Confrontation

Helena looked across the rooftops towards the cathedral, doing her best not to try to inspect the spell the Adena was using to conceal them.  It would be rude.  Also she might miss the time to strike.

“We do have something to keep me from being knocked out by those bells, right?” Camila asked.  She wasn’t moving much but Helena could feel the nervous energy from her friend.

“A silence spell should work,” Helena replied.  “And if not, well… they can afford to replace the bells.”

The Adena frowned.  “Casting that spell will still distract me from my primary work.  Best if we not use it.”  He idly tossed and caught an arrow with a jade head in his left hand.  “I wish we could seal this land away from the waking world.  But that would require more magicians to help.”

“And it might not hold against the cathedral’s blessings,” Helena said.  “Your fortress breaking arrow will do the trick.  No amount of blessings or truesilver will save the fake angel then.”  Probably.  She was starting to get the sense that the Adena didn’t have as much raw power as she did.  But his skill was probably enough to make the difference.

“Still not sure why you can’t do it in the chapel,” Camila muttered.  “Double teaming is good. Triple teaming would be better.”

The Adena raised an eyebrow at Helena, and she shrugged in return.  It’s not like she’d had enough time to go over all the rules of magic to the jiang-shi yet.  Much less work through their blatant contradictions.

The man decided to explain.  “I need focus to prepare a spell of that magnitude.  If I had to dodge a sword strike I’d lose all that power.  In fact, even if I do not need to silence the bells, you will have to contain the creature for three minutes.”

“Oh good.  It’s an anime charging thing,” Camila said.  “So, we just have to fight it for three minutes huh?”

“And beat it if they decide to hold their ground instead of run.”  Helena said.  “I called it a siege spell for a reason.  It would blow up most of the main chapel if we used it against a ground target.  Which would kill a lot of innocent people.”

Camila nodded slowly.  “Alright then.  Three minutes before they can run.  Got it.”

Helena squeezed her friend’s shoulder.  “You ready for this?”

“Oh yeah.”  Helena’s worry cleared out at the angry glint in Camila’s eye.  “We’ve got a lot of payback for these bastards.”

“Right.”  They all turned back to the square between the mosque and the cathedral.  Soon the players in this farce would start to move.

Fifteen minutes later a shining angel flew from the tower of the mosque to the bell tower of the cathedral.  “One minute,” Helena said.

“Wait two,” the Adena said.  Helena gave him a look.  “You are hasty.  Nezaiel is slow.”

Helena hissed in annoyance, but the man was right.  Camila hopped restlessly next to her as the seconds ticked down.  Finally she hopped down.  “Finally,” she muttered as she walked towards the cathedral’s doors.  It was time to end this.

“This going to hurt like last time?” Camila asked lightly as they strode across the cobbled streets.

“Slightly less,” Helena replied.  “But you’ll be weakened until they show their true colors.  Stay sharp.”

She reached the doors and threw them open, the locks snapping with a sharp crack.  She resisted the urge to let the heavy metal doors slam into the walls.  They still likely had the element of surprise.

Stepping into the cathedral was like walking into an oven.  She was not wanted here.  Her existence was an affront to the god of this temple.  But this time Helena didn’t care.  She was here, and if anyone had a problem with it, they could fight her here and now!

Camila hissed in pain as she hopped in behind Helena, but the jiang shi didn’t falter either.  They were both committed to this battle, which meant neither of them was holding back.  Their presence was very slowly desecrating the building.  Nothing that would likely stick, but the local priests would probably notice.  If it weren’t for the fact that they were busy lying to a real angel.

Helena considered a stealthy entrance to the main hall.  It might be fun to time her grand entrance to an appropriate part of the theological argument that was probably starting.  But the Adena would be charging his spell soon and that would draw attention.  She needed to start the fight now.  She settled for opening the chapel doors normally instead of kicking them down.

The three figures within all turned as she entered.  Somehow Helena was surprised that she recognized them all.  Bishop Thomas stood in front of the altar, the giant crucifix hanging behind him.  Nezaiel stood at the bottom of the altar steps, almost as if he were a parishioner, though the light in the chapel seemed to bend to magnify his presence.  And to the side Father Peter cringed.  Strange.  Helena was sure the man had more spine than that.

“Kinda disappointed in you, your grace,” Camila said sharply as she hopped into the church.  “Coulda at least insulted me to my face instead of lying.”

“Don’t you dare judge me whore.”  The words were harsh but the Bishop’s tone was even.  A perfect madman.  “If you believed in the Lord you would have accepted his salvation.  Instead you chose to stay damned.  Your death will be a mercy.”

Nezaiel slowly opened his wings and sighed.  “I’d hoped it wouldn’t come to this.  Please, Thomas, this isn’t what God wants.  You know this in your soul.  Believe in the words of the Prophet of Mercy.”

“Bishop, perhaps we should reconsider.  Nezaiel is an angel,” Father Peter managed to say.

“I serve Jesus Christ the Son of God!” screamed the Bishop.  “Not some angel spewing the false prophecies of the infidels!”  Helena casually walked forwards as the man ranted.  “You invited a servant of the adversary to walk in our hallowed grounds, made deals with the witches and the damned!  Well I shall follow the spirit of God!  I will purge the unrighteous from this world.”

Helena summoned up a paralyzation curse and wrapped it in a bullet.  “I’ll take that as a sign to start the violence.  Don’t worry, this will just knock you out until the police come.”

She flung the curse dart at the priest, but he cried out a prayer in Hebrew and the spell shattered.  She smirked.  “Not bad for a half trained Kabbalist.  But I have to wonder why a priest relies on magic before faith.”

“Another do as I command, not as I do asshole, eh?” Camila said.

“Please let me handle this,” Nezaiel said quietly.  “There’s still a chance.”

They were nearly at the altar now.  The Bishop was glaring at them with naked hatred.  Everything was almost ready, but the final piece hadn’t been brought out.  So Helena shrugged.  “Sure, fine.  You can try to save his miserable life from his own stupidity.”

As expected the Bishop turned crimson with rage.  “Bride of Satan, my life is in no danger, because a true messenger of God is here!  Behold!”

Helena forced herself not to blink as the floor exploded.  Fragments of stone bounced off her wards as a towering figure of light flew into the air.  Nezaiel stepped forwards, the shrapnel curving around him.  “Bishop Thomas.  This is not the path God chose for you.  How can you know who should live and who should die?  Do you really believe you have perfect knowledge of God’s plan?  Abandon this heresy!”

Camila hopped in front of Helena.  “Think this is good enough evidence for the inspector?”

“It will be soon,” Helena said quietly.

“We shall see who the true heretic is!” the Bishop yelled, ignoring the cut on his cheek from the flying stone.  “Slay them!”

The false angel beat its wings once, rising into the air.  With a rush it swooped towards them and Camila moved up to meet it.

Then blood and feathers rained down.

Nezaiel hovered in the air, gripping the sword that pierced his side in a futile attempt to stop the violence.  Blood like liquid gold dripped upon the floor of the cathedral, staining the white marble black with sin.  “Father forgive us,” moaned Peter over and over in the background as the real and the false angel faced off.

Then the true angel slumped.  The shining horror pulled out its sword and raised it high, when Camila slammed into it with both feet.  “Like hell!” she yelled as the kick threw the fake angel into the candelabras to the altar’s side.

“Fool!” Thomas yelled at Peter.  “Get to the bells!”  But the priest instead stumbled to the angel’s side.

Helena stepped forward.  The black stain was spreading, not just on the floor, but through the spirit of the whole cathedral.  “Well now you’ve screwed up haven’t you?”  The Bishop turned his mad gaze to her.  “If you had just let it be, or run away, you’d have been fine.  The blessings here weaken my magic.  But now you’ve spilled angel blood.”

The pressure on her faded away.  “You’ve gone and desecrated the entire sanctuary.”  As the false angel leaped towards her, she opened herself up to her hidden power, more than she had in a dozen years.  “And now… it’s mine.”

Time seemed to freeze as her essence flowed out of her throughout the temple.  There were dozens of tiny blessings here and there, but the horrible desecration, the terrible curse of spilled holy blood shattered them all.  Miasma roiled and spread around her, bringing the tiniest fragment of her consciousness with it.

What qualified as a god was a strange thing.  In the Realms of Illusion, she was a goddess.  In the Hellenic Realms, she was something between a demigod and a hero.  And here?  Here she would have been just another person.  At least, that’s what she would have been before she gained immortality.

Before she demanded that all reality accept her as Helena, Goddess of Curses.

And here, on this cursed ground, she claimed a temple.  She had no followers.  There were no rituals in her name.  The closest thing to a priestess was one of her best friends.  But here there was a curse like no other.  The curse of blasphemy and hatred.  A curse that banished the light of this chapel’s god.

And that meant it was hers to take!

The rush was amazing.  Shadows filled the hall, the stained glass turning dark and moody.  Candles flickered in the wind, half of them blowing out, the other half falling to light small fires.  To the side a statue of Mary wept blood.  The doors all locked, resisting any attempt to flee.  And the awe and terror of all within fed her.

She snapped her fingers and a wave of dark power slammed into the false angel flying at her.  It tore the radiance from its body, sending it into the choir seats.  Wood shattered beneath its shining figure.

It was still beautiful somehow.  Its silver body glimmered as the flickering light struck it.  It had four wings, every feather a work of art, and its body was sculpted perfectly.  Whatever magic animated it hid the gears moving it from view.  Only the strange balls at its joints gave away that it wasn’t a real creature.

“What have you done?!” the fallen Bishop whispered in horror.

Helena laughed.  “I just took over an empty building.  You should be angry at yourself.”

“You done acting like the wicked witch of the west?” Camila asked as she moved from Nezaiel’s side.

“No,” Helena replied.  “But I’m afraid I’ve only given myself unlimited endurance not unlimited power, so if you could kill the fake angel I’d be thankful.”

Camila stretched and her joints popped as she activated her magical reserves.  “Sure thing.”  She spared Peter a glance.  “You should get Nezaiel out of the way.”  Then she leaped at the construct.  The silver angel swung its sword in a deadly arc, and Camila ducked under it and swept its legs.

Helena turned her attention back to Bishop Thomas.  “Are you ready to surrender now?”

He held up his cross, eyes burning in madness.  “Never!  I will strike you down, defiler!”

Lightning crackled from the cross.  Helena threw a nail to the side, and the electricity arced away from her.  “Good.  Now I can kill you,” she said as she stepped past the last pews.

Thomas responded with a blast of light from the cross.  Helena flew to the side, letting the beam tear up the stone.  He was throwing around a surprising amount of power for a dabbler.  Maybe she should be cautious.  “You have that construct handled?” she asked Camila.

The jiang-shi woman flipped over a sword swing and kicked the fake angel in the head.  “Doing fine.  The demon was harder,” Camila said.

“You won’t be as arrogant once your friend’s pride makes it complete,” the Bishop replied, sending another bolt of lightning towards Helena.

She conjured up a shield of electricity before returning a paralyzation bullet.  The man blocked it with his cross and the curse shattered.  This was far beyond a normal dabbler.  Did he still have his powers as a priest?  That seemed unlikely, since he’d stabbed an angel.

A blast of light forced her to duck.  That was definitely kabbalistic, but he should have had to spend at least a minute chanting to do it.  “This is bullshit,” she muttered as she conjured up a cholera curse and flung it at the man.

The dark bullet shattered against his cross again.  Annoying.  “Your magic can’t harm a true servant of God!” he yelled.

A massive crash tore through the chamber as the false angel smashed the pulpit to get to Camila.  The jiang-shi cried out in pain as the sword grazed her, but the wound wouldn’t slow her at all.

Helena forced herself to focus on her own fight.  The counters to her spells looked like divine power, but the attacks the man had been using seemed more like ritual magic.  She slapped away another lightning bolt from the cross and nodded.  “Ah so that’s how you’re doing this.  Almost clever.  Not very faithful though.”

“I’m not interested in your opinions,” the man said as he unleashed a ray of light at her.  She had to leap into the air to avoid the sweeping beam.

“You used a holy relic to store spells,” she continued.  “Attack and defense all in one, at least until you run out of stored attack spells.”

“That will be a while witch,” he replied, adding a lightning bolt as punctuation.

Helena casually snuffed the spell.  “Almost clever, but you might have been better off focusing on your own faith.  Or your magic.”  She rushed in and wrenched the cross out of his grasp.  It tried to burn her, but she crushed the gold relic and cast the ruined mess aside.  “I can’t do that to faith.”

He drew a knife so she strengthened her body and caught his arm as he stabbed at her.  “And now you lose,” she said.  He screamed as she broke his wrist, and the knife clattered to the floor.  “Seems your pride was more misplaced than mine.”

The man fell to his knees but managed to glare at her.  “Pride?” he snarled through his pain.  “Is it pride to wish for a city where the people of faith are not surrounded by sin?  Where literal demons don’t corrupt the weak in the middle of the street?  Where God is given his due?  Well then if this is Pride I am proud to accept it!”

“Look out!”

Helena leaped away at Camila’s warning.  The fake angel rushed towards her sword swinging.  Blood splattered on her.

And glowing Hebrew runes surrounded the angel construct as Bishop Thomas fell to the ground, sliced right through.

Power filled the room, snuffing the smaller fires, and hitting Helena like a slap.  The silver angel spread its wings and presented its sword.  It was a different power.  Not blindingly holy.  But it was complete.  The final construct of a madman.  And unlike the demon this would be no easy win.

Helena let herself hover back over the first row of pews.  “Well at least we’ll end this with a proper fight instead of an anticlimax.”

Camila floated between her and the awakened angel.  “I kinda wanted the anticlimax.  Woulda been something different.”