The Haunts

The trio exited to the surface and prepared to leave the enchanted forest, coming out from the small door they had exited, jutting out of a thick bunch of thorny bushes, high and wide. The path they were on was covered in dead plant matter and patches of frozen pebbled mud, now beginning to tremble. The old, frost-covered trees around them shattered like frozen icicles and fell to the side as the snow beneath their feet sullied and darkened with debris and dirt. The darkening sky above churned as a lightning storm brewed. They gasped as the earth before them opened up, and out of the massive hole, the horrific Cailleach Bhéarach materialized as an ugly apparition. Her long, unnaturally pale, black-veined arms were unexpectedly massive as they appeared out of the crater-sized hole and smacked against the frozen ground. First, there was one arm, then the second one reached heavenwards, and then it pressed hard around the opening so as to lift something incredibly massive from the dark and frozen earth. A bulbous head with a scalp of long, frosted white hair withdrew. A freezing wind arose as Cailleach Bhéarach grew to tower above the trio.

“She doesn’t look at all like the way I remembered her all those years ago.” Levy measured her up and swallowed.

Levy squinted for the right words to describe her: She’s a giant of unleashed terror.

“No way!” Gilbert looked way up, and he, too, sounded like he wanted to be somewhere else. “She can’t be that powerful.”

Corvus Junior looked way up at the witch hag and freaked out. “Holy moly! I heard she wasn’t much to look at, but she puts the ugh in ugly. Plus, she’s like totally butt naked.” He turned away to gag.

“So, has anyone here fought a giant Hag Goddess before?” Levy said this without taking his eyes off her as she slowly looked and moved out of the crater.

“Yeah, I don’t have any ideas. How about you, Gilbert? You've got pointers?” Corvus Junior looked across at him and then added, “Say Gilbert, do you know that when you’re really scared, you shape-shift back into your bear form, right?”

“As a matter of fact, no.” Gilbert spoke low and distantly.

“Well, I just talk a lot when I’m scared stiff, like right now. Right now I’m just utterly shit-scared and terrified of this gigantic bitch monster.”

Sizing up his opponent, Levy tugged on Gilbert for some answers. “How did you get my armour to activate? Does this mean my dagger will form back into a sword too?”

“Huh?” Gilbert blushed as he turned to Levy and then nodded quickly as he pulled up his little bag of tricks. “Yeah-yeah, of course I did this. I even brought the realm rings along with me. The closer we are to them, the more powerful they are.”

“Realm rings?” Levy scrunched up his face.

“I managed to figure out a way to open up both portals, and then with alchemy I managed to channel their fields of influence to remain as small as a gemstone, and then I had each one bound to their own ring, which you get to wear.”

Gilbert handed them one at a time to Levy. “Now put just one of these two rings in either hand, but remember... they must never touch, because If they do—” Gilbert spread his arms wide and made the sound of an explosion.

“You know you look better as a big bear. You’re less hippie-ish, much like the day I first met you.” Levy smiled as he slipped on the rings. The bark armour around his hands grew around the gemstones.

“There's something strange about this.” Gilbert looked back at the giant. “She reminds me of the Hindu Goddess Kali, but that Goddess is the destroyer of evil forces. She’s a protector, a Divine Mother of the Universe, but this one’s demonic, almost like the titans mentioned in those ancient Greek myths.”

“So what?” Corvus Junior withdrew his two blades and crouched low before he leaped into the air. “I just want to know if she can bleed!”

“Wait! We need to plan our attack!” Levy tried to stop his little eager-beaver friend, but the boy was too impulsive. Not as calculated and experienced as his father was when he was alive. “What does any of that mumbo-jumbo have to do with dealing with her?” He pointed to the frightful giant.

“Well, not much, really. But you are a link between her and your lineage.”

“But what does that even mean?”

“Well, that’s simple; she’s connected to you. You are the Yin to her Yang. You’re like David versus Goliath.”

“She wants the power I have to be freely given to her.”

Gilbert squinted at Levy and said, "You are still a virgin, right?”

“What’s that got to do with anything?”

“So far, it’s been the source of your power.”

“Are you saying I should mate with that?” Levy said it with disgust.

“By the Old Ones—no! Man, you are as pent up as she is,” Gilbert nodded to the Giant. “She is suffering through such pain that it made her go this way. She saw her worshippers tortured and crucified, and then the rest turned their backs on her, thrice denied and deserted her, reduced her worth to that of a mortal being, and then the Catholics did such terrible things to her in the name of their patriarchal God. That alone would be enough to make a fallen God go mad.”

“So you’re saying she needs celestial therapy?” Levy scoffed at the idea. “Gilbert, you know as well as I do that she eats children and small animals! I don’t think there aren’t enough therapists or nutritionists in the whole world that can help her now.”

“You’re right about that, Levy.” Gilbert went sullen, saying, “She is beyond any help now.”

“I doubt she ever could help herself. Now it’s up to me to put a stop to this.” Levy willed the Hell Bark armour to cover his entire body. He looked like a Templar Knight who had used African blackwood for his armour in place of forged steel. Only this Hell-born tree bark was much lighter and had unique properties that Levy readily used in battle.

Levy hurried to get closer to the Hag Goddess. With a flick of the wrist, the dragon dagger in his hand became a sword. He watched as Corvus Junior zipped around the Giant, slashing his swords at her rubbery, pale flesh. He was more of a nuisance to her than doing any real harm. Cailleach Bhéarach kept slapping him aside like some annoying mosquito.

Corvus Junior landed roughly near Levy and ruffled his black feather cloak. “I think I’m tiring her out,” he said, chuckling like a child having the time of his life.

“You both might want to stand back,” Levy said, stepping forward and nodding to the two. “I’ll be taking over from here.”

Cailleach Bhéarach’s beady little black-pitted eyes fell on Levy as the lightning overhead cracked down to scorch the earth around her. Her elongated arms had pointy, claw-like fingers that looked as if they had been dipped in black oil. As she stepped out of the massive hole, around her neck dangled a necklace of the skulls of both children and small animals that swung in rhythm to the pendulum sway of her floppy breasts. On her wrists and ankles, she wore an assortment of useless junk strung together with lengths of cord and wire. Around her lingered a turbulent, smoky aura of disembodied spirits that soundlessly wailed and lamented. They were the lost souls bonded to the great giant, the unfortunate victims of her endless rage.

“I am Cailleach Bhéarach!” She pointed down at Levy and said, "You insignificant tick!”

“I am Levy Madison O’Rourke, and I have come to destroy you!”

The Hag Giant’s horrific face lost composure and then started to form a delightful grin that wrinkled up her giant face. “So you have finally returned, and you came with my gift!”

“Nay, Giant,” Levy said, pointing his sword up at her. “I’ve come to finish this madness once and for all. But all I can promise is that I shall give you a good send-out to Ad Infinitum!”

“Well then, come on, let’s see what you've got.” The Hag Goddess motioned for Levy to come at her.

With his sword gripped in both hands, Levy rushed forward, and the Giant witch caught hold of the blade between her giant hands and yanked him upwards. Levy dangled above the ground and looked past his nemesis. The sky started to hail, and lightning streaked across the sky. Ice pellets slapped against his armour.

“Not quick enough!” she complained with a cackle. “Not if you intend to lop off my head!” She dropped Levy to the ground before she started to slash at him with her sharp fingers and then tried to stomp on him with her large, bare feet.

Levy jumped back, rolled out of the way, and then hacked at the witch’s fingers, which were impervious to his jagged dragon blade. He slashed and stabbed at her feet as she tried to stomp on him in hopes of cutting deep enough to make her stumble.

Alas, not a scratch appeared.

As the Giant bent low to grab him, Levy ran up her arm with his sword brought back, prepared to swing it forward and remove the top of her head.

Her beady little eyes followed him, and she recoiled and brought both of her hands together as if trying to swat at an annoying spider. Levy willed his armour to form spikes, and then he wildly slashed his blade as he careened over to free fall into the mud. Levy struck the ground so hard that he was momentarily winded. His Sword clattered beside him and reverted back into a dagger.

“Corvus!” Gilbert commanded, “We need a diversion! Now!”

“I’m on it!” Corvus Junior whistled to his other siblings, who hid from view, to go forth. As a group, they managed to distract the Hag from harassing Levy by slashing at her exposed flesh and by flying right in her face.

Meanwhile, Gilbert hurried over to Levy’s aid. “She’s too damn big to injure; that blade of yours is doing squat to her.”

Levy willed his armour to absorb the spikes so Gilbert could approach him. “I know, but what choice do we have?”

“Hey guys, you better come up with an idea how to bring her down soon.” Corvus Junior flew towards the two and transformed from a crow back into a young man. His father’s feather cloak blew in the wind. “It won’t take long before one of my siblings gets hurt, and I’d hate to have to be the one to tell Momma about it.”

“If we can’t defeat her, all will be lost.” Levy looked up at the storm clouds overhead and thought, "If only we could harness the storm to our advantage.”

“Maybe we can.” Gilbert deliberated carefully in his head.

Levy looked at Corvus junior and asked, "Do you still have those blades you took from Gilbert?”

“Stole,” Gilbert interjected.

“Borrowed,” Corvus junior corrected.

“I noticed while I was fighting her that some of your razor-sharp blades had made deep cuts while my sword wasn’t even breaking her skin. My blade’s more for hacking than for stabbing.”

“What are you thinking?” Gilbert raised an eyebrow.

Levy pointed up to the turbulent sky and said, “We need lightning rods stabbed into her wounds. The bolt overhead should do the rest.”

“But we’ll need something like pure silver to conduct that kind of electricity through her giant body.”

“Or copper,” Corvus Junior quipped in. “I know where I can get some copper piping, but it’ll take some time to get it.”

“You mean steal, you hoarder,” Gilbert half-joked.

“How much time do you need?” Levy looked up, way up, and saw the Giant Hag swatting at Corvus’ clan, and he felt that he should do something before they got hurt.

Gilbert stood back as Levy’s hand started to glow. “You’re not thinking what I’m thinking, are you?”

“I need to make a distraction.” At that, Levy placed his hand in the air, and he unleashed a beacon of holy light. It penetrated through the Hag Giant’s being and revealed another host in the centre, where the monster’s giant heart should be.

“But that’s—” Gilbert gasped, “horrifically impressive!”

“She isn’t a Giant; that hag is just controlling it from within like a puppeteer!” Levy brought his hand away as the giant turned slowly to focus on them.

“She’s constructed her very own flesh golem for the puppet, and I suspect she used as a material to construct it all of the fat of her victims,” Gilbert gagged. “That takes a lot of dark alchemy and blood magic to do something that macabre.”

“What did you expect from a monster like her?”