44
Two years later.
An inhuman growl tore out of Asmodeus’ throat, the sound so raw and agonizing, it shook him to his very core.
“Stop fighting me!”
Fuck. His time was running out, the body he’d inhabited for over four years no longer fully in his control. It was fighting back. Resisting. He didn’t have time to deal with it now, but it was forcing him to do just that, a beast he had to subdue or kill if he was to finish his mission.
The flutter of wings broke the eerie silence around Asmodeus, raising his hackles. He’d chosen the Border Woods because they were scarcely populated, but that didn’t mean the holy critters and the blessed birds weren’t watching. They always were. As God’s sentries, it was their duty to warn him of the intrusions to his realm, though Asmodeus had fooled them once and then kept them fooled like every other denizen of the Holy Kingdom for four years.
That was no longer the case.
Asmodeus hissed, clasping the cut across his flank that kept oozing blood just like the slash on his face. Gabriel,that damn seraph, had gotten him good, and if Asmodeusdidn’t get moving, he was looking at a repeat of their scuffle. And this time, it likely wasn’t going to be a one-on-one face-off.
Under normal circumstances, Asmodeus wouldn’t have minded. Currently, however, he was in a rather precarious state due to his wounds and cargo, so taking on the entirety of God’s Holy Army was a little above his capabilities.
Grunting, Asmodeus started digging near the slender birch tree with the mark, shoving heaps of wet soil with his hands. He was looking for two things—the soul vial Lucifer had handed him and his own body, left there to lie beneath the ground until he was ready to retrieve it.
Cawing and more flapping of wings accompanied his efforts, but he didn’t let them distract him, focusing on the task at hand. Soon enough, he sprawled his real body next to that of Archangel Uriel. He held the soul vial in one hand, and plunged his other one into the middle of Uriel’s chest, fishing out the archangel’s pure-white soul. Just like the one currently trapped in his real body he’d just dug up, it shimmered and sparkled, though it was bigger, brighter, and used a different frequency. Both were pretty, a stark contrast to his black one, but when a horn howled in the distance, he deemed that now wasn’t the best time to indulge in such musings.
After all, God’s warriors were already on their way.
Asmodeus stuffed the Archangel’s soul into the vial, which he tucked into the pocket of his ripped cape. Then he scowled. He had two options: either to stuff the second angel soul in the fuel compartment of the vial so Hell could make use of it, or to absorb it so he could recover.
Simple, right? Pick one or the other and be done with it and on your way out of this horribleplace.
Asmodeus’ arm twitched, bending backwards.
“Fuck!” he snarled over a laugh he couldn’t help.
Ah, but it was fun, this angel body fighting him just like its soul had at the start before he’d made it submit. It didn’t bend over willingly.No, no, no. It made Asmodeus work for it for months. Eventually he’d won and extracted it, imprisoning it in his own body so he could take control of the angel’s willowy form and carry out his mission.
To this day, both the angel’s body and soul had never fully surrendered, though the spark of fight had dulled down enough as to not get in his way. Until his fight with Gabriel.
Well—Asmodeus felt his mouth stretch more than his borrowed pretty face accommodated for—this decided things then, didn’t it?
With a precise sweep of his hand, Asmodeus extracted the soul from his real body and ate it. As soon as it joined him within the confines of his temporary vessel, a battle ensued. This one he had to lose, to surrender willingly so he could make it back to his original body, and he did, risking everything by letting the furious angel win.
Asmodeus had seconds once his soul left the angel’s chest and exposed itself. His body reacted to its call a mere heartbeat before the angel had full control of himself and tried to crush his defenseless soul, a shock of shivers down his spine telling him just how close he’d come. Had the angel been a moment faster, he would have succeeded, damning Asmodeus to be a prisoner of God for all eternity.
Shoving the angry angel to the side, Asmodeus jumped to his feet and pulled the obsidian chain bracelet off his wrist. He chanted the binding words and unfolded it, locking it around the angel’s neck before the scrawny creature even got up from the ground.
“ASMODEUS!”
The grumbly screech made Asmodeus’ ears ring. More wings fluttered in the trees, responding to the wail of a heavenly being. Since Asmodeus needed to recover, he stood no chance of winning a fair fight did one break out, but, well, he didn’t really need to worry about that anymore.
Asmodeus yanked the chain, forcing the angel over to his side. “Stop it with the tantrum, Jaoel,” he mocked, stretching his arms above his head.
His own body, at last, felt so much better, so right, even if the decay still hadn’t cleared completely. He squared his shoulders and adjusted his cape, his full height putting him three heads above the delicate angel he couldn’t wait to ruin.
Jaoel’s eyes zeroed in on Uriel’s lifeless body and he lunged at it, tripping when Asmodeus yanked the unrelenting chain again. Jaoel crashed into Asmodeus’ flank and snapped his head up, his eyes blazing with anger and hate.
“What have you done?!”
Huffing a laugh, Asmodeus headed for the Heavenly Gate, seeing no point in further lingering now that his business here had concluded. His unused body was still falling apart, but it would last him until Hell.
Jaoel yanked again, punching Asmodeus’ side. “Let me go or I will kill you!”
