Chapter 197: Morning After

Harvey sprinted down an alleyway, nearly tripping over a loose manhole cover as he blasted his shotgun behind him. He’d been running for hours, desperately trying to escape the horde of black-eyed demons chasing after him. Instead of bleeding wounds sprouting where his holy inscribed slugs penetrated their chests, their bodies disappeared in a puff of shadows that simply reformed near the back of the pack. They were endless, but so was he. His essence reserves were never depleted as he conjured shell after shell with echo forge, allowing him to avoid being overrun while he scrambled through the decrepit city streets. His only problem was that his gun was starting to warp after firing thousands of rounds. He’d already used his burst self-repair array to fix it the first time the barrel started melting, but the gun was going to explode before he could activate it again. Just as he was about to switch from Cataclysm to Rupture, the eternal night began to fade. Black turned to gray, and then streaks of gold began piercing through the clouds. A chorus of angels sang from on high, guiding him out of the city. Harvey nearly cried in relief as he found himself being lifted into the sky, cradled by an inescapable yet loving authority. He gave into the light, only to feel it snaking around his neck. He felt himself rise above the clouds right before he passed out from lack of oxygen, where a host of angels with shining silver eyes were chanting an increasingly haunting melody.

Harvey shot up in his bed, his hair matted to his scalp as sweat dripped down his face. He thrashed back and forth to free himself of the plush comforter, pulling his shotgun out from his ring as he stood. Looking in the mirror hanging above the dresser beside him, he saw himself standing in an empty room, wearing nothing but his boxer shorts. The chorus of angels that had pulled him from his nightmare was coming through a speaker embedded in the wall, slowly growing louder. He half expected the horde of shadow demons to burst through the door and prepared to blast it off its hinges, but all was still.

[Morning, cowboy] Julius chimed in his head. [You alright?]

Forcing his heart to calm, he put the gun back in his ring and darted over to the bathroom to wash his face. Taking a quick shower would be better, but considering someone else had set the alarm for him, he guessed that he really didn’t have the time.

[That was some nightmare. Guess your psyche didn’t come out of your trip to Hell as unscathed as you thought]

They hadn’t had much time to think since returning home the night before, all crashing into the closest bed the second they knew they were safe. The assassination had gone better than any of them could’ve expected, but all the stress they’d built up after an entire day of hiding in plain sight and the chaos caused by their departure would’ve torn the old Harvey’s mind to ribbons. The fact he’d kept a straight face throughout the entire poker tournament and not given himself away was a miracle in and of itself, and he’d be sending prayers of gratitude up on high if he hadn’t just woken up from dreams of getting strangled by an angel.

Getting dressed, Harvey left his bedroom to find the song blasting throughout the entire house, waking everyone at the ungodly hour of 5 AM.

“I hate this song,” Cash moaned as he tried covering his ears with a pillow.

“He just had to use the same one from the academy,” Celeste griped as she walked out of her own room, her hair a frazzled mess.

Steve was quick to join them, but Tyler was nowhere to be found. When the angels gave him a questioning look, he said, “Teenagers. They can sleep through an earthquake if it's early enough.”

Choosing to test his theory, Harvey walked in and began violently shaking the bed. Tyler was an expert at pretending to still be asleep, but the master would never be fooled by his student.

“Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up,” Harvey droned as he started beating his brother with the pillow.

“Dude! Stop,” Tyler hissed, trying to catch the fluffy weapon before Harvey could smack him again. “ If Dad still thinks I’m asleep when the alarm stops, he might leave me alone.”

“Get up. Get up. Get up,” Harvey continued, snickering when his brother’s leg darted out to kick him in the thigh. Tyler was strong and leveling fast, but Harvey still had the edge when it came to Vitality. When he tried to kick a second time, Harvey dodged out of the way and let the kick’s momentum send Tyler spilling out of the bed.

“You suck,” Tyler complained.

Harvey left him with one last, “Get up,” before walking back to his own bathroom and brushing his teeth. The singing didn’t stop for 10 whole minutes, growing louder and louder until Harvey could barely hear the faucet over the hymns. Nobody was sleeping through this. When it finally stopped, he found the others put together enough to leave the Suite. Assuming the angels knew where to go, Harvey followed them through the mansion, where they met the Commander sitting at the head of a long wooden table inside a conference room they hadn’t seen the night before. On either side were three projections of angels Harvey had never seen before. At least he assumed they were projections, given that all three were made purely of golden light. There was an empty seat beside them, making Harvey assume these were the surviving lieutenants who were unable to leave their nodes without surrendering more essence to Hell’s war machine. Further down were mostly filled chairs with nameplates stating they were reserved for the Captains. Celeste moved to take her seat at an empty spot with her own name on it, and the four of them stood awkwardly behind her.

“Cash? What are you doing here?” Another angel asked.

“Got tired of sitting at the kids' table,” he joked, smiling wide and patting the other woman on the shoulder.

“Since when are civilians allowed in these meetings?” another man asked.

“I’ll explain their presence when the others arrive. I swear if they slept in again…” the commander seethed. “You think I like hearing that song for the first 10 minutes of my day? No! But when I only had it set for 5, I had to spend the first half-hour waking you all up!”

“Is this where you live?” Harvey whispered to Celeste.

“No, but our barracks is a few buildings over,” she replied.

Eventually, all of the seats were filled, and Brutus got to his feet.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Good morning,” he announced, nodding to each side of the long table. “I’d like to hope most of you have already checked your notifications, but if you haven’t, I’m proud to announce that one of Hell’s lieutenants is dead.”

Murmurs quickly devolved into an uproar as sleepy-eyed Captains who’d clearly not sifted through their notifications yet all scrambled to verify that was true. As a dozen voices clamored to ask how that was possible, Brutus silenced them all. “The reason we have Cash, Harvey, Tyler, and Steve joining us today is because they were the ones to help Celeste accomplish this unexpected feat.”

Harvey was prepared to let Celeste take credit for the mission since she had been the one to separate the man’s head from his neck, and he doubted Heaven was ready to stoop so low as to thank a trio of humans, but Celeste interrupted the roar of applause to say, “Don’t thank me. It was the Thorne family that made this all possible.”

“Who?” the same angel who asked why they were there asked.

“Them, Dante!” Cash replied exasperatedly, waving at the three standing behind Celeste. “Context clues!”

“Not just them. Our disguises wouldn’t have looked half as good without Cassandra, Eleanor, and Mackenzie’s help,” Celeste added.

Before the conversation could steer any farther off track, Brutus exclaimed, “Then we will thank them as well. Before you all waste time asking how this happened, these five made a daring incursion into Hell over the day of rest, finding and killing one of their lieutenants before escaping back to our side. Don’t ask me how a plan like that actually worked because I don’t know, and even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you. I can’t say that I’m not grateful, but I also can’t condone taking risks like that ever again. So, here is my proposal.”

Brutus paused, but everyone else was too stunned to speak as they stared at Celeste and Cash, seemingly noticing their black wings for the first time.

“Celeste, I’d like to offer you the vacant lieutenant position once we make it planetside. Cash, you can take her place as Captain if you want it. I can’t make the promotion now without answering a thousand questions as to why, and these promotions are contingent on you both not spreading the details of how you killed Hell’s lieutenant. Doing so here in the trial wouldn’t mean much anyway since the lieutenant role coincides with the nodes themselves, and we can’t just promote someone to replace the node we already lost,” Brutus explained.

Harvey thought about it and decided it was a fitting reward. He was a little miffed that they couldn’t walk around gloating about their miraculous success, but he could see why Brutus wouldn’t want to encourage angels to sneak off and make ill-advised assassination attempts.

“Thank you, Commander. If you want me to earn the title publicly, let me lead the charge to take down a second lieutenant today,” she proposed. That caused a second uproar around the conference table, and Harvey could see the flash of annoyance on Brutus’ face as he calmed everyone back down.

“An inspired idea, but one that still requires more discussion,” he replied. “I also don’t want to forget the others who helped turn the tides of our war, but I hesitate to presume what kind of reward you three would want. What can Heaven provide to reward you?”

Harvey pondered. He didn’t want any sort of command or place in Heaven’s ranks, but his skill set meant that any equipment he used had to be made by him. He could ask for expensive metals or ink materials, but that was hard when he didn’t know what kind of materials they had access to. Biting his lip, an idea shot down to his lips like a lightning strike, already coming out before he had time to think it over.

“Materials to evolve our weaves,” he blurted.

“Resonating materials that match their Classes and Professions, not just simple anointing oils,” Cash added, seeing where Harvey was going.

Harvey had already decided that he and his family needed to be ready to evolve before they made it back to Earth thanks to the information he’d learned chatting with Phil before he put a pair of bullets in the back of his head, and getting their weaves to E-Grade was the biggest hurdle in making that happen. If Heaven could provide high-quality, resonance-dense materials and the expertise to make the oil and serviceable patterns to paint themselves with, they’d clear their biggest roadblock to progressing.

Brutus mulled it over for a second before asking, “That can probably be arranged. What kind of resonances are you looking for? If we can summon beasts that will work for you, we can provide their bodies after they die.”

Anointment oil wasn’t always made from beast corpses. It was usually better to use natural treasures found growing in areas rich in the resonance you were looking for. Those treasures were growing all over the planet as they spoke, gathering essence while humanity was whisked away to one of the many trials deciding who got the chance to fight for ultimate control of the planet. If you couldn’t get your hands on those natural treasures, most used herbs, ores, and other components that weren’t as powerful but could be harvested in greater supply. Beast bodies were a mix between the two, powerful and full of essence but with resonance that wasn’t as pure as non-sapient natural treasures. Luckily, their performance here in the trial should net them the best of the best Heaven’s foundries had to offer.

“Tyler wants enough oil made from Fulgur Phoenixes to get him to E-Grade, and Steve wants the same with Ophanim,” Cash volunteered. The phoenixes would be perfect for Tyler, especially after playing such a large part in his Gathering Storm Imprint and Fulmination skill. Harvey was less enthused about the Ophanim, but figured Cash knew what he was talking about. His father was going all in on the holy resonance, so creatures meant to spread Heaven’s light to everything they saw were probably a great fit.

“Harvey… I don’t actually know,” Cash continued, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Me neither, but I’m sure we can find something as long as someone can go over my options with me,” Harvey agreed.

“The Ophanim is doable, but the Phoenixes…” Brutus wavered.

“Oh come on,” Celeste complained. “We know you recovered one already since we walked right by where it died on our way out Saturday night. We’ll get the rest once the three fighting with us today finish serving their purpose.”

“There are other things we can use those feathers for,” Brutus countered.

“None of which would matter without Tyler giving us the chance to fight on our own terms,” Celeste pressed.

You could hear a pin drop as the conference room went silent. Brutus didn’t look happy as he glared at Celeste. Harvey didn’t know if pressuring him so publicly was the right move, but he wasn’t going to draw the man’s ire onto himself.

“Fine. We’ll make it happen,” Brutus agreed. “Now, it’s time we decide our next move.”

Harvey, Steve, and Tyler all faded into the background as the group argued whether to push their advantage or use their equalized allotment of daily essence to rest and recover. Harvey expected the majority to side with Brutus in his desire to pull back, but most of the younger Captains were eager to twist the knife after Hell’s surprise setback, especially when Cash and Celeste shared how hungover and unprepared the demons were. Hearing that a few attacks from disguised angels were enough to turn the whole Casino into a bloodbath was enough to prove Hell’s lack of discipline, and Heaven voted to capitalize while they could.

With that settled, the Captains were dismissed to prepare their soldiers while Brutus and the lieutenants began conjuring the day’s army of divine beasts with their newly boosted essence reserves. Celeste was beaming as they walked to the teleporter and returned to the church building nestled inside Harvey’s neighborhood.

“Congratulations, lieutenant,” Harvey smiled as they walked back into the open air.

“Not yet,” she corrected. “We still have to win the war first.”

“We will,” Harvey assured. “Especially since you convinced the Commander to send everything we’ve got to take down a second lieutenant.”

“Nobody is going to congratulate me on becoming a Captain?” Cash asked.

“Do you even want to be one? I kind of got the vibe that you enjoyed staying out of the chain of command,” Harvey asked.

“Nope. I just didn’t have the heart to say that in front of everyone,” Cash laughed.

“What do you want for your reward?” Celeste asked. “I can probably get it for you.”

“Harvey’s already going to make me my own set of armor. Maybe I could get a rifle with a lifetime supply of bullets? A gold one to match my handgun,” Cash replied.