Page 52 of Rescuing Air

“In all times of change, there is a culling of the herd. These people were weak. They deserved to be possessed. If the demon within them couldn’t protect them, they don’t deserve to have a host,” Makoto spat.

Jay walked past me until he was standing in front of his father. “Is the Dark Lord gone?”

“Yes, he is free from any demonic influence,” I answered.

He nodded, walking behind his father. In a move so fast I didn’t truly believe it happened, he snapped his father’s neck. I tried to smother my gasp at the shock of the action but Jay held my gaze as if challenging me to be horrified at him. Letting go, his father’s body crumpled to the ground, lifeless and unmoving.

“Great, now he has no conduit to use and we can’t get rid of him,” Micah grumbled under his breath.

“Now, the Dark Lord will have to show himself in his true form. No more hiding in a human shell,” Jay countered. “If he’s strong enough to be here with us, then he can manifest some type of form.”

There was a glint in Jay’s eye that told me he had an idea. Cocking an eyebrow, I waited to see what he would say next.

“What the hell, Jay? Are you trying to bring him down on our heads?” Micah snarled.

Jay scoffed. “As Lailah told him earlier, everything about him is just a lie so why should we believe he is a Prince of Hell?”

The guys looked at him like he’d lost his mind but I figured out what he was going to do. “Really. Look at this army of his. They’re frozen without a leader. Maybe I should just expel them all. I think we’ve killed enough people that I can purge them, setting them free from his hold. Once I do that, then poof goes his army. Then what does he have?” I taunted.

Wrapping us all in a shield, I closed my eyes and reached out with my powers, mapping just how far I could stretch the barrier I would need to remove all the demons. It was at the edge of my ability but I could do it. I wasn’t alone in this. Reaching my hands out to either side, they were immediately grasped, and I felt them all connect with each other, making a perfect circle. Taking a deep inhale, I readied everything and breathed out, pushing our combined power over the whole campus and out into the forest, where I still felt the Elementi fighting. Some of the stronger demons fought my power, but I didn’t buckle. Instead, I sent out a tendril of power to grip them around the throat and yanked them out of the person. When the whole area was free of demon-possessed people, I felt a pang in my heart and the mass casualty that I’d just caused.

If I was able to bring back Parker from the dead and heal Jay’s mother, why couldn’t I cleanse them too?

This time, instead of pushing out a shield, I sent my powers out, flooding the land. I pulled from Micah, using his fire to add to the cleansing while soothing with Hudson’s water. To renew them, I blended Jay’s air and Parker’s heart to create a new beginning, breathing new life into them and removing all memory of the horrors they had experienced at the hands of the Dark Lord. As I added to the mixture, the combined powers continued to extend past what I’d intended. In my mind’s eye, our woven powers stretched far and wide, gaining strength the further it went, gaining momentum.

“Lailah, what are you doing?” Hudson asked, his voice full of awe.

Without opening my eyes, I answered, knowing the truth of it. “I’m saving the world—correction—we are saving the world.”

My head hummed with the power that I was wielding right now but I trusted in the fact that the six of us were doing exactly what we were created to do.

“Stop!” a voice thundered, shaking the ground under our feet. “You shouldn’t be able to do that without all your knights!”

Ah, it would seem that the Dark Lord had finally made his appearance.

Ignoring everything that was going on around me, I focused on the most important thing I would ever do in this lifetime. The ripple of my powers could be felt around the world as I destroyed everything that the Dark Lord had spent centuries creating. He would no longer hold any power in this world when I was done. Now, that didn’t mean there wouldn’t be any evil, but the serum and the havoc it caused, along with his minions blessed with his power, would be cleansed. The Dark Lord would be a blip in our history books of the Elementi when I was finished. The sound of attacks on my shield, that I shrunk down to just shelter us, echoed in my ears. I knew it would hold. The strength we had in each other, along with the love we shared, would keep us safe until I was done. As the angels said, trust and love had the power that could change the world. When this was finished, I would be completely depleted of power, but I trusted there was a way to end the Dark Lord without it.

Finally, I’d rid the world of the Dark Lord’s mark. I felt my power fizzle out, and the shield dissolved, leaving us vulnerable to his attack. Opening my eyes, I came face-to-face with the being of my nightmares, and his mother at his side.

“What now, Little Synergy? You have nothing to defend yourself with, making everything you just did pointless. I will live forever. All I have to do is start again, only this time I won’t have to worry about Synergy coming after me because you’ll be dead,” the Dark Lord taunted.

Slipping my hands out of the guys’ hands, I took a step forward. “Do you really believe that Heaven will allow you to go unpunished for this act? They couldn’t stop you once you involved humankind into the equation, but now that factor has been removed. I wiped you from the face of this planet, healing everything you touched, now you’re their problem.”

“No! No, there is no way you could have removed every trace, that’s not possible!” Lilith screeched, knowing that if what I said was true, they were both in trouble. “I won’t go back there. I’m the Mother of All Demons. I deserve to rule what I created!”

The Dark Lord looked down at his mother who was so much smaller than himself. “You rule? This was my kingdom!”

I glanced over my shoulder at the guys and gave them a wink and a smile which did nothing to remove the pissed-off worried look from their faces. “This will all be over soon.”

Brayden opened his mouth to say something, but I was engulfed in a pure white light as Heaven’s light filled me. A sword materialized in my hand, casting off that pure light that I saw each time an angel came to speak with me. Just like when I went through the bonding process, I was but a vessel for the angel.

“You have broken the laws of Heaven and in doing so, you will be brought before God in judgment. If you refuse, then all things will end here,” the angel said, using my voice.

Lilith burst into hellfire, producing a sword, and attacked me. My skill combined with the knowledge the angel provided for me made it possible to hold my own against Lilith. Our swords clashed, sending sparks flying as light and darkness fought.

“Watch out!” Jay bellowed, but his worry wasn’t necessary.

I flicked out a hand, sending a ball of light to hit the Dark Lord right in the chest. He had his massive sword in hand and tried to block the holy light but it cut right through the weapon, ripping out the other side of his chest. Locking swords with Lilith, I pulled her close, dropped the sword, and clamped my hand around her head, holding her still as I flooded her with holy light. She screamed and thrashed, trying to shake me off her, but I knew there was no way she could defeat me. I was filled with an avenging angel and it had been sent on a mission which only God could remove it from.