Part 20 (2/2)
”I do not know. But they have been asleep for thousands of years, after the last war of heavenly beings. Their bodies have turned to stone, and are probably buried under the oldest of mountains somewhere on earth. It is not necessary to know where they are. If you know the words, all you have to do is say them, and they'll awaken, a.s.semble, and come find their summoner.”
”It is sad to be buried for so long...”
”Do not be fooled into pitying them, Caroline. The Divine Army is a soulless unit of destroyers. They have no emotions, no conscience. They feel no guilt,” he says this so quietly, that I s.h.i.+ver involuntarily. ”They can harm humans, you know.”
”And you can't?” He shakes his head slowly to my question. ”Then why were angels hacking at me just a few nights ago? They even severed my head, and killed me!” I say angrily, losing my calm faster than I'd like.
”I wasn't there. But I think there is something different in you. I can sense it. You are not entirely human. They must have sensed it too.”
”What about when your brothers threatened to harm my parents and my best friend, if I did not let my soul reconnect with my body?” I ask angrily, clutching my pencil so tight that it surprises me when it snaps broken. The angel looks at the broken pencil in my hands first, before looking slowly up into my face.
”First of all, they are not my brothers. I am not in their brotherhood. Secondly, did they do it? Harm them?” I shake my head slowly at him.
”It was just talk, you see. Threats.”
”So they lied? I thought angels don't lie!”
”Did they say they would do anything to them?” He asks me, c.o.c.king his eyebrow. I take a moment to think about that dreadful night.
”They said they would use them to get me to do as told-” I say bitterly.
”And isn't that what happened? They mentioned your parents, and you did as told?” I don't answer him as bitter anger clutches at my heart again.
One day, one day I will have my revenge on these beings!
”Caroline, however much you think you hate us divine angels, we are not as bad as the fallen ones. We want humanity to exist in peace, the fallen want to destroy it. They believe we deserve to be above all creatures, and live on earth or whatever other part of the universe we want. They are jealous of the sons of men, feeling that the angels' birthright was stolen and handed to weak ungrateful mortals. You may not believe me but trust me, nothing but death and destruction follows the fallen,” he says in his soft quiet voice.
”So hate me and the others all you want, but do not fight for the wrong side.”
”I don't know if you've noticed angel, but I am just a weakling human,” I say to him, lifting my hands in mock surrender. ”I can't fight an army of angels.”
”Maybe not, but you can weaken them,” he says.
”What do you mean?”
”By absorbing their Essence...”
”Are you crazy? The last time I did that, I almost died, had serious internal injuries and nearly exploded from inside.”
”Well either you have learnt from your experience, or something changed after you died, for I have watched you do it a number of times, and none of those things happened to you.”
”What are you talking about?”
”How do you explain the morning when you flipped your beddings and tossed me off the bed? Or in R, how were you able to lift up those heavy boards by yourself without so much as a struggle; yet your father with clearly more physical strength was struggling?”
”Maybe I am just getting faster and stronger!” I say smiling.
”Then why is it that each time you do it, I feel a great wave of energy leave my body, and I weaken momentarily?”
”Really?” I ask him puzzled, and he nods at me quietly.
”We do not absorb Essence. Rather, we expel it,” he begins, and I nod because someone in the brotherhood already explained that part. ”You, however, you take.”
”Maybe I can steal yours because you are weaker than the rest,” I say, meaning to be spiteful.
”I am not weaker,” he grinds out softly. ”I am just strong in a different sense.” I don't know why, but I believe him. He is just as strong. I feel it in the Essence he expels out, but it is a different kind of strength. An intellectual kind of strength.
”But even if you are right, I can't possible absorb enough Essence to snuff out a whole army. Last time I only absorbed from one, and it nearly killed me,” I point out to him.
”That is because you did not release it. You need to take it in, and release it to something else.”
”Like what?”
”Like the s.h.i.+eld around the Epitome.”
”It has a s.h.i.+eld?” I ask puzzled.
”Yes.”
”Then how could it be that people can easily come in and out?”
”Humans and divine angels can. The fallen can't, if the s.h.i.+eld is strong enough.”
”Is it strong now?” I ask pensively. All this talk of war is scaring me, and I am hoping that there is a place to hide from it all.
”Not enough,” he answers me softly. I marvel at how he never seems to get excited or emotional throughout a conversation. Talk about a robot, someone? A compa.s.sionate robot?
”The s.h.i.+eld is only as strong as the number of divine angels expelling their Essence. And right about now, I can only feel mine, yours and Araqiel's in the air. For some reason, the others have been cut out from us. So you are the only hope of reinforcing the s.h.i.+eld, for if you can absorb the fallen angel's Essence, it becomes yours, and therefore divine. You can then re-inject it into the s.h.i.+eld.”
”But... Wait! How could the others have been cut out from us?” I whisper, for despite myself, I do worry for the brotherhood.
He looks down, as though avoiding to meet my eyes so that he isn't forced into voicing his fears. I do not give up so easy.
”How?” I ask again.
”Tartaros,” he says, and chills race up and down my body in fear. ”It is the only place they could be, that would result in their Essence been snuffed out.
”But, how?” I ask once again, puzzled and confused.
”I do not know, they could have been lured, betrayed by one they truly trusted.” I think of Ariel, sweet Uriel, Raphael, Azrael, whom surprisingly I had come to care for, the odd twins, even Camael, stuck in some supernatural prison. How horrendous.
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