Beside the ruins of the gate of Zanzibar, Tenno frowned, the large man taking a seat on a recliner as the world around him burned.
His shirt was in tatters, his body, coated by dozens of wounds that were healing slowly thanks to the corruptive properties of the Apostles.
“Quite the sight huh?” Tenno sighed, reaching down and taking a bottle of beer from the ice chest beside him.
“Said the asshole to the blind man,” Kenichi said, breathing out a sigh as he gripped his father's cane sword.
“Would you like me to describe the sight then? Maybe put it in braille?” Tenno quipped, handing Kenchi a beer. “You know you could have left.”
“And had I done that you would have been dead twice over,” Kenchi grunted, wondering what Di'luk and his sister were up to.
“Fair, can't say you weren't useful, Kenchi,” Tenno said, surprising Kenichi who wasn't used to receiving compliments from the man who had been training and berating him for close to a year.
“... The world really is ending,” Kenichi retorted, sagging his shoulders. “How long until the barrier fades?”
Tenno cocked his head to the side, staring at the thousands of demonspawn led by several apostles circling around his dome of protection.
A final countermeasure, not exactly his best work, but it had bought him and Kenichi at least a few moments.
“An hour?” Tenno replied before the dome of energy protecting them from meeting the same fates as the mounds of corpses flickered, “Maybe less?”
“Hm,” Kenchi grunted, slumping forward. “Do you think-”
“We wouldn't have hedged our bets buying them time if we didn't think otherwise,” Tenno cut in, rubbing back his disheveled hair. “By the way… you know that man killed your father right? Surprised you let him go when you could have killed him.”
Kenchi took a moment to respond.
“I beat him. Which is enough for now,” Kenchi grumbled, twisting the cap off his beer and taking a cold, brisk sip that seemed to soothe him internally from the hellfire around him.
“Well, as long as you're satisfied,” Tenno said, stretching out with a loud and dramatic yawn. “Wake me when the barrier fails.”
“Sure, will do,” Kenchi replied to the man already asleep.
“At least one of us can sleep,” Kenichi muttered as the sounds of thousands of demonspawn baying angrily for his blood reached through the barrier to touch his sensitive ears. “This better have been worth it Tanjii…”
****
Elsewhere,
Aboard the flying city of the paladins, Commandant Victoria, commander of the seventh imperial defense brigade for the city, slumped against the bulkhead door that separated her from the claws scratching at the metal.
The monsters were upon the city, attacking in droves with multiple airship escorts offline or under attack from demonspawn boarders.
The city fared marginally better. Despite their firepower, preparations, and number of awakened, the sheer numbers of the enemy outpaced the ammo they could fire, resulting in the city under siege and the populace under attack.
Fortunately the barrier kept them somewhat at bay but their numbers were becoming untenable with some sites having to evacuate underground to stem the tide of demonspawn via tunnels and kill zones.
“Damn it, maybe I should have just stayed behind,” Victoria spat, looking down at her wound that was refusing to heal.
After catching her breath, she picked herself up from the floor and moved to the radio station nearby blaring out desperate voice traffic.
From maydays, last stand, and cries for reinforcements, Victoria heard it all as she opened a tactical map nearby that displayed the hundreds of stranded units still in the fight.
Sadly, the rest of the command staff had retreated as the upper sectors became choked with demonspawn, leaving Victoria behind in the chaos as she dealt with demonspawn.
“Great,” Victoria muttered, looking down at her wound that wasn’t healing and displaying symptoms of corruption. “This is what I get for sticking out my neck I guess…”
Victoria reached over, grabbing a headset. She had never been one for self-sacrifice, hell, she didn't even like other people save for her servants and direct subordinates. But here at the end, in a bunker overrun with terrors from hell, Victoria could clearly see what needed to be done.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“No time to be a slouch…” Victoria groaned, flipping a switch to begin broadcasting orders to the stranded and cut off units. “Carmine squad, this is Commandant Light, come in.”
She was still alive, so there was still hope she'd survive.
****
Standing at the entrance of the castle, at the edge of the unknown, Jack exhaled.
Covered head to toe in demonic blood, Jack's eye swept the abyss of the chamber where he was greeted to the sight of multiple red eyes gazing back at him.
Demonspawn. But unlike the ones out back, these were more restrained, less rampant.
Old.
He could feel it. Something was different.
A being with six black wings stepped forward from the darkness, a man wrapped by matching armor with a barbed trident in his claws that radiated with power.
“Az…” Sahaqiel whispered in disbelief, recognizing the angel once known as Azrael who gazed dispassionately at her.
His usual smirk that Sahaqiel was fond of was gone, his bright blue eyes were darker than black with the power that oozed off his frame being sickening and vile rather than the comfort of an ally Sahaqiel had once known.
“What… year is it?” Azrael asked coldly, his head cocking to the side inquisitively at the ruined marble and dusty interior before his body shifted into a combat stance.
Caught off guard by the man's question, Sahaqiel hesitated, her mouth opened to reply only for a trident to nearly take her head if not for Jack catching the pole of the weapon with his hand.
“Interesting…” Azrael blinked, his head moving slowly, almost struggling to turn and face Jack. “I don't recognize you. But you're strong.”
“No, but I know you,” Jack said before crushing the enchanted weapon into two pieces with his hand, the remaining half being consumed by Lilith.
Azrael flapped his wings and retreated, a smirk on his face as his eyes twitched violently.
“Ah, so you told him about me Sarah? I'm touched,” Azrael said as a choking sound came out of Sahaqiel's tear streaked face.
Suddenly, Jack realized why these surroundings were so familiar.
This was a place he had visited in a memory of Sahaqiel, the last time she had seen the archangel who led the angels of death against a being known as Adam.
From the shadows, a chorus of clinking of armor, the ancient defenders during the age of angels rising once more to defend their home.
Lilith,” Jack said, his voice summoning the specter who released a banshee's wail to destroy the gathering of shadows.
Their withered forms flickered and wavered, vanishing into oblivion as Gehenna unraveled them.
At least, all but one.
Azrael stood intact, the archangel a cut above the rest who only winced at the command.
“Interesting… I don't know what you just did,” Azrael laughed, his body twitching, unable to resist the orders given to him. “BUT I'M EAGER TO FIND OUT!”
He raised his claw-like gauntlet, pointing a summoned blade of blue flames at the sanctum’s intruders.
“Azrael…” Sahaqiel whispered tearfully as Jack stood in front of her and readied Gram.
“I'll handle this, stand behind me,” Jack said as his skin tingled.
In a flash of power, the two angels moved, Jack versus Azrael, the pair unleashing swift strikes with the weight of their strength and speed releasing thunderous applause.
The ground shook, breaking apart the sanctum as the flow of mana warped and became pervase. Corruptive data flowed into Jack, yet as quickly as it touched him, it was wiped away by Lilith.
Two swings followed, the clash of Jack and Azrael’s armaments blasting the pair back from their strength mixing into a condensed ball of violent mana that shook the castle.
Jack clenched his jaw, rolling his shoulders, his eye hyper-focused on the fallen angel still in one piece.
A five second clash. One that devastated the entrance of the ancient castle.
“So this is a new angel, I would have loved to have sparred with you!” Azrael smirked before racing towards Jack who spun his blade, parrying the Apostle's sword with Gram before a loud bang echoed through the castle.
Azrael looked down, an expression of surprise on his face at the numerous holes peppering his body with dozens of shards protruding from his armor.
“Huh?”
*Bang*
Jack unloaded his gunblade, firing repeatedly at the angel who's senses didn't react to the non-magical attacks smacking his body.
After the second shot, Azrael finally moved, attempting to teleport only for Jack’s eye to track his movement and blast his kneecap out.
“What is that?!” Azrael exclaimed as the armyrethium-tipped projectile cut through his knee, sending him tumbling across the floor.
“It's called a gun,” Jack said with the barrel of his gunblade pointed over the man.
“Wait!” Sahaqiel cried, stopping Jack just as he went to pull the trigger.
The angel stood beside Jack, looking down at Azrael who cocked his head sideways and immediately sent a blast of mana at Sahaqiel that Jack grabbed and crushed.
“Sorry,” Azrael smirked.
“I know,” Sahaqiel said sadly before raising her staff, poising it to strike the fallen angel, “We will free you from this nightmare.”
“Good luck,” Azrael chuckled, the archangel visibly shaking as he struggled against the urge to consume and join the pair before him into eternity. “Head. Aim for my head. It'll buy you the most time...”
Sahaqiel shook, her hands tightening, eyes welling with tears as she struggled to kill her comrade in arms. Her lightning bolt sparked, the weapon so close to the man who sacrificed himself for her once before.
"NOW SARA!"
*Bang*
“J-Jack!” Sahaqiel shouted, stumbling back from the loud roar of the fifty caliber armythreium round blasting the fallen angel away.
Jack lowered his gunblade, “We can’t hesitate Sara. More apostles are on the way, we need to move.”
“R-right… right,” The angel replied, wiping away her tears as the body of her friend faded away.