Page 7 of Camael
Zach was a one-angel demolition crew. His flamingsword cut through monstrosities like they were made of cosmic tissue paper. "These are some ugly-ass motherfuckers!" he shouted, decapitating something with too many heads.
Amelia threw out spells, taking out monsters in the process. She turned so she was back-to-back with Camael. Her witch-fire painted the night in shades of arcane purple while his divine blade wreaked havoc with celestial light. They moved together like they'd been doing it for centuries. Her magic covered his blind spots while his blade kept the nastiest pieces of work off her six.
While they battled, something was yanking at her magical core. It pulled her toward that mausoleum like a cosmic magnet. The same something that had been singing in her blood since this shitstorm started. She was so focused on the pull that she missed ugly demon number forty-seven coming in hot on her left.
The bastard was fast. Faster than anything that looked like rejected concept art from Silent Hill had any right to be. Its claws raked across her arm before she could throw up a shield. The leather jacket Jo had given her took most of the damage. Unfortunately, enough got through to draw blood. Nothing said ‘party time’ like bleeding in the middle of a supernatural throwdown. Power surged through the cemetery as her blood hit the ground. The chanting from the mausoleum reached a fever pitch.
"No!" Amelia realized what was happening a second too late. "They didn't need me there. They just needed my blood! This whole attack was a setup!"
The ground began to shake as something vast and ancient stirred beneath them. Cracks appeared in the air. They leaked darkness older than time. "How do we stop it?" Camael demanded. His wings flared with his anger.
Amelia's mind raced. "My bloodline helped forge thebarriers. Maybe..." She didn't finish the thought. Instead, she reached deep into her magical core. She worked past the carefully constructed walls that had kept parts of her power safely contained. Light and shadow responded to her call. They twined around her like loving pets. “Cover me,” she told Camael.
She didn't wait for his response. She charged straight for the mausoleum. Her magic was already gathering around her hands like eager attack dogs straining at their leashes. A demon with three heads lunged for her left flank. Above her, Jo dropped out of the night sky like an avenging Valkyrie. Her flaming sword took out all three heads in one graceful arc. Black ichor sprayed the tombstones as the demon's body dissolved into goo.
"Keep going!" Jo shouted. She’d already pivoted to slam her steel-toed boot into another demon's face. The crack of breaking bone was deeply satisfying.
Twenty feet from the mausoleum steps, something massive reared up. It had tentacles and too many eyes. Before Amelia could even raise her hands, Mal's blade burst through its center mass from behind. Blue flames ate through corrupted flesh. The warrior grinned at her through the dissolving demon parts. "Ladies first!"
But it was Camael who really cleared her path. The archangel moved like a force of nature. His Sword of Light left trails of divine fire that burned Amelia's retinas. She caught glimpses as she ran. His blade took a demon's head clean off. His wings blocked a spray of acid from another. His fist punched through one particularly ugly bastard's chest.
Three priests saw her coming and started some kind of dark chant. Amelia didn't let them finish. She unleashed both sides of her power at once. Witch-fire and shadow magic combined into something that violated every fire safety law.The priests' human disguises burned away. She saw the horrors beneath just before her magic turned them into ash.
The head priest remained and was towering over his ritual circle. His hands were raised to the bleeding sky. His true form leaked through around the edges. Seven sets of eyes blinked at her. Their color was a shade she couldn't identify. They were blue, but also purple, green, brown, and black. His flesh rippled and shifted. When he opened his mouth to chant, she caught glimpses of a throat that spiraled down into darkness forever. It was lined with razor-sharp teeth that chimed against each other. They were wind chimes made of razor blades.
His hands - there were more than two now - reached toward the hemorrhaging heavens. They kept splitting and reforming. Each finger ended in points of steel that would cut holes through cement. Power rolled off him in waves.
"You want old power?" The snarl ripped from Amelia’s throat as her magic rose around her like a storm. "Let me show you what that really means."
Cassiel's vision blazed through her mind. The ancient knowledge she got from the glimpse burned away any hesitation. Her hands slammed onto the ritual circle as she let her power flow free. Raw light and primordial shadow poured from her hands into symbols carved before time learned to crawl. The two powers should've shredded each other on contact. Like matter meeting antimatter. Her magic chose to dance instead of detonate. The opposing forces braided together under her will and turned those runes into something else. Everything froze for one endless second. Then everything went boom.
"Holy shit," she heard Rami breathe from somewhere behind her.
The cracks in reality began to seal themselves as her hybrid magic reinforced the ancient barriers. The darknessretreated. And the vast presence that had been stirring retreated. Unfortunately, the dark priests weren't done. Their leader launched itself at her with inhuman speed.
"The Key must die!" It shrieked in a voice that hurt reality itself. "The bloodline must end!"
A blade of pure darkness materialized in its hand. It was aimed straight for her heart. Amelia knew she wouldn't be able to dodge in time. Fortunately, she didn't have to. Camael appeared between them. His Sword of Light met the dark blade with a clash that sent out shockwaves. "Wrong move."
What happened next would've made Michael Bay retire from action movies. Camael hit that ancient horror like a freight train made of pure badass. His first strike sent the thing flying back ten feet. But the horror was fast. It came back swinging with limbs that kept changing shape. What remained the same was the fact that each one ended in claws that could cut holes in Camael.
The archangel moved like violence given form. He ducked under a swipe that would've taken his head off. He came up with an uppercut that stunned the leader. When the horror tried to wrap those ever-shifting limbs around him, Camael grabbed what might have been an arm and used it as leverage to throw the thing into a mausoleum wall. Stone cracked. The horror screamed.
Meanwhile, Amelia worked on dismantling that ritual circle. She tried to ignore how the energy was trying to call back the ancient entity. It wasn’t a surprise that the power they'd called up was fighting back like a demon at an exorcism.
"Incoming!" Jo's warning came with a blast of power that lit up the night. Above them, cracks spider-webbed across the sky like black lightning. It spread faster than kudzu on steroids.
"Shit." The curse slipped out as understanding hit Amelialike a supernatural sledgehammer. "They tied the ritual to their own life forces! If we kill them-"
"Reality goes boom," Rami finished for her as he matrix-dodged a demon's claws. "Fantastic."
The head priest's laugh sounded like a symphony played on broken glass and lost souls. "You cannot stop what has begun. The Oldest Ones will rise. Your pitiful barriers will shatter!"
Time did that weird slow-motion thing it does when you're about to either have a brilliant idea or fuck up spectacularly. They couldn't kill the priests without everything falling apart. But they couldn't exactly let them wake up things that pre-dated existence either.
The answer hit her. A detail from the vision burned through her brain like magical neon. The first barriers hadn't been created by force. They'd been woven. They were the universe's most complicated friendship bracelet. "Camael!" Power gathered around her hands as she shouted. "I need your blade!"
The archangel didn't even hesitate. His Sword of Light went spinning through the air toward her. Without a hiccup, he switched to hand-to-hand combat with that horror. He caught one of its maybe-arms and used it to beat the hell out of what might have been its face. The sword landed in Amelia's grip like it belonged there. The power thrumming through it made her magical core sit up and howl. Time to show these ancient asshats what happened when you pissed off a witch with a divine blade and something to prove.
