Carmilla Carmine and her daughters were out salvaging for angelic weapons as the extermination was almost over. It was a massive risk to begin salvaging before the exterminations had fully ended but Carmilla felt it would be worth the risk to beat other salvagers to the punch. Carmilla realized that she had miscalculated as an exorcist was flying in front of the three of them.
"Girls, run," Carmilla ordered as she leapt towards the exorcist. She knew she had no chance defeating the angelic mass murderer but she was willing to sacrifice herself to cover her daughters' escape.
She spun in mid air and outstretched her leg. She imagined that at best, she'd only be able to stun the exorcist and was immeasurably surprised when the blade on her shoe sliced through the angel's neck. Between the unexpected success of her kick and how that affected her movement, she dropped to the ground and failed to stick the landing.
"Dios mio," Carmilla uttered in her native tongue as her mind began contemplating the many implications of her accidental discovery.
When Odette and Clara heard a slicing sound followed by their mother hitting the ground with a graceless thud, they ceased retreating and turned around. Their mouths were wide open in shock as like their mother, they also began contemplating the implications of what just happened.
While Carmilla was facedown on the ground, she was spotted by a second exorcist. This one flew down and killed the Carmine matriarch with her spear.
Odette was paralyzed at having seen her mother killed while Clara was overwhelmed by rage. The puffy haired young woman ran towards the body of the exorcist her mother had decapitated. She grabbed the short sword from the exorcist's belt and stabbed the one that had just killed her mother.
While the exorcist was caught off guard by how she had somehow been injured by a sinner, Clara began hacking away at her. It only took a few hacks to kill the second exorcist and Clara realized that she he succeeded in avenging her mother.
"For you, mom," Clara said to her mother's body.
"Clara," Odette spoke up to get her sister's attention as she held the severed head of the first exorcist. "We're going to make all of heaven pay for this but right now, the first step is retreating and securing proof of our discovery."
Clara nodded in understanding as a wicked grin spread on her face. She was confident that she and Odette had formed the same plan just now: show the exorcist's severed head to the other overlords as proof of concept that angels can be killed and then rally them to attack heaven in retribution for the exterminations. The Carmine sisters at the moment had no idea how well such an attack would go, but they saw no problem riling up the population of hell and sicking them on heaven to avenge their mother.
"We'll come back for you later, mom," Clara said to her mother's corpse. "But right now, we need to get our plans to avenge you in motion."
Clara grabbed the weapons from the two exorcists and retreated with Odette to secure the head.
—-
It had been three days since the last extermination. Odette and Clara had just finished the service for their mother at their home and were now about to have a meeting with the overlords of Pentagram City. Without giving away specifics, they said they had something important to share. The meeting was about to start when they were approached by Zestial.
"Once again," Zestial began, "my condolences on the loss of thy mother. Hell is a poorer place with her gone. Thou should know that I've decided to bring an old friend to this meeting: Alastor, the radio demon."
"What?" Odette said in surprise. "But he's been MIA for years."
"His return is a recent development," Zestial explained. "I've decided that as a fellow overlord, he deserves to hear whatever thou has to say," Zestial finished in a tone that made it clear he did not need the sisters' permission or forgiveness.
"Of course," Odette agreed. The sisters walked away from Zestial as they prepared themselves for the meeting.
"I'm not the superstitious sort," Odette began as they continue to walk, "but I'm tempted to see the sudden return of the most powerful mortal soul hell has ever seen as a good omen."
"Yeah, I definitely want him on our side," Clara agreed.
Not long later, the sisters were inside a dining room that would serve as a conference room, standing in front of the assembled overlords.
"This better be good," Vox began angrily. "I wouldn't have agreed to come here as a representative of the Vees if it meant sharing a room with him," Vox finished by pointing at Alastor.
So much for the good omen, Odette thought. She decided it would be best to cut to the chase before things got volatile with Vox and Alastor. She opened up a cooler she placed in the room ahead of time and held up the exorcist's severed head for the overlords to see.
"Tasty," Alastor said, while everyone else let out gasps of shock at the site.
"Turns out it's possible to kill angels with their own weapons," Clara spoke, "Our mother did this before she was killed by a second exorcist, which I killed with a sword taken from this one. We can actually fight back against them now."
"I call bullshit," Vox interrupted. "That could be some kind of prop for all we know. With how Carmine Industries holds over 60% of the market for angelic weapons, it would seem quite beneficial for you to drum up demand since you have such a strong foothold with supply."
"If that were true," Odette began to counter, "then our plan is to rile you up for a counteroffensive that's doomed to fail. Getting our customers killed is very bad for business."
"And yet," Vox continued, "that doesn't stop tobacco and alcohol industries on earth from selling products they know have a high chance of eventually killing their customers."
"That's not quite the same thing," Odette disagreed. "When it comes to the tobacco and alcohol industries getting their customers killed, it happens gradually and at different times. We get many of our customers killed at the same time, no one would want to do business with us and the company would fall apart."
"After you two made enough money for that to not be a problem," Vox pointed out.
"I believe I can settle this matter," Alastor interjected as he stood up. "I could nibble a tiny bit off the head and verify that it's not a prop and if it doesn't taste like anything I'm familiar with, it might be from an actual angel." He turned to face Vox. "Between my prolonged absence and how I've never bought any wares from this company, if they are trying to pull a con then I have no reason to be in on it."
"You're just doing this to piss me off," Vox objected.
"Is it working?" Alastor asked cheerfully.
"Enough," Clara spoke up to get their attention. "Alastor will do his taste test to prove that this is what we say it is. Will that settle any doubts?"
The other overlords nodded and muttered in agreement. Odette handed the head over to Alastor, who bit off a tiny chunk of it and then swallowed.
"I can't confirm that this is an angel," Alastor began. "All I can confirm is that this is not a prop or tastes like anything I've previously eaten. I look forward to finding out what it tastes like thawed."
"Wait, we still need that for evidence," Odette said as she reached out to take back the head.
"You dare to tell me when I can't eat," Alastor said angrily as his voice reverberated with other worldly power and antlers grew from the side of his head. Odette stopped in her tracks and released a small bit of urine from terror.
"Alastor," Zestial interrupted. "The young ladies deserve the head as a sign of their mother's strength more than thou needs an hors d'oeuvre. And with where events appear to be heading, thou will get thy fill soon enough."
"Mmmm," Alastair considered his next action. "Fair enough." Alastor gave the head back to Odette and put it back and it's cooler.
"Thank you Zestiall," Odette said with almost tangible gratitude at the elder demon for diffusing the situation.
"Then that means it probably is an angel," Rosie chimed in. "So now I guess we come to the part where we all put aside our past grudges and focus on a united, retaliatory strike on heaven."
"Yeah," Zeezi cheered as she raised her fist enthusiastically. "Let's go fuck their shit up. See how they like it."
"I completely agree with the sentiment Zeezi," Clara said. "But Odette and I have been considering this for the past few days and have come to the conclusion that fortifying Hell's defenses in preparation for the next extermination would be the best course of action."
"Indeed," Vox agreed. "We don't have any information regarding Heaven's layout or military capabilities beyond the Exorcists. Charging in blind would be unwise."
"More than that," Clara continued, "if we fight the angels in Hell, it'll be easier for us to salvage weapons from slain angels. And without a steady stream of angelic metal to replenish our armories, any sustained war effort is untenable."
"Right," Zeezi chimed in, disagreeing with her earlier sentiment. "In order to put the most hurt we can on these holy fuckers, we need to get into a situation where we use the weapons we already have to kill angels to get more weapons to kill more angels to get more weapons and so forth."
"Exactly," Clara confirmed and then faced Rosie and Alastor. "It'll also be easier for us to salvage the bodies of slain angels for the dining pleasure of any interested parties."
"There are also tactical advantages," Odette said, "in fortifying our position. It's in the early stages right now but I'm working on a new model of anti-air gun. The finished product will be more like a large rifle than a canon. I'm hoping to make at least a hundred of these and then we stash them throughout Pentagram City. Shortly after the battle gets underway, we have gunners open fire on the exorcists. With the element of surprise, there should be a minimum average of two slain exorcists per gun, resulting in significant casualties."
"Depending on how well that goes," Clara picked up where her sister left off, "we will reconsider taking the fight to heaven."
The overlords agreed to this.
"I speak on behalf of the Vees," Vox spoke up, "when I say that we preemptively opt out of any plan to take the fight to heaven." He focused his gaze on Clara and Odette. "I'm sure the two of you would like nothing more than to use us and the souls who work for us as cannon fodder to punish heaven for killing your mom but we refuse to cooperate."
"I'm joining the Vees," Rosie said, "in preemptively refusing any plan that involves going into heaven. My people and I are always up for a scrap but we're nobody's attack dogs. And as you pointed out earlier, our best option is to fight from a position of defense."
The other overlords nodded and muttered in agreement: even Zeezi, who'd previously been very gung ho about the possibility of going on the offensive.
So much for that option, Odette thought. In truth, she and Clara were very open-minded about the possibility of using the other overlords' forces as cannon fodder to destroy as much of heaven as they could. Looks like there is no way for that to happen now. We might still be able to stalemate heaven into holding off the exterminations. It wouldn't be nearly as satisfying as burning heaven to the ground but I know mom would be proud that Clara and I took part in forcing heaven to negotiate with hell on equal footing.
"I'm going to hit the clubs now," Zeezi said. "Hearing that we now have a shot of fighting back against the exorcists makes me wanna go get fucked up: anyone wanna join me?"
Vox was the only one to agree and all the overlords left to get preparations for their counteroffensive underway.