Transgression

by Matthew Ashworth

  On that note he was ready to leave. Malphas got back to work, whilst Malakai began descending the stairs. Talking about betrayal got him thinking about all the times he committed it. In his short life he already managed to betray two individuals – his sector leader and his dark angel commander. He began thinking about the interim when dark angel Tarasios got killed.

  A messenger flew directly up to Malakai whilst he was on his guard post, watching over the activities in the Infernal Pit. Malakai at first thought the messenger was passing by him, but instead the messenger stopped.

  - “What?” he asked with confusion.

  - “I am delivering a message from an anonymous individual from Pandemonium.” The messenger replied mysteriously.

  - “Pandemonium? What do they want?”

  - “A small attack is going to happen in a few moments. If all goes as planned, your commander would come to you so that the two of you would investigate it together. You will have a choice then. You can help your commander out, at which point the Pandemonium forces would leave you alone. Or you can turn against him. If you choose to do that, the Pandemonium forces would contact you again in the near future. They would allow you to be a part of their army if you choose the latter.”

  At this instant the messenger abandoned him and flew off with speed. Malakai was speechless from what he heard. He couldn’t understand what was going on. Why did the mysterious individual from Pandemonium contact him in particular?

  Whilst he was pondering on the issue, he heard Tarasios’ voice calling him from afar. When he turned, he saw his commander descending through the air and landing nearby.

  - “Malakai, we’ve got a situation.” He said.

  - “What is it?” Malakai wondered.

  - “The Silent Cave. It appears some demons entered it and are trying to gain entrance into our sector.” Tarasios informed him.

  The Silent Cave was one of the caves in Infernal Pit. It was one of the two caves that connected the inside of the sector with the outside. Those served as good escape routes. However, the enemies could also use them to gain a stealthy entrance into the sector. Due to that, both caves were well guarded. It seemed though that the demons that broke in this time managed to either bypass or kill the guards.

  Without saying anything, Malakai joined his commander, and the two of them flew in the direction of the cave’s internal entrance. Since it was very close, they reached it very quickly. Both of them proceeded inside without delay and began looking for anything suspicious. It was very dark in the cave, and even though their eyes eventually got used to the darkness, there were still some small dark patches here and there.

  - “Who exactly broke in, commander? Do you know?” Malakai asked a question after a long silence.

  - “No, but they appear to have taken care of the guards at the cave’s other entrance.” Tarasios responded whilst continuing to look ahead.

  Malakai was just following him and gazing in all directions, wondering what those demons looked like and where they would attack from. After making two turns, there was still nothing. The tension was unbearable for him, and he was feeling anxious. He still hadn’t made a decision about whether to betray Tarasios or not. He wasn’t given any time to think about it and now he was forced into making a difficult choice on the spot. Although he wanted to be a part of a powerful army, he did not know whether the Pandemonium forces were actually telling the truth or not. This could all be a set up.

  - “See anything?” Tarasios asked after a while.

  Before Malakai got a chance to reply, a couple of hissing noises came from somewhere. Those alerted the two dark angels, but just as they reacted, a big group of demons with blades for hands came out from all sides and surrounded them. Malakai was about to fight back, but then realised that they were not attacking him. They were only going for his commander. Tarasios was barely blocking all the attacks directed at him from all sides, not even having a chance to attack back. Malakai didn’t know what to do. Even if he wanted to help Tarasios out, the two of them would still not be able to defeat those demons. Not only were they outnumbered, but they were also in an unfavourable environment, one that gave the demons the edge.

  As a result, Malakai decided not to do anything. He simply stood down and watched as his commander got stabbed multiple times before finally succumbing to death and collapsing onto the ground.

  The fight was so gruesome that Malakai had to close his eyes for the last few seconds. By the time he opened them, the demons responsible were already long gone, and he knew that he was now in an irreversible situation. He didn’t make the choice. It was made for him.

  Whilst Malakai was visiting Malphas and remembering the death of his dark angel commander, the battle at the Utopian gates was still raging on. The celestial army of the Utopia was now getting strongly pushed back, and they were fighting literally with their backs against the gates.

  Azrael was trying to keep his team together so that the demons could not breach through the defensive lines. The three archangels who led the Utopian army were all not far from him. Gabriel was using his long sword to cut down any demons that came too close whilst protecting himself with a golden coloured buckler Michael was a little more on the offensive side. He wielded two short swords which he could swing with an incredible speed. As a result, he could take out packs of demons within seconds, without even taking a second glance at those he struck down. Raphael was mostly concentrating on healing the injured, but at times he had to repel the demons that got too close with his mace.

  - “We wouldn’t be able to hold our ground for much longer.” Adelais said to Azrael eventually, now that they couldn’t retreat any further.

  - “No, we can.” Azrael disagreed, “We just need to change our strategy.”

  - “To what?”

  Azrael didn’t reply to that question straight away. He quickly began coming up with a plan. Attacking the demons head on wasn’t an efficient way to stop the assault. Killing those with this method was way too slow. If, however, several able angels were to fly into the air and attack the demon army from both sides, whilst one other group of angels attacked from above, then the demons would be greatly weakened and their army severely thinned out, which would make the job for those fighting head on a lot easier.

  Azrael immediately approached Gabriel and quickly laid his strategy out for him. Gabriel seemed to approve the idea and quickly began assigning the angels. Since nobody else knew of the plan, it would’ve taken a long time to assign everyone. Because of that, they had to use the existing teams. Azrael decided that his team of Erebus angels would attack from the right hand side. He rushed back to the dark angels of Erebus and Helheim and tried to get their attention.

  - “Balder, we’ve got a plan. Can you take some of your troops and attack the demon army from the left hand side?”

  - “Yes, we can do that, Azrael. What have you got in mind?”

  - “It would take long to explain. Just trust me.”

  It was clear that Balder had faith in his friend’s plan. Without asking questions, he took several of the Helheim’s dark angels and flew towards the left side of the demon army. Azrael took his team with him, as well as Athalia and Gideon’s team. The eight of them headed for the right side of the demon army. In a meantime, archangels Gabriel and Michael took several of their angels and flew up, getting ready to attack the enemies from above.

  It was at that point all three teams initiated their offense. Whilst Balder and the Helheim troops attacked from the left, Azrael and the Erebus troops attacked from the right. Gabriel, Michael, and several other angels began diving down sharply and utilising the highly acclaimed dive attack. With that attack they could greatly injure and even kill the demonic units from above without receiving any retaliation. The plan was starting to work out fast, and the demon army began getting pushed back lightly.

  Chapter 19

  The One in Charge

  Alastor and Eligos finally managed to assign a respectable numb
er of demonic units to guard the Den of Retribution. They took longer than expected due to bickering and disagreeing with one another, but finally managed to land on a compromise. Once they were done, they returned to their home sector, Pandemonium, and started talking about further plans as soon as getting off the boat.

  - “I am envious of all those who went to attack the Utopia.” Alastor proclaimed, “I wish I was there too.”

  - “Don’t be hasty, Alastor. This is just an initial wave. It is bound to lose.” Eligos told his fellow demon general.

  - “Yeah, what a waste! Sometimes I really don’t understand our master’s strategies.” Alastor complained with dissatisfaction.

  - “I am sure he will send another army to attack Utopia right away.” Eligos said, and the two of them passed the first gate, “It wouldn’t be difficult to assemble it.”

  - “Where is he going to get the troops from?” Alastor couldn’t understand.

  At that moment they passed a few guards who nodded to them as a sign of respect for their victory in the Den. They ignored the guards and continued further towards the second gate.

  - “You forgot what he told us two terms ago? He was going to use the profane energy of the Void from those caves to create them.”

  - “But that is unfair! That energy is there for us to use! Why waste it on great numbers of pathetic, mindless demons that would get slaughtered with ease?!” Alastor hated that idea with a passion.

  - “If you don’t like it, why don’t you take it out with Lucifer?”

  - “I think I will, since we’re reporting to him anyway.”

  Eligos just shook his head and didn’t say anything. Alastor was extremely frustrated. He wished he was in charge, so he could just crush the Utopia and everyone else that opposed him in one go. It wasn’t that hard. He couldn’t understand why Lucifer kept stalling everything and making small steps at a time. It was counter-productive. If he was the leader of the Pandemonium instead of Lucifer, he would blow the entire Underworld to pieces with his sheer power.

  Aurora got bored from practicing her telepathy skill very quickly. There simply weren’t any targets she could practice it on. She was still a long way from being able to read the minds of others. All she could do was communicate her own thoughts, but there wasn’t anyone around who would be willing to let her do it.

  Instead, she decided to have a wander about and to study the layout of the sector. After all, she wasn’t prepared to serve there for long. She hated the place and its inhabitants. She wanted to see them fall and perish. However, instead of complaining and wailing in sorrow, she decided to be useful and to learn more about the place. If it ever came down to betraying the forces of Pandemonium, which was very likely to happen if she was still alive in the near future, then any information was handy.

  She began walking in the area surrounding the Main Citadel where Main Keep was located. That was the heart of the Pandemonium, and Aurora was carefully inspecting how many guards were defending it. The walls were pretty high, and there were many archers on it at all times. She still hadn’t stepped inside those walls and never had seen the Main Keep, but she was predicting that there were many patrolling guards in that area. Soon after inspecting that part, she began expanding the exploration area. It was then that one of the guards passed her very swiftly, nearly hitting her. She reacted with agitation to that. The guard didn’t even look back. He seemed to be in a hurry, as if delivering an important message. That got Aurora curious. She still felt that she was left in the shadow about most affairs that were occurring. She began suspecting that maybe the demons could see right through her that she wasn’t faithful to their cause.

  Within moments she heard a loud altercation. She recognized both voices before even seeing the individuals. Nevertheless, she turned around anyway and saw Alastor and Eligos coming. They were arguing about which of them was going to outlive the other and hence were completely oblivious to what was going on around them. They didn’t even notice her as she watched them both walk by.

  She decided to follow them for a bit and see if she could grasp any useful information that would enlighten her on what was happening behind the scenes. After following them for a couple of minutes, she started to get fed up as she could no longer endure their shallow bickering. Nevertheless, they finally walked up to one of the gates leading inside the Main Complex. The guards began opening the gate. The moment those swung open, a messenger came out from inside of the complex. He approached Eligos and Alastor and said to them that Lucifer was currently busy, what meant that they had to wait. Alastor bellowed out of annoyance and stomped his foot against the ground.

  - “I am not going to wait!” Alastor then said to Eligos, “I am off!”

  - “I take it you have nothing to say to Lucifer?” Eligos reacted almost immediately.

  Alastor stopped just as he began turning around and gave a brief thought to what Eligos said. Then he turned back round and said:

  - “Fine then! I guess I have no choice.”

  At that second Aurora saw Malakai coming from the inside of the complex too. She was glad that he was finally done with whatever he was doing, but she didn’t want him to see her spying on the demons, so she quickly backed away a little bit and out of view. Just before that, she saw Alastor turn to Malakai angrily and bark something rude at him. Malakai just ignored the angry demon general and continued. Aurora then quickly came out of cover and pretended that she just arrived at the area.

  - “Aurora, there you are.” Malakai called her from afar, “Ready to train then?”

  - “I am.” Aurora confirmed, and they headed to a suitable location to practice some fighting.

  The angels defending the Utopia were gradually pushing the demon army back away from its gates. Azrael’s strategy was working out well and the demons had no way to counter it. Nonetheless, there were still legions of demons arriving at the battlefield, and hence the angels knew the battle was far from over.

  Soon Adelais and his teammates spotted someone approaching from the air. Whoever it was, they kept getting attacked by the aerial demons and were fighting back. Adelais quickly realised those were more reinforcements for the Utopia. Once those got closer, he recognized some of them. They were the troops from Purgatory and Limbo. They comprised a fairly good number of dark angels and also some of the supporting creatures.

  As soon as they arrived, they joined the battle immediately, without needing to speak to the archangels who led the army. They knew what they came there to do, that was to defend the Utopia, and so they didn’t need any instructions. The battle was raging and they were ready.

  After defeating several more packs of demons, side by side with his commander, Adelais decided it was a good idea to push forward and to drive the demons back. It was important that as soon as any space on the battlefield was cleared, for the frontline to quickly step forward and fill that space up, or else the enemies would be the ones to do so and hence would not be driven back. However, Adelais also knew not to get too far ahead of himself. Since he and several other Erebus angels were attacking the demon army from the right hand side, they were not pressured to move the frontline forward. Despite that, they had to stick together. If any one of them got separated, it was likely they would get attacked by aerial creatures and eventually killed.

  It was then that Adelais saw something slightly unusual on the battlefield. It was an anomaly that stood out from the rest of the scene. Some entity kept shoving all of its demonic units aside and reaching the frontline at an incredible speed. Adelais knew he couldn’t get distracted, but he was interested to see who or what that was. He quickly took care of the next three demons that were nearby and got back into the air where the enemies wouldn’t reach him. He took another glance at the mysterious happening and finally saw the being that was causing all the disorder, making an already chaotic battle pale in comparison. The creature was burly, somewhat feline, and berserk.

  - “That’s general Flauros.” Azrael said as he too
stopped after catching sight of the disruption in the demonic army.

  - “A demon general? He must be the one in charge of this army then.” Adelais came to a realisation.

  Azrael resumed attacking the demon kind, but Adelais continued watching the demon general. Flauros made it to the frontline quickly and within an instant began attacking the angels there. His swipes were crude and powerful. He managed to kill two angels in just the first second of attack, catching them off by surprise. The others reacted to his presence and began retaliating, but he continued his spree, either greatly injuring or killing everyone on his way.

  Adelais couldn’t look at that. He wanted to act. To his delight, archangel Gabriel managed to spot Flauros and challenged him. The two of them began battling right away. Flauros started attacking first, moving his heavy paws at Gabriel with incredible speed. Gabriel was successfully avoiding the attacks with extreme precision and then at the right time slashed his blade at the demon. Flauros got injured, but then reacted very swiftly and struck Gabriel really hard, knocking the archangel back a considerable distance and causing him to land onto several other angels.