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~Chapter 5: Threshold~
The Endless Forest was on the brink of war. Sides had been taken, those who trusted Iugulare to her word, and those who were manipulated by Noctuis. Black infection covered those who sided with the stoat, where white infection was given to those of the owl. Many deer fled, who wished to have no part in the conflict. The others were inducted to one faction or the other.
Even Michael and Auriea began to bicker between themselves, one god favoring Iugulare, the other seeing Noctuis' arrival as a way to defeat the stoat for good. It soon led to the two vanishing into their own dimension to settle the argument, leaving the Endless Forest unprotected...godless...
It was here the war started. First skirmishes between small groups, a few infected with whiteness that attacked unsuspecting members of Iugulare's army; those with the black infection stealthily overtaking Noctuis' soldiers, and many ending in stalemates with the opposing forces wearing each other down to where they collapsed in exhaustion. Quite often, a member of one army would find them, and quickly overtake the enemy.
There were no casualties in this war, but rather one infected by the opposing virus would be turned. Where an infected of Iugulare's was defeated, their black infection would be engulfed by the white covered by their enemy, and soon they would be brothers in viral arms.
Eventually, these minor conflicts merged, both sides regrouped and stared down their enemy between the trees of the Birch Forest. Iugulare and Noctuis themselves were there, and it was Noctuis that ordered the attack that led to the devastating war. Deer charged, clashing, biting, kicking, infecting.
