by R. W. Holmes
“I don't have the strength to fight you on that this time” warned Gael.
“Well I don't have the patience to sit in a church and do nothing” replied Zinerva. “Besides, now that we're here, I feel like I'm being watched very, very closely.”
“That would be God” mused Gael. “Be on your best behavior.”
Zinerva scoffed. “Or what?” she joked. “He'll send me to hell?”
Across the church, Kennedy was left alone, while Jacky began casually making her way over to Emily.
“Oh, come on Jacky...” Emily whined. “What do you want now?”
And then it happened. Without a single word or reason for provocation, Jacky kicked Emily into Shay, and the pews, before leaping atop Emily and wrenching her gun away before either of them could recover.
Kennedy was up in an instant, but stopped fast by barrel of Jacky's gun, whilst Gael and Zinerva merely stayed where they were seated and looked on with melancholic indifference.
“What the hell!?” snapped Emily. “What happened to your word?”
“I kept my word” said Jacky. “We're not on Enterprise Island anymore, we're in a Catholic church now. That means the Vatican owns this land, not the spaceport city of Enterprise Island.”
“That's bullshit!” exclaimed Kennedy. “And you know it!”
“I mean, maybe it is” agreed Ginger. “But it's technically true, and that's really all we need. Geeze, you had all gotten so comfortable around us, too...”
Jacky smirked at Emily as she brought her gun back around to her and pulled the hammer back on her revolver. “I'm going to enjoy killing the person who ends up summoning you.”
The air went still as Emily held her breath, but then the soft clicking and groaning of the cathedral's front door opening pierced the air. A moment of hesitation for Jacky followed, and then...
“Summoners?” a level and hypnotic male voice called out. “Summoners, where are you~?”
“I get the feeling you don't have enough bullets for everyone anymore, do you?” Emily said triumphantly.
“Fine” Jacky spat indignantly. “New deal: no funny stuff until I have been dropped off at a starport, on the surface of the planet of Mars, and we have been out of each others' sight for at least an hour.”
Emily drew her knife from her side, smiling all the while, and held out her hand to Jacky. “That's better” she said as Jacky helped her to her feet.
“This is why no one will ever trust the word of the Fae” Shay declared bitterly. “It is only a liar who would think themselves smarter than everyone else for lying, and not see that everyone else is smart enough to live their lives without lying.”
“Yeah, you get 'em girl!” Zinerva called out encouragingly.
“You idiot!” Ginger hissed at Zinerva. “We're supposed to be keeping quiet!”
As if on cue, seven men, dressed all in black and wearing wide-brimmed hats, stepped out of the cathedral's foyer and into the Sanctuary. Their leader immediately doffed his hat to reveal what had to be an extremely expensive haircut, dark, piercing eyes, and teeth that were just a little too perfect.
“Allen Olmstead” Emily said knowingly. “I didn't know you got your hands dirty.”
“I make exceptions for once in an eternity occurrences” Allen replied with his best, corporate smile.
“Wait, Allen!?” Kennedy cried out in shock. “You're a CEO! Of Olm Industries! What the fuck are you doing here?”
“Oh... Kennedy, right?” Allen said with a chuckle. “We met at that wine mixer last year, the one your father hosted. This is very convenient, actually. You haven't been tainted by Mr. Walsh over there yet, and I'm always looking for ways to blackmail more Fortune 500 families.”
“Yeah, well, maybe I'm not all that crazy about helping you blackmail my dad” Kennedy replied feebly.
Gael, meanwhile, forced himself not to show any emotion as he sullenly wondered if Kennedy merely thought revealing the truth wouldn't change anything for the better, or if he was hiding the fact that he too had a demon purely out of fear. Regardless, the feeling that someone was 'in it with him' and become a very fleeting one.
It was then that Jacky triumphantly pointed her revolver at Allen and said, “I'm going to be famous.”
The sound of her gunshot pierced the air of the Cathedral, but one of Allen's comrades had eagerly leaped between the two to intercept it.
“Wonderful initiative” Allen said as the cultist who'd taken the bullet for him collapsed to the ground. “Now, let me show you why none of us bothered to bring any guns...”
Gael and the others held their breath as Allen snapped his fingers, and a great sloshing sound became very apparent from the Cathedral's entrance.
The black, brackish, slime-bodied and many-eyed beast that was the shoggoth lurched, bounded, and oozed its way into the Cathedral's center, rising up ominously behind the R'lyehans, before settling all of its eyes across the myriad of targets it was given.
“I think we're going to die” said Gael.
“Yeah” Zinerva acquiesced. “But, I mean, it took a shoggoth to do it. That's pretty impressive after everything else that happened.”
Gael couldn't deny what Zinerva had said: looking back, he had lasted far longer than he expected to.
Small consolation.
Jacky and Ginger wondered what they'd be doing shortly when they arrived together in Fairyland, as equals. Emily and Shay wondered if they'd be doing the same, or if Emily would find that 'better place' she hoped for. Kennedy guiltily mulled over if he was leaving Gael to die when by all rights he should too. Gael pondered what his fate would be at all, and Zinerva wondered if she could convince War to pull Gael's soul from the Hellstorm so they could hang out.
And Father Jacobs held on to his rosary and prayed for a miracle, not that anyone even knew he was there...
Rather, Father Jacobs had hid behind the pulpit after hearing the Cathedral's front doors open. He didn't know who was in the local congregation, as he was merely filling in the for Bishop who normally presided over the Cathedral, and so instead of coming out to greet the new voices, he stayed hidden and decided he'd see if they were 'of his flock' or not.
Of course, when Jacobs actually stole a peek at his shelter-seeking visitors, he saw an honest-to-God fairy, a young woman with a gun, and Zinerva, who was nude and looked downright monstrous when ones mind was open to the possibility.
“Heavenly Father, I beseech thee, your humble servant and temporary caretaker of this holy place that lay serene among the stars” Jacobs improvised. “Give me the strength to protect this place. Fill my heart with hope and light, so that my courage might prevail against the horrors that desecrate this hallowed ground. As it were: On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”
Back across the room, Jacky maintained her aim on Allen and asked, “I don't suppose you'd just let me smash one of these windows open and leave? If you're going to kill all of them then it's not like Ginger and I have any reason to stick around anyway...”
“No, I don't see any reason for that” Allen said apologetically. “And to be honest, I'm going to insist you're killed first.”
Jacky grimaced as Allen snapped his fingers, but remained calm and hugged Ginger tightly to her chest.
The shoggoth jumped, but caught only air as Jacky and Ginger exploded into a cloud of vibrant, multicolored smokes. A second explosion sounded in the back of the Sanctuary, and Jacky and Ginger reappeared high up near the ceiling, in a corner where the decorative stonework formed a pocket just large enough for Jacky to stand.
“Elves...” Allen grumbled hatefully. “No matter. Kill Mr. Walsh next, ple-,”
A harsh whooshing, followed by a brilliant white light passing by and illuminating the stained glass windows of the Sanctuary gave Allen pause.
“What was that?” he snapped at the other R'lyehans. “Does Enterprise Island have air support we don't know about? News helicopters? Come on! Don
't just stand there and look at me!”
One of the other R'lyehans stepped forward, this one with a particularly hunched posture, and said, “There's nothing like what you described on Enterprise Island. That should not have happened, and is probably a trick by one of the Fae.”
Gael and the others grimaced slightly as the more hunched R'lyehan spoke, and even with its hat to cover most of his face, they could sense a certain monstrousness in its appearance and voice that inspired revulsion in ways that even the demons didn't. They hated it immediately, and not even their modern sensibility to not judge a book by its cover could prevent them from continuing it.
Allen scowled and turned to Emily. “Was it you?” he asked expectantly. “What are you stalling for? Certainly not Argyle, he'd never make it here. We have two other shoggoths ripping the city apart as we speak.”
“You'll never lay eyes on Argyle” Emily replied bitterly.
Zinerva leaned in a little closer to Gael and whispered, “What's happening?”
“I have no idea” Gael whispered back. “But I know Shay didn't make that light, and I'm pretty sure Ginger didn't, either.”
“Well I didn't do it” said Zinerva.
A crash rang out through the Cathedral as the source of the great, white light kicked the doors in.
“Who dares desecrate this house of God!?”
Allen looked back at the other R'lyehans as the source of the voice stepped out of the entryway and into the Sanctuary.
He was tall, almost six and a half feet, and clad in the most brilliantly reflective silver armor any had ever laid eyes on. He also carried a sword that shimmered and reflected a light that wasn't there, much like his brilliantly luminescent yellow eyes, and he was flanked on either side by a neatly folded pair of pristine, white feathered wings.
“THE MEN IN THE HATS!”
All eyes turned to the pulpit then as Father Jacobs stood up from his hiding place and pointed at the R'lyehans.
“THEY COME WITH THAT MONSTER AND THREATEN THOSE SEEKING SAFETY!” Father Jacobs boomed vigorously. He then very quietly, and very nervously whispered, “Oh thank God...” to himself as he dropped down into his hiding place once more.
“Who the hell was that!?” Allen exclaimed in bewilderment.
The angel raised his sword, determination burning in his eyes, and swiped vertically at the shoggoth. Like a bullet, a sliver of white light rocketed across the room, hurling any R'lyehans who were too close away as it passed, and splitting the shoggoth in half with ease.
The shoggoth cried out as its amorphous form was split and several of its numerous eyes were split, but reformed and turned its attention to the newcomer.
Zinerva gripped Gael's shoulder more tightly and feverishly whispered, “Holy shit, this is awesome!”
The shoggoth lurched forward and hurled a large portion of its mass at the angel, seemingly enveloping it with its slimy body, before another burst of white light revealed the barrier of pure light the angel had conjured about itself. The shoggoth retreated from the bright, burning wall tactfully, before whipping more reserved pseudopods from its body to test the angel's formidable defenses.
“This is bad” Gael said to Zinerva. “No one is doing anything.”
“No, everyone is watching” replied Zinerva.
“Yeah, but we don't know that the angel or whatever is going to win” said Gael. “He's just an ordinary angel, right? Lucifer was an archangel and he wasn't strong enough to wipe out the R'lyehans or the Fae, so why would one angel on his own necessarily be stronger than a shoggoth?”
Zinerva frowned and looked at Gael accusingly. “You're gonna make me help, aren't you?”
“I'm pretty sure we can trust an angel's honor better than Jacky's” replied Gael. “And we've had Jacky with us for hours now.”
“Yeah, but she turned on us!” hissed Zinerva.
Gael's eyes lit up. “Fire!” he said excitedly.
“What?” queried Zinerva.
“That thing is like slime” replied Gael. “It'll die if we burn it up.”
“I can't make that much fire, though” said Zinerva. “I can do, like, a fist's worth per shot. I'd need a bajillion shots to kill something like that!”
Gael stood up and subjected himself to the extraordinary torment that was biting a substantial cut into his hand for the second time that evening.
“Gael, I don't think you want to do this” said Zinerva. “Too much all at once could be bad.”
“I didn't spend time researching the circles of Hell for nothing” replied Gael. “And you know what? I'm tired of listening to other people. I got here on my own, and I'm gonna get out of here on my own too!”
Zinerva clapped a hand to her forehead ,and then leaped off of Gael's shoulder and into the pews' center aisle.
“Fire of the Second Circle! Fire of Lust! Follow thy desires and envelop my enemies in your embrace!” Gael started.
Zinerva gasped as streaks of heat scorched their way through her veins and brightened them to an alarming vermilion color beneath her skin.
“Fire of the Third Circle! Fire of Gluttony! Release thyself, and consume my enemies!”
“Oh no...” Zinerva groaned, a second wave of power washing over her and turning her skin itself pink from the heat. “Gael, okay, you're really good at this, but-,”
“Fire of the Fourth Circle! Fire of Greed! Eldest child of desire! Vanquish my enemies, so that you might find all wants without obstacle!”
Zinerva screamed as the third hit, and the reddening in her veins set fire to her skin and scorched their pattern into its surface. Despite this, her mind held together long enough for her to look back at Gael so she could tell him to stop.
“Gael, you have to...” Zinerva started, before the pleading in her eyes was replaced with shock. Shock from seeing Gael hovering two feet off the ground, and the droplets of his blood from where he'd cut his hand floating around him as if they'd been suspended in zero gravity.
“Gael!” shouted Kennedy. “Bro! Stop!”
Allen and the R'lyehans, as well as their shoggoth and the angel accidentally summoned by Father Jacobs turned only a moment of attention to Gael, as they knew immediately that what he'd done would certainly be fatal.
“It's too late!” Emily shouted to Kennedy. “He's completely oblivious to anything in that state!”
“He's just going to keep going until he finished what he set out for” added Shay. “And when he's done, the toll of invoking that much magic will hit him all at once. Did no one tell you to go slow with such things?”
“No!” Kennedy blared angrily. “No one told us anything!”
Zinerva forced herself to turn around and dropped to her knees, determined to keep her burning self watching Gael as he struggled to continue his series of invocations.
“Fire of the Fifth Circle!” Gael managed. “Fire of Anger! Unleash thy passion, and destroy all in your wake!”
A gasp escaped Zinerva's mouth, followed by a gout of yellow flames.
“Fire of the Sixth Circle! Fire of Heresy! Spread thyself like the lies you foster, and show the world the one true flame that cannot be extinguished once it is lit!”
A mysterious, greenish flame crept over Zinerva's skin following Gael's latest invocation, and while Zinerva could feel its effects, she could not actually feel the burn.
“Fire of the Seventh Circle! Fire of Violence! Join thy brother Anger, and turn all to ash!”
The flames pouring from Zinerva's mouth were joined by a newer, purple flame.
“Fire of the Eighth Circle! Fire of Fraud! Join thy brother Heresy, and mislead as well as you deceive!”
A grayer, less noticeable flame joined the green one crawling over Zinerva's skin, and suddenly the intense pain was all but gone for the tortured imp. This minor consolation was replaced with the realization that Gael was about to finish though, and that he would certainly fail to survive what she nearly had.
“Fire of the Ninth Circle! Fire of Tr
eachery! Seal thy greatest prisoners in that icy lake of Hell's deepest deaths, and with your entropic essence, sew weakness in my enemies!”
The last flame didn't touch Zinerva at all, and instead merely manifested as a pale, bluish crown that hovered over her head.
Then, all of the flames affecting Zinerva vanished, and she was left without wounds.
Gael, meanwhile, felt his senses return to him, but remained suspended in the air. With a gasp, he felt every ounce of the powers he was sustaining, and the stress from his soul reaching all the way to Hell to do so.
“Oh God...” Gael gasped. “My soul is going to be ripped out of my body.”
“G-Gael” Zinerva said feebly. “Gael, wai-,”
And then Gael was gone.
His body remained, slowly falling to the ground as the taxing effects of his spells took their course, but he found himself whisked away on the same journey across the cosmos that had first brought Zinerva and him together.
Except it wouldn't be stopping halfway this time.
“Shit” hissed Gael. “How could I have been so stupid! Of course this would kill me. Why else wouldn't anyone be doing it already?”
Galaxies and great clouds of cosmic dust roared by as Gael struggled to think of a way out of his increasingly precarious predicament, and before long, the familiar wonders of space fell away to the dreaded blackness that preceded the wonders of the distant cosmos. Realizing that this meant he was truly short of time, he doubled down and forced himself to grasp at any potential idea for even the smallest shred of hope.
“I have no idea what's going on” Gael admitted a moment later. “There's nothing I can d-, no! Wait! Of course! Zinerva hasn't died yet, so she's still there!”
Gael bit at his hand, but found that while he was nothing more than a soul he was without blood to offer.
“Fine” he said grimly. “I'll just have to go for it anyway.”
Gael steeled himself and tapped into the obliviousness that got him into his current situation to block out the celestial wonders whirring by. It was difficult, but what he wanted to do being possible alone was already an immense long shot.
“Zinerva! Hear me from where you stand, and by your offering, meet me at the crossroads and draw me back to you!”