by Tj Dixon
“You’d better damn well be back for it! Missing two first editions would be a complete disaster.” The faery says.
“Don’t worry. It’s not going to take a whole week to conquer hell.” Grunti tells her.
“Fine. I’ll wait.” The faery says with a sigh.
“Are you sure you’re taking this seriously enough?” The Kuroneko asks Grunti.
“Yes. Do you have any idea how much effort I put into getting the angel stones just right?” Grunti asks her.
“Don’t blame me if you don’t come back alive.” The Kuroneko warns him.
“So who’s first?” Grunti asks.
“I’ll go first.” Jenny announces before anyone else can speak. She walks up to Grunti and he hands her a perfectly round clear stone that could easily be mistaken for glass.
“It will adapt itself to your body, mana and soul.” Grunti explains as Jenny looks quizzically at the stone.
“So how do I activate it?” Jenny asks.
“You just fill it with your mana, but...” Grunti tells her, however the stone turns red and her clothes begin to shimmer with a reddish light. “Uh, oh. You might want to cover yourself.”
“Cover myself? Do you mean shield?” Jenny asks in confusion.
“No. Too late, look down.” Grunti says and as Jenny looks down she blushes. So do I. In fact everyone in the room blushes except the Kuroneko and Grunti. Jenny’s clothes appear to have vanished. A moment later Jenny vanishes too, or more precisely she ports away in a panic. Lucy ports away a moment later.
“Hey you perverted dwarf, are you asking us to fight naked?!” Rin screams at Grunti angrily.
“No. I was just about to explain that you should activate the stone in private and take your clothes off first, because anything you are wearing will be absorbed by the angel stone.” Grunti explains.
“Tell us that first!” Rin yells.
“I didn’t expect her to activate it straight away.” Grunti says apologetically.
“Don’t try and wriggle out of this you perverted dwarf.” Rin tells him with an icy glare.
“Anyway, it only does that the first time. After that when you activate the angel stone your clothing will change to a form of armour and when you deactivate it your clothes return to normal. What the armour looks and feels like is determined by your element and race. You’re all human, so everyone with the same element will have armour that looks more or less the same.” Grunti explains.
“You should have told us that before you gave Jenny the first stone.” Rin tells him.
“It’s common sense that you listen to the entire explanation before using an enchanted item.” Grunti says and the female dwarf nods in agreement.
“It’s common sense to give the whole explanation before giving someone the item when it has such an awful side effect.” Rin tells him.
“Not for dwarves.” The female dwarf tells Rin. Rin glares at her.
“So who’s next?” Grunti asks. He’s answered by an awkward silence as we remember Jenny’s humiliating experience.
“I’ll do it.” I say hesitantly, breaking the silence.
“Me too.” Sherry says and walks with me up to this scary dwarf. We both take a round transparent stone from him that looks no different from Jenny’s.
“Where can we go to get a bit of privacy?” I ask the Kuroneko.
“You can use Peter’s room.” The Kuroneko answers and ports us both into a brightly lit room with a large comfy looking red bed. There’s also a small round red wooden table and four comfy red padded chairs made from the same red wood. The walls, floor and carpet are also red. There’s a red wooden bookcase with five black leather bound books in it, but room for perhaps a couple of hundred books. There’s also a black stone chest beside the book case.
“It’s nice in here, but doesn’t it feel like we’re intruding?” I ask Sherry.
“It does, but we didn’t choose to come here.” Sherry says as much to convince herself as me.
“Let’s just hurry up and do this, so we can get out of here again.” I tell Sherry and she nods in agreement.
We put the stones down, take off our clothes, pick the stones up again and face each other. At least it’s warm in here so we’re not cold despite being naked. It’s only the two of us in here too, so there’s no reason to be embarrassed. It’s no different to looking in a mirror. That doesn’t stop us from being nervous about the angel stone though. Will it hurt? Is it dangerous?
“Ready?” I ask.
“Yes.” Sherry says and we exchange a nervous grin.
Without need for further words we both begin to fill our stone with mana at exactly the same time. The first change that I notice is that my stone turns a cloudy white and Sherry’s becomes a fiery red. Then I feel a cool gentle power cover my entire body all at once. I feel a little sleepy. I wonder whether Peter would mind if I used his bed. As I’m thinking that though, Sherry winces as if in pain.
“Are you alright?” I ask unable to shake the sleepy feeling.
“Yes, just a little hot.” Sherry tells me.
“I feel really cool and tired.” I tell her. I find myself swaying a little so I take a step towards one of the padded chairs, but as I do so I stagger and trip. Sherry takes a step towards me but winces as if in agony now. Concerned for my sister I quickly tell her. “Don’t worry. I’m fine.”
I lie on the ground and try to figure out how to control the stone. Only a tiny trickle of my mana is flowing into the stone but when I try to resist the flow I feel a sudden chill and can’t stop shivering. It feels like I’m covered in icy water. I stop resisting the flow and the chill goes away as quickly as it came. I try to force more mana into the stone but it resists.
I lie here for a few minutes unable to come up with a way to control the stone. Then as quickly as the cool feeling arrived it fades into nothing. The stone is no longer tugging at my mana. I look up and Sherry nods. It seems the stone deactivated at exactly the same time for both of us.
I get up off the floor and get dressed. In our uniforms again we both look around for a door but we can’t see one. Before we can decide what to do next we are both ported back into the throne room. Everyone is looking at us anxiously.
“We both managed to activate the stones.” I tell everyone. Then I look at Grunti. “So how do we control these properly?”
“Try activating them again now.” Grunti says.
“We definitely won’t end up naked?” I ask him nervously.
“You won’t.” Grunti assures us.
“I’ll try first.” Sherry says and a moment later her red stone is sparkling. When I look a little closer I can see through the stone to Sherry’s hand even though it’s still red. It’s like a gem now. I look up from the stone and see that instead of her uniform Sherry is now wearing black shoes, orangey red shorts, a short sleeved red shirt and from her back there are two wings of fire. Literally fire. On her wrists and ankles are thin black chains.
“It comes with jewellery.” Neko says sounding a little envious.
“Bracelets and anklets.” Sherry says happily. They may not be fancy but they do look nice on her. The wings look scary though.
“Can you control your wings?” I ask.
“Wings?” Sherry asks in confusion and looks over her left shoulder. She gulps as she finds herself so close to her fiery wing and a moment later she is back in her uniform.
“Controlling it will take a little practise.” Grunti tells her.
“Your turn.” Sherry tells me.
“Ok.” I say nervously and then pour mana into my angel stone. As soon as I do so it begins to sparkle and a moment later it is almost entirely clear with just a slight creamy tint to it. I then look down and see I’m wearing white shoes, white shorts and a sleeveless white shirt but of very good quality material. They feel soft just like the gentle sensation when I first activated the angel stone.
I look behind my left shoulder and see a white feathered wing. It begins at the mi
ddle of my back and goes out almost as far as my arm when I stretch my arm. It’s only about a foot wide at its widest and the tip is thinner than my little finger. I check to my right and my right wing looks exactly the same.
“I like it, but why don’t I get any jewellery?” I ask with a grin.
“You have a necklace.” Sherry tells me. I look down at my neck but I can’t see it.
“Really? I was only joking, but a necklace is nice. I can’t feel it at all. What does it look like?” I ask.
“It’s a thin silver chain with a pair of white wings in the centre that look just like your wings. It’s very high on your neck.” Sherry tells me. I reach for it with my hand and feel it. It is very high on my neck and seems to be floating so it doesn’t quite touch my skin. It’s very soft too, almost like water but not quite.
“Nice.” I say and stop the flow of mana into the angel stone. My clothes revert to their original form. “Who’s next?”
“Can I go next?” Helski asks. Grunti looks at her for a moment and shrugs.
“Fine.” He says unenthusiastically. Helski looks confused and a bit hurt, but after a moment she walks up to him and takes a clear angel stone. The Kuroneko ports her away.
Given how perverted Grunti is I’m surprised he wasn’t more enthusiastic about Helski. I hate to admit it but she has the largest breasts out of everyone in the room and much bigger than mine and Sherry’s. Maybe he’s not as perverted as I thought and he just thinks she’s not very suited to the angel stone? Or do male dwarves just have very different tastes to human men? I suppose even human men don’t all have the same tastes.
As I’m lost in thought Jenny and Lucy port in. Jenny still looks embarrassed but she is now wearing plain white robes very similar to the Kuroneko’s. Everyone looks nervously at Jenny, except Grunti who grins.
“Your clothes only get absorbed the first time. Want to try again?” Grunti asks.
“Maybe later.” Jenny answers nervously.
“Sherry, why don’t you show Jenny what fire elemental clothes look like?” I suggest.
“Sure.” Sherry says and fills her angel stone with mana. Her red shirt and shorts replace her uniform again, as do her wings, bracelets and anklets.
“Nice.” Jenny says sounding genuinely impressed.
“I know it was embarrassing but now your stone is attuned it should be safe. Why not see what they look like on you?” Sherry asks.
“If you get humiliated again I’ll execute the perverted dwarf.” Lucy tells Jenny.
“That’s fine. It’s perfectly safe now.” Grunti says.
“Ok.” Jenny says nervously and pours mana into her angel stone. Her outfit looks exactly like Sherry’s except that being older and taller than Sherry, Jenny’s is a bit bigger.
These outfits are convenient because they fit perfectly without having them made by a tailor just for you. I hate it when the tailor measures me and it is always me. They never measure Sherry because what fits me will fit Sherry too. Why can’t they think that what fits Sherry will fit me too instead? That’s the one time Sherry always lets me down.
“What do you think?” Sherry asks.
“I like it, but I wish it had been like this from the start.” Jenny says with an accusing glare at Grunti.
“I tried to explain, but you were too quick.” Grunti complains.
“Explain first next time or I’ll have Sakura take your Imogen back.” Lucy warns him.
“Hey, that’s not fair!” The faery complains.
“Neither is embarrassing my Peter’s friends.” Lucy says.
“We’re doing this to save Peter.” The faery says.
“Imogen, I appreciate the help saving Peter, but that’s that and this is this.” Lucy says.
“Ungrateful little woman.” Imogen says with a glare.
“I’m no smaller than you.” Lucy says with a laugh. Then Helski is ported back into the room. She’s holding a black angel stone now. Helski looks nervously around.
“So let’s see what yours looks like.” Grunti says, quickly changing the subject. Helski looks happy now that he’s showing an interest in her.
“I hope it looks good on me.” Helski says and fills her angel stone with mana. She is instantly clad from head to toe in shiny silver armour. I can’t even see her eyes but she appears able to see because she holds up her arms and appears to assess the armour on them. She then looks at the rest of her body’s armour too. “I like it, but why doesn’t mine have wings?”
“Mine doesn’t either. Earth element isn’t really suited to wings or flying.” Grunti says with a shrug. “It looks better than I expected. Now, who’s next?”
“I’ll go next.” Rin says and takes a clear angel stone from Grunti. She’s ported away as soon as she has the stone in her hand.
“The main effect of the angel stone isn’t your clothing. The angel stone enhances your mana significantly and allows you to control a dimensional bubble around yourself. In the dimensional bubble you can keep the air breathable and the temperature comfortable even in the ice hell that we’ll be going to. Your mana will be the equivalent of an angel, which is why I gave it that name. Most importantly though, it has a secret power.” Grunti tells us.
“What is this secret power?” Lucy asks.
“It’s secret.” Grunti tells her.
“Is that because it’s going to humiliate everyone?” Lucy asks.
“No, it’s nothing embarrassing.” Grunti says.
“So tell us what it is.” Lucy demands.
“No, that would spoil the surprise.” Grunti insists.
“He’s right. What’s the point working so hard on this if you spoil the surprise before you reach the end?” Imogen agrees.
“The end?” Lucy asks accusingly.
“The end of the story or the arc.” Imogen says.
“We’re not in a bloody story, this is real!” Lucy screams.
“Life is a story.” Imogen says with a shrug.
“If you’re going to get Peter’s friends killed he’d rather you just abandoned him.” Lucy says angrily.
“They won’t die. Well, probably not anyway. We are going to hell. It isn’t suicide though. The odds are good that we’ll all come back alive.” Grunti says. The female dwarf looks at him nervously, but stays silent.
“Can a second person be protected by the dimensional bubble?” Sor asks.
“Yes, as long as they stay within the bubble.” Grunti says.
“Then I’m coming too.” Sor says.
“Me too.” Juliet says porting in as she says it.
“I’m staying here.” Kuroneko says sounding exhausted.
Rin ports in holding a blue angel stone. She activates it and is instantly clad in armour made from ice, with wings formed of water. The ice is blue, white and grey. Most importantly it isn’t possible to see through it. The armour looks like a short dress that been turned to ice. It is one solid piece of ice but it is flexible enough that Rin moves without any trouble. In addition to the main armour she is also wearing boots and gloves made from ice.
“It’s only my element that doesn’t have wings.” Helski complains.
Chapter 23 (Rin)
Even though it’s made from ice this armour is very comfortable. It just feels pleasantly cool rather than freezing cold. It’s soft on my skin too, although it does tickle a little in places. It covers everything it needs to for the sake of my dignity, but unlike Yu Kii’s it leaves my head, neck, upper arms and part of my legs exposed. I glance to my left where Yu Kii is standing. I can’t help feeling she is much better protected by her armour than I am by mine.
On my right are Jenny and Juliet. Juliet will be sharing Jenny’s dimensional bubble. Jenny’s fire clothes don’t look like they give any protection but they do look very impressive. Especially those fiery wings.
It’s been two days since we were given the angel stones and we’ve all been working hard to master them. We’ve all managed to at least master the basics now, so
we’re gathered in the throne room again. If we had more time we’d definitely practise for longer but there’s no way to tell how long Peter can survive on his own. At least we know he is still alive, because Yu Kii and his other miko can still sense him.
Yu Kii will lead us to Peter using her connection to him. With sixteen false angels, one real angel, one miko and a god we should be able to support Peter even against the demons of hell, but we’ll be in trouble if we can’t meet up with Peter quickly. If we can’t cope we’ll have to retreat. I just hope we can find him quickly. I don’t want to have to retreat without him.
“Everyone form your dimensional bubbles.” Grunti tells us.
I concentrate and expand the power of the angel stone to form a dimensional bubble around me. I check the bubble with my senses and breathe a sigh of relief. It’s stable. It would have been embarrassing if I’d had to try again. Everyone else seems to have succeeded first time too.
“Are you scared?” Yu Kii asks me.
“I am a little nervous.” I admit. “But Peter is all alone in hell. I’m more worried about Peter than I am about myself.”
“Peter will be alright.” Yu Kii tells me with a confident smile.
“I hope so.” I say.
“Is everyone ready?” Grunti asks.
“They’ve all got their bubbles up so I’m shifting us now, ready or not.” Sor says, standing in front of Lilian inside Lilian’s dimensional bubble.
A moment later we are surrounded by grass as tall as we are. I can’t even see Yu Kii who is standing right next to me, but I can sense everyone. We are only here a moment before Sor ports us, I mean shifts us, a second time. Now we are outside the temple and can see the shimmering orange dimensional slicer around the temple. Sor has shifted my mother and the sleeping angels too. We’re all gathered together in the middle of the group of angels.
The angels are big. I knew that from when we were studying them, but seeing them all outside like this they feel so much bigger than they did when we were just looking at one angel at a time underground.
Mother wastes no time and begins to use the first empty soul stone that Kuroneko brought back. She’s picked an angel that like most of these angels looks very similar to Peter and Juliet. It has green scales, green spiked tail and sharp white claws just like they do, except unlike Peter and Juliet it is a few hundred feet tall instead of human sized. Its eyes are closed so I can’t tell what colour they are but I am sure they are a flame just like Peter’s blue flames or Juliet’s red flames. All the angels with their eyes open have red flames for eyes like Juliet, so the ones with their eyes closed are probably the same.
