Sorry, sorry, sorry! Writer's block, school, friend issues... everything just piled up! But here's the next chapter! Oh, and one thing I will promise - even if I update late, I will NOT drop this story. Ever. It WILL be finished. Chapter dedicated to Aneki Okumura for making me remember to keep writing!
The wind whistled in Corinne's ear as she streaked through the skies, clashing with the heartbeat pounding through her head. Her heart was in her throat as she strained to push her wings faster and faster. Below the angel, the acrid tang of smoke and rubble of True Cross changed to the dark forest that emanated unease.
Terrifying roars sounded behind her as the Fire Prince realized its prey was escaping. Corinne was extremely apprehensive about leaving the behemoth behind, of course, but she was more concerned about other things. Namely one half-dead half-demon.
The angel was buffeted around by gusts of wind as she flew. Normally, she'd pay much more attention to the updrafts and air currents, but fear blocked out the calm, rational thoughts in her head. Later she'd worry about her strained shoulders. Later she'd be with the other exwires like nothing had ever happened. Later she might think back on how, in her mind, she made no distinction between a reeking demon and a boy who had risked his life for her, and ultimately dismiss it because it didn't matter anymore.
Now, she'd push herself faster than ever before and hurtle down into the trees as soon as she spotted the old, crumbling headstone in a graveyard she knew all too well.
Leviathan turned around, surprised, as the young girl fell to the ground next to a headstone he was currently perched on. Corinne let out a yelp and a very unladylike swear as her wing was caught underneath her, but clambered to her feet.
"Corinne? Whatever are you doing?" The High Angel asked in a voice that sounded like he was talking to a young child.
"L-leviathan!" She gasped. She stood awkwardly with one hand holding her strained shoulder.
"I was just about to return to the skies before you came," Leviathan said, an unreadable expression on his face. Suddenly, his eyes grew alive and his mouth split into a joyous grin. "I always forget how fresh the breeze is down here on the ground. Doesn't it just make you want to fly?"
"C-can't you s-smell it?" Corinne stuttered, her nervousness caused by the dried blood on her shirt and a feeling she couldn't put a name to. "Leviathan, the air is f-filled with smoke and the smell of burning flesh."
For just the briefest, barest of seconds, Corinne thought she saw a flicker of irritation in the angel's eyes. It was gone so fast, however, she couldn't really be sure she'd seen it at all.
"Leviathan, I need your help. Rin got injured protecting me from the Ojikasai and it's really, really bad! I don't know what to do!" Corinne's voice rose in pitch as she began to lose it, her heart beating face and her eyes turning wild.
"Calm, child," Leviathan rumbled. "What's this about the demon?"
"Oh my god, it was all so fast," Corinne nearly sobbed. "We were working on doing something, I don't know, anything to stop that monster. And Rin nearly got hit, so I turned to yell at him, and he warned me about it right behind me, but I didn't see!" Her eyes suddenly turned hollow.
"Oh my god, this is all my fault."
"Of course not, child,"Leviathan denied.
"No, it is! He threw himself in front of me to protect me!"
Leviathan blinked, a shadow crossing his expression. "The demon put himself in harm's way to protect you?" Corinne nodded mutely as she held back tears.
"We need to go," she managed. "I can't do a high enough healing spell to fix this!" She turned and spread her wings, ignoring the dull burn in her left shoulder.
"Corinne, wait," Leviathan said softly.
"What?" She nearly snapped. Can't he see we need to go? We have to hurry, or Rin will…
"Do you think we should save him?"
The silence was louder than a scream.
"Of course," Corinne, chuckling nervously at the dark feeling that had suddenly swept over the small graveyard. "Why wouldn't we?"
Leviathan gave her a cool, measured look. "He is a demon. I will come with you and help help with the Ojikasai, but wouldn't it be better if Satan's son was off of this earth?"
Corinne glared at him. "No, Leviathan. Rin needs our help. Not Satan's son, not a demon. He is better than both of those titles and deserving of neither."
"Very well." Leviathan turned his face towards the sky and spread his blood red wings, feeling the breeze for a moment before giving them a few powerful beats. Corinne let out a breath she didn't know she was holding and followed the High Angel to the skies.
They flew back in silence, accompanied only by the howling wind and the screams of the Fire Prince in the distance. Corinne was moving as fast as she could but Leviathan kept up easily. She itched to tell him to go on ahead, but some part of her didn't quite trust the angel with Rin in such a vulnerable state.
The Ojikasai was sending stream after stream of fire at True Cross, but was doing nothing more than scorching the stonework. It hadn't noticed Rin's prone form yet. Corinne dived under the creature to go to Rin's side while Leviathan pulled back and rose gloriously in the air. After a clumsy landing, Corinne dropped to her knees beside Rin's body. She laid his head in her lap as she glanced up at the High Angel.
Immediately she found she could not look away. He was the ideal picture of an angel, the kind those whom had been divinely inspired painted. The sun was setting behind him as he raised his arms in the air, his lips twitching as he spoke indecipherable words. His wings flared out dramatically behind him and time seemed to slow.
However, it was not the unnerving beauty of this scene that drew Corinne's eyes; despite it's seeming perfection, the entire scene was just off. It was as if someone had taken this ethereal painting and perversed it ever so slightly. The High Angel's wings looked like they were bleeding into the dying sky behind him, and just before his words unleashed a rush of power, his mouth twisted into a sadistic grin.
Corinne screwed her eyes shut as a blinding light erupted in front of her. She could see the glare even through her eyelids. A hideous, terrifying scream echoed through the clearing and Corinne felt a rush of heat before wrenching her eyes open in time to see a red glow fade from her view. The Ojikasai was totally and utterly gone.
"W-what-" she stuttered before a shout interrupted her.
"YOU BITCH!" An enraged scream sounded from behind her. She whipped her head around just in time to see Bon, Izumo, and Shima racing towards her, Yukio leading them and Shiemi and Konekomaru just behind.
"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?" Bon yelled as they drew closer. Shiemi put her hand to her mouth in horror as the group came close enough to see the extent of Rin's injury. The color drained from Corinne's face as a realization settled deep in her heart. The angel bent her head over Rin's chest just in time to hear-
Nothing.
"No, no, no!" She yelled. "Leviathan! He's not breathing!"
"WHAT DID YOU DO?" Bon bellowed again. Gently lifting Rin's head and resting it on the ground, Corinne put her hands in the air and stumbled back a few steps.
"No, it wasn't me!" She cried. "It was just an accident!" Yukio arrived at his brother's side and knelt immediately, fingering for a pulse and finding none.
"Shit," he swore before placing both hands on his chest and beginning compressions.
"You didn't do anything?" Bon seethed. "Then what the hell is that?" He pointed to the angelic seal Corinne had placed to keep Rin from bleeding out.
The skin around the wound was an unhealthy, dark red. It looked burnt or worse and a sickening stench Corinne hadn't noticed before wafted through the air.
"No…" Corinne denied it to herself. "I was just trying to help…"
"Help, my ass," Izumo snarled.
"Back away, mortal Son of Satan," Leviathan's voice rang over the crowd. Yukio stopped his desperate attempts to save his brother's life and looked up.
"Who are you supposed to be?" He growled uncharacteristically.
"I am Leviathan, a High Angel who sent Corinne on the mission to… look into your brother." He raked his eyes challengingly across the group.
"Does that mean you can help?" Konekomaru asked eagerly.
"Yes," Leviathan rumbled. "Corinne, remove your seal." Corinne obeyed instantly. Leviathan swept by them to stand over Rin's lifeless form and raised his arms in a familiar gesture and mumbled some guttural words. He closed his eyes and continued to speak as a glow appeared above Rin, growing until it encompassed his wound. The glow slowly lowered until it touched RIn's skin.
The half-demon's body gave a jerk.
Everyone's breath caught in their throat as the skin on Rin's abdomen began to knit closed, organs and bones mending underneath. The new skin was an angry pink and knotted, leaving an ugly scar, but it was better than the alternative. The glow slowly began to fade until Leviathan spoke one more harsh word, at which it suddenly flared as Rin drew in a shocked breath. The glow faded as Leviathan put his arms down.
Almost instantly, Shiemi knelt by Rin's body and listened for his heartbeat. There was a moment of silence and terror before she announced, eyes shining, that He. Was. Breathing.
The entire group let out sighs of relief. Leviathan continued to stare down at the half-demon, his expression unreadable. "He will be unconscious for some time, but he should be fine in the end."
"High Angel, you said?" Yukio suddenly asked as he watched his brother's sleeping form. "I have a question for you, Holy One."
"Yes, child?" Leviathan suddenly seemed ever so slightly on edge.
"Why were you watching my brother?"
"Let me answer you question with a question. Corinne?"
"Yes?" the angel responded, a worried frown creasing her eyebrows.
"Do you believe this half-demon deserves to ascend to heaven when he dies?"
SIlence fell over the group.
"W-what? How is that possible?" Corinne gasped.
"I can strip him of his demon side upon death and allow him the right to ascend."
"T-then…" Corinne trailed off. Her angel side was telling her he really was a demon at heart and that could never change, but the part of her that was a bit more understanding quite plainly said he risked his life for you, dumbass.
She looked up at the High Angel with clear eyes. "Yes, Leviathan," she said resolutely. "He is in now way a demon at heart."
"My, isn't that unfortunate," Leviathan whispered softly. Yukio's eyes suddenly shot open in horrified realization.
"Holy One?" he questioned again.
"Yes?"
"Corinne's angelic seal was burning his demon blood, wasn't it? Angelic healing magic could only hurt a half-demon."
"That is correct," Leviathan rumbled.
"Then how is it that you were able to heal him?"
Once again, a deadly silence fell across the courtyard.
"Ah, I should have known!" Leviathan laughed, a dark, gleeful sound. "Well, it seems the show is over. Thank Satan, too - all of that respect was getting tiresome!"
Corinne's eyes stretched wider than she thought possible. "N-no… you… you're not an angel!"
"That is where you're not totally correct," Leviathan smirked. His eyes seemed to get darker and a few feathers from his wings drifted to the ground. "I was an angel once, but I Fell… all the way down."
Corinne gasped. Leviathan grinned, showing his pointed canines and snake-like tongue. "The King of Fire, at your service," he gloated with a bow. More feathers drifted to the ground to reveal half-rotted, sinewy wings. When he rose from his bow, his hair was a fiery red with the same black streak above his ears.
"And now," he continued, "I'm afraid I'll be taking my little brother over there's life."
"What?!" Shima protested loudly, bewildered by the sudden turn of events.
"You see, Rin should have been a demon. He shares our father's blood, after all. Instead of a useful brother, however, we got this thing that makes friends and sacrifices itself for angels." Leviathan, or the King of Fire, or whatever, gave a disgusted snort. "How disgraceful…" he murmured. "I was hoping he'd take the chance to let Corinne die during the fight with one of my pets which my brother, the King of Rot, was so kind as to send to me, but he jumped in the way of the attack. It was so disappointing!" The Fallen angel gave a shudder. "I cannot allow such a thing to live."
"Hell no," Izumo said. "We almost lost him once. We are never losing him again."
"Oh? And you think you can fight against one of the Eight Kings when you couldn't even handle my little housepet?" Leviathan smirked.
The exwires, plus Shura who had arrived sometime early enough to know what was going on, moved to stand protectively in front of Rin's still form.
"Watch us," Bon growled.
Next chapter will be sometime. Sorry I'm so inconsistent :( but hopefully things will quiet down a bit and I'll get back to updating more!