Children of the Clergy

Season 1 | Episode 19 | Pack ties

⚠TW: Details of blood, injury and death⚠

"What in the nine rings...?"

Errapel had just appeared back in the infirmary in a much worse state than he'd been when he'd left. His eyes were dim, a small hint of red visible in them now, and the white flames within his skin seemed as if they'd died down. He was panting heavily and rubbing his chest.

"I have returned to do two things: Remove the Ether from his mind and retrieve Faust, since it will no longer work to summon me."

Primo, Terzo, and Seren all beemed at him and Papa Nihil sighed with relief.
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A few nurses dragged the Ether into the smaller chapel as it faught like a wild cat against them. It screamed at them in infernal but, with Anya and Seren, and all the rest of the Clergy's witches and sorcerers, focusing their magics on it, it couldn't escape their restraints.

They chained it to the floor in the center of the room and went to join the others in a circle around it. Anya and Seren stood together, ready to step in and help if Errapel started to struggle. Papa Nihil and Seestor Imperator stood next to them, observing. Primo and Terzo stood on the other side of the room. Primo's ghouls stood behind them, quietly growling at the Ether as it pulled at the chains that held it.

Errapel slowly strode towards it, attempting to mentally prepare himself for the immense power he would be having to remove and banish back to its home dimension. He stood in front off the small boy, towering over him, "Hello again, lost one." The Ether growled at him, recognizing who he was trying to talk to. Thin, red lines covered every inch of its vessel's skin and its eyes glowed with a dark red light. Primo's ghouls hissed back and their Papa hurriedly tryed to hush them, "You may not be able to hear me, but I can feel you. You will be safe soon, I promise."

The tall demon reached out its hand and held it in front of the Ether's face, beginning to mutter the demish spell to remove it from the small boy's mind. It screached in pain, shutting its eyes firmly as a dark red light began to extract itself from its vessel's body and flow towards the healer's hand.

The lights in the chapel flickered and the ghouls growled loader, making pained noises as the electrical flashing continued.

The Ether slowly quieted down as the spell began to take effect.

Primo and Terzo watched in awe. If the spell worked, than they would finally be able to not worry about the Ether and just talk with their brother again. That was all they really wanted.

Seren worried her bottom lip with her teath, noticing the magics of the spell beginning to shake as if they were about to snap. She gently nudged Anya, sending the head nurse her warning. She nodded her understanding, turning to face the demon in the center of the chapel again.

Errapel shuddered. The magic he was using to remove the Ether from his mind felt foreign to him and the knowledge of what to do or say felt like it belonged to someone else. Because it did.

He panted, his hand quivering as the spell continued. It was beginning to become too much for him, but he could still press on and wasn't quite near losing his grip on the situation.

However, Anya suddenly ran over to him, placing her hand on the demon's back and handing over her energy to him. Seren went to follow her but she froze as Errapel's hold suddenly faltered and Secondo let out a nightmarish scream, accompanied by the Ether.

Primo gasped, pulling Terzo into his side as his younger brother hugged him tight. Tears began to run down his cheeks at the sound of their brother suffering.

The healer demon pressed on as best as he could, but not even his and the head nurse's efforts combined seemed to be helping anymore. Instead, they were just putting the Emeritus boy in more pain.

Primo heard a low snarl from beside him and he turned to see Motley unsheathing his wings.

The large multi ghoul suddenly charged at Anya, knocking her to the floor before grabbing her and taking off. He flew as high as he could, slamming her into the ceiling and holding her there as he continued to hiss and shriek at her. She coughed out a few breaths as he rapped his tail around her neck, squeezing it tightly.

Errapel shook violently as the magics of the spell snapped and the Ether crawled right back into Secondo, taking advantage of its vessel's vulnerable state and forcing him to give it full control.

Primo screamed at Motley to stop while the rest of his ghouls howled their approval of his actions.

Seren ran to the center of the chapel, noticing the tall demon passed out of the floor. She knelt beside him, swiftly flooding him with healing magic.

The Ether suddenly shot out a spear of its blood-like form directly at the ceiling.

An ear-spliting shriek escaped Motley's mouth as the sharpened appendage sliced through his chest, impaling him.

Primo froze.

The Ether withdrew itself from him as it collapsed to the floor, the multi ghoul and Anya falling from their position in the air. Primo quickly gave his order to Zephyr who ran over and caught Anya before she could hit the ground. Motley, however, collided with the firm marble floor with full impact, probably breaking quite a few bones, considering the cracking and snapping sounds.

"Motley!" Primo screamed. He bolted over to his ghoul, kneeling in front of him as he stared into his shadowed eyes.

His chest was layered with blood which flowed freely out of the large crater in his stomach. His uniform was torn away around the scar and his limbs were subtly bent in inhumane angles.

Primo felt hot tears stream down his face as he stared at his fallen ghoul.

The rest of his pack crept over, joining Primo beside him on the floor. They all knew there was nothing to be done. No hope of saving him now.

He was emotionless. Not a sound escaped his mouth as he lay there, staring up at his Papa and his pack.

Even now, as his soal began to fade, the control of his mask never faltered.