Mysterious Loa

The abominations and skeletons hurled from the cliff flailed wildly. Snowflakes danced through the invisible currents, obscuring Sanla's vision, and in the instant he lost focus, time seemed to stop.

The snowflakes hanging in the air seemed to freeze in place. The currents no longer stirred, and the abominations and skeletons plummeting from the cliff were suspended in midair, locked in their original poses. When Sanla came back to himself, he was standing beneath a white sun, restored to human form. Lush grass lay beneath his feet, clear skies stretched above him, and towering, majestic beasts surrounded him.

"We haven't seen each other in a long time!"

"Ulathek, your appearance has changed!" Sanla looked at the enormous white serpent coiled to his right. The serpent god had changed. Besides her white underbelly and silver scales, a pair of black horns had sprouted from her head, spines ran along the center of her back, and two claws had emerged from her lower body. She seemed on the verge of becoming a dragon.

"Is that so? It's all thanks to you. Those sacrifices were quite good." Ulathek twisted her serpentine body, then displayed the spines on her back and the black horns atop her head.

"Won't absorbing those demons offered as sacrifices affect you?" Sanla turned his head and saw that Ulathek was not the only Loa to have changed. The others had changed as well, though none as drastically as Ulathek. Halazzi and Nalorakk's claws had become sharper and more savage, while Jan'alai, Ekilda, and Akil'darah had grown black horns from their heads.

"There has been some effect." The snow leopard sat upon the ground, her spotted satin-like fur flowing from head to tail like water. Her posture was exceptionally elegant, and with her claws tucked into her paw pads, she