Part 6
A month later, Lilim was awoken in the dead of night.
It was noisy outside. Perhaps her father had returned. She followed her mother outside.
There, she found her father. He was bound in rope and kneeling on the ground.
“Fa…ther?”
Surrounding him was a throng of torches, and his clothes were stained with blood.
Her mother bravely spoke up. “What do you people think you’re doing?”
“Word is, one of you is stained.” A torchbearer stepped forward from the crowd. It was the chief of a Golden Leopard branch family. “Stains have to be purged. That’s the rule.”
“………”
Lilim’s mother stood before her daughter wordlessly.
The branch family chief pointed his sword at Lilim’s father’s throat. “Who’s the stained one? Fess up.”
“…I don’t know,” her father choked out.
“Oh, really now?”
The branch chief plunged his sword into her father’s shoulder.
Blood gushed forth, and the sound of bone snapping followed.
Lilim’s father didn’t scream. He simply remained motionless, his head hung low.
“Pathetic.” The branch chief thrust his sword again.
“Stop this at once!” Lilim’s mother cried. “If you think you can get away with attacking your chief, you’re wildly—”
“Oh, I can get away with a lot. I’m the new chief of the Golden Leopards. This sad sack betrayed the clan.”
“What proof could you possibly have for that?”
“A Holy Teachings priest came to the village and told me. Said that he smelled the possession. Out east, the Church is in charge of gathering up the possessed and purifying them.”
Another man strode forth from the group. He was dressed in priest vestments and wore a thin smile. “The possessed must be purified without delay. If left untended, their blight can spread, sending entire villages to ruin—”
Lilim’s father’s hoarse voice cut in and interrupted the priest. “Liar.”
“I’m sorry, therianthrope, did you just say something?”
“I called you a liar, human.”
The priest shot Lilim’s father a glare positively dripping with contempt, and her father met it head-on.
“And what exactly am I lying about, pray tell?”
“Everything. The possession is a hoax, cooked up by the Church.”
“What a riveting theory.” The branch chief laughed. “Looks like he finally lost it.”
The crowd around them joined in and chuckled as well. Meanwhile, Lilim and her mother found themselves unable to comprehend what her father was talking about.
All the while, the priest and Lilim’s father continued glaring at each other without so much as blinking.
“What proof do you have, therianthrope?”
“The Golden Leopards have a bloodline dating back for generations, and all that time, they’ve been passing down an epic from one patriarch to the next—an epic about the therianthrope hero, one of the three that took on Diablos.”
“So a silly legend.”
“It’s a legend, all right, but it’s a little different from the one the rest of the world has heard. Our version casts the three heroes as women instead of men, and it calls the possession a blessing rather than a curse.”
The priest’s gaze harshened. “Everything you just said is blasphemy against the Church.”
“I’d wondered about that for a long time. Why was the Golden Leopard version of the story so different from the rest of the world’s?”
“That’s a stupid question. Legends shift and change over time. That’s what they do.”
“I’m not so sure about that. Generations of patriarchs took great care in passing down our epic. They wouldn’t have let it just shift like that. And most importantly, we’re the Golden Leopards—descendants of one of the three heroes who defeated Diablos, Lily the Golden Leopard. That right there is your answer.”
“…What are you implying?”
“That the version of the story the Golden Leopards passed down is the truth, and that the Holy Teachings took that truth and distorted it,” Lilim’s father declared with unclouded eyes.
A long hush fell over the gathering.
Eventually, quiet chuckling began spreading like a contagion, eventually growing into raucous laughter that rocked the entire village.
The branch chief clutched at his chest as he howled. “Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha! That’s great. That’s a riot! I can’t even remember the last time I laughed this hard!!”
“It really is funny, isn’t it?” The priest laughed as well. In his case, though, the look in his eyes was as far from mirthful as could be.
“Okay, okay, let me get this straight,” the branch chief said through his chuckles. “You’re saying that the possession is a hoax cooked up by the Church, and that the possessed are really descendants of the heroes. That’s why there’s no need to cleanse the stain. Do I have that all right?”
“…Yes.”
“Bullshit!!” The branch chief’s roar shook the air. “You would risk the entire clan over some delusional fantasy?!”
“You might not believe it, but that’s the truth!”
“Quit spouting your lies!”
The branch chief plunged his fist into Lilim’s father’s face. He hit him once, then again, then again and again and again.
Lilim stood stock-still. Her knees trembled as she stared in horror.
“All right, enough playing around.” The branch chief wiped off the red stains on his hands. “Who’s the stained one?”
A small smile played at the corner of Lilim’s father’s mouth. “………”
“If you don’t tell us, I’ll put the whole lot of them to the torch.”
“You’d do that no matter what I said. All you’re here for is to torment me.”
The branch chief fell silent. That alone was answer enough. “Have it your way, then,” the branch chief finally said as he wrenched free his sword.
“S…stop it!”
All eyes gathered on Lilim.
“I-it… It’s…it’s me…” Her legs trembled beneath her. “I—I… I’m…the p-possessed…”
She could hear how pathetic she sounded.
Her vision swam with tears. Then she met the gaze of the man looking straight at her—her father.
“Listen to me.” His voice was uncharacteristically gentle. “The Golden Leopard clan is descended from Lily, the hero who once saved the world. Our bloodline is something to be proud of. The question is, why did Lily entrust us with her tale? Why did generations of our patriarchs pass it down? There’s a reason for that. It’s because we have a duty.”
“Father…”
“The hero’s blood runs thicker in you than in anyone. You’re smart, and you’re strong, and I couldn’t be prouder of you. You have to head east, Lilim. There’s someone in the Midgar Kingdom who can cure the possession. That’s where our duty lies.”
“B-but, Father… I can’t—”
“You can do it, Lilim.” With that, her father turned to his wife. “Look after them.”
She gave him a small nod, then pulled Lilim in close.
“You really think we’ll let them get away?”
The therianthrope men already had them surrounded.
“I’ll make sure they do,” Lilim’s father replied. “Even if it costs me my life…”
A loud creaking filled the air.
It was coming from inside her father’s body. Something inside him was pulsating.
A moment later, a tremendous amount of magic exploded from his body, sending his restraints flying.
“Wh-where’d that power come from?!” the branch chief yelled.
“The veins of Golden Leopards run thick with feral blood. I just took mine and set it free.”
Her father’s golden hair shot outward. It was like a mane, like he was regressing from a person to a beast.
“Th-that’s impossible. No one ever told me about—”
“This is a forbidden technique taught only to the clan’s patriarch—one that shreds its own user’s life.”
Tears of blood ran down her father’s cheeks. His muscles rippled, veins bursting and blood spurting out.
“GRAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!”
With that, he became a frenzied beast and sent the other therianthropes flying.
Then he positioned himself between his family and their foes. “Go!!” he bellowed. “Run!!”
“Come with us, Father!!”
“I can’t!!”
Her father looked back over her shoulder, and when Lilim saw his face, she gasped.
“………”
It was almost completely bestial.
“Your father is eventually going to become totally feral. We have to get out of here before he does…”
“N-no! Father!”
Lilim reached for her father’s back. However, her hand never got there.
“What a fascinating ability. I never imagined I’d find descendants all the way out here.”
The priest cut in and swung down a reddish-brown chain.
“GRAHHHHHH!!”
Her father swatted away the chain. The spiked weight on its end went flying.
“Goodness me, this is incredible stuff… I just came out to retrieve a possessed, but it would appear my journey’s borne unexpected fruit.”
“Hurry, Lilim!! Get out of here!!”
Her father tackled the priest. That gave them a tiny opening, and her mother used it to scoop Lilim up and run.
“Father… FAAAAAATHERRRRRRRR!!”
The last thing Lilim saw of her father was him looking wonderfully large.
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