God's Gone AWOL

[6] Sacrificial Lambs

"Xander Hellbourne. It's truly an honor to finally meet you," Nathaniel said honestly.

The two weren't actively in the process of fighting, which was a bit of a relief for Xander, as he'd been constantly moving the better half of an hour. However, he didn't consider himself to be particularly good when it came to fighting with words —which was what Nathaniel was actively trying to do. Hopefully Xander would be able to hold his ground this time.

"Yeah? Well in light of all the assassination attempts, I'd beg to differ," he replied.

"Ah, right." Nathaniel rubbed the back of his head with his angelic blade, "Sorry about all those, I was just trying to get your attention. I hope you won't hold it against me. See, I speak for everyone when I say that your... sister has impeccable reputation,"

Hearing this, Xander frowned slightly.

"I mean, she's perhaps one of the greatest creatures ever to walk the four realms. Even an angel like myself can't help but admire her," Nathaniel continued, "It must be wonderful, having such an important person in your life,"

It was obvious what the angel was trying to do. He was trying to use jealousy to divide and provoke. Luckily, Xander was used to this kind of treatment, especially from angels. So he raised an eyebrow, putting on the most contemptuous look he could muster.

"You got a crush on Bentley or something?" he asked, "Come on, man. She's totally out of your league,"

Sensing that his tactic wasn't working, Nathaniel's smile faltered slightly.

"How does it feel, Xander?" he told him, his friendly facade slowly slipping, "Knowing that even while she was dead, you were still nothing in comparison to your sister. How does it feel knowing you'll always be inferior to someone?"

"Feels fine to me. At least I can't disappoint anyone," Xander shrugged. Then his expression changed completely. "You see, unlike angels, demons don't constantly need people ruffling up their egos in order to have any sense of self worth. So how does it feel? Being so unremarkable that not even such a lowly demon like me knows who you are?"

This whole time, Nathaniel had been trying to inflict evil emotions on his opponent in an attempt to distract him. Who could have predicted that Xander could flip the conversation on its head so easily? Perhaps he had learned a little from Bentley after all. Growling in frustration, Nathaniel lunged forward with the intention to behead the demon right then and there. But much to his surprise, the strike never found its target.

It was as though there was some strange force field surrounding Xander's entire body. Every time Nathaniel moved to hit him, white puff of smoke would appear, blocking the hit. Startled, Xander just took a step back and raised his own knives, prepared to strike back if necessary, but it never was. Something was protecting him. Something invisible to the naked eye.

"What is this? What are you doing?" Nathaniel paused his attacks for moment.

"I—" Xander stammered in response.

Luckily, he didn't have to think up a particularly intelligible reply, because all of the sudden, several frothy white humanoid shapes had materialized all around the hillside. Together, those ghostly figures formed a barrier of defense facing the newly arrived army of angels. Seeing them, Xander's pupils immediately shrank.

They were souls.

More started to appear. Some floated up from the earth, some drifted in from the sky. Regardless of where they came from, they all had the same destination: this battle field. All of the onlooking angels raised their weapons, trying to determine just what was going on, exactly. But Xander already knew.