0043 The Battles During the Fall

*"Oouth! My back! I can't move!"*.

*"Stay calm! Let's pull you back!"*.

Sara and Lucius were leaning against the edge of the precipice at the entrance to the cave trying to pull Alcione inside, the Father tried to climb back up a few seconds ago, but some back pain stopped him, probably due to the excess action he'd been involved in for the last few hours.

Jenany was standing in the back, anxiously trying to think of something that might help the situation, until an idea popped into her mind.

*"Hold on tight, Father Alcione!

Hold the Father, let me approach him...

... Miracle! Heal and Rest!"*.

By bending down with the others, she managed to place a hand on his back, a gray light radiated from her hand and spread over Alcione's body.

The expression of pain and anguish on the Father's face was replaced by an expression of relief and he felt the strength return to his body, with a more determined look returning to his face, he made a bigger effort and started to climb back toward the entrance.

*"What is that? They look like mutant werewolves..."*.

*"What? Mutant werewolves? What does that mean?"*.

Lucius saw the movement of the human beasts running towards them, his words left everyone confused, but it didn't stop everyone from looking strangely at the newcomers.

*"Be careful!!"*.

As Lucius was the first to notice the 'mutant werewolves', he watched everyone's movement carefully, quickly he noticed the arm movement of one of them, a white object came flying, and on impulse, he pushed Sara and Jenany back.

*"Aargh!"*.

*"What was this?"*.

With one arm still outstretched after pushing the two that fell to the ground, a kind of white spike pierced Lucius' left shoulder, Jenany was startled when she asked what that was, the thorn must have been a little over 40 centimeters and went through his shoulder, getting stuck in the middle.

Alcione, still hanging by the strength of his two arms, realized that if it weren't for Lucius, such a projectile would have hit one of the two girls fatally, he stood his ground and began to study a way to protect everyone.

Lucius, feeling the pain of having his shoulder impaled, had his facial expression completely changed to hate, he ignored the wound and the pain, and looked at the distant attacker, he expected a wave of attacks from the newcomers, but his expression relieved as he realized that the attacker was punched by his fellow mutant werewolf, almost falling over the precipice.

^"It must have been the move made by a completely clueless and unprepared idiot..."^.

*"Let me heal you!"*.

*"Young people, don't forget me here!"*.

*"Jenany, just help stop the pain and bleeding, we don't have much time!"*.

*"Right!"*.

With a serious look, Jenany went to Lucius' side and removed the spike attached to his shoulder, and quickly began to heal him.

Sara went back to helping Father Alcione, and the newcomers were already close enough for the four of them to hear her screams.

*"Moron! I said catch them! I didn't say kill them!"*.

*"But they are from the church..."*.

*"But nothing! Listen to the eldest! Get some of that dirt and stubbornness out of your ears!"*.

The argument echoed in the air, as soon as Lucius felt better, he took out the backpack that now had one of the handles destroyed by the projectile, and tossed it to Jenany to hold, Jenany nodded as she looked at Lucius who hopped with difficulty to the lower entrance.

*"Father, I will use my shoulders for you to support your feet! Try to climb!"*.

*"Alright young Lucius...

... But listen to you three, prepare to go down, I will cancel my skill that is trapping the Watcher Jardel, and I will use another skill to protect us from these men..."*.

During his speech, Alcione felt his feet being supported and easily managed to climb back to the entrance, his hands were already glowing with green light and he quickly touched the ground again.

*"Prague! Living Roots!"*.

*"Hey! Are you the Marquis' daughter? What are you doing here with these church people?"*.

Roots sprouted from the ground and began to spread, but the group of twenty men were now just under 50 meters away from them, and the oldest of the group recognized Sara.

Lucius tried to look at the Werehyenas, but from his current position, stones from the overhead passage blocked his view.

As for Sara, Alcione and Jenany, both of the three looked at the newcomers again, and Sara began to feel relieved to finally find someone who knew her and could help.

^"Finally... This will all end..."^.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt the ground begin to vibrate slightly, Father Alcione looked inside the cave and saw the white light appearing, his eyes widened making Jenany and Sara notice the light growing towards the three of them.

Not far away, the men saw the frightened look of the three, but they didn't stop running on their four limbs, and as soon as they came within 10 meters of them, preparing for a leap into the cave, the light came and blinded them all.

In the cave below, Lucius didn't understand what had happened, he felt the ground vibrate, dirt and dust fell on top of him, and when the light took over everything, the vibration came all at once like a heavy blow.

Everyone heard the emotionless voice resonating inside their minds.

*"Punishment. Diocolpo's Aura."*.

Brrough!! Craack!!

Everyone there felt the change in gravity as the heavy blow threw them up and sideways, the white light lasted no more than a single second, and the new sight was shocking.

They were flung into the air, and along with them, chunks of rock larger than themselves were flying off the wall.

*"Rescue them! Don't let them fall!"*.

The voice of one of the men wandered in the midst of all the confusion, they started jumping over the stones, looking to save themselves from the fall, and some went towards those who could not react, trying to save them.

Sara was the first to be rescued mid-air, one of the Werehyenas jumped between one of the rocks beside her and hugged her, during the fall, it was impossible to think straight and analyze every detail, so he just used as much strength as he could and tried to jump back into the cave, which was now a big hole in the wall at the precipice.

Alberto and Jenany were rescued soon after, Alcione's Living Roots managed to trap some of the stones next to their bodies, and because of that, they weren't thrown very far, three of the Werehyenas managed to catch them.

The others just kept climbing while helping some unconscious friends, and two Werehyenas looked at each other quickly as they realized that Lucius was flung much further than they could reach, so they continued up, jumping between the falling rocks.

In a few seconds, they all jumped into the cave, and each of them got a new surprise upon entering, apparently many underground passages had collapsed, when they fell inside the cave, the entire floor collapsed again, and so they all rolled down for an indefinite amount of time.

**************************************************

As soon as he opened his eyes, Lucius saw that his body was spinning in the air with large chunks of rocks nearby, feeling the adrenaline rising in his body, he stretched his arm trying to grab one of the rocks, but his hand grazed the rock next to him, he spun more than he should and slammed his body hard into another rock.

The wound on his shoulder opened up again, the healing he received was very superficial, but he didn't spend more than a second of his attention on it, and tried to hold on to the rock he had bumped into.

This time he was successful, the fall still didn't stop accelerating, fear gripped him, and he tried to use his faltering strength to jump up, but he soon realized that it was useless and he barely rose a few centimeters and continued in free fall.

"Fuck! Fuck! I refuse to die again! Motherfuckers!

Now that I found a place that motivated me to discover everything and change the world around me!

The will to create! The desire to develop something new!

Fuck! Fuck that shit! I will create something!".

From the moment he started to fall to the present moment, no more than 12 seconds of fall had passed, the distance to the ground was still far, but the few remaining kilometers of fall would not last more than another 10 seconds.

The mountain must be just over 5 kilometers high, the spot everyone was at was just over 3 kilometers above the ground, all of which wouldn't give him more than 24 seconds total to drop to the ground.

Lucius went mad in pure hate, he started cursing at the thought of everything he would like to discover, learn and create in this new world, he didn't notice, but his vision gradually took on a different color, instead of the monotony of the various shades of grays and browns of the environment in the local dimness, his vision was colored with a light touch of violet color.

Grabbing and kicking all the rocks close to him, he battled gravity trying desperately to climb, until from his eyes, a violet light glowed like neon, and then everything went out for him.

**************************************************

Opening his eyes again, Lucius was sitting in the middle of the darkness, he was completely naked, and most importantly, he saw himself in his original body, he was startled and quickly stood up looking around in search of something relevant.

"Fuck! Did I really die?".

Indignantly, he walked through the complete darkness, but soon realized that the place was a little familiar.

"Shit!".

Hands appeared in the dark space and came flying towards him with their nails ready to hurt him, within seconds he found himself surrounded by hundreds of hands.

"Get the fuck out of here! I'm not in the mood for this!".

The hands advanced towards him, and he started to beat them trying to push them away, at other times he bit the hands that tried to scratch his face, and once again, a battle began to develop within the darkness.

**************************************************

"Ufa! I almost can't catch you!".

"What? Where I am?".

"Of course we are in the City of Ashes! Thomas! You came to play with that bunch of people and you didn't invite me! I will be upset with you!".

"Uhm? Oscar? What happened?".

In the air, an Oscar made of smoke with a deformed body held Thomas hugging his waist as he flew upward, Thomas was having a bad headache and couldn't remember how he got there, and hearing Oscar's words, he was very confused.

"I only agreed to bring those annoying uncles to the mountain because you said you'd meet me at the warehouse...

... And when I arrive, I see you playing around here with other people... Aah, don't forget...

... After today we will be cousins! You'll have to spend more time playing with me, or you'll become a boring uncle in a few years...".

"Wait! The ceremony is today? What's going on, I don't remember a thing! Who was I with?".

"I don't know them, but I talked to two of them a few minutes ago, one I think was called Maycon and the coolest of them was Jeffrey...

... There's a girl who looks like Sara too, but I haven't seen her up close...".

"Take me to them! I need to know what's going on!".

"Stop moving! I'm too far from my body, I'm almost disappearing here!".

"It's OK! I stopped! Where are they?".

"Up there! Inside that hole! Playing tag with the church...".

"Up there? What?!!".

Looking up, looking for the hole Oscar mentioned, Thomas widened his eyes as he saw the state the precipice wall was in, he knew what the wall looked like very well, for he was used to such a sight.

The wall was not completely uniform, it had some undulations further in and out of the center of the mountain, and horizontally, it had many flaws or bulges, in addition to the various entrances to the caves within it.

But now, in the middle of one side of the wall, a large entrance like a long vertical cut met there, and in the middle of the cut, a large horizontal opening like a mouth full of teeth, was really a big hole.

**************************************************

"Watch out!!".

As soon as Freddy felt the pressure of the vibration collide with his Protective Aura, he yelled at everyone to be careful, but the impact of the pressure was too strong and knocked everyone back.

When the white light faded, darkness took over, only the areas lit by the bodies of various Angels and the Watchers' abilities could be seen, and besides, all were falling, some rolling, the sound of collapsing took over the interior of the mountain.

The lower rank Angels were with their bodies cracked and limbs missing, during the fall, their bodies started to repair themselves little by little while the white glow of their powers was losing strength.

Jardel was intact, his fall was smooth, it was the sight of a white knight in bluish green energy armor, with a pair of imposing wings of bluish green energy helping to slow down the fall speed, beside him, the two Rank B Angels fell with their wings spread, the three together were pure elegance with their bodies illuminating the dark caves.

The Envoy tried to help one of the would-be soldiers during the fall, but his body sank to the ground before the ground collapsed into a mass of dirt and rocks, the other would-be soldier disappeared somewhere.

Alberto was being protected by Freddy, he was furious at Jardel's action, but in the midst of the cave-in and fall, it was impossible for anyone to do anything.

Those who did not receive protection were the several Skull Hyenas who ended up dying during the Angel's Punishment, and their bodies were scattered as they fell and disappeared amidst the earth and stones.

"Protection. Shield of Diosalva.".

Rrrrhoouul

The voice of one of the Angels resounded in everyone's mind again, a shield of white light almost 2 meters in diameter appeared facing to one side, and to the surprise of those who managed to follow what was happening, a Skull Hyena much larger than the others appeared.

Little Bone was furious at the death of the members of his nest, the hairs on his back turned to gray fire, and from his mouth, gray fire escaped from between his teeth.

His body collided directly into Diosalva's Shield, and with one bite, he broke the shield leaving a large teeth mark, from his back, Skull Hyenas made of gray fire leapt towards the two Angels, and both Angels began to swerve in midair during their endless fall, into the collapsed caverns.

The Rank B Angel with shield jumped up slamming his shield into Little Bone's body, Little Bone used his front paws to try to hug the Angel and bring him closer to his mouth, the Angel watched with his face very close, the Little Bone snarling at him as fire stirred between his teeth.

The Rank B Angel with the heavy sword came up from behind heavily hitting the Small Bone's back which hit the ground hard, causing another cave-in from which people who had already stopped falling, started to fall further with all the mess.

The terrible gash that appeared on Little Bone's back burned with gray flames, and within seconds, there was no wound left, after healing, Little Bone disappeared into the ground, and quickly, its head popped up elsewhere, spitting balls of gray fire magma at the Angels.

The light show and explosions left everyone horrified, both Angels are Rank B, and the Skull Hyena managing to fight both of them with extreme ease could only be Rank A.

The Rank B Angel with shield tried to block one of the gray fire magma balls, but the blast from the impact disintegrated his shield as well as the arm holding the shield, the gray fire in his body began to disintegrate parts of his other limbs.

Seeing this, the Angel flew towards the other low-level Angels and absorbed their bodies, quickly all the Angels were absorbed, and this made him even stronger than he was when he was formed.

"Shit, Jardel! You will kill us all!".

"Shut up Freddy, I just want to kill heretics! Do not make me...".

Little Bone dodged a strong blow from the Angel Rank B's heavy sword, the blow hit a wall, causing one last cave-in, and with that, a reddish orange light accompanied by a strong heat hit everyone.

The fall now became a free fall into a large open area, and far below, rivers of lava covered the interior of ravines that snaked across the floor, and due to the large mass of land and rocks falling along with the landslide, the ravines did not stop spewing lava in all directions.