Redemption (Stand-Alone, Spin-Off to Reaper Series), page 31
However, her jubilance was short-lived. As Eve hovered in the sky, she turned her attention back to Javan’s tower as a bright light began to appear in the air above it. Eve watched in horror as an enormous portal began to open, a portal that looked as though it was on fire, the flames spiraling around and around like water going down a drain. Eve could swear that from within the portal, she could hear the screams of thousands of people. And from the tower, Belial was laughing, his revenge only moments away.
28
CLASH OF THE GODS
T
he street was full of people. Police officers had blocked off the area to keep pedestrians and motorists away from Javan’s tower after the electric blue fire had left devastation in its wake, but the large wooden barriers and the increased police activity seemed to only draw a larger crowd. So when the fiery portal began to open, high up in the sky, directly over Javan’s tower, there were plenty of people to see it.
The windspeed seemed to pick up as the portal began to open and people were immediately looking up and pointing at the swirling vortex of fire. Surprise and confusion quickly turned to fear and whereas the streets had been full of the hum of chatter and speculation about what was going on, the air quickly filled with screams and shouts. The crowd of people began to run, fleeing in their panic. The police were yelling at everyone to remain calm, but no one was paying attention to them anymore. Even some of their own were beginning to take off at a sprint. Pedestrians knocked each other down and shoved each other in their hurry to escape the fiery hole in the sky, many of them remembering all too easily what happened the last time holes opened up in the sky, spewing forth countless beings with wings on their backs and murder in their eyes. If they only knew what was really going to come out of that vortex, they might have longed for the Angel invasion all over again.
“They’re nearly ready, Elohim!” Belial shrieked over the sound of the rushing wind that screamed all around him, cackling like mad as he spread his arms wide and welcomed the coming destruction of the world. The air swirled around him, flapping his jacket and tie wildly, his hair tossed about in the ferocious winds. “My Demons are almost reborn! And as soon as they’re stable again, I’ll infect them with the immortal serum, which they will then spread across the world! Your humans will become my humans! And your power will begin to drain! Why don’t you show your face, Elohim? Or would you rather hide behind your clouds?”
The only response was the continued bellowing of the wind and the increasingly loud roar of the swirling fire above the tower. Belial threw back his head and laughed, seemingly having gone mad, but was actually feeling giddy with excitement.
“It’s nearly time!” Belial crowed again. “I can feel them growing stronger, Elohim! They’re feeding on your human souls! My Demons will be more powerful than every Archangel you have at your disposal! Now you will understand the feeling of watching everything you’ve created be destroyed, and then I come for you!”
Belial began cackling like a lunatic once more, his head thrown back and his arms spread wide. He didn’t see the red and white blur shoot through the broken window.
Eve flared her wings at the last moment and struck both of her feet hard into Belial’s chest, the force of which rocketing Belial through the air. He crashed so hard against the wall beneath the canvas painting of Eve’s saddened eyes that the wall almost gave way entirely, large cracks splintering all along the wall from the point of impact, which was now nothing more than a concave in the wood and plaster. Belial, having crashed face down on the floor, looked up in surprise and saw Eve standing before him, her red and white wings spread wide as she looked down at him with contempt. After staring at Eve in mild shock for a few moments, Belial grinned and began to laugh, rising up to his feet.
“Eve!” he cried in greeting, as though he hadn’t thrown her out of a window only a minute ago. “Well, look who finally remembered her happy thoughts! Javan’s antiserum worked faster than I expected. Pity. I guess I’ll have to be a bit more creative the next time I kill you.”
“It won’t be so easy, now,” Eve replied curtly. “And you’ve gone too far. You’ve interfered with humanity. You killed Javan. He was a monster, but he was still human.”
“Come on, didn’t you enjoy seeing him die, just a little?” Belial asked, mockingly.
“I’m going to give you a chance, Belial,” Eve warned, raising her voice above the roar of wind and fire. “Go back to your world and release the human souls you stole. If you do that, we might let you live.”
Belial suddenly began laughing hysterically, doubling over from the apparent hilarity of Eve’s words.
“Oh, stop, stop!” Belial cackled. “That’s too funny!”
“This isn’t a joke!” Eve shouted, taking a step closer and ruffling her feathers in annoyance. “I won’t tell you again!”
“And what makes you think that I’ll agree?” Belial hissed. “Like I’m afraid of you Angels? I’m too strong for you, Eve! Stronger than all the armies of Heaven! Only Elohim himself could destroy me, but we both know he won’t do that, not while I stand on his precious Earth, among his darling humans! You can’t stop me, Eve! You can only bare witness to the end!”
As soon as Belial ended his sentence, there was a sudden crashing sound and it felt as though the entire building shook violently on its foundation, nearly knocking Eve off balance. Before Eve could ask, or even think, what was happening, the walls all around began to crack and fall apart. The ceiling began to crumble and the floor she was standing on began to shatter.
Eve looked up in time to see the whole ceiling, along with every part of the building that was above her head, simply tear away and fly straight up into the sky, shooting directly into the flaming vortex above. Eve suddenly felt as though the rushing wind was grabbing at her, clawing at her arms and legs, trying to take hold of her and carry her away into the swirling flames. Eve tucked her wings tightly against her body and crouched low, making herself as small as possible, so as the powerful wind wouldn’t lift her away.
Belial laughed madly at her, seemingly unaffected by the wind. The walls all around them both began to tear away from the building, everything that wasn’t nailed down already soaring into the sky. Eve watched as the canvas paintings of her eyes that Javan had proudly showed her not all that long ago were torn from the wall and spun away into the sky, vanishing amidst the flames.
The floor suddenly began to break away, large chunks tearing up from the building, as though Eve was standing on a frozen lake that was breaking apart. Looking down, Eve could see through the cracks in the floor and into the rest of the building below her. The whole tower was coming apart beneath her feet.
The moment this realization came to her, the entire floor gave way and began to soar up into the sky. The section of carpeted wood that Eve was standing on shot up with alarming speed, Eve grabbing hold of its edges and riding it like it was a magic carpet. Looking up, Eve saw that she was shooting directly towards the fiery vortex. What lay on the other side, she didn’t want to know.
Without hesitation, Eve rolled to the side and began to fly downwards, flapping her wings as hard as she could to escape the pull of the vortex. From her higher vantage point, Eve could see the entire building was now broken apart and a wall of debris was flying straight up at her, speeding towards the wide mouth of the flaming vortex.
Eve banked left, narrowly avoiding a large section of wall that was tumbling upward through the air. She then immediately spun right, avoiding more debris. Eve forced herself to not blink as she rolled left and right, dove through tight holes in walls and floors, swooping under and soaring above chunks of building that would undoubtedly hit her with enough force to send her cartwheeling backwards into the void. Eve glanced left and right and saw there was no way she could simply soar out of the path of the incoming remnants of Javan’s tower, the mass of debris being too thick and the updraft she was caught in too strong. The best she could hope for was to fly straight down until she got past it all. Swooping and diving and spinning and dodging every bit of wood, concrete, and steel that flew towards her like an onslaught of cannonballs.
Just like racing Ruhiel through the Garden, Eve told herself. Just focus.
Enormous chunks of steel and plaster whizzed by Eve’s head, barely missing her wings by inches, but she narrowed her eyes and focused completely on navigating the ceaseless labyrinth of debris. Finally, after what seemed like an age, Eve saw an opening. Just to her right, there was a space between all of the debris, just large enough to squeeze through. Without hesitation, Eve banked sharply toward the opening and shot through the air like an arrow. Eve kept her gaze locked on that tight opening, still swerving and spinning as she dodged incoming shrapnel. At the last possible moment before reaching the narrow opening, Eve tucked her wings close to her body and allowed her momentum to propel her forward, straight out between the debris. Eve cried out as her shoulder clipped one section of the concrete chunk she was flying past, hitting with such speed that she began to spin out of control, pieces of debris flying with her as she had broken the wall down even further.
After a few moments in free spin, Eve managed to right herself and flew around to look back at what had once been Javan’s tower. The last few pieces of the tower were soaring up into the sky, the laws of gravity having been reversed, every piece of the once tall building now vanishing into the swirling flames above. Eve stared at it all in awe, watching as the final piece vanished forever.
Suddenly, Belial appeared before her, grinning widely as his blue eyes burned brighter. He was hovering in the air two yards in front of Eve without the assistance of wings. He simply stood in the air as easily as if he was on the ground. As he glared at Eve, he suddenly swung his fist towards her, like her was going to punch her, despite being far out of reach. However, as his fist flew, it suddenly changed and became a long tendril of electric blue fire, which stretched far longer than his human arm could have reached.
The blue fire struck Eve’s cheek like a whip, slapping her face sideways from the force of the blow. Eve looked up in time to see Belial whipping his arm at her once more, but she acted quickly and folded her wings, allowing herself to suddenly drop in the air, Belial’s arm crackling with heat as it just missed her head.
As Eve fell, she held her hand out from her side, her fingers stretched wide open, and she focused her thoughts. At the precise moment she thought of it, the handle of a whip appeared in her hand, the handle wrapped in red leather. Eve closed her fist around the handle and then a long whip began to snake its way outwards from her grip. Without even waiting for the whip to fully materialize, Eve spread her wings to halt her descent and whirled the leather whip around her head, then snapped it towards Belial. As the leather whip cut through the air, it fully materialized and then instantly burst into flames, becoming a fiery snake in the sky as it wound itself around Belial’s waist. Once the whip was tight, Eve pulled and yanked Belial suddenly down towards her. As he fell downward, still grinning and laughing wildly, Eve raised her legs to kick him as she had done before, but a second before he was within reach, he suddenly vanished in a flash of blue light, resulting in Eve kicking nothing but empty air.
An instant later, he reappeared several yards away again, still cackling like a madman. Eve glared at him, determined to make him hurt for everything he had done, but beginning to wonder just how the Hell she was going to do that.
“Like I said, Eve,” Belial leered. “You can’t beat me. I’m too powerful! And I’m only growing more powerful with every passing second. My Demons are growing stronger, and their strength feeds me, even from separate worlds! I’ll soon be as powerful as Elohim himself!”
Eve lashed out angrily, snapping her whip towards Belial once more, the leather tip whizzing loudly as it cut through the air. Belial raised an arm to block the attack, but between the heat of the flaming whip and the speed with which it was moving, when it made contact with Belial’s arm, it simply cut through like a knife through butter.
Belial’s arm began to fall away and Eve pulled back the whip, shocked that she had wounded the Demon, but ready to strike again. Before she could even fully retract the whip, though, she paused and stared in shock as Belial’s severed arm simply stopped falling. It didn’t slow down, it didn’t evaporate, it simply… stopped. As though it had already hit the ground, which was still far below.
Belial was grinning at Eve nastily, seemingly oblivious to the glowing blue stump at his elbow. As Eve stared back, the severed part of Belial’s arm burst into blue flames and then began to drift upwards towards the elbow it had been removed from. Eve could only watch as the flames seemed to connect to Belial’s arm and then retake the form of a human arm, completely intact and undamaged. The entire process took no more than fifteen seconds. Belial flexed his fingers, but seemed otherwise unconcerned.
“Naughty, naughty,” Belial sneered, the left side of his face lit up by the light of the swirling flames in the sky. “That wasn’t very nice.”
Without warning, Belial was suddenly shooting through the air at alarming speed, heading directly towards Eve. He moved so fast that he was nothing but a blur in the night sky, one that Eve had no time to react to. Belial was going to strike her at full speed.
Suddenly, there was a blinding flash of gold light and a second blur sped through the air, this time from above, moving downward. The new blur hit Belial and the two then rocketed straight down towards the ground, both tangled together, moving so fast that it was impossible to focus on them. The force of the impact between Belial and the new being was so powerful that a concussion wave rolled over Eve, sending her tumbling head over heels through the sky, her wings flapping wildly as she fought to right herself. She did so just in time to look down in awe as Belial and the other blur both struck the ground like a pair of comets.
The street exploded like a volcano, concrete and dirt flying in all directions, the impact being so powerful that it formed a small crater in the middle of the street. Windows in nearby buildings all shattered at once, shards of glass raining down on the street like sharp snowflakes. The cloud of dust that now hung over the crater was so thick that Eve couldn’t see through it at all. She swooped lower, cautiously descending into the cloud to inspect the damage and find out what had happened.
As she landed on the street beside the shallow crater, she heard a whoosh sound, much like the flapping of her own wings, only much larger. As Eve squinted through the haze of dust and powdered concrete, she saw the floating particles begin to swirl, as though the air had been disturbed somehow. Before Eve could really give this much thought, she heard the whoosh sound again, and the dust particles all began to separate, floating away in the wind that had now been created. As the dust began to clear, Eve could now see what was happening. Flat on his back in the center of the crater was Belial. He was beginning to climb unsteadily to his feet, clearly rocked by whatever had hit him, but he was still grinning nonetheless as he glared at the figure that stood over him. The figure that had a pair of enormous gold wings, gently flapping as they blew the dust cloud away.
“Father!” Eve cried in surprise.
“Good hit, Elohim,” Belial laughed as he found his feet at last. “Caught me by surprise, there. It actually hurt a bit, too, I have to admit. I honestly didn’t think you had it in you.”
“I take no pleasure in harming any creature,” Elohim said forcefully, his green eyes radiating with anger, an emotion Eve could never recall ever seeing there before. “Even one as despicable and sadistic as you.”
“Aw, such harsh words,” Belial hissed, still grinning. “And after so long without seeing each other. I was hoping we might hug it out. Come on, big guy, bring it in.”
Belial spread his arms wide, as though welcoming Elohim into a warm embrace, but his blue eyes burned with ill intent. Elohim simply shook his head in dismay.
“Your fight is with me, Belial,” Elohim said. “There is no need to harm my daughter.”
“Oh, I agree,” Belial sneered, lowering his arms. “No need at all. But desire. There’s plenty of that.”
Eve stepped closer, snapping her whip once in anger, to let Belial know that she was more than willing to continue the fight.
“Eve, stay back,” Elohim warned.
“I can handle it, Father,” Eve replied.
“Eve, please,” Elohim urged.
“I said, I can handle it,” Eve insisted.
“Better listen to Daddy, little girl,” Belial hissed. “Otherwise, you might get hurt.”
“No harm will befall anyone else,” Elohim said to Belial. “You will return to your world, you will release the souls you stole, and you will never return.”
“Wow, you and Eve are so alike,” Belial sighed, rolling his eyes. “I thought little girls all grew up to be like their mothers? Oh, wait, that’s right! Mommy’s dead! Died screaming like a pig.”
“You shut your mouth!” Eve shrieked, taking a step forward, tightening her hold on her whip.
“What’s wrong, Eve?” Belial taunted. “Can’t handle the facts? Cut a little too deep? I was there, you know. In disguise, but I was there. I saw what Abzu did to your mother. Now, I know you’re sensitive, so I won’t go into great detail, but man, what Abzu did… seriously, it even made me feel sorry for her. And that’s saying something.”
“SHUT UP!” Eve shouted.
“Eve, he’s baiting you!” Elohim said loudly. “Do not listen!”
“The blood was everywhere!” Belial went on as though no one else had spoken. “And long after she should have been dead, Abzu kept her alive, so she could take even more. And the whole time, the whole time, Elohim was on his knees, begging, pleading, crying, held back by guards, completely useless, completely helpless! I wish you could have seen it. As vicious and bloody as it was, it was truly a work of art.”
