"Shit!" Zagreus cried, his fingers dancing to form Runes of Protections. In moments rather than seconds, a dozen small domains appeared, cloaking Reina and Syris in a protective bubble.


    "What''s happening?" Syris shouted. Her palm was wet with perspiration. She could feel the foreign energy gathering whirling about Vesim. It was like an intangible nket seeking to dominate by stripping all that was necessary to live within the atmosphere.


    "These bastards are testing the lines of the Shadow Promation. Damn that Monarch of Hell." Zagreus cursed, snapping an eye to Altair, locked in the arms of Tasha.


    His head pressed her between her voluptuous bosom, seeking to smother him. He nearly cursed in a fit of jealousy. He might have if not for the tense killing intent radiating off of Reina.


    "I''m going to tear out her spine and feed it to her,'' Reina growled. She watched him slip out from her grip, and her frown only seemed to intensify, noticing the faint rosy hue around the cheeks. And thought: ''A blush… He''s blushing.''


    An indescribable sense of rage scorched at her chest, seeking to sear through her flesh and bone.


    "She''s a devil," Zagreus reminded her in time. "Like you two, they have physiques. That has been proven to entertain the Fallen of the Hells. ythings or not, Lilith births the Lilms to warm the beds of every Fallen. They cannot be ced in these same categories as a regr subus."


    Reina felt an awareness awaken within her, a focus born from her blood that came like a burning haze seeking to burn all that there was and would be.


    And for a second, Seven Ancient Sigils sprang around her twin circles, shing back and forth.


    The world through her ears turned silent, followed by a numbing, monotonous ringing sound. So deafening it was, Reina had not even seemed to notice when her Prince pressed a palm on her shoulder and called her name.


    "Ren? You in there?" Altair called to her again, gently shaking her.


    Reina returned to herself, nced at her Prince, smiled, and said, "Never better."


    Altair had never felt such a foreboding sense of danger. He hesitated the following words, ''you sure?"


    Again, Ren smiled. "Of course, would I ever lie to you?"


    "...I see." He replied, admiring the peculiar red of her eyes. They were different than before. ''Brighter?'' he thought, a little unsure by the way her eyes glinted with a devilish temptation.


    He wanted her now.


    "Altair, what''s the n," Zagreus asked when dozens of grueling cracks splintered the wall, pulling up dozens of buildings into the skies. Rumbles came like an explosion as hundreds of stones, rooftops, and buildings came crashing without any particr pattern.


    "I want you tomunicate with Ryzar. Use Z. Tasha, stop that infernal energy from ravaging this city. God knows how many have died already. Those are points in their favor. Syris and Ren, you''re with me.


    We''re going to see if we can''t ughter a few."


    Charging from out the Cathedral, Altair began to feel the state of Mana within Yarwin growing more aggressive as if set into a hyperactive state of awareness, so much so they were beginning to materialize within the material realm.


    "This is…'' Shaken to his very core, his eyes snapped towards the skies towards five Nine Circles hovering in the air like gods, surrounded by nearly a hundred strange translucent creatures that bore no simrities to that of humans but rather wild beasts.


    "Kuuuuuuu~"


    ''CAW~~ I''m back bitches!~ CAW!!!"


    "Raven? Kuu?" Ren called, catching the Kitsune in her arms.


    The crow circled Ren''s head,nding on it and pointing her cute wing towards one of them. "Her mother is up there."


    "Eh?"


    Ren, Syris, and Altair looked towards the three-eye crow.


    "Impossible…" Altair started to say when all of a sudden, they saw one of the five Nh Circles open his palm, whispering a strange incantation Reina could barely make out as ''Spatial Istion,'' where they all vanished, as though they never existed.


    Their presence was gone, vanished in a strange pulse of energy.


    "There within a pocket dimension," said Syris hurriedly. "It''ll fade when the master—"


    Even as the words echoed, a strange ripple came no more than a few secondster. It sounded like shattering ss. Revealing the soaked remains of five men, their bodies not appearing as though they were run through or shed at. Rather torn apart by some indiscriminate hand.


    Of the hundred or so Soul Kings, only one remained a small nine-tail fox with fur as white as snow, wielding violet eyes of iridescent mes that shone so beautifully it made little women wonder why Kitsune was known to seduce the minds of gods alike.


    ''A distinctive cry weaky chimed out from the little one in Ren''s arm, blinking from out of her master''s arms before therge Fox. Hesitant, it moved closer. "Kuuuuu?"


    "Mommy Two?" Said Raven in trantion.


    "Lol, Mommy two?" Syris muttered, holding back the urge tough.


    "Art, what is going on?" Ren followed up.


    Altair thought for a bit, then, " I know that Kuu was born in this realm. It''s the only reason why no one on Earth caught it. When we found her, she was a newborn, one that had only juste out of the portal. Though I''m surprised by its rtionship to this strange beast."


    "Child,'' said the Transulsent figure of the Kitsune, growing so corporeal the winds began to rustle against its thick coat. She leaned down, nudging Kuu with its nose, taking in the scent that was her own. "You lived?"


    She sounded surprised, if not taken back.


    "Kuuuu! Kuuuu! Kuu. Kuuuuu!. Kuu." Little Kuu said excitedly, jolting around the ancient beast before it. She turned towards Ren as if to say, ''Check out Mommy Two!''


    "You''re an Old God," Altair was convinced, drawing closer, his palm clutched around Shadoww.


    Therge Kitsune gaze swept toward the Prince with a measuring stare. ''A Snow?'' she wondered, mesmerized by the familiar aura. It felt so close, yet it wasn''t. ''No… He''s not our king.'' she decided and said. "I was. But no more."


    Altair narrowed his eyes., noting the revival of a monster before his very eyes. ''Life truly is illusionary for those who are powerful,'' he thought and said, "How were you killed?"


    "I was injured when a Seraphim, Ancient, and a Corp of Fallen invaded the Astral ne." She said calmly, as though everything urred yesterday. I was protecting my egg. But that battled, tore apart my home, raging across the Myriad Heavens… Until wended on Genisis."


    "Younded in his domain." Altair looked up at the smiling Monarch upon his throne.


    She nodded her head, her beautiful eyes spinning as she gazed down at the child who held a sort of soul connection to her. She could feel Kuu''s bloodline within her soul, slowly spilling out into her small mortal body.


    "In his fury… an entire corp of Fallen, alongside myself, were ughtered, and our souls made to bow."


    ''I care not if you are one of Zariel''s Knights,'' She remembered him saying as he stood over her headless body, her soul being thest thing to fade. "A Pce wench such as yourself ought to know whosend you invaded. You and these Court of Shadows fools will learn the price of touching upon my world."


    "Death by one of the Monarchs of Hell. Damn. That is some next-level bad luck." Altair remarked, a little taken back. "So what exactly did he promise you?"


    "Freedom." The Kitsune remarked. " My child… should have died when our battle broke out. The sheer shockwave of it all was enough to destroy most gxies. It''s a miracle she still lives." she bent down, nudging the little beast with affection. "The Egg must have been tossed into subspace and deposited in some unfamiliar world." she judged.


    Kuu''s mother studied the healthy cloak of her daughter, noted the well-groomed paw pads and snow-white teeth, and gave her child a lick.


    "Bless You, Lord Zariel, for the mercy you''ve shown," she prayed.


    ''How odd it is for a God to pray to another God.'' The Prince thought, unsure how to feel about the matter as a whole. "Then will you continue to participate in this little game?"


    Ren and Syris exchanged nces, sensing Altair''s intent. He wanted to recruit her.


    "I have no choice. My soul is bound to—"


    "You''ve revived. So unless Lord Malzeen branded your soul with a ve mark. You are freed to do as you please," he said, opening a small rift that brought an unfamiliar warm air to the realm. "You''ve already revived. And while your body is weak… you are an old god. I can offer yound as you recover your lost power,nd where you one will annoy you."


    The Kitsune iridescent eyes narrowed. "My Loyalty lies with Lord Zariel, not—"


    "Well, you can stay here, but from what I hear, dealing with Fallen is a sort of tricky endeavor. I wonder who is worse, Devils or Fallen? You, as well as I, know that there is no promise that can''t be maneuvered out of."


    "I…" she lowered her head towards her child, rubbing her scent into her mother''s coat.


    "Plus… There are many things I want to ask about your story: a Seraphim and an Ancient. Believe it or not, our lives might align in many ways." The Prince said, sensing a change within the Old God.


    "How?"


    With a fiendish grin, Altair beckoned to his portal. "Join me, and see."