by Tj Dixon
Juliet begins to sing and dance in the air above us. I recognise the pattern instantly, even though the last time I saw it was when I fought Azrael. That time it was being used against me but I killed the caster before it was complete. The only other time I saw it was in the war of heaven when Azrael first rebelled. The enemy may not recognise the pattern but they are no fools.
They instantly target Juliet and increase speed, but I won’t let them. I charge the closest pair at twice the speed of sound. They are moving almost as quickly so my dwarven hands tear through their necks with the speed of four times that of sound. Their heads fall to the ground below a moment before their swords and bodies drop but that moment is like an eternity in such a fast paced battle.
Despite my speed and the loss of their comrades the next pair attack with their swords and slice cleanly through my dwarven arms long before their comrades severed heads begin to fall towards the ground. It doesn’t matter though, because I form my true arms in their place. To both my enemies’ shock I tear through their chest and just to be safe crush their heart.
Just one pair left. I guess Juliet’s ritual dance is truly overkill, but it did force the enemies into the sky. The last two foes bring their swords down just that bit too late. One scratches my left elbow but the other misses completely. I tear through their necks and turn to watch the enemy fall to the ground. As I am turning though I feel a sharp pain in my side.
I look down and see two huge red swords piercing my left side. A moment later four more swords strike through my body from the same direction. The six enemies that I just killed are holding their swords and their bodies have completely recovered from those fatal blows I just delivered. Intense green and blue flames cover my entire body.
“Accept your fate, foolish angel.” The closest man tells me with a smug grin.
I grin back as my body is turned to ash. I abandon my body and instead possess the flames. They are controlled by the magic swords but I am an arch fire angel. Even if fire isn’t my best element, father made sure that I had full mastery of it and my soul itself is attuned to the fire element. It only takes a moment to wrest control of the flames and to reduce all six of the enemy to ash with their own flames.
I don’t bother forming a new body yet. Instead I weld the six swords into one and controlling it through the flame enchantment I launch it at the emperor who is busy fighting Kuro. The difference in size between Kuro and the tiny emperor is vast but the emperor has the upper hand. Kuro’s soul has been struck many times by his blades. All of his nearby allies are dead though, with the ash of his elite guards having fallen near him too.
Before the blade can hit the emperor’s small body, his six elite guards reform their bodies from their ash. They block the blade’s path with the biggest man accepting the huge blade in his chest and the others grabbing the sword with their bare hands.
“Stop the dragon dance!” The emperor yells at his guards in a panic. “I can deal with these two!”
“I won’t let you.” I tell them and blast all six with soul thief. They block with draconic shielding of course, but that was the plan. Using hands of pure flame I tear off the head of the big man with a blade in his chest and throw it before they can drop the draconic shielding. It doesn’t go far but it doesn’t need to. The other five look on in shock as his body dies for the last time, with the draconic shielding having cut the soul in his head off from his resurrection magic. By the time the draconic shielding falls the resurrection magic has died too.
“Monster.” The emperor mutters.
“Still want to fight me and Kuro alone?” I ask using the dead man’s mouth.
“Stop him!” The emperor yells as I use the big man’s dead arms to grab the huge sword out of his chest, not bothering about the damage to his corpse that I am now possessing. I use wind magic to pick up the dead man’s head and put it back more or less where it belongs. All five of the surviving elite guards surround me with draconic shielding. I can’t move, but neither can they.
“I’ll take that as a no.” I say with a laugh.
“I’ll deal with your dancing brother when I’ve killed your cat.” The emperor tells me and tears through Kuro’s soul once more. She hisses but the one who is truly angry is up above us.
“Now you’ve pissed her off.” I warn the emperor.
“Like an oversized cat can do anything about it.” The emperor says with a haughty laugh.
“I wasn’t talking about her.” I say with a shrug. “But I dare say you’ve pissed off Kuro too. Anyway, shouldn’t you be more concerned about that army of elves?”
“If you’re going to use illusions at least make them realistic. An army of elves…? You might as well use the illusion of a dragon.” The emperor says as he cuts Kuro again. Unfortunately his draconic shield makes Kuro’s magical attacks useless and his blades block every physical attack that Kuro sends his way, cutting both her body and her soul.
“My army of elves just stopped your army’s ritual and saved the academy. A dragon though… That’s actually not a bad idea.” I tell him and he frowns but continues to block Kuro’s attacks without allowing himself to be distracted.
“I doubt your cat can last long enough for your brother to complete the dragon dance.” The emperor says and unfortunately given Kuro’s state he may not be entirely wrong, other than about Juliet’s gender.
All of a sudden though, a dagger appears in the emperor’s back. The emperor screams and drops his draconic shielding. As soon as he does so Kuro consumes his body and soul with red lightning and black flames.
“Hey, careful!” Lucy shouts as she backs away from Kuro’s attack.
“Lucy!” I exclaim.
“We thought you were dead, you big idiot!” Lucy yells at me.
“Well, I did die a couple of times.” I admit.
“You can tell Juliet to stop her dragon dance.” Lucy tells me. I guess there’s no fooling her no matter what bodies we happen to be in.
“Have you forgotten that there are still enemies to eat?” Kuro asks in a hiss.
“No, I haven’t forgotten, but they kind of have me trapped here.” I point out. As I say it though the enemy port away. “They got away whilst we were chatting. Juliet, stop dancing! They’re gone.”
“Damn, I wanted to spend a few days breaking him. Why did you kill that insensitive bastard so quickly, Kuro?” Juliet asks. It seems she really didn’t like being called a ‘brother’.
I consider suggesting that we deal with what’s left of the enemy force but it’s easier to just do it myself. So I send soul thief at all the goblins and mix in ordinary lightning to kill the human enemies. It only takes a few moments to kill them. It would have been quicker but I had to avoid killing my allies.
“Why didn’t we just do that at the start?” Juliet asks.
“If we’d tried that whilst the emperor or his elite guards were still around they would have blocked it and taken advantage of our distraction to kill us.” I tell Juliet. It seems that she still has a lot to learn about war but I suppose that is normal for a recently fallen angel.
“Now the emperor is dead, doesn’t that mean we’ve won against the empire?” Juliet asks.
“It is a serious blow but they still have five of their god slayers and lots more normal mages.” I remind her.
“So what exactly happened to both of you?” Lucy asks.
“As you pointed out, I kind of died. That was when I got my memories and my true body back. I resurrected Rin at the same time too.” I tell Lucy.
“So what exactly are you?” Lucy asks.
“I’m a fallen arch fire angel and Juliet is a fallen fire angel, though she only fell today.” I explain.
“You’re fallen angels?” Lucy asks in disbelief.
“Yes, though nothing to do with Azrael. He’s a fallen death angel.” I point out before she misunderstands something important.
“So what now?” Lucy asks.
“I take down the academy shield and s
hift everyone currently in the academy to safety.” I answer.
“Is anywhere truly safe?” Lucy asks.
“Not really, but the academy shield is going to fall soon anyway. I’ll take everyone back to the temple first. I’ll then let anyone who wants to do so leave for Utopia Camerona. Both places are safer than staying here once the shield falls.” I tell Lucy.
“Are you at least going to swap that corpse for a proper body first?” Lucy asks.
“Oh, right. Good point.” I say, having completely forgotten that I was still possessing a corpse.
I abandon the corpse and reform my true body. The dwarven arms are nowhere to be found, so this time it is entirely my true body. Fortunately the goblin souls I harvested have given me more than enough power to do so even without the anchor that those arms provided me.
“So you chose that body again.” Lucy says with a sigh.
“I can’t afford to use a weak human body.” I tell Lucy.
“I suppose that’s true, but I still prefer your human body. I hope to see it again after the war.” Lucy says.
“Let’s hope we both live that long.” I say.
“Yes, let’s hope.” Lucy agrees.
Chapter 8 (Aventurine)
We were nervous the last time we had to defend the corridors but after losing Yu Kii, Misty and Juliet it’s ten times worse now. Tomo, Tabi and Mirai all stand a little behind me. I’m confident in their abilities and in my own but I looked up to Yu Kii as one of Peter’s original friends. Her abilities were incredible. If the enemy were able to kill Yu Kii I wonder how we could fare any better. We can only pray that any enemies that break through are a lot weaker this time.
After letting Yu Kii die I don’t know how any of us will even look Peter in the eye if we see him again. I have of course heard the rumour that he’s dead but I don’t believe it. The Peter that I know, respect and love wouldn’t die just from being killed. It would take a lot more than an enemy army. It would probably take a dragon to kill him. No, perhaps even a dragon couldn’t kill him. It would take an army of angels led by a god to kill him. There’s no way he’d ever have to deal with something quite that crazy so he’s definitely still alive. Probably. I hope. Definitely.
“Aventurine…?” Mirai says sounding worried.
“What?” I ask.
“Third time lucky, but seriously you need to concentrate. If I’d been saying that the enemy were here you’d be dead already.” Mirai warns me.
“Sorry. I’ll concentrate from now on, but what was it?” I ask.
“Doesn’t something feel odd in the air?” Mirai asks.
“I don’t sense anything but you’re the wind mage. What do you sense?” I ask.
“It feels like lightning waiting to happen, but different.” Mirai says.
“That does sound odd. Is someone hiding their presence?” I ask.
“If so they know what they’re doing because I can’t sense them.” Mirai says.
“I’ll try flooding the corridor and then freezing it. Unless they’re already past it that should stop them sneaking right up to or past us.” I say.
“Good idea. I’m glad you’re awake now.” Mirai says. I bite back my complaint, because she has a point.
I summon a wall of water from the floor to the roof of a ten foot stretch of the corridor ahead. I don’t sense any reaction from the potential lightning that Mirai sensed so I just freeze it as planned. The port block should prevent anyone simply porting past, so it should keep us safe from any sneak attacks.
I feel the ice shake a little so I focus my senses intently on the ice. As I do so though not only the ice but the whole corridor shakes violently. I’m thrown from my feet and the ice shatters. I quickly melt the ice, which was being thrown at us as ice shards. I then restore the wall of water but I don’t sense anything inside it.
“The port block is down!” Tabi yells.
“I’ve raised a port barrier!” Tomo calls out but as she does so I realise a much bigger problem.
“The academy shield is down.” I whisper in horror.
“We’re really going to die, aren’t we?” Mirai asks listlessly.
“If so we’ll go down fighting.” I declare but as soon as I’ve said it I’m ported. I thought there was a port barrier up? All around us are students and even teachers from the academy but the huge grey stone room we’re in is unfamiliar.
“Where are we?” Mirai asks in a panic.
“We must have been taken prisoner.” Tomo says.
“Do you think they’ll treat us well?” Tabi asks.
“It seems odd to be taken prisoner like this, all together with our powers unrestricted.” I say.
“Do you think we’ve been saved?” Mirai asks.
“But by who?” I ask with a frown.
“Everyone, please calm down.” A very familiar voice says from just behind me.
“Peter…!” I say and smile in relief as I realise who saved us. I turn and my smile drops instantly as I see a very different person to the one I was expecting.
“Yes Aventurine, it’s me even if it doesn’t look like it.” A green scaled lizard man with green leathery spiked wings, a green metal tail with a sharp spike at the end and white bone claws instead of toes and fingers says in Peter’s voice. Most bizarre are his eyes, which are literally blue flames.
“An illusion?” I ask, about the only possible explanation I can think of.
“No, but I don’t want to go through this with everyone one at a time. Can everyone please quieten down and give me your undivided attention?!” Peter (?) asks.
Even quicker than if the teachers had asked for silence the whispered conversations behind me all come to a complete halt. We all stand waiting nervously watching Peter (?), a similar lizard person but with red flames for eyes standing on his right and a black cat sitting on his left.
“I’m going to keep this simple for now but there is a lot you are going to have to take in. I am Peter, the boy who won the recent tournament at our academy. I’m also a fallen arch angel and a lesser god. Kuro, I mean Kuroneko, on my left is a lesser god and on my right is Juliet. Juliet is a fallen angel who the members of my club already know, though not in this form.
“Even though two of us are angels that have fallen we are not on the same side as Contractia’s enemies. In fact we just helped Contractia by killing the leader of the empire that invaded Contractia. I also intend to kill Azrael, leader of the Fallen Angels that Contractia is currently fighting.
“I also need to inform everyone who knows them that the following people are all safe. Rin, Hermes, Midori, Yu Kii, Hinata, Jenny, Jimmy, Elucia, Dairon and all our other elven and faery friends. Sadly Misty was killed in battle.” Peter announces. He pauses and then continues.
“You will all need to make a choice. Those who wish to leave will be sent to Utopia Camerona. Those who wish to stay and fight beside us may do so. However I am not part of Contractia anymore so joining me means leaving Contractia and its laws. Most importantly there will be no slaves, and family will be family, not property. There will be plenty of details to be worked out but that can come later. It is also possible though that we may come in conflict with Contractia even though our interests are currently the same.
“There is one person here who will be sent to Utopia Camerona regardless of her will. I am sure Jade knows why she doesn’t have the option of staying to fight beside us.” Peter says. Beside him Juliet is glaring in the same direction Peter is looking. I find my gaze drawn to the target of her fury.
“It’s not my fault!” Jade protests.
“If you really want to continue to defend yourself that’s fine, but if you do you had better be prepared to duel Juliet, because I’m not going to be able to hold her back. I won’t allow anyone to help you though, because Juliet has every right to want you dead.” Peter says.
Jade wisely goes silent. She also goes bone white as all the blood seems to drain from her face. After what Peter said it is clear that
nobody will help her if she continues. Her only chance of surviving is to shut up.
There are whispered conversations everywhere in the room, but it seems obvious why Juliet is angry. If she really is Juliet and Misty is dead, what else could it be? Jade was supposedly the only person from her group to survive. A group that included Misty and Juliet who were best friends. In fact Misty and Juliet were more or less each other’s only friends. Rightly or wrongly, Juliet clearly blames Jade for Misty’s death. If Peter is on Juliet’s side though it seems unlikely that Juliet is wrong.
“Everyone who wishes to leave, please gather on the far side of this room and wait to be sent to Utopia Camerona. Everyone who wishes to fight alongside us gather near me. Even if you aren’t good at magic there will be work you can do to help defeat Azrael. Please make your choice quickly though.” Peter tells us.
“I’m staying.” I say without even having to think about it. Peter smiles.
“I’m glad. I would have been disappointed if you’d left.” Peter says. I feel happy to hear him say it and can’t help smiling back. Yes, this is Peter, whatever he may look like now.
I look behind me. It is no surprise that the teachers and many of the students have made their way to the other side of the room. Many of the students however are on this side of the room too.
“How is Midori?” Mirai asks Peter.
“She’s doing well. You’ll have a chance to see her again assuming you stay.” Peter replies.
“Of course we’re staying.” Mirai says. Both Tabi and Tomo nod in agreement.
“Hey!” A short girl calls out from behind a crowd of people. I can’t even see her. “We’ve got a question before we can decide to join or not.”
