seVen: Vice and Virtue

Chapter 3: Battle Royale

Leviathan's kind face had become horribly bloodthirsty, and he glared in fury at Samiel.

"No one says such things about Lucifer," Leviathan hissed. "Lucifer is a gift to our kind. He's our fearless leader, and if I ever hear you degrade him again, I'll tear out your spine!"

Ramiel whimpered in fear, but Samiel stood tall, lifting his axe into his hands. "Ramiel," he said softly, "will you try to get a hold of Uriel and Michael? Tell them we've got one, and we could use backup."

Leviathan's grin returned, but paired with his piercing eyes, it seemed more devious than kind.

"What, two Archangels can't handle one demon by themselves?" Leviathan muttered, twirling his daggers. "You've gotten weaker since I last saw you."

The daggers suddenly changed in form to a pair of cutlasses. Leviathan swept in to slash at Samiel with a surprising amount of speed, and Samiel blocked the attacks with his axe, keeping Ramiel shielded behind his body.

"I don't want a fight, Levi," Samiel said evenly. A swipe of Leviathan's cutlass nearly sliced off part of Samiel's shoulder, and in retaliation, he swung his axe at Leviathan's side. Leviathan vanished and reappeared behind Ramiel. Ramiel and Samiel spun around in time for Leviathan's cutlasses to become a pair of twin pistols, and he fired at the two twins.

"Sami!" Ramiel yelled. Samiel shoved her to the side and faced Leviathan head-on.

"Temperantia!" he called, holding out his free hand. The bullets seemed to slam against some sort of invisible force, and Samiel rushed forwards to strike at Leviathan with his axe. "This didn't have to happen, Levi. I just wanted to talk, really."

Leviathan once again teleported behind Samiel, and his pistols became daggers once more.

"It didn't," he agreed. "But then you said those terrible things about Lucifer, and I couldn't let that go. It's the same as if I expressed my opinions on your precious Trinity, isn't it?"

That seemed to strike a chord with Samiel. He turned around, surprisingly calm, and raised his axe. "And what opinions might those be?" he asked evenly. Leviathan's terrible, snake-like eyes slowly closed, and he smiled kindly.

"Well, that he's a tyrant, of course. Complete power and the capacity to forgive those disgusting human beings after everything they do, but we make one little mistake and we can never come back. That's not very fair, is it?"

"That's not true!" Ramiel insisted suddenly, standing off to the side and watching the fight with wide eyes. "You could come back, you just have to apologize!"

This comment only seemed to further aggravate Leviathan, and he suddenly changed targets and charged after Ramiel, wielding his twin daggers. Ramiel yelped and scrambled away.

"I'm not leaving Lucifer, and you can't make me!" Leviathan insisted. "You and your brainwashing techniques aren't going to make a dent in me, so you can tell Michael you may as well give up! We'll have this whole planet under our control soon enough!"

"Leave Ramiel alone!" Samiel snapped, his voice surprisingly unnerved.

Leviathan laughed, sounding amused, and suddenly appeared just behind Ramiel. He wrapped his arms around her, holding one dagger against her throat and the other to her chest. She let out a scream, and Samiel growled.

"Aw, what's wrong? You sound upset," Leviathan said casually, his carefree expression returning. "That's not like you. Aren't you supposed to be temperance, Sami?"