A pillar of lighting smashed down against Dagon, sending her straight down the walls of her own compound. A plume of fire erupted out of her crater, that slithered against the blustering winds, and hit Malkanthor in the chest, causing him to stumble mid-flight.
When Hadriel landed next to Dagon's crater, Scythe in hand, she found the demon missing, only for Dagon to appear behind the angel with a silver sword writing in hell flames in her hands. Hadriel bent her body to evade the initial slash of Dagon's sword, then swung her Scythe against the following strikes.
Hadriel felt the blows overpower her, her feet stumbling back until she was on her ass and yet Dagon's sword never once wavered nor halted its attacks. In a desperate bid, she hooked her Scythe on Dagon's sword and buried it into the ground. She extended her palms and released a bright white light as she smote Dagon with the full force of her Grace.
Hadriel found her Grace being overpowered by blazing hot flames released by Dagon. To her relief, however, Jerushah appeared with an unusual thin Angel's Sword and fought off Dagon's flames.
Jerushah was a master swordsman and, with his angelic strength and agility, he was able to corner Dagon into the inner walls of the compound. He would be happy if only Dagon didn't have that maniacal grin on her face.
He thrust his sword into Dagon's right arm and pushed forward, entering Dagon's melee range before trapping her sole arm into a tight lock. He freed his left arm and tried to place it atop Dagon's head, but he felt something grip his wrist into a bloody pulp.
Realizing the absurdity of the situation, Jerushah left his sword and teleported out of the wall, only to find Dagon following him wherever he went. What made it worse was that she was able to fire blasts of infernal energy from so far away, allowing her to catch up and hit his form.
Fortunately for him, Malkanthor appeared next to him with a singed face and angry expression. The leader of the Garrison brought about his morning-star and swung at Dagon's chest, launching the demon far enough for her to break through the wall and into a few buildings.
"Regroup." He ordered, wiping away the blood on his face. "She's far too strong than normal."
They flitted out of the scenery and reappeared next to Irwin and Balthazar, high up in the sky.
Irwin nodded at their return before returning to trace Dagon's erratic movements. It had already been five minutes since the fight started and they had already desiccated half the island. Even if there were any remnants of her forces living after the Grand Coven's onslaught, they would die at the hands of their master and her enemies.
"Three O'clock. By the runway. Remember: We only have to get her out of that damn vessel." Irwin reported before all of them flapped their wings and teleported on the runway.
Irwin was the first to arrive and swung his blade like an icepick, but Dagon was not one to be surprised as she broke her own legs to kick Irwin away. Despite the injury, Dagon still managed to evade Hadriel and Jerushah's low and high attacks by emitting a bright white light that blinded even the angels.
Her body escaped the light by propelling her vessel to the side using her pyrokinesis. Her vessel's skin burned at an alarming rate as the grin on her face slowly morphed into pure dissatisfaction.
"Five angels ganging up on poor little me?" She said in a sing-song.
Balthazar appeared above her and thrust his trident down, only to be parried away by Dagon's sword. The action, however, was taken into consideration by the angels as Malkanthor broke through space and smashed Dagon's arm with his morning-star.
Dagon was quick to pull away her blade, but Irwin used every bit of his Grace to lock her in place by way of telekinesis. The jelly-like substance coated his whole body as he felt his connection with Dagon. It was akin to hugging her everywhere on her body at the same time while making sure not to lose his grip on his continuous use of his Grace.
Blood sprayed onto the asphalt as Dagon's last forearm was detached from her arm, halving her combat ability in a single moment. Dagon's wrath was unleashed upon the island, causing a massive earthquake across the land and multiple pillars of lightning to hit what remained of buildings within the compound.
She rushed forward, evading the other angel's attacks with before launching one last desperate attack at Irwin. Flames wreather her only hand as she clawed at Irwin's chest, but the Viceroy's Promise proved its worth as nary a flame nor flesh pierced through its enchanted metal. The force of the blow, however, still reverberated past the armor and pulsed through Irwin's angelic skin.
Noticing that she was slowly being cornered like a rat, Dagon fumed in anger.
"THIS IS NOT THE END OF THIS!" She threatened, eyes turning black then to yellow.
A sudden burst of dark flames caused the angels to retreat as she engulfed her vessel in fire. Dagon's flaming form swell to an unimaginable degree. The angels hastily formed barriers around their forms with Irwin forming the Iron Spirit Sigil upon his body before throwing out a cube towards Dagon.
Unfortunately, he never saw it activate as all that pent-up energy exploded in their face.
"She's going to blow!" Balthazar grinned.
Irwin had never really seen a nuclear explosion up close and personal, only from videos of military demonstrations and testing sites. In fact, the only thing he knew about nukes was that thumb thing, where if one's thumb was bigger than the mushroom cloud, then one needed to run.
This explosion didn't have a mushroom cloud. All Irwin could see, before he was hit in the face with the power of the sun, was skin, blood, and entrails launching at him at the speed of sound.
Any normal angel would find themselves wary of sacrificing their Grace, as its regeneration was painfully slow and, without it, they would be as powerless and useless as guns without bullets. Yet Irwin was no true angel, as such, he used every last bit of his Grace on his defenses.
The resulting explosion did not launch him off his feet. He stood steady, battered by heat mixed with an infernal energy that was corrupting the very Grace that shielded him from the explosion.
The wind slowed down enough for Irwin to move about the place, and what he saw astounded him.
A dozen miles of track of land were torn asunder, as if it forcefully excavated into varying degrees of width. The trees, debris, rock formations and asphalt near and around the runway disintegrated alongside every living soul within the radius of her explosion.
The further they go, the shallower the broken land was with the center of the explosion being a hollowed-out landfill, about twenty-foot deep with a single black cube inside. It was small and barely fit within one's palm, but the sigils that were emitting a dull light brough fear in the eyes of every angel within the vicinity.
"Relax. It's currently… occupied." Irwin said, earning their distrust as he limped towards the box while wading through the thick miasma of infernal energy.
Although it will soon dissipate, Dagon's explosion had brought untold misfortune upon the land. The soil on half of the island would be corrupted. Any life held within would rot the moment it broke through the ground and absorbed its dark nutrients.
"What is that?" Asked Malkanthor, bringing his weapon near his body.
Irwin brought the box close to his face, using the last bits of his Grace to sense the corrupted soul trapped within. "Welcome to your new home. I hope you like it."
He gazed towards the angel, not hiding the vindication surging through his body. "This is an Enochian Puzzle Box. Mighty expensive and mighty fucking powerful."
"So, Dagon had not escaped?" Jerushah asked with a nod of approval.
"Yeah, she's now my captive," Irwin said, throwing the box up and down his hand. 'And a new source of energy, for that matter. I could do a lot of things with a Prince of Hell's energy. That 750 credit were fucking worth it.'
Malkanthor stepped up and addressed the situation, "With your vengeance secured and your compatriot retrieved, it is now your turn to deliver your other end of the bargain."
"No, it's not." Irwin corrected. "I still have one more task for you."
Malkanthor was going to reject–evident by the grimace on his slowly healing face–but Balthazar teleported in and asked the specifics of the task, under the glare of his leader.
Irwin pointed to the center of the island. "I want you to gather every corpse on the island and meet me at the pavilion. Once you accomplish that, the Hand of God is yours."
"What if they're still alive?" Balthazar asked, a devious grin on his face.
Irwin gazed into the angel's eyes and muttered, "Kill everyone until they're a corpse. Everyone."