Blasphemia II: Deus Vult Pt. 08

A satisfaction that was wiped off his face as Judith sliced his head off again. "What?" he said.

Judith twisted her body, snapping the bone sword off at the wrist and leaving it impaled in her belly. She felt no pain. Pain was nothing to her anymore. She ripped the blade free and incinerated it in golden fire, the wound on her abdomen healing in seconds. "I do not fear you," she said. "Not anymore."

Yog-Sothoth reattached his head again, then flexed his arms. Blades of bone extended from his forearms, dripping poisonous ichor. His body bucked an mutated, a massive eye opening up in the center of his chest. The pupil dilated to a slit, focusing on her. Judith stared back, her gaze impassive. "I shall rectify that."

"Heheh," a prone Filia snickered. "Rectify."

Judith exploded into motion at the same time Yog-Sothoth did, both of them meeting in the middle of the distance between them. The Holy Lance speared through Yog-Sothoth's midriff, and Judith wrenched it free as she went for another decapitating strike. Yog-Sothoth blocked it with a bone blade, then slashed at Judith with the other. She twisted her body to dodge the slashes, ripping the Lance free in a plume of gore. The spearhead whipped around and cracked the Before God across the jaw, shattering the lower half of his skull. Judith followed up with Celerity, flapping her wings to add force to the blow as she forced the sword through Yog-Sothoth's collarbone. Bone crunched under the blade as the point burst from his back.

Her being close put her in perfect striking range, and Yog-Sothoth gave as good as he got. The bone blades cut deep across her flesh, opening grievous wounds. The green acid coating them burned like hellfire as it ate into her muscles. Judith set her jaw and ripped Celerity free, going on the attack with sword and Lance. Yog-Sothoth met her strikes with the bone blades, and they went back and forth with devastating blows. The concussive force of their weapons meeting made the ground under their feet crack.

They leaned against one another, seeing who would break first. "It's surprising that you haven't been incinerated by the power flowing through you yet," Yog-Sothoth remarked.

"I am tempered by faith," Judith replied, matching the Before God's mortal form in strength.

Yog-Sothoth's eyes, both the ones in his head and the one on his chest - burned with hatred. "If you're so interesting in playing god, then let's fight as gods will."

Concussive force flared out from Yog-Sothoth's body, blasting Judith backwards off the platform into open air. Judith fell head over heels before remembering she had wings. They flared to stop her descent, and she flapped once to bring her up above the platform.

Yog-Sothoth was mutating rapidly, his body bulging and bursting like boiling lava as it rippled and flowed outward. Eyes formed and dissolved into the seething mass. Out of the corner of her eye, Judith saw a weakened Filia slowly dragging Luca away. Judith shot down like an incandescent comet, grabbing her allies and spiriting them away before Yog-Sothoth's expanding mass spilled over the edge of the platform.

"Love the new look, Jude," Filia muttered. "How the hell did you manage it?"

"Tell you later," Judith said, lofting down towards an untouched hunk of ground floating some distance away. She set the pair of them down, putting a gentle hand on Luca's forehead. "Is he...?"

"He tried fighting Yog-Sothoth with me," Filia said, lifting herself up on her hands and knees. "Took a bad shot to the gut. I used most of my power to heal him, which is why I haven't healed up my back yet." She grit her teeth, and her wounds slowly started to heal. "Keep him busy for five minutes, I can help you."

Judith nodded. "Done."

"Go get him." Filia's eyes flashed. "But save some for me."

Judith nodded again, then turned and took to the air again. In the few moments it had taken to secure Filia and Luca, Yog-Sothoth's mass had overtaken large chunks of the Vatican's structure. As she got closer, Judith heard masonry crack and crumble. Beyond it, the swirling vortex around the city had sped up to hurricane force, eyes opening and closing among the gale. Judith tightened her grip on Celerity and the Lance. She had no idea how to stop this beyond "hit Yog-Sothoth over and over until he stopped mutating." Her sword winked in the shifting light, and she remembered how they'd stopped Azagthoth. Destroy the center of the Before God, they would forget who they were and deconstruct. But where was Yog-Sothoth's center?

The Vatican came undone.

A keening roar rippled through the air as Yog-Sothoth pulled the sacred structure into pieces, the masonry fusing with his biomass into a massive monstrosity before her. Tendrils snapped and snaked through the air, studded with pieces of mortar and steel like barbed hooks on some deep sea monstrosity. They snaked back towards a pulsing core, which grew more and more layered with each passing moment. For a flicker of a second, Judith saw the still form of the Archbishop encased in it vanish into the sludge.

Judith readied herself, then charged with a flap of her wings towards her foe. One of the many tendrils shot towards her. At the last moment, Judith flipped upward, landing with both feet on the slimy mess of biomass. She kept going, ducking another tendril and slicing through a third with Celerity.

Chunks of masonry erupted from the mass under her feet, compacted into slivers no wider than needles. They sliced her to ribbons, knocking her off balance. Judith cursed as she fell, trailing blood from hundred of puncture wounds. Another tendril slammed into her back, pushing her down towards the ground at terminal velocity. Her spine shattered, though she felt no pain. Judith focused her power and let rip with a blast of golden fire, incinerating the tendril pushing her down. A few seconds later, her spine snapped back together, and she flared her wings out to catch the air mere yards from the ground. She levelled off and flew parallel to the ground, looking up to see what was coming next.

The answer was more tendrils snaking down to try to compact her into the ground beneath her. Judith strafed from side to side, doding the blows as they punched massive craters into the earth behind her. A disturbance of air made her cock her head. She changed directions on a dime, flying upwards as a massive rock smashed into the space she'd been headed for.

Celerity and the Lance flashed through the air around her, reducing tendrils to ash whenever they touched. Judith pivoted her body to and fro, finding minute gaps in the striking lengths to squeeze through. WHen multitudes of the tendrils laced together above her into a fleshy net, Judith held the Lance high and willed fire from the point. A column of golden light shot forth, burning a large hole for her to fly through. She streaked upward, right into the reinforced orb that encased the Archbishop's body. Judith lifted the point of the Lance and drove it in deep with all her strength, cracking the shell with the empowered weapon.

A pointed tendril speared her through the midriff, yanking her off the cocoon. "You thought it that easy, Templar?" Yog-Sothoth roared. The crack she'd made in the cocoon closed like a zipper had been drawn up it. The tendril in her belly ripped free, only to be replaced by two more that began pulling in opposite directions. Judith let go of her weapons, putting her hands on the tendrils and holding them still. All the immunity to pain in the world would do her no good if she was ripped in half. She flapped her wings desperately to try to find some leverage and escape, only to have another tendril punch through her chest and begin to pull her apart.

The rattle of chains signalled her salvation. With a shrill battle cry Filia entered the fray. The succubus was a whirlwind of hellfire and shadow chains, slicing the tendrils to ribbons to cut Judith free. Judith sprang off the flesh cocoon and let herself freefall, flapping her wings once to put more distance between her and Yog-Sothoth's appendages. She plucked Celerity and the Lance out of the air as she fell past them, her wounds healing at a slower pace than before. "Come on, just a little more," she muttered. She focused on her will again, and felt new strength fill her body.

More tendrils shot down to impale her, and Judith dodged them expertly, trying to find Filia among the chaos. The succubus sliced through a tendril to her side, flying close to her. "That flesh orb thing is what we need to crack open, right?" she asked.

"Aye!" Judith called. "But I have no idea how to get to the center if it can just heal up!"

"Remember the others!" Filia replied. She pivoted in midair, swinging her chains in a wide arc and slicing large pieces of several tentacles slithering towards her. Blasts of hellfire burst from her hands, incinerating the putrid flesh in midair as it fell. "The more we slice off and obliterate, the less matter he'll have at his disposal to regenerate! We just have to keep fighting and he'll run out of juice sooner or later!"

Judith cast a wide arc of fire out from the tip of the lance, setting several more of Yog-Sothoth's tendrils ablaze. Celerity flashed in the light as she sliced the burning meat to pieces. "Then work quickly!"

The two of them stuck close together, a mandala wheel of golden holy fire and scarlet hellfire. They ocellated around one another like comets stuck in synchronized orbit, weaving in and out of the web of tendrils. Speed was their advantage, and they leveraged it with gusto. Neither Judith or Filia stopped swinging their weapons, faces grim masks of concentration as they slashed and burned whatever they could get their hands on.

Judith drove the Lance into a tendril and vented fire through the tip, incinerating the flesh from the inside out. FIlia sliced it off as she streaked past, spinning like a buzzsaw and cutting more of the tentacles to ribbons. Judith let everything become abstract, letting her human combat instincts guide her empowered body. She began to recite psalms from memory in her mind to keep herself focused, feeling the words refine her inner focus and keep her strength from flattering.

"Tenacious pests!" Yog-Sothoth boomed. HIs voice emanated from somewhere high above them, near where...

"The cocoon!" FIlia yelled. Judith's head snapped up. The fleshy orb had begun to glow with sickly light. Lit from the inside, Judith could see something kicking within, like it was some kind of disgusting womb.

"Go, go!" Both of them shot upwards, firing powerful streams of power upwards at the cocoon. They impacted in the same area, holy power and hell's might blending together into a vortex that detonated against the cocoon's shell like a ballistic missile. As it did, a tremble ran through all the tendrils around them, the lengths of flesh going slack.

Judith came up to hover next to Filia, wings flapping in synch. The cocoon was obscured by a cloud of smoke. As they watched, large halves of the thing fell away like a broken egg shell. "Did we get it?" Filia wondered.

The smoke cleared, and Judith's heart sank. "No. We didn't."

From within the cocoon had emerged a new being. On a surface level, it looked like the Archbishop. However, its skin was pale green, and dotted with a myriad of eyes. Spikes of bone jutted from the skin like porcupine quills. In its hands, the new being held a facsimile of the Holy Lance, this one made of steel and bone. There were no eyes in its head, the sockets smoothed over as if they'd never existed at all. Wings of bone with vescera membranes flapped to keep it aloft on their level.

Yog-Sothoth's new vessel lifted a hand, and the world around them went white. The dark vortex that had surrounded Rome vanished like fire smoke, replaced by a solid wall of white light. Within the light opened eyes upon eyes, millions of them, all of them looking in on Judith and Filia, paralyzing them where they floated in midair. "Jude, are you seeing this shit?" Filia asked, her voice full of genuine terror.

"Regrettably, yes," Judith answered.

"I detest using vessels," Yog-Sothoth said, the lips of his vessel moving slowly. "The formlessness of pure thought is so much less constraining. But if I am to be rid of you, direct intervention is required. Once you have been dealt with, my real work can begin."

Judith and Filia looked at one another. "Last chance," the succubus said.

Judith nodded solemnly. She looked back to Yog-Sothoth, brandishing both her weapons. Beside her, Filia's chains clattered as the succubus readied herself for battle.

The three of them exploded into motion. Judith and Filia streaked through the air faster than the human eye could follow, their respective weapons clashing with Yog-Sothoth's lance. The crack of the meeting was like that of a mortar shell, both of them putting all their considerable power to bear behind the blows. Yog-Sothoth remained impassive, brushing them aside with a sweep of his arm. He gestured at Filia with his lance, like a general selecting artillery targets. Beams of dark green light shot from the wall of eyes all around them. The first several punched right through Filia before she realized what was happening. The succubus quickly recovered, diving down as her wounds healed and drawing the beams away from Judith.

Judith surged in, her weapons cracking against Yog-Sothoth's in a deadly vortex of steel. The vessel's face didn't shift at all, as if she were merely a nuisance rather than a threat. Judith pushed her power to the max, her speed increasing even further. Celerity and the Lance cleaved through Yog-Sothoth's neck and waist, and she flipped in midair to bat his head away from the rest of his body.

Flesh tendrils burst from the severed parts almost instantly, making the vessel whole again in moments. Judith snarled and kept going. Fire trailed from her body as she moved, a golden mote of light against the harsh white background. Dimly, she heard Filia cursing as the succubus struggled to avoid the light beams.

The observation cost her. An entire building hit her full force, knocking her head over heels through the air. Judith righted herself just in time for a column to drill her in the torso, knocking her towards the ground. Her wings flared to catch her fall as she hit the ground hard. SHe looked up in time to see more buildings falling at her. A quick flap of her wings moved her out of the way.

Filia crash-landed next to her just as the buildings shook the ground with their impact. The succubus punched the ground once in frustration, picking herself up as the smoking holes in her wings healed. "This is really starting to piss me off," she seethed. "How in the world do we kill something this powerful?"

The ground rumbled as Yog-Sothoth landed near them. He strode towards them slowly, without a care in the world. He levelled his lance at them, and above them, Judith saw sigils appear in front of the eyes. Another barrage of light lasers. She wracked her brain. Yog-Sothoth's power was near infinite. They could keep fighting him, but all that would do would make them easy prey.

As she thought, a wink of light drew her eye. One of the buildings Yog-Sothoth had thrown at them had been a church, and the impact of it on the ground had made the wall crumble. Within the structure, Judith saw a crucifix on the wall. A symbol of sacrifice. A symbol of salvation.

Judith squared her shoulders. "We nail ourselves to the cross."

Before Filia's strangled "huh?" had left the succubi's mouth, Judith had flapped her wings, charging right at Yog-Sothoth.

The vessel simply lifted the lance, and Judith's momentum impaled her on the weapon through the side. It hurt. A lot. But it put her right where she wanted to be. Judith reached out with a trembling hand towards the vessel. Her bloody fingers left dark marks on the thing's skin as she touched it.

"And what," Yog-Sothoth said slowly, "did you hope to accomplish?"

"I am more human than human," Judith coughed, blood flecking her chin as she slowly crossed the vessel with her bloody fingers. "I am Nephilim. I am both of Heaven and of Hell. By my nature, I hold both sides inside of myself." Her hands closed around the vessel's lance as she dragged herself closer. "The soul within your body may be that of some ancient deity. But what is the flesh of your body made from?"

Her fingers dug into the vessel's skin just as all of the eyes on its body widened. "No!" Yog-Sothoth screamed.

"The flesh of the faithful!" Judith found the lingering motes of faith that existed within the vessel's flesh, and willed them all to life.

Yog-Sothoth bucked and writhed, every eye on the vessel's body bursting at once. "Impossible!" he screamed, desperately trying to wrench Judith off him.

"God's will be done!" Judith cried.

Then, she pushed every mote of her power into the vessel's body, finding the faith lingering in the flesh and willing it to burn. It responded, the matter shuddering before bursting alight with holy flame. Deep within the vessel's physical being, Judith felt a familiar presence touch back. Well done, Judith.

Thank you, Archbishop.

Yog-Sothoth let out a keening wail. Then his vessel's body exploded in a column of fire that seared towards the heavens. It slammed into one of the gazing eyes far above, causing the surface to boil before it burst with another loud scream. Then another came, and another, as a chain reaction rippled through the immortal's being. One by one, the eyes vanished, and with them went the wall of white, the barrier dropping like a curtain. The light flowed like water down around them, all of it rushing back into Yog-Sothoth's vessel as it ballooned further and further. The lance through Judith's midriff vanished, but she held on, forcing the vessel to its knees. Buildings crashed down around them as Yog-Sothoth's power keeping them aloft vanished.

Eventually, all that was left was a large, bloated vessel, utterly useless to the Before God. "This is not the end," Yog-Sothoth seethed, his voice hissing in her ears. "I know not how you did this, but when next I take form I will-"

"Filia, shut this piece of shit up," Judith commanded.

The succubus leaped high in the air, holding her hands over her head. "With gusto!"

Hellfire flared in her palms, then grew and grew until it was a ball of roiling flames the size of a cathedral. Judith flapped her wings once, shooting away from the crippled vessel. Filia grinned wide, then dropped her arms and sent the ball flying at the mass of putrid flesh. Yog-Sothoth had time for only one last furious roar before the ball of hellfire slammed into him.

The meeting of supercharged holy power and hellish might caused a devastating blast, powerful enough to knock Judith off her feet despite the distance she'd put between herself and ground zero. She was blasted backwards through one last wall, coming to rest on the altar of a church. Her power broke, the glow fading from her skin and her wings vanishing into motes of light that floated up and away from her. As she reached out to grab them, she shielded her eyes from the sun shining through a hole in the church ceiling.

Then she blinked. The sun.

It had only been a few days since she'd seen it last, but it felt like months. Judith sat up, breathing heavily as the glow touched her pale skin and warmed it. She looked down - the hole in her gut had healed through. All was well.

"Judith!"

Filia tackled Judith to the ground, her eyes frantic. "Are you okay? Any lasting damage? How many fingers am I holding up?" The succubi's tail lashed like a snake. Was she actually worried?

"I'm fine," Judith said, touching Filia's face gently. "Is it...is it really over?"