More images flashed around him in a dizzying kaleidoscope. A wolf leading a lost child out of a blizzard. A wolf guarding a flock of sheep from a mountain lion. A wolf dragging a drowning man from a rushing river.
Zac wasn't paying attention anymore. He ran straight through the illusions, the ghostly images of heroism breaking apart like smoke as he passed through them.
"I know you're a good boy!" Zac yelled into the swirling void. "I'm sorry for not listening when you told me to run from REPENTANCE, but I couldn't just watch you die!"
The montage of canine salvation abruptly ceased. The void slammed back into existence, pitching Zac into absolute, silent darkness once more.
"I'm not a good boy, Avatar."
Zac spun around. Marchosias was standing ten feet away, arms crossed over his broad chest. He wasn't wearing his ruined armor or his singed greatcoat. He was dressed simply in a loose, black linen shirt and dark trousers. His fur looked pristine, his amber eyes burning with a deep, frustrated intensity. He looked incredibly annoyed.
"I am showing you my sins."
Zac blinked, completely thrown off balance. "Your... your sins?" He gestured wildly to the empty air where the visions had been. "You were saving people! Most of them would have died or starved if you didn't intervene! How is that a sin?!"
"That is exactly the point," Marchosias growled.
He closed the distance between them in two massive strides, grabbed Zac by the shoulders, and unceremoniously pushed him down until the human was sitting cross-legged on the invisible floor.
"Just watch," the Wolf Captain commanded, looming over him. "And understand."
The void melted again. This time, the heat was suffocating. Zac sat on the dry, dusty bank of a wide, muddy river. Reeds swayed in a sluggish current. A small, woven basket bobbed along the water, spinning slowly as it drifted downstream.
Inside, two naked infants wailed. They were identical twins, squirming and crying out with thin, desperate voices. The river carried them precariously close to a tangle of submerged roots.
From the reeds, a figure emerged. It was Marchosias. He was dressed in a simple, unadorned white toga, his broad, furry chest exposed. His amber eyes were wide with panic. He didn't hesitate. He waded into the fast-flowing water, his powerful arms slicing through the current, and gently plucked the basket from the river before it could capsize.
He hauled the wailing babies onto the shore and carried them quickly into a nearby, dark cave. The infants didn't stop crying. Their faces were red, their tiny fists clenched in hunger and fear. Marchosias set the basket down on the stone floor and sat beside them. He buried his face in his hands, his broad shoulders heaving as he watched them suffer.
Zac stared, utterly bewildered. What is this? Are those...
In the cave, the wolf-man stood up. He looked down at his own body, his hands trailing over his muscled chest. With a sudden, agonizing shift of bone and fur, he dropped to all fours. The powerful, masculine form melted, morphing into the sleek, terrifyingly beautiful shape of a massive she-wolf. She immediately lay down on her side next to the basket, her belly exposed, and nudged the screaming infants toward her teats with a gentle, motherly snout. The crying stopped as the babies eagerly latched on to suckle.
Zac's brain blue-screened. But... but... but... you're Wolf Daddy, not Wolf Mommy.
Zac whipped his head around to face Marchosias, tears welling in his eyes. "You're fucking beautiful, March. I didn't know you were trans."
Marchosias's fur bristled instantly. "I'm not trans! Demons have no gender!"
"Gender fluid, then!" Zac yelled back, throwing his hands in the air. "What the fuck am I watching?!"
Marchosias growled, dropping to one knee. He grabbed the sides of Zac's head with his massive, calloused hands and forced the human to look back at the vision.
"Don't you get it?!" Marchosias roared, his voice thick with ancient grief. "They were supposed to die! That was God's plan, and I keep defying it! I am unnatural! I should have stayed in Hell, but I cannot help myself! I intervened!"
The image of the she-wolf nursing the twins began to flicker, replaced by flashes of blood-soaked battlefields, expanding empires, burning cities, and rows of crucified men lining cobblestone roads.
"This was the last time," Marchosias whispered, his voice cracking, "before I gained control of myself. After I saw what Rome did... I knew I was only making things worse. For humans. For angels. For everyone. By my interventions."
Zac stared at the horrific montage of Roman conquest, utterly stunned. He looked up at the devastated Wolf Captain. "Are you stupid? Rome was the greatest civilization of all time! They invented plumbing!"
Marchosias howled, a sound of pure, unadulterated anguish that shattered the vision back into the black void. "AND FOR WHAT?! They caused the most human suffering of any civilization of all time! Those damned brothers wouldn't listen to me! Rommy killed Remmy over a fucking hill! A HILL, DAMMIT! Not even a mountain!"
Zac went completely silent. He looked up at the towering, terrifying Demon of Hell, and saw only a heartbroken parent grieving the loss of his children. The Captain was truly, profoundly upset. The weight of his guilt was a physical presence in the dark.
Zac reached up, his hands resting gently over Marchosias's massive paws still gripping his head. "I'm sorry you had to watch them do that," Zac whispered, his voice soft. "Humans are..." He paused, his own recent, careless words and actions flashing through his mind. "...unthoughtful. We just blurt out stupid stuff and make rash decisions without thinking. Without thinking about how it might hurt someone."
Marchosias's grip loosened. His amber eyes searched Zac's face for a long moment before he slowly pulled his hands away. He stood up, taking a heavy step backward, his posture slumping as the fight finally drained out of him.
"So," Marchosias murmured, his voice hollow and defeated. "Do you see? I am despicable."
Zac felt a swirl of profound confusion. What was Marchosias even saying? By saving humans from God's callous, so-called "plans" he was evil? For intervening when someone was hurt? When they were suffering? Zac wanted to say so many things… to scream that saving abandoned babies wasn't a sin, that building an empire wasn't his fault… but his racing mind could only manage to choke out a single word.
"No."
Marchosias closed his eyes, his broad chest rising and falling heavily. "Fine," he whispered. "I will show you my greatest sin."