Chapter 163: Blood in Paradise

The first clash between Azrael and Celestia sent Grace tumbling through the air. The shockwave threw angels from the sky like leaves in a hurricane.

[Shit shit shit!]

Grace caught herself mid-fall, wings straining against the turbulence. Above her, two titans traded blows that made reality screech. Each impact between Azrael and Celestia sent ripples through the Dominion’s foundations.

She looked down. The battle below had taken a darker turn.

“No…” Grace’s stomach dropped.

Several Veil angels writhed on the ground, their bodies twisting in ways that made her teeth ache. One clawed at her own face, tearing away strips of skin that turned black before hitting the ground. Another’s wings melted and reformed into bat-like appendages three times their original size.

[They’re turning into Primals!]

A Veil angel with long red hair screamed. The sound started human but ended as something else entirely. Her jaw unhinged like a snake’s. Extra teeth sprouted in rows. Her fingers elongated into foot-long claws.

“EVERYONE GET BACK!” Grace dove toward the transforming angel.

A Sister of Compassion tried to help, reaching out with healing magic.

“Wait! Maybe I can—”

The new Primal’s claws swept across her throat. Golden blood sprayed in an arc. The Sister’s eyes went wide with surprise before she crumpled.

The angel died in no time.

[They can kill us now.]

“MERHA!” Another Sister rushed to her fallen comrade. “No no no, get up! Angels don’t die! Get up!”

But she didn’t get up. Her body began dissolving into golden sparkles.

Grace’s rapier blazed to life.

She struck without thinking, driving the blade through the Primal’s skull. It dissolved instantly, leaving nothing behind.

“Grace!” Diana limped over, dragging her left leg. A bone jutted through her shin at an odd angle. “What the fuck is happening to them?”

“The corruption’s accelerating!” Grace spun to face another Primal. This one had been a Veil angel seconds ago – now it stood eight feet tall with arms that reached the ground. “The Primals, they’re corrupted angels! The Veil angels are starting to turn!”

Three more Veil angels began their transformation. One fell to her knees, vomiting black ichor that hissed when it hit marble. Another’s skin split like overripe fruit, revealing something writhing underneath. The third simply screamed and screamed as extra limbs burst from her torso.

[I can’t hold back anymore.]

Grace moved. Her enhanced speed from absorbing Sin energy turned her into a golden blur. Her rapier found hearts and heads with surgical precision. Each strike erased a Primal permanently.

“Yeah!” A Sister of Bravery pumped her fist. “Kill those demon bitches!”

But not everyone cheered. Grace caught the horror in some Veil angels’ eyes as they watched their corrupted counterparts die forever.

Grace herself didn’t like what she was doing either.

One Veil angel saw what was happening and her corruption dimmed for a moment, her humanity flickering back to life.

“Please!” The Veil angel, one with short black hair, fell to her knees beside a transforming woman. “Don’t kill her! That’s Senna! She’s my partner!”

Senna – or what used to be Senna – had grown three extra arms. Her face split vertically, revealing rows of teeth. She grabbed Diana’s head with two hands while the others tried to tear her apart.

Grace kicked the Primal away from Diana. Her rapier pierced its chest before it could recover. The creature reached toward the black-haired angel one last time before dissolving.

“Senna…” The Veil angel crawled to where her partner had been.

Grace’s chest tightened. But she couldn’t stop. Another Sister fell to Primal claws, her arm severed at the shoulder. The limb didn’t dissolve – it just lay there, fingers still twitching.

“Grace!” Seraph hobbled over using her broken spear as a crutch. Half her face was covered in blood from a head wound. “If these angels are becoming Primals, then we need to evacuate! Get everyone to the inner sanctum before—”

Another explosion from above cut her off. Grace looked up to see Celestia had been thrown through a tower. Stone and glass rained down.

More Veil angels succumbed to corruption. Grace counted seven new Primals forming, their bodies warping into nightmares.

A Primal lunged at Petriel. The healer screamed and threw her hands up uselessly.

Grace intercepted. Her gauntlets caught the creature’s claws inches from Petriel’s face.

“HAAAH!”

She headbutted the Primal. Its nose caved in with a wet crunch. Her rapier followed, piercing its heart. Another permanent death.

The plaza looked like a war zone. Golden blood pooled between marble tiles. Severed wings lay scattered like broken fans. A Sister of Love cradled her girlfriend’s head – just the head, the body was nowhere to be seen.

Grace’s eyes swept the battlefield. Corruption swirled everywhere, leaking from Veil angels like blood from wounds. Some fought to control it, pressing hands to their chests as if they could hold it in. Others had already given up, letting the darkness take them.

[Wait. I absorbed the Bloom’s corruption… Surely…]

“Everyone listen!” Grace’s voice carried across the plaza. “Keep the Primals busy! Don’t let them kill anyone else!”

“What are you planning?” Diana wiped blood from her eyes.

“Something potentially stupid.”

“Grace, no—”

But Grace had already activated Aura Release. She reached out to the corruption saturating the air. The Sin energy responded immediately, drawn to her like moths to flame.

Purple-black tendrils of corruption flowed toward her from every direction. It looked like reverse lightning, dark energy crackling through the air to strike her body.

“What the hell?” A Veil angel stared as corruption literally poured out of her pores, leaving her skin to flow into Grace.

It hurt. Not like the Bloom’s corruption – this was different. Angrier. Hundreds of angels’ worth of Sin energy tried to cram itself into Grace’s small frame. Her bones creaked. Her muscles burned.

[Whoa whoa whoa, this is too much. WAY too much.]

She couldn’t pause now though.

“Grace, stop!” Mara’s voice sounded distant through the roar of blood in her ears. “You’ll destroy yourself!”

Grace kept pulling. A Veil angel who’d been mid-transformation suddenly stabilized. Her extra arms retracted with wet pops. The fangs fell out of her mouth, clattering on the ground like broken pottery.

“I… I’m myself again?” The angel touched her face with shaking hands. “How?”

Seeing that hardened Grace’s resolve. She had to keep going.

More corruption flowed in. Grace’s knees buckled. Her vision fractured between normal sight and something else entirely – a view of the world painted in Sin and Virtue, where every soul blazed like a star.

[Can’t hold much more.]

Her nose started bleeding. The blood came out black before turning gold again. Her wings darkened at the edges, feathers falling like autumn leaves.

A transformed Primal lunged at her. Grace’s hand moved without conscious thought, catching its throat. She squeezed the Primal’s throat so hard her eyes bulged out. The moment they touched, corruption flowed directly from the Primal into her.

The demon’s form wavered like a mirage. For a heartbeat, Grace saw the angel underneath – young, maybe barely past her century mark, tears streaming down her face even in demon form.

Grace absorbed the Primal’s corruption and then dropped her to the ground.

“Holy shit.” Diana had dragged herself closer. “Do that again!”

Grace turned to another Primal. This one had been beautiful once – Grace could see traces of elegant features beneath the scales and extra eyes. She pressed both hands against its chest and pulled.

The corruption flowed like a river. The Primal thrashed and screamed, but Grace held on. Slowly, painfully, the monster began to shrink. Scales fell away. Extra eyes closed and vanished.

A blonde angel collapsed where the Primal had been. She gasped and sobbed, curling into a ball.

[I can save them. But…]

“AGH!”

Grace’s body screamed in protest. The corruption she’d absorbed churned inside her like molten lead. Her wings were more black than white now. Her hands trembled so badly she could barely make fists.

She stumbled to another transforming Veil angel. This one was further along – her lower body had already become something serpentine and covered in eyes.

“Please,” the angel begged even as her face began to split. “I don’t want to be a monster.”

Grace grabbed her shoulders and pulled. The corruption fought back this time, not wanting to leave its host. Grace gritted her teeth and pulled harder.

[Come on. COME ON!]

The angel screamed. Grace screamed.

Then the corruption gave way. The angel’s body snapped back to normal so fast it looked painful. She fell forward into Grace’s arms.

Another blast from above. Grace looked up to see Celestia on one knee in the air, golden blood streaming from dozens of wounds. One of her wings bent at an impossible angle. Azrael floated above her, corruption swirling around her like a localized storm.

“No more games, Celestia.” Azrael’s voice boomed across the Dominion. “Submit or die.”

[No!]

Grace went to help.

As she flew toward the battle, Azrael’s eyes turned in Grace’s direction.

She smiled.

The time had come.

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