- “So… did you kill the poor and innocent Aurora then?” Malakai asked tauntingly when he noticed that Adelais cancelled his attack.
- “What did you do to her?!” Adelais asked him angrily.
- “I take it you didn’t like the new, improved Aurora.” Malakai seemed to have enjoyed Adelais’ reaction.
Adelais was about to dart forward and attack Malakai, but Azrael stopped him once more.
- “Adelais, don’t. You must gain control of your anger. He just wants to get a reaction out of you.” Azrael said.
- “I cannot control it.” Adelais admitted to his commander.
Azrael didn’t get a chance to say more, as most of the army now got alerted to something. Azrael and his team turned in the same direction. Malakai did too. The sight wasn’t so pleasing for the soldiers of the Creator. Some distance from where most of the fighting was going on, more reinforcements for the Pandemonium were coming. Those were the units from Abyss of Nightmares as well, and they were being led by generals Berith and Vine, both of whom sat atop two repulsive looking steeds. This troop was even larger than the one Malakai brought to the Den, and the soldiers of the Creator quickly realised that they were disadvantaged.
- “Azrael, there are too many of them.” Balder came up to them at this moment.
Azrael wasn’t answering as he was trying to figure out what to do. No matter what scenario he played out in his head, the best strategy was to retreat, again.
- “What are we going to do, captain?” Ethel came closer to them at that instant too.
Everyone was troubled about what was happening, but Malakai was enjoying every second of it. They could see him standing still and smirking.
- “We should retreat.” Azrael sadly announced to his allies, “And not just to the docks. We need to get back to our home sectors and to regroup. This battle cannot be won now.”
They were shocked to hear that, but they all trusted Azrael’s word. There was no point in continuing the fight and losing a lot of precious units. The trick was to know when to retreat and then to strike again when the time was right. Azrael was in hundreds of battles throughout his lifetime and servitude in the Underworld, and therefore he often knew precisely if the battle could be won or not.
On that note, Balder, Lazarus, and Ethel headed back to warn the remainder of the army of what they intended to do. Azrael and Adelais remained where they were, still gazing at Malakai. He wasn’t attacking. In fact, he seemed to be satisfied with mere intimidation and taunting of his opponents. Adelais was on the verge of attacking him, and Azrael could see that. He, however, didn’t want Adelais to do anything stupid and to put everyone in a difficult situation, and it appeared that Adelais must’ve been aware of that.
Finally their army began pulling back as Berith’s and Vine’s forces got nearer. Adelais and Azrael decided to withdraw as well by leaping into the air and flying to join the other angels. Despite that, the demons didn’t stand their ground. They were determined to kill as many allies of the Den as possible.
The dark angels had to repel some of those away and to buy some time for the remaining infantry troops to create some distance between themselves and the enemy. In no time they were all on the run, heading for the docks they arrived at initially. The demons chased them all the way to the end and stopped at the most outward gate.
- “I can’t believe we have failed.” Adelais said bitterly to his commander.
- “It’s only temporary.” Azrael reassured him, “Not every war can be won in a single interim, Adelais.”
Adelais sighed at that stage and prepared to board the boat. Ethel and Lazarus followed right after him, but Azrael remained on the docks until every single unit was on board, including the units from allied sectors.
After many individuals passed him, Azrael was then confronted by a dark angel he didn’t know too well. It was a female with long, golden blonde hair. By the looks of her, she was an adopted dark angel.
- “What’s wrong?” Azrael asked her, seeing a hesitant look on her face.
- “My name is Athalia.” She suddenly introduced herself, “and I am extremely lost.”
- “Why is that?”
- “It appears that I am the last remaining dark angel of this sector. Everyone else got defeated in a fight, and I am not sure if I want to stay here by myself. The demons have taken control of this sector.” She explained her distress to Azrael.
- “Come with us then. You can come back here once we liberate this sector, but for now it’s dangerous to be here alone.” Azrael suggested for her.
Athalia was thankful to Azrael and boarded the boats as well. Once everyone was on board, Azrael joined his team, and the boats were ready to depart. The demon kind was still standing at the nearest gate and watching how their foes departed from the sector. Some of them were mad and bloodthirsty, wishing they were not stopped by their superiors. Others had a more composed look. Azrael continued looking at each one of them, until his boat took him and everyone else away from the place.
- “Why are we letting them get away?!” Alastor growled at Eligos just as they arrived at the docks area and saw all the soldiers of the Creator boarding the boats to leave, “We should get out there and smash every single one of them.”
- “If we do that, we’ll end up losing a lot of our units.” Eligos pointed out, “And we can’t exactly intimidate the leaders of this sector with a small army.”
Alastor had nothing to say and hence just watched how all of his prey boarded the boats one by one. He was feeling extremely dissatisfied, but most other demons weren’t going to take any action, so it wasn’t wise for him to do it alone.
Once every single troop of Erebus, Helheim, Purgatory, and Limbo abandoned this sector, Alastor turned around and began walking back to the front yard of the palace. Eligos and the others went with him. The front yard was a considerable distance away now, but the demon generals weren’t in a rush.
- “Now then, it’s time to head into the palace.” Eligos said to Alastor.
- “I don’t care what you say, I am going in there and I am going to destroy everyone and everything inside.” Alastor expressed himself at that point.
- “We will do it together, but remember that we need both of the leaders alive.” Eligos pointed out to him.
- “Yes, I remember.” Alastor just shrugged off his words apathetically.
Eventually, after some time, they got closer to the palace and began preparing a team of units that would be going inside. Their strategising was interrupted when Malakai, Vine, and Berith approached them.
- “This was the most boring battle I have ever experienced.” Vine proclaimed his frustration, “What was wrong with them? They just left as soon as we got here.”
- “It’s not our fault they are cowards.” Berith responded to his ally’s remark.
- “You can be useful by staying here and guarding the area.” Alastor barked at them at that instant, completely dismissing their annoyance.
- “More boredom.” Vine expressed and then turned away from the group and headed out somewhere.
- “What about me? Do you need my help to get inside the leader’s private chamber?” Malakai spoke up here.
- “No. You are dismissed for now.” Eligos replied, “Just get back to the Pandemonium and await further orders.”
As he said, Malakai turned away from them and began walking away. Eventually they finished planning their final stage of assault and decided that Buer would stay with Berith and Vine outside and guard the area, whilst Alastor and Eligos would take a dozen of able fighters and proceed into the palace.
Alastor was very eager to step through the palace doors and to resume the killing. Despite having killed a huge number of enemies of all kinds in that interim, his thirst for destruction was still unquenched and he wanted more. Eligos finally approached him with the others who were to support them, and the lot of them walked right up to the palace doors. Those did not open, what meant that the demo
ns had to turn to their battering ram once again. After quickly setting up the ram, they began smashing the palace doors open. The doors fell apart with ease, and Alastor was the first to run inside, roaring with madness.
Chapter 11
The Final Touch
Aurora wept for what seemed like a really long time. Now that the effects of the Void’s energy were subsiding and her humanity was once again coming back to her, she realised what she’s done, and she couldn’t forgive herself for that. Now she knew for sure that Adelais was resentful towards her, and she didn’t blame him for it. She hated herself just as much, if not more. She was completely alone now. It felt to her as if she was useless and that nobody cared about her anymore. If she hadn’t listened to Malakai, this could’ve been avoided, but out of faith in his word, she gave him the benefit of a doubt and suffered in the process.
Slowly rising to her feet, Aurora felt weak and helpless. Most of her life in the External World was painful, but she loathed this very minute more than anything. She never felt this lonely before. Anger started surfacing her mind and she was beginning to feel abhorrent towards Malakai. She no longer wanted anything to do with his plans and ideas. They were only causing her extreme torment.
However, was it a good idea to abandon Malakai at that moment, now that she didn’t have even Adelais to turn to? If she was to betray Malakai, she would definitely be alone. Struggling to go on, Aurora wanted to just collapse back down onto the ground and to wait for her end to come. However, something kept telling her not to give up. It’s as if the Creator Himself was deeply sympathising with her, and despite her being neglected by everyone else, the Creator certainly cared for her.
- “I will not succumb to the Void.” She quietly said to herself, “I am strong.”
At that moment she straightened up and continued walking, now looking up and preparing to fly into the air. A healthy degree of motivation took her over. She wanted to change things and to start over, and she was going to do it, regardless of difficulties on the way.
- “Forgive me, Adelais. I will never ever let evil control me like that again.” She vocalised, even though Adelais wasn’t in the vicinity to hear her.
She knew that Adelais was an open-minded and forgiving individual. He wouldn’t reject her if she proved him that she was nothing like what he saw a little while ago. Additionally, she wasn’t going to be pushed around by Malakai and especially the demon kind ever again. She realised she’d have to prepare herself for crudeness and violence. If the demons ever pressed hard on her again, she was going to let them have a piece of her mind, even if she ended up aggravating them and dying in the process.
Finally, after managing to stabilise her mental state, she slowly looked up, and then, in a single swift motion, flew into the air and began ascending back to where the others were.
Malakai had just left the demon generals to their own matters. He didn’t care about the domination of this sector. This was in the interests of the Pandemonium, but not in his interests. However, now that the demons were busy and didn’t require his aid, he had some free time to work on his plan.
When he began thinking of what to do, he realised Aurora was nowhere around, yet he could sense her. Earlier he thought that Adelais killed her, but her presence was still noticeable to him, what meant that she was still very much alive. With each second that feeling was intensifying, and moments later he saw her ascend with great speed from below. As she finally reached the desired height, she stopped herself sharply and in an instant dived down until she firmly landed.
Malakai was glad that she was still alive. As he began walking towards her, she turned to look at him with a scowl and headed towards him too. Just before they reached each other, Aurora yelled at him loudly.
- “It didn’t work, now did it?!”
- “Do not worry, Aurora. We’ll have plenty of chances again.” Malakai responded, now finally closing the last remaining distance to her.
- “I am not going to partake in any more of this. That sacrilegious energy completely took control of my mind. I was like a puppet to it.” Aurora justified herself.
At that moment their conversation was interrupted by Vine. He seemed to be curious as to what they were discussing, but didn’t say much. Irritably, Malakai told him to get away. Vine looked at them both for a while and then turned around and left them alone.
- “Fine then. We will do something else.” Malakai turned back to Aurora.
- “Where is everyone by the way? Has the battle ended already?”
- “Yes. We have won this battle. The demons, however, are busy right now, trying to force the leaders of this sector into surrender. And I… in fact… there is something I should show you.” Malakai was suddenly hit by an idea.
- “What is it?”
- “You have to keep it a secret, however. The reason I am about to show it to you is because I trust you, Aurora. Do you understand that?”
Malakai was trying to make his point clear. He was still not sure if it was a good idea to disclose one of the key components of his plan to her, but sooner or later he had to show her anyway, and now was as good time as any. Aurora seemed to have a guilty look in her eyes, but eventually she nodded.
- “Excellent. We’re going to take a boat to Infernal Pit now.” Malakai mentioned and then began walking.
- “Infernal Pit? But there is no-one there.” Aurora was confused.
- “Or so it seems.” Malakai responded cryptically and continued walking.
Aurora hastily followed him, and then they finally took into the air to fly to the docks on the Southern end of the sector. Malakai kept continuously doubting the choice he just made. Was Aurora trustworthy? Would she keep this sensitive information a secret? Malakai often found it hard to trust others, but Aurora proved herself to be very trustworthy since she got recruited. Besides that, he noticed that she often trusted his word. If she was to become a liability, however, and turn on him, then he would have to act fast and silence her before it was too late. He wasn’t fond of the volatility of the situation, but then again, he already made a lot of risky choices, and this wasn’t going to change things so much.
The palace of the Den sector was rather exquisite. All the way throughout, it had dark bluish-grey walls with occasional glowing red ornaments. The fire torches were all stationary and were aligned perfectly along the entire corridor.
Alastor was charging into the guards in the palace with a dangerous sense of delirium. Eligos and the other demons that came with him were shortly behind, but they were not getting much action at all. They didn’t mind it so much, because they were more concerned about the task at hand. Alastor, on the other hand, was eagerly destroying every opponent that got on his way.
Once he cleaned out the first corridor, he did not bother waiting for Eligos and the others to reach his location. He impatiently burst into the next chamber, alerting every single guard in it. The chamber was rather spacious and contained huge pillars running from the floor to the ceiling. The guards in it were prepared, as they knew that ever since the demons invaded the sector, they were going to enter the palace eventually. There were almost two dozen guards in this chamber, half of which were archers; the other half were tough warden custodians, which were elite guards of the palace.
The moment Alastor burst inside, the archers let loose their arrows. Every single arrow struck the demon general, but he merely laughed at their pathetic attempt to stop him, and then with rage he charged at the nearest guard. He swung his long hammer through the air with such great speed that upon impact his victim flew across the entire room and bashed into a wall with great force. That little display greatly demoralised the others. When Alastor came up to the next group, they were on full defensive. Their shields, however, could not stop Alastor’s ferocious swings. He knocked the shields out of their hands and on the consecutive swings walloped them on the torsos, killing each one of them with a single hit.
The archers shot at him once again. This tim
e only half the arrows hit their target, as Alastor was moving. Once again, he was not brought to a halt and with great force rammed into the next guard, sending the guard flying backwards on two of the archers.
At that stage Eligos and the demons that accompanied him entered the room. It seemed that Alastor took care of nearly half the guards already. Yet they didn’t stand still and entered the action immediately.
Eligos ran straight in and began slicing through the nearest guards with his long sword. Alastor continued as he was, and the other demons helped out. The Den’s guards were destroyed in seconds since Eligos and other demons joined the fight, cutting Alastor’s enjoyment. Despite that, he didn’t complain. He just continued further into the palace, through the next corridor and up a big staircase. The others followed him, but were well behind.
Upon reaching the top of the stairs, Alastor faced some more guards. There were just as many as in the previous chamber, though most of these were melee fighters, and hence Alastor was surrounded in no time. Regardless of that, he kept swinging with his weapon as if he owned the entire place, and with nearly each hit managed to take out at least one guard. The guards were knocked out of his path like they were nothing.
Soon the other demons arrived at the scene and once again joined in the fight, bringing it to a swift close and cutting Alastor’s spree short. Alastor growled slightly with frustration, but continued nevertheless. After travelling through a somewhat of a short corridor, he reached the big metallic doors.
Transgression Page 6
