The Warrior

Revelation

I landed in the bell tower where Cepheus was perched atop, looking out to the city for a glimmer of hope.  Shawnee and I went down to the sanctuary.  Perseus sat in the front pew with Bernie as Gemini stood in front of Seerose, who was placed on a bench in the pulpit.  She was still dead.

I remained in my demon form.  "They are coming for us."

Bernie was awestruck in my presence.  "Orion?  You are alive.  And you are the picture of the savior demon.  Salvation has come to us."

"We are not safe yet," Perseus said.  "Gemini's brother is coming for us.  He is the pawn in an ancient plan to take back the powers the gargoyles have been given so the world can be covered in darkness.  Stopping him is the only way out, even if we have to kill him again ourselves."

"We never killed him the first time," Gemini said, still looking at Seerose.  "Any one of us could have fallen from our roosts that night."

I flew over to the pulpit and landed on the podium, shrouding my frail body with my great wings.  "You do not have to take part in this, Gemini.  I understand if your brother may cause a problem."

"I did not mean to let him fall, Orion.  He was always making jokes, so I just thought he was merely making another."

"None of this is your fault."

"But I could have saved her."  He looked at Seerose, the burn from the cross necklace still prominent on her forehead.

"You said she would live again."

"Nothing is set in stone.  We first should know that."

"Perseus, get Cepheus off the top of the bell tower and get to the secret room inside the library.  We have to have our best guarding the Gospel."

Perseus ran off.  We sat in the sanctuary for a long moment in silence.  I sat perched on the podium.  Gemini looked at the bible, even though he could not read from it.  Bernie and Shawnee were at the front pew, talking about the present situation.  I could hear the sirens from the hospital.

Then the lights went down.  The only light was from the candles lined up along the stained glass windows, much like the first night I came into the sanctuary.  Wind was blowing through the streets outside.  There were footsteps coming from behind the large doors that guarded the sanctuary.  We all prepared.

The doors scraped against the carpet as they slowly opened.  I flew up to the top of the cathedral and Shawnee and Bernie hid under the pews.  Gemini put a linen blanket over Seerose and transformed into the demon form.  The doors opened all the way.  Nothing was there.

"Maybe the order has not come to pass," Gemini said to me.

A great gust of wind blew through the sanctuary.  We were pushed back into the wall, pinned under the pressure.  In came Gemini's brother, sealed under his armor and with Incendie at his side.  He was holding something in his hand.  A horn.  It was Cepheus's horn.  The tip was shattered.

Gemini and I fell to the ground in the pulpit, behind Seerose's body.  Gemini's brother walked over and looked under the blanket at her.  She was at rest, and that is what made him angry.

"You two are weak," he said.  "No matter what you do, she will never awake from death."

He reached to his helmet and removed it.  I was expecting to see the broken remains of a gargoyle face, but it was someone more recent.  She had long golden hair and a crown of thorns.  It was Blitzen in the flesh.  

"You killed me," she said, but her voice was very deep and not that of a woman.  "You killed what was left of me."

Incendie walked towards the pews and tossed the benches into the air as if they were weightless.  Bernie and Shawnee were cowering on the floor.  She pulled them both to the pulpit and threw them to the floor before Blitzen.