Of Angels and Demons: A New Generation

A Knight of Animus

I can do this! I think to myself as I run towards the knight. "Wait!" Sinclair yells as my eyes widen. A sharp pain rips through me as blood spatters against my face and torso. I watch my arm fly forward into the open hand of the knight. As it crushes my arm, it swings its blade to the side. Sinclair tackles me to the ground as every building in a two-hundred-foot radius crumble. Sirens start blaring as screams of people in pain ring through my head. "You can't fight this; it is much stronger than I expected." Sinclair says as several energies appear behind us. I look back, as my arm slowly heals, and see Rokkan walking towards the knight. "Malick, sit this out." Rokkan says as his normally cheery face grows angry and cold. Electricity wraps and arcs around Rokkan as he jumps towards the knight. Blow for blow, he seems to equal the knight. After a few seconds, the knight's energy almost doubles instantly. Rokkan jumps back as the knight swings his sword downward. "Rokkan! A barrier was just erected over New York! We wn't be able to get out, nor will anyone be able to get in." Leon says as he and Leena come from behind some rubble. "This thing is continuously growing stronger." Leena says as the knight's energy doubles again. Sinclair grits her teeth and starts shooting blue energy towards it. The knight casually swats her energy shots away from him, and into still standing houses. "Its energy will keep doubling until we can defeat it." Leena says as I grit my teeth. "What happens if we don't defeat it?" I ask as she goes quiet. "Best case scenario, it just leaves a crater where Ney York was. A four-hundred-mile crater. The worst case is complete destruction of the Earth." Leena says as I quickly hold my hands like I'm holding a ball and close my eyes. "I don't care what it costs me, I need to summon all the energy I can. I need to break my limiters and summon all of my energy." I whisper to myself as I once more imagine a black and white outline for my body. I imagine all the energy I have flowing to my palms, forming a sphere of solid energy. "This is my test." I mumble as I think to myself. This has to be my test. They marked me with a mark that can't be removed. They constantly follow me wherever I go. This is a test. I think as I feel my hands start stinging. As I open my eyes, swirling black energy fills my palms. "It's weaker than last time." I mumble as I grit my teeth. I quickly squeeze the ball of energy, condensing it and making it smaller. "AAAH!" I scream as I charge straight for the knight. It swings its blade straight down towards my left arm, so I take the energy into my right palm and lung through the blade. As my left arm is cleaved off, I scream and slam the energy against the knight's face. "I hit him." I say as I smile lightly. A cloud of smoke covers the knights face. As the smoke starts to blow away, my vision goes black. I jolt awake vomiting blood. Bright red blood gushed from my mouth and torso As I look down, my heart seemingly drops. Vision fading in and out from the sight of my legs and ribs completely broken. Fragments of bone ripping through my flesh, twisted and mangled the wrong way. My right ankle is completely missing and my left arm is also shattered in hundreds of places. As I scream and look forward, I see several crumbling buildings in front of me. I hit him, what happened? I think as I slowly heal. I feel the knight's energy is several hundred times stronger than it just was. "This is hopeless, we're trapped in a barrier we can't escape with something I can't beat." I say as I feel a tear roll down my face. "I don't want to die. I don't care if I have to lose control, I don't care if I kill thousands of people, I don't care if my body becomes useless. I just don't want to die. "Would you sacrifice your friends?" A voice rings through my head as I heal instantly. "No, I promise I'll protect them. But everyone else, I would sacrifice them if I could live. I'm scared to die, I'm selfish." I say as I stand up. As my tear falls to the ground, a cascade of blue energy rips around in a circle around my feet. "So, this world could burn, all the humans could rot, all those innocent lives could cease, but your friends are off limits?" The voice echoes as I tighten my fists. "I just don't want to die. I'm scared!" I yell as my body starts burning up. I fall to my knees as blue energy wraps around my right hand. An odd symbol appears on my right hand as I force myself to my feet. "It will hurt, more than any pain a human could imagine, but you will not die." The voice says as it laughs. It's deep, booming voice rips through me as I take a single step forward. Several houses around me turn to dust and blow away as I jump forward towards the Knight. My right arm breaking and re-healing a hundred times per second as I tighten my fist. I see the knight hovering over Sinclairs body, while Rokkan guards Leena and Leon's unconscious bodies. Rokkan looks bloody and beat up, breathing heavy quite clearly. "Leave us alone!" I yell as I punch towards the knight. As it raises its sword to block my punch, I feel my fist rip apart several times, re-healing stronger than before every time. As my fist connects with the knight's blade, I punch through his sword and keep my momentum. My fist hits his face, and a flash of blue light temporarily blinds me. As I blink a few times, I feel an indescribable pain rip through my arm. My nerves a million times more sensitive and my arm breaking a million times per second doesn't even begin to describe the pain. I vomit from pain and struggle to scream, but my body is too tense to even scream. I force myself to look forward. A rip in the very Earth itself. Several hundred feet wide and several miles long, destroyed completely from my punch. "Look, I did it." I mumble as I start to fall back. I stop against what feel like a leg as my vision goes blurry. A tall man with black hair and a suit on stands behind me. "Oh dear, looks like the rest have come as well." He says as I see eleven other knights emerge from the ground. I remain sitting, my vision fading in and out of darkness. I watch the man walk in front of me and hold his hand up. As my vision clears momentarily, the entire city raises from the ground. Every building, floats above us, contorting into millions of different composite nails. With a flick of the man's hand, millions of concrete, steel, iron, and other various material ten-foot nails fly towards the knights. As my vision goes black, I hear the man sigh. "Let's get you patched up."