God's Gone AWOL

[12] A Quarrel of Lovers

The blast was too much for Bentley, and she collapsed again, her body hitting the ground with a soft thud. In a very short span of time, she had been blasted to oblivion by Camael, tossed around by Atticus, filled to the brim with hostile energy, and finally knocked over by Atticus' defensive mushroom cloud. Naturally, she was exhausted. But once the initial rush of power had moved beyond her helpless form, she started to desperately inch towards Atticus all the same.

However, before she could waste too much time crawling around, an open hand appeared before her. At first, she tried to dodge on instinct, but upon actually looking properly, she realized the hand was offering its help. Bentley's blurry eyes blinked upwards at the person kneeling in front of her. After taking a moment to focus, she finally realized who had come to her aid, and she quickly accepted the open hand without thinking.

"You look terrible!" Lucy said, helping her to her feet.

"Don't I always?"

Although her words were light and humorous, her voice was barely more than a wheeze. The simple motion of standing up had left her dizzy and wobbling in her step, to the point where even the wind left her stumbling. Seeing how damaged she had become, Lucy wrapped an arm around her waist in an effort to stabilize her. Then he raised his index finger to the center of her forehead.

Both pairs of eyes began to glow as the channel of healing magic was passed between them. Instantly, Bentley's trembling body began to relax, and her bruises and cuts started to heal. Having done very little so far, Lucy had plenty of power to spare. Repairing the damage from the last couple hours was nothing to him. Thus he kept a tight hold on her until the colour returned to her face, and she was able to stand properly on her own.

"Thank you," she said earnestly.

"Anytime," Lucy replied, beaming.

Then, as though they were the same entity, both Bentley and Lucy turned in one identical movement. Together they looked at the gateway, the angel, and the army as they all came together at once. Atticus was still standing in place. He hadn't moved a single muscle since his disastrous spell earlier. Instead, he was staring silently at the now-liberated army of angels as they hurried up the hill to join him. Lucy let out a slight sigh of annoyance and Bentley chewed the side of her lip. Things weren't looking so good.

Seeing how Atticus wasn't moving, the army stopped as well. Once the majority of angels had amassed together on the hillside, they didn't dare to approach Atticus until he gave some sort of order or indication about what they were supposed to do next. The gateway was now open, and many of the angels were eager to start charging through. But they were too frightened of that little silhouette standing against the sparking and swirling entrance to another world.

Bentley and Lucy took advantage of the brief stillness to glance at each other. It was as though an entire conversation passed between them in silence. Each one could perfectly interpret what the other was thinking, and neither had to speak a single word in order to come up with a plan of action. After a pause, they both took action in one seamless movement once again.

With the mere flick his hand, an immense plume of purple smoke erupted around Atticus, taking the same place as Bentley's wall of flame. Somehow, it managed to defy the wind, merely swelling and shifting like one stationary cloud. The haze was so tall and dense that it cut off the connection between Atticus and the other angels completely so that if anything were to happen, it would be impossible for anyone on the other side of the wall to tell.

Although the angels were already on guard, none of them were expecting another obstruction to appear so suddenly. Many jumped backwards and held their sleeves over their noses. They were afraid to breathe in the mysterious substance. A few of the braver ones took steps forward to investigate further, but quickly halted.