I knew that my blonde demon wife could feel my own thoughts of betrayal, anger, and confusion as much as I could feel her own thoughts racing at a million miles a second, but I did my best to remain calm and focus on our plan of attack. No matter how hard I tried, however, I couldn’t hide the look of surprise on my face. The woman who claimed to be Gehenna’s daughter let out a mocking laugh, the sound of it grating in my ears.

“She didn’t tell you, did she? For as much as she trusted you with everything else, Allexus, she could never bring herself to tell you her deepest darkest secret.”

*Allie… I… I can explain. I’m-*

*Save it. She’s just trying to get our heads. It won’t work… OK? She’s an archangel… yes?*

*Yes.*

*What do we do to archangels?*

*Crush them.*

Gehenna’s thoughts focused on the archangels surrounding us, before briefly flickering back to me standing at her back.

*Thank you, Allie.*

*You’re welcome, my love.*

I locked eyes with the archangel in front of me and feigned a yawn.

“Maybe she didn’t tell me about you cause there’s nothing worth mentioning. You’re clearly a bitch… so I don’t blame her in the slightest for not telling me.”

“Cute. Your attempts to provoke me won’t work, Allexus.”

Despite her words, I could tell that I had struck a nerve from the hint of frustration in her voice. I gave another fake yawn and shifted my head side to side to pop my neck.

“So… are we just gonna stand here all day staring at each other or…?”

Gehenna’s daughter responded by making a gesture with her hand. A line of white flames shot towards me, but it was quickly intercepted by a small barrier of black fire. To my surprise, the white fire attack cut through Gehenna’s shield, and I had to turn to the side to avoid getting hit. Upon seeing the spell hit the ground beside me, it was as if that was the signal for all of the archangels to rush forward to attack. I lost sight of Gehenna’s daughter in the sea of armored bodies, so I turned my attention to the closest enemy and readied myself. Just as before, both of us waited until the last second before bursting into action. I slashed diagonally at a tall angel carrying a halberd, and as he moved to block with his weapon I stepped forward and bashed him with my shield, pushing him off-balance. I pressed my attack and drove the tip of my sword into his shoulder, causing him to drop his weapon as the arm went limp. Gehenna had created whip-like tendrils of black fire extending from the end of my sword and was using them to lash at any enemy that got too close. As she swung it back and forth, limbs were cleaved from bodies and heads were removed from necks. 

When the archangels pressed in too close for her to be able to use the whip effectively, she thrust the point of the sword into the leg of one of them and channeled the flames into her body. I dodged my head to the side to avoid a glowing spear thrown from the archangel standing next to the now half-charred body Gehenna had stabbed and pivoted with one heel to hurl my shield at a male archangel who was about to throw a ball of lightning at me. The sharp edge of the metal shield cut deep into the armor of his chest, and the spell he had been casting flew from his hand as he fell backwards. I used Spoken Word to cast my [Blastburn] spell in the hopes that the fiery lightning attack would be strong enough to redirect the crackling ball of electricity that was arcing towards me. It worked to perfection, and I let out a small grunt of satisfaction as the purple beam atomized one archangel’s face, and the deflected ball of lightning reduced another to ash. As I turned to face a large axe-wielding enemy, I failed to see a blast of white fire hurtling towards me until I felt it cleave through my extended arm, severing it just above my elbow. Instead of focusing on the agonizing pain that was quickly getting worse, I deflected a strike from the huge double-bladed axe with my sword and plunged the blade deep into his chest, baring my fangs at him as I felt the hilt impact against the front of his armor.

Instead of pulling my sword free, I took a single step backwards and cast my [Coldfire] spell. I pressed the icy flame to the stump of my arm and hissed at the cold rush of pain. Instead of allowing my [Corrupted Regeneration] to start healing my body, I redirected the flow of magic and cast [Demonic Chains]. The bladed end of the chain wrapped around the grip of my sword as the archangel’s body fell backwards, and I yanked it free with a strong tug. Just like I had done in the PvP tournament, I channeled [Corrupting Fire] through the chain and watched as it and  the weapon it was attached to ignited in red flame. As I swung the fiery chain upwards, I let out a gasp of pain as I felt a holy blade stab into Gehenna from behind. I directed my attack at the person holding the spear that had struck her, and watched in grim satisfaction as my weapon effortlessly ripped through him, severing his torso from the lower half of his body. I attempted to block a spell with my left arm, before remembering that it was no longer attached. I growled loudly as I felt the impact of three shards of ice punch into my left side, one of them puncturing my lung. I ducked as low as I could manage as Gehenna unleashed a huge nova of black flames in every direction. Over a dozen archangels were incinerated by the blast of fire, and Gehenna used the few seconds of breathing room her attack had bought us to reach down and pull out the spike of ice that had hit my lung. I instantly started to channel my regeneration spell, focusing the healing magic on repairing the damage to my organs. After spitting out a mouthful of blood, I retracted the chain still attached to my sword and grabbed the handle tightly before dismissing the fire spell that still enveloped the weapon.

I stood up slowly, weary of the next attack. When none came, I looked around at the hundreds of archangels who had completely surrounded us. I was panting heavily from exertion as I held my weapon at the ready, and felt that Gehenna was also in a similar state. I groaned in pain as she reached behind her to cauterize the wound on her back, and I redirected my healing towards regrowing my arm. My MP was dangerously low, less than 10%, and it was rapidly dwindling down as my HP ever so slightly ticked up.

“So…”

I let out a long weary sigh and locked eyes with the nearest archangel.

“Why don’t we say that Gehenna and I won and we all just call it a day, yeah? I have no issues with killing every single one of you, but come on now… is it really worth it to just throw away your lives in the hopes that one of you will bring me down?”

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes as Gehenna’s daughter stepped forward again and shook her head at me.

“I don’t care how many have to die, Allexus. We will kill you… no matter the cost. We’ve already slaughtered the rest of your clan that was hiding nearby… It’s only a matter of time before you fall. And once you’ve died and respawned… we will attack your castle in full force. Killing you and your clan over and over and over and over until you decide to give up and stay away from this world.”

She looked at the other archangels around us and let out an amused chuckle and spread her arms wide.

“Even with my mother at your side, Allexus… What chance do you think the two of you stand against the full might of me and my forces?”

I was about to shout out a snarky reply when I felt a surge of strength well up inside of me that made me smile. My grin only grew wider as I felt the power growing stronger by the second.

“See… that’s where you’re wrong, bitch.”

I let out an almost evil sounding laugh as I glared at Gehenna’s daughter.

“It isn’t just the two of us.”

Screams of pain rang out as a massive tidal wave of blood surged through the back ranks of the archangels. A bestial tiger roar sounded, followed by a horizontal column of lightning that illuminated the entire room in bluish-white light. Nearly 50 archangels were instantly atomized as the bright beam of electricity tore through their ranks. Spears of black light lanced through the air and I watched as a half dozen of the archangels nearest to us dropped dead, smoking holes in the center of their foreheads. Screams of terror sounded from the opposite side followed by a maniacal cackle and a booming female voice.

“MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA SEE ME ANGELS AND DESPAIR!!! I AM THE INCARNATION AND EMBODIMENT OF YOUR EVERY NIGHTMARE! COWER BEFORE THE MIGHT OF MY… MY…”

A small high pitched voice spoke up, amplified by whatever magic Ikelos was using.

“Spooky lady bits??”

“YES! COWER BEFORE THE MIGHT OF MY SPOOKY LADY BITS! Wait… no. Hold on. Spooky-”

The amplified voice suddenly cut out and was replaced by a loud shout as a blur of red hurtled through the air.

“UUUUUUULTRAAAAAAAAAA DEEEEEEMMMOOOOOOON FAAAAAAAGGGG ATTAAAAACK!!!!”

The massive form of an ogre demon smashed into the ground and a devastating shockwave of destructive power blasted into nearly a hundred archangels. Gehenna’s daughter wore a look of absolute fury, and I could tell she was just about to shout something to her nearby allies when eight enormous crystalline spears of ice impaled several dozen enemies all at once. The blonde archangel swiped her hand to the side as another flew at her, and a line of white fire bisected the ice chunk and it crashed to the ground on either side of her. Being held aloft by a swirl of ice, I watched as the love of my life flew over the heads of the archangels and then landed gently beside me. After her crystal blue eyes scanned me briefly, she locked eyes with the nearest archangel, and her eyebrows rose when she saw the archangel that looked so much like Gehenna. As she briefly glanced from the woman back to Gehenna, I saw her eyes narrow and she glared at the archangel.

“Are you the one who harmed Allexus and Gehenna?”

“So what if I am? What would you do about it gi-”

Emelia cut off her words by snapping her fingers, and summoned thousands upon thousands of razor sharp ice shards above the heads of the archangels.

“If you are… then that’s the last mistake you’ll ever make.”

With that, she flicked her wrist, and the hail of icy devastation shredded everything in sight.