Chapter 35 — The Final Battle (Part 2)
Around 11 p.m. the fight became even more fierce than before. Eleazar was increasingly unable to keep up with the teleporting of the wounded. Maria and the angels also felt a slight panic—their makeshift hospital was filling up at an alarming rate, and as soon as one person left it, several other wounded appeared in their place. Fatigue and impatience with the still-uncertain result of the battle clearly troubled all those fighting. Tess, despite the support from others and short breaks, was slowly losing strength, and her shield was starting to let through some of the stronger mental attacks. Alice also felt very tired of constantly browsing through so many, often quite complicated, minds at once. Deborah returned quickly to the battlefield and, encouraged by her victory over Salvatore, fought as fiercely as ever.
Fortunately, the battle was still remarkably even. Everyone knew that, according to the prophecy of Joan Thomson, mother of Johnathan and the great Oracle, the fate of the battle lied in Selene's hands. If she dies, Alistair and his army will win, if not, the wizards and all good creatures will be victorious.
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When Alice heard thoughts that Marco was having problems with Johann and Chris, and that they are coming dangerously close to their destination, she immediately notified everyone in the tent.
"I'll go help him." Damon decided at once.
"Maybe I should go with you?" Alice offered.
"There is no such need." Damon replied. "Together with Marco, we'll be fine. You better keep an eye on Selene, and in the worst case take her to another dimension." he turned to Johnathan while saying the last words. Then Damon kissed his beloved on the cheek and left.
"We'll have to go further into the woods. I won't be able to open the portal here," Johnathan spoke up after a while, so everyone got up, left the tent, and headed towards a nearby clearing, where the conditions for opening the portal were perfect.
Damon, on the other hand, came across Marco disturbingly not far from the tent, in the middle of the woods. He fought there, turning into a firebird every now and then. Damon joined him quickly.
"What took you so long? Thought I would die here." Marco asked him a little indignantly as soon as he took his human form.
"I'm really sorry, Marco." replied Damon apologetically. "I'll take care of Johann and you take Chris." he added, Marco nodded his head in agreement and they both rushed to fight against their chosen opponents.
After less than five minutes, Marco and Chris disappeared behind the nearby trees. Damon fought Johann fiercely, breaking branches and knocking down trees around them.
Alistair watched the fight taking place near the tent thanks to his perfect eyesight. Seeing that Chris defeated Marco, knocking him down the valley, he telepathically called Johann so he would take control of their army for a while. At the same time, Damon, confused by the disappearance of his opponent, returned to the meadow.
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Chris blocked Selene and Alice's way to the meadow where Johnathan was waiting for them.
"And where are you going?" he laughed, seeing their terrified expressions.
"I know what you are thinking, but you will not succeed..." Alice hissed, ready to attack.
They rushed to each other quickly and immediately began to fight. Selene stepped aside, watching them fearfully. Unfortunately, after about fifteen minutes Alice had to give up, as Chris was too strong for her. She only managed to scream for Selene to run away, then was thrown against a nearby tree and passed out.
Chris followed the escaping Selene, chasing away and standing in her way.
"Leave me alone!" she screamed, looking at him in horror. At the same time, Selene tried to focus so that she could use her power when needed, however, felt that she might fail, for her head was so confused now that Selene could not concentrate on anything.
"I have an order to kill you and I will obey it." Chris replied, circling her, grabbing by the throat from behind and squeezing hard.
It was then that Damon reached the meadow from behind the trees, from the southern part of the forest. His gaze lingered on Chris, who, holding Selene, smiled at the sight of him.
"Leave her alone, now..." he drawled through his teeth.
"Forgive me, but I do not obey your orders, but Alistair's. Say goodbye to her." Chris replied as a fireball appeared in his hand and was about to hit Selene's stomach with it.
At this sight, Damon first felt a great anger inside, quickly turning into a fury. In an instant, an inhuman roar broke from his chest, and two huge black wings appeared behind his back, shooting upwards with a loud noise. Those wings were really huge, and as they fully developed, they began to beat the air with strong sweeping movements.
Marco, bursting into the meadow, looked at Damon with great fear, but taking advantage of the fact that Chris was also looking as charmed at the Damon's transformation, he snatched Selene from him and hid with her behind the trees, bumping into a half-conscious Alice who was just walking towards the meadow.
"What's this?" Selene asked, her voice almost breaking.
"Wrath of the Fallen Angel." replied Marco, clearly terrified by the name itself.
"How's that? After all, demons do not have such an attack..." Alice wondered, still too dazed to read his mind.
"Yes, but no one in the Underworld really knew who Damon's father was. His mother placed him in the care of Alistair, but did not revealed this secret even to him. He's too strong for a common demon of his age, so I, like everyone else, figured he must be a crossbreed... But it never crossed my mind that his father might be a Fallen Angel." Marco replied, looking at Alice.
Selene listened to this, staring at her lover in disbelief. So he was no ordinary demon, as she was different from the other sorceresses, Damon was also very different from his kin, therefore, their love had to be some kind of destiny.
In the meantime, Damon, with eyes full of tremendous fury, walked towards Chris, who was now paralyzed with fear. As Damon confronted his enemy, he made Chris writhe in agony by one breath, until he finally fell dead.
"And what was that?" Selene asked, her eyes fixed on Marco.
"Breath of Death. With this attack, every Fallen Angel is able to kill everything that lives. Moreover, such a being cannot be resurrected, and he will be invincible until the Wrath of the Fallen Angel wears off." Marco replied.
"And when will Damon's attack weaken?" Alice interjected, increasingly aware and interested in the subject.
"When Damon will throw all his anger out." Marco explained to them.
Damon finally threw a fireball at Chris, his body burst into flames and burned up instantly, leaving only ash. Then he flicked his wings and soared upward toward the valley and soon faced Alistair's army.
Alice, now fully recovered, communicated all this telepathically to her sister, and she in turn to the entire army of wizards. All on her advice stepped aside to avoid the Breath of Death.
Damon killed entire squads one by one, so Alistair ordered an immediate retreat. Only none of the vampires managed to escape, because they were standing at the very front. In total, only 140.000 of the 200.000 soldiers remained alive. 60.000 were killed, 20.000 of whom were vampires and 40.000 were demons. Everyone on the wizard's side was happy, because their chances were more and more equal with the opponent. In addition, the news that Alistair would not be able to resurrect the demons killed in this way gave rise to hope for a full victory.
Marco, Alice, and Selene went to Maria's "hospital," picking up Johnathan and Isabelle along the way and informing them of what had happened, as well as the angels who were helping Maria.
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Alistair couldn't believe his eyes when a transformed Damon appeared on the battlefield, killing more and more members of his army.
"How could I lose someone so precious? Someone with such huge opportunities? A Fallen Angel?" he asked himself.
Out of anger, Alistair wanted to uproot all the trees in the forest. His army was getting smaller and he couldn't help it, as normally could only resurrect members of his species, so he couldn't have saved the vampires anyway, but the thought that his gift was now useless even to demons was killing him.
Standing beside Alistair, Johann was just assessing the losses and feeling into Damon's emotional state.
"His anger is weakening... Damon will soon transform again and be weakened, and then our squad will attack him. They will do it so quickly that none of the wizards army will have time to react." he said, staring at Damon, who was slowly starting to revert to his former form.