Decadence

by Matthew Ashworth

  Melancholy Wings

  Part 1

  Decadence

  By Matthew Ashworth

  © Matthew Ashworth 2011

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced

  in any form or by any means without the

  written permission of the author

  First published on 19th of December 2011

  Contents

  Map of the Underworld. 4

  Prologue. 5

  Chapter 1. 8

  Chapter 2. 17

  Chapter 3. 24

  Chapter 4. 29

  Chapter 5. 36

  Chapter 6. 43

  Chapter 7. 49

  Chapter 8. 57

  Chapter 9. 63

  Chapter 10. 67

  Chapter 11. 72

  Chapter 12. 79

  Chapter 13. 86

  Chapter 14. 95

  Chapter 15. 104

  Chapter 16. 110

  Chapter 17. 116

  Chapter 18. 123

  Chapter 19. 130

  Chapter 20. 138

  Chapter 21. 145

  Chapter 22. 151

  Chapter 23. 156

  Chapter 24. 164

  Chapter 25. 172

  Chapter 26. 178

  Sectors of the Underworld. 183

  Map of the Underworld

  Prologue

  In the beginning there was only the Universe, which had two faces – the Creator and the Void.

  The Creator filled the Void by devising two worlds inside it – the Internal World and the External World. The Void, due to its hollow nature, had no consciousness.

  The External World held many radiant gaseous bodies, called stars, and solid bodies which circled those, called planets. The Creator populated the planets with various creatures. One of the planets contained humans.

  The Internal World at first only consisted of a Utopia, the place where the Void’s effects were minimal, and was populated with angels.

  Naturally all the creatures in the External World were subject to the vile effects of the Void and therefore could only stay there for a finite amount of time. After they departed the External World into the Internal World, they needed to be cleansed off the Void’s corruption.

  The Creator constructed a facility in the Internal World, called the Pandemonium, where cleansing of the souls of External World creatures could take place. After a soul was purified, it could then be in eternal peace in the Utopia. The Creator assigned His most trusted angel to oversee the Pandemonium. The angel’s name was Lucifer.

  However, eventually Lucifer himself succumbed to the effects of the Void. He felt abandoned and therefore refused to serve the Creator, making the Pandemonium his own home place.

  Out of love for His creation, the Creator did not destroy Lucifer or the Pandemonium. Instead He devised many more sectors for where the cleansing of souls could take place. The entire facility was now termed the Underworld, as it was located directly beneath the Utopia, and each sector of the Underworld was assigned a deity, to be its overseer, and many guardians, to serve that deity. The Creator knew those deities could follow Lucifer’s path, but He refused to destroy everything, for that was against His nature.

  The sectors were separated with five rivers of the Underworld: Acheron, Styx, Phlegethon, Lethe and Cocytus.

  Lucifer, however, was not content. He began attacking other sectors and waging wars on the Utopia itself, attempting to destroy everything that the Creator devised. In order to do that, he used the Void’s energies to create highly destructive creatures, called demons. Since creation of anything was against the nature of the Void, the demons were very unstable and chaotic, often revolting against Lucifer himself. Using corrupted human souls as vessels, however, resulted in demons which were much more stable and reliable, and that got Lucifer hungry for more human souls in order to build terrifying demonic armies.

  In response, the Creator assigned certain angels to take the battle against the demons to the Underworld and to reside in the Underworld sectors, under the orders of the deities in charge. Having spent a lot of time in the Underworld, those angels ended up changing. Some fell from grace and got termed fallen angels. The others, who remained loyal to the Creator, only ended up changing in appearance, and were termed dark angels.

  Although the Underworld was full of conflict all the time, once every few hundreds of years Lucifer would attack the Utopia with full force. The last such devastating battle occurred just over 500 years ago. Now Lucifer was about to transgress again.

  Chapter 1

  Guardians of the Underworld

  Is there such a thing as purpose, or is it merely something our minds conjure up just to feel significant? Those were the thoughts passing through Adelais’ head as he was patrolling around his home sector of Erebus, the leader of which was Hades. Adelais liked patrolling, because not only did he want to carry out his job properly as being one of the guardians of the Underworld, but also it gave him a lot of thinking time.

  Being a dark angel, he was extremely loyal to the Creator, despite his rather intimidating appearance. The dark angels looked a lot like other angels, except their skin was of darkened greyish, ashen colour, and this darkened look made them seem rougher than regular angels.

  Adelais was one of the adopted dark angels, meaning he used to be a human, who, after the end of his human life, chose to serve the Creator in His army, unlike the inherent dark angels, who were regular angels before turning dark. Inherent dark angels, however, comprised the majority of dark angels in the Underworld. Just as all dark angels, Adelais looked athletic and fit for fighting, had dark grey feather wings, and wore light armor. His short black hair, which stood slightly at the front, greatly complemented his already dark look. His hollow white eyes were a common side effect in all adopted dark angels, a visible remnant due to slight corruption that every single human experienced in the External World, even the most benevolent.

  Now he was passing along a tall cliff that was overseeing a big portion of the wasteland. The outskirts of the Underworld sectors often consisted of wastelands or gloomy woods. On the inside, however, there were great citadels, high towers, and convoluted cave complexes. The sky was always of dark colours in the Underworld, most often of indigo shades. There were no day and night cycles as there were in the External World. In the Underworld it always was the equivalent of the twilight time.

  - “Adelais!” someone called out suddenly, snapping Adelais out of his thoughts.

  The dark angel turned around to the source of the voice and saw Azrael descending from the sky and landing on hard ground. Azrael was the commander of the dark angel troop Adelais was part of. A few centuries ago Azrael used to be one of the angels of death – their task was to aid the recently dead from the External World to the Internal World. He eventually decided to join the ranks of warrior angels, and consequently the dark angels. He didn’t look that much different from Adelais. The only noticeable minor differences were that Azrael was slightly more muscular, had hair of more sepia brown colour, and his eyes weren’t hollow but instead had more of dull fulvous irises, as he was an inherent dark angel.

  - “Adelais. I had to rush directly from the palace. There’s a situation.” Azrael spoke once he closed enough distance to Adelais.

  - “What’s the emergency?” Adelais asked, noticing Azrael’s slightly disturbed facial expression.

  - “There’s another attack about to happen on our sector.” Azrael gave as brief of a reply as he could.

  - “We’re being attacked again? Where at?” Adelais was surprised, because they already fought some perpetrators off merely half an interim ago; an interim was the equivalent of External World’s day.

  - “It’s at the same place as l
ast time, the South-Western wall.” Azrael replied.

  The instant he said that, the two of them took off into the air with incredible speed and headed for the location. As every other angel, dark angels were able fliers. However, the flight did use up a lot of energy, and hence they mostly used it for travel within the same sector or to the directly adjacent sectors. As Azrael was leading them to the location the attack was happening at, Adelais was flying right beside him and scanning the area thoroughly.

  Within a short period of time they reached the target location. From above they saw a few packs of small monstrous beings approaching and invading the sector. The crawlers were coming directly out of the water of the river Styx and were starting to climb the outer wall, whilst the aerial ones bypassed the climbing and were attacking the guards inside the walls already. The ground beasts were thin, four-legged, and reptilian, whilst the flying ones were reminiscent of oversized flies.

  Azrael quickly dived downwards and Adelais followed suit. Within moments they landed onto the ground inside of the walls, right next to some of their troops. The troops of Erebus mostly consisted of machai, hellhounds, and erinyes. The machai were standard foot soldiers with somewhat of a humanoid appearance. They were heavily armoured and resembled black knights. The hellhounds were dog-like creatures, except they were bigger and had longer teeth. The erinyes were more feminine in appearance than machai and were not armoured. Their bat-like wings allowed them the ability of flight and hence they were aerial fighters. There were a handful of other dark angels in the troop too.

  Though erinyes were already engaged in combat with some of the flying invaders, everyone else calmly waited for the crawlers. Those managed to climb over the wall eventually and began approaching the defenders of Erebus. Adelais waited patiently beside his commander, Azrael. He wasn’t worried, as he was used to fighting smaller monstrosities such as those. When the time was drawing near, he took out a blade handle from his belt and protracted a long, sharp blade from it. Azrael did the same with his axe. Majority of dark angels used retractable weapons. It gave a lot of comfort, allowing them to carry their weapons on them at all times without those burdening them outside of fighting.

  When the invaders came close enough, the Erebus troops charged at them altogether. Adelais and Azrael instantly took into the air so that they could dive down at the attacking creatures. Not only was that attack quick and powerful, but also it allowed them to scan for the weak spots in the big crowds of ferocious creatures. As soon as Adelais struck his first target, he landed and began slashing with his sword at all those in the nearby vicinity, whilst Azrael continued the diving technique. As those monsters were merely standard infantry, Adelais could fight through their ranks with ease. Several machai fought by his side, and they too encountered no problems. Adelais suddenly spotted one of the fliers diving for him from above. Before that creature got too close, however, it was quickly knocked off its course by one of the erinyes, allowing Adelais to continue slicing through the land monsters. The enemy creatures were fairly agile and could pounce forward a considerable distance. As they were rather light creatures, their pouncing could not fully knock down a single dark angel or a machai. Though if there was a group of those pouncing at the same time, it could pose serious problems, and for that reason every Erebus unit was vigilant in this fight.

  Adelais was by now surrounded with carcasses of attacking creatures, yet he continued to indifferently stand his ground as more and more beasts jumped at him. His long sword was a very lethal weapon, as on one of its edges there was a sharp protrusion that acted like a sting. Very soon Azrael landed next to him and decided to continue the rest of the fight on the ground. Azrael could wield his double-bladed axe almost as fast as Adelais wielded his sword, despite the axe being significantly heavier. It’s been Azrael’s weapon of choice for over three centuries, so he was increasingly used to it.

  Several hellhounds passed Adelais at that moment and charged at the attackers who were still fairly behind the front line. Hellhounds were fast and agile, and hence could penetrate small armies with ease and to attack the enemy units at the very back. The last of the fliers were now dispatched, but some of the ground creatures were still remaining. Once Adelais took care of all the attackers in his vicinity, he sprinted for the nearby group that was locked in battle with some of his allies. As soon as he got close, he glided through the air and produced two quick slashes, eliminating two of the creatures in the process. When he finished the glide, he was right in the thick of the group. That did not scare him, however, as he produced a swift spinning slice, which damaged three of the beasts at once, before taking off into the air. The last of the crawlers in that group were finished off by his allies before he landed back down.

  The battle was won fairly quickly. Erebus troops got away with only few casualties. Nevertheless, they were all confused. It was unusual for such a large group of infantry beasts to attack like this. There were often cases of one or a small group attacking due to their aggressive nature, but never in such a big number. Adelais walked over to Azrael once the battle finished and began a conversation:

  - “Why are we being attacked? Who is attacking us?”

  - “These creatures belong to Lord Beelzebub in the Infernal Pit sector.” Azrael replied instantly.

  - “Has he joined forces with Lucifer?” Adelais was perplexed, “I thought he didn’t like to take sides.”

  - “He doesn’t.” Azrael confirmed, “Besides, if he wanted an open assault, he wouldn’t have sent just a small wave of infantry creatures.”

  - “Then who sent them?”

  - “This is something we will have to find out.” Azrael explained, “I am fairly sure that this wasn’t a declaration of war on us. It most likely was a distraction of some kind.”

  On those lines Azrael and Adelais departed from the battlefield, along with several other dark angels, whilst most of the machai and other battle creatures remained. As soon as they took off into the air, Azrael suggested they report everything to Hades and see what he wanted them to do next. With great speed they flew straight towards his palace in the centre of the sector. It didn’t take them long. They soon landed by the front doors, which swung open on their own accord. Adelais wasn’t fond of visiting Hades’ palace, because it was way too big and overwhelming on the inside. The ceiling of the ground floor was really high up and the walls stood tall. For the most part they were plain, but there were decorations in places, such as skulls of certain creatures and old decorative weapons. Gladly Hades’ chamber was on the ground floor, just on the opposite end of the main corridor. Three big knight figures guarded the entrance into Hades’ chamber. They were the judges who took orders directly from Hades and sent those out via messengers to the overseers of retribution of human souls in other parts of the sector. As well as taking orders from Hades, they were also responsible for guarding their Lord’s chamber.

  - “The battle is over already?” Minos, who was the main of the three judges, asked the two dark angels.

  - “Yes. Those creatures were merely basic infantry. Adelais and I need to have a word with Lord Hades.” Azrael answered.

  - “Go right in.” Minos said and clicked his fingers, causing the double doors behind him to slowly open.

  Azrael and Adelais proceeded to the doorway and entered through it into a large, beautifully decorated chamber. The decorations there were similar to the ones in the main corridor. Apart from those, however, Hades’ private chamber also had various gems and elegantly crafted torches on the walls. Hades sat on a cathedra at the very end of the room, reading a large tome. Every time Adelais recalled visiting him in his chamber, Hades was always reading. By his side were four adept machai knights, and also an infernal messenger. Infernal messengers were very small, gremlin-like creatures with wings, and they often delivered important messages, whether spoken or written, between various individuals in the Underworld.

  As soon as Adelais and Azrael walked up to Hades, he stopped reading and
looked up to face them. Hades in some ways looked intimidating, but at the same time he had a vibe of serenity to him. His skin, similarly to dark angels, was dark grey. He had straight, shoulder-length black hair and hollow red eyes, and he wore a long dark red cloak with ornaments that resembled roaring golden fires. Once he put down the tome, he grabbed his sceptre and held it in one hand. The top part of his sceptre looked like an open skeletal palm.

  - “Excellent job, dark angels.” He spoke in his usual, slightly aberrant tone of voice, before Azrael got a chance to say anything, “I’ve heard the battle was a success.”

  - “That is correct.” Azrael confirmed, “We are now ready for further orders.”

  - “Further orders? You’ve read my mind.” Hades said satisfyingly, “So you too noticed that it was an unusual attack.”

  - “That’s right, my Lord. The creatures were from Infernal Pit. It, however, doesn’t make sense that Lord Beelzebub would send such a deficient army to start a war. He hadn’t made any declarations of war either.” Azrael explained his point of view on the matter.

  Adelais watched with interest how Azrael and Hades discussed the situation. He could see that they were both confused and were trying their best to come up with the soundest explanation. He himself wasn’t sure what was going on either.

  - “And this is the second attack this interim as well.” Hades added after a brief pause, “This means it wasn’t a coincidence.”