Ava looked out over a sea of steel. Well…not a sea, but there were two hundred and six Guardians and Dominions in unblemished Divine Steel armor with swords, spears, and axes glinting in the light of Heaven’s swirling ?ther. The central mass of the soldiers were Guardians grouped in two roughly hundred-angel companies. Behind them stood a few Dominion officers, all braced at the position of attention with their chins high and their chests puffed out. Bart stood behind her and to the left, and she could feel the anticipation radiating off him.

  She scanned the formation of the troops she was about to lead into battle with a serene face and her hands clasps behind her back. Despite her calm expression, she couldn’t help but continuously clench and unclench her fists. Her cloak hid the repetitive action from her troops, but not from the man standing directly behind her.

  This wasn’t Ava’s first time leading soldiers into battle. She’d been a Dominion for nearly two hundred years, and half a millennia as a Guardian before that. The Rebellion against Satan and the Infernal Lords was a little before her time, but she’d killed two Duxes in service of Charlotte, and gone toe-to-toe with the Father of Lies himself. Not many angels of her age and rank had that experience on their resume.

  She clenched her fists again and felt the lack of a difference in the texture of her palms. The Hand of God was a brilliant gold that contrasted with the pale white of her flesh, but to her senses there was no difference. Her Father had crafted his gift so she wouldn’t feel like she’d lost a piece of herself.

   The Hand of God might be the tool to avenge her fallen daughter, but that wouldn’t bring her back to life. She’d died too young and too suddenly at the hands of truly evil beings.

  Her attention snapped back to the waiting soldiers. “You all know what is coming.” She paused for a second before stepping forward and walking down the line of Guardians. “The mission we are about to embark on will be the first of many as we drive back the Infernals that have brazenly invaded Eden.” She watched as many Guardians spines straightened as she passed. Word of her planting a sword in the back of the Great Dissenter had spread through Heaven like wildfire.

  “The situation in Charlotte is dire for the humans we are charged with protecting. Their city is broken, tens of thousands of their families and friends have been killed, and now they are being invaded. Our mission is to end that invasion. We will strike hard and fast to cut the head of the serpent so the body will wither and die.” The last sentence was originally supposed to be auditory flair, but they had confirmed a serpent steed had broken through the Veil and was laying waste to portions of the city.

  “This is not an isolated incident,” she continued. “Three separate Infernal clans are on the ground wreaking havoc and sowing fear: the depleted remains of Seere’s Legion, soldiers of Cain, and a small contingent from the Mother of Serpents.” She saw more than one face grimace at the information. It wasn’t fear that drove the emotion, but disgust that those Infernal Lords were desecrating their Father’s creation. “It is our job to show them that they are not welcome.”

  She slowly slid her sword from its scabbard on her back and held it high in the air. Her soldiers cheered and drew their own blades in preparation.

  “You all know your deployment assignments. You all know what is at stake. Move quickly, quietly, and unseen. Destroy the enemy and return the city to its human owners.”

  Heads nodded all around her and jaws were set in determination. Power began to pulse from the guardians and dominions as they drew from their essence to prepare. Ava did the same. She knew how she liked to fight, and she’d trained for eons to perfect her skills. Now, she had more power than ever before, and that wasn’t even counting the Hand of God.

  “You can use it like a cannon.” Michael stepped up beside her and gestured to her golden appendage. “It will emit of beam of pure energy with massive destructive potential. You can fire smaller, weaker bursts more rapidly, or strong blasts the take longer to recover from. It all depends on the situation.”

  Ava already knew all of this. God himself had given her a brief rundown on the Hand’s abilities.

  “I can handle it,” she replied as a steady stream of energy flowed into the Hand.

  “Remember you mission.” Michael continued as he stood calmly beside her. “Avoid detection as much as possible, eliminate the threat, and get home safely.”

  Ava didn’t agree with the first part of her orders. Humanity had been introduced to true monsters, and she thought they needed to see the glory of her Father to know he was there protecting them. She knew if she was in their position she would want to know her prayers were being heard, but she was a soldier. She didn’t have the luxury of always getting what she wanted. The orders came from God himself and she would obey.

  “You’ve got this.” Michael smiled and gave her a brief clap on the back before walking forward into the throng of soldiers.

  They cheered the Archangel as he passed among them. Several reached out to touch him or asked for his blessing. The humans had dubbed him the patron saint of soldiers for a reason. Michael stopped a few times and said an encouraging word to soldiers he knew, and some he didn’t. Ava just sat back and watched as the Commander of the Divine Host effortlessly inspired his troops.

   She’d tried to give a rousing motivational speech before this, and she’d hadn’t received half this level of excitement.

  “You ready?” Bart’s appearance snapped her out of her moment of envy.

  “Yes.” She took a deep breath and look back to study her command element.

  As the only Power, she was in command of the forces on the ground. Michael was in overall command of the mission, but wouldn’t travel to Eden unless absolutely necessary. His battle with Satan had been recorded and seen by billions. If he appeared again, it would only cause more chaos.

  Bart was her second in command and was sticking by her side. Two of his most skilled Guardians were accompanying them, along with the squad leader of the Cherubim Michael had assigned to them.

  His name was Razael. Ava only knew him by reputation, but everything she’d seen so far said he was a hardened, competent soldier. He also knew this was her show, and hadn’t overstepped his bounds during the planning phase. In fact, he’d had several good ideas that reigned in some of Bart’s more hair-brained strategies. The result was a detailed, but flexible, battle plan.

  Michael finally passed through the other end of the now-disorganized units, and their superiors yelled and hurried into their deployment formations. The two hundred plus angels broke into smaller squads and spaced themselves out.

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   Ava said a quick prayer as the first squad approached Michael.

  Travel between realms wasn’t designed to be easy. When the primordial founders of the realms first constructed them, they didn’t want their neighbors peeking over the metaphysical fence all the time, so the developed protections. The Veil between Eden and Hell was one such protection. At one point, there had been something similar between Eden and Heaven, but her Father had torn down that barrier when he conquered the middle realm. Travel between Eden and Heaven was now much simpler, but it still required power and authorization. God kept a very close eye on the ?therial gateways opened in Heaven.

  Michael was one of the few who could open gateways without question, and that was his primary purpose here today. A hum cut through the air around them all as Michael drew his hand downward through the air. It looked like he was unzipping reality, because on the other side of the gateway was a rubble-lined street. The smell of fire and spilled gas leaked through and into Heaven.

  “Go…Go…GO!” The squad’s leader yelled and urged his troops forward. They quickly disappeared through the gateway, and with a reverse motion Michael zipped it back up.

   Ava consulted her mental map of their deployment pattern.

  That squad had been deposited on the outskirts of the city. It would secure its immediate area, wait for word the rest of the Divine forces had deployed, and then begin to push inward and eliminate any threats along the way. The fact that Michael had easily opened and closed the gateway meant there weren’t any wards nearby.

  One by one the squads deployed until only Ava’s command team was left. Michael didn’t have more encouraging words or advice as Ava stepped up to him and he unzipped reality for the final time.

  “Good luck, I’ll be eagerly awaiting your SITREPs.”

  Ava nodded and stepped through the gateway. Her senses were immediately assaulted by the sound of automatic weapons fire from nearby. She went insubstantial the moment she passed through the gateway and took up a position covering her soldiers as they joined her one by one. Razael was the last through before it closed behind them.

  They spread out quickly to form a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree perimeter. Shields and swords were out and ready to be used, but there immediate area was clear. Ava recognized the intersection they’d arrived in. She’d been her dozens of times in the last few years, and it had been decimated. To the right there used to be a building complex. Offices filled the top floors while the bottom was lines with shops and eateries. It was always filled with people rushing to be someplace, or taking just a moment to enjoy a bite to eat. Now, it looked like someone had dragged a hundred-meter sword through the middle of the structure. Windows were blown out and half the structure facing the street had collapsed. As bad as it was, it was nothing compared to what was across the street.

  It had been a strip mall with everything from an outdoor sporting goods store to a popular gourmet coffee shop. Ava remembered having lunch with many of her children at that coffee shop. Now, the building was utterly destroyed and a large footprint had taken its place. Satan and Michael had advanced through this area during their battle, and you could tell.

  Another crackle of gunfire pulled Ava’s attention. She could tell from the sound that it was growing more panicked. “Let’s go!” she led the way as the small team formed up in a wedge formation. She was at the tip because she was the strongest, while Bart and Razeal covered her flanks, and the remaining Guardians brought up the rear.

  The fighting was two blocks away. Half a dozen humans in the camouflage of the US Army were cowering behind a burning tank. The tank looked fairly new except for the jagged gash nearly splitting it in half. The panicked gun fire was coming from inside the hull where a man was desperately emptying his sidearm into a hulking armored being.

  Ava could smell the Infernal taint coming off the armored creature. The creature jerked its sword out of the wreckage and threw its shoulder into one side of the wreck while pushing the other side with both hands. The human was furiously pulling the trigger and putting round after round into the creature’s armored helmet at point blank range. It was doing nothing. The thing’s head wasn’t even budging.

  With a great ripping sound, the tank began to open like a tin can. Ava saw the human piss himself as he tried to reload the empty pistol and carelessly dropped the magazine. It clattered onto the steel floor before slipping through the ever-widening crack and vanishing from sight.

  “Hey, over here you big, ugly motherfucker!” One of the soldiers screamed as he ran out from his position behind the tank, waving his arms, and firing his rifle into the creature’s face.

  The armored Infernal stopped ripping the tank in half and turned to face the heckler.

  “That’s right, I’m talking to you princess. What’s a shithead like you doing in a nice place like this?” The human continued to fire his weapon, but to no effect.

  The Infernal abandoned the tank and squared off against the human. That’s when Ava moved. She leapt forward and quickly beat her wings to increase her acceleration. The Infernal didn’t even turn to acknowledge her approach, which confirmed Bart’s theory.

   She couldn’t help but smile.

  She waited until the last moment to become tangible again. She hit the Infernal shoulder first, in the chest, like a runaway Mack Truck. It sounded like a small explosion as Divine Steel met Infernal Iron, but in that match, Divine Steel always won. The Infernal folded over her shoulder as its armor crumpled. She could feel bones break, the air forced out of the thing’s lungs to be rapidly replaced by blood from the cascading internal injuries.

  The Inferal was bent at a ninety-degree angle over her shoulder when she dug her feet in and came to a sudden halt. Physics did the rest. The Infernal rebounded, unfolded off her, and went flying into the mass of the tank. The soldiers taking shelter behind it were wise enough to run for it when a beautiful woman in gleaming silver armor appeared out of nowhere and immediately kicked the shit out of the monster than was tearing a tank in half.

  They were clear of the battle tank when the Infernal collided with it. The force of the hit picked the tank up off its tracks and rolled it over on its top. The turret scrunched under the sixty-plus tons of war machine, and the metal clatter of unused shells filled the air as they fell out of their racks. That sound only made the humans run further and faster away. All except one.

  The brave man who’d distracted the Infernal from killing his friend just stood their wide-eyed and jaw dropped.

  “Be not afraid.” Ava gave the man three comforting words and a smile before she advanced on the Infernal.

  Despite its injuries the creature was trying to get to its feet. Despite the damaging blow the thing had held onto its weapon. It used the large broadsword to steady itself as it struggled to get to its feet.

  “Bitch.” The Infernal removed its helmet to reveal a woman with blood leaking out of her mouth. Twin dribbles of black flowed down her chin and dripped onto the broken street, and she spit out a thick glob before giving Ava a deranged smile. “Come on then,” she raised her sword. “Let’s get this over with.”

  A small amount of pity passed through Ava’s heart as the Infernal woman charged. It was uncoordinated, clearly painful, and ultimately pointless. Ava easily swatted the sword from the woman’s hand and drove her own blade into the Infernal’s chest. Black blood exploded out of her mouth as her whole body spasmed before going still. The woman’s black-stained teeth smiled up at Ava as she stood over the dead woman.

  “Good work.” Razael appeared beside her to collect the dead Infernal’s sword. He gave it a few practice swings, frowned, and tossed it on top of the armored hulk.

  He then proceeded to remove his own sword, traced a tight circle around the body, produced a vial from a pouch on his hip, and emptied a few drops onto the corpse. He spoke a few words of Enochian, and everything within the circle went up like a bonfire.

  “We need to get rid of the evidence.” He stated as he placed the vial back in the pouch. “We need to preserve Eden’s integrity.”

   The Cherubims were not only skilled fighters to help with the battle, but they were also the cleanup crew.

  Ava saw the importance of the task, but wondered why Michael hadn’t said anything to her. She didn’t have much time to think before more gunfire could be heard up ahead. She didn’t need to give the order to move out. Her team formed up behind her and headed back into battle.

  Battel by battle, block by block the angels were going to tighten the noose around the necks of the Infernal invaders until they were all dead and burning like the husk of the woman behind her.

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