Fighter jets screamed through the sky above me, my demon army, and the abyssal creatures we were fighting. I got a text from Agent Drew.
"Thought you might want some backup," he said.
"Thanks. I don't ask for help much, but I appreciate it when I receive it," I texted back.
"No problem. Just don't use all those new powers I see you got to take over the world, ok?" he responded.
"No promises," I texted back and put the phone in my pocket.
I hadn't thought about it, but I really could take over the world with these powers. I needed to be careful I didn't turn into the enemy. It would be difficult for me to stop an apocalypse when I was the one causing it. These sin powers were really getting into my head and manipulating my emotions. I would need to meditate on a better way to do things in the future after this was all over.
I couldn't believe I was actually angry with God a second ago. What was I thinking? The worst part is I couldn't control it. I couldn't guarantee I wouldn't feel that way again. But at least I was back to my senses now. There had to be a good reason that God and the angels weren't helping.
Maybe Judas really had wreaked havoc in Heaven like he promised he would. I couldn't imagine a scenario where Judas would have enough power to do that, though, even with his magic butt chalk. I would have to suspend my disbelief for the moment. I knew better than to make assumptions about how much damage someone could or couldn't cause based on appearances.
I mean, just look at me as an example. Behemoth thought there was no chance of me beating him, and look where that got him. Broken into pieces on the ground, that's where. I had one last major adversary in this battle. The giant flying beast. Behemoth had mentioned her name was Ziz.
That sounded familiar, but I didn't know where from. It had to be something biblical or biblical adjacent. It didn't matter. I simply had to figure out her strengths and weaknesses and take her down. Just like I had Behemoth.
First, I had to figure out where she was. I looked around and didn't see her on the ground or in the air. The only place I hadn't looked was straight up. I craned my neck and shielded my eyes from the sun to look up. Sure enough, there was a shadow on the sun. That had to be Ziz.
She was so high up. I was about to teleport up to reach her when the fighter jets started to engage her directly. They made passes firing missiles and spraying her with machine gun fire. None of it seemed to do much. She was a mass of wings, sharp talons, and a relatively small body.
I mean, she wasn't small by any means. She was the size of a mansion, but compared to Behemoth and Leviathan, she was a speck. She had multiple pairs of wings. Some had feathers, some were scaled and armored, and some were leathery like bat wings. She even had a few elemental ones. I saw an ice pair, a fire pair, and a lightning pair.
She didn't use them all at once. She would strategically use one or two pairs at a time and keep the rest tucked tight against her body. She blocked the missiles and machine gun fire with the armored pair and then used the feathery and leathery pairs to dive on the closest jet. She grabbed it in her talons and ripped it in half, dropping the remains onto the battlefield below.
She was a monster, not only in body, but in combat ability. I felt sorry for whoever had been the victim of her attack. None of us knew what she was capable of. They had been a sitting duck.
I watched as the fighter jets continued to engage her. They launched missile after missile while flanking her with machine gun fire and attacking her from all directions. She simply encased herself in her armored wings and tanked all the attacks.
After all the missiles were spent and the jets only had machine fire left, Ziz retracted her armored wings and brought out her elemental ones. She wielded the fire, ice, and lightning pair simultaneously and flapped them all at the same time.
A barrage of lightning, ice, and fire hit the fighter jets in a wave around her. She kept flapping and with every one a new wave of elemental attacks shot out in quick succession. Rather than combining into one weird amalgamation of lightning, ice, and fire, individual waves of lightning, ice, and fire ushered out successively.
She was the picture of coordination and grace as she annihilated the group of fighter jets. Some of them tried to escape and get far away from her, but she flapped her lightning wings, issuing forth a massive long range area attack of lightning strands and branches that took down a few of the jets. After that, she flapped her ice wings and huge shards of ice shot out like missiles, impaling jet after jet until there was one left.
Keep in mind, this all happened in a matter of seconds. Originally, I planned to stay out of the fighter jets' way, so I didn't accidentally catch them in one of my hellfire attacks, but with only one jet left with no ability to escape or defend itself, I leapt into action.
Or rather, teleported into action. I teleported to the jet, put my hand on it, and teleported all the way to the sky over Las Vegas. I looked at the fighter in the jet and said, "Just head back to base! I'll take it from here! Thank you for your service!"
The domination jewel lit up again and the fighter pilot nodded their head and made the universal symbol for thanks. Then they saluted me and shot off like a bullet out of a gun. I teleported back to the battle and faced Ziz.
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"Ziz! Surrender and I'll let you live!" I yelled. The bronze jewel lit up.
Ziz narrowed her huge eyes at me. They crossed for a moment after I spoke, but then she blinked and shook her head, seemingly trying to fight some sort of mental phenomenon.
What was happening? The same thing happened when I was talking to Fredericka before the battle. Were my words affecting their minds? Is that what the domination jewel was capable of? It didn't happen every time I spoke, but when I really wanted someone to do something, this happened.
I didn't think it was possible, but I must have been using some form of mental manipulation on them. Shit! I needed to watch out for that. While I loved getting my way, and I didn't like having to hurt people physically to do it, dominating their minds was not the way I wanted to accomplish my goals.
"I'm sorry! I'm not trying to manipulate you! I just want to end this peacefully!" I yelled. The bronze jewel didn't light up as brightly this time. It stayed a dull bronze. I assumed that meant I was utilizing the universal communication ability without the mental domination one.
Her eyes refocused on me. "I care not how you try to convince me to stand down. I will not. Everywhere I look, humans are polluting my skies with their flying contraptions and toxic fumes! I won't stand for it. I will rid the skies of humans if it's the last thing I do!"
I furrowed my brow at her. "Wait, you can see other planes in the sky besides those fighter jets just now? The closest plane is probably hundreds of miles away! How can you see them?"
"The skies are my domain. I see and sense around the curvature of the Earth, and there are hundreds of 'planes', as you call them, in my skies. They're polluting the skies with fumes and grinding up birds in their machinery. Humans have no respect for nature and the creatures of the sky. Therefore, I have no respect for them. They will all die by my talons!" she said furiously.
"Once again, I'm sorry, but I cannot allow that. I have to stop you, and if that means killing you, so be it!" I said.
I looked at the battle going on below, it was fairly evenly matched, but I saw a lot of undead demons rather than living ones fighting the abyssal monsters. It was good that Gilbert was holding up his end of the bargain, but that did not bode well for me. I would have to deliver bad news to so many families!
I guess I could always deliver their undead family members and try to pass them off as the same. No, that wouldn't work. All it would take is for one person's arm to fall off and the demon public would put my head on a spike.
"Then let us speak no more! Defend yourself or die, little bird!" she said.
Flapping her wings, she shot forward at me with incredible speed. I barely teleported out of the way. Before I could re-orient myself to face where I thought she was, I was hit by a huge chunk of ice. It sent me tumbling through the air and I fell like a rock out of the sky.
I tried my best to catch myself with my wings, but I was moving and spinning too fast. I teleported back up in the air to give myself more time to orient, but I realized it was futile. If I kept teleporting back up, I would make myself an easy target for Ziz to attack me again.
So I let myself smash into the ground. Dust and sand flew in all directions. I got to my feet, brushing sand off my clothes. I wondered if I'd ever get used to being tossed around like a rag doll. Sure I was invincible, but I could still get dizzy. Speaking of getting dizzy, a wave of nausea came over me and I fell to my knees, throwing up into the sand.
This sucked. I thought being invincible meant no weaknesses or discomfort, but that appeared to not be the case. I looked up to try to see where Ziz was and barely caught a glimpse of her talons as she tried to swoop down and grab me with them. I desperately dove out of the way.
Then I teleported hundreds of yards into the air above. Looking down, I watched as she cawed in frustration. Her face and mouth were a combination of the features of a human woman covered in black feathers and ending in a bird's beak in place of a human mouth. So it made sense her cries of frustrations would sound like a bird's caws.
She swung herself up into the sky and quickly ended up above me, trying to grasp me in her talons once more. Going for a counterattack, I teleported out of the way of her talons and in front of her face. I slammed my hellfire covered fist into her giant head.
She went careening to the ground and skidded to a halt in the sand, crushing demons and abyssal creatures alike with her huge body. Getting up, I saw that her cheek was bloodied and burnt. I teleported to her to try to get another hit in, but she covered herself in her armored wings.
I got angry and imposing, activating the wrath and might jewels. I slammed my burning fists into her armored wings over and over again. The armor started to burn and crack under my fists, until I punched a hole through her armored wings, shattering a large portion of her wings, making huge chunks fall away.
She cawed in pain and flapped her lightning wings at me. The massive area attack of lightning bolts and strands that I had seen take out numerous fighter jets assaulted my body. While it didn't hurt, the electricity did make my muscles jerk and spasm, including the muscles in my wings. I fell to the ground, jerking and writhing, covering myself in sand.
She flapped her fire wings at me next, shooting torrents of flame at me. I barely got to my feet in time to shoot hellfire out of my hands to counter her flames. I wasn't afraid of being burned by her flames, but I didn't want her to burn off my clothes, leaving me naked. That would be awkward.
My black and red hellfire flames pushed her orange flames back until they made contact with her flame wings and immediately burned them to ash and dust. My flames were far hotter and more powerful than hers. She had versatility, while I had raw strength.
She cried out again in pain and flapped her ice wings at me. The freezing cold air put out my flames, giving her a mild reprieve, but she wasn't about to sit there to see what I pulled out of my sleeves next. She flapped her lightning wings, shocking me and sending me to the ground again, and then, using a combination of her normal wings, she flew into the air quickly and tried to fly away.
When I got control of my muscles again, I teleported to her and tried to grab one of her wings. I wasn't about to let her get away. I couldn't be sure she wasn't going to harm any more humans. I had to end her. I hated it, but it was the wisest option.
When I teleported to her, I couldn't touch her because she was flying too fast. She would fly out of my reach every time I tried to catch her. I tried to teleport onto her body, but I couldn't get a grip on her. It only resulted in me tumbling backwards off her body. I tried teleporting in front of her face and punching her again, but she was ready for me.
She nimbly spun out of the way and evaded me. No matter what I did, I just couldn't catch up to her because I couldn't match her speed. If I could fly as fast and acrobatically as her, then I'd stand a chance of catching up to her and getting some hits in, but I couldn't do that. I had to find some way to match her, but I couldn't figure out how.