The once mass of flesh that now took the form of a human, hovered slightly above the city of Civilth, the feeling it gave off killed many regular people and paralyzed multiple warriors.
A few seconds later, a loud voice sounded in the area.
"Leave!!" The voice didn't echo, but the authority coming from the sound could be felt throughout the city.
In the next moment, the area around the rip in space was empty, the order had forcefully moved everyone away from the center of the city.
From above, a young looking man stood in front of the human-like monster, the man had black hair and golden eyes, this was the patriarch of Civilth.
The two figures stared at each other, the surroundings began to warp and buildings collapsed, the air bent and the ground trembled, the clash between absolute order and absolute will had begun.
"Gurtm…. Harry… Grrruu" Strange sounds flowed from the mouth of the human-like monster.
"Groer… Lehgg… Leallll…" slowly, from growling sounds, the voice was changing, sounding clearer.
"Lajj… Lee… Leavww… Leave…" The first word came from its mouth.
"Leave…" the human-like monster repeated, its voice now clear like a regular human.
The patriarch's eyes narrowed as it stared at the monster and asked.
"Who are you?"
"T… th… rax… I… I am Thorax" the human-like monster said slowly, then he repeated clearly.
"I am Thorax, Conqueror of the Beast"
"Thorax… Leave this city!" The patriarch said calmly but still with the weight of authority.
"I refuse! I will conquer this land for the honor of the beast god, if you stand in my way then you will die" Thorax said as he unleashed his will, the will to conquer.
"You will conquer nothing!" The patriarch Asriel gave his order empowered by his will.
Then silence ensued, the next moment the world shook.
..
.
Silver moved through the running crowd of scared people, the distorted aura from the gates pressed down on her neck, people laid dead everywhere, people she laughed and joked with now laid lifeless on the cold ground.
She gritted her teeth and ran, ran towards the castle.
As she got there, she met her mother in a gold armor, leading warriors towards the battlefield.
"Mother!" Silver cried out as she ran to her.
"Silver… child, you need to evacuate the city" her mother gave an order.
"No! I can fight, let the ascended warriors evacuate the people" Silver retorted.
"You don't understand child, your father is fighting a Cursed Terror, he can't hold it for long, and the city is overrun with great and corrupted monsters, we need to focus on evacuation" Her mother explained.
Silver pursed her lips and asked.
"Mother… is this it, the end of Civilth?"
"Child... Civilth will survive, we just have to do our best to get the people to safety" Her mother replied calmly.
"Alright mother, I'll lead the people away!" Silver said as she ran to the city.
..
.
Asriel, the patriarch of the city hovered slightly above the ground, in his hand he held a cracked sword and his armour was bloodied, hovering above him was Thorax.
The conqueror's body held no scratches and his body had also formed an armour and a sword similar to the one Asriel wore.
"What… are you?" Asriel stared up at Thorax with disbelief.
"Are you surprised… you will soon know why I was called a conqueror…" Thorax raised his sword and brought it down.
"Stop!" Asriel gave an order and the incoming sword paused, but under Thorax's will, the sword began to fall, albeit slower than before.
Asriel was about to dodge, but Thorax's voice sounded out.
"Stop!" an order came from Thorax and Asriel's body froze in place.
"Move!" Asriel countered and his body regained motion, but the sword still scratched his side.
His eyes locked with Thorax's, this was the third time it had happened, Thorax had used his abilities three times.
"Your ability is to copy others…" Asriel said.
"That's right, my ability is mimic, I can directly replicate things I see, hear and feel, and empowered by my will I can make it even higher than its original" Thorax said as he turned to Asriel.
"Only one order can stand!" Thorax immediately said, Asriel could feel his ability fading, but he focused his will, not to resist, but to negate one word 'one'.
Asriel willed the order from 'Only one order can stand' to 'Only order can stand!', and it worked as he felt his power returning.
"All orders will be delivered equally to both fighters!" Asriel immediately changed his tactics, since he couldn't beat the other party with words, he would trap them within the rules of order.
Thorax felt the change, and moved to direct confrontation, swords clashed, Asriel suffered from the weight of a Cursed Terror, meanwhile every attack he dealt to Thorax was healed in less than a second.
"All orders are ineffective!" Thorax sounded out.
"Mimicry is banned!" Asriel gave a new order, one that bound the cursed terror.
Thorax who was once a seasoned warrior immediately empowered his will, he willed the world to ignore the word banned, and for a moment in the entire city of Civilth, the word 'banned' never existed.
Thorax's power was immediately restored, he lunged at Asriel with his sword and they clashed again.
Steel met steel_
Will met will_
Order met order_
None refused to give in…
"Humans will be strengthened! Monsters will be weakened!" Asriel gave an order that encompassed the entire city.
"I am Thorax!" Thorax gave his order, and willed the world to recognize him as a human.
"Die!" Asriel ordered as he plunged his sword through Thorax's chest.
"Cough… no one has made me bleed in a long time" Thorax said as he coughed up blood.
"Sovereign of Order, I respect your bravery, I will remember you when you are dead… heal!" Thorax said as he ordered his healing abilities to strengthen.
"Fighting is prohibited here!" Asriel said strongly as he stared at Thorax.
"All orders are ineffective!" Thorax countered as he attacked, the battle continued through the city.
..
.
"Move quickly! This way!" Silver said as she stood between the people and a beast, she was currently facing against a corrupted monster, all while protecting the people from the other monsters.
"This is going nowhere…" Silver sighed as she finally killed the corrupted monster.
The next moment, multiple other ones showed up, the gates still produced more monsters and the amount of soldiers were dropping by the minute.
She fought and cleared the way, evacuating the remnants of the city, their numbers dwindling with each attack they encountered but they still pushed forth, in the distance, the earth echoed from the sound of her father fighting.
After moving for a long time, they arrived at the border of the forest, but what they saw there was devastating.
The forest had fractured out of reality and was being consumed by a gate tear, the remnants of the city stared wide-eyed at the end, Silver included, then they saw it.
It was deep, it was dark, it was empty but it felt full, full of endless black mass, and from deep within a feeling came, it felt horrid, primordial. A word as if implanted by the world echoed in their mind 'Void'.
It was a fragment of the void, and they had just witnessed it.
"Aahhhhkkkk!" Someone from the crowd screamed, letting out a vile sound.
"Uughh" another sounded.
Silver turned around and saw the people, the ones she had fought so hard for, they were mutating, turning into beasts and monsters.
"Ugk" Silver held the urge to throw up as tears streamed from her eyes, then she turned to herself.
She saw her body morphing, black scales covering her body, her soul began to contract against itself.
"Aghk" She fell to the ground clutching her chest, she immediately activated her transcendent form to escape the pain, she transformed into a large grey wolf, but the black scales and the pain didn't recede, instead they got worse.
Silver wailed and cried out, but her voice only echoed in the forest, by her side, many people laid dead while others transformed in pain.
"Help…" Silver cried out softly as she felt her remaining consciousness fade replaced by madness.
..
.
In her new form as a corrupted beast, she wandered around the forest, killing human survivors and hunting weaker beasts, the city of Civilth fell as the patriarch died at the hands of Thorax, she wasn't in a state to care about that as she followed her instincts and killed endlessly, after several years of constant killing, she had become a corrupted demon, she was no longer a mindless beast and she had basic thinking abilities, enough to use her aspect and plan, but her madness overshadowed her reason as she kept on the killing spree.
Years later, she encountered a hunter, a tough one, she and the hunter fought, traps were set, spikes were raised, but the hunter and the predator never gave up, until that moment.
The hunter miscalculated, the corrupted demon's attack impaled her gut, as the demon got close to the dying hunter, she saw a face, one that had been embedded in her memory, white pristine hair with sky blue eyes.
'Mother!' Silver's consciousness surfaced from within, she tried to speak, tried to cry out, but only guttural sounds escaped her mouth.
"My… Child…" Her mother spoke softly, her lips red from blood.
"Your fate… will.. find you… here" The words squeezed out of her mother's mouth as blood flowed.
'No no no!' Silver cried as she hurdled nearer to her mother's dying body.
"I'm… proud of… you…" Her mother said as she smiled and the light faded from her eyes.
"Nooo!" Silver howled to the forest as her tears flowed endlessly.
She felt guilt gnaw at her from wi6, as she made up her mind to end it, she would rather die than live like a monster.
She controlled her ability, and lodged a spike right in her chest, where her heart was located. She immediately fell to the floor as she bled out, she turned to her mother and a human voice sounded out.
"I'm sorry mother…" and she fell limp.
In the village, her mother the great oracle had the ability to see the abilities and true names of others, but she never had the ability to see flaws, so most of the warriors spent their time living without knowing what flaw they had, the most obvious ones were kept in check, but the rest were just ignored, and for that reason, Silver had no idea what her flaw was.
A few seconds after the light disappeared from her eyes, Silver stirred, her consciousness returned, her eyes fluttered open, as the light entered her eyes, she desperately wished that the last few years had been a dream, but reality wasn't wishes.
Silver's eyes saw the body of her mother, and memories started flowing back. She remembered everything she did, but for some reason she had no recollection of what she saw at the gate tear.
She stared at her wounds and body, but they had already begun to repair themselves, the black scales on her fur also receded and disappeared completely, but for some reason, she couldn't change back to her human form.
Silver sat on the ground and wept heavily, the deaths and destruction of Civilth weighed heavily on her.
"Mother…" Silver turned to her mother's body with tears, her last words still echoing in her ears.
Silver cried again, then after a while, she buried her mother and walked endlessly, she wouldn't leave the forest because of her mother's words, but she would hunt every beast she encountered, she would kill them, just like she once did, but this time not on instinct, but on purpose.
…
"That was a tragic story" Merlin sighed as he looked at Silver.
"I'm sorry you had to go through all that" He added.
"It's alright, it's been a long time ago anyways" Silver said softly.
"So you guys were hit with a category five gate, even during a chain of nightmare, plus the transfer of your world to the dream realm…" Merlin analyzed the story he heard.
"If that's what it means in your terms, then yes" Silver nodded.
"That's bad… What of the Cursed Terror?" Merlin asked.
"Thorax stays at the peak of the Arcane mountain, he doesn't move around much, but he's very volatile when he does" Silver gestured with her snout to the tallest mountain in the distance.
"So in other words, there's a cursed terror on the mountain top that watches over the forest and kills whatever goes out of line right?" Merlin asked slowly.
Silver nodded to him and he sighed and thanked the gods in his heart.
'it's a very good thing I didn't try to fly across, I would just get erased from the dream realm like that'
Merlin sighed inwardly.
'I guess fated can pull through sometimes'
"So I just have to keep my head down and I can leave right?" Merlin asked Silver.
"Yes, if you need help I can direct you through a safer path" Silver said as she looked at Merlin.
He considered it for a while then nodded in agreement.
"Alright I'll take you up on that offer" Merlin said as he got up from the chair that then crumbled into dust.
"Good, let's go child" Silver then got up from her laying position as the spikes on her fur receded back leaving only the gray wolf fur.
Merlin stared at her rising figure with wide eyes.
"Huge… your like three of me in height, that's like five of Sunny"
"Did you think I was little child?"Silver tilted her head.
"I didn't expect you to be this big, if I ever went up against you as an enemy, I'll definitely just run away" Merlin sighed as he strained his head to look up at her figure.
"That's your business child, Let's go" Silver started walking through the forest as Merlin followed behind her.
The journey of The Coward and The Furry began.