Hikari vs Elesia: Blood tainted wings

For a few moments, Elesia focused entirely just on breath, starting to feel all of this power take a toll on her. With every moment, it was more time of her existance she was eating up. By now, the fight had sapped away three and a half years of her life expectancy.. leaving her just barely to fifty years of age if she really wanted to push it, but she knew in her life, she would have to use this much more, and doubted she would even live to thirty by the time all of her battles was done. Of all the fights though, this was certainly one of the longest she had been in where she had a seal activated; two no less.

Had she possessed the time, Elesia would have stopped and said something, but right now her life was ticking away, and she couldn't push it any further than she already had. So instead, without a word, Elesia stepped beyond Hikari, intending to just walk around her without saying a word. She could answer this all later, she still had a relic to attain. Only after that would she speak.

Reaching for the Ark, Elesia had briefly let her guard down again, attempting to grab the orb and embrace it for the time needed to harness its power. Soon she would need Hikari's blood to, but that was easy enough to attain since the angel was wounded enough to offer that so easily.

Hikari was powerless to stop Elesia from going for the ark. She could barely even keep herself upright. She shifted a little, crawling over to one of the unsmashed pews and leaning against it, breathing raggedly. Blood seeped out of her mouth. Her eyes were growing dim. She watched Elesia, unable to do anything. Never had she felt so helpless. She had failed. She could feel Ariel's disappointment, and could feel god's grace slowly leaving her. Her golden armor vanished, and the great golden wings disappeared. Hikari remained sitting with her back leaning against the pews, dressed only in her bloodsoaked school skirt again.

"Don't..." Hikari murmured when Elesia reached for the Ark. But it was too late. Elesia grabbed the ark and held it in her hand.

"What's this, you failed Hikari?" Suddenly another girl appeared. She had short blue hair and green eyes, and was wearing the same type of school skirt Hikari had on. "Geez, and you got so beaten up too..." The girl looked at Elesia. "Let go of that, it's not yours to take."

"Rika..." Hikari said, recognizing the girl.

Again, she felt it. Those calming waves of Holy energies, it was absolutely peaceful as its powers flowed through her like a river current, like it went into her bloodstream and riveted her to the core. Elesia's teal eyes slowly closed, her lips sealing, and her weapon loosely hanging tucked under her arm, as if her entire body was slowly recieving a feeling of subtle pleasure. She needed time to truly sync with it before she would approach Hikari, but before that could happen, something else seemed to disturb that.

'Another interloper...?'

No! Time was her enemy, she couldn't draw this out and fight someone else!! If so, she needed to end it quickly, and obliterate her in an instant. There was no luxery to fight another person at this point, Elesia's sould had already been devoured enough to fuel this power, and she couldn't maintain this much longer.

"Do not interfere." Elesia said coldly, her eyes flashing open as she turned towards the girl, giving her one and only one warning as she had maintained her grip on the ark. By now, about fifteen seconds had passed with her possessing it. That was still only a quarter of the time needed, but with this newcomer, she didn't think it was possible she'd finish.

Rika sighed. "As if I would let a human take the ark," she said. Six brilliant white wings burst from her back, revealing just what she truly was. "I am the Cherubim Gabriel," Rika said, "And you are here to suffer divine judgement. Elesia Thanatos, prepare yourself." Rika leapt forward, fists clenched. She was prepared to strike down Elesia to regain the ark. It was bad enough that Hikari had failed, she would not. Once she was close enough, she planned on striking Elesia to make her let go and knock the Ark from her grasp.

It was such a pity, Elesia really didn't want to bring another girl to the brink of death. But at this point, she was left with no choice, and Rika would recieve the same punishment that Hikari did. But when Rika calle Elesia by 'human', her teal eyes widened just a bit and she turned to look at the girl. No.. the angel!

Michel... Ariel... Gabriel... Rapheal... The four apostles. And at the moment, she had beheld not one, but two and was going to fight them both, one after another. She couldn't do this.. it was going to be too much, her body would no longer be able to carry on once this was all over. This.. this had to be a test from God, right?! Just to see how far she was willing to push herself for the greater cause?

No matter the case, Elesia didn't back down, and as she turned towards Rika, she was already too late to defend, not having a proper grip on the Atonement to fight back as she recieved a punch right in the side of her chest by her shoulder and arm that held the Ark, essentially knocking it away. "No!!" She yelled out, stumbling back as she dragged the Atonement with her, feeling like she once again had to start over. These angels kept using up time she didn't have! And at this rate...

Seeing the Ark thrown out of Elesia's hand, Rika immediately called up her powers and threw a spell upon it. "Seal of Solomon!" Rika yelled. A golden sphere formed around the Ark, completely blocking it. Upon the sphere a seal bearing the six-pointed star of David formed, locking the sphere. "There, now you can't just take it," Rika murmured, "You'll have to break the seal." She turned back to Elesia, noticing that she was readying her weapon.

"Can't let you use that," Rika said. She held her hand out. Bright rays of light shot out of her fingertips. They struck and stuck onto Elesia's body like thin glowing strings. "Binding Bridle," Rika said. The strings prevented Elesia from moving, wrapping themselves around Elesia's arms and body tightly, thin gossamer strands of golden light binding Elesia.

"Break it?" Elesia questoin in amusement when she saw the Ark become encased in a seal. It didn't bother her as much, the Atonement was a weapon meant to shatter even the hand of God itself if she had to, so a barrier wasn't something she was too concerned about. It was certainly going to use more of her time and no she had to go further out of her way to attain it, but in the end she would still get it when the time came. "I won't just break the seal, but I'll break you as well!" With a battle cry and her weapon ready, Elesia was about to unleash another shockwave from the Atonement, when suddenly, something very odd happened.

Something felt... tight around her body, it was like there was a pressure building up, and the more she tried to struggle, the worse off it felt. Her arms, legs, even her chest all felt like something was gripping it tightly, and she couldn't resist against it. "What.... What is this?!?" She demanded out, a desperate but angered look in her teal eyes as she tried to pull out of this, only to give out a soft yelp when she felt it tighten again. How could she suddenly become so vulnerable like this all of the sudden...?

Rika clenched her hand into a fist, pulling on all the strings wrapped around Elesia at once. They all suddenly tightened, squeezing Elesia hard. Rika smiled when she saw Elesia completely unable to move, bound up entirely with her golden threads.

"Those strings are indestructable," Rika said, "They can only be broken by the power of God himself. You, as a mere mortal, have no chance. Surrender now, and I will perhaps be merciful."

Hikari watched from the side. "Rika-nee sure is strong," she thought, "With one move, she has Elesia beaten." She remembered that it was the Archangel Gabriel who gave Rika her power. Gabriel was one of God's greatest and most faithful warriors, but his power was different from Ariel's. While Ariel was a user of weapons, Gabriel was more defensive, preferring to use shields and bindings against his opponents. That was the power Rika used, the power to bind and seal away all other powers!

The power of God could, is that so...? Then perhaps... just maybe she could break this seal, but she would also have to unleash her third and final seal to do so. Every time she unleashed a seal, it was done so with the Lord's judgement and power, so that brief moment in breaking the seal practically overloaded her with the power of the lord. It was partly the reason why she instantly recovered from all her wounds as well. But.. was it worth the risk? Only two people in Black Cross had ever gone so far as to unleash their third seal; and the results were disasterous. The first one couldn't handle the power and she ended up dying from exhaustion. The second... he lost his mind, and Black Cross was merciful enohgh to kill him before he did something against God. Elesia was in fact one of the strongest members of Black Cross, but even she was afraid, uncertain about going so far as to break the third seal.

Hearing Rika's demand for her too surrender, Elesia's head hung low, gritting her teeth in pain, and also in frustration, no longer resisting so much against the threads as she just hung there loose, practically limp as she dropped the Atonement, and it lost it's form and collaped into a small puddle of blood upon the holy grounds. She drew a long breath, and murmered something inaudable beneath her breath, and then suddenly, all the power she seemed to possess faded, as if being restrained had tapped out all her desire to fight and resist. Her teal eyes closed shut, her blue hair shadowed her face a bit with her bangs, and suddenly her normal clothing appeared over her. Now wearing the simple nun attire that she had before, it was still damaged like it had been earlier, a large tear at the side of her gut, the sleeves and skirt burnt and singed, and a few holes in it, but overall, her own body was untouched since the second seal breaking healed her before. Now, she was simply a mortal again, still a powerful fighter, but nothing like what she had possessed before, subjected now to the mercy of Rika as she didn't say anything back, awaiting her fate.

"Hmm?" Rika said, "Are you giving up?" She noticed how Elesia's power suddenly disappeared. One minute she was brimming with celestial energy, possessing so much that even Rika in Angel Form couldn't match it, the next the energy was all gone. Rika smiled. It seemed that this mortal had realized she had no hope against the power of Gabriel's bindings. She raised her hand. More golden threads shot out, winding themselves around Elesia's body, attempting to wrap her in a cocoon of gossamer threads.

"You have raised a weapon against God's highest servants," Rika said, "And you dare to trespass on the holy grounds of King Solomon's Temple, and you dare seek the Ark of the Covenant. You have trespassed against the will of God himself!" She suddenly cut off the threads from her fingers. The ends quickly shot around Elesia and finished binding her tightly. "May God have mercy upon your soul," Rika said to Elesia as she walked over to Hikari, checking to see if she could survive her injuries.