Transgression

by Matthew Ashworth

  - “We should probably ask the Utopia’s support as well in regard to the defence against the Pandemonium attacks, or else one by one we will end up like the Den of Retribution.” Yama suddenly called to attention.

  The three leaders, as well as the dark angels, began to ponder on that idea, and for a few seconds the room was silent. The Utopia had a lot of angels and would most likely agree to spare the troops, but it also was the top priority location and needed to be well-defended. Therefore they did not know if it was wise to disturb the Utopia at a time like this.

  - “I like the idea.” Hades finally broke the silence, “I will send someone to discuss it with them. Lazarus, how about you?”

  - “Yes, my Lord. I can do that.” Lazarus confirmed.

  - “Azrael, the rest of your team can go after Garridan. We need one more team, however.” Hades continued.

  - “The other team will have to be mine.” Yama spoke, “Garridan has killed six of my angels now. They have started to take it personally. Amadeus lost two of his units in the first fight. He only has one more left. I think I will send them both to help Azrael.”

  - “Sounds good.” Azrael liked the sound of that.

  - “Then we shall get onto that right now.” Hades finalised.

  - “Can I go and help them as well?” Athalia asked suddenly.

  - “Perhaps best if you go with Lazarus. Tell the Utopian forces about what happened to your sector.”

  It seemed that Athalia decided to agree with that. Hades then turned to everyone else and briefly thought for a moment. It was quiet once again.

  - “I am going to send some of mine to scout the Den of Retribution, as well as the area around Pandemonium.” Hel suddenly spoke here, “We need to keep an eye on those demons.”

  - “They also seem to be getting a lot of their army from Abyss of Nightmares.” Azrael reminded.

  - “Then we will check around there too.” Hel acknowledged what he said.

  Their meeting came to conclusion on that note. Hel and Yama returned to their respective sectors and began sending their angels to carry out the tasks their leaders had discussed just now. Hades began preparing to dispatch Lazarus and Athalia to the Utopia, whilst the remainder of Azrael’s team was to meet up with two Purgatory angels at the gateways to the External World. Gideon’s team and many other dark angels were instructed to stay on defence. Nobody wanted their sector to be caught out by a surprise attack from the demons.

  The boatman soon brought Malakai and Aurora to the Southern dock of Infernal Pit. Nobody knew of their visit to this place. The boatmen weren’t a problem for Malakai, as they did not partake in any of the Underworld wars. They just carried out their job, and hence this boatman was not going to tell anyone of this visit.

  As soon as Aurora and he got off the boat, Malakai told her to follow him closely and then instantly flew into the air. He remembered exactly where the desired location was. It wasn’t far off from the main cave complex. The entire sector, however, was already quite different to how he last remembered it. Some of the structures were knocked down and there were no longer any troops patrolling the areas. The sector was long forgotten already. Malakai knew that it usually took exactly three terms for any sector to disappear if its leader happened to perish, unless a new leader was assigned to it within that space of time. This meant that he still had a colossal amount of time before the Infernal Pit was broken down and deleted from existence. However, after merely one term the changes would start occurring already, what meant that the later a new leader was found for the dying sector, the more effort would be needed to restore it to how it was beforehand.

  To Malakai’s contentment, the structure of his interest was still standing and untouched. It was one of the facilities where the souls used to be kept just before the cleansing, and contained a big dungeon below the surface.

  Once close enough to the structure, Malakai descended all the way to the ground, and Aurora followed suit.

  - “Why did you bring me here?” she asked him at that stage.

  - “You will see.” He kept the excitement high by not telling her yet.

  Hastily the two of them went inside the building and headed for a big staircase that led down below the ground. Malakai could see that Aurora was extremely cautious, as if she suspected him of something. Nevertheless, he decided to keep going, as she often was like this.

  The dungeon consisted of several levels, but this was a small prison, nowhere near as big as Abode of the Corrupted. Once they descended to the lowest level, Malakai began trying to remember the way through the tunnels. Every tunnel in this dungeon looked identical. However, there were not many turns in them, and hence if someone was familiar with the place, they wouldn’t get lost. Aurora, however, had never been down there, and thus Malakai could tell the place was very frightening for her.

  Finally Malakai reached one of the cells and stopped by it. Its door was unlocked. Ever since Beelzebub was defeated and the sector was no longer functional, the Erebus troops had to release all of the souls from their prisons and to deliver them elsewhere.

  - “Malakai, I really don’t understand what you’ve lost here.” Aurora was getting very anxious.

  - “We’re almost there.” He assured her and then entered the cell.

  Aurora didn’t enter the cell straight away. She remained outside it, but Malakai didn’t pay attention. Instead, he approached the far wall inside the cell and began inspecting it. After a few seconds he pushed it slightly and the wall came undone. Malakai didn’t remove the wall. He merely moved it slightly at an angle to allow some room for him to enter the area beyond. Aurora appeared to be in awe when she saw that.

  - “It’s right here.” Malakai called her.

  Aurora curiously entered the cell and followed Malakai through the tunnel beyond the fake wall. It was very dark in there, but their eyes got used to it reasonably fast.

  - “We are now in one of Infernal Pit’s caves.” Malakai began disclosing to Aurora everything about the place they were in, “Ever since this cave’s main entrance collapsed, Beelzebub had the workers make a new entrance. The closest place to the cave was this dungeon we’ve just been in. The workers made a new entrance inside of that cell. However, it was difficult to use this entrance as you might expect, so the cave stopped being used. It was a small cave anyway, used only for storage. Beelzebub figured it was better to forget about this place and to store its contents elsewhere.”

  - “So, why are we in this cave then?” Aurora still couldn’t grasp the idea of them being there.

  - “Because…” Malakai began, but then stopped and didn’t say anything until the two of them reached a huge opening into one of the cave’s main chambers.

  It was still too dark to see much, so Malakai created a small fireball in his hand and quickly set all the torches in the room on fire. Once every single torch got lit, a grotesque sight was revealed to them. The two of them saw thousands of oversized insects crawling about the enormous room. Besides the insects themselves, there was a myriad of insect eggs all over the place. It was a terrifying and extremely repulsive spectacle.

  - “…Because I’ve collected an army here.” Malakai finally finished his previous sentence.

  - “How… when did you have the time?” Aurora was aghast.

  - “Beelzebub often told me and other angels to ‘look after the creatures’. He didn’t care how we did it. He wanted to see a huge army. That was all. Many of us used various caverns and other remote locations to breed the creatures. I bred them in two different places, one of which was here. When it came to betraying our former master, I simply accumulated as many of the creatures in here as I possibly could and then sealed the entrance so that nobody would locate it during a clean up.” Malakai now divulged everything to her.

  Aurora was still shocked. Malakai could see it on her face. It seemed that she struggled to find the words to describe her reaction to this. Eventually she accepted it and spoke:

  - “What
do you plan to do with this hoard of creatures then?”

  - “I’ll use it when it’s time to stand up to Lucifer.” Malakai answered without even thinking about it.

  - “You would need a lot bigger army than this to defeat him.”

  - “Which is why I must strike at the correct time. If the timing is perfect, we can utilise not only this army, but the armies of other sectors as well, and even the demons themselves. Lucifer is disliked by nearly everyone in the Underworld, even his own demons. Sooner or later there will be a pitfall in his strength, and I predict it will be much sooner than later.” Malakai explained.

  - “I understand.” Aurora nodded without contesting his plan.

  - “You must remember, however, to never tell anyone about this. I trust you, Aurora. You are one of the two individuals in the Underworld I trust, the other being Adelais, which is why we need him too. I don’t trust any other angels. They are mindless puppets, and the demons are too reckless to be reliable.”

  On that note the two of them turned back. Malakai extinguished all of the flames, and then they left the cavern, making sure it was properly shut once again, so that no-one would locate it by accident.

  Chapter 14

  No More Running

  The night had come once again in the External World, and Garridan was as usual ready to continue his mission. He was already at the town where his next target was located. His target was a ruthless general, and Garridan knew this general was on guard at night. Catching this individual out by surprise would be difficult. In spite of that, Garridan could accidentally run into him patrolling the streets if he was patient enough.

  There was a considerable number of guards on the streets at night. Garridan was forced to stay out of their sight, because if they recognized his armor, they would instantly attack him, since he used to be from a rivalling country. He began making his way around the town, getting closer to the barracks. It was a challenge, but Garridan’s persistence greatly helped him.

  After he managed to approach the barracks so that the main entrance was in sight, there was still no sign of the bloodthirsty general. Garridan waited for a while and then decided to change his position and approach from a different direction. Garridan was not quite prepared to wait all night, so changing the approach was always desirable. The target could’ve been inside the barracks or outside in the streets. Garridan knew for sure that he wouldn’t be able to get inside the barracks, so he could only strike his target down outside.

  Whilst making his way around, Garridan realised that very likely the news of his recent killings reached these parts, and for that the number of guards on the streets was increased. He could come out of cover and attack everyone, but his power had waned more and more since the beginning, and he was no longer as sharp in a fight. He could handle probably three or four guards at once, but not a dozen. That was why patience was essential to this task.

  Once at the desired position, Garridan began waiting again. However, within minutes he heard someone coming from behind him. He momentarily hid out of sight behind some crates and waited for the figures to appear. Astonishment overtook him when those people came into his sight. There were a total of four of them, one of which was his target. Garridan made his decision instantly. This was a perfect chance and he wasn’t going to miss it. As soon as the guards passed, Garridan ran from behind the cover and sprinted for his target, bloodlust taking him over.

  The guards heard his footsteps when he got close, but just as they turned around, Garridan rammed his sharp blade in the general’s stomach. His momentum caused them both to travel some distance before Garridan finally came to a stop and the general collapsed. The general’s bodyguards panicked, but drew their blades immediately.

  - “You will pay for that, murderer!” one of the guards shouted as all three of them came closer to Garridan.

  Garridan first quickly made sure there were no other guards coming, and once realising that it was clear, he concentrated on the three that were about to attack him. They swung their blades at the same time and they continued doing so after the first hit. Garridan couldn’t block all three blades at once and so was forced to keep backing away. After several swings, the guards began attacking less in sync, what allowed Garridan to start acting offensively. He parried one of the guards’ blades there and slashed through his torso lethally immediately after. The next second he swiftly turned around and put down the second guard. The third one managed to produce a swing at that stage, before Garridan blocked it and finished him off as well.

  Once again the savage knight checked the area around himself, making sure no-one saw what he had done. To his delight no other guards saw this. However, he heard something else at that second. He turned around to face the location the sound was coming from and spotted five figures approaching him from the sky. He realised those were dark angels, but he didn’t expect them to attack this soon. The situation had gotten critical as he was taken by surprise and now had no choice but to stand his ground. He could only hope that he would come out of this one in one piece.

  Adelais, Azrael, and Ethel went through the gate and were now in the External World. Two dark angels from Purgatory, Amadeus and Samoel, were with them, and the five of them were trying to detect Garridan’s presence. They knew he mostly hunted at night, and that meant they arrived right on time. Within moments they began sensing something. At first they weren’t sure if it was Garridan, but with each passing second their senses confirmed their suspicions more and more.

  - “We should go and check it out. This is as good of a lead as any.” Amadeus suggested after a while.

  - “Yes, let’s do that.” Azrael agreed.

  The five of them flew in the direction they sensed the traces of demonic powers were coming from. The place was quite a distance away, what meant that it was going to take some time to reach it, now that the initial boost from the transporting gate was almost completely gone.

  As they were approaching the place, the slight signal they were sensing had turned into a full blown surge of demonic power, and they were instantly sure they were on the right track.

  - “That’s definitely him.” Azrael suddenly said here, “He is in action.”

  They could now see a town with a lot of guards walking around. They expected there to be a panic on the streets, but nothing was giving Garridan’s position away. They, however, kept getting closer and closer to the signal, until they finally saw him. He just finished fighting a small group of guards and was looking around.

  - “Here we go then.” Amadeus warned everyone, “Let’s try to attack from all sides.”

  - “I’ll confirm that.” Azrael agreed to his idea, “Ethel, Adelais, go around and outflank him. Amadeus, Samoel, the three of us will attack head on.”

  At that stage Ethel and Adelais separated from the others and flew in a slightly different direction. It was then that Garridan spotted all five of them and prepared for a fight. Adelais was expecting him to start running for safety. It didn’t make sense that Garridan remained standing still. He could not have been as powerful as before if his shrine in the Pandemonium was destroyed, unless a new shrine was put up. However, that would’ve taken a significant amount of time. Could Garridan have possibly been confident in handling all five of them at once? Or did he merely decide to make his final stand?

  Azrael, Amadeus, and Samoel landed right in front of Garridan at that moment, and Garridan already began attacking them, before Adelais and Ethel even got a chance to land behind him. Garridan was recklessly attacking the angels, trying to take them all out as fast as possible. The angels, however, patiently blocked and parried his attacks. Adelais and Ethel finally got a chance to get down to the ground behind Garridan.

  They were taken by surprise when Garridan sharply turned around and slashed at them. Adelais swiftly pulled Ethel back, saving her life, and then immediately darted forward to attack the undead knight.

  Ethel wanted to thank Adelais for what he did, but didn’t get a
chance to. She decided to express it by placing a shield in front of him as soon as Garridan began attacking. The others weren’t standing still either. Just as when Garridan started swinging his blade at Adelais, they dashed towards him. He had to momentarily change his attack pattern and managed to superficially slice through Azrael’s left arm. Azrael seemed to have withstood the pain and continued defending.

  Garridan then quickly turned towards the Purgatory dark angels, slashing madly and forcing them back. Once they backed away, he gazed at Ethel, who was standing well behind everyone else, and decided to attack her. Adelais attempted to cross his path, but Garridan elbowed him in the chest, what successfully pushed him back. As soon as Garridan reached Ethel, he thrust his blade with incredible speed at her. Ethel reacted fast and whirled herself out of the way. Garridan proceeded to keep attacking her, but she backed away more. Now Azrael and Amadeus were back, trying to stop him. Garridan produced a hasty slash in their direction to try and fend them off, but they dodged it. Then, with an unexpected swing, Azrael managed to strike Garridan hard. The impact knocked Garridan off his feet and onto the ground. Amadeus and Samoel rushed to quickly snatch Garridan by the arms to cease any further attacks from him and lifted him back to his feet. Garridan tried to come off their grasp but failed and gave up.