glow come from…?»

Keijigen’s thoughts stopped racing

and he calmed down a bit. I even came up with something.

He straightened up, straightened his jacket, and said,

«Don’t panic, you just misunderstood, I

’ll explain everything in a moment. The charming smile was back

on his face, and his eyes glittered with devilish fire.

Suddenly-a second later-he’s flying… or falling. Opening

his eyes, Keijigen couldn’t understand what had happened. He thought

he was caught in a tornado. A hellish pain shot through his right

thigh. «Pain? What? Still not sure which

is heaven and which is earth, the demon tried to put his hand to his leg,

to the source of the pain, and felt something hard there. Gradually

,he began to distinguish objects around him. He looked down

at his hand, which was feeling his leg, and it was

covered in blood. «How? Gathering his strength, he tilted

his head and saw that his thigh was pierced

through by a black stick that looked like a piece of rebar.

Panic seized him, and he reached for the stick to pull

it out quickly, but as soon as he touched it, he screamed – the burn on his arm

burned unbearably, causing even more

pain than the injured leg. Keijigen cupped his burned

palm with his other hand and looked around.

Some kind of air current was carrying him. It was moving at an

incredible speed, constantly changing direction. It was

hard to keep track of what was spinning around him, but when

he looked closely, he could make out leaves,

branches, scraps of newspaper, and black sticks like the one

stuck in his leg. Any change in flow direction

16

it could easily cause one of them to stab him

right through. The blood began to pound in his temples, and fear came over him again,

and then he saw bodies flying in the distance, just as he was.

All of them were scratched and wounded, punctured

black sticks, large and small, seemed

lifeless and flew motionless, caught

up in the current.

Looking at the bodies, the open empty eyes, the terrible

wounds, Keijigen realized that the sticks were not rebar,

but spears and arrows and their fragments. They were such a deep

black color that it was as if the void itself had taken

shape. It was cold and hard to breathe. Was

the flow really running out of oxygen? Or maybe he didn’t notice and was

poked by another piece of black arrow? Keijigen

tried not to move, trying to figure out what he could

do to get out of the vortex, but his thoughts were slow

and nothing came to mind.

Another change in the flow direction significantly changed

the positions of flying objects. It hit him on the head

some newspaper. He decided not to take it off, because the extra

movement caused pain. But then something soft bumped into him

.

«Green Alley, find Reana,»

a low voice told him.

With his good hand, Keijigen tore the newspaper off his face

and saw the angel that Milo had been

talking to outside the hunting lodge a few minutes ago.

He smiled to himself. Yeah, compared

to what was happening right now, the conversation was very nice.

Keijigen tilted his head and looked at him.

It was difficult to call him an angel now:

a black arrow was running through his chest from right to left, and his left arm, broken

in the shoulder and forearm, hung unnaturally down. His face

was scratched and covered with blood, and his white clothes were no

longer white, covered with dirt, blood, and dirt.

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«This is a meeting,» Keijigen said softly.

Without opening his eyes, the angel repeated in a barely audible voice, «Find

Reana.» Return stone… around your neck…

It was hard for him to speak, the black

arrow in his chest moved with every word, something gurgled, and