The Azra-El Series Ch. 19

"Shouldn't that just... make it bright?" Blaze questioned her logic.

"Not to those in its vicinity and not when you saw it through anja. The darkness was too strong."

"Okay... but what does that have to do with Elyssa?"

"These days, most angels think that the day was an anomaly of nature, like an eclipse. However, they are wrong. It was incited by Hela, and we stopped her from achieving her goal. An attempt to suck in all the dark energy on this continent and attain a new level of power- Godhood."

Baozhai's eyes lost focus for a moment as she seemed to relive a moment in her past. Blaze was unsure if Baozhai was a raving lunatic or if she was telling the truth, but he kept his thoughts to himself. "And?"

"We stopped her. By sending a concentrated mass of pure light energy into the source," she answered him as an afterthought, before going back to her memory.

"Then what happened?"

"Not what we expected. We managed to stop Hela, but the strangest occurrence followed afterwards. The light and dark energies coalesced... If you think about it, it is not that strange. Light and dark energy co-exist in nature. They are not necessarily opposites like angels and demons...

"This fusion of energy began to condense, becoming denser and denser, until it reached the size of an angel egg. Then, there was a bright flash that blinded all our senses. When our senses returned, the energy was gone, seemingly out of existence.

"While most of my peers and superiors assumed that they were done with the phenomenon, I have been studying it for sixty years. Now, I am absolutely sure that the energy had condensed into an egg. However, tracing the egg has proven futile."

"Wait, you don't think Elyssa was born from that egg, do you?" Blaze asked.

"Very good, princess. You catch on quite quickly! Anyway, I figured that if I could not find out where the egg went, why not find the most talented angel that hatched after that day? Such a magnificent fusion of energy must hatch an equally outstanding individual, correct?"

"But, Elyssa was born in 673 LE. Besides, she is Anastasia Marigold's daughter. She kinda looks like her too."

"That is why she is here. I needed to perform some tests on her. The egg may have taken some time to hatch, or the date of her hatching may have been changed by the duchess. As for her appearance, the egg could have easily taken on the appearance of the first individual it was in contact with, as it did not have a mother."

"You sound a little coo-coo, lady," Blaze couldn't help himself from saying.

Baozhai only laughed. "You are right. I may be a little mad, but that does not make me wrong. Come, I have had enough of this conversation," she said, turning towards an ominous metallic door on the farside of her room.

Blaze hesitated.

"You want to see Ms. Elyssa, do you not?"

That got him moving. Baozhai opened the door and beckoned him into the darkness behind it. She stepped inside behind him, and he heard the clunk of the door being shut. The room was lit by a single dim lantern, and as soon as Blaze's eyes adjusted to the light, he saw a gut-wrenching sight.

"No!" he gasped, rushing to the angel hanging from metallic chains fastened to the cold stone walls of the dungeon.

Elyssa hung naked and bleeding through an uncountable number of cuts all over her body, but what was truly hideous was the state of her wings; rather, the husk of what was left of her wings. She had been completely and brutally plucked.

Plucking, a method of torture invented and employed by the demons, was the most horrifying of things that could be done to an angel. There was nothing worse. During the war, the demons used to force their captives to manifest their wings, and utilized a set of tools to confine and forcibly prolong the manifestation. Then, they slowly and systematically plucked each and every feather off their wings.

Blaze had read that the experience was not only extremely painful and utterly humiliating, but also deeply traumatizing, as it stripped an angel of what made them an angel. It made them feel absolutely helpless.

He skidded to her and picked her up in his arms, trying to alleviate the weight on her hands. "Elyssa!" he cried, as her head lolled against his shoulder. Her eyes were closed, but at least he could feel her slow heartbeat, and the warmth that was still left in her body.

"What have you done?!" he screamed, turning his head towards the cursed angel.

"I have been trying to bring out her darkness, but Ms. Elyssa refuses to embrace her negative thoughts. But, I think she will for you, princess. I am sorry, but I will have to pluck you as she watches," Baozhai smiled frighteningly, and walked towards a set of cruel-looking tools at a nearby table.

However, Blaze cared little for what she would do to him. "Elyssa, wake up, Ely," he cried to his dear friend. Tears began to flow down his cheeks and on reaching his chin, they fell on her naked body to combine with her drying blood. The wet warmth of his tears startled Elyssa out of her nightmare.

"B-Blaze?" she murmured, tightly clutching him.

"Yes, Ely. I am here," he said, supporting her head with his hand. Her eyes struggled to open for a moment, and when they finally did, they filled with terror.

"Blaze! You should not be here," she whispered hoarsely.

She raised a featherless wing by his side and glanced at it. A single tuft, colored in a deep, dark, nauseating magenta, stuck out of the bend of her wing. "Blazey," Elyssa whimpered, a single tear trickling down her left cheek. "I have been tainted."

Overwhelming sorrow filled Blaze. Never in his dreams had he imagined Elyssa to sound so weak... so helpless, and he couldn't help himself from sobbing for her. "Elyssa... hic... it's alright. I can cure it... hic... and don't you worry 'bout a thing. Even if it doesn't go away, it doesn't matter one bit. I will be here right by your side."

Elyssa's eyes widened at his last sentence, as if she realized something terrible. "Blaze!" she said, grabbing his hands and taking them to her throat. "Kill me, now!"

Blaze shuddered. When she said those words, there was no trace of the anguish from before. Only a strange conviction.

"What the Hela are you saying?!" he cried, trying to pull his hands away, but Ely gripped them tight.

"Quickly, Blaze! She will not hurt you if I am dead, and she cannot taint me anymore. Please, Blaze, do it for me, if not for yourself. I can not see her torture you. Please, listen to me just this once."

"Now, now, princess. Do not do anything hasty," Baozhai Rong spoke from behind. "I never intended for either of you to die. She just has to embrace her darkness, and I promise that both of you will leave here alive. It is not a lie. I did not go through all this trouble just to see the Nephilim die, and I have no wish to kill a Xian princess. I am a Xian too, afterall."

Suddenly, something flipped inside Blaze. Sorrow turned into anger, which quickly heightened to an absolute rage. However, this rage was nothing like the one he felt during his Righteous Fury. This was a vengeful rage that only sought destruction- destruction of the one that caused so much suffering to his friend. It was wrath.

A strength that he did not know he possessed filled his arms, and he yanked his hands away from Elyssa's grip. "Elyssa," he said, staring straight into her azure eyes, "I will kill you if you ever think of dying again."

Elyssa's hands helplessly fell to her side, as she saw the raw emotion in his eyes. She seemed to realize the gravity of what she had just asked her best friend to do. "I-I am sorry," she said, but Blaze had no interest in hearing her apology. He let her go and pulled out his viridian bat, as he turned around to face Baozhai.

Manifesting his wings, he took a step towards her. Wrath finally took over his mind. "You. Will. Die," he said, in a voice that sounded nothing like him. It was low, gravelly, like an asphalt-mixer, and fear-inducing. It sent shivers down Elyssa's and Baozhai's backs.

Suddenly, a ripple spread through the fabric of space around them, originating from Blaze's entire being. The dim lantern at the corner of the room flickered.

Then, there was another ripple.

Baozhai's eyes widened in disbelief. "This..." she muttered, as the room continued to grow darker. Light began to flee from Blaze.

The tainted tuft over Elyssa's wing dematerialized, turning into a tiny amorphous blob, before being sucked into the darkness that was Blaze.

"B-Blaze?" Elyssa called out into the darkness, which slowly spread, enveloping the entire room.

Blaze's red and white wings shone bright with fluorescence within the darkness, which wasn't black, but a deep crimson.

Fear mounted in their hearts though logic suggested that they had nothing to fear from him- Baozhai was a powerful archangel and Elyssa was his friend. The fear was even worse for the Xian, as she was beholden by his eyes, that were now a deep crimson in a sea of black.

Baozhai took a step back, and even Elyssa's instincts begged her to flee, and she would've, if she had not been chained and drained.

His wings rose up, as if giving way to something new. Elyssa saw them first as they tore through his shirt. They were wings, but they were not angelic. They were a deep black crimson; darker than the darkness he was emitting. Elyssa glanced up at his first pair of wings, expecting to see taint, but she was astonished to see that they were as bright as ever.

How?

Such contrasting energies could not exist without tainting one another. Elyssa had seen the Taiga warriors of Xian, who were essentially tainted angels that learned to control their taint for short periods. However, what she was witnessing now was nothing like them. Blaze's contrasting energies seemed completely unaffected by one another.

The darkness spread out of the room as Blaze's second pair of wings began to grow. It swept across the fortress, filling the angels within it with absolute dread. One after the other, they began to flee. They knew of their mistress' madness, and they all imagined the darkness to have been caused by her. They wished to have nothing to do with it.

Baozhai Rong came to her senses when Blaze's second pair reached the same size as his first. However, by then, it was too late.

BOOM!

A deafening sonic boom sounded as Blaze disappeared from his spot. The resulting wind slammed Elyssa into the wall behind her. Blood spurted out of her mouth and nostrils, and her consciousness teetered for a second, but she willed herself to stay awake.

Two pairs of wings, one pale green and the other sky blue, burst forth from Baozhai's back, just as Blaze's bat crashed into her arms, held up in defence. However, despite her open wings, she was knocked off her feet, and she crashed into the metallic door, ten feet behind her.

BOOM! A second Swift Wing Dash followed the first.

There were two cracks, one metallic, and one of brittle bone. A shrill cry of pain pierced the room as the viridian bat broke at the handle and shot off, hitting the side wall and clattering to the ground. However, neither Elyssa nor Baozhai could hear a thing. There was only the ringing aftermath of the sonic booms in their ears.

However, Blaze neither acknowledged the fact that his bat broke, nor did he throw away the handle. He simply clenched his fists and began to pummel Baozhai like she was a sandbag.

The might of his fists left no room for the Xian to counterattack as she was cornered against the solid metallic door, which began to warp behind her body.

It was mind-boggling for Elyssa. Blaze was strong, but beating up a fully-developed archangel should've been so out of his realm of strength, that it should've been impossible. Yes, he currently had a second pair of wings which implied that he too was an archangel, but how could he be an archangel? He was too young and had shown no signs of becoming an archangel. One could sprout a second pair of wings overnight, but no one could simply grow out fully formed archangel wings at one go. It took years. Genius had nothing to do with it.

Baozhai was so shell-shocked, so overwhelmed, and so beaten, that her hands finally gave in and fell limply to her sides. Yet, Blaze showed no signs of pausing. His fists continued to rain down on her body without mercy. Elyssa could do nothing but watch.

Baozhai's energy reinforcement finally caved, and her skin began to bruise and split. Blood began to splatter, yet she held a strange smile that was horrifying on her blood-smeared face. She seemed to have no desire to make Blaze stop.

Finally, it was Blaze who'd had enough. He gripped her throat and raised her up against the door.

His fingers squeezed.

"M-Mercy, mistress..." she choked. "I-I only wish to serve you."

However, Blaze's crimson black eyes showed no change. It was like he didn't even hear her. Fear finally showed in Baozhai's crazed eyes as she began struggling under his hand.

"Blaze!" Elyssa breathed. "Stop!"

She had no desire to see Blaze kill in cold blood, not even the one who had put her through the gravest of tortures.

However, Blaze's grip did not ease. The pressure on Baozhai's neck and the lack of oxygen made her pupils roll up in her eyes. Her kicking legs began to slow.

"BLAZE!" Elyssa yelled. "Stop, please!"

There was no response.

Tears began to roll down Elyssa's eyes. "Stop it, Blaze. Please," she cried. Her chains rattled as she struggled to break free.

The grief in her voice finally seemed to affect him. His fingers relaxed and Baozhai sucked in a deep breath. Clenching his fingers, he pulled his hand back as deep crimson energy began to manifest around his fist. It grew brighter as he concentrated for a moment, before sending his fist crashing into her stomach.

Coughed-up blood spattered across his face as the archangel was sent flying, along with the door, into the other room. Elyssa's knees gave in and she fell against her chains.

Blaze stood up straight and simply gazed into the other room, before finally turning around.

Elyssa gasped when she saw his face. She recognized neither his eyes nor his expression. His face was contorted with wrath and his crimson eyes held a possessive concern towards her. The fear she first felt when his darkness surged returned.

Elyssa had never feared anything in her life. She had felt prudence, but never fear. Her mother, General Sturm, had always told her that it was a weakness and not a strength. Lynn Sturm claimed that true courage arose from knowing fear. But now, when Elyssa finally found fear, she felt there was nothing good about it.

He began walking towards her, and she instinctively cowered against the wall, like a cornered rabbit. When he reached her, he grabbed her chains and yanked them right off the wall, like they were mere pins pushed into cardboard.

He grabbed her by the waist and pulled her close.

"Don't worry," he said, with a frightening smile and that terrifying voice. "I would never... hurt you," he said.

Elyssa felt like a lamb in a Xenodon's paws. His smile widened at her expression, before the darkness that enveloped the entire fortress suddenly receded back into his body, within a fraction of a second. His crimson wings disappeared almost instantaneously, along with the black in his eyes.

Strength seemed to leave his body and his eyelids closed as he fell into her arms. The weight on her body told her that he was no longer conscious.

The fear induced by the darkness receded and logic returned to her mind. Elyssa dematerialized the husk of her wings and slid to the floor with Blaze in her arms. She sat there and tried to process the events. Finally, a voice broke her out of her thoughts.

"What happened? Is Blaze okay?" asked a concerned Azalea, standing at the doorway and peering into the room. She seemed hesitant to step inside.

Elyssa's first instinct was to be wary, but soon she remembered that Azalea had been knocked out first. She didn't want to trust her, but Blaze was unconscious, and she was in no state to fly.

"How is your mother?" she asked with utmost calmth, her voice currently resembling Anastasia's.

Azalea flinched at that word. "I-I don't know. She is not here..."

"She is not in that room?!"

"No... There is no one else left in the fortress."

Elyssa could not understand how Baozhai could recover so fast. She had actually thought that Blaze had killed her with that last punch. Maybe his strength had been a mere illusion.

"Do you have a VP?"

"No... but there is a ring on Blaze's finger. Maybe it has one."

Elyssa quickly removed the ring and checked it, but to her disappointment, there was nothing of current use inside it.

"Lemme look around," Azalea said, turning around.

"No, first help me get out of this Goddess forsaken room," she said, holding Blaze and standing up. She felt weak and her body hurt all over.

Azalea finally stepped inside and helped her get Blaze out of the room. They placed him on a chair, before searching the desk and its shelves for something useful. They found nothing but parchment, pens, and ink.

"Do you know where we are?" Elyssa asked.

"No..."

"Okay, here is the plan. I cannot fly for now. You must carry us both out of here. If the mainland is too far, you can leave us someplace else to go get help. We cannot stay here any longer. We do not know who may still be watching and we do not know if Baozhai will return."

"I will carry you both to safety, even if it is a thousand yonders away," Azalea said, with conviction.

"Good, I will hold you to that," Elyssa nodded, finally pulling out a set of Blaze's swim clothes from his space ring and quickly wearing them. The clothes hurt against her wounds, but they helped her feel a little less vulnerable.

Azalea noticed her distress, but she couldn't do anything. She simply lifted Blaze into her arms, and they slowly made their way out of the building.

"What happened?" Azalea asked her again, when they were out in the open.

"I do not know," Elyssa lied. "I was tortured, and I lost consciousness. I woke up with Blaze in my arms," she said, surprising herself with how convincingly she said it. "Did you see anything?"

"I was with Bayou in that building when that demonic darkness enveloped this whole island. We were petrified for a few moments. The wrath in that darkness was so... palpable. Our instinct was to flee, and I did flee with Bayou, but I came back as I couldn't leave you guys here.

"I am deeply sorry for everything you've experienced because of me. It was never my intention to hurt you. The point of the uprising was to show that it is only the merangels that get hurt, and so many did so, for the cause. Now, all of their sacrifices have been in vain. I don't know why I trusted another angel."

"Azalea!" Elyssa said, stopping her rant. "You know one angel that you can always count on. He is right here."

Elyssa wasn't entirely sure what she had witnessed earlier, but she trusted the Blaze she knew. She just wasn't sure if that had been Blaze. Azalea did not need to know that.

Azalea glanced at Blaze in her arms and she humbly nodded. "I know. Even when we were confined in that dungeon, he was never angry with me. After all I did..."

They trudged through the dilapidated fortress until they reached the eastern cliffside. The one thing they were sure about was that D'Warka was to the east.