Melancholy Wings: Decadence (23 page)

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“You do realise Beelzebub is a deity and I am just a dark angel? Besides that, he will also be well-protected. How do you expect me to kill him?” Malakai protested.

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“We’ve taken that into account.” Malphas responded here, “Behind us is a cave. All you have to do is enter it and keep going inside. The profane energy in it will make you stronger. However, beware – it will slowly start consuming the goodness that you’ve still got left in you.”

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“Why would he need to be aware of that?” Alastor angrily turned to his fellow demon here, “He doesn’t need that goodness anyway. I’d say expel it all in one go!”

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“He has to take it slow.” Malphas argued back, “If he doesn’t, his mind and body will likely reject this power and all will be for waste.”

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“I understand.” Malakai listened to his advice, “How far do I go inside?”

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“You will know when to stop. Your subconscious will tell you that.” Eligos replied here.

Alastor shook his head here from disappointment, but didn’t dispute the suggestions from Eligos and Malphas any further. Malakai didn’t say anything else and just began walking towards the cave. Aurora grabbed him by the hand, trying to stop him, but he turned to her gently and said:

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“Just stay here. I will be back shortly.”

Aurora let go off him, and he turned back to the cave and resumed heading towards it. Alastor, Eligos, and Malphas moved aside and let him enter it. Without fear, Malakai entered the cave and headed into the tunnel. It was pitch black inside, but his eyes adjusted to the darkness very quickly. At first he couldn’t feel much, but after about a minute he finally felt it. It was as if he walked into a wall of hatred, and a net of pain and anger encased him from all sides. All the bitter memories from his human life came rushing back to his head, enraging him and filling him with power.

Aurora watched Malakai enter the cave and felt more nervous than she already was. She began doubting whether she had made the right choice by coming to this place with him. She wondered that maybe she should’ve done what Dugan and Ragnar did and stayed in the Infernal Pit. She kept questioning - if this cave had the power to corrupt, would Malakai change for the worse? Would he force her to do the same?

 She could sense trouble and that she stumbled onto a trap. She realised that the good she always wanted to do, she would not get a chance to do again, and that instead she would be filled with hate.

 As she contemplated on that, she looked at the demon generals, all of which were gazing back at her with intimidation in their eyes. Out of revulsion she turned away from them and looked instead at the scorching streams of lava running down from a volcano nearby. As she did that, she took a few steps away from the demons and stopped when she felt she was slightly safer.

 Whilst continuing to look at the scenery of the place, she began thinking about Adelais. Thinking about him still gave her hope, but she was not sure what he would think after finding out that she followed Malakai and joined the Pandemonium.

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“Adelais, I miss you so much. When will I see you again?” she whispered quietly to herself.

Chapter 24

The Nest

Azrael and his squad, consisting of Adelais, Lazarus, and Ethel, were now in flight from Den of Retribution, heading towards Infernal Pit as they planned. They could see the Infernal Pit at the distance fairly well. It looked dormant on the outside, but the dark angels of Erebus knew very well that on the inside it was anything but that. As they got closer, they lowered their altitude, so that they wouldn’t be spotted by the guards of the sector. When they got to the sector itself, they were flying just above the surface of the river, and soon landed onto the solid ground. Azrael and Lazarus went ahead first and scanned the area to see if there were any guards or other creatures in the vicinity. Once it was clear, they returned to Ethel and Adelais.

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“We might be able to fly to the main cave complex, but we must fly virtually on ground level and not to draw any attention to ourselves.” Azrael said to everyone with a very serious tone of voice.

Adelais, along with two of his teammates acknowledged what their commander said and decided to act accordingly. Azrael hovered into the air first and headed forward in that fashion. The others did exactly the same and kept on his trail. Whilst flying, they kept their eyes out on everything around them, making sure not a single guard would see them. Surprisingly there were no guards on the posts at all. After crossing a fair distance, Azrael came to a halt and signalled the others to stop too. They came closer to him to see why he stopped.

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“Look over there.” He told them whilst pointing ahead past a couple of structures.

What they saw was a large pack of creatures, mostly arachnids and centipedes. It looked as though they were being led by several guards somewhere, either to prepare to attack someone again or perhaps to be placed on defence of the sector.

 Due to that, Azrael and his team had to go around, so that they could avoid coming across those monstrosities. It didn’t give them trouble, but it took slightly longer than they hoped, and there was one area they had to cross that was too open, meaning they had to take extra care not to be seen. Eventually they made their way through a small broken section in a wall and headed further into the heart of the sector.

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“Do you know how we’re going to get inside the main cave complex?” Adelais asked his commander as they made another stop to scan the area.

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“Yes, we’ll take the Northern entrance, as opposed to the Southern one we used the last two times we came here.” Azrael told him.

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“Why is that?”

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“Because it’s much closer. What I am predicting is that both entrances will be guarded. However, it probably shouldn’t matter if we get spotted once inside there. We’ll be able to make our way to Lord Beelzebub fairly fast.”

Adelais understood what Azrael meant and therefore didn’t ask any more questions. Azrael looked out once again, and after establishing that it was clear, signalled for his team to follow him.

 Once again, after travelling some distance, the four angels saw a huge swarm of creatures not too far away. This one consisted mostly of flies, which chaotically moved about in the massive pack. Just like the previous time, the angels went around, trying as best to avoid any Infernal Pit troops as they possibly could.

 Finally the entrance into the main cave complex was in sight. It looked unguarded, which was rather suspicious. Just before going inside it, Azrael carefully examined the area around the entrance, making sure there was nobody watching them. He then came out of cover and called the others, warning them to be careful. Slowly the four of them flew closer to the entrance, and without facing any ambush attacks they entered the complex.

 Once inside, they landed onto the ground and carried going on foot. The first tunnel was empty and quiet, but the chamber it led to contained three guards. Adelais and Lazarus reacted quickly and dashed towards them before those realised of the intruders. Within seconds the three guards were defeated silently, and the angels of Erebus could continue further.

 The moment they stepped into the next tunnel, they were faced with a fork in it. Azrael said it didn’t matter which way they took, as the tunnels were symmetrical and led to the same location anyway. Because it didn’t matter, they decided to check both ways for danger. Adelais checked out the right, whilst Ethel checked out the left. Both ways were clear, so the angels chose one at random.

 Very soon they came to a part with numerous small chambers branching out to the side. Most were empty, as it appeared, but one of them contained a dark angel who wasn’t aware of anything. When he saw the Erebus dark angels, he froze in place for a brief second. Realising these were outsiders, he madly charged at them in a hope to kill at least one of them. However, his reckless swings were dodged with ease, and he met his end when Azrael struck him down with an axe.

 Feeling great remorse for the angel, Azrael and his team continued down the tunnel, until it brought them into a very large chamber. Before entering it, Lazarus sensed that there was a great number of gigantic flies in that chamber, as well as two reptilian guards. Adelais and the others had no choice but to enter it, however, as that was the only way to continue descending further down the cave complex. Adelais could nervously anticipate the kind of battle that would occur inside it. Although he was slightly worried, he was also highly prepared and battle ready.

 The moment the four of them went into the chamber, the two guards saw them and ordered the flies to attack immediately.

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“Here they come. Stick together, team.” Azrael instructed the others and got into a battle position.

Adelais heeded Azrael’s words and waited till the flies got nearer. As soon as those got close enough, all four Erebus angels unleashed their deadly attacks upon the swarm, hoping to strike as many flies around them as possible.

 At one stage one of the guards ran to attack Ethel. Reacting quickly, she created a shield in front of herself the moment the guard took a swing at her. The shield stopped him without difficulty, allowing Ethel to kill two more flies before redirecting her attention back at him. The guard struck the energy shield several times and eventually smashed it. By then Ethel was ready. As soon as he took a swing at her, she darted closer to him and stabbed her blade in his torso, momentarily bringing an end to him.

 The other guard attacked Adelais. It was a bit late when Adelais noticed him among the swarm of flies, what meant that the guard managed to get too close to him. As the guard swung at him, Adelais hastily placed his sword on the way. The guard’s hit was stopped, but as Adelais wasn’t prepared, he was pushed back a few steps. The guard used that to his advantage and produced the second swing, this one overhead. Adelais regained his balanced quickly and sidestepped just as the enemy swung at him. After avoiding that, Adelais easily took down the guard from the side with a powerful slash of his blade.

 There were still a few more flies remaining in the room. The four dark angels patiently stood their ground and repelled every single fly that attacked them. Within moments the room was free off the buzzing, and every single fly was on the ground. That was a sign that Azrael and his team could continue further.

 The next tunnel was long, and the only turns it had were into side rooms. Directly ahead, Adelais and his comrades could see several figures. They instantly prepared for another fight and continued on heading forward with full confidence.

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“It’s going to be hard fighting inside a corridor.” Adelais broke the silence as the four of them were walking.

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“The corridor is still wide enough for all four of us to stand side-by-side.” Azrael pointed out in response to Adelais’ comment, “If anything, it will work in our favour, because they won’t be able to outflank us.”

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“Good point.” Adelais realised after Azrael mentioned it.

As they got closer, they could make out who was standing at the end of the corridor. There were a handful of regular guardians, and in the middle of them were Ragnar and Dugan. Trying to stay on full alert, Azrael and his team made sure there were no guards in the adjacent rooms as they walked past those. Once they reached the guardians at the end of the corridor, they stopped a safe distance away from them and waited patiently.

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“Lord Beelzebub doesn’t want to see you.” Dugan suddenly said after a long pause.

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“We do not want a fight. We just need to negotiate.” Azrael calmly responded to him.

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“That is none of our concern. We follow our master’s orders, and he said not to let anyone through, especially the four of you.” Dugan retorted apathetically.

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“Come on, let’s not make this any more complicated than it already is. We will fight through to him if we have to.” Azrael stated with a slight imperative tone in his voice.

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“Guards, kill them right now!” Dugan gave a sudden command here, preferring to completely ignore everything Azrael said.