Chapter Text
Such a fascinating book. With so many esoteric secrets here, I can save this town from its moral bankruptcy. Sheriff be damned, this is the way to eternal prosperity.
Millie stumbled through the dank hallways behind the speakeasy walls. Her hooves ached as she wiped some sweat from her brow.
She pushed aside several hanging bodies, their blood smearing onto her. She was almost bemused by the way they were cut up.
She had seen her fair share of chopped-up bodies, but she rarely saw them sawed vertically in half.
Despite this experience, Millie gagged. She was used to blood and guts, but there was something viscerally wrong with these corpses.
Their smell.
Almost beyond inhuman.
She shook her head and turned a corner. The room was filled with crates and barrels, some spilled over with green sludge and rotting food.
Beyond all this, she saw something glowing green underneath a large white sheet.
Several pipes emerged from the shape and connected to several barrels.
It shuddered and pulsated, the light dimming and glowing to each beat.
It couldn't be that easy, could it?
A simple heart?
Octavia’s blood pounded in her ears as she wandered through the warehouse.
Nothing but crates and chains.
She almost called out, but she bit her tongue.
Who knew if that Slasher was hiding behind one of those crates?
Or even in them?
Octavia turned a corner and held up a hand, purple fire flowing in her palm.
Nothing but round windows with bars in them.
As she slunk by each window, she peered into each of them.
While most of these cells were empty, there were one or two of them inhabited.
Octavia winced at their ragged clothes and dry blood.
She didn’t have the time to check if they were alive or not, so she moved on.
Until she stopped at the last cell.
One with a very familiar-looking figure unconscious on the floor.
“Loona?” she whispered.
Millie crept forward carefully with her knife drawn when her hoof hit a nearby bottle. It clanked and clattered across the flagstone floor.
“Who’s that?” a raspy voice called out from beneath the sheet. “Who’s there?”
Millie froze in her tracks.
“It’s you! The imp girl!” the voice hissed. “You want to kill me!”
It panted and wheezed as Millie started to creep forward again.
“You want to kill me! Murderer! Vile murderer!”
Millie grabbed the sheet.
“You want to kill me! You want to kill me!”
Millie yanked the sheet off and stabbed the object beneath.
“Heh. Ha! Hahaha!”
Stolas lay there as another punch landed against his face.
The laughter surrounding him grew louder and louder.
With a growl, he lifted his legs and kicked the imposing figure off of him.
Stolas then grabbed a nearby chain and wrapped it around the monster’s neck, pulling tighter and tighter.
Its gurgles nearly drowned out the king and queen’s cackles.
“There he is!” the king bellowed. “There is a real royal if I’ve ever seen one!”
With a tug, the monster’s neck broke, eliciting more jeers from the crowd as it slumped to the ground.
Stolas glared up at the laughing royals.
“What more do you want?” he hissed. “I’ve already dirtied myself in your pit. What more could you possibly want?”
“Oh, just one final test to see if you’re truly worth your title, my dear plumed prince!” the Queen called out.
“Bring out the challenger!” the king called.
The crowd’s cheers grew louder as a pair of guards opened a nearby tall door.
Stolas only glowered and clenched his fists at the opening.
Octavia blasted the bars over and over again with her flames, the latter soon melting under its heat.
As the molten metal cooled, Octavia carefully climbed through the window and landed in the cell.
She knelt next to Loona’s body and breathed a sigh of relief as the hellhound’s chest moved up and down slightly.
Octavia then lifted Loona and placed an arm across Loona’s back and legs.
With a heave, she tossed the unconscious hound through the window and onto the floor beneath.
Octavia winced at the loud thump against the floor as she climbed back through.
Lifting Loona up again, she draped an arm across the hound’s shoulder and slid Loona’s arm onto her own shoulder.
Octavia then glanced at the hellhound’s face with a raised eyebrow.
‘Odd,’ she thought. ‘What’s that green stuff coming out of her mouth?’
The thing in front of Millie cackled.
The giant head laughed as green foam formed at the corners of its mouth. Its wrinkled skin absorbed her knife as it creaked against the pipes.
“You wanted to kill me! You thought you could kill me!” the head cried.
“You thought you could kill the source!”
It cackled as a nearby barrel shook.
Something within knocked against the walls as the barrel swayed on its base.
It collapsed and shattered against the floor, revealing a soaked figure.
As the doors creaked open, Stolas covered his eyes at the blinding green light blasting through.
He blinked them open and watched the figure stumble through.
Everyone around him just kept laughing and cheering.
Burrowing their way into Stolas’ ears as the king’s voice barrelled through.
“What a marvelous specimen Our Dark Lady has brought for us,” he boomed.
The crowd parted for this challenger, and Stolas gasped.
Octavia gasped for air as she struggled to drag the hellhound throughout the warehouse.
She knew Loona was inches taller than her, but this was ridiculous.
She was a princess for Lucifer’s sake!
…a princess who had lagged in her physical education.
She growled as she imagined the earful she would get from her mother.
Her musings were interrupted by another growl next to her ear.
She turned her head to look at Loona, whose one red eye looked back in fear.
Her other green eye turned up in malicious glee as one side of her mouth twisted into a grin.
The challenger hissed out a chuckle as it stumbled forward, its head bobbling from side to side, split in two down the center of its forehead.
Viscous green blood poured out of the crack and leaked into its grinning mouth.
Sharp teeth gnashed as it stood in the light in front of a horrified Stolas, who could only stare at the blotchy white scars covering the left side of its face.
The figure opened its glowing green eyes and swung its head towards Millie.
She gasped as the thing’s smile widened to its nonexistent ears, skin peeled back as it exposed too many sharp teeth that could fit into its mouth.
Green blood leaked out of a hole in its chest as it stood on its unsteady hooves, its bowtie loose and flopping uselessly around its neck.
“Mox?” Millie whispered.
“Blitzø?” Stolas whimpered
“Run now,” Loona managed to grunt out before her other arm swung out against Octavia.
The thing that was Moxxie hissed out a cackle as it held up a tommy gun.
Millie barely had time to cry out as it pulled the trigger and fired.