Tumbling through a vortex of energy, Jack and Sahaqiel screamed as they spun wildly in each other's arms.
“Hold on!” Jack exclaimed as his body began to glitter, his form shifting with Sahaqiel faring no better.
“What's your plan?!” Sahaqiel asked over the screaming of data streaming past them.
“I don't know!”
After jumping into the whirlpool, Jack and Sahaqiel's surroundings had become a stream of data, a tunnel made of mana that pierced the boundary of reality to send the pair hurling through a white void.
Sahaqiel moved her wings, wrapping them around Jack with the duo holding each other as close as possible to avoid separating.
Then it stopped.
The pair hit a field of white that became their new surroundings.
“Hm?” Micheal turned, eyes wide, the Black King in the midst of moving towards the only source of color in the white void being a massive tree of pulsating red veins emanating from a gunmetal sphere.
Jack was up, racing forward, the archangel caught by surprise as the man's face scrunched with anger and he moved mana to bind the oncoming man.
Yet Lilith dispelled the attack, forcing Micheal to back away as Jack's fist cratered the space he'd been standing.
“What?! How?! You shouldn't be able to activate gehenna!” Micheal spat, avoiding an uppercut and firing a blast of energy at Jack who batted it away.
“Wouldn't you like to know?” Jack spat as Sahaqiel formed a bow of lighting and began firing a stream of arrows that forced the enemy archangel back.
The pair were immediately on Micheal, both angels sparking with lightning as they attacked the man, Jack up close, and Sahaqiel from afar.
Still, despite their combined efforts, Micheal was holding out well, batting away magic attacks, parrying Jack's sword, and avoiding the pair with expert ease.
Suddenly lightning spells began to manifest, sigils lighting up around Micheal before firing towards Sahaqiel.
“His Sahaqiel is in the fight! He's not alone!” Lilith reported as Jack avoided a stray bolt and charged forward.
“You shouldn't be in here!” Micheal hissed, catching Jack by the throat as the space around them shook. “No! NO!”
Suddenly the chamber around them began to corrode with pockets of flesh, tendrils that invaded the world from holes that seemed to burn into the white canvas around them.
“Do you two realize what you've done?! Your purpose was to be an offering for it! Not lead it here!” Micheal hissed as a shadowed hand gripped the edge of the void above and began forcing its way into the space.
The figure from before had chased them, entering the sanctum that held what Jack could only assume was the Infinity machine.
Jack opened his mouth, spewing frost as Sahaqiel fired a massive bolt of electrified energy.
Micheal moved Jack in the way of the attack, using him as a shield only for the lightning bolt to curve and slam into the archangel’s mana barrier.
Lilith activated Gehenna, dispelling Michael’s shield to allow the lightning to strike him and release Jack who swiped with his gunblade.
“So you can dispel my barriers, but can you destroy my attacks?” Micheal spat, raising a hand that Jack attempted to absorb only to be blown back.
Why can't I absorb it?! Jack sent, clenching his jaw as his took the burnt of the magical beam.
“It's because of his version of Gehenna, its infusing his attacks. We can disrupt it but can't completely absorb it.”
Jack rolled his shoulders back as he eyed the sphere in the distance.
Wait…
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Realization dawned on Jack, prompting him to give orders to Lilith.
“Fools. You've doomed yourselves, coming here, you've only delayed the inevitable,” Micheal said, catching a lightning bolt from Sahaqiel and crushing it in a fist. “Do you think because you've momentarily delayed my progress that you've achieved some feat? That you've accomplished a grandiose goal?!”
“Yeah well, this story doesn't have to end with Sahaqiel and I dying,” Jack said, glaring at the Black King as he pointed at the shadow entering the space. “We can all lose.”
Micheal went rigid, standing still for a moment with his eyes closed before they opened with a wide grin upon his face.
“You can't beat me Jack.”
“No, but he can,” Jack said as Michael's eyes shifted to the metal sphere hovering nearby and then to the figure poking his head into the space. “Try and run for it, go ahead. You might be stronger than me but I sure as hell can slow you long enough for him to get in.”
Micheal shifted, his facial expression changing rapidly.
“That you can… Congratulations are in order young angel, it's been an age since I've felt… annoyed,” Micheal said, unaware of the black specter flying past him.
Or, perhaps Jack had thought too soon as the archangel began to turn towards Lilith.
“Hey!” Jack spat, hedging his bets. “You can either help us and maybe survive, or go for the machine and die.”
At Jack’s proposition, Sahaqiel spun, facing him as the enemy archangel began to laugh. It was a coarse sound, one that was both unnatural and unsettling, like something mimicking a human noise.
“You would join hands with the man responsible for so much of your suffering? The man who command's your father's body, experimented on your sister, and brought ruin to so many of your loved ones?” Micheal bared his teeth, summoning six splendid wings that hung upon his back.
Sahaqiel shook, the angel furious.
“I'll do what I have to,” Jack replied as the portal above finally expanded, allowing the man known as Adam to descend.
Micheal raised his head, a wide smile upon his face, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they are my sons.”
****
“What the duck?! What the duck? Holy spit are you for ducking real?!” Selfia screamed at the tranquil world around her. “What kind of spell makes you unable to ducking curse?!”
“The kind Jack would envision,” Ada said as she planted her nodachi into the earth saturated by flowers.
The crunch of boots against soil captured Selfia's attention, turning her to the awakened officer.
“General Oliva, status report,” Selfia demanded while kicking over a garden gnome.
“We've amassed our forces. Six hundred and eighty-five personnel accounted for and combat effective, your Majesty, the Regalias are waiting for you at the dinner,” The General in purple armor said, snapping a salute.
“He built a whole darn town,” Selfia growled, walking across a redwood bridge that hung over a serene river. “Ugh it's so ducking quite.”
“Weren’t you always complaining about everything being too loud?” Leona said, trailing behind Selfia with Ada.
“Yes but everything is TOO quiet. It's irritating, and I don't like being coddled,” Selfia hissed.
“Now you know how Jack feels,” Ada said, drawing a glare from the Queen.
The group continued through the peaceful town, passing cherry blossom trees and verdant shrubbery until they came to a large redwood building with white walls and red shingles.
“For fudge’s sake why does nomad architecture have to look so similar,” Selfia groaned.
Outside, a crowd of six hundred souls, all of the people that had been caught up in Jack's anti-army skill.
“What do you have for me?” Selfia demanded as they entered the dinner where the leaders of the alliance sat in a fully furnished dinner around what appeared to be a crack in the world.
One of many that began to appear around the fake settlement.
Anala, Bell, Igwhell, the three highest ranking noblewomen of the imperial beneath Selfia, the last of the great noble houses sat inside joined by a bald headed nomad named Min who was the liaison of the Hoshido and Lita, the leader of the paladins.
“We’ve studied the fractures, and we can definitely escape-,” Duchess Bell began.
“But?” Selfia raised a brow.
“-but, to do so would require all three of us and exhaust our magical might. This world eats our mana, in fact it destroys anything it perceives as a threat.”
“There's also the fact that we can only breach the barrier for a few moments,” A short redheaded tanned skinned woman belonging to House Anala said.
“I need a time. Tangible numbers.”
“Three minutes. Then it shuts.”
“Three minutes to send six hundred back,” Selfia surmised, pursing her lips.
“We also don't know what's out there,” Mi’shka added, the man flexing his hand that had been regrown thanks to Jack's spell. “For all we know we could be walking into a swarm of demonspawn.”
“It doesn't matter,” Selfia said, “Jack is out there, fighting for the world while we're in here being ba… huh.”
Selfia trailed off, realizing the irony of the situation she found herself in. Sidelined and in a position unable to do what she wanted.
“Now has it sunk in?” Ada said, leaning on her nodachi to poke at Selfia who recovered quickly.
“What do you want us to do? The strongest of us won't be able to fight if we open it,” Duchess Bell said.
Selfia closed her eyes, mulling the decision for a moment.
They still had guns, ammo, and high quality explosives. The keys to success that Selfia always tried to keep on hand.
“Get it open, this isn't a fight I'm going to sit out of. Jin, Mi’shka, get your strongest together, General Olive, muster all the ammo you can find. I have a feeling Jack and Sahaqiel are going to need all the support they can get.”