Chapter 185: Death

Harvey could feel the power growing in the inky black orb floating between Famine and Death. For a moment, he wondered whether the herald’s particular brand of apocalyptic death was just building a massive bomb. The essence swirled and condensed, growing even darker before thin strands broke away to impale the most intact corpses they could find. A spider web of death began lifting bodies into the air, filling them with unholy power that restored their flesh back to before Famine withered it away. Instead of spreading around the battlefield, the strands seemed to focus on the zone closest to Harvey. Not because of him, but because he guarded the shortest route to Heaven’s next lieutenant.

Even with the essence of all the remaining demons and a smattering of heavenly beasts, Death didn’t have enough power to imbue all of the bodies. Harvey picked out that the majority were minotaurs, along with a handful of Floodtusks and Cathedral Beetles. Almost none of the brimfiends, mortarhorns, and hellhounds rose up, apparently too weak for whatever Death had planned.

Lightning struck again, this time aimed at Famine. The Fulgur Phoenixes had tried to interrupt Death’s ritual and found themselves powerless for the first time in their short lives. Being holy lightning birds, he guessed there was at least some level of arrogance hidden within them. That question was swiftly answered as six of the fighter jet-sized birds swooped below the clouds and blasted Famine simultaneously. The horseman didn’t struggle as bolts vaporized his gaunt flesh. When the steam rising from the rain-soaked ground finally faded, they saw the third horseman lying dead on the ground.

“One left!” Celeste shouted. “We can do this!”

The rest of the angels all cheered, rallying for one last push even as some of the creatures they’d fought beside were being filled with unholy power. The phoenixes shared in Heaven’s exuberance, all screeching victoriously. Five returned to the safety of the storm clouds, while one proud bird chose to introduce Death to its claws.

Static gathered between long, silver feathers as six wings beat hard. Death’s eyes never left the ritual. A ball of inky darkness shot from the rapidly dwindling essence floating above his head, shooting even faster than the Phoenix and slamming into its head. Its wings slumped, sending the bird tumbling through the mud.

“Damn it! Please don’t get back up. Just stay down,” Harvey swore. His heart dropped as he saw silver feathers turning black while a tendril of essence joined the web.

“That had to cost him. We’ll let the other Phoenixes handle it!” Celeste encouraged, her face not hiding the fear her words tried to assuage.

Before anyone could argue, the ritual was complete. The web of deathly essence faded, drawing into the bodies of once dead minotaurs that now stood back on their own two feet. Their skin had gone gray, reminding him of the Revenant Prophet whose legacy now powered Harvey’s greatest weapon. The wounds that originally killed the beasts were still there, but didn’t seem to impede them much as they charged forward.

Angels began shooting once more, turning back to bullets after most had already spent their essence killing the creatures the first time. Harvey swore when he realized that instead of hitting a wall, the army was breaking right through where reanimated Cathedral Beetles had simply walked out of the way. The same creatures he’d failed to save from the ravenous hellhounds were now opening the door for Hell’s invasion.

“Hit them with everything you’ve got!” Celeste commanded, jumping down off the shell and desperately fighting to close the gap. A handful of Templars and Sentinels jumped down to join her, but it would take time they didn’t have for the squads strewn across the wall to converge on the stampede.

The minotaurs completely ignored them, charging straight for the silver gates. Heaven’s last line of defense could hold back a few, but dozens of heavy bulls slamming into it all at once toppled large swaths. The angels needed to follow, but found themselves being sprayed by razor jets of water coming from the Floodtusks. Celeste got blasted off her feet by a blast from the same one he’d mourned earlier, and she was about to get trampled before Tyler used Fast Break to dash over and pull her to safety. Cash landed beside them, healing her for as long as it took to stand up, since that was the longest she was willing to stay out of the fight.

Seeing his brother was safe for the moment, Harvey began hurling orbs of Heaven’s Wrath-filled Inkbound Ordnance as fast as he could fill them. He aimed for the Floodtusks, hoping that taking them out would help the angels put up a better response to the horde. Requiring actual drops of ink to work, the holy grenades were very essence efficient, but they still weren’t enough.

“Follow me! We have to protect the lieutenant!” Celeste screamed, beckoning the rest of the squad to jump down from the dead Marbleback’s shell. Nobody hesitated, leaving Adrian’s dead body behind as they slid down the slick marble. Harvey was the last to go, turning to see Death standing alone in a sea of bloody water. Satisfied that his work was done, the horseman turned and walked slowly back to Hell.

“Harvey!” Steve shouted.

Picking up Adrian’s body and placing it in his spatial ring, Harvey jumped off the shell and joined the chase.

The minotaurs knew exactly where they were going, making use of the same mirrored layout of Heaven and Hell that Harvey would use if he survived long enough to make his daring assassination attempt. Angels unloaded their rifles into the demons’ backs, culling a few while adding obstacles to their pursuit. Not quite fast enough to keep up on his own, Julius had floated Rupture back into Harvey’s hand so he could make use of the longer range.

None of the faithful roamed the empty streets, saving them from having to worry about friendly fire since the humans were all locked in their basements. Harvey did notice small groups of Helltaurs splitting off into the neighborhoods, and not long after, he felt the rumble of houses collapsing. Killing the faithful wouldn’t do much for Hell’s ultimate goals, but the chaos it caused could break Heaven’s spirit. This horde wasn’t strong enough to take down Heaven’s Commander, so the war wasn’t ending today, no matter what happened. Angels would die a lot faster if they lost a second lieutenant and unlocked even more essence for Hell to build their armies with, but actually closing out the trail would still take time.

The real problem was what happened when all the humans hiding in their basement bunkers came out and saw the aftermath of Heaven’s failure. It had happened before, considering the battlefield they usually fought on was covered with the remains of ruined homes and churches. How many times could it keep happening before humanity decided to ditch angel school and either die as martyrs or try to join up with the demons?

Harvey knew how important the lieutenant's life was, but his heart still ached to leave the squad behind and start clearing out the monsters who’d rather murder innocent families than work to win the war. He had no idea if the Helltaurs would actually fight their way into those basements, but he’d hate to be the one stuck inside one.

“We’re going to run right by our neighborhood,” Steve fretted.

“And Hell better pray they’re smart enough to leave it alone,” Harvey growled.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

His worst fears were realized when 6 minotaurs broke off from the pack and charged into their neighborhood. The three of them didn’t hesitate, sprinting after the axe-wielding abominations. Harvey spared a glance at Celeste, who gave a somber nod before continuing her relentless assault.

The pack split the second they passed the cinderblock walls, each Helltaur charging up one of the freshly-cut lawns and crashing into garages and living rooms. He could feel the fear of the hiding families through his aura, and heard a young girl screaming from the house next door. It was muffled enough that he convinced himself she was safe in the basement, stemming the guilt as he ignored the minotaur to chase after the one moving towards his own home. His family had been assigned to a house nestled deeper inside the neighborhood, meaning they should be safe from the first wave. Somewhere in the back of his head, a voice was telling him that meant he should run through one of the minotaur-shaped holes in the wall and start blasting, but another voice – one he could actually hear – had something else to say.

[Your family comes first. Doesn't matter if it's a fire or a monster.]

Steve and Tyler seemed to agree, the three of them sprinting up their own driveway to set a perimeter around the house. A Helltaur burst through their neighbors' side wall, proving they weren’t being very thorough with their destruction. Harvey ruthlessly clamped down on it with his aura, hoping to turn the beast’s attention on him instead of the neighborhood. When he saw its lifeless eyes turn his way, he did the same with the rest of the minotaurs he could reach with his prodigious Willpower.

“Stay behind me. More are coming,” Harvey commanded as he trudged forward, tossing Rupture above his head and imbuing it with Awakened Armament before racking his shotgun.

Cerulean flames geysered out of the hole he blasted in the minotaur’s chest. Harvey didn’t know how exactly the resonances of Death and Undeath would interact, but he figured testing out his Prophet’s Suffering slugs was worth a shot. Black blood stained the mottled flesh around the wound, but the thanefire didn’t burn the blood like it did when the Helltaurs were alive. He managed to get off a Heaven’s Wrath slug before he was forced to dive out of the way of an axe swing. Normally, the slugs were enough to stagger them, but the reanimated corpse didn’t seem to care at all. He could see inky black mist leaking from the wounds and had already watched dozens of them die, but it looked like they’d keep fighting until Death’s remnant power ran out.

The axe took a chunk of lawn with it as it was ripped out of the ground, spraying dirt in a wide arc as it slashed towards him. Instead of boosting out of reach, he covered himself in Fangburner and tackled the minotaur. He needed some extra help from his movement skill to handle the weight, but figured coating the thing in forgefire would burn through essence faster than a few shotgun shells.

The pair slid through the wet grass and thudded against the wall of the house. The Helltaur pounded on his back as he struggled to rack his gun and force the barrel up under its jaw. Recognizing the threat, the beast pulled him into a bear hug and pinned the gun between them. It wasn’t pointed at any vitals, but a blast this close would still hurt no matter where it hit.

“Ahh!” A woman’s scream came through an air vent he hadn’t seen in the wall.

“Mom?” Harvey groaned as he was forced to endure the same golden flames as the minotaur.

“Who’s there?” Cassandra’s voice came louder.

“Harvey,” he wheezed, his voice hoarse after taking so many hits to his back. The armor helped, but the minotaurs were strong.

[Just shoot it next time, don’t try and get fancy.]

“What’s going on? Are you ok?” Cassandra asked.

“Don’t you dare open that door,” he replied as he pushed himself off the furry chest of the dead-again Helltaur. “We’ll come get you when it’s safe.”

Harvey walked back to the front of the house to see Steve and Tyler holding off a second Helltaur while his floating revolver pumped it full of silver. Tyler’s strength and dexterity were ramping up as he used Reckless Assault and Fast Break to get in the occasional hit, but he was still barely F-Grade. Steve had learned his lesson, using his chains to tie up the minotaur’s legs and severing them before they could be used to toss him away. His Father’s Vigil skill seemed to increase the amount of deathly essence streaming out of the minotaur's wounds, a likely side effect of the holy resonance he was flooding the area with. Whenever it looked like Tyler was about to get caught by the axe, a golden shield sprang up to intercept. It couldn’t stop the axe completely, but it slowed it down enough for Tyler to dash out of the way.

Killing the minotaur would be a long and arduous task for them, but they were holding up well enough for him to turn his sights on a third that had come to inspect the source of the powerful aura bearing down on it. Harvey decided to try something new, pouring most of his remaining essence into conjuring a copy of his shotgun with Innovator’s Arsenal, infusing it with Architect of the Veils End to ensure it was as lethal as possible. If the projection of Rupture was a small cannon, this looked like a railgun. He used the rest of his essence to conjure an Imprint-infused Heaven’s Wrath shell and pulled the trigger.

The glimmering barrel looked like an erupting volcano, the gas released by the exploding Hellpowder distorting the air. Glass rained down from the front windows after the shockwave passed through them. The silver slug bore a hole through the minotaur’s chest large enough to pass a basketball through. He watched it punch right through the asphalt, tearing up the street before grinding to a halt.

The Helltaur, even with the death-defying energy coursing through its veins, fell to its knees.

Harvey felt like he could barely breathe, so devoid of essence that he could barely maintain his connection to Rupture. A potion appeared in his hand, and he hurriedly tipped it into his mouth. His weave screamed in complaint as it was forced to endure a second surge of power spreading through its exhausted channels. He felt a mind-splitting headache waiting to pounce, like a brain freeze waiting on the other side of one more bite of ice cream.

“Gah,” he winced, shaking his head to force the feeling away.

[That was awesome.]

Harvey stood his ground as two more minotaurs burst out of half-destroyed homes to accept their fate. Steve and Tyler finished off theirs, leaving one final monster still ravaging their neighborhood. Harvey could sense it with his aura, but no matter how hard he tried to lure it out, the beast wouldn’t come.

“You go,” Steve panted. “We’ll watch the house.”

Harvey reluctantly nodded, jogging towards the aura he felt in the distance. He found the house collapsed in on itself, with a pile of rubble tossed aside where something had dug out a staircase.

“Oh no. Oh no, no, no, no, no!” Harvey begged as he ran towards the hole. The stairwell was full of dirt and debris, leading up to a Helltaur with his axe buried in the thick metal door. It was struggling to yank the blade out, and when it finally ripped free, he saw it was covered in blood.

“NO!” he screamed. “Whoever’s down there, get away from the door!”

The massive projection of his shotgun couldn’t get a clean shot down the crowded stairwell, so he let it dissipate. With every step, he shot another slug. Every one infused with his legacy. By the time he reached the bottom, the minotaur was slumped against the wall. Straining to pick it up, he placed the body inside his spatial ring and started pounding on the door.

“Hello! My name is Harvey Thorne! My family lives just down the street. Are you ok? Please tell me you’re ok!”

He was relieved to see his shells hadn’t punched all the way through the minotaur’s body. If they’d made it through the door, whoever’s blood was pooling under the doorframe might have been on his hands. If the source was just a cut from the axe, he might be able to heal them in time.

“Stay… away,” a man coughed weakly. “From my family.”

“What? I’m here to help, god damn it!” Harvey panicked as he began ramming the door. When it didn’t budge, he tried to find a way to heal him from the other side. The gash in the steel wasn’t wide enough to pass a potion through, but what about healing mist? Harvey conjured an empty orb with Inkbound Ordnance and filled it with Healing Ink and his Guardian of the Gilded Return Imprint, then smashed it against the crack. Most of the healing mist stayed on his side, alleviating the pain of the day’s many hard-fought battles, but some managed to filter into the room.

“Daddy?” a young girl cried out before someone covered her mouth.

Harvey prayed to hear him cough. Feel him move through the door. Something!

He conjured another orb, trying to punch it right through the metal. Healing mist enveloped him once more, but all his fist managed to do was plug the hole.

“Let! Me! In!” Harvey screamed, punctuating each word with a kick. Eventually, the door bent just enough that it squealed open, pushing aside the body of a man not much older than him. He’d fallen face down into a pool of his own blood, not moving a muscle.

“Daddy!” the girl screamed, fighting free of her mother’s arms to rush towards her father.

“Samantha!” her mother yelped, snatching her back and cowering in the corner.

Harvey knelt down and flipped the man over, pouring a health potion into his mouth. Tears fell like rain from all three of their faces as they waited with bated breath, but the man never stirred.

“No…” Harvey cried.