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[streets of Vancouver, mid-afternoon]
Laban walked towards the home of Jezreel, the fledgling angel he had been charged with protecting and teaching. The instructions had come directly from Yves, Destiny Himself. In his Role as a research professor at the University of British Columbia, he was already doing good work for Destiny, in fact, it had earned him the title of Vassal.
[OOGM: I figured this might be a reasonable explanation for his title of Vassal. Can be changed.]
This new assignment was going to be completely different. Granted, it wasn't like he was going to teaching mortals and Jezreel was an angel, but...
Suddenly, Laban felt a message arrive for him on the melodies of the symphony:
[melodious music, turns foreboding as message is delivered]
"Help Jediael. Trapped! Vapulean device. Expo Site. Ruax is my captor, says he wants _you_"
[/music]
Ruax? Jediael? Jediael would be the Ofanite of Destiny that Laban was technically in charge of, but... who was Ruax? Laban's thought long and hard as he walked along, until it suddenly came to him.
[flashback]
The heat from the battle surrounded Laban. This was the biggest battle on the mortal plane which he'd been in so far. Alexander had to be stopped, but even more so, his mysterious advisors had to be stopped.
Laban's sword glowed in the sunlight, mortals shied away from his presence. As a Mercurian of Purity, Laban was unconsciously given great respect by the humans. Perhaps because of this, he had yet to cross blades with any of them today.
He could hear the screams in the symphony as mortal after mortal was slain by the celestials in the battle. He knew that the angels of Purity wouldn't be killing needlessly, except for what creatures of the Pagan Gods were participating in the fighting today.
A dragon was soaring towards him, raining fire down upon the warriors, friend and foe alike. As it approached Laban, he saw a figure leap from its back. A huge intimidating male figure, it radiated evil. Laban's Purity of Form Servitor Attunement recongized immediately that it was inhuman and not at all worthy in God's sight.
It landed on the ground, casually slaying a mortal soldier of purity. The anger at such injustice rose in Laban's throat. As a mercurian he was unused to such feelings of outrage; he fought it almost instinctually.
The hulking figure turned to face Laban. Its sword had an almost impossible edge, obviously a creation of an immortal power. Suddenly, it rushed Laban, swinging its sword violently, screaming curses and foul things. Laban parried and blocked, dodged and retreated, but the creature pushed on.
It scored a hit and Laban felt the hideous blade piece his chest, doing a dangerous amount of damage to his vessel. The pain was insideous! Laban felt as though there was fire burning through him! Was this some sort of hellish pagan magic?!
His form crippled, Laban prayed that he find a moment to heal himself, but it looked as though the end was near! The figure loamed over him, learing. "Death by Ruax," the creature of filth spat. Laughing, it reared its blade to deliver a fatal blow, a blow to send Laban spinning into Trauma for God-only-know how long.
Suddenly, a spear jabbed itself into the hellspawn's back. From the scream of pain Laban knew that the spear was a holy weapon. He watched, vision blurred by the poison, as the creature's corpus was divided in two as its head was seperated from its body by a great axe.
[/flashback]
It had been a soldier of purity, Laban had found out later, who had wielded that spear with such skill. It had been Isiaiel, Seraph of War, who had slain the demon. Isiaiel who later became a good friend. Laban remembered, it was Isiaiel who had petitioned for the word of The Future and had obtained it. He now served Destiny, rather than War.
But, Ruax? Could it be the same creature, only recently having come out of Trauma? Or, perhaps with its failure on earth, it had had its station in Hell bounced down to the bottom and only now had he been able to crawl his way back up to service on Earth.
And now Ruax was here, in Vancouver. He had managed to capture Jediael with some sort of Vapulean device. Things were not looking up.
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