Night 57: The Coliseum
Touching the sandy grounds of the coliseum was a catalyst, and the progression of day did not mean the end of the process. By fortune or otherwise, this group's efforts were not allowed to halt simply due to the rising sun. Therefore, when nighttime was pronounced, those who had undergone the beginnings of an incomplete trial were pulled from their
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"Just as I thought. Your pitiful -"
It was then that Erika was treated to the most peculiar sight in her life. Instead of the whirlwind of blue that usually surrounded her when she made her claim, the words escaped and shot into the air, trailing behind a star and sparkles. The text itself was nothing of what she said, but rather a message written in the most hideous, gaudy rainbow coloring she had ever seen in her life. It was a message from Gabriel, Erika could note, but she did nothing else as she watched the words fade away, leaving her silent. And silent she was, just staring at the space where she witnessed this "miracle".
Her reasoning...
Her perfect reasoning... her blue truth, her weapon of logic...
It was... ruined. Defiled! For the second time that night, the man before her had taken her moment of glory, when she would crush the opposition with her mind, and ridiculed it and turned it into a spectacle for the unwilling audience. As it finally dawned on Erika that this man was mocking her to the fullest extent and that he had no intention to take any of this seriously, it was like a fissure had cracked her demeanor apart. One minute, she was staring up with a neutral expression, and the next moment her teeth were clenched and Erika had a wild look of pure fury in her eyes as she cast the most hateful gaze in the universe on this man, this man who was the source of all her suffering in the current moment.
Why rainbows? Why did he do this? Why couldn't he be a proper opponent? Why was there a double rainbow where her words were?
"You... YOU IDIOT! YOU CAN'T EVEN TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY?!" Erika screamed, stamping her feet and pointing at the idiot before her with the most severe of all pointer fingers. "YOU WOULDN'T LAST THREE SECONDS IN A REAL LOGIC BATTLE! THE ONLY REASON YOU'RE STANDING BEFORE ME IS THIS RIDICULOUS HANDICAP! YOU KNOW WHAT, FORGET IT! I'LL KILL YOU AS YOU ARE, RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW!"
In a rage, Erika turned to Aguilar and did the stupidest thing that she would ever do in her miserable, soon to be shortened life.
"I don't need any more time! Let me fight him now. I'll crush him, powers and everything!"
It was a good idea at the time: Erika had intended to crush him when he was fighting with his full power, if only to make a point that she could do it. Erika's error, then, was thinking that she could do it.
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Here, however, was an admittance. An existence gambling for his position with a cool face and a focused demeanor was an impressive sight, further accentuated by his proof of a miracle. Color Aguilar impressed; he might have even clapped if he had been a lesser man.
Instead, he leaned back into his chair, noting both the time and the reaction from Erika. Foolish girl. "...I suppose you can have your real battle now," he said, tone bordering disinterest. "Ten minutes are up. You may now have free reign."
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Then it flickered, the wings straining, turning black.
His jaw was clenched hard enough to crack teeth once he was facing Erika again, directly flying in front of her. Flying for angels was something that wasn't meant to be seen by mortal eyes; if anything, it was as if he'd teleported directly in front of her, leaving his angelic blade far behind him, still sticking in the sand.
"You don't mess with the Host, Erika." It was the first time he had acknowledged the girl had a name at all, and it would certainly be the last. Absolutely no humor was left in the archangel. His brother was dying by her hands - insulting in and of itself, really - and Gabriel had been forced to sit here and watch.
He leaned closer to her. He didn't snap his fingers this time, unlike the thousands upon thousands of punishments he had doled out before this moment. He didn't need the snap. It was showmanship, and that was now completely unnecessary.
Erika would begin to feel her skin tightening like a raisin in the sun. Her organs were well on their way to solidifying, but not in their natural, wet shapes - they were separating into smaller bits, turning hard and hollow, depending on what square of internal flesh it was. Her blood evaporated, or perhaps it was sucked into the hard, cell-like pieces her body was becoming.
The best part? It should have killed her the moment it begun, but Gabriel made sure she stayed alive. Just for now. He left her eyes for last, just long enough to see his blade appear in his right hand in a soft flash of golden light.
Oh, he was going to enjoy this. Gabriel hadn't torn apart a pinata in years.
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"Oh?" That was the only sound that came out of her mouth, because ... there was a squeezing feeling, like her own skin was suddenly two sizes too small for her own body. Because of that, her vocal cords were quickly crushed and constrained as her body began to rearrange itself, shrinking and twisting, changing form. The girl was only minutely aware of what her new form was like, because it was a new form without nerves, without blood, without feeling. Perhaps it was a form fitting for a cruel girl like Erika, with no heart and no patience to understand it.
"...?!"
There was no way for her to look surprised, because her new paper-mache form was dangling in midair, on an invisible thread. Even though pinatas were supposed to be fun, colorful toys, there was something creepy about the pinata that was swinging in front of Gabriel.
After all, who ever heard of a spider-shaped pinata?
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