For the most part the temple had been abandoned as the worshippers all fled in terror, and the guards were either dead or abandoned their posts at this point.
With no one around and nothing to impede them, I saw the two Predazoans fighting in the sands, fast and ferocious, shapeshifting on the fly as they tore into each other.
It was actually a little hard to tell them apart at first; one was a vague, black humanoid shape covered in chitinous armor, with six large wings, and dozens of tendrils trailing behind her with leathery tatters flowing freely from her armor—I assud that was Eve. The other was also vaguely humanoid, but without armor, pure white skin with just vaguely feminine features—weirdly smooth and plain. She also had wings—dozens of them, all black, and they seed to be arranged in layers of rings that didn’t even make sense. Her face was totally blank, except a large ring of seven vivid yellow eyes in the very center that seed aglow with golden fire.
That must’ve been Gamma-11’s ‘divine form’—the New Light.
“Sister, I don’t understand—speak to , tell what you want! If you wish for tribute or even—” Gamma-11 said desperately—didn’t see a mouth on her, so I wasn’t sure where the words ca from, but I heard them quite clearly.
But Eve wasn’t interested in a tribute—wasn’t interested in talking. Instead, she raked her claws against Gamma-11, slashing her open so a splash of black ooze spilled onto the sands.
Gamma-11 shrieked at Eve, then jumped up into the air so all her convoluted ring-wings spread out wide—almost looking like a classical Biblical angel with those celestial rings.
But Eve wasn’t about to let her sister escape, and she followed after Gamma-11 easily; I knew Eve was contained within the inhibitor field and her power seed sowhat diminished, but a Gamma Predazoan was still clearly no match for her.
Eve rushed forward in the air and grabbed at Gamma-11’s leg, then spun her around and released her, sending her slamming back into the temple.
Eve was quick to follow-up, not relenting for even a mont. She dove back into the temple, and I could hear the furious clash inside accompanied by the terrible screeching. But before I could even follow after them, Gamma-11 was sent through the temple stone once again, with Even still entangled with her, tussling around before kicking her back down into the sand.
The sand splashed everywhere, and even from a few hundred feet away I had to turn away so it didn’t get in my eyes. When I was able to look again I saw a huge creator slowly filling back up with sand. Gamma-11 hovered into the air and shrieked at Eve in challenge.
“Why? Why disrupt what I have here? Away from the Empire, away from all our sisters, I was fine to stay here as a god to these primitive people, never a need to join in with the rest of the universe.” Gamma-11 declared.
But Eve wasn’t interested in a debate—or couldn’t in her primitive state. I wondered if Gamma-11 noticed sothing was wrong with Eve, or maybe she was too afraid now fighting for her life to even notice.
Eve manifested a huge tail from her lower back so it swept out over a hundred feet with a gnarly hook on the end. She slashed at Gamma-11 with it, and she dodged it easily, but Eve had been anticipating that and shot to tackle her in the sky once more, moving right into where Gamma-11 had dodged.
Once again while they were locked together in the air, Eve had the upper-hand during every exchange; she clawed and ripped into Gamma-11, she blocked or countered every attack Gamma-11 sent after her, and every ti Gamma-11 tried to reason with her, Eve just screeched and shrieked in response.
Eve was so vicious and cruel I had to wonder if Gamma-11 even deserved it; considering I was in a relationship with a Predazoan, I didn’t agree with the Empire they all needed to be contained or destroyed. Yes, they all needed to be confronted to verify their plans to make sure they weren’t a danger to innocent people, but there were a few already I thought the mission went too far to contain. Gamma-12 back in the Holistia Nebula, she seed like she was being sowhat reasonable and just wanted to stay in the Glorva Corp paradise stations, but the Empire wouldn’t entreat with her, and when we failed with our capture plan, Eve had to kill her when the resulting fight broke out.
Here on Congoren, it seed like Gamma-11 was a sowhat peaceful god; while walking through the temple and seeing all the offerings, I didn’t see any sign of sacrifices—no bones or remains or anything sinister like that. Sure, Gamma-11 could’ve just consud all the biomass, leaving nothing behind, but I hadn’t even seen sothing that looked like a sacrificial chamber.
From what I could tell, the New Light was helping develop the primitive gojens with the creation of this new settlent centered around the temple—a net gain for everyone overall.
But Eve always freaked out when she got around her sisters, and I wasn’t sure if it was an instinctual thing—like a violently competitive or territorial nature, but with Eve in her devolved state, I doubted there would be any way we could reason with her.
Eve tangled with her sister with a flurry of claws before throwing her higher into the air, then snapped after her, flying in wide sweeps to build up speed, soaring across the sky before hooking back to slam into Gamma-11 again.
Over and over she flew back and forth, slamming Gamma-11 all over the place, hitting her in one direction before throwing her back in the next. Eve was snarling the entire ti, anwhile Gamma-11 was wling and pleading with her big sister.
While they were busy locked in arial combat, the ground around the temple was clear of danger once again, and I was distracted from watching the fight when I heard the rumblings of people shouting nearby.
I looked back down to see the gojens were returning to the temple, finally over their initial fear I imagined, carrying torches and clubs and so farming tools with them—an angry mob with no real weapons.
I rushed over to confront the mob, to try and keep them clear of danger.
“It’s not safe here, get back—back!” I insisted, waving my arms out wildly.
I must’ve looked like a madman, and the gojens recoiled when they saw at first, but the large crowd wasn’t going to settle down that easily.
“Who are you, what have you done to our temple and the praetor?” A gojen in front demanded, waving his torch after .
“What happened to the New Light?” Another gojen pressed.
“Leave, leave now, all of you!” A gojen man insisted, then pointed his hooked-stick up to the sky, “Take your demons and leave us in peace!”
The gojens started agreeing with themselves we needed to leave, getting all worked up so individual voices were impossible to make out from the roar of the crowd.
“You don’t understand, you’re in danger here—” I tried to warn them, moving forward to confront them.
The nearest gojens recoiled again—a few scread and ran away, while the rest recovered and pointed their weapons at .
“Back demon, back!” They insisted.
Even with my enhanced abilities, I wasn’t sure what all I could do against the mob, and it seed to be growing larger every second—hundreds of ard, angry gojens surrounding , trying to expel from their sacred temple grounds.
A few of the gojens started throwing things at then, mostly rocks, a few sharpened sticks. I easily dodged most of the projectiles, then caught up a makeshift spear and snapped it in half to try and make a point. But the gojens had worked themselves into a frenzy now and weren’t even paying attention to what I was doing; the once peaceful rchant people turned violent thanks to alien intervention.
There was another ear-splitting scream above us, and everyone on the ground flinched away from the painful noise. A mont later, Gamma-11 was thrown into the sand with incredible force, right into the center of the mob—killing several gojens who’d been in the way.
The gojen mob lost its fire once again, most of them screaming and running away. A few lingered, holding their makeshift weapons at the ready, but the fear on their faces was obvious.
I looked over to see Gamma-11 crawling out of the sand crater, dozens of injuries on her body regenerating rapidly. She stood upright at the top of the sands, looking after her people desperately as they fled from her.
“Run my children, it’s not safe here—get to safety!” She warned them.
Hang on, was Gamma-11 really trying to protect the gojens—was she actually a benevolent god?
Suddenly, Eve slamd down on the ground beside Gamma-11, and before Gamma-11 could even move a step away, Eve grabbed at one of her ring-wings and ripped it away easily, then tossed it aside as though it were trash.
Gamma-11 screeched angrily in response, then manifested a few more ring-wings and so tentacles to attack Eve. But she was clearly wearing down now, and Eve was picking her apart easily. Eve used her claws and tentacles to rip into Gamma-11, pulling her apart and tearing into her like a cat playing with a mouse.
Black ooze splashed on the sands with every wound Eve inflicted, and while I’d seen Eve get violent with her sisters before, I’d never seen her like this; she wasn’t even being playful—wasn’t laughing, she was just mindlessly violent, as though driven by so dark instinct she had no control over.
A shiver ran down my spine, and I wondered once more if my Eve was still in there, or if she was lost to the void a long ti ago.
Eve slamd Gamma-11 into the ground, snapped a dozen tentacles around her, cutting into her to lock her in place with her foot planted on Gamma-11’s neck. Eve leaned down and started clawing after her chest, ripping the flesh away faster than Gamma-11 could regenerate.
I knew what this was, Eve was wrapping things up—she was going for the biomass core.
I rushed forward, hoping there was sothing I could do to stop the mindless violence.
“Eve, stop, we don’t need to kill this—” I started.
But it was too late, Eve dug her claws deep into her sister’s chest and pulled out the black and red pulsing mass that was her core. Gamma-11 weakly made a grab for it, but Eve’s tentacles knocked her away easily. A few tendrils from her chest snapped out to try and reclaim the core, but Eve was faster and cut those away with an easy swipe of her claws.
“No, please…” Gamma-11 trilled weakly, sounding quite pathetic.
“Eve!” I shouted.
If Eve heard she ignored it as she took a large bite out of the biomass core, sinking her fangs deep into the flesh, the blood and ooze dripping down her mouth and chest.
Eve was quick to consu the rest of the biomass core as Gamma-11 shrieked below her, and sa as all the other Predazoans before, Gamma-11—the New Light slowly darkened as her energy was drained away, until her body couldn’t retain its shape and she burned away to ash on the sands.
I looked over at Eve to see her finish her prize, trying to wipe away the gore from her mouth.
I sighed and shook my head, wondering if we were destined to always have these violent confrontations no matter what when two Predazoan sisters t.
I made my way over towards her, “Evie…” I said softly, a sense of regret over how things turned out lingering in my heart.
Eve looked my way, and almost instantly her form reverted to normal—the armor and wings dissolved, and her claws turned to regular limbs once more. She resud her regular form as a pale human/Predazoan hybrid, and I was surprised to see her goth-princess dress solidified on her body like normal—no tatters or anything, elegant and whole sa as it used to be.
Eve shook her head quickly, as though trying to clear sothing away, “Ah, fuck, that’s so much better.” She said in perfectly coherent Common, then turned to and smiled brightly, her yellows eyes flashing with recognition and reason, “Hello darling, sorry for all the trouble lately, but we’ve got things perfectly back on track once again.” She confird.
I was astounded—dumbfounded really. After all that nonsense—a full cycle of her acting like a wild animal who couldn’t even talk, she was back to normal just like that?
I threw my hands out in an exasperated gesture, “What the fuck is going on Eve? What is all this—what are we doing here?”
Eve walked towards , her hips swaying in that enticing way, but she stopped a foot from —still keeping her distance.
“I’m afraid I miscalculated, darling, but don’t worry, thanks to my dear sister’s generous tribute, my mind is back in working condition.” She assured .
I looked around, hoping there was soone nearby who could actually explain what was happening here; there was blood and black ooze in the sand, dozens of dead gojens, their glorious temple was destroyed, and in the distance I could see frantic activity in the camps I could only assu was the gojens getting ready to get the hell out of Coralia.
I lowered my hands, but still held them out in a presenting manner, “Eve, seriously, what the fuck is happening?”
Eve smiled at , brilliant and adoring, looking like that sa silly girl she always was so long along.
“My plan—our plan, my beloved Adam; we’re right back on schedule.” She insisted.
I might’ve loved Eve beyond reason but even I had my limits.
I sighed, but it turned into an angry growl, “Schedule for what?” I demanded.
Eve trilled a cute giggle—as though this was all just a ga to her.
“Why, on schedule to be freed from the Empire of course.”
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