(From this chapter and onward I'll probably just refer to Alex's pronouns as She/her to not cause confusion with the back and forth)
Marie's POV
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"I…have wings. I have fucking wi—."
Alex said as she swayed weakly for a bit and fell face first onto my legs once again. The wings that protruded from her back fell limply by her side. A couple twitches released from them before they slowly retracted.
Two large holes remained, leaving a bloody mess. It looked horrible. As if a butcher slammed two meat cleavers into her back. Blood kept pooling out so I reached between her back with my right hand.
"Sana," I whispered out a light heal spell to stop the bleeding. Completely healing her back would've been my preference, however, if I were to do that she would just go through this painful process again.
"How is she?" Alan asked as he knelt down on a knee beside Alex and I.
"She'll live." I answered in a quiet voice, sniffling and wiping the remaining tears that fell from my eyes.
Alan sighed and nodded his head once as he stared at the gruesome wound on Alex's back. "We need to hurry and send her to the Netherrealm, Marie. Alex's awakening definitely caught the eyes of the Shadow Hunters."
"I know, Alan…but, it's too soon. Her life…the life we planned to avoid is a death wish."
"Marie, we prepared for this occasion, no matter how much we avoided it. You need to start the ritual now. If they catch Alex all this will be wasted by all of us dying."
"Damn it," I said underneath my breathe. Alan was right. All of this would be wasted, so I carefully lifted Alex's head slightly to remove her from my lap to stand up. I then moved her body a bit till Alex was in the center of the room. A pain filled groan escaped her lips causing my heart to tighten from the sound.
'I'm so sorry, baby.' I thought to myself as I elongated my nails on both my hands and formed a fist tightly to dig my nails in my palms to draw dark golden blood similar to the tone of reddish cooper.
Once the blood started to drip I began to draw a diagram around his body with my hands to initiate the gateway to the other side.
Pshhhh Crackle! Crackle!
Another diagram appeared burning into the hardwood floor in the room in front of Alan. The smell of smoke and burnt wood emerged causing me to hurry up.
"They're close." Alan said to no one in particular as he transformed into his demonic form. Holding up his left hand in front of him like a one handed prayer he made a grabbing motion with his right towards his left palm.
A black hilt of a katana with red accents appeared while the blade emerged from a black flame on his left palm. Alan pulled the hilt from the black flame until the dark blade of an Odachi emerged from the dark flame.
"Gehenna's Forge," Alan began as he bit into his thumb to draw blood and traced it on the blade of the Odachi "Crimson Purgatory."
The blood was absorbed into the blade as multiple runic symbols inhabited the blade contrasting with its obsidian color. A whirring sound similar to something vibrating rapidly, filled the room. Chains escaped the hilt of the Odachi and wrapped around Alan's arm, merging with skin, muscle, and veins.
Not long after, a hell hound emerged from the other diagram that burned into the floor. It's black skin flexing with muscles as it took a step with bright flames on its body. Its eyes burning like the sun as it released a demonic growl.
The hell hound flexed its hind legs and leaped towards Alan.
Not phased by the advancements of the demonic beast Alan calmly holds the blade in front of it. The hell hound collided with the blade and began splitting in two with its own momentum like a hot knife through butter.
SPLAT
The two halves fell on either side of Alan as the hell hounds body convulsed a couple times. Soon multiple more diagrams started to appear around the room.
At that moment I began to put the finishing touches on the diagram around Alex's body. Once completed I clasped my hands together and said "Lanuae, porta inferma destinatum Azaelia."
The diagram I drew started to glow bright. I took the chance to put multiple items around Alex that consisted of a black grimoire, a letter, a black necklace that I placed around her neck, and a black bracelet on her right wrist that fused with her skin creating a tattoo.
I moved Alex's hair from her face to place a quick kiss on her cheek.
"Goodbye Alex, become the strong warrior I know you are. I love you."
I stepped out of the glowing diagram surrounding Alex, and not long after she was gone causing the reality to set in.
"Lanuae, a Gaia ad Azaelia" I spoke an incantation of a spell to teleport the boxes packed for Alex. A small diagram drawn on the boxes began to glow, and disappeared once I snapped my fingers.
Following the disappearance of the boxes were the trucks out in the front and the movers packing stuff all around the house. It was all an illusion created by me to make it hard to differentiate with the naked eye.
A small smile appeared on my face as I thought about how Azaelia is going to hate the sudden appearance of boxes to her abode. However, that smile quickly disappeared as more hell hounds appeared along with the shadow hunters of different calibers.
I transformed into my fallen Angel form which consisted of my black hair to blue gradient hair and golden amber eyes. I crossed my arms making a grasping motions by my hips causing dark smoke like energy to emerge.
"Gehenna's Forge," I began as the hilts of a katana and a wakizashi formed from the smoke. I uncrossed my arms to "unseathe" the blades from the black smoke. "Blades of the Fallen".
However I didn't stop there as black smoke appeared from beneath my feet and moved up my legs, abdomen, chest until it stopped around my neck. Once the dark smoke disappeared; what remained was a black and white light armor.
"Well, well, well," A dark demonic voice spoke sounding like multiple voices speaking at once. A man emerged from a summoning circle diagram with horns coming from his head with crimson red hair tied back in a high ponytail and ocean blue eyes.
"I've been wondering were you been Alavion." The demon with crimson hair spoke smirking. "The day has finally come. Hahaha, the day has come I can kill you with no consequences."
Alan snorted at the name he hadn't heard in 22 years. "Of course they send you, Vladimir." Alan said resting his Odachi on his shoulder. "Unfortunately, I won't be dying by your hands."
"Hmph, we'll see about that." Vladimir grinned before he made a book appear out of thin air, opening it and reading it contents.
"By the decree of the veil and shadow, etched in blood into the Codex of Tenebris:
No ShadowKin, nor spawn sired or borne of their cursed blood, shall walk the mortal realm beyond the passing of a single moon. To live among mortals is to taint the balance. To raise offspring in their world is an abomination, an act of deliberate defiance against the divide.
Such transgressors shall be marked betrayers of the veil and shadow. The offspring shall be taken, as the parents shall be executed.
"The shadow does not forget, and we hunters do not forgive. This is not judgement. This is the law of the girl and shadow!"
Vladimir closed the book and made it disappear into thin air.
"Well then," Vladimir begain raising his right hand smirking "kill them."
The moment he snapped his fingers all the hell hound beasts separated into multiple pieces as their corpses collapsed onto the floor like a house of cards.
I crossed my blades and swiped at the empty air towards the ground causing the blood on my blades to splatter on the floor.
I smiled as I locked eyes with Vladimir causing my eyes to glow brightly for a quick second.
"Gladly." I said throwing the wakazashi in my left hand in the air and catching it in a reverse grip.
Vladimir frowned and lowered his right arm down slowly as he glanced at the corpses. A vein in his forehead throbbed as he gritted his teeth in anger.
"You…" Vladimir began as his eyes turned a blood red as his pupils turned to slits. "Fucking…" he added his volume rising a bit as he controlled the black blood of the hell hounds to rise up and form a blood spiral around his fist like a drill.
I took a step back knowing what was coming as Vladimir disappeared.
"BITCH!" Vladimir reappeared and attempted to attack me with his blood drill. However, he didn't get the chance as Alan appeared in front of me holding out his left hand to block the attack with a spell of a red runic shield.
Sparks start to fly as Vladimir's attack contacted with Alan's shield. Vladimir tried to force his attack to break the shield but to no avail as he was blasted back.
"Your battle is with me Vlad, and you decide to not only attack my wife but called her a bitch. You must have forgotten who I am." Alan said as a black aura surrounded him causing our surroundings to shake as a pressure weighed everyone down except me.
"Gehenna Domain Link:" Alan began as the house began to collapse upon itself. "Reign of Astaroth"
BOOOOOMMM!!!
The house imploded erasing a large chunk of it from reality as Alan's domain teleported us to the realm of his control. The place were a demon can rule as a God. The Gehenna domain, as each is unique to the individual. However…
"HAHAHAAAAA!!! You fool, you actually used a domain link." Vladimir laughed "you must have a death wish. You're making this too easy Alavion!"
I watched as Alan's body age drastically as his hair turned white and his body shrunk to a third of what it was, while the tattoos on his body that once glowed brightly dimmed.
The sacrifice of using another demons domain depended on their demonic element. For Astaroth's domain, the demon of time and chaos, the sacrifice was nearly most of the demons life span. So to make up for that, I…
Blergh…splash
I dropped to a knee as I coughed up blood as my vision grew hazy. My body began to age at a rapid pace as Alan's began to decrease and his tattoos began to glow red while the whiteness in his hair decreased.
Locking eyes with Alan one last time, I forced a smile towards him as bloody tears welled up in my eyes. Alan's fingers tightened around his Odachi as he watched my life span drain. The look in his eyes were screaming 'I'm sorry.'
But I just shook my head as best as I could with my growing weakness and mouthed to him 'See you soon…my love.'
I fell on my side as I couldn't support my weight no longer. My eyes slowly closed as I drifted off into eternal slumber, never to wake again.
Alan's POV
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I turned back to look at Vladimir once Marie took her last breath.
"Heh, so that was your plan? How weak have you become to require on life drain Alavion." Vladimir voiced out.
I gritted my teeth together as wrath build up within me.
"ARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!" I yelled out as black flames erupted around me. My dark bronze skin turned into midnight black as if the black flames charred my skin. The tattoos on my body transitioned to red contrasting with my black skin.
I dashed towards Vladimir leaving multiple after images behind me. When I arrived in front of him I palmed Vladimir in the chest causing him to get knocked back and fly through the air like a broken kite.
All around me where the rest of Vladimir's subordinates that emerged from the summoning circles back at the house. They all prepared to attack me at once, but I took the opportunity to lower my center of gravity.
I then placed the blade by my left side in the pose to get ready to unsheathe my katana.
'Sinful Blade Art: Fifth Cycle…Eternal Slumber'
All that was heard was the sound of the blade cutting through the air as all the subordinates surrounding me all froze mid action in their attack.
Not long after, their blood erupted from their bodies like sprinklers as all their heads got chopped off and fell to ground. The last view most of them saw was their bodies soon following to hit the ground.
BZZT
Vladimir appeared behind me like a flash of thunder throwing a fist toward my unguarded back, but I sensed his arrival early on.
'Hmph,' I snorted as I lightly stomped the ground with my right heel and twisting it slightly to the right about 30 degrees causing an obsidian wall to erupt from the terrain of my domain link.
BOOOOM!
The obsidian wall shattered into large pieces when Vladimir released a close quarter blood bullet as soon as his fist made contact. The explosion caused both of us to separate a bit of a distance from each other.
As we turned to face each other Vladimir dusted himself off from the debris from the black blood armor he had equipped and casually locked eyes with me before speaking.
"Still full of tricks," He spat as he lunged towards me again.
Blood magic danced along his knuckles as he weaved between the fragmented fabric of time around us. He was adapting to the domain, while I was already feeling sluggish from the backlash of the domain. Using the domain of a demon who had reached the demi god realm was draining and taxing.
I can feel the time limit was drawing closer. Each second that passed in this domain ticked away at my existence. Still I persevered, and met Vladimir halfway. My blade clashed against his clawed gauntlets. Once, twice, thrice causing sparks to fly.
Vladimir took the chance to try and rotate behind me, however I anticipated that and slammed my elbow into his temple. He countered with a back fist laced with time perception magic which disoriented me briefly allowing him to connect with my jaw, cracking it.
I staggered back and spat out thick black blood onto the ground.
Vladimir circled me, smirking. "You're running out of time, Alavion. It's unfortunate that I won't be able to kill you with my own hands."
"Then let's finish this," I growled. I reversed the grip on my odachi and pointed it at him like a spear. "No more games."
Vladimir charged once again, muttering a spell using the language of the demons that twisted the air around us. I called on the last reserves I had left to the domain link. Time itself slowed around us.
I can feel the end of the link approaching as a pressure behind my skull.
"Sinful blade art: Seventh Circle…Abysal Convergence!"
A storm of red runes ignited the air around us. The chains around my arm from my Odachi tightened as the blade connected with my demonic essence. My body cracked and buckled as chaos flooded me.
Vladimir's fist slammed into my gut at the same moment my blade pierced his abdomen.
The explosion of the energy shook the domain causing the both of us to be launched backwards.
Vladimir landed on his feet, skidding across the infernal soil, holding his bleeding side.
"You…," he gasped, " you're going to die here, and you won't even kill me hahahahaa."
I knelt, the odachi half sunk into the earth beside me, used more as a crutch than a weapon now. My hair was turning grayish white like ash once again while my skin flaked like old paint on a wall or burnt paper.
Vladimir was right.
The domain was beginning to collapse and the time limit drew near.
But that was the plan all along.
I slammed my palm into the ground.
"Gehenna Final Rite: Shadow hunter Seal"
A massive seal erupted beneath Vladimir's feet.
"No! You wouldn't!"
The seal bound him to hell for at least half a millennial so that he wouldn't be able to a shadow hunter for a good while. It also causes him to lose the last trace of a demons awakening until that demons demonic signature reappears.
Chains of searing black and white light coiled around Vladimir's body as he screamed. His blood magic flared, his form spasming within the grasps of the chains.
"Mark my words Alavion! You offspring will die by my hands."
"Hmph, that's if you can locate my son." I said, my voice barely a whisper.
With a deafening CRACK, the seal triggered. Vladimir's body was shattered into fragments of light and darkness, drawn into the rift as the domain itself crumbled like dust in a storm.
As for me?
I could barely move.
Even if it is 500 years or 1,000 years, that should be enough time for Alex to grow stronger.
Enough for our sacrifices to matter.
As the domain collapsed I whispered into the void
"See you soon…my love."
And then the world went completely dark.