Based off of TransfanOMG's fanart of the Angiris Council swapping roles. I like the idea that Malthael didn't actually DIE but was horrifyingly wounded by the souls coming out of his body. And now since TransFan (she's Miss Gem here) stated that Auriel was the Archangel of Wisdom/Death in their fanart I had the idea to write this. (Forgive me because I mention my OC in here as well and not to mention that I am Auriel x Itherael trash)
Here Itherael is the Archangel of Valor
Imperius is the Archangel of Hope
Tyrael is the Archangel of Fate (still an angel)
Malthael the Archangel of Justice (okay let's just say that he's still an angel for time's sake)
Itherael, Archangel of Valor stared down at the ghostly silhouette of Auriel's body, her scythe lay broken next to the shadow.
"Brother she might be alive still. Do not lose hope." Imperius said in an attempt to comfort him. It was true though, a thorough search of the Pandemonium Fortress showed no sign of essence nor armour. It was a small, hollow thing to hold onto but better than the crippling thought of Auriel's death.
Itherael looked up at the Nephalem, who had then become one with death. "Sacrilege." Valor muttered, much to Imperius' dismay. Itherael let out a huff of frustration, walking out of the Pandemonium Fortress and teleporting back to the High Heavens.
Under Itherael's orders, a lone Ranger angel from his ranks (the only surviving one for that matter) was sent down to look for any sign of Auriel. Days of impatient pacing in the Halls of Valor turned to weeks of small glimmers of hope which were snuffed out like a candle.
A month had passed and no news had returned from the Ranger. By then even Imperius seemed to lose hope at ever finding their fallen brethren. That was until a week afterwards, when a crossbow arrow struck a wall of one of the Pools of Wisdom. There was a hastily carved message engraved into the wood, alerting them that Auriel had indeed been found but proved difficult to be moved because of her state.
Despite much argument between himself and Malthael, Justice was sent down to help the Ranger in safely moving back Auriel to her home. Itherael was left to question why the Ranger took so long to find her, "An angel, fallen or not would be easy to trace!" he had cursed, the Ranger stood still, "Yes Itherael but the more worrying thing is that I couldn't find a trace of her, in all Sanctuary there was no sign of her. It was as though Auriel had managed to make herself invisible. Or someone had taken her."
This caused much ruckus in Itherael's mind, taken? The Ranger made no sense and with an angry wave of dismissal, Valor was left pondering.
Imperius was already by Auriel's side when the remaining 3 angels silently rushed in. The healers were carefully removing her cracked armour, setting it aside by the wall. Black wrappings around her chest were left unmoved. Imperius assisted in the removal of her lower leg armour, revealing sickening open wounds, still dripping of essence. Silver markings spread out of her chest, a clear reminder of when the souls were ripped out of Auriel. Her hood was slightly tilted to reveal the left side of her face. Which to the angel's alarm was torn by a long white scratch across her cheek. Whatever the Ranger had meant by taken she was correct.
Auriel moved her head slightly to see her brethren, black eyes glancing between the 4 before settling on Itherael. It was disturbing to see how such eyes, once filled with curiosity and life were now blank of any emotion. Auriel looked down again, slowly moving her hand to shift her hood back in place. A long scratch, still leaking of essence on her back was seen by the Archangels, causing alarm bells to ring through their head.
A deep rumbling from her throat erupted as Imperius peeled off the last of her left leg's armour. More open wounds were found, one that was sickeningly infected with what looked like demonic essence, a small shard of metal was still imbedded in it. Hesitantly Itherael cupped his hand around Auriel's wrist, she made no move to remove it, instead silently moving her arm back to clasp his hand.
"Who did this to you Auriel?" Malthael asked out of pure shock, his question was met by silence by the Archangel of Wisdom
"Demons, powerful ones still lurk in Sanctuary." Tyrael uttered. Itherael let out a small growl at the mention of the High Heaven's one enemy.
Auriel let out a hiss of pain, tightening her grip on Itherael's hand, alerting the rest of the room. Underneath their hoods, eyes widened as an angel carefully removed the shard of metal from the wound. Dropping it into a basin nearby, the water inside turned a shade of grey. The wounds were quickly wrapped around with bandages, the angels' new focus was to treat the long wound on Auriel's back. Itherael squeezed her cold hand comfortingly in an attempt to distract her from the pain.
She turned around for the healers to analyse the wound, also rimmed with a dark red essence. Her wings, were thankfully back to their blue tendrils, which twitched in pain as the angels continued their work. Another audible hiss of discomfort echoed through the room as the angels dabbed the wound with a cleaning gauze, making the dark red disappear.
"Lord Tyrael's point stands correct, powerful demons, still alive could have laid an ambush and." the healer paused, not wanting to begin mentioning the attack that could have happened, "the blade shard also is evidence of this, the blade is neither Nephalem, nor Angelic."
Itherael's wings flared with anger, even without a leader the demons dared to launch an attack on the Archangel, they dared to take her to Hell.
"Send a courier to the Ranger," Malthael suggested, looking at one of the healers, "tell her that she needs to come before the Council on the topic."
With a small nod the healer quickly left the room, "Justice will be served." Malthael muttered, rage bubbling inside of him. Itherael nodded solemnly, eyes staring daggers at the small blade shard.
Imperius said nothing, still helping in bandaging Auriel's wound.
Only Tyrael noticed a small detail in the room that seemed out of place.
That being that neither Itherael nor Auriel had let go of the other's hand.
Was that good? I'm planning to write a whole story on this if life allows me such luxuries ^_^. Is this counted as a slow burn? (By the way, sorry for the seemingly short chapters, getting used to writing longer chapters!)