Decadence

by Matthew Ashworth

  - “We might have to get back behind the gates.” Cael suggested to Ethel whilst both of them were in flight.

  Ethel scanned the battlefield instantly and realised that he was right. It was best to rejoin with the rest of the army and to tackle the enemy altogether.

  - “All right, let’s pull back then.” She yelled to all the dark angels in the area who could hear her, hoping that all the others would do the same once noticing their comrades retreating.

  The crawlers by then got to the other side of the wall and engaged in combat with the machai and the hellhounds. The first of the boats reached the Southern dock at that stage, releasing several giant arachnids and locusts. The spiders began crawling up the wall, whilst the locusts crossed it by jumping onto various parts of it and eventually over to the other side.

  - “I have an idea.” Lazarus suddenly said to his fellow dark angels.

  He, along with Ethel and a few others, then retreated all the way back, past their army, and headed into the forgery, where the weapons and armor of the machai soldiers was made. The place was abundant with pots and cauldrons containing molten metal of extremely high temperatures. In groups of two they grabbed the big, heavy cauldrons, containing the molten metal, and quickly began making their way back to the battlefield. As soon as they reached the wall which many of the crawlers, spiders, locusts, and now even centipedes, were climbing over, they began pouring the sizzling liquid metal onto the monstrosities, destroying packs at a time within seconds. Although a lot of their molten metal was getting wasted, it was a small price to pay for defending their sector against colonies of pests.

  Just when Ethel and Lazarus were about to head back to the forgery to grab another cauldron, they noticed a handful of dark angels of the Infernal Pit approaching their walls as well.

  - “Lord Beelzebub even sent his best.” Ethel pointed out, “He must be very serious about this then.”

  When the enemy dark angels reached the sector’s walls, they went straight for the infantry troops instead of the defending dark angels. That was because their numbers were greatly smaller, and most likely they were even instructed to take out as many of Erebus troops as possible before getting destroyed.

  Ethel couldn’t stand this and so quickly called Cael and Ilana. Those two flew up to Ethel and Lazarus within seconds.

  - “There are five of them.” Ethel pointed out, “Let’s each of us take on at least one. They must be stopped before they deal too much damage to our troops.”

  Her comrades nodded in agreement and then charged straight downwards for the Infernal Pit angels which were causing harm to their ground troops.

  Lazarus tackled the first one right onto the ground, while Ethel knocked the next one aside, before he could attack the next group of the machai soldiers. Cael and Ilana attacked the ones in a slightly different area of the battlefield. When the dark angel that Ethel knocked down got back up, he looked annoyed and ready to rip her apart. She kept a composed expression and just watched for his moves. Within a second, he dashed in her direction and slashed his blade at her. Ethel instantly created a shield around the back of her hand and blocked the strike. The attacker got surprised for a split moment, but then continued attacking aggressively and trying to bring her down. Ethel was blocking his strikes with success, but she did notice that eventually he was getting faster and managed to pull off the attacks which were difficult to block. She realised that he specialised in a focus ability, just like Adelais, making him a rather dangerous foe at close combat.

  Eventually Ethel decided to attack, which was a mistake on her behalf. As soon as she produced a swing towards him, he dodged it narrowly and then slashed at her arm. His slash disarmed her, catching her off guard, which then allowed him to kick her onto the ground. Ethel quickly got her senses back and saw him pounce towards her through the air. The attacking dark angel thrust his sword out in order to stab her, but she momentarily created a shield in front of herself, which successfully stopped his blade from reaching her.

  Before the enemy dark angel had a chance to deliver the next attack, however, he got stabbed in the back. The moment he collapsed onto the ground, Ethel saw Lazarus standing right behind him and retrieving his pike back out of the defeated angel’s body.

  - “Thanks Lazarus.” She said, then picked her weapon from the ground and flew up to see if any other angels needed help with the enemy.

  It appeared she was right. Ilana was struggling as well, as the angel she fought utilised a powerful telekinetic ability. Ethel dived down with speed and swung her blade at the enemy. The enemy angel seemed to have felt her charging at him and instantly turned around. He attempted to move her aside with his telekinetic powers, but her speed was too great, and she successfully reached him whilst slicing her blade through his torso. The foe stood still for a few seconds afterwards and then eventually collapsed face down.

  As soon as Ethel landed, the last of the Infernal Pit’s dark angels pounced on her from the side. However, he was tackled in the air by Cael, who already took care of the other angel. The two of them fell onto the ground and rolled for a bit very roughly. Cael managed to then deliver a finishing strike with his mace, stopping the enemy from retaliating.

  - “Excellent work, everyone.” Ethel praised her comrades, “Teamwork wins the fight.”

  At that stage the bodies of all the deceased dark angels of Infernal Pit were struck with a radiant light coming from above, and within several seconds were lifted away to the Utopia. That always happened when an angel faithful to the Creator was killed in the Underworld. This surprised Ethel to some degree, because it meant that the Infernal Pit dark angels, despite ferociously attacking their sector, were still fighting in the name of the Creator.

  - “Ethel, our troops are struggling with the enemy hoard. We must help them out.” Lazarus called her, snapping her attention back to the battle.

  - “You’re right.” She admitted and joined him in helping out her fellow troops.

  Chapter 22

  Better Late than Never

  Adelais and Azrael could soon see hoards of creatures and boats. Since the current in the river flowed one way, it meant that the Infernal Pit troops used the same path as they did. Since their boat was a lot smaller, they managed to catch up. As a result, they stumbled right to the very flank of the enemy army.

  - “Looks like we aren’t too late.” Azrael said to Adelais.

  - “What’s the plan then?”

  - “We should attack as many enemy boats as we can from behind, but keep making our way back to the sector. Once there, we will rejoin with the others and help them to repel the attack.”

  When Azrael finished explaining, Adelais nodded as a sign that he understood the strategy. Then Azrael nodded back as a sign that they may begin, and a second later the two of them left the boat and flew in the direction of their sector. On the way there they tried striking as many boats, and in particular the creatures those carried, as they could. Since they attacked from the flank, most of the creatures were not expecting their assault. Azrael’s strategy was working greatly and the two of them managed to deal a substantial damage to the Infernal Pit army.

  However, when they got closer to their sector, they came across a swarm of aerial creatures, and that was when things got harder. Majority of the flies and hornets got drawn to two individuals who were separate from the rest of the army. Due to that, Adelais and Azrael found themselves surrounded by throngs of flying vermin. When Azrael had two big flies land on his wings, whilst a hornet was grabbing onto him from the front, he lost the control and plunged downwards to the shore. Adelais noticed that and quickly rushed to help his commander out, brutally slashing at any vile creature that flew up too close to him.

  Azrael eventually landed onto the ground, together with the two flies and a hornet, and the lot of them rolled for a bit before coming to rest. Azrael got up on his feet instantly and swung at the hornet, maiming it repeatedly with his huge axe. That was when Adelais joined him,
by landing onto the injured hornet from above and stabbing his blade deep into its body. The hornet succumbed at that stage, so Azrael turned around quickly and swung at the flies, killing both with a single swing.

  - “That was close.” Azrael commented after the creatures responsible for him falling down were taken care of.

  - “Let’s carry on.” Adelais suggested, “It’s not safe here for us.”

  The two of them instantly flew back up into the air as more flies and hornets attacked them. Despite that, they made it successfully to the walls of the sector and got to the other side of those. Adelais suddenly spotted Ethel charging at him with full speed. Just as she collided with him, he stopped her.

  - “Ethel, it’s us!” he yelled.

  - “Sorry about that. I thought more Infernal Pit dark angels were coming to attack us. I should’ve sensed your presence.” She realised.

  - “How is the situation here? I hope we aren’t too late.” Adelais then asked.

  Ethel didn’t get a chance to answer his question, as they were attacked by one of the giant hornets. The two of them instantly flanked it from both sides and began slashing and stabbing at it. The hornet then turned in Adelais’ direction, but didn’t manage to perform any attacks, as Ethel landed the finishing stab there from the back.

  - “I see you’ve already used the molten metal idea.” Azrael came up to them there.

  - “Yes. We don’t know what else to do. The catapults are in action already, but it’s still not enough. There are too many of them.” Ethel confirmed.

  - “We can try crushing them with giant rocks.” Azrael instantly got a new idea, “We can use the same ones that are used by catapults.”

  Ethel seemed to have liked the idea, and the three of them decided to do exactly that. They got Lazarus and two more dark angels to do the same, whilst everyone else continued battling as they were.

  - “Where shall we drop it then, Adelais?” Ethel asked once they picked up one of the rocks on the battlefield and neared the wall.

  - “Over there.” Adelais pointed with one hand at a location with a lot of crawlers.

  Ethel agreed and they hovered over to the area with crawlers. Once there, they momentarily dropped the heavy rock onto those. The fallen boulder crushed several crawlers with great success, which was assisted with a sickening crunching noise. Seconds later Azrael and Lazarus dropped another rock on a group of crawlers, right next to where Ethel and Adelais dropped theirs, while the two other angels dropped theirs on one of the big spiders, completely flattening it with the ground.

  Dropping rocks on the enemy troops might’ve been very effective, but it was taking a lot of time, and it seemed that catapults were better at it. That was not the best method for utilising rocks, however. Very soon the dark angels spotted a couple of bigger boats approaching the shore of their sector.

  - “We should sink those boats with these rocks.” Azrael suggested to them all whilst they were about to pick their rocks up again.

  Adelais and the others agreed with him once again. Adelais and Ethel picked up one of the rocks, whilst Azrael and Lazarus picked another. The other two angels, who were helping them out, instead assisted them and made sure that no aerial creatures disturbed them whilst they were making their way to the shore. Azrael and Lazarus soon reached the river and dropped their rock onto one of those big boats that still contained the giant arachnids. The moment the rock landed onto the boat, it damaged it massively. That resulted with half the boat ending up below the water and eventually sinking down, causing every gigantic spider on board to go down with it. Ethel and Adelais dropped theirs on a similar boat with spiders and locusts. That boat too ended up going under the water, taking the creatures on board with it.

  The rocks after that were completely under the water though, and so the dark angels could not use them again. Nevertheless, from that point on they decided to finish the rest of the creatures normally, as the enemy army was now dwindling. There was still a great number remaining, but they did not succeed to push Erebus troops back any further. Slowly but surely the Infernal Pit creatures were getting defeated. The enemy troops were getting separated into smaller groups, and each of those groups was picked apart. Once the battle finally came to an end, the Erebus troops could stand down.

  Three of their dark angels perished in that battle, along with a great number of machai soldiers, hellhounds, and erinyes. Adelais and the other surviving dark angels approached the defeated angels from their sector and waited for their departure. Within seconds, three dazzling beams from above descended on the deceased angels and claimed them.

  - “Peace be with you.” Each surviving angel said quietly at that moment whilst observing the scene.

  That was a phrase the angels said when some of their angel allies died in battle. Just as Adelais and the other dark angels were about to leave the ravaged battlefield, Ethel spotted a solitary infernal messenger flying towards them. She warned the others of it, and they remained to find out what message it had to deliver. The messenger stopped some distance from them, in the air, and then began loudly speaking:

  - “Lord Beelzebub has the following message to you all. He hopes that was a fair warning to you to stay away from the Infernal Pit sector. He says that you might’ve won this battle, but his sector can produce multitudes of these creatures very rapidly. Should you dare to wage war on him, he promises to swarm you with great numbers.”

  As soon as it finished mentioning Beelzebub’s threatening message, it turned around and flew back to where it came from, leaving the dark angels of Erebus shocked and at the same time somewhat frustrated.

  Chapter 23

  Volatile Situation

  Azrael and his squad headed straight for the Hades’ palace to discuss this unexpected situation with their leader. He most likely would’ve wanted to discourse it with every dark angel in the sector at the same time, but Azrael wanted to start on it right away. When they began approaching the palace, they saw Hades standing outside, on the palace’s doorstep. Minos and the other two burly judges were by his side. Instantly Azrael and his troop descended and landed right in front of their master.

  - “So, you made it back on time, Azrael.” Hades mentioned the moment they landed.

  - “Yes, I apologise for what happened. We…” Azrael began saying, but Hades interrupted him.

  - “No need to apologise. I am glad everything got resolved.”

  - “Right.” Azrael gave a small nod of acknowledgement, “The creatures outside the walls have been stopped.”

  - “Excellent. And now we’re faced with a dilemma.” Hades began walking from side to side at this stage.

  Azrael began listening intently at that moment so that he could absorb everything his master was about to say. Adelais, Ethel and Lazarus did exactly the same. Hades continued pacing from side to side and trying to collect the right words to explain the situation to his troops. Eventually he began speaking:

  - “Lord Beelzebub sent us a warning, right? However, what kind of warning is that? Nobody sends this many units to attack someone if they just want to send a warning. Maybe the small armies we faced a couple of interims ago were a warning, but this is something bigger. I am not sure what Beelzebub is planning, but he could attack us again.”

  - “Then we’ll need to fortify the defences again.” Azrael responded with a solution.

  - “Well, I’ve been debating with myself about what to do. Should we retaliate or should we keep it down and hope for it all to settle? I’ve seen the good and the bad of either choice, and hence I am torn.” Hades elaborated further, trying to keep it simple for the dark angels.

  - “We should retaliate.” Adelais suggested at that moment, “Malakai must’ve turned him against us. Our only solution is to force Lord Beelzebub into surrender.”

  - “I fear this is exactly what Lucifer wants to happen.” Hades commented on Adelais’ proposition, “You see if we attack the Infernal Pit, eventually both of our armies will be greatly
weakened. That would make both our sector and Beelzebub’s easy targets for Lucifer to take over.”

  - “Enduring Lord Beelzebub’s repeated attacks will weaken us as well.” Adelais pointed out.

  - “You are right.” Hades acknowledged wholeheartedly, “Which puts us in a very difficult position.”

  - “Maybe if…” Azrael began all of a sudden, but then stopped as he needed to express himself correctly for the others to understand, “…I think if a small team infiltrates the Infernal Pit, then we might be able to prevent further attacks. What I have in mind is for me and my team to go there alone. We’ll get in stealthily and reach Lord Beelzebub’s throne room. Once there, we will try to convince him to stop this hostility.”

  - “And if he refuses?” Hades wanted to hear Azrael’s backup plan.

  - “Then we will have no choice but to defeat him. I think the four of us will be able to handle it.” Azrael stated with confidence.