{pictures]
Council POV moments before Andrel revised their call:
Within a red sky coated in black… the townspeople whom drank from wells and fountains… lost their minds in a fever of madness, that mixed into a panicking crowd! Their vomits were as black as tar, as where their tears that bleed from their eyes… with bulging veins they gave up their spirits unto to the demigod within!
Madness! As they screamed out the words:
[Baaa!]
And in a hospital laid out the worst of it! Children… innocent and cute, without guile and prejudice… lay suffering in beds and hallways, as weaker ones died suddenly, while others turned to monsters! Uncontrolled spasms, with horns or tiger teeth, with skin black and rotten, they raised to bite the healthy children or caretakers….
A curse that seemed to spread unabated and uncontrolled… guards were forced to make hard decisions, as their blades or bullets slipped through their itchy fingers… while nuns and churchgoers gave their prayer to a sun god whose light hurt more than it helped. And while the hospital crew panicked in their pursuit to help, the members of the city council, stormed into the pits and screamed:
[what is happening!]
And while they screamed for information, the walls piled with bodies as blood coated the floors from the very top to the very bottom! Soldiers and families screamed tears of madness, to the point that Antheia had the army step in and shut the crowd!
With some order restored, Athena and the council demanded to see that room… the head doctors and nurse knew what room they were referring to and felt chill in their eyes…
[members of the council… please listen!] screamed the head doctor
[speak as we walk!] demanded Eardwulf who held a long sword with a vise grip, in an attire that was both a mix of military style and of the church.
[but please wait! You have to know we didn't know!] replied the man in desperation to the council
[Didn't know what?] interjected Wilheard suddenly in annoyance
[that the child…] said that man half-finished as the council member's blood ran cold with bloodlust!
For in front of their eyes in a room locked in a circular dome, held within its blood handy printed walls, was the child of a giant! Berserk and filled with madness, with burning black drool, and teeth of a lion, with eye bloodshot and shiny blood tear drops!
The child giant slammed its hand, In which is the size of a boulder! Against its glass cage in the hope of escaping! While it had another free hand, the giant used it to devour a seating doctor who was there to attend to its needs!
With steam and lights flickering, the child threw the bottom half of the man he was eating at the council! Exploding the body and leaving marks and cracks on the glass, that shined the giant orange-reddish eyes!
The scene causes Nimrod to spit in disgust and said in a demanding voice:
[dammit! The giant clan not going to like this! Those barbarian bastards are going to start a war over this! Vesper! What are you going to do about this?]
[Oh! Will you calm down already... Nimrod… sigh, Antheia calls Andrel… We're going to need his expertise on this… I'm sure even he doesn't want a war with the giants.] replied Vesper with a headache.
But as Antheia left to make a call, the corpses in the halls and rooms began to shake violently, while the children who were bit, began to show signs similar to those who were monsters! With heads turned at unbelievable degrees, and the crystal lights turning off and on, while other crystals make a horrid sound with a pop!
Antheia, trapped in the hallway filled with the dead, felt something grab her leg in the dark! As the crystal lights went out one by one… Antheia then looked down to see the small hand that had grabbed her… following that hand, she started into the face of the dead child…
While bracing her small crystal light against its face, she continued to look, until the child coughed a deep cough, that only came from deep within one chest! With its cough, out came a black substance that bubbled weird-looking flesh…
But after it was done vomiting and shaking, the corpse suddenly went deadly still! Concerned Antheia called for one of her guards, only to not receive a response… confused and scared she was about to turn her head around when the dead child's eyes abruptly popped open!
Scared Antheia backed away, as the kid got up and roared! With a jaw dislocated from the roar, the kid leapt toward Antheia, with its bone reshaping into a sharp weapon and malformation! Seeing the child monster aiming for her neck, Antheia braced her arms to her face, while the child went crazy until it was suddenly beheaded by one of Antheia's guards!
[huff…Huf…. What took you so dam long!] screamed Antheia to her guards, as she looked at her arms that were but a mess, with bones and flesh hanging out huge opened wounds.
[I'm sorry mam! But look around you! We don't have time…] said the guard as a child monster suddenly jumped onto his back!
[get off me!] yelled the man as the child bit down onto the back of his neck.
As the man tried to remove the child monster from his back, the hallway suddenly came to life! As every corpse in the hospital screamed as one! And Attack anything that moved!
With his fresh blood in the air, the attractiveness of the scent, bright forth more children to join in the attack! But even if each pass with his sword could kill a few with one strike, there were just far too many! And like little goblins, they swarmed all the guards to the ground and began a feast!
Antheia didn't even try to help them… she just… ran… and ran… while calling desperately on her magic box for Andrel!
Lanthios and Lambs' POV
Staring sadly at the monster, who for some reason overlapped in her vision as a peace-loving creature, the Lamb shed tears unknowingly and without knowing why… while Lanthios was scared and at a loss of what to do! The house was flooded with monsters! And the outside was covered in a mysterious rain and blackness that was touchable!
It was then that, Lanthios heard a thump against the window… scared, the duo looked at it… as the black water screeched down the metal panels of the roof, the birds kept pecking and pecking and slamming their bodies without a care…
As the crack grew, Lanthios grabbed the baby lamb and ran into the closet… completely helpless and vulnerable, with inviable tears, the boy rocked the baby lamb back and forth… back and forth…
Seeing the boy act in such a way… the Lamb nuzzled its tiny nose against his forehead in a way to calm him down… and it worked! The boy soon found himself asleep… with the kid asleep, the lamb sighed as the world was silent… so quiet that not even the rain could be heard, or the growls and moans or the pecking and the slamming…
But then… in that eerie quiet, the window shattered! The winds rushed and the bird circled the room! As they circled the lambs with each flash of thunder, the Lambs' voice changed to a serious tune! While it left the closet, it continued to stare at the boy.
With stars in its eyes and a set of fur that glowed in the divine, the Lamb mind felt a pull into the ether! And with a voice hidden with deep mystery, it said:
{My name…I know my name…}
When it said those words, the birds fell to silent, as so did the demigod that walked! The clouds ceased their rain and noise and if waiting…. The hidden figures outside looked up from their hooded cloaks with anticipation for the lamb…
{My name is…. BABET!} said the Lamb with wide eyes! As symbols of many kinds formed in the air!
With the calling of its name, the undead bowed to the lamb, as they were turned to sand in peace! But even as they faded with the wind, the dark clouds remained as did the demigod! For the demigod was too far to hear the call of Babet! And even if it did, the poor demigod was so corrupted with so much malice… that even the chosen child, whom his master has sent… would be unable to give it peace!
And so, it marched on… onto a city that his shepherd had called it to destroy! A city filled with such hidden sin and vileness that the people there had sown, without even knowing it! For their 'sun' had set on their timetable!
But even a setting sun still has a little light to give! And so, a burning hole tore through the dark clouds as constructs made of pure fire! Burned the forest and the dead! And even… the adventures that were in the war!
Constructs made of a combination of magic and dwarven technology! Constructs that are sown together by the hearts of beautiful saintly girls! Their faith-filled hearts are the fuel that burns the constructs with the divine fire of the sun!
Uncaring machines that wail with the screams of the girls' souls that are still trapped within their metal shells… for they can still feel the pain of the fire that they believed would not hurt them… a lie given by the church, who could care less for their non-virgins…
[do you heart it… they cheer for us…] said a masterwork, who stared and listened to the cries of his constructs!
[finally, we get to test them on a real foe! I was getting bored using them on low-born barbarians…] said another masterwork
[right! But still… I wonder what the core is… the dam church is so secretive with their 'assistance'] said another masterwork
[meh who knows… let's just enjoy the show! Even better now that the blasted rain has stopped!] replied a previous masterwork with a shrug.
As the glowing symbols left Babet, the lamb fell unconscious on the wooden floor, as hidden figures leapt inside the house, they picked her up and took her and Lanthios deep within the forest underground to wait out the event that had yet to unfold.
Meanwhile back in the city:
Andrel's short POV:
Andrel just arrived at the hospital, to a scene similar to that of the town square, blood everywhere and people screaming… and monsters that were once man…
[zombies... Is it… this is not good! But this magic… isn't like the shepherds… to…no! Never mind that for now!] Said Andrel to himself as he set a blazing fire to kill all the zombies with magic spells!
With the zombies dealt with, Andrel walked through the burned or burning husk and asked the injured survivor what was going on, and if anyone had seen the council members. But to his surprise, the people who were injured didn't even bother looking at him!
They just kept to themselves and screamed words like:
[No! I don't want to be like them! I'm not going to be a monster honey I swear! My child was bitten! Someone help!]
In his disbelief, Andrel witnesses people attempting to kill themselves! Stopping them, Andrel used all sorts of spells to calm the minds of the mindless, only for the spell to gain him nothing but the words:
[in the hospital it waits… in the hospital they wait…] said a half-crazed man with his shivering hands on the side of his head.
[just what is happening in that hospital] said Andrel as he looked at the wooden doors.
And just as he did, the rain stopped, and he saw the burning streaks across the sky caused by the constructs! In their numerous numbers, they rained onto the Demigod of the shepherds!
Knowing what sat at each construct core, wrecked Andrel's heart with grief, but without the power to contest the church, what could a single mage do so far from the central plane even hope to accomplish… so, with a heavy heart Andrel closed his eyes but for a moment as he stormed inside the hospital!