The Flaming Sword Of Michael

"They said: Will you put on the earth one who will make there mischief and will shed blood? He said: I know what you do not know."

-the Qur'an, Surah al-Baqarah, 2:30

"At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise."

-Hebrew Bible, Daniel 12:1

Michael dodged left, ducked down to one knee, and struck out to the right deftly with his flaming sword. The handsome, young-looking, half demon male he was striking at let out a pterodactyl scream. From its fresh belly wound of fire, ash rapidly spread all over its body, consuming it with smoke and fire. It continued to try to strike at Michael as it fell to the ground an ashen husk.

Michael was back on his feet chopping at the female in front of him. She raised an ornate dagger in a useless attempt to deflect the mighty blow. His sword snapped clean through the knife, and she in turn, fell back in a descending halo of smoke. Michael guessed it to be roughly noon back on his own plane. He'd been at this since about seven thirty this morning. At first it had been terrifying, then exhilarating, now it was becoming tedious and exhausting.

His arm was growing sore, and his legs were tired, but the greatest fatigue was mental. Physically the Cambion were no match for Michael's righteous flaming sword, but they'd been assaulting him mentally since the moment he and Lilith had phased into this plane. They only started the physical attacks to distract his attention, and weary his body, when they realized they couldn't overwhelm his psyche. Lilith had told him to expect this, but that he would be able to resist them. Michael was developing an unproductive sense of doubt.

He and Lilith continued on through what Michael had dubbed 'The Smansion' -a combination of smoke and mansion. It reminded him of the house from Gone With the Wind, but if that house had been made of swirling but solid fire-smoke. He moved with caution behind his brilliant weapon, and Lilith in his wake; their shadows lost to varying grays surrounding them.

Though none of the surviving Cambion were visible at the moment, the relentless mental barrage continued.

"How many more would you guess are left?" asked Michael for maybe the tenth time.

"Can't be much more." said the gray little cat, secretly very proud of her patience. "I think you've likely cut down their best physical warriors by now. And I can feel their mental defenses weakening. They're running out of bodies to throw at us."

"We need to find the rest quickly. I don't know how much longer I can hold them out."

"Suck it up. These are merely the half blood offspring. Focus. This is nothing compared to what my sisters will hit you with."

Michael closed his eyes, focused, and opened them. Never looking down or back at her, he nodded and continued on through the Smansion. He again wondered why they couldn't phase back to what Michael thought of as Earth to rest for a while. Then they could come back and finish off the Cambion. It was made crystal clear to Michael earlier that day that this was not an option. Once the battle was begun, the Cambion must all be killed. That was actually the only thing Lilith had been clear about.

The process of phasing had been painless and easy for Michael, though he suspected it took a heavy toll on the feline succubus padding quietly at his heels. In their hotel room that morning she woke him up, then fed him breakfast. She had asked if he felt well rested. He said he did. She then said something about changing his temporal frequency, then he felt like he'd experienced the slowest static electric shock in history. When the sensation passed they were standing at the gates of a mansion made of solid smoke. They'd been engaged in this battle since.

They reached the top floor. There was an ornate set of huge bass relief doors made out of what looked like hardwood smoke and granite at the top of the stairs. The images were just decipherable, and let this humble narrator tell you that 'demon orgy' is all you need to know about what was carved into these doors. Michael looked back at Lilith. She nodded. He kicked in the left door so he could use his right hand immediately if needed.

The enormous room was densely decorated, yet sparsely populated. Five beautiful, terrifying, half-demon beings hissed and spat at him while waving gorgeous weapons. He boldly carried their death in his right hand, and set to the work he'd been trained for. Their mental attacks weakened when Lilith entered the room, and Michael waded into their thinned ranks.

He stabbed the first one, a female, in the throat, consuming her head in flames. Her pewter mace slapped against his arm feebly as the arm wielding it transformed to ash. He spun around her graying body, and whipped his sword across the back of a male attempting to flee. The other three gave ground, but between Lilith's obviously potent mental attacks and Michael's steady advance, they were being cornered.

Before their backs hit the wall, as a group, they looked at each other, then sprang forward at Michael. His blade worked quickly, killing two with a single wave-like stroke under one's reaching, clawed arms and over the other's rapier, which fell to the floor unbloodied, a hand’s volume of ash-dust wafting past it. The third, and final Cambion reached him though. The grip it put on his left arm burned like liquid nitrogen. It had gotten inside his sword's range of motion, and was about to bite into his neck when a very tall, beautiful, bat-winged woman wrapped her arm around its neck from behind, holding its bite back a mere inch from Michael's neck.

"Don't just gawk." said the angel/demon said in Lilith's calm, sardonic voice. "Kill it quickly, and be done with this."

Michael didn't hesitate. He turned his right wrist inward, bringing his sword through the demon’s right arm. Then he pulled himself away while backhanding the beast’s head from its shoulders, as Lilith pushed it away from her. She feared that sword’s bite as much as any of the demonic brood they had killed.

The last of the demon spawned Cambion was dead. As it crumbled slowly to the ground, Michael stood face to face with Lilith in her true form. She was so perfect of feature and proportion, it took his breath away. She had leathery, silver wings folded behind her, and her hair was so black it seemed to swallow the light from around it. Her skin was white. Not Caucasian. Titanium white. Her fierce eyes were a deep, chestnut brown, and the gray dress she wore covered her seven-foot frame like gossamer, but not opaque.

Michael realized that the reason these Cambion were so attractive was that they were half...well half whatever Lilith was.

"Michael, you've stared long enough. Now please dispel your sword."

"Oh! Uh, sorry. Will it turn you into ash?"

"No, but it would hurt a great deal. And it would take from me something that I hold very dear."

"What?"

"My soul." She sighed, and stared at the ashen corpse at her feet. "The archangel is long dead, and he who wields the flaming sword needs only to touch the soul of a true demon to control it."

"So, I'm not going to necessarily have to kill your sisters, am I?"

"No human. You are going to become their master, then they will be yours to command as you see fit. Though if you’d take some advice from someone who knows an awful lot more than you, you’ll order them to kill each other.”

to be continued..