Antithesis
Part 1 - Chance Meetings
Sword squinted at the blinding vibrancy of life that
choked the roof of the prison he had been confined to. The polished metal of the
chains that trailed from his wrists flashed with the sudden movement as the
devil lifted a manacled hand to block out the light. He refused to turn away
from the sun's ruthless attack on eyes that had only glimpsed the light that
flooded Heaven through minuscule breaks in the thick clouds that blanketed Hell.
It was the first time that the devil Sword had ever been far enough into
Heaven's territory to see how damnably bright and shiny everything was.
From the prisons to the buildings to the clothes worn by
those accursed angels, every last thing Sword saw was either white or some shade
that was suspiciously close to white. It hurt his eyes. As if the sun wasn't
bright enough on its own without helping it along by whitewashing everything!
That had to be the reason why the angels' main colour was
white, Sword decided. It wasn't because they were good or because they lived in
Heaven; it was so they could blind devils by flying through sunbeams.
Sword sneered at the wildlife that apparently lived in the
deceptively peaceful garden that decorated the roof of the angels' prison for
devils. He walked towards an open space that had nothing more offensive than
grass and a few pungent flowers and gazed out at the landscape of Heaven.
Floating amongst wind-blown clouds like gigantic stone balloons were what Sword
could only describe as flat-topped islands. They were connected with a network
of flimsy curving staircases and pathways that all seemed to either lead towards
where God and the Archangels lived, or downwards, down towards Hell and the
distant sea of boiling black clouds.
He gazed longingly at storms that raged over Hell's landscape
and shifted wings that, while by no means had the size or strength of a full
grown devil's, were enough to bear the young devil past Heaven's defences.
Unfortunately, the rest of his body lacked the power to do more than cause a
disturbance among Heaven's ranks. Massive chains clinked against the warded
silver bands that wound around the joints of Sword's wings to tie them shut. The
angels took no chances with any devil they captured alive and took to Heaven. If
metal inscribed with holy magic failed to restrict a devil's movements, then the
sheer weight of the chains would keep any winged prisoner from taking flight
without crashing painfully to the ground after travelling a few metres.
Such an ill-fated flight had already been attempted by Sword
after he freed himself and before he managed to escape the winged pursuit. He
was just grateful that Heaven felt it was important feed their prisoners and,
thus, allowed Sword to regain enough strength to defeat the guards that
wrongfully felt that Sword's less-than-graceful landing was a source of
amusement.
He grinned at the memory of the fight. Those angels were
really no match for a devil of his calibre.
"I must admit, I can't help but admire the determination of a
devil intent on causing trouble." A clear, young voice called out.
Sword whirled around, a fist raised instinctively to release
a blast of demonic power even though the warded manacles would prevent such an
action. He braced himself against the momentum of the chains that threatened
overbalancing him with the extra weight. The target of his ire smiled. 'That's
a boy, right? Or is it a girl?' Sword couldn't be certain by just looking at
the winged person before him. The angel's next words confirmed Sword's thoughts.
"I'd warn you not to do that but it would be useless to say
so at this point," the angel --a boy, Sword decided, after listening closely to
the voice-- said smugly.
The male angel stared pointedly at the web-like burns that
radiated up Sword's arms and away from his wrists with such an air of
authoritative disapproval that the devil found himself crossing his arms over
his chest defensively. Sword hissed slightly at the pain the action caused.
"Who the hell are you and why would you care?" Sword glared
menacingly.
The angel blinked before bursting into laughter as bright and
annoying as the rest of Heaven.
"My, what a mouth you have!" The blond angel said.
Sword bristled and bared his fangs with a feral snarl. Who
was this boy to make fun of him? The angel couldn't possibly have been older or
stronger than the devil. Sword raised a fist charged with demonic power and
slammed it against the side of the angel's face with a very satisfying amount of
force.
The angel's head snapped back and he stumbled a few steps
before regaining his balance. The blond raised a shaking hand to touch the spot
where he was struck and hissed, quickly jerking his hand away away. Sword was
disappointed that the boy didn't fall, but took comfort in the sight of an angry
red mark making its presence known on the boy's face. That, and Sword took great
comfort in the fact that he was able to use any demonic power at all.
Sure, Sword could no longer feel his fingers, his wrist felt like it was broken,
the Holy metal was burning his skin, the smell was making him dizzy and the rest
of his arm was rapidly succumbing to paradoxical numbing and fiery agony that
crippled his right hand... but damned if he was going to show how much he
regretted his action.
No, Sword just plastered a smug smile on his face and stared
down the angel.
The angel gawked at him with amber eyes wide with disbelief.
He tried to open his mouth to speak several times but all that came out was a
strangled choking noise. It was the fifth try before any intelligible sound left
the angel's mouth.
"You shouldn't have been able to do that!"
"I just did." Sword smirked. "What're you gonna do now? Your
pretty chains can't hold me back! They won't keep me from killing you and making
my triumphant return to Hell," he paused for emphasis, "with your bloody body as
a trophy. Then they'll all acknowledge the might of the great Devil Sword!"
Soft laughter interrupted Sword's thoughts. He glowered with
obvious irritation at the angel smiling beneficently while pressing a glowing
hand to his red cheek, eliminating all evidence that the devil had caused any
damage at all.
"So you're the devil called Sword?" The angel asked with a
predatory smile. "That doesn't sound like a True Name to me. And I should know,
Lord Michael is my friend and he was friends with Lucifer and they're both
Archangels that killed countless devils stronger than you!"
Sword eyed the boy warily, then laughed hysterically. "That's
a good one, Angel! You really had me fooled for a second! You? Friends? With the
Archangels? HA! Just who do you think you are, kid?"
The white-winged boy glared and activated the bindings' holy
magic. Sword howled in pain and threw a punch that, while not charged with
demonic power, had enough power behind it to unbalance the devil when the angel
danced out of the way.
Narrowed gold eyes stared up at narrowed amber eyes.
Finally, the angel spoke. "I am Archangel Ios."
Sword sat up with a snort and cast Ios a cagey look out of
the corner of his eyes. "If you were an Archangel, where's all the holy armour
and mantle?"
Ios flushed and looked down. "I... I just don't want to wear
it right now. It's heavy."
"Liar." Sword jabbed an accusing finger at the angel with a
triumphant smirk while suppressing a internal sigh of relief. The last thing he
need was to run into an angry Archangel. "It's not very angel-like to lie, you
know."
Ios smacked the hand away with an exaggerated huff. "I'm not
lying!" He deflated slightly at the look Sword gave him. "I'm in training to
become one. I'm not lying," and he added after a moment's thought, "not really."
"Uh huh." Sword tried to cross his arms and look menacing but
discovered that the pain from the two attempts at using demonic power with his
right arm had rendered it completely useless. He rubbed it gingerly when Angel
Ios looked away.
"But what about you? You couldn't probably be important
enough to have have a name!" Ios watched the ranks of bloody angels
emerging from the storms that marked the border between Heaven and Hell.
"There's no way that "Sword" is your real name."
"Well it is and it suits me just fine," was the
devil's sullen reply. It was followed by the faint clinking of chains and rustle
of cloth as he moved. "I'll earn a name soon enough. One that's better than
anything an trainee angel could get."
Ios ground his teeth and tore his eyes away from the skies to
glower at the empty space where the devil once sat. He scanned the space with
his eyes but saw not evidence of that the devil had ever been there, aside from
the matted grass and scattered drops of blood.
Startled, Angel Ios recalled his duty took flight to report
the prison break.
-tbc-