Phaleg genuflected.
“What the Hell are you…” I finally noticed the blade of the sword and connected the dots. It gleamed in solid black. Not because it was cursed like Goliath’s sword had been, but because it was made of darkness.
It was the Obsidian Knife.
Yaotl grasped the sword and held it above his head. “You have done well. Rise, General.”
Phaleg stood, beaming at me. “Oh, you think you had the rebellious angel market cornered? Close your mouth, Morningstar. You’re going to die today, at least try to do it with some dignity.”[39]
Michael took Phaleg’s betrayal in stride, raising his sword.
Goliath rested a hand on my shoulder. “I’ll be damned if I die today covered only in my own blood.” He drew a dagger and pressed it into my remaining hand.
“You’ll be damned either way,” I murmured.
Phaleg’s shield still lay on the ground. I picked it up and with a bit of struggle managed to put it on my lame arm. The feel of Heavenly armor so near my skin gave me some remembrance of the strength and power I once wielded.
Michael gave me a playful elbow in the ribs. “Awake, arise or be forever fallen, eh?”
“Still haven’t lost that sense of humor,” I said, shaking my head. “But if we’re going to do quotes, please allow me: Incensed with indignation I stand unterrified, and from my horrid hair shakes pestilence and war! ”
“Now yer talkin’,” Goliath smiled.
And the fight began.
Chapter Twenty-One
The Brothers charged as Yaotl whipped his arms forward, sending a blast of black sand towards us. It ripped through the air, engulfing us, tearing at skin, blinding. Aspen leapt forward, slashing wildly at Michael and Gabriel.
Abel’s first blow came down from high above my right shoulder. I managed to get the shield up in time to parry, but with no hand to hold it in place, it spun wildly from my arm. Goliath caught Cain’s first punch with one hand as he stepped in front of me, turning and using leverage to hurl Cain at his surprised brother.
The sandstorm began to die down and I cleared my eyes, spitting gritty black glass and blood. There was a constant scraping sound, a pounding like war drums that was slowly fading instead of growing in intensity. Yaotl, walking away, dragging the Obsidian Knife along the ground and bleeding his foul essence into Heaven. He raised a hand towards the Gates and they melted before him like warm fondant, folding and collapsing with a soft rustle. Inside, the ranks of the Lord’s Army stood, awestruck at the sight of him. They scrambled to shore up the breach before the approaching monster.
Some gathered closer together, brandishing swords and shields, but others, the majority in fact, made way for him. They parted, unwilling to meet his eye, unable to stand against him. Phaleg walked behind Yaotl, facing us, daring us to try and pursue.
I took a step to race after him, but Michael grabbed my shoulder and spun me around. “You’re not stepping foot back in there.”
“I have to stop him!”
“I’m still not convinced that you didn’t orchestrate this entire affair! All you’ve ever needed was an excuse to—”
“Michael!” Gabriel’s shout was a second too late; Aspen landed a solid kick to his back. She raised the spear to drive home a killing blow. I dropped my dagger and grabbed the lip of Phaleg’s shield and swung it hard at her face, wincing as I felt it shatter her nose. She dropped the spear and staggered backwards, clutching at her face, blood spurting from between her fingers.
I cocked an eyebrow at Michael. “I’d say you owe me one now.”
He flipped onto his stomach and bulled forward, taking Aspen down at the knees just as she tried to launch an attack at me with my discarded dagger. He held her to the ground, locking one of her arms between his legs as he fought desperately to pin down the hand with the dagger.
“I’d say we’re even. Now give me a hand if you— MORNINGSTAR!”
I smiled at the anger in his voice as I ran towards the breach in the gates. It had been said an infinite number of times, but now here it really was: All Hell Breaking Loose. No way was I going to let this wave crash into Heaven and not be riding the very crest of it.
“Godspeed to you, Lucifer!” Goliath shouted. He had Abel in a solid headlock, leaving Cain free to attack from behind.
Cain leapt, a dagger raised above his head, and drove it down hard with two hands into the Philistine’s back. Goliath roared in pain, bucking like an angry bull with Cain being dragged along for the ride.
Goliath flailed one hand over his shoulder, trying desperately to reach the blade. Cain circled in and began to jab at him, boxing his ears, taunting. “I feel just like King David. Got any rocks brother?”
Abel rushed the giant and peppered hard shots into his midsection. Goliath’s knee buckled and he sank down for an instant, springing back up, but clearly shaken. He took two uneasy steps forward and murmured “I’ll kill ya.”
“Please do,” Abel said. “It’s been done before. I only come back stronger.”
“The fight’s out of him,” Cain said. “Pity. I was hoping for a bit more of an appetizer before our main course.”
Goliath reared up again, reaching over his shoulder. His fingers found purchase on the hilt of the dagger. He yanked it free, sending a small geyser of blood from his back.
Abel hesitated briefly. “I’ll be damned, he actually—”
The sentence was never finished. Goliath spun, sweeping one hand around Abel’s neck, entwining fingers in his hair as his other hand jabbed the dagger once, twice, then blindingly fast into Abel’s face.
“You’ll burn for that!” Cain shrieked.
Abel was already staggering back up to his feet, dead for a moment, then alive again. His face was thoroughly pulped, a grotesque crimson mask with the features fully rearranged. He shuffled forward, then stood still, pawing at the air.
Cain folded his arms and wrapped his hands around his lowermost ribs. The fires burning in his heart licked around his hands as he grimaced and pulled. There was a dull crack as the bones broke away. He gave no cry of pain, no signal that he’d hurt himself at all. He raised the bones up, sharp and deadly, and stalked towards Goliath again.
The giant’s breath was coming sharp and ragged now, his skin returning to the grey shade I’d seen after Hecate stabbed him. “Keep running, Morningstar! We’ll meet again in Hell, make sure of it!”
I turned as Cain drove in on Goliath, slashing wildly with his makeshift daggers. Yaotl was inside Heaven, slowly plodding through wave after wave of God’s soldiers. It’s not that they weren’t putting up a fight, but he was literally walking through them. They drove forward, slashing at his legs and torso, and as soon as they made contact, they dissolved. It was the Pillar of Salt treatment all over again, only they became ash, which Yaotl inhaled. He was picking up speed, and growing in size. Their efforts to stop the beast were only feeding it.
I took another step forward and felt something resisting me, as if I’d walked into a transparent rubber wall. I looked down. This was it: the boundary. One step forward, even a millimeter, and I would be in Heaven. In direct defiance of the Lord, in direct contradiction to the Absolute Law of the universe. Phaleg still trailed behind the Dark God, walking backwards. Not a single angel had tried to attack him. Yaotl was carving a path to the Palace of the Lord. Phaleg was the only thing between me and the Dark God, and I had no idea how to deal with either of them.
Phaleg smiled. “You can’t do it, can you?”
“Just taking in the moment, that’s all.”
“You’re forbidden from entering the Kingdom of Heaven, Lucifer Morningstar. This is where the game ends. Everything resets. You’ve always wanted to see the fall of God. Enjoy it. I know this is in the nosebleed section rather than the front row, but beggars can’t be choosers.”
I strained forward again and felt the resistance again, weaker this time.
“Enjoy the show, Lucifer!” Phaleg shrieked, almost
drunk with the energy of the moment. “And know that in the end, it was you who made this all possible. You squandered your talents, but I found a way to put your anima to good use!”
I thought about that for a moment. Yaotl had gained strength by absorbing my anima crystals. The reason I was powerless, a mere mortal now, was because...
“I’m already inside,” I said. And it was so.
Phaleg stopped in his tracks. It might not mean the end of his plans, but it was a kink he hadn’t anticipated. If there was one thing God was good at, it was leaving cosmic loopholes in all of his Great Plans.
I focused and took a hard step forward, and the resistance broke around my leg. It felt like stepping into a giant jello mold, but once the plane was crossed, it was all too easy to continue moving forward.
“Yaotl,” Phaleg stammered. “Dark One!” he pawed behind him, tapping the Jaguar God hard on his calf. The beast was twenty-feet tall now, surrounded by plumes of smoke that were the remains of newly evaporated Hosts of Heaven.
Yaotl stopped and turned, a fresh wave of soldiers breaking across his back like water. “You dare?” he said.
“Can’t help it, I was made this way. Besides, it’s your fault. You’re using my anima crystals. If you weren’t sucking my balls right now, I couldn’t be here. So I suppose I should be thanking you instead of trying to destroy you, but well, here we are.”
Yaotl hesitated. I’d expected a wild attack, a charge of some kind, but something held him back, and I was starting to get an idea of what it might be.
“You can’t kill me, can you? You need my anima crystals, and if I die, they shatter, and you lose everything. Am I right?”
Yaotl smirked and flicked a finger towards me, sending a column of smoke rocketing into my ribs. The impact folded me in half and slammed me against a nearby wall.
“Okee,” I wheezed, clutching my midsection. “Perhaps I was wrong about that last part.”
It seemed the impact had taken a bit out of Yaotl as well. He was hunched over, arms around his midsection, ripples of smoke rising from his back.
“You can’t stand in our way, Morningstar,” Phaleg sneered. “We’ve stripped you of everything. But you are correct. We can’t destroy you. You’re part of The Boss, one of the closest shards of his very being. You won’t die until He dies.”
I moved forward, trying to look as ready for a fight as possible, which wasn’t the easiest thing to do with one hand and a severe wheeze.
“Looks like everything hurts him just as much as me.”
“Ah, ah!” Phaleg warned. “That legendary stubborn streak! We’ve taken your anima, we’ve taken your hand, shattered your kingdom. We can’t kill you as yet, but we can hurt you in innumerable ways, Prince. We’re trying to allow you to expire with a semblance of honor. And if Lord Yaotl is in any pain, it’s not of your doing. He’s still in the process of becoming .”
Yaotl rose. His facial features had become more feline, his nails sharpened to claws. He sprang high into the air, slamming into the outer walls of the Palace of the Lord. His hands couldn’t grip the walls and he slid to the ground. He issued a vicious howl and began to rain fists down on the wall. With each blow, the wall shook a bit more, until small fissures began to form and debris rained down onto his head.
“This isn’t even close to his full glory,” Phaleg said. “Won’t be long now, Morningstar. Are you ready? Have you thought about what things are going to be like after you no longer exist?”
Phaleg drew up beside me and drew a dagger from his belt. “It’s beyond you now, Lucifer. Look upon your failure. There’s not a creature in Heaven that could catch him now.”
Irregular footsteps from behind announced the arrival of Aspen, bloodied and beaten but still standing. She had to use the spear as a makeshift crutch.
Phaleg smiled. “Look! Michael and Gabriel, those two stalwarts that you could never find your way around...it appears they’ve been beaten by a girl !”
Aspen smiled. “It’s all melting away out there. We’ll be swallowed up soon too. They had me beaten, and then the ground they were standing on vanished. Blackness. I barely made it back in here in time.”
“Are you seeing it? I haven’t felt this kind of energy since the last cycle of Creation, but it’s all different now!” Phaleg beamed. “I’m his Right Hand, Aspen the Mother of the World Yet to Come.”
“Swell,” I said.
Aspen sniffed at the air, then lowered herself into a crouch, digging the butt of her spear into the ground. “It’s going to charge,” she said.
I turned to follow her gaze and saw the hulking silhouette of Cerberus in the middle of the road. Princess whined and gave me her most concerned look as Alpha and Omega bared their teeth. Monkey was perched on the dog’s back, with Eve two steps behind. She looked devastated.
“You gonna stop that thing?” Monkey asked, gesturing with his chin at the wall.
“I’m not in any shape to climb.”
“Oh, I see how it goes. Leave it to Monkey. I do the work, you get the glory.”
“Just shut up and climb,” I said, tossing him my dagger. Phaleg moved to block him, taking two wild swipes with his dagger. Monkey easily dodged the blows and bounded towards the walls of the palace. He climbed frantically towards Yaotl’s head, dagger clenched in his teeth.
Cerberus took advantage of the distraction and charged Aspen. She never moved.
Princess properly assessed the situation, rearing back, doing everything she could to pull back the charge and redirect the dog’s fury, but the other two were seeing red. The thunder of Cerberus’ paws on the ground ceased as the dog took to the air, leaping at Aspen.
She dug in harder, lowering her head and bracing the end of the spear. Alpha’s head snared her forearm as the dog crashed on top of her. There was an explosive crack , an eruption of red, and then all was silent. Omega’s head thrashed twice, worrying Aspen’s forearm and drawing more blood, but I knew that was the last gasp.
She wedged herself out from beneath the Hellhound, rolling Cerberus onto its side and bracing a foot against the grisly wound that bore the shaft of the spear. She leaned back and slowly extracted the weapon, hobbling back to Phaleg’s side.
“I will let your friends live to see this moment. Call him off,” Phaleg said, gesturing towards Monkey.
“He’s not the listening type,” I answered.
Monkey had nearly caught up to Yaotl. He danced between falling chunks of stone and ether as the walls of the Palace continued to collapse under Yaotl’s assault. He reached up in one fluid motion, using his tail to pull the dagger from his mouth. His right hand grabbed Yaotl’s heel and he used momentum to toss himself upwards into the air, transferring the dagger from tail to hand. He arched over Yaotl’s shoulder and drove the dagger downwards just above the collarbone.
It didn’t kill the Jaguar God. It might not even have hurt him. But it certainly got his attention. Yaotl flailed with one hand, swatting at Monkey, but the wily simian was always one step ahead of him.
“Would you look at that?” I asked Phaleg. His face reddened as he seized me by the collar.
“CALL HIM OFF!” Phaleg roared.
I cleared my throat. “Monkey? Hey, Monkey? You wanna come down? Nah, he doesn’t want to come down. Sorry.”
Phaleg backhanded me and held his dagger to my throat. “Tell him to back off, or your beloved suffers for it.” Phaleg glanced at Eve, and Aspen took her cue, advancing, brandishing the spear.
Phaleg’s voice was low. “You can stop this. Don’t let her suffer any more than she already has.”
Monkey scrambled on top of Yaotl’s head and pounded down beats like the Jaguar ’s head was a cosmic bongo. He danced, he ducked, he slipped and bobbed and stayed just out of reach of Yaotl’s furious blows.
Until he saw Aspen advancing on Eve.
His gaze faltered for just a moment and Yaotl had him. There was no furious finish, no painful retribution. The Jaguar God merely seized him in
one fist, crammed him into his mouth and swallowed him whole.
Eve fell still at the sight of it, and I saw something light in her eyes. Her jaw set. Aspen approached, staying low, the tip of the spear jabbing and slashing like an angry viper. Eve’s fists clenched, and the Mother of Creation, the source of all life, the kindest woman I’ve ever known...took a step forward. There was murder in her eyes.
“I have put up with a lot in my time,” she said.
Aspen swept at her with the spear, and Eve darted in closer, dodging the blade and taking the brunt of the shaft across her ribs. The spear broke in half on impact, the lower half clattering down between them. Eve drew her fist back and popped Aspen solidly in her already damaged nose.
“Shit!” Aspen squealed, reeling backwards.
“I have been separated from the man I love!” Eve backhanded Aspen, driving her further down the street. “I’ve watched my children fight and die!” She punctuated this with a one-two jab to Aspen’s face. “I’ve watched my entire extended family fight and bicker and war and DIE!” this was delivered along with a slap to Aspen’s ear. Aspen dropped back a few steps, giving Eve the room to pick up the lower half of the spear. Now she began jabbing Aspen in the chest with it as she vented.
“And to top it off, I’ve had to spend eternity as a fucking waitress for the worst fucking tippers in all of Creation. And I have had ENOUGH!” Eve reared back and threw a looping hook at Aspen’s face. Aspen spun from the force of the hit, one hand still clutching the spear as she slid to her knees. “I am not going to have my only chance at reuniting with my husband ruined by a spoiled little BITCH!” Eve barked.
“Eve, stop!” I shouted.
Too late, Eve reared back and dug in for a home run swing at Aspen’s head. Aspen grasped her half of the spear, countering by driving her body forward. There was nothing I could do. Aspen’s cheek was crushed under the force of Eve’s blow, but the tip of the spear buried itself cleanly in Eve’s chest. She crumpled to the ground. Aspen rolled to the side, out cold.
Angel Falls Page 23
