Chapter Text
2 days later
***
“Zoe, come on! You’re gonna be late!”
Zoe awoke suddenly to find herself toppling out of the totem headfirst, landing upside down slumped against the wall. She blinked as her eyes focused, looking up at Vicky, who was holding the totem, upturned. Apparently, she had managed to shake Zoe out of it in annoyance. She was not amused.
“Seriously?? I thought you could hear us in that thing, how were you still asleep?”
Zoe glanced around the room, seeing the others all ready to leave for school. Amira grinned slyly at Vicky.
“Yeah, seriously, not even Brian can sleep though a wakeup call from Vicky. That’s impressive, girl.” Vicky rolled her eyes back at her.
Zoe shrugged, as much as she could shrug while awkwardly leaned against a wall with her head on the floor. “Oops…”
She rolled to the side and bounced to her feet, before gently taking the totem from Vicky’s hands. She grinned sheepishly. “Sorry, Vicky.”
Vicky’s glare softened before she turned towards the door. “It’s fine. Just grab any stuff you wanna bring, we need to go. We’ll wait outside.”
The others headed out to the front as Zoe grabbed her backpack she’d left to the side, a grungy hand-me-down from Oz. She rushed out into the lounge room, where notebooks and drawing utensils were scattered across every surface. She began stuffing them inside, taking a moment to find everything she wanted. She was sure she should probably be bringing other stuff, but she was in a rush. She turned back towards the small foyer before stopping, seeing the totem resting on the ground.
She looked at the totem for a moment, thinking it over. She frowned, unsure if she wanted to risk showing it off. Would someone recognize it, other than the Coven? Polly and Miranda… She could hide it from them, but was it worth the risk?
Then she shrugged. She took it and started cramming it inside the backpack. It would be pretty useful, after all. What could possibly go wrong, really?
She turned towards the door, pushing it open and chasing her friends out into the street, grinning.
*
It had been two full days since her vision at the school cafeteria and the resulting meltdown. Zoe had spent her weekend reflecting on… well, a lot. Mainly, though, she was thinking about who she was, and what she wanted.
She wanted to go back to school, of course. She’d been shaken by her first day there, but the support from her friends had only reinforced her resolve to become one of them, to properly live like a mortal. Sure, going to an academy was hardly likely to be the highlight of her new eternal life with so much to do in the monster realm, but with all her friends there, she was drawn to it. It felt like a good place to start. She had a whole, ageless life to live, after all – she was hardly in a rush.
She’d been eagerly awaiting a chance to go back. There were people to meet, classes to join – hell, she’d barely had a chance to learn the layout of the place since her confrontation with Joy, which had basically put her out of commission for the rest of the day. Zoe had figured she’d have to wait forever for the school to accept her, but Amira had pulled some strings to get her enrolled over the weekend, no questions asked. Her girlfriend was apparently a “big shot business bitch” who had her thumb on the school if need be. (Zoe suspected there was more to it than that, filing it away in her mind to nag Amira about later.)
She wasn’t sure it was a good idea to go back so soon – she’d assumed after the outburst in the cafeteria, with what Joy had said, everyone would know all about her and Z’Gord, her chance for normalcy ruined. Her friends assured her that nobody cared – disturbances much worse were a constant at the school. Apparently, there were even multiple fistfights and at least one explosion after she had left. In the same lunch hour. The school was just like that. They hadn’t cared when Zoe had first left the totem and almost destroyed the entire classroom building block, either. Zoe had cringed, reminded of the thing she had almost been.
She was surprised to hear that Joy hadn’t told anyone about it herself, either. After the outburst, she’d been keeping quiet about it, even telling people she’d overreacted. Zoe’s friends had just shrugged – Joy must have her reasons. Besides, no one at school liked Joy and her friends anyway, they wouldn’t even listen. Zoe felt a pang of discomfort at that, feeling especially bad for Joy now that she’d protected her (…for some reason). She was sure her chance at life would be over if anyone else found out about Z’Gord.
Throughout all this, Joy’s memories had sat in the back of Zoe’s mind, silently judging her. She didn’t push them away, but she hadn’t ruminated on them much either. She knew that it – the Z’Gord in the vision – couldn’t really be herself, but she could feel it was real. From her sense of Joy’s magic, it must have come from another world – the beast being some other version of what she became. For all her power, timelines and other universes were something Zoe felt distinctly closed off from, yet confident they existed…
She didn’t dwell on it. Her memories from before the totem had always seemed dull and fuzzy; this was nothing new. She figured it was just something that came with the eldritch-to-mortal package, nothing she could really fix. She’d need to talk to Oz about it sometime.
*
Zoe stood on the precipice of the Spooky Academy gate. (How and why they’d changed the name so fast, she had no idea. There was already a new sign and everything!) Her gaze wandered across the grounds, watching the assortment of monsters mingle.
Reminded once again of that fateful memory, she paused. An inkling of second thoughts crept to the forefront of her mind. Was she ready? Did she deserve this? Could she really get away with just taking a weekend break and waltzing back in?
Somewhere, deep inside her, she knew that someday, she’d have to confront her past. She couldn’t just sit around and act like she was completely normal, especially with the Coven around. Joy knew who she had been, what she had done to her. Could Zoe handle that, alone—?
No, she wasn’t alone. Not anymore. She looked ahead to her friends, who’d stopped to wait for her when she fell behind. They were here for her, of course. This was it, then. Ready to start.
She took a deep breath and stepped through the gate, onto school grounds.
Nothing happened. Obviously.
Zoe realized she was making a bit of a fool of herself and hurried to follow her friends up the path. They laughed as she ran up and enthusiastically glomped the closest of them.
“You alright?” Brian looked down at her caringly as Amira elbowed Zoe off her.
“Yeah dude,” she smiled. “Just… happy to be here.”
*
“Students, simmer down, quieten down… Students…”
Zoe filed into the classroom behind Oz as the group found their seats. It was packed full of students, a solid 85% of them causing some kind of ruckus. The teacher at the front of the room spoke in a dull, monotone voice, as if not even trying to manage the class. Her eyes were drawn to a small cluster in the center of the room, the closest friends of her friends, who she’d briefly met the week before – just long enough to learn their names.
A bright red demon in an orange jacket, Damien. He was armwrestling with a werewolf wearing a varsity, and losing, badly. Scott. He was barely even paying attention, high-fiving a blue ghost in a white tanktop. Zoe knew her too well, Polly, who’d been there egging on her friends when they first found her totem. Speaking of which, the pink girl, Miranda, a mermaid, was also here, who Zoe also recognized from her time in the totem. She was cheering Damien on, despite his poor performance. A purple vampire with a man-bun sat in front of the group, who looked to be trying to read. Liam was staring daggers in annoyance at the disturbance behind him. Zoe stifled a laugh at how much of a dork he was. A green gorgon sat behind them at the back of the room, easily ignoring the rest. Vera. She was on her phone. As Zoe watched, she tapped something and pulled the phone to her ear, clearly opening a call.
Brian flopped into the closest seat to the door as Vicky bolted for the seat next to him, immediately pulling out pages of technical notes and a calculator. Those were the only seats in that spot, so Amira and Oz wandered to the back of the class. Zoe went to follow, but stopped. She gazed across the room, remembering her vision from last week.
All these people… She could place their faces, every single one. She’d seen them die—no, no need to downplay it. She’d killed them. Somehow, she’d been someone who would do that. Her resolve strengthened in her mind. That wasn’t who she was anymore. She’d make friends with these people, learn to see them for who they are—
“Zoe? We saved you a seat…”
Zoe blinked and pushed it to the back of her mind. “Right! Thanks, Oz,” she said as she skipped over to him and Amira, ruffling his hair as she passed behind him. She slid into the seat between the two before promptly pulling out a notebook. Amira rolled her eyes. “Seriously, where do you keep all of those?”
Oz watched as she began rapidly sketching on a blank page, drawing small (and impressive, for their speed) faces of the monsters in the classroom around them. She was leaving space between each face and already drawing lines between some with short descriptions. A relationship chart. “Of course.”
“Well, yeah, man. Gotta archive this stuff, it’s critical lore. Even if I wasn’t planning to write a truckload of super hot fics about half the people here – and believe me, I am,” she wiggled her eyebrows at Oz, smirking, “I still gotta do it. It’s a…” she paused, as if looking for the right word. “…moral obligation.” She was dead serious.
Oz snickered at that. “Pfft. Sure. Anyway. You met a ton of people last week, I’m honestly astounded you didn’t start this then.”
“Kinda… it wasn’t really… I was, uh…” she trailed off. Oz took the hint, remembering her state that day, and didn’t dwell on it.
Amira chimed in. “Isn’t that gonna be insanely messy? The lines would add up quick, you’d fill up the space super fast.”
Zoe shrugged. “I’ll figure it out. I can always just draw more lines, right?”
“…sure. Obviously. That works.” Amira decided to just let her do her thing, consequences be damned.
At that point, the monster sitting beside Amira, who had been on a phone call, hung up and put away her phone. It was Vera, who had been speaking rather icily. She sighed in disgust at whoever had been on the other end of the line and turned towards the small group, touching Amira lightly on the arm.
“Sorry, dear, awfully busy, you know how it is. Now, what was it you wanted to—” she noticed Zoe. “Ah, hello.”
Amira elbowed Zoe beamed. “Z! This is Vera, she’s the bad bitch who got you enrolled so fast, aaaaaand…” She paused dramatically. “…my girlfriend.”
“I know, you dork, you told me about her.” Zoe turned to Vera. “Hi! Thanks sooo much for helping me get into the school for real. Cool to meet you! Amira talked you up a ton, by the way.”
Vera smiled slightly in response as Amira looked at her with a sly grin. “Did she now? Did she happen to specifically ask you to mention that?”
Zoe winked. “I’d never tell. Amira told me not to, when she asked me to mention it.”
Vera rolled her eyes but couldn’t stop herself from smiling slightly as Amira jabbed Zoe. “Well, that is good to know. Anyway, don’t mention it, it’s not a burden for someone in my… position. Practically the standard method of entry at this point.” She twirled a snake in her fingers absentmindedly as she spoke. “I can’t say Amira hasn’t showered you with similar praise. Nice to finally meet you, Zoe.”
Zoe’s attention shifted as she saw Vera’s snakes and cooed. “Ohh! They’re so cute! Can I pet them?” Vera rolled her eyes as the snakes hissed at Zoe’s approaching hand. Zoe frowned. The others stared as the ends of her ‘hair’ tentacles then sprouted mouths and hissed back at Vera’s snakes. Taken aback, they settled back near Vera’s head. Zoe stuck her tongue out at them.
Vera blinked. She raised an eyebrow and looked at Amira, lowering her voice. “What kind of monster did you say she was, exactly?”
“I dunno, whatever kind of monster can do that,” Amira said as she gestured at Zoe, who had already moved on and was now playing with one of Oz’s phobias with the end of her tentacle. “Does it matter?”
“Hm. Well. Regardless, if she’s your friend, I suppose I can tolerate her.”
Amira leaned over and elbowed Zoe. “Heh, hear that? That means she loves you. She doesn’t ‘tolerate’ just anybody, y’know.”
Vera couldn’t resist smiling. “Oh, hush, Amira.” She paused. “She’s right, of course. You are rather endearing. I can see how you made friends so quickly.” Zoe smiled sweetly at the compliment.
After a moment, Zoe paused. “…what are we doing here, anyway? Is this a class? Are we meant to be doing something?”
“Homeroom.” Oz pointed to the front. Zoe looked across the room, seeing the adult monster behind the teachers’ desk wearily writing on something, presumably some kind of attendance sheet.
“So, the real classes start after this?”
“Oh, not really. Like we told you, the classes don’t matter at all. They really don’t give a shit at this school, except for attendance at homeroom, for some reason. They’re super stringent about that. You get used to it, though,” Oz continued. “Like we said before, seriously, don’t worry about classes unless you want to, they really don’t care. You can hang out wherever.”
Zoe rolled her eyes. “I still think you guys are exaggerating to make fun of me.”
“I’m serious!” Oz whined. “It’s, uh, weird. They’re obsessed with us being here but don’t care at all if we actually learn anything.”
Zoe noticed as Vera and Amira shared a knowing glance. Zoe really needed to ask Amira what Vera’s deal was with the school.
She felt Oz moving beside her and turned to see Oz was waving at someone coming in the door. Wow, was this still not the entire class? Zoe watched as Oz moved his chair for a lavender werecat in a denim jacket. She ignored the freed space, opting to instead lean on the back of his chair, resting her head on his.
Vera spoke up, “Oh, god, here we go.”
“Heyy, Ozzy~! How ya doin’?”
“Hey Val. U-uh, I wanted you to meet—”
Valerie noticed Zoe before Oz could even finish, snapping her attention to her.
“Hey, it’s you, from Friday! How’s it going?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “I’m Valerie, I run the shop ‘round this school. You like random useless junk? You got cash? …Also, you’ve got a name? It’s Zoe, right?”
Zoe practically saw dollar signs in the girl’s eyes. She was kind of impressed by how enthusiastic she was – hell, she was still going. “Answer in that order please. Here, I’ve got a stock list if you want to take a look.”
As Valerie pulled up a page on her phone, Vera spoke up. “Sister dear, stop it, you’ll scare her.” Valerie waved Vera off, who rolled her eyes in return.
“Anyway. Come ‘round to my store. Got a bunch of stuff you can look at. Some of it might even be usable!”
“Sounds fun, sure! …uh, where is it?”
Valerie gave a sly smile. “Wherever it needs to be, girlie.”
Zoe looked at her, cluelessly. Oz leaned over and whispered loudly. “She hauls a bunch of stuff around in a bag setting up wherever and keeps the rest in a closet. Just wander around until you find her.”
“Don’t give away my trade secrets!” Valerie pouted, flicking a tuft of Oz’s ‘hair’. He laughed as he slapped her hand away, after a moment she laughed too. Zoe smiled warmly at her friend’s comfort. Why hadn’t he told her he had a girlfriend?
Suddenly, Vera’s words clicked in her mind. She turned to Vera brightly.
“Sisters, huh?”
“What, never heard of adoption?
“Yeah, but, that’s cool! Lore! It’s fun! Like, how’d it happen...?” Zoe trailed off far too late, realizing the implications of what she’d said.
Valerie flinched as Vera turned away, hiding her face. Amira took her hand and squeezed it as Oz nervously nudged Zoe. “Zoe… Relax. Boundaries.”
Zoe kicked herself for being so oblivious. She stared intently down at her desk, mumbling an apology. Vera didn’t react. Oz and Amira looked at each other, frankly surprised that she hadn’t already tried to gut Zoe then and there.
The air was tense for a moment, until suddenly, Valerie’s ears perked up and she stared across the room. “Well, on that awful note, gotta bounce. Just heard someone taking out cash, can’t pass up an opportunity like that. Seeya, Ozzy!” She smooched Oz on the cheek and winked at Zoe, before almost pouncing off of the desk into the crowd across the rest of the room.
Vera covered her face. “She is unbelievable, really. One track mind, I swear.”
Zoe looked at Vera. “I…”
Vera waved her off. “It’s. Fine.” She avoided Zoe’s gaze. “Don’t. Mention it again.” She hissed icily.
Zoe shut up and nodded, wisely choosing to leave her alone.
She turned to Oz, thinking for a moment before grinning slyly at him. “Oz! You didn’t tell me you were dating! How long have you been with her?”
“Oh, nahh, we’re just, like… friends… She’s not into me that way.”
Zoe stared at Oz, for once truly speechless.
“You— What? You’re kidding—WHAT??”
“What? We just hang out…”
Zoe turned to Amira. “He’s not—?”
Amira grinned. “He is. COMPLETELY. Serious.” Vera nodded, smile curling slightly.
Zoe was floored, turning back to Oz in disbelief. He fidgeted on the spot. “You CANNOT be—Oz, she kissed you.”
“Well, yeah, it’s like… French… they do that in France…” Zoe shook her head in amazement. Amira spoke up.
“Yeah, he’s always like this. She even gives him free shit. Hell, she gave him a discount on your damn to—” Amira paused, suddenly acutely aware of Vera. “Uh. THE totem. That we gifted you. Your totem. Yes.”
Oz rolled his eyes. “Come on, Amira, that’s not special. She even gives those gifts to everyone.”
Vera glanced up from her phone. “You’re aware the ‘gifts’ are just unwanted stock she can’t normally sell, yes? It’s basically garbage half the time.”
“Well…”
“She’s the stingiest motherfucker in the school, Oz! She asked Zoe for her wallet before her name! Her giving you free stuff is insane!”
Oz crossed his arms. “I think you guys are just exaggerating.” Everyone, even Vera, groaned, almost cartoonishly in sync.
Zoe paused. “Well, at least this is great will-they-won’t-they material.” She winked and elbowed Oz. “Even I don’t know the outcome!”
Students began to stand and leave the classroom. She hadn’t noticed, but evidently, homeroom was over. Oz stood, eager to end this discussion. Zoe began to follow everyone out. She noted what Amira had said -- Valerie had given Oz the totem, huh…? That felt like something to follow up. Maybe she’d learn more about Joy, hopefully without having to see her yet.
*
She attended her first class, but quickly found out that nobody at this school actually used any of their time productively. She’d thought her friends were exaggerating about how little classes mattered, but no. The class was nearly empty, save for a handful of assorted monsters who looked to be treating it like a social club.
An orange slime in a blue cap waved at her as she stood in the door, and Zoe awkwardly waved back, wondering if she had happened to be super early. She checked her phone. Nope. Late, actually. But hey, this was fine by her.
Zoe began to skip off, looking for Valerie and her ‘bag’, but she was stopped as she bumped into someone, knocking her to the ground.
“Oh, sorry, I—”
As she stood, she looked up to see the faces of three witches, looking back at her, one in particular glaring icily at her face.
“…oh.”
“You.” Joy was almost snarling. “What’s your plan here? Just toying with your little ‘friends’ before you rip them to pieces?” Joy jabbed at Zoe’s chest, making her step back slightly. “I know what you are. What you’ve done.”
“Joy…” Faith touched Joy’s shoulder, but she slapped it away.
“You must have amnesia, right? Surely, the only way you’d come back here is not knowing what you did!”
“Yes! I do!” Zoe blurted out in a panic. She slapped herself internally. Way to start a hole she’d never dig herself out of.
But what could she say? That she’d seen everything? That she knew of the suffering she’d forced Joy through, the pain- the sheer trauma she’d caused so directly? She’d never accept that.
“…Yes. I don’t remember anything. I woke up in that funky totem and my friends took care of me, and then I left, and now I’m here. Hi!” She forced faux enthusiasm onto her face. She’d pretty much never had to lie before, she prayed she was doing a good job.
Joy raised an eyebrow. “What was that deal in the cafeteria, then? Staring at us, falling to the ground. Why? Didn’t remember us from before?”
“I was, uh, scared.” Not technically a lie. “Of you.” Ok, THAT was bullshit. “I didn’t know you, but you hated me, clearly. You wanted to kill me, or lock me up, or something. No hard feelings, but uh, it wasn’t the warmest of welcomes?” Zoe smiled hopefully. That was convincing enough, right?
Joy squinted slightly, but Faith spoke up first. “Well I, for one, apologize dearly, Zoe. You seem lovely. Your strength is still somewhat of a risk, but, well…” she thought for a moment. “That’s hardly new. And you seem less volatile than most.”
Hope concurred. “You were real bad before. Like, you have no idea.” Zoe flinched internally. “But you seem cool now, I guess. Cute, even.” She winked, making Zoe blush slightly.
That left Joy.
She shrugged coldly. “I’ve got my eye on you. You cannot possibly know the suffering you’ve brought on others. If ‘this’” – she waved an arm around Zoe’s general form – “is for real, fine. Keep out of our way. If you are deceiving me,” she was hissing her words now, “the lengths I will go to to bring you down will meet no end.”
Despite herself, Zoe was slightly irritated by this. She flicked Joy’s hand away with her tentacle and pointed at her.
“I don’t know what you think I did, or will do, but I won’t, okay? I’m not going to hurt anyone. I have friends. I love them.”
Joy’s eyes narrowed. “Maybe I should just…” Zoe’s eyes widened as Joy’s arms moved in the air, beginning to form shapes and glyphs as she cast—
“Joy!” Hope tugged on her arm, dissipating the spell. “Leave her alone! She gets it.”
“I agree.” Faith said. She smiled slightly at Zoe, the awkwardness palpable. “…I apologize for Joy’s… enthusiasm. Your past self gave her a rough time. …more than us both.”
For maybe the first time since her awakening, Zoe felt truly lost. Not scared, or angry, just entirely unsure what to do. “I…” she said pathetically. The three watched her, Faith and Hope with a mild sympathy, Joy with abrasive discomfort.
“Sorry,” Zoe finally mumbled. She turned away from the three and started walking, pushing open the nearby bathroom door. Joy stepped forward to pull her back, but the other two stopped her. “Chill!” Hope said.
“If she was going to do something by now, you know she would, Joy.” Faith said gently. “Please. Leave her be. We can entrap her again if need be.”
Joy fidgeted on the spot, suddenly appearing a lot less certain without Zoe’s eyes on her. “I just… you can’t…” She couldn’t possibly explain everything. She could never do that to her girls. But they’d never understand the how catastrophic. Maybe the girl was genuine, and she really wasn’t Z’Gord anymore at all, but was her single life worth the risk of everyone else’s…? It was it’s fault! Everything! That monster had hurt so many—
Joy forced back the tears about to form in her eyes, took a shaky breath and turned away wordlessly, the three leaving Zoe to her own devices for now. The other girls watched her worriedly as they walked but said nothing.
Hope glanced back the bathroom door. She knew what Zoe used to be, but still… What could make Joy act this way? Even their biggest, most reality-ending villains hadn’t affecter her like this—hell, she’d slept with half of them. What could Z’Gord – now such a dweeby young girl, Zoe – possibly have done to her? …Joy had always refused to explain. As the group rounded a corner, Hope lost sight of the door, and they were gone.
Zoe stumbled into the bathroom before falling to her knees, shallow breaths taking control of her. She forced herself to slow down, wiping the beads forming in the corners of her eyes and swallowing. She was angry and sad and remorseful all at once. She couldn’t let herself just be pushed around, but she was still so sorry for everything she’d done to Joy. How could she ever say that properly, though? Especially with how antagonistic she was being. Joy was wrong. She’d never hurt anyone.
*
In another time and place. Long ago, in a world that could have been.
Z’Gord drifted through the dark realm, gazing at the wreckage it had brought so long ago. Pieces of planets, small constructions, and every now and then a stray mortal body floated past it as it pushed through the emptiness. Ruling this plane had been so boring – it had fallen to destruction so easily. In such a small universe, it had only taken it a few million years to destroy all significant life. It was itching for something else to do, something, anything, anyone to break. It’s creator, the Nothingness, could probably help it find another realm to target, being such a strong primordial force, but Z’Gord hadn’t felt anything from it since it entered this realm. As it had idled away its half-dozenth eon, it found itself wondering if it could reach the other realms by itself. It quickly found it could not, but it could influence some mortals there, easily bending them to its will and making some of them its devout followers. It willed the new cultists to obey, sending them the components for a powerful tome and hoping they would uncover the summoning magic it would need. Then, Z’Gord lay in wait.
Suddenly, during what felt like a longer millennium, it felt a powerful force calling to it. Could it be…? Had its useless cultists finally helped it with its goal? Z’Gord grinned as a portal dramatically opened in front of it in the vast space. It pulled itself through the gateway, into a new realm, where it found… a school? And a ghost and a werewolf, with its tome? What?
“Z’Gord is here! All praise to the dark lord, YASS!” the ghost exclaimed in a rather annoying tone.
“Wowie, Polly! I never would have expected this!” the werewolf said to the poltergeist. “The sky is bleeding, reality is being riddled by horrors… What an entrance!”
“Yup! You can tell that by all that, Z’Gord is da shit when it comes to pranks!”
Z’Gord hadn’t even noticed these things taking place, apparently they were just an unconscious result of its presence here. It didn’t really know what a ‘prank’ was – surely, they couldn’t mean the juvenile jokes mortals talked about – but it was marginally flattered by the appreciation, and thankful for them for finally granting its free reign on mortalkind once more. It told them it would spare them from the eternal doom facing the rest of this mortal plane – lying through its teeth, of course. It would come back for them once the rest of this planet was eradicated – it would need to finish its job, after all. Their extra time alive was enough reward.
“Dope!” “This means… pranks for life!!” As the two mortal monsters babbled, Z’Gord turned from them and glanced around the school grounds, wondering how to approach the task ahead of it. It wanted to savour the moment, the freedom to destroy once more.
It focused on the first group it saw. A group of four monsters, a djinn, a golem, a zombie, and—
Could it be…? It stared. Between the djinn and the zombie… a lanky, dark-skinned form, staring back in shock. Z’Gord could see inside of the figure, what it truly was. Recognition sparked in both entities at once.
Another Old Deity.
How? Why? This realm was so pristine, yet here was a fellow deity of destruction right under their noses. Had it abandoned their purpose? With all its mass and essence in one place, its entire being was all together, making it ripe for destruction from even weaker forces. Why was it in such a vulnerable state, seemingly by choice? Z’Gord frowned idly as the smaller god looked up, shaking with fear. The other three cautiously watched them both, concerned.
Well, if it was no longer loyal to the cause, and its soul was right there for the destroying–
Z’Gord grinned wickedly inwardly. It reached out, with its mind, into the smaller god, searching deep for its essence, its soul, and found it. As it grasped the soul tightly in its mind, it paused. Why had it left itself so vulnerable? Well, Z’Gord shrugged, a mystery that may never be resolved. It crushed the deity’s soul effortlessly.
Immediately, the smaller deity yelped in agony, before its form collapsed into a shapeless mass on the floor. Its dark body seemed to halfway melt, then quickly dissolved into nothing. A small piece of it seemed to struggle, fighting against the inevitable. It formed a simple white face, squinting in pain for a moment, before the last phobia, too, was taken by entropy.
With his soul annihilated by Z’Gord, Oz’s empty form simply dissipated, leaving his clothes and items to fall to the floor.
Watching this happen, Z’Gord became vaguely aware of the golem shrieking. It turned to see her on the ground in tears, with the zombie and the djinn enraged, about to charge towards it. It raised an eyebrow. Did they really think they could challenge it? Or… had the other deity really fooled them into caring about it that much…?
Z’Gord pushed the idea aside and gave a short laugh, before swiftly grabbing the three monsters and gripping them tight in a tentacle. Then, it slowly squeezed, gradually crushing their bodies together as they screamed in pain. When the noises stopped, they let go, watching them fall to the floor and the light leave their eyes before turning away.
Z’Gord left Amira Rashid, Brian Yu, and Vicky Schmidt on the hallway floor, their broken, bloody bodies discarded alongside a yellow cardigan and white shirt.
***