'No,' Fury answered sharply. 'Get lost, Asmodeus.'
Kael was surprised by her tone. He had thought they were partners in this, considering Asmodeus had gone through so much trouble to have Fury released.
Asmodeus glanced back to Fury, giving her a patient look. 'Come now, Fury, you can't imagine I'd leave you here to fend for yourself?'
'I was half hoping you would, actually.'
'And not take advantage of the fact that the prestigious Immortal Halls have had its protections taken down?' he said. 'Such a feat hasn't occurred in centuries.'
The Immortal Halls were wide open to demon attacks then, thanks to Fury. Kael knew it wasn't that simple for demons to stride right into the Halls, but Infernum like Asmodeus wouldn't have a problem.
'I do feel as if this would make a lovely new office for my legion,' Asmodeus added, as if an afterthought.
'You should be rotting under a rock, Asmodeus!' Rafael bellowed, gold light seeping off his body like dripping flames.
Asmodeus smiled. 'Pleasure to see you again too. Fury, do you not have a ritual to perform?'
Kael glanced around the room, counting three gold lines amongst the remaining red of the pentagram. The light had receded drastically, much to the irritation that crossed Fury's face when she realised.
Rafael launched himself toward Asmodeus just as Michael shouted out in warning from behind him. Asmodeus' eyes flashed like lightning in response and suddenly everyone was blown back off their feet, a surge of energy billowing out across the room like the backlash of an explosion, chairs sent flying and bookshelves tumbling like dominoes. Kael covered his head, avoiding several books that flew above him, and then when the energy died down he sat up to see a translucent barrier separating them from Asmodeus and Fury.
Though Fury didn't look pleased at Asmodeus' assistance, she continued with her ritual anyway. The red light flared, blanketing the entire library in a flickering scarlet glow and Kael saw several of the symbols on Fury's arms move down her skin, sliding to the tips of her fingers and then dripping to the floor as if they had been painted on. They melted into the floor, bleeding into the veins in the marble to create patterns between each angle of the pentagram, looking almost like spider webs.
'I can't reverse the ritual while she's continuing,' Michael told them earnestly, his eyes watching the golden light he had created slowly become devoured by Fury's red.
But Kael watched the barrier, sensing Asmodeus' energy emanating from it as if his own life-force was what held it together. With that in mind, Kael dashed forward and planted both hands against the surface of the barrier and found that it was warm, not like other barriers that had surfaces like chilled glass. Which meant it was Asmodeus own energy that held it, not just standard magic woven together.
So Kael drew out the energy almost instinctively, as if his soul craved it. On the other side of the barrier Asmodeus' blue eyes lit up in realisation – but it was too late. Kael was taking the power that fuelled the barrier, drying it out like the sun stealing all the moisture from the earth. The barrier's surface began to crack.
A sharp pain lanced through Kael's chest and he almost pulled back from the barrier, but he forced himself to press closer to it; taking Asmodeus' energy felt like he was inducing poison.
And then Rafael suddenly slammed into the barrier, a bullet of gold fire, and the barrier shattered like it had been nothing more than glass in the face of Rafael's fury. Kael stumbled back and hunched over, the poison swelling up through his throat as if trying to escape.
Kael let it; he coughed raucously, but rather than blood or putrid liquid leaving his body Asmodeus' energy came out in the form of black smoke, the same substance Asmodeus' took form in when he travelled. Kael let out a long breath and the smoke left him completely, like he was exhaling from a cigarette.
Standing back up, he saw Rafael clashing with Asmodeus again.
Now was Kael's chance. He looked to Julius who nodded, and then he pushed himself to his feet and dashed across the library toward Fury, who had returned to her place in the centre of the pentagram. Her eyes were closed, her palm out, and she was chanting something in what sounded like a mix of Latin and Daemonic.
'Any closer, Animas,' Fury called, her eyes still closed, 'and I will gut you like a fish.'
'Go ahead,' Kael replied, slowing to a walk as he neared her. 'I'm already getting banished to Purgatory by interfering with the Angels. You'd be doing me a favour.'
Fury opened her eyes. 'Why do you insist? The girl is lost to you.'
'No she's not,' he said, wholeheartedly believing it this time. 'I promised her I wouldn't let her die, and if that means facing Infernum, and defying Angels, then so be it.'
A flicker of red light caught Kael's attention, and he realised with a start that it was the blood bracelet at Fury's wrist. It lit like a globe running out of power, dulling and brightening but in a rhythm that Kael could match to his own heartbeat. Fury noticed it too, anger flashing across her expression.
She looked back to Kael and said, 'Lucifer will have to wait.'
He threw himself out of the way just as she snapped out her hand, the cut in her palm bleeding out a thin, crystallised blade without a hilt. Kael kept light on his feet as she pursued him, just barely keeping ahead of her speed as she slashed down and he reeled back, the tip of the blood-blade glinting from the nearby scarlet light. Fury's blade was like an extension of her own arm, sweeping from one angle to another with barely a breath between, and Kael parried the blows with his own dagger, only to be stunned by the strength behind each hit.
'I'm not going to fight you,' Kael bit out, stepping to the side before Fury could break through his guard with her strength.
She stepped forward, turning nimbly on her heel to meet him. 'You're a disgrace, Animas. You're from a race of demons as old as time, and yet you do them no justice being the last one left.'
'Every other Animas died because they couldn't control their own power,' Kael replied, his grip tightening around the handle of his dagger. 'That's not exactly a reputation I'd like to have myself.'
Fury's smiled flashed like steel. 'Died? I think you mean killed, Animas.'
That gave Kael pause, but he shook his head and said, 'You've been sealed away too long, Fury. Except for a select few, the other Animas were too strong to be captured or killed. They died because they took too many souls too quickly and their bodies couldn't handle it.'
'You know so little,' Fury murmured, the fragments of crystallised blood spinning around her slowly, languidly, and Kael struggled to focus as he felt memories clawing their way to him, like ghosts from the darkest, foggiest recesses of his mind.
'Those who killed your kind, Animas, were the same who created you in the first place,' Fury continued, smug with the knowledge she had over him. 'I won't tell you who, though, because I enjoy that utterly perplexed expression on your face. But you can be reassured in the knowledge that you were the only one to escape your executioners, because you were the most powerful. Not anymore, of course, considering you had your power suppressed... involuntarily, might I add.'
Kael's mind was reeling, but the sounds of Rafael and Asmodeus battling one another, while Michael shouted instructions to Seth, came rushing back into focus and the memories that had been threatening to overwhelm Kael were banished like shadows under sunlight.
He couldn't let Fury distract him, regardless of whether she spoke the truth or not, but the fact that she knew how he came to be the way he was surprised Kael, and his mind latched on to it like it was the only thing keeping it steady.
It was widely known in the underworld that he was no longer the fierce, unstoppable demon that he once was, but the how was a closely guarded secret of his.
'Oh,' Fury murmured amusedly, 'you thought I didn't know? Kael, dear, I'm the reason you took that young girl's soul.'
He almost dropped his dagger, his grip slackening with surprise for just a moment. Kael gathered himself and said, 'You're lying.'
'I told you before that you, the exiled Immortal and the half-breed were required for my release because of your dual nature – of the mortal and of the demon world.' Fury shook her head as if she couldn't believe she had to explain something that was seemingly so obvious. 'Where can you find a powerful demon that is also mortal? You can't. You make one. Naturally, I was already sealed away so another Infernum had to do the deed.' Kael saw her eyes slip past his shoulder, looking at something behind him and without a second thought, Kael turned – and looked right at Asmodeus.
It suddenly made sense. The creature that had attacked the farmhouse, looking and moving almost like wraith in its black, smoky form, was identical to the way Asmodeus moved around, how he had entered the Halls. Why hadn't he realised sooner?
Because it didn't seem possible.
Had all this really been planned, right from the day he sat by that pond to recover?
'You were chosen because of your ability to steal demonic souls and because you would be powerful enough to take a human soul, whereas any other demon would likely die at such a poison,' said Fury, and Kael turned to find that she had stepped closer to him, shortening the distance that divided them. Kael stood his ground. 'Asmodeus would have watched you for a while. I don't know what situation you found yourself in that became your downfall, but Asmodeus clearly took advantage of it.'
Of course she wouldn't know the entire event, but she had obviously known of the plan before she was sealed away. 'Why did you willingly let yourself be sealed in a girl?' he asked, suddenly curious. 'You don't seem like the type of demon to fulfil such a request, even if it was from the Maker of Demonkind himself.'
There was something in Fury's eyes, which had dulled to the red of fading firelight, that made Kael suspicious. Then it cleared, her eyes hardening again, and she said, 'I did it out of allegiance, of course. He wanted to be released, and I am the only one able to do such a thing because of our blood connection.'
'And that's it?'
She smiled. 'That's it.'
'Somehow,' he said slowly, 'I don't quite believe you.'
Fury shrugged, and then the miniature blades shot toward him. He was too slow to dodge all of them, a single blood-turned-crystal blade lodging in his shoulder. A biting, frigid pain lanced up his neck and down his arm, as if the crystal had been made of red ice, not blood. He stumbled back and pressed a hand to his shoulder, feeling blood seep into his palm.
Something suddenly tore through his other shoulder from behind and he blanched, stumbling forward to his knees. The same ice-cold pain spread through his other shoulder, holding his body still for a moment as he pushed the pain aside.
Glancing back, Kael saw the blades that he had avoided were still suspended in the air behind him, poised to strike. He turned back to Fury and said, 'Go ahead.'
'It's a shame the last Animas will die on his knees, then,' she said, her hand flicking in a silent command.
Kael spun around just as the blades flew at him, distantly hearing someone shout his name, and threw out his hand so that a blade ripped through his palm. It didn't tear out the back of his hand and Kael knew, as a second blade tore into his side, a third into his thigh and a fourth in his bicep, that the blood that the blades were made out of was sinking into his own veins, mixing with his own blood.
He could only hope his plan would work.
But that was when it started; his head span, dizzy with the sudden exhilaration of the extra power running through his veins. More, his soul demanded, and again those ghosts of memories crawled out of the corners of his mind and he remembered feeding off demon souls, of revelling in the strength and abilities it gave him. More.
As Fury's blood settled deeper in his veins, Kael felt the skin splitting across his arms to reveal the hardened, onyx flesh that had belonged to his true form. More.
There was something familiar about Fury's blood though, something that made Kael feel as if it was her energy that his soul had been craving, that his soul had been created to devour. It almost made his control impossible to maintain.
What is this?
He wanted more, not just because his soul desired it but because something told him that if he had more of Fury's blood then his history, his memories, would become clearer.
Kael.
Taryn's voice was at his ear, and the world came back into focus again.
Drawing from his soul like he was trying to lean into the heat of a dying fire, Kael threw out his uninjured hand and electricity sparked to life – but it wasn't the white-hot blue like lightning that ripped skies in half. Instead, the electricity was red. Red like Fury's eyes.
Realisation flashed across Fury's face and she formed three more palm-sized blades from the cut on her arm, the blood crystallising to form sharp ends that glinted against the ritual's blaring light around them.
All three launched toward Kael at the same time, but the electricity webbing his hand and up his forearm disintegrated the blades as soon as he raised his arm to deflect them. Fury created another set of three and as Kael began walking toward her she released them like missiles, but again they shattered, crumbling to the floor in a pile of red dust just like the blood bracelet had when Fury destroyed it. Kael couldn't let himself think of that though, because he knew his blood bracelet wasn't destroyed.
He just had to reconnect it.
Fury was growing agitated, but threaded through her furious expression he could see panic.
'That's a dirty trick, Animas!' she thundered, her blood forming a long, thin blade like a Japanese katana. 'I'll run you through without a second thought, you understand?'
'Do it,' he said, stepping closer to her. 'You'll only be feeding me more energy, Fury. Your power is in your blood, not just the negativity you steal from Taryn, and each time you use one of those blades on me I'll simply take the power for myself. So do it.'
Kael could see the decision warring in her eyes and that in itself was surprising. He had realised Fury's blood carried her power, her energy, only moments ago when Julius had spoken to him. It seemed obvious now because she could create whatever weapon she liked from her blood alone and since Rafael had stopped at the threat of the blood bullet at Michael's neck, it only became clearer as Kael thought on it. What he hadn't been sure of, however, was if he could transmute her blood into his own power, drawing the energy from it like he could do when physically touching someone. It wasn't pleasant, since it felt as if he had ice running through his veins, but it was the only thing he could think of doing to stop Fury from attacking from a distance. With her blood she had an entire arsenal at her disposal, but without it? She only had herself.
Fury let out a frustrated growl and tossed the sword to the side, the crystal shattering as it hit the floor. The remaining symbols on her arms writhed across her skin and then she threw up her hand, her fingers curling into a fist, and she said, 'Have it your way, Animas.'
Something slammed into Kael from behind, though he knew there was nothing there. On Fury's arm the signum for Control was glowing from use and despite Kael obtaining some of Fury's power, he still wasn't strong enough to resist. He was dragged forward as if caught by a puppeteer, and then Fury's hand was around his neck like a steel vice.
Instantly he thought to grab her arm, but Fury's armour spread right down to the tips of her fingers, shielding her skin from any physical contact. Fury smiled. 'Did you think I would allow you to touch me again? Don't believe me to be a fool. I am not so hot-headed that I would allow my anger to override common sense.'
'Common sense, no,' Kael agreed, 'but judgement?'
Her brow drew in, an expression surprisingly human, but before she could retaliate Kael lifted his bleeding hand and wrapped it around her wrist, right over the blood bracelet. She realised a second too late and her shout of protest was swallowed by a brilliant scarlet light that burst from the blood bracelet, spilling out from between Kael's fingers to encompass both him and Fury. He felt her fingers release his neck but Kael didn't let go of her wrist, not when he could feel it pulsing like a heartbeat under his hand – Taryn's heartbeat.
The light was so blinding Kael had to close his eyes, but there were symbols – no, letters – burned into the backs of his eyelids like the impression of the sun's glare. He couldn't discern what the letters said but they were familiar all the same, letters that hinted at Latin and English and languages of eras past, of secrets and power and perpetuity, until finally he realised what word they formed.
Aeternus.
Kael hit the ground, snapping him back to reality.
'Kael!'
Julius was at Kael's side, but he noticed him for only a second before a searing pain at his wrist pulled his focus. He looked down, finding a ring of split skin around his wrist just like the night he met Taryn. He felt the blood bracelet reforming just as he had back then, as if the bracelet was being created from his very bones, filled and painted with his own blood and polished with his own life force. He couldn't describe the pain if he had been asked to, because it was both pain and something else entirely – something beyond comprehension.
Julius said something else, something in astonishment, but Kael didn't hear what it was, not when the blood bracelet had finally finished forming around his wrist, its familiar weight settling against his skin as if it had never left.
'No!' Fury shouted from across the library, making Kael's eyes snap up in her direction. She was trying to pull the blood bracelet from her wrist, its glow threading through her fingers as if nothing could extinguish it. He watched as her armour peeled back, pieces of it flaking off like old, cracked paint and he saw her eyes, as red as the blood her weapons were made from only a moment ago, flicker like broken lights. She dropped to her knees, her lips uttering no, no, no over and over, as if it was a chant that could hold as much power as the ritual had done.
Kael wearily climbed to his feet, ignoring Julius' protest, and walked toward Fury once more. She didn't look at him until he was within arm's reach and when she did, only her irises were red. The symbols had faded from her skin, the armour was changing back to tattered strips of clothing, but there was defeat in her expression as if she could feel her control slipping like water, melting away so that she could no longer grab hold of it.
'You've doomed us, Animas... He's going to kill me,' she said, sounding pained.
Kael crouched down before her. 'Who?'
'Lucifer,' she told him, her hand dropping away from the blood bracelet in surrender. Fury lowered her head, her gaze turning to the floor so he couldn't see her eyes. 'She didn't want to free Lucifer... she wanted to kill him, before he kills her.'
'But he isn't unsealed. He won't—' Kael stopped, realising it hadn't been Fury who had spoken.
It had been Taryn.
'Taryn!' He reached forward just as her head tipped back, her eyes already closed. Kael slipped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her against him, his free hand pushing strands of hair from her face.
'Taryn?' Kael called again, his hand dropping to her throat to feel for her pulse. There was a steady beat under her skin, and he released a breath in relief.
But Kael's relief was short lived, because as he knelt on the ground with Taryn in his arms he felt the ground beneath him begin to tremble. He looked out across the library, now barely resembling a library at all, and found the ritual a myriad of red and gold but still in effect all the same. Rafael was on one knee, pitched upright by his sword as he took in laboured breaths while Asmodeus was at ease, his gaze roaming across the room until it settled on Kael. His expression darkened.
Kael didn't hold Asmodeus' gaze for long. He looked instead to the centre of the flaring pentagram just as it cracked, like a mirror struck by force. This was different though; the impact had come from underneath the ground.
As if something was breaking through.
The floor began to crumble away as if there was nothing beneath it, just a bottomless void, but Michael left his place at the pentagram's edge and dashed forward, his hand reaching outward just as a sword materialised, unsheathing from thin air just as Rafael had done. Kael recognised it as the Sword of Michael, a weapon that demons hoped was only myth. It blazed as if a fire was contained within the very blade, the tempered steel glowing like heated metal and as Michael reached the centre of the pentagram he ran his other hand down the edge of the blade, slicing open his palm so that a stream of blood coated one edge of the sword.
For a second Kael thought Michael was going to leap into the gaping hole that continued to widen, but instead he stopped himself just at the precipice, pulled his arm back, and then launched his sword like a spear down into the cavern. He leapt back and dropped to one knee, then pressed his bleeding hand to the ground.
'Everyone, cover yourselves!' he shouted.
Kael looked down to Taryn and leaned over her, shielding her with his arms. Nothing happened at first, though the ground continued to shake – and then a ferocious wind suddenly blew past him, almost ripping him from his place. It was as if someone had opened the doors and let in the wrath of a tornado, the surge so vicious all Kael could hear was a deafening roar in his ears.
Until he realised the roar wasn't from the wind.
And then everything stopped.
Kael took a moment before opening is eyes, his gaze falling to Taryn first before he finally looked up. He watched the floor reconstruct itself so that the hole no longer existed, but just as it closed a plume of dark red smoke lifted into the air. Kael watched it, his brow drawing in with caution, but then the smoke dissipated.
'Michael!' Rafael shouted, bringing Kael's gaze back to the devastation around him. He saw Rafael kneel beside Michael who wasn't moving, and then his view was blocked as Julius stepped in front of him.
'Is she all right?' Julius asked.
Kael lifted Taryn into his arms, feeling the strain on his exhausted body, and steadily rose to his feet. Julius frowned, but he didn't try and take Taryn off him. 'She's sleeping, I think.'
'Is she—?'
'Herself? Yeah, she is,' he told him. 'How did Michael stop the ritual?'
Julius turned to the injured Angel who was covered in burns. Seth and Rafael were crouching around him. 'I can't say for sure, but I believe the Sword of Michael overpowered Lucifer's rise. The sword was what defeated Lucifer the first time, after all. Michael and Seth's attempts to counteract the ritual before it reached that point were no match for Fury's own energy, it seemed.'
'And Michael?'
'He will heal,' said Julius. 'With time.'
Seth stepped back just as Rafael's wings extended, but they were not the translucent energy they usually appeared as. The wings were real, made entirely of gold, with each feather detailed as if painstakingly sculpted by hand. They cocooned Rafael and Michael, and then there was a suddenly flurry of movement. Kael blinked against it, but the Angels were gone.
A few feathers of gold floated to the ground in their wake.