Chapter 6: Sandstone

Wendy continues her battle with the sand demon. Though mute, he has been monopolizing his ability to manipulate the sand particles. The blue fighter is dodging the sand, going up and down, left and right, all around the ruins' interior. Though not able to land any decisive blows herself, Wendy takes it upon herself to start mocking the demon. "You know without an illegal item, you really aren't all that powerful huh, are you getting scared?" Wendy attempts to fight harder but is stripped of her blade. Hibiki grabs onto the ankh on her chest and tries to use it to fade away the demon, but at the same time, her mind is a convoluted mess due to the recent incident. "What's going on with me, ever since she saved me from falling just now my heart's been going DOKI DOKI!!"

Wendy then starts to think to herself, what exactly is the best thing to deal with sand? Fire Manipulation can melt sand into glass. Two big shots of sand are thrown at her as Hibiki yells out "No!" When suddenly, she summons a flux of spirits and throws both her hands forward. "Spirit Flames!" The fire disrupts the flow of sand, as it mixes forming the glass. Hibiki is amazed by this cunning display of fighting tactics. Before she could shoot out any words of praise, the two warriors dispelled their standstill after hearing the sounds of echoing footsteps approaching their general location.

"I believe that'll be enough now Sandstone!"

The pair of women look up to see a man sporting a blonde bowl cut and a white religious robe come out. Hibiki immediately recognizes this man as she holds a surprised expression. "Father Micheal! Why are you here?!" The priest wearing the red hat snarls. "Oh well if it isn't Hibiki. Hibiki Hibiki Hibiki!!! I should have known you'd come and get in my way!" He pulls out an artifact controlling the greater demon. Hibiki thinks and speaks up, "Father Michael, don't tell me, you betrayed the church! But then that means, the one who abducted the children, was you! " After another sinister laugh, the opposing figure responds.

 "HeheHaha! That's right you foolish little child! As if anyone would actually put their faith in such an old Denomination in this day and age. The Egyptian Orthodox Church is nothing more than a foolish and feeble dream that will never reach the hearts of the greater masses. Honestly, you're all better off dead if you ask me." He says before taking a moment to look at the shining red gen in his possession. "Though I must say, you sure did bring quite the specimen to me. A girl with fiery blue hair and a black sword, I've never heard of you before, who may you be?" He asks looking over at Wendy.

"Me? I'm just the girl who's about to kick your ass, right after I deal with this demon over here." Wendy says cockily, enticing a laugh from Michael.

"Oh, how menacing.~ Now Hibiki, I had expected you to have reached your demise by now, I'm sure you would have preferred to have not seen what will transpire here, I know just how much you cared for the young ones." Hibiki looks terrified.

"W-what do you mean?"

"I have no merit to explain that to you, come along Sandstone we have work to do." Wendy, not wanting to let the two enemies escape from her grasp lunges at them, but is immediately blocked by a merit of sand and rock covering her direction.

"Damn, he got away! We'll have to follow him."

No! Our first priority should be to get these children to safety." Says Hibiki, taking priority in her rescue mission. Wendy looks back at the group of frightened children before nodding her head in compliment. John, who is now healed up, offers to take them away. The man is seen walking with the kids outside the ruins and is asked a question by one of them. "Mister! Are you sure it was alright for us to leave them there!" John looks back at the ruins, "Yes I'm sure, I've never met that woman before, but I can assure you, she is more powerful than both that demon and myself.''

Father Michael is now at the deepest parts of the ruins, monologuing to himself. A black book can be seen on his side, with the word "Pride" being plastered on top of it. "Finally I've attained the exact amount of souls needed to break this seal!" He says while the sand demon walks closely following him. After a few moments of walking within the ruin, the demon can be heard grumbling to his own devices. "Oh, what is it now? Don't tell me you're trying to break free again." Micheal mumbles to the demonic figure. Demons of this caliber usually gain enough awareness to act independently, Especially one of the great 7. You better not think I'll be letting you off the hook after that pathetic attempt at a battle earlier. I don't care who that woman is, a high-ranking demon such as yourself should have defeated her with ease. If you know what's good for you then you'll kill that damn woman the next time she tries to interfere with my plan, that's all a worthless demon such as yourself is good for." Micheal says all this with a look of disgust plastered on his face, showing absolutely no sympathy for the enslaved demon. The two continue to walk along the designated path before Micheal approaches what he believes to be the heart of the abandoned temple. "Finally, after I attain this power, I can become one of the Vatican's highest members, surpassing even the pope!" Laughs Micheal in his own amusement, unbeknownst to him that a pair of women are currently making their way towards him.

Wendy walks forward to where she presumes she'll find the church's traitor, only now taking into account the silver-haired girl who's tightly clung onto her left arm. "You know I can take care of this by myself. So is there any reason why you even decided to stay, Hibiki?" She looks down at the white-robe-attired girl clinging onto her, their eyes making contact as she looks back at her with stars in her eyes. "And let my Onee-sama throw herself in the lion's den without backup whatsoever? I don't think so!" Wendy questions her, "Onee-sama? You really switched up, didn't you? I thought I was nothing but a novice."

"Coof Coof Coof!~ That was before I knew how strong and heroic you were!~ Please feel free to rely on me as we take care of this traitor!" Wendy then puts on a stern look. 

"Listen, I'm taking this whole thing very seriously. That demon can cause a lot of harm so if you get in my way or get yourself in danger I won't be coming to save you."

What!!! That's so mean!! You'd really just let me die! How cruel!! But it's that stern heroic attitude of yours that makes you so appealing. You won't let anything stand in your way of vanquishing evil and saving the day, not even me! You're so cool, so cool, so cool!!!~" 

"Yeah, you're definitely nuts…"

They continue to walk aimlessly, attempting to use the spirits that are now free to roam this vicinity to light their paths to the priest's location. until Wendy starts to speak. "So this Micheal guy, was he a friend of yours? Has he always been that crazy?" Hibiki looks a bit saddened, "I wouldn't really call him a friend, well really I don't have any of those…"

"I see… ''

Hibiki continues, "He was one of the founders of my church's branch, which only formed around 15 years ago. He was always pretty secretive but was always in a good position with the children. I'm honestly really shocked he would do something like this…" They look forward to a crimson light source emitting ahead, "They must be in there, so in case of any surprises you should keep yourself close to me." Hibiki clenches her arm tighter, "Hai!"

Upon entering the designated battlegrounds, Micheal and Sandstone are seen waiting to stare back at the girls, anticipating their arrival. "Well well, I see you two finally made it in here~..." Says Micheal, condescendingly to the newly arrived pair. Wendy stands proud, "Can it Bowl cut! I don't know what you're planning here but it ends now, I won't let you put any more children in harm's way. " Taking her blade, Wendy lunges forward but is stopped by the Sand demon. This sudden clash edges Micheal continues.

"Oh boohoo so a few children went missing, may I remind you that children go missing all over the world? They get abandoned and left for dead all because no one takes the responsibility to take care of them. So if a few more unwanted children go missing then that's just a little less work for the church, not to mention what could be a better send-off than dying for the sake of a higher power?"

Micheal holds out his artifact, edging the monster to fight harder. Wendy, not able to get close to Michael, looks angered."That artifact is what's giving you the power to control the demons, isn't it? Where the hell have you been getting all these nefarious things!" Micheal starts to laugh hysterically. "You'd be surprised what a few connections within the church can get you, demigods and other people of faith have been applying divine energy to physical objects for generations. But in order for divinity-less beings such as myself to acquire magic, we need to take a bit more taboo-ist methods." Wendy is still fighting, but definitely still listening as well. " Why do you think I've lured these children down here? You may have prevented those orphans from meeting their ends but what about the dozens I lured before you arrived? The ritual to create this dark artifact took many years but I'm proud to say their sacrifices were not for nothing!"

After coming to a realization, Wendy is pissed. A face of overflowing anger is shown on her face, "You killed… Children." 

"I see… I thought there might have been room to redeem you, but I'm afraid not. You're no saint, you're nothing but Trash. The worst, most pathetic type of Trash, the kind of trash that would actually kill Children...." Wendy's mind had officially been made up, she would defeat this saint and his demon no matter what! They fight even harder than before, with Wendy no longer being held back by the inhibitor, she's able to land some pretty decisive blows even without the initial help of Hibiki. The girl in question precedes to watch the fight ensue, being nothing but a spectator this go around. 

"I can't believe it… She's just some random stranger, yes she's a goddess but only a newly appointed one... I can't believe after all of this she's still fighting!

Going through all of this... Getting battered and bruised, just to protect me and those children! This is still such a dire situation, so why... 

Why is my heart still beating so fast!!!"

Wendy thinks to herself, inspecting the higher level of the dungeon's interior. "This dungeon cavern must have been created by similar means, high concentrated heat must've turned the sand in the desert into this glass construct! This demon is made out of sand, if I focus my fire energy in a single attack, I should be able to shatter him into a million pieces! How can I do such a thing though!? Should I really try it!? A RIDER KICK! "

She bounces around trying to evade the demon's sand attacks. "No... There's not enough space to successfully pull that off... In that case... Come Revolcane!"

The Sand Demon attempts to shoot another whirlpool of sand in the girl's direction, but Wendy, already learning this lesson, clashes the incoming attack with a fireball. The mixture of elements backlashes at the demon, his right arm caught in the explosion, turning it into the glass. This only sets him back for a moment, however, for after tearing off its own arm, The sand demon lunges at the girl once again, attempting to strike. Hibiki, scared for her new companion's safety, is about to yell out in distress, in fear that the girl will be met with a decisive killing blow. But before her voice could escape her lips, Wendy vanished from thin air, causing the demon's attack to never land. In an instant, Wendy appears behind the demon, releasing a black flaming punch through the stomach of the demon, shattering him into the glass. With her divine energy swirling and charging around her, Hibiki is left astonished at the girl's effortless display of raw power. "Amazing! She used fire magic to crystallize his sand attack, and then she baited him. She knew she couldn't land a finishing blow using her sword, so she waited for him to get close... Close enough to use all the energy she conjured up and focused it into her fist, releasing it all at once! 

A Spirit Fist!"

Wendy can be seen striking a pose with her fist forward, the remains of the demon now a glass construct as she proclaims her victory. 

"I knew it…" Hibiki ponders to herself, "This girl… Is so COOL" She says holding onto her blushing and drooling face, with small little hearts plastered on her pupils. 

"No... this can't be, that demon was amazing, one of the Seven! How were you able to defeat it so effortlessly!?" Michael can be seen, screaming in both anguish and fear. Wendy calmly walks forward to the priest, deciding not to give his question a reply. In a swift moment, she punches him straight in the face.

"Gaah! You Bitch!" Michal says as he holds his gushing bloody nose. Wendy fixes her posture from her assumed battle stance, feeling a sense that things here might be over. But when the evil priest hit the ground, he dropped his crimson gem, and upon rattling on the floor, it started to glimmer and unleash a grand disarray of chaotic energy. "Wendy, look out!" Before anyone could react to the situation properly, the small sister starts shining an immense ray of holy light. It looks like they're all about to be consumed by it when suddenly, her divine light completely consumes the red ruby's dark magic. Hibiki, who had started levitating above the ground suddenly dispenses her spirit magic and comes too seemingly from a dreaming state. The burst of divine spirit energy had pierced through the crust of the walls, shimmering the same light emitted from the gate Wendy had used to arrive here. The shock of Hibiki's surplus of power clashed with the ruins' magical walls, forcing another gate to open up. "Yes! Excellent Job Hibiki, I knew leering you here would get me to my desired location." Wendy looks down at the still-recovering man. "Get you where?" Before she could entice an answer from the evil priest, a swarm of blue energy coats the surrounding area. They are now all presumably transported back to the Spirit Temple. Wendy, in a fit of frustration, yells out in anguish.

"Gah! I just got out of here!" Hibiki looks around with notable stars forming in her eyes.

"This place is beautiful!" Wendy then explains this is the spirit realm's temple, a place that links the spirit and the real world. Hibiki starts fangirling since she learned of this place's existence through her teaching.

Before the pair had a moment to gaze at their new situation, they noted the absence of the recently injured priest. "Damnit, your buddy Micheal got the jump on us!"

"I told you he isn't my friend!" Hibiki yells back.

"Well whatever, we still better go and find him before he causes any more trouble," The girl says this, getting ready to roam the temple she only recently escaped from.

"Oh, I saw where we ran! He went left!" She says before pointing in the opposite direction. 

"You mean right?" Hibiki's confidence falters for a moment.

"Y-yes… wait No! I mean, left, no right!"

"Left or right, which is it!" Wendy says fumingly while grilling the younger girl. Meanwhile, Micheal is seen running down one of the temple's deep caves. "Damn, that woman, Who even is she! Striking a high-standing priest such as myself, I'll get back at her for this!" He screams out to himself, not walking aimlessly for he had memorized a specific map before arriving here. This map was hidden within the infinite library, where he discovered a secret that was hidden even among the highest-standing members of the church. Within the Underwater Temple, seven dark essences are sealed within here. Not only holding the graves of the previous spirit deities but behind the main temple is a secret passageway. This passageway led to a sanctuary that held the Seven high-ranking devils that had attempted to kill all of humanity 300 years ago. Demons conjured up by human hatred and emotion, much like demigods, were all designated by their titles and abilities. They were known as, The Seven Deadly Sins.