Chapter Forty-Five

"So, this is where Poseidon's hiding?" Aeron asked the kelpie as his eyebrows narrowed. With fear lingering in its eyes, the monster nodded. "I knew that I saw something here," he muttered as he stared at the vast expanse of ocean, the very same stretch that had piqued his interest earlier.

"Master Poseidon lives beneath the waves to avoid mortals," the kelpie squealed as it struggled to breathe. Ignoring the beast's futile attempts at escape, Aeron flew down to the water's surface and frowned. Now that he had an idea of what to look for, he could easily detect the faint outline of some strange object poking out of the ocean floor. Sadly, he couldn't make out any details thanks to the filthy water.

"I guess my only option is to go under," he surmised as he gradually lowered himself beneath the surface. However—the second his shoe touched the water—his body was immediately repelled back up into the air.

"Hah, you fool, only those with the master's permission can enter his domain. For as long as he's underwater, there's no way for you to reach him. The sea is his realm," the monster chortled as Aeron bit his lip. This was the handiwork of a protective blessing—similar in strength to the charm that guarded God's workshop.

"As much as it pains me to admit it, the beast is right. With this barrier in the way, I'm stuck." He could tell that the magic turned the ocean water into a sturdy ward—only those that Poseidon personally let through could get inside. "A blessing like this can only be made by an archangel," he commented. "Poseidon's skilled; I'll give him that. However, this is far from impenetrable!" Over the years, he had seen Jeremy and his team craft blessings that far exceeded this paltry effort in strength. And, during those many experiments, he had learned of quite a few loopholes. "The blessing is tied to the water. Therefore, if I get rid of the water, I'll be able to enter," Aeron thought as he once again unsheathed his blade and raised it to the sky.

"W-what are you doing?!" the kelpie screamed when it felt the intense heat wafting off the artifact. Since it was his weapon, Aeron wasn't affected by the incinerating temperatures, but the monster wasn't so lucky. As he continued to pour power into the weapon, the beast's body burst into flames and was hastily reduced to a faint cloud of ash.

"Sorry, friend, but I've got places to be," Aeron mused as he brought the sword down towards the water. "Now, let's see what this thing can do!" he yelled as a blinding flash of light filled his vision. For a few seconds, the distinct sound of bubbling liquid overtook his hearing. When the dust finally cleared and he could once again open his eyes, all he could do was marvel at the sight before him. "Impressive," he whistled. For miles around, every drop of water had vanished, completely exposing the ocean floor. With nothing to obstruct his sight, he could finally see what had initially drawn him to this place. Simply put, it was a gigantic ancient city built into the depths, with buildings and houses jutting out of every open cave or cranny. Thanks to the books he had read back in London, Aeron already knew what this place was. "Atlantis… Poseidon's home," he realized with a smirk. What else could it be?

With the magical ward safely out of the way, Aeron took his time slowly floating down to the bare seabed. The sand was molten hot and burned the soles of his shoes. Dead fish and other aquatic creatures littered the landscape, with a few large whales hanging limply off the side of some of the more imposing structures. The buildings themselves had also been affected by his attack, with several of their marble exteriors damaged beyond repair. Multiple statues, which Aeron assumed were of Poseidon and his family, lay melted upon their stands—a few of them still bubbling like fresh magma. "I guess this will have to do," the Cherub thought as he meandered through the steaming streets. Every couple of moments, he'd step onto a charred corpse of a kelpie, a satisfying crack ringing through the air as their bones crumbled to dust under his feet. "These bastards had quite the operation going on here," he thought as he stared at the burned city's main square, which now was little more than a pile of charred bodies. Before his attack, this place must've been breathtaking. With all the statues, artworks, and kelpies, it must've been an underwater haven. In a way, he could understand why Poseidon would want to come back here. "Let's just hope I didn't catch Zia or the others in that blast." If what Satan told him about Poseidon was accurate, his comrades wouldn't have been stored in some far-off prison. No… that paranoid Angel would keep them somewhere within arm's reach.

"Now that I think about it, this place would be the perfect prison to keep nonmortals." Since Zia and the others couldn't die, Poseidon could safely trap them here without dividing up his forces. "Even if Zia managed to save Kashif and Elizabeth, they probably would've been captured eventually. Those paralyzing spines managed to take me—an Angel—out, after all." It would only take a drop of that toxin to freeze his comrades' mortal nervous systems cold. With that in mind, they had to be around here somewhere. "Zia, where in the world are you?"

As Elizabeth's eyes fluttered open, she immediately noticed the distinct scent of the sea. All around her, scores of barnacles and various mold colonies covered the walls, which had been stained a strange yellowish white by the fungi. "Ugh… where am I?" she wondered as a horrifically painful migraine assaulted her head. It felt as if someone was filling her brain with liquid, and as the pressure slowly increased, so did her screams. Her cries of agony filled their cell like some twisted siren's call, quickly rousing her comrades from their slumber.

"Is that you, Elizabeth?" she heard Zia whisper from across the room. Elizabeth—who was still very much half-conscious—could only strain her neck as she surveyed her surroundings. "Thank goodness," the ambassador continued. "You've healed up." As she'd thought, Zia was currently hanging from a large web of chains at the other end of the cell. Kashif, who was also awake, had been bolted to the wall with four sizable metal rings.

"Are those… blessings?" she wondered as she stared at Kashif's chains—which were exuding a familiar holy aura. "It can't be," she thought. "Those are blessings that only Cherubs can use. How can those fiends have access to them?" As far as she knew, those charms could only be written by archangels—beings that were on Aeron's level in terms of rank.

"I guess that's just our host's way of saying hello," Zia grumbled as she struggled to escape her bindings. However, no matter how hard she pulled and pried, she couldn't break free. "Damn, these things are tough. How're you doing on your end, Kashif?" she asked her burly bodyguard as he tried to yank himself off the wall.

"Ugh… quite poorly, I'm afraid."

"How long has he been at that?" Elizabeth asked while her partner took a moment to regain some stamina.

"About three hours, give or take a few minutes. Isn't that right?" Zia said. After that, the ambassador sighed and stared at the ceiling. Even though she wasn't showing it physically, she was exhausted. "I can barely remember anything that happened after Aeron left," she thought. "It's all just a blur." As her muscles twitched with fatigue, she stared down at her empty holster and sighed. "Oh great, and to make matters worse, they took the gavel." Thank God they couldn't use it, or else all of them would've been in for a world of pain. "Hey, Elizabeth," she started once she regained some of her composure. "Do you remember what happened after you and Kashif were captured? I've completely forgotten." The second she asked that question, Elizabeth's eyes twinkled like stars.

"How could you forget, Ms. Lombardi? You were amazing!" For those brief few moments, Elizabeth's girlish squeaks served as a temporary respite for the downtrodden ambassador. "You suddenly appeared wielding Aeron's gavel and blew all those creatures away! It really was incredible! Sadly, that's all I can recall."

"Don't worry about it." Even though the specifics of their situation were still hazy, Zia didn't have a second to lose. Right now, they were trapped. "Kashif, how durable do you think that wall is?" If they were lucky, maybe one of them would have a weak spot or something. However, after taking just one look at the man, she knew that plan would prove to be fruitless. It was clear that Kashif was straining himself just to stay conscious. If she pushed him any harder, he'd pass out.

"At least now we know that we can't rely on brute strength," Elizabeth exclaimed as she peered out the cell's only window. "Strange, this place appears to be underwater." She couldn't look outside properly at this angle; however, it was more than enough to see the ocean's blue shimmer. "How in God's name did we end up here?" she wondered as Zia scoffed.

"After falling unconscious, a team of those monsters must've brought us to this den." Since they were technically immortal, it would've been easy for those creatures to drag them through the depths to this place. Their bodies simply healed after experiencing fatal injuries. So, the ocean's crushing pressure wouldn't affect them. "I guess that explains why Elizabeth and Kashif are mostly unharmed," Zia surmised as she bit her lip. Somehow, she just knew that she was the reason they were trapped in this cell. "I likely used too much of the gavel's strength and knocked us all out." Such a side effect wasn't unheard of, especially amongst amateur judges.

"Ms. Lombardi, I have a proposition," Kashif muttered as he meekly lifted his right hand towards the ceiling. "Those chains, whoever tied you to them must've gotten lazy." From his position, Kashif could see a small trail of water seeping out of the window and onto Zia's bindings. He wasn't sure how old the metal was, but he could tell that a few of the iron links were almost entirely rusted through.

"Those bastards are looking down on us," Zia hissed when she finally noticed what he was pointing at. "What? Am I not worth the good chains?" Even though they were all stuck in a cell, that line got a few chuckles out of her two distraught bodyguards. "Okay, okay, enough laughing. Now, let's focus on getting out of here."

"Roger! Ms. Lombardi, if you want to start working on breaking those crumbling links, I'll see if I can pick one of my locks," Elizabeth said as she shook a small pin out of her hair. "I bet those monsters didn't know you could use jewelry like this, huh?" she cooed as she grabbed the hairpin with her teeth and started to bend it into a usable shape. Sadly, a significant tremor rocked their cell before she could finish, causing her to drop the pin. "Shit… well, I guess that plan isn't going to work. Do you think that shaking was caused by something nearby?" Elizabeth was no slouch when it came to the mortal realm's oceans. She knew all about volcanic vents and the depth's volatile nature. However—even with all that knowledge—these sudden quakes confused her to no end. Immediately after one shook the cell, a more extreme tremor would take its place. "Be careful, guys. If the ceiling falls and a rock hits your neck, you might wind up paralyzed." The last thing they needed was to be buried at the bottom of the sea. That said, even though the tremors were dangerous, they were quite the boon for their little ragtag group.

"Would you look at that?" Zia whispered after the latest tremor shook their prison. "I think the quakes loosened the chains," she continued as she lightly tugged at one of her bindings—which caused a veritable cloud of brown dust to fall from the ceiling—giving the rusty iron the final push it needed to snap. Before the ambassador realized what was happening, she stumbled towards a painful reunion with the hard ground. "Ah hell, that hurt," she grimaced as she slowly dragged herself up off the floor, which was now covered in a pool of her blood. Thanks to that unexpected fall, the right side of her face was now besmirched with a large gash.

"Ms. Lombardi! Are you okay?!" Elizabeth and Kashif yelled when they noticed her gruesome injury. The little makeup around the blemish was now completely gone, exposing the ambassador's true face.

"Don't worry, I'm fine. It's just a scratch." A wound as minor as this wasn't going to stop her, not in a million years. "Hold on. I'll help you get out of your chains," she told them as she slowly snuck to the back of the cell. However, as she neared one of Elizabeth's locks, she sensed something. "Shit, I think those bastards heard us," she cursed as she closed her eyes and pressed her head against the room's only door. With her makeup now in tatters, she could easily sense the monsters' erratic movements. "They sure are frantic. I wonder what happened?"

"How did that damned Angel make it past Lord Poseidon's barrier?!" one of them screeched as it rushed to some unknown exit alongside several companions—its voice so loud that even Kashif and Elizabeth could hear its words.

"Poseidon? That guy really exists?" Elizabeth wondered as Zia raised her pointer finger to her lips; someone was coming.

"Sir! Our orders were to apprehend the intruder! Why are we going to the holding cells?" another one of the creatures—this one with a deep gravelly voice—complained as it approached their location. As they got closer, Zia couldn't help but bite her lip in frustration.

"Not good. There has to be at least twelve of them." If they caught her up and about, she'd hastily been nailed to the wall by a swarm of those paralyzing needles. Since they didn't have Aeron's Angelic resistance to toxins, tanking through the hits and ambushing their captors wasn't an option. "I guess it doesn't matter, huh? After all, Elizabeth and Kashif are still chained up, and I'm unarmed." Usually, in this situation, she'd use her senses and wit to find a place to hide. Sadly, in a cramped space like this, she didn't have that luxury. It was then that, right when she felt that she would hit a wall, she heard a keyring jingling just beyond the entrance.

"I just want to check and see if any of them are awake. Lord Poseidon wanted to interrogate them, but since we have our hands full dealing with the Cherub, he decided that it would be safer if we just put them to sleep with one of our spines. Don't worry; this will only take a couple of minutes," one of the jailers said. With that, Zia instinctively took a couple of steps back and braced herself. The ambassador didn't even think as she swiftly moved behind the door, just waiting to slam it shut on the first horror that walked in. But, right as the entrance creaked open, she started to sweat.

"What? Why is it so hot?" another one of the beasts spoke as Zia wiped some droplets of sweat off her brow. "The temperature down here shouldn't be fluctuating this much. Did a volcanic vent open up nearby or something?" the same creature mumbled as Zia heard it open a window. "Yeah, yeah, I'll be there in a second," the beast finished, its tone shaky and hesitant. Maybe it saw something exciting or—going by its sudden change in mood—terrifying. "That monster's using something! Everybody hit the deck!" it screeched once more as a searing wave of heat washed over them. In a handful of moments, a gigantic explosion tore through their holding cell, disintegrating everything in its path. The last thing Zia remembered before losing consciousness was the familiar sensation of her flesh melting like ice on a hot skillet.

From the desk of Beurt Albere...

I'm not used to this—writing, I mean. I've been so busy dealing with my position and responsibilities that I simply haven't had much time to myself. But, with that said, I had to take a moment to jot this down. I'm not sure why I decided to do this. Besides myself, not a single soul will ever lay eyes on this parchment. In the end, I think it's just a matter of my insecurities. Maybe after I toss these words in the fire, the Almighty will read them and—if I am fortunate—act on them. Of course, the possibility of that happening is slim to none, but for a paranoid person like myself, the prospect alone brings me comfort. The purpose of this letter is to serve as a holy confession. As I am too afraid of what, or whose, ears might be listening. I want to admit the fact that I, one of God's Cherubs, am terrified of someone. Or, to be more specific, I am frightened of a member of my kin. The name of the person that haunts my dreams is Aeron Weber. That man is, without a doubt, the single most vile creature God ever created. I've twitched under his gaze since childhood. And this paper, this tattered scroll, will be my one record of these feelings.