A few minutes later after being repeatedly stabbed in the arms, Lord Caliber gave up as he threw down his weapons and caught Alpha Crucis’ Sabre Rapière with his bare hands. Alpha Crucis was stunned as Lord Caliber head-butted her in the face and knocked her down.

  Then, Lord Caliber's hands started to gush out blood profusely as Alpha Crucis did a kip up and charged at him with her Sabre Rapière. Desperately, Lord Caliber picked up the gun and shot at Alpha Crucis several times.

  Even though Lord Caliber miraculously struck her in the shoulder, it didn't stop her from aiming for his head. As they locked up for the first time, Lord Caliber tried his best to shoot her in point-blank range. Alas, he missed.

  Alpha Crucis shoved the exhausted Gun Mage down to the ground. But Lord Caliber, at one trick up his sleeve, wasted no doing another cast as he surrounded himself with flames.

  Alpha Crucis halted the furious attack and looked on as Lord Caliber let out a cocky smirk, knowing that her wind techniques would not put out the flames so easily. With this strategy, he would try to recover.

  Alpha Crucis mocked Lord Caliber with a cocky smirk since she telegraphed this strategy by slicing open a nearby fire hydrant, extinguishing the flames. Exhausted, Lord Caliber's face turned pale.

  Maria sighed deeply, “Idiot... Who do you think trained her?” She said to herself.

  Alpha Crucis used her spiritual awareness to monitor her opponent as he rested her blade on her shoulder, “My, my, Lord Caliber; a brawler to the end. Knowing how you throw down, you were a piece of work back then.”

  Lord Caliber, who is now out of breath, is laughing, only hiding his frustration, "You got me! How'd you guess?"

  Alpha Crucis points his Sabre Rapière at Lord Caliber, "Stop wasting my time, Lord Caliber. Drop the act! Fight and hate me with everything you despise in this world."

  Lord Caliber began to cough up blood and mucus to clear out his lungs while they were filling up with fluid. Whatever Maria gave to him was wearing off, and he was running out of time and energy.

  Steadfastly, he carried on, "Oh, save it. God has chosen me, Lord Caliber, to be his radiant son in this time--" Before getting another word in, he sees Alpha Crucis in the corner of his eye charging at him. Alpha Crucis swung her Sabre Rapière and missed his throat by two centimeters. Lord Caliber scurried away from Alpha Crucis. Still, the attempt made his throat bleed.

  Alpha Crucis smiles at this revelation, "I would focus on me... and me alone if I were you. But if you're ready to die, keep doing what you are now: recounting all your failures in life!"

  After hearing that, Lord Caliber held out his hand, and he materialized his modified S&T Motiv K12, "Sentinel, I have a gut feeling." Alpha Crucis became intrigued by this gut feeling as she listened, "If I tried to run away right now, you would hunt me down for the rest of your life. So let's end this! I was holding back, and so were you. I have taken one of you out before, and I will do it again!"

  Of course, he was lying, but he had to go for broke.

  “The only time you’ve ever taken one of us out is to lunch and didn’t even pay the bill afterward, you miserable fuckboy!” Alpha Crucis fired back.

  Lord Caliber and Alpha Crucis charged at each other for the first time in this fight. Alpha Crucis and Lord Caliber were at a stalemate, swinging their weapons at each other, parrying every blow, and dodging every bullet. His defense has increased with Lord Caliber's S&T Motiv K12, but his mobility has dwindled.

  Alpha Crucis gets the upper hand until Lord Caliber throws a fireball at her. Alpha Crucis blocked the attack, of course, with her Sabre Rapière. Then, Lord Caliber continued with his fire-breathing flame-thrower attack. Alpha Crucis would counter by creating a whirlwind of fire.

  He would relentlessly continue this attack for thirty seconds until he gave in and collapsed to the floor. Lord Caliber looked at Alpha Crucis as he still maintained the fiery tornado. She dissipated the tornado with incredible ease and approached Lord Caliber, who was physically exhausted. A blunder since you need a strong respiratory system to do fire breathing.

  "Lord Caliber. Your failure was simple; you should have just left well enough alone." Alpha Crucis scoffs. "You should have just run and hid as mommy told you to do..."

  "I am no coward!" Lord Caliber fortifies while trying to raise himself. "Because God has chosen me, Lord Caliber, to be his radiant son in this time--"

  "YOU ARE NOT CHOSEN BY GOD! YOU ARE A BITCH!" as they pay attention to the heckler who blurted out that statement.

  It was a slender young woman with fair soft skin, elegant ice-gray eyes, and long elegant ice-gray hair. She was wearing a black trench coat, holding an umbrella in one hand and drinking a can of fizzy water in the other.

  Confused by this feature, Maria threw her hands up in frustration, "And who the hell is she?! One of yours, sentinel?!"

  Alpha Crucis didn’t answer because she didn’t want to talk to her.

  Luckily, Maria took that as a sign, "No, okay. Who is she, Kenny?"

  "How the hell should I know?! I'm getting my ass kicked over here, and you are just standing there like an oak! Get over here and help me!" Lord Caliber complained.

  "You bit that off; now chew on it. And besides, I'm retired. I told your stupid ass to run, but here we are!" Maria said as she listened to the mysterious woman, "Now, on to you--! You know what, fuck it. I'm too tired and hurt by being by a fucking hurricane! Just get the hell out of here!" she dismissed.

  "It is my business to be here," the mysterious woman stated while showing her credentials. "Stygian Society and you are causing havoc on my post!"

  "A Daemon Knight," Maria clarified. "Well, as you can see, a Crucis Sentinel has left the reservation!" She accused.

  "You mean her beating the living shit out of a serial kidnapping rapist." The mysterious woman shrugged. "Yeah, I think anybody would say she is doing God's work."

  “And what you know about God, demon?!” Lord Caliber defended.

  "I saw firsthand what you do to women and children like me in her little meat markets. That you made a game out of my suffering!" The woman said.

  She was unrecognizable before, her being taller with high heels, but Maria was a master of recognizing faces. This realization made her irate, "Oh my God, you're that same woman that I gave to Raphael!"

  “What?!” Lord Caliber shrieked.

  "I told him to get rid of her! Why is she still alive, and where in the blue fuck is he, Kenny?!" Maria demanded.

  "How my supposed to know where that cross-dressing faggot is? I'm not his daddy?" Lord Caliber argued.

  "Oh, you mean Ralphie? And please stop calling me a demon. I am not a demon. I am a wiccan, Malefica Obscura. But you can all call me Apinae.” Her using her new alias.

  "Bennett. Your name is Marco Bennett. And you were part of Halberstam's roundtable as a scout..." Maria clarified as she shook her head. "Idiots. Idiots surround me."

  “Like we were supposed to know, she was a part of the society, Auntie.” Lord Caliber defended.

  "Shut the fuck up!" Maria shouted at him. "And you, Bennett! What did you do to that poor boy?!" She demanded.

  Apinae acted dumbfounded as she played along, "Well, holy mommy, I didn't kill him. And you have to worry about taking good care of him. Because I am." She even stroked her lower region with a moan. "He's also been caring for me since I met him."

  This revelation horrified Maria as she looked away and discussed with tears running down her face as there was only one possibility of Raphel’s outcome.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “No! You violated him!” she breathed out as she began to sob.

  This was the first time Lord Caliber saw her aunt cry for anyone. She didn't even cry for her sister, her husband, her people, or even him. Not even his father, who was brutally murdered years ago. Instead, she cried an effeminate boy who had proved nothing to her or anyone.

  It is obvious; this was motherly love, and she was heartbroken.

  Obviously, for someone like Lord Caliber, it was too far gone with his emotions, though it was humorous.

  "You mean to tell me you would cry for that two-bit faggot but not for your own family?" Lord Caliber scoffed. "You mean to tell me you hate me that much--?!"

  "That boy was innocent! Innocent! The only crime that he committed was being different! He had his problems, but he was still a good boy!" Maria reflected. Then, her sadness turned into anger towards Lord Caliber. "I would be surprised if you didn't entice him that night. So what did you tell him? Did you know about the ghost stories of the wiccan?"

  "And what if I did? Fuck him!" Lord Caliber admitted.

  Apinae giggled, “Damn, this is better than Hulu Plus!”

  "Can it, bitch! Oh! I got it now! You're going to talk me into a coma, Auntie? Besides, that's all you women are fucking good at--"

  Taking his eye off his opponent is one thing, but completely ignoring their existence is another, which would cost him his life. With his back turned, Alpha Crucis saw the opportunity to stab him in the back and right through his chest, claiming victory.

  His blood quickly drained from his body; his lung pierced by its user's cold, unforgiving steel. Trembling in fear, he feels his life slipping away and his body gradually running cold. Feeling his arms numb, his S&T Motiv K12 felt heavier than usual as it slipped out of his hands and onto the ground.

  Earning this victory, Alpha Crucis added insult to injury by whispering in his ear, possibly for the last time, "Blood for blood. Your insurmountable debt has been paid today, my Lord."

  Alpha Crucis pulled out her Sabre Rapière with sheer force as the blood gushed out of his body like a geyser, covering her once clean yellow and purple uniform.

  Stunningly enough, Lord Caliber was still on his feet. He was even staggering around, reaching out for anything to save him. But it was fruitless. After a dozen of baby steps, his legs finally gave out. He collapsed on the ground face first as he began to bleed out.

  Maria, still in her raw emotional state, watched her nephew being stabbed to death as she felt powerless.

  Apinae didn’t help much as she approached Maria to rub it in, “Ooh, he won’t be back in book three!”

  This received a well-deserved shove to the ground. She watches Alpha Crucis slowly approach him as she sees her nephew still fighting for his life as he slowly crawls away. Alpha Crucis also caught onto this by reversing her grip on the Sabre Rapière so she could stab him through the heart and end his life quickly.

  Lord Caliber and Kenneth Lee Boutonnière, or not real identity and alter ego. They were the same. They were both monsters. Also, there were monsters that Maria-- The Holy Mother had built. Watching somebody kill her creation would be justifiable but acceptable. She would believe that if it was ten years ago because it was not ten years ago.

  She's not the same monster she was back then. Even though he does not deserve to live for what he has done, it doesn't give anyone else the right-- including Alpha Crucis-- to take his life away from him without truly giving them a chance to redeem themselves and atone for his sins.

  In this insane situation, she made not the right choice but the necessary choice.

  AMPELOS!

  Maria wrapped Alpha Crucis' body with vines again. But they hardened and grew around the Crucis Sentinel this time, transmuting it into an oak tree. For safe measures, she wrapped the downed Apinae in vines as well.

  At this point, she could kill both and just end everything, but she couldn't. Consider it a divine intervention on her part. But she cannot forget that Lord Caliber was still at fault.

  Taking a few deep breaths, Maria sifted through her hair and wiped her tears away as she laughed, walking towards the newly made tree.

  "See, there it is." Maria openly mocked, looking at the tree-embedded sentinel. "That is the same vengeful little girl that I have known. And I thought you were prim and proper to the core. You need to realize something: women, in general, are horrible creatures. You are a horrible creature. We are meant to disrupt and destroy men and what they have built. Why? Because we can. That's all we are to them."

  She then stumbled on Alpha Crucis’ Sabre Rapière that she dropped.

  Maria picked it up and examined it, "impressive. I see you have reoutfitted your Disjoncteur de Foi. It's a lot heavier than it was before. Told you to make a lighter, but you wouldn't listen." She analyzed it while tossing it on the ground.

  She then strolled over to the crawling and dying Lord Caliber, “I let you have this fight, Selena, and his blood debt has been paid.”

  Maria created a beautiful flower bed surrounding them with the snap of her fingers. Then, large red pedal leaves started to protrude out of the ground surrounding the two.

  Maria looked back at the struggling sentinel—possibly not for the last time— as the pedals enclosed them, “see you around, kid.”

  And with that, the huge rosebud formed, burrowing into the ground and leaving a big hole in the middle of the street.

  The Holy Mother and Lord Caliber escaped. Barely...

  Apinae saw this chance to break free by using her fire spells to burn the vines. Immediately, she rushed to the side of the downed Alpha Crucis, still stuck in the tree.

  She examined the tree and figured out what she needed to do, “all right, I got you!”

  Apinae took a few steps back and stepped her fingers. Immediately, the tree was engulfed in flames. The branches and the bark disintegrated in a matter of seconds. Finally, Alpha Crucis was free as she fell to the ground.

  Apinae checked on her as she saw Alpha Crucis trying to get up, "hey, take it easy. You just got stuck in a tree."

  But Apinae would witness the strength and resilience of Alpha Crucis as she got back up to her feet while immediately clutching her shoulder in pain.

  "Yeah, you took a nasty shot there. What were you thinking?" Apinae criticized.

  Exhausted, Alpha Crucis didn't say a word as she tried to look for her weapon. She turned around and saw it lying there. Gingerly, she walked over to it and picked it up. With a loud sigh of disappointment, she resigned to her failed assassination attempt.

  Apinae tries to cheer her up, “For what it’s worth, you took a huge chunk of him.”

  Alpha Crucis would glance at the wiccan, “You said you are a daemon knight?”

  "Yup! Malefica Obscura Apinae. At your service!” She greeted me with a cheeky smile, holding a peace sign.

  Alpha Crucis gave her a blank stare. Mainly, it's because she was tired and was disappointed that her target got away.

  "Looks like you need to go to the hospital. Come on, and I'll help you." Apinae offered.

  “I need to contact the Aethereal Queen...” Alpha Crucis said.

  "You can do that when we're at the hospital! I got a phone!" Apinae said.

  “HQ is about--”

  "Not even close to where you need to be. The hospital is just around the corner." Apinae interrupted.

  Alpha Crucis tried to walk but used her Sabre Rapière to stand.

  Seeing enough, Apinae helped her walk, “Hey. I would rather you be embarrassed than dead, my friend.”

  Along with that, Apinae helped Alpha Crucis get to the nearest hospital.

  Even though Alpha Crucis didn’t give the degenerate the killing blow she deserved, it was obvious that she had a lot of work to do if she ever wanted to be in the same league as the Holy Mother.

  Alpha Crucis will learn from this, make a full recovery, and become stronger. But the lingering question that will remain is why Maria spared his life and why Maria spared hers.

  After the violent incident in London, Maria rushed Lord Caliber to the nearest emergency hospital that the Third Revelation owns. Remarkably, Lord Caliber would barely pull through after six hours of surgery.

  Still in shock at the recent developments of Father Raphael, Maria had issued an Amber XIII; an executive order to ascertain the fate of the missing high-ranked member of the Third Revelation.

  A few days went by as she patiently waited in her office at an undisclosed location.

  Then, a tall, muscular man with pale green angel wings enters. He had dark hair and green eyes and wore a blue robe.

  Maria sees this angelic man and invites him in, “What is it, Zachariah?”

  Zachariah approaches her desk and bows gracefully, “your holiness.”

  “I’m at a loss for words, Zach…” the saddened Maria said, leaning in her chair.

  “We have concluded our investigation. General Bain and his army were found dead at a nearby plantation in Suffolk,” Zachariah confirmed what was already proved. “Father Raphael’s home had been ransacked by the locals.”

  The fire brigade was there to put out the flames--”

  “Did they find any DNA?” Maria asked in a low voice.

  Zachariah swallowed hard, knowing it was going to be a pain for Maria to hear, “Plenty…”

  Maria goes up from her chair and faces the wall, trying not to cry, “And what about his security?”

  “Bain, Schnider, and the rest of his detail were found at a faraway abandoned plantation. It has been confirmed by forensics that all the men were sexually assaulted by women and then murdered.”

  She tried to keep it together as she faced Zachariah, “Cardinal, what about Raphael? Did they get him too…”

  This is why Zachariah was afraid of this question, so he answered the best way imaginable, “No. There is no sign of him. But we will keep this part of his open.”

  Maria’s fear turns into anger.

  “Naturally,” Zachariah excused himself.

  “How the Hell did that even happen?!” the saddened Maria yelled as Zachariah took his leave.

  He didn’t want to say anything else. Maria was smart enough to put it together. Say it was divine punishment to happen to those three, Lady Firefly’s fall will come later than he would expect. It wasn’t a matter of if but when. But Lady Firefly was playing with fire, claiming to be untouchable now.

  One of the reasons that he wanted to see Maria personally yet briefly.

  Zachariah would offer his services as one of the replacements, but he felt it would be either too soon or too awkward. Besides, he had other situations to take care of. And one would call him the moment he stepped out of headquarters.

  He answered the phone and greeted him, “Wiseman.”

  But he hears the giggle of a low, sultry woman, “Apologies, but my little stool pigeon is indisposed at the moment.”

  He almost dropped his phone, recognizing the voice, “Lorelei!” he gasped.

  “So that’s what you want to call me? Fair enough. Relax, Zachy. You got enough problems as it is.” Lorelei said.

  “Wh-what do you want?” he stammered, looking around.

  “I wanted to hear from the man who was responsible for our cancellation. Had to take the show underground because of you.” She stated. “But he still has his uses, just like you. That is why you are still alive--”

  “I know where you are, Lorelei! My people with sweep the area and end you!” Zachariah threatened.

  “Zachy, what you need to do is get out of the business before you become extinct. I still owe the little goth queen a favor. Remember Norfolk, Zachy?” and with want latent threat, she ends the call.

  Zachariah stood there petrified as he realized his plan had been compromised from the very beginning.

  But it didn’t take long for him to make another call, “Call Imperial Knight Morpheus.”