Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, or its characters. I do own, however, the original characters: Alden, Cora, Setsuko, Fiamma, and Serafina. Using my original characters in your own stories is not permitted, unless with my consent. Thank you.

Chapter 15

The Angel of Divinity

The gluttonous earth devoured her. Fiamma was gone.

Serafina gave every ounce of her strength until the demon was thrown down into the depths. This seemed to take only moments, but time became irrelevant with an angelic presence.

Alden and Cora contributed all of their energy as well to see Fiamma's ultimate demise. It was an omnipotent trinity.

The sky began to return to normal. Gray and darkness was dispelled. A brilliant azure revealed itself.

A beautiful wind blew through that scattered the ashes and dust of the fires. No traces of blazes burned any longer, except for the radiance from the three.

With their final drops of power, the trinity sealed Fiamma in the fiery pit of hopeless lamentation.

As their light dwindled, Alden and Cora stood awaiting Serafina's words. She kept her palm raised to the skies. Although they had used all their power to their limits, they realized that, strangely, they didn't feel exhausted now at all.

As another moment passed, their lights faded entirely. Serafina brought her eyes level to the others. She allowed her arm to fall.

"It is over," she said.

Serafina's heels touched the earth for the first time. She clasped her hands together in front of her.

Alden and Cora stood near her. Everyone waited for Serafina, holy guardian of the world, to speak.

"You have saved humanity," Serafina said. "All of you."

She took the time to gaze at each one of them individually, to let them know that they each had part in the salvation of the world.

"Each one of you," she continued. "Are the guardians of the earth. You have saved everyone. Fiamma could not have been destroyed without each one of you. For your aid, I thank you all."

Serafina, angel of the heavens, bowed her head to everyone in thanks.

"And without you two," she said, gesturing to Alden and Cora. "Fiamma's destruction may have never been stopped. I thank you especially for your selfless and valiant contributions."

After Serafina's words, a moment of silence ensued. No one could allow their thoughts to be properly articulated into words. It was frightening and shocking enough just to be near an actual holy figure of a heavenly plane.

"I know this experience has been of epic proportion and you each are and will always perhaps be gripped entirely by disbelief," Serafina persevered. "But, allow me to explain everything to you. As an angel, I have a sort of knowledge, a type of semi-omniscience that allows me to know and understand things beyond the mortal mind. A sort of angelic perception. However, I am not God. I am not entirely omniscient. I do not know everything, but I will do my best to explain everything to you. You all need to know – you are saviors."

Everyone stood around Serafina, listening attentively to her words. Her voice still remained as melodious as she had first descended from the skies.

"Alden and Cora," she continued. "You were needed to destroy and seal Fiamma once more. Without you, it may proved to be a much more difficult task. After all, Fiamma, that wretched demon, discovered a way to break my seal by drawing on a powerful source of magic. You two contributed all of your power. We shared each other's light and became the weapon to finally destroy Fiamma and seal her permanently this time. We each used our power practically to the limit, but since it was shared, it was divided and did not drain you, or worse, make you expire. But Fiamma is gone at last. Her terror will not see this world any longer. Perhaps she is writhing below in twice as much agony."

Curiosity still swelled within Kaede. She spoke.

"So the story," she said. "It is all true? The battle with Fiamma so long ago? Ye fought this battle, angel of light?"

"Yes, priestess," Serafina said. "It is true. As you have told it. Long ago, Fiamma, the most despicable demon, scoured the earth, causing destruction and death to anything living. She was so powerful and vile that she was thought of as the devil's own incarnation. Her destruction ate away at humanity until the heavens noticed her doing and decided to intervene. I was elected to descend to the world of mortals and, not only to destroy this demon completely, but to banish her to the deepest prison of hell. By holy decree.

"The battle endured for many weeks. I realized that this demon could not be a mere mortal. I was correct in this assumption. As it became known, this demon was indeed a spawn of the devil, created from ultimate darkness."

Everyone gasped at this. Fiamma was perhaps the most inherently evil demon they ever and would ever meet. She was not just a lowly imp gripped by greed or a lust for the jewel shards – she craved the complete annihilation of everything that was alive and breathing.

"I had to summon all of the power I could muster," Serafina said. "To eliminate this incarnation of evil and to seal her away in the depths. I thought I had surely imprisoned her for all of eternity, but this was not enough as has become known. Fiamma, after eons of writhing in her fiery pit and shackles, drew on a source of magic to finally break the seal and release her free. However, this part I do not understand. What exact magic she drew on to do this."

Kaede stepped forward.

"The Bone Eater's well," she said. "Fiamma said she had tapped into its power."

"Ah, yes," Serafina said. "A well. She did say that. But I did not understand what she meant."

"She meant the Bone Eater's well," Kaede said, pointing to the remains of the well in the distance. "She must have used its power."

"But what well could possibly possess such a great power as to be a source to free Fiamma from the very confines of the depths?" Serafina wondered.

"It has powerful time magic," Kagome said. "It is able to bring me back and forth through time."

"Indeed, powerful magic!" Serafina exclaimed. "I did not know such magic even existed on this realm."

"Indeed it does, holy being," Kaede said. "It is able to take Kagome back to her time in the future and then return her here in the feudal era."

"So it was that," Serafina said. "It was the Bone Eater's well that Fiamma managed to clasp onto and manipulate its magic from below."

"We noticed recently that the well's magic had begun to change," Kaede told her. "Its magic had become very distorted and began transporting beings from different times and places at random, it seemed. Two of them were Alden and Cora."

"The two saviors of light?" Serafina said. "They belong in a different time?"

"And place," Alden added.

"I see."

"But the well was destroyed," Cora said sadly. "When Fiamma came."

Serafina looked at the melancholy remnants of the Bone Eater's well.

"I see," Serafina reiterated. "But it was not just at random."

Everyone seemed puzzled at this.

"You see," she continued. "If Alden and Cora weren't transported by the well's magic at this specific time and place, I would have never been able to destroy and seal Fiamma once again. They would have never been able to contribute their power. Even more so, Cora never would have been able to summon me freely with her power of purity. Fiamma could have caused great destruction again before there was holy intervention."

Everyone knew it was indeed strange how this all happened like this.

"It seems like fate," Serafina said. "God works like this sometimes. He is the greatest mystery of all. Even I, a soldier of the heavens, do not understand His intentions. But He has good reasoning."

"But what of our powers, Serafina?" Alden asked. "We were not born like this."

"So you were changed as you entered this era?" she asked him.

"Yes."

"I see. Fate has it again. Nothing seems to have happened by mere chance. Perhaps there has been more holy intervention than I expected. Sometimes He is very subtle. It seems to me that we were all destined to be here, to fight, and to see that Fiamma finally met her end."

"So you don't know anything about our powers, Serafina?" Alden persisted. "I'm really interested because ever since we've been in this era, I started having these nightmares. Nightmares of Fiamma, as we discovered later."

"A gift of prophecy?" Serafina wondered.

"Yes, and also, ever since I've been here, I've been able to protect my sister with an unusual force."

"As I witnessed. You managed to use it against Fiamma. How strange."

"Yes."

"It seems that you have been granted powers that are quite suitable to you. You, Alden, have been granted powers that dwell within the psyche. As I can tell, you are a very intelligent being that is in touch with this. Prophecy and psychic energy seemed to have been granted to you. And, for Cora, it is powers of purity. Abilities to heal, cleanse ailments, and summon pure beings such as myself. These were suitable for her, a girl of innocence and a desire to do good things."

"What about the shard in Cora's arm?" Alden asked, still very much inquisitive.

"A piece of jewel shard?" Serafina wondered.

"Yes, it's embedded in her arm. Ever since we've been in this era. And she uses it to draw on her power."

"It glows," Cora said, and she made it do so.

"I saw that," Serafina said. "That was the first thing that caught my attention. That glint of purity. It could not have been of a mere mortal."

"Should we remove it?" Alden asked.

"I shall do so," Serafina said. "Right before we return you two to your appropriate time and place."

"But how can we do that?" Cora asked her. "The well has been completely destroyed."

"I shall restore it," Serafina said simply. "I shall restore it to its original state. With its magic undistorted and intact. But you will need to return to your time first, Alden and Cora."

It was inevitable that they would do so. Alden had always felt this. Cora was uncertain of this, but she yearned for home underneath.

"After you return," Serafina continued. "I shall restore the well and its magic and I shall see to it that it never becomes distorted again."

"What about our powers," Alden said. "Will we lose them?"

"It is most likely. Normalcy will return."

"We won't forget everything though?" Alden asked, worried.

"That, I'm not certain of. Perhaps. Perhaps not. This probably lies in God's hands as well."

"I hope not."

A silence filled the air. A zephyr rustled the flow of Serafina's golden locks.

"I thank you all, once again," Serafina said to everyone. "Fiamma has been destroyed because of your efforts, and finally sealed away forever. The heavens will surely rejoice your victory. But now, I must depart. I will give you a day to say your farewells to each other. And then, at this time tomorrow, I shall return to see Alden and Cora's safe passage through time."

Serafina's heels slowly ascended from the ground. Her eyes were gentle and her hair was shining. She rose up into the sky. Her form became engulfed in a blinding light, and she was gone.