Chapter 6 - Feathers of Baal
The demon hit the sky like a living nightmare.
Its enormous wings erupted outward with explosive force, scattering smoke clouds across the burning recruitment district while civilians below screamed and fled through ruined streets.
The creature moved impossibly fast for its size.
One moment it stood within the crater.
The next
it collided with Lucien’s smaller astral angel high above the city.
BOOM.
White-blue energy exploded across the night sky.
The shockwave shattered nearby windows.
The little angel spun backward through the air before catching itself gracefully, glowing robes flowing behind its smaller radiant form.
Below, thousands watched in horror and awe.
Soldiers.
Civilians.
Young recruits.
Children who had arrived dreaming of heroism now witnessed angels and demons fighting above their city.
The winged demon laughed.
Its voice sounded wrong.
Layered.
As if several creatures spoke through the same throat.
“Interesting…”
The burning crimson eyes beneath its hood focused directly on Lucien standing below among the chaos.
“Not human.”
Lucien felt cold immediately.
The thing was looking through the projection.
Looking directly at him.
The little angel raised both glowing hands.
Radiant energy erupted outward in multiple beams.
The demon twisted midair with impossible agility while the blasts vaporized entire sections of burning cloud behind it.
One beam clipped its wing.
White-blue fire exploded outward.
The creature hissed violently.
Then smiled wider.
Below them
the battlefield worsened.
More winged monsters descended from the crater.
Dozens now.
Their shrieks echoed through the district while black feathers launched downward like storms of knives.
SCREEEEEECH.
Soldiers died instantly.
A Heavy Metal mech lost visual sensors as razor-feathers shredded its armored cockpit.
An evacuation truck crashed after both drivers were pierced through the skull.
Entire streets became kill zones.
The creatures hunted civilians deliberately.
A winged monster crashed through a hospital window nearby.
Screaming erupted inside moments later.
Another landed atop an armored transport and ripped through the roof using hooked claws before slaughtering everyone inside.
“They’re targeting the weak!” Elias shouted.
Golden Hound sprinted directly into collapsing debris while gunfire thundered around him.
His silver-marked armor already carried blood and dust from earlier fighting.
But his calm blue eyes never wavered.
A family became trapped beneath a fallen transport as feathers rained down around them.
Elias moved instantly.
He grabbed the side of the overturned armored vehicle with both hands
and lifted.
Steel screamed.
The enormous transport slowly rose off the trapped civilians through pure Steelborn strength.
“MOVE!”
The family scrambled free just as Elias threw the vehicle sideways into an approaching group of Baalanian fanatics.
CRASH.
The transport flattened three of them instantly.
One surviving fanatic charged him screaming.
Elias shot him twice center mass.
The fanatic kept running.
“…Not one of these people again.”
The fanatic smiled wildly
then exploded.
BOOOOM.
Black fire consumed the street.
Elias shielded the civilians with his own armored body as debris blasted across his back plating.
He barely moved.
Nearby, Kael Mordren was having significantly more fun.
The Steelborn infiltrator sprinted across wreckage while laughing like a psychopath.
“YOU PEOPLE ARE INSANE!”
A Baalanian warrior swung a massive curved blade toward him.
Kael ducked beneath it smoothly, sliced the man’s knee apart, then stabbed upward through his jaw in one fluid motion.
Another enemy rushed him from behind.
Kael casually grabbed a dropped pistol without looking
and fired backward directly through the attacker’s eye.
Blood sprayed across the burning street.
Kael sighed dramatically.
“I miss fighting professionals.”
Then three winged monsters descended toward him at once.
Kael glanced upward.
“…Oh good.”
The creatures unleashed a barrage of razor-feathers.
Kael moved instantly.
He blurred through the storm of projectiles with terrifying reflexes, black stealth armor twisting between feathers that punched through concrete behind him.
One feather sliced across his cheek.
Kael touched the blood briefly.
Then smiled.
“You hit me.”
The first winged creature reached him.
Kael jumped directly toward it.
His katana flashed once.
The monster split apart midair.
Kael landed atop the falling corpse, kicked off it, then drove his blade through the skull of a second creature before stealing its momentum to flip behind the third.
The last monster turned too slowly.
Kael decapitated it.
All three corpses crashed burning into the streets below.
Nearby recruits stared at him in complete horror.
Kael noticed.
“…What?”
Then the sky darkened.
Everyone looked upward.
Hundreds of black feathers suddenly spread across the clouds above the district.
Not projectiles.
A storm.
The winged monsters circled overhead in organized formations now.
Hunting patterns.
Military tactics.
The realization chilled every soldier present.
These things weren’t beasts.
They were coordinated.
Intelligent.
The demon wizard hovered above them all.
Its massive wings spread wide against the burning sky while dark energy rippled across the battlefield beneath it.
Then the creature raised one clawed hand.
Every winged monster screamed simultaneously.
And descended.
The civilians broke.
Panic exploded across the district.
People ran blindly through fire and collapsing buildings while Soldiers of the Iron Oath desperately tried maintaining evacuation routes.
Lucien watched the chaos helplessly.
Too many people.
Too many enemies.
His breathing became uneven.
The little angel hovered protectively above the city while dozens of flying monsters dove toward civilians below.
Lucien’s hands trembled.
He hated this.
The screams.
The dying.
The fear.
Elias suddenly appeared beside him mid-battle.
“Lucien.”
The younger operative looked up shakily.
Golden Hound placed one armored hand firmly against his shoulder.
Calm.
Steady.
Protective.
“Look at me.”
Lucien forced himself to focus.
Elias pointed upward toward the burning sky.
“You save who you can.”
Another explosion thundered nearby.
The demon wizard roared overhead while winged creatures flooded the district.
Elias’ blue eyes hardened.
“We handle the rest.”
Then Golden Hound charged back into the battlefield.
Lucien stared upward.
The little angel floated above the burning city like a star surrounded by darkness.
Then
for the first time publicly
the astral being unfolded its wings fully.
Radiant light exploded across the heavens.
The entire district illuminated white-blue.
Every civilian stopped.
Every soldier looked upward.
The angelic projection no longer resembled a weapon.
It looked divine.
Beautiful.
Terrifying.
The demon wizard froze midair.
For the first time
its smile faded.
Lucien slowly raised his hand.
The little angel mirrored him above the city.
Then both fired simultaneously.
A colossal beam of radiant energy erupted skyward.
The heavens split apart.
Winged monsters vanished instantly inside the blast.
Clouds vaporized.
Light carved across the night itself.
The surviving civilians below watched in stunned silence.
Some dropped to their knees.
Others cried openly.
One young recruit whispered through tears:
“…An angel…”
But the demon survived.
The towering creature burst through the fading lightstorm, wings burning, body damaged but still moving.
And now
it looked furious.
Its burning eyes locked onto Lucien completely.
Then the demon pointed directly toward him.
Every surviving winged monster turned simultaneously.
And charged.
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