Sign of the Devil's Footprint [THE DEVILS CULT BOOK 1]

Chapter One

Melione Oatblood leaned against the dark oak desk of her office. She stared at the large board in front of her. Stuck to the wooden board was a large map of Unotuary. Unotuary consisted of four different realms. From the north sat the God Territories. The four main gods of Unotuary lived there in luxury. Rhivbus, God of the Sky, sat on his golden throne looking over everyone in Unotuary. He made sure that his people had everything that they needed.

Melione had thought that he was good to his people, but the people of Unotuary thought differently. He allowed too many bad things from happening. The Burning Province was now a barren wasteland. Nothing grew there. Three hundred years ago, the Burning Province was a beautiful, bustling realm. The people there were the wealthiest in Unotuary. No one knows what they had done to make Rhivbus mad, but he caused a horrible drought to go through the land, killing everything and almost every person.

Some of the survivors of the drought were able to travel to the rest of the realms, hoping for a new, better life. Some got it, but some didn't. The three other realms don't get along as they should. The Burning Province sat in the east. There were rumors of people still living there. They are said to be savages falling back hundreds of years.

In the west was the Emerald Realm. The Emerald Realms were now the richest realm. The realm here was completely covered in greenery. It was beautiful. Melione didn't like the people of the Emerald Realm. They were pompous people who thought that they were better than everyone else in Unotuary. They were tall and proud and they weren't afraid to let you know of it. The Goddess of Dawn, Nomasis, and the Goddess of Birth, Etta, shared the Emerald Realm. The Goddess Etta used to be the ruler of the Burning Province, but once Rhivbus destroyed her realm, she joined with Nomasis in the Emerald Realm. They rule comfortably there and it shows. The people are prospering.

In the south was Rhivhus's army, the Eclipse Sanctum. This was Melione's home. Here, it was always dark. Always night. The only light that they got was from the moon and stars and the floating orbs in their houses. Everyone here was born and raised as a warrior. Rhivhus had appointed the God of War, Vandall, as the ruler of the Eclipse Sanctum. Vandall had given each of them a brain for war since they were born. They hadn't been needed for centuries, but Vandall still made sure that every single one of his people knew how to protect Unotuary.

Melione leaned against her desk and chewed on her long, red stilleto fingernail. What she had on the map were three black circles. One of the circles was placed in the Burning Province while the other two were placed in the Emerald Realm. These were murders. Deity murders.

Melione was the head of the investigative unit here in the Eclipse Sanctum. She worked for over a century to get to this position and now she was investigating the murders of three deities. She felt pain when she had to reach out to the Emerald Realm for help in this investigation. She couldn't figure out why anyone would want to kill one of the ten deities of Unotuary. More importantly. She couldn't figure out how they were able to kill three.

A deity was hard to kill. They were the god's children. Whomever it was that was killing them had to be stronger. She wasn't going to ever admit it to anyone, but this scared her. That person was out there running around Unotuary searching for the other deities. Who knows who else this person has killed and they never noticed.

"It's not good to chew on your nails like that," an annoying voice came from the door on her right.

Melione looked over and dropped her hand dramatically. Grym Sunblight stood in the doorway giving her his best cheesy smile. She rolled her eyes and shook her head at him. Grym was the poster boy for the Emerald Realm. He was tall, muscled, and tanned. His blonde hair fell neatly around his shoulders. She will admit that he was extremely handsome, but so were a lot of men in Unotuary. One thing about him that had struck her when she first met him was his eyes. They were a striking, icy blue. They always seemed to be looking deep into you trying to figure out who you were before you could figure out about him.

She returned her attention to the board. "They're my nails," she grumbled to him.

Grym chuckled as he walked over to stand beside her. He leaned against the desk and handed her a cup. She took it as she mumbled a thank you and brought it to her lips. Warm tea filled her taste buds. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, breathing in the soothing smell of the tea. Melione would have thought that it was strange that he had remembered her calming tea if she wasn't so focused on the board in front of her.

Grym was the head of the Emerald Realm investigation unit. She was the one that she had to call for help when she had gotten stuck. She hated the moment that he showed up at her front door. His bright smile and clothing looked completely out of place here in the Eclipse Sanctum. She had just gotten him to stop talking and be quiet for a few hours during the day. He wouldn't stop talking.

"Have you gotten any further?" He asked as he pointed his cup to the board.

Melione sighed. "No, I haven't." She pushed off of the desk and moved around to sit in the large, leather chair. She sat the cup down in front of her and leaned back. Melione ran her hands through her long, bluish-black hair. "Who would kill them? How?" She looked over at Grym expecting a reply but got nothing back from him. She leaned forward on her elbows and moved the stack of papers over to Grym's side. "Three deities have been killed, Grym. Chonohr, the God of Good Luck, was the first one to die."

Grym nodded. "Yes, in the Burning Province." Now that they were talking business, there wasn't a smile on his face. She watched him take a long drink from his cup.

Melione nodded. "The second deity killed was Rusyn, Goddess of Souls."

"The first one killed in the Emerald Realm." He shook his head. "The pour soul who found her body."

Melione couldn't help but agree with him. A loan hiker found her body torn apart in a small clearing. It was a recent killing as her blood hadn't had the chance to soak into the earth completely. Her head was put ceremoniously on a spike in the middle of the clearing. Her limbs were in a circle around the spike with her insides wrapped around it. If she was a newer recruit, she would have thrown up. A lot of her officers did at the sight.

She took another sip out of her cup before she continued. "The third murdered was Ghomis, Goddess of Sleep and Dreams. She was also found in the Emerald Realm." Ghomis was found in the square of a small village. The sight for both Ghomis and Chonohr was the same as Rusyn. It was an enormous, gruesome act that she couldn't understand who had the power to do this.

Melione had the thought that another deity could be behind the murders, but they didn't kill each other. They would maim and harm each other, but never to the extent that one would die. The gods she could see killing their children. They've done it before. Two hundred years ago, they had fifteen different deities. When a couple of the deities wanted to become more powerful than they were allowed to be, the gods killed five of them to make a point. They were supposed to stay in their lines and not go out of it.

"The only pattern is how they were killed," Grym picked up the papers and started to riffle through them. "How are we going to figure out who killed these deities?" He paused before he turned around to look at her. His usual smiley face was turned down now. "What's with the connection to the Emerald Realm?"

Melione shrugged. She stood up and walked around to stand next to him. Wrapping her arms around herself, she brought one hand up and started to chew on her nail again. "There's a pattern with the deities as well, but I can't figure it out. What's strange to me is that Rusyn and Ghomis weren't in the Emerald Realm when they were killed."

Grym looked up, a confused look written on his face. "How do you think that?"

Melione turned toward the map and picked up a brush and ink. She dipped the brush into the ink and started to draw an 'x' in the north of the Burning Province. "This is where Rusyn was last seen. From my sources," she started to draw a line from the 'x' to the south of the God Territories. "She was traveling from the God Territories. Once she crossed the border of the Burning Province, she disappeared." She turned to look at Grym. "Each of the three deities was traveling out of the God Territories when they disappeared. I'm not sure what the connection with the Emerald Realm is yet, but we'll figure it out."

Grym nodded as he placed his cup down on the desk. "We've got to go to the Emerald Realm."

Melione nodded. "I was thinking about going through their journey. If we understand where they traveled, how they traveled, and whom they saw, we can figure out what happened to them." She continued to nod as if agreeing with herself. "Most likely, we'll meet whoever did this."