Sympathy for the Devil, Part 4 - Love Changes Everything

The beautiful sunset in the isle of Mykonos illuminated the dark moods of Haruka and Michiru in their shared room. A week before, they received an invitation to spend some time in the winter lodge owned by Michiru's father, Greek entrepreneur Petros Diamantakis, and they agreed to go there once they believed things were under control in Tokyo. Then came the diabolic broadcast that turned them into sitting ducks, thousands of miles away from their hometown and epicenter of yet another conflict.

"If I knew things would be this way, I'd have postponed this visit," the turquoise-haired Guardian lamented to her lover, who was no less apprehensive.

"Don't beat yourself over this," Haruka offered her some consolation. "There was no way of knowing."

Michiru retributed her lover's soothing cuddle. "Yes, I know, but still... Oh dear, all domestic flights to and from Japan have been suspended. How do you suppose we can return home?"

Of course, neither knew the answer right away. Both laid silently on the large bed of the guest's room they shared, and in each other's arms. Something then passed through the mind of the short-haired Guardian. "Do you... Remember that day in Tsukuba, when I almost died and we awakened our Eternal forms?"

"Umm, yes I do. Why?"

"Did you speak with some sort of goddess?"

"I... I did!" Michiru answered aghast. "Her name was Metis, and she said we were one and the same. How did you know?"

"Figured the same thing that happened to me would happen to you," Haruka presumed. "In my case, it was named Eos."

For a while, both stood in silence, pondering about what they just told each other. In a hurry, Michiru then got up, and opened the window that faced the fancied Aegean Sea, whose waves and flows reflected the uneasiness of the world and its demonic invasion. As she saw the waves crashing violently on the creek beneath the windowsill and the sea bathed in the vermillion shades of dusk, she felt like she knew exactly what to do and what words would she speak. She closed her eyes and visualized what she wanted to do on the ocean ahead of her.

"Vast oceans of the world... Heed now to the call of Metis, the Seaparter," the turquoise-haire girl spoke incisively. "May my voice quench your rage, and may your waters lead us to where we need to be."

The tempestive waters that broke on the shoreline obeyed, and the waves that crashed in the creek diminished in size and intensity.

"How's that for a Deus Ex Machina," jested Haruka, who had just arrived.

"We are the Demigoddesses out of the machine," Michiru commented back, proud of herself. "Time to act accordingly. Let's tell my dad about this, he'll understand just fine like yours did."

(xx)

Back in the Tokyo Detention Center, Belial managed to escape to a room illuminated only by red candles and surrounded by eight altars, each with an inverted cross painted in red on their bases. His head in flames, he let out a furious roar, having been duped by Sailor Mercury and Shingo, and unable to retrieve Usagi or any other of the Sailor Guardians.

"Shame of all shames upon me!" The Legionnaire of Wrath shouted to himself. "At this rate we may not reach the Cataclysm before the turn of the century! How are we going to win this way?"

"Brother... I believe you will like this..." Beelzebub appeared and gloated in his dragged voice as he laid the unconscious bodies of Makoto and Minako upon two of the altars. "They put up quite the fight, though... Especially the blonde one... Despite being unable to transform..."

"Oh, is that not splendid?" Belial commemorated, though with a shred of rage remaining in his voice. "Something good for our side for a change!"

"I do hope our brothers are faring well too..." The Legionnaire of Gluttony commented. "Moloch is still in the Hades... And the substitute of the late Azazel as Legionnaire of Vanity is starting to move as well... This is what I heard of Fréamund..."

"They are taking too long to move our troops through the gates," Belial complained. "If they were here, our victory over the Sailor Guardians would be certain, and we would not have any need for these bloody weak vessels to walk on the surface. But I digress, do you know where Mammon and Lilith are?"

"The former is set to retrieve the Princess of Mars, and the latter is preparing the bloodletting to heal the Prophesized Princess."

"Excellent. Let's see if we can aid them."

(xx)

Sailor Mercury felt she had no other choice but to run with a fainted Usagi in tow, and search for the prison complex's infirmary. If she could, she would remove the bullet lodged right above Usagi's bellybutton with her bare hands - She knew it did not hit any vital points, but the bleeding was severe and did not stop, the constant movement made it worse, and she preferred using proper tools rather than risk her health state further. The fifteen minutes she spent in her unfruitful search felt like an eternity.

"You have to resist, Usagi..." the Guardian of Waters pleaded. "You have to!"

"Well, well, well, look what we have here!" a large centaur-like demon affirmed as he lurked from a corner of the establishment.

"Oh... No..." was all Sailor Mercury could say as Belphegor, Legionnaire of Sloth, effortlessly picked her up and left Usagi for dead behind her. From beneath the fallen Guardian, another demon appeared and picked her up - This time it was the Legionnaire of Pride, Leviathan.

"Worry not, she is still alive and she shall live," Leviathan revealed. "I believe the sacrificial altar set by Lilith must be already prepared. If she's not busy pleasing herself with the corpses, she must be waiting for us in the designated area."

"Not a minute to waste, dear brother," Belphegor celebrated as he gave a fierce slap on Sailor Mercury to knock her out cold. "Let's bring the wenches there! Our lord and father shall be most pleased."

"I'm... I'm so sorry, Usagi..." was all the heroine could mutter before slipping out of conscience and transform back to Ami while still in the clutches of the Legionnaire of Sloth.

(xx)

In the meantime, Mammon was dragging a weakened Sailor Mars across the entrance hall of the Detention Center. She pretended to have wasted her energy to the point of swooning, so as to strike him in a moment of disattention.

Unfortunately for the Guardian of Fire, the corpulent Legionnaire could still feel a palm strike coming from behind, and as she approached the demon, he managed to grab and cover her entire forearm with just one hand.

"This vessel should have given you more spankings when you were little," the Legionnaire of Greed spoke in behalf of his human host, Takashi Hino. "I'll gladly make up for the time lost!"

Not one to give up so easily, Sailor Mars called for a sure shot right on Mammon's face: "Fire Soul!"

"Ack! AAAARGH!" Mammon screamed as he covered his face. The raven-haired Guardian then tried another close-quarter strike... Only for her to be violently struck by the demon's hand. The impact was so fierce, she was sent flying toward one of the walls, leaving cracks behind her.

"You dumb messaline, you're not the only one who can use feints!" Mammon boasted while opening a grin full of rotten teeth. Sailor Mars unsuccessfully tried to get up, but she was too weak and broken all over to even stand on her knees. The Legionnaire of Greed simply pulled her up by her hair, put her over his right shoulder, and then resumed his way to the altar room. "Our father's plan must go ahead, whatever the cost. It's been an eternity in the making, and this is our chance to take over everything once and for all..."

(xx)

"GAIA DECEIVED"

With the Golden and Silver Crystals in hands, Gaia started a long journey across the Galaxy to bring life and joy to its denizens, using the sacred jewels that were borne out of her affair with her fellow Angel Grammaton. By this time, the Om managed to advance their knowledge, skills and technologies to reach farther places in the Universe, though mostly out of necessity. The resources in each planet were scarce, and all they ever did was fight with one another over the right to exploit their lands, and more often than not they were done in the name of the New Gods, to which they still were attached out of pure superstition and belief, rather than any haranguing of their part. With the advent of Gaia's Crystals, the Om no longer had any need to live off as nomads and could finally settle down and reach peace between themselves and the Gods that once oppressed them. A few of these Gods and Demigods rebelled, but they were smitten easily by the power of the Crystals.

Tired, Gaia flew once more to the North Pole of Planet Terra in hopes of meeting her lover Grammaton. After each self-appointed task, she always went back to the place where they first met and made love. And in one particular occasion, she finally saw him.

What she did not know is that this was not Grammaton she met with - It was Lucifer, who knew well of her yearning. Since both Angels looked alike, it was easy for Lucifer to pass off as Grammaton, always finding excuses to not show the wings he no longer possessed. Eventually, they gave into each other's passions, and to Gaia's surprise, her lover did not pull out his loins from within her, thus being able to sow his seeds inside her womb as intended. Gaia could not be happier, for she knew this was proof that Grammaton now trusted her enough to not only be with her, but to share his essence and create new life by her side.

But when it came to give birth, the dismay on Gaia's soul was immesurable. Eight children were born at once, but none of them possessed any Angelic feature - Rather, they were grotesque in appearance, and their auras exhaled blood and death. They floated away and met with their father, who finally revealed himself as the Fallen Angel before Gaia, who entered a deep state of shock and despair. Her deepest desire had turned into a living nightmare.

Knowing well that Lucifer did nothing without a perfidious reason, Gaia started searching for him and the children they sired together. After an unfruitful search across the Galaxy, the only places left were the planes beyond the surface. Upon seeing nothing in the Galaxy Cauldron, Gaia turned her attention to Eden, fearful of what the one she mistook for Grammaton would do.

"THE FALL OF EDEN"

The worst had happened: the frondous gardens of Eden, as well as the cities of Gog and Magog, were completely destroyed and its holy denizens, El and Qu alike, massacred and turned into ghoulish creatures that wanted nothing but further sate their appetite for death and destruction. Nothing else remained but ashes and corpses. Even Aveh had been completely overwhelmed. The children of Lucifer and Gaia fed on the corpse of the First God and did not leave even bones and blood left behind. This way, they acquired mature states, and their sight alone was enough to awaken every kind of negative sentiment into the female Angel. The plan all along was for Gaia to bear his cursed seed, so he could use their powerful offspring to dominate the aspects of Existence, starting with Eden. The next step, Lucifer stated, was to dominate the Om and turn them back into accursed creatures in an eternal state of conflict and primitivity. Upon saying this, Lucifer and his children ran away once more.

Gaia had no other choice but to give chase, and all she saw across the Om nations were the people that she helped throughout the ages falling back to pettiness and indulgence, giving themselves up to their proclivities for sin and hate. To make matters worse, the New Gods saw this as an excellent opportunity to seize power once more, demanding tributes and loyalty from different congregations of Om, but without ever guaranteeing their safety. The influence of the Fallen Angel and their accursed children reverted her efforts to a point where it seemed as if she had never done anything.

Ashamed and bitter of her own naïveté, Gaia cracked the Silver Crystal into seven parts and tossed them into the vast space. The Fallen Angel took wind of this action and tried to steal the Golden Crystal from her clutches, but in their struggle, it crumbled into dust and flew away just like the pieces of its Silver counterpart.

Each and every living being in the Universe received a grain of the destroyed Golden Crystal, and within them, sparks of life and energy beyond the confines of flesh and blood were lit. This essence would materialize into what would be called Star Seeds. Linked directly to the source of all matter, once a physical body died, their Star Seed could return to the Galaxy Cauldron and be reborn once more, anywhere in the Universe.

Little did they know that, thanks to the misguided efforts of the real Grammaton, nine of these Star Seeds would prove to be important in the larger scale of events, and crucial for the survival of humanity during the shift between the Age of Angels and the Age of Gods.

Book of Titor, Chapter II: The Age of Angels, Section IV

(xx)

"My goodness, what have we done!?" lamented Kenji Tsukino as Mamoru finished healing him from his trance, realizing the situation and the fact he gave his eldest daughter away to unspeakable monsters. To his side was his wife Ikuko, trying to console him while also coming to terms with what just happened to her.

Alongside Mamoru was Motoki Furuhata, who was also affected by the transmission for a while and started to accompany his lifelong best friend in his quest.

"Listen, it's not your fault... None of this is your fault," Motoki offered some more soothing words. "We were all affected by that strange broadcast of the Mayor of Tokyo, and this led us to make things beyond our comprehension, but what matters is that we are all fine... Within what is possible, that is."

"But now, Usagi is in their hands... I fear for what they could do with my daughter,"

"And where the hell is Shingo!?"

As soon as Kenji complained of her younger son's absence, the young man entered the Tsukino residence and darted towards Usagi's bedroom. Ikuko soon went after him, and all she saw was Shingo, accompanied by Luna, running with some sort of contraption in his hands.

"Shingo, what is going on? Where have you been?" His mother asked concernedly.

"No time to talk! We gotta save Usagi!"

"Shingo? What happened to Usako?" Motoki queried him.

A deeply worried Shingo had to stop on his tracks to break the news to his brother-in-law. "Usagi... She is in grave danger... She got shot in the belly!"

"WHAT!?" Everyone else screamed out in unison. Ikuko and Kenji even had to stifle their weeping.

"That's why Luna and I came back, to retrieve her Compact and bring it to her," Shingo resumed.

"We have no time to lose, the Silver Crystal will heal her right away, but we don't know how much time she has left," Luna ended up affirming in front of the Tsukinos.

"D-D-Did Luna just... Talk!?" the Tsukino matriarch ghastly affirmed upon hearing the household's pet cat speak to her. Her husband was no less mortified with everything.

"Trust me, this is far from the strangest happening you are going to see," Mamoru warned as he got up. "Now we gotta go back to the prison and save Usagi, and we gotta go fast!"

"Please stay safe," Motoki requested to the elder Tsukinos.

"Everything will be alright in the end," Shingo managed to be more positive in his parting words.

Mamoru, Motoki, Shingo and Luna then boarded the former's car, parked right beside the Tsukino household, speeding up towards the Tokyo Detention Center. Problem was that the trip would take over an hour from Azabu-Juuban to the intended destination, and this time would be crucial as to whether Usagi could be saved in time.

That is, until all of them saw a completely different place ahead of them in a blink of an eye. Something or someone teleported their car in a flash to someplace that was no longer Azabu-Juuban. Of course, teleporting from one place to another did a number on their organisms right away. As soon as they reappeared on the surface, all of the car's occupants threw up whatever they had in their stomachs.

"Uuugh... Who the hell did that?" Motoki moaned out.

"I did that," spoke a mellow female voice. And when they got up and shook off their motion sickness, they were right at the front gate of the Tokyo Detention Center. "Spare your gratitude for when things are calmed down, boys. We better rush in."

Without further ado, the four of them ran towards the entrance of the Detention Center and headed to the maximum security wing of the prison - with Mamoru promptly transforming into Tuxedo Mask in the meantime. Even Motoki with his prosthetic leg made haste and kept up with the fast and tense pace of the rescue party.

Only Luna in her thoughts managed to realize who was their mysterious helper. Thank you for this, Sailor Pluto... Wherever you are.

(xx)

The tattered figure of Abadon silently observed the front door of the Osa-P jewelry shop, from which he could see only Naru, Umino, Kotono and Kyuusuke coming in and out in furtive steps. In his fingers, he rematerialized the Shadow Gems, and the possessed man toyed with them from a while, still pondering what to do with the vital items that were used in his conversion to Lucifer's side.

"So there you are," he heard Fréamund speak to him from a short distance. "May I ask what is it that you so fixedly seek in that bauble shop?"

"I was thinking of resurrecting the boys that are kept in that place," he casually answered. "They... Could be useful."

"We already tried that with the Heavenly Kings of yore," the dark servant explained, "and they strayed from their intended path. Most likely they would do the same, considering they have received the ritual slaying from their part."

"As you can see, I own their Shadow Gems," Abadon argued once more, showing him the mentioned jewels. "If I infuse them with essence from Hell, I can guarantee their total servitude to our cause. Besides, we still need to fecundate the Sailor Guardian's wombs with hellish seed, and no better subjects than these men exist."

Fréamund pondered for a while and nodded slightly. "Do as you must, but be aware I will keep an eye on you and them. Be warned that if any of you stabs us in the back, the retribution will be undescribable doom and pain. Now if you excuse me, I must tend to the summoned Legionnaires. Fare you well, Abadon."

From the shop, Umino came out to take out some trash and breath fresh air. He looked towards the building ahead of him, where Abadon stood alone once more. And for a moment, their sights seemed to cross with one another in complicity.

(xx)

Upon four of the bloody altars mounted by the Legionnaire of Lust laid down the bodies of Ami, Rei, Makoto and Minako - Their placid sleep in contrast with the entire situation. The other four altars were designed for the Outer Guardians, of which the present Legionnaires had no idea how or where to find them.

"We have captured the Prophesized Princess and her closest companions," Belial reassessed the situation. "The future Prince is also by our side. All we need is to impregnate them, to raise the ultimate creatures for the rise of Carcosa and the start of the Holy War."

"Shame that we are all sterile, otherwise we could partake in this particular task," Belphegor stated with a bit of disappointment.

What none of them counted was that, while their bodies were vulnerable, their minds became worlds of their own, and inside of them, their Sailor Guardian power was brewing and ready to shine.

Beelzebub ran his cold, rotten hand across Minako's thighs, stopping short of reaching her genitals. "Oh... How I wish I could take a bite out of one of them... Just one..."

Leviathan touched Beelzebub's shoulder with his crosier and shook his head. "Control yourself. We need them whole, and you know it."

"If anyone is getting pieces of them torn off... it will be you."

"What the-"

The Eternal Sailor Guardians got up from their altars as if nothing had happened to them. Not only were their wounds healed and their battle auras fresh as they could be, but they also managed to materialize weapons in their hands: Sailor Mercury carried a rod and a shield; Sailor Mars had an incremented archery bow; Sailor Jupiter double-wielded a spear and a war hammer, and Sailor Venus had a battle sword and a chain wrapped around her waist. All of them had confident smiles etched on their faces.

And it was the Guardian of Love who released the battle challenge: "Now tell us where you dragged Usagi to, or we'll make sure this room will be your own Hell."

Belphegor boasted: "You'll have a tiny chance to find your friend if you manage to pass through us. And the chances for passing through us are nil!"

Leviathan issued a dreary threat: "We will rape you, kill you, rape your corpses and resurrect you to repeat this all in an eternal loop of pain."

Beelzebub showed more restraint: "I will not partake in the rape, mind you... I prefer skinning you out and eating your flesh..."

Belial just mocked: "BAHAHAHAHAHA! And I was thinking how easy it has been to just capture you like this. Bring it on, Sailor Wenches!"

How exactly did they regain their powers like that? I know it was promised for this chapter, but it would make this entire chapter way too long so I left it for the other one.

Una vez más te agradezco litakino1987 por acompañar la história y dejar tus reviews sin falta por acá.

Greetings from the Hospitaller Knight.