by Tj Dixon
“Are they truly crimes?” Hades asks.
“Becoming a god, trespassing in heaven or conquering a hell? No, not in my mind, but my hands are stained with innocent human blood and souls. That is a crime.” I tell Hades.
“They are just humans.” Hades says.
“I thought so too once, but that was my mistake. I lived amongst them as an equal, made friends and came close to falling in love. They are people, not food.” I tell Hades.
“I suppose you already know this, but I actually did fall in love with you. I wish you were returning to heaven under different circumstances, but for your sake I will grant your request and look out for those human friends of yours as much as my position allows.” Hades says.
“Thank you and I’m sorry that I cannot return your feelings.” I tell Hades.
“I’m not sure whether it would be more painful or less if you did.” Hades says with a sad smile.
“We had best not keep our father waiting.” I tell Hades.
“I wish we could, but you are right.” Hades says and floats up into the air towards the sun, towards father. I follow behind her. Even though it is still winter my father is burning brighter than usual. Perhaps he is eager to see me, or perhaps spring will soon be here.
As we leave the atmosphere father’s flames begin to burn brighter and hotter. Even as an arch fire angel the heat is uncomfortable and we aren’t even that close. Then father’s flames sputter and dwindle to a shadow of their former vigour. As father’s flames dwindle we are surrounded by darkness and the world below us is plunged into an untimely night.
I sharpen my senses and ahead of us is not only father, but a trio of Maou fighting him in their true forms. I also sense two dead demons that may have been Maou or at the very least extremely powerful demons. If the Maou win against father the world will not only face eternal night, but a demonic invasion from at least three hells. Even though I am approaching my execution I wish I could help, but I have already spent my power fighting Azrael.
“Help father, summon all of our kind.” I tell Hades.
“They are fighting off a horde of demons, again.” Hades tells me bitterly. Alone, no matter how powerful she is, Hades cannot win.
Chapter 31 (Multiple)
(Hermes)
I’m sitting under the big tree with Lucy, Sakura, the false angels and the other angels, except Juliet who is fighting in Portalis. I’m nervous and I’m clearly not the only one, but we’re ready to respond to any emergency that may occur. Sor and Grunti rigged up a connection between here and the Contractian worlds that Sor can use to shift us to support either Juliet, Peter or the elves. It’s unlikely we’ll need to use it, but when Peter wins Azrael should arrive in this world seriously weakened. Azrael may not attack us, but if he does we need to be ready to deal with him.
I feel my soul link with Peter break. I look at Midori and Yu Kii in a panic and they look back with the same panicked look in their eyes. I glance at Neko and her eyes are wide in shock. Did Peter lose against Azrael? Is he dead?
“What happened?” Rin asks sensing that something’s wrong.
“Our connection with Peter is gone.” I tell Rin.
“Is something blocking it?” Rin asks.
“I don’t think anything can block it.” I tell Rin.
“Then what does it mean?” Rin asks fearfully.
“Is Peter dead?” Neko asks in little more than a whisper.
“He can’t be.” Midori says shaking her head in disbelief.
“I’ll check with Sor, she’s keeping track of everyone.” Emi says.
“There’s no need.” Sor says, appearing behind her.
“What happened?” I ask urgently.
“Peter cut his connection with you, but he’s not dead. Azrael is dead though.” Sor tells us.
“That’s a relief but why did he cut his connection with us?” I ask.
“To protect you.” Sor says.
“Is he badly hurt?” Midori asks.
“He used most of his power and took a lot of damage, but he’s alright. Or he would be if he wasn’t heading to his execution.” Sor says.
“His execution!” Midori exclaims in horror.
“It seems his father doesn’t approve of him becoming a god and conquering one of the hells.” Sor says with a shrug.
“His father?” Rin asks.
“Yes, Ikarus or as you might know him, the sun.” Sor says.
“The sun?” Rin asks in disbelief.
“More importantly we need to help him.” Midori says.
“He seems to have accepted his fate, so it may be pointless.” Sor warns.
“He may have accepted his fate, but we haven’t.” Midori argues.
“There’s not much you can do about it unless you plan on fighting Ikarus.” Sor warns.
“Then we’ll fight Ikarus.” Midori says.
“And what if you win?” Sor asks.
“What do you mean?” Midori asks.
“If you win that means the sun is gone. Don’t you think that would be a problem?” Sor asks.
“We don’t need the sun.” Midori says pointing at the fire wall around the edge of the dome.
“I know, but what about other people?” Sor asks and Midori goes pale as if the thought that other people might need the sun hadn’t occurred to her.
“We don’t need to kill the sun. We just need to help him escape, don’t we?” I ask.
“Actually things have changed.” Sor says with a puzzled frown.
“Peter’s not going to be executed?” Midori asks.
“We need to save Ikarus.” Sor says.
“But he wants to kill Peter!” Midori protests.
“Maybe he’ll spare Peter if we help him, but if we don’t help Ikarus the world will be plunged into eternal night and conquered by demons. All the people living there will be massacred too and it won’t stop there. It’s possible everyone everywhere will be killed.” Sor warns us.
“Just when we thought we were about to win.” Lucy says.
“I’ll help, but if he tries to kill Peter I’m dragging Peter back here no matter what.” Midori says.
“I think everyone got the general gist of that, so false angels get your dimensional bubbles up and real angels get inside a bubble. Emi and I will be getting Helski though, so if you try to share with us I’ll leave you behind.” Sor says.
“We’ll be coming too.” Sakura says and the air above us is suddenly filled with the rest of the faeries from her legion. I suppose they were there before, but now we can see them.
“Good, but not in Helski’s bubble.” Sor says.
“Hermes, you’re with me.” Rin says.
“I’ll join you too.” Lucy says landing on Rin’s left shoulder.
“Thanks Rin.” I say and hurriedly stand beside her.
“Lilian, can I go with you?” Yu Kii asks.
“Sure, we’re both earth mages so we should work well together.” Lilian says, though I think Yu Kii chose her because they have worked together a lot more than most of the others have with Yu Kii, except Helski who Sor has forcefully picked.
“Tomo, I’m sharing with you.” Midori says and rushes over to stand with her.
A flurry of faeries flutters down around us. There are faeries around all of the false angels now, except for Helski.
“It seems like everyone’s in place, but get your dimensional bubbles up.” Sor tells us.
Rin raises her bubble around us and the nearby faeries. The other false angels raise their bubbles too. I wish I had that power, but as a real angel I get to be much closer to Peter and I couldn’t believe it when he told me I was immortal. He made it sound trivial too!
“We’re going now.” Sor says and shifts us. I expected her to take us to the celestial gate, but she shifts us directly to the void above our former world. Peter and a larger fire angel are just ahead of us and ahead of them is a huge wall of fire that goes on for as far as I can see. I check my fire sense and realis
e that it is in fact a living ball of fire, presumably the sun. I can tell that the smaller angel is Peter even though our soul link has been severed, but who is the larger angel? Peter turns as he senses us just behind him.
“What are you all doing here?” Peter asks in shock.
“Well that’s quite the welcome when we came here to help.” Lucy answers.
“It’s too dangerous. You need to return whilst you still can.” Peter warns us.
“We can’t just stand by and do nothing. Some of us have family and friends down there and even those that don’t would never forgive themselves if they let the world get conquered by demons.” Lucy says.
“There are three Maou fighting against Ikarus. None of them are as powerful as Ferdinand, but against all three of them at once what can you hope to achieve?” Peter asks.
“To kill them all.” Lucy says.
“But how?” Peter asks.
“I can trap them like I trapped Ferdinand.” Sor says.
“You’d not only need to maintain the portals and drain their souls, but also maintain the barriers to prevent them shifting. You’d also need to trap all three at the same time, or defend yourself against the other two who will immediately see you as their biggest threat.” Peter warns Sor.
“That might not work.” Sor admits, which coming from her is as close to saying it’s impossible as makes no difference.
“Can we get the dwarf to help us?” Rin suggests.
“Grunti’s busy helping in the fight against the Envoys in Portalis.” Sakura answers. “We can help distract the enemy with illusions, but somebody will need to kill them.”
“Can’t your father kill them if we distract them enough?” Midori asks Peter.
“Ikarus is too badly hurt to finish them off unless we can seriously weaken them.” Peter says.
“If we wait too long it will be too late to help. Father can’t hold on much longer.” The other angel says, looking down at us expressionlessly.
“Hades I know that, but if we go into battle without a plan my friends will die needlessly. I can’t stop them risking their lives, but I won’t let them throw their lives away.” Peter says.
“I will try to handle one of the Maou and your friends can handle the other two.” Hades says.
“Sor can trap one and the rest of us can deal with the other one.” Midori suggests.
“Some of you faeries will have to help keep the barriers up.” Sor says.
“Are we allowed to share your bubble now?” Sakura asks darkly and disappears. A moment later so do the other faeries.
“If you have to.” Sor says.
“If you want us to help you with the barriers some of us will have to.” Sakura says.
“Is five enough?” Sor asks.
“You miscounted. There are six in your bubble and six is all I can spare.” Sakura says, although I can’t see any in Sor’s bubble.
“Don’t blame me if they can’t keep the barriers up.” Sor says with a shrug.
“We have a plan, now let’s stop wasting time. If we do this well enough, maybe father will forgive you.” Hades tells Peter.
“I doubt it, but we don’t have much choice. Just remember your promise.” Peter says.
“I will.” Hades says and then turns to face the wall of fire up ahead. “I’ll deal with that enemy up there. Sor can deal with the enemy down there and everyone else can deal with the one straight ahead.”
I can’t sense the enemies but hopefully someone else can. It’s up to Rin to pick the direction since she’s in control of the dimensional bubble. Even if she can’t sense the enemy either, she can just stay with everyone else and head in the direction Hades pointed towards.
Hades leans forwards and flies towards the enemy she picked for herself. Cherry takes the lead and as we follow her lead, Peter drops down beside her. I’m a little jealous, but Cherry wasn’t sharing her bubble with anyone, except a few faeries. The dimensional bubbles have all joined together now anyway forming one giant bubble so we can talk and help each other if we need to.
“I’m more or less out of mana so, don’t count on me.” Peter warns us.
“Don’t worry, just leave it to us.” Cherry says enthusiastically.
“If you fix our soul links we can give you some mana.” Midori says.
“That’s not possible right now. You’re almost as powerful as an arch angel now, so make good use of your mana yourself. You too Hermes, Neko and Yu Kii.” Peter says.
“With this many angels at your command there’s no way you’d lose against a Maou.” Cherry says.
“Don’t underestimate the enemy, there’s no way this will be easy.” Peter warns.
“Can anyone sense the enemy yet?” Rin asks.
“It’s just up ahead.” Cherry answers. Suddenly fire angels appear all around us, forming a huge swarm. They must be illusions, but if we are lucky the enemy will waste some of its attacks on them.
“Hades is fighting her Maou now.” Sakura says. “Sor is waiting for us to engage this one before attacking hers. It seems she doesn’t fancy fighting two at once.”
“I sense it!” Rin exclaims just as I sense a powerful water demon almost right on top of us. I still can’t see it but now I know where it is I can attack. A blast of green mana hits our bubble right in front of Rin’s face. The bubble bends inwards almost reaching Rin’s face before bouncing back to its original shape.
I send a blast of fire at the demon and as I do so our friends blast it with metal, stone, fire, lightning and wind slices. I sense Rin reach out and try to grasp control of the demon’s mana, but as she does so her face goes green.
“Stop!” I tell Rin urgently.
“It hurts!” Rin cries. I glance around and the other water mages look fine, but seeing what happened to Rin they abandon their own attempts to influence the enemy’s mana. I grab a healing potion from my pocket but before I can give it to Rin, Peter dives into our bubble and kisses Rin on the mouth. Rin recovers instantly.
“Don’t attempt to control its mana. The enemy is attuned to poison not water. Water mages try to freeze the enemy’s attacks. They’ll be weaker if you do.” Peter warns us as the enemy sends another blast of green energy at us. Someone freezes it and it shatters as it hits our bubble.
“Thank you. Are you alright?” Rin asks.
“I’m fine.” Peter tells her and then flies back to Cherry.
“Sor’s trapped her enemy and Hades is holding back her enemy, but both are struggling. We need to kill our enemy quickly.” Sakura warns us. We pick up the pace of our attacks.
I throw fireball after fireball at the enemy, each almost as hot as the sun we are trying to protect. I sense the stone and metal attacks have been replaced by a barrage of dry earth, perhaps designed to absorb the enemy’s poison. The constant lightning our wind mages are using is blinding but silent thanks to the void around us. Thankfully I don’t need to see, because I can direct my magic with my senses, which is also how I know where the enemy is.
“The enemy’s weakening. Keep it up everyone and we’ll win.” Rin tells us, but then we’re hit by a barrage of green energy. Most of it gets frozen before it hits us and just shatters against the shield, but three blasts hit the shield right in front of me which bounces almost against my face. “Are you ok, Hermes?”
“I’m fiii…” I start to say I’m fine, but then I feel really weird. A moment later though I’m perfectly fine again. “I’m ok. Not sure what came over me, but I’m alright now.”
“Are you sure?” Rin asks.
“Yes.” I say and send another fireball at the enemy, but instead of the fireball hurtling from my right hand towards the enemy it simply explodes in my hand.
(Peter)
A poisonous barrage hits Hermes, Lucy and Rin’s shield which caves in towards Hermes, but it bounces back just in time to save Hermes. The power required for that last barrage is immense and left the enemy vulnerable. I am certain my friends’ attacks hurt the Maou badly j
ust now. It feels like we can win, but the enemy is clearly getting desperate and whilst that may leave it vulnerable it is also when it’s at its most dangerous. I wish I could help but as drained as I am I’m too weak to do anything against a Maou.
Suddenly a fireball explodes in Hermes’ hands. Normally it would only have harmed Hermes but with power close to that of an arch fire angel her fireball instantly incinerates not only Hermes but Lucy and Rin too. As the fireball expands it threatens to kill everyone. I race towards it as quickly as I can but in my weakened state my speed is currently much reduced. Certain I will be too late I curse my weakness, but I do manage to arrive just in time to prevent any more deaths. I swallow the superhot fireball. My relief in saving most of my friends’ lives is tainted by Hermes, Lucy and Rin’s deaths. I can still sense their souls though, so there is still hope.
“Feel… weird.” Sakura says, visible again and gasping for breath beside Cherry.
“Weird…” Another faery says from right beside me and becomes visible as her illusion falters. The illusionary fire angels disappear and the faeries become visible one after the other, all coughing, spluttering and gasping for breath. Then the faery beside me bursts into flames and before I can react she has been reduced to ash. My friends’ attacks begin to falter, but father directs an intensive barrage of fireballs at the Maou we are fighting.
“I’ve killed mine.” Hades tells me through a mental link.
“Help!” I beg her urgently, my mind in a panic and on the verge of despair.
Another faery bursts into flames and then another. My friends begin to cough, splutter and gasp for breath as the faeries all around us burst into flames and are reduced to ash. Our attacks have completely stopped. It is no relief when Hades joins the fight.
My friends are dying and there is nothing I can do. Unlike the poison that afflicted Rin I can’t sense the source of the sickness now affecting my friends. I have never felt so powerless. I need power.
Hades and father’s attacks have seriously weakened the already weakened Maou we were fighting. It won’t take them long to finish it off now. I focus my senses on Sor. She has almost finished her enemy too. A desperate thought enters my mind.
