Chapter 72: Sin and Punishment
Priscilla could hardly see the towering beast hovering over their home, but she could feel it, hear it, smell it. Its odor was that of pure chaos dissolved, choking the life out of every microorganism that surrounded it.
Priscilla herself gasped and found it hard to breathe. She knew she wouldn't feel this way were she at her full strength. But she was exhausted. Beating one of these beasts took everything she had and now it took her lover's caring embrace just to keep her from falling to her knees.
She looked to Belle with rosy cheeks and a sense of embarrassment in her scowl. She could barely look at her wife standing tall, defiantly, against this seemingly insurmountable wall.
Then again, Belle practically never showed any signs of wavering in all their years of marriage. The type of world she grew up in had made her a stronger soul than most.
But this wasn't a good thing in Priscilla's eyes. A part of her felt as though Belle was putting on a brave face just for her sake. Or perhaps she really was that confident. In this most critical moment, she couldn't read her lover's face, and that worried her the most of all.
She grabbed onto Belle's arm and held it gently, deep, deep down believing a forthright act of love would make Belle take off her mask temporarily. Confirming or denying her suspicions, it didn't matter, she just wanted to see her genuine self one last time before the end.
"Now...DIE!" The titanic beast thrust one of its appendages towards them with lightning speed and Priscilla's eyes squirmed shut with a whimper.
The entire building rattled and Priscilla's scaly skin turned cold, welcoming oblivion. She excepted silence, a long fall towards Hell, and then the roar of flames to torment her forever.
Yet instead she heard a grunt of resistance, shoving back the grasp of death with all their might. She slowly opened her eyes, watching as Belle twirled her stick in front of her to project a shield against the appendages' wrath.
She held on with all her might and sweat manifested all over her silky skin. The shield she made began to crack, but when it gave way the shards hurtled themselves across the appendages' tip and made it withdraw in the blink of an eye.
Belle then bent down and gently laid her darling to kneel on the ground, the halfling gazing upon her with a wobbling look of shock.
"We're nowhere close to being done!" Belle declared henceforth, taking a swing at the mighty beast with nothing but an open palm, "Thrash and flail all you wish, this wall will keep standing between you and the rest of the universe!"
"Is that a challenge?" The titanic beast chuckled, "A pity you boast such things to an ancient one."
It lashed another tentacle out just as fast as before and while Priscilla shouted "Watch out!" Belle swiftly raised her stick and defended herself with another barrier.
She was shoved a few inches back and let out a loud huff as she continued to press forward against the leviathan's wrath.
The barrier started to crack when another tentacle lashed down from the left side, not only smashing through what remained of the wall, but also tilting the building in that direction.
Belle dug her feet in hard as her and Priscilla went sliding. First she broke the first barrier to repel that appendage, and then she made a second barrier to halt the second tentacle.
She then swung back and grabbed onto Priscilla's hand before she slid too far away, pulling her in closer and then applying a little magnetism to her body so she'd stay still.
Another tentacle came flying in the other direction, shifting the building harder the other way. Belle jerked her stick to the right and slammed another barrier into the appendages path, causing it to bend into itself multiple times.
With her defenses now established she put her eyes towards the main monster and stuck her pool stick into the ground. A veil of magic spread throughout the building and re-stabilized it.
Then she pulled the stick up and swung her hand out, firing off giant magic bolts into the statue's face. The leviathan let out a few grunts and shook, which in turn rattled the building some more.
The two appendages made a hasty retreat over the beast's head and then slammed back down hard into the part of the building closest to it. The building slanted and another chunk of it was taken out.
Belle slid a little closer to the center and then magnetized herself to the floor. Then, as the building wobbled around her she tried focusing all her attention towards the statue's forehead.
She used giant pool balls as meteors to unsure that at least a few of them would hit her target. A series of explosions went off across the beast's body and it pulled back, flailing its appendages around like it was in incredible pain.
"Y-You're doing it!" Priscilla cheered on.
"Are you really surprised?" Belle said with a smile back for her most favorite fan of all. But as she turned back her expression stiffened a little, and she let out a curious hum.
The leviathan pushed back into the building with ramming speed, causing the train tubes to snap off from the building.
Belle hunched down and waited for the tremors to cease before continuing her onslaught of magical attacks, going back to the magic bolts for the time being.
Two appendages raised and then sliced towards Belle together, which she flipped forward over, only for a third one to come barreling straight at her.
She summoned her barrier and got shoved away closer to her darling wife, and kept herself from falling onto her butt with a couple short hops.
"What's wrong? Can't keep up?!" The leviathan taunted, a failed attempt to entice Belle to attack unfocused.
Belle paused to catch her breath and then whipped a set of five cards into her hand. Then she lashed them through the air, using magic to increase their size tenfold.
With each finger connected to a card she wiggled them around to weave them around the appendages that tried to impede them. Ultimately the cards lodged themselves into the statue and blew up.
The leviathan pulled away and roared in pain, with chunks of its body crumbling off into space. It then shoved itself back into the building, repaying the loss of its stony flesh by taking off more of their home.
Belle hunched down and then dashed to the edge of the building, swerving out of the way of the incoming appendages until she was directly before the statue's face.
The staggering difference in their sizes made the impending pain she'd inflict upon the beast oh so satisfying. With plenty of magic channeled into her stick, she leaped forth and stabbed it into the statue's forehead.
The leviathan pulled away and tried lashing her off like she was a mosquito. Belle hunched down and covered herself with a dome barrier while shoving more magic down into the statue.
Four appendages rose together for one slam that'd surely turn her into paste. But with a wink and wiggle of her nose, she dispelled the barrier and pulled away at the very last moment into one of her warp cards, leaving her stick behind.
The tentacles slammed down on the stick and shoved it deeper into the statue, triggering all the pent up magical energies to explode.
Belle viewed the beautiful, flourishing magical fireworks from the safety of her broken home and raised her hand to catch her stick as it flew back in a perfect arch.
She then twirled and held the stick behind her back, watching as the leviathan's appendages drooped onto the edge of the platform, a massive chunk of stones plummeting and taking more of the platform down with it.
Behind the broken forehead was a few trickles of black blood, the equivalent of rivers to the mortal eye. The leviathan slowly pulled itself up with a feral growl of frustration and then started lashing its appendages up in the air.
"You miserable witch!" It screamed.
"Keep it up, Belle! You have her on the ropes!" Priscilla proclaimed.
Belle was breathing repeatedly at a quiet pace, a few dews of sweating glistening off her brow. She took a gulp of spit and then twirled her stick around, thrusting it towards the massive wound on the statue's head.
The statue leaned in closer with a gigantic roar, paying no heed to the glittering light gathering at the tip of Belle's stick. Belle shifted her brows and glared at the beast's eyes, waiting as its horde of appendages wiggled to the forefront.
She then fired off a very, very thin beam of energy through the center of the statue's wound, where it shot out the back of the head dragging dozens of gallons of blood out with it. Then, a moment after, the back of the statue's head exploded.
"RAAAAAHHH!" The leviathan recoiled with a massive blood-curling scream.
Belle widened her eyes and then gliding her stick around in the air, summoning trails upon trails of glistening pearl orbs. With no end in sight for her barrage, she fired the orbs into the beast's wound, each as captivating as a newborn comet.
The beast lashed its tentacles to-and-fro to clean the pests from the sky, but instead the mere touch of this purest light made its flesh sizzle and melt off.
Belle's breathing quickened, and she felt her heart touch the rim of her chest. Nevertheless she pressed forward with a confident waltz, whisking her stick around in the air to send more and more of those orbs her foe's way.
Until finally, a horde of them had assembled around the statue's body like a storm of dust flakes. But they were certainly the prettiest dust flakes out there.
The beast swerved around a little while Belle performed a little dance, twirling her stick feverishly over her head, as a whirlwind of sparkling diamond dust gathered around her.
With her body glistening brighter than the brightest jewel, she slammed the tip of her staff down into the ground. The remainder of the building became covered in bright white runes and for a brief second, the leviathan paused, only to then be bound in thousands of barely visible strings.
"W-What is this...?!" They screamed.
"A truly grand finale." Belle said with a smirk and a twist of her stick. The lights, as small as dust, began to express their radiance truly magnificently, overwhelming even the titanic scale of this leviathan once they were fully aglow.
"Banisher of Radiance!"
The lights all collapsed into their smallest forms and then, all this build-up culminated in a dazzling white cross that also collapsed upon itself and then spread out diagonally, binding itself against the statue's body before exploding.
"GAAAAAAAHHH!" The leviathan's screams were barely heard over the sounds of light, but Belle could clearly see smoke of all sorts rising out of its now plummeting body.
Its tentacles flailed upward, then fell limp at its back.
Belle breathed incredibly slow, her best suit now drenched in her own sweat. With one satisfied breath, she collapsed onto her butt and kept herself up with both hands.
Priscilla crawled over to her and propped her up on her back, trying to move into a soft embrace as she said with glee, "Y-You did it! I...I can't believe it...We're...We're alive."
Belle's expression subtly turned downward, her eyes especially doing little else but staring blankly towards the cloudy horizon.
"..." Priscilla nudged her head in closer to her wife and muttered, "Belle?"
Belle smiled slightly and remarked, "I did the best I could, darling."
The building trembled and the two watched as an appendage latched itself onto the edge of their platform. Suddenly the whole leviathan came tearing up into their view, laughing maniacally.
"N-No...!" Declared Priscilla, completely aghast.
"Fooled you!" The beast bellowed with the utmost glee, "You actually BELIEVED you could kill me, didn't you? ME?! I am older than your pathetic magics! Nay...I am older than creation itself!"
The statue was cracked all over but it didn't matter. None of it did. The demon was spry with laughter that echoed within the cold confines of Priscilla's body.
Its appendages spread out like deadly flower petals that began thrusting across their view at light speed. They punctured through what remained of the building everywhere except where the two rested. It took its time, fully absorbing itself in the heat of the moment.
It didn't even care that the body of its sibling was bashed away in the process.
The lovers could only watch as their belongings and their beloved home were desecrated to the finest detail, leaving nothing they cared for intact save for each other.
And even that was questionable, with the titanic shadow looming over them. Priscilla glared into the still face of this leviathan as it wobbled closer, their remaining ground hardly big enough to host them both.
"Now all you have is your 'love'. And how will that save you now?" The leviathan coddled them with a mocking, baby tone.
"I told you didn't I? I would completely destroy you. Had you took my offer, you could've had everything you ever wanted still. Now you have nothing. Nothing but a worthless feeling."
"Ghhh...!" Priscilla trembled with rage, stopping only when Belle began to stroke her cheek.
"I still have everything I could ever want," She said with a closed-eye smile, "And I did everything I could to keep it. I have no regrets to speak of."
Priscilla's eyes watered and showed great hesitation mumbling back, "B-Belle that's...that's what I was going to say."
"Ugh, you make me sick," The leviathan moaned, slowly pulling away from the two as their heads gravitated towards one another for one last kiss, "I almost don't want to kill you. Your sickeningly sweet poison will get all over me...!"
Once hundreds of feet away it wiggled one tentacle around before its body and said nonchalantly, "Oh well! These can be replaced!"
Priscilla held onto Belle, hands and tail involved, and trembled uncontrollably. Her scaly skin was very cold, a side of her Belle had never felt before.
And Belle warmed her up with an embrace of her own, as the spectre of death came speeding towards them.
"There's...one regret I have, Belle." The halfing murmured.
"Oh?"
"I...always sort of wanted to raise a child." Priscilla said with reddish cheeks.
"You...did?" Belle's eyes widened and she fluttered them about for a bit, "But you always told me no."
"Feh...!" Priscilla wobbled out a last-minute smile, "I said I didn't want to have a child! I-If we were going to do, you'd be the one getting pregnant!"
"Oh," Belle giggled, "So my big tough dragon wife was afraid of a little childbirth?"
"S-Shut up..." Priscilla murmured.
Then, they looked each other in the eyes, and held each other softly.
Their world could never truly end.
Even when death came crashing down upon them, their world would live on.
For their love was the world to them.
And that's all they could ever ask for.
They closed their eyes, and embraced the end of this chapter of their lives...
…
…
"Do not close your eyes so readily you two. Rejoice! For this has been your finest hour!"
A strange voice called out to them from very, very close by, and they couldn't help but open their eyes and be shocked to find that the appendage hadn't yet reached them.
No, it had been stopped completely. Not by some powerful divine influence, or a luck of the draw.
No.
One man, one solitary man, stood against death and its feral wrath.
"W-Who are...?" Muttered Priscilla.
"You. You're..." While Belle seemed to recognize them.
"YOU?!" And the leviathan screamed, their rage unable to be withstood by the cosmos, "HOW...HOW DARE YOU!"
The name of this last-minute savior was the mysterious Macros, who currently levitated in the air before the two lovers with the tip of the appendage speared through his chest.
He calmly folded his hands behind his back and shook his head, "I thought I had made my point clear before, but you never were a good listener were you?"
In the blink of an eye he grabbed onto the appendage and began to drag it out of his body. The leviathan froze stiff and did nothing to stop him.
"Shit, you pull that out and you're going to die!" Priscilla exclaimed in worry.
"You're worried about me? I'm sincerely flattered," Macros leaned over his shoulder, smiling as he ripped the tentacle out with ease, leaving behind a massive hollow wound in his body, "But there's no pain out there that can fill the emptiness inside of me."
He then glared towards the leviathan and remarked, "Especially not from this disobedient child."
He shoved the tentacle back towards the leviathan, who let out a pail shriek of, "So you side with these mortals after all, PRIDE?!"
"P-Pride?!" Priscilla stuttered in an alarmed tone.
"She's speaking nonsense I assure you," Macros said, his insides pulling back together with a visceral suction sound. As he dusted a bit of liquid off his gut he then leaned over his shoulder, looking at Belle specifically, "I am Macros. Isn't that correct, Belle?"
Belle slanted her brows and raised a rather wily smirk in response, "Thank you for the help."
"I think both parties here are mistaken..." Macros dryly scratched the side of his face, "I just so happened to wander into the path of an appendage while observing the battle."
Priscilla narrowed her gaze and muttered, "You ain't convincing anyone with that bullshit."
"Least of all me! You human-loving filth!" The leviathan raised its tentacles and lashed them down, "You're a disgrace to us all!"
When the tentacles came crashing down Macros waved his hand out without even turning to look at them. The tentacles became bound by a thin azure light and stopped moving.
"Gghhh...!" The leviathan grunted, but they didn't budge an inch further.
Macros then tucked his hands behind his back and fully faced the couple cracking a tiny smile, "But if you want my help you'll have to make a pact with me."
Priscilla growled in suspicion while Belle asked "What do you want?" without hesitation.
Macros' brows tingled in surprise and with a dry, amused chuckle he said, "Nothing major. Just a promise to never tell a soul of my presence here today. I DO have a reputation to uphold, surely you of all people understand that."
"I don't know about this," Priscilla growled, "You sure are susp-"
"Its a deal." Belle remarked, eliciting a quick tremor of shock from her partner.
Macros closed his eyes and said, "Very well. Oh, but just a quick warning..."
As he began to turn he reached for his lens and twisted them right off, his eyes along with it. He tucked them away in his pockets and as he did so, dark azure flames began to overflow from his eyes, guiding the tiny hands of hundreds of dying skeletons to rise up and grab the sides of his sockets.
"Whatever you do, don't look into my eyes." His tone now carried a deep, cold echo, like the sounds of legion were at his tongue's beck and call.
He then cracked his knuckles before gently raising his right hand towards one of the tentacles. It began to break down at a cubical level all the way up to the main body in a matter of seconds.
The veil over the other tentacle and broke off and was immediately sent hurtling towards Macros by the raging leviathan.
Macros blocked the tip on his palm and then shook his head, "I warned you, Luxuria. And yet you hastened towards your defeat regardless."
He broke down that tentacle while another one shoved out of the socket left behind from the first's destruction and thrust itself towards Macros.
"I had won! Victory was mine! But noooo! You never let me have anything you glory-hound traitor!"
Macors broke down another tentacle with a simple wave of his hand and laughed, "Curse your own incompetence, you unruly child."
He kept the tentacles from approaching with the ease that his actions proved to be, "You? Make up some grand scheme that'd topple the Elemental Overlord? Ha! There's a reason I was chosen to lead. Left to your own devices you're incapable of accomplishing anything without succumbing to your feverish emotions."
"You underestimated your prey just as you continue to underestimate me. These two outlasted you with the very power you cursed as weak. It was a triumph worthy of the utmost praise, now proving to be the instrument of your defeat."
"There's that old arrogance of yours surfacing once more! UUURGHHH!" The leviathan roared and started sending more tentacles after him, "Lets see how you handle this!"
Macros raised his other hand to double his deconstructing efforts, "Not even a challenge, you ugly beast."
Priscilla and Belle found themselves very out-of-place as spectators in this battle of otherworldly forces. Nevertheless the halfling found the gumption to shout, "HEY!"
Macros tilted his head back ever-slightly and Priscilla grunted, "I get you're enjoying this but when are you going to actually attack this beast?!"
"Cough...! Right, did I neglect to mention that?" Macros chuckled nonchalantly, "See, I can't actually do any major harm to her. And neither can she to me. Its sort of a safeguard our father implemented to keep us from betraying each other."
"She put a hole through your chest." Priscilla muttered.
"I said it didn't hurt, didn't I?" Macros said, getting a little short with her, "But yes, I get what you're saying. All my powers of deconstruction can do is keep her from killing you. If we want to win this battle, you'll have to do the job for me."
"Well..." Priscilla grunted weakly.
"I hate to say it, but we're both exhausted." Belle remarked.
"Hmmm, I thought so. Good thing I made a quick stop at the item store on the way here." Macros drew his hand down into his pocket and a tentacle came speeding down towards him.
Belle pulled her stick out and blocked it with a quick, if not weak barrier. Macros then pulled out a couple of yellow, jelly-like crystals and tossed them back remarking, "Much appreciated."
He then resumed his efforts while Belle looked at the crystals and remarked, "Ethers?"
"They never have Elixirs in stock, I swear..." Macros said with a chuckle.
Belle stuffed the Ether into her mouth and gobbled it down, and after a sigh and shrug Priscilla just rolled along with it and ate hers too.
Though their bodies didn't look any better, the veil of magical energy surrounding them made them feel refreshed.
"Now then, I need you both to prepare to launch one powerful attack at her weak point on my cue." Macros briefly gestured his pointer finger upward at the statue's chest.
"The chest?" Priscilla murmured in surprise.
"Yes, her mortal shell is hidden within there. If you can break it open, then I will handle the rest." It was no boast he made, but rather a statement of fact. His belief in them was so strong, it was its own form of strength.
"Not the face but the chest..." Belle nodded slowly, "How vain of her."
"Yes, the girl thinks she's clever." Macros dryly chuckled and then swerved his hands out to narrowly deconstruct a couple more tentacles.
"I would advise getting ready now though. She's starting to make progress...!" Macros let out a light grunt and then thrust his hands out, firing a pulse of deconstructing energy to take out a wave of tentacles, "And I'd rather not...hahaha...push myself too hard here."
Belle began to raise her stick and Priscilla immediately put her claw down on top of it. With a rough, somewhat embarrassed scoff she muttered, "Can't believe we're still fighting this out...We've got all the luck on our side, don't we?"
"No..." Belle shook her head and smiled, "This has nothing to do with luck. This is something greater. Something that cannot be quantified."
She then widened her eyes with a hint of fire in her pupils, "Let us make our mark on history with one all-or-nothing effort, my darling!"
"Heh...!" Priscilla gripped the stick and began funneling her purple lightning into it, facing the monstrosity with a fierce expression, "You're the best wife in the universe, Belle!"
Belle funneled her magical force into the stick and they waited for their chance to strike.
The leviathan's efforts grew increasingly frequent and angered. She consumed her opposition's surroundings in her flailing appendages, watching them deconstruct and regrow by the dozen per second.
"I. Will. WIN! Not even you can stop me, Pride! NO ONE CAN!" All her boasts were delusions grasping desperately at some veiled manifestation of reality crafted inside her hollow head.
Macros merely kept his position steady and slowly shook his head, "Maybe acquire a victory or two in your repertoire before making such boasts, Luxuria."
"You're so insufferable...! DIE! DIE! DIE!" She pulled all her tentacles back and lashed them out simultaneously. Macros' sockets flared open and consumed all the tentacles in blue flames that held them in place. He then swept his hands clock and counterclockwise to deconstruct them all.
"And once again, your hubris shall make you fall," With that cold remark Macros glanced ever-so slightly over his shoulder and shouted, "Now! Hurry!"
Belle's stick was so charged up that cracks were forming over the surface. But she gripped it extra-hard and refused to let go, even as it was burning hers and Priscilla's palms.
The two hunched forward together and centered the stick between them, glaring up at the mighty leviathan as they hastily worked on manifesting more appendages.
"This is bullshit...! I did everything right! I should be winning! This was my victory! Mine! Why?! Why why why do you goodie two-shoes keep winning?! Why does this universe favor your ilk, when we were the firstborn sons and daughters of creation?!"
Macros tucked his hands behind his back and clicked his tongue twice, "Because this universe isn't so easily molded to your childish whims. Its flawed, yes, but its always changing, always growing. Always full of surprises, like these two behind me."
He gestured his hand back and floated aside. The lovers grasped the stick tightly and braced themselves as the ground was beginning to disintegrate from being in contact from their combined power.
"You want to know why you lost?" Priscilla roared and reared her head back, "Because you don't know a single goddamn thing about love!"
"Bitch!" Belle added immediately.
With one solid thrust of their stick the energy exploded out of its disintegrating form as a gigantic heart-shaped violet beam, crackling violently with electricity and magical juices.
Before the appendages were fully restored they were shoved in the path of the beam, and quickly reduced to dust. It then slammed into the statue's chest and its back arched, cracks splitting it apart all over.
Finally it caved in to pressure, the combined energies exploding out of its entire back in one mighty, deafening burst, splitting away a quarter of the planet's gases.
In the center of the statue's chest Amor's body floated in the hollow shell gasping and wheezing angrily. She grit her teeth in a scowl, her mighty body collapsing all around her.
"No...No! I refuse to accept this conclusion...!"
But the very moment she budged, Macros appeared in front of her and muttered, "Accept it. This is the end."
In the blink of an eye he throttled his hand around her stubby neck and hoisted her inches before his howling face.
Amor's entire body trembled, but her scowl never faded. And as a matter of fact, she was laughing.
Macros tilted his head while she boasted spitefully in his face, "So what now, you'll punish me? Hahaha! You. Can't. Do. ANYTHING. To me..."
"You have no choice but to let me go. This is only a temporary setback. You won't always be able to save these suicidal morons from my vengeance!"
Macros' smile faded and Amor's only grew in scale, "What can you do about it? Kill me?"
"Ha...!" Macros let loose that one chuckle, and Amor's porcelain skin started to grow pale.
He pulled her face directly before his and grinned as wide as his thin, bony cheeks would allow. With his glare burrowing into her eyes he muttered, "Oh my dear, naive cherub child..."
"I don't partake in such...childish games."
And then there was silence.
From Belle and Priscilla's perspective they saw the statue definitively crumbled apart to the last stone. And once they watched the last speck of dust fade away, they let their exhausted bodies collapse forward, barely able to fully lay out on this tiny, tiny platform.
"I-Its over..." Belle let out a huff of relief.
"I really, REALLY...want to just lay here for a few days...Is that ok?" Priscilla mumbled.
"Go right ahead, you've earned it." Uttered Macros, reappearing before the two with his "eyes" back in their proper place and a tiny smile.
Priscilla poked her head up and muttered, "You're still here?"
"You still haven't said 'Thank you'?" Macros replied with a chuckle.
Priscilla arched her brows and huffed "Thank you" without making eye contact.
"Glad to have been of assistance." Macros bowed.
"So, wait...what happened to that pest anyway?" Priscilla glanced around wondering, "And the other one, the chimera thing?"
"I took care of them," Macros said nonchalantly, "No questioning it."
"..." Belle hummed for a short while and then shook her head, "I'm afraid I can't accept that."
Macros turned his head and let her speak up without interruption, "I want answers. About everything involving you and the extended family that's been causing us trouble these past few months."
"..." Macros closed his eyes and chuckled, "You shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, Aurian Neptune. I've already overstepped my bounds enough by involving myself in this fight."
"So that's a 'No' then?" Belle began to smirk.
"I'm afraid so." Macros nonchalantly replied.
She closed her eyes and chuckled, "Then it'd be a pity if someone were to let slip that the famous biologist Macros had a big, dark secret."
Macros flinched and perked his eyes up attentively.
Belle looked at him and remarked, "Why, just think of how Catherine would react if her assumptions were proven true."
"She'd hound me to the edge of the universe..." Macros gasped and weakly chuckled, then began scratching the side of his face, "W-Wait, am I being blackmailed? ME?"
"Think of it more as us working out a mutual agreement." Belle smiled.
"You cheeky girl..." Macros tucked his hands behind his back and let out a wily laugh, "Ha! You know, I'm not even mad. Rather...I'd say this is a pleasant surprise."
He then gestured one hand out to say, "Very well, lets consider this a major upgrade in our business relationship then, shall we?"
"However..." Macros glared narrowly at Belle, "I will only tell you what I know."
Priscilla immediately flared her nostrils and with a wave of his hand Macros replied, "I jest, I jest."
He then put his hands back and remarked, "But why don't we stow this talk away for later? You two deserve a long break and what I have to say requires a true strength of heart."
"Hey, before you go..." Priscilla grunted and gestured her head back, "Mind fixing up our home?"
"..." Macros closed his eyes and stated sternly, "Sorry, my powers don't work in reverse."
He then flapped one hand up and let out a jolly "Ta-ta!" before vanishing in the blink of an eye.
Then Priscilla definitively collapsed upon the barren ground and mumbled, "Thank god we got all of our money..."
"And each other." Belle patted her on the back.
Priscilla pouted and turned her head away, "Ok you can stop that flowery shit now, its turning me off."
Belle rubbed her back even harder and Priscilla melted into the ground in a state of reluctant bliss.
Aftermath...
Having narrowly escaped the machinations of Amor with their lives, Belle and Priscilla got to work rebuilding their lovely casino with the help of their friends.
The aliens who were bewitched by thoughts of Envy and Lust had the situation explained to them. A lot of them still aggressively turned on one another but Priscilla quickly knocked their heads around.
The casino was only closed down for a week and when they re-opened, business was positively booming. They had their most thriving day and got lots of money off of their customers gambling their days away.
As for personal matters between the two, Priscilla was perfectly content with some peace and quiet for a while. She got a great fight in and that's all she ever wanted...for now.
But Belle, on the other hand, started thinking intently about Priscilla's sole regret. "A child" she thought, sounded like an interesting venture. But what their love lacked was the ability to produce a child. Surely there were...ways around that, but the last time they used "that" spell things got really awkward in bed.
Accepting a donor was out of the question. If they had a child it had to be something they made together. Thinking about it in her spare time, Belle was reminded of what the Leviathans looked like in their mortal bodies, specifically Vyvy. A doll that looked like it had been made out of clay. A homunculus...
Hmmm...perhaps this is an idea worth pursuing.
Though, speaking of the two missing Leviathans...
Macros wandered into the comfort of his laboratory whistling a heartfelt tune. He immediately turned left and raised a bucket of popcorn before his chest.
Separated from all other capsules were two more tightly put together ones with Vyvy and Amor floating inside a vat of visceral ooze. Dozens of wires were attached inside of Vyvy's skull and she had this dreamy, melting smile across her face with glazed over eyes.
Amor, however, was bound up by hundreds of chains and her eyelids were taped open. She was clearly screaming and flailing in agony.
Macros nibbled on some of his popcorn and then turned to the television screen glued before Amor's capsule.
Amor screamed so loud that it was a wonder her voice didn't give out.
For hers was a fate worse than death. This was a Hell that even Satan would cower in the face. The face of this tormentor had but an eight letter word attached to it. Its existence bringing woe and misery to many young adults and lulling seniors into an endlessly repeating cycle of unoriginality.
"We now return to our 24/7 Hallmark Movie marathon." Uttered the narrator on the TV.
Macros cracked a tiny smile and wagged his popcorn piece at the screen, "Ah, Lacey Chabert is in this one too! I do truly enjoy her old work..."
Amor tried to twist her eyes back into her skull as her screams only got louder and louder.
Macros glanced over his shoulder nibbling on his popcorn, "Isn't this fun? We're finally spending time as a family again."
Amor rattled her cage around violently while Macros stared blankly at the screen and let out a dry chuckle, "Ah, good old B-Movie romance..."
Next Time: The Clairvoyant's Secret