Rory felt an overwhelming sense of devastation at the sight of their ally, Theo, whose body was punctured by an invading Wendigo arm quite suddenly before their eyes. Infuriated at the loss of his new comrade, the redheaded man stumbled up to attack, but immediately halted as blinding red light emanated from the marksman's form with a pulsing, scarlet miasma. The Wendigo withdrew his arm and recoiled from Theo Bulloch's lifeless frame, staring helplessly at the glowing crimson plague that had entered his body through the gunshot wound and was now illuminating his pathways of blood from beneath taut, ashen skin.

"What trickery is this?" Altan bellowed angrily, searching Rick and Horen's astonished faces for an answer. "Horen!"

"I...I do not know this sorcery-- I cannot remedy it," replied Horen quickly, his attempts at rectifying the condition entirely futile as glyph-like creatures poured out from Horen's fingers towards Altan's body, yet failed to reverse the Wendigo's condition. Altan's unearthly appearance began to deteriorate, spreading from the hand that harmed Theo, the shining red entity within him running its course like trailblazers highlighting out his insides.

As though sensing the downfall of its host, his veins and arteries pulsed furiously until collectively bursting underneath his skin in an excruciatingly painful climax. Tissues deliquesced into dripping, frothy black ooze while the Wendigo's organs plopped to the ground and decayed in similar fashion. His growls and cries, noises embroiled in the procedure, eventually degraded into a mass of pitiful, bubbling gurgles.

At the end of the grotesque affair, Rick discovered a transparent and beating heart, untouched by the destructive force in the goop of liquefied flesh and bones. He took possession of the item using a waxed pouch on his hand, reverting the bag when the organ was in his palm so that he carried the item without contacting it.

"It would seem the surviving Djinn escaped, Emil," said Rick, wary of their now quiet surroundings. Concerned at the lack of response, Rick turned to the ginger-haired man, who was crouched over Theo's motionless body on the ground in somber recognition.

"Is there something we can do? Something that you can do? With your magic?" asked Rory, reaching a trembling hand towards the corpse, yet pulling away abruptly, too ashamed of himself to brush over Theo's open eyes and accept his failure in protecting the individual.

"I'm afraid not," retorted Rick bluntly. "Which is a shame, because I would've liked to explore and understand how she did...whatever it is she did."

"We have another innocent death on our hands, and you're nonchalantly talking about information that you could have gained from this guy? Don't you have any consideration or respect for the dead? Alan...are you even human?"

Irked by Rory's last comment, Rick stiffened. "It's too late for you to count the number of graves we have to dig, Emil. Bulloch's death was a sacrifice to the cause, much like the others that have fallen in our quest. And if you did not recall, what transpired just now was beyond the powers of a Djinn. Whatever Bulloch was wasn't human to begin with. To have destroyed a Wendigo so completely and so...spectacularly..."

"We just killed an innocent guy, and for what? What is this all for?" exclaimed Rory, maddened by his partner's apathetic rationality. "We've spent years chasing eldritch rumors and phantasmagoric phenomena, and we're no closer to finding the answers we're looking for than we were when we started this damned adventure! I'm sick of the way you gamble people's lives!"

Ignoring the rant, a fascinated Rick knelt by Theo's side, sliding cautious fingers to close Bulloch's eyes and lay her to rest.

"Are you even listening to me, Alan? Who the hell do you think you are, God--"

A sudden noise almost ironically caused the two men to die from shock. Theo Bulloch, with eyes popped open, jolted upright and sputtered in lieu of waking up from the dead, gasping and coughing painfully for air. The gape left by the Wendigo filled in till the empty space was mostly occupied with strips of muscles. Theo blinked perplexedly afterwards at Rick and Rory, both of whom stared at the risen figure with hands gripped to their chests in abject terror.

"Wh-what'd I miss?" quipped Theo, nervous from their unblinking gaze. "You guys look like you've seen Christ Himself rise from the dead!"

∞