Five Pillars Under Fire
The Hive does not strike wildly.
It studies. It adapts. It hunts.
And now, it brings one specialized Hive Nemesis for each priestess.
AYOLA vs. THE TRANSLATOR WRAITH
Priestess of Papa Legba, keeper of keys and language.
She commands with words, symbols, and the sacred flow of speech. Her voice bends space, guides allies, burns enemies.
But the Translator Wraith is made to twist that gift.
A ten-limbed horror cloaked in black parchment, its whispers corrupt syntax, turning truth into poison. It speaks in stolen tongues. Every command Ayola utters becomes chaos. Warriors falter. Spells misfire.
Ayola bleeds from her ears as the Wraith speaks in reverse Creole.
She roars, "I am not a mouth. I am the gate."
She carves veve into her arms, speaks through blood.
The battlefield rips. The Wraith's voice dies mid-sentence.
Ayola walks through the scream it left behind, cloak soaked in ink-black ichor.
AYOMI vs. THE SILT-SHROUD
Priestess of Baron Samedi, lord of the dead.
Ayomi dances through enemy lines, her rhythm pulsing like a second heartbeat for her army.
The Silt-Shroud hunts her—an entity of quiet erasure, swallowing death and turning it back into raw entropy. It's not alive. It's a wound in the world.
It grabs corpses and reshapes them into tormented ghosts, screaming back to their former comrades.
Ayomi stops dancing.
She stands.
Then begins to sing.
Not a song of mourning—one of dominion.
Bones rise under her feet. Dust begins to weep. The ghosts turn against the Shroud.
"You don't own death," she hisses, as the Shroud implodes under the pressure of its stolen spirits turning on it.
SAEL vs. THE BOND-LEECH
Priestess of Erzulie Freda, goddess of love, beauty, and passion.
The Hive sends a creature of intimacy turned sick: the Bond-Leech. It attaches itself to emotion, amplifies attachment into obsession, then shatters the mind once dependent.
It wraps its tendrils around Sael's allies, making them fight for it, instead of with her.
She sheds her armor. She walks forward in bare feet, hands glowing with rose light.
She touches each fallen warrior—hearts ignite.
The Leech tries to bind her. She kisses it. Whispers: "You don't know real love."
And from her lips, a blade of divine affection erupts, piercing the Leech through its false heart.
THALIA vs. THE FORGEMAW
Priestess of the Seven-Faced Ogou, the war-forged soul.
Thalia is war incarnate—every form of Ogou sings in her veins.
The Forgemaw is built to strip gods of weapons. It devours metal, erases techniques, and counterfeits divine combat.
It charges her, a mechanical beast with black forges in its gut.
She lets it swallow her spear.
It chews. It learns.
Then Thalia steps forward with her fists.
"You thought I was a weapon," she spits. "I am the forge."
She channels all Seven Faces into her strikes: Trickster. General. Drunkard. Brother. Killer. Lover. Priest.
She beats the Forgemaw to slag, hand by bleeding hand.
ELIS vs. THE HUSH
Priestess of Maman Brigitte, queen of the graveyard, guardian of fire and madness.
The Hush emerges: a silent predator that eats noise, joy, and memory. Around it, laughter dies. Fire dims.
The battlefield around Elis turns gray. Her priest-fire flickers.
She walks into the silence.
And then?
She starts laughing.
Mad. Wild. Terrible.
She lights her own dress on fire. Screams her mother's song. Stomps rhythm into the earth with burning heels.
The Hush twitches. Cracks. Then screams, the one thing it was never meant to do.
Elis feeds it a grave flame—and silence dies screaming.
The Five Stand Victorious… For Now
Their breath heavy.
Their bodies torn.
But their souls blaze brighter than ever before.
The Hive has tasted their power.
And it fears.
But it is not done.
In the shadows beyond space, the Hive's Overmind twitches.
It now understands.
This war… will cost it everything.