Secrets And Sins Part 3: Happy ever after

Chapter 56

***Sorry for being MIA last week, had some health stuff. Anyways, should be back to normal now. Enjoy 56... Don't forget to let me know what you think :)*** 

~Beatrice~

The tarasks were like statues; they stood absolutely still, shoulder to shoulder, in a line that stretched as far as the eye could see in either direction. Dwarfing them in the distance was the highest wall Beatrice had ever seen. It was pure white and shone almost blindingly in the harsh sunlight, the last line of protection for the Citadel that lay beyond it.

But where was this barrier of power? Beatrice's eyes scanned the angel's defenses, she couldn't see anything, sense anything. Perhaps the walls were imbued with it?

"What's taking so long?" Bael murmured from her right, the wind carrying his soft words to her ears. "This feels like a trap."

"Easy." Beatrice replied. "They'll be here, be patient."

Please be here...

Bael grumbled unintelligibly, adjusting his grip on the handle of his battleaxe. Having not been let into their plan, the demon lord was understandably unimpressed when they had posed the idea to him, but after hours of convincing, he had agreed to try it their way. The army had marched that night, the same army that spread out behind them, just as tense and wary as her companions were.

"For once I agree with the big guy." Mary said from the other side of Beatrice. "What's stopping them from killing us all now?"

Beatrice's worried at the inside of her cheek, Mary had a point. Word had come from the angels exactly six days ago, but since then, there had been nothing, and now they were in prime position, not fifty feet from the tarask line, for an attack.

She took a deep breath, squashing her nerves and embracing the burning surge of energy flowing with the adrenaline through her veins. The past few days had only seen the power from the artefact increase and increase, and like a pot about to boil over on the stove, it was at its peak now.

She felt invincible.

"Arrogance." Beatrice said confidently. She had to be confident, the outcome of the entire war was in her hands.

"There's something moving in the line." Bael said suddenly, somehow growing even tenser.

Beatrice followed his line of sight and could indeed see two figures moving between two of the statue-like tarasks. One was a man, off-white robes hanging from his tall frame, and the other...

"Is that...?" Mary started, but Beatrice was already running towards them.

~Halo~

Even approaching them from behind, the wall of tarasks was as impressive as it was terrifying.

The sheer number of times Halo had witnessed the creatures laying waste to everything in their path through the eyes of the Bearer was staggering. But worse than that was how still these tarasks were, like they were robots waiting for a power surge to bring them to life. It was incredibly eerie.

Halo passed the last few angelic guards as they began their approach to what the angels simply referred to as 'the line'. This boundary was made from a moat of pure molten cerulean metal burning just below the surface of the earth. No one, not even angels themselves, could pass the line if the gates weren't open, as they were now. Similar to the lock of a canal, a bronze gate stopped the flow of cerulean, allowing their passage to the no-man's-land that existed between the outer tarask boundary and the line.