Melancholy Wings: Decadence (19 page)

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“Why is freedom so important to you? What do you plan to do with it once you achieve it?” Adelais couldn’t understand Malakai’s obsession.

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“Once you have freedom, you can do everything. There is nothing weighing you down.” Malakai justified.

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“Then stop taking mine away. Move out of my way or prepare to be knocked down. I will not hold back.” Adelais warned him, even though he knew with every part of his soul he was exaggerating it.

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“I’m sorry, but I will not.” Malakai declared and took his great blade out, ready for a fight, “I request you to please abandon this foolishness and come with me. You and I must join forces.”

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“I will not be a traitor to my friends!” Adelais stated boldly, and a second later charged forward to begin the fight with the one he always considered as his closest friend.

Malakai quickly got into a battle stance and waited for Adelais’ first strike. Adelais rushed with all speed, fuelled by anger he was experiencing at the time. Upon reaching Malakai, he pounced forward and produced a forceful swing with his long sword. In response, Malakai placed his blade in front of himself in order to block the strike. As soon as their blades collided, both dark angels
rebound off each other. Nevertheless, both of them recovered immediately and began duelling with one another using their blades. Adelais was attacking aggressively at first, attempting to strike his friend down with repeated violent vertical swings. Malakai, however, parried one of them and produced a sharp thrust kick which hit Adelais in the stomach. The moment Adelais fell down from the kick, he jumped back on his feet, only to see Malakai jumping onto him with an overhead swing. Adelais stopped the strike with his own blade and began attacking once again. He produced a high horizontal swing, which Malakai avoided by ducking, but then Adelais began kicking and using all of his limbs once again. Malakai dodged all hits successfully, but eventually got elbowed in the face and stumbled back.

 Adelais stared at him there and waited, hoping Malakai would come to his senses and get out of the way. Despite his hopes, Malakai did not even budge. Instead, he charged to continue the battle. Now Adelais had to go on the defensive as Malakai produced rapid deadly swings with his great blade. Despite Malakai’s blade being almost twice as heavy as Adelais’, Adelais could manage to stop every impact successfully without stumbling back.

 As Malakai continued producing high swings, Adelais suddenly dropped to the ground and kicked Malakai really hard on the knees, forcing Malakai to lose his balance and to fall forwards. Despite that sudden move, Malakai didn’t lose himself and instead jumped back up whilst kicking Adelais in the face, causing Adelais to flip once backwards and to end up on the ground.

 Once again Adelais got back on his feet quickly and saw Malakai in midair attacking. He blocked instantly and then continued defending as Malakai kept delivering more strikes. Adelais focused on Malakai’s moves at that stage, studying them, and within seconds he began successfully dodging them within a hair’s width.

 After successfully evading half a dozen swings from his friend, Adelais delivered a sharp horizontal swing that cut through Malakai’s armor and injured him on the torso. Malakai backed away in response, but Adelais continued and followed his efficacious sword slash with another. This one was vertical and landed Malakai on the shoulder, delivering more pain.

 The pain Malakai felt got quickly channelled into energy, and he momentarily shot a fireball from his hand that struck Adelais and exploded in his face, causing him to fly backwards and to land roughly.

 Malakai stood up, trying to withstand the pain. Adelais did the same, though the ache he felt from the fire blast subsided quickly. Being betrayed by his best friend, however, continued causing him suffering.

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“I did not know you were this rotten on the inside, Malakai.” Adelais yelled at his friend.

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“I am not rotten.” Malakai responded immediately, trying not to reflect the insult back at his friend, “I am just not your conventional type of good.”

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“You aren’t good by anyone’s standards but your own.” Adelais commented, trying to point out to his friend his evil ways, “It worries me that you’ve gotten your definitions of what’s good and what’s not muddled up.”

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“It’s not a muddle. It’s my sincere opinion. Why don’t you create your own path too instead of blindly following orders given to you?” Malakai put forward a question.

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“I do create my own path. It’s just my ways do not cause suffering to others.” Adelais justified himself.

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“Your ways cause suffering to you personally, and I shall do my best to free you from it.” Malakai responded with a small degree of annoyance and then charged forward to continue the brutal fight.

The moment Malakai got close and swung, Adelais produced a swing of his own. Upon the collision, both ended up striking each other on the torso. Malakai got up first and pounced on his friend, thrusting his blade forward. Adelais rolled out of the way and jumped back on his feet. Malakai’s sword stab missed, and now it was Adelais’ turn to attack. Adelais produced a couple of horizontal slices, which were blocked with ease, but then he kicked his friend in the body, forcing him to stumble back a few steps. Malakai charged up some energy in his hand at that stage and immediately threw the newly formed fireball at Adelais, who was already in a middle of a pounce.

 The fireball collided with Adelais and stopped him short. This gave Malakai an opportunity to begin attacking. As he began producing quick aggressive slashes, Adelais had no choice but to go on defensive once again. Within seconds Adelais caught Malakai by the hands during a slash and swung him to the side in order to throw him onto the floor. Malakai, however, countered that quickly and used his own momentum to throw Adelais onto the floor instead. Once Adelais fell down, Malakai slowly ascended into the air and charged up more energy in his off hand, creating a fireball.

 Adelais recovered and looked up. Malakai chuckled for a second and then tossed the fireball at his friend. Adelais momentarily dived aside as the fireball slammed into the ground, creating a small explosion. Malakai immediately created and threw another at where Adelais was now. Adelais dived away once again, and then concentrated hard and took off into the air with incredible speed to tackle his friend down.

  Malakai got ready in time, and when Adelais approached, he slashed in his direction. Adelais evaded his slash, then swiftly produced an overhead one of his own and began rapidly attacking Malalai whilst both of them were airborne. Malakai continued defending for a while, and once he found the opportunity, he retaliated with a thrust of his blade. Adelais dodged aside from the thrust and produced a quick diagonal slash that once again sliced through Malakai’s armor and wounded him. Malakai ignored the sharp pain and then with rage retaliated with a swing to Adelais’ face. Adelais narrowly dodged that one, but then received the next one directly to his torso. The sword went through his armor and maimed him, knocking him backwards. Despite a powerful strike like that, Adelais did not fall to the ground, but regained his senses quickly and charged at Malakai through the air with an astonishing speed.

 Malakai shot a hasty fireball at him, but Adelais swerved out of its path in time. Just as Malakai began creating the next one, Adelais collided with him, and the two of them violently fell to the ground together. Adelais got up first and violently slashed his sword in Malakai’s direction. Malakai caught Adelais by his hands and then with all his might threw him over his head. Adelais made a flip in the air and safely landed onto the wall he was thrown at.

 Just as he focused his gaze at his friend, Malakai expelled yet another fireball out of his hand. Adelais jumped into the air immediately, avoiding the fireball, and spreading his wings at the peak of the jump to glide through the air smoothly. He then grabbed his blade with both hands and with all his force produced a powerful overhead smash downwards at Malakai.

 Malakai placed his blade on the path of Adelais’ swing in time, for if he had failed, he would’ve been cut in half. The moment Adelais’ blade collided with Malakai’s, Adelais was repelled backwards. Malakai recovered instantly and then used that opportunity to quickly fly into the air towards his friend. Just as Adelais recovered and was about to parry a strike coming from his friend, Malakai grasped him tightly and propelled them both even higher into the air, now hovering above the huge drop between the levels of the sector.

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“You and I are very much alike, brother. Just let go and take a fall with me.” Malakai said to Adelais at that instant, and then he directed the two of them to dive sharply downwards, in the direction of the ground level, located 25 levels below.

Adelais began resisting and trying to come off the grasp, but Malakai continued on holding to his friend with all his might. Eventually Adelais’ struggle began to work, and he was starting to come off his friend’s grasp. Malakai couldn’t hold him for much longer. The ground was only in sight but was still a long way down. He quickly began charging a lot of energy in one of his hands. Adelais was almost out by then. However, just as he was about to free himself fully, Malakai released all of the energy he had accumulated in one go. The sudden release of energy ended in a massive explosion, throwing them both in different directions with a violent force and even mildly damaging some of the internal structure of the sector.

Chapter 20

The Turning Point

Azrael could finally see the sector at the distance and so decided to fly the remainder of the way. He, however, instructed the boatman to get to the sector’s docks and to wait till his return. Once the boatman understood, Azrael lunged into the air and headed for the Abode’s front entrance.

 Just as he was about to land, he heard a loud, resonant noise which shook the place. Azrael knew such turbulence could not have been good news and most likely involved Adelais. He instantly landed onto the solid ground and rushed towards the entrance into the cave of a giant mountain that was Abode of the Corrupted.

 The oni guards at the front attempted to stop him, but Azrael drew his weapon momentarily and spoke sternly:

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“I am only here to retrieve one of my own who attacked this place. Stand aside or I’ll be forced to kill you.”

The guards obeyed immediately and moved out of his way. Azrael gave them an acknowledging nod and then proceeded inside with all haste.

After gaining his senses back, Adelais felt entrapped among the rubble. It was quite heavy, and he couldn’t move it in order to free himself. He waited for a few seconds and tried to collect some energy so that he could move it. First time he failed and felt that there was no use in trying. He then waited for a little longer and tried for the second time. This time he managed to push some of the heavier parts out of the way and then eventually punched his way through the lighter parts, bursting out of the heap eventually.

 Malakai was lying on the ground on the opposite side of the enormous chamber. This was the ground level of the Abode, the level with the main entrance. Above it was a long wide shaft via which both of them fell, and Adelais now saw how it looked from the bottom. There was a descent to the subterranean levels as well, but it was in a different corner of the chamber.

 Adelais began slowly making his way towards Malakai whilst clutching his blade. Several oni guards and primitive beasts arrived at the scene suddenly, surrounding him. Adelais was not in shape to fight them all off. He needed some time to regenerate. Malakai seemed to have heard the growling of the beasts and got back to his senses as well. After looking up, his gaze focused on Adelais, who was being surrounded by numerous guards and monsters. Fumblingly he got back up to his feet and picked his great blade up.

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“You are insane, Malakai.” Adelais accused, “You could’ve killed us both.”

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“As if we were not trying to kill each other beforehand.” Malakai called to attention whilst shuffling forwards towards Adelais.

Adelais looked down at the ground at that stage. Now that his anger subsided, he realised how foolish he was to try and kill his own friend. He knew that Malakai might’ve acted selfishly, but that was not reason enough to attack him so ruthlessly.

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“I have nothing else to say to you.” Adelais finally stated, still trying to figure out how to take care of the guards surrounding him.