13 Chapter 12: Forgiveness

Shocked, Jessica opened her eyes.

"~What was that just now. No. I know exactly what it is…my past…it's my past…~"

Although her "dream" felt like ages, she recognized that only few seconds have passed while she collapsed. The girl felt how the wind got stronger and stronger as the giant demon with the tornadoes on its back slowly approached her. Next to her she saw her friends being encircled by smaller demons. Maldiel was just watching over it, sitting on a giant pile of rubbish from the destroyed environment. His smile got bigger as it was anyways when he saw Jessica's disturbed face.

"Oh, did you remember something, little Jessica? Don't tell me it was your murderous past?"

He laughed out loud as he was mocking her.

Still shocked and disturbed, she didn't move a muscle.

"~He's right. I am a murderer. It was me who killed my own parents, it's all my fault. Why should I even fight now? I don't deserve to comtinue being here right?~"

The ground shook. The demon who took another step forward stood now right in front of Jessica who was just staring at it without any emotions. Her enemy held up its hand, forming a smaller whirlstorm in it. The girl still didn't move. Maldiels expression changed, his smile vanished.

"Huh? How boring."

He looked down at Jessica and raised his voice.

"Don't forget your friends, Mrs. Killer! Now entertain me a bit."

The fallen Angel pressed together his eyes and watched her from where he was standing.

Jessica knew he just said this so he would get some amusement. But he was right.

"~That's right. If I loose now, they'll die, too. I don't want to kill my friends like I did to my parents. I can't be selfish now.~"

At that moment when she realized she had to fight, the demons' hand reached the ground. She could barely escape it but the strong winds carried her away. While she flew through the air several rocks hit her, a bigger one crashed into her stomach. She spit blood as she fell down on the hard ground. Pain was flowing through all of her body.

"JESSICA!!"

Kenji, who was fighting the smaller demons with the others, turned around and wanted to run in her direction but Maldiel suddenly appeared in front of him and kicked him down. With a serious expression he looked at the boy.

"Remember the rules, kid. "

With a smile back on the face he added.

"Believe me, it's gonna be interesting."

Jessica, slowly getting up, turned her head in their direction, nodded shortly. Kenji was hesitating at first but then he turned around and dived into the battle again.

"Warriors of heaven, lend me your strength."

With the usual line, the girl summoned her lightning bow and aimed for her enemy. She waited until she calmed down and didn't tremble too much before shooting her arrow. One last breath and she let go of the string. The arrow was moving at the demon with high speed and exploded at the impact. However, the demon didn't seem to have taken a lot of damage. It kept going forward slowly while strucking down the environment with his storm-hands.

"Jesssicccaaa. Do you want to kill me again.?"

The voice sounded so suffering and so familiar to her. Now she knew whose voice it was. It was her mother. It was the painful voice of her mother. Jessica felt like she was glued to the ground.

"Why are you.."

She shook her head.

"No! You are not my mother! My mothers soul could never get so dark!!"

The demon moved his hand, harboring a smaller whirlstorm again, toward the girl but she evaded and struck it with another thunder arrow. Unlike when she hit her enemies body, the explosion in the hand had a bigger scale and seemed to cause a lot of damage. The being raised its voice again.

"Why..why do you think my soul became so dark. You know the answer…right? It is because you killed us, your parents. And now you still try to hurt and kill me."

Even though she knew this wasn't her mother she had to bite her tongue to keep concentrated. The hand rushed at her another time. This time she span three thunder arrows at the same time and shot them the moment, the hands' whirlwind almost reached her. The explosion caused by them was gigantic and she was carried away by it and the wind. However, when she looked up she saw the demon hardly trembling but that wasn't all. The lower half of its right arm was completely ripped apart, a black thick liquid slowly tripped out of the wound.

"~So the hands are its weak spots? But there has to be a reason. There is more to that im sure.~"

Jessica ran away for some time so it would take her enemy longer to reach her. From a good spot she span 2 arrows in her bow, fired and looked closely how one arrow hit the body with a small explosion. The other arrow was what really interested her. It got sucked in by the whirlwind in the demons hand and the lightning started spreading in the whole hand, resulting in a way bigger explosion than the arrow before.

"~Got it.~"

The teenager wanted to get behind the evil being but it was standing in a narrow street between the buildings, or rather what was left of it. It was impossible for her to get past it without getting attacked, and there wouldn't be enough space for her to evade any attacks.

"~Evade the attacks? I could just use them, right?~"

After making up her plan, she began running towards her big enemy, who already started to take a swing with its hand. Jessica jumped a bit higher than the hands' position and fired 2 lightning arrows right in it. The explosion together with the strong winds carried her up high and on the other side of the monster.

"~Now is my chance!~"

She span 3 lightning arrows at the same time and fired them into the tornados on her enemy's back. A giant explosion was happening and carried the girl even higher up in the air, but the demon was still standing on its feet. The arrows didn't seem to have had enough power to make use of the bigger whirlstorms. Jessica closed her eyes.

"~Should I just let it end like this? Do I even deserve to keep living any longer? NO, NO, NO!! I still need to protect my friends! I still need to protect them! And I need to fulfill my promise. But what was my promise..? Huh…It's weird but I don't remember it, huh?~"

Memories flashed back into her mind. A giant mess of rubbish from her destroyed house. Jason sitting next to her, still like a statue and herself crawling to her parents.

"I promise…i promise…"

Jessica fell to the ground, rocks landing near her everywhere.

"~I promise that I will forgive from now on…so please forgive me, too...~"

"That's right. If I want to fulfill my promise I need to forgive…and that means I need to forgive myself, too. It was just an accident even if it was my fault. I NEED TO FORGIVE MYSELF FOR THE PROMISE!!!!"

As she screamed these words out loud, Jessica's pain seemed to vanish. She felt power flowing through all of her body.

"~I need to protect them.~" "I need to keep my promise!"

Full of energy she made a huge leap in the air and spun 6 lightning arrows in her bow. She felt that they were more powerful than anything she ever fired at an enemy. But now wasn't the time to think about the reasons. With a loud scream she let go of the string and shot the arrows in the tornadoes on her enemy's back. The lightnings struck through all the wind and got even more powerful by it and all the water that gathered in it. A giant explosion ripped apart every part of the demon and pushed away Jessica so she would fall down again. On the ground she felt like she was unconscious for a second and she thought she saw the smiling faces of her parents for a moment. When she opened her eyes again, she saw how the sky got clear, the rain was stopping and the sun was shining bright again. With all the power left in her body she could barely stand up and look at Maldiel who was now standing in front of her. Although it was normal for him to smile like a psychopath, his smile was different this time. It didn't contain any kind of sadism, mockery or something similar. It was just a normal smile.

"So you've decided where you belong now, eh? Alright, you won this round. Do whatever you wish to do."

With a snap of him, the demons who fought her friends vanished together with the Fallen Angel. There was no power rest in Jessica's body as she collapsed in the end.

"~I kept my promise…and I'll continue keeping it…for your sake, for my friends' sake..and for mine, too.~"

-Forgiving is always hard…but once you find the power to forgive, you open a door to a new area in your life…forgiveness may harbor its benefits.-

To be continued…