"Demon!"
A roar laced with fury and fear tore through the air as Gabriel's form materialized before the group.
Having witnessed Witchheart's existence, the angel couldn't possibly abandon this place.
To defy calamity, to confront demons, to spread the Lord's gospel—that was Gabriel's duty! Observing Constantine wasn't its mission, but it burned to know why he walked a path pitted against both angels and demons.
Having seen the rise and fall of Saint Angel, Gabriel harbored an unnecessary curiosity about humanity.
Now, heedless of its battered state, Gabriel spread its broken wings, holy light blazing to shield the group from the explosion's inferno.
Golden-red blood dripped from its fractured wings, pooling on the ground and igniting into bursts of sacred radiance.
The faltering light barrier, bolstered by Gabriel's arrival, surged with renewed strength, stubbornly holding back the flames.
But the creaking, glass-like barrier couldn't withstand such power for long.
"Gabriel, how laughable. I need an angel's power to fight a demon?" Constantine rasped, each word costing him another fragment of his crumbling body. By the time he finished, his form was irreversibly broken.
His once-handsome face was riddled with craters, half his lips shattered into dust on the ground.
Yet, a mocking smile twisted his ruined features—perhaps aimed at himself.
"How have humans survived under these monsters' thumbs for so long?" Melinda cried, her face a mask of disbelief. Her gun was gripped so tightly her knuckles turned white.
The primal terror seeping from her soul threatened to unravel her sanity.
Coulson lay prone, his expression grim.
Humans could unleash greater destruction, but compared to this visceral, fear-inducing power, such devastation felt hollow.
What reason did humans, unaccustomed to such forces, have to face the unknown without dread?
"It means there are humans strong enough to make them wary," Steve said, clinging to calm as he recalled Bul-Kathos's unmatched might.
He'd seen bombs explode, vehicles burn, and won battle after battle in the chaos of war.
He'd even endured Bul-Kathos's overwhelming power not long ago. But never had he felt fear grip his soul—until now.
Hell's power, a nexus of countless negative forces, naturally made humans tremble.
Steve turned, crouching before Constantine and spreading his arms to shield Melinda, Coulson, and Hawkeye.
His noble character, amplified by boundless compassion, made him seem a disciple of divinity.
In the face of danger, he strove to save lives with every ounce of his being.
"Captain America? I thought the real you wouldn't be as saintly as the comics," Constantine said, his cigarette falling with his shattered jaw, his face too broken to form a proper expression.
Gabriel's roar changed nothing. Even with some power restored, it was merely a named angel—and an incomplete one.
Its strength in the human world paled compared to Witchheart's.
The light barrier shattered under another swell of hellfire.
Gabriel's power retreated inch by inch, its broken wings crumbling entirely, its body marred by charred, carbonized scars.
Its neat golden hair vanished in an instant, its eyes incinerated by the flames.
"Harrogath's Holy Mountain told me a familiar presence was here," a low voice rumbled, like the muffled beat of war drums.
A rough hand emerged from behind Gabriel, seizing the angel's neck and flinging it back. Holy light surged into Constantine's chest.
"Auriel's essence? Where did this come from?" the voice demanded, a ferocious gust shattering the flames into fleeting sparks.
Relieved of external pressure, Hellboy gripped his regrown horns with powerful hands.
With a sharp crack, he snapped them off.
In this clash between Hell and humanity, his human side triumphed!
Matthew, at the end of his charge, collapsed face-first into the cooling magma. His axe remained clutched tightly in his hand.
Blood-soaked, his body wouldn't perish—not yet.
A towering, bare-chested figure stood before them, a war banner snapping in the wind behind him.
Bul-Kathos had arrived.
His stern gaze fell on Constantine, sensing the lingering trace of hope's power.
That power was unmistakable to Bul-Kathos: it belonged to Auriel, the Archangel of Hope!
Though he rarely dealt with angels beyond Imperius and Tyrael, he couldn't mistake the power of a comrade who'd fought alongside him.
As an Archangel of the High Heavens, Auriel matched the might of the three Demon Lords.
When Diablo breached the Crystal Arch, only Imperius met him head-on, but Auriel, Archangel of Love and Hope, and Itherael, Archangel of Fate and Balance, fought demons in unseen corners.
Though Auriel excelled in healing and guidance, no demon faced her without fear.
Her twin ribbons of hope could shatter Azmodan's armor and quell Duriel's plagues.
Her light had crushed Duriel's writhing maggots and strangled countless demons with those ribbons.
The gentle, kind, and tender symbol of love, veiled in an azure hood—Auriel, Archangel of Hope!
She never strayed far from the Nephalem, for hope had always walked with humanity.
During the Angiris Council's vote on humanity's fate, when Imperius demanded their extinction, Itherael chose neutrality to maintain balance, and Malthael abstained, unable to decide.
Auriel cast the crucial vote against annihilation.
That vote gave Justice the chance to secure humanity's survival.
"Aur—" Constantine tried to speak, but with no jaw or tongue, he could only choke out a syllable.
Gabriel's form flickered, then merged entirely into Constantine's body.
The cracks riddling Constantine's frame began to heal visibly.
"Who's Auriel?" he asked, stunned, his voice restored.
Bul-Kathos ignored the awestruck onlookers, striding toward the infuriating man.
"Hope!" he thundered, his voice like a storm breaking before Constantine.
He inhaled deeply, tracking the faint remnants of Auriel's power.
(Chapter End)
------------------------------
Thank you for enjoying my stories! If you want to go further and support my work,
Patreon is the best way to do it — many of the newest chapters will be posted there!
👉 pat*eon*com/DaoistRoeoNQ
💖