“Not at this time, Victoria. Thank you for your patience.” When Vic mentioned the Trinities there was an ever so subtle reaction from all seven of the new Virtues. I'm certain they were trying to work out how such a massive shift in circumstance could've come about, or they were choosing their new names. Turns out we'd get our answer moments later as the one who'd been doing all the talking approached Vic.
“I don't have a question, and I understand as a mortal you must be doing everything within your power to deal with circumstances which are obviously well beyond what any mortal should ever have to endure,” his tone was genuine and sincere. We'd always heard angels are a pompous bunch, but this one at least seems to be making the effort to be consolatory.
“Thank you for saying so …?”
“Diligence, Victoria.” Vic actually grinned a bit, and Diligence further displayed the wisdom of his charm.
“We've all chosen our new names as you instructed. Out of respect for the other angels, I would like to share their names, and my own, with you. Just as you know the histories of Johnny, Tim, Brent, Cynthia, Tina, Beth, and Coleen, it seems in your situation it may also be useful to you to know who we are, or were, as the case may be.” Vic hadn't heard another individual say those names in a very long time. Her slight grin nearly turned to tears.
“Please, Diligence, by all means, educate me about yourself and the others.”
“Thank you, Victoria. My name is …”
I'm not yet going to scribe what I heard next. We know these names from Vic’s studies. These angels, at least a few of them … I can't record this, not even in this journal. Not right now at least. There’s … there’s something else here …
Journal entry LXX
Another six days have passed since our return from Hell. We've been watching the news reports closely to keep track of where Malus and the Trinities have been popping up. Vic has been planning with the new Virtues. It turns out Vic had similar suspicions to our own concerning the angels, and she reaffirmed those suspicions via some research the angels weren't privy to. Since those confirmations Vic has been almost completely open with her knowledge of souls; their collection and manipulations. She's readily told the Virtues she's also fluent in the manipulations of the mind and the flesh. In short, Vic has shared with the new Virtues nearly everything she has and can enact, including her history with these abilities going back to her first collection of the original Virtues. She's offered all this information without exposing that she is the possessor of the Book of the Damned. But she only did so after Diligence volunteered that because of being imbued with the pure souls, these seven are no longer part of the divine communication.
While these conversations have been taking place, Vic has had doppelgängers of herself globetrotting to keep Malus busy. Vic is referring to them as — quite appropriately — her Glamors, and she has sent out a Section of Valkyries with orders to hit known demonic hot spots around the world and make sure they’re seen as Victoria. Victoria in all her high-fashion, haute couture glory in places she may or may not belong looking the way she does. She had one other special instruction for them to adhere to: Have fun. Tease them. Really get them riled up. Let them think they’re on the cusp of catching you, and then disappear around a corner, or into a shadowy place, or even a crowd of people. Don’t do anything which isn’t physically possible by mortals, aside from losing your pursuers, until no one can see it happening.
Vic knows the demons can’t report back to Malus fast enough to give away what’s happening, and she knows the ones who do get to him will only be the bearers of bad news. Vic was wise enough to tell them to assume they’re being chased by a demon even if they’re only being chased by a mortal. If a demon managed to attach and root itself into one of Vic’s Glamors Vic will know immediately. Upon such an instance she’ll help guide the Glamor get to private place where Vic would be the one to break her own rule by dissolving and repealing that Glamor for reassignment. The demon would be left hanging in midair, attached to nothing until it hits the dirt.
Have fun the Glamors did! Provide Vic and the new Virtues with time to conceive something resembling a plan they did as well.
Diligence explained one of the most adamant rules among angels, and even more importantly and especially among those angels charged with the guidance of mortals in the capacity of being a Guardian Angel, no angel shall use the soul of a mortal for gain of any kind even in the slightest. Period. In basic, these seven angels accepted the offer of being imbued with souls previously belonging to mortal children, purely innocent souls, thus their memberships to God’s divine golf resort are revoked by default. They're not fallen angels, per se, because they have not been cast into Hell, which apparently is not something which is actually done according to Lucifer, but they're not part of the Divine either. This servitude to Vic is their limbo. These details, however, are not the grander picture concerning several of these individuals. These details simply mean that calling upon the heavens for an assist is out of the question.
In our current circumstance planning our next move is paramount. Vic needs to be protected, but it's her intent to be the aggressor and to at least knock Malus off center enough to cause him to reconsider his current course of action. It's Vic's intent to go back to Hell and attack Malus on his own ground. Though Vic is doing her best to keep the book a secret, which is even more difficult now than previously, we've whispered in her ear more than once about this decision. We have never been privileged to know her every thought, so we didn’t know the minutiae of her will in this matter. Obviously Vic wants all of this to stop, which we believe she understands is no longer an option. She is still a mortal, and despite the massive amount of power she currently wields, she will still just be a mortal throughout the entirety of what’s about to transpire.
We hope.
Chapter Eleven
~
Cumulative Effect
Journal entry LXXI
Vic is in peak physical condition because of Evelyn’s efforts this past week. Her mental and physical presence easily precedes the fact that she’s such a stunningly beautiful young woman as well. In universal terms the times we’ve spent with Victoria is a fraction of the blink of an eye, but happily stand in her shadow in awe of how she’s navigated her life in so few years. We know because of Victoria that humankind has been selling itself short. We sold ourselves short, and our current existence is testimony to such shortcomings. Mentally Vic is stronger than her appearance gives clue to, and in spite of the difficulties of her last trip to Hell, she's eager to go back.
This plan of hers might cost more lives, which is weighing heavily on Vic’s shoulders, but for any element of surprise to be on Vic’s side it's something which must be chanced. She needs to execute while she knows Malus is chasing ghosts in the mortal realm. Vic is calling back her Glamors a few at a time, which in turn is creating longer durations of hunting for where Victoria will pop up next. Just before we go in she’ll have all of them called in.
Vic’s second string of Valkyries is stationed all over the surrounding neighborhoods’ homes, diners, and other businesses watching televisions and listening to radios. The neighborhood we’re in has so little population left in it that Vic had to send the Valkyries out into a greater radius to keep an eye on the unfolding events. They're riding along in cars, trucks, delivery vehicles and eighteen wheelers, and any place else they can listening in and wait for Malus to show up on the news. Another set of Valkyries are relaying the info back and forth at extreme speeds between Vic and her agents taking in the news reports. Once the reports come in Vic only has to call in her soldiers and pull the trigger on her plan.
Soon more than a dozen Valkyries show up at once with a report of monsters in South America terrorizing a small town. Other Valkyries pop in echoing the report of monsters in the shadows seemingly looking for something or someone. This is our chance. Vic whispers the command for all outstanding Valkyries to reel in for the jump.
“Anywhere in particular?” Diligence asked in an eager tone.
“The throne of Hell.” Vic didn't even hesitate to answer. She has a lot of aggressions and pent up emotions she needs to exercise from her system. No doubt the new Virtues have some similar aggressions to get out of their systems.
Each of the Virtues opens a gateway to Hell with precision and ease. All the Valkyries pass through with Vic as she steps firmly into the land of suffering. Evelyn is dampening the effects of Hell on Vic better now than previously due to having prior experience. Vic’s confidence is high, but we fear that's not going to matter. She's here to try to rescue her parents and Vincent, but she's found no combination of angel and demon speak in the book which gives clue to how to separate the entities they're now part of. Maybe she just wants to let this end anyway she can as long as she's close to them. She's been so guarded with her emotions now that she's in command of so many; it's just too difficult to tell.
“Destroy it!” Vic’s command is simple and heard by all her Valkyries despite the massive amount of noise conducive to Hell. The souls compressed, glowed blue-white hot and shot through the air, through the damned comprising the pedestal and throne, over and over until the monument of sin-driven power was little more than tortured mush.
From all around us demons and Thorn had been encroaching since we stepped through the thresholds, but the demons are frozen at the sight of the throne being obliterated and not knowing if they could successfully attack with such power being exercised. The Thorn has given pause knowing they must rebuild the throne, but also that they must engage the intruders.
The fleshen souls making up the structure have been torn to pieces by the Valkyries as though they're paper. The explosions of flesh, blood, and body parts are obscene. One feels sorry for them as no matter how much damage they endure, even with the smashing of their skulls and smearing their fleshen brains all about, the pain doesn't cease. Their bodies, parts and crumbs of flesh, are drawn back in by their own souls and reassembled as they remember themselves as when they were alive. No suffering is wasted as even the process of reassembling themselves fires off the pain of the shredded nerves, tissue, and shattered bone.
The Virtues formed a half circle from Vic's right to left and behind. Diligence and Patience stayed within Vic’s peripheries on each side as they and the other Virtues rendered themselves invisible. With the throne and its pedestal destroyed over the span of less than a minute, the Valkyries hovered all about and remained as nearly invisible spheres able to react with stealth and even faster response.
The destruction left behind was little more than a mound; broken, twisted, and shredded flesh and protruding bone all about, but all the pieces of every fleshen soul were already trying to make their ways back to their respective bodies. Entire heads twitched, spasmed, and tongued their way across the terrain screaming in pain and horror every inch of the way. That's how it is for every last piece, and there were more to come …
“Destroy the angel chamber!”
At least Vic isn’t just standing around admiring the scenery. The Valkyries attacked Malus’s mocking monument maliciously and mercilessly! En masse they swarmed inside the cunni construct and exploded it from within. Unfortunately this move left the Valkyries some distance from Vic’s position. As she watched from her position Vic felt a rumble beneath her feet. It was a different kind of movement from the normal undulations and vibrations in Hell. It rippled through the damned below our feet and intensified, and it was something even Vic noticed despite not being as familiar with how Hell moves as we are.
Looking about I could just make out a ripple of movement traveling against the outside of the landscape; out in the cold blackness of the shadow of God. It was pressing hard from out there and moving fast as well. It circled Vic and the Virtues several times making it obvious their location was well known. Vic looked towards her Valkyries and motioned with her finger circling in the air. The swarm of souls concentrated above her and the Valkyries began circling.
The Thorn Minion had all stopped in their tracks, which solidified for us our quarry had arrived. But why was he out in the shadow? Where was the trinity of Trinities?
From the mound of broken bodies left over from the base the throne sat upon, a long, thin, shiny-smooth, crooked, black spike with knuckles jutted into the air what must’ve been twenty feet or better. It wasn't too different from a spider’s leg but with multiple joints and a misconfigured tangent. Then there was another, and another, and soon a whole bouquet of them. Smaller legs, not unlike the large ones, speared through the fleshen souls from outside and all around the larger ones. This was the kind of show Malus enjoys. This is his grand entrance.
The long, spindly legs spread open the meaty ground breaking bones and rending flesh from flesh as the bloodied souls are still trying to reassemble from damages already done. From the tear a larger, more crooked, even twisting black mass emerges. His fissures appear slowly on his otherwise glassy obsidian-like surface. His arms extend out from his sides longer and more spindly than previously. Yet more of the spidery appendages protruded from his sides below his arms and extended outward for an exaggerated distance as his stance became that of a dark and macabre bird of prey spreading its wings while silhouetted against Hell’s sun in the distance. Rays of light formed from between his arms and all the crooked and knuckled offshoots. Macabre barely begins to describe the spectacle he’s making of himself.
Malus is larger than before. Altogether he’s towering before us at between twenty and thirty feet in total. But what I’ve accounted for thus far was just the beginning of changes he'd made to his form. The crooked spidery pikes are coming together like branches tied in a bundle. On each side of Malus he now has second arms of sorts with so many points serving as hands, or at least digits. They’re as irregular in girth as they are in length and quantity with new knuckles forming for greater dexterity. Malus raised all his arms and the lights from Hell’s sun broke through the small openings of his second arms, and from around the rest of his new form as well.
As I said though, Malus loves dramatics. A cold, low laugh emanates from his whole form as Hell’s sun continues to silhouette him morbidly mocking Christ’s crucifixion as Malus lets his horned and thorned head rest to his left.
“I am the way and the truth and the life.” Malus’s voice reverberates with a greatness that drowns out the damned in its bass and baritone fashion, and followed in the same tones with a terrible laugh.
Malus steps from the tear in Hell’s fabric with hundreds of his spider-like legs reaching out like long branches, all odd-knuckled and fiercely-tipped. The many smaller digits, which initially sprung up around the greater legs as they stood monolithic, have now moved in close to Malus’s torso creating a cascading effect. The shortest are roughly about his waist and groin down to the longest upon which he’s ambulatory. They seemingly inspect or map out where Malus is standing while also anchoring him when he stands still. With each advancement, sidestep or backstep Malus took with his greater legs what seemed like black roots spread and gripped everything like weeds anchoring into fertile soil, and with that I realized he had not only been expecting this confrontation, but he was monitoring Hell itself in order to take advantage of his own planned retaliations as appropriate.
“Victoria!” I yelled after my realization, “We don't have the element of surprise here!” She gave her usual sublime nod in acknowledgement to my statement. Her back is to Malus, surprisingly, as she's denying him any reaction to his theatrics. Her head is bowed but she knew his position via a Valkyrie just in front of her and looking over her shoulder. She’s allowing Malus to get incredibly close to where she can easily see one of his long legs to each side of her as well as his feelers and roots branching out from behind her feet.
“You want to surrender yourself, don't you? You want all this to be done; to know that your parents and precious boyfriend will be alright, don't you?” With his greater size his voice was lower and we could all fee
l his words reverberate through us. He was also producing his words faster though they had greater surface area to travel across over his augmented form. The portions of his physique which resemble the aforementioned bundles of sticks are causing his own voice to echo eerily adding to his ominous presence. It almost sounds as if there’s a legion of Maluses all speaking at once.
Vic whispered something in angelic which Malus didn't quite hear, so he asked angrily what she said. Vic turned and stared up at him as if looking into his eyes. Malus bent down to get his face closer to hers and cupped a hand to his ear as if to better hear what she was going to say. Vic grinned …
“I said bubble, bubble toil, and trouble.” Vic knows damn well those aren’t the correct words from Macbeth, but they’re certainly the most relevant for this moment! The Valkyries suddenly all revealed themselves as shining golden orbs bright in Hell’s dimness, and contrasting against the red glows of the souls of the damned. Quickly they formed a great sphere around us and Malus moving so quickly their orbs looked like lines of light while also throwing off electric arcs.
“Malus, I knew you'd be expecting me, but haven’t you heard Hell hath NO fury like a woman scorned?!”
Legacy of Judas - Book One Page 37
