The blackened angel's rotted wings pushed the air down, hovering in the sky as its shattered yellow teeth crunched on chunks of flesh clasped by bony fingers. Where eyes were supposed to peer, sockets oozed black liquid, and bloody pus gushed out of every orifice. The divine servant's decay was perhaps the greatest mystery humanity could ever face, and though foretold, it would likely remain in fog until humanity was naught. And though it was not endowed with indestructibility like their golden creators, an angel to a human was simply an ant to a dragon.
"No…" Cygnus uttered, wincing at the sight of his gored comrades. His knees grew weak, his body teetering. "My men… they were so full of potential, they had goals and dreams, families… and now they're gone. What do I…"
"Cygnus!" Leila yelled as the angel broke its neck to face them. "This wasn't what we thought it was. Run and warn Arthur. I will attempt to give you a few moments."
Those words fell off the scholar, as his body would not listen to his commands, nor would his mind make them.
A small lump erupted in Brax's throat, suffocating the words from his lungs. His body struck stiff, jittering with fear that drained his strength and pumped ice through each vein. Never before had he seen such a sight. Not even his brother's sliced throat, nor the countless corpses he'd witnessed decaying along the roadside.
He felt it all.
The perpetual skies of dark from which light could not cut. The withering brown grass with a cacophony of silent body parts and blood singing around a wretched conductor. Thy angel and its overwhelming might. Though dead, its magic presence infected the air with wintry death and activated every instinct of the body to shut down, for anything other than death was futile. It wasn't just him. It could be felt across the continent. Its darkness. Its hunger. Its rot. Its a stench.
The angel didn't let them fathom its hellish sculpture for long. It split from the space it hovered upon and dashed beyond the speed of sight straight for Cygnus, who exhibited the most tremendous magic energy of the three. He couldn't bring himself to move, petrified in shock. He could only watch as the blur of black scribbles that was the angel's body appeared before him, a blackened sword forming in its toiling hand.
When the angel went to slice his head, Cygnus saw a glimpse of his father, Nikola, reading a book in his chair. Leila swiftly pushed him to the ground and narrowly avoided the graze of the corrupt angel blade.
"Cygnus!" Leila screamed, kicking him away. "Fight or run, do something! This isn't-"
Leila's mouth clamped shut as the blade came down upon her. Through sheer instinct, she stepped to the side and narrowly avoided it. She pivoted and opened her palm toward the angel, unleashing a flurry of shadowy bullets aimed straight at its head.
The angel waved its hand, and a gust of wind brushed the magic attack away as it came. It stopped for a moment and watched as they slowly backed up. Though the undead angel seemed incapable of complex thought, its strength had not diminished. The three of them knew well that the initial attacks were not its true abilities; they were merely minuscule tests with a fraction of its strength.
It was faster. Stronger. It's magic, an unfathomable pressure that could crush armies. A lust for death that superseded the instinct to survive. It was not an enemy they, nor anyone else in the kingdom, were equipped to fight.
Not together, not alone.
"If an ounce of your mind is intact, then I'm sure you can tell that's the corrupted angel the prophecies spoke of," Leila said, dragging the scholar back, who lay loose. "It appears the calamity approaches quicker than we thought. Which is why, Cygnus, you will pull yourself together."
Recomposition wasn't something his terror-ridden body could accomplish. In the face of overwhelming might, Cygnus Rift realized that the battle would not be about winning. It could only be about escaping. But that was not something they could do. In a situation such as theirs, he saw no way out. No options. No one was coming to save them. It was only them and the inevitable death they faced.
For the peasant who had dutifully dragged himself along, it was no better.
Brax's vision buzzed, the dark land swirling in a scape of blurred blood and bodies. He took a step back. He froze. Then he took another. And another. Turning his back to the angel, he instinctively began to do the thing he'd done all his life.
He ran.
"Your path is behind you, Brax," a familiar voice called out. Brax stopped, and the world froze. He felt two warm hands place themselves upon his shoulders and gently tug him back before he could take a single step more.
"Focus your eyes, steady your heart," the voice said. "You're here, and there's no going back. Fight with all your might, and don't falter until it's over. Even if you should fall, I'll be waiting to welcome you to the other side."
Brax turned his head around and saw Aziel's ghost upon him, smiling, and filling him with determination.
"You are brave," Aziel said.
"I'm scared," Brax said.
"Bravery is not fearlessness. It's the strength to walk in fear and stumble forward," Aziel said. "If you're convinced your death is here, then let it be a gallant. Now, my dear brother, I shall see you soon."
It emerged inside of him. A glint of courage rushing through his body and expelled his urge to flee. His lungs were still drowning in fear, but he could bear it. He could grit his teeth and stumble forward.
Brax walked up to Cygnus. The scholar was pinching his arm to the point where it bled. He was shivering and needed to hear the words his brother had given him. If they were to die, then Brax wanted to see Cygnus Rift, the greatest scholar in all the lands, live up to his name. Since his arrival a decade prior, Cygnus had always been someone Brax looked up to, despite his envy, despite everything. He was a man who would do anything for what he believed in - a hero. Brax wanted to see that man come out no matter what.
"Mister Rift…" Brax started. "I think we should fight."
"I- no, we can't…" Cygnus tried to speak, but couldn't. "They're all gone…"
"It's useless," Leila said as the angel walked towards them. Shadow arms erupted from the ground around her, cocooning her body in an armor of dark shade.
"Please, fight," Brax begged, shaking Cygnus. "We either leave this world with our backs turned, or our eyes facing forward. If we don't got a chance anyway, we might as well go out on our own without havin' regrets."
Cygnus looked at him in surprise, then back at the angel who was readying a stance to rush forward. He grabbed his hair by the bangs and pushed them above his forehead as he leaned back and started laughing.
"Heh! Well, here I thought I was supposed to be the ideal leader," Cygnus said. "But this man, whom I know nothing about, seems to have more leadership qualities than I. I am a disgrace, aren't I? Come! Let us fight on, with brilliance!"
"It seems your death won't be as pathetic as I thought," Leila said, backing up to stand side by side with Cygnus. They both stood ahead of Brax. "Listen, you old peasant. You might've snapped the fool out of his trance, but I can sense your weakness. Support us from the back, and if you see a chance to escape, do it without hesitation. One of us must return to Wunderum. We can only hope Arthur has a contingency for this. You ready, Cygnus?"
"Fundamentally, no," Cygnus said, pulsating energy through each glowy vein in his body. "But you must realize that running was never an option. Not only would that thing catch up to any one of us who escapes, but without the carriage, it'd take hours to run back to the city. Our only options are to fight."
The angel flew forward. Inspired by Brax's words, Cygnus formed a star in the palm of his hand and coiled his arm back. Pumping magic power through their veins to enhance their muscles with athleticism, both he and Leila sprinted right into the angel's sword of darkness, which swung their way. In an explosive three-way collision of star, sword, and shadow, gusts squalled in every direction as Cygnus and Leila were thrust back by the impact.
The angel, however, stood firm.
Leila barreled straight into Brax's chest, knocking them both to the ground. Cygnus barely caught himself with his feet as his shoes skidded back in the dirt, and left him far behind the others. He dropped to a knee as strength seeped from his body. Without giving them a chance to recover, the angel rose towards the black clouds. It swooped down for another rapid attack.
Sensing the weak link, the angel changed its tactics. It turned its attention towards Brax, who was still lying on the ground, ready to murder him in an instant. Luckily, Brax was craftier than one might've expected and sank into the earth, burrowing himself well beneath the surface. It was the same technique he had used to escape the women in black before, and though not useful for winning a fight, it made for a decent lifeline when trying to run away.
The angel hovered over the spot, perplexed. Growing dissatisfied, it flapped its wing mightily to create winds that ripped grassy soil from its home and blew away rocks in all directions. Huge holes appeared in the earth as the angels' wings tore the terrain to shreds, looking for the insect that had escaped. All around, the air trembled, and the dirty floor unraveled from the mere movement of those terrible wings.
"So this is the strength of an angel," Cygnus said, a nervous grin emerging on his face. It wasn't a happy grin, though. It was the amalgamation of fear and excitement merging into a single deathly instinct. Something that exhilarated his heart. "How intriguing! I pity the fact that this incredible clue will be lost along with our lives."
"It hasn't even used its magic yet," Leila said, peering at the angel as it ravaged the land.
"It's prolly a lost battle," Brax said, crawling up from a hole in the ground next to Cygnus. "But that doesn't mean we gotta give up so easily. We either die today standing up to heaven, or live 'til tomorrow saying we killed an angel. Either way, it's more interesting than the damn life I've endured."
"Well said, once again," Cygnus chuckled. "When we first met, you weren't someone I looked twice at. But I now know that your heart is more magnificent than I ever could have imagined. I would not mind dying fighting alongside someone such as you."
The creature, who had allowed them to talk briefly while destroying the surrounding area, noticed it had been fooled. It flew up and went to strike Brax again.
Brax wasn't intrinsically strong, and his basic rocky magic wasn't anything particularly special, but he began to wonder if it was enough to sustain him against the dark angel for a few seconds; a few seconds that he thought could give Cygnus or Leila a window to escape, or to unleash an attack.
Brax, summoning all his magic power, uprooted the earth and created a line of rock walls between him and the demon angel. While the walls were sturdy, they simply crumbled as the angel flew at him. Brax continued to summon the walls over and over again until the thing was too close for him to protect himself. At that point, pebbles flew from the ground and surrounded his body in a rock-hard armor of cobbled stone. The demonic beast's sword clawed at him with a crushing swing and knocked him back in a blight that left him barely conscious and bloody on the ground.
Although the stones protected him from a fatal blow to his heart, Brax was far from unscathed. He tried to get up, but a piercing pain struck his chest as he fell back down and clutched his side. His ribs were broken. Scattered stones lay around his body as it took all his strength to keep his eyes open. The darkness in his pupils kept creeping in from beneath his cracking bones and scorching skin, trying to block the light of the world.
His mind did not succumb to his fading consciousness, for he feared he would not wake up if he did. He still had a trump card to play, if all else failed. He just had to muster up the strength in his failing body to move a little bit more. He tried, but could not.
I was a fool to think I could be useful, he thought. My life is worthless, ain't it? Not even worth a damn.
The angel's attack on Brax happened fast, but it allowed Cygnus to form a black hole in the palm of his hand while a shadow-fused Leila hurtled herself towards the angel. The angel sidestepped Leila's punch and bolted towards Cygnus, who grabbed his own wrist and threw the black hole in front of his body as a shield. He pumped more of his magic than he ever had before into creating that spell, and even he felt like he was being sucked into it. Likewise, the gravity of the swirling ripple in dimensions was so immense that not even the seemingly unstoppable angel could prevent itself from being propelled into the dark ball's depths. It did not matter how strong a being was; if it could be destroyed, then it would fall to the depths of his black hole.
Eyes ahead. Keep your mind calm, Cygnus thought as adrenaline kept his body steady. Focus, you damn fool, focus! Focus. Focus. Focus.
As the angel was sucked into the devastating attack, it mustered the strength in its legs and leapt into the air, using the momentum to hop over the black hole. It glided through the air and landed behind Cygnus, slashing him in the back. From his shoulder to his hip, scarlet blood splattered all over his once finely threaded suit. With a deep crevice in his flesh, the black hole vanished.
Cygnus fell to his hands and knees, his eyes growing pale as warm liquid gushed all over, watering the wilted grass with his blood. His vision fuzzed up and focused over and over again as he tried to bring himself to stand up. He stumbled. He fell. He rose once more. Through the immense pain, he still willed himself to rise and to fight, for he still had his dream. He may have let his instincts nail fear into him in the initial encounter, but that changed as he was reminded of the legacy he was entrusted to protect and accomplish. For the comrades that were slain before him, the comrades back home he was protecting, and the hefty legacy of his father, he would retain his shining resolve.
Cygnus still stood despite his body failing because he refused to fall.
Cygnus thrust his hand to his side and amassed a star using every last bit of remaining magic and energy in his body. As the star's spinning light erupted with a ball of pure energy, he lifted it to his heart and closed his eyes. He pressed the warm energy into his chest and absorbed it all into himself, causing his body to shine bright and glow more blindingly than ever before.
Brilliantly, he stood in a stance befitting a heroic knight, not unlike King Arthur many decades before. The constellation sorcerer was one who crafted stars, and the man most determined to surpass the skies. To explore the unexplored and answer the questions of the world. More than anything, he wanted to learn about magic and share that knowledge with the world. And for that, he could not die.
"With this, I infuse myself with the stardust that musters existence," he chanted, drawing in the raw energy of matter around him. His muscles, held up by like a marionette through the borrowed energy of nature, flung his broken body through the air as he directed a supernova-charged punch towards the angel, who moved to dodge.
Before the demon angel could move, Leila appeared behind it, binding it with ropes woven out of dark thread. Her muscles bulged through her shadowy veil, and veins protruded on her forehead as she used all her strength to keep the angel bound while Cygnus's nuclear punch cometted towards the thing's heart.
When it hit, a voltic charge detonated in the surrounding area, creating a dome of orange flames. The impact singed Cygnus's skin and blew all three of them in opposite directions. Although Leila used the defense of her shadow magic to prevent severe physical damage to herself, the rapid summoning of all her power left her huffing for air and numb. She tried to follow up with another attack to ensure the job was done, but realized she was out of strength as her body stumbled all around. Keeping the angel still for a split second took everything she had.
Cygnus fell to his back. His chest rose with faint breath as his seared flesh swam in a pool of his own blood, bleeding from the wound on his back. He perched his neck up, but could not bring himself to stand once more.
The devastating blow had sent shockwaves far to the forests of Wunderdum, but the angel still stood. It wasn't moving quite as fast and was missing a good chunk of its flesh in the chest, but it was still able to rush to the sky, regenerating itself as it did so. They did not have a moment to despair or think, because it decided to unleash a tidbit of its strength.
The corrupt angel raised its sword as it emitted the most vile black smog in its wake. A flash of blinding smoke invaded the world and turned the grey scape even darker. Then, the sound of a boom hushed all when the angel dropped down and thrust the sword straight into the ground, summoning a hurricane of putrid gales.
Leila and Cygnus were hurled around in a furious tornado, thrashing them in cutting winds of relentless hate. With crude propulsion, they were chucked to the ground, leaving them even more mangled than before.
Leila managed to get to her feet and started to limp away. Knowing she had to get back to the kingdom somehow, she began to hobble and run. The angel saw her and rushed towards her.
For Cygnus, the world became confined to a single, frozen moment. No matter how hard he wished otherwise, nor how much he tried, there was nothing more he could do. Utterly defeated and broken, only a sea of dread remained inside his useless body, and helpless, he was forced to watch another friend be killed.
With a single clean slice, Leila's head flew. It hit the ground, and her body fell right after, all dissolving into shadows.
Cygnus clenched his fists as a painful tear watered his fading eyes. He opened his mouth to yell, but only a light gurgling and some bloodied spit came out. Everything he had was expended in their last attack. He had given everything, but in the end, he wasn't strong enough. Not to protect her, or them. In the airs of eternity, he heard her final words, whether it was true or his parting delusions.
"Cygnus," Leila's last whisper sang. "Tell Lily that I'm sorry. And as for you… I want you to know I've always believed in you, my one and only friend."
Leila had always been cruel in her words to him, but that was just the nature of the Agents of Darkness. They were forced to remove their human emotions, yet deep down, Cygnus always knew that Leila and her sister were different. He always wanted them to see the light, but now that would never happen. Not for Leila. Feeling even more helpless than the day his father died, he fell into unconsciousness.
The angel began to limp towards Cygnus, ready to finish the kill.
The battle would have been over if there had not been one man left standing.
"MMMRAAAAGH!" Brax roared as he rose to his feet. Blood drenching his bruised skin, he stood through the pain of cracking bones and gushing wounds. His teeth rattled from the pressure of his bite. The purplish splotches all over his arms and body pulsated with swelling pain and pushed him off balance. Mustering every last ounce of will vested within him, he used more muscle than ever before to push himself from the clutches of dirt and stone beneath his seething skin. Even if his vision flickered like a fading ember and his body screamed to let it all end, he would not succumb, for he, too, carried a dream. Yes… even someone such as he had dreamt, once.
In his final moments, Brax remembered who he was.