Decadence

by Matthew Ashworth

  - “Have you located him?” Gideon wondered.

  - “No, but this time we can be sure he will not desert the battle.” Azrael said and then decided to inform Gideon of what he and his team had done to achieve that.

  Gideon listened intently, and then after a very brief pause replied:

  - “I can definitely come and help, though Cael and Ilana should probably stay and oversee our defences.”

  - “Yes, that sounds like a good idea.” Azrael agreed, “Did you find anything out about the Abode?”

  - “No. Everything is the same over there. We did not see any Pandemonium troops guarding it. Most likely they joined Pandemonium willingly.”

  Azrael took those words on board and on that note he let Gideon know of their meeting place and decided to spend the remaining time on informing Hades of their next step too. He flew back into the air and headed for Hades’ palace again. Within a short period of time he arrived and without any rush went inside.

  When the time came to assemble at the Northern dock, Azrael was the first one there. Very soon Ethel joined him. They waited for the others for a little longer, and soon Lazarus and Gideon made it there too. Adelais, however, was still missing.

  - “Ethel, wasn’t Adelais with you?” Azrael asked at that stage.

  - “No, we separated just after you left us.” Ethel honestly admitted.

  Lazarus was already at it, trying to sense Adelais’ current location. A surprised look appeared on his face within seconds.

  - “He is not here.” Lazarus let the others know.

  - “Where is he?” Gideon asked.

  Azrael concentrated at that moment too, feeling curious about Adelais’ whereabouts. He managed to sense where Adelais was just before Lazarus spoke:

  - “Abode of the Corrupted.”

  - “I should’ve known.” Azrael responded instantly and with some regret, “He decided to take it upon himself to free those souls.”

  - “Then we should go and help him.” Ethel suggested with concern.

  - “No.” Azrael denied, “Stay in Erebus and be ready for our return. I’ll go and retrieve him myself. Once we’re back, we’ll head out to the External World. I hope Adelais won’t get himself killed before I get there.”

  - “Are you sure about that?” Lazarus asked him just to be convinced.

  - “I am. Don’t tell Lord Hades about it, unless we don’t return for a while.” Azrael told the others, and then hastily flew into the air and headed for the Southern dock to get a boat and travel to the Abode of the Corrupted.

  Chapter 17

  Do it Alone

  The boat Adelais took was almost at the Abode now. However, he was too impatient and decided to proceed with his plan before the boat had a chance to dock. He let the boatman know of that and then, within a second, jumped into the air and flew up. He did not want to enter through the main entrance anyway, as it was well guarded. There was another entrance. Abode of the Corrupted was an enormous mountain, and it was burrowed with caves throughout. In fact, majority of the chambers were so enormous and so numerous that the entire mountain was a giant facility. It was a mere husk of a mountain concealing a gigantic prison on the inside. There were 27 levels within the mountain itself, and additional 39 levels beneath the surface. Each level was huge in itself and could house over a couple of hundred of souls at any one time. The bottom-most level was the only one that contained no prisoners and was the location of the sector’s leader, Astaroth, and the off-duty troops.

  The way into the mountain Adelais wanted to take was located at the very top. He soared all the way up, as high as he could, and once he ended up higher than the mountain, he descended gradually. The opening on the top wasn’t huge, but it was big enough to be visible. It, however, was not unprotected. Not only were there a dozen of guards circling it, but there were streams of fire erupting out of it every few seconds.

  The guards spotted Adelais the moment he landed, which was at a fairly small distance from them. They were regular oni – hideous looking humanoid creatures with sharp claws and teeth. Though they could fight well hand-to-hand, they were also armed with blades and axes. Adelais knew what he was up against, but he refused to back down. The first two that approached him produced a pounce in his direction. He dodged them with absolute precision and then quickly faced the next two. Those swung at him with their swords before even having a chance to stop. Adelais placed his longsword on the path of those two and successfully blocked. Within a blink of an eye, he swung his blade back in a semicircular arc and slashed one of the oni behind him. Before the two he was fighting had a chance to produce the next strike, he swung the blade back in their direction, producing deep gashes across their torsos.

  By then, all the rest of the oni guards were upon him, so Adelais had to watch out for several weapons swinging at him at the same time. He did, however, specialise in a focus ability, meaning his reactions were superb, and the more he concentrated, the more agile he became in a fight.

  Eventually, after receiving only a single superficial slice on the left arm, Adelais finished off all of the guards and was ready to get inside the Abode. As he approached the opening, the fire kept sprouting out in violent bursts from it. Adelais could feel the heat even before he came right up to it. The opening was just about wide enough for an angel to fit into it whilst fully spreading the wings. Adelais, however, didn’t need to spread his wings. He needed to dive inside the tunnel and to clear it before the next wave of fire. It was obvious that this opening was used only as an exit and never as an entrance. He counted how long it took between two separate bursts of fire and began mentally preparing himself for something nearly impossible. The fear began taking over him, and for a split second he felt like turning back and giving up. As a result, Adelais fell on his knees. He had the motivation, but it was too difficult to overcome the fear of failure. He closed his eyes briefly and attempted to address the Creator:

  - “Dearest Creator. Hallowed be Your Name. Please grant me strength and courage to overcome my fears and to accomplish this task. Amen.”

  He kept his eyes closed and now tried to battle with his fear. It was difficult, but eventually the horror subsided, and Adelais managed to stand up and to face the raging eruption of flames once again. As he looked deep down into the tunnel, he waited for the next wave. It finally came, at which point he braced himself. The instant the fire passed, Adelais plunged down into the tunnel; his wings tucked back to provide maximum falling speed. Finally he saw numerous openings all over the side of the tunnel just ahead and prepared to jump through one of those. The next wave of flames was now fast approaching him. If he was a second too late, the flames would consume him and end his existence instantly. However, Adelais reacted fast enough and swerved out of the tunnel the moment he reached the first opening. The wave of fire barely skimmed past his left wing, scorching its edge slightly. Otherwise Adelais made it out of the tunnel safely and now found himself on the top level of the Abode.

  The heart of the Abode of the Corrupted consisted of two enormous cylindrical chambers, one being directly on top of another. The superior one stretched from the ground floor to the very top, whilst the inferior one went from just beneath the ground floor to the bottom-most level. On the outside circumference of both of these huge shafts was a spiral walkway. The walkway went around the entirety of each level and then slanted down to the level below, and so on so forth. This walkway was mostly used by foot guards, whose job was to patrol around the level they were assigned to, but to traverse between levels using this walkway wasn’t very efficient since it was so long. On one side of the walkway there was a wall, riddled with numerous cells, where the souls were held. On the other side of the walkway there was a huge drop all the way to the ground level. This allowed the aerial guardians of the sector to traverse between the levels fast. The tube which Adelais used to gain entrance was at the very centre of the circular drop and was coming all the way from below the ground level, with numerous openings al
ong it. This tube allowed the aerial guardians beneath the ground level to exit the mountain quickly, if they needed to, but due to the fire passing through it, it was incredibly difficult to gain entrance that way, as Adelais found out for himself. It was a neat line of defence, but not perfect.

  Once Adelais scanned his surroundings and got a clear picture of the place, he commenced what he intended. As soon as he approached the first cell, he smashed its lock with his blade, and then, without looking back, headed for the next one. The imprisoned souls of people took only a partially physical form, and hence still had a slight glow to them. They were not aware of anything that was going on. They did not know of the Pandemonium forces acquiring the entire sector, and they also had no idea what Adelais came to do.

  Each level was huge, and so it was taking Adelais a long time to break open every single cell on his way. Nevertheless, he was determined to free them all, regardless of how long it was going to take and who dared to cross his path during that time. After he merely got a quarter of the way through the current level, he noticed a large pack of creatures approaching from the other end of the corridor. Those creatures were guardians as well, but they were very primitive beings, incredibly similar to the crawlers that attacked Erebus very recently. Adelais smashed open the next cell door and then faced the incoming creatures, waiting for them to get closer, so that he could slaughter every single one of them with his blade.

  As he waited for them, he stood tall and repulsed any fear. The expression on his face was brooding, and he felt great acrimony building up inside of him, as if he somehow channelled the pain of every single soul in the area onto himself.

  - “Thy will be done.” He said out loud, just when the creatures came within a few paces of him.

  At this stage Adelais went loose. He began swinging with his blade at the creatures as frantically as possible, but at the same time not recklessly. For the most part he kept striking low, allowing one swing to smoothly flow into the next one. After repelling the attacks from about a dozen of the monstrosities rushing at him, he began inserting kicks into his technique. Kicking right after slashing allowed him to use all four of his limbs to fight back the offenders. He had to move incredibly fast, because the number of creatures trying to pounce on him and swipe at him was incredible. The only thing that was to his advantage was the fact that the fight was happening in a corridor. Although this corridor was wide, the creatures could not outflank him as they instinctively wanted to attack head on.

  Suddenly one of the creatures succeeded in breaching Adelais’ defence and knocked him onto the ground. Within an instant, several of the monsters pounced on him. Adelais recovered immediately and saw half a dozen creatures in the air, about to land on him. A surge of energy passed through his body and he managed to propel himself into the air with a deadly spin. Every monster that came into contact with him during that move got knocked aside, sustaining serious injuries.

  Once Adelais finished the move, he was back on his feet, waiting for the remaining monstrosities to still reach him. Without losing time whilst waiting for them, Adelais smashed yet another nearby cell door and released the prisoner inside. Once the creatures reached him, he resumed his previous set of sword slashes, flowing into roundhouse kicks and then back into slashes. A couple of the creatures came close to evading his strikes and pouncing on him, but Adelais was a lot more aware of their abilities now and hence produced a couple of improvised attacks to put a stop to those.

  When every single one of the creatures was down, Adelais did not wait to recharge on the energy he expended during the fight. Instead, he continued running along the corridor and smashing open the locks on the cells.

  Very soon he saw a small group of oni guards charging at him. He understood there would be guards of various sorts getting on his way repeatedly and therefore didn’t complain. Instead, he waited for them to come closer and contemplated on attack strategy.

  As soon as the first guard came within a striking distance, Adelais dashed forward and cut through him. The deadly strike that killed the first guard then fluently flowed into another strike, which knocked down the second guard. As soon as the guard fell down, Adelais finished him off with a stab in the torso. The last of the guards was already swinging at him by then, but Adelais moved his head out of the path of the swing instantly and then jerked his sword upwards from the body of a fallen guard and vertically sliced through the last oni.

  - “This corruption must be stopped. I need to make haste.” He said to himself at that stage, realising that the oni and other creatures coming across his path so frequently were greatly slowing him down.

  Once again, without spending even a second on resting, Adelais continued running through the corridor and forcefully destroying the locks with all the anger he had built up over this injustice. The idea of freeing every single one of the prisoners started to seem more and more impossible to him. He could very well understand that clearing just one level was already taking long. Clearing all of them wouldn’t be possible for a solitary fighter, not even if all the resistance he encountered was stopped immediately. Nevertheless, he decided to press on whilst keeping the level of anger high. He knew that as soon as he cooled down, he would begin to think critically and most likely would give up on this horrible self-inflicted mission. He, however, didn’t want to opt out of it, no matter the consequences, and therefore continued keeping his mind irrational and enraged. If he didn’t free those prisoners, then no-one else would.

  Chapter 18

  The Trust

  - “Malakai, what’s going on?” Malakai heard Aurora’s voice behind him as he was heading to have a word with Dugan and Ragnar about preparing some creatures for defence.

  As he turned around, he saw Aurora briskly walking towards him. She seemed rather annoyed and frustrated.

  - “What’s wrong, Aurora?”

  - “I’d like to know what’s going on. Why is Lord Beelzebub out and about, and why is he preparing a big army? Please, I deserve to know.”

  Malakai understood finally why he’s been running into Aurora so much. Her curiosity was taking the best of her, and now that she still had no idea what was happening, she decided to confront him about it. Her persistence was surprising, but that was a good trait to have if one wanted to achieve anything in the Underworld.

  - “He thinks Erebus forces want to invade us.” Malakai gave her a brief reply.

  - “Why would he think that? Did you convince him to think that?” Aurora kept asking confrontationally.

  - “I don’t know. He is just paranoid. Listen Aurora, whatever our Lord decides needs to be done, he will do it. You’re worrying about it too much.” Malakai attempted to calm her and to sneakily avoid the question.

  Just as he turned back round and continued walking, Aurora spoke again:

  - “Would you tell me why you went to the Pandemonium alone earlier?”

  Malakai instantly stopped. It felt as though an arrow struck him, and he was startled. Feeling speechless for a few moments, he slowly turned around, and then after making sure no-one was in vicinity to overhear them, quietly asked:

  - “How do you know about that?”

  - “I’ve followed you until that cave, but I never managed to follow you all the way. Where did you go, Malakai? What did you do there? Is that why the Erebus troops are visiting us so often?”

  What Aurora said suddenly made a lot of sense to Malakai, and he once again was speechless. A massive surge of thoughts flooded his mind, and he couldn’t cope with it all.

  - “If Erebus troops know about it, then we’re in trouble.” Malakai slowly said to her, whilst wondering whether that was true.

  - “No, if they know about it, you are the only one who is in trouble.” Aurora corrected him angrily, “Why did you hide it from me?”

  - “Aurora, lower your voice please. We do not want anyone else to hear us.” Malakai placidly advised her.

  - “I will once I hear some answers!” she yelled at him.r />
  - “You will get your damn answers if you let me explain!” Malakai retaliated, instantly changing the tone of his voice from serene to aggravated.

  Aurora took a step back when he shouted. Malakai could see sudden fear on her face. He was not an oppressor and hence did not want to scare her any more than he already did. Due to that reason he calmed down instantly, then walked closer to her so that he could speak quieter, and began explaining:

  - “This sector is weak, Aurora. It will never help us progress. You must understand this. I am sure there must’ve been a reason as to why you chose to join the ranks of dark angels. Serving under our current master will not help those goals of yours to materialise. The Pandemonium forces, on the other hand, are powerful. They are the most powerful sector in the Underworld. If we join them, we will be able to use them to the best of our advantage.”

  - “But they are immoral and oppressive.” Aurora tried to argue, “If we join them, they will torture us. I don’t trust them. For my entire life I strived to fight evil. Joining the sector that advocates evil will go against all of my moral values.”

  - “We are joining them temporarily. It doesn’t mean we agree with them or want to extend their rotten prophecies to the world. We are only going to use them, and when the time is right, we will betray them. Do you understand what I am saying?” Malakai disclosed to her, whilst constantly gazing around to make sure absolutely no-one was listening in, especially the messengers.