“And what are you supposed to be?” Melissa asked. The moonlight illuminated the wrinkles and frown on her face. Her gaze was locked onto Palan. Tiny, red bolts of lightning snaked along her torso to the ground. “I noticed someone kidnapping our soldiers. Are you with the rebels?” She hadn’t received any reports of demons—other than the two that were already killed in the borderland—belonging to the rebel army.

“Are you an archangel?” Palan asked tilting his chin upwards so he was looking down on the old council member. He was already standing on top of a hill while she was at the base, but he didn’t feel like he was looking down on her enough.

“I am,” Melissa said with a curt nod. “I’m not a fan of torture, so why don’t you tell me what I want to know? I can give you a quick death if you do.”

“Have those words ever worked before?” Palan asked and raised an eyebrow. He opened a few pouches of poison and scattered their contents into the air, using his powers on the individual particles at the same time. The powder began to drift from his position towards the bottom of the hill in all directions.

“Pardon?” Melissa asked as her wrinkled forehead creased even further. “I just want to know if you are part of the rebels or not.”

“Yes,” Palan said and nodded. “I’m with the rebels, but I’m actually contracted to General Michael. He’s been using me to coordinate the rebel army better. He felt like there wasn’t enough fear going around the city, so he had me kidnap a few angels. I was going to return them limb by limb over the next few days.” By now, the green powder had reached three-quarters of the way down and was visible to Melissa. She frowned at it, not quite sure what it was.

“Impossible,” Melissa said as she walked around the base of the hill, attempting to avoid the traveling powder while keeping her eyes on Palan. She raised her hand and pointed at Palan, causing a red lightning bolt to fly towards his body.

Danger Noodle moved to intercept the blow, and Palan frowned as his tail began to feel numb. Although he had blocked Raea’s father’s lightning in a similar manner, this time, he actually felt it. The numbness traveled up his tail and down his legs, but Palan flexed his calves to stop the trembles and laughed. “Is that all?” he asked. “Michael’s lightning was ten times stronger than yours.” He grinned, showing his pointed teeth.

Melissa’s brow furrowed. Maybe this demon truly did know General Michael if he understood his powers. But knowing his powers didn’t prove anything. She continued to circle the hill, trying to get out of the poisons path, but found it was flowing down in all directions from the top. Her brow furrowed when she saw Justitia tied up and unconscious by the entrance of Palan’s hiding place, a cloud of poison approaching her. “Despicable,” Melissa said, sending a glare at Palan before running towards Justitia.

Faced with an archangel, Palan had actually forgotten about Justitia when he scattered the poison. He didn’t expect Melissa to charge into the poison to save the unconscious angel. He licked his lips while waiting for Melissa to emerge. He didn’t have to wait for long, and the old angel carried Justitia out before releasing the breath she was holding. Unfortunately, she didn’t know how potent the poison that came from Raea was—it didn’t need to be inhaled to be effective.

Melissa’s face blanched when the poison began to corrode her clothes and the bits of revealed flesh that made contact with the poison. She quickly stripped her robe before a white glow enveloped her palms. The glow did nothing to heal her own injuries, but Justitia’s face, which had turned green, returned back to its normal red hue when her body made contact with the glowing hands. “Just what kind of poison is this?” Melissa asked as her brow wrinkled. Her body felt like hundreds of ants were biting at her flesh.

Palan smiled at the archangel before enveloping his body with a black glow. He crouched, touching the tips of his fingers to the ground and jumped. Melissa frowned when she saw Palan’s body flying away from her with him still facing her. She had been expecting him to leap forward, but she quickly raised her hand, calling forth a dozen lightning bolts to fly towards him.

Palan sucked in his breath and increased the pull of gravity on his body, causing him to sink towards the ground. The lightning grazed him, singing the hairs on his head, but that was all. His nose wrinkled at the smell of burnt hair, but he kept his gaze locked onto Melissa. As far as he knew, angels of kindness couldn’t heal themselves. There shouldn’t be a way for the angel to expel the poison from her system by herself, but if she returned to the town, there might be an archangel who could stop it. He couldn’t let that happen. “You aren’t going to run away?” Palan asked, taunting the old angel. He tried to imitate Madison’s singsong voice that always succeeded in pissing him off.

Whether because of his jeering or because she came to the conclusion that she couldn’t save Justitia unless she killed Palan first, Melissa abandoned all thoughts of retreat. The clear sky began to crackle with red lightning, creating a red sky that was similar to a sunset. Melissa’s hair flapped violently even though there was no wind. Before, she had intended on extracting information from Palan, but now, she was fully intent on killing him. Only by killing him could she save herself and Justitia.

Palan’s eyes widened at the sight. Before, Raea’s father had been holding back out of consideration for the city. It was Palan’s first time seeing what an archangel of temperance could truly do. Melissa’s eyes rolled into the back of her head and revealed their whites as a massive face composed of lightning bolts appeared in the sky. The face opened its eyes and stared at Palan who was using Danger Noodle to dig a hole in the ground. The first thought that came to the demon’s mind was to get underground, but even then, he wasn’t sure if that would work. A hand formed of lightning emerged from next to the face and stretched its way down to the ground. Although it was composed of lightning, it didn’t move as fast, but it still would’ve reached Palan before he managed to get underground.

Palan cursed in his mind and urged his tail to dig faster. He watched the lightning hand approach and determined that he couldn’t escape its range even if he jumped away at full power. His brow furrowed as he looked for any way out and saw Melissa standing motionless with her eyes glazed over and lips slightly parted. The lightning would stop if he killed her, but there was no way that lightning avatar in the sky was going to let him reach her. He crouched down, picked up a rock, and threw it as hard as he could in a parabola towards Melissa’s head while using his powers to increase its acceleration. It probably wasn’t going to work, but he really had no other options.

The rock collided against the old angel’s forehead.