Malachai kept the cold smile on his face as he watched Judy's reaction. She blinked a couple of times, as if processing the fact that someone as… imposing as him was offering her an alliance instead of trying to control or use her. She crossed her arms and stared at him.
"Work together?" Judy repeated, as though she needed to taste the words to believe them. She straightened up, wiping her hands on her tunic. "You don't seem like the type who asks for allies. More like the type who takes them. Why me? You could've just taken the dagger and walked away without looking back."
Malachai let out a low, almost inaudible laugh, shrugged, and crossed his arms over his broad chest. The movement made his shirt stretch tight against his muscles.
"I'm practical. You have light. I have… everything else." He made a vague gesture toward his own body, as if his powers were a natural extension of him. "Pennywise isn't just a clown with big teeth. He's a cosmic parasite that feeds on fear. Your purification can weaken his spiritual influence. My strength can shatter his physical shell. And the dagger…" He glanced toward the altar. "…That gives us the killing blow."
"Besides…" He took one step closer, invading her personal space without touching her. Judy didn't step back, but her breathing quickened slightly. "…You know things I don't. The Ritual of Chüd. The Turtle. I bring brute force. You bring… light. And faith. That balances things out."
Judy studied him in silence for several long seconds. Her gray blue eyes seemed to pierce through layers, the cold confidence, the smile that never quite reached his intense blue eyes, the way his presence filled the basement as if the space itself bent around him.
"I don't trust easily. My parents taught me that power without control is dangerous." She said finally. "And you radiate… a lot of power. Almost too much. And no fear. What keeps you sane?"
Malachai shrugged.
"Fun. And as long as there are monsters to hunt and girls… I have reasons not to become one of them."
Judy raised an eyebrow.
"Girls?"
He gave a lopsided, shameless grin.
"Yeah. The more the better. And I'm not about to let an interdimensional clown touch them."
She blushed faintly but didn't look away.
"If we're going to face him, we need more than strength and light. We need faith. Collective belief. The Ritual of Chüd isn't just a mind trick; it's about convincing the universe that thing can die."
Malachai nodded slowly.
"That's why I need you. You bring the faith. I bring proof that it can bleed."
A heavy silence fell. Judy lowered her gaze to her hands, where the light still pulsed faintly.
"Fine." She said at last. "Temporary alliance. As long as Pennywise is alive, we fight together. But if you try to use me… or hurt innocents… my light burns those who stray too." She narrowed her eyes threateningly, though to Malachai's eyes it looked almost adorable.
"Fair enough."
He extended his hand for a handshake.
Judy hesitated only a second longer. Then she took his hand. The contact felt strange: her skin warm, soft, almost feverish from recent power use; his cold, hard, like steel wrapped in flesh. Neither of them let go immediately. Her pulse raced against his fingers.
Malachai gave her hand a slight squeeze.
Judy pulled her hand back quickly, a faint blush beginning to form on her pale cheeks. "The dagger… it's here. But the house no longer hides it. With the spirits at peace, it will reveal itself."
They walked together toward the stone altar in the center of the basement.
Judy placed both palms on the cold stone. She closed her eyes and began to murmur softly. Light poured from her hands again, white and pure, spreading like luminous veins through the cracks in the stone.
Malachai felt the change in the air: a deep pulse, like the heartbeat of a planet. The stone trembled. It split with a dry, clean crack, revealing a hidden cavity. Inside: a dark, almost black wooden box engraved with the symbol of Maturin, the turtle with its shell open like a radiant sun.
Malachai reached out. The box opened by itself under his telekinetic will. Inside rested the dagger, the silver blade curved and thin, the handle wrapped in ancient leather. The edge didn't reflect the basement's light, it absorbed it and returned it in a cold, internal glow, as if it contained dead stars.
He took it by the handle. An immediate chill raced up his arm, but it wasn't pain, it was recognition. The dagger vibrated faintly in his palm, as if measuring him. Malachai turned it once, testing the balance. It was perfect, light and lethal.
Suddenly a vision struck him, a cosmic turtle floating in the void, IT as a spider of dead light, and the dagger plunging into its central eye. Black blood. A scream that shook the universe.
The vision faded.
The dagger vibrated in his hand, now warm. He could feel it alive.
"Now you can hurt him. But be careful. The clown must already know you have it."
"I can feel him." Malachai murmured. "It will wound his true form. The Deadlights will bleed."
"That dagger is Maturin's tooth. It doesn't kill on its own… but it turns fear against him. If we can make him doubt his invincibility… we can finish him," Judy said, looking at him. For a moment her eyes flicked over his muscles, but she quickly shook off any impure thought.
Malachai slid the dagger into the waistband of his jeans. Miraculously, it fit as if it had been made for him. He looked at Judy.
"Ready to go to Riverdale?"
She nodded, but then Malachai glanced at her dirty, torn tunic.
"But first…" He looked her up and down, assessing her. "…You need normal clothes. You can't show up in town wearing a medieval nun's habit."
Judy blushed hard.
"I have a backpack upstairs. Civilian clothes. But… how do we get back? By car?"
Malachai raised an eyebrow and smiled, amused, showing teeth for the first time in the entire conversation.
"Something better. Flying."