"Ugh...this place stinks, and there is supposedly a sect of the church of the deep down here? No wonder nobody wanted to come down here and stop them if it smells so bad. Being down here makes me want to vomit." Is what Swire was thinking to herself as she was moving through the dirty waters of the sewers of Laterano. Rhodes Island, or more specifically the doctor, had arranged an audience with the pope to discuss why Rhodes Island was here in Laterano.
The doctor explained to the religious leader that they were here looking for the church of the deep. The pope told the doctor that over the past several weeks, several members of the public had disappeared, and he believed that the church of the deep was responsible for the disappearances. He also told the doctor that he believed that a sect of the church of the deep was hiding somewhere in the sewers, but he didn't want to risk sending people down there in case they walked into a trap.
The doctor told the pope that he would head down to the sewers along with several operators, not just to look for the missing people, but also to destroy the church of the deep possibly hiding in the sewers. Once the doctor finished his meeting with the pope the man returned to Rhodes Island to inform the abyssal hunters, the LGD trio, and Shirayuki that they were heading into the sewers to look for the church of the deep.
Ch'en was chomping at the bit when she heard this news. The blue-haired lung was desperate for revenge against her future daughter's killers. The doctor wanted revenge as well but told his partner to be careful and to follow his orders. He didn't want another loved one to die at the hands of the cult.
As the Rhodes Island operators were walking through the murky waters, they had not come across any church of the deep cultists. The only thing they were battling against was the horrific smell. The group was in a formation around the doctor, Hoshiguma and Specter were at the front, behind them were Ch'en and Skadi either side of the doctor, then it was Swire and Gladiia, and finally at the rear were Shirayuki and Andreana. While everyone was occupied fighting against the smell, Gladiia had her eyes firmly on Skadi.
The aegir leader could see Skadi was using this opportunity to try to get closer to the doctor, "She has ignored my order, Skadi won't leave the doctor alone. And Madam Ch'en is right next to them. If she sees this, it will only cause problems between the two of them." Gladiia wanted to speak immediately to tell Skadi to stop her antics, but that would also draw Ch'en's attention to what was going on. The last thing Gladiia wanted was infighting in the group, especially during a potentially life-threatening situation. Gladiia hoped that they would get an opportunity for a break so she could pull Skadi to one side and demand that she stop her behaviour.
Unfortunately for Gladiia, while looking across towards the doctor, Ch'en caught sight of something that she really didn't like. Skadi was trying to hold the arm of the doctor. The man kept pulling his arm away from the aegir, but Skadi didn't seem to take the hint that the doctor wasn't interested. Skadi kept trying to do this a few more times until eventually the blue-haired lung had enough. Ch'en marched on over to the pair and as Skadi was trying to grab the doctor again, as the aegir was trying to catch hold of the doctor her arm was suddenly stopped by Ch'en. Skadi looked at Ch'en and the aegir could see a very displeased look on the lungs face, "What are you doing, Skadi? Can't you see the doctor wants to be left alone." Ch'en told the aegir with a very firm voice, she wasn't happy with what the aegir was doing.
Skadi was annoyed with Ch'en getting in the way, "For your information Ch'en, I am the doctors bodyguard. It is my duty to protect him, I don't appreciate you getting in the way of my duty, Ch'en Hui-Chieh." The aegir said to the lung, annoyance clearly present in her voice. This answer didn't sit well with Ch'en, by the way Skadi was trying to latch onto the doctor, the lung had a sneaking suspicion that the aegirs motives were more than acting as a bodyguard, Ch'en called Skadi out on this, "Well Skadi, a bodyguard doesn't just try to latch on to the person that they are trying to protect. They certainly don't keep trying either, don't think I haven't noticed Skadi. I saw you keep trying to grab the doctors arm, and every time, he pulled it away. He doesn't want you to keep doing this, isn't that right, doctor?" Ch'en then turned to the doctor when she asked her question.
The man was about to answer that he agreed with Ch'en, that he didn't want Skadi to keep trying to grab his arm. Skadi, however, spoke up before he could speak, "And how do you know what he wants Ch'en? I think he would want someone who can protect him, not someone who failed to protect his daughter from getting killed. You failed Yua as a mother." Skadi told Ch'en with a hint of venom in her voice.
When Skadi mentioned Yua, the entire team stopped moving, none of them could believe what the aegir just said. The doctor also couldn't believe what Skadi said either. He was about to lose his temper with the aegir for mentioning his deceased daughter. Ch'en however beat the doctor to it, the lung began to furiously shout at the aegir, "How dare you say that! How dare you mention Yua! Who do you think you are! Don't you ever say her name ever again!" Ch'en was beyond angry at this point. She was about to attack the aegir.
Skadi, however, decided to push the blue-haired lungs' buttons further. She wasn't intimidated by Ch'en at all, "You failed Yua. You let her die. You couldn't do you job of watching over her. It's as simple as that." Skadi told the enraged lung. This pushed Ch'en over the edge. The lung tried to lunge towards Skadi, but everyone else in the vicinity got between the pair to prevent them from coming to blows. Ch'en was cursing Skadi in her native tongue, calling her every derogatory term that she knew. Skadi replied in kind. She was also insulting Ch'en as the two were pulled apart.
After much struggling, the two were separated by everyone else and given some distance between each other to cool off. The doctor first went over to Ch'en. He could see his partner shaking with fury. Ch'en noticed the doctor had come over to her and began ranting at him, "How dare Skadi say what she did! She doesn't know what we have been through since Yua died! I'm angry, doctor! She has no right to mention her name and say that I failed her! Skadi can't get away with this doctor!" The lung carried on ranting. She was still incensed by the aegirs comments.
The doctor gently put his hands on Ch'en's shoulders to get her attention, when the blue-haired lung looked at him the doctor began to speak, "I know Ch'en, trust me, I'm angry too. You are right, Skadi has no right to speak about Yua the way that she did. I'm going to give her a piece of my mind. She isn't going to get away with what she said." The man told his partner. The doctor then looked at Hoshiguma, Swire, and Shirayuki and told them to stay with Ch'en while he went and spoke with Skadi. He also told the trio to try to calm her down and to not let her do anything reckless. The trio replied that they would do as he asked. Once the man was satisfied, he went over towards Skadi and the other abyssal hunters. While walking over towards them, the doctor could clearly hear Skadi being lambasted by the rest of her comrades.
The other abyssal hunters noticed the doctor approaching and decided to leave Skadi at the hands of the doctor. Before she herself left Skadi on her own Gladiia decided to talk to the doctor, "My apologies for my comrades behaviour doctor, what she did mentioning the daughter of yourself and Madam Ch'en was cold, callous, and uncalled for. I hope this doesn't cause friction between myself and the other abyssal hunters with yourself and Madam Ch'en. I accept whatever punishment you deem is satisfactory for Skadi." The aegir said to the man while bowing her head, Gladiia was appalled by Skadi's actions. "It's no fault of yours, Gladiia, and rest assured that myself and Ch'en hold no ill will towards yourself, Specter, or Andreana regarding this matter." The doctor responded to the aegir.
Gladiia was relieved that the man in front of her did not hold this against herself or the others except Skadi. The leader of the abyssal hunters raised her head and then quickly turned it towards Skadi behind her. Gladiia gave her comrade a disapproving look before heading off to join the other two abyssal hunters. This left Skadi alone with the doctor.
The aegir could see that the doctor was upset, she tried to talk to the man but the doctor didn't want to hear anything that she had to say, "How dare you bring up what happened to Yua! You have no idea what Ch'en has been through since she died! What I've been through since she died! Don't you ever try to use Yua's death against Ch'en ever again, Skadi! Mark my words! You ever tarnish my daughters name or try to rub her death in Ch'en's face ever again you won't have to worry about her Skadi! You will have to worry about me! Is that clear?!" The doctor warned Skadi about the consequences about using Yua's death for any reason or using her name in vain.
Skadi knew what the doctor was capable of, but the future aegir wasn't worried in the slightest. She believed her power alone was more than a match for the doctors' tactical prowess. The future Skadi only felt the smallest semblance of remorse, not because she used Yua's death to hurt Ch'en. If anything, Skadi was happy she did that. Skadi was only remorseful because she had hurt the doctor. There was no other reason why.
"I understand doctor, I...apologise. I promise you, your daughter's name shall never leave my lips again for any of the wrong reasons. You have my word, doctor." The future Skadi said to the man. In truth, the future aegir wanted to rub it in to Ch'en's face more, to shout at the blue-haired lung that she was Yua's killer. That, however, would only make her an enemy of the man she loved, Skadi didn't want to risk the doctor turning against her. Exploiting Yua's death to hurt Ch'en had been very dangerous at this moment in time no matter how satisfying it was. The future aegir knew she had to be more careful from now on, anymore incidents like this and others would begin to get suspicious of who she really was, if they weren't suspicious of her already.
After the doctor had spoken to Skadi, he needed to calm down. The man knew that he could make a tactical mistake if his mind was clouded with rage. The doctor told all the other operators to take a break and that they would resume the mission soon. When the man had taken sufficient time to bring his emotions under control, he told everyone to get back in formation. However, he told Skadi and Gladiia to be at the rear. He didn't want to look at the aegir at this moment in time, and he also hoped Gladiia would keep her under control. This meant that Swire took the original place of Skadi and Andreana, and Shirayuki moved forward in front of Skadi and Gladiia.
While at the rear, the future aegir could see Ch'en next to the doctor, and this infuriated her to no end. The future Skadi believed that she was the only one who was worthy enough to stand at the doctors side, not the blue-haired lung. Skadi, however, knew that it was her own fault that she was not at the doctors side right now. She was also internally cursing his dead daughter, "Damn you, Yua! Even though you are no longer alive, you are still getting in my way! I wish I could remove you from existence completely! Your soul itself wouldn't be able to escape my wrath if I had the power to do so!" Skadi wanted to destroy Yua's very soul if she had the power. That power, however, was beyond her reach, and so was the soul of the lung she had murdered. Skadi vowed to enter the afterlife and destroy Yua if she ever obtained that power.
The group kept going through the sewers until they entered a large chamber with a large pool in the centre and liquid dripping from above them. When they looked up at the ceiling, all of them saw a horrific sight. It was a sight so horrific that it caused Swire to throw up, and Hoshiguma and Ch'en nearly did the same. The abyssal hunters weren't as fazed as they had seen similar sights like this before. Hanging from the ceiling were numerous dead bodies, bodies of different races, but mostly the corpses of sankta's. "I'm guessing they are all the people that have gone missing. What on Terra did the church of the deep do to them? And why are they hanging from the ceiling? And where is the church of the deep? I've got a bad feeling about this." The doctor had a horrible feeling that they needed to get out of here, he was about to order everyone to retreat but a voice called out to them, "Well, the heretics have decided to grace us with their presence!" the voice shouted.
Everyone from Rhodes Island looked around and saw what looked like a member of the church of the deep dressed in well decorated robes. The doctor guessed that this man was someone of high standing in the organisation. Behind him were several other members of the cult. Upon seeing the church of the deep Ch'en immediately drew her weapon and began charging towards them. Hoshiguma, however, stopped the lung before she managed to get too far away, "Let me go, Hoshiguma!" Ch'en screamed at her friend. "Stop it Ch'en! It's too dangerous! You don't know what they have planned! I know you want revenge! But I'm not letting you get yourself killed!" Hoshiguma screamed back.
Upon seeing the blue-haired lung, the high ranking member of the cult spoke in her direction, which drew her attention, "Ah! If it isn't one of the interlopers our god told us about! Your spawn tried to interfere with our gods plans! Plans for a perfect world! Well, our god disposed of that retched filth! And you will suffer the same fate! You are not leaving here alive!" the man shouted at the blue-haired lung. The man then looked at the huge pool in front of him and shouted again, "Rise from your slumber, our gods child! Remove these heretics so our god can bring their perfect world!" seconds later, something huge burst from the pool, sending water everywhere. When the water had cleared, what the operators from Rhodes Island saw sent chills down their spines. A huge serpentine creature had risen from the depths of the pool and was looking at all of the operators in front of it.
The creature let out a huge primal roar that shook the entire chamber and caused the corpses that were hanging from the ceiling to fall into the water below. "Everyone! Spread out! Shirayuki! Andreana! Start laying down some fire!" The doctor barked out. Everyone did as the man ordered and started to put distance between each other, and Shirayuki and Andreana started to attack the creature as they were moving. Seeing that the group from Rhodes Island were occupied with the monster they had summoned the church of the deep cultists decided to leave the area, they believed that the creature that had been summoned would kill all the operators, so they thought there would be no reason for them to remain here. They would carry on the plans of their god.
The serpentine beast looked at all of it's prey and its eyes settled on Skadi. She would be its first meal. The future aegir however wasn't afraid of the monster staring her down. Instead of fear, she had a grin on her face. "Kill Ch'en Hui-Chieh my Kin! Tear her apart and the rest of these vermin! Spare the doctor! Carry out my will my child!" Skadi telepathically ordered the beast in front of her.
The huge serpent then turned it's gaze away from Skadi and began looking for the blue-haired lung when it caught sight of Ch'en the creature immediately lunged for her. "Ch'en! Get out of the way!" the doctor screamed. Ch'en could see the beast coming and narrowly managed to avoid the attack in time. Looking at where the beast lunged, everyone could see a huge crater in the wall of the chamber. The lung knew if she didn't avoid that attack, she more than likely would have been crushed to death.
Gladiia and the others attacked the huge serpent but were not inflicting any significant damage to it, it's thick scales were protecting it from harm. "Doctor! We need a plan to take this thing down! Do you have any ideas?!" The aegir leader shouted towards the man. The doctor surveyed the situation and could see the serpent was focusing most of it's attention on Ch'en, it didn't try to attack the others unless they were annoying it too much.
The doctor focused on the snake to try to find a weak point. Eventually, the doctor could see that it's head wasn't as well protected as the rest of its body. "Ch'en! Try to draw it's attention! Make it crash into the wall! Gladiia! Swire! When the opportunity arises, use your weapons and hold this thing in place! Specter! Skadi! Use your strength and help Gladiia and Swire hold this thing down! Hoshiguma! When this snake is held down, I want you to throw Ch'en onto it's head! That's it's weak point!" The doctor barked out his plan to everyone in the chamber.
Ch'en didn't want to be used as bait just like before at the Copper Coast but trusted her partners plan. She attacked and drew the beasts attention. The snake just as before lunged at the blue-haired lung, but Ch'en avoided the attack again. The snake had hit the wall just as before, this is when Swire and Gladiia got into position and used their weapons to hold the beast down. Specter and Skadi then got into position to help with containing the beast.
The future Skadi didn't want to have to help kill her kin, "I'm sorry, my child. Know that your sacrifice will not be in vain. I promise you these vermin will die. Rest easy." The future aegir telepathically communicated to the snake. The beast knew that it was about to die and tried lashing out to free itself, but to no avail, it was being held down well in place. Now, seeing the opportunity to defeat this monster Ch'en looked towards Hoshiguma, who had her shield in place as if it was a springboard. The lung ran towards the oni, and when her feet were in the shield, Hoshiguma flung Ch'en towards the head of the snake.
Now on top of its head Ch'en had her sword at the ready, the lung then brought her sword down and pierced the snakes skull. The serpent felt a huge shock of pain in its head and tried to lash out again, but it couldn't move with everyone holding it down. Seeing that it was still alive, the blue-haired lung brought her sword down several times into the snakes skull. Ch'en kept doing this until it stopped moving, and she was sure the serpent was dead. When everyone was certain that the creature was dead, all of them let go, and Ch'en jumped down from the head. "Is everyone okay?" the doctor asked the group as he approached them. Everyone replied that they were fine.
"Good, I know some of you won't be happy to hear this, but my plan is to return to speak to the pope and then return to the landship. We don't know what else could be here if we carry on. The church of the deep could have other monstrosities waiting for us, and even I think we won't be able to deal with them. I'll ask the pope for any available help, I also need to inform him of the fates of the missing citizens. We can also rest at the landship, and I can plan our next move. Does anyone have any objections?" the man asked everyone around him.
Ch'en wanted to object but knew that the doctor was right. The church of the deep could have other monsters under their control waiting to kill them so the blue-haired lung held her tongue. When the doctor didn't get ant objections, he ordered everyone to head back to the landship. He needed to process everything that had happened today. The man also wanted some space from Skadi. He was still angry with her with what the aegir said to his partner regarding Yua. He couldn't forgive her at the moment. It would take some time to begin to forgive the aegirs comments. He didn't know how long that would take for him...
Later on in the evening, everyone returned to the landship. The doctor had managed to speak to the pope and inform him of everything that had happened and that they found the missing citizens. The man explained that the citizens were dead by the time his team had arrived. He also told the pope about the monster that his team had fought. This caused the religious leader to inform the army and police to begin patrolling the streets in greater numbers. The pope also told the doctor that Laterano's special forces would be under the doctors command if he needed any extra help in fighting the church of the deep. The doctor thanked the pope for the help and then returned to the landship to begin thinking of a new plan to fight the cult.
On top of the landship, a lone figure was contemplating everything that had happened today. It was Gladiia. The aegir leader was sorting through her thoughts. Gladiia knew that the church of the deep had many abominations under their control, the serpent they fought today being proof of that. What Gladiia was thinking most about was Skadi and the priest they ran into before he disappeared. "Skadi, I can't believe that she blamed Madam Ch'en for Yua's death. That was uncalled for. But that priest...what did he mean by saying that our god has disposed of her?" the aegir pondered.
Gladiia thought long and hard about what he meant. After some time, a chill began to run through the entirety of Gladiia's body, "No! He can't mean that! Was he trying to say...Ishar-Mla has taken over Skadi? And that she killed Yua! By all the gods! If that is true...she needs to be stopped! She could kill everyone! I have to kill her before that happens!" The blood in Gladiia's veins completely turned to ice when she connected the dots. The aegir was about to look for Skadi and kill her before Skadi brought untold destruction to Terra. The aegir turned around, and when she did, Gladiia began to feel fear when she saw someone had joined her on the roof. It was her comrade, Skadi.
Skadi looked at her comrade and could see something had changed about her. The future aegir could guess what it was, "Well, I guess you know the truth? Don't you, Gladiia?" she asked while staring in Gladiia's soul. Gladiia didn't respond. She simply drew her weapon and got into a fighting stance. The aegir leader knew she was about to be in for the fight of her life, and she couldn't fail. If she did, the whole of Terra would fall at Skadi's hands...