When she doesn’t respond, or show, a sinking feeling begins to set in. Dashing out of the room, I round the corner to the portal and the pure level of gore and carnage sprawled out before me is soul shattering.
Dozens of angels have been torn to pieces. There’s gore and blood spattered down the entire hall, with almost a river of blood at my feet as I try to make my way to Michael. Walking through, something grabs my leg.
Looking down in horror, one of the angels that’s torn in half is holding onto my ankle, trying to ask for help, but all that comes out is a bloody gurgle as he dies still gripping me. Shaking off his hand I move toward the portal, stepping over and slipping on chunks of angel flesh.
“How did this happen? Where are the Sentries?!” Michael shouts at another angel.
“Sir, it seems that Rathor, with a few Knights, killed the posted guards, which allowed them to get past the gate and access the portal. He was then able to open the portal and keep it ajar as the Knights snuck in and kidnapped fifteen angels and one Lycan. We sent as many angels aswe could through the portal to catch them and recover our comrades,” the angel reports back.
Hearing this my fear is realized and immediately I know that they took Frida. Running forward toward the portal I’m stopped dead in my tracks when Uriel plummets from the sky and slams to the ground just in front of me.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he snaps with an irritated tone.
“I’m going to do what you’re too afraid to do. I’m going to get Frida back,” I snap as I push past him. I feel a crushing pain in my shoulder as Uriel grabs me and throws me back down the corridor, and I slam into the wall.
“You’re not going anywhere unless I allow it,” he shouts.
“Uriel!” Michael yells, “Do what you have been commanded to do. Get them back… NOW!!!” he snaps. Grumbling Uriel complies and passes through the portal. “Evander, go with him and report back to me,” he shouts at me as I collect myself.
As I run past him for the portal we make eye contact and I nod at him silently, saying thank you. Emerging from the vortex I’m back at Purgatory and what I bear witness to is a slaughter.
Hundreds of thousands of demons litter the valley rushing toward Uriel and me. Every angel that was sent ahead of us walked right into a massacre. Screams ring out as hundreds of them are being ripped apart and eaten alive.
Looking past the horde I catch a glimpse of Frida’s long fiery hair as she’s carried away by a seven-foot-tall beastly man, wearing a black leather and fur spiked vest, accompanied by a sinister pale, petite woman with bat-like wings anda pair of twisted horns protruding through her smoke colored hair.
Then I spot it, his right arm is black embedded with dark red shards.
“Frida!” I scream with everything in my being and it turns into a roar that shakes all of Purgatory as I shift. The burly man turns and I notice the long jagged scar across his chest as a grin crosses his face, and they disappear into the fiery portal.
Uriel commands the retreat for the remaining angels. As he passes me I yell.
“You fucking coward.” Before being swept back into the portal by the angels clamoring to return to safety and not fall victim to the onslaught.
Falling to the ground, landing back in the blood and gore in Heaven, Michael reaches down and helps me to my feet.
“What happened, why are you back so soon?” he asks.
“Ugh, it was an ambush, the angels and Frida have been taken to Hell,” I reply, shifting back.
Michael looks up at the remaining angels coming through and is baffled by how few there are. “Follow me,” he replies just as Uriel appears. “You as well. Go to the counsel room.”
I rush down the corridors, past the infirmary, crossing the training ground and down the hall to the conference room. I’m greeted by all the Archangels waiting for me.
“What happened?” Gabriel shouts at me as I enter.
Taking my seat, I explain. “When I crossed into Purgatory there was a massive horde of demons tearing the angels to pieces.”
“How big was this so-called horde?” Gabriel asks.
“We were looking at probably three-hundred-thousanddemons with Beelzebub commanding them,” Uriel replies with defeat in his voice.
“Beelzebub, that’s impossible. I thought we killed him a millennia ago,” Gabriel snaps, jumping to his feet.
“He is very much alive and not only that, I confirmed that it was Rathor and Lilith that caused the carnage here in Heaven and that they kidnapped the angels and Frida. They plan on torturing them for information,” Uriel continued.
“We need to rally our forces and get them back now!” I shout. I am over this.
“Evander, calm down, I know you want to get Frida back, but you need to look at it from a strategic point of view. How many lives would it cost for us to even get to them?” Michael retorts.
