Zachariel saw the explosion from the meteor sent far off by the beast. The shock wave rocked the ground and decimated a large part of the forest that he had sent Ariana and Ben into earlier. His instinct beckoned him to rush to Ariana’s aid, but he knew better. His duty was foremost to his village.

Please be alright, he silently begged as he turned his attention to the towering monstrosity in front of him. The creature dug its shadowy hand into the ground and pulled up a chunk of rock. The monster's fiery breath illuminated the boulder as it prepared to hurl it.

With his blade at the ready, Zachariel charged at the monster. However, the Giant spotted him and countered his approach by chucking the fireball directly at him.

The meteor sailed past Zachariel’s left wing, the tips of his feathers singed and caught fire. He blew the flame out with his right wing, but it cost him his flight. He tumbled along the ground, recovered, and drew his blade.

What is this thing? He wondered as the monster stared down at him and gave him the same hideous smile a demon would have. Zachariel’s grip on his blade tightened as images of his dead comrades flashed through his mind.

A demon of some type? Maybe a possessed Nephilim? No… Zachariel shook his head and stared back up at his titanic opponent. They’re extinct. Wiped out in the flood.

He spread his wings to their full length, catching the wind and shooting into the sky once again. He readied his shimmering blade as he floated in mid-air, observing and assessing the Giant for a weak spot. His aged eyes darted to all visible sections of his body, looking for an armor opening, but finding none.

No! There must be something! Zachariel thought frantically.

Manifesting a defiant war cry from his lungs, Zachariel lunged at his new opponent. He ducked, made a swift cut into the Giant’s side, and then rebounded off a nearby rock to make another swipe to the neck of the creature, and finally a gash near the rib cage, causing it to clutch the wound. He tucked in his wings and rounded the ruined tree in the town square.

Finally, he thought. The next moment, Zachariel landed and rolled out of the way as the beast plunged its foot into the ground where he had been only a second ago. He flapped his wings and moved away, putting considerable distance between them.

Zachariel regained his footing as he heard a voice behind him. “You look to be having a hard time.”

He spun. Behind him was Raziel, scarlet eyes burning. Zachariel responded to the Soraphim’s taunt by swinging his ethereal blade at him. Raziel’s own crude weapon met his; the opposing metals clanged and reverberated.

“Get…” Zachariel pushed Raziel off the blade lock, “…back!”

The angel slashed at him; the Soraphim dodged by dissipating into a dark smoke cloud and reappeared about twenty feet. Raziel sat on a pile of rubble, half-leaning on the hilt of his sword. “You angels are idiots. You know you can’t take that Wicked Giant out by yourself.”

Zachariel indignantly readied his sword and shouted, “Watch me!” before getting pummeled by a large, airborne rock.

Raziel scoffed. “I’m watching.”

The rock had knocked him to the ground. He prepared to recover and engage Raziel and the beast, but he had already materialized above him and held his blade against the angel’s throat.

“Now listen. Under normal circumstances, I would end this here and now…”

“Then do it,” Zachariel snapped.

“Perhaps another day. However, these are not normal circumstances. Right now, there is a Wicked Giant trying to capture that boy. It will kill me, you, and even your precious daughter to achieve its goal. Now—”

Zachariel tried to retrieve his blade, but Raziel held his arm in place with his foot. “Stop fidgeting and listen to what I have to say!”

The angel’s eyes burned into him. “Fine.”

Raziel removed his boot from his arm and allowed him to stand. “I need Ben alive and well, and I’m assuming you want your daughter and realm in one piece. For now, we need to work together.”

Zachariel glared for a moment at the man who had pushed Ben to wreck his village and threatened his daughter. He wanted nothing more than to drive his ethereal blade through him, but he knew he couldn’t defeat the beast alone. He needed Raziel’s help.

“Alright.” Zachariel turned his attention back to the looming monstrosity that stormed ever closer. “How do we kill this…?” His voice trailed off as he failed to recall the name.

“It’s called a Wicked Giant, and…” Raziel clenched his jaw, “…it’s complicated.”

Zachariel raised an eyebrow. “I take it you’ve faced one?”

“Yes,” the Soraphim confirmed. “I barely survived.”

“That’s reassuring,” he retorted. "So, you say that killing this thing is complicated?" he asked. “What exactly do you mean?”

“Y—” Raziel spoke, before his head snapped up in alarm. “Move! Now!”

A split second after, they both sprang back out of the way. In their place was a black, shadow-clad foot that had attempted to stomp them into the ground.

“I need you to distract it! Fly around and get it to fire a meteor!” Raziel shouted.

“Are you trying to reduce my village even further to nothing?” Zachariel shouted as he hovered mid-air. “What are you thinking, Raziel?”

“Trust me, angel.” A large foot tried to crush him again, but he evaporated into a black cloud of smoke and partially reappeared on the roof of a still-standing building. “Just do it! I need to see if it has the same weakness as the one I faced!”

Zachariel nodded, gave a thrash of his wings, and sped towards the Wicked Giant, stopping on a loose-shingle rooftop a few meters away from the best. He looked at Raziel and waved for him to get ready.

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Raziel acknowledged. A plume of smoke erupted from his robes, encompassing him completely and forming a twenty-foot humanoid figure. Slowly, it turned into dark, misshapen armor made of hardened smoke, complete with a longsword and a shield at the ready. The churning orange flames shone through the cracks in the armor as it exhaled with a low rasp.

Zachariel briefly glanced at his sword and sighed. Raziel can summon ethereal armor and he wants me to distract the beast. Wonderful.

The angel shook it off and jumped into the air, flying towards what he knew was likely certain death.

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Raziel watched as the angel took to the air to distract the beast. He had mostly formed the Nephilim shell, but he still needed to test his little theory about the Wicked Giant. For him, he hadn’t seen or faced one since the days of Noah, back before New Eden had been repurposed into what it was now. He could only hope that this one was like the one he had faced before.

The angel was flying in a sped-up, irregular orbit around the beast, distracting it as Raziel had asked him to. Unfortunately, it had yet to light up another flaming projectile.

Damn it, Raziel thought with gritted teeth. Guess it isn’t satisfied with just one foe.

Raziel flexed the frame of his ethereal armor and jumped off the roof, running toward it. He tackled its legs, knocking it back into one of the larger buildings, sending a shock wave that sent chunks of rock soaring across the besieged village.

The Wicked Giant roared in defiance as it tried to recover. Raziel cursed and jumped onto the beast’s chest, pummeling it with his ethereal weapon, hoping to force the beast to use his main offensive weapon: the meteor. Despite the angel’s protests, he needed it to transfer energy, the glow of which would reveal the hidden vein that the power traveled through, its location in the body unique to each beast.

Raziel continued to attack, his blade slashing wildly, and yet the damn thing would not give in. No ball of flaming rock came.

It’s like he almost knows what I’m trying to do, Raziel realized. What if…?

The beast reacted before he could finish his thoughts. It grabbed his arm and sent him hurling through the air, crashing into a fountain. Raziel groaned and watched the Wicked Giant rise to its feet, slowly walking over to finish him.

He frantically glanced to the side. There stood the angel, ready to assault the beast once more. As he raised his sword to strike, Raziel held out his hand and mouthed “wait.” The angel reluctantly halted.

Raziel turned his attention away from the angel and watched as the dark beast ever so slowly advanced. After each thundering step, he almost felt a sense of dread. His mind, however, was as focused and sharp as his sword. He knew he had nothing to fear. Simply put, before it had thrown him, he had figured out why it refused to throw any more projectiles: it was because it couldn’t. The beast was running out of energy.

A satisfied grin stretched across Raziel’s face. That meant that besides attempting to stomp on him, their massive opponent had one more move left. Based on his first battle with the beasts; they only reserved them for finishing an enemy, which gave him the advantage.

Raziel let his weapons clatter to the ground and clutched his shoulder in pretend pain, acting like a helpless child, which was normally beneath him. He met the angel’s gaze and motioned for him to get ready.

The angel gave him a short, quizzical look, but shook it off and nodded. He readied his sword and let his wings slide behind him, preparing for takeoff and muttering.

When Raziel turned around, he could feel the weight of the Wicked Giant's gaze on his back. It stood about thirty feet away, glaring down at him with blazing red eyes. It formed a large war hammer made of shadow. The middle of its chest glowed a bright red.

“Now!” Raziel immediately stood up and shouted to the angel. “Go for the chest!”

The angel nodded and rocketed toward the chest of the great, lumbering beast, wings tucked in and blade aimed true. A quick swipe later and it was over. The red eyes flickered as it fell to the ground with a loud rumble that shook what remained of the village.

Raziel sighed as he grabbed his weapons, sheathed them, and reverted to his normal form. The remains of the Wicked Giant faded to shadow, leaving behind the long rotten corpse of the Nephilim it possessed so long ago. His eyes narrowed as he remembered his friend from the days of Noah.

Funny, Raziel thought, I thought Eliakim was the last? Where did this one come from?

Raziel shook his head and looked at his surroundings. The village lay in ruins, with the buildings and beautiful cobblestone path shattered to oblivion. The townsfolk he could see were all dead, bodies strewn about, splotches of blood nearly covered the ruins as ash and embers filled the air.

His jaw tightened. He had been reckless, so excited by the prospect of another Soraphim that he never stopped to consider the consequences. Even before the Wicked Giant, his battle with Ben had torn the village asunder, much like his own home during the Fall. It was because of this, against his deep, long held desire, he had helped combat the beast instead of pursuing Ben further.

That, and he couldn’t bear to see another angel die at the hands of those damned beasts.

The angel returned to Raziel and landed, cracking the ground. He stormed over, grabbed Raziel by the neck, and shoved him against a wall.

“What was that thing?” the angel growled. “Why did it want Ben?”

Raziel grabbed the angel’s wrist and kneed him in the gut to get some distance between them. The angel held on to his tunic, drew his sword, and held it threateningly. Raziel did the same, then chuckled at their standoff.

“Well played, angel,” Raziel said.

“My name is Zachariel,” the angel hissed. “A name you won’t forget once I’m done with you.”

The two glared at each other for what felt like an eternity. Eventually, Raziel had to let his pride go one more time as he removed his blade from the angel. Zachariel slowly removed his as well.

Raziel shoved him away and dusted off his cracked cloak armor. “As I said earlier, that beast is what’s known as a Wicked Giant. They are a race created by the fallen legions in order to help oppose the Creator. Specifically reanimated Nephilim corrupted by darkness. They were wiped out in the great flood and were supposed to be extinct.” He glanced at the dissipating corpse.

“Where did this one come from?” Zachariel asked.

“I honestly don’t know. As for me...” he stared Zachariel directly in his ethereal eyes, “Ben is one of my kind. I want to keep him out of angel and demon hands alike. His power is not for either side. It belongs to his people, and his people alone. Lucifer and the Creator be damned.”

Zachariel didn’t break the stare. “But the rest of Soraphim are extinct. Wiped out. Perhaps he’s a descendant of yours…?”

“That…” Raziel said as he grimaced, “…is impossible. I don’t know how or why he exists, but that he provides me with a hope I have not felt in eons.” He clenched his fist as he eyed the angel. “He is the key to our salvation, so that the Soraphim may live again.”

“But why do the demons want him so badly?” Zachariel tilted his head. “What exactly is your kind capable of?”

Raziel shrugged. As far as he was concerned, he had to capture Ben and hopefully find a female Soraphim. Once that was done, he could begin his race anew and guide them, with no tyrants like Lucifer or the Creator interfering with their lives.

But then again, Raziel thought, why does Ben’s mere existence trouble me?

Raziel took a moment to ponder it. He had witnessed every member of his kind, including his mother, face the slaughter from the demons. He had walked through his village, seen every face. Only he had survived the onslaught.

So where did Ben come from? he thought. Is he some creation of the demons? Was he born of darkness like the old host claimed we were?

A few of the pieces suddenly snapped into place for him. As he delved deeper into the situation, he realized it was far more complex than he had initially anticipated. Even more important, he needed to find Ben before the demons got their filthy little hands on them.

“I—” Raziel did his best to hide his reaction, “—I don’t know, angel. I suppose you will have to figure it out.” He walked away and let himself dissipate into smoke.

Zachariel chased after him. “Wait! I still—”

The angel tried to tackle Raziel, but he might as well have tried to grab thin air. It was useless. But as of now, Raziel had questions, too. He continued to ponder the dilemma as he completely vanished, whisking himself away in the ash-filled wind.