【C  H  A  P  T  E  R   -  01】

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            I draw a breath, calming my aching muscles. I make sure my posture is right one more time before releasing my breath, and with it the silver blade in my left hand.

            A satisfying thump sound fills my ears as the double edged blade hits its mark. Sinking inside the tree bark, creating a two inch dent in it. With a smug smile I turn my head towards the right and wiggle my eyebrows at the creature laying fifteen feet away under the shade of a tree without a care in the world.

            He turns his head away to stare at a blank spot in between the trees to his right. Letting me know that he is still not impressed with my skills.

            "Whatever!" I mutter drawing deep breaths, "you are just jealous of my obviously amazing skills. I mean I am clearly naturally gifted. Come to think of it... If only I had started practicing at an early age..." I turn back to look at him, "I could have been Batman!"

            The creature continues to ignore me so I stalk over to the tree and wiggle the blades out. While working on getting my breathing under control.

            I don't recall ever working even half as much as I have been working out these past couple of weeks. My stamina has immensely improved since the last gym class, but it still isn't enough to help my situation.

            "I am taking a five minute break" I say, as I walk over to where Growly sits.

            As soon as I am under the cool shade of the trees, I fall down onto my back beside him. Making sure to keep enough distance between us.

            We may be on the same team, but we weren't chummy like teammates aught to be. We both tolerated each others presence for the sake of someone we both care about.

            I cast a sideway look at him.

            I had to admit he was a magnificent being to look at. Large and deadly. His cold red eyes, sharp teeth and claws demanded, fear from the onlooker. But they also coaxed out awe.

            With his fur and aura shaded the color of the darkest black he looked every bit a creature you would find in hell. For the most part he seemed like an ordinary——albeit extraordinary——large dog or wolf; it was only when he worked his mojo did he look like a Hellhound from some fictional story. Just one glimpse of this hound in his full hellish form would have any sane person running for his life.

            I suppose I should thank the mutt, if it wasn't for him I would never have been able to get out of hell safely or in one piece after what I had done.

            He wagged his tail around to swat away a tiny fly. Drawing my attention to the gruesome bite marks covering his entire left calf. Making me remember for the bazillion time how he had thrown himself in front of us. Fighting against his own clan. One hellhound against a pack of hundred.

            He betrayed the preordained king of hell to save and serve another one. The one he chose as his true king and master, Leo.

            Despite my hate for Dogs or animals that look like Dogs——due to a horrible encounter with a pack of stray dogs when I was 3 years old, which might be in my hall of childhood traumas——I have a sense of respect and to some extend admiration for his loyalty.

            He snaps his head around to give me a pointed look. In his own silent dog way, reminding me that my five minutes were already up.

            "Yeah, yeah... I was just about to get up."

            Back on my feet, I do a little stretching to prepare my muscles before taking a hold of the blades again. The silver feels cool against my skin and fits perfectly in my slim hands.

            Bending at the knees, drawing up my hands in front of my face, I take up my position and start swinging the blades at invisible enemies.

            I am well aware of how silly, amateur, and downright stupid I must look doing this. But it's not like I could take karate classes right now. All I can do is try and mimic the moves from every action movie and self defence videos I have ever watched. Hoping to at least have the techniques right.

            Besides, it's not like I am actually going against professional fighters. It's only some dozen lost souls and cast away demons that I need to defend myself from. And from what I saw on my first and last trip to hell, they didn't seem like they were even capable of squashing a bug.

            However, the threat of coming across one of Lucifer's faithful demons, Heaven's precious winged birds called Angels, or those extremely large supernatural killing machines with silver spears that Rose calls giant Uglies; is infact "shit your pants" real.

            Now, I am not dim enough to believe that I can actually hold up my own against them, even for two whole minutes. But I also don't want to feel utterly useless. And swinging ancient angelic blades around is the only thing right now that is giving me a much needed dose of confidence and strength. And for the time being it will have to do.

            Shaking my head to clear out all the nervous rambling thoughts, I close my eyes briefly and concentrate on my invisible enemy. Imagining a clear picture of a random demon I had seen in hell, I focus on creating a better and more complex scenario of a fight in my head. Once I have that down, I clutch the blades tight and plan my move to defeat his attacks.
I always try to conjure up scenes that put me in a position of defense. I know I will require to save my ass more than kick the ass when it comes to fighting the ones that are out to get us.

            In the middle of my imaginary fight, I come to a dead stop when Growly's howl resonates through the quiet air of the forest. Giving me goosebumps.

            I swing around in the direction of the sound with blades at ready to kill.

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            A shiver runs up my neck followed by a gust of hot wind. Spinning around I slash my blade through the empty wind towards my right.

            A whisper of an unusually eery sound cuts through the quiet of the woods. That sound is the only physical evidence besides their warm but spine chilling aura that indicates the presence of the lost souls.

            Changing the grip on my blades, I hold it in between my fingers. Making it possible for me to twirl them so that I can both swing and thrust forward at the same time. 

            I stalk further ahead in search of the familiar creepy and scalding aura.

            Air becomes heavier as the temperature rises. My skin feels hot making the hairs at the back of my neck stick together with sweat. I wish Modirul had been more specific while teaching me the art of spotting invisible souls than just going, "go with your gut feeling".

            I could hardly blame him though. It wasn't like we had the luxury of time. The souls that were currently surrounding us were undoubtedly the courtesy of my own action of choosing a very dramatic exit from hell.

            When I had decided to trust an unknown angel and agree to runaway from hell with an accused and dying angel; on his command, the idea of letting lost souls loose on earth seemed like a great idea for distraction. Harmless even. And they are indeed harmless. They can not physically hurt anything. Living or dead. But their presence did put us in the danger spotlight.

            Both heaven and hell have put out an APB on us. Following our trail by locating where the most concentrated bunch of lost souls were. Which for some weird reason seemes to be everywhere we go. If it weren't for Growly and his hellish shield power, we would have been caught in the very first hour of our escape.

            I look back at Growly, watch him throw bites at invisible air around him and feel torn between anxiety and worry. I can either beg the mutt to point where the souls are or I can send him to protect the cabin.

            The latter is more important.

            "Go, I got this" I tell him and then prepare to swing to my right where I feel a wave of heat coming from. For once he follows my order without being bitchy about it.

            Souls are invisible to mortal eyes. They only come bearing a mysterious feeling. Almost similar to that of being watched or when you know something is horribly wrong, like something terrible is going to happen in the pit of your stomach. That's how souls that have wandered in hell for devil knows how long feel like. 

            So a peculiar feeling plus hot gusts of wind-—which can only be felt when they are in close proximity—equals prime opportunity to start swinging blades.

            However, killing them sounds like an easy task only in theory. Even the slightest touch of these special blades is deadly enough to cut off their unauthorized trip to earth. But it is a nearly impossible task to achieve when one can't even see them and has to rely on their spidey senses to figure out where exactly they were. 

             I wish Modirul had some specialised glasses that could help me see these souls.

"Screw special glasses, I am demanding a rope with hundred blades, next time I see him." I mumble. This would be so much easier if I only had to whip, swing and hoop a rope around.

             Another wave of heat hits me from behind. I immediately turn to my right with my hand fully extended forward. I wait a full second for the weird whispering sound that comes off of them when my blades cut into them. But none follow.

            Cursing under my breath I swing in the general direction of where I had felt the hot gust of wind from again, aimlessly swinging my blade in every direction.

            A slight hotness in the air right in front of me makes me punch the blade straight ahead with unrequired force. I sigh a great relief when the whispering sound chimes in my ears. 

             If I had known back then, that opening the gates of hell would come to bite me in the ass like this I would have tried to think of something else.

            I look around slowly assessing my surroundings. The creepy feeling of something watching me or standing behind me starts to fade away. Which means I either killed them all or they simply created a distance. In which case I will not be able to feel them.

             I give up looking for the souls after a minute and start to head back towards our cabin. As I do, I realise I have wandered out of Growly's shield range.

            I run back towards the cabin and have another layer of panic set into my heart as I pass by the tress where Growly and I had sat few minutes ago.

            The shield is down.

            Something far worse can come looking for him, gravitating towards him, like moths to a giant flame. And Growly won't have enough strength in him to create another shield right now. He still needs an hour of rest to power back up.

             My feet kick off the ground with full force, running as fast as I can. I need to make sure they are okay. Growly might be one hell of a badass hound, but he can't deal with the bigger creatures all my himself.

              I skid to an abrupt stop when I get out of the thick shade of the towering trees, upon the sight of our tiny wood cabin and something else. 

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