Gasp.
A hand catapulted in the middle of his chest, glowing threads flailing, but ultimately severed. Ripped out. Lucifer stared at the core on his palm. Metallic white, and hard like a stone, it resembled a carnation.
Silas screeched.
Luka peered weakly at the dreary sky one last time. He had no energy to question the Lord. Blood spewed from his mouth, colouring his ill skin as he clung to his shoulders with a trembly smile. He mused the jasper eyes, and they faltered a grey.
"I love you..."
His arms began to slip from around his neck, and he let himself fall, head of chestnut hair spilling back. The demon inclined, but something, winging awfully fast caught him. Red fire erupted upon him at both sides, as a horned ox rammed into his stomach. A ferocious lion bit at his shoulder, and Lucifer snarled.
Silas gaped at the animals, harrying and pouncing in the thundering air. He wasn't dead, right? Surely not! Luka was strong—stronger than him, a prince. He tightened his jaw, fists quivering. His brother had already descended down to save him, what had he done? A staunch eagle flapped behind him, and he lobbed a glare its way. That damned brother of his, everywhere he went. The virtue bolted in a line to the demon, right when he had kicked the animals off.
Using his ghostly wing, Lucifer swaddled his neck. "His brother, you are..."
"The name is Sila-" He was cast to the dirt ground, pinions dusty as they grated against tree roots.
"I do not remember asking for a name." He landed. "Though, it would be good to know the name of my nephew."
His jaw slackened. "You're my uncle?..."
"It seems to have a brain." Lucifer circled him, inhaling his scent before stifling a laugh. "A virtue? And yet, you charge at me? What do you hope to gain? This core, or your brother's nod?"
He flaunted the white flower in his palm, and the blond mounted angrily. "What do you want with him?"
"I thought you would be at least, intimidating. Your mother definitely was." The demon laughed some more. "Even Ezekiel as a child would send a shiver down my spine. Born with grown wings, I would have thought you would be the same."
"The black sheep of the family it seems. Perhaps, even the black sheep of Heaven." Lucifer crouched down in front of him, canines as pointed as the tip of his tiered horns. The beast waggled the core. "After all, you are the reason I have this. You are the reason he died."
"He's...not dead!" the blond bellowed, eyes flipping over to orange as the trees girdling were ignited by his scream. Bulky smoke roved high into the sky, succeeding the gone water barrier. A pair of autumn trees toppled betwixt them, and a flaring fire enclosed the demon. Lucifer scowled, warping around the flames, until he was pulled upwards by an amber chain.
The demon lifted his head from the evaporating bindings on his wrists. It was a woman, hair like hay, pugio for ears, and a long scar on her cheek. He smiled, though his acute teeth delivered a different story. "Don..."
"You came back for him," she said roughly.
"I hoped to see you."
Adona blinked at him, at long last grateful to her poor eyesight. "I hardly know you anymore."
"Yet, you haven't stopped loving me." His whirling wings carried him closer, his hand on her cheek, almost lovingly. "This scar...I gave it to you, didn't I?"
The devil lies, he speaks no truth, she chanted, something strafing the behind of her brown eyes. He gives not happiness, he gives pain. "It hurts least of everything you gave me."
Lucifer smiled, his dark thumb wafting over the pink stroke. He pecked her forehead, talon scudding down her cleavage, blearing the senses not conceived by pain.
"You live in the skies, but you are miserable. Let me take away this pain you feel..."
She nodded.
Nails spaded slowly in her fair skin, as in water to check the temperature. She could hear them grind against her bones, snapping them out of the way. It hurt, it hurt so much, but it could never be likened to the throe of losing him. Her eyes rolled heavenwards. The smell of irony death was intoxicating.
His fingers were close.
Simultaneously, the demon ripped out his dripping hand, breathing laboriously. He sneered and glimpsed at the dominion, irises greyer than melancholy.
"What are you doing? Go!" he roared, and she jerked rearwards.
Warm yellow light engulfed the shade, whilst Ezekiel strode through it, an enervated and scratched throne to his chest. His core bobbed in a sea of panic, but the albino hummed a hymn, hoping that God would hear him. He rest his head on the bark, the tree swiftly growing to screen them. The albino stirred the hole in his chest, needling the craggy piece of his core to his body, and Luka swallowed a breath.
"E-zekiel..."
"Luka..." Tears stung at his eyes. He wanted to send them another home, for he would make sure his friend lived. "I know it is not me who you want to see, but-"
"Be quiet...," the brunet whispered. "I know...why you did it."
"I knew you loved him." Ezekiel held his paling face. "I sealed that part of Lucifer to his core, so you could be with him..."
A soft breeze blew over them, whilst smoke waited behind to mourn.
"I'm sorry I could never...love you back." Luka chuckled, making the small piece vibrate, and that was when the cherub realised it was fading. "You're- a good man...the best."
"Stay with me, Luka," he demanded, forehead against his. "I don't care if you don't love me. I don't care if I have to gaze at you from afar. Just...stay. Don't go."
Chlorophyll was draining from his eyes, and a tear at last bust away. Ezekiel, hysterical, put a kiss against his lips, keeping his head up with his hands.
He felt it go limp.
Ezekiel was never his first friend, his first crush, his first kiss.
But now, he was the first to see him die.
The cherub cut between the addled blonde and Lucifer. His left wing wound around him as he flew, hurling him in front. Bane was exuding from his body, and the stare he kept on him, waiting as though it would somehow retract the core. The demon doubled up with laughter.
"My favourite nephew! Finally have you come to see me!"
"And this, shall be the last." Ezekiel upraised his palm to the white being. Knots of vines, serpents of water, planets of fire and curls of air each accosted him. Unharmonious they were, like babbling children. He was a mess. His powers were a mess. His core was a mess. Luka had told him erst that it was a china cup, but he was sure that now, it was shattered, with shards stolen that he could never find back.
The albino lunged onwards within the cocooning ball, which opened in seconds.
"He will never love you!" Adrenaline was hot in his veins. He needed to feel the attacks on his skin, streeling bloodied pain. "No matter the lives you reap, no matter the jewels you give him! That very core you hold in your hand, it beats for Mammon!"
"Does it not sting saying that?" Lucifer countered with his voice as he did aggress. "It beats not for you!"
"As long as it beats, I will die happy!"Ezekiel whipped lucent light on his back, and he roared.
The demon raked at his back. "That is the matter with you! You are supposed to take, not wait for him to love you!"
"Look to where that has gotten you!"
The cherub summoned the jaw of his lion, sinking the canines in the bony wing, wresting with verve. Claggy blood squirted onto his cheek, as the wing batted desperately. Lucifer let out another piercing scream, glancing over his shoulder, lunacy in them. He barrelled in the direction of the angel, but wind thwacked him back.
A tall woman materialised between. Short brown hair fluttered alongside her navy skirt.
The two speeded about the demon.
An authoritative voice entered his mind. "I hear something, Ezekiel. An opening of sorts. We need to get the core as fast as possible."
Where are the archangels, he thought.
"The King is aware. He has sent angels, and has started barriers. However, Earth remains in an unknown condition."
Singing of angels wafted overhead.
Then, let us catch him quickly.
Ezekiel somersaulted behind, darting the full flaxen feathers of his large wings at his back. His fingers went to grab, but the monochrome body set to falling; squirming shadows distended.
"Helena!"
"On it." The brunette nosedived whilst the albino skulked, listing to contain with his vivid ropes.
White puzzles of the sky started to break apart in the direction the mass was headed—to reveal glimmering hues of purple obsidian. His golden eyes widened with fear as something white glowed inside of the dark. The beast still had the core! Utilising his ropey grasp, Ezekiel hauled him back as he hurried within the shadows, black painting a fog over his eyes. It appeared small, but as in he went, it extended for hours.
Relief rimmed his eyes once the winking flower came in view. The cherub wanted to admire it, such a beautiful core for such a beautiful angel, though he knew what the Lord's pen was like. A near scent of victory, and then, gone. He snatched the white stone, shooting down and flinging the shadows upwards to the whirling portal.
I have the core, he thought, a tearful smile making his face.
"What are you talking about? His core is still in there!"
Ezekiel stopped dead in his tracks.
What?
He unfurled his palm, simply for powdery ash to be lying on it.
"I have a feeling we shall meet again! Do but take it to core Ezekiel, in a better place he shall be," Lucifer declared, slender hand waving as he embraced his original form. A reddish demon looking around frantically faded with him, patterned hearts etched in the skin of her lower stomach, whilst a bouncier demon in aegean blue painted back up the portal.
Ezekiel plainly watched, dusty ash seeping through his retiring hand like sombre breeze past his silver hair. Screams belched fire all over the forest, but the cherub didn't care.
The one thing he cared for, was gone.
"He will go not with you!" Hair full like manes of silver stallion, and a blast like the kick of one.
He would savage stone to bide with hands sanguine. The Lord would hear his call before voice could make noise of it, and thus would thick bolts of daylight rain upon.
"Go from here, vile beast!"
He would shout to his youth a time more, but a knock of the foot would be his answer.
Lo, did the divine youth refuse him, for, by God, his lost honour and incivility forth brought strikes of light and pelting stones. The golden feathers of his wings had fallen, like angels mislead, unto all left was red skin and bones.
Not a doubt rest in his mind, and glared upon the clouds. In his blood, was revenge dark.