The Azra-El Series Ch. 19

The fortress was built on a small volcanic island formed by a long-dormant underwater fissure. The color of the volcanic rock was similar to that of the stone fortress, and the fortress was built within the crater of the volcano, making it very hard for one to spot it from a distance. However, the visual the merangel and the angel found unsettling, was the endless sea of purple surrounding them in all directions. Seaweed- there was seaweed everywhere.

"Can you make it?" Elyssa asked. Swimming in open water was one thing but navigating through an ocean of seaweed with two angels on her back was something even an archnymph could find difficult.

"I don't know. Depends on how far we are from the mainland. We should try waking her up."

"You can try."

Elyssa had a feeling that whatever power that Blaze had used was not his own. There was no way a mere angel could display the strength he did, so it must have at least been consuming.

And, she was proven right when Blaze did not even budge when Azalea slapped his cheeks.

"We should get going."

They walked down the steep trail carved into the basalt cliffside, and soon reached a point where water crashed against the smooth, slippery surface, eroded over millions of years.

Azalea handed Blaze to Elyssa and carefully got into the water. She found a good spot, before beckoning Elyssa to lower him in.

Elyssa followed. The sea water stung against her wounds, and she had so many that it felt like her body was on fire. However, she didn't show her pain.

Soon, she was sitting on Azalea's back, with Blaze in her front. Their weight forced Azalea's body to sink up to her neck, despite her strongly-waving mermaid tail.

Slowly, the Mami Wata began to wade through the water, pushing the weed aside with her arms. It was a strenuous task, and Elyssa helped as much as she could. The only silver lining was that the seaweed would make it hard for anyone to spot them.

It took almost an hour for the fortress island to disappear out of sight, but they still couldn't see any sign of land. They travelled another hour, before Azalea suddenly dipped her head into the water.

She surfaced a moment later, with fear evident in her eyes.

"What?" Elyssa asked.

"A frenzy of squalo is approaching from the west," she said, her eyes instinctually glancing at the bleeding cuts on Elyssa's body.

"Should we head back to the island?" Elyssa asked.

"No, we will be heading straight towards them."

"Have any more of those breathing masks?"

"Just three," Azalea said, pulling them out and handing them over. "Each one will last up to ten minutes."

"Dive and put as much distance between them as you can. Maybe they will get distracted by something else," Elyssa said, affixing the mask over Blaze's mouth and nose, before taking a deep breath and wearing the other.

Azalea dove fifteen feet below the surface and shot forward. Her speed almost threw Elyssa off, along with Blaze, but she held on. She tried to keep an eye out for the squalo, but her eyes were not made to see very far in such hazy sea water, clouded by the seaweed biome.

Azalea, however, had echolocation. Just as Elyssa began to feel the oxygen mask drying out, the merangel surfaced.

"They are upon us!" she cried, pulling Elyssa's legs off her waist, and handing her a spear that she pulled out of her space ring. Without another word, she dove back, leaving Elyssa floating with Blaze in her arms.

For a second, Elyssa wondered if the merangel had left them, but the next moment, a squalo twice the size of the mermaid shot a foot out of the water and crashed with a mighty splash.

Azalea sprang out through the weeds, wielding a khopesh. The blade pressed against the squalo's skin as she flew over the stunned fish in a graceful arc, drawing a deep clean cut around its neck, before she plunged back into the water and disappeared.

Blood began to spill out the cut, and the squalo thrashed for a bit, before going still. Its body slowly began to sink, but Elyssa's mental celebration lasted only a moment. A horde of scaly sail-like fins began to peek out of the weeds, all around them. There were at least a dozen and Azalea was only one merangel. How many squalo could she kill before they overwhelmed her? How long could she protect them?

"Can you stay afloat with Blaze?" Azalea surfaced and yelled.

"I have to," she replied.

Azalea gave her a somber nod and dove back in.

The fins began to circle around them through the weeds, slowly getting closer. A surge of bloodied water shot up about fifty feet away from them. The tail of another dead squalo rose out of the water, before sinking. The fins nearest to the merangel scattered away from her.

Elyssa instinctively looked behind. A fin cut through the water straight towards them. She hastily switched the oxygen mask on Blaze, before taking the spear in both hands, and diving under.

She was just in time to see the massive maws of the squalo looming towards her. She thrust the spear towards it, and the squalo swerved away, shooting past her thrust. Thankfully, the creature couldn't make sharp turns.

Azalea came shooting through the water and the squalo zipped away from her. Elyssa surfaced to catch her breath and pull Blaze back towards herself. The circling fins closed in.

"Elyssa," Azalea's head popped out for a moment. "There are too many for me to simply defend. You must defend, while I try to take out a few. Hopefully, it will scare the others away," she quickly told her, before disappearing back into the water.

Elyssa pulled her top off and fastened it around Blaze's neck, before pushing air into it until it formed a makeshift floater. Blaze's head lolled back, but the floater helped his nose remain above water.

The squalo were pack hunters. They were experts at herding schools of fish into the jaws of their companions. They also hunted gigantic squid that were much larger and stronger than them. So, as soon as they understood that the merangel could take them out in a one-on-one fight, they began to actively avoid a head-on confrontation. Any squalo that Azalea targeted swam away from her, while some of its packmates attacked her from behind, while the others tried to get Elyssa and Blaze.

Elyssa tried her best to ward off the squalo whenever they managed to get past Azalea, but every move enervated her a little more.

Merangel scales were very tough- hard enough to withstand the bite of a squalo. However, they were not invincible. As Azalea struggled to kill the squalo while also defending the two helpless angels in water, the incessant attacks began to consume her energy, until the bites began to penetrate and mar her beautiful cyan tail with purple blood.

She managed to kill three more squalo, before fatigue slowly began to take its toll. She was pushed back as the remaining squalo closed in on them. Finally, the mermaid found herself back-to-back with Elyssa.

"I am sorry, Elyssa," she said, weakly.

"No, you did your best. Thank you," she said, with the spear in one hand and Blaze in the other.

"Here they come!" Azalea announced, as four fins shot towards them, carving four diagonal paths in the seaweed. Elyssa could at most defend against one, so she had to take care of three.

When the squalo were about twenty feet away from her, Azalea dove under and shot towards the one straight ahead. The squalo swerved away to avoid her, but Azalea never intended to go after that one. She abruptly turned around to the one coming from her left, and sliced it from nose to tail, as it tried to dive under her.

Then, she turned around and zipped towards one of the two that had beelined towards Elyssa. Elyssa thrust her spear at it, clipping its left flapper as it swerved away.

Suddenly, she heard a scream vibrate through the surface of the water. Elyssa plunged her head into the water and found a squalo biting into Azalea's tail, while another dead one sank to the ocean floor, leaving a trail of blood behind.

Letting go of Blaze, she dove towards the squalo as it violently shook its head to tear into Azalea's scales, while she rapidly slashed at its snout. Gathering every ounce of energy, she could muster, she rushed towards the mer.

The frenzied squalo did not see Elyssa coming, and the angel thrust her spear, aiming for its eye. Luck allowed her spear to find its mark. Elyssa twisted the spear and yanked it, dragging the squalo's eye and brains out. Then, she plunged it into its head again. She repeated it two more times, before the squalo's jaw finally loosened, and Azalea struggled free.

The two of them surfaced and Elyssa floundered to reach Blaze and pull him back to herself. The floater around his neck was beginning to lose its efficacy.

The water around them began to dye purple with Azalea's blood. It frenzied the squalo even more, but losing three more of their kind made them a little wary. Elyssa counted their fins as they circled around, getting ever closer. There were still ten more and she realized that their odds of surviving were slim.

"You should try and escape if you can," she said to Azalea, weakly. She would have asked her to take Blaze along if she thought the mer could still carry another person.

"No," was Azalea's only reply, and the way she said it made Elyssa decide not to bother convincing her otherwise.

She readied her spear and faced the squalo. "Then, we take down as many as we can." Her arm felt like a dead-weight, and she wasn't sure if her next thrust would do any damage, even if it found its mark. Her body cried to let go, but her mind did not want to seek death a second time that day.

"Agreed."

Slowly, the squalo began to grow bolder, making probing attacks, and backing off at the last moment. Time ticked by slowly, and the two angels began to tire, especially Azalea, as she began to lose more blood.

Suddenly, six squalo shot towards them. Elyssa and Azalea put their heads underwater to see better, but they heard something unexpected.

Low-pitched rumbling reverberated through the water. The squalo shot past them. Confused, the two angels surfaced, only to see the entire pack fleeing.

High up in the sky, a pelagorn circled around their position, screeching at the top of her lungs.

They turned around and spotted the white backs of a herd of manatee bobbing over and under the seaweed, slowly making their way towards their location. On the backs of the leading manatee were five older Undine and Bayou, pounding their weapons into the water to scare away the squalo. However, the low, rumbling voices of the manatee were what scared the squalo away. The squalo had long been conditioned to learn that where there were manatees, there were merangel herders.

"Oh, thank the Goddess," Azalea let out a breath of relief, and began waving her khopesh at the Undine.

Bayou and two older mers jumped into the water and raced towards them. The older mer wore nothing but a couple of ornaments. The merangels of D'Warka were mindful of their nakedness because they lived with the angels, but the herders in the open sea did not need to heed anyone's sensibilities, except their own. Unfortunately for Blaze, he was not awake to appreciate them.

"Are you kids alright?" asked one of the older mers.

"Why are you here?" Elyssa asked Bayou, hugging Blaze close to her chest. She was forced to trust Azalea, but she didn't trust Bayou.

"I am only here to rescue Azalea. However, you don't have to worry about me helping Baozhai Rong anymore. Even in my hatred for the nobles, I would never support a demon. I guess we've all been deceived, eh, Az?" she asked, wading up to Azalea to support her.

"Thanks for coming back," said Azalea.

"Thank you for rescuing us," Elyssa addressed the adult Undine. "I am Elyssa Marigold, daughter of Duchess Anastasia Marigold of Aranya. I request you kind Undine to escort us to D'Warka."

oOo

For the second time that week, Blaze woke up with a start in a bed that he did not recognize. However, he was very glad to find Jie Er and Rebecca sleeping on his either side, protectively cocooning him.

His wakefulness roused the two older angels.

"Where is Elyssa?" he asked Jie Er.

"She is resting in the adjacent room. She is fine, don't worry," Jie Er answered, hugging him to her bosom.

"What about her wings?"

"She may need some time to recover, but she will be fine. You must rest. You exhausted your energy to a dangerous level."

"What about the corruption?"

"Corruption?"

"Ely's wings..."

"They have been plucked but they do not have any corruption in them. What are you talking about?"

"She... Baozhai Rong... I must see her," he said, pulling away from Jie Er and sitting up.

Jie Er did not stop him, and the angel guarding Elyssa's room did not stop him, either. He found Elyssa awake, and in conversation with her two mothers. General Sturm had rushed to D'Warka upon hearing of her daughter's ordeal.

"Blaze!" Elyssa gasped, when she saw him. Jie Er and Rebecca followed him in.

Blaze simply rushed onto her bed and pulled her into a heavy, fulsome hug. He didn't care for the numerous bandages covering her cuts. Elyssa couldn't even budge, as his hands completely wrapped around her. She simply rested her cheek against his and felt his warmth. Blaze breathed in deeply and took in the smell of her hair and her presence. For some reason, her smell always reminded him of old books and campfires. It was comforting and he loved it.

"Are you going to be okay?" he muttered into her ear.

"Yes, you?"

Blaze nodded over her shoulder.

He let her go after another moment, but he didn't get off her bed. Instead, he shuffled under her covers and leaned against the head of the bed.

"I am a little tired. I hope you don't mind," he asked her mothers.

"Not at all," replied Anastasia, with an uncharacteristically emotional smile.

Blaze took Elyssa's hand under the covers and leaned against her shoulder. Her presence and safety brought him peace. Soon, the two angels fell asleep beside each other. Blaze had been unconscious for two straight days but he still slept like a baby that night.

oOo

The next morning, he found Elyssa having breakfast in bed beside him. There was no one else in the room.

"Where's mine?" he asked. His stomach felt ravenous.

Elyssa offered him a piece of her mamgi, and he ate it off her hand, before grabbing more from her plate. Elyssa called out to a servant to ask for more.

"What do you remember?" she asked him softly, when the servant left them.

Blaze wracked his brain for a moment. His dreams had been plagued by a lot of things the previous night, and in that moment, he couldn't tell what was real.

"Er... the last thing I remember is you asking me to... I think I kinda went mad after that. I can't recall anything else. Did I do something strange?"

Elyssa fell silent.

"Ely?"

"Here is what happened," she said, "You began to display the Righteous Fury, and it somehow absorbed my taint. It was a miracle! However, I do not think we should mention it to anyone else, not even my mothers. Just trust me on this."

"Okay," Blaze nodded. He felt a little amazed that he could display the Righteous Fury again, especially since Elyssa was his friend, but then, Siofra had done it for him, too. Maybe the angels had their theories wrong. As for him absorbing the taint, it didn't even surprise him. He decided he should tell Elyssa about his ability to heal taint, later. "Then what happened?" he asked.

"Then, Baozhai Rong went crazy. A strange darkness surged from inside her and enveloped the whole island. I don't even know what it was. All the mercenaries who had been helping Baozhai fled when they felt it. Then, the darkness had a strange, violent interaction with your Righteous Fury. It badly wounded Baozhai, and she fled," Elyssa said, before narrating her experiences in its aftermath.

The herders had brought them back to D'Warka and Bayou had left them before they reached the city.

"What about Azalea?"

"She is fine. I do not think she will be held responsible for Baozhai Rong's actions, but the rebellion is being discussed. The D'Warkan nobility may want to hold her and all the other Undine responsible, but they will have to be careful. The news of the incident has spread around the HU, and angels all around the continent are aghast that the Undine have been forced to take up such extraordinary measures, merely to make a statement. The Malakim will not risk giving the young Undine any exigent punishments at this point. However, I am not sure what awaits them in the future. It may be best if they leave D'Warka, altogether," Elyssa answered.

Blaze relaxed a little at those words. The servant returned with his breakfast, along with Jie Er and Rebecca.

Over the next couple of days, Blaze rested in his bedroom beside Elyssa's, thinking over many things while Sky kept him constant company. He thought about his past life, his current one, and his recent experiences. He had always imagined himself as the cool hero who just takes it easy on the sidelines, until it was time to make a grand entrance and save everyone.

But, those were idle fantasies of one without power or responsibility. Now that he had both, he was forced to think about the consequences of his inaction. He still had many things to learn, but was it right to not do anything until it affected him, or until he was absolutely sure that he was doing right? Would he ever truly know what was right?

He remembered his conversation with Jie Er on the gondola. Jie Er had not known the right course of action regarding the Undine when she was still a student at Bologna Uni, and she did not know it now. But, maybe if she had been more involved, it could've prevented this whole incident. Maybe, he wouldn't have had to hear his best friend ask him to kill her. Maybe, she wouldn't have gone through so much suffering, that it made her ask him such a thing.

Elyssa's tone and voice from that moment had plagued him both in his dreams and when he was awake.

On the second day, Jie Er came bearing the news that Azalea and her gang were pardoned. The damages to D'Warka were to be paid from Baozhai Rong's finances, but her physical assets were to be handed over to the Xian. However, there wasn't anything about reconciliation or mediation with the Undine. The Caledonian nobility only tooted their own magnanimity at being able to forgive those responsible for the revolt.

While growing up on Earth, Blaze had never been in a rush to become an adult. Maybe it was because he had grown up in a well-to-do family, or maybe it was because as the baby of the family, he had been pampered a little. Even his older brother, ten years older than him, had always been more of a parent than a brother. Blaze, however, had liked to think that his proclivity towards remaining a child was because he was smarter than peers his own age.

Though he always projected a mature persona around his peers, when he was around family he always reverted to his child-like personality. So, when Azra-El presented him the opportunity to be a "child", though he had complained at times, he was happy to fill in his new shoes. Especially since he had none of the restrictions of being a child, but all the benefits of being seen as one.

However, over the course of the year, he realized something else. Maybe it wasn't his intelligence that made him wish to remain a child. Maybe it was because of his empathy. He felt the responsibility, the pressures, and the pain of being a parent, and that empathy extended to anyone else that suffered, whether it was a friend, an animal, or even someone else whom he could only observe from afar.