Tempo Trigger Chapter 43

One Winged Angels

By Nanaki

Timeless (The night of Lion's reunion with Tess.)

Vigo swirled aimlessly. He would have liked to drum his fingers, but since he didn't currently have any, he settled for a rather lethargic swirl pattern. It was so boring when everyone was asleep. He really would have to learn how to skip through time at will once he hit the thousand mark. Beside him, Gren also swirled in a lazy pattern. Suddenly, his cloud began swirling in an agitated pattern, slight bits of red appearing at the outermost tips of his wispy form.

'Sweet, merciful crap!!' He exclaimed.

'What's up?' Vigo began to swirl faster as well, intrigued by the possibility of something, anything, to do.

'I'm getting a message from Hell's forces...' He replied, still obviously receiving whatever the message was.

'Hell? You mean, the Hell?'

'Not the DeathScythe.'

'The root of all evil?'

'Yes.'

'The place that's darker than midnight, the home of duplicity and backstabbing, is contacting us directly?'

'That's right.'

'Arthuuuuuur!!!' Vigo shouted. The third hero's cloud instantly swirled over at the summons.

'What's going on?'

'This is big, guys.' Gren said, his thoughts trembling. 'This is Rofellos' personal attention big.'

'Too bad he's alive.' Vigo mentally grimaced. 'What do they want?'

'They're issuing a challenge. Oh, I feel sick...' Arthur and Vigo whirled impatiently, waiting for him to continue. 'They're giving us Elly's location, and inviting us to try to come get her.'

'Yeeeeaaaaaahhhh!!!' Vigo shouted. 'This is excellent! Those demons have just signed their own death warrant! Let's gather up a whole squadron of heroes, and teach them how painful it is to mess with God's elite!!'

'Here's the bad part.' Gren's voice remained grim. 'We have only thirty more dimensional standard seconds to respond.'

'No time to gather up other heroes...' Arthur observed.

'I don't like leaving Schala unguarded either...' Vigo said in a similarly dejected voice.

'Wait a second...' Gren paused, seeming to receive some new information. 'We'll be born as adults, and have access to Seraph mode.'

The three clouds regarded each other for a moment. 'I don't like it...' Vigo said. 'But this is bigger than Schala, bigger than all of us.'

'We have to try, even if we have next to no chance of succeeding.' Arthur said adamantly.

'All right.' Gren's cloud began to swirl very fast. 'Let's do this! Rebirth, now!!!'

* * *

Vigo blinked rapidly. As his vision cleared, he saw that he was standing on a snowy plain that gently sloped up in front of him. Looking to his right, he saw Gren and Arthur standing there as well, decked out in full battle gear. Vigo squinted back up the slope. "Huh, I don't see any..."

Suddenly, a wide column of fire erupted out of the ground in front of them. The three heroes jumped back, and the blaze abated as quickly as it had started. Where the column had been, a decidedly demonic figure hovered above the ground. His entire body seemed to be decomposing, and rotting strips of flesh hung from his bat-like wings in ragged tatters. Dozens of snake-like appendages protruded from his back, while two long horns jutted up from the top of his head. "Apacco." The three heros spat as one.

"I'm so glad to know I've made a lasting impression on you." The demon's voice sounded like a sword being scraped against dried bones. "You truly must be desperate, responding to what was no more than a bored taunt on my part."

Gren stepped forward threateningly. "She better be here!!"

"Oh, she's here all right." The demon cackled maniacally. The three humans shuddered involuntarily. "If you can actually make it to the top of this slope, she's all yours. Have fun!" With that, the column of fire reappeared, and Apacco vanished. The ground began to tremble, and spit out thousands upon thousands of demons in a matter of seconds.

The three heroes nodded to each other, then crouched down, and shouted, "Seraph mode, noooooowww!!!" The three were engulfed by a brilliant white light. Three pairs of wings sprouted from each of their backs, and their muscles grew to nearly inhuman proportions. In each hand appeared a gigantic sword, over five feet long. As one, they leapt into the air, and they were over five hundred feet up before they even had to unfold their wings.

"We're in luck!" Vigo shouted. "Magic exists on this world!"

Arthur grinned widely. "Then let's... get... busy!!!" He quickly sheathed his swords, and raised his hands above his head. "Holy Three!!!"

"Holy Three!!!" Vigo and Gren echoed. They brought their hands down, and three beams of pure white light, each over two hundred feet in diameter, slammed down into the field of demons. The resulting blast filled the entire sky, and the crater that appeared after was over a mile wide, and three miles long. Demon bodies rained down on the land. In response, the land coughed up several thousand more.

"Should we try to fly?" Arthur asked.

"No." Vigo frowned. "We can't see them yet, but I'm sure there are just as many winged ones as the ground variety."

"So, we'll charge up San Juan Hill." Gren smiled.

Arthur gave him a skeptical look. "Don't tell me you were Roosevelt."

"No, but I was a Rough Rider."

"Can we get going now please?" Vigo asked. The three seraphim dropped back to the ground, swords drawn once more. Arthur was immediately surrounded by white fire, while Gren began chanting an incantation. Vigo crossed his swords, then slammed them apart so fast that the air rippled. "Graaaaaaah... Cosmic Nova!!" The ripple turned into a wave of energy that scythed the first few hundred demons into several pieces each.

"Dragonfire Bomb!!" Arthur shouted, and a burst of explosions cut a swath of destruction through their ranks. As the demons were struggling to regroup, Gren stretched his right arm upward and opened his hand.

"Galaxy Stop!!" The white snow took on a blueish tinge, and all the demons froze in their tracks. The three heroes charged up the hill at several hundred miles an hour. In seconds, the top was in sight. Suddenly, three humanoid figures popped up out of the ground and connected a brutal punch to the face on each seraph. Arthur was immediately back on his feet, and found himself staring into opaque, glowing green eyes.

"Hellspawn!" He exclaimed.

"Hellspawn?!" Vigo demanded, keeping his opponent at sword's length. "I thought Simmons and Llanso killed all the others!"

"You were wrong." The central of the cloaked, chained figures hissed. "Boomerang Flash restored all of us, and destroyed those who were not true to the master's vision."

"And don't give me that look." The Spawn in front of Vigo narrowed its eyes. "We're as human as you are. Moreso, in some cases."

"Yeah, at least we've still got genitals." Arthur's opponent broke in.

"Rotting and shriveled." Gren smirked, wiping his jaw. "I am puzzled by your presence here though. Apacco works for ol' Stanny boy directly. I thought your master was secretly trying to overthrow him."

"I'm not interested in politics." The leader hissed, and his chains branched out in an attack formation. "We're here to fight."

"Then we're happy to oblige." Gren brought his swords forward. He charged at the leader, swinging his right sword in a vicious overhead chop. As he had expected, the lead Spawn blocked with his chains and armored forearms. He jabbed his other sword into the demon lord's side, and as the costumed rotting corpse made a grab for it, delivered another devastating overhead slash, hurling his opponent back, spraying necroplasm all over the snow.

Vigo opened things up with another Cosmic Nova, cutting his opponent to ribbons. He proceeded to slash unrelentigly at the constantly regenerating flesh. Arthur simply held a hand out, and his opponent exploded in a gooey mess. "Wow, you guys are pathetic." Vigo observed.

"Who said we were done?" His own shredded opponent somehow managed to ask. Instantly, all three angels were bombarded with blast after blast of green Hellfire, searing their perfect bodies, scorching the feathers off their wings. As the bombardment ceased, the demons could see that the seraphim had brought their wings around their bodies in a defensive position, and now unfolded them, but not very much. The three warriors of Hell had barely pulled themselves together when a barrage of hundreds of razor sharp feathers shot at them, cutting them to pieces all over again.

The severed head of the lead Spawn blinked in disbelief as Gren walked up to him. "You don't want to destroy us. You know what will happen if you do..."

The three heroes slowly nodded at each other. "Our lady would want it this way." Gren smiled as he brought his foot down on the obscene head, crushing it to mud in the snow. As soon as he did, a green explosion rushed at them, and they knew no more for a time.

As Vigo regained his sight, he realized that he could barely move. The few wings he had remaining hung in bloody tatters. His left arm was missing, and there was a gaping hole in his left leg. Looking to his right, he saw the other seraphim were in a similar state of affairs. But then, his brow furrowed as he heard what sounded like an avalanche rushing at them. There was no way an avalanche could form on a hill as gentle as this though...

They all looked up as a shadow covered the battlefield, and saw a dark wave made out of thousands of minor demons descend upon them. As the swarm slammed into them, they all realized what the true meaning of the Spawn's final message had been.

White explosions instantly pushed the demonic hordes back, but the onslaught would not stop. Fresh troops would charge over the nearly vaporised bodies of their fallen comrades even before the explosions had dissipated. A constant rain of serreted arrows rained down on the angels now as well, striking friend and foe alike. As Vigo felt the last of his wavelength be converted into a weak holy explosion, he reached down and picked up his battered sword with his remaining arm. As he circled around, glaring at the encroaching horde in all directions, he silently crossed himself, then charged into the fray.

.

Apacco smiled, and a green gas escaped from between his few remaining teeth. The bodies of the angels were being passed to the top of the hill hand over hand, until the edge of the hoard tossed them into the snow at his feet. He was delighted to find that all three were still alive, though not for long. "Well gentlemen, I am a man of my word." He wheezed. "So here she is! Now, all you have to do is carry her out of here on your own, and you win!"

Gren turned his creaking neck backward, and through his one remaining eye, saw that the demon actually was telling the truth. "Son of a gun." He whispered. Just a few feet away from him, in a capsule looking much like the one that had contained the original mother, was Elly. "It's good to see you again, my lady."

She was nude, and covered with dirt and grime, but because she was such a valuable prisoner, there wasn't a scratch on her. She was weeping at the sight of their horribly battered bodies, but she couldn't help smiling at the sound of his voice. "Oh, boys... Why did you try to do this all by yourselves?"

"It was the only way." Arthur croaked. "No matter how badly the odds were stacked against us, we had to try."

"Even though you knew you would die?" She whispered.

"No...!" Vigo struggled to rise to a sitting position, but the blood began to pour out of his chest more rapidly, and he collapsed back into the snow. "One cannot participate in a war expecting to be defeated, my lady." She smiled a real smile at him now, and wiped her tears away. "Besides, it was worth it, to see you again..."

"Besides, the dying gets a little easier every time." Gren managed to get out, though blood was flooding his mouth.

"Liar." She sniffed.

"I know what you're doing, Apacco." Vigo pointed up at him. The demon just raised an eyebrow, part of which fell off. "You think you're just tormenting us by allowing us to see her, and die from our wounds."

"But we've been here long enough, that I think an ally of ours has been able to get a lock on your energy signature." Arthur continued.

"Ah, I'd almost forgotten." Gren smiled, and they could tell it was his last smile.

"Rofellos?" Apacco tried to spit, but ended up sounding like he'd coughed up a hairball. "If you think that moron can..." He trailed off as Gren laughed a bit hysterically, and then fell silent.

"Well, no point hanging around here any longer." Vigo said. "Elly, always a pleasure." Then, he grabbed what little remained of his broken sword, and to the astonishment of everyone, stood up. His body was almost pure white now, and blood continued spilling into the snow. He raised his sword hilt, and silently charged Apacco. The demon had raised a hand and was about to vaporise him, but Vigo toppled over before he got there, and didn't move again.

Apacco cracked up laughing, and soon the demon hoard echoed his laughter. He finally turned to Arthur. "So, you want to try anything stupid?"

"Hardly." Arthur smiled wickedly. "I'm not wounded quite as badly as my comrades were, which means I've still got a little chi left in me."

"What?!"

"Kamihameha!!" Arthur raised his working hand up, and blasted the demon into the distance with a pure white blast. He looked up at Elly. "We were definitely here long enough. He's sure to have a lock on you by now."

"You think I care about that?" Her eyes widened. "Don't treat your own life as if it's expendable! Life is the most precious gift in this universe!"

They both turned as a geyser of flame erupted from the spot where Apacco had landed. A rasping shout echoed across the snowy field. "Bastaaaaaaaaaaaaaard!!!"

"It is a gift I gladly give to you." Arthur turned back to her. "Our deaths have not been in vain. Believe in us."

"I do. You know I do." She smiled at him.

"Farewell, my lady." He saluted her, then couldn't help screaming as he was engulfed in pure black Hellfire. The screams seemed to take forever to die away, and echoed into the distance even after he'd died. The demon hoard started to charge forward, ready to devour the bodies, but Apacco held up a hand.

"No. Leave them there, as a message to the other heroes." Then, he teleported everything but the seraphic bodies away, and silence reigned over the desolate field.

* * *

Gren: What a sombering experience.

Vigo: How sad that we weren't able to accomplish anything.

Arthur: Agreed. But we had to try.

Gren: .....

Vigo: .....

Arthur: .....

Vigo: Wahahaha!!

Gren: Boo Yah! How the Hell did such an idiot ever reach such a high position in their ranks?!

Arthur: Amen to that! Hee hee... God speed, Krelian. God speed...

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"Well, how nice of you guys to come all the way out here to meet me like this. Although, I should warn you that anyone approaching carelessly is gonna die!!" - Duo Maxwell, Gundam Wing

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Chapter 44

Chrono Trigger Fanfic