Chapter Text
“—So I wouldn’t try performing spells you humans think are quite easy. Because in reality, to our view, it’s a more intermediate level.”
Aggie had listened for who knows how long to the Angel’s advice on spells good for her level for the time being. She had already learned how to do telekinesis and self-defense spells, but that was only when she had her violin. She wants to do things on her own, without assistance.
“Okay, and which one of these spells do you suggest practicing?” She asked curiously.
“Oh, My favorite practice was duplication! It’s a classic angel parlor trick.” Fingers replied “I’m really happy to talk about these sorts of topics. Whenever I try to talk about them, others would rarely listen in any way, but I really enjoy helping out anybody! Especially if it’s you at most.”
“Yeah, I have you to thank.” Aggie had a sudden thought and turned to Eddie, who’s still watching the monitors. “Hey, Eddie? What’s the time?”
“Uh, it is about 8:30pm.” Her eyes widened.
“Wait- 8:30?? Crap, I’m in it for Norma, now!” She got up from her chair, careful not to trip on anything, like the broken table still on the floor, as well as the rest of Finger’s body. “Uh, hey, thanks for the spell suggestions! I hope to get better, but later. See you guys after work!”
And with that, she closed the door behind her.
Now it was the Angels alone in the room again.
Finger’s smiled “She’s such a pleasant woman, don’t you agree?”
Eddie nodded “Mhm, she absolutely is. And that’s how it begins.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, honestly, when I first met her, I was gonna go back to my place. But she had such hospitality and was so kind that I couldn’t refuse her! I was in rough shape and she gave me a good scrub to make me look all neat again! It’d be rude to leave her after everything she gave, so in gratitude, I stayed.”
“So… what are you saying?”
“What I’m saying is that once you’ve met with her sweet emerald eyes, there’s no turning back from her or her kindness. Heck, I’ll bet five pieces you’re gonna melt later on.”
Fingers chuckled, amused of the cherub’s antics “Oh, you’re on bud-“
Suddenly the door slammed open as Norma and Courtney entered the room, scaring the lives of the two.
“FORGODSSAKE, STOP THAT!” Eddie swore.
“Edward! Language!” Fingers scowled.
“Oh, sorry sir- wait Edward?”
“Well, yeah? Eddie’s short for Edward, no?” The cherub shook no for an answer. Regardless, the hand turned back to the other two “Norma, Courtney, what are you two doing? Aren’t you supposed to be working?”
“Yeah, but we’ve got a demon problem.”
Alarmed by the mention of it, he brought the two inside and shut the door behind them.
“What kind of problem?”
After closing the door behind her, Aggie took a right and walked down the corridor, eager to get back to the lobby. She was still getting used to the new layout well, so she’s trying to recall at most.
A few more turns later, she came to an empty corridor that seemed to have only a few portraits, and a couple of vending machines.
“Well, this is stressful.” She muttered.
‘You don’t say…’
Aggie jumped at the sudden reply. She looked around for someone, or something, that answered her, but found no one.
“Wha?—“
‘You won’t find me within plain sight…’
Wait. That voice… couldn’t be…
‘Leo?’ She spoke, but only in her thoughts
‘Heh… not too hard to forget, huh?…’ The disembodied voice, Leo continued.
‘I— well, that name just came to me without me guessing. Wait, why are you talking to me all of a sudden? I thought you only appear in dreams?’
‘I don’t know… I can hear, but not much sight… but I can reach you regardless…’ Leo explained, as best as he could.
‘Okay… so is this some kind of Saint ability? Am I talking to the dead, or?…’
‘Honestly?… I don’t know what I am either…’ They awkwardly admitted.
“Excuse us, ma’am.” A new voice asked.
Aggie turned her head to meet a couple of guests. The guests she saw from before. The ones she ‘teleported’ away from.
Well, she’s not running away this time. “Oh, hello there! How can I help you?”
“Do you know where we can find the botanical gardens mentioned in the brochure?”
“Oh! Uh… yes! Just follow me and I’ll even show you our most beautiful, yet deadliest flora!” With a sweet smile spread onto her face, she led the two down the corridors.
‘Aggs… I don’t like the feeling of this… it’s like from before—‘
‘Hey, I may have run away from them once, but they’re guests! Besides, what are they doing wrong?’
Leo didn’t speak again, so Aggie pressed on forward, leading the two guests to the gardens.
Barney had finished delivering the last of the guests' luggage to their rooms, and with some free time, he retreated back downstairs to the lobby. Strange how Norma, nor Aggie were in their post, where the guests would check in. Badyah popped her head out from the staff only door, rolling a cart full of fresh towels and linen “Hey Barney, how are you?”
“Oh, hey Badyah. I’m doing fine, but my back and arms are gonna be sore in the morning.” He chuckled awkwardly “How about you?”
“Alright. If you wanna break from hauling rocks in bags, we can switch jobs.” She joked.
“Nah, nah, I’m fine with what I’m doing. Hey, have you seen Norma? Or Aggie?”
“Uh, nope, haven’t seen them. Strange though, I was looking for Norma about room inspection scheduling.”
“Huh, so where’d they—“ Barney felt something slam into his legs.
He turned around and saw his fluffy son on his back to the ground, carrying a book in his paws “Pugsley? What are you doing here? What’s wrong?”
The pug got back into his hind legs, but from running around non-stop, he was out of breath and trying to make a sentence “Huff…huff… A-Aggie… Danger… Timothy… demon…”
“Woah, Pugsley! Take it easy. Catch your breath first.” He steadied his dog as he took big breaths.
“What’s he saying?”
“I dunno! Something about Aggie in danger??” Just as he deduced, Timothy skidded around the corner, frantic as Pugsley.
“Barney! Badyah! Where’s my mistress???”
“I dunno where Agg’s is, and why are you guys asking?” Badyah asked.
Pugsley was able to answer after stealing his breaths “Because Aggie might be in danger and wehavetofindhernow!”
The two humans share a look of concern “Well… we don’t know for sure she’s in actual danger, but we’ll go looking for her, for her safety.”
“Good. I think I can sniff her out, but I’ll need something she uses frequently, like a hairbrush.”
“Oh, how about this?” Badyah reached into her pocket and pulled out a little crossword book. “Aggie left this in the kitchen and I almost put it in the laundry.”
“That’ll do.” He leaned forward and took a few whiffs of the crossword book.
He smelled Aggie’s scent, a kind of a sweet floral scent, like lavender. And overwhelming as well. He followed the scent around in the air until the compass had steadied its needle. “She’s in the gardens!” Pugsley deduced, almost taking off in an instant speed
Timothy managed to stop the pug before putting in some sense in him. “Okay, so we have her location, but we don’t know what’ll happen, what if they’re armed?”
“Yeah, what are we gonna do? Kick them out of the neutral plane if they do anything rash and dangerous?” Barney blurted out.
The cat looked away awkwardly.
Everybody looked at him in horror “Oh my god, we are.”
Aggie was fortunate enough to find her way to the gardens without wrong turns or dead ends, but so long as a guest was happy, she was happy. She led the two guests into the toxic flora section, showing off poison ivy to deadly nightshade to foxgloves.
“And right here, we have imported from across the Atlantic and Mediterranean seas, we have our delicate Oleanders! Even in its most beautiful petals, they are toxic to the touch.” Aggie showed off the pink flowers to the guests in the gardens, the night sky shining with its bedazzling stars, the moon curved into a smile.
“Yes. I’ve been meaning to see oleanders for myself, but they’re a rarity down there. About half 500 to get one of those.” The Iron maiden chimed calmly.
“Really? I’d think they’d suit your garden beautifully.”
“Oh, but not half as beautiful as the rarest of them all.”
Aggie co*cked her head curiously “Oh? Which flower?”
“Oh, I’ve heard rumors and whispers of it. Every demon has. The rarest is found only on one of the angelic planes, it brought serenity and peace among all, but it went into hiding after a division.”
“Oh… I hope it has the courage to shine itself again.”
“Well… when you put it like that.” The piercing glowing blue eyes shifted its gaze to behind Aggie.
Aggie wanted to turn around to see what was behind her, but she didn’t. She stood where she was, paralyzed. She wanted to leave the garden, get back to her job, but it was out of her reach. Not with a blade nearly pressed up to her neck.
“Not too tight, dear. We need her alive.” The guest spoke.
“Yes, ma’am.” The other guest spoke from behind.
Aggie paused for a moment ‘wait, I remember that voice…’
She felt chains begin to wrap around her tightly, like a boa constrictor squeezing life out of its prey before dinner. After securing the bonds tightly, the second guest pulled Aggie back and stared right at her with a haunting glare “Good to see you again, Saint.”
They took off their mask, revealing their face.
“Aw, f*ck.” Aggie muttered, recognizing that mess of pink hair anywhere.
“So how’ve you been?” Zagan asked.
“I’ve been better, and my head is fine, no thanks to you.”
“Well, not really my fault you fell down just to save one of your little friends.”
“Zagan, do not stray from our purpose in the neutral plane. Bring her here.”
Zagan groaned “Yes mom.” The vampire lifted Aggie from the ground, carrying her to the Iron maiden.
“Mom?! What do you mean ‘Mom?!’ ”
“Ah right, sorry for the improper introductions. St. Agatha, allow me to properly introduce you to the chieftain of Knowledge, Ruler of Doress, The De facto leader of the Four Demon kings—“
“Get on with it.” The two interrupted.
Zagan sighed “—Paimon, my mother.”
“Thank you, Zagan. So this is the famous Agatha Hallowes, hm? The new saint?”
Aggie slightly shifted her gaze away “Well… yes?” She half-smiled awkwardly.
“Then I must say that it’s a real pleasure to meet you in person. My Daughter had a lot to say about you, even if it’s little information.”
“Well, I don’t mean to tattle, but I’ve also heard she threw a tantrum about her last visit.” Aggie admitted, as she heard the vampire’s frustration behind her.
“GODDAMN THOSE CHERUBS!”
“Yes, there was that. But unfortunately, we don’t have the time to dilly-dally any longer. Let’s take a peek on what you’re really hiding. Zagan, the dagger.”
Aggie’s eyes furrowed ‘Hiding?’
Zagan smirked maliciously as she branded the blade in her hand. Aggie, with her rational phobia acting up, struggled and tried to keep a distance between her and the blade. But the vampire restrained her well and proceeded to press the blade into her cheek.
“Wai- wait, wait! Hold on! NO PLEASE!—“
A small, but piercing pain slid on her cheek.
SMACK!
Then, Aggie heard the familiar sound of someone getting smacked to the head by a foot. She looked around to see what had happened.
First she saw Zagan in the ground, grunting from the impact. Next thing she knew, she was further away from the two, surrounded by some of her friends. Norma, Courtney,they were here! Along with Eddie and Fingers.
“You alright, Aggs?” Courtney asked worriedly.
Aggie was still in shock from it all, unable to speak, but she nodded in reply
“PAIMON OF DORESS! You know fully well by the Divine Order that you, along with the other demon kings are not allowed up here in the neutral plane!” Aggie can hear the anger coming from the hand himself.
“Oh, but why the hostility? Don’t we have a right to greet a new Saint?” The iron maiden taunted the group.
“Not if you were about to cut her open!” Norma shouted back.
“Paimon, you and your daughter have 10 seconds to stand down, or we will use force.”
The demon king chuckled as she made metal clinks. The group watched as the iron maiden unsheathed her arms and legs from the metal coffin, branding two large dull hooks attached to more chains.
Aggie began to feel something warm running down her chin. She remembered the blade that was pressing into her face. They didn’t just— did they?
As Aggie went back into shock, the remaining group armed themselves with whatever tools they could find as Paimon swung the first hook towards them. Fortunately, they dodged it in time, and the group split up. Courtney and Norma kept Zagan busy, dodging every slash she threw at them, Eddie dragging the stunned Aggie away from the fight, still in her bounds, and Fingers getting into a frenzied fight with Paimon and her hooks.
“I’m surprised to see you working with the angels now,” Zagan glared at Courtney as she jabbed forward, Courtney dodging the blade “TRAITOR!”
“Maybe I wouldn’t have if you guys were nicer—“ Courtney swung a sign from the garden entrance into Zagan’s temple “—And you didn’t turn my friends into statues and KIDNAP MY FRIEND!”
Zagan gripped into Courtney’s tail and threw them towards the charging Norma, slamming the two into a hedge wall.
Meanwhile, Fingers deflected the iron Maiden’s hooks with his own spells “You’re just making this more and more difficult, Paimon! Do you really want to get on our bad side?”
Paimon grunted at the angelic hand “Do YOU want to get on our bad side? Your Saint and her sniveling friends had turned my son into a spineless pushover!”
“Ah, well at least he’s getting some sense for once!” Paimon shouted and managed to flung her hooks around his serpentine body, wrapping around and pulling forward, pinning the angel to the ground.
“How about I show you some REAL sense?” She raised the hook, ready to strike into where his heart supposedly was.
When suddenly, a flash of light rushed forward, blasting the iron maiden in impact. Paimon landed on the paved ground, skidding to a stop.
The group were stunned at the sudden blast and turned back to where it came from. They spotted the remaining group at the entrance, Barney holding Pugsley, Badyah blocking the entrance, and Timothy holding out his paw, a familiar black book on the ground.
“HOW MANY OF YOU DISGUSTING HUMANS ARE THERE?!” Zagan shouted, unaware of Norma charging again and shoving Zagan back, stumbling back until she toppled over her mother.
“About seven billion, so you’re gonna need a lot more hooks! Timmy, NOW!”
“Right!” Timothy’s paw began to form another spell, blinding everybody around “DEMON EXORCISM, A GO-GO!”
He cast the spell towards the two demon kings, banishing them back to the lower planes.
“You will regret this, humans!—“ Paimon’s last words reflected to the group as they disappeared, to god knows where.
Everybody recovered the battle, brushing off any pain, Some helping the hand out of the chains. Speaking of which, he turned to the cat, closing up the book in the process “You can do magic? How long have you had that book??”
“Well, since the demon invasion. I was gonna give it to Pugsley since he lost his powers, but I got a little piqued at the stuff inside it, and, AND! I thought I could use it for greater good, like protecting my mistress and helping out more.” Timothy explained as Fingers examined the book.
“I haven’t seen a book like this back up there… must be from the earlier era’s.” He gave the book back to Timothy “Uh, which other spells did you use?”
“Well, there was the Scrying spell, that’s how we found out about the demon kings, then that blast was a projectile assault spell, and—“ The feline suddenly let out a big yawn mid-sentence “ *yawn* sorry. I feel tired all of a sudden.”
Courtney chimed in “Well, you were using big time spells, so they take up a lot of energy for a newbie like you.”
The cat nodded and plopped to the ground, deflated and drained of mana.
Pugsley patted the cat’s shoulder blades “Yeah, we’ll need some learning.” The dog gasped in realization “Oh, wait! Can you teach us magic?? If you can?”
Fingers were slightly taken aback a bit, but seeing how the feline handled the situation and the two capable of magic, how hard can it be? “Uh, sure. You betcha.”
Suddenly, a thought came into everybody’s mind.
“AW CRAP, AGGIE!”
Everyone clamored to bluenette, now unshackled thanks to Eddie. But she was still in shock from the attack, clutching a clean cloth from nowhere onto her bleeding cheek. Everyone was asking if she was alright, but it wouldn’t work.
She was in too much to listen, shutting the noise outside from her mind.
The deafening silence in her head rang on.
As everybody checked on her, Fingers performed a spell on the gash on her cheek. Slowly, the blood seeping out retreated back to the wound, the cut slowly closing up. Her cheek was healed, and no scar left behind, as if it had never happened.
She still sat there in silence.
“Guy’s, I think we should get her inside.” Pugsley suggested.
“Yeah, but let’s keep a closer eye on her this time.” Norma turned to the others “Maybe one of you guys will stay with her? Until she recovers again?”
Courtney raised their arm, about to volunteer to help out their stunned friend, but Fingers beat them to it.
“I’ll take her back. You guys can… uhm, fix up the garden. I’ll get in touch with the Horde soon.” Fingers helped Aggie onto her legs and led her back into the building. The gang looked back on the garden, some stuff either destroyed or strewn about all over the place.
Norma began to itch into her hands “Uh, Courtney?”
“Yeah?” They too began to scratch into their skin.
“Where uh… where did Zagan throw us into?”
The two looked over at the hedge wall, with plants smushed up onto the ground and a broken sign laid down, saying ‘Poison Ivy! Do not touch!’
“…Crud.”
The metal clanks echoed down the corridors, then climbing itself up the stairs up to a throne room.
Beaten, Paimon and Zagan threw themselves into the room, scratched and bruised from the fight. A figure turned their back towards them, a man wearing a postal uniform, but the familiar haunting green eyes witnessed the familiar pair.
“What in Tartarus happened to you guys?” Temeluchus gasped, shocked at their rugged appearances.
“Your old vessel’s friends outnumbered us,” Zagan began to seeth in her fanged teeth “And what’s worse, they’re working for the Angels now!”
“While you were getting a new body in Maine.” Paimon followed up.
“I needed a new body quickly! I nearly ceased to exist the last time I went too long without one!”
“WHATEVER! With the angels patrolling the neutral plane now, it’ll be harder to get close to that girl now. This mission was a total bust!” Zagan nearly threw the still bloody blade from Aggie to the ground, but Paimon gripped her metal wrist, stopping her in the process.
“Is it, dear? We still have the Saint’s blood in the blade. Even if it’s a drop, our plans will still be on the track.”
“But we still can’t underestimate humans! Every demon won’t be unified, after what’s happened. We can’t create an army in order to conquer earth and the upper planes!”
“The demons were once unified, Zagan. It can be done again.” Paimon’s speech continued as she took the blade from her daughter’s hand “We will make them hate humanity. Hate will unite them all, and together, my girl, we will fly the flag of Coronator Tartarus’ in their world’s ashes!”
The Iron maiden rose her fist to the air, in a form of solution “For Tartarus!”
Moved by her mother’s speech, Zagan followed her mother in suit “For Tartarus!”
The pair glared at the other king, who hesitated in the moment.
He didn’t have the urge to hurt the friends he made from his time up there.
But he also knew he couldn’t disappoint his family.
They all took an oath together.
He raised his newly fleshed fist into the air, defeated.
“For Tartarus.”
