Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 445

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Alison de la Fuentes

The steel wire attached to my body's right arm glowed cherry red in my imagination and, with a steely twang, snapped. The dagger stopped as my arm was freed of Jezebel's control; Desiree forced the dagger away from her throat.

“Yes, fight!” Desiree encouraged. “I believe in you, mi Sirenita!”

I attacked the next cable.

*You fucking slut!* Jezebel roared at me. The blowtorch vanished from my astonished hands.

Fuck, she can control things, too. An imaginary wall appeared behind me, and manacles snaked out from the wall, snapping about my wrists. I focused all my will, and pictured myself free. The manacles wavered as we both concentrated—calm wisdom versus fiery youth.

*This is my goddamn body; get the fuck out of it!* I roared at her.

*Drive me out, little slut! *she taunted.

*I am a slut! His slut! And proud of it!*

The manacles vanished; I was free, and I fixed my gaze on her. Let's see how she likes to be bound! Adamantium manacles slammed onto her wrists and ankles. Stronger than steel, stronger than diamond. Nothing could break, melt, or destroy adamantium. It didn't matter that the substance wasn't real so long as I believed it!

*I did not endure endless torments in the Abyss to be beaten by a little trollop like you! *

Her will beat at mine, throwing every scrap of her indomitable personality against mine. The manacles wavered, turning into billowing smoke coiled about her limbs. I grit my metaphysical teeth, and bore down with all my angsty, teenage passion. *This is my body! I am Alison de la Fuentes! I am Mark and Mary's sex slave!* I advanced on her, my determination beating down her mind. *I am Their slut!*

Smoke solidified, chains rattled. Jezebel was caged.

*Save me, my love!* Jezebel howled. I imagined a bronze dagger gripped in my soul's hand. *You promised me, Lucifer!*

I stabbed Jezebel through the heart. Her soul gurgled as it started to dissolve into mist. *Didn't an eternity in Hell teach you to never trust a demon?* I gloated as she faded from my mind, exorcised from my body, and sent back to the Abyss to rot for eternity.

“Alison?” Desiree asked.

I was in control! I tossed the dagger down, and kissed my wife. The battle faded from both of us as we kissed, we cried, we held each other. “I fought for you,” I murmured between sweet kisses, her beautiful face lit by pulsating lights.

“Is this really the time for that, Alison?” Xiu shouted. “Get to some cover! It's Armageddon out here!”

I looked around. Trees crackled on fire, glowing clouds drifted through the air, gunfire barked from every direction. At the center, Master and Lucifer dueled and my heart sank. Master was losing, driven to his knees, barely dodging a blow that surely would have killed him.

“I am the Morning Star!” Lucifer bellowed. “Bow down to me, worship me, and I shall forget your transgression today.”

Master froze, facing Lucifer warily. Mistress strode out, fire dancing on her hand. “As if we'd ever serve such a foul, loathsome creature as you!” she shouted in defiance. “Slither back to Hell and leave the world to your betters!”

Red pulsated through Lucifer's pure, shining body like the mottling on a serpent's body. Light lanced out. Mistress tried to dodge out of the way. My heart stopped. An aurora was born as the beam dissolved her body into a glowing gas.

“Mary!” Master roared in loss, his sword falling from his grasp, transforming into golden motes. His knees buckled, and he collapsed to the ground.

I was too stunned for grief. I could only watch as my Mistress wafted away in the gentle breeze. She was as beautiful in death as she had been in life.

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Lucifer

Mark's cry of loss, of bitter anguish, sang in my ears, and I savored every last second of it.

Love. The mortal's great strength, and their great weakness.

He stared in horror at the billowing cloud of atoms that had once been his wife. Hope was dead in him. I strode forward; my victory complete. Across the world, my demonic captains—Asherah, Dagon, Chemosh, Astarte, Baal-zebub, Hadad, Marduk, Tammuz, Milcom, and Ashtoreth—would be bursting free of the Abyss. They would subdue these pathetic mortals, reminding them just why their ancestors had worshiped us. Feared us.

Loved us.

The fires of sacrifices would be lit— sweet and pleasing holocausts would again be made to us.

I looked down at Mark in disgust. To think the Creator had wanted me to bow down to such a weak, selfish, filthy beast as him and his ilk. He did not deserve to live! Not after he challenged me. I had promised him a long life. Well, a year-and-a-half was a lifetime for most insects. More than enough time for a disgusting worm like Mark. He could rot in the Abyss for all time with that cunt of his; after all I had another promise to uphold.

I raised up my flail.

Pain exploded in my back; a piercing agony that robbed my limbs of strength. I collapsed onto my knees, my flail slipping from my hand. Behind me stood Mary; a bronze dagger, gleaming with my blood, gripped in her hand. How? I killed the disgusting whore! I reduced her to the most elemental particles of creation! What had I missed?

Mark's sword appeared in his hands; I scrabbled for my dropped flail. The sword descended. No, I will not be defeated. I won. I am free of His prison! I grabbed my flail, and swung it with every last ounce of strength I possessed.

I am the Morning Star. I am the greatest and most beautiful being in all of creation! No-one shines brighter than me! I am not about to be defeated by this filthy insect!

Mark's sword severed my head.

I was falling, falling, falling into darkness.

I bellowed, cursing the heavens with every last scrap of my strength as I fell past the darkness and into fire. I appeared in the Abyss; upon my bronze throne in the City of Dis. Rage—burning as hot as the one that had consumed me the day Michael had defeated me and had me cast into this pit—filled me. I slammed my fist into the throne's armrest. I had been bested by a sniveling, cowardly, disgusting, filthy worm! A creature only fit to grovel in the muck before my radiance!

“My lord Lucifer,” purred a shadowy lemure, peaking its cowardly face around a column made of damned souls encased in bronze, each soul frozen in agony. “There's something...different about you.”

My raged filled me. I had been so close. I held out my hand, summoning my flail. My anger needed a release; my minions needed chastisement. Then I would rise back up, and tear Mark Glassner's body apart ligament by ligament.

“You seem...weaker, my Lord.” Hunger burned in the lemure's shadowy eyes. It crept closer to me, like a feral dog cautiously approaching a carcass.

My flail didn't appear.

More lemures slinked out of the shadows. And not just lemures prowled towards me; the fiery souls—those damned fools that I kept forever burning as their punishment for selling their souls—stalked towards me. I tried to summon my flail again, fear pounding inside me. I looked behind me; more souls, lemures, and demons stalked, drawn by the scent of my weakness.

Cold fell upon me. I was killed by a Priest sword—my powers were gone. Every gift I had ever been granted, every ounce of energy I had ever seized from my rivals, every last iota of the strength I had possessed since Creation itself was gone, stolen by Mark Glassner. I was as weak as an insect. As weak as a human.

The demons and souls and lemures swarmed me—all those millions that I had oppressed, tormented, and punished over the eons. All the millions that I had instructed in cruelties and torments so vile that even the worst of humanity would have blanched.

And they were all so eager to show me just how much they have learned.

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Mark Glassner

Mary shone with light—pure, unadulterated, beautiful.

The power from Lucifer burst through me, overflowing my soul and surging across the chains that bound me to Mary. We lit the night, driving back the darkness. There was so much power—Molech's was a mere swallow, Lilith's a small cup. What we drank from Lucifer was a river, a lake, an ocean.

Burning like a star, my wife came to me, and I embraced her, kissed her. Held her.

We beat the Devil. Lucifer. Satan.

Around us, dark figures gathered. Alison and Desiree clung to each other; whatever had possessed Alison was broken. Jessica walked between Xiu and Korina, hope shining in their eyes. Lillian's pierced face was wide with awe. Violet trembled with relief. April's glasses reflecting our power. And more gathered: 51 and her surviving bodyguards; Sam and Candy, their mouths open in disbelief; Willow and her nurses attending to the wounded.

“I can't believe that worked,” Mary stated, holding me tight.

I laughed. “Really? It was your plan.”

“What happened?” Alison asked, staring at us with a mix of joy and befuddlement.

We were shining as bright as the sun, but our light didn't hurt their gaze. I concentrated on this new power, on this control of light, and realized I was unconsciously protecting my loved ones. I dimmed it anyways; a moment later, Mary followed.

“We saw you die, mi Reina.”

“Did you?” Mary asked with a giggle.

“An illusion,” Sam realized. “The Ashan spell combined with the Nun's Cathar prayer to turn yourself invisible.”

“Yeah. I still can't believe that worked,” Mary answered. “He was so fixated on Mark, he didn't even hear me walk up behind him. My heart was pounding so loud in my chest, I thought for sure he could hear it.”

“He was arrogant and prideful,” I smiled, stroking my wife's face; pride for her burned inside me—I had married the most amazing woman. “He thought he had won. It never occurred to him that you could outsmart him. You saved us, Mare. You were wonderful!”

Mary smiled and blushed. “You weren't half-bad yourself.” She kissed me, and time seemed to stop for a moment as I held my wife.

Then reality crashed back in. Gunfire erupted off in the distance. The Legion soldiers guarding the perimeter were engaging something.

“What's happening?” Mary asked.

51 pulled out her radio. “51 to HQ, what's the sitrep at Bradley Park?”

“Spectres of unknown origin have been attacking our troops since the sun vanished,” a voice squawked back. “The Legion is holding. We're monitoring the local news feeds and, well, there is chaos across the world.”

“The prison was opened,” I realized. The price for Mary's life. Lucifer wasn't the only being to escape. He was just the most dangerous.

Mary gave me a penetrating stare. “We made our choice, Mark, now we'll have to clean up the mess.”

I chose love over the world—what a selfish bastard I am. I glanced at my wife, and knew I would make the same choice again.

“Summon General Brooks,” I ordered. “We have plans to make.”

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For seven days and seven nights, a shadow stained the Sun and blood painted the Moon. Terrors from mankind's darkest nightmares stalked the night. The Powers of Hell each set up their fiefdoms, and ruled their subjects with cruelty and malice. All of mankind cried out for deliverance, praying to their Living Gods. On that seventh day, our Merciful and Loving Gods descended upon Washington D.C., and there utterly destroyed the Power of Dagon the Foul. They held up his severed head, and drove the shadow from the Sun and the blood from the Moon. It was Their promise to all mankind—have hope, We are coming to free you.

–The Second Book of Vivian 1:23-27


To be continued...