Author's note: Hello everyone! Here is a long chapter with lots of action. You will discover a lot about Maze's new powers. A big thank you to my super Beta, Bebec, who helped me a lot with this chapter to improve the realism and the atmosphere of the scenes. And now, enjoy!
Chapter 3
The Hunt is On
Maze was drumming her fingers angrily on the steering wheel, doing her best to hold herself from bursting out. She could feel it, pressing against her biceps, reminding her that she belonged to God now... She closed her eyes for a second to try and push away that disturbing thought. No! She didn't belong to Him! She had made that much clear when facing Him. He had given it all to her willingly. She had earned it! Damn it!
She couldn't say exactly why she put the arm band back on thought, instead of simply discarding it. Maybe because it reminded her of Lucifer's ring and that he had always worn it, even though it was a gift from his Father. She suspected from the start that Lucifer's hellish powers could be linked to that ring since he apparently started showing those abilities only after receiving the gift. So maybe Amenadiel was right and her arm band could have some powers of its own. After all, God had been frustratingly ambiguous about what He had done to her, talking only about new skills and powers. She had first thought that He was simply referring to her new wings, «bloody things», but maybe there was something else to it. It didn't mean she was ready to use blindly whatever He'd given her only because He wanted it. Damn no! The terms of their deal didn't even force her to do anything after all.
As for her new soul... she had felt it right away without Him having to tell her about it. It was disturbingly soothing, as if it was calming the boiling volcano that had always been dominating her. While this new soul was quashing her raging fire, it seemed on the other hand to be allowing all other emotions to amplify. Which was very confusing, to say the least. She'd already been more and more aware of her emotions in the last few months. She hadn't quite understood why though, putting it simply on humanity rubbing off on her. But the effect of having a soul was different. It was as if a door in her mind had been unlocked, allowing her to clearly feel her emotions as well as understanding them more easily, along with being increasingly aware of other's feelings around her. Earlier, she could almost feel Chloe's pain and, what was the word? Empathise? Maze was also grieving the loss of Lucifer of course, she wasn't a stranger to that kind of feeling, but to see, to feel Chloe so lost and hurting had broken her heart and that, was something entirely new to her.
Before God had made her «evolve», as He put it, Maze had already been in a process of changes. It had been disturbing enough for her to not understand who she was becoming, but now she was downright scared of discovering who she was. As much as she was still mad at God for forcing it on her, she was strangely also grateful to Him for saving her life. A quite unwanted feeling that was making her all the more angry at him.
A warm hand stroke her right knee, bringing her back to reality.
"Are you okay, Maze?" Asked Amenadiel in a sweet voice.
She pushed his hand away harshly. "Don't act as if I belonged to you! I'm not your Father's gift."
Amenadiel looked stung. "What's the matter with you? We were already together before my Father acknowledged our relationship. It shouldn't change anything between us."
"The word relationship is a big one. It's not because you were ready to be mine that I do too. I don't belong to anyone! And your Father will certainly not tell me who I have to be with. He won't tell me what to do, period!" She almost spat at him.
She immediately regretted saying these words, seeing in his eyes how much she was hurting him. Damn soul! It was apparently plaguing her with a conscience. As if her life wasn't complicated enough as it was.
Amenadiel pondered her words for a moment. "Do you really feel like my Father is manipulating you to do anything you wouldn't?"
"He most certainly is. That's what he always does after all. I'm just not sure what he is forcing me to do. I feel like I'm on a mission for him, and it's already taking all the fun out of the hunt." She gritted her teeth in frustration.
"Would you have done it anyway? I mean track and punish those demons."
"You know I would have," she conceded reluctantly.
"Then it would seem that my Father is not making you do anything against your will. You are making your own choices, Maze. I really don't think that my Father is trying to take your free will. I believe He only gave you the means to do more." He let unsaid the idea that her decision to be with him was also her own, hoping that she would reach that conclusion sooner or later by herself.
Maze fixed the road silently for a long moment. "We'll see!" She simply answered.
They stayed silent for the rest of the ride, lost in their own thoughts.
By the time they reached the crime scene, Doom was getting restless on the back seat, whining and yelping in excitement. Maze understood right away that whatever attacked those tramps was still in the area. Good! She felt like killing something.
She parked her car on a side street a few blocks away from the scene where the police was still blocking all access. Darkness was just starting to envelop the city as they stepped out of the car.
They first went to observe the alley where the crime took place, by joining the few onlookers still gathered besides the yellow tape encircling the area. Unsurprisingly, a few cops were still working to find evidences and there was no way to know how long they would keep at it.
"I think Doom fond a track." Whispered Amenadiel in her ear.
She turned her gaze back to the hound who was sniffing the ground intently, pulling on the leash they had to put around his neck to keep appearances, to his utmost indignation. Amenadiel looked to have a hard time keeping the animal in line.
"Doom! Just stop fidgeting will you!" The demon admonished him. Instantly, the hound calmed down.
The angel startled at the easiness she had to control the beast. "How did you do that?"
Maze rolled her eyes impatiently. "Just talk to him instead of pulling on his leash like that. Doom is not a stupid dog!"
As if to make her point, she questioned the hound. "Did you find their tracks?"
Doom grinned in answer. He lowered his muzzle once more to sniff at the ground and walked a few meters away from the alley only to return to it. He lifted his head to point back at the alley, his whole body pointing like an arrow.
"So, that's the way they came in. We at least know that." Concluded Maze. "Let's go around to find out where they came out."
"I'm not feeling anything hellish yet." The angel pointed out as they started walking around the block, following the eager hound.
"Can't you feel that lingering presence in the air?"
"No!" He admitted, a bit embarrassed. "But you can?"
"Of course! But it's too faint for me to track easily. I could still follow their tracks, mind you, but it will be far easier and faster to let Doom do it."
The few people they crosses glanced uneasily at Doom as they walked through the streets. The Hellhound was an impressive beast even with his glamour in place. He could easily pass for a giant wolf of more than three feet tall at the shoulder. Everyone seemed to be feeling instinctively how menacing he was, be it because of the way he walked like a prowling beast, or the way his wild orange-yellowish eyes fixed them as if they were his next meal. Or maybe it was because of the few deep scratches and bite marks still showing through burnt patches of his fur, clear evidences of his dangerousness. Whatever the reason was, Maze thought that they would have a hard time passing unnoticed with the hound by their side.
Once on the other side of the alley, the Hellhound couldn't find any track leading out of it and there didn't seem to have any other way out that the demons could have used.
Maze nodded in thoughts. "That leaves us with only one option as to where they went..."
"Down," ended Amenadiel for her.
"Yes, through the sewers."
They had already planned for that possibility since the kind of demon she suspected the culprits to be was an underground species, usually uncomfortable in open areas. While the demons would be in their element down there, at least their capture wouldn't endanger any human beings, unless they were too late and the creatures already came out above ground somewhere else to take advantage of nightfall.
"Doom, find us a way down not too close to these cops."
At the demon's words, the hound led them without hesitation towards a side street a few alleys down. It wasn't long before he found them a manhole that led to the sewers. They were able to open the access and go down without being spotted by anyone in this deserted place. Amenadiel was worried that the hound would not be able to follow them, but as it turned out, unlike a dog, Doom didn't hesitate to let himself fall down head first into the dark hole.
The tunnel they landed in was quite narrow, barely five feet width, with waste water mid-calf deep. The low glow coming down through the man hole illuminated only a small portion of the tunnel, while it was pitch black all around them. It was eerily silent, except for the sound of running water. There was a strange stillness in the air that gave the impression that anything could come out of the dark at any time. At least Doom didn't look particularly nervous, giving the impression that they were not in immediate danger.
They soon found themselves walking through the sewers, led by a hound who saw as well in pitch darkness as in plain day. Even though Maze was a demon, and by definition could see quite well in the obscurity, she could never hope to see well enough in this complete darkness to be able to find those demons, even less fight them. Hence the flashlights that Amenadiel and she were obliged to wield. That could prove to be a hindrance for them both once the fight started, yet there was nothing they could do about it. It left them only one hand to hold a demon blade to defend themselves. In a closed space like that, such a weapon was probably the best one they could have chosen.
Used to rely on his wings in a fight, Amenadiel complained about the impossibility for him to use them in this confined place. He tried to convince her to unfurl her smaller ones to give her an advantage, but she wasn't about to use the bloody things. Not in a hundred years!
They walked in silence behind the Hellhound whose eyes were shining in the dark. Never hesitating which way to turn when they encountered junctions, Doom led them in the opposite direction from the crime scene with a confidence that assured them that he was on a lead. The canal they were in finally joined a main passage that had to be about ten feet wide. There, the sewer canal was way deeper but took only half of the space, leaving enough place to walk beside it on dry land. The smell coming off the waste water was as bad as could be expected. Not that Maze hadn't smelled worse than that in Hell. It seemed to be bothering Amenadiel quite a bit though.
As they moved forwards, Maze could feel clearly the increasing dark energy diffused by the hellish creatures that were still eluding them. Even Amenadiel could feel it now. When the dark feeling reached a peak, Doom suddenly stopped walking, a growl starting to rumble deep in his throat. Right in front of them, some thirty feet away, looked to be a four-ways junction. They couldn't see any movement over there with the poor lighting they had, but they knew that the demons were close. Even if it was a trap, they had no other option than to walk on if they wanted to catch those demons.
Maze felt the usual rush of adrenaline that always accompanied the prospect of a fight, sharpening her senses and increasing her breathing and heartbeat. She slowly became aware of an unwanted emotion mixing with it though, an emotion she couldn't quite place at first. She'd always only felt trepidation and excitement before battle, never thinking twice about a possible bad outcome on her part. Now it was different. There was a strange feeling of self-preservation coursing through her, something that reminded her that she didn't want to die. Was it what they called fear?
Maze gritted her teeth in anger at this bloody new soul of hers which was apparently making her weak. However, at the same time, she also felt her arm band starting to diffuse a comforting warmth through her body. Was it doing it on its own, or was she doing it herself?
She really had no idea and couldn't focus much on the question right now. They were about to get attacked and she had to get herself back together if she wanted to get out of there alive.
She swallowed the lump in her throat and walked forward, motioning to the others to move on.
Ten feet from the junction, Maze gave Doom the signal for him to attack first. They followed suit right behind the running hound to give him support against whatever would come out of there.
As soon as Doom crossed the threshold of the junction, a creature ram into him with full force, bringing them both stumbling into the water, claws and fangs all out, tearing each other apart. Two other demons ran straight at Amenadiel and her. The faint light coming from their flashlights revealed five feet tall hairless humanoid creatures as pale as death showing off long fangs on nightmarish faces.
The hissing demons sprang at them at lightning speed. The first one attacked Maze with long deadly claws while the other went for Amenadiel. She barely avoided being eviscerated before counterattacking in the same breath. She tackled down the demon as she drove her dagger deep into its guts. The thing shrieked in agony, but refused to die so easily, instead wriggling its way out of her grasp to get on top of her. The creature was so fast, it was like trying to hold a fish into place. Now above her, it resumed trying to tear her to pieces with its claws. She had dropped her flashlight the moment it attacked while her dagger was still embedded inside the demon. She had her hands full just trying to keep the thing from killing her. She saw with horror the creature ready to sink its fangs in her throat, when something inside her snapped.
An instinct she didn't even know she had took over in a primal need to protect herself, and a second later the creature's head got teared off in a spray of blood.
Maze panted with the rush of adrenaline still coursing through her and at the lingering feeling of having come close to death. Her eyes landed on her wings now spread out above her in a defensive manner. Blood was still dripping from the tip of the longest primaries that looked sharper than the best demon's blade.
A quick survey of her surrounding revealed Amenadiel who was finishing off the other creature a few feet away from her, and Doom in the process of getting out of the water after having certainly taken care of the third demon.
Suddenly, a movement caught her attention farther down the corridor. A fourth demon was on the run, escaping, and getting farther by the second. A small part of her brain wondered how she could even have spotted it that far in the darkness, but she discarded the thought rapidly, focussing instead on catching the creature.
With no time to think, she let her instinct guide her once more. A single flap of her wings brought her upwards in less time than it took her to will it so. Without understanding what she was trying to accomplish, Maze extended her right arm forward as if ready to catch the demon from that distance.
To her utmost amazement, a fiery light stretched out from her hand into a long burning whip that slammed straight into the escaping demon with a thundering clap. The whip encircled the demon's torso in a burning embrace that made it shrike in agony. Maze's bewilderment brought her to snap her hand back sharply in surprise. The movement instantly tore the demon apart as the whip burned though flesh and bones. The creature seemed to literally explode into a blinding light.
When the light faded and the whip disappeared, a heavy silence settled down in the sewers, only broken by the sound of the flowing water coursing through the corridors.
"What the fuck just happened?" Maze blurted out, eyes wide, looking at her hand as if it was about to bite her.
Amenadiel approached her with a frown. "I've never seen anything like it..."
In a daze, Maze walked to the place where the demon exploded into pieces to try and understand what in hell just happened. But, there wasn't the smallest evidence left that anything even happened in the first place.
"What in Hell? Am I going crazy now?"
Amenadiel had join her, sweeping his flashlight around, and looking as confused as she felt. "No Maze, you're not! It's just gone. Even though I have absolutely no idea how this could be possible."
Doom patted to them and the fact that he sniffed around without finding anything confirmed their suspicion that the demon had simply disappeared.
Maze eyed her arm band warily, her gaze followed by Amenadiel's. She might not understand what happened, but she knew perfectly well what was responsible for it. She'd felt it pulsing with energy, enveloping her in its warmth, and pass into her that incredible power. It hadn't exactly tried to control her though. It was more as if it had been trying to show her what she could do with its power. At first she'd unconsciously let it take the lead, until she'd freak out and taken back control. A strange feeling told her that this new power of hers could do a lot more, if only she had given into it. The question was, was she ready to accept that power completely?
Maze wasn't ready to share her thoughts on the matter with Amenadiel and fortunately he didn't push her either.
"Well! Whatever it was, it would be quite useful if you could do it again to make these three other demons disappear. Otherwise, we'll have to burn them."
Maze rolled her eyes annoyingly. "Then you better start the fire because I'm certainly not trying it again."
Since Amenadiel couldn't make her change her mind, they had to burn the demons the old fashion way, not without some difficulties considering that one of them was dripping wet.
Maze did her best to wipe all the demon's blood off her face and clothes. Good thing that she was wearing her usual black leather outfit. Years of torturing had thought her that it was the best to dissimulate blood stains.
After helping Doom climb up the latter to reach the outside world, they found themselves back into the deserted alley.
"Where to now? The night is still young, there could be time to catch some more demons." The angel was sporting a little smile that betrayed how much he was enjoying this hunt.
Maze had been thinking about just that on their way up. Doom could smell demons from miles away, but LA was quite big and it wouldn't be very efficient to just drive around mindlessly in the hope of tumbling upon some demons. They could also wait for other news of gruesome killings, but she didn't like the idea of being always one step behind, not to mention that it would imply letting humans die as a way to get to the demons. And anyway, they couldn't expect all demons to be so kind as to stay in the vicinity of their crimes afterwards and could therefore be hard to track. Some of those creatures had wings, others even had glamour to make them pass as humans. She thought that they had gotten it easy this time. It wouldn't always be that simple.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a voice coming from a radio CB some meters away, at the entry of the alley. Amenadiel pulled her a little farther back into the shadows behind a dumpster. Doom imitated them. They saw a silhouette walk slowly into the backstreet, coming towards them while sweeping the place with a flashlight.
The guy, obviously a cop, answered the voice on the radio. "Just finishing looking the other alleys a bit farther down. Just in case. I'll be back in no time." The call ended quickly after that and the cop continued his advance towards them.
Amenadiel looked at Maze with a panicked look. She just smiled back mischievously. "I've got an idea." She whispered in his ear. His eyes bulged in panic. She rolled her eyes at his lack of faith in her. "Just trust me for a change!"
Once the cop was almost on top of them, Maze sprang out and knocked the guy out easily.
"What the hell have you done, Maze?" Amenadiel was almost hysterical.
"Oh come on! Just think how much that radio CB could come in handy to locate demon activities. With it, we'll get to crime scenes much faster, maybe even before the cops." Now the angel seemed to be catching up with her reasoning. "And don't worry about that guy, I didn't hurt him much."
"Still, he's a cop..."
"Sooo?"
The angel clearly didn't like it, but couldn't find anything else to add.
They hastened to leave the area before the unconscious cop could be found. Maze complained about Doom's smell all the way back to the car. Good thing that the weather was warm enough to keep the car windows down or it would have been impossible to stand it once in the vehicle.
They drove over LA for hours, waiting for Doom to pick up a hellish smell while listening to the police radio to get any hint of demonic activities. Lots of crimes seemed to be happening in town tonight, yet nothing triggered their interest, until one call came on the air.
It was about a strange sighting in a back alley. A woman claimed to have heard a fighting and seen what she could only describe as a giant bat. The call ignited laughter over the radio from the cops who received it, of course. One of them even joked that it could be Batman fighting crime in LA. Seeing how it wasn't taken very seriously by the police, it gave some hope to Maze and Amenadiel that they could get there first, especially since they were not that far from the place.
They indeed got there first to make the grim discovery of a man brutally torn apart, clearly a demon attack. The kill was very fresh. Doom walked around the alley aimlessly for a moment, trying to find a track to follow. The difficulty that the hound demonstrated at finding his bearings pointed to a winged beast. Yet, after a moment, Doom led them out of the alley and up the main street that was still buzzing with life even at this late hour of the night.
Maze and Amenadiel looked at each other with worry. They were in a popular nightlife district, with lots of bars and nightclubs still opened. Some hellish creatures she knew of could easily lose control with that many beating hearts around, especially after tasting human blood just a few minutes ago. An impending mass massacre was becoming increasingly probable. They sped up behind Doom, both driven by the desire to protect innocent people.
After having walked only a few blocks, they heard a bloodcurdling scream coming from what appeared to be a night club, a few hundred feet away. The scream was quickly followed by many fearful shouts and cries. They reached the entrance as people were already coming out in panic, almost trampling one another in their haste to escape whatever was inside. Some looked injured or could instead have been splashed with spaying blood. All in all it didn't look good.
Seeing that they had pretty much no chance of fighting their way in through the mass of people by the front door, nor probably by the rear one, Maze took the fastest solution and smashed the front window with a kick. They just had time to jump through the new opening that already partyers were swarming out of it.
The place looked wrecked! A big side window had been bashed in, most certainly the way the demon had entered, and almost every tables were now turned over or smashed to pieces along with bottles of beers and glasses. Here and there corpses could be seen sprawled on the floor, unmoving. Some peoples, probably too scared to think straight, were trying to hide themselves instead of escaping. There was no imminent threat though, that they could see yet. Amenadiel unclasped Doom's leash who rushed straight to the stairs that led to the second floors where the louder screams echoing in the place seemed to be coming from.
The flow of escaping humans was getting thinner as they tried to keep up with the Hellhound up the stairs. They heard it before they even got a glimpse. A deep growl that shook the place with its intensity, followed by a loud crash and breaking bottles. It sounded big, very big! And very angry!
They reached the top of the stairs in time to see Doom flying in the air and land on the beast's back. Right in the middle of the dance floor, was a creature of at least eight feet tall with leathered black wings and a face that was dominated by a huge mouth with long fangs, which left barely enough place for two small red eyes above it. Its body was airless and resembled more that of a frog than of a human with its long arms and legs strangely bent. The creature released the young man it had been chewing on with a vengeance, and screamed a high pitch cry when Doom sank his fangs in its neck from behind. It reacted immediately by ejecting the Hellhound with a blind flap of its wings with enough force to propel him twenty feet away, straight into the wall at the edge of the dance floor. The beast roared once more in uncontrolled fury and started trashing around aimlessly with its wings and long clawed arms.
Maze spotted a few remaining humans who were hiding behind fallen tables. She screamed at them as she took a stand with her daggers out to protect their escape. "Run! You stupid fools!"
That seemed to take the humans out of their stupor as they quickly followed her order and disappeared downstairs. The beast finally took notice of Maze's and Amenadiel's presence. It barred its fangs and hissed loudly, seemingly very eager to face the new challenge.
Seeing the creature turn fully towards them, Amenadiel noticed blood dripping from a deep wound over its torso. That explained why the demon looked so out of control with fury, but it didn't explain how it happened. Not much could hurt such a beast, even less wound it with such a nasty gash. The angel suddenly remembered about the crash they heard right after the first scream of the beast. Turning on himself, Amenadiel searched the place with a wild gaze. He was slowly becoming aware of a familiar tingling over his skin that sent a cold shiver up his spine. His eyes finally landed on the smashed wall of liquor over the bar not far from him. As if to confirm his worst fear, he saw a faint silver glow coming from over the bar.
"No! No! Please not that!"
He rushed around the bar at the same moment Doom jumped back at the beast's throat.
The sight that welcomed Amenadiel drenched him in cold dread.
"Rae!" He choked out.
There, sprawled lifelessly on the ground, was his baby sister, all bloodied and broken. One of her wings was bent at an odd angle and she was covered in blood. Her inner light was slowly dimming as her life was leaving her body.
Amenadiel fell on his knees beside her, cradling her head in his lap.
His hands were shaking with the force of his sobbing. "What were you thinking, Rae, facing that beast alone?"
He stroked her hair tenderly and tucked a strand away. To his surprise, Azrael opened her riveting emerald eyes to lock gaze with him. In spite of the extreme situation they were in, she beamed at him with a weak smile.
"Sorry, Brother! But you know me, I couldn't just watch and do nothing. That demon has nothing to do on Earth, killing helpless human beings."
"But it wasn't your duty to fight it. You're not a warrior, Rae."
She just grimaced sheepishly, too weak to say anything more. Her eyes looked heavy and ready to close again.
Sounds of Doom fighting the creature reached Amenadiel's awareness. The two beasts were apparently locked into a killing frenzy. The angel sincerely hoped that the hound would come out of it alive.
"Just stay awake a few more minutes Ray. I'll be right back."
She simply nodded while he lowered her head carefully on the floor. He rose up in a hurry to assess the dire situation.
He hadn't miss much of the fight from what he could see. Doom was still attacking the demon alone, firmly attached to it with his claws to its front and biting madly at any part he could reach. Probably hesitant to attack with the hound in her way, Maze was circling the beast to find an opening while trying at the same time to dodge its massive wings that were dangerously thrashing around.
Amenadiel yell over the tumult of the two fighting beasts. "Maze! It's Azrael, she is badly hurt."
Maze turned to him, looking utterly confused. "What? What the hell is she doing here?"
Her attention was quickly brought back to the two fighting beasts before her as she barely managed to duck a slashing wing that almost beheaded her.
She shook her head as if to dismiss her interrogations. "Forget it. Just take her outta here!"
Amenadiel had to jump backwards to stay clear of the trashing winged beast. "I can't let you face that thing alone, Maze."
"Of course you can, and you will. And anyway I'm not alone, Doom is there and is having a lot of fun playing with it. Just stop worrying and get the hell out." She returned her entire focus back on the creature, already ignoring him.
Amenadiel was torn between wanting to make sure Maze would be okay and saving his sister. The logical choice was obvious though; he needed to bring his baby sister to safety where he could heal her, away from human witnesses. Still, the idea of letting Maze risk her life without being there for her was killing him.
With not much of a choice before him, he turned away from his lover, or whatever they were to each other now, to first pick up Azrael's celestial weapon discarded a few feet away then lift his sister up in his arms. She rested her head tiredly on his shoulder, now barely aware of her surroundings. Carefully holding her broken wing to not add to her suffering, Amenadiel didn't waste any more time and simply disappeared to safety with his burden.
Maze saw them leave from the corner of her eye. Her gaze lowered to the daggers in her hands and she grimaced in frustration.
"Hey shit!"
How was she supposed to bring down such a beast with only two daggers, infernal or not? She regretted not bringing with her the sword or even the battle axe they had packed in the car. Damn be it with discretion! Doom was doing his best, but apparently even a Hellhound's deep bites couldn't bring down that creature. As if to mark her point, the frog-like demon succeeded at removing Doom from his chest and flung him at arm's length. The Hellhound flew over the railings and crashed down all the way to the first floor with an indignant yelp.
The beast turned to her with renewed fury. She could smell its rotten breath when it let out another roar that shook the building. Okay, it was pissed off alright!
The first sounds of police sirens resounded in the distance. It was great time to speed the process up before they got here. She knew what she needed to do, yet just to consider it made her feel sick. But she was left with no other choice really.
She snarled at the creature in frustration and defiance. "Believe me, you're gonna regret making me use them!"
With a raging scream, she unfurled them.
The weight of her dark wings felt good on her back, and there was that strange feeling of completeness that settled over her. She felt more powerful than she ever had in her entire existence. And as much as she wanted to deny it, it felt great!
The beast was snarling even wider, if the thing was possible. Maze was revealing herself to be an entirely different threat than she'd first appeared to be.
"Well, Froggy, time to eat the dust!"
But now that her wings were out, she became very self-conscious and didn't have a clue as to how to use them in a fight.
Her first idea was to try to take the beast's head off. It sounded like a good plan. So before it attacked, she went for a slash with her right wing. The thing was, she didn't know exactly how to move those feathery appendages. She ended up only flapping her wing with such power that she was pushed backwards into a spin, barely even grazing at the beast with the tip of the longest feathers. She hit the railings behind her with full force, breaking it and almost falling down with the pieces. Fortunately, her new instinct made her wave her wings to keep her balance. She could have easily broken one of her limb with that impact, but strangely, she didn't feel injured at all.
At a speed Maze never thought such a big creature could move, it jumped at her, aiming for her throat. She tried to roll away but got slowed down by her half folded wings. The damn appendages were turning out to be more a nuisance than help. Because of her clumsiness, the beast pinned her down easily and sank its claws into her four limbs to keep her still. The enormous fanged mouth was getting nearer and nearer.
In spite of the excruciating pain she was in, Maze found the strength to head-butt the demon right between the eyes. It looked stunned for a second. Reacting more out of instinct than anything, she took that opportunity to push the beast off her and realized that she was using her wings to do so. She'd sank the tip of her primaries into the creature's shoulders and was pushing, driving her feathers deeper and deeper into its flesh.
The beast roared in utter suffering. It finally released her and walked back unsteadily for a few steps, looking at her dazzlingly, as if not sure what to make of her. With her wings now tightly tucked behind her back, she wasn't about to make the same mistake twice, she rolled away in a split second to resume a standing position. Her arms and legs were shaking in pain. She doubted being able to fight that demon for much longer with those injuries, and on top of that, the sound of the police sirens told her that they were almost there. She had to end it. Now!
Trying to calm her racing heart, Maze reached inside herself to search for her new powers. She didn't know exactly what she was looking for, what it should feel like. Slowly, she became aware of it, starting around the arm band and radiating through her entire body. Even though she had not much experience yet of what she could do with that power, she tapped into it. She raised her right arm towards the beast, dagger still tightly gripped between her fingers, and without moving, lashed at it with as much power as she could. This time, it didn't surprise her to see a long tendril of fire come out of her hand and wind itself up around one of the beast's wing and its torso. The demon roared in agony as the whip sank painstakingly further into its demonic body. Unlike the first time around, Maze didn't jerk her hand back but instead tried to control to power that coursed through her. Tightening her grip on the whip, she willed it to tear the demon apart. She felt the beast's dark essence leave its corpse when it died in utter torment.
Then something she didn't see coming happened. At first it was just a small light enveloping the demon, then it grew in brightness and power until it looked like a big glowing sphere, or a hole, it wasn't clear. Maze kept taping into the power given to her by God, pushing even more energy into the light to see what would happen. When suddenly, the creature got sucked into the light, and disappeared.
In that moment of awareness, Maze knew without the shadow of a doubt where the beast had gone. But it should have been impossible! The way had been shut. No one could go there or come back from it.
And yet, Mazikeen had just sent that beast straight to Hell!
Author's note: I hope you liked Maze's new powers. I was very excited to share those ideas with you. There are still some surprises to discover about her though. I know you are all waiting to get some fresh news from Lucifer so be reassured, next chapter will be all about him, at last. Please let me know if you like this story, and since it is my birthday, I'll consider any of your comment as a birthday gift :))) Thanks for reading!
