I turned my attention to the torrential flood of power. The rope had disappeared underneath the blazing glory that was the power of millions of souls.
As we linked hands again, Joel took over the direction of the flow. "It's too much," he called out. "Michael, Gabriel, I need you!"
Luc and I jumped to the side and Michael and Gabe put their hands on Joel's shoulders. "We'll help you guide it," Gabe said.
I wished I could help, but I couldn't imagine how they were going to do this.
As it turned out, because of the connection, I was able to see it happen.
And it was glorious.
Joel cast a net of his own, but it went far beyond what we'd done to harness the soul power. It was more like an immense ward than a net. It swept through Hell, Purgatory, and the River. The energy and magic covered the Earth and stretched out through all the stars and moons, planets, and asteroids. It stretched to Heaven, to every nook and cranny in Earth and its connected planes.
"Does this connect to other planes? Those that other people have created?" I asked.
"I already thought of that," Luc said with his arm around me. "He said only the ones that operate with the same time lineation as Earth."
My heart sank. "So, not Raphael's realm." I'd hoped it would reverse time and give me back some of Ariel's childhood.
He shook his head as the magic began. My stomach lurched as the ground rumbled under me. I'd never felt the ground move like this. Not in Hell.
And then, time stood still. Though I knew through our connections, both personal and the one we'd made for the flow of power, that they were somehow unraveling some sort of weave, physically they looked frozen. Gravity ceased to exist, and for the first time, I wondered how gravity worked in Hell, given we weren't technically on Earth. Laughter bubbled through my mind, but my body was weightless, floating a few inches off the ground alongside the others.
I tried to turn my head, but the ability to move had left me. I didn't breathe. None of my muscles worked.
Not even my eyes would shift. All I saw was the spot I'd been staring before it all began. Joel, Gabriel, and Michael.
As time stretched—or as it reversed—I began to count, curious how long this was taking. My body felt no need to breathe, move, or react in any way. Everything but my mind, and the flow of power, was in a state of true stasis.
By the time I counted to a thousand, I was beginning to wonder how much longer it would take. I was frozen, inches off the ground, while Michael, Gabriel, and Joel wrestled with the magic.
The flow of power began to wane. They were using so much power that they'd begun to use it up. Would they be injured by this?
Had we taken on too much?
When my mind had worked my emotions up into a good panic that I couldn't vent because everything was frozen, everything changed.
They completed their un-weaving, and the world snapped. I landed lightly on my feet and my panic dissipated. I looked around. The flow of power was gone.
"I have no power," Lucifer mumbled.
Turning to look behind me, I gasped. "The gates," I said.
They were closed.
"Everyone scatter!" I shouted. "Now!"
The angels and Fallen disappeared. I waved to Michael and Gabriel, then grabbed Lucifer's hand and moved us inside Hell. We waited just inside the gates where we could observe the entire entry area.
I had no idea if they'd taken us to the appropriate time, but demons milled about everywhere inside the gates.
Thousands of them. Hundreds of thousands. We turned and looked at them, all of them confused and moving a bit slow.
"This must affect them the way it does humans," Lucifer said. "They don't know what happened or remember anything."
Asmodeus walked up. "They also don't understand why there aren't any souls here," he said and chuckled. "That was fun."
"Let's see if it worked," I whispered.
