Chương 69: ANGELS AND DEMONS

Ellie felt the fire hit. She was standing right next to Chosa when her body and everything around her went up in flames. She thought she was dead for sure. But when she opened her eyes, she felt like she was in heaven's embrace. The clutches of a motherly figure were shielding her from the hellfire. It was the disembodied arms of the Fury. Its ghostly figure above her was covered in burns and lacerations, and it looked like it was ready to fall apart. It sat her down in the empty crater.

Then it disappeared into that mysterious black smoke.

"Genya?" The little girl waddled down into the crater left behind by the explosion.

"Mama mama…" The girl said, running up to her to hug her. She accepted the girl's embrace, inwardly thanking the lucky stars for her glowing eyes. Arthur came in after her.

"It looks like we made it right in time," he said.

"T'balt said they might try to pull the self-destruct trick. Didn't think it'd be like this." Ellie only stared. Then she pointed at her ears and shook her head, whispering the words.

"I can't hear anymore, Arthur." He looked shocked by that news. He cupped her face and saw the bleeding in her ears.

"Poor girl. What have they done to you?" She could see the devastation on him.

"It's okay," she said.

"I can still fight." Arthur shook his head.

"No. Look at what fighting has done to you already. I'm sure T'balt can handle the rest on his own. You need to rest." But she couldn't hear. Even after she tried to apply some healing to her ears, the sounds never returned. It was only that light ringing. She could imagine exactly what the abbot was saying to her. But now wasn't the time for pleasantries. She scanned around the crater. And smiled.

"We can win now. I know we can. We have to go to T'balt." Of course, Arthur responded, but she missed it. She was busy smiling down at Genya and nestling her hair. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes. The objective was now clear.

"Do you have the loot that I told you to keep for me?" And at once Arthur knew the lengths she was willing to go to end this war. She and Monan flew above the building, wings flapping. He with his sword. Her with her bows. T'balt could see them both filled with anger and cracking skin, smoke pouring from their overloaded pores. Ellie wouldn't have had the Seraph loot to protect her from the overload. The fourth lot basically guaranteed that she was going to die. He didn't even know where she got that flying loot.

It wasn't his idea. So why?

"Damn it, Ellie! I told you to stop sacrificing yourself to save me!" She looked down upon him, disengaging, noticing his tears. She knelt and put her forehead to his. Closing her eyes. Then she kissed him on the head, smiling, and placed something in his hand.

"What are you… What's the matter with you?" he said, tears streaming.

"Say something." She ignored him when Monan attacked, drawing her bow and returning to the sky. Then twenty more arrows were loosed at Monan. He blocked many of them with his sword and had to dodge the rest in his light form. Ellie danced around his sight. Monan used his light form to close the distance, but she could fire light arrows without even looking at him, relying on her hypersensitivity.

"Why?" T'balt stopped.

"Why does this keep happening? Why can't I keep anyone alive?" Then he felt Genya pulling on his shirt.

"Papa, are you okay?" he looked at her, eyes wide and red.

"She can't hear you," Arthur said. He rubbed his hands together and started applying his own healing loot.

"At some point, Ellie was deafened. I don't know how." T'balt lowered his head.

"But she's determined to fight this through to the end. Don't take that for granted," Arthur said as T'balt's insides started to rematerialize. It made him remember something. A few iterations ago, he had caught Ellie alone practicing with her holy bow. The light of it was almost blinding in the night.

"I always forget to ask. Most iterations you always find some way to get a hold of that holy bow. Where do you get it?"

"If I tell you, you won't try to give it to someone else in another life, will you?" she said, making it disappear.

"I won't promise that, but once everything is over, I'll promise that no one gets it but you."

"That'll have to be good enough for now. It came to me… on Zero Day. In the basement of the church, I saw one of the coins scurrying around like a bug. I tried to kill it, but it didn't die, so I trapped it in a jar. Then, when you started giving everyone loot, I figured out what it was, so I decided to try it."

"You mean you didn't have to kill anything for it… the loot just appeared to you at noon."

"A couple of hours before, actually… is that unusual?"

"The loot came to you before Zero Day even started… but what put it there?" Ellie smiled.

"Maybe you're not the only one that was chosen, T'balt. I have my own guardian angel."

"That doesn't help it make any sense." She looked up to a star-filled sky.

"While you're protecting us, someone has to protect you." Monan used the holy sword to deflect many of the arrows as Ellie continued to make it hard for him to catch her. The sheer amount of arrows being shot at him made it impossible for him to block all of them. He took a couple of arrows to his core, angering him. He would yank the light from his chest, healing the spots with holy water and letting the cracks near his eyes show.

"You're just a prop. Who do you think you are?" He swung the sword, lashing a wave of burning light at her. She felt the vibrations and swooped low. She wasn't able to avoid all of it. The light hit her back, buffeting her flight. Surprisingly, though, it didn't hurt as much as before. She was never completely immune to his attacks, just a bit resistant. She must've been even more so with the angel's wings. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

"Arthur. Take the kids and get out of here," T'balt said.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm a Redeemer. I'll see you in the morning." T'balt smiled, waving goodbye to Genya as Arthur carried her away. She reached back at him, wondering why he looked so strange. Arthur picked up Acelin as well, taking one last look at him and Ellie both.

"You can do this…"

"You can do this," Genya repeated, but her eyes were lost in the sky, watching the clash of angels roar. T'balt let the brightness overtake him.

"Thank you, Arthur. For giving me an idea." He reached into his bag.

"Third equip… black smoke." If T'balt knew anything about science, it was that light had an interesting reaction to smoke. Smoke caused light to spread and diffuse. It made it unfocused, and put in this situation, he could use that to his advantage. When Monan went into his light form chasing after Ellie, he was greeted by a strong cloud of thick smoke. It disrupted his form, distorting it heavily. And he was forced back into his physical form. The motion shocked him.

He didn't realize what happened until Ellie was on top of him with her holy arrows. He took one of them to the neck. Though it didn't faze him. He was resistant. But T'balt unveiled from his smoke form with a strong punch to Monan's face, knocking him back down to earth. T'balt drifted in smoke form to the closest building. Ellie couldn't help but cheese at his return. He gave her a thumbs-up. She nodded. Monan recovered from the punch, cracking his neck.

"So this is the real fight, huh? Alright, I'm game." T'balt activated his speed, leaving a trail of smoke his body was now emitting. Ellie flew above him with a volley of golden arrows. Monan made a protective covering with his four wings and pointed his sword. The Seraph wings took the brunt of the arrows as he slashed with the God Slayer Sword. T'balt turned to smoke, causing its light to disperse. Monan flashed away as Ellie resorted to a brute-force punch. T'balt sent smoke in his direction to disrupt.

He prematurely reappeared, opening himself up to another punch. This time from Ellie. T'balt could tell he couldn't wrap his brain around what was happening with the smoke, and he could see the frustration growing on him. They had to capitalize on that. This was the surprise. The one moment where T'balt had caught him off guard. He spread the smoke out all around their current battlefield. Monan made a pool of holy water above him and launched himself straight through it.

The steam started to heal him, and then he sent the turquoise water towards T'balt. He landed on the ground, using his speed to dash away from it. But Monan followed him with it, tracking him like a giant liquid homing missile. Ellie interrupted with another volley of arrows. He fired at her with a big blast of light, and she protected herself with her wings. She landed right on top of him. Driving him to the ground.

But on the way down, he knocked her hands away, getting just enough distance to light form before they hit the ground. Ellie crashed, but she was able to heal herself pretty quickly. Then, re-entering his smoke form, T'balt surrounded Monan in that dark smoke that made it nearly impossible for him to see. Instead of waiting for an attack, Monan flapped his wings, sending much of the smoke away.

Not including the part that was T'balt, which was just above him and just close enough to grab his wing, preventing him from light forming. Monan swung the sword, knowing that T'balt couldn't smoke form either. But he could still harden. It was a blunt impact that hurt but didn't kill. T'balt caught it in his side and pelted Monan with a hardened fist. It forced Monan to let go of the sword and use his fists. Which, naturally, he would always have the upper hand.

He caught T'balt with two rights before kicking him into a neighborhood home. Elllie volleyed more arrows, but at this point, they were an annoyance to Monan. He could see her visibly getting weaker due to the overload, her wings flapping slower, her breaths taking longer. She wasn't going to last much longer, which T'balt could see too. He needed to end this soon. T'balt used his speed to close the distance, shaking off the last attack. Then used the smoke form to throw himself in the air.

With this form, he could fly just like the light users. All he had to do was aim the smoke up, and that's where his body would reform. And as long as he had smoke, Monan couldn't rely on his light form. Monan would have to rely on his wings. But T'balt didn't have speed in the air either. That was all bent on the use of his legs. So he relied on hopping from building to building, running on the edges of each one as Monan flew around trying to get the upper hand on them.

He launched his light attacks again and again, but the combination of Ellie and T'balt was too much for him to land a solid attack. Every time he did, Ellie would find a way to heal any injuries. They were stalemating, neither able to land a decisive blow. Whoever wins would have to finish the other with one attack; otherwise, the other could still heal, and the battle would last for ages more. Monan struck the ground underneath T'balt, causing him to smoke form away, but this time he kept on him.

T'balt didn't expect it, but Ellie could see it. She pushed him out of the way, taking a nick from the God Slayer Sword to her neck. She commanded her arrows at their opponent. But this time, Monan chose to just tank the attack. He used the closeness to pour holy water onto her. She screamed. And T'balt was there, nailing Monan with an overhand punch from a hardened punch. This one shattered his nose. T'balt could feel it bursting under his fist.

He stayed on the attack, grabbing Monan by the arm and pulling him in for another attack. This time, he shoved a cloud of smoke right into his face, disorienting him and temporarily taking his breath. Then he pushed forward with his speed, the strongest punch he'd ever thrown in his entire life. It nailed Monan right in the chest, and there was naught he could do. Not a wing, not a source of light that would save him. He flew backward into an open crater in the earth.

"Ellie?" T'balt ran to her. She was already working on healing, but she was sluggish, the parasite sucking much out of her. She was breathing heavily.

"Sorry," she said.

"Keep… going." But T'balt just regarded her, knowing she still couldn't hear. He could see Monan already starting to stir again. So this time, he would need a big attack while he had the time. He geared up everything inside of him and turned the smoke into a wind tunnel. He did it over and over and over until it turned into a raging black storm. A dust devil of smoke. The force blew over the top of Monan, ensnaring him in darkness and raging wind and smoke.

T'balt could hear him yelling like a beast roaring when it's been cornered. He breathed heavily, the attack taking a lot out of him. He looked for Ellie, who still hadn't made her way to her feet.

"It's okay," He said.

"Focus on healing. You can survive a bit longer. I can still save you." Then the tornado of smoke was overtaken by the tornado of old. Pure wind had blown the smoke completely away and dispersed it all in a vapid fury of wind until only Monan was left. His face was more twisted, the overload eating away at his skin. He breathed like he was holding a truck on his back.

"How is that possible?" T'balt asked. But Ellie realized it first. He was standing in the same crater where Chosa had died. And Monan was on his fifth loot. She got T'balt's attention. Holding up her hand, trying to mouth the word five, but she hardly could. Monan's body was physically deteriorating, and he was only holding himself up by wrapping himself in holy water. It was seeping through his skin like he was sweating the stuff.

"Are you that desperate to beat me?" T'balt said.

"Tsk… You cocky little shit. This game isn't about surviving. I just gotta kill you before I die, and then I win. We both know shortening my lifespan doesn't mean a thing." T'balt didn't know if he could deal with yet another loot on him. But the overload seemed to be making him a bit crazy. His stance was suddenly more erratic than it had been, and he was clearly holding himself up by the grace of healing. With that being said, so was Ellie. She forced herself to stand, nodding at T'balt.

"Right. It all ends here."