The sky dimmed each time Felaud howled. Shadows rose from the ground. They were beasts of all types. Some were Shadow Dwellers, just as he and his wife were, while others were mundane Demon Beasts.
Amari looked at the ground, alarmed, making sure there weren't any shadow creatures rising up from where he was. The vague black sheen of the soil and the sheer barrenness brought his mind back to something. He stared at his father's back for a moment, then turned his attention back at the shadow creatures.
He shivered at the shadows' auras. Each reeked of death and the underworld. The worst part about this was that he knew some of them.
'Aunt Tamira and the rest of her pack. I saw them all just a few days ago. Does this mean they're all… dead?'
He looked at the bodies of his siblings but found nothing. Instead, he saw Felaud facing the crowd of shadow monsters.
"I declare war on the invaders of The Pit. Human or Demon. Elf or Dwarf. They shall all face the consequences of their actions. For my children. For my brethren and comrades. For the Pit!"
Inhuman roars doused the fires destroying the forest, and they marched. The ground shook with each step, and the sky filled with the caws of dark carrion birds.
'A howl of war. War Howler...'
"Raion'shalang. Take your brother and find Reida. Tell her I said she should escape. The Pit is no longer safe."
Amari wanted to argue, but he looked down at Belat, who had woken up to his father's war declaration.
"Alright, Father."
"Good." Felaud turned around and marched to the front of his army.
Amari nodded, his throat dry and sore. He scooped Belat up in his arms, and the two set off into the night. He didn't know what the future held, but he knew he had to keep his brother safe.
The Pit was being invaded! How could that happen? What did the invaders want?
Most places in the Pit didn't receive the light of the sun or moon, but in the region where Raion had found himself fortunately, they could see properly.
But that was the thing.
What was the point in invading and exploiting the pit in the first place? Most of its inhabitants were Demon Beasts and other creatures. They could not see half the time and starved to unknown extents.
"Let us go find our mother," he said and cast a Shadow Movement on himself and Belat, still thinking about the implications of what Felaud had said.
Amari first headed back to the cave to check whether Reida had come back.
No trace of new aura or mana appeared after the spell he used. Everything was in the same spot he left it.
She had not returned since then.
Worry set in, and he felt foolish.
'She's stronger than me by a lot. What gives me the right to worry about her?'
He jumped onto the closest tree and kept moving from there.
"Are we going to be okay, Big Brother?"
Amari looked down in shock, losing his footing and falling off a tree. He grabbed onto a nearby branch just in time and sighed in relief. He had forgotten Belat was there.
"Amari grabbed Belat's paw and raised the pup up to him". He smiled, "Of course we're going to be okay. We always are."
Belat visibly held his reservations and for the first time, Amari understood how Reida felt when she lied.
Before he could continue, Belat yelled.
"Big Brother, I just sensed Mom!"
Amari snapped out of it and looked in Belat's direction.
"Good job!"
His cooled-off blood reheated and he took off to find Reida.
"Mom, where are you?" he asked as he drew closer.
"Raion'shalang, stay where you are. Don't come closer!"
"No, I'm coming for you!"
There was an unfamiliar aura dangerously close to his mother's and Amari's heart sank.
Not because the aura was unfamiliar, but because it was on the offensive! Reida's aura declined and weakened. Far weaker than it should have been.
"Fuck! Not again, Notagain, notagain!"
'This can't happen again!'
Finally, he reached a clearing. There he saw his mother's once magnificent shadowy fur-covered body lying on the floor battered and bruised.
"I-i told you not to come…"
Her radiant yellow eyes had lost their lustre, and her aura fluctuated between life and death.
"No. I had to. I promised Dad I would find you!"
"Y-you s-s...houldn't have,"
Amari clenched his fists and looked up at the perpetrator.
"Well, boo hoo. What the fuck do you think you're gonna do, Lion'sfatass or whatever your name was? What's your kind doing out here anyways?" he said with a smirk
The man was larger than Amari by a lot. He stood seven feet tall, and had enough girth to make him twice as intimidating.
He wore silver armour that glinted in the moonlight and a self-righteous expression that showed no remorse.
A human. Amari could tell from the start. Something in his blood felt instinctive disgust towards humans, and this man in general. His past identity of a human didn't seem to matter anymore.
"Fuck you!" He spat out, then dropped Belat next to his mother's body.
The pup was an air head, but it could understand easily. A small whiny howl reverberated in the background.
"Aww, how cute!" the man in armour laughed.
Then, too fast for Amari to notice, he flashed in front of Belat and kicked him away.
"Your fault for bringing a runt here with you."
A vein burst on Amari's head and his eyes snapped open at the man in armour. They were piercing.
"Never heard of demons with white hair and red eyes." He paused to look at Amari better. "Meh, either way, you're dead! I'll take your beautiful eyes and keep them in a jar on my desk. Maybe I'll even use your hair for a wig and your cute wolves for a mat!"
The man dashed forward again, then seemingly out of nowhere pulled out a magnificent golden broadsword.
He sliced down with the broadsword and Amari stumbled out of the way.
'Shit!'
He turned to Amari and jabbed at the young demon's throat.
That hit.
'Fuck!'
The injury didn't heal like it was supposed to. He kept bleeding onto the ground. That did not mean he couldn't fight though.
"Dark Tendrils!"
Dark tendrils rose from all the shadows around and attacked the man in armour rapidly.
"Hmph."
The man dodged effortlessly and found his way to Amari again, who was halfway to losing consciousness. Aiming for Amari's bare heart, he stabbed forward.
'Shit, I need to do something about this!'
"Goodbye, demon runt!"
Time stopped.
Three bright lights shone down on him. Each colour. One was bloody red like his iris. The other was a calm easygoing blue and the last was a blinding white that hurt the more he looked at it.
A familiar voice appeared in his head and multiple panels followed it.
[Mysterious Entity- Borjak The Wild has taken interest in you.]
[Mysterious Entity- Kaplen The Orator has taken interest in you]
[Mysterious Entity- Valen The Astrologer has taken interest in you]
[Borjak has blessed you].
[Kaplen has blessed you]
[Valen has blessed you]
Time resumed, but the situation was different now.