Velvet Redemption

I was in Oregon as I had been for the past couple hours. I needed the alone time with Velvet because the sword was sending me very disturbing signals about its commitment to my final mission.

The math was simple. There were two people trying to fight a war that would destroy the planet. It takes two to fight a war, so, if I take out one, there is no war. I just had to kill Michael or Lucifer.

Lilandra seemed set on taking out Lucifier since he just got a new sword, but Velvet wanted to fight Michael and destroy his sword.

Our objectives had been relatively similar up until this point. . . eradicate evil. The blade itself wasn’t evil, but it knew the horsemen of the apocalypse were. Therefore, we worked together to destroy them.

Now, in the final chapter of our journey, Velvet was telling me to go fight Michael, but it wasn’t going to kill Michael like I intended.

I didn’t see any way out of this without killing one or the other, and Velvet was telling me it would only fight Michael. The problem was it wouldn’t kill Michael, rather, it wanted to rejoin him after defeating his current sword. This was going to be a huge problem.

Sitting on the banks of the Columbia River I’d trained on for 25 years, I pondered my predicament. The water rose a few inches on the shore as a boat drove by. I had my head in my arms over my knees just sitting. I spent 25 years hating this place, and now that I was back, I felt like I was in love with the location.

This river was soothing. I’d already been swimming along the bottom of the river for an hour, but I had since dried and put my coat back on so no one would see my wings.

I’d spent the entire day resting up here. Lilandra and the others were supposed to meet at this location for our field trip to Hell.

After I heard a flapping of wings, Lilandra landed on the rocky shore next to me.

She looked. . . flustered.

“Where have you been all day?”

She didn’t answer, and she didn’t look me in the eyes.

Daniel appeared a few feet away from us.

“Well there you are. I was wondering what a forsaken angel would do all day. Where were you?”

Daniel gave me the same treatment Lilandra did, but he didn’t just avoid my stare, he avoided hers as well. He seemed flabbergasted, like demon beside me.

Then, it clicked. I was never good at reading subtle hints, but this was so obvious, even I could see it.

I pointed at Lilandra then at Daniel asking, “You? And You?”

Their expressions were priceless.

“Oh God that’s twisted. I don’t even want to think about it,” I said.

I asked, “So, Daniel. . . was that your first time?”

That got his attention and broke his silence.

“I swear, Pierce! If you don’t shut your mouth, I’ll kill you before we even set foot in Hell.”

I was enjoying this, but Death interrupted us by suddenly appearing beside me.

I smirked, “We’ve been dating for less than a month, and our relationship is already going to Hell?”

Death raised an eyebrow and said, “Don’t make jokes.”

I looked over at Lilandra and said, “Are you absolutely sure we should after Lucifer?”

“Why wouldn’t we?”

“It just seems to me that the war could be over just as simply with Michael dead,” I said, knowing I had a better shot at changing Lilandra’s mind than Velvet’s.

“Lucifer is more of a threat than Michael. Michael will let mankind be without any interference. He doesn’t give two shits about people. Lucifer, however, will attempt to rule over mankind in Michael’s absence. Both have thrones, but Lucifer wants two thrones. Michael is content to just have Lucifer’s head on a platter,” Lilandra said.

Her logic made sense, but I still didn’t think I’d have as easy of a time killing Lucifer as I would Michael. Neither fight would be easy per se, but I’d already fought Michael once and stood my ground. Lucifer was an unknown entity entirely.

“Could we at least look at changing our target to Michael?”

Lilandra raised an eyebrow now, “Why?”

Death and Daniel were both looking at me quizzingly as well. They sensed something was up. I couldn’t tell them that Velvet didn’t want to fight Lucifer. I was almost embarrassed that the blade was causing trouble.

I threw up my hands and smiled.

“No reason. I just really hate the bastard,” I said.

Lilandra thought for a moment and then said, “Well, you’re just going to have to let that go. If you kill Lucifer, I’m pretty sure Michael will just stay in Heaven and continue to ignore this planet like he always has.”

Daniel spoke up and said, “That’s a pretty big if.”

Lilandra asked, “What is?”

“Michael leaving this place alone if Justin kills Lucifer,” Daniel said.

“There is no if, Daniel. I’ll definitely kill him,” I said.

“Maybe. . . unless I kill him,” Daniel said, smirking.

That was the first time I’d seen the angel do that, and I didn’t much care for his little grin. It unnerved me to see my usually serious companion smirk.

“Don’t do that. You’re scaring the fish,” I said.

Daniel scowled at me.

“That’s more like you,” I said.

“Are you two girls done bantering? Because I sort of have a planet of souls to manage. Kareen is starting to get pissy that I’m making her run everything in my absence,” Death said.

Lilandra nodded and said, “Four against an army of demons. Yes. This will go well.”

I spoke up, “We fought an army of demons before, remember? Plus, this will be different. We’re not there to slaughter everyone in Hell. We’re just after their king.”

“I’m sure they’ll give him up willingly,” Daniel muttered.

“You know, I don’t know why it took longer for you two to bump uglies. You’re perfect for each other with your attitudes,” I said.

Death crossed her arms and smiled at Lilandra, saying, “Had a go at angel boy, did we?”

Daniel scowled and Lilandra responded, “That’s right. Now I’ve fucked both of the boys here. Maybe Justin can tell you what I was like.”

“Girls. We can fight about how much of a stud I am later. Right now, we need to focus our killing energy on Lucifer,” I said.

Death glared at me.

“Do you want to hear a long story about something nasty I did before we got together, or do you want to kill Lucifer and move on with life?”

Daniel raised his hand and asked, “Are you asking me or Death?”

“Shut up, Daniel. Let’s go over a quick strategy. Since we’ll be dealing with large numbers, I say we go straight through as many as we can until we get to Lucifer like we did in Africa with Famine and his army,” I said.

They nodded in agreement, and Death wrapped her arms around me.

“Daniel, we’ll aim for the blood canyon. That’s as far in as I think we’ll be able to transport ourselves to,” Death said.

He nodded and put a hand on Lilandra’s shoulder.

“Oh, come on now. You didn’t touch me like that last n-,” was all I heard before we vanished.

I felt similar as I did when we went to Purgatory.

We reappeared on solid ground in a world I did not like one bit. I looked up to see a black starless sky and a scorching red sun. The ground below me was cracked and dry. There wasn’t an ounce of vegetation around.

“Welcome to Hell, Justin,” Death said, letting me go.

We appeared to be in some kind of plateau with high mountains all around us. They, of course, had no snow on them.

Daniel and Lilandra flew out of the sky and landed next to us.

Daniel spat onto the ground, and his spit sizzled when it hit the rock.

“Let’s get this over with. Angels aren’t highly regarded here,” Daniel said.

My skin didn’t feel as though it was on fire, but I could definitely feel the heat. It was warmer here than anyplace on Earth. No human would last long.

I asked, “Where are all the. . . people?”

Lilandra pointed in a direction, but I didn’t know if it was north, south, east, or west.

“That way is a giant lake of fire. We’re probably about 300 miles away from it. All human souls sentenced to this place end up there,” she said.

Daniel asked, “And the demons? Where are they?”

Death put her hands together and summoned her scythe.

“On their way,” she said, looking in the opposite direction of the lake of fire.

In the distance ahead, I could see some sort of large structure. . . a castle?

“I’m guessing that’s where the king of Hell resides,” I said.

“You are correct,” Lilandra said, summoning her wooden blade.

Daniel started to glow gold, something I’d never seen him do before. It must have been his holy aura firing up as he raised his fists.

“Remember, gang. We fight toward the castle. We’re not here to kill every demon. We’re here to kill their king,” I said, summoning a blade of lightning.

I’ll try to do this without you, Velvet, but you may just be needed to put these dogs down, I thought.

The sword did not respond in any way. It was clearly not thrilled to be here.

The demons were running at us, and none of them actually had wings. I felt that was a little odd.

“Lilandra, why do they not have wings like you?”

“Not now, Justin,” she said.

The demons were actually all fairly uniform. They were just solid shadows. They clearly had muscular mass, but there was no hair, no flesh, nothing. They looked like humans made of solid darkness. I didn’t see any armed with weapons. Instead, they all looked like they had claws ready to rip us into pieces.

They were all fairly large and built thick and muscular. The black demons were darker than any other shade of the color I’d ever seen before. They almost seemed to devour any color around them.

With no mouths or noses, their faces only had one real feature. It was their eyes, which were as red as Lilandra’s wings.

Daniel took off running first at the mass of hundreds of demons in front of us. He reached them and smashed one’s face in with his right fist as it shrieked in pain. As a few moved to surround him, I was on them, cutting limb after limb.

After removing one’s arm, I spun the lightning blade in my hand and held it upside down. I stabbed the demon behind me in the gut. The tormented being folded like a piece of laundry and collapsed to the ground.

The ladies did not charge with us, but half of the main force of demons solved that problem by closing the gap and heading straight for them. I saw Lilandra strike one up into the air with her blade. Then, she flew up and struck it down twice as hard as it was launched into the air. She rode its body down to the ground and smashed a few more demons in the process.

Death dodged a few swipes and then took off a head or two with her scythe.

I yelled at the top of my lungs, “Forward!”

Daniel, like a tank, cleared a path before us. He knocked demon after demon senseless and out of the way. I cut quite a few demons down to keep them off his back, but after crossing about a fourth of the distance to the castle, we couldn’t proceed anymore. There were just too many demons getting in our way. Daniel, although not losing steam, was growing less and less effective at clearing a path.

We’d all taken a few cuts and bruises, but it wasn’t anything too serious. These demons put up a good fight, but their main advantage was their numbers.

Lilandra stopped our slow march forward, knowing we were burning too much energy, and ordered Daniel and I to clear a circle with a diameter of 20 feet.

We did as we were told, and Lilandra flew around the circle, carving a path in the hard ground with her blade.

As soon as she completed the shape, she placed her hands flat on the ground, and a ring of blue light filled the path she carved until it surrounded us.

Demons looked at the light but did not attempt to cross it. They instead surrounded us, knowing that they literally had all the time in the world to wait for that magic to wear thin.

“At our current battle rate, we’ll be drawn into their game of slaughtering an unending amount of demons and draining our strength” Lilandra said.

“I’ll clear a path,” I said, putting both hands on my lightning sword and getting ready to launch a massive wave of energy in front of us.

Lilandra stopped me shouting, “No!”

I stopped and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“We have to be smart with our energy. We’re in their world. We can’t just go blasting randomly and hoping it works,” Lilandra said.

“Well, you’ve just ruled out all two of the strategies that Pierce knows,” Daniel said.

Lilandra ignored Daniel and said, “We’re going to have to break into two groups.”

I could see by the look on Death’s face that she did not approve.

She asked, “And just how did you intend to divide the group?”

Lilandra sighed and said, “Hear me out. Justin and I need to go fight Lucifer. You and Daniel stay here and hold off the hoard and stop any that attempt to come after us.”

Both Death and I started to vocalize our disagreements when Lilandra said, “Listen! Justin and I have fought and trained together for 25 years. Although the four us fight okay together, none in the group make a better team than Justin and I. We know each other’s techniques, strengths, and weaknesses perfectly. We stand the best chance of taking down Lucifer.”

I hated to admit it, but she was right. She had trained me herself, so naturally when it came to combat, we had the best chemistry.

“I still don’t like it,” Death said.

“You don’t have to like it, but it’s our best shot. We’re in a grim situation, here. Justin and I will take on Lucifer, and if it gets bad, at least you two can escape from here. Just work your way back to the canyon where we first appeared and transport yourselves back to Earth,” Lilandra said.

Daniel put a hand on Death’s shoulder and said, “I know you don’t want to admit Lilandra is right in any way, but we have to face facts here. She has the best plan.”

Death walked over to me and pulled me straight into her lips. After our kiss, she grabbed my long green coat that had been with me since the start of this adventure and slowly pulled it off, revealing my red wings. A dry wind whipped through Hell and blew her long black hair to the side as she held it.

“You’d better come back to me alive,” Death said.

“I promise I will,” I said.

It hit me at that moment. I was ready to throw my life away to be with Lisa when this all began, but now, standing here before Death, I knew I wanted to live and be with her. I still felt horrible for what I’d done to Lisa, and I’d answer for that one day, but now I just wanted to be with Death.

When this stupid fighting was all done, I wanted to be with her; anywhere on Earth was fine. She just had to be there with me.

Daniel’s voice brought me back to our battle.

“Our time is almost over. The magic appears to be thinning at an alarming rate,” he said.

As the circle vanished and demons poured in, Lilandra and I shot up into the air, taking off for Lucifer’s castle ahead of us.

I looked back and saw Death and Daniel crushing demons left and right, but they were clearly struggling without us. My heart tore right down the middle as I watched the woman I had come to love fade into the distance.

Still, I knew I had to end this with Lucifer.

Lilandra and I flew onward and arrived at the castle walls. We found surprisingly few demons standing guard. We flew over the walls and landed in the courtyard. The courtyard was large, and as soon as we hit the ground, a large wall of fire shot up from the castle walls. It rose higher than I could see and kept burning bright.

“I see we don’t leave here until Lucifer dies,” I muttered.

As if on cue, a larger shadow walked forward from the large stone building before us. The castle walls were monumental in size and made of scorched gray stone. They surrounded a slightly smaller inside building made of the same stone. This structure had two large wooden doors from which the shadow in front of us appeared.

A few more demon guards appeared as well, ready to watch what they anticipated to be a short fight.

“Speak of the devil,” the shadow said, it’s voice sounding like a hollow hiss.

“And he shall appear,” I said, finishing the phrase.

“Welcome to my kingdom,” the shadow said.

“If this wretched kingdom is yours, that makes you Lucifer. You’re just the guy we’re looking for,” I said.

“The one and same,” Lucifer said.

He stood around eight feet tall, and his eyes were not red. They were actually green. Unlike the others demons which simply had shadow bodies with mass, Lucifer’s body seemed to snap and pop as small black flames rose off of it. His whole body was on fire, which meant, extremely close combat probably wasn’t going to work in my favor like it had with the horsemen.

Covering Lucifer was black and green studded leather armor. Dark leather pants slid down his long legs and ended where his thick black books began. He looked like a beast, ready to give out a beating.

Hanging at his side was a long and slender blade with a silver hilt wrapped in black leather. At the end of the hilt was a small metal claw. The handguard was also made of silver and comprised of jagged edges curved upward toward the blade.

The sheathe was as black as demon flesh and covered what I was sure was an impressive blade.

“I see you’ve noticed my new sword. I guess I should ask. . .now that you’ve laid eyes on it, do you still intend to fight me? You know full well I have a blade that is both newer and stronger than yours,” Lucifer said.

“I do intend to kill you. Your blade won’t make a difference,” I said.

“I see. I don’t suppose you’d change your mind if I made you an offer to serve at my side? You’ve already proven to be a mighty foe to Michael and myself, but having two targets can be a bit overwhelming. What if you just had one? I could make you an official knight of Hell, second in command only to myself,” Lucifer said.

“Save your deals, Lucifer. You’re going to die here and now. You can’t bargain your way out of this,” Lilandra said.

His demeanor seemed to change with her.

“Lilandra. . . the one demon in existence that doesn’t serve me. You’re a disgrace, unwanted by both Heaven and Hell. My offer today doesn’t extend to you. You won’t leave this castle alive,” Lucifer said.

“Too many people have already died because of you, Lucifer. She won’t be one of them,” I said, raising my blade of lightning and pointing it at him.

“You’re going to be a hero then, are you?”

“I’ll let history be the judge of that after I kill you,” I said.

“The history I write will judge you to be a stupid fool for not taking my offer,” Lucifer said, drawing his blade and charging at me.

Out of the sheath, the long blade actually looked quite basic. It was slender, silver, and surrounded by black flames.

Pumping more energy into my blade made of lightning, I ran to meet Lucifer. Our blades met, and my lightning blade was shattered with a single swipe.

I was blown backward by the sheer power of this sword.

“You’d better take this battle a little more serious, or you won’t last long against my blade Umbra. I think this really is Micah’s best work, especially considering I torchered him to make it,” Lucifer said, marveling at his blade.

Knowing Velvet wanted no part of this fight, I flew up and came down on Lucifer with two lightning blades. Lilandra came at him from the ground with her wooden sword.

Lucifer’s speed was equivalent to Michael’s, and his pure strength was staggering. He was brutal with his attacks, and with Umbra protecting him, I couldn’t get a scratch on the king of Hell.

Lilandra’s wooden blade could barely stand up to Umbra. The blade was just raw power amplified by the most cruel being in the universe.

We fought for several minutes, and with one mighty and quick swipe, Lucifer brought Umbra across and shattered both of my lightning blades. Then, he brought it up and swung down upon me. Lilandra flew into me and knocked me out of the way, taking the entire blow upon the middle of her back.

Her screams filled the courtyard as black flames seared her flesh.

Blood sprayed up on Lucifer’s face, and though he did not have a mouth to smile, slashing Lilandra seemed to bring him pleasure.

“Stupid woman. With your oath to only fight defensively, taking hits is about all your good for, isn’t it? I told you that you wouldn’t leave this castle alive, and I mean to keep my word,” Lucifer said, raising Umbra and bringing it down to finish Lilandra off.

Velvet! I know you hate Lilandra, and I know you would choose Michael over me, but hear me now. Fight Lucifer with me, and I promise I’ll hand deliver you to Michael as soon as we’re done, I thought in a panic.

Before the blade could respond, I was over Lilandra and drawing Velvet in a flash to meet Umbra. Our blades shook violently as they met. Micah’s first handiwork fought against his latest handiwork.

“You’re finally ready to take this fight seriously?”

Lucifer’s raw strength was greater than Michael’s. How on earth did the archangel throw this guy out of Heaven?

“Lilandra isn’t going to die today. You are,” I grunted, throwing all my power forward to drive Lucifer back away from Lilandra’s body.

In my head, I asked the blade I held and had fought with for years, Velvet, do we have a deal?

It gave me power, and my strength surged. It wanted to get back to Michael, and I wanted Lucifer dead. This was the one stumbling block in our path.

With all my power surging, my wings opened wide. With a solid push, I advanced, and Lucifer fell back a few inches. . . then a few feet. I pushed him back faster and faster until I slammed him into the wooden doors that led to his throneroom.

I backed up for a moment to catch my breath.

“Every second of my struggle has led me to this battle, Lucifer. You’ve no idea the hardships I’ve endured and battles I’ve won to get here. You’re the last piece of the puzzle to stopping the war that threatens humanity, and I’m not leaving here until you’re dead!”

With a roar, Lucifer shot forward and slashed across from right to left with Umbra. I ducked. Avoiding unnecessary contact with that blade was vital to this battle. It was newer and stronger than Velvet.

I rose with an upward slash, but Velvet did not penetrate Lucifer’s armor.

Lucifer held Umbra with one hand after my failed slash and punched me with his other in the gut. The wind didn’t just leave me; it flew out of me, and Lucifer kicked me backward while I was wheezing.

I flew back and landed next to Lilandra, coughing blood. Damn this guy was a solid fighter.

To beat him, I’d have to be fast enough to dodge Umbra and use enough aura to match his raw strength. I noticed he wielded no elements or other form of magic, and I figured it was because his aura was still weak after I killed all the horsemen.

That’s why he was relying on his raw strength and new blade to crush me.

Lucifer leapt into the air and came straight down for me. I wasn’t going to let him meet me on the ground.

Summoning my aura, I pumped lightning into Velvet and shot up into the air to meet Lucifer. I had more momentum, so, I crushed his offense and cut through his armor. He growled as a large cut appeared upward across his torso, and the upper part of his armor fell off.

He landed on the ground, and I came down like a bolt of lightning upon him. He blocked with Umbra, and though my lightning hurt him some, the real damage was done to Velvet. That direct slam into Umbra caused small cracks to appear in my blade.

No. . ., I thought.

Lucifer smiled as I retreated backward.

Velvet was in pain. I could almost hear it crying out in my mind. This had never happened before. In every battle I’d fought, it was the superior weapon.

Had I pushed it too far? Made it fight too much? Or was its age just catching up with it?

Maybe it was a combination of all those factors and the fact that Umbra was brand new.

Lucifer gave me no time to rest and think as he charged forward. I blocked with Velvet because if I dodged, he’d attack a still-recovering Lilandra.

Velvet screeched in my mind as Umbra’s black flames slowly overcame the lightning on the blade.

“I’m sorry,” I muttered.

What choice did I have? I couldn’t retreat, and my only weapon was falling to pieces before me. Lilandra was injured on the ground, clearly out of the fight. I was out of options, and Lucifer knew it.

“I bet you regret not taking my offer now, don’t you?”

Boasting false confidence, I surged my aura again. I’d have to burn it all in an attempt to take down Lucifer. I felt around, but there was no lightning in the sky to take advantage of. This was his kingdom, and he had the home court advantage.

I was crumbling under the strength of his attack, but still I pushed forward. Mankind needed me to succeed, and I would not stop.

Sadly, what little hope I had left was taken from me with Lucifer’s next attack.

With a two-handed broad swipe from right to left with Umbra coming at me, I raised Velvet with both hands to block, and that was the dearest mistake I could have made.

Lucifer’s momentum combined with Umbra’s potency shattered Velvet Redemption into pieces, leaving me holding just a hilt.

“It can’t be,” I muttered, tears forming in my eyes.

My blade. . ., I thought.

Velvet did not respond with a shriek. It died swiftly and in silence. Lucifer’s vicious and

brutal attack had also spun me to the left. I was facing away from Lucifer at a 90 degree angle, and he took advantage of that, cutting off my right wing at the base of my shoulder.

Before I could scream from the pain, I coughed up a tremendous amount of blood. Then, before I could even react to the pain, Lucifer kicked me. . . hard.

I slammed into the courtyard wall and left an imprint on the stone. Wheezing in pain and the world spinning before me, I slid down the wall in a bloody mess, coming to rest on my ass with my legs spread before me.

Everything I had was gone. No willpower, no energy, no strength, and no weapon remained. Was I foolish for thinking I could win this fight?