Episode 27: Slag Machis Alitheia

That night she had a dream, she stood at the shore of a beach, beige colored sand sat in between her toes and she walked into the water straight ahead. The water that was once blue turned black and sticky, she tried running away but it hooked onto her feet like quick sand. She cried out to no avail as there was no one else around her. 

Kacey told the residents about what Raphael had said and the dream she had.

"I think your hatred stems from the loss of your parents and aunt," Fitz informed her sipping on a glass of grapefruit juice.

"That might be it but then what am I supposed to do, not be angry?" Kacey asks with a heavy sigh.

"No you can be angry just don't let yourself be overcome by your anger and turning it into hate," Eliza munching on sinangag or garlic fried rice from last night's supper and Kacey asks her how she overcame her hatred.

"Look at it this way, I was angry at what they did to Aita but I realized if I let myself be consumed by hatred, I'm no better than those monsters who let themselves be taken over by lust," she said and collected all the dishes from the residents as it was her and Akira's day to wash up the dishes.

For the next few days, Kacey practiced each night with Raphael trying to open up her Sant Gate. On the last Sunday of the week, she successfully opened her Sant Gate and it glowed yellow making her height grow taller. Her usual one hundred and fifty centimeters grew to one hundred and seventy-five centimeters, 

Later that night Raphael prepared her for the final Angelos Transfiguration, the residents were not allowed to see as they would go blind from the glory the shone from within her. 

Kacey had to concentrate as per usual though this time she could feel her body give off a sweet smell like honey and her skin tingled at the spots of the Gate's openings. Her body began to contort, she levitated off the bed and her bones split in half, she let out an ear piercing scream.

"Kacey, are you okay?!" Mandisa cried out to her alongside the other residents at her bedroom door, they noticed a sharp light underneath the door as they heard Raphael's voice pleading with them to not open the door.

After a few minutes of hearing Kacey cry in agony the room fell silent, the glowing light ceased and they were told to enter the room. As Akira slowly pressed down on the gold handle and leaned against the door to open it, Raphael bid Kacey farewell and told her that from there onwards she would have to venture on alone in discovery of her new form.

"It seems you won't be alone at all, also to turn back to your human form mediate and all shall be well, Goodbye," he disappeared from her sight.

The residents make their way inside Kacey's room, the room was empty as they turned on the light they called out to her.

"Up here," she whispered and they all looked up towards the ceiling above them.

"Wow!" Akira exclaimed and Jiro chimed in, "You're a butterfly!" 

A large pair of ash grey wings with two pairs of black eyeballs on either side, hung up on the ceiling next to the chandelier. 

"Come down so we can get a better look at you," Eliza asked and Kacey let her arms stretched out and she floated down on to the bed.

 Kacey's entire body was coloured in an ash grey substance and she was two meters tall as she had to bend over slightly from hitting her head against the ceiling, she was bald with a pair of wings covered her chest and a the other pair covered her waist. Her face had finer features though her eyes were covered with the grey substance, blinding her. 

"Wait I need to turn around so I can see you," she told them and turned around on the bed.

"So, what do you think?" she added.

"You're beautiful," Eliza told her in awe.

The residents spoke for a few hours before leaving her room, Kacey meditated as Raphael told her and she turned back into her human form though naked, she speedily put on her pajamas and went to bed.

The next morning a fight broke out.

"Kacey, seriously no!" Eliza pleaded.

"That's what bathrooms are for," Mandisa added while trying to hold Kacey back from the kitchen sink.

"We do it all the time back home and besides I don't have a shower," Kacey swatting away at them with her towel in hand.

"Just use the bath, okay," Fitz also shocked at Kacey's attempt to wash her hair in the kitchen sink while the boys laughed away at them.

"That's a weird custom you have," Eliza rested her elbows on top of the white marble counter though taken aback by a loud thud through the kitchen doors.

"What was that?" Akira asked as they cautiously walked through the double doors of the kitchen to the living room. 

"Fungurai Slag Machis Tengagh, Fungurai Slag Machis Druugas Dike, Mudrei Slag Machis Silia" Gherro spoke and glowing symbols shone against the living room walls.

[Translation: Open the battlefield to the in-between, Open the battlefield to the Otherside, Create a battlefield, seal us in.]

"Skeb I Shafaan Coros Silia Tahahi Shillishga Enasi" he continued

[Translation: Create a space for us to become One.]

"Welcome, Kings, Dukes, Princes, Marquises, Earls, Knights and Presidents of Hell!" They walked into the living room to find creatures of various kinds roaring to Gherro's announcement.

"Gherro, what is going on?" Mandisa asked and gave her a devilish grin one that made the hair's on the back of the rest of the resident's necks stand on end.

"It took you long enough, my dear Mandi," he coyly stated.

"We were about to get started without you," he said and later added," just kidding, you are all the stars of this show, so a warm welcome to you too," he bowed and snickered as the rest of the creatures followed suit.

"I'm scared," Jiro said cowering behind Akira's leg.

"You see, residents of Newman Heights, we have been for the lack of a better word grooming you, for our entertainment," he straightened his posture and began to say.

"Each and everyone one of you has been handpicked by yours truly for this time," he added, disappearing and reappearing behind them as he ushered them to centre of the room.

"You have all exceeded my expectations, tenfold, especially you Kacey, an angel in our midst,"

"Where's the flightless dragon?" a monstrous voice echoed giving the residents a freight as they cowered behind Eliza and she takes on her Bakunawa form and wraps her tail around her friends.

"So you volunteer, this isn't Hunger Games kid, well, either way step up and show us what you made of!" he roared and the crowd of creatures chimed in with spine chilling cackles.

"A volunteer, from team Goetia?" Gherro asks and a scarred beast with a lion's head that was rotating in a circle on five goat legs.

"The Great President Buer and commander of fifty legions, my good man, I see you up for the challenge-" before finishing his sentence Eliza wiped a tail in the creatures direction swatting it away like a fly as the rest of the residents run up the stairs while Eliza slithers closely behind them.

In Eliza's room, the closets room they could find, the residents lay against the door while Eliza puts on clothes.

"What in the world is going on?" Fitz cries out while heaving.

"They treating this like some sort of game show," Mandisa says looking in Kacey's direction.

"And we're the butt of the joke," she groaned also asking Eliza if she was dressed and thanked her.

"No problem you guys know I'll do anything for you," she informed while pulling up a pair of blue jeans up her legs in the bathroom.

"What do we do?" Jiro asked a question that weighed on all their minds.

"Macy, can't we use your portal to leave this place for good?" Mandisa asked Fitz and she shook her head in response.

"It's not big enough for all of us to fit through," she informs them.

"Let's just try and escape-" Akira is interrupted by a soft knock on the door.

"Guys," Gherro elongated the word and added with a snicker, "We're waiting,"

"What the hell is going on here, Gherro?!" Mandisa shouted at the door.

"Hell indeed," he gave a hearty laugh and added that he would explain.

"You see, my dear friends, the seventy two demons you see before you are sealed in Hell by King Solomon and have been quite bored over the years, you know terrorizing humans who can't see them, where's the fun in that? So be a good sport and come down and entertain us,"

"Did you cause the fire that killed my mother and grandmother?" Mandisa sneered and Gherro shook his head.

"No, that was your ancestors; they can get pretty scary when they don't get their way," he responded.

 "You, who are you to these things?" Fitz asked running her hands through her hair.

"The host, of course, though if you mean whether or not I'm one of them, no, I'm not" 

"So you lied when you said you were the King of legions?" Mandisa asked half knowing the answer already.

"Oops!" he snickered. 

"So, the only reason you spoke to me was because you needed another competitor?" Mandisa seethed.

"No, no, this was a two way relationship; I equipped you to be a competitor, Mandi"

"Are you the one who opened up the Rip in location so we can't leave this place?" Jiro questioned in a firm tone.

"Of course, its an open portal with serious magic for our guests to manifest in" with a smirk they couldn't see.

"What's the difference between the Agma Devva we've been fighting and these demons?" Eliza asks and Fitz nods in agreement.

"Easy, the Agma Devva come from Earth whether human or plants and whatever but demons, the original fallen angels from Heaven, well, except for Shax's soul fragment you defeated" Gherro said while scratching the inside of his braid with a sharp pointed finger.

"Fine, we'll compete in your 'game' under one condition, we get our freedom once we done," Colchester tells him with an exasperated sigh.

"Wait, Cole we don't have to do this," Mandisa tugged at his arm to face her.

"I'm with Colchester, let's kick some ass," Akira puts a hand on the door handle.

"You ready?" he asks them opening up the door to reveal Gherro with pearly white teeth, a smile plastered on his face.

The residents walked down the stairs ever so slowly, cautiously as the crowd roared at the sight of them.

"That's ten points for team Newman Heights, who's up next?" He called out behind the residents at the top of the stairs.

"Oh, Dantalion, Great Duke of Hell with thirty six legions under his command," he said to a woman with long blonde hair, barefoot with a blue dress on and it then shifted into a tall bulky man with rugged features and wearing a white jeans.

"I'll go next," Jiro said and Akira pulled at his arm.

"I'll be okay, Aniki," he said with a soft smile and walked on the last few steps in front of him.

"Okay and start!" Gherro announced and the crowd roared.

Jiro took a deep breath as the man approached him and shifted its appearance into that of a little girl with a bouquet of dandelions in her hands. He took out a piece of black chalk in his jean pocket; draw a circle with a cross in it, a Krowix symbol on his tongue. 

"Neru!" he called out and the little girl swayed from side to side, closely approaching him though immediately fell to the ground at Jiro's shoes.

[Translation; Neru is sleep in Japanese]

"Another ten points for team Newman Heights!" the demons booed at them but the residents didn't mind as they rejoiced when Jiro joined them back up the stairs while a demon steps up to the center of the living room.

"Marchosias, the great fighter, Marquis of Hell and commander of thirty legions is stepping up for team Goetia," Gherro pointed to a demon in the form of a black dog with burning wings and a snake's tail.

Colchester took a step down though Akira held him back with one arm.

"I got this," he whispered in Colchester's ear and he obliged.

"Fine, but get hurt and I won't heal you," he told Akira and he burst out laughing.

 "Watch this," he told the residents and whispered under his breath as his wooden club appears out of thin air.

"How'd you do that?" Kacey asked him and he replied that it was a trick Kaida taught him.

Akira walked up to the demon wearing a light blue kimono over his white t-shirt and black jeans; he took a fighter's stance while the demon slowly bent down growling at him.

"Let's see what you made of little boy," the demon seethed and bared his pointed teeth.

The demon lunged at Akira and he stepped aside like a bullfighter with red cloth in hand. He went for him once more and Akira swung the club over his head with a large thud.

"Did I do it?" Akira called over to his friends behind him, turned around and walked over to the staircase.

"Akira, no!" Fitz screamed as the residents witness the demon getting up and flying in his direction.

"Never turn your back on your enemy, boy," a gruff voice spoke as Akira hesitated and turned around, and hit the demon once more over its head.

"One, two, three, four, five, si- you get my point his out, so ten points for Newman Heights," Gherro said and leaned against the broken banister.

 "I'll go next," Fitz volunteered.

"Are you sure?" Eliza asked her stopping with a hand on her shoulder and Fitz gave her a curt nod.

As Fitz took the last stair leading to the living room, the sound of trumpets echoed throughout the mansion.

"I know that sound, Purson, the great King of Hell served by twenty two legions, representing team Goetia," Gherro announced as a figure of a man with the head of a lion, riding a ferocious grizzly bear and holding a green viper in his hand approached the center of the living room.

"Go, Fitz!" Jiro cheered her on with a hand cupped around his mouth.

"Nera, you ready?" Fitz whispered under her breath to the invisible Nera standing beside her.

"Of course," she simply stated.