She remembered it like it was that day. Lucy Loud, the mother who lived a life with a preference of silence, and the mother who loved to read poetry to her young daughter with an unnatural color of hair, had already packed up and left. Right before that, she looked back at her loving husband and daughter, who stood at the doorway, speechless, the final shared look that she would ever give through those bangs of hers. And after that, she had gone away to God knows where, placing her luggage into the taxi cab she had called already.
And she was gone, simple as that, and hard to accept. Gone... Forever? That was one question Lupa couldn't answer for herself, regardless of whether she did, in fact, need to lie and fool herself to keep even the little sliver of hope and faith for this broken family.
And what did Lupa do? She narrowed her eyes when it happened, without a word.
That person, that same person... Her own mother. Sister... Lucille? Sister Lucille of Repirthom? No, the whole thing also mentioned a blood coven. A blood coven in which her mother, if it was her, was a part of. Excetum had said it himself; Lupa was already connected to that which she didn't know about, before the demon had made his way in her life.
She looked through the book, that of which contained endless knowledge about many bizarrely unimaginable creatures and demonic collectives she would've had to see for herself to truly confirm them all. The book started out as a prologue, explaining that all the evil in the world had pumped out from only one source; Hell. Hell was real, and that meant the Devil had to be. Before Lupa had continued, she gathered a thought. God had to have been real. God...
Lupa, skeptical yet open-minded now, was getting conflicted in the debacle. Was He real? Was He, really?
She re-read the whole thing from scratch again;
All evil to ever exist hails from the darkest of Hell's gardens, ever expanding by the hands of the Great Satan, and sprouts to influence and perish the beauty from the earth.
This book is not intended for the weak-hearted and the close-minded mortal infidels of the living realm. All information contained within this book is dangerously risky for they who do not belong or are associated with any of the Blood Covens of Repirthom. The base founding of the cults of Repirthom is to resurrect the fallen Dark Lord Pigoschliem, a powerful dark entity who holds the power to unleash all evil from Hell's gardens to unleash upon the mortal world.
"L-Lord... Pigo-" Lupa stuttered, scanning her eyes around the words. "It's the name I heard in- In thw vision, whatever it was..." She looked up to see her companion, whom had been climbing further around the tree's branches, mesmerized by the creatures Lupa called squirrels.
The pair didn't know what to make of the recent turn of events, but Lupa would not be able to get an answer from her missing mother, and that was fact, not speculation.
"You are the daughter of a witch," he stated again, hanging from his feet. "What are the fucking odds?"
It was weird to hear the thing curse, especially in that raspy voice of his. She would have laughed, if she'd have gotten out of her head. Her hair was blowing away in the light breeze of the wind, and the tree shook above her as well, making a racket that hid her own voice as she was seemingly talking to no one in the eyes of any neighbor that could have been creepily watching her from the comfort of a window.
"I know I said that this Sister Lucille person has the same name as my mom, but my mom's gone by Lucy as far as I can remember. It can't be her, it simply can't-" Then, she wondered about something. "Hold on, where did you get the book?"
Excetum stretched out one of his hands, which made a bone-crunching sound that was just as revolting, and pointed back towards the house. "The basement, which I think is evident enough to prove that your mother is Sister Lucille."
Lupa just moved her head back and forth between him and the house. "You eat a book that you realize belongs to a witch, and you decide now to tell me?!" What a clown this thing was!
"I thought it was a purely coincidental thing," he said, flailing his arms high once he returned to solid ground. "The whole basement still needed some sprucing up, so I thought that chest had never been-"
"Whoa, wait, what chest?" Lupa stood up at that word and closed the book.
"It's hidden right underneath the stairs, but the chest was filled with rice grain, which I cant explain why, but with curiosity I did check inside and found the book."
Lupa narrowed her eyes annoyingly at him, crossing her arms like a scolding mother. "You are unbelievable."
"Now we know that the book does belong to your witch mother."
Lupa, still faced with skepticism, looked down at the book that had no cover, and rubbed on it with both her thumbs. The visions, they were connected to her mother, as were the cloaked figures she saw in them. The cloaked figures... The chanting. The chanting call of the one they called Pigoschliem. A part of this wide mystery had connected right on the spot; her mother was part of the cult of Repirthom, whatever exactly that was, maybe perhaps the same cult that she had seen in that vision. That had to be it, no matter how much Lupa wanted to deny believing what her mother was.
But then there was the rest of the questions she found herself to wonder. The cult had appeared to have been after her, and wanted her to use as a sacrifice for... For that thing. That thing that transformed from a pig. She closed her eyes and went "Mmmm!" She was still reeling from the images she could yet picture fresh in her mind, and was wishing she could so easily wipe it clean from her mind.
Why her? Did they not know of her lineage? Or maybe...
Virgin host of a Shadow Demon. That was what they said, and also added that Lupa was both an appetizer and a life source for this Pigo-whatever-the-fuck.
The biggest question was... Did her mom up and leave because of this?!
"Tch..." Lupa walked back inside with the book. "How could you tell that I was... You know, connected?"
That was something she could easily find out, among all other serious questions that added to the fray.
Excetum floated around her, like a leaf wandering around in no particular direction. "I am able to possess any person I want, but there are limitations to that. I found myself to have been unable to possess such beings before. Witches, wizards, and other of my own kind. Think of us as magnets. Everyone within the supernatural world can stick to regular people, but one against another would prove to repel."
Lupa didn't bother closing the screen behind her once entering through the balcony, and entered the kitchen, tossing the book onto the table. "You had parts of my body in your control, so why did it work that time?"
Excetum latched onto the ceiling and bobbed his head around. "I guess you are a half-ling, which allows me to take over much, but not all. That's gotta be it, but don't count on me to know everything, cause I don't. We demons are not all-knowing or something, you know?"
"But you... We didn't repel each other. Half-ling... Meaning I'm a hybrid of witch and regular person?" It sounded so, and Lupa tapped her nails at random on the table. "You've never seen this before, have you?"
"Have not, have not."
Lupa opened the book again, this time skimming through it. "How about this... This thing, what did they call it?" She found the page that inquired all about the entity Pigoschliem. "Found it."
Pigoschliem, Dark Lord of Piglites, was a ravenous entity who had desecrated lands and soiled clean seas-
Much of the writing was inked out, making it a pain for Lupa. "Ugh, someone didn't want ia reading this." There was still more to make out.
"-And calls upon multiple virgins, preferably hosts of Shadow Demons. These hosts provide the same energy that Pigoschliem once used to feed off-"
"And?! No, this isn't helping! Did you mess the book up?!" Lupa closed it shut with a slam of her fist.
"No, all things in my belly stay dry. Mostly."
"So, all we know so far is that there is a damn coven that is trying to resurrect and summon this pig guy, and from what we've seen in my vision, that thing, that- That pig creature...-"
"Turned after eating you," Excetum finished for her. "Means you would have to be the last sacrifice, unless there is something missing."
Lupa leaned her head closer to the page and squinted hard. "Ahh, it's so hard to make this out! It's gotta all be here, but- Goddamnit!" Fate was being a cruel mistress to her. "Are you withholding some eye power I don't know of?"
"No."
"You're more useless than you are useful," she harshly insulted. "I really didn't need this, Ex. I didn't need to get the attention of this pack of witches, if what I saw was the damn future..."
She needed a smoke again, a habit that was becoming second nature if she let it. Too much going around, too much happening all at once, and no answers to disregard or avoid this unsettling fate. It could have been avoided, right? Considering she did end up knowing that a sinister destination was just down the line, it was possible to change the course. All she needed was all the right information.
What of the internet? Immediately did she scour through her computer in under two minutes, Googling away vital information on this Repirthom thing. She ended up getting a Wikipedia article, and believed that to be genuinely authentic for her.
Repirthom is the first ever ancient collective of Tiramakkuri, notably appearing primarily in text scripts from ancient Rome, and then later on mentioned during the Elizabethan, all throughout England and spreading for the next two centuries.
What the purpose of the Repirthom has been stated to be is believed that the Tiramakkuri members desired to open a portal between the human world and Hell, where the texts further translate that this would give them power and dominion of the forces of the underworld, and maybe even Satan.
She scrolled down. "Power... Over-"
It is said that there have been five Tiramakkuri, but none of which have ever been mentioned by their own names, as said in the texts, no one has lived to know sufficient-
She stopped and gulped. "No one has...-"
"Hey, come on-"
She trembled, and then looked at the book in her lap.
in the early to late 19th century, it is believed that there had already been covens of witches established, modeled to resurrect the Repirthom whom have been defeated and imprisoned within animals, laying dormant until the end of time.
"Animals, hey-" Lupa turned around but was instantly spooked by the demon's face stuck right in her own, having no sense of boundaries. "Ahh! Jeez, what the fuck?! Didn't hear you move!"
"Heh, heh, it is fun to give you fright!" He teased, now able to laugh again.
Lupa let out a low growl in response. Placing an arm over the chair, she proceeded to ask, "What is a Tiramakkuri?" She pointed to the screen as well.
Excetum just stood glaring at the screen, frequently moving his head around. "I don't know if you can tell or didn't consider this about me, but I can't read, so showing me is pointless."
Lupa looked away from him, and just tilted her head up, shutting her eyes. "Jesus..." She whispered.
"I know what they are, yes, but I've never come across one of those,"
Again, Lupa turned to her unconventional companion, giving him her undivided attention. "Let's hear it."
"They're similar to us demons, but are less humanoid, and way more carnivorous and beastly. They only really exist just for the sake of being evil, from what I heard about them.
"It says here they're sleeping within animals," Lupa continued. "What does that mean?"
"The evil souls of the Tiramakkuri are probably split into numerous animals by this point, which means summoning them is an ineffective and pointless crusade."
"Is it? You saw what I saw, did you not? It's not... Ineffective." She scrolled down, looking for something about Shadow Demons, and those they attach themselves to. Nothing. Not a role that made them fit into the Repirthom Covens. "Motherfucking shit, I have nothing here."
Just then, the father of the household had arrived. "Lupa? Lupa, I'm home!" He called from below.
Lupa closed the tabs and left the computer run idly on, while she had gone down to greet her father back from work. He was earlier this time, only by two hours or so. Lupa had lost track of the time, ut it didn't matter to her. She was halfway down when she waved at him wordlessly.
"Hey, honey. Did you get everything done?" He asked firmly.
Lupa stuttered, forgetting the chores that needed attending. She just mumbled, which provided the answer Lincoln knew right on the spot. "S-sorry..." She spurted with guilt. "How was work?"
"Oh, you know. Still as tough as ever, especially during the summer, but I can get by." Removing his work shoes and leaving them right by the door, the man in the white shirt and gray work pants entered the kitchen. "I don't suppose you ate my homemade goulash I made before leaving?"
Lupa stuck her tongue out behind his back when she wandered in, mainly to follow an order that needed tending to quite quickly. "Dad, you know I don't like it all too much. I know you said you ate it when you were a kid-"
"And I disliked it as well, until one day-"
"Yeah, dad, you started liking when you grew up," Lupa scoffed. "But I still crave pizza and grilled cheese sandwiches, dad."
"Mark my words, my little snowball. You're gonna love it, too." He began serving himself some goulash, and then sat over to the table, silently eating away.
Lupa had remained standing there like a statue, still half stuck in the discomfort in her mind. Discomfort, all from the impending situation. Fear.
Excetum showed his face from outside the window, smiling away and showing the sharp teeth. Then, he disappeared by ducking down. Lupa cleared her throat and went on to take out the trash, a good start for not at all disappointing dear father.
When she had gone out and taken the big trash bag out front, the demon popped up from the trash bin like a Jack-In-The-Box, furthering its fun and games. "Lupa!"
"Motherfucker!"
"Begs the question, does daddy know about this? Or were you both left in the dark?" He chattered, as Lupa placed the garbage in the bin, through the demon. "Family secret, why shouldn't you rule him out?"
Lupa ended up looking back. She didn't think about it, as it didn't seem to fit that her father could very well be involved. Maybe he was, but if so, then he was real good at being subtle and seemingly a normal person. Was he... A wizard? "My mom was obviously infatuated with gothic fiction and stuff, but my father- No, he couldn't be part of this. He loves me, and he'd never side with the devils at work here. That's how I know."
Excetum phased through the bin, and looked to the left. "Hey..." He pointed out. "There is a church not far from here. Maybe you can submit prayers before God and hope that He will aid you against a battle, should there be one."
Lupa looked to her right, eyeing down the sidewalk. "Church? What are you, fucking religious?"
He snarled. "Well..." He had something to say, but didn't end up saying it. All he did was just look down, along with her.
She sighed, feeling that there was not much to do at the second. "Fine, whatever."
Minutes Later
She went inside a small church with a plain white livery that let itself be known and stand out against the other colorful houses that surrounded it. The pair of wooden brown doors were open, welcoming the girl with the strange white hair into its loving arms. It was empty until she stepped foot in God's Domain, and sat at the last aisle the church had to offer. It was quiet for about fifteen seconds, until a woman had appeared from behind a large statue of the Virgin Mary.
Lupa hadn't known the drill, having never been at a church before.
The woman, actually a teenager just as old, maybe older than her, and definitely taller, had come closer. Lupa saw that this was a nun, with the right nun attire as well. "Hello, my child! What can God do for you?"
Lyra pressed her hands together and delivered a smile unto Lupa.
"Hello, I... I just need to pray to my God, whatever."
"Oh! That is a splendid idea! Say, you are new here, are you not?" Lyra made her way to Lupa's side, pushing her further into the aisle. "What is your name, daughter of God?"
"L-Lupa," the demon's host stuttered. "Lupa Loud."
"Well, Lupa, we can start out being a church girl by-" Lyra lifted her hands high, spreading them openly, and had then closed her eyes. "-Praying to our Lord and Savior."
Lupa just looked up at her, and gave in to such silliness. She followed lead and levitated her hands high, while Lyra was in the midst of a prayer. The nun was whispering rather faintly, making it hard for Lupa to gather the audio properly. She just kept up the silent prayer to God until Lyra had finally concluded after and over a minute.
"Amen," Lupa wrapped up, bringing her hands down again.
Lyra laid a hand on the new believer's shoulder. "He welcomes anyone who believes, my child. Blessed be the saved. Now speak your troubles, Lupa."
She opened her mouth, and began to spill the beans to this young, pure-hearted nun who was there to put Lupa in the right direction. Lupa was trusting of her above a platonic level already, that being reached with her nice, soft tone of voice and her patience she had with the girl. "Well... I'm having a- Like, a crisis," Lupa began, not knowing what to really say without dropping the critical and alarming facts. "I met a friend, and something happened between us... Something he did, and I found out something- No, I mean, some people are out to get me, but I still don't know why. And, other than that..." She trailed off, hitting a nerve when it got to the point about telling the fair nun about her mother's leave.
"So, you are... Scared? Is that right?" Lyra pressed her hands to her chest. "Oh, sweetie, it's going to be okay."
"Y-yeah, I want it to be," Lupa admitted eagerly. "I want it to be..."
"And it shall be so, my child," Lyra went on. "By God's hand, it shall be so."
"So I just pray? Pray to Him so that... He will answer to me?" It sounded simple, but it couldn't have been that simple at all. Prayers, but was there more?
"Tell you what, Lupa. Come Sunday so that you may get your first experience on how this glorious little church runs," Lyra inquired confidently. "It's a lovely seminar that surely you must attend!"
Lupa gave a nod. "That sounds good," she replied. "I just might do that."
"Oh, would you like a bible? Maybe a book of the Old Testament may get you started before you come back! What do you say, dear child?"
She'd try anything if it meant something would be re-written in the course of her fate and future. "Please," she replied.
Lyra then went away, going out of her way to retrieve a black book that would have had Lupa's name on it. When she came back, she seemed more cheerful than before, foolishly but happily smiling away at Lupa. It was almost downright creepy, but Lupa wasn't fixated on that particular thing. "Here you are."
"Thanks-" Lupa took the book, only for the book to perform an unforeseeable action against her; it burned her the second she touched it, acting like a hot stove she wasn't sorely meant to make contact with. Not only that, but there was a cloud of smoke that had appeared just after it happened, and Lupaa hand had come out heavily red. "Ow, what the fuck?!"
The bible dropped before Lyra's feet. The fair nun, unsure of what to make of this abnormal scenario, was caught dazed, and then had revealed a new side that Lupa didn't wish to know. "G... Get out..." She whispered.
Lupa was shaking her arm around, not having heard Lyra's request.
"Get out of my church!" The nun screamed again.
Excetum had just stood outside the church, keeping an eye on Lupa from afar. "I should have warned you that you can't touch bibles, crosses or stakes," he told her too late. "I didn't think you'd be able to enter, though."
Lupa began to exit from the House of God, sulking angrily. "Shit..."
No more of Lyra's tongue wailed out after, but Lupa didn't have a reason to look back again. Her hand still ached, burning away while she tried to blow on it. "Agh..."
"Sorry-"
"Don't. You're just trying to kill me." Lupa walked past him, not bothering to eye the tall monster. "Come to think of it..."
It didn't even happen before he showed up. Sure, her mother may have left, but the way it looked, there now had to be a legitimately understandable reason behind this, even if it would be one that Lupa would have hated to be. Yes, Lucy was tied to a witch convention, and something had happened. She left the book, and that meant something. Was... Was Lupa meant to find it?
She was already heading back home as she ventured deeper into the mess. Yes, the book was left, meaning her mother had left it there intentionally before she disappeared. Left it there for Lupa to find, and if that was so, then there was something inside the book that she had missed. Granted, she had yet to see the full content that it offered, but Lupa was only interested in what she was thrown in with. Repirthom, Tiramakkuri, Shadow Demons. Maybe there was something else. No, for sure there had to be something else that she missed.
Lupa gasped briefly. "Shit!" She broke into a run and scurried off down the street.
"LUPA, GET BACK!" The demon warned all of a sudden, still tailing behind her.
Lupa turned to see what the ruckus was about, but only caught a bony hand coming right at her face. She jumped back just in time, avoiding the deathly grasp of a wrinkled elder in the same cloak that was seen from the vision. Seeing this hag had made Lupa experience that fear again. It was installed into her system, rendering her frozen as she slowly tried to reboot.
"There you are, deary!" The hag in the cloak greeted with a smile that only made Lupa's heart atop dead in its place. "We've been looking all over for you!"
"Wh-who are you?" She asked rhetorically.
Excetum lunged in for an attack. "She's one of them!" He yelled as he was about to throw a swing. A swing that had a counter.
The witch turned to him and held an object at him, which made him stop. "I can see you, silly demon!"
Not only did he stop, but he had turned completely white, almost like he had seen Medusa's eyes. He was out of the fight, disabled to be of any help.
"EX!" Lupa shouted.
"Now, now, deary, you should not play with monsters! Hasn't Lucille taught you some manners?" She croaked and rasped in a weak voice. "Come with me, for you need to serve your purpose yet again."
Yet again?! What does she mean by that?! Lupa would ask the questions later for sure, if she survived and escaped this witch before her. "I'm not g-going anywhere with you!"
"Silly girl, don't you want to see your dear sweet mother again?" The witch baited her.
And Lupa took the bait. "Y-you know where she is?" She asked with desperation.
"Oh, I do, Lumi. I do."
Lumi?! What? "N-No... My name is Lupa..."
The witch cackled away. "You know not of your origin, sweetie. All that you think about yourself is but a dreadful lie. I will guarantee you with the truth, and that is a promise I shall keep should you come with me willingly." The witch was not so easily readable to Lupa, which made the matter of the choice dangerous to her. Whether she was serious or goading Lupa, one thing was certain; there was danger afoot. But Lupa wasn't seeing it that way. The possible deception had worked.
"I... I'll go. I'll go with you," she finally accepted, eyes still concentrated on the statue that was the demon in suspended animation of a sort. "I'll go..."
And she walked in a calm fashion towards the cloaked hag, who showed a gleeful expression when Lupa was playing nice, with no foul play. "That's a good deary-"
"Where?" Lupa asked in a fragile tone. "Where is my mother?"
"Now now deary, you will see her real soon," the wrinkly elder assured her. "We must be leaving."
But the saggy-faced witch seemed to be avoiding the question rather than answering Lupa's question. It made her start to reconsider the fact that maybe she was lying, or... No, she wasn't lying, but the answer... The answer could prove to be one that she didn't want to hear. She relaxed, took a breath, and reconsidered things for what they were, and not what she hoped they would be. She gulped down, and stood in the face of probable death, but was still afraid of it. "L-like hell I am!"
In an unsteady but swift maneuver, she upped and tackled the raggedy witch, but had also aimed for the thing that was depowering the demon. She bit into the witch's arm, a gross move that could end with her brushing her teeth at least twenty five times, and had easily released what was actually a wooden amulet with a flat round ruby attacked in the middle. Lupa then grabbed it and pushed the witch away.
"Hey, you little runt!" The witch cried out angrily. "Give that back!"
Lupa threw the amulet to the ground, and then stomped on it with her feet.
That undid the paralyzed state the carnivorous companion had underwent, rendering him back to normal. "Close call!"
"Ex, body suit!" Lupa yelled as the witch regained her stance. She turned her back to Excetum, now granting him permission a second time to become her guardian.
He wrapped around her body, leaving the humanoid state. Instead of regular clothes, he had converted his physical form into that of an blackened armor, something like what a knight would wear. Gauntlets, plating, and even a blade built into the left hand had made it majestically kick-ass for the occasion. Lupa had become one with the order of forlorn hope.
"I was thinking something entirely different!" Lupa protested.
"Oh, hush! Let me do the killing!"
"K-killing?!" Lupa stammered. She had surrendered control of her body for the meantime, and much like before. All she did was watch as the sentient battle suit she had forced its way towards the wretch.
"Abomination! You're a cursed abomination!" The witch howled gruesomely at Lupa.
"No, wait, are you serious?! We can't-"
Her hostage hands clamped to the witch's mouth, taking ahold of each jaw. While Lupa would not allow her hands to be soiled in blood like this, Excetum was thinking things differently. Thinking, and acting. Lupa gasped as the top half of the witch's head went flying way high into the air. There was a trail of dark blood that flowed upwards, spouting out like a geyser. Lupa's face became stained with some dark droplets, but was too speechless to either commend or berate the demon for this.
The body had twitched until its movements halted a long few seconds after. Blood covered the sidewalk, making a nice red puddle to scare and possibly traumatize any passing folk.
"We can, Lupa," the armor spoke. It guided her again on its own, leading Lupa far from the body now. "No time to lose, no time to lose."
"Y-you k-killed-"
"Not I, Lupa! Us! We! We killed one of the followers of Repirthom!"
The blood on her face was sliding down her face as they ran. "Y-you k-k-k..." And suddenly she was afraid all over again. Death. That back there, that was how it looked like. Bloody, quick, and brutal. Not at all slow and painful like she would see in movies. It made her shiver to the core. At any time... At any second... The same thing could happen to her.
The second the duo made it back right through the house, Excetum slipped himself off of her and transitioned from the armor, and into a blob-shaped gooey substance, which then streched out and synchronized to perfect humanoid form. "Takes a load off my back," he sighed with relief.
"No, no, you don't get to do that!" Lupa felt violated that her body was used to take a life, even if that person was someone who was after Lupa for nefarious reasons. "That's... That's not okay! This- This is not okay!" She fell to the floor, curling up into a ball and trembling fearfully and nervously. "Oh, God. Oh, dear God, now th-they're going to come... I just- I just want to see my mother again. Please... Please grant me that. Please grant me that!"
"Lupa?" Her father had heard an irregular commotion coming from the lips of his only daughter. He had gotten less than enough time for a short nap when she barked away in her worrisome, freak-out tone. He was in a pair of white socks, orange boxers, and a blue tank top when he descended from the second floor. "Honey, what's wrong?"
The shaken albino girl had off-tune breathing, rapidly inhaling and exhaling. Not long ago, she was not a silly teenage girl who believed she would die from lung cancer, all because she'd had never gave up on smoking. It could have been true, but it was still. Still, but a little less. No, maybe more than less. Unlikely from this, and more likely from dying at the hands of these horrifying witches who wanted Lupa. Sacrifice. Ritual. Summoning. The summoning of Pigoschliem. The inevitabl death of her.
"Lupa!" Lincoln picked her up by the shoulders and cradled her into his arms. "Lupa?!"
She caught up with real life and then ran her eyes to him. She steadied her breathing, slowing it down just right to bring herself to function again normally. "D-daddy?" She whimpered with a squeaky girl tone, and then jumped right at him, embracing the concerned father with a deeply tight hug. Her face smacked against his chest, and was finally allowed to cry. Cry for it all. "I miss mommy..." She opened up painfully. "I want her back."
"I know you do, my little snowball," Lincoln replied over Lupa. "I want her back, too."
Excetum wasn't much for mush, so he took his leave and wandered away from the family of two now. He phased through the basement door when passing through the kitchen, and ventured down. He stopped in the middle of the basement, and then dropped on all four only to hack out fire from his mouth. The fire became alive and spread around to form the shape of a circle, cackling away as it burned brightly. "They know of Lumi's rebirth," he said unto the fire.
And then, a figure rose up from the fiery shape, itself composed, hidden by the flames. "Continue as you were assigned. Protect Lupa at all costs, for you know what it means to fail."
"Yes, I am aware of the impending doom, should I fail to protect Lupa," Excetum understood. "One of the final coven of witches have been silenced earlier."
"You've served me well, Shadow Demon. You know what to do, should Lupa face imminent danger."
He nodded. "My existence for hers, of course. I will surrender my life force to her if it is so that she faces it."
"That you will, Shadow Demon." The fiery figure with Lucy's voice had then left on that note, putting itself out on instant, along with the rest of the flaming circle. They were closer to the endgame now. Closer to the fate of himself and Lupa alike. Hell, even the fate of the world, as they knew what the resurrection of the monstrous pig entity meant.
In the moment he stared down at the floor, while tiny embers floated around, he began to wonder if he would actually end up giving his life just to ensure the survival of the daughter of his true master.
It had been Lucy all this time. Lucy, who had come across him to begin with. Lucy, who dispatched him with the benign task to provde defense to Lupa. Lucy, who had him make a good cover story and lie about his nature to Lupa. Lucy, who was not able to play defensively. Lucy, still alive and in her own battle against the remainder of the witches out to capture her daughter. Lucy, who went out without a word, and had undoubtedly hurt her loved ones.
He'd been asked to keep silent about it, but had followed most of Lucy's orders up to here. Lupa found the book, knew what was occurring, and had her own warrior to help her combat the menace. He got her to trust him, but his cover story about meeting her at random was not all the way truthful, and he and Lucy knew it.
He opened his chest, letting the tiny worm-shaped things wiggle around hopelessly as they did their real job, which had been swapping Lupa's dreams for a real premonition from her own dark future. He was stanced in a weird position as it happened, and knew he succeeded when she woke up spooked.
This also worked when he took over her body completely, and inserted an even worse set of premonitions for her to freak out from. He remembered her horrified face when after pulling out of them, eyeing her with seriousness.
He had to make her aware without giving off the idea that he knew more than he let on. He was not a demon working for Lucy in the role he played, but a demon who was nibbling on Lupa's emotions until he was satisfied. A role that could be played slowly, or at least until the threat was over.
That was the one and only revelation he had to hide from her. Hide until he either left or died. Or... If he failed them both. But he wouldn't.
The thing about now was that Lupa had been given her own clues to the origin of how she came to be, and while that was known to him, it was not his mess to mop up. Not him to have to explain at all. Hopefully it would never come to that. Even so, she had also already known that something was hidden from grasp. Something that could not be found so easily.
Lupa had then suddenly appeared behind him, completely undetected. He only heard her presence bia the slow, but loudly obnoxious breathing that wasn't like Lupa's own. "You done mushing around?" He asked her.
Lupa's head was downdown, lazing drooping to the ground. It wasn't that which struck him as odd, but rather-
Lupa lifted her face upwards- And horribly revealing that this was not Lupa Loud at all. The entity before him had a paler tone of skin than that of Lupa's. Her eyes were of a cold yellow color that would have drained the blood from his body if he were human. The bags that he spotted alao made the Lupa lookalike even more dangerously ominous.
He knew who this person was. "You're supposed to have been dead!"
"I want my real body back!" The fake wailed eerily, making an echo so hard that the light bulb had shattered right away. Her eyes then disappeared, replaced by intimidating black holes, and a third one appeared when she opened her mouth wide. Then, she raised her hands and zoomed right at him, with her legs not even moving at all, screaming in a monstrous pitch.
He stood his ground, thinking it was a scare tactic. Wrong. "LUMI!"
The fake Lupa had then warped inside Excetum's body, taking over him easier than expected. She had control of the demon now, and with that in mind, it was time to reclaim her true body.
AN: At this point, I'm considering expanding it longer than I originally planned. The scenes I had envisioned might not end up here unless I give it a time jump to Lupa's high school days, which isn't likely unless the whole witch thing has blown over before the jump. Not sure, maybe I can fix something or shift to make it fit.
This chapter has revealed much of the story's progression now, and by the looks of things, it'll end within the next two chapters. Of course, that's unless I stretch it out. Do I plan a sequel or continuation after this main plotline? Well, I do have an idea involving a vampire, but the thing is, I'm gonna recycle if that happens, so maybe not. But I do have an idea... I think. You'd have to bear with me on this cause I know what I'm doing, even if it's been freaky-deaky and mind boggling.
Lumi is a creation of Vape the Crossed Boy, who is also behind Leda. I think that is his name. Go thank him for letting me use her. Disclosing info about her is spoiler territory in a sorta sense, ideally. Go thank him or something.
I think I progressed way too much that it can be so easily predictable at this point. I would hope not. I really hope the fuck not. Next; Lupa vs Excetum!
