Chapter Three

 

Azazel readies his Sacrificial Soul Blades as Raziel folds his wings inward. There are a few seconds of silence as the angels standoff. Seraphiel patiently waits for Raziel’s wings to extend, as he’s aware of his brother’s tell. The moment comes as Raziel extends his wings, but doesn’t release an arrow. Because Seraphiel was waiting for the arrow, he wasn’t prepared for Azazel to rush him.

Azazel connects his soul blades to Seraphiel’s shield, the force from the attack pushing Seraphiel back a bit. He sets his feet and pushes his brother off his shield, and as he does, an arrow flies straight into his throat. The impact causes his eyes to widen, but he doesn’t waver as he charges head on at Raziel. Instead of needlessly letting arrows fly into the shield, Raziel flies upward and behind his brother, firing off more as the first one returns to his quiver. 

As Seraphiel turns around, his gold blood spurts out of his neck. He doesn’t let the minor nuisance bother him as he tosses his shield behind Raziel. The shield stays in an upright position and it distracts Raziel long enough for Seraphiel to fire a beam of holyfire at it. 

Azazel cuts the beam short by slicing at Seraphiel’s hands, but Seraphiel is swift enough to dodge. Raziel also moves out of the beam’s way in time. 

“This is boring me,” Athan sighs. “Satan. Leviathan.”

The bull and sea serpent now charge at Seraphiel. Leviathan strikes the ground where Seraphiel just stood as the seraphim is now airborne. Satan spews hellfire at him and he uses his own fire to clash with the flames. At first it seems as if Satan’s black flames will engulf Seraphiel, but Seraphiel surrounds himself in his own fire and dives at Satan, passing through the black embers with ease. As he dives, Raziel fires off more arrows that bounce off his brother, only connecting one through Seraphiel’s hand. 

Seraphiel connects his attack, burying the blue demon a few yards into the circle. He flies out, fully extending his six golden wings and looks around at the rest. 

“Just eat him,” Athan commands Leviathan.

“I would, but he would just burn through my stomach,” Leviathan rejects. “Or find some other way. I’ve learned that lesson enough times.”

“Goddamn it,” Athan says, rotating his shoulder, before extending his hellfire wings. “Satan, get up. We’re finishing this. Now.”

Satan climbs out of the crater and stands with Athan. The gray demon grits his teeth and his body flickers. Seraphiel calls his shield back to him in time and Athan claws at the Angelium-crafted weapon. 

Azazel sneaks up from behind and buries both his soul blades deep into Seraphiel’s ribs. Seraphiel smacks his brother away with a wing and as he does, an arrow soars through it. Seraphiel goes to fire off a beam at Raziel, but Leviathan bites his leg and slams the seraphim into the ground. Then, Satan covers him in hellfire and Athan lets off a laser vision blast that breaks through Seraphiel’s chest armor. 

Azazel darts downward and sinks the soul blades through Seraphiel’s open wound in his chest and stares at his brother as he steals his power. Raziel floats over to them as the demons look on. 

Azazel finishes stealing his older brother’s power and stands over him. He looks at his hands and blades as green fire flows around them. 

“I promise I’ll put your power to good use,” he says. He turns and walks away, easily opening a portal back home. He waits as Raziel takes one last look at Seraphiel before leaving him there and stepping through the portal. Azazel walks through without looking back. 

Athan, Satan, and Leviathan stand and loom over the dying seraphim. 

“What do we do with him?” Satan questions. Athan smirks.

“Ah, Satan. I have plans for him,” the gray demon says. “Never had a seraphim at my mercy before.”

 

“What’s the plan now?” Raziel asks. 

“Well, who else is a Blackwing?” Azazel asks back. 

“Cassiel, Zerachiel, and…Grim…” As Raziel says this, Azazel grins. “You really hope to--”

“The first two will be easy. Grim might be a challenge, but with the four of us, there’s no way he’s a match,” Azazel pridefully states. 

The two find their sister Cassiel, the archangel of tears and solitude, alone in her chambers. Azazel looks around at the emptiness and shadows shrouding the room. 

“We thought you might be here,” Azazel says to her. Without turning around, she speaks.

“What do you want, Azazel?”

“We want you to come with us.”

“Why?” Azazel says nothing and she spins around on her bed to look at her brother. She furrows her brow. “What…something’s off…”

Azazel stills says nothing as he lightly inhales and exhales, waiting for his sister to figure it out.

“What’s…What are you planning?” she asks. 

“Michael--”

“You’re insane,” she says, immediately spinning back around. Azazel lifts off the ground and floats over, placing a hand on her shoulder.

“Tears and solitude,” he says as she turns back around, glaring at him. “That was the domain given to you. It shows humility and vulnerability, both admirable and important traits. Michael was willing to throw you out, keep you imprisoned in Limbo in that war against his own son. Plus…I could see about you having your domain changed.”

“It’s not a job position, Azazel. It’s a part of who we are.”

“No matter. We could change it. You sit here in…well, solitude, for days on end. For what? To pay respects to what you’ve been given?” Azazel pries.

“It’s a choice.”

“Is it?” Cassiel half-turns her head. “Think about it. You’re one of the only archangels that keeps their domain as a part of their personality.”

“...Give me time to think.”

“Of course.”

Azazel and Raziel make their exit, leaving Cassiel alone to ponder her brother’s offer. They step out onto the main street of Heaven.

“Where would Zerachiel be at this time?” Azazel asks.

“Well, he’s not guarding the gate,” Raziel states. “Let’s check the canals.”

They approach an area of the dimension where there is an abundance of houses with canals connecting one side to the other and still, clear water underneath. Freshwater fish make up the population of the water. Zerachiel stands at the center of one of the bridges.

“What can I help you with, brothers?” the archangel of judgment asks as they approach him. 

“We need your hammer,” Azazel answers.

“For…nailing something down?” Zerachiel questions. 

“No. For removing Michael,” Azazel responds. He then gives Zerachiel, more or less, the same spiel he gave Cassiel. At the end of the monologue, Zerachiel grunts.

“I am uninterested,” the archangel of judgment tells him. “I should tell Michael what you are planning. But, I would much rather let you fail on your own. You have no chance in…”

“Hell?” Azazel finishes.

“That,” Zerachiel says. The angels are allowed to swear to their heart's content, but Zerachiel, arguably one of the hardest and fiercest of the entire dimension, does not believe in any form of it. He doesn’t disagree with his siblings’ use of the words though. 

“Hm. You know, I had a feeling you’d say that,” Azazel says, before he swiftly stabs through Zerachiel’s full armor with his enhanced soul blades. Both of their eyes glow green as Azazel corrupts his brother. He removes the blades and the wounds and armor revert back to what they were, but Zerachiel’s motivations and goals alter to suit Azazel. Though, like Azazel, he stays the same being.

“Why didn’t you just do that to Cassiel?” Raziel questions.

“I’m not gonna stab my baby sister,” Azazel says. “Plus, I have a feeling she’ll come to it on her own.”

“So Grim’s next?”

“Indeed.”

“To The Peak we go,” Zerachiel says. 

On their way to The Peak, as Azazel predicted, Cassiel joins her brothers. At the base of the indefinitely tall structure, Azazel creates a portal to the one-room tower. The four step through and meet Grim, also known as Azrael, the good archangel of death, on the other side.

“Well, you four don’t look suspicious,” the reaper says.

“I’m here to see if I can convince you,” Azazel tells his older brother. 

“Of?”

“Help us dethrone Michael--”

Grim immediately bursts out laughing. He laughs and laughs and laughs and laughs. The laughing goes on for a full two minutes, then his laughter dies down with a few final chuckles.

“Aaaaahhhh, if I had tear ducts, I’m sure I’d be crying,” the reaper says. “That’s hilarious, Azazel. Did you write that one all on your own, or did someone help you?”

Azazel exhales and shrugs.

“Well, I tried.”

Azazel summons his soul blades, Raziel withdraws an arrow, Zerachiel readies his Judgment Hammer, and Cassiel clenches her fists. 

“Aw, guys. You don’t wanna do this,” Grim says.

“We have to.”

“Fine, but I won’t use my favorite scythe,” Grim says, summoning one of his not-favorite scythes. “Do what you must.”

All four of them fly at him. He holds out a palm and pushes them all back with a telekinetic push. Cassiel gets up first and rushes him, swinging her fists wildly.

“I’d expect this the least from you, Cassiel,” Grim says while easily dodging her attacks. As he finishes saying this, her Inner Being comes to life, extending from her back and swinging with her, forcing Grim to dodge all four fists in the small space. 

Cassiel’s Inner Being is a larger form of herself that she normally lets extend out from her back. The spectral form of hers is stronger, faster, and can be completely separated from her body, but when she detaches from it, she becomes significantly weaker. Or, she believes she does. Instead of having a weapon like most of her siblings she has this being to keep her company in her times of solitude. 

The Inner Being goes for an uppercut on the reaper, but he dodges and slices at its forearm, severing it. The Inner Being grits its teeth, expecting the arm to grow back, but becomes angrier when it doesn’t. 

“I think I made you mad, Cassiel,” Grim says as the Being extends itself further to attempt to hit Grim with a barrage of one-handed combo punches. As Grim continues to dodge, Azazel joins, followed by a flurry of Raziel’s arrows. Grim holds out a palm, and the arrows sink into Azazel’s back and wings. 

Zerachiel flies over all of them and swings at Grim with his hammer from behind. Grim sinks into the ground and reappears from the same spot in the floor while letting Cassiel’s swings phase through him, completely facing Zerachiel now. The archangel of judgment swings his hammer down at the reaper and all Grim does is catch the weapon with his hand, before snatching it from Zerachiel and throwing it back in his face, knocking him over. 

 

“Are you sure Turiel?” Lizael asks one of the Watcher Angels. Turiel nods.

“Yes, Lizael,” he says. “They should be with Grim now.”

Lizael and Kayel look off into the distance, spread their wings, and burst at speeds faster than light as they reach the base of The Peak. Lizael creates a portal and the two fly through the portal to see Grim holding off the four other Blackwing angels. 

“Grim, we’re here to help!” Lizael shouts.

“No! Just alert the other angels,” Grim shouts back as he clashes his scythe with Azazel’s soul blades. They try to head back, but Zerachiel darts in front of them and looms over them with his sheer size. 

As Azazel stays locked in a blade clash with Grim, a wound opens up and out of a portal within the wound, the evil archangel of death, the archdemon, Samael slashes at Grim. Grim is lucky enough to dash back in time, dropping his scythe, but since Samael has shown up, he summons his favorite scythe. 

Azazel, instead of being stuck on how Samael entered Heaven through a portal in his wound, demands Samael return.

“Idiot! Your presence will alert the entire damn dimension!” he shouts. Samael says nothing, not even to the fact that he just called Death an idiot. Everyone present in The Peak is ready to continue their battle, but with the Blackwings knowing what they know about a demon’s presence in Heaven, no one attacks. 

Azazel exhales and goes to place a hand on Samael’s shoulder, but the close he gets, the more dread he feels. He decides to keep his hands to himself, but still speaks to the evil reaper. 

“It is best to retreat. We still have the advantage with Seraphiel,” Azazel informs not only Samael, but the archangels as well. Samael doesn’t respond, but the Blackwings’ vision distorts and twists and The Peak turns into the first circle of Hell. 

Grim is still back with the Iron and Amber Angels in The Peak. He somehow exhales with no lungs and speaks to them. 

“Well, you two ready to bring this to Michael?”