27: The Howling Sphinx Host
We don't own BB and it belongs to its rightful owners anything else belongs to NR13. And leave your reviews!
POV of Vanessa Cortez
I clench my fist together as I get myself ready, there's a swirl of shadows as Sebastian turns into his Demon Form along with Pryalis in her Manticore Final Stage. Shadowy feathers dance in the air next to me, the fog wavers a bit as the heat blast rolls off of Pryalis. I probe into Sebastian's mind so that way we can synchronize our attacks.
"Can you hear me?" I question
"Loud and clear my lady. I'm sensing that around the areas that caused them their fatal wounds is where this Reanimation Spell is planted on them." He states so I give a slight nod
"My father was stabbed in the stomach and I don't know about my mother. Ash was trying to drown us, but her and I are both Sirens. It doesn't make sense now that I think about it."
"I guess we'll just have to try our luck. You don't think you can undo the Reanimation on your mother?"
"No. This type of Sorcery is exclusive from the House of the Dead. Heads up!" We roll away from where my father was slamming his sword down on us. He falls back as I notice he's in his Samurai/Knight clothing, he's being serious. I lunge out at his feet, he jumps and grabs me by my arm; I scream as he literally starts prying my Magic Cells out of my skin. His white hair starts getting back to his black hair and he lets me go. I fall flat on my butt as my arm stings, Tchk. I block Dad's kick which either way causes me to fly. I crash against Pryalis who's struggling with my mother.
Sebastian takes flight into the air leaving Pryalis and I to deal with my mother. She has the same habit of disappearing and reappearing from the dog like Sabrina and I did when we were in combat; it's hard tracking down her movements when you have to pretty much react in the split opening before she tries slicing your head off. Pryalis looks at me as I run over to her, she lowers her head and I use her face as a platform to project myself into the air. I arch my back as I sail over my mother, with my momentum I twist my back and manage to fling a knife into her shoulder. I come back down and activate the tag on the knife, I close my eyes to try visualizing where her Reanimation Spell's at. Pryalis fights and keeps her off of me so I'm not vulnerable to her sneak attacks. There's swirls of magic energy all over her body making it worse for me to figure out where her Reanimation is being anchored to,
"Vanessa!" I'm knocked against the ground by Sebastian from the sneak attack my father and mother were about to hit me with from behind. I start gasping for air as Sebastian's on me with his Demon skin touching my mortal one, it burns and starts hissing as he literally starts burning me,
"Sebastian! You're hurting me!" I yell as I scrim under him, it doesn't help as the weight of his wings are holding him down. Dad flings knives into Sebastian's wings and they lodge into the ground meaning he can't free himself, he starts fighting, trying to flap his wings to save us, Pryalis tries helping us when she's knocked away and held down. I bite down on my tongue to hold back my cries of pain, Sebastian looks up and clamps his arms around my head, he groans as he shields me from the barrage of sword slices from my father. I look up and I scream out as my mother comes and rips out the knife from his wing and he lets out a cry of inflicted agony. She suddenly stops, she drops the knife and grabs her head, I look down and manage to kick one of the knives holding him down away. He gets up and grabs onto his crippled wing, I place my hands onto my burns to soothe the burns.
Mom looks up and for a split second it looks like she's in control over herself, I sense that my scream caused a disturbance in the Reanimation Spell planted on her, that's it! "Sebastian! I need you to touch me again, my cries are what are causing the disturbance on her Reanimation!" He grabs my shoulders and I purposely make the cries much more hysterical, she snaps out of it for a split second and comes over. Sebastian let's go of me and shoots his hand straight into her chest, there's the sound of her ribcage cracking; he gets his hand out of her body and there's Magic Slime all over his hand as he holds out the Reanimation trinket in her. Dad comes over trying to get us off of Mom when Sebastian hands me the trinket. I grab it and set the thing that she'll be able to have control over her own body. Sebastian puts it back into her chest, she hangs over like a rag doll but then comes back to her "life" and has control over herself. She rips out the Reanimation trinket out of Dad and fixes it so he has control over himself. He glances over at us, my knees give out as I'm exhausted from fighting against them. I fall to the floor, Sebastian turns back into his human vessel and kneels down next to me. He puts his hand on me to see if I'm okay, I nod as I look back up at my parents.
Pryalis clamps her mouth on Mom's shoulder to keep her stationary as she wraps her claws around her torso, Dad glances up as there's a giant crow that Sebastian summoned from the shadows to hold Dad in place. "Daddy, why wasn't Victoria raised with us? I know there's something bigger to her not being raised with us than her having no Magic Cells." I ask as he sighs closing his eyes.
"There's a reason bigger than the Magic Community being frowned upon on raising a child with no Magic Cells;" Dad starts, "There's a bigger job James has to carry out than just being in charged of the Magic Community with the Elders. I'm sure you've heard of the Babylon Tower before how humans wanted to reach to the heavens along God but he stopped the construction of the Tower by making languages; well the Babylon was being constructed to reach the Celestial World, where all magic comes from, well the Head Caster is the Celestial World Keeper meaning he/she would be the guardian of the Celestial World making sure no one would come and try tampering into that raw Magic; but from the Celestial World's Creatures, there's one of such destruction that has actually been kicked out of the Celestial World, the Howling Sphinx. The Sphinx now chooses a random host to get it back into the Celestial World, and Victoria," he reopens his eyes. "Is the Howling Sphinx's host. She was more favorable when she was inside her mother's womb because since I'm one of the 5 Caster Saints, she had some magic reserves so it was easy for the beast to latch itself over her soul. It's all my fault, now she's in danger because of me."
"VANESSA!" we look over at it's James. He runs over to us and sees me on the ground. He stops then lunges out for Sebastian. "You bastard! Were you the one that hurt her?!" James tackles Sebastian to the ground and pins him down by sitting on him. He punches Sebastian across his face, Sebastian's Demon Eyes flash so I get James off. I groan as the stinging of my burns get worse, James puts his hand on my burns and starts healing them,
"It's been a while Santiago," Dad calls out to James by his name in Spanish. James nods,
"It has," James stands up and places his hands on their foreheads. "I should send you back," they start to peel away and turn into paper in the wind. My parents hug me for one last time as I'm sobbing.
"We love you and make sure Victoria's safe." Dad and Mom smile as they pull away. I nod as I wipe the water away, "One day we'll be back together, like in the good old days." And then they disappear. I'll be waiting for that day.
POV of Victoria Lockwood
I slowly open my eyes and there's a migraine trying to pry open my skull as the pain becomes unbearable.
"Fly me to the moon~. Let me be free," a man starts singing as his voice slithers into my mind as smooth as silk. "Don't force me to live here, if it makes you feel any better, I'll be here waiting forever." Where's the voice coming from? I glance around the room and I freak out. Where am I?! I look around me and I'm chained up against a wall, I feel that there's something against my head and it's a simple golden headband against my forehead, I glance down and I'm in a white elegant ball gown dress. Someone steps into the room so I glance up and it's Lucas and the man who was at the Trancy Manor a couple of days earlier. Elias I believe sees me and comes over to me.
"So I see you're not a Siren then, my Enchantment didn't control you." he speaks as he comes over to me, he grabs my face and studies me. "I can see the resemblance you and your sister have, interesting. Lucas, how's things over at the Magic Community?" Lucas smirks
"It's total destruction but they caught on that Victoria's here with us." Elias nods
"Perfect, now everything's going to plan. We have the Howling Sphinx host, the Tower's nearly reaching its fullest potential, now we need is Mustang; shall we threaten the surviving Magic Community with a blast from our Jupiter Cannon?" Elias asks as he crosses his arms over his chest,
"I agree, that way, knowing James and Vanessa, they'll come here and try attacking the Tower. We can use their Casts Magic Energy to activate the Tower. Mustang's the Celestial Gate Keeper so it'll allow the Howling Sphinx to break back into the Celestial World,"
"And we'll come back into power then destroying all of the other Casters." Lucas finishes making me to gasp. I have no idea what they're talking about but I have to do something, I pull against the chains trying to get free. As I struggle, they start glowing and I get exhausted, "There's no escaping, those chains are made to extract the Howling Sphinx from your soul, but the more you struggle, the faster it gets ripped away from you. So if you fight, you'll die." Lucas says flatly towards me as Elias leaves the room.
"Why are you guys doing this?" I question because from the accounts that James told me when I was recovering from my Soul Wounds, Lucas wasn't like this when they were little. Lucas stops whatever he was doing, and draws in breath,
"People change Victoria, you wouldn't understand." Elias comes back in with a bowl of water. He glances over to Lucas, he nods so Elias kicks up the bowl and the water jumps. The water stays in the air, the water ripples as it's a scene where Vanessa, Ciel, James, Sebastian, and the others are. Vanessa grabs onto her shoulder, she looks up and I swear it looks like she can see me through it,
"Casters! I'm Elias Michealis! Leader of the Rogue Magic Community! The Nephilim Child of Prophecy; I have your sister Vanessa," he steps to the side and she makes a scared face as she sees me. He steps back in front of me and continues, "I want James Mustang, Vanessa Cortez, and Sebastian Michealis to come to the Babylon Tower. If you refuse to abide to my terms, I will destroy the rest of the Magic Community with my Jupiter Cannon. I will send out a countdown of your time remaining to hand over those three to me before I shoot. Tick tock, tick tock..." the image dies so Elias glances over at me. "Keep an eye on her, make sure she doesn't get any ideas," Lucas comes over to me and unchained me from the wall and wraps the chains against my chest and bounds my hands behind me.
"Stay here." Lucas leaves along with Elias and locks the door to the room behind him. I growl in frustration and look for the key. I levitate it towards me and try picking the lock. A hand grabs the key and I gasp, looking up to meet Stefan's hazel eyes. I stare at him as he unlocks the chains and sets them down.
"What?" He asks as he glances at me.
"Why? I thought you were working with Elias and Lucas," he shrugs and pulls me up
"I am but I have my own motives. Even though your soul is tempting, you being the Howling Sphinx's host is a whole new matter. Netherworld creatures are creatures of destruction but the Howling Sphinx can destroy everything with one attack. Now, let's get you out of her," he grabs my hand, sees if there's no one around then we make a run for it.
POV of Vanessa Cortez
"We have to go!" I yell put as I wobble to stand up. James shakes his head
"Not now," I whip my head towards him
"What?! My sister is there with God knows what! I can't let her just die!" He closes his eyes and continues
"I know Vanessa, but if we don't act carefully we can die. Sebastian," he looks up at James. "I know we have our differences but we're going to need your help. You'll have to deal with your Nephilim as Vanessa and I get Victoria out alive. We leave in 3 hours, rest up and get your wounds treated. We'll regroup in front of the Caster Canal."
I put on my armor, slide my swords and knives into their respective places, and regroup with Sebastian and James. We wave goodbye to those that were watching us leave. Ciel runs up to us,
"You guys better bring Victoria back; if you don't then don't come back." He orders so Sebastian nods
"Yes my Lord." Ciel glances over at me,
"Well?" I give a smile, pull on his cheek, he growls causing me go laugh
"I promise, and you know I keep them." I'm taken by surprise as he throws himself around me and buries his head into my chest. I hesitate but eventually hug him back.
"Please, come back alive for me," he shakes a bit so I hug him harder.
"I will," he lets go and we do our secret hand shake from when we were little and when both of our parents were close meaning we got to spend a lot of time together. I offer a small smile as I poke his forehead, he smirks then I turn around. Sebastian and James nod so we all head out to the Babylon Tower.