(Astrid's P.O.V.)

So far, I remember Kathrine barging in here to tell me we were gonna best the crap out of the Apostles et cetera et cetera then I scurried off to sleep and calm my pained head once again, but then at some point in my supposed slumber some irritating noise just couldn't be ignored...

"Did you idiot just deal with it already!"
"You die too you even moronic-Er idiot!"
"Moronic-er isn't a word moron!"

Awoken due to the incredibly disturbing sound of "die," and "idiot" repeatedly echoing in my already aching ears, I glared at the imbeciles before me. "Hey...everyone..." I cooed ever so sweetly. "DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE." My face morphed into a scowl.

"First of all," I began the lecture I too despised yet gave.
"Why the hell are you all in this room?" I asked with a pissed-off tone.
"Astrid...uhh," Kathrine started nervously. "'Cause we kinda had to relocate due to the screaming in some other room..."
"That is the most idiotic excuse I have ever heard...aside from that extremely idiotic excuse of a man Percy gave us before..." I concluded.
"And why did you decide to wake me up in the process? Yeah, I know you're so gonna say that," Percy said. "We didn't decide that...it just happened."
My face burned up.
"I would've phrased my question better than that. Something like 'and why are you here waking me up' or something," I retorted.
I was flustered once more.
"Hmmm....good grief....what do we have here...why are you so...red...Astrid?" Magnus suspiciously asked.
"I'm just sick, Magnus." Stupid answer...
"Totally, yes, so true. Back to our topic." Percy ended that nonsense. Thank you very much Percy!

"The Apostles," Clint began.
"Twelve people of this game who each possess the ability to wield one of the forbidden spells. Aside from that, they each contain a piece of the essence of the game." I finished for him.
"Quit flexing, Astrid. How'd you know?" Tiberius asked pissed-off-ily.
"I heard you, you noisy goddamned idiots!"

"Yeah, yeah, we get it." Magnus butt in.
"Back to topic...again please..." Kathrine begged us for our compliance.
"Ah!" I announced stupidly. "Best way to get our stupid ideas out is to—"
"Complete each other's sentences." Percy demonstrated.
"Like so," Kathrine gestured towards us.
"But," Clint added. "Just one word per person."
"Sure," Tiberius nodded then looked at Magnus.
"Sure?"

~

Order: Magnus - Clint - Tiberius - Me - Kathrine - Percy

"In"
"Order"
'To"
"Defeat"
"Apostles"

"No! Idiot! You forgot the 'to'!"
"To?"
"Shoot whoops"
"You Forgot the 'the'!"
"Restart!"

"In"
"Order"
'To"
"Defeat"
"The"
"Apostles"
"Comma"

"Please don't recite the goddamned punctuation dammit...RESTARTTTTT!!"

And that's take two. I give up, so let's fast forward to the actual sentences we formed...that somehow somewhat made sense after all that nonsense...

"To - defeat - the - twelve - Apostles - we - must - counter - the - forbade - forbade? - forbidden - yes - forbidden - spells - and - get - rid - of - that - essence - thing - this - is - so - specific"
"But - how - question - mark - what - didn't - we - say - don't - do - that"
"We - should - use - spells - that - they - use - if - I - Wait - we - make - any - sense"
"Nani - what - do - you - mean - use - their - spells"
"Forbidden - spells"
"No - yes - yes - no - yes - no"
"Yes"
"No"
"Fine - explain"
"We - should - go - against - them - with - the - forbidden - spells"
"Fight - fire - with - fire"
"Ooh - smart"
"I know right! That's my girl!"

*silence*

"NANI NANI NANI WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY PERCY!?"
"Ah frick...the cats're outta the bag..." Percy said.
"One cat. That's you." I replied. "Bai."

I ran away as fast as I could. I relocated to Percy and Magnus' room to avoid all contact with those morons.

Now, I was in a place within all my control. I have finally achieved a state of peace in my solemn mind wherein I can thoroughly think through what I must. Percy is currently out of the question. Our top priority should be devising the Apostles' cruel defeat.

Defeat does not equal demise. Victory requires no bloodshed. To defeat is to win the battle, not the war- to exceed your foe merely once, not forever.

We came up with the idea to fight fire with fire, so we might as well expound on that idea. We counter the Apostles with what we opt to be their strength: the forbidden spells. We each learn one by heart and master one, then we soon destroy the Apostles by their own power. However, will we really be able to?

To master a forbidden spell is to perfect a sacred art, and to perfect a sacred art means to devote your mind, body, and soul to it. Will the sole motivation of destruction really be enough to get us through these challenges?

I got up, and went out the door. I walked up to our room, and said "Guys, if we really will fight fire with fire, do we have sufficient reason behind our cause?"

"What do you mean?"
"We're fighting for this with fire for the sole purpose of victory. We, I absolutely guarantee you, are not fighting for each other. We're fighting for ourselves. I'm like a hundred percent sure we won't be able to master the spells."
Everyone looked dejected.
"I mean," I said. "At least within an insanely short period of time."
Percy smirked.

"Let's go suffer a whole bunch of months of intensive training!"

~

"Flow, the boiling blood rages. Burn, as the heavens protest. Answer, o almighty goddess, who heeds all pleas of distress. Our powers shall coalesce, to you, I humbly acquiesce. I summon, oh puissant highness, a creature of divine interest:" I recited perfectly. My whole body was encompassed by these striking blue flames. I opened my eyes, and saw a world of absolute bluishness as I finished my spell.

"El Diablo."

The demon: a demonic creature forged within one's imagination. The limits of the Summoner spell are bound by the imagination of the caster.

Lo and behold, before me, a mighty creature of horror- a disgustingly created abomination: a behemoth. Alas, after three whole goddamned tiring months, I have successfully performed this spell. We split ourselves up into various places: I to the Xenean Ruins, Kathrine to the Berevean Sea, Percy to the Aceon Valley, and the three idiots to the Bottomless Canyon of Eskia. Of course, we couldn't leave them alone or they probably would've died. This is how much faith we put in our oh so trustworthy with their own lives comrades.

Our emergency plan was once you were in grave danger, alert the person closest to you with a red flare in the sky towards the East, then the person who, you have contacted will join you in your battle after alerting the next person with an orange flare, etc, and when you're done, send out a pink flare.

And so I did.

The behemoth I created looked up to the sky at the very moment my pink flare broke apart like fireworks. To the East, Kathrine sent out a blue flare to signal she was coming over, as she had finished before me.

I met up with Kathrine, and we walked the path of the pink flare Percy sent out.

"So," He asked. "How was it? Were your spells awesome or what? Why is it even so quiet?"
"Well uh," I answered. "I suppose. I mean it would probably be awesom-er or uh more awesome if we were in actual combat y'know?"
"True, true," Kathrine said. "So, what in the hell happened to those three idiotic morons??"
"Meh, Who even cares about them..." I said.

And as if on cue, a blue flare was sent out ahead of us.

"So...we're probably all thinking the same thing..." Percy said.
"Yes," I replied and Kathrine just said it out loud. "They're either done, or just spent three whole months trying to cast that goddamned easy spell."
Percy shrugged.
"It's probably the latter..." I remarked truthfully.
"She couldn't be more right." Percy defended.

And indeed I couldn't have been even more right than I was right then. They actually did spend three whole months getting that insanely easy to cast blue flare out of their hands this whole entire time like the moronic idiots they were said to be and actually are. I have never been so disappointed to be proven true in my whole entire life.

"We worked our butts off to cast some hard goddamned spells to cast for three whole goddamned months and you idiots worked nothing off to cast the most basic spell in the history of magic?? Just how low can your idiocy stoop down? Below zero?? How can one even be that stupid?!" Percy yelled.
"..."

And the idiots couldn't reply.

"Well...shall we demonstrate the spells to each other then ?" I asked.
"Yeahhhh let's go do that!" Kathrine replied.
"Then who goes first," Percy asked.
"I'll go first I guess I mean why not y'know?" I volunteered (shockingly).

We hastily approached the most barren land we could find so that we wouldn't wreak havoc upon anything and destroy anything and get sued for our stupidity when Percy finally told me to go.

I heaved a heavy breath, and gulped.

"Flow, the boiling blood rages. Burn, as the heavens protest. Answer, o almighty goddess, who heeds all pleas of distress. Our powers shall coalesce, to you, I humbly acquiesce. I summon, oh puissant highness, a creature of divine interest:" I recited from memory. I was surrounded by electric blue flames of the purgatory that filled my entire vision. My closed eyelids were opened and welcomed into a world of bluishness, 'Til all hell went loose and the flames turned a vibrant red, as I finished my spell.

"El Diablo."

"Woahhhh Astrid that's hella cool," Kathrine awed.
"Yeah I feel like I suck in comparison to your spell..." Percy said.

I felt happy but my eyes were still stained with that striking color of crimson blood. It was as though I had experienced a death of which the blood of the victim had been embedded into my vision as remembrance of cruel thens and reminder of worse tomorrows. It looked like hell- like after all hope came despair, after all peace came suffering, after all joy came sorrow, always.

It made it seem like all we had fought for is for naught, and all that we ever will fight for is for the same.

However, isn't what this hellish vision for, prosperity? So after despair comes hope, after suffering comes peace, and after sorrow comes joy? It may continue in a cycle of pain then joy but at least there still is joy. I want this monster to become horrid, a vision of absolute disgust.

I want it to become hell itself.

The behemoth appeared before me once more, indescribable, speechlessly beautiful, yet horrid, traumatizing and petrifying. It simply had that inane ability to render one totally speechless. It was as though we had witnessed the revelation spoken of in the gospels- the revelation of the end of all else besides the one true god of whom is undoubtedly unknown to us. It was a cruel sight. It was spectacular yet splendidly terrifying, tormenting, yet absolutely enlightening. We had witnessed the gospel stories' vision of hell, and relived it in our minds- we had borne the pains of a history that should've never been relived, but was.

Yes, indescribable it is, indeed. We had only witnessed this phenomenon in our minds as we gazed into the behemoth's eyes. It seemed to bring that aura of reliance I hadn't felt earlier when I had first cast it. It might be because I'm with the people I wanted to cast it for, the friends I wish to protect and lead to everlasting salvation.

Yes, my dear beloved friends. This is surprisingly not sarcasm, this, all hell we have went through and probably will go through again is for you, and me of course, but this is for you.

To all the crosses borne before, and to the hell we will rendezvous with once again, you were all not met for naught. To Percy, Kathrine, Magnus, Clint, and Tiberius, here's to a tomorrow of even worse hell!