Chapter 17

'I don't know how long I can keep it up.' he thought, barely dodging yet another hot burst of flames. He was tired. He felt his angel powers leaving him, seeping out with every attack. His bloodied frame shook from the strain. And this voice, Satan's voice mocking him. He spoke like he was addressing a misbehaving toddler. It angered him even more.

"Well, well, well! My dearest son got himself some godly powers!" he laughed "It's a pity you don't know how to use them. Tut tut tut, daddy would teach you if you stopped being so naughty!"

Rin gritted his teeth and attacked again. It made Satan's laughter louder. The bastard evaded his flames with ease, like they were so annoying fly, not being able to hurt him at all. He toyed with Rin, making him jump around the place like a monkey while he made fun of him. His attacks weren't serious, if he managed to hit him in only damaged him a little.

Amaimon sat up with her help and frantically looked around. It seemed father was only playing around with his otouto. He turned his head, searching for his other brother. Then, he spotted him at the end of the room. With a gasp, he stood up and before she could stop him, bolted towards Mephisto. She couldn't do anything but follow.

He was lying there, pale and bleeding, dying light of Shiro's power still enveloping him. His wounds were horrible, burns and cuts marred his skin. He wasn't healing by himself at all which was very worrying in itself. Blood poured out of his wounds, staining his white clothes. Rasped breaths leaved his mouth a little to quickly.

"Brother!" Amaimon fell to his knees and lightly touched his hand. It was cold. Tears fell. The Earth King was crying, for a first time in a long while. Anastasia looked at him sadly and hugged him lightly from a side. Shiro finally collapsed, the light disappearing and only Shin's reflex saved him from hitting the floor.

"I'm sorry I can't do anything else. I gained only a small amount of powers in here." Shiro said sadly, glancing at his friend's pale face.

It wasn't fair, he thought, thinking about lives of different spices. If you were born as a human it was like having two lives really. When you died, you went to Heaven or Hell and was reborn. But if you was born as an angel or demon, then it was a different matter. You had only this one life and there were no second chances. The only thing a dead human couldn't do was come back to Assiah, he couldn't travel like others could. But that was a small price to pay. Thinking that soon his friend will disappear forever was painful.

He glanced towards his son. He was fighting furiously, dodging, jumping and flying around Satan while he laughed with glee and tried to burn his wings. Dread filled him, thoughts about death still in his head. He remembered Rin's story. He had to give up his human life. If he died now there would be no second chance either, he won't see him again. Rin would disappear forever. Just when they finally met again...

"We have to help Rin." Shiro gasped, when he saw his wing getting a large burn, feathers flying everywhere. Shin nodded and leaving Mephisto to Amaimon, got up and charged.

Shiro circled around the room, trying to get on one side while Shin took the other. Together, nodding at each other, they attacked.

Rin, noticing movement from the corner where his friends were, realized they would do something. Trying to get Satan full attention, he made a mistake that cost him another burn on the wing but it worked. Satan laughed at his clumsy moves and didn't notice the attack.

"Those wings of yours are rather flammable, aren't they?" He mocked and then Shin jumped towards him.

Caught off guard, Satan felt a dagger cutting his skin and getting deep into his side. It burned and he hissed, realizing it was a sacred dagger, made for slaying demons. With a snarl, he half-turned to deal with the pest, when Shiro's blade reached him along with Rin's attack.

The throne room filled a terrifying sound of Satan's scream. It filled their souls with dread and their hearts with fear. It was a sound not even the most beast-like demon could produce. Rin jumped away from the source, his angel side screaming in fear. And because of that a balance he had in his soul crumbled.

Satan stopped screaming and his body exploded with blue flames, burning them both. With a hiss, they moved away. The devil didn't give them a second to react. He roared, furious.

Rin felt his flames rebelling and gasped. He grasped his head hearing loud bells ringing in his ears. Hell's atmosphere wasn't helping matters. Blue flames enveloped his whole body. With an animal snarl, he pounced, attacking the first thing that stood on his path. Good thing was that it was his enemy.

Shin realized what was happening and grabbed Shiro, getting him out of the way.

"What are you doing?! Something's wrong with Rin!" He shouted but the iron grip on his arm stopped him from rushing to him.

"Stop fighting me! His flames got out of control! He will attack everyone, attack you! Rin needs to win the fight inside his head alone. You can't help. Besides" Shin smirked "his power now is enormous. When he gets out of control like that... Believe me, it might be a good thing. Satan won't know what hit him."

And true to his words, Rin's blue flames exploded with so much power the walls around him got black from the heat. Satan stopped his baby talk completely and focused all of his attention on defending himself.

Rin's attacks were uncoordinated and fast, no reason in them whatsoever. And that gained him an advantage over a strategist like Satan. The sheer amount of demonic power was terrifying.

Shin couldn't believe his eyes when he saw Satan hitting the floor. No, he wasn't dead yet but he was burned severely and with a kick from Rin he went flying.

Rin felt rage filling him. He saw blue, felt hot and wanted to destroy this man who was fighting his flames. Seeing him lying there he jumped up and stabbed him with Kurikara.

It was like a spell broke suddenly. He stood there, over Satan with his sword in his chest. Flames leaved his body and he felt empty. And exhausted. Looking down, he knew he would have to use the other flame to finish it but couldn't. His angel powers felt burned out, like the light was switched off. He was tired.

"I see you can be quite a beast, son." Satan said, spitting blood on the floor. He grasped the blade, cutting his hand deeply and pushed to get it out. Rin fought to keep it there but was losing his strength fast.

Shiro rushed then and grabbed the sword with him. Shin stood by the side, not knowing what to do. Satan's black blood was ugly, he didn't want to touch it.

"You have to use the light flames, Rin!" Shiro reminded him and seeing his pale, tired face, he knew Rin remembered. "You can do this! Just one last burst and it's over!"

"You think you can kill me so easily?" Satan screamed and pushed the blade completely out. Rin jumped back in shock but Shiro wasn't as fast.

Flames rushed towards him and soon blue filled his vision. The force almost took him in the air and he fell flat on his back. Satan got up and with a bloodied smile sent another flame towards him. A deadly one.

Shin have never moved so fast in his life. He knew Shiro was important to Rin, his lost father he wanted to spend more time with. He didn't even hesitate. Shiro was more important than him. He took the flames dead on, trying to block some of them with his sword. His world burned and everything went black.

Seeing Shin fall after protecting his father woke Rin up from his strange trance of tiredness. Adrenaline pumped up in his veins and he knew Satan has hurt the last person in his life.

His body was glowing, blue and gold, colors shined but didn't mix, just swirled around his skin, warm and full of power. Satan looked up towards him with surprise and his eyes widened, seeing such a ball of energy flying towards him at full speed. He couldn't even dodge. The light enveloped his whole body, so bright even Rin couldn't look at it. The scream was as terrifying as before.

Amaimon had to look away from this light as well. It hurt his eyes. But he had hope. It was possible this attack finally destroyed Satan. The one responsible for so many hurts in his life. Looking down at his beloved brother, he knew Satan deserved every wound he received and more.

Mephisto suddenly woke up, the light filled them all with energy and it helped him to consciousness. He groaned in pain. His body felt like he was hit by a big truck. He felt light headed, he knew he lost too much blood. For a first time he feared for his life.

"A... Amaimon..." He gasped. The green haired man leaned down and took his hand. His worried face filled his vision.

"Brother. Please don't die! I think otouto killed father, we will be able to get you some help soon!"

"I won't... make it..." his voice was so weak it was hard to understand him. Amaimon face was wet from tears. "Help... get me... to Gabriel..."

Anastasia knew he was right. The archangel was the only one powerful enough to heal such wounds. But his next words shocked her.

"I want... see him... again..." he seemed to be delirious, his face got even more pale. His eyes were glassy, from the pain of maybe tears... he remembered everything he regretted and one archangel filled his thoughts more than anyone. Mistakes from the past...

"I have to get you out of the castle. I can't travel from here, Satan made sure of that. So no one could escape..."

Amaimon gently lifted him up in his arms and looked towards the fight. The light Rin had sent was dying slowly and he could just make out Satan's frame. He was still standing but wasn't moving at all. It was hard to tell what exactly happened. Using the light to hide themselves, they sneaked around them towards the doors.

They arrived at the battlefield. Blood was flooding the place, everywhere fallen demons were lying, ripped apart, their dead eyes glaring at anyone passing them. The sight was nauseous even for Amaimon. They moved quickly, avoiding the ones still fighting. Somehow, they managed to sneak past everyone.

"I can't go with you to Assiah." Anastasia said sadly and he nodded. She looked unsure but there was no time to talk with her. "Just... come back here, all right? When he's better." She asked shyly. She was bound to him now but that didn't mean he was bound to her. If he so decided, she wouldn't see him again. Amaimons's eyes softened and he nodded.

"I promise." Then he disappeared. She watched him fade, hoping Mephisto will survive the travel.

Gabriel was sitting in Mephisto's office, remembering. He couldn't do anything but wait for him to come back. He wanted to stop the demon but he was stubborn. And Gabriel had his pride, he would never admit he cared for him. Maybe it was stupid. They were both too stubborn to be happy. He sighed.

While Rin was training in Heaven, Gabriel visited Mephisto regularly. First, it was only so he could check on his angels, find out about loses and victories and to know how the war was progressing. But with time he stayed longer, so Mephisto could ask him all about Rin and his progress. Before he realized, they started to eat dinners together and share more about themselves than only the war part. He knew how the demon felt about him when he was young. Destroying his pride and beating him back then wasn't something he wanted to gloat about. He was glad Mephisto matured enough to forgive him for it. Or so he hoped as he never apologized before. Realizing that, he knew he would have to swallow his pride and admit he was cruel, just so the demon would stop acting so coldly around him. Somehow, this distance was irritating and unwelcome.

His apology was accepted and the smile he got in return dazzled him for a moment. When they left the past where it belonged, they could finally become friends.

Gabriel sighed again. He was so old it was funny to think he couldn't get a grip on his emotions. Especially when he knew angel's emotions were nothing compared to demon's. He knew he stopped thinking so stupidly like he did before. There was nothing wrong with befriending demons. God loved all of his creatures, all of them were his children.

He knew he was Mephisto's mate. That's why he reacted so strongly to rejection. There wasn't any worse insult than that. Demons who went through this usually killed their partners, so they couldn't be with anyone else. Then, they killed themselves. It seemed Mephisto was stronger than that and managed to live on. Gabriel didn't know what to think anymore. Was he really interested? His partners tended to be soft, small and quiet. Everything Mephisto wasn't. Yet, there was something mysterious about him... No. Better not to think about it.

His musings got interrupted by sudden arrival. He stood up and gasped. Amaimon stood there, his brother's blood all over him.

"Brother!" He cried out, realizing he stopped breathing. It seemed the travel between worlds was too much for his battered body. "Help!" He pleaded. Gabriel took him gently from his arms and laid him down on the sofa. His empty eyes looked back at them.

"I think... he's dead."

Author's Note:

Well, the fight got serious! Poor Rin will have to try harder.

Should I let Mephy live? Gabriel is still unsure about him :P

Please review!