A Devil with an Angel's Heart

Chapter 34, Part 2

||Kate

You heard the screams, smelled the fire, and tasted the ashes on your tongue even before you saw the smoke billowing into the sky. Thanks to Cerberus you neared the village in top speed. The moment the village came into sight you knew it would be fruitless to try and put the fire out. The flames, eating up the houses and engulfing poor, innocent people, were blessed. Some priest had started that fire. Even you would take too long to extinguish a holy fire of this size. And there was something else...something that was quiet unsettling. The fire was protected. No amount of rain could put out this fire. The only choice one had was to let the flames destroy everything in their wake until there was nothing left for it to feed on. It tore your heart apart. You, the most powerful mage this world had seen in a long time, would not be able to put out that fire by simply conjuring some rain. You had set your hopes on that at first. But clearly, that was no longer an option. All you could do now, was to jump into the scorching flames yourself and pull out everyone you came across. As a fire mage fire could not hurt you. Though, this would be your first time you'd come into contact with a holy fire. But even if you were to receive burns yourself, you'd still suffer less, than normal people or mages whose magic was restricted or even blocked. You had no choice! Your heart quenched at the sight of people running around, terrified, men trying to hold back their wives from going back inside to save their babies, desperation in their voices as they screamed and prayed to god, to help them, to send somebody, anybody...
"God has abandoned you.", you thought, "But I haven't!"

You charged through the masses, not slowing down.
"Don't just stand there. Move and get to safety! I'll save those still inside!", you stopped Cerberus before them, "Don't worry! Help is on the way!"

And thus you jumped off Cerberus and started drawing a magic circle into the sand. There was no way you could save everyone alone. Had it been any other day or night you'd have summoned your beloved demons to help. But today, today of all the days this could have happened, you couldn't. They were currently in an important meeting. It was crucial they attended and stayed till the end. You should have been there too, but had been excused. The peace talks between hell and heaven could not, under no circumstances, be interrupted. Ever since the Great Celestial War, there had been a time of peace. It was Diavolo's dream to establish lasting peace between their worlds. He wanted a piece treaty, an alliance. If you were to summon your demons now, it would inevitably lead to war as these meeting were filled with big stuck-ups. And humans were generally seen as inferior and treated as a possession of some sort. For these old-fashioned fossils from heaven, at least. A few (short) lives wouldn't matter. Humans were just not important enough to allow such a "transgression". So, a few vengeful souls would have to do.
The magic circle turned into a mass of black goo, hands grasping into the air, wanting a living soul to quench their thirst for the warmth of life and calling for vengeance in croaky, creepy voices that had gone unused for far too long.
"Hello, my little kittens.", you purred, "I know, I know, you're hungry. Scour this village, find every living being and bring it to the others. Do not feed on them! If you do good, I'll let you feed on Alastair Thorne and Dio once they've taken their rightful places in the darkest and deepest pits of hell."
The gooey shadows formed bodies, crawling out of the gooey mass of the size of the magic circle you'd drawn. They rushed through the houses with unimaginable speed, only black flashes remained as they carried person after person, pet after pet outside the village and to safety.
At least the people here were going to be saved, if they survived their burns and smoke poisoning was another question. Your focus however, was on the main building of the village. So, this was Alastair's lab.
You stormed off, there was no time to lose. Above the crackling of the fire you could hear people screaming inside.
You cut down the heavy wooden door with your sword, relieved not to be wasting any more time. The moment you were inside you were immediately met with the stench of burning flesh, the iron smell of blood and the sickly sweet smell of death and rotting corpses. For a fleeting moment you thought about the time it would take to wash this stench off. But it quickly vanished as you ran past the labs. The sight of the experimental gadgets and instruments was enough to have your blood curdle and a shiver of fear run down your back. Your stomach clenched as you came past rooms where corpses were still chained to chairs, or the wall, some were just lifelessly hanging from the ceiling. You pushed away the memories of your own confinement...the experiments you went through, (though it was nowhere as bad as this), the terror you felt...instead you went straight for the dungeons underground. The fire had not yet fully reached this place but it wouldn't take much longer. The fire would come here...fast.
The people strained against the bars, "Help us.", they screamed, "Save us.", they begged.
"Don't worry! I'll get you out of here!", you assured, then raised your voice, "Step back. I'll melt the locks!"
Melting them with your magic was faster and more efficient that breaking them one by one with your sword.
Once the first people were freed you told them how to get outside. Their progress was slow, as they helped the elderly to the best of their abilities. The building already came partly crashing down. Smoke filled your lungs and it felt as though you were suffocating as your throat went dry. The heat of the fire left you unfazed. Not so the poor people with you. The wooden pillars, worn down by the flames, started cracking under the weight of the heavy stone walls above. The fire was closing in. Soon you would be trapped. Determined, you wrapped your arm around an old woman.
"Let's get you out of here.", you gritted your teeth, eyes tearing from the smoke, blurring your vision.
"Please.", the old woman croaked, "My grandson is still down there. He...was....confined separately.", she forced out between coughs., "Please...he's still young..."
"Shhhh," you hushed, "don't talk. Just point me into the direction!" The old woman weakly pointed back into the dungeons and further down into the darkness.
"There's a secret door...sealed by magic", she croaked weakly.
You locked eyes with a young man, and ran off, knowing the woman would be in his care.
By now the fire had reached the dungeons. The fire licking away on the walls around you as you ran back into the darkness, focusing on the stream of magic energy. It was hard to differentiate between the overbearing magic flow of the fire and all the other traces of magic that had been left by the countless experiments. There! This magic had been cast not too long ago. A powerful seal meant to lock away something- or someone- for a long time. You followed the sense of energy. You could see it in your inner eye. Soft and light like fog, yet powerful enough to cut though diamonds.
At the very end of the dungeons you were met with nothing but a invisible wall. In your inner eye you could see it though- a wall out of cast magic, the fog blocking your path.
Now, where was the magic circle? You could not break the seal if the source of its power was still intact. Finding and dispelling the magic was key. You could of course try without the magic circle, but locating it would be easier. A magic circle contained all the information of a spell- all the information needed to dispel it. When casting spells mages only needed them when the spell was still new, once mastered a magic circle was unnecessary. When sealing something, the circle was needed and well hidden. Once found it was easy to break the seal. Only the most skilled of mages like yourself or Solomon were able to make them almost undiscoverable.