12 days later

Taurus was using his paws and antlers to draw in the dark red dirt of Tartarus. The symbol he was drawing was a winged cross with a circle around it. The hellhound stepped away when he finished.

“ Are you positive this will take us to Heaven?” Helsing questioned with hesitation in his voice.

“ Aye,” Taurus replied.

“ After we free everyone. The mortals and I will release the memories of the angels, while Norah prepares for battle. Sounds good?” Crow stated.

Norah nodded with a nervous smile on her face. Helsing looked at her with concern then nodded at Norah.

“ Everything okay?” Helsing tried to meet Norah’s gaze who was looking at the ground as she hugged herself with her wings.

“ It’s just nostalgic ya know fighting gods and all that, but in a bad way. I just hope I’m making the right choices this time. Because I can’t afford to lose this time.”

“ I guess you’ll have to take a leap of faith. I know it’s not what you want to hear, but it’s really all I can say. I mean we are literally fighting for people to die. It may not be the most honorable thing to do, but I mean people do better with deadlines. I’m normally good with advice but uh this one is hard.”

Norah smiled with a soft glow that lightened up the room. Helsing was blushing with embarrassment as he rubbed the back of his neck, uncomfortably.

“ It’s a little choppy but it helps.”

“ Hey! Love birds, are you ready? We’ve got a goddess to overthrow!” Gran shouted urgently.

Helsing and Norah nodded at each other in readiness then they walked side by side as the group walked through the portal.

The Kingdom of Heaven was overwhelming to say the least. Everything from the building that looked similar to the fallen buildings from the age of man to even the plants that decorated the land was a blinding white with accents of glimmering gold.

After his eyes adjusted to the blinding light he noticed how it all was so perfect. The sidewalks and roads were straighter than any sword the blacksmith could craft, and all of the plants were groomed to perfection with not even a single pale leaf out of place.

The blacksmith glanced at the rest of the group and it was clear that Gran and Crow shared his opinion. Gran had an expression of disgust twisted on her aged face while Crow wore an expression of disgrace and rage carved into his face.

Norah on the other hand was on the verge of tears as she was holding onto Helsing’s arm for support.

“ Everything okay?” He whispered to Norah.

“ This place just…it doesn’t seem like home…it feels..overhwleming and fake.”

The blacksmith gazed at the winged woman that clung to his arm with sympathy. Even though this place is full of crimes it is still the place she grew up.

“ Oddly, there’s no angels around. I suppose they wasted no time in getting ready for war, but still not even a single guard left behind,” Taurus stated, breaking the silence.

“ But we’ve got a job to do. We’re wasting time,” said Crow as he took off one of gloves, then crouched to the ground and rested his hand on the sidewalk.

The knowledge god then rose to his feet putting his glove back on then marched his way to the dungeons with Gran trailing behind him.

Helsing was beginning to follow but Norah still held onto his arm, his expression softened then when Norah finally let go he followed his Gran and the knowledge god. While the chosen one soared away to her home to grab her equipment to be battle ready.

The dungeons were surprisingly clean. It was all white and gold just the same as everything else, but most of the caged areas were empty.

Except for the dungeon cells that were at the far back of the long dungeon hallway. On the cells on the right there was a flowery looking guy wearing muddied robes and had sunflower colored hair with faded bronze skin and freckles splattered all over.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

A savage looking woman that had similar skin and had wild hair and brittle antlers that sprouted from her head wearing tattered worn out clothes. The woman’s orange-yellow savage eyes watched the group in suspicion.

And in the final cell held a tall muscular man that sat in the corner of his cell, his back facing the cell door. The man wore battle armor that was smudged, dented, and scratched up. Helsing cringed a little at the sight of the damaged armor. gods, I could make that armor look so much better.

The man had large ruffled mane-like hair that was at the length of the man’s hips sprouted from the helmet.

In the cells on the left was a sickly looking woman in tattered medical robes hung on her like oversized coats on a coat stand. Her cheeks were sunken in, her hair was light gray and thinner than paper. Her eyes were normal but the color was a sickly white that made her two pairs of pupils stand out. In the cell beside the sick woman was Allen himself but he just sat in the middle of his cell as if he was asleep, but he wasn’t breathing. Helsing looked at Allen’s body in concern but then an seeming less emotionless voice broke the studying silence.

“ He's fine, young Scott.”

The blacksmith looked at the source of the voice while Taurus whimpered in front of Allen's cell and Crow talked to the two twins.

Gran and Helsing approached the final cell against the wall. That final cell held a man that was sitting on the ground, chains acting like a cocoon casing around his body. The man was around the same height as the warrior in the other cell. But this man’s black hair was spiked up and had shaved sides on each side of his head. He wore a dark cloak and had soulless black eyes that were a dark crimson color that seemed to pierce through his soul.

“ Ya must be Azrail,” said Gran trying to keep herself calm.

“ Indeed. You must be the Cursebloods, Allen’s bloodline. I’m surprised to see one so aged, and human” Azrail stated.

“ The secret is eating right and exercising daily,” sarcasm tainting her tone.

“ Here's the deal. We help you and you free us of our curse. The entire family tree,” Helsing demanded, crossing his arms.

“ Under normal circumstances I would say you’re crazy and rude, but such luxuries can’t be afforded,” Azrail replied then nodded in agreement.

Helsing unsheathed his Damascus sword he breathed a stream of air and azure flames ignited onto the edges of the sword. He used the sword to make a hole in the cell then cut Azrail free from his chained cocoon.

The blacksmith then used his sword to free all of the others. Taurus opened a portal to Tartarus. In an instant Azrail went through the portal and went back into his body.

Once Azrail’s spirit returned to his body and came back through the portal then picked up Allen’s lifeless body holding it as if it were his bride.

Crow took off the dog skulls that he wore and put them on his father for him. Azrail ran off with Taurus, Pestis, and the others that were imprisoned. Crow, Gran and her grandson soon followed them out of the dungeon. They parted ways with the group. Crow walked on with Aella perched on his shoulder with an elderly woman and a blacksmith at his heels.

They all reached a building that looked almost like any other building in the kingdom. Unlike the other buildings this one had writing at the top of the doors in a strange language Helsing never saw.

Crow entered without hesitation and the others followed. The interior had no colors gave life to the building fueling the eerie atmosphere of the, seemingly, cursed building. The brightest lights cast the darkest shadows, Helsing thought to himself while a satisfied grin perked on his lips. Crow, Gran, and Helsing all wandered around the drab building. Helsing had to constantly look behind him to make sure no one followed from behind.

The trio all entered into a room that had a chilling evil aura glaring at them. Helsing’s serpent tail quivered as a feeling of something crawling up his spine caused goosebumps to fester on his skin. He heard them. The agonized screams that stained the air of the cursed room. Screams of men, women, and children. He peeked a glance at the others, and saw their petrified expressions.

In the center of the room that caused all of these sensations was a chair with metal chains on the arms and legs of the chair and above the chair was a steel worm-like thing that hung from the ceiling. The worm had a circular mouth with teeth lining the outside and inside of the circular mouth.

“ We need to move on,” Aella stated as she made a soft cawing sound. The group hesitantly moved on and they all finally arrived in the room they wanted.

This room was just as lifeless as the others, but it was lined with tall brown perfect shelving cabinets. Each shelf had about a dozen or so orbs that were labeled with people’s names on the glistening swirling orbs. Inside each orb was a different item, some were books, some were buildings, stuffed animals, and so many other items.

“ What is this place?” Gran gasped as her grandson wandered through the maze.

“ I suppose this is the place where Vita keeps the memories that worm consumes,” Crow replied.

“ Why are we here?”

“ To break it all.”

The god of knowledge used his lantern staff to shove one of the shelves over. Then the rest of the shelves dominoed into each other with the help of Helsing and Gran shoving some more over. As each orb broke and shattered in a million shards a stream of light bursted out of the orbs.

Crow swiftly put on a crow skull then with a whisk of his feathered lined cloak he shifted into a large crow that was riddled with glowing bright blue markings and a lantern that dangled from the bottom of his beak. Crow shepherded the streams of light out of the cursed building.

Leaving Helsing and Gran alone in the disastrous glass shard riddled floor. Helsing then noticed that there was a weapons case under some of the knocked over the shelves. The case was broken and there was no weapon inside. Why was there a scythe case in this room? The blacksmith thought to himself.

“ Come on, we should join the battle with the angels,” She ran off and Helsing followed close behind.