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saladloveChapter list: https://tanadin.dreamwidth.org/650.html
Map of Kaldriel: https://i.gyazo.com/332b0c0172dcc60acb46
Rough map of Hatu: https://i.gyazo.com/ea4f9f51b9dc7b9d8b86
Chapter Forty-Three
Transfer of Power
Opal Gate, Kaldriel. November 19, 2277. Time instance 842N.
Emma wasn’t too pleased about being in battle without Cataclysm by her side. The only black-feathered wings she could see were those of Annihilation and occasionally Shatter, further off in the battle. She still disliked having the labkids fighting their war, but Annihilation had insisted upon keeping her safe and Shatter seemed to be enjoying his first large-scale battle if his victorious roars were anything to go by.
Deathclaw was, oddly enough, nowhere to be seen, and Annihilation seemed worried about it even if she wouldn’t say it aloud. She was focused on fighting, claws against swords and sharp feathers against soft, taking out targets that Emma couldn’t due to her limited melee range.
Her lack of ranged weapon other than a shitty little pistol was really starting to piss her off. It didn’t do much of anything to the angels, especially the Guardians, and they knew by now not to get close to Nightbane.
She whirled around at the sound of wings and almost sliced Shatter in half, barely stopping herself in time. He flashed her a wild grin, shooting at an angel with a blast of ice. His clothes were torn and bloody, but he looked uninjured, and Emma shivered as she remembered Cataclysm telling her about Shatter’s...demonstration...of his unique ability.
Overhead, a blue-and-red phoenix circled a Guardian, but Emma couldn’t tell if it was Clash or Solace.
Her attention shifted back to her immediate surroundings when the two thousand unit beside her went down, the owner of a very large axe yanking it from the cyborg- who, if he wasn’t dead, was close to it- and turned to Emma with it ready.
Emma raised Nightbane. “Bring it.”
The angel snorted. “Do you really think you can do anything to me?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure?”
“Watch it!” Annihilation barked, blasting a smaller angel that had been creeping up behind Emma. She cringed in annoyance and stepped back to face both angels, quietly grumbling to herself about needing a cyborg eye on the back of her head.
The smaller angel looked to be an albino, with white everything except for her crimson eyes. She was short of stature and the symbol on her chest and the marks below it showed her to be a rank three Avenger, while the taller angel was a rank five.
“That was rude,” the smaller angel complained, re-adjusting her grip on her swords. “I only wanted to stab you.”
“They have a right to defend themselves, Claire.”
“Not against me!” Claire sounded almost indignant.
The taller angel rolled her eyes. “Watch this.”
“Zekara, wa-”
Zekara charged, axe raised.
Emma ducked under the swing and barreled forward, raising Nightbane to cut Zekara in half. An energy shield covering her skin protected her but she leaped away, stepping back with wide eyes.
“What is that?” she demanded.
“Nightbane,” Emma said idly, and charged her again.
This time, Claire intervened, sweeping up behind her and trying to stab her again. Annihilation slammed into her, knocking her off course, but a Balancer above hit her with a spell that made her scream and fall to the ground. Emma paused mid-run, turning to check on her, and Zekara’s axe slammed into her shoulder.
The protective chain around her neck flashed and the spell shattered, completely exhausted for now.
Emma yelped and bounded away, past where Annihilation was struggling to her feet. Claire drove her sword into Annihilation’s side and she howled, blasting Claire with flame and forcing her to back away. Zekara stepped forward, casually raising her axe as if she killed people’s children in front of them every day.
Annihilation's yellow eyes burned with flame, and she changed.
Emma had only seen a transformation like this once before, memories burned into her mind during the last days of the revolution. Darkness and flame wrapped around Annihilation and as they faded they revealed the monster that Emma had been dreading seeing again for years.
Annihilation had inherited Cataclysm’s corrupted demon form.
Her skin was covered in navy blue scales, yellow eyes glowing in a sharp contrast. Her horns and claws were both longer and sharper, with more reptilian feet and a tail to match that ended in a spiked macehead. Her wings were larger than they should be, with misshapen feathers that looked more like black swords. Her hair was brilliant white and her back was hunched, almost twisted, an inhuman look for an inhuman monster. Her face was slightly pulled forward, the hint of a muzzle protruding outwards.
She threw herself at Zekara, breathing fire and slashing at her with claws and sharpened feathers alike. The energy barrier around Zekara broke after a few hits and she dropped her axe in favor of grabbing Annihilation and pulling to try and get her off, blood quickly staining them both. Claire moved in to stab Annihilation but her swords weren’t very effective against Annihilation’s scales.
Emma slashed at Claire with Nightbane, opened a gash in her back that made her scream in pain.
“Claire!” Zekara spread her wings and released a pulse of light energy, knocking Emma back and loosening Annihilation's grip enough for Zekara to rip her off and throw her away. “Claire, you need to get to a Purifier! Now!”
“I want to stay with you!”
“Claire, now!”
A spell from a Balancer slammed into Annihilation’s chest and she fell once more, but struggled to her feet and roared a challenge. She spread her wings and sharpened her feathers fully, stepping in front of Emma and holding her position in a clear protective gesture.
She didn’t advance, staring Zekara down.
Zekara nodded slightly, as if understanding. “Claire, we’re going. Now.”
“I...but-”
“You’re more red than white!” Zekara grabbed Claire’s arm with one hand and her axe with the other before taking off, leading the way back into the fray.
Annihilation turned to face Emma, glowing eyes making her freeze in terror.
“Are you alright?” Annihilation’s voice was lower, rougher, and sounded like more of a struggle to produce.
“I...what?”
“Are you alright?”
“You have control of yourself in this form?”
“Yes?” Annihilation blinked. “Usually. Mostly. Why wouldn’t I?”
“Cataclysm can’t-”
The Balancer blasted them again, making Annihilation roar in pain as the spell tore a hole in her side. “One moment,” she snarled, and took to the air with a chaotic flight pattern that took her whizzing and spinning through crowds of angels to reach her target.
Emma looked away, but she still heard the sickening screams of the Balancer until Annihilation landed beside her, considerably more bloody than before.
They continued to fight, watching each other’s backs and finding themselves in a growing pile of corpses, allies and enemies alike. Flashes of Archangel wings passed over them occasionally, but Emma never caught sight of any particular Archangel staying closer than the others.
Until Hau’rah moved in.
Two Balancers, a Purifier, and four Avengers flew in behind his shield, framed by light-molded silver wings and hidden behind a matching shield. Annihilation busied herself immediately with the Avengers as they moved in, avoiding blasts from the Balancers as best she could. One of the Avengers slipped past her and charged Emma, ignoring Hau’rah’s warning and getting sliced in half for his trouble.
Nightbane hummed softly in her hand.
“You,” Hau’rah snarled, “are a lot more trouble than you’re worth.”
“Am I? I noticed the assassin you sent earlier.”
“Clearly he wasn’t enough to kill you.”
“No. He wasn’t. He-”
Emma cursed herself for being stupid and getting caught talking when the Balancer's spell hit her square in the chest.
She wasn’t entirely sure what happened after that, as she was thrown back and slammed into the ground. Her head pounded from impact and her chest burned with pain, blood seeping into her clothes and to the ground below. Surprisingly, they didn’t come after her, but the furious roar and appearance of a black-winged angel might have explained that.
She was only conscious long enough to register that Cataclysm looked stunning in his armor before the world went black.
~~~
Lucy’s head snapped up at the furious roar, eyes locking immediately on Cataclysm as he threw himself forward to meet the Guardian Archangel head-on with Annihilation backing him up. Surprisingly, Annihilation was in her full demon form with Deathclaw nowhere to be seen, but she seemed to be doing well even if she looked a bit pissed.
What surprised her was Cataclysm- he’d never worn armor before, at least not when she looked at him. He’d always gone into battle wearing normal clothes and came out the worst for it, but now he wore hell-forged black armor that made the surrounding angels wary of going near him.
It looked custom-made, clinging to his body perfectly with its slight spikes and spines staying out of the way but visible enough to make him look far sharper than he was. The armor reflected light at an odd angle, but she dismissed how unnatural it looked with the assumption that it was a metal found only in Hell that she was unfamiliar with.
His blood-curdling roar and battle-ready appearance were enough to make her shiver, and she’d seen Annihilation when pissed and dealt with Everex at his greatest rage.
She shot at an angel with an ice shard and was about to jump forward to get back into melee with her scythe before Sheva said, softly, “Watch them.”
“What?”
“Cataclysm and Annihilation.” Her eyes narrowed and Lucy stepped back from the fighting to get a moment to talk to her in relative peace, although she kept her eyes open. “They have a chance against Hau’rah.”
Upon closer inspection, Sheva was right. Cataclysm seemed almost invulnerable to his sword and light-based attacks while Annihilation ignored her wounds and fought on. They were too fast for him to block with his physical shield, and his energy one that expanded from the one on his arm was too large to have activated while fighting. Talmarian swept around them, keeping supporting angels at bay with the help of Shaadhun on the ground and both Everex and Solace a shorter ways off.
Then Geek was there, the Nethernomicon glowed, and the energy shell on Hau’rah’s skin shattered.
Sheva’s eyes widened. “Get Fall or Cap.”
“What? Why?”
“I need you to temporarily make me a phantom. There’s something I need to do.”
Lucy didn’t question it. She just ran, ran to where she knew Cap was perched in the midst of the battle, towards Cataclysm and the terrified Archangel who realized that he was in over his head.
“Cap!”
“What’s wrong?” She lowered her rifle, frowning. She looked surprised as Sheva swept right up to her, blank eyes intense even without pupils.
“I need you to be a triangulation point for this spell. Sheva wants to be a phantom temporarily.”
“You can do that?”
“It’s a Deathsworn thing.” Lucy grinned. “And she wants to come into physical contact with something.”
Cap nodded, and Lucy started the spell. She mumbled and focused, barely registering Annihilation’s howl as Hau’rah knocked her from the sky or Talmarian’s hiss as two Balancers hit him in the wings.
A beam of blue energy bounced between Lucy and Cap before hitting Sheva, revealing her form to others and making her glow brilliantly blue.
“Why did you need this?” Lucy asked, even as Cataclysm drove his sword through Hau’rah’s chest. The Archangel let out a scream and his body dissolved, leaving only his armor and a shining sphere of energy falling to the ground.
Sheva smiled thinly. “The Archangel position can be taken by a Guardian angel or a human.” She turned. “And no one said the human had to be alive.”
Before Lucy could react to that, she was off, shooting through the battle with the speed of the undead. Sheva swept past several stunned Guardian angels, their shock making them react too slowly, just enough to make them miss their chance while others realized and barreled forward.
Sheva’s fingers brushed the surface of the sphere.
And light erupted outwards.
The battlefield rumbled and flashed, glowing like the last rays of a dying sun. When the light faded, she spread her wings and rose to her feet, solid and powerful and alive. Her silver eyes gleamed the same colors as her feathers, silver light forming wings along her back and illuminating the stunned faces of the combatants around her.
Archangel Elysia “Sheva” Allvaer leaped into the sky.
“Guardians!” Lucy had never heard Sheva’s voice this powerful or commanding, but there it was, ringing across the battlefield for all to hear. Her shoulders lifted and, beside her, Cap gasped softly, as amazed as she was at the sight before them and the genius move that Sheva must have been planning since the beginning.
“Guardians! To me! Disengage!”
And then, astonishingly, nearly every Guardian backed away from their opponents and took to the air. It looked almost practiced, like they’d done this before, but their stunned expressions and mindless obedience rang otherwise.
An arc of pure light energy shot out at Sheva, but she only narrowed her eyes and stared its caster right in the face as it struck ineffectively. Archangel Festra Carnath bared her teeth in frustration, gripping her staff tighter as the Guardians swarmed around the newest Archangel.
“Demons!” Geek’s voice rang out in the sudden silence, and after a moment Lucy spotted her, flying on wings of green and the hopes of many. “Drive the others back!”
Sound erupted as the demons roared forward, digging claws and teeth and blades into their unprotected enemies. The voices of three or four Archangels shouted for a retreat, one of them even coming down to land on foot and keep the demons back long enough for the majority of the remaining angels to escape.
Lucy didn’t bother to fight. She just watched as Sheva flew overhead, the Guardians nearly blocking out the sky with their number as they hovered, watching their kin flee back home while they stayed behind. A few broke rank and went with them, but it was inconsequential compared to the number that remained with their Archangel.
Heaven had lost its protectors.
no subject
Date: 2017-04-25 11:19 pm (UTC)Emma raised Nightbane. “Bring it.”
The angel snorted. “Do you really think you can do anything to me?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure?”
“Watch it!” Annihilation barked, blasting a smaller angel that had been creeping up behind Emma. She cringed in annoyance and stepped back to face both angels, quietly grumbling to herself about needing a cyborg eye on the back of her head.
The smaller angel looked to be an albino, with white everything except for her crimson eyes. She was short of stature and the symbol on her chest and the marks below it showed her to be a rank three Avenger, while the taller angel was a rank five.
Oooo....Emma and Anni versus Zekara and Claire *grabs popcorn* this'll be fun to watch
Annihilation's yellow eyes burned with flame, and she changed.
Emma had only seen a transformation like this once before, memories burned into her mind during the last days of the revolution. Darkness and flame wrapped around Annihilation and as they faded they revealed the monster that Emma had been dreading seeing again for years.
Annihilation had inherited Cataclysm’s corrupted demon form.
OH SHIT! I hope Anni has more control over corrupt demon form than Cata does over his....
Annihilation turned to face Emma, glowing eyes making her freeze in terror.
“Are you alright?” Annihilation’s voice was lower, rougher, and sounded like more of a struggle to produce.
“I...what?”
“Are you alright?”
“You have control of yourself in this form?”
“Yes?” Annihilation blinked. “Usually. Mostly. Why wouldn’t I?”
“Cataclysm can’t-”
Well that's good to know and interesting....
Emma cursed herself for being stupid and getting caught talking when the Balancer's spell hit her square in the chest.
She wasn’t entirely sure what happened after that, as she was thrown back and slammed into the ground. Her head pounded from impact and her chest burned with pain, blood seeping into her clothes and to the ground below. Surprisingly, they didn’t come after her, but the furious roar and appearance of a black-winged angel might have explained that.
She was only conscious long enough to register that Cataclysm looked stunning in his armor before the world went black.
Quick someone get Emma straight to medical!
Then Geek was there, the Nethernomicon glowed, and the energy shell on Hau’rah’s skin shattered.
Sheva’s eyes widened. “Get Fall or Cap.”
“What? Why?”
“I need you to temporarily make me a phantom. There’s something I need to do.”
Lucy didn’t question it. She just ran, ran to where she knew Cap was perched in the midst of the battle, towards Cataclysm and the terrified Archangel who realized that he was in over his head.
“Cap!”
“What’s wrong?” She lowered her rifle, frowning. She looked surprised as Sheva swept right up to her, blank eyes intense even without pupils.
“I need you to be a triangulation point for this spell. Sheva wants to be a phantom temporarily.”
“You can do that?”
“It’s a Deathsworn thing.” Lucy grinned. “And she wants to come into physical contact with something.”
Sheva's going to take control of Hau'rah's deceased body isn't she? Hau'rah's going to get taken down by Cata and Anni, especially as Geek's taken down his shield and then Sheva's going to seize control of his body.
A beam of blue energy bounced between Lucy and Cap before hitting Sheva, revealing her form to others and making her glow brilliantly blue.
“Why did you need this?” Lucy asked, even as Cataclysm drove his sword through Hau’rah’s chest. The Archangel let out a scream and his body dissolved, leaving only his armor and a shining sphere of energy falling to the ground.
Sheva smiled thinly. “The Archangel position can be taken by a Guardian angel or a human.” She turned. “And no one said the human had to be alive.”
Before Lucy could react to that, she was off, shooting through the battle with the speed of the undead. Sheva swept past several stunned Guardian angels, their shock making them react too slowly, just enough to make them miss their chance while others realized and barreled forward.
Sheva’s fingers brushed the surface of the sphere.
And light erupted outwards.
HOLY SHIT! I WAS THINKING ALONG THE RIGHT LINES THEN!
Archangel Elysia “Sheva” Allvaer leaped into the sky.
“Guardians!” Lucy had never heard Sheva’s voice this powerful or commanding, but there it was, ringing across the battlefield for all to hear. Her shoulders lifted and, beside her, Cap gasped softly, as amazed as she was at the sight before them and the genius move that Sheva must have been planning since the beginning.
“Guardians! To me! Disengage!”
And then, astonishingly, nearly every Guardian backed away from their opponents and took to the air. It looked almost practiced, like they’d done this before, but their stunned expressions and mindless obedience rang otherwise.
OMG! I didn't realise that Guardians were bound to follow Archangel orders like that. Heaven's minus one Archangel and however many Guardians are bound by will to follow Sheva now ;o;
no subject
Date: 2017-04-28 06:46 pm (UTC)Really, though, I think that 1v1 Emma and Zekara would just kill each other.
Annihilation has a whole lot up her sleeve.
PLEASE WELCOME THE NEWEST ARCHANGEL, SHEVA ALLVAER,
They're not NECESSARILY bound (not mind control), but they're VERY loyal to their Archangel and not obeying direct orders from an Archangel (especially your own) is grounds for punishment, including DEMOTION. Which is BAD SHIT.
no subject
Date: 2017-04-28 06:59 pm (UTC)Yeah 1v1 Emma and Zekara would kill each other. Zekara would lose her arms but pick up her axe with her teeth or something and swipe at Emma hitting her somewhere vital.
Anni is awesome.
*throws congratulations party for Sheva on her promotion to Archangel and being alive again*
Mhm, so it's not actual mind control but almost like an extreme form of conditioning then?
no subject
Date: 2017-04-28 07:22 pm (UTC)Angels are naturally very loyal and very protective, and they are trained from the moment they're able to comprehend to obey the Archangel because they (supposedly) know best. It's why angels are so deep-rooted in tradition- the traditions were created by PREVIOUS Archangels, so they must be the right way to do things.
no subject
Date: 2017-04-28 08:01 pm (UTC)Mhm, indoctrination and tradition are fierce things to try to go against as they are deep rooted things.