Halo Squad

Chapter 30

Oblivious to the battle going on beneath him, Remiel was staring up into sky, muttering indecipherable incantations. "Tam, do you think you could try some firebending?" "I don't know, why?" "Look" Lavinia pointed into the sky. multiple swirls of fire were channeling towards Remiel, and she feared she knew what it meant. "Come on, Tam! The ritual's working!" she exclaimed, and Tamsin closed her eyes. Focusing, she attempted to connect to the fire forces in the Spirit. She pictured the swirls of fire, and attempted to bend them away. Slowly, but surely, she was managing to stop them, until her concentration was broken by a growl. She looked up, to see Dominic flying in front of Remiel, holding his swords up. "No, Dom, don't!" she shouted, but he sliced across Remiel's throat with them. Or at least attempted to. In the process, the fire that now engulfed Remiel's body melted the swords. Dominic attempted to summon them again, but found that he couldn't. "Vi, throw me your sword!" he shouted down to her, but suddenly felt a hand grasp his throat.

"I tire of your games, boy" spoke Remiel, his voice noticeably lower than before "The ritual is almost completed, and I will not have you ruin it". Remiel started squeezing harder and harder. Dominic felt his strength being drained, and his wings retracted away. Remiel released Dominic, who then fell to the stage. Smacking both Lavinia and Tamsin away with a giant wave of fire, he placed both of his hands upon Dominic's head. Whilst smirking triumphantly, he began to send fire running all over Dominic's body. Dominic began to lose sight, seeing only darkness. He had never felt anything worse in his life. It was like all his energy, his very life force, was being taken away. Like his soul was being dissipated, and replaced by fire from the depths of Hell. Then, pure nothingness. Remiel grinned widely, before dropping Dominic's head. Dominic's body fell limp, his eyes now completely black. The other present angels immediately charged at Remiel, only to be slammed into the ground by another wave of fire. Covering them all in flames, he subjected them to the same treatment as Dominic.

Then, four more angels exited the dungeon the same way the previous group had. "Hey, we destroyed them all! Wait, what's..." Sophie's voice trailed off, as she saw the six angels lying all over the place, all burnt out, but not quite dead. "Come switch to the winning side, before my good mood ends" Remiel told them, playing around with a ball of red flames. "Why the hell would we join you?" spat Sophie, but Remiel just laughed "I'm taking over the earth, I just thought you'd want me to preserve your families or some crap like that. Oh well". He rushed towards them, too fast for any of them to react, and promptly disabled them the same way he was quickly getting better at. "Damn Halo Squad. A bunch of stupid teenagers. I killed the famed archangels, destroyed the angel army, defeated all those who could have defeated me. What made them think they ever had a chance?" muttered Remiel to himself, as he flew back into the sky. He closed his eyes, and continued with the ritual. "Yes, I'm even more powerful now!" he shouted out, as his skin began to disintegrate, replaced by fire.

Then, the ritual was disturbed again. By a turquoise coloured laser blast to the forehead. Remiel opened his eyes again, to see two winged figures hovering in front of him, one with pure white wings, the other with dark blue ones. "Nice shot, Ade. It's just a shame it didn't kill him" said Faye, whilst Ade laughed "Don't worry, I'll get to kill him soon enough". "Ah, the twin-clone. And the dove. A newborn and a sentient vehicle. I'm terrified, really. Look down, do you see your friends? All dead. Spiritually speaking that is. It's amazing what disconnecting someone from the Spirit can do. That's essentially what Hell is, you know. Not a fiery torture pit, simply the complete absence of the Spirit. Us mortals and angels, we simply perceive it as fire. Ancient evolutionary trait that is. From back when being burned was the most pain anyone felt. Well, they felt all kinds of pain back then too, but those were fairly short lived. Because they experienced the pain of various ways to die. But fire, well, fire is different. It doesn't kill you like getting stabbed or clubbed to death. When you're being burned, the pain is prolonged. It can take hours to kill you, depending on how hot it is. So, the absolute torture that is Hell seems like fire to those there. Just like your friends, actually. Yeah, they're in Hell. You did a great job of saving them" Remiel smiled, expecting them to be devastated and demoralized.