The Star, The Demon, and The God - 22. Havano, The City of Angels

The Ancient Ones

Havano is a strange land compared to Enfierna.

Where Enfierna is dark and empty, Havano is bright and crowded.

The wisps were the only ones that moved around the outside of the castle. There was nothing else to do on the surface.

Up here high in the skies, the cloud city has Angels going back and forth like humans on their roads. Some of the Angels even fly off to different sections of the city.

Yes, Havano would be best described as a city.

There are so many white buildings, some of them start to blend together to our eyes. It would be a miracle for someone to find their way through without getting caught.

Thankfully, we can do just that.

Raiyo has gifted us with our ability to cross our way through the realms without grabbing the attention of others. This hides from any Gods that could feel our presence.

It appears that now is the perfect time to use it.

The city is set to two levels.

The bottom half looks like a regular, large city. It holds all the homes, a school, and other various buildings for the Angels. One section has a large square yard where they train the younger Angels how to fight.

Unfortunately, the families have no say on whether or not their child will fight.

Once the child has a grasp on how to handle a weapon, they are then shipped off to the “school”. There their training is intensified.

We wonder if the humans knew about this, would they still consider Angels their saviors?

If anything, we think Raiyo is the better option.

In a way to not seem biased, we have seen with our own eyes what Raiyo does to the sinners in the after life. They truly deserve their treatment, but up here the innocent go through punishments they do not deserve.

Blind faith in this world will continue to be the downfall of the humans.

Traveling around here is a bit straining on our eyes. Living in Enfierna for so long leaves bright lights quite annoying in the long run.

We swear the sun may live out here permanently, that is, if we could see the sun.

It is hidden behind the clouds that surround the city, but even then, it lights up the city just the same.

We find it amazing and terrifying that the Gods and humans would go to such drastic measures to keep Raiyo imprisoned. Nobody has ever been held here before.

It is unsettling to say the least.

Not only is he surrounded by millions of Angels up here, they created a giant fortress down below on Thymestrys to keep Raiyo up in the skies.

We saw their new weapons given by the gods. We know that they will be more useful than the weapons they used during the war.

Unfortunately for them, they were stupid enough to think that Raiyo would go straight down from Havano. He only needs to go around!

Simple humans and their simple minds.

Apparently the Gods are no better with their planning.

We will free our Master, but first, we must carry out the plan he had shared with us before we had stepped onto that battlefield.

Raiyo is quite smart. He planned to get captured! He wished it and it came true! Now that he is here, we may find all the secrets that the Gods keep here in their library. All their archives will be Raiyo’s!

The main thing he wished for us to find was any information on where the Gods reside; be it their own realm or a hidden grove on Thymestrys.

Now...would the Library be down below in the city, or above where the Gods plan their endeavors with the Archangels?

We guess up above, but we have all the time in the world to check just in case.

It is not like Raiyo will be going anywhere. Unless of course the Gods decide to move him or something. If they could do something that is.

Again, Raiyo is practically indestructible. There is no fear of him dying. We are perfectly at ease at the moment.

The only thing that would bring us alarm would be if someone were to somehow detect us in this invisible form. It is highly unlikely to happen however.

We were thinking of going straight for the top when we notice a strange globe of a building. It appears to look like a bowl that is upside down. Since it is incredibly unusual in a place like this, we decided to have a look. It might hold useful information for Raiyo.

It is completely made of glass. It holds a door that opens and closes whenever an Angel gets close enough.

Inside, it looks like another batch of homes put together. It is incredibly weird for such a thing to exist.

Not wanting to cause alarm or suspicion, we wait for a few minutes until an Angel comes close to the doors.

As soon as they open, we glide through quickly, not wanting to be trapped outside.

Once we pass the doors, it becomes quite clear that what the glass shows on the outside is very much a lie.

This appears to be of nest of where all the Archangels are stationed.

They write along into scrolls. Their masks hide their expressions, but even we can tell by how hard they all grip onto their quills that they very much hate this.

Just what is it they are writing?

Sneaking behind one of them, we see she is writing names. Multiple names. Some even share the same last names.

What is this?

Each of the Archangels write more and more names. Each time a new Angel enters the globe, they drop a pile of paper and the Archangels use them to write more and more names.

Are these new Angels? The newest souls to join their unfortunate new afterlife?

Strange. Not even Raiyo cares to remember the ones below who are to be tortured till the end of times!

Things up here run rather different.

Since this place was practically useless, we have to wait by the door for another Angel to walk through.

After about three minutes, we are finally out of the weird building.

It is incredibly odd that the Gods make their Archangels do their paperwork. Surely the Angels themselves should be the ones to do that kind of work.

Perhaps elsewhere will have better results for information.

We take our chances with looking into the school.

Traveling through the streets are strange. All these Angels do not have masks. They walk around with clean, white, wraps around their faceless heads. Not at all bothered with hiding the fact their faces have disappeared.

Well we suppose they are still somewhat hiding it, but you can tell that it is only a flat surface underneath the wraps.

Most of the soldiers wear golden masks that hold their old face. Not here. Even the children run around without masks! Maybe they are more accepting to each other about their strange deformity?

Sneaking through the streets, we finally find the school. Surely a library would be there?

When we slip in through the cracks of a window, we find ourselves in a room filled with wooden swords.

Fighting can be heard behind a stone door.

Crossing over, we find a bunch of young Angels training with the swords from before. Some have their wings wrapped up for protection.

Perhaps this might not be a school with a library afterall…

How strange that they would train the Angels at such a young age. They look no older than eight! It is wrong and we do not like it.

We wonder if Raiyo may be able to free these children. We remember he stopped other occasions where the humans did stuff like this.

Poor Angels. Surely the Gods in charge are to blame for this.

We will definitely relay this to Raiyo.

Moving past the door and into the hall, we try and find anything that could resemble a library.

When we swear that there are only hundreds of rooms filled with children training with different weapons, we finally find a door.

It looks as if it isn’t truly there, as if it is some clouded image of a stone door.

We have seen this magic before. Raiyo uses it for the entrance that leads below Enfierna; right into the depths of torment.

Casting a spell brings ourselves out of hiding. It was only for a moment for the spell to work, but soon enough, the door solidifies.

Steam escapes our shoulders in excitement.

Once we are past the door, we find ourselves face to face with a long corridor filled with scrolls, books, other loose bits of paper, and tons of vials of ink.

Yes! We found it!

What are the odds! The God of War and the Goddess of Snow are here. Murmuring and staring at some documents.

We listen for a short while, hoping for any secrets to share later on.

“...you know he is going to take advantage of this,” The War God grunts, flipping a paper over.

The Snow Goddess nods. “If you opened your eyes, you would have known that Morgoren has already gotten to work with his plans. You saw what happened in the desert today, yes?”

“No?” He frowns. “Why? What happened?”

She shrugs her shoulders and shakes her head. “Morgoren had created a bunch of...strange creations. They look like walking Angel corpses. It was quite a sight to see.”

The War God scratches his neck. “What would Morgoren need those for? That is awfully dark, even for him!”

“He was searching for something,” She says. “Something important if he was willing to create such abominations. Unfortunately, ever since Raiyo was knocked out, Morgoren has been working fast on trying to become the ruler of all the realms.”

They both have a silent moment of thought, clearly troubled with their brother.

Morgoren is definitely the strongest of all the Gods. Taisla always shared her power with him. When she died, Morgoren took it all for himself. Who knows if even Raiyo could rival him now.

“Well,” The Snow Goddess says. “Morgoren does not know where we would all be hiding if he chose to come against us.”

She lifts up a paper with words written in golden ink before speaking.

“I created an extra safehold in case the first one were to fail. It is in my realm and right now, you are the only one who knows. I trust you can be discreet enough to tell everyone.”

The War God frowns. “It feels insulting that we have to hide incase that demon were to wake up. Now you tell me that you think my realm will fail in protecting our family! That is cold, even for you sister.”

She chuckles at his play on words. “Do not worry little brother. I doubt we will be using either for quite some time.

The two most battle hardened Gods just gave away their most precious secret of all.

Raiyo will be most pleased with this.

Quickly, we leave the library and out of the school.

Now is the moment we have been preparing for the most.

Now is the time to wake on our Master!

Gliding our way up to the tallest point of the city, we climb up the small mountain and through the roads; dodging and weaving around the countless Angels up high.

In the middle of a large yard, a small building is surrounded by hundreds of Angels, they all stand at the ready with spears and shields at hand.

So many surround this place, we can almost hear Raiyo saying it is a compliment that the Gods would take such grand measures to keep him here.

Honestly, they could not have been more obvious as to which building contains Raiyo.

The building is made of white marble columns and golden walls. It is quite the look. Very different from the architecture in Enfierna.

The door to the place is a giant golden circle with what looks like quite the complicated locking mechanism. It even has a glowing sigil of a crown over it, no doubt marked by some kind of spell.

It is some kind of vault? Interesting.

A shame for them that we can simply slip through even the tightest of cracks.

We do just that; the Angels having no idea that we were ever here.

Inside, the room is filled with light. Light shines from all the walls, the ceiling, and floor. No shadows are present here. None can be created. It is just a room of light that surprisingly is not blinding.

Is this another precaution in keeping Raiyo here? Do they think shadows are the only thing he draws power from?

It appears the Gods must not know their enemy at all! Drulai included.

There, floating in the middle of the room, is Raiyo.

The water that is keeping him asleep is holding him upwards as if he were floating up a waterfall. He is also facing the door. His arms are spread and his eyes are closed.

It has been many years since we have seen Raiyo sleep. Perhaps before he had become Raiyo. It is almost strange yet it is so normal for everyone else. We are not sure if we like it or not.

Most likely not.

His clothes are gone, all that’s left is a cloth wrapped low on his hips. The knot is pulled to the front to keep his privates covered. The cloth is black with special golden details of a crescent moon.

Isn’t that a slap to the face...especially when he is sleeping right now, unknowing of what they have done to him.

Because of the change of clothes, all the glowing markings on his body are completely free for all to see. They even made the cloth low enough to show off the markings below his belly button.

Seeing how the Gods have stripped Raiyo of his privacy makes our insides boil. The one thing he tries to keep hidden, and they practically spit on that.

Steam seeps out of our shoulders because of this.

We watch the way Raiyo’s hair moves gently through the pool of sleeping waters. The black curls dance around in the water. His face looks calm and peaceful, we almost think that maybe we shouldn’t wake him.

No. We must wake him..

We bring ourselves out of hiding and stand before him.

With a small pause for preparation, one of us reaches forward and pulls Raiyo out with one hand. His body gives off steam as water evaporates instantly from his skin.

As soon as we freed him, a horn can be heard going off outside. It continues to sound off and we hear shouting coming from outside.

Raiyo does not wake after being pulled out. His head rests against the top of one of our hands.

This is not right. He was supposed to awaken immediately! That was what Raiyo told us!

We nudge the side of his head and call his name.

“Master Raiyo,” We call. “You must wake up!”

Steam begins to seep out our shoulders as banging can be heard from the other side of the vault door.

We shake him slightly, hoping to pull him from his slumber. We desperately need him awake for us to escape.

A flutter of his eyelids tell us that he is starting to wake up.

“Who is in there!” A voice shouts outside the door.

One of us pulls out a large curtain that was to be used in case of emergencies. Seeing as this is an emergency, we are going to use it.

We tie the curtain around one of our necks and leave enough room behind for Raiyo to slip in.

We will have to wake him as we go. We must not stay here.

As soon as he is safely wrapped up, we turn to the door and prepare ourselves to break through.

Grouping together, we run at once and slam our shoulders into the door. It leaves a slight dent.

Raiyo’s body moves a bit against our back.

We step back and slam into the door again. This time the door falls to the ground.

The glowing sigil is still there, but the door is gone so we should be fine.

Angels that were standing in front of the door have been crushed, their golden dust nearly holding the door up a few inches.

Raiyo climbs up our back and grabs onto a piece of our metal to hold himself there.

“Could you not have been more gentle waking me,” He says in a drowsy voice. “Nicely done. I trust we have everything?”

We nod. “Yes, Master.”

“Good,” He smiles. “Let’s get out of here.”

We run forward and out the vault.

As soon as we pass through the sigil, Raiyo’s hands end up being pulled behind him. His arms become wrapped up in a shimmering white light.

“Dammit,” He sighs. “One of you help me get this off. It is another dose of that sleeping magic. If we don’t get it off in time, I will be useless once again.”

One of us comes behind him and tries to pull the shimmering stuff off.

We are cut short when war cries from Angels can be heard around us.

Knowing that staying here is a bad idea, we run as fast as we can. Unfortunately, it makes the removal of the binding spell harder to take off.

It is a good thing we brought the curtain. It would have made this all the harder if we didn’t.

The curtain allows Raiyo to stand at our head level as we are running, allowing one of us to help with the bindings.

Angels begin to swoop down toward us, their weapons at the ready.

We keep trying to avoid them and end up running through different roads and between different buildings. Sadly, their ability to fly makes it harder to dodge them.

With two of us free to use our hands, we manage to keep them away from us while the third works on Raiyo.

Again, moving to attack makes it difficult to remove the spell.

It gets to the point where the Angels are becoming a problem. They swoop down with their weapons for Raiyo, the tips of the blades shimmering white.

They have been dipped in the sleeping waters.

So this is the new way they hope to stop him. It is smart of them. Too bad they will not touch him.

“We must sacrifice one of us to give you more power,” We say, still running from the mob of Angels.

“Don’t you dare,” Raiyo growls. “We will be fine.”

We strike out a group of Angels who nearly touch Raiyo.

“...It was an honor serving your family, Master,” One of us says, breaking free of the connection that binds the three of us together.

“I said, don’t,” Raiyo shouts, throwing as much authority into his voice as he can. The magic on his tongue that would normally make the strongest of souls do as he commands does not work with us.

We feel the break in our connection as one of us reaches into themselves, forcing the power inside to combust.

As soon as that happens, the Ancient One’s body self destructs.

They create a giant explosion of black magic. It looks like a giant, swirling, black mass. It shines like slime but in other sections it looks like swirling sands.

Raiyo roars in anger before we are all surrounded by the black mass.

We see nothing, we no longer feel Raiyo on us.

At first we panic, but then we feel the vibrating energy that we have grown familiar with. It grows and grows from all the power that is returning to Raiyo.

We also feel our bodies beginning to transform. They grow and spread out as new limbs are growing on our backs.

We turn into scales and claws. Great black wings spread out around us. A long tail with six spikes around the sides swings out, lashing out at any Angels who choose to get too close.

Raiyo has turned us into dragons!

The black mass begins to shrink inwards. Soon we are able to see again and we see the black mass slipping into Raiyo’s body.

His body trembles and he lets out a shaky breath, a smile on his face.

“Shoot balls of fire and make an exit,” His voice speaks into our minds.

Turning to the edge of Havano, we rear our heads back before fire shoots up from our throats, creating a giant wave of fire that flies forth.

It hits an area full of clouds that mark the edge of the city, causing a giant hole that reveals a new sky down below.

The skies of Thymestrys.

We fly straight for the opening, Raiyo flying right between us as a cloud of smoke. His head, arms, and torso are still solid, allowing everyone to see his triumphant grin.

Raiyo wants everyone to know that he outsmarted them; to let them know that they have failed to keep him imprisoned.

Angels try and stop us, but they only meet a quick death from Raiyo’s magic.

As we fly over the city and for the exit, Raiyo creates a large wave of black water behind him. It melts all that it touches, destroying homes, the school, the glass bowl building. It destroys everything along our trail.

My chest heats up a little as we see the water destroy the school. There were so many children in there. Now children are all gone. Perhaps turned into piles of dust.

When we reach the exit, voices call out to Raiyo.

We fly through, ready to go home.

We stop when we realize that Raiyo is standing just on the edge, peering down at the human’s fortress below.

He turns to face the voices who called him.

The War God and Snow Goddess are standing together with a large group of Angels next to them.

“Don’t do this,” The Snow Goddess says. “Please!”

Raiyo smirks with an evil glint in his eyes and he slowly steps backwards. He starts to laugh though it isn’t from his lips. It echoes around our minds, sounding like he is in multiple places at once.

Based on the faces of the Gods, we can tell they hear it as well.

He blows a kiss to the Gods and their army. As he does, his body begins to dissolve into smoke. It rises upwards, beginning from his feet. It trails up his arm and body, and it slips forward into his hands, as if he was the kiss that he blew.

As a body of smoke, Raiyo drifts backwards and out the door, escaping Havano.

“We did it, Master!” We say with glee. “You are free! Your plan worked!”

We stop when we see Raiyo flying straight down at high speeds.

“Master!” We shout after him. “We must go home! Please! Don’t do this!”

Raiyo ignores us.

He flies down to the fortress with a furious look in his eyes.