God's Gone AWOL

[12] Nathaniel Gets Punched in the Face

No matter which direction Xander faced, he could only see chaos. The windy sky was filled with startled cries, the tearing of fabric, and the sounds of spells being thrown left and right. They hadn't even made it to Hell yet and the battle had already begun.

Hazel had completely disrupted the march of the angels. With the exception of Atticus, nearly every single white-bodied soldier had quickly been overwhelmed by the tides of vicious souls. To make matters worse for them, the souls of Purgatory seemed to possess a greater strength then those back on Earth. Since they were also much more vicious under Hazel's command, most of the angels couldn't even think about following Atticus anymore. The rocky canyon had become an entire battlefield in just a few seconds.

Although he still felt uncomfortable with this whole plan, there was no denying that it was effective. The diversion was completely successful. Every single angel had suddenly found their hands full. Xander couldn't tell if these particular souls were powerful enough to kill an angel, since the motion of battle was too chaotic to trace. But at least it was obvious that everyone was terrified of this new development. That was good enough for Xander.

Up on the cliff, Bentley was staring forward with her dangerously hollow expression once again. Both Lucy and Xander watched from below, their own expressions matching in concern. Despite being a dramatic person on occasion, Bentley had never been the best at showing her true emotions. Xander couldn't help but wonder whether this blank stare of hers was one of anger or of defeat.

However his question was soon answered. After a couple more seconds of complete stillness, Bentley blinked once and a sudden blaze of red light sparked in her eyes. Ignited both body and soul, she took off flying after Atticus and towards the gateway to Hell.

"Are you gonna follow her?" Lucy asked Xander.

He shook his head. There was too much going on already for him to keep track of Bentley.

"Alright. Then I will,"

Lucy quickly opened his wings and vanished. And Xander was left to think on what he was supposed to do next.

Frances and Smythe were still watching over Hazel as she continued channeling her strange Nephilim power. Xander knew that someone would make an attempt to stop her if they had the chance. Both Frances and Smythe, despite their shared reluctance to fight, had enough knowledge and skills to defend her if need be. With this in mind, Xander decided to take the opportunity to enter the battle and pick off a few eyesores while they were preoccupied.

Camael was already dead. Of course Xander's next target was Nathaniel. With all the assassination attempts and rude conversations, that angel had been a complete nuisance in the past few days. Whether or not it would have any real significance as the invasion had been mostly thwarted already, Xander didn't care. It was time to squish out the annoying bug.

When Xander picked him out of the crowd, Nathaniel was in the middle of fighting off a particularly obnoxious soul. He spotted the rapidly approaching demon. And he wasted no time in breaking away from the struggle. With an false, friendly smile, he waved his blade in the air.

"Xander Hellbourne, we meet again,"

"Shut the fuck up." He punched Nathaniel in the face.

He could have stabbed Nathaniel right then and there. Unfortunately for him, Xander felt as though a good ol' fashioned clobbering was necessary first. As much as he was looking forward to dealing the final blow, there was some silly pleasure in seeing an angel with a bloody nose. Nathaniel staggered around while a small smile crept its way onto Xander's lips. This was all too entertaining.

"Alright then, I can see you have no desire to make polite conversation," Nathaniel said, clutching his nose in his available hand. "How typical of demons,"