Mavobella: The Angel Of Death

Chapter 19

Unfortunately, our resources could only afford us a single gun, weapon, or whatever it was. And I didn’t have another six months to wait for Nicole to create another. We settled for one, and Nicole was the one holding it.

"Warning: if this thing doesn’t work, don’t blame me."

Her words hung in the air as if they carried the weight of the entire plan, but I ignored them. Some would have thought testing the weapon at night was as reckless as the idea itself, but we had no choice. The gun she called redemption was best tested at the zombies under cover of darkness, so let’s call it a necessary risk.

Nicole went first, her confidence more of a mask than a certainty, but I trusted her. I watched as angel zombies closed in. She didn’t flinch. Instead, she scythed the gun through the air, releasing a steady torrent of neon green liquid. The reaction was immediate. The zombies crumbled into smoldering heaps, their once-majestic forms reduced to charred remnants.

I grinned. "I’d say it works."

Marion had insisted on helping us, but she was only human. Even if zombies didn't seem to notice her presence, she was better off left behind. The waters were a dominion of not only sea monsters, but also oppressive darkness and flattering pressure no human could survive on the long shot.

Nicole and I moved, slashing and shooting through the now-incapable zombies as we made our way toward the waters.

The cold ocean lapped at my feet as we reached the shore. I paused, staring out at the endless horizon, Ye resting against my shoulder. The weight of the scythe was as familiar to me as the pull of the ocean. The moon’s silver light fractured across the water’s surface, but below, the abyss awaited. I took a deep breath—a habit, not a necessity—and glanced at Nicole.

She stood next to me, both hands gripping the strange weapon, her fingers tight around the transparent barrel. "You ready for this?" she asked, her voice edged with excitement and wariness.

"Always."

Without hesitation, we stepped into the sea, the water pulling us deeper with every step. It rose past my legs, past my waist, until it consumed us. The surface dimmed, the light above becoming a distant glow as we sank. The cold was an afterthought—my angelic body was resilient to the elements. The pressure, too, was nothing more than a whisper at the edges of my awareness. But the darkness—that was something else. It wrapped around us as we descended, thick and impenetrable, until the light from the moon was gone entirely.

That’s when my halo flared to life.

I hadn’t even realized I was willing it into existence. It just appeared, casting a soft, golden glow that pierced through the thick, black water. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to make the outline of my wings visible as they trailed behind me, catching the light. I glanced toward Nicole. Her face was illuminated with an ethereal white ring that hovered above her head, as if the waters themselves had summoned her light in response to the deep.

She caught my gaze and raised an eyebrow. "Nice touch, huh?" she thought through the telepathic link that had formed the moment we hit the water.

"Yeah, but it’s not just for show," I responded, sweeping my scythe in front of me to test the visibility. The light extended only a few feet, creating small pockets of brightness in the otherwise impenetrable darkness. "We’ll need this to find our way."

Nicole nodded, her movements fluid as her wings adjusted to the deep. The halos lit our path as we descended further into the abyss. The glow from our halos reflected off the dark waters, giving the illusion of a tunnel of light, like a passage leading us into the unknown. For a brief moment, the oppressive weight of the sea seemed to lighten. But I knew better than to believe in false hope.