Some context on this story... it's set in a game world I was writing for, and is the end of a long quest chain involving two angels, one of whom is evil and has been leading the player along in a scheme to topple the empire of one of the Lucifii princes of Hell. I don't *think* I need to explain much, other than the fact that these two characters used to be close friends until one Fell.
Story takes place in an arena in the depths of Hell, after the player goes through a portal. The confrontation of the angels is playing out in the background as you fight through swarms of demons, and it's all pretty epic.
Fair warning, given that the protagonist is a fallen angel corrupted by the archdemon of lust this will be a little suggestive at points. It felt pretty awkward to write it as I generally try to stay away from that stuff, but it's kind of a central plot point here.
Fallen
"Is this how it ends, sister?"
"You lost the right to call me sister years ago."
Serria flexed her dark wings and gazed sorrowfully at Hannah. The angel, once her closest friend, now her deadliest enemy. Both had much in common - tall, ethereally beautiful, clad in massive suits of plated armour. Serria's wings, blackest night. Her foe's, pure white. She was so very, very out of place here in Hell, in this demonic arena. Rivers of lava ran through the area, huge structures of obsidian housing demons who had obeyed the fallen angel's summons and now guarded the field of combat. None were to interfere. None were to bear witness to the shattering of bonds.
Serria brushed a lock of midnight hair away from her eyes and hefted her sword, crackling with streaks of hellfire. In response, Hannah settled into a guard position, her golden greatsword ready to parry and counterattack in a style the fallen angel knew well.
"How has it come to this?" she asked.
"You know very well," Hannah hissed.
Yes. I do.
*
Serria whirled around, decapitating a cultist in a storm of pure angelic wrath. The corpse fell, soul sucked away to the nether reaches.
Hannah dove down, slamming into the ground and creating a shockwave which sundered the door. From aerial observation earlier, the building that housed the demonic cult had two passageways, each leading to the circular room that must house the leader. Inside, the foul stench of human copulation assailed their nostrils.
"Lust cults," Hannah spat. "Lilith has much to answer for."
"We should split up," Serria suggested. "Each take one passageway, ensure that there can be no surprises when we confront the leader."
Her friend nodded. "I'll take left, you go right?"
"Done."
They parted ways, each confident in the other's ability to take on any threat. Serria raised her sword, and it erupted into flames, golden, pure fire to purge away the sin. She folded her wings in the narrow corridor and strode forward, her blessed plate armour echoing as it crashed together. She strode forward, effortlessly batting away two cultists that charged at her, brandishing a knife. The broken corpses slammed into the wall before collapsing on the ground at odd angles.
Onward. There was no more resistance - apparently, they had gone to defend the left passage from Hannah. Briefly, Serria considered waiting for the other angel before assaulting the main room, but cast the thought aside. This was one of many lust cults that had sprung up in the wake of Lilith's machinations, and was smaller than most. There was almost no danger.
Serria raised her blade, willing the fire to purge the room. Wave upon wave of inferno sprayed out, bathing the circular room in holy fire. Once the blaze subsided, she strode forward.
A blast of dark energy slammed into her, sending her staggering back. Regaining her balance on the wall, Serria directed her furious gaze towards the warlock. He held a bloody knife, a half-naked female dead before him with a slashed throat. The haemomancer again called forth a blood bolt, but she deflected it, spread her wings, and swooped towards him. He cried out in fear, dropping the knife and attempting to call forth his powers.
He never got the chance. The angel blade carved into him, tearing him from throat to navel. Blood sprayed out, splattering across the makeshift altar. Serria landed, wings folding behind her. The angel's gaze swept around the room, searching for survivors.
She found three cultists, one male, two female, who had apparently been… interrupted. The lewd sight disgusted her, and she raised her sword, fire again crackling across its length. It swept forward, incinerating flesh. The humans screamed as they died.
Yet she shivered, for in those screams there was yet the hint of pleasure.
Depraved, sinful, weak. Serria was glad she was not mortal.
Hannah finally emerged, covered in the blood of her victims. She raised an eyebrow to her friend.
"Cleared out," Serria stated.
"Well done. How many is that now?"
She counted in her head. "Eleven. There are only three more cults, if our reports are correct."
Hannah nodded. "We should move on, then." She turned and walked gracefully towards the outside. A mirror captured both angels, and Serria noted wryly that they were far more beautiful than any human in a pleasure cult. Pride, perhaps, but certainly justified. She tossed her midnight hair, the dark-blue locks falling behind her before she, too, strode out of the polluted building.
Cleansed by fire. One more outpost of Hell purged.
*
"The adventurers are here," Serria noted, disengaging from the embrace of Hannah's blade and flying above the rocky outcrop. They were cutting through the guards at an alarming rate.
"Come to watch a traitor die?" the other growled, and beat her wings forcefully, sending her rocketing higher towards Serria. She dived out of the way, lashing out with the hell-blade as she did so. It skidded off Hannah's armour in a shower of sparks. The retaliatory strike of the greatsword crunched home sickeningly, denting the chaotic plate of the fallen angel. She tumbled in the air, regaining balance some distance away.
Serria took a deep, shuddering breath, trying to calm both her nerves and her mind. The moisture in her eye was but exertion and the acrid stink of sulphur, nothing more. Memories flashed in her brain as she prepared to resume the fight.
*
"Shall I take first watch?" Hannah offered. Inspecting the bruise from where the warlock's blood bolt had struck her that day, Serria shrugged.
"If you want. I'd welcome the trance."
"He hurt you," Hannah frowned. The other angel grinned.
"Barely. And he didn't live long enough to brag of the fact."
"Be a bit more careful next time, sister. You aren't immortal, mortal plane or not," Hannah replied, rolling her eyes. "It'd be much lonelier without you here."
"I'm glad you see me that way - a relief for boredom." Serria laughed, the notes crisp and chiming. "To a few hours, then."
Hannah nodded, trying not to smile.
Serria sat, focusing inwards to begin the trance. Her eyes fluttered shut, her body slowed down, restoring itself and rejuvenating her mana. Visions filled her mind, the tranquillity of Heaven pulling her away from the horrors of the mortal realm.
Her mind wandered, and somehow returned to the mortal world. No, not exactly - her memories. The cultists. The lascivious acts, the sin. Serria could only watch, unable to look away. It froze to a stillshot at the height of the depraved acts.
Mortal. SIN.
A gentle hand pulled Serria away from the trance. She opened her eyes, displaced for a moment before focus returned. Hannah was looking down, concerned.
"You seem ill at-ease," she said. Serria shook her head.
"It is nothing," she replied, wishing she could convince herself of that. "This world burns me. I shall watch, now."
Hannah couldn't understand. She had not seen the foul Sin. No, the only way to rid herself of these dark images was to reflect inwards.
She took up the watch, vigilant against that without and that within.
*
Three blows in as many seconds. Serria defended against Hannah's furious assault, unwilling to strike back.
"Why did you come here, Hannah?" she snarled. "Why would you insist on changing what should just be left alone?"
"I was your companion, once," the angel intoned, stoic but for a quiver on the last word. Oh, sister… "It is on my head the responsibility falls."
"Why must it be this way?" Serria found her voice cracking. She kicked into Hannah's chest, jumping away with a wingbeat.
"Things are determined."
Those words resounded, and the reverie stirred.
*
Haggard, Serria awoke, chest heaving, acutely aware of her vessel and every part of it… every curve, every burning nerve… enough! She had been tainted by this world.
Heaven would cleanse her, after this one remaining cult was dealt with. Something dark had stirred within Serria, and the stench, the sight, every sensation fired off emotions within her that she had never felt before. Hannah sensed something, she was sure, but there was nothing to do… the turmoil was hers alone.
Outside the cave the two angels had sheltered, rain fell in a relentless downpour. Hannah still tranced, secure from any attack here. Serria watched, noticing for the first time the sheer beauty of her companion. Hair, lustrous and golden, eyes that glittered with humour, a full form that made Serria ache.
No. This was wrong, sinful. She was her friend, her companion. Anything more did not bear thinking about. In desperation, Serria closed her eyes, afraid to return to trance but more frightened about what she might do if she did not. With terrifying swiftness, the dream-state claimed her.
Again, she returned to that elaborate room, but the scene had changed. The copulating humans that had tormented her before were gone, ashes burnt from Serria's blade. Hannah was there, just entered. The scene froze, and Serria found herself paralysed.
Footsteps behind Serria. She tried to turn, found she could not. The presence closed behind her, two graceful arms wrapped around her waist, soft breath in her ear. The angel's breath caught in her throat, her heart beating faster. The touch of the hands seemed to set her on fire.
"Do you love her?" a voice, soft yet seductive, whispered.
"She is my sister, my companion, my closest friend," Serria replied.
"That was not the question."
"Love is a product of lust. Sin leads to chaos and the ruin of all we hold dear."
"Is that what you think?" the voice sneered, and pulled away. Serria's heart lurched as the hands left her, leaving a void in their wake. "You have shared so many experiences with her. Why not share… something else?" The tone left no doubt as to what this 'something' was.
"I will not be corrupted by these thoughts!" Serria howled. "I walk the path of the righteous."
"For now," the voice murmured. The trance faded away.
*
White light enveloped Serria, a searing pain that tore through her. She screeched and struck back, a nova of darkness erupting. She realised, too late, that there was no way Hannah could avoid it.
The angel stopped dead when struck, paralysed by the blast. She dropped, falling, the lava looming ever closer. Horrified, Serria folded her wings and dove, catching her foe mere metres from a fiery death. Struggling from the exertion, she hauled them both over to the centre of the rocky arena, setting Hannah down carefully.
Seconds later, the angel recovered, and summoned back her greatsword.
"You still would do that?" she rumbled. "It was a mistake. One of us dies this day, Serria."
"Leave, now," the fallen angel begged. "It doesn't have to end."
"Everything ends someday. Why not today…"
They clashed again, blades skittering off each other with a screech. Serria glanced up - the persistent adventurers still fought onwards.
I would have traded my life for yours any instant, sister. And now it has come to this. Yet still Serria did not strike back.
*
Gasping for breath. Pain. Everything. Serria crawled on her hands and knees towards the water. Would that this quest were over! The dreams were getting worse, more lecherous… the voice promised so much, brought her to the edge, and receded just as quickly… the angel awoke in sweat, horribly aroused, unable to purge away the impurities.
Her reflection sickened her. Serria's eyes were bloodshot, and rimmed with deep purple bags. Her peach-coloured skin had withered to a pallid grey, and her glowing white eyes had lost all radiance. She had worn her helmet, so as not to let Hannah see the changes… but she was getting suspicious.
Fire. Fire cleanses everything. Serria raised her shaking hand and pointed at the grass. The flames flowed, but weakly, her waning power just another consequence of the torment of her nightmares.
Inexorably, the flame scorched the earth, growing to a blazing inferno. Serria willed away her armour, leaving just the skintight black bodysuit underneath, and stepped into the flames.
The pain was a relief. Serria's bodysuit flared, melted and burned, sloughing off her skin and leaving red burns. The fire scorched her despite her resistance to it, but still the corruption within remained. She fell to her knees screaming frustration, naked as a newborn.
Wings swooping sounded at the edge of her hearing. The fires extinguished.
"What are you doing, Serria?" Hannah ordered. "Have you gone mad?" Concern was evident in her voice.
"Have I?" she asked bitterly. Her companion knelt down next to her, took her hand. She felt so close, Hannah's armour replaced by a white robe. Serria felt the fullness of her figure pressed against her, and the foul sinful thoughts rose again. No, not now…
"I've never seen you this…" Hannah searched for a word, apparently struggling to find one to accurately describe Serria's broken state. "This… harrowed!"
"I cannot rest, sister," Serria moaned, forcing away her lust, ignoring the soft skin, gently sweet breath, the aching curves… no! "This world… it burns me. What we have seen sickens me, disgusts me."
Does it truly? You say that, but all you want to do is to feel those lips on yours… you know your dreams. That ache you feel, deep in the core…
A single tear escaped her eyes. Hannah caught it, her soft hands stroking the other angel's cheek. It burned. Serria's heart pounded harder.
"Should we return to Heaven?" she suggested softly. Serria shook her head vehemently.
"I will not return a failure. Tomorrow, we can destroy the last cult and then turn to my… condition." There is an easy way to fix that… Hannah moved away, light suffusing her fingers. A white robe covered her companion's nakedness, hiding any signs of arousal. With great force of will, Serria pushed the feelings away.
"I will not overlook this," Hannah said gravely. "Whatever horrors haunt you, I will do anything to help, sister."
Anything? That word, so innocent in context, sounded like the most erotic promise through the angel's twisted brain. She forced a smile.
"I know."
*
The fire went out. Serria's sword fell from her grasp, and her eyes followed it, widening with shock.
"You have lost," Hannah's voice rumbled.
"Then finish it," Serria spat. "Finish it, you righteous *****! Do what you came here for!"
"Do you wish for this?" the angel asked, faltering her advance. Serria gritted her teeth.
"I am afraid, sister. Do you remember, all those years ago?..."
Hannah's eye twitched. She did.
"I begged you to kill me. I begged you! And. You. Failed. Now, I have fallen too far. There will be no absolution in death. I am… damned. Forever."
*
"She said… anything," the voice of the dreams whispered. "Do you need more proof?"
Serria screamed silently, arching her back from the sensations assailing her. Fingers, touching places, exciting illicit feelings angels were not meant to feel. So close- so close-
The fingers stopped, pulled back, leaving her writing on the edge of release. Wrong and right melted away… all that was left was desire, sensation. Serria whined pleadingly, and the voice laughed softly.
"You have abstained for so very, very long," it purred, and the hands rubbed at her shoulders just above the wings, pulling at tensed muscles. Her own exertions left a sheen upon her skin where the hands massaged her. Paralysed as she was, Serria could not move at all, or she would turn to behold her tormentor.
"Be released," the voice whispered, sultry and beguiling with promises and fantasies.
Serria awoke.
Hannah stood guard, vigilant as ever, the watches resuming as the angels drew closer to the last of Lilith's cults. She turned as she heard her companion stirring.
"You are early," she frowned.
"I'll take over," Serria gasped, sensitive everywhere. Each touch of the cool stone, even the slightest wind, sent shivers of pleasure racing through her. Hannah shrugged.
"If you wish, but be wary, sister. You are weak."
Her armour shimmered and vanished to the ethereal realm, and Serria's eyes drank in the sight of her companion clad only in the under-armour bodysuit all angels wore.
She could not restrain herself any longer. With a speed that belied her weakness, she rose, wings beating to catapult her towards the other angel. Shocked, Hannah reacted too slowly as Serria crashed into her, knocking them both to the ground. She forced herself closer, locking lips in a kiss passionate as it was one-sided, unreciprocated. The touch of their bodies nearly set her off into a writhing mess of pleasure, so sensitive she was.
Strong arms wrapped around her, hurled her away. Serria slid across the stone, crashing into the wall, the impact painful enough to cut through the fog that clouded her mind. No, no, what have I done-
"What has possessed you, Serria?!" Hannah howled, the armour rematerializing. "What are you doing, you blind fool!"
It is too late. Tears streamed down Serria's cheeks as one of the feathers from her wings fell off. It had darkened, was now a charcoal grey. She knew the glow of her eyes now reflected the same colour. Is this what Falling feels like?
I cannot Fall. I cannot bear the shame.
She looked up at Hannah, and reality came crashing back to her. She had been a grand fool, too weak to resist the sin of Lust. The dreams felt closer to reality than the world.
Her wings were darkening by the second, drawing her closer to the grasp of Hell.
"End this nightmare, Hannah!" she pleaded. "Kill me, now! Do not them take me!"
"Serria-"
"KILL ME!"
With a wracking sob, Hannah's greatsword appeared in her hand, its light paled from the sorrow of its actions. "Sister, please," she murmured, voice thick with emotion. "Do not-"
"NOW!" Serria howled. The corruption had reached her heart, this last lustful act enough to cast out the light.
Hannah raised the blade. Head bowed, Serria heard the whistle through the air.
And felt nothing. She opened her eyes, now black as the void, and looked up at Hannah, who had stopped the sword inches from her neck. The angel's radiant eyes burned sorrow from tear-stained cheeks.
Serria opened her mouth to speak - but it was over. The voice laughed in her ears, and fire, hellfire, not the pure fire of purgatory, erupted in a circle around her. The shadow seized her, and Serria was dragged down, screaming, screaming into the abyss.
She landed on obsidian. Red surrounded her, the reaches of Hell claiming her at last.
"Welcome to the fold," the voice purred. Serria turned, and found the demon she knew deep down had always been in her head.
The Archdemon of Lust was perfect beyond reckoning, stirring all the feelings that had been cut away. The desire returned as Lilith stepped towards her on legs impossibly long and impossibly perfect.
"I will never serve you-" Serria began, but the demon hushed her and knelt in front of the fallen angel.
"It's all right now," she murmured, caressing Serria's face with a touch that stole her mind, and especially her body. "You're home…"
*
"I could never kill you, Serria."
The fallen angel gazed upwards at Hannah's words.
"Not then, and not now. I cannot kill who I would give my life for."
Serria closed her eyes. The tears returned, after so long. "This was not how it was meant to end."
"We cannot remain, Serria. Wrath is just as great a sin as Lust."
"Yes," she agreed. "It is."
The tears flowed freely, now, as her blade materialised and in the same instant, drove upwards, cutting through Hannah's armour like air. The angel staggered back, wrenching the blade out of Serria's hands as she gazed down at the hellforged steel embedded in her heart.
A perfect circle.
"I am as you said, Hannah," she sobbed. "Nothing now but Lilith's harlot. I was never free." The moment stopped. The surroundings faded from her vision, and all she could focus on was the angel. Her wings fluttered weakly, slowing down, falling into oblivion.
Hannah looked at her, whispered. "I know."
The angel's eyes faded as she fell to the ground, wings splayed behind her as the light leaked out. Serria knelt before the lifeless form and drew out the blade before casting it in the lava.
"I am so, so sorry," she murmured. "Be free, my sister. May the nether winds carry you to the life beyond."
She turned, walked away, not daring to look back. Her tears stained her cheeks, diamond rivulets through shattered hope. The adventurers fanned out behind her, calling out as Serria left. She clenched her eyes shut, ignoring their calls and demands to return.
It was ironic, in a way; though it had been Hannah who had been impaled by the blade, Serria was the one who felt as if her heart had been torn out.
Quick Comment
You need to log in before commenting.
[-] Collapse All Comments