by Eva Brandt
And of course, there were the fallen angels, led by Lucifer himself. They were all cherubim, so they had two sets of wings and four faces. But even so, there was something special about Lucifer, something that made me identify him easily in the crowd.
He just shone, his light so bright it was blinding, taking my breath away. I suspected it would’ve been impossible for me to face him had this been happening in real time.
Confirming my guess, Grim explained the background of our field trip. “We are witnessing one of the greatest battles between angels and demons. We call it The Battle of the Watchers.
“During this battle, most of the angels who abandoned The Heavens with the Brightest Star were killed. The Fallen One rescued their spirits and attached them to the school, but he could not bring them back into their previous forms.”
My breath caught as I remembered the massive eye that had greeted me when I’d first arrived at the academy. That… was a former angel? If so, it was no wonder Mephistopheles had been jumpy when I’d mentioned the Watchers in class. Their new state must still be a sore subject.
In the vision Grim had created for us, Lucifer raised his burning sword and pointed it at the celestial army. “Destroy them! Scorch this land and take what is ours!”
Mephistopheles was right there, by his side, although he looked very different from the man I was familiar with. His massive, winged form reminded me a little of his transformation after Redrum’s attack. His skin was a brighter red and his tail had grown sharp spikes. His horns had lengthened and curved over his face and his previously humanoid feet ended in hooves.
He wasn’t the only familiar figure on the battle field. The sky darkened, and at first, I thought one of the demons was using shadow magic. I realized my mistake when a gigantic whale-like monster descended from the clouds.
I had no idea how Leviathan had managed to leave the ocean, but I supposed that even if he was technically an aquatic creature, he didn’t have to obey trivial things like logic or the laws of physics. He was flying, his fins guiding him through the air like wings.
Meanwhile, a massive, golden wolf made its way through the crowd of demons, carrying the figure of a handsome man dressed in nothing but gold coins. A dragon flew up from above Leviathan. A half-naked demon was riding it, and he had three faces—one that looked like a bull, the other ram-like, and the third, humanoid.
I recognized them as two other Princes of Hell, Mammon, Lord of Greed, and Asmodai, Lord of Lust.
Legions of demons followed them, their roars and screeches deafening even if this appeared to be only a recreation of the past. But the angels weren’t intimidated. Their ranks tightened, with the elite guard of Powers taking the lead. When they retrieved their swords, the weapons glowed with a light that reminded me of the magic that had brought Shiro back. The Dominions raised their golden scepters and the ground started to shake, divine energy echoing through the earth, reaching the army of demons.
Seven magnificent figures floated forward, their features indiscernible because of the light they emanated. The most imposing of the seven produced a golden horn. As he brought the horn to his mouth and blew it, a melody unlike anything I’d ever heard before echoed all around us.
The demons screamed in anger and distress, but Lucifer flew ahead, and his glow seemed to protect them all from the sound vibrations. Meanwhile, soldiers dressed in gold and white fanned out around the imposing angelic figure, responding to his call.
By my side, Mikael tensed. “Who is that?” I asked him, even if in my heart, I suspected I shouldn’t.
“The Archangel Michael. My father.”
Oh. Oh, shit.
I squinted and the light around the archangel dimmed slightly. Every single muscle in my body went rigid when I saw how similar Michael was to my lover. Mikael’s cheekbones were a little sharper and his lips fuller, but for the most part, he and his father looked a lot alike. Their wings were the largest difference, as Michael’s were incorporeal and white, whereas Mikael’s were black and, most of the time, flesh and blood.
Either way, this was an unpleasant surprise. Maybe I’d given Grim a little too much credit. Clearly, he was the type of person to hit below the belt. Mikael hadn’t told me much about his celestial family, but what he had said suggested that he didn’t get along with most of them.
Then again, maybe the lesson we were supposed to learn today went beyond Mikael’s family history. When the battle erupted, even Mikael seemed to forget all about the presence—or rather, the memory—of his father. In the big picture, that resentment didn’t matter.
It was a massacre. With a mighty roar, Leviathan crashed into the hoard of angels, tearing apart more of them than I could count. Asmodai’s dragon spat out a stream of hellfire, and golden spikes emerged from the ground, spearing legions of angels straight through.
The archangels remained untouched. They dug their swords into the ground and a divine glow swallowed the whole battlefield. Their lost soldiers were suddenly back in one piece, looking a little worse for the wear, but very much alive.
Lucifer laughed, not seeming put out by the failure of his first attack. “Nice try, Michael, but that won’t protect you forever.”
His wings flashed and the light he emanated carbonized everything it touched. Hundreds of angels threw themselves at it, trying to stop the wave of power, but they couldn’t do much. They were simply turned to ash, leaving nothing behind to resurrect.
After that, the battle descended into utter chaos, to the point that I had trouble distinguishing what was happening. A few times, I caught sight of Mephistopheles cremating and disemboweling a batch of Powers, but he eventually went down too, struck by a bolt of divine light sent by a Dominion.
I reminded myself none of this was real, but when he disappeared from my sight, I couldn’t help but ask the question that had been on my mind ever since Grim had first brought us here.“Why are they fighting?”
Maybe it was a stupid question. Maybe demons and angels didn’t need a reason to do battle beyond the fact that they existed. But I refused such a simple explanation. There was more to it than unjustified hatred, I could tell.
Everyone turned to stare at me in incredulity. I didn’t flinch away from their glares, and instead, decided to insist. “This battle seems important, so something must’ve triggered it. It’s not just your regular skirmish. So why are they fighting?”
After a long moment of pause, Professor Grim answered, but his reply wasn’t very helpful. “They fight for hope.”
For hope? What did that mean? What hope could this massacre possibly bring them? There was no hope in death, was there?
In front of me, the archangel Michael collapsed from the sky, his form already scorched and heavily bruised. Lucifer pounced on him and his sword flashed through the air, decapitating the powerful angel.
Golden blood splattered over my gown, and Mikael pulled me back before it could make contact with my skin. “Careful,” he reminded me.
I was surprised the vision could have any physical effect on us when it wasn’t real and I intended to ask Mikael how this was possible. Before I could do that, Lucifer looked up, and for a few seconds, I could’ve sworn he was staring straight at me. His monstrous, but angelic body, shifted and all of a sudden, he looked like a man.
“For hope,” he repeated, as if echoing the Grim Reaper.
To his right, the other archangels rushed toward him in a last ditch attempt to rescue their fallen leader. Lucifer launched himself into the air, evading their attack.
I assumed that at one point, Michael must’ve been brought back, because otherwise, my Mikael wouldn’t have been conceived. But apparently that wasn’t relevant for the purpose of this lesson.
The battlefield around us blurred and the fighting demons and angels vanished, returning into the shadows of the past. Moments later, we were back into the tower. Several students were on their knees, having obviously had some trouble throughout the field trip. Others were eager to l
earn more about what we’d just seen.
“Professor, if The Fallen One defeated the archangel Michael, why did we lose?” Samuel asked.
“That’s a complicated question, Mr. Byte,” Grim replied. “It is also lesson for another day and for someone else. For the moment what you need to learn is this. Anything and anyone can die. But it’s what you die for that counts.”
On that cryptic note, Grim ended the lesson. His assignment was an analysis on the differences between the deaths of an angel, a demon and a human.
I mechanically jotted it down on my notebook, barely able to process anything. I felt cold inside. In his humanoid form, Lucifer had been very similar to Lenoir, the cherub who’d notified me that I needed to go to The Academy of the Devil.
That couldn’t possibly be a coincidence.
What the fuck was going on?
Ghosts from the Past
Lucifer. Satan. A cherubim? An archangel? The leader of The Watchers and of The Great Infernal Rebellion. There was a lot to read about him, and yet, so little information.
I snapped the book shut and let out a frustrated huff. From his spot underneath the table, Shiro shot me a concerned look. “Lyssa?”
“Sorry,” I told him. “This is just so frustrating. I can’t find anything that can help me. I hate this so much.”
A whole week had passed since that first Necromancy class, and throughout this time, I’d made it my business to sneak away from The House of Envy whenever I could and do some private studying. I felt a little guilty for keeping my secret quest from my lovers, but I couldn’t explain this feeling of restlessness inside me, and I didn’t want to upset them.
So far, I’d found nothing to suggest my suspicions and fears might be correct. But on the other hand, the Battle of the Watchers was also notably absent from every history book I read, which was alarming and reeked of censorship. Someone was hiding a lot at the academy, but Professor Grim didn’t care about that, and he wanted to throw a wrench into this person’s plans. Maybe it was the dean. If that was the case, he wasn’t very likely to explain, so making that guess didn’t help me much.
“I guess tonight’s another waste,” I said with a sigh. “We should go back to the dorm.”
Shiro nodded and emerged from underneath the table. Together, we headed to the exit of the library. As we stepped outside, a shiver coursed over me. Evening had already fallen, so it had gotten chilly. Or maybe I was just imagining it, because the chill I’d started to feel at the Necromancy lesson had never quite faded.
I made my way through the corridors, grateful for Shiro’s presence by my side. By now, I could protect myself perfectly well, but still, just having him there anchored me.
The figure seemed to come out of nowhere. One moment, the corridor was clear, and the next, the tiny, familiar figure of an imp was standing in front of me, blocking my path. He was once again reading a book, although this time, it didn’t seem Mein Kampf.
The imp looked up at me and shot me crooked grin. “Ms. Michaelis. What a pleasure to see you again. It’s been a while.”
“Err… Yes. How are you, Mr. Adolf?”
The last time I’d seen him had been in the first semester, before my seizure in the Herbalism exam had thrown my life into chaos. I’d been so confused, since I hadn’t understood the exact nature of an imp and why I kept running into them.
That hadn’t changed, and Adolf’s presence was another of those unsolved mysteries I had no idea how to address. But sometimes, the best way to solve a problem was to be straightforward about it. “Mr. Adolf? Tell me something. What are you doing here, exactly? I thought imps no longer lived at the school.”
“We don’t,” he replied. “We are on an important quest from His Majestic Highness, The Fallen One.”
He delivered that statement which such strength and determination that it was impossible to not take it seriously, even if his expression was a little too cute for a demon. “What task?”
“The answer to that question is… complicated. But we are seeking something very important, something that was lost a long time ago.”
Great. That helped me a lot. Oh wait… No, it didn’t!
“Look, Mr. Adolf, I can respect your need to keep your leader’s secrets, but if you could help me out here with some information, I’d much appreciate it. I’m going crazy trying to figure out what’s going on.”
“Because you think His Majestic Highness came to see you himself.”
I nodded. “I couldn’t have imagined it, right?”
“Well, I don’t know if you imagined it or not, and it’s not my place to monitor The Fallen One. However, I can tell you this. You’re flailing around over nothing. This incident happened last year, didn’t it? So what’s the point in worrying over something you can’t change? His Majestic Highness will act in his own time. Until that happens, you have other things to worry about.”
“I haven’t forgotten. But I feel that when it comes to my problems, they’re all pretty much intertwined.”
Lucifer had shown interest in me, to the point of bringing me my academy letter himself. Then, the teachers had claimed they couldn’t find any traces of Shiro’s murderer. They could be lying, but even if that was the case, they’d only do that for a superior. Mephistopheles, at least, would’ve had no reason to keep anything quiet unless some kind of higher power was involved.
But why would Lucifer kill my dog? Had I done something to slight him? And if I had, was he a danger for me and the others?
“I just wish everyone would stop playing games and—”
The sound of a sharp crack interrupted me mid-sentence. Both Adolf and I turned around at the same time. “What was that?” I asked, startled.
“Nothing good,” the imp replied. “Good luck.”
Without another word, he vanished, abandoning Shiro and me to our fate. Shiro tugged on my dress and I followed his lead. We hid behind one of the columns nearby, hoping and praying that we wouldn’t be spotted.
I had no real reason to be wary since even if someone saw me, I could easily explain that I’d been in the library studying and was on my way to the dorms. We had no curfew, so my presence here couldn’t get me in trouble.
Even so, it was pretty rare for a student to wander around after dark. In fact, I hadn’t seen a single person walking through the corridors for hours. I didn’t know why this was, but in a school where teachers fed on students on a regular basis, it was probably better to be safe than sorry.
“Why must you be so stubborn?” a female voice shouted. “We’ve talked about this countless time before.”
Echoes of agitated magic flowed through the ground. Shiro hid behind me, obviously anxious.
In the courtyard beyond us, two women appeared within my view. It was our two teachers, Lilith and Morrigan, and they were arguing.
“Morrigan, you cannot be serious,” Lilith said with an angry huff. “The girl is human. You can’t place this kind of responsibility on her shoulders.”
It didn’t take a genius to realize whom they were talking about. The fact that I was important enough to the teachers to warrant such an argument alarmed me to no end.
“It’s precisely because she’s human that this responsibility falls to her,” Morrigan replied, making me even more nervous than before. “I’m not the one who set this in motion, Lilith. That was you and your family.”
“And I’ve never shied away from that, as you well know,” Lilith shot back. “But I’ve long ago given up this project as a lost cause. You’re wrong, Morrigan. I like Alyssa as much as you do, but it’s just not possible.”
“You’re blinded by your guilt. You’ve always been terrible at seeing past your own faults, Lilith. You can’t deny it any longer.”
Lilith sighed, as if exasperated by the conversation. “Did your boyfriend put you up to this? He’s been extra annoying lately.”
Morrigan spluttered in outrage. “How many times must I tell you that Grim is not my boyfriend? We just sha
re an affinity. That’s all. It’s perfectly possible for a deity and a primordial force to be friends without having sexual intercourse.”
“Yes, but that’s boring,” Lilith said teasingly. “Methinks the lady doth protest too much.”
“And methinks you’re changing the subject because you know I’m right,” Morrigan snapped at her. “This isn’t about me and Grim, but about Alyssa Michaelis.”
At that, Lilith abandoned her attempts at being playful. “What do you want me to say? Since that whole unfortunate business with her familiar’s death, she despises me and I don’t blame her for it. Until we find out who killed young Shiro, I doubt she’ll forgive me. You’re in a far better position to approach her, since you weren’t here when he died.”
“It’s not the same, and you know it. This isn’t my duty, nor is it my field of expertise. It’s yours.”
Lilith didn’t reply. She froze in the middle of the path, and I realized that at one point while I’d been distracted by the conversation, the two women had gotten awfully close to the column where Shiro and I were hiding.
“Lilith?” Morrigan asked. “What is it?”
“I’m not sure. Some kind of… energy.”
As she spoke, a surge of familiar magic coursed over the courtyard. It held none of the subtlety I’d felt before from the same source. Instead, it was almost like a volcanic eruption, making all past incidents seem like nothing more than muted fire.
At the same time, the shadows around us shifted. A male figure slid behind the column and grabbed my arm. It was Stefan. “Quickly. This way. If they see you, it’ll be bad. Callum and Mikael are distracting them, but it’s not something we can do for too long.”
The plan was risky, but I didn’t question it. Instead, I followed Stefan as he guided us out of our hiding spot, toward a side corridor.
We had to walk right past Morrigan and Lilith to enter it, but they didn’t see us. They were staring at one another, seeming enraptured by each other’s bodies. “You know, I don’t think I ever told you this, but you’re very attractive,” Lilith said. “If you’re not in a relationship with Grim, would you be interested in paying me a visit?”