Azrael

Twenty Three

Azrael had not spoken to another person in a while. Not since the shadows appeared. They filled her world with darkness, turning it into a silhouette of shapes and lights. She had since learned to differentiate people based on voices and build, even sometimes scent alone. Malaki was the first person she met who understood her. He was wild but intelligent, and just like Azrael, blinded by his ambition for power. He had taught her how to tell people apart based on aura.

The first time she saw Malaki's aura, it appeared as a sly shadow that reeked of the tangy scent of blood. Courtesy of being an adopted daughter of the royal family, she had been allowed to train with the elf, who held the position of Commander in the Seraphim military. Eons later, despite his banishment and imprisonment, his ghost still haunted the souls of the living.

Swirls of his aura still floated around the tunnels under the Midnight Temple, burned into the spatters of blood along the walls. That was what Malaki did. He left scars on the soul of the very universe; wounds that never healed no matter how much time went by. Azrael recognised the blood as elven, and assumed it had either been spilt during his capture or various attempts to escape.

Azrael was well aware of the Spiders slinking through various sections of the tunnel. She could hear their long legs scampering across the ground, sending millions of tiny vibrations through the rock. Her own walking would have alerted the extremely sensitive hairs on their legs, and a few were heading her way.

They found her soon enough.

Spiders were another wicked creation that dark elves had spawned from the world of the dead. They were only called spiders due to the eight legs sticking out of their abdomens, but beyond, they were nothing lifelike. Their bodies were a gruesome collection of mouths haphazardly placed all over, and at the front of that abdomen wasn't a head but a wider mouth with an enormous set of jaws that constantly dripped of venom. A series of antennae stuck out from either side of the mouth like whiskers, always twitching, reacting to every sound.

The two that blocked Azrael's path paused as they analysed her, assessing whether she was a threat. She saw those feelers twitch in her direction as the jaws hissed, but no attempt was made to attack her. She did not draw her blade, since that would immediately set them off.

She walked towards them, taking slow, cautious steps. Seraphim were immune to all natural poisons, but Spiders were not of this world. If one of them bit her, she wasn't sure if her body would resist the venom like it normally did.

"Can I come?" a voice rang through the tunnel.

The Spiders hissed, and then charged. Azrael drew her dagger, only to realize they had slipped past her, racing towards the shadows where she had come from-towards the voice. There was a flash of light, two quick bursts of flame, and the Spiders fell silent.

Vera catwalked her way towards Azrael with a big grin on her face. Azrael didn't return the smile, eyeing the elf with an emotionless stare.

"You don't seem all that surprised to see me, Azrael," she said. "Or happy in that case."

"Maybe you're not as sneaky as you think you are," Azrael replied. "Also, you shouldn't have killed them."

Vera turned back to the now decaying bodies of the Spiders. "Them? Have you seen those teeth?"

"They release pheromones when they die that warn their kin."

"Oops-" Vera said, mockingly placing a hand over her lips.

"But you knew that, didn't you?"

Vera backtracked, smiling once more.

"Sorry Az. I know what you're here to do, and I can't let you get to him before they do."

"Surely you don't think this-"

Azrael paused.

"Wait, they?" she asked, her voice higher than usual.

"Oops again," Vera laughed. "Your little human is here, too. I can see the same darkness in her magic as yours. I wonder what the dark elf will do with her."

The ground beneath them rumbled. Spiders. Hundreds coming their way.

Vera stepped back into the shadows once more.

"We'll meet again soon, Azrael."

"The next time we meet, I'll leave you with more than just a scar."

"Sounds like fun," Vera retaliated, and then she was gone.

Azrael could follow, but the Midnight Temple had wards that were built to stop anyone from shadow traveling in or out of it. Vera, though, had somehow been able to come and go as she pleased. Azrael did not understand why, and her brain was far too focused on the oncoming battle to focus on other problems.

Many of the Spiders had been drawn outside the prison where Rafael fought them with his army. Vera had interrupted their plan, forcing them to divert this way. With the Spiders divided between two battle fronts, it would make it even easier for Venus and Vera to get to Malaki.

Adira.

She was here.

Azrael had felt her presence, a slight whiff of her aura carried through the shadows, but had brushed it off as her imagination. Why her imagination would be recreating the aura of a human woman she had failed to justify. It had ultimately been easier to believe than Venus having brought Adira here.

What was the Sentinel's plan? She knew about Adira's affinity for shadow magic. She also knew about Malaki's obsession with it. If he ever found out about Adira-no, he would have already sensed her if she was this close, but if he ever got his hands on her...

Azrael shook her head to get rid of the idea.

She wouldn't let him ruin another one.