Chapter Text
Near silence surrounded the squadron as they awaited the arrival of the angels. The blistering heat of Greed was beginning to turn the solarium into an oven, and the evening’s god rays had baked the floor to the point that even Kitr refused to go near the patches of sunlight. Instead she chose to perch herself on Gabriel's shoulders while V1 scratched behind her ears. V2, Minos, and Sisyphus were gathered not far from them.
Though V1 wasn’t particularly close to the trio, and honestly wasn’t a fan of Sisyphus after his stunt with Gabriel, it was still a bit concerned about them. Both prime souls had insisted that they use no weaponry, albeit for different reasons. Minos didn’t want anyone to waste time building a weapon for him while V2 still needed repairs, while Sisyphus had asserted that he wanted to feel the flesh and bone of the Council crumble beneath his fingers for what they did to Minos and his own army.
While the kings were reckless, V2 wasn’t entirely repaired; two of their wings were missing, though they could have been fixed if they had enough time, but at least the ones they still had were mostly functional. Sometimes the lights flickered when a loose wire was jostled, but they were responsive with minimal delay. They were able to store their weapons; a revolver, shotgun, and nailgun; and their maneuverability wasn’t hindered too severely, which was what truly mattered.
V1’s internal timer notified it that it had been one hundred sixty eight hours at the exact moment the virtues appeared. One of them took only a quick look at them before teleporting away, only to show up with another virtue moments later.
“Hey! Is everyone ready to go?”
Gabriel nodded, “We are. Do you think it would be possible to get us close to the ampitheatre?”
“Of course. It’s going to take two trips though, who are you sending up first?”
He took a second to think about it, before quickly deciding, “Myself and the machines. You’re going to want to be quick to minimize the risk of being spotted."
"Got it."
It took mere milliseconds for them, Kitr included, to arrive in a pristine marble corridor; shades of daffodil, nasturtium, camellia, columbine, and heliotrope reflecting off the polished stone. It was, thankfully, vacant of any guards at the moment. Seconds later the two prime souls had joined them, and they were alone once more. Though this time not in silence as it is shattered by Sisyphus speaking.
“Rather extravagant, is it not?”
Gabriel huffed, “I’m not the architect; I had no hand in Heaven’s creation. Come on, we should get moving.”
V1 was quick to follow behind him, piercer at the ready as he led them through the corridor with Splendor drawn. It was suspiciously empty for the first minute of their trip, before absolute anarchy erupted. Heavenly warriors landed on the marble, divine weapons focused, and within a second they were upon them.
V1 was cut off from Gabriel by two, dodged the swing of a sword and thrust of a spear while charging a shot. It fired, piercing through the swordsman’s mask with ease, before swapping to the pump charge shotgun. It double-charged it, before ducking under another lunge and blasting them in the chest. The pellets tore through the chestplate and the claws of the knuckleblaster finished them off not long after.
As it turned to face off against another angel it spotted Minos delivering a cataclysmic kick to someone’s spine, paralyzing, if not outright killing them. Though it seemed to be the latter, considering the complete lack of movement. V1 tossed up some coins, before firing the electric railcannon at a group of angels peppering them with crossbow bolts. Most of them scattered before the sparking coins could land a hit, but the two that didn’t were fried in seconds.
It ducked under an angel that was flung across the room, and scampered out of Sisyphus’ way as he stalked after them. It was knocked to the floor by someone, an angel, slamming into their back. It was quick to jump to its feet and send a barrage of nails into the unsuspecting foe, distracting them for long enough for Gabriel to carve through their midsection.
With a swift nod of thanks to him, it turned back to the battle. It fired off a rocket at a group of hostile angels surrounding V2, before noticing a virtue's runes beneath its feet. It launched itself out of the way, but was pounced on by more humanoid angels before it could attack the virtue. It jumped over them, parrying a sword's slash, and firing a core into the center of the small group, tearing them apart.
Despite V1 having tuned out most of the screams, only the voices of its own party being actively listened for, one cut through anyway. From surprised, to agonized, to gurgles, to silence. It looked over just to be sure nobody had been hurt, only to see Kitr sitting and wiping the blood from her mouth, a wingless angel cloaked in a mulberry robe lying beside her. Good kitty.
It turned its attention back to the battle. Most of the divine warriors were down, and it was able to spot more silk garments on a select few angels. It grappled on to the virtue and filled it with nails.
As soon as they were vanquished, V1 threw the cord of the whiplash at Sisyphus' outstretched arm, he was clearly preparing to pummel some poor soul into a pulp, and watched as it wrapped around. It was flung back onto stable ground, offered the annoyed man a quick wave, before helping V2 fend off some of their horde.
It looked around the corridor; bodies, blood, and bowels littered the floor. Minos was examining Kitr, Sisyphus' punching bag was reduced to a maroon mist, and V2 was extracting a bolt from their shoulder joint. Gabriel was the only one of them with a foe left.
V1 approached the duo just in time for Gabriel to decapitate them in one swift motion. It watched as he looked from the corpse, to the main stage of the auditorium, and back to the corpse.
He picked up the head. "I will be back in a moment, V1. Could you make sure nobody tries to attack me while I'm alone?"
It nodded, equipping its revolver and keeping an eye on the nosy angels that had appeared, watching as he ascended the stairs before them. It took a minute for him to reappear on the platform, and when he did he stepped up onto a railing, clipped wings flared out for balance, and held the head out for all to see.