Chapter 10: the fight

They walked up onto the holy bridge. It was going to be their last fight. Raven's black hair was tied back in a ponytail and her silvery eyes surveyed everything with appraisal. Lily kept her hands in her pockets. Once she received the signal from Ash, she shot a column of fire into the sky. Ciel made Raven sit near a pile of boxes and sat beside her, his eyes wary. He kept on looking around, like something might snatch Raven from him out of the shadows. Pretty soon, a different presence could be felt. They heard a series of bangs as someone climbed the ladder up to the bridge. The man climbed onto the side and stood in front of them.

If anything, Lily was expecting Eric to look like a maniacal genius. It surprised her. He looked like a regular, well paid young professor. He had blonde hair that was spiky and sometimes fell into his cold blue eyes. He had his hands in his pant pockets and looked like any regular guy you'd find on the street.

"Hmm… I certainly wasn't expecting this. I didn't think you'd actually send up a message for me to come here. I assume you're ready to fight." He said and smiled, his eyes looking at all of them. So this was the ifrit he was hunting for. She certainly didn't look like an ifrit. Her red brown hair was long and was tied in a loose braid that fell down to her knees. Her eyes were a beautiful dark green color, like emeralds. She wasn't registered in the book of ifrits. She had most likely only been made a few months ago. She wore a plain maid's outfit and in her hand she held a simple jackknife. "Ash… I see you've gone over to their side. I hope you don't regret your decision?"

"Not at all"

"Very well then… It will be your last decision" He said. The angel flew up to stand beside him.

"Sebastian, Ciel, you two take the angel. Ash and I will fight Eric." Lily barked as Eric and the angel flew up into the air. Sebastian grabbed the sword of demons and jumped, as did Ciel. Lily and Ash ran towards Eric. He sent Lily and Ash flying effortlessly without using any flames.

"It would be a shame to kill you, ifrit girl." He said. "You look like someone with a nice life ahead of them. Why don't you leave?"

"This is my duty."

"It doesn't scare you in the least that I have ten times more power than you?"

"Not at all" Lily replied, grinning. "You don't know what tricks I have up my sleeves."

"It will take more than tricks to beat me."

"Will it really?" Lily asked as she dodged the dragon made of fire that came her way. She countered it with a chaining spell that made dark chains come up out of the ground and chained Eric to the spot. He burned them away with a click of his fingers.

"You are not outnumbered, but hopelessly outmatched." He said as a column of fire circled around Ash. Lily pulled him out of the fire circle. "Arylle has gotten ten times stronger than since she last fought you. Even if you do manage to beat her, she'll just come back to life. That sword isn't enchanted. No one here can enchant that sword to kill her. Why don't you give up? I don't want to take your life?"

"You don't want to take my life, but you willingly took the lives of thousands of humans and demons? What makes me so different from them?"

"Hmm… there's the fact that you are so new to this life, and haven't gotten a chance to experience life. There's also the fact that you are more pure than all the impure demons I killed. You are an ifrit. Your fire burns away the darkness in your soul."

"What about the darkness in your soul? I don't think there's anything that can burn away that."

Eric smiled. "What you say is true. I've gone too far to turn back, and since I've chosen my path, I will keep going."

Lily pushed her hands forward and a wall of flames hurtled itself at Eric. He made the water rise out of the river below them and made the flames disappear.

Raven sat in the back, watching the fight. She carefully watched every water spell that Eric invoked. She thought it would be easy to copy. She stood up carefully. Lily created a tornado out of fire by spinning several times and hurtled it towards Eric. Nothing she did had made a single scratch on him so far. Only her speed kept her unhurt. Sebastian and Ciel weren't doing too well either. She felt his pain as a razor sharp feather grazed his arm. She easily dodged every sword stroke as Sebastian lunged with the demon sword.

"Sebastian, this is an order!" Raven yelled. "Give me the demon sword!" Sebastian stared at her like she'd gone insane. He gave it to her carefully and it floated into her hands. She ran forwards.

"What are you doing, Raven?" Ciel yelled.

"I'm helping." She said as she took the dark necklace and put it around her neck. She threw the demon sword in the air. The angel saw it and tried to grab it, but it flew away from her. She raised her hands and yelled something in a different language. The sword gleamed with a bright red light. Bright red spirals now traced themselves around the demon sword. It fell back into Raven's hand. She raised one hand and the river erupted around them. The water solidified to make soldiers of ice. They walked with earth shuddering crashes towards the angel. She ran up with the demon sword and began to attack the angel. The ice soldiers surrounded them. The angel panicked and took to the air to escape.

"I thought you'd do that" Ciel said. He clicked his fingers and the invisible net he had made fell down on the angel. It brought her down. As she struggled, Raven ran forwards, jumped up and ran her through with the sword. The angel screamed as the red light encased her. She disappeared in a cloud of feathers.

"NO!" Eric yelled. He turned on Lily and Ash, his eyes crazed with anger. He ran straight towards Lily, a dark sword materializing in his hands. It glowed with fire. "You killed her! You'll pay for that!"

"Lily, look out!" Sebastian yelled. She made no move to defend herself, but stood there smiling as he ran towards her. He ran her straight through with the sword. It was all silent. Lily looked at the sword through her and began to laugh. Sebastian felt no pain for some reason, though it was Lily that he had run through with the sword. Eric let go of the demon sword and took a few steps back.

"No… no way…" He said; his eyes wide as he backed up.

"You lose, Eric" She said happily. "I'll show you a trick you've never seen before."