Rain of the Fallen
Red rain of water and light engulfed the entire battlefield. With every downpour, the blood and flesh strewn across the ground, along with shards of shattered armor and weapons, were swept away by the torrent. It wasn't a battlefield any longer—it was being upended like a massive aquarium. The surviving demons had already fallen back toward Nova Base. Now, out front, it was just me against Gabriel, who had descended to grind me into dust, and his legion of angels.
The deluge crashed down right in front of me. I twisted my body to evade it. A sensation like my shoulder and arm half-ripping away grazed past. Not blood first, but heat draining out. Reinforcement at 80%. The limit my bones and tendons could endure. But this battlefield was bulldozing right past that line.
My ribs scraped against each other from the inside. Tendons snapped and reconnected, grating endlessly beneath my skin. Every movement ground sand between my joints. Drawing breath tore pain from within my ribs straight to my lungs. My heart plummeted like a stone too heavy for its own weight, then bounced back up.
'...This won't do.'
I pushed Reinforcement one step further. Muscles and tendons crushed their own limits. Bones thudded short and sharp beneath my skin. Pain receded, replaced by a cold clarity in my vision. The clamor of battle thinned, leaving only the lines ahead in sharp focus.
Gabriel swept his hand down once. In sync, the angels' spears and swords, light and water aligned as one—from left, right, above, below. Every spot I could occupy was preemptively laced with blades. Vertical water pillars slammed down first. Light blades slashed in from the side. Spears flew unerringly from behind.
"......Ha."
A sound escaped—laugh or exhale, I couldn't tell. I hurled my body forward. Ankles, knees, waist, shoulders protested they'd snap on their own whims. I forced them into alignment, one straight line. The instant my foot hit ground, the earth cracked, joints wrenched then snapped back. Vision flashed white each time.
The plunging water pillar missed by half a step. The slicing light I deflected with my dagger, electricity jolting up my wrist to elbow and shoulder. The rear spear I evaded by rolling flat. As my spine vertebrae imprinted on the ground one by one, fire raced along my nerves. Blood sprayed long across the dirt.
This state was definitely overextending. But stumbling once here meant no chance to rise again.
The angels surged like waves. Gabriel's gestures shifted attack patterns each time. Once, fixation—a dome locked gazes and strikes on me alone. Once, pressure barrier—even one step forward weighed like submersion in ocean depths. Once, abyssal prison—a spherical water cage gripped my perimeter, stealing breath first.
In the gaps, high-pressure jets converged to slice and pierce simultaneously. Then morphed into spear forms, stabbing relentlessly.
'Patterns... same as before.'
I moved almost on instinct. True killing blades differed in texture from decoys blocking paths. Air hummed less around the real ones. Water flows went quieter along true lines.
My shoulder tore again. Something snapped between muscles; my arm froze, alien for a moment. My waist felt ripped from inside. Spine prickled like scraped by blades. Still, I lived. The living side remembers this battlefield. That was enough for now.
Once more. This high-pressure torrent sliced across the battlefield, angled to shove my entire zone at once. I didn't dodge. Nowhere left to run anyway. Instead, I charged into it. The impact point. A bit back. Not the thickest—where it hit slightly later.
'Here.'
Dagger first. At the instant water hushed most, I slashed the gap like carving it out. High pressure ricocheted to sides. I staggered through the gap. A crunch from my waist. Spine twisted inside; Reinforcement forced it straight. Breath hitched in my chest. Easing it even briefly would drop me.
'It's fine.'
'Hasn't broken yet.'
Flesh tears, bones shatter—yet I can rise again. This is hell. This much can't kill me.
At some point, pressure loosened—just a hair. Same force, but half-beat late striking bone.
'...Slipping.'
Descent phase. Counting back from the first lightfall to now lined up roughly.
'About... twenty minutes.'
'Max crush duration hits limit around here.'
Even heaven couldn't sustain it forever. The fact was almost funny.
"I'm not the only crazy one."
The mutter rolled short in my mouth.
Above, a sound neither water nor light—ripping. I looked up on instinct. Inside the light passage, high up, a black crack etched long sideways. The downward-piercing light pillar thinned, severed precisely at one point.
'Bell.'
The thought flashed first. Simultaneously, the descent passage's upper layer shuddered.
Heavenly upper layer. The descent passage hovering above the sanctuary began tearing black. At first, even prayer-duty angels couldn't distinguish reflux from interference.
"Descent passage upper—reflux signal detected—"
"No."
Another angel cut in.
"Not reflux... it's being eaten."
The light pillar's interior hollowed like an empty shell. Prayer lines severed not as strings but flesh. Each snap dropped metrics abruptly.
"It's Bell."
"The Great Demon of Gluttony is gnawing the descent passage upper from inside out."
Gabriel's lips twisted faintly.
"...That one again."
His voice laced honed disgust with thin regret for escaped prey. Flaws to erase. Gluttony to purge. Both still lingered before him. As he shut and opened his eyes briefly—
The black crack encircled the light pillar fully. Next instant, shattering like twisted glass, bone, light, and flesh exploded in chain bursts. Even sanctuary floor runes quivered short. The light pillar cracked from within, wrenching massively. Upper and lower skewed apart—
And split.
"—It's severed."
No telling who spoke first. Right after, the upper passage began plummeting down.
Plip—plink—pour.
Rain. Never seen in hell since falling here. White and red rain fell over hell's battlefield.
Angels. Until moments ago, descending in orderly ranks via passage. Now tumbling twisted. Shoulders and waists reversed. Upper torsos severed mid-descent. Legless trunks cratered like boulders. Some heads half-rotated, faces toward backs. Joints disengaged. Passage severance released mid-drop fixations, tangling into ruin.
One trailed faded innards like ribbons. Shattered helmets spilled bone first, then belated blood and eyeballs dotting air. I didn't stop, watching. Prioritize slicing angels before me. The falling were bonuses.
Gabriel glanced skyward too. Black shell cloaking light and water pillars—thicker now, Gluttony's veil.
"Bell..."
He murmured the name quietly.
"Turning the passage itself into his fodder."
End laced clear disgust with hunter's uneasy resignation at releasing elusive quarry. Water at his feet twisted once. Battlefield-wide pattern refocused rearward—angel rear lines and retreat path, densely realigned.
"Seems that's all for today."
Raksha and Bell. Two unerased flaws. And rotting battlefield. Gabriel wouldn't call this day 'defeat.' Just interim tally for more blood tomorrow.
"Pushing further risks greater losses on our side before hell's purification."
Hearing that, I checked my internals again. Arms, shoulders. Ribs, waist. Plenty split, but nothing fully severed yet. Body that could fight more. But holding here would exhaust strength to reach Nova first.
'Gathered enough intel.'
Max crush pressure ceiling. Heavenly descent force makeup. Gabriel's patterns, extents woven at once. Day one's calculus done. I drew a long breath. Blood and water scents mingled deep in lungs.
"Yeah."
"That's it for today."
Everything inside grated. Dropping Reinforcement slightest would collapse ribs instantly. Fingers flickered numb then sensation. 'That's it for today.' My body said so too. Eyes fixed on Gabriel, I stepped back one foot, then another. He advanced no further. We distanced at equal pace.
Battlefield pressure visibly receded. Frontline hydraulic crush eased; thick shields layered rear angel lines instead. Gabriel's steps aimed squarely at retreat line. I didn't pursue.
'Biting harder here gains nothing.'
Chasing him fully now pulls from Nova retreat and red veil. Battlefield goal from start: not 'kill all day one,' but 'endure how far, extract what.' Crossed that line already. Overhead, light pillar dimmed from before. Bell's black shell wrapped thicker. No need checking how much more he devoured inside. I turned rearward. Nova direction. Red veil thickened toward gates. Balrag's pressure crushed ramparts and gates; behind, demons' presences moved slow but steady.
'Retreat line holds.'
I turned not forward, but back.
"Today... ends here."
Day two would continue before the gates. I plunged fully into Nova's red veil.