Gates of Sheol

Firaga shook her head awake, reorienting herself to reality. Within the ruins of Dessix, the rebels battled tooth and nail with Jezebel. Shyrin threw knives at the demon while attack helicopters and spider tanks besieged the wendigo. Jezebel drew a card that became a giant red greatsword that deflected the explosives. She then threw two cards on the ground that morphed into mechanical demons like Salamandra, Netherdraco, and Edgemoth.

One was a giant body of a black widow spider with two deer heads on top. One head of fire breathed flames, while the other of ice breathed frost. The other demon was a large camel with three big humps. The camel opened its human teeth, revealing a Gatling gun that shredded the poor Shima Enagas.

"How long was I out?" Firaga blinked until Shyrin dove into her to prevent the deer spider's frost breath from freezing her.

Thanks, Shyrin. I know what to do! She signed as the spider tanks blew up the deer spider's ice head.

"Alright! You're gonna get it now, Jezebel!" Firaga bellowed.

Everyone watched Firaga as she picked up the quinolone syringes Dr. Eins had given her. Firaga threw a levofloxacin dose at Jezebel, but it missed and plummeted to the ground.

"You got to be kidding! Again!" Firaga chucked another to fail again.

Shyrin rolled her eyes as Jezebel, the deer spider, and the Gatling camel snorted in laughter.

"Another one!" Before Firaga could waste her last syringes, Shyrin stopped her.

Shyrin gestured to hand the syringes to her. She then threw the three levofloxacin doses right into Jezebel's head. The wendigo cried in pain as the quinolones were injected. The Gatling camel and deer spider stopped laughing when swarms of Shima Enaga tackled them into a sea of white puffballs.

"Ow!" Firaga felt a slap in the face from Shyrin. What was that for?

Some aim, girl.

I'm getting better!

Yeah, sure thing.

Jezebel shook her head in pain as the helicopters blasted missiles into her. The wendigo drew ten cards that turned into red swords that darted into the pilots, sending the helicopters crashing down.

It's almost dawn! Firaga pointed at the incoming sunlight. Dr. Eins said the drugs would give her a bad sunburn! We need to hold Jezebel off!

"Firaga! You could've had so much more!" Jezebel swung her greatsword to swat the Shima Enagas. "You're a special girl, yet you refuse a better lifestyle, better job, and a better husband! How can you be satisfied with the meager things you have?"

"Wow, Jezebel. You're so materialistic," Firaga fired her shotgun at the demon. "That's what makes you so pathetic!"

***

Firaga and Shyrin led the rebels to fight Jezebel and her two monsters as Senri fought Sunder and Valiesha. The lamia slashed her claws against Sunder's katana as Valiesha fired her pistols at the serpentine body. The guns failed to damage Senri's armored scales as she sliced her long snake tongue like a sword. Chirus took Arkanis away from the battle, bandaging his broken legs. Both girls felt painful cuts from Senri's tongue and claws.

"Yes?" Chirus felt Arkanis tap his shoulder.

Arkanis weakly pointed at the slithering Senri.

"What about her? I'm not sure how to help."

Arkanis then pointed at his waist, gesturing his hands into a belt shape. When he pointed at Senri again, Chirus noticed that Senri's scepter coiled around her waist.

"Is that what helps her become a lamia?"

When Arkanis nodded, Chirus looked around the battlefield for a weapon. He spotted a Skelengel assault rifle on the scorched ground. Chirus grabbed it and aimed it at Senri's waist. He ran into range and fired at the scepter, but it wasn't an easy target. Senri turned to Chirus and slashed her tongue at him, but Sunder stepped forward to protect him.

"I owe you, Sunder!" Valiesha yelled. "Chirus! Stay back! This is our fight!

"How curious that you dumped Chirus, but now you wish to be with him again!" Senri whipped her tail at Valiesha to send her flying. "You little hypocrite!"

"You're one to talk!" Valiesha threw a grenade at the serpent. "Tricking us girls to give you our boys for your sacrifices!"

"I gave you all Endromen! Yet none of you were happy with them!" Senri slithered from the explosive.

"Men are not things to program!"

"Says the one who dumped Chirus for one! You think he would forgive you?"

"Firaga helped me learn from my mistakes and grow from my immaturity!" Valiesha jumped from Senri's claws. "Whether he forgives me or not is his choice to make. As long as God knows I have repented, that's what matters!"

Sunder threw a smoke bomb at Senri, blinding her. As Senri looked for Valiesha, Sunder slashed the coiled scepter off Senri's waist. When it broke, Senri's enlarged serpentine body shrunk to her normal human legs. The Matriarch's tongue, claws, and Cheshire cat fangs vanished. Chirus told Sunder what Arkanis shared.

"What happened to my powers?" Senri looked at her human form. "How did you all know my scepter-"

She then glared at her undead husband. "Arkanis! Did you tell them, you snake?"

Arkanis shuddered in silence. Valiesha fired at Senri, shooting her in the chest while she was distracted.

Senri roared in pain when Valiesha blasted her until her pistols ran out of ammo. The Matriarch, however, had one trick up her sleeve. Before she could die, she faced her palm at Arkanis. The pain transfer spell healed her injuries but inflicted them on Arkanis. Her husband was the one who was shot to death while Senri's body was intact.

Chirus shook Arkanis' body, but it was no use. In tears, Arkanis pat Chirus' head before he died.

Y-you'll be a great doctor, Chirus... God will bless you...

"Senri! Did you just let your husband take the hit for you?" Chirus cried.

"You turned him against me!" Senri pointed an accusing finger at Chirus.

"Senri! You've done that yourself!" Valiesha reloaded her pistols.

"You won't take my husband! My marriage! My happy life away from me!" Senri faced her hands at her dead husband.

Arkanis' remains were dismantled into bones as they aligned within Senri's command. Her husband's bones turned into a skeletal throne seat that walked on three legs. Senri stood on top of it, holding Arkanis' rib to turn it into a bone sword of green fire.

"Stop it, Senri... This has gone far enough..." Valiesha begged.

"Everyone who can live a happy life except for me? Everyone should die!" Senri howled as the tripod throne drew two bone tentacles that fired lasers.

Valiesha and Chirus fired at the bony tripod throne, dodging the lasers. Sunder jumped onto the throne seat, slashing her katana in a duel against Senri's flaming green blade.

"You suck, Senri!" Sunder held her blade in a deadlock with the Matriarch. "No joke. Out of all the gangsters I've fought, you're the worst!"

***

With the sun rising, Jezebel felt her skin burn. The quinolones from Dr. Eins' antibiotics took effect as the Shima Enagas suffocated the Gatling camel and deer spider within their swarms. Jezebel activated cards to shield herself, but the spider tanks blew them up. The wendigo ran toward the mansion ruins for cover as her dress of muscles deteriorated.

The Enaga rebels chased her down, gunning the demon with everything they had. Jezebel blocked with her greatsword, but Shyrin jumped on top to stab her eyes. Firaga shot Jezebel's burning hand into pieces, disarming her greatsword.

Jezebel crawled into the ruined buildings of Dessix, but the helicopters rained rockets to ensure she had nowhere to run. Jezebel sizzled in fire as the Shima Enagas surrounded her, spitting blue fireballs at her. When Jezebel crawled for her tarot cards, Firaga took them.

"F-Firaga, dear! I-it's not too l-late!" The burning wendigo mumbled. "Y-you can use my cards! U-use them to get the happy life you deserve-"

Firaga tore the deck into pieces. "No thanks. Go to hell, Jezebel!"

"Y-you filthy women of Yahweh!" The charred Wendigo cried. "M-mark my words! A-as long as there are women who doubt men, I-I'll always return!"

"No, Jezebel. You are wrong. God designed man and woman to be together with each other's strengths and flaws, " Firaga huffed. "As long as there are girls who believe in their boys and accept them for who they are, you'll never return!"

After hearing Firaga's words, Jezebel's blackened body disintegrated in the sunlight. When Jezebel died, Senri's necromancy powers over Arkanis' remains faded. The skeletal tripod throne collapsed, leaving Senri to tumble into a tantrum.

"Everyone is getting in my way!" Senri stomped on Arkanis' remains. "Why, God? Why? It's not fair!"

The sight disgusted the girls.

"It's over, Senri," Valiesha declared. "And you know the penalty for your debt with satan!"

Senri gasped as she heard demonic spirits singing in a deep chorus. The Enaga girls huddled away from Senri as green fire surrounded her.

"No, no! This can't be!" Senri covered her ears from the singing spirits as the sky turned black.

From the dark sky came down swarms of horrific voodoo and tiki masks that chanted their bass voices in rhythm. Masks with nails impaled into their faces and arms protruding where the eyes should be descended towards the Matriarch.

"F-friends!" Senri shivered nervously.

The many faces of Baal grinned their fangs at her.

"N-no! I-I wanted my happy life!" Senri panicked. "D-didn't feed enough boys to all of you?"

From the ground, red-eyed magnet dolls crawled towards Senri. They slammed tiki drums onto the earth, lifting their mallets to play.

"Hold on, please!" Senri begged the singing masks that spiraled around her. "I-I can feed you all more boys to eat! I-I promise! I just want the life with Arkanis, which God denied me!"

Senri flinched when the giant face of a golden calf arose from the ground behind her. The face of satan gnashed its teeth at the Matriarch.

"No! No! Please! Have mercy on me!" Senri backed away from the cow's face.

The masks chanted their bass voices louder and faster as the golden cow's mouth opened into a flaming furnace. A giant hand engraved with people's faces emerged from the cow's flaming mouth.

"Stop! Please! I'll feed you all the men of this world!" Senri ran away from the hand in vain.

When the hand of faces grappled her from afar, the magnet dolls slammed giant mallets on their tiki drums in rhythm with the vocal bass of the voodoo masks. Valiesha, Chirus, and the rebels watched the hand drag Senri across the floor. Senri whined and begged as the chanting voodoo masks and drumming magnet dolls celebrated her entrance into the mouth of Sheol.

"A-Arkanis! Please tell God to spare me!" Senri howled at the dark sky in tears. "Please forgive me, Jesus! Please!"

"I shall tell you. I never knew you. Depart from me," Everyone heard the voice of the Lord boom against Senri. "It is finished!"

Senri screamed in tears as the hand shoved her into the flaming mouth of the golden calf. When the calf shut its mouth, the voodoo spirits and drumming magnet dolls faded as if they never existed. Once Senri's soul was dragged into the gates of Sheol, the sky's blackness faded into dawn.

Valiesha and the rebels jumped for joy, thanking God the nightmare was over. Chirus and Valiesha kissed in tears, happy to be together again. The darkness over the country of Nyvron was lifted. Shyrin, Firaga, and the other girls were eager to peacefully reunite with their boyfriends and rebuild Nyvron.