Forged Legacy

Realizing it might be a long time before he got another opportunity to rest without constantly looking over his shoulder, Harvey stayed away from the forge and spent his Sunday with family. Everyone was elated about Steve’s new role as the First Steward of the Faithful, and Harvey chose to see it as a good thing even though he still had some doubts about Brutus sudden change of heart. Going from hating his family and everything they’d done in the trial to elevating one of them to what was essentially an advisory role seemed like a stretch, but Harvey had to admit that it would help Brutus to have someone for the rest of the Faithful to look up to.

After spending the day playing games, talking about what life would be like once they finally made it back to Earth, and taking a long nap, Harvey climbed into bed. Cash and Celeste came to grab Harvey, Tyler, and Steve early the next morning. Cassandra begged them to be careful, and the three did what they could to reassure her.

“Don’t do anything stupid right when we’re about to cross the finish line,” she said.

“We won’t,” Harvey assured.

“Don’t worry, honey. I’ll keep the boys in line,” Steve smiled.

Cassandra shrugged. “Just make sure you get home safe. We can always have more kids.”

“Hey!” All four of their kids complained in unison.

“What? The only thing stopping us before was not wanting to raise a toddler in our 50’s. That’s not as big a deal now that we might live to be 1000.”

Ignoring their mother’s cavalier facade, Harvey walked over and pulled her in tight. “I love you, Mom. Even though you’re ok with me dying, I still love you.”

Despite her smile, tears started flowing down her cheeks. “I love you more.”

“I don’t know what everyone’s crying about,” Tyler scoffed. “This is just a cleanup mission.”

Celeste, who’d watched from a respectful distance, responded, “Don’t underestimate someone who knows they’re backed into a corner.”

After double and triple-checking their equipment, the five of them left the neighborhood to join the procession of beasts marching towards the battlefront from Elysium. The stream was never-ending, and Harvey could barely believe the size of the army gathered just outside the silver gates.

Seeing his amazement, Cash said, “I know. Too bad we probably won’t get to see an army built after killing all four lieutenants.”

“You really think we can finish this today?” Harvey asked.

“I do.”

They waited with Celeste and her squad until the remaining Nephilim, Ophanim, Wareagles, Rams, and Lions assembled in neat rows. Bringing up the rear of the march was a man in resplendent golden armor. Harvey had never seen Brutus in his war regalia before, but the visage was unmistakable. His helmet was adorned with a plume of white horsehair, making him look even larger than his already imposing 8’2” stature. In his right hand, he held a long spear with a pearly-white shaft and a silver head. In his left, he held an inscribed tower shield that looked eerily similar to the one Harvey forged for his father. He was surrounded by a contingent of Templar and Sentinel guards who escorted him to a dais carried by another group of soldiers. Climbing up onto the mobile stage, a projection the size of a skyscraper appeared floating above the army. It spoke in a booming voice, carrying his rallying cry across the miles-long battlefield for all to hear.

“We have fought long and hard for the victory we shall earn this day. We have prevailed through doubt and uncertainty, forging a path to triumph and glory. Today is the day you have trained for since you first picked up your sword in the Academies of Caelorum. Today, we are the instrument of our Father’s revenge. Hell thinks they can abandon our Father, profane his power, and drag the multiverse into their dens of iniquity. Today we show them what true power looks like.”

The angels roared in excitement, their usual facade of poise and grace fading as they gave in to baser instincts. Harvey would never expect someone like Cash to applaud such a macabre sentiment, but he was just as rowdy as the rest of the angels.

“The demons laughed as we suffered day after day, believing they could wallow in their sins while Heaven wasted away. Instead, we rose up, seized an advantage, and never let go. Now, it’s time for us to plant our boots on their necks. That step is only the first in our greater mission of bringing Earth into the fold, but it’s one I plan to enjoy.”

Tyler leaned over and whispered in Harvey’s ear. “Damn, dude. I wasn’t expecting a hate rally.”

Harvey nodded his agreement, listening as the roar of the angels grew to a fever pitch.

“Onward we march, my brothers and sisters! Onward to glory!” Brutus shouted, his projection turning towards the night sky and thrusting his spear forward. While the projection was little more than a mirage, the command triggered a stampede. Even the divine beasts reacted to the rising clamor, stamping and bellowing as the angels surged forward behind them. Harvey easily kept up with the angel's longer stride, but his Dad was having a hard time. Still level 25 despite evolving to F-Grade weeks ago, he didn’t have the Dexterity to keep up.

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“We’ll go at your pace, Dad,” Harvey said. “Can’t have you pull a muscle.”

In truth, Harvey was happy to stay a few steps behind. Heaven was marching into enemy territory, and he expected the demons had a few nasty surprises waiting for them. He’d managed to kill hundreds of Ossari with a mix of poorly made arc charges buried with a handful of essence crystals, and Hell had to have better methods than he did. Finding the wall of dead gluthogs completely empty only made him more uncomfortable. The demons had left the door wide open for them, and Harvey wasn’t keen on walking inside. Luckily, he didn’t have to go first. Conjured rams took the vanguard, rushing ahead to trigger any traps they could find rather than taking the time to disarm them. A deafening boom collapsed an entire city block, but all that managed to do was kill a handful of beasts before redirecting the bulk of the army down another path. Like that, they kept moving forward, not encountering a single living soul as they made a beeline towards the final lieutenant's node.

“Where is everyone?” Steve asked, now comfortably keeping up with Celeste’s squad after the traps slowed everyone down.

“Getting ready for a last stand,” Celeste replied. “Harvey, I don’t think you’re going to like what’s about to happen.”

He tensed up, worried Brutus had a plan to attack him after all. His grip tensed around his shotgun, but Celeste put a calming hand on his shoulder. “What?”

“Standard doctrine in these integration trials is for Hell to use the Sinners as a last line of defense,” Cash said somberly.

“Are you serious? Do they at least train them to fight?” Tyler asked.

“Some,” Cash shrugged. “But mostly they use them as meat shields while they shoot as many of us as they can.”

Panicked screams in the distance shocked him out of his stupor, and he strained to look over the shoulders of the significantly taller angels. Unable to get a clear view, Harvey boosted himself up onto a nearby rooftop, trading his shotgun for his sniper rifle and peering through the scope. The narrow city streets had funneled them into lines where the bulk of Heaven’s beasts were out of sight, but now he saw everything clearly. Thousands of humans packed shoulder to shoulder, facing a horde of Heavenly beasts rampaging towards them. None wore the uniforms he’d looted off the Sinners he’d killed while saving Cash from the ambush. They didn’t even have guns. It was just a sea of regular people armed with the cheapest weapons you could buy from John’s shop or pieces of broken furniture. Harvey winced when he watched a middle-aged woman frantically swinging a cracked table leg at a lion that was about to pounce. It completely ignored the attack, letting the wood bounce off its fur before tackling her to the ground and chomping into her neck. A wave of gunfire rained down from the many windows and rooftops lining either side of the street, but she was already dead by the time they mowed the lion down.

[Oh my god,] Julius blanched.

Monsters.

He hadn’t even considered what might happen to all of the humans fighting on Hell’s side. The fact they were there in the first place meant they weren’t exactly great people, but they didn’t deserve this. Hell was forcing them onto the front lines, even putting them ahead of their own army of conjured beasts who were acting as personal bodyguards for the demons. Mortarhorns lobbed abyssal fireballs into the street from a safe distance, while brimfiends rained down attacks from above. It wasn’t enough to stop Heaven’s advance, but forcing them to crawl over a mountain of human corpses was slowing them down.

Crouching behind a retaining wall at the edge of the rooftop, Harvey took aim at one of the demons who appeared to be killing any Sinners that tried to escape. They weren’t even trying to kill Heaven’s beasts, too consumed with keeping their cattle in line. The pop of Extinction sending a .50 caliber Desolation round through their ear was drowned out by the mayhem below, but he still got the satisfaction of watching them tumble off the side of the roof as sickly yellow flames devoured both their Vitality and their essence, starting with their brain. The falling body crushed a pair of Sinners beneath, but a third picked up their gun and unloaded the rest of the magazine into the demon's back. A hurricane of emotions rampaged through him as he simultaneously received the kill notification marking the slaver's death and watched the man get shot in the head by another one.

“God damn it!” he swore, sliding the bolt back and ensuring the steel casing flew out before conjuring another Desolation round in its place. His racing heart and heaving breaths made holding his sights steady difficult, but two weeks of practice while hiding from both sides helped him land more than half of his shots. He focused on the demons, trying to clear a path for the humans to escape. Every second, a handful got away, but dozens more fell to the claws and jaws of Heaven’s army. The fighting was still far from his father and brother standing below him, so he ignored their shouts for him to come down. They were safe for the moment. With how things were going, Hell’s army would be dead before any angel got involved. It would just be a slow process. The urban battlefield slowed their advance, but it was inevitable.

Harvey did what he could, but it wasn’t enough. The humans were dying too quickly, and this was only one of a dozen streets where the same scenario was playing out. None of the demons seemed to notice him picking off their compatriots. They were too busy shooting fish in a barrel, leaving him to do the same to them.

[You have to stop.]

I can’t.

[You’re going to run out of essence before we even find the lieutenant. I know it hurts, but you have to stop.]

They’re treating us like animals!

[And they’ll get what’s coming to them, but you’re one man. You can’t do this alone.]

Harvey lay down behind the retaining wall and ripped off his helmet, frantically wiping the tears streaming down his face. When he could see clearly again, he put it back on, crawled to the edge of the rooftop, found his family, and flew back down.

“Are you ok? What did you see?” Steve asked.

Ignoring his father’s question, Harvey turned his gaze on Celeste. “If I didn’t come along to kill that first lieutenant, would Heaven have done the same thing to us?”

She hesitated, which told him everything he needed to know.

“You’re all monsters.”