by Leo Ndelle
Michael ended another two score hellspawns before he felt it. Luciel’s transmutation was becoming stronger and it must have been triggered by a fight with a worthy opponent. If he, Michael, could do so much damage to the hellspawns, then there was no telling how much damage she would do to his brethren. It was best to face Luciel and end this once and for all.
“I’m going to finish this!” Michael told Raphael.
Raphael knew he was referring to Luciel.
“Go, brother! Thanks for the gift!” Raphael replied.
“My pleasure!” Michael laughed. “Forgot to mention something though.”
“What’s that?” Raphael asked as he rolled forward to evade an attack from a hellspawn, while shattering the leg of another.
“Heard these creatures are tough,” Drusiliel said as she appeared on the back of a hellspawn and twisted its head off. “Looks like they’re just ugly.”
“Sorry, brother,” Michael said with a laugh. “Had to get you some backup.”
Raphael was about to throw a few choice words at Michael but Michael had already teleported towards Luciel.
Drusiliel redirected a sledgehammer strike from a hellspawn into the ground and crashed her left elbow into the hellspawn’s sledgehammer-bearing wrist followed by a right, uppercut into the hellspawn’s chin. The hellspawn grunted and let go of its weapon as it stumbled backwards. It regained its balance a split moment too late. Drusiliel sliced its head off with a sword she had just summoned. However, as she spun around to attack another hellspawn, she saw a bright flash before she felt white hot pain from something that crashed into her left temple. Drusiliel felt herself fly several yards from the force of the blow. She crashed into a hellspawn and fell to the ground in a clumsy heap.
Her vision cleared as she quickly healed herself, feeling grateful that her head was still attached to her body. But that did not last long as her attacker was zipping towards her for the kill. Drusiliel teleported away quickly enough to evade the blow that would have crushed her head. She immediately summoned a chain as she appeared a few feet away from the hellspawn and threw the chain at the creature. The chain wrapped itself three times around the hellspawn’s neck before she infused it with her archangel battle flame. Her archangel battle flame burned through the hellspawn’s neck, severing its head. She dismissed the chain and turned around at the right moment to see a hellspawn about to zip towards Raphael with a sword and Raphael was unaware of his impending death.
“RAPH! BEHIND YOU!” Drusiliel yelled and summoned a spear.
Raphael heard Drusiliel’s warning as he crashed the head of a hellspawn. On reflex, he turned towards Drusiliel instead of turning behind. He saw Drusiliel throw a spear directly at him and smiled. Clever sister! He thought. Raphael redirected the flight path of the spear with his hammer and rolled away. He saw the huge legs of a hellspawn a few feet away from him in the middle of a zip. As he completed his evasive roll, he heard the sound of weapon piercing flesh and a hellspawn’s grunt. He turned around, ready to face the hellspawn. Instead, he grinned and nodded.
Drusiliel appeared behind the hellspawn and held the end of the spear she had thrown at Raphael. Raphael had redirected the spear through the hellspawn’s face and Drusiliel knew it was purely by luck. Still, it was good fortune. She grabbed the end of the spear that was protruding out of the back of the hellspawn’s head and completed a 360° zip, tearing the hellspawn’s head off its body. Drusiliel let the spear drop to the ground along with the hellspawn’s head.
“You’re welcome!” she yelled and winked at Raphael.
Drusiliel caught a zip from the corner of her left eye. She summoned a shield and there was a clash of weapon against shield. Three more zips later, her attacker still could not hit her. Drusiliel narrowed her eyes and waited. Her attacker was not a hellspawn and she had a good idea who her attacker was. Drusiliel heaved her shoulders and dismissed her shield.
“Let’s end this, Samael!” Drusiliel spoke with venomous anger.
“It’s Devilus now,” Devilus said as he zipped in front of her.
The former lovers stared each other down for a moment. Devilus dismissed his sword and armor and summoned two daggers. Drusiliel did the same.
“Just like old times,” Devilus scoffed.
“Only now, I’m going to end you! Traitor!” Drusiliel spat and charged.
***
Michael caught Luceefa’s left arm in a parry and broke it in four places. Luceefa screamed in pain and summoned pale, violet healing flames around her shattered arm. She dropped to her left knee in a sacrifice fall and crashed her left shoulder into Michael’s inner right knee, breaking the knee. Michael yelled as pain flared from his broken right knee. He let go of Luceefa’s right arm. As he was collapsing on that broken knee, his face connected with Luceefa’s right knee in the process. Michael and Luceefa rolled away from each other and allowed each other a moment to heal before resuming the fight. They had been going at it for moments in an equally matched duel, with and without weapons.
“We now have the Zarark,” Michael smirked. “And Metatron is dead!”
Michael thought the mind games would work to his favor. To his surprise, the news only sped up Luceefa’s transmutation towards becoming more Shemsu than archangel. A similar transmutation was occurring within Michael, but not to the same degree as it was in Luceefa. The transmutation also came with the darkness in Emok’s tainted essence and, while Michael resisted the darkness to some degree, Luceefa embraced it wholly. Right now, the darkness was more prominent in Luceefa than in him, meaning her changes were also ahead of his. As such, Michael was no longer fighting a fallen archangel of equal strength. He was about to fight a creature that was more Shemsu than angel. Michael summoned his sword and a violet archangel battle flame.
The new version of Luceefa made Michael look slow, and Michael was the best Celestia had to offer. She was going to humiliate Celestia through him. She was going to do to him what he had done to her during the first war. She was going to make a public display of what true victory looked like. As such, Luceefa toyed with Michael, reducing him to a mass of mediocrity, apathy, lethargy and ennui so much that Michael could no longer summon an archangel battle flame. She straddled him as he lay on the ground in total surrender and hopelessness. She could end him right there and there, but-
“No! No! NO!” Luceefa raged as she punctuated each ‘no’ with a punch to his face. “You will not go out easily! You…. will… not… go.. out… easily!”
With every furious punch, the darkness consumed Luceefa’s essence some more and Michael just lay on the ground, unfeeling and waiting for an end to his misery and suffering. Luceefa was ecstatic over the feeling. She was invigorated by it. Yes! Yes! Yes! Finally, she was going to see her vision come to pass and she was going to make Michael suffer every moment of it. Or maybe not! Why bother to let him live? He let her live once and look what happened. She came back and, against all odds, she was about to end him and win the war. It was best not to make the same mistake Michael made.
Uriel turned around at the perfect moment to see Luceefa stand up and loom over Michael’s limp body oozing with purple angel light as she summoned a sword. NOOOO!!!! Uriel screamed out loud. Michael cannot fall! Celestia cannot fall! She had sworn to have his back to the very end, even if that end meant her own end. As such, Uriel did the only thing she could think of as Luceefa raised her sword in the air. She zipped and crashed her body into Luceefa’s.
Luceefa felt something slam into her, sending her sprawling several yards away from Michael’s body. She screamed in anger as she immediately regained battle stance. She met the defiant, taunting gaze of her assailant and went livid with untamed fury. Her body flamed up with purple flames.
“I need some serious backup here!” Uriel called out to anyone and everyone.
Luceefa zipped too fast for Uriel. Uriel could not react fast enough except to summon a shield in front of her. Uriel was sent flying several yards away as Luceefa sla
mmed into her shield with unbelievable force. She dropped the shield and teleported a few yards away in an evasive maneuver as the shield hit the floor and disappeared.
Palubiel appeared from nowhere and drove her right leg into Luceefa’s left hip. As Luceefa’s body sailed through the air, Gabriel appeared and crashed his mace into her face, sending her flying backwards. Before she hit the ground, Uriel leaped towards Luceefa, drove her sword into Luceefa and pinned Luceefa into the ground. Despite her pain, Luceefa snarled at Uriel and kicked Uriel in the buttocks with so much force that it sent Uriel flying several yards away from her. Luceefa grabbed the blade of the sword Uriel drove into her chest as she pushed herself off the ground. She crouched on her right knee and met the gazes of Palubiel and Gabriel, while Uriel summoned another sword. Luceefa wanted them to see how much faster she healed than the average archangel as she pulled the sword out of her chest and summoned purple light over her wound, healing herself instantly.
“Someone get Michael out of here! NOW!” Uriel commanded via telepathy.
Someone executed the order as Luceefa slowly rose to her feet and summoned two swords. She was going to enjoy ending Celestia’s best fighters.
***
Beliel and Mazel brawled with Gahel and Farel in a free-for-all that was music to their egos. It was clear to either group that the other must fall. So far, the fight had been fairly balanced as the enemies went against each other on a one-on-one basis. Until Gahel and Farel decided to switch things up.
Gahel summoned a sword as he pinned the hilt of his spear into the ground with the sharp tip of the spear inclined at an angle. His action baited Mazel, who thought Gahel was without a weapon for a split moment. She charged towards him, wielding her sword in the air for an impending finish. Gahel stepped away from the spear, faking a right attack that baited Mazel even more. Mazel slashed at Gahel’s exposed left side and completely ignored her peripheral vision.
Farel unleashed a stump kick into Beliel’s stomach, sending her sprawling several feet away, as she dismissed her sword and summoned a shield. She immediately turned around and blindsided Mazel with the shield and drove Mazel’s body into Gahel’s pinned-down spear. Gahel continued his attack to the right as he spun his body around in a downward arc, severing Mazel’s head. He immediately dismissed his sword and leaped in the air as he continued his part of the choreographic attack he and Farel had rehearsed too many times to count.
Beliel, as expected, executed a backward roll and immediately zipped towards Farel. However, she was knocked backwards by a shield she never saw Farel throw towards her. She was dazed for only a split moment as she quickly regained herself and made to zip again. Instead, she felt something drive through her and pin her to the ground. She grabbed Gahel’s spear and tried to pull herself away from the spear as pain flared through her body. It was pain she barely had a moment to process as everything went black when Farel sliced off her head with a summoned sword.
“Not bad, my friend,” Gahel said as he glided toward Farel.
But Farel zipped towards him and planted a deep, passionate kiss on his lips.
“There’s more where that came from,” Farel said between kisses. “Let’s just stay alive, okay?”
“Aye! Aye!” Gahel replied and the two new lovers returned to the fight.
***
Devilus threw the first dagger at the charging Drusiliel before zipping towards her. As he expected, Drusiliel deflected his dagger and threw one of hers at him. Instead of deflecting her thrown dagger, like they had done several times during training, Devilus caught it, spun around to his left on his left heel, ducked and thrust his other dagger just below Drusiliel’s ribcage. He smiled when he heard her yell in pain and went for her neck with her dagger he had caught. Disappointing, my love! He thought. Was looking forward to some entertai-.
Drusiliel saw her opening when Devilus decided to play a fast one and spin on his heel. He forgot to protect his ride side and Drusiliel drove her other dagger into his right cheek and pulled outwards, causing Devilus’ face to look like he had a gruesome, one-sided smile. His cry of pain was fuel to her fury as she crashed her right knee into his chin, sending Devilus flying several yards away. She reached for the dagger sticking out of her ribcage and pulled it out, washing her ribcage with healing angel light while Devilus did the same with his face.
“Not bad,” Devilus sneered.
“You always talked too much,” Drusiliel scoffed.
The two former lovers, friends and brethren at arms went back and forth with each other as each of them tried to deal death to the other with their daggers. The battle was evenly matched and no one seemed to be gaining the upper hand, until Devilus decided to freestyle. He plunged his daggers into Drusiliel’s upper breasts, leaving his ribs exposed. It was a bait to Drusiliel and she did take the bait by plunging her daggers on either side of his ribcage. Both fighters were in serious pain. Devilus lifted Drusiliel using the daggers in her body and zipped towards a wall behind her. However, Drusiliel read his intention and waited until they were close to the wall before she flipped him over.
She crashed Devilus into the wall and immediately let go of her daggers because she felt Devilus pull his daggers out of her. She ignored the pain from her stab wounds and caught both his hands as his hands were going in for a decapitation. It came down to who was the stronger of the two as Drusiliel would not let go of Devilus’ hands. Suddenly, Drusiliel did something Devilus did not expect. She bit into his left hand, which was closer to her neck and held it there. While Devilus was temporarily distracted by the pain from her bite, Drusiliel had a free hand. She summoned a dagger, plunged it into Devilus’ neck and infused it with her archangel battle flame. Drusiliel stared into Devilus’ eyes which were filled with shock at what had just happened, before his eyes became lifeless and his head rolled off his body. She let go of his hands and washed her body with healing angel light as Devilus’ headless body slumped to the floor.
“You never should’ve defected!” Drusiliel hissed.
She summoned a spear and rejoined the rest of the fight.
***
Eliel gently placed Michael’s battered body on the ground in a location far removed from the war. He crouched over Michael and placed his right hand on Michael’s left cheek.
“Lies,” Michael said weakly. “The prophecies… They were all lies!”
“Listen, Michael,” Eliel spoke firmly. “I don’t know what’s wrong with you or why you’ve given up like this. But this is not you! Whether they are true or not, prophecies do not define you!”
“You are The One, Eliel,” Michael continued weakly as if Eliel was not talking to him. “You are chosen… special… You are the one to lead Celestia… I am of no use anymore.”
“Stop this nonsense, Michael!” Eliel grabbed Michael by the shoulders and pulled Michael closer to him. “Have you ever stopped to think about why you fell in the first place? WHY the prophecies were there in the first place? The prophecies may be lies, but there’s a reason for everything. Everything, even a lie, has a purpose. And this, Michael, THIS has a reason. THIS has a purpose.”
Eliel seemed to have caught Michael’s attention for a moment and he continued to ride the momentum.
“Your fall to Earth Realm was your first test,” Eliel continued. “The first war was your second test and I am your third test. Can’t you see that? I am your last and final test, what I represent, that is. You must succeed in this test like you did in the first two! You must get beyond me, what I represent, to find your true purpose. Everything you believed in, everything you thought was true, everything you built around your persona, was an illusion created by you FOR you! To entertain your ego. This is the lowest point in your existence. I am the lowest point of your existence; but I’m also here to make you see that!”
“What… what are you… talking about?” Michael was confused.
“Celestia needs you!” Eliel screamed into Michael’s face. “I need you! There can be onl
y one leader and that leader isn’t me. I thought I was going to take your place, but I was wrong. I now know better.”
Eliel let go of Michael and Michael slumped back into the ground.
What is he talking about? Michael thought.
“You are the leader of the Realm of Celestia,” Eliel spoke less passionately, almost in resignation. “But you must go beyond your ego, Michael. You must look within this darkness that consumes you and find your light.”
Eliel then rose to his feet and towered over Michael.
“I must go and defend my realm now,” Eliel said with a certain level of authority and determination that Michael had never seen. “You can either lie here and wallow in your self-pity or you can become who you have always been.”
Eliel made to teleport away but paused.
“Or better yet,” he added as an afterthought. “You can come join us and die on the battlefield, like the rest of us are willing to do.”
Eliel then teleported away leaving Michael by himself.
***
Lunok was tempted so many times to switch to Yeshua and end this charade once and for all. Unfortunately, he could not. Yeshua was not supposed to directly interfere. Also, within this sphere of protection he had created to trap himself and The Darkness, he could only function as a Shemsu because that bubble was a microcosm of the Dimension of Asah. Even as an upgraded Shemsu, thanks to his multiple falls to the lower realms, containing The Darkness was proving to be increasingly more difficult mainly because of the cosmic changes from the Cosmic Spark.
“I’ve gone through so much to save you, old friend,” Lunok said.
“Your friend is no longer here,” The Darkness replied in a diabolical baritone.
“When I set out to find a cure, I was selfish beyond measure,” Lunok spoke, ignoring the reminder from The Darkness. “You were all I cared about. I was so driven to cure you. But then, I lost you.”
“Your greatest accomplishment was losing Emok,” The Darkness interjected.
“Maybe you are correct,” Lunok agreed. “At least, for my people, our people, it was worth it. Now, because of what happened to you, and because of what I went through, they are now immune to you and your powers.”