#Angela Blanc

[blondeaxolotl]

ANGEL PARENTS JUMPSCARE RAHHHHHH, Say hi to Amadon Blanc and Anah Landers, the parents of Angela and Ash if you couldn't guess eheheheh

Bonus shitpost doodle:

[natsuki208]

There’s one thing about BB that still confuses me…

So everyone’s okay with witches and werewolves existing in this universe…

And yet angels, hellhounds and other demons are suddenly weird?

[whoishotteranimepolls]

"Who's Hotter?" Black Butler Shipping Wars

[sebaztianlovesgeek]

THE NON CANON PARTS OF THE BLACK BUTLER ANIME IN BOTH SEASON 1 AND 2 AND ALSO THE SPECIALS WERE WILD

(in no particular order)

Ciel hires a random naked dog man who can turn into a giant wolf to be his servant even though he literally does nothing around the manor and just hangs out with Finny all the time

Finny forms a crush on a character we later find out is an angel named Angela and after the dog village arc ends we never hear of his crush again

For the most part the curry arc is the same, but for some reason they decided to change the ending. In the manga Lau and Ranmao killed Nina and her husband, in the anime everyone becomes evil by eating curry, and Sebastian had to feed them all his curry buns to turn them all good again, WHAT??

Sebastian has sex with a Nun in some cult church

Angela took Vincent and Rachel's bodies and stitched them into a weird Frankenstein looking thing because apparently that would combine their souls in the afterlife so they could be together forever

Also the whole thing with Ciel being kidnapped by the cult is never explained despite Queen Victoria and Angela being responsible for the death of his parents, therefore you'd think they'd also be responsible for the whole cult thing? But they would have no reason to sell a 10 year old to be abused by a cult-

Ash (aka Angela because they're the same person) turns Queen Victoria into A FREAKING LOLI

Ciel is framed for drug trafficking

Sebastian is arrested and kept in a torture dungeon for like 3 days where he is BDSM whipped by Angela for some reason

Fred Abberline dies

Fred before he dies mentions he doesn't have any family yet he has a brother who shows up in season 2-

Lau and Ranmao die yet they also show up in season 2

Lizzy gets kidnapped by a doll man and is almost turned into a doll zombie (not a bizarre doll just a doll zombie)

Sebastian ditches Ciel in France for some reason

Ciel finds Undertaker on some random boat and then Undertaker tells him he's gonna freakin' die

London is on fucking fire

Who caused the fire? Pluto. And thats the only part of the story where he is relevant

The final fight between Sebastian and Ash/Angela is fucking awesome though

In season 2 Ciel is just in a suitcase and has amnesia

Alois pokes Hannah's eye out for spilling a drink or something

Ciel and Lizzy try to find a deer or something and everyone thinks they're gonna break up after just 1 argument

Lau even started a gambling thing where people put down their bets on whether or not Ciel and Lizzy were gonna break up

Some weird old lady set random people on fire because she didn't like her husband, for some reason the fire disintegrated the souls so Grell couldn't collect them which doesn't make sense

Some weird bullshit happens on a train with a Pharaoh, a murderer and Sebastian being cool like always

Alois has a dress up party at his house

Soma and Agni cry because Ciel has amnesia

Soma is dressed up as Sherlock Holmes even though black butler takes place before that came out

Lizzy dresses up as a Native American, lets just say she's lucky Twitter didn't exist in the Victorian Era

Kinda like the whole curry thing everyone turns evil except its from music from a magic instrument Hannah plays and not curry, and Sebastian stops it by playing his own music kind of like the final battle in Equestria Girls Rainbow Rocks

Alois crossdresses and turns Ciel bi curious

Sebastian and Claude have sexual tension in the lake

Ciel and Alois have a sword fight, Ciel is thrown off a balcony and Alois is stabbed

"PLEASE HELP ME CLAUDE, HELP ME I'M DYING 😭"

We soon find out about Alois' backstory and it's actually quite sad and hits a bit close to home for me, I won't go into detail but the poor kids been through a lot, Alois is genuinely an interesting and kind of well written character its a shame he was put in the non canon pile of shite

Claude then crushed Alois' skull and takes his soul and puts it in a ring

Kids are getting their eyeballs ripped out and apparently Alois is doing all of this, but for some reason Scotland yard THINKS CIEL IS ALOIS WHICH IS SO DUMB BECAUSE THEY'VE BEEN WORKING WITH HIM EVER SINCE HE BECAME THE QUEENS CORGI GUARD DOG

He is taken to some doctor and is dumped into a pool of gatorade to fuse his and Alois' souls

Ciel's backstory is basically half of Alois' and half of Ciel's and thinks Sebastian killed his brother Luca

Ciel doesn't like Claude because Claude is a goober

Hannah does a weird thing with Ciel she like... Possesses him? And his eyeball appears in her mouth or something? I had no idea what was going on

Soon it is revealed Hannah was the one who ate Luca's soul and is now feeling like a mother figure for Alois because of it

Grell shows up again (yay) and she keeps trying to take sexy photos of Sebastian

Soon Claude and Sebastian end up at a maze thingy and they need to answer trivia questions to get to Alois/Ciel's soul

Soon they go to some demon island and they end up fighting using a demon sword while Ciel and Alois talk about shit in some void

Claude fucking dies (rip goober)

Alois' soul is finally set free and the poor kid gets to be with his little brother again

Hannah turns Ciel into a demon so Sebastian can no longer eat his soul so Sebastian just becomes Ciel's butler for all eternity and I lowkey feel bad for him, because yeah eating childrens souls is wrong but BRO WORKED SO HARD HE LITERALLY BANGED A NUN FOR THIS CHILD AND THIS IS THE THANKS HE GETS??

Ciel and Sebastian fake their death, the end of season 2 and a few years after that the ACTUAL CONTINUATION OF THE CANON PARTS come out

Ciel in wonderland is very silly

Sebastian as the rabbit is hot for some reason, does that make me a furry?

There is a lot of weird fan service, for example Ranmao keeps shoving her boobs and butt into Ciel's face... LADY THAT IS A 13 YEAR OLD YOU CANT DO THAT-

I'm glad it wasn't canon because I love Ranmao and she would never do that in canon

Madame Red as the queen of hearts is very cool

Weebalu already mentioned this but I wish J Michael Tatum (Sebastian's dub voice actor) did a Alice In Wonderland audiobook in the Sebastian voice

The one where Ciel puts on a play for hamlet was funny, the part where they're practicing is funny because its like an actual theatre club

Soma and Agni are the kids who are always eating, Ciel is the kid who just sucks at acting, Grell is the one who is great at acting but is very annoying and Sebastian is the theatre teacher who wants to commit kms because of all of these stupid kids

Ranmao is seaweed

Grell tries to commit incest during the play-

The special where its basically a 'behind the scenes' thing kind of like an actor AU

Sebastian is a fucking 2010's boy band looking lad

Grell is just amazing in this

In the final "trailer" Grell got pregnant, Queen Victoria built a giant robot, Claude tried to destroy the world with the fucking moon, Hannah... Uhhh lets not talk about what she did, a whole load of "I am your father" type plot twists took place and Alois was Ciel and Sebastian's great great great great great great grand-

The special where theres this character who's basically a self insert but she's a white girl so if you're not either of those its kind of hard getting into it (cries in gay guy)

The POV shots look like something out of Dora The Explorer

Soma wants to marry us for some reason, I wouldn't mind that he's cute

We also get kidnapped by Viscous Druitt for no reason and then Sebastian and Grell save us from a boat in the middle OF THE OCEAN

Finally Will The Reaper (I'm sure there are more specials but I'm lazy)

Grelliam galore

Probably one of the best specials because Grell and William are the main focus and they're just the absolute best

[bapydemonprincess]

Ok now to try the same generator with all the other non shipping characters....

[hisbutleronhiatus]

It has been 275 days since the Kuroshitsuji hiatus was announced.

As she examines the fresh bite mark on her neck in the mirror, Angela concedes that keeping the Sabbath in the company of a demonness was one of her more unorthodox decisions...but, surely, even a divine being is permitted a momentary lapse of judgement.

[pokesoniclegend]

A freshly baked meme for you all, based off of a joke in a VC.

[bonkrrs]

happy lesbian visibility week to my fave lesbians

[moneyisthebestlawyerinh3ll]

Re watching season one and it goes so hard I love when kuro gets biblical ash and Angela are so cool

Art based on this cool pic I found on Pinterest

[nullb1rdbones]

the Victorian's secret....

[blondeaxolotl]

Finally found the time to draw my re-vamp of Pluto... I had this planned for a while but I didn't do anything until now!!! so here he is! The guy!!!

Since I probably won't talk about Pluto that often, I'm deciding to just drop his re-vamp here and his lore that I made for him in this post!!

Personality wise: Pluto is a human who was formed into a "Hell-hound", unlike "Canon Pluto", Pluto here has more of the personality of a human instead of a dog in a mans body. He resembles a dog yes, but he talks, walks, behaves like a person, and prefers to be treated as one, otherwise it makes him feel de-humanised if he's being shoo'd away like some house-pet (which is what Sebastian often does, they don't like eachother that much). Pluto seems to have a close bond with Finny and Snake, considering them truly family first before he starts viewing the others as such as well (Not Sebastian). He does not recall his human life, he doesn't even remember his own name. The reason why he's referred to as "Pluto" is because it's what Angela called him when she was in charge of him, and the name stuck within the phantomfam, but he did eventually gain the nickname "Plu-Plu" by Finny, which Pluto seems to not mind, but he prefers if it's only used by either Finny or Snake (or his snakes). Besides his obvious close bond with Finny and Snake, he's slowly starting to show more trust with the others, Like Ciel, Mey-Rin and Tanaka. He doesn't like Baldroy that much but he doesn't hate him (they'll eventually bond when Baldroy starts to cook better food). Though he seems to hate Sebastian and refuses to be near him or listen to him (unless Ciel tells him to), poor fella is uncomfortable around him.

BACKSTORY/LORE (Warning for Human experiment, demon sacrifice, implied animal abuse, physical abuse and torture) Please read with caution if any of this things might discomfort or trigger you

I'm going to keep things short and simple I won't go into deep detail or such, it's just a summary of what "Pluto" went through from beginning to end and how he got to where he is now, also sorry if the writing is shit this is my first time writing anything like this so my bad.

On a bright sunny day, a 17 year old boy, Maxwell, and his pet dog were both kidnapped and taken away while alone working on their family farm while his parents were away for the week. Max and his dog were taken away by a group of men and taken to a mad doctor who wanted to create the first ever "half-beast half-man" and sell it off to a freakshow for alot of money, pretending to have "found" the beast instead of "creating" it. Unfortunately, the boy and his dog were not the first. While being dragged away to their new long-time home, Max noticed cages upon cages of "people" with animal parts attached to them (from the looks of it, it seemed like a few of them were already lifeless and decaying). With now knowing what's going to become of him, Max and his dog were thrown in an empty cage together, a cage which will be known as his long-time home and thus 2 long years of torture began. The torture of him and his dog becoming one.

After many forced injections, body parts being taken apart and stitched together, Max slowly grew weaker and weaker as more as he went through, not only did his body grow weaker, but so did his mind. Who was he? Who were his parents? Where did he come from? Why was he wearing a dog collar? Answers who he did not know for, at least not anymore. The doctor, who was getting more and more irritated realizing the only thing keeping his creation alive right now was his weak breathing, has grown sick and tired of all these failed experiments. The doctor had one last option to make his half-beast man become fully alive and functional, one last chance of becoming the rich man he wished to be.

Max being yanked by his collar and forced to walk on his hind legs (which was already painful enough to stand) was dragged down to a lower, darker part of the building(?) he was in, his vision was blurry and his ears were muffled but upon entering a room, he could see the figure of who believed to be the doctor standing above something and surrounded- what Max believed to be a weird circle.

After being thrown into the circle, he struggled to stand up and fell down to the ground, rubbing his eyes trying to handle this brain-spliting headache while the doctor rambles off non-sense, for a second he felt like he heard something being impaled but wasn't sure. Barely a second past and suddenly the whole room felt like it was spinning, weird black goop and furniture started circling around him and the doctor as if there was a hurricane accruing right this moment.

Max finally looked up and saw a strange tall lanky figure leaning over the doctor (at least what he thought was a figure), his vision was still blurry but he knew he felt unsafe the moment that thing appeared in the room. Not even trying to comprehend what the two of them were talking or even trying to figure out what that thing was or where it came from, he tried his best to regain his strength and attempt to crawl away to safety- Which didn't last long as he felt a sharp pain within his chest suddenly, as if a hand went through him and started crushing his soul. Whatever that thing was, he knew the doctor told it to do it (since he heard loud cheer coming from that freak)- He felt like he was being killed and reincarnated at the same time.

Moments later, Max found himself running out of the building he was once kept in for what felt like an eternity. Blood was dripping down from his mouth but he no longer felt pain every stepped he took, his vision and earing have improved as well, as if all that pain he went through never happened.

He did not know what that thing was, (he did not recall what he did or what happened after the experience with the figure and the doctor, but he knew he did something- did he hurt someone?) but it seemed to have helped him more than it helped the doctor, whatever it was, he did NOT want to encounter it again nor something similar to it. Despite feeling physically better, his mental state still remained fragile, he still couldn't remember anything nor how he even got here. Who was he again?

Months after finally fleeing his personal hell, walking for days and hours as far away as he could. He eventually found himself in a forest, and finally decided this was a good place to rest for a bit, he was far away from his abusers, but also isolated enough to where no one could find him and take him away again. At least, that's what he thought.

A minute has past with his eyes closed, only to quickly open them up again after feeling something hover over him, a strange woman in white was standing over him. “Oh dear, what are you” she muttered.

He didn’t know if she meant it with disgust, but she seemed surprised nonetheless. They both stared at each other for a short period of time, before the lady look away for a moment and then looked back, as if an idea clicked in her head.

“You’re a strange looking demon hound” A demon hound? Is that who he is? What's a demon hound? “But you seem to be lost and scared, come now, as an Angel, it’s my duty to help those in need, even if one is a demon”

He had no idea who this woman was, but the moment she spilled out that she was an angel he immediately jumped back onto his feet, an angel? Did she come to help him? Did she come to fix him? If only she would’ve come sooner but he would rather not complain “What’s your name?” she asked but all he could do is stare, what was his name again? Did he even have one? After receiving moments of silence, he felt a tug on his collar “Pluto” The angel said

“Nice to meet you Pluto, we’re going to be friends for a while now” Pluto? That felt familiar, but he didn’t know why.. But it was his name now, and it’s what he will be referred to from now on according to the angel. With his tail wagging and his spirit high now, Pluto finally found someone he can trust, I mean, it’s an angel after all, and angels are always there to help, so of course he's going to trust her, she did say she is going to help him.

Without hesitation, Pluto began following the angel after she gestured to him, leading him to a village. Believing that this village might be his journey to fixing himself, though unfortunately, he does not realise that the angel tricked him into becoming the monster of this villager, leading to long months of now being treated like monster that deserves to be hunted down by the towns people, and only bringing hatred towards the villages own dogs because of him being a "hound dog". That is, until help finally arrives.

______________________________________________

Okay yeah I yapped a little too much my bad I got carried away, but basically long story short, Ciel and Sebastian get there, they found out it’s not some evil spirit and it’s pluto instead (Sebastian beats the fuck out of him) and later on Angela hands Pluto over to them to “train him better” or whatever. Which Ciel agrees to and next thing you know Pluto ends up becoming a trio with Finny and Snake because he feels the closest to them and believes they’re the only ones who relate to him the most with the experience he went though and yeah. This took longer than I expected and it's now 3am lmaooo, as a bonus for reading my edgy story have a doodle:

[natsuki208]

Angela: To protect England from devastation.

Ash: To unite the Queen’s people within her nation.

Angela: To denounce the evils of truth and love.

Ash: To extend her reach to the stars above.

ANGELA!

ASH!

Angela: The Landers twins soar at the speed of light.

Ash: Surrender now or prepare to fight.

Angela and Ash: That’s right!

…

Ciel and Sebastian:

[hisbutlerbreathing]

[pecupannoned]

Ran Mao ~ Black Butler

Angela Blanc ~ Black Butler

[abybweisse]

Hello there, I find your theory about John Brown is a supernatural being in disguise is interesting me, because I don't believe that Undertaker will be the final antagonist but will face to face with Sebastian and Our!Ciel since his main goal is to restore the Phantomhive family and we still don't know who killed Rachel and Vincent, kidnapped the twins and burned their mansion. Also, in Season 1, John Brown was replaced with Ash/Angela who was a fallen angel and the one who cause the Phantomhve family's demise. If John Brown was indeed a supernatural being and was involved with the Phantonhive's death, I imagined him being a dangerous third party like how Ash/Angela became a very dangerous villain that made both demons which is Sebastian and reapers to join forces to stop the fallen angel. I don't know if the whole "snuff out the unclean, snuff out the unnecessary and snuff out the unwanted" will became canon, but let's just wait for another plot twist in thr climax.

Speaking of season 1, in the episode "His butler: Engaging the Servants", Finnian said that birds were his only friends, and since we probably get closer to Finny's past in the manga, could it be birds symbolizes his desire for freedom? Because I always heard this simile, " As free as a bird." What do you think of this?

Also, in the last episode of season 1, Sebastian said that his true form is unsighty, disgusting and repulsive. I personally think that he wasn't wrong that his true form is quite horrible for human eyes to see, i mean, having an eldritch like body with hundred of eyes is far from the word beautiful. Not to mention that Ash/Angela's reaction and how they were terrified implies that Sebastian can easily shred them in pieces which he actually did to that mad fallen angel (and also the cultist that killed R!Ciel in the manga)

(I'm completely aware that I often compared season 1 of the anime with the manga because some of them were nearly the same. Idk about season 2)

⚠️ long post ⚠️ and re-edited ❗️ ⚠️

Hello! Thanks for the asks!

John Brown as the biggest bad

I often compare John Brown (and Ash/Angela) to a Mother game character called Giygas, who is an extraterrestrial from a very distant world. In Mother, Giygas crash-lands on Earth and is cared for by George and Mary/Maria. I'm a little confused about the details, but they apparently go with Giygas to its home planet, where Mary/Maria stays. George steals technology from the alien race and returns to Earth, where he conducts more studies. George also somehow manages to pass alien abilities to his descendants. Fearing this technology will be used by Earthlings to destroy that alien race, Giygas is sent back to Earth to stop him. But by the time Giygas gets to Earth again, George has already died, and Giygas has gone kind of insane. Giygas decides to take revenge against humanity, particularly George's descendants, like Ninten. By the time you get to Mother 2 (EarthBound), Giygas is using all sorts of methods to control people, including this kid called Pokey Minch. Ness and his pals defeat Pokey and Giygas, but Pokey escapes, while Giygas is sort of... obliterated? In Mother 3, Pokey returns as King Porky. Though Giygas isn't seen anymore, some essence of evil left behind by Giygas still seems to influence King Porky. With help, Lucas manages to defeat King Porky (without killing him). Then Lucas still has to have a final showdown with his dead and reanimated older mirror twin brother, Claus.

George is one of the parallels to Undertaker, here, assuming he's Cedric, the paternal grandfather of the mirror twin brothers (real Ciel and our earl). Taking and researching technology from another race of creatures, passing abilities/traits onto his descendants. Does the technology come directly from reapers? I don't quite think so, at least not entirely. They keep mentioning their "superiors", and I suspect those are something truly superior to reapers, not simply reapers with higher authority. Angels, perhaps. That's what Ash/Angela is in s1, though apparently a fallen one. And both characters (John and Ash/Angela) have whips....

Perhaps the John Brown we have seen in the manga is one of these superiors? Possibly an angel of sorts.

An angel who has been sent to clean up this mess with Undertaker. I can imagine the superiors trying (at first) to take care of it themselves, not wanting the reapers to know whatever Undertaker has learned. But that's failed, and now active reapers are being pulled in to help.

And, in the process, John has made a contract with Queen Victoria, much like a demon might? The way he uses that puppet of Prince Albert suggests he's controlling the queen, and it might be a lot like the offer Sebastian originally offered to our earl (to make him believe his twin had returned). This makes Victoria the main parallel to King Porky. (I believe there's another one who specifically parallels Pokey Minch, before he returns as the self-proclaimed king.)

Perhaps John, like Ash/Angela, has a completely different side to him that we haven't seen just yet? Something polar opposite of what we've seen, so far. Something intense and crazed, much like Ash/Angela is. Much like Giygas becomes.

I seriously think that our earl (with help) must defeat John Brown as the "big bad", even more so than the queen, though she's probably the one who actually orders the attack, etc.

If the Mother game series parallels are close enough, John's (or the reaper superiors') main concern might be that Undertaker could make their roles obsolete. And that's kind of what Othello and Grelle discuss in ch149. And they haven't even discussed the possibility that this deserting reaper has been passing on reaper traits to human descendants. But they are already worried he might change the nature of life itself, making souls unnecessary. Making reapers unnecessary. It could destroy the entire system of the Afterlife. Much like Giygas' species fears humans stealing and using their own technology against them.

Finny and birds

Isn't there a scene in the manga that has Finny accidentally kill the first bird he tries to care for... or was that also just anime Finny? 🤔 Anyway, he definitely says he likes the outdoors and wide open spaces because of his previous confinement. It would make sense if he's also fond of anything else that symbolizes freedom, like the flight of birds. Makes it more poignant that there's so much caged bird imagery in his current situation at the orphanage... as well as the wren and myths/folklore associated with it.

Sebastian's demonic form

I quickly started to associate Sebastian with two characters in Mother 3: Boney, the loyal family dog who helps Lucas... and the Dark Dragon, the beast that follows your will... if you wake it up and give it your "heart". Lucas is the one to wake the Dark Dragon after his older mirror twin is "sacrificed".

We've actually seen glimpses of a form this demon can take, besides all the mouths and eyes, and besides the various animals (and furniture) it can conjure from itself. We see it reflected in a mirror on the cover art for ch88.

We also see it in a couple panels in ch137. The image on the left is not as well defined, and it might be as the demon is changing forms. The head of the one on the right looks particularly similar to the reflection on ch88's cover.

The Dark Dragon is a powerful creature that can be used for good or bad, depending on who wakes it back up. Lucas has a good heart, so the Dark Dragon does everything in its power to set things right again, after much upheaval. It cannot return the dead to life, just like Sebastian.

So... the Dark Dragon never goes up against Giygas... or even against King Porky. The biggest bads are defeated before Lucas even wakes the Dark Dragon. Giygas is defeated by prayer (of all things) in Mother 2. King Porky is captured inside an Absolute Safe Capsule, invented by Dr. Andonuts.

In Black Butler, we could see a break in that parallel, simply because our earl relies so heavily on Sebastian (and because Sebastian is already awake/under contract). However, we could also end up with our earl and Sebastian witnesses to John Brown and Queen Victoria being defeated by others who have been helping them.

One of Undertaker's other parallels in the Mother game series is Dr. Andonuts... but he's not the only Kuroshitsuji character to parallel the inventor: so is Sieglinde Sullivan. Dr. Andonuts is forced to work for King Porky, and his Fascinating Chimera technology is used/abused by King Porky's Pigmask Army, but he eventually manages to get revenge by keeping Porky alive but unable to cause anymore harm. We know Undertaker doesn't like the queen, so if he finds out she wants his Bizarre Dolls as "allies", he might confront her and John. Then we have Sieglinde, who is brought to England and introduced to the queen. Soon after, we find out the queen is sponsoring Sieglinde's new (mostly secret) projects... in a house and laboratory also provided by the queen. When Sieglinde figures out the queen is using her, much like her mother used her, she might also rise up against Victoria.

If we keep really close to the game, our earl and Sebastian (as Boney instead of the Dark Dragon role) might finally confront Queen Victoria and John Brown (and Double Charles?) just to watch as they are somehow defeated by Undertaker and/or Sieglinde. Extra points if it's Sieglinde using some contraption she invented while working for the queen.

Wouldn't it be wild if Sebastian isn't (directly) the one to defeat his master's main enemies... and then he has to apologize for failing the terms of the contract? Or maybe he covers his demon ass by helping in some roundabout way, so he can still claim the victory for his master? Either way, it could really decrease the sweetness of that revenge.

Sebastian might not even need the ability to shred John Brown. We shall see....

---

And I'm completely aware I often compare Black Butler to the Mother game series. 😆 S1 of the anime has some interesting AU parallels. For all of its off-the-rails qualities -- surprisingly -- so does s2. Heck, that joke OVA about making the anime even has a scene that parodies part of Dr. Andonuts' lab under King Porky's control.

Sorry for the long delay in responding. I hope you like the reply!

[hisbutleronhiatus]

It has been 96 days since the Kuroshitsuji hiatus was announced.

Hannah drew her Lævateinn upon noticing Angela Blanc flying near the premises—while the heavenly being has shown no signs of hostility towards the Trancy household yet, she mustn’t let her guard down. They locked gazes for several tense seconds, empyrean flame clashing with devilish fire, before the angel retreated.