Gehenna and I watched and waited as the first wave of melee fighters closed in on us. We both remained motionless, our eyes the only thing moving. I could tell that the enemy was confused by our inaction, and I had to refrain from smiling as the seconds ticked by. Finally, several angels passed the line that Gehenna and I had mentally designated as “our killzone,” and we both burst into action. I took a single step forward and used the sudden surprise of the nearest opponent to thrust the point of my sword into the enemy’s chest before he even had a chance to swing the large two handed hammer in his hands. As his body fell, I jumped into the air and used my boot to push my blade further into his chest. The hilt clanged loudly off his metal armor, and I used him like a springboard to propel me at an Angel preparing to swing a curved sword at Gehenna. 

As I flew through the air, I angled my other blade upwards so that it would impale the female swordswoman in the throat. Gehenna took a step towards the enemy I had stabbed in the chest and made a shoving gesture at the angels behind him. A wave of black fire shot emanated out of her hands and completely incinerated six more angels. She reached down to pull my sword out of the downed enemy while I rose to my feet and grabbed the nearest angel by the face. I channeled my [Coldfire] spell and released it as my claws sunk deep into his eye sockets. His body instantly started to freeze as I pulled my hand away and kicked the half-frozen corpse at a lightly armored angel holding a spear and shield. A diagonal line of condensed black fire cleaved the angel in half as Gehenna used my sword as a focus for her magic. The blade was now wreathed in flickering black flames and she grinned in satisfaction at the weapon in her hand.

I used Spoken Word to cast my Blastburn spell and the purple beam of energy lanced through a female angel who was rushing at Gehenna from behind. In turn, she pointed the tip of my sword at another angel who was moving to attack me from out of my line of sight. A small black fireball erupted from the tip of the weapon, and a massive explosion of heat flashed across my back as the enemy was instantly killed by the deadly fire. I dug my heel into the ground and pivoted my weight as I turned around to face another pair of angels rapidly closing in on me. I stabbed the first one in the face before he could raise his shield to defend himself, and grabbed the edge of the shield of the other. I tore the thing from his grasp a second before his body was engulfed in a small explosion of black flames. I spun on my heel and flung the heavy object as hard as I could at a large axe-wielding angel. The shield sliced 3 ⁄ 4 of the way through his neck, and as it collided with the ground his head was separated from his body.

As a group of over a dozen angels rushed at me from behind, I jumped forward and rolled on my shoulder before standing up and moving next to Gehenna. A cluster of eight angels closed in on us from the other side, while the ones who had been rushing at me sprinted towards us quickly. I narrowly dodged the swing of an axe, and Gehenna used the small opening to swiftly slice through the arm holding the weapon. I grabbed the axe out of midair before it could fall and Gehenna ducked as I swung the heavy weapon just above her head to decapitate an angel preparing to thrust a spear into her side. I used my momentum to bash into the shield of another angel just enough so that Gehenna could use the small opening to thrust the point of her sword in between his ribs and impale his heart. She let the body fall with the weapon still buried deep inside, and I released my grip on the axe and threw it into the face of an angel with a set of spiky metal armor. Before the angel’s body with my sword embedded in it could hit the ground, I wrapped my fingers around the grip of the weapon and pulled it free. As I held it in a tight reverse grip, I flicked the blade upwards, and the wide arc of it caught a female angel under the chin. I spun on my heel again and used Spoken Word to cast [Corrupting Fire] and I threw it at a trio of angels who were barreling towards us. Gehenna whirled around me as I turned, our bodies moving in complete sync. She caught the handle of my sword as the angel I had hit in the chin began to fall backwards. Smoke began to billow out of the angel's nose and mouth before her entire body ignited in black flames. 

Suddenly, without warning, I felt a searing white-hot pain in my lower back as I was impaled by a holy weapon. When I felt blood splatter on my face, it took me a few seconds to realize that I wasn’t the one who had been stabbed. I whirled in place and let out a loud growl of anger before casting [Demonic Chains] to grab Gehenna’s attacker by the face. I retracted the chain and used the sword in my left hand to stab into the Angel’s chest, piercing his lung and severing his spine. In my momentary state of distraction, I failed to see a nearby angel cast a spell and hurl it at me until it was too late to dodge. A blossom of heat washed over my left side, and it quickly morphed into agonizing pain as every square inch of the left half of my body was engulfed in white fire. I lost the vision in my left eye and did my best to focus on channeling my [Corruption’s Caress] with my right hand, before pressing it against my still burning arm. The healing spell barely did anything to dull the excruciating pain of the holy fire that was rapidly burning through the layers of flesh and muscle. Panic began to overtake my mind as the pain overwhelmed every other sensation.

*Allie, focus on seeing through my eyes. I am at your side now and forever more. We will get through this, my love.*

I focused my attention on what Gehenna was seeing and instantly the pain of my burning body felt more distant, like the memory of pain instead of the actual sensation. I took in everything that my demon lover was seeing in that moment, and the battle lust that was welling up inside of her helped to clear my mind of all doubt, all fear, and all possibility of defeat. Turning my attention back to my own body, I stopped casting my healing spell and instead cast [Coldfire]. I touched the icy flame to my body and focused on using it to put out the flames that had nearly burned me to the bone. I felt a numbing coldness spread throughout my body, but it was a welcome change from the pain I had felt before. Gehenna was doing her best to keep both of us covered, but I could tell she was quickly becoming overwhelmed as more and more attacks slipped through her guard. Once I was sure that I had extinguished the last of the holy fire, I stopped channeling my magic and struck at the layer of ice that now coated my body. It shattered with a sound akin to breaking glass, and I quickly struck  several other places to free the rest of my body.

With the ice removed from my body, I focused on my [Corrupted Regeneration] as I quickly bent down to retrieve my fallen sword. Due to half of my body being completely charred down to the bone, I was moving at a fraction of my normal speed. But… even at a fraction, I was still faster than the enemies surrounding us. I was able to swiftly find a small opening and thrust my sword into the nearest angel’s side. Instead of pulling the sword free, I pushed it in as far as it would go and reached out with my still damaged hand and grabbed the top of the angel’s armor near his neck. Holding onto the angel tightly, I spun on my heel and then allowed myself to fall backwards. A fraction of a second after I felt my back impact against the ground, the air above me suddenly ignited in searing black fire. Wave after wave of intense fire blasted against the angel’s body that had become my makeshift shield, and I could tell that it wouldn’t be long before it too was completely incinerated. Just as I began to feel the flames licking at my flesh, the spell stopped and I instantly uncurled myself from the fetal position I had been in. I pushed the charred remains of the angel off of me and stood up slowly. I could see the muscles and tendons slowly reforming on my left side as Gehenna turned to look at me. Her armor was scorched where she had cauterized her own wound and I could see dozens of small cuts all over her face, neck, and arms. The armor on her right leg was barely holding together, and the gauntlet that was supposed to be on her left hand was missing. I heard the sounds of my clanmates starting to move, and ignored the pain of my still reforming lips and facial muscles so I could shout out before they could get any closer.

“More enemiesh are on the way. Shtay in cover. Ushe thish time to recover your HPhee and MPhee.”

I heard them discussing whether or not to heed my command, and I let out a long sigh. I was about to tell them to stand down again when Gehenna spoke.

“Right now, having anyone else on the battlefield would make them a liability. Judging from the fact that we haven’t seen a single archangel and I still can’t cast my portal spell, we’re still in grave danger. Since we don’t know whether or not the way back to the entrance is clear, the smartest thing to do would be to hunker down behind cover and let Allie and I take out as many of them as we can.”

As a wave of healing energy filled my body, I let out an irritated sigh. Before I could say anything, however, I heard Ghost speak in a determined tone.

“At least let me heal you as much as I can before any more show up. It’s literally the one thing I’m good at.”

I looked over at him and nodded, wincing from the pain that followed. Light flooded the vision of my left eye as the healing magic worked to quickly restore my body back to health, and I blinked both of my eyes rapidly as my sight readjusted. Upon hearing the sound of flapping wings, I ordered Ghost to stop and motioned for him to take cover again. Thanks to his healing, my HP was back up to 70% and Gehenna’s was up to 80%. Due to my [Corrupted Regeneration] working to restore my damaged body back to normal, my MP was all the way down to 30%. Upon hearing my thoughts about my low MP, Gehenna mentally informed me that her own MP was down to 45%. Like me, she had used up a good portion of it using the regeneration spell she had. We were communicating at the speed of thought to formulate battle strategies when the air was suddenly filled with the sound of hundreds of wings flapping at once. I readied one of my swords with my right hand and summoned a shield into my left, while Gehenna channeled magic into my other sword and wreathed the blade in black fire. She reached down and retrieved the large partially scorched shield that I had used to decapitate the angel and held it in her free hand, before moving back over to me quickly and pressing her back against mine. 

The sounds of spells being cast and arrows being loosed filled the air, and we watched as a multicolored wave of deadly projectiles hurtled towards us. Just before any of them could stike us, Gehenna channeled magic into the shield and held it above her head. A bubble of black flame surrounded us, and I watched as the rain of death pounded into her barrier. Because of the combination of my [Corrupted Spell Absorption] and Gehenna’s [Body of Damnation], she was able to absorb small amounts of MP as the spells struck against her shield. During our earlier fight against the angels, I had learned that Gehenna was able to sense things through her fire as if it was part of her body. Following that logic, we had quickly realized that my own spell I used to absorb MP from spell attacks could be used on her barrier to continually regenerate her MP. So, as the enemy continued to bombard us with hundreds of spells at once, Gehenna was able to keep both of us completely unharmed. This continued for almost five full minutes, before stopping all at once.

Gehenna continued to hold the barrier in place until all around us, a huge number of archangels descended to the floor. I saw through Gehenna’s eyes as a short female archangel moved through the crowd and stood in front of the others. As she walked closer, I nearly did a double take upon seeing just how similar this woman looked like the blonde demon I had fallen in love with. The archangel had long blonde hair the same color as Gehenna’s, and even had it pulled back into a tight braid like hers. She had the same sharp facial features as Gehenna, and even her eyes shone with the same golden irises. Upon hearing her speak, my blood ran cold as it sounded so similar to the smoky husky tone of Gehenna’s voice.

“This was supposed to be a trap to draw out Allexus… It’s really a shame you chose to interfere, Gehenna. Had you just stayed in your little castle and let us dispose of this nuisance you wouldn’t have to watch as I kill her. Slowly. Painfully.”

I felt Gehenna's mix of emotions regarding this woman well up inside of her like a raging storm, and I mentally urged her to remain calm. Because of our connection, I could feel how badly this stupid bitch had hurt the woman I had fallen in love with. I used that same connection to focus all my energy on keeping her calm and sticking to the battle plan we had discussed. When the woman spoke again, I shifted so that it was now me who was facing her, instead of Gehenna.

“I’ll give you one chance, Gehenna. Leave now, and you won’t have to watch as I kill this woman you are so fond of. Leave, and you-”

“Hey, bitch, shut the fuck up. Gehenna isn’t going anywhere. I don’t care who you are, I don’t care why you’re here. I just know that if you don’t shut your mouth in the next ten seconds I’m going to tear out your heart and shove it down your fucking throat.”

“You would let this vulgar child speak for you, Gehenna? Have you really stooped so low as to fall for one such as this?”

When Gehenna remained silent, the archangel rolled her eyes and let out a dramatic sigh.

“So be it. You’ve made your choice, Gehenna. It’s a shame, really… I hadn’t planned on killing my dearest mother quite so soon.”