Transgression

by Matthew Ashworth

  Some more of Den’s guards rushed into the area to help out their comrades, but it was no use. The Pandemonium demons were destroying them very quickly, and more were arriving at the battlefield every few seconds. Alastor was by far contributing to the most of Den’s casualties. That alerted many of the archers to his position. Within a handful of seconds, he received three arrows in his torso and two more struck his metal facemask. Although it would require a huge amount of arrows to bring him down for good, Alastor wasn’t going to let anyone cause him pain and to get away with it. Instantly he grabbed the nearest melee guard with his off hand, and then, after applying all his force, Alastor threw him towards the top of the wall the archers were on, trying to get as many of those as he could. The archers noticed what happened and quickly rushed to move out of the way. One of the archers failed to do so, however, and ended up getting knocked off the wall and falling down via the other side.

  - “Just all of you wait.” Alastor pointed at all of the archers on the wall, “I’ll get to the lot of you eventually.”

  Crocell and Buer arrived at that stage. Buer and his team began firing arrows at the archers on the wall and effectively killing those off. Alastor, however, wanted to be the one to take down as many of those as possible. Just as Crocell was about to take off into the air, Alastor signalled to her.

  - “What is it, Alastor?” she asked in a creepy voice the moment she ran up to him.

  - “Take me to the wall with the archers. Now!” he demanded.

  Without replying, Crocell grabbed him and flew into the air. The archers seemed to have noticed what the demons were up to and concentrated their fire on those two. However, Buer and his troops continued knocking them down one by one, greatly diminishing their numbers. Alastor received five more arrows in his torso and Crocell received one in her left shoulder whilst in the air. They decided to speed things up at that stage. Crocell now only grabbed Alastor by his off hand, and with a single swing threw him in the direction of the wall. Though Alastor was big and heavy, there was enough momentum in Crocell’s throw to propel him towards the wall’s walkway. Eagerly he landed onto it, instantly scaring off all the archers and causing them to run for their lives.

  - “Where are you going exactly?” Alastor asked and then ran right after them along the top of the wall.

  One of the archers stopped and turned around to shoot at him, but Alastor reached him in seconds and knocked him off the wall vehemently. The guard’s corpse flew as far across the battlefield as the front gate. After rejoicing in the powerful strike, Alastor continued running after the archers along the wall. Due to the panic, a few of the archers fell off the wall and landed onto the ground, where they were finished off by the infantry demons of the Pandemonium. Those that didn’t fall off ended up getting smacked off by Alastor’s vicious hammer swings. Alastor was enjoying every moment of it, brutally knocking the guards off the wall without any remorse, as if they weren’t live targets at all. A few managed to get down from the wall and flee, but Alastor was so satisfied with the bloodshed that he ignored them completely.

  At that second Eligos and the other demons knocked down the second set of gates with the battering ram and the army was ready to proceed further.

  - “Excellent! Off to the next area.” Alastor said to himself with elation.

  Malakai was descending down a long staircase to the Lucifer’s chamber, as he was told he was summoned. This was the first time Lucifer summoned him to his chamber. All the times before, Malakai was receiving Lucifer’s orders through Eligos or Alastor. It seemed they began to trust him. He couldn’t bring Aurora with him though as he was specifically told to come alone. He was well aware that the Pandemonium troops attacked Den of Retribution sector, and so he predicted the meeting was going to be concerning the further strategy and his role in it.

  Once he reached a small room with the big door and stone guards, he stopped, making sure there were no ambush attacks to test him. After giving the place a brief scan, he approached the door, which opened by itself. The room it led to was incredibly dark, but one of the stationary fire torches close to the entrance was lit, and there were two figures standing next to it. One was the demon general Malphas, whom Malakai met already. The other one, general Flauros, was less familiar to him. He was huge, muscular, and was crouching forward at all times. His face was feline and he spoke in very basic words with an incredibly coarse voice. Lucifer himself was fully concealed in the darkness of the room and nobody could see him.

  - “Finally you’re all here.” Lucifer’s chilling voice came from the darkness the moment Malakai entered.

  - “Sorry I took so long.” Malakai apologised, even though he didn’t mean it.

  - “Don’t ever apologise!” Lucifer hissed at him, “If you come late, then so be it. I might scald you if I wish to, but your apologies will not save you.”

  - “I understand.” Malakai gave a simple apathetic reply.

  - “Now then, the reason I summoned the three of you here is because I need you to do some specific tasks.” Lucifer began, “Malphas, since you are in charge of defence, I need you to be ready. Now that we’re openly attacking again, we’ve drawn attention to ourselves. For that reason, I want more guards at the gates and on the walls. If necessary, we’ll build more guard towers.”

  - “It will be done.” Malphas gave him his word.

  - “Flauros, you have special orders. Do you remember what we discussed five interims ago?”

  - “I do, master.” Flauros growled.

  - “Good that you do. I want you to get on it right away. Start preparing the armies and head out once you’re ready. Do not wait for confirmations! You have my orders to advance as soon as the army is ready.”

  - “What if we get detected?” Flauros wanted to know for certain.

  - “You will be detected eventually. However, the later that happens, the more of a surprise your attack will be.” Lucifer responded indifferently.

  - “I will begin right away then.”

  The room went deafeningly silent then. Malphas and Flauros turned their faces slightly towards Malakai, knowing he would be the next one their master would be giving orders to. Malakai continued waiting patiently in silence. So far Lucifer didn’t seem as scary as everyone made him out to be. Eventually the Pandemonium leader resumed speaking.

  - “Now Malakai. Your orders are to go to the Abyss of Nightmares. In there make contact with generals Berith and Vine. Take some of their army and head to the Den. All of the sectors allied to it have sent their reinforcements, what means we need to send some of our own. Preferably I want Berith and Vine to take some of the army and attack as well. Den of Retribution will be ours by the next interim. There is no doubt in that. An easy victory.”

  - “I will do that.” Malakai spoke once Lucifer finished, “Should I take my apprentice with me?”

  - “Yes, take her too. It’s about time she engaged in proper combat.” Lucifer responded instantly.

  Malakai nodded there without speaking, and everyone waited for further orders if there were any. A few seconds later Lucifer dismissed them and they exited his chamber, putting out the fire in the stationary torch just before leaving.

  Flauros rushed ahead up the stairs with great speed so to get on with his orders immediately. Malakai and Malphas went up in a slower and more civilised manner.

  - “Malakai.” Malphas suddenly said once they eventually reached the top of the steps, “Let the darkness prevail.”

  The demon kind sometimes said it to each other as means of wishing success on their mission. Many demons did not adhere to saying it as they were barbaric and couldn’t care less about the successes of their comrades. The more intelligent demons, however, which could see everyone’s efforts striving towards the combined mission of an entire sector, were concerned about how the others would do.

  - “I will.” Malakai replied, which was the way one had to reply to that phrase, displaying complete confidence in achieving success.
r />   Chapter 4

  Interference

  The dark angels of Erebus finally arrived at the Northern docks of Den of Retribution. Upon getting off, they spotted a number of Helheim dark angels not far away, already on land. They were together with many of the Den’s guardians. Azrael’s team rushed to find out more on the situation whilst the other Erebus dark angels followed shortly after.

  Adelais was watching everything closely, trying to figure out what was happening. The Northern gates of the outer wall were wide open, and most of the guards were outside, near the docks, trying to get together with the arriving troops to form a worthy resistance. None of the demons, however, were in the vicinity just yet.

  Once Azrael and his comrades reached the crowd of Helheim troops, he approached one of Helheim’s leading dark angels, Balder. Balder was a very brave and able fighter. He was tall, muscular, and wielded a big axe and a round shield. It was rather easy to spot him in the crowd as his bright tawny coloured long hair stood out easily.

  - “What’s happening here?” Azrael asked his friend, “Why is everyone outside?”

  - “The demons had progressed through the sector incredibly fast.” Balder began elucidating, “Many of the Den’s guards retreated here once we came, but we still haven’t gone in as we’re waiting for more reinforcements. Me and the other dark angels came here by flight, but our infantry troops are coming by boats and aren’t here yet.”

  - “Are there really that many demons inside the sector?”

  - “There is a fair number, including several generals. Alastor and Eligos among those.”

  - “Then maybe we should wait for the reinforcements. However, if we wait too long, the demons might attack the sector leaders, and we cannot afford that to happen. We need to act fast.” Azrael began weighing the situation.

  He turned back to his team there, who listened to the entire conversation. Gideon and many others from Erebus approached at that stage. Azrael enlightened them on the situation and asked on their opinion.

  - “So here’s the problem. The demons are at it already. We’ve got little time, and most of reinforcements have only just gotten dispatched.” He let everyone know.

  - “Then perhaps we should go in right now. The reinforcements will catch up once they arrive.” Gideon suggested.

  - “That’s what I was thinking too, but it could be risky. We don’t know how strong the demon army is.”

  On that note, whilst everyone began deeply pondering on the issue, Azrael left to discuss this with some of the dark angels native to the sector. They were the witnesses to the demon attack and they could make a better judgement. Adelais remained with his comrades.

  - “I do not like this.” He then said to Ethel, “Pandemonium troops have planned this out with absolute precision.”

  - “Yes, they most certainly have.” She responded.

  Before she could say anything else, they all heard some warning screams from the guards who were on the wall. Adelais and Ethel, along with everyone else in the vicinity, quickly tuned in so that they’d know what was happening. It appeared some of the demon troops already came this far and were quickly approaching their location. Within seconds, they passed the second Northern gate and were moving towards the outermost one to arrive at the docks.

  As soon as the demons passed that gate, everyone that opposed them got ready for a fight, preparing to repel them. There weren’t that many demons approaching, but Adelais knew for sure a lot more would be coming shortly.

  The battle started the instant the demons came outside through the open gate. Several archers of the Den’s army began shooting at them, whilst the melee troops charged at each other.

  Azrael rushed back to his team at this minute, almost startling Adelais.

  - “Looks like the reinforcements from Helheim are here already. Perhaps ours will be here fairly soon as well.” he said.

  Adelais looked back at the river and saw several boats already approaching the dock. Those were filled with the valkyries and other standard infantry troops of Helheim. That was not all, however. Up in the air Adelais noticed some dark angels from Purgatory descending downwards. There were only two teams of those, led by Amadeus, one of the high ranking dark angel commanders, but even that was great already, as their presence accounted for a lot.

  - “This is good. Maybe now would be a good time to take action.” Adelais responded to his commander.

  - “Let’s go, team.” Azrael acknowledged.

  Instantly all of the Erebus angels in the vicinity took into the air. The others followed suit. Balder and the Helheim angels did so as well, along with a few surviving dark angels of the Den. The dark angels of Purgatory joined them in almost an instant as they were ready for action. The majority of the attacking demons were already fighting the ground troops. However, the huge team of dark angels didn’t go for those. Instead, they decided to attack the demons which were still coming. Azrael and Balder initiated the charge, diving swiftly downwards and striking the enemy units with all might. Every other dark angel proceeded to do the same, successfully putting down more than a dozen of demonic soldiers at once.

  The demon infantry troops were getting taken out much faster than the new ones were arriving. Although Adelais knew this was just a small part of their army, it already felt good and he could taste success. The battle began quickly shifting in favour of the soldiers of the Creator.

  Once most of the demonic creatures in the area were taken care of, the Den’s troops and their allies began moving into the sector slowly, deciding not to waste any more time. They needed to go on with caution, so that they could retreat swiftly if things got too dangerous. The demons kept coming, but in very small waves. It seemed as if they weren’t aware of a big army at the Northern part of the sector and hence went ahead of the rest of the troops.

  The victory, however, wasn’t anywhere near in sight for the Den, for majority of the sector was still filled with the forces of the Pandemonium. Very soon Alastor got to the scene with a large group of demons coming right after him. It seemed that he noticed the reinforcements that came to aid the Den almost straight away and as a result produced a very loud battle roar before charging head first into the thick of the fight.

  Azrael instantly took the initiative. As soon as Alastor charged into the battle, he hastily flew towards him, preparing to engage in a brutal duel with Pandemonium’s most gifted killer.

  As soon as he reached Alastor, Alastor noticed him, but instead of moving out of the way, he stood his ground and fully accepted Azrael’s pounce. The two of them collided and landed roughly onto the hard ground, managing to roll a few times before finally coming to a stop. Azrael got up first and without wasting a single second swung his huge axe at Alastor. Alastor reacted promptly and kicked Azrael hard, causing the dark angel to get knocked back a fair distance. Alastor then got fully up and charged at him with great speed. Azrael recovered from the kick easily, but noticed Alastor charging, and therefore had to respond quickly. He saw Alastor producing a swing with his long hammer during the approach, and thus he swiftly managed to roll to the side and avoid it. Alastor didn’t stop there. As soon as he finished his swing, he followed it through with a sharp, turning diagonal swing, forcing Azrael to back away further.

  - “Still as stale as ever.” Alastor taunted him, something that Azrael knew the demon liked to do to those he fought.

  - “Insolence never fails to delight your primitive mind.” Azrael responded nonchalantly.

  - “Mind matters not in this war. It’s all about your ability to kill.” Alastor remarked, “I sure hope you’re ready to lose your arm again, like the last time we fought, or maybe even your head.”

  - “Last time we fought was hundreds of years ago. Don’t think I’m going to make the same mistakes the second time.” Azrael continued replying in an apathetic manner.

  - “We’ll find that out soon enough.” Alastor finally said and darted towards Azrael again.

  Azrael darted aside
quickly and swung with his axe towards Alastor from the side. Alastor managed to put his hammer on the way and blocked the strike. The two of them briefly rebound from the forceful impact, but continued the fight immediately. Alastor was attacking most of the time, leaving Azrael to dodge and block, but occasionally Azrael managed to attack too. None of the hits, however, managed to slip through Alastor’s defences. He was strong and relatively quick too, what made him an indomitable opponent in a one on one battle.

  Very soon Azrael noticed some demons trying to attack him whilst he was fighting Alastor. Demons didn’t care about honour and fair fight. They were going to attack him regardless of him being busy with a mighty opponent. For that, he had to turn to his unique ability. Azrael never used it in a one on one fight, because he believed in fighting fairly, but now that he was getting outnumbered, he had no choice. His ability was one of the less common skills used by dark angels. At any time Azrael could weaken and even partially paralyze a target that’s close to him. This ability was useful during the days when he was still an angel of death and needed to put those who were about to die into a state of peace. Ever since that time he turned it into an offensive ability, being able to mildly incapacitate his foes. Although Alastor was too powerful to collapse from its effect, he could still be weakened enough to make his movements slower, what would allow Azrael to force him on full defensive, or even to severely wound him.