"Bastard light, contaminated with the filth of the abyss..."
Gabriel's voice resonated like distant thunder, with his eyes fixed on Lief "You are also a heretic. And you shall be purified."
The air distorted around the archangel's raised hand.
Swish
A torrent of light, infinitely denser and purer than any attack Lief had generated, burst instantly from Gabriel's palm.
"WHAT?!"
Surprise hit Lief.
His mind processed the betrayal in a fraction of a second. So fast? A definitive attack without prior warning?
His body reacted before his thoughts and he threw himself to the side, getting out of the deadly trajectory.
The beam of light grazed him, but then there was no fire or explosions.
Only an absolute and terrifying silence.
And then, the disappearance.
The mountain peak that rose behind him was erased.
Where before there was rock, snow, and matter, now only remained a perfect and circular void on the horizon, revealing the sky behind.
"Hey, hey... is this a joke?" Lief looked at the void in the mountain and then at the angel, with a grimace. "I understand you not giving me a medal, but trying to kill me?"
Gabriel maintained a silence.
For him, the power Lief wielded, that blasphemous mixture of gauntlet and the wings of a fallen one, turned out as abominable as the presence of Dracula himself.
Having missed the first strike, his face showed no emotional fluctuation.
He simply corrected the angle and raised his hand for a second shot, ready to finish the job.
"Bastard! Look at me!"
But Dracula's roar broke the tension.
Consumed by the absolute humiliation of being ignored by his ancient executioner, he exploded into a volcanic fury that demanded immediate attention.
His body reacted to his anger and burst outward.
Swish Swish Swish
His physical form lost consistency and became a storm of shadows. The mass of darkness churned violently and materialized his concentrated hatred launching thousands of dark blades against Gabriel.
However, Gabriel did not even deign to turn his head to acknowledge the threat and maintained his impassive posture while his six wings beat gently.
"Hum...!"
The space around him vibrated and a golden and translucent shield materialized instantly, enclosing him in a perfect sphere.
The rain unleashed by Dracula crashed violently against the barrier, but the darkness found no purchase.
The blades vanished upon contact like smoke dispersed by a gale and proved unable to cause even a scratch.
"What?!"
Dracula's pupils contracted with disbelief and the next second, Gabriel finally paid attention to him.
He extended a finger calmly in his direction and at the tip a white star lit up that condensed the wrath of the heavens into an infinitesimal point.
"Judgment."
The point of light stretched in a fraction of a second and became a divine spear that crossed the intervening space in a blink.
It was too fast for sight, too fast for thought.
Dracula remained static, watching helplessly as the radiance filled the entirety of his vision before his nerves could send the order to raise a defense.
Splatsch!
The spear of light pierced his chest, pinning him in the air like a collector's insect.
This time it was not a superficial or physical wound.
That light exploded inside his body, invading his veins and burning every cell, every drop of corrupt blood and every fragment of darkness, initiating the final purification from the inside out.
"AAAAhhh...!"
An agonized shriek escaped from Dracula's throat.
The spear of judgment fulfilled its purpose burning his essence from the inside and dissolving the darkness like acid poured on living flesh, while a dense green smoke sprouted from the wound in his chest.
"...."
Lief touched his chin, interested.
The enemy of my enemy, is my friend?
However, that thought died before even fully forming.
Gabriel's gaze, cold and relentless, stopped observing the writhing vampire and fixed once more on him.
"..."
The corner of Lief's mouth twitched slightly.
That angel was as reasonable as a natural disaster.
Just when Gabriel was raising his hand again, gathering light to administer to Lief his own dose of Judgment, the situation took a violent turn.
"Gabriel! Damn you!"
Dracula, still pinned in the air, raised his head and looked at his executioner with absolute madness in his eyes.
Far from being purified, the extreme pain had caused the opposite effect. The agony had stimulated his fallen divinity to the deepest level, awakening a savage resistance.
With a smoking and trembling hand, he grasped the shaft of the spear of light piercing his chest.
The flesh of his palm sizzled upon contact with the sacred energy, but he did not let go. Roaring with brutal effort, he pulled outward.
With a disgusting sound, he ripped the weapon from his own body. He held it in his hand like a javelin, panting heavily, and with a fluid movement threw it with all his might.
"Die!"
The spear turned into a bolt of white light. However, to everyone's surprise, the target was not Gabriel.
But... Lief!
"Huh?"
Lief was momentarily left speechless before the absurdity of the situation.
Seriously? Gabriel wanted to kill him, Dracula wanted to kill him... Had they agreed to eliminate the third party?
Without time to complain, he raised the Master Sword with a gesture of reluctance and traced an upward arc intercepting the projectile.
Clang
The spear did not withstand the blade's edge and exploded into a thousand fragments, becoming a harmless rain of shining particles that filled the sky.
But there was no time to breathe.
From above, Gabriel extended his six wings and launched a myriad of solid light chains that fell like a capture net.
From the front, Dracula projected his aura until forming a gigantic shadow in the shape of a colossal bat, with its mouth wide open.
Both had reached an instinctive understanding: before resolving their dispute, they had to eliminate the anomaly.
"Are you serious...?"
Lief's gaze lost any trace of amusement and finally turned cold.
"Then come!"
He no longer held anything back.
"Hum...!"
Two energies exploded simultaneously from his being!
A golden light enveloped his sword and his wings, while a bluish and electric energy detonated from the Gauntlet on his right arm.
Without retreating, Lief propelled himself forward, launching himself like a meteor direct to the point of convergence of the two hostile forces.
Boom
A silent detonation of energy, so potent that the sound took seconds to reach reality, shook the foundations of existence over the castle.
Gold, black, and white.
Three primordial powers clashed in the sky like galaxies. The resulting storm tore the storm clouds, clearing the sky by force, and the shockwave scraped an entire layer of rock from the lower ruins, forcing the whole world to tremble.
"Get down!"
Velkan's scream was lost almost immediately under the roar of the castle breaking.
In front of them, Adam planted himself and became a wall of flesh and muscle to receive the shockwave.
The pressure was such that the earth cracked around Adam's boots.
"My God... my God…"
Carl curled up behind Adam's immense back, with his hands over his head and bulging eyes, unable to process the cataclysm occurring over their heads.
When the initial radiance diminished slightly, Anna looked up, trembling, struggling to find logic in the madness.
"What the hell is happening?!" she shouted in panic. "Why is the archangel attacking Lief?! Why does Dracula have angel wings?! And why Van Helsing...?!"
These questions left everyone mute and speechless.
Yes, why?
They only came to kill a vampire. Now, they seemed to be in the front row of the end of times.
"I think... I think I understand it."
Carl's doubtful voice broke the momentary silence.
Velkan turned his head sharply toward him.
"What do you know?"
Swallowing saliva, Carl recounted, without taking his eyes off the battle.
"The apocryphal texts of the Church mention the other face of Gabriel," he murmured as if remembering a nightmare. "He... he is not only the angel who announces the gospel. He is also God's executioner."
"Executioner?"
"Yes," whispered Carl, lowering his voice, fearful of attracting the divine gaze. "His duty is to purge. To eliminate any error in Creation, be they demons or... failures of Heaven itself."
"Dracula was once sacred, but he fell. He is an aberration, a stain that Gabriel must clean. That makes sense."
"And L-Lief?" insisted Anna, clinging to her brother's arm. "He is on our side!"
"That is the problem!" exclaimed Carl with burning eyes. "Lief's power is a blasphemy to them! He has light, but also a darkness that rivals Dracula's... he is a living contradiction."
"For Gabriel's absolute judgment, something that cannot be defined or controlled is the greatest heresy of all. So he also wants to cleanse Mr. Lief!"
The revelation ran through each of them with a chill.
For the archangel, both Dracula and Lief were trash that had to be burned.
Velkan gritted his teeth, feeling a lump in his throat.
"And Van Helsing?" he asked. "Why him?"
"Because Van Helsing was never just a man..." Carl closed his eyes, defeated, "He was a vessel of divinity that Gabriel left in the world, or rather, he is his incarnation in the human world..."
"His death was not the end... it was the key. His blood served as a beacon for the entity to descend."
Before he could add another word, the firmament exploded.
Boom
A figure was thrown from the central explosion.
It was Dracula.
His chest was caved in and one of his wings hung broken; clearly, in the clash between the three, he took the worst of it.
He crashed against the ruins of a nearby tower with a brutal impact, raising a column of dust and debris that hid his fall.
Shortly after, a figure of light descended slowly from the epicenter of the explosion.
Gabriel.
His radiance had dimmed and his wings seemed less solid; clearly, facing Lief and Dracula simultaneously also consumed him greatly.
Gabriel looked with cold indifference toward where the vampire had fallen and then turned his head toward the curtain of smoke that still floated in the center of the battlefield.
From amidst the cloud of dust, footsteps were heard.
Lief emerged walking.
His clothes showed new tears and ash covered his skin, but his step was firm, rhythmic, and devoid of fear.
He did not seem injured. Simply... annoyed.
________
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