The nerve of this guy to go back to SGA and spread lies about their demise in the Garden. Luke wanted to punch him so hard right now.
But watching his lies and false persona crumble like an ugly statue was just as satisfying.
"Yeah, we survived," Luke addressed the council but directed his attention at Victor. "After you left us there and escaped with the fruit from the Garden."
"You got it all wrong," Victor's sweat was visible through his overalls made of stone.
"If I recall you correctly," Dean Kay spoke with a heavy British accent. "You claimed that they were dead and that there was no possibility of them coming back."
"This Prima-Colloquium requires all statements spoken in this chamber to be truthful," the woman sitting behind House Michael spoke with an air of superiority that left Luke shaking.
"Leave it to the boys to lie," the lady representing House Orifiel whispered to her colleague.
The boys were shifting in their seats as if this betrayal set them back in a veiled competition between the boys and girls that were segregated at SGA.
But Victor wasn't done. "Easy to blame me for leaving, but it appears you did the same. Where's Nil?"
The Council looked to Luke for a response, but it was a touchy subject. "I tried to stop him from leaving, but an angel dressed in black took him."
"Took him?" the leader in the diamond tiara from House Anael spoke.
Luke nodded. The Deans looked at each other with grave looks on their faces as if the grim reaper had passed in front of them.
"You allowed one meager man dressed up in wings to steal a child from our school?" The female leader of House Raguel accused him.
"He wasn't a meager man, he was Lucifer and he had an army behind him."
"We shall table this discussion for another time," Dean Ammon interrupted by clearing his throat. "We will note for the record that Nil is not dead but lost."
"I concur, we have more immediate issues of betrayal to attend to," Dean Kay spoke. Once the deans laid down the law it was settled, although the women were disgruntled at the tabling of such an important matter as losing a student to the enemy. But how could Dean Ammon know that Nil was okay in the hands of the archenemy of God? The Dean knew more than he was letting on.
Victor meanwhile knew the gig was up. The Dean turned to him. "Any final lies?"
Victor croaked, "Alpheus..." And Alpha appeared as if from nowhere and gave the girls a fright. The leader of House Michael had her hand on the hilt of her sword until Dean Ammon calmed them down.
With nothing left to say, Dean Ammon ordered guards dressed in winter camouflage to escort Victor to the cells and Luke knew all too well how crazy JUG could be. The Dean looked like he could keep Victor there for a long time until he sorted through this mess.
But Victor would not go without a fight. Behind him the wall to the courtroom started to shake. Rocks and stone collapsed to the ground exposing the setting sun on the first day of spring.
A hand of stone grabbed him and pulled him out towards the open then surrounded him in a fist that cracked and unveiled a suit made of stone and steel, interwoven seemly like a durable fabric. His hair and skin were blond and white revealing to the council that he had in fact betrayed SGA. He reached his right hand towards the scar hiding behind his neck, coating his hand in a black substance. He then planted his palm towards the ground.
Four holes opened up from the Earth in front of Jurgen. Spewing out of the first was a geyser of mud that formed contorted bodies. They resembled human figures—bipedal, two arms—but their skin was covered in a layer of mud and rocks that looked like the aftermath of a landslide. Their bodies also seemed to flicker because worms and beetles were crawling beneath their skin. They had no mouths and the rest of their face looked like a battle between an angry bull and the face of a withered human cadaver fighting for control. At least a small regiment of these creatures occupied the area in front of Jurgen—maybe thirty to forty of them.
Then popping out of the second hole was a canine-like creature with a sickly yellow-green fur like wilted grass. It had red spots across its body as if it had shingles. Its eyes were at first light green until one of the mud-soldiers leaped onto the creature and seeped into its fur, sending the creature withering mad. Foam seeped from its mouth, its fur started to flake off of its skin, and its eyes turned the color and look of broken cobblestone.
Luke immediately made a connection. These mud-soldiers weren't Iumenti—they were demons—a different variant from the Aeria that roamed the winds and sky. Yet these creatures didn't speak much, and when they possessed creatures, they turned them insane—like The Exorcist insane. The fact that this wolf-hyena hybrid managed to get easily possessed by a demon meant it might be classified as a Level 2 Iumenti.
Popping out of the Earth in the third hole was a shaggy animal draped in a curtain of black fur. It was the frame of a grizzly bear with the horns of a ram. Its eyes glowed red as if it was a robot about to activate a laser beam. It rose up in the air and stood a towering nine feet tall when on its hind legs. Its cry sounded like an elk's bugle, which didn't really match with the scariness of its claws that sought to rip one's reality apart. Since no demon bothered to possess this creature, Luke assumed this was a Level 3 Iumenti.
Which left room for desserts coming out of the fourth hole.
Out of all the things he had seen, he thought the creature rising out of the fourth hole was nothing too serious. In fact, it looked almost like the Chuchunya he had faced in Antarctica, only this creature was a bit shorter, maybe seven feet tall. The creature had reddish brown hair covering every part of its body except its hands. It looked almost human, as if the center of a basketball team had a hair growth condition and never showered. It smelled like a mixture between dead fish and skunk farts. Its eyes—well it had none, or at least they were hidden behind its fur. Call Luke crazy, but he thought he just discovered Bigfoot.
Until Jurgen introduced his entourage with a smirk. "I hope you don't mind if I invite my friends, considering you all wish to lavish me with a new jail cell. These brown sludges here are Chtonia, demons of the land. They are rather wild and unpredictable. I'd stay away from them if I were you."
As Jurgen was speaking, students from across the school gathered to witness the commotion. Many were smart enough to arm themselves, and those were the ones the Chtonia went for first. For buckets of sludge, they sure moved quick. Within seconds they had possessed ten students, male and female, from multiple Houses. As they possessed these students, saliva started to drip from their mouths and their eyes dilated into that cracked gray stone.
The rest of the students were smart to back away, either using their powers to escape or simply relying on speed. They were unarmed, but with the amount of talent that spread across the school, students weren't really left without weapons to defend themselves.
Jurgen then motioned to the three Iumenti behind him. "The dog is Shunka Warakin. The natives here have spotted him from time to time a couple of states over. The bear is the Ozark Howler, sited across most of the southwest. Although this isn't his territory, he'll adapt pretty well. And finally..."
"I don't need an introduction from a human," the seven-foot-tall bag of fur spoke like the engine of a truck pushed to its limits. "My name is Mongollon, and it's a pleasure to feast on such rare humans today." He sniffed the air. "Nefs—rough skin, but so full of delicate meat flavored with special natural spices. Nothing comes close except maybe gorilla meat. But that involves a lot of skinning. Nefs, especially such young ones, can be eaten raw."
Luke checked behind him and saw Sirius slowly stirring from his post long-distance teleportation nap. Alpha shimmered into view, trying to help him up. The lady representing House Michael walked up besides Luke. She had curly red hair, almost like Nellie's, but she also had really dark skin that clashed and called on people to stare at her. She looked like she could bench 300 without breaking a sweat, but it didn't make her figure look outrageous either—just toned.
"The only thing you'll be eating today is this sword once I cram it down your throat," she shouted. She raised it into the air and the other female representatives from all the houses gathered behind her dressed in battle-armor and welding various weapons from broadswords to staffs and even a katana.
Mongollon shrugged her show of force off. "Please, I've eaten cats more furious than you lot. Why don't you line up and be my appetizers like good little Nefs?"
The lead woman took a step forward and the Ozark Howler leaped in front and tried to slash her. She unveiled her sword, but an arrow breezed through the air and hit the Ozark in the neck and released a pressurized blast that sent him like a bowling ball into a couple of muddy Chtonia. Standing in the ruins of the conference hall was Tejero, leader of House Raphael, the man who taught Luke to shoot an arrow forward and to actually hit something that wasn't his own face.
"Bad bear," Tejero said. "You never attack a lady like that."
"I didn't need your help Tejero," the lady spoke like her image had been tattered.
"Rilee, always shouldering the weight of the council because you're adopted by Michael."
"This is not the time for showboating," Dean Ammon joined the scene rolling up his sleeve after slipping out of his black gown.
"Nor rivalries," Dean Kay levitated towards the front line like a lily in the wind. She had lost her gown as well and was wearing black pants and a button-down white shirt and high heels. She looked like she was in her sixties, but still managed to rock the runway of the battlefield.
Luke suddenly realized he wasn't alone in the fight. For once Jurgen had brought the fight to his territory. Behind him he had a group of Amazons, Spartans, and two principals that could send these creatures and demons to JUG.
Eventually Sirius and Alpha joined his side. And Jurgen sized up the enemy force.
"Interesting, boys and girls coming together to save their precious military academy for the tyrant who created suffering and thrives on the misery of the creatures he created. I'd question your allegiance, but it seems I'll just have to show you the path of the rebellion by crushing you all beneath my feet."
Rilee started shouting out commands. "Girls, the walking bush is ours."
"Boys," Tejero took charge of the leaders of House Orifiel, Anael, and Gabriel. "Guess we got the shaggy bear."
The Deans looked at each other and smiled as they turned towards Shunka. Dean Ammon had an impish grin that looked like he was about to cause trouble. "Just like old times?"
Dean Kay smiled. "Needle Hail?" Dean Ammon confirmed.
The Deans turned to the rest of their students on guard near the Chtonia. There were about forty of them out and about, most of them upper level students as the lower level ones kept their distance indoors. "Students of SGA, we will drive these demons from our school," they said in unison almost like they have lived through this exact scenario before or are really prepared for anything.
They all raised their weapons into the air and faced the small army of demons. The Dean looked to Sirius and nodded. Sirius understood. Luke had seen him expel a demon from Tejero with a single word. He was needed to handle the ten students who had been possessed.
"Alpha," Sirius said. "Help me push these demons out."
Alpha understood, because it was him after all that managed to possess Sirius himself to wake him up in Antarctica. Maybe he can help push out the demons possessing his schoolmates.
"That leaves Jurgen to you," Sirius said to Luke. Luke looked to the Dean and he made a neck-slicing symbol.
And that was all Luke needed to give Jurgen Hell.