Learning To Attack

- Lucifer and Elijah -

Elijah gripped the handle of his seat with his gloved hand and tried to keep his mind elsewhere.

'That magic training was different than-' The cart hit a bump. 'different than I expected. I never thought I'd be willingly shocking myself again.'

Peter, sitting across from Elijah, with his legs and chest strapped to the cart, had been sleeping for the last hour. Heinrich, who was next to Peter, was staring out of the cart, watching whatever things passed by. Sabu, sitting next to Elijah, also appeared to be sleeping. His eyes were closed and his head was down, but his right hand was still gripping the handle.

'I guess there were soldiers who could sleep through bombing runs-' The cart hit another bump. 'even still though.'

Elijah was happy that he never felt the urge to vomit, afraid that if he stuck his head out of the cart they'd hit a bump and he would be launched out going whatever speed these creatures were running.

'Considering the pain from the burn wound being healed I can only imagine what-' Another bump. 'having a broken bone fixed would feel like.'

Another hour passed, and the uništi began slowing down. 'We're finally stopping. Thank g...just, just finally.'

Heinrich pinched Peter's cheek saying "We're here." Peter woke up and shook his head.

"Huh? Oh, good." Peter was clearly still a little dazed from waking up. His exhaustion seemed strange to everyone else in the cart, not just Elijah.

"You clearly overdid it with Lucifer last night," Sabu said, opening his eyes. "Do you have any mana left?"

Peter waved his hand and smiled.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. I didn't train with magic all last night. Luce and I also did weapon sparrin'. I'm just trying to force myself to get some sleep."

Elijah tried to hide the look on his face.

'You're telling me you were able to force yourself to sleep on that ride?'

Elijah was always jealous of those who could seemingly fall asleep instantly and anywhere.

'I wonder if there's a magic that induces a healthy nap. I don't feel too tired right now, but I know when I need to sleep I probably won't be able to.' He thought.

The uništi fully stopped. Peter took off the straps that had been holding him in place and walked out of the cart. He was followed by everyone else.

The place the group had stopped in was a massive city. Gigantic stone walls stretched out as far as the eye could see. The guard who was standing by the large metal bar gate walked up to Lucifer.

The guard was wearing a purple robe, with his head covered by a hood. He was 6'3" with a wide build. Elijah thought the man looked more like a bouncer than a typical gate guard.

"Hey, Lucifer. Traveling to the northern territories I assume." The guard said looking over at Elijah. "Who's the new guy?"

"His name is Elijah. I'm going to go see what this new resistance is about. Other than the unknown I don't think this is going to be anything special."

"Well, you know these things better than I do. Open the gate!" The guard shouted.

The large gate opened up and the group along with the two uništi walked in. The inside of the city was huge. The roads were paved, and the buildings inside were mostly made out of wood. There were shops and other people walking around. There were occasional stares and points at the uništi.

"I guess they're not common creatures?" Elijah asked walking alongside Peter.

"No, not really. Luce was gifted them by Death awhile back. They're not native to our part of the world."

Peter had his hand on his stomach.

"Y'know,  I'm pretty hungry. I don't know if you've felt hungry yet, but ya want somethin' to eat?"

Elijah didn't feel hungry at all, but he liked the idea of trying food in this world.

"You don't need to be hungry to eat." Elijah joked.

Peter slapped him on the back and laughed. "That's a great point. I'll go get us somethin'."

Before Elijah could ask what type of food there was Peter had already run off.

'Guess it doesn't matter.'

Sabu could be heard having a discussion with Lucifer.

"Sorry, but you know how things are." Lucifer was handing a green cloak to Sabu who looked displeased.

"Sorry for forgetting. It's been a while since I've left Hell." Sabu covered his black gi.

"I know. It's been a long time since we've had a mission. It's a shame too. Felt kind of peaceful." Lucifer's eyes had a melancholy to them. It was clear that he didn't find joy in this part of his job.

"What's the name of this place?" Elijah asked.

"New Death City," Lucifer responded in a disappointed tone. "I'm going to assume you can guess why."

Elijah wasn't fond of the name but figured it wasn't the worst title he had heard for a city.

"Is it all humans here?"

"Mostly," Lucifer responded looking around at the various people walking by them.

Lao and Yvere were leading the uništi and noticed Peter running back to them holding various food items in his hands.

"I got too much if you feel like having any." Peter handed one of the items to Lao before he could say anything and walked back to Elijah.

"Wasn't sure what ya like, so I go three different options. Roasted potato with hot sauce. A sandwich that has lettuce, cabbage, onion, and eggs. Or a fried egg sandwich."

Even though Elijah wasn't hungry he was disappointed by the lack of meat and surprised by the inclusion of hot sauce. He picked the first sandwich and started to eat it.

'Not bad.' He thought, pleasantly surprised.

Peter quickly ate the other two items.

"That reminds me." He said wiping the sauce from his face. He walked over to Lucifer and asked if he had fed the uništi yet.

"I usually avoid doing that in front of these people." Lucifer looked at Peter with a stare that says he should know better.

"Everyone who wants to look already is, ya might as well do it now, and show Elijah." Peter was insistent.

'This is probably revenge for taking Elijah along. Fine, I'll play along.'

"Elijah, come with me, I want to show you how we feed the uništi.

Elijah was worried that this was going to be something disgusting but reminded himself that whatever this feeding is it was natural, probably. As he walked in-between the two creatures Lucifer went up to the one Lao was holding.

"Watch closely." Lucifer jumped up onto the creature's back. Lucifer placed his index and middle finger in-between the eye sockets. An orange glow started to appear beneath Lucifer's finger. The glow got stronger suddenly and a similar light started to appear in the uništi's sockets.

Elijah, in awe at what he was seeing, noticed the people around them staring. Lucifer lifted his fingers up and the glow stopped. He jumped off the first uništi and repeated the process with the next one.

"They see energy, and they feed off of it. Luckily these two are well domesticated."

Elijah felt horrified at the idea that these creatures might be predators somewhere out in the world.

"Does that take a lot of mana?" Elijah asked trying to clear his mind.

"It can, but relative to my reserves it's a small ask. It would be dangerous for a human to try and feed them on their own."

A few hours had passed and the group was now finally at the other gate. A guard that looked very similar to the first one greeted them. He leaned in and whispered so the other citizens couldn't hear.

"Some angels were killed by that new resistance. There's a chance Heaven might get involved, so you're aware."

Lucifer showed clear frustration at the idea that other angels might show up.

"Thank you for the information." Lucifer placed some coins in the guard's hand and leaned in. "In case you have to deal with my brother." He put another few coins into the guard's hands.

The gate opened and the group walked out. Peter went up to Lucifer before he started to climb into the cart.

"Any word from Death about Heaven?"

Lucifer shook his head. "Next stop I'll call him and ask if this case is more serious than we initially thought."

Elijah begrudgingly climbed into the cart, worried that the food he ate might actually come back up. He hadn't considered that maybe the reason he never felt an urge to vomit was the lack of food in his system.

Peter climbed in after Elijah with a serious look on his face.

"Everything alright?" Elijah asked, bracing himself for the ride.

"Yeah. Just a small complication." Peter said not realizing what his words meant to Elijah.

'Small complications mean huge trouble. Those angels dying must mean this mission got a lot worse.'

The uništi started moving and for once Elijah was able to take his mind off the trip.

'I know angels being killed can't be good.' Elijah spent most of the ride thinking about how dangerous this journey could be.

It had started to rain after five hours of traveling. The group had been traveling along a forest path and decided to stop for now. Heinrich got out first and levitated square slabs of stone above everyone's heads.

"I'll get to making a shelter," Heinrich said, looking around nervously.

The home this time was mostly just stone plates built in-between the trees with a few walls here and there. It was difficult to work around the trees. There were laws about damaging the forest, so Heinrich was taking extra care to not rip up trees while making the ground for the camp solid.

Sabu used his magic to dry the area and anyone who was wet, and Lucifer was quick to get a fire going.

"Our next stop is a small village called Hydern about three hours away. It doesn't look like the rain is going to last too long." Lucifer said staring up at the clouds. "I guess I might as well teach you some attack magic while we wait." He said turning to Elijah.

"Wouldn't that be dangerous here?" Elijah asked looking around at the others.

"It'll be fine. We've got healers for any misfires and there's no need to worry about burning the forest down." Lucifer motioned Elijah to stand up.

Lucifer asked Heinrich to make a stone wall for them to practice on. A stone wall slowly rose up twenty feet away in line-of-sight with the camp. Lucifer started giving instructions on how to launch an attack.

"Face your palm towards the wall. Imagine that wall is your other palm and you're trying to connect a single bolt of electricity between the two."

Sparks appeared around Elijah's hands. He didn't picture the wall as his hand but instead pictured his hand like a cannon. He pictured the cannon firing in his mind and then substituted the artillery shell with a bolt of lightning. A loud crack resounded as a bolt of lightning shot out from Elijah's hand and punched a burning hole through the stone wall.

Yvere whistled at the sight. "Your hand okay?" She asked.

Elijah was so excited by what he had just done that he couldn't feel the severe damage he had done to himself.

- Death -

(Around the time Lucifer arrived in New Death City)

It was the next day and Death was waiting for the angel to arrive outside of Purgatory's border. Zach didn't have any more bad news for him the day prior. He had simply wanted to be nearby in case a fight broke out.

Death was sitting on top of his uništi, wondering if he should still call Lucifer or not to inform him that he was going to investigate as well.

'I'll hold off. It doesn't change anything for him knowing, and he won't be pleased to hear I'm bringing along one of his siblings.'

Overhead Death could see the angel in question. They landed in front of him and made a small bow.

"Mira. Pleased to meet you, sir." Mira stood 5'11" tall with long silver hair down to her back. She had green eyes and light skin and was wearing a white-clothed outfit that wrapped around her body.

"You can fly or ride with me if you want. I don't know if you're used to an uništi's speed though." Death would prefer she fly but knew it could be taxing on an angel's mana.

"I'd rather fly if that's okay with you?" Mira asked politely.

"That's fine with me."

- Cytus -

"If I'm right he should be coming through here soon. I hope you've brought someone new Lucifer." The voice said with a wide smile.