This Isn't About Reya

Chapter Forty-Five

Azrael stood above ground amongst the charred skeletons of the forest trees, Reya at his side, and watched the first worldships descend through the clouds above Dragotsennost'. The sun was brilliant and vibrant, its bloody rays piercing the veil of the clouds wherever the worldships broke through, coating Dragotsennost' in dappled radiance. 

He stared at the city, at the high walls, the tiered levels, the Five Towers reaching high into the Nixan sky. He could see the plumes of smoke billowing from the Tower of Knowledge. 

He looked down at Reya. She met his eyes firmly, expectantly. Azrael felt the lust of the Nephilim curdling in the tunnels below him. They were pressing at the entry room, armored in voidmetal shards, snarling, gurgling, shrieking. 

Dragotsennost' exploded into chaos. Azrael dipped down and allowed Reya to climb up onto his shoulders, her small hands gripping the bone protrusions around his head.

He cocked his head backward, his mandibles splayed, and roared into the sky.

The newborns poured out of the opening in the center of the clearing and swarmed across the plain towards Dragotsennost', a sea of white bodies, churning and clambering over top of one another, their deranged howls echoing across the tundra. Thanks to Kharkevich, the city was ready for them, and as they approached, turrets at the top of the wall opened fire. Hardlight slugs tore into their ranks, throwing Nephilim bodies with explosions of softlight energy. But the stream of newborns flooding out of the caverns beneath the forest did not cease; sheer numbers brought them to the base of the wall.

Azrael watched from the clearing, the newborns swarming around him. Despite the turret fire, he watched the first of the horde sink their talons into the wall and scale it, quickly overwhelming its defenses. As the newborns climbed over top of the wall, more defenses were ready to meet them: Azrael listened to explosions reverberate through the city, punctuated by the sharp bite of machine gun fire.

He waited for another moment before beginning his slow march towards the city.

Reya held herself tight to Azrael, sheltering herself behind the crests on his head. The newborns flowed around him seamlessly, never impeding him, always aware of his position in front, behind, or next to them. They screamed and lurched forward, tumbling through the snow, galloping and howling. He watched them as he walked; the turrets at the top of the wall had already been obliterated, and now, their charge was indomitable. 

Soon, human screams from within the walls joined with the Nephilim's dread cries. Azrael smiled at this as he approached the gates to the city, shut firmly shut against the tundra. He stared at them for a moment, then reached out with his essence and pressed against them. 

They were blown backwards off their hinges, their massive panels slamming against the street. The Nephilim surged forward through the new opening, meeting tattered and broken remnants of a metel' detachment. Blood coated the streets, the alleys, the walls of the buildings. Rent metal armor was strewn across the road, organs and limbs pummeled beneath the newborn stampede. As Azrael stood within the walls, he looked up into the sky and watched the worldships spouting flame down into the city, shrouding Dragotsennost' in flame and smoke. Nephilim ships poured out of the worldships like swarms of black shard insects, spiraling into the heart of the city, shrieking into the sides of skyscrapers and detonating, raining steel and concrete onto the streets below. He watched as hordes of winged firstborn descended like death angels, their skull faces grinning madly.

And the other newborns, grown and perfected on other planets the Nephilim had secretly conquered, soon joined the fray, shock troopers dropping like stones onto the planet's surface. Their rumbling howls echoed through all of Dragotsennost' as they dove into the fight.