Lily scrunched her nose up, clearly unhappy with the plan. In fact, she outright refused to go along with that plan. It was silly to have only Xevon go out. With Callisto apparently out for the count, at least for the time being, surely Xevon needed the extra help. Wasn’t the whole point the four of them working together? Before she had time to voice those exact thoughts, Xevon’s head shot up and so did hers.

She had heard it too, it was faint though. She ignored Xevon as he drifted upwards, instead, she rounded to look at Finntello. Her eyes calm.

“You agree, that plan is stupid. Right?” She cocked her head to one side, flicking her hand up to gesture to where Xevon had just vanished. “I thought we needed to work together to get rid of that thing, him going out alone is a bit, eh, silly.” She struggled to find the right word.

The room above was empty. The furniture perfectly in place, untouched since the day it was conjured up. The sounds were coming from further away. The centre staircase of that floor, another dull thud. A long pause, then an absolute racket of sound. Clattering of something at it fell to the floor in another one of the rooms. The very first room on that floor, the door was slightly open and the light inside was flickering. The god had been there, but was no longer lurking. Instead, he had departed on his merry way back up to the fourth floor. Happy now that he had left his gift in that room. Having moved it from his domain above into the room, organising an exact replica of where it had been before. A masterpiece.

Inside that room, beyond the temperamental light were scrawled artefacts over the walls. Black and white paint was still wet and fresh, dripping down the walls. Various runes and sigils blazoned across every possible surface. Then, where the beds had been pushed out of the way was the masterpiece. Hanging from the wall in the centre of a circular sigil, pinned into the wall by an unholy amount of long metal pikes. Jammed through the bone, hairline fractures cracking the larger bones. Some sections of the body were disintegrated to dust. Crumbled at the base of the wall, just at the feet. Well, where the feet should have been. Chunks of the anatomy were simply smashed. Sitting in the morbid pile at the bottom was a pristine skull. Untouched, polished white. Severed at the vertebrae from its previous home, placed precisely in the centre.

He had decided to share his favourite work of art, bringing it down from where he had kept it all these centuries. From where he would stare at it, satisfaction running through his veins at the memories. Replaying the events through his victims eyes, the initial excitement that quickly fell apart into destitute terror. It was his favourite pastime.

Lily took a moment to absorb what he was saying, her lips flattening into a line. She could understand that Xevon couldn’t exactly die again, but if they only saw the god by mistake, they would be far more terrified when they had to face him. Exposure therapy, she supposed.

He was striding back and forth across the room, talking away with hands in the air. He certainly seemed to be more riled up than she was about this situation. But perhaps that was because she could hear the shuffling getting further away above their heads and he could not. Lily let out a small sigh before she spoke.

“I would also rather not die, but I haven’t even seen this monster. I’ll freeze up if it just jumps out at me.” Her eyes slid towards the door to the room contemplating what this thing actually looked like. She would find out eventually, either by choice or force. “If Callisto is out for the count, then there isn’t much we can do right now.” Lily shifted her attention back towards Finn, flicking her hand in the direction of the next room.

Callisto could feel some energy returning to his muscles, but they still ached from whatever assault the god had laid out onto his brain. His throat was raw and his mind a mess, but the room no longer felt like it was coming in and out of focus.

His eyes slowly closed again as the sounds from above subsided, comfortable with the idea that the god wasn’t growing any closer towards himself and the people in the next room. Particularly that Xevon was in there, well to the best of his knowledge he was.

A weird almost ticklish sensation came over his forehead and he furrowed his eyebrows, lifting a hand to brush away whatever was irritating him. It remained for a moment longer, even after he had done his best to remove it, but then it was gone. Twisting onto his side, he returned to trying to get himself back in peak condition. Not that he would have much time to rest after the fact.

Lily let out a small sigh, settling on the edge of the bed once again, watching Finn as he began to make his way to the divot in the wall. She had to lean to see it past his arm, then she followed his gesture from the hole to the dagger on the dresser. For a moment, she contemplated the idea, raising a single eyebrow.

She supposed that could work, but it depended on whether or not the daggers could cause any damage to this lantern. Was it simply a dinky little thing, metal, wood, enchanted? There were far too many what ifs for Lily to feel wholly comfortable with their current situation.

“It could work, but if it doesn't work then we need to have some sort of backup plan.” Lily turned back around to look over towards Fintello. Even if these weird daggers were ruled by emotion, they had to be careful. If they didn’t keep themselves in check, then there was a real danger of these daggers backfiring and hurting them instead. Or at least, by accident.

“How did you throw it like that? Did you just toss it and it took off on its own?” Lily peppered her questions, she needed to know what she was dealing with before she felt comfortable raising her dagger towards her supposed future husband.

Callisto kept his breathing steady, but he couldn’t help but peer across the room once again. Hoping to see Xevon slipping back through the plasterboard. But he wasn’t there. With a small flinch of his eyebrows getting closer together, he curled his back a little more, bundling himself up with his knees drawing up to his chin.

The god had continued on his way down the halls, but remained on the same floor. Pottering around, he still needed to recuperate after their last few interactions. That group were getting far too close to their goal far too quickly for his liking. One of them needed to be dealt with, sooner rather than later. And after the resounding hum that had travelled through his bones minutes ago, he knew who would be easiest to do away with. Even better, it was his wife. His ring had been slipped onto her hand.

Use of this ring with others did the opposite, protecting the user from him, however she was sent here with a different purpose. The purpose of wearing that ring. She would not be protected, in fact, she would protect him. A low hyena-esque cackle rose in his throat from down one of the hallways, echoing around the floor.

Lily let out a small hum as he explained how he had thrown it. At least it didn’t seem hard to use the dagger, at least initially. Getting it back out of where they had thrown it would likely pose the larger issue, if she were to take a guess. Her eyes narrowed and looked up, she had heard it too along with the sound of feathers fluffing against each other. In moments, Finn had leapt back up to barricading the door.

She rose to her feet as her bed was swiped out from under her, being shoved towards the door quickly. Lily still couldn’t quite believe the feat of strength that Finn was displaying, she had seen it before but still. It was impressive. Then again, maybe she could move things like that now, given her feline gift. Though it remained untested as Finn moved away from the dresser, uttering reassurance in her direction, but Lily suspected it was meant more to calm himself down.

She walked up towards him, standing beside him. Her hand lifted and tapped his forearm gently, looking up at him.

“We’ll be alright.” She offered a smile, but she wouldn’t lie to herself. That cackle had shot anxiety through her veins like a drug, she prayed it would not move any closer to them. However, Xevon was still up there.

Callisto’s shoulders tensed at the sound and he leaned up from his hovering laying position. Eyes casting up the ceiling and running along the white trim, trying to hone in on where the sound was coming from. Why was it up there and why was it pottering around laughing? To mess with their minds, likely.

He rose to his full height in spite of the twinge of pain that rocketed through his entire body. It was better than before but certainly not healed completely.

The irritating chatter from the winged man rang out through the halls, drawing the god back to the original hallway. Eyes glinting with amusement as he saw the man slide out of the room, knowing what he had found within it.

A small click of its hands as he rounded back to Xevon, head snapping sideways to listen. The pest could utter whatever insults he liked, he was stuck in the realm of his creation. He remembered the pleasure of killing him, it was a close fight indeed but the god always won. Seeing the fierce light leave Xevon’s eyes as he lay ripped limb from limb was a glorious memory. Ignoring his taunts, the god spoke.

“I see you found my gift.” He croned. “I think your friend was the one to have his brains knocked out.” He lowered his head, dark eyes sparking up towards Xevon. “Did you like how I arranged him?” The god continued its path towards Xevon. “Hm, yes. His death was one to savour. He mewled for his life at the end, you know?” Carefully, he looked towards the room and then back towards Xevon.

“Begged for his life as I slowly crushed his bones to dust, screaming and wailing like a child. Oh the sound blesses my dreams. The crescendo of his neck cracking from his spine was euphoric.” The god purred, its many voices echoing around the hallway. Deliberately slow in speaking, making sure Xevon understood the pleasure he had taken in ending Callisto’s life. He paused in his advance, prepared to meet the man if he leapt and make his exit.

Lily tipped her head to look up at him properly, he seemed to have lost his train of thought momentarily. She settled her grip on his arm a little tighter and began to pull him away from the door. She could see his wings jostling around with anxiety.

“Let’s just go sit over here and wait.” Perhaps it would be best to simply distract him. Lily took them to the opposite wall of the room, where the beds had been minutes before. Letting go of his arm, she sat herself down on the floor with crossed legs. She looked expectantly up towards Finn, waiting for him to sit with her.

“We can talk about something else.” She hummed, realising she didn’t exactly know what to talk about. Scrambling for a second, her eyes clearly searching for a conversation topic. “What’s your favourite colour and why?” She blurted out quickly, well it was something.

The god stared unblinking as Xevon as the man made a display of his indifference, intriguing to say the least. He clearly thought he was tough stuff by how he was talking. Perhaps he did not care for the other man as much as he had thought.

“Why should I tell you why I do things.” It wasn’t a question. “After all these centuries, after trying to get these pitiful creatures home, free from this realm for so long. Why do you turn to me now and tell me you wish to jump ship? Did your friend cast you aside for the new meat?” He growled out his words, eyes flickering around Xevon to gauge any little hint towards his motives. As stupid as Xevon thought him to be, he was ancient beyond belief and had the experience that came with it.

“If you are going to help me. Kill the man. The one that came with my bride.” He settled on his test, if Xevon ended that creature's life then it seemed to be the truth. The winged man had grown bored of trying to rescue people and wanted the cruel satisfaction of ending their lives instead.