Forged Legacy

Chapter 121 - Heaven's Wrath

[What the hell is this place?] Julius asked as Harvey walked down the narrow street.

Another trial. The System called it the war of Angels and Demons.

[I know that. All the gaps between Julian’s death and the moment I was implanted got filled in after a look through your memories. This just isn’t what I expected from Angels and Demons.]

Dirt and oil covered the cracked asphalt, and solid blocks of concrete lined both sides. Whoever lived here had no love for architecture, caring more about maximizing the number of shops and apartments. The ground floor was mostly businesses, selling everything from doughnuts to dental equipment, but windows high above suggested there were many homes stacked on top.

Stale air wafted from a warped metal door held slightly ajar to his left. Peering inside, Harvey saw a dank, dimly lit hallway with crumpled-up fast-food wrappers at the base of a staircase leading up to an array of doors above. Potted plants, small statues, and colorful placemats fronted each, making them look loved and lived-in rather than some soulless husk of a community created by the System. He considered checking a few of them out, but gave up when the stairs creaked ominously under the heavy weight of his armor.

Moving towards the end of the street, he felt an intense heat radiating from around the corner. A wet gurgle emanated from a wound in the ground where a pool of lava bubbled up from a wide crack in the sidewalk. It pulsed like the ground was breathing, never letting the superheated stone settle long enough to cool. Thick smoke billowed from a pile of black trash bags piled high on the corner like someone had thrown them down from the windows above, filling the air with an acrid stench.

[Thank god I can’t smell anymore.]

Careful. The angels might not like hearing you talk like that.

The two kept walking for 10 minutes, exploring the urban sprawl until a familiar bang echoed off the concrete.

[No way!]

Harvey rushed toward the sound, doing his best to move quietly despite his heavy armor. Angry shouts joined the cacophony of bangs, guiding him straight to a wide street with nicer Colonial-style buildings sporting balconies over top of patios with arched entrances. Tall trees and bushes filled the median between a road with three lanes on either side, but all the leaves were gone, leaving only a tangle of branches and twigs.

Across the street, two powerful auras crowded his own. One had notes of flame that reminded him of the forgefire his own Tempered Heart Imprint infused into his own aura, but instead of fortifying, these flames were hellbent on destruction. The other was lighter, full of resolution in a way that reminded him of Julian’s aura. Neither paid him much heed, too focused on trying to suppress the other as cracking explosions and bursts of fire flashed through the shrubbery. Harvey guessed he could overpower either of them one-on-one, but the idea of suppressing both cast a shadow on his heart. In any case, he had no idea whether he should be helping these fighters, although he did assume the lighter aura came from an angel.

[Wait,] Julius warned. [There are too many shots for it to just be two of them. What are you going to do if there are humans out there?]

See who they’re fighting, and go from there.

[I assume you want to stick with the Angels here?]

Until they convince me otherwise. Something in one of the auras reminds me of you. I mean, Julian.

[Part of me,] Julius reassured.

Peeking around the corner, Harvey saw four humans in blacked-out clothes shooting assault rifles down at an 8-foot-tall man with shoulder-length, dirty blonde hair. He wore simple white robes stained red with blood, and had golden wings wrapped around his body like a shield while he used his own golden handgun to fire shots at a suit-wearing demon. Even with his wings protecting him from most of the bullets, the presumed Angel looked heavily wounded, and Harvey could feel his aura begin to falter.

“Protect me, Father!” The angel shouted in defiance as he expertly reloaded his gun. It took less than a second for new bullets to stream out. Still, the angel was forced into a steady retreat by the demon’s unrelenting assault. A wall of flames hovering in front of the demon intercepted the bullets, absorbing most of their impact before letting the half-melted chunks of metal fall to the ground.

Harvey expected the source of the fiery aura to be some sort of horned monstrosity with red skin and fangs, but was surprised to find a handsome bearded man wearing a smart Italian suit with singed sleeves thanks to the fireballs he conjured in his hands. Six humans lay dead at his feet, each full of bullet holes and burn wounds. Their clothes didn’t match the four shooters above, making Harvey think they had accompanied the angel into this city for some reason.

“God’s not here,” the demon laughed.

A gentle glow radiated from the angel's body, and Harvey saw a bullet hole in his neck rapidly heal. New flesh pushed the bullet out until it clattered to the ground.

“He gives me strength,” the angel seethed.

Harvey had seen enough. Part of him wondered if his intervention really was some cosmic miracle answering this man’s prayer. He hadn’t thought much about his old religion since the System arrived, but was there really a God powerful enough to send him here? He’d have to unpack that later.

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A controlled burst of flame from Booster sent him shooting towards one of the open windows as his shield and the sentinel’s arcblade appeared from the spatial ring on his hand. The man barely had time to turn and get a single shot into the shield before the longsword was buried in his chest, sinking deep thanks to the momentum of Harvey’s movement skill. They tumbled into the room as a burst of lightning from the arrays zapped the man’s heart, and a kill notification appeared in his mind.

You have slain Level 17 - Human. Essence Gained. 2180 Merit Earned

[Level 17? Did this trial just start?]

Harvey didn’t have time to think about it, stepping on the man’s shoulder so he could extricate his blade. Returning to the window, a woman across the street turned her fire from the angel to Harvey, and he felt a dull ache as bullets pinged off his essence-infused steel. His armor was infused with Soulforge, allowing it to benefit from his Endurance at the cost of exposing his weave to some of the force. Luckily, the bullets only felt like his soul being shot with an airsoft gun since his Willpower transformed the implanted tendrils from thin yarn into thick wires. He wasn’t truly in danger of injuring his weave again unless an attack managed to break his infused equipment, but he still didn’t waste any time hurling an arc charge conjured with Echo Forge at the shooter.

Any semblance of accuracy disappeared as violent lightning ravaged her body. He’d infused the grenade with the Architect of the Veil’s End Imprint, powering it up to the point she died in seconds. Seeing that his conjured tools were enough, Harvey soared back into the air before throwing two more at the remaining shooters. The demon snarled as his aura tried to devour Harvey’s, but he froze when the combined infusions of Tempered Heart and Guardian of the Gilded Return allowed Harvey to completely suppress his in turn.

Fear cracked the mask of indifference on the demon’s face as he paused his advance to look up at Harvey. The fireballs burning in his hands lost some of their color once the demon’s aura receded, and Harvey could feel him railing against the cage in an attempt to infuse his skills with his own legacy once more. Completely sealing him drained Harvey’s mental energy faster than it ever had before, but the assistance of the angel’s aura helped ease the burden.

“Who are you?” the demon snarled.

Harvey answered by summoning a massive projection of his sword using Innovator’s Arsenal that screamed through the air. Infusing it with Tempered Heart reinforced the sword, condensing the projection as a subtle glow of forgefire appeared within.

Instead of blocking, the demon’s body exploded in a burst of flames before reappearing down the street. Harvey’s strike carved a deep gash in the asphalt, but no lava rose up to fill the hole. He let the impact slow his descent before letting the apparition dissipate, finding himself only a few feet from a stunned angel.

“How?” he began.

“Later,” Harvey replied through gritted teeth.

The demon was already working on a counter-attack, a gout of flame condensing into a 10-foot serpent that slithered towards them. Harvey barely maintained the chokehold on the demon’s aura, but knew he’d start losing ground soon.

“Right,” the angel said as holy light materialized into a majestic lion that roared as it charged the serpent. Fang and claw met as the two conjured familiars collided, neither able to secure a quick advantage. Harvey had never seen skills like this before, and found it hard to look away when a gout of flame erupted from the fanged mouth of the snake. A gunshot broke him from his reverie, and he saw the demon conjure the same wall of fire to intercept.

Seeing the bullets were mostly ineffective, Harvey poured a few drops of lightning ink into one of the conjured orbs of Inkbound Ordnance before lobbing it high into the air. He hoped attacking from a different angle would let him circumvent the shield, but infusing the orb with his Imprint strained his aura just enough to let the demon’s aura burst out from its cage. The serpent and fiery barrier both grew darker as the skills were filled with the legacy, gaining an angry malice that helped the serpent finally latch onto the lion’s neck. The fur around the fangs ignited as a proud roar waned into a pained yelp, and an exultant snarl filled the air as the demon was finally free. All of which was drowned out by a clap of thunder as Harvey’s skill exploded against the barrier. It had grown to intercept his orb, but the power within still managed to disrupt it enough for one of the angel’s bullets to sneak through. Blood stained the suit, making the dress shirt beneath begin to match the red tie around his neck.

“Agh! You retch!” the demon snarled.

“You get the snake, I’ll get him!” Harvey commanded.

Bursts of fire and lightning had ignited the dead trees and buildings alike, and the street was quickly filling with black smoke. Harvey held his breath and charged towards the demon with his hammer in hand. The spatial ring made switching weapons easier than ever, and he still felt more comfortable with his original weapon.

A sword appeared in the demon’s hand just as his body burst into flame once more.

[Behind you!] Julius urged, just in time for Harvey to turn and see a blade slashing towards his neck. The best he could do was angle his body so the swing hit him in the shoulder, letting him deflect most of the force as the blade cut over his head. Avoiding it ruined his balance, forcing him to use Booster to shoot out of range and reorient himself just in time to raise his shield to block another strike.

“Pitiful,” the demon scoffed just as a blast of retaliatory lightning exploded from the shield. The strike had been enough to finish filling the kinetic arrays that had been partially charged while blocking bullets earlier, allowing Harvey to activate the lightning burst. It sent the demon staggering back, singeing some of the black feathers of his large wings.

Harvey lumbered forward, swinging Aftershock with all his might while using Booster to add even more momentum to the swing. The demon raised his sword to block, but the force of Harvey’s swing was enough to crack the bones in his hand before the blade clattered to the ground. Exposed, Harvey sent the warpick side of his hammer towards the demon’s chest, releasing all the pent-up energy inside the kinetic array the second steel met skin.

The demon flew back, a trail of feathers mulched into the asphalt as he slid. A fiery explosion turned Harvey’s head just in time to see the serpent’s body collapse, leaving a badly burned lion and angel in its wake.

“No!” the demon screamed.

Instead of rushing over, Harvey used another chunk of his essence reserves to activate Innovator’s Arsenal once more, infusing the massive hammer with his Tempered Heart. The demon’s body twitched as he tried to fight the lightning, but a brutal swing buried the body in an asphalt crater, and the twitching finally stopped. Black wings protruded from the hole, only to disappear as a burning building collapsed into the road, hiding the demon under burning rubble.

You have slain Level 60 - Demon. Essence Gained. 9871 Merit Earned.

“Yeah! Now that’s Heaven’s wrath!” the angel roared.