Airow paused as the four stepped outside of Bob's Bar. His ability to detect evil was working now, and he was confused. The small man was registering as neutral evil, but the tall one was neither evil nor good.
Pulling Grey to the side, he whispered, "How do we know that we can trust these two?"
She glanced over at the two who were busy looking over a map and discussing where they needed to go next.
"They aren't lying to us, I can tell. Whatever their reasons for wanting to help, I'm grateful for it. We can't do this on our own, and we have to avoid the other angels as best we can. If word gets back to the elder angels what we're doing, we'll really be in trouble."
"If angels are sent, we're done. We'll fall and become demons. I don't want that."
"Neither do I," said Grey.
"I think we need to head north from here," said Guit, coming over to them with the map. "We are sensing the closest group of demons there. According to the map, there's a large city there, so that would make sense."
Argen nodded as he approached. No reason to say anything, that would just take more effort. He was already dreading the trip.
"That's a long way," said Grey, looking at the map. She wished they could fly part of the way, it would be faster, but she knew that was out of the picture if they wanted to keep their angel status a secret.
"There's a few horses that have been roaming around since the demons left. We may be able to catch some and ride them?" suggested Airow, looking around.
After several hours, they finally managed to capture four of the horses, but no matter how hard Guit tried, his would not let him ride it. Every time he tried to climb on, it would startle and shy away. As he stood there, gnashing his teeth, Grey grabbed the horse's halter and spoke softly to it, while Airow grabbed the small man under his arms from behind, and quickly hoisted him into the saddle.
Everyone stood still for a moment, waiting to see what would happen, as the horse thought about the situation. Its ears laid back along its head, and as its muscles bunched to fight, Airow joined Grey at its head, speaking softly to it and petting it gently. After another half an hour to make the horse remain calm, they were finally ready to leave the desolate town.
Through out all of the excitement, Argen had dozed in the shade of a half-destroyed wall. When his horse was led to him, he quickly jumped into its saddle, and waited, almost asleep again, for them to get Guit into his saddle.
As they finally started on their way north, a sound of flapping drew their attention. A large angel was sweeping towards them!
"It's the elder angel coming to check on the portal!" cried Guit, trying to get his unruly horse to cooperate as it spooked from his cry.
"What do we do?" asked Grey, panicked.
Airow watched as the angel swooped towards them, noting that the whiteness of the feathers seemed off. The more he focused on them, the more obvious it was that they were illusioned to look white.
"I think he has fallen. His wings only appear white, probably to throw off any angels that might be watching. I think we can safely fight him, without worrying about our own status."
"He's evil," said Argen, calmly watching the angel's approach.
"Tie the horses so they don't run away again," said Grey to Argen, as she slid from her horse. Handing him her reigns, she drew the sword Airow had given her.
With a sigh, he took Airow's reigns too, and directed his horse to the other side of a demolished building. Guit tried his hardest to get his horse to follow, finally kicking it in the ribs hard enough for it to jump forward after Argen. As Argen grabbed the reigns of his horse too, he jumped from the saddle and ran over to Grey and Airow.
They looked at him curiously, but focused back on the incoming angel.
Argen tied the horses securely to a beam that stuck out of some of the debris, then sat down to watch. If they needed him, he might think about getting up to help, but starting with them, just seemed too exhausting.
The elder angel dived with his sword out, with a battle cry. The clouds in the sky were shoved back by his passing.
As he landed, they blocked their faces from the debris blown up.
"You will pay for your sins!" he cried.
Airow couldn't help but notice the lack of holiness in his voice. In fact, the chill that crept down his spine was more from the feeling of evil, than it was from the actual words.
"It is not I who hide my true form!" exclaimed Airow, exposing his magnificent white wings.
"Yet you travel with this filth! You might as well have fallen yourself!"
With those words, the angel flew at them with his sword pointed at Grey.
Grey took her stance and held her sword at the ready. Airow drew his bow and let loose a bolt, but the angel swiped it away. Guit shook his hands as claws erupted and he screamed a nerve-wracking scream.
Jumping forward, Grey dodged below the angel's attack, and shoved her sword up, cutting along his entire length as he flew past. With a scream, he jerked away, swiping away two more bolts from Airow and landing in a crouch. With a snarl, his eyes began to glow red, and he removed his hand from the gash that ran along his entire torso. Blood could be seen dripping on to the ground.
"You'll pay for that, fallen!" he growled.
"Look who's talking!" she sneered, taking her stance again.
Guit charged from the side, running on all fours, jumping off the wall to the angel's left, and slashing with his claws, across the side of his face.
Spinning away, the angel stood up with a laugh. The claw marks were mere scratches, blemishing his perfect face. Instead of blood, though, they could see black scales peeking through the cuts.
Guit landed and immediately charged again, jumping off a large rock, spinning in the air, and slicing at the angel again, before landing further away.
The angel ducked, and with a flap of his wings, jumped into the sky again.
Airow was ready. He had charged his bow with all twenty of his arrows, and as soon as the angel was clear of the ground, he let loose. All twenty hit. Except, as the smoke cleared, they saw that the arrows didn't hurt him as they had intended.
With a scream of rage, the angel blasted away the ruined remains of his illusion, exposing his true form.
Black scales covered his skin. The feathers on his wings were black as pitch, and his eyes glowed red as smoldering embers.
"You will pay for this!" he screamed in rage.
"Now everyone will know that you are a lie!" cried Grey, throwing her sword with all of her strength.
As it flew towards the angel/demon, he moved to knock it aside, but she quickly closed her hands and began to recited a prayer. It was the first prayer of protection that she had been taught when she first awoke as an angel.
"May the heavens hear my cry of help! Send a legion to my aid! Hear my prayer, I beg of you!"
Her sword split as there was a crack of lightening and a roll of thunder.
Fear erupted on the face of the elder angel/demon, as the heavens began to pour forth angels in answer to her call.