Michael: Last Angel of Earth

As if drawn from a movie, the army of darkness enveloped the city, cutting off any chances of escape. Next, the demon began to assault the city walls. Henebul and his archers let loose a volley of arrows upon the demon horde under Barjon’s command with precision in the initial engagement. The elves fired their bows and crossbows at the endless horde. Along the other walls, the Swiss guards and the Roman gods also did their part in holding back the onslaught. However, they only delayed the inevitable. As demons and other spawns poured over ladders on the city walls, they were met by a brave but shifting defense by the humans and their allies. With the fighting becoming up close, the defenders began to show the army of darkness that the forces of light had not gone out.

Barjon and his friends battled hard against their enemies all along the walls. In truth, Barjon was happy. He felt a sense of satisfaction. Satisfaction in the slaying of demons. In his way, he felt as if he was honoring his fallen angel brothers and sisters. Soon a smile covered his face, and his expression was that of a wild warrior. He hacked, slashed, thrust, slammed, and demolished any foe. As for the others, they were dealing with the carnage in their way. Fiercely competitive, Horus and Ruzla made a competition to see who could kill the most. After running out of ammo for his shotgun, Horus used his mace axe and smashed several dozen goblin and hellspawn heads. Amid the battle, he turned to his gargoyle friend and shouted his number.

“Hey Ruzla, ten already!” he shouted into the sky. Ruzla was busy battling the winged forces of the army. Her war scythe sliced the wings off of some and crippled others. Blood spewed everywhere. Looking down onto the rampart, she smiled and waved and her friend.

“Nice, Horus. I’m on thirty-three,” she replied. Horus stared in disbelief and let out a roar of irritation.

“I am not losing to you again!” he shouted back at her. Using the axe side of his weapon, he swung the weapon directly into the side of an incoming enemy and pulled him down toward him. He then smashed the enemy’s skull with the weapon’s mace side. While the two were competing for the most kills, everyone else was fighting for their lives. Vanhildr let out her frustration at a horde of draugrs. Her sword cut through their undead bodies. Their armor fell to the floor quickly, and the former Valkyrie cursed Loki’s name with every strike she dealt. For Henbeul and his elves, it was target practice. Half of the elves used their longbow to pick off enemy soldiers approaching the city walls, and the others used their repeating crossbows to finish off those who managed to climb the walls. Henebul, however, decided not to use his bow weapons. Instead, he opted to use his father’s short sword. He drove the blade into the hearts of hellish creatures. Their blood stained his polished wood armor.

While the mystics were contending with the forces, the humans aiding them were also handling themselves rather well, for some, that is. Lawrenz, Catherine, and Mattoe, along with their men, battled hard against their enemies. Each of these soldiers had experience fighting these creatures. However, others like Colum, Margret, and Fiona were still very new. Though Column and Fiona were both veterans, it had been years since they had been in a battle like this.

Nonetheless, they fought like hell. Colum stabbed one in the gut with his bayonet. Fiona, covering his six, used her high-powered bow to kill a few more. Margret, a green in combat, used the riot shield as both an offensive and defensive weapon. Looking over her shoulder, she saw a draugr aiming his sword directly at her. Blocking the strike with the shield, she quickly kicked an enemy soldier off the walls in front of her and reached behind over her shoulder and the undead warrior on the floor. Raising her shield, she slammed the rectangle edges down onto the zombie’s neck, decapitating its body. Wiping the black blood away, she continued fighting.

All the defenders fought like demons. Towards the city’s southern end, Mars and his wife Bellonna grew powerful with every enemy they slew. As beings who drew their strength from combat, this battle made them unstoppable. Along the northern and eastern walls, the Gods Jupiter and Pluto showed the armies of darkness; they were just as powerful as their Greek counterparts. Back inside the Vatican, Pope George and his council watched the battle unfold. The aging Pontiff clenched a rosary in his hands. He said a quiet prayer in Latin and turned his attention back to the civilians who found refuge inside the holy temple.

Back along the western wall, Barjon noticed that fighting had come to a brief halt. There were very few enemies approaching the city walls. For a brief moment, Barjon believed that they might win. A smile crept onto him as he continued with the onslaught. Sadly, he was unaware that he and his friend had fallen into Xathaniels trap. Outside the city walls, the Nephilim chuckle at his handy work.

“I told you they would fall for it,” he said to the Dragon king. Zarakoth smiled a toothy grin and chuckled.

“To think you would use a tactic from the bible to bring down the holy capital in western Europe,” he replied.

“You forget,” said Xathaniel, “I was there when it was written.” The tactic Xathaneil employed came from the book of Joshua, the siege of Jericho. While Barjon and his friends were contending with the forces on the walls, Xathaniel ordered his elite guards to go around the city seven times and plant large black stones around the various weak points around the city walls. These were no ordinary stones, though. These stones came from the depths of hell and had a devastating ability, the reverberation sound to the extreme.

Back with Xathanael, one of his elite guards reported back, stating that everything was in place.

“Excellent. Then let us begin.”

“Hey, Barjon, have you noticed those soldiers going around the city?” asked Horus. The former angel shook his head as he was too busy fighting a demon. Horus called for Ruzla, who was also dealing with the local harpies. After finishing off the last one, she descended to the city walls.

“What’s wrong?” she inquired.

“I have noticed several dozen men circling the city seven times and placing black objects beside them.”

“You think they may be bombs?” she replied

“I’m not sure, but I have an uneasy feeling that we are caught in the spider’s web, and we don’t even know,” he stated.

“I’ll fly around. See what they are,” she replied. Streigin her wings, he lunged into the sky and soared past the midst of enemy soldiers. Circling the city, her keen eyes spotted one of the black objects. Landing just a few feet from the stone, the female gargoyle carefully approached the ominous rock. As she got closer, she realized that the object was a medium size black onyx in the shape of a cube. She knelt and reached out to touch it when suddenly a loud shriek echoed from the box. The sudden noise startled her. She made out a faint outline of a being inside the cube. It was here that she deduced the plan. Flying back into the sky, she quickly glided through the chaos and back to the western wall, where Barjon, Horus, and Henebul discussed their next action plan. Landing hard on the stone surface, she paused to catch her breath.

“Need ... to leave...black onyx..” she gasped.

“Did you say black onyx?” Henebul restated. The female gargoyle nodded her head. Henebul turned to Bajron and Horus.

“We need to get off these walls now!” he shouted. Henebul then called for his head archer. Barjon soon grabbed Henebul by the shoulder and turned him around.

“Why?! What’s going on!?” he stated.

“Black Onyx are prisons for demons of any kind or any power. However, though trapped, a person could use their power as a weapon,” he replied. Before Barjon could ask why he felt the ground underneath him begging to rumble. Soon that rumbling grew louder, and walls were beginning to crack. Barjon then figured it out and let out a bellowing yell.

“RETREAT!? EVERYONE OFF THE WALLS?” he shouted. Back on the field, Xathaniel smiled at his handy work, but it was only beginning. Then approaching from his left and right were several dozen banshees. Before giving the order, he uttered another parse from the Book of Joshua.

“All the people shout loud; then the city wall will collapse,” he said. Taking that as the order, the Banshees all cried out their loudest and ear-piercing scream. The sheer shockwave of sound paralyzed both attackers and defenders alike. Everyone had to cover their ears to avoid going deaf. Barjon and his allies were lucky to make it off the walls but were still caught in the shockwave. They, too, covered their ears. With everyone trapped by the banshees, they directed their sound to the black onyx, which amplified the sound even more. Suddenly, the stones across the city began to glow until they floated up in the air. Once they reached a certain height, they began to glow white. As the army outside saw the several white orbs around the city, they knew what it meant, and a smile crept onto all their lips. Suddenly, with a giant hum, the stones exploded, causing massive holes in the once-fortified walls of the city. The attackers and defenders still on the walls were sent high into the air only to die upon reaching the ground. The noise soon echoed inside the Vatican, to which the Holy father was shocked by what had happened. He clenched his fist, holding the rosary.

“May God have mercy on us,” he said to himself. Back with Xathaniel, his and Zarakoths army let out roars and cheers. For them, they believed they had one. Smiling wickedly, he raised his hand and bellowed out one final command.

“Devoted the city to our lord Lucifer and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it.”