Nigh, it comes
Written and edited by Averis
Co-Written by Foxmoulder993
"Tis the end, now shall thy child and thy ancestor stand together praying for solus but receiving damnatio. Yonder there come the white, the red, the black and the pale riders to march across the fields of conquest, war, famine & plague, and finally death. I am the Fallen, I am the deceiver, I am the one who was believed to have a shining sword of liquid fire made of the gods fallen glory, I am Lucifer, I am Surtr, I am Daeva. And now, well now is the fun part."
The day that supposedly was the end of the world came and went, but it did no good worrying about that day, for the forces of hell did not like the cold, and they didn't want to invade the northern hemisphere during winter. But on the longest day of the year right across the world pits to hell opened. At first only minor windows opened but they were enough to carry the point across.
Bursting through the wall with a demon on his tail Raphael saw a mortal in the room and made use of that to catch the demon off guard, for the demon was minor and more interested in food than failing to kill an angel.
I was sitting on my couch when all of a sudden a loud noise came from the wall when I turned my head to the noise I saw a large cat like creature, with faded buckskin fur, and he was wearing black biker pants. He moved quickly and hid behind something. I was about to say something when a huge monster charged in.
It was wolfish in shape and form and it went directly for me. It was dark red and if it weren't dark red I would have sworn a feral animal was attacking me. It jumped at me and I curled up in the fetal position. I could smell its putrid breath and quite honestly I had never been any more scared than right now than any other moment in my life.
The snarling I was hearing as it stood over the top of me suddenly stopped and it felt like all of the weight of the animal thing was on top of me, I looked up and saw a sword buried deep in its cranium. Blood was spurting out of its wound. The cat like creature was standing over me and the dead creature.
Looking up at me the cat said "My name is Raphael, and that was a first class demon."
"Ok, what the hell is going on this is really bad practical joke," I said.
Shaking his head Raphael said "No, I am the Arch-angel Raphael and I hate to break it to you but the end times have come, did you not dream about Gahravel's speech two weeks ago?"
"Who the hell is that, and what the hell do you look like that for?"
"Gahravel is the true name of the devil, Satan, whatever you wish to call him, the ruler of the underworld that all cultures base that belief off of, and my form is that of a Fossa." he said while taking a brief bow, "And I live to protect the mortal beings, my friend Anna should be here soon." As he stood back up a huge hand reached through the ceiling and crushed Raphael's skull, causing his long sword to fall forward and land on my foot.
'Pick me up damn it! That thing just killed my master, PICK ME UP AND KILL IT!'
Picking it I said, "Okay shut up, there you happy?"
'Yes, now do you actually know how to use a sword, I certainly hope so because that is no first class demon, to kill an Arch-angel it is at least three hundred and first class.'
"Well I have spared with swords before, I was one of the best in the class," he said.
'Fine, we have no time to teach you more than that anyway.' As the sword said that the hole in my ceiling grew bigger and a huge bearish bull looking thing fell through to my floor and stood there chuckling before charging towards me.
As it charged towards me I briefly dropped the sword and as a result the thing lowered its guard just enough for a circular strike that cut the lower leg muscles before sweeping up and around to land a clean strike to the side of its neck, the sheer momentum of the creature actually helped to bury the sword in its lower jaw line, as I side-stepped to make the angle more steep it couldn't stop charging fast enough and cut clean through the ligaments holding the jaw on before falling out. Pulling back it snarled at me with a tongue hanging loose and grabbed at the sword which caused its hand to start sizzling before it let go. Pick its jaw up off the ground and putting it back in place the thing said "This isn't over, I will be back at a later time sympathizer."
After it left through the hole in the wall the sword said 'Wow, you're a hell of a natural kid.'
"Would you like to explain what the hell is going on?" I said.
A sound like a pop occurred and a feminine voice said "I think I can help with that, and I can hear sweet little Carry there so I won't think that you're completely crazy."
'MY NAME IS CAIRNARYZIAL!' the sword seemed to shout.
"Ok, if you can tell me what's going on, then tell me! I'm losing my patience here. My living room is torn all to hell there are two dead bodies in here and I don't believe in a god or Satan," I said.
As another popping noise occurred both the holes in my wall and my ceiling suddenly disappeared, as did the first demon's body. A blue and green scaled girl with what seemed to be dragonfly wings of a clear orange then appeared on my couch and as she was rubbing her head she said "My name is Anna, technically it is Annayrisal with a few other syllables that mortals and not even all angels can pronounce, and I'm a Fey. Now, I can understand you not believing in god or Satan, because technically they aren't real, both are just extremely powerful beings that humans have seen visions about because Fey and Angels and Demons all three have been interbreeding with mortals for centuries, humans just don't show signs of that because of, well, divine intervention, questions?"
"Well one comes to my mind, WHY ARE YOU ALL HERE NOW?" I yelled.
'Fair point, I'm here because I was Raphael's sword, now I'm your sword, eternal bond.'
"And Raphael called me here to help fix your house, and presumably to fix your head except now you have his sword and half of his angelic powers." Shrugging Anna stood up and walked over, she was obviously shorter than me but she was standing next to a picture that was usually taller than me and she was standing higher than I normally did.
"Ok firstly what does the whole eternal bond thing mean?" I asked.
'I am eternally bound to your soul, until you die I will never break or rust or dull, blood shall never mar my surface and I shall never leave your side.'
"So basically I have to continue this guys quest, Is that what you're telling me?" I asked.
'Yeah, that or I spend the rest of my time around you trying to kill you.' To more or less prove its point the sword fell from where it was leaning on the wall and barely missed my toes as I jumped back.
"I am afraid so, by even wielding that sword you start to become angelic, the process is irreversible and frankly you'll look hotter anyway." Shrugging Anna walked over to Raphael and held her hand over where his head used to be, it slowly started to piece together until it was almost identical to how it appeared before, but there where indents where the claws first pierced his skull. "I can't bring him back to life, no one can, it's impossible except with a demon deal, but that is trading life force, not generating it, this way he can appear presentable at his funeral."
"Well I guess I better get to know you guys, seems as if I have no choice in matter. My name is Ichabod, but all my friends call me Ich," I said
Smiling through the pain Anna said "Well, I suppose Carry there can fill you in, I need to take him to Heaven's base camp so that he can be properly buried in the stars, I'll send Uriel and Thor to help you deal with the hothead, they will also help train you to deal with this entire situation. Raphael wasn't the most powerful on heaven's side, but he was up there." Holding her hands over his body both Anna and Raphael disappeared with a loud Pop.
'I hate her.'
"Well I hate you, and her," I said.
A sudden deep voice behind me said "Well most of us were jealous that Raphael was dating the daughter of one of the kings of the Fey, and Carry is an annoying douche of a sword, quite a bit more-so than most of our weapons, although most don't have near as much personality as him, or even talk as much, my name is Thor."
As I turned around and saw a towering white lion I heard a rough but still female voice say behind me "It's true almost all of us would love to have her as a girlfriend, my name is Uriel."
"Um, sorry this whole thing is still very new to me, and I barely know what's going on, Are all of the gods in existence," he said.
"Angels, yeah, every name in the book, every book, is inspired by the reality of our existence, and our existence has slowly changed to match mortal beliefs." Uriel answered as she slowly walked next to Thor, her appearance was that of a large pale blue gryphon.
"Ok so who are you supposed to be," he asked the gryphon.
"As I said, my name is Uriel, I am the fourth arch-angel named in the bible, one of the top ten thousand arch-angels. I do apologize for not being more well known but I prefer not to deal with mortals, my abilities are slightly more combat oriented than people oriented."
'Yeah, the bitch is damn good with a pair of knuckle dusters.'
"Ok try to understand this, up until a few minutes ago I didn't believe in any kind of god, I never read the bible and I sure as hell didn't subscribe to the whole Armageddon theory either. So if I don't know you don't take it personally," I said
"What is thi..." Uriel began until Thor held up his hand.
"Forgive my sister, she barely has emotions and has no recent experience with human sayings, even one as crass as Cairn there finds it difficult, and he has had thousands of years of duels to perfect it. Anna asked us to train you though, and I suspect you wouldn't appreciate dueling in your apartment since it did just get repair and reinforced against demon intrusions." Thor said while offering a hand of cooperation.
"Alright I guess it couldn't get any more confusing unless the loony toons are real," I said taking the hand.
As I did so the instant my hand fully grasped his we were in a grandiose dojo that was larger than any stadium I had ever seen and it was full of others sparring.
Pulling a large hammer off of his back Thor said "Mjolnier has grown tired of demons, this will be refreshing."
Shaking her hands Uriel suddenly had gold crosses and other religious icons covering each of her knuckles and the first bone on every finger. "There were many glorious fights with Raphael, I hope you are capable of holding true to his name."
'Just listen to me and learn as we go, it is impossible to die in this dojo so try to perfect as many crazy moves as you can think of.'
The hours went on slowly, I was cut into pieces, I had my skull smashed by a hammer, I had my skin pulverized to the point that my muscles fell off. And yet every ten minutes I was completely restored, the fight went on for seeming eternity until I finally 'killed' both of them. The moment Uriel was restored she took my head off but I put the sword through her heart and somehow got Thor at the same because when we rose again he came up at the same time and said "Well done, you now are able to defeat a majority of the 666 classes of demons."
"And about time too," came the voice of Anna from behind me, "Do you have any idea how long you've been training here?"
"Um, not really do you have the time," I asked.
"December third, twenty fourteen, you have been practicing in here for a year and two months." She said looking at him with a level gaze.
"You're shittin me," I said.
"No, and everything ended already, I need the three of you to get me something so I can send you three all back in time to the day you came here, you need to get me the staff of Moses, the ring ragnarok, and the symbol for the yazatas on the original golden seal. The three of those together will allow me to change the past and put you back there, and I honestly have no idea if you'll be able to succeed, my dad says I shouldn't even bother with this."
"Well are you sure I'm ready for this, because I'm not too sure," I said.
As she pulled a blade out and throwing and it at my head I flicked my hand and sent it right back at Anna, as she stopped it in midair she said "Now really, you have to admit that your reaction, skill and overall ability to defeat an opponent has increased a hundred fold, and by the way, I have something to tell you about Uriel there, she is not in the top ten thousand, that is just for general skills, Uriel and Thor are both in the top ten best combat Arch-angels, they have both been training you for ten centuries in here, one year and two months outside."
Uriel suddenly appeared next to Anna and handed her a one foot wide circle that seemed to be made of solid gold. "The seal of the Yazatas."
"What's that do," I asked.
"There is a power in belief, and this was imbued with over a thousand years of belief in the greater good conquering the true evil." Thor said while looking at it in seeming wonder, "Uriel, how in heaven did you even know where this was?"
"I guard it on Sundays." She answered while shaking her hands free of blood and her knuckle dusters.
"Isn't Sunday supposed to be a day of rest," I asked.
"I hate resting, it allows you to get rusty." she said evenly.
"Well your creator needed a day, so why not you," I asked.
"God is not our creator, he is merely our Lord." she said before disappearing again.
"What she means is that God didn't create us, he created mortals, we simply came into existence at the same time as him, there is an entire section of heaven dedicated to finding that answer." Thor said while looking for Uriel to reappear.
"Ah sorry, I didn't know. The Church threw a lot of things out of proportion," I said.
As Uriel reappeared behind Thor she tapped him on the opposite shoulder that she walked around and dropped a ring in Anna's outstretched hand, "The ring ragnarok." she said as Thor turned in circles to try and follow where she was.
"Seriously, how did you even know that existed before now let alone know its location, I am ranks above you in the hierarchy and I have never heard of it before." Thor said while looking at her in shock.
"I guard it on Wednesday, there is a prophecy about my needing those two items and so I was set to guard them." She said while standing calmly next to Anna.
"Do you guard everything here, or is that just my imagination," I asked.
"I guard on Sunday, Wednesday and Friday, I train Arch-angels in advanced fighting techniques on Tuesday and Thursday, and Monday and Saturday I see my girlfriend, that bit in the bible about the lord hating gays is wrong, if you read it the city he destroyed was not because of gay sex, what occurred there was much worse, Satanic worship and turning on their own friends because of imagined wrongs. Those are far worse considering God is bisexual, he created both sexes, why not enjoy both of them."
"Well I've never liked how people say God hates gays and that all other religions were wrong. I like the idea of a bisexual god honestly," I said.
"Despite that Uriel is the only gay angel anyone knows, and almost everyone knows her, most angels simply don't fall in love with anything or anyone besides work and our Lord. I'll go get the staff of Moses now though." Thor said.
As a staff suddenly appeared before them a rumbling voice said *Don't bother, child of chaos Anna you are doing this in my permission and hope that you prevail.*
The entire hall kneeled as Anna, Thor, and Uriel said "Lord, we thank you for this blessing."
The sword said 'Yeah, thanks for being a nosy prick who spy's in on everyone.'
"Shut up you stupid sword," I said quietly.
*Cairnaryzial, sarcastic, irritating, noisy and alive, you are my favorite holy weapon.*
'Yeah, he's the only one that likes me!'
"Maybe if you were nicer others would like you," I said.
'But then the boss wouldn't like me, who cares if others like me if my maker does.'
"Cairn, shut up, you are honestly one of the most pathetic personalities I know because you are so self destructively attention whoring, but despite that you are the only holy weapon I talk to." Anna said while putting the ring on the staff and placing them both on the gold seal and taking a piece of chalk out and drawing a complex series of uneven circles and a series of different symbols and letters, some of them English, some Russian, and hundreds of others that I didn't recognize at all. As she finished Anna said "step into the circle, don't smudge any of the marks now."
As they stepped in Anna started chanting and seemed to be glowing, as this was happening everything around us seemed to be moving in reverse and changing. Leaves feel up and landed back on their trees as we arrived in a park next to an enormous bronze cross with Christ hanging from it. As the tree's leaves turned green again they started to shrink and turn back into buds, there was a tree nearby that had cherry blossoms on it, very beautiful to see it grow backwards. Then snow flew from the ground up into the clouds and the cross of Christ was covered in ice as two students cleared it away and then it seemed to melt off from growing backwards. The leaves appeared and some of them flew back into the trees and the park was covered in pumpkins and kids and the church throwing a haunted church and suddenly the rewind stopped at seemingly Halloween morning.
As Anna fell over I bent down to catch her and asked "Ok what was that."
Speaking lightly Anna said "Time travel isn't instantaneous, you see everything that occurred in the absent time. The bigger the jump the more power it takes to cast the spell."
'Wow dude, even though it's been an eternity seemingly you're still moving on your predecessor's girl.'
"I'm not making a move on her," I defended
"Doesn't matter," Uriel said while pointing to my hand on her ass and the fact that she is unconscious, "We have work to do, carry her."
"Ok that's not so hard, what's the next step," I asked while standing up and holding her, adjusting my grip so my hands weren't on her ass anymore, which made me note her tail for the first time.
"The plan is to go back to your house and figure out where that demon came through, because that was a three hundreds class demon that killed Raphael." Thor said while starting to while, the rest of us following.
"If I remember correctly he came through my ceiling," I said, thinking of how attractive Anna really was.
"Check the girl out later, you can probably take her clothes off if you want. But through your ceiling was just how it surprised Raphael to kill an Arch-angel of the first class, for us that means the highest level, only Mikhael, Lucifer, and Gabrial were higher, those three were known as the Zero class, because they ascended first level power. And now one is trapped in heaven, one got eaten and absorbed by Gahravel, and the last decided to give up his position and become something else not fighting for heaven or hell, Gabrial was the first Fey." Uriel said while shaking her hands continuously and causing her knuckle dusters to appear and disappear rapidly.
"Um... no that's just wrong, really why would you suggest that," I asked, face turning red.
"She has no sense of decency." Thor said while turning onto a busy sidewalk.
"And I met my girlfriend by suggesting I teach her a better way to bind her eight breasts for combat before humanity thought of the idea of bras, it started by suggesting she strip so I can show her." Uriel said while smiling at a passerby wearing a cross and blushing madly.
"Sounds like an interesting story, maybe you could share more with us later," I said, "also you're all animal hybrids why aren't you guys getting stopped?"
"Hybrid is such a crude term, although it does apply nicely to you, we were born in these bodies and are the envoy of the Lord, Anna of course is the child of Gabrial, literally of course or she couldn't have cast that spell, he made the fey in body mind and soul, he became a four side to a three way war. You though, you are no longer mortal, but not quite angel." Thor said while gesturing to a large store window.
Looking into the mirror I realized that my original facial features were gone and I was looking at a large cat creature like Ralf, "Why do I look like that guy Ralf something or other?"
"Raphael, because you picked up his sword, and you don't look like him, just similar species and colouring, also I would not object to telling more of the story of how I met my girlfriend." Uriel said.
"Well Raphael was a handsome dude, and you still didn't answer my question Thor.
"Humans who can't believe can't see, humans who can't understand also can't see, humans who will make a mess of things by making a scene can't see, and humans who don't care or are mentally stable enough to ignore what they see or at least not make a scene are the ones who can see, if you couldn't have seen then you wouldn't even have heard Raphael break through the wall. That girl back there that blushed at Uriel is a good Christian girl who is afraid to be with a girl who asked to be her girlfriend because of the stupid theology and belief that we hate gays, she saw and liked Uriel's true form and could truly hear our conversation because she could see us." Thor answered while waving at a guy in a Supernatural hat, who then tipped his hat.
"Well I didn't believe and now I'm here, and what was that about? I asked, growing frustrated with cryptic answers.
"Belief is not required, simply stability or ability to accept given proper knowledge. And we acknowledge those that can see us, you'll learn to see who can see us in our true form eventually but it was secondary to learning combat. Thor does it because it's polite, I only do it when the other is embarrassed by it, usually because they're attracted to me." Uriel said before flourishing to bow before the little Christian girl who had turned around and started following them.
"She's a cute little girl. We really need to stop the future. So that thing that showed up it had a reason to be where it was right?" I asked, wondering if this was supposed to happen.
'Which thing?' the sword asked.
"The thing that killed Raphael," I said.
"That thing was probably there because it was attracted to the power that Raphael had, if it had gotten Cairn it would have been able to get all of Raphael's powers, quite a power boost there." Thor answered.
"So was it a coincidence that he burst through my wall," I asked.
"The one that burst through your wall was just tracking Raphael, it was fast enough to keep up with him while he was flying, that's another thing you'll learn later. The bigger one just happened to portal in to the room above." Uriel answered.
"So it's all just a coincidence this night not have been my purpose, is that what you're saying?" I asked.
Waking slightly Anna said "That was not Destiny, Destiny held Raphael marrying me in thirty of your years on our side. Destiny had you living to be 97 and then getting hit by a moose on vacation in Alaska, you were married with kids, three daughters and a son." before falling asleep again.
"So destiny didn't see this whole Armageddon thing coming to nip humanity in the ass?" I asked
"Destiny is a good kid, she does what she sees as the best overall outcome to make the most people happy and save the most people. She did not try to set you up as the next first class Arch-angel. That was all Cairn preventing another demon from getting an Arch-angel's power." Thor said while opening the door to his apartment complex.
"Wait Destiny is a person?" I asked, totally dumbfounded.
Following them in Uriel said "Of course, humans get a lot of details about heaven and other things wrong, it's the name of an angel that is a young human girl, a sexy teenager on the verge of womanhood with luxurious hair and an old woman who uses a wheelchair."
"Ok, well I wish it would have happened the way she predicted. However, I can't say I'm exactly upset about things right now. Just wish I knew my purpose, something all mortals wish I guess," I said scratching the back of my head, following Thor.
"Purpose is happiness, that is the point of mortal life, Angels all find a purpose by finding a task they are good at and suited for, and Uriel is possible the best combat Angel in existence, she just uses a weapon that makes it harder for that to shine, her sword has no sentience, the only one in existence that is true of. All others tell you ways to fight better, ways to win during the middle of combat, and despite that she is possibly the best since if it is unarmed combat she wins hands down every time. Her girlfriend accepts that combat is her very life and helps her progress that, for you it was engineering of some kind, you would have met your wife on a business trip and married her in a few years." Thor said while holding his hand over the door and the lock and handle suddenly moving into his other hand.
Pushing the now handle and lockless door open Thor walked into my apartment and gestured the rest of us inside.
"Excuse me that's breaking and entering and completely pointless since I have the key right here," I said in somewhat mock anger.
"This was faster, more efficient, if you could teleport we wouldn't have needed to walk here from the start, in the park. Do not worry, we shall put it back before we are done, even if you do not need to live in this abode any longer." Uriel said while sitting directly under where the hole in the ceiling had been and seeming to catch on fire.
"Yeah that's where he showed up. So now my future has changed right," I asked trying to get a better grasp of the idea.
Sliding out of my arms Anna then appeared by my couch with a pop and fell onto it before saying "Destiny is in a coma and has been since you touched Carry, until Raphael's role in the preset destiny of the Apocalypse has been played out she will remain that way."
As Thor walked over to Uriel he held out his hands and said "Right now her battle aura is meeting the demon's battle aura, we can track it as long as she is doing this, and she can then teleport to meet us there."
"So should we get going," I asked, "Or are we going to sit here and gab like old ladies?"
"We are going to wait for our little invincible ally to get better, because she is usually pretty helpful since she can't die, course she doesn't fight either, but she can certainly take a hit that would kill us. Hey Anna, what will help you get better?" Thor asked after putting his hands back at his sides.
"Food is good, food is always good." she responded with a smirk on her face before coughing and saying "Juice is also amazingly healing."
"Well there's probably some food in the fridge, I've got everything meat related in there. I also have some OJ in the fridge," I said pointing into the kitchen, "She's invincible?"
Sitting up slowly Anna started to stand up and suddenly disappeared with a pop and Thor shook his head before saying "Yeah, all Fey are currently unkillable, thus effectively invincible, we all have a weakness but no one has had time to find Fey's weakness because they don't associate with anyone who means them ill will, and as you just saw even when they're exhausted they have the ability to teleport, the same is true for when they are essentially dead, I have seen a Fey get torn to millions of pieces then just teleport back into one spot whole again. The only one that could reasonably know a way to kill them right now is Gabrial since he made them and became one."
"Ok. So tell me how often someone like me has ended up in the place of another Arch-angel, is this common or flat out rare," I asked.
"It has never happened before in the history of our kind, she just happened to be dating him already, which I believe has been established." Thor said while walking towards the kitchen to check on Anna.
'Hey, I made damn sure I survived, all swords were told to survive no matter the cost after Lucifer.'
"Yes and we're all very proud that you lived, lucky us," I said reaching for it nut it was missing, "Ok where are you?"
'In the veil, same place that all swords go when not in use, you just have to think about drawing me and grab at the air since I have a handle, like how Uriel shakes her hands to get her holy sigil swords. There are other ways to do it of course but they use different forms of swords. Each sword is bound to their form and would need a massive psychic shock to change since the sword shape is decided by the sword not the wielder.' The sword answered.
"Ok what does the last bit mean," I asked.
'Every sword has a personal preference as to how they want to kill, and every sword but one is named a proper name, Uriel's is the one without a proper name, it is called the holy sigil sword.' The sword responded.
Sighing I said, "I wish I was still a mortal."
"Hey, you don't think I wish you were still mortal too! That would mean my boyfriend would still be alive you damned idiot!" Anna yelled with a half gone, double taking on that I saw she was actually eating the can and the food inside, walking towards me.
"I can't tell you how sorry I am for your loss. I don't take what he did for granted but when I picked up that sword I had no idea what I was getting into. I'd prefer to live the way it was foretold not his where I'm basically filling in his place," I said.
Pouring the rest of the can straight down her throat Anna threw the can itself, what remained, at my head, I swatted it away but in the quarter of a second that my hand was in front of my eyes there was a very quiet pop and she was gone, somewhere.
Groaning Thor said "She is a touch sensitive, she has just spent the past ten thousand years watching you train and now we're back where he died so there are some tensions here and mental states she could have prepared for."
"Well should I go talk to her, or would that make things worse," I asked feeling bad.
Speaking again all of a sudden Uriel said "You have never had a girlfriend before have you, yes go talk to her damn it, girls are not men, they like to talk for the most part, and Anna never shuts up, even if she doesn't always talk about herself she likes talking if you let her direct the conversation."
"Well do you know where she is, you guys know her better than me," I said.
Shaking her head Uriel said "Listen to your heart, none of us besides Raphael can follow her when she teleports, just like no one but me can follow my girlfriend when she teleports. That is the way of the Fey, only their true love can follow them, and if you truly care for her then it will still work."
I closed my eyes and slowed my breathing and cleared my mind. I don't know how long I was standing there but then what looked like a circuit board suddenly appeared. At first I was kind of lost about what I was to be looking for but then a line started pulsing in the rhythm. I decided to follow this path where ever it led me. As I got closer I could hear noise the noise was stuff breaking and soft sobs. One I got to the end of the line I saw Anna and it took me a minute but I figured out exactly where she was. Then as soon as I found out I was there.
As she was crying and breaking what appeared to be a car crash test site I walked over to her and said, "I can't begin to understand, this whole thing has blown me out of the water. I don't know how hurt you were when he passed. I never had a family, sure I had people that took care of me but I've never loved anyone."
Picking up part of the wall she had just broken off Anna said "Love, that is a mortal word for something that is far beyond words to express." Crushing the two foot piece of jagged concrete she continued with "Believe me, there is a connection between souls that you can't even begin to understand in your lifespan, I spent a total of over Thirty million years with him, that is only three thousand years on earth, can you claim that you even begin to understand what it feels like to lose a connection like that. I honestly am glad that you didn't say that stupid mortal thing of 'I understand' because I would have just left again."
"I've never claimed to understand anything, and I think if you would have teleported I might have been able to find you again," I said
Laughing she said "You know, at least you can still make me laugh Raph."
"Did you just call me Raph," I asked.
'Your soul merged with Raphael's when you inherited his powers through me, Fey and both of the other two factions can see into the soul, demons look even uglier when you see their souls, most fey look the same because they are all mostly neutral, they do good and evil things, and most angelic beings look even more gorgeous, Uriel has so much blood on her hands she looks the same but it is all for Heaven's greater good. She sees Raphael in part of your soul, it is why you were able to follow her.'
"By the time this day's over I'm going to need an advil. So I've partially become Raph?" I asked.
"And now that new bit of you is showing again, yes, your soul merged with the dying remains of Raph's soul. This is not hard to understand, of course you are just now learning about thirty million years of learning about each other, that is in addition to the countless millions of years learning about all things demonic and holy."
"So when I remember all thirty million years will I forget who I am, or was," I asked.
"Remember," Laughing so hard she fell over Anna said "The angels have no experience with accidentally mixing souls but demons and Fey both do, we toy with this too much for our own good, I lost a brother before to this. The newly combined soul doesn't remember the things the other body did, just the emotions behind the actions because a soul holds no memory. But emotions, those are all created by the soul."
"So I guess that's a no. Well I would like to get to know you better, because I do like you," I said.
'Kid, you may...'
Before the sword could finish its sentence she was on top of my, literally. She was pinning me against the ground and looking into my eyes, there was something there that I couldn't name. But instead of killing me she was suddenly kissing me. There was passion and hate and love, something I had never experienced before. Suddenly I was flying through the air and impacted against the remains of the crash test wall, putting a good foot deep dent into the massive cement wall. With a pop she was standing in front of me again, just staring at me for an instant until she started kissing me again, the same as before. The fire between us was something incredible, and then with a pop she was gone.
Repeating the process from before I found her really quick this time. She was back at my apartment. I was there in a blink of an eye as well.
"About time lovebirds, let's get to crackin!" Uriel said sitting under the hole again, as she said it I saw that she had apparently turned the TV on and was on Crank. Almost immediately she was apparently on fire again, as she did so Thor walked over and his arms flared into a bright gold before creating a black trail leading from Uriel.
Snapping her fingers Anna suddenly had a strange leash of sorts and said "Hey kid, hang on," before tossing the other end towards me. As soon as I was holding it Anna disappeared and made a pop noise and suddenly I fell the leash yank me with it. I was suddenly in an upside down forest for a moment before appearing in what seemed to be Rome, or used to be at the least. A moment later Thor appeared and after that so did Uriel.
'Oh crap, you are possibly screwed.'
"Why do you say that," I asked.
A loud thump sounded behind me and a gravelly deep voice said "Me, hello again Uriel."
Shaking her hands Uriel turned said "Hello Abbadon, or is it The Destroyer now."
"Um I can't see him but do I want to," I said, "so what do we do?"
"No, you really don't want to know him, he's an angel corrupted by hell, I'm the only one that can fight him. The three of you have to go on and leave me here to deal with this." Looking at here and following her line of sight I saw a black and pale green enormous bull standing around twelve feet tall, and Uriel was only half his size with a pair of knuckle dusters when he pulled out a black and red spiked mace probably eight feet tall.
Being pulled off my feet I heard the sword saying 'Corrupted holy weapon, that used to be the friend of Uriel, and her first attempt at love, so she has held a minor grudge since then towards him and most demons in general and men, that was around Six thousand years ago your birth time. She was specifically going easy on you during your training over the last ten thousand years.'
"Great more people treating me like a kitten that's just what I need," I said.
Yelling over his shoulder at me Thor said "She can kick my ass, you did actually beat me during that training. But she can handle that monstrosity, probably the only one who can because he is only one of two class 666 demons, the other can only be defeated by the holy sword Cairn, thus the hunting for Raphael by demons earlier."
"I still don't understand what's going on but ok," I said crossing my arms.
Opening her wings Anna started to fly and said "Understanding quite honestly isn't required, the rest of heaven is supporting us and we're now the keys to ending the Apocalypse before it begins, because if he is here then the portal between hell and earth is fully open, and everything is close to the end."
Suddenly Thor put me down and said "Take a look, this is the portal between heaven and hell, and the classes 660 through class 666 demons are what stands in our way."
"Really, who thought the portal to hell would be right here in the Vatican, I always heard it was in New Jersey," I said
"The corruption of the holy shall create the most perfect portal to the lowest pits of hell, that is the truth. Draw Cairn, we fight to the death here." Thor said while pulling Mjolnier forth.
Pulling out Cairn I said, "What about Anna? I'll do anything to protect her."
Stepping forward and throwing the main chapel doors open Anna said "Protect me, oh no, I will be protecting you." Running forward she dodged to the left as a large black sword sung down faster than human eyes could see and ran up the offenders arm before leaping right as another swung a mace at her legs, killing the first demon.
"Sorry Ich, she usually does this when there is something big going down. After all, the girl can't die." Throwing his hammer forward he hit the second demon squarely between the eyes and Mjolnier didn't stop there until he held his hand out and the hammer flew back, smashing a third demon across its overly large shoulder on the way.
"Alrighty then, To Hell or bust!" I yelled swinging my sword which felt like an extension of my arm. ************ Demon blood flew as we smashed, sliced and tricked our way through over a hundred of the highest classes of demons we knew about. Eventually we killed the entirety of the welcoming comity, all that was left was the main part of the church. Pushing the doors open Anna said "Hello Gahravel, good to see you again after ten thousand mortal years, it's been what, one hundred million years for us though right."
Laughing the seeming human sat on a huge leather throne adorned in black with horns sticking out everywhere, "What do you think," he asked, "I decided to go very traditional this time, even a human appearance. But you lot ran away!"
Stepping forward Thor said "You managed to kill Raphael, but our good friend Cairn, you remember him right, he gathered a new vessel, meet Ich."
"That's right you rat bastard I will cut you from ear to ear and I'll make you rue the day you came into my apartment," he said taking four steps forward.
Laughing once more Gahravel said "You fool, do you really think that you can beat me, the last angel that challenged me to a duel carried a weapon and power far stronger than that of you, do you know what I did, I ATE HIM!" By the end of his statement he was shouting with power emanating from his voice.
"You do not scare us Gahravel, you sent your agents to stop the words of Destiny, but you failed. You can torture us, maim us, and try to kill us but we won't stop." Anna said taking several steps forward.
"Try your worst I made a vow, That I kill you or I die trying," Ich said taking another step.
Shaking his head Gahravel said "Foolish Fey, do you truly believe that you are unkillable, it is impossible, why do you think I do worry, because I know that if I don't take action to prevent this all then I will die, but that is not today." Slamming his hand down on a horn on each side of his throne Gahravel quickly said a few words that none there understood and suddenly he was alone in the hall except for Cairn, who fell and stuck in the ground point down.
'Well shit...'