We’re reasonable

Rose and the guardian angel were quickly approaching John, determined to beat, kill, or capture him.

Rose wasn’t averting her gaze or closing her eyes. She was staring straight ahead, though her hands were twitchy.

When they approached John, the guardian angel fish blasted him with a light beam spell.John easily tanked the damage. But in the next half-second, Rose stabbed him with a light spear. The spear went through his armor and steel body. Even though the spear pierced him, he didn’t twitch. He grabbed Rose with his giant hand and slammed her to the ground. Then he stepped on her with his massive boot.
She wasn’t seriously hurt but was now helpless. She couldn’t move and felt a fear she had almost never felt before.
In her world, Rose had always struggled to find jobs and earn a good income. She was constantly afraid: What if I lose this job? I could become homeless. I could die. But she had lived with that fear for so long that she stopped caring and didn’t think about it much anymore.

Now, with this bull-like creature standing over her, she was completely terrified. She clenched the dirt in fear, shock, and pain. The guardian angel saw he had no chance and decided to retreat. He started flying away in a weird fashion. He couldn’t focus on flying straight due to the overwhelming threat to his life. John used a powerful spell in the form of a shout. The awfully loud sound totally disoriented the angel, and he began falling.

John then pulled a small hammer from his back and threw it at the angel at incredible speed. The angel couldn’t dodge and was struck in the head, dead in an instant. John picked up Rose, tied her hands and legs.

 She was yelling, “Stop! Stop!”

But he threw her over his shoulder and carried her to the place where they held hostages and war captives. While John was carrying Rose, who couldn’t even imagine what would happen to her, across the dark sky toward the north, in front of the Light’s main castle, Ash stood in a fighting stance.

Ash was gripping an improvised weapon, a wooden stick, firmly showing no nervousness. The five royal angels were confident. None of them doubted they would win. Ash said, “Sorry,” and threw the wooden sword. It exploded with a spell and released black ink and mist. Ash had used a lot of mana on this spell, and a lot of energy to escape, especially after being tortured for days. The moment the sword exploded, he began running, jumping, bouncing, using every tree, rock, and piece of the environment for cover. The royal angels needed half a second to recover from the surprise. They had expected a fight, not an escape. They thought he might ambush them from behind cover. This maybe slowed them down slightly, but they still chased Ash, firing powerful beams of deadly light spells. Ash wasn’t even thinking of fighting. He was breathing heavily, his body was heavy, and his mind a hazy abyss.

His head, as one famous philosopher said, was just a place to put a hat. No full thoughts only the focus on surviving.
Ash’s body was amazing, and his speed great but the sun was still in the sky. That meant he wasn’t at full potential. If it were dark, he might have escaped easily, maybe even taken on a few of the royal angels. But not like this.

He kept running as fast as he could. While running, he got hit five times by powerful spells.
The spells threw him, he bounced like a dodgeball, but he kept going.
He ran and ran. The sun was slowly setting. His power and speed began to rise. The angels noticed and were surprised.
Seeing this, they decided to use their finishing move.
They stopped chasing for half a second to form a spell formation. The spell was powerful enough to erase half the city instantly, but required them to stop to cast it.
They aimed and, in two seconds, fired a massive lightning spell.
Ash felt something approaching at the speed of light.
He turned. He saw it coming. He knew he couldn’t dodge it.
This is it.
They say that before death, your life flashes before your eyes. Images of loved ones. Happy memories. But in Ash’s mind, there was nothing. He didn’t want to die, but he couldn’t avoid the spell.
Then, in the blank space of his mind, he saw an image of his old dog. He thought, Ah… this is the end. This is where I die. The spell hit. His body armor began reflecting parts of it in all directions, but the lightning was slowly shredding through it.
He was losing consciousness. The pain was excruciating. He was seconds away from death, but just before his body was torn apart, the sun set, and night began.

The spell weakened slightly. Ash’s body began resisting. He regained some mana as night fell. He used all of it to launch himself away. The royal guards saw the spell hit him and believed he was dead. They returned to the Light Castle. Their mission was complete, they could rest.

Ash crashed into a pine tree. His limbs were severely damaged, but with nightfall, his strength and healing were increasing rapidly. He hung in the tree, unable to move, processing what had just happened… wondering if he would survive.

Two days passed.
Rose was held in a facility with other female angel captives. But she looked a little different. After two days, John moved her to a separate facility and asked her:

“Do you want to join the dark forces and give your life for our cause?”

Rose was afraid. She felt overwhelmed. Her body shook. She didn’t know what to say. If she refused, she might be killed.

“I accept,” she said.

“Oh, really?”

“Yes. I’ll do anything. Just don’t kill me.”

“No one will kill you. Relax. We’re reasonable.”

Rose was surprised by that, but didn’t show it on her face.
Despite the fear, she said,

“I’m not loyal to anyone. I’m new here. I’m just trying to survive.”

John nodded. “Okay. I’ll accept you into my army. But you’ll have to go through Charlie’s training. He’s one of our best warriors.”

She nodded. “Oh, and you’ll also be my servant. You’ll do whatever I tell you.”

She nodded again.

“Okay. Charlie will be waiting outside. Go with him.”

She left and met Charlie.
“Greetings, slave. From today on, you’re our meat-shield warrior. Clear?”

“What? That wasn’t...”

“Just say: ‘Clear,’” Charlie interrupted.

Rose stood still, still shaking, but a bit less.

She clenched her fist and said loudly,
“Clear.”

Charlie continued: “Good. That’s your facility. Go rest. Training starts tomorrow. If you think about escaping, remember, we kill first and ask questions later. We’re reasonable.”

Rose smiled little bit.
“Clear.”

She was now in a facility with other captives, also expected to integrate into the dark forces. She trained with creatures, mages, and beasts under Charlie. She learned a lot, especially how to take a punch.

If she messed up, Charlie would slap her so hard she wouldn’t wake up for a whole day. Despite the terrible conditions, she learned basic spells, how to use a sword, spear, and axe.

She thought, I never learned this much in my old world. Maybe I was wrong before. I’m just a slave now… I need to escape. I’ll pretend to join them. I’ll be a spy. An inside man, or rather, an inside woman.

One day while training, Charlie shouted,

“Kneel! Stop and kneel! The Lord is back!”

The whole city knelt.
Heads bowed. John exited the facility and knelt as well.
Ash walked slowly into the second city they had captured, with a smile. Seeing everyone bow to him gave him a rush.
Ash had returned to the dark territory, stronger than ever.
But Ash didn’t know…That in his army, someone had joined to spy and betray him.

More importantly, he didn’t know…That among his ranks…