"Which god is this?"

  "... looks like the Abrahamic one to me," Iker whispered.

  After having asked the question, Bastian flicked every makeshift lock and pulled out every knot across the cages using flux.

  Wait, since when was Bastian receptive to flux? Iker asked himself while helping talking kittens and puppies exit the more unstable cages. Why he kept the question to himself became apparent when tens of furry rescuees were now in the hands of the two human rescuers. The ability remained esoteric to Iker, yet more rainbow-clad holograms would manifest whenever he feared that there were not enough distractions to ward off the Alkrezian extremists climbing up to the ablaze gallows. Whether it was an unconscious memory or intuition, something pulled Iker's eyesight to the night sky lit up by gunfire and fanatical torches, and he spotted his drones 420 to 429 creating aerial logic gates.

  From each eye-shaped threshold into sacrificial chambers to the human mind above came out catwalk enthusiasts, leaning or dropping it low to dodge side and overhead swings from rogue machetes and axes. Two queens with the longest trains attached to their dresses dropped into splits from the highest point of the erected structure, the rising fabric from the trains giving Iker, Bastian, and the talking animals cover to climb the stairs where a masked Alkrezian was awaiting them. Wooden arms spawned across the stairs from the man with a helmet made of light, open fingers striking the forearms Bastian crossed in front of him. From its feedback a dalmatian puppy almost flew into the angry crowds below until Iker caught him in midair. Hughmungus, the very big drone, missed dropping all of its weight onto the Alkrezian flux user that appeared to be able to spawn human-shaped bark. Thanks to the clamorous and plowing fall from Hughmungus, Bastian reached a melee range to the flux user that had to be in anagami form. The holographic queens that did not jump covered the Alkrezian's vision with long nails and dress whips, until a punch from Bastian made his head separate a good distance from his spine without cutting any skin, the falling Alkrezian's fate to be decided by the crowds fighting the prideful holograms below.

  While hoping that Bastian found an escape plan at the top, Iker made sure to stay behind all the talking animals.

  "Where do I go?" the dalmatian in Iker's arm asked.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  "Go to the top where the other human is," Iker commanded, laying him down on the highest step reachable.

  "Is there a way to go from up there?" the dalmatian rightfully asked.

  At the base of the stairs below inquisitors, Camilo's so-called father, and devout believers that somehow made the climb were on the hunt with bloodlust in their eyes.

  "We better hope so," Iker replied.

  Then another realization came, and Iker pressed onto his shorts to find a revolver. Two conflicting memories came to his mind's eye. One memory pertained to getting it from a gun safe in his home, the other memory was an interdimensional one. Iker remembered having chased Camilo, an archaic laptop closing, then having awakened right before the failed execution of the talking animals by Bastian's side... a pair of hands having decided what weapons he possessed.

  Deliberation was something Iker valued, and the logical side of him wanted to use the old and unrecognizable gun to keep the Alkrezians at bay, however his anger was way ahead of his thoughts. While aiming at the priest that staged this reckoning, now a chaotic, bloody, and tumultuous ruckus, Iker shot the two bullets he only now remembered having. Indeed, both bullets would have taken the life of the man that desecrated Camilo's childhood, however Iker underestimated how devoted the priest's believers were to him. One after the other, the murderous gazes of both of the women that jumped in front of the shots turned into glimpses into the afterlife. More blood than bark beneath them, the Alkrezians hunting down the talking animals erupted into screams, some cursing and condemning Iker.

  "YOU FOOL! THE AUTHOR IS ON MY SIDE!" the priest yelled, ending his declaration of victory with maniacal laughter. "Let them die! God has chosen their lives to end here! Peace be upon them!"

  Upon his request, the Alkrezians trying to contain the blood flow of the sacrificial lambs stopped pressing on their bullet wounds altogether, and as they walked away from the dying gently, the focal point of the small crowd was the priest and the two bleeding women by his feet.

  "Come back down here! I shall forgive you if you bring back all the animals!"

  Iker, being too busy with a sinking heart and utter shock, did not realize that all the talking animals made it to the top. He gulped and ran up the stairs past two leather daddies doing stair choreography. Using flux, Bastian came back immediately to the stairs, kicking it towards its collapse right behind Iker.

  "Let me pick you up," Bastian commanded.

  "What?" Iker asked while stopping. Stopping was enough apparently, because after a blink Iker found himself behind the gallows altogether.

  While the talking animals were making an escape through dancers and underneath spawning floats, a reticent Camilo waited for both of the boys with a lion cub in his arms.