Hell's Ascendant (Mantles of Power Book 3) Read online

  The attackers descended on Baradiel and the others with war cries, and furious, mid-air combat ensued. Instantly Baradiel realized that most of the angels had never fought alongside one another, though, as only a handful of them were properly cooperating with each other, and that was disastrous under the circumstances. His soldiers worked together like a well-oiled machine, and one after another they cut down the angels trying to breach the shield.

  Baradiel’s hopes began to rise again as they fought, seeing the shield rapidly closing the breach, and he called out in mid-clash, blocking the sword of one of the attackers to let one of the others cut the woman down. “That’s it, drive them back! They’re not as skilled as us, so let these traitors have it!”

  “Really?” a deep voice came in response, and Baradiel looked up and instantly paled, fear rushing through him.

  Three angels were above the citadel, and any one of the three would have been enough to make him concerned on their own, while all three of them radiated the immense mental pressure of archangels. In the lead was a blond man, his hair trimmed short, while his heavy armor was washed gold and gleamed almost like the sun with his power, a massive claymore in one of his hands. He was Aelon, Baradiel knew, the archangel of glorious war, and was one of the more powerful archangels in the heavens. Worse, he was the one who’d spoken.

  Beside Aelon were Halith and Nuriel, and the sight of them made Baradiel’s heart sink. Halith was an icily beautiful brunette with cold eyes, and was the archangel of stone, as evidenced by the rock armor enveloping her body, and she had a stone maul in hand, while Nuriel was a burly red-haired man with a bushy beard. He was the archangel of the hearth, who most people underestimated. Worse, Baradiel could see hundreds of angels approaching over the tree line behind them.

  “Lord Aelon! You aren’t joining these traitors, are you? This isn’t—” Baradiel began, only to be interrupted when the archangel struck.

  The archangel’s movement was a blur, but Baradiel managed to get his sword up just in time to block the downward swing of Aelon’s claymore. The impact numbed Baradiel’s arms and he kept his grip barely, but was sent flying downward as pain blasted through his arms, then his back where he hit the ground.

  “Sir Baradiel!” several soldiers exclaimed in horror, and for the first time since the assault began, Baradiel saw their unity break. Two descended toward him, three attacked Aelon with expressions of anger, and the other seven retreated toward the wall. Worse, Baradiel couldn’t gather enough breath to tell the attackers to back off.

  Blazing light gathered on Aelon’s body for a moment, then erupted outward in a blinding wave of heat, and screams echoed through the sky for a moment. The three angels fell from the sky as charred corpses, while the two who’d been coming to Baradiel’s aid almost fell, their feathers scorched by the heat. The archangel spun, his claymore flashing as he shattered large parts of the shield, then he paused, looking down arrogantly at Baradiel as he spoke, his voice booming loudly over the battlefield.

  “Traitors? The only traitors here are you and those who’ve held power for so long… and those who’ve taken refuge inside your walls, I suppose,” Aelon said, extending the claymore to point at Baradiel as he smiled. “Your kind have allowed the depredations of demons to continue for too long. For centuries we’ve dealt with the shadows of their evil, but that time is past. The Lord of Light has come, and with our own angelic god we shall purify the heavens once more and destroy demonkind once and for all. For the Golden Dawn!”

  “For the Golden Dawn!” the other attackers echoed Aelon’s shout, making the ground practically rumble under Baradiel, to his horror. He struggled to breathe, gripping his sword with trembling fingers as he started to rise, just as Halith and Nuriel shattered other sections of the shield, though it looked much more difficult for them than it had been for Aelon.

  Three archangels and the starlance were much more than the citadel had been meant to repel, Baradiel knew, especially not after dispatching half the standing garrison to other locations. He was probably going to die, but he took a breath and prepared to die on his feet, glaring up at Aelon as he spat out, “I have no idea what you’re going on about, but you’re insane if even half of what I’ve been told is true! I may fall, but you won’t win this battle!”

  “Oh, really? Well, you can die and we’ll see how your army’s morale crumbles,” Aelon sneered, a barrier of light around him bouncing several arrows away, and he prepared to dive, causing Baradiel’s stomach to involuntarily clench as the two soldiers raised their shields next to him.

  A light flashed, and an instant later there was an explosion outside of the citadel, distracting Aelon and Baradiel for a moment. He looked for only an instant, and gaped as he realized that there was a crater where the starlance had been, and the woman using it was staggering to her feet. The next moment rapid wingbeats echoed across the battlefield, before something hit Aelon and the other archangels, the sound of metal clashing on metal splitting the air.

  Aelon went flying back through the breach as sparks flew from his claymore, the man reeling as he struggled to regain his balance, while Nuriel was simply sent staggering back and Halith struck the ground like a meteor. Baradiel gaped for a moment, looking up in shock.

  “You must be the current archangel of… what was it, glorious war? A misnomer if I’ve ever heard one, considering how brutal war actually is, but who am I to judge? I’m also told that you’ve claimed that your mantle subsumed my own, which is patently false,” Anathiel said, the woman’s wings beating as she smiled at Aelon, her glowing cloudpiercer held in an easy grip. “On the other hand, given all the other falsehoods and betrayals that your organization has perpetrated, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised.”

  Near the archangel were two others, a dwarven man whose armor shone with a dull light, and whose massive double-bladed axe had smashed Nuriel back, and a plain blonde woman in a flowing outfit who’d spun Halith like a discus before sending her flying into the ground. Baradiel vaguely recognized them as deities from reports he’d read but didn’t know much more than that.

  “Anathiel, you’ve joined these traitorous gnats as well? After all the wars you led against the hells, they squandered your successes, and—” Aelon began only to shut up as he hastily blocked when Anathiel lunged forward.

  Her cloudpiercer struck like thunder that echoed across the battlefield, then spun as she used the butt of it to launch him upward, and Anathiel’s voice was calm as she spoke. “Enough talk. I’ve heard quite enough already. Why don’t we take this to the skies, away from those who can’t withstand our battles, hm?”

  “How dare you—argh!” Nuriel bellowed as he was hit by the dwarf again, then a glittering arrow of energy flashed out from the side to slam into his shoulder.

  “It’s not just three gods, they have at least six of them!” Baradiel muttered in shock, looking up as more deities rose from the forest, and an instant later he realized that the unit of dark-armored angels he’d seen coming weren’t reinforcements for the attackers, but people coming to support the citadel. They slammed into the rear lines of the attacking force, causing many of the angels to pivot, but even so, much of the damage had already been done.

  Angels were pouring toward the breach in the wards, even as the human goddess threw Halith into the air, avoiding the blows of the archangel, and Baradiel shook off his shock, downing a healing potion, which sent a surge of warmth through his body.

  As rumbles of weapons striking armor echoed down from the skies above, Baradiel exclaimed, hope rising through him at last, “Everyone, for the Order of the Eagle! For the heavens!”

  He rushed to defend the citadel, hoping that the reinforcements would be enough to help, even if he did wonder what the strange urge to look at the blue-armored reinforcements was coming from.

  Chapter 44

  “That… is surprisingly well hidden,” Rose murmured, and Kitania’s eyebrows rose as she glanced over at her.

  “Oh? What do y
ou mean?” Kitania asked after a moment, since Rose didn’t elaborate.

  The building in front of them looked like a monastery of some kind to her, with a sign she couldn’t read in front of it, and it was built into the side of a mountain. At the moment the doors were closed, which made her worry a bit. If they’d come to the wrong place it would be rather frustrating, especially since they could hear the rumble of what sounded like thunder from the direction of the citadel.

  “Angels aren’t particularly well-known for mining, for some odd reason, and most of our buildings are on the surface for a reason,” Rose explained and nodded toward the doors as she continued. “That is masquerading as a winery and place to rest away from the rigors of the world. It isn’t something particularly common in the heavens, but it’s not unknown.”

  “It also explains why they were able to have plenty of people visit without drawing too much attention… if anything, I’d think they would have trouble with people wanting to visit who weren’t part of their organization,” Isalla added, nodding in agreement.

  Kitania simply exchanged skeptical looks with Vinara. The succubus didn’t look very impressed, which only made sense to Kitania. She thought it was far more likely that the angels had been too self-absorbed to notice the brewing rebellion, but she wasn’t going to annoy Isalla and Rose with a comment like that at this point.

  “Either way, Karakel should be back any minute, once she finds the informant,” Kitania said, simply hunkering down behind the tree to wait.

  Fortunately, they didn’t have to wait long. Shortly, Karakel returned with a plain, nervous looking angelic man with brown hair and eyes, whose clothing was rather drab compared to what Kitania might have expected. His eyes widened at the sight of Kitania and Vinara, but he simply nodded to them rather than saying anything.

  “This is Christopher, our contact here and the one who told us about the hideout,” Karakel said, nodding to them as she added, “Christopher, these are allies of Our Lady, as well as Kitania, her daughter.”

  “Her daughter?” Christopher said, his eyes widening as he focused on Vinara, then Kitania and hesitated. “Err, which one? I’m not entirely sure…”

  “I am,” Kitania said, resisting the urge to smile, then nodded toward the plain entrance as she asked, “Are you sure that this is where the society is headquartered?”

  “Um, well, I can’t say they’re headquartered here, but it seems likely, milady,” Christopher answered nervously, tapping the trunk of a tree as he leaned against it. “What I did see was an archangel heading away from the spot where everything went wrong, along with some others, and I followed them here. Then, about an hour and a half ago, I saw a bunch of angels flee, carrying a bunch of devices that were really heavy, then they were followed by other angels in armor, including some heavily enchanted gear, with a ton of other angels boiling out of there like they were in a panic afterward. And if that wasn’t enough, I just saw a golden light go flying by a couple of minutes before you arrived. I think it came from higher up the mountainside.”

  “Well, that’s good enough for me,” Isalla said, reaching down to her sword hilt and hesitating, then asked, “Do you know if anyone is left inside?”

  “I’m not sure… a lot of people left, more than I would’ve expected to be inside, to be honest,” Christopher replied, looking at the building as he explained. “I haven’t seen anyone, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. If it could hold a few hundred or more people, there could be plenty who just haven’t revealed themselves.”

  “Ugh, I love it when asking a question just raises more,” Isalla murmured, then straightened, looking at Kitania, Rose, and Vinara as she asked, “What do you think?”

  “I think we should bid Christopher farewell and go in,” Rose said immediately. “If there are people there, so be it. I’d be startled if there weren’t, honestly.”

  “Entirely agreed,” Vinara murmured. “Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Besides, we could always retreat if it looks like we’re heading into a meatgrinder.”

  Kitania laughed and nodded, not seeing the need to verbally add her opinion, since it pretty well matched the others. Instead she looked at Christopher and spoke gently. “Thank you for your help. If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t know to come here. That said… I’d suggest heading back home or such. I wouldn’t want you to get dragged into a battle if things go poorly.”

  “Um, thank you, milady. All I did was follow them when they flew overhead… it wasn’t really anything at all,” Christopher replied, his cheeks coloring a little as he cleared his throat, but Kitania interrupted before he could say anything more.

  “That’s where you’re wrong. You put yourself in danger to investigate, and it’d be remiss of me to ignore that. Thank you,” Kitania said firmly, trying to view herself as Estalia’s representative.

  “Well, thank you, milady. Thank you very much,” Chris said, fidgeting, then took a breath and added, “I will go, then… I wish you luck.”

  Kitania smiled and nodded, watching the man leave, then glanced at Karakel as she murmured, “Now then… I assume you don’t have any objections?”

  “Of course not. I’ll just remind you to check all the doorways and halls for spells before traveling down them. Angels tend to prefer setting wards over physical barriers, and I have no idea how extensive they’ll be inside,” Karakel said, glancing at her mage.

  “Is that so? Well, I have just the thing!” Vinara said, grinning as she pulled out her monocle again and put it on. “This will be quite… wait, what is that?”

  “What’s what?” Kitania asked, looking at the succubus, who was staring into mid-air with a dumbstruck expression on her face. Seeing the confusion on Karakel’s face, Kitania explained. “The monocle allows her to detect mana far more easily via sight.”

  “Ah, I see,” Karakel murmured, nodding in understanding.

  “As for what I’m seeing, it’s an incredibly powerful mana stream between somewhere deep in the mountain and… the battlefield, I’m guessing,” Vinara said, frowning slightly as she looked back and forth, concern growing much more visible on her face. “As powerful as it is, it should be practically visible, yet it’s been hidden somehow. That’s… worrying.”

  Kitania blinked, worry welling up inside her, but before she could speak, Isalla did.

  “In that case, I think our mission here just became much more urgent,” the angel said, her determination obvious as she looked around. “If they’re channeling a lot of mana, it can’t be good for the others.”

  “Then we should go,” Rose said, calmly standing up fully and drawing Ember. The blade blazed to life, but the flames were oddly muted, as if they were trying not to give them away, which Kitania found rather odd.

  “Right,” Kitania agreed, shrinking her cloudpiercer to where it was almost a sword, since she didn’t want it to catch on anything.

  They quickly headed for the front door, and as they moved, Kitania hoped that there weren’t too many traps or other things that would slow them down. More importantly, she hoped they wouldn’t run into too much danger, either. If it was a trap… well, that didn’t bode thinking on.

  It’d been more than an hour since the others had left, and aside from those in the room with Haral, the halls of the building were silent. It was eerie, after years of visiting, yet at the same time Haral knew she was probably just imagining things. Even if there had been members of the society living and training here for decades, they’d rarely been loud enough that much noise would reach here, the antechamber to the council chambers.

  Yet at the same time, Haral couldn’t help the nagging feeling that everyone else was missing. It was frustrating to just be sitting here, when her comrades were fighting, and possibly dying, for the future of the heavens.

  “Nervous?” Sorm asked, his voice breaking the silence at last. Some of the others looked at him, almost jumping at the sound, and Haral smiled and shook her head.

  “Nervous? Not really�
�� I’m more anxious. Being left here while everyone else is trying to deal with our enemies… it’s just a little frustrating, honestly,” Haral said, surprised by how calm she felt. “We’ve been working for it for so long, so being sidelined like this is… annoying. Even if it’s an important task.”

  “Entirely fair. You aren’t the only one who’d like to get out there and do something, but… well, it isn’t like we have many other choices. Besides, while this may not be as glamorous, it’s certainly safer. It isn’t like the Order of the Eagle will go down without a fight, and I’m sure a battle with the Order of the Phoenix will come soon enough,” Sorm said, letting out a soft sigh as he shook his head unhappily. “I wish they’d come to their senses, but you know that won’t happen.”

  “I suppose that’s true,” Haral said, letting out a soft sigh as she considered, then asked, “Do you think it’s going well?”

  “Honestly? I have no idea, but I also know that the security in most of the order strongholds doesn’t tend to be that good. They’ve never been attacked, and that makes people lax,” Sorm said, considering for a moment, then shrugged. “In any case, unless Yimael has some sort of secret weapon, which she may, they’ll probably have to wait for one of the archangels to arrive. Once they do, though… that’ll be it for them.”

  “Good. The sooner this is over, the better,” Haral murmured, and the others voiced their agreement as well. That made her happier, since at least Sorm knew the other guards reasonably well.

  Being accepted was a nice change of pace.

  The building was virtually silent, and it worried Kitania, making her thankful she’d already cast her defensive spells. No guards or servants were roaming the facility, and it was much larger than any simple winery, either. Vinara had disabled several wards designed to detect or attack intruders so far, and Kitania was sure she’d disable more in the future.