Chapter 187: Harvey's Angels

“Is the lieutenant dead?” Harvey asked with concern.“No, we managed to clear out the undead before they got to him, but it was a near miss,” Celeste replied.

“Hallelujah,” Harvey sighed. “Killing one to even the odds will be hard enough. There’s no way we could manage to kill two and make it out alive unless we found both at the same time.”

“Which would never happen. They can’t leave their nodes without breaking the seal. It’s the price they pay for being allowed to retain more of their power,” Cash added.

“How much power are we talking?” Harvey asked.

“Peak F-Grade,” Celeste explained. “The restrictions on angels like us are loosening every day, but the lieutenants have been at Level 75 since the beginning. Cash and I are back up to Level 64, but it will be another month at least before we return to our true level.”

“Oh, good,” Harvey sighed with relief. “That’s not too bad.”

“Not too bad? Are you crazy?” Celeste exclaimed.

“I was worried we’d be fighting an E-Grade. The last time I tried skipping grades, I got my weave shattered by an Iron Elemental,” Harvey shrugged.

“Alright, I guess you are crazy,” Celeste groaned.

Sensing the impending spat, Cash rushed to bring them back on topic. “So what’s the plan? What do we need to do to make this work?”

“It’s just the two of you, right? The Commander isn’t trying to send a larger squad in with us?” Harvey asked.

“He doesn’t even know about this, and unless we want to spend the night locked up in Elysium, it needs to stay that way,” she warned.

Harvey was surprised to hear the flint in her voice. She’d been the perfect soldier from the moment they’d met, and now she was ready to dive out of line?

“What’s with the change of heart? Why are you so ready to come with us all of a sudden? I thought I was going to have to drag Cash out of bed and use him as bait,” Harvey asked.

“You couldn’t kidnap me. You don’t even know where I live,” Cash replied.

“Fair point,” Harvey conceded. “Sorry about that, by the way. You’ve helped us so much, and I haven’t exactly repaid the favor. I know I still owe you a set of armor.”

“I probably wouldn’t be alive without you, and the armor can wait. It’s not like we can wear it tomorrow,” Cash explained.

“Ahem,” Celeste interrupted, glaring at the two of them. “The reason I’m coming is that I don’t see another way out of this place alive. That battle went better than we could have ever asked for, and we still lost dozens of angels and hundreds of humans. Almost everything went exactly as planned, and we still had demons knocking on the lieutenant's door.”

“Makes sense. What’s the commander’s plan?” Harvey asked.

“Three of the Fulgur Phoenixes survived after taking out Death and the one he reanimated. He’s hoping that they’ll be enough to make a push into Hell on Monday now that they don’t have multiple days' worth of advantages built up behind that wall.”

“That might help Heaven survive, but I doubt it’s enough to win. If we can break open a node, though,” Harvey began.

“Then we might be able to use them to break open a second,” Cash smiled.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I need you to show me proof that this plan of yours might actually work,” Celeste interjected.

Harvey pulled out the rings he’d taken from Varek and handed Cash the diamond and Celeste the ruby. “Put these on. I can resize them if I have to, but I’m not exactly a jeweler, so it will look better if we can make them work as is.”

“You think a fancy ring is enough?” Celeste scoffed.

“Can you do me a favor and take a chill pill? I’m not familiar with angel drugs, but there’s gotta be something to help calm you down,” Harvey laughed.

“WHAT?” Celeste growled, making him laugh even harder. It wasn’t even very funny to begin with, but that little moment broke the dam holding back all the tension he’d carried since the battle began. Starting with his neck, he felt his muscles finally relax. Waves of relief were soon followed by searing pain as the System decided he was safe enough to gain the burst of levels patiently waiting to reforge his exhausted weave. Chortles turned to choking coughs as he doubled over, clasping his head.

“Serves you right,” Celeste huffed when the light finally receded.

“Ow,” Harvey croaked, checking his notifications to see his Class had gone up 3 Levels and his Race had gone up 1. Level 58 was still a far cry from the Level 75 of the Lieutenant he had to kill, but at least it gave him a few more stat points. He put all his free points into Willpower, hoping that the 41% boost provided by his trio of Imprints and healing his injured weave would give his skills and explosive weaponry the power to kill someone at the cusp of ascending to E-Grade.

After taking a moment to catch his breath, he pulled out the bottle of Insatiable Ink. “The rings aren’t the disguise. They’re the medium we’ll use to hide your auras. Do they fit?”

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Both tested the rings until they found a finger that fit.

“Good, follow me, and we’ll fine-tune the inscriptions,” Harvey said, walking towards the kitchen. Cash and Celeste followed, closing the door behind them just in time for Max to come charging out of the Living room.

“Cash!” he screeched, looking like he’d just won the lottery. Max wrapped himself around the angel's legs before he knew what hit him, and both stood there awkwardly as Max beckoned for Celeste to make it a group hug.

“Let him go, buddy,” Harvey laughed as he took his brother's hand and peeled him away. “Family, you’ve all met Cash and Celeste. They’re coming with us on our secret mission tonight.”

“Umm, hello again,” Cassandra hesitated. “What secret mission?”

“Oh… did I not tell you? I’m pretty sure I told you,” Harvey paused.

“No,” she glared.

Harvey snapped his fingers and pointed at his father, “That’s right, Dad was supposed to tell you.”

“I was?” Steve asked.

“I just assumed you tell Mom everything,” Harvey shrugged.

“Yes, husband. What haven’t you told me?”

“The five of us are going to sneak into Hell and try to assassinate one of their lieutenants,” Celeste explained. “I’m sorry, but we really don’t have time for games right now.”

“Excuse me?” Cassandra exclaimed

“Can you help us get some blood out of a dress?” Harvey asked.

She didn’t like it, but his mother finally relented after their debate boiled down to one question.

“Can you honestly tell me there’s not another way?”

Harvey paused, chewing on his lip as he stared his mother in the eyes. He hated seeing her scared like this, but no matter how he looked at it, pulling this off was the only way they might make it out alive.

“I can’t think of a better one, but I’m all ears,” he replied.

Eventually, she sighed, picked up the ripped and bloodied dress off the couch, and stood up. “Just please, bring them home. Mackenzie, are you any good with a sewing needle?”

Other than Tyler, who was still knocked out on the couch, the house came alive. Cassandra and Mackenzie got to work preparing the suit, dress, and black tactical gear Harvey looted from the demons and sinners they’d killed while Steve and Eleanor went to buy enough black hair dye to last an old man living in denial through his funeral. Part of John’s Shops collection of Earth items, the dye was almost as expensive as some of Harvey’s rarer crafting materials, but they needed to turn Cash and Celeste’s wings black if they were going to last more than 10 minutes without being discovered. Harvey used Adaptive Inscription to inscribe the arrays he’d tested the night before, then adjusted them to fit Cash and Celeste’s auras before making them permanent.

“Gross,” Celeste scoffed as Cash filled the room with a hellish feeling of greed and hunger.

“I think it’s probably a little over the top compared to what I felt when I fought Varek, but this is a lot better than I expected,” Cash said.

“Oh ye of little faith,” Harvey chuckled.

With their aura’s taken care of, Cassandra set to cutting Cash’s hair. Demons with blonde hair weren’t unheard of, but it definitely stood out. Celeste could get away with it since the more lustfully inclined succubi often tried to look unique, but Cash would have to sacrifice his California surfer look for a subtler cut.

“You’re so tall,” Cassandra complained as she struggled to line up her scissors.

“Sorry, Mrs. Thorne. Is it better if I slouch?” Cash replied.

“Oh, call me Cassandra. Maybe a little bit.”

“Here,” Harvey interrupted, using Artificer’s Toolbox to conjure a simple stool from the same putty-like material he used for his molds. At first, it looked like a child’s art project, but it rapidly smoothed out as his aura dextrously shaped the essence. Once it hardened into heavy stone, she struggled to drag it behind the chair.

“Thanks,” she panted. One golden lock after another fell to the floor, quickly swept up by Harvey and deposited into his spatial ring.

“Are you really collecting my hair?” Cash asked.

“We use demon feathers for gunpowder,” Harvey shrugged. “Maybe I can turn it into a bowstring or something.”

“I’m not a crafting ingredient.”

Even with a simple comb and a pair of kitchen scissors, Cassandra managed to give him a good spiky style.

“I know I’ve never met one, but I thought the comb-over look was too preppy for a demon,” she explained as she ran her gelled fingers through his hair.

“It’s definitely… different,” Cash mused as he turned his head side to side, checking himself out in the mirror.

“I think it looks good,” Eleanor said.

“Yeah, you do,” Harvey jabbed, laughing as her face turned red.

“Shut up,” Eleanor complained.

“You’ll need to go wash the gel out before we dye it,” Cassandra explained as she removed the towel she’d draped around Cash’s neck to catch all the tiny hairs. “Celeste, are you sure you don’t want a haircut?”

“Positive.”

“Alright, then Eleanor and I will take you to the upstairs bathroom and start dying your feathers while the boys work on Cash’s down here.”

Harvey had plenty he could work on between now and midnight, but found himself spending hours painstakingly painting every feather, one by one. They had to be perfect, since any white showing through was a dead giveaway, and their wings were too big to hide. They kept getting forced to stop and wash the dye from the last batch of feathers in the shower, then wait for his wings to dry before starting on the next set. At first, Cash was embarrassed to be standing in his underwear while Steve and Harvey fussed over his wings, but by the time his feet were stained black from the water, he’d mostly gotten over it.

“Morning!” Harvey chuckled as Tyler stumbled into the bathroom, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

“Am I dreaming?” he asked.

“Nope,” Harvey replied.

“Why is Cash naked?”

“You saw that and assumed this was a dream?” Harvey laughed.

“Go lie down,” Steve urged. “You still have a few hours to rest before we need to leave.”

“Ok,” he muttered before hobbling out of the bathroom.

“Is he going to be ok to come with us?” Steve asked with concern.

“I hope so. We can lay low for a bit once we’re on the other side of the wall, so he’ll have some time to rest. We should wait to make our move until just before midnight tomorrow, that way we can book it back to Heaven the second the Lieutenant’s dead.”

Right as they were getting hungry for dinner, Cassandra knocked on the door and handed them the suit Harvey had taken off Varek’s body. They left Cash to change into it, his wings as good as they were going to get.

“It’s too tight,” Celeste complained as she hobbled down the stairs. Harvey turned to look at her and felt his brain shut down for a second.

[Close your mouth. Close your damn mouth, Harvey!] Julius urged.

He’d always found her attractive, even before their mutual hatred had softened into annoyed respect. Now she’d gone full succubus, even her lips stained red to match the dress hugging her lithe body and the ruby ring on her finger.

“Eyes up, Harvey,” she scoffed.

“Sorry,” he muttered.

Cash came out next, looking equally impressive with his spiky black hair accenting what was surely the most expensive suit Harvey had ever seen.

“I did my best to get the blood out,” Mackenzie said as she handed Harvey three sets of black fatigues, all folded neatly. The three of them rushed to change into the Sinners' tactical gear and came out to inspect their handiwork.

“This sucks,” Harvey complained.

“What? Do the suits not fit? I can try and hem them in a little,” Cassandra offered.

“Why do we have to look like this when they get to look like that!” Harvey groaned, pointing at the 8-foot-tall supermodels standing beside him.