Authors: Matthew Ashworth

Melancholy Wings: Decadence (13 page)

BOOK: Melancholy Wings: Decadence

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“This one.” Malakai pointed to the left-most path.

Azrael and Ethel, just as before, had no other choice but to trust Malakai. They followed right after him along a relatively short path, just to pass around the side of the cliff. Once they made the final turn, they saw the temple ahead. The temple was tremendous. There were at least five floors in it, and overall it occupied a somewhat of a large area. It had a perfectly square base, very few windows, and the almost completely black walls were smooth and faultless.

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“I believe this is it.” Malakai said as soon as they saw the temple in front of them.

Ethel was rather surprised, because she expected for them to have stumbled onto a trap by now. However, Malakai was still acting normally, and there seemed to be no ambushes waiting for them. Nevertheless, she decided to continue staying alert till the end of the mission.

The temple had several demons guarding the front doors. For the most part, those demons looked barbaric and unintelligent. Azrael and Ethel began scanning the temple defences and trying to come up with the most suitable strategy of gaining entrance. Malakai, however, was already prepared to go in.

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“Let me startle them by surprise.” He said, “I’ll initiate the attack, you two finish it. Would that suffice?”

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“Yes. We will be ready.” Azrael confirmed.

Malakai then flew upwards and grabbed onto a high ledge of a cliff above them. Whilst keeping an eye on the demon guards below, he began crawling along the side of the cliff towards the temple. Azrael and Ethel were watching him carefully from their cover and had their weapons ready. When Malakai finally got close enough to the temple, he let go off the cliff and plunged downwards at two of the guards. He managed to control his falling speed so that it wouldn’t hurt him on impact but would take out his targets. Eventually he landed onto both demon guards as he planned, knocking them both out. The other three reacted at that stage and charged at him with full speed. These demons were simple bipedal monstrosities. They had rough, brownish skin, sharp nails on hands, and a feline face. Despite having sharp claws, each one carried a weapon. As soon as the three of them ran to attack the intruder, Azrael and Ethel came out of their cover and flew towards them. Azrael collided with the front-most demon from the side and brought it to the ground. Ethel attacked the next one in line with a swift slash of her curved blade. The slash injured the demon and enraged it. It quickly reacted to the attack and focused its infuriated gaze on her. After giving off a roar, the guard swung with its big axe in order to attack her. Ethel waited for the demon to get closer, and when it did, she darted towards it and sliced it across the stomach, creating a very deep wound. The demon collapsed onto its knees and then on its face and died.

Malakai handled the last one as it came at him with full speed. The demon guard jumped at him whilst thrusting its spear forward. Malakai, however, being a blazemaster, released a ball of fire at it, striking it in the air. The demon got stunned and fell to the ground, what gave Malakai a perfect chance to finish it off with his trustworthy great sword. By that time Azrael was done with his opponent as well, and the coast was clear.

The three of them approached the front door, and Malakai kicked it open. The temple antechamber was spacious and full of statues of different shapes and sizes, as well as numerous doors. It had exquisite ornaments of various colours twisting in unusual shapes on the walls and the floor, and it had a lot of torches lit on every wall. There were a handful of guards in there too. As soon as those reacted to the presence of intruders, Malakai blasted them all with exploding fireballs, bringing them all down. Those that survived were finished off with great ease, and hence the resistance was eliminated once again.

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“Now which way?” Ethel asked whilst gazing at all the doors in front of them.

Malakai took a careful glance around. He too didn’t seem to be sure which door they had to go through.

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“Ideally we would destroy the entire place, but it would take a long time, and we will not make it out of here in time before reinforcements arrived.” Malakai reasoned.

He then approached one of the doors and swung it open. Two demons were behind it, but they weren’t armed. In fact, they did not look like fighters at all, but mere servants in the temple. Malakai grabbed one of them by the throat and spoke:

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“Tell us now where you’re keeping the shrine to Garridan.”

The demon obeyed instantly and pointed to one of the doors in the main hall. Malakai released the demon, and whilst keeping an eye on it, began approaching the door.

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“This better not to be a lie.” He said threateningly once he stopped right at the door.

The demon shook its head in fear, and Malakai opened the door with full confidence. It led into a big round chamber. Several other servant demons were there. Malakai stepped inside immediately, showing no fear. Azrael and Ethel walked up to the doorway too and glanced inside before entering. The demonic servants got intimidated and backed away. There was a statuette in the centre of the room. It looked a lot like Garridan and seemed to have been freshly made. All around it were small blackened crystals, and the entire room was well lit with numerous fires along the entire circumference of the wall.

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“A shrine to Garridan.” Malakai spoke slowly without taking his eyes away from the statue in the middle of the room.

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“I should’ve realised about this.” Azrael admitted here, “Years ago Lucifer used to send his demons to the External World. Now they barely even need to go out there. They can project their influence out there directly from the Underworld. I, however, did not realise they could send mortals that much power.”

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“But Azrael, Garridan is not a mortal.” Ethel pointed out correctly.

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“There are more of these temples in the entire Pandemonium.” Malakai said here, before Azrael could reply to Ethel’s comment.

Suddenly they all heard stomping noises behind them, and soon after, loud roars. All three of them turned back round to face the entrance of the room, and through the doorway they saw reinforcements entering the antechamber. The demons that came in were bigger than the ones they just fought and well-armed. They wore heavy armor and wielded big clubs and halberds.

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“Looks like we’re out of time.” Azrael realised, “Let’s destroy the statue now.”

He took the initiative and approached the statue hastily. Then, with a single swing of his double-bladed axe, he smashed it to pieces. A strange light flashed as soon as the statue shattered, but disappeared immediately. Azrael then turned back to his team, but Malakai was already by the door, waiting to head out.

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“Come on. We have to make haste before more reinforcements arrive.” He waved to both Ethel and Azrael and finally exited the room.

Then, with plenty of courage, he came out into the antechamber, daring the demon soldiers to attack him. Three of those did exactly that and headed in Malakai’s direction, hoping to grind him into dust. Azrael joined him right before any of the demons even got close, grabbing some of the attention onto himself. Ethel remained inside the room and waited till the demons got closer. The instant the demons came up to Malakai and Azrael and took their swings, Ethel cast an energy shield around her allies, protecting them from enemy attacks. The weapons of the demons rebounded immediately. Ethel quickly let go off the shields, causing them to dissolve, and that’s when Malakai and Azrael reacted. They each struck the two outermost demons in the formation on the head, and then at the same time directed their attacks at the one in the centre. The three demonic soldiers fell, but about a dozen others were just behind those, and they were not going to fall for the same trick the others did.

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“We better make a run for it.” Azrael advised.

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“Exactly what I’ve had in mind.” Malakai agreed with him.

Ethel joined both of them in the antechamber at that stage and responded to their plan:

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“Let’s do it then. I’ll shield us all.”

She quickly concentrated and produced several shield fragments around all three of them. That was when they ran for the main entrance. The demonic warriors were trying to do their best to stop them by force, but every time any of them made a swing or a stab, Ethel moved one of the fragments onto the weapon’s path, therefore foiling any attempts to hurt her or her allies. One of the demons eventually jumped up and attempted to land inside of the shield. However, Azrael reacted quickly to that and struck the monster with his weapon just as it landed, hitting it upwards and back out of the shield’s vicinity.

Once at the doorway, Malakai asked Ethel to release the shield and began collecting energy in both of his hands. Ethel did as he asked. The demonic soldiers instantly seized the opportunity and attacked all at once. However, Malakai unleashed a powerful blast of fire from his hands, knocking each foe substantially backwards.

-

“Now let’s disappear.” Malakai suggested, and the three of them exited the temple, immediately flying off into the air.

There were many flying demons circling the cliffs high up, so they had to make a return through the same cave they arrived by. Whilst using that route, they managed to escape before any more of Pandemonium forces arrived at the scene.

Chapter 14

Reminiscence

Adelais was patrolling around the same area mindlessly. Infernal Pit wasn’t as familiar to him as his home sector, and hence it didn’t flare up much emotion. He did, however, see a lot of similarities in the same old routine most beings partook in. The sector guards were in many areas, either standing ground or patrolling. Some specialised creatures were constructing new structures. Finally, whilst exploring the area, he heard a voice calling him from behind:

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“You are Adelais, right?”

Adelais turned around and saw Aurora walking towards him. She looked rather lost and somewhat cautious. Her eyes glared at his with certain admiration, and for a split second he couldn’t take his eyes off her. He waited until she came right up to him and then responded:

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“Yes. Is something wrong?”

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“Nothing at all.” She answered and stopped by his side.

Adelais didn’t say anything there and just turned back to where he was looking initially. The two of them gazed at the distance for a few moments in silence, and then Aurora spoke again and levitated off the ground.

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“Hey, come with me. I’ve got to show you something.”

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“Where are we going?” Adelais was taken by surprise.

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“Just follow me.”

Adelais lifted himself into the air too and followed Aurora as she soared higher. He wasn’t sure what she was up to, but he decided to find out. She eventually reached a tall tower and swiftly landed on its roof. Adelais did exactly the same, but couldn’t understand why she brought him there.

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“What’s here?” he wondered whilst looking around with confusion.

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“The view.” Aurora said in such a manner as if she was surprised he hadn’t noticed it.

Adelais approached the edge Aurora was standing next to, then looked out and was stunned. Aurora was right – the view was fantastic. He could see a very large portion of the sector this way. He was always fond of locations such as this one, and he knew of many spots in his home sector where the view was mind-blowing. Whilst he was looking out, Aurora came up and stopped to the left of him, glaring at the spectacular landscape as well.