Space Angels: find the Gift (complete)

ЄD0Ɲ: Ŧhe Ɗ£Ş£ŔŦ ~ Chapter Forty-One

Seraphim Landing Zone ~Ŧhe Ɗ£Ş£ŔŦ

41 - the cleansing PART TWO

Sofiel's narrator told her Kaleb was a fourth class Imp from the Mammon clan - twice the experience of the one the Cherubim had encountered. She wasn't sure what this meant, but when she'd witnessed the horrific way Kaleb's skin had split apart and fell away and the golden being underneath had sprouted outwards to the ripping sounds of its clothing, she knew it had to be cleansed. But the Imp seemed to move like the wind, jumping and jerking this way and that. Only a Cherub could have matched him and it wasn't easy to hit a moving target.

"He's dimension slipping," her narrator had explained. "The Mammon can move from one place to another in less than a second by leaving this dimension, slipping into another, before coming back to appear in a different place, usually only a few paces away." This made sense to Sofiel, for Kaleb had seemed to dodge her first volley of cleansing spears too easily. She'd caught him a couple of times though, and before he'd taken refuge among a hilly array of dunes, he had been on fire. She could still track him with her Far Sight, which bent to the shape of the lumpy landscape, but he ducked, zigzagged, and rolled in the sand ahead of her, in desperate bid to put himself out.

She had tried to cleanse Kaleb according to the Seraphim Code, but it was difficult to ignore the guilt she experienced on hearing his cries of pain. She wished he'd stay still so she could finish him quickly. She'd never used her powers to kill, it seemed simple in theory, but launching another spear that missed Kaleb and turned the sand at his feet into molten glass, she finally understood what a cleansing truly meant, and what power she had at her fingertips. It scared her.

She slowed her progress as a bird flew across her sightline. Looking up she saw many more: vultures. They had arrived after Kaleb had shed, to squabble over the slabs of his discarded flesh. Now, scores circled above tracking her progress, preying on the body parts her spears had seared from the Imp's body, a rare meal for them in this wilderness.

A flash of blue light whizzed past her left ear. Kaleb was throwing power bolts at her from behind a dune. He zigzagged away when he realised he'd missed.

"Coward!" her narrator exclaimed in disgust.

She considered releasing a Wall of Cleansing - it would scorch the sand for half a league and Kaleb would surely perish, along with every living thing in its path. She hated the idea of vaporising innocent creatures crawling in the sand and the scavenging birds. Instead, she let loose another half a dozen spears in a wide spread. Most connected with the undulating landscape but as Kaleb re-materialised to the left, one scythed the tips of his golden wings and they caught fire. He dived into a hollow to extinguish the flames with a roll in the sand, dimension slipping to a point beyond a large hillock.

She heard a squawk to her left. Another ball of energy had startled a vulture; the flock scattered, the ball continued climbing. Sofiel had no idea why. She noticed the energy bolt looked different to the others: it had jagged edges and a red circle at its centre. Then its direction curved sharply in mid air. It was heading straight for her.

"Be careful, Seraph Sofiel, this missile is homing in on your body-"

She flicked a wrist and a volley of tiny golden darts raced towards the oncoming threat. It exploded harmlessly in the air. "This one is sneaky, narrator. I wonder what other weapons he has on offer. They are getting more dangerous."

"He must be tiring, and he must be weak from your attacks. You have inflicted much damage. It may seem cruel to you, but he must be judged. If we lose him, many Edons will suffer at his hand."

She knew her Lǽran was right, and as Kaleb threw more deadly bolts, it was getting even harder to feel any guilt about turning him into a roasted cinder.

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