By the time night fell, they had all totally lost their sense of forward progress. All that remained was the ceaseless, oppressive tangle of colours, smells, and invasive thoughts. Without even thinking about it, they all just kept putting one foot in front of the other, for if they started thinking, it would get in again.

Emilie scratched at her forearms, which had developed a troubling fuzz of lavender fur. “This fur… so itchy!”

Krey kept picking at his ears, which seemed to be narrowing into points. “My ears… if they look how they feel, then I’m starting to look like a half-elf.”

Livia couldn’t help but constantly shove a hand down the back of her trousers, unable to adjust them in a way that was comfortable. “Ugh, and I think I’m sprouting a tail…” she was also now unable to continue sustaining Danu’s corporeal form, and had dismissed her.

Pippy gasped when she heard Livia, stopping and turning to face her. “Ooh! Twinsies! I’ve got something growing out of my butt too!”

“Could it be a tail, perchance?” Livia asked.

“See, I’m not sure! I can feel multiple bumps…”

“Wow, okay, troubling.”

Phyrn decided to check in on their newest companion. “Bel, are you feeling anything yet? Even my nails are starting to turn into claws now, and I should be the last to feel any effects.”

“Actually,” Bel said with some hesitation, “my eyes hurt… but I can’t see my own eyes, so I’m not sure. Vision is just as wonky as it was when the sun first set, anyway.”

“Let me see,” Livia offered, being the nearest to him. “Oh! Uh… You’re looking a bit… cat-eyed, Bel.”

“Damn, and no improved night vision? Definitely got the worst roll of the dice.”

“My yet-itchier fur begs to differ!” Emilie seethed, coming close to drawing blood from her forearms with her nails.

The others could feel it accelerating too, the burning yearning of instincts not their own. Not only were their bodies being stolen, so too were their minds— even their souls. No part of them was safe from the unseen tendrils of Faeden, worming into the cores of their beings. The desire - no, the need - to throw themselves to the ever-more-attractive floral algafae formations, the compulsion to complete their transformations, the urge to become vectors of this debauched scourge— they were starting to drown in it all.

The discomfort of these slow invasions of their bodies was more than enough motivation to push them forward into the night, not stopping for rest. Even though it was night, Faeden seemed to once again break the rules in that visibility was not effected at all… though the world was clearly unlit. Instead of light allowing them to see, the incongruence simply seemed to be… visible, unaffected by the dynamics of light and shadow, an unnervingly flat dimension of unshaded objects that were dizzyingly lacking in depth visually, but, in reality, still possessing it. Even they were changed by this, looking to each other like they had leapt off the pages of a cartoonist’s sketchbook.

What did affect their vision, however, was the slow return of the steam. They all knew what it meant at this point; it had preceded every appearance of an algafae, no matter what its form. This time, however, it was not a brief burst or a thin mist.

“So thick…” Emilie muttered with disgust. “I feel as if I may choke…”

Krey, in an almost half-asleep fashion, decided to yank his tunic up and over his head, casting it into his soul space. “This heat… I’m burning up!” sweat glistened upon every inch of his strong form, every muscle movement seemingly enhanced by the perceptive changes caused by Faeden, his every flex and motion that much more provocative, so much so that even he himself was stirred by it (though he did his best to ignore it).

“Ponim… Pippy…” Phyrn murmured weakly, “please take my hand. I cannot bear to look anymore.”

“Look at what?” Pippy stuttered in response while doing as she’d asked, letting this interaction distract her from the immaculate pain that was stabbing its way through her entire skeleton.

“Everything,” Phyrn hissed. “The plants… they’re calling to me… they’re awakening something in me that I wish not to feel! They look different now… I wish to shut my eyes!”

“Heh… haha…” Pippy laughed as much as she was physically able, which was not much. “Trust the foliage goddess to get all worked up over sexually-suggestive flora.”

“All I can wonder,” Phyrn quavered, “is if Mirim thought of this as an intentional sick joke at my expense, or if she just thought this was somehow a good idea.”

“I think Berodyl is entirely a sick joke at all our expenses, Phyrn,” the demigoddess rebuked, Ponima’s tones taking temporary dominance in their shared, layered voice.

“DIVE!” Bel screamed at the top of his lungs. Everyone hit the deck, and all either groaned or cried in pain as their unstable bodies were jostled around by the impact. However, as they went down, they saw what Bel’s gunslinger eyes had spotted before the rest of them, and saw it could’ve been much worse. The entire area, but just at standing height, violently flashed with golden lightning, coursing in their direction from ahead. As they all clambered back to their feet, the caster of the lightning emerged from the thick steam.

It was equine in essence, standing as tall as Danu but far bulkier, thickset with both fat and muscle in strangely exaggerated proportions, proportions that, if Livia and her friends had been in full command of their faculties, would’ve found perhaps mildly amusing, or perturbing, or even grotesque… but through the rosy mind-fog of Faeden’s influence, the beast seemed almost attractive.

That cannot be a good sign, Livia thought.

Its mane was not hair, but instead an ensemble of snakes that were alive and danced around of their own accord, separate from yet part of the larger whole. The gazes of these snakes shot seemingly-literal blades of fear through all of Phyrn’s chosen, freezing them in place, and in celebration of their successful spell cast upon the interlopers, the snakes started firing bolts of lightning from their mouths in every direction. The beast reared onto its hind legs, and then its whole body began sparking with lightning as it prepared to attack.

Just short of bowling them all over, the fearful gaze that had rooted them all in place wore off just in time for them to dive a second time, throwing themselves out of the way of the beast’s charge. It turned almost in place, and came galloping back at them. Krey swiped his arm horizontally across, sending an arc of fire right back at it. It did nothing, and the head of the monster hit Krey like a battering ram, blowing him away like a ragdoll being hit with a club.

The demigoddess tried her luck next, leaping into the air and bringing her hammer down… but when the thing looked up at her, with its piercing, empty eyes, her mighty war cry turned into screams of exquisite agony. She plummeted out of the air, and as soon as she hit the ground, her skin was flayed from the inside out in an instant of horrendous gore and ripping sounds, her skeleton exploding into a cluster of frantic, gemstone-like spikes. The instant after this happened, there was a flash of red, and the twisted crystals were gone. The demigoddess had managed to undo the fusion at the brink of death, but after such a devastating metamorphosis, both Pippy Vieira and Ponima Tearcry succumbed immediately to unconsciousness. The undoing of the fusion had thankfully, at the very least, made them both fully intact again and totally uncorrupted by Faeden’s influence. Most importantly of all, it had kept them alive.

Emilie, now clutching her own head and gritting her teeth to resist the burning call of her body’s new fur, howled like an animal at the monster, catching its attention. They locked eyes, and Emilie felt a sudden wave of composure rush over her. “Enough of this, filthy creature…” she pulled her arms out of the sleeves of her robe and slid it open from within. She drew Trick of The Light as she shimmied the upper half of her robe off her shoulders and torso, letting it hang over her sword belt, folded against the lower half. Said torso was still covered by the chaste shroud, but her shoulders and arms were bare, and with sword in hand, Bel found himself looking on with what might’ve been a touch of respect with just a hint of admiration.

Never have I see a hierophant with such fury, he pondered.

“Come at me!” Emilie dared, taking up an unsure stance. For all the times she’d seen her comrades in action, she still had much to learn herself in the ways of war. The monster cantered over to her… but did not attack. She raised her blade above her head in both hands, but before she could bring it down, her face was engulfed by a hot, wet kiss, cushioned by the equine creature’s unnervingly plush lips. When it pulled away, Emilie found herself suddenly breathless, and her muscles turned to mush. She dropped her weapon, and felt infuriatingly soothed as the saliva glazing her face dripped onto the parts of her with patches of that thin, lavender fur; it rid her of the insufferable itching, and even felt good. “Gods damn you— FOUL BEAST! I AM NOT AS YOU! I AM NO THING OF VULGAR SIN! I… am a… hierophant…” her harsh vociferations grew softer, wearier. “I am… pure as the white I wear… servant of… divinity…” she fell to her knees, despondent.

Bel took this opportunity to line up a shot with his gun, which he had finally unslung after freeing himself of the engrossment he’d fallen into when battle had broken out. However, before he could pull the trigger, the thing turned noticed him, and with the glaring snakes that formed its mane did it send nothing less than a stormy hail of arcs in his direction, several striking him and one even striking the metallic parts of his weapon. After a brief seizure of pain, he dropped to his knees, painfully aware of how much he looked a fool. Just can’t catch a break at the moment, he reflected, still gladly free of the mental violation the others seemed to be experiencing, at least.

By this time, Krey had rejoined the fray, sword and shield clutched in each hand. At first, he was sprinting, but then he slowed to a jog, and finally began to creep toward the beast, glaring with focused yet curious eyes. “Come on, then!” he called to it. “Make your next move! I’m not going to give you a better opening than this, monster. I will hold my ground until you make a mistake, and when you do, I’ll finish you!”

Is that so? A disarmingly enchanting voice said in Krey’s mind, a voice not his own.

“No… no, no, no! What is this?!”

I am an avatar of Faeden, an algafae of purest conception, the voice continued. Your evolution is bent by my will, binds you to me… and so, with the new ears you’ve been graced with, you can now perceive my otherworldly voice.

“And here I thought you were just a dumb animal,” Krey taunted desperately.

Dumb? No. An animal? Most certainly.

Krey’s stomach turned in response to the sultry tone with which the voice had said those last few words.

Become one with Faeden, human. Join the everlasting chorus of gratification and liberation that we promise. Shed the forbidding, free yourself of your limited kind’s shackles. Together, we will consume the stars, the heavens, the gods— all that exists. The severance cannot hold us forever… so join us now, while we still want you.

“I think I understand now…” Krey said with exertion. “Why Fyren did it… or whoever did it. Why the severance happened. It’s you, isn’t it? Faeden, the algafae, the—” his eyes opened as wide as they could go. “The wrongness…” he looked over at Pippy. This minute lapse in concentration was all the time the creature needed, curling around and whipping its long, luxurious tail (which was hair, unlike the mane) into Krey’s jaw, cracking like a whip and giving him a nasty welt to match. With a defeated grunt, his body went sprawling again, and this time, he didn’t try getting back up.

Livia would’ve gone on the offensive as well, but she’d been put face-first into the dirt by the betrayal of her own body. Her suspicions of a tail blooming on her body were confirmed when the slimy, thick, fleshy appendage suddenly burst into being, simultaneously causing both her trousers and underwear to fall down and trip her up. “She rolled over into an upright seated position, clenching her teeth and growling to herself. What she did next she did with an equal blend of embarrassment and enthusiasm, a cocktail of feelings that threatened to consume her. She pulled her trousers and underwear off over her boots, cast them into her soul space, and removed her jacket and T-shirt while she was at it.

I don’t care if my back gets muddy, she decided, unable to endure the sensation of her clothes sticking to her. I am beyond caring about clinging to my dignity in this place, I just want this thing dead. She was slick with sweat, but her grip on Veridis’ hilt did not falter, and even with the strange visual disturbances she was experiencing, her aim was true. However, her attack had not achieved the results she’d desired.

Veridis had found its mark, but instead of cleaving through the beast’s leg… it’d gotten hitched. “What?!” she looked over and saw the monster’s head, angled down to peer upside-down through its own legs. “Oh no… no no no!” she scrambled onto her front, yanking Veridis free and thrusting it forward at the head of the creature. It simply raised back up to avoid the blade.

Wait a minute, Livia realised, this is perfect! It hadn’t been the plan, but she was now in prime position to give this thing a nasty kick in a very sensitive spot. Assuming it… has those parts…

She looked around to check, and saw a startlingly hefty pair of testicles hanging between its hind legs, as well as a bulging, drooling sheath.

Okay, yep, it has the parts. She averted her eyes before her clouded mind and intrusive thoughts gave her any more offensive signals. However, it was somewhat too late to resist the call of those creeping influences, as they were already in her subconsciousness. When she sent the command from her brain to her legs to buck up and kick like a horse… instead, her tail whipped into action, and wrapped around the monster’s parts to give them a tender squeeze and caress. Livia felt every bit of this, and nearly puked. I’m really starting to fucking hate this place.

The worst part of it all was that, despite how much the sliver of her normal mind that remained screamed out in protest, the warm steam - both literal and metaphorical - was becoming inexorably pleasurable.

Faeden’s true horror was revealed to them: the weaponisation of the depravity that lurks in the forbidden depths of mortal souls… and, it would seem, even the souls of some gods.

However, Faeden was not perfect; it was incomplete, abandoned in its current flawed state by its makers, condemned as a mistake in the severance. Some beings, sufficiently pure of heart and strong of will, beings of singular purpose and truth, born solely of virtue, could resist its temptations. One such being was a golden god of fellowship, brought into being by pure hope and friendship in a time of strife long past, an avatar of stalwart determination in the face of an indomitable adversity: Brightbrand.

He appeared not with a flash, or a bang, but simply appeared, and his form was immediately captivating. He was a perfect masculine specimen, shaped like the marble statues of legendary heroes some artisans loved to sculpt. He even only wore a golden leaf over his manhood, otherwise bereft of clothing. His entire body shone with gold light.

His radiance washed over his fellow gods and their chosen, restoring a fraction of their clarity, and even bringing Pippy and Ponima back to consciousness… just enough to process what they saw next. It even dispelled the strange visual disturbances, illuminating the immediate area normally and with his presence alone.

“Come hither, medustrier,” Brightbrand nearly whispered. The creature offered its muzzle to him, and he placed his palm flat against it. For a moment, his entire body tensed, and the medustrier, as he’d called it, exploded violently into nothing more than specks of golden light. This explosion was not felt by anyone or anything other than the medustrier itself, however, leaving everything and everyone else untouched.

He walked forward, squatting down in front of Livia. She craned her neck to look up at him, and a smile shakily formed on her face. “Thank you.”

He smiled back, but did not speak. He reached out and grabbed her tail, and with the same power that he’d used to destroy the beast, he purified Livia’s body, dismantling the tail at the most fundamental level, his light coursing through her to return her to normal. In turn, he did this for each and every one of them, and even cloaked Pippy in a veil of golden aura that allowed her to remain comfortably conscious, even here in this most wrong of places.

“There,” Brightbrand said contently. “All better. Now then, all of you, stay close to me. I will ward you the rest of the way.”