One
Noel's wings refuse to stay fully folded behind her as she strides down the marbled hall, empty save for her and one other who keeps in step beside her. Despite the hurried pace, her brother is still smiling over at her in a way she finds irritating.
"Why you?" she demands to know in a huff.
His response is a puzzled head tilt, even as his smile remains. "Why me and not you? Is that really what you're asking me?"
"Of course not," she sighs, and begrudgingly slows herself down a little. "Obviously not me. But there are plenty of other archons. How come Xost picked you?"
"He picked many of us," Niel points out. "Not just me. Why are you upset? It's only a change in my post, nothing else. Besides, how could anyone say no to the God of Death?"
She finally stops, turning to face him with a conflicted frown. "That's what concerns me. His domain has nothing to do with us."
"Nothing?" Niel repeats with a look of disbelief.
Noel sighs. "Not much. Just... whatever he wants with you and the others, promise me you'll be careful, alright? I don't like this."
Niel's wings, identical to her own, curl around so that the tips of his longer feathers brush against her own. "I won't be there forever. It's just like any other calling I've served, which means you'll still see me plenty."
That brings a tiny smile to her face. "Don't threaten me," she teases, but then turns her gaze back the way they'd just come, towards the shimmering silver portal that leads to Niel's new path forward, in the domain of Death himself. "I'm sorry. I'm making this much harder than it needs to be," she apologizes, offering her hand, which Niel takes gently before leading the way down the hall once more.
"Dont let Belphezar spread any rumors about me while I'm gone," he says as they pause before the portal. Noel swears she can feel a cold breeze drifting through from the other side, but she musters up a proper smile, squeezing his hand in hers briefly before letting his fingers slip free.
She watches him step back, his eyes on her even as he disappears through the doorway and she's left alone in the empty stone hallway. For a long moment, she stares at the swirling silver patterns before forcing herself to turn away, taking a breath to pull herself together. She still has her own duties to attend.
She takes one step before the air pulses violently, nearly throwing her to her knees as a shockwave rips through the space from behind. From the portal.
She whips around with wide eyes, her long dark hair falling partially in her face, but she ignores that. "Niel!" She screams her brother's name, watching the portal flicker erratically.
Echoing screams from above make her freeze as she's about to dash through, a muffled chorus of archons all crying out in fear, pain, and rage. Sounds of battle tell her that something terrible is happening. This is the Celestial Plane. No one should be able to attack them here.
Her purpose as a healer is to go to her family, keep them fighting as long as she can, but her feet remain frozen in place, one hand still outstretched toward the portal where her brother had just disappeared.
She can't abandon him.
With a guilt-ridden expression and a whimper of grief for what she might be allowing, she throws herself into the silvery gateway, feeling her surroundings morph and twist.
What greets her on the other side is darkness broken up by flashes of divine light struggling to break through the inky black void that seems to envelop the entire space. Blood and feathers litter the broken obsidian beneath her feet, and as she watches, a female archon warrior is slammed into the floor, cracking it even further.
She can't see what this is, but she knows the stench that fills the air all too well, a mixture of burning rock and ozone. Demons.
Noel races into the fray, eyes alight with the glow of her own divinity as she reaches out to every archon she can find. The glow of her palms adds to the little bits of light they have to see by. She mends what she can, a broken arm here, a torn belly there. All the while, she's searching for familiar white wings, feathertips black and blue.
It's a mess of chaos, and it doesn't take her long to realize that they're losing. Her brothers and sisters are falling faster and faster. It's all she can do to keep the remaining ones standing, and there are demons coming at them from all sides. She's taking damage as well, as she weaves through the battle, struggling to avoid daggers and claws and teeth. They know where to aim.
But then she sees him.
Niel is standing across the blackness threatening to drown them all, facing down the very source of it. A lake of impossible nothingness. A void that stretches beyond comprehension, and it's looking right at him with cold, icy blue eyes that open up in too many places to count.
One of his wings is missing. He's listing to the right and holding one of his blades with two hands, the other nowhere to be seen.
Noel stares, time slowing as she watches him turn his head to look over his shoulder, like he knew she was there.
And then the void surges forward, engulfing him within itself as it roars so loudly that the whole universe seems to shake.
Noel falls back, watching it rush overhead as a cacophony of noise accompanies it. Demons screech, her siblings wail, and the breaking of chains threatens to deafen her.
The sudden silence and stillness that follows feels unreal. All she can hear is her own breath as she stares up at a shining, obsidian ceiling she hadn't been able to see before.
Footsteps move slowly closer until a figure comes into view, looking down at her. Two small, curved horns emerge from short blonde hair, and violet eyes blink in amusement as a woman's voice purrs, "Oh look... One yet lives."
Still in shock, Noel can do nothing but stare up at the demoness, only able to see her brother taken by the darkness over and over.
The creature crouches down, her face coming into focus as she looks over the fallen archon at her feet with half interest. "Hm... Poor thing," she says softly, reaching out to brush a strand of hair away from Noel's face just before her other hand brings an ornate, jeweled dagger from her side and jams it straight into her chest.
Noel gasps, but everything is already fading. As darkness closes in, she's able to see the demoness stand and step over her body, the tip of a spaded tail being the last thing she sees.
