Chapter 38 - The Roar of the Earth

The color of the wine red sky intensified. The iridescent hues of Nero’s fur became more vibrant, the ridges of the cliff walls more sharp. When Lazar breathed, his lungs seemed to expand more than they ever had since falling in spite of the wound in his stomach.

In his chest, the spark of his soul felt a little stronger, a little less exposed, blocked by a thin barrier of protection. The seraph strained to force himself forward, and amidst the pain and the ringing in his ears, he felt more alive than ever before.

Though few in number, those strands of essence were what held the fabric of the realms together. And those sharpened colors, the added depth to his senses—this was the world he remembered. This was what it felt like to breathe.

Lazar’s hand fumbled for the stone Cassius had given him, smooth and cool in his palms. His chest heaved as blood continued to pour from the wound, and he slipped when he reached for his halberd, half covered in rubble and fallen stones. He gritted his teeth. He felt the wound widen, tearing with each stretch, but finally his fingers managed to wrap around the cold metal and he slammed the blade into the spike.

The stone shattered, and Lazar fell forward, finally dislodged from the cliff wall. He gasped, choking. He could feel more blood gush from the wound, and he clenched his fingers around the stone, squeezing his eyes shut and yanking on the glowing warmth within.

The stone shattered within his grip, and cerulean light poured outward. Rippling strands of blue coalesced around the bleeding wound, around his broken arm and the many cuts and scratches littering his back. They shone brighter.

Now, he could see the way the essence twisted with the magic. The strings curled in elegant arcs, spreading like petals. They were beautiful, Lazar thought. This was an entirely new layer to Cassius’s magic that he hadn’t been able to witness before.

The seraph felt his flesh slowly begin to stitch back together, his bones moving back into place. There wasn’t enough magic stored in the stone to heal everything, but the cuts and bruises didn’t matter to him. He raised his arm, and he could move it without pain again.

As the light continued to glow around the stab wound piercing his abdomen, Lazar forced his breaths to even. He kept his eyes trained on the ongoing fight.

Nero was still collapsed on the ground, but the demon kept lurching in aborted movements, attempting to wrench himself back up. Ciel took a defensive approach, blocking rippling waves and columns of earth with her arms and legs. She still had a single extra limb fanning out from her shoulder, but its shape seemed to grow more uneven with each passing second.

Lazar’s muscles tensed, and he forced himself to stay still while the magic continued its work. He traced the movements and positions of the two demons, readying himself.

And then, the moment the glow faded, he surged forward.

Orange light flared, and strings of essence warped in his vision, crossing into a wide net.

“It looks like the ocean, doesn’t it?”

Lazar leapt up just before the ground beneath him tilted, rolling waves of dirt rippling outward from the demon. Nero snapped his chin down, and the essence coalesced into a single chain.

The pillar slammed into the demon, crushing the creature into the wall, and Julius exhaled and visibly steadied his shaking arm. When Lazar congratulated him on his first completed mission, the seraph smiled.

Lazar leapt in front of Ciel, raising the shaft of the halberd to block the oncoming torrent of earth. His muscles strained under the pressure, and he shifted to the side, allowing the rest of the column to crash into the cliff behind them. He heard stones crack, followed by a rumbling roar as rocks began to tumble down the cliffside.

The seraph spun around in time to see the incoming barrage, barely managing to raise his halberd up in a rushed block.

A web of skin and flesh stretched over them, catching stray stones and flinging them to the side before melting into a limp heap on the ground. Lazar met eyes with Ciel, and an unspoken understanding passed between them. At the same time as the flesh eater ducked into the tunnels, Lazar spun around to face Nero, tightening his hold on his halberd.

Grey eyes met furious yellow. The demon snarled, and he heaved his body upwards, muscles bulging, and the strings of essence crossed each other just before he slammed his chest down. Walls of earth shot up around Lazar, stretching over the seraph in an attempt to cage him in.

The mound of earth looked no different from another hill or mountain, concealing what lay within. A perfectly constructed prison hidden in plain sight.

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“You’ve taken quite a liking to that chant,” Lazar observed, and Julius had snorted.

Lazar rolled to the side, jumping behind spires and moving in a zigzag pattern to avoid the rising walls of earth, his heart racing. He was being pushed further and further back, he realized. His gaze landed on the silhouette of the demon, outlined by the realm gate’s light, and his eyes hardened. The air shifted. Essence shimmered.

“Wind and earth would seem a poor matchup, wouldn’t they?”

Horizontal columns of earth burst from the cliff faces, and Lazar spun to the side, barely avoiding a direct hit. Orange magic flared again, and when the next column came hurtling at him, Lazar ran up a nearby spire, using it to launch himself upwards and landing atop the column.

Nero’s mouth moved, but the seraph’s ears were still ringing. He sprinted across the stone, nearly slipping a few times as his feet pounded over the earth.

Adrenaline pumped through his veins, and he was hyper aware of every tremble and shaking of stone, of every biting gust of the wind against his skin.

This wasn’t the clear, detached focus he was used to. His mind churned, a mess of memories and images and sensations, and his muscles were coiled as though on the brink of lashing out. The strange, taut twisting in his chest kept rising and rising until he thought it would surely explode.

Lazar launched off the stone pillar just before it collapsed beneath him, bringing his halberd down with both hands directly over Nero’s neck.

Sharp claws met silver metal, flinging the seraph to the side. Lazar managed to get in a second swing just before he was thrown back, a deep cut opening below the demon’s eye.

Nero roared, and on those crooked limbs, he forced himself upwards, chest heaving with pain and exertion and mane a tangled mess. Lazar felt blood trickle down a fresh cut in his arm, but he ignored it.

One of those twisted limbs rose and slammed down. Bones cracked and orange flared. Essence curled, and a field of spikes rose beneath the seraph.

Julius sighed in frustration, raising a hand in defeat, the training grounds around them a mess of warped stone and earth.

“Flying seems like an unfair advantage,” he muttered, and Lazar chuckled.

“You can as well.”

Lazar stumbled backwards, barely avoiding a chain of spikes trailing his every movement. In his haste, he felt himself slam into a rock spire, and his breath escaped his lungs. Only the sound of the earth rumbling kept him moving long enough to yank himself away in time.

Movement flashed in his peripheral vision as he dragged himself off the ground, his palms and back littered with stinging cuts and throbbing bruises.

Ciel burst out of the cave, mouth smeared with blood and flesh, and the ground rumbled again. The strings wove into a familiar net.

“Wave!” Lazar yelled, and the flesh eater’s eyes gleamed.

The two of them jumped back just as the ground began to rock violently beneath them. Lazar held onto a spire with one hand, hanging just above the shifting earth.

His eyes darted over to Nero. The demon had managed to pull himself up again, his position shaking and uneven on bent and destroyed limbs. Blood continued to bleed freely from his wounds, and those yellow eyes only seemed more furious than ever.

Essence coalesced, and twisting columns of stone shot out from the cliff sides.

Lazar released his grip on the spire, rolling under one of the pillars. His back hit something hard and he felt Ciel’s familiar form just behind him, the demon blocking and dodging earthen spears that seemed increasingly set on caging them in. The space above them, Lazar realized, was clear.

Ciel glanced back, and the seraph mouthed a single word.

“Up.”

Gold shone. A mass of flesh burst from the demon’s back, and Lazar didn’t hesitate to grab on. Muscles straining, the flesh eater heaved the seraph forward.

The mound of flesh stretched as Lazar was thrown through the air, barrelling towards the demon.

Nero moved in a frenzy of motion, orange flickering and flaring. Lazar knocked back flung stones and chunks, and as he felt himself begin to fall, the flesh shifted beneath him, slowing him down just enough for him to hit the ground running. He sprinted straight at the demon.

Lazar reeled his arm back, bending his legs and readying to leap just as Nero lurched an arm forward.

Essence circled around the demon.

“I did it!” Julius laughed with real, genuine relief, the shield of earth hanging above him a badge of honor. He spun around to face the back-then taller seraph, green eyes bright with carefree joy.

Earth twisted above Nero, but Lazar dropped his stance at the last second, sliding and skidding under the forming shield.

Hard eyes and a cold voice. A blank, utterly unfamiliar expression.

The coiling in his chest flared, all of his thoughts and emotions tumbling out and bursting forward.

Radiant light that burned, a steady hand that did not shake.

As Lazar rose, he met eyes with Nero, and for a second those yellow irises seemed to transform into a dark, rich green.

“—I hereby sentence you to fall.”

Lazar plunged the halberd deep into the demon’s chest.