Chapter 14: The cardinal Virtue of Prudence
"Let's go!" Luka shouted as he swung down from the helicopter.
This man was amazingly resilient. Every time the sage thought he was done for, Luka came back like an annoying cold.
Bayonetta and Older Cerezo hurried towards him with the kids safely tucked in their arms. The plane was quickly sinking and falling apart and another angel was coming for them. The never-ending attacks were becoming tiring. Not to mention with every death for the legions of light, the sage felt the darkness in him crying out for more bloodshed.
The thought of darkness swallowing his light made Older Cerezo shiver.
He was a holy instrument with a divine purpose, all his actions were for the benefit of the Trinities. That's what he had to keep telling himself every time he felt a dark pull on his heart whenever the sage killed an angel.
Once they reached Luka, Little Cerezo and Cereza were handed off for safekeeping.
Luka was at least good for babysitting.
Both the kids begged to not be left behind.
Older Cerezo was reminded of his sons again.
"It's Okay, little ones, we'll be right back." Bayonetta gave the twins a reassuring smile and walked into the portal to Purgatorio.
Cerezo stood by his sister's side, watching Luka and the kids be pulled up to a helicopter by a wire. Their cries got quieter as they rose into the rainy sky. After they were safely out of the way the sage turned his attention back to the approaching battle.
The body of the plane was demolished as the giant boat of an angel flew through the plane and forced the two of them to jump onto a floating wing from the wreckage.
"The woman fled so swiftly. I am reminded why we have come to rely upon the unreliable nature of humanity." The boat with legs and wings walked towards them. The angel was massive compared to the others.
Auditio Sapientia, another one of the higher level angels.
Their father truly was sending quality opponents for Bayonetta. At this point, he wished they would stop coming.
"A valuable lesson, but not my purpose. I have come to evaluate you and determine whether you are worthy of your role in the resurrection of the creator, Jubileus." Sapientia decreed calmly.
Out of the corner of his eye, Cerezo saw a large object coming towards him. He leaned and the stray wing missed him by an inch. Instead the wing was lodged in Sapientia's large mouth, preventing him from talking.
"Another talkative type. I don't think I've got time to entertain your blather. I'd much rather hear it straight from your boss." Bayonetta idly walked around in circles.
"Are you serious Bayonetta? You almost hit me!" Cerezo shouted at her for kicking the object in his direction.
He couldn't believe she just did that with him in the line of fire. And with no warning!
"Well you didn't get hit, so I don't see what you're fussing about, Silver." She blew off off his ire with a pout.
"By the gods woman, you are insufferable! You don't just try and kill your allies for fun."
While they were arguing over Bayonetta's lack of care, Sapientia chewed the wing in one big chomp.
"You speak of our 'boss'!? The resurrection five-hundred years ago fell victim to his human ineptitude, and we were unable to revive the Creator. However, I must thank the Sage for his witch hunts. His impetus eradicated a vile clan from this Earth." Sapientia was annoyed and now so was Cerezo.
How dare he talk about their father like that! His parents were just two people caught on the wrong sides.
Cerezo wanted to throw another wing into the angel's mouth or break the creature's legs. He would receive no mercy from the sage.
Still, Bayonetta needed to hear what Sapientia spoke of.
"The witch hunts?" She whispered.
"Thanks to his efforts, this town has become a source of strength and we've gained a foothold strong enough to orchestrate the Creator's resurrection. All that remains is awakening the Left Eye, and uniting the Eyes of the World. Then the new era of creation shall arrive!"
A tidal wave swept away the last of the plane.
Bayonetta and Cerezo made surfboards out of broken pieces of wood. It looked like they'll be surfing instead running for this battle.
What utter nonsense.
Audito Sapientia
Dance through the waves
"This is fantastic! I love this kind of mayhem!" Bayonetta yelled.
She was using her magic to control the water and propel herself forward to Sapientia. Surfing on the water was making her feel extremely giddy. Silver on the other hand, had no such joy for their predicament. He was off to side, avoiding Sapientia's legs while shooting arrows at the faces on the angel's legs. In this battle her guns would prove more useful. Getting closer to the beast's legs, she started firing rounds of bullets at the ugly faces.
The water around them began rapidly swirling. Sapientia swung his large tail and knocked her off the board. The witch collided with a hard chest.
Silver had caught her.
"How did you dodge that, Silver!?" Bayonetta held onto his neck tightly as she rubbed water out of her eyes.
Had this been any other situation, she would have laughed at the fact that a man was holding her in the bridal fashion without the promp and fare to go with it. As it was, there wasn't enough room on the board for the two of them to stand on it.
"I went underwater! Sapientia is too big, don't try to dodge him like you would a normal opponent." Silver adjusted her in his arms as he glided left and right to get back to her board.
They were just about to reach it when the giant boat jumped and dived into the water. The movement caused a tsunami that took them underwater.
Great. Now her hair's going to get wet.
They swam to the surface only to see a large fin coming towards them.
Now the bloody boat was a fish. This bloody angel needed to make up its mind!
With no boards, Silver and Bayonetta kicked off of each other to escape the incoming fin. She found her board again and hoped back on. Silver was no where in sight.
Back on board, the witch summoned her spider demon. Before she could command it to attack the angel ran in the opposite direction.
What a coward.
She jumped off the board and flew over to its back. Standing on Sapientia, Bayonetta summoned the fists of Madame Butterfly and steered the fish boat towards Phantasmaraneae.
The spider ripped off its horns and face.
Enraged, Sapientia dived back into the water and created a cyclone. As Bayonetta was surfing through the vortex she caught up to Silver who was surfing along the current. Together they plunged down further into the cyclone. They reached the bottom and found Sapientia's large head staring at them.
The witch continued forward and pulled out her blade, swiping at its face. Silver charged up his bow. Bayonetta halted her assault when she felt something intensely hot coming from behind. She veered back from Sapientia's face and narrowly dogged Silver's flaming arrow.
"Payback's a bitch, isn't it Bayonetta?" He taunted with little remorse.
Bayonetta ignored the sore loser and summoned the spider again to finish off the fish boat. While they were safely at the top of the cyclone, Sapientia fell down into a spider web where its limbs were violently ripped from its body by the baby spiders Phantasmaraneae summoned. Only its head was left behind.
"I have no idea why you would want this stone, it would look absolutely terrible on you. Much too flashy." Bayonetta said.
Nothing felt better than some last minute trash talking after brutally mutilating an angel.
"Stone? You think this all about some worthless rock!? May Jubileus, the Creator, grace you!" Another angel went down laughing into Inferno.
Bayonetta jumped off the board and flew with Silver to the Helicopter that Luka and the little ones were aboard.
"Welcome aboard, Cheshire." Bayonetta's voice scared the shit out of Luka. He almost fell out of the helicopter with the kids.
When was this woman going to stop popping out of nowhere?!
"Oh, fucking hell!"
He was going to die of a heart attack before this was all over.
"Mummy!" Cerezito and Cerezita both called out to Bayonetta in sync. 3
Twins were creepy. Thank goodness he never had one.
Luka paid attention to the controls while the kids reconnected with their Mom and Silver. He still wasn't completely sure if Silver was their Dad.
"I told you I'd be right back." Bayonetta stroked Cerezita's head and allowed Cerezito to lay his head in her lap.
Silver joined him in the copilot seat.
"Shouldn't you be, you know, flying this thing? I'm a bit occupied at the moment." Bayonetta looked Luka right in the eye through the mirror.
He was so busy staring at her that the helicopter was about to crash into the water. He quickly pulled up and saved them all from death by drowning.
"Well, so much for the subtle approach. We might as well have speakers on this thing blaring Ride of the fucking Valkyries." Luka grumbled.
"Watch your language around the children, boy!" Silver reprimanded him like he was a child. Luka refrained from rudely correcting the uptight man since he really did need to watch his language around them.
Wouldn't want the twins picking up bad words before they even became teens.
"Come now, we're VIPs. You know, nothing says you've made it in life like a private helicopter." Bayonetta laughed.
What a high strung woman.
"Then welcome aboard Air Luka, Flight 001. This your captain, LUKA, speaking. Fasten your seat belts as this may be a bumpy flight." Luka thought he would choke from the heavy amount of sarcasm dripping from his voice.
"Just be quiet and fly, boy. And KEEP your eyes on the sky. I don't want anymore accidents for today." Silver didn't seem to appreciate his humor.
Luka weakly chuckled and flashed a smile that looked more like a scowl.
He just couldn't get break with these people.
Elsewhere, a girl and boy moved the Bayonetta and Cerezo toys from Granuis Deep to Isla del Sol