Chapter 14 - Dark Macabre

Through the streets of the kingdom of Saint Zagra, the angels went about their daily lives. Their white feathers shimmered, casting a radiant glow across their land and breathing life into it. They worked, watered the flowers, kept each other company, soared through the skies, and spoke together in harmony. Children played innocently in the courtyards, their laughter echoing pure and carefree. It was a tranquil life. Sunlight poured down upon their prosperity, illuminating the peace they had built within that grand and awe-inspiring kingdom.

In a café designed in a medieval style, painted in a soft blue, two elegantly dressed angelic women sat together, enjoying the view of the kingdom while sharing a friendly conversation about their lives.

"A new shop opened near my home that does manicures, and I thought, why not give it a try? Turns out, it was absolutely worth it," said one of the angels, dressed in a rose-colored gown.

"Oh, that's wonderful you mentioned it! I was just wondering yesterday where I could go for that. Now that you've reminded me, you've helped me more than you know," replied the other angel, sipping warm chamomile tea. The reflection of her red gown shimmered faintly against the surface of the cup.

"She had such a brilliant technique with nails. Truly, the woman working there was an expert," the first angel added, running her fingers lightly through her golden hair.

"I can't wait to try it myself," said her friend with a smile.

In that moment, when not even a single feather fell upon the cobblestones of the kingdom, dozens of palaces were suddenly torn apart by an unexpected assault. The two angels who had just been speaking were reduced to nothing more than a tangled mass of blood in the catastrophe. Children lay massacred. It was pure horror.

"DAUGHTER! WHERE ARE YOU!?" screamed a terrified angel, grievously wounded in the attack.

Children wailed amidst the explosions, while the lifeless eyes of the fallen stared blankly at the smoke that swallowed their ruined streets. Panic erupted. Angels took to the skies in desperation, crying out the names of their loved ones, screaming, fleeing in confusion at what in the heavens had just struck them.

"She's... quite strong," muttered a battle-worn angel, standing at the far end of the ravaged road, blood trickling down her left arm.

Beyond the haze of smoke, the heavy, intimidating steps of Magura echoed, her arms folded across her chest. She fixed the warrior angel with a cold, deathly stare, before letting her gaze drift across the destruction she had unleashed.

"Perhaps... I overdid it," she murmured to herself.

Five minutes earlier...

Magura had been staring, bewildered, at Glauk. He stood with his scythe lowered at his side, leaving himself completely open to attack, yet his stance carried no fear. His eyes, unyielding, devoid of any emotion, conveyed only the intent to eliminate what stood before him.

"Strange..." Magura thought. "What is a mortal doing here? "

"Tell me, who are you, and what is it you seek in this place?" she demanded, raising her hands into a ready stance for battle.

Glauk only watched her in silence, unmoved, offering neither answer nor reaction to her words.

"No response, eh? My apologies then, but I'll have to erase you," said Magura as frigid shards of ice began forming around her hands, the air crackling with the promise of her strike.

But in that instant, Glauk rotated his scythe ever so slightly, and suddenly, the two of them were standing in an entirely different place.

"What?" Magura gasped in shock.

They were surrounded by withered white trees stretching endlessly in every direction, their scarlet leaves scattered across the ground. Luminous purple butterflies drifted through the air, their phosphorescent wings casting eerie glows upon the desolate land. Above them loomed a somber sky, devoid of sunlight, veiled in a shroud of black clouds. It was a dead world, kept alive only by those butterflies as they sought the nectar of death.

"One of the Nine Dead Realms... Only shamans can access them. And the Twelfth Kindu," Magura muttered, narrowing her gaze at Glauk. The scythe in his grip tilted toward her, its blade hungry, ready to strike.

"To achieve such a feat without a single incantation... impressive," she admitted. But in that very moment, Glauk was suddenly upon her, the steel of his weapon mere inches from severing her throat.

Magura's right hand crystallized into black ice, and with a swift strike she knocked the scythe aside. Glauk twisted in response, swinging the weapon overhead to cleave her skull from above. She slammed her foot into the earth, summoning a massive surge of dark ice that burst upward, hurling Glauk back and shattering the brittle trees around them. Yet he caught himself with agile precision, climbing upon the icy masses as though they were footholds.

With a sharp motion of her left arm, Magura transformed the fallen trees into shards of black ice, sending them hurtling like rifle bullets through the air. Glauk twisted and spun, deflecting some, narrowly dodging others as they screamed past with terrifying speed. Planting the tip of his scythe into the ground, he used it as leverage, vaulting clear of the barrage.

But Magura was relentless. Pressing her left palm against the ground, she conjured an immense tidal wave of black ice, each jagged crest towering over a hundred meters high. The earth split apart beneath the weight of her power, swallowing and hurling aside the withered forest as the frozen tsunami roared toward Glauk, thirsting for the scent of death.

Glauk dragged his hand along the length of his scythe, and suddenly, it blazed with a deadly crimson light streaked with black veins, radiating an aura of annihilation.

"Hm!? Draken?" Magura whispered in surprise when she saw Glauk's scythe take on its new, ominous hue.

With precise mastery, Glauk swung his weapon, cleaving the colossal masses of black ice clean in half and halting their advance. The sheer force of the strike tore through the landscape itself, shattering trees and unleashing a violent surge of wind that forced Magura to raise her wings as a shield.

"This human... he's stronger than I thought." Her gaze narrowed.

"Hm!? Could it be... his right eye? Is that why he's able to wield Draken? It gives me a chilling sensation."

Releasing her wings, Magura spread her dark feathers wide and launched herself into the air toward him. With both arms outstretched, she conjured enormous constructs of black ice and hurled them forward with devastating speed.

"Lagus Arts: Zero Rings — Inquisitor's Sin," Magura intoned, invoking her technique. From the ice, chains erupted, slithering through the air at frightening speed to bind Glauk.

He managed to cut through several, dodging others, but one caught him off guard, coiling tight around his chest and locking him in place. For the first time, Glauk faltered, his eyes flashing in surprise as Magura closed in on him at great speed, a sphere of black ice forming within her right hand. The strike she prepared was powerful enough to kill him outright.

But just as she drew within meters of her prey, Glauk's eyes widened. He tapped the ground with the butt of his scythe. In an instant, Magura found herself not in the Dead Realm, but back in the royal palace corridor where she had walked moments before.

"Damn it! He escaped," she cursed under her breath.

Yet as she turned, Magura's attention snapped to the figures at her side, two angelic soldiers clad in golden armor entwined with crimson cloaks. Their helmets concealed the upper half of their faces, and from their backs spread four small wings each. One was a woman, the other a man, both standing nearby in stunned confusion at her sudden appearance.

"Damn it... again," Magura muttered, her irritation sharpening.

Now, in the streets of Saint Zagra...

"You'd be mistaken to think you can defeat me so easily," declared the female angel, raising her sword into position.

"Other angels will appear within minutes, trying to stop me. I must inform Atbara of what I've seen and withdraw before this turns into a problem. LUNAMES. Until he arrives, I'll have to act on my own. That human... he ruined everything. How did he manage to wield Draken within that eye?"

"I have no other choice," Magura muttered as her inner monologue ended.

She placed her right hand over her chest. At once, black ice began to crystallize across her dark jacket, creeping over every inch of her body. The angel warrior froze, bewildered, as Magura was swallowed in ice. Within seconds, she was encased entirely, taking the shape of a feminine effigy sculpted from obsidian frost. The sight was haunting. A figure so pure, yet pure only in malice.

Extending her left hand, the ice shifted and reshaped itself into a suit of dark armor. Fingers became wrapped in black gauntlets, iron plates spread across her form, and the armor pulsed with a hunger for destruction. A tattered black cloak draped down, concealing her legs. Heavy greaves, a plated breastplate, and jagged pauldrons each adorned with the curling horn of a goat encased her body. Finally, a full black helm sealed her visage, allowing her to breathe and to see through its abyssal slits.

And from within, her eyes ignited an intimidating, poisonous green glow that bore down upon the angel warrior.

"What the?!" the angel warrior gasped, shaken by the nightmare unfolding before her eyes. The Death Armor...

Without uttering a single word, Magura conjured a massive sphere of black ice, hurling it toward the angel. Every ruin, every wall, every shattered stone in its path was obliterated.

"Lapis Arts: Two Wings — Circles of Benediction!"

Giant radiant circles manifested around the oncoming ice. Each ring latched onto a section of it, striving to crush it.

"HHHAAAAHHH!" the angel screamed, pouring all her strength into breaking the ice. Yet instead of the black ice fracturing, the glowing circles shattered into pieces.

"WHAT?!"

The sphere hurtled forward with horrifying speed, tearing through her body and shredding her into hundreds of fragments. Flesh, organs, bone, and blood exploded across the cobblestones. She died instantly. Magura gazed coldly at the mangled remains of her enemy, not a trace of emotion crossing her face.

Above, the sky darkened with the sudden arrival of a battalion, fifty angelic soldiers clad in golden armor, descending in formation, ready to strike Magura down.

"Die, demon!" they roared as they dove toward her.

"Lagus Arts: Zero Rings — Fate of the Cobras," Magura intoned through her helm. The distortion of her voice made it sound even more unnerving, dripping with menace. She did not even glance at the incoming angels.

From the ground erupted colossal black-ice cobras, their eyes burning with faint green flames. Upon their foreheads sat statues of Magura herself, bare, spectral effigies carved in ice. The angels unleashed radiant light upon the serpents, but their attacks dissolved uselessly against the infernal frost.

"What in Edin'Borghia's name is this ice?!" one of them cried in horror.

"The Ice of Hell," Magura answered. "It cannot melt... nor can it be broken by such pathetic strikes."

The serpents devoured the angels alive. Screams echoed through the streets, anguished, animalistic shrieks, like swine being slaughtered. Wings were ripped apart, bodies torn in half, golden armor crushed like parchment. Some tried to flee skyward, only to be caught mid-flight, their corpses ripped open and cast down.

Before Magura's eyes, a crimson waterfall poured across the city stones.

"I see you've given my soldiers, and one of our commanders quite the trouble," came a woman's voice from behind Magura.

Magura turned her head to see who had spoken. Embroidered across the violet cape of the warrior was her title: General Eudaniela. She wore white armor, as pale as the plumage of a snowy owl, with a helm forged into the shape of a sharp beak and two sweeping wings. Her mouth remained exposed, framed by the cold steel of her helmet.

"One of the fifteen angelic generals," Magura remarked with utter indifference.

"You are well-informed. I am the eleventh general, Eudaniela Hortator," the woman declared, drawing her blade and leveling it toward Magura.

"I see," Magura answered coolly, turning fully to face her new opponent.

Eudaniela launched forward with a burst of speed so great it ripped open a massive rift in the ground behind her. Magura conjured black ice to parry the incoming strike. Their clash shook the heavens. The impact carved out a colossal crater spanning at least two kilometers. Rubble and shattered remains of angelic corpses sank into the abyss. A divine chasm of death.

"I can tell you're a little different from the others," Magura said, raising more jagged masses of ice to catch the general off guard.

Eudaniela evaded the encroaching spikes, soaring upward before diving down again with blistering speed, blade poised to strike. Magura erected a massive barrier of black ice, from which two gargantuan hands emerged to seize the general.

Eudaniela clenched her fist, condensing a surge of Lapis into it, and struck with such force that both icy hands cracked and fused into one crushing blow.

In response, Magura froze the entire ruined expanse of the kingdom and drew all that ice together, compressing it above the general into a single, catastrophic mass.

"Seems I'll need to use a technique after all," Eudaniela murmured to herself.

"Lagus Arts: Zero Rings — Frozen Sun."

The sunlight vanished from above the kingdom. A titanic sphere of black ice, five kilometers long, three kilometers wide, formed in the heavens, ready to descend. A newborn star of ice, prepared to obliterate everything beneath it. A child of the sun, about to unleash its wrath.

"What in the world is happening?" Eliael muttered to himself as he witnessed, from the great window of the northern royal palace, what looked like a colossal meteor of black ice crashing down upon the kingdom.

"Your Majesty!" several soldiers rushed into the chamber, panic written across their faces.

Tarnael and Kaela stood silently at the window, struck speechless by the sight before them.

"A DEMON! A DEMON IS ATTACKING THE KINGDOM!" the soldiers cried, terror in their voices.

Both Kaela and Eliael froze at the words. Tarnael, however, only listened in silence, his expression cold and unmoved.

"I must go," Kaela declared, unfurling her wings, ready to fly toward the battlefield.

"No, Your Majesty!" cried the royal servant.

"Lazrael... let me go," Kaela snapped, her voice sharp with irritation.

"I cannot let you go, even if you are the queen," Lazrael replied, deeply troubled. "What if you are harmed in this battle? From what I've seen, that demon is at least on par with the Guardians of Hell, perhaps stronger. There is no chance you could face such a being without suffering grave injury."

"Leave it to us, Your Majesty, the military forces," the soldiers urged.

Kaela wavered, torn between the voice of reason and the fire of her emotions. She glanced at Eliael, his face stricken with worry, and at Tarnael, who remained utterly detached, as if nothing concerned him at all.

"Well, king? Why aren't you saying anything? With all your teleportation abilities, don't you have anything to do? Or anything to say as the kingdom itself is struck so suddenly?" Kaela shouted, her voice trembling between rage and desperation.

"Kaela..." Eliael murmured, troubled.

"It lies in the hands of the soldiers," Tarnael said calmly.

"What?" Kaela stared at him in disbelief at his indifference.

"It lies in their hands. We will simply watch. That is all we shall do," he repeated, his tone as unshaken as before.

"You don't care that they're dying out there? That your coldness, your negligence, is dooming them?" Kaela cried.

"You fret over worthless things," Tarnael answered, crossing his arms as he continued to gaze at the battle from afar. "Watch first. Then speak."

"You bastard..." Kaela clenched her fists, shaking with fury. "Damn it all!"

Tarnael turned his eyes toward Lazrael, who silently nodded in firm agreement.

"Lapis Arts: Two Wings — Instruments of Roses."

The sky filled with a vast ocean of blue rose petals, each petal bristling with deadly thorns. They rained down upon Magura's technique from every direction, piercing relentlessly, yet the black ice remained utterly unmoved.

"Damn it! This ice is stronger than I imagined," Eudaniela cursed inwardly.

Then, from the massive ice fists she was holding back, a figure suddenly emerged, a perfect copy of Magura.

"What—?!" Eudaniela was caught off guard.

The doppelgänger drew a blade of black ice and struck at her. Forced onto the defensive, Eudaniela had no choice but to draw her sword with her free hand to block the attack, all while straining to hold off the colossal fists pressing against her.

"Lapis Arts: Two Wings — Altered Fate."

The voice of another angel resounded near the battlefield.

At once, the titanic mass of black ice that threatened to crush the kingdom veered sharply upward, soaring into the sky. Petals and clouds alike were torn apart in its violent passage as it vanished into the unknown heights.

"Theodiel..."

It was another general, Theodiel Labeo, clad in armor mirroring that of his partner. With the faintest motion of his left hand, he had redirected Magura's cataclysm. Even Magura herself seemed momentarily surprised.

Freed from the crushing assault, Eudaniela quickly regrouped with the newly arrived general.

"How bad is it?" Theodiel asked.

"As bad as it could be," she replied grimly. "At least a thousand dead already, women, children, the elderly included."

Magura's gaze rested on the two generals, her expression hidden but her presence cold and merciless.

"Any idea of her motive? Or who she might be?" Theodiel pressed.

"From the scale of her attacks, I'd wager she came from within the southern royal palace. She must have had a mission to fulfill. As for her identity... her aura, her power, it reeks of one of the Guardians of Hell," Eudaniela answered.

"What would a Guardian of Hell want here? For one of them to come alone would be suicide," Theodiel muttered.

"Perhaps... but I get the feeling she needs no one else," Eudaniela said, her eyes narrowing as she watched Magura approach them slowly, step by step, her helm aglow with that murderous, predatory gaze...