Lilith
Lost in thought I watched the swelling and ebbing flow of energy as it rushed through the intricate formations Odin had created. Like the tide the power swirled and pulsed, gradually spreading throughout hell. When I had first seen his magic it had seemed ugly, parasitic, but in truth it was nothing more than a very powerful and complex scrying spell. Powerful enough to draw unwanted attention, which was why he had sent his lapdog away again, patrolling the borders. In hindsight, we maybe should have done a little more. It might have saved us quite a bit of grief and trouble.
After hours, his spell was close to completion, the lattice of energy glowing with untold strength. All he had to do was activate it and we would finally know, know how hell had become a lifeless wasteland. In theory, at least. Reality, though, had other plans for us. It began with an eerie howl, reverberating in the air, echoing through the ruins, shaking the very ground we stood on. Immediately, Odin raised his gaze from his work, his eye narrowing.
“Fenrir,” he breathed. “Something’s wrong. Wait here, I’ll be back shortly.” I sighed.
“Tough luck. I’m not going to stay back like an obedient child. Whatever is going on, you might just as well take me with you. Who knows, maybe I’m even able to help out.” He scrutinised me for a moment, before he nodded curtly.
“I’ll have to learn to trust you, anyways. Come on then, try to keep up.” Without another word, he changed, his body transforming into a towering raven, almost as towering as the wolf he called a pet. A single, beady, black eye blinked slowly above a polished, ebony beak, large enough to rip a human into pieces. He cawed defiantly and rose into the ash grey sky amidst a storm of shimmering feathers. Leathery wings sprouted from my back and I followed suit, the speed of our passage ripping through the plane as we rushed towards his companion, a tight knot of worry twisting my insides. There weren’t many beings in creation who could measure up to Fenrir’s strength… except us. Odds were one of our beloved siblings was knocking on the door.
It didn’t take long until we knew. One moment, we were thundering across a lifeless landscape and the very next, I squirmed and shivered, my essence compressed from all sides. Droplets of a warm, sticky, dark red, almost black liquid clung to me like raindrops and I felt disorientated, lost, while I tried to figure out which way was up. A maniacal, cold laugh assaulted my ears, when I finally regained my bearings and dropped below the cloud of blood, a coppery taste in my mouth. Before me, wrapped in glowing bands of power, another angel stood, Fenrir’s tongue in hand.
“There you are,” Hecate sneered, the snakes in her hair spitting venom, her golden eyes sparkling. “We’ve been looking for you all over. Who’d have thought I’d find you here, amidst the rubble? Long time no see, Odin.” She threw the still bleeding tongue at him and added: “your pup is a bit rash. I had to teach him some manners, I hope you don’t mind.” The large raven transformed back and Odin caught the piece of flesh, his face like stone, distant and unreadable. “But where are my own manners,” she continued, turning to face me. “It’s been a while, Lilith. How did you manage to get away from Delilah? Don’t tell me you beat her, weak as you are. Did you bribe her? You’re plenty pretty, if you put your mind to it.”
“Why don’t you find out for yourself,” I asked, feigning confidence. “Doesn’t matter if it’s a kiss or a thrashing you’re looking for, I’ll gladly provide both. Or maybe a good spanking? We could try to pluck the stick from your ass but I’m afraid…” her face twisted into a snarl and she raised her hand. The constant pressure I had felt, ever since we had gotten close to her, intensified, like a vice it clamped down, silencing me mid sentence. I coughed up blood, spluttering.
“Don’t tempt me demon, you’re not going to enjoy playing with me.” A faint shimmer enveloped her body, ugly, translucent blue lines spreading across her skin, almost like an infection. Her alabaster skin rippled, her muscles bulged and long, snakelike fangs pierced through her lips. She was turning into a lamia before our eyes, her elegance replaced by a swelling rush of strength, her golden, feathered wings crumpling until they resembled my own.
“I’m going to drag you to the Silver City either way, but it’s up to you how much you’re going to suffer before you kneel in front of the throne. Please, do continue. I’d love to tear into you until your defiance turns into fear.” Cradling the tongue of his friend, Odin looked up.
“Throne? Since when is there a throne in the Silver City?”
“Much has changed,” she cackled. “Michael has seen to that. We’re stronger and we’re united. There’s isn’t anyone who could stand against us. But for you, my darlings, it’s too late. The only worth you’ve left is the strength, flowing through your veins, and we’ll take that from you, as well.”
“Will you, now,” he mumbled, his eye igniting with dark red flames. “I’d like to see you try. Rise!” His last word carried with it the strength of an immortal and the fires of retribution.
The lord of ravens called and Fenrir answered. A bloodcurdling howl cut through the shadows, the lifeless piece of flesh in Odin’s hand vanished and from far away, the drumbeat of oversized paws thundered closer. Hecate flinched, her eyes widening, as she whirled around, golden blue fire wreathing her arms. Her distraction cost her. Like a black lightning bolt, Odin charged, the runes along his staff shimmering with transcendent power.
Grunting, I ordered my body to heal and reached for the seat of my strength, flooding my limbs with energy. The incapacitating pressure vanished, dark flames danced around me and my outline blurred, massive, black tendrils erupting from my back. I didn’t know if we could beat a corrupted immortal, but I sure as hell knew we had to try, otherwise this misadventure would end before it even started. There was no room for doubt, we didn’t have that luxury, we either prevailed or we’d come to understand what had happened to our siblings, first hand.
A fight between immortals baffles description. The framework we use to categorise our world, language, concepts, ideas, they all don’t even come close to the forces we unleashed in the first few moments. Space crumbled, time bled, hell screamed in agony while we battled. There was no time for thought, no basis to build on. One fractured moment we were charging towards Hecate and the next, my world was turned into singing colours, glaring noises and visible pain. I felt her, I felt Odin at my side and Fenrir’s heavy pants when he finally arrived. The three of us, two creatures at the pinnacle of existence and one that was as close to it as a mortal could ever get, allied in a desperate struggle against just one lonely being, suffered.
I had known, I had seen Delilah, I had felt her strength, but I had still managed to lie to myself, convinced it had been a fluke. Not all of them could be this strong. I had been wrong. They were and Hecate, the Lady of the Mist, was a far cry more dangerous than Delilah had ever been. My sister had fought with overwhelming strength, assured of her power. Hecate was different, more cautious, cleverer. She didn’t try to beat us into submission, she altered the very reality around us, making us fight mirrors and mirages while she slowly guided us deeper into a maze of memories.
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One second, we were fighting a swarm of flying flames, each one smiling at us with her face, the next we were chased by an army of angels in battle garb, their voices calling for our destruction, their magic hot on our heels, like dogs out for blood. From the deepest chasms to the farthest reaches we fought, always changing, always adapting.
A bone shaking scream cut through the flimsy walls of space around us, when Odin’s staff struck home, the force of a descending star behind the blow. He tore through the heart of a world, a construction of Hecate’s magic, but real nevertheless. Billions perished in an instant, their deaths fuelling his attack. Light exploded outwards, brighter than a dying star, ripping away the torrents of power encircling us. Her concentration wavered and the gaping maw of a nightmare turned real closed around her body, pearly white teeth shredding her form. Then she was gone and the scene shifted.
Mist swirled around us, a suffocating presence, cutting us off from reality. Everything turned white and became muted, even Fenrir’s voice vanished behind a soft but unyielding wall. I gritted my teeth and allowed the shadows to spill forth, a dark maelstrom in the midst of a contour less wasteland. Black veins permeated the lifeless, freezing white, golden and blue sparks igniting along the way. I felt my power falter, the shapeless nothingness swallowing everything I had to offer, but my companions didn’t simply stand by. From somewhere far away, a raven’s cry pierced the tranquility of death, a rallying command, answered by a rumbling growl.
Silhouettes and sparks flickered into existence, the mist thinning around me, while the strangling pressure diminished. I whirled around, my pitch black wings whipping through nothingness. A whirlwind of colour howled around me, fuelled by anger and desperation. At the edge of my perception, a gargantuan shadow leaped and another piercing cry tore through reality. The mist surged, closing in on me like the embrace of death and then it vanished, blown away by an immeasurable strike.
Before me, Fenrir had managed to clamp down on Hecate’s neck, his bite strong enough to turn worlds into dust. At his side, Odin was wrapped in an armour of glimmering feathers, his staff embedded in her chest. But it wasn’t enough. Her golden eyes flared, blue light breaking through the glare, and with a simple command she marshalled the power of her corrupted core and blew them away like autumn leaves in the wind. The strength of her voice made me trembled, but it hadn’t be directed at me and I could act. Desperate, I conjured a whip of roaring hellfire into my hand. With a twist of my mind, I appeared behind her, my smouldering weapon digging deep into the marks Fenrir had left behind. Hellfire wasn’t normal fire, it had changed, transformed over the aeons, saturated with transcendent forces and it couldn’t be extinguished. It burned forever. Or so I had thought. With a more annoyed than pained grunt, Hecate’s wings rippled with translucent, blue flames, and the red black collar around her neck vanished without a trace.
“You,” she thundered, the strength of her voice pushing me back. “You can’t win!” Something slammed into me, breaking bones, rending flesh, suppressing my power. Like a scared child, I was flung away, a trail of black blood marking my passage. My insides had been turned into a disgusting pulp, slowly trickling from the corner of my mouth. Whatever she had done allowed me to use just enough energy to stay alive and conscious but not enough to repair the damage she had inflicted. With a bone jarring impact, I crashed into the ground, obsidian daggers piercing my skin as I rolled over the jagged, volcanic stone. I coughed up another gush of my intestines and barely managed to open my eyes, my heart hammering, my nerves alight with pain.
My vision was blurry but what I saw still made me grin manically. His eye glowing, his lips stretched into a snarl, Odin had cast another spell. A rift appeared above Hecate, a shimmering tear in reality through which I could briefly glimpse slithering shapes and teeth filled maws, before a swarm of greyish creatures broke forth like an avalanche. I had never seen them before and even though the winds of their wingbeats flipped me over like a doll, I still couldn’t sense them. It was as if they weren’t really there, as if they weren’t… real.
With a bloodcurdling shriek, they charged at the corrupted angel, fangs bared, talons reaching and for the first time since we had confronted her, she seemed scared. A ripple travelled along her wings and they pulsed with an unnatural light, a cone of blue flames turning several into ash. Then, they were upon her, a wriggling, biting, hissing mass of limbs and teeth, driven by a demonic, ravenous frenzy. Her screams battered against my already broken shell, but the power, which had constrained my core, was gone. I turned into a shapeless mass of shadows and reconstructed my body in the blink of an eye, reappearing at Odin’s side.
“What did you do,” I asked reverently, my thoughts barely able to break through a wall of ironclad concentration.
“What I had to. Lilith… run! I won’t be able to hold her for long. Run to Lucifer, tell him… tell him I’m sorry.”
“No, no way. I’ve been running most of my life and I’m done leaving… friends behind. Tell me what I can do.” He shivered and the colour slowly drained from his face.
“Stupid demon, if I falter, they will devour you whole and in contrast to her, you won’t survive!”
“Then you better don’t. What are those things?”
“A misguided dream… a weapon…” he was cut short when the greyish, spasming hill suddenly exploded. Bits and pieces of wet, still wriggling limbs were thrown in every direction, drenching us to the bone with disgusting, acidic fluids. I cursed and blinked the viscous liquid form eyes. Where the slithering mass had been, only a crater remained, Hecate at the centre, breathing heavily.
Her dress was gone, her wings ripped to shreds, her body covered in deep, bleeding wounds. Blue flames surrounded her like a visible aura, crackling with power. The stench of burned flesh and gasoline assaulted my nostrils and I felt my skin disintegrate, the greyish blood biting deep into my body. My own power exploded outwards, cleansing Odin and myself. A deep groan escaped him and he dropped to his knees, as if it had been his own life, which had been consumed by her last attack.
“You fools,” she shrieked. “Did you really believe a swarm of insects could stop me?” I trembled, uncertainty and fear coursing through my veins. What was I supposed to do? She had shrugged them off like a knight would toss aside an impudent kid and I was no match for her on my own.
“No, I didn’t,” Odin coughed. “But they did what they were supposed to. They’ve laid their eggs, Hecate. Your time has come.”
Surprised, I narrowed my eyes and squinted at her flaming form. On first glance, I didn’t see what he meant, but a moment later, I realised her wounds weren’t closing. Her fires even petered out, wherever they came close to the bleeding cuts and with every passing heartbeat, it seemed like something below her skin was slowly devouring her strength.
“What have you down to me,” she hollered, staggering.
“Returned a favour,” he replied weakly but with satisfaction. Unfortunately, he was lying. We were still connected, thoughts and images flowing between us freely. Those… creatures, they were powerful but not strong enough to subdue or even kill her. We had gained a few moments until she’d figure out that she could simply burn them away or even disperse her body to get rid of them. For a few seconds, though, she was weakened and we had to make it count.
Without another wasted thought Odin, Fenrir and I charged, every ounce of power, every drop of magic at our disposal hardened and forged into a single, devastating strike. Hell shook, the already strained edges of the plane crumbled under the onslaught. The void bled through the gaps, reality became distorted and all that remained were four dancing flames, black, blue, red and grey, bound together in a wavering cycle of destruction and creation. In the end, one of them had to be extinguished or all of us would burn.