FSE

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Beyond the cellar they felt the air turn colder, a long dark passage of gasping winds that formed teardrops on the walls as if mourning those who were lost beyond. The first thing they saw upon reaching the end was a series of stone crypts, left undisturbed within the torchlight with coffin shapes carved out in the walls of further deceased creatures. Skulls peered at them from within the crevices, rabbits, dogs, reptiles and humans with eternal grin as their eyes seemed to follow Baldwin more than them, strange eerie lights flickering from within the deep sockets. The raptor, the turian and the human kept their weapons close, seeing the scattered bones of incomplete remains amongst the odd local creature of bats and rodents skittering through the murk.

"They won't hurt you," said the reptile with a scratchy voice, "they're not gonna try anything with me around."

"You their boss then?" Diana tapped her gun.

"Ehh, more like the szhtrongeszht round here szho they know to back off."

"What exactly...are you?" asked Jarren. "I mean, I know that sounds kinda rude but well, I'm not from around here-"

"Iszh fine," he turned his head with a grin and his dead eyesocket, "I'm a bangaa, what are you?"

"Turian," he tapped his head, "so this really is an entire city down here?"

"Well, half of it." Baldwin looked up to the stone ceiling of black twitching wings. "Thiszh iszh all the old szhity, the one that waszh buried and made forgotten."

"Why?" Oddclaw sniffed near the crypts. "Because of the dead?"

"Well, that and what lurkszh beneath. Which iszh what that monszhter iszh looking for."

"Thuh Blood-Beast?" she kicked a slumped skeleton near the wall as she walked past. "Whutsit want down here?"

"Power. Szhtrength. The Dark tendszh to do that when you're near enough and greedy enough szho a little warning for ya."

She felt an icy howl sweep past her leg to turn and raise her gun.

"Don't purszhue the Dark. The dead szhuffer enough from that szhit."

The skeleton was now standing, but only for a moment when Baldwin's fist crushed through its head to leave skull shards clattering to his feet. The dead creature spasmed horribly with a rattling shudder before falling back to the floor, crumpled in a heap of bones wrapped in shrouds. Onwards they ventured, taking a door to the east then the path split between tombs to find a long room stretched in a trapezoid shape, coffins within the walls still breathing their essence of a thick must that dripped from their scapular. The halls became jagged, twisted uneven with the floor in a frozen battle with itself in a constant rise and fall of thick cinderblock as they saw other creatures lurk within the cracks. Snarling rats of heathenous glint in their blackened eyes, vile wings of dreadsome bats that shrieked at their passing and living piles of ooze that lurched like yawning mouths before Baldwin shot a look of wretched venom to paralyse it in his shadow. Turning north at the next room, they passed through another set of broken corridors with thick tectonic heaves of the floor as they climbed and scaled through the place before Baldwin stopped at an intersection of four different doorways, one of which had a looming shape that replaced the now-broken wall to the east.

"Well we know where your friend'szh gone to," Baldwin shook his head, "but you guyszh szhould reszht a bit firszht szho I can tell you how thiszh all workszh."

He opened the door to the north, bringing them into a small surprisingly cozy room full of workbenches cluttered about, a crackling fire in the corner that brought warmth to their spirits. Some of the benches had been pushed to the walls and chairs with cushions had been set up in a small circle with books piled up to the side.

"Szhiddown, take a load off," he gestured to the comfy seats as he went to the fire, "you guyszh hungry?"

"Actually yes," Oddclaw grinned sinking down on a chair.

"Uhhh I got my own thanks," Jarren joined him, "no offence to cooking but, I got a dextro-amino thing-"

"Oh, allergieszh?" Baldwin opened a pot in the flames. "That szhuckszh, szhorry to hear."

"It's fine, no worries! So uh, what kinda room is this?"

"An ol' workszhop," he picked up a spoon from the side, "nobody comeszh down here needing it szho I turned it into a little szhafe room for me."

"Aw that's cool, is this like your home?"

"Well, one of them," he started stirring away, "fer szhome reaszhon they got a ward on them to keep the Dark away, szho we can hang out in theszhe roomszh no problem."

"That meat in there?" Diana nodded to the stove.

"Yep," Baldwin looked back still stirring, "don't worry I bought it legal from above, I don't take the meat from down here unlesszh it'szh frozhen good in the szhtorage."

"Hold up, if yer dead why would you need to eat?"

"Well, you don't need alcohol to live," he sipped some of the stew, "but it taszhte fucking good yah?"

"Heh...heheh, yeaaaah I getcha, whut poison ya drink?"

"Love me szhome ale, how about you?"

"I'm a vodka girl myself."

"Oooh szhit I got szhome right here if ya want, Balfonheim brand if ya wannit."

"Fuck yeah I do thanks."

Slumping down on a chair she waited for Baldwin to bring up a bottle of some labelled vodka with two glasses he hid under a bench. Old tools and broken weapons could be seen across the room from crossbows to pommel hilts to virgin blades glinting in the sweet amber light of crackling flame.

"Don't drink all of it," he said pouring her one before sitting down.

"Don't try to drink me under the table," she said gulping half with a sharp gasp, "then I won't-HOO...hhhhhoooooo shit that's good."

"Heheheh, glad ya like," he clinked her glass and drank, "cheerszh!"

"Yeah same!" She drank up the rest with a gulping moan. "Mmmmmph, fuck that is smooth as shit, you wan' some Odd?"

"No thank you," the raptor waved his hand, "I do not like alko-hall."

"Shit, you a teetotaller?"

"What?"

"You don't drink any alcohol?" Baldwin leaned forwards.

"No, it tastes like poison to me."

"Wow. Alright szhit didn't know you were a buzzhkill, nahaah I'm kidding it'szh all good."

"I mean I can't drink either cuz I'm on duty," said Jarren raising a hand.

"So am I," Diana poured another drink, "whut's yer point?"

"Oh...well, on the citadel they don't like officers drinking on duty, I'm just trying to stick to rules."

"Fair, don't wanna piss off thuh big boys."

"Szho," the bangaa tapped his finger on his glass, "you're all not from the szhame world are ya?"

"Nope sir we are not," Jarren shook his head.

"Heh, juszht Baldwin'll do I'm not a szhir, I'm a father though!"

"OH, I am a father too!" Oddclaw grinned.

"Really you're in a church?!"

"Uh...no, I have two sons and a daughter."

"Aaaaah hah, nah nah," he waved his hand, "I meant like, a prieszht, father."

"Yer a preacher?" Diana raised her brow.

"I know, I don't look it," the bangaa spread his arms showing his bare pale chest, "when I'm up above, back home that iszh I get the robeszh on an' szhit, but down here I get to wear what I want."

"When you say up above," the turian stroked his chin, "you mean back in your world right?"

"Well yeah, I mean I don't know what world I'm in I haven't gone to szhee outszhide."

"You are in my world," said the raptor leaning forward, "the humen brought your home here to mine, with Jarren and Diana with the Blood-Beast by themselves."

"Ahhh gotcha."

"You don't seem that shocked," Jarren pulled out his small bag of sugars, "you done this before?"

"Well, I knew worldszh beyond mine were a thing but I never been, I juszht know about them."

"Did you study like, dimensional physics?"

"Nah, I never szhtudied," Baldwin scratched his dewrag, "my brother helped me with that, I szhtill can't do math real great."

"Don't preachers gotta be smart?" the human tapped her boots.

"Well yeah but I'm szhmart in a different way, like szhtreet szhmart."

"Heheh, amen to that."

"OH, food'szh ready!"

He stood up and pulled the pot out the fire with his bare hands, the sound and scent of scorching flesh filling the room slightly as Baldwin scooped up three bowls for him, Oddclaw and Diana as he sat back down with blackened fingers.

"Heeere ya are, chow down!"

"Are you alright?!" Oddclaw gasped.

"Wha-oh yeah don't worry about it," he waggled his fingers, "I don't feel burnszh an' shit anymore."

"I...see." He took the bowl and slurped down the meaty soup. "MMMH! Ohhh that is good!"

"Fuck yeah this is nice!" slurped Diana licking her lips. "Shit's like, gecko meat but spiced up with sumthin'!"

"Heh, szh'what we call 'Vagrant'szh Szhtew'," he drank up some of his, "my brother an' me make it when we're out travelling."

"Is your brother here?" asked Jarren nibbling on his sugars.

"Nah he'szh back home with hiszh huszhband. Heh, all my friendszh are back home together, it'szh juszht me down here."

"Why? Is this like your job?"

"Yeaaah being the Blood-Szhin an' that."

"The...what?"

The bangaa stood up and showed his back, flexing to reveal the dark crimson tattoo of a cross-elaborate invert.

"Thiszh right here, it'szh how I live...well, it keepszh me moving even after I'm dead."

"Sum kinda curse?" Watterson rubbed her cheek. "I heard stories about that shit, places south of me got some nasty shit."

"Like what?"

"This lady made sum kinda deal with a demon to keep her baby son alive, fed her son on human meat includin' herself."

"Spirits," the turian shivered cringing against his seat, "that's horrifying."

"Mmhmm."

"Well my curszhe iszhn't like that," said Baldwin, "but it DOESZH involve my mother szhoooo-"

"Wait really?"

"Szho, alright let'szh get down to the real szhit."

He put down his bowl after another slurp and braced his fingers together.

"You're all here to find thiszh Blood-Beaszht and kill it yeah?"

"Yep," Diana nodded.

"And outszhide of here there are thingszh being brought back to life with a dark aura from the szhea?"

"Yes," the raptor nodded.

"You dunno anything about thiszh plaszhe?"

"Nope," Jarren shook his head.

"Good."

He gave a look towards each of their faces. His eye of gleaming pale burned into their depths with an intense ferocity that made Oddclaw balk and Jarren nearly cower with Diana tightening her grimace.

"Yeah," the bangaa nodded leaning back, "I can truszht you folkszh then to tell you what'szh up with Lea Monde."

"Alright," Oddclaw filled up on the rest of his stew, "tell us, please."

"Szho, yearszh ago there waszh a cult that waszh led by thiszh lady. Szhe waszh in the church but szhe szhtudied up on a lotta szhit and found living darknesszh underneath thiszh entire szhity."

"Living...darkness?"

"What we call The Dark. Deep at the very bottom of Lea Monde, there liveszh the Dark all szheething in itszh own pool and juszht being the fouleszht corrupting thing."

"Wow sounds terrible," Jarren muttered.

"Well, the thing iszh, it'szh not evil. It juszht corruptszh your szhoul and you can never die but you'll never be alive again, it trapszh your szhoul between life and death szho you can't go to heaven, you can't even get buried properly cuzh it takeszh your body."

"That sounds REALLY terrible, is it some kind of parasite?!"

"Well...no, it'szh not anything," he rubbed his neck, "it'szh hard to call it living, it juszht spreadszh and infectszh more and more, it doeszhn't wanna do it on purposzhe, it'szh juszht what it doeszh."

"So it's like bugs?" Diana shrugged. "Too dumb to like know what they doing, but still like doing shit?"

"Ehhh, kinda yeah, it'szh not evil, it's juszht what it doeszh, but it'szh szhtill a problem if it szhpreadszh, and that'szh why I got thiszh."

He pointed to his back tattoo.

"The Blood-Szhin waszh made by Mullenkamp, the lady I told ya about, it'szh kind of a magic lock that keepszh it in plaszhe."

"A magic lock?" Oddclaw squinted. "How does that work?"

"The Blood-Szhin iszh the szhame aszh the Dark, but modified to szhay 'hey, liszhten, szhtay down there or I'll punch ya back in' and it doeszh!"

"OH!" The raptor clicked his claws. "Yes, my brother told me this, that insects have an alpha that they follow, a bigger one that lays eggs."

"Ohhh yeah you mean a hive queen," Jarren snacked on more of his sugars in little bites, "Mmm, yeah so, like, you're the leader of this hive of dark...things and you keep them under control?"

"Yep," the bangaa clicked his tongue, "you got it, that'szh all it iszh, and good newszh iszh that it can't leave Lea Monde normally...alszho I can't leave Lea Monde ever szho you're not having me come up to szhee your friendszh."

"Why not?" Diana hunched tapping her boots.

"It'szh part of the contract my mother put me to when szhe passzhed it on to me, szhe waszh the Blood-Szhin before me. I keep the szhity szhafe, but I can never leave it."

"Damn...that kills a lot of yer travel plans huh?"

"Ehhh it'szh fine, it'szh the whole 'living-forever' thing that getszh dull and I barely even szhtarted!"

"How long you been dead fer?"

"Ehhh...about twenty-szhixzh yearszh?" he leaned back with a creak of his seat. "Think it'szh about that, I mean my mother lived for like waaaay longer than that, longer than all my clan were alive for combined!"

"How did..." the raptor tensed his claws together as Baldwin grinned.

"How'd I die? Heh, bet you never thought you'd wanna know, but..."

He tapped his hollowed eye before pulling off the dewrag. The back of his scalp had a large exit wound where a crack in the bone had blown out a small hole in the skull that became as black as his socket. Oddclaw saw the glint of the fire through his head with a gasp as Jarren's mandibles stretched out in a gasp.

"Yep," he smiled winking his remaining eye, "szhot in the faszhe, szhit happenszh."

"Holy shit," Diana murmured, "yeah no way coulda survived that normally."

"You wanna touch it?" Baldwin's grin became devious. "If ya wiggle it right there I get thirszhty for szhome reaszhon."

"Nah yer good, but damn."

"Hah, I guess we got something in common." Jarren showed off his wrist-wound with a gleaming cyber-joint. "Gunshot survivor what up."

"Oh szhit!" the bangaa grinned. "When'd that happen?"

"I was four, lady shot me."

"Awww...fuck man that'szh, what kinda bitch szhootszh a fucking kid?"

"Well I mean she was a terrorist," he clutched his wrist with a tender rub, "I managed to stop her shooting my mom thanks to my biotic shield so it's all good."

"Yeah real glad yer okay, jeezh. Alright SZHO!"

The bangaa stood up clapping his hands.

"Y'all wanna reszht a bit more or you good to hunt down a Blood-Beaszht?"

"Fuck yeah." Diana stood up crunching her fists. "Sooner we get that shit done thuh better."

"I am ready too," Oddclaw joined, "thank you for the food Baldwin, and the time to rest."

"No problem Oddie," said Baldwin patting his shoulder, "but uhhh if you guyszh need a time-out juszht lemme know, cuzh we got a lotta ground to cover an' a lotta dead bodieszh juszht itchin' fer a fight."

"Welp," Jarren stretched his limbs putting his sugars back in his bag, "I mean I'm not gonna like it, but we have to do it."

"Don't overdo it, thiszh iszh my backyard, you let me deal with the szhmall fry an' you take on thiszh big fucker, but if it getszh into the Dark welllll..."

"Well what?"

"Then we deal with an undead motherfucker," said Diana heading to the door, "still gotta kill it."

"Ohhh I really hope it doesn't," Jarren tensed his fingers, "this place is already creepy enough."

Heading further east they soon reached a new section of the depths, the stone changing from pale vellum to austere gunmetal grey as they entered the remains of a chapel, a sanctum with stone arches over their heads and warm candles flickering on the auspice of each door. The northern end led to a giant chasm for an underground river, the water a muddy brown sluicing through the depths as bats continued to flap around the place searching for morsels.

"Okay the Blood-Beast can't jump right?" asked Jarren.

"Nah," Diana shook her head, "fatass motherfucker."

"Wow okay I know he's an abomination but no need to fatshame him, he swam all the way to here he's pretty fit!"

"Heheheh, eheheheh, funny, yer right though."

"What is over there?" asked Oddclaw.

"Town szhentre," said Baldwin, "leaszht, back in my world, dunno where it goeszh to now."

"Can people from your world come down here?"

"Nah, the gap szhtopszh them, alszho I put a szhigil on the door szho only I can move in and out."

"A...s-shi-jill?" the raptor sputtered.

"Yeah like a uh...well it'szh baszhically a lock, and I got all the keyszh, let'szh head back."

Taking the journey south they went down the palladial halls where pillars lined up either side of them, skeletons draped against the cornices and cobblestones with eerie grins and sunken teeth, some of which tingled to awakening when they came close until Baldwin punched them back down to suck the black ether from their body. Further south they found a congregational room, a small pit with stairs in front of a pulpit where a priest would give lectures to the masses, and a row of columns to the east that led to a dead-end room, where two broken statues of spear-wielders greeted them upon entry. Stones laid piled in a corner of a different hue than that of the walls as Baldwin walked over to a huge tunnel in the southeast wall that scaled deep into the abyss.

"Awww szhit." Baldwin slapped his knee. "Lookszh like yer bud went off into the mineszh, thiszh could be pretty bad."

"Whysat?" Diana walked over to the gap.

"Well the mineszh are full of wayszh for the Dark to come creeping out the wallszh, lotszh of szhtrata and uh, ventszh and szhit."

"How bad would it be," Jarren crept skipping on his toes, "if this Blood-Beast got infected by the Dark?"

"Bad, like, every one of you, juszht fucking dead, no chanszhe in szhit you got againszht it."

"You ain't seen how we fought it," said Watterson stepping through the breach.

"No but," the bangaa followed, "if it'szh baszhically a golem exzhept it uszhed to be alive, yeah that'szh gonna szhuck."

"A go-lem?" Oddclaw sniffed the rocks before passing through.

"Think like a big monszhter made outta szhtone that moveszh on itszh own."

"OH, like a machine!"

"Uhhh yeah, but it thinkszh for itszhelf."

"Ohhhh you mean the geth!" Jarren clapped his hands. "Right, yeah I totally got it, okay this is DEFINITELY gonna be like the whole Saren thing again, nice!"

"Why would that be nice?" the raptor squinted at him.

"No no I was being ironic, this is actually super bad but I think I'm starting to get this whole deal with the Dark."

"Good!" Baldwin turned on his heels with a bow. "Glad to hear, now you know how fucked you are if we don't get a move on and rip thiszh guy in half before the Dark getszh to it!"

"Can y'all just tell the Dark not to?" Diana clumped down the steep darkening passage. "You said you control it."

"Not all of it," the bangaa skated on his claws past her into the brink, "if it toucheszh a dead body then that body'szh getting Dark, whether I want it or not."

"Ohhh boy," Jarren grimaced as he leapt down the slope, "you all know that. technically speaking that brute is not a living thing right, sooooo that's definitely gonna count."

"Wait, it'szh undead?" Baldwin looked up.

"Yep," Jarren floated past in gentle skips, "so it's gonna get infected quick."

"What do we do if it does?" asked Oddclaw from the rear.

"We kill it again," Diana leapt to the foot of the slope, "fuck it up harder, you can't fight when you ain't got a body left."

"Hmm, you are right," the raptor scraped down the slope into darkness, "all we can do is fight it harder."

"That'szh why you have me," Baldwin thumbed his chest, "there iszh NOTHING in thiszh plaszhe that can szhtop me."

At the end of the tunnel lied the remnants of a mineshaft, wooden struts fortified with wrought iron studs against the smooth-sculpted walls of rich copper stone. Puddles of slime reached across the floor searching for food with sickening gurgles, too weak to even dare face the bangaa who gave one look to make them curdle as they passed through the remains of an old quarry, following the ruins of debris and giant crumbling holes where the Blood-Beast had gone through. The air turned warmer for some reason in these depths, the stench of the crypts from presumably above seeping through with rot as Oddclaw noticed bones and feet from the ceilings, years of shifting earth sending them down further to almost breach through the cavern roof.

Deeper in the murk they encountered the undead once again, shambling wretches as Baldwin explained the species' names and shared little stories of who they once had been everytime he punched one back to the dirt. The rabbit-likes were known as moogles, pointing to a small family of brothers who wanted adventure and found nothing but death. The dog-creatures were nu-mous, showing a husband and wife trying to find cures from ancient texts before joining the plague itself. Humans he called humes, exposing a gang of bandits who thought they could raid tombs for jewellery only to wander penniless. Then there were the bangaas, such as the small group of veterans who searched for their greatest task to destroy evil for good, but never would meet their gods again.

All through the depths they found more of the dead, broken beasts with voices robbed and minds torn through by the strength of the dark, dragging blades behind with shattered limbs and twisted feet crunching in the hard stone as the raptor, turian and human took shots to ward them off, Baldwin putting them down and absorbing their essence to surge through his body with a shimmer of his red tattoo that made the others balk at his dominance. The Dark-infested still attacked nonetheless, hollow without fear or sanity as bloated tongues and sunken eyes screamed upon them with rotted Ivalician spilling from their severed throats, their bodies a warzone of trenched scars and twisted metal shards as Baldwin cleaved a path through the masses.

"How many of these things are there?!" Jarren fired through a moogle's head.

"Too many," Diana swung her bladed bat through a human jaw, "shit's messed up down here like one o' them vaults."

"Vaults?"

"Yeah," she dodged a sweeping blade and kicked a nu-mou's chest, "back before the great war, they got a buncha people to hide in vaults but some of 'em fucked up...got real nasty down there."

"Aren't vaults supposed to like protect things?" Jarren swung a low kick and slammed his knee in a bangaa's face. "I mean, that is a vault right?"

"Sum of them weren't to protect," said Watterson, "sum were like, experiments."

"Ohhhhh jeeeez," he reared back with a cringe, "yanno, if they signed a contract and knew about it then fine but that's just real skeezy."

"Yeah sure is." She wrenched her bat out of a human's face with a twitching body at her feet. "Whut's this geth about?"

"Huh?"

"Geth, you mentioned them before."

"Ohhh yeah like, this happened when I was about two but this guy called Saren got a deal with this extra-dimensional group called the Reapers, and they got these big pillars that made the geth all weird and turned them into slave robots?"

"Damn," she gritted her teeth, "so they like normal robots?"

"Yeah," he nodded stepping over the corpse, "they're on their own usually, just wanting to be left alone and be independent they almost never come onto the citadel, actually I think they never do they just trade everything on the net, but there was a group of them that got possessed by Reapers so it makes me think the Dark is like that."

"Mmmm," she walked with him rubbing her chin, "never had anything like that on thuh wastes, worst is sumthin' gets irradiated so bad it just gets fuckstrong as hell."

"Irradiated-WOAH!"

Jarren spun round to shoot a biotic force from his palm, shoving the lurching corpse of a bangaa who staggered back with a gurgling hiss.

"You mean like, jacked up on radiation?"

"Yeah," Diana swung her bat to crack the reptile's head clean off its shoulders, "deathclaws, geckos, seen a bloatfly once it wuz fuckin' legendary, like a balloon fillled up on blood an' shit."

"That sounds incredibly gross, wow! Is everything in your world like that?"

"Yep." She sheathed her bat. "Gotta make do with whut we got, we're lucky where we at we got a water purifier an' farms an' shit, sumtimes I help with thuh brahmin when I ain't doin' shit."

"If these brahmin are livestock I think you ARE doing shit," Jarren grinned.

"Pfffft, haaaah!" She clapped his shoulder. "Yer funny kid."

"What I'm like four years younger than you!"

"Still a kid."

"I'm an officer of the law!"

"Yeah an' I'm a senior knight bitch I outrank you."

"N-no, no if you were on the citadel-"

"Which we ain't, now git movin' chickenlegs."

"HEY, you-," he blustered waving a finger, "w-well you're a, a, tinhead elcor, YEAH a tinheaded elcor!"

"Fuck's an elcor?!" she scoffed cackling.

"Well what's a chickenlegs?!"

"It ain't nuthin' it's just chicken legs!"

"WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?!"

"You ain' never seen a chicken before?!"

"N-nooo?!"

The soldier punched him in the arm as they laughed, swerving through the fallen bodies doing their best not to disturb them as Oddclaw and Baldwin paved their way through the horde in front of them. The raptor rolled beneath violent swords as he shot through their stomachs, bursting them to half-cinders whilst the bangaa twisted staves before cracking necks.

"On yer right!"

"WHA-guh!"

"Lemme know when yer good."

"Th-these-AAAH, there are so many of them!"

"That'szh the fun of it!" Baldwin ducked beneath an axe before a spinning kick to crack through a spine. "Alright take thoszhe two out!"

"Right!"

Oddclaw took aim towards two large humans with long steel maces, his shotgun recharged enough to blast a twin-shot through their bellies and completely open their stomachs in melting flames, gasping howls as their bodies collapsed with legs apart in wreathes of fire scorching their brigandines. Baldwin punched out five in a flurry of fists, crunching one bangaa's head in a jab and cracking a nu-mou's neck in half with his elbow before spinning with a brutal knee that crushed a moogle's chest through its companion's face, tearing the head of the lapine off to hurl it straight towards a human whose own head was cracked entirely back to dangle between its shoulderblades.

"Doin' good Odd, keep at it!"

"H-how many of them are there?!"

"Ehhhh, szheven, I'll take the four here you take thoszhe three."

"Alright."

Grabbing a spear from the ground the raptor swung towards a nu-mou that stumbled forth with a roaring shriek as he lanced through its throat, plunging out the top of its head between the eyes before pulling back and piercing a bangaa's chest with a crack of the sternum. Baldwin blocked a sword coming for his head, grabbing between his fingers before he slammed his fist through the flat of the blade to shatter in half and shove the steel into the human's face, slicing the skull in half as he threw the corpse by the arm to crack like a mace into a nu-mou whilst one moogle swung its axe into Baldwin's stomach. Cleaving through his flesh, some red dripped out as he stared down with a disapproving snort and grabbed the rabbit's head before just shoving it down straight into its own chest and kicked the body away to pull the axe from his belly.

"OH, JEEZ!" Jarren cringed. "A-are you alright?!"

"Yeaaah I'm fine," he swung the axe at the fourth body to split through the intestine, "szhit happenszh it'll heal."

"Yer a real hardass huh?" said Watterson grinning. "They got a lotta good weapons here maybe I could-"

"Nope," Baldwin hurled his axe to split another body in half, "they're all broke to szhit, if I find a good one I'll letcha have it, even let you work the forge to make it better."

"Sick," she offered a brofist that he tapped, "alrigh' we good?"

"Yep," he motioned them to follow through the worn stone passage, "szho uh where'd you get that gun Oddie?"

"Oh, my best friend Jeremy," the raptor showed his sawn-off Lupara, "it was his father's, he gave it to me."

"Yeah cuzh, it'szh pretty damn powerful iszh it like enchanted?"

"Yes!" He offered it to Baldwin as he turned it over. "My friend James, he made the fire stronger-"

"Wait, Jameszh?" The bangaa smirked. "You got a friend called that?"

"Yes, he is...well, missing," he took the gun back and holstered it, "have you seen him? He has green hair, a pink face and a blue...clothes."

"Haven't szheen anyone like that nah, but he muszht be a damn good mage to enchant your weapon that good, that'szh like a level-two, good szhit for down here!"

"That sounds good!" Jarren grinned. "Unless it's like a felony, level-two is pretty bad."

"Whut would that be?" asked Diana.

"Uhhh kidnapping, assault, reckless driving and endangerment, theft of a shuttle, theft of a ship is level-one-"

"Whut's the difference?"

"Ships are bigger and more pricey! OH, Diana can I ask you something, like private?"

He muttered this last part under his breath as they trailed slowly behind the raptor, following Baldwin deeper into the abandoned mines with the sounds of water drops like falling pins.

"This might be a dumb question but bear with me-"

"Already am," she rolled her eyes.

"But...does Oddclaw look kinda familiar to you?"

"Uh?" She looked briefly at his back. "Yeaaaah...why?"

"Just that," he scratched his head, "it's been bothering me a while, there's like something in the back of my brain just telling me that I know this guy and I just can't figure-"

"James Campbell?"

Her voice dropped as the turian twitched his mandibles, spreading in a gasp as something flickered in his eye.

"That...where have I heard that name?"

"He wuz a raptor like Oddclaw," she thumbed at him, "same green eyes but shorter and purple marks on his face an' down his back."

"I...I-i just, that name, I swear I heard my dad talk about him a few times but I was like a little kid."

"Maybe wuz thuh same guy, James travelled around to other worlds."

"You got maybe a picture of him or-"

"Nah, just his name." She turned her back showing the scrawl on her suit. "Jamestown. Dude's like a hero to us."

"What'd he do?"

"Got me outta slavery, took me up to thuh brotherhood, then a few months later we all went an' beat thuh shit outta them slavers an' took over thuh place fer our new town, all cuz o' him."

"Woah...spirits that sounds great, I'm glad to hear but you think he's-"

"Naw." Diana shook her head. "He ain't like him, he acts different, he got a head all together, not like James wuz just rushin' in on things an' actin' first."

"Hmmm..." Jarren rubbed his chin, "but he is the only one, next to a son of his, all the others of his tribe look well...a lot different, like way more feral."

"Feral? They attack you?"

"No no, no they were super nice and chill-"

"Cuz ferals where I come from ain't that." She crossed her arms.

[b][i]"Hey."[/i][/b]

"WHA-[i]AAAAGHRBLUH![/i]"

Jarren staggered hard almost falling amongst the corpses whilst Diana threw a punch without warning straight into Baldwin's face directly behind her.

"Not bad." He gripped her fist in his palm with a blur. "You got good reflexszheszh for a hume."

"Mutherfucker sneak up my ass again an' I'll flatten yo beak."

"Well don't be a szhlowpoke then." He let go of her hand. "What were you two talkin' about?"

"S-sorry," Jarren stumbled back up brushing his knees, "we uh, um, Diana, we, she was telling me about different types of weapons!"

"Yeah like this uhhh," she kicked away an axe, "that's an axe, they build it like that to get all the power in thuh cleave."

"O-OHHH ohhh I see it's about gravity, very cool, sorry we're coming."

The bangaa rolled his eyes as they followed after into the depths, the mineshaft expanding as they soon reached a crossroads, making their way southeast through a slow but determined army of fiends slathered and choked out words of vengeance and sorrow that was mostly carved through by Baldwin whilst the others dealt with stragglers. Through the crumbling depths they soon discovered a light of pale blue, a will-o-wisp guiding them to a much stranger land than before as they stumbled out of the caverns to step upon cobblestones beneath a streetlight.

"...woah."

The city of Lea Monde opened up before them, a dishevelled place with boarded houses and streetlamps that bathed them with an eerie cerulean from mystic flames. Shadows lurked within the alleys as their feet crunched against the cobbles, years of dirt building up beneath to film a layer of black that gleamed like oil under the lights.

"This thuh real thing?" Diana asked.

"Yep," Baldwin stepped forwards spreading his arms wide, "welcome to Lea Monde, the greateszht shity in all of Ivaliszhe."

"Why there ain' nobody here then?"

"Cuzh they're all up top," he pointed above, "thiszh iszh the old szhity, the one we boarded off then built on top of after the earthquake."

"Earthquake?" Jarren looked back. "So that's why the land was all uneven back in the cellars."

"Is the other city above us too?" Oddclaw asked staring at the lamps.

"Nah," Baldwin shook his head, "only thiszh part for szhome reaszhon, the other szhity iszh fine, I don't think anyone notiszhed hopefully."

"Isn't this place all foundation?" asked the turian. "If this place isn't here then what's keeping your city up?"

"Uhh this place all hollow as fuck," Watterson swept her hand across the street, "don' think anybody would call this foundation."

"I'm just saying I hope the other city is fine if this all is here."

"Honeszhtly I'm not szhure," the bangaa rubbed his neck, "thiszh never happened before and I'm kind of amazhed the Dark iszh behaving itszhelf with thiszh bullszhit, but it TECHNICALLY iszh szhtill Lea Monde I guesszh."

He shrugged as they made their way through the streets, walking down avenues and turning corners where many old signs hung listless above establishments. The words were all Ivalician, but symbols helped them understand what used to be a tailor's, bakers, butchers, pubs and taverns which from the smell of rotting alcohol were all too clear of their purpose. The lights shone a strangely peaceful sombre over the city, lamenting its glory days to never see the sun again, never to feel its streets kissed by the snow, nor bear the weight of commerce from the feet of traffic coming to and fro, never to witness the pilgrimage to its cathedral that still remained above. Death was its only trade, and the price had become the souls of those foolish to come here.

They found the path of ruin left by the monster in pursuit, cracked cobbles and broken lamps from its passing as Oddclaw picked a stronger scent of ferrous blood fresher than the rest to track ahead of the group. Baldwin followed using his senses to sharpen the trail whilst Jarren and Diana led up the rear keeping guns aimed at every nook and close between the wretched storefronts. Feeling out the air, Baldwin briefly melted into shadow before their eyes and slithered onto the rooftops to scout his surroundings, making a brief mental map of the labyrinth of the streets before returning with a cold deathless wind.

[b][i]"Alright,"[/i][/b] he said reforming from the black, "hoo, szhorry, szho we got the plazha up ahead, that makeszh a good vantage point but we'll alszho be open, I'll go ahead of you guyszh and I'll give you the szhignal if anything happenszh."

"Good," Oddclaw nodded, "can I ask, how do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Do...that, you move like the night itself."

"Oh, Blood-Szhin," he pointed to his back tattoo, "giveszh me all kinda powerszh, turn into szhadowszh and szhurpriszhe people, put on diszhguiszheszh, not die ever again unlesszh you hit me with a LOT of holy magic oh, and I can szhee into your heart and all the worrieszh you have."

"Really?" The raptor scoffed. "I can believe some of that, but how can you see all my worries?!"

"Well..."

The bangaa grinned and put his hand on his shoulder, staring through his soul with a piercing eye of palest azure that had withered to a summer sky.

"You got a friend called Jeremy, a hume, you love him almoszht more than anyone becauszhe you get him, you're both outcaszht and different amongszht your own people."

"...th-that is right," Oddclaw shook his head, "how did-"

"Heart-szheer," he tapped his skull, "letszh me szhee all your szhecretszh."

"I-i...hm," the raptor grinned and patted Baldwin's chest, "very funny, you must know from the flyers, they do talk a lot."

"Ohhh?" he stepped back with a grin. "What about your dream of London?"

Oddclaw stiffened through his tail and pulled back his head.

"You've only told Jeremy, and I szhupposzhe Anna aszh well, and no Jarren and Diana didn't tell me becauzhe why would they, neither of them know what London iszh."

"...alright." The raptor crossed his arms with a sniff. "What did I dream about then?"

"Jameszh Campbell." Baldwin's smile grew as Oddclaw grimaced. "A raptor juszht like you, with another kid called Aszhwin, you lived a whole year in a dream that laszhted only one night, you THINK it'szh your father cuzh you heard other people call him that too over the yearszh and now you feel really confuszhed about him."

"What do you mean?"

"You want to hate him, becauszhe he abandoned your family, and you're right to, that'szh pretty szhitty of him. But you alszho now he waszh a hero, and he szhuffered a lot of abuszhe aszh a kid, not regarding all that weird ghoszht szhtuff that got all mixszhed in the middle, you know that waszhn't part of the real dream that you think iszh more like a memory."

"...so, you can see my worries."

Oddclaw sat himself on an old iron bench and sighed with his head in his hands.

"I have not been able to talk about this dream because-"

"You don't even get it?"

"N-no, I...it did not feel like a dream, and I did not want my family to worry because-"

"Well, I can tell you now," Baldwin sat down beside him, "you got nothing to worry about, becauzhe you're better than your father."

"Wh-...what?"

"He abandoned you before you were born yeah? That'szh why you wanted a family, to do the one thing he could never do. You don't know why he left you, maybe he waszh forszhed to by szhomething none of you know about, it doeszhn't matter. What matterszh iszh you."

He put his hand on Oddclaw's back.

"Whatever your father might be doing out there, szho what, you're here, your family'szh here, and family iszh more important than anything yah?"

"I...I want it to be, yes, I want to-"

"Well that'szhy why you keep fighting thingszh from other worldszh right, becauszhe you want a world your family can grow up in szhafe."

"Yes, yes that is right! ...that is right." He clutched his hands firmly. "I worried about saying it, because I did not want to think that, the only reason I had a family was to prove I was better than him."

"Naaaah, yer not that petty." Baldwin smiled from his single eye. "family'szh a wonderful thing to have."

"Do you have family Baldwin?"

"Juszht a brother, and a brother-in-law I guesszh heheh. Alright, let'szh go, good talk buddy."

He patted the raptor's head.

"We got ourszhelveszh a Blood-Beaszht to kill."

A short few streets away they soon reached, an open circle of cobblestones fashioned to a mosaic of the same symbol of Baldwin's tattoo as he checked around the perimeter of three different exits. Carts with broken axles and spilled rotten fruit littered the square with crumpled skeletons and smashed heads, a fountain dried up with crackling stone around the rim and the sad angel of a cherub standing upon its central pillar with its hands tiny towards the heavens.

"Alright," Baldwin clapped his hands, "there'szh a whole messzh over that way, I think your friend went over there, szho I'm gonna lure him out here, you guyszh juszht keep thiszh plaszhe open and szhcare off any folkszh."

"You got it," Diana clicked her fingers, "keep the plaza clear, ain' nobody gettin' past us."

"When the Blood-Beaszht comeszh you all need to block off a different path each, that'szhy why ya need theszhe."

He handed each of them a small lock with a different flower inscribed upon each.

"What's this?" asked Jarren.

"Szhigilszh," Baldwin said, "when the Blood-Beaszht comeszh you szhlap them on the corner of a szhtreet and it makeszh a field of magic that only I can unlock."

"OH a forcefield right, you got it sir!"

He gave him fingerguns as Baldwin did the same before he rushed into the shadows, melting to a black haze in the floor that then crept over the walls as they turned to each street exit. Slowly but surely the horde would come, a wandering flood of beasts begotten as they groaned and staggered from barren alleys and empty byways of bangaas, moogles, nu-mous and humans shambling through the mist. Swinging their swords and brigand spears, with hollowed stomach and thin gaunt masks that resembled a face. Some were much younger, smaller, but even they picked up a weapon of some sort with a bestial instinct lurking beneath the subconscious, the urge not to feast but to embrace more to the Dark.

"You alrigh'?" Diana looked to Jarren's stricken face.

"I-i...I didn't think there'd be children." His gun wavered upon the shorter group. "I...n-no, no this is too much."

"They're not kids anymore, they ain't living, they suffering, we do better to do this rather than let them wander forever."

"I can't, no, I'm sorry I can't do that." He stepped back holstering his gun with a sigh. "I don't care if they're not alive, even if they're coming at me with a weapon I cannot raise my gun against a child."

"I understand." She pulled out her rifle and took aim. "Nobody gonna make you, it's good to find yer limits."

"Thank you," he turned away when she fired to hear the screech of falling bodies. "But it...how can you do this?"

"I used to be like them," her scope beamed upon a nu-mou child with burnt face, "fought in thuh slave pits since I wuz six...lotta things I ain't proud of."

"I'm so sorry." Another shot and a screeching made him flinch. "I can't imagine how awful that is."

"No. You can't, that's why you can't do this."

She holstered her gun after two more shots felling a human brother and sister.

"You prob'ly don't need people like me back where you're from."

"Well, those like you don't really come to the Citadel," he muttered, "beyond the veil maybe, or on the frontier, but not the Citadel."

"We live in different worlds, simple as that." The soldier grabbed the turian's face. "Don't be like me."

"Wh-what?!"

"Whut you are now, your people need. Yer a good kid Jarren."

"A-aww jeez come on," he threw her hands back, "I said I was only four years younger!"

[b][i]"You're the youngeszht out of uszh."[/i][/b]

"WHA-AAHBLRHL-[i]DON'T DO THAT![/i]" he fell in Diana's arms as she clutched him tight.

"HAH, hahaha szhorry szhorry," Baldwin waved his hands suddenly before them, "you're juszht szho easzhy!"

"I am an officer, PLEASE!"

"HAHahahaha!" Diana clapped his neck with a laugh. "Plaza's clear boss."

"Exszhellent," Baldwin grinned, "your friend'szh coming up szhoon from that way, didn't get a good look but I think you all szhould be ready."

"Oh I been ready," she charged up her rifle, "this mutherfucker ain't leaving here alive."

"Ohhhh I wiszh you didn't szhay that."

"Why?"

"Welp!"

There came a monstrous roar from the east as something tore through the street. They braced their weapons as a boulder of flesh and steel came with a snarling grasp of crunching claws against the second-floor of an old cornershop. Cobblestones creaked beneath the weight of the beast approaching as the head of a turian reached from a monstrous mechanical neck, the body a grotesque casing of meat within armour long rusted to a red sheen. But then they saw something different in its face, its eyes now a black sable that dripped down through the rest of its corpusculent body, charring it with deep ink that wreathed into vapours of darkness from its shell.

"Oh, no," Oddclaw whispered.

"Yeeep," Baldwin cracked his knuckles, "your boy got himszhelf all fulla Dark which meanszh it'szh time for ME to break out the big gunszh."

"Wait what big guns?!" Jarren cried.

"Theszhe," he flexed his arms and kissed at his biceps, "alright all of you lock off the szhtreetszh, we gotta keep him here!"

"Got it!"

"I'll keep the fucker buszhy, HEY! HEY WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?!" Baldwin stomped in front of the wretched beast. "THISZH ISZH MY FUCKING SZHITY, AND [i]YOU'RE NOT PART OF IT![/i]"

The monster roared at his challenge before it came charging, the bangaa roaring even harder with a black shimmer down his spine and his red tattoo burning a deeper scarlet, rushing at the Blood-Beast to punch straight through its gut and send it suddenly flying back to crunch against one of the houses.

"HHHHHOOOOOO DAAAAAAMN!" Diana clapped. "THAT'S how you fuckin' TEACH a mutherfucker!"

"Let's not get TOO cocky," Jarren flexed his legs with a little jog, "guns aren't gonna get through this one."

"Naw but you can slam yo' ass in him hard enough, or even slam me through its face."

The 12-foot monstrosity lurched from the crumbling ruin, storming towards Baldwin with all four limbs like a thundering gorilla as it swung its giant fist that the bangaa backflipped away from only to receive a crushing punch of it wicked claw straight into his gut. Taking the hit hard the bangaa scraped his claws into the dirt as he slid several feet, black lines in the cobbles as Diana came flying past with a streak of blue behind her, striking her bat fiercely against the creature's head to crack its jaw and slam her feet off its neck, followed by Oddclaw sliding underneath to fire his shotgun with twin bursting flames to make it stagger violently with a shrieking snap of its head backwards. Baldwin took his chance, a blur of miasmic black surging towards the creature's chest then launching upwards with a vicious uppercut to send the beast falling on its back.

The Blood-Beast roared and smashed its fist behind itself to vault back up, sweeping its claw towards Jarren who came flying in a biotic leap that zigzagged at the last moment, swerving sharp like a bolt with a teasing punch that barely stung its face. But it made a good distraction for Diana as she swung hard at its arm, crunching the bicep with her bladed bat as it snarled through the pain and smashed the side of its claw into her chest to throw her into a boarded window, crunching through ragged glass as Jarren sped towards her on foot.

"YOU ALRIGHT?!"

"YEAH!" she pulled herself off a crumpled chair. "Jus' needed a siddown fer a bit."

"Hah, no rest for the wicked right?!"

"You mean me or him?!"

Oddclaw stared down the Blood-Beast as he waited for his gun to recharge, feeling it shimmer in his grip as he dodged beneath the sweeping pincer and leapt onto its slightly-wounded arm to try and rip one of its cabled veins out, grabbing a thick line and wrenching as hard as he could to dislodge it somewhat and cause a spillage of oil from its vein before it punched him off and sent him rolling across the cobblestones. Rasping in its guttural throat it came forwards with a downward slam for the raptor's head before Baldwin punched against, surging between them with his far-smaller fist grinding into the monstrous knuckles until their flesh bulged behind their wrist in a dual-scream of frenzy. Both of them backed off with a shockwave between that went vertical from their force, the bangaa slamming his fist into the ground to send a volley of stones crunching between its metal legs, shuddering slightly with a spasm of surprise as it responded with a whirling lariat of both arms outstretched.

Baldwin dodged both arms as the Blood-Beast spun on its heel, readying to strike with an overhead as it charged momentum with a second spin before the bangaa crunched his fist hard into the inside of its wrist to stop it sharp with a shriek before he drove his elbow like a knife into its gut. Twisting the metal inwards he felt the Dark seep out of its core to trickle down his body searching to infect, before realising its master as he absorbed the black mist through his belly and launched high with a somersaulting kick, crunching both feet into its weakening jaw as the monstrosity lurched back. Seeming to topple over, it countered with its arm reaching forth nad crunched Baldwin between its vile pincers, crushing his insides like a half-empty can as his ribs cracked into each other and bile dripped in pressurised bursts.

"[i]BALDWIN![/i]"

"M'FINE!" He snarled to the raptor. "JUSZHT [i]FUCKIN' SZHOOT IT![/i]"

With shotgun charged he fired at the arm and shattered its entire appendage with one violent plume of twin-flames, roaring fires that ignited the oil within its open vein like a blasting cap that shot off two of its pincer-claws, one still remaining to dangle against its wrist as Baldwin stumbled free from its grasp.

"Aaaaagh," he clutched at his liver, "that'szh gonna leave a mark."

"A-are you alright?!" Oddclaw gasped.

"Long aszh I don't get hit by a holy szhpell," he tapped the blackening spread of his waist, "I don't give a fuck what he doeszh to me."

"Damn straight," Diana walked up shaking glass from her suit, "round two mutherfucker, you ready?"

"Hope you weren't talking to me," Jarren strolled up beside her, "does it count if this thing doesn't have a mother?"

"Oh he a bastard then?"

"That...that's not how it works Diana."

"WATCH OUT!"

The vile beast slammed its fist towards them as they scarpered, Oddclaw reaching for the broken pincer of its other arm with a savage small tearing of his claws whilst Jarren slammed his knee into the side of its face. The Blood-Beast batted him away with a giant swat of its hand, smacking him high up to the roof of the cave before he corrected himself mid-flight and hurled himself down like a comet upon the monster's back. Forced to bend forwards it met Diana's bat with full contact as she cracked a homerun upon its face, shattering the jaw entirely off to fly across the empty plaza as it roared with the semblance of pain, eyes burning a deeper black of hatred upon her as he grabbed her bat suddenly to smash her chest with its knuckles. Stumbling back with a crumpled heave, the soldier pulled out her rifle and fired a full clip of blazing sharp emerald lasers through its face, blinding its eyes with a machine-gun fire that peppered its head in deep scars before it shielded itself with the fist still holding her bat.

Baldwin reached out his hand as a black spear shot from his fingers, lancing through the beastly fist and causing it to spasm hard into dropping the bat which he grabbed in his other hand and tossed it back to Watterson before pulling back his darkened lance. The creature gave a bootkick to Baldwin's face, sending him up in the air to line up with a brazen punch before Jarren swerved into its path and blasted a wide sphere protecting them both, a purple gleam shimmering against its raw meaty hand before the turian pushed back to put him and the bangaa down safe. Under its feet, the raptor dove between its legs and fired one shot into its back with shredding flames scorching its rear, causing it to turn with a hissing snarl and a wild swing of its fist before he rolled beneath its outstretched arm and blasted upwards with the second shot, snapping the tricep with a hard bent as it reared its jawless head back for a crushing slam of its skull towards him.

Oddclaw rolled back, but was slammed against the fountain by a sudden headbutt it followed up with as his spine hit the marble, groaning with a gasp and twitch through his tail before he pulled himself up and stumbled to the other side of the sculpture. Still it hounded him as it grabbed the central pillar of the font and ripped it from its foundation, tearing the marble from the stone street with a crackling marble as it wielded the entire column in its single hand, surging darkness through its steel veins with a strange sound in is throat. It almost sounded like laughter, brimming with eerie confidence as it crashed through the entire fountain with a ferocious swing, the raptor scrambling away in a diveroll as he was pelted by showers of stone that he battered away with his shotgun. Dusted white clouded his vision as pebbles skittered past, the great shadow of the beast looming with its pale length coming down for his head as Oddclaw dodged closer to its leg, leaping onto the ruined fountain and crawling up its back to rake his claws into the throat.

"Ohohohohhhh!" Baldwin clapped with a sneaking shuffle. "Big boy got himszhelf a new weapon!"

"Ain't gonna make a difference," said Watterson spinning her bat, "if thuh batter can't hit, it ain' gonna matter how big his bat is."

"Hahahahaaaa niszhe!" he gave her a high-five up top.

"I-i don't really know sports," Jarren muttered, "but that's still a REALLY big weapon it has."

"Szhnot how big you are, it'szh how you uszhe it, am I right?"

"Helll yeah!" Diana slipped him a down-low. "Alrigh' I'm takin' his left, Jarren you take his right?"

"Gotcha, let's take him down!"

Pincering the beast between, the soldier and turian took out their guns and fired along its wretched back, causing it to snarl and spin its giant club in a whirling strike that crunched the remainder of the fountain with Oddclaw still hanging onto its neck, claws piercing into the throat and trying to rip out more of its cables with sputtering viscous black and shades of crimson slithering through. Rage filled the beast's vision as it spied upon Jarren and made a violent upwards swing that he barely dodged over with a grand leap, diving over the marble mace and rolling into a tackle that surged forth with biotic strength, kicking both of his legs straight into the monster's ankle to make it stagger.

Diana came for the other leg, swinging for the yards with a crippling hit that made it fall even harder onto its knees as Baldwin came for its lowered head, driving his knee with projectile force into the top of its wretched skull and crushing its neck downwards into its chest. Shrieking with a stuttering yell, the Blood-Beast lunged with a thrust of its giant club to punch Baldwin back across the square, hitting a butcher's front door with a crack as it slapped Jarren hard with a sudden half-swing to knock him away in turn then slam its own head into the pavement to dislodge the raptor dangling off its neck. Diana came roaring with a javeling thrust of her bladed bat, piercing its eye with the diamond-shaped tip and wrenching a savage twist to pull it out with a visceral anguish through its body.

Swinging its pillar towards her, the Blood-Beast went for the soldier as she rolled out its path and it crushed an entire house through the roof, carving in twain to send a river of debris down across the plaza as she waded through the brick and mortar to evade its backhand swing. It caught her arm when she dodged too slow as she went flying into the gravel, groaning as her face skidded into the stones as the he monster swung its weapon up high and came crashing down in a cloud of dust.

"[i]DIANAAAA![/i]"

The cobblestones trembled as the turian gasped at the smouldering white mist, Oddclaw stepping up beside him as they watched the dust clear. The column had come down six feet above Diana's head, the shadow of a bangaa standing before her with his arm raised up in a hard block against the thick marble sculpture.

"Not bad." Baldwin grinned. "But not good enough."

The giant column creaked against his limb with a gleam of darkness in his eye, the monster roaring as it tried to push harder on his wrist with his feet digging harder into the dirt as Diana forced herself up to stumble out of range towards Jarren. The Blood-Beast raised its mighty mace once more to crush the bangaa, a pale curtain of white falling from the marble plinth as Baldwin stretched out his foot into a stance and took a deep breath waiting for the moment. The column swung down once more as he drove a single punch into its shaft, stopping it briefly in a shudder before sliding back and slamming his wrists together with a sonic boom from his fists.

"[i]SCINDI[b]TEH![/b][/i]"

A deafening blast ripped from his fingers as a roaring wind tore through the marble pillar. Then it started to crumble in the Blood-Beast's hand, shattering in sharp bursts of a thousand fragments until nothing but ash draped its claws before it came lunging in a savage punch that he blocked with a rising punch. The creature was relentless, driving its fist repeatedly against the bangaa in giant lunges that he parried each time before its broken pincer sliced across his chest with its single remaining blade. The bangaa punched straight through to the chest, but the Blood-Beast took a short leap back to take the hit and brace its feet for its final thrust.

"[b][i]GHRRRRAAARGHKH![/i][/b]"

"[i]BALDWIIIN![/i]"

"[i][b]NNNRRRGHKH![/b] Hhheh...heheheh...[/i]"

The bangaa snickered with a broken smile.

"[i]Oh that'szh cute, you guyszh even cried out my name and we only juszht met.[/i]"

He tried to turn his head with a creak of the blade.

"[i]Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere.[/i]"

He grabbed the beast's hand.

[b][i]"But you are."[/i][/b]

The monster gazed upon Baldwin's face, his head split neatly in half by the rugged blade of the pincer-claw piercing straight between his eyes with thick grey slivers drooling out his face. His eye turned black whilst his hollow socket became a purest white almost blinding to the beast as he wrenched the pincer-claw from his head with a violent twist that cracked the metal off its wrist. The Blood-Beast howled with shock and pain, the bangaa spinning the blade in his hand and shoving it deep inside its arm with plunging cleave, splitting its wrist in half before he blurred into a shadow. The others watched, a primal fear emerging in their hearts as Baldwin's shape became a demon, shadows ripping across the Blood-Beast's form as invisible hands cracked and gouged through the flesh and armour, peeling it back, twisting it off in the slowest death of a thousand cuts.

Roaring as it stumbled and swung its body, the Blood-Beast carved through the shadow that faded in and out of reality, a blackened mist incomprehensible until Baldwin reappeared briefly in his flesh, the Blood-Sin fuming upon his back bathed in wrothful crimson. Slamming his fist into the earth, a deep riveting valley of shadows ripped through the earth and came howling with the cry of a thousand souls that reached towards the giant's body. They turned into fists of sorrow, drenched with lugubrious black as a strange and terrifying sensation overcame the Blood-Beast for its last remnants of existence. Baldwin stood within a forest of night, the hands of the Dark wreathed around his body and surged from his back, his head still bleeding the thick grey ooze of his deep carving wound.

[b][i]"I warned you. Thiszh. Iszh MY home."[/i][/b]

He cracked his knuckles causing windows to shatter through the square.

[b][i]"And you...are NOT welcome."[/i][/b]

A thousand fists of darkness consumed the Blood-Beast, Baldwin at the centre as he lunged forth and punched every single inch of blood within its body. The sounds of flesh and metal crunched with the speed of bullets, bursting through the air as the monster screamed its final gasp from the obliterating swarm upon its existence, the endless fists of the bangaa unceasing like the flood. Then came the final punch, a crumpled mess of broken steel and nothing of its face, not even the wires nor its parts recognised within the heap of surging black darkness desperate to reconstruct its host. Baldwin reached back with his fist, the Dark within him forming it into one gigantic hand of horrifying claws that cast shadows, nightmares across the plaza that one would dare not look. His fist landed deep into the depths of the Blood-Beast's remnants, sucking the Dark dry with ethereal screech that turned Jarren sick to his stomach, Oddclaw cold with a shudder and Diana weak in her heart. Until this day, they had never heard nor witnessed the death of a soul.

[b][i]"Return to me...my child."[/i][/b]

His words whispered through their minds as the darkness faded from the scrap.

[b][i]"Amen."[/i][/b]

He clapped his hands, then twisted his palms together and disengaged with a soft shimmer as his eyes faded, his tattoo becoming ink once again.

"Hoooo...ohhh jeezh, that'szh gonna take a lot outta me tomorrow."

The bangaa stretched his arms and sauntered towards the three with a weary grin.

"You alright over there?"

"Y-yes," Oddclaw nodded, "are you...alright?"

"You keep aszhking me like I'm gonna fall apart," he snickered with his grievous wounds in head and stomach, "I told you, it'szh not gonna kill me if I'm already dead."

"You took a fuckin' deadass shiv through thuh brain," Diana muttered.

"Yeah, and I'm szhtill talking, szho?"

"...just, god damn."

"Oh you one o' them monotheiszht typeszh, szhure okay."

"Is it...dead?" Jarren pointed to the pile of scrap.

"Yeaaaah well, technically," Baldwin shrugged, "could get reanimated if you don't take it outta here."

"It's not gonna come back right, I mean, if we carry it out?"

"Not unlesszh the Dark getszh out with ya, and it won't, exszhept for how it got to leaking in the oszhean."

"Can you stop it?" Oddclaw asked stepping away.

"Not really, it'szh like..." the bangaa rubbed his chin, "like it'szh all in the ground everywhere, Lea Monde iszhn't built on top of the szhea, but now it iszh szho it'szh kinda leaking out?"

"Then how do we stop it?!"

"Well, it can't technically leave Lea Monde, szho anything that getszh infected or 'revived' by it would be easzhy to szhtop."

"Those things outside WERE easier than these zombies," Jarren clicked his teeth.

"Well until Lea Monde getszh back to Ivalizhe the beszht you got iszh keeping them down. Now come on let'szh turn the szhigilszh off an-"

"WHO'S THERE!?"

Diana pointed her rifle straight towards the eastern street, the bangaa clicking off the sigil's barrier with a twist of his hand as they saw someone lurking through with a black shield raised in front.

"DO NOT SHOOT!" the voice cried. "I AM A FRIEND, ARE YOU ONE OF THE HUMANS?!"

"I'M HUMAN YEAH!" Diana shouted. "YOU LOST?!"

"SOMEWHAT!"

"JAMES!" Oddclaw rushed forwards seeing the umbrella-shield. "JAMES, YOU'RE ALRIGHT!"

"What the-AAAH!" He was suddenly embraced the raptor in a fierce hug. "Wh-WHAT, what are you-"

"OH, I am so happy you are safe we were looking everywhere for you!"

"Wha-you...y-you were?"

"YES!" He pulled back to smooch his hair. "Jane told me you disappeared, Chanoch was so worried!"

"O-oh...yes, I..." the lemming licked his lips, "what did they tell you?"

"That you were gone, you went out from the base and...what are you wearing?"

"Oh, just some new armours," he stepped back showing his chainmail and greaves, "things were getting a bit dangerous so I wanted to ease my mother's fears."

"Good plan," Jarren strolled up offering his hand, "my dad always worries about me too, Jarren Drumarien, C-Sec."

"James...lemming." He shook back as Baldwin and Diana approached. "I heard the sounds of fighting and...well, when I heard your voices I came to see."

"How'd you end up down here?" asked Watterson keeping finger on the rifle.

"The...aaaaah the beast, yes, that thing pursued me and I got trapped down here!"

"Really?" Baldwin sauntered up to clap at his shoulder. "Well now you got usszh szho yer all szhafe!"

"Another job well done!" Jarren offered a fist that Diana bumped. "We got rid of the Blood-Beast AND rescued a friend!"

"Ya szhure did, alright szho how 'bout I take you all back home?"

"Whut about thuh Blood-Beast?" the soldier pointed back.

"I'll carry it, juszht need a tarp to get all the partszh in, oh I'm Baldwin by the way."

He shook James' hand.

"Guardian of Lea Monde, how ya doing?"

"Ohhh O-OH, you are someone who lives here?!" cried James as he bowed. "Well this is wonderful I am very honoured to meet you! I must admit I have been searching for someone who lives here because I have many questions about this place-"

"We can talk later," he patted his head, "why don't I get you guyszh outta here before anything elszhe?"

"Alright, yes."

"Alszho I wanna get thiszh thing outta here," he snatched a thick durable tarp from one of the old buildings, "don't want it getting fulla Dark again."

"R-really?!" James gasped pulling back. "But it looks so heavy!"

"Nah iszh fine I got it, don't worry we'll be outta here szhoon."

Demonstrating such the bangaa pulled of the deceased brute into a bag the size of three bodies, dragging it behind him as if it were made of paper as the sounds of broken steel and twisted flesh crunched and popped against each other in the sack. The four travellers walked beside him, heading back through the streets to the old mines beyond as Oddclaw stuck close to James.

"I am very glad you are alright."

"Thank you," James sighed, "I am sorry for troubling everyone."

"Are you hurt, did the beast attack you?"

"It tried to yes, but I managed to force it back with my magic, I've been getting a lot better at it."

"That is good." The raptor licked his cheek. "Haytham and Chanoch will be happy too."

"Ahah, hahah, yes I, hope they will."

"Sooo uh James," the turian walked backwards to face him, "what's your story, you don't seem from Oddclaw's world either."

"I am from the Lemming Isles," he said looking up, "I come to Oddclaw's world to study the humans' technology."

"That so?" Diana looked back. "You like a wizard or sumthin'?"

"Well, yes."

"What kinda magic you do?" asked Baldwin dragging the heap.

"Elementalist," the lemming bowed, "I would be glad to demonstrate when we have time."

"Szhure, szhow me yourszh I szhow you mine."

"Heheheh," the soldier grinned to herself, "I had a friend called James too who did magic shit."

"Ohhhh?" The bangaa rolled his eyes. "What'd he look like?"

"Uhhh, well, he looked kinda like Oddclaw but he had these purple marks on his face an' down his back-"

"W-wait." James stepped to her side. "This...this friend of yours, was his name James Campbell?"

"Yyyyyep."

"OH!" He clapped his hands and grabbed hers with a bounce. "Y-YOU HAVE MET THE SAVIOUR?!"

"Whu-thuh fuck you say?!"

"J-james, Campbell, the one who looks like Oddclaw, th-that is the one who saved my tribe from extinction, a-and Oddclaw's father!"

"WHUT?!" She looked to James then Oddclaw and back. "...shit, for real?!"

"Yes." Oddclaw sighed with heaving shoulders. "That was my father...apparently."

"...kay I didn' wanna say anythin' cuz you looked like him but-"

"Thank you, Diana."

"But damn, you serious, whut's this about a saviour?"

"OH, well!" James twirled his black umbrella and swept back his hair. "He came to my tribe when they were trapped underground by a warlock who was exterminating us, but he lead us out the darkness to freedom."

"No shit!" she smiled clapping his back. "He got me out a slave camp then brought back troops to rescue everyone includin' my momma."

"That...incredible!" The lemming hopped with a giddy skip. "You must tell me, everything about him please!"

"Alrigh', guess we got nuthin' else to do."

The soldier began her story of the mysterious Campbell, Oddclaw turning away with a sigh as Baldwin let them walk on ahead to slink beside him.

"Szhorry bro."

"Hmm?"

"I know it'szh kinda hard to liszhten to. Even if it'szh about what a hero he waszh."

"Yes."

"But hey, remember what I szhaid?" He nudged him slightly. "You're your own guy, a good father and a real hero."

"Hah...thank you."

"By the way!" the bangaa pulled out a parchment from his pockets. "I got thiszh thing I don't underszhtand, no idea why but it'szh in a language I don't get, maybe one of the humanszh dropped it in the mountain."

"What is it?"

"Here." He handed the raptor a scientific list written in English as the raptor read.

"October...twenty-eight, two-zero-three-one A.D. Experiment five-seven-nine. Particle offset seventy-four percent, Kirk-Roentgen freh-quency three-hundred teera...hertz, T.E. sta-bih-lih-tee resonance, forty-three."

"Yeah I dunno either," Baldwin shrugged, "but I know it'szh real important, you szhould give it to the humanszh at the baszhe."

"Really?" Oddclaw cocked his head. "This looks like something Andrea would do, so...alright, thank you."

"What's this about?" Jarren stepped back beside him.

"Oh," Oddclaw pocketed the paper slip, "James and Diana, I hear stories from them about how great my father is, but he abandoned my family, so I cannot feel good about it."

"Aww. That sucks, well yanno what screw him." He patted the raptor. "You done good with your family, you live with your mom right?"

"Yes," Oddclaw nodded.

"Well, I think she managed to raise an awesome kid, cuz your family's adorable and super nice and they don't need your dad for whatever he does."

"Kid'szh right," Baldwin nudged him, "your dad'szh hiszh own guy, whatever szhit he doeszh good or bad'szh got nothing to do with yer family."

"Hah...thank you." The raptor blushed. "That helps, thank you both of you."

The turian grinned with fingerguns as they headed back through the mines, Baldwin never losing his pace with the ease he dragged the broken beast in its sack, even vaulting the bag over cliff-faced walls and trudging endless through to the sanctum then the catacombs, all whilst James and Diana shared all they could about the great James Campbell. By the time they finally reached the cellars with changing walls from steel to amber, they felt the tropical winds from beneath the Skylands as the sound of the ocean brought them home to the exit.

"Aaaaand YAH!" Baldwin tossed the Blood-Beast's corpse into the storage beyond the cellar. "Thiszh aszh far aszh I can go!"

"You're not coming?" asked Jarren.

"I can't leave Lea Monde, ruleszh of the Szhin," he waved his hands.

"How exactly does it work?" James asked staying beside him. "I would love to know more-"

"Youuuu can worry about that after you get home."

"Oh, Oddclaw can tell the others I'm fine, this is fascinating-"

"Go. Home."

Baldwin gripped his shoulder firm as he saw a change in the lemming's look.

"...take your hand off me."

"Not unlesszh you leave, little lemming."

"I am NOT...little."

"You are to me, any szhorter you'd be kisszhing my dick."

"H-how dare you, I am trying to show interest!"

"Ohhh I know, but I really got no time to deal with wandererszh in the dark, and the Dark doeszh NOT like intruderszh."

"Oh?" James pushed his hand away. "I know a thing or two about what the darkness wants."

"James!" Oddclaw moved to his side trying to take his arm. "Come on, do not be rude, he helped us!"

"Oddclaw." He turned to the raptor. "Tell Chanoch I am fine...and I am sorry."

"Wh-what?"

A burst of violent gales ripped from the lemming's body that forced all of them back, Oddclaw thrown against the wall of the storage bay whilst Baldwin flew back further into the cellar. Diana pulled out her rifle with Jarren putting up his hands as a surging roar of the earth suddenly shook the world around them. James glowed a fierce brilliant shade of rust from around his hand as he slammed his fist into the dirt, causing the roof to crackle above their heads.

"GET BACK IT'S GONNA GO!"

Jarren grabbed Diana hard and threw her back as he took Oddclaw second, pulling them both away from the room starting to collapse in a torrential plume of hard stone crunching into each other. The Blood-Beast still in its tarp in pieces was crushed even further, the entrance of Lea Monde's old cellar now completely blocked off.

"...JAMES!" Oddclaw stammered towards the cave-in. "JAMES, JAAAMES!"

"[i]I'm sorry Oddclaw.[/i]" He heard the lemming's voice faintly through the rock. "[i]I have a mission I must take.[/i]"

"WHAT?! NO, COME BACK, IT IS DANGEROUS!"

"[i]I cannot stop now! Not when I am so close, just tell Chanoch I will be fine![/i]"

"JAMES! JAMES NO! JAMES COME BACK!"

The raptor pounded and tore at the stone with frantic claws raking the dirt. He tried pulling the smaller stones until only the largest remained too big for him to lift. He slumped onto his knees gasping in shock, trying to wrap his head around the lemming's intent as Jarren and Diana stared on.

[i]"What...wh-what is he doing?"[/i] he whispered in his tongue. [i]"What...what happened? What happened to you James?"[/i]

In the depths of the old wine cellar, James stared at his handiwork before turning towards the bangaa.

"Now we are finally alone," he said gripping his handles, "you know I have come here for a reason, yes guardian?"

"Szhure do." Baldwin grinned spreading his arms. "You the one who brought me here?"

"Exactly. I have learned about the Dark from old texts, speaking of a Gran Grimoire that has the power to control darkness itself."

"Buddy, I can tell you now, it'szh not worth it-"

"I decide whether it is worth it or not!" He pulled the sword from his umbrella-sheath slightly. "I am well-prepared for this, sir Baldwin, so do not think to lecture me."

"Hm. Alright." The bangaa motioned him to follow into the depths. "What do you want?"

"I wish to control the darkness," James followed, "to learn of its ways so as to stand against it, wield it, banish it from my home."

"Your home? You have darknesszh in your land?"

"Yes, it is coming within the next forty years and I must prepare to stand against it, cast it, rid my world of its foul impurities and protect my home."

"Forty yearszh?!" Baldwin whistled through his teeth. "Wow, damn I hate fuckerszh like you, planning szhit yearszh in advanszhe when you could juszht chill for a moment or two-"

"I am NOT here to be mocked!"

"Yeah well don't walk in with a fucking umbrella, szheriouszhly I know there'szh a szhword in there but unlesszh you fighting a raincloud I'm not impresszhed."

"Does THIS impress you?!"

A biting cold wind came from his fingers that tore across the old cellar, shrieking past Baldwin's face in a vile gasp of raking invisible claws before a growth of ice crystals expanded on the wall far behind him, groaning with tumorous swell before exploding like shrapnel across the room.

"Nope," Baldwin brushed the shards off his face, "I szheen better."

"Well do not provoke me further, for I shall show you my true strength instead."

"Ehhh...did you not szhee how I ripped that Blood-Beaszht in half?" The bangaa cracked his knuckles. "What makeszh you think you can hurt me little guy?"

"Holy."

The lemming clicked his fingers to make a white flame spark between.

"Fairy fire to be exact. Heals the wounds of the living, something my master taught me in the elementalist class. But what does it do to the undead?"

"Szhting like a bitch but not enough to make me talk."

"But enough of it will if I restrain you and force you to suffer under it...now." he swept the fire away with a wave of his hand. "Tell me about the Dark."

"Alright," he shrugged, "I mean, you're szhtuck here now szho I might aszh well tell ya. Firszht though, you know how to read Ivaliszhian yeah?"

"I am well-versed in it yes."

"Why dontcha help me out a little, like a trade between uszh?" He pulled out a piece of paper from his pockets. "I have thiszh thing here, real ancient szhtuff but I can't figure out the fucking dialect on thiszh."

"What is that exactly?"

"Thiszh old szhcrap, I got it from a few pageszh that fell out of a book I been trying to put back together, szhtuff about the Gran Grimoire an' szhuch, and well, you know about it too szho why not help each other."

"Oh, well, good news I am a scribe!" James grinned clapping his hands. "I would be glad to offer a small trade of knowledge, as well as for your cooperation."

"Good, that makeszh thiszh a lot easzhier szhee we don't have to do a whole wizhard-fight thing right, you juszht wanna learn szhtuff yeah?"

"Right, I agree sir Baldwin. Now, let's see." He opened the paper and briefly mouthed the words twice to check. "Tempus...Claudorum, Anno?"

He never saw it coming. James' body froze with a thick burst of amber dust that exploded from the paper, covering his form in a magic spell that paralysed him from head to toe.

"Oopszh!" Baldwin clapped with a smile mocking him. "Szhtop szhpell, no Dark for you!"

He waltzed up to the petrified lemming whose face was trapped in thought.

"I know what you want buddy," he murmured in his ear, "and I'll tell you thiszh becauszhe you won't liszhten. Thoszhe who crave the Dark, cannot control the Dark. But it'szh not YOU that wantszh it really...right?"

He patted the handles of James' weapon as he walked past to the entrance, the collapsed wall of stone at the very edge of Lea Monde before the invisible barrier stopped his foot from leaving.

"Now," he cracked his knuckles, "ow, f-fuck dammit I keep forgetting not to do that, alright szhit. Need to make szhure no one elszhe getszh in."

From his satchel he pulled out a lock with a long purple flower inscribed upon it, pressing it against the wall beside him as it suddenly shimmered the width of the cellar room to bathe it in a crimson violet.

"Now all I gotta do iszh wait...and keep that little guy away for the nexszht year like szhe szhaid."

He turned back to the darkness.

"I hope you guyszh get here before it'szh too late."

His body vanished into the depths, consumed with shadow, his form melting into the walls until the black traces that were cast by the light would fade into nothing. The city remained unceasing, as James' body stood trapped in time in the midst of the old cellar with a face unblinking. Something stirred in his body beneath the pits of his soul. Hunger and hatred combined.