Chapter 12: Heaven, Earth, and Hell

Letiel finally joins the fight and she's pulling out all the stops but it looks like Veil has some tricks up his sleeve.

Halfway to the breach, Tempest encountered Peacekeepers. If they'd made it this far already, it was too late to regroup. Everyone was on their own, now.

He dove headlong into combat, ducking under and deflecting the hail of gunfire that flew to meet him as he charged. When he was within range, he started to cut through the machines. They were tougher than he remembered, their hulls having been strengthened. Tem wasn't surprised, but he had to be more careful. He couldn't tear through these things that easily.

Kasumi and Yasunari regrouped in a hallway and exited the opening together. The sight wasn't pretty. All out unorganized war consumed what was once a massive concert hall and indoor collection of playing fields. 

They joined the fray. 

With the added room, the Peacekeepers were able to maneuver better in close combat. The swung their massive, heavy shields, batting away resistance. While one unit engaged at close range, others would cover him from afar, firing on any threats that came within a certain radius.

The mechs fighting Yasunari and Conar were learning. Getting close to these opponents was a not yielding any results. They moved, reposition to fire, only getting close if need be.

Tempest was having trouble of his own. The PKs had reduced that he couldn't take on more than two or three of them at a time, and were mobbing him.

            The twins had broken through the line and rushed along the hallways, it took them minutes to race the length of the tribe and they launched themselves into the battle, dropping PKs left and right. 

"Where's that black thing?"

"Around here somewhere..."

The Twins were gleeful in their attacks, constantly whitleing away at the PKs. 

"This is fun!"

"Let's find more!"

Ignoring their previous target, they scurried off to find more metal.

Tem finished cutting down his current opponent and jumped away for a breather. They kept coming. There was no way they could keep this up.

Kasumi and Yasunari successfully fought their way to Tempest and started picking off the PKs around him. They were no longer killing the machines, only slowing them down. 
"Get back to the command center," Yasu yelled at Tempest. 

"There will be a shield, if you fight with us, you'll be able to go through it. I promise these tin men can't follow!" Kasumi continued. "We can regroup!"

Tem nodded, "We can't hold off here!" he shouted, "We need some seriously heavy firepower to take down enough of them to make a difference!"

Mael entered the the chaos of the concert in an upper box, overlooking the battle below. He spotted the more talented fighters below and frowned.

"Focus fire on those two. Put them down quick--"

His eyes widened at another hooded figure below.

"Tempest."

As they started to retreat, Tempest caught sight of a figure up in a booth. There was no mistaking him. If Maelstrom was personally in the fray, he was confident of victory.

 

"The shield is holding," a tech reported. 

Letiel checked her watch and smiled, magic hour was over. She turned and started walking away. "If the shield is breached, collapse the library and destroy everything sensitive," she ordered. 

As the three retreating figures made it back to the lightly throbbing blue of the shield, Letiel stepped out of it. The blue was the only light now that the sun had set but that suited her just fine. She walked forward slowly, drawing both of her swords and holding them out in front of her. 

She radiated energy, enough to not stop the bullets but redirect them instead.

Letiel strode forward until she was within 20 feet of the lead PKs. She mumbled a word and a wall of flame cut them off. It would not hold them long but she wasn't trying to stop them.

As Letiel passed him, Tempest skidded to a stop and turned to face her.

"Wait! Where are you going? We've got a thousand of those things bearing down on us!" He watched her stride through the protective shield without fear. What the hell was she doing?

The black blade hummed in her right hand and she turned and stabbed it into the ground, half the blade vanishing in the torn tile, nearly peeking out into the levels below. The white sword, though thinner and radiant, received the same treatment. 

"Zemna," Letiel whispered, cutting her hand on the black blade. 

"Amaya Kagamisuoh," she said, cutting her hand on the white blade. 

Each sword began to glow faintly, mist starting to rise from both of them. Both the swords started to shake as the mist started to form. 

Zemna was solid black with pupiless blue eyes and spines that jutted from every scale. He was jagged and strange with four wings, four legs, two tails, and that one giant head. He wasn't solid, rather a translucent figure that stretched and roared the most high pitched squeal. Glass in the area shattered and any organic figure was forced to cover their ears as he drew a sword made of his own spines from his back. He wasn't tall on four legs, on two he was three stories. Blue fire escaped his scales when he huffed, and the inside of his own mouth glowed with it. His teeth and sword dripped with black blood of past battles and oversized talons destroyed the ground. 

Amaya Kagamisuoh shared the translucency but was white with large silver mirrors hanging from her shoulders and hips, thighs, body, and twin tails. She was smooth and thin, void of scales or fur or feathers. A wingless, eyeless creature that oozed a pale liquid. Where her eyes should have been were two equally large mirrors. Her jaw had no teeth and no obvious entry, a creature that never ate, giving her face a skull-like appearance. Fleshy ears stood taller than her own head was long and wound around them was a red cord, draping down her face to hold another circular mirror at her neck, a red tassle dangling below that. Wrapped around her bottom jaw was another red cord, ending in another mirror. She was half of Zemna's size but twice his length. Amaya answered Zemna with musical, haunting tones a beautiful cry behind dangerous beauty. 

As the creatures finished their summoning the swords in the ground turned to smoke, melding with the beasts. 

Letiel looked tiny standing between them but her confidence was almost tangible. This was her power, without the demon in her head. These were the beasts she tamed and they would only answer to her. Bullets whizzed by her head and through the creatures she called from heaven and hell. 
Slowly she started to shift as well. It took less than a minute before the humanoid was replaced by the Eloium queen. The blues danced across her toughened hide and started to brighten as the silver blood rushed through her scales.

As her summoned dragons started to take shape Tempest could only stare at her incredulously. Maybe they really could take this battle with things like that on their side.

Maelstrom had left the concert hall and advanced, just in time to see the the three beasts take shape. He'd known about the Elouim ability to shift, but this was something else. His weapons had no effect on the two huge huge beasts that ha suddenly formed from nothing. He pulled up his radio quickly.

"Veil, something is happening that needs your expertise. Now."

Slowly, the machines started to inch back from the shield, retreating to the hall.

"I know, I see it," Veil responded. He was hanging out of another chopper and scowling at the three beasts. Zemna had just started attacking and was laying waste to everything. Attacks did nothing to the monster and bullets aimed at Letiel were absorbed into Amaya Kagamisuoh's mirrors. 

Veil drew his own blade and cut his hand down the length. The gray blade was vibrating already and the moment Veil dropped it from the chopper it underwent a similar summoning. 

"Andra," Veil called as the smoking sword turned into a six winged, evenly toned beast. It was a leaner version of Zemna, with the same spikes and forward facing blades. Andra had six wings though and instead of black and blue, he was Gray and orange. The glowing eyes locked on Zemna and the beast roared his annoyance, an extremely low bass that was felt more than heard, a rumbling summon of Earth.

He slammed into Zemna, driving the beast to the ground and the two monsters roared and clashed in a battle of titans. 

Veil half smiled at the warring monsters and turned to face Letiel. She was watching him and beating her wings, beginning to leave the ground. He sneered and dropped from the chopper, shifting as he went. The Eloium traitor was twice her size with scales of green and gold.

They met in the air, her feline teeth locking on his arm and his canine maw tearing at her shoulder while they tumbled through the air.

Tempest could only watch as these legendary creatures clashed. As Letiel took off into the air to engage her mortal enemy, he could only hope she would succeed.

With Zemna engaged, Mael started to advance again. He'd seen the shield before backing off and determined that the only way through it would be to short it out. After a brief search, he found an electrical panel, ripped it out of the wall, and started working.

Veil was vicious in this form but awkward. He hated the Eloium so much, hated himself so much that he only shifted to practice. Once he knew he could get to this one form, he stopped trying. The body felt natural and he hated it. He loathed what he was but if meant killing her, he would happily embrace that dark secret of his. 

Letiel's own feelings were different, her hate was marred by surprise. She had only attacked out of instinct but she had never seen Veil transform like this before! Up until he proved her wrong, she thought he was human. Her life felt out of whack and confused, but she realized he could only have done what he did because he was Eloium. 

She ripped away, his blood hot on her tongue. His wings wobbled and he hovered to the ground, landing on crushed bodies and metal. 

"Why didn't you tell me?!" she screamed. 

He roared his response and charged. Their bodies collided with an angry thud. 

"I gave you immortality! I broke myself for you and you never told me!?" Letiel's voice rang out above the noise of the clashing gods and Amaya's hisses from behind her. 

"My immortality is my own," Veil hissed in response. "I would never be your shadow!"

Their teeth clashed on wings and feathers, tearing each other. Letiel's tail tied his wings and they tumbled. Even inexperienced, Veil's size was a problem. He utilized that weight well and after only five minutes of tussling Letiel found herself backing away from him, her foot injured. Amaya Kagamisuoh was feeling her master's pain and seemed to be shrinking, slowing in response. 

Behind her Zemna and Andra too were beginning to slow. Both of them howled their pain and turned to attack their master's enemy. Annoyed, both Letiel and Veil turned and called off their beasts. The monsters turning into swords once more. This was the master's fight.

Veil shifted down and picked up Andra, the blade shivering slightly. "Finish this the way we started it, Letiel!"

"No, if you choose to appear as prey, you will die as prey," she snarled, launching herself forward, still in her Eloium form. Her tail collided with his sword and a rush of wind pulsed around them as the force dispersed. She slashed with her claws and he defended. Veil stabbed with his sword and she parried. They moved back and forth, each landing hits to weaken the other until Veil finally pushed her back behind the shield. 

Cut off from Amaya the sword beast cried out and changed back to the blade. 

Letiel shifted down and glared at Veil who was trapped beyond. He lowered his blade and the dragon queen grinned a feral grin. She waved her hand and Amaya returned to her, Zemna as well, but not without cutting through Veil on it's way. The black blade pulled a chunk out of the traitor's leg and left him on his knees. 

"I will return for you," she growled through the energy shield. "And we'll both go to Aedithlei together but first I will kill your partner."

Author's Note

This chapter FELT choppy while I edited so if you have any ideas as to fixing it, please tell me.