After the portable gets destroyed, I am then released from the grip of these tentacles. Likewise, the youth are no longer under a force field. We all stare in shock at the wreckage left behind.
"Just give up the act, Pastor. You don't even have a place to worship tonight anymore, so why even bother?" The Dark Lovers then laughed as I took in the damage. I then shot them a tense look.
"You may be able to destroy our worldly buildings, but you will NEVER destroy my faith!"
Izuru then came close to me. "Consider this a warning shot. You keep this up, and we'll wipe this whole church off the face of the Earth." The Dark Lovers continued to laugh as they left.
"Hey! Come back here!" I tried to stop them in vain as they disappeared, but it was no use. I then drop to my knees in disbelief at what has happened. "This can't be happening!" The kids come to my side to provide comfort.
"Don't worry, Pastor Max…" Noel came up and put her hand on my sunken shoulder, she's so sweet. I then turn to Noel.
"Don't worry?! The whole portable is destroyed! All my supplies and equipment are ruined! Look what they did to the main church building!"
"But Pastor, do we not have something greater to look forward to? After all, the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us (Romans 8:18)." I was surprised to see Noel know that, only to see Karen standing next to her.
"Yeah, I taught her a few things before coming here."
Next thing I know, I see all of the youth group kids coming together and immediately begin to pray in these small groups each. They pray for me. They pray for the servants who wrought this destruction. They pray for the chance they have to fellowship with each other. Last but not least, they give thanks to God. Just seeing them all do this brings joy back to my heart. Being driven by the Holy Spirit, it was here that I rejoiced in the Lord, crying out:
"Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord! (Job 1:21)" You guys, thank you for helping me realize just how blessed we really are! All of the youth turned towards me, glad to see that I was able to overcome the grief with joy. "It's true that the portable is destroyed, and that our church was defaced, but that will not stop us as a congregation. They cannot destroy our faith!"
"But where will we worship now? The portable's destroyed." Luchia was right to ask that, and I did not have an immediate answer. I could've told them all to simply go home, but tonight taught these kids a greater lesson about perseverance in faith than anything out of a book or a lesson plan. I decided to make use of it.
"You know, I think there's enough space in Pastor Joshua's backyard that we can do tonight's study there! The weather's nice this evening." The kids all agreed to this. "Perfect, we'll do that! I'll let Pastor Joshua know."
After telling Joshua about all that had happened, he agreed to pick up as many of the kids as he could. Joshua and I took about 1/3 or the kids between us, the rest got other rides. When we got there, we made use of Joshua's back deck to conduct tonight's study of Acts 2.
Meanwhile, the Dark Lovers were back with Gaito, telling him about what they had done against us. The news brought a smile to Gaito's face.
"So, you girls finally put the Pastor and his band of little puppets in their place. Great work! Now, they have nowhere to even worship! How delightful to watch!"
Thank you, my lord! We destroyed that little portable thing and defaced their church. I think that's a fair deterrent, now isn't it?" Izuru's conceit was interrupted when a servant of Gaito pointed out what was on their screen.
"U...unbelievable! We destroyed their place of worship! How can this be?!" They all come around the screen, to see us finishing up our reading of Acts 2.
"There's our lesson on Acts 2, and I hope you all learned a lot tonight." All of the kids agreed in appreciation. "You know, I have my guitar with me. Perhaps we can wrap things up with a little bit of worship time. Sing along with me!" I then start playing What a Friend We Have in Jesus, and they all join me in singing [7]. As we were in the middle of the second stanza, there was a…
CRASH! The feed was interrupted when Gaito chucked his scepter at the screen, spearing it in the process.
"I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS!" Gaito's sudden outburst caused everyone in the room to shutter in fear. "HOW COULD WE HAVE NOT KNOWN THAT THEY WOULD WORSHIP ELSEWHERE?!" Gaito then turned on his Dark Lovers with blind fury.
"YOU FOUR! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO DEFEAT THESE GUYS! WHAT DO WE HAVE INSTEAD?! THESE GUYS STILL WORSHIP THEIR GOD, MY BROTHER IS STILL WITH THEM, AND WE DIDN'T DESTROY THEIR CHURCH! THEY'RE EVEN GETTING THE PORTABLE REPLACED!"
"B-But Gaito…" Yuri tried to squeak out an answer, only to be violently shut down.
"SILENCE! IT IS YOU FOUR WHO SCREW UP MY PLANS! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE THAT TURNED OUT RIGHT, GIRLS?! NOTHING! YOU'VE DONE NOTHING! NOTHING! AND I WILL BE A SEAHORSE'S UNCLE BEFORE I LET YOU BUNGLE ANYTHING ELSE! BECAUSE IF YOU FOUR CAN'T GET THE JOB DONE, THEN I WILL!" Still hot with anger, Gaito pulls his scepter out of the now-ruined screen, and makes a beeline towards the lab, looking for his plans. Unfortunately, he didn't know that they were…
"MISSING?! GUARDS!" The castle's guards were immediately summoned to the lab. Gaito's tone suddenly became soft and dangerous.
"What happened to my plans?!" Gaito discovered the decoy file left behind.
"We don't know, my lord! Perhaps one of these ladies took it." Gaito then glared at the Dark Lovers in fury.
"Now, before I have all of your private quarters ransacked, tell me right now which one of you…" As Gaito lurched towards the Dark Lovers, he noticed that one of the sheets in the folder was not blank but scrawled in red ink. Gaito picked it up and read it.
"Dear Lame-to and Dark Losers. You're all a bunch of chumps who can't do anything right. So, we took your plans/schematics folder and left this. Not like any of you were making progress, so we decided to finally put the plans to good use. Suck our tails…"
"Sheshe and Mimi! Those TRAITORS!" Gaito crumpled the paper in his hands and then looked over at his guard. The guard belatedly pointed out the obvious.
"Well, my lord. It seems that Sheshe and Mimi have disappeared."
"Then go out and stop them before they get too far! You're not too bright, are you?"
"No, my lord. Forgive me." The guards then clumsily scramble to look for the two traitors, not realizing that they had long left. Gaito then held his scepter upright.
"It is clear now that I alone must stop Pastor Max! Oh well, sometimes sane men must do insane things to succeed. In the name of Panthalassa, I summon my strength!" The symbol of his forehead lit up brightly, as did his scepter. Suddenly, everything around Gaito was beginning to shake violently.
Up on the surface, myself and the group were still sitting on the back deck. We had finished our lessons and prayers for the night, so we were sitting around chatting. All of a sudden, we felt things begin to tremble.
"Aaah! Pastor Max, what's going on?!" The kids all seemed scared and confused by the sudden earthquake.
"I don't know, but we need to find shelter!"
Joshua and Mazie open the back door. "Pastor Max, we need to get everyone to the shelter, now! Follow us!" The Iges lead me and the others to the nearby underground community shelter a block away. Just as we were going in, other people were entering.
"Come on! Keep it going! Single file!" To be fair, it got pretty rowdy at the shelter, so the last thing I wanted to do was contribute to that. After we all got in, I grabbed one of the megaphones sitting on the table.
"Don't worry, folks! Remain calm and come around me! I can show you all how God wants us to persevere in the face of these trials and tribulations." I then give the people here an abridged version of my lesson on Acts 2 to the crowd. By the end of it, many people thought more about their relationship with God than coming in. Shortly after, the shaking stops. I then go outside to see that while the damage is relatively minor, it is at least safe for people to head back home. Down in the deep sea, however things didn't end so well for Gaito and his minions.
"Ahahahahahaha! Bwahahahaha! Nothing will stop me now!" As Gaito became consumed with power, everything in the castle began to collapse.
"Gaito, stop! Your power levels are getting too high!" The Dark Lovers tried to get Gaito to reduce his power, but it was too little, too late at this point. A few tanks containing matter intended for explosives began to rupture open.
"Oh no." Just as the Dark Lovers squeaked their last words out, the tanks were ignited by Gaito's radiant energy and exploded. This set off a bunch of similar reactions throughout the castle, causing it to erupt into a fireball and killing everyone inside as it collapsed. It was then followed by an underwater shockwave, and then the shaking stopped.
"Gaaah, what the?" Sheshe and Mimi were knocked down by the shockwave but got up to see their former allies go up in smoke.
"My word!" Mimi looked on in shock at the destruction. Sheshe stood with her arms folded, knowing fully well that this would happen.
"Seems that Gaito couldn't handle his big boy chores, now could he? He let his power all go to his head, and only destroyed himself in the end."
"How true! They let it all go to their heads and lost!"
"Worse than useless, all of them." Sheshe then turned to Mimi. Come on, my radar says that we're only 5 miles away from our new base. Sheshe and Mimi then continued to swim with a newfound determination. Meanwhile, Gaito and the dark lovers found themselves in a new place and were in for a horrible surprise.
"Whoa, where are we?!" Gaito and the Dark Lovers found themselves in this unfamiliar place. Unlike on Earth, they had no powers here. They were naked and weak, completely exposed for who they were. Suddenly, they see a man sitting on His throne, completely basked in light.
"Oh man, it is…"
"Yes, it is I, The Lord God almighty!" As God pointed at the five, they notice the wounds on His wrists. This is exactly like the God Pastor Max was preaching about.
"L-Lord. Please forgive…"
"Gaito! I am not the Lord of the wrathful! I am not the Lord of the coveting! I am not the Lord of those who lead my flock astray! Why do you call me Lord? You five all stand condemned as sinners!" Izuru then tried to plea, to no use.
"But Lord, we had everything! Our power, our possessions! They…"
"The only gift that can save anyone is my precious gift of eternal life. Those who place their trust in me, Jesus Christ, receive this gift. Those who trust in worldly things and deeds are lost, and my wrath abides on him (John 3:36)! Gaito, Izuru, Eriru, Maria, and Yuri, I am the only one who can forgive sins, for I am the way, and the truth, and the life (John 14:6)!"
"Then millions in the world are deceived! This is horrible news, God! Why didn't you warn us?!" Eriru was normally the most talkative, but instead of silliness, it was a sense of dread that overcame her.
"Yeah, why didn't you warn us?!" As the other two piped up, the Lord continued to prove them wrong.
"I warned everyone in My Word. It was I who said: Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues (Revelation 18:4)." God then orders an angel to open up the Book of Life. None of their names appeared, of course. Gaito attempted to plea with God one last time, of course to no avail.
"We don't want to be punished! Can we reject evil and receive Jesus now?"
"No, it's too late for you five. Only those who are still alive can repent of their sins." This caused Gaito to have another outburst, but of course, he could never overpower almighty God.
"This isn't fair, we weren't told any of this!" God would have none of this.
"Yes, it's all in the Bible! I saved you, not because of works done by you in righteousness, but according to my own mercy (Titus 3:5a). But you all rejected my Word, and Me!" Since none of these five had their names in the Book of Life, they heard these terrible words:
"I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness (Matthew 7:23). Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41)."
As Gaito and the Dark Lovers were being hauled away by a group of angels, they were crying out for mercy, knowing what awaited them.
"No, wait! You can't do this! It's unfair! Their pleas were in vain." Next thing they knew, they were standing before Satan's throne, still naked and ashamed like before but also feeling the heat of Hell. They also heard the screams of the many millions who face not only eternal torment, but also eternal separation from God for their many sins. They all began to plea:
"Please, Satan! Have mercy on us!"
"Mercy, on you? Hahahahaha! You thought you could have it all, but you fell on your faces, just like everyone else here! All because you rejected Jesus as your Savior, you stupid fools! Guards!" A group of servants then shoved the five over a cliff into the deepest pits of Hell. They remained there forever, as they could not abide in God because of their sins. They were constantly being attacked in ways similar to what they did on Earth, all while being reminded of the failures of their wicked ideas. How the mighty have fallen, indeed.