“The young men have ceased from their music. The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into morning”

  -Lamentations 5:14

  CHAPTER 1.3 Youth and blood

  A slicing wind whipped past as Pippin lunged without care for the child he seemed to know. Golden swords shimmered into existence, hard focused and locked onto the woman who was clearly ready to fight back. While they clashed, Belcalis seized the boy and hauled him up, mind racing. He could still feel the stinging bleeding from his body, but didn't focus on it, his feet making a run for it further into the overgrown town that was nearly his grave.

  He could hear his heart, fast in his ears, but he couldn't stop now- not with the weight of the boy in his arms.

  Watch

  He reached out, his fingers closing around the hilt of his sword just as it materialized. He instinctively swung behind him, the heavy iron clashing with a golden blade that had been seconds from making contact with his spine. The impact sent vibrations through his arm as it redirected the airborne weapon, knocking it into a pile of rubble. So he could fight back…

  He was still under attack, even when the Angel had a bigger threat. He could hear their fight behind him, the screeching attack from the woman that made the boy cover his ears again. Belcalis ran faster just as the floor began to become sand once more. That flying child was still trying to attack him.

  Get back here!” The winged boy yelled. Wind from behind telling Belcalis that he was frying over, that is until he suddenly flew over the two, slamming into the floor before them as if pushed. Pippin looked past Belcalis to the woman that was now standing behind them all, her sword visibly vibrating in her hand for the start of another attack.

  Eyes going wide, Belcalis watched her before the wind of those wings flew past him again. Golden sword raised, Pippin swung at her, their blades meeting in a sharp clash before the woman pulled back, her leg moving and unexpectedly, she kicked the boy, throwing him off of his hover. The ground began to shift violently, sand below his feet snapping back into solid stone. In a blur of motion, the woman then grabbed the winged boy by his feathers, throwing him opposite of Belcalis and the human boy with terrifying strength. She was giving him a chance, an opening… and he wasn't going to let it go to waste. Belcalis began to run with newfound purpose.

  Spotting a ditch in the city's broken stone floors, he slid down into it, dropping the boy against a rock. He didn't look so good, pale, ears still bleeding and face full of fear. Belcalis reached out, gently touched his head with metal clad fingers, not even noticing how the cut that had previously split his armored hand was now healed. With a silent promise, he left the boy there and ran back up the hill to the chaos. He wasn't going to let her do it alone, not against whatever that boy was, Angel or not.

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  From the ridge, Belcalis could see her standing in the position he was once put in, golden swords attacking her from all direction- but unlike him, she easily moved like a shadow, not one blade coming in contact with her blood stained golden armor. The moment her face locked onto him however, the air grew heavy with an angered aura.

  “Leave” Her voice cut through the air as she intercepted a dive from the boy. She slammed Pippin into the stone, her own blade raised to price the floor before the angel slipped away once more into hiding and leaving the town silent as he prepared his next attack. “You are becoming a liability” She muttered, her annoyance clear.

  “I'm trying to help you-” Another sword sped past Belcalis, aiming for the woman that dodged it again. “Well, you are not helping.” She closed the distance between them in a heartbeat, her hand grabbing Belcalis by his arm. “Where is the child?” She demanded, her featureless metallic face stared at him, cold and unreadable. Belcalis recoiled internally, who truly hadn't expected this kind of hostility from her toward his help.

  “You two truly are the most annoying demons I've ever met”

  Pippin's horribly soft voice became loud in the town once again. The two turned to him, Belcalis' eyes landing on the human child now raised into the air by the winged boy who slowly lowered them to a high ledge. His arm was held around his waist tightly, far too tightly. His chin resting on the shoulder of the clearly frozen child. “I mean, I actually thought for a second that I might lose this”. He laughed, holding the boy tighter who whimpered at the pain.

  Belcalis felt his blood run cold, his grip on his sword growing tighter as he stared at the two, a low groan of annoyance leaving the woman next to him. “May the lord be with our souls” She whispered before slowly walking to the two boys making Pippin laugh. “Are you actually still trying to fight? You do know what I could do right now, correct? Why do you always have to be so damn cocky!?” His arm tightened around the boy, a harsh crack splitting the air and making the child gaps in pain.

  “Let him go!” Belcalis couldn't help but yell, his hands shaking on his sword that he gripped so tightly. He wanted to act, wanted to move but his feet just couldn't do it. He looked to the woman who was stopped now, staring up at the two and holding her sword out beside her. She mumbled a prayer- or perhaps a curse before she suddenly moved. In the blur that followed, blood sprayed into the air, drenching the human boy as he fell from Pippin's grip and onto the floor with a painful thud. Those feathers turned a sickly brown before going limp and shriveling like a bruised flower.

  Belcalis stared wide eyed as the woman held the winged boy. His head pulled back and her sword against his neck. Shhh.. rest now child” She spoke in his ear, the tenderness in her voice clashing with the sickening scene. “You will be delivered. Your soul finally freed from this path of sin you chose to walk on... Be with the father… and rest.” The armored man couldn't focus on anything else as the devine and the brutal became one and the same.

  She lowered his limp form to the stone ledge, his shriveled wing draping over him as if trying to hide his failure, his shame in death. She stood tall, raising her blade and smearing his blood against her featureless golden face aimed to the empty sky. Belcalis felt his knees go weak as a new wave of panic began to set in. Why did she do that... was she really an allay or something far worse? She had just executed a child- an Angel. Perhaps the hope he had was false… Perhaps in this light, they were the true demons.

  A whine broke his thought and he found himself looking at the human boy that was moaning in pain, thankfully still alive after such a fall. The woman seemed to notice as well as he stared before moving forward and falling from the ledge, landing on her feet with grace. She scooped the boy up, holding him against her blood stained armor like a fragile doll. She did not look at the wounded child, her face directed towards Belcalis, silence louder than the angels gargled screams had been. At that moment, he realized the most dangerous thing in the ruins hadn't been the monsters, it hadn't even been Pippin- It was her… And she was holding the only sign of human life he had seen since he woke up here.