Chapter 20: Unresolved Issue - Part 2

Gabriel breaks the tense silence, questioning Camael's actions.

"W... What are you doing!?"

[Pluck!]

Camael pulls the blade out of Jophiel's skull, causing the lifeless body to lie at the table and blood to spill out. The ruby liquid drips off the table as Camael turns to face the remaining Archangels, displaying a crooked smile.

[Zing!]

Camael's act is sinful and earns him a strike from a glaive aimed at his heart. He dodges the deadly strike by dashing to the middle of the table and then backflipping to the other side.

"I'll kill you," Raphael, with his cutlass aimed at Camael, states with a hoarse voice filled with anger and hatred. His determined face shows his intent, and the other Archangels dare not look at him.

"Raphael, wait."

[Boom!]

Raphael's attack splits the sacred table in half. Although Jophiel's dead body is pummeled to the ground, Raphael believes that striking his enemy down is the highest level of order and must be done. Everyone jumps out of their seats when the horrific scene unfolds, and they find themselves unable to comprehend what has just happened.

Raphael, however, goes straight for the kill. The attack causes debris to smoke the room, posing two problems. Raphael can't locate the murderer, and everyone else is vulnerable to a sneak attack.

[Fwooosh!]

A small but fatal arrow, coated with poison, abruptly shoots from the smoke. Raphael anticipates the attack as he knows that Camael carries two different weaponized wrist attachments that serve as a blade on his right and a mini-bow on his left.

After all, everyone knows what everyone else is armed with. Their names and roles are not the only things that bond them together. Relationships and organized teamwork are the main reasons God chose them.

When the arrow reaches Raphael, he parries it away using the backend of his brand while at the same time positioning it for a direct throw. Judging from where the dart comes from, he throws it, praying that it lands right on his mark.

The glaive stands firm as if it is stuck to something, and Raphael hopes it is any part of Camael's body. His hopes prevail when a pair of hands seem to grab hold of it and pull an entire body upward. The person is launched into the air out of the mist, straight towards Raphael, who is armless at the moment.

"Hahahaha! Another one to go!" Camael wails hysterically with the blade completely unveiled.

Camael's body flies to the side after an instantaneous hit right by his hip, done by Gabriel, thus saving Raphael from a miserable end. While Gabriel goes after Camael to entrap him, Raphael follows, retrieving his weapon, and making sure that he does not throw it again.

After a couple of rolls, Camael regains his stability at the end and tries to crawl away until a rapier pounds a piece from the broken table in front of him, halting his retreat. When he attempts to go backwards, the 'killing intensive' glaive is already on his tail.

"This is where you die!" Raphael shouts and lifts his cutlass to stab the sprawling enemy. Disappointingly, Gabriel's swift hand manages to cease the strike by holding onto its spine. "Gabriel, the heck!?"

"Calm down, Raphael. Don't let the cursed emotion control who you are," Gabriel reasons. "We need answers. More than anything else."

Another arrow shoots from the smoke, but this time Gabriel deflects it with his sword. The Archangels are now in a defensive position, waiting for Camael's next move.

Another hidden dart shoots from Camael's hand as he sees the chance to take down at least one of them, aiming for Gabriel. After all, Gabriel's sympathetic nature makes him vulnerable to enemies and friends alike.

Before the arrow can find its target, Raphael quickly acts and pulls Gabriel towards him, letting the shaft fly centimetres away from his ear. Still airborne, the arrow continues its momentum and hits the only light source in the entire room, the mystic crystalline.

The crystal acts like a big chandelier, lighting every corner of the room. The room can be considered big, but putting a light source in each corner could be referred to as a hassle. Though there is no such thing that can be called a 'hassle' for the builder.

As the minerals shatter bit by bit, a distortion of light fills the room. As the bits and grains fall, the room becomes darker and darker. It is too dark for any naked eye to see.

"Still, believe in peaceful negotiation?" Raphael whispers sarcastically in the dark.

"I know," Gabriel replies. It is hard for him to accept the reality they all have to go through now.

"Any plans? Because we can't see."

"Pass me your glaive."

"Mind if I ask why?" This conversation takes place while both of them hug together in the pitch-black darkness.

"If he tries to escape, an available option is the main door. Once he opens it, the light will come through revealing a silhouette of him, and I'm going to cast this right at him." Gabriel explains, trying to keep it short.

"Do you think you can make it?" Raphael asks, not meaning to pry about his capabilities.

"I will make it," Gabriel reassures.

As they wait for a light to emerge, they pray. Praying is something they excel at, apart from all other tasks they do. They pray for their safety and wellness. They pray for a good ending for every decision. They pray to the God who has seemingly abandoned them.

Amid the darkness, Uriel calls upon the holy brilliance that radiates all hope, using his magical staff to astride the divine lustre.

"God is my Light," he declares, manifesting a light orb to clear the righteous path whenever he needs it. As the darkroom immediately turns bright, Raphael and Gabriel quickly bring themselves up to relieve their worry.

No one, and no one, can describe how happy they are to be able to see again. But the tranquillizing moment is cut short when a shadow dashes past in the furthest region of Gabriel's eye, and he instinctively launches his glaive as fast and hard as he could. He did not have time to see his target, but with the sound it makes and the scream he hears, he can smile proudly now.

[Shluck!]

"Aaaahhhh!" Camael cries in pain as his right leg is now severed from the main body. With only one leg to support and balance him, he crashes unstylishly, leaving a trail of blood that seems to be endless.

Lifting the missing open leg, Camael clutches it with both hands trying to contain the remaining blood from escaping. To his demise, his right leg is joined by two generous new friends, both of his hands, as they are now also decapitated by Raphael this time.

"WWWWaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!"

It is a safety measure that Gabriel and Raphael have to take; otherwise, it could cost them their lives again. Now that the cutlass' blade is smeared with unwanted liquid, Raphael sheaths it, and the solution is unbound to thin air, then drops to the pool of ichor underneath it.

"Explain yourself, Camael," Gabriel lawfully ejects. "You don't belong here anymore."

"To be Jophiel's cause of death," Raphael heartedly adds, glancing at where Jophiel's remains are being taken care of by Uriel. "There is nothing worthier than the death penalty itself."

"I... It... W... Wa... Wasn't... Me," Camael mumbles in his dying breath.

"Wasn't you?" Raphael gets enraged by Camael's ignorance. "Then who did this if it's not you!? Rather than letting you die slowly, I'm going to kill you myself!"

"Calm down, Raphael," Gabriel locks both of Raphael's arms, preventing him from calling out his glaive. "It won't change a thing even if you do it."

"Ugh! Fine," Accepting defeat, they watch as Camael's death door pulls him inside. To think that anyone is immortal in the Afterworld, it is sad to think that they all have been fooled all this time.

"I... I'm... innocent," Camael leaves out his final word, and it shocks both Gabriel and Raphael. A ring of light that travels from the lower part of his body divulges a hideous truth. When the light passes a place, it shows the real image behind it, as if there is a camouflage cloaking the real person.

Camael's clothing changes to the fullest, almost making him look like a different person. And the most horrific part of it, when the ring passes the head, it was not Camael's head that is attached to the carcass. It was Zadkiel's face that holds the final piece of the puzzle.

[Thluuck!]

Gabriel and Raphael turn their heads just in time to witness a gruesome sight - Uriel is being impaled by a huge trident that lifts him off the ground. The force of the attack causes the light orb to fade away as the creator disappears.

As the light dies out, Gabriel can swear that the murderer is none other than Zadkiel, who looks like a spitting image of the dead person beside them.