Age of Angels Read online

  Reaching deep within, I pulled on every heavenly ounce of power I could find, pushing it out, expelling this demon. In an explosion of light he was thrown back, and I charged, diving at him. Wings back, sword forward, I nearly had him, but he dodged with a flutter of his cloak. A blast went off and a beam of gold light shone, tearing down demons by the hundreds, but this one was apparently mine to deal with.

  I was ready, though, because as he watched his friends fall, I’d been storing up energy, pulling it from his fallen companions and directing it all into my sword.

  Then, letting it go with a massive release, I thrust and the golden blade shot into him, beams of light bursting forth and cutting through all of his vile, evil darkness.

  The demon flashed out in a puff of smoke, gone. Either dead or cast off back to his hell. And then the strangest thing happened. A screen appeared in front of me that read:

  Level: 71

  Class: Angelic Host

  Attack: 121

  Defense: 107

  Speed: 201

  Mana: 363

  In addition to that, there were various screens of spells with several colored circles grayed out. All except for the white one, with branches that showed several skill paths. A couple that I noticed read:

  Spells

  White: Shield of Light Level 14

  Yellow: Heavenly Blade Level 10

  There were more, but I stopped there, not sure what I was looking at. That, and the fact that the fight was still ongoing. I noticed several skill points that looked like I was supposed to allocate them, but I decided to investigate that when this was over.

  For now, I waved my hands at the screen and was relieved to see it vanish, just in time for me to see a demon’s fireball flying my way. I threw up a heavenly shield of white light, which fluttered away as the fireball hit it. I dodged right, then left, and came up with a sword strike that tore my next demon adversary in two.

  More came at me, but I’d found my stride again, as if that strange screen or the ‘leveling up’—whatever that meant—had rejuvenated me.

  And then, as I struck down a ghostly figure whose bones showed through its flesh, I looked up to see that the demons were gone. A blast of angelic trumpets cascaded over the clouds and temples of the heavens. While they were all celebrating their victory, I knew exactly how I wanted to show my joy, and it was no different from what I’d wanted before the attack.

  Naratha stood next to me, beaming, the temple right behind her. I took her hand, kissed it, and started walking. She didn’t resist, didn’t question me until I had her up against one of the marble columns, my lips on her neck.

  “Leon,” she whispered, hands on my shoulders. A squeeze.

  I took it as an invitation to go further, and had the hem of her gown up in a moment, my hand caressing her wet pussy, then guiding my stiff cock in, the tip starting to part her lips.

  Again she said my name, but this time she pushed.

  I stumbled back, cock and soul exposed.

  She didn’t have to say it. The look in her eyes, the way she then turned from me, walking off. It was exactly what I needed to remember why I knew that I no longer belonged there. That I wouldn’t live by their rules any longer.

  I was overcome with anger, passion, and confusion. A hint of smoke came from the temple, betraying the presence of a demon. They couldn’t stay in heaven without such signs, and the fact that one was hiding humored me in my current state. My plan was to storm in there and tear it apart, limb from limb.

  The ground shook with my steps as I entered the temple, eyes wild with rage as I scoured the cloths and tapestries, knowing the smoke would give it away. My hand pulled my sword from thin air, my sword of heavenly light, and a growl escaped my lips.

  A clanging sounded as the demon stumbled, emerging from behind a table covered with grapes and melons, a long tablecloth having served to hide her.

  And it was a her, I saw, plain as day. My cock knew it too, apparently, because it surged, still exposed, I realized. She was a sight to behold, so I shouldn’t have been surprised. If I’d had more experience with the thing, I wouldn’t have been. The way this demon’s curves formed a perfect hourglass, her full breasts nearly exposed except for a sort of red armor that formed around the contours of them, along with her shoulders and shins. Around her waist hung thin strands of cloth, one piece tied under. Her hair was a fiery red, her wings tinged with a similar color… and the bottoms of her legs where her feet should have been were formed into hooves. Long, wide horns grew out from the sides of her forehead. Bright red eyes stared at me. Not me, precisely, but my exposed cock.

  I gulped, overwhelmed with confusion. Did I want to slice her neck open, or have her ride me through the break of dawn? Truthfully, both.

  “That’s not…” she started, eyes finally rising from my cock to my face. “Angels aren’t supposed to…”

  “I know,” I said, quickly trying to tuck myself away. With the little amount of clothing my loincloth provided, it was practically impossible.

  She scooted back, eyes moving from me to the other temple exits. Was she looking for a way out, or checking to see if others were coming?

  “What’s happening?” she asked.

  I frowned, confused.

  She indicated my crotch again, then pointed to herself. “You’re not the only one. Changing, I mean.”

  I cocked my head, waiting for more. After a moment, I said, “Go on.”

  Inching closer, she said, “My shackles…” She held out her arms, skin going from tan to black mid-forearm. “We all had them. We were all prisoners, in a sense. Forced to do the will of hell, of our masters. But…they’re gone.”

  “It’s why you’re still alive,” I noted, realizing that she must’ve abandoned the fight to hide in here. If she’d been compelled to fight as was supposed to happen, she wouldn’t have had the option.

  She nodded, ashamed. “And you… Free will?”

  Now it was my turn to nod. Also… maybe ashamed? I covered myself with one hand, and in an instant, she was up close, and my sword was at the ready. Only, she didn’t attack. She stared at me with fear, but one hand went to my hand that was down there, and moved it aside.

  “Don’t hide it,” she said, and then reached under my loincloth and pulled it out, stroking it slowly, tenderly, eyes never leaving mine. The brilliance of that red was stunning. “Can you get me out of here?”

  I blinked, looking down at her demonic, clawed hand on my cock. “Is that what this is? Are you a succubus, here to seduce me into abandoning my post?”

  Her grip tightened. “Not at all. But I saw you—you were… doubtful.”

  “I wasn’t—”

  “My kind can read doubt from a mile away.” She stroked me again, then lowered her hand to cradle my balls. “I’m a demon, simple as that. But one that enjoys the opportunity in front of me. In all ways.”

  The way she was touching me sent warm tingles throughout my body that felt better than anything I’d ever experienced. Considering that I was in heaven, that was saying something.

  I took her hand away, though, and nodded. “We’ll finish this… below. Stay close.”

  Her eyes lit up, glowing, and she nodded.

  I don’t know what I was thinking. Whether it was the idea of fucking this demon, or the craving for companionship as I left everything I had known as far back as I could remember, but I knew I wanted her to come with me. At the temple entrance, I paused, watching angels move toward the great hall in joyous celebration of their victory. Dragging a sex-crazed demon like this one behind me simply wouldn’t do. Taking one of the tablecloths, I draped it over her head and told her to stay close, to get behind me if there was trouble, and then indicated the point of departure.

  “There,” I said, indicating the place where we could jump. “You can… fly?”

  She glanced back at the lump of the cloth on her wings, and nodded. “I don’t understand. Why are you helping me?”

  “I’
m not. I’m breaking out of here.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Bullshit.”

  “What’s worse? Knowing you’re a slave, or suddenly finding out you’ve been a slave your whole life, but didn’t even know it?”

  “I honestly don’t know.”

  “Me neither, but I’d say they’re at least on equal grounds. To have no free will and not even know it… well, how could I live in a place that kept me as a physical and mental slave? I can’t. I won’t.”

  “The feeling is… understandable.”

  “Together,” I said, and as much as I feared her, fighting down an ingrained hatred of her kind and a deep-seated need to kill her, the word meant something. It meant we were going to escape this, because her understanding of my current frame of mind made her, in a strange way, closer to me than anyone had ever been.

  To some, this might have seemed rushed. Childish, even. At best, seen me as a teenager engaging in a fantasy. Well fuck all of them—this was me, a super-powerful being, recently released into the world, and for the first time discovering both an interest in the opposite sex and a tool for pursing it.

  So forgive me if I was partially driven by the craving to stuff my cock into this demon’s mouth once we were out of there. To watch those breasts rock as she rode me. To… well, you get the idea.

  Without another word, the two of us took off for the jump point. Other angels were starting to gather near the great hall, likely about to begin gathering the forces again. But some were at the jump point… more than one of them going over.

  Other angels were defecting before I had my chance!

  “You there, stop!” a large angel in full heraldic armor shouted, a Valkyrie at his side as they intercepted an angel making a run for it.

  The angel turned my way and I recognized him as my equal—an angelic soldier by the name of Irdoan.

  “Leon, good!” he exclaimed, grabbing the other angel and tackling him to the ground. “The generals have proclaimed an emergency. We have defectors, and they must be stopped. Some have already escaped and we’re forming teams to go after them, if you’ll—”

  Fuck this guy. I said, “Hurry,” and broke into a sprint.

  His eyes went wide as he realized what was happening, but his hands were full with the other angel, his Valkyrie already diving for another one near the departure point. He started to shout, when a black line of smoke burst forth in front of him and he went cross-eyed, losing consciousness a moment later.

  I glanced back to see the demon smirking, and had to hope she’d only knocked him out, nothing more. His prey was up, running toward us and shouting his thanks, when a long, golden spear pierced his chest! A line of angelic hunters were moving in, more spears ready.

  Holy Gods, they’d killed him!

  “Desertion will not be allowed!” a woman at their front shouted, more spears poised and ready.

  “Can you keep the spears off us?” I asked.

  The demon glanced over, worried, and said, “I can cloak us… momentarily. But they’ll see the smoke.”

  I was familiar with the idea. Demons who weren’t attacking could get by unseen, but once they became aggressors there was no escape. To think that she could cloak me too was a surprise, but I nodded. Her smoke earlier could only mean one thing—that she’d been at least debating attacking. Point was, she hadn’t.

  “Make it happen.”

  She cast off the cloth I’d given her, wings spreading wide to gasps nearby, and then she spun, black smoke taking us, swirling around us quickly as she shouted, “Run!”

  Spears were incoming, but we had taken off, sprinting toward the departure point, and then we both leaped up, wings spread wide and almost knocking into each other. As more spears came, one whizzing right past my head, we were down and past the clouds, the barrier of heavenly light breaking as we passed through it.

  “Holy fuck!” she shouted, diving past me, wings pressed back against her skin, only flapping once to change her trajectory—and in that moment, I caught a damn fine view of her ass.

  Although I was running for my life, the thoughts wouldn’t leave me. I had to laugh, flapping to follow her route and then diving to move to her side. We flew, sharing a smile, and then turned as a spear went through the air between us, slamming into another defecting angel far below us.

  A glance up showed that the hunters weren’t in pursuit, yet.

  “This way,” I shouted, guiding her in the opposite direction, and soon we were out of sight, and I hoped, range. They hadn’t been given the order to pursue, yet, and were doing their damned best to stick to their orders to the letter.

  But I knew it was likely eating them up, now that free will had become a thing. Or had it only affected some of us, this shift, or opening of the rift? Soon, we were moving along a cliff face I didn’t recognize, overlooking a valley I’d certainly never seen before.

  We landed and she turned to me, crouching, defensive. “What now?”

  “We look for answers,” I said. “Find out what’s happened. Maybe start with… the plains.”

  She eyed me, considering this, but then ever-so-subtly licked her lips.

  “Unless,” I started, not sure about where I was going or if I was ready. “Unless you have something else in mind?”

  Her eyes narrowed, but then her stance relaxed, a smile forming on her lips. “Are you serious with this?”

  “Should I not be?” Honestly, it was all very confusing.

  She chuckled. “To be clear, I’m a demon. Daedra the Feared, Daedra the Bloodthirsty… or at least I was. But still, Daedra. A demon.”

  “Nice to meet you, Daedra. My name is Leon.”

  She smiled, mischievously. “Part of my job is to seduce, to kill, to do… evil. You—you’re an angel.”

  “Was.”

  “Was?”

  I nodded. “From now on, I’m something else. Something… better.” She tilted her head questioningly, and wanting to sound grand in the moment, I said, “A god.”

  “A god.” Her smile widened. “Is that so?”

  Without waiting for me to answer, she stepped closer, one of her hands moving over her chest. As the hand passed, the armor there moved aside, basically fading into thin air, leaving her breasts fully exposed. Beautiful, full breasts. No golden glow, no angelic light, but a very true olive color of tanned flesh with dark little nipples. She ran her hands down her body, reaching into the cloths covering the lower part of her body to touch herself and let out a soft moan.

  “You want to touch me?” she asked. “Or me to touch you, my god?”

  “I’ve never wanted anything more.”

  Her hands rose to the back of my head, pulling me in. Angels were warm, but her touch was hotter than I’d expected, almost painful. At first. Then it was like getting into a hot bath—one that feels scalding at first, but then is the best sensation you’ve ever felt. Her touch was like this, her kiss more so.

  Gold flashes of light filled the sky, beams slamming into the ground nearby and leaving the crouched forms of angelic hunters in their wake. That meant they’d been given the order to pursue. Not good for us.

  “Relinquish your hold on the heavenly light,” one of them called, and I was relieved to see that, as they all stood, there wasn’t anyone I knew amongst them. A good thing, that, since I’d likely have to try to kill them. They wore helmets that partially concealed their faces, gold and curved at the bottoms. The one the leader of the group wore had a lion carved into it.

  The hunters were known for their skill, until now always employed to go after particularly nasty demons causing trouble in the spirit realms. This was the first time I’d find out how an angel such as myself stood up against them.

  “Not going to happen,” I said, and pulled my sword from the sky.

  “Relinquish the light!” the man repeated, and then pointed his spear at the demon at my side. “And we will take care of this filth.”

  “Watch your tongue,” I replied, and then motioned to the d
emon, hoping she got the message.

  We charged at once. I knew their strategy would be to attack fast with their spears. Ranged attacks, and even when it came to hand-to-hand, they rarely had to deal with an enemy up close. So, I got in as close as I could, swirling about with my sword strikes.

  They were good, blocking and countering… but I was better. When they struck, I was ready with a block, always staying in close to at least one of them. Always ready for their next blow. This sort of close combat against larger numbers was where I excelled. And I wasn’t fighting randomly, or to bring in a mark as they were, but for my freedom.

  My freedom, and this random demon’s survival. I glanced over at her as I fought, shouting as I thrust my sword into one of the hunter’s chests. Who was she, that I would fight so passionately for? Or was it that I was projecting my needs onto her, that I made her an excuse? Time would tell.

  I pulled my sword free, watching the first angel I’d ever killed drain away, becoming one with the light. The others all fought with more ferocity then, finally realizing what I was capable of. While they might have thought killing another angel beyond any of us, I had proven that untrue. A question arose in me, causing me to nearly take a spear to the chest, only dodging at the last second and getting a wing clipped because of it.

  If I was able to kill my kind, a heavenly host… what did that really make me? Was I still an angel, or something else entirely?

  Daedra was at my side, holding her own. When one hunter tried to stab her, she flapped her wings and spun up and to her right. A halberd appeared in her hands with a flurry of smoke and she thrust, taking the hunter in the shoulder.

  Another hunter came at her from above, but she leveraged the first thrust to pull herself out of harm’s way and leave the hunter below exposed, so that the spear went right into his leg. He was now injured and pinned in place.