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It hadn't taken as long as he expected to pick up the trail of broken souls. When you murdered people it left a ripple. Families, friends, acquaintances. Their whispers were practically screams. Their misery only brought him more satisfaction. Luckily it was also useful in helping him find his prey. Ruin's massive frame was hard to hide, he also wasn't subtle and he knew his impulse control well enough that anything requiring finesse he avoided doing himself, so he relied on intimidating informants into servitude. Not his usual MO but he wasn't exactly in his element. No-one had ever commanded him before, it just didn't happen, so he was using what he knew. Pain and intimidation. It was paying off. His shoulder blade pressed into the cool cobblestone of an alley wall, tail lashing this way and that, his gaze unfocused in thought stared blankly into the distance as he waited. And waited. Luckily the Kat he'd forced to assist him finally arrived. Any longer and his patience would have run out. Then he'd have broken their neck and found someone less useless to get him what he wanted.

"It's... on the outskirts of Hemlock. A g.. a grove."
The Kat swallowed roughly, a scrawny looking baddie with a missing eye. Probably Ruin's work. He didn't specifically target the scrawny ones, this one had just been too slow to get away from him when they'd crossed paths. So he'd won the bad luck jackpot. The Unholykat's eyes refocused, returning to the present, and his gaze slid horrifyingly onto the smaller male. Lifting his back off the wall caused the chains wrapped around his arms to jingle, a sound almost too cheery for the hulking monstrosity it was attached to.. and also the mace at the end which glinted ominously in the late afternoon sun. The baddie felt his stomach drop and he moved to take a step back. Too slow again. Ruin was fast for his size. His arm struck out, snagging the baddie by the throat and lifting him off the ground. His legs flailed as he tried to breathe, finally going limp when he was unable to continue focusing on escape. Your priorities shifted quickly when your windpipe was slowly being crushed. Bringing his face close, Ruin's lip curled with animosity. "Show me and maybe you can keep that other eye." His free arm lifted up to hover a razor sharp talon excruciatingly close to the Baddies one good eye. It was all the convincing he needed.

As his body hit the dust the baddie choked and gasped, he could barely swallow. Ruin was already approaching him. There was no recovery time. Clawing his way to his feet while he continued to choke the baddie hurried off towards the Grove. Every few seconds he was glancing back over his should like the boogeyman was after him. Which he was. Ruin wasn't paying much attention to the other male, his focus was on how he was going to dissect this other Unholykat. Or confine her. That gut feeling of how stupid it was he had to do this in the first place continued to nag at him. I mean you wouldn't get pissed at a rabbit for ********. It was a rabbit. It's what they did. Eviscerating good was what Unhoykats did. No politics. No keeping score. Nothing. Just violence. The gods were just too up their own asses to do what needed to be done. If this Deity thought he was sending a retrieval team they were sorely mistaken. Ruin didn't retrieve.

Ruin wasn't certain how long they'd been walking, the length of time wasn't the issue however, his rapidly thinning patience was. The sound of his claws clicking rhythmically along each link in the chains around his arm sent an involuntary shudder through the baddie in front of him. Instinctively he knew his life was hanging by a thread. The bigger question was if this monstrosity was going to let him go once he'd gotten what he wanted. Something in his gut told him his odds weren't great. And he was right. The Unholykat was already weighing letting the baddie go versus tearing him apart and he was finding more reasons favoring the latter. While some Unholykats may have spared him for being an ebil creature Ruin didn't care. It didn't matter to him where he swung on the pendulum of good or ebil. He didn't matter. That was the defining factor, did he matter. And sadly, for the baddie at least, according to the monster following him he didn't.

The clink, clink, clink of the chain continued to haunt the baddie as they walked and the small male almost didn't notice it had stopped suddenly. He'd gotten a few paces ahead when he realized everything had gone quiet. He almost didn't dare look back, afraid that if he did his face would be trading introductions with a mace, but finally he couldn't help himself and he turned to look back cautiously with his one good eye. The Unholykat had frozen in place, his pupils dilated, his breathing slow as he inhaled deeply, his gaze far off into the treeline. He smelled it. The thick, warm, pulsing scent of blood. Holykat blood. Licking his lips as a smirk toyed at one corner he closed his eyes and gave one final inhale. What a good ******** smell. The low growl, since purring wasn't something he had ever been capable of, that rolled from his chest made the baddie almost piss himself in fear. Ruin's eyes snapped open and with one swift movement the mace had swung and carved the ground at the Baddies feet. "Run." A dismissal. The only one he'd get. It didn't need to be said twice before the baddie scrambled off the road and out of sight. Relieved to finally be away from deaths door.. at least he hoped anyway.

The scent had made Ruin lose interest in rending the poor creature limb from limb. It was intoxicating, thick, he found few scents exciting but this was sure as hell one of them. He didn't need the little s**t anymore. He could easily follow the scent to his mark. The air was practically saturated. If he wasn't on a mission he would have likely followed it anyway to see what the source was. Lucky for him he didn't have a choice. The Grove was through the copse of trees just off the road, he could smell the scent of warmed wax as well and his gaze narrowed. What the hell was he walking in on? He hadn't spent a lot of time in the company of other Unholykats, he'd worked alone his entire existence, however he figured they were all fairly similar. Predators with weapons. But the scent of warm wax kind of derailed his idea of how the situation might go. The Unholykat Deity hadn't given him specifics in fact they had given him jack s**t. Quietly, far quieter than he should have been, he slipped into the trees and towards the Grove.

It didn't take long once he'd made his way past the myriad of nature trying to keep him out. Felled trees and brambles littered the ground. He felt as though he should have heard frogs or crickets but it was eerily silent. Nothing dared make a sound. A sign he was on the right track. Faetasia knew when darkness had seeded an area. Ruin paused, lifting his nose to scent the air, the thick pungent odor of blood filling his lungs and mixing with that strange waxy scent. It was... intoxicating. Not a word he ever used to describe anything. Too bad he was sent to destroy whatever was going on here. Maybe he'd set up his own little pit of horrors once he'd done what he came to do. As he rounded the final bend he spotted the entrance to the Grove itself and didn't hesitate before walking right up to the entrance. His massive frame cast an ominous shadow in the entrance.

Ruin stopped briefly to allow his eyes time to adjust. It was dark, yes, but he could see now the source of the waxy smell. So many candles. Dotting the interior like fireflies from hell. The crackle of the fire didn't escape his quick observation, neither did the smell of seared flesh. The sight of the Holykat strung up like a spring buck was an interesting addition to the atmosphere as well and one he found himself considering for quite some time. Their mutual enemy would have been long dead by now with the dark Unholykat rummaging around in his guts the way that she was. But something else caught his eye. The Holykat. His eyes were moving. Glazed. But moving. As was his chest. How in the ******** was that thing still alive? Keeping his demeanor non-reactive the Unholykat smirked, raising his arms to give a slow, steady, clap. The chain attached to the head of the mace jingling musically as he did. Clap. Clap. Clap.

"Well now." Came the dark rumble of a voice. "No wonder everyone upstairs is pissed at you. Look at this ******** spectacle." Ruin gave an impressed whistle as he began to circle inside the cave and on the far side of her unfortunate prey. He didn't know how she was doing what she was doing but he suddenly felt a knot in his gut and made sure he was far enough away until he could figure out what sort of tricks she had up her sleeve. He didn't see a weapon. In fact he didn't believe she was armed.. in the traditional sense. Yet something made him leery. And not just because she was playing operation on a conscious, feeling, creature. He was actually impressed and a little hungry to join the dismemberment. But he had a stupid, pointless, job to do. His large tail lashed from side to side, as though it had a mind of its own. His claws toying with the links on the chain coiled securely about his wrist. His eyes flashed in the darkness as he sized her up, luminescent and hungry for violence.

Watching her move the Unholykat tensed up, not nervous, defensive. Brute force he was used to, if she’d had a dagger or a flail or a baseball bat, he wouldn’t have been so hesitant. This was something else. Seeing her behavior his eyes narrowed and he felt he’d made the right move in not rushing her. The feeling that came over him was unsettling, his head felt... weird. Testing the waters, he moved forward but found it was like wading through molasses. After a few steps, he couldn’t get any closer. What the ******** was this s**t?

He growled low in his chest, baring those razor-sharp canines threateningly at her and lifting his malicious gaze to stare. It was evident the longer he was like this the more violent his temper would become. He hated magic but what was more he hated being messed with. The more tricks the more he would want to rip her apart. He obviously didn’t have many adversaries that had proven his equal or better, unless they had smiting power, and he didn’t like the thought that she might just be one.

Lifting his leg a couple inches off the ground he slammed it down a step closer, it was a struggle, especially because he felt out of sorts. Giving his head a shake only made it worse. It was like being drunk. “What sort of tricks are you pulling, b***h?” He snarled, ears flat against his head. How the hell was he supposed to deal with her if she had magic? Stupid deities. This would’ve been nice to know about before he just waltzed on in. He couldn’t even try to figure out a strategy. It was like all the ability to plan his next move was being siphoned out of his brain. That made him even more enraged. Likely his rage was the only thing keeping him semi-alert.

If he wasn't pissed enough by having his movement confined the pressure really set him off. Another snarl ripped from his chest as he pulled against the magic. He wasn't getting very far though his other paw did slide a little closer. Why he was trying to get closer to her was a mystery. He could barely move. He wasn't sure what the endgame was aside from blind anger. And his judgement was ******** up. That didn't help.

The question hung in the air, adding more weight to it. Who sent him. "Our loving and all knowing creator did." He almost spat the words. "You're ******** up the balance.. or some stupid s**t like that. I'm supposed to make you chill the ******** out." Saying that last bit out loud made him more agitated, given his current state. She'd do best not to let him out of it however. He was past the point of admiring her work. He'd try to kill her.

The sound of flesh peeling away from the cheek of the Holykat made him lick his lips, he wanted to see it, but his focus was too heavily upon Axis to be deterred or distracted entirely. Like a feral animal with prey in sight. He growled again, his frustration evident. He wanted to sink his teeth into her face.

Ruin didn't take his eyes off her. He was in a bad spot, which wasn't normal. None of this was normal to him. That fed his anger. s**t, the sound of a fly would probably add to it at this point. Her approach made his body go rigid, his leg fighting the energy to take another step forward before she was in front of him. The sight of her sent a mixture of feral hostility and... well he didn't want to admit to himself there was anything more than that. She possessed an allure, that was all he'd admit, thankfully he wasn't the type to be easily manipulated. He felt it, deep in his gut. There was something he liked about her in some way. It didn't lessen his desire to annihilate her from this plane of existence however. Oh no. He still wanted to kill her.

The flick caused him to click his teeth together savagely. Wishing he could have turned his head to snag some fingers before they were pulled away. But he felt his cognition beginning to clear and he did his best to pull himself back to some level of clarity. His sharp stare ground into her again, like a feral animal waiting for any opportunity. The curve of her throat, the way her pelt was already soaked with blood. He hadn't noticed at first. She was covered. "I don't give a s**t who's right or wrong. If that were the case I wouldn't be wasting my time." He growled, his tail sliding inches to the right. "It's either your a** or mine... and it won't be mine."

Ruin didn't break focus. She had his full attention. The feeling of that claw digging into his nose made the skin above it wrinkle into another nasty snarl. Still annoyed he couldn't even so much as take a finger off. He had to give it to her though, she wasn't afraid of him. That was impressive. Usually his reception was one of terror or incontinence or panic. The incontinence was always a real spectacle.

He felt his body released of its hold, however, he found he still couldn't move forward. Progress at least. The sizzling of the liver made his stomach grumble, yet his eyes stuck firmly on Axis, even as the delightful scent began to tempt his senses. It was practically mouth watering. A small part of his rage began to subside, likely due to the relax in control over his body... or maybe it was the liver.

"Who knows. Maybe it's politics. They can't hate what your doing, it doesn't make sense, but it seems to be causing them grief in some way." His tail lashed from side to side, finally able to get some of his frustration out physically. He shook himself, the chains jingling as he did, and gave his neck a crack. "Look, I don't want to be here any more than you want me here. However, if it was your a** dragged in front of the Deity would you spit in their face? There wasn't much of a choice."

As the liver continued to sizzle he finally shifted his gaze from her to the pot. An ear swiveling back her direction as she asked for his name. "Ruin." God that smelled good.