The world is dying and as it does, it becomes very unpredictable and dangerous.
The gods have also been dying as the earth fades and belief in them wanes so the remaining three band together to make one last stand.
Three humans are chosen as their...
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Two of the men broke off from the group carrouling the bartender. There, now he might have a chance. The men started towards her and she slipped into the alley that would be just wide enough for one of the big men to enter at a time. Holly hid the knife, Aven's knife, behind her as she walked backwards in the small alley. The two men took the bait and they filed into the alley after her.
Holly made her voice shake and said, "Hey, I'm-I'm sorry, look I won't say anything."
The first big man was almost on her now, she could just make out that the big man had an impressive handlebar mustache. Now that mustache man did not see her as a threat he gave her a crooked smile exposing far too few teeth and reached to grab her. At that moment she struck. She moved as fast as she could towards the man and whipping out Aven's dagger sunk it deep into his stomach.
The man's mouth opened in shock and pain and then the lines on his face seemed to deepen, casting longer shadows. He seemed to be losing muscle by the second. Then his hair started to fall out, his mustache turning grey and falling right off. Then his skin started to contract over his bones and whither. His lips shriveled and stated to pull back from his teeth as the remainder fell out. He looked like a desiccated corpse as the skin started to flake from his bones, showing off the blackening, rotting organs inside his body. Holly's knife was still buried deep in his intestines as she watched the man, she didn't even know what, before her. His muscle started to shrivel along with his internal organs, until just a skeleton stood in front of Holly. For a breath it was there and then it shattered into dust, coating Holly and the man's companion in his body's remnants.
The second man was staring in horror at what Holly had just done in seconds. Taking advantage of his distraction, she lunged and plunged the dagger into his guts. He couldn't live now that he had seen what the knife could do. Even if Holly did not understand it, it had been Aven's and she would protect his secrets even if he was in the grave. That was something that was automatic to her, something she didn't have to consider. She would protect Aven. In the seconds it took for the man to turn to dust, all Holly could think was what had Aven gotten himself into in his life that had made this knife fall into his possession and why in the world had he given it to her.
Pushing her thoughts of Aven aside Holly ran out of the alley and right into the group of three men that were now surrounding a prone form, the bartender. Holly brandished her knife in front of her and one of the men lunged for the bartender, yanking him to his feet and pressing his knife to the man's throat.
"Think very carefully about what your next move is, little girl."
Holly swallowed as she looked at blood leaking from the bartender's nose and mouth, at how his left eye won't open, at how the big man behind him was the only reason he was standing. She would not be the reason that they slit his throat. Holly dropped her knife, the clatter reverberating against the stone around them. As she moved to hold her hands out in supplication one of the big men yanked her hands behind her back while the third man picked up Aven's knife.
