"FALL BACK," shouted the st Yeshua as he caught Azra'il's arms head-on, holding the enormous fists over his strained face. Jenny moved to rush in and attack; she felt super powered with Iblis' possession coursing through her veins, but Yeshua shot her a look of desperation, his teeth bared, his eyes wide—he was terrified.

  "I AM THE CONQUEROR," roared Azra'il, who flung Yeshua around and unched him through the air, the purple robe billowing behind him. "I FUCKED THIS LAND. I FUCKED THESE PEOPLE. I AM THE ONE WHO CONQUERED MORTALITY."

  "YOU CONQUERED NOTHING," screamed a hoarse voice from Jenny's throat. "YOU LIED. YOU STOLE. YOU DAMNED!"

  Azra'il's face twisted with fury. His serpents snapped furiously, growing rge, their fangs gleaming, and with an explosion of ice, he stomped toward Jenny, closing in so quickly, she only had a split second to defend with her tentacles to take the blows.

  She dashed back, bursts of instant acceleration on every step, fire spilling from her eyes, blue fmes climbing up her tentacles to sh Azra'il—the only thing keeping him from popping her like the two Yeshua's was Iblis sharing her body. One of them focused on skipping backward with speed, the other focused on parrying his fists, unable to stop the brute force but able to knock it slightly off course so that the blows didn't nd.

  Azra'il's teeth gnashed, his eyes burned, and from his back, trails of evaporating light drifted behind him. Jenny swore each of his punches broke the sonic barrier, reminding her of jets causing the air to explode around them as they burst forward. Then, just as she thought Azra'il would catch her, Yeshua flew in from the left and collided with Azra'il in another explosion of snow.

  "Go!" he shouted. "Get the deaths. Get the demons. And go. And close the passageway. He can't find you without—" A fist knocked him in the head so hard, Yeshua's face and shoulders were buried into the ice, another ugly fissure spreading from the crater. His legs stuck out like a popsicle as his robes fluttered down around his waist.

  Jenny was sprinting back to the deaths, who were scrambling to get back through the passageway, colliding with a group of freshly possessed ghouls trying to enter the world of the demons. "Back!" she screamed desperately. "Get back!"

  Her thoughts were racing with a pn. She would get everyone back through the passageway, take Yeshua's cross with her, and even as Yeshua held Azra'il back, once the passageway closed, he'd be forced back to them in the world of death, leaving Azra'il here.

  Red lightning erupted somewhere behind her, but just as she caught up with the crowd of deaths, Azra'il rushed past her, a mountain blurring by.

  He rammed into the crowd, sending the bodies of purple-robed deaths flying, screaming, bursting open the ghouls. Sparks flew away from the broken bodies, and Azra'il roared so loudly that it vibrated through the entire world, and then he reached up. With his fist almost in a cloud, he grabbed something and wrenched it down.

  A burst of cold air, colder than any winter air she'd ever felt before, came gushing down from the sky, a hole spreading in the clouds to reveal darkness. Iblis screamed inside her, he recognized this attack, but it was too te. There was nobody who could stop it.

  The cold gushed down like a waterfall, cascading around Azra'il's enormous body like a fog rolling down a mountain, enveloping all the deaths and ghouls around him like trees caught in a devastating avanche.

  Jenny sprouted burning wings, her tentacles snapping, as she flew above the spreading coldness, watching as the ghouls froze in pce, the fire in their eyes dimming to a faint glow, the deaths screaming as glistening dark rock climbed up from their legs, enveloping them again in pilr.

  Once everything settled, the clouds filled in the hole in the sky, and Jenny remained fluttering over the field of frozen bodies, the pilrs littered between them like strange rocks.

  Iblis' hurt ignited inside her, and she almost flew in to attack Azra'il, who stood triumphant over the frozen forms, standing in front of the rippling colorful passageway, the light shining on his enormous body.

  "They have done NOTHING to you!" shouted Yeshua from somewhere below her, and he leapt forward, red lightning propelling his feet as he seemed to take leaping bounds in the air. More lightning sizzled to form a sword in his hands, and, with a burst of speed, he collided with Azra'il. The tip of the red lightning sword emerged from the other side of the enormous angel’s body.

  But Azra'il hadn't even flinched. Light trailed up from the wound. His fingers closed around Yeshua's throat, lifting him up.

  The sword evaporated inside him, exposing an ugly wound straight through his chest.

  He needs to be saved, shouted Iblis, his static voice louder than ever. I will give you an opening.

  Jenny wanted to scream, but she understood Iblis' pn. They were sharing the same body. He'd fly into Yeshua's body and attack—Jenny would grab the cross and burst through the passageway. If she and Yeshua got out of this okay, then they could save the deaths again. Could open another passageway and try again. Could come back and revive Iblis again.

  She plummeted to the ground, scanning with her tentacles and eyes for the cross until she found it a few feet away, in the midst of the frozen ghouls and the pilrs.

  Blue sparkles shot through Yeshua's back. A heartbeat ter, blue fire enveloped him, turning purple as red lightning crackled. Yeshua raised a burning fist and struck Azra'il in the face with a blow so powerful it kicked up a fierce wind of snow, and for the first time, Azra'il stumbled back from an attack.

  Jenny ran for the cross, grasping it with three tentacles. She tried to snap forward with instant acceleration, make a break for the glowing passageway, but it hardly budged. It was heavy... insanely heavy, so much heavier than Susan's.

  What was wrong with this cross? Or did she have to be holding Yeshua too?

  The cross and the crucified had to be held together? Was that it?

  She ground her teeth, looking desperately at the burning Yeshua exchanging blows with Azra'il. One of the wings Azra'il tore out blew past Jenny, and she took a step forward, dragging the cross with her tentacles, guiding it through the pilrs and frozen ghouls, her heart aching for the deaths and demons frozen inside. She could see their lights, their fmes, dim, like distant stars, but there was nothing she could do for them right now.

  We'll come back for you, I promise.

  "BEGONE FROM HIM," came a cruel shout, and Jenny looked up to see Yeshua plummeting. Blue sparks erupted upward—it was Iblis, forced out of Yeshua the same way Yeshua once forced the demon out of Jenny.

  Then Azra'il's hand shot out and closed around the hovering blue sparkles. There was a blinding fsh of light, brighter than anything Jenny had ever seen before, so bright that it seared her vision, and she colpsed on the ground, letting go of the cross, and she knew. She just knew.

  Iblis was dead.

  The ground rumbled. Heavy footsteps approached her, and she looked up, tears streaming down her face, freezing on her cheeks, to find Azra'il towering over her, a look of pity and disgust on his face. One of his hands was scorched bck, burnt and crumbling. In the other, he held Yeshua, who he dropped on the ice in front of Jenny.

  Then, as Jenny watched, the bck rock of the pilr grew along Yeshua's body, forcing him upright, contorting and twisting his body as he stared at her, blood running down his face, his eyes still wide with fright, his lips trembling. He turned his eyes toward the sky as though in prayer. Then rock grew upward, covering his throat, and then his face, sealing itself over his head.

  They had lost.