Chapter 8

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The sky was filled with thousands of Gargoyles, all bursting from the ground and gathering above the city like a cloud of toxic gas in the first battle of New York. Working together to counter the army of darkness, all the Angels grouped together and attacked like a tidal wave of light, slamming into the Gargoyle swarm and slaughtering hundreds of beasts every minute with their combined power. Selene was not among them, as Baltoh wanted her close by at all times when the fighting began. Regardless of Baltoh’s worrying, she refused to stay out of the battle and fought with everything she had against the Gargoyles.

Like all Angels, she had no sword or spells with which to fight, so she instead fought hand-to-hand and a nameless radiance that allowed her to shock and burn unholy creatures on contact. Even without having ever been in a real fight or even a martial arts lesson, she was able to take on the Gargoyles with miraculous skill, having been reborn faster, stronger, and smarter as an Angel. With holy energy wrapped around her like a shroud, she would obliterate Gargoyles with individual punches and kicks that would burn right through their flesh. Whenever she was wounded, she would retreat to heal her injuries and then return to battle.

Baltoh flew like a dizzy housefly through the cloud of Gargoyles, swinging his sword wildly and hacking the beasts to pieces like blades of grass under a lawnmower. Moving faster than a high-caliber bullet, he zoomed through the crowd, carving dozens of Gargoyles in half every second with his sword glistening with their blood. Now with greater numbers of enemies all around him, his death count was reaching its usual numbers. Unlike before when he was basically trying to kill moths with darts, now it was like shooting fish in a barrel.

A booming laugh drew his attention and his instinctively looked over to Selene who was flying through the air as fast as possible with a Demon with two elephantine tusks protruding from his jaw chasing after her. Zooming over, Baltoh appeared in front of the Demon and grabbed him with his tail like a fly landing in a spider’s web. With a powerful jerk of his tail, Baltoh crushed the Demon in his grip, slicing it to pieces as if a dozen guillotines had besieged the body. He then whiplashed his tail, discarding the body and splattering off the blood.

Down in the street below and in the buildings, humans with blessed weapons were trying to fight the Gargoyles that were crawling out from underground. Everything that could be used against them had been blessed by Angels, meaning that anyone who could fight and had the guts to fight were facing the forces of Hell with blessed crowbars, nail-bats, butcher knives, and firearms. While the sky was filled with howls and wing beats of Gargoyles, the streets were filled with the clapping of guns and screams of the injured in dying. Holy bullets flew like hornets, ripping through Gargoyles and spraying their blood. However, the battle was far from in the human’s favor. The Gargoyles were resilient, able to keep fighting after multiple gunshot wounds to the chest, not to mention that they too had a long-range attack in the form of their mini Abyss Blasts. The streets ran red with blood as people were tackled and torn to shreds by the gleeful Gargoyles, feasting upon the living flesh with gusto.

In one office building, a man with a blessed shotgun had been forced out of hiding and was being chased by a group of Gargoyles, running on all fours like a pack of cheetahs sprinting after a fleeing gazelle. With sweat and tears running down his face, the man ran as fast as he could towards the window. As he ran, one of the cubicles he was passing by was ripped apart by a pouncing Gargoyle. The airborne creature managed to leave five deep gashes across his shoulder and back as he flew over the man. The desperate mortal quickly jumped to his feet as the recovering Gargoyle reached out to grab him. Taking aim with his shotgun, he blasted the monster in the face with a load of holy buckshot, ripping off the top of its skull and leaving its flesh badly burned.

He turned around, firing two rounds at a pair of the chasing Gargoyles, slowing down the pack while he ran backwards. Slamming against the window, the man jerked and looked around, realizing his back was to the wall and there was no way out. With the Gargoyles slowly approaching, weaving through the maze of cubicles, the man discharged his last empty shell casing and hurriedly began to reloading, trying to keep his hands as steady as possible while sweat dripped from his nose. He looked up as one of the Gargoyles turned a corner through the cubicle aisle, slowly approaching on all fours like a stalking lion. Raising his weapon with trembling hands, the man loaded the first shell and fired, blasting the beast in the shoulder and wounded it. A second Gargoyle leapt from the side, snarling with bloodlust. With a scream passing his lips, the man discharged the empty casing with a yank of the fore-end and fired, blowing a hole in the creature’s chest and sending it tumbling to the floor, struggling to stay alive.

As one, all the Gargoyles attacked, thundering towards him and knocking everything aside. Working feverishly, he fired four rounds, cocking his shotgun almost before he had even pulled the trigger. One Gargoyle was sprinting towards him head-on with its long forked tongue swinging from side to side. Discharging the empty shell, he took aim and fired, only to hear a soft click instead of a loud bang. Before he could even swear, the Gargoyle tackled him, knocking them both through the window as it sank its teeth into his neck.

Down the street in an alley, a 19-year-old girl was screaming and crying as a Gargoyle raped her, thrusting its spiny cock into her frail body with brutal power. A puddle of blood was forming beneath her, her pussy was an indistinguishable mess of shredded flesh, and her pelvis was already broken. As the Gargoyle grunted and snarled while tearing her apart like a chainsaw, the screaming girl was desperately reaching for a gun she had taken from a disemboweled police officer. Sitting in a puddle of filthy water, the pistol was almost mocking her, laughing as she was violated. With one final scream and stretch, she reached out grasped the end of the barrel, pulling it towards her and grabbing it. Turning around, she pointed the gun at her rapist and fired five rounds straight into its skull, shredding its brain and killing it.

As the Gargoyle fell dead to the side, its cock was removed with one final painful tear. With her lower body ripped apart and tears streaking her face, the whimpering girl looked around, praying that someone would help her. She looked and gave a silent cry as she saw a lone Gargoyle, clinging to the wall with a devilish smile and a throbbing erection. Releasing its claws from the wall, the beast dropped down towards the girl. There was only one bullet left, and the Gargoyle was too powerful to be taken down in a single shot. With tears streaming down her face, she whispered a soft apology to her family, put the gun in her mouth, and pulled the trigger.

In the distance, in the central plaza of the city, the pavement opened up into a burning pit and eight Gargoyles streamed out, pulling a chariot of twisted black steel with flaming wheels and rotting carcasses nailed to the sides. Being dragged behind it were four long bladed chains, secured to the rusted collars of slaves from Hell, each with rags for clothing, rail-thin bodies, bound arms, and iron masks. Riding in the chariot was a Demon with black armor, a whip of pure fire, and a serrated broadsword. He began shouting out in Hellscript, making every human and Angel cringe as the unholy words ravaged their minds like bullet ants chewing on their eardrums.

“Contorst eortus ostit, lacortata eortus carnois, ots biberto eortus sanguotos! Ens mulierti voluntax clamaxos unst noxi xtrupris eos! Uns filiixeray voluntax clamocta unst noxi dezorabi eos! Ent hominequsi voluntax ortsa enost mortist unst noxi servator eos! Fiazt eos scirst cruziator, fiazen eos scirsh timoshos, ext fiazt eos scirst infernusami!” ‘Crush their bones, rip their flesh, and drink their blood! The women will scream as we rape them! The children will cry as we devour them! The men will beg for death as we enslave them! Let them know pain, let them know fear, and let them know Hell!’

“Demon Art: Graveyard of the Damned!” the Demon then called as he cracked his whip.

Upon the announcement of the spell, the street was ripped apart as hundreds of tombstones of all sizes and shapes burst out like groundhogs, destroying the roar and coming up with enough power to flip cars. With a dull roar, skeletal hands with greenish-black color reached out of the ground as the Sinners of Hell entered New York, each grave spitting them out like snakes from a pit. Swords of black steel in hand, the skeletons laughed and cheered at the chance to finally bring carnage to a real human city after so many years and Hell. Being truly evil souls, they had lost their flesh and blood in tandem with what little mercy they had when they were living, becoming the malicious undead and the foot soldiers of Hell.

Police cars and SWAT vans skidded to a halt at the end of the street as the skeletons marched down the road with a deep clacking rhythm. Wasting no time in ordering the undead criminals to halt, the officers formed a thick barrier with their cars and all opened fire with pistols, shotguns, and machineguns, raining holy lead down upon the skeletons. While they were weaker than Demons in terms of power and they were made of only bones, they proved to be quite resilient to the bullets. The skeletons were made of a far stronger material than just calcium-rich cells, and unlike the Gargoyles that required organs to live, the Sinners could only be stopped through dismembering or obliteration of the skull.

Shouting swears and praising the Devil, the skeletons broke rank and charged towards the line of police officers, swinging their swords above their heads while they ran. The closer they got, the more damage they received from the officer’s bullets, fracturing skulls, breaking off limbs, and snapping spines. But while they were falling like dominos in the fray, their momentum was only being slowed. Inevitably, they reached the barrier of cars and immediately went to work, stabbing, slashing, and butchering the police while screaming in sadistic enjoyment.

Landing on the roof of one of the SWAT vans, an elderly Archangel clapped his hands together. “Angel Art: Heaven Lantern Summoning!”

Behind him, a fifty-foot tall statue of a nude female Angel materialized, carved from marble and holding out a solid gold lantern. A bright flash sparked within the confines of the lantern, and in a vibrant display, the light of Heaven shone down from the sides and onto the army of the Sinners. The skeletons howled in agony and tried to shield themselves as the light set them ablaze like ants under a magnifying glass.

The Demon commanding them shielded his eyes as smoke billowed from his flesh, hissing from the burning pain. With a roar of frustration, the Demon cracked his fiery whip, causing it to grow in length and dart forward like a tentacle. The flaming tether wrapped around the statue, and with a furious snarl, the Demon yanked on the handle, tightening the whip’s hold and shattering the marble Angel, sending huge pieces of marble tumbling to the ground with the lantern now dark.

“Angel Art: Divine Smite!”

He looked up, spotting the Archangel flying straight down towards him with his sword in hand. With a bellow of confidence, the Archangel brought down his sword with the weight of a 747, pulverizing the Demon’s chariot, reducing the Demon and his Gargoyles to bloody paste, and causing every building in the four surrounding city blocks to simultaneously explode into clouds of dust and twisted metal.

Off in the distance, a deafening screech cut through the air, following several ominous crashes. Great pillars of smoke and dust were rising into the air as buildings collapsed, due to the forces of Hell coming up from right beneath them. These were a new threat, great skeletons that towered at over two hundred feet in height. These dark-green bone behemoths were known as Bleaks, and they were the result of hundreds of Sinners joining together into one entity, similar to how Demons are born.

However, their size and bodies were due to the fact that the hatred of the individual spirits that made them up was not purely concentrated. Unlike Demons, which were born from the pure hatred of prisoners joining together from the purest ashes, all the emotions and memories from the Sinners were included, resulting in an inflated creature that was not dense enough in its evil to gain a compacted Demon body. However, while they were not quite as durable as Demons and they lacked the ability to use spells, their full-sized Abyss Blasts and colossal bodies allowed them to cause vast amounts of destruction.

With their red eyes gleaming, the three Bleaks opened their jaws and each released a devastatingly powerful Abyss Blast, launching the dense black lasers into the city. The blasts whiplashed across the sea of buildings, blooming into massive explosions that illuminated and shook the city and sent rubble flying in all directions.

Raphael zoomed towards the Bleaks as fast as his wings could carry him, charging his power in preparation to destroy the unholy abominations. Spotting his approach, one of the Bleaks roared in fury and swung its arm like he was a fly, missing the Archangel but ripping away the roof of a tall apartment building and sending bricks and twisted metal raining down into the street.

“Angel Art: Divine Smite!” Raphael shouted, reached the Bleak’s face and delivering a powerful kick.

Upon contact, the giant skeleton’s skull turned into a claymore mine, spraying shrapnel in one direction from the power of Raphael’s kick and essentially beheading the beast.

“Angel Art: Gates of Heaven!” he cast with his back turned to a Bleak charging a Abyss Blast. The black beam surged out from between the skeleton’s jaws and was deflected by the golden gate behind Raphael, protecting him from harm.

“Angel Art: Divinity Ray!” he called once the blast was ended, turning around and firing an equally powerful beam of holy energy at the skeleton and obliterating its skull.

The third Bleak reached out towards him, trying to swat him out of the air with its palm. With little effort, Raphael brought his sword down onto its wrist and sliced off its hand. The Bleak roared in pain and shouted curses at Raphael while charging a Abyss Blast. Before the blast could be launched, Raphael shot up and then swooped down with his sword raised, bringing the blade down onto the undead beast’s forehead. He carved his way down through the Bleak’s skull and split its body in half, slicing it all the way through its chest and spine as if his sword was fifty feet long. Upon breaking through the pelvis, Raphael looked up as the split parts of the skeleton began to separate, detonating the half-charged Abyss Blast and shattering the entire body in the explosion.

Raphael looked back across the smoldering city at Baltoh, who was working together with the Archangels to fight the flood of Gargoyles coming up from Hell. The area they were rising from was just a massive gaping pit, with Gargoyles swarming up in the millions. All the Archangels were firing Divinity Rays into the black geyser of beasts while Baltoh was using both the Feather Arrow and Claw Bullet spells, essentially turning his body into almost three-dozen Gatling guns.

Do to the effects of his spells, blood and butchered body parts fell like waterfalls from the deluge of Gargoyles and smoke filled the sky from the burning bodies that were incinerated by the sweeping Divinity Rays of the Archangels. Every second that passed by, tens of thousands are Gargoyles met their grisly end, stifling the black geyser into a low-pressure fountain. But as powerful as the forces of Heaven were, the legions of Hell outnumbered them in horrifying magnitudes, not just with Gargoyles and Sinners, but also with Demons. Every few minutes, one of the Archangels would have to leave and go face a Demon that had snuck through and was blowing up the city.

On the roof of a nearby building, Selene was battling individual Gargoyles that had managed to get past Baltoh and the Archangels. She was surrounded on all sides but her confidence in her newly acquired fighting skills were high. Roaring on how it planned on raping her to death, one of the Gargoyles pounced with its claws barred.

Selene turned around, wrapped in holy energy, and delivered her strongest punch to the Gargoyle’s face, destroying its skull like a watermelon under the blow of a hammer. She quickly looked back as a Gargoyle behind he attacked and ended its life with a lethal kick, slicing its head off its shoulders with the white aura wrapped around her foot.

Two Gargoyles pounced on her from the left and right side, giving her no chance to deliver counterattacks. Instead, she jumped forward and rolled, letting the two Gargoyles collide in midair like cartoon characters. The crowd of Gargoyles around her reached down to end her life, but with her feathers glowing with blessed power, she spun around with her wings full expended and carved them all down like the blades of a helicopter.

Standing at the edge of the roof with a large crowd of Gargoyles slowly inching towards her, Selene didn’t have a single drop of fear in her heart and was barely out of breath. Even in the midst of battle, she had a wide grin on her face from the physical exertion and the feeling of the sweat on her face. This fighting was resonating with her; the true life or death challenge and the chance to be pushed to her limits, it was practically euphoric. She could barely contain her happiness at pressure she could feel and energy within her that was pushing back against this pressure.

“Die, little bitch!” one of the Gargoyles howled as it leapt towards her.

With a swing of her arm, Selene sliced the creature in half right down the middle and sent the two parts flying past her and down into the street. Now it was her turn to strike. Stretching her wings, she gave a mighty push against the air and threw herself forward, straight into the Gargoyle midst. The Hell beasts did not see this coming and were caught of guard, giving Selene the opportunity of a lifetime to begin hacking and slashing at them as if her hands had been replaced by two machetes.

As she spun around like a ballerina and carved down the black creatures with her glowing wings, one of them managed to land five large cuts across her shoulder. While the pain stopped her momentum, the shivers it sent through her only made her smile grow in savageness.

“Perfect, it’s no fun without a little something to compensate for.” She purred with blood trickling down her arm.

The Gargoyle that had slashed her licked her blood of its claws in relish and then lashed out with its tail, trying to skewer her. She caught its tail and yanked on it with all her strength, pulling the beast off its feet and swinging it around like a giant flail. As she knocked down the surrounding Gargoyles like bowling pins, her wounded arm ached from the strain, but the endorphin rush it had triggered and the effort being used to combat the pain made Selene’s heart race in enjoyment. It was not a sadistic pleasure, but an energetic one, like a hyperactive child desperate to get out of school and just run around freely.

The Gargoyle’s tail finally snapped from the strain, sending the creature hurtling off the building and taking away all of Selene’s balance. She continued to spin, desperately trying to slow herself down and get a hold of herself. So dizzy she could barely think, Selene fell back into the arms of Baltoh, who caught her as if they were dancing the Tango. Looking at each other, they both smiled and shared a long kiss while the battle around them raged,

“Baltoh, get back up here! We need a way to stop his flood of Gargoyles! They’re taking up all of our attention!” Rosemary shouted over the nearly-deafening chorus of screams.

Baltoh chuckled and stood Selene back up, then turned back to the beastly deluge and clapped his hands together. “Angel Art: Roaring Clouds of Heaven!”

Deep in the Gargoyle deluge, a great eruption of white clouds surged outwards like a gas explosion, spinning in a dense vortex with holy energy crackling through the folds of vapor like lightning. The storm consumed the unholy spawn while it grew and reduced them to ash, but not before killing them like a poison gas cloud. The cloud lowered itself, forming a seal over the massive chasm and killing any Gargoyles that tried to use it to enter New York.

“Good, now we can focus on other areas. Come on Baltoh, Baltoh?” Rosemary panted, looking around. Her gaze shifted upwards and she became pale as she spotted him, hovering up above the cloud barrier. His four wings were pointed downwards and his halo was spinning wildly between the tips.

“Are you crazy?! You’ll destroy all of Hell and take us down with it!”

“Relax, I’m just using a fraction of its true power. Everyone, hang on! This is really going to shake the city!” He hollered. Hearing his warning, all of the Archangels fled as fast as they could, just moments before he released the unfathomable blast.

The neon beam exploded from his halo, shooting straight down like a colossal waterfall and snuffing out the cloud barrier blocking the Gargoyles. Baltoh’s calculations had been correct in the intensity of the blast, as its diameter was just shy of the diameter of the pit, essentially filling it up like a pipe with acid. The beam shot down into the sea of Gargoyles that had risen up from Hell to try and get to New York, basically carving through their horde like a jet of hot water through ice. Several million Gargoyles were just killed by the blast alone.

The blast zoomed down between the inter-dimensional void, finally striking Hell and detonated. In a blast that shook New York to the point of near city-wide destruction, an explosion was set off in Hell, equal to more than ten thousand hydrogen bombs. An ocean of fire surged up in the space between New York and Hell, engulfing every entity that had been trying to reach the city and killing them like insects under the fury of a flamethrower, sending their death toll to the range near ten digits. From every opening carved into the city, a pillar of fire shot upwards like a geyser, incinerating just about anyone close by and blinding whoever looked directly at it.

The city became dead-silent as every entity tried to regain their mental bearings and figure out what they were supposed to do. Everyone was looking at Baltoh in shock and awe as an ash cloud rose up from the bit below him.

“Let’s take care of the survivors and then repair the damage,” he called out as his halo returned to the top of his head.

Baltoh stood in the hallway of one of New York’s hospitals, tending to a wounded man who was struggling to stay alive with a torn windpipe and jugular vein. His hands were glowing with green energy, repairing the damaged faster than modern medicine ever could. To the sound of the generator humming in the basement, doctors and nurses struggled to keep people alive with dim lighting and disappearing resources. Every hallway and room were stuffed with beds, the floor was wet with blood from poorly-bandaged wounds, and those who had only minor injuries would basically have to deal with it themselves or hope they could find an Angel to help them. This was just one hospital, and that was only counting the people who had actually been brought in. The city was blanketed with the dead and wounded, with those needing immediate care basically being brought in by the truckload.

As the dying and injured cried out in pain and need of help, the medical staff worked feverishly not to waste time or attention by asking the Angels questions while they helped tend to the wounded. For every doctor and nurse, there was one Angel using his or her power to heal someone, and the need to ask them about the afterlife or, the secrets of the universe, or even personal questions was overpowering. Here they were, the answers to the greatest questions on Earth, but just as they would open their mouths to speak, a cry of pain from their patient or a sudden spray of blood would drag their attention back to the matters at hand, forcing them to hold in their curiosity.

The Angels had a similar nervousness around Baltoh, though they were filled with more curiosity than fear. That had been told that Baltoh was one of the greatest threats to Heaven, a berserker that had defeated Archangels as if they were nothing. Even though he had never killed any of the forces of Heaven, his Demon half and his unstoppable strength in battle made him a terror, while his Archangel half and his drive to slay evil made him almost an idol.

Once the wound in the man’s neck closed, Baltoh sighed and looked out the nearby window. Well over a hundred Angels were arriving to assist in the healing process, meaning that he could finally take a break. Even after firing a rage blast to end the battle and not resting after having healed almost three hundred people, his energy levels were still fairly high, but his mind was weary. He was used to blood and chaos, but not seeing actual living humans lose their lives in such horrific ways and on such a grotesque scale.

Becoming intangible, he floated up to the roof of the hospital to clear his mind for a few minutes. Stepping onto the roof, he leaned against the side of the exit with his hand over his face as he rubbed his temples.

“Baltoh...” a woman’s said softly. He looked over and his eyes widened as they focused on Molly, who had a nervous look on her face.

“Molly, hey,” he replied, unsure of what else to say.

“Can I talk to you about something, or is now a bad time?”

“No, it’s fine.”

She stepped over to him and leaned against the wall, hesitating before speaking. “Normally I would talk to Selene, but I can’t find her anywhere and she is probably just as busy as you are. To be honest, I have no one else really to talk to. You’re the only other non-human that I know, and I just don’t think a living person would understand me.

Oh God, this is so stupid. You already have so much to deal with and yet...” She turned away from him.

“Molly,” he said softly and kindly, but with such authority that she stopped in her tracks. “I know what you’re going to say. You think that with everything that’s going on, your problems don’t matter and you don’t want give anyone else the added burden. But we are friends and I want to help you. I want to make you happy. Any weight you have to carry, I’ll carry with you.”

Molly turned to him with a sad smile on her face. “Thank you,” she said before retaking her place beside him and looking down at the floor, taking a deep breath. “The problem is ... I was too scared to fight. I ran away when the battle started. Everyone else fought against those monsters, but I was petrified. Even Selene jumped into the fray without hesitation, but when I thought back to what those Demons did to me, I just froze up. I don’t even know why I was made an Angel in the first place, I don’t even know how I even went to Heaven.”

“Molly, there is nothing wrong with being scared, especially for someone in your position. If Selene had endured what you endured, then she would have froze as well. Not only is it ridiculous to just expect you to be a fighter, but to do so after what those bastards did to you ... you have nothing to be ashamed of or apologize for. I’m the one who should be apologizing; I got you involved in this mess in the first place.”

Baltoh gently brushed back a lock of her golden hair, and as his finger grazed her cheek, she burst into tears and sat down on the ground, wrapped in her wings. Baltoh crouched down and put his arm around her, holding her tightly as she cried. He tried to think of something to say, something to make her feel better, but he had no experience in which to draw on. He didn’t know how to comfort people when all he himself had known was pain.

“Every time I close my eyes, I see all the Demons standing over me, laughing. Every time my mind wanders, I remember the pain I endured. They raped me, they tortured me, they took my life from me!” she sobbed.

Very slowly, he reached out and cupped her cheek, ending her gasps.

In the corner of the roof, Rosemary landed while cloaked to be undetectable, as she was hoping to just get Baltoh and not get swept up in the calamity of the hospital. She was originally there to tell him that there was a meeting going on, but now, she didn’t want to interrupt. With a look of warm pride on her face, she stood back to let Baltoh help Molly.

“Shhhh, it’s ok. They’re dead now, I killed them all for you and for what they did to you. All that happened to your old human body, but you’ve been reborn into a new body. I’m not saying that you should just act like it never happened, but you have no scars in which to carry. Your body is completely untouched; nothing has been taken from you. The only traces of your pain lie in your own memories. All you have to do is look forward to the future and bury the past like your old body. What happened to you happened, we can’t change that, but you can come to terms with it and with what has happened since then. You aren’t their victim, you are an Angel, and you have the greatest chance in the world to change everything and start from scratch.”