Lucien
Abandoned Countryside Estate
Evening

[i]Crash![/i] 

He was thrown through the tile roof of the estate with inhuman strength and he landed on the floor with a sickening crunch of bones being broke. He was on his feet a couple of moments later, bones popping back into their proper places, and flesh knitting itself back together. The curses he panted out as he healed were more old habit than at the actual pain of it. He took a brief moment to contemplate what it meant that his blood was on his opponent’s blades (it was on the walls and the roof and their armor as well.) while he himself had yet to mark them. Then they came through the hole in the roof, landing with their wings tightly pressed against their backs. Each of their swords was ready for any move he might make, their armor(including full faced helms) unblemished by the fight, his blood dripping gently to the floor from both. Lucien brought his own sword up in preparation. He couldn’t run, and he doubted he could fight the three of them off. Not this time. “So the Cowards aren’t brave enough to fight me themselves?” For a long moment, there was silence. Then the one in the center, their apparent leader, spoke his voice echoing in the enclosed room and his helmet. “The Archangels do not deign to dirty themselves by slaying a mongrel so far below their station.” Lucien raised an eyebrow. “Really? It seems that the other Cowards that I’ve killed had more guts than the remaining two. So how’d they convince you poor bastards to hunt the infamous ‘Kinslayer’?”

Only a tightening of his lips indicated that the leader was irritated by Lucien’s words. “We volunteered for the honor of removing your stain from this world. Your crimes can only be punished by de-“ “So where are they?” Lucien interrupted him. The leader’s lips tightened again, and the other two shifted slightly. For whatever reason, they weren’t attacking. Perhaps it was because they believed him nothing more than a cornered animal, trying to buy his last few moments of life with talk. None of them noticed that the gentle dropping of his blood had stopped. “You do not deserve to know that, scum.” The leader replied, with the same lofty arrogance. “Before you die, tell me, what are your last words? The Council will want to know what you said before you died. And others will have bets to pay if you beg. Be quick about it, before we decide that you should go to your grave without a sound.” Lucien sighed. He had hoped to get a little bit more information out of them before it came to this, but he’d work with what he had. “I’ll leave a message for the Archangels myself. It’ll be written in your blood.” Before his Battle Angel opponents could do more than blink at his at his mad and unfounded confidence, the blood that had been moving up their armor to where their eyeholes were spiked inwards, digging into through their flesh and bone to cause havoc and pain in their brains.

They screamed. They howled. They dropped their blades, ripped off their helms and clawed at their heads in an attempt to stop the pain. It didn’t work. His blood was already in their brains, tearing through them and then tearing through them again as soon as it healed the damage already done. He dispatched them quickly afterwards, pinning them down and shoving his sword through each of their brains. A quick search of their bodies revealed a letter to the leader, detailing where he would be and how to kill him quickly. It was signed by one of the remaining two Cowards. ”Ah, Ariane. You always were the coldest and most ruthless out of all of them.” As promised, he left a message in the blood of his enemies on that note. Pinning it to the body of the leader, he left soon after heading towards Kenen. Information always seemed to find its way into that city. 

The message was a promise. 

[i]Vengeance is Coming.[/i]

Around the same time, Mairyell, Solus, and Darius all got the same message, albeit it was different for each of them. It came in a vaguely familiar ring tone, if Mairyell and Solus could be bothered to remember back to two hundred years in the past, when two vampires, an ascended vampire, and an ascended werewolf all died respectively at their hands. 

A phone appeared, floating next to each of their heads. Sir’s cheerful voice came out, loud enough for anyone within a six foot radius of the recipients to hear it. If any attempt was made to catch and close it, it would teleport out of the way, still blaring out its message.

Mairyell: “My dear little vampire! I know it’s been a long time, too long in fact, since we’ve had contact, but at least I haven’t had to go get new help again! Do you know how hard it is to find a werewolf and turn it into an ascended werewolf [i]without[/i] killing it? I don’t think you do. Hans took me years to find, and then you just killed him as easy as you pleased. Regardless, that’s all water under the bridge. I’ve been watching you these last two hundred years, when my experiments on Mary permitted me too that is, and I’m sooo pleased you’ve become a goody little two shoes defender of the weak. I have a request, a demand really, that should be right up your alley with the whole ‘defend those who cannot defend themselves’ thing. You see, I finally got Mary. Took me a little portal tweaking, but I got her. I got my research done in the two hundred years, etc. Then I lost her again, and I can’t get her again, because she’s gone to the Academy. You know, that new place where humans can actually become a threat to Angels and Demon without being turned into monsters like you! Anyways, so I grabbed another girl, named Olivia Matthews. She’s only about, hmm, twelve I think. And I’ll be forced to experiment on her, in a very painful and mind breaking fashion, unless I get Mary back. Mary isn’t quite finished, you see. I want to avoid the whole mess of experimenting on Olivia, and then sending the recordings of her screams and pleading and begging to you, so if you could kindly go grab Mary and then deliver her to Loom, calling me on this phone when you do so, that’d be great! I’ll even give Olivia back to her loved ones!”

Solus: “It’s my favorite sarcastic Demon Hunter! How have you been all these years? Don’t answer that question, I’ve too much to tell you. I saw that little handy dandy work you did with the original Abyss, marvelous work, I have to say. It took me 5 years to remove it and the insane creature inside of it without killing poor Mary. Did I mention I got Mary back? After she went through a portal, I just hijacked her trip and brought her to me. Why couldn’t you have done that sooner? I could have saved that poor vampire woman…whatever her name was…you know, the one you killed and then tried to interrogate. And Hans! But, it all worked out in the end. Regardless, I have something you should know. Mary appears to have, ah, gone missing. I let her out for a little field testing, and then she was taken by a mad human sorcerer to his tower, and now they’re both in the Academy! I myself, and none of my new servants, can’t get in there without causing a fuss and a making a mess that would likely kill Mary or at least cause her to escape in the chaos. 

So, I did the next best thing! I caught another girl, Olivia Matthews, twelve years old, and I’m using her to blackmail some people into taking Mary for me and delivering her to Loom. Don’t worry, I won’t be demanding that you go get Mary or Olivia will be experimented on, because I know you’re just as much of a heartless bastard as I am and that Demon Lord you killed was. I’ll just keep you updated periodically on the situation. Though, I do remember you saying that you’d find me and kill me eventually. Sometime before telling me to go eat a chode. Whatever that is. I’d still like to see you try that, so you could just catch a ride with whoever brings Mary back, or with Mary herself if I’m forced to tell her that I’m going to be torturing someone until she arrives, and then we could have ourselves a good old fashioned battle! It’ll be fun!”

Darius: “Mr. Foxman. You don’t know me. I don’t care about you and your petty little games. The only reason I’m even contacting you is because I have something of yours, and you can help me get something of mine back. You may have recently noticed that your blackmailing chip, one Olivia Matthews, has been kidnapped, and your man sent to pick her up is dead. I killed him, and took the girl. Don’t worry; nothing bad has happened to her. Yet. I want you to get a girl named Mary from the Academy. You know the one where they teach Musicians. Bring her to the ruins of Loom, and contact me when you have her with this phone, and I’ll give you Olivia back. Fail to do this, and I contact her brother with the same proposition, and send you both periodic recordings of me torturing her. You have three weeks to contact me before I go contact her brother. Have a nice day.”