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Novel 2 - Chapter 27

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Reika knew she was going to die. Everyone else had, after all. Erin lay almost at her feet. Alexander was little more than a heap in the corner. She wasn't really sure if he was alive or dead. Or if the terms alive and dead could even be applied to him. Gilead looked at her, death in his eyes. Reika adjusted her grip on her sword.
"It's really too bad you were corrupted by that demon." Gilead said. "You might have proved useful in my army." He could have lept at her, could have finished her in an instant. Instead, he waited, standing on that balcony. She knew he wanted her to attack. He wanted her to throw herself onto his blade. Maybe he thought that would make his crimes less by just that tiny amount, if he killed her defending himself.
"I would never join you." Reika managed to keep her voice steady. She weighed her options. She could fight, and she'd lose, or she could run away, and die at a later time. As long as Gilead was alive, she was doomed.
"It's too bad. Your parents were more than willing." Gilead smiled. His sword was down at his side, not anything even close to a fighting stance. Not that it mattered. He was more than fast enough to gut her before she even knew what was happening. He'd probably kill her if she tried to run, anyway.
"My parents wouldn't listen to your twisted-" Gilead laughed.
"Your father is out in the mortal world, following my orders even now." Reika's face paled. She couldn't imagine her father, slaughtering people in the name of this madman. Then again, she could barely imagine him at all. Perhaps her father really was the type to do all that. How would she know? She'd had so few conversations with him that she could count them on one hand.
"I don't care!" Reika shouted. "This isn't about my father, or about my mother, or even about me! This is about my friends, and about everyone you're going to kill with your insane plan!" She took a step towards him. She decided that she'd rather die on her feet facing him than on her knees running away.
"It is a million-to-one chance that you will even manage to make me bleed." Gilead said. His smile was so smug, Reika just wanted to smash it in. Her hatred gave her the strength she needed to glare into his eyes. If pure hate could kill a person, then Gilead would have been struck dead in that instant.
"You admit I have a chance, then." Reika said. She took another step.
"Good!" Gilead said. "Come at me then, so I may kill you." It wouldn't be like how he'd killed Erin. She was probably already back in hell, complaining about everything. It wouldn't be like how he'd killed Alexander, who had never really been alive. It wasn't even like how he'd killed Kerian. At least Kerian had a chance to recover. Of course, once the angels were in hell, it would take a miracle to stop them.
"As you wish." Reika said. She braced herself then, with a cry born of frustration, terror, and anger, she launched herself at him. Gilead's sword of light came up. She knew she couldn't avoid it, and didn't try. She ran right at him. With any luck, maybe she'd be able to trap it enough in her body that her sword could do its work. It would be worth it, then. Worth dying to kill him.
There was a black blur suddenly behind Gilead. A flash of light. Gilead's stance faltered, the sword of light drew aside. Reika was on him even as the first blood spurted into the air from his back, and his right wing went limp. She slashed at his arm. Gilead couldn't react.
The enchanted steel of her sword bit deeply into Gilead's flesh. The holy blade, designed to destroy demons, had no trouble at all hacking into his arm, so far into it that she felt a bone snap in the angel's wrist. The sword of light vanished from his grasp. His face was twisted in agony and incomprehension. No wonder why. He had thought himself to be invincible. People who thought that were almost never right, but they were often disappointed.
It had been a million to one chance. And Reika had managed it. She looked behind Gilead at the same time the angel turned, and gasped in shock. It was Kerian. Somehow, someway, he had gotten his sword, gotten back on the balcony, and snuck up behind Gilead. He looked furious.
"How did you-?" Gilead asked, gasping with pain. Kerian smiled. it was a sickly smile. A predator's smile.
"You're a real piece of work. I suppose you've always got your nose so far in the air that you never noticed that ledge ten feet down from the balcony. I landed on that." Kerian's eyes glittered. "You didn't even think to look to make sure I was dead, you idiotic asshole." Kerian kicked him in the gut. Gilead fell to his knees.
"No!" Gilead gasped. "This cannot be!"
"Sure it can!" Kerian said. "You know, people like you really piss me off." Reika looked at Gilead's wing. It had been cut nearly off, hanging only by a tendon and a flap of skin. She looked at Kerian. Something welled up in her heart. It was more than just relief. She was barely able to keep herself from breaking down into tears, seeing him alive when she'd thought him dead.
"Kerian!" Reika said. He looked at her, and smiled. Not the smile of a predator. The smile of someone who cared. It was the same kind of smile her brother had given her.
"Don't worry." He said. "I couldn't just leave you alone, now could I?" Reika would have hugged him then and there if Gilead hadn't interrupted them. The angel spat blood onto the ground.
"I should have expected no less from a demon." Gilead said. "Stabbing me in the back."
"And I expected no less from you than to want to murder a near-defenseless lady." Kerian retorted. "I told you I'd do anything to kill you, and I meant it."
"Just finish me!" Gilead said. "The last thing I want is to stay here, bleeding and listening to your prattle!"
"Give the order to recall the angels, Gilead." Reika said. "Stop this madness!"
"Never!" Gilead said, spitting at her feet. "I'd rather tell them to fight to the last!" Kerian grabbed Gilead's injured wing, and tugged on it harshly. There was a tearing sound, and Gilead screamed again. Reika flinched. Kerian pulled again, and with a splatter of gore, the wing tore completely free. He threw it over the edge of the balcony.
"I'm pretty sure I have enough strength to shove you right past that ledge." Kerian said. Reika walked to the edge of the balcony and looked down. The ledge Kerian had landed on before was only a bit more than a foot wide. She couldn't imagine the kind of luck it would take for him to land on it, as injured as he was. Had it been heaven, guiding them? Or saving the man she... Reika paused a moment before completing her thought.
She looked at Kerian. He was covered in blood, and probably half of it was his own. He was no one's idea of a great man. He was half-demon, he'd conquered a country in the name of hell and abandoned it when he got bored. He'd become a private investigator, and had failed to make a living at that. He'd taken jobs from organized crime. He'd killed people for a reward. And in the end, after all that, he was still willing to risk everything to save the world.
After everything they'd been through, though it had been only such a short time, she felt something for him. It wasn't anything she'd ever felt before. She knew what it was, though. She was in love with him. Before, her first thought would have been that her parents would never approve.
Now, after her parents had left her to rot in prison, knowing that they had supported Gilead, or at least done nothing to stop him, she didn't care. For all that it mattered, she could never see them again and be happy. It wasn't as if she'd seen much of them anyway.
"Will killing him do anything?" Reika asked. "Will it stop the terrible deed he's begun?"
"I don't know." Kerian admitted. "But I do know that leaving him alive won't do anything." He looked at Reika. "After all that he's done, I can't let him live."
"Bah." Gilead said. He knelt in a puddle of his own blood. "I've done nothing compared to your kind."
"I don't remember ever attempting genocide." Kerian said. "And don't give me bullshit about saving souls. You'd just re-kill everyone in hell anyway." Gilead glared at him. "What? You don't like hearing the truth?" Gilead didn't reply.
"He won't listen to you." Reika said. "He doesn't care what you have to say. He doesn't listen to you. The only words he's going to hear are the ones coming out of his own mouth." She knew what that was like. It was how she'd grown up, where truth came only from the mouths of those who thought like everyone else.
"Great." Kerian sheathed his sword and dragged Gilead to his feet by his good arm. He pushed him onto the balcony.
"What are you doing?" Gilead demanded, hissing through his pain. "Just finish me!"
"Well, Gilead, you seem to be missing a wing." Kerian maneuvered him to the edge. "I'm just wondering if you can fly without it." Gilead looked over the edge. Reika glanced down, and saw his wing lying in the courtyard, among with the bodies of the angels they'd killed earlier. "You're rather intolerant of fallen angels. It's only fitting that you should join them, don't you think?"
Kerian narrowed his eyes, and pushed. Gilead lost his balance. His single wing fluttered uselessly. He hit the railing around the balcony, and fell over. His face was full of fear. Reika almost smiled. For once, she wasn't the one having to deal with terror.
Wherein... well, find out for yourself.
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