But Kara’s body wouldn’t budge. She stood frozen in place, staring out onto a massacre. The normal blue skies of Operations were dark and covered in a grey haze of smoke. Flickering embers rained down from the skies and blanketed the desert in a blanket of flames. Everywhere she looked angels were being ripped to pieces, their bodies evaporating into showers of brilliant crystals. A thunderous boom resonated around them. Black lightning from the sky hit several angels. Their bodies exploded and were swept away in the fiery sand storm.
“Kara!” David pulled Kara out of the elevator by force. She snapped out of frozen trance and stumbled along. A deafening crash shook the ground. Kara felt a sudden sharp pain at her side. She fell to her knees and turned around. A mountain of concrete rubble was all that was left of the monumental elevator. Fire and smoke rose in streaks from its broken shell.
David pulled Kara to her feet and dragged her with him in a run. Powerful winds slapped her face. A flurry of sand scratched her eyes. Kara made her eyes into slits and tried to see through the oncoming sand storm. Her foot caught on something, and she nearly fell. She regained her balance and looked at what made her trip. The fur of a dead chimpanzee who had been covered in blankets of sand rippled in the strong winds. She recognized his face—Chimp 5M51. She wanted to scream.
After a moment, she felt David’s presence beside her. He looked horrified. She followed his gaze.
Out in the distance, piles of metal and wood sprouted from the desert like fractured bones from a ruptured abdomen. Remnants of the elevators and their operators were spread out for miles. Some were ablaze, while others lay in silent piles of rubble. She understood now why they couldn’t access Horizon as they had before. The demons had destroyed the elevators and killed the operators. Then she caught a glimpse of some terrified black and brown primates hiding behind boulders. She prayed the demons would overlook them.
A distant laugh caught Kara’s attention. She looked up into the darkened skies. Massive wings cut through clouds of smoke and beat the skies above her. A two-legged creature with a long snake-like body and reptilian head banked easily through the clouds. A long, sharply pointed tail rippled behind it. Its body was covered in yellow and red flames, and somehow Kara could see through it. The demon swooped towards the battlefield. It glided through clouds of smoke and dove suddenly towards a group of guardians. A figure was riding the demon. His wicked laugh caused a chill to roll up Kara’s spine. She recognized Asmodeus. He sat upon the beast, his blood-red suit rippled in the wind. His arms were raised in the air. Black lighting from his hands struck the angels below. Kara knew they didn’t stand a chance. He was merciless. With a sharp popping sound, their bodies exploded in a blur of white dust.
Asmodeus roared in laughter. She watched him raise his arms again. Black electricity blasted out of his hands and struck the ground. A tremor passed under Kara’s feet. The ground shook and the desert was split by a crevice that extended out of sight beyond the red hills.
Kara couldn’t see a bottom, and she watched in horror as hundreds of angels fell wailing down into the abyss.
David pulled her into a run with him. Kara held on tightly to David’s hand, afraid to let go. His soul blade was brandished in front of him.
A shadow covered the ground—the eagles. The guardians of Tartarus dove through the blackened skies like missiles. They ploughed through a horde of demons and ripped them apart easily with their razor sharp talons. Demons wailed as the eagles tore out their innards and crushed their skulls with their feet.
A massive demon with large fly-like wings charged at the eagles. It grabbed one by the neck with its large maw. Kara heard a snap. The eagle fell limply to the ground. More insect-like demons took to the skies and launched another attack. Large golden feathers rained down on Kara and David as the eagles wrestled against the new breeds from the Netherworld. The sky was alive with the horrifying sounds of flesh being ripped apart. Kara feared for the eagles.
“Kara, we have to move! We can’t stay here.” David yelled over the howling winds and the wails of the eagles and demons.
Kara wiped the hair from her eyes. “I know … but where are we going?”
“I don’t know. Let’s keep moving until we find someplace safe. We’re going to get killed if we stay here. Come on—” David urged her on.
Kara’s feet sank into the red sand as she sprinted down a gully behind David. The sounds of battle blasted into their ears from every direction as they ran, urging them on. The horror of it all pained her. She had failed to warn the Legion before the attacks. What would happen to them?
A fleet of guardians appeared before them a hundred feet away. They formed a strong line above a rise. Forty sturdy men and women, all clad in armor, waited to do battle. Their long silver swords and daggers hung at their sides. Kara saw bows strapped across a few of the women’s shoulders. Some also carried glowing red and white orbs in their hands. Kara immediately recognized them as the firestones and moonstones. They showed no fear. These were the real warriors, Kara told herself. They were ageless, experienced soldiers ready to fight till the true death.
Movement caught Kara’s eye. She turned.
Ten higher demons walked casually in the red sand. Their identical faces bore no expression. Black smoke coiled around their death blades and rose around their arms. Kara found it strange how clean their grey suits appeared, considering the dirt and smoke everywhere. Their clothes showed no traces of a struggle.
The demons reached the bottom of the hill. Kara heard someone call out an order, and the angels’ line broke in half. She watched as the guardians stormed down to meet the higher demons head on. A young guardian about her age ran with her blade held out before her. Long red hair spilled out behind her as she ran. She launched herself at the nearest demon. With her arm held high, she leaped into the air and brought her blade down in a long curving arc, aimed at his neck. Kara was sure she had him. There was a sudden blur, and the young woman screamed. Kara caught a glimpse of a blade landing in the sand. The higher demon’s blade was impaled in her abdomen. With a flash, he forced the blade down like cutting through a loaf of bread, and pulled her apart with his hands, as though she was nothing but paper. Her body plopped to the floor in two severed pieces. Kara watched in horror as the demon crouched down and ingested the angel’s soul. It shivered in delight as it rose.
The murder of their fellow soldier didn’t slow down the rest of the fleet. They attacked hard, and with everything they had. Screams and the sounds of metal hitting metal rose up around them. A soul blade punctured the back of an unsuspecting higher demon. It cried out and reached behind its back trying to free itself from the pain. With its attention disrupted momentarily, another angel skewered it with its blade, followed by another, and then another. Finally, the higher demon fell to its knees. It smiled. It took its own blade and slashed it across its neck. The body rose up in black flames and soon disintegrated into a pile of dust which the wind blew away. Kara had never seen a higher demon die before. She felt satisfied and disgusted at the same time. But that was the only one. The remaining nine had killed the guardians. Their bodies were spread out on the ground, soulless and empty.
Kara heard another battle cry. The last of the angels charged. Kara winced at how easily they lost their lives. The angels fought back with everything they had, but they were no match for the higher demons. She had to do something. She felt herself lean forward—
“What do you think you’re doing?” David pulled Kara towards him. “You can’t do anything for them now. It’s too late. We have to get out of here!”
Kara shook her head and tried to pull free from David’s iron grip. “I have to! This is my fault. I have to save them! I can’t just stand here and watch while they all get killed. Let me go!”
“No. It’s suicide. I won’t let you!”
Kara’s anger flared inside her. “Let go of me, David!”
She yanked her arm free. “We have to do somet
hing!”
Before David knew what she was doing, Kara pushed him hard and stole his soul blade. She ran before he could stop her. She heard him call out her name a few times, but then his voice was lost in the sounds of battle.
She let her fury loose, recalling all the deaths of the innocent mortals and angels. Come, urged Kara. She felt the tingle of power scurrying through her. She felt it come alive and surge down to her fingertips. It wrapped around her like a warm blanket. Kara embraced it. She felt the wild elemental energy fueling itself on her hatred for what the demons had done to Horizon, and on her hatred of what Asmodeus had done to her.
A demon nearby severed a guardian’s head and laughed as it kicked it like a ball. Kara rushed towards the demon, her blade ready, and her elemental’s golden power dancing on her fingertips. She reached out—
A sting exploded in her back. Pain was immediate and overwhelming. She cried out and tumbled to the ground on her knees.
Laughs echoed all around her.
She reached behind her and felt three handles. She knew instantly that they were death blades. Her hand burned as she wrapped it around a handle and pulled it free from her back. She tossed the blade and reached out for another—
Something kicked her in the face. Kara went sprawling to the ground. She could feel the blades’ poison spread through her, eating at her core like acid. Black vapors coiled around her body. She had to get them out soon or she would die.
“Well, well, well. What do we have here?”
Kara blinked through a gust of sand. A higher demon stood above her. Its white skin wrinkled into a devilish grin. Its black bottomless eyes mocked her.
“Thought you could use that power of yours, did you?”
The higher demon laughed, and Kara cursed her own stupidity.
“I think it’s time to put an end to the famous Kara Nightingale. My lord has had enough of your … interruptions. You cannot escape from your true death, my dear. Your special powers cannot save you now.”
The demon drew another death blade. He licked the blade and grinned. In a flash, he threw the blade towards Kara’s face—
Something silver caught the death blade in midair and deflected it to the side. Another flash of silver and a series of sharp noises—she heard a scream, and a silver blade punctured through the back of the demon’s head and came out through its eye socket.
A figure in black flew over Kara and landed before the wailing demon. With one strike, the figure beheaded the demon. Kara watched as the head hit the ground with a thump. The demon’s body went up in black flames as the other demon’s had, and it dissolved into a cloud of black dust.
Kara felt a pressure on her back, and then a release. She knew instantly the blades had been removed. She rolled over.
The figure behind her was slightly built and dressed like a CDD field agent with black pants and top. Kara figured she was female. Soul blades were secured in leather sheaths tied around her thighs and ankles. Her long black hair was pulled back into a tight braid.
The guardian turned around and kneeled before Kara. She spoke with concern and urgency.
“Kara! What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be on the 8th plane and safe.”
Kara couldn’t speak.
She stared into big brown eyes like her own. Even wrinkled in worry, the face was smooth and uncommonly beautiful. Her naturally red lips were pursed tight.