Chapter 2. Fear

Barbas made another attempt to escape from Hell. Having spent too much effort on it, he did not appear on Earth in the best shape and was almost immediately noticed by guardian angels. They were always on the lookout. They always protected their wards, whether ordinary people or good witches. Guardian angels always messed everything up.

And then in a whirlwind of glowing lights appeared the Elders. They did not, as usual, sit in the Upper world or send newcomers to difficult tasks. They decided to personally deal with the threat to life of earthlings. Without warning they moved to the attack. A few lightning bolts hit the target. The faces of the Elders were calm, but Barbas could swear that at that moment the Elders were very proud of themselves and overwhelmed with complacency. They are the embodiment of good and wisdom. They're doing everything right. They're never wrong.

They were afraid to make a mistake.

They were afraid not to save the innocent.

They were afraid to fail the lower ranks of the guardian angels, because they are appointed and elected Elders.

They were afraid of judgment.

They were afraid that people would stop believing in them and praying.

But the irony was that now their fears couldn't hurt them. To influence the Elders, needed a lot of energy, which Barbas was not. Now the Elders could throw their lightning bolts, and their enemy couldn't defend against them. The embodiment of good in action. Warrior of light. Only the flaming swords are not enough.

Several futile attempts to escape with the help of teleportation. Demons can't hide on Earth. The Elders pursued their enemy, and attacked with lightning
again. Of course, it was possible to move to the Underworld, but there was also a lot of Barbas enemies who, of course, would take advantage of his weakness. And then why go back to where you just escaped from? Looks like it was another failure.

However, the Elders paid dearly for their complacency. The black-feathered arrow whistled. The Elders didn't leave the Upper world for nothing. On the Earth they become prey to the dark guardians, hunters such warriors of light, and incarnations of good. One angel gasped and clutched his chest pierced by an arrow. There was turmoil. The other Elders wanted to return to Heaven, to safety, and tried to help a friend. But they couldn't help him. Several lightning bolts were fired in vain. Dark guardians were strong and not so easy to surprise. Mortally wounded, the angel flickered with glowing lights and gone for ever. His brothers frowned, looked down and disappeared.

- Well done, Felix, - said one of the dark guardians.

- Yes, you killed your first Elder, - caught the second, twirling your crossbow with a dashing twist.

- You deserve a reward, - nodded the third.

- We've all done well today, - Felix said. - I told you that it would be easier to shoot angels in the team than alone, and you did not believe me.

- The forces of evil don't really like team work, - chuckled the first dark guardian.
- You talk too humanly, - agreed the second.

- Well, that's clear, - the third thought aloud. - You recently changed and has not lost the habit of thinking like a man. It takes time.

And dark keepers, not paying any attention to Barbas, disappeared in a puff of black smoke. It's a fine day. Successful hunt. Barbas calmly glanced around the deserted street, which turned out to be. No, his own hunt has just begun. The demon noticed two cute girls pretnancy. They were overwhelmed with magic. Good witches. The culprit of all his troubles. He killed them for centuries, and they only got stronger. Passed on their magic to new generations. Killing one a witch, Barbas unwittingly reinforced magic its descendants. He was angry. He was losing his temper. He was losing again and again. He was desperate. He fell into the Underworld again.

The worst kind of witches was the famous Charmed. They, too, at first did not look formidable opponents, but then they showed their true face. They were smiling, watching him burn over and over again. They were happy. They protect not only the innocent and the other good witches, no, they defended their worthless luxury. A worthless illusion of a normal life. They enjoyed this life, and he was burning. So he got angry and lost his temper. It was unbearable. It was crazy.

I think one of the witches sensed him coming. She was obviously wary while the other one kept talking about some nonsense. Strange witch. False. Why? Barbas felt her unnatural. She seemed to be disguised as a good witch. But her energy wasn't dark. Or the girl deliberately hid it. A fake witch under some pretext wanted to leave, but the girlfriend did not let her go. Got both.

The first witch has already started to catch hallucinations and scream. Fear of heights. She fell, thrown out of the plane. Her face turned white and her hair turned white. The witch fell on the sidewalk. Barbas identified the fear of the fake. This fear was fire. How corny. But the oddities continued. Fake really scared of the fire, turned pale and slowly began to settle on the same sidewalk. But Barbas didn't have time to hallucinate.

Fire. There was fire everywhere. Adele was suffocating. Then it flashed like a match. Adele put her arms around her head and yelled. Fire. There was fire everywhere. Through the haze of the fire she saw some women's faces. They were smiling. They were happy that it was burning. Adele burned her hatred of these strange women. Why are they pleased with her suffering? And when Adele decided it couldn't get any worse, she realized she was wrong. There's something worse than fire. Molten metal. Lava. Rivers of lava. Lake of lava. She saw herself standing on some flimsy surface, liquid fire splashing under her feet. And here Adele began to settle on the sidewalk and lose consciousness. It was just too painful. It was too frightening.

This weird fake witches Barbas got a lot of energy. Much more than the first. This energy was not enough to heal all the wounds caused by lightning Elders, but now, at least, Barbas felt better. He knew the fake was still alive, but somehow he didn't finish it.

Phoebe just missed the demon for a second. She ran to the innocent. One of them was dead and the other was still alive. Phoebe wanted to save that good witch. Phoebe, unlike Barbas, did not feel her falsehood. Naive Phoebe Halliwell considered innocent Adele.