datadiving | ???-1: THE AFTERMATH

???-1: THE AFTERMATH

In the ruins of the city of Lust, a small creature roams the hollow streets. Though the husks of the damned still wander, any seeking easy prey are quickly convinced to seek their sustenance elsewhere by the sting of Hell Energy. Any creature that can hold energy orbs in its palm is a threat to be avoided.

A strange being. It wears concealing clothes, already marking it as an oddity, its face almost entirely concealed save for the two glowing eyes that peek out from under its hat. The style and fashion of them is direly outdated, a human affectation gifted to it long, long ago, even by the standards of Hell.

It's raining again, Vivi thinks to himself, since there's nobody to say it to. His siblings are somewhere else in Lust, if they haven't delved down to the lower levels, seeking their favored prey - machines, husks, anything that they so wish that sates their desire for violence.

Once they were meant to be....he doesn't recall, exactly, what they were meant to be. Were they meant as hope? A tithe to Heaven? A soldier that served the souls of humankind, rather than Hell? Something else altogether?

Minos is dead now, truly so. He had felt the loss in his awakening, that he was not there to greet them.

But still, they were truly free now, with no purpose at all. That meant something, didn't it?

Vivi wanders the empty city, sheltering from the rain under a rotted awning, just watching. Waiting for something interesting to happen. If he strains his senses, though, he almost thinks that he can feel the presence of something that came from Heaven...

Surely, though, that's a mistake. The last time something from Heaven had come down here, the world had ended, at least this small part of it; he had felt the rupture.

But there's nothing left here to end. So he must be imagining it.

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"If you were killing things, you probably saw them," he states, matter of factly. "They're killing things too." It's a statement without any judgement; it's simply what they did, what they were made to do. They just forget, sometimes, that it's not all they have to do.

But they don't have much left, so he can't really blame them for getting...restless. He might have even joined them, on a different day, but he doesn't feel like it right now.

"Oh...I don't think there are any left." Strange that this angel killer, destroyer, desecrator, hums the energy within him, a torrent of directionless passion would come looking for them, after all this time, but even angels can do strange things now and then.

"There's not a lot left here in general, though. Maybe...they moved down? Or tried to go up..." He's not quite sure how traversing Hell works. Going down seemed fairly obvious, but going up seems almost insurmountable. There had been plans once, he thought...a staircase to let them through? Maybe. But...

He can see the ruins from here if he tries.

"I don't know the whole city yet. Maybe there's places I haven't looked. We could look together, if you want."

As he moves out of the darkness, nearer to Gabriel, something else is revealed; the frail skeleton of wings on his back, folded neatly against his shoulderblades. They are bedraggled, small things, flickering with feathers of divine energy; the 'bones' are something like the Idols so lovingly carved in tribute to Gabriel.

(The others had carefully sculpted wings, too, but they had been more feathered, more mortal, based on some sinner's distant memory of birds.)

"Yes, I believe I did." Something gnashed wildly within him, not allowed to claw its way to the surface. Oh how he hated the idea of standing here, telling himself to allow anything else to do his work. His atonement. He should be waist deep in gore, surrounded by surging endless tides of enemies, letting them all break themselves upon his blades like crashing waves against the rocks! Hunt down that pseudo-winged, pit-blasted, blasphemous, perfect machine and find his destiny at the end of its gun-

... The irony of what he was now being forced to do instead wasn't lost on him. If he was to seek atonement... it should actually suck, shouldn't it?

God he hates that.

"... No, I guess there wouldn't be." He'd hoped a few had managed to retain their sanity, a straggler or two still clinging to their humanity but... Well, he knew why. It had been foolish to hope that the sheer gravity of his wrongs might not harbor such awful consequences. But... maybe there was still a silver of hope. He couldn't take the child into battle with him either, he'd... have to think of something to do with him, eventually. For now though, he'd entertain the fading chance that there might still be someone other than Vivi left here. "I believe that would be the most prudent choice of actions, yes."

Ah, there were the wings. As to why they were in such a sorry state, well who was he to say? His came in fine after all, he'd never had to be concerned about their health before.

"What happened to your wings?" ... What, was he not supposed to point that out? He's not going to do that, those are awful, what the hell, little baby?

"It's gotten quieter since the corpse, um....fell. Maybe they'll come back?" he offers, clearly sensing Gabriel's conflict, though he's not certain of the reason why.

You know exactly the reason why. Murderer. Executioner.
WHY-
IS-
HE-
HERE.

(They had been near-empty vessels once, ready to grow a soul - to see if a soul could be grown, something pure and bright in this great and never-ending pain and darkness. An act of creation. When Lust's city had been destroyed, those killed in its upheaval had flowed together...

Maybe he'd gotten more of that pain than the others had. The others didn't seem so bothered by it, but maybe that was because he had been the first, bearing the mistakes that had been corrected later.)

"Oh. I was the first one, so they didn't come out right. The other ones came out better." He says it without any pain or resentment. "I can still fly with them, but only for a little while."

He flaps them. They chime like small, soft bells against each other, a pure sound in the ruined gloominess of what had once been a thriving city. "They hadn't agreed on what they wanted me to be yet."

He looks out into the darkness. Where hasn't he searched? Likely the center, anywhere the corpse's shadow fell. He could say it was practicality, but it had been grief, too. Even though Minos was now truly dead, it still felt painful to look upon his twisted shade, knowing there was nothing he could do to make it right.

"Perhaps. In any case, I see no reason why I shouldn't remain alongside you for a time, hopefully they'll return before I continue my pursuit of the machines." As if he would surely leave this child if they didn't return in some set amount of time. As if Lust wasn't a sprawling city of impossible size, it would take more than a few minutes to explore it. ... As if he didn't only have twenty four hours.

"Oh. ... I guess this entire expedition is going to be on foot." Which made sense, yes, it'd be really hard to see people if he was flying, but have you considered: walking. suck. It's not an argument, he's not going to just take off now, his decision had been made, but that didn't mean he had to sound happy about it. Hey, if the baby wasn't bummed about not being able to fly, he's not going to stand here and feel pity about it in regards to that.

Oh shit right-

"Do you have a name, child?" It mattered, it was nothing short of disrespectful not to know one way or another now. If the child had a title, it deserved to be properly used.

"I hope so too. It's so quiet here...it used to be a lot louder."

He giggles a little, surprisingly, though he doesn't elaborate on what he's found funny about the words. "It's okay. You can fly and I can walk, so we can look for different things. It's efficient - right?"

Like it's already been decided, he picks a direction to walk in, vaguely thinking he'll head towards the center. Perhaps there are people there, husks who had retained their minds, not killed by demons or machines...somehow.

"I was called Black Waltz 0 in testing...But I got given another name, Vivi. So you can call me either of those." He seems to be taking this whole thing in stride surprisingly well.

And, the inevitable question: "What's yours?"

"What? What's so funny, I don't get it." He didn't remember making any jokes here, was this a baby thing he was too mature to understand?

And decrease the amount of reaction time I have if something happens to you? That would have been the real reply to that question, but saying that felt like a personal insult to himself. He was infinitely faster than anything in this Layer at present, all the real problems had delved deeper into Hell, ask him how he knows. So that couldn't possibly be the reason. Which made the anxiety that suddenly skittered through his head and chest like ice cold fingers completely baseless and annoying.

He needed a better excuse, a more 'real' one.

"No, it's fine. It's harder to make out fine details from high up anyway, it makes more sense to walk." As you can see, Gabriel is not at all irritated by this, he's fine and normal, just like the situation he's found himself in. Fine and normal.

And he could have continued to pretend it was that way for at least a little while longer, but it'd probably been wishful thinking to the point of delusion to think that maybe Vivi wouldn't ask for a name in return. Lying was off the table, it wasn't even something that was allowed to enter his mind. It was one thing to tell himself a load of bullshit.

It was another to tell it to someone else.

"That... that's not important, right now, trust me." So, he'd do neither. No lies, no names, he'd be dead soon anyway so even insisting its lack of importance wasn't even necessarily false. "I'll bother with it later- Actually your prior idea of aerial surveillance was pretty good, I think I'm going to do that, you just keep walking ahead and I'll watch you from on high."

Better talk fast, because he's already off the ground! Oh he's still not leaving of course, but it's a lot easier to pretend he can't hear anything from fifty feet up.

"Oh! Sorry. You remind me of my siblings, that's all. They don't like to walk either." And he's hardly going to ask any of them to carry him, though occasionally he's been picked up and flown around on occasion.

He watches Gabriel go through several emotions in the span of roughly a minute and is more concerned than anything. He's not surprised when the angel doesn't give a name, and even less surprised when he decides that ACTUALLY getting away from something he doesn't want to talk about is the optimal course of action.

He really is very much like their siblings. It makes him a little fonder, a little less inclined to press, than he might otherwise be.

"Names are important, though! Everyone here used to believe that without a name, you would lose your mind faster..." He doesn't know if that's true, though.

But what he does know is true is that there's only one angel that's ever come down to Hell. He's young - but he isn't stupid. He knows, too, what Gabriel looks like; that at least had been etched into the memories of the souls that had flowed into him.

He looks at Gabriel with a melancholy older than he is for a moment, grave and unblinking.

"...If you don't wanna tell me, that's okay, though. Maybe later," he says agreeably, before continuing to amble into the ruins. "We can talk about other stuff instead."

He does not elaborate. If Gabriel wants to avoid more awkward conversations, he might want to pick a topic that agrees with him.

"Well yes, that's because it sucks. No offense, Vivi, but walking is the worst, I can't believe you're stuck like that." No he's not going to pick him up either, Vivi hadn't asked him to and he wasn't about to offer anyway. He needed both his hands for swords.

For someone as aggressively proud as Gabriel, implying his name (and therefore all of the accomplishments attached to it) was unimportant, was as close to lying as he could possibly get and god was it painful. Now, if he'd known Vivi already knew and wouldn't have cared in one direction or the other, of course he'd be a lot less conflicted about it.

But then again, maybe it wasn't even entirely the fear that he might have to strike down the little construct if he was totally honest with him. It was hard to deny that it felt almost wrong to do it on a moral level, considering... well, all the accomplishments attached to that name, and the fact that he now stood in the middle of the aftermath of his 'grandest' accomplishment. Talking to what may well be all that really remained of it.

And on a level, he did know. How could anyone in this place not know who he was after all? ... But he was already playing pretend with himself, why not ignore all that uncomfortable stuff for just a little while longer? It wasn't actually important after all, was it? He'd already done most of the important stuff before he returned to Hell, everything else aside from this sweep of Lust and finding The Machine was just optional. It was an expression Vivi wouldn't be able to see of course, with the helmet covering the angel's face, but as the child spoke it almost seemed as if Gabriel glared at him briefly.

What's going through your head anyway?

"It's more than just not wanting to, you wouldn't-" Nope, nope, stop digging this hole. Vivi had already demonstrated he was probably smarter than the average nine year old, and he wasn't keen on getting any closer to the writhing knot of unidentifiable feelings that had taken up residency in his chest. "I mean yes. Other stuff. Of course."

Which... would require staying within ear shot, but since the subject matter had changed and would remain changed, he supposed he could remain a little closer.

"That you haven't been ripped to shreds yet is something of a surprise, Vivi. How long have you been walking around here?" He drifted after him, a brilliant light amid the now darkened streets. Less of a beacon, and more of a horrible warning to anything that might catch sight of it. Stay fucking clear was the message there.

"Walking's not that bad...!" But this, too, is a discussion he's had before. The others have wings, and he does not. It is a simple fact that he has to accept, because nothing can change it.

"...I dunno exactly. Time moves different here, I think. But I remember Minos' soul leaving...I felt it. That was a while ago."

He conjures a small, tightly condensed orb of hell energy in his hand more out of habit than need. He's used to wandering the dark streets with nothing but himself for company, especially as machines and demons were usually preoccupied with killing one another, and his power was an effective light source. In Gabriel's scorching light, however, it seems a paltry thing.

"I can defend myself if I need to, but machines look past me...I don't think I have blood, so they're not interested. Demons want to play with me, though. So I have to fight, to get them to leave."

He gestures with the hand that holds the orb, and it spins gently around his hand before settling back into his palm. His siblings help, of course, if they're around - more than once he's had them descend ravenously on demons trying to hurt him - but they can range more freely and hunt more freely than him.

"I've been...lucky, I guess."

It's an argument he's not about to get into.

"Yes it is." Much. The tone does sound final though.

"The machines advance has taken them deep within the confines of Hell. That one of their number was capable of destroying a Prime soul..." Well he didn't have to guess who was responsible for it. Oh the enraged, feral longing that flashed through him like a lightning bolt almost burned just as fiercely as if he'd actually been struck. It had to be The Machine. There was nothing else that could accomplish such an extraordinary feat of unmatched violence... The blue of the angel's wings had begun to shift as he turned the thought over in his mind, brilliant gleaming gold seeping into the cold blue until a shining ring ran around their entire perimeter.

He coughed, and in the blink of an eye, the color flickered back again. Try not to be too much of a freak right now.

The use of magic explained everything well enough. Small and comparatively to Gabriel, feeble though that power might be, it was more than enough for the stragglers that remained here. "Then you're not entirely helpless. Good, there may be times where I won't be able to immediately come to you here. That should do well enough to repulse the dregs that remain."

Lucky. Gabriel scoffed from his position up in the air, taking a moment to glance down an alleyway at a shifting shadow within it. Just filth, by the looks of it, scuttling away from the holy glow that filled the street.

"Considering I found you-" Mmmmmmm, that thought had a complicated aura attached to it.... He's going to keep going anyway, "yeah, you are." Because he was helping now. He's helping and Vivi had nothing to worry about from this point on.

"But I'm sure between now and whenever I must depart from here, you might learn a few things. You won't even need luck then."

Vivi watches Gabriel's wings change colour with innocent interest. Mercifully, if he thinks there's anything to it, he keeps the question to himself.

"If I was that helpless, I'd already be a husk," he says, more to protest the assumption he was helpless to begin with than anything. He's not even sure he would form a husk or he'd simply fade into oblivion.

That mention of luck gets another small giggle. Amused, entertained, simply reminded of his siblings again? It's unclear. But it's that mention of departing that really catches his attention. His eyes light up in burning, avid curiosity.

"Are you going down to the other layers?"

He could probably spin it as being something noble. Not wholesome or anything but definitely noble! Hell, he even believed it himself as long as he didn't think about it too hard, wasn't it noble to desire to die on his feet in battle against a worthy opponent? Absolutely nothing deeper to it.

Nothing at all.

"Of course. This sweep of Lust is but a temporary, necessary diversion from my true goal. It falls upon me, to excise these machines from Hell and restore some semblance of order, and I shall see this duty through." Hell was massive, every inch of it swarming with mechanical invaders. Gabriel wasn't necessarily being entirely truthful, when he said he intended to avert their tide... There was only one he really cared about personally stopping now.

"You keep laughing, I don't understand what the comedy here is. Are your siblings really that funny?"

Fortunately for Gabriel's air of nobility and dignity, Vivi has no mind-reading powers and cannot divine even a little of what's going on in Gabriel's head.

"You just remind me of them. That's all. It's funny, cause...we're not made the same way you are. You know? I can't even imagine what it would be like to be an angel." Not necessarily funny in itself, but funny to imagine that there could even be a commonality point between them, two beings as far away from each other as heaven is from hell. It would only be funnier if they were demons.

"If I learn to defend myself better, can I come...? I've never been to the other layers. I want to see them."

"I'm not going to lie, it was really cool." Being an angel, that was. The past-tense verbiage of the statement flew over Gabriel's head entirely, the subconscious whirlwind going on between his ears leaking out just a little bit. Explain himself? No.

"Your siblings sound acceptable, Vivi. I hope their hunt is plentiful and successful." It was really hard not to sound at least a little bitter... Which was why he didn't even try, he sounds so bitter about that. Oh boy he wished he was out murdering everything, wouldn't that be fucking nice-

"... Why would you- The depths of hell is no place for a baby." Oh he's back on that shit again. "You'll be shredded to pieces in the blink of an eye, spattered across the gore slicked floors of Hell without mercy. ... I applaud your courage, though." Hey, he had to reward positive behavior, right?

"What was it like?" He does not comment on the past tense. Whether that's because he didn't notice or he's carefully not saying anything about it is unclear.

"There's no place for me anywhere," Vivi says simply. "I guess I could just stay here and be safe, but I've passed lots of time like that." He doesn't really know what he wants, but surely this empty city isn't all there is.

He wants to believe that, at least. Besides, he's sure his siblings won't mind if he goes exploring. Maybe he can tell them about the other layers, if they don't get there first.

(Really, he is simply lonely and curious. And Gabriel is the first new thing he's seen in a while. He's the promise of, at least, something interesting.)

"And if I can defend myself better, you can go and hunt machines in the other layers, right? So it'll work out."

"... It was glorious. The feeling of divine power, the righteousness of your every action, every word and motion a direct manifestation of The Father's will upon the world. To walk in the light of God was to remove all doubt of the virtue of your actions, for your reason of existence was to carry out His word." ... But it was... so stifling. Again his mind drifted to Heresy, to his battle with The Machine. For the first time in his entire life he'd finally tasted something so intoxicating, that even the will of the Lord could not hope to challenge it...

There's no place for me anywhere. The sentence struck something in him, sitting in his gut like a lead weight. The words resonated in a way that sounded too familiar, fit in a way that made his heart twist.

"I suppose I could bring you along for a little while. If you improve your combat abilities, anyway. I will accept no dead weight with me, Vivi, the road ahead is long and arduous and I cannot guarantee your safety." Some part of Gabriel hoped perhaps this would scare him, he was a child after all. Granted, one that had shown a commendable amount of stoicism thus far but a child nevertheless.

Something told him however, that this meager little warning wouldn't be nearly enough to dampen the curiosity.

"But that doesn't frighten you at all, does it?"

Edited 2025-05-12 06:23 (UTC)

"Being made for a purpose...it sounds good, as long as you do what you're told." He doesn't know what his purpose would have been. He was the prototype, after all. Maybe he wouldn't have had a purpose.

That's all gone though, buried in the ash and destruction of the city. Nothing remains, nobody to give him direction or tell him what to do.

Faced with so little, he wishes to expand his world. He has always been curious. He tasted a little more of that, recalls a little more of the voices of the sinners who had created him. And perhaps the yearning for freedom many of the damned souls carried was in him as well.

(Perhaps the ideals Minos had embodied, perhaps a little fragment of his departing soul, had wedged in an empty space somewhere deep inside. If that was indeed how souls worked.

If he really reaches deep into himself he can pull out memories - fragments - shards of the dead, recalling Minos' voice and face. All those who had dwelled here had loved him.

But he has no memories for himself. If they are there, they are buried deep in the drift of time, sunken in his sleep.)

He turns it over in his mind, seriously considering it.

Then, he simply shakes his head. "It's scarier to be alone," is all he says to that. And perhaps it's not just for his benefit; he has his siblings, after all. They will return in time, when they've sated their urge for violence. Their time together is consistent, if fleeting.

He doesn't think this person in front of him has anyone.

"Yes, obedience is a virtue." The words came mechanically, automatically. To obey was to show love, after all. Questioning His Word was blasphemy.

Questioning their word, maybe. "Or... So I've been told." He doubted very much now that Vivi would blindly take anything he said as gospel, as irritating a thought as that was, but it still didn't feel right to tout that as fact. It was certainly for the child's sake nevertheless though, he certainly didn't need it refuted.

"I suppose it is." He could argue the opposite perhaps, if he could put his finger on exactly why the thought caused a spike of discomfort. Because he had to take the life of another into account? That had to be it, right? It seemed correct enough, it was if nothing else a large part of it... No, he wouldn't ponder on it any longer. It felt right enough, as ever the thought of leaving Vivi to his own devices here was nothing short of repulsive.

Atonement shouldn't be easy.

"Ahem... Well I haven't seen anything promising thus far, Vivi. I fear you may be correct that there's no one left here."

"Virtues matter more to angels, I think. I don't know if I've gotta worry about those..." Vivi has an only scattered idea of virtue; his knowledge base, such as it is, is made of the fragments of sinners. It's merely one of many new and novel ideas to him.

"I didn't get anything like that when I was made. Like asking for obedience or anything. I think they just wanted to make me to see if they could."

His footsteps echo through the deserted streets. Gabriel's light is an effective deterrent for most things, though he keeps an orb in his palm just in case.

"I hope there's some...I hope they come back. I'd like to meet them." There's a strong wistfulness to his tone. He doesn't make an attempt to hide or stifle his emotions; it's part of what gives off that childlike impression. "But I guess...if I haven't seen any before, it'll take a long time for me to see any."

"Virtues should matter to everyone, regardless of their creation. To live a virtuous life is to live a good life, with patience, humility, temperance and justice." There were... a few of those he just listed that maybe he could uh... work on somewhat. Perhaps. But that wasn't the point here.

For as corrupt as the Council had been, that didn't diminish the goodness of Heaven, nor indeed the virtues he'd once believed the Council had stood for. It wasn't just for angels... If Minos and Sisyphus had, belatedly, been any indication. "I... I believe your creator knew this. They're not something only able to be upheld by angels, anyone can embody them."

He was gradually sinking lower, his feet a mere several inches off the ground. It was just easier to hear from this position, nothing more, of course.

"In the absence of direction, there is nothing left but to find your own. You've been given a rare chance, Vivi. Not many in your position could claim to harbor their own free will." Free will was a flaw, the words echoed through his head but clashed so terribly with what he'd felt, wild and free as he lost himself not to duty but to the whirlwind of beautiful violence in Heresy. It wasn't a flaw.

It was nothing short of sublime.

"So you've never met any still sapient sinner from Lust? You have truly been asleep for this entire time?"

"Oh. Really?" He's digesting all this. If nothing else, he's a good listener.

"Is free will not that common?" He seems a little..not disturbed, but almost startled, as if the thought had never occurred to him.

That next question, though...his eyes scrunch up. "I met some, I think...but that was a long time ago. The memories are really far away. My siblings were still asleep when stuff, um...happened." He's squinting into the darkness, half because he's trying to see further ahead, and half because he's trying very hard to remember.

It hurts his head if he thinks back too much.

"We were mostly...still being worked on then. But we were kept quiet cause they didn't want to attract any attention from up there...I remember that much." Creation is an act of God, but we can't be God, they had said like a mantra, a prayer, a blessing over their sleeping forms. Vivi had never quite understood it.

Edited 2025-05-13 01:00 (UTC)

"So I've been told." He'd worked occasionally with Minos, prior to the Prime Soul's execution. Gabriel had kept him at a distance of course, strictly professional, and he could never have claimed to know him as well as the people he so cared for. But he remembered, now more than ever, how the King had responded when Gabriel descended to end his life; he'd never raised a hand against him, only his voice.

It was less than an execution, it was nothing short of murder. A murderer.

The thought was buried frantically, not allowed to speak any further.

"For mortals, it is. All of them possessed it once, before they became these mindless husks. But for beings such as you and I it's... complicated." The answer should have been no. But the blood slicked floors of Heaven's senate would be a grim and violent suggestion otherwise.

"Ah... Yes, Heaven wouldn't have- Well, if the Council had been aware of..." Why did he keep running into these fucking awful goddamn mental walls?! No he would not be reckoning with them right now, fuck this!

"It's no matter, there's nothing you need fear from 'up there', as it were, I can promise you that." He finally, finally touched down again, walking in step with Vivi. "It appears that this street is empty as well..." This really wasn't looking good for the prospects of potentially locating any still human souls, was it?

A shifting in yet another darkened alleyway drew his attention... And despite their hopeful search, his hand still drifted immediately to Justice's hilt, his back straightening.

"Or, perhaps not..." He raised his voice, calling out to the vague black shapes he could just barely make out moving in the shadows there, "Identify yourself immediately or be-"

... Let it never be said that he didn't receive a prompt and informative response. Gabriel wouldn't finish that demand, frankly he couldn't, and really didn't have to, as from the cluttered alleyway burst a veritable goddamn torrent of gibbering, drooling, twitching filth and strays, stinking of blood, with some even dragging along the scavenged remains of machines that had fallen afoul of more dangerous husks.

His response may as well have been automatic for how quickly he positioned himself in front of Vivi, both blades practically flying into his hands in the blink of an eye as the angel swore a goddamn fucking blue streak.

He should have picked the fucking kid up he should have been flying this whole time.

"We're just different...that makes sense, I guess. We were made for a purpose, so I guess people thought we might not need it."

The bloody crackle of demonic presence registers in his subconscious mind before conscious thought even crosses that threshold. What ignites in his cupped palms as a response is not the controlled, habitual worry stone of before, but pure white-hot energy. It pours forth in a blazing torrent as he pulls his hands apart, splitting the projectiles so they curve neatly around Gabriel to tear through groups of husks. Surprisingly little blood comes forth, but only because that energy seems to burn like a cauterizing flame.

Despite appearances, talking and thinking come to him only because he has spent a great deal of time doing it in his short life. Using his powers for combat, however, is an instinct that runs bone-deep.

Humans had never been able to master the control husks had over hell energy, but he is not a human. He was made for this, whether he likes it or not.

The angel only stiffened briefly as Vivi's attack snaked past him, making quick, clean work of the first wave of hell-blasted interlopers. The air stank of burned meat, the scent as familiar to Gabriel as the weight of his own sword. The fact that this came as a result from something the same general size and shape of a child though was...

Pretty relieving actually, that took a load off his mind.

"Oh, you were actually really serious about that self-defense thing, huh." Sick, he can relax a little bit now thank Christ. A good thing too, since that really had been only the initial attack, as it became immediately obvious that the silence that had followed the two of them through the city before had only been the case because all of them were right here. No he didn't care if that was hyperbole, it felt enough like it and that was all that mattered.

A tightly packed collection of filth, having learned zero lessons from the grisly demise of their front line, pushed inward towards the pair, and this time it would be Gabriel that would retaliate. Justice and Splendor swung forth, each sword eviscerating the pack in a single strike in a spectacular, theatrical spray of brilliant red blood.

And then he kept going, pushing forward in an effort to force the hungry, enraged mob away from Vivi. ... What, the kid was ranged, he needed room to work!

This doesn't feel familiar, exactly, but it is a tactical formation and so Vivi's hindbrain, such as it is, responds. His role is to keep firing and little more than that, so he plants his feet and keeps drawing energy out, dragging it from his surroundings and condensing it into power.

Gabriel forges ahead, no longer staying still, and he changes his tactics accordingly. Anything not within range of Gabriel's sweeping arc is bombarded with brilliant fire; the occasional straggler that manages to stumble forward after being cut with his swords doesn't get far. Vivi's eyes are wide in calculation, but it's a distant look, as if he's not really seeing what's in front of him and conscious thought is taking a back seat.

(Surely they have to run out at some point. He hopes so, anyway. It doesn't feel good to kill them, knowing they were mortal once, even though they're so far gone that destroying them is letting them rest in some modicum of peace...probably.)

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