Prison Break

I enjoyed another night's sleep after having gone to bed as an actual plan. I only wished I had more plans than just going to sleep at night. Having won the trust of most of the prisoners, I'd been asking around. I found out that most of the prisoners, at least in our wing of the prison, were nonviolent offenders, and in turn most of those were blasphemers and pagans, along with a few people, who like me, had been caught having relations with monsters in regions where that wasn't supposed to happen. As in, any region other than Noah, where Uriela didn't consider such things to be worth her time. After all, in her view, they were already punishing themselves.

I knew that I wanted to do something about the plight of these people who did not deserve to languish for their entire lives just for what they chose to believe in or who they loved. I just didn't know what I could do. I knew that I could grab Taguchi and Fumi for sure and take them to a better place. And I fully intended to do so before I left. But there were hundreds of Taguchis in my wing alone, and thousands of Yamatai villagers spread about the huge super prison. There were thousands more from other regions who had their various faiths that Ilias would not tolerate.

I had never taken Undine for a rash person. She was ancient, timeless even, and had always been very chill inside my heart. I would have expected someone like Sylph to do something impulsive, but not Undine. So imagine my surprise when I wake up to find my cell door already open.

Confused, I walked out to the railing, since I was on the second level. The site on the floor was astounding. Dozens of Yamatai Villagers were bowed down, praying. All were prostrated before a life size statue of Undine. I knew right away that the only way such a thing could have happened is if Undine herself did it.

"How did you even do that?" I asked Undine. "Further, why did you do it?"

"I'm a spirit," Undine said. "Not merely a slime. I gave up almost my entire physical form to craft that representation of me. I won't be able to take physical form for awhile, until I regenerate in a few weeks. But since I spend all my time these days inside your heart, I don't really need a physical form."

"Okay, and now I need to know why? How do you think this ends?"

"I admit I didn't think this one through," Undine replied. "But what good is all your power if you don't fight injustice? I simply forced your hand."

I sighed. Undine wasn't wrong. I really did know all I needed to know, and the old me would probably have started looking for someone to fight. The older and supposedly wiser me didn't want to do anything until I had a plan, but I'd already been in the prison longer than I should have been. My companions were surely becoming very worried about me. Would I realistically have been able to come up with something three days from now? A week? A month?

"Hey, wait a minute!" I exclaimed in sudden realization, having missed the most obvious thing. "Why isn't this place full of angels right now? And why were the cell doors open? Did you do that, Undine?"

"All I did was put the guards to sleep for the night so that I could sculpt," Undine replied. "I don't think they're used to mass disobedience. They opened the cell doors and then retreated."

"Now why would they do that?" I wondered. "Is this about me? Did someone higher up give orders to stand down?"

"Or are they just seeing who worships my sculpture so they know who to punish the most severely?" Undine added.

I made my way down to the floor level. Some of the Undine worshippers smiled at me. Some spoke of the miracle that had taken place during the night. Most just kept on praying. There wasn't an angel in sight. The non-worshippers were behaving themselves, content to watch. Some, afraid of what was about to happen, stayed in their cells, some closing the doors after themselves. Wise move, I thought.

The sculpture of Undine, seeing it close up, was magnificent. If not for the fact it was completely still, I would have thought it to be Undine herself. I didn't see Taguchi anywhere. I would have thought he'd be down for sure.

"Why isn't Taguchi here?" I wondered.

"Oh, I went to him again last night," Undine said sheepishly. "After what Sariela did to him, I had to show him real love. He may have enjoyed what she did to him, but he deserves better. So I gave him better."

"Undine!" I scolded.

"At least he's safe in his cell," she said defensively. "Still sound asleep."

Wow, no sex for fifty years and in two days he's getting action from an archangel and a spirit. At least something good had come of all this. Now I just had to figure out how to keep his life from going downhill from here.

The situation in our wing was just about to go downhill, and fast. The main gate into the wing burst open, revealing dozens of angels. They weren't armed with whips or batons. They were armed with swords. At their head was Sariela, in full battle dress.

"All right, sinners, fun's over!" Sariela announced. "I've been tolerant this morning, because I recognize that you're normally a pretty well behaved bunch, and futher that there are strange goings-on here that I have yet to get to the bottom of. But one thing I am sure of is that the water spirit is present here. So here's how this is going to go, sinners! First, you will all go back to your cells! You will be confined there for the day. Each and every one of you will be interrogated, and you WILL answer my questions! Only then will you be allowed meals. Now are you all going to obey, or are we going to dirty the floors and walls of my lovely prison with idolator blood?"

At first, Undine's attempt to force me to unleash hell on Sariela and her angels seemed like it might not succeed. While Yamatai folks were fierce fighters, they didn't fight hopeless battles, and their norm was to be docile and obedient, even towards oppressors. Facing near even odds numberswise, and completely hopeless odds once they accounted for the fact they faced angels with swords against unarmed humans, the Undine worshippers made a collective decision to obey. They began to return to their cells.

Then Sariela went too far. In her arrogance and uncompromising zeal, she gave an order that made even Yamatai Villagers willing to fight a hopeless battle.

"And would someone please destroy that damn idol!" Sariela shouted.

An angel walked up to the statue with an oversized sledgehammer and struck it with all her might. I felt Undine laugh inside my heart as the hammer didn't so much as scratch it. The Undine worshippers stopped to watch, whispering that it was another miracle, that Undine was proving her power over even mighty Ilias.

"Oh for Heaven's sake, get out of the way!" Sariela ordered the angel. The archangel materialized a great black staff and pointed it at the large Undine idol. Black lightning surged from the staff. The statue exploded into shards. I felt Undine exercise power in order to protect her worshippers from the shrapnel. With a simple thought, the diamond hard shards became soft liquid slime again, splashing harmlessly on worshippers and angels alike.

"I knew it!" Sariela shouted triumphantly. "Undine is here! I want her found! She's obviously inside one of these worshippers' hearts! That's how she hides!"

The worshippers stood stunned, soaked in Undine's own bodily fluids. Their stunned silence quickly turned into a simmering rage. As the angels advanced threateningly on them, intending to find the water spirit by any means they could think of, the simmering rage exploded into action. The dozens of worshippers surged forward in a mass.

The angels were at first stunned, but they recovered quickly, swinging their swords at anyone within reach. Screams began to fill the air as the blades found soft human flesh.

"They'll be massacred!" Undine cried.

Not if the spirits had anything to say about it. Without even asking my permission, they exited my body, appearing in all their glory above the fray. Well, except for Undine, who was so small she could barely be seen. The angels panicked at the sight. The worshippers stopped fighting as they started up in awe. And then all hell broke loose.

A huge gale swept through the wing, knocking even Sariela off her feet. Everyone forgot about fighting and simply tried to hold onto something. Gnome began punching huge holes in the walls. Sylph directed her winds towards the exits, concentrating on "encouraging" prisoners to flee. Only a few who were still mixed in with the angels were unable to escape. Salamander provided some insurance by putting up a wall of fire to prevent the angels from chasing the escapees. I knew it wouldn't do much good. The prison complex was enormous, and the spirits couldn't be everywhere. Angels would find the escapees and return them, if not kill them for the attempt.

So what was I doing while all this was going on? Well, I was hanging onto a pole for dear life. I wasn't sure how to use my power to protect myself from getting dashed against a wall, I didn't want to be blown out an exit, and I couldn't summon Gnome since she was otherwise occupied. Sometimes I can be so useless.

The spirits, noticing that I was in fact quite useless in the current situation, returned to my heart once nearly everyone who they could get out of the area was blown out of an improvised exit. The spirits had orchestrated quite the brute force prison break. Except I had been left holding the bag.

A massacre had been averted, but nothing had actually been solved. There were multiple gates that they would still have to get past, and it wasn't as if there was anywhere in the world they could hide. I still had no idea what to do. With the immediate crisis averted, perhaps I could play dumb? I was good at that.

No such luck. Sariela ordered the fallen prisoners taken to the infirmary and the few uninjured ones who had not tried to escape(or been forced to by Sylph), escorted back to their cells. And then her eyes focused on me. Gulp.

Sariela strode confidently towards me and looked me over carefully. I knew that look. She wasn't just looking at me. She was reading me. My magic, perhaps even my soul.

"I'm only going to ask you once," she said when she was finished. "I know you must be at the center of all this, I just can't figure out yet how. It's simple logic, really. You arrived here, and trouble arrived with you. So if you like your bones on the inside of your body, you'll tell me what I want to know."

"Well for starters, I'm an Aquarius-" I began. I didn't get to finish the thought because Sariela slammed by head against the pole I'd been holding onto. I fell to the ground, seeing stars.

As Sariela began dragging me by my foot along the ground towards the proper exit, I started telling her all sorts of facts about me.

"Am I supposed to confess my sins?" I asked. "My only real vices are soda and monster sex. I'm a terrible dancer. Can't sing, either. I'm a hell of a cook, though. Really, you misassigned me. Kitchens are more my speed than infirmaries."

"Indeed?" Sariela asked, now amused. She changed direction, heading towards the dining hall. She continued to drag me by one foot through the double doors, causing me to hit my head on one of them. Then, arriving in the dining hall, she let go of my foot and ordered me to my feet. I slowly stood, still woozy.

"Now I'm going to ask questions, and you're going to answer them," Sariela said, her face inches from mine. Angels had such nice breath, I thought. "Who has been hiding the spirits? Could it be you?"

"Can't you just see them yourself?" I asked. "You're the powerful archangel, aren't you?"

Sariela grabbed me by the neck and heaved me into the air. I landed back first on a table, bouncing off and onto the ground. The table had no give. She began striding towards me.

"I can only see the spirits when the person they've contracted with invokes their power," she explained, standing over me."Now you don't strike me as thespirit worshipping type, so I'm willing to believe you if you tell me it's not you. But I bet you have some idea who. Is it Taguchi by any chance?"

I got to my feet with a metal tray that had been left on one of the tables and swung it at her with all my non-Gnome enhanced might. The metal tray didn't even faze her. The tray was warped into uselessness by contact with her hard head. Sariela smirked and picked me up by the neck again, choking me.

"It is Taguchi, isn't it?" she asked, as I gagged and dangled with my feet up in the air. "You're trying to protect him. Such a good hearted young fool! You would have made an excellent priest."

Still holding onto my neck, she choke slammed me through another table, breaking it in half.

"You filled that old man's head with ideas, didn't you?" she asked, still choking me, although not cutting my air off completely. "He's probably been concealing those spirits for years but never did anything. What's that? Are you trying to say something?"

Actually I was. Something I'd always wanted to say to someone because it had been said to me so often. I'd just never had the chance until now.

The first time I said it I was barely understandable. She brought her head closer to me to hear me better. My voice rasped in her ear, "You're an idiot."

"An idiot?" she asked, smiling. "Perhaps I am. I think we need a change of venue."

Sariela roughly lifted me to my feet and began dragging me into the kitchen. It appeared that the cooks had started to make breakfast but had been evacuated. There was a big bowl of pancake batter on a counter, which I became acutely aware of when my face was shoved into it. Her powerful hand held me face down as I thrashed about, unable to breathe.

You're probably wondering at this point why I haven't just gone Super Luka on Sariela. Looking back, I'm not really sure either. I think I was just trying to get a moment to think, to figure out what to do. Once I displayed my power, there was no going back. If I could convince her that I was just a dumb kid who knew nothing, I thought that maybe I'd just get to spend the day in my cell and formulate a real plan.

She pulled my head up, now soaked in batter. She removed some of it from my cheek with her finger and licked it off. She was so unbelievably blazing hot that I still stared, even while she was kicking my ass.

"You know what this needs?" Sariela asked, looking around the kitchen. "Ah, yes. Blueberries!"

My face was slammed down again, this time into a bowl of blueberries. At least I could still breathe, although having my face rubbed in blueberries wasn't fun. I reached for a frying pan. When she pulled me up, I smashed her in the face with it.

The pan now had an imprint of Sariela's face on it, but it didn't hurt her in the slightest. I knew she didn't feel pain, but that didn't mean she couldn't take damage. My brilliant frying pan plan hadn't achieved any results in that regard either. I wasn't even sure I was properly pissing her off. She seemed more amused than anything.

Nope, definitely pissed off. Sariela opened an oven and shoved my head in, then slammed the door on it several times. I definitely had a concussion. If she didn't quit it soon, I'd have no choice but to fight back for real.

I tried fighting back the way a normal man would, even though I knew it probably wouldn't do any good. I lifted her off the ground and slammed her onto the counter, sending more bowls of batter and syrup flying, as well as cracking a few eggs. A swift kick to my head sent me sprawling. Now covered in food herself, Sariela picked me up again and dragged me to a cutting board. She placed my hand on the cutting board, grabbed a carving knife, and slammed the knife clear through the cutting board and part of the way into the counter. Unfortunately, my hand was there as well.

"AHHHHH!!!! GOD!!!" I screamed.

"Oh, did that hurt?" Sariela asked. "Good. Now maybe we can quit the foreplay and get to the main event. Who are you? And where are the spirits?"

"You really want to know?" I gasped.

"I'm losing patience with you, Wentworth," Sariela said. "This is your last chance to tell me what I want to know before I really get in a punishing mood."

"My name….. is…. LUKA!" I raged. "And I've got your spirits right here!"

I summoned Salamander and Gnome for power, then loaded up my fist with my own special power. My swing connected solidly with her jaw, my power exploding in a small flash as my fist made contact. It may not have caused pain, per se, but she definitely felt it. Sariela hit the ground as if a heavyweight boxer had dropped her.

"Ahhh!!!!" I yelled in pain as I used my Gnome enhanced strength to pull the knife out of my left hand. I turned to face Sariela, who sat on the ground.

Sariela looked at me, turned to the side, and spit out a tooth. She gave me a wicked smile, a huge gap showing where one of her front incisors had been. She was an angel. It would grow back.

"I knew it!" Sariela said triumphantly."The Child of Judgment, here in this prison, spying on me! Well, what's your judgment? And how did you talk Raphaela into going along with your idiotic scheme?"

"I wanted to find out how this world treated the least valued members of its society," I said angrily. "It turns out, not so well. You want my judgment? Sariela, you are a….. very bad person!"

Sariela regained her feet and brushed herself off. Her staff reappeared in her hand.

"You judge me a bad person?" Sariela said mockingly. "Did you think it was a good thing to reverse my magic so that you could get your rocks off at my expense? Did you enjoy taking advantage of my pure, holy body?"

"You held me down! Three times! I never asked you to violate me!"

"You violated me!" she raged. "Using my body in ways that I didn't consent to!"

"You're sick, Sariela. I can see why Ilias put you in charge here. You're violent, cruel, and sadistic. Not to mention perverted. With no more wars to fight, she put you where she could keep your profane tendencies limited to a region full of sinners that the goddess didn't care about. I think that's why she allows so many sinners to live. If you didn't have sinners to punish, she'd have no use for you!"

"That's not true!" Sariela cried. "Ilias entrusts me with the most important job on the entire surface! Ilias loves me!"

"I know Ilias better than you do, believe me. Ilias loves herself. She created you for a purpose and once that purpose was fulfilled, she put you in Grangold, where your black magic and your sexual perversions would offend her less. You're not even a proper angel anymore. You're a monster. You look like a monster, you think like a monster, you act like a monster. Except far crueler."

"You bastard!" Sariela screamed.

She pointed her staff at me, eldritch power arcing towards me, intending to disintegrate me where I stood. This was a battle I knew how to fight. A quick energy shield harmlessly absorbed her magic. My retaliation was swift and terrible. I wasn't truly angry, nor was I protecting those I loved. Still, I mustered almost as much power as I had used to destroy Ranael. Sariela was built strong, though. Although my counterattack sent her careening into the far wall, topping tables, she got back to her feet quickly.

"You've got power, I'll give you that, Judgment Boy," she said. There was a huge crack in the wall where she'd impacted. "But I've got tricks I know you've never seen, because I invented them. Yeah, I practice black magic! Now die from your own sins!"

She gestured with her staff. I put another shield up, but no direct attack such as that was coming. She was a fast learner. Instead, an array of beautiful monsters appeared before me. A lovely raven-haired succubus. A red haired fox girl. A deadly but sexy spider girl. And the most voluptuous slime I'd ever seen.

"Hey, Luka, you like what you see?" the succubus asked in a sultry voice. "We're ALL here just for you. All you have to do is hold still and we'll do all the work. Does that sound nice to you?"

As if. The old Bugs Bunny dressed in lipstick routine. There was no way I was going to lose my focus on the battle just because my opponent had materialized some hot women in front of me who probably weren't even real.

The fox girl lightly caressed my arm with a tail. It sure felt real. I was sure it was still an illusion, of course. I'm not stupid, you know.

"Nothing about this is fooling me!" I said to Sariela. Who wasn't there. I backed away from the illusory monster girls. Sariela was probably doing the Granberia trick, disappearing with the intent to reappear right behind me.

"C'mon, handsome," the succubus said, her hand grabbing my buttocks. "The angel's gone, it's just us here now. Consider this the ultimate conjugal visit."

The succubus grabbed me by the head and forced her tongue into my mouth. I tried to pull away but even with my Gnome strength it was difficult and her kiss was intoxicating. I thought I knew exactly what was happening. Distraction. Sariela would appear any second and attack. I looked around with just my eyes frantically. I listened on the wind for her approach. I should have been looking right in front of me.

The succubus stabbed me in the side, up to the hilt, with a steak knife. I'd been shanked by the warden! I thought. The succubus changed back into Sariela, her eyes crazed as she brandished the kitchen knife and prepared to stab me again, like the psychotic angel she was.

Enough. I didn't have my sword. I'd entrusted it to Fumi, since I obviously couldn't bring a sword to prison with me. But I could still summon my shadow sword, which was more effective anyway. Before Sariela could stab me again my shadow Angel Halo flashed. It would have cut her in two had it been that kind of sword. Sariela was powerful, all right. That kind of hit with my shadow sword had sealed Ancestors. It had come close to sealing Sariela, but had just missed. One more hit would surely do the job.

Sariela dropped the knife and fell to the ground. She tried to get up, only to collapse again. Looking at me with hatred in her eyes, she used a counter to brace herself. Her staff materialized again in her hand. She futiley tried to ward me off with it. But her body no longer had any coordination. She was barely holding her angelic form together. Pain was etched on her face. The one thing that could make angels feel pain was that enchanted sword.

"Hurts, doesn't it?" I taunted. "That pain is just a fraction of the pain you've caused these so-called sinners!"

She swung at me with her staff and spun her whole body around, nearly falling again. Angels had begun entering the kitchen. They must have heard her tone go from gloating to distressed. If they were smart, they'd stay out of this. Ordinary angels, no matter their numbers, would only get sealed if they tried to swarm me in such a cramped space.

With one last lunge Sariela punched me in the face. There was no strength behind it. With Gnome summoned, I didn't even feel it. She fell against me, uselessly banging her fists against my chest. The powerful archangel had been reduced to this.

"I hate you!" she wailed. "I had a purpose! You've made me question that purpose! Now I don't even know if Ilias loves me! I'm not the bad person! You're the bad person! You're the most horrible person ever!"

I dematerliaized my sword and simply held her as she cried against my chest. Angels were nothing but bullies. When they had power, they flaunted it and acted as if they were authority figures. Bereft of their power, they became nothing more than crying children.

"Of course I love you, Sariela," a voice said gently as the kitchen filled with light. "The Child of Judgment has judged you wrongly. You have always faithfully executed my commands. If anyone deserves judgment, it is I."

"Ilias?!" Sariela cried, letting go of me and melting into the goddess' arms.

"There there, child," Ilias said gently. "I have wronged you. I allowed the Child of Judgment to play his little game so that he could see that our world truly is just. You paid the price for his failure to understand."

"Failure to understand, Ilias?!" I retorted. "Everywhere I go, you're exactly the same! It's all about you! It's always about you!"

"I am the one true Goddess," Ilias said simply, still rocking Sariela as she mewled. "Who else would it be about?"

"With great power comes great responsibility!" I argued. No, I don't actually have any original thoughts.

"What moron said that?" Ilias asked.

"You freed these people from the monsters that wanted to prey on them, only to subjugate them even more harshly! Instead of trying to show them love and mercy and understanding, you created a privileged class, a working class, and a criminal class! For crimes like worshipping other gods! For blasphemy! For being kind enough to feed a starving monster!"

"From your human perspective, I can see why you might find these things objectionable," Ilias admitted. "But I am not human. I'm a goddess. It is my right to create the world I desire."

"You're no goddess," I scoffed. "You're a glorified light elemental. You became convinced you were a goddess because the early humans didn't know any other way to react to you!"

Ilias let go of Sariela. I thought I might be starting to irritate the goddess. Good.

"Slay him, Ilias!" Sariela urged. "Trap his soul for eternity. In my desk drawer! Yes, put his soul in my desk so that I may personally torment it whenever I wish!"

"That's enough out of you," Ilias said, gesturing. Sariela's mouth disappeared. That silenced her pretty effectively.

"So what's it going to be, Ilias?" I asked.

"I could ask you the same question," the goddess responded. "You've seen Angel World. Clearly you don't like this particular place. Did you like every place you saw on Monster World?"

"Actually, I liked fewer places there than I did here."

"Then the choice is obvious," Ilias concluded. "Am I sometimes….. judgmental? Jealous? Self-centered? Certainly, but I am a goddess! Can I be anything other than what I am? Join me, and we can save this world as a refuge for the righteous!"

"Not good enough, Ilias. I'm not trying to save only the people you approve of."

"Perhaps I have been a bit too…. Dogmatic. I could be convinced to perhaps set up Hellgondo as a refuge for monsters and the humans who enjoy the company of monsters. For your sake, since you seem to value them. But I must be clear: the chaos is a cancer. It must be excised. The world you came from is already beyond saving. All the worlds that connect to it are at risk of infection as well, and many of them are already infected. Only the last world standing has a chance to survive! It should be this one! Join us and you can have an equal say in how this world is run! You could even be my husband! Think of it, God and Goddess, benevolently ruling the planet and guiding mankind down the righteous path. Maybe you'll favor a more gentle, less controlling approach."

"I can't join you Ilias," I said. "I'm not a ruler. And you shouldn't be either. Man should rule himself."

"Blasphemy!" "Heresy!" the angels began saying. Ilias silenced them with a gesture.

"Luka, you must choose," the goddess said. "If you do not choose, we are all doomed. Okay, so neither of our worlds is perfect. But ours are the only ones that can survive the coming apocalypse. If you don't make a choice, nobody survives. Do you want that, Luka?"

"I don't know why I'm here, Ilias," I said. "I died a long time ago. My quest was ended. I was NOT brought back to life so that I could CHOOSE who lives and who dies!"

"You are a god, just like me," Ilias said. "Just like Alipheese. It's your job to choose who lives and dies."

"No," I argued. "No it's not. It's not my right, it's not your right. When I went on my first quest, I was told by someone that my dream was impossible, that I was an idiot for believing in it. And real life is not so cut and dried. In the end, I largely achieved that dream but it was never perfect. I know I can't save every single person. I know I can't save every single world. I've already seen one world fall to chaos. But I can definitely save more than just one! So I turn your argument around. It's you and Alipheese that have a choice. You can both either join me and try to save as many worlds as we possibly can, or you can continue to act selfishly, blinded by your ancient hatreds, and watch both of your worlds disappear as if they never existed. I'm sure you both know how to find me. Raphaela! I'm leaving!"

Raphaela appeared, holding onto Fumi. Fumi ran to me and clutched me. With one last look at Ilias and Sariela, I teleported back home.

"We have failed," Raphaela said, breaking the silence that hung over the kitchen.

"Not yet," Ilias said. "The prophecies did not guarantee that the Child of Judgment would choose us."

"You should have slain him!" Sariela, her mouth restored, urged.

"Had I believed he would join the monsters, I would have," Ilias replied. "But he's an idealist. The best thing we can do is let him go. I doubt the monsters will be so sanguine. They'll come for him. When they fail, he'll fall right into our comforting arms."

"So we just wait?" Raphaela asked. "There is still time, but it is not unlimited. And should the Goddess of Chaos decide to accelerate the end of all things…."

"We will not simply wait," Ilias replied. "We have always been prepared to execute our plan without the Child of Judgment if it became necessary. Sandalphon! Metatron!"

Two more archangels appeared in the kitchen at Ilias's side.

"It's time for you two to begin preparations to deploy the weapon," Ilias said gravely.

"Yes, goddess," they said eagerly. "The cancer must be excised!"

"What of the prisoners, currently seeking to escape?" Sariela asked. "Shall they be executed, or merely tortured?"

"Open the gates," Ilias orderd. "All of them. IF they can make it back to Yamatai, they can settle there again."

"Goddess?" Sariela asked. "But they are sinners! Idolators!"

"The Child of Judgment was offended by their treatment. Let's give him one less reason to side with our enemy. We can always collect them later should he force us to save ourselves."