~~David~~
It would have been funny if they weren’t surrounded. Demons, killing machines, armed with claws, fangs, spikes, horns, and big metal weapons, afraid of zombies? But they were afraid. David was, too. They didn’t stop coming.
“Are they here for the unmarked?” Laoko asked, drawing her four swords.
“They’ve been cropping all over, unmarked or not,” Caera said, growled under her breath, and reared back like an angry cat. “Just kill them and keeping going.”
“Easier said than done!” The bat girl ran ahead and joined the other demons at the edge of the fog, cutting remnants down as they came. It looked easy enough. Demons were strong and remnants were weak, but as Ericia cut down a half dozen remnants in only a few seconds, a half dozen more appeared. Some walked in from the fog. Some climbed up out of the ground. All of them were free, not bound to Hell like they were supposed to be.
Laoko walked forward, and with military precision cut down each remnant that grew up around her hooves. Four swords did kind of make it easy, but required a level of ambidexterity that made David gawk. Two higher swords held out for emergencies, the two lower swords cut each remnant in half with a splatter, and she pushed forward, refusing to stop.
Daoka came up beside David, grinned at him, gestured at Laoko, and promptly cut down a remnant with her axe.
“Keep your brain on the task, Dao!” Jes yelled, coming up on his other side, Caera ahead of them. She traded a quick glance with David, including an annoyed eye roll.
Acelina scoffed, but kept her thoughts to herself. She moved to the back of the group and let the Las be her protection, like a squad of knights, or dogs, scurrying around her feet and squeaking as they cut down remnants growing underneath them. As long as the remnants didn’t get out of the ground, they were easy enough to handle. The moment they did, they moved like zombies, even groaned like zombies, and put the demons on edge.
David touched the strings inside him. Ow, ow. Nope, not doing that.
This was stupid. How the fuck was he supposed to be helpful if every time he made something happen with the strings, he hurt himself? And each time he did, it wasn’t really him that was manipulating Hell. It was whatever, or whoever, was in the vibrations listening to him that did. Hell herself, maybe, he couldn’t be sure, but it definitely wasn’t him.
He stabbed a remnant in the skull and pushed forward.
“They’re only remnants,” Laoko said. “Why they walk free, I do not know. Stay on your guard and continue on.” Only remnants, but the nervous look in every demon’s eyes told another story. They didn’t like zombies, true, but they also probably hadn’t seen remnants walking free, ever.
Continue on, they did. Their speed was cut in half, though, and frustrated growls joined the remnant screams. At least it was an easy fight with no danger. No pit to pull them into this time, and plenty of demons perfectly capable of slaughtering each remnant from all sides.
The issue wasn’t safety from the remnants. The issue was time.
A quiet, long, warm sound filled the distance, and Laoko threw up a hand. The group stopped. More remnants crawled up through the ground, from underneath tilted and cracked tombstones, and the endless swarms walked in from the fog like moths chasing flame. But a new noise had joined their moans.
“Uh, what’s that?” David asked.
The demons looked at each other, as if one of them might know, but no one did. The humming sound grew louder, until familiarity tingled up David’s spine, along with ice. That was a music horn.
Chaos erupted. The fog broke apart, split open by gold rays from above. Hell shook, tombstones cracked and fell on themselves, and the ones already broken on the ground shattered as more beams cut along the ground.
“Move!” Laoko yelled. “Spread out! Hide!”
An order for her crew, not for David and the girls. But they obeyed anyway. Caera ran at David, under him, and he grabbed her back spikes as she bolted around one of the golden beams. All the girls ran in random directions at first, but all turned, found Caera, and chased after her.
Another gold beam cut through the fog, split it, and exposed the burning sky above, and the white wings glowing gold.
“Angels!” Acelina yelled. That was enough. Every demon churned into a frenzy.
Half a dozen beams of gold, each five feet wide, zigzagged along the ground, and caught demons in their wake. A brute crashed into the ground, crushed by the beam, and exploded in a violent mist a second later. A gargoyle and her vrat friend screamed rage as another beam swung wildly and struck them from above. Other demons lost limbs, the death rays following random paths and hitting random things. Stones exploded. The ground burned. And remnants shrieked as they died by the hundreds.
Angels swooped in, and the fog parted around their wings. Each flap of white feathers exposed more of the burning sky, fog churning and twisting around the endless remnants, and the holy warriors of Heaven swung swords and stabbed spears through their bodies.
“The unmarked!” one angel yelled. “I knew it! Get him!”
Oh no. Not her.
A dozen pairs of wings flapped, dispersing the nearby fog entirely, and the White Lands became clear for all to see the battle. A dozen angelic weapons got to work, mowed a path through the remnants, and cut down the demons too slow to get out of the way. Four had spears with titanic shields. Four had swords and medium shields. Four had bows and arrows.
One set an arrow on David and fired. It whipped past his head, and a snap of pain told him it’d nicked his ear. The ground flew by underneath him, and only his grip on Caera’s spikes kept him from falling off.
“The angels want the unmarked as well?” Laoko asked, and she brandished her four swords at the closest one with a sword and shield. She crouched, aimed her head forward, and growled. Unlike the other demons, shrieking like banshees or roaring like tigers, she snarled with a quiet chuckle. “Azailia will want to see him for sure.”
Of all the reactions David expected from the demons when they realized angels were here to kill him, that was definitely not it. Give him over, or use him as a human shield, sure, but double down on fighting?
Moriah didn’t even bother negotiating, and dove for the biggest target: Laoko.
The angel collided with Laoko’s swords. The sound was deafening, metal on metal, and Laoko stumbled back from the impact, while the angel continued forward against her, flapping her wings. Laoko didn’t fall, and she brought her two lower swords up in an arc the angel had no choice but to jump back to avoid.