God's Gone AWOL

[6] Desperation

"IS IT WORKING?" Xander had to shout over the deafening wind, "I CAN'T TELL!!"

"OBVIOUSLY NOT!!!" Hephzibah replied, "THEY'RE STILL JUST STANDING THERE!"

Deep inside the cylindrical beam of light, the vague humanoid shadows of Atticus and Bentley were still slightly visible. Neither had moved a muscle. So Xander couldn't help but feel a twinge at the back of his heart. Were they okay in there?

"MAYBE THE SPELL TAKES A WHILE?" Lucy shouted.

Before Xander had the chance to reply, a series of white flashes around the edge of his vision drew his attention away. He tore his gaze from the outline of his sister and instantly clenched the hilts of his knives.

The angels had already arrived.

"LUCY, THEY'RE ALREADY HERE!!!" he yelled.

A couple hundred metres away, Camael was standing tall and proud. Beside her, an exceptionally proper looking angel was stroking the end of his curly goatee. The faces they wore were complete opposites of each other. Camael's was furious, ready to kill. But the other looked more calm and contemplative. Xander wasn't sure which was more scary.

The two angels exchanged a couple of words. It was just about impossible to tell what they were saying from where Xander was standing. The whirlwind was so loud that he could barely even hear his own thoughts. But he was pretty certain he saw Camael mouth the words: "Kill everyone!". Although that might have just been Xander's own wishful thinking.

She shouted some commands at the other angels, and they all saluted in response. However, before any of them made any sort of move to attack, the other angel held up a hand and everyone stopped in their tracks. He then said something else while everyone listened. Xander strained his pointed ears, but the howl of the wind was just too loud.

The anticipation was too strong. The energy around them was too potent. Everything was just so overwhelming, his head felt as though it was going to split in two.

.

But inside the beam of light, everything was completely silent.

Atticus opened his eyes. It was as if he and Bentley were locked inside an upright tunnel. The only sound was that of his own relaxed breathing, and the only physical shape he could see was the red figure right in front of him. He couldn't tell what was happening beyond the barrier of the spell. It was just him and Bentley, together in the eye of the storm.

Ever since they had started the spell, a peculiar feeling had been tingling within his body. It was as though his veins had become rivers of energy, surging endless streams of power from the object between his and Bentley's conjoined hands. And he could feel the pressure of the spell as it bore down on him from every angle. There was a terrifying intensity to this power, the likes of which Atticus had never felt before.

However, despite the copious amounts of energy flowing through to his fingertips, Atticus could still tell that something was wrong. There was no change in the soul fragment whatsoever. Neither a crack nor a flicker. It was still the same whole object that it had always been.

"Bentley," he said. "Bentley, it's not working,"

Even though he spoke softly, the surrounding world was so suffocating and quiet that it felt as though the volume of his voice was magnified a thousand times over. Bentley's eyes opened and she looked down at their interlocked fingers. White light was seeping through, looking as as luminous as ever.

"We have to keep trying," she replied. "I'll put more power into it,"

The glow of her eyes flashed even brighter.