Shay made it back to the cave where The Eater Of Souls dwelled. He was ecstatic to have a chance to prove himself to his dark new God. In the back of the RV he had 18 kids, all of them surely under the age of 16. Hopefully this would help Sĕigo enough to get him ready for the attack, he hoped it wasn’t too late. He put the RV in park after skidding to a stop, bringing up a cloud of dust. His sharp night vision didn't pick up anything out of place, carefully he cracked the window and breathed in deeply of the cool night air. He didn't pick up any strange scent either, good he wasn't too late. He went to the bedroom and slid open the accordion door with a clatter. “Let's go kiddies, one by one, everyone off the bus now. Try anything and you will be dead before you get ten paces. Everyone understand?” There was a collection of muffled sobs and head nods from the gagged group. “Gooooood, now let's get moving!” He bellowed as he tugged roughly on the impromptu ropes, leading the children out of the RV and towards the mouth of the cave. When he got to the cave mouth The Eater Of Souls began to lumber out near the opening. “I have brought you many children master, Will this be enough?” The best stared at Shay with one of its large black eyes deep set in its mottled head. The Eater Of Souls didn't speak, at least not in words, but you could hear and see its will inside the mind. The children began to scream louder through the gags and Shay could smell piss from more than one of them urinating in fear. Shay was instructed to bring them all inside and to line them up by age, youngest first. He followed The Eater Of Souls back into the cave to where the altar had stood for centuries, covered in the dried blood from hundreds if not thousands of victims. Sĕigo was there, sitting on the floor, his back propped against the altar as well. Shay got the children organized by age, putting the youngest at the head of the line. The Eater Of Souls stood menacingly between the captives and any chance at escape. Although The Eater Of Souls may have just looked like a big dinosaur to some of the kids, the evil and malice just poured off of it, undisputable to anyone unlucky enough to get this close.
Lilith made a rather speedy recovery, miraculously quick, even by our standards really. We were in the conference room and Philip was trying to get any details he could out of Lilith before we left in the morning. We would just have to sleep on the flight I guess. Angiola had an overhead satellite image of the surrounding area pulled up and projected onto a white board. “I never really went into this area over here.” Lilith said as she circled an area deep and to the right of the cave mouth. “This is where The Eater Of Souls spent most of its time. I tried to avoid it as much as possible. I don't know how large that area is. Over here, is where Sĕigo had a room I guess you would call it. The cave goes for a few hundred more feet then it just stops.” Lilith finished and capped the dry erase marker. She had drawn the underground area of the cave for us, giving us a great map. Angiola was studying the hand drawn map and building a 3D model on her computer. We would send it over to Manus Patris soon and make sure they were aware of the layout. Apparently Lilith had a lot of spare time and tried to avoid “those freaks” as much as possible. Unfortunately there wasn't an air shaft or an alternative entrance. We gained a ton of information we didn't have before just from the brief 30 minute overview Lilith had given us. Well worth the distraction, and the random bathtub showing up right before I fell asleep. I was still exhausted. I was sure the elders would want to ask several more questions about the area and Philip, with the way his brain was wired, would probably have some gadgets pulled from the archives to take with us in the morning. I stood up and excused myself, the elders knew how crazy my day had been so they didn't mind me sneaking off to get a few hours of sleep. Angiola joined me, which was nice because I always slept better with her at my side. It was crazy how quickly I had gotten used to having her next to me when I fell asleep. It was so comforting to know she was there, and for the moment, all my worries drifted away as I fell asleep.
…This paragraph was removed without the author's knowledge or consent, at the behest of The Holy Catholic church. It described several ritual sacrifices made to an unholy entity. Due to the content being “Far too brutal and or accurate to ever put in print” we obliged. They made a very valid argument for its removal as well as threatening a hefty lawsuit...
It was finished. Shay stood in awe of the power that came with the ritual. Sure, he had killed hundreds of thousands of people throughout the years but that was just to feed. This… And what was accomplished was staggering. Sĕigo was absolutely covered in blood, and there was a faint glow that burnt the eyes if you stared too long. “Thank you my brother, you have proved yourself to me and” he made the incomprehensible sound that was the true name of his God. “We are both grateful for all of your help. Keep an eye on things tonight, I must rest. Wake me before the sun rises, there is a gift we would like to give you, in thanks for what you have done this evening.” Sĕigo said to Shay as he stood up and shook his hand. Shay's nose had started to bleed a little when the true name of their God was spoken out loud. There was power in a true name, and it was NOT shared lightly. This was a monumental acceptance by his new master. All Shay could do was nod and smile before Sĕigo walked off and back towards his room in the cave. Shay walked out into the cold night air, he would stand guard until just before sunrise and hope that The Order wouldn't attack until tomorrow. After the ritual was complete the cave still hummed with a fierce and malevolent energy but he knew it would still take time for Sĕigo to fully mend.
When the alarm went off, it woke me from the first normal sleep I had enjoyed in some time. I woke up feeling refreshed and energized. No crazy dream visions, no hijacking or random meetings with unspeakable evil or its victims. Just the usual random shuffling of the subconscious. I turned off the alarm and snuggled in tight to Angiolas back, gently kissing the nape of her neck and shoulder. She rolled over and smiled across at me “You ready to get this mission going?” She asked me, way too excited for someone who hasn't had their coffee yet. I am not at all a morning person, I can wake up in a flash and fight to the death if I have to… I'm just somewhat “cranky” before my coffee, or so I've been told. By her. Before Coffee. Angiola on the other hand, opens her eyes and is happy as can be and ready for the day. “Mmmm. Yeaaaa I’m ready to put this mission behind us too. Hey, we can start house hunting after this.” I said through a large yawn. Angiola Smiled widely and rolled out of bed. She turned on the coffee maker and ran into the restroom while the machine warmed up. When she was done, I was sitting on the edge of the bed absently rubbing the stubble on my face and wiping the crud from my eyes. I stood up and took her place in the restroom. When I opened the door she had a mug of coffee ready for me, I gratefully took it and kissed her on the forehead before sitting on the bed again and taking a grateful sip of the Coffee. “Thank you sweetheart, I needed this.” Angiola smiled and started making a cup for herself. Over her shoulder she said, “So I was thinking… I think Mouse could use a companion. I mean he's such a sweetheart but he's home alone all day whenever we are on missions. Do you think he would be okay with that?” I was still half asleep and this question was so out of nowhere I really didn't have a response. “Another cat? Hmmm. I hadn't really thought about it. I've always had one at a time, and they have always been named Mouse… They also just tent to find me. I guess if a cat just happened to show up we could take it in?” Angiola finished making her coffee and smiled up at me broadly. “Come with me!” She said with a broad smile taking my hand and dragging me out the door. Baffled, I followed while making sure I had my coffee mug in my other hand.
Still slightly confused but awake enough, having been out of bed for more than a few moments I continued to follow Angiola as we wound our way through the compound. Finally we ended up at the snack bar. The barista smiled at Angiola and greeted her warmly. “Do you still have her?” Angiola asked, excitement clearly in her voice. Melody, the barista smiled. “Yes, in fact I just finished weaning her off the bottle and onto solid foods this week.” Still slightly confused, I looked between the two of them. “You mean she has a kitten already?” I asked incredulously. “Long story short, when I was taking out the trash a few weeks ago I heard a squeaking noise. I thought it sounded more like a meep than a squeak and something told me to look behind the dumpster. That's when I found this little angel!” Melony said as she pulled a cardboard box out from behind the counter and set down for me to see what was inside. There was a small ball of black, brown and grey fur curled up on a plushie blanket, sleeping and purring contently. “I feel a bit ambushed with this one, but I'm not even the slightest bit upset.” I said reaching down and scooping up the kitten in the blanket. I had a huge smile on my face at this point. I held the kitten close as it yawned and looked at me. It had milky eyes and its whiskers were all facing forward, instead of out to the sides. She squeaked up at me and I slowly began to rub behind her ears. “ Awww, Poor thing, She’s blind. What happened?” I asked. Melony nodded and replied “Yes, she was in really rough shape when I found her. She was skin and bones, covered in fleas and had a horrible eye and respiratory infection. We got rid of the fleas, and the respiratory infection but, by the time the eyes cleared up, some of the damage was permanent. She also doesn't really meow like normal cats… She just sorta squeaks or meeps.” I was still loving on the kitten and Angiola had come over to pet her as well. “I have rescued lots of strays over the years, you did a fantastic job! I'm surprised she was able to put on so much weight so quickly, Look at this cute little meat wad!” I said smiling as I held up the now chubby little kitten. Then a broad smile split my face and me and Angiola said at the same time “Meatwad!” and laughed hysterically. “Okay, well… At least we have a name for her.” Angiola said “Mouse and Meatwad, I guess that works. Hopefully Mouse will be sweet to her. Absolutely, but I think we should wait till after the mission to bring her home. Can you look after her for a few more days till we wrap something up?” I asked as I placed the newest member of our family back into her box. All I could do was smile. Apparently Angiola was planning on adopting the kitten since Melony found her a few weeks earlier and had helped out a lot with her care and recovery. Melony had been keeping a close eye on Meatwad and had been making sure the kitten was healthy enough to be adopted. She worked for The Order and knew enough about what went here to keep the kitten with her in case anything came up while Meatwad still needed constant care. Bottle feeding kittens can be very demanding!
After breakfast and a brief planning session we were in the air and headed back to America. Lilith had gotten us some wonderful last minute details about the cave layout. It seemed like we would really only have the three opponents to worry about. Not that a powerful Vamp and a Litch would be easy to take on but hopefully this would be nothing like the army of the damned The Dark Pope had. Unfortunately The Eater Of Souls was still a complete mystery to us. We were all riding in the same cargo plane with all of our gear. Angiola had both her THOR .408 Cheytac as well as the experimental railgun that Thomas had made. It was packed away in a crate as well as 100 rounds of his experimental ammo. He wasn't sure if the 5 spare battery packs would be enough to shoot 100 rounds but it was nice knowing we had it if needed. Thomas also had his trusty Bow and a quiver of ash wood arrows tipped in blessed silver heads. Philip had his Khopesh, Egyptian short swords on his back and of course Simon had the bastard sword he always carried into battle. The elders had rifles and sidearms as well but after centuries of fighting with edged weapons, they would likely be forgotten about in battle. I had my LMT .308 and 9x25 Dillon 2011, matching the one on Angiola’s hip. Philip, Thomas and Simon were all planning on going in with the assault force like last time. Reginald would be on overwatch calling wind and distance for Angiola as well as running his drone package. He had really outdone himself on this one. He had a team of a dozen of what he called his “swarmer's” running on an AI program and friend/foe tagging. Anyone not tagged as a friend was fair game as far as we knew but he could override the fire commands in case of hostages. Each one carried a computer aimed 10.5in barrel AR 308 running on the same Magpul P-mags for ease of reloading if needed. They were currently running on a 50 round drum, so he had 600 rounds before having to reload them. Each of the “swarmer's” also had an explosives package of about ½ to ¾ of a block of C4, wrapped in silver wire dipped in holy oil. The two larger drones, fat man and little boy were considerably larger. Almost the size of a predator drone, basically a smaller version of the A-10 warthog but with a XM5.56 with 6 rotating 10 inch barrels in the nose, and a much larger explosives package consisting of directional mines if it absolutely has to be detonated. Hopefully all of this would be overkill, hopefully.