"What do you mean, Lemony?" the void creature hissed, its form flickering like a dying candle.
"Do you think you can just ignore our offer? Do you have any idea what happens to those who break a contract with the abyss?"
Lemony didn't even blink. He stood there with his new, grey-cracked arms folded across his chest, staring right through the shadow.
He didn't care about the threats or the darkness anymore. The hollow pit in his stomach had finally started to fill with something solid.
The creature began to unravel, its edges fraying into nothingness as the morning light pierced the sanctum.
"You'll regret this! You'll be nothing! You're just a cat in a world of monsters! We made you! We gave yo—"
Its voice turned into a distorted screech before it vanished completely.
"That was probably the void creature you saw," a calm, familiar voice rang out.
Lemony looked around. The fleshy walls of the sanctum were fading into a translucent mist, but the voice was coming from everywhere.
"Malphas? I thought you were dead. I felt you go cold."
"I am dead," Malphas replied, though his voice sounded oddly relaxed.
"I'm not a being anymore. I don't have a heart, and I don't feel the weight of the mountain. I'm just a lingering echo, talking to you because our threads are knotted together. Think of it this way—you're taking care of me now. I'm basically your pet."
Lemony's ears flicked in annoyance.
"Didn't you want to die? You spent an hour telling me to free you."
"Well, technically, I did. I'm not existing, but I'm here. If I get too annoying and I want to rest, you can just puke out my Divine Strand whenever you feel like it. It's sitting right in your gut."
"How did it even get in there?" Lemony muttered, rubbing his stomach.
"Magic is messy. Don't worry about the logistics," Malphas sighed.
"That void thing... it was just a culmination of all the dead, bitter souls trapped in this realm. They feed on negative thoughts. They were trying to control you, making you think you were nothing so you'd do their dirty work. I'm just glad to be out of those chains. It reminds me of the good old times, hundreds of thousands of years ago, before I got stuck in a mountain."
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Outside, the massive, shadowy corpse of Malphas was slowly dissolving into the snow. Sissy touched down near the wreckage of the fort, her wings kicking up a cloud of white powder. She ignored the destruction and marched straight toward the tall, blindfolded wolf standing over the remains.
"Where is the Manul?" Sissy demanded, her voice shaking.
Fenris turned his head slightly, his snout twitching. He let out a soft, humble chuckle.
"The Manul? My, you're quite aggressive. Is he your boyfriend? You've got interesting taste for a bird, I must say."
Sissy's face went red, but she didn't back down.
"Shut up! You're good for nothing but breaking things! Tell me where Lemony is!"
Fenris smiled, a gentle, annoying expression that didn't match the carnage around him.
"He's around. Somewhere. But tell me, little bird, have you seen a Skoll-Wolf nearby? I'm on a bit of a schedule."
"I don't know any Skoll-Wolf," Sissy snapped.
"Well, if you don't know, I'll just have to find him myself," Fenris said, turning to walk away with his hands in his pockets.
Sissy blocked his path.
"How do you even know there's one here? This is a wasteland."
Fenris paused, his blindfold catching the morning sun.
"I got a call. It seems there's a traitor within your little team. Someone told the Scavengers everything."
He started walking again, his heavy boots crunching in the snow. Sissy realized she couldn't let him leave. If he found the camp, Ve would be dead. Everyone would be dead.
She took to the air, her long hair whipping behind her like silken ropes. She dived, wrapping her tresses around Fenris's ankles, trying to anchor him to the spot.
"Fight me!" she yelled.
Fenris didn't even break his stride, though the hair pulled taut against his legs.
"I don't want to. You're not worth the effort, and I'd hate to ruin such nice hair."
----------------------------------------------------------
Back at the ridge, the air felt like it was thickening with dread.
Ve couldn't stop pacing, his boots carving a frantic circle in the light dusting of snow. He kept glancing toward the ruins, his heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird.
"Sissy... she shouldn't have gone back. And the children, they're terrified. I can't just sit here while she throws herself at a General," Ve whispered.
Gunslinger stood nearby, his face grim.
"We can't go after her, Ve. You know that. If we move now, we're just drawing a map for that wolf to follow. We have to stay put."
"But she's alone!" Ve protested, his hands shaking.
Before the gunslinger could answer, the gunslinger stiffened. He tilted his head, his eyes widening as he looked at the horizon. Suddenly, the oppressive, heavy weight that had been sitting on their chests for days simply... lifted.
The air smelled fresh again.
"The exit. The realm is falling apart. The domain anchor is gone. It's open! We can actually leave!"
The kids let out a small, confused cheer, and even Koro looked like he had seen a ghost.
The gunslinger didn't waste a second.
He turned to the group, his face more animated than they had ever seen it.
"Stay here! Do not move an inch from this spot. The mountain's barriers are down. I can portal outside the range now. I'm going to bring my sky ship directly to this coordinate. We're getting everyone out."
"What about Sissy?" Ve cried out, stepping forward.
The gunslinger paused, his hand already sparking with blue energy.
"We'll save her. I'm not leaving anyone behind. Just wait for the ship!"
With a sharp crack, he vanished into a swirling blue hole.
----------------------------------------------------------
Back at the ruins, Sissy was desperate.
She lunged forward, throwing a frantic punch at Fenris's face.
The wolf didn't even move his head. He just raised a hand and caught her fist. The impact felt like hitting a mountain. Sissy let out a whimper of pain as the recoil vibrated through her arm, but she didn't stop.
"Let! Me! Go!" she screamed, trying to kick him.
Fenris sighed, a sound of genuine boredom. He gave her a sharp shove, and she tumbled backward into the slush.
Before he could take another step, a massive, rocky shadow loomed over her.
Fiji had arrived, his stone body cracked and leaking glowing fluid, but his eyes were burning with a protective fire.
"Don't hurt her!" Fiji roared.
"Fiji! Stall for time!" Sissy yelled, scrambling to her feet even as her wings throbbed with pain.
Fenris tilted his blindfolded head. So the Skoll-Wolf is definitely nearby if they're this desperate to keep me here, he thought.
He moved. He appeared in front of Fiji in a blur of silver and gray.
Fiji swung a massive stone fist, manages to deflect the first strike, and actually held his ground for thirty grueling seconds.
He took blow after blow, his stone skin chipping away in chunks, but he wouldn't budge.
Sissy dived in, using her hair to whip at Fenris's arms, trying to distract him. But the gap in power was just too wide.
With a sudden, heavy strike, Fenris shattered Fiji's remaining arm, sending the stone giant crashing into the debris.
Sissy lunged to help, but Fenris moved faster, his fist whistling past her ear and slamming into the ground right next to her head.
The shockwave sent a spray of ice and stone into her face. Sissy froze, her breath hitching.
"Tell me... where is Ve right now?"
Sissy stared at him, her eyes watering, and then she did the only thing she could.
She punched him. It wasn't a strong blow, but it caught the edge of his blindfold, knocking it slightly askew.
Fenris paused, his jaw tightening.
"You really don't learn, do you?"
He went to move again, but then he stopped. He felt the world shift.
The massive, mountain-sized corpse of Malphas was almost entirely gone now, fading into shimmering dust.
The air was clearing.
The exit was open.
I have to find that wolf before they escape, Fenris thought.
He waited, sensing a new presence emerging from the center of the dissolving god.
As the last of the shadows faded, a figure stepped out into the morning light.
It was the Manul.
But he wasn't the broken, bleeding cat from before. His arms were whole, glowing with a strange, stony gray light and webbed with cracks that pulsed with power.
Fenris's eyebrows shot up behind his blindfold.
Did this kid just blazon a god? he thought, a rare spark of genuine surprise crossing his face.
The air was different now. The heavy, suffocating pressure of the mountain had vanished with Malphas's physical heart, replaced by the thin, biting chill of a normal dawn. Inside Lemony's mind, the god's voice was a low vibration.
The gate is open, Manul. Look at what's left of your world.
Lemony stepped through the fading shimmer of the divine corpse. He saw Fiji cracked and broken, Sissy on her knees, and General Fenris towering over them like an inescapable shadow. He didn't think. He just moved.
"Lemony!" Sissy shrieked.
Fenris turned, his snout twitching.
"Well now. You look... significantly more sturdy than the last time I threw you."
Lemony didn't answer with words.
He charged. His new, grey-cracked arms felt like leaden weights, and he swung a heavy fist at the General's chest. Fenris didn't even move his feet. He caught Lemony's wrist, twisted, and drove a knee into the cat's gut.
Lemony hit the snow, gasping.
Don't be a fool, Malphas whispered in his head. Your punches are three times harder now, and you carry my aura as a passive weight, but you are a child playing with a veteran. You cannot kill this man.
Lemony pushed himself up, spitting blood. He looked at Fenris, who was waiting with a bored, almost respectful patience.
"General, stop. Just for a second."
Fenris tilted his head, intrigued by the sheer nerve of the Manul. He stepped back, crossing his arms.
Lemony turned to Sissy.
The moment their eyes met, she lunged forward, throwing her arms around his neck and burying her face in his thick, matted fur. She was shaking so hard he could feel her heart hammering against his chest.
A few days ago, Lemony had been a prisoner, a cat accused of a crime he didn't commit, sent to this mountain to rot. He had been an empty shell, an emotionless figure looking for a purpose. But as he felt Sissy's tears soaking into his fur, he realized the shell had cracked.
"At first we were thrown in here... And now... I can't believe I only met you a few days ago, Sissy."
Sissy pulled back slightly, her eyes rimmed with red.
"Lemony... what are you saying?"
"I'll cherish these memories for eternity. I won't forget we met. Not ever."
"Lemony... no. What are you trying to say?" Sissy's voice went small.
Lemony looked toward the horizon where the sky ship was supposed to appear.
"As much as it hurts, you need to leave. I'm buying the time. The realm is open, the gate is right there. You can escape. That's what you leftovers wanted, right? To finally be free?"
Sissy's face crumpled. She looked exhausted, her wings drooping in the slush. She reached out, wiping her tears against his shoulder as her head leaned heavily against him as if she couldn't support her own weight anymore.
"Don't leave me, Lemony. Please. I don't want you to go. I want you... I need you for me to live. I've always needed you since old man Crysorgo died..."
She blushed through the grime and the tears, her eyes pleading with a desperation that cut deeper than Fenris's punches.
Lemony felt a sharp, stabbing pain in his chest. It was a pain that no healing potion could fix.
"No, please. Sissy, as much as I want to stay... I can't."
Sissy's eyes drifted shut, her body going limp with the weight of her grief and fatigue. She looked like she was fading right there in his arms. Lemony looked at Fiji, who was struggling to stand on his remaining stone legs.
"Fiji. Take her. Bring her back to the ship. I'll stall him here."
Fiji straightened his rocky back, his glowing eyes dim but determined.
"Sir... yes, sir!"
The stone giant reached out, gently scooping Sissy's nearly lifeless form into his massive arms. He turned and began to run, his heavy footsteps echoing through the ruins.
Fenris watched them go, then looked back at Lemony.
"A touching display. Truly. Shall we continue our dance, or is there more poetry to be read?"
Lemony watched the back of Sissy's head as Fiji carried her away. She looked so small, so utterly drained of everything she had. His heart felt like it was being squeezed by red chains again.
I shouldn't have said those words so casually. She's so tired. She's given everything. I... I have to give everything I've got too.
Lemony looked at the General, then back at the retreating figure of Fiji. His heart felt like it was being ripped out of his chest. He couldn't just let it end like that. Not with those half-hearted words.
I have to do it!
What... Manul? Are you crazy? Malphas's voice echoed in his head, sounding genuinely baffled.
Fuck!
I have to tell her everything! I have to give her everything I've got!
Lemony turned his back on the most dangerous man in the world. He didn't care if Fenris struck him down right then.
He ran. He didn't run like a warrior or a ranked creature; he ran like a normal person who was about to lose the only thing that mattered.
"Fiji! Stop!" Lemony screamed.
The stone giant skidded to a halt, looking confused. Lemony skidded into him, reaching out with his grey, cracked arms.
"Give her to me. Just for a second."
Fiji didn't argue. He handed the girl over, and Lemony collapsed to his knees, pulling Sissy's small, tired body against him. He held her so tight it was like he was trying to merge their souls.
"I want to stay with you!" Lemony sobbed, his face buried in her hair.
"I really, really want to. I want to be by your side forever. I want us to live like normal people, away from all of this. I just want to be with you every single second!"
His tears were hot and messy, soaking into her clothes. Sissy's eyes fluttered open, her breath catching in her throat.
"I want it so bad," Lemony choked out.
"But I can't. This world, this Great Bestiary... it hates me. It hates you. it hates everyone in the Leftovers. They throw us away like we're nothing but trash. But we aren't trash! We want to live normal lives too!"
Sissy began to cry with him, her small hands clutching at his fur.
"I just can't stay," Lemony whispered.
"The world won't let me. But Sissy, believe me. From now on, until the moment we meet again, I'll yearn for you. I'll think of you every hour of every day. I swear it."
Sissy let out a broken, wet laugh through her sobs.
"You grumpy cat... I already understood what you meant earlier. Why did you have to say it all again?"
She pulled back just enough to look into his yellow eyes, her face stained with salt and dirt.
"But... I'm glad you did."
Lemony hugged her one last time, a brief, desperate squeeze, before handing her back to Fiji. He stood up, his face hardening as he looked back toward the General.
"Just don't die, alright? Promise me," Sissy said as Fiji started running again.
"I promise," Lemony replied.
Fiji pushed his stone legs to the limit.
High above, a massive, metallic shape descended through the morning mist—the gunslinger's skyship.
Koro leaned over the railing, his face pale as he scanned the ruins.
"Fiji! Over here!" Koro yelled.
The ship hovered low, the boarding ramp hissing open. Koro reached down, helping Fiji hoist Sissy's limp form onto the deck.
The gunslinger was already at the helm station, his hands flying over the controls as the engines hummed with a frantic energy.
"Where's the cat?" the gunslinger barked over his shoulder.
"He's stalling for time." Sissy cried out, scrambling to the railing.
The ship began to rise, pushing for maximum speed.
From the height of the deck, the ruins of Fort Rib looked like a graveyard. Sissy watched as the two figures below became smaller. Lemony was a blur of grey and gold, throwing himself at the Umbral Marshal over and over.
He was getting beaten into the dirt, his body taking hits that would have killed a normal man ten times over.
Sissy gripped the cold metal railing. She had forgotten what it felt like to hope for an escape.
For a hundred years, she had lived in the shadow of this mountain, in the home old man Crysorgo had built for the broken. She had expected to die here.
But this cat... this grumpy, emotionless Manul had opened the door and was now holding it open with his own life.
As long as he survives. That's our promise.
I can leave my home peacefully if he just survives.
She viewed the fight deeper as Lemony was beaten up more. But his perseverance remained up too.
Lemony... Please stay alive. Please stay al—
Below, Lemony raised his grey arms to block a devastating lunging strike. Fenris didn't hit the arms. He moved with a speed that defied logic, his silhouette blurring as he passed right through Lemony's guard.
Squelch.
Fenris's fist didn't stop at the skin. It drove entirely through Lemony's torso, emerging from his back in a spray of dark red.
The promise just shattered.
Lemony's body went limp, sliding forward onto the General's shoulder as his strength vanished. High above, Sissy's scream tore through the sky, a sound so raw it made Koro flinch.
"LEMONY!"
Arc 1: Peak of the First Rib COMPLETED
This was the land of the Peak of the First Rib, a desolate, lonely reach of rock and ice where the world sent its broken people to be forgotten.
A century ago, old man Crysorgo had tried to weave a sanctuary out of the scraps of lost lives. But as the skyship finally breached the mountain's borders, crossing into the open sky, the survivors couldn't look back.
They carried the weight of a hundred years of nightmares, and the memory of a cat who had stayed behind in the dark so they could finally see the sun.