Upon nightfall, the trio of women arrive at their destination, the moon high in the sky and stars twinkling with a lovely illuminance. On the silvery sands of the coast, there be a roaring fire and many people in dark robes standing only feet away, some farther away.

"What...what is this?" Anna eyes the crowd suspiciously.

There was this gut-wrenching feeling within her abdomen, especially when the ominous chanting reaches her ears. Anna didn't recognize the chanting, and she felt that it was better that she didn't understand.

Hestia nor Evanora answered her. The twins hurried on ahead. They joined the various quantity of robed chanters.

Anna paused, nearly frozen in her tracks. Her eyes frantically scrutinize the many bodies that suddenly drop to their knees, folding themselves in half as they yell and pray, bowing still.

She was well aware of the occult Hestia and Evanora were affiliated, but this...Anna has never seen them act so...cult-like. She naturally assumed they had joined to learn magic, but telling by the chants that were so dark and ominous, they had hidden one small detail. This magical group wasn't filled with saints or friars, they were cultists.

"Hither, my friend!" Hestia beckoned Anna from on the beach, waving her hand in a fan motion.

Anna, very cautiously and with reluctance, approached the beach. She eyed the other robed figures as she joined Hestia and Evanora. She didn't quite understand why they have asked her to exploit their strengths with her.

"What is this?" Anna asked within a hushed tone.

Before either woman could answer, a booming voice thundered above all the people. It sent violent vibrations throughout Anna's limbs, gripping her veins to her heart last.

"Salutations, disciples!" A man appeared on the makeshift, rocky alter that was in the middle of the blazing orange flames. His accent was very middle eastern and nearly hard to understand. "I velcome toi! I see many new visages."

Anna felt the cold stare briefly sweep her and then around the hooded crowd. Even behind flames, this man was intimidating and powerful. Him being a foreigner made him more unpredictable. It was unsettling for the most part.

"I veclome toi also!" The man grinned madly. "It only means you shall see our well bien que plan! It is no matter of your time with us. Ve have planned many years for this! It is time to summon forth, " The man dug into his shirt and then rose his clenched fist, yelling as he threw sand-like powder that caused the flames to roar higher, becoming black and green, "Méphistophélès!"

The flames grew and grew until it was the silhouette of a monstrous giant towering over the beach with bony limbs and terribly spiked ribs. Its knees were huge, bulging, and disturbing. Its face was even more unpleasant as Anna raked over the hellish creature, unable to testify her feelings of fright or disturbance. The monster's jaw hung barely on a hinge with its very misshaped skull. On each side of the skull were three sharp horns. The front horns curved around the forehead. The middle horns curved down and around the chin, even nicking the bottom jaw. The back horns curved upward, the tips cracked and held a tiny orb that may or may not have been Anna's imagination. It wasn't real. Not real. An illusion, Anna repeatedly thought over in her head. If it were not real, then why did her heart race with inquietude?

Its body was very skeletal, but it looked starved. The creature groaned a terrible groan, its empty sockets peering around blindly before opening its teetering mouth.

The sound that escaped it was just horrible. Anna pressed her palms against her ears, trying her darndest to prevent the screeches from reaching her eardrums. It was rather futile. The scream shook the sea, the trees, and even the skies. It echoed dreadfully throughout the land.

"This beast will help us to create our Utopis and we will rid the world of disgusting lowlifes and create a new race!" The man barked proudly, the fiery illusion dispersing into the night, and the fire returned into orange vibrancy.

With that single sentence, the entire beach erupted into an ear-splitting huzzah before the crowd silenced once more.

"On zhe eve of next Summer's solstice, Méphistophélès shall roam the earth once again!"

"Anna?" Hestia peered at her blonde friend, noticing the horrified expression she adopted. "Anna, what is wrong?"

"He desires to make a Utopia with this demon?" Anna stared in distraught at the flames.

"Is it not wonderful, my friend? With this, we shall become the rulers of a new world!" Hestia beams proudly.

Anna shakes her head frantically, quickly backtracking, fleeing from the beach with the sisters hot on her tail.

"Anna!" Hestia called, reaching for Anna's shoulder, and when she finally grasped her shoulder, she forced the blonde to stop, twirling her around. "You run a horror filling your lungs..." Hestia pants from her harsh run.

"Judas!" Anna slapped Hestia's hand away roughly.

"I beg thy pardon!" Evanora growls hostilely. "Thou fled as a mad man would have if he burned from his trousers! Thou needn't accuse us of such!" The lilac-haired woman bared her teeth like a rabid animal.

"Needn't I say lives are at stake?" Anna huffs nearly exhausted from her quick run. "You both are willing to take away countless souls!"

"Monsieur Alain is outmost seeking the best for this undermined earth!" Hestia gaped at Anna in disbelief that her friend would even say such a thing.

"He ceases to seek the best, Hestia!" Anna countered acidly, swiping her left arm outward to the undergrowth nearby. "Have I known you and your sister joined this...this deranged cultist, I would have saved you months ago!"

The twins stared incredulously at Anna. Their eyes darkly glazed over. And approximately at the same time, their expressions (identical) melted into an amphibological haze.

"Monsieur Alain is not deranged--" Evanora began, seething.

"Or a cultist." Hestia finished, but she wasn't as angry as Evanora sounded, but her voice was stiff and monotonous.

"He is willing to kill. How you do not see that is the most horrible act a human being can do?" Anna looks between her friends with wide eyes.

"Whatever it shall take to cure the world of the beasts that live within it." As if they become tranced, the sisters say, completely in sync with each other.

Anna somehow knew there would be no reasoning with them. She stood tall, becoming stoic.

The three women stare each other down for long engulfing minutes.

"So be it. You both will waver in your lust for power." Anna clenched her fists as she spoke.

"Thou ought to beckon to thy foul dragon! The company is wise for a foul creature such as thou!" Evanora taunted the woman as she disappeared into the forest.

It was then Anna decided.

She wouldn't let humanity be destroyed by an evil entity and its extremely devoted followers.

But she couldn't do it alone.