Transgression

by Matthew Ashworth

  Azrael and Balder began making their way past the structures in the area, and Adelais followed them whilst looking around to make sure that nobody was watching them. Because the structures were so densely packed, it was hard to see anything beyond a few of them, as they were obscuring the view.

  After making a few more turns, the angels spotted three goblin guards very close by. Adelais wanted to take them out, but he and his teammates had to cancel that idea instantly as there were more guards approaching the area from the distance. The three dark angels had to go back and to take the longer way around. After taking a slightly less guarded route, they eventually saw more guards coming from afar. There was no place to take cover and hide. Just as they were about to turn back, they saw some guards coming from behind them. Those had not yet spotted them, but Adelais and his teammates could not retreat now.

  - “Looks like we’ll need to make some changes to our plan.” Azrael noted as he saw that fighting was unavoidable.

  - “I don’t like this. We should abandon this mission.” Adelais understood the danger they were in.

  - “Adelais, our sector depends on us completing this mission. We cannot give up here.” Azrael tried to convince him.

  - “But what’s the point if chances of failure are so high?”

  - “Because all other options yield even higher chances of failure.” Azrael explained briefly whilst keeping an eye on the approaching goblin guards.

  At that point Adelais decided to heed Azrael’s words. He knew what they were doing was incredibly risky, but there wasn’t much of a choice. The three of them quickly took one of the side paths and ran along it. A solitary guard was there. Azrael attacked the guard and put him down within a second before the goblin had a chance to see him. After hiding the dead guard out of view, the trio continued till the next junction. Two more guards were there. Those were archers and spotted the angels very quickly. Adelais and Balder rushed for those on the spot. Balder rammed into the goblin archer with his shield, knocking him down, and then finished the enemy off with a lethal axe strike. Adelais went into a full concentration and sprinted for the guard in a frenzied manner. When he reached his target, he put him down with a single slash. Once again, they had to hide the dead guards out of view and then continued further.

  Much of the area just beyond looked somewhat empty and quiet, but after making a few more turns and passing several structures, they saw a wide cavern entrance up ahead. They instantly realised that was the way they needed to go. There were half a dozen goblins guarding the huge mouth of a cave. The three angels moved in from the side, making sure to stay unseen, and once they were close enough, Azrael weakened the guards. The guards collapsed and never realised what happened to them. Once more, through careful and cunning approach, Adelais and the others managed to slip inside without the guards seeing them.

  Chapter 25

  Adversity

  Ethel and Lazarus kept running until the tunnel went steeply down, at which stage they slid all the way to the bottom and hid in a wide crevice in a wall so to make sure that nobody was following them.

  - “This is bad.” Ethel quietly said to Lazarus, “Maybe we should’ve cancelled the mission upon being spotted.”

  - “I doubt that would’ve been a good idea.” Lazarus disagreed, “We need to carry on. Catalina was right. The sooner we do this, the sooner reinforcements would storm into the sector to help us out of here.”

  - “But we still don’t know where that cave is.”

  Lazarus began concentrating once again and trying to sense the direction of profane energies. Ethel did not know what to do. She was feeling positive about the mission in the beginning, but now that Catalina was defeated and they were detected, she lost a lot of faith in it. All she was left with was hoping that together with Lazarus they could still accomplish the task and that the enemy guards would not find them.

  - “All right, we need to keep going.” Lazarus finally decided to come out of cover.

  - “So we’re on the right track?” Ethel wanted confirmation.

  - “I think so.”

  Ethel decided not to waste time and to believe that Lazarus was right. They promptly exited the tunnel into the next chamber, which was very small, and quickly reached the entrance of the tunnel at the other end. That tunnel twisted downwards rather sharply too, but they were more prepared for it this time. Trying hard to keep their balance, they kept descending.

  - “Ignore the turns. We’re going straight on.” Lazarus warned Ethel beforehand.

  Ethel soon saw a couple of turns leading sideways from the main tunnel, but as Lazarus advised, she continued running ahead. There were two more turns afterwards, but they continued straight ahead still and finally came out into a large chamber at the end. The chamber was deceptively empty and unguarded. It had five other exits out of it, and so the two dark angels needed to decide which one to take.

  - “Lazarus, which way from here?” Ethel turned to her comrade.

  - “That one.” Lazarus pointed to the second turn from the left after concentrating for a brief second, “But careful. I sense some guards nearby… no… I sense a lot of guards in fact.”

  They were just about to continue on towards the opening Lazarus suggested for them to take, but at that moment several shadow guards came out of it, blocking their way. The two of them were about to fight their way through, but had to abandon that idea when they heard noises coming from all around them. They looked around the room quickly and saw more soldiers coming out of every single tunnel that connected to the room. With them were Malakai and Aurora.

  - “Going somewhere?” Malakai addressed the two angels of Erebus sector.

  - “I could feel it was a trap.” Ethel spoke quietly, trying to figure a way out.

  Lazarus and she began slowly backing away. The Abyssal guardians were all around them, and with each second those were getting closer and closer. There was no other way to go, except to run back the way they came from. However, as they neared the tunnel they used to enter the room, they could hear screams of more Abyssal guards coming faintly from it. They were completely trapped and there was no way to go. They had to either fight till the bitter end or to surrender.

  - “Don’t like to talk, do you?” Malakai addressed the two dark angels again.

  - “We have nothing to say to you.” Ethel turned to him at that moment.

  - “That’s too bad, because you see it’s my job to find out why you are here.”

  - “We won’t be the ones to disclose it to you.” Lazarus retaliated at that moment.

  - “Then that makes matters much simpler. I can skip straight to killing you.” Malakai rationalised and instantly gave a gesture to the sector’s soldiers to start attacking.

  Ethel and Lazarus quickly got back to back and prepared to fend off the monsters. It wasn’t in their best interests to back into the tunnel they came from, because they did not want to be attacked by more troops from behind. All that was left for them to do was to fight inside the spacious chamber.

  - “It seems surrendering is out of option for us.” Ethel concluded, “Let me try using my shields.”

  Ethel cast a big energetic shield around the two of them. She knew it wouldn’t stand enemy attacks for long, but it still gave them some time to think on their strategy. Could they possibly backtrack through the tunnel they came from and bypass all the approaching Abyssal troops whilst inside a shield? Ethel wanted to believe in that method. However, she was merely optimistic, not deluded. She knew her shield would not stand all the pounding.

  The enemy soldiers surrounding them finally began pummelling on her shield with their blades and clubs. Ethel realised there was no point hiding behind the shield if it was going to shatter at any second. Instead, she decided to convert it into several smaller shields. That would allow her and Lazarus to attack and at the same time to use the hovering fragments of the shield to hide behind.

  - “Lazarus, I am going to split the shield. Be prepared to a
ttack.” Ethel warned him.

  - “I am ready.” Lazarus gave her his word.

  At that moment Ethel caused the shield to break into a number of fragments, which still hovered in the air, surrounding both of them. However, this time there were plenty of gaps between the shield fragments which Ethel and Lazarus attacked the demons through. It was a slow process, but it was effective, because the demon soldiers were getting hit, but themselves could not penetrate the defence.

  - “Ethel, watch out!” Lazarus suddenly shouted.

  Ethel turned to face the same direction Lazarus was looking towards and saw a fireball coming from Malakai’s side. She didn’t manage to react on time and the fireball passed through one of the gaps and struck her in the torso.

  The pain from the impact caused Ethel to lose concentration and to fall down, and as a result her shield completely disappeared. She recovered almost instantly and saw Lazarus fighting all the demons by himself and trying to keep them off her. Ethel rose to her feet immediately and went to join him. However, at that moment Malakai came right up to Lazarus, before Lazarus had a chance to face him, and thrust his great blade in his direction. The blade went through Lazarus’ torso and came out of his back. Ethel felt as if her eyes bled at that instant when she saw her good friend get stabbed. She screamed with grief, but there was no turning time back. She could not succumb right there, despite ending up alone, and she knew it. Frantically she started gazing in all directions, trying to come up with something that would allow her to come out of this fight alive.

  - “Nowhere to run.” Malakai stated menacingly whilst taking his sword out of Lazarus’ body.

  Ethel could now see Malakai approaching her. If he was alone, she could stand a chance at beating him. However, he wasn’t alone. There were still nearly a dozen of guards remaining in the chamber, and by the sounds of it, the troops coming from behind her were getting very close to the location too. Aurora was the only one who was standing back and not fighting. Ethel wondered if she would help her. Nonetheless, even if Aurora did, she wasn’t an experienced fighter yet. The two of them wouldn’t survive.

  Once Malakai got close to Ethel, he began violently attacking with his blade. Ethel created one of the small energy shields in her off hand to act as a buckler and began using it to block the incoming strikes. Malakai was attacking so actively that all of the guards fighting by his side stopped attacking Ethel. They simply couldn’t get a chance to attack, because Malakai was forcing Ethel to back away too fast.

  Finally Ethel noted Malakai performing a fairly clumsy swing. She used that chance to slash at him. Her curved blade skimmed past his left shoulder, causing him to wince. She quickly followed it up with a kick to his face. The kick was strong enough to knock Malakai onto the ground.

  One of the shadow soldiers quickly saw a window of opportunity and charged towards Ethel. She reacted quickly and managed to retaliate with a sharp slash to the soldier’s torso, killing it. When she turned back to Malakai, he was back on his feet already.

  - “Malakai, please stop.” Aurora begged from where she was standing.

  - “Be quiet, Aurora! I am busy.” Malakai silenced her with anger.

  At that stage he dashed quickly towards Ethel and produced a quick stab. Ethel stepped to the side swiftly, avoiding the stab, and began swinging her blade at him repeatedly. Malakai started backing away at this instant. After several failed attempts, Ethel succeeded in injuring him once again, this time on the left leg. She then moved for the kill, but Malakai rolled aside and backed away quickly, trying to re-strategise his attack.

  Once again, one of the guards came up to Ethel and tried to hit her. She blocked his strike with her energy buckler and then swiftly decapitated him. Just as she faced Malakai again, he was charging at her already. She swung in his direction, but he blocked it successfully and then lunged for her with his off hand. He managed to grab her by the throat and lifted her up. Ethel attempted to come off his grasp, but he held on too tightly. She tried swinging at him with her blade, but Malakai slammed her against the wall forcefully, causing her to drop her weapon.

  - “Don’t do it, Malakai! You’re not a killer!” Aurora ran up to him at that stage, trying to interfere.

  - “I said shut up!” Malakai yelled loudly and shot a fireball in her direction with his other hand.

  The ball of fire struck Aurora and knocked her flat onto the ground. Malakai then turned back to Ethel whilst still holding her with one hand and continued squeezing her throat with force.

  - “Your kind is an abomination to this world, puppet.”

  - “I really pity you, Malakai. You’re extremely deluded.” Ethel barely said whilst still trying to come loose.

  - “I do not require your pity!” He burst with fury.

  The hand he was holding Ethel with began heating up and turning red-hot in a matter of seconds. Ethel could feel death coming. Malakai’s powerful grip and the fierce heat that came from it were killing her and she could no longer fight it. She just could no longer retaliate. She only shut her eyes and gave in.

  Malakai still held Ethel tightly, trying to make sure she wouldn’t come back. He then released her instantly, and her lifeless body dropped limply onto the ground. Aurora saw it all happening whilst still on the ground, trying to recover from the fireball Malakai shot at her. Could he have gone insane? She wasn’t sure. What she was sure of, was that she no longer wanted to partake in any of his activities. She was appalled by what he did to two good angels of Erebus. On top of that, she realised that she too wasn’t safe with him if he had the capacity to attack her like he did just now. Things were looking very grim.

  Malakai finally turned around and gazed at all the guards that were still standing. They looked content, and so was he. He then looked down at Aurora.

  - “That kind of behaviour, Aurora, is going to get us killed. I want to see no more of such a thing.”

  - “Malakai. That was madness what you just did there.” Aurora spoke quietly back.

  - “You’re forgetting that they are not our allies. It doesn’t matter if we kill them.” He responded, then turned away from her and approached the Abyssal soldiers.

  Several more guards entered the chamber at this stage, led by Berith. Malakai looked at them briefly and then coldly turned away, as if unimpressed with how late they were to all the action. A messenger flew right up to him at that moment.

  - “What do you want?” Malakai asked irritably.

  - “It appears there’s been some suspicious activity in Gehenna sector too.”

  - “So they’ve decided to infiltrate that sector as well, I see. I wonder if they sent anyone to Pandemonium.”

  - “So far there is nothing to report from the Pandemonium.” The messenger answered.

  - “Regardless. Warn the generals to be on high alert. Looks like I will need to head to Gehenna and to confront those angels.” Malakai gave orders.

  The messenger left immediately, whilst Malakai continued out of the chamber, completely moving on from what just happened. Aurora got up at that moment and furiously shouted a question at him:

  - “Are you going to kill them too?!”

  - “If you cannot handle it, I suggest you stay here. I don’t need anyone slowing me down.” Malakai spoke through his teeth.

  - “What if Adelais is one of those angels?”

  - “Like I said – if you cannot handle it, then stay.” He repeated himself, completely disregarding her question.

  Aurora knew she had to go. She could not let Malakai do anything bad to Adelais, or to any other good angel for that matter. She had to act. Malakai and the others one by one exited the chamber. Aurora was the only one remaining, staring at two deceased angels – Ethel and Lazarus. Then suddenly she was blinded with a flash and two beams of light descended from the Utopia, even penetrating deep down to this very location in the Abyss, and claimed the two Erebus angels. Aurora finally saw it happening for real for the first time ever. It was beautiful, and she wa
s completely moved.

  - “I am so sorry. Peace be with you both.” She said to the angels as their bodies were taken away from the Underworld so that they could finally reunite with their Creator.

  Then, as soon as the light disappeared, Aurora turned around and rushed out of the room, not wanting Malakai to leave without her. She had to prevent any more similar disasters from occurring.

  Chapter 26

  Road Ends Here

  Adelais, Azrael, and Balder were inside the cave complex of Gehenna. That was the centre of the sector. It contained most of its soldiers and also the leader himself - Moloch. They, however, needed to locate the Tenebrae Vim, and so far they were not even close to it. Azrael was still sensing a strong presence of this energy, and the three of them were trying to stay optimistic that they would find it. They noticed more troops coming their way shortly after they entered the main tunnel of the cave. They had to quickly find an indentation in the cave wall to hide in. After looking around quickly, they rushed for the nearest one. Once fully out of view, they peeked out and waited. It appeared to be another division of troops marching out, most likely heading for Pandemonium. This division was a lot larger than the previous one they’ve seen. It was led by several fallen angels, though this time, except for goblins and troglodytes, it contained a huge number of demons too.