Blessed Divine Arbiter Of Holy Silver

The maid with long black hair crouched like a cat. The uniform hung over body, ripped along her torso, exposing her bra. The dress was in shreds around her legs. Distorted mounds of black tarnish jittered under the influence of unstable mana bands. Frederika tensed, concentrated, but doubled over on all fours.

The father knelt to gently washed her exposed scratches. She slapped him, “I don’t need you! Stand back!”

Roxane loomed over the stricken maid and the holy man, “You should listen to her,” A twirling kick landed against Frederika’s jaw.

The black-haired tarnish maid dropped her whip. She rolled to the ground across a spattering of dry pebbles. The shredded uniform clung to her frame while exposed skin suffered abrasions.

Brunswick stared coldly from the shadows with his arms behind his back.

The staff cheered, “Pulverize him angel!”

The angel put a hand on her heart. Cleavage strained against her robes, “That’s correct. I am an angel! The need of such ruffians is beyond me. Know that I shall keep you in my heart as I protect you, on my own, with power from God!”

A high-pressure band wrapped her wrist. That’s when the angel noticed tarnish plates no longer dispersing the heavy vapor. They fell in the dirt around her. Hand shot up against her will like a marionette’s limb on strings.

The angel stretched against her will, boots pinned to the floor by rocks. Zinnian pressed her robes tightly against her bust while pulling her hair up as if tied in a band. Both hands grasped at invisible pressure.

Silver flowed up her arm in thin coils. It discolored, cracked, and broke into flecks she couldn’t control. The metal formed thin snaking bands, but she could feel her affinity tarnish quickly as it thinned, then heated.

“How do you expect to save us from vampires? You don’t even know how to control your affinity, angel.”

Chalky pebbles collected around the angel’s feet. They pulled them down. Her arms stretched upward.

“How dare you defile me! I’m not to be taken lightly!”

The angel screamed, a glowing surge of mana erupted from her. The silver spear stretched slightly. Plates along the stem popped from corner welds. They were small, but many, like a puzzle of curved squares floating from the spear. Several launched at Kurl. They broke his concentration by flying for his chest, forcing a rolling dodge. The elemental grapple of pressurized heavy vapor broke from her wrists. Silver plates twirled faster.

Kurl dodged as the plates returned for his back. Arms of loose rock grabbed them, forming fist statues to encase them. He ducked behind a sandstone pillar to concentrate on suffocating the angel.

Silver plates stretched thinner, slow, controlled, using air movement to cool.

Bands of heavy vapor flowed between them despite the intrusions. A fan of silver lashed, sliced through the coiling invisible pressure. Mana burst along her form. Zinnian dispersed with a burst of cold. Flecks of silver shavings scattered. Silver plates dug around her boots while she steadied her spear.

“I am the rod of silver sent by God! You will not best me!”

Zinnian pressed her, but her ventilation technique bested him. Plates moved too fast for his vapor.

One shot from the swirling storm sliced a stone pillar. She commanded small groups of plates, maneuvering, firing on Kurl and Adam. Tiny pins of silver stretched from the tip. They shot at Kurl.

He slowed them with small orbs of compressed Zinnian, but not enough.

Adam cast pebble rain from the ceiling to deflect the attacks, “She’s berserk!”

One pin forced itself through the storm and sliced Kurl across the cheek. He kept still, watching the rocky cyclone.

The silver spear burst from the rocks, straight through the cloud. A chunk of sandstone broke into smaller pieces.

Kurl caught it through his other hand, tensed his legs, and enhanced his physical force with bursts of Zinnian popping behind his hand. The technique opened his wound.

Rocks struck the angel but she cast them aside. The silver plates guarding her moved faster and with more force so close to her body. As the dusts dissipated with Adam recovering his mana, she stared at Kurl’s wounds, almost mesmerized.

“I’ll recall my spear; this fight is over. God has decided to show you mercy. Holy silver is reserved for vampires Atone for your sins in this horrible place, so that you might hope for heaven.”

Her arm stretched forth to call the spear back, but it wouldn’t budge. The spearhead stretched, burning through the inside of Kurl’s pierced hand. But it wasn’t Kurl’s power, a funeral cairn of sandstone rocks buried the center of her spear. A heavy pressure tugged on all sides. The more she powered it back to her, the more stones fell from the ceiling to increase the weight of the cairn.

Kurl pulled his hand off the weapon and flexed it into a fist. It hurt like hell, “You still fanning yourself? Scared of something? You should be? Now!”

Compressed Zinnian amidst the chunks of sandstone burst forward. Heated stone and shots of pressurized vapor attacked. The plates fanning the angel rang like bells, pushed back into an opening that left her exposed along the front.

Roxane jumped through the gap; cold bursts of dispersing gas iced her arms and a gloss of ice formed across the knuckles of her oncoming punch. It landed between the collar bones, just above the breasts. The mana barrier flickered, went down. A few seconds passed before it returned.

Silver squares fell.

Small strands of shimmering water glistened from the angel’s pores into Roxanne’s free hand. Water ran down Roxanne’s wrists to leave a pure white crystal between her index and middle finger, “You’ll want this back.”

With the breaking of her barrier, the angel lost control. Her arms wouldn’t budge, her legs felt like sponges, and her entire body reached the verge of collapse, “What are you?”

Roxanne put the crystal between her lips, grabbed the angel, and kissed deeply. Blue eyes widened as the crystal pushed into her mouth to dissolve on her tongue. She pressed her hands against the angel’s hot red cheeks to kiss more deeply. A wet string stretched between their lips as the angel collapsed.

“You’ll thank me later,” Roxanne wiped her lips.

The flow of Zinnian compressed around the angel’s wrists, just enough to form a rubbery invisible tie, slowly enough to avoid burning her. Her arms pulled up until her body hung in the air. Legs dangled limply and her head listed as she groaned.

“What did you do?” Kurl asked.

“Broke the her life barrier, pulled out the stuff that makes her muscles work.”

“Will she survive?”

“I fed the crystal back to her. She should recover in about fifteen minutes. But it’s gonna hurt like hell.”

“And you know this how?”

She gave him a thumbs up and a big smile, “I tested it on myself.”

The other two maids and the holy father leaned over Frederika, who still laid sprawled on her back with no sign of coming too. The father blessed the welts on her cheeks with holy water while the other maids rubbed her scratches with tarnish powders.

Roxanne cracked her knuckles as she returned to them, “You girls are awake? Anyone want to continue our little battle?”

Both maids shook their heads while the father bowed.

Frederika went over Roxanne’s shoulders like a sack. The other maids curtseyed as the father bowed in servile obedience, “Please be gentle. She’s a bit enthusiastic. She didn’t mean it.”

Adam came out of hiding, but kept his distance.

Robes pressed against the angel’s curvy body as zinnian pushed around. She tried to wiggle as garments flowed too tightly. The caress of vapor flowing over her hips tickled.

“Please cease this at once!”

Bleeding burnt pierced hands wiped over his uniform as Kurl stared. He spit at her feet, “You’re hanging like a royal flag and can’t do shit about it. That’s your reason. Now join my squad. If that’s not good enough, I can seal you in that vampire coffin. Don’t bother coming out while I’m alive.”

The angel nodded, “Please, anything but that. So long as you carry out the will of God, I pledge my fealty. Now if you’d please, release me. Stop blowing on me!”

Kurl nodded. The robes breathed again. Her boots fell into a loose pile of stone, but she collapsed backwards. Kurl caught her in a bed of zinnian. The spear laid covered in dust and stone rubble. Her face reddened as the bed of zinnian coiled under her arms and lifted her upright so she could manage walking. Her face turned bright red as she felt the heavy vapor flow. Legs wiggled as she barely managed a step without Kurl’s affinity helping.

“My name is Vanessa. Herald of the Divine Light, Messenger of the Holy Father, and Serene Arbiter of Justice!”

Kurl flicked his hand as he walked away, not caring that it still bled. He escorted the defeated angel to the exit elevator on zinnian crutches.

“Didn’t ask.”