Transgression

by Matthew Ashworth

  - “We have quite a big number. Don’t worry, we have plenty to spare.”

  - “Then you two can take a handful of those with you to the Den shortly after we leave?”

  - “We certainly can.” Vine responded here.

  Malakai was pleased. He didn’t exactly care about Lucifer’s conquests, but he needed to act in Pandemonium’s best interests for now. Now that he had a team to take to the Den, he was almost ready to head out.

  - “Oh and just one more thing.” He suddenly spoke again.

  - “Yes?” Berith turned back round as Vine and he were about to leave the chamber.

  - “I’ve heard you have a source of profane energy in this sector too. Would it be adequate if Aurora and I charged ourselves up before the fight?” Malakai asked.

  There was a brief silence there, and the two demon generals looked at each other with slight confusion before granting Malakai the right to use what he needed.

  - “Just come this way.” Berith told them both, and together with Vine they headed back out of the chamber.

  Malakai and Aurora went right after them again, and after taking a slightly different route, they came to another wide room. This one had a narrow opening at the other end of it.

  - “That’s the place over there.” Berith informed them.

  - “Excellent.” Malakai was even more pleased.

  Just as he was about to proceed towards the mouth of the opening, Aurora stopped him.

  - “Do I have to go in there as well?”

  - “Yes Aurora, it’d be much preferable if you did.” He responded.

  - “But I don’t want that energy over there to corrupt me.” She insisted.

  Malakai quickly took a few steps away from the two demon generals, so that he could explain things to Aurora without them hearing.

  - “You have to embrace it eventually. If you won’t, the demon kind will not have you in the Pandemonium. They will not let you go easily either. They will just torture and kill you.”

  - “I am not going to attack the forces of Erebus, in particular Adelais.” She told him straight out without even hiding the truth.

  Malakai knew she had some feelings for Adelais, but she never openly admitted it to him before. He understood that he needed to convince her to somehow act the way he needed her to act.

  - “Do you want Adelais to be on our side?” he suddenly posed a question to her.

  The moment he said it, he instantly saw a slight confusion on Aurora’s face, as if she was thinking of whether it was a trick question.

  - “No. I want us to be on his side.” She finally said.

  - “Aurora, I told you many times already. We aren’t on the demons’ side. You and I are on our own. If you don’t do what I ask you, then we will not have each other either. If you just give my ideas the benefit of a doubt for now, we will be able to get Adelais to be one of us too. The three of us will then destroy the Pandemonium and the rest of the vermin of the Underworld.” Malakai tried his best to convince her.

  - “And how are we going to do that?” she challenged him.

  - “I told you I have a plan. Just trust me on this. All right?”

  - “Fine. What do you want me to do?” Aurora decided to listen to what he had to say.

  - “I need you to do exactly what you fear of doing. I need you to attack Adelais the moment we get to the Den. I’ll send a handful of demon soldiers to aid you in that. Once you weaken him, bring him to me, and once you do that, let me do my magic.”

  Aurora once again began pondering on it. Malakai noticed that she was still resisting in accepting his ideas. She was just as stubborn as she was initially. He thought that being in Pandemonium would at least change her mind a bit, but it hadn’t at all.

  - “I don’t know.” Aurora finally gave up, not knowing what else to say.

  - “If you let the profane energies flow into you, you will be energized with power and will not feel remorseful whilst fighting Adelais. Trust me on this. It will help you with the task.”

  At that stage Malakai left her where she was standing and headed for the opening in the cave wall again. It was hard to tell whether she would agree or not, but she didn’t have much of a choice. If she refused, he’d have to resort to more brutal and heartless measures. One way or another, she was going to do it.

  Chapter 7

  Captured

  Adelais and Azrael were completely surrounded by demons. Along with a handful of other allied units, they were getting taken to a different part of the sector. Despite being in a hopeless situation, the two of them managed to fight their fear and remained indifferent on the outside. After crossing several smaller areas, they finally reached the main entrance into the central citadel. Its big gates were still shut, and it remained to be the last obstacle for the demons to overcome in order to reach the palace with the sector’s leaders – Mantus and Mania.

  Whilst several guards kept a close look on Adelais and Azrael, whose hands were tightly tied up with chains, most other demonic units, including the generals themselves, began approaching the gate and preparing to smash those with their battering ram. Adelais and his commander were powerless to do anything at that stage and so had to just observe how the demons were slowly gaining the entrance into the Den’s main citadel.

  After several solid smashes at the gate, the demons succeeded in breaking it down. Momentarily after the gate fell apart, they ran inside the citadel and began fighting the guards.

  - “Azrael, the others will come back for us, right?” Adelais asked his commander for reassurance.

  - “They will. I am sure they’re just figuring out a strategy now.” Azrael confirmed with confidence.

  - “Then why are these demons keeping us alive? Why do they need to use us as hostages?”

  - “I don’t know, Adelais. I am sure they have their reasons. We should be glad they decided to keep us alive.”

  Adelais didn’t say anything after that and just stared at the ground. He began thinking of a way to free himself and his commander without the help of others. However, that didn’t seem possible. Their hands were tied, their weapons were in possession of demon guards, and there was a great number of demons surrounding them overall, especially the archers, which would shoot them down if they dared to fly up. Despite that, Adelais kept trying to come up with various ideas whilst wondering if they would work.

  The demons which were watching over them now began pushing them forwards, in the direction of the citadel’s entrance. It appeared that the rest of the army had destroyed all the guards in the front yard already and were now preparing to get inside the palace itself.

  The front yard was rather spacious, as well as beautifully decorated. The inner part of the walls had unique designs, and there were several angelic statues in the centre of the yard, all arranged in a stunning circular pattern. Adelais rarely saw locations this exquisite in the Underworld.

  Once further into the front yard, closer to the palace doors, Adelais noticed the demon generals gathering together and starting to discuss something. He couldn’t hear them at first, but very soon their conversation became louder as they began arguing.

  - “What are you talking about? Of course it should be me to negotiate!” Alastor exploded.

  - “You can’t convince anyone of anything.” Crocell protested, “Just stick to your killing and let Eligos and I to do the talking.”

  - “Can’t convince anyone? I don’t need to convince them. I will force them into surrender and obedience by brute force!” Alastor retaliated.

  - “We’ve already used force to gain entrance.” Eligos began saying to Alastor, “Now don’t be stupid. Those leaders are deities. Your intimidation will not convince them to join us. They’d rather die than surrender.”

  - “You clearly know nothing.” Alastor continued standing his ground, “Not all deities are as strong-willed as our master.”

  - “We are wasting precious time.” Buer suddenly reminded his fellow generals.
r />   Buer’s comment was completely ignored. Adelais could strongly sense the rivalry and heated atmosphere between the demon generals. He wondered if he could use it somehow to his advantage and to liberate himself and Azrael. The demons being angry though meant it was riskier to draw attention to oneself, as in a fit of rage they could massacre him and his commander.

  - “How about we fight it out?” Alastor suddenly proposed a challenge to the others.

  - “We are only going to waste our time.” Eligos disagreed, “Maybe you need to calm down, Alastor.”

  - “Yes, with that attitude the leaders of the sector will not be subdued.” Crocell added.

  - “Then I will kill them!” Alastor struck the bottom of his hammer’s handle against the ground with ferocity.

  - “If you do that, then all will be for waste.” Crocell pointed out to him.

  Adelais continued thinking of an escape plan. However, his thoughts were quickly interrupted by Azrael, who quietly grabbed his attention.

  - “Adelais, don’t do anything foolish.” Azrael said, as if he could read Adelais’ mind.

  - “This could be our chance to escape.” Adelais whispered to his commander.

  - “If we stay quiet, we’ll be able to survive until our allies get here.”

  At that stage one of the demon guards noticed that Adelais and Azrael were talking to each other. Due to that, he came up to them and yelled at them to stop conspiring. That got the attention of the demon generals, all of whom stopped arguing and turned around. Alastor then began quickly approaching them, walking in such a manner that it seemed he was about to ram into a wall of some kind. Upon reaching the dark angels, he pushed the demon guard out of the way violently and then turned to his enemies.

  - “What’s going on here?” he angrily demanded an answer.

  - “Nothing is going on.” Azrael responded apathetically.

  - “Don’t even dare to think of escaping. I’ll kill you both should you even make one wrong step.” He threatened the dark angels.

  - “Nobody is trying to escape, Alastor.” Azrael replied once again.

  Alastor got aggravated by Azrael’s replies and so immediately grabbed him by the throat in order to lift him up. Adelais broke into it instantly, kicking Alastor’s hand away.

  - “Leave him!” he screamed at the demon general.

  The moment that happened, Alastor got infuriated and struck Adelais hard in the face. Adelais almost fell down, but managed to regain his balance at the last moment. The guards were about to grab Adelais to stop him from retaliating any further, but Alastor pushed them aside and then forcefully grabbed Adelais by the neck, forcing him to kneel down.

  - “You’re a little troublemaker! I should rip your head off right now.” Alastor said to him furiously.

  - “Alastor, stop that!” Eligos intervened, “We need them alive.”

  - “Why do we need them alive?!” Alastor turned angrily towards his fellow general, “Why can’t we just kill them?”

  Eligos didn’t respond to Alastor’s question there, because he got focused on Azrael. Alastor turned towards the dark angel as well, and so did Adelais, as much as he could lift his head up. Azrael was smirking, what greatly confused everyone. Adelais was confused the most, as he couldn’t understand why his commander would suddenly react this way. However, the next second it became clear, as he felt his teammates nearby.

  A moment later, a hoard of screams and roars came from the distance, and everyone saw an army of united Erebus, Helheim, Purgatory, Den, and even Limbo troops approaching from the other direction and heading towards the front yard.

  - “Damn it! This is why we needed them alive.” Eligos enlightened his impetuous teammate.

  However, before he even had a chance to do anything further and to use Adelais and Azrael as live shields, the demons heard the whooshing noise coming from above. Both Eligos and Alastor looked up and saw three dark angels diving down at them sharply. Alastor tossed Adelais aside and prepared for a fight with the diving angels.

  The attackers were Ethel, Lazarus, and Balder. Balder landed right on Eligos, slamming the demon general against the ground. Ethel and Lazarus on the other hand slammed into Alastor. Both of them might’ve been light and had a combined weight smaller than Alastor’s, but their speed and momentum were too great, which pushed Alastor back a substantial distance. This of course meant that Crocell and Buer were alerted too, as well as all of the surrounding demon guards.

  - “Time for phase two.” Adelais heard Ethel mention to Lazarus, and she then turned towards Crocell and flew swiftly in her direction.

  Crocell seemed to have seen Ethel approaching and thus took into the air as well. The two of them collided with each other forcefully and began an aerial battle. At that second Adelais saw Cael and Ilana come down from the air too, and they attacked the guards which were surrounding their fellow dark angels who got captured. After bringing down the first four guards, Ilana approached Adelais and Azrael and smashed the chains that were binding their hands, whilst Cael defended her from the attacking guards. Once free, Adelais and his commander reacted quickly and darted towards their weapons, which were dropped by the now defeated demon guards.

  - “Good timing.” Azrael said to his allies with appreciation, and finally Adelais and he were ready to help out.

  Chapter 8

  Savage Feud

  Before the assault happened, the dark angels of Erebus and Helheim were creeping through the empty locations of the sector, trying to find where most of the demon army was. Finally Lazarus sensed the location of the enemy army and his stranded teammates. He let Ethel and the others know, and they quickly planned their way in respect of that information.

  Ethel, Lazarus, and Balder planned that most of the army would attack head on, and whilst the demons would get distracted by it, a small group of dark angels would infiltrate the area and attack from a different angle, getting to the heart of the army, as well as liberating Adelais and Azrael. They concluded that the dark angels who would infiltrate would be them three. However, they needed at least one or two more due to there being so many demon generals in the army. Cael and Ilana volunteered, what left Gideon, Amadeus, and also Catalina, one of the other Helheim commanders, to lead the remainder of the dark angels and the army.

  It took Ethel and the others who were infiltrating some time to go around the other way so that they could attack the demon kind from a different direction. Additionally, there were some demons that were left outside the army as sentries, what meant that Ethel and her team had to remain unseen and if necessary to silently take those sentries down. One of the dark angels in the main army was a sensor, like Lazarus, and she could detect where the infiltrators were. That way the main army would know exactly when to initiate its attack.

  Upon getting close to the wall of the front yard, Ethel decided to go through the strategy with her teammates once again.

  - “So I hope you all remember what we need to do. If we do one thing wrong, it could prove to be fatal for either one of us or for our comrades in the enemy clutches.”

  - “Yes.” Everyone confirmed.

  - “All right. I’ll go over it one more time anyway.” Ethel decided to be on the safe side, “Balder, Lazarus, and I attack first. That’s when we enter phase two of our plan. Balder would take on Eligos, Lazarus would take on Alastor, and I would take on Crocell. Remember, we aren’t trying to defeat them, but just to draw their attention away. As soon as we get the attention of those, Cael, Ilana, I’d like you two to swiftly free Adelais and Azrael. Don’t forget to watch out for the infantry demons and for Buer. He would be shooting at us no doubt.”

  - “And when we free them - it’s phase three, right?” Cael asked just to be sure.

  - “Yes. That’s when we retreat, regardless of whether we defeat the demon generals or not. It’s too dangerous for us to be surrounded like that for too long. We would need to rejoin with the rest of the army. Oh and please, make sure this time we do no
t leave anyone behind.”

  On that note they were ready to carry on and to execute their plan into motion. Without being seen and without making any noise, they hovered up and slowly began ascending into the air, parallel to the wall of the front yard. Once at the top, they hid behind the tall protrusions and gazed out onto the yard. Ethel could see Alastor assaulting her friends, in particular Adelais.

  - “Just hang in there, Adelais. We’re here already.” Ethel whispered to herself.

  - “The army is on the move.” Lazarus let her know quietly.

  - “Excellent. Now we wait for the right time.” she replied.

  The five of them began waiting for the army to reach the area. Ethel in a meantime was scanning the battlefield and strategising. She noticed that majority of the demon troops were nearer to the gate that led into the front yard. Those weren’t likely to get on her team’s way, as they would be distracted by the main army. Alastor and Eligos were close to her friends, with a handful of other demons. Buer and Crocell were closer to the palace doors with several other demons, mostly archers.

  - “Balder, you go for Eligos as we planned. Lazarus, I’ll help you to tackle Alastor down before going for my target.” Ethel suddenly said quietly to her team.