Irina had to change her loadout. She would retain her silver longsword, but the chain and half plate would attract far too much attention. As she paced the marble floor of her room in the barracks, she could not decide between the Iron Silk shirt or the reinforced bodysuit she had been given in training.

Both were subtler protections but had their drawbacks as well. Neither were as sturdy as the plate and though the Iron Silk would offer near silent movement, it offered much less protection than the bodysuit. The mission was reconnaissance and investigation, not an assault.

The bodysuit had fit Irina perfectly during her time in the academy. After her H.A.L.O augmentations, she had gained muscle in her shoulders, core, and legs in a noticeable fashion, the stalks of her wings were notably thicker than they had been. The increase in size would restrict her mobility but offer far greater protection from the claws and weapons of the demons they could encounter. The exchange of lesser mobility for less chance of injury won out. Over the slate and violet bodysuit, she wore grey combat robes that halted just under her knee and a traditional white tabard.

The rest of Irina’s prep time was spent in meditation on her H.A.L.O, the Hallowed Allowance of Lord's Ordinance unit that all angels were granted at graduation to augment with enhancements to aid in their function within the Heavenly Host. Channeling divine bolts with such alacrity was a large part of the reason why Dayseus had recruited her and her purpose on the mission was clear, when they run into demons, she clears them out and secures the retreat.

While all angels possessed the same gifts, each angel developed different strengths while exploring their divinity. In the academy, her peers had joked that Irina was a “one angel artillery.” She owed her skill in channeling to her ability to focus the divine essence required for one bolt before the other had left her hands. Channeling was her greatest strength, or so she thought. There were plenty of more seasoned angels within Dayseus' Wing that were just as capable as she was in combat, some even more so, why was she chosen?

Haroth, Oriphiel, and Irina gathered at the gates of Heaven, impossibly tall and made of pearl, they were much sturdier than they looked. Rumors had floated through the academy that the hordes of Hell, led by the Archduke Bael, had once reached the gates themselves, and they held while Dayseus orchestrated the counter-attack that drove the demons back to Earth.

Times had changed significantly from the Age of Glory on Earth, the humans doubted their creator and practiced heretical religion, playing into Satan's schemes. It was her duty to fulfill the Lord's wishes, to save as many human souls as she could, one way or another. 

The gates opened on their own with a rush of wind from Earth. The smell of sweet blossoms and mountain air, the grand mountain ranges closest to Heaven and majestic rolling fields flooded Irina’s senses. The Lord’s creation was so beautiful when not littered with the wars of man, free and green, not grey, and smattered with death.

The three of them could see the smoldering ruins of the Achaemenid Empire from their perch above the clouds. Demons swarmed not only through the capitol, but through the entirety of the nation, feasting on corpses of men and beast alike. Rapid movement caught Irina’s eye, snapping her train of thought. Her eyes followed the streak of crimson flesh darting through the streets, it was a low-born, one of the demons born of man’s sin. Is distended brachiating gait exuded the gluttony from which it came, it was chasing something, its maw wide and snapping at its heels. 

“There are people alive down there!” she shouted.

“Let’s-” Haroth started.

Irina's eyes focused on the demon's target, "It's a human child!" she flexed her wings and tensed her legs.

“Don’t!” Oriphiel shouted.

Irina dove from the clouds and streaked toward the Earth. The wind tore at her eyes, wings, and robes, the low-born was too focused on its prey, it wouldn’t hear her coming. If she killed it quickly, it would not have time to alert the others nearby.

She could save the child.

Irina’s silver longsword sprung from its scabbard at her command, the hilt warm against her grip, and thrumming with divine wrath.

The child tripped over a body and crashed to the ground, the demon was upon him in a flash, fetid maw stretched the length of the child’s small frame. He wouldn’t be able to move in time.

So much for a quiet kill. Irina thought. 

A bolt, blazing white and crackling with divinity flew from Irina’s left hand, snapped through the air, and bisected the demon’s head before consuming it utterly in holy fire. The wretched thing contorted and spasmed silently on the ground as it burned to ashes.

Irina landed next to the huddled child on the cobblestone road and listened for what felt like an eternity. Hollow shells of the manmade structures stood about the pair of them as the echoes of the bolt faded. 

Silence.

The demons pouring through the city had not pursued the child after the low-born took off, satisfied, and gorging themselves on the flesh of the dead about the city.

Irina knelt next to the child who was still curled up on the ground, trembling. She touched him on the shoulder and he flinched. She could feel his pain, his leg had broken, and the child hadn’t eaten in days. Irina wasn't the best at field medicine, but human bones were simple enough to mend. She scooped him up in her arms and released some of her divine radiance, it poured into the boy, mending the wrongs within him.

He was covered in a ragged poncho and his clothing was made of sackcloth. His skin was darker for the region, and his hair was jet black. He looked up at her with glassy brown eyes, he was terrified, terrified of her. Haroth landed not far from her, Oriphiel was nowhere to be seen, which probably meant that she was nearby, watching from the shadows.

“Give him to me, I’ll make sure he gets somewhere safe,” Haroth said, his hands outstretched.

Irina moved to surrender the child when her halo hummed violently against her back. Her vision went white, she saw the tip of a sword, a baby, and Haroth’s hands, she felt despair and rage swirl within her.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Irina?” Haroth’s brown eyes were awash with concern.

“The safest place for him is here, with us. It’ll only be a matter of time before he’s sniffed out by low-born and killed if he’s left on his own.”

“You’re not wrong Irina, but he is not the mission. Scouting the palace for signs of demon summoning is, and he’ll only attract demons if we take him with us.”

"Saving human souls is always the mission." Irina corrected. 

"We can't, he'll just slow us down." He said. 

“Then help me consecrate him.”

“We don’t have time for that!” Oriphiel shouted, emerging from the shadow of a fallen beam.

“Then he comes with us!” Irina yelled back, “Those are garzok back there! He’s little more than a snack to those monsters. I will not leave him to be swallowed up like a leg of lamb! There is no one else to protect him!” 

Haroth and Oriphiel exchanged a glance.

“It will go faster if the three of us do it,” Haroth muttered.

The three of them stood around the boy and began to pray. The clouds parted, and Heaven’s light shone down upon the boy. Within moments, the choir of Heaven echoed the prayers of the three angels. The boy’s eyes closed, lulled by the peaceful chorus resounding within him.

“He shall be named Abraham.” the three echoed in unison.

The boy’s eyes shot open, alight with the purpose granted to him by the divine. He scampered off through the rubble and vanished from sight. At least now, he would be safe.

“Can we get back to the mission at hand now?” Oriphiel huffed.

Irina locked eyes with Haroth for a moment and nodded.

“Let’s move,” he confirmed.

The three angels were able to avoid any direct contact with the demon masses. When they gathered in the throne room of the gutted palace, Oriphiel was wiping blood from her dagger onto the tattered remains of the Achaemenid tapestry.

The throne room had high ceilings and turret windows, the walls and floors were made of clay bricks, they had been scorched badly, and from the looks of things, due to the mob that had been present. Clubs, pitchforks, and spent torches littered the floor, along with the mangled bodies of the humans that had been present.

Oriphiel let out a disgusted snort, “Humans, they always leave such a mess.” she explained.

Irina decided not to engage her. She attempted to look around the bodies for signs of summoning, she would either have to move the bodies around physically or they would have to purify the area and risk burning away the potential sign with it. Irina grabbed one of the candle stands and used it to shove the bodies around to look underneath them. Haroth and Oriphiel followed suit soon after.

After what was easily an hour of moving bodies and looking, there was finally a breakthrough. “Over here!” Haroth called Irina and Oriphiel over. The three of them worked in tandem to reveal the summoning sigil.

As soon as it was revealed entirely, the intricate and savage pattern, saturated with human blood began to glow a menacing crimson. There had been no demon summoning in the Achaemenid Empire, the place had been invaded by the demons, and the more intelligent among them had carved the sigil into the floor.

It was a trap.

The Hellmouth tore open the fabric of reality and stabilized rapidly, a gnashing maw with jagged fangs that spewed sulfuric smoke. Demons would begin pouring through at any second. The scraping of low-born claws and the rattle of abdiel lashes reached the angels swiftly.

“We need to go,” Irina stated urgently.

Oriphiel vanished and both Haroth and Irina took to the sky. As soon as they cleared the dome-like ceiling of the palace, flames erupted around them. The low-born had gathered in clusters to hurl their hellish flak into the skies. The cadence of blasts was too fast, they wouldn’t be able to make it to the gates of Heaven, or even above the clouds under the current bombardment.

Irina pointed down urgently before she drew her wings back and plummeted back down to the Earth’s surface. She was able to land softly but was still out in the open. Haroth landed an instant later, and just in time.

“Shield!” Irina shouted.

Haroth stepped between Irina and an incoming mass of flame and hate. He flared his wings up and around the both of them as hellish fire washed over the landscape, scorching nearly everything it touched.

“On three?” Haroth asked, looking down at Irina’s hands.

“There’s too-”

“One”

“No Haroth, I can’t-”

“Two”

“Fine!”

“Three!”

Irina took a deep breath and closed her eyes. When she opened them, the world moved in slow motion, she could see the muscle fibers under the red-tinged low-born skin shift as they bounded toward her. Cracks of blinding white light sprawled over Irina’s hands and forearms as she hurled the divine bolts into the hordes.

Haroth barreled forward, his spear flashing through demon flesh and wings slamming down in wide arcs, battering the demons that made it past his spear point.

“More Irina, more!” he shouted.

“Heavenly Father, grant me thy wrath and thy Conviction. Bless me to purge this land of filth and wickedness!” she prayed, power surging through her. 

A flash of silver danced among the demons, leaving splashes of black blood and viscera in its wake. “Anytime now ‘one-angel-artillery’” Oriphiel’s voice taunted through the mess of gore.

Maybe more bolts aren’t the answer, but more bolt. She thought. She summoned two of the biggest bolts that she could and then mashed them together. The essence fused together and multiplied exponentially, she'd lose control of it soon.

“Down!” Irina shouted.

Haroth dropped, and she had to assume that Oriphiel did as well. She loosed the massive bolt at the wretched ones, it fractured into jagged forks of lightning that pounded through the ruined city and landscape, tearing up the cobblestone roads and destroying stucco houses. The demons that weren’t vaporized outright fled back to the Hellmouth. The smell of sulfur and rot vanished soon after it closed.

The three angels reconvened where the Hellmouth had opened. Hellmouths were typically just that, a large gaping maw, lined with rotting serrated teeth that tore its way into reality. This usually took time and would allow at least a moment for angels nearby, this one had been different and formed nearly immediately. 

“This is weird” Oriphiel observed, “humans shouldn’t be able to cut stone like this yet.” She held a piece of obsidian between her slender thumb and forefinger, turning it over in the light. “I mean, last time I was down here they were just finding this stuff. That was only what, a decade or so ago?”

“You’re right, it’s so...smooth,” Haroth admitted.

“So... what is it?” Irina asked.

“It’s a Sigil Stone or at least part of one. They’re engraved with the sign of the Archduke whose horde is supposed to come through the Hellmouth which keeps it stable and open, don’t think we’re getting anything out of this one I’m afraid,” he explained.

“Why not?” Oriphiel’s sneer was apparent in her agitated tone.

“Looks like the blast took the sigil clean off. Won’t be opening any Hellmouths though, so we can take it back to scan, see if we can get something off it.” he stepped in front of Irina as if to shield her from the impending onslaught of scolding that hung in the air like a guillotine.

To both Haroth and Irina’s surprise, Oriphiel simply said “At least there’s that, let’s get out of here.”

The three of them took to the sky without resistance. As they ascended, and the clouds parted to reveal Heaven’s pearly gates, Irina looked back down. She could see little Abraham, he had picked up a stick to help him walk and navigate the blasted ruins.

At least one life had been saved.