Chapter 16~~~ Stagnum Ignis
Razakiel's POV
Stagnum Ignis. The lake of fire. An eternal prison of torture for both angel and demons who have broken the laws of nature. The place Lucifer was banished to after betraying his father. Carita is opening the gate. His trying to gain entrance to the one place that may be worse than Lucifer's newly formed hell. And he really expects us to follow him once he succeeds. My eyes drift back to Luc where she sits cross legged against an already energized tree, worry lining her face as she watches Carli's pace back and forth between the ten trees forming the pentagon that is the entrance to Stagnum Ignis.
A smile brightens Luc's face as Carli looks up, running a hand through her hair, and notices her stare.
"I'll be fine. It's obviously possible to get from Stagnum Ignis to hell, Lucifer managed it."
"Yeah. Lucifer. An Archangel. Someone who could easily open this door before he was shut inside it. How do we know we won't be stuck down there below hell, burning eternally? And even if we managed to follow Lucifer's trail into hell, how do we know we won't be trapped there simply because we passed through this gate?" Carita said to himself, "nothing that enters Stagnum Ignis has ever gotten out before the end of their sentence. We could be trapped down there for thousands of years!"
"He also said that this is Ahreal's plan. She wouldn't send us down there if there is a chance, we wouldn't be able to get out again. You're her daughter. She wouldn't risk losing you like that." Luc says, like she's absolutely certain she is right.
"My dad died yesterday. You know, the man she's loved for the past 80 years. She doesn't care about anything other than getting revenge on Nicholas and Lucifer. She wouldn't care if we all died as long as she gets revenge."
"That's not true, Carli. She stills care about you, maybe even more than she did before. She lost John, what would she do if she lost you too?" Luc ask quietly, despite Carli's rising volume
"Right, and what would you know? Your only parent is Lucifer he only created you to take over heaven." Pain instantly jerks it way through me. She glances away and nods slowly.
"That's enough Carli. We know you're scared; we all are. But don't take it out on Luc, or the rest of us. We're about to enter the worst place known in existence, if there is any chance of us getting out alive, we have to work together. If you want to stay behind you can. No one is forcing you to come with us."
"Stay behind? Are you serious? Nicholas killed my father, he tried to kill me. Even if I didn't care that Lucifer is attempting on destroying the world, I would have to come, I don't have a choice we have to stop them." Her eyes flick to Luc, where she sits, arms resting on her knees, "I apologies for what I said though, Luc. There was absolutely no need for it." She bows her head as she speaks, remorse clear in the set of her shoulders. She barely had time to lift her head before Luc is smiling once again.
"Its fine. You were only speaking the truth."
"Well, now that we've gotten that out of the way, maybe we can try one more before we stop for the day." Carita appears out of nowhere. As the son of Avarice, he has the ability to give of his energy and power to anything he touches; to open the gates we need to energize the ten trees that mark the points and joints of the pentagon, after that we'll apparently have enough power all together to avoid to open it without an Archangel. Carita is yet to explain exactly how, if he even knows; Ahreal has not been entirely open with what exactly her plans entail. After he finishes each tree, Luc and I heal him and disappears into the smaller trees surrounding the pentagon, only to randomly appear out of nowhere to start on the next one.
"Number seven here we come." The intimidating Nephilim murmurs as he approaches the next one in queue.
The light has faded from the sky by the Carita is healed and headed off into the trees.
"Do you ever intend on telling us where you are going?" Carli calls after him, only to be ignored, just as she was the last six times. "Why won't he just tell us?" she huffs, "How do we know his not off betraying us to one side or the other?" Her tirade continues as it has every other time, understandably, the thought of his absence being a sign of betrayal did cross my mind. What Nicholas did have taken away what little trust we did have and turned it into ash. I would trust Carita a great deal more if Ahreal had been with him when he showed up, but he has done nothing but help us so far, I know Luc is trying so desperately not to mistrust everything he does. If she is trying, I have to.
As Carli continues complaining about Carita's antics, I move toward Luc, once again now curious about our new found ability to enhance each other's abilities. Her eyes follow my movements as I approach and slide down the tree to sit at her side, our arms lightly touching as she leans closer to my side, as if she finds comfort in my presence.
"What are you thinking?" I whisper, ensuring Carli doesn't notice that we are no longer listening to her rant.
"How is this possible?' she asks, as she takes my hand in her own, twining our fingers together, "Do you think all archangel half breeds can do this? Or are we just different? Why don't we have the same effect on other angels?" A short half laugh half sigh fills the air once her questions end, "You don't know the answers any more than I do." She smiles as her eyes finally look up to meet my own.
"Maybe not," I murmur back, "But we are in this together now and we'll figure out the answers together." Her smile brightens further at my words, drawing my eyes to her lips. For a moment it feels like time has frozen still. Then an invisible thread draws me closer to her, leaning in towards her. And slowly, so slowly, she starts to close the last bid of distance between us. My breath freezes in my chest as our lips come into contact.
"What is going on here?" I jerk back as the frantic voice ricochets off the trees and both Luc and I are both on our feet before the second word even reaches out ears.
"Ahreal?" Luc asks, confusion lacing her tone.
"Where is Carita? We don't have time to waste anymore. I don't know what you have done; for some reason I haven't been able to see the two of you very well recently. But earlier there was a significant blast of energy that was noticed by every angel in heaven. And that is saying something considering none of us can sense the use of power. Trackers have been trying to pinpoint the exact location all day. They've nearly found it and I barely managed to get away to warn you. How many are left? We need to finish this now or we'll never find a way back into hell."
"I think you'll find the course of that were these irresponsible idiots." Carita's deep voice reached us just moments before the man himself. "They somehow managed to combine their power and then overcome Nephilim resistance to angel power. I got Mili here as soon as I could, but you know Mili she wouldn't come close enough to be seen by anyone and I had to check up her after every attempt to make sure he managed to conceal all of it. I was hoping the angels have missed the first one. Obviously, that was too much to hope for."
"I have no idea why I wouldn't have seen something as significant as that," Ahreal muses, confusion wrinkling her brow, "Though I am impressed you managed to get Mili here so quickly, how far away is she? We need to finish the rest of this before the angels figure out where we are and capture us as traitors."
"Well, we have three left, we can try but even doing them without a break in between may not get it done in time." Carita starts moving even before he finishes speaking, moving to the 8 trees in the formation and resting his hands against the trunk.
Ahreal watches on in awe as Luc and I heal and restore Carita to his original self, enabling him to instantly move on to the next tree. Even trying to speed up the process it takes 15minutes for him to transfer energy to each of the remaining trees. And while he is working on his final piece, Ahreal says the words we have all been dreading.
"They're on their way." As the words leave her mouth a small figure slips from behind a tree and moves toward Carita, almost invisible in the darkness. Instantly all four of us are on high alert, unsure of the intentions of the tiny waif like figure standing with her arms around Carita, who appears oblivious to the contact.
"Mili?" Ahreal calls softly, taking a slow step closer to the girl, "Is that you honey? Are you alright?"
"I have to hide him." she murmurs back, her eyes finally lifting to the four angels surrounding her. The brilliant purple glow emanating from her eyes is the only significant thing about her appearance, almost shocking in contrast to the invisible 'don't look at me' vibe her entire being seems to give off.
"Mili, his fine, we won't let anything happen to him. You don't to be out here, I know you don't like strangers seeing you." Ahreal responds moving closer still, until she can rest her hands on Mili's shoulder and gently move her away from where Carita is working. Even as she carefully rubs the worried girls' shoulders, Ahreal is tense, her nervous energy permeating the air around us until everyone of us is left tense and waiting for the arrival of those that would destroy us, hoping that Carita would finish first.
Without a sound Carita falls to the ground at the base of the final tree and I rush forward to help him, barely noticing Luc besides me until I place my hand on his chest and finds hers there alongside them. Even as we start the process of healing the drained Nephilim, Ahreal begins to recite the ancient words Gabriael gave her, which will open the gate to Stagnum Ignis.
"In the name of our father stop what you are doing immediately." The voice is so powerful none of us have a choice but to stop, though Ahreal barely hesitates for a moment before she continues on, desperately trying to finish before the angels can stop her.
"Arrest them all." Mikheal's voice continues, directing the 20 angels he has with him to stop us from opening the gates. Before they can get to Ahreal, the final words leave her mouth and the air around us prickle with energy. I grab Luc's hand and move us back away from the angels and towards the steaming pit that is steadily growing larger as the ground seems to fall away before us.
The angles advance in us, and I watch as Carita grab his sister and jumps into the pit, disappearing into the blackness instantly. Taking his lead, I take a step backwards, towing Luc with me until my footing disappears and I start falling into the unknown. Luc's hand disappears from mine and I barely have time to wonder if she made it through with me before my mind goes blank and I am surrounded by nothingness.