

Rosod said, "I refuse to let you or Ahmond in my dreams under normal circumstances."

"You can't just refuse to let us in your dreams!" Baynana said. Then she remembered the whole psychic mage part of Rosod and said, "Right... Anyway, basically, someone's gonna rip out my family's hearts and then steal my soul. Or something like that. It's all to do with my Worthlessness Quality. This Dark Quality that-"

"Yeah, you've gone over this in one of your visits, actually," Rosod said. "Anyway, in case you forgot... I'm in jail right now."

"I know," Baynana said, "but I need you to give the news to Whyrl that we're trapped out here in the woods, as soon as you wake up?"

"Maybe we need to speed that up," Rosod said, and she closed and opened her eyes in the dream until waking up outside the dream. Baynana floated around her.

Rosod knocked on the door of her cell. "Guards!"

Whyrl walked up to the door.

"I just got a message from Baynana. She's been kidnapped."

"I know," Whyrl said.

"Yes," Rosod said, "but the good news is she can show us where she's at. I just have to figure out a way to contact her spiritual medium. While I'm meditating, I'll sit on your back, and point in the direction the ghost is leading me towards. That sound good?"

"Willing to try anything," Whyrl said.

Rosod got onto his back, and Whyrl ran out. "By the way, how do you know it's her, and not just some sort of vision?"

"I've trained a lot in the arts of the psychics," Rosod said, almost proud. "And I have lots of meditation experience."

"Well meditation is good. It helps calm your brain down, gives you deep breathing. You must need a lot of relaxation because of your studies."

"No, not because of the studies, but because I'm the only one of my friends who isn't a complete moron."

Whyrl blinked, but nodded.

***

Honay and Paynut did what they were told to do by their niece, and began building up their own shop. Thanks to a loan from their family, and from a bank, they began their own shop. It was surprisingly easy to open up in Wysdom, without almost any yellow tape from the government.

Honay brought up the question of what that meant about the food standards over all, and Paynut simply told her to avoid asking questions she didn't want to know the answers too.

They hadn't made much time to visit with Baynana, and had treated her as if she separated from their pack. Sure, they were invested in her education, and sure they did care what their daughter was up to, but they understood Mosor had everything under control.

Many things were still in storage, and they manned the counters. On their menu were only a few items. Nothing fancy, just name the ice cream, name the flavor, and would you like fries with your order?

Paynut flipped the sign from closed, to open, then paused. He fiddled and flipped it over until the closed sign was facing the outside... No, wait, closed should be facing the inside... Right?

"I am having severe issues right now," Paynut said. "Go outside, Honay, and tell me when you're happy with what you see."

She went outside.

He flipped it again. "Does it tell you you can have your ice cream now?"

"Yes," Honay said with a nod, and Paynut mumbled under his breath. Sometimes, brains were bad.

As Honay came back inside, Paynut pressed his nose to the window, and watched for any customers. "Honay, do you think that sometimes I have problems thinking things through."

"Thinking of anything beyond a second is miraculous from you," Honay said.

Paynut rolled his eyes, and waited for customers to fill the store. "If it's fall, won't purchases go down?"

Honay shrugged. "If we survive Winter, then we'll be doing smooth sailing all the way to Summer."

Yup, survive Winter, and get most of the money in Summer. Paynut always hated that part. Maybe if they got into some other restaurant business, they'd always be making money.

Maybe if they had gotten into other traditional cuisine that would have worked. But no. They decided, for some reason, they'd instead work in an ice cream shop all because that's what mom did.

Really, it was his sisters' faults any of them followed and made it a family business. Their mother would be happy. She didn't need for her children and her grandchildren to be working on a family business, and their children after them, and their children after them...

"What would you have done if we didn't have to work in ice cream?" Paynut asked Honay.

Honay got herself a drink of water as he spoke. The faucet squeaked as she shut the water off. "Well, I suppose, I'd be doing whatever it was that you wanted to do."

Paynut said, "It's like you have no drive. Haven't you ever felt passionate enough about something you'd want to do that for several hours a day for the rest of your life?"

"Singing," Honay said quickly. "I was always a big fan of singing. Still, why would I want to sing in giant concert halls, when I could just sing for fun?"

"Money, for one," Paynut said.

A crimson walked into the store, and she sat at the booth before ordering strawberry.

It was generally considered impolite to continue a conversation with only one sole customer around, however, Paynut didn't care. "You know, Honay, that's fine." He scooped three scoops of strawberry into the bowl.

"What's fine?"

"If you don't sing and make it to the big shows." He slid the bowl over to the crimson. "You don't have to make money off of it, but, I mean, it would sure help out a lot, if you know what I mean, right?"

Honay raised an eyebrow. "If you're thinking about trying to get me a record label, I'm afraid to inform you it's actually technically very hard to do so. Not even the most talented musicians always make it."

"You don't have to be selling out arenas," Paynut said, "just a show."

"May I recommend doing plays?" the stranger spoke up. "You really strike me as someone who has a heart for it."

Honay scrunched her face up. "I don't know. I'm not really the person who do acting too well. I usually have to let my husband do all the acting when it comes to our family."

"Still, one of you can act, the other can sing. Maybe both of you can teach the other and you excel at your own parts, while being good at one thing," she said. She reached into her pocket, perhaps to pull out money.

Honay and Paynut grinned at the stranger. She had the answers they had been waiting for, they only needed to start auditioning. Perhaps they'd work their ways up, and out of the ice cream business overall! Indeed.

"I have to thank you for this, Misses..." Paynut had realized he didn't ask her name.

"Rhed," she said.

"Thank you, Misses Rhed," Paynut finished. "You've certainly been a major help, and how about we give you that bowl of ice cream there on the house? How would that sound to you?"

"Well actually, I can think of a much better reward." She pulled out a needle before pricking it into Paynut.

His eyes widened as Honay shrieked before he felt himself getting drowsier, before darkness took over and he fell onto the floor with a loud, resounding, hard thud.

***

When Lhyna burst awake, she realized she had survived the assault of Lantorn. Lantorn could have killed her, filled the book with the quality, and simply stolen it. No, she hadn't.

Almost as if Lantorn was afraid. Lhyna smirked. She always knew Lantorn had a soft spot for her.

Lhyna stared at the sleeping Baynana next to her. Who could sleep at a time like this?

Arber paced back and forth, keeping guard. He occasionally would leave, for just a minute, to do something, before returning, and guarding his post. Too bad he never stared at them.

Lhyna used a claw, and scratched idly at a rope, managing to fray some of it. However, she needed him to stay distracted, and so next point he left, she used a claw like a sickle, and ripped one of the bounds.

Lantorn injected electricity into their veins, with the goal to paralyze them. If they were paralyzed, they wouldn't be using their abilities or magic, and Lhyna wouldn't rip her way out. However, being the moon goddess, Lhyna had built up a lot of magical tolerance, and slowly was able to twitch her muscles. Sure, she couldn't go too quickly, but she could get to work.

Ropes wrapped around her muzzle, and around her neck to keep her in place, and not allow her to fully observe her bindings, but she still felt around and took guesses. Eventually, she was able to scratch apart one more rope. Still, it wasn't quick enough.

She could hear footsteps coming towards the campground, and it was either Lantorn, or one of her cronies.

Lhyna pressed down against her thumb - dires had one paw that served as an opposable digit - and she pushed down, added pressure, kept pushing and-

After a crunch, she was able to slip further. She pressed a shoulder against a branch sticking out of the log she was strapped too, and pushed. After dislocating her entire arm systematically, Lhyna was able to slip out an arm, before popping stuff back into place.

One arm free, she slashed away, in secretive ways, what held her down. Still, to most, it would look like she was stuck, as she only very narrowly cut and sliced.

Arber returned, gave a perfunctory look over, before seeing someone. "Rhed! It's great to see you!"

Rhed slung down two bodies, of two different wolves. "We have what we need for the ritual, now we just have to wait for Lantorn to get back, and we'll use their hearts for sacrifices."

Arber said, "Who are they?"

"They're friends of the ice cream pack according to my research. Baynana's parents, more specifically."

Arber said, "You know, it's kinda wrong if we're doing this to what is essentially just a kid. After all, why should we do this to her?"

Rhed said, "It's the only way to get the three Dark Qualities. Anyway, my supposition right now is that we might be able to steal Lhyna's Quality too, so long as they're wolves. Wolves have a special connection to the moon."

Arber said, "Well my people have special connections to the sun, but still."

"Well, they have connection to Lhyna's moon," Rhed said. Voto had four different moons moving around at any point, but Lhyna's was easily the biggest and most prominent.

Arber said, "Lhyna is really just an avatar for the moon. That's all an Ascend is, just an avatar or a stand in for something else. If we shattered the moon, that wouldn't permanently killed Lhyna, just be majorly traumatizing."

"Well, okay, but we don't have many blood members to work with here," Rhed said. "Unless you feel like trying to kidnap Empress Owlis, I would say let's go with what we have. And hope it works."

"Well Lantorn can just re paralyze her anyway," Arber said. "Speaking of which..."

"She's fighting with Empress Owlis right now," Rhed said. Arber's eyes widened, and Rhed nodded. "Blhu is still missing in action, so I don't know about him. But anyway, we'll work with what we can work with."

"What if she loses to Owlis?" Arber asked.

Rhed frowned, as she hadn't thought too deeply about that result. Indeed, it seemed like Owlis had a great chance of winning, especially since there was also a third member in the battle. Prisom.

The battle should have been done by now, depending on how long big epic battles took between three titans of magical power.

"We'll do what we can," Rhed said finally. "After an hour, as the moon touches the horizon, we'll just perform the ritual and we'll take the Dark Qualities for ourselves. Assuming we even can be vessels..."

"We really should listen to Solarh more," Arber said. Not that Lantorn wanted to outright join Solarh, as much as form a relationship. Perhaps form some friends with certain terms and agreements.

Rhed, however, never trusted Solarh. Solarh seemed to be a bit sneaky. Also, Solarh had to be vaguely aware that Lantorn would eventually double cross her, not being able to trust another goddess of a celestial body ever again. Lantorn would rather die than let that happen again. Rhed surely wouldn't listen too well.

Arber said, "Lantorn plans to be a vessel."

Rhed said, "Lantorn can plan whatever she wants, but what if someone can't possess a Dark Quality and a... Light Quality at the same point?"

"Are there even Light Qualities?" Arber asked.

"Regardless," Rhed said.

"We're about to find out," Arber said. "And think, if we get that to work, then we can also give her all the Qualities we have-"

"Lantorn, Lantorn, Lantorn," Lhyna said, drawing attention to herself.

Rhed and Arber glared at Lhyna.

"I'm hearing a lot about Lantorn getting this or that or whatnot, but what about you?" Lhyna laughed.

Rhed said, "We're going to put our trust in Lantorn, because she knows what we want and-"

"What you fear," Lhyna said. "Wait, no, that's what I can do. Wanna see?"

Dark lines flowed from her and into Rhed and Arber. They screamed and crumpled down in fear, panicking, raving. Lhyna slipped off her binds, and stared at Baynana before saying, "And now all that's left is I perform the ritual on you, little girl."

Too bad Baynana was still asleep. Still, Lhyna doubted that would impact the ritual.

Everything was already in order, she just needed to use the book itself, and prepare it.

***

The end is near

Pray it all falls away

Everything dear

To you, must go one day

You'll sign the mangy cartna

Understand rules and regulations

Make machines out of the brightest queens

-Mosor, "I am the Light- part 2".

Mosor now in Prisom form ran at Owlis, who unleashed massive volts of electricity along with Lantorn, but Prisom gained blue vines and survived.

She jumped up, and was about to fox jump Owlis, but Owlis jumped backwards, and instead grabbed Lantorn around the neck before crashing her on her face. Lantorn popped back up, and fell to her side. Snappy reflexes.

Meanwhile, Prisom's eyes widened, before she crashed into the ground. Mosor had almost never been over 300 pounds prior, and she didn't expect to enter mud. In fact, she had her whole head stuck in it, and some remaining audience members - those averse to panicking and screaming and running around in orderly fashion - saw her butt wagging around in the air while her back claws gained purchase.

After raking up the ground, and ripping her head out, Prisom fell to her bottom. That's when she felt something land on her head, snap her neck down, and fill her with lightning.

Owlis landed gracefully on the ground, and said, "That's how you do a fox jump, star girl!"

Lantorn groaned, and regained focus, but Owlis gave her a shocking slap. Lantorn gasped as her chest was struck, and felt the back of Owlis' paw trying to crack her ribs, and Lantorn staggered backwards. Owlis walked towards her, but Lantorn took a wild swing with her sword and gashed Owlis' face. As some blood dripped from the cut, Lantorn turned and bucked Owlis away.

Lantorn scampered into the locker room. Perhaps she had something, anything in the locker room to prevent the onslaught. Prisom ran towards the locker room, but was too big to fit in the door frame, so she just jumped on the stands instead, before smashing her paw through the roof into the room before. Prisom put cheek to floor, to gain maximum stretch possible.

Lantorn saw plaster and dust filled the locker room, but she rummaged the locker room.

That's when she found something probably left behind by the previous team inhabiting. A can of spray.

Prisom stuck her head down into the room, and Lantorn retaliated by spraying her with the deodorant. Automatically, Prisom's head jerked back, and she howled, before falling off of her perch. The entire stadium rumbled from the crash.

Lantorn ran out of the stadium, leaving Prisom with Owlis.

Owlis said, "I don't think we have to fight."

Prisom said, "You will learn to obey someone else! There is no way I can let you get away with what you did, using my family as pawns!"

"I would daresay we have more pressing matters than your own personal pettiness," Owlis said. "Just join me again."

"No!" Prisom said. "As soon as we save the world again, you're just going to have me imprisoned so you don't have to deal with me!"

"Smart," Owlis said. "And actually, yes, specifically what I was going to do. Treason is a major crime after all." Owlis nodded on. "Well, unfortunately, I have a kingdom to save. You were right. Your family is just pawns."

Vanos came up from behind Owlis. "Yeah? Well us pawns have something to say directly to you, Owlis, right to your face!"

Ahmond nodded, and Owlis realized she was outnumbered three to one.

"I'd recommend you surrender," Vanos said.

Ahmond said, "Yeah, and I also recommend you don't have us arrested, and paddled again."

"For you, there will definitely be a paddling." Owlis growled. "Very well, I guess if I have to..." She glowed green.

"What in the world?" Vanos asked, before Owlis took on an ethereal form. She ran around, with mushrooms growing from where her paws were.

Prisom ran around, being the most lithe one despite, or perhaps because, of her size. Her goal was to circle Owlis, and run where Owlis would be, but the little fox was able to dodge and use lightning to speed her way around.

As the entire stadium filled with mushrooms, Vanos sniffed one. "Well, it's sure has no dangerous smell emitting from it."

"What's emitting mean?" Ahmond asked, before she bit down on one and chewed it. "Hm, glow tastes really good!"

"Don't eat those!" Vanos said. "Anyway, emit is sorta like produces- we're on guard!" He swung around left, but Owlis jumped and drop kicked him.

He hadn't expect such a hit to the chest, but when it hit, he actually flipped over and crowned his head. As he sat up, he said, "Ow!"

Owlis stomped down, and the mushrooms exploded into a bright green mist which filled and clouded the arena...

***

Lhyna rose up into the air as she felt the dark arcane magics fill her. Baynana's eyes burst open as she saw Lhyna. "Wait, no!"

She hadn't even known what was going on, being asleep and astral projecting the entire time, and that's when she saw something behind Lhyna. Some kind of large, tall being with rippling muscles, attached to a goat like head. That being shoved its arm through Lhyna's chest, and she howled.

As the arm entered Honay's chest, she shrieked, while the being began to take out her heart.

"Mom! No, no, no!" Baynana said.

A hyena and a crimson burst onto the scene. Rosod's eyes widened as she saw the being, but Whyrl took a direct approach, about to run at the arm to sever it with his fangs. That was when a streak of yellow slashed before him and the arm.

Lantorn leaped into the way of the dark orb, and absorbed all of its powers before she fell down onto her feet.

Whyrl crashed to the ground, jerking around violently from the electricity, while Lantorn stared at Lhyna. But Lhyna writhed on the ground too.

"I waited for this opportunity to make you feel everything you made me feel. I admit, in the moment, I wanted to kill you, but now I'm going to make you suffer how you made me suffer!" Lantorn watched as Lhyna twitched around. Wait, she wasn't twitched from electricity, but from darkness.

"Stay away from me!" Lhyna said, shrieked as she backed up, and scooted away from Lantorn.

Lantorn's eyes widened.

Rosod stayed back, not feeling like attacking Lantorn, but instead she put her friend, Baynana, over her shoulder. Her hope was she could run off without Lantorn seeing.

"Stop." Rosod paused.

Lantorn growled. "Why isn't that girl in any Worthless state right now?" She thought about the scene again. "Unless Lhyna... No, she wouldn't have..."

But Lhyna's pupils dilated as she stared at Lantorn.

"You stole your own Quality and were about to implant it into the girl?" Lantorn asked, as she saw the awful state Lhyna left herself in. "I was going to force you to feel Fear myself, but I'm not picky how my job gets done. I'm just glad you're suffering all the same." And that's when lines entered Lantorn. She gasped, and fell.

Baynana said, "Guess you forgot-"

A stream of waves broke up the lines. "Guess you forgot," Arber said as he stared at her.

It was clear there'd be a war, when a hyena and a wolf-coyote entered the scene now.

"What's up?" Kyofi asked, while Mynt grinned. Lantorn, Rhed, Blhu, and Arber, all versus Kyofi, Mynt, Rosod, and Baynana.