by Eric Vall
I opened my eyes and saw that I was now floating a foot or two off the ground. More importantly, so were all the Daeva in front of us. I lifted my arms into the air, brought them in closer, and then slammed them down. As I did so, the enemies caught in my spell followed my motions, and their bodies were skewered by the spears on the ground.
“Great job, Jacob!” Raphael laughed from behind me.
There was another blast of his shotgun, and I saw a tiny black-and-red body get tossed across the landscape, but even more importantly, I saw Uriel. Raph, Liby, and I had cleared out enough of the Daeva that there was now a clear path through their forces.
“You guys see what I see?” I snarled.
“I do,” Raphael confirmed. “Let’s get that son of a bitch.”
“What about the rest of the Daeva?” Libidine asked with concern. “There are still so many of them attacking the other units.”
“You stay behind and help with crowd control,” I commanded. “Raph and I will--”
From over the horizon, I heard a faint sound that sounded like an electric guitar. Suddenly, Shadow came soaring over the small hill like a jet-black bullet. Her windows were down, and a Black Sabbath song was blaring at full blast through her speakers. Aruna was behind the wheel, and on top of the vehicle sat Todd cackling behind the trigger of the mounted minigun.
“That clever bastard,” I whispered to myself as I watched the Jeep approach.
Aruna turned the wheel, and Shadow began to move in a circle around the Army of the Dejected. As it circled, Todd unleashed Hell.
My cultists tossed up their shields to protect themselves, but the Daeva weren’t so lucky. Their bodies were torn to shreds as enchanted bullets blasted onto their position and they were reduced to a bloody pulp. As his army was torn to shreds, Uriel turned away and began to flee.
“Todd and Aruna look like they’ve got things handled.” I nodded to the Archangel. “Let’s finish this.”
Raph and I took off through the chaos, directly toward the fallen Archangel. Despite being hobbled by his injured wing, Uriel was still pretty damn fast on foot. As he ran, Raphael’s wings extended outward, and then he pushed himself off the ground and into the sky. He soared across the landscape like a bullet and then twisted his body and landed in front of the fleeing Uriel.
“You’re not going anywhere, old friend,” he growled. “Your army is defeated, and it’s time to pay for your crimes.”
“You really think that was our entire army?” Uriel scoffed. “There are plenty more Daeva where they came from.”
Before Raph could respond, Uriel whipped out a dagger and lunged at the Archangel. Raphael caught the blond man’s hand, spun him around, and then kicked into the back of his leg. Uriel was forced to his knee, but he was far from done.
Not one millisecond after his shin hit the ground Uriel tucked his body, he wrapped his legs around Raph’s arm and flung the Archangel across the dirt. The blond man leapt to his feet, and I greeted him with a blast of red Hellfire. He ducked out of the way of my attack and quickly responded with a beam of Divine light.
I threw up my purple Hellfire, but this time I did not waiver. The blast struck my barrier and bounced off into the dark desert sky, but I stood my ground. Uriel’s Divine light was now a sickly yellow as if it had been corrupted by his fall and was no longer “pure” like Raph’s and my own.
Uriel was forced to let up his assault when the dark-haired Archangel came at him with his Bowie knife. He dodged Raph’s attacks with pinpoint precision as he knocked away his attacker’s hand before the knife could reach his flesh.
While Uriel was distracted, I shot out the Kevlar snare in his direction. The trap wrapped around the fallen Archangel and immobilized his arms against the sides of his body. That set him up for Raph to plunge his knife down into Uriel’s right shoulder, and the blond man let out a roar of pain.
In a pained fury, Uriel jumped up into the air, pulled his legs up into a ball, and then drove them into Raphael’s face. The dark-haired man was knocked onto his ass, and then Uriel’s body began to glow with the sickly yellow light.
“What the fuck are you-- Shit!” I exclaimed when I saw that his light was melting my trap.
Without missing a beat, Uriel landed upright and unleashed a blast of Divine light in my direction. The attack struck me right in the chest, and I let out a grunt of pain as my entire body was tossed backward. I hit the ground hard and heard a wet pop somewhere in my side. Dirt and sand kicked up into my eyes and mouth as I rolled across the ground, and then I finally came to a stop when my back struck a jagged rock jutting out of the landscape.
I pulled myself to my hands and knees and spat out a mouthful of blood onto the dark sand. This was the first time I’d ever taken a blast of Divine energy, and my whole body felt like it was on fire. I looked down and saw that the entire front of my shirt had been burned off, and the skin on my chest was covered with burns, too. I stumbled back to my feet just in time to see Raph take a shot at Uriel with his sawed-off shotgun.
Raph aimed for Uriel’s right leg, but the fallen Archangel was much too fast. He kneed the barrel of the gun, and it bounced up over his shoulder as the muzzle flared and a thunderous boom filled the air. Uriel elbowed the gun out of Raph’s hand and then struck him in the face with his fist. Raph tried to counter, but Uriel grabbed his hand, kneed him in the stomach, and then flipped the Archangel over his shoulder.
As Raph struggled to get up, Uriel charged his Divine light.
“Fuck,” I growled as I summoned emerald flames into my hand.
The second Uriel unleashed his attack, I tossed up a green portal directly in his path. His attack passed through the portal, reappeared above him, and then blasted down onto his head. The blond man let out a grunt as his head was whipped forward into the ground.
“It’s over, Uriel,” I hissed. “Don’t give me a reason to kill you.”
“Over?” The fallen Archangel chuckled as he pulled himself back to his feet. “It’s not even close to being over.”
Uriel’s nose was bleeding profusely, and his normally pristine white clothes were covered with blood and dirt. His hair was now completely unkempt, and even the clasp of his cloak was threatening to snap like a twig as it clung onto the fabric for dear life.
Raph and I surrounded Uriel, and we all seemed to be waiting to see who made the next move.
“I don’t need my full powers to kill you two,” Uriel scoffed.
The blond Archangel’s body seemed to distort for a second like a bad video glitch, and then he suddenly split into three versions of himself. The one closest to Raphael lashed out at him with a roundhouse kick, and the remaining two clones came at me.
I threw up my hand to block a punch from the first one, and then I had to spin quickly out of the way of the second’s Divine light. As I dodged, I reached down and grabbed my goat-headed dagger. I came around and stabbed the blade into one of the clone’s sides, and he screamed in agony.
Before I could strike again, I felt Uriel’s boot come down on the back of my head. I blindly blasted a shot of red Hellfire at the fucker, but it didn’t seem to strike. The next thing I knew, I was being assaulted by two pairs of fists. I could taste the iron of the blood in my mouth, and I could feel the welts forming on my face from each of the Archangel’s blows. I threw up small shields of purple, but Uriel was striking too fast from too many angles for me to defend myself properly.
If I didn’t act fast, I was going to get beaten to a pulp. I summoned green Hellfire into my hands and tossed a portal down at my own feet. Instantly I felt myself fall through the jade circle, and then my body traveled through space and time. I reappeared about fifty feet from where I had been standing, and I quickly unleashed a massive fireball onto the clones’ position.
Uriel’s clones sprouted their wings and darted up out of the way of my attack… or so they thought. I was already tossing out another portal of emerald Hellfire directly in the path of the first clone, an
d his entire upper body passed through before he could stop himself.
Unfortunately for him, the portal led directly in front of the white-hot fireball.
The Archangel’s clone let out a blood-curdling scream, and the flesh on his face melted off his bones as if it were made of silly putty. The lower half of his body went limp, and then he fell back down through the portal and smashed into the ground, dead.
“You mother fucker!” Uriel growled from above.
The fallen Archangel unleashed a massive beam of Divine light down at me from the sky, and it was all I could do to throw up a purple shield before I was incinerated. The impact from the blast forced me to my knees and threatened to push my entire lower body into the sand, but I held my ground. This fucker wasn’t going to win. Not on my watch.
Images of all my friends flashed before my eyes. I thought about the beautiful Libidine, the sexy and fit Cupi, the bold and proper Superbia, and all the other succubi who had literally risked it all to come out here and fight for me. I thought about Todd and Raphael and Oliver, people who had no horse in this race, yet decided to get in my corner, anyway. As I thought about my friends, I could feel myself becoming connected to their very souls.
My horns began to throb more painfully than normal, and I felt a surge of power shoot through my body. I placed my feet into the ground, grunted against the force of Uriel’s attack, and forced myself up.
“I’m giving you everything I’ve got!” the clone of the fallen Archangel said in disbelief. “You should be a blood smear on the sand right now!”
I let out a primal scream and then pulled one of my hands away from my protective spell. The power of the Divine was coursing through my body, and I channeled it into my left hand.
It was time to unleash the God Cannon.
In one motion, I deactivated my shield, called forth Divine light into my second hand, and then blasted all my energy at Uriel’s clone. My pure white energy danced against his polluted yellow light for a second or two, but then I began to overtake him.
“No!” Uriel’s clone cried out. “This can’t be! I’m the one who’s supposed to be all-powerful, not you!”
My light continued to overtake Uriel’s, and then the fallen Archangel’s body was completely engulfed by the God Cannon. His eyes went wide as smoke began to sizzle off his body, and his clothes began to burn. Uriel’s flesh slowly began to turn to ash, and then he screamed as his entire figure dissolved into the light. I let up my attack, and there was nothing left of the Archangel’s clone.
And then there was one.
I turned my attention back to Raphael and the final form of Uriel. The two were locked in an epic battle, but it wasn’t as one-sided as it had been back in Padeo Park. My friend was trading blows with Uriel tit-for-tat, and it looked like things were at a stalemate.
That needed to change.
I dashed over to the scene, and I lit up my fist with Divine light as I ran. Once I was within striking distance of Uriel, I lashed out with my glowing fist and decked him across the face. Bluish-red blood sprayed out of his mouth, and he balled his fist to counter.
Unfortunately for him, Raph was ready. The dark-haired Archangel’s fist came up and uppercutted the fucker before he even knew what hit him. Before he could reorient himself, Raphael brought his knee up into the spot where I’d stabbed the blond man earlier. As Uriel let out a grunt of pain, I brought my glowing fist down onto the stab wound on his shoulder. Uriel screamed, but he was quickly cut off by Raphael striking him in the jaw.
The fallen Archangel fell to his knees in pain, and Raph and I shared a nod. Both of us summoned Divine light into our hands, spun around, and blasted Uriel directly in the chest with a non-lethal attack. The blond man’s body hit the ground hard, and he groaned as he struggled to move.
“Raph?” I panted and looked over at my friend. “I think we did it.”
“I think we did.” Raphael smiled through the blood that covered his face.
The Archangel outstretched his hand, and I gladly reached out and gave it a shake.
We’d done it. Together, we just defeated a fallen Archangel.
Chapter 18
As Raph and I stood there, savoring our victory over Uriel, I heard the familiar roar of Shadow’s engine across the landscape. I looked up and saw the black Jeep Wrangler headed directly toward our position, with Aruna still behind the wheel, Sia in the passenger seat, and Todd mounted on the top. Behind the vehicle, the rest of the succubi glided through the air on their elegant wings.
The Jeep screeched to a halt right next to Raph and me, and then Aruna and Sia leapt out with their weapons at the ready. Meanwhile, Todd pointed his minigun directly at the writhing Uriel.
“Thanks for holding him off for me, Jakey,” Todd cackled. “But the Toddster is here now, and he’s about to piss all over this Urinal!”
“That’s actually quite clever,” Raphael mused. “You took your common mispronunciation of his name and turned it into something catchy.”
“Really?” Todd asked as he eased his body. “Because it took me forever to come up with that, and I was afraid nobody would get it.”
“No, no,” the Archangel reassured. “It’s excellent, Todd.”
“Thanks, Raph!” The imp grinned, and then he snapped his hands back against the handle of the mounted minigun. At the same time, the rest of the succubi landed onto the ground and prepared to assist.
“It’s alright,” I said as I raised my hand to calm the group. “Uriel is defeated. This is him at one-fourth of his regular power, and he just got his ass kicked into next week. He’s not going anywhere.”
“We’ve taken care of the Daeva, as well,” Cupi explained. “This faction of the Army of the Dejected is no more.”
“Some of them tried to escape,” Ira added with a devilish grin. “I chased them down and punished them like the sorry little puppies that they were.”
“What Sister Ira is getting at is that the battle is over,” Sia took over. “We were victorious, and not a single cultist was lost. There were a few minor injuries, but it’s nothing my healing touch can’t fix. Speaking of which... are you two alright? You look like you’ve been through Hell.”
“We did just fight an Archangel,” I reminded the redhead. “I’m sore as fuck, but I think I’ll be okay. You might have to run your hands all over my body though. Just to be sure.”
“Seriously, bro?” Todd asked in annoyance. “We’re in the middle of a battle here!”
“No, Todd,” Libidine corrected. “The battle’s done. We won!”
“This calls for celebratory reefer for everyone!” Tris added coyly. “Todd’s treat.”
“I’ll admit,” Aruna spoke up, “I’m happy I took this job after all. I’ve fought against you before, Jacob, but fighting alongside you in battle is something to behold. I--”
Aruna’s words were cut off by a slow, sarcastic clap. I looked over and saw that Uriel had weakly pulled himself up to his knees, but he looked like he could topple over at any given moment.
“Congratulations,” the blond man mocked. “You won. I hope you’re proud of yourselves.”
“I dunno,” Todd sneered. “I kinda am.”
“Good for you,” the Archangel on the ground hissed and then looked at Raphael. “I hope you see the light some day, Raphael. This is just the beginning of the next chapter of our war. Beelzebub and the Daeva will get to Ralston eventually, and then they will finish what I started here and restore order to the universe. I just wish I could have been around to see it.”
“What are you talking about?” Raph sneered and picked up his enemy by the back of his cloak. “You’ll get to watch Beelzebub’s plan unfold from a Divine jail cell if you’re lucky.”
“Ohhhh no,” Cupi protested. “We can’t let Uriel live. He’s way too dangerous to be left alive!”
“He’s going to stand trial,” Raph reiterated, “and then he’s going to face whatever justice the Exalted One has in store for him.”
“I’m with Cupi on this one,” Todd interjected. “I’ve seen this movie way too many times. If you take him away, he’s just gonna escape and come back in the sequel.”
“What would you have me do then?” Raph demanded. “I’m not a cold-blooded killer. That’s what separates us from the Demonic!”
“I’m-- I’m afraid the imp is right,” Uriel said as he coughed up a mouthful of blood. “You’re going to have to kill me, old friend.”
“I will not--” Raphael began.
“You don’t have a choice!” Uriel growled and pulled a dagger from his boot. The blond man used his last bit of strength to whip around and stab Raphael directly in the chest. Raph’s eyes grew wide, and he stumbled back as he fumbled at the hilt of the blade lodged in his sternum.
“Sia!” I commanded. “Heal him!”
The redhead dashed off to the Archangel. If she was fast enough, she could save his life before any real damage was done.
Meanwhile, Uriel pulled himself slowly to his feet, summoned a weak sputter of yellow light into his hand, and grinned. He raised his hand to blast us, but we were all too fast for the fucker. Uriel’s body was instantly lit up by spells of red, yellow, and white in addition to the enchanted bullets of Todd’s minigun. His figure was fully engulfed in their blinding gleam, and an angry roar erupted from somewhere inside the ball of light.
Then, all was silent.
We let up our attack, and the Archangel’s charred and bullet-riddled corpse laid in a heap on the sand.
“There,” Sia said with a sigh of relief as her golden flames encased Raphael’s body, the bloody dagger removed from the wound and in her free hand. “Good as new.”
“Thank you, Superbia,” Raphael’s booming voice retorted. “Another second or two, and I would have been a goner.”
“Don’t mention it.” The madame shrugged off the compliment. “It’s the least I could do for one of our closest friends.”