EDIT: 6/5/12
A/N-II: I've changed some parts in this prologue and chapter two has also been re-written. Thank you for your patience and I hope the slight changes I've made won't bother you too much. ^/^
Disclaimer: Axis Powers: Hetalia does not belong to me.
Chapter 1: Beginning in the Snow
Bodies littered the ground.
Spears, arrows, swords, and many different kinds of weapons were embedded into hideous creatures and into beautiful beings; into the ethereal bodies of demons and angels. Black blood poured out of the dead demons, seeping into the celestial land and poisoning it. Gold blood poured out of the dead angels, seeping into the celestial land and rejuvenating its beauty.
A shadow passed over the ugly ground. White wings beat against the air, keeping the warrior afloat. An arrow flew straight through a small hoard of flying demons, hitting none and disappearing with a winking flash. However, they still screeched and howled as its pure energy erupted from the arrow in its passing, disintegrating the demons within a one-hundred meter radius and severely wounding those just at the edges.
The figure landed softly in a small patch of land that was not covered in black ichor or body parts. Scanning his surroundings, the figure's white wings folded in on themselves. With a brilliant glow they disappeared like scattering fireflies.
An impossibly beautiful and blank face lifted up to the sky, eyes – strange eyes like smooth, petrified ocean after a storm – partly opened as they gazed up to the grey clouds and glass-like sky. Great streaks of light could be seen, scattering across the sky or beyond the clouds, and with those great lights an enormous amount of energy and power would wash over the being then disappear the next moment.
They were Angels.
This one whirled around, drawing an arm back until the line of light from the bow to a white cheek solidified into an arrow. Long pale fingers let the arrow slip and it flew straight through three more demons. Pure oceanic eyes scanned the sky once again, not seeing or sensing anything.
His white robes fluttered around his elbows and knees like wisps of smoke around his armor, hair spun of light and gold swirling around his armored shoulders. Shadows graced and damaged the beautiful porcelain face as now dark, sad eyes gazed on forlornly upon the desecrated lands, littered with such disgusting things.
He sighed when his name was called, feeling two others land beside him. Archangels. Although they were larger than he was and fiercer than he was, he in no way felt intimidated or scared of them. He respected them and he listened when they advised him to keep his head. They were in the middle of a war and no one could afford to hesitate. So he nodded his head, face smooth as marble, and he composed his features so that they would not mistake him for being weak, and they flew off once again into the sky and beyond the clouds, above where most of the battle was taking place.
Seeing no other demons entering the vicinity, he spread his wings and flew off himself, keeping close to the land.
He ran afoul a few more demons a few more times. For the time being, this small battle of the war was over and all he had left to do was scout the remaining area. So he landed once again, wings disappearing, and scanned his surroundings.
Silently he walked; now subdued and timid. His head was not held as high as it should have been. His feet did not land with heavy steps – not confident and self-assured. His strange eyes did not look forward, determined and steady. He paid no heed to his destination for he let his feet guide him. He paid no heed to the time, though he must have been walking for ages. Before he knew it, his surroundings had begun to clear of dead figures and black stains.
Indeed he had walked long and far without realizing, for he suddenly found himself surrounded on all sides by pure white, what the humans would call snow; an old battlefield. The land, once tainted with the remnants of Hell, was being purified.
He could sense something amiss; something dark and foreign had trespassed, threatening the rebirth of the celestial land and its chance at new life. He scanned the vicinity slowly; more alert than he had been just moments before. He moved again, feet sinking into the snow without making a sound. He could feel himself nearing the source of dark power and once he was close enough he immediately located the threat.
A road stained black and red had been carved deeply and roughly. It could not have been more than twenty feet wide and thirty feet deep and it led far out of his sight. He could feel the heat of dark energy, pulsing and feeding off the pure energy of the snow, slowly tainting the land. It was raw and suffocating, too strong, so he was hesitant to walk in it. Perhaps once he had disposed of the threat and the energy dwindled away, he would come back and heal the forged road himself.
As he walked alongside of it, he could feel the energy growing stronger and more potent. But it was weak. So it was dying already, the source of the energy. The demon – because that was the most likely explanation – most likely came here to heal, and now it was drawing out the raw healing powers, claiming it and twisting it for its own use.
He could feel it immensely now, both strong and weak. His heart pulsed as soon as he laid his sight on the massive creature. The dying demon. His body shuddered again. His chest ached with sudden pain, perhaps for no other reason than a sudden swell of guilt and his own wariness. Despite it all, he stepped forward, bow in his left hand and his right in position to conjure an arrow.
At that moment, the large demon shuddered. Its blood, black and cursed, streamed out of its numerous injuries. Its ripped, leathery black wings that had been wrapped around its massive form rippled like water on the surface. A terrible sound, a deep rumbling accompanied by a poisonous hissing, emanated from its body, echoing all around so that he could not pinpoint the source.
He paused. Frowned. Tilted his head. He knew he should not be hesitating. He was still a warrior. He had his Lord to serve, people to protect. But a sudden, overwhelming sadness had consumed him.
He had always been an empathic creature. He had always been sensitive to the emotions of others: his brothers and his people. Though it was a sin, but because he had felt the emotions through his humans, he knew his brothers were capable of pride or anger or selfishness. The humans were the same, but they were a mess of feelings and thoughts, some capable of great evil or great good. But these demons were a different thing entirely.
All they felt were hatred and fury. They were greedy and jealous and so utterly prideful. In all of his life he had never seen such ugliness in any other creature he had ever encountered. And he had never felt such delicate emotions from one before.
It was faint, a brush of feathers against the exposed skin of his face and hands, but they were there. He knew he should not, but oh, how he knew them well.
The bow disappeared from his hand with an evanescent glow. He idly thought he would be crying by now, if he could in this form.
He stepped closer (the intense, dark energy had become more bearable), the weakening demon becoming restless as he did, snarling at him beneath the covers of its wings. He raised his hands thoughtlessly, yet fully aware of what he was about to do. He felt a vague pull on his body, he felt it on his mind; he could feel it in every part of his existence, though he could not say what it meant.
He rested his smooth, marble-white hands against the heated rough skin, letting his eyes slip closed, letting his warm power build in his chest. It swirled and expanded, growing stronger and stronger until it burst throughout his being and flowed through his outstretched arms into the demon before him, with no thought spared to the consequences.
If he should be killed for this, then so be it.
Beneath his hands, the shattered body trembled, and a sudden surge caused him to become acutely aware of the other's existence. Its snarls grew in volume in its discomfort as its previously slowly healing wounds closed rapidly. He could feel the skin stretching as its body grew, he could feel the muscles quivering and the blood rushing at the strain; he could hear it, the beating of its heart like thunder. And then…
He gasped; a quiet cry of pain. He eyes snapped open in shock and he immediately recoiled from the demon. The ground beneath him quaked under the intensity of the renewed dark power, its potent energy consuming him in turn, knocking him flat on his back. Shadows loomed threateningly above him, a rage-filled roar nearly shattering the sky above. He barely registered his surrounding melting into ash, but his wide eyes were solely trained on the monster towering over him.
From his position beneath its underbelly, the demon was something else entirely. No longer was it the small, pathetic, dying demon it had been mere moments before. He could just make out its wolfish head attached to a thick neck, long horns protruding forward as long as the length of its head. He could hear the steady beats of wings beating down forcefully, venom dripping from its mouth onto the land, harming it further.
He instinctively – and inevitably failing – tried to push himself further back, only succeeding in pressing himself further into the land that desperately clung to his pure, weakened energy for life.
Then the mouth closed, its massive head lowering and smelling him like a curious animal. It raised its proud head back up, and with a final hissing roar, the ground trembled as it beat its wings one last time and took off.
Had he not been stunned and still recovering from the surge of pain, he would have searched the darkened skies wildly for the demon. But even if he had, the demon would have been gone, as if it had never existed, with a small flash of red lingering in his memory the only invalid proof of its former presence.
A/N: Thanks to those of you still interested and have thus been waiting patiently for this and sticking by it though I've only posted two chapters. Updates will be slow-going but I will not abandon this! I'm sorry for the delay in updating this fic but I was unsatisfied with the direction it was going before. Things will be moving slower than I'd initially intended, but at least I have a much clearer idea of what I want to happen in order to get to where I want to end up with this.