Vess, Lizard, and Titan saw the attack the moment it happened. Archie leapt from the high-raised shoulders, phasing once more through her light armor, before landing with a stumble.

"No!" Gabby heaved against the Lizard, but the gargantuan Unbound wrapped a single hand around her broad shoulders and laid his burning sword against her gorget. She couldn't best his incredible Strength. "That idiot!"

The Hierei’s armor flicker and faded as she fell to her knees, blood pouring out of her wounds.

"The Hierei is down. Ha!" The Lizard laughed. "Serves her right."

Gabby snarled. "Knock me out! Quickly!"

That drew their attention. Vess and the Lizard both stared at the woman.

"What?" he asked.

"He's coming. I can't be conscious when he's here."

"I do not understand," Vess said. "Is this a trick?"

"I can't explain it or else I'm dead. Please!"

"As you wish." Vess brought the butt of her glaive up into the Titan's jaw. Her head snapped back. Knocking someone unconscious was an art that most could not manage without killing—Dragoons were well trained in its methods. Gabby sagged and her conjured weapon fizzled away.

You Have Defeated Imara, Chosen Of The Gods!

XP Earned!

The Lizard looked at Vess, then back to the Titan, clearly confused, but he did not release her.

Vess pulled back her glaive. "Felix told me to trust her, and if she's right, we have more things to worry about than the Titan."

A scream tore into the air. Vess spun, weaponed lifted, and saw Hierei Quist scratching at her own throat. Light poured out of her, spilling as much as the crimson blood did from her open wound. Yet now, the inside of her mouth and eyes burned as well.

"Light…abandoned," she croaked. "But…from death…” She dragged in a single final gasp. "Rebirth."

A new scream sounded, one not from the Hierei though it poured from her mouth. This was the roar of a lion. The golden light turned bronze and sickly, and Vess held up her hand against a sudden weight of Authority and tangible Intent that flooded the area. Her Affinity howled at her.

Violence. Vengeance. Death.

A call poured across Vess' senses, emanating from Quist as it bubbled up in her chest and following along with it. Tumors swelled her flesh, followed by fungal blooms across her throat and shoulders. Fetid growth overcame her. Skin split, crawling with it and her eyes burst into mushroom caps.

The Hierei’s flesh twisted, bones snapping as the dead around her melted. Putrified corpses crawled toward her and congealed into a mass of foul, rotten limbs that joined to her. Quist stumbled back to her feet, sightless and hunched—her body a horror. It twisted again and again until it resembled a beast; a mane of fungus spread around her broken face, eight red armored legs and a dozen mismatched arms grafted together beneath her bulk.

She Was So Desperate, In The End. Yyero laughed, Quist’s face deforming into a nightmare attempt at a lion’s snout. I Cannot Believe She Called On Me. So Much For Faith, Coward In White.

“Kill it!” Beef shouted.

Ah. The Fiend’s Lackeys.

Eidolon Exults surged forward to beset the god’s Vessel. Yyero swatted at them, but they were sturdier than the god expected. The creature grunted as the Exult’s sheer bulk was enough to rip apart its limbs, but it did not seem to panic. For good reason. Those same limbs regenerated before they were fully torn, rendering the attacks all but useless.

No, not useless. Vess firmed her grip on her glaive. It’ll keep the Vessel busy. Yin!

Her Companion roared forward, Dawnbreath spraying onto the Vessel immediately. Those wounds charred and melted great swathes of its hide, but the false lion was quick to counter. It batted aside the Drake's power before striking him directly.

“Yin!” Vess cried. Her Companion spiraled away, skidding over the surface of the man-made lake before he sunk with a splash.

"No way we're losing to something as ugly as you! Fanblade!" Archie said, sliding through the earth before leaping out from under it. His Molten Daggers spun, slicing through joints and belly in a single swipe. Putrid ichor dropped down onto the ground that the man just barely evaded. "Oh, disgusting."

Beef charged, Bedlam crashing into the Vessel's side and hurling it off its feet—directly into Hallow’s sights. Razorhail tore into its spongy flesh, the sword-sized crystals lodging deep in its guts. Strike after strike hit the creature, but Vess watched the mounting horror as it healed from everything. Limbs regrew, becoming more and more like the Rotted Lion that Felix had once faced.

I Tire Of This.

It struck at them, but despite its speed, the Vessel couldn’t touch them. Archie melted away into the ground while Beef jumped, the Matriarch Sharpwing clinging to his back and flying him out of range.

Fafnir roared, flying at what was left of the Hierei’s face, now twisted into a malformed lion's snout. She breathed necromantic breath across the Vessel. The severed limbs near its feet jerked to life, possessed by the Hatchling's Will as they turned on the Rotted Lion clawing into it.

You Cannot Think This Is Enough To Stop Me.

“On The Wing!”

Vess shot forward, her wings propelling her and her Spears to the Vessel's side in mere moments. She thrust all of them deep into its pulped hide. “Final Glory!”

They exploded, tearing apart and exposing the creature's bones as more of its awful innards slopped onto the stone reservoir.

You Do Nothing More Than Delay The Inevitable. The Rotted Lion grew, absorbing more of the fallen Paladins. The others returned, Beef, Archie, and Hallow readying their attacks, but the Vessel waved a paw and burst the corpses nearest them, turning the ground into a fetid field of slick organics. It sizzled as Beef tried to step closer.

"Don't," Hallow warned. "It will eat through your armor and flesh.”

“Use the Matriarch." Vess gathered herself to leap over it, her own wings flexing on her back. “We attack from the air.”

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Beef nodded.

Come And Die, Then!

"Enough!"

An explosion rocked the space above the Vessel and the concussive force pushed Vess back to the ground. She landed without issue and swept her glaive through the rest of the wind. The strike cut across it and dissipated the force.

Beyond the fetid field and the Rotted Lion, the Lizard stood tall, his dual swords glowing as he lowered them. Had he made that explosion with the swords?

"Yyero, your fight is with me, you pathetic idiot," the Lizard said.

Lizard! You’re A Big One. Yyero blinked long and slow, looking to the Lizard's feet. And You’ve Taken Down The Titan. Most Impressive.

The woman was still unconscious, now slumped over against the far tower where the Lizard had no doubt set her down. Vess hadn't hit her that hard, had she?

Powerful Body And Potent Magic. With Multiple Skills At Legendary And Mythic Rarity. The Rotted Lion laughed. I Am Impressed! Join Me. As My Vessel, You Would Wield Divine Power. Enough To Bring About Your Wildest Dreams!

"All I want is something you can't give me."

"Nothing is beyond the Divine."

"Then send me home."

Fah! The Titan Asked For The Same. You Unbound Are Selfish Creatures, One And All. Home? You Would Be Nothing On Your Silent Planet, Beyond Even The Grand Harmony's Reach. Here? Here You Could Be A God.

"No, he would not," Vess said. "He would be a slave to one!"

Silence, woman! Else I’ll Rend You As I Did Your Pet.

"Yyero, god of rot, barely even here," the Lizard said, his tone surprisingly derisive. "Just a loser who got chained to a moon."

The Lion growled. You Know Nothing, Child.

"I know the Nym kicked your asses. I know that you got tricked."

The Lizard strode forward, past the Titan's unconscious form, but stopped before the halfway mark of the reservoir wall.

"I know that you're all thieves."

The Rotted Lion stilled.

"That touched a nerve, huh?”

Call Me A Thief Again, And I Will Show You The Meaning Of Wrath. I Need Not Your Permission To Take You As A Vessel—That Is Simply More Convenient. Overcoming Your Will Would Be Work…But I Have Time.

I Will Break You, Boy.

"You want me? Then come and get me."

The Rotted Lion leapt forward with a growl, bounding toward the Lizard as he stood, his swords held before him in a familiar defensive stance.

“On The Wing!” Vess flew forward, her Spears manifesting around her. She couldn't let the Lizard fight alone. She shot ahead, the wind roaring behind her, but she wasn't fast enough. The Lion reached the Lizard, rearing back to slice into him with a dozen savage claws. The Lizard swung his swords. An explosion ripped through the reservoir, sundering the Vessel before him as if he'd set a bomb off inside of its belly.

"Now, Yin!"

Her Companion shot upward out of the water, tackling into the Vessel.

The Rotted Lion reared back, roaring as its wings were shredded by claw and Dawnfire. A barbed tail shot out, but Yin had already swum away, diving back into the water before the Lizard swung his swords again. Explosions bloomed all around the Vessel, tearing through rot and oozing growths with an incredible amount of heat and force. The force threw Vess backward, winds too fierce for even her to advance through.

Down and ahead of her, the Vessel was torn asunder, reduced to a twisted husk and charred arms. As she recovered her balance, Yyero reconstituted. Flesh regrew, not as it was, but rubbery and gilled. He blossomed, fungus and pale shapes rising to mimic a true lion's rugged form.

Yyero laughed. You Cannot Stop Me, Unbound. The Fiend Is Not Here To Save You.

"You think he needs to be? I can take you on myself."

Unwise. You Are No Ascendant. Yyero stalked closer to the Lizard, growing all the while. Each step added another span to the Vessel's height until he neared the Lizard's own massive stature. You Will Join Me, Boy. It Is Inevitable.

The Lizard laughed right in the Vessel's face. "I'm not going anywhere with you. The only place I need to be is home, with my son. But I’ll burn us both if I have to."

I Am A God! A Few Explosions Cannot Stop Me!

"Who said I only had a few? Pinpoint Mines!"

A rumble shook the reservoir—the only warning before the wall exploded.

The roar of it was unlike anything Vess had ever heard. Fire and gale force winds punched at them all, hurling her further back into the ranks of the Eidolons. They, at least, were hefty enough to hunker through it, and she clung to their shoulders. The heat was incredible, her eyes tearing up instantly, and her Health had dropped by an entire third.

The Rotted Lion, however, was blasted apart.

New flesh had vaporized in the calamitous conflagration before a deluge of water poured through the broken reservoir, pummeling the remains down into the river far below.

You Have Defeated The Rotted Lion, A Temporary Vessel!

XP Earned!

WARNING!

Marked By Rot!

Yyero has Marked you! Be Wary! The Divine watches you closely!

Vess shuddered before shrugging off the notification. There was nothing she could do about that at the moment, and the Atlantes could cleanse it once they got home.

She regained her feet, patting the Eidolons fondly on the shoulder. "Is everyone all right?"

Beef waved a weary hand as he climbed back to his feet, hammer set against the stone. "Yeah."

Hallow ambled to his side. "Come, we must claim the corpses that remain."

"Yeah, good idea."

Archie followed Vess forward to the edge of the crumbled reservoir where water screamed over the side. Both of them peered over the edge.

"Long way down," he said.

Yin rose from the waters, swimming through the air just outside of the waterfalls. "Incredible pressure. The body is obliterated. He will not be making use of that Vessel again."

"He'll be able to follow," Vess said, sharing her notification with her Companion. Yin hissed angrily. "But we should retreat regardless. Lizard!"

Vess looked across the reservoir, but the guy was gone. With a muted thud, he landed next to them.

"Did you just jump that?" Archie asked, mouth hanging open.

The big Unbound grinned. "Yeah, pretty cool."

Archie cursed. "How come I'm the only one that can't do crap like that?"

Vess was more interested in the fact that he held the Titan in the crook of his arm. She dangled, limp and unconscious.

"I can't believe that worked," the Lizard said, staring at the rushing waters. "I'd planned to use this on the Hierei and the Paladins originally. Didn't expect to get a god."

"He's not dead, just injured. He'll form a new temporary Vessel soon enough," Hallow said, coming up behind them. "Beef is clearing up all the remains here, claiming them with our power so he can't use the corpses. But Yaro has too much material on the surface."

"What are we waiting for then?" Archie asked. "Let's go."

Vess looked at him. "You're coming with us, yes?"

"I am, yeah," the Lizard said. "But we can't go far."

"What? Why?"

"You think I've been twiddling my thumbs down here for the last few months? I've been planning."

"Planning for what, Lizard?"

He firmed his spike-covered jaw, and his eyes glowed yellow. "Revolution." He coughed. "And my name isn't Lizard." He stuck out his hand, shaking Vess’ far smaller one. "Call me Wendell."

Behind them was a crash, as a Paladin's dead body was dropped onto the ground from nerveless hands. Beef stood there, staring as if he'd been knocked on the head.

"Dad?"

The Lizard jolted. "Michael?"