Chapter 34 - Resolve III
Lazar didn’t think. The moment he felt himself pulled backwards, he lunged and thrust his fingers at the assailant’s face.
It was only the sight of clear gold that stopped him in his tracks. He froze, hand hovering an inch away from those familiar eyes. Just below it, the skin of the demon’s cheek rippled, seconds away from warping, and Ciel raised an eyebrow.
“You really went straight for the eyes,” the flesh eater drawled. She released his shoulder, and the seraph took a step back, dropping his hand and bowing his head in apology.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize it was you.”
The flesh eater stared at him for a moment, silently taking in the bloodstains, the dirtied halberd, and the decapitated soul eater lying a few feet away. She shrugged.
“Nah, that’s on me. Should’ve known you’d be jumpy.” Her gaze landed on the wound near his shoulder. “That looks pretty nasty.”
“It’s not so bad.” Lazar’s hand landed on the cut again, staunching the steady trickle of blood. Grey eyes darted around the tunnel, more alert now that he’d already been snuck up on once. He couldn’t afford to lose his vigilance, he thought, mentally berating himself.
Ciel snorted. “Relax, that was the last of them.” She dug around her pocket, pulling out a bundle of old fabric scraps and tossing it at the seraph. He caught them and stared down at the pieces, recognizing ripped seams and rough cuts. Images of the emptied alcoves flashed through his mind, and he realized that these had probably been scavenged from them.
“Thank you,” he said, removing one of the scraps and storing the other ones away for future use.
The demon waved dismissively. “What’re you doing up anyway?” Ciel asked, voice conversational. For a second it occurred to Lazar how absurd this was, the two of them speaking casually beside the still-warm corpse in a growing puddle of red. He wound the makeshift bandage around the crook of his neck.
“I couldn’t sleep,” he admitted. “I thought it might be good to check the gate for more information, but I admit it…wasn’t a very well thought out plan.”
“So you woke up and ran into the tunnels on a whim? You?” The demon sounded oddly amused at the prospect, shaking her head with a low chuckle. “Well, as luck would have it, I’m scoping the place out too.” She jerked a thumb towards the exit, where Lazar could still make out a faint white light blending into the glowing red stones. “It’s not a bad vantage point.”
Lazar finished tying off the bandage and nodded. His fingers were still tense around the halberd as he and Ciel stepped past the soul eater’s corpse to the opening at the end of the cave. He couldn’t tell if it was because of the surprise encounter or it was still the lingering energy that had been present since he’d woken up that night.
They came to a stop at the edge of the exit, and the stone path led sharply down a sheer drop into the ravine. Lazar stood a little ways back, enough to remain obscured by the stone, and he found that Ciel had been right. From the gap’s angle, he had a clear view of the realm gate, but the walls provided just enough cover to avoid completely exposing them.
Below, the pillar of light rose upwards in a narrow beam, shifting ever so slightly in currents and waves. Lazar inhaled, and the air filled his lungs, the faint tinge of essence whispering on the edge of his senses. His gaze shifted further down, and he tensed.
A hulking demon paced around the bottom of the gate, the bright light illuminating him from behind while obscuring his front in shadows. From the distance, Lazar could just barely make out sinuous limbs and a sleek body that resembled a wolf’s. When the demon turned, he saw that his face, surrounded by a shimmering mane not unlike that of Cassius’s true form, was fairly humanoid in appearance, though it appeared unnaturally small in comparison to the rest of his body.
Around his head, tall antlers jutted out like jagged tree branches. The demon wasn’t nearly as giant as Cassius, but he was still massive, and from his light footsteps and quiet movements, Lazar could tell that he was likely quick as well.
The seraph’s gaze landed on the landscape surrounding the gate. The same spires and boulders rose out from cracked earth, the ravine floor currently perfectly still. Assuming this was the earth demon, though, then it wouldn’t take much to render the terrain into a rough, impassable field of spikes and gorges.
There were quite a few cave openings surrounding the area in addition to the scattered ledges and narrow paths winding down the cliff face. Lazar’s eyes traced their patterns, jumping between them, the caves, and the tall stone boulders and pillars.
“These tunnels loop around to the other side,” Ciel said. Her golden eyes gleamed as she gazed into the gate’s steady, unflinching light. She nodded her head at the many cave entrances. “Takes a bit of circling, but they get just about anywhere you need. Already cleared out the parts we might use.”
Lazar thought of the empty alcoves and slowly nodded, his own eyes still fixed on the demon below. Even if they sprinted straight for the gate, they probably wouldn’t be able to make it past the demon in time. That, and rushing into a realm gate was already risky enough. Any extraneous movement within the pillar of light could cause distortions in the ascension process. At best, this meant the person might land somewhere random in the next plane, and at worst, the soul could be crushed entirely. They would have to fight.
Lazar was about to turn and suggest that they return for the night to further discuss their plans, but just as he opened his mouth, the lupine demon stomped a foot irritably on the ground.
Hooked claws carved deep into the earth. With a low groan and a flash of orange, the dirt and stone rippled, rocking up and down beneath the demon like a boat caught in a storm before finally settling down again.
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The earth trembled, and Lazar jumped away, his wings instinctively launching him up into the air with a single, powerful heave. When he looked down for the source of the shaking, grey eyes met green ones brimming with amusement.
The seraph exhaled and closed his eyes. He could practically see the trails of essence lingering from the quick spell, as solid and clear as if he’d cast it himself. The way the strands would twist and envelope the earth.
When he looked down again, the demon had resumed pacing in repetitive, somewhat erratic motions, and he seemed to be muttering to himself, thin yellow eyes flitting around with a familiar paranoia. He hadn’t noticed them.
Carefully, Lazar turned to Ciel and nodded, and the two quietly retreated back into the tunnels.
—
The flesh eater crouched down over the dead soul eater’s body, casually poking at the corpse and testing the give of the exoskeleton. By now the creature’s blood had entirely flooded that area of the cave system, forming a little lake of red that blended into the glowing walls until they were no longer distinguishable.
“So, got any ideas?”
“A few. I’d like to think on them for a little longer. We should return again during the day for a longer look.” Lazar stared absently at the decapitated head as he spoke. He hadn’t noticed that the severed legs had landed nearby as well. They formed a crooked, pale frame around the wide eyes and grinning mouth.
A few beats of silence passed, broken only by the occasional squish of flesh or a squelch of blood.
“What woke you up anyway?”
Lazar blinked and looked over to Ciel, who had begun to pry away the exoskeleton with her bare hands. It cracked and snapped, and as she peeled the shell back, it revealed a clump of long, stringy fibers connecting it to the body beneath. The flesh eater’s hair had been brushed to the side, and that mass of golden eyes all turned his direction. He felt as though they were staring straight through him.
The flesh eater casually tossed the next piece of cracked shell aside.
“You look like shit, and it’s not just the blood.” She shrugged. “Just saying, it’s probably not the best idea to lose sleep so close to a fight.”
Lazar self consciously rubbed his eyes. Did he really look so bad? He hadn’t felt that different.
“I had a dream,” he said slowly. “It was a memory.”
Ciel remained silent, that unblinking stare devoid of judgement or assumption, and with another breath, the seraph steadied himself and continued on.
“I believe I told you I was a servant before. That’s true, but I was also the personal retainer of one of the guardians. He was the same one who sentenced me to fall.” His voice quieted at the end, and he kept his eyes fixed on the crimson spreading down the cracks in the floor.
“I used to accompany him on assignments,” he continued impassively. “During one of them, there was a child on the brink of falling. He couldn’t bring himself to kill the boy, so I did it instead.”
“Interference with a guardian’s duties.” Ciel clicked her tongue and wiped off a smear of blood on her chin before digging her hand back into the corpse. “Sounds very illegal.”
The flesh eater’s casual demeanor made the seraph relax a little, and he smiled in spite of himself.
“I was imprisoned for a while afterwards.” He could still remember those lashes acutely. Not because they were unexpected or because they were especially painful by comparison, but because they were some of the only ones he knew for certain that Julius had witnessed.
“Yeah?” Ciel cocked her head. “So, what, do you feel bad about killing the kid or something? I thought you seraphs were all about ‘saving the soul’ or whatever.”
Lazar shook his head.
“No, I don’t regret doing it.” He paused, words slowing as he sifted through his churning thoughts. He adjusted his grip on the halberd and stared up at the glowing ceiling.
“I suppose it’s made me…consider some things.” He spoke quietly, but it still sounded loud in the tunnel. “I grew up as a servant. For as long as I can remember, everything I’ve done has been for the sake of fulfilling my duties. Nothing else was as important.” His gaze shifted to the severed head. “Even that child. I think, at the moment, what I cared most about wasn’t ensuring that his soul passed into the Cycle. It was making sure that Julius wasn’t punished.”
It was a thought he’d never directly admitted to himself, but now that he said it out loud, he recognized it as an undeniable truth. His hand fell on his mark, absently tracing the pattern he’d already burned into his memory.
“Now that I’ve fallen, I suppose I’ve become more…uncertain with myself. It feels a bit like…like I’ve spent my life following a lie. I don’t know what to do in situations like this.” He smiled wryly. “I can’t even put to words exactly how I feel about Julius now, much less begin to express it.” Compared to Leon, his own dulled emotions had seemed so stark. It was odd, that two people could fall and yet be so different.
The seraph shook his head and straightened.
“I’m sorry, I’ve gone on for far too long,” he apologized. “I didn’t mean to waste your time. To be clear, I still plan on ascending to Ely—”
“Hey, you remember what I told Ilana?”
Ciel’s voice cut him off mid sentence, and Lazar blinked. The flesh eater was still crouched beside the corpse, hands and forearms coated in blood and minced meat. She stared directly at him with that piercing gaze, and her expression was completely blank.
When the seraph didn’t respond, Ciel rose and stode over, her shadow engulfing the floor. She came to a stop right in front of him.
“‘It’s impossible to change what you are,’” she repeated. Her voice sounded especially loud in the confined space. She shrugged.
“Look, as long as you get through that wall, I don’t really care what you do. And you probably don’t want advice from me anyway. But, well.” The demon leaned forward a little, and those golden eyes gleamed.
“Think about what that really means.”
Then she stepped away and turned back to the corpse, leaving the seraph standing by the cavern wall, hand still curled around his halberd, silver against glowing red.