Hi. Bleeding Wings here. After months of putting my pen down, I decided to get back into writing and finish this story. Since I felt dissatisfied with chapters 11-15, I deleted all five of them so that I start from chapter 10. I want to apologize to all my readers for leaving you all in the dark, so I'll do my best to upload a new chapter every week from now on.
On with the tale.
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"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE BOULDER FAILED?"
"L-Lady Azula… Angel Heart defeated him. He… he was too powerful! A man with a mark of an eye on his forehead… destroyed your assassin. There was nothing we can do-"
"I WILL NOT TOLERATE ANY MORE EXCUSES!" The informant tried desperately to break free from Azula's grip, but that only made her grip tighten even more around the man's throat. He felt his very neck being crushed from the very hand of his master. Feeling no floor touching his dangling feet made the experience even worse. Azula grabbed the top of her spy's skull with her other hand and twisted it like a bottle-cap, making his skull face completely backwards. The sound of his neck breaking from the very twist put a smirk on her face as she dropped him and let him collapse like a lifeless puppet.
"Oh, Lady Azula. I really love it when you kill people with such ferocity."
"Be quiet, Ty Lee. I'm in a very foul mood right now. First, Haru let me down. Then The Boulder failed me." Growling to herself, Azula slumped back into her bed. Nothing pissed her off more than someone bringing her bad news, especially when it was delivered right into her own bedroom while she was having fun with her favorite concubine. She didn't care if she left a dead corpse on the floor. She'll just send someone to pick it up and have it thrown into the furnace. Ty Lee, in her lovely nightgown, lied next to her beautiful mistress and wrapped her arms around her waist. Azula couldn't help but smile to herself when she felt her creamy skin touch hers.
"Don't worry, my love. You still have two other assassins at your disposal: the ninja-lady and the pyromaniac. There's no way those two can screw up, especially the silent fire-elemental. Just relax, and everything is going to be fine." Azula looked into the eyes of her lover and fully embraced her.
"You're right, Ty Lee. I don't know what I love more about you: your sense of optimism or your delicious body I so want to violate." Ty Lee giggled from her mistress' ravenous attitude.
"Oh my, you're acting like a naughty girl. I really like that."
The two lovers embraced each other and kissed. When they let their kiss break away, Azula and Ty Lee lied in bed together.
"Even if none of my assassins could bring down Angel Heart, it will be too late for Angel Heart to do anything to stop me. The powers within our Sirachian will ripen, and when I seize that power, the Worthy shall consume that power and bring this world into darkness!" Azula announced.
"Azula, are you sure you don't want to take the power for yourself?"
"Believe it or not, I'm only a nephilim, Ty Lee. Only a pure-blooded angel can consume it, and I know the right angel who can have it."
-:-:-
"Are you ready, upstart?"
"Uh… yes, Father Gyatso." The upstart named Mako nervously gulped when he gripped onto his wooden samurai sword. Sure, he had a good amount of armor to take a good beating, but that didn't raise his confidence much when he saw over a dozen of his fellow upstarts laying all over the dojo floor, beaten to a pulp courtesy of Father Gyatso himself. Mako silently asked himself how despite being over 65 years old, he still had the athleticism and the fire of a young man. Even his physique looked barely half of his actual age, muscles that were rock-solid and not showing a hint of fat. What the hell does he do to keep himself into such good shape, he asked himself.
Not time to figure that out. Mako saw the wooden sword swinging downward right towards his head. Eyes widening, Mako raised his wooden sword in time and blocked the attack. The young warrior-priest candidate widened his eyes in shock when he set his eyes on his opponent, feeling the master's raw power. One moment: he was over 10 feet away from his master. The next: he was right in front of his face ready to knock his head off! Not only that, but the force of opponent's the attack was unimaginable. The downward swing nearly brought Mako to his knees! Gyatso swung his sword right into Mako's torso. Mako blocked the lightning-quick strike, but the force of the attack knocked him right off his feet and smashed him right into the wooden wall. Unwilling to let his master get the upper hand, Mako got up and charged towards him. Mako swung for Gyato's head, but Gyatso parried the attack and answered with a sideward swing towards the body. Mako was ready for him. Mako blocked the strike on time, stepped to the left, and quickly struck for the right arm. With incredible speed, Gyatso blocked the attack to his arm and answered with a leg-sweep that knocked Mako right to his feet. Just when Mako was about to get up, he realized that Gyatso's sword was pointing right between his own eyes.
"Victory is mine, young one. But I have to admit: you've fared quite better than all your fellow candidates. With a little more practice and some edges to smooth out, you'll become a warrior-priest in no-time."
"Thank you, Father Gyatso. Are you always this "kind" to all your students?"
"Each and every day, son. Each and every day." When Father Gyatso offered him a hand, Mako grabbed onto his hand and pulled himself up. Just when he was about to share some words of wisdom with the young candidate, a warrior priest burst right into the martial arts dojo.
"Father Gyatso! A group of people brought in a badly injured man. They claim that he's a close friend of yours. Angel Heart, they call him."
"ANGEL HEART? Lead the way!"
"Yes, Father!"
-:-:-
"How long has he been in this state?" a warrior priest asked.
"It's been three days now, and he still didn't wake up!" Suki stated, with a tone of worry.
"Has he shown any other symptoms of any kind, anything out of the ordinary?"
"No, not at all. We tried everything to wake him up, but nothing has been working." Teo answered. As Angel Heart lied still on the altar, Katara stood by his side and held his hand. She bit her lip as it pained her to look at her beloved in such a terrible state. The beating he took from The Boulder was starting to fade away, but Angel Heart still looked as if he took a horrible beatdown that made The Boulder's onslaught look like a mere mosquito bite. It has been three days since that clash between himself and that hulking giant, but he still seemed to be in a state of comatose.
While Teo and Suki were trying to give a full analysis of what Angel Heart was going through, Toph wore a hood over her head and strangely distanced herself from everyone else. It was as if she was doing her best to hide her face from everyone in the Cathedral. When a priest asked her if she needed anything, she quickly declined his offer of help and distanced herself from him.
Father Gyatso, now wearing his traditional attire, entered the church from below.
"Hello to you all. I am Father Gyatso, head of Cathedral and the Warrior Priesthood. You said your friend Angel Heart is in trouble, is that right?"
"Yessir! Please, you must help him!" Katara said.
"My deepest apologies for interrupting your duties here, Father. It's just that we can't seem to find anyone else to help us. You're the closest thing to a father to Aang. Please do what you can for him," Teo said. When Father Gyatso examined Angel Heart with his eyes, the head priest slowly opened Angel Heart's eye with his fingers. When he pried it open, a trickle of blood trailed off the corner of Angel Heart's eye and down the side of his face. Angel Heart, still in his state of deep sleep, growled to himself and showed off a set of large fangs.
Father Gyatso slowly backed away from the slumbering warrior and made the sign of the cross. The old priest immediately beckoned two warrior-priests to come to his side, which they did immediately. The head priest whispered some instructions that neither Katara nor any of her friends could decipher. Seconds later, the warrior-priests disappeared into the shadows. When Angel Heart's friends look to each other in confusion, the same two warrior-priests returned, only this time they were carrying two pairs of shackles. The two young men slowly shackled Aang's wrists behind his back and then shackled his ankles.
"Hey, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Katara shouted. Katara tried to stop them, but another warrior-priest grabbed her arms from behind and restrained her. Teo and Suki tried to intervene and help their friend, but more warrior-priests appeared from the shadows, armed with spears and blocked their path. Toph didn't do anything to stop them from carrying Angel Heart away.
"WHAT'S THE DEAL, GYATSO? I THOUGHT YOU WERE GOING TO HELP HIM! LET HIM GO!" Katara screamed. Refusing to listen, the warrior-priests carried Angel Heart away and took him down to the dark corridors far beneath the Cathedral.
"You said you're going to help, but all you're doing is treating him like a prisoner!" Suki said.
"I should have known not to bring him here! LOWLIFE BACKSTABBERS!" Teo shouted.
"Now calm down. All of you. Believe it or not, we really are trying to help him. You have no idea as to what your friend Aang is going through right now. Please tell me: was he in battle?"
"Yes. He took on some giant. It was a serious showdown!" Teo answered.
"How long did he fight that man?" Father Gyatso asked.
"Well… about 28 minutes. Aang told me about how he was not supposed to fight past thirty minutes, so I thought he was going to be fine. He never explained as to why he cannot fight past 30 minutes or how he ended up that way in the first place." Teo said. Father Gyatso lowered his head and covered his eyes. Teo could have sworn that the old priest swore to himself.
"… I told Aang not to go border-line towards 30 minutes in combat. He must have done it so often that it's now taking a terrible toll on him. At this rate, we might lose him for good." Katara approached the old priest and gently placed her hand on his shoulder.
"Father Gyatso, please tell us what's going on. None of this is making any sense." Feeling plagued by guilt, Father Gyatso patted his hand on the young woman's hand on his shoulder. Katara backed away from the old priest and stood by her friends, preparing for his answer. Toph still kept her distance from everyone else.
"… I damned Aang's soul the moment he was about to die at the age of 5. The heart he possesses is not his own. What he has inside of him is the heart of a terrible monster, and I'm the very man who gave it to him. God forgive me for what I have done."
