Gabriel ascended the spiral stairway accompanying the other archangels within the fires of the hallowed ground.
Dantalion could not sever the chains that bound the undead. He let me go in body, but not in spirit. He left the Courtyard, beyond its stone borders, and with him, my best friend.
The rain poured down harder as they approached the master sigil hidden within the safety of the forest. Once behind the North gate, Dantalion called forth his legion of demons, all thirty six hundred of them, assembled and ready to serve. Rowan was his newest member.
Dantalion gave his army a speech: "Satan hath fallen from the grace of God, as did I. He craves power and souls of the mortal world. Yet he reigns supreme. He believeth he is thy equivalence to God, and therefore, believeth he can command his will unto mortals and demons alike. It is time we fulfill our oaths. We shall combine our powers to persuade him to release Laurel's mortal soul, which he hath stolen from her. My instinct tells me it for greater a purpose he imprisons her. He hath waited for two ages until I hath been evoked to come for the girl. He plans to use us both somehow. Perhaps even use us all."
Dantalion took the opportunity to break Rowan into the group as quickly and unsuspecting as possible.
"There is one among us who hath not yet fought on the battlefield. He hath offered his allegiance to me to help save the girl. He holds the power of divine magick, and is named Rowan."
Before any protests or judgments were made, Dantalion quickly continued his speech.
"Satan will tempt us, yet we must not lose our purpose. What say you?"
Druitte, was first to raise his clawed daggers over his head, red eyes blazing, Rowan joining in. The others waited for this moment when they would finally put their dormant demonic powers to the test against the fires of the first heaven. Howling and screeching for war, they approved Dantalion's quest to save my soul.
Among all the noise echoing through the great room, Dantalion stood frozen for a moment. He remembered his place once, as coveted guardian of the third heaven.
Condemned as the seventy first demon of the Goetia, he was not sealed among his brother demons. Cast into the second heaven of the mortal dominion, a shape shifting Incubus for all eternity, he did not see it as an act of mercy. No longer immortal, he was now the living dead. His brother demons of the Goetia were sealed, imprisoned, awaiting evocation and jealous of his fate. He remained unchanged, beautiful, and they, demons forever.