Warning: some graphical descriptions in this chapter.

Two days later, morning, harbor

Grogar and his group were on the Zerzura’s airship harbor, more specifically on one of the empty docks that Grogar requested, and were waiting for Rime since she was having one last conversation with her family before her departure from the city. Their stay in Zerzura was rather uneventful, it was fun seeing the looks of surprise on the faces of the city council with his unexpected visit.

Faust was patiently standing beside the darkly cloaked monarch along with Agate while Cheng was near the edge pointing at the distance and explaining something to Katsu and Jun. Grogar looked at the family that offered their hospitality to the group as they said their farewells to their matriarch, they consisted of many types or subspecies of gryphon but a common trait shared by most of them were the shades of brown and orange on their fur and feathers since most of the family seemed to have features of owls and tigers.

Grogar spied Rime as the white gryphoness hugged a few couples before kneeling down and speak with some of the younger members of the family, some of them crying obviously wanting their grandmother to stay. Then three individuals from the family approached Grogar as Rime was talking to the cubs/chicks, the first was a tradicional male gryphon with the upper half of an owl and the lower half of a tiger, his brownish feathers had an orange hue that reminded Grogar of leaves in the autumn but with hints of gray from age while the second was a female opinicus gryphon having the head of a sea hawk but from the neck down her body was covered in fur, her back and sides with brownish fur plus lighter fur on her front, those were the characteristics of a puma.

These were Rime’s son and his mate, it was interesting that he fell for an opinicus gryphon —gryphons that have the head and wings of a bird but the body of a feline— but the most interesting was the third individual, a pegasus. He was a common pegasus pony with light blue fur and feathers with black mane, he looked out of place in a family of gryphons, if it wasn’t for the baby he was holding, a traditional hippogryph with small light blue feathered wings mixed with dark gray ones, the pegasus was Rime’s grandson-in-law and the father of her first great-grandchild.

“You honor us with your presence here, my Emperor,” said the daughter-in-law as she bowed to the Emperor.

“There are no words to thank you for what you did for all of us and for allowing my mother to accompany during this journey,” said Rime’s son as the two lowered his head.

“It was nothing, besides I like to spend time with my subjects,” said the dark sorcerer as he looked at a couple before letting his eyes wander to the little one in the arms of the pegasus. He couldn't help but reach out with one of his hands, then the little one reached out and grabbed one of his fingers, it took both of the bird-like hands of the little hippogriff to hold his finger as he gazed at the young one with his ruby-like eyes.

The little one just smiled for looking at the Grogar’s eyes before blinking twice and reach out with his tiny hands. The Lord of Tambelon just smiled as well before saying, “This one has great potential and I look forward to what he will be coming to future.”

“We thank you for your kind words, my Emperor,” said the pegasus as Grogar pulled back his hand.

“It was not kindness, it was a statement and it will be up to him to live up to this potential,” said Grogar just as he noticed that Rime was coming back. Then he added, “Be as it may, it's time for me and my group to go.”

The Emperor turned around and walked toward the rest of his group near the edge of the dock where they did not have to wait much longer for the only remaining member of the group to rejoin them.

“So, so where is the Airship we are supposed to board?” asked Katsuo, however, his answer came in the form of Grogar lifting his right arm forward before a golden ripple appeared in the air and its light was so strong that the group had to cover their eyes.

When the light disappeared the group was greeted by the image of a golden vehicle that was similar yet different from a boat but floating in the air adorned with its jewel-like wings that seem to be made of gemstones.

“This is the Vimana, one of the many treasures inside my vault,” said Grogar as he and Faust walked on one of the wings acting as ramp allowing the duo to board the vessel.

The group only came back to reality when Grogar sat on the golden throne and Faust stood beside him and after waiting patiently for the onlookers to take in the image of his vessel. Considering that he was to his subjects what the God-Emperor of Mankind was to the Imperium of Man —thankfully with far less zealotry and fanaticism— it was only right to bask in the adoration of his subjects.

After the five remaining members of the group climbed aboard of the vessel an almost imperceptible shimmer envelope golden vessel. Then, with merely I thought from its owner the wings started to glow with worldly light before unfolding its wings and not long after the vessel flew north with the speed of a shooting star.

To the outsiders, it looked like a streak of green light but the to the monarch in his heavenly throne it was like seeing the scenery move around him while feeling a pleasant summer breeze on his face. Grogar wondered if this was what Gilgamesh felt at the height of the Age of the Gods in his own version of Earth as he soared through the heavens and looked upon his garden with Enkidu by his side.

The dark sorcerer clad in the shadows of a God-killing weapon just relaxed and closed his eyes as the vessel moved in the direction that he had set while his companions enjoyed the trip by observing different aspects of the current situation. The couple from the small town just observed the landscape below them in awe and wonder while the sorcerers of the group observed the wings of the vessel trying to understand its inner workings and mysteries and the warrior dragoness stood by Grogar side opposite to the former student.

This journey was uneventful and short, lasting less than an hour, however, little more than halfway through this path they noticed that the air was becoming cold and their answer came when the landscape below started to acquire hues of white. Then, the Vessel of the Gods stopped in the frozen north where the land was seemingly dead while being made of ice and snow. The feeling of being a great distance being covered was enhanced by the moons hanging in the sky filled with stars, a place that they heard about in passings from books and stories when they were little, the “Roof of the World” a place where the night is eternal and the only indication of time passing was the movements of the moons and starts.

The unquestionable ruler of this world stood from his throne and walked through the red path covered in a luxurious tapestry until he reached the tip of the vessel. From there he just lifted his arm and open his hand where another golden ripple of light made itself known.

The light dissipated from the monarch’s hand leaving a clear cylinder, which upon closer inspection seemed to be made of a strange and yet beautiful crystal, one might even say that it was a gemstone without flaw. Pulling back his arm while muttering words in an unknown language eventually caused floating circles of light to appear and extend from both ends of the cylinder before moving so closely together that they resembled a spear of light.

Stopping his incantation Grogar threw the spear at the frozen landscape and like a bolt of lightning, it struck the ground, with the only evidence of its action being a small crater on the ground.

“Not that I mind the light show but what was the point of doing that?” asked the kitsune before receiving an elbow in his stomach for the rather rude way he asked the question, courtesy of his lover.

“I'm here to fulfill a promise I made after awakening,” said Grogar firmly. Katsu just raised an eyebrow and Jun tilted her head while Rime and Cheng were busy analyzing the spellwork that Grogar used just now, Agate and Faust keep to themselves, the former because she reverted back to her training as a bodyguard and the latter because she knew what promise her master was referring to.

Grogar just kept his eyes on the place where his spell was launched, he didn't mind that Cheng and Rime were trying to unveil how the spells he weaved using a combination of High-Speed Incantation and High-Speed Divine Words —both were abilities from the Nasuverse— worked, in fact, he encouraged their curiosity since it favored the advancement of both magic and technology. As he mused that the ground started to shake and the snow on the top of the nearby mountains fell and became avalanches while the “eternal glaciers” cracked.

From the ground, deep chasms opened before structures made of stone, crystal, ice and bones shot up from the depth and they kept coming out until a great city with a Gothic/Victorian-like architecture that had an eldritch feel to it. That feeling was made even stronger by the Northern Lights and the pale light of the moons, frankly it reminded Grogar of the city of Yharnam from Bloodborne but if it was made of gray stone that had bones integrated into its architecture while also having aspects of the Duke’s Archives from Dark Souls because of the crystal and ice on the structures.

Before anyone could ask any questions from him Grogar jumped from the Vimana and was followed by Faust and Agate, he's simply created wings made of shadows using the Necrosword while the alicorn and dragoness just use their own wings to slow their descent. As soon as his hooves touched the cold ground he silently commanded his vessel to slowly descend from its current position.

While Vimana was descending Grogar closed his eyes, then with his right hand brought the Mother Box up and in contact with his forehead as he accessed the archives inside the divine computer, more specifically the Ansem and Xehanort’s reports. Once he was done he started to weave another spell while Faust and Agate observed the bleak architecture of the newly erected city while the trio stood in the town square and before a great cathedral-like palace with a central clock tower.

*Ping* *BOOM*

Just as Vimana lowered enough for its passengers to jump down, but they opted to stay on Vimana since the barrier protected from the brunt of the cold air here, Grogar opened his eyes and two portals opened in front of him a far distance away following the sound of an explosion, however, upon closer inspection it was noted to be two explosions going off at the same time, he made sure to place the spell he weaved just now on the newly opened Boom Tubes.

From the first Boom Tube came a pony-like figure that was akin to a crystal pony with tree-like antlers but with small and almost unnoticeable ridges on its skin that reminded everyone of the lines present in pieces of ice while the mane and tail were made of the cold mist that indicated low temperatures as well as a cloak that was seemingly made of white and silver rubber-like fabric. From the second Boom Tube a pony-like similar to the first but being black and with the mane and tail being made of smoke instead of mist and the cloak being made of either fabric or plates of various colors on a dark almost black background.

As the two walked toward Grogar more figures started to walk out of the portal and by the time the first two were in front of him they knelt down and all the other followed suit, eventually the whole square was filled with many figures, most of them were pony-like but there were other species in the mix but all of them had antlers of different shapes and sizes. The application of the concepts mentioned in Ansem and Xehanort’s notes helped Grogar transforming the umbrums and windigos into beings of flesh and bone, however, the interesting part was the Nobody and Heartless features that they acquired respectively, he noticed some minor Unversed features on both groups though.

“Milord/Father,” said the umbrum and windigo respectively.

“Am I right to assume that both of you are the leaders and the rest are all who have chosen to come here willingly?” asked Grogar as the Boom Tubes closed and the answer came when the two nodded, so he asked, “Then, tell me the names of my newest subjects?”

“I’m Rabia,” said the umbrum.

“I’m Fon,” said the windigo.

Grogar nodded before two small piles of books appeared in front of the pair, then Grogar said, “I front of you are the books that you two will need to live here and understand your new bodies. My test for you all is to create a prosperous and thriving society in this city in a decade or less.”

“How we do this, father?” asked Fon.

“That’s for you two to discover,” said Grogar before turning around and climb on Vimana, where he saw Jun snuggle against Katsu who was emitting a lot of heat, probability using his kitsunebi or foxfire while Cheng and Rime were simply using their mana to raise their body temperature. Then he looked at Rabia and Fon before saying, “As soon as I leave a barrier will be placed around the city and surrounding land where time will pass faster inside the dome than outside. I will place a deity or more to observe your progress and if you pass and impress them you might get a new patron deity.”

“Is that it?” asked Rabia with disbelief in her tone and Grogar just raised an eyebrow, which prompted her to continued with a certain measure of anger, “You just lead us here to imprison us like the crystal pony did not long ago! What makes this any different from what they did?!”

“Do you expect a King to tend to his garden?” asked Grogar with a matter of fact tone and without waiting for an answer he continued, “Of course not, the garden is tended by the gardeners. This world is my garden and I’m entrusting a piece of it to you, failing to tend to the land you were given simply means that you have no place here. Besides unlike those arrogant and foolish ponies, I’m not doing it permanently.”

“Please forgive her, father, your actions may be harsh and your expectations steep but there are truth and wisdom in them,” said Fon as she got up and placed a hand on Rabia’s shoulder, they may not have known each other for long but they felt a certain degree of kinship toward each other.

“Don’t expect me to cuddle you or hold your hand, I expect all my subjects to contribute to the advancement of Tambelon. I might give clues but in the end, you will be the ones to either walk forward or be left behind,” said Grogar as he turned to look down at the umbrums and windigos present. His cloak seemed to grow longer and become one with the shadow he cast with a moon behind him, which left only his silhouette and ruby eyes visible to all of them and that image sent shivers down the umbrums' newly made spines.

It dawned on all of them that Grogar didn’t save them out of the goodness of his heart, he did so because he expected something from them and while that was undeniable to see how blunt he was surprised them. This was their new ruler, they placed their hopes for the future on him and they discovered that this was not the benevolent god that some legends claimed nor the selfish god that was denounced by others. No, his true nature laid somewhere in-between the myriad of legends and its interpretations that surrounded him and his deeds, that simply meant that if they failed to meet his expectations they would be cast aside, however, they were grateful that he was reasonable and fair despite his harsh words.

“Ten years, and maybe in the future you will get your revenge on the crystal ponies of Mundus,” said Grogar as Vimana ascended not even acknowledging the look of surprise in the umbrums and once it was near the clouds a dome of energy shimmered into existence beneath the vessel as it turned around and head south.

“A little harsh, don’t you think?” asked Katsu as Grogar sat on his golden throne.

“Maybe, but if they will not help Tambelon as a whole then they have no place in this world,” said Grogar before taking the Mother Box in his hand and give another silent command.

*ping**BOOM*

The Mother Box answered his command before disappearing in a small explosion, using its Boom Tube to head somewhere with a mission given to her by Grogar.

“Where did it go?” asked Cheng, curious about the little box.

“She,” said Grogar and Faust at the same time.

“Excuse me?” asked Cheng out of reflex.

“It's 'she' not 'it' and she is a Mother Box, a divine computer capable of capable of storing knowledge as well as coordinates through time and space as well as performing many calculations. She also happens to have a female personally and can convey any and all information in ‘ping’ sounds to her user,” explained Faust and not long after she finished her explanation four new Boom Tubes opened before anyone could ask any more questions.

From the first Boom Tube came two familiar raven-like entities clad in gray robes and silver ornaments, Hungin and Munin. From the second came a anthro male eagle with feather made of ice and light blue talons and wearing a frozen armor with a helmet with two upward horns followed by a similar but female eagle with feathers that had a vivid red hue that reminded everyone of freshly spilled blood but instead of wearing armor she wore many straps of leather.

From the third portal came three female figures, the three were covered in black fur and had heads of jackals with three eyes each but some patches of their bodies were covered either by thick and almost leathery hide or black scales as well as a long snake tail that had the same skin that covered the rest of their bodies; membranous wings that seemed to have scales and feather in random places, some might say that they were cruelly sewed on the wings, said wings had a hand with inhumanly long fingers on the joint as well as bird like talons for feet. The differences between the three were the patches of skin themselves and the color of their eyes, which were golden, purple and silver.

The only clothing they wore was a dirty loincloth made of fur or leather and a bikini top that was made with pieces of skulls that held the skeleton of either a bird or bat over their bellies as ornaments. Another feature that the trio shared was that all three had many battle scars made by all manner of weapons as well as round and protruding bellies that were squirming with the movement of its occupants, which at first would seem out of place on their muscular and scarred yet feminine body but it also seemed to fit their image for some reason.

Lastly, from the fourth portal came a very tall and slender anthro wolf-like being that would be around 18ft tall if it stood on two legs, the wolf was on all four of its unnaturally long limbs that ended in a rather human-like hands and feet, also despite being wolf-like the creature had magnificent and wicked looking antlers. Unlike the others, the creature didn’t have any clothing on but it had long strands of fur that would be more like mane strands than fur were drifting in the air as if they were underwater or being moved by some invisible and imperceptible breeze, these strands of mane-like fur more than made up for the lack of clothing.

Immediately after the new arrivals were out of their respective portals and on Vimana the Boom Tubes closed and the Mother Box floated back to Grogar’s hand. At the same time, Katsu and Jun run to hide behind Faust, Jun was trembling while Katsu growled at the four that were emanating a suffocating amount of bloodlust, thankfully Faust presence helped a lot. Cheng and Rime had magical circles floating near them as they prepared to defend themselves and Agate’s hand was around her weapons.

“I see,” said the ice blue eagle in armor.

“Good to see you are back Grogar,” said the trio of mismatched anthro jackals at the same time, all three of them with a wicked grin that seemed to be on the verge of tearing their own faces open.

“How dare you speak with our Master with such disrespect and familiarity,” said the blood red eagle.

“Like we care about the opinion of a lazy chick who never left the nest,” sneered the golden-eyed jackal.

“Bitch,” said the blood eagle as she ground her beak in anger.

“Your point?” asked the golden-eyed jackal as the other two just dismissed the blood eagle entirely.

“Why you...” growled the blood eagle as she pulled back her hand and summed a whip made of red energy and liquid. The golden eyed jackal just summoned two flaming kukris on her hands and just using the hand of her right wing she motioned for the eagle to come, her belly spasming to the point of being disturbing as its passenger seemed to be eager to claw its way out.

“Enough,” said Grogar with a bored tone as he placed his head on his left hand and his left elbow on the armrest of his golden throne. Despite the boredom on the voice, the tone of finality was enough for the two of them to begrudgingly lower their weapons, however, Grogar would have none of that, so he ordered, “Dissipate your weapons.”

The two did so before the seven stood in front of Grogar, however, they made sure that the blood eagle and the golden-eyed jackal where on the opposites ends, with the raven duo and the ice eagle between the trio and the red eagle while the giant horned wolf opted to stay behind the line because of his greater size. The golden eyed jackal just looked down at her bulging and spasming belly in annoyance, so she placed her hand on the stretched and scarred skin before mercilessly sinking her claws into her own flesh.

“Be quiet, I don’t remember giving you permission to come out yet,” said the golden-eyed jackal flatly as she seemed to grab something with her claw, her passenger stopped before it seemed to withdraw deeper into her body, when she proceeded to pull out her claws blood and amniotic fluid started to leak out the holes that closed soon after. Then she proceeded to scoop the liquid that was dripping down her skin with her bloody hand and brought it to her face, where she licked it clean with her snake tongue. Then she looked at Grogar and said after pulling back her tongue while the tip of her tail appeared over her shoulder and the head of the snake licked any drop she left behind, “Sorry about that Grogar, you know how unruly they can be.”

“I see you haven't changed at all Dimmelith,” said Grogar flatly and ignoring the nauseous look that Cheng, Jun and Katsu had as well as the tense look that Rime and Agate where displaying.

“Would you have me any other way, my Emperor?” asked Dimmelith with a merry tone in her voice as if nothing was wrong.

“Disgusting as ever, demon,” said Faust as she looked away from the trio.

“As if we care what you think, doll,” said the silver-eyed one.

Ignoring the quarrel between the alicorn and the trio, for now, Grogar directed his attention to the two eagles.

“It good to see you two again,” said Grogar.

“Of course my lord, I knew you would return eventually,” said the ice eagle to Grogar.

“Congratulations for yours and your daughter's ascension into the ranks of the New Gods, Rasvelg,” said Grogar and that caused the eyes of the red eagle to light up at her master’s prize.

“Thank you, my lord, your words mean a lot to me and my dear Aethon, I’m sure she will be able to convey her happiness to you on a later date when we are not busy,” said Rasvelg.

“Indeed,” said Grogar before looking at the two ravens and nodded to them. Then he looked the wolf and said, “Lazy as ever Varcolac.”

Grogar’s only answer from the old wolf was a snort of amusement, which prompted said wolf to receive a glare from Aethon and at this point, it wasn’t a hyperbole to say that she was his first fangirl. The sorcerer ignored the glare and looked at Faust and the demonic trio, the hands of the three were twitching to summon their weapons and jump at Faust while said alicorn’s horn was glowing with the chromatic aura of her magic ready for a fight.

“Dimmelith, Innandna, Abyzoyllou,” said Grogar listing the names of the jackal sisters as he looked into their eyes, as his ruby-like eyes met golden, silver and purple in that order. The sisters shivered as each felt the power of their Emperor directed at them if the shiver was of fear, pleasure or both it was up for debate.

“I called you all here because I have a mission for you,” said Grogar.

“You just came back and is already giving orders, I don’t know why I’m not surprised,” said Varcolac to himself not even bothering to hide his sarcasm.

“As I was saying, your mission is to monitor a city that I raised on the frozen north and if it doesn’t meet my standards, to wipe it from Tambalon,” said Grogar.

“And the inhabitants?” asked Munin as he lifted his head a little to look directly into the eyes of his ruler.

“I will find another way for them to contribute to the advancement of Tambelon,” said Grogar without changing his tone or expression.

“I see,” said Hungin and his brother just nodded.

“Not that we mind an assignment from you but what we get out of this?” asked Innandna as she placed her left hand on her hips, shamelessly show off her body to her lord as her silver eyes looked into Grogar’s ruby eyes.

“You slut! How dare you demand a reward from His Majesty when basking in his glory is more than enough! Old God or not I won’t stand for such blasphemy!” shouted Aethon and she was about to summon her whip when her father placed a hand on her shoulder, a glare from him and chunks of ice growing where his hand was told Aethon that if she pushed this any further there would be consequences, regardless of her status as a New God.

“Ignoring the babbling chick, my sister does have a point,” said Dimmelith as she crossed her arms beneath her ample bosom as her golden roaming eyes took in Grogar’s muscular upper body that was exposed and not covered by his black cape.

“Maybe we finally get the chance to have some specimens sired by you,” said Abyzoyllou as she leaned forward showing her cleavage to Grogar as she placed her finger on her lips.

“You will have to try harder,” said Grogar flatly and this caused the three to pout.

“Huh, can’t blame us for trying,” said Dimmelith with disappointment and amusement in her voice, more of the latter than the former.

“Yeah, any being sire by you would make a fine general for our armies,” said Abyzoyllou as she stood.

“Is it because of this?” asked Innandna as she placed her hands on her belly, its passenger seemed to quake in fear as if sensing the intentions of its mother, “We can just as easily go back and pop these out, or better yet, we can just rip them out right here right now if you want.”

"No, it's not because you are already pregnant," said Grogar flatly.

"Good, because it wouldn't have been a problem anyway," said Dimmelith with a matter-of-fact tone.

"If anything, it would've been better for you to sire another while we are already pregnant," said Abyzoyllou with a smile on her muzzle.

"After all, it would have gotten rid of the weaker one and provide the first meal to our precious new pet," said Innandna with a happy tone as she clapped her clawed hands together completely ignoring the terrified unborn that was still trembling in fear.

"Essentially, killing two birds with one stone," said Dimmelith coyly as she looked at Aethon who tightened her fist to the point her claw was digging on her own flesh and she was on the verge of breaking her own beak with how much force her jaw was applying.

“Your disregard for your own offsprings never ceases to amaze me,” said Grogar without changing his expression while the demoness was just amused at the frustration that the female New God was trying to hide.

“And why should we care? They are just soldiers to fuel our armies and drive our campaign forward,” said Abyzoyllou with a dismissive tone.

“Demons,” mutter Jun from behind Faust, which caused her to be noticed by the trio. Jun instincts went overdrive and she froze at the gaze of those nine eyes with a predatory glint.

“Oh, what we have here?” asked Dimmelith and the moment her eyes looked at Jun Cheng teleported to Faust's side to help protect his sister.

“Stay away from my sister,” said Cheng firmly while Katsu hugged Jun protectively.

“How about you give us that moon rabbit, our sons would love to break in a new toy,” said Abyzoyllou with a sickly sweet tone.

“Indeed, strong magic and athletic physique, a fine broodmother if I have to say so,” said Dimmelith in an equally sick and sweet tone.

"If she struggles too much we can always cut off her limbs, besides I'm curious to see that cute face when she is being violated," said Innandna as she licked her own lip in anticipation.

“Refrain from abducting our traveling companions, demons,” said Faust with distaste in her voice.

"And what's stopping us from doing just that?" asked Dimmelith with a coy tone.

"If you do that I doubt that Inari and the New Gods worshiped by the yuètù would let you get away with it in the first place," said Faust confidently.

"I rather not deal with those upstarts bitching, especially considering we just got our lord back," said Abyzoyllou flatly.

“Shame, that male rabbit and that kitsune would make fine additions to our collection of breeders,” said Innandna biting the claw of her index finger as she imagined all the things she would do to those two.

“You know the rules, you can’t kidnap mortal without a good reason and any conflict between gods aside from preestablished duels are forbidden on Tambelon. Failing to follow these rules will result in the destruction either permanent or temporary of the god(s) that participated in such conflict,” started Grogar and this caused Faust to relax and the trio to stop their advances.

“I think we indulged on this waste of time long enough,” said Varcolac in an annoyed tone.

“Tch, you are no fun big bro,” said Dimmelith to Varcolac.

“You asked me what you get out of this mission, how about the worship of two new races?” asked Grogar.

“What new races?” asked Rasvelg and Abyzoyllou at the same time with a serious tone.

“That got your attention?” asked Grogar but the look on all eight of them was all the answer he needed, so he asked, “Do any of you remember the windigos and umbrums?”

A wicked smile appeared on the lips of the trio and the giant wolf, they remember the rather amusing races that were created by Grogar before his war with Faust, they never had a deity on their own and many gods wanted them if nothing else to just rub in the face of the other gods. However, both were essentially children of Grogar and becoming the patron deity of either one of the races would grant them great prestige here in Tambelon.

“North you said?” asked Rasvelg and his answer came when Grogar snapped his fingers and a glowing line appeared in the air going north, immediately and without hesitation, Aethon jumped leaving a trail of dark red liquid-like energy behind as she flew.

Rasvelg followed his daughter soon after and not far behind was the trio of demonic hybrids leaving a trail of black smoke behind.

“Be sure to report back to me when the mission is over,” said Grogar to the raven duo and Varcolac.

“I will be sure to tell that to my sisters,” said Varcolac as two tattered wings formed on his back weaved from his fur before being ignited by a dark orange fire. Then he asked, “You know that they will use that as an excuse for you to impregnate them, right?”

“And so long they fail to meet certain requirements or changing my mind I will keep refusing their advances,” said Grogar.

“They won’t give up,” said Varcolac.

“It wouldn't be them if they did, its simply in their nature to crave and love power,” said Grogar and Varcolac nodded before jumping leaving a trail of fire behind.

“You know that we have no interest whatsoever in the umbrums and windigos,” said Munin, then Hungin continued from where he left off, “So, why call us, Your Majesty?”

“Two reasons: to inform you, your siblings and parents of their arrival and to make sure the others gods become aware of their arrival as well after the mission is done,” said Grogar.

“We are humbled by your trust in us, milord,” said Hungin.

“We shall not fail you,” said Munin before hitting his staff on the ground, which caused a magic circle to appear beneath the two Lords of Change before they were teleported away.

Grogar looked at his right at Faust as she placed a hand on Jun’s back to comfort her and doing the same with Katsu, out of everyone present they were the only ones that were not prepared to deal with demons and evil gods, Agate had prior experience and the fact that she dabbled in magic to the point she prepared herself in case she had to fight creatures of other planes as had Cheng and Rime since they delved deeper into the arcane than Agate.

With a sigh, Grogar used the Necrosword to gently pick up the couple and place them on his lap before placing one of his hands on the small rabbit and another on the kitsune. They stiffened at first but as his strong hands rubbed their backs and occasionally their ears the two instinctually recognized him as a protector, so they relaxed at the contact.

“My lord, may I speak freely?” asked Cheng as he stood in front of Grogar while the Emperor comforted his sister and her boyfriend, both of them looking so small compared to the dark goat, not surprising considering that he was around three times their size. Grogar nodded and Cheng asked, “What hell were you thinking?!”

“Oh boy,” said Rime and Agate at the same time.

Author's Note

Explanation of the names:
Rabia - that's the name of the umbrum in the comics, it also means "spring" in Arab.

Fon - it comes from the Old Norse fönn meaning "snowdrift" and coincidently from the Chinese Fong(風) meaning "wind".

Rasvelg - from the Old Norse Hræsvelgr meaning "the devourer of corpses", its the name of a frost giant that took the form of an eagle and he sits at the "end of the world" or "edge of the heavens" in the north and causes the north wind to blow when he beats his wings in flight.

Aethon - it means "burning one", "blazing one" or "shining one" and it was a brownish red eagle that tormented the Titan Prometheus by devouring his liver.

Varcolac - comes from Slavic languages it parallels the Old Norse Úlfhéðnar "ones in wolf-skin" that was used to refer to their champions, much like the Berserkir for the "ones in bear-skin" and the Svinfylking for the "ones in boar-skin". The term was used to refer to what we call werewolf, but when it went to Ancient Greece it became "Vrykolakas" and as it was translated it became "Vampir" when it was translated back to Slavic and eventually the modern "Vampire".

Abyzoyllou - a combination of Abyzou and Gyllou two female demons that were said to be responsible for the death of babies and pregnant women, normally in the form of miscarriages or complications shortly after the birth and in some versions they feed on them as well. Their greek names are also the origins of the words Abyss and Ghoul respectively.

Dimmelith - a combination of Dimme and Lilith, both of them from the Sumerians and both are said to be responsible for the death of babies and pregnant women as well, also in some interpretation the mothers of an entire race of monsters/demons.

Innandna - a combination of Teteoh innan and Echidna, the first is an Aztec goddess of fertility, death and rebirth that bore and birthed all the stars and the moon as well as the sun while the second is said to be the "mother of all (land) monsters" in Greek mythology, interestingly both of them have an association with snakes.

The design of the windigos and umbrums are a mixture of many depictions of the wendigos from other media with features and clothing from Nobody and Heartless mixed with minor Unversed traits. Side note, Windigo is also a correct name for the Wendigo because of the myriad of ways its name can be pronounced in the Native American languages, Windigo and Wendigo are just the more commonly used ones in English, the latter more so than the former.

Varcolac design is based on the wolf-like beasts from Bloodborne plus the Wendigo designs I found on the internet, unfortunately, I cant show them here because of the gore. Just look for "Cleric Beast", "Vicar Amelia" and "Wendigo" on Google to get the idea. Considering all the inspirations and stories it seemed fitting.

The design of the demonic trio of sisters was inspired by a combination of Lamashtu —another name for her is Dimme— from Pathfinder and Barbatos from DC, here:


The first is a Demon Goddess that is worshipped by Gnolls, medusas, harpies, goblins, minotaurs, hidden human cults, the insane, bugbears, derros, lamias, morlocks, ogres and other monstrous races; she is also known as The Demon Queen, Mother of Monsters, Demon Mother, Mother of Beasts, Mother of Demons, Mother of Perversion, Mistress of Insanity and Grandmother Nightmare; her domains are Chaos, Evil, Madness, Strength, Trickery, Deception, Ferocity, Insanity, Nightmare, Riot and Thievery; and her favored animals include jackals, hyenas, wolves, and deformed or hybrid animals as well as boars and donkeys if you include her Sumerian counterpart.
The second is a dark entity that was responsible for devouring universes that were born from the nightmares of all the inhabitants of the DC Multiverse, however, he betrayed the Forger of Worlds and created his own multiverse filled with the dark universes created from these nightmares, the core of his invasion forces is a team composed of Batmen that went on the deep end for one reason or another, fitting since the bat is his symbol.