Chapter 162: 162
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"One."
The minute my countdown ends, I turn quickly on my heel, facing the oncoming hordes of halflings head on and with as much brazen as I dare to allow myself. It is a horrific sight, and even that would be a generous assessment. Their limbs lash out wildly, I can see the hunger in their ruined features, saliva dripping from their overworked jaws, spraying over the cavernous walls with a disgusting and putrid stench. They close in, their teeth flash, claws cutting through the grim air like knives through butter, delighted that their new prey would give itself up so easily.
It would seem these monsters never are satisfied.
Taking one final breath, I spread my hands out in front of me, and scream:
"Heaven's hold!"
The effect is immediate.
A sea of golden light erupts from my fingertips like a geyser from the ground, dousing the mangled forms of halflings in an eerie buttery light. It engulfs the cavern as a tidal wave engulfs the earth, rocking the ground beneath our feet with such power that I am forced to latch onto the walls around me to steady myself from falling, watching with an awful exhilaration at the scene I have created.
As the light touches them, each one of them freezes, their limbs grinding to a halt, hung in mid air, their blind eyes darting and wild, mouths frozen open, wide and agape. A series of unholy grunts issue from their maws, screams and shrieks like banshees in a forest. But wreath and pulls and try as they might, not a single one of them budges, held in a vice like grip, dangling in mid locomote. Even the maggots that wriggle under the surface of their flesh seemed to have stilled to a mechanical halt, paralysed mid air.
A beam of short lived pride runs through me. I did that. I did that to all of them.
Perhaps I am not so useless after all.
Wearily, I wipe the sweat off my brow, breathing a heated sigh of relief. Lifting myself from the side of the cavern, I scope the scene to assess the damage.
There was no guarantee that would have worked at all, in fact, given my uselessness against Azrael, I was expecting it to whole heartedly fail. After all, it is a spell I have barely even practised. But reading through Soren's book on the souls, I noticed that this spell in particular was one of great use, a key spell for the soul of heaven. It is the spell I accidentally entwined Soren in the day he found me in the great forest, the day I learnt I was not a normal being, or even a normal angel for that matter.
But now, looking upon the masses of creatures I hold captive, screaming an unintelligible bloody murder, I understand why he was so fearful of such an enchantment at the time.
'Heaven's hold' is one of the four great powers of the soul of heaven. The rest of them, I have recently learnt (and mostly unsuccessfully used), consist of 'guardian of flames' (the spell I tried to use to tackle Azrael with my fire beasts up in the palace). The ability to heal almost any wound, and 'divine purge', which is one of the most useful.
Heavenly hold, however, entraps anything in its path within rays of golden light, rendering them helpless, and impossible to move, frozen solid for as long as the user commands it. Only the wielder can then control their movements, direct them to any portion of the earth, do any deed, like a puppet on strings, their will no longer becomes their own. It is a powerful spell, one of great defence, but equally one of great power. Like most good spells, it relies on the adeptness of the user, their personal strength and willpower, and their capabilities to wield such a power. The more people held under heaven's hold the more difficult it becomes to control. Even now I can feel the will of the creatures waning on me, attempting to push me back into submission so that they might devour my flesh. But I shall not let them.
Wiping my palms on the sides of my trousers, I calm down the shakiness of my body. It is time to end this nightmare, once and for all.
"I'm sorry," I whisper, glancing over all the halflings, who wreath and scream and wail their discontent. The tragic thing is, once upon a time, every single one of them was a functioning mortal. But now they have been dumped here, left to rot and wither, feasting off the flesh and bones of scraps and when those supplies have diminished, each other. That is not a life worth living, not for anyone.
I suck in my breath.
A cruel vampire's greed made them what they are now, and the thought revolts me, but there is nothing to be done. It is time things ended here.
"Time to put you out of your misery."
Steadying my hands out before me, I take in a deep breath, and summon all the power I have inside me.
"Divine purge,"
I am surprised by the extent of power left in my body- power which I was certain would have depleted into nothing by now. At first it starts as a tingle, a slow throbbing burn, then in a snap my body is alight with flames, extending from my hands in great coiling snakes of fire.
The caverns rumble as my flames roar along their extensive walls, heat blasting me in the face, the force of my own flames sending me tumbling backwards a few paces. Everything, everything, within the tunnels is consumed. The halflings barely even have time to think before the flames swallow them whole, engulfing them in a molten mass of divine fire that not even the strongest vampire could resist.
Their screams are cut swiftly short by the heated death of the raging fires, the bitter taste of ash floating in the air, incinerating bodies, bones, and monsters alike, for the fires of heaven have no mercy for the cruel and unjust. I try not to look as their bodies go up in flames, try to remind myself that these are creatures that have put their humanity long behind them, that there was no hope in rehabilitating such monsters into the outside world. But no matter what I tell myself, that does not tear away the pang of guilt that I feel in the knowledge that these creatures were truly once like me, just unable to be saved.
At last I close my hands, shutting off the flames and stumbling forward, gasping for the air I didn't realise I was needing. My lungs are thick with the residue of smoke, and I cough briefly, bending over, my hand against my chest.
The smell of flesh has gone, replaced only by the numbing scent of ash and death. Nothing is left of the halflings but ashes and scorched walls, no bones, no flesh, nothing, except a long expanse of empty corridors as the flames continue to trail through the labyrinth.
The monsters have gone.
When the sound of roaring fires have blazed away, and the extent of my actions has finally settled upon my consciousness, I glance over to my sachet, noting with a thin sigh of relief that Kal has neither awoken nor is harmed. Puffing out my cheeks, I pat my sachet a few times, just to be certain everything is in there.
"I can't believe I did that," I mutter, half proud, half disgusted at such a reckless removal of mortal life. There was no chance that a halfling could have survived the wrath of divine fire. A normal vampire can take months to reform after being incinerated by the heavenly flames, but a halfling… there is no hope for them. They aren't even fully turned.
Taking one last gasp of air, I put a hand to my head, steadying myself. I need to get going. Azrael won't wait for me to catch my breath.
Just as I am about to get going, press on with my mission of finding my friends, a familiar voice tugs at the back of my mind.
Serena, it whispers, quite at first, barely more than a murmur in the blackened silence. Then is calls once more, only more urgent. Serena, are you there?
Swiftly I search around in the darkness, illuminated only by the flickering glow of my small floating fire, casting a pale light against the scorched blackness of the walls.
"Soren?" I whisper under my breath, fearful that I might be heard by another sort of monster. For a moment the air remains stagnant with silence, then, after a long pause, he calls out loud.
"To your left."
Just as I turn around to face the blackness of the scorched walls of the maze, a pair of hands take hold of me, pulling me towards the wall. I barely have time to scream before my body shifts through the solid wall into blackness.
Beginning to cry out, I slap the hands that take a hold of me, snarling furiously.
"Get off, get off," I scream. Upon hearing this, the pair of pale hands lets go, and a figure emerges from the blackness around me, its form wreathed in shadows. We must be on solid ground, or in some sort of liminal space, for I cannot rightly tell how I fell through a wall and ended up here.
Wherever here is.
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"One."
The minute my countdown ends, I turn quickly on my heel, facing the oncoming hordes of halflings head on and with as much brazen as I dare to allow myself. It is a horrific sight, and even that would be a generous assessment. Their limbs lash out wildly, I can see the hunger in their ruined features, saliva dripping from their overworked jaws, spraying over the cavernous walls with a disgusting and putrid stench. They close in, their teeth flash, claws cutting through the grim air like knives through butter, delighted that their new prey would give itself up so easily.
It would seem these monsters never are satisfied.
Taking one final breath, I spread my hands out in front of me, and scream:
"Heaven's hold!"
The effect is immediate.
A sea of golden light erupts from my fingertips like a geyser from the ground, dousing the mangled forms of halflings in an eerie buttery light. It engulfs the cavern as a tidal wave engulfs the earth, rocking the ground beneath our feet with such power that I am forced to latch onto the walls around me to steady myself from falling, watching with an awful exhilaration at the scene I have created.
As the light touches them, each one of them freezes, their limbs grinding to a halt, hung in mid air, their blind eyes darting and wild, mouths frozen open, wide and agape. A series of unholy grunts issue from their maws, screams and shrieks like banshees in a forest. But wreath and pulls and try as they might, not a single one of them budges, held in a vice like grip, dangling in mid locomote. Even the maggots that wriggle under the surface of their flesh seemed to have stilled to a mechanical halt, paralysed mid air.
A beam of short lived pride runs through me. I did that. I did that to all of them.
Perhaps I am not so useless after all.
Wearily, I wipe the sweat off my brow, breathing a heated sigh of relief. Lifting myself from the side of the cavern, I scope the scene to assess the damage.
There was no guarantee that would have worked at all, in fact, given my uselessness against Azrael, I was expecting it to whole heartedly fail. After all, it is a spell I have barely even practised. But reading through Soren's book on the souls, I noticed that this spell in particular was one of great use, a key spell for the soul of heaven. It is the spell I accidentally entwined Soren in the day he found me in the great forest, the day I learnt I was not a normal being, or even a normal angel for that matter.
But now, looking upon the masses of creatures I hold captive, screaming an unintelligible bloody murder, I understand why he was so fearful of such an enchantment at the time.
'Heaven's hold' is one of the four great powers of the soul of heaven. The rest of them, I have recently learnt (and mostly unsuccessfully used), consist of 'guardian of flames' (the spell I tried to use to tackle Azrael with my fire beasts up in the palace). The ability to heal almost any wound, and 'divine purge', which is one of the most useful.
Heavenly hold, however, entraps anything in its path within rays of golden light, rendering them helpless, and impossible to move, frozen solid for as long as the user commands it. Only the wielder can then control their movements, direct them to any portion of the earth, do any deed, like a puppet on strings, their will no longer becomes their own. It is a powerful spell, one of great defence, but equally one of great power. Like most good spells, it relies on the adeptness of the user, their personal strength and willpower, and their capabilities to wield such a power. The more people held under heaven's hold the more difficult it becomes to control. Even now I can feel the will of the creatures waning on me, attempting to push me back into submission so that they might devour my flesh. But I shall not let them.
Wiping my palms on the sides of my trousers, I calm down the shakiness of my body. It is time to end this nightmare, once and for all.
"I'm sorry," I whisper, glancing over all the halflings, who wreath and scream and wail their discontent. The tragic thing is, once upon a time, every single one of them was a functioning mortal. But now they have been dumped here, left to rot and wither, feasting off the flesh and bones of scraps and when those supplies have diminished, each other. That is not a life worth living, not for anyone.
I suck in my breath.
A cruel vampire's greed made them what they are now, and the thought revolts me, but there is nothing to be done. It is time things ended here.
"Time to put you out of your misery."
Steadying my hands out before me, I take in a deep breath, and summon all the power I have inside me.
"Divine purge,"
I am surprised by the extent of power left in my body- power which I was certain would have depleted into nothing by now. At first it starts as a tingle, a slow throbbing burn, then in a snap my body is alight with flames, extending from my hands in great coiling snakes of fire.
The caverns rumble as my flames roar along their extensive walls, heat blasting me in the face, the force of my own flames sending me tumbling backwards a few paces. Everything, everything, within the tunnels is consumed. The halflings barely even have time to think before the flames swallow them whole, engulfing them in a molten mass of divine fire that not even the strongest vampire could resist.
Their screams are cut swiftly short by the heated death of the raging fires, the bitter taste of ash floating in the air, incinerating bodies, bones, and monsters alike, for the fires of heaven have no mercy for the cruel and unjust. I try not to look as their bodies go up in flames, try to remind myself that these are creatures that have put their humanity long behind them, that there was no hope in rehabilitating such monsters into the outside world. But no matter what I tell myself, that does not tear away the pang of guilt that I feel in the knowledge that these creatures were truly once like me, just unable to be saved.
At last I close my hands, shutting off the flames and stumbling forward, gasping for the air I didn't realise I was needing. My lungs are thick with the residue of smoke, and I cough briefly, bending over, my hand against my chest.
The smell of flesh has gone, replaced only by the numbing scent of ash and death. Nothing is left of the halflings but ashes and scorched walls, no bones, no flesh, nothing, except a long expanse of empty corridors as the flames continue to trail through the labyrinth.
The monsters have gone.
When the sound of roaring fires have blazed away, and the extent of my actions has finally settled upon my consciousness, I glance over to my sachet, noting with a thin sigh of relief that Kal has neither awoken nor is harmed. Puffing out my cheeks, I pat my sachet a few times, just to be certain everything is in there.
"I can't believe I did that," I mutter, half proud, half disgusted at such a reckless removal of mortal life. There was no chance that a halfling could have survived the wrath of divine fire. A normal vampire can take months to reform after being incinerated by the heavenly flames, but a halfling… there is no hope for them. They aren't even fully turned.
Taking one last gasp of air, I put a hand to my head, steadying myself. I need to get going. Azrael won't wait for me to catch my breath.
Just as I am about to get going, press on with my mission of finding my friends, a familiar voice tugs at the back of my mind.
Serena, it whispers, quite at first, barely more than a murmur in the blackened silence. Then is calls once more, only more urgent. Serena, are you there?
Swiftly I search around in the darkness, illuminated only by the flickering glow of my small floating fire, casting a pale light against the scorched blackness of the walls.
"Soren?" I whisper under my breath, fearful that I might be heard by another sort of monster. For a moment the air remains stagnant with silence, then, after a long pause, he calls out loud.
"To your left."
Just as I turn around to face the blackness of the scorched walls of the maze, a pair of hands take hold of me, pulling me towards the wall. I barely have time to scream before my body shifts through the solid wall into blackness.
Beginning to cry out, I slap the hands that take a hold of me, snarling furiously.
"Get off, get off," I scream. Upon hearing this, the pair of pale hands lets go, and a figure emerges from the blackness around me, its form wreathed in shadows. We must be on solid ground, or in some sort of liminal space, for I cannot rightly tell how I fell through a wall and ended up here.
Wherever here is.
"One."The minute my countdown ends, I turn quickly on my heel, facing the oncoming hordes of halflings head on and with as much brazen as I dare to allow myself. It is a horrific sight, and even that would be a generous assessment. Their limbs lash out wildly, I can see the hunger in their ruined features, saliva dripping from their overworked jaws, spraying over the cavernous walls with a disgusting and putrid stench. They close in, their teeth flash, claws cutting through the grim air like knives through butter, delighted that their new prey would give itself up so easily.It would seem these monsters never are satisfied.Taking one final breath, I spread my hands out in front of me, and scream:"Heaven's hold!"The effect is immediate. A sea of golden light erupts from my fingertips like a geyser from the ground, dousing the mangled forms of halflings in an eerie buttery light. It engulfs the cavern as a tidal wave engulfs the earth, rocking the ground beneath our feet with such power that I am forced to latch onto the walls around me to steady myself from falling, watching with an awful exhilaration at the scene I have created. As the light touches them, each one of them freezes, their limbs grinding to a halt, hung in mid air, their blind eyes darting and wild, mouths frozen open, wide and agape. A series of unholy grunts issue from their maws, screams and shrieks like banshees in a forest. But wreath and pulls and try as they might, not a single one of them budges, held in a vice like grip, dangling in mid locomote. Even the maggots that wriggle under the surface of their flesh seemed to have stilled to a mechanical halt, paralysed mid air.A beam of short lived pride runs through me. I did that. I did that to all of them.Perhaps I am not so useless after all.Wearily, I wipe the sweat off my brow, breathing a heated sigh of relief. Lifting myself from the side of the cavern, I scope the scene to assess the damage.There was no guarantee that would have worked at all, in fact, given my uselessness against Azrael, I was expecting it to whole heartedly fail. After all, it is a spell I have barely even practised. But reading through Soren's book on the souls, I noticed that this spell in particular was one of great use, a key spell for the soul of heaven. It is the spell I accidentally entwined Soren in the day he found me in the great forest, the day I learnt I was not a normal being, or even a normal angel for that matter. But now, looking upon the masses of creatures I hold captive, screaming an unintelligible bloody murder, I understand why he was so fearful of such an enchantment at the time.'Heaven's hold' is one of the four great powers of the soul of heaven. The rest of them, I have recently learnt and mostly unsuccessfully used, consist of 'guardian of flames' the spell I tried to use to tackle Azrael with my fire beasts up in the palace. The ability to heal almost any wound, and 'divine purge', which is one of the most useful. Heavenly hold, however, entraps anything in its path within rays of golden light, rendering them helpless, and impossible to move, frozen solid for as long as the user commands it. Only the wielder can then control their movements, direct them to any portion of the earth, do any deed, like a puppet on strings, their will no longer becomes their own. It is a powerful spell, one of great defence, but equally one of great power. Like most good spells, it relies on the adeptness of the user, their personal strength and willpower, and their capabilities to wield such a power. The more people held under heaven's hold the more difficult it becomes to control. Even now I can feel the will of the creatures waning on me, attempting to push me back into submission so that they might devour my flesh. But I shall not let them.Wiping my palms on the sides of my trousers, I calm down the shakiness of my body. It is time to end this nightmare, once and for all."I'm sorry," I whisper, glancing over all the halflings, who wreath and scream and wail their discontent. The tragic thing is, once upon a time, every single one of them was a functioning mortal. But now they have been dumped here, left to rot and wither, feasting off the flesh and bones of scraps and when those supplies have diminished, each other. That is not a life worth living, not for anyone.I suck in my breath.A cruel vampire's greed made them what they are now, and the thought revolts me, but there is nothing to be done. It is time things ended here."Time to put you out of your misery."Steadying my hands out before me, I take in a deep breath, and summon all the power I have inside me."Divine purge,"I am surprised by the extent of power left in my body- power which I was certain would have depleted into nothing by now. At first it starts as a tingle, a slow throbbing burn, then in a snap my body is alight with flames, extending from my hands in great coiling snakes of fire. The caverns rumble as my flames roar along their extensive walls, heat blasting me in the face, the force of my own flames sending me tumbling backwards a few paces. Everything, everything, within the tunnels is consumed. The halflings barely even have time to think before the flames swallow them whole, engulfing them in a molten mass of divine fire that not even the strongest vampire could resist. Their screams are cut swiftly short by the heated death of the raging fires, the bitter taste of ash floating in the air, incinerating bodies, bones, and monsters alike, for the fires of heaven have no mercy for the cruel and unjust. I try not to look as their bodies go up in flames, try to remind myself that these are creatures that have put their humanity long behind them, that there was no hope in rehabilitating such monsters into the outside world. But no matter what I tell myself, that does not tear away the pang of guilt that I feel in the knowledge that these creatures were truly once like me, just unable to be saved. At last I close my hands, shutting off the flames and stumbling forward, gasping for the air I didn't realise I was needing. My lungs are thick with the residue of smoke, and I cough briefly, bending over, my hand against my chest. The smell of flesh has gone, replaced only by the numbing scent of ash and death. Nothing is left of the halflings but ashes and scorched walls, no bones, no flesh, nothing, except a long expanse of empty corridors as the flames continue to trail through the labyrinth.The monsters have gone.When the sound of roaring fires have blazed away, and the extent of my actions has finally settled upon my consciousness, I glance over to my sachet, noting with a thin sigh of relief that Kal has neither awoken nor is harmed. Puffing out my cheeks, I pat my sachet a few times, just to be certain everything is in there. "I can't believe I did that," I mutter, half proud, half disgusted at such a reckless removal of mortal life. There was no chance that a halfling could have survived the wrath of divine fire. A normal vampire can take months to reform after being incinerated by the heavenly flames, but a halfling there is no hope for them. They aren't even fully turned.Taking one last gasp of air, I put a hand to my head, steadying myself. I need to get going. Azrael won't wait for me to catch my breath.Just as I am about to get going, press on with my mission of finding my friends, a familiar voice tugs at the back of my mind.Serena, it whispers, quite at first, barely more than a murmur in the blackened silence. Then is calls once more, only more urgent. Serena, are you there?Swiftly I search around in the darkness, illuminated only by the flickering glow of my small floating fire, casting a pale light against the scorched blackness of the walls. "Soren?" I whisper under my breath, fearful that I might be heard by another sort of monster. For a moment the air remains stagnant with silence, then, after a long pause, he calls out loud."To your left."Just as I turn around to face the blackness of the scorched walls of the maze, a pair of hands take hold of me, pulling me towards the wall. I barely have time to scream before my body shifts through the solid wall into blackness. Beginning to cry out, I slap the hands that take a hold of me, snarling furiously."Get off, get off," I scream. Upon hearing this, the pair of pale hands lets go, and a figure emerges from the blackness around me, its form wreathed in shadows. We must be on solid ground, or in some sort of liminal space, for I cannot rightly tell how I fell through a wall and ended up here.Wherever here is.
