Mission in Mexico

After a while, Yuko changed her name to Yumeko while she joined the Novagels to assist them in their missions, and Baifin went with her, sometimes as an observer and sometimes to assist, hoping to get a better outcome in history wherever possible. Unlike the mission fighting Nargis most others cases that the novagels handled were simple and did not require much effort. When Yumeko participated, the cases became simpler since her participation enhanced the efficiency in fulfilling these missions.

Most of the missions were divided into different "Ninja Departments", each corresponding to a certain element that a certain male and female novagel represented.

The Solar Ninja Department (日の忍科) was led by Hideaki (日出明) and Naomi (如美), the male and female novagel of the solar element. They mainly undertook missions in Europe and American countries, and their enemies were mainly vampires, succubi, ghouls, werewolves, and other monsters native to these regions. When Yumeko joined, she helped Naomi and Hideaki exterminate quite a number of such creatures in UK, some Eastern European countries, and the US.

The Fire Ninja Department (火の忍科) was led by Rekka (烈火) and Tamiki (多美輝), which specialized in cases happening in Chinese speaking countries. They mainly operated in Macau, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Mainland China, and their main enemies were demons, crime syndicates, and military revolutionaries. There were times where they had to operate in Russia and Ukraine. When Yumeko joined, she helped to crush a rebel group that was planning a terrorist attack in Xinjiang that was funded by a tycoon from Hong Kong whom they helped the police arrest in Dubai.

The Water Ninja Department (水の忍科) was led by Mizuchi (蛟) and Chiaki (千晶), and they mainly specialized in cases in Japan and the Philippines. Their cases usually took them to Hokkaido, Hawaii, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Brazil, and other South American countries. However, a bulk of their missions took them to Manila and their enemies were crime syndicates in Manila and monsters native to the Philippines. Upon joining, Yumeko helped nab a drug cartel kingpin in Mexico by freezing the road and causing his car to crash into a tree.

The Lightning Ninja Department (雷の忍科) was led by Ikazuchi (迅雷) and Kazumi (和美), specialized in financial and hacking crimes in mainly Chinese-speaking countries, and the US. The other cases were mainly criminal acts or cases involving machines. Their enemies were mainly human beings, and the cases usually did not involve supernatural phenomenon. Yumeko worked with some of Kazumi's marionettes to acquire personal data from a tycoon in Macau who was messing with the stock market, and managed to expose his fraud.

The Mind Ninja Department (心の忍科) was led by Saiko (才光) and Mika (美香), and they mainly operated in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Korea. They specialized in psychological illnesses caused by demons, and they seldom fought. Even when they needed to fight, they usually managed to make the monsters kill themselves using mind control. When Yumeko joined, she even helped to enter the minds of their patients and extract the demons out from within.

The Lunar Ninja Department (月の忍科) was led by Getsuga (月牙) and Chiya (千夜), and they mainly operated in Japan, Europe, and US and they worked mainly on supernatural events. They hardly got involved in crime-related cases. When Yumeko joined, she only worked on one case within them, which was to capture a dwarf causing mischief in Canada.

The Wind Ninja Department (風の忍科) was led by Hayate (疾風) and Hina (姫奈), and they were mainly involved in cases related to South Korea, North Korea, and the former Soviet Union. They mainly handled cases involving problems left behind by the Korean War. When Yumeko joined, she helped locate the bones of quite a number of missing soldiers who were previously unidentified.

The Earth Ninja Department (土の忍科) was led by Domon (土門) and Kana (香南), and they were mainly in supernatural and crime-related cases in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Mexico, and other South American countries. With Yumeko's involvement, many more of such cases were solved.

The Illusion Ninja Department (幻の忍科) was led by Gen (元) and Senna (仙女), and they were mainly involved in cases that took place in Russia and Eastern European countries. They also operated in cases that were related to events before the fall of the Berlin Wall and before and after the Cuban Missile Crisis. Yumeko also helped locate some WWII war criminals hiding in Argentina and brought them to justice.

The novagels, who were practically invincible when against up almost any human foe or monster they have fought, would encounter an enemy like Nargis once in a while.

However, their new opponents were getting stronger. Although they managed to defeat Nargis with ease, Yumeko was nearly killed and their victory was considered a lucky one.

There was no telling how much longer the novagels were able to remain invincible in battle.

Kazumi, Kana, Mika and Yumeko were at Phoenix City in Arizona State of the United States of America helping the local police investigate the death of a Catholic exorcist which was suspected to be the work of a Mexican Drug Cartel. It seemed like an ordinary case that mere humans would be able to handle. However, according to Kana, who had a lot of experience handling cases in Mexico, said to Yumeko that the case was "more than meets the eye". The exorcist, who went by the name of Father Ricardo, was an acquaintance of a member of a currently defunct faction of the Italian Mafia who was engaged with a turf war with the Mexican cartel. The irony was that Kazumi was not even a member of the teams that dealt with drug cartels. She was a specialist in hacking and financial crimes and the biggest cases she dealt with were terrorist funding ones. Therefore, it was odd that Master Garaya would want her on this case.

Among Ricardo's belongings was a rosary that contained a USB drive. Upon checking the USB drive, they found encrypted files that Kazumi and her team helped to decrypt, and they found out one of the secrets that some cartel leaders were trying to hide, was the location of an orb, called the "Orb of Quetzalcoatl". A magical orb of lightning that would many crime lords operating in Mexico were fighting each other for. No one has found the orb since all the groups were killing each other to prevent each other from getting it.

The mission was simple. Find the "Orb of Quetzalcoatl" and destroy it.

When in Mexico, Kazumi could already feel the power of the orb. Legends had it that the thunder god of the Aztecs, "Quetzalcoatl", was actually a human being called "Ce Acatl Topiltzin" who wielded "power from the gods". It was probably a fragment of power from Darkrealm that ended up in the human world by mistake due to wars between demon nobles in Darkrealm. It was from this man and the power he had that resulted in the worship of the thunder god Quetzalcoatl.

They met with a high ranking official who was close to the present ruling party of Mexico. His name was Carlos Guerrero, and a young and handsome man at that.

Guerrero welcomed the 4 ladies and spoke about his wish to obtain the "Orb of Quetzalcoatl" to beef up the power of the government and crush the drug cartels, so that he could turn the "Estados Unidos Mexicanos" into a country as strong as the United States of America, in terms of economic and military might, and eliminate poverty among its people and corruption among government officials and the police.

Kana clapped her hands in admiration for the young politician. She had worked constantly in Mexico and fought against many of the gangs in Mexico, especially Ciudad Juarez. She loved the people and the culture of Mexico but hated how the country was suffering. She thought that if Mexico had a government like the United States of America, Mexico could easy rival it due to its land mass, population, and rich culture. She loved the food, especially burritos and quesadillas. It was supposed to be a state secret because if the United States of America came to know about this, they would also march into Mexico to "steal" their treasure.

Kazumi was skeptical. She asked, "Why aren't you concerned that if we get our hands on it, we can just make the power ours and use it to conquer the world?"

Guerrero then responded, "I have heard a lot about the heroic acts of the novagels, and especially Kana's active participation against the cartel. I have a vision for this country and I will want to make it a safe country that tourists all over the world will want to go to and investors will want to invest in, just like Japan and Singapore. The 'Quetzalcoatl' will do just fine."

"The 'Quetzalcoatl' in this context is just a lump of power," retorted Kazumi. "If anybody ends up in possession of it, it could spell disaster depending on who he is. I'm sure as a politician, you're familiar with the term 'power corrupts'."

Guerrero was silent. It was an all too familiar situation. Many countries in South America have fallen into this trap: corruption. "If the power can be positively harnessed, I would love to harness it. But if it is a malignant power that cannot be tamed or controlled, I would suggest destroying it."

"We had the intention to do so long ago," said Kana. "I think if you want to change your country, the first thing you need to do is to change the mindset of the people, and improve the governance system. We are help to help you anytime. But absolute power is just not the way. History has seen the emergence of dictators like Hitler and Stalin. Do you want another Hitler in Mexico?"

"Haha! You got me there!" said Guerrero as he stood up. "Very good! If it is for the good of the country, I'll show you the way there."

"You know the way there?" asked Kana.

"Most people know the way there. It is a common tourist attraction. A pyramid in Chichen Itza called "El Castillo". But few people know how to get into that dimension. Those who went in have yet to return," said Guerrero. "Some cited alien abduction and some witnessed a column of light coming out from the top of the pyramid."

"I think that is a dimensional portal at that pyramid", said Kazumi very readily. "The missing people could have passed through it unknowingly and got lost in that dimension."

The three proceeded to Chichen Itza where the pyramid was located. Kana's eyes glowed green as she communicated with the spirits of the grass and trees to find out more about the dimensional gate, since they did not manage to find a way to open it through normal means.

Kana gasped. She was shocked to find that many of the invisible spirits were once spirits of human beings who were killed through a "human sacrifice" as an offering to the gods, through decapitation, and the spirits were trying to cultivate their energies so that they could return to the human world by taking human form, and their efforts to do so were generating a portal to another realm.

Kazumi took out her pocket computer to analyze the situation. It wasn't as simple as Kana described. The pyramid already had energies from a magical seal that was protecting the orb, but the energies react with the energy generated by the grass and tree spirits to create a portal that sucks people into Darkrealm, which was almost like an alien abduction.

"Those people who ventured into Darkrealm are goners," mentioned Mika.

"It was an unfortunate paranormal phenomenon not caused by anyone on purpose, so we can't hold anyone responsible, but we can remove the orb and destroy it," said Yumeko.

"Wait…" Kana said. She was still reading the messages coming from the grass and tree spirits. Mika then channeled her energy into Kana to enhance her psychic abilities. Apparently the souls of the trees also included those of the people who went missing. In fact, they didn't go missing. They died, and their souls traveled back to Earth and became trees and grass.

"That is terrible," said Mika. "We need to get rid of the orb! According to Master Garaya, it was the fragment of a demon lord who was defeated in a great war in Darkrealm. The power can't be benign, despite what worshippers claimed."

Yumeko, Mika, Kana, and Kazumi proceeded to the top of the pyramid to channel their powers into it to remove the orb from it.

They formed a circle on the roof of the top portion of El Castillo and joined hands and chanted a spell to release the orb from the confines of the seal. The orb and the seal could not be physically seen, but its energy could be sensed by the 4 girls.

Watching silently from a distance behind a tree was Guerrero himself.

The orb eventually took physical form and became visible within the circle formed by the four girls. The orb was a just a sphere of light that appeared to be made of glass.

Mika, the girl of telekinesis, broadcasted a message to the minds of the other 3 girls. "We will proceed to destroy it. Let's channel our energies to make it disintegrate."

That set off an alarm bell in Guerrero. Guerrero then fired a translucent ball of energy from his hand towards the girls.

The girls who were hit by that ball of energy were each trapped in separate forcefields, interrupting their ritual and separating them from the orb.

However, Kazumi's eyes glowed, and the orb started reacting by generating more electric charges and glowing more brightly.

Guerrero grunted. "What is wrong? Why am I unable to pull the orb towards me?" Guerrero was planning to make the orb fly towards him using telekinesis. However, it was not working. The orb was resisting his magic.

Suddenly, the strong glowing light coming from the orb just went off, and in the place of the orb, Yumeko was just standing there, glowing as if she was a holy figure. Kazumi, Kana, and Mika were not there.

"What? She absorbed her other friends into her body and merged with them, and the orb! The orb is in her body!" said Guerrero.

"I can hear your thoughts, Guerrero," said Yumeko. "You are a traitor to your country. You intend to leverage on the help of the True Knights of Asia to take over your country and make you its dictator."

"Accursed witch! Wonderwall!" cursed Guerrero. "I will destroy you and…"

Yumeko just raised her hand into the air and Guerrero was lifted into the air with telekinesis. She then correct him, "That's 'Wonderwall Dream Girl' to you". Then, Yumeko fired a fireball at Guerrero.

Guerrero was hit by Yumeko's fireball but he did not disintegrate. Instead, he glowed and started evolving into a giant 9-headed hydra. One of the heads of the hydra charged at her, and Yumeko, who had merged with her 3 partners, retaliated with a fireball. Once that snake's head was burned, the burned portion of its body disintegrated and two more snake heads grew in its place. Now the hydra had 10 heads. Yumeko shouted at him, "What are you? A spy from Dongfang Bumieh?"

Guerrero, who evolved into a hydra, answered. "So what? Your life is mine for the taking, accursed novagel!"

Guerrero charged towards Yumeko who was at the flat piece of land right in front of El Castillo, and attacked her with the teeth of one of his snake heads.

Yumeko dodged, but a tooth ripped into the flesh of her arm, forming a line of blood. However, the snake's bite had no effect. This was because the orb's power neutralized the toxicity.

"You are the head of the members of the True Knights of Asia who had infiltrated Mexican politics! Once I destroy you, peace will return to Mexico and other Latin American countries!" said Yumeko as she used telepathy to communicate with the best.

"Wrong! Latin America is weak. Even without me, it will be susceptible to foreign invasion. The True Knights of Asia will not be the only representative invader from Darkrealm," responded Guerrero.

"But the Knights are the biggest players with the largest stakes! The small fries are easy for us to take care of. I will get rid of the leader to get rid of the root of the problem, and ruin the overall picture for the knights," said Yumeko.

"Dream on! Every head of this hydra is a leader of criminal and terrorist factions in different parts of Latin America. You can destroy me to win the war in this region. But can you?" taunted Guerrero.

"You want to try?" asked a furious Yumeko. "I'll show you. Piece...de...Resistance!" Yumeko fired a powerful blast of energy at Guerrero. This time, Guerrero finally disintegrated.

After that, Yumeko used the same old procedure to restore the damage and revive the people killed by Guerrero, which was using Le Grand Retour.

The mission was over. Yumeko demerged from Mika, Kazumi, and Kana, and they destroyed the orb back in Hokkaido. The energy level of the orb was too great to be of use in any future battle with the True Knights of Asia.

After returning to Hokkaido and destroying the orb there, Kazumi had nightmares regularly about a scary lightning demon. Confronted by this demon in her nightmares, the queen of cracking financial crimes broke down and cried. Her friends Yumeko and beauty queen Mika came over to hug her, smother her, and calm her down. When she got up, Mika gave her a checkup and found out that it was due to the effect of the "Orb of Quetzacoatl.

Mika asked Yumeko to rush to Tamiki's study to check up on the history of lightning orbs. Yumeko found the book and brought it to Mika. Mika checked and found out that the orb was an elemental energy source generated by killing a demonic beast in Darkrealm and extracting his elemental essence. Another beast would be able to absorb the orb to improve its power related to that element, and allow itself to evolve into a higher-level being.

The higher the level of a demonic beast, the orbs generated from killing it would be more valuable, powerful, and useful. Based on its power level, it may be possible to use it to evolve into a divine state called the "Beast Gods". The Orb of Quetzacoatl was originally the orb of a "Beast God".

Beast Gods were rare even in Darkrealm. In history, there was a Beast God who died long ago, called "Raijutei". However, his body his corpse remained and so did the orbs made from parts of his body.

In Darkrealm, there will be beings who will take orbs to travel to Earth to sell or trade them, and some of these orbs are carelessly left in the human world.

Quetzacoatl was originally a portion of Raijutei, and Kazumi was being troubled by his soul.

Mika brought Kazumi to a prayer room, asked her to sit down silently and chant some Buddhist sutras.

"摩訶般若波羅蜜多心経 (Maka Hannya Haramitta Shingyo)..." Mika chanted.

"Release me! Release me!" screamed the spirit. "Let my consciousness merge with yours! I must be revived! I must be revived!"

"LET ME GO!" screamed Kazumi. "DON'T DISTURB ME ANYMORE!"

"We are the same! I am a lightning god! I am the ruler of the world! I am the ruler of Darkrealm and Earth!" declared the spirit.

"Get away from me! Get away from me!" yelled Kazumi.

Mika continued to chant.

"行深般若波羅蜜多時 照見五蘊皆空 (Gyojin Hannya Haramita Ji Shouken Go On Kai Kuu)..."

Yumeko's eyes just lit up on their own, and she automatically stretched out her hand to extract the soul of Raijutei from Kazumi's body and trapped it in a pearl created out of nothing in her hand. Yumeko proceed to throw the pearl into the Sea of Okhotsk, but Kana caught up with her and took the pearl from her and threw it into space using the superhuman strength that came from her "Earth Powers".

However, before that pearl could enter the stratosphere, it exploded and out came a humanoid muscular man in purple pants and tattoos all over his body, a painted, face, and long white hair. This was Raijutei in human form. In a thundery voice, he exclaimed, "At last, I am free from captivity and I will return to Darkrealm to have my revenge! But after destroying you meddlesome little girls!"

"Were you looking for me?" said a voice.

It was Kazumi. She was in pain moments ago because she was possessed by his spirit, but now that he was out of her, she recovered quickly, got up, and dashed out of her room where she was originally resting, and flew into the sky to confront her lightning enemy.

"A lightning lass! Interesting! It's such a waste that you can't join me in my conquest to reduce all my enemies to ashes. But since I can't consume you from within, I will consume you from the outside," said Raijutei.

Yumeko and Ikazuchi then rushed to the aid of Kazumi, and merged with her with Kazumi as the base. Now Kazumi was stronger and ready to fight.

"Very interesting! I see that this 'merger' has the ability to boost your fighting capabilities. Very well! You'll be more of a worthy opponent now."

"Cut the crap!" said Kazumi, and she fired a number of lighting attacks at Raijutei.

Raijutei merely absorbed those attacks. "Lightning against the Lord of Lightning? Don't make me laugh!"

An enraged Kazumi charged forward started violently beating up a Raijutei who was caught by surprise.

However, Raijutei was also quick to retaliate and the exchange of punches and kicks became more intense.

In the middle of the fight, Raijutei started charging a ball of energy in his hand, and shouted "雷獣帝流星波 (Raijutei Ryusei Ha)", and fired the ball of energy at Kazumi. Kazumi retaliated with a "Piece de Resistance". The two projectiles counteracted each other in the sky in a test of might where the stronger projectile would push their other projectile back to its opponent and game him/her a double whammy.

Raijutei's projectile was getting stronger, and his projectile was pushing Kazumi's projectile back towards her. That was when the other novagels came to her head and placed their hands behind her to transfer their energy to her. That was when Kazumi's projectile was able to push Raijutei's projectile back towards him. Raijutei struggled. "No! No! It can't be! Not in this human world!"

The projectile of Kazumi and Raijutei both exploded upon collision with Raijutei, finally destroying him in an explosion. Hina quickly took out the "Grand Retour" and sucked up Raijutei's soul back into hell.

A few days later, Mika asked Yumeko along to Singapore to handle an extraordinary case where a series of gruesome murders were committed. All the murders were bloody and the bodies were sliced by some kind of metallic wire into so many pieces that it was difficult to determine which body part belonged to who and how many bodies there were. Once they were in Singapore and at the police station, a police inspector called Hardy spoke to them about the victims.

The first victim was a short young Malaysian Chinese guy who was nearing his thirties who was the project manager of a video games company. A few weeks later, there was a similar murder where the victim who was killed in a similar fashion was a Korean guy around 31 years old, and his Malaysian wife and baby daughter were not spared while they were out together on a family outing on Sunday.

The third victim was a Singaporean Chinese guy who was killed together with his Indonesian Chinese wife at a random German pub on Saturday night.

Hardy asked Mika to use her psychic powers to identify the killer. Mika had this ability to connect with the feelings of the victims and read their thoughts about the time they were killed. Their souls may have left their bodies but their bodies and minds would have recorded memories of the attack.

Mika read their thoughts and discovered that their killing was by the same person. One particular young man who attacked them with a metallic thread that came out of his wrist that had the ability to cut anything like a sharp knife, but they were surprised to know of that ability of his only on the day they were murdered.

She also noticed that they were someone whom they were not on good terms with. Rather, they treated him badly at work before. One reason was, either that they didn't like his appearance, since he had a skin condition with lots of red patches and flaky skin all over his body, which they think may be contagious even though it's not. Another reason was that they were jealous of his language talents, like knowing Japanese and some other languages. Some others were girls whom he was interested in but they found him creepy, so they distanced themselves away from him. Before killing them, he even raped them.

Mika noticed his name. Their killer's name was Calypso Ang. But there was something about the killer. It was not the man who killed them, but the force driving the man who killed them. It was that force that gave that man such supernatural powers to create thin metallic threads that could slice anything to pieces.

It was almost like a demon had possessed him.

The female novagels were succubi in one of each of their past lives. Succubi, as in they were born as sex demons called succubi in that past life in a demonic world called Darkrealm. The nine of them were elite succubi and they had to "remove" their conscience from their bodies to boost their powers. The removal of their conscience caused the souls of the 9 female novagels to be reincarnated again. However, their memories about their time as succubi remained.

One of these memories was a demon called Sting, from an enemy clan. Sting was a ferocious demon who struck fear into every succubus, since he could kill any of them very easily with the thin and sharp metallic wires from his hands. The novagels were considered "invincible" in almost every mission lately and there were seldom any type of enemy that could come close to killing a novagel, and not even by severely wounding a novagel until its energy ran out, which was possible but hardly probable.

Just imagining all this filled Mika with fear. Yumeko channeled that fear away from her head by giving Mika a hug.

Sting was eventually killed, but he was summoned back into the world of the living through a ritual performed by Calypso Ang.

It was 5 months since he performed that ritual when he met a random tourist who taught him the method to summon a demon into his body to grant him powers

That ritual granted him the powers of a demon called "Sting", and he was able to generate metallic wires that sprouted out of his palms, and he could use that to cut anything into pieces. In addition, he also developed augmented physical abilities and mental capabilities. This gave him the perfect opportunity for revenge.

His first victim was Yang Fanghao, a Malaysian Chinese in his late twenties working in Singapore. Calypso was hired there as a language consultant and game development support assistant. Which meant that he was expected to give advice on language to be used to dialogues in the video sequences of video games, while provide support for Japanese, Korean, and Spanish for the development and testing of certain games. When Calypso asked Fanghao for qualifications, Fanghao would retort, "Don't you understand Japanese/Spanish?" However, Fanghao kept criticizing his understanding of Japanese and Spanish from day one, and kept picking on his work quality from day one, and embarrassed him in front of his other colleagues. He asked his colleagues about why he was being treated like that, but they refused to say anything about it. Eventually after one and a half months, Yang Fanghao decided to terminate him from the company before his probation was up, citing performance issues. Calypso said that the assessment was unrealistic since it was only a short while since he joined the company so he can't be expected to do everything perfectly. But Fanghao said that he has to be at least close to perfect because he was engaged as a consultant, not anything else. They should be consulting him, not the other way round. Calypso then asked him, "You tested me on the day of the interview. You should have known beforehand if my quality was subpar. Why did you still hire me?" Fanghao then mentioned that he was eager to get people at that time because they were short of manpower over that short period of time. So that's why they hired him. It was a very humiliating experience for him since he was asked to leave within less than 2 months, as if he did something very wrong or his work quality is super bad. Fanghao had his upper body sliced off together with a lamp post when he was walking back home from work in the night.

His second victim was a Korean guy called Lee Gangwon and a Malaysian girl called Lin Yuting who were his supervisor during the probation period in the previous company he worked at. He did around the same thing that Fanghao did, which was to insult and mock his work ability in front of everyone in the office, and later on tell him that he was to be terminated. Lee Gangwon and his wife and baby had their bodies sliced to pieces during a family outing at a shopping center in front of everybody. But Calypso himself could not be seen and neither could the wires be seen as well.

The situation was such that Calypso had the ability to work effectively but faced discrimination because of his skin condition where he had red patches on his face and the rest of his body that flaked, also called psoriasis. He had gone to many different doctors and taken many products but while none of them improved his condition, some made it worse. Every time he were to apply for a job, even though he had the ability to work and he had the knowledge of 5 languages to help him at the job, he was rejected even though the company had problems looking for candidates who could speak his combination of languages. Usually if the candidate had the ability to speak different types of languages, the company would be likely to be willing to train him to do different types of work and acquire knowledge of that particular trade. However, this was not the case with Calypso. Despite his experience and abilities, even if he joined the company, his superior would usually pick on his performance so as to find an excuse not to confirm him with the company, or even not consider him for promotion or other benefits with the company, give him more unpleasant work to do, or give him no work to do. In other words, even if he worked, there would be no recognition or sense of achievement.

His third victim, was also a couple, just like his second victim. Calypso found it very unfair that people of such horrible characters can have successful careers and pretty girlfriends and wives. It's like god was giving the rewards of life to the wrong people. He was someone of a more gentlemen character and yet he was not the one with a girlfriend like them. Similarly, whenever he tried to make friends with some female colleagues in the office, it turns out that they would reject Calypso's friend request on social media, but that "bully" will accept him. It's like, Calypso himself was the nice guy but that superior was a bully and yet they accepted his superior but did not accept him. Why?

If justice were to be served, Calypso was to be the one to serve it. Because god was not doing a good job.

If god didn't give him what he wanted, the devil would.

The devil visited him in the name of an unnamed tourist who was selling to him a mobile phone decorative accessory, which was supposed to be attached to his mobile phone strap as a decoration. It had the logo of a pentagram, and he would need to place his thump into it for his blood to be extracted.

When that happened, a contract was formed between Calypso and the demon Sting.

Sting slowly became part of his body and Calypso slowly evolved into a being with superior physical and mental capabilities.

Calypso grew a pair of horns that resembled the horns of a ram. His fingernails became claws, and a tail with an arrowhead tip sprouted out from his lower back. However, when he walked among other people, he was able to consciously conceal this without any problem.

Mika, in her past life as a French elite succubus called "Michelle Rose Chanel Lustbader", was nearly mutilated and raped by Sting before he was eventually killed by her leader, Lilith. The fear of being almost tortured by that demon created a psychological scar in her. Sensing his presence again reawakened fear in her.

To clarify, succubi (plural for 'succubus') are sex demonesses, meaning that they gain sustenance by having sex with mortal men and feeding on their "seed". However, they can be killed by "raping", where the succubus, when unwilling, is forced to have sex with her attacker, and her sex organs are destroyed as a result. Destruction of sex organs meant certain immediate death. This was the same for female novagels, and even the male novagels. Of course, most of the demons whom they have fought with were not able to come this close to kill them by "raping" them, but they had experienced close brushes with death by having their vitality zapped by sustaining heavy injuries in battle with a strong enemy.

However, time was of the essence. Yumeko placed her hand on Mika's shoulder to tell her that everything will be fine. Mika was trembling at the thought of facing Sting again.

"Shall we take her out of this mission?" asked Naomi.

Mika protested, "No, I have to face it! Demons will come back to attack us after being resurrected from hell even if we kill them. Such is our destiny. I have to be strong enough to face this or else there will be no end to this."

"I'll be with you", said Yumeko.

Mika merged with Yumeko and all the other novagels with Mika herself as the base. The other novagels merged together with Saiko as the base. Saiko then merged with Mika. So now, Mika, who had the combined powers and emotional encouragement of all her other novagel partners, proceeded to search the Earth for Calypso and the demon that was residing in him.

Interestingly, after witnessing all the deaths in Singapore, they managed to trace him all the way to the other side of the world, back in Mexico where they had a mission to search for the Orb of Quetzacoatl earlier.

This time, it was at a deserted and not so popular citadel that was formerly used for the sacrifice of virgin girls, and Sting was the "god" they worshipped, although under a different name. He was the demon that impersonated the rain god "Tlaloc" and formed a cult in this region of Mexico.

It was a dark night and it was raining at a forest called Tierra de Lluvia (Land of Rain), and there were lots of totem poles around a pyramid called "El Castillo del Crater Caliente (The Castle of the Hot Crater)", which was also known as "El Castillo Caliente (The Hot Castle)". The atmosphere was eerie and there was some kind of eerie atmosphere that weakened any form of magic used by Mika. Suddenly, she heard something. It was the sound of something thin and long flying through the air towards her. She faintly saw some lines that were approaching her. With quick thinking, she ducked. The pillar she was behind suddenly collapsed, as if somebody had cut it down.

It was Sting. It was his metallic wires. She didn't find him, but he found her.

Mika trembled. It was terrifying to face him like this. She could imagine herself being sliced and diced into pieces and having her sex organs ripped to shreds.

"Focus, Mika, focus!" said Yumeko, who was inside her. "Freeze the next pillar you go to."

This time, Mika froze the pillar she was hiding behind, but the wires came flying towards her again. She could not freeze the pillar in time and had to dodge. The wires wrapped themselves round the pillar, and with one tight tug, the wire cut through the stone pillar like a knife and it fell to the ground like a tree that was being felled by woodcutters.

"Come out here, Sting! Fight like a man and stop hiding in the shadows!" shouted Mika.

An eerie slowly laughter was heard. It was Sting, talking in an insane high-pitched voice in Mexican Spanish.

"I'm surprised you could hear my attack coming despite the sound of it being drowned by the rain," he said. "Maybe my timing was too predictable?"

Mika couldn't be bothered to listen to his nonsense. She had the spiritual encouragement of her team members who have merged with her. She counted under her breath to launch a surprise attack.

"Uno…Dos…Tres…"

She fired a ball of blue colored cold energy at where Sting was.

Sting used his metallic wires to strike it away like a baseball bat hitting a baseball ball. The freeze projectile hit a snake on a tree, freezing the upper part of its body, which broke off the non-frozen part of its body due to its weight and shattered once it hit the rainwater soaked soil.

"You really thought such a trick would work against me? You heartbreaking bitch! You whores just break the hearts of honest gentlemen and eventually chose bastards who just bully the weak. You're just one of them. That's why I chose to become the devil instead of being a child of god. Die!"

This time, Sting launched a web of his metallic wires all around the totem poles in the area surrounding where Mika was.

Before Mika could do anything, she realized she was trapped. The web of metallic wires were designed to close in on her and rip her to pieces from all directions. Mika panicked and started screaming. The she heard a voice from within.

"Mika, it is me, Chiya! My power is the lunar power, which can enable you to temporarily become an undead creature that is invulnerable to physical harm. You'll have no weakness for 10 minutes. I will channel my power into you. Chant 'Undead Resurrection'!"

The wires started to move, severing the top portions of the totem poles that collapsed to the ground around Mika. Some of the small pieces of stone that chipped off the totem poles brushed along Mika's cheek and hands, causing them to bleed.

Just before the wires reached her, she chanted in the nick of time.

"UNDEAD...…..RESURRECTION!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The wires showed no mercy, and sliced and diced her into many pieces, just in the way she feared. However, her body felt no pain, and she had the ability to morph into a swarm of creepy crawlies and centipedes and craw away from the web of wires. The swarm of undead creatures swarmed towards Sting, morphed into a random humanoid shape demon, and use its claws to try to rip off Sting's upper body from his lower body.

Sting was fast. He dodged. The random shaped demon continued attacking him, and Sting kept dodging.

The random shaped kept changing the direction of his attacks, causing Sting to escape in a certain direction. This happened for quite a while until the random shaped demon stopped attacking. Sting was surprised. Why did Mika stop attacking? Mika then morphed back into her human form. "What's wrong? Why have you stopped attacking? Anyway, since you decided to let your guard down, I will not show mercy…"

Sting tried to move his feet, but could not.

The ground around him was frozen, and his feet were glued to the frozen ground.

Next to his feet was the shattered frozen head of a snake. The cold energy had spread throughout the ground and frozen the rain-soaked ground. The wet ground suddenly became a floor of ice.

"No! What the hell? How did this happen?" panicked Sting.

"Good! Give it to him, Mika" said Yumeko's voice. "Get back your dignity!"

Mika fired cold rays at Sting's hands. His hands were frozen, and they broke off from his body, dropped onto the floor, and shattered. He could no longer fire those metallic wires from his hands again.

"No! What are you doing? What do you think you are doing?"

Mika giggled mischievously, took out a pair of scissors, and brushed it against Sting's groin area, teasingly.

Sting trembled, not because of the cold but because of fear. "No! Por favor! Paras! (Don't! Please! Stop!)"

"No, no, no! I'm not going to stop! Remember? This was what you did to me before you nearly killed me last time in Darkrealm!"

Back then, Sting was the prince of a noble family in Darkrealm called Calderas, which was a rival clan of the Lustbader Clan. He was an incubus, which is the male version of a succubus. He also used a sharp tool and brushed against her groin area to mentally torture her with the prospect of having her sex organs mutilated by him, and yet withdrawing to give her a temporary relief, only to appear to proceed to do it again, and then withdraw suddenly, which was emotionally torturing for her since it sent her emotions from extreme fear to extreme relief, again and again.

It was payback time.

She opened the scissors. He started shouting. "No! NO! NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Nothing happened.

"I haven't done anything you know?" Mika said with a grin.

For an incubus, destruction of the genitals meant certain death, and it was also supposed to be painful one.

She opened the scissors again.

"NOOOOOO!!!! ARRRRRRGH!!!!! POR FAVOR!!!!! NO! NOHOHOHOHOHOHHOHO!" Sting was in tears, but he could not wipe them off his face since he just lost his hands.

"I haven't done anything yet, darling!" said Mika with a sweet smile.

She snipped, but snipped nothing. But the sound of her snipping was heard.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! POR FAVOR!!! POR FAVOR!!! NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

She snipped again.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! POR FAVOR!!! POR FAVOR!!! NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

She snipped again.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! POR FAVOR!!! POR FAVOR!!! NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

She replied. "Okay, I won't do it."

"Verdad? (Really?)" he asked.

"Verdad", she replied. "Pero… (But…)"

"I'll do anything! Please! Just tell me what to do! Please!" said the incubus in between tears and chokes.

"I want back my dignity lost from the torture you put me through in my past life in Darkrealm! Say it! Lo siento Senorita Mika! (I'm sorry, Miss Mika)"

"Lo…Lo…"

"Say it!"

"Lo…lo…"

"Say it!"

"Lo…La pinche perra! (Fucking bitch!)" Then all of a sudden, Sting bent his head down and rammed his horns into her breasts!

Mika yelped in pain and grabbed her breasts quickly to ease the pain and prevent more blood from coming out, and healed it. Sting laughed mockingly. "Hahahahahahahahaha!"

Mika's eyes were blazing with the fire of anger. "Bastardo inferiore!"

All of a sudden, an ice spike erected from the ground right in front of Sting.

Sting's frozen legs suddenly broke, and he started to fall forward. The ice spike pierced through his groin and out through his anus. He screamed in extreme pain.

"AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!"

"Serves you right!" scolded Mika.

The cold spell spread from the area he was pierced throughout the rest of his body. Once he was totally frozen, he stopped screaming.

Right in front of Mika was the ice statue of a young boy who was impaled in his groin and lost his limbs.

"Something is missing," said Mika. She took out the "Grand Retour" chakram and chopped off the frozen head of the boy. The frozen head with the "painful" facial expression rolled three times and knocked into a totem pole.

All of a sudden, there was an earthquake. Mika turned around and saw that there was smoke coming out from the top of the pyramid. It turns out that El Castillo Caliente was built over an active volcano. All of a sudden, lava came flowing out of the top of the pyramid.

Mika smiled. "I think this is the cue for me to make a move."

And she teleported away.

Back in Hokkaido, before Mika demerged all her other novagel partners, she saw Cowboy Daybreak in the living room.

"You did well," he said. "There was no need for me to step in."

Mika walked over to him, and gave him a slap, and all of a sudden she burst into tears.

"When are you… when are you going to awaken and join us?" she cried.

"I promise," said Cowboy Daybreak. "Once we are ready to be reunited, I will be back."

With that, Cowboy Daybreak.

Mika demerged all her other novagel partners.

"Well done Mika!" said Yumeko, giving Mika a pat on the back.

All of a sudden, Mika lost her balance and fell. All the others quickly grabbed her.

"She must have been too exhausted from the battle. It was very stressful for her," said Hina. "Please take a rest."

"What happened to the boy, Calypso, and the people he killed?" asked Mika in a weak voice. "I'm too weak to visualize."

Yumeko closed her eyes and saw everything.

"The people whom he killed were back to life, and Calypso is back to his normal life. It is almost as if this whole episode did not happen."

"That's good," said Mika.

Mika asked this because sometimes not all the people who were killed are brought back to life. Some remain dead because of the sins they committed.

"But the spirits in the forest that we fought in Tierra de Lluvia were freed from their herbal vessels, and were able to reincarnate," said Kana.

The whole team cheered. "Once Mika rests enough, it's time for a party!" Yumeko declared.

***********************************************

During the battle, Yumeko got to know these 3 of her teammates better. She was a little disappointed that their mission to destroy the Orb of Quetzalcoatl was simply to destroy the orb, and not fight with a powerful giant serpent that spat lightning from its mouth, defeat it, and turn it into their ally, just like in her console video games. It was also discovered that Guerrero was actually an enemy of theirs in their past lives. When Kazumi was Diao Chan in her past life during the Three Kingdoms period, Guerrero was Dong Zhuo, the warlord who fought with his commander Lu Bu over her. When Kana was Wanthong in her past life in Siam, ancient Thailand, he was Khun Chang. Khun Chang was the rival of Wanthong's lover, Khun Phaen, who was a famous figure in Thai history and folklore. When Mika was the famous courtesan in Korean history Hwang Jin Yi in her past life, he was Byeok Gye Soo, the arrogant scholar who tried to woo her but failed. Basically, this mission was about confronting their past life enemy again.

Yumeko's memories have not fully recovered. She then proceeded to ask her fellow novagels more questions.

Kana, the novagel of earth was the expert on agriculture and was overseeing the production of vegetables in some of Hokkaido's finest vegetable farms and also flower fields.

Yumeko then asked her. "You know in Chinese myths and legends, we always hear of animal or plant spirits that want to be human. But is that possible?"

Kana then explained to her. "Spirits in plants and animals have no idea what being human is like, unless the spirits inhabiting these plants and animals were formerly human."

"So, the stories of animal spirits in Chinese mythology are often about human spirits that inhabit animal bodies?" asked Yumeko.

Kana then answered, "I'm not the expert on this, so I think you better ask Tamiki, the girl novagel of fire. She has her own personal library where we can just go in and borrow books."

So Yumeko proceeded to check up Tamiki's library and found some books behind ways the spirits inhabit animals and plants and slowly learn to cultivate the spiritual energies to evolve into demons, humans, or even deities. The intriguing part was how these spirits learn about cultivating their energies when they did not even have the capability of understanding things at human level.

It usually starts with animals or plants that are inhabited with souls of formerly dead human beings who have accumulated very strong spiritual power during their lifetime, and they use this power to communicate with souls that have inhabited other animals and objects. Then they will teach their skills to these new "disciples" and they will form a school or even an army of followers. Some of these groups eventually scatter and the members would form new groups of their own, and that is how the animal spirit community in China grew. This practice of cultivating spiritual energy to become human even spread to Europe, South East Asia, and other continents, and that was how they were able to witness that phenomenon in Mexico.