I looked up the stairway and sighed heavily. My legs were killing me. This was the thirtieth floor and I'd taken the guard position to give my aching legs a rest. Moving up the stairs beneath me were two extra squads that would wait here to escort any people that we captured on the higher floors. I was regretting more and more that we weren't using the elevators, but I also knew that was now impossible. Sometime back on the eighteenth floor, Cai had told me that the elevators were no longer responsive to anything he and the other Cybers did. I'd sent a Knight to check on them and he had confirmed that they were not moving for anything anyone did. The Empire's people had cut the cables that moved the elevators, rendering them inoperable.

"Demigod," the Paladin in charge of the two squads greeted me. "Good to see you sir."

"Good to see all of you too," I said to her. "Sorry about the walk up here. It's going to be a bit of hassle after the second go."

"That's alright sir," she chuckled. "I signed up for this. Been telling everyone for years that they should use the free-form gyms and the stair machines in them to build up more muscle and endurance in their legs but they've all been ignoring me. Can't really be in charge without a little petty revenge on them now and again for never listening to you."

"Screw you too, Rebecca," one of the Knights said. "If I get a cramp and fall, you're carrying me the rest of the day."

"I've been telling you all for years," she insisted, turning away from me and chattering good-naturedly with the rest of her squad while I smiled to myself and turned my gaze upward again. I wanted to move directly to the top and see if the Chancellor was there, but I knew that was just asking any security forces left to take a shot at my back. Best to go slowly and floor by floor.

"Sir," the Wing that was in command of my temporary squad's second half reported over a comm line, "we've cleared the floor. Permission to move up?"

"Hold," I told him. "My group isn't back with me yet. How many people did you find?"

"Not too many," he answered. "They seemed to be more of the types we've seen up til now. Scared office workers that didn't evacuate to the higher floors with more security or the lower floors with easier acccess to the ground exits. Nobody to worry about."

"Good. No trouble with them either I hope," I said.

"None at all sir," he confirmed. "Sending them down to the ground now."

"I'll contact you when my group's back then," I told him. "In the meantime, why don't you and yours take a break?"

"I'm not going to refuse," he said. "Gatz out."

I waited quietly for another two minutes before my group of Nephilim finally entered the stairwell with nearly fifteen people in tow.

"Alright girlies," Rebecca said getting her group's attention. "Let's do the job nice and neat for the Demigod, yeah? This way please, you're going to be escorted to the ground floor and allowed to exit the building where you will be monitored and protected by other Nephilim while the rest of the building is cleared of any other people. You will not be harmed and we've even got some food waiting for all of you. This way."

While she lead her squads and the people down the stairs, I turned to look at the Nephilim in my group and prepared to lead the way.

"You all good?" I asked. "I can wait and give you a longer a break if you need it. No shame in waiting to finish this."

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"I think we're all good sir," the Paladin I'd left in charge of the group said after looking at the others. "I'm really ready to finish this though."

"You and me both," I said. "Li, I think you've been going the longest without a break so far, so you'll wait at the doorway and guard the stairwell. Good?"

"Thank you sir," the Knight in question said gratefully. "I'll do my best not to fail you."

"No danger of that," I assured her. "Just keep your eyes open and don't let anyone by you."

With all that taken care of, I lead them higher and we continued to clear floors in groups of four with the second group in our squad moving in tandem with us. By the sixtieth floor, the number of squads that escorted the captured people up and down the stairs had to be doubled and then doubled again at the sixty-fifth floor. There was were the vast majority of the civilian workers for the Solar Empire's Earth branch of the governemnt had retreated to and to ensure the safety of my Nephilim, I increased the number of guards that escorted them down the stairs. I also had to have a man with paralyzed legs flown down the stairs now that the elevators were out of order. He was very unhappy to be carried like a blushing bride by the woman that volunteered to take him out of the building. I waited until he was gone before allowing the chuckle I'd been holding in to escape.

After the seventieth floor, there weren't any more civilian workers. I was troubled by this and I ordered my squad to move carefully through the empty floors as we approached the top floor. Finally after several tense floors, empty of any personnel, we approached the door of the eightieth floor and I ordered my squad to be prepared for anything else that might be waiting for us. Quickly, so as not to be caught off-guard, we entered the eightieth floor and looked around for the expected ambush from the Chancellor's personal security forces. There was nothing.

"Cai, where's the office?" I asked my Cyber. I didn't like this. Surely there was something that was waiting for us.

While Cai supplied a map to me and I lead the way across the empty floor and the offices and desks scattered throughout it, I looked around warily, startling when I saw movement and then nearly attacking the Wing and his group that we'd just met with.

"Sir," he greeted me as though I hadn't just put my sword to his throat.

"Gatz," I nodded to him as he moved his spear from where it pointed to my gut.

"Guess the Chancellor's somewhere up here," he said.

"My thoughts exactly," I said. "You got my back?"

"Yes sir," he said and we moved through the floor to approach the last office.

With caution, I opened the door and lead the way into the office where the Chancellor sat waiting for us with a glass of wine in her hands.

"Took you long enough," she grumped at me. "I had to watch you clear every damn floor, and that was boring as hell."

"Chancellor, you're going to come with me," I said firmly to the woman that had clearly gone through more than one bottle of wine while she waited for us.

"Like hell I am," she said, taking a long drink from her glass. "I am the Chancellor of the Solar Empire. I will not be treated like a common criminal."

"In fact," she said with a smile. "I think I'll make things more difficult for you."

Before I could react, she kicked her chair behind her into the glass and shattered the large floor-to ceiling pane. Wind howled into the room and scatter papers everywhere while she jumped out of the now open window.

"Shit!" I yelled before charging over the desk and out the window myself. "Cai! Speed me up! We need to catch her!"

I felt my Seraph Drive activate and my fall began to speed beyond the natural terminal velocity of Earth as I dove for the falling Chancellor.

I came closer and closer to her as the short time we fell stretched to eternity and I swear I heard her cackling at what she'd done. Finally, she was in reach and I reached out to grab her as she began to flail and kick me away from her. I didn't let that stop me from snatching her around the waist and pulling our free-fall into a controlled flight and then hover. As she screamed abuse at me and tried to hurt me through my armor, I began to lower us to the ground with the waiting civilians and other people that had been taken captive in this fight.

"Chancellor Sasha Grandine, you are hereby under arrest by my authority as the Chief Protector of the Deva Collective and Demigod of the Nephilim Army," I announced through my helmet's speakers so that everyone could hear me. "Given your state of intoxication and your recent attempt to kill yourself, I will wait until you have calmed down before I give you your rights as a Prisoner of War and a Person of Interest to the Collective's war efforts."

She screamed something about my mother and a goat while beating on my helmet with her fists.