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“Can’t you at least untie me and give me some heavier clothes? It’s kind of chilly,” Justitia said, gazing at her garb. She was wearing a cloth shirt and leather pants which was standard for putting armor on top of. Palan snorted before standing up and heading inside his carriage. He pulled out a pile of clothes with a few tears and bloodstains on them before tossing them on top of Justitia. He left the restraints on her.
“I’m too lazy to chase you if you decide to run, so I’m leaving those on,” Palan said.
Justitia sighed. “Fine,” she said. “You wanted to know about the layout?” Palan nodded and Justitia began to explain the layout of Marossa to him. The large apartment complexes of the city were buried under the ground by diligence angels because the army made the mistake of leaving them up in the first city they tried to defend, and the buildings fell on top of them due to the cannon fire, causing even greater damage. Flammable materials were stacked in a corner to prevent a citywide fire, and the soldiers slept underground so there were no targets for the harpies’ aerial raids.
The demons from Elrith’s army resided closer to the city walls while the angels stayed towards the center. There were also direct passages created to connect the soldiers’ sleeping quarters and the city walls. With every loss the angels suffered, they changed the next city to prevent the same outcome from happening twice; however, that didn’t stop them from continuously losing. “I think the reason the rebel army is taking so long to take over Marossa is because of the improved defenses,” Justitia concluded. “We learn after every loss, but we also lose too many people at the same time.”
“Then what about the archangels,” Palan said. “Where do they stay?”
“About that,” Justitia said and tried to scratch her head but was stopped by her fetters. “I know General Jones and General Michael stay in the center of the city, but the four archangels from the council … I haven’t seen them since they arrived. They could be spread out, clumped together, or they may have even left.”
“What about their abilities?” Palan asked.
“I know one of them is a diligence angel,” Justitia said while meeting Palan’s gaze. “He created the walls.” She pursed her lips.
Palan waited for more, but Justitia didn’t continue. “And the rest?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I don’t know,” Justitia said and furrowed her brow.
Danger Noodle raised its body off the ground and flickered its tongue. It slithered towards the bound angel. “Are you messing with me right now?” Palan asked and narrowed his eyes.
“No!” Justitia said, her hair flying from side to side as she shook her head. “I honestly don’t know. The council isn’t one to flaunt its powers. But people know the members are strong. Everyone knew General Michael’s abilities because he’s a general, but he’s the only one of the council members who is.”
Palan stared at Justitia until a bead of sweat formed and rolled down her forehead. “Fine,” Palan said and relaxed his gaze, letting Danger Noodle crawl back towards his body. “Tell me about the rebels then,” he said. “What are these super strong halflings?”
Justitia bit her lip. “They’re like halflings, but red,” she said. “And they can use powers like newly evolved greater angels. But there are a few, the leaders, who have powers equivalent to newly evolved archangels. We haven’t encountered that many, three so far. Solra wasn’t using his powers to cancel ours out, and we were actually winning the fight, but then the three came out: a centaur of wrath, a harpy of temperance, and a goblin of gluttony.” Justitia shuddered. “The two generals managed to fend them off, and were about to kill one, but Solra interfered and nulled everyone’s powers again before retreating. But the damage was done—the city was ruined and we were forced to relocate.”
“I’ve never seen gluttony in action,” Palan said. His expression seemed to soften. “What does it do?”
“The best way to describe it is … darkness,” Justitia said and pursed her lips. “An unending sea of darkness that devours everything. It doesn’t destroy you physically, but you lose your sense if you’re enveloped in the darkness. It happened to me.” A shiver ran down her spine as her hands curled into fists. “It’s similar to the feeling you get when you’re a child and you’re left alone in the basement, and you have to turn off the lights before you go upstairs. In that moment of darkness, you’re exposed and vulnerable—a monster can appear at any time and eat you, so you run up the stairs as fast as you can towards the light. The difference is there is no light to run towards when gluttony devours you.”
“I have no idea what you just said,” Palan said. “So basically, it consumes your senses?” He glanced over Justitia. “It doesn’t seem to be permanent though.”
“It isn’t,” Justitia said. “But you lose your sense of touch, your sense of temperature, hunger, sight, smell, hearing. Everything. You won’t even know if you’re being eaten or not, or if your legs are even running. It’s traumatizing.” She shook her head. “A lot of angels deserted after that battle. I really wanted to.”
“So why do you stay?” Palan asked. “And don’t tell me you’re afraid of the death penalty. You can die just as easily if you fight in an army.” His nose wrinkled. He only did it once to kill Uzziel a while back, but he really disliked group fighting because his actions felt meaningless as a single person.
Justitia shrugged. “Sense of duty,” she said. “I’m not a temperance angel for no reason. My family’s better off with my income providing for them. And if I die in battle, they’ll be generously compensated. And—“
“Shut up,” Palan said while standing. Danger Noodle uncoiled and rose into the air. “Someone’s coming.”
“Untie m—“
Danger Noodle flashed through the air and smacked Justitia’s head with its own, knocking the angel unconscious. Palan licked his lips and readied his poison. This person was confident in their strides—they definitely knew he was here. His instincts told him this person was strong, and his heart began to beat faster. He brushed aside the boulder blocking the entrance and climbed to the top of the hill. At the base of the hill, opposite the boulder, there was an ancient-looking angel staring up at him: Melissa.
Who?