Sin

Drae 

Jumping off the back of his great beast, Drae put a hand up to help his companions down to the ground safely. 

"I will never get used to that." One of the women dropped to her knees holding her stomach. 

"You only have your own weakness to blame, Jean." Drae tossed them a light sack of coin. "Soria, help your sister up and find a nice some good food for my beast. Whatever is left you can keep."

"Yes, elder."

The two of them fought over the bag as they walked towards an outcropping of merchants that lined the entrance to the underground stronghold of Ithel. 

'Almost an entire year of waiting.'

Drae led his beast towards an engraved metal platform with Desire written in its center. Once they both stood on it, the image of an ice crystal covered the platform and the earth around it crumbled into a spiraled staircase leading downward.

Drae patted his ego beast, and the giant bison huffed and meandered towards the direction the women went. 

'I won't be able to control him for much longer.'

Drae descended the staircase to its end, where the there was no light coming from the surface. Only scattered torches lit the area above four equally spaced doors circling around the staircase.

"Welcome, Drae." One of the doors opened to reveal a familiar woman in front of a well lit room.

"Sala, congratulations on this year's forging."

"I wouldn't go that far, it seems that we all have something to celebrate."

"What do you mean?"

"We each have a champion waiting for us."

"I was told there were only two." Drae rushed past Sala and into the well lit room. He nearly put his hands onto a brightly shining board on the wall but a wrinkled hand grabbed one of his arms.

"Not so fast, Drae. You wouldn't want to disturb the game would you?"

"It's no game, old man."

"Ever since you and Sala were brought into this world that is all it has ever been." The old man gave him a horrid smile with no teeth. "This is the only forging in decades that may actually change our position."

Drae looked towards a statue built with his visage. There was one for each of them, watching over the board in his absence. "We need this to work, Vale. Promise me that you didn't do something to ruin this."

Vale took his hand back and crossed his arms. "Anything I have done has been out of desperation for a better future. There are three separate champions, and I sacrificed just as much as the both of you if not more to make this happen."

Drae didn't believe the old man, but he had no choice but to trust him. They were on the same side, for now. 

"The only problem is that one of them is a sin."

"You mean that your champion is rotten."

"From what I can tell, the virtue we thought was yours is now in my territory with said sin." 

Drae felt his stomach drop, and he looked to the board where the two champions stood on adjacent spaces near Vale's Spire. The virtue took the image of a red trident, and the sin had the image of a purple beetle.

. . .

Dorin

Dorin had thought that he could simply run away from the swarm of beetles, but they were faster than he imagined. Eki couldn't move at full speed in the swamp, and had to be careful to avoid the creatures that lived underwater.

Eki did his part to deter the beetles, and for a while, all of them were frozen at a glance. Dorin speared the ones that were close enough, not wanting to deal with the explosion of its young down the road. 

'There is something off about these creatures. I can't tell if they are wild or if they have a purpose but they just keep coming.'

Dorin felt much stronger than when he fought the crustaceans, as his trident was undeterred by the weight of the beetles who dared to hang from its blades. The memory of his black minions crawling down his throat flashed through his mind, and a black sheen covered his arms. The feeling of his new skin was similar to a shell, as if he was wearing bracers.

Suddenly two beetles jumped at Dorin from different directions, and Eki's wasn't able to deter them at all. They were much bigger than what he had been able to bat away before, and Eki bared his fangs as he prepared to catch one in the air. 

Silver wings expanded from the beetle's backs, and they dodged Eki's bite. Dorin managed to skewer one, who was now fighting against the black liquid ready to devour it. The other bit down on Dorin's arm, but its pincers cracked once it made contact. 

Dorin quickly waved his arm in front of Eki, and they pulled the beetle opposite ways until its pincers detached from its head. A similar black liquid to his weapon rose from his hardened skin, absorbing the pincers into his arms which made the black shell extend towards his elbow. 

'I hate insects.'