Battle Angel (Immortal City 3)

Just when she had thought she had already scraped out every last milligram of willpower, Maddy discovered some newfound strength. She took another look at Sylvester to make sure he was still breathing on his own, then held her breath so she wouldn’t smell the horrible demon as she scaled over the massive corpse.

She stopped short for a moment. A voic

e echoed down the passage. Through the distortion Maddy could tell it was Jackson’s voice, crying out in agony.

Oh no.

What if she was too late? The premonition of Jackson’s lifeless face flashed across her mind. Gritting her teeth, she forced down the thought and ran as fast as she could, tears of pain welling up uncontrollably as she entered the main hall. She passed the dark, silent marble sentinels that watched over the final passage to the main hall and Council chambers.

Maddy crossed the threshold into the atrium. There she saw two things. First, Gabriel, standing with a dagger poised for murder. His eyes were sharp and terrifying, and imbued with a demonic power. The second thing she saw was Jackson, lying helplessly beneath him. His face was battered, his battle armor torn.

She had less than a moment to react.

“Jacks!”

Maddy reached down and hurled her Divine Sword toward Jackson with all her strength, just as she froze time for everything except herself, Jackson, and the blade. The veins on Gabriel’s forehead bulged as he slowed under Maddy’s time freeze, attempting to counter it by slowing the time around the sword. The weapon skittered in slow motion across the marble floor as both Maddy and Gabriel strained under the pressure of battling each other’s time freezes. At last the blade took one final clatter and slid to Jackson’s feet. Gasping, Maddy let go of her time freeze just as Gabriel lost control of the Divine Sword.

In one fluid movement, Jacks leaned down and picked up the sword to defend himself from Gabriel’s next blow. A flash of light exploded across the room as he picked it up and blocked Gabriel’s strike.

Gabriel screamed and recoiled from the sword as if it were a hot flame, his eyes flashing red for a moment. Was it possible that he was not only controlling the demons, but that he had actually become a Dark One himself? Taking a few steps back, he recovered, covering his face with one cloaked arm and then pumping his wings to drop back.

Jacks took a tentative step forward. Then another. He thrust the sword at Gabriel, who rose a few feet off the ground, but the True Immortal dodged each stab. Gabriel was ancient but nimble. Reaching back and flying forward, Jacks swung the sword in a large arc with all his strength. Launching himself up with his wings, Gabriel caught Jackson’s arm and bent it backward, pushing the sword away. They both grunted under the pressure as they pressed against each other until they dropped to the ground. A slight smile emerged on Gabriel’s face as he bent Jackson’s arm farther back. In just a few moments, Gabriel would be on top of him.

Jacks needed to make a move.

Suddenly Jacks let his sword fall to the ground and grabbed hold of Gabriel’s wings. Before he knew it, he was leveraging his weight against the True Immortal’s chest and using all his force to pull and tear at Gabriel’s wings. Jackson’s own cybernetic wings pressed against the ground as he fought, giving him even more strength. Spittle and foam flitted out from Gabriel’s clenched teeth as he tried to free himself and his wings from Jacks’s vise-like grip.

Then, one, two—the sounds were distinct, like enormous branches breaking and echoing in the halls. Jackson had broken Gabriel’s wings, the bones snapping under the immense pressure. Jacks roared as he broke them, while Gabriel screamed.

Overwhelming pulses of blinding light and waves of force suddenly burst forth from the True Immortal, knocking first Jackson, then Maddy down on their feet, then rumbling out all across the compound with the force of an earthquake. Everything turned bright white in front of Maddy, and she stumbled forward, reaching blindly. Slowly, as the rumbling lessened, she began to regain her sight. Still blinded, Jacks had managed to pick up her Divine Sword and was now stumbling backward, away from Gabriel, who lay on his back. Crumpled underneath him on the ornate marble floor were his broken wings. Jacks sliced at the air in front of him, unsure of what happened. Gabriel was quiet and still, his chest moving up and down only slightly.

“Jacks!” Maddy cried. “It’s clear!”

She rushed to him and put her hand on his arm, letting him know he no longer had to defend himself with the sword.

“It’s over.”

Gasping, Jacks fell to the ground, taking Maddy with him. His sight was slowly restored, and he eyed Gabriel’s shape just ten feet away. Gabriel’s breaths came out in rasps, his chest rising and falling.

Maddy and Jacks edged up to him carefully.

Gabriel’s eyes were open, but it was clear he could not move his head. His eyes flitted around helplessly, as if asking Jacks and Maddy for help. Jacks still held the Divine Sword, keeping it ready to attack, just in case this was some kind of trick. But soon he realized that it wasn’t. Maddy reached for Jacks’s arm.

The True Immortal’s frame began to shake slightly.

“What’s happening?” Maddy asked, her eyes opening wide.

“I think he’s . . . aging.”

The eternally youthful Gabriel slowly began to age before their very eyes. The skin on his face grayed and faded into wrinkles, and his hair lost its luster until it started to fall away and dissolve into nothingness. Liver spots bloomed on his face and arms, the wrinkles spreading everywhere now. His broken wings became yellowed and bony, until the sharp feathers evaporated into a fine dust. He was growing older with every second. His eyes rolled around in their sockets in agony; his mouth fell open, but no sound came out.

Maddy shrieked and jumped back as his skin began to sink in against his bones, every ounce of fat and muscle shrinking and dissolving until all of it was gone. The skin itself began to melt away, leaving only a mess of dissolved blood vessels and bones, which then, too, dried into dust. The eyes were the last to go. Like overripe fruit, they rotted and turned in upon themselves before dissolving into nothingness like the rest of him.

Turning away, Maddy felt like she was going to be sick. But Jackson didn’t take his eyes off the grisly spectacle. The face of death for the one who had brought the Angels to corruption and the brink of destruction. Who had killed his father.

Now nothing was left of Gabriel but a pile of dust underneath a ceremonial Angelic cloth. A breath of chilling air blew in from the sanctuary halls, and the dusty remains blew into the air, disappearing, until there was no more trace of Gabriel, leader of the Council of Twelve, True Immortal, founder of the NAS and Protection for Pay, engineer of the Great Awakening—and wholly corrupted collaborator with the Dark Angels.

“But . . . I thought he was a True Immortal,” Maddy said.