Chapter 28 - Tremor

Lazar’s eyes shot open, and grey met piercing gold. He tensed and instinctively surged up into a crouch. His fingers reached for the halberd he always kept at his side, already readying to swing. He only brushed against hard stone, and his gaze darted to the left, where his weapon stood propped against the cavern wall.

Cavern. The silver tear.

Lazar closed his eyes and exhaled, forcing himself to relax. This was the Abyss, he reminded himself. They were traveling to the realm gate. He’d meditated, pushing his soul to its limit, and then did an altered version of his usual regime before swapping shifts with Ciel.

When he opened his eyes again, the demon was staring at him with a raised eyebrow.

“Morning,” she drawled.

“Good morning,” Lazar responded automatically. He frowned and took in their surroundings.

A little ways away, he could see Leon’s still form sleeping against the stone. He didn’t move as he slept, and only the barest hints of breathing confirmed that he was still alive. The seraph sighed in relief and quietly rose, dusting off his clothes and grabbing his weapon. The silver metal gleamed in the light, and the white shade it turned was eerily reminiscent of the tear.

“Bad sleep, I’m guessing.”

“I had a dream,” the seraph said simply. “I…don’t usually have those.” But then, it wasn’t a dream so much as it was a memory. One of his hands landed on his chest, and he rubbed the mark unconsciously.

His eyes landed on Leon again, and he frowned.

“Is it normal for humans to sleep so much?”

“Probably.” Ciel shrugged. “Kids need a lot to grow, or something like that.”

Lazar nodded, committing that to his knowledge of humans. Now that he thought about it, Julius used to sleep a lot longer when they were young, too, though it wasn’t as necessary for seraphs.

Lazar took a moment to inspect his wound, and he was glad to see that the bandages remained clean. His eyes kept flickering up, simultaneously keeping an eye on their surroundings.

“Before Leon wakes up,” Lazar spoke quietly, “I think we should discuss a plan of action for when we meet this…Cassius.”

“Not a bad idea.” Ciel shifted so that she was facing him, but the demon made no move to stand. She leaned forward, resting her head on her arm. “Well? Sounds like you’ve already got some ideas.”

Lazar hesitated. “I think, if possible, we should try to be civil unless something happens. If he really is sympathetic to fallen, then we shouldn’t risk needlessly antagonizing him.”

“And if we’re not welcome, we run I’m guessing.” She shrugged. “Well, sounds simple enough. You should probably avoid mentioning you’re a seraph, though. Even if the guy’s nice to fallen, a fallen seraph’s a whole different beast.” The flesh eater grinned sharply, and Lazar nodded. His eyes flicked to his halberd, then back to Ciel.

“Would you mind concealing this again when we’re close?”

“Hey, I’m never gonna say no to a free weapon.”

The seraph smiled at that. He opened his mouth to respond, but paused. A light rustle sounded from his right, and his head snapped around.

There on the ground, still curled in on himself, Leon silently thrashed in his sleep in small, aborted movements. The boy’s brows were furrowed and he was frowning even as his eyes stayed closed, and Lazar noted that he remained perfectly silent even as his movements grew increasingly frenzied.

“Leon?” Lazar called softly, inching a bit closer but still giving the boy some distance. When there was no response, he called a little louder. Still nothing.

As gently as he could, Lazar reached over and lightly tapped the boy’s shoulder. The response was instant. Brown eyes shot open as he scrambled upwards, gaze darting about in a frenzy.

The seraph remained still, avoiding making any sudden movements that might scare the boy. Finally, the confused haze in Leon’s eyes faded, and he blinked. Fear bled away into embarrassment, and he turned his head away. Lazar watched his movements carefully.

“Morning.” Ciel grinned, and the boy grunted.

“...we leaving?”

“We can rest for a little longer,” Lazar suggested.

“No.” Leon stood abruptly, his scowl firmly back in place. “Let’s go now.”

Lazar took in the stiffness in his jaw, the clenched fingers and squared shoulders and the faint traces of unease in his gaze, poorly concealed by his frown. He met eyes with Ciel, who simply raised an eyebrow. Turning back, the seraph nodded slowly.

“Alright,” he said. “Let’s leave.”

—

It felt odd to step back into the tunnels after spending so long with the persistent silver light that had illuminated the cavern. Without it, black stones were once again rendered into shadowy voids, though here, Lazar noted, he could faintly hear the sound of dripping water.

He walked with one hand against the wall, the next sweeping his halberd in front of him. After Leon had mumbled some directions, they’d agreed for Ciel to lead in front with her night vision. Lazar walked behind her, and Leon was beside him. The seraph kept glancing in his direction, making sure the boy was keeping up, but other than some added tenseness, he seemed much less bothered by the darkness than Lazar would’ve thought.

The inkyness didn’t last. When they turned at the next bend, they stepped into a tunnel formed of the same glowing red stone from earlier. The line between it and the reflective back stone was jagged and rough, as though at some point two mountains of the different substances had been slammed together into one. Lazar was thankful for the added vision.

“It’s straight from here,” Leon mumbled. Ciel shot them a thumbs up and kept walking up ahead, not bothering to check how close her companions were. Leon, too, relaxed a little, but the increased light meant that his eyes instead kept darting over to Lazar, then away when he was caught.

Finally, Lazar asked, quietly enough that Ciel couldn’t hear, “Is there something wrong?”

For a moment Leon didn’t say anything. Lazar thought the boy was ignoring him, then he suddenly blurted out, “Why aren’t you asking?”

The seraph blinked.

“Asking?”

“About the nightmare!” Leon’s scowl hardened like he was already preparing for a fight. “I know you’re wondering.”

Lazar was surprised at the harsh defensiveness in his voice. But beneath it, there was some trepidation, too.

Studying the boy, the fallen seraph responded, careful not to further ignite his temper.

“I’m a bit curious,” he admitted, “and I would be honored if you decided to tell me.” He focused his eyes on the path ahead. He’d found that making eye contact often made people more angry, though Leon’s anger was much less dangerous than someone like Lord Andire’s. “However, I will not press you. It isn’t my place.”

He kept his gaze forward, so he didn’t see what expression Leon made in response. All he knew was that the boy stayed silent, and they kept walking until the gap between them and Ciel had closed again.

It was because Lazar was so focused on the path that he noticed it first.

As the tunnel curved, the red glow brightened until the entire space looked aflame. Movement flashed overhead.

Lazar barely had time to push Leon to the side and bring his halberd up when the whip-like tail snapped at them.

Hard sections of bone crashed into silver metal, rattling as they did so. Lazar grit his teeth, using both hands to block with the halberd’s shaft. He felt his feet slide backwards as the tail pressed forward, but though his hands shook a little with exertion, they held strong.

The seraph distantly heard Leon yell behind him, but all his focus was on the demon, curled around the ceiling of the tunnel, a crooked body wrapped in white bones that jerked and clicked with every movement. The creature had no eyes, only a smooth plain of white over its face, but Lazar got the sense that it was looking straight at him.

More bones rattled, and the seraph braced himself for the demon to pounce. Before it could, a fleshy mass crashed into it, knocking it roughly down from the ceiling.

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The bone armor shook more, and Lazar used the opportunity to circle the halberd around and dislodge the tail. Ciel drew the extra limb back and brought her elbow straight down onto the creature’s skull. The ground shook as the demon was slammed into the ground, but when Ciel leapt back, Lazar saw that it hadn’t made a dent in the exoskeleton. The flesh eater’s arm bled a little from the impact.

A sharp rattling sound alerted Lazar to the next attack, and he skipped blocking altogether and ducked under the tail, rolling and swinging his halberd in an arch. He felt the blade meet hard resistance, and he was forced to jump away to avoid the next blow.

He landed beside Ciel, and back to back, he was reminded of the fight against the flesh eaters on that cliff ledge. This time, they weren’t running.

“No luck I see.”

“My blade can’t cut through the skeleton.” Lazar was faintly surprised at how even his voice was. Though his heartbeat and breathing were definitely faster, he didn’t feel nearly as winded as he had before.

The demon’s head lurched, completely disconnecting as its body spun around in those strange, jerking movements. Grey eyes narrowed. It was brief, but whenever those white joints moved, he could see a flash of flesh below the armor before it was engulfed again in bone.

The seraph snapped the halberd in front of him in time to block another whip of the tail, and this time he shoved it back with as much strength as he could muster.

“Ciel, can you hold it down?” he called out, taking advantage of the demon’s momentary daze. When he glanced over, the flesh eater’s golden eyes gleamed. In the red light, they looked like burning embers.

The muscles in her back rippled, four new limbs extending outward as the demon leapt forward and slammed into the creature’s main body. It immediately thrashed, but Ciel didn’t hesitate, winding back her leg and kneeing it straight in its face. Lazar saw her leg come away bloody, but that didn’t stop her from doing it again even harder. The impact reverberated through the other demon, causing those bones to click and rattle even more.

The four extra limbs gripped onto the demon’s stunned ones, holding the creature in place, though it was a tenuous hold as it shook itself out of its daze and began violently thrashing.

Lazar didn’t hesitate. He sprinted forward, vaulting over the whipping tail, and landed on the demon’s back. There, the white bone armor wrapped around as thoroughly as the rest of the body, but there were small little slits between individual pieces to allow for mobility.

Flipping the halberd around, Lazar gripped the weapon by the socket and slid the blade into one of those narrow gaps. It didn’t fit all the way, unable to fully slice through, but he could indeed feel it hit something soft and fleshy beneath.

Narrowing his eyes, he jerked the weapon and attempted to wrench the bone up. His muscles strained, but he managed to pry the piece off just enough to create a larger opening.

Not missing a beat, Ciel grabbed the plate of bone as Lazar stabbed the point of the halberd deep into the creature’s flesh. It lurched, bones clicking even faster, and bright red blood spurted around the blade, a shade lighter than a human’s, vibrant as the Abyssal sky. The seraph dug the weapon in deeper, but the current position was too far from any vitals.

Inhaling, Lazar wrenched the halberd down, forcing it further into the wound until it was as horizontal as he could get it through the opening in the bone. He thrust the weapon forward, and at this new angle, it pierced straight through its organs.

More blood gushed out, but Lazar didn’t stop. Pieces of bone armor began to rise as blood pooled outwards, and then, with a resounding snap, the entire creature collapsed.

Bright red liquid leaked between the thin cracks in the bone, and when Lazar yanked his halberd out, both the weapon and much of his arm were completely drenched in blood and minced flesh.

The four extra limbs detached themselves, dissolving into amorphous mounds, and the seraph exhaled and slid off the demon’s dead body.

“Very messy,” Ciel said. She didn’t sound bothered by that fact; if anything she seemed impressed.

“It wasn’t ideal,” Lazar admitted. His arms were a little sore, but he could still move them, he was happy to note. He glanced down at his bandages, and to his surprise, the wound hadn’t reopened. Slowly but surely, his body was beginning to adjust. He was still nowhere near as strong as he was before falling, but he was glad to be able to fight without nearly collapsing afterwards.

The seraph blinked, suddenly remembering another set of eyes that had studied those bandages in concern. He spun around, head turning rapidly, and it wasn’t until he spotted Leon, crouched around the turn in the tunnel, that his shoulders slumped in relief.

“Are you hurt?”

He expected the boy to step forward, but instead, he remained partially behind the stone wall and nodded slowly. Brown eyes flitted between the bloody corpse of the demon and them. There was caution there, Lazar realized. Hesitation and unease.

Lazar’s brows furrowed. He was about to step forward, but Ciel’s snort stopped him. He glanced at the demon, who appeared to be testing how easily she would be able to get to the flesh beneath the bone armor. Apparently deciding the amount of flesh wasn’t worth the effort, she jumped off the corpse.

“Let the little human have his space. Kids aren’t used to violence or whatever. Get real nervous when blood starts spraying.”

Lazar blinked. “I…wasn’t aware.” He supposed human children didn’t train like seraphs did. They likely wouldn’t have assignments, either.

Leon bristled. “I’m not scared!”

To prove his point, he stepped away from the wall, and to Lazar’s relief, the boy looked unhurt. “I’ve seen worse,” he added in a mutter, and for a brief second, there was something haunted in those brown eyes, a look that was far beyond his years.

It disappeared almost as quickly as it had appeared, and the scowl returned. Leon crossed his arms, shifting his weight a little and steadfastly keeping his eyes forward, not looking at the corpse directly.

“Whatever. Let’s just…let’s just hurry up. We’re almost there.”

“You know, I’m pretty sure this is where humans usually say thank you.”

Leon just stuck his tongue out, and Ciel’s rumbling laughter echoed around the red tunnels.

—

The further they walked, the more Lazar felt the air shift. It was hard to describe the sensation, but it was as if every breath was a little deeper, as though the colors were a shade sharper. He closed his eyes and focused on his soul, reaching out again. Not quite yet, he thought. Not quite enough to see the essence.

Around them, the glow of the walls dimmed, but replacing it was a steady increase in light from the tunnel up ahead. They’d kept walking downwards the whole time, the path steadily sloping, and when they finally stopped in front of that open entrance, light filtering in, Lazar realized that they’d reached the bottom of the ravine.

The realm gate was near.

Leon came to a stop just outside that gap. He’d remained quiet after the demon attack, and Lazar wasn’t sure how to take his silence. He’d considered trying to start a conversation, but he wasn’t sure how.

The boy nodded at the streaming light. “There’s another cave on the other side, but you’ve got to cross the ravine first.”

Lazar stepped closer, keeping close to the cave walls and angling his body so that he wasn’t immediately visible from the outside.

From the opening in the stone, Lazar could see that the floor of the ravine was similar to the field he’d woken up in, rough and lifeless. Jagged dark spires rose scattered across the otherwise barren expanse. A few black flowers dotted the spires and cliffsides themselves, but none of them touched the floor.

From his current position, Lazar could see the steep cliff faces enclosing the ravine. In the realm gate’s light, softly streaming from the left, their edges looked sharper than ever.

As Leon had said, directly across from their current exit was another cave embedded in the cliff face, just beyond the open ravine floor. The seraph’s eyes studied the area. Aside from the few narrow rock spires, there was little in the way of cover. If they weren’t careful or fast enough, it would be easy for a nearby demon to spot them.

Lazar’s grey eyes returned to their group. Given the limited number of hiding places, it might be better to cross one at a time.

“Could you cloak us with your flesh warping?” Lazar asked Ciel. Leon’s nose scrunched a little at the mention of the demon’s ability.

“Believe me, I’d love to, but I’m a little low on meals right now. Especially if we’re still covering that,” she nodded at the halberd, “after we cross.”

The seraph nodded consideringly.

“You could cross first,” he suggested. “You’re a demon. It wouldn’t be suspicious if someone saw you. Once you’re on the other side, you could perhaps signal to us if it’s safe to go.”

“Makes sense.” Ciel rolled her shoulder. Both her elbow and knee were still covered in dried blood from the strikes earlier, but it seemed like she’d used her ability to heal the wounds themselves.

She shot them a thumbs up. “This means coast clear go, down means no, and sideways means you can try it but watch yourself. Got it?”

The flesh eater didn’t even wait for a response before she turned and strode straight out the exit, leaving the seraph and human behind to watch her retreating back.

“Is she always like that?” Leon muttered to himself.

Lazar didn’t answer. He was too busy watching, his grey eyes trained on the demon as she crossed the ravine. He kept an eye on the cliff side, the spires, the sky, but there was no other movement, nothing that approached her. The flesh eater reached the other side completely unbothered, and the seraph sighed.

Ciel turned around inside the cave entrance, that golden eye gleaming, and she shot them a thumbs up. Lazar nodded at Leon.

“Let’s go,” he said. “We can duck between the stones as we move.” Even if the coast was clear, it was better to be safe than sorry.

The boy nodded tentatively, and after a final sweep of the surroundings, the two hurried out the cave.

Lazar’s grey eyes kept darting around, and he made sure to keep his pace slow enough for Leon to keep up, though the boy himself was deceptively fast. So far, he indeed saw no other demons. They reached the first spire without any issues. Then the next, and the next.

It was when they were crossing to the fourth stone, the last one before they reached the cave itself, that Lazar felt it.

It was barely perceptible, so faint that he could’ve mistaken it for a change in his own breathing. For a split second as they stepped forward, it was as though the air itself shifted to make room for something.

Lazar felt a sharp pang in his soul, and then the ground beneath them trembled.

He didn’t think. The seraph dove to the side, pushing Leon away just as a massive spike of earth shot out from where they’d been standing.

They landed hard on the ground, tumbling a few times, and Lazar winced as his shoulder hit the hard surface. He scrambled to his feet, barely registering a dazed looking Leon, and jumped in front of the boy as a pillar of hard stone collided with his raised halberd.

He skidded backwards, dirt spraying around his ankles as the blow forced him further and further back. The metal of the halberd held strong, but he felt his shoulders ache, the muscles in his arms shaking, slowly giving away inch by inch to the relentless pressure.

His whole body felt like it was on fire. His breaths came shallow and harsh. His vision blurred.

Finally, his arms gave away entirely, and the spear of earth slammed straight into him.

For a brief moment, Lazar thought he heard someone scream before everything faded to black.