by Adam Cairney
Chapter 20.
Azrael practically ricocheted around the hall, bouncing between his two opponents ridiculously fast. Elijah gritted his teeth, dodging, ducking and weaving every time Azrael went on the offensive. He would back away and then move in quickly, jabbing and kicking whenever he could. He was managing to land a few hits, but they didn’t even seem to faze him. He couldn’t even tell if they were hurting him. Molly was in the same situation. She had managed to score a few hits, but had taken a couple in return. She was hurting, and had the long, jagged claw marks to show it from where Azrael had managed to get his claws in.
They were both completely exhausted, and didn’t know how much longer they could keep this up. Azrael paused, standing between the two of them, both now panting. They had no idea what they were going to do. He laughed at the two of them, and scraped his claws against one another like knives. It gave a horrible sound off, like bone scraping against bone, setting their teeth on edge. Elijah conducted, trying to use the space between them to do so safely. Bursts of flame shot out of his hands, arcing towards Azrael.
To Elijah’s horror, it was almost as if Azrael had seen the attack coming. He held out his palm towards the flames, and as they connected with it, they were absorbed, Azrael seemed to draw strength from it, and mocked Elijah as he stood between Molly and him.
“You’re pathetic, and even now you don’t understand. I am ether. I control ether. You think your parlour tricks can even begin to compare to the power I can control? It’s sad really, that the two of you were a last hope.”
He was facing Elijah as he spoke. Elijah scowled at him, and noticed Molly creeping up behind Azrael. He shifted his gaze to Azrael, and spoke to distract him.
“You’re wrong. You talk and talk, call us pathetic and laugh at us, but we’re still here. Still fighting. And let’s say you beat the two of us, then what? There’s always going to be someone to fight. You can’t win every time. You will lose.”
“Big words from someone with such little time left. This is just a diversion for me, a distraction. And yes I will beat you. I’ll beat you to death, and destroy this entire city for what was done to me. What have you to say to that?”
Elijah considered a moment. “I have just one thing to say. NOW MOLLY!” He shouted the last part, and Molly swung the quarterstaff as hard as she could, Hitting Azrael right in the stomach as he turned to face her. He grunted, and dropped to one knee. Before Molly had a chance to retract the weapon and strike again he grabbed it, gripping the end covered in ether, hard. The ether covering the end began to slide off of the staff where it had been applied, meeting and merging with Azrael’s hand as he drained it into himself. Molly could see what was happening and was horrified.
She pulled at the staff, desperately trying to wrench it free. It was no use, and with one swift motion Azrael snapped the end off of the staff, leaving the end a jagged spike, and backhanded her at the same time. Molly flew across the room, hitting the far wall with a grunt, and slumped down on the ground. Azrael, done with the staff, flung it across the hall towards her. It bounced and clanged along the floor, rolling a little down the still tilted floor and coming to rest a little way away from the now unconscious figure on the ground.
He turned his attention towards Elijah, and was about to start stalking towards him, to go in for the kill, when there was an incredibly loud booming sound in the distance. The hall slowly started to level out as the two of them struggled to keep their feet. Azrael looked around frantically, and Elijah smiled triumphantly. Noah had done it, the last explosive had gone off, and Azrael was now on his way up, drifting into the heavens forever. It was time to finish this and leave.
“This is it, I’m afraid.” Elijah said with a smirk, “I wonder how long it will be before you’re out of reach of everything, before you’re a speck in the sky, no threat to anyone. These rocks are pretty buoyant, you know. You didn’t think we would leave anything to chance did you?”
Azrael, however, returned the smirk. “Oh, you think I’m trapped here? No…I don’t think so. I’ve had a lot of time to think, to plan over my long years of confinement. You think I wouldn’t be able to leave here? How foolish. Unfortunately, while I shall be leaving, you…are going to stay here forever!” And with that he lurched towards Elijah. Elijah tried to dodge out of the way, his smirk gone. He managed to get a couple of steps before the huge, looming figure of Azrael caught him, grabbing him around the throat and turning him around so they were face to face.
“Time to die.” Azrael spat, and began to squeeze. He did it slowly, relishing it, and Elijah’s world slowly began to fade. In desperation he kicked and lashed out, but it was no good. With so little strength left the outburst did nothing but hurry on the embrace of darkness. One final iota of energy left, and Elijah conducted as much ether as he could muster. The flames, tiny little things barely bigger than sparks left his hands to fizzle out uselessly on Azrael’s forearm. Azrael roared with laughter, enjoying himself, knowing he had won and was triumphant. Elijah gave up, his world finally darkening.
And then, for some reason he couldn’t quite fathom in his oxygen starved state, he was lying on the ground on his side, looking up at Azrael, instead of down at him. Except…Azrael was screaming. As Elijah’s vision returned the scene became clear. Molly was standing behind him, hands planted in the centre of the staff. The staff that she had thrust right into Azrael’s chest. The broken, jagged spike now protruding from his front, the tip of the spike and pole itself glistening with a mixture of Azrael’s ether-like blood, and the pale ether. It had been hidden underneath the ether on the quarterstaff the whole time, hidden beneath the ether that Azrael himself had absorbed.
Azrael looked down and shrieked, trying to move forwards, to free himself from the intense burning pain of the pale ether. He tried to conduct, to do anything, but he couldn’t. Formed entirely of ether itself, he was completely powerless. He fell to his knees, screaming, and Molly held the staff tightly in place, a grim look of determination on her face as blood trickled down the side of her head.
“You lose, Azrael.” She said with no small amount of venom, and spat on him as he fell to his front to lay face down on the floor. He fell silent, the staff still deeply embedded in and through him, and Molly finally let go and looked down at Elijah, still recovering on the ground.
“God that felt good to do. Good to say. You alright?” She asked as she half walked, half limped over to him to help him up, offering her hand.
“I’ll live, thanks to you.” He replied, feeling his throat, which was already tender, and would no doubt be badly bruised. “Is he…dead?” Elijah walked over and nudged him with the toe of his boot. To his horror Azrael stirred, although didn’t move.
“Don’t you touch me, you filth! I’ll never die, you hear me? Never! As long as there’s ether, there’s me! You wait and see…You’ll pay for this, I swear…There are others. They’ll come for you. Kill you!”
“Swear all you want,” Elijah interrupted, “You’re not capable of doing much of anything, anymore. Enjoy your flight to the heavens. We won’t miss you. No one will miss you.” And with that he turned on his heel. He and Molly slung their arms around one another and began to hobble towards the door. Azrael exploded into a flurry of threats and bargains, alternating continuously between the two as he realised his awful fate, destined to drift into nothingness forever. He eventually turned to pleas.
“Oh god please, no! You can’t leave me here, you can’t! They trapped me here before, so long ago, I can’t stay here again. I’ve been here so long in the darkness! COME BACK! PLEASE…” His begging eventually turned to whimpering, his words falling on deaf ears as the two of them made their way out of the hall, completely ignoring him, not even bothering to look back as they left him in the hall.
Upon arriving outside they were amazed at just how high they already were. The city below was already beginning to look tiny, and the air was getting thinner too. It wasn’t over yet. They still
had the packs on their backs, they had been wearing them the entire time, and they contained the precious wings Molly had developed, their only way down now. They began to make their way to the nearest edge. There would be nothing for it but to fling themselves off and pull the cord. Fate and gravity would do the rest.
“Do you think it worked?” Elijah asked as they moved along. Do you think the city is back to normal? As normal as it can be, I mean?”
“I think it will be,” Molly answered, “The people, that’s what I care about. They’re the ones that matter, that make the city, not the buildings and roads. Everything will be fine. I guess we’ll find out as long as we can get back down there.”
“You’re instilling confidence in me with every word.” Elijah teased, and she jabbed him very gently, playfully in the ribs. He pretended to wince. They were almost at the edge, it hadn’t taken them long to get there at all. From their vantage point up here it was incredible. Looking out they could clearly see the sun, uninterrupted by clouds or buildings, a giant yellow orb in the sky. Slightly below that were the clouds, the real ones, spread thinly, little puffy wisps of white drifting along. Looking down further still was the city, their home, surrounded as it always was by the rainbow glow they had become so accustomed to. To the East they could see the Jagged Cliffs, and the coastline heading northwest and Southwest from there, to Tyreem and Grayslick Port respectively. A stunning view.
“This is it then.” Elijah muttered as he took off his bandoleer after a moment of enjoying the sight, removing his heavy overcoat and then putting his pack back on. He was trying to lose as much unnecessary weight as possible. Molly followed his example, losing all her equipment. After taking off anything unnecessary, including bandoleers, they were wearing only the lightest clothes they had, along with their packs, and it was freezing.
“Good luck, I guess? I mean…we’ll see each other down there. I’ll see you soon.” Molly was nervous. Elijah was as well, but he thought it was only natural to feel like that before throwing yourself off of a floating rock in the sky with an as yet mostly untested means of flight to get you down to earth safely. They looked at each other. Elijah gave Molly a quick hug, and then without a single word, they took a step forwards, off of the Cloud, and into nothingness. It was almost as if they were walking on air for the tiniest of moments, floating for a moment, and then gravity took over.
