Chapter 28: Gilda

"I'm going to become a Goddess!" A small with round blue eyes and platinum blonde hair screams out to a room filled with other orphans. The girl in front of them was wearing a black sister outfit, standing alongside a platinum-greed-haired sister, equal to her in stature. 

"Ignore her, she's always saying stuff like this…" A small Silvia says who's sitting on the floor reading her novel.

"Ho ho ho~ As I expected, Silvia has yet to see the true elegance of my potent potential!" The other kids stare at the two, simply gawking at the girl's ambiguous claim. One of the kids then raises their hand, his curiosity seemingly getting the better of him.

"Sister, why do you want to become a goddess?" Gilda pipes up at this, her previous bold and confident demeanor was brought to a halt at one simple question. Even Silvia takes a moment to stop reading her book to look up at the girl's reaction. Her head takes a bluish hue, resulting in her looking away from the group for a moment, for a second her eyes go over to Silvia, spawning a blush from the small girl, only for her to close her eyes shut and bring her hands down to her hips. 

"It's because… I mean… It's a Secret!" Gilda says to the dismay of the crowd, boos and cries can be heard from the audience feeling catfished from the revelation.

"That's not fair? Tell us!" One of the kids says, spawning Gilda to bring a hand to her chin in a condescending manner.

"Ho ho ho~ You don't expect me to reveal my secrets that easily, after all a goddess's ability to achieve things others can't do is one of the key traits to her divinity!" Hering this excuse causes Silvia to roll her eyes, figuring her sister had no real sense of direction in this dream of hers, just a simple delusion. The two can now be seen in their private room within the church since the two were considered real "Sisters" They were understandably roomed up with each other. The girls were only about a year apart in age. Both being taken in by the church when they were small, they had experienced a mutual tragedy when their parents were murdered by a rogue demon. Once taken in by the church, Silvia, being a shy introvert, quickly took to the more loud and extroverted Gilda. Initially lagging behind the blonde girl, following her wherever she went, Gilda took pride in the role given to her by the four-eyed girl, feeling a sense of protection dwelling within her.

"Ho ho ho! Just say behind me Silvia, I'll protect you!" Gilda can be heard saying to Silvia as they hold hands walking forward. Back in the bedroom, a small Silvia can be seen with a light smile recalling the old memory before speaking up. 

"Honestly, when are you going to let go of all that god nonsense, the chances of that happening are closer to zero…" Silvia says to Gilda lying face first on her pillow. 

"Mou! Shut Up Silvia! You have no idea what I'm capable of!" Silvia pouts at this, showing a bit of her own childish tendencies. 

"You take really big for someone who can't even do her chores right! Father Issac had me cleaning up your mess the other day!" 

"I told you I was sorry already! How long are you going to keep that against me!" Gilda cries back, and Silvia rolls her eyes once again.

"In any case, just because we now know there are gods and goddesses, does not mean we should presume to be capable of attaining that type of status. It's better to leave those types of things to the professionals' ' Silvia says in a serious and stern tone, showing snippets of the woman she would eventually grow to be. A few more cries of rebuttal can be heard from Gilda, not wanting to accept the older girl's honest words. 

"I will become a goddess one day, just wait!" After these words are muttered, the girl can be seen standing proudly on her bed, her confidence seemingly restored.

"I'll lead the church with my elegance alone, then I'll become strong enough to become a goddess, then I'll be able to protect my sister, and You…!" Gilda says out loud, high and mighty. Hearing this, Silvia looks up from her novel, her eyes reaching the eyes of the blonde sisters. 

"Me…?" Hearing this, Gilda instantly realizes the implication of the words she had just muttered, spawning a large crimson blush to form across her face.

"Gah! I m-mean, yes! All of you! I'll protect all the sisters!" Silvia doesn't move, she simply continues to gaze at the sister before her, trying to understand more the contexts of her words by studying her body language. Gilda's embarrassment reaches its climax as she falls back down under her covers and turns in the opposite direction of the platinum-haired sister.

"Wow, I'm so tired all of a sudden, goodnight!" She says quickly before fanning tiredness by letting out a loud yawn. 

"Goodnight…" Silvia can be heard saying she puts her book under her pillow and lays her head down, falling into a deep slumber. On the other side of the room, Gilda can be seen still blushing while holding the covers to her face.

"Just wait, I'll show you, Silvia!" 

Back in the present, Gilda continues to be submerged in the sin's toxic gas, her hallucination taking its mental form. Before her, the chapel she had dedicated her life to serving appeared in ruins, a testament to neglect she could scarcely believe. The once vibrant community she cherished was now a ghost town of silence and shadow. In this desolate vision, Gilda saw herself wandering aimlessly, her hands weighed down by chains of her negligence forged from every task she had deferred, every prayer she had postponed, every spirit she had failed to inspire.

The demon's spell revealed to her a world where her diligence and fervor had waned, showing her the ultimate consequence of sloth—not just the failure to act, but the failure to care, to engage, to strive for something greater. As the reality of her slothful state pressed in, Gilda's heart raced with panic and despair. The once strong and decisive nun was rendered immobile, not by chains or physical restraints, but by a crippling sense of overwhelming regret… the merits of her potential slothfulness. 

"No… Silvia… sisters… You can't be." Gilda is brought to her knees, tears clouding her eyes as she starts falling into her own despair. When one does not take action, when they dwell in the intricacies of their slothfulness, they slowly become architects of their own demise, creating an unwanted future spawned from their inaction. 

"I'm sorry… I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry!" Gilda can be heard crying out, believing her slothfulness had caused her to be the reason for her church and sister's demise. 

"If only I had done more if only I worked harder… then maybe I could have…" Inside her own psyche, Silvia's words echo inside the distorted girl's head.

"Leave it to the professionals." But how could the girl always think? For centuries, the Egyptian gods have fallen into obscurity, with only a handful truly remaining. In the years of their absence, wars have ensued, demons of nature have arisen, and humanity was slowly falling into an abyss of chaos. There are only a few gods still active in this generation, but from the looks of things, their merits are barely enough to stem the tide of darkness. It was becoming clear that if the world were to find its balance again, it couldn't solely rely on the divine beings of old. It would take new heroes, individuals who could bridge the gap between the ancient powers and the modern world, to reforge order from the chaos. That is the art the reason she had desired to become a goddess this whole time. "If I had the power of a goddess, I would change things! I'd be a true heroine who saved and protected everyone!" Her beliefs, honest and true in nature, were too idealistic for a mortal woman like her. In the back of her mind, she knew it was true, that no matter how much she strived for it, she would never become a goddess... 

"I can't do it... I can't protect anyone… I'm weak… I'm useless… I'll never be able to protect you… Silvia." Her mind goes through the memories she shared with the four-eyed woman. Ever since they were kids, all she had ever wanted was to protect Silvia. The scoundrels that murdered their parents left a permanent scar on the two sisters. Not wanting the same fate to befall the sister she solved so much, she made an oath to protect her by any means. Yes, she would be the one to protect her, iif the gods will not do it, if no other savior will emerge, then she will be that savior, a true Goddess! 

Still clouded in the darkness, Gilda's mind ponders over another girl taking up space in her mind in recent memories. "That girl… ever since she showed up, things have changed…" Gilda thinks as her mind ponders over the newly appointed spirit Goddess of their denomination.

"Wendy… that damn girl came out of nowhere just to steal my thunder. Sure she defeated Pride and Greed, but that doesn't mean anything!" The girl says as she is still crude in her depiction of the blue-haired woman. 

"Even now, she lays on that bed, unable to do anything… I knew we shouldn't have put our faith in a girl like her, that's why I should've…!" Her mind circles back to her original goal.

"A Goddess…" Gilda ponders over the word, the gravity of its meaning taking full effect on her.

"How could I ever aspire to be such a thing, if I was just going to allow myself to fall here? I bet if she were here, she could…" Gilda says, that in only a few short seconds, the sin's power would take full effect, and she would permanently fall into the darkness. Until a bright blue light shines within the constructed hallucination, this blue light, similar to the spirits in its radiance, illuminates the dark and bleak atmosphere of the illusion, giving the sisters the power they need to break their spell.

"Gilda!" Hibiki can be heard screaming at the paralyzed sister.

"Is that… Hibiki?" Gilda hears crying out from the imminent darkness.

"I know you probably can't hear me but even so… don't give up! I have faith, faith in you!" Hibiki can be heard giving words of encouragement to the sister, causing a few tears to come out of the sister's eyes within her psyche. 

"It's not just me... I overheard Silvia and Father Issac talking, when Issac was asking her for people he should hand one of the gospels to, Silvia insisted that it should be you! She believes in you! So you can't die here!" Hibiki screams out to her that, by proxy of the spirits that she had been summoning and harvesting this whole time, she was able to serve a mental connection between the two. Hearing the truth be told to her, Gilda's heart burst with motivation.

"She… believed in me…!" The girl says, now breaking from the shackles of the demon's ability. Waking up in the real world, she now sits on her knees pondering her next move.

"I'm back! Thank you, Hibiki… I won't let this chance go to waste!" The girl says before running over to the gospel. Rereading the last bit she left off on, her eyes gaze over to the part that covers the demon's Sin authority. Reading the scriptures out loud, she's able to impose her authority on the demon, canceling out his mist spell temporarily. The large yellow cloud starts to dissipate, as the fallen citizens start to recover from their immobilized state. The demon looks at the girl in awe, not expecting a technique such as this from a non-divine entity. But before Gilda could have a chance to revel in her victory, the demon activated his secondary ability. His second ability, "Velocity" allows him to concentrate all of his built-up slothful energy he absorbs from his targets, and converts it to its diametric essence, producing a short burst of speed that can only be used in fragments. 

At that moment, Gilda had thought she was about to reach her demise, but then, the moment the demon went in for a killing blow, a holy white shield appeared before her. She looked off to the distance, seeing a barely conscious Hibiki attempting to rise from the floor. Her hand waved forward toward the direction of the two as she summoned an array of spirits on her behalf. 

"Gilda… Now is our chance!" She can be heard screaming out, signaling Gilda to take action. Grabbing the axe she tucked away under her skirt, she summoned the spirits to activate the magical encryption imbued onto the axe. Long ago, an earth God that went by the name Tezcatlipoca, conqueror of the great Earth Dragon, Xuanlong, imbued this axe with his celestial magic, that axe now swung with the power to create earthquakes, if used by the right user. Feeling herself being empowered by the axe, she stands forward."This demon, he didn't even try to present me with my true slothful tendencies, that's because the truth is… I am anything But slothful! He couldn't find it within me so he tried to force me into his false illusion, but sorry to tell you that's not going to work!" Gilda pumps herself up, proving to herself that she has always been diligent, always staying strong to her ideals, never wavering. There is no reason her resolve should be lacking even in this situation. 

She swings the axe forward, striking it down onto the demon, the axe landing point blank range on her target. As she swings the axe down, the demon makes contact with the ground below him, resulting in a large crater being formed on said ground. After the dust settles, it looks as if the demon has been immobilized, leaving the platinum-haired sister standing over him all the while panting out in exhaustion. 

"I… I did it." The girl says tirelessly, feeling the stress of her situation overwhelm her. Hibiki stands up from the pavement, making her way to her sister in pure relief.

"Gilda! That was amazing! I can;t believe you… What the Hell!" Hibiki can be heard screaming, as on her way running to the sister, the demon in question can be seen going through some type of metamorphosis. Its superior demonic form alters into a more slimy and bindy nature. It loses its anthropomorphic nature and takes more of the form of a large pool of slime. This slime pile keeps rapidly altering and changing in size and demeanor as if it's rapidly trying to take on a form that can adapt to the powerful blow it has just received.

"W-what is this…!" Gilda can be heard screaming, jumping out of the way as the big slime seemed to begin engulfing the entire street.

"No.. at this rate, it won't stop until it consumes the entire city!" Hibiki screams out, now clutching onto the bag of medicine she previously had been dedicated to retrieve.

"No… this demon is actually willing to go to such lengths! It's not fair!" Gilda says as the two sisters stare at the ever-growing slime. Now taking the form of a giant slug, it stands high and mighty reaching the heights of the nearby buildings. It now began its sluggish and slothful rampage in the direction of the two sisters. 

"W-wwwhat! It's coming this way, what are we going to do!" Gilda says as she turns to the Silvery sister's direction, only to be left with an outline of her posture in her wake. When she looks back she can clearly see the nun running in the opposite direction. Not wanting to be left in the distance, she presses her feet forward, running as fast as she can to keep up with the other nun.

"You asshole! You left me there to die!" 

"I shouldn't have to tell you to run when there's a giant monster chasing us you idiot!"

"You're an Idiot! What type of holy maiden runs in the face of evil!"

"I have a duty to my Onee-sama to get this medicine back to her! I'm fulfilling my sacred duty by accomplishing that task, it's not my fault you're too stupid to understand that!"

"Haaaahh!" The two continue to bicker as they can be seen simultaneously running in the same direction, all the while a giant yellow demon slug is rapidly chasing them down the street. The two sisters seem to be at a loss, unable to think of any way out of this dire situation, only to aimlessly run down the street, in the direction of the church. As the two are close to being overtaken by the slug demon's body, they see a glimmering blue light shining in their imminent view. Before them was the tall cathedral of the Egyptian Orthodox Church, and below its gates was a blue-haired woman, sporting nothing but her underwear and a tank top, presumably just rolled out of her bed. 

"Good grief… you guys are so loud… I can't even get one day off now, can I!? Wendy says with one hand on her hip and the other lying down her side as she looks at the situation before her, previously analyzing the events through the grace of the spirits. She had planned to make her way over to the two distressed nuns, but it looked like they had already made their way towards her. 

"Despite my current condition… this is perfect." The girl says, raising her right arm in the air, holding a recognizable silver necklace in her hand. From their distance, Hibiki can now see her blue-haired savior in all her glory who was currently pointing her fist in the demonic slug's direction.

"Onee-sama…!" Hibiki says in joy, seeing that the girl had already made a move to take on this next threat. The demon is able to pick up on her presence, now speeding even faster to the church's direction, its shape and size growing chaotic in nature once again, even attempting to unleash its mist onto the vicinity. This act would only prove to be futile, as Wendy had already cultivated enough power to call out the name of her attack.

"Spirit Flash!" At the call of this phrase, the ankh that the girl had held against her fist now surged with her divine spiritual energy. Engulfing her in a blue aura for a moment before shooting a highly concentrated beam of blue energy toward the sluggish demon. This attack was far more powerful and controlled than the one she had delivered to Greed, now being more in in tune with her spirit arts allowed her to produce a more potent frequency. The divine blue light zoomed past the two girls who stared back in awe as the demonic entity stood no chance at the heroine's lethal offensive capabilities. The attack shows to have some type of ripple effect, engulfing the entire perimeter of the slug and decimating it particle by particle. The recoil of this attack, along with the explosion of the demon's divine demise, throws the two girls into a frenzy, shooting them up in the air as a result of the chaos behind them. Hibiki Takes action within the air, floating down in the air by proxy of the spirit magic within her dress, levitating herself down to safety. Gilda, on the other hand, who wore nothing but your average sister's outfit was now falling helpless on the ground, screaming out in terror.

"Gaaaaahh! I'm going to die!" She says, closing her eyes tight as she prepares to meet the hard force of the ground below. But before that could happen, her body landed safely in the arms of the blue-haired woman who was awaiting her. She opened her eyes to look up at the fiery blue eyes of the woman who just caught her, the scene looking like a prince holding a princess who had lost her footing. 

"Are you okay?" Wendy says with a neutral look, by this angle, Gilda is able to take in the intricate details of the woman's face, Seeing how bold and stern her eyes were, as well as feeling how strong her arms were from them holding her up.

"I… I'm fine! And Hey! Careful where you're touching!" The sister says, sprawling a deep red blush on her face, seeing as the blue-haired woman had currently had her hand under her butt. 

"Oh… Sorry." Wendy says putting the still-blushing nun down. Hibiki levitates down onto the pair before her and sprawls a pouty look of shyness and jealousy on her face.

"Hmph! I'm the only one who should be having events with Onee-sama!" She says out loud, not necessarily eliciting a response from anyone. The three then stand forward, looking at the smoke clear out from Wendy's divine attack. Feeling their hearts calm down upon their inspection, they are safely able to conclude the demon has been successfully exorcized.