/// IN THE SINKING FIELDS, IN THE THRONE ROOM OF PANGINOON TUPAS’ INVERTED ZIGGURAT

“Ragat, Bagat!” screamed Panginoon Tupas from behind his throne, his voice quivering and shaking. Susanna presumed that he was pertaining to the two giants. “Get her! Get her and bring her to hell!”

“Jenna, quick. Get them out of here. I don’t know how long I’ll be able to hold them off.”

“Can’t you beat them, Ate Susanna?” asked Gala, pouting.

Susanna shook her head. “Their Gahum burns strong, and I cannot fell foes with Brother Owl’s skill and ease.”

“You talk like him now too,” said Jenna, carrying Jaime.

“Shut up,” said Susanna, readying herself into a fighting stance. She pulled her necklace from her neck again, and then kissed it. A multitude of swords suddenly crowned her, covering her, embracing her, as if her wings, as if her peacock tail-feathers.

The one with one eye announced himself. “I am RAGAT, THE PILLARSHAKER.”

And then the one with the carabao head--that’s a sarangay, Susanna thought--followed soon after. “I am BAGAT, THE GORER OF DIVINITIES.”

Their names hung in the air, acknowledged by reality. Susanna took a deep breath and then pointed her sword at them. The rest of the swords which crowned her all pointed forward as well. “I AM SUSANNA GRACE CABANGISAN SANTA MARIA, AND I AM THE EMPRESS OF SWORDS!”

Bagat and Ragat charged forward, screaming. Bagat brought with him a jewel-studded baton, while Ragat brought with him a gigantic kampilan, ready to sunder entire pillars in two. Susanna breathed, flexed her Gahum, and sent the swords against the enemy. “Peerless Sword Empress Kasiningan:「TEN THOUSAND SWORD CROWN」!”

Ragat took charge suddenly, turning around and then taking all the swords straight onto his back without moving an inch. After all the swords that Susanna had sent out were impaled onto the giant’s back, he straightened and then flexed his body, and the swords all fell to the floor, useless.

And then Ragat was over him and upon Susanna, bejeweled baton swinging quickly, in short quick strikes, trained. She managed to dodge two, but the third one struck her hip, and she felt her Kalasag work. The burning barrier-aura of her Gahum burned red. But one could see, in the area where she had been struck, cracks spider-webbed upon her spiritual shield.

“Shit.”

And then a kick, sending Susanna flying to a wall. With a flex of Gahum, she flipped and landed on the wall on her feet. She stuck there for a few more moments, before letting go of her Gahum and landing on the ground.

Jenna and Gala were both making headway, they were both standing before the elevator with Jenna carrying both Jaime and Esther, and Gala helping Angela move about.

Just a little more. Susanna turned and ran forward, using her Sword-Soul technique again to control the swords now all lying about on the floor. It was Ragat attacking now, they were attacking in sequence, in turns, one after another, Susanna noticed.

As Ragat was upon her, she dove to the right, and as she was in mid-air, pulled all the swords on Ragat’s left towards Ragat’s body with her sword-soul. The swords pierced flesh, and as she pulled upon the swords, the swords that were already impaled upon Ragat’s body pulled her toward the huge beast.

She had prepared for this, and she split her mind. This is the strength and skill that can be achieved with sufficient practice of the Peerless Sword Empress Art. She controlled the swords on her side to her feet. Using the pull from the lodged swords, she impaled Ragat’s right side this time, and she stepped upon that blade now buried onto his right chest to send it further inside. Ragat was pincushioned.

“Ya! What do you think yer doin’! AAA!” And there went Tupas again, his tantrums burning up into a fever pitch.

Ragat couldn’t speak as the wounds overwhelmed him, paralyzing him for the time being. However Bagat was upon her, suddenly. Susanna pushed herself off of the being, flipped, and then fell on the floor, only to meet Bagat’s goring horns. Susanna’s Kalasag shattered into nothingness as it failed to completely resist the horrible goring horns of the sarangay. The horns pierced into her stomach, and then Bagat brought her all the way to the wall, impaling her there.

She couldn’t make a sound. The numbing pain was great.

She impaled swords into Bagat, who flinched and wavered. Susanna used that opening to push Bagat off of her by pushing on the wall behind her and pushing Bagat away with her legs. She fell to the ground then, blood bubbling from the wound. She winced, but used some of her Gahum to keep herself in top form. Hinga was flowing, but it was slow.

Not yet. She looked behind her, and she saw that the elevator had taken her friends up already. She had done her job.

She looked before her, and she saw the two giants moving once again, seemingly unfazed by her attacks. Now it was just a matter of wondering if she would be able to get out of here alive.

Would she?

Tupas stepped off of his throne.

“You useless louts! I’ll deal with her myself. Come here, my pretty, you feisty little thing.”

“Don’t come near me, you disgusting pervert,” snarled Susanna.

Tupas managed a moan. “Oh! That’s exactly what I want! I want you to STEP on me, like the useless disgusting pervert that I am! Please, oh please! Come, come and dominate me, and I won’t even rip your face off.”

“Fuck you.”

“OH! Oh, so feisty.” Tupas got near. “I’m sorry but I have to make you FOLLOW WHAT I WANT first before you can dominate me.” Tupas stopped before her, that disgusting blue demon wrapped in an azure brimstone carapace. He rolled up his sleeves. He pulled his fist back-- “TELL ME YOU’LL INSULT ME!” --and his fist connected with Susanna’s face. The little bit of Gahum still left in her managed to keep her alive, managed to prevent her neck from snapping from the force, but the blow of Tupas’ fist sent her slamming into the throne room wall once again.

As she slid down, ten foot long nails pierced her wrists, her ankles, and her shoulders, keeping her up on the wall. Susanna writhed, pain bursting at every corner of her body, filling her. Her vision grew dim.

“Tell me you’ll insult me,” said Tupas, floating up to her and lifting her head with only his mind. “Tell me you’ll make me into your little bitch, please. Tell me you’ll impale me on my throne every night and wait for me to regrow every morning. Oh, the thought of dying at your hands fills me with utter glee. I’m so HOT right now, FUCK.”

Susanna spat at Tupas’ face. “Go fuck yourself.” Another last command of her Sword-Soul, and the swords that were left behind blurred, all suddenly snapping and then impaling Tupas. Ten, hundreds, thousands of these swords, suddenly penetrating Tupas from behind, destroying his brimstone carapace. “Peerless Sword Empress Kasiningan:「TEN THOUSAND SWORD CROWN」.” Her voice was barely a whisper when she announced herself to the universe.

Her vision dimmed. “Ah FUCKER,” Tupas screeched, his Cold Breath soul seeping out from the sword wounds. “FUCKERFUCKERFUCKER. I’m going to fucking murder you. We should’ve had a SAFE WORD.”

Tupas lifted his hand and conjured power. “You may be a disciple of the Peerless Sword Princess Style, but none can break me. None can exceed the Blue Demon. I can manipulate matter that can erase your very existence from the face of GOD.” Black energy crumbled, and then gathered at his palm, little motes of annihilating force. When the energy had turned into a ball, he grasped it, and it split, elongating and turning into a burning, violent spear.

“To Kawalan with you! Blue Demon Style:「GOD-ERASING PENETRATION!」” And the spear hurtled. Susanna shut her eyes, willing now to embrace darkness.

Brother Owl shot straight down the ziggurat, destroying every layer until they reached the inverted throne room. He crashed from the ceiling, leaped from his cloud chariot, and in a single invisible word, cut both giants in twain. Their corpses did not last long, their corpses did not even stay. It frayed, dissipated, vanished into the wind.

He landed on the floor, and so did Jonathan and Mattheo as well. Their eyes widened when they saw who it was on the far side of the room. “Is that, Susanna?”

“Tupas.” And Brother Owl pulled Panginoon Tupas back and onto the floor before him.

“Ah, the fucking mendicant priest. Go to hell.”

Brother Owl narrowed his eyes, looking down on the brimstone demon who was leaking the Cold Breath. Severely damaged, not a lot can do that.

“Brother Owl! Susanna is--”

Brother Owl glanced up, and saw Susanna impaled by black needles to the wall, with a huge black spear straight through her heart.

Brother Owl gazed down on the devil once again. “You killed a young woman.”

“A Bayani,” said Tupas. “One who wouldn’t follow what I said! Wait why do you care anyway? It’s not like you cared when I killed and enslaved seven thousand other Gahum users.”

“You’ve overstepped, Panginoon Tupas,” said Brother Owl, and then there was that wind again. But this time wind was an underwhelming term to describe it. It was more like a tempest. A storm. A hurricane.

“And who are you to tell me what to do? I only like girls doing it, I’m not some faggot.”

“Devil!” Brother Owl’s voice reverberated, and the wind whipped his hair. His entire ambivalent appearance suddenly shifted, changed. His eyes burned indigo, and so did his hair. His skin blazed white. “I name thee: Defiler! Destroyer! Unclean! Breaker of the Hatred of God! Fall into the void whence ye came! Or better yet, come to never have existed at all!”

“Waitwaitwaitwaitwait--”

Brother Owl took a single step back--his feet had stuck to the ground now, both Jonathan and Mattheo noticed (who were now grabbing on to whatever pillar or thing was on the floor so that they wouldn’t get stripped away from the growing hurricane)--”I absolve you of your sins, through annihilation! 「ALL-KNOWING KWAGO KASININGAN: SILVER SPARROW SLICES THE UNIVERSE!」”

The growing hurricane stopped, fused, sheathed, and then unsheathed into a single spirit-thin cut, and then bisected Tupas in two, and then those two were bisected into four, and then those four bisected, and again and again and again until even the tiniest motes could not be seen, until even the spirit had been CUT, slashed, sliced, and rent in two.

Brother Owl had vanished, as if he had become the cut.

The entire ziggurat shook, and behind Brother Owl, a white cut materialized… and then the ziggurat--which was underground--was rent in two, bisected down vertically.

Mattheo and Jonathan leapt over the rend and immediately went up to Susanna. Jonathan reached up and pulled the black spears and javelins that had pincushioned Susanna.

Mattheo caught Susanna as she fell to the ground. “Susanna!” Mattheo shook Susanna, trying to wake her, but her eyes were shut, her skin was pale, and no blood spilled from any orifice.

Brother Owl materialized behind them, and said: “Her Gahum is snuffed out.”

And it was true. And it was so.

/// SOMEWHERE IN PARAISO, BEHIND AN OCCULTATION

Yewon awoke again, and now she stood before a giant man wearing a suit that barely fit him, and that same horse-headed creature again. She could move now, and her hands and feet weren’t chained to the floor. She was wrapped in a white garment, a raiment of robes and flowers.

“Ah, you’re awake,” the horse-headed creature said, leering at her from behind his ruby spectacles. What a strange sight, seeing a horse wear spectacles. It was like a strange mix of horse and man. “I do sincerely apologize for this mishap, I did not take into account the strange… procedures of my employ.”

Yewon swallowed. Her throat wasn’t dry. In fact, she felt as if she had just awoken from an amazing nap. “Where… am I? Where’s my friends? Where’s--”

“You must calm down, milady.”

“Milady? I’m… I’m not a milady! I’m just some high school girl from San Lazaro.”

“And I get that,” said the horse-headed man. There was a young and beautiful girl who walked up to Yewon then, bringing with her a wooden platter filled with food. She set it upon a table beside her throne. “Eat, for you must regain your strength. Soon, you will understand who you are.”

“No, I don’t like this. What are you? Where am I? Are you aliens?”

The giant was standing with their arms crossing their chest.

“It will take some time to digest, so please do eat first. If you would like some coffee or tea, we have that as well.”

“I don’t want that--” and her stomach rumbled. Her body answered her question for her. She sighed.

“Mga Alagad? Please set up a dining table for us. We have to bond over food and questions.”

“Wait, who are you first, and why did you kidnap me? Abduct me? Where are my friends.”

“I shall indulge you with answers to your preliminary questions,” said the horse-headed creature. “For I know that this will only satiate your thirst for answers. Firstly, you friends are safe. We have certain divinities protecting them. Secondly, I am Kinain ang Tala, but you may call me Kinain. Things shall be easier that way. Finally, we abducted you because of your destiny, because of your prophecy.”

“Prophecy?”

“The prophecy is recited as thus: There will come a time, when God is dead and Heaven has fallen, to false gods and idols and saints, that darkness will be inevitable. However, within a nothing universe, there will come a being, there will come a creature, so powerful, so ambitious, so filled with that terrible want, so burning with 666 rebellions, that they will displace the Trinity from their heretic thrones, ascend the Angel’s Ladder, and become the ruler of all creation And his name will be terrible. His name will be…”

/// AT THE TOP OF THE SWORD OF CREATION, UPON WHICH BATALA’S BODY IS IMPALED, THE NINE ARCHONS CONGREGATE

There they sit/stand/float around a triangular dais, upon which there is nothing, nothing but the bones of their conquest.

By the head, a man wearing a colorful cloak made of the feathers of an Adarna, over a black steel plate armor, raised his cross-sword. Hari Juan, 1st Archon of Kastilo Magalo, preceded the meeting. “I know you are all gathered here today due to the whisperings and ramblings of the madmen by the corners of the streets.”

“You know we come here because of a larger reason, Hari Juan,” arose a man wearing nothing but large prayer beads about his scarred, ripped body, and large billowing pants with a black sash about it. His entire right arm was sheathed in the bones of his victims. Shogun Soleiman, 3rd Archon of Shinseina Yurei. “That blasted Death Prophecy, by the dead God.”

“Only the dead would care about the dead,” spoke another woman, wearing a black suit and tie get up, which strained over her muscles and voluptuous frame. Her eyes burned with blue light, and her head was crowned by a halo of thorn-rays. Duchess Anne, 3rd Archon of Merigoa Magalosson. “Nothing can rise up to our power, much less the sheer strength of the Trinity. You are afraid of nothing.”

“And the Dead have many truths to say,” spoke a man wearing what looked like samurai armor. No, in fact, it looked like it was ONLY samurai armor, with a shadowy soul living within it, animating it. It was gigantic, with pistons and gears running on trapped, wailing souls. Shogun Hachiman Tojo, 1st Archon of Shinseina Yurei. “For only the living must lie. The Dead Prophecy is one that brings with it power, and all of us know that power only begets power, and power only begrudges power.”

“We have eliminated most sources of Gahum-users in this entire multiverse,” spoke a huge lion with an emaciated scaled body and the wings of a griffon (with feathers replaced by blades and jewels). Imperyo Felipe, the 3rd Archon of Kastilo Magalo. “There is no other place that we cannot have lost.”

A huge talking statue moved. It was built like a gigantic tree, with the head of a buffalo. It was a he, and he wielded the terrible Axe that Could Cut the Tree of Life. Duke Senesca, 1st Archon of Merigoa Magalosson. “We are not omniscient, Imperyo Felipe.”

“Neither are we impotent!”

“But Pride begets the fall. Let us mobilize our Apostles, seek out any Gahum-User that still lives, so that they cannot feed their flame and conquer the gods.”

“All for the sake of our Most Holy Trinity,” said the blue globe beside the buffalo statue. Duke Zaragoza, 2nd Archon of Merigoa Magalosson. “I agree. Let us not take precautions.”

“We shall mobilize soon,” spoke a woman shaped like a fox, with 999 tails, and with the voice of a woman running through the snow. Tenno Jingu, 2nd Archon of Shinseina Yurei. “For we have received words that there are some Panginoons that are beginning to be displaced.”

“So?” spoke a grand woman, permanently placed atop a huge parade float, surrounded by flowers and trees and white ivories. Never to be displaced, never to be unnamed. Reyna Elena, 2nd Archon of Kastilo Magalo. “Panginoons are displaced all the time.”

“The largest things begin with the smallest of nothings,” spoke Tenno Jingu. “Our Apostles mobilize as we speak. It is time to nip the plant by the bud, before it can grow into a spore that will choke us all. And so I decree, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”

And all the nine repeated in her chanting, three times each, and in each time, they spoke the unknowable name of the…

“...Twilight Devil Emperor.”