“Sar! Sariel!” Gabrielle screamed as she and Lailah were rushing to him. Sariel began to close his eyes, feeling his body giving in. “This is my punishment? I’ve turned my back to the Almighty and this is what I get for it? So be it. Dammit, this hurts like hell!” He thought.
Sariel’s mind drifted away for a second but something from inside of him crawled to his mind. “Get your ass up!” He opened his eyes and realized what his consciousness tried to tell him. Lailah and Gabrielle were not running to him because of him falling, they were running from someone! He raised his head and saw the creatures crawling on the walls. Horned demons from the deepest pits of hell with claws like blades and black acid pouring from their growling mouths. “Ifrit’s…” The name blitzed through Sariel’s mind as fast as lightning and his mind was immediately clouded with anger.
“Well this is definitely bad. Whatever Sar battled here left a serious mark and he is in no shape to fight.” Thought Gabrielle as she was eyeballing Sariel who was still kneeling on the floor in a pool of blood. She stopped and turned back. Fear rushed through her spine as she stared down her opponents. “So come on then!” She said and pulled out the last two silver daggers from her waist. “I’m going to make my end spectacular! You just watch Azrael!” The first Ifrit reached her and she managed to dodge to the left and stab the creature to the side of its head. Just as she did the Ifrit fell down with a scream and she already charged another one. Her fight was like a dance, one turn to the side, somersault forward while stabbing and stabbing. She counted the kills and got to 5 when the Ifrits stopped and just growled from a distance. “Maybe I scared them!” Gabrielle thought as she tried to avoid the black goo that the dead Ifrit’s turned into. She moved forward once more. Then she heard a deep and dark growl from the dark stairs in front of her. Something that crawled around her heart like an invisible hand of doom. Something even more unnatural. The walls cracked as all over them appeared red pentagrams casting a dim red light all over the hall. Gabrielle took a step back as she saw the head of a goat with two large horns and dark black wings coming up the staircase.
“You should step aside, child of t-t-the east.” Said a deep female voice with a slight hiccup at the end. The dark black eyes of this entity penetrated Gabrielle’s soul like a spear and she almost gave in and did as it told her. But the disgust that she felt was too strong. The creature finally climbed all the stairs and stood 2 meters in front of her. Head like a goat, dark black wings that were torn up all around, upper body of a female with her breasts covered in armor and the lower body of a male goat completely revealed. Gabrielle had no idea what stood in front of her but she knew that this was the last dance. As Sariel is in no condition to fight she has to be the last line of defense. “I said, MOVE!” The creature screamed and all of the pentagrams flashed in a red light. Gabrielle got thrown at the wall with such a force that she lost her breath and Sariel together with Lailah got pressured to the ground. None of them could really move a muscle. The creature took two steps forwards and looked her in the eyes. “You fucking humans don’t know your superiours! You just don’t know when to obey! I will teach you, you bitch!” Growled the creature as she took two large steps towards Gabrielle. But suddenly her face changed to a wide smile, a smile that brought a shiver right down Gabrielle's spine. The lust and perversion that she saw in the eyes of that abomination was clear as day and Gabrielle knew what was about to come. She felt a cold hand through her dress, as it made it´s way from her breasts right down between her legs. Gabrielle got angry when she saw how the creature bit its lips and looked around her body as if it was a trophy to be observed. She spat into its face and tried to kick it between its legs but the creature managed to dodge the attack. The creature got furious and stretched out her left hand over the right shoulder and prepared to slap Gabrielle. “How dare you, you bitch?!” It screamed and the pentagrams on the walls started flashing again making Gabrielle to be pushed harder and harder into the wall. Gabrielle closed her eyes in expectation and tried to think her way out of here. Suddenly she felt a cold breeze on her cheek.
With a loud impact sound she opened her eyes again and saw that in front of her was Lailah growling at the direction of the stairs protecting her. Gabrielle looked to the right and the hall was empty so she finally looked at the direction of the stairs. She saw dust and heard a crackling of wood. Sariel stood at the same spot where the creature stood before and the aura around him was more menacing than ever.
“Don’t you even dare to lay one finger on my friend you filthy bitch!” He screamed and Gabrielle noticed that his voice resonated with the pentagrams on the walls which started crackling and flashing like if something corrupted them. Sariel moved his head to the side and checked on Gabrielle, she saw how dark his face was and felt a bit uneasy for a second.
“Nice hit Sariel. I see that even when Legion d-d-did some damage one cannot simply expect you to die. I-I-It wouldn’t be you after all wouldn’t it?” Said the creature as it climbed back the stairs and pieces of wood and walls were falling off its shoulders and horns. “Your friend you say? I think I might add her to my c-c-collection.” The creature smiled so wide that it almost ripped her cheeks. “That hit hurt you bastard!” It growled and the sound of it cracked the walls even more. The force that blasted from the pentagrams tried to make him fall to the ground. Sariel held onto his right knee with his hand and felt the blurring air around him and the pressure. “Something is not right…” Though the creature as it tried with all of its might to pressure Sariel.
Sariel lowered his head and pierced the creature with his eyes. He felt it, the rage as it was crawling from his soul, his old self. What stood in front of him made him more angry than almost anything. Rationality was gone when he saw the hand closing onto Gabrielle. “If you want to have any more collections then I suggest that you crawl back to where you came from Baphomet!”
“I don’t think that I w-w-will. I think that this time I w-w-will kill you, my old enemy.” Baphomet charged forward with two Ifrit’s by her sides. Sariel pulled out two vials with holy water from his waist and threw them at the Ifrit’s. With burning hiss they fell instantly to the ground but two more took their place. Sariel took Baphomet head on and used a moment of her charge. He kicked her to her chest making her fly two meters behind while he slashed apart those two Ifrit’s that supported her. Baphomet pulled herself together in a second and charged again. This strike however made her release the pressure from the pentagrams, she was so focused on Sariel that she barely comprehended that it happened. She ducked down and using her bottom half to her advantage she kicked Sariel’s sword to the ceiling while kicking him to his chin. Sariel moved with the force of the hit backwards but managed to grab her horns. He moved back forward and started kicking her head with his right knee landing three instant hits. While this was happening Sariel saw as Gabrielle and Lailah charged in front of them. They both synergized extremely well and took on the Ifrit’s together. Lailah was ripping through them like they were nothing and Gabrielle slashed them with her daggers. Baphomet felt the pain and it angered her even more. She pushed her arms forward, straight to the open wounds that Legion caused. Sariel screamed in pain and let go of her horns for a second. Gabrielle looked behind and called out his name in fear. In that moment Ifrit used the opportunity and slashed her arm before Lailah managed to jump in and tear him apart. Gabrielle screamed in pain as blood was running down her arm from the wound that exposed the torn flesh. Sariel froze for a second. Something grabbed his soul. A dark hand crawled around and he could almost feel it. Cold. Just ever so cold. It grabbed the chains and pulled on them. Something cracked.
Baphomet pulled out her arms and punched Sariel to his face. It almost hurt. No movement, no reaction. She looked up. From above she saw two dark eyes clouded in darkness. She froze on the spot as she felt two cold hands on her horns again. “I-I-Impossible! This was taken from you!”
Sariel looked at her without blinking. He saw the soul. Dark, murky and rotten. “And how do you know anything about me?!” He screamed and the pentagrams cracked and disappeared from the walls. “Tell me!” He commanded but Baphomet just shed a black tear and attacked him again, but his wounds were completely healed. Like nothing happened to him. He grabbed the horns again and pulled on them. “How do you like that, huh?” One of the horns cracked a bit and Baphomet howled in pain. The Ifrit’s got into a frenzy and started crawling in more numbers on the ceiling and walls so they could get to them. “Tell me and I will make this fast! How do you know anything about me?!” Sariel closed his face to Baphomet’s and she felt his breath on her nose.
“I-I-I can’t!” She screamed.
“Your choice.” Sariel kicked her to the face so hard that he made a dent to her face. She fell back as he let go of the horns and jumped for his sword. He grabbed the hilt and landed back on the floor with the sword ready at his side. He saw how all the Ifrit’s now ignored Gabrielle and Lailah and were rushing only at him. It almost looked like an endless swarm. Both of them did not get caught up with the ignorance and were decimating them even though there was no reaction. Sariel took two steps forward piercing Baphomet with his eyes as she was slowly getting up. Sariel slashed to the left and prone back a bit to avoid one of the Ifrit’s attacks while still marching at Baphomet.
“Why this house? Why the family? What does Lilith want with them?!” There was a moment of silence and Baphomet froze for a second as she was getting back to her feet. The command in his voice, the tone and authority almost made her fall back to her knees. She felt lust and anger more than anything.
“You are brave to invoke her name like this you fool!” Growled Baphomet and with lowered head felt the dripping of her own blood. This made her heart feel a bit of a frenzy. She did not see or smelled her own blood in decades. Sariel turned his head to the side in disgust for a moment before slashing another Ifrit which, as the ones before it, fell with a scream and vanished. The smell of Baphomet’s blood was disgusting. Rotten like an old egg and corrupted, piercing his nose and cutting his senses. Baphomet tried to use this to her advantage and jumped at him. Sariel thought for a second about kicking her back but he didn’t want this abomination to get closer to Gabrielle and Lailah without him being also close. He needed to switch places with her. As she did he moved swiftly to the side and grabbed her head, smashing it to the wall so hard that the wall cracked. Sariel held her head with one arm and slashed another Ifrit that got close to him. He felt her disgusting, oily hair in his hand. He pulled her head back and smashed it against the wall again but this time he decided to reveal a part of her mouth. Baphomet giggled and spat a bit of blood at his face. Sariel smiled for a second.
“As you wish.” He whispered and started dragging her face across the wall towards the stairs while slashing the last remaining Ifrit’s. When he reached Gabrielle and Lailah all of them were gone and only Baphomet remained. The wall that Sariel dragged her face on was broken, shattered and Baphomet’s face was all bruised and even part of her skin peeled off in some places. Sariel stopped and looked at both of the girls. “Good job.” He said and both of them nodded in appreciation. He turned back, sheathed his sword and once again grabbed Baphomet by the horns. “I will ask you one more time. Only one more time. What does that bitch want here? Why are you and Legion here?”
Baphomet felt how he was moving his arms to the sides, getting ready to snap both of her horns or tearing them from her head.
“I don’t know! W-w-what do you think that she would tell someone l-l-like me? She says, we do! I´m j-j-just a pawn in this!” She screamed and looked up at Sariel. She saw how those two black eyes were penetrating her soul and felt almost naked in front of Sariel.
“Then tell me two things. First, what were you supposed to do here and second, how do you know about me and my powers?” He pulled his arms to the side once again and Baphomet felt how the horn on the right side started to give in and peeled a bit off. She could feel a new stream of her blood running down her face from the new wound.
“About you, w-w-we know. We all know for some time. We know from the once that sits above me and my pets. Your old friend, Azazel!” This name almost ruptured Sariels ears. He had not heard that name in such a long time. “That fucking pervert.” He thought and pressed on Baphomet's horns. Baphomet gave in to the pain that was too much and with her broken face looked at Sariel. “I was here to collect the girl. We knew w-w-what the priest was like and we knew that she would be broken after meeting him. I was s-s-suppose to collect her after gaining her trust disguised as a female with the same story. Then I w-w-would take her to Mother. We did not count on you. You f-f-fucking bastard ruined everything.” She screamed at him while spitting her blood across his face. He now stood partially covered in her blood still almost not blinking and looking down at her. She grabbed him with her one arm by his leg and placed the other behind her, proning back a bit. The temptation was too much for her. He was her enemy and caused her a lot of pain, but there was this thing about him. Tall, black eyes almost the same as her, the cold stare. “Hell, I wish I could fuck you in the deepest..” She did not finish the sentence. The pain that she felt as Sariel snapped her left horn and tore it from her head allowed her only to scream. The scream turned to howl as her lower body gave in and Sariel now held her only with his left arm by her right horn.
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“You fucking abomination!” He growled. “You unclean, unholy, corrupted piece of trash! You dare?” His anger got to a point where he instinctively tried to summon his old powers. He imagined it. Burning this rotten filth out of the face of the earth. The chains he felt inside his body were holding just so. He felt it. Creaking, pulling.
“You can’t, can’t you? C-c-come now Mr. W-w-wrath. Burn me. Burn my s-s–soul away! Come on, do it. Show me h-h-how you wipe me clean!” Taunted him Baphomet and pressed her fingers to his leg as she was watching his face change with fury.
Sariel heard Lailah growl and felt Gabrielle’s hand on his shoulder. He understood what they meant. Blinded by his rage he did not notice how Baphomet drew pentagram and Lilith’s name under it on the floor behind her. Before she could finish the ritual Sariel pierced her head with her own horn and stuck her to the wall. With a gag she gave out a breath. He let go of her other horn and stomped the writing on the floor which he blurred with the movement of his foot. He then turned back, knowing what was about to happen. But he was surprised. Even though this was not the first dance with Gabrielle and Lailah, he did not expect their reactions to be so swift. Both of them held Baphomet’s arms on the wall, not allowing her to move at all. Sariel saw how Gabrielle struggled a bit and Lailah gagged when she tasted Baphomet’s blood. He assessed the situation and decided that enough is enough and they should get out of here as soon as possible even if without answers from her. He unsheathed his sword and pushed it straight to Bahpomet’s heart as he looked her into the eyes once again.
“My regards to Lilith, you bitch!” He dragged the sword down through her body as she screamed in pain. The rotten flesh and skin burned as the silver touched her and Sariel grabbed a salt satchel from his waist and smashed it across her chest so it would get to the wound. The sizzling noise and smell of her organs reacting burned a hole to the wall like an acid. Baphomet screamed and burned with pain. The smell was horrible but Gabrielle and Lailah held strong. Baphomet kept screaming and Sariel kept pressing his sword down. He knew that they were running out of time probably but this was a message he knew they had to send. Finally Baphomet’s head turned straight up in one swift move and from her mouth came out a dark, rotten substance. “Looks like mud!” Thought Gabrielle as she guessed what it was. The substance scattered to every corner and every door in the hallway and disappeared. Sariel looked at the body and pulled out his sword.
“Let go.” He said. Gabrielle and Lailah Did as he told and now they all looked at the body that was falling apart like a burnt papyrus. Pieces of skin were flying upwards and the hair was levitating like in a thunderstorm. “We should go. She is done for. Are you both all right?” He snapped out of the look at the body in front him and checked his companions.
“We are fine, just a scratch, that’s all.” Said Gabrielle while showing him her arm to him and Lailah just chuffed and sat down.
“We have to go and clean this as fast as possible. Who knows what this filth carries with them. Careful not to step into their remains. We will cleanse ourselves before we return home alright?” Said Sariel as he was checking Gabrielle’s arm.
Gabrielle lowered her head and looked at his face. “Woooooow! Now this is brutal! So these are your old eyes?! So pretty! Lucky you, nobody can see the white in your eyes during the night!” She said enthusiastically and moved her head from left to right studying Sariel’s eyes. Then she stopped. “You know, I’m not sure if girls will react the same as I do. Wait, can you now like, change the color of your eyes?!!! Don’t get me wrong you have beautiful blue eyes, but just imagine how amazing they would be, let's say pink!”
Sariel looked at her with the utmost confusion. “What?”
After a few seconds of just looking at each other they both started laughing. Sariel closed his eyes and calmed down. He opened them and Gabrielle was still studying him, while Lailah moved to the staircase, avoiding the remains of the Ifrits. The blackness in Sariel’s eyes started to implode. Like if it was swallowing itself inwards. Gabrielle looked in shock as she now saw the blue in his eyes again. “How? How are you doing this? Are these like your normal eyes or something?! These are those that Eliana mentioned! So they come out only when you are angry or what?”
“Basically they are my normal eyes, yes.” He tried to catch his breath as he stopped laughing and looked around the hall. “I will tell you everything on the way home. I don’t think that we should stay here during the night. Who knows what else could come.”
Sariel and Gabrielle moved to the staircase and went out of the house. The rumble and sound of screaming and combat alerted locals as they saw lights in windows of the houses close to the one they just left, but it seemed like none of the locals wanted to go and check. The fear wouldn’t let them. The trio traveled back home and arrived just in the middle of the night. The path that they took was covered in direct moonlight, they were extra careful and made sure that nobody and nothing had followed them. They stopped at a small stream to cleanse their clothes with water and salt. Sariel mixed in a bit of holy water that he had and the remnants of the Ifrit’s burned away while the clothes and armor remained unaffected. Sariel looked at the two holes in his armor and led out a huge breath. “You can still fix this one.” Said Gabrielle as she noticed.
“No. I will hang this one on the wall and craft the one that I had in mind for a long time.” Answered Sariel as touched the healed skin with his hand.
Gabrielle took down her leather armor completely as she was covered in black goo from her fight with Ifrits and washed it. She entered the stream and washed bits from her skin and washed the wound she suffered. Sariel put his hand into his satchel and pulled out a bandage. He got up, entered the stream and asked Gabrielle to turn around. She did and held out the wounded arm, Sariel washed it with the rest holy water to the wound and started to bandage it. Lailah just jumped into the water, cleaning herself and drinking.
“You know if I ever tell my husband that this wound was tended by an angel in the river while I was totally naked in the moonlight after battling demons from hell I will be single in a clap of hands.” She chuckled.
“Well first you will have to find a husband that will get approved by Azrael, and he is not as lenient as me you know.” Sariel laughed. Just the image of Gabrielle presenting the man of her dreams to Azrael and his face when he sees him was hilarious. “All jokes aside, you will one day make some man very happy.” He thought. “It will be a home full of love and laughter!”
“Thank you.” She said as Sariel finished the bandaging and moved back to their armor. Gabrielle stood in the stream for a little longer. She felt the cold of the night and the warmth of the water on her skin as the streams of wanted traveled across her body back down to the water. She tended to her hair and moved to put on her armor again. All of them gathered themselves and moved to go home.
Sariel described what happened to him in the house and what he found, everything regarding Legion, Lilith, the invocations he found. “So you got wounded when you protected that old man? But how did you heal yourself that fast?”
“I don’t know. The same I don’t know how now I can turn my eyes black again and see the souls like I used to. All that I know is that when I saw Baphomet about to harm you I got mad. I think that it has something to do with my anger. It releases the power He locked in me. I will have to have a word with Death on this topic. Maybe she can provide me with answers, or she could set up a meeting with someone who can. We will see. But I will be honest, it feels good to have this back.”
“You and Baphomet have met before?” Asked Gabrielle.
“Yes, we did. Twice. She usually works in the dark therefore she is not known to the Church that much. She is one of the most perverted demons out there, second only to Azazel himself. She has what she calls her “collection”. Word is that she collects souls in hell like pets and has her orgies with them. I wish that I burned her away when I could.” Said Sariel as they marched across the plains. They could already see the sand walls of their home.
“Why didn’t you?” Asked Gabrielle.
“She escaped before I could. She and Azazel held an angel hostage and experimented on her, in their sadistic and perverse ways. When we found where they were hiding Nova we rushed in with Azrael. Together we took down hundreds of Ifrit’s and other demons that they unleashed like waves on us, but when we saw how they held her, with a hell knife pointed at her chest we had to be cautious. We could not risk her dying there. We wanted to save her. They played with us, toyed with us, but in the end me and Azrael were faster and smarter. Azazel escaped, but it cost him his right eye and left arm, but before I could burn them both hid in another wave of devils and demons. But that doesn’t matter. Forget Baphomet, if Lilith is involved we really need to bolster our defenses. I will need every hand tomorrow to help, but first I will need to figure out how I will explain this to Eliana. She is still fragile. We cannot simply hide this away from her.”
“Maybe She could help?” Said Gabrielle.
Sariel was surprised by this suggestion, but she was right. Death could definitely help. “Maybe, if she will be able to come. I guess you know why Azrael was there for her. I will try to summon her, we will see.” He could not help it and smiled for a moment. Gabrielle noticed and it warmed her heart.
After a short time they arrived at the crack in the sand wall. Lailah moved her head and by the motion let Sariel know that everything is clear. Sariel stopped. “You two go in and get some rest. I will check the surroundings once again. Lailah, please check on the girls and you both tell Catherine that she should be sleeping and not waiting on us. The same goes for Sarah.”
Gabrielle smiled and nodded in approval. Both of them moved through the crack and disappeared in the darkness. Sariel closed his eyes and spread his senses across that ground. “All clear. Good.” He moved along the wall to the left. When he was sure he fell to his knees. He suddenly felt agonizing pain in his chest. “This was close, too close. Gabrielle and Lailah could have gotten hurt because you were not cautious at all. You should have checked the surroundings better! You should have let that old fool die so you would be strong for the next fight! You should have known, you idiot!” As he hit the wall with his hand he felt the warmth of his own blood running down his hand. He stayed there for a good moment, catching his breath and calming the pain in his chest. As he wiped the tear from his eye he got up and took a deep breath. “Alright. That is enough you fool. You have work to do.” He moved to the crack in the wall and went in. As he reached the garden and entered he smiled. “I thought that Gabrielle told you that you should be sleeping already.” He said and looked to the right where he sensed Catherine. She looked horrified when she saw the holes in his armor and his skin as it shined in the moonlight.
“Are you…” She asked.
“Yes. I’m alright. I will tell you everything. But we have to prepare a ritual first.” Answered Sariel and grabbed her by the shoulder. “We will be summoning Death tomorrow!” He said with a proud smile.
Catherine was shocked and did not understand, but as he grabbed her by the shoulders and moved with her to the house she followed his movement. They moved to the house and Sariel saw that Sarah and Gabrielle sat at the table while Eva and Idit stood by the counter preparing herbs, hot water and bandages. Arielle and Sarah were questioning Gabrielle and slowly were removing the bandage that Sariel applied before. Judith entered the room from the storage with wine and went for cups.
“What is this?” Said Sariel and laughed a bit.
“Shhhh! Eliana is sleeping!” Said Eva. “You think that we can sleep soundly when you two are out?! We all saw Eliana’s state when she came here. We were too afraid. Now you sit down and take down the armor, I will look at you in a minute.” Before Sariel could say anything he only heard “No arguing!”. He sat down and looked at the stairs. He saw Lailah looking up, she turned her head and he nodded. “Go, look after her.” She turned and ran up the stairs.
“Arielle, can I ask you for a favor?” He said and Arielle looked at him with a slight shock.
“Of course, what is it?” She said.
“When we are done here could you please go to the training ground and draw a sundial in there and also bring some Nightshade with you please.”
All of the girls turned around with confusion.
“Sure, but what for?” Asked Arielle.
Sariel smiled. “If everything goes ok you will all finally spend some time with her. We will be summoning Death!”