Eyes of Crimson

"My Little Chickadee," Isrina placed a plush chickadee in Shien's hands. "Please be okay."

"The Grandmaster is with him. He's in good hands, trust me," Saitori held Isrina's shoulder.

"Shien and our dear masters are battling the Earth Sister," Enshiron pat Shien's head with Elysia. "Please guide them, Rhu Makiyu Eta!"

"Lord, Heavenly Father! Whatever scary witchcraft the Earth Sister has, she is nothing compared to your awesome glory!" Mivangeline folded her hands with Shien's in prayer. "Provide Shien and the Vultau masters strength and wisdom! In Jesus' name, you've already brought them victory!"

"Shien! Oreic! You got this!" All of Shien's friends huddled together. "Don't give up!"

***

"That's your plan, Shien?" Inveticus summoned an icicle shield against the sludge bombs of the pitcher plants. "But I don't have any better ideas."

"It's worth a shot!" Oreic scorched the spitting rafflesias with Enbu Fenix. "We must defeat Terrhina fast before Aian succumbs to the poison!"

"Okay! Let's move!" Shien instructed as the three split up.

"Lord, God! This is no longer a fight for my mind, this is a fight for the women crying in pain!" Shien called to God aloud. "Help us free them! Break the yoke of Terrhina's witchcraft in Jesus' name! Amen!"

As the trio began their brave operation, Terrhina and Aian hacked and slashed against each other at high speed on the high canyon. The Earth Sister backed off, playing the qanun to summon her rafflesia vines to attack. Grandmaster Aian charged through the evil plants, maintaining her breathing to slow the poison's circulation. She lunged for Terrhina's neck, but the rafflesia vines grappled her arms and legs tight.

"Why care about others, Aian? Look where it got you!" Terrhina watched Aian struggle against the plants' grip. "Why help Shien? He's merely a resource who supplies me with his precious blood, reviving my beautiful magic!"

Sh-Shien is Makiyu's creation, not a resource. The Grandmaster glared as Terrhina took her dizi and threw it off the canyon. H-he's not for sale. Neither are the women you've tortured.

"The Grandmaster chose to lay her life for one meaningless Shien," Terrhina opened her unnaturally wide mouth in Aian's face. "Ready to join my collection?"

Aian screamed, feeling her skin slowly peel off into Terrhina's mouth until a fireball set the Earth Sister on fire.

"Who did that?" Terrhina looked. "Who dared to burn my succulent skin?"

She spotted Oreic riding on Enbu Fenix toward her on one side while Des Manthesia flew Inveticus from another, using their aerial advantage to avoid the plants' attack range. Shien jumped over the tall trees, approaching Terrhina from a third direction while evading the chomping Venus fly traps.

"You think you're safe from my plants in the air, masters?" Terrhina played her strings. "Taste the glory of the sun!"

The pentagram sun fired solar beams at the three. Enbu Fenix and Des Manthesia spun in the air, evading the deadly heat rays.

"Go! Go! Go!" Shien shouted at the masters, bouncing across the trees to dodge the solar beams and the pursuing plants. "Don't give up!"

Shien, Oreic, and Inveticus are triangulating Terrhina from three directions! It's a good plan, but they can't get close if Terrhina's commanding her sun. I have to help! Aian then closed her eyes in meditation. Rhu Makiyu Eta, I know I'm near the end, but please provide me strength to save Shien's soul! No, not just Shien, all the girls enslaved by Terrhina's greed!

The Grandmaster ignored her pain and broke free from the vines. She dashed for the Earth Sister and parried against her qanun with rolling punches, buying time for the trio.

"Why haven't you succumbed to my poison? Give up!" Terrhina felt Aian punch a holy fist into her chest. "Just die already!"

The Earth Sister growled, holding her qanun leaf sword with both hands and thrusting it into Aian's stomach. "It's over for you!"

Aian held the qanun, piercing it through her body until Terrhina's hands were inside.

"What the? Why are you hurting yourself?" The Earth Sister noticed the three men closing in. "No, I must get the sun to protect me!"

Terrhina tried to pull her hands and instrument off Aian's body, but they didn't budge as Aian held her arms in place. "My hands are stuck! I can't play my song!"

You're staying until we decapitate you! Aian resisted her piercing injuries to hold Terrhina in place.

"Grandmaster!" Shien, Oreic, and Inveticus cried.

Don't stop! Take her down!

The Earth Sister roared, calling the jungle to launch skyscraper-tall sundews to attack the trio.

"Yuck!" Shien quickly jumped over the last tree to avoid the icky carnivorous plants and climbed the canyon to Terrhina. "At least without Terrhina's instrument, they have no coordination!"

"Let me go, Aian!" Terrhina cried as the Grandmaster used her pierced body to stop her qanun music.

Makiyu, give these men strength! Aian telepathically prayed.

As Shien scaled the canyon, Oreic and Inveticus flew past the rabid sundews that whipped their summons. Soon, the sundews wrapped onto Enbu Fenix and Des Manthesia to crush them.

"Jump! We're in range!" Inveticus told Oreic.

The two jumped off their summons as they exploded. Oreic and Inveticus landed behind Terrhina, who screamed uncontrollably as Aian bravely held her in place. Terrhina's sundews attacked the masters as they approached, but Oreic burned the plants with his flaming saxophone staff. Inveticus morphed his hulusi's windpipes into an icicle broadsword, slashing the uncoordinated plants into pieces.

As Terrhina tried kicking Aian to no avail, Shien arrived and jumped over the mad sundews.

"Avian Form: Wryneck Scythe!" Shien landed a sharp palm strike into Terrhina's neck. "This is for all the poor girls you've eaten for your selfish greed!"

"Grr! My neck is too hard for you to cut with that chickadee-sized palm!" The Earth Sister laughed at Shien's attempt to cut through.

"He's not alone!" Oreic dashed at Terrhina from the left, shoving his fiery staff into her neck. "One more, Inveticus!"

"One more!" Guardian Inveticus came from the right, piercing his ice blade inside.

Terrhina squealed when the three slowly cut their way through Terrhina's neck. However, it was tough as nails.

"Hahaha! You're all too weak to cut my head off!" The Earth Sister laughed. "All of you will die, and Shien's blood will give me beauty!"

Terrhina hissed in a demonic language, commanding floods of raging sundews to lunge for the necks of Shien, Oreic, and Inveticus.

Makiyu! You're holy! Help us rescue those lost souls! Aian endured her pain, holding Terrhina's hands in her bleeding stomach.

"Dear God! Bring them victory in Jesus' name!" Mivangeline prayed as the friends cheered for the team in real-life.

"Am I a dog?" Terrhina roared at the three men who struggled to cut her neck. "Is that why you come at me with such weak powers?"

Shien shouted in reply. "You come to us with your black magic. But we come to you in the name of the Lord of the armies of heaven. We come in the name of the God whom you have defied!"

Suddenly, the wrathful sundews burned in white fire. Terrhina looked to see spirits standing beside the three men. Millions of beautiful women of different races dressed in clean white robes, caressing Shien, Oreic, and Inveticus. The Earth Sister shuddered before the women she ate.

"No! What are you doing?" Terrhina squirmed. "Why do you help them? You should help me be the most beautiful!"

The millions of women all glared at Terrhina with crimson eyes, making her cringe as the men cut further through her neck.

"Stop! Please!" Terrhina turned her horned eyes to her pentagram sun. "Eszkeios! Help me!"

The red pentagram shattered as the sun shined hot white with a lion's face. It roared like a million lions at Terrhina, for God's wrath was upon her.

"No, Makiyu! Have mercy on my soul!" Terrhina begged as Shien and the masters roared with bloodshot eyes. "Please forgive me!"

Slice!

Shien, Oreic, and Inveticus sliced through the neck in a three-way triangle. Terrhina's head flung into the air as her headless body erupted with screaming souls. The millions of women spirits imprisoned for centuries bolted out of Terrhina's body in a catastrophic frenzy. Terrhina's body flailed in vain until crumbling into stone and ash.

Rhu Makiyu Eta, we thank you for this victory. Aian closed her eyes as the lethal poison stopped her heart. Those lost souls are coming home to you, and so am I. Makiyu, I pray you to bless the Vulpi in tomorrow's war ritual. In your holy name, I pray, even in death, Amen.

***

With Terrhina gone, Psyinen and Seniel watched Abriyamu squeal its baby faces as the wicked serpent burned to ash. Meanwhile, Shien woke beside his friends as Aian, Oreic, and Inveticus tumbled out of his mind.

"Yay! Shien!" Mivangeline, Isrina, and the friends hugged him tightly in tears.

"I heard all of you!" Shien cried and kissed Mivangeline. "Thank you. God helped us!"

Mivangeline embraced her boyfriend. "Amen! God is good!"

He then remembered Aian and looked for her. The Grandmaster lay with her body bleeding with purple wounds infected with poison. Saitori, Oreic, and Inveticus knelt beside her.

"Grandmaster Aian!" Shien sat with the masters. "Her body! The poison! Can we help her?"

"No. S-she's gone," Oreic cried. "Aian sacrificed herself so we could defeat Terrhina."

"A-Aian was truly our Grandmaster. She fulfilled her duty to the bitter end," Guardian Inveticus closed Aian's green eyes. "She chose to lay her life for Shien and those girls trapped within Terrhina's body."

Shien and Mivangeline held the Grandmaster's hand. "Aian, thank you."

General Saitori pat Aian's forehead in tears. "P-please rest in peace, my friend."

As Shien's friend group and the adults cried, they saw millions of spirits standing before them. The beautiful girls dressed in white watched them with friendly smiles.

"It is finished," Shien told them. "You're all free. Rest in peace with the Lord."

The group gasped when Aian's soul walked out of her body. She gave them one last smile and wave before walking with the other souls.

"Take care, Aian!" Everyone wept as Aian's spirit made a thumbs-up before a bright flash of light blinded the group.

End of Revelation Concerto Arc