Everyone in the world watched in horror as the figure bound to the cross writhed and screamed in agony. Astarte screamed as her flames writhed and thrashed. Her scar upon her stomach opened up and blood poured from it as she coughed up blood as well. The pope stood back, a twisted grin lighting his face as he watched her writhe and scream.
"Your Holiness, the purity levels are off the scale." An exorcist sitting in front of a multitude of laptops remarked.
"It's almost as if we had Satan himself giving us his blood." Another murmured. He looked up to see more blood appearing, running from her eyes like tears. "What's going on?" He asked the pope. But no one knew. Astarte continued to writhe and bleed, but her flames were growing more erratic in their movements. Great jets of flames rose up and ignited the sky with colour and lashed out against the clouds. They all stared as she continued to scream. The blood shifted and moved, as if responding to her cries and began to form one, large gate.
Amaimon and Mephisto both watched as the gate formed. This was sheer torture for both of them, having to listen to her screams. But they couldn't intervene yet or she would be killed. But from the screams of agony she was unleashing; she would die no matter what. Her flames continued to grow more violent in their movements, lashing out wildly. "Her barriers are collapsing." Mephisto said softly.
"What do you mean?"
"She told me once that because of how strong her flames are, everytime she comes to Assiah, in fact even back in Gehenna, she sets up barriers that will limit how much of her true strength she can use. Most of the time, they can withstand any assault and still hold it back. But even she has her limits." They both watched as she voiced her agony even more. It was at that moment, the equipment monitoring the gate started beeping.
"What's happening?" The pope demanded. Yukio appeared and stared in horror as he saw what was happening.
"What are you doing to her?!" He yelled, storming forward as she screamed and cried.
"She offered herself as the sacrifice instead of your brother, who was going to become a martyr for Assiah in the destruction of Gehenna." The pope said calmly, as if he was a teacher explaining a wrong answer to a student. Yukio looked at him in utter despair.
"You mean, this won't turn Rin human?" He asked.
"You actually believed that?! He won't ever be human. He's a filthy demon, a spawn of a monster just like that thing on the cross is, just like you are!" The pope yelled, his insanity starting to show.
Yukio grabbed him by the lapel of his outfit. "He's your grandson!"
"No he's not! And he never will be!" The pope yelled. Suddenly, a whip of purple crashed down between them. More whips of purple flames began to cut through the air and lash out at the roof top. One crashed down onto the equipment. "What's going on!?" The pope demanded. The exorcists just looked at one another in confusion. At that moment, as the flames moved to tear the restraints away, the other cram school students appeared. They froze as they saw the flames of purple tearing through the exorcists as if they were nothing more than paper. But the worse thing was the silence that came from the now still form upon the cross. The flames continued to writhe and thrash. Suddenly several jets of flames rose up into the sky and formed jagged points before turning and diving straight into the ground. More flames ripped the restraints from her and held her up to stop her falling.
As this happened, the gate bubbled and millions upon millions of coal tar erupted out of it and sped skywards, spiralling before spreading out across the sky, blacking out the sun. "There's so many of them." Shima murmured as Bon lifted Rin onto his back. Suddenly, giggling echoed through the chaos. They looked to see Astarte holding onto the flames that held her up as her body shook with laughter. More giggling sounded. They watched as Astarte pushed herself to her feet, still giggling.
"I...I did it. I did it! I always knew they had a limit." She cackled and turned to her flames which moved softly around her. "Who would have thought pain would be what would crush my barriers." She murmured before looking at the gate. "Ne, I didn't know I could summon a gate that large." She remarked before looking at the students. They stared in horror at the blood that ran from her eyes, the flames that danced around her form, the pure evil and insanity that seemed to radiate from her. "Oh yeah, with a gate this large, I can do what father wanted and merge the two realms. By having the gate swallow this realm whole!" The ground shook and the gate began to rise from the ground. "But before I do, I have one little issue to take care of." Her flames struck Yukio, knocking him backwards and coiled around the pope.
"Let me go you foul beast! You...You Monster!" He yelled, thrashing in the grip that held him. She pulled him close and held him so that he was face to face with her.
"I'm a monster? What does that make you then? After all, not only did you torture me but you planned to sacrifice your own grandson. If anything, that makes you worse than a monster. And you know what happens to monsters? They're sent to Hell." She grinned evilly and clicked her fingers. Her flames shot upwards and threw the pope into the sticky confines of the gate. He screamed in horror as he was pulled into the darkness. Her flames moved gently. "Now, let's make this place more like home." She said. She clicked her fingers and chaos was unleashed.
The coal tar turned and aimed for the humans as her flames began to tear, not only through the academy but through the town as well. People ran, screaming as they were either attacked by the tiny demons or burned by the flames. From the rooftop, she watched and she laughed. "Oh, this is so much fun! If I had known it'd be like this, I'd have gotten rid of the barriers a long time ago." Exorcists appeared behind her, aiming weapons at her when a barrage of flames crashed into them and tore them apart. As the cram-school students watched, horrified at the sight of innocent men and women being burned alive or shredded by the flames, Rin began to stir.
"What's going on?" He said.
"Astarte's lost control. She's destroying everything." One of their teachers explained weakly, his body badly burned by the flames. "We need to evacuate the public." He said. Mephisto and Amaimon both appeared near the students.
"Start gathering up any members of the public you can find, bring them to the nearest doorway and use your keys to bring them into the cram school, from there, we'll take them to the deep keep." Mephisto ordered. They all nodded and began to run to gather the general public whilst Amaimon turned to Astarte who looked back at him.
"Isn't this fun Amaimon" She asked, a grin twisting her features. "Look at how they run. Oh it's so much fun!" She clapped her claws together and bounced on her feet. She let out a child-like laugh, her head tilted to one side. When she realised that he wasn't laughing with her, she turned to face him. "Amaimon, what's wrong? I thought you'd find this fun. Are you not well?" She asked.
"This isn't you." He simply said. "This chaos, this mindless destruction isn't what you do. You trick, you torture, you toy. You don't go straight for the throat, it isn't your style. You turn people against one another rather than dirty your own hands. This isn't you Astarte." He said. She watched before grinning at him.
"But sometimes, one has to dirty their hands." She said. Her flames coiled angrily. "And besides, what would be the point in doing this if I didn't get to cause a little chaos?" She asked before letting her flames rush at him. He leapt back, narrowly avoiding being caught by a flame but they continued past him and into the academy. He watched as the flames tore through the doors and into the portals of the cram school. "Let's have a game of Tag Amaimon. I'm it and I have to catch the humans." She said. "Go on, sing your part like you used to."
He watched her briefly before singing. "Hey Tagger, try and catch me. I have hidden in the sound of the clap." He clapped his claws together before running off. She laughed and chased him. As she did, her flames continued to attack the doors and portals, breaking each one of them steadily and catching the humans who didn't move quick enough. As Bon and the others herded the last few into the deep keep, they spotted the glow of the flames at the end of the corridor.
"Her flames have already gotten into here. We can't stay here." An exorcist snapped as Bon and the others slammed the door shut. They heard rumbles echoing around the outside and saw dust from the bricks beginning to crumble inwards. "And the other demons are starting to follow her example by breaking in." Another murmured. People began to panic, children began to cry as the doors began to move with every strike of the flames.
"Wait, what about the Vatican?" Konekomaru said. Everyone looked at him. "There's a nine hour time difference between us and the Vatican City which means the sun should still be up there. If we can move these people there and then redirect the sunlight..."
"We may be able to weaken her enough to start to fight back." Bon finished the sentence. Everyone looked at each other then at Mephisto who nodded.
"It's the closest we've got to a plan." He said before turning and grabbing his ring of keys and opening a door into the Vatican City. As people began to pass through, the bricks of the wall gave in and coal tar began to burst through. Exorcists chanted, used swords and guns in an attempt to put a dent in the constant stream of coal tar, but as they did the door collapsed and purple flames began to attack as well.
"Into the Vatican Now!" An exorcist yelled. As they passed through, one of them tried to close the door but the flames got him. They burst through and set him alight, destroying the door in the process. People fell back in panic, screaming as the man burned alive. Astarte, who had caught Amaimon and now sat upon him grinning insanely, paused and looked up.
"Oh now that is brilliant!" She cried, leaping to her feet. "I'm sure I can leave the gate here to do its duty whilst I go and play in the Vatican." She laughed and turned before running through the nearest door portal and into the Vatican City. She paused momentarily as the sunlight blinded her briefly.
"I think your plan worked Konekomaru." Shima muttered. They all froze as she started to laugh. She stepped forward, her flames burning brighter than ever.
"You thought this would stop me? As if, sunlight doesn't bother the high level demons. Now." She grinned evilly and her flames began to writhe more. "Shall we play a little game, Vatican?"
*Waves to readers* Hi everyone. A brand new chapter for you all. Hope you enjoyed it, even though its probably not the best it could be. A quick note is that "Demon Training" is momentarily on hiatus whilst I finish this. There are a couple more chapters of the main story then I think either two or three extra chapters that will link it into demon training. Anyway, I have one thing to say about this really. *Turns to Astarte* You are one psycho.
Astarte: Who created me to be that way?
Well me but...
Astarte: So you must be pretty damn screwed up in the head as well to have created half of the stories and creatures you have.
"Demon's Valentine" wasn't that bad!
Astarte: Yeah, but you weren't happy with it. It's way too soppy. Makes me wanna barf.
Hmm, anyway aside from the few notes I mentioned before, the main upload focus momentarily is this because I wanna get it done and focus more on my other fictions, specifically "Daughter of The Dragon King" as I haven't really worked on that much yet. So, until next chapter this is sayonara from me the psychotic author.
