They were surrounded on all sides. This particular contingency consisted solely of the red-skinned devils, all of whom were snarling and swinging their weapons in a threatening manner. Their muscles bulged against their minimal clothing, and Christian Jex could not but help see the humor in their uncanny resemblance to the cartoon devils on all of the shows he watched as a child, right down to the bull-horns on their head.
Best he could figure, these demons had disbanded during the Rheign and Blesmahj attacks, and were only now revealing themselves because one of their enemies had separated themselves from the pack. They were just taking advantage of the situation.
Jex looked at Summer, from whom the blood and saliva of the demon fell from as he helped her to her feet. She seemed shaken by the attack, but could not contain her excitement at his return.
“I thought you were dead!” she said, astonished.
“No,” Jex responded simply, keeping her close but holding his battle-axe and shield at the ready. “I left. But I’m back.”
He studied her face for a moment as she processed his response. He could tell that Summer knew that there was a lot he was not saying, but it seemed that right then, she did not care.
“I need to get out of here,” she said quickly. “Can you cut me a path to the fight?”
Jex looked at the circle of demons as it slowly began to converge.
“No problem.”
In quick succession, Jex formed in his hand a batch of knives, grabbed hold of one of Summer’s hands, and took off straight at the demons separating them and their path. The devils made to attack, and Jex cast forward his blades, few of which made contact with the demons but served their purpose in the slight distraction it took for the two of them to escape the circle. One monster leapt up to intercept them, but only succeeding in taking Jex’s axe in the chest as he pushed through.
Now free of their enemies, Jex held tight to the blind girl as they picked up speed in the direction of the battle. They were probably forty seconds from the others.
“What’s the plan?” he called to Summer over the rushing wind.
Summer said nothing, so Jex looked forward at the chaos. He could see that the others were slowly falling. He should not have left them, he knew that now. The man had made it clear what his purpose was in all of this, and he had berated himself every second since for his selfishness. He had simply wanted to just return to his family, but he now knew that he had a greater calling. One that involved his fellow Kehtayahn, the very ones that he could see slowly dying at the hands of the fallen angel.
Directly behind their melee, the air seemed to be torn in some sort of portal of flashing light and darkness. He had no idea what was happening, but it seemed that the others were trying to force this Nephilim into the portal, and it appeared they were failing.
Thirty seconds from their destination, Jex realized what Summer was about to do. The steel resolve on her face, the sense of urgency, the ever increasing speed. She planned on tackling this guy into the void. And by the look on her face, she was not looking forward to it.
“You’re going to knock him in, aren’t you?” he said in her ear.
Though her eyes were closed, he could still see the tears welling up in them. She did not respond, and this only affirmed things to Jex.
“What happens if you go into that thing?” Jex asked, though he was sure he already knew the answer. “There’s no coming out, is there?”
Twenty seconds from their target, Summer slowly shook her head.
Jex nodded and he could feel his throat tightening up. It had come to this because he was not there. They were a man short, and this whole suicide mission was a result of that. Had their forces been that much stronger, perhaps they could have won without resorting to this.
He had to make things right, of that he was sure.
Fifteen seconds.
“Peel off,” he told her, letting go of her hand. “I’ve got this.”
“It has to be me,” she replied, shaking her head. “That is what the Scroll said.”
“It was,” he replied. “This was your idea, wasn’t it? That was what you had to do. Now this is what I have to do.”
Jex knew that she was protected by her shielding, but he could not help but feel bad as he flew up underneath her and placed a hand on her stomach. Summer seemed confused for a moment until Jex gave her a mighty shove. Caught by surprise, Summer tumbled through the air, twisting and spinning into the sky and losing all sense of direction. Jex knew that there was no way she would recover in time to realign herself with the battle.
Ten seconds until impact, Jex made a decision. Almost on a whim he put his hand to his chest, and from his Weapon of Choice produced a pair of metal shoulder-pads. From these came forth long metal spikes, reminding Jex of some eighties rocker, but for a slightly different purpose. This was not for shock appeal, but inflicting maximum damage.
Five seconds away, a voice spoke into Jex’s mind.
{Get low,} grumbled the voice, and Jex figured this was one of the cats that he had not spoken with before. Summer must have relayed through her Blesmahj what was happening, and before him, probably two hundred yards away, the remaining fighters danced around the Naphal they were fighting and put themselves between him and the portal. They were obviously diverting his attention away from him, getting their opponent to turn his back to him. A twinge of guilt, something like unsportmanship, cut through him for a split second. As an avid soccer player, he knew the rules about striking your opponent in the back, but this was different, and he knew it.
Jex dropped as low to the ground as possible, skimming along the remnants of what he assumed were the Edifice of Elders. He had been there for the planning process, so he knew basically what had happened. They had destroyed the Edifice, but perhaps they had not killed Asmodeus like they had planned, because they were fighting a very bad dude at the moment, and it very well could have been him.
In those final few seconds, Jex said a prayer. He knew that they were far into the past, predating the birth of Christ, but it was still in His name he prayed. After all, hadn’t he been taught that He had been with the Father at the foundations of the earth?
“Jesus, into Your hands I commit my soul. Please forgive me for abandoning the others, and for my past transgressions.”
It was all he had time to pray before he made impact into the back of the angel. He had curved upward at the last second, hitting just below the outstretched wings in the base of his back. The spikes on his shoulders dug into the bare flesh, sinking in until the metal pad was flush with the skin. Jex heard a shatter as bones snapped like twigs under the impact, spine and ribs all suffering as Jex pushed through. Likewise, Jex felt within himself his shoulder crush under the metal pads, the pain of it intense but not unbearable.
His momentum barely slowed as he and his load rocketed forward, moving as fast as he could muster to prevent the Naphal from escaping his grasp. The portal was only about ten feet away, and they covered that instant in a fraction of a second. Faces blurred by, and Jex only wished that he had had time to apologize to them. But it was too late for that. He could now simply focus on the task at hand, though he was still aware of something grabbing his ankles as he blurred by. It was probably the others trying to slow his momentum, but there was no way they could stop him without potentially saving their enemy.
In that last fleeting moment, as the air around him went from that of a dark and dusty evening to a heat so intense his clothes burst in flames, Jex closed his eyes and let the fire consume him.