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Chapter 21: Lost Friends

There was nothing else to do but attack. All preparations had been made and all armies had been assembled and mustered. Tens of thousands of faces stated at their leaders who had assembled on a hill overlooking them all. Kings, dukes, generals, wizards, Templars, Janice, Kieth, Jason and of course, Angels. They gazed over the vast field of dirt that stretched for the better part of two miles before slowly becoming the series of deep ravines that they would have to enter to face Malus’ armies before getting to his fortress, The Pit.

“I can sense so many of them,” Thedius, the older leader of the Templars said. The wolf raised his nose to the air and sniffed. He grimaced. “Smell them too.”

“He’s been busy,” Gabriel, the angel, said solemnly. “He killed quite of few of his adversaries and their minions pledged loyalty to him. Probably got a good chunk of hell fighting for him. A wonder that this hasn’t gotten the attention of the big guy himself.”

“Just like how the Divine doesn’t directly intervene, Satan won’t either,” Antes informed those that didn’t know. “It’s said that the last time the two great powers collided, there was no world left to fight over.”

Kieth shuddered. “Well, let’s hope that they keep their fingers out of this mess.” He looked at Antes and his paws. “Or paws, or claws or whatever they have.”

Janice punched Kieth in the arm and he gave her a quick glare. She gave him a smile back.

“Don’t matter to me,” Gorston said and snorted through his broad nose. “I’ll cleave through them all.”

The ox has came the moment he heard that there was going to be a fight and Janice was going to be there. A lot of the former gladiators came. A lot of the slaves would have if Gorston hadn’t threatened them to stay since Molamse was still being rebuilt and many of the slaves still had no idea how to properly fight.

“Might just come down to that,” Gabriel commented. The angel cracked his knuckles. “I for one welcome the idea. It’s been too long since we’ve all come together like this to crack some skulls.”

“Here here,” Gorston shouted and stamped a hoof into the ground. The angel and the ox grinned vehemently at each other. They had become quick friends due to their love of solving problems with violence.

“Remember, there is a plan here,” Antes said and turned to Janice. “Are your people ready?”

Janice nodded. “Eeskit and his people are finishing up the last bit of tunnel now. We’ll have access to the demon’s flanks and then a route right to The Pit soon after.”

“We all have our assignments,” Antes announced to everyone. Their hardened faces looked to him. Many of them were creased with worry and they should. There was no guarantee of anything after the battle started. Malus would be ready. He had been ready and how the magic was shifting on the winds, he had also begun to weave his spell together. If he wasn’t stopped today, then he would win, no matter how many of his minions were killed.

Gorston roller his neck and then hefted his axe. “Let’s get to it then.”

General Maximilian of the First Blooded Legion of Sacra and now the deaf to leader of Sacra, took his position at the front of his army. He had volunteered to lead the main attack against the demons and his men were all too eager as well.

“They took everything from us,” he said, his voice deep and easily carrying across the army. “The demons that wait for us across this field of battle serve the one that slew our great leader, our father, Vessius, who took our ancestors into his care and brought about a golden age like none before. Now he is gone, but his memory is not. He lives within each and everyone of us that stand here today.”

Jason watched from nearby along with Kieth.

“Kind of cliched,” Kieth whispered to Jason. “Speeches and stuff like this before a big battle.”

“Cliched for a reason,” Jason whispered back. “Now shut up and listen.” He did agree that it was cliched.

“No matter what happens today, know that we will leave such an impression on those around us that his memory will not die easil-“ he stopped as he noticed that his soldiers were not looking at him, but past him and towards The Pit.

Jason and Kieth turned to look and Jason could feel the utter horror from Antes.

Hovering some ten feet off the ground about two hundred meters away, near the mouth of the ravines where the demons were, was a human figure.

It hunched and it’s arms hung down below it. Except that it wasn’t a human. It had wings. Wings that had once been brilliant and proud, but now were drooped, missing feathers and covered in a black tar. It’s skin was mottled and torn, showing shriveled grey muscles underneath. It wore torn rags that may have been white at some point. I’m one hung arm was a round shield. In the other was a spear.

“It’s Hermès,” Jason gasped. The angel had gone missing and the worst had been feared, but apparently there was some fate far more terrible than what the angels had imagined.

The figure’s head rose and it was undeniable, it was Hermès despite the distance.

It’s voice, low and whispery, somehow carried across the distance to the armies of Heaven. “This is the price to those that would dare defy the will of Malus. Leave and know that you have saved the lives of yourself and those around you, but go forward and meet the fate the beheld I.”

Several angels took to the sky and closed the distance to Hermès. They pleaded with their fallen brother to fight the hold that Malus had over him, but Hermès ignored them.

“Abandon hope of victory,” Hermès said and his black, beady eyes looked across all of the angels. “For here, there is nothing but death.”

“Fuck,” Kieth said and looked to Jason. “You better meet up with Janice before it gets too ugly here. Get in there and stop Malus.”

Jason wasn’t so sure of the plan anymore. Kieth was to stay here and help since his magic was better used on a wide battlefield than inside tunnels or The Pit. He hesitated to leave his friend out here with the mutilated angel.

“You sure?” Jason asked and gave wary glances to Hermès.

Kieth had a strong look of determination on his face. “Go. We’ll handle it up here.”

With nothing else to say, Jason turned and left, leaving his friend behind with the monster.

Near the rear of the camp, Janice waited at the entrance to the tunnel that Eeskit and his clan mates had been digging for some time now. She was there with what was considered the elite of each of the armies. Men who had done more and seen more than anyone else.

Instead of Janice greeting Jason, it was a Sacran. Jason was surprised as the young man with striking golden hair walked under to Jason with no hesitation despite not being a human. He wasn’t in the standard Sacran armor that mirrored Roman styles. Instead, he wore armor more akin with a Greek hoplite or maybe even a spartan with some Roman influence in the color and material.

The man smile and extended a hand. “Ahh, the man with an angel inside of him.”

Jason went to shake his hand, but was momentarily caught off guard when the man grabbed his forearm instead.

“I am Captain Hercules,” he said, giving Jason’s arm a very strong squeeze before releasing his grip.

“Pleasure,” Jason said, thinking if the man was just named Hercules or if he was Hercules. It was hard to tell now with so many mythologies being shown to be true with little flourish to their stories. “I’m Jason.”

“Very good to meet you. I and my men are excited to be here. To be chosen for this mission is truly an honor. Too few times we are called upon to act in the interest of our nation and now here we are to face this ultimate evil.”

He was full of gusto and very forward. The small distance between Jason and Hercules closed even more, however Jason got the feeling that he wasn’t being aggressive or anything, it was just how he was.

Jason took a small step back. Just far enough to not seem disrespectful. He glanced over at Janice who was obviously enjoying the show along with several others. “Uhh. Yeah. I’m glad to have you here. You and your soldiers seem like a very capable bunch.” He glanced over to the test of Hercules men who were also armored similarly. They were all chiseled and very muscular. Jason had quick flash backs to old porn comics that he had before meeting Anthony.

The praise made Hercules brighten even more. The small distance that Jason had made was closed again and the man threw an arm around Jason’s shoulder, leading him to where his men were.

“This reminds me of the time that we had been called upon to repel a Simian incursion from the east,” he began to retell his great tale, but Janice finally stepped in.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, Hercules,” Janice said, moving in front of him. “But I have to go over the final plans with Jason here before we move out.”

“Of course,” Hercules said with a slight bow and then leaned over to Jason to whisper, “she is a fine and strong woman, you are lucky.” He then let go of Jason.

If Jason had been human still, he would have blushed hard, but only the insides of his ears turned pink. Had Hercules thought they were an item?

Janice took Jason’s hand and led him away before he became any more flustered.

“That’s Hercules,” Janice laughed. “I only met him this morning, but he’s very friendly as you can see.”

“Yeah,” Jason said and glanced back at Hercules as he began to sharpen his sword. “Very friendly.” The man was ripped and the very definition of physical perfection.

Janice gave a glance back as well and then to Jason. She covered her mouth. “Are you ogling?” She gave Jason a friendly shove. “What would Anthony think.”

“He would think that Hercules was hot,” Jason said, falling into a normal friendly banter that he hadn’t had the opportunity to have in a very long time. “That boy has no shame.”

Janice shook her head as she kept leading them towards where the tunnel entrance was. They passed a few more groups of soldiers. Dogs, cats, bears, a bit of everything made each of the elite forces that would be joining them.

“He really didn’t have any shame,” Janice agreed. “Remember how he asked you to go with him to YOUR prom?”

Jason covered his face, recalling how Anthony had showed up one day in a thong and wearing a cape. It had happened at the end of the day just as Jason had been coming out of class. The whole school saw and Jason had fled in absolute terror. He then said yes later, away from everyone else, when Anthony had come over for dinner. Jason had gotten shit about it for some time after as well. He would relive that day and shame a million times in exchange for never having to go through all of this though.

“Don’t remind me,” Jason sighed and held back a slight urge to cry. He missed that idiot a lot.

“Well,” Janice said, not catching onto the sudden somberness that came over Jason. “We’ll have to go and get Anthony and introduce them then.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Jason said and smiled weakly. This was why he was here. Stop Malus and save Jason.

“Hardly,” Janice scoffed. “The real plan is much more dangerous than just waltzing in and taking him back.”

“If only it were,” Jason said.

Janice stopped them at a wide hatch that covered a hole that was just big enough for Jason to stand in without needing to bend over, though he’d have to make sure that he didn’t hand over control to Antes, his wings would get stuck in the walls.

“I don’t have to have wings,” Antes said internally.

“There you are,” Jason replied back. “Was wondering how long you’d be gone for. How did everything go?”

“Not good,” Antes said and Jason could feel a twisting swirl of anger and even doubt from the angel. “Hermès... his sudden return as an abomination has thrown a lot of Heaven into panic. There’s fear that we may come across Vessius as well.”

“Damn,” Jason said since he couldn’t really think of anything else to say. “How bad would that be.”

“Currently a few of us are already engaging Hermès. We can’t see it here, but Hermès, twisted and all, is still incredibly fast and dangerous I fear coming across Vessius.”

Just then, Antes shared a memory and Jason was taken back to Earth.

It was wet and cold, just as all bad memories should be. Jason could feel the rain as if he were actually standing there in the woods, surrounded by just the glimmer of faint smoldering ruins.

He was in a destroyed village of Roman build. The stone buildings, once proud and well built, meant to stand for centuries, were crumbling, smoke rising from their collapsed roofs. Bodies laid strewn across the ground all around them, women, children, men, all dead.

“You see what happens!” A voice shouted and Antes, from the memory, looked up. Vessius, not the fallen angel with rusted wings and a broken halo, but a true angel, golden and shining even in this dead place. “We pull out support for our children and they die.”

Antes frowned. “You’ve done this yourself, Vessius.” He gestured around with his hand, old and frail, not the paw that Jason had grown accustomed to. Here, Antes had been an old man. “You babied them. You did everything for them and when it came time to leave, they could not stand without you.”

Vessius scowled and walked over to where a child lay face down in the mud. His face was a mask of pain and guilt. “Why did you forbid me to come and help them? Why did you let them die?”

“You knew this was coming,” Antes said to him. “You knew,” he shouted. “We’ve been planning for decades now and you still coddled them.”

Vessius was obvious not thinking right. He wandered from body to body, becoming more engrieved with each one he saw.

Antes did feel grief for all of these innocent deaths. The Goths has been on the move for a good few weeks and Heaven had known. Vessius had petitioned to allow him to intervene, but Heaven had stopped intervening into the affairs of Earth a long time ago as the world began to slip out of influence and they prepared for the next world to come. Vessius had loved his people, referring to them as his children and now he had to leave them, but the angel had no plans for that.

“Leave me behind then,” Vessius said in a low voice. “Go and leave me.”

“You know that’s not possible,” Antes said. “When the shift to the next world happens, you’ll be pulled along no matter what. Even if it was, Heaven would forbid it. You know this. You just need to let go.” He held out a hand in a symbolic gesture. “Let’s go home.”

Vessius gave one more look at the bodies. “No.” He said and without warning, attacked.

He drew two swords from their sheaths on his back and leapt at Antes, who barely had enough time to move out of the way and draw up an ice shield in front of him to stop a strike that would have decapitated him.

Jason could feel the panic in Antes, how he was only just able to keep a few centimeters ahead of those dual blades that Vessius was nimbly and very expertly swinging in every direction. It had taken everything that Antes had to get away eventually, but the encounters, which had lasted barley fifteen seconds had left Antes with something he had never felt before: fear of another angel.

Jason came back to the present suddenly and found himself walking inside the tunnel that Eeskit had been digging. Janice was in front of him and he could hear the soldiers behind him.

“Vessius is unstable and very dangerous,” Antes told Jason. “Pray you do not have to face him.”

Jason did pray.