Just as Ilal’s eyes glimmer in satisfaction at the people who acted within expectation, Anam’s illusion - proto-Ilal, the purple entrance ring - vanished. Ilal’s tiger head turned towards him, waiting for an explanation. The God of Magic was frowning, his head tilted as if he was listening to something. Recognition hit Ilal; Anam’s magic sensor must have been triggered. For him to be distracted during this important occasion - something was wrong, very wrong.
‘I feel it again, the sensation,’ Anam said, not looking at Ilal but at a point on the field. His eyes seemed distant. ‘I can feel the usual electric jolt, a sign someone’s using magic, but there’s something else too. A kind of needle piercing me, the pain’s too minuscule it can be ignored... but it’s relentless. This - this isn’t magic - isn’t something of my doing.’ His posture went erect, suddenly. He turned around and pointed at Rof Itwah. ‘It’s from there.’
Ilal followed his eyes and saw. At one side of Rof Itwah’s tower was a red glow, exiting from the corner like a smoke. Ilal had never seen anything like it - perhaps it was a human’s doing, an experiment? Not, it couldn’t be. If it was mere mortal technology, Anam wouldn’t be able to feel it. If he could, it meant that glow was connected to magic. They needed to find out.
Ignoring the baffled noise from Ilal’s worshipers, Anam and they flew down to the library’s right tower - Anam with his swift curiosity, Ilal with their careful approach. When they reached the tower’s front wall, they could see the smoke more clearly. It was a sparkling red, its glow brighter than Anam’s magical blue. Other than colour, it seemed like a magic by-product.
And when they passed by it, they were shocked. Anam and Ilal recognized the human in front of them, emitting the red gas which smelled pungent, yet sweet. He shepherded the lambs this morning; how could he be here so fast? The travel from Ilaeg’s outskirt to its center demanded three-days journey by walking. His presence was impossible.
The man stood unbalanced, swaying from one side to another as if he was possessed. He drooled, white foam leaking out from the corner of his mouth. His eyes were not coordinated; they glowed blood red. It was after several seconds that he looked at them and whispered, ‘The creators’ reign will remain no longer. The bond of the divine five will break as the new gods come to reign. Destruction will arrive.’
He repeated the words three times before he collapsed, the red gas escaping his body and traveling through the air. As they watched, it entered the worshipers’ field. Some of them gasped at its appearance while others screamed. They scattered away from it, but to no avail as it had seeped into some of them, turning their eyes to eerie scarlet. These people moved as the farmer, unbalanced and hurried, running towards each other and -
They teared each other part. Their mouths turned to slicing machine, biting and crunching others who weren’t affected. Neck and arms were the primary victims. Blood spilled, poured, and scattered over the sacred ground, accompanied with shrills and cries. Boys and girls, young and old - none of them escaped the cannibalism as long as they were within the monsters’ reach.
For the first time, Ilal froze. Their tiger eyes didn’t move, watching the scene before them without any focus to details. They couldn’t register what was happening - the madness - and why it happened. And that was the scary part. They had seen chaos and humans eating each other before - the happening were countless - and understood what drove them into doing such monstrosity, but this? This was beyond them, something they weren’t used to, and such, made them uncomfortable.
As Ilal stood still like a statue, Anam ventured into the chaos. His ring started to spin, generating magical energy that moved to his hands, turning into blue aura. He gathered the aura in one of his hand, forming it into a sphere. He threw it into the massacre and it exploded into a brilliant flash for mere seconds. Then, the people started to float and were away from each other. After ensuring none of them would be able to reach each other, Anam turned towards Ilal. He touched their wings with his electric-covered hand.
Ilal blinked and felt the sensation of being returned to reality. They knew what to do before Anam spoke his mind. Unlike Anam, the Deity of Living Things didn’t need gestures to use their ability. Ilal closed her eyes. In their mind was their Will, ready for use. Using their mental power, they broke the Will into tiny droplets, each of them glowing green. Then, they opened their eyes.
The green droplets floated in front of them. Unlike Anam’s blue aura, these were invisible even to other deities’ eyes, except Ilal. Ilal instructed them to approach the unaffected, but wounded, people and entered their chests, prompting them to radiate a faint emerald light. Their wounds -exposed flesh, prolonged bleeding, broken bones - started to heal. Ilal commanded the healing to be most rapid for the most injured lot as they could see their souls vibrating out of their bodies, ready to escape at any time. Since they weren’t in the death schedule today, Ilal had no intention to see that changed.
The ones who had turned into man-eating monsters struggled, stretching out their arms to reach the unaffected. Anam approached one of them and the human turned towards him and attempted to bite his face. He didn’t retreat and instead continued to watch the mortal. Closing his eyes, he touch the man’s chest with his aura-covered hand. Then, he released it.
He shook his head as he headed towards Ilal. ‘I can’t heal him. Whatever’s ruining his sanity is not my magic - it’s something else.’
‘If we can’t treat him,’ Ilal said, staring at the man who uttered incomprehensible noises, ‘then we have to kill him. All of them.’
A/N: Yeah, this goes to the bottom. The part I was most excited to write about was when the humans turned into zombies. My writing turned chaotic and anxiety-driven and I had to juice out my imagination to produce something horrible and vomit-worthy. It was fun. :D I’m also liking Anam more and more here, hopefully the personality I try to project into him is recognizable. Ilal also has their first moment of being unprepared over something, and we’ll see what they’ll do after this.
Thoughts. Gimme all of the thoughts! I'm still having trouble connecting with your main characters, and I think part of that is I don't have a firm grasp on either of their personalities or what they're really like as gods. This will come with time as the novel progresses, but I want to know more about them - and not like their history and what they can do. That stuff is interesting, but I want to know what makes them, them. 
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