Devika's icy gaze widened at the snap of the creature’s jaws where she had stood just moments before. A shudder rippled through her as the realization struck, how narrowly she had escaped death itself. Everything was moving too fast; she felt lost amid the chaos. The beast attacking, Duskbreaker defending, her scrambling to flee, it all blurred together until dizziness overtook her.

The creature laughed. And laughed. And laughed.

Each echo grated against her ears, sending a frigid chill through her veins. Every hair on her body stood on end; she had never felt such electric terror before.

Then, through the noise, Devika heard her friend’s voice, his desperate pleas for the beast to spare her. But what about him?! Would he truly throw his life away for hers? She was a ghost, a wraith, an invisible entity lingering in the background—while he was vibrant, alive, unyielding.

A decision pressed upon her chest like a weight. Run… or stand and fight.

With a trembling breath, Devika turned sharply and surged forward, coming to Duskbreaker’s flank. A snarl tore from her throat as she pressed against his side. If this was to be his end, it would be hers as well. He would not face this terror alone.

She only wished she could speak his name, to thank him for his unwavering kindness. But all that left her was silence. Hollow and eternal.

Plague Effect: 「 Poison water - Insatiable thirst 」

---

The Reaper laughed, a sound so grating, so abrasive that even the wind seemed to be still in its wake. Filit kekal (“Foolish pests,”) he spat, as those hollowed out eyes bored holes into the golden depths of the wolf.

I am not blind, but you will be. Dre Klage purred through a cracking smile, sludge of various globs dripping down his maw with a hideous hiss.

His laughter is a repulsive sound as the Dre Klage steps forward, toying with the pair of wolves as if he were the cat and they were the vulnerable mice. Their fate is sealed, he knows, no matter if he gets them now or later. The Plague always finishes what it’s started.

A foolish sacrifice, he rumbles through a sickening grin, but it will do.

He cranes his head out of the way of snapping teeth, though he knows it will do nothing beyond carry along a cunning ruse. Dre Klage cannot be hurt; his body is not made of the same fragilities bound to mortal blood.

But they don’t know that, and for that reason alone, he smiles. Just as his hollow stare turns toward the snarling female, the one the male had tried to save. How comical it was to see how willing mortals were to sacrifice their lives in the name of righteousness.

Though Dre Klage was growing bored, this game of cat and mouse was drawing out longer than he had wanted. And what better way to excite him than to change up the rules?

The Plague wasted no time in turning its sights on the mottled color female, as its jaws opened wide and aimed to snap in her direction.

Staff has permission to kill Duskbreaker...or not! YOU GET TO CHOOESE!

The situation was insanity, but his mind could not comprehend such evils so quickly. It was a disgusting creature, and although Duskbreaker was taught to try and appreciate all, there was always a limit. There are stories of vile beings, those who wish only death and destruction, written in the darkest of stars. They are warned that they may encounter such beings on their journeys into the unknown, and Duskbreaker felt absolute terror in the face of such a being.

Devika was silent, and part of him wished he could hear her thoughts in these fleeting moments. Yet he did his best to use his eyes to see her, and touch to feel her. That is when he felt her by his side, the two inseparable in this moment. Fur against fur, teeth bared at the disease before them. It was a bond forged in a mutual understanding, and one they refused to let him break.

“Death-thing, begone! This one will not yield!” he declares, feeling Devika’s rumbling beside him. The words of the diseased being touch the air, but Duskbreaker can hardly make it out with the adrenaline rush in his veins. His fur was on edge, so much so one could almost feel lightning between each strand. Muscled were tensed and ready. The end result will be whatever the stars had written.

The diseased being opened his jaws again at Devika. Duskbreaker’s molten eyes moved to watch, widening in shock. The death-thing did not listen to his plea. It did not care about anything or anyone. It just wanted destruction. Duskbreaker lunged forward, seeking fangs to the throat or whatever he could on the being. The smell was wretched. The sights was horrendous. Yet, he lunged forward anyway. He battled his discomfort through danger. He had to. He had no choice. It may be just enough…for maybe one of them to survive.

---

Obviously you have permission to kill Devika xD

Feeling Duskbreaker lunge from her side, Devika’s stomach dropped. She had chosen to stay and fight, she knew that, but watching him truly commit, teeth bared and snapping at the creature, was another matter entirely.

Then she saw the beast turn on her.

Its massive jaws yawned open, blotting out the world. Time seemed to slow, stretching into something heavy and surreal. She stared into its maw, into the rot and plague seething within, and her heartbeat, instead of racing, began to settle. Breath eased from her chest. Stillness washed over her like cold water.

She knew what she needed to do.

Blue eyes hardening with resolve, she crouched, gathering what strength she had, and launched herself toward its gaping mouth. Even as she flew, time crawled on, every inch between them marked by the promise of death. She shut her eyes just before she crossed the threshold of its teeth and accepted her fate.

The bite was immediate, white-hot agony tearing through her flesh. She wanted to scream, to give voice to the pain, but she swallowed the sound, refusing to let that be the last thing Duskbreaker heard from her.

She hoped, pleaded, that he would use this moment to flee. To survive.

If not for himself, then for her.

Plague Effect: 「 Poison water - Insatiable thirst 」

---

A sinister grin grew wide as his jaws widened, teeth dripping with not just the familiar strands of saliva but a darkened sludge that appeared to ooze and hiss as it writhed within his mouth. It almost appeared alive, as his tongue flicked behind his teeth in a heart beat’s notice. His motion, although off-putting to the naked eye, was quick as he made to snap at the spotted woman before him.

Surprise was not an emotion the Plague could feel, but something akin to it flashed like a live wire behind his lifeless gaze as the woman threw herself in the very direction of his sharpened teeth.

A laugh, diluted into a haunting gurgle reverberated in his throat as he felt the warmth of flesh meet the sanctity of teeth.

She was the Plague’s now.

Within the instant and akin to the fluid motion of a waiting trap, the Plague clamped his teeth down and shook the woman, reveling in the way her blood sang atop his tongue.

But his merriment in their parting dance was cut short by the incessant man who continued to yell in their direction. The Plague had only a second to roll those empty silver sockets before he too aimed a blow at Dre Klage himself.

However, unlike his waiting jaws, the man’s teeth would only pierce the impervious layer of sludge and mud that drooped down Dre Klage’s silhouette. The Plague could not be harmed by such simple, mortal strikes. Rather, the hole the man had created slowly filled with what slime and darkened ooze the corporeal body the Plague seemed to wear.

Stupid boy, The Plague laughed as he gave one last shake of the woman between his jaws, before chucking her out of his sights. If she was not dead yet, Dre Klage would return to finish the job.

His gaze narrowed, lifeless and yet haunting as his eyes appeared to sear into the very mass of life that was the man. Run now, he advised with a sickening smile, Or you will meet the same fate as her.

Dre Klage had barely finished his string of words before he launched himself in the direction of the male, teeth wide and ready to latch. The man would have only a second to choose—leave now and survive, or face a death similar to his friend.

His mouth comes in contact with the creature, and he did not see what happened to Devika in that moment. It was all happening so fast. He knew only that he had to give her a chance by fighting this thing off.

Yet it was not to be.

His mouth was filled with sludge, his bite not coming in contact with any flesh. It was almost suffocating in itself. The flavor was horrendous, and he almost wretched as his form fell and naturally pulled away. As he gagged, he saw then Devika’s body being thrown aside. The words of the beast barely touched his ears as he felt his heart freeze, and tinnitus cling to his head.

He did not see the searing stare of the beast. His eyes were on Devika only as he huffed for air, coughing out the nasty sludge of the creature. He knew not if she was dead or alive, but he would not leave her side now.

Perhaps part of him should have felt hopeful. Perhaps he should have ran, and lived to tell the story of what happened here. It was his duty to return home. It was his duty to write this moments in the stars, no matter how painful.

But he was a failure. He could not run. When the creature of mud and sludge told him to run, he instead moved himself forward towards Devika. The large male went to her, his form flung then onto her. The smell of blood was strong now.

”Devika, no! Your light will not go out alone!” he boomed, burying his face into her fur, feeling her warm body against his as he closed his eyes. The fur on his back was on edge, knowing the next few moments with her were to be his last.

”We will keep your stories safe. We will speak your name until it glows. Sleep in the stars now. We will find you in the sky,” he whispers desperately, fear shaking in his voice, the prayer of his people his last comfort in this world of Mythris.

Staff has permission to kill Duskbreaker!

The thrashing of the creature’s head only drove its jagged teeth deeper, tearing at her flesh and sending her world into a violent spin. The next thing she knew, she was airborne, then she struck a tree with brutal force before slumping pathetically to the ground.

Devika could not move. She could hardly breathe as blood began to flood her lungs. She could no longer feel her body, but she had no doubt her sacred life’s blood was soaking into the earth beneath her. Her vision dimmed rapidly until there was nothing left but darkness, her chest convulsing as she began to choke on the crimson filling her throat.

Her ears twitched faintly at the distant exchange between the beast and Duskbreaker. She hoped, desperately, that he would run. That he would save himself. She was only a ghost inhabiting a world that had rejected her so completely. He did not need to share her fate.

As the last of her hearing began to fade, she caught his voice again, this time much closer. She could not understand the words, but she understood the intent.

The final thought she had before slipping into the dark embrace of death was a single word.

No.

---

Can Devika please be marked as deceased? Thank you <3

Plague Effect: 「 Poison water - Insatiable thirst 」

---

Just as the Plague had lunged, so too did Duskbreaker’s frantic form, slipping from Dre Klage’s grip as he had moved toward the spotted woman’s side. The Plague stuttered to a critical pause as his teeth clicked audibly, his silver, lifeless gaze narrowing as he rolled his attention back toward the pair.

Even in death, they still craved such pitifiul proximity toward each other. Mortals, the Plague had thought indignantly, even in the very event of their own death, they still chose another over themselves.

Foolish.

The crackling laughter of the Plague’s ruptured voice broke through the empty space between them, the sound akin to a broken record carelessly thrown to the wind. He stalked his prey with predatory intent as sludge and grime continued to hiss and sob in his wake.

What sun existed in the wide horizon above blanketed his death-defying silhouette, turning him into nothing more than a monsturous outline as he peered over the male’s hunched and broken form—whispering pleasentries to an already dead woman.

Pitiful.

The Plague wasted no time in words—their game of cat and mouse finally over—as his jaw’s widened and strategically latched onto the nape of the whispering man.

He was the Plague’s now.

And in similar fashion to the way he had killed the mottled woman, the Plague gripped tighter as his head shook from side to side, teeth not straying from their impervious grip until the sound of a fading heartbeat could be felt in the back of his tongue.

Mine.

And when it was all over, Dre Klage slipped effortlessly into the ground once more, a laughter painted on the wind behind a suffocating miasma as he left the bodies to rot and decay behind him.