The fallen.

Chapter 3.

He was already far passed feelings of despair and fear. He felt nothing at all, no terror ,no anger ,no fright; he had already accepted that he was going to die at the hands of this mysterious being.
So why? Why did he still feel alive even several minutes later ,or perhaps this was how it felt to be dead. After more minutes of wondering ,he finally dares to open his eyes and what he saw shocked him down to the bone marrow; the darkness along with the presence of death was gone, the weather was back to normal ,the danger had left , but the city of Xhar remained in ruins.
"What tha... "
He tries to get up but his legs just won't obey him so he lay there as feelings of grief and confusion invade his thoughts.
"Shall I kill this one?" He hears from behind him.
Another voice says "we don't kill the mortals , leave him be"
"But I can feel it from here ,his anguish is so great, let me put him out of his misery"
He turns the upper part of his body slightly and immediately refuses to believe what he just saw
"Oh....my.... God!"
Standing right there were 2 young shirtless muscular men one with eyes as green as emeralds and the other with eyes as vibrant as diamonds. Perhaps what caught his attention wasn't their unnatural beauty ,no that wasn't it. It was the huge pairs of wings sticking out of their backs.
"No ... Th.... This isn't real. I'm seeing things"
One of these men scoffs and replies him with a condescending tone.
"Oh you're seeing things huh? Your entire city just got destroyed. You saw Leviathan himself. You felt his presence about to claim you for the abyss ,you didn't doubt all that , but now you refuse to believe? Now you're 'seeing' things? Pfft ,I guess your entire race are slaves to their mind. You refuse to believe that which you cannot understand..."
"Okay okay I get it!" Celio says , cutting him short.
"What are you? What happened to the city exactly? Why am I alive. Hoooooly shit ,am I dead? Is this heaven? Are you angels? "
That same one with the condescending attitude sighs. "I told you we should kill this one. Seeing him drown in a sea of confusion is unsightly ,makes me want to vomit"
The other one who has been quiet all this while , gestures for him to stop
"You cannot blame him ,right now he is in a state of shock. I'm surprised his brain can even process stuff as it is. I'll take care of him. Return to Oprah before me"
Without uttering a word of reply ,the one eager to kill Celio ,flaps his wings a few times and takes to the sky so fast that he generates a huge gust of wind then he was nowhere to be found.
"What are you people? That presence ,it was about to kill me, what happened?" Celio asks once more.
"I am Vicissitude. The one who just left is Ahgony. We aren't angels exactly but I suppose in a certain sense ,you could say we are. In actually sense we are just messengers of the heavenly host ,we were sent in response to the recent peril this realm has just been plunged into. A few moments ago ,the fallen angel Leviathan was about to rip out your soul but with a combined effort we managed to temporarily stun him. After that ,he just disappeared. We don't know where he went "
Celio Didn't know what to make of this information being offloaded unto him. A part of him thought it was hogwash , but the logical part of him ,the part which remembered the incidents of earlier knew that what he was hearing wasn't a lie. "What happened to the city?" A plethora of questions run across his mind simultaneously but he was able to put only that one together in actual wording.
"What's your name boy?"
"It's Celio. Celio Maybach"
"I am going to be straight with you Celio" This man said
"Right now everything is pretty fucked up. A group of supernatural beings cast away into the abyss recently tore through the veil which separates realms , and came here. We managed to close the veil but I'm afraid soon enough ,it will be weakened again and given the right circumstances ,they will completely destroy it this time, letting creatures from the nether realm crawl into this one. And as it stands we are terribly out matched and out numbered" He looks into the sky and Celio notices a slight despair in his face
"God help us!"
"Why don't you just call for help from your heavenly pals" Celio asked ,not knowing what else to say.
"That's not possible. To do that we'll have to open the veil which separates the different realms , and if we do that ,the demons and fallen angels can easily crawl through. When the veil was opened recently ,just Ahgony and myself crossed it and told the rest of the heavenly host to close it behind us. We didn't think we'll be facing a threat as big as this"
At this point Celio began to realize the gravity of the situation.
"Damn. So what do we do?"
For the first time ,this winged man notices that Celio was unable to move.
"You're hurt" he said squatting to his level "I can help you." As he makes this declaration ,he places both index fingers on Celio's temples and for a brief moment ,his hypnotically vibrant diamond-like eyes glow and he sends spiritual energy from his body into Celio , Restoring and rebuilding all damages tissue in his body
"You should be able to walk now"
Feeling life rush back into his limp legs, he gets up slowly as every iota of doubt is erased from his mind.
"Thank you. Thank you very much"
With just a nod to acknowledge his thanks, Vicissitude gets up fully.
"I can't leave you here alone. Normally in this situation there are 2 options, just 2. The first one ,I could kill you. That way you'll be saved from the stress and trauma of being left here on your own"
"What?" Celio exclaims "if you were going to kill me ,why'd you bother to heal me in the first place?"
"Listen to me when I speak ,you may speak when I am done" Vicissitude says with a slightly irritated tone
"Now as I was saying, the other option, one which I'm afraid Ahgony won't fancy ,would be to take you with me back to our base"
"Where is your base" Celio asks
"It's known as Oprah ,the sky palace. Many centuries ago when realms were still merged, it served as the abode of the heavenly host. It's basically just a small castle suspended thousands of feet in the air and concealed by an energy barrier, no mortal can see or enter it and only those with the energy of the heavens coursing through their bodies can open it."
Celio processes all this information fast and as he was about to utter a word of reply, he suddenly remembers something "oh no! No no no no no no no no nooooo!!!" He falls on his knees and buries his face in his palms
"What is it" No answer "Celio what is it?"
The boy raises his head from his palm to reveal a crying face
"Eleanor... Eleanor was in the city."
Placing a hand on his shoulder, his winged companion says to him
"Who was she?"
"She... was someone I really cared about. I had just finished drawing a picture of her when all this mess began"
"I see. Perhaps I know how you feel" His wings spread out wider in preparation for flight "But there's no doubting it. Before we came, Ahgony and I scanned the entire city, you are the only survivor. She is gone"
At the mention of those words, like a leopard waiting to pounce on a prey, all his pent up fury and anguish and despair and confusion comes out at once
"I KNOW THAT NOW SHUT THE FUCK UP FOR ONE MUTHAFUCKING SECOND!!!"
Getting up in blind rage he pushes Vicissitude aside and continues walking forward.
"Where are you going?"
"Oh I'll tell you were I'm going alright" Turns back around and points an index finger at him
"I am going to bury my loved ones. After that I'll meet you back here, after that you take me to your sky palace. You know what happens next?" A malicious expression filled with hatred and bloodlust creeps into his face "We kill those demon scum! Every last one of them!! And send their bloodied corpses back to whatever hell they were unfortunate enough to creep out of!!!" Having made this declaration he storms off again, leaving Vicissitude standing there smirking.
"I like your confidence but they're fallen angels not demons. Their power level is far beyond anything you can imagine. We are probably all going to die in the most painful ways imaginable"
Celio stops once more and looks over his shoulder at his companion
"I am already dead"