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Eir awakens with a yell in the empty hall he already memorized. The Shrine.

Still panting heavily, he looked into the center of his chest.

His 'heart' was still there.

Is...all of that, just a dream?

His body, cold and wet from sweat told him it was not necessarily the case.

In his hand, the knife from before.

On his front, was a statue of a Goddess, accompanied with two empty podiums.

He reads the plate under the statue.

"The Task is complete. Eat or be eaten, predator or prey. Return your Dagger to where it belongs."

The left one's plaque reads 'Predator'.
The right one reads 'Prey'.

To sacrifice for greater good or to kill others for the same purpose.

His choice was already clear.

"If obtaining the greater good means sacrificing other people---then I'll be more than glad to offer myself as tribute. After all, the price of other's life is cheap if I can buy that with my own."

He placed the dagger, its blade now clear as a mirror on the podium.

When he awoke, Ako could only feel the tears sliding down his cheeks to pool on the ground. Limp, numb to the world as she lifted his hand to feel his once more beating heart.

A dream? Had it all been in his head? No... no... that was... it had to have been her. He pulled his knees close, tucking his face behind them as he let out a choked sob, still recalling the sharp pain as that thing, perhaps masquerading as her, had stabbed him. Jessie wouldn't have done that, she loved him. She needed him there, right? "JesJes.." Why wasn't she here now? Why didn't she protect him from that thing, she'd always been kind to him...

Why was he alone now?

He stayed like that a while, merely shivering a bit before finally moving, staring at the pillar before him with eyes still glassy from tears. Predator or prey? Did it matter? He didn't care, he just... he didn't want to hurt anyone. He wanted them to smile, to get along... If they meant being prey he was fine with it, he just wanted them to give him back the people he loved.

All of them. To give back what was stolen by those shadows pretending to be those he cared about. With that he left the dagger on the prey stand, slowly walking out of the shrine. This hurt. It hurt too much. Why had they gone and left him like before?

Why did he lose all that he loved?

Oephis returned to the shrine and for a moment, sat at the foot of the goddesses statue, resting her back against the pedestal. Was this a kind of blasphemy? She let out a breath. After what she had been through, she felt she deserved this one free pass. Pushing herself up a little, she examined the plaque, reading it carefully.

She had out-smarted the creature. She was not prey. She was a predator. At least by these standards. She would call it the luckiest person in the world. With a shrug, she pushed herself off the ground and made her way to the pedestal, returning her dagger without hesitation.

She left.

Stumbling through the doorway, Rika's legs gave out as she dropped to the ground, the glowing red dagger skidding a fair distance away from her. She was so tired, so infernally tired. Looking up, she stared at the statue of the goddess that was accompanied by two glowing pedestals with identical plaques.

Prey.

Predator.

Crawling forward, she grasped the dagger as fresh tears traced a path over the stains already streaking her face. Dragging herself to her feet, Rika shuffled over and slammed the dagger onto the predator podium, her hand thudding down with it. It took a moment for her to drag her hand away from the weapon, but she finally managed. She had survived. She was a Predator. Somehow, she didn't feel satisfied.

The feeling slowly became replaced with a feeling of pleasant emptiness. She stared at the predator podium for a moment along with the glowing dagger. So... she had won?

Reap held the dagger like a trophy, clenched tightly in his fist as if it belonged there. He eyed the goddess' statue with a vicious sort of amusement.

He'd play their games, he'd run, he'd limp along.

Then one day they'd be next.

He slammed the dagger on the Predator podium.

Though for some reason, he found he liked the word hunter a little more.

Shasa approached the Predator pedestal with a gleam in her eyes. It was a gleam of satisfaction. Pride. Completion. Cunning.

As she placed her dagger on the pedestal, Shasa could not help but think of how satisfying her actions had been. She was not prey. She would not be taken down.

She was stronger than she'd ever been.

The goddess was gone once more, leaving only her statue. He held the dagger tightly and approached, reading the plaque.

The Task is complete. Eat or be eaten, predator or prey. Return your Dagger to where it belongs.

There were two glowing pedestals next to the statue, and he knew that one would be predator, and the other prey. He smirked, and walked over to the predator one, glancing down to read it's plaque.

Sacrifice others for the greater good. This is the law of those who eat.

He dropped the dagger on the Predator pedestal, giving it up to the Goddess who had given him strength. "Thank you for my success."

His memory faded, and he made his way back to the shrine.

When the dagger fell from Trebor's hands, it fell on the prey pedestal. But he longed for the only thing he'd come here for - to be the predator. And he'd failed.

He'd failed himself, he'd failed the goddesses, and he'd failed her.

So he just sat near the prey pedestal for a while, as if to cement the fact that maybe he just belonged there after all.