Blasphemia II: Deus Vult Pt. 03

"Attention Air Succubus passengers, this is your captain speaking," Filia said in a faux-garbled voice. "We're entering Rome airspace and may experience some slight turbulence. We apologize for any discomfort."

Judith rolled her eyes as the crackling arcane barrier around Rome loomed large in front of them. The arcs of power snapping and sparking back and forth were as wide as she was. There was a visible updraft from below, the air rippling with heat. "You sure we can get through that?"

Filia thrust out her chin. "Of course! Maybe. Well, we'll find out in a second."

"I already regret this decision to ally with you!" Judith snapped, gritting her teeth and screwing her eyes shut. A moment later, she was surrounded by heat that made her feel like bread crisping in an oven. An electric buzz thrummed through the air around her and made her teeth hurt. Something claw-like scratched at the back of her mind, giving her the sensation of a bad itch being scratched.

Then it was gone, and she opened her eyes. Filia had surrounded them with a barrier of hellfire, keeping the worst of the eldritch barrier away from them. The succubus shook her head, and Judith noticed that her eyes were beaded with tears. "Fuck, that sucked."

Judith started to ask if she was alright, then remembered just who it was she was talking to and shut her mouth. The Infernal would get no niceties from her. She looked down at the landscape of Rome below her to try and get a sense of what was going on.

The city - and, it seemed, the quarter mile of earth, dirt, and undercity beneath it - had been ripped free of the Earth, suspended in midair by an invisible force. The beautiful scenic plazas and domed buildings hung in a mind-bending configuration at various heights, defying Judith's attempts to get their bearings. She recognized a fountain that should be in the southern district of the city, yet was spinning like a carousel here on the north end. They flew past one intact city block that hovered like a island among the chaos, while above it what had been the next block over now served as a ceiling of sorts, loose roof tiles dropping down like terra-cotta rain.

"By the circles of Hell, where are we supposed to start?" Filia muttered.

Judith kicked her leg towards the city block that was intact and right-side up. "There seems as good a place as any. Plus my arms are starting to hurt."

"You need to hit the gym." The succubus winged towards the floating island, flying low over a cobbled street. Her wings flared, slowing her down and letting her set Judith down easily. Judith drew Celerity, holding it loose by her side as the succubus stayed airborne. "What's the play, papist?"

Judith raised an eyebrow. "You're asking me?"

Filia shrugged. "Call it a trust-building exercise."

"Nothing in Heaven, Earth, or Hell could ever make me trust you."

The succubus pouted. "Well, that's not very nice."

Judith was about to be even more not nice when she heard a commotion. Her head turned down the street, where a voice was shouting in panicked Italian. A moment later, a horrifying screech sounded.

Filia took off like a rocket, spinning in midair while Judith hurried to catch up. Another powerful flap of the succubi's wings shot her around the corner. Judith was hot on her heels, grabbing onto a lamppost and using it to swing around the corner without losing her momentum.

Ahead of her in a small square, Judith saw a woman with a toddler duck into a side alley just as a big... something crashed into the building after them, too big to wriggle all the way through after them. In the square itself, Judith counted three grotesque looking creatures with greenish-black skin the consistency of pesto, all of them moving on all fours to surround the fallen form of a middle-aged man. He'd been torn open at the middle, his lips moving soundlessly as the creatures gorged themselves on his insides.

Filia struck one of the creatures like a missile feet-first, carrying it across the square and into the far wall of a building. The force made cracks spiderweb out around the impact site, and Judith caught a satisfied smirk on the succubi's face as she drilled her heel into the thing's throat and twisted, snapping its neck with a loud crack. "Get the other creepies, I got big boy over there!" the succubus yelled. She sprang off the wall at the massive thing still trying to get into the alley, her chains clattering free.

As much as she hated taking orders from the succubus, Judith hurled Celerity at one of the other green creatures. Both of them were still trying to figure out what had happened to their companion. Her sword struck one in the skull with a wet crunch, and Judith was there a moment later to rip it free. As she did she got a good look at the creature, and she had to fight not to retch.

Though the thing was about the size and shape of a normal human, the similarities ended there. The creature's skin was gross and disgusting, mottled and rotting off its frame. It had no eyes to speak of, the area around where they should be torn and mutilated as if they'd been clawed out. Where fingernails should have been were sharp talons of bone, and it took Judith a heartbeat to realize that the talons were actually what were once human fingers, now elongated and hardened for lethal purposes.

With a noise somewhere between a click and a screech the remaining thing lunged at her. Despite not having eyes it was accurate in its leap, and Judith had to pivot quickly to avoid having her side split wide open. She spun and cleaved the creature from shoulder to hip with Celerity. She stepped back to take a moment to find an opening to spear it through the head.

Except she didn't need to. The thing fell onto its side with a gurgling death cry. From the massive wound in it's chest oozed rotting, putrid entrails that made Judith's stomach do a flip. She put a hand over her mouth. Faster, but die more like normal things. Right.

"Incoming!"

Judith threw herself flat at the sound of Filia's voice. The massive beast that the succubus had gone to fight flew over her head and smashed into the side of a building, crushing the mutant that Filia had killed first flat. With a squealing roar the monster crashed onto the stone below.

Filia lighted down beside Judith. "So guess what that thing probably was before yesterday."

As the monster got back up, Judith picked out floppy ears, a broad muzzle, and a pair of large, twisted horns. "Is that a steer?"

"Probably was waiting for his turn at the butcher's block before things got all eldritch up in here," Filia said, the ends of her shadow chains sparking as they clinked on the stones below. "Wonder if he got his would-be cook first?"

Judith scowled. "Your callousness disgusts me."

"Hey, somebody's got to keep the mood light, and let's be honest, it isn't going to be you." Filia rolled her shoulders as the mutated cow got to its feet, it's flesh seared with blackened burn marks from the Infernal's weapons. "Are you a filet kind of girl or a T-bone?"

Rather than dignifying that with an answer, Judith surged across the square. She kicked off the ground just as the mutant cow rose fully and looked up at her with not one, but three pairs of eyes that had sprouted from the sides of it's head.

Celerity's blade stabbed down right between all six of those bloodshot orbs, driving deep into the thing's skull with a loud crunch. Judith put all her weight on the weapon and drove it deep, seeking brain. The steer lowed, a sound that hit Judith's ears like nails on a chalkboard, but she hung on grimly, lighting the blade on fire with holy magic to be sure. Slowly, the thing's thrashing slowed, then ceased, it's bulk crashing down with Judith still atop it. She ripped Celerity free and shook the dark, disgusting gore from it's consecrated length.

Filia's chains snapped back into her shadow veil. "Well, you gotta cook it more than that. I'm an Infernal, sure, but I like my meat with a bit more sear on it."

"I don't want to talk about how you like your meat," Judith huffed as she stomped past the succubus towards the man on the ground. He was already dead, his face frozen as his eyes stared sightlessly at the distant horizon. Judith murmured a prayer for his soul and brushed her fingers over his eyes.

"Papa!" a child's voice wailed. A moment later, the little girl hurried out of the alleyway, her mother chasing after her. "Papa!"

Judith moved in front of the dead man, intercepting the little girl and holding her against her legs. "This is not something you should see, child," she said in Italian. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Filia move to cover the dead man with a broad wing.

The little girl's mother was there a moment later, grabbing hold of her daughter and crushing her to her. She looked between Judith and Filia with eyes that were fearful, grateful and confused all at the same time. "You're not one of them," she said. Her eyes lingered on Filia, with her red skin, bat wings, and whip-like tail. "But then again, what are you?"

"I am Judith Magdalena, Knight of the Templar Order, Blade of the Church, and servant of His Holiness and the Lord on high," Judith said, tugging her crucifix out of her neckline and showing it to the woman. The metal winked in the sunlight. "My...companion is named Filia."

"Hey, I have titles too, you know," Filia said.

Judith ignored her. "Please, I was abducted at the start of all this and have no idea what's happening," she said to the woman. "What are these creatures? Why are they mutated like this?"

The woman clutched her young daughter to her, the both of them shaking like leaves in a gale. "They are... were our neighbors here." She swallowed hard, her effort to keep her voice steady plain on her face. "Yesterday, when the sky darkened, we thought the end had come. But then the barrier around the city went up, and our entire block was ripped from the ground and brought up here into the sky. All we knew was the city was turning upside-down, and we could do nothing but watch. There's no power anymore, and no cell phone signal from the outside. All we could was try to hang on and figure out if there was anything we could do."

She looked past Judith at Filia's wing covering the dead man. "But after only an hour or so, things went wrong. We heard screaming, and all rushed to find out what it was. My friend Stella was running from her husband, who had been driven mad. We locked him in a room, and after a while he became silent. When one of us went to check on him, we discovered he had... changed." She pointed. "Into one of those things."

Filia made a face and looked to the side at the mutant Judith had cleaved open. "That's just lovely," she muttered.

"We ran and hid," the woman said, tears welling up in her eyes. "Me, Stella and Stefano. We hid as we heard more and more screaming around us. Every time we looked outside we saw more of those things."

"The green men hurt my papa," the little girl whimpered.

"We wanted to stay hidden, but they found us. If you hadn't shown up when you had..." The woman shuddered, running her hand through her daughter's hair. "But... Stefano..."

Judith looked behind her. Filia grimaced and looked at the dead man behind her wing. "He's already gone," the succubus said. "And he's in condition for an open-casket, either." She snapped her fingers and conjured a small flame. "But these things look like the type to do disgusting crap with the dead, so with your permission..."

The woman gently pressed her daughter's head into her body and nodded, closing her eyes. Filia drew a line down the dead man's body with her flaming finger, igniting his body with hellfire. It burned bright for several heartbeats, leaving only ashes behind along with a human-shaped outline on the cobblestones. The succubus rose, shaking out her fingers. "Done."

Judith forced herself to relax her body language. "We're looking for others. Warriors like myself who should be defending the city from these things. Do you have any idea where we may find them?"

The woman sniffed, her eyes lingering on the scorched outline. "I am not sure." She thought for a moment, then raised her arm and pointed towards another floating landmass in the distance, lower to the ground than the one they stood on. "We saw some commotion happen there earlier, but then all was silent. I've nothing more to offer you, unfortunately."

In the distance, Judith heard that awful clicking screech again. The little girl whimpered and hugged her mother tighter. "Get someplace safe," Judith said. "And thank you for your guidance. We'll take it from here."

The woman got to her feet. "You'll put this right, won't you?"

Judith's hand clenched on the pommel of Celerity. "I cannot bring the dead back. But I will beat back this darkness. I swear it."

It was as good a vow as she could give. The woman nodded and hurried away, quieting her crying daughter with strokes of her head as she vanished into a nearby building. Judith sighed, then cleared her mind and readied herself for battle.

"You do realize we have no idea how to put this city back together, right?" Filia said, shattering her zen state. "Or if it's even possible in the first place."

Judith set her jaw. "They did not need to know that."

"You know a lie by omission is still a lie, right?" Filia clicked her teeth. "And if I recall correctly, lying is a sin. Naughty naughty."

"Be. Silent."

"Then again, not as if the Church isn't the worst offender of making false promises, now is it?"

The pommel of Celerity dug hard enough into Judith's hand she thought her knuckles might pop free. Before she could say anything, several more of the green mutant creatures sprang around the corner, sightless eyes searching for them. "Perfect timing," Judith seethed, stomping towards them. "I need to kill something."

She heard Filia snicker behind her, then the rattle of the succubi's chains swinging free. Judith kicked off and ran down the first green monster she saw, shearing off its head with a precise swing. Filia was there a moment later, tearing into the small pack with wide, cleaving swings of her chains. Judith worked around her, killing with impunity until nothing was left standing save for the two of them and her racing heart had calmed down.

"Got it out of your system?" Filia asked.

"Enough that I can focus on the task at hand," Judith said, brushing a stray bang of her hair behind her ear. "Come. Let's get over to that other island."

Filia looked in the direction of the ocean for a moment before realizing what Judith was talking about and following behind her. "Ugh, we're going to have to come up with some terms so we don't get confused about anything. LIke those green things. What should we call them?"

"Dead," Judith deadpanned.

The succubus snorted. "You must be such a hit at parties."

"Do you think this is a game?" Judith snapped, whirling around to face Filia. Her sword snapped into her hand, the blade a millimeter from the succubi's throat. "Look around you, Infernal! This is my home, my people, my duty! I will not have you act so flippantly when all I hold dear is being torn asunder around me!"

"Watch where you point that thing, sister," Filia warned, her eyes flashing. "Remember I can snap you like a twig if I want to. See how far you get saving everyone with a broken spine."

Judith knew the succubus was right, and fought down the urge to ram the blade of Celerity right through her smug mouth. She fought to keep her voice under control. "If you're going to help me, then help me." She spun around and stomped off. "You've got wings and I don't."

A moment later, strong arms hooked under Judith's arms and bore her aloft. Filia's mouth was set in a thin line as she flew across the gap between the floating landmasses. Judith relaxed and tried not to think about the long fall to the ground below should the succubus change her mind. The realization brought a twinge of fear to her, and she kept a firm grip on Celerity. If she was going to take a fall, she'd be damn sure to take the succubus with her.

"Verdes," Filia said.

Judith looked up. "Excuse me?"

"The mutant zombie things. They're green, so let's call them verdes."

Their destination seemed a long way off. "Fine," Judith conceded. "Verdes it is."

A few minutes later, Filia set Judith down, but remained in the air as the Templar got her bearings. She turned in place slowly, studying the street signs and the nearby buildings, until it clicked where she was. "The Pantheon should be around the corner that way," she said, pointing.

Filia lofted down the avenue until she could see around the edge of the building there. "Good navigation. Though it looks like the place has seen better days."

Judith caught up with her a moment later. She'd spent many a late night inside the circular dome of the Pantheon with her Templar brethren during training. They held sparring sessions using moonlight filtering through the aperture in the domed ceiling as a ring - if you stepped outside the ring, you lost. The mighty columns that had held up the front portico had been destroyed, the front of the building fallen to ruin in a mighty pile of rubble, and the sight of it made Judith's heart twist.

Scattered around the Piazza della Rotonda outside the structure were corpses. Some were of people wearing street clothes, others wore the arms and armor of Templars. Most of them, however, were the verde mutants, their disgusting features warped and twisted by holy magics and sacred armaments. "At least your pals took a bunch of them with them," Filia said, slowly flying over the carnage.

Judith gently rolled over a dead Templar, minding the copious amount of blood on his front. As she did, the half of the man's brain still in his skull slowly listed forward, almost falling out of the cavity in his head. His face and the entire front part of his skull were simply gone. She gagged and let him back down. "This is a nightmare," she murmured, getting up and crossing herself.

"Hey, check it out," Filia called from above her, perched on a nearby roof like a gargoyle. "The roof of the Pantheon is caved in."

Judith followed her pointing finger. The rooftop of the old building did seem to be a bit lower than it usually was. She moved away from the scattered bodies towards the wreckage of the portico, then hopped up on one of the collapsed columns. The old stone scraped under her boot as she scrambled up the rubble to what remained of the top.

A shadow flitted over her as Filia lofted off the building she was on directly to what remained of the dome. Judith scrambled up next to her a moment later. The iconic circular dome of the Pantheon had collapsed in on itself, the rubble forming bowl-shaped indentation in the ruins with a pile of debris at the center. "What could have happened here?" she wondered aloud.

Filia cocked her head, her brow furrowing. "I think I hear something."

Judith stilled for a moment. "I don't hear anything."

The succubus moved lithely across the rubble, dropping to all fours and scaling the side of the center pile like a cat. "I think... yeah, there it is." She tapped on the rubble, then stood up. "Something tapped back."

"Friend or foe?"

Filia spun her arm in a circle a few times as if she was winding up to throw an opening pitch at a baseball game. "One way to find out." With a cry of effort she drove her arm into the pile of rubble, masonry shattering under her inhuman strength. Judith stood watch as Filia worked, her thin arms heaving large chunks of the once mighty dome out of the way.

"Almost there," the succubus grunted after a moment, before hauling a big chunk of masonry out of the way. "Just gotta-"