Transgression

by Matthew Ashworth

  Adelais understood that the angels fighting Flauros required some help, and so without giving it a second thought, he flew to where that fight was happening in order to attack Flauros. He heard Azrael shout something to him as he flew off, most likely telling him to stop, but Adelais decided against it. He couldn’t just stay back and attack infantry demons when bigger problems were happening elsewhere on the battlefield.

  Flauros seemed bigger up close. Adelais decided to fly directly past the demon general and to slash his blade at him from the air. Upon getting closer, he did exactly that and successfully lacerated the enemy. Flauros sharply turned around to the attack, but Adelais was already on the other side of him, preparing to fly back the other way and to attack again. Just as he began approaching Flauros again, the demon spotted him and jumped into the air. Adelais tried to stop, but his speed was too great. He swerved out of the way just in time, but Flauros still threw a sharp punch, managing to hit Adelais’ left wing. Adelais lost his balance due to that and began sharply losing the altitude, eventually dropping into an army of his fellow angels.

  He managed to recover fairly quickly and to get back on his feet, but by then he saw Flauros charging at him again. He just about swung with his blade, but Flauros was moving way too fast. The demon general rammed into him vehemently and sent him tumbling backwards. Adelais found it harder to get up this time. Flauros approached him slowly at this stage, knocking two other angels around him aside and then preparing to finish Adelais off.

  At that second Athalia landed right next to Flauros and stabbed her sword in his torso. She stabbed it so deeply that she couldn’t take it out afterwards. Flauros sharply turned around and rammed one of his claws into her torso, ripping through her.

  - “No!” Adelais screamed when he saw that.

  Whilst still holding Athalia gruesomely with his claws, Flauros slammed her down onto the ground. Adelais got up at that moment, and Azrael arrived at that second too.

  - “Adelais, what are you doing?” he asked.

  - “Taking care of the problem.” Adelais told his commander.

  Flauros turned back to face them both here, at which stage they each took a swing at him. Flauros blocked their strikes with his bare hands and pushed them back. Azrael recovered first from the push and took another swing. Flauros smacked him with the back of his hand and then concentrated on Adelais again. Adelais didn’t know how to go about attacking Flauros now. The demon general was not only exceptionally strong, but fast and tough too. Anger began building up in him for what the demon did to Athalia. Adelais started getting more concentrated, and within one swift motion he dashed at the demon general and stabbed his sword into him. Flauros jerked aside at the last moment, causing Adelais to stab him in the shoulder area instead of the central parts of the torso. Due to that, Flauros did not die and instead picked Adelais up and tossed him violently down onto the solid ground.

  It was at that moment that archangel Gabriel rejoined the battle and got right up to Flauros. Upon coming up to the enemy, he stuck one of his hands out at the demon’s face and swiftly shot a powerful beam of pure holy energy at him. The energy Gabriel shot was directly related to the Creator, same way as the Void’s energies were used by the demons. Gabriel specialised in expelling Creator’s energy offensively like this, which was extremely deadly to the demons. As a result, the powerful stream of energy knocked Flauros backwards and into the air an immensely long distance. His dead body eventually landed back down onto his own army, who now got extremely de-motivated and began scattering about the place. The demons no longer cared about attacking the Utopia, and many of them began fleeing from the battlefield.

  Chapter 20

  Predictions and Disclosures

  Azrael rushed over to severely wounded Athalia. She was completely down and was not moving. One of the demons attacked Azrael just as he reached Athalia. Azrael evaded the demon’s claw swipe swiftly and then forcefully smacked him with his axe, knocking the demon’s corpse a long way back.

  As no more demons were charging for him after that, Azrael knelt down to check up on Athalia. She was barely alive. The claw wound in her torso was very deep and very likely was going to kill her unless healed immediately.

  - “Athalia, hang in there.” Azrael tried to give her some encouragement.

  He then began looking around, hoping an angel with a healing ability would step in and lend a hand. Everyone was still battling the demon army. Even though some of the demons were deserting the battle, many others were still fighting, attempting to just satisfy their hunger for violence. Adelais was up by that second. He too was concerned for Athalia and hence rushed over, joining his commander.

  - “Azrael, is she going to make it?”

  - “She has to. It’s not too late to save her.” Azrael replied.

  - “Why did she attack him?” Adelais then asked, trying to figure out why Athalia challenged the demon general.

  - “She went right after you, hoping to give you a hand.” Azrael explained in one statement.

  - “I am sorry. It’s my fault.” Adelais seemed to have gotten a sense of guilt, most likely realising Athalia wouldn’t have gotten hurt if he hadn’t acted so hastily.

  Azrael was about to tell him not to succumb to guilt, but archangel Raphael arrived at their location at that instance, so they had to concentrate on taking care of Athalia. A handful of angels who were with him surrounded them at that moment, making sure that no demon would distract the archangel whilst he was busy healing. Raphael sat down and began concentrating the holy energy so that he could heal the deadly wounds Athalia had sustained from the fight with Flauros. It took mere seconds. When Raphael was done, Athalia’s wounds had sealed up, but she was still looking fairly rough.

  - “She’s been hurt very badly.” Raphael finally said to Azrael and Adelais, “I’ve healed the wound, but her mind still needs to recover from the shock. Had I been a few seconds too late, she would’ve joined our Creator. He probably still has further plans for her.”

  - “Thank you, Raphael.” Azrael expressed gratitude.

  - “May our Creator bless you all.” Raphael said in reply and then got up and headed for the next injured angel.

  Azrael decided that he would stay with Athalia whilst she was down. Adelais on the other hand rejoined the battle. The demon numbers were rapidly decreasing. Majority of the demons were now destroyed, some were fleeing from the battle, and only few still remained. Those were concentrated in small packs all around the battlefield. The demonic army was way too disorganized and all over the place by now.

  - “Azrael… has the battle… finished yet?” Athalia asked quietly as she didn’t have enough strength to speak any louder.

  - “Almost. Try not to worry about it. You need to rest.” Azrael comforted her.

  Ethel landed right next to them at that moment. She saw what happened and wanted to make sure that Athalia was doing fine. As the battle was now drawing to a close, the Erebus and Helheim angels began coming together. Eventually Azrael got back up.

  - “Ethel, could you please look after Athalia? I need to speak to the archangels.”

  - “Yes, definitely.” Ethel gave him her word.

  Azrael looked around the battlefield briefly and saw where the archangels were. Gabriel and Michael were not far, so he decided to speak to them. He wasn’t sure where Raphael was though. Most likely Raphael was busy healing the injured allies still.

  - “Azrael, excellent idea! We’ve crushed them.” Michael spoke with excitement.

  - “Thank you. I was hoping to discuss further strategy if you don’t mind. I think it’s most likely that another attack will happen.” Azrael went straight to the main topic.

  - “Yes, we’ve just been talking about it.” Gabriel responded, “It seems we might need to be on high alert for the time being.”

  - “That means us too. If anything happens, we’ll need to come back here and defend.” Azrael drew the conclusion.

  - “This battle w
as very successful.” Michael spoke here, “I doubt that Lucifer can send anything this way that would break our defences, but still, I think we shouldn’t underestimate him.”

  - “I agree. In that case we are going to depart for now. I am curious to know how many more legions he is going to send out.”

  After Azrael said that, the two archangels gave him an acknowledging nod, and he nodded back to them, before turning back and heading to his troops. Nearly every demon was destroyed by now, but there were still a few being finished off in places. All of the dark angels from the Underworld and their supporting creatures that made it through the battle were ready to head back to their home sectors. The angels who were defeated were taken by the Creator to the Inner Utopia, the final resting place. As soon as Azrael joined his troops, they flew off. Since Athalia was not yet feeling strong enough to fly, Azrael had to carry her. He was glad that she was on her way to recovery. Now, however, he was concerned about what was going to come next. He was fairly sure that at least one more assault would happen on the Utopia. Whether it would be the same as this one or different, he didn’t know, but he was very interested to find out.

  Adelais was still feeling increasingly guilty for what happened to Athalia. He knew she wouldn’t hold it against him, but he still saw his actions as foolish. He realised he had to start acting less on impulse and to heed Azrael’s words more. After all, Azrael had been through a lot and was very wise. He knew what was best.

  When Adelais and his teammates reached the Erebus sector, they headed for the building where the injured angels and creatures were located. Other dark angels of the sector separated from them and got to their regular duties. The facility for the injured wasn’t big, since the outcomes of most battles for anyone in the Underworld were either certain death or a minor injury that would get healed fairly quickly. There were rare cases of in-between scenarios. Most times if someone acquired a major injury, they would meet their end soon after. However, since Athalia was saved in good time, she was on her way to recovery and needed a suitable place where she could do that.

  As soon as Azrael and his team entered the facility, a messenger flew up to them. It began speaking immediately.

  - “Good angels, Lord Hades wishes to see you urgently in his chamber.”

  - “We will be there right away.” Azrael responded without questioning the messenger.

  Azrael found a suitable chamber and laid Athalia in it. One of the guards working in the facility followed them. Now that there was a new patient in there, someone had to take care of her, and this guard was assigned to do exactly that.

  - “Now try to rest.” Azrael said to Athalia as she got settled comfortably into the room.

  - “I will… Oh and… please keep me informed about what’s happening out there… I don’t want to be kept in the dark.” Athalia requested, struggling to pick her words.

  - “I will visit you every interim and let you know about everything.” Azrael promised.

  Athalia smiled at him at that moment. Azrael gave a faint smile back and then he and the others began leaving the room. Their master was waiting. The messenger said it was urgent, so they didn’t want to waste much time.

  Once the four of them exited the facility, they flew into the air and headed for Hades’ palace. They reached the palace fairly quickly and went inside. When they got to the judges, Minos told them that Hades was expecting them. He then clicked his fingers and the doors to Hades’ private room opened. The four dark angels went in and saw Hades talking to Hel and Yama. They seemed to be deeply involved in a debate of some kind.

  - “Azrael, finally you all are here.” Hades began when he saw the dark angels enter his chamber, “I take it the battle at the Utopian gates was a success.”

  - “It was. Although we have not encountered the illusionist amongst all the demons. In fact, general Flauros was the only high-ranking individual in that army.” Azrael notified his master.

  - “Then perhaps the illusions were being cast from the Pandemonium itself.” Hel pointed out.

  - “If what you say is true, then only one individual is powerful enough for that.” Hades got slightly perturbed, “Lucifer himself.”

  - “But that would require him to actually embrace the holy energy in order to learn that, yet alone to utilise it.” Azrael said at that stage.

  - “Well, it is still possible. Perhaps we should look into that.”

  - “Was there anything else you wanted to tell us? We’ve heard it was urgent.” Azrael asked.

  - “Yes, it indeed is.” Hades confirmed, “Lady Hel, could you enlighten us all again?”

  Hel gladly turned to everyone and almost instantly began explaining the issue in her unusual tone of voice:

  - “I’ve received a notification from two of my wonderful spies in Pandemonium. They’ve overheard demon generals Alastor and Eligos talking about Lucifer using the profane energy of the Void to create armies of demons within very short periods of time.”

  - “But aren’t profane energies used in creation of demons anyway?” Azrael couldn’t quite understand the problem.

  - “They are, but to create armies within little time you need colossal amounts of it. If Lucifer has access to it, then it’s not good news.” Hel elucidated.

  - “We think at least one of the caves with Void’s energies has opened up in Pandemonium. In fact, we highly suspect there is at least one more in the Abyss of Nightmares sector too.” Hades let his faithful angels know.

  - “You mean the Tenebrae Vim?” Azrael asked with a surprised look; the name he used was fairly ancient and referred to caves which could randomly open up, releasing masses of profane energy into the Underworld.

  - “Precisely, Azrael. They had been used before as you know, and for those who don’t know, those caves are very dangerous and can only be sealed with a prayer. New openings tend to appear once in a while, so there is no way to tell when and where they would.” Hades said.

  - “Do they only open up in specific places?” Adelais was curious.

  - “Yes, mostly where evil and corruption are prominent.” Yama answered his question, “Which is why we never get those in our sectors.”

  - “We still don’t know their exact locations, and we don’t know the exact number of these caves that are currently open.” Hel put forward the reason for concern.

  The dark angels began thinking. They had very limited knowledge of those; even Azrael had only come across one of those before. Most of what he knew about them he learnt during his years of service.

  - “So if we do not seal those, Lucifer will be able to spawn huge armies very fast?” Ethel broke silence at that second.

  - “Precisely.” Yama confirmed.

  - “Defending is futile when an enemy can send armies repeatedly.” Hades summarised it.

  - “So how are we going on about this? We can’t simply afford an open assault.” Azrael began thinking of how to solve the problem.

  - “Exactly. Our only remaining choice is to infiltrate those sectors. It can be a suicide mission, but it’s a lot more practical than attacking head on.” Hades agreed with Azrael.

  - “Do you need my team to infiltrate?” Azrael realised.

  - “Two of my finest will be joining you as well.” Hel replied instantly, “But we haven’t finalised the exact course of action yet.”

  - “I think it is risky travelling to Pandemonium for now. That sector is defended too well.” Hades began saying, “We should start from the Abyss.”

  - “And Gehenna too.” Yama added here, “There have been a lot of demons coming out of that sector lately. Other sectors that are on good terms with Pandemonium do not seem to possess such a force… yet.”

  - “Yes, and so we were thinking of sending two teams.” Hades began explaining to the angels, “One team would head to Gehenna and the other to the Abyss. Now in theory the Tenebrae Vim can appear just about anywhere in those sectors, but after investigating the enemy activity, we can rule out a lot of locati
ons. We need to send someone who can pinpoint their exact location and maybe even to seal them.”

  - “I think it’s best if we have some troops waiting just outside of the sectors too.” Yama suggested.

  - “Yes, you are right.” Hades agreed with him and then turned back to the angels, “If you manage to seal them, the mission will be a success. The troops will know of your position and will make their way in to help pull you out. However, we can only do that if you succeed. Should you fail, we would not risk sending our troops for an empty fight.”

  The task sounded incredibly hard and dangerous to the angels, but they were ready to put their lives on the line, because they knew how critical the situation was. If they didn’t act, it could be too late and their entire sectors would be conquered by demons. Azrael turned to his team here and asked them:

  - “Is everyone ready to do this? If you aren’t sure, you can opt out and someone else will go instead.”