Hell's Ascendant (Mantles of Power Book 3)

by Benjamin Medrano

  She’d returned her cloudpiercer to its normal size, since the halls were easily large enough for her to make use of it, and it was all Kitania could do to bite back sarcastic comments about angels overbuilding their structures. Even if they had wings, she saw no reason they should make them wide enough for an angel to have their wings almost at full extension. Well, that might be an exaggeration, but only a slight one, since three angels could easily walk abreast down the halls.

  Even so, the building was far more functional than she’d expected. There was less ornamentation than in most of the buildings she’d seen before this, and the rooms they’d peeked into had been relatively sparsely furnished and task oriented. It was obvious that the inhabitants had left in a hurry, since she’d seen half-chopped vegetables in the kitchen, dirty clothing sitting next to a wash basin, and more signs that people had suddenly abandoned what they’d been doing and left.

  “This worries me. Maybe we won’t find much of anything?” Isalla whispered, her voice barely audible.

  Karakel’s troops were scouting, and they seemed far better suited to it than most of the others, except maybe for Kitania. She was happy to let the angels take the lead, though, since they were marginally less likely to cause people they encountered to raise the alarm.

  “I doubt that. I trust Vinara to be right, even if she’s annoying at times,” Kitania replied softly, ignoring Vinara’s grin as she looked around, continuing. “They left in a hurry, which means I’m sure we’ll find something. We’ve already proven this isn’t a winery and resort of some type.”

  “I suppose, it’s just—” Isalla began, then fell silent as Karakel suddenly stiffened and stopped.

  One of the soldiers slipped around the corner and the man spoke quietly. “One of the hallways turns just after reaching a wider, more ornate doorway deep in the complex, and we heard voices near it, sir. We listened, and it sounded like they were talking about the battle. They didn’t expect it to take long, once their own archangels entered the fray, and apparently they’re guarding something which is supposed to be important.”

  “Really… that sounds promising,” Vinara said, straightening as she grinned. “They’re in for a surprise due to our reinforcements, then.”

  “Most likely, Magister,” Karakel agreed, then frowned. “Still, considering everything else they’ve done, I don’t dare leave them be. That mana conduit you sensed concerns me.”

  “Agreed. That’s why we’ll go take out these people, and deal with whatever they’re guarding,” Rose said firmly, glancing at Karakel, and the woman nodded in agreement.

  “I’d recommend letting Lady Vinara go first to check for traps, though,” Eziel commented quietly, almost making Kitania jump in surprise. Eziel hadn’t said more than a few words since coming to the heavens, and the complicated look on her face was concerning, but they didn’t have time to deal with it right now.

  “Very true,” Kitania agreed, raising an eyebrow at Vinara, who rolled her eyes and looked at the man.

  “Lead the way, then. And you might want to get the rest of your soldiers back together, this could go poorly,” Vinara said, pausing before she added in amusement, “Though hopefully it will go poorly for them. That would be rather nice.”

  “True, Magister,” Karakel replied respectfully, and they quickly headed down the hallways, taking pains to be silent.

  The complex seemed to be even bigger with every minute, making Kitania wonder how anyone had failed to notice it being excavated. Were the locals blind? Or… possibly a mage had excavated it, which would make more sense. Either way, at last they came to a hall, and Kitania peered around the corner to look at the doorway.

  Double doors that were carved with images of the rising sun were down the hall, with gilding over the suns themselves, and she could hear the soft sound of voices as well, mostly because the doors were cracked open slightly. Vinara tapped Kitania on the shoulder and motioned her aside impatiently, the succubus scowling in apparent annoyance.

  Moving, Kitania watched Vinara examine the room with narrowed eyes, and due to how quiet everyone was she could hear the succubus barely murmur under her breath. “Ah, wards… but a touch sloppy, since they can be seen on this side of the doors. Let’s see…”

  For a long moment the succubus studied the door, then she turned to look at Isalla. “Have you progressed enough to shove open the doors with an air spell?”

  “Ah, yes, of course. That’s pretty simple, really,” Isalla replied, blinking in confusion.

  “Good. Now… can you either throw a curved fireball to launch it through the doorway, or dispel a particular ward?” Vinara asked, looking at the mage among Karakel’s soldiers.

  “I’m not skilled with fire, but rather with metal,” the mage replied, who had a slightly odd accent that Kitania couldn’t place. “I should be able to dispel a ward, though.”

  “Right. Come here, I want to show you the ward I want removed,” Vinara said, removing her monocle and offering it to the angel. The angel put it on, and Vinara murmured, pointing. “The ward I need you to remove is the one with the purple-ish glow that looks like a net. It mitigates fire spells, which would impede Rose as well as a fireball. No, not yet! We need to all act at the same time.”

  “Of course,” the mage said, sounding a little chagrined as she returned the monocle, lowering her hand.

  Turning to the rest of them, Vinara’s expression grew more solemn as she spoke softly. “The room is heavily warded, so most combat spells won’t work, thus my request. I have no idea how many people are within, but if we’re going to hit them, I suggest we strike hard and fast. I’ll throw a fireball into the room, but it’s likely that I won’t do more than injure a few of them, depending on the size of the room or what defenses they have. When we hit them, I want the rest of you to rush the room.”

  “Fair. There’s something to be said for the element of surprise,” Rose said, glancing around. “Who goes first?”

  “Me,” Kitania said, and as Karakel frowned she added rather bluntly, “If someone’s going to take the brunt of their defenses, it should be me. I’m effectively immortal, and my defensive spells and armor make me incredibly hard to hurt. We also don’t have time to discuss this.”

  “As you wish, Lady Kitania,” Karakel acknowledged, but quickly added, “My people will be right behind you, however. The safety of your group was an explicit priority.”

  “Fine, but let’s get this going,” Rose said, and Isalla nodded, drawing her sword. A tiny part of Kitania suddenly realized she’d never offered Rose her blessing, but it was a little late for that now.

  “Alright. Isalla, start casting right after her, then I’ll begin my spell,” Vinara instructed and looked at Kitania wryly as she added, “Kitania, try not to block my aim, hm?”

  “I won’t,” Kitania promised, suppressing a smile.

  “Alright. Here I go,” the mage said, taking a breath, then she began her spell as softly as she could, her fingers tracing symbols through the air. Isalla began casting an instant later, then Vinara, and Kitania braced herself to move.

  Everything happened all at once. First was a sizzling sound from down the hallway, followed by a gust of glowing white wind that slammed the doors open. The tiny orb of flames left Vinara’s hands just behind the wind, and the instant Kitania saw it, she charged forward, half-closing her eyes to be safe as the orb’s path twisted and rocketed into the room as cries of alarm rang out. The fireball detonated with a flash of light and a dull whump that almost knocked the doors closed again, just in time for Kitania to kick the door open and confront a pair of staggering angels blocking the doorway.

  The butt of Kitania’s cloudpiercer hit the ground and she vaulted over the pair, spinning in mid-air to slash into the back of one of them, and her tail hit the other in the head, almost knocking the woman over. Her blade glanced off the man’s armor, but he screamed as her blade caught his wing, half-severing it at the base.

  The room was smoldering,
and Kitania took in the dozen of angels at a glance, then smiled darkly as she spotted the two in the back.

  “Ah, Haral, Sorm! I’ve been looking forward to seeing you again,” Kitania purred as they picked themselves up off the floor.

  That was when the others caught up, and the battle began in truth.

  Chapter 45

  Estalia smiled at the angel nearby, throwing her mantle’s strength into it, and the man hesitated, looking at her lustfully for an instant too long. The soldier he’d been about to cut down took advantage of the opening ruthlessly, stabbing the man as he recovered and nodded to Estalia. She didn’t have time to do more, though, as she was dealing with her own admirers, such as it were.

  The four angels attacking her were well-coordinated, Estalia noticed, parrying the blade of one with her rapier, while she used her gauntlet to almost gently push the thrust of another aside, clicking her tongue in annoyance.

  “You don’t have to be so forward, you know. If you put down your weapons and were reasonable, you’d not only have a chance to live, but I’d be happy to chat with you,” Estalia told them, riposting savagely, stabbing perfectly through the gap in the armor over the woman’s inner elbow.

  “Silence, harlot of the hells!” one of the men snarled, but the undertone to his voice made her want to roll her eyes in disgust. “You have no place here, and need to be punished!”

  “She needs to die, you idiot!” a woman retorted, to Estalia’s amusement.

  The problem with her mantle was quite simple, in Estalia’s view. Her mantle was that of desire, and it attracted attention and could even overwhelm minds, if she had the time to focus it on people, which made for excellent distractions in combat. The problem was that people reacted differently to desire at times. Some wanted to turn her into a servant, which would never end well for them even if they succeeded, while others hated her beauty and how others were attracted to her. It tended to draw entirely the wrong sort of attention, in her view… though it did help draw attention away from her subordinates.

  “Now, now, you really shouldn’t be fighting over me, not when we’re in the middle of combat,” Estalia said, distracting the two again as she took a step back, effortlessly avoiding an attack that was aimed at her throat.

  “Shut up, you—agh!” the woman began, only to scream as one of Estalia’s soldiers stabbed her in the back.

  The others screamed as well, not having noticed how Estalia had led them deeper into her army, giving ample opportunities for her soldiers to deal with them. Estalia could have killed them on her own, but she was trying to conserve her energy.

  “You really should have watched where you were going, rather than focusing just on killing me,” Estalia chided the woman belatedly, then looked at the soldiers and said, “Thank you, now to deal with more of them, hm?”

  The smiles that they gave her eased Estalia’s heart, and they quickly moved back into the battle, which didn’t just rage on the ground, but also in the sky above her.

  Estalia’s force was dealing far more damage to the renegade angels than most others might have expected, anyone but Anna or Estalia herself, at least. Oh, they’d taken casualties so far, but including a priest or priestess in each squad had hopefully kept most of those injuries from resulting in death, as had the incredible expense Estalia had made in making them the best armor and weapons she could manage. Few other realms of the hells could boast equipment like Estalia’s elite forces possessed, and it’d taken her thousands of years to build an economy which could afford it.

  Coupled with their equipment, the soldiers had drilled together for years in private, knowing that if they had to they’d be facing enemies beside Estalia, so they cut through the majority of the angelic rabble far more easily than even the soldiers of the Order of the Eagle could manage. The biggest problem was ensuring that the Society of Golden Dawn didn’t surround them, which was a definite issue with more dribs and drabs of their organization showing up with every passing minute.

  Blood soaked once-beautiful fields around the citadel, and Estalia was staring across a battlefield of angels, watching the blue-clad defenders protect the spear-like structure and its surrounding towers savagely, obviously trying to push the attackers into Estalia’s army, such as it was. That amused her a little, since the Order of the Eagle had at least two to three times as many soldiers as she did on the field, and between them they had less than half what the society had possessed initially. Of course, it helped that Ratha had chosen to help in the battle, the goddess of the harvest calmly throwing out seeds that sprouted into immense roots in seconds to mire and impede their enemies.

  Thunder rumbled from above, and Estalia glanced up calmly, then smiled. Another archangel had arrived to help the society’s supporters, but the battle wasn’t going well for them.

  Anna struck the golden archangel yet again, sending him flying backward with another deep dent in his armor, which was battered and scarred by this point. Estalia had to admit he was tough, with how much of a beating he’d taken. The female archangel’s stone armor was cracked, and she was bloody, defending herself from Sidina and Ire as best she could, while the new blonde archangel just barely managed to deflect an arrow from Alserah, defending the hurt other archangel. The arrow vanished into the distance and exploded, sending a shockwave through the earth. If their battle had been on the ground, Estalia knew that there wouldn’t be anything left of the army.

  A sudden sense of danger struck Estalia, and she dodged without even thinking about it just as a crossbow bolt hissed past her, crackling with holy energy. Estalia turned and blinked as she saw a trio of angels bearing down on her, all of them in heavy armor that practically crackled with enchantments. One was wielding a sword and shield, and his armor glittered white, while a woman wore armor that was heavier than anything Estalia had seen an angel wear before, one that was deep brown with gold trim. She also had an axe slung on her belt and a crossbow in hand, while a thinner man took her left flank with a two-handed sword, his armor relatively normal compared to the others.

  “Ah, you must be the leaders of this little uprising… or at least the ones who aren’t archangels,” Estalia said, smiling at them, and she visibly saw the three hesitate at least for a moment, though the woman suddenly dropped the crossbow and raised her gauntlet, and a glittering shield snapped up the instant before a lightning bolt hit.

  Electricity arced off the shield uselessly, which Estalia was certain would dismay her mage, but she was more impressed by the woman’s reaction time and device. Instead she simply smiled more widely as the thin man spoke.

  “We’re not going to fall for your foolish mind control, not like all these deluded fools,” the angel said coldly, a slash of his sword ringing off the armor of one of Estalia’s soldiers. The woman’s armor held, but she likely would need healing, judging from how she went flying. “We’ll kill you, then they’ll despair when they realize you’re merely mortal.”

  “Mind control? You think I control them with mind control?” Estalia asked, shock rippling through her, along with more than a little anger as she moved forward deliberately.

  “How else could you corrupt this many angels? You’re a despicable—” the woman began in a rough voice, snatching a rod off her belt, but Estalia had had quite enough.

  “Kneel,” Estalia snarled, and this time she didn’t hold back, as she allowed her power to release fully for the first time since the battle had begun. She felt the power billow out of her in waves, and she struggled to focus it solely on the three in front of her, yet she knew she failed.

  Her power rippled across the battlefield, and an expanding wave of angels suddenly fell to their knees, including many of her own soldiers. The wave of power was ruthless, and many angels struggled to make it to the ground under the weight of her words, while some fell from the sky entirely. Estalia did hope that all her people were alright, but she kept her glare focused on the three as their knees hit the ground almost simultaneously, while the man w
ith the sword and shield almost choked.

  “W-what…” he gasped, struggling to rise, yet unable to do so.

  “This is mind control, you imbeciles,” Estalia replied coldly, approaching them with her rapier in hand. “Given time I could destroy an archangel with my power, but I don’t do that sort of thing, not without great need. No, I convinced all those angels around me with something incredibly simple. The truth. It’s amazing what you can do via honesty, something which all of you seem to have forgotten.”

  “You… you think we’ll succumb to your lies? We’re not so weak-minded that we’ll allow you to turn us against our allies!” the woman growled, starting to resist enough to start standing, but it was far too late for that.

  “Turn you? You seem to be under a mistaken impression,” Estalia said coldly, taking a step forward and thrusting her rapier directly through the eye-slit in the angel’s helmet. The two men’s eyes went wide at her smile, as Estalia spoke calmly. “See, I’ve long since learned that once battle is joined, I shouldn’t use my power to turn people. No, I simply kill my enemies. It would’ve been different if you’d surrendered, but…”

  Estalia withdrew her rapier, watching the woman’s body hit the ground, then stabbed the thin man through a crease in his armor, directly through the heart. The third man quickly spoke. “Wait, I surrender, don’t—”

  “Too late,” Estalia interrupted with both word and blade, flawlessly slipping her rapier under his gorget, and watching red spill down his throat. She withdrew much of her power as she flicked her rapier clean, murmuring, “Much too late, you murderous bastards.”

  The armies began to recover from the impact of her power, and Estalia looked up again, wistfully wishing her power was more useful in a battle like this. The most she could really do was disable both sides, and that wasn’t really the sort of thing that Estalia wanted.

  Then she saw a brilliant glowing light shooting toward the battle in the distance, and suddenly Estalia stiffened with a hint of fear as she felt the wave of power radiating off the figure, murmuring, “Uh-oh.”