An Angel’s Road to Hell

Cassandra Pendragon

I had never been the most patient, nor had I ever cared much for waiting until someone else could force my hand. As soon as I got the chance I’d try to find an ally and if I failed, well, I’d hope that I could actually face all of them for as long as the gate would remain open. Preferably without any lasting repercussions. For now, though, I had to wait and watch the show.

Horus’ battle cry was still lingering in the air when Seth transformed. Swirls of darkness and red energy, the colour similar to a sunset over the desert, covered his form and when they dispersed, he wasn’t a man anymore. A gargantuan jackal with wings of fire and shadow on his back crouched where he had stood a moment before. Even across the distance and over the piercing death cries of the battling shadow creatures, I heard and felt the low rumbling in the air when he growled and made ready to face his brothers. Horus, who had already risen several dozens of metres into the sky, whirled around, a golden nimbus surrounding his body and weapon while wings of metal sprouted form his back. Like a falling star he descended onto the beast, his weapon held ready to strike. Seth didn’t even attempt to dodge, instead he opened his maw wide, revealing the smouldering flames that danced between his obsidian teeth. I saw his muscles ripple when he prepared to jump to meet his brother head on.

An explosion of golden light and flickering shadows followed, forcing me to avert my eyes for moment and when I had blinked away the distorted afterimages, Seth had managed to catch Horus between his teeth. An ear piercing scream escaped the hawk’s beak, filled with pain and hatred, blowing away the debris and dust their initial collision had catapulted into the air. The tendons along the jackal’s snout stood out as he tried to squeeze the life from his brother, to rip him to shreds in the hellish meat grinder of his jaws. Horus’ scream was drawn out when he felt the crushing pressure but before Seth managed to bite through his armour or swallow him whole, the third brother joined the fray.

I had been much too focused on the fight to realise that Sobek had transformed as well. Instead of his scholarly appearance, he was now a towering giant with ebony skin, clad in a cuirass of shimmering crystals. His right hand was wrapped around a white staff, intricately designed runes running along its length, topped off with a huge gem that shimmered faintly in greens and blues. His head was still that of a crocodile but now his eyes were shining with the same colours that radiated from the gem and his scales seemed more like dark, green jewels.

A casual step made him flicker out of my perception before he reappeared in front of the towering jackal, his staff raised high above his head. With bone crushing force he brought his weapon down, aiming for the side of the neck. When he struck, a second explosion of light, even brighter than the first one, followed. Seth howled in pain and dropped his brother but to my surprise, despite the powerful attack, I couldn’t see a wound. Sparks and smoke were rising from where he had been a hit, but his skin remained intact and as far as I could tell, there was nothing broken but he still had opened his jaws and dropped Horus, who immediately winged back and out of range.

Strange. In a way it seemed like Seth had reacted to the pain Sobek’s attack had caused but that didn’t make any sense. They weren’t corporal, I knew that much. Either their structure, their essence was damaged, or it wasn’t. I couldn’t imagine that they’d experience pain the same way the living did. Admittedly, since they were born from the imagination of a living people, it was still possible that they’d adhere to the same rules but I thought it highly unlikely, especially after all the uncounted years they had been imprisoned here.

It wasn’t much but it still bugged me enough to ignore the flashy lights and look more closely at what they were actually doing. They weren’t too far away, coming from the four corners of the realm, they had met pretty close to where I was, maybe a couple of hundred metres from my position. With my enhanced vision it would have been easy enough to make out most of the details if their continuous struggle hadn’t obscured their forms regularly.

After Sobek had freed his brother, he hadn’t abandoned his charge and with a lithe movement jumped on the back of the distracted jackal. Blue and green swirls circled around the gem on top of his staff before he brought it down again, square across Seth’s head this time. And while the ensuing light show was impressive, I wondered why he’d clobber him over the head instead of stabbing downwards, embedding the staff in his brother’s flesh. Surely that would have been much more effective. Still, the jackal twitched and even appeared to loose his footing, his front legs giving in. When he hit the ground, Horus came rushing in again, righteous fury written across his regal features. With an earth splitting strike he aimed to decapitate his crouching brother but again, aside from flashes of light and the the thundering roar of the jackal, nothing happened.

Seth had somehow managed to turn to the side, the descending copis glancing off his shadowy hide. With an explosions of strength he dislodged Sobek, who was sent flying, and unfurled his wings, preparing to launch himself into the air. Flames danced across his wings and back and with a mighty leap he catapulted himself towards his hawk headed brother. An embodiment of rage crashed into the golden god and both tumbled through the air, biting, pecking and clawing at each other.

Their struggle prevented them from flying properly and with an impact that shook the earth, even where I stood, they struck the ground. Shadows, flames and golden light exploded outwards, the ferocious display left after images dancing before my eyes while the shockwave blew my hair back and made me stumble. When I had blinked the distorted images away, Seth was atop of his brother, acid saliva dripping from his a red fangs, ready to bite him in half.

Similar to the last time they had clashed, Sobek intervened. He couldn’t fly but with a powerful jump he still managed to cross the distance form where he had fallen and attacked Seth from behind. His staff was now completely sheathed in blue and green, as if he was holding onto a piece of the ocean and it struck Seth’s back, just between his wing sockets, a hammer that had found its nail. I cringed in sympathy, a long forgotten pain creeping across my own back and I curled my wings reflexively around myself, a reaction to an injury I couldn’t remember anymore.

Seth’s wings became limp and with a growl he threw Horus away like a discarded toy and turned around. His eyes, smouldering coals in his bestial face, sparked with unrestrained hatred as he opened his maw wide, ready to swallow Sobek whole. The crocodile man didn’t wait for that to happen, his silhouette flickered and he disappeared, obsidian fangs cutting through the air where his head had been an instant before, to reappear by Horus’ side, his staff held at the ready. Despite their seemingly unrestrained fight, none of them was even limping and Seth got to his feet with one fluid movement, a snarl on his face.

You may call me paranoid, but I was becoming more suspicious by the second. If any of those strikes had truly hit with the force they appeared to contain, there would have been some form damage visible on their bodies, but except for Seth’s slobber that was dripping down from Horus’ beak and wings they remained unscathed. And if they were truly invulnerable down here, why would they even bother with fighting in the first place? We’re they dense enough to not have learned over centuries? It didn’t add up.

Still the three brothers made ready for another round, Horus flexing his wings while Sobek and Seth crouched, ready to throw themselves towards each other once again. If I hadn’t been highly attentive, I would have only seen a battle of titans when they charged, staff and copis raised high to meet the onslaught of darkness and flames. Clouds of fire collided with swaths of bluish energy, golden spears of light were swallowed by a wall of shadow and amidst it all, the three brothers pommeled each other with reckless abandon.

A flurry of movement, a resounding crash and Horus threw Seth to the ground, his hooked sword following only an instant behind to dig deep into the jackal’s flesh while Sobek turned into a crushing wave of water and slammed against the beast’s body. Light gathered around the descending arch of gold, headed for the prone god’s head and I pushed more energy into my eyes and brain until time seemed to slow down.

In perfect detail I saw the blade cut through the air, closer and closer it got with a whistling sound my ears just barely picked up across the distance. Enchanted water swirled around Seth’s limbs, restraining him and I would have sworn that he was done for. Alas, I’d have lost my money. At the very last second, Horus turned his sword so that the flat side connected with his brother. Just before the impact, Seth’s hide was glowing with a dull red and a contained wave of power pulsed form him, blowing up the obsidian around them. Sobek’s water sparked with iridescent light and Horus’ whole body shone more brightly than the sun for an instant.

I couldn’t see through the glare and when I regained my vision, the three had again separated, without a wound to show for their troubles but I wasn’t paying attention to them anymore. This last bit of play acting had just been too much for me to swallow. There was no way he’d been able to get out of harm’s way, if Sobek and Horus hadn’t allowed it. They were putting on a show, but for whom? There was only one possible answer: me. But if so, they’d have to know that I was here and I couldn’t possibly imagine why they should want me to watch them fight… a distraction? But why? What was the purpose?

I completely ignored the flashy lights and impressive explosions they made to truly look around. The first thing I noticed was, that the armies of beasts, which were devouring each other, were apparently not faking, twitching limbs and what I suspected was something close to blood, were covering the ground all around them and the terrified screams that always followed on bloodthirsty barks were much too familiar. Pure horror, fired by the realisation that the end was neigh couldn’t be faked. Crocodiles tore through jackals, while winged creatures, a mixture of hawk and horse, dove from the sky to plunge out eyes and sometimes even rip off heads. Large desert dogs threw themselves forwards, biting and howling in a rabid frenzy and wherever they wrestled another beast to the ground, a fountain of gore erupted. Their numbers were dwindling before my eyes, the fight to the death slowly consuming them, turning them into blood, ash and the mortified whisper of a soul that was returning to its hellish place amongst the bones of this realm. It was brutal, wrong and possibly nothing more than part of a play and I felt disgusted, but for the moment I was worried about something else. Where had Isis and her pets gone to? The shadow beasts that had held back had disappeared and I couldn’t see the winged woman anywhere, either.

Slightly worried I turned on the spot, searching for the fluttering of her butterfly wings or the stalking darkness of one of her pets but I didn’t find a trace. What was going on? My eyes darted towards the gate and my heart rate spiked, I feared Isis might have used my distraction to get close and slip through. The whirling wheel of stolen life and crackling lightning was unchanged, still drawing in energy from the realm, like a dimensional leech. There was no movement close by, nor did I see her beasts, which I would have expected to guard the portal if her mistress had gone through. No, she was still here, the question was where and what was she up to?

This whole situation was starting to feel like a trap, even though I couldn’t imagine how that was possible, unless… had the spider betrayed me after all? To her worst enemies, none the less? Well, self proclaimed worst enemies. Except for an obscure legend, narrated by a young dragoness who had probably been only half listening when her father had told the story, I only had the word of Shassa herself that she loathed them. Admittedly, it fit with what I had seen in Amon’s past, but there were also other explanations for what I had witnessed. And I didn’t even know for sure why she had been imprisoned here. What if she had been in league with the gods all those years ago? It would also explain why their statuettes had been kept so far away from her prison and why her sentence had been this cruel. Damn it, had I been played, in the future as well as in the past? If that was the case, she should better hope that whatever she had planned worked, otherwise I’d tear her to shreds as soon as I could get out of here.

Which made me think… should I flee? If I was wrong and fled, I’d allow the seed to activate, dooming my friends alongside the dwarfs and children. If I was right and stayed, I might never leave and everyone would still die under the hands of an all powerful psychopath and her allies. Lovely, just lovely. At least I didn’t have to worry about how I might be able to tempt Isis into helping me without anything to offer. I didn’t know for sure, but that ship probably hadn’t sailed, it had crashed and burned.

As if to illustrate that it could always get worse, and add insult to injury the gate suddenly transformed. The fiery energy, leeched from the souls of this place, exploded outwards, followed by a wave of electric blue light. Everything in its path was obliterated, a massive crater formed below the portal, the obsidian simply disappeared as if an invisible giant had taken a bite out of the ground. Just before the shockwave reached me, I saw it envelop some of the fighting creatures and they too vanished, like they had never even existed.

I wanted to teleport, to move out of the way but even my enhanced perception and reflexes weren’t fast enough to save me. My vision turned blue, sparks of power danced along my limbs and I felt a sudden vertigo when I was picked up like a toddler and carried along with the raging storm. I felt its power gnawing at my body as I tumbled through the air but I resisted, the magical onslaught much less of a problem than my uncontrolled fall. At least until I heard a faint whisper in the cacophony of energy and wind:

“Those statuettes have never been my greatest creation, the constructs within are. I told you before, this was never meant to be a prison, but a lifeline. You shouldn’t have let me touch you. Goodbye, Cassandra. For your sake, I hope that you won’t open your eyes again. Now sleep.”

Shassa’s poison, the tingling in my fingers, no! Panic raced through me but it was immediately swallowed by a heavy lethargy that flowed through my limbs. Even while I was hurtling across the sky with flashes of light all around me, my eyes became heavy, my worries fled and I had to struggle to remember where I even was. I tried to flush my veins with power, to burn away the poison that had activated in my blood, but my thoughts had already become sluggish and I could barely muster enough willpower to keep my wings materialised.

The rush of pain and adrenaline when I collided with something hard and unyielding gave me a moment of clarity. Blinking, I recognised Horus, Sobek, Seth and Isis standing around me in a circle, determination and hope etched across their features. Behind them, the portal was pumping energy into the realm and with a gesture, Isis commanded a part of it into her hand, sheathing it in electrical blue. When she punched me in the face, my head fell back and darkness claimed me.