27. A Battle Unleashed

27

A Battle Unleashed

Alistair

I feel stupid for not realizing it earlier. There was clearly no singular person capable of being this devious, no demon capable of going against the Master. And yet here they stand, not one, but two stupid demons. And I call them my brothers. They've always been hot-headed, but I never imagined they'd pull a stunt like this. Lucifer is a formidable opponent, and no demon would dare attack an angel, let alone his daughter. Demons are immortal and live for centuries. They can have thousands of children. But Lucifer has only ever had one child. I'm not sure if it was by choice or by accident that he had Morgana, but all I know for sure is that he loves her more than anything. He would give up his magic, his power, all of Hell if it meant protecting her, and I should do the same.

"If you want the scythe, you have to tell me what guarantee I would have that Morgana would get her powers back," I state to the imbeciles. "Prove to me that she will return to her former glory."

"Absolutely not," Morgana interjects. "Under no circumstance would I negotiate with these two. They clearly don't realize what they've done. They've committed treason, and for that, my father will punish them beyond anything imaginable. They will die. And since they have the dagger, that simply means I'll get it back and I'll have my powers restored anyway. You don't need to bother with them."

"Unless they just want to try and kill us now," I whisper to her. Even though it's true and what they've done is unforgivable in the eyes of Lucifer, it still means we must get to him without risking our lives in the process. Unfortunately, with Morgana in a mortal state and Sierra never having faced a demon before, the only chance we have is myself using the scythe against my two brothers. My only hope now is to bargain with them and somehow trick them out of what they're after.

"Why do you even want the scythe?" I ask them aloud.

"We need it for something very important," they respond harmoniously, their snickering bothers me.

"If it is that important, you would have just asked for it."

"But then you would ask us what that important thing is," Astaroth says.

"And you wouldn't tell me why."

"It's pretty obvious it's something bad, otherwise you're right, we would have just asked you for it," Belial answers.

"So now you expect me to hand over a scythe that can kill pretty much anything without you telling me why you need it? You can either answer me and we can negotiate, or you can just go home. If you behave, I might be gracious enough to tell Lucifer this is just a misunderstanding."

"Oh, Big Brother, I don't think you'll ever understand."

"Try me."

They both turn to each other with a wicked grin before they answer at the same time. "We need it to kill you."

Morgana's breath intakes sharply, but I'm actually not surprised at all. Even when they were younger, they tried to kill me. Of course, they were never successful. After all, I would just heal myself back up again. But if they were to attack me with the scythe, I would never heal fast enough. It didn't matter how many times they tried to electrocute me or set me on fire. Even once they cut my arm off, but it still didn't take. As the first son, nothing would ever happen to me. Power surges in my veins whether I wanted it to or not, and I'll be damned if these two think they can take me with or without the scythe. I don't care if they are my brothers. They hurt Morgana. If they want to damn themselves for all of eternity, that's not my problem anymore.

"If you wanted to kill me that badly, you would have tried harder. Even if you take this weapon from me, you'll never succeed."

"Try not giving them the chance, you idiot," Morgana hisses at me. It's clear she's furious and she doesn't want me to aggravate them, but if I'm going to protect her, I don't have any further choice. The greatest defense I ever had against the twins was a good offense.

With a quick glance to my side, I push Morgana backward into Sierra. As the two of them fall to the ground, I summon the scythe to my right hand. Launching forward at my brothers, I use the back of the blade to hit Astaroth in the stomach as he flings backward an easy twenty feet into the nearby telephone pole. I know that wouldn't hurt him too badly, but he'll get back shortly, so I have to take care of Belial fast. The twins are great when they fight together, but if they are individually separated, I know Belial is the one to be afraid of. When on his own, Belial will continue to practice fighting. Unfortunately, Astaroth doesn't have the same ambitions. Using the dagger he holds firmly in his hand, he strikes towards my face, but leaning back, I avoid the attack narrowly. My brother is crazy if he thinks such a feeble attack is going to faze me.

That's when I sense his plan coming from behind me. I know Astaroth is nearby and he's planning a strike. Unfortunately for them, I learned phasing last year. Feeling the world around me, I let it take me in, and he ends up kicking nothing but air. Even though the skill took me a long time to learn last year, now that I've been able to master it, it takes me only a second. As I roll across the ground, I pick myself back up using the scythe. I can't risk the idea that they're trying to trick me. At the moment, I'm just protecting myself, assuming that they really want me dead and they're going to use the scythe to do it. However, I also know they have a grand opportunity. If they truly wanted to take Lucifer out, going through his daughter would be the best way to do it. And of course, the only way to control her is to offer her powers back or to use the scythe in order to force her. I won't let them use Morgana that way.

As Belial lunges forward, he prepares a fist to enter my space, but with a quick balancing trick, I allow the scythe to stand on its own for a moment as I brush his arm to the side. I take a quick grip of his wrist and bring him back around me before kicking him in the back, shoving him forward and right into the ground. As I go to retrieve the scythe, however, I find that Astaroth is a little bit faster than when I last battled him. So with a grip on it now, I do my best to pull it away from him, but he holds tight, going a little bit with it. He's still smaller than me, and I hope to pull him back, but for some reason, his grip is just way too strong.

As I start to pull back, I can see from the corner of my eye that Belial is back on his feet and ready to throw the dagger straight at me. It's the dagger. If I let it hit me, I won't be able to protect Morgana or Sierra. However, I also know which direction he's throwing it in, and both of them are standing directly behind me. The last time Morgana was hit, she was out for a long time. If I knew for sure that the dagger would give her powers back, I would probably move out of the way, but I can't risk it. As I prepare to take the brunt of it, I can tell that my actions are going to be futile. Astaroth pushes his palm to the flat of the blade and then turns it around, facing toward me as he kicks out the bottom of the scythe, taking my legs out with it. As my back hits the pavement hard, I feel something just as sharp hit the front of me. The power inside me is draining. I try to take hold of it, but something is pulling away so fast. It's like somebody has cut me open and is taking parts of what's inside of me out and not letting me have it, like a physical thing being ripped out of my body, something I need. I can't breathe. I contemplated for far too long. I let my head fall to the side and I can see Morgana's face drenched in fear. I let her down. What's going to happen to me now? I have to get up. I have to protect her. But despite my persistence to tell my body to move, I can't even flex a finger. I've been trying to breathe for a few seconds now, but no air is coming in.

"Brother," I hear Astaroth's voice. "I did it." His voice appears to be astounded. "I can't believe I fucking did it."

"I can't believe you fucking killed him," Belial's cheerful voice echoes from somewhere behind me, but I can't turn around to look at him. I just want to breathe.