Steel clashed against steel and blasts of energy flashed lights of different colors everywhere in the Royal Court of Tartarus. Arianne knew they would not last much longer, though she held her own and Nexus was doing fairly well against Tartarus himself, the others were beginning to look weary and Lucifer's generals did not have a single scratch. Not Good. Just when she was about to call for a retreat, a familiar tingle went along her left forearm and Acantha appeared through his signature portal, "No sense waiting around for you to call for back up apparently."
Arianne dodged another one of Asmoday's slashes from his human sized axe, "Actually I was thinking of retreating the group. Our chances are going from slim to dead."
"Not anymore!" Like ghost, only far more tangible, six Dh'Arch Angels phased through the ceiling and hovered above the fight. The one who spoke was Ráebella, "You can relax now, Leliel, we got your message."
Arianne took a quick glance over to Leliel and saw her smile at the Dh'Arch Angel who had spoken, "I was only waiting for you guys so I could get serious!" She delivered two quick blows to Bael's ribcage and dropped low to trip him when he doubled over. Just as quickly, Leliel sprung back up drew her long-sword, "Consider my membership in our family withdrawn." With one swift slash, Leliel beheaded the angry general.
Figures, Arianne thought, beheading kills everything.
The Dh'Arch Angels swooped down, the wind whistling in their black wings as they landed beheading a general each with their descent. Only Beleth, Asmoday, and Vine remained. Not intending to be upstaged by the angles, Arianne focused on her opponent. His moves were fast and his defense appeared to be impenetrable. Asmoday also appeared to not be tired, whereas Arianne was beginning to sweat. If I drag this out any longer I'll lose to this slug, think Arianne... But no matter what she tried, Arianne just could not get through Asmoday's armor, and all her attacks to his head were blocked. Heat rushed passed her and Arianne saw that Dennis was hurling balls of fire and lightning at Beleth. That's It! I've got magik! Ugh, I could slap myself for forgetting that.
"Give up little girl, I won't fall as easily as my brothers." Asmoday laughed drew back his axe, sending a wave of dark energy into its blade as he raised it into a diagonal attack.
"I'm nobody's little girl." Arianne stopped moving as the Axe came down. Instead of cutting into her, the Axe ran into a blood red energy that had suddenly appeared around Arianne in the last second.
Asmoday's face held a shock that lasted only a few moments, "So you're part demon. All the more reason to have you for dinner." He withdrew his axe again, a manic grin ripping across his face. Until he froze, his grin replaced by terror.
"Demons are the least of your worries Asmodeus." Arianne's eyes turned a dark shade of red, like drying blood. Two horns grew from the sides of her head up to an inch and a half each, and when she spoke, her voice sounded like three different women.
Arianne allowed herself to be filled with the dark power she inherited from her mother, and then directed every ounce of it towards Asmoday. His eyes turned the same color of Arianne's, just before they solidified into charcoal and his entire body combusted.
"Holy crap," said Shift, "are you like a Ghost Rider or something?" He fell into silence however, as Arianne turned towards him.
"Do I look like a child's fantasy to you?"
∞
The Arch Mage panted as the Dark Prince breathed heavily over twenty feet away, both hovering in the air, bleeding profusely. Alexander could tell that Lucifer was almost out of strength, while he himself drew strength from his surroundings and the entire universe. But still, this fight was taking its toll on him, as the chaotic mixtures of dark and light from Lucifer's attacks were somehow penetrating his defenses. "I have to settle this, and fast" Alexander thought to himself, "He's much slower now, so it's almost time..."
During the fight, a combination of both curse and enchantment had been revealed in Alexander's knowledge. If timed correctly, he could cast the spell and capture the Dark Prince in a mental labyrinth conjured up by his own guilt and fears.
"Easier said than done." So far Lucifer was leaving no openings for capture; Alexander would need a major distraction to break through... "That's it!"
Alexander flew straight for the Dark Prince, whose reaction was to flay head first as well. Just as they were about to collide, Alexander used a split second to maneuver his blade down Lucifer's and pushed his body weight with it, forcing the Dark Prince to use both hands to hold the sword. Then when he was sure Lucifer was using all his strength to push back up against Alexander's blade, he turned it diagonally and caused the Dark Prince to literally raise both hands in the air, leaving the opening Alexander needed. Alexander drew back his right hand, sword in his left, opened his palm and then pushed, pressing into Lucifer's bare chest, "Got ya!" Alexander smiled as the Dark Prince's face was filled with shock and recognition, realizing that he had been deceived.
"You see," Alexander said as he put the spell in place, "you already did half the work for me by going shirtless and losing your cool. Because we both know that if you remained calm you would've outsmarted me instead. And let's not forget you leaving this nice little opening for me. So now this is what's going to happen. I'm going to remove your mind from your body and keep it imprisoned somewhere special just for you. But as for the rest of you...death is the only kindness I can grant it."
∞
A flash of blue signified Alexander's reappearance in the court of Tartarus. He looked up just in time to see Arianne changing back from a horned demon. Please tell me that's not what I'll be waking up to one morning, he thought to himself as he walked towards his and Leliel's comrades.
"Word of advice dude," said Shift, "do not, under any circumstances, piss off your girlfriend."
"We're not together." Both Alexander and Arianne replied simultaneously.
Ráebella laughed before she shook her head and spoke, "You are both just too adorable. Anyway, if you all don't mind, the rest of us have lives to get back to. Ciao!" One by one, the Dh'Arch Angels vanished.
"So guys, where will our next crazy adventure take us?" Dennis asked sarcastically.
"Now you must return to Earth." Seth appeared by the large, now charcoal smudged, doors.
"Oh now he shows up. That explains how you survived so long, being the first Arch Mage and all." Dennis scoffed, "Pathetic."
"This was not my battle to fight." Seth defended.
"And since when does an Arch Mage get to choose their battles? Isn't it your duty to protect the entire universe?!"
"We cannot be expected to fight your battles for you. Otherwise your growth as individual entities, and as comrades, cannot be possible. It is through defending oneself and each other that you will strengthen your bonds. And of course come out with a few honorable scars." Seth indicated the gash on Nexus' left arm, Tartarus had gotten in a lucky blow but in the end it was Nexus who survived as the victor.
"Bonds? So we're talking Naruto now?"
"Dennis!" Alexander's voice echoed across the room, "Enough!" He then returned his attention to Seth, "What's happening on Earth?"
"Do you know of something called The Reckoning?" Seth asked.
Alexander began to say no, which was a first for even his universal knowledge, but the Arianne and Leliel gasped. Those three occurrences were enough to set off the alarms in Alexander's instincts on full alert, turning his eyes blue and making his sword hum with power, "What is it?"
"The Reckoning," Shift began, "is the happiest day in every high-classed demon's life. It's a blood ritual passed down through generations of Elderwitches in the Four Covens of Nosferatu. On the day of the White Sun, The Reckoning will be performed by the Four Covens, and zones of concentrated power in the world will become gateways for the most ancient and powerful demons both alive... and dead."
"What? Is that even possible?" Alexander did not even know why he bothered asking.
"Every underworld has a prison," Dennis replied, "and every prison, has an area with maximum security for its most dangerous inmates. The ritual can somewhat be thought of as a string of codes that hack into the security systems of each prison and deactivates them then clears a path for their release."
"So having the Whisperers to deal with wasn't enough? The world just had end too, didn't it?" Alexander sighed in exhaustion, "Is there any way to stop this ritual?"
"Unfortunately, no there isn't." Came Nyxx's disappointing answer as she appeared, "The Elderwitches have many millennia worth of experience when it comes on to concealing themselves, which makes finding them, impossible. As I'm sure you've realized by now, even the Universe did not know of their existence. All we know is that they are near each corner of the earth, just outside the territory of the Riders of Armageddon. I've already notified every immortal that's on our side, which covers most of the planet. The only places left are Germany, Australia, and the Caribbean."
"What?!" Alexander blurted, "Why haven't you told James and the others?"
"Because I thought of you first, since you've been fraternizing with my daughter, Arch Mage." Nyxx glared.
"Mother!" Arianne chastised in an attempted hushed tone.
"Please," Seth interjected, "we don't have time for this. The gates are opening as we speak. You must go now, I've already sent a telepathic message to James and he's on his way there."
"Fine," Alexander focused on the matter at hand, "I'll go with Arianne, Leliel and Shift, to the Caribbean. Dennis will go to Australia, and Nexus to Germany, since the both of you are Ancients. Let's get out of here."
"Great," Shift remarked, "another chance to kill myself and I haven't even caught my breath from the last attempt yet."
∞
Alexander, Arianne, Leliel and Shift, appeared in the center of the Chapel Gardens at the University of the West Indies, Jamaica. The night was dark and quiet, their area lit by a bright light-post flickering its white light. The cold air and damp grass was different from the other nights Alexander used to lay here until morning talking... that was a different life. Now it was too quiet, and everything felt still, even the trees and insects held their breaths in anticipation, or was it in fear? For the wind blew softly, carrying the whispers of an impending doom. Alexander closed his mind from the world as his sword pulsed with excitement and located James.
'Where are you?' Alexander asked.
'St. Andrew Parish Church, the graveyard. Get your asses here, now!' James sounded worried. But he was an Egyptian God, so if he was worried...
Alexander turned to the others, "We need to go now. I'll take us there. Ready yourselves." That said, Alexander drew his sword and flashed them all to the graveyard entrance...
"No Dorothy," said Shift, "we are most definitely not in Kansas anymore..." there were creatures endlessly crawling and marching out of a strange portal in the back wall of the cemetery, the demonic army barely being held off by James' company as well as a reasonable amount of warriors from Eden. But then with creatures like these, no force could be strong enough to be reasonable.
"No time for jokes. Move, now!" Alexander had already leapt into the air on the last word, his companions scattering in different directions simultaneously. His eyes focused on the scene below him, he landed squarely in the chest of what his Knowledge informed him was an Inanis Daemon, the Assassins of Murder. Plunging his sword into the Daemon's chest, Alexander stood and looked around him. If the Inanes were here, then...
Sure enough, there he was: the embodiment of slaughter himself, Murder. In his pantheon Murder had surpassed the highest class a Daemon Mage could reach, and had become something they called Unarvis-vohl. The roughest English translation of that would be Undying, if there was any surviving record of his pantheon or their worshippers. He stood just over eleven feet tall, glowed with a deep violet skin covered by black armor, and had neon purple eyes filled with malice and glory as he struck down each warrior that opposed him. His untamed white hair seemed to move in its own gusts of wind.
Alexander made his way through the Inanes and towards Murder, his battle instincts -forged by the Eight Immortals- finally getting a true test of strength. Scimitars and scythes were parried, their momentums redirected towards other would-be opponents. Strikes that would've been too fast to block were dodged instead as their wielders were put to death by Alexander's blade. But he was still nowhere near the level of Aries as he missed a few blows that struck home and drove their edges through his skin, tearing pass the cloth of his Arch Magus robe.
Suddenly aware of the stinging sensation protesting all over his body as air singed his wounds with oxygen, Alexander willed his robe to become armor and his body to heal the wounds. One in particular was a flesh wound on his left side that had barely missed his organs, the armor's cuirass cut into it and brought Alexander to his knees. Mentally scolding himself, Alexander eased the cuirass out of his wound and allowed the magik to heal him. The distraction however, had nearly cost him his life as an Inanis' scythe sliced rapidly through the air with the confidence of opportunity. Catching the scythe at a close six inches from Alexander's neck with another scythe, Arianne flipped over him and brought the Inanis with her, slamming it into a headstone then decapitating the Daemon.
"Now's not the time to be an idiot, Arch Mage." Arianne turned away from Alexander as she sent magik into the scythe, breaking its pole into half and linking the halves to a manifested chain. Just like that she changed her weapon and her tactics, Alexander marveled, watching as Arianne swung the chain scythe with accuracy and dexterity. Suddenly she swung the blade towards Alexander and pulled it back, an Inanis' head fell in front of him. She just saved his life two times in a row. Arianne was about to chastise Alexander again, when Murder appeared behind her and stepped into her back, sending Arianne sprawling to the floor.
"Dammit!" Alexander sprang to his feet and ran, sword held with both hands. Just in time, he caught Murder's broadsword, planting his feet into a horse stance as he fought against Murder's brute strength. "Arianne, get up."
Arianne pulled in her knees then pushed her arms into the ground to get up and spat dirt into Alexander's face as she shook what she could out of her hair, "So now you decide you can fight?!"
"This is seriously not the time to be an idiot." Alexander retorted.
"Ha...ha." Arianne walked away casually towards a group of Eden's warriors who were struggling with a Chimera, "Fine then, I'll leave you to be murdered."
Alexander had no time to find amusement in her obvious pun as Murder himself drew back his broadsword for another strike, throwing off Alexander's balance. Swinging his torso forward to regain his center, Alexander caught the second attack just in time, knowing he would not be able to rely on luck for a third. Jumping back two paces, Alexander watched as Murder's momentum cut his broadsword into the soil, hoping it didn't disturb one of the graves. When Murder held his handle with both hands to pull the sword out, Alexander leapt onto his forearm and ran up towards his head, slicing it clean off as he jumped down to face the three Jabberwockies that had just crawled out of the portal.
∞
James and Pyro fought in harmony with each other, phoenix fire joining with dragon fire on each of their opponents. With backs to each other, they swung, guarded, and aided one another with every movement and not a single one was wasted. Divine Retribution was being dealt and James felt serene, whereas flames brought death to whatever evil met Pyro's steel and he too was at peace.
"Does this situation seem familiar to you?" Pyro asked as he traded places with James and cut through three of the Inanes.
"Like the Sahara Desert?" James replied, he had just cut the legs off an unusually tall Inanis, who fell back onto the ones behind him. James changed the trajectory of his slash as the large Inanis fell by turning his wrist upwards and slicing diagonally to cut the Inanis in half who had attempted to jump on top of him.
"Exactly like that." As Pyro's three fell, and more Inanes stepped over them, he held the blade horizontally below his chin and rested his left palm on the blade then breathed a stream of fire towards them left to right and back again. He swallowed and spoke while Inanes marched over the twenty-something ones that laid dead and scorched, "So you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"We're on hallowed ground Pyro, we can't dishonor the dead." As James said that, the fallen Inanes they had both just slain began twitching, reassembling joints and coming back to life. Then the soil cracked and tore as the once buried humans and saints crawled out of the earth.
"You were saying?" Pyro smirked, but he knew they were in deep waters now.
∞
"So this is what the prophecies meant by 'both alive and dead'." Arianne felt the first signs of fatigue slowing her movements by slightly indistinguishable margins, and as she saw the two chimeras she had helped kill come back to life she knew this was going to be long day.
A strangely cliché witches cackle echoed in the graveyard, followed by the descent of a dark-complexioned woman with flowing white hair dressed in a marsh green robe. With lightning flashing and thunder roaring around her, Alexander was oddly reminded of Marvel's mutant, Storm. This woman's eyes however, did not glow white, not even light reflected off their pitch-blackness. When she spoke, there were strange intonations of an old Caribbean accent in her voice, "Come wi come to make anew, and come I find to discover you. Taking life yuh cannot keep; yuh sapling soul I come to reap." The woman gazed into Alexander's eyes and he felt something more dark and sinister than the late Prince of Darkness radiating from her. Light did not reflect from her eyes, because this woman had given her soul in exchange for perpetual darkness, and Alexander knew her name...
"Lilith!" it was Leliel who had shouted her name, "Your treachery ends today!" then she leapt into the air to attack the demonic witch.
Alexander wanted to return to holding off the jabberwockies, but the two coming back to life meant there was a Necromancer around. And that Necromancer, Alexander was certain, had to be Lilith. He leapt towards halfway of Leliel's trajectory path and pushed off on her dual katanas, forcing her to focus on the Inanes and hopefully saving her life. Alexander on the other hand, was now heading straight for Lilith.
Lilith's brow furrowed with annoyance as she knocked Alexander to the side with a purely magical force, "Do not interfere!"
Leliel dived from where she had landed, unfurling her wings to help her glide towards where Alexander was about to crash into a wall. She caught him, the force of his fall slamming her into the wall instead and injuring the joints of her wings. As Alexander looked up to her while she sat against the cracked wall and held him protectively, she said, "I'm your guardian angel, remember."
"No Leliel," Alexander smiled, "you're my friend." He eased himself out of her arms and stood, brushing dust and debris out of his hair and off his face. Leliel stood, did the same, and they both looked up towards the levitating Elderwitch, "So how do you know her?"
Leliel's expression darkened as she tightened her grip on both her katanas, "She's my oldest sister, and the first of the female Exiles."
Alexander was taken aback, "You knew she was one of the Elderwitches?!"
"No one knew where she disappeared to after her exile was sealed." Leliel defended.
Alexander could only sigh, "Why does it seem like all the fallen angels want to kill you?"
"Because I was the one appointed to stripping their wings."
Alexander was not expecting an answer, let alone that one. "If we survive this, I'll need a list of everyone you've ever pissed off."