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Drip, drip, drip....
The ritual was an old one, and it had to be performed exactly the same way every time or the results would be disastorous. Fortunately, Atia had committed many of the ancient practices to memory; whatever else could be said for her state of mind, she had perfect recall when it came to carrying out the most vile of acts. She studied her handiwork, tilting her head this way and that as if she were studying a particularly complicated puzzle, then used the knife in her hand to remove the last of the flesh.
Drip, splash, drip, splash...
Children were the hardest to flay, their small bodies soft and easily damaged where they needed to remain whole, but the Corruptress was an expert. The smell of blood hung heavy in the air, and if she hadn't been concentrating so diligently on her task she'd have filled a goblet with some and drunk it. Perhaps later, though. She needed to her keep her mind on the completion of the rite. Twins made the magic even more powerful, the summoning more likely to succeed. Portals could be easy enough to open with the proper skill and experience, but calling something out of those portals was both difficult and taxing. Hence, the offering of blood.
Drawing symbols in the air with her gore-stained fingers, Atia muttered to herself in a language few humans would have understood. Idiot boy, wanting to know if she was real. She would show him what was real should she get the chance. In the meantime, her little...pets...would serve to be a brief advance warning while she attended to other matters. She finished the incantation, swiping her hand through the air as though it were a blade. A few tiny droplets of blood spattered onto the concrete as if they heralded a great rain of the stuff from the sky.
And perhaps, in fact, they did.
The portal opened slowly, crackling in midair as the wound in reality widened, revealing a barren, blasted landscape beyond it, sitting desolate under a leaden sky. The Bride peered from one world into the next, listening. Should this not bring the full desired affect, she would raise a golem next. She would make herself heard, even if she had to burn all of Las Vegas to do it.
The beasts came tumbling out of the portal in a snarling mass of teeth and claws, their hairless bodies contorting as they fought amongst themselves. Three of them, each larger than the last. Part dog, part wolf, part something unspeakable. Likely there had been more of them at one point, but such things killed each other as often as they killed their enemies. "Still yourselves," Atia intoned, and her voice made the muscles in their twisted frames bunch and ripple with aggression. But the biting and snapping came to a halt, and eyes the color of burning embers focused on her. They were of limited intelligence but boundless savagery. Just what she required.
"There has been an offering." She waved towards the matching corpses where they dangled by their ankles, wire having long since cut into the muscle. "There is a second waiting for you beyond this place, but you must seek it out." One of the dog-things made a sound, and the Corruptress smiled, touching its hideously deformed head as if it were a beloved child. "Take your companions and go hunt," she said quietly. "Eat to your heart's content. Find your reward. Leviathan blesses you."
There was a chuffing-snuffling-panting that bordered on the obscene as the trio of monstrosities seemed to confer, and then the largest of them let out a blood-curdling baying noise before they streaked from the room, leaving behind only a trace of saliva and the remnants of a foul odor. Atia smiled, put her bloody fingers into her mouth to clean them. They would dine well tonight. Looking over her shoulder at one of the bodies, she decided that so would she.
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