Chapter Eleven: A Tale of Two Prophecies

Asante stepped towards the surface entrance he used least frequently, the manor Yuge's team had been assigned to. Normally he might've gone into the city to use the main entrance, but this facility was where his team leader was, and he doubted Captain Yuge would allow him to escape from being collared if the alchemist didn't give him some sort of explanation.

He stepped inside, and found Yuge sitting behind his desk, gloved hands on either side of his head. He glanced up at Asante, and immediately drew his pistol and leveled it at the Lieutenant.

"Is this a formality?" Asante asked, raising his hands and smirking.

"You were ordered to kill Gendo Rokubungi," Yuge said, sounding rasher and speaking faster than usual. "Why is he still alive?"

Asante continued to smirk. "I wasn't taking orders from you on that mission, Captain. My orders were to secure him alive."

Yuge lowered his sidearm and leaned back in his chair. "Somehow I'm not surprised. Where were you today?"

"I had to fend off a young woman named Jody Crowley," Asante answered. "Name sound familiar?"

"We've been tracking her movements, yes," Yuge answered. "It seems everyone with any magical power is piling into the country for one reason or another." He lifted a dossier and offered it to Asante. "We've lost our chief investigator. Her immediate subordinate has been hospitalized."

"Imari-san is gone?" Asante asked. Not that it had particularly surprised him...

"Since you're here, I'll make use of you," Yuge said. "Unless you have been expressly forbidden by an administrator, you will tell me why you kept Gendo Rokubungi alive."

Recognizing it was time to start being more selective about his choice of words, Asante cleared his throat. "He was brought back so I could reconstruct the Lance of Longinus for him. I remade it earlier today."

"The Lance of Longinus?" Yuge repeated. "Impossible. The government's only surviving fragment was stolen during the bank robbery. A bank robbery which -coincidentally- you broke up for us."

Asante's smirk vanished completely.

"What's going on, Lieutenant? What have you been working on?"

Ritsuko pushed his wheel chair, the old man struggling for breath with every movement. Gendo walked by his right, half his face contorted into a frightened, cowed expression.

Aleister muttered to himself: "A man and woman in the forest. In the midst of their passion, the woman vanishes, and the man is stabbed in the three things he treasures most. He is run through with a sword, decorated by an upside down cross. "

"The corpse was torn asunder by the lions and buried at a certain road. At the full moon, a sorcerer appeared with a book under his arm. The sorcerer drew a circle upon the flat ground of the road, adorning it with his personal magics and seals. He entered the circle and began his spell.

Aleister coughed and wheezed, but continued. "The woman reappeared, and attempted to seduce him. He shunned her advances and continued to chant. Enraged at this indifference and this mockery, the woman revealed her true form... the ugly, fanged succubus. Yet, for all her rage, and the powers at her disposal, she could not touch the sorcerer in his circle. The succubus rescinded back into Hell, and the sorcerer's body breaks apart, revealing his skeleton."

Ritsuko and Gendo remained silent, and Aleister continued. "The sorcerer prayed. He lifted his book skyward and levitated up, towards the moon..."

At last finished, Aleister resumed gasping for air. Ritsuko glanced down and asked: "What is that? A parable?"

"A prophecy, often mistaken for a spell to raise one's soul to Heaven," Aleister answered. "I read it a long time ago, and transcribed it into a grimoire."

A grimoire? Gendo heard the demon ask. Before Gendo could move his lips, Aleister craned his head up and glanced at the bearded man.

"Yes, deal maker; the same grimoire Reika Kitami coveted," he answered. "And as much as you'd like to hide from me, I can still see you clearly."

"You'll have to forgive the demon, Crowley-sama," Gendo chimed in. "I took him from Kitami; I wouldn't allow her to make use of his power when we could instead."

Aleister was silent for several seconds. "Very well." He turned his attention to the bulletproof glass, and the gray-skinned man tethered to the wall by chains.

"We're about to offer him his latest," Ritsuko said. "Would you like to observe?"

"Absolutely," Aleister answered, grinning and waiting for the process to begin.

Meanwhile, Saeki glanced down at the few pages she had cobbled together. Kitami/Imari had assisted her in reconstructing it from mere ashes, but there were fragments in nearly all of the spells and stories, and she had less than a tenth of the work remade, and had only so many ashes left to remake it with.

There was one prophecy in particular that interested her. She had only a few words of it, but upon examination of the text, she discerned that the author was Aleister Crowley... and this particular excerpt was the most recent tenet of the grimoire. Assuming Crowley had read the rest of the book beforehand, it was possible that he'd drawn some conclusion... or made one himself.

And it was, indeed, a conclusion, as it seemed to indicate that one sorcerer in particular, with the aid of the grimoire, could escape the cycle of life and death, shedding the mortal coil. Though this story specified a male sorcerer, Saeki thought perhaps it was little more than Aleister Crowley's famous ego, and his desire to achieve immortality himself.

However, to Saeki, it was opportunity. Kitami/Imari may have dismissed it, but to Saeki, this spell meant an escape and a venue for the power that would allow her to surpass her mistress at last. She had to know what was lost... what incantation she needed to create this impenetrable circle and what magic she needed to burn her flesh away and move beyond purely physical existence.

That did make her wonder... was it possible that she knew what Crowley had written? Saeki's attention turned towards Yuki, eyes a deeper black hue than they had been before the fire.

The time was coming. She would have to decide if she was going to betray Kitami... and decide soon.

Harada Eri awoke on the cold ground, listening to strange gasping around her. She clamored to her knees, only to immediately cover her chest; she was wearing only what clothes remained after her patient Oshima had violently ripped them all apart. She glanced around, hoping no one would notice... but quickly realized her nudity would go unnoticed when compared with what was around her.

Three women were all masturbating furiously around her. One had green hair, and was lying on her back on the ground, crying out with every motion of her hand. Another still had something vaguely similar to a police uniform still on, and her hands ran along her still-clothed breasts, and she was moaning, her voice low and reverberating. The last was a woman still wearing tattered gray stockings and heels, using both hands to attack her vagina, undeterred by what seemed to be several orgasms.

And then, Eri felt strong arms grasp her. She turned, and saw only pitiless red eyes, attached to a vaguely horse-shaped head, surrounded by a shawl of black hair. The arms were gray, and each was heavily muscled.

She glanced down as she felt her legs parting. This man... or creature... wore no clothing. His crotch revealed itself and a penis, gray as the skin around it but larger and more fluid than any Eri had ever seen before, plunged in and penetrated her.

Each thrust was a moment of bliss. This thing was attacking her, assaulting her sexually and without her consent... but she couldn't resist. Every movement of his hips drew her closer, and in only a few seconds, she wrapped her arms and legs around her inhuman lover, enraptured.

She was his. And upon her release, she only sought his embrace all the more.

"Excellent," Aleister noted, smiling cruelly. "How many more subjects will he need?"

"Two, after this woman," Ritsuko answered. She was averting her eyes, unwilling to watch. "Dr. Nagamine started his program too early, but he'll be ready on that crucial day."

"We will have only a brief window," Aleister said. "But both of my prophecies shall be fulfilled. The antichrist shall be born, and I will escape the cycle of life and death."

"Is that so?"

Aleister turned his wheel chair away from Zarathustra. Standing in the hallway was a certain dark haired alchemist, noteworthy for the stub of a horn on his forehead and his differently colored eyes.

All three were stunned to see him. Asante stepped forth, hands in his pockets. "I can feel the atoms around your soul. The body has less than thirty-six hours to live. Your soul is so maimed... it's barely intact." He drew closer, paying no heed to Zarathustra and Eri. "If only we'd met under different circumstances... ah, well." He bowed. "A pleasure to meet you... wickedest man in the world."