Pulling lose the staple, a small, glowing form fell to the ground. Still bleeding from its chest, its hands, its back, it didn’t bother to glance around as it fell, seeing only the threat before it. Hyperventilating, the spirit would have roared, had it the ability, instead leaping back up into the monster’s stomach with a manic frenzy. It ripped and tore at the creature’s insides, crawling deeper and deeper as it clawed its way in, then the world went sideways. 

Panicking, the spirit seized the nearest tube of intestine, as wide around as the soul’s own body, and clung on for dear life. There was a large, low rumble, fluid and viscera leaving the front of the Horned Guard’s husk in a rapid discharge before everything stopped.

Then all was dust, and the spirit was in the open. Looking down, it saw dozens, maybe a hundred of its kind were dead. More importantly, something was glowing a few feet from the spirit. Something tantalizing, delicious, something the spirit needed…

Stumbling down on all fours, the blood-drowned spirit took a tentatively crawled forward before diving face-first into the souls, devouring orb after orb, a fierce hunger taking the place of the ever present terror that it had been living in since it awoke here. Something resembling a tongue licked the creature’s chops as it’s body changed more with each soul consumed, the hunger only growing. Hands grew hard and scaly, the form’s legs became hooves, knees bending backwards as fur grew around its neck. An additional skull stretched through the creature’s back, seemingly incomplete in its transformation. A long tail stretched out behind it, seizing another orb and swallowing it whole. Soon enough, the spirit was gone, and in its place a beast larger than it had any memory of being appeared. 

The creature panted heavily, using its new height to take stock of its surroundings. There was another large one, much like itself, though it stood on two legs. A green light seemed to show on the animal’s skeletal features, coaxing a low growl of confusion before it noticed that the biped was facing away from the beast. The biped had a skeletal face. It was familiar. Somehow, the creature knew that they were kin. It stumbled for a moment, not used to this many legs before adjusting. It seemed natural, just… different. Sniffing at the air, the beast coughed and snarled, staggering backwards for a moment at the repulsive last gift of the horned devil. 

Then it looked up. Beyond the green light, a great maw stirred, a gigantic beast rising from the lava and soaring on umber wings towards the cluster of freshly forming ascendants. Before the beast could think, it felt the same primal horror screaming through its veins… but there was another one like it. Its face was the same, it… it would know the beast. It was kin, it was pack. It only had two legs, it wouldn’t be fast enough! More than that, others were growing, shaping, moulding from the carcass that was left by the demon. More kits.

A moment flashed before the beast’s eyes, the smell of sulfur and blood, flashes of smoke and the screams of men, blood on the someone’s hands, someone dying in it’s arms...

The animal’s skeletal face twisted as best it could into a ferocious snarl, jagged teeth parted as a gargling, panting growl dripped from its mouth. The tail hissed from above the partially formed skull as the beast leapt over the skull-faced biped, turning to protect it with the bulk of the animal’s mass. There was no time for memories. This was just like with the horned devil, except now there was an escape. They would have to escape, but the kits would have to shape up swiftly. There were no staples this time.

They would escape.