Sorry for the delay! My muse on this died for a while until I thought of something clever. There's some more mature language in this one, mostly from Meiling's mouth (Meiling, you little fiend you!) and can any of you find the Tenacious D reference in this chapter?
It would be a few hours before the sun came back up, and the team that would ultimately defeat Judas (hopefully) was standing at the front gates. Composing this team was Hong Meiling, Sakuya Izayoi, Remilia Scarlet, Flandre Scarlet, Reimu Hakurei, Sanae Kochiya, Suwako Moriya, Kanako Yasaka, Suika Ibuki, and Zabi. The small raid team was ready to go, and everybody's responsibility in the team was already discussed.
"Ready?" Suwako asked. The response she got of the two vampires nodding pleased her, since they were the first two to go in. "Don't forget the plan. Just let him do what he will. Now get going!"
The two vampires ran in, Flandre breaking the door down without much effort. The first thing they saw was Judas.
"Welcome." Judas sprinted past the sisters, out the door, and up into the sky. He had spent all the time between him originally sensing their presences and this moment preparing a very powerful demonic spell, one that was meant to transform Judas once again. If the spell didn't work it would kill him, but he didn't mind that at all since he would just come back from the dead. However, if it worked he would no longer be a lich, and thus would be dead for good if he died. Once he was a more-than-fair distance in the air, he cast the spell. Black and red energies surrounded him as his final transformation successfully began.
"Suwako," Sakuya asked, "I trust you planned for this?"
"Umm, actually no. I didn't see that one coming at all, but we'll just stick to the old plan, okay?"
"Are you insane?"
"Possibly."
The energies surrounding Judas dispersed, as he emerged something…different. He now had massive black wings twice the size of his own body, and glowing red eyes. Numerous spines had appeared along his entire body, and deep cuts formed runic symbols on his body that quickly healed and left black ink. Using the combined powers of demonology, necromancy, and hexes, he turned himself into something that defied explanation. It was certainly a type of demon, but if one knew everything about his state, they would know that he also had the attributes of a vampire as well as some remaining parameters from his previous lichdom. "Now," he said with a voice that echoed like thunder, "I am complete."
"Fuck." Meiling was extraordinarily thrown off by this transformation, but Suwako kept repeating the same phrase.
"Stick to the plan, stick to the plan, stick to the plaaaan!" Suwako pointed up toward Judas, and said "Flandre, Remilia, you know what to do!"
"Got it!" The two vampires flew up in pursuit of the new Judas, Remilia pulling out her Gungnir and Flandre readying her Laevatien. With a spear that never missed its mark and a sword built to cause the apocalypse, it seemed that the fight was in favor of the vampires.
Obviously it wasn't, with Judas being a necromancer. "Silly girls, trying to fight the one thing that controls you." With one hand pointed at Remilia and the other pointed at Flandre, he cast the same vampire control spell he did when he first arrived in Gensokyo. It would have surely worked since he was now much more powerful than he was then. "Now, sisters of the Scarlet heritage, go and kill the remaining team!"
"Okay…wasn't expecting that to actually work," Suwako nervously said. "New plan, stall until somebody comes up with a new plan!" Gungnir never missed its mark, but that didn't mean that once Remilia made her first shot with said spear, Suwako couldn't shield the team with a barrier of earth. Fortunately, that idea worked well and for the time being, they were safe. But only until a sword of fire cut straight through the barrier Suwako built like it was butter instead of solid rock.
Now the only option the two really had was to run until a stroke of genius hit somebody. But even through the panic of the rest of the team, Suwako was still smiling as if she'd already won. "Suwako," Kanako asked. "What are you so confident about again?"
"Oh, you'll see. Just a little something Sanae and Reimu made a few days ago when we took the vampires in." It was so simple yet so incredibly astounding of an idea. Suwako wouldn't divulge the nature of what she had the shrine maidens make, but it was the exact reason the vampires were the ones who were supposed to fight Judas.
Around the fleeing team, everything was being destroyed by a Flandre Scarlet who was having trouble swinging a weapon as big as Laevatein. Everybody was timing jumps carefully to dodge devastating sweeps from Laevatien and last-second dodges of Gungnir. "Ha," Suwako taunted. "You missed me!"
"Quit running," Flandre yelled. "I can't kill you if you…keep…moving!" The younger sister was running out of energy it seemed as she gradually slowed down, eventually descending into the branches of a tree to get some rest.
Now Remilia had to do all the work herself. "Stop moving!" Gungnir never missed its mark, but that mark was hard to establish if the target kept running around. Even worse was that she was combating goddesses and other powerful residents of Gensokyo. Eventually, though, she got a lucky shot in Suwako's arm.
The frog goddess went down in the pain of having a godly weapon shot through you, and was quickly picked up by Meiling. "Come on," she said while running. "You're going to live, Suwako. You're a goddess, they're a tough breed."
"Don't you know it? We're also exceptionally smart and are masters at making plans. I already knew Remi was going to shoot me, and I even knew where. Her and I discussed the whole plan in secret."
"What plan?"
Suwako nodded, and looked up at Remilia. "Alright," she called. "Now's the time, show us the secret weapon."
Remilia smiled and pulled from her dress what looked like an amulet. "Anti-magic amulet," she said, speaking loud enough so that everybody, especially Judas, could hear her. "They're built to repel all magic directed at whoever holds it and it negates the magic. Suwako thought of it as a secondary measure to protect us from you, Judas."
"That may be," Judas seethed. "But I still have the younger sister!" Judas moved an open hand toward her, saying "Meiling certainly knows what I'll do to her if you all don't step down now! If you don't all surrender by the time I count to three, little Flandre will be on the other end of the hand that goes 'kyuu' for once!"
"Your threat isn't intimidating, Judas."
"…One!"
Meiling was panicking. Was he for real? There was certainly the chance that Flandre also had an anti-magic amulet, but what if she didn't? She would die if Remilia didn't back down.
"…Two!"
"Lady Remilia," Meiling said, making her panic unfortunately obvious. "She's your sister, just back down!"
"Ah, China," Judas said. "Ever afraid to risk an innocent life. That is why as a gatekeeper you were weak, and that is why I was so easily able to take your place."
Now she was no longer afraid as much as angry. "What was that?" It was one thing to harm her, and another thing to hurt her friends. A third thing entirely it was to conspire to rule Gensokyo through the very mansion she guarded, but to question her power as a gatekeeper and openly insult her like that? Unacceptable! "Repeat that, please."
"I said that as a gatekeeper, you were weak! It takes no genius to notice how so many books were missing from Voile, or how there was always an uninvited guest wandering the mansion! You're no more reliable than you oh-so-grand homeland, China!"
Meiling's rage was physically visible by nearly every vein in her body twitching, as well as the uncontrollable shaking of her hands. "My name…is not China!" Readying herself to charge Judas with unprecedented ferocity and brutality, she yelled "My name is Hong Meiling!"
Just as Meiling charged, Suwako felt something under her hat. Reaching in to investigate, she found the second anti-magic amulet. "Meiling, stop!" Following Suwako's plea were a number of voices telling her to stop before Judas killed Flandre.
"Don't do it!"
"Please think this over!"
"Stop there!"
"It's not safe!"
"Chill -hic- out!"
Judas's voice, however, sounded pleased. "And that makes THREE!" Judas closed his hand, effectively crushing Flandre Scarlet. She would live, but not for long. "It seems she wasn't protected from my magic for some reason."
Once that happened, everybody rushed to Flandre. The residents of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, aside from the head maid who nearly cried, actually were crying, Remilia for her sister and Meiling for her friend. But Meiling wasn't going to let Judas get away with this.
"You all stay here," Meiling said coldly before removing her hat. "I'll pound this bastard so hard he'll regret even thinking about coming anywhere near Gensokyo." With that, Meiling flew over to Judas, ready to unleash every ounce of what she believed he deserved. Once the two were face-to-face, Meiling said "It's going to be just you and me, Judas."
"Really, now? From grief grows hate, and from hate, foolishness. To think you can single-handedly defeat me makes you a fool like no-" Before Judas could finish his sentence, Meiling's fist tore through his body, in through the front of where his stomach was, and straight out the back.
That was only her getting started. From there, Meiling began delivering equally powerful punches and kicks to nearly every inch of Judas's body, intending to deliver ten-thousand times the pain he had inflicted on Youmu, and now Flandre as well. If it was the very last thing she would do, Meiling would kill Judas Nekross with a very painful death. Every sentence she spoke was punctuated with another body-piercing punch to a vital organ, as she hatefully said "You bastard! Do you enjoy seeing other people suffer, you sick monster! Now it's your turn, I want you to scream and cry and beg for mercy! When I'm through with you, your unborn grandchildren will cry once they see what I've done to you!" To punctuate her final sentence, she planned on aiming for Judas's head to kill him once and for all. "Rest in pieces, you hopeless fuck!" KA-POW
It was over, but even as Judas's body fell to the ground below, Meiling continued her monstrous assault, looking vastly more like a youkai than she had in her entire life. Even her hateful words didn't stop. "Just for bringing somebody as horrible as you to Gensokyo, I should kill Koakuma too! She doesn't deserve it, though, so it's all you, monster! No matter how many times you come back to life, I'll kill you over and over like a starving dragon looking for necromancer meat! I'll kill you, kill you, I'll kill you with my own hands!"
Sakuya and Remilia quickly ran to Meiling, grabbing her arms and trying to pull her away. "Calm down," Sakuya said. "It's over now."
"No," Meiling said, going through that transition from when you just want to destroy everything in sight to the point where you're so upset that all you want to destroy is yourself. "He killed Flandre." The gatekeeper broke down into tears with full knowledge about this. Even if this was Gensokyo where so many magic energies made it nearly impossible to kill something, Judas was from the real world so the rules were different. Not only that, but it was magic energy that killed Flandre to begin with. To Meiling, this Judas crisis would never be over.
For three weeks, nobody saw her at the Scarlet Devil Mansion. She didn't want the other residents to see her crying, so she stayed away until she was certain that she was feeling at least a bit better. When she did arrive, the first thing she saw was a very worried Sakuya. "Look," Meiling said. "That day when we fought Judas. A friend gave me advice, and well…"
Wow, she really let him have it! Am I the only one who A: cried when Flan got crushed and B: gets turned on by angry Meiling?
Anyway, this Judas incident still isn't over. There are loose ends that need to be tied up, such as what Meiling is going to say! I'll give you a hint: in this chapter Meiling lost something very important to her, in the next she will lose one of her core traits. Any loose ends will be tied up next chapter and something new will await our favorite gatekeeper!
