Malus’s attention in Vic’s head was focused on the nociceptors in the pia and dura surrounding the brain. His essence hitchhiked in on the soul strand of the individual soul he found connected to the book, and he slipped past all of us while we were overwhelmed by his epic showmanship and teeth-rattling vocals. Evelyn and I dove into the subarachnoid to serve as a barrier preventing Malus from getting in any deeper. From there we were able to temporarily choke off the signals he was inducing, but it was causing more pressure in her skull. Malus really didn't care for the resistance we gave. From outside Vic we felt the impact of Malus swatting Vic like a bug. The impact sent her flying through Hell towards one of the Hell-mouths. Fortunately we were still shielding her or the impact of his hand would've splattered Vic like a bug as well. Still though, and despite the protection we provide, her brain jarred and bounced a bit within her skull which left her reeling in pain and near unconsciousness. She was almost totally limp from head to toe.
“GET HIM THE FUCK OUT OF MY HEAD!!!” Vic screamed at the top of her lungs as she passed through the air forcing herself to curl up in the fetal position. Evelyn held the barrier as all of us within the book scrambled to find the soul who Malus used for his ingress to Vic’s mind. I could feel Evelyn struggling against him as she concentrated herself into the shielding Vic needed. It was a risk she had to take as Malus’s efforts against hers increased the pressure on Vic’s brain even more.
Fortunately it only took moments to find the soul strand Malus trespassed upon. His grotesque black essence spiraled up the soul strand and was beginning to permeate it. Fortunately one of the other souls within the book knew just how to handle this. All at once we gripped soul strand and squeezed, which immediately gave Malus pause in his efforts. In greater combined effort we pulled our grips down the strand and away from Vic while trying to make sure to not grip so tightly we inadvertently cause our fellow bookmate — one known simply as Virgil — any undue tortures.
I could feel that our efforts were more against Malus than he could struggle against with his attentions so divided. Another harsh pull, and then another, and soon we had him far enough down the strand that we could block his re-entry. Our fear amongst all the other fears at this point was that Malus might destroy Virgil’s fleshen soul as he did the Ebony Demon sometime back. Unfortunately there wasn’t anything we could do about such a notion in the moment at hand.
“Son of a bitch that hurt!” We we're glad to know Vic was still with us as she hit the ground at high speed tumbling and bouncing. Then we realized she wasn’t going to stop in time. She was almost able to grasp the hand of one of the damned, but she had too much inertia and rolled out into the shadow. Luck was on her side though, for once.
One of the most common of the Seven Deadly Sins in contemporary times was about to intervene as from out of the darkness, like a planetoid knocked from its orbit, hurdled a very, very large man with plenty of his own inertia built up. He impacted Vic and the two of them found themselves unexpectedly face to face, and embracing one another because of the collision. To say the fat man was confused by having such a beautiful woman in his arms from seemingly nowhere would be an understatement. Vic was now on her way back to Hell …
… Because of Gluttony.
“Forgive yourself.” Vic said kindly with a sweet smile on her face as she looked into his eyes and pushed some hair from his face to behind his ear. Who the fuck was he to question the words of what could've been an angel for all he knew?! He nodded his head in hasty affirmation and with eyes very wide open, and then said he forgave himself aloud and with sincerity. As his descent slowed Vic pushed herself from him and thanked him with a warm smile. He reached out for her, but she pulled back and continued her descent from his inertia. As the fat man’s ascension began Vic got herself turned back around was again facing the Hell-mouth.
Journal entry LXXVI
The Thorn minion had all headed towards the battle leaving the damned to circle the Hell-mouth or tumble in at their leisure. Vic practically stepped in as if walking through the front door of her home.
It didn't take Malus many strides to get to this end of Hell, and at this point the Virtues had blasted away nearly all the fleshen souls Malus had encased himself within. His uncovered form would've been beautiful were it not for whom he was. His slick, black surface was broken up by large, arbitrary fissures interrupting the otherwise glassy exterior. Within those fissures were the souls he plucked from their own fleshen bodies as his form took on the need for more energy than sin alone could provide. The souls within the fissures looked like stars with very fine, beautifully glowing veins, and arteries branching out on top of, and below, Malus’s surface, and from which he was drawing the energy needed to subsist this grand form. It was beautiful to behold, undoubtedly.
Vic’s landing in the Hell-mouth was only seconds ahead of Malus’s arrival to meet her there. With his great height, and all of those disgusting spidery legs creating greater glide in his strides, Hell was only some brief steps from one end to the other for him. Vic was again standing against him, though inverted due to where she landed just inside the Hell-mouth. Cylindrical gravity really lends to creating some odd moments as Vic and Malus were now more or less eye-level to one another.
Malus raised one of his hands, palm up and with his middle finger drawn back and held taut by his thumb. Obviously his thought was to simply flick Vic out into the shadow and let the cold end her. Vic saw as well as we did what he was about to do.
“Book of the Damned, step away from me.” What the fuck is she thinking?! Perfect Angelic or not, we couldn't believe what we heard as completely involuntarily — again — the elements of the book slipped away from Vic’s being and reverted to book form, which none of us were having any part of as we quickly shifted back to our human-ish form. Vic dropped to her knees and was now completely at the mercy of Malus. We were at her mercy as no one else could see or hear us. The Virtues and Valkyries had all caught up, but Vic raised her hand to them signaling to not intervene. Without the protection of the book his strike, albeit just one finger, will physically destroy her. What's worse is he'll most likely hold back enough to not kill her. He’ll be counting on the physical pain of both his strike and the cold of God’s shadow to cause her enough weakness of character to sign a contract. He’ll only need a drop of her blood given of her own free will.
“I can't beat you. I’m so tired, and I can’t beat you. I just want to be with the ones I love, even if that means suffering with them.”
“And so you shall.”
It seemed like slow motion as Malus’s finger released. We jumped in front of it in a last ditch effort to stop it as all the Valkyries and Virtues cried out against what Malus was about achieve. Obviously we had no effect as we turned instinctively to watch the outcome. He wanted her in pain. He wanted to pay her back for all the pains she and her forces had just caused him. All seven of the Virtues raised their hands to fire off their lightning strikes directly at the finger, but there was no way they'd stop the impact.
Just inches from Vic the finger stopped cold. Malus’s finger was suddenly vibrating wildly, almost violently, as was the rest of his hand and fingers, his arm, and finally the entirety of his being.
“OW!” Vic yelled out as Malus’s finger made just enough contact to pop her in the nose and make it bleed.
“You couldn't have stopped him just a little sooner?!” We weren't sure at first who Vic was speaking to …
“I didn't have to stop him at all, child. Remember to whom you speak.” A voice not heard in millennia answered and revealed himself. Judas, in all his hellish glory, stepped out from being obscured by Malus’s massive head, and with Leila in tow.
“Thank you, Judas. I know you didn't have to. Can you also release my loved ones?”
“No child, I can't. Those Trinities were created by the ruler of Hell — the Devil. Now that ruler’s reign has been brought into question, so for the moment, no one can release them.”
/> “Can you at least give them peace?” Once again disappointment tormented Vic and the tears started to flow, but Judas didn't answer. He wouldn't answer.
“Will you please give them some peace?”
Judas grinned slightly and stared deep into Vic’s eyes almost as if he were entranced …
“Victoria Nyles,” his Aramaic accent and tone were almost romantic, but his sentiment quelled that very quickly, “It is not the function of Hell to provide peace of any kind. I can direct the Thorn to build a repository to contain the Trinities and allow them as little light and noise as possible, but only because your mortal loved ones are not supposed to be here, nor should you be.”
“You son of a …” Vic cut herself off and looked directly at me.
“Perhaps you’d prefer that I release Malus instead?”
Journal entry LXXVII
“Book of the Damned …” and again she stated a new command in fluent Angelic and Demonic. As before the book contorted and separated all of its components before whisking around Vic and reforming into a new configuration, but not armor. Something more uplifting this time. Pages rolled while other pages elongated and overlapped as we again took a form we had no idea we could take. My face was stretched in a completely new way over Vic’s chest with points from the edges reaching back around her torso to connect with other points. The spine and ribs settled on Vic’s back across her shoulder blades as numerous pages acting as tendons and muscle gripped the ribs and, among other contortions, coiled over Vic’s shoulders and around the sides of her torso to tie off with the edges of my face and Leila’s skin over Vic’s belly. From the ribs pages rolled themselves and constructed that of elongated arms with two joins to which more pages. Those pages hung themselves in long diamond-like shapes overlapping flat against each other, unfurling, spreading, and finally exercising their first wing beats.
Once again we were deeply connected with Vic and could feel her incredible exhaustion, but she was digging deep because of Judas’s callous and flippant attitude. Even though, deep inside, it seems she expected this outcome. Now, one last great assault, but not upon Malus, or even Judas.
With just a couple of wing beats Vic was airborne as she turned to face the Virtues and Valkyries.
“Diligence, get everyone home and keep a gate open for me. I won't be long.”
“Yes, Victoria.”
All they could do was trust that Vic knew what she was doing.
With a couple more wing beats Vic was soaring like no mortal ever has. She made a few circles and passes around Malus making sure he got a good look at her, and to mock his lack of freedom in that moment. She dove and picked up speed using the gravity of Hell to her advantage, and then circled back for a very close and very fast pass at Judas on her way towards the center of Hell.
Vic’s heart fluttered just a bit as her mind flooded once again with thoughts of her parents, Vincent and Lusa. Sweet Lusa. Vic remembered the times when she'd walk Lusa in the woods and throw a stick for her to fetch. But Lusa wasn't content with sticks so she'd bring back something more akin to a log. When Vic’s parents took the family out for time at one of their favorite lakes, Vic would throw rocks in the water to tease Lusa, except that Lusa would go out in the water to where the splash occurred, and then she'd dive. Lusa would bring back any rock she could fit her mouth around until she was too tired to do it anymore. One day, when Lusa was about six months old, Tom, Martha, and young Victoria walked Lusa to a nearby park. It was a cool day so Vic was wearing a somewhat overstuffed coat to stay warm. No one else was at the park so Lusa was let off leash, and she really knew how to play without the constraint. She ran to Vic as she was standing in a large sandbox. Lusa launched herself at Vic while turning herself in mid air. Lusa’s broadside plowed into Vic’s chest knocking Vic flat on her back in the sandbox. Vic, Tom, and Martha all started laughing hysterically as Lusa stood there all proud smiling as only happy dogs can smile.
Flashbacks of Tom and Martha being there for every fever, every loose tooth, and every skinned knee or elbow. All the shopping trips for clothes with Martha when Vic would bring along her good but old clothes and donate them to the poor, and the holidays, or random days, when Vic and her parents would volunteer at a soup kitchen or VFW facility.
“No life should ever be taken for granted, Vic. Always remember that.” It was the greatest lesson Vic’s parents could possibly teach her. It was a lesson she's never forgotten despite everything different about her life compared to regular people.
Then there was Vincent, sweet Vincent. Autumn leaf fights and warm snuggled nights. Surprise candlelight dinners and lovemaking like sinners. I'm so used to being stoic and here I am waxing poetic. I simply can't imagine any man and woman being as close as these two. Almost from day one they were finishing one another’s sentences and finding their passions matched if not complimented those of the other. Every tickle between them was giggles and bliss while every tender touch was a fingerprint’s kiss.
Every one of these memories and more have fueled the beautiful red blades surging from Vic’s buckled up fists as she's spiraled through Hell slicing through the landscape of the damned with tears in her eyes and a desperate warmth in her heart.
Vic was creating a chaos in Hell which it had not yet known as the land of anguish was coming undone from her razor-thin carving. In seconds the Great Blood Lake was leaking out into the Shadow of God; Thorn and demons were picking themselves up or trying not to slip out into the shadow, and whole portions of Hell’s structure were separating as the gravity was suddenly fluctuating wildly.
Vic made four spiraling passes the full length of Hell and reveled slightly as she saw it starting to pull itself apart. Judas stayed by Malus’s side and insured he couldn’t interfere with Victoria’s moments. There was one last strip of Hell Vic thought too wide to leave as is. One more pass taken slower than the previous, splitting the last strip and watching the damned struggle to reassemble; the demons running in a panic to avoid bisection, and the Thorn, well, the Thorn just lumbered along doing what Thorn do as best they could.
In Vic’s last pass back toward the gate the Valkyries and Virtues were watching from, encouraging her return home, she saw the trinity of Trinities below. It's unfortunate no one else could see the great wings now adorning this beautiful woman. To any onlooker Vic is flying about more like Superwoman than the bird of prey she resembles as she touches down by the Trinities.
She's not seeing three hulking creatures in this moment. No, as Hell is flailing apart Vic can only see the face of Vincent, the face of Martha, and the face of Tom. The Trinities are mostly dormant at this moment because of Malus being suspended from any activity by Judas, so Vic can approach each of them safely.
Vic kisses her father’s cheek as a tear trickles down his face with a little red electric arc dancing on it. She tells him she loves him and promises she won't stop trying to free him. Then to her mother a kiss on her similarly tear-trickled cheek and the same sentiment and promise. To Vincent a kiss on his lips.
“I love you so much. I'm so sorry I have to leave you like this. We will be together again. I promise you.”
Vic takes some steps backward not wanting to lose sight of them, but she knows she must. She turns, runs, and as she approaches a gap in the landscape of her own creation, she leaps from the edge, and instinct kicks in as these wings carry her away from her loves.
As Vic passes Judas and Malus she pays them no heed and continues. She's emotionally drained and physically exhausted. Her arms and legs are almost dangling as her exhaustion is complete. She's struggling to stay conscious even with Evelyn doing everything she can to assist. The Valkyries and Virtues are yelling words of encouragement to coax her on. Even we within the book are goading her on to hold out just a little longer, but she's slowing down and with the gravity of Hell becoming so erratic she can get pulled away easily if she fades out anymore. Vic finds it in herself to extend her arm and reach for the gate, but her body’s reserve
s cave as her energy to do anything other than sleep conquers her efforts. She’s starting to fall as without conscious thought she can't control the wings, nor can she separate from us.
A quick flash of brilliant white light directly in front of us and a gate opens with a golden-glowing hand reaching through to Vic’s hand as her arm starts to droop away. Their fingertips touch and Diligence presses a bit further and grasps Vic’s hand. Above us is a crowd of on-looking souls and angels, while only feet away and below them Diligence opened another gate through which to catch Vic and pull her in.
Journal entry LXXVIII
At least this time they got Vic all the way to the bed in this sparsely furnished house. Diligence noticed as he carried her there was extra mass and shape to her form they couldn’t readily see. As they laid her on the bed, which is dressed in simple white sheets, they saw and commented on the shape of the wings also depressing into the bedding because we couldn't pull ourselves from Vic. They commented on how much she looked like an angel of lore with the impressions in the bedding further contributing to her appearance as an angel.
This wasn't going to be time wasted though. Well, not really. With the connection we have while in these forms we can see what's going on in Vic's mind. As she's asleep right now her subconscious should be something like watching a very strange movie. Obviously we can't really expect to get answers concerning the two new forms Vic called us into during this expedition, but those answers should be forthcoming soon.
The Virtues are tending to the still-weakened Valkyries while also standing guard, but I don't suspect we’ll see any trouble for some time.
Chapter Twelve
~
With Great Humility
Journal entry LXXIX
Legacy of Judas - Book One Page 40
