Sorry I have been gone, I figured I took enough time figuring stuff out, I posted earlier that I would have one out before the 26th and so instead of just wasting what little time I have reading other peoples work as I am so far behind on Don't fear the Reaper, and No longer a game I figured I would write the chapter I have putting off for so long, so here it is after the long month of no posts.

Chapter 22: It's always darkest before the dawn

Volume 2 Chapter 9

"Well shit, Anastasia any ideas on how we get out of this one?" I asked while Anastasia was kneeling next to the dead Angel.

The two Angels floating in the sky looked at each other before responding with "Zoa were there any warriors in this area capable of defeating one of us in the reports?" one of the Angels asked the other.

"There were several sightings of who we believed to be Cerberus in the area but the number of people believed to be Cerberus were small in numbers and usually more careful and stick to assassinations, they wouldn't have been so careless to let Bilvorax signal us." The woman named Zoa responded

The Angel who first spoke to the girl had the appearance of a younger man around the age of 14, his dark red short hair shifted in the wind, and his dark brown eyes held great contempt towards us, he was incredibly muscular for a boy his age.

The girl named Zoa looked like a very young looking girl who resembled a 10 year old. She had brown twintails that reached halfway down her back, she wore an eyepatch over her left eye and her right eye was Hazel with a hint of green and grey mixed in.

"Well we've been found out Anastasia, I told you we should have been more secretive, well it doesn't really matter. Our goal was to stop the slaughter of the civilians, so mission successful. Now we just have to eliminate the last two Angels and were in the clear." It was my first time hearing of this thing called "Cerberus" but if the Angels were bringing them up I figured it would be a powerful organization.

" So you are from Cerberus... Well it would appear this was a trap Zoa." Tis proclaimed in a calm tone

"That would appear so, I suggest you retreat as there may be more enemies coming to reinforce these two." Zoa spoke calmly and got into a defensive stance

"...Well it is only a matter of time before help arrives, so I am afraid I can't let either of you leave, I'm sure our leader has questions for you." Anastasia responded coldly as she stood

"Tis it would appear it is time for you to take your leave, you need to go before their help arrives I will stay and hold them here..." She said as a black aura began to emanate from behind her

2 hours ago at the Cursed Grounds of the Bathalli Hills

5 Angels sit around a camp fire, with bodies of Goblins, Ogres, and a minotaur scattered around, there was a Fizor(Rhinoceros) with the meat of its insides sitting on a pike hanging above the camp fire.

"Geez im so bored, how long have we been waiting here?" ??? asked impatiently

This man was known as Fowler, looked to be just under 30 and had long black hair that covered his left eye, full beard covering his face, carried around a giant reddish orange kite shield with a metallic grey longsword that comes out of his shield.

"At least 2 days Fowler, hey Coach how long do we have to wait here for the heroes?" ??? asked questioning his commander

This man was known as Kota, looked just over 20 and had short brown hair, he had no hair blocking his betwixt green eyes, and no facial hair to cover his pretty boy face, and carried two black gauntlets with markings on them resembling an inverted C and then two more c's inside the C on the center of the back of the gauntlet.

"Archangel Kou gave us strict orders to intercept them here, so we will wait here, Fowler take Kota and go to Artok, meet with the Sera team and tell them to reinforce us after they are done with their mission in Artok."

"Yes sir." Kota and Fowler in unison

Back to current time

“I believe I heard you say that we were the last two Angels here, that would imply you killed all the other Angels. Tis replied with a face that held no surprise.

"Yes we killed an Angel by the name of Giro as well." I responded without hesitating.

"Bilvorax was a headstrong fool, however I can’t believe that you killed Giro. I hope you are lying about Giro, he was very skilled and I happened to like him a lot... he was rather funny.” Tis responded with anger in his voice

“Well Giro got too full of himself and he became careless, it couldn’t be helped since he was born an Angel thinking he was stronger than everyone else.” Anastasia retorted now spinning her dagger

“I guess he did lose his composure sometimes, I always told him his impatient behavior would eventually lead to his downfall, well regardless I will make you both pay... That's enough talking, Zoa we will just kill them both before their comrades show up. Kou is an impatient woman and if we keep her waiting she may end up taking our wings.” Tis said as his anger was now apparent on his face.

Tis pointed his left hand down at us and a blue glyph appeared around his hand almost 8 inches long on both sides of his wrist and about 3 inches from top to bottom, Green arrows emerged at a terrifying pace descending on us.

I ran and hid behind the building at the end of the alley, I had received no damage but I didn’t see if Anastasia got out of the attack because she wasn’t behind me, I took a step back from the building I used as cover and it was almost as if the building had been attacked with a military airstrike, the whole building was in ruins except for the spot I was standing... I might be a tad bit lucky...

After the dust had cleared from Tis’s attack he noticed me and I noticed Anastasia, she hadn’t budged an inch from the spot she was standing and her three shadow minions were standing to her left, right, and front holding up a pound of meat, it’s obvious that the pound of meat was Bilvorax… except it looked like he was thrown in a meatgrinder

Anastasia Perspective

“You would dare use our comrade to protect yourself!” Tis shouted angrily

“I use what is available to me, it is how I was taught to fight, let me show you what I mean.” Anastasia said while she reached into her bag and pulled out a dagger

“How do you plan to hit me from way down there?” Tis taunted

“I have a couple ways to get to you, I can either clip your wings, or come to you.” I said smiling

“You, clipping our wings… I think you are trying too hard to be funny.” Zoa smirked as she chanted “Pantheon Sigillo”

What came next was a light so bright that it would have been less of a strain on your eyes if you were to have looked directly into the sun, the light shined on all of us for a brief second, blinding me. I jumped back hoping to evade any incoming attacks however after two seconds my vision returned and a white dome had appeared around us, and the spot I was standing at had a couple dozen arrows in it.

“This is the seal of Pantheon, it signifies your demise. close quarters combat is the specialty of Tis” Zoa said

‘Well that is surprising, hes an archer isn't he?’ I thought to myself… “I have always wanted to bring a knife to a gun fight... errr energy bow fight, I wonder how fun this is going to be.” I said as I waved for my minions to lower the defiled corpse

Tis grabbed his left arm with his right hand and chanted “Strepitoso Ventis Freccia” his glyph started changing colors, it went from blue to a greenish grey color… and seconds later a small grey arrow flew out from his left hand with tremendous speed

I had my shadows throw me towards the edge of the dome furthest away from the Angels, and as I flew past the arrow I heard a low pitched screech that sounded like a thousand nails scratching a chalkboard, I rotated my body and threw the dagger in my left hand towards his head.

He very slightly moved his head to the left and the dagger flew past him cutting his right ear and I had lost sight of it as it flew into the white abyss of this dome I was in

I wanted to teleport to the shadow on Tis back but the arrow that flew past me caught me off guard. I was only about 10 feet from where the arrow had landed, I was forced to cover my eyes as it had created a giant whirlwind that lashed out everywhere consuming everything in its path, the wind cut up anything in its radius and it was getting closer to me as it expanded

I noticed the whirlwind rush out in every direction as if it was alive and uncontrollable as it destroyed everything it touched, it was slowing down and showed signs of dying but as I looked towards the center of the whirlwind I noticed the core of the whirlwind wasn’t expanding, it was imploding on itself and seconds later I heard a screech so loud I felt dizzy and my eyesight began to fail me, I placed my hands over my ears hoping to ease the burden on my ears but it didn’t seem to help much

I feel completely disoriented as I know the whirlwind’s screech had stopped making sound but the ringing in my ears seemed to have taken its place as I have no clue when the screeching stopped.

All I could think about was how I missed my chance to use my daggers shadow to appear behind Tis... shit im so tired I am not gonna last much longer, did Gabriel get away? I looked around and saw Gabriel walk out from behind a building covered in dirt but no cuts on his clothing or body at all... how lucky is this bastard?

I looked back up at where Tis was, a black circle appeared in the sky and I jumped back fearing it was an arrow and what landed in the spot I was, was a black spear that had split a tree in half and then disintegrated half a second later, Tis was gone and I was looking to see if the spear had come from Tis or Zoa.

It was really easy to find someone in this white dome as the ground was the only normal color and there being two people that stand out completely in the sky. I found Zoa pretty easily flinging a black circle at me, so the spears are from Zoa... but I couldn't find Tis and that was worrying me... 'He has to be above me or behind me!' I thought to myself and quickly looked up 'Empty' and then I jumped forward and turned around.

Two arrows were flying right at me and I quickly parried the one on the left aiming for my shoulder and then with a swift motion I swung down and parried the second arrow aiming for my kidney. Tis wasn't in sight behind the arrows... 'where did he go?' I thought to myself as I squinted looking for any movement.

"Up here!" the childish voice echoed around the dome, and saw two more black spears coming for me

I quickly dodged them both and again they split two more trees, however this time when they hit the trees they didn't vanish, instead they started shaking violently, 'what the hell is Gabriel doing?' I jumped to the side to distance myself from the black spears that were having seizures as I didn't want to find out what they were going to do, out of breath and nerve I started to panic.

I then felt a sharp pain in my back and my stomach, and my right leg so I looked down and there was an arrowhead sticking out of my stomach and my leg...

"Ugggggh, you quick bastard!" I yelled and fell to my knees breathing heavily in the middle or a dirt road

"You managed to dodge the arrow meant for your heart, well done... Where are your shadows and where's your friend gone, I haven't seen him lately?" Tis asked curiously

"Probably hiding, he has always seemed like a coward to me.." I said as I coughed up blood and noticed my vision was leaving me... I didn't mean to take both arrows... looks like I will pass out soon, I need to end this now...

Tis walked slowly towards me and then stopped completely "I wonder is this another trap, did you intentionally take the arrows so I would get within your range?" He said pointing his left hand at me

"Too late to notice now fool!" I said as I coughed up some more blood and disappeared right in front of him

We were currently standing on a dirt road with not very many shadows, there were some trees to my right, the shadows of the trees almost reached Tis, I guess he didn't notice I was using Zoa to help me set up for this moment.

When Zoa was throwing spears I was using the trees as cover and with the spears splitting each tree they hit they were extending shadows further as part of the trees were being uprooted by the force of the spears.

The trees that were just hit by the spears on my right were being shaken by the black spears and were seconds away from completely falling over and I had waited for it to happen, Tis had begun taking steps back and fired an arrow at me, the tree fell.

Two shadows appeared from the left and right of Tis as the trees shadow had just engulfed Tis, the shadows grabbed both of his arms restraining him for a second, I appeared behind him grabbing his chin with my left hand and stabbing him in the back of his head with the dagger in my right hand.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" Zoa screamed and threw another black spear heading straight for me

My feet gave out and I collapsed onto the floor, and rolled onto my butt so I could see Zoa, blood slowly leaking from my wounds... "Shadows would you kindly end her..." I said smiling as my vision became more hazy

Zoa's spear was quickly approaching me and my third shadow puppet suddenly appeared and changed the trajectory of the incoming spear causing it to land a couple feet to my left, I jumped at the sound as I couldn't see the spear.

Two shadows headed for Zoa while one waited behind defending me, the two shadows were moving fast and dodging the spears that would hit them jumping from tree to tree and shadow to shadow if the shadows were connected. Zoa threw one more spear towards me, another spear landed right next to me, deflected again by the shadow defending me.

The shadows were less than 15 feet away from Zoa now, one reached over and grabbed the others hands and got ready to throw the other shadow.

"Banishing Light!" Zoa yelled as the name 'banashing light' echoed numerous times, she wanted revenge on the one who killed Tis.

A ray of sunlight shot from the white dome aiming for me

"I guess the white light is coming to me heheheheee" I laughed as I found it ironic

...

The two shadows now within striking distance of Zoa... had disappeared in an instant...

3 seconds later the dome shattered into millions of pieces, the dark filled sky taking its rightful place as the white dome disappeared

"Anastasia! Gabriel!" Paul, and Shiro yelled

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