Battle For The Heavens

t e n

It had been two weeks. Two weeks since Noelle first started teaching Andrew how to sword fight and now, he could fight pretty confidently. He still fumbled with the sword every now and then but he had definitely got the hang of it and his powers.

Andrew finally understood what Noelle meant when she said that he already had the ability inside him because he'd accomplished far more than any normal human ever could in two weeks and he definitely learned from the best. The way Noelle fought was amazing. She was graceful and the look in her eyes was always absolute fearlessness. It was like she was so comfortable swinging a sword around, and that intrigued Andrew even more.

"Hey Andrew, you okay?" Noelle asked, standing in front of him and waving a hand in front of his face. There was a sheen of sweat on her skin and her hair was tied up into a ponytail to prevent any hair from falling onto her face.

"Y-yeah I'm fine, just thinking," Andrew said slowly.

Noelle narrowed her eyes at him for a second but then just nodded and stepped away to give him some room before they continued sparring. "Noelle, um what was it like up there? With the war going on, I mean."

Noelle tossed a towel in Andrew's direction before replying. "Well, it's been chaos really, to say the very least. At first, it really seemed like we were going to win but then... I don't know what happened but Satan managed to turn the tables on us and we were pretty much trapped. All our powers were zapped and we were all dead on our feet, but the demons kept coming back, again and again." Noelle looked up at Andrew with sad eyes and saw him listening to her every word with complete seriousness. "There was nothing for us to do, at least that was before God told me it was time to come in search of you. But there was so much destruction before that Andrew, so much. I still dream about it at night, I don't think I can ever forget the screams of people dying."

Andrew wordlessly stood up and walked over to Noelle and pulled her into his arms, giving her a much needed hug. Noelle leaned into him and took a deep breath before continuing, "so many of my friends died and I wasn't able to save them, I was too weak...b-but now, with you and God, I'm sure we can win. I'm sure of it."

Andrew pulled back from the hug and grasped Noelle's shoulders before looking straight into her eyes. "Noelle, I'm going to do everything I can to help okay? We will defeat Satan and his demons. I wasn't sure before but now, I really think we can do it, and it's all thanks to you. Without your help, I'd never have even agreed to do this let alone actually learn how to fight. So, thank you."

Noelle laughed slightly and said, "I think I should be the one thanking you since you're the one who's going to save the world and what not."

Andrew shook his head furiously and replied, "we. We're going to save the world together."

Noelle gave Andrew a small smile before turning away and saying, "we should probably get back to practising. You might be better than most humans with two weeks practise but you're still not yet better than me, so you have to continue practising."

Andrew nodded and went to grab his katana, they had stopped using the shinais after about four days of practise, before stopping and turning back to Noelle. "By the way, I have a question. I've actually been wondering for a while but...why do we need to fight with a sword? Why not with a gun? Also, do all angels fight with swords?"

Noelle stared at Andrew for a second with a surprised expression before bursting out into laughter, while Andrew looked on in utter confusion. After a few seconds, she tried stopping her laughter and replied, slowly taking deep breaths in between words. "I was wondering...when you...were going to...ask me that!"