Hannah and Norae flew up high into the sky while striking their weapons against each other. They went blow for blow, hit for hit, light against light, each determined to gain the edge against the other as sparks of lightning generated from the clangs their weapons made as they struck.
Norae suddenly did a 360 swirl and swung her spear at Hannah’s chest but she was able to block against the hit. It blasted her across the sky and away from Norae who threw her spear at her. The spear came to a stop in front of Hannah and tried to stab her multiple times by itself. Norae was using her telekinesis to control the spear and attack Hannah with it.
Hannah had to be quick and sharp as she blocked the floating spear. Norae called the weapon back to her hand and flew at Hannah again. They continued their dance, slicing and swiping at each other, a series of hits that seemed unlikely to yield a victor because of how equally matched they were.
Norae held up her spear with both hands and transformed it into a trident as two more points suddenly sprouted out from it. She lunged the trident at Hannah’s head who was able to bend her head slightly so the weapon would slide across her shoulder without making direct contact. She spun around and used her elbow to knock the trident out of Norae’s hands and it went falling to the ground.
Seeing that her sister was now unarmed, Hannah attacked her with her sword but Norae was too quick and easily dodged and weaved away from her attacks until she saw an opening and kicked Hannah’s sword out of her hands as well, now leaving the both of them unarmed. With no weapons to fight with, the angels opted to do it with their fists in a good old-fashioned brawl.
*******
Garin was moving at the speed of sound as quickly as he could so he could get to Hannah. He was still unable to teleport so all he could do was keep flying until he saw an ocean of sand.
A few miles behind him was another figure flying just as fast as he was. It was another demon who was following him but Garin didn’t realize it. He was heading for a fight with a powerful opponent unaware that another one was not too far away.
Whatever was to happen, Hannah and Garin certainly had their work cut out for them because the full force of the might of Heaven and the fires of Hell were after them and to survive the odds, they would have to dig deep and fight like there’s no tomorrow.
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Back at Josh’s house, the couple were in bed, cuddled up by each other’s side while they discussed the events of the night and what it made them feel.
They had taken a shower and had their dinner all the while barely saying anything to each other because of how worried they were for Hannah and Garin. They didn’t know what was going on with them and could only hope that they were doing alright. Isabelle was also feeling like things were never going to get back to normal for them even with the celestials out of them and restored.
She had been happy and excited about going away with Josh to the Maldives to get away from everything and every reminder of the rollercoaster of situations that they had found themselves in but now, it didn’t feel like they could ever truly get away from it all. One way or another, they would always be linked with the angel and the demon and that means something unexpected could always happen to them at any given time.
“I was so scared when the angel took you. I felt like I would never see you again and it killed me,” Josh told her.
“I was scared too, Josh. I didn’t know what was happening or what had taken me and the next I knew, I was surrounded by heat and sand. It was so terrifying,” Isabelle said and Josh held her even tighter, almost like he was planning to never let go.
“Do you think life will ever get back to the way it was before we found out about this whole thing? Angels, demons, God and the devil? It all still sounds like a fairytale,” Josh said.
“Maybe it will or maybe it won’t. We can never really know for sure but what I do know is that whatever may happen now or in the future, I want to spend every minute of it with you. Nothing else matters to me than being with you,” she looked soulfully into his eyes.
“The same goes for me, Iz. I love you…so much and as long as we are together, I know we’ll be fine,” Josh leaned in and kissed her.
Both of them didn’t want to think about the negative things or bother about what they had no control over. All that mattered was now.
Just outside Josh’s house stood Jennifer. She was wearing a dark trench coat so she could blend with the night to avoid being spotted and she was wearing nothing underneath it. She was staring at his bedroom window, fixated on knowing what was happening inside between him and Isabelle. She got her answer when the lights in the room went off but she was not content because it could mean either of two things; they had turned in for the night and gone to bed OR they were about to make love.
Jennifer never liked the thought of Josh having sex with Isabelle or with any other woman but her and it made her blood boil whenever she thought about it. But, that wasn’t as important at the moment as what she had just witnessed and filmed on her phone.
She knew for sure now how Isabelle was able to scare her the way she had done a few nights ago. She had seen it with her own eyes and now, she had proof but before doing anything with it, she needed to wrap her head around it and think with a clear head because what she had was gold and what she did with it could determine the trajectory of her entire life and her future with Josh.
TWO HOURS AGO
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Jennifer stood in a corner just a stone-throw from Josh’s house and she was waiting for him to return from the fundraiser he had gone to. She was ready to take action tonight and was determined to get him no matter what it took.
She had a bottle of knockout spray in her hand. Her plan was to sneak into Josh’s house when he arrived and try to seduce him but just in case he rejected her and chased her away, she was going to use the spray on him. When he would get knocked out, she would take advantage of him by getting him and herself naked in his bed and taking pictures of them in that position.
She had not decided if she was going to threaten him with the pictures or use them to try to convince him that something sexual happened between the two of them and maybe feign pregnancy. She hadn’t thought that far ahead but it didn’t stop her from being here and waiting for him.
Josh’s car finally pulled up into his driveway and Jennifer got excited and prepared herself but her excitement quickly became anger when she saw that Josh had brought Isabelle back home with him.
“Why is she here?” Jennifer muttered in anger from behind the corner where she was hiding.
The next thing that happened was a complete shock to her. Something vague appeared out of nowhere and snatched Isabelle off the ground before it disappeared just as quickly and when Jennifer saw it, she covered her mouth with her hands to keep from screaming out of shock.
She was so confused and became even more so when she saw Josh slapping his head and calling out to someone named ‘Garin’. It got even worse when he fell to the ground and was screaming in pain. Jennifer wanted to go to him so she could help him but when she saw the light coming off of him, she became frozen where she was.
She took out her phone and began to record a video of what was happening. She and her camera witnessed a man materialize into being from out of Josh and she was speechless as it happened.
She recorded the weird man waking Josh up and speaking to him until Isabelle suddenly appeared again from out of nothing. Jennifer’s head was spinning because what she was seeing just couldn’t be real. It couldn’t be!
What made her almost flip out was when the strange dark man suddenly sprouted wings like a man-bird and flew away. That was when Jennifer ended the video and sat still where she was, trembling and panicking because what she had just seen wasn’t supposed to be possible and it was so hard for her to understand.
She watched the video just to make sure she got everything and after confirming that it was all on camera, her eyes closely monitored Josh and Isabelle as they both walked inside his house and shut the door.
******
The angels were still brawling it out with their fists, trading heavy punches hard enough to break down mountains. Norae was still attacking as relentlessly as ever, not holding back her punches and hitting Hannah with everything she had.
Hannah fought back but whenever she did, her sister always had an answer for it. She would throw a punch but Norae would avoid it every time. It was almost like she could read Hannah’s mind and knew what she was going to do before she even did it. Hannah threw another punch but Norae grabbed her arm and threw her over her shoulder. She blasted after her in the sky and punched her on the body multiple times, blasting her across the eye of the desert. Hannah caught one of Norae’s fists and countered with an uppercut of her own. Both of them were bleeding as Norae had a busted lip and Hannah had a bruised eye.
They held on to each other and traded blows. Their wings weren’t in use while they exchanged hits so they plummeted from the sky and were falling back to the desert ground. Hannah would punch her sister and Norae would do the same, neither of them backing down or giving the other the upper hand. The closer they got to the ground, the faster and heavier their hits became.
Norae wrapped her fist around Hannah’s neck and positioned herself on top of her so that she would be the one to feel most of the impact when they touched the ground. Hannah knew that it was her plan so she tried to spin herself so Norae would be underneath her but her sister didn’t allow it. She kept hammering on Hannah’s face with her other hand until they crashed into the sand, causing an explosion of dust and sand.
Hannah was down and barely able to move. Her face was covered in bumps and bruises and Norae stood over her, breathing just as heavily as she was. Norae sat on Hannah and continued punching her face, over and over again until Hannah could barely move. She didn’t have any fight left in her and she was defenceless against her sister.
Norae stopped hitting her and got back on her feet. She put her hand out and her light spear materialized in her hand once again. She looked into Hannah’s eyes and lifted the spear, preparing to kill her sister with it.
“I’m sorry, Hannah, but it’s God’s will,” Norae said just before she brought the spear down.
Just before the weapon made contact with Hannah’s chest, Garin finally arrived. He flew at Norae so fast that he was almost invisible. He ran into the angel with his shoulder and blasted her away from his wife before she was able to kill her. Norae rolled violently across the sand, doing a few summersaults before she finally came to a stop.
Garin retracted his wings and bent down to pick Hannah up. He was so saddened by the state she was in and it made his heart break to see her so badly beaten up. He carried her in his arms and moved some strands of her hair aside so he could see her face properly.
“Hannah, I’m here. I’m here with you,” he said to her.
Although her eyes were swelled shut due to the severe beating she had suffered at Norae’s hands, she managed to open them and when she saw Garin’s beautiful face, it brought a smile to her lips.
“My Love,” she was barely able to get the words out.
“Yes, Hannah. It’s me,” he said to her and kissed her forehead.
Their beautiful reunion moment was unfortunately short-lived when Norae got back on her feet. She made her spear reappear in her hands and transformed it into a trident once again and had her sights set on Garin. She began to walk over to him, meaning to kill him as well and win the bet for God but it would have been a lack of determination on the devil’s part if he let God win so easily.
There was a sonic boom in the sky and a pair of dark wings flapped in front of the sun’s ray, causing a huge dark shadow to be cast on the desert floor. The demon that was following Garin had made it there and he landed heavily on the ground.
Norae spun her trident around and had her guard up for this demon because just like every angel and demon, they were acquainted and she knew he was very powerful.
The demon was tall and his horns were very big, most likely one of the biggest in Hell. And, the bigger a demon’s horn, the more power he possesses. He was in very thick armour that was adorned with human skulls on the shoulder pads. His eyes were blood red and the axe that was attached to his back was just as long as his entire body. Garin saw his face and he looked at him with both concern and slight gladness because they hadn’t seen each other since when he was banished from Hell.
“Sader!”
Garin called his name. A name he hadn’t spoken in thousands of years, the name of the only demon in Hell that he ever had a real connection with. The only one he could ever truly call his brother. He was happy to see him but the circumstance was surely not good and unfortunately, this wasn’t going to be a pleasant reunion of long-lost brothers.
“Stay away from him, Norae, or I will stain my axe with your blood,” Sader threatened the angel.
“If you intend to kill them, you’ll have to go through me first,” Norae said to the demon.
She launched into the air and tried to stab the demon with her trident but he moved out of the way and smacked her with a backhand. A simple yet powerful hit that blasted her miles away from where they were with so much force and intensity that it didn’t seem like she would ever come back.
Sader turned his attention back to Garin and Hannah and stared at them intently for a few seconds. Garin looked at his brother, wondering if he was there to help and save them from Norae or if he was here to kill them for himself. He got his answer when Sader took his axe off his back and made the sharp end ignite with Hell’s Fire.
Sader pointed the axe at Hannah and Garin and blasted a powerful stream of fire at them. Garin’s eyes widened in realization and he wrapped himself and Hannah with his wings and closed his eyes.
The fire engulfed them and it burned for several seconds before Sader made it stop so he could inspect the damage and make sure they were dead. He moved closer and when he got close enough, he saw that neither Garin nor his wife was still there. They were both gone and that could only mean that Garin had teleported the both of them away from him to avoid being killed by the fire blast.
Sader sighed in anger because he didn’t know where Garin had teleported to and it would take a while to find them. This didn’t discourage him though as he put his axe back on his back and flew into the sky.
Norae picked herself up from where she had landed after Sader’s smack and saw him flying into the sky before he disappeared. She knew he hadn’t killed Hannah and Garin so she had hope that it wasn’t too late for Heaven. God could still claim victory over the devil and all she needed to do was find them before the demons did.
******
God had watched the entire fight from his throne in Heaven and had seen Norae and Sader come so close to killing Hannah and Garin. He also witnessed how hard it was for Norae to beat Hannah and how easy it was for Sader to immobilize Norae.
In his infinite wisdom, what he learned from the encounter was that although Norae was very powerful and capable, she wouldn’t be able to do it alone. She would need some help if she was to succeed in killing them while fighting off other demons that would try to stop her.
He couldn’t send multiple angels all at once to get the job done so he needed to send just one more angel to assist Norae. He needed an angel who had proven himself in battle and who was a match for Hannah. It couldn’t be Cher or Gabriel because he knew neither of them would be a good enough match against Hannah when she gets to her full strength.
The only other angel who was a match for her was Fawn but she was still locked up for her disobedience, serving her punishment. God knew he would have to suspend her punishment and entrust her with the task of assisting Norae because she was his best chance.