Screams of the Damned

After dropping the Vulpi off in the musical realm, Psyinen rode on her oboe staff like a witch's broomstick. She sealed all the portals so the Omaunukai couldn't sneak into Earth.

"So this is the Archkaos," Elysia walked on the prismatic floor, looking at the nebulae that spiraled across the cosmic space.

"Welcome, my lady!" Enshiron held hands with Elysia as the Vultau masters assembled the Vulpi people for battle. "Dear me, so many of our fluffy companions!"

Some Vulpi were Vultau apprentices with superpowers, while others wielded simple guns, blades, and archery bows. Inveticus and Fermato rallied them in position while Seniel, Yanshi, and Oreic prayed and encouraged the nervous Vulpi.

"I'll be waiting in Choro Emplexion until Mivangeline's project is ready," Psyinen reported.

Oreic hugged her. "Alright, Psyinen. We're counting on you to deliver the package."

After Psyinen left the musical realm, Master Fermato checked his watch. "The solar eclipse has arrived."

The Vulpi felt their hearts drop cold as the cosmic ambiance of the Archkaos shook. A giant shadow of a planet-sized centipede slithered across the prismatic floor below their feet. They watched Sol Eszkeios Epsilon's shadow settle on the opposing side of the battlefield, pooling its side with blood.

"I-It's Shien's blood!" Enshiron shuddered.

Elysia growled, tightening her hand with Enshiron's. "We'll make them pay!"

"Together," Oreic played his saxophone to summon his flaming phoenix. "Enbu Fenix! Burn away all unrighteousness!"

Guardian Inveticus blew into his hulusi for his frost mantis. "Des Manthesia! Freeze the darkness!"

Yanshi drew his bouldered erhu to summon his rock golem. "Awaken from the Earth, Macadion Firma!"

Seniel played her water guzheng to call her twin-headed water serpent. "Levian Exedra! Bring forth the waters of hope!"

"Echelus, my humble steed, come forth!" Fermato's cello transformed into its horse form

As Fermato rode on Echelus, the rest of the Vultau masters played instruments to summon their trusted creatures. War elephants, griffins, and sword-wielding centaurs joined the Vulpi in their imminent war.

"Beautiful summons, my dear Vulpi brothers and sisters," Someone rose from Shien's blood.

The Vulpi watched as a familiar shadowy Vulpi with pentagram pupils, a melted porous mouth, and a necklace of human ribs stood.

"Iagen!" Oreic hissed.

"Good to see my old Vultau friends," Iagen folded his long, skeletal fingers.

Indeavorga and Delmisa rose from the bloody floor beside Iagen.

"My former student," Fermato glared at Delmisa.

"A shame we must fight on different sides, Fermato," The Death Sister barred her jackal fangs.

"Calm yourselves, my friends," Iagen sighed. "Fellow Vulpi! I have a proposition to make."

"We're done with your temptations, Iagen! Enough of your games!" Oreic roared.

"Fools! Listen to me, for I have dire news, dear Vulpi! We have all been deceived!"

"Well, yeah, by you!"

"No! By Fanghui! Our war ritual is a hoax puppeteered by him!"

The Vulpi twitched their ears in puzzlement.

"What are you blabbering about?" Fermato asked. "What's our battle got to do with Fanghui?"

"Don't you see? He's behind everything in the shadows," Iagen clenched a fist. "He pulled the strings to ensure I succeeded in taking Shien, awakening the Prognosticus Trinity, and starting the Revelation Concerto!"

"So Fanghui wanted the Revelation Concerto to happen?" Inveticus raised an eyebrow. "Why would he if it risks the world's destruction?"

"This very war ritual between us! Don't you get it? This is the war Fanghui always wanted. To force us Vulpi to be slaughtered in this battle!" Iagen covered his face in visible distress. "It matters not if the Vultau or Omaunukai win this war because, in the end, we're both on the losing side. Fanghui will kill both of us regardless of this battle's outcome!"

The Vulpi gasped.

"But my dear Vulpi brothers and sisters, it doesn't have to be that way. We don't need to be pawns in Fanghui's scheme," Iagen huffed. "As a Vulpi, I know our race has suffered discrimination and injustice from humans for hundreds of years."

"Listen to me, Fanghui is no regular opponent. Neither Vultau nor Omaunukai magic can destroy him," Iagen then lifted a hand to the Vulpi. "Why don't we forget this war ritual? Let's join forces, and we'll destroy Fanghui with Eszkeios' power! He can bring a world of balance where humans and Vulpi can live together in peace. What do you say?"

As the Vulpi murmured in uncertainty, Enshiron and Elysia stood up. "We'll never join you, Iagen!"

Iagen flinched from their confidence.

"You talk about peace with humans and Vulpi? Look how you treated Shien! You call that peace?" Elysia drew her machete. "You sick devil!"

"True, Vulpi and humans have discriminated against each other since ancient times," Enshiron readied his violin bow. "There are bad eggs like Fanghui, but good humans like Shien exist! Humans and Vulpi can be best friends! We don't need anything from you, Iagen!"

"Ridiculous," Delmisa snarled. "Only with Eszkeios' power can we Vulpi live with humans peacefully. A new world where humans grovel before our feet!"

"You're wrong!" Fermato called her out. "Makiyu made humans and Vulpi to live together in harmony! I told you the Vultau scriptures, didn't I, my once thoughtful apprentice?"

Delmisa and Fermato hissed at each other. Iagen observed the Vulpi people who huddled together against him.

"Even if we join you to stop Fanghui, you'll just take his place as another horrid ruler," Inveticus pointed at Iagen. "Don't think we're fools who forgot about your plans to be the Grandmaster!"

"You heard us, Iagen," Master Oreic frowned at him. "So bring it! We're ready!"

"Hmm," Iagen huffed in disappointment. "I was hoping we could forge a strong alliance to destroy Fanghui and reform the world together, but you all disappoint me."

Above the pool of blood, a dark portal opened within the nebulae. Eszkeios slithered out, terrifying the Vulpi with its planet-sized body dangling with corpses.

Fermato sweated from the colossal centipede that loomed over the Vulpi. "That's the ancient beast..."

"Makiyu, protect us from evil!" Seniel prayed.

"Dear Vulpi! Be not afraid!" Yanshi shouted. "Makiyu is with us!"

"All you damned musical lives," Sol Eszkeios Epsilon glared at the Vulpi with its red eyes. "What do you hope to accomplish here? A quick end to your pointless music? Join us, and live what remains of your pitiful lives. Or stay and perish in hell!"

The pool of blood beside Iagen and the two sisters bubbled as pillars of organs and tumors sprouted. Black-robed Omaunukai wizards wearing skull masks and cone hats awakened, squealing in euphoria as Shien's blood showered them. The Vulpi gagged at the sight.

Millions of Omaunukai wizards drew their crocodile maxilla bows and impaled their right arms. From the cuts erupted bat wings with strings made of muscular sarcolemma fibers. They played their instruments to summon their creatures against the Vultau. Celestial titans made of starry nebulae stomped beside them, each having five human faces crying on their chest and a spiraling black sun as a head.

Black-hooded spearmen with bird skull masks rode on Merkabah chariots made of muscles and eyes, pulled by eight-armed skeletons with giant bleeding pores in their faces. Behind the dark army were flesh-skinned lizards with backs covered with long black human hair. Their catapult tail claws held flaming eyeballs, ready to launch like trebuchets.

Four cone-hatted wizards stood beside Indeavorga, carrying a dark chest with a peacock statue. When they dropped it, Shien's blood ran into each crevice until the empty eyes shone bright red. The Ice Sister played the strings of her harp hands, commanding the horrid peacock, Shaphkiew, to break free with its flailing tentacle heads. Meanwhile, Delmisa played her shamisen to summon Nekhamon into the battle. The fiend rode on its Jindou Yun cloud and wielded a veined Ruyi Jingu Bang staff.

"Break the seal and open the mouth of chaos, Gates of the Condemned!" Iagen blew into his zurna to summon his wall of corpses and necrotic tissue that shouted: "Die!"

"They have so much more followers and monsters than us," The Vulpi people shuddered.

"Have faith, everyone! Makiyu will help us!" Inveticus assured.

Enshiron turned to Elysia and fist-bumped her. "Remember what Mivangeline said?"

"Yeah, believe in God."

"Amen! Let's win this!" Enshiron yelled. "For humans and Vulpi!"

As the Vulpi shouted battle cries, Fermato and Echelus charged at the demons with the centaurs. "For humans and Vulpi! And for Makiyu!"