Modern Age Online

“RAAAAG-Urk!”

Kaleb shot another sludge creature and readjusted the angel on his shoulder. The beasts had become slightly more timid with the master of the house gone. But they still attacked if Kaleb strayed too close. He had only had to deal with a few of the small sludge monsters, though, as they made their way across the grey landscape.

The demon’s portal was gone, and Kaleb did not know how to get it back or even create a new one. So instead, he was trudging his way back to the first portal. Kaleb was hoping he’d be able to do something with that one, if it was still around. And if not, he’d have to wake up his useless passenger.

The angel was still knocked out, and Kaleb was carrying them around. They were fairly light, but their wings dragged through the dirt and the weight was getting to Kaleb. He was about to put the angel on his back when the sludge gremlin popped up. Now, as he tiredly huffed and vented his Cybar, Kaleb wasn’t sure if that was a good idea. Every time they’d get attacked, he would have to dump the angel and fight. Lending the angel a shoulder was far easier.

With a grunt, Kaleb got his own arm under the angels and lifted. Their wings gave an involuntary twitch and Kaleb hoped that the damn thing would wake up. But nothing happened. The angel stayed unconscious, and he sighed. Pointing himself in the direction of the old portal, Kaleb trudged on. The grey landscape was the same as before, but now the sludge pits and monsters were few and far between. All the spires of sludge and the bubbling pits of the stuff were gone. The demon’s realm was without its master, and Kaleb was lost with a damn holy chicken.

Hauling the holy dead-weight, Kaleb finally recognized some of the landscape. It wasn’t as roiling or beast-filled as it had been. But Kaleb thought he recognized the topography. With renewed vigor, he adjusted the angel and tried to double his speed. The angel’s wings were getting caught on random rocks and divots now, and Kaleb was sure the unconscious angel was getting heavier. His paranoid side was screaming at him that the angel was a trap. But he couldn’t figure out how.

The creature was caged and strung up in the demon’s basement. That had to mean that the angel was what it looked like, right? But Vivienne had poured so much healing magic into the angel and they’d still not woken up. He was sure something was up with the thing or it had a massive health pool.

“Or something in this world is fucking with it.” Kaleb thought to himself as he pulled the angel up his arm.

It would explain why the angel had ignored so much magical healing. Maybe the demon’s realm was anathema to it. It would make sense… if it actually was an angel. Kaleb couldn’t comprehend how such a being could be caught. Especially by a sludge demon. Maybe a trap in the real world? And how long had the angel been down in that basement? They weren’t ancient-looking or old, but maybe angels didn’t age like normal NPCs. Kaleb blew out a sigh of aggravation and continued toward the first portal.

The first sign that something was wrong was the lack of noise. A magical portal, especially one going the wrong way, should make some noise. But the air was quiet and still. The second sign was that the arches holding the portal up were gone. They sat crumbled on the raised dais that had held the large portal. Kaleb sighed and moved the angel closer to where the portal had been. Either it had a time limit or the cops mages had sealed it. Either way, he was trapped.

“Well, that’s annoying.”

Kaleb rubbed a hand down his face and checked the area. He was going to have to wake up the damn angel now and deal with whatever fallout came from that. The last thing he needed was to get broadsided by some sludge monster.

After making a complete perimeter check, Kaleb came back to the prone angel and weighed his options. Vivienne had poured enough healing magic into the angel that their scars and physical wounds were gone. Now pristine pale skin stood out against the grey ground and their long black hair was straight and tangle-free. They could’ve been a sleeping prince or princess from a fantasy game, quietly waiting for their hero to come save them.

Kaleb prodded the angel’s side with his sneaker. “I don’t need to kiss you to wake you up, do I? I’m not strictly opposed to it. But I don’t even know if I can kiss anything with this beak I have. So how about you just wake up and we say I’m your prince charming, huh?”

The angel stayed prone on the ground, facing the black sky. Motionless and lifeless. If it wasn’t for the slight movement of the angel’s chest, Kaleb would’ve thought them dead. He prodded harder with the tip of his shoe. The angel stayed where they were, unmoving and uncaring of the rest of the world. With a sigh, Kaleb leaned down and hovered over the angel’s face. It seemed like too perfect a face to be human, perfectly proportioned, with a cute nose and hair that hung just right over their face.

Kaleb smiled blandly down at the angel before slapping them in the face with his normal hand. “Get up! We’re trapped in the realm of a demon! Wakey-wakey! Some bullshit angel-magic would be really helpful right now. Maybe you could call on your god and open us a way back?”

A red welt formed on the angel’s face after Kaleb slapped them, and he sighed. He’d barely hit the perfect bastard, and they were bruising up. It made Kaleb think that this would be a lower choir of angel if it was sticking to the Christian standard. Not an archangel or something. He shook the body as he tried to recall his limited knowledge about angels. But besides Cherubim, Seraphim, and Archangels, he was drawing a blank. He was sure the angel wasn’t a cherub, and it seemed too weak to be an archangel, not to mention a seraphim.

With a grunt of annoyance, Kaleb dropped the angel’s shoulders. Letting the body smack back down into the dirt. Without the angel’s help, Kaleb wasn’t sure how he’d get out of the Demon realm. Would he have to wait until his friends found and killed the demon? How long would that take? Was he doomed to be waiting on the sidelines because he hadn’t been fast enough to get to the portal? Was he holding the team back?

“Mmrpgh.”

A low groan came from Kaleb’s feet, and he stopped his depressing introspection. The angel was starting to move. Their slim hand came up to their cheek, and they moaned in pain. They then seemed to realize that they were free. They blinked, golden eyes flickering across the black sky. Their hands searched their body and wings. As they did, they rolled away from Kaleb and tried to jump to their feet.

“Who am I? Where are you? How get here I did? Wha-”

The angel fell into complete nonsense as Kaleb watched them try to master themselves. He kept his hand on his Cybar, but otherwise didn’t make any sudden moves. The angel seemed highly confused and more than a little afraid. Which didn’t bode well for Kaleb. At least that’s what he thought.

“Where. Am. I?” The angel slowly got out as it closed its eyes and took a breath.

“A demon realm run by a Corrosion Demon.”

The angel whimpered. “Ah, what order of demon?”

“Uhhh, Lord? I think? It was super powerful.”

“… and… uh… how long have I been here?”

Kaleb could only shrug at that one. “I have no idea. We found you strung up in the demon’s castle. It looked like he was using you as some kind of battery.”

“By the choirs…”

The angel began berating itself as they fell to their knees. Kaleb rolled his eyes and silently moved closer. The angel was muttering condemnations of itself and seemed to be lost in its own self pity. Kaleb tried to be understanding.

“Hey… it’s not your fault. You were captured. This stuff happens. We have bigger issues right now?”

“Bigger issues!? I have missed so much of my training because Paul wanted to ‘go out and watch the mortals.’ Now I’ll have to pick up where I left off. If my studies are even relevant anymore! For all I know, it’s been eons since my capture. I’m probably the oldest angel in existence!”

“And that’s bad?”

“No, not necessarily. But think of all the good I could have been doing? I could have helped so many people. Then some demon captures me and tries to siphon my holy magics? Stupid thing, it had to have known that it wouldn’t work.”

Kaleb nodded idly. “This is all very interesting. But we are still stuck in the demon’s realm and the demon is out there fighting my friends.”

“You haven’t vanquished the demon!?”

“Look around! I’ve been busy hauling your angelic &^%- AHHH!” Kaleb’s words were caught off as he tried to swear.

A screeching noise pierced into Kaleb’s skull, and the Angel snickered. “You should know not to swear in front of an angel. Even a lower class one such as I.”

“Noted. Still, I’ve been looking for a way out of this realm while carrying you around. But both portals to the mortal realm have been closed.”

The angel hopped to their feet and started brushing the dirt off their knees. “Oh, I might be able to help with that. I was actually training to be a Virtue.”

Kaleb merely raised an eyebrow. Seeing Kaleb’s confusion, the angel’s face grew sad. “Are you not aware of the Choirs of angels?”

“Oh, you mean like cherubim, seraphim, and the Archangels?”

The angel’s face was smiling until Kaleb stopped. When it was clear that was the limit of his knowledge, the angel huffed.

“Angels are so much more than administrators, warriors and trumpeters. We hold within and contemplate the divinity of our Lord. We are the Lord’s children and we…”

“Real excited to hear the end of all of that, really. But can we focus on getting out of here?”

The angel huffed again and began straightening their shoddy robes in annoyance. “Fine. As it pertains to us escaping, may I at least inform you of my particular vocation amongst the Choir?”

“The short version, please. There are sludge monsters about.”

The angel waved off Kaleb’s words. “Oh, they’ll begin de-corporealizing here soon. With the master away, his dimension won’t have enough energy to hold itself together.”

“So, this realm is going to collapse?”

“Yes.”

“With us inside it?”

“Yes.”

“And that’s a very bad thing, yes?”

“Oh, most assuredly.”

“Then why the... fudge are you so calm?!” Kaleb shouted even as he looked around for signs of the realm coming apart.

The angel grinned, showing off a dazzling display of white teeth. “Because, as I said, I was training to be a Virtue. Virtues are masters of the Operations of the universes. We maintain the spaces between and are prodigious portal crafters. Crafting a way out of this dimension is a simple task for a Virtue.”

Kaleb sighed in relief until he recalled what the angel had said previously. “Wait, you said you were training to be a Virtue? Did you complete your training?”

“No. In fact, I was still within my first year. But I know the basics.”

Kaleb rubbed his eyes as he heard the rough movement of another sludge monster. Raising his Cybar, Kaleb spun on the spot and search for the beast. The angel hid behind Kaleb and worriedly asked.

“What is it?”

“Like I said, the demon’s Sludge army is still here. Their numbers are reduced and they don’t move quite the same. But they are still dangerous.”

“Dangerous!?” The angel’s face contorted in fear as he clutched Kaleb’s lab coat. “I believe we must hurry, then. I am not used to physical confrontations. We must flee this place.”

“Agreed.” Kaleb said and then waited for the angel to do something.

But the angel merely stood there, tugging away at Kaleb’s coat and staring back at him. They both gave each other exasperated looks until the angel explained.

“I need to be near the demon’s nexus of power in this realm. From there, I should be able to gather the energies I need to summon us a way out.”

“Okay… where’s that?”

The angel shrugged their shoulders, and Kaleb groaned. “You are really no help at all.”

“I beg your pardon. I’m a conduit for the Lord’s will.”

Kaleb fired a blast at a Sludge gremlin that had peeked at them from around a rock. The angel whimpered and clutched his coat tighter.

“Yeah… that’s great.”

Kaleb roughly tore the angel off his coat and started marching back toward the castle. It had been the focal point of the realm. So he figured if the demon was going to have a nexus of power. It would be there. Meanwhile, the angel hurried behind me, stammering and yelping at every shadow. Kaleb rolled his eyes and hoped that his party was having more fun with the demon.