The One Who Slipped Through

The gates had closed.

The world had cheered.

But not all evil had returned to the fire.

In the Depths of Forgotten Earth

Far from Nouvo Lakay's rebirth—deep beneath the bones of a mountain once swallowed by time—something moved.

It was not Goroth, nor Zhal, nor any beast god that bellowed its rage during the great war.

No, this one had not screamed.

This one had whispered… and slipped.

Its name was once lost, even to the gods. But in a hidden cave where blood ran thicker than water, it fed.

A beast god of rot and rebirth, a crawling god of decay and mimicry—its many names spoken only in hisses:

✦ Luruzh, the Skin Below.

It had escaped the judgment of gods. Slid between cracks like mold beneath a sealed door. It had watched.

And it was not alone.

The Devoured's Hand

Somewhere in the caves, a man knelt.

His body still bore the scars of his betrayal. Ejimo—or what remained of him—stood pale before the crawling altar.

Once Zion's ally. Now, a vessel.

"You were promised vengeance," the voice slithered in his mind.

"And I shall make you more than mortal. Together, we will undo the lie of unity they preach."

The Devoured had not abandoned him.

From the void of the Beast World, it whispered its will—guiding the last fragments of rebellion.

✦ The beast gods may have lost the battle.

✦ But Luruzh planned to win the afterwar.

Building a Hidden Army

While Nouvo Lakay healed, Luruzh seeded new corruption.

✦ In the jungles, animals twisted by his breath began to hunt with too much cunning.

✦ In abandoned villages, hollow-eyed wanderers returned, changed—worshiping rot in silence.

✦ And in the deepest cave of Bassoun, the first of the Skinless Children were born.

They wore human skin like cloaks. Spoke with stolen tongues. Walked in daylight without suspicion.

But inside, they carried Luruzh's hunger.

The First Sign

Back in Nouvo Lakay, Ayola—the priestess of Papa Legba—felt it.

A moment of stillness in the fire.

A dream where Papa turned from the gate, and said only:

"One slipped through."

She woke with blood on her hands and the sigil of warning burning beneath her palm.

The gods had closed the door to war.

But something… something had already crept back in.

And this time, it would strike not as a god…

…but as a whisper among the living