Justice in London

[OOC: Thread in response to alert: Destruction Across The Old Kingdom ]

06:00 (GMT+ 01:00)
Morning broke on another frosty but clear day in the Welsh mountains. The forest birds were brilliantly active in their morning chorus, their songs almost melodic through the spruces of the coniferous forest itself. A small homestead sat isolated but equally just as tranquil on the edge of the coniferous forest that spread up into the alpines and onwards in a rugged ascent. In the log cabin home, a lowly sound of an alarm clock pitched angrier with every second that passed until Ajay’s hand with his wedding ring on reached over to turn it off with a decisive thud. Exhaling in what felt like the first waking breath of the morning, Ajay turned over facing into his bed and embraced his wife Jeni in his arms, cuddling beneath the warm blankets on their broad bed, savouring the experience before he rallied his waking brain to get up and start the day.

Jeni’s soft and light embrace was about as tranquil as he could think of this side of heaven. He kissed his wife, “good morning” Ajay said slowly and softly as she smiled and clung around him tighter, squeezing his sculpted body that gave her not just a feeling of wonderful intimacy with her husband but also security. Ajay turned and got himself out of bed, sliding on a loose pair of jogging bottoms before walking to the bathroom to rinse his eyes with cold water and then bowing his head with his hands still on the side of the basin he spoke a morning prayer with a devoted softness, gratitude and submission in his otherwise deep voice “thank you for today, Almighty King of Kings. Holy, holy, holy are you, please watch over me and my family. Today is the day you have made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Guide me straight and true, help me contend valiantly to overcome all the power of the enemy, for your name’s sake". Finishing his prayer, he once again exhaled and then stop up strong, facing his reflection in the mirror his eyes began to glow with a bright white fire before dimming once again, his human pupils coming back.

Returning to his bedroom he put on a soft t-shirt, the kind he liked to wear when first waking up and went downstairs. Jeni had already begun with the mourning routine, prayer, scripture reading and a hot drink that was either a tea or a coffee; with one hot cup already made for Ajay as he entered the open plan living room. The couple sat together and spent the quiet time in one another’s company before The Almighty.

07:00 (GMT+ 01:00)
After the hour was up, Jeni went to make breakfast whilst Ajay began open up his laptop to look at upcoming orders that needed to be filled for next month. As he scrolled through the orders and began to compare them to a spreadsheet that he had to keep track of progress, Jeni clicked on the radio to pick up the morning news as the six eggs in the cooking pan began to bubble. Half acknowledging the morning’s news reports whilst she slowly stirred the eggs into scrambled, she heard the lowly buzz of a breaking news report. She leaned over the counter momentarily to turn up the volume as the report was read out.

“We now bring you an emergency breaking news report. London is currently under an enormous attack by what we currently believe are extra-terrestrials or metahumans(!) It isn’t quite clear yet regarding what these grotesque creatures are but..but the streets are filled with bodies and blood, many buildings are heavily damaged. This is an unprecedented level of carnage and difficult to describe the horror”.

Jeni’s head turned sharply around as she turned off the gas hob that had been cooking the breakfast. Ajay was already standing upright, perfectly still, his eyes looking straight at Jeni. Her heart began to race faster as she left the kitchen and rushed to the TV to see if there was any footage. Sure enough as she turned it on and went to the early morning breakfast news, aerial footage was being shown of the centre of a world famous capital city in utter chaos. The TV echoed across the living room with the camera man’s shot training itself back onto the reporter who was commenting live in the helicopter with an alarming sense of urgency and disbelief in her voice “we’re now being told that we have to evacuate the airspace as the military has been mobilised meaning we have to get out of here quite quickly now...very unsure as to what is going to happen but, but it looks like the United Kingdom is now at war with an enemy I can't quite describe”.

Ajay stood just behind his wife and placed his hands on her shoulders with a reassuring touch, despite the horror being broadcast live, he was there with her.

A sudden thud boomed from the TV’s speakers, immediately drawing Ajay and Jeni’s attention back onto the screen. A desperate and panicked voice shrieked. “What is that?!?! Oh my!! AHHHHH!!!” screamed the reporter as the camera man lost grip of his equipment due to the helicopter spinning out of control sending the occupants of the helicopter thrashing around inside the passenger cabin, followed by the sound of a stomach churning and blood curdling roar before the feed abruptly cut as a result of the helicopter having crashed. The TV feed cut back to the studio, the presenters finding themselves lost for words and visibly very uncomfortable in front of the cameras, their hands shaking as they held their pen and paperwork. Jeni turned around from the TV to face Ajay looking straight into her husband’s eyes. She knew what this now meant. “I have to” said Ajay as he touched her face with his right hand and kissed his wife gently, “I must” he uttered as their lips parted, “don’t be afraid, pray for me and have faith”.

Jeni nodded as her eyes began to tear up. She knew of her husband’s capabilities but had never really seen them displayed. It still didn’t matter. When the one you love is going off into battle, it changes everything.

Ajay’s eyes became steely eyed. He had never fought other powerful beings but that didn’t matter. People were being murdered on an enormous scale and he could not and would not let this stand. He walked outside with his wife suddenly finding herself drawn into his path, following him quickly but stopping in the doorway. Ajay stepped away from his home and his conscience cried out “ASCENDANT JUSTICE!”. His body glowing with brilliant white light in an immediate transformation, before a second later flashing away releasing a rushing wind that blew the grass flat and pressed Jeni’s clothes against her skin from the force of the wind.

He felt strong. He felt assured. He felt his purpose. With his mind and heart settled and indomitably willed in his purpose and mission, he levitated further from the ground until he was around a hundred and fifty feet above his home, his body glowing with a brilliant white fiery glow with his eyes glowing with a bright white flame also, he reoriented himself to face on a south easternly direction and then in as easy as it was to breathe, he burst forth like the crack of lightning across the sky into a near instantaneous supersonic climb into the clouds whereby he then accelerated further into the hypersonic spectrum of speed leaving several shockwaves behind him as his momentum increased.

Ascendant would arrive in London in a few short minutes. It was time for the world to know that a new protector had arrived. And it was high time for the kingdom of darkness to be put down.

A long flight it had been, so long that Deimos had almost completely forgotten the weight upon his back. His wings had been catching the upward draft from the ocean beneath making such a long trip much easier as he no-longer needed to propel his massive weight but rather glide upon the wind currents with his wings used more like a sail and tail as a heavy rudder. It had been a few hours of low-altitude gliding to avoid the chill of both altitude and the fact that they were pathing right by iceland. He could feel the chill lulling him into a drowsy haze but he had to get going, London needed them.

By the time they were up the English channel, he took a heavy pull up, disappearing into the clouds and blending into the night sky. All but invisible from the ground the dragon gives a low groan from his throat to Jordan on his back. “shafaer ekess” The heavy draconic cuts through the clouds, urging Jordan to hold on to something as he selects a target from the streets below. Scales from tail to nose begin to illuminate, obscured by his body from the ground as the space between his teeth crackles to life with angry radiation as he angles his head down, wings flattening out to slow his decent for a moment before propelling him down with a writhing jolt. Instead of another wing beat his wings tucked tight against his body to reduce drag to almost nothing, wind sailing past them with the tell tale whistle obscured by doppler effect until it was too late. By the time the giant roaming clown that some poor fool had conjured up with their fears had noticed the trill it was far too late.

Both sets of wings snap open, pulling his fourteen tons of weight from free fall little over ten feet from impact with the pavement as the torrent of radiation crackles loose into the horrid thing, roasting it alive mid-balloon animal. It melts down into a radioactive pile of sludge as Deimos settles himself onto the streets of London, one wing tucking up under his shoulder and the other laying itself flat to allow Jordan off his back as he holds his head high. This place was a chaotic mess and was soaked through with the copper scent of human blood, the time it took them to travel only left them with a far worse mess as it seemed they were late to the party. His attention turns back to Jordan as he gives a heavy snort. It was hard not being able to really communicate in common, he jerks his horned head back up to the sky as if to offer air support with a heavy trill. Deimos could fight on the ground, but he only risked hurting others with his massive weight. He was far more accurate from the air, perhaps he should opt to change forms later.

Soon as Jordan heard about the tragedy happening in London it was impossible to avoid going. That nagging, good voice in the back of him practically screamed at him to get up and take action. A voice that never found itself going ignored, which just meant it had grown even stronger from the attention. A second, smaller and unknown voice also propelled him. One he didn’t recognize but still drew him to action regardless. The person he first went to was another half dragon, one he had an interest relationship with but one he liked. Especially in a circumstance a dragon who could also cast magic was something he wanted to have on his side, and his other allies were unavailable at the moment. Even his adopted brother Samael, who was likely doing important supernatural mercenary work. (Not that he agreed with the concept in the least.)

That was what led to him riding on the back of a dragon larger than him, crouched low and feeling the wind whip through the hair. Brown and bright green strands whipping around in the wind, batting against his forehead in a notably irritating fashion. Something told him a hat would have made things much easier.  Despite that he kept low, trying not to be thrown off and going pretty well.  Brushing away even the small notes of envy over the dragons majestic and even powerful looking dragon form. Something he could only create an odd mockery of through manifesting some claws, a tail or even wings if he were lucky,  

Soon enough however their fast speed slowed down into a gentle glide as London rose into view. Journey becoming slightly chilly, though it was only iceland. He had heard rumors that some dragons were kept there, a small colony that wanted to avoid humanity or perhaps simply wanted to live out in relative peace. A fact that sprung to his mind unbidden due to boredom, and the lack of anything that could entertain him in the meantime. Soon enough though, their destination came and that was all the relief that Jordan needed, feeling the boredom slip away like a loosely held veil.

That was when they ascended into the clouds, air growing thinner yet not bothering Jordan. He was however acutely aware of how far the earthy felt, and a waning sense of strength within him. Enough to grip the heart, bringing with it a kind of fear he couldn’t quell with simple mental affirmations. He was strong however. People needed him and he had to be, which meant even that fear was smothered soon enough by a stubborn will with no match. He had to be strong, so he would be.

A low, draconic groan issued from Deimos, and all that did was bring about confusion from him. Even still he made an affirmative noise, nodding a couple times sure that he could withstand whatever would come next. As all orientation shifted, he quickly clutched onto something, quickly willing into being sturdy green chains that spanned around Deimos, and allowed him a sturdy anchor as they plummeted downward.  That same wind speed returned all at once, smashing into his face and causing him to lean back some. Dragon throwing its weight and momentum into a massive clown, smashing it flat with a resounding crash.

Using that moment he dismissed the chains, which dissolved like vapor and leapt forward.  Using his and the descents momentum to slam into what looked like a giant arachnid with bladed hairs along a bulbous abdomen. Something gave way and he felt the hairs attempt to shred at his fists and the knees exposed by his shorts.  Massive cracks would spiderweb out from the point of impact, nearly caving it in but not quite. A fire hydrant sent flying into the air as water pressure and collateral damage destroyed what tenuous hold it had on the street. Scent of ozone flavoring the air alongside copper and screams.  Distant, yet loud enough for his strong hearing to pick up and to sicken him to his core.  Whoever was behind this would pay for what he was doing.

Despite the roiling emotions within, he twirled around and gave Deimos a thumbs up, followed by hopping a couple inches away from the growing pool of melted giant clown. ”Oh yeah, take flight if you want. Think you might do better there, especially with the...is that a giant vampire bat? Ah shit it is,” His hands, once tanned skin were not humanoid shaped claws with forest green scales, now glowing with energy having replaced the flesh and fingernails lengthening into inch long talons that could rip through steel as easily as flesh.,

The stratosphere shook and overpressure expanded thunderously as Ascendant cut through effortlessly at hypersonic speed. His levels of cognitive perception had been scanning below using his soul sense for the dark source of energy. As he had quickly picked it up like a bloodhound’s nose in the wind, he locked onto his target destination knowing that the source had to be emanating from London. The travel from Snowdonia to London had only taken a minute and as he approached the outskirts of the city, he decelerated to a slow cruising speed of one hundred miles per hour in order to do some basic reconnaissance before he moved in closer to engage the threats.

Descending through the troposphere his soul sense went into overdrive, forcing Ascendant to very nearly come to a complete stop. Never, had he ever felt such a force of maleficence and especially in such numbers, with a force of seemingly ultimate debauched deviance emanating from central London, like a black hole its darkness was like that of a hypergravitational force that was mercilessly snatching its prey like a cyclone, its victims unable to do anything but be utterly consumed by its insatiable appetite for flesh and souls.

Ascendant grit his teeth and grabbed the sides of his head in an agony never experienced, as his soul sense flooded his mind with all the evil that was present in the dark spiritual vortex, from its outer rims to its centre; every dark entity, every crime, every evil thing thought of, spoken of and acted on; it was all there, and it was already threatening to overwhelm his senses. And like a sail that had gotten caught in a hurricane wind, chains of darkness symbolically began to shroud his mind and his body trying to pull him down into the black abyss. Had all of hell itself been opened so that it poured out into the material realm?! Given his unfamiliarity with evil on such a powerful and wide scale, his heart raced and for a moment as he felt his own psyche slip into a slight panic causing him for the very first time to sweat. He grappled with this pain for a minute but within his psyche and soul it had felt like a glimpse of eternal doom, clutching his head as he fought to regain control of himself.

His eyes filled with divine flames, bright white, pure and glowing with celestial energy. His indomitable will was consciously fighting back with the spark of the divine energy from the Heavenly Kingdom. The power of life and death are in the tongue and so Ascendant spoke as he had been trained to do by the loyal angelic host, his voice thundering as if the words he said had been pulled down from the very heavens themselves “shelter me, O King of Kings, The Almighty. Give me strength, for your name’s sake!”.

Ascendant began to furiously glow all over, white fiery celestial energy drawn from the divine spark shrouded his body and in doing so his mind began to clear. The words of the loyal angelic host coming to memory "Faith casts out all fear because there is no fear in faith". His heart rate settled, his mind cleared and what felt like chains of darkness that had begun to wrap itself around his very mind and pull his very soul down into the darkest of vortex’s below had suddenly snapped, giving instead the total relief of weightlessness in mind, body and spirit once again – he calmly exhaled with a breath of life and the freedom it brought.

Ascendant steadied himself “My heart is ready, O King of Kings”, his eyes continued to glow as they sharpened in a tenacity that could only be achieved having touched and tasted from the divine Heavenly Kingdom that gave total assurance of destiny; an indomitable will personified. Clenching his fists his lips parted speaking words of consummate resolve…

“No    Fear”.

Blasting forward in supersonic spectrum of speed, Ascendant dived down into the fray to unleash the wrath of The Almighty on all spiritual wickedness and its uncleanliness which defiled all it touched. There was no where to hide for any of this wickedness, he could see the stains like a thick black tar that moved like the blackest and most toxic of smoke in the wind. The spirits of damnation and their vile manifestations had clearly acknowledged the presence of the light of the divine that he brought with him, and they rallied themselves together for a full-frontal assault. The most sickly and grotesque manifestations screaming in an unhinged excitement as they abandoned their victims and swarmed what was left of the rooftops and the highest places, some leaping into the air as if gravity was no obstacle for them and others with wings of razors elevating themselves up to put themselves on a head-on collision course with Ascendant.

In amongst the chaos, as he dived down into an attack vector, Ascendant acknowledged two sparks of light in two souls nearby, individuals in their own right; but each equally as bright as the other with one of them rising above the rooftops whilst the other was close to being stationary on the ground. His angelic cognition acknowledged and processed instantaneously - a large dragon and what appears to be a humanoid at least – no time to see them face to face right now – but they would have had to have seen him dive down from above given the shockwave and beam of white fiery light now descending to the earth.

Ascendant locked on to the stream of abominations that had taken flight to engage him and decided to make a statement by despatching them in a typically divine and vengeful manner. His arms glowed even brighter with divine celestial energy, his angelic cognition now perceiving time much faster, so much in fact that the abominations in his path were basically not moving at all.

He thrust his right fist out in the typical overhand fashion of a boxer. The sparks of divine energy erupting as his fist made contact with the first of what looked like a legion of unsightly winged abominations all trying to be the first to get their jagged corrupted claws on Ascendant. Upon contact his fist and energy wave shattered the dark spirits like wafer thin glass and over penetrated as planned going straight through the entire column of sickly looking dark entities, smashing into the buildings below, erupting in an explosive overpressure of celestial light which tore down what was left of the buildings but equally cleansing them of the dark spiritual entities for around four hundred meters in blast radius.

BA-DOOM!!!

Gracefully spinning his body to the left, he cut through the blast wave and rose up into an observation around a hundred feet in the air out the other side as the light and debris cleared all around him. His soul sense still active, as the light and debris began to clear, he acknowledged the presence of a malicious energy what had taken the form of an enormous vampire bat and was circling itself in a predatory fashion over the soul of light on the ground which had very clearly orientated itself to face the threat.

Ascendant levitated forward in upright/standing fashion through the air towards the threat at a hundred miles per hour. His eyes glowed more intensely right before beams of celestial energy in the form of concentrated bright white fire shot forward from his eyes with pinpoint accuracy, colliding with the gigantic vampire bat entity and incinerating it in totality just as easily as the energy beams had cut through it.

He descended lower to within voice range of the bright soul that was still in a combat posture on the ground. Keeping himself levitated he looked up and saw the shadow of a great dragon cast over him in a deliberate flypast, the magnificent looking beast very clearly checking him out but Ascendant could see that it its soul was not that of a murderer or an aggressor. Ascendant looked down at the person he saw below, it didn’t matter what his appearance was, it looked draconic to him – but it what was inside that counts – the matters of heart and its condition. Ascendant carefully scanned him, looking deep into his soul and he smiled at this stranger through the white fiery celestial energy that roared all around him. He saw that this was very clearly not a human in totality but also a very capable being in his own right – the deeds that had made his soul brighter could not be mistaken by Ascendant.

Ascendant decided to open his mouth first, his voice like a distant thunder “Brother, I am Ascendant”.

Jordan was correct in the sense he’d be better in the air. Last thing he wanted was to end up knocking a building down on top of someone. Meanwhile the skies were strife with bats, locusts, and flying monstrosities of all flavors. It was like nothing Deimos had ever seen nor heard of, pure terror on a scale so grand he couldn’t help but wonder for what purpose. He’d head of mass sacrifice for some massive spell, but fear? Then again the fear could just be a symptom as plenty of people did seem to be dying anyway.

Lifting his wings and hoisting his massive weight into the air with a leap and heavy downstroke left the gust of wind laying over the decorative trees, snapping them over at the bases with loud cracks.Time to go take that bat out of the sky- oh wait, someone else got it. Seemed a new player was here to help them clear the place out, he pulls himself up higher to give the new man a wider clearance so as not to send too much of a tailwind in his direction. The big bat might have been taken care of, but the sky was all but dead, filled with pests of varying sizes but mostly swarms.

With an acknowledging roar that shook the heavens he turns his head, clicking his flint-like back teeth together to ignite the propellant flooding between his teeth into a flood of fire as he cuts to the right of a massive swarm of bats, sending thousands of the little buggers fluttering to the ground like flaming embers from a paper fire. He kept his blasting flames through many swarms of bats, bugs, horrors of varying winged varieties all meeting the torch but unable to penetrate the dragon scale to do any damage even as he pushed his way through the flaming cloud of ash. However, a new challenger, one only slightly more worth his time. An awful imitation of what a child might think a dragon would look like from fairy tales, fat, green and poorly proportioned, more of a wyvern than anything else. It was latching itself onto the side of an apartment, assumedly terrorizing the people inside.

With a bellowing roar and a flashy rock of his head he slams, horns first into the creature sending dragon scales clattering to the ground and raking his horns upward, throwing it into the air. It twists and contorts, latching teeth down onto his left wing but Deimos clamps his much larger jaws down on the back of it’s neck, crunching down through bone and sheering flesh. In an instinctual fit of rage he fling it downward, into the pavement below turning it into a pile of flesh and broken bones. He banks back around burning swarms and flying monsters in his path as he makes his way back to his new found ally. He pulls himself vertical, beating his wings downward as a second set descends, pacing itself between wingbeats to keep him aloft without the forward momentum like a much bigger hummingbird.

He knew not if he spoke draconic but was worth the attempt. “This one is Deimos, Ascendant. Do you know what is actually happening here?” Deimos tilts his head, draconic being the only tongue his current form could sustain. Hopefully if he could not communicate with this Ascendant, Jordan could.

The vampire bat circled above them, massive fangs looking all too ready to sink into whatever drew its interest. Energy flashed out, turning the massive bat into smoldering cinders that floated through the air. ”Never mind, looks like someone took care of it for us,” He noted, eyes narrowed as if trying to figure out what had happened above them. Someone had taken care of the creature with a seeming ease, not that he was pretty worried about fighting a massive bat creature. That still meant the sky was full of other things, chains and thorns that writhed and wrapped around the city in small pockets. Well, at least he didn’t feel so useless despite what looked to be...an angel or something like that flying through the air.

He didn’t hear much about them, though he had some bad things from certain person who had reasons to form their own grievances with the divine folk. ”Looks like It’s my turn do something,” His mind raced, thinking over how he could help with the greater disaster and nothing coming up. Maybe he could trust Deimos to do some kind of diplomacy with the angel, if they ended up being a threat. They weren’t against dragons were they? He’d heard that there was a dragon in a holy book, though it was very obviously portrayed as the bad guy.  His fellow half dragon was quick to lash out at a caricature of a dragon, snapping its neck with a might crunch.

”Okay, that was pretty awesome,” He muttered, clawed fists balled up tightly as he looked for anything that needed his attention. Focusing on the space between his shoulders, Jordan imagined and shaped the energy. Through slats formed in his shirt, wings the same color as his scales shot out and he propelled himself up into the air with a rapid speed. Within seconds he was next to Deimos, wings flapping to keep him aloft and eyes on the angel as if he were sure he could do something about him. Well, maybe he was just being a little protective. ”Well you’re not attacking either of us yet so I’m right in assuming you’re friendly right?” He questioned, considering Ascendant guardedly.

He didn’t know anything about the guy but anyone who could help with protecting the city would be welcome. So many people being killed, and he wanted to do something about it.  A concern that he was sure would have been questioned, though he didn’t have any real desire to argue that fact with anyone. With attention still on Ascendant, he let energy coalesce around his right hand, forming three long blades before  rearing back and hurling them to pin strange, undulating flying creatures to the side of a building. He couldn’t tell if that killed them, though only one seemed to screech and wriggle from the attack.

”Know anything about what’s going on? We traveled here as fast as we could to see, but...no real explanation so far,” He shrugged, hoping this angelic man could give some kind of answer.

[08:00 (GMT +01:00)]
The sounds of the city shrieked with the mixture of falling debris, complaining alarms of various types, roaring fires, explosions, screams and inhuman skreiches.

Ascendant found himself in front of a draconic man who hadn’t yet passed his name over, he hadn’t even reciprocated the personal approach that Ascendant had used to identify himself with, but that didn’t mean much right now. Ascendant’s clear observation told him that this figure was on guard, but there wasn’t any time for chatting. There was a mission to complete; lives to save and enemies to be destroyed. He had to act quickly or abandon this meeting and get on with the mission.

With his body still encased in a brilliant white fiery aura of celestial and cosmic energy, he raised up both of his hands with an exaggerated slowness in a display of disarmament. “I mean you no harm. As I said before, my name is Ascendant and I have come to protect the people and purge this evil from these lands for good. This evil most certainly is spiritual in nature but something has allowed it to break the veil of the immaterial and invade the material realm. As you just saw, these things are very real and destroy in the physical...but, they can be destroyed also. Make no mistake, this is a grave threat to the entire planet if this invasion is not put down and stamped out right here. We must locate the break between realities and purge whatever it is that has enabled such a gross violation”, lowering his forearms to hip level and lightly clenching his fists.

“Time is against me - or us. You must choose. But as for me, I serve The Almighty and I will burn out this evil. Brother, if you are with me then you would do well to inform me so that we may join our might together and save the people” said Ascendant, a strong sense of pragmatism now in his voice. Ascendant pointed up with his left hand, gesturing to the great dragon which had clear dominion over the sky above them with none of the unsightly abominations seemingly able to challenge its might. “I presume the dragon is with you. It was there with you when I arrived…I saw you both. Tell your friend also I mean you no harm, but I must not delay my advance any further – I am with you, if you are with me.”

His last word spoken and abruptly ended as the Royal Air Force came thundering overhead with squadrons of their highly advanced supersonic fighter jets. Both Ascendant and Jordan looked up and almost psychically came to the same conclusion as they looked straight back at one another – Deimos (the big dragon from Ascendant's perspective), they will try to take him down also.

Realising the increasing urgency of this situation and the still yet to be decided, team up for battle, Ascendant quickly spoke again in a more authoritative tone, “I charge you right now; these are my lands and my people. And neither you or that dragon will harm these pilots or any of the military forces. They come to the aid of the people and to fight this great evil - this is just. All three of us are most likely now in their crosshairs but we must show restraint and show them that we are their friends by aiding them. Then I will go to the centre of this hellish outpouring and smite it with heavenly wrath."

Unbeknownst to both Deimos and Jordan, Ascendant had been using this time to also get a good understanding of their souls, how they felt, how they could be identified in amongst all he could see in the spiritual realm around him and how they moved. There was no one that he could see for miles that had anything even remotely close to them and therefore if they needed his help, he would know it and could find their exact locations and come to assist them. This was because one’s psyche and soul are interwoven. One manifests in the physical and one in the nonphysical.

Ascendant stopped his talking, resumed his look of indomitable will, nodding his head to the person who had yet to supply his own name and then seemingly instantaneously shot off into the sky leaving shockwaves as he went past the supersonic barrier. As he headed upwards, Ascendant could see further fleets of military helicopters moving in, some moving in a logistics and troop transport capacity whilst others were very clearly heavily armed attack helicopters which provided cover for the deploying troops whilst others went off in their formations to engage the invading abominations.

Looking above him, he saw squadrons of fighter jets that had split into smaller formations and were independently engaging higher aerial targets with some good successes initially, but their formations were quickly split up into both attacking and defending as a result of the abominations showing no fear and suicidally charging at the fighter jets. He decided to match the higher altitude and assist the fighter jets as the winged abominations had superior manoeuvrability with shorter turn radius’s than any of man’s machines could match. Ascendant exploded upwards with his flight force, raising up his arms and spreading his fingers wide he charged up celestial energy balls at the tip of each finger and thumb. Swinging his right arm first in an underarm bowling fashion and then following up with his left hand in a sweeping cross hook, the celestial energy balls instantly released and tracked ten individual targets striking them all in a cluster bomb manner, lighting up the sky with a terrific bright fiery expanse of blast wave and overpressure.

Continuing in his upwards trajectory, Ascendant began to flatten his approach as he joined a wide formation of four fighter jets that had just swung themselves back around to re-attack the targets, he had just atomised by had found themselves with no threats to neutralise. The pilots looked up and over as Ascendant curved himself around over the top of the formation and gave a clear indication with his hand. The clearest and simplest he could think of that would give at least some assurance of friendliness and that he had the ability to communicate on human terms whilst travelling at nearly one thousand miles per hour, was with both thumbs up whilst he nodded his head briefly. If it worked, then it worked.

The pilots seem to freeze, Ascendant had the obvious thought that they were not sure what to make of him nor what to do with him. But he wasn’t going to stick around, he had to trust their judgement in that they would understand if he was going to attack, then he would have. Plus, minus the divine celestial white fiery energy that surrounded his entire body and encased his eyes, he looked human – he just glowed, on fire...a bit - whatever, they would work it out, or so he hoped. Wasting no more time on what if’s, Ascendant pointed one of his thumbs downwards giving an indication that he was dropping altitude. And as he did so, he turned effortlessly into a vertical dive, catching the pilots totally off guard with such a snap-fast manoeuvre.

Crashing back down to earth as a glowing ball of white fire at supersonic speed, Ascendant saw more twisted formations of evil now running and leaping up the Thames Path having come over from Westminster Bridge and smothering the London Eye all the way down to The Queen’s Walk. He also observed on the opposite side of the river covering Parliament Square, Westminster and Big Ben a liquid darkness that suffocated all light and that this was very clearly the epicentre of the attack on London. There was no hiding this from his soul sense. The very same forces that had attempted to overthrow his mind when he first arrived in London, all of it was present at this geographical point.

His eyes filled with divine celestial energy; his indomitable will as hot as ever as he prepared to incinerate all the dark beings that were forming a legion on the London Eye side of the Thames. The white fiery energy blasted forth from his eyes in a wider sweep pattern as he swept over the Thames Path, totally igniting the walkway and breaking it down as the very stones and concrete themselves explosively combusted and melted. He rapidly slowed his flight speed and ran the blast wave from his eyes over the London eye, bringing it crashing down in a white-hot melting blaze as its structure gave no resistance at all to the output of energy that was smothering it, the dark forces themselves catching ablaze for the briefest of moments of exposure to Ascendant’s divine energy and then disappearing into flaking smouldering ash flakes as a result of being consumed in judgement. Ascendant continued his path and flew over The Queen’s Walk, cleansing it in holy fire until all traces of spiritual evil were gone.

Now he had located the centre of the problem, he deliberately attacked the Westminster Bridge in the same fashion. The enemy had total command of it with it’s every square meter being smothered in dark demonic forces. Ascendant had no reservations putting it all into holy flames and he lit rip with the same strength in his eye blasts in a sweeping motion across Westminster Bridge, setting it ablaze and sending off blood crying shrieks of dark spiritual forces as they quickly perished, snuffing out their psychotic screams.

As Ascendant then turned to focus on what appeared to him as enormous vines that had wrapped themselves all around Westminster, he was hit from behind with large calibre 30mm cannons. He turned his head to face the same direction and was hit with a missile that detonated on his fiery celestial aura and the explosion encompassed him in the overpressure and superheated fire. The flames and smoke cleared quickly as a result of his aura brushing them away as nothing like they were nothing more than theatrics, with the multiple tracer lines of armour piercing projectiles fired from the 30mm cannon's ricocheting away upon impact in various directions like a handful of dropped pins on a dense plate of solid steel. Ascendant saw a formation of six attack helicopters bearing down on him. They had clearly seen him set this side of London ablaze and assumed he was a hostile.

“Damn, I need to get out of their way” he quickly thought and so he levitated higher into the air, with tracer fire from the 30mm cannons trailing behind him as the attack helicopters put the nose of their airframes into a near vertical climb to try and hit Ascendant. Seeing how the British Army’s pilots in their attack helicopters remained undeterred he simply burst forward at supersonic speed and flew straight over the top of the helicopters to get out of their way, knowing they could not catch him.

Ascendant wondered whether he should go and check on the two strangers he had met or circle back around to hit the epicentre of the attack in Westminster. One way or the other he or they would have to deal with the epicenter as soon as possible. Or else this invasion would never stop and England would be the first nation to be totally consumed in a hellish darkness of torment.

Bummer, he supposed the other could not speak draconic. Deimos came to the conclusion he needed to research some form of work around for this problem. Perhaps a spell he could find? But later, the sound of British air force whirring in his ears has him tracking their movement. No doubt they’d assume he was no good, dragon stereotype and all. He was pretty confident in his ability to out maneuver planes, however there was no promise the pilot would pull himself out of a tailspin or pull up from the hard deck trying to chase him. He thought it best to stay out of their way by disappearing into the clouds and night sky when given the chance and perhaps make his transition to the ground as a mage a bit early to avoid pulling air support his way instead of where it should be.

This man spoke oddly but if he was here to smash nightmares with them, Deimos was good with it. He leans his head over to give Jordan a light nuzzle with his snout, taking up most of the man’s torso before climbing up into the clouds in a break between ranks of fighter jets, straightening and blending in seamlessly into the night sky. The pilots none the wiser to his presence, but trained eyes selecting big targets below him. He could see three targets of interest within a radius of five hundred feet, one giant reptilian monster taking down buildings, giant monster that seemed to pull itself free from the vines and shamble around town eating people in it’s spiny wake and a third monster that looks like some giant lizard, leaping from building to building and scaling them as if they were nothing. It leaps up and snags a helicopter from the air, cracking it into pieces with it’s jaws and scurrying down the buildings and into the streets.

Deimos keeps himself soaring for a moment, the scales on his dorsal side beginning to glow to life in a contagion from tail to crown of horns, a bright blue mirroring moonlight. As soon as he could feel the crackling of radioactivity between his teeth he twisted down with a heavy beat sending himself into a dive with the wind whipping past him producing the signature whistling of an incoming dragon strike, masked from the ground by doppler effect. Springing his wings out to catch himself from accelerated free fall but instead of pulling himself vertical, this time he straightens out with the residual speed from his dive, launching his radioactive breath weapon into the first reptile as it was rocking a building in an attempt to bring it down. The beam slices right through its abdomen and leaves it dead as the dragon weaves around the corner without so much as scraping any architecture. With the scouting from earlier he weaves his way to the plant monster as it shoots out thorny tendrils to try and snare the incoming beast, only to find him rushing through, thorns scraping against dragon scale drawing blood but proportionally minor scrapes as he uses another torrent of atomic breath to sear the fleshy bulb into writhing pieces on the drive by. The third monster came into view as he waves around other building corner and as he moves to torrent his breath at it, he is caught by surprise by a second one, leaping onto his back, tossing him off course and slamming him into a building. Teeth latch around Deimos’s throat like a vice, cutting off air as he tries to figure out what had just hit him. Deimos pushes his way up and shakes his head to try to throw the lizard off, but it only clamps down harder, spilling blood onto the streets.

Dragging the lizard with him as he stands, the original target jumps onto his back, tearing teeth down into his back, clamping down on the muscle between his wings, sending blood and dragon scale into the pavement. The weight pulls Deimos down as he realizes he cant go too much longer like this. He was getting light headed and this thing was reaching back to tear it’s claws into his shoulder. Deimos closes his eyes and gives a heavy swing of his tail, burying the thagomizer into the skull of the one at his throat like a pike. As he pulls it back, the spike breaks off in it but Deimos was free to breathe as the other pulled back, tearing the muscle between his wings. The dragon gives an awful roar as he slams back into a building, causing it to lose it’s grip, but it’s claws tear a rip down his side as it tumbles to the ground. Wasting no time Deimos pins it, stamping a front foot into it’s sternum and bellowing the last of his atomic breath into it’s face, torrenting radioactivity until it simply quit having a head.

With a heavy breath Deimos cringes realizing he’d lost a lot of blood and continued to bleed from the throat and spine but he would live. His wings ached as vital muscles were damaged. Through a heavy heart a dark cloud consumes the dragon as he realizes there was no way he could outmaneuver the airforce in his current condition so he’d have to make himself not a threat to them. Out pops the mage from the massive cloud, bloody wings tucked against his back, but the damage didn’t seem nearly as severe. He still had pretty gnarly tears around his neck and he was bleeding through his coat but was still walking. Under his arm a book bag of many spells and enchantments.

“Jordan?” He calls, realizing he really shouldn’t be by himself like this. He wasn’t all big and tough like this, but he could still be useful so long as someone had his back. A twinge for fear creeps into his heart like inching vines, not really knowing what was bound to come get him. A deep breath later and his draconic resolve returns as he sets off to go find Jordan.

A dragon and an angel.

Not something he had expected yet here they were fighting amidst the many monsters that poured from The Iron Pit.  Lazarus’ little show must have drawn some interesting people to the party. Among people running, screaming for their lives and dragged with barbed chain into the massive extra dimensional portals. Soul sight did nothing to locate him, because he was simply a void. A nothing within reality that didn’t exist unless someone saw him. That was how he liked it really, especially in dealing with angels. Would Raziel be here watching or was he interested in other things?

Flashes of atomic energy lit the sky in the distance, like lightning that framed the darkening clouds of a forming storm. A low chuckle emanated from his chest, rattling through the onyx black armor that clad and covered his form. Things were just becoming all too interesting.  He British air forces joining, well that was par for the course and yet also amusing. Missiles trying to fight back the tide of the supernatural horrors beyond mortal ken. Did they really think they could do it? Well, maybe they could but he also thought it was a little too boring. Anyone could throw around missiles.

The third, what he assumed was a dragon also was fighting a few of the monsters. Pinning some through the neck against a building with strange green spears. ”What are you little half dragon>” He sounded almost amused,  looking up from the streets, eyes narrowed within the slit of his helm. The jets were following the angel, letting lose as if they didn’t even understand who was on their side. Humans had no idea how to keep themselves alive did they?

”Maybe I need to remind humanity who they really need to fear,” With an armored finger he counted out the jets flying through the air, stopping near two dozen. Not enough. With a flex of will, scintillating blades of black energy ringed with faint crimson red rose from them. Seconds passed with nothing happening, the figure disappearing into nothingness and appearing on one of the many London buildings.

”I was starting to get a little bored,” As the angel flew over a helicopter the blades of darkness seemed to apparate from nowhere and run through them, barely perceptible blurs that rent them in twain before reducing them into an explosion. Brilliant fireworks signaling the end of a persons life, something that drew Jordan’s attention; eyes now wide with shock.

”You guys are great! Great show really!” He called out, voice having more volume than expected with an unaided shout.  ”fighting for your inferiors, risking your lives! Honestly I love it, amazing!” Heartily he laughed, a man in what looked to be dressed in a mixture of metal blades and leather, a helm like a skull covering his face with glowing runes like magma. Their language unknown, and the man vacuous to anyone that could see his soul. As if there was nothing standing there, postulating. He breathed in the buzz of radiation, feeling the void within consume it greedily.

The larger dragon was damage, oozing blood but not of a concern to him. While he made his loud proclamations,  Jordan had already rushed him. Wings giving a powerful flap that propelled him through the air at rapid speeds. ”Hasty aren’t we?” he grinned, the thrown fist nearing and yet sliding through him as if an illusion. With a rapid motion he moved around the half dragon, slamming his knee into his stomach and sending him hurtling through the air to slam into the ground a good twenty feet from Deimos. Nearly caving in the street, and  sending massive cracks outwards from the impact point.

The jets that were concerned about Ascendant suddenly had their attention to him. ”Ouch...hey Deimos. You okay?” He questioned, dribbles of blood coming from his mouth.  ”weird guy in armor. Kinda strong actually,” He managed, choking out with a little more blood. Looking up to the figure, he felt a strange sensation. Am ominous aura that exploded outwards, catching everything around within it. A kind of dread, hatred, despair, rage and all of those negative emotions that pressed down on him like the deepest depths of the ocean.

Even for a moment he felt that iron will falter under the rush before bolstering itself. “I don’t know what that thing is but he’s...dangerous. Might kill us if we’re not careful,” He said to Deimos, watching the man turn his attention mostly towards the angelic being.

”Didn’t expect, one of his pawns here in the trenches. We’ll have to see if you’re worth the effort to kill,” Jets like dead birds crashed from the sky, some into each other and some just into buildings as well as the streets below. Massive plumes of fire and smoke that reached the heavens. ”I was told to stay out of this but just can’t resist dragging the divine into the muck,” An onyx black blade formed into his hands, shaped like a long sword and gleaming with gruel malice.

”So dance with me angel, let’s see if you have what it takes.” A dark energy shrouded his weapon, some of the prepared energy blades rising from various ruined streets like missiles towards the angel. Powerful enough to shred through most entities, spiritual or otherwise. With that distraction he seemed to disappear and then was a good foot away from Ascendant with a flurry of powerful slashes.

Somewhere in the Welsh mountains in the region of Snowdonia - 08:12 (+01:00 GMT)

The sound from the TV frantically pitched and spat as a result of the multifaceted natural and unnatural sounds that were being aired live from distant media helicopters and their multitude of teams on the ground that were trying to get the best footage of the chaos in amongst the military exclusion zones. To any onlooker, it was clear that Central London was now a complete write off. Almost every building was in a smoking and dusty heap or had been damaged beyond repair that it would have to be demolished if this invasion didn’t stop and the United Kingdom itself survived.

Jeni looked onward as the TV screen flashed a brilliant white light from a thunderous explosion that almost blinded out the onlooking media camera’s focus as the reporters and their film crews were again pushed back by the British Army and being told to evacuate all of London. The general outcome of this was begining to look like it only had two worth while plans of sorts: the military was losing any perception of control over the situation that they had and were about to go in with multiple divisions of troops, armour, artillery support and air support, or what was feared to be the more likely outcome…that the government would or more likely had authorised a tactical nuclear strike on Central London, one of the oldest established cities in the world.

The TV continued to echo as Jeni removed her focus away from it and speed dialled Ajay’s parents. It rang once before it was answered “are you seeing this?” spoke Jeni, her voice soft but the aura of concern in each word couldn’t help but be carried along. “Yes darling” the older voice of a woman responded, Ajay’s mother, the wisdom of her age not giving any further rise to alarm due to her assured words. “We must stay in prayer regardless of what happens. Nothing can snatch us from salvation, we are secure. We must have faith to any end – faith casts out fear my love…he will be alright no matter what happens and the best thing we can do right now is keep him in prayer. We have been in contact with the rest of the church all this morning and the word is spreading widely that we must all be on our knees in humble prayer.” responded Ajay’s mother.

Jeni nodded gently; her eyes closed with an acceptance and calm assurance, making her requests known to The Almighty in the quietness of her own heart. Her faith always told her that none of us are really in total control of our own lives, that it can all change in an instant and this sudden event early this morning, was only further observable evidence to that fact. The arrogance and vanity of the human heart was so very deceptive, and she knew not to trust it because feelings can always be wrong and be manipulated; but instead, only trust His eternal word from above.

[Central London – 08:15 (+01:00 GMT)]

The British military had occupied every airport within a 50 miles radius of central London to act as additional forward operating bases in amongst the network of military bases located across the entire south of England. The biggest evacuation of civilians from the Greater London area since World War Two was underway. The Royal Navy now had aircraft carriers, an assortment of frigates and destroyers and submarines located just outside SouthEnd On-Sea, Dover, Brighton and Portsmouth, all armed to the teeth with a plethora of strike options and combat aerial assets. The battleships from their varied locations began launching a series of supersonic and hypersonic missiles at large area targets. The American Air Force bases located in East Anglia had also been stood up and sent in their squadrons highly advanced combat aircraft and drones to join the Royal Air Force aircraft and drones in like manner. The French military machine also sent its ships and aircraft as part of a wider allied response into the English Channel to reinforce the Royal Navy.

An attack of such magnitude had become a truly global event within two hours. And now as the American military also sent its pilots into harm’s way, the entire world via TV screens and online platforms, watched on in horror as London imploded faster with every passing minute. Tracer fire from skyward antiaircraft missiles and CWIS-style antiaircraft cannon’s snaked through the skies, interlocking and striking deformed entities which were seemingly replaced by a handful of others for every one that was hit.

The initial quick reaction forces from the British Army were locked in heavy street fighting with many units in a fighting retreat as the individual fears of every single soldier was beginning to manifest in different forms and some manifesting right in front of some soldiers themselves, only adding to the increasing number of hostiles which needed to be engaged at near point blank and at varying distances. Troops called in desperate danger-close strike missions from aircraft as a result of their positions being surrounded and cut off and others which were about to be overrun. Some got their strike missions on time whilst others were consumed by the demonic hordes which were then bombed into an oblivion via precision guided munitions.

Central London ran red. Its skyline choked with smouldering ash and dust so much in fact that the sky over the Greater London area began to darken from it. It’s once iconic landmarks now gone, reduced to rubble and ash.

Ascendant left the attack helicopters in his wake, wanting to do no harm and show no hostility to the military forces. He had seen the epicentre of the problem with his own eyes and seen the figure of a humanoid, its inner self as black as the void in free space and as empty of any sign of law, light and goodness like the bottomless pit of hell. Ascendant vowed to destroy it. He vowed to burn it out with holy light and purge this great evil. He now knew what this evil and emptiness felt like and his indomitable will resolved stoutly to destroy it for he did not fear it.

In the briefest of moments that his angelic cognition had monologued the righteous indignation from within his inner most being whilst in supersonic flight, the attack helicopters now around 2 miles behind him had been destroyed and he felt the space between him as he travelled, and the outside world suddenly rip into an empty void as if existence itself was being violently drawn down a bottomless plughole. Reality itself tantalisingly slow now in his angelic perception and cognition, the void in reality slicing open, bringing forth a dark being, a very shadow itself coming into his vision and solidifying with a deep black onyx blade slashing down at him, the strike itself deliberately placed to intercept him on his line of direction, thus seeking to increase the possibility of success.

Ascendant’s cognition saw the void and blade and channelled divine holy energy to his arms, encasing them in holy light from the divine celestial energy, igniting them within a millimetre of the blade striking his angelic armour. The blade sparked as it came into contact with holy energy that had shrouded the angelic armour, Ascendant gritted his teeth as he felt the energy transfer into him but by the skin of his teeth had managed to negate the vast majority as a result of the divine energy and angelic armour.

With time itself still moving in a heightened exaggerated slowness due to his angelic cognition processing all that was going on around him and reacting to it, the dark demonic blade grinded across the holy flames sending embers of divine energy sparking off as the blade began to rise off his forearm in an almost violent reaction to having encountered its spiritual and energetic exact opposite. Still perceiving time well within the picoseconds of space, Ascendant dropped his bodyweight so that the majority of his body mass would travel off to the right, past the centreline of his opponents strike whilst his left forearm glided around the flat of the blade, placing his left hand on it and pushing it away to his left hand side, using his opponents own momentum against it too.

As he did this, he charged an energy ball of divine fire in his right hand instantaneously and utilised his forward momentum to swing his right arm around in a right-cross motion, releasing the energy ball of a destructive and cleansing holy fire straight back at his new opponent as an immediate counterattack whilst continuing in his momentum to clear the area and move himself out of harm’s way.

The energy ball of divine judgement then passed through a void again, his opponent having slipped out of phase to avoid the counterattack, the energy of divine judgement having flames that almost seemed like it was reaching out to grab the physical form that for a nanosecond had previously been present in order to completely ignite it in an bright white light of a holy inferno of judgement, had raced on through where its target was and struck the ground pushing out a wall of white fire that passed straight through and over the debris in the city below.

Multiple dark blades broke the space between in the blink of an eye where Ascendant had just been as he had placed his left hand on the blade to parry, shooting upwards into the sky, the dark blades continuing on in their upwards trajectory, tearing through the fabric of reality themselves. As Ascendant continued on his defensive motion back travelling, he locked onto the blades, powering celestial energy balls at each of his fingertips and then launching them up at the blades, intercepting them and consuming them into nothingness, thus removing the threat of them in that moment.

Ascendant was now hyper alert having barely escaped a surprise attack – cognizant of the fact that his angelic mentor from the Archangel command would have been disappointed in him at such a slow response and lack of perception.

Now angry with a righteous indignation in that very moment, Ascendant adopted a protective stance with his fists raised and body positioned to move in any direction he desired. This new challenger broke the void and spiritual veil once again and materialised around a hundred feet away from him in the air, effortlessly floating at the same altitude he had also become stationary at.

He heard it, he heard it chuckling briefly. The dark laugh which only came from pleasure in the ungodly and abominable things was unmistakable.

Ascendant’s eyes glowed even more intently again, he was ready to blast this fiend with his eyes and hands and purge him in a consuming judgement. His soul sense struggled to find the source of the enemy, it only found a void in reality, like a mask, a cover of sorts which at an extended distance would be enough to keep him out of Ascendant’s sight. But a rip in the veil is still a rip in the veil and that’s enough for Ascendant to be immediately suspicious of it – and that he could see at a closer range at a good distance from his own arms length. His only problem was keeping up with it as it could appear at any time and in any place around him. He would have to keep his line of sight on it and utilise his superior speed to help increase his success of a counter.

There was no longer any need for him to hold back in the centre of London. The entirety of Central London had been utterly devastated. Now Ascendant could rip into the higher end of the hypersonic speed spectrum at his own discretion without having to worry about civilian casualties – there were none left, nor were there any military ground presence either. All life at ground level had been wiped out for several grid square miles from Central London.

Ascendant was now up against a serious opponent and was totally resolved to give him or it, no quarter whatsoever and battle it to the death or banishment – whatever could be done first.

Hi voice thundered in judgement, the will of The Almighty personified “you made a serious mistake violating the veil between the most unclean trough that you crawled out from and the human world. You are not welcome here. You are not supposed to be here. And I will destroy you”

Ascendant then opened up his fists as they glowed brighter, his aura of divine white fire surged brighter as he settled into a serious combat mode. Celestial orbs of energy about the size of a basketball each, quickly began forming, several within the space of a second from either hand and then kept on forming several more with each second that passed. All of them taking fierce rapid flight independently from the other. A great many settled in a defensive flow around Ascendant, changing directions at random and even moving between his arms, torso, head and legs so that no pattern could be established, whilst many dozens of others surrounded the area and all around them both, with others having closed in on his opponent as if to limit its movement’s by forming a randomised barrier of divine energy orbs around it. All of the celestial energy orbs moving in random directions and forming an equal defensive and attacking cluster for around one hundred meters in every direction around Ascendant.

His eyes narrowed and he spoke with an absolute confidence in his abilities, the sky itself echoing with the thundering tone of authority “I’m ready, you filth. Give me your name… and I’ll put your name to the test. I swear by The Almighty above, I will destroy you and your kind over there who has opened this gross violation between realities over at Westminster. A great many may try to flee from you out of fear – but I will not. Justice shall be done this day. And I do not fear darkness, I do not fear any void, I do not fear any of the most grotesque and vile demons in hell and I do not fear even fear itself. You will find no place for them in me – only hope and faith, justice and purity – assurance of salvation and the will of The Almighty.”

His white fiery divine aura surged brighter along with his conviction – indomitable angelic will. Whoever his new opponent was, Ascendant had resolved to annihilate it one way or the other. The table was set, and it was time to begin.

“I got ambushed by giant alligator things. I’ll be alright.” Jordan on the other hand, Deimos didn’t know he could even bleed at all. The wave of horrid emotion was not lost on Deimos either as he winces. Some horrible thought, a thought he didn’t even know if it was his own cascaded before his mind. A face he knew, but had never laid eyes on flashing through his inner thoughts so briefly he never would have given it a second thought. He shakes it off, chalking it up to the magic running rampant through London as he kneels, hands glimmering with powdery magic as he settles down next to Jordan. Deimos’s healing magic felt like a cool breeze creeping under the skin, usually it was pretty quick to mend cuts and reset broken bones but this time it was lagging behind both due to Jordan’s magic resistance and due to the chill Deimos couldn’t even tell he had in his fingers. His hands lacked any heat as the chill of an autumn London sucked the warmth from his cold blooded body, making him groggy and sluggish.

“I’ll get you fixed and send you back to go find the big tin can. I don’t think I can fly though.” Deimos groans as the pain between his wings sets in causing him to cringe. “I’ll give support from the ground. I think I can reach him with a well placed fireball.” Not that he thought it would do much. The man made Jordan into a ragdoll, what could he possibly do to him? Just as that thought finishes he locks eyes with a blackened figure stumbling down the street like a deranged drunkard… with that same awful smile. Deimos has only a moment to duck his head down as an oddly crackly bolt of thunder cracks from the odd man’s blackened and bloody fingers shattering what was left of the ruins behind him.

“Fuck. New plan.” Deimos sits back up, blinking with shock at just how overcharged that spell was. It was a witch bolt but… strange. Way stronger than normal and wild with rage. Coming to the decision that he couldn't let this guy get involved with the fight between Ascendant, Jordan and this new big bad evil guy he closes his mending hands into a fist. Deimos’s healing magic suddenly solidifies around Jordan, keeping itself tight to his skin like an aura. A shield that would tank one instance of damage entirely, hopefully to buy him some time in the fight with the floating metal man. “You deal with Clegane up there and I’ll handle whatever the fresh hell that thing is.”

Something deep in Deimos’s bones urged him to be afraid of this thing, unsure of what it was and watching it’s erratic behavior. It looked like a man, eyes dripping blood and coughing up this black sludge that seemed to coat it’s arms, smear it’s face and stuck to it’s body all over. In place of human nails were splintered and bleeding claws as it readied another attack.

“Hey chucklenuts!” Deimos shouts to pull it’s attention again. Seemed it attacked whatever held it’s attention for the moment as it’s spell it was ready to send at a random flickering flame burst forth at Deimos with the same crackling speed and power, narrowly dodged as Deimos snaps his wings out to force him 5 feet to the left, spilling blood from his wounds which only seemed to drive this mage-like creature more wild with lust. “S-shit.” What did he get himself into! He didn’t really have many offensive spells but what he did have was preparation. With a wave of his hand his books flood from his book bag and levitate in front of him, burning several of his daily spells to do so. Very much worth it in his mind as burning them gave him access to whatever was in the books.

Turning pages as he quickly backsteps the advancing mage’s spells he growls, finally having the ability to strike back with a hand wave and a menacing draconic command he mirrors the spell, but not nearly to the degree the original caster had done, lacking that painful diseased crackle as it soars head first into him as Deimos doesn’t even check the damage, bolting behind a column as the sorcerer just tanks the hit and shakes it off with a manic laughter.

Deimos was pinned, moving from behind the pillar meant risking taking a hit, staying here gave up the advantage. He needed to calm down and think.

Flashes of fire, light and spurts of darkness released through the air. Erebus ducking, weaving and phasing through all threats with a seeming amusement that bordered on arrogance. As if he were at play, not fighting something that could be called his equal. Each clash between them eliciting a chuckle or some kind of backhanded encouragement to stoke righteous indignation. ”Seriously? That all you can do? Give a sermon to me?” He mused,  attacks all passing through him with seemingly no damage or even slight injury.  Inflammatory words, accompanied by mocking tone tinged with bemusement. ”Destroy me? That’s pretty funny once you learn how impossible that actually is,”

Flashes of divine power seemed to slip through the man, unable to make purchase on something that didn’t even exist. ”this is pretty amusing though. So I’ll play along,” He shrugged, looking down to the two dragons and then back to the angel. ”You can call me Erebus. Servant of the most high truth, The Beast of The End and Herald of The Void. So on and so forth, don’t know all the titles it’s been given over the aeons,” Erebus gave a slight bow, and grandiose gesture as if going through a rehearsed speech. His speech was flavored with an an irritation near the end, eyes within the blackness of his helm focused on the angel. ‘

”Now, let’s see if you can save anyone,” Then he was gone. No longer in existence, yet instead blinking through the nothingness that permeated everything. Jordan was the one to next see him, a dark armored creature  already grasping him by the collar. ”borrowing this,”

Despite the strength he had, Jordan was ripped from his feet and drawn up like a shield between the divine mines which exploded towards Erebus.  Brilliant, luminescence that flooded the street. When that faded, he was holding Jordan with a flickering field of silver energy over him before quickly fading. ”Ouch, friendly fire right?” He chuckled, hurling the half dragon through the air towards the angel before disappearing away from the quick barrage of mines.

Next he was above the angel, a hand raised. ”Now, be consumed in a flood of nothingness,” A black, viscous liquid poured out from the raised hand like a fountain. An impossible volume that spilled out from him and onto the streets below, washing over anything that could be caught under the flow.  Slamming against the foundations of buildings as they began to buckle, flowing like water as anything touched by it rapidly became nothing.  Jordan had moved, grabbing Deimos if he were close enough and leaping onto one of the collapsing buildings.  A mire of muck, destruction given foul form that stretched out to consume all within the radius of many hundred meters.

Whatever battle or damage Deimos had taken he didn’t need him getting swept up in the flow. Spreading out his power to keep this and a few buildings from collapsing into that damnable tide. ”That crazy guy still around?” he questioned to Deimos, watching the tide below reaching out with tendrils attempting to latch to and drag Ascendent into it.

After its introductory speech, Ascendant had watched as this ‘void’, this essence of ‘death’ calling itself ”Erebus”, moved and shifted between realities. It’s presence or lack thereof was not something he was gravely concerned about. It didn’t matter how much void or death of existence this being possessed, it would never have the power to snuff out the spark of the divine that was within him, the blessing from eternity – from The Almighty. The eternal power was the perfect counter to death as it was sourced from the very point of eternal life itself. This being represented despair and death, but Ascendant represented hope and the power that came from an eternity that was outside of and independent from all creation; and eternity wasn’t about to be consumed by a paradox manifestation of death. The two combatants situation was the epitome of the unstoppable force meets the immoveable object.

He wasn’t concerned about its speed, or lack thereof and wanted this Erebus to move and start to show his cards. He had been caught out once before by sheer surprise; he had never expected to come across a being like this. But now he had seen its speed, its movement, he was mentally adjusting to its patterns. Who did this Erebus think he was dealing with? Some amateur? Obviously this was the case, due the sheer disdain displayed for Ascendant and divine authority in Erebus's countenance and prior speech made it all too clear. The arrogance from Erebus would be his downfall and Ascendant would not interrupt his enemy whilst his enemy was making a mistake, he would look to exploit it in any way he could. Ascendant had been trained by the Archangel command; he was no slack in martial affairs in the material and immaterial. But without a way to gauge his enemy’s strength he had to restrain himself for now, un-attach from the situation and take psychological step back to gather more intelligence on his enemy. This would enable him to see the bigger picture and thus make more informed choices and conclusions.

He knew very much that ‘death’ was an entity in of itself and had enormous encompassing powers over the creation which had become corrupted due to the fall of humanity and the collapse of the Divine Council. Erebus looked like another manifestation of this encompassing power of decay. Ascendant watched as Erebus took his hostages. The divine celestial energy almost igniting in a furious fire began to spark at Ascendant’s finger tips as he watched in a slight anguish yet an anguish he would endure to see what kind of move Erebus made – patience….patience… An opening will come, he thought in the quietness of his own mind.

Erebus flew upwards holding the draconic man to slam him straight into some of the celestial orbs of judgement that Ascendant had scattered as a web of minefields to try and trap Erebus. As the draconic man was within a hairsbreadth of connecting with one, Ascendant’s eyes flashed with white fire as he withdrew power from them so that he would save the heroic soul that had come to battle this evil. Erebus had not noticed this immaterial flex of this celestial energy control on Ascendant’s part, he was too busy delighting in the pain he was causing to have noticed. By the time the draconic man had impacted with the second orb, the explosion was only a type that was powerful enough to blow up a car and not an all-consuming fire.

What was clear to Ascendant was that Erebus wanted absolutely no part in being touched by the holy fire and he went well out of his way to avoid it. In the short time they had skirmishing blows and converse, Ascendant had picked up on two weaknesses:

1 – Erebus’s hubris could be used against him. It wasn’t a guarantee, but he could see that Erebus reflected an arrogance of something that was overly cocksure of itself.
2 – Holy fire; a big give away. He’s only so arrogant because he has never had to face an opponent that can put his very being in jeopardy if he comes into contact with holy fire sourced from eternity itself. Ascendant’s body was roaring with holy fire from within him and around him – that was why Erebus attacked with the sword… It all began to make sense. Including his taking of hostages.

With a perfect poker face; his indomitable will expressed, remaining unchanged, Ascendant concluded in his own mind…
”I think he could be afraid of me(?)... I’ll see what he does next…but I may have to move first...”

Erebus launched the draconic man in Ascendant’s direction but had given away that this was all just a ploy. His enemies pattern at this present moment was obvious and Ascendant once again concluded in his own mind – strike and move, strike and move, strike and move. Very linear indeed, although this could change at any given time – a fight is a fight and anything can happen.

The draconic figure managed to change his own direction in flight and latched onto the great dragon which had been hurt below during a previous engagement yet still dived up to save its friend. This was clearly a very loyal friend of his which was now certain to Ascendant.

Suddenly a void opened up just above Ascendant with an outstretched arm that had curdled emptiness itself into a liquid form and blasted it down like an enormous waterfall at Ascendant. Having been combat ready since the initial ambush, Ascendant threw up his right arm with his fingers spread wide from his hand and let loose with divine holy fire, blasting straight into enormous torrent of creation twisting decay that now fired off in every direction around them as if a hand had tried to contain a burst water main.

The two hands, one from Erebus above and one from Ascendant below, were pressed against either side of the wall of totally opposite forces. Ascendant’s expression had not changed at all, he wanted Erebus to reveal his true power and despite the fact that they could not see one another as a result of their equally yoked yet opposing forces pressing against one another, Ascendant felt that Erebus had not expected this response. Or was Erebus also, testing out Ascendant's power and his will to fight?

The initial spurts of black destructive liquidous decay landed droplets onto the holy fire that roared around Ascendant, only to be removed from existence entirely as they were cleansed in the fire. As the torrent of decay surged out in all directions around the white fiery inferno of celestial energy Ascendant had unleashed, the output from Ascendant had now had the equal opposing affect by pushing itself outwards to the edges of the surging liquid that was emanating from Erebus’s hands and began to purge the edges of the liquid, slowing its torrent as the decay itself was consumed and cleansed into nothingness.

Ascendant looked below whilst maintaining his high level of alertness to what was going on above and around him. He saw the liquid decay behave like a hive-mind but very acidic-like in its flow and corrosion, twisting and bending and dissolving everything it touched. Having seen this, he saw the very same liquid decay lunge up towards him with desperately hungry tentacles. Opening his left hand wide and aiming it below, he quickly powered up his hand into a bright white fire and then unleashed a blast wave that went out in an enormous convex shape, the divine celestial energy instantly wiping out the liquid decay below by having a super-fast evaporating effect on the decay below as it roared triumphantly. He clenched his fist and allowed the blast wave to detonate like a hydrogen bomb blast wave, the overpressure again flying out in all directions in a supersonic speed, a white fiery wind sweeping away the black vicious liquid into annihilation - judgement and purification, a true trial by fire.

Reacting quickly once again whilst relaxing his left hand, Ascendant began to push more energy into his right hand and applied the same level of force as he did below. The blast morphed into a convex shape and pushed itself outwards like a giant bowl of holy white fire and evaporated the black liquid of decay upon contact that was surging from Erebus’s hands. He felt a slight slack on the torrent that had been previously overflowing above him... The white fire from his convex celestial blast-wave above him seemed to glow bright and brighter and brighter still…

Ascendant’s lips parted ever so slightly and between the terrifically terrifying booming noise of the two opposing powers clashing against one another, and confidently said “bye bye”. He closed his right hand sharply into a fist and detonated his energy output above him, once again causing a massive explosion of over pressure like a hydrogen or fuel-air type bomb. The explosion blotted out the very daylight itself for a few seconds, the draconic man and his loyal dragon friend covered their eyes as they abandoned the rooftops for the ground below that had been totally destroyed and cleansed, having been turned into an enormous bomb crater hundreds of meters in diameter, revealing the underground infrastructure and tube train lines that had been blasted clean through.

In the midst of the explosion, Ascendant had launched himself off to the left-hand side at near hypersonic speed and curved around the blast wave to get an overarching perspective of the battlefield. He kept himself moving, ready at an instant to change direction and accelerate well into the hypersonic spectrum of speed. He kept moving and changing directions at random, surveying the battleground and looking all around him as he moved. He was ready to re-attack at the slightest picosecond of notice, his angelic cognition well able to perceive this type of speed giving him plenty of time to react. As soon as his eyes saw the rip in the veil, Ascendant would be on to him – giving Erebus no quarter. He just had to keep on moving and move fast.

His mind remained focused – and he asked himself a question of battle damage assessment – Where did he go? He couldn’t be sure as he had no visual or other sensory confirmation that Erebus had been caught up in the blast and so he kept looking for rips in the veil of creation that would expose Erebus’s position as he re-entered. Seeing the draconic man and his great dragon friend below, Ascendant swept down to do a flypast within an easy earshot of their position, slowing his flight speed. “You two! Don’t stop moving! He may re-appear at any moment!” shouted Ascendant before he quickly blast forward and up into the air at above supersonic speed, leaving multiple shockwaves behind him as he changed his vector to be as randomised as possible for defence and counter attack.

Just as Deimos begins to feel the pressure, he was about to step out from behind cover to attack back, Jordan snatches him up, depositing him onto a rooftop for his own good as the building he was taking shelter in crumbled to the void seconds later. “Thanks.” He huffs, standing and readying his spellbooks. “I’m not sure. Leave him to me, you deal with the other crazy guy. Here.” With a wave of his fingers magic solidifies around Jordan again, bestowing yet another shield to take damage for him. “Fucking cockroach son of a bitch.” Deimos swears as the mage’s hand climbs from the muck and pulls himself onto the rooftops. He coughed up black sludge and cried tears of blood through his laughter. It was enough to unnerve the young dragon. He looked as though he was falling apart, hair falling out in clumps and blackened skin tight against bone.

Trembling wings spread ready to fly if he must but spilling blood onto bricks as magic crackles around, blood running hot as Deimos only gets more furious. Deimos was doing pretty good at dodging spells, throwing them back just as quickly as the mage was, but the man was lithe and moved in ways that were just inhuman. He’d hit him once earlier but all thart did was leave a smoldering script of blue along his skin, it did nothing but give him a moment of pause.


He was running through resources quickly trying in vain to hit a moving target with spells he was unsure of hitting and he was running low on time. Eventually he’d get hit, he’d just have to make it count. Taking a deep breath he pauses, charging up something nasty as three rotating orbs float around him all at once catch on fire like angry comets. As the mage steps forward to cast Deimos swiftly steps forward loosing one of the comets sending it screaming right past him and slamming into one of Jordan’s constructed building, but sure enough Deimos had managed to dodge the witch bolt with a groan as it too crumbled bricks and stone from another building. Another attempt and another miss as both manage to dodge. Deimos pants, slowly exhausting himself. He had one more and he was done, luckily, the other mage also seemed exhausted.

Just as he steps forward a blinding light interrupts the duel, forcing him to lift his hand and loose an ill-placed comet, wasting the spell… and worst of all, a crackling witch bolt crashing center-mass Deimos screams in pure pain, finding all muscles stiffening at once and sending him clattering into the floor. Brand sears it’s script into his flesh and smoking from under his shirt with the smell of burnt flesh and something far more sinister. Deimos was down, vision blurred as he could taste blood. This thing was still coming for him, claws poised and in all likelihood about to take his head off. His wings begin to glow, drawing upon the last reserves of energy Deimos had as the light hum of magic pulls itself in.

The wild mage leaps upon the downed mage, yanking his head to the side by his hair and poising it’s clawed hand to tear it off. “Fuck you.” Deimos swears in draconic as a torrent of energy suddenly erupts from him like a beacon of radioactivity, scorching the mage in its tracks as it screams. For almost a full ten seconds Deimos does not relent in his coup de gras and by the end, the charred upper skeleton crumbles to dust beside the wounded and exhausted mage. Deimos gulps in air, staring into the stary sky. Forgetting Erebus, forgetting Jordan and Ascendant, for the moment, he just stayed, heart slowing dramatically as the blinding pain from the point blank witch bolt only seemed to spread and roast him alive from the inside out, but oddly, he didn’t feel that at the moment. Nor did he even know the half of the hell he was staring in the face. He just needed to close his eyes for a minute. He should be dead, but something far worse was stopping that. As if forcing his heart to continue to beat, forcing his lungs to draw air and forcing his fingers to twitch every so often as the tips began to feel an odd tingling or crackling energy.

Holy light moved to clash with pure nothingness. Creations attempts to fill the empty space writhing beneath it, to only slim effect but effect nonetheless. Even still Erebus remained on course, seeming to weave and move through the air around the massive golden explosions that lit up the sky.  Even still, a crescendo of brilliance that lit up the sky and caused the two dragons to be near blind from the radiance.  When was the last time that he saw something this bright? It made him think back to his world, when he clashed against that one angel. Thinking back brought the phantom pains  and exhilaration along with it.

That was when he felt this angels own light smash against him. Meeting with a rapidly  increasing durability, as it threw him into the embrace of the nothingness below. Giving like water, yet accepting him differently than how anyone else would have felt. No destruction, only the understanding that they were both the same. Quickly the tide closed around him, unseen to the one above who might have thought him dead. Destroyed perhaps? It was always existence that thought they could destroy something so above them.  So he moved through that inky blackness, unseen as the surface didn’t even ripple.

”Deimos?” Jordan questioned, his voice tinted with fear and concern as he looked to the half dragon who seemed to be in a very bad shape. What had happened? Was it something to do with the mage he had been fighting? That brilliant flash of light had left him blind, long enough not to see what had happened. Without even thinking he moved to Deimos’ side, keeping up the field which kept many buildings from falling into and fading in the void below. Right now he felt no strain, yet he wondered how long they would be up here.

Would they be able to stop it? Looking out all he saw was the black liquid spreading,  buildings of various size sinking into it. What would be left? ”hey angel guy! I don’t know about this guy but it looks like this stuff is gonna eat up the city if we don’t do anything!” Jordan called out, hoping at the very least he could hear them.

”He’s right. Don’t figure that out soon and your whole city and everyone left in it are basically all fucked.” Erebus seemed to pop up, propping himself on the edge of the building Jordan and Deimos were on. He raised a fist, slamming it into the building which caused massive  cracks to spread outwards despite the force holding it up. Jordan extended his claws , slamming them into the part of the building that wasn’t falling into the depths. Deimos however didn’t seem as lucky, the tendrils rising to drag him into the depths.

Apparently oblivion but that wasn’t all.

”He’s needed elsewhere, so don’t worry about that,” He chuckled, looking up to the angel, brilliant grey blades forming around him and preparing to launch out if they tried to do anything. to stop Deimos.

For Deimos however there was something different now. A painless, liquid embrace as he was dragged further and further into the void. Images beyond reckoning, colors of all kind flowing past him like a strange slideshow. Worlds he knew nothing of, yet they seemed to mean something.  ”Interesting, a little dragon steps through The Void to my seat,” A voice resounded through the darkness, worlds like stars scattered around in the distance.

”At least Erebus knows when to follow my orders. Like now,” It was masculine, yet reverberated like a legion before solidifying into one. ”Welcome Deimos, child of dragons. I was wondering if you wanted to make a deal with me. ” Even looking upon him, he could tell what he saw and knew that it was beyond even Erebus by boundless metrics. A cloak of fluttered void and skull mask beneath the hood, faint shape of a smirk beneath that mask.

”You’ll need my blessing afterall,”