Falling Lightworms (2)
I plunged into the midst of the falling ones. Light burst forth, feathers tore apart, blood mingled. White and red blended into indistinguishable trash.
Deep inside my spine, something snapped again. Ribs curled inward, scraping my lungs, forcing blood from my mouth, then twisted outward. My breath burned away. At the same instant, my feet dug deeper into the ground. The dagger sliced throats, pierced chests, tore through joints, and emerged. Blood and flecks of light sprayed.
I slashed and stabbed, slashed again. Throats. Under eyes. Joint gaps. Wing roots. It sank in smoothly, pulled out easily. When one white thing fell, another identical face charged from behind. At first, I'd tried counting the kills. Sometime ago, the tally blurred, forgotten. No reason now to tally how many I'd cut down. All that remained was ripping apart everything that lunged.
As I fought, the house drifted farther away. Started right at the threshold. Pushed sideways soon after, now skewed through flames and smoke in the distance. On purpose. To keep the splashing light and blood, the severed corpses from flooding inside. To keep them from sensing El. In the corner of my vision, her shadow always lingered through the broken wall. A small, huddled black shape. One left eye clung thinly to me. In sight, out of reach. I drove the angels farther, lower, never crossing that line. The white swarm followed like worms chasing blood scent and orders.
"That's not a low-rank."
A rough male voice.
"Thought it was enduring with regeneration, but its structure's changing."
This time, a young woman's voice.
"Doesn't match observation records. We should report up. After killing it."
A quiet, flat voice joined. Three upper angels on the hill chattered in differing tones. Spouting "observation" and "standards" like habits, their voices laced with fatigue, irritation, strange curiosity. I ignored them. Dagger tore a jaw, deflected a light sword, stepped on a falling one's shoulder, plunged into the next throat. A spear pierced my thigh.
Faster than thought, my body boiled over. Bones twisted on their own, tendons clenched tight, flesh swelled around the spear. Metal was pushed out. No time to catch breath—body charged again. Reinforcement was no longer something I "used"; it was convulsions exploding from agony. Tore an angel's chest, snapped another's neck, crushed a lunging one's knee, pressed forward. Light sprayed. Blood sprayed. Legs shook, arms tore, ribs stabbed inward—each time, the ability triggered. Only one intent remained: no stopping. The body decided the rest.
"Time to clean up."
A low, hollow laugh mixed in. The upper angel with the densest runes on his armor, broadest wings, stepped forward.
"I'll do it."
The third said dryly.
"Fine."
His hand rose. Air sucked toward it.
"Coordinate lock."
The upper angel's eyes pierced my body.
"Fix."
Feet felt bound. Space itself constricted around me.
"Radius shrink. No escape."
He smirked faintly.
"Fire."
The sky ripped.
─────BOOOOM!
A spear of light fell. Not a pillar, but a single line. Yet that one stroke pierced everything. A white lightning blade shot straight from the upper angel's hand, stabbing the locked coordinates. Sound came late. First came the tearing sensation. My torso hollowed out. Shoulders and flanks blown away, arms and legs scattered. Blood and light erupted. Tried to inhale, but chest center was gone. White and black swirled. Falling city. Falling corpses. Falling child. Falling angels. Falling me. All plummeted into the same pit.
Just before blacking out completely, something stirred somewhere.
Not will. Instinct. The body's final reflex. Scattered flesh around me quivered. My flesh severed by the light spear, burst muscle chunks, charred blood clots—they were pulled back, adhered. Torn tissues stretched like threads, stitching together. Shattered bone fragments curled inward, forming a new frame. The hollow filled as if it had always been that shape. A malformed structure deviating from a demon's base form. Yet optimized for "movement." Heart pounded from a skewed position.
──Thump.
──Thump.
Lungs clung around it. Tangled nerves snaked wrong paths, sending delayed sensations to limbs. Hand scraped the ground. Finger bones no longer human-shaped, but strength surged true. What leaked from my mouth wasn't words. A low, raspy beast growl scraping split throat and torn lungs.
"Krrgh—"
That was all.
"Hah?"
The upper angel who'd fired the light spear muttered low.
"Still alive in that state. Entertaining, but."
The female upper angel beside laughed.
"Entertaining or not, we can't leave it. Mid-rank speed at least. No, rivals upper already."
The first sighed.
"By protocol, erase immediately. Problem is... main force is there."
New light pillars rose afar. Echoes of support requests rippled through the air.
'Bell frontlines, multiple emergency supports received.'
'Prioritize gluttony entity suppression. Irregular secondary.'
The upper angel who'd paused clicked irritably.
"Damn. Leave it and go?"
The one beside grinned.
"Entertaining, so leave it. Can't escape anyway."
The quiet third spoke.
"I'll stay. You two move."
Light shimmered once more. Two turned, flew toward Bell's frontlines. Here remained one upper angel—the light spear shooter—plus mid angels, low-rank swarms.
"Expend remaining forces in attrition."
He descended, now with clear killing intent.
Light gathered in the remaining upper angel's hand again.
"Try again. Coordinate lock."
His gaze targeted my chest.
"Fix."
Space underfoot constricted once more. Before calculations for escape, body moved first. Not to survive, but endure.
This time, whole body twisted simultaneously. Heart, spine, limbs, mangled flesh. Bones protruded then retracted, muscles wove at unnatural angles. That instant, light spear fired. Straight, certain death line. I slid sideways. Coordinates already fixed—the spear pierced not empty air, but exactly where I'd been. Three low angels behind tumbled, cleanly holed.
"Ha..."
The upper angel gnashed teeth.
"How'd a demon body dodge that. How with that form—"
No answer. I charged.
Mid angels moved in unison. One drew a bow of light—arrows spawned with each pull. Light arrows poured. I folded body using unnaturally bending joints. Shoulder pivot, waist and legs spun independently. Some grazed skin, some peeled hardening blood, but no penetration allowed.
Flesh split and clumped, sealing arrow paths. Another mid gripped light sword two-handed, charged. Sword trails slashed successively. I dove low, severed his calf. As he staggered, slipped under rising arm, daggered chest innards. Blood and light sprayed together. The other mid hurled short light spears, tails of light trailing. Amid snapping leg sensation, I twisted—embraced one spear with shoulder blade, another with flank muscle forcibly.
Muscles bit down on spears. Body hurled forward, daggered the thrower's throat. Low angels swung light swords, spears, chains, bows. Light chain wrapped arm, sword stabbed thigh. Body tore.
Flesh parted to shove chain, thigh muscles bulked thicker. Yanked chain to drag him, smashed jaw. Piled corpses opposite El's side. Light bow shot my arm—I crushed arm bone internally, twisted trajectory instead of discarding. Short screams. Cut breaths. Lights snuffing. Weapons blurred into chaos. Mid light swords, bows, spears snapped and flew; low light shards crushed underfoot. Soon, only angel remains littered around.
The sole remaining upper angel muttered through cracked lips.
"Really a demon?"
He gripped a short light spear last time. No coordinate fix like before—just stabbed down point-blank. I braced half-broken leg, burrowed half-step inside. Spear tip scorched shoulder past. Reinforcement. Over blaze-pain, strength boiled once more. Dagger hand, grotesquely angled, plunged under upper angel's jaw. Slashed throat, rent chest, gouged inner light. Upper angel staggered, laughed.
"They're... watching from above. You'll later—"
────Slash.
Didn't finish. Dagger severed neck fully.
Quiet. Severed wings, twisted limbs, cracked armor, hardening blood. No need to count kills now.
Body spasmed faintly once more. Divided living from dead, patched just enough to move. This body's choices always the same now. Endure. Fight. Nothing more, nothing less.
Half-charred earth. Amid melted feathers and flesh, the broken wooden house visible. El still there. Dragged trailing legs back. Blood traced path on ground. At threshold, faint presence stirred inside.
"......El."
Rasped breath barely formed sound. Behind splintered wood, one left eye peeked cautiously. Blood-smeared face. Trembling small shoulders. The child stared from beyond threshold. For a moment, eyes like she didn't know me. Black flesh soaked in blood. Twisted joints. Clumsily adhered chunks mimicking wings. Demon. Angel. Human. Me.
"......Hid well."
Hoarse breath leaked words. Uttering that, legs gave. Collapsed right at threshold. Face smashed into blood and dirt. Before eyes, boundary line dividing inside from out. This far. Protected this far. Arm naturally extended, blocking my blood from seeping inward. As consciousness sank, tiny touch descended. Hesitant, trembling hand. El's hand brushed my arm ever so lightly. Just before total blackout, overlapping voices echoed from somewhere. Raksha's? Past life's me? Or this newborn body's? Unknown resonance.
—No lower to fall.
Endure.
Survive.
Somewhere, body-cracking sound echoed distantly once more. Then, fully descended.