All of a realm had converged to the plains of Alunra where it was told the humans resided. They had dug large caves and built altars for the humans to worship or loathe. They had prayed pieces of rock for wishes no one heard.
And now, in a land still drained of its mana, they were losing faith.
What had started as a small group, not a hundredth of the beasts assembled in the caves of Utopia, was spreading out.
Feral beasts escaped into the tunnels where they hunted. And with their numbers, and wavering zeal, they tempted others to follow.
But for now, this altar was spared.
The den had a low ceiling covered in stalagtites. Smoke from the burning rocks quickly waned, yet a thin black mist floated around. The altar's offerings had been trampled. Without a priest, all the beasts assembled there could do was wail and rest.
"Look at them." The horned hare mocked. "Helpless killers huddled before a statue."
He had sit near the curled up lizard who, despite trying to ignore him, still answered.
"Kaele can hear you." He warned. "He will call the empress on you."
"Mph. More myths."
The hare grunted. His scrawny body had been cut three times in the previous melee. He touched the wound on his flank, looked at the trickle of black blood on his fingers and scowled.
A bird landed on the heavy fur of his shoulder. The crow's red beak almost touched his fingers as well.
"Sloppy!" That crow scolded. "You are getting weaker by the day!"
"Don't you worry, you doombringer. I will last until the end of the realm."
The three of them had found a spot away from the other monsters, a place where shadows lay heavier. Their own chatter was drown by that of the crowd, talks of survival and revenge, of faith and despair.
So they could talk freely all they wanted, none would pay attention.
"What made you believe in Kaele?" The red beak turned his head on the magnal.
"Everyone knows of Kaele. You are the ones peddling in fairy tales if you think otherwise."
"So you always believed?" The bird insisted.
"Of course."
For the newborns, there never existed a time when that four-horned badger hadn't ruled the land. All told them he was there and they had grown around his statues.
But for the hare and the crow, that was different. And in their silence the fire lizard felt it.
"What about you?" He could not help but get curious. "When did you stop?"
"He asks when!" The crow flapped his wings. "Go on, answer!"
"Lay off. Feral beasts have no need for memories." His glimmering eyes said otherwise. "All I ever believed in is my own potency. If I can kill, I am alive, that's all that counts."
But you were not feral, the magnal wanted to answer.
Though technically it meant those who killed and used magic, more generally it meant beasts that would not even bother to talk. That attacked on sight. Not those who fought to defend others. So he was at a loss with this hare.
"There you have it, Coquin! We have been heretics since birth! And when the realm claims us, that will be it! Why are you all so sad to lose what you never had?"
They were truly talking past each other.
Was this how they thought they could comfort the magnal? Or were they just seeking to alleviate their own misery? Because to that fire lizard, he had lost his spot in a haven. And there was nothing he could do to reclaim it.
So he didn't even bother with an answer. He just wanted to be left alone for the rest of eternity.
"I killed." The lizard found himself saying.
That had practically escaped him. Something of a broken dam in his mind that had spilled all the way out. From buried memories.
"It was long ago. When you kill, your place in haven is forfeit, but they said... they said monsters were saved in Utopia. And I was stupid enough to believe it. I was stupid enough to think... That there was still a place for me..."
"Is it that precious?" The hare's tone had turned annoyed. "We are here, that's all I need. It's more than I ever had before."
No beast was immune to the mana drain. The scrawny beast too could feel his insides deprived and devoured. He too could not help but long for better times, for a realm without that torment.
So a part of him understood too well the delusion and another just needed to stay in denial.
Away from them the crowd was talking about the need to defend Kaele. To strike. To purge. They were regaining heart, rising again. Their beastly eyes burned anew. If they killed everyone else, peace could prevail again.
And they weren't alone.
I had my clay hand over the flames, on the statue's altar. The four-horned beast towered above me. Just a pile of rocks, for those who did not believe.
Not for me. I could, through it, see the same scene repeat at other altars throughout the underground. Beasts by the dozens, by the hundreds, of all kinds, gathering on the background of unbound violence. All coming to the same conclusion.
They would kill. For peace, they would kill. Restore the order and the words of Kaele.
Those who believed in their place in the haven, they would kill. Those who believed the humans were coming, they would kill. Those who believed the humans demanded peace, they would kill. Those who believed the humans were fiendish, they would kill.
"Kaele?"
The rapt approached me. For the others, it looked like that furry beast was talking to the statue. And given how much mana she seemed to have, they let her do.
Some hoped she was a priestess. The mythical priestess, even.
But she was just this cute rapt struggling to come to terms with helplessness. And now, she wanted to hear me say everything would be fine.
"Do you remember the ritual, Caline?" I started to explain. "How they wanted to sacrifice monsters?"
"Mh mh." She didn't want to hear it.
"It never stopped."
My clay hand was on the ritual. I could feel the patterns coursing inside that stone, going deep and stretching far. It was active and growing in potency.
What kind of monster had crafted it? Back in the temple, it seemed to be limited to just that small place. Several beasts had assembled to make it happen and could not stretch it past a den.
But this, this kept growing throughout the caves. This ritual was turning into a curse, attached to the altars erected everywhere in the underground. If there was a mastermind behind it, he was using arts I somehow had never heard of.
No. Somehow, the altars had been imprinted with their followers' magic. That killing intent, mixed with despair. It was reproducing and spreading the ritual all by itself.
"We need to destroy the statues." I stated. "Otherwise, feral beasts will spread and the fallen will fuel the ritual. The humans..."
"Stop it!" She begged.
She really didn't want to hear it? What about saving the realm? This was her chance, her occasion to shine. Because at this rhythm, the chains would all break.
But she put her head against my legs and to the others it looked like she was bowing to the statue. She truly looked like a saintess, that cute rapt.
She muttered: "What happened to your chest?"
I brought my arm to hide the crack.
"Nothing."
"You can't die, Kaele!" Her whispers were only for me. "Not you! If you leave Caline alone, I will never forgive you!"
"I am a golem, Caline. I will be fine. Really."
"You are not fine! You have never been fine! Stop lying, you are breaking down!"
It was hard for her to keep her voice low. Her whole body wanted to scream. How long had she kept it bottled inside? Maybe from the moment she had found me at the mansion. Maybe from even longer before.
Feral beasts don't need memories.
"There are still humans out there, Caline. I am not done serving. I am not going anywhere." My badger mask was turned on her, looking down. "But you, you said you wanted to save the realm. So stop worrying about me. Worry about the realm."
Someone worry about the realm, for once.
"We need to destroy the statues. End the ritual before it destroys everything. I need you to do this, Caline. Save the realm."
She was sobbing at my feet. Not that monsters could really cry.
But what irked me was that she was concerned about me when so many monsters were dying in the caves. Who was crying for them? Just nameless carcasses whose mana would soon vanish.
And here she was feeling sorry for the only pack of clay in the whole realm that the mana drain just would not claim? This was too absurd to fathom.
"Okay..." She finally let out, her little voice choked.
As soon as she turned away from me, the crowd of monsters surged. She was met with a crowd of desperate beasts wanting to know if Kaele had spoken to her. What they should do, what the messenger of humans had ordered.
The only thing they wanted to hear was a licence to kill.
She felt it and stepped back, heaving. They were crowding her, pressing her. This was more attention than she could handle.
"Tell us the words of Kaele!" They insisted.
"He... he wants you to live!"
The crowd went into a frenzy.
"Praise Kaele! We obey his will!" And: "He wants us to kill!"
Because to live meant to reclaim their place in the humans' haven and to do that required purging all in their way who had defied the gods. She could have said almost anything and they would still have reached the same conclusion.
Like a voice whispering to them what they desperately needed to hear.
At least they had let pass, so she hurried away from the cheery, ravenous crowd and met with the small ground in their dark spot.
They too could feel the agitation, their own blood pumping at the thought of more fights. A monstrous thrill that would not let up.
The crow talked first: "You seem to have been given an arduous task, little one."
"Caline! I'm not little, I am Caline!"
"Insolent!" The red beak was flustered. "You are lucky I am so kind! Tell us not what your burden is, that's for the gods only, but how you want us to achieve it."
She rubbed her tiny forelegs, sheepishly.
"I don't want anyone to die. And I know it's not possible, but I want to try! Because it's the realm I want to live in, where people are happy and pet Caline!"
The realm seen by fluffy worms, the true guardians of the realm.
It was the humanoid hare who answered.
"It's easy to kill, harder to save. I like challenges. Let's do it your way."
"What happened to your bloodlust?" The fire lizard reacted.
"Oh, when we fail, I will get my fill. Until then, I will push myself beyond what any monster is capable of."
"So what do we do?" The lizard had got up.
"This!"
And the red beak brought two wings up to show the ceiling. For a moment nothing happened, then a tremor came and shook the rock, brought dust down among the thin black mist. It lasted long enough, and had enough potency for them to realize this was what the crow had in mind.
A tremor. An earthquake. The plains of Alunra still raging after all the years.
It had gotten worse and worse as mana grew and the humans' haven approached. But for the monsters all this had done was help grow their caves in height. So their companion had to spell out what he and his brethrens had come up as an answer.
"Let us collapse Utopia entirely!"