“Don’t listen to him, he is the father of lies!” Zach roars and struggles against the strong arms of Apollyon.
“Cassiel understands what I’m offering, don’t you? You can feel it, the taste of freedom, and the taste of possibility.” Caius smiles and reaches a hand out to him. “Join me?”
Apollyon is stunned to see Cass walk forward slowly, one step at a time. “Cassiel?” Liam calls and just as Cass stops to look back, Apollyon loosens his hold on Zach. Zach bursts free and flies towards the bridge, chaos erupts. The Baku attack from all sides and Caius never takes his eyes off Zach.
“You will not win, angel,” he whispers. “It is too late for all of you.” Apollyon hears the words and knows the truth in them. Zach will die if he attempts to use the gate this time. In a brilliant flare, his silver armor appears. The angels all follow suit, and Apollyon murmurs a prayer enhancing all their weapons.
“To the gate!” They launch themselves into the air leaving the animals behind them.
Caius moves back and waits with a satisfied smile. “Perfect. They will destroy themselves when they try to enter the gate and I will be free to move on to the next one.”
Zach is surprised that Caius doesn’t try to stop him. He lands on the swinging bridge, using his wings to balance himself as he runs across it. Halfway across the bridge, it appears before him. A golden door framed by ancient Aramaic text. Zach stretches out a hand to access the gate and Apollyon swoops down, yanking him free of the bridge.
“No! What are you doing? You fool! We have to…” Apollyon drops Zachariel over the gorge below and turns back towards the bridge.
Zach is forced to fight off three of the Baku in the air as he falls. Opening his wings, he pulls up just before hitting the rock, filled, bottom of the ravine. The three Baku are not as lucky and crash with bloody impacts into the rocks. Their screams chase Zach back out of the ravine as he fly’s back to the bridge.
Liam attacks Caius, forcing him to momentarily lose sight of the gate. “Caius you are judged for…”
Caius laughs and vanishes. “You can’t judge me.” His laughter echoes and irritates the angels watching.
Cass is fighting from the ground with Liam. Two of the creatures facing them leap into the air to go after Apollyon and the Gate. Liam draws his bow firing arrows into the skulls of the escaping Baku. Their bodies fall short of the bridge plunging into the bottom of the ravine to join their dead brothers on the blood soaked rocks. Cass attacks with his sword severing two heads with a swing of the long two handed blade. His return stroke opens up another creature in a welter of blood as he cuts him from hip to shoulder, dropping it in pieces to the ground.
“Drive them towards the bridge!” Apollyon yells as he drops down and faces the great door. “I may be tainted from my time on earth, but I have not forsaken my God, nor my brothers.” With that, he steps into the gate.
The gate tries to repel Apollyon, but he is not going to be rejected. He surges forward, leaning his body into the force emanating from it, every step is a fight. Apollyon screams as his body ignite in flames. First his armor, then his sword, until finally his entire being is engulfed.
Zach ignores the Baku and swoops down towards the bridge just in time to watch Apollyon enter the gate. “No!” He cries when his brother ignites. On the ground, he sees that Cass and Liam are racing for the bridge with a pack of Baku hot on their heels.
Cass is caught by his foot and knocked to the ground. A Baku is on him in an instant, clawing and biting at his armor.
Zach spins and dives on the creatures back helping Cass to keep the snarling teeth from sinking into his throat. Cass slices off one of its claws and shoves a dagger up into the underside of its jaw, punching the gore soaked blade out the top of its head.
Liam leaps into the air and is struck from the front as Caius hits him. Caius releases the glamour spell he is holding and Liam sees him as he truly is. A monster damaged permanently from the battle with the Fae. One eye melted closed, the other is red with fury. Liam is so close he can see the poison dripping from the tips of his fangs.
A powerful blast explodes from the gate, sending searing white light in every direction. The concussion blows every creature, angel, and demon to the ground. The earth rumbles beneath them as they all are crushed by an unseen force and pinned to the soil. The gate is destroyed.
Apollyon stomps from the detonation ablaze. His footsteps can be felt down the bridge, the metal beneath his feet deforming and smoking from his passage. Fully aflame, he marches forward and lifts his two blazing war hammers, pointing them at the sky. When his feet touch the hard ground, the hammers swing down with a resounding crash into the earth cracking and rolling it from the powerful impact. The heaving swells radiating out from his hammers tosses everything into the air from their passage, only to have it fall crashing back to the earth in a cloud of dust and debris.
Liam staggers to his feet, followed by his two brothers and they run towards Apollyon. They step beside him and gather their power. Caius gets up keeping his eyes on the angels and knows this is not good. He glances at the useless beasts who are
