Awaken Book 3: The Rise of Knonus

Chapter 34: War

Thomas opens his eyes as he wakes up in Angela's arms. He gets up immediately, he holds his side as he sees it's bandaged up and still relatively fresh blood coming off of it. "Those...those people I saw..." Thomas stutters as Salo interrupts. "Didn't make it. All 150 people died in that blast, you almost died yourself. Nevertheless if they're good citizens, they'll show up here." Salo says as Thomas cries a little. Whitmore kneels by him, "This younger you I see why you resented it so much, hopefully you mature soon." He says as Salo laughs. "Older me wasn't strong...otherwise I wouldn't have to make myself younger. Pathetic how I've grown up and lacked training..." Salo trails on as Whitmore stands up. "It's one thing to have me be your bodyguard and forcing me to protect you and only you in Heaven. I'm not gonna tolerate your childish, more selfish ways instead of being the God that serves and protects all. Not some spoiled brat thinking he's all that-." He starts to say as Salo sighs. "I lost my entire family and loved ones because of Knonus, Rana dialed me back to a day before it but my mind couldn't neglect the past, only I knew what I could do then I could now and such much more potential was wasted, I could've killed him instead of banish him." He says as Whitmore walks to him. "Regretting your decisions will do nothing, use today to do something about all that thrown away aggression." He says as Salo nods. "I lost that child in the explosion, he did quite a number on you." She says as Thomas smirks. "I could've had him." Thomas says as he scratches his chin. "Frost Titans are oftentimes humble, you cut from a different cloth, don't you?" Salo asks as Thomas laughs, "Yeah. I have Wind in me as well." He says. "Now. Something I found out and discovered upon us: Knonus' Army. It's not just helpless spawns with low functional ability, these are high level trained warriors, crafted and built to kill." Whitmore says as he creates an orb that shows parts of cities being attacked by them. "They come in many shapes and sizes, but there was something off about it. No matter what scale of injury, even death, they would come back to life." He adds as Thomas chimes in. "Like I cut one's head off, it continues to fight?" He asks as Whitmore nods. "That is correct." He answers. "Well. In this world, if there's an army there would have to be a people or certain individual in charge of it, telling them their every move...would it be this Knonus guy?" Thomas thinks as Donovan shows up. "I believe the witch is in charge of it." He says as everybody turns to him. "The witch? Her name is Ally I believe, she also brought all the Council, we fought clones just so they could study us." He says as Thomas takes the bandage off and Angela wraps new ones on him. "Too bad for them, we knew their presence." He says as Donovan nods. "They know ours as well, we may learn and tread lightly here and still have the advantage when they get Hiro back." He continues as Salo laughs, "That witch is the weakest one! I would leave Heaven and kill her with no sweat." He says as Donovan shakes his head. "She created every single spell that can be casted and others of the Dark World, that's something we all should be afraid of." He says as Salo shrugs, "If you think magic affects Gods, then you're wrong. We invented the shit, we're immune to it." Salo says as Donovan sighs. "Then why did you...excuse my language, you dumbasses let demons be immune too?" He says as Salo stops, "They were Gods and Goddesses in Hell, they dictated the rules down there..but never mind that,  it's all smoke and mirrors. We cannot take her lightly, she could be anywhere at anytime, watching us, expecting our every move, listening in us even. Magic is powerful beyond recognition, we use it to do anything and don't even know it. This book I have now only is a glimpse of what she can do, I'm not a master, only a scholar compared to her." He says as a dark presence approaches by the Heaven Gates.

"Well boys, if you could oh so kindly please open these gates here, we could have a lovely chat about magic." Ally says as everybody turns to face her. She crosses her arms as Salo walks to meet her on the other side, "You must be Salo, ooooh! You must've been quite a treat growing up to such an ugly, old man. But you, this age now, mmmm if we weren't at war, I'd just-.." She starts to say as Salo stares at her. "Ally, right?" He asks, "You can call me whatever you like." She smiles as she licks her lips. The gates bend slowly as her hands touch gently on it and burst open as a figure appears behind her, smiling big as she claps. It drops on the ground as its huge black and red body flexes, Thomas leaps high and his legs and arms create ice plates over them. "HA! HAMMER BLIZZARD!!" He yells as he flattens the beast behind her and she smirks after he swings his fist towards her, "Silly boy." She says as she stops his fist with her finger, grabs her arm, pushes him away from her with an insane gust of magic. Thomas hits the ground and rolls back to his feet, he gets up and quickly holds his side, she laughs as Whitmore dashes towards her. He goes for a punch as he goes through her as if she was made of air and she reaches for his back, he moves out of her hand's way and swings his foot towards her. She bats his foot away, he swings his elbow as she mouthes a word and freezes him before his elbow reaches her. Black chains break through the ground and wrap around him, they burn his skin and she laughs. Thomas leaps past him and heads straight for her, she taps the ground as a demon pops up and punches him. He blocks it and cuts it in half with his arm sharpening like a blade, a prison made of wood forms around her. "Oh?" She says as Donovan has his hands forward, "You think this cheap spell could hold me?" She asks as he nods. "Sometimes, simple tricks are bypassed the strongest techniques. You should know, you created it." He says as she giggles. "Oh honey, cute attempt but I'm sorry I'm afraid to tell you that I'll be making my..." she starts to say as she can't break out and her hands stop glowing. "Entrapment Spell." He says as she raises her eyebrow. "Why say it out loud?" She asks as he grins. "I'm not done yet." He says as Salo aims his bow towards her and fires it. The arrow flies as it strikes her in the shoulder, she falls back into the wooden cage, "State why you're here and I might miss your head next time." He says as she smiles. "I still am brewed with demon blood, this won't affect me." She says as everybody looks surprised. "Nonsense. Demon blood isn't something to meddle with, you'd die no matter how strong you are, it's simply too dangerous for a human's body to mix." Whitmore says as he breaks one of the many chains. "There's nothing I can't do." She says as Donovan smiles gently. "Except get out of this trap." He says as she spits on one of the planks and it melts away and she breaks free. "Still think you bested me?" She says as Thomas appears behind her with a hammer made of ice shards. "NOT QUITE! HA!!" He yells as he swings it against her and a hand stops it completely. "Took you long enough, Persephone." She says as he stands tall, cracking the ice with his bare hands. Thomas lets go of the handle and goes for a punch, he grabs his hand and smiles. "Pathetic worms...begone." He says as he punches him in the stomach and face multiple times and grabs his face to slam him to the ground. Angela creates a spell, "Ha!" She yells as a fireball flies towards him. He looks at it as it dispenses it in thin air, Whitmore breaks out of his chains and flies straight to him. "A noble Angel." He says as Whitmore throws a punch, he punches the field he creates, he smiles as he tries to push back Whitmore, he falls back and delivers a strong kick to his stomach. He doesn't budge after the kick he lands, he glares at him and Whitmore sees a sparkle in his eye, he moves out of the way as a huge crater is created by it. Everybody sees the destruction created and Whitmore has his left arm extended as if something is in his left hand, white aura appears in a shape of a cross, it's a staff with his name engraved on it. "All of you. Leave now, you're not an angel nor one of Salo's guests, I'll ask you once. Leave or there will be hell to pay." Whitmore orders as Salo stops in fear as a portal opens up. Black smoke flows out of the portal as Ally and Persephone smile and walk backwards towards it, Knonus walks out of it. The energy around him makes the ground crack and he smiles as he sees Salo, Salo quickly draws his bow and three arrows appears within his fingers and fires all of them at him. He dodges two of them and grabs the last one, breaks it, and slowly walks towards him; Whitmore runs towards him with his weapon and he strikes a field of ash that's between him and Knonus. "Ablaze." He says as the ash sparks and explodes, the blast reaches towards him. He makes a cross-shaped  shield as the blast hits it and Whitmore lands in front of him, he throws multiple punches at him and he dodges them all with no effort at all. Knonus blocks his kick, Whitmore floats and delivers three kick in top of that, Knonus blocks them all; "Troublesome BRAT." He says as he punches Whitmore in the face and Thomas stays back. "Hey babe, I have an idea." He says as Angela raises an eyebrow. "Huh? You and your ideas, better not get us killed." She replies as he whispers in her ear. "What? That's crazy! I can't pull that off!" She says. "Come on, you gotta trust me." He says as she sighs and creates a portal. "Fine." She says as they both jump in. "Sir." Ally says as Knonus notices them leaving, "Take half the Council to Ebon, this is your stop." Knonus says as Ally creates a line of black smoke flying through the air and enters the portal before it closes shut. His hands turn black and he slams both hands on the cloudy soft grounds, everything around them shatters and they all fall from underneath.

~Earth~

Whitmore, Salo, and Donovan fall from the sky as Salo looks above them and sees Heaven shatter apart. A huge cyclone of fire and dark energy spins from the clouds to the streets below, destroying everything in its way, Whitmore creates three cross shaped platforms to stop them from falling. Demons and monsters fly and fall out of the cyclone, landing and crashing all around the cities, everyone spreads out as Knonus walks out of the cyclone and sees Salo flying away. "Don't you run from me, SALO!!!" He yells as he jets off the ground and immediately towards him.