Utopia was a place of wonders, in that those undergrounds filled with the wishes of a myriad of monsters. Beliefs kept them from tearing each other apart, beliefs fueled by survival.
For one such pack of beasts those beliefs had shattered.
When their temple had crumbled, their hopes vanished under a mass of rocks, they had clung onto the idea of later times. There still was a haven, a place where humans would welcome them! They could still make it and so they endured.
Only to be told otherwise. They had failed the humans, failed their temple. There was no place left for them to be but this mana deprived realm.
There were red beaks among their cult. Those crow-like creatures still carried sights and messages long after the good days were gone. They relayed the rage and despair that followed and with it, a monster's natural answer.
"Wake up!" The crow shouted for all.
Everyone in the narrow den heard his hoarse voice. But of them all only the legged rapt leapt up and panicked.
"What? What's happening?!"
"Monsters are going feral! A hundred are lashing out in the cave!"
Still sit under the rays of light, the horned hare opened both eyes. His gaze was on the ground before him.
"That's terrible!" The rapt urged. "We must go and stop them!"
"The guards will handle it."
That was the magnal talking. That lizard was still lain away from the others. He had not moved from this spot for a while now, no matter what.
Of the four of them two didn't seem bothered, which left the cute rapt all the more troubled.
She wasn't completely wrong either. A feral beast welcomed murder and magic alike, making it more potent than his opponents. One was a problem. A hundred were going to spill death beyond a single of Utopia's caves.
Yet those same feral monsters would attack each other as well and so, no matter the death toll, it would be a problem solving itself in time.
"You can't let others die like that! They are dying!"
"So are we." The magnal shot back, annoyed. "I say let them."
She was distressed enough that, after another helpless look at the whole group, the rapt turned her head to me. Why she felt the need to plead was unexplainable.
I lowered my clay hand to rub her head.
"Let's go save people, Caline."
It was a strange sight, for the fire lizard, to watch that rapt that had been frantically stomping in place the second before suddenly stop and almost purr at nothing, her head stretched as much as her body allowed.
As if communing with an abstract spirit.
It didn't help that light rays fell from the ceiling, bathing the whole rocky den in that soothing, mystical brightness.
"Then me and Kaele will go alone!" Her high-pitched voice fiercely announced.
"Let me lead you!"
The red beak opened his wings and flew ahead, perched himself on the wall and waited for the rapt who, with her little legs, hurried after him.
It was the horned hare's turn to get up, crack his neck and sigh. The magnal watched him swing his glassy blade in the air.
"Wait for us here... Coquin, was it? We won't be long."
"Why would you risk your life out there?!"
That made the hare smile. "Who would linger here instead?"
They were both left behind already. The cute rapt was running as fast as she could, berated by the monster that guided her for being too slow.
Utopia had quite a few caves to inhabit, each large enough for a legion of creatures crowding on its ground and terraces. Pillars of rock could be as thin as a house or large enough to be confused for a wall or an intersection.
They were wide enough that burning rocks on one side could hardly be seen from the other.
So for the monsters emerging on all tunnels, the ongoing hunt still sounded far away. Silhouettes below and on the rocky ramps were fighting each other, shredding bodies and falling down.
Why would monsters be attracted by this but for bloodlust?
They saw chained creatures forced to answer the violence and followed, knowing it could be their chance. Feral ones could be killed. They could kill and not break the peace.
So of course monsters rushed to the carnage.
The crow had guided her willingly away from that crowd and through an old passage that led to an abandoned den some seven meters above ground. She crawled out and immediately smelled the stench of death.
She heard the roars, the cries and cracks of chitin and bones. The rapt reflexively shied away from the crevice that led out into the cave.
Indecision still gripped her thoughts.
"Hurry and stop it!" The crow commanded.
"She can't."
They both turned to me. Now that we were alone, they didn't need to pretend not to see the clay golem standing in the middle of them with his badger mask on the face.
"Sorry, Caline. You can kill them or save a few of their preys but not much else."
"No!" She complained. "No, we must save the realm! You promised we would save everyone!"
Did she even understand the scale of things? This wasn't one killer in a temple, this was one hundred in a cave. Moreover, the feral were running mad, seeking death. They would stop at nothing to calm the torment in their shard.
"Saving killers is pointless!" The red beak scolded her. "Save the innocent, kill the guilty, this is how justice prevails!"
"You two are horrible!" She yelled.
The legged rapt rushed out and into the fray. There was little the crow could do for her: red beaks knew how to fight but remained scavengers above all.
As for me, I unleashed my earthworks the moment the first beast was on her.
The melee had spread out from a pillar to a good third of the cave. It ebbed in waves as monsters charged and fled or stopped for the carcasses. Such was the frenzy that it was hard to tell who was feral among the combatants.
But as stone pushed back any that approached her, the rapt saw a group of beasts, mainly meniles that fought alongside chained ones.
The good guys!
She rushed toward them and called: "Heal!" For those among them that had fallen. And with her tiny forelegs she motioned for rocks to fall on a charging tenacl.
Creatures were, in the mayhem, but a flurry of shapes pushing on each other, taken the next moment. Foughts all around had that small group look like an island in the storm.
She showed up in front of them and they finally noticed that rapt.
So a chained greyhound raised his paw and struck.
And even after the slab of rock stopped that attack she hoped it was just confusion, insisted only to be met by the beast's maw that smashed against more rock.
The rapt had been chained. While those silver links had never quite worked on her, she still had broken free before her time and thus the chained ones recognized her as an escapee. A threat to the peace. The spell compelled them to attack.
Free beasts assailed her as well. To them she looked feral and worse, she had the trace of killers on her. Her few attempts at talking were only met by furious hisses and fangs.
Then a wilhorn stormed through that group and scattered them in one pass. The mammoth's tusks had snatched one, so he didn't bother to stop and fell back into the many fights around. She got back up, watched him leave and failed to notice two more greyhounds falling on her.
Rocky spikes impaled them.
I could keep up, but truth was I could not. The rapt had put herself in the middle of a hectic brawl and just pushing them back was taking a toll on me. I knew she would get mad but really, this was not sustainable.
A wounded menilis lunged at her, hit the slab of rock and with just her lengthy fangs that cat-rat broke through. I made the slab burst to push her away as well.
That menilis had gone feral.
Was it one from the group the rapt had attempted to save? I was too busy to tell. On top of protecting that helpless beast I was looking at the rest of the cave where a flow of monsters pushed back and slowly gained ground.
As expected, feral beasts were fewer and fighting each other, so no matter how murderous and powerful they could not keep up with the whole of Utopia falling on them.
But their numbers didn't seem to decrease. If anything those feral beasts only seemed to grow in number and intensity. As if the massacre was driving the others back to primal instincts.
Was this a thing?
Could all the lessons survival had enforced just vanish so easily from some black blood and gashes?
The only islands in the storm were around altars and at temples. There the battered monsters retreated to form packs or herds and fend off their attackers. "Protect Kaele!" They yelled to each other and coalesced around the four-horned statues.
And here was the horned rabbit, defending one such place.
Monsters did not even see him, only the tip of his glassy blade that cut deep and drew heavy trails. Once more, the hare was pushing himself to the limit and enjoying the moment.
So, no. Monsters did not revert because of the carnage.
Or he would have had already.
"Caline." I called the rapt from afar. "There are people to save over there."
It wasn't fair to play with her feelings like that, but I needed her out of the worst and back to a safer place. She gasped and rushed through those fights, toward the hare. Her forelegs gestured to bring rocks as protection on her flanks and to push away all those that blocked her path.
Her arrival marked a turning point for the wavering group. Two dozen monsters, most wounded and strained, were retreating to the den where the altar stood that they so dearly defended. She cast! Heal! Then was nearly cut by a falcis' scythe.
Impale.
Before her stood the feline mantis, her body pierced by the rocky spikes. Legs lifted off the ground. The beast squirmed and thrashed, still trying to kill the rapt.
"Get back!"
It was the magnal who snatched the rapt's flat tail and pulled her away, toward the den's entrance where all the others were hiding already.
The hare was last, pushed back his foes and bowed before slipping in. I made the entrance cave in after him.
She had saved some twenty monsters. Not bad.
Outside the fights kept going, only muffled rumors through two meters of rock. Inside the beasts were restless, a monstrous fear in their pulsing hearts. Burning rocks fumed in the den; they used one to lit the pyre under their horned badger statue.
"Praise Kaele!" A greyhound called. "All of you, bow to the messenger of humans!"
"Kaele watches us!" Another rocky lizard roared.
I stood against the wall, clay hand against my chest. The shielded insect on my back was massaging me a bit. It shouldn't have been this exhausting, but my whole body was shaking.
Nobody was attacking the rapt, nor the hare, nor the magnal here. No chained creature was in sight. None cared for the feral.
Because those were from the cult.
The beasts she had saved had seen their brethrens fall to despair and run wild. Their own shards called for death. They wished to join the humans.
"If the statue falls, all of us are forsaken!" The massive greyhound at the pyre repeated what all believed already. "As long as Kaele stands, we have a future!"
"We still have a future!" - "We will endure!" - "None will take the haven from us!"
Their voices were broken and pitiful. No matter how much strength they put into it, it ringed hollow. Peace had been broken and with it, their beliefs were unraveling.
And the earthquakes above, from the plains of Alunra, kept shaking around us.
The realm was still unforgiving.