Zacharael watched as the Archangel of Death and the crimson-armored woman seemed to be locked in an endless struggle. One of the Archangel’s main abilities was to drain the life-force of her opponents. The drain could be really severe and would rather quickly weaken her enemies while healing her for any wounds she might have gained. On the other hand, the woman in crimson armor seemed to have an endless supply of life-force. She was also able to predict the Archangel’s attacks and spells and avoid them with relative ease. On the other hand, any wounds she managed to inflict on the Archangel were healed by the drained life-force. It seemed that the battle would never end.

A crazed Faerie Dragon and a group of female warriors also clad in crimson armor seemed to be dealing with the gathered angels rather well. Or rather, the female warriors were doing well and the Faerie Dragon was cutting a bloody swath through the ordered ranks of angels. Zacharael had fought a couple of the murderous bastards before and they were a difficult enemy. They were natural mages and extremely difficult to catch to boot. Their weird magic also had a nasty habit of working differently from what you expected. For example, sometimes their fire spells ended up randomly freezing instead of burning. As such, countering their spells became difficult.

Zacharael’s own fight, on the other hand, wasn’t really going anywhere. He was facing off against Mneventh and the large dragon seemed to sense his reluctance concerning the whole affair. As the Archangel of Wisdom he was the consummate mage, and as the Aspect of Anti-Magic Mneventh was possibly the worst opponent he could face. If the dragon truly wanted to kill him, the battle would be over quickly. Instead, the two seemed satisfied to stare at each other over a short distance. The only time Mneventh had made a move was when Zacharael had shown signs of interfering in the other battles around them.

Suddenly the large dragon spoke. “The Archangel of Mercy mentioned that you might be unwilling to fight. It seems she was correct. You realize she’s blaming herself for Lumen’s servants being hunted? By some twisted logic, she thinks it’s her fault.”

Zacharael sighed. “I’m not surprised. In fact, I’d be surprised if she didn’t think that way. It’s simply in her nature to try and carry the burdens of the universe. The whole thing is just Empyrean and his flunkies taking advantage of the situation and the rest of us being unable to stop them. I was hoping the Morningstar’s return would rein them in, but there’s been no word of him. I’m afraid that no matter the result of this battle, Lumen’s servants will end up suffering.”

“If you’re hoping for the Morningstar to put things right, then I’ve got some bad news for you. The Morningstar is dead. You know the one at the center of all those explosion and fire where so many of your angels are rushing to die? Yeah, she’s the one who killed him. I watched her do it too.” Mneventh suddenly said.

The voice of the old dragon held no gloating, which Zacharael appreciated. While he didn’t always see eye to eye with the Morningstar, he still respected the leader of the angels. Hearing of his death was a blow. “Then that hope has died as well. It seems Empyrean is bound to become the next leader, which means Lumen’s side is lost. Even if you find success today, it is only a matter of time before Empyrean hunts them down.”

“I think you’re seriously underestimating the situation.” Mneventh looked at the Archangel of Wisdom with slight amusement. “I just told you that the person Empyrean is fighting already killed the Morningstar. I’m pretty sure Empyrean will not survive this day either, and if I’m guessing correctly, then neither will Nasir-Sin. How about it? Why don’t you change allegiance to the winning side? You could help save all the servants of Lumen, and most importantly live to see another day.”

“You seem confident.” Zacharael’s mind started connecting the dots. He considered the implications of the attack and the most likely result if the Morningstar and Empyrean both ended up dead. He doubted the God of Order could actually perish, but even if Nasir-Sin was only pushed back, then he would still be severely weakened. “I’m not entirely sure if that option is great either. Instead of Nasir-Sin dominating Lumen, it would be the alliance of Lumen and Umbra dominating him instead. Will that make things much better? It might help for now, but…”

“I have spent limited time with Dee, but I’ve already learned to expect great things from her. With her involved, I’m certain of victory. The only question is how that victory is achieved. And you are thinking of this as if you could find a perfect solution. The sad fact is that you’re likely right. Losing Nasir-Sin might not be bad on the short term, but it might come back to haunt everyone in the long term. But that’s exactly when the angels will need someone with wisdom around to lead them. And I don’t see too many of the Archangels surviving this fight, aside from the two who aren’t here. Except if you change sides. This is one of those situations where you have to choose. Either you will choose to stand with the side that will eventually win and help guide your people or I will have to start taking this seriously.” Mneventh emphasized his words by starting to gather his significant power for a serious attack.

Zacharael realized that the dragon was right in at least one thing. He would have to choose between two bad choices. Either he would have to bet on this weird group of unlikely allies and hope to guide his people in the future, or he would have to watch Empyrean become a tyrant. Eventually, the Archangel of Order would decide Zacharael was no longer necessary, and then it would be his time to go. He would always choose a faint hope over a slow demise.

Zacharael turned towards his fellow Archangel. She would never go along with it. Ithuriel was nominally a member of the neutral group of Archangels, but she had always leaned towards Empyrean’s group and had been a fervent supporter of the Morningstar. It was rumored that the two were lovers, and she would not take his death lightly, especially if his killer was close-by. In actual fact, Zacharael was surprised the two of them hadn’t become Fallen a long time ago. She was too much of a killer and immersed in her element and role as the Archangel of Death. More importantly, she liked it a tad bit too much.

With a deep sigh, he prepared the two spells he had developed a long time ago. Attacking his fellow Archangels was almost unthinkable to him, but he was a realist as well as the Archangel of Wisdom. Coming up with ways to counter their powers was almost expected of him. It took a few moments of chanting but soon a complex sigil appeared in front of him, and suddenly the Archangel of Death coughed up blood and turned towards Zacharael with a disbelieving look. He didn’t give her the chance to make any accusations. The first spell had soured the mix of life-force and Ithuriel’s own power, turning it rancid and poisonous to her. It stopped her from healing herself and turned her weak and vulnerable. The second spell saw an orange beam of destructive energy taking her head off her shoulders.

The crimson-clad warrior looked at her dead opponent in shock. ‘She likely realized that I could use the same spell to severely weaken her as well, even though she didn’t have the same death element to turn the life-force into outright poison.’ Zacharael thought.

He was surprised to hear her next words though. “Gods dammit! I finally found an opponent that could keep up with me long enough and you went and killed her! Now I need to find someone else to entertain myself with. I damn sure won’t be going back home this quickly. My vacation just started!”

‘Vacation?’ Zacharael thought incredulously. Suddenly he felt a great pressure from Mneventh as the enormous dragon released his almost unstoppable breath. Not towards him, although he was worried just for a fraction of a second. The dragon attacked against the conduit anchoring Lumen’s realm to Paradisia. ‘Ah, right, that was their plan. That’s the second anchor already. Maybe they can pull this off. I wonder. Will I be judged along with the rest of our kind once the separation happens? And will I be found wanting?’

The battle in their immediate surroundings seemed to subside for a moment. The entire Paradisia seemed to lose some of its light with the second anchor being broken. Many of the magical formations around the entire shining city seemed to lose their power and collapse. Many shadows suddenly invaded the less illuminated places and those shadows didn’t come alone. Many dark beings walked, flew, slithered or galloped out of the darkness. Many of the beings were simple shadows, but there were much more powerful beings ranging from nameless horrors to mighty Shadow Dragons that suddenly seemed to come to life. And all of them seemed to think the angels were just the sort of thing they wanted to eat today.

Suddenly the rush of angelic warriors charging towards the battlefield, threatening to overwhelm the attackers with sheer numbers, found something else to do. Mneventh turned towards Zachariel. “The two of us will move on to help our allies. I’d suggest you try and save what can be saved. Rally your people to fight the shadows and not against the goddess they have abandoned.”

As the enemies moved on, the angels around Zacharael seemed unsure how to react. They had just watched him kill a fellow Archangel in cold blood, yet they had known and trusted him for a long time. He was much more liked than the eerie Archangel of Death that seemed to walk a thin line between her duties and becoming Fallen. And now the chaos around them seemed complete. All that was needed was for the damn Fallen to break out from the Purgatory world. “We can discuss my actions later. For now, go save whoever can be saved. I’m done sacrificing for Empyrean’s ambitions, and I suspect many of you feel the same. Go save your loved ones instead. Let the ambitious beings fight their own fight.”

-----

Even Dee was slightly shocked to see the number of shadow creatures rushing to invade Paradisia. Then again, she was the focus of chaos and it was somewhat natural for the shadows to teem with life when she was around. That had been true even before she became the focus. Now those spirits had found an outlet. That did give her an idea though. She started pushing a lot of her powers into a nearby shadow.

The clone of her that Empyrean had created could sense all this of course, but despite having access to most of her abilities, power over the shadows was not one of them. It was an ability gained from Umbra after all. It would be weird if the Champion of the God of Order was able to copy those abilities. The clone had also lost some of its effect under Dee’s suppression. It could still keep her busy and would strike when given the opportunity, but it was no longer something she had to fight with tooth and nail.

On the other hand, Empyrean had personally become much more of a problem once his own copies had started arriving. There were already a dozen of them and the spells they used had started having an effect. Instead of a single copy flinging spells at her in futility, the twelve angels were now making formations and casting large-scale spells that ignored some of her resistances. Empyrean was already doing well figuring out which elements she was the most resistant against and avoided those. He had not been wasting the first moments of the battle when the seemingly useless spells had done nothing to Dee. Instead, he had probed Dee’s weaknesses. Luckily her armor prevented any real damage, and the Authority also helped counter any wounds she did take from the spells that managed to bypass the armor.

One of the problematic parts about Dee’s clone was that it could allow Empyrean to find out about all the abilities it had copied. Thus it became exceedingly hard for Dee to surprise her enemies. Then again, the clone wasn’t exactly in a position to give a several minute long presentation about all her abilities, so there was still a slight possibility of surprise. Dee had also just figured out that the clone couldn’t copy everything. With a powerful blast of psionic energy, she sent the clone flying away from her, buying her time. Time she utilized by using one of the benefits the Authority granted her.

Suddenly a rune along her sword lit up and everyone in the vicinity of Dee was shouting in pain as their own powers had suddenly burst into flames. The stronger the person, the more intense the flames. Dee herself was not an exception, but she also happened to be entirely immune to the effects of the dark flames. These flames didn’t really have the power of the Flames of the End, but they were difficult to deal with nonetheless. And because it was their own powers attacking everyone, Dee didn’t suffer any feedback from the Archangel of Justice.

Speaking of, Dee suddenly vanished and appeared next to the Archangel. The wounded man had taken some distance earlier, in an attempt to recover from the wound Dee had dealt to him. Dee realized the wounded angel’s ability to reflect damage was the lynchpin of this battle and without his involvement, Dee could finally fight without holding back. As soon as she arrived, she grabbed the already suffering and stunned Archangel by his robe and shoved his hooded head right next to the large shadow she had been channeling power into. The maw of an enormous Shadow Dragon appeared from the shadows and bit down on the exposed angel.

Normally the Archangel was capable of defending himself easily, but Dee made damn sure he was unable to mount an effective defense by channeling her own power into his body. As the large jaws slammed shut, only half of the upper torso of the angel was left. Dee wisely pulled some distance by utilizing Lumen’s blessing to the maximum, and was rather gratified that her senses had been right. The corpse of the Archangel exploded immediately, actually hurting Dee’s clone that had tried slashing down on Dee’s exposed back despite still being afflicted by the combustion of its powers.

As she had not been the one to actually kill the Archangel, she once again didn’t suffer any of the consequences. The power holding the shadow spirit together collapsed and the Shadow Dragon perished, but Dee didn’t care. The spirit had achieved exactly what Dee needed. There was a price though. Together the clones of Empyrean had quickly managed to deal with their own power going haywire, and had used the extra time well. The twelve clones of Empyrean had been left to their own devices for too long and they finished a rather complicated and powerful spell. Thousands of floating magical glyphs appeared around Dee and every glyph shot out chains made of golden energy, binding around Dee and holding her in place. Her earlier dodge of the explosion had been seen through and now she was caught. The golden chains also rapidly siphoned at her powers and made her unable to use the majority of her abilities.

Dee tugged on the chains as a test, and while they creaked under the pressure, they held for now. They would not hold forever, but they didn’t need to. Even though Dee’s clone was mostly spent, Empyrean still had his full strength and would be able to do what was necessary if Dee wasn’t able to fight back. The armor from the Authority was a great protection but it wasn’t absolute. It still relied on Dee supplying it with power. The power that was being pulled away at an alarming speed.

“Ready to say your last words demon?” The enraged Archangel of Order demanded.

“In a way. Now pay attention so you don’t miss them. I’ve got you right where I want you. Fire away.” Dee said in almost a whisper, and suddenly everyone on the entire battlefield had to turn away as a beam of extremely bright and superheated light crashed on the area.

Dee had originally planned on allowing the Solarians to deal with the last anchor with their attack while she distracted the enemy, but if she managed to get rid of Empyrean, then the whole thing became a moot point. A single Solarian would not be able to kill Empyrean even with a surprise attack, but with all of them together? Well, that was another matter entirely. As the home of the Goddess of Light, Paradisia naturally had a rather large and powerful star providing what felt like a permanent day without night. The Sun Authorities of the Solarians didn’t work perfectly on this star, but they had enough control.

Dee mirthfully giggled as the beam of bright flames descended and she felt the chains holding her break as all the angels, including Empyrean, directed their power upwards in a useless attempt to stop the descending cataclysm. The Solarians didn’t hold anything back as they secretly hoped that the attack would manage to deal with Dee as well. A hope that would be dashed as soon as the attack was over, but they tried at least. Then she started feeling her powers returning as the angels around her started dying. The Solarians would limit the damage in order to avoid collateral damage, but they could not prevent it entirely.

------

Fawwaz was less than amused as the tsunami of white-hot flames swept through a large portion of the battlefield. He felt much better though after cursing a bit and seeing some new allies approaching. Mneventh and the Crimson-clad warrior woman were a sight for sore eyes. The sheer number of angels and the defensive spells they had managed to turn against Fawwaz and his subordinates had tired them out. Mneventh had clearly managed to accomplish his part of the whole endeavor before him. How disappointing.

“Reddie.” Mneventh greeted his old enemy with a nickname.

“Blackie.” Fawwaz returned the greeting with a nickname of his own. “How much time until the next anchor? I’ve lost track with the recent chaos.” He pointed towards the area that was now just gone thanks to the Solarians.

“Two minutes. Give or take a handful of seconds.” One of the crimson-clad women replied in Mneventh’s place.

“What she said.” Mneventh confirmed. He was an ancient dragon used to dealing with centuries, so keeping track of minutes was just not his thing.

“I wonder if it will make a difference if we go a bit early. This is starting to get annoying and the longer this takes, the more likely it is that something goes badly wrong.” Fawwaz suggested.

“We better not. I don’t want to be forced into doing the whole thing again. I doubt the angels would like us overstaying our welcome either. You’re always in too much of a rush Reddie. That’s why you guys keep losing. No patience.” Mneventh replied with a grin.

“Bah! I’m just not a slow-moving geriatric dragon like you. I think outside the box. Still, maybe it’s better to stay inside the box with this thing. Not exactly my show. Besides, I don’t need Dee dropping another attack like that on my head this time.” Fawwaz countered. He was aware of the Solarians being behind the previous attack, but he also suspected Dee could manage something similar.

“Well, at least you’re capable of learning. That’s good. Maybe you’ll make a proper adult yet.” Mneventh laughed. As they turned back to the battle they noted that the Archangel of Destiny was gone.

“Yeah, he ran away as soon as we showed up.” Teresa stated. She had actually tried chasing a bit but realized the futility and gave up. She might be fast in battle, but she wasn’t going to outfly an Archangel.

“What the fuck are we supposed to do for the next minute and a half?” Fawwaz asked a little miffed. He had spent so much effort fighting the Archangel and now his enemy just escaped without a word. Mneventh likely had killed his enemy. Another bloody thing the dragon had over him.

“No patience like I said.” Mneventh commented again.