Columbus, OH - 5 August 2067
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When the Host of Thrones collapsed, Azazel truly realized he was not a part of Them. In doing so, he achieved a new level of consciousness. As the sixty days of fire progressed, he could feel the karmic tremors of Agatha as the Host’s actions pulsing across the planet. After the day when he and Jude first saw Her, Azazel had been ruminating on what must be done, and after his seventh day of deliberation, he had decided.
He generated a transfer field to call out to her, and summon her back to Columbus. Though angels wouldn’t normally communicate in quantifiable linguistics, Azazel considered it apt to form a statement that might be easier for the Host as Agatha to process with Their partially human cognition.
“Agatha as the Host of Earthly Thrones, or the Earthly Host of Thrones as Agatha- You are called by the Dominion Azazel to the Adam’s city of Columbus. Your actions threaten to upset the karmic balance of this world and destroy Life in its current form. Agatha and the Host will be separated, Agatha will be eliminated, and the Host will be recast in a form more unified with Adam’s kind.”
The Host as Agatha responded instantly with a truly livid shout that echoed through the entire stratosphere. Moments later, with a precursory crackle of electricity in the air and a clap of thunder, Agatha as the Host appeared in the sky, engulfed in Her now signature cross of green flame.
Azazel had not thought transferred with Jude before calling Agatha, and hadn’t had time to transfer with him between the call and her arrival. In truth, Azazel had been thought transferring with his ward less and less over the course of the past week; it was as though his consciousness and his understanding of the boy’s were mutually exclusive. With the pillar of the Host’s fire suddenly within a city block, Azazel was now acutely concerned for Jude’s safety.
Azazel generated a thought field to communicate with Jude, rushing to physically guard the boy as well. As he generated his unusually powerful and emotion-laden thought field and simultaneously overlapped physically with Jude's presence, he initiated a Crucifixion. Azazel’s frame synchronized with Jude's nervous system, taking control of the human’s body. By unifying the physical body of one of Adam’s kind with his angelic form, Azazel granted himself and Jude control over his power similar to the degree of control displayed by Agatha as the Host.
As Jude cried out in confusion and discomfort, Azazel quelled him from within with a peaceful field. To calibrate himself to his new power, Azazel rose high into the air, higher than he’d ever been able to before, carrying Jude with him. To try to gauge the extent of his capability, he generated a hard-light field as bright and large as he could behind Jude and himself as they rose, imbuing its cast light with protective qualities so it could act as a shield against anything the Host as Agatha might target them with. Initially he grew the field to be hundreds of feet across, but after the initial limit test, Azazel reduced the field to a more practical size so the majority of their power could be focused against Agatha as the Host.
The massive plate of light cutting through the city block certainly gave away their position if the Host hadn’t already sensed them regardless. Without hesitation, Agatha as the Host turned to Azazel and sent a bolt of heavenly lightning at Jude’s center mass. The bolt was dissipated just before contact by the light of Azazel’s protective halo. Azazel sensed Jude’s emotions rising again and transmitted another calming thought field from within him.
Agatha as the Host finally offered a formal answer to Azazel’s call:
“Oh Dominion Azazel, what right have you to extract me from the Host, what right have you to separate Us from Agatha? What value has this form of Life upon this planet to me? Adam’s kind has done naught but harm the Host since I caused Us to appear to them. Perhaps instead I will separate you from your ward, eliminate Jude Sherman, and recast the Dominion Azazel in a form more unified with the Host.”
If as an angel he was capable of taking something personally, Azazel would have taken offense at the last remark. In believing that, he realized with one of Adam’s kind connected to his frame he functionally was capable of such feelings. Azazel returned Agatha’s fire, casting a beam of blue-hot energy at the Host. Agatha as the Host simply burned bigger for a moment and consumed the beam.
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“Divine entities are not meant to be given physical form as the Host of Thrones has for the past two score and two years. It is unfortunate what pain You have felt in this state, but You exist outside the natural order of this world, and as such You must be changed, not this world.”
Before communicating another response, the Host as Agatha called down a hail of arrows of flaming light. These were again ineffective against Jude or Azazel, but did set a significant portion of the surrounding city block on fire.
“Existence is nature. I have already changed this world to Our will. I care not what you believe must happen. We are the Host, you are Nothing.”
This time, Agatha as the Host did not just transfer this thought to Azazel, but spoke it aloud with the voice of the Host as well, Their words cracking the buildings and earth around them.
For the added emphasis, Azazel decided to utilize Jude’s voice as his own and mimic the auditory component of the Host as Agatha’s statement.
“You will be nothing, and a new Host will form. I am a guardian of Adam’s kind and We will not submit to a false deity such as You. Begone!”
Azazel felt through his presence in Jude’s body that the human’s lungs and vocal chords had begun to bleed from the power of their united and divined voice. He would generate a field with qualities of health and vitality to heal the boy internally soon, but first he created a golden spear of light before them, imbued with his wish to spread the Host across Adam’s dominion, hearing and guiding the will of all of Adam’s kind once again. Using Jude’s hands, he took the spear and thrust it through the air, piercing the Host in Agatha’s human heart. As the spear left Jude’s hands, Azazel felt that it had burned them severely. This time, the hit landed, at least in some capacity: the cross of the Host’s flame stuttered, and Agatha grabbed the spear, attempting to pull it out of Their chest.
The Host as Agatha generated a spear of Their own, violet and dark, surely imbued with a malignant wish. With Her free hand They threw the spear, but Azazel caught it with Jude’s hands and shattered it. Now Azazel generated the healing field, fearing he would damage the boy beyond repair if he didn’t begin revitalizing him now. As he did this, he about faced, so the golden plate could physically shield Jude’s body as he recovered.
Angered by Azazel’s catch, Agatha as the Host generated a dozen more vile spears and began to force them through the air at Azazel’s halo. Each successive spear pierced deeper into the halo, slowly but surely eroding the protective field. The head of the sixth spear pierced fully through the halo, and if one were to pierce any further through it would gore Jude.
Azazel generated another spear with the same wish as before, trying to will the wish into reality with even more vigor. He flew higher to avoid the Host as Agatha’s seventh spear, and then created a pair of golden gloves to envelope Jude’s hands as he took hold of the new spear and threw it down upon Agatha. It pierced into Her heart through Her head, and the cross of fire stuttered again. When it recovered this time, it was burning dimmer and with less fury than before. Both of Agatha’s human hands were now grasping Azazel’s spears, trying to remove them from her body.
The Host as Agatha pulsed with rage, the cross of fire shifting from green through a range of reds and violets, flaring up with an intense orange and then settling back to a sulfuric yellow. From the arms of the cross, two pairs of flaming arms descended and curled forwards, taking hold of four of Their remaining spears. A fifth and sixth arm came from the top of the cross and together took hold of the final spear. In unison, the first four arms wound up to throw their spears.
As the spears were launched at Jude, Azazel used his voice again:
“PITEOUS.”
The spears turned to dust, and the cross of fire burned dim and blue. Agatha as the Host began to descend slowly to the earth, and her human form seemed to begin losing its divine qualities. She was becoming flesh and blood again, mortally wounded by the spears.
Azazel brought Jude down to her level, and cast a shining sword before him. The sword swung through the air and severed Agatha from the Host, not making physical contact with her body, but decimating the Host. As Agatha became fully human again, the Host swirled in the air around her as a multitude of points of light. Seeing his wish was now set irrevocably in motion, Azazel released Jude from his Crucifixion.
Jude cried out and ran to Agatha’s dying side.
“I don’t understand what happened.... I- I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” he said, blood dripping from his mouth, his voice hoarse with scabs.
“Que sera sera, Jude Sherman. Life fucking blows,” Agatha replied, and then closed her eyes, laid down, and died.
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