Chapter 195: Hallelujah

Harvey expected a hundred skills to be launched their way and prepared to activate Legacy’s Redoubt once more. When they never came, he remembered just how good their disguises were. Cash and Celeste both fit the part of attractive demons, and nobody was going to care much about three sinners standing beside them. They did know there had to be an angel somewhere after the aura masking jewelry failed to conceal Cash’s use of his healing skill, but nobody had figured out it was them just yet. Harvey debated whether they should try and slink away, but decided that running from the chaos would look suspicious. Even if they weren’t killed, there was no way the hundreds of demon soldiers would just let them walk out of the building. At best, they’d be detained and given a chance to try and talk their way out. Hell probably couldn’t devote too many resources to keeping them detained once morning came and they had their first fair fight in weeks on their hands, but all it would take to blow their cover was some greedy demon confiscating either of Cash or Celeste’s rings.

[They think we’re demons, so let’s cause a little chaos,] Julius suggested.

Harvey wholeheartedly agreed, conjuring a Shattersmite core in each hand and hurling them into the crowd. Steve didn’t hesitate to follow his son’s lead, activating his Father’s Vigil skill to bathe the closest demons in divine light. Like the Ophanim the skill tried to replicate, the light attacked the demons' innate infernal resonance, making them vulnerable to the inferno of Heavenly Wrath bursting out of every shard of shrapnel. At G-Grade, the skill wasn’t too effective at impeding the resistances of F-Grade demons, but the sheer presence of holy resonance inside their den of iniquity shocked them enough to let their group dart into the crowd.

Screams filled the room as both cores exploded, the shockwave toppling slot machines on top of the demons still sitting in front of them. Fire and metal carved wounds into everyone within 20 feet of the blast, but only killed those closest to the epicenter. Luckily, the goal wasn’t killing demons. It was causing chaos. Harvey threw two more cores as Steve cut off his skill. Instead of giving them a holy beacon to follow, he spent his essence conjuring chains that he used to topple slots and table games behind them. Tyler took the lead, batting aside any demon standing in their way while building up momentum with Relentless Assault. Cash and Celeste couldn’t use their skills without outing themselves, but their weapons still worked just fine. Cash unloaded mag after mag from his Desert Eagle into the crowd, adding to the chaos of screams, cries, and gunshots. Celeste slit any throat she could find without wasting any time finishing the job. The evolved demons would survive the scattered blows, but seeing demons shooting and stabbing other demons began the world’s largest drunken barfight.

A stampede erupted on the casino floor, with fireballs, clouds of poison mist, summoned beasts, swords, and gunfire flying everywhere. The anarchic crush would’ve been even harder to run through if not for Tyler’s building power. He was becoming a monster of a man, his bat soaked in blood as he cracked skulls and shattered spines. The occasional fireball that came their way was batted back with Contact Hitter, gaining power from his essence before exploding in the caster’s face. No longer resonating with Heaven’s holy influence after evolving, the skill gave no indication that their group was anything other than a squad of demons trying to survive the carnage. Harvey continued tossing Shattersmite Cores in hopes that the errant bursts of holy power would keep everyone looking for angels dressed in white, then drank an essence potion when his reserves started getting low.

“There!” Celeste shouted as they rounded a corner, pointing to a bay of sliding glass doors leading outside. Over a dozen demons clad in what Harvey now recognized as the garb of security guards were blocking the exit, choosing to keep the chaos contained rather than try and stop it themselves.

“Do we try to push past them?” Cash asked as he put a bullet between the eyes of a sinner that got too close.

“We still have an hour and a half until the wall comes down!” Harvey reminded them. He’d let dinner drag on as long as he could, but they couldn’t get back to Heaven just yet. What that meant for their current plans, he didn’t know, but it was something they had to consider.

“That just means we’ve got time to soften them up,” Tyler said as he leaped into the air. F-Grade Strength let him get a clear view from above the crowd, and Harvey watched in amazement as every ounce of momentum in his brother’s body began arcing across his skin. In an instant, it all rushed down his arm and into his silver bat, which he pointed at the guards blocking the door like a wand. A deafening crack was followed by a flash of blinding light as lightning infused with his Gathering Storm Imprint shot towards the demon. The force was enough to send him flying through the glass door, shattering it into a thousand tiny pieces. Before Harvey could fully process what he’d seen, Tyler was back on the ground, pummeling a drunken demon with the help of his two silver teammates conjured with his Championship Dynasty skill.

Harvey watched two of the security guards step through the glass to tend to their friend who was seizing on the ground. Through his suit, Harvey could see the muscular man’s leg muscles contracting involuntarily. Seeing the gap, one of the human cocktail waitresses who’d been hiding under a blackjack table made a break for the door. Instead of turning her away or letting her leave, the demon conjured a grotesque sword of what looked like crystallized blood and impaled her. Hoisting her body high into the air, he screamed, “Nobody leaves! Find the angels!”

Harvey worried that Tyler’s first use of Fulmination had just closed this exit for good, but the harrowing display actually managed to turn the ire of the masses against the guards. Hell’s infernal nature of self-serving desire meant getting locked down in a life-or-death struggle by your own people was unconscionable. Instead of searching for the angels in their midst, the crowd turned on the guards and stampeded out of the building. Harvey and the others followed, joining the tidal wave of flesh the guards couldn't hold back.

Finally back under the moonlight, Harvey rose into the air with Booster and threw a pair of Shattersmite Cores into the crowd rushing out the doors, targeting the pillars holding up the wall. The explosions damaged them enough for the wall above the exit to collapse, burying a dozen demons in the rubble to create a wall of flesh and stone that would slow down any reinforcements. The others took the opportunity to unleash every skill they had at the other demons who’d managed to make it outside. None had escaped unscathed, allowing Tyler and Celeste to cut them down much faster than if they fought a coordinated battle while at full-strength. Harvey started blasting from the sky, letting Julius control Rupture while he blasted slug after slug out of Cataclysm’s freshly repaired barrel. A burst of healing from the arrays inscribed in the stock mended the incidental wounds he’d suffered in the fray, and Fangburner shields helped protect him from taking more damage. Demons fell every second, but there were too many to kill them all before those trapped inside the Golden Calf started digging their way out.

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“Run!” Harvey shouted as he raced back to the ground and started sprinting towards the sunlight far in the distance. He had no idea where he was or where to go, but the perfect split between day and night hanging over Heaven and Hell at least gave him a general direction. Tyler unleashed one more blast with Fulmination, this time aimed at the side of the hotel itself. The lightning bolt blasted a chunk out of the wall, causing three more floors to collapse onto the path below. His silver doppelgangers covered their retreat while the five of them sprinted down an empty street. Celeste struggled to keep up in her heels, so she tossed them aside and ran barefoot, not caring about any errant needles or shards of glass slicing her open. A handful of demons ran after them, but instead of following as they made one turn after another, they all went their separate ways. Drunk, tired, and bleeding, it appeared those who’d made it out cared more about running home than following the five of them.

It only took 20 minutes for them to find the wall of gluthogs marking Hell’s border, and they darted into an abandoned apartment building. Finding a relatively intact room, they all hurried to change out of their disguises and put their armor on. Harvey relished the sense of Endurance and Vitality returning to him as his weave settled into the silver plate mail. He didn’t feel whole without it, and despite his dwindling essence reserves and minor injuries, he felt like he could take on the world. Steve and Tyler didn’t get the same benefits that came from Soul Forge, but he could tell they felt the same as they were strapped into their own armor.

“You know? I actually like this suit,” Cash remarked as he stripped out of the now bloody and torn cloth and pulled his white robe over his head.

“Good for you. I’m never wearing a dress like this again,” Celeste groaned.

[Ha! Sucks for you,] Julius chuckled.

“We actually did it! I can’t believe we did it!” Steve added, not caring about the angels' fashion concerns.

“Shh,” Harvey whispered. “Don’t be too loud. They’re going to come searching for us.”

“Let them come,” Tyler laughed. “We’ll just kill them too!”

Harvey rolled his eyes and looked out the window. He couldn’t actually see the main road, only the dirty, narrow hallway leading to the other rows of apartments. They’d snuck through a metal gate, and he was watching it intently to make sure no demons followed them in. Glancing at his watch, they had just under an hour until the wall came down and they could run back to Heaven.

Letting out a deep breath, radiance burst out of his weave. Tyler’s did the same, as both enjoyed another burst of levels from all the chaos they’d created. Harvey didn’t know exactly how the System handled the essence generated from kills where he’d only caused minor wounds and left long before the lethal blow was struck, but based on the number of kill notifications he received, he’d gotten at least partial credit for dozens of deaths. Sure, his Shattersmite Cores packed a punch – they were essentially cannonball-sized holy hand grenades – but demons close to the peak of F-Grade were hard to kill. They’d focused on spreading their damage around rather than landing killing blows, but it had still been enough to net him two Class levels and one Race level.

The process was painful, especially after everything he’d gained the day before, but Harvey stayed on his feet. Tyler, on the other hand, fell to his knees, clutching his head as he stifled a scream. When the light finally receded, he sat taking heavy breaths.

“At least you didn’t pass out this time,” Harvey said.

The fact his brother couldn’t choke out even a simple comeback showed just how strained his weave really was.

“How many levels?” Steve asked.

“Three,” Tyler gasped.

“That puts your Class at Level 40, right? And your Race too I guess since you don’t have a Profession,” Celeste mused.

Tyler just nodded, and Cash added, “I can’t believe you got your Class to Level 40 in just over a week.”

It was terrifyingly fast, but it came as the reward for fighting evolved beings from the start. Harvey doubted anyone on Earth could replicate his brother’s ascension speed. He was proud of him, but hoped they could slow down a little once things settled on the war front. Phil had shared some important information with him during their dinner at the Slaughterhouse. Information he needed to use if he was going to survive once they made it back to Earth.

The angels and demons couldn’t evolve to E-Grade until the trial ended. He was sure most already had the levels, legacy, and evolved weave needed to take that step, but the System was holding them back. Harvey and Tyler were doing fine when it came to levels and more than sufficient when it came to Legacy, but he hadn’t even begun anointing himself to evolve his weave. If he wanted to avoid being subjugated by a horde of freshly E-Grade angels the second they set foot on the planet, he had to make sure both he and Tyler were ready to evolve by the time they got back.

“Every day I wish more and more that I would’ve just evolved back then,” Steve sighed as he helped his son to his feet.

“Don’t worry about it. We have time now,” Harvey replied.

“How sure are we that killing one lieutenant is going to be enough? The demons killed one of ours just fine without any advantage,” Steve asked.

“I’m hoping we can kill two,” Celeste answered. “You saw them. The demons have gone soft. Gotten comfortable after weeks of waiting around for us to die. I’ll bet every last shred of merit I have that all of Hell is going to be hungover tomorrow. If we can convince the Commander to send every angel we’ve got at the second lieutenant, we can take the advantage for ourselves.”

They all huddled quietly in the cramped apartment until midnight finally came. Carefully, they made their way back to the gate. Harvey winced when its rusted hinges groaned loudly, catching the attention of a small squad of demons standing down the street.

“Hey! Identify yourselves!” the man shouted.

Instead of answering, Harvey burst out of the gate and sprinted towards a gap where the withered flesh of a starving gluthog gave way to the empty battlefield. Gunshots rang out behind them as they ran, but with their armor on and Steve’s conjured shield, they were able to make a break for it before the group could catch up. Harvey ran harder than he ever had before, his legs cramping as he finally crossed back into the sunlight. They didn’t stop until they reached the gate. The angels standing guard looked confused at their black wings, but stood down when one pointed out Celeste. Sure that they wouldn’t be rewarded for their success by a sniper bullet to the head, they burst through the gates and let out cries of relief. Even Celeste, the stoic captain of Heaven’s army, raised up to lead legions of angels since she was 15 years old, had tears in her eyes as she tore off her helmet.

“Hallelujah,” Cash celebrated.

“Hallelujah,” Harvey agreed.

“Let’s go wake up the Commander,” Celeste said. “This news can’t wait til morning.”