Daystar (2 page)

Andy led the undead: the wraiths, hellhounds, vampires, and gorgons.
 
He ran into the fray of humans and vampires.
 
He threw out his hands and the humans aged and grew weak, falling easy prey to Lilliam.
 
His body cast unusual shadows on the snow and ice; the air around him became stagnant.
 
He pulled out his morning star and leapt into a knot of humans.
 
He swung, knocking men and women down, but there were more, many more.

Berith ran left with Apple and her brother, Prince Grendel.
 
The trio led ogres and trolls, focusing their attack on the low-flying fire breathers that followed Michael’s lead.
 
The Lilliam launched bolts and spears into the sky, interrupting their dives and attacks.
 

Berith’s skin turned to metal, hard and frictionless.
 
He reflected the light of the moon.
 
He jumped into the air and used his body as a projectile to slam into angels.

Apple desired to watch him, but she had other duties to attend to.
 
She tracked the battle and oversaw her Lilliam soldiers.
 
She called out orders and blew on her battle horn to communicate with all three of her battalions.

Belial stormed over the remaining third of the ice.
 
She raced across the ground, glowing brighter than the snow.
 
She screamed at angels in the sky, calling forth dissonance, despair, and madness.
 
Her voice sent shockers into spasms of pain.
 
The stunned two-winged angels fell towards the earth in droves.
 
Ice elementals and sylphs rushed in to snatch Gabriel’s pendants from their necks.
 
Without those, the angels were vulnerable.

Belial watched her team attack with cold efficiency.
 
Celeste stayed by her side.
 
The girl’s eyes were red.
 
She was consumed with berserker rage.
 
The pair threw themselves at the angels that fell within their reach.

***

Dahlia reached the edge of the crater and jumped.
 
She slid into the viscous fluid, sending a wave of the material across the surface.
 
The goo coated her arms and legs.
 
She flashed her eyes the heavens and buried her weapon in the muck.
 
She sank to her knees in the fluid and waited.

Lucifer skidded to a stop at the boundary between the ice and hellish substance.
 
He whirled and swung his bat.
 
He struck an angel that had drawn too close, a breather.
 
The creature tumbled end over end.
 
The angel’s pendant flashed, protecting it from physical harm, but not preventing the force of the blow.
 
Lucifer grinned.
 
He cracked the bat across another, knocking it back.
 
The angels shook off the bone shaking reverberations and wheeled around, relentless.

***

Clouds formed in the clear night sky.
 
Lightning and thunder filled the air.
 
Uriel’s shockers wove the electricity, doubling the power between them.
 
Uriel reveled in the sensation.
 
He focused his four prismatic wings and sucked in energy from the storm.
 
His subordinate angels followed his lead and charged with lightning.

Uriel called it forth, willing a bolt upon the Lilliam fighting force below.
 
He raised his hand and threw.
 

Nothing happened.
 

He stared at his hand, then at the clouds around him.
 
Electricity snapped in the air, an unreleased force, but it would not respond to his summons.
 
“What is this?”

Paimon and Furcas soared by Uriel, heading upwards.
 
Paimon sneered at the Archangel.
 
“
Denied!
”
 

“Storms are
mine!
”
 
Furcas grinned and shoved Uriel aside with a punishing torrent of wind and water.
 
Clouds rolled in, low and thick, but the pair did not dally to take him on.
 
They ascended.
 
Their goal the machine beyond the shield.

Uriel screamed in rage, but did not give chase.
 
He had orders to remain close to the ground.
 
His focus was supposed to be on the fight below, his purpose to back up Michael.
 
He snarled at his angels.
 
Denied lightning, they drew their heaven-forged swords.
 

Uriel swept his eyes across the battlefield.
 
He spotted Belial, his eyes widened.
 
He forgot his orders and dove for her.
 
“Belial!”

Belial looked up.
 
She bared her teeth.
 
“I see you are back for more, Uriel!”
 
She raised her arms and screeched.
 
The sound hit the angels between her and Uriel like a wave.
 
They tumbled, vomiting blood.

Sylphs, invisible as the air itself, took the angels’ daze as an opportunity.
 
They swooped in and snatched at pendants, ripping them from the angels’ bodies.
 
They darted away before they were noticed.

Jacob blasted between angels and focused on his task.
 
He whistled to the other sylphs, keeping them in formation.
 
The sylphs spoke in chirps and blasts of cold air.
 
Pendants hung from their hands by the dozens, but there were countless angels in the sky.

The sylphs dove and dumped the pendants in the crater Dahlia occupied.
 
The muck absorbed the material and the pendants ceased to be.
 
Without the protective amulets, angels fell into the physical realm.
 
They were strong, but mortal and sickened.

Uriel ignored all of this.
 
He could only see Belial.
 
Her white blonde hair glowed in the moonlight.
 
Her soft skin beckoned him.
 
He wanted to tear her to pieces.
 
He drew his sword and snarled.
 
He closed his wings and dove.

Belial saw him coming and pulled her katanas from her back, ready for him.

A growl rose up from his throat.
 
He wanted this, wanted her.
 
He dropped towards her like a missile.

Berith smashed into his brother in mid-air and carried Uriel to the ground.
 
He punched him in the chin and pressed him into the snow as Belial dashed away to slice at vulnerable angels.
 

Uriel watched her go and howled.
 
Berith grinned and picked Uriel up.
 
He threw his brother across the snow and ice.

Uriel bounced, rolled, and came to his feet unharmed.
 
He called to his angels, “Kill my brother!”
 

Uriel’s elite two-winged angels wheeled in the sky and dove for Berith.
 
Berith grinned and ran, drawing them away from Belial and towards the City Guard.
 
The angels sliced at him, but their weapons could not puncture his hardened skin.
 
He allowed angels to pile on him, letting them get tangled in their own mass of wings and armor.
 

Sylphs dove into the fight.
 
They tore off pendants and darted away.
 
Ogres and trolls waded into the fray.
 
They wielded stone clubs and war hammers and smashed vulnerable angels into a pulp

Uriel noticed none of this.
 
He flew after Belial.

***

Michael could not see Lucifer among the moving fighters on the ground, but he could see Dahlia.
 
She had no weapon that he could perceive and she was mired in the crater Gabriel’s weapon had created.
 
He dove for her, his hands outstretched to capture her.
 
He desired to see the look on Lucifer’s face when he had his lover once again.

Dahlia threw herself backwards into the muck, sinking into the substance of Hell.
 
She had no fear of Michael.
 
There was only revulsion and anger.
 
She made her hands into fists beneath the mess of liquid matter.

Michael reached for her in a low dive.
 
“Ladriam!”

Dahlia punched the air and sent a wall of ooze at him.
 
The maroon muck splashed across his glowing armor and pushed him aside.
 
His feet touched the ground in the crater.
 
“Where is your lover, Ladriam?”

“I can deal with you without him.”

Michael sneered.
 
“Are you going to defend yourself with
mud?
”

Dahlia made a fist and the substance squeezed around his body and pulled him down into it.
 
She ripped her scythe out of the ground and cut through the ooze.
 
The material rose over Michael’s head and came down on his body.
 

Michael twisted to fling it off, but the substance clung to him.
 
He flapped his wings to no effect.
 
He tugged on his leg, but could barely move the limb.

Dahlia sent a wave at him, then another, weighing him down.

He struggled.
 
“This cannot kill me!”

She grinned.
 
“But it can keep you in place.”

Michael sliced at the mud with his spear, piercing and cutting it.
 

Dahlia swung her scythe and covered him with another layer of fluid.
 
She did not look at the fight around her; she paid no heed to the cries of angels or Lilliam.
 
She focused her attention on him.
 
Every move she made circled the Archangel, wrapping him up in the weighty mess that held him to the earth.

An angel dove for her, fire at the ready, blade drawn.
 
The angel bared razor-sharp fangs and swiped at her head.

Lucifer dove out of the snow and smashed his bat into its face, sending the angel up and away.
 
He swung at another, then another, the cracks and percussion drowned out Michael’s curses.
 
Lucifer leapt over Dahlia’s head and brought the bat down on another angel.
 
Between the hits he counted, “Twenty-one.”
 
Smack.
 
“Twenty-two.”
 
He would let nothing reach her.
 

Dahlia trusted that he could protect her.
 
She moved the ooze like clay on a potter’s wheel, filling in the holes Michael created with the spear.
 
She kept pace with each move he made to escape.
 

Michael screamed in rage and frustration.
 
His pendant kept him from taking harm, but it could not keep the unearthly substance from weighing him down.
 
Above the trio, the battle raged on.

***

Beamers let loose rays of blinding light at the ground below.
 
Ice melted to slush; all in its path fried.
 
Apple flipped back to avoid the blast.
 
“Fuck!”
 
She raised her horn and blew a sharp note.
 
“Medics!”
 
Grendel raced by her, carrying wounded Lilliam away from the fight.
 
Berith threw himself in front of others; the light that hit him was no more than an irritation.

Apple raised her repeating crossbow and strafed the angels above her.
 
Those with no pendants fell to the ground, impaled and dying.
 
The others, still impervious, flew higher to come around again.
 
One group wheeled in the sky, their wings full of caught starlight and heat.
 
They flicked their wings and sent searing light across the ice.

Helion slammed into the angels.
 
He used his tower shield like a battering ram.
 
He knocked angels backwards, sending their rays into the sky and each other.

Helion ducked behind his shield as light shot back at him.
 
He cringed.
 
Radiation singed his black and blonde hair; it set fire to his feathered wings.

Whitney batted at his wings.
 
She used her mist to snuff-out the flame on her boyfriend’s shoulders.
 
Helion thanked her with a smile.

She rounded on the attacking beamers and wailed.
 
Her banshee scream sent the angels into a quick retreat.
 
They were unable to stand the high-pitched vibration that ripped through the air.
 
Helion gazed at her lovingly, his ears stopped up with earplugs.
 
She gave him a kiss on the cheek.

Firmament arrows clouded the sky with their deadly points.
 
Helion covered Whitney with his shield and dove with her in his arms.