seungwan prepares herself for the fight, though that just means taking her leather jacket off — she would be in shambles if it got damaged. draping it over joohyun's shoulders, she wants to tell her to keep it safe, but that might come off sounding like her last words, and if it is, that's way too depressing.

so she departs without saying another word, there's no need for goodbyes to exist between them. 

strutting towards the celestial, sahaquiel has grown twice as large as she once was, but it's still far from a seraph's largest form. it's enough to slaughter lucifer and the mortals without her size becoming a hindrance.

as the angel of the sky, sahaquiel looks like she belongs with the clouds. her skin is pale, almost purely white if not for hints of a pink undertone. a white, faceless mask obscures her face, shrouding her features entirely. with a thin white shawl draped over her shoulders, sahaquiel dons a long, sleeveless white dress. above her collarbones hovers a large golden ring, like leliel, it is a means of restraining her powers. 

her arms are disconnected at the elbows, leaving a gap between her upper arms and forearms. make no mistake, as much as it looks like an injury, this gives her free reign over her motions, making her even deadlier.

and just like all angels, her horns are grown into a perfect circle, forming her halo which casts a heavenly light upon their surroundings.

"is this really necessary?" seungwan sneers, "or are you just afraid to fight me without your true form?"

the celestial grunts as she wields her lance, "the mortals know of my identity, they cannot live."

"you do know that joohyun literally has no human friends anymore, right? no thanks to you. and nobody is going to believe sooyoung." the devil tuts loudly, "we're in a new age, sahaquiel, nobody gives a about angels and demons anymore. they're more into vampires nowadays."

"it's no surprise that you have no regard for celestial laws."

seungwan shrugs nonchalantly as strands of her hair begin to fade to blonde, breaking her halo meant that she's no longer bound to these laws that the angel speaks of, it's ridiculous to think that she would still continue to obey them.

"let's just get this fight over and done with, yeah?"

while seungwan might have held the title of being a seraph once, she no longer has an ethereal form like them. falling from heaven caused her true form to burn up in the process and the burns she sustained on the way down will never heal, no matter how long has passed. for the most part, she's more than happy about it.

the lesser she resembles a creation of god, the better.

seungwan's body shimmers with a gentle glow, but her arms are a harsh contrast. instead of mimicking the likeliness of light at dawn, they take on the appearance of igneous rock, with fractures running across in a haphazard manner that allows a faint orange glow to shine through. there are no wings on her back, she had them clipped since they were mangled beyond redemption upon landing in hell. 

rivalling sahaquiel in height, she stands before her as a fallen angel in a grunge t-shirt. the stark difference between the two beings is laughable; while angels do everything to look divine and orderly, seungwan makes it a point to be the exact opposite.

without waiting for the angel to strike, seungwan pounces on her and sends her flying into the streets with a kick. it's an underhanded hit but she's not here to fight fair. they should take this scuffle to the far shore instead of staying in the mortal realm, but seungwan doesn't particularly care. sahaquiel instigated this, it won't be her mess to clean up.

the celestial's back slams into the entrance of an apartment building and the impact quakes the area around them, but seungwan is far from done. without a weapon, the devil teleports before the angel who is still reeling from her first hit. seungwan yanks her to her feet with a mirthless smile and throws a quick jab, hitting her square in the face and causing a hairline crack to appear across her mask.

sahaquiel stumbles to the side and uses her spear to steady herself. a fair fight is long overdue — but even with her ring of restraint hovering around her neck, she's certain that she's stronger than lucifer. with the state of her arms, seungwan is sure to be in plenty of pain every time she has to use them.

straightening herself, she splits her spear into five again. they levitate menacingly behind the angel while seungwan braces herself for the incoming onslaughts.

without warning, spears of light begin to rain down upon her and the devil reacts. she jumps back as one spear lands, and she does it in succession to sahaquiel's attacks. she should forge a weapon of sorts, but the devil is not here to kill, to gravely wound the seraph is enough.

to make up for her lack of vision, sahaquiel relies on her other senses to continue her assault, directing her spears with the intention to impale the devil. seungwan tightens her jaw as she sidesteps the never-ending strikes, each one missing narrowly. the seraph seems to be unaware of the destruction she's causing, or at least pays it no mind since each blow is fiercer than the last.

escaping to a nearby rooftop, it breaks the seraph out of her murderous haze and seungwan takes a moment to strategise. it's hard to get close given the range of sahaquiel's spears, but she can close the distance as long as the angel doesn't sense her approaching. 

"will the seraphim punish you for knowingly staying by lilith's side?" seungwan shouts with the wind carrying her voice, "or do you get to hide behind the excuse of acting for the greater good of humanity?"

sahaquiel stiffens and a single spear flies towards seungwan who quickly darts away. she leaps from rooftops, snapping objects into existence while she circles around the angel with questions ripping from .

"why did you stay even if you knew she was lilith's reincarnation?" 

another spear lands close to her feet and she can feel sahaquiel getting riled up from her questions — that's good, but she has one last trick up her sleeve, a finishing blow. seungwan lands with a soft thud before the seraph, she maintains a safe distance and asks.

"do you think you're avenging god if you kill me?"

sahaquiel has no chance to respond before fireworks begin to go off all around her, the irregular crackling and whistling distract her while seungwan takes advantage of it. lunging forward, she does a spin before her foot hooks the back of the angel's neck and smashes her head into the asphalt.

the road tremors and cracks beneath them as fireworks continue to go off, and seungwan spares a moment to look at her masterpiece. the sky is filled with a myriad of colors, and it's a beautiful sight to behold, especially with an esteemed angel of the seraphim at her feet. lighting her hand with blue hellfire, seungwan pushes her hand into the chest of the angel, penetrating her skin as if it is a watery surface.

"let's not kill each other, alright?" the devil mutters as she touches a finger to sahaquiel's soul, "for old times' sake."

sahaquiel grabs her arm tightly, but she seems unaffected by the way seungwan is burning her soul. it takes her a moment for the realization to seep in, but by then, the seraph has her locked into place. with no capacity to react, five spears of light close in from all directions, embedding themselves in various parts of her body, digging into her flesh with searing pain. she chokes and involuntary tears begin to form in her eyes — she has to back off.

a sheen of sweat rolls down her temple and seungwan withdraws her hand from sahaquiel's chest. teleporting a good distance away, she looks down at the one spear that has pierced her sternum, it's dangerously close to her soul and if sahaquiel continues, she's actually going to die. 

, this is not how she wants to go. seungwan lights her hands with hellfire as she tries to stop it from going any further, but it obeys the will of the angel. and said angel wants her erased from existence. grunting with effort, she grasps the shaft and yanks it back, it scorches her muscles but given the state of her body, she's accustomed to the way her flesh screams with agony.

"after so many years, i still don't understand why you can't keep away from lilith." sahaquiel says quietly as she pushes herself up, "she is one soul amongst trillions."

despite being on the precipice of death, seungwan still spares the effort to respond, "can you imagine an existence without leliel? if she vanished one day, how would you feel?"

the question causes the angel to stiffen and seungwan manages to inch the spear away from her soul with a forceful pull, if she makes it out alive, she swears on her soul that she'll never fight a seraph again.

"answer me, sahaquiel!" the devil barks, "because if you feel anything at all, even the slightest shred of sadness, you will come to understand why i never want to stay away."

seungwan knows she's struck a nerve when the other spears retract from her flesh and plunge into her legs, two hitting the back of her knees and two piercing through her thighs entirely. unable to hold her weight, her legs give way and she crumples to the ground with a grunt. sahaquiel pushes the spear further into her chest and seungwan feels the tip meet with the edge of her soul.

she blinks away the tears in her eyes as she silently thanks her friends for the protective magic they had cast earlier. it's not much but it'll buy her just enough time to make one last confession.

"bae joohyun!" she screams at the top of her lungs, hoping that her charge would be able to hear her, "i hope you have a great life!"

and she does, because seungwan hears her voice moments later.

seungwan? what are you saying?

joohyun's desperate pleas echo in her head thanks to the ring, and she laughs quietly to distract herself from her imminent doom. "we're still married for ten more months!" she tries to lighten the situation but joohyun's voice only gets louder in her head, "but since you didn't break up with me while i was still son seungwan, that means i'm still your fake human girlfriend!"

it's a good thing she can't see joohyun now, she isn't sure if she can hold it all in if she knows that she's watching. she has so much more she wishes she could say, but she refuses to leave her with a bad memory. she won't leave professing her love, nor talk about how much she enjoyed their time together. instead, she imagines joohyun cracking into the smallest of smiles like she's just told her a bad joke and her final words spill from her lips.

"don't ruin my leather jacket!"

with one hand still stopping the spear from piercing through her soul, seungwan teleports in front of sahaquiel and stabs her hand into her torso once again. this time, she doesn't hold back with her flames, she lets them burn while her fingers tighten around the angel's soul.

"are you excited to meet god again?" the devil hopes that grinning helps with keeping this facade up. if she falters, she will die without bringing sahaquiel down with her and that cannot happen. 

"do your worst, lucifer."

locked in a battle of life and death, seungwan can't help but think about their history together. god created them in succession, mere seconds apart. without the sky, there would be no dawn. maybe that's why sahaquiel has always been so bitter about her betrayal, they had been close once, but she could never understand why she chose lilith over god, and perhaps in some ways, her. the seraph can deny her feelings all she wants but it won't erase the fact that lucifer's departure stung.

it's too late for regrets or apologies; the good old days are over and this isn't a bad way to settle their differences, she just wishes she could've finished her pact with joohyun.

"stop!"

a celestial, accompanied by demons, comes crashing down from the skies. the combined strength of their magic forces the two apart and with their help, the spear in seungwan's chest gets dislodged. leliel, along with seulgi and yerim appeared in the nick of time.

"sorry we're late, we got lost in the far shore." seulgi apologizes as she pulls seungwan to her feet.

"... i thought i was going to die..." seungwan laughs in relief as she leans onto the demon, "i even said my last words to joohyun..."

yerim snorts loudly as she stands guard in front of the devil, "must've been something stupid that you regret since you're still clinging on for dear life."

"can you be mean to me when i'm not critically wounded?"

"you should be glad we're not strangling you for leaving us behind."

"i would've looked less cool if i appeared with you guys..."

"you look cooler if you're not dead, wannie."

"mhm, i've learnt my lesson."

end notes:

打架！！！打架！！！打架！！！！！！！ POW POW POW!!!
i think the main thing i struggled with was coming up with angel forms like... i can picture it in my head but i don't know how to write it in a way that i'm confident that everyone can visualise. sahaquiel's detached arms look like this, and the inspiration for seungwan's arms comes from tephrosis in fire force. as far as how sahaquiel attacks... it kinda looks like adele's skills from maplestory,,, i have a lot of unnecessary headcanons abt angels at this point and if anyone wants to hear them i'll share them in the next chapter's notes.

i teared up a little writing seungwan's fake final words, but mmmmmmmm, maybe it's just me but death always makes me wanna cry. but good news! the fighting era is over, they are entering the Idiot Phase soon aka that limbo where you're neither friends nor lovers ^o^

if the fight is cringe please do not tell me i really tried