Melancholy Wings: Decadence (4 page)

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“I don’t know, but he knows more than he tells us. The fact Lord Beelzebub did not want to see us also reinforces that point.” Azrael called to attention.

Without getting any of the answers they came for, the two dark angels headed back to the docks to take a boat back to their home sector.

Chapter 3

Suspicion

Malakai waited until his good friend, Adelais, completely disappeared from sight before moving from his place. Once that happened, Malakai turned around and began making his way down the tunnel he was standing by, towards Lord Beelzebub’s private chamber. Aurora, as well as Dugan and Ragnar, followed him.

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“I think I’m going to go on patrol.” Dugan said to Malakai.

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“Me too.” Ragnar decided to do the same.

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“Yes, you do that. I need to discuss this with Lord Beelzebub in private I think.” Malakai told them.

On that note Dugan and Ragnar left him and headed upwards through the cave tunnel in order to exit the caves. Aurora was still with Malakai, however. Malakai ignored her presence and then turned back round to continue, when Aurora addressed him:

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“Malakai.”

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“What is it?” he asked without turning to face her.

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“Do you know what’s going on? Why are our creatures attacking other sectors?” Aurora began asking questions, hoping her commander knew the answers.

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“We are going to find out, but I am fairly sure it is nothing to worry about. You should probably go and get accustomed to the place.” Malakai kindly suggested to her.

Aurora looked down and sighed. Malakai knew how she was feeling. He knew that she didn’t want to show she was anxious, but it couldn’t be helped. She only arrived to the Underworld six interims ago. The place was still vastly unfamiliar and intimidating to her. For that, he didn’t hold it against her.

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“All right.” She finally accepted.

She then left Malakai and went the same way Dugan and Ragnar did, towards the exit of the cave complex. Malakai waited till she began leaving, and only then continued descending via the tunnel, past all the turns to the left and right of him. He had mixed feelings about being one of the dark angel commanders of the sector. Although it was a good authority position, and he had access to command a large portion of the army, it was also a burden. Ever since Malakai was still in early years of his human life, he strived for freedom. He disliked all the responsibility that was forced upon him, but he also disliked the state the world was in, what meant that he put the responsibility to make a great change in it onto himself. He saw the world’s ugly face beneath a seductive mask and he didn’t like the sight of it. After his death, when he got a chance to serve the Creator as a dark angel, he was excited by the idea and felt that his desire to make a change would eventually materialise. However, being a dark angel and fighting in the Underworld seemed no different to his human life. He was greatly disappointed.

 Once the tunnel came to an end, Malakai entered a small chamber with a big tough door on the opposite side of it. The door was guarded. The guardian itself wasn’t visible, and hence anyone who wasn’t authorised to be in the area, would be caught out by surprise. Malakai, however, knew of a giant carnivorous worm that was dwelling beneath the floor of the cave, and hence he hovered himself into the air and flew towards the door. The door opened as soon as he got close to it, allowing him to proceed inside the huge elliptical chamber. Numerous oversized insects were flying about the chamber as usual, buzzing chaotically in huge packs and stirring up a lot of noise. Because these insects had a different anatomy and composition to those in the External World, they could grow to a much larger size. His master, Lord Beelzebub, also known as lord of the flies, was at the very centre, sitting on his throne and seemingly enjoying the company of all those creatures. Beelzebub was slightly bigger in size than a human or an angel, but he still looked very humanoid, with the exception of a few bug-like features. For one, he had compound eyes like most insects, and hence could gaze in all directions at once. Secondly, he had four arms, each with very thin pointy fingers. Lastly, he had big wings, similar to those of insects, which most of the time were folded and concealed inside a black cloak that he wore. Beelzebub had very acute senses of hearing and smell, and so immediately knew when someone, and who exactly, was behind the doors to his private chamber, unless the individual was entirely unfamiliar to him.

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“Malakai, how did the meeting go?” Beelzebub asked the moment Malakai flew inside the chamber and landed onto the solid ground.

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“Just as you requested - I told them you were unavailable.” Malakai responded straight away.

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“Good. We don’t want them meddling in our affairs. We now need to find out how those creatures left our sector and attacked Erebus and Helheim.”

One of the giant flies whizzed past Malakai at that stage. He wasn’t fond of the insect vermin his master was living with, but after three years of serving in the Infernal Pit, he was used to them. The first time he ever entered Lord Beelzebub’s chamber, he was nervously gazing around and making sure that none of the bugs got close to him. Now he was absolutely calm and indifferent to any insect that whizzed by too close.

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“Should I place more guards on patrol?” Malakai suggested after a brief pause.

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“No. There is no need for that. We have good enough security already. Whoever was responsible for the breach could obviously bypass our guards with ease, meaning the number of the guards would hardly make a difference.” Beelzebub replied to Malakai’s suggestion.

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“What shall we do then? Is there anything I can do?”

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“I personally think that one of the leaders from other sectors is trying to start a war, and they’re trying to blame it on us.” Beelzebub speculated tentatively.

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“Could it be Lucifer?”

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“It could be, but I wouldn’t assume that just yet. We still lack the information.”

Malakai didn’t say anything there and let his master continue. He could see Beelzebub was contemplating on what could be done and that he didn’t want to make any hasty moves, because whoever created the situation, most likely was counting on Beelzebub to make obvious mistakes.

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“All right, I think for now we might have to cooperate with the Erebus sector. To overcome the perpetrator, we’ll need to make some temporary alliances.” Beelzebub finally said.

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“Shall I grant them the audience with you then?”

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“No. Just lay low for now. If they request the audience, then give it to them, but otherwise stay quiet.”

On that note they ended the talk, and Malakai left his master’s chamber. Once he was out of the chamber, he returned back up the tunnel in order to get back to the surface and to virtually take no further action concerning the recent events.

Shortly after leaving the caves, Aurora began wandering through the sector. There were many guards around her, either patrolling through the separate areas or just guarding the entrances to various structures. Aurora entered one of the towers and began ascending the spiral stairs to the very top. She could fly up there, but she wasn’t in a rush and preferred to take a long, monotonous staircase whilst thinking. She was pondering on the issue with the creature attacks and what could that mean. Why did the angels from Erebus visit? Was it really serious? She then started thinking of Adelais. His gaze that she caught earlier had an impact on her. She was curious to get to know him better. Something about him was captivating and she couldn’t help but to feel drawn to him.

 Upon reaching the very top, Aurora glanced over the edge, out on the scenery in front of her. She could see a vast area from the top of that tower, and it was beautiful. She once again wondered if she made the right choice by joining the dark angels, as opposed to simply getting her purification after death and spending the remainder of the eternity in Utopia. She was a determined person in life. She had strong moral values and often stood up for what she believed in. By joining the army of dark angels, she thought she’d be able to once again stand up for her beliefs. However, everything was a lot more complex than she initially thought. Fighting in the Underworld wasn’t easy. Being a guardian of peace was a very stressful task. Those dark angels who were inherent were less prone to worrying, but those who used to be humans still had a large portion of their emotional human side with them. Eventually, after reflecting on her choices, Aurora decided that she would fight to the end. She had faith in herself, and she knew that any choices she made were for a good reason, and she wouldn’t have preferred things to have happened otherwise.

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“My life has a purpose.” She quietly and calmly said to herself, “This is my life’s purpose. It wouldn’t be easy, but it’s what I want.”

Chapter 4

Allied Support

The second wave of demonic creatures was now outside of the walls of Helheim, ready to get inside. Helheim had very solid, high walls and tall guard towers. It looked like the Erebus sector in many ways. Ethel and Lazarus, who were part of Azrael’s squad, were sent here by Hades earlier to help and defend this sector. They already helped out in one battle earlier in the interim. Now they had just reached the battlefield again and were standing on defensive positions among many of the Helheim troops, waiting for the enemy to get over the wall. Ethel was small in stature, but she was rather fast and agile. She had straight, long, sepia brown hair and very piercing blue eyes. Lazarus was averagely-built. His hair was very short and amber in colour, whilst his eyes were lime-green. The two of them were inherent dark angels and served in Azrael’s troop for slightly longer than Adelais.

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“I’ve just heard that there’s been a second attack on our home sector too.” Lazarus said to Ethel just as they got to the battlefield.

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“Have our troops managed to repel it?” Ethel felt highly concerned.

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“Yes, there was no problem there.”

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“Good. We should probably head back after this battle.” Ethel suggested and momentarily turned back to face the direction all the troops were looking in.

The situation was compelling her to want to discuss all this with Hades, and also with Azrael and Adelais. She was concerned for her home sector and feared that more attacks could happen.

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“There they come!” someone from the Helheim army yelled and pointed towards the approaching monstrosities. Those were the same kind of creatures that attacked Erebus, both the crawlers and the fliers.

Helheim troops mostly consisted of valkyries, landvaettir, and the dark elves, also known as svartalfar. Valkyries very strongly resembled human female warriors and were armed with lots of different weapons, ranging from short swords to hefty axes and even flails. Some of the most experienced valkyries could fly and hence to take the battle into the air. Landvaettir were troll-like guardians, which outside of battle were usually assigned to guard gateways and entrances into various areas of the sector. Since they were big in size and stature, they mostly wielded larger weapons, such as hammers. The dark elves, just like valkyries, looked somewhat humanoid too, except they were slimmer and significantly taller. Their skin was darkened, even more so than skin of dark angels, and they had wider eyes, allowing them to see a wider scope of the area ahead. They were master archers and also good at several other projectile weapons. There were some dark angels in the army of Helheim too, but those were few and far in between.