The Warlock Pt. 10

"You just out fucked a sex demon! How the hell did you do that?" she asked breathlessly.

"I have no idea, Honey. Are you feeling okay?" I responded. I knew Xandra had a one-track mind, but with what just happened it seemed like the sex was the least of it.

"Yeah, just let me catch my breath." she said as she looked at her wings and felt her head. "Something changed me. I feel like I was dipped in lava, then encased in ice. Now that things are settling down I see I have some changes to my powers. I am going to have to explore those later; we have to take a shower and get ready for dinner."

Before I could protest, the door to our room crashed open and Gwydion appeared in his Angel form, glowing brighter than I'd ever seen. Right behind him came Chloe, wearing only a T-shirt that barely covered her ass. She was glowing also, but with a dark green hue.

"Dammit, Martin, are you mixing it up with another Angel?" Gwydion asked harshly.

"Why the fuck would I go looking for a fight in the middle of a threesome?" I responded.

"That was as serious a bolt of holy energy as I have felt in a long time. It is almost as if..." he trailed off and started looking at the three of us. His eyes grew wide.

"You managed a Blessing," he almost whispered. I heard Sofia gasp and turned to her.

She had sprouted a set of angelic wings. I saw her concentrate and she transformed into an Angel form much like Gwydion's. Instead of a sword, she had a spear in her hand. She literally looked like a Valkyrie of legend.

I looked at Gwydion and noticed again how much brighter his aura was. Chloe looked like she was concentrating when a huge writhing mass of tentacles and mouths appeared and started growing. The mouths were lined with fangs, and the tentacles had wicked hooks on the end. And the smell! The stench was almost overpowering. As soon as it appeared it vanished, and Chloe was clapping her hands excitedly while jumping up and down a bit.

"That is so fucking cool! I never had the juice to pull that one off; now it's as easy as a zombie," she giggled.

"So... it looks like I just gave us all a big power-up. I don't see the problem here," I said to Gwydion.

"THE PROBLEM IS THAT YOU ARE NOT AUTHORIZED TO SHARE SUCH ENERGY," intoned a voice behind us.

I slipped into my fiend persona and summoned my mace within a heartbeat. I turned around to the familiar face of Raphael. Except now he was accompanied by two other Angels. Just my fucking luck.

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"Let's get this over with; I have reservations in a half hour." I said as I started toward them.

They looked at each other and the one to the right grinned as he drew his blade.

"STOP. WE ARE NOT HERE TO FIGHT. WE ARE HERE TO UNDERSTAND HOW YOU TAPPED THE POWER OF THE HIGHER PLANES AND TRANSFERRED IT TO YOURSELF AND YOUR FRIENDS," Raphael said. These guys needed to use their inside voices.

"Would you believe I was in the middle of a ménage a trois when I realized that I had some people I really loved to take care of? The next time I went to channel some extra planar energy, I guess I got my lines crossed. How the hell am I channeling higher planar energy? It seems... weird... somehow," I said.

I was getting the feeling that things were spinning out of control. I didn't like this. Then a thought hit me: I examined my powers and found a link to that source of power they claimed was from the higher planes. I grabbed it and twisted it into a form that was vaguely familiar. My left hand glowed with an incandescent light—Angelfyre! I went down the path I had used for so long and twisted the power of the lower planes into a very familiar form. My right hand burned with an inky redness—Hellfyre! Looking at the energies I was holding, I saw all sorts of ways to force them together to do some serious damage. I couldn't help but grin.

The three angelic musketeers were now in full armor, with weapons at the ready. I swear I could smell their fear.

The air popped as another being made an appearance. She had much the same bearing as Raphael and his two boys, but she seemed more relaxed. She looked at me like I was a bug to be dissected. I felt a weird shiver pass through me for a brief second, then it was done. She looked to the other Angels.

"He pulled the energy from my plane. I don't know how he weaved it into a Blessing, but he has committed himself enough to the statutes that I am ruling his use as legitimate," she said. Her voice was calm and mellifluous, without the head-pounding volume.

Raphael and the Angel next to him bowed their heads in acceptance, but the third guy stepped apart and confronted the woman.

"YOU HAVE ALWAYS BEEN TOO LENIENT WITH THE USE OF YOUR PLANAR POWER, NAOMI. THIS HUMAN SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO WIELD ANGELFYRE. IF YOU DON'T PUT A STOP TO THIS, I WILL," the dickhead intoned.

Naomi laughed. It was a truly beautiful sound.

"Gabriel, you may be a prince but, as the planar guardian, in this respect I outrank you. This can be resolved in one of three ways. Firstly, you can walk away and sulk. Secondly, you can challenge me for the right to govern the plane of Charity. I have fought off many challengers, as you well know. Thirdly, we can take this up to Michael and let him decide. We both know what the answer will be," she replied calmly.

"Fourth, I can save us all some time and kick his ass right now," I interjected. I heard three audible groans behind me. Apparently Xan, Sofie, and Gwydion were hoping I would stay quiet. Fat chance.

I snapped out of my fiend mode and sat down on the couch in our suite. It was getting crowded in here. I was naked as a jaybird, but I put my feet up on the coffee table and summoned an apple. I started chewing obnoxiously loudly. Naomi turned her head to me with a glare, but it quickly dissolved into a smile. She even gave me a wink as she turned back to Gabriel.

"That is always an option. Raphael was forced to stand down after challenging this Warlock and his friends. Do you think you would fare any better?" she queried. Gabriel looked at me and my friends. He snorted and promptly disappeared. Naomi turned to Raphael and his friend.

"Do either of you have anything to say?" she asked quietly.

"I CANNOT SAY THAT I AGREE WITH YOUR DECISION, GUARDIAN. HOWEVER, I ACKNOWLEDGE THAT IT IS YOURS TO MAKE," the as-yet unnamed Angel stated.

"Thank you Zadkiel. I will explain a few things to our Gatekeeper here, then we should all move along," she responded.

Raph gave me a salute and Zadkiel gave me a calculating stare before they both vanished, leaving Naomi alone as the only Angel in the room.

This should be good, I thought.

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The Seraph looked at me with a measuring gaze. Then she smiled.

"You really have no clue what is going on, do you?" she asked.

"Nope! I need some exposition here or something," I replied with aplomb.

She laughed. It sounded so melodic.

"I guess I should give you a quick primer about the higher planes. There are seven Planes, each related to one of the Seven Cardinal Virtues. These are the closest planes to Elemental Order. They are directly opposed by the seven Lower Planes, which are tied to the Seven Deadly Sins. These are closest to Elemental Chaos. The thing that makes what you call the Prime Material Plane so special is that it is exactly equidistant between Elemental Order and Elemental Chaos.

"Without going into thousands of years of history, there has been a balance of sorts for a while. With the release of the demon you call Ajak, the balance has been tipped towards Chaos. If the Prime Material plane were to fall to Chaos—or to Order—there would be a direct confrontation between Elemental Order and Elemental Chaos. The last time that happened, the result was what you humans call the Big Bang.

"Angels are tasked to make sure that doesn't happen. There is talk of establishing a preemptive bulwark of Order by taking control of the Prime Material Plane and then waiting for the hordes of Demons to try to take it." She looked around to see if we understood. Unfortunately, I understood a bit too well; this was what cost me my first apprentice.

"That is the larger threat. I don't think I need to tell you what a war between Angels and Demons would do to the humans on this plane. As for the Blessing, or 'power-up' as you called it, every time you channel energy for the first time from a given plane you get an initial surge of power. I am not sure how it reveals itself if you are channeling from a Lower Plane, but when you channel from my plane it generally gives you a huge boost of energy and the ability to wield Angelfyre. The fact that you were able to spread it amongst the people you would sacrifice yourself for is impressive. If you devoted yourself to the Virtues, you could very easily become the first White Warlock that earth has ever produced," she said with a grin.

The more I thought about this the more sense it made. Kinda.

"That one guy called you a Guardian, and you called him a Prince. What was that about?" Chloe asked.

"There are nine Princes of Hell and nine Princes of Heaven," Naomi explained. "These are the guardians and defenders of the lower and upper planes, respectively. They are also the commanders of the various planar forces. Every plane has a Guardian, who protects its particular interests. I am the Guardian of Charitas—Charity in your modern English. Included within my plane is the power to help others at your own expense. Self-sacrifice. At some point, Martin committed himself to a self-sacrificing course that allowed him to pull energy from my plane. It is the same energy that allows a father to lift a bus to get his daughter unpinned, or when a mother jumps out of a high-rise window and lands unharmed with her baby. They have channeled the smallest fraction of my planar energy to do that."

She stopped suddenly. "I must go now. There is a reason that Angels don't come to this plane often. I will give you one word of advice, Martin: be very cautious in your dealings with the dragons. They are some of the most powerful beings that walk these planes. The rest of you, use your gifts wisely. I think they will be needed soon."

With that, she disappeared. We were all trying to take in what just happened when Xandra broke the silence.

"What the hell did she mean about dragons, Boss?"

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Next up, some Dragon action. You knew they had to enter the story sometime, right? :)

-Ahaz