Demoness 2 - Chapter 59 - Ancient Reverberations (Patreon)

Eziel didn’t answer Elania’s question. Instead, reality blurred and she was suddenly plunged… somewhere else.

She landed with a gentle thump in a patch of mud.

One thing became quickly apparent. All around her was a blasted battlefield. The ground beneath her feet had been churned by the trampling of countless soldiers.

The sky above was a roiling mass of dark clouds, shot through with flashes of lightning that illuminated the scene in stark relief.

When she flicked her wings and stood back up, they were anything but ethereal. Pristine white feathers greeted her, physical ones. Despite the trip into the mud coating the rest of her, those were untouched.

Filth couldn’t adhere to the wings of an Angel, she realized. Was that what she was here?

She realized the skies were filled with hovering combatants she had missed earlier. Elania jumped, and she made her wings work to propel her upward, something she had been gaining proficiency in.

Before her, two armies faced each other across the torn earth.

On one side, a host of humans, beast people, and lesser angels like her stood or hovered in formation, their weapons gleaming in the fitful light. They were a ragtag bunch, clad in mismatched armor and wielding an assortment of swords, spears, and bows. Others held staves or wands that bore the signs of magic.

The other side drew Elania’s attention more intensely.

A horde of twisted creatures seethed and writhed, their bodies a nightmarish fusion of flesh and metal. Some were vaguely humanoid, with too many limbs and gaping maws filled with jagged teeth.

Others were little more than amorphous blobs of pulsating flesh, studded with glowing eyes and lashing tentacles.

Looking over her shoulder, there was a figure that dwarfed them all, drifting forward behind the rag-tag army.

It was Eziel, in his true form. Not a sword. A high-rank seraph.

How she knew that, she did not know. But he was their leader.

Her leader?

He towered over the battlefield like a colossus. His wings unfurled behind him, each feather a blade of shimmering light. His armor was solid gold that glowed a radiance that hurt to look upon, and in his hands he held a sword that burned with holy fire.

Elania stared up at him in awe, her heart pounding in her chest.

She had seen Eziel before, but only as a sword.

A cry went up from the human army, and Elania turned to see them surging forward, their weapons raised high. The beast people let out howls of fury as they charged, their claws and fangs bared.

And then the two sides collided in a clash of steel and flesh. The air was filled with the screams of the dying and the roars of the monstrous creatures as they tore into each other with savage abandon.

A compulsion suddenly settled on Elania.

She wasn’t just a spectator.

She needed to participate.

In the air, angels under the command of Eziel clashed with black winged creatures. More importantly, her role wasn’t just fighting—she was one of the arch-seraph’s lieutenants.

Elania rallied her wing of angels, her voice ringing out over the din of battle. “With me, brothers and sisters! Let us drive these abominations back to the abyss!”

Dichotomy struck her instantly. That wasn’t something she’d say, was it? Reality nearly splintered before she regained her composure.

There was no time to hesitate.

They surged forward as one, their weapons glowing with holy light. Elania led the charge, her pearl sword flashing as she clove through the twisted flesh of a winged beast. It screeched in agony, black ichor spurting from the wound before it plummeted from the sky.

All around her, the other angels fought with equal ferocity. One wielded a spear of shimmering silver, impaling a monster through its gaping maw. Another loosed arrows of pure energy from a bow of living wood, each one finding its mark in the heart of an enemy.

Lightning crackled from Elania’s fingertips, arcing through the horde of creatures and leaving smoking husks in its wake.

Below, Eziel strode through the enemy ranks like a god of war. His sword cleaved great swaths through the monsters, each swing generating shockwaves that sent them flying. The very ground shook with the force of his blows, savage scars of wind carved into the earth.

“Elania!” His voice boomed across the battlefield, making her bones vibrate. “The mortals need your aid!”

She signaled to her wing, and they dove as one, plunging into the melee on the ground. They landed amidst the clashing armies, their wings flaring out to sweep the monsters aside.

Elania lost herself in the rhythm of combat, her sword a blur of motion as she hacked and slashed. She wove between the ranks of humans and beast people, striking down any creature that dared to challenge her or threaten an ally.

Yet for every monster they felled, two more seemed to take its place. The horde was endless, a seething mass of nightmarish flesh that threatened to overwhelm them all.

The armies clashed with cataclysmic force, powers beyond imagining rending the very fabric of the world. It became clear that despite their valor, her side was losing. The enemy’s numbers were too great, their strength too vast.

Then, on the horizon, a golden orb appeared. It shone like a second sun, its light piercing the gloom of the battlefield.

Elania’s eyes widened as she realized what it was.

A Celestial Engine.

One that could move.

“Rally to the Engine!” Eziel’s voice boomed across the field. “Let its light be your guide!”

The forces of light fought with renewed vigor, their weapons glowing with the radiance of the Engine. Elania dove into the fray, her sword a blur of motion as she struck down the monstrosities that threatened to overwhelm them.

The cacophony of destruction was deafening. Void magic, light magic, and all manner of terrifying powers clashed in a maelstrom of chaos.

The very earth reshaped itself under the onslaught, mountains rising and falling like waves in a storm-tossed sea.

Mortals died in their tens-of-thousands, crushed like ants beneath the feet of the warring gods.

Elania watched in horror as entire battalions were wiped out in an instant, their screams lost in the din of battle.

Angels and monstrosities clashed in the skies above, their magic rending the fabric of reality. Beams of searing light pierced the clouds, while tendrils of darkness snaked across the heavens.

Elania realized with a start that she was witnessing a war of gods.

As she fought on, the scene before her seemed to shift and blur. Elania felt herself being pulled back, as if she were an observer watching from afar.

The battlefield receded into the distance; her view a window from high above.

She saw the Celestial Engine in its entirety, a shining beacon of hope amidst the darkness. And she saw Eziel, towering over the field like a colossus, his sword raised high as he rallied his troops for one last charge.

The engine pulsed with an otherworldly glow, drawing in the energies of the raging battle like a ravenous beast.

As it swelled with power, the fighting began to ebb, soldiers on both sides turning their gazes skyward.

Eziel raised his sword before him, the blade shimmering with divine light. The blade grew in size, doubling, then tripling, until it was a solid pillar of energy. He braced himself, wings spread wide, as if preparing for an immense impact.

The celestial engine erupted with a blinding beam of pure radiance hundreds of miles wide.

It carved through the earth like a scythe through wheat, obliterating everything in its path. Soldiers, angels, and monstrosities alike were consumed by the searing light, their forms disintegrating into motes of ash.

The beam swept across the battlefield, leaving naught but devastation in its wake. The very ground was scoured clean, the once-churned mud simply a chasm into the depths. Mountains tore apart and then melted in the fury, turned to soot and ash and thrust into the wind.

Eziel pushed through the beam, his golden armor glowing white-hot as he fought against the relentless onslaught. With a mighty beat of his wings, he burst forth from the light, soaring high into the sky.

Everything he had tried to protect turned to ash.

From her vantage point, Elania saw the true extent of the destruction. The armies on both sides had been utterly annihilated, reduced to smoldering cinders. It was as if the hand of a wrathful god had reached down and wiped the slate clean.

A vivid scar of flame and fire, carved across and through the world like a burning wound for a thousand miles.

A haunting realization settled over her like a shroud. Ash fell from the sky like rain. This was the end of an era, a cataclysmic event.

Eziel’s deafening shout echoed across the barren landscape, a sound of pure anguish and loss. It was a cry that spoke of betrayal, of a trust shattered beyond repair.

In that moment, Elania knew the truth.

They had been betrayed, both sides manipulated like pawns.

The Celestial Engine had not been their salvation.

It had been their end.

Elania gasped as the vision shattered, leaving her alone in the essence realm.

Her [Divinity]had drained below twenty-five percent according to her [Soul Management] HUD.

With a shuddering breath, she slowed the flow, carefully extricating herself from the connection.

As she broke free, the mundane world rushed back in a dizzying blur of sensation. Keswick stood at the engine controls, her attention focused on the arcane readouts and pulsing lines of power.

If she noticed anything amiss, she gave no sign.

Elania staggered, her legs trembling beneath her. The vision had left her reeling, her mind awhirl with images of apocalyptic destruction and divine conflict.

She steadied herself against the cold metal of the control housing, trying to regain her equilibrium.

“I... I need to rest,” she managed, her voice sounding distant and strained to her own ears. “The transfer... it took more out of me than I expected.”

Keswick glanced up, her brow furrowed with concern. “Of course. Go, get some rest. We’ll need you at full strength for what’s to come.”

Elania nodded, not trusting herself to speak. She turned and stumbled towards the elevator, her feet moving of their own accord. The elevator door slid open with a soft hiss, and she practically fell inside, slumping against the railing as the car began its ascent.

As the elevator rose through the levels of the tower, Elania closed her eyes, trying to make sense of what she had seen.