Caging the Darkness
Caging the Darkness
It was quiet in the countryside as a soft breeze blew through the remains of a once-lively town. Though the structures themselves were intact, not a soul seemed to remain inside the walls as the small legion of troops walked through it. Besides the lack of people they also found some new additions as well, strange dog and wolf sculptures that seemed to be carved out of some sort of strange black rock or clay. The statues were all very lewd, some of them depicting feral males on top of one another while others had a more human-like appearance all the way up to human males with only tails and pointed ears licking one another. It took them off guard, but the holy clerics they had employed to make the area safe told them to expect such a thing.
"What sort of inhuman horrors have happened here?" One of the knights asked their leader.
"The sort that we were sent here to stop." The knight-commander replied sharply. His name was Arlan, ordained by the Holy Church itself to stop the scourge that had blighted the Northern regions of their kingdom. At first it appeared to be nothing more than superstition, strange shadows that devoured the souls of others and turned them into strange abominations. It wasn't until one of their cities was overrun by shadow creatures that the Holy Church decided to act against it. By the time they had mobilized their forces and fought the advance of the dark creatures nearly half the country had fallen. Now their small entourage rode into the supposed heart of the corruption, protected only by the wards given to them by the high priest.
The group continued on in silence until they had reached a building that had been the small church built to honor their god, though they could scarcely recognize it anymore. Solid black walls arched into the sky, with lewd carvings of canines as well as archaic symbols adorning it. They could feel the building pulse with power, their charms straining under the strength of the curse. While they were protected, they suddenly realized their horses were not as they felt their muscles shifting under their legs. The men scattered, some of them falling on their sides as their harnesses and buckles snapped as the horses began to thrash. Their whinnies turned to snarls as their bodies changed, becoming far more wolf-like as they turned towards their former masters with hunger in their eyes.
"Into the church!" Arlan yelled as the men unsheathed their swords. As the once-horses began to move towards them, their mouths frothing with black bile, the knights took their commander's order and moved inside the church itself. Once the last of them squeezed through the door they barred it as best they could, and though it splintered several times from the weight of the corrupted creatures the barrier held fast.
"It appears that the corruption in stronger here then we imagined." His second-in-command, a young man named Erickson, said as he looked at the small wisps of smoke that emanated from the holy symbol around his neck. "If we do not hurry soon then we will share the fate of the villagers of this town."
Arlan sighed and ran a hand through his golden mane of hair, his frustration apparent in his face as they looked at the desecrated shrine that surrounded them. "We must continue onward then, it's our only option." The rest of the knights nodded to each other and readied their weapons, pushing onward despite their trepidations. When they reached the head of the church they realized that the altar had completely disappeared, replaced with a large tunnel that led underground.
Before they ventured any deeper they muttered prayers of protection, sprinkling holy water on themselves to try and survive the evil that dwelled within. Several droplets of water splashed on the black rock, which immediately began to sizzle before it evaporated. The knights looked at each other with grim concern before a look from their leader steeled their resolve. After lighting their torches they went down the path one by one, swords at the ready as they moved down the steep path.
As they moved lower it began to get even colder, their breath clinging to their faces. Their armor and swords began to grow a thin sheen of frost, which made it very uncomfortable for them to even move. Still they continued onward, a blue light in the distance their target. The fire of their torches began to die as they moved, and one by one the orange flames turned a bright blue as they began to emanate cold rather than heat. When their fires changed so did the nature of the shadows around them, seeming to grow darker and move more erratically around them.
"Do not be afraid men." Arlan tried to reassure them, though he could sense their morale failing. He knew that none of them would run, but to go into a battle of this nature afraid was to invite the devil into you. Despite this he pressed on, one hand on his gilded blade while the other rested on a small belt pouch. The charms they wore had all but disintegrated by the time they had reached the entrance of the large cavern, which meant that they could not retreat and expect to leave uncorrupted.
A loud laughter could be heard echoing through the cavern as they all gathered at the foot of what appeared to be a makeshift throne room, a creature none of them had ever seen before sitting on it. While it was certainly humanoid, the lithe figure had a very canine head that had a huge grin plastered on his face. As the figure stood up they saw the shadows gather around it, the blackness roiling and dripping off his taut body as he moved forward. A large amount of the shadow stuff seemed to gather on his back, forming into a mass of writhing tentacles that seemed to follow the movements of the knights as they fanned out slightly.
"Well well well, what do we have here?" The shadow canine asked as his eyes, a seemingly solid mass of gold, scanned over the males. "If this is an offering then I am most pleased... a little older, but that can be changed. Welcome to my abode, my name is Tarien, I will be your god from now on."
"Foul demon!" Arlan shouted as he held up a silvered cross. "You blaspheme against our lord and spread your vile corruption across our land! We've come to stop you once and for all!"
Once more Tarien laughed as he held out his arm, a tentacle shooting out and wrapping around the cross before the metal disintegrated the mass of blackness. "You're far too late to stop me now." He said, the tendrils around his body reaching out towards them as they pointed their swords at him. "I've already breached your world, which means that it's mine. Don't worry, you'll enjoy being under my command soon enough. If you can't take my word for it, then your fellow 'men' can show you what I mean."
Almost immediately the shadows sprung up around them, forming into pitch black anthro canines that wrapped their extremely flexible bodies around them. Most of them dropped their swords as they could feel the cold bodies press into their armor, caressing their bodies as they could hear lewd suggestions whispered into their ears. Only Arlan managed to writhe free, but his momentum only carried him right in front of the creature. "Well... if you wanted to suck my cock THAT much, you should have just asked."
Arlan was about to rebuke the demonic creature once more when he heard a loud moan to his side, his head turning to see the others in various states of arousal. Their armor laid at their feet in pieces, black tendrils continuing to climb on the metal as the stuff seemed to consume it. The naked humans were also experiencing a similar fate, though they didn't seem to mind it at all as the flesh underneath the tendrils of shadow that spread from their body turned black. It seemed to gravitate straight towards their groins, their erections stretching out even longer as tentacles stroked them. Several tried to resist the changes, struggling despite the pleasure they felt, while others seemed to welcome the shadowy invaders as they corrupted their bodies. Their skin bulged and changed, especially in their throats and stomachs as black tentacles forced their way deeper and deeper into them. The whispers they had heard when they came in seemed to grow even stronger, welcoming them into their fold.
"Don't think I forgot you." Arlan suddenly heard as cold hands gripped his head and turned him back towards him. His jaw almost dropped as he suddenly saw the massive piece of black meat in front of him, the tip of the strange member almost touching his nose as he felt the grip on his hair tighten. "You don't have to worry about gag reflex by the way, one of the benefits of a semi-incorporeal form."
"I think not!" Arlan shouted as he broke free of the grapple, taking a few steps back as he dug into his belt pouch.
"Don't you understand it yet?" Tarien said, licking his lips as the chorus of whispers that had enveloped the human grew even stronger. "You can not kill me, you can not harm me, and you can not stop me. I will feast on your soul while my minions feast on the heat and lust of your compatriots. Now you can enjoy this, or I can make this very... unpleasant for you."
"No..." Arlan said as he stood up, holding up what appeared to be a long, silky feather between his fingers. "You will never touch another human being ever again."
Tarien's smile faded as he looked at the feather, backing up slightly. "A white phoenix feather, but how..." surprising to Arlan the creature started to laugh once more, his frown turning into a sinister grin as his eyes locked onto him. "Tell me, as a last request from your captive, can you tell me which one of my brethren betrayed me?"
The knight-commander merely stood resolute, the feather glowing in his fingers as beams of light began to shoot out around the shadow creature. Tarien tried to run, but the light wrapped around his wrists and ankles. He thrashed about; the aura of shadows that had cloaked him burned away as more ropes of light encircled his lithe form. The god-canine was raised into the air by his arms as the light continued to cocoon around him, soon leaving only his head exposed. "When I escape, I'll make sure that it's your families I visit first." It looked like he was about to say more, but the feather exploded and covered the rest of him, compressing his form until he was nothing more than a small, golden egg with blue markings similar to those that had adorned hid body.
Almost immediately the cold that had griped his body disappeared, as well as the darkness that had surrounded them. Their flames turned back to an orange color as well, and as the knight-commander looked at the embarrassed faces of his companions he reached down and picked up the egg. The metal was cold to the touch, yet was still able to handle as the rest of the men went outside to try and find something to cover their shame. They found their horses next to the church, as well as a large number of naked villagers as they looked around at each other in confusion. Once the knights had redressed, they gathered around Arlan and the egg he held.
"Is he... dead?" Erickson said as he tentatively reached out towards the egg's surface.
"Unfortunately no." Arlan replied as he put the egg into his horse's saddlebag. "Even with such a relic as the white phoenix feather the angel who guided us here said that it would merely imprison him, and that if we wanted to remain uncorrupted it will have to be guarded, especially since he can still whisper in the shadows of the minds of men. So in order to make sure his taint is never again felt on this land I will swear that my family will guard it until the end of time."
"If you guard it, then we all guard it." Erickson chimed in, to which the rest of the knights nodded. "You saved us from the abyss after all, it's the least we could do."
"Very well." Arlan said as they saddled up. "Back to the church!" With that they rode off, leaving the confused village to inform their superiors that the kingdom was safe... for now.