Zaedon, one of the Twins, and two of the jet-black dogs had fallen through the hole the stone giant had opened up with one blow, dropping four stories before finally smashing onto the floor with a heavy thud. A pile of debris came crashing down on them in the seconds that followed.

  Yala was the first to recover. He shook off the rubble and raised his head. He could feel one of the dogs between his legs. Since he’d lost his sword during the fall, he reached his hand into the rubble, tore the beast’s head off and cast it aside. Something else was moving under the debris. With two swift swipes of his hand, he cleaned the rubble off Zaedon’s body. The angel did not look good, but he was moving his head slowly. The expression on his face revealed he was in terrible pain, and his clothing was stained with blood in several places.

  “I’m all right,” he whispered in a barely audible voice.

  “I’ll help you,” Yala told him.

  The Twin grabbed him under his arms and lifted him out from under the rubble. Zaedon was no warrior, that much was sure. He had not taken an active part in the War because he’d been the assistant to the Justice whom Tanon had killed and who’d been replaced by Diacos when the Elder rewarded the Hero for defeating Satan. As an assistant, he had not even received combat training and was limited to only the most basic knowledge of both offensive and defensive runes. In spite of that, he’d done everything in his power to help Yala, not realizing that the last line of fire he’d traced between the Twins had weakened the entire structure of the defensive symbol Yala had created. That was why the giant’s stony fist had been able to blast through the floor with relatively little effort.

  The Twins had a special way of using runes to get themselves out of tight spots. They were the only ones who could create complex symbols by uniting traces drawn by either of the two. No other angel or demon was capable of doing anything like it. For a rune to function, it was crucial that its various lines be traced with the same force and intensity, forming a perfect whole. When two lines drawn by different angels mixed, the resulting rune would normally fall apart, having had no effect. Yala was different in that sense. One of the Twins could draw one part of a symbol and the other could complete it. This ability allowed them to create runes more quickly than anyone else as well as to trace extremely complex symbols that no one else was capable of reproducing—provided that they weren’t separated from one another.

  “We should go,” said Yala as he leaned over Zaedon.

  “Not so fast,” came a deep voice.

  A violent blow to the ribs launched the Twin against a wall. The angel landed face down.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “So it is Yala!” said a second voice, feigning surprise. “Where’s your better half?”

  The angel heard the as-yet unidentified demon heading straight toward him, so he calculated his exact position while trying to catch his breath. He’d been hit so many times already. Now he’d have to face two new enemies unarmed and without the other Twin. He stood up, his shoulders squarely facing where he’d determined his adversary would be. His calculations were excellent; he crashed into the demon, knocking him back nearly thirty-five feet. Then he used his momentum to somersault across the floor, avoiding a semicircle of flames the other demon had thrown out.

  He was now between the two enemies. The one he’d knocked down got back up, menacingly wielding his fiery sword. They were slowly closing in on him from both sides. Yala needed to shorten the distance between himself and one of them to keep them from attacking him at the same time, so he threw himself at the one he’d just knocked over. The demon drew an arc of fire that hit Yala in the shoulder but it did not slow his advance. The Twin landed in front of him, jumped to one side as he ducked under the blade of the sword and struck the demon in the stomach with one of his wings. The demon fell backwards through the door of the freight elevator and tumbled downward until smashing into the floor at the bottom.

  It took the other demon a moment to react to the unexpected attack. He cast out another arc of flames, aiming at Yala’s back between his wings—the most vulnerable spot on an angel—but Yala jumped out of the way. The fire hit him in the leg, knocking him down and opening a deep cut in his thigh.

  The demon stared in shock as the wound almost instantly closed itself up with a bluish glow. There was no Healer present, so he could find no explanation for why the cut had vanished that way. However difficult it was to believe, Yala’s thigh was perfectly intact. The bluish light had healed him completely.

  Determined to finish him off without giving him the chance to so much as take a breath, the demon ran toward Yala, his sword raised above his head. The Twin was still face down on the floor after having been struck in both the shoulder and the leg, and being that he was still unarmed, there was no better time to end this once and for all.

  Yala turned over and started to get up to face his attacker. He had one knee still on the floor, just at the edge of the elevator shaft his first enemy had fallen through. The demon was running full out toward him. Still kneeling, the Twin stretched his arm back, his hand palm up, through the hole in the freight elevator. Now it was just a question of calculating the right moment. A fraction of a second too late and all would be lost. His adversary was just a few yards away from him, raising his sword even higher, preparing for the definitive blow that would end Yala’s life.

  When the demon was exactly a yard away from him, something fell through the hole in the freight elevator, leaving a yellow trail behind on its descent and creating a sharp hissing sound as it rushed through the air. The Twin felt the weight of his sword as it fell into his hand. He grabbed it forcefully and raised it in a flash.

  The demon stared in disbelief at Yala’s sword, having no idea where it had come from. Just a moment before, he’d been unarmed. But it was too late to stop his advance.

  Yala split him in two with a single slash.