Intermission Two IV

Zero returns carrying a severed serpent's head four times bigger than the ones he had to chase down. They had returned to camp, glad that only five to six hours had passed. The image they returned to was a battleground. Black Wing corpses were everywhere, some nailed to trees by spears that Zero recognized as Lokis.

They toss their trophy near the camp and start searching for their partner. Zero followed the trail of corpses to the noise of flesh and bone breaking. At the end of the corpse trail, Zero found a masked figure tearing into the chest cavity of one of the most enormous Black Wings they've seen yet, devouring flesh by the handful.

"Loki..." Zero called out to him but with no reply.

"Loki!" Zero screamed, causing the masked figure to chuck a spear in their direction. Zero didn't dodge as the spear grazed past their cheek. The fabric tore and slowly mended itself again. Loki now stood primed, another spear in hand.

"Loki, please..." Zero's pleading died on deaf ears as Loki charged them a deathly bellow escaping the threaded mask. Zero stood their ground as Loki closed the gap. Loki unleashed a primed thrust that Zero dodged.

The thrust rips through several trees, leaving a gaping hole in some and shattering others—zero spins on the spot, griping Lokis' masked face and slamming them into the ground. Loki struggled as the red and green fabric tore at each other while Zero pulled, ripping it slowly from Loki's head. Screeching as the last thread ripped free, it squirmed in Zero's hand as the red fabric consumed it greedily.

Loki lies still at Zero's feet, pale as ice veins blackening from the ever-spreading toxin. Zero forms red needles from their threads that prick into Loki's skin spreading antitoxins through Loki's body, causing the black veins to recede, but Loki remained pale. His breath was shallow, and the Black Wing's wounds covered Loki's body. Zero could tell these wounds were old by more than a few days.

"z-Zero?" Loki struggled to open his eyes. 

"I told you I'd be back in no time..." Zero replied with concern in every word. Loki laughed through coughs of blood that stained his pale lips.

"y-Yeah, three days quick as a whip this one..." He manages before losing consciousness. Fear gripped Zero's chest. Three whole days had passed? They could have sworn it only had been five or six hours since they had left. Zero hoasts Loki over their shoulder and begins heading back to camp. The area was silent Black Wing corpses littering the camp had been a clear sign to the wildlife to flee. Zero created a campfire and quickly laid Loki next to it.

"Mother Mold mend protocol." Zero demanded, kneeling over a paling Loki.

"THE DEATHLESS, KNOWN AS LOKI, HAS BEEN MENDED." The cold metallic voice replied. Zero watched as the color didn't return to Loki's face. They leaned in to listen for a heartbeat that was at half pace, further tightening the grip of fear.

"Analysis!" Zero demanded.

"RESPIRATORY SYSTEM: Nominal

  CIRCULATORY SYSTEM: Nominal

ENDOCRINE SYSTEM: Critical

NERVOUS SYSTEM: Critical

INTER-

-Mend endocrine and nervous systems!" Zero screamed, interrupting Mother Molds' analysis. Silents filled the air for a moment, and if Zero could sweat, they would be drenched in a puddle of dread. 

"NEGATIVE GOD SIN INFLUENCE DETECTED." Mother Mold finally replied, replacing fear with annoyance similar to Mother Mold. This toxin was attempting to change Loki. Zero makes their way to the serpent's severed head, climbing to the top of it. They form a blade with the Mother Mold before jamming it into the creature's skull.

Lifeless eyes flick open to reveal that one, instead of an iris and pupil, had the mark of God Sin Sloth upon it. A patch of red fabric on Zero's back unfurls to reveal the center where the God Sin Wraths mark sat in the center surrounded by its siblings' sigils.

"Decimate." As Zero says this, the mark of Wrath burns a bright crimson, and the Mark of Sloth on the serpent's eye a deep violet. The head squirmed as the sigil of Sloth began to break down and tear, opening wounds across the undead eye. The parts that were torn away filled in slowly on Zero's twin sigil on their back.

"Desecrate." The serpent's head began to buck and writhe at Zero's words, and the creature's skin violently started to decay and melt as it did everything it could to escape. Its effort was futile exposed bone cracked and waned under Zero's desecration.

"Devour!" Zero screamed out alongside the head that let go a deathly bellow which echoed deep into the cave. What skin and muscle left that clung to bone was devoured by Zero's Mother Mold, leaving nothing but a cleaned skull.

"PORTION OF GOD SIN ACQUIRED: Dream Weaver." The Mother Mold reassured Zero, who could have sworn a lilt of joy danced in its tone. Zero leaps from their skeletal post as it returns to the Ether, becoming specs of stardust in the wind.

"Synthesize cure." Zero said while looking over an unconscious Loki. His skin had turned pale as stone, and his lips slowly blue.

"CURE FOR GOD SIN SLOTH TOXIN

ATTEMPT:" A chilling silence filled the forest as Zero waited for the Mother Mold's response.

"Fail."

"Again." Zero demanded.

"ATTEMPT: Fail."

"Again..."

"ATTEMPT: Fail."

"AGAIN!"

"ATTEMPT:...Fail." Zero crumpled next to Loki, defeated by the hopelessness that dawned upon them. He couldn't have more than mere moments before the mending the Mother Mold was doing would be worthlessly keeping a husk alive.

"SUGGESTION?" Mother Mold's inquisitive tone jolted Zero's attention.

"He won't join the family..." Zero grunted through clenched teeth, anger slowly boiling over.

"SUGGESTION: Creation of a new Family

BRANCH: God Sin Sloth." Zero heart raced at these words.

"Is that possible?" Zero asked, not entirely trusting the Mother Mold.

"MATERIALS ACQUIRED: Essence of God Sin Sloth

QUINTESSENCE ACQUIRED: Corpse of Napa Juma

CONSENT OF DEATHLESS: Loki

REQUIRED." The Mother Mold patiently waited for a reply that wasn't coming from the unconscious Loki. Zero knew what they had to do. The patch of fabric on their back covering their sigils unfurled once more. The mark of Wrath below Lokis eye began to glow a similar crimson to the one on Zero's back.

Red electricity jumped between them as a projection of light formed a bigger Sigil from Loki's eye. The other God Sin sigils began to spin around the center, one on Zeros' back, until a crimson hole took its place. A spectral form of Zero flowed from the crimson hole to the projection Lokis mark created before it all disappeared, leaving Zero unconsciously kneeling next to Loki, their chin resting on their chest.