Magical Girl Exorcist Squad: Descent Into Hell, Act II

Hello, lovelies! Been a minute since we last caught up with the squad! Things got hectic for my personal and financial life, and I dealt with some severe burnout and writer’s block around this chapter. That said, we’re back in business, and I’m hoping to update this story at least once a month until the conclusion of ‘Honor Thy Mother.’

A few quick announcements:

I have paperbacks! Specifically, “Love During Robot Fighting Time” and “A Dream of Summer Rain” are now available in available in paperback and ebook format via Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DBVTS3RV

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DGGMS1Z2

In addition, the first book of the MaGES saga, “Love Thy Enemy” is currently being prepped for a new paperback and ebook release! I’m working on editing and revising the story, including the three previously released bonus chapters (one of which will be worked into the body of the main story) and at least one brand new one as well! It will be the definitive version of Love Thy Enemy going forward, and I’m hoping to have it out by October!

Thank you so much for sticking with me through all this! Now back to your favorite manic magical girl shenanigans!

***

Nicole raised a barrier of Pink Energy as Hell rushed in. Dozens of hellhounds all surged towards her, and were held at bay only by the shaking wall of power she’d cobbled together. Iris sent her own energy wave towards the ruptured wall and reassembled it, barring the entry of ever more monsters, but it burst again within seconds. “Iris, take my hand!”

“No,” Iris said. “Fuck that. I’m going down swinging.”

“Iris,” Nicole said as the hellhounds closed in on them, “Just listen to me for once!”

Iris grabbed her hand, and the two of them channeled the Holy Light together, conjuring a surge of power that shot forth like a tidal wave that turned the onslaught of demon dogs to ashes. 

“Holy shit!” Iris said. 

“Language, kiddo, honestly,” Nicole said. 

A parade of flaming skeletons, human and dragon and hound and swine alike, marched towards them, forcing Nicole and Iris to conjure another wave. And then another, and another, and another, all while Nicole’s legs became heavier and heavier, her chest screaming for breath, her heart throbbing from overuse. 

“How’s it going back there?” Nicole shouted to Amy and Matt. 

“Almost got her!” Amy said. 

Nicole wanted to look back, but she didn’t need to. She could FEEL her demon’s desperation, her agony, her yearning for freedom. They were so close. So close-

The ice shattered, and her demon breathed in the acrid air and coughed. 

Nicole gave one final push of Light, she and Iris screaming as they fought off a pack of multi-legged mutant crab monsters, when finally, relief came. 

Iris collapsed onto her knees, heaving for breath, her fingers drawing into a fist and leaving marks in the ashy floor. Nicole patted her younger sister’s back, fighting off a brutal dizzy spell herself, but turning around to face her other sister. 

She looked just like Nicole, more or less. Same golden blonde hair, same ocean-blue eyes, same tall and toned body, same heart-shaped face. There were differences, though: her demon was much paler than she was, lacking the remnants of a summer tan and the scattering of freckles that Nicole had. She had a scar on her neck, a thin, red vertical slash that went from her collar up to her chin on the right-hand side of her body. And there was simply a different presence about her, a coltish trepidation regarding her first steps into the material world. Perhaps Nicole herself had shared that at one time, but it was a distant memory now. 

“You came for me,” her demon said, pain and relief and sheer exhaustion exuding from her every word, her every fiber, her every twitch and step and blink. 

“Of course I did,” Nicole said. “We’re family.”

“Damn right,” Iris said. 

“Iris,” her demon said. “You’re… You’re Iris. You’re my- I’m you’re- oh Blue Blazes, this is all so much to take in, I just-”

Iris simply lunged forward and hugged the demon, and Nicole did the same. “You’ll need a name,” Nicole whispered. 

“A name,” the demon said. “My own name.”

“Do you want to pick one for yourself?” Iris asked. “Or do you want Mom and Dad to do that for you?”

“Mom and Dad,” the demon blinked. “Oh gosh. I… I have a-”

“Hey, guys, this is lovely and all, but we kinda have a situation going on outside, and we should probably round everyone up and make ourselves real scarce real fast,” Amy said. 

“Right,” the three Nygaards said all at once. 

“So, how do we find Cass?” Matt asked. 

Nicole drew a long, deep breath. “I think we’re gonna have go out-”

Another wave of demons, hellhounds and rotting corpses riddled with nails and burning skeletons and massive worms with fang-ridden maws all charging through the hole in the castle wall. Iris channeled her Hot Pink Light, but she looked ready to fall over. Nicole wasn’t in much better shape herself. Matt raised his chainsaw, and Amy brought Holy Light into her fists-

-Only for a behemoth to stampede from behind them and destroy a swath of monsters with a single swipe of its massive sword, screaming all the while. Moloch fought like a madman and howled at the hordes of Watchers’ army. 

When it was done, the giant turned and faced Nicole and the others. “We meet again, Warrior.”

***

Heather felt a whooshing sensation come over her, grabbing her by the arms and yanking her away in a flurry of wind and vertigo. She tumbled about, Astra breaking free of her grasp as they were deposited on the roof of the castle. 

When the blackened world stopped spinning, she saw an unfamiliar figure pinning Astra to the ground with a katana. For a moment, she thought it was Gabriel: the man had the same lithe build, the same long, straight black hair, the same skin tone. But it couldn’t have been him: this man was older by at least a decade, and he was burning with Hellfire. 

“You. Killed. Phoebe,” the demon growled. 

“Yeah, I did,” Astra snapped. “What are you gonna do about it, Beelzebub? You were always such a whiner, I can’t possibly believe you’ll actually go through with it. So what are you waiting for?”

“I’m sorry, but who the fuck are you?” Debbi said, rising to her feet and conjuring fresh energy staves. They flickered, but remained. Nicole was getting tired, but there was still a spark of her power-up left in the both of them. 

“My name is Beelzebub,” the young man said. “ArchDevil of Pride. And this fucking bitch killed my daughter.”

“She wasn’t your daughter, you idiot,” Astra spat. 

“And you’re qualified to judge that why, exactly?” Beelzebub said. “You’re no mother.”

Another gust of wind, this one streaked with gold and white, slammed past Heather. She nearly managed to extend her arm in time for a clothesline, but she didn’t quite make it. When the streak faded, Gabriel stood before them, pressing the tip of his rapier to Beelzebub’s throat while Astra slowly bled to death on the floor below them. “And you’re hardly a father, so maybe don’t cast aspersions.”

“Gabe?!” Heather said. “What the hell are you doing in Hell? How did you get here?! When did you get here?!”

“I slipped through a crack in Nicole’s door before it closed,” Gabe said. 

“That’s two of those questions answered,” Debbi said, “What about the first one?”

Gabriel sighed, and said, “I had to see my dear old dad.”

Beelzebub smirked. “Is that right?”

Dad. He was… They were… What the fuck?! “Look, Gabe, I can appreciate what you’re getting at… Kind of… Okay, not really, this is all a lot going on right now and we’re dealing with a bunch of different things,” Heather said. “But if you could just let us take care of Astra-”

“Heather, no!” Debbi said.

“Heather, yes!” Beelzebub laughed. 

“Actually, no,” Gabriel said. “For one simple reason: for someone like Astra, being human is a fate way worse than death.”

Heather lowered her fists as the implications of that sunk in, heavy in her chest and hard on her heart. She blinked, breathed in the stench of sulfur and fear. This monster… This woman, she didn’t want any of what she’d been given. Hundreds of opportunities to be someone else, someone other than a monster, and she’d spat on each one of them. Heather still wanted to feel Astra’s bones snap under her knuckles, still wanted to beat a fraction of the pain and humiliation she’d inflicted back into her. “Fuck,” Heather spat.

“You seeing reason now?” Debbi asked. 

“Don’t push it,” Heather said. “We still need to talk about this, but right now we should focus on getting out of here.”

“Hm, yeah, that doesn’t really work for me,” Beelzebub said. 

“Dad, for fuck’s sake,” Gabriel said. “Look around you? Do you really think this will solve anything? This place is about to get destroyed! You’ve been barely holding on by a thread for decades, and you’re being destroyed on all sides by enemies within and without! Do you really think this is anything other than the time to cut your losses and walk away?”

Beelzebub seemed to register the choir of explosions and death sounding below. He lowered his sword, calmed his flames. “Fine. Let’s just-” 

“Oh for crying out loud! Just kill me already!” Astra said. “Just fucking end me! How have I not done enough to warrant it?! How in the fuck do you still keep not killing me! I’m literally a monster!”

“No, you’re not,” Debbi said. “You’re only human. I don’t think you’ve ever really been a monster. Just a person. You want to be a monster because then there’s no consequences. Well this is it. Welcome to consequences.”

Astra grinded her teeth and howled, lunging for Beelzebub. 

Heather moved first, punching Astra in the knee and feeling it shatter. Astra screamed, and Heather felt the tug of her soul holding back the punch to the former ArchDevil’s face. She fell unconscious, and Heather propped her up over her back. 

It took every last ounce of strength not to throw her to the monsters below. 

“Any objections?” Heather said. “Because I’m really looking for an excuse right now.”

“No,” Beelzebub said. “You’re right, this is worse for her. And unless we figure something out, this whole place is gonna fall into the abyss.”

***

Amy’s Hellfire exploded out of her, a pike of incandescent rage bursting out of her hands and burning with the chemical fumes of her own sins. She felt every toxin in her body igniting and clamoring for release, every ugly thought she’d ever had fuel for the obsidian conflagration. It came easier here, in the center of Damnation itself, as if the simple proximity of her diabolical heritage was enough to amplify its hideous strength. Everything about this place and everyone in it made her sick to her stomach, and she needed to get out of here as soon as possible. She stepped in front of Nicole and her sisters, forming a wall before the behemoth demon that had nearly felled them when last they met. “Not one inch further,” Amy hissed, her flames growing hotter and blacker with each wroth syllable she uttered. She needed to get out of here, and she needed to bring everyone back with her before this place… Did anything to any of them that couldn’t be undone. 

“You need not fear me, cambion,” Moloch said, his booming voice carrying its own echo. “I come only to parley.”

“Bullshit,” Amy snarled. 

“Lilith and Astra have both committed the sin I cannot tolerate, or have endeavored to do so in such a way I cannot tolerate any moreso.”

“And what’s that?”

“Filicide,” Moloch said. “I will not stand for it. And that means I will not stand with either of them.”

“That’s… Okay, fair enough,” Amy said before clenching her jaw. 

“What do you want?” Nicole said, visibly struggling to keep herself and Iris and her demon aloft. 

“To keep Hell from being destroyed. You know the risks as well as I: if Pandemonium falls, so does Hell, and without Hell-”

“All the world’s evil comes spilling out onto the earth, we know,” Amy said.

“I mean, I didn’t know that part,” Iris said. 

“Hush,” Nicole said. “So how do we stop it? Even with all of us, I don’t like our odds against an army that size. We came here for a rescue mission; we’re not prepared to fight an entire war.”

“And nor will you be,” said another figure, a tall, slender demon with long hair and armed with a katana. Next to him stood… Gabriel?! The heck was he doing here? And why was Heather carrying Astra unconscious and over her shoulder?

“Beelzebub,” Moloch said, “You’ve reunited with your son?”

“I’m sorry, what now?” Amy said, pointing her Hellfire towards Gabriel.

“M-Mr. Gabriel? You’ve been working with them?!” Matt said, contempt and disbelief dripping from his words. 

“I absolutely have not been working with them!” Gabriel said incredulously. 

“Then what are you doing here?!” Amy said. 

“Because I didn’t want to come here with you guys on a doomed mission!” Gabriel said. “I came here to steal the remainder of Belial’s dragon eggs! To take them back to Earth and try to rehabilitate them. That’s all I’ve ever been after. But storming Pandemonium is a losing game, and I couldn’t jeopardize my mission, but I’d have to be a complete asshole to abandon you all now. So I came to shadow you guys in case you needed my help. And then I had to help my idiot father here not waste time on in-fighting while this whole place gets destroyed.”

“Is he for real?” Amy said, squinting at Matt

“Near as I can tell,” Matt said. 

“Also, Astra is human now,” Heather said, tossing Amy’s biological mother into a heap on the floor. “Mr. Free Agent convinced us that the punishment fits the crime on that one.”

Amy glared at her mother, at the monster who she’d crawled out of, who’d given her everything she hated about herself. She longed to purge Astra from existence entirely, burn away her shame and watch the smoke get lost in the Infernal Engine. She longed to-

“Okay, look, I’d love some more exposition as much as anyone, but we really need to find Cass and Winona and get out of here,” Debbi said. 

“Agreed,” Nicole, Iris, and Matt all said at once. 

“Now she says something reasonable,” Heather muttered. 

“Don’t start,” Debbi glared. 

“Well that’s not a good sign,” Amy said. Everyone looked at her as she realized she’d said that aloud. She shook her head, closing her eyes. When she opened them, Astra was still there, but… But her little sister was still out THERE. “I- forget it. You’re right, you’re right. We need to stay on task.”

“So you’re just gonna bounce and let Hell get blown up?” Beelzebub said. “Not very superheroic, don’t you think? Or very Christian, for that matter.”

A part of Amy- a very large, very loud part- wanted to say something to the effect of ‘why the heck shouldn’t we?’ But she bit it back and shook her head again. “He’s also right. Dammit.”

“Agreed,” Heather said. “Our jobs are difficult enough without Hell geysering up from below the earth. This place can’t get destroyed.”

“I can fix it if it’s destroyed,” Iris pointed out. “Getting destroyed isn’t the problem. The problem is the army outside that could kill me and all of us before that happened. And I’m… I’m running on fumes here, I don’t know how many times I can reconstitute a whole freaking castle.”

“Then what do we do? If we fall back, we’re doomed. If we stay, we’re doomed,” Amy said. 

“I… Hold on, no, that’s insane,” Nicole said. 

“Babe, we are so far past the threshold of sanity that I don’t think it’s possible for an idea to be too crazy anymore,” Amy said.

“What if we MOVE the castle,” Nicole said with an exhausted smile. 

Amy looked at her, silently, unyielding. “That might be too crazy.”

“No, it’s not,” Debbi said, eyes widening. 

“Care to share with the rest of the class?” Heather monotoned. God, of all the times for them to have a lover’s spat- 

“No, it is too crazy,” Gabriel interjected. “There’s a one-way exit outta this place at the very top of the pit, sure, but it’s way too narrow to fit a building through it.”

“We don’t need that,” Debbi shook her head. “Do we, Nicole?”

“Not if our ride home works on the same principles as the rest of our powers,” Nicole said. She turned to her demon and said, “We’re supposed to be able to open a doorway back to my anchor point on earth- Boston, specifically- once you and I are together. The one here was the size of a regular doorway, but our powers are amplified when we are all linked together and I’m able to create a feedback loop with my healing powers. MAYBE if we do that while we re-open the doorway, we can make it big enough to take Pandemonium with us.”

“The likelihood of that working is… Microscopic,” Moloch said.

“Do you have a better idea?” Nicole asked.

Everyone stood silent. Amy took a deep breath, ignoring her shame at how good and sweet the soot-rich air felt in her lungs, and held Nicole’s hands. It was a crazy plan. But it was Nicole’s kind of crazy. It was the kind of crazy, the kind of radical idealism and desire to make the world better without having to abandon morality that had made Amy… 

That made her fall in love with Nicole in the first place. 

Amy stifled a gasp at the realization, but as the echo of the thought sounded inside the cavity of her skull, she couldn’t deny how right it felt, how good, how it seemed to make a confusing world click into place and give her a place in it that she was comfortable with. Yeah. Amy loved Nicole. Maybe it was crazy to feel that much this quickly, but everything else about their life together was already crazy. “Let’s do it,” Amy said, beaming with pride and affection.

“Okay,” Gabriel rolled his eyes. “Sure. Why not. Just so we’re clear, though: if we go out there right now, we’re not avoiding a fight. We’re gonna have to push them back at least enough to buy us the time to get out of here.”

“Then so be it,” Debbi said. 

“Someone should stand guard here, though,” Heather said, gesturing to Astra. “In case mommy dearest wakes up.”

“I’ll do it,” Iris said. “My powers are the least useful in combat, and I should be here anyway to keep this place from crumbling.”

“Okay,” Nicole nodded. She looked to her demon and said, “Stay with her. Keep each other safe. I don’t want you anywhere near Lilith.”

“A-alright,” her demon said. 

“Okay then, boys and girls,” Debbi said, cracking her neck. “Let’s go to work.”

***

Cass flew amidst storms of fire and meteors and bone-arrows as she sped towards the castle. Had to get there before everyone died, had to save everyone. There was a rot in her stomach, festering shame and regret over what she’d done to Winona, but if she really had to choose between her former enemy and her friends and family… Then it wasn’t really a choice at all. 

Naturally, that was when Winona came flying past her again. She was in angelic form, humming with Light that made it difficult to look at her, and she crashed onto the ground with a deafening thud. Cass looked back and saw the Hellfire-wreathed form of Lilith being thrown across the sky as well, landing in the same spot. The fuck… 

Cass’ eyes bugged out when she saw a stampede of angels flying towards her. They bugged out even more when she saw a man leaping across Hell in a single bound, resplendent in navy blue armor and pulling back a white-glowing claymore. And he was on a direct collision course with Cass.

“Mierda!” Cass shouted, narrowly arcing out of the way of the Magical Boy’s slash. There was something familiar about him, she noted as he fell to the ground. The red hair and the delicate features and the- Oh. OH NO.

In her shock, she didn’t register an angelic blue energy bolt coming towards her. It knocked her off her broomstick, and she tumbled through the air while crying out in howling pain. It was like being beaten with a mallet over her entire body, every joint and bone and muscle throbbing with agony that choked out all other thought and awareness. She only barely registered the ground coming up to meet her, only barely registered… 

Only barely registered Matt catching her once again. 

She shoved aside the jubilation at being princess-carried by him and grabbed his lapel. “Matt,” Cass said. “You should know-”

“I see him,” Matt growled. The rest of the team was behind them, sans Iris, while Lilith had slithered off somewhere once again. Gabriel was here now for some reason, and so were two other demons she didn’t recognize. 

Matt set her down, and she gritted her teeth and remained on her feet while the rest of the team came up and stood beside her. 

“Mike,” Matt said, “what’s  going on here?! Why are you doing this?!”

“I could ask you the same question, little brother,” Mike Callahan said, resting his blade over his shoulders. “You’re consorting with demons now?”

“Pfft, like you haven’t done the same,” Gabriel said. 

“Not knowingly,” Mike replied. “Gabe, I know things ended badly for us, but dragging my brother into this mess isn’t something I can condone.”

“But apparently trying to fuck the cosmic balance to death with your giant glowing phallic object is ay-okay though,” Cass spat. “Pretty sure that would’ve hurt Matt at some point. Just saying.”

The rogue angels floated above the rogue Magical Boy, their Light hot and all-consuming. “And who are you?” Mike growled.

“My girlfriend,” Matt said. 

Mike cocked an eyebrow. “Really? Her? C’mon, little bro, you can do better than that.”

Cass bunched her fists. Suddenly, the pain didn’t seem nearly as bad. 

Matt said, “Mike, I don’t know what happened to you, I don’t know why you’re doing this, but you have to realize that this is going too far.”

“On the contrary, Matt, you have to know that you can’t stop me. You have to know that you shouldn’t try if you want to stay standing.”

“Jesus Christ, man, that’s your little brother!” Debbi snapped. 

Mike opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off by the booming tones of a Watcher. “Dragonslayer, we have not the time or the patience for these trivialities. You will fight with us, will you not?”

“Until my dying breath,” Mike answered. 

“You son of a bitch,” Matt whispered. “YOU SON OF A FUCKING BITCH!”

“I’d ask if you were aware of the irony of calling me that, but you were never the brightest, so perhaps not,” Mike sneered. “Come on, then. Let’s go.”

He didn’t give Matt time to answer. He just screamed and charged at him, sword in hand. Matt, for his part, exploded towards the brother he’d idolized, the brother he thought he’d failed, death in his eyes and his sword screaming loud as the roar of a dragon. Cass, always one to stand by her man, charged right alongside him. And her friends and family and allies joined in as well, jumping into the fray to help determine the course of reality itself. 

And so began the final battle for Pandemonium.