We Are Legion {finished}

[Legion]

Blasphemy scrolled across the computer monitors in the different rooms of the labs as all was silent. Vials were broken on the table leaving dangerous chemicals to drip on the floor. Mangled corpses lied on the ground covered in blood out in front of the monitors that flashed “Blasphemy!” across the labs and Vulture's reinforcement would soon pick up on the radio silence and send a team in to investigate. Only a couple of cameras were working in the aftermath of this slaughter. One camera in the hallway moved slowly back and forth to find it completely deserted. Another camera saw several broken capsules where various experiments were being held, the experiments now roaming the halls of the labs remaining out of the cameras visible range. After several minutes of only seeing empty rooms and mangled corpses did something flash across one of the hallways of the lab. At first it was a simple black blur shooting across the monitor in the control room. In the next instant it could be seen plain as day that a child now stood in the halls dressed in black with dark brown hair covering the left and right sides of her face. Blood covered bare feet and a small teddy bear dripping more blood in her right hand with its left eye poked out. The camera turned to the left while the child stayed standing at the center of the hallway before coming back to the right. When it turned back from the right, ever so slowly, the child was gone as quickly as she had appeared. The camera made it complete turn to the left and then as it slowly turned back right...

Static.

The child continued down the hallway with lights flickering on and off as she walked. Coming to a door locked automatic door that needed a card key to unlock but the damaged inflicted to the labs made it open and close uncontrollably. With a simple gaze from the demon child the door came to a screeching halt and allowed the child entry as she looked across the room to a blood pack labeled “Number 4” as she remembered clearly from Doctor Harlan's memories after tearing him apart. The blood pack was swept into the air and opened itself for the child, the blood spewing out through the air and painting her clothes red if only for a moment before being consumed by her. Flashes of a life long lost swam through the cluttered space in her mind. She could hear herself crying out for her mother while Vulture's troops took her away and gunned down her family in cold blood right in front of her. She could remember being drugged and coming to hours later only to be dragged through these same hallways and hooked up to a machine to have tests done to her. The blood transfusion was the last thing her mortal blood could remember before everything went black. Lost innocence now sat among the corrupt. One source of purity overshadowed by thousands upon thousands of screaming impure abominations inside of her. The Fourth Aspect. The Arashi with a face. The demon with a soul.

The screams.

“AHHHHHHHHHH!”

They were hers.

The lights down the hallway shattered one by one leaving nothing but darkness remaining inside the building. The soldiers outside formed a perimeter and prepared for whatever type of freak or abomination would come crashing out of those laboratory doors with a vengeance. They had no idea. No idea at all what awaited them. Yet even then they were able to feel the terrifying chill creep up their spines and cause the hairs on the back of their necks to stand at attention as the screams from below the basement reached out into the depths of their minds making them more alert. The child climbed up the staircase from the first floor basement to the main floor where the exit was. Bloody footprints left behind in her wake with each step. Closer, and closer, her movements being picked up by the soldiers outside as their weapons raised up towards the door. And silence. The only sound coming from the cold winds of an early Isafaro's morning until the doors of the main entrance swung open

and the Vulture's soldiers open fired. Their bullets punching holes through her body, the fact she appeared as a three-year-old who has seen hell didn't cause any of them to hesitate in their fire when they saw her. For they knew what she was. A freak off her leash like all the rest. Well, maybe not like all the rest. The teddy bear fell to the ground and the child followed suit. Collapsing down to her knees and then landing face first against the pavement by the entrance. Blood pouring out of the wounds created by the bullets painting the pavement crimson, the moon's reflection showing in the puddle of blood as two of the troops were sent to make sure the child was dead. They walked around her, one to the left and the other to the right. The soldier to her right kicked the child's side. No response. Meanwhile the one to the left carefully picked up the teddy bear in his free hand and looked it over. Noticing the blood that dripped down on his feet at the end of it but when his eyes came back to look at the bear, the head moved of its own accord and he quickly dropped it shooting it to pieces. The other soldier reprimanded him for being afraid of a simple teddy bear, reprimands which were interrupted by the sound of a child's laughter. As innocent as it sounded it caused the soldiers stomach to twist and turn as the child pulled her face up from the puddle of blood and looked at the soldiers standing over her.

“More.”

Hundreds of tendrils exploded from the child's body and made quick work of the two soldiers flanking her position. The other soldiers attempted to provide some form of escape for their comrades but the bullets were stopped dead in their tracks by the tendrils as they could hear the screams of the soldiers trapped inside, their entrails being ripped out of their bodies and torn before they themselves were nailed to the front of the lab for all to see. Their helmets removed to displayed the look of pure horror on their faces signifying their last moments on this planet was plagued by terror. The soldiers kept hopelessly exhausting more ammunition trying to break through the ink black tendrils that now shielded the child from them before they ran out of bullets. The tendrils opening up and the child walking out appearing as if she was never pummeled by bullets to begin with.

“More.”

She could see the fear in their eyes, feeling it rapidly increasing the heart rate of each individual soldier that stood before her now desperately filling her body with bullets in the hopes that some lasting damage upon her body would be inflicted. She would go on to rape each and every last one of their hopes as she kept coming at them. Meeting them all with her gaze before they heard the screams of the scientists who died inside the labs threatened to shatter their eardrums. They felt their bodies being ripped apart even though they were perfectly sound where they stood, barred the dangerous child who slowly made a walk for them. The soldiers clamped their hands onto their heads and felt their skull pounding from the inside out. Pain no human was ever meant to experience spread throughout their bodies like a forest fire as it felt like their skeleton was about to rip itself out and move of its own accord. Their screams filled the cold early morning sky of the beautiful dark metropolis and their heads exploded. Blood landing before the child's feet and being absorbed into her body where she stood as her eyes looked out to the horizon where she could see reinforcement heading her way.

“More.”

[Sparda]

The response was quick and powerful, and a dull rumble through the ground heralded its arrival. Nearby squads rushed into position on foot, longer-distance reinforcements pulling in aboard IFVs with their turrets trained on the escapee, as all available guards had been alerted to the security breach and sent to contain it. The thundering of their approach seemed unending, an entire army apparently mobilised to neutralise this threat from within...

"All units, stand down."

The synthesised voice was at once comforting and commanding, booming across the headsets of each and every approaching soldier and crewman. All fell to a stop, confused, and looked around for whoever had issued this order. The voice was not familiar, but the accompanying IFF soon flashed across every HUD it needed to.

ANTI-FREAK WEAPONS PLATFORM
CODENAME: NEPHILIM

From the sky, the true answer to this breakout descended, a seven-foot tall mech that lowered itself upon a set of retro boosters, touching down at the opposite end of the frontal courtyard. Twenty metres of open space, walled in on all sides, separated the roused freak from freedom.

Its visor, comprised of a shaped row of cameras and LEDs, glowed a bright blue and narrowed visibly. The wing-like structures upon its back flexed upwards slightly, clear of the ground, and the large rifle in its right hand was raised to acquire its target. The girl would feel a strange kind of lethargy begin to settle over her as the towering mech activated its on-board null field generator, set to a radius of fifty metres. No escape.

"Fall back while you're still able. I will contain this."

[Legion]

The ground beneath her feet trembled, as if in feared anticipation of the colossal battle to unfold as the technological juggernaut awoke from its slumber to cast out the disease which now threatened its kingdom. The innocent soul within the monstrous being also trembled in fear while the surrounding demons threatening to consume her essence shook in excitement, a twisted and sick grin revealing the demon child's true nature could be seen by the approaching soldiers who looked through their binoculars to get a closer look at the obstacle up ahead and the massacre all around her. These soldiers barely had the chance to even conceive what it was that happened to them before their lives were taken away and they became a part of her. Joined together in unholy matrimony their thoughts and actions becoming one with their new found vessel. It was enough to make the Vulture troops closing in sick to their stomach to know this beast had slain their comrades so easily. Vengeance motivated their actions and fueled their strength and will but before they could be given the chance to avenge their comrades a voice told them to stop. The twisted grin faded from the child's face as she observed the soldiers up ahead. Did they fear her so much that they could not bring themselves to take another step forward despite how strong their desire for vengeance became? No. She could hear their thoughts, sense the confusion. The order came from elsewhere and she wouldn't have to wait long to see why.

It towered over her and was massive. Such a difference in size yet both equally terrifying. The soldiers further on down the road looked on in amazement at the mech dispatched to eliminate the target before reluctantly pulling back putting off their thirst for revenge and allowing the man behind the mech to take it from here. The child did in fact feel the exhaustion as a familiar force surrounded the area. It was similar to how the Downward Spiral energy shields worked but this wasn't secluded to the mind. It spread across the field with the intent to store away the power inside her body. Inside their body. The city's answer to battling the monsters of hell was to make them no more than a mere babe. Take away the very thing that made them so feared in the first place. How delightful. Neither fear nor concern ever crossed the child's face as the barrel of the rifle stared her down. The twisted grin from before didn't return either. Her face became like that of a stone mask showing no true emotions, as one would expect from a demon. Though the innocent soul deep down inside cried out for a savior, a liberator from this cruel and unjust fate that was bestowed upon her, she was drowned out by the monsters whose sole motivations were death and destruction. No cries ever made it to the surface. The only sound was the drop of blood from the crucified soldiers behind her and the sudden gush of wind as the stare down commenced and anticipation grew for the inevitable, and ever continuing confrontation between man and monster.

“Hurry.”

[Sparda]

"Hurry."

Anticipation. That was one of the things he hated most about these creatures; the most belligerent never failed to enjoy doing battle with their containment, eager to usher forth Isafaro's defenders to their deaths. This one had done quite well to make it outside, but the line had been drawn. There would be no further progress from this courtyard.

The visor narrowed a tad further, and the trigger finger tensed just a little.

"Gladly."

The finger squeezed, and the bark of a monstrously high-caliber gunshot rent the morning air. From the muzzle of the 13mm rifle, a single shell erupted, etched with silver, filled with a violent explosive and endowed with all manner of potent blessings. The round was upon her almost in the same instant it was fired, but did not make contact; instead, set to airburst mode, it exploded a foot or so from her body, enveloping her in a searing blast of blessed mercury explosive powder, the blessings seeking to further weaken and compromise the presence of the demonic souls within her and subjugate them here and now.

[Legion]

The child lifted up her hand as the sound of gunfire roared through the early morning air causing people to look out their windows in horror at the sight they were seeing outside. Rest was no longer an option when once again war plagued these once peaceful streets but none of them dare stepped outside in fear of the battle and in fear of what would happen to their bodies should they violate the Vulture's curfew. It was as if the child expected to stop the in-coming bullet with her palm but it exploded before it could make contact and she watched as her arm was blown off. Her screams being the next thing to fill the air as her arm fell against the ground and fire burned at her flesh on top of the agony that came from the blessing of the bullet. The child's body falling backward through the air and to the ground of the courtyard before her tendrils broke her fall, straightening the child and pushing her forward while the fire grew and reformed her lost arm in the form of flames. Her tendrils and pyrokinesis proving to be abilities not unholy in origin in spite of the strong demonic presence that felt up her aura and filled the blood in her veins.

A tendril wrapped around a nearby tree tightly and tore its roots off the ground as the flame arm extended to the tree setting it ablaze, the flames wrapping around it and the tendrils, cradling it almost as the tree was raised above the mech's head. Burning leaves falling from the tree branches and blowing through the wind in unprofound grace neither man nor woman has ever known. Spinning around and disappearing into the darkness as their burning light shined through, acting as a decoy to the innocent bystanders making them feel a strange sense of peace as the beauty of nature was somehow able to shine through even the worse destruction of man and monster. But the eyesore that was the mech and abomination could only be pushed away for so long. And the Isafarians' eyes would be brought back to the child who was now swinging the tree down towards the head of the mech like one would swing a club against another person's skull.

[Sparda]

The "face" of the towering mech remained unchanged, but the eyes of the pilot narrowed at what he was seeing. His null field was at optimum operating specs, but he wasn't seeing any visible compromise of the abilities he was expecting. There was another source, not strictly demonic, powering her.

"Oi," the pilot snapped to his companions, off his intercom and far from the battle. His eyes didn't move from the HUD screen. "I want those research logs cracked on the double. Find out everything you can about this subject. I wanna know how to put it down, and I wanna know right now."

"Yes Sir!" Came the unified responses of his cohorts as they set to work finding access to all the logs they could find on these freaks.

Back on the battlefield, the mech seemed to glance upwards at the blazing tree with which it was now being threatened. The moment the improvised club came down to bludgeon it, the counterattack came; its right arm flashed back into life, bearing down on the tendril in an instant and clicking off a second shot to sever it and release the tree, before it raised its left arm to deftly catch the burning plant and toss it aside. The Nephilim reacquired its target, three more shots blazing forth from the rifle to rend her to pieces and further weaken her with the blessed shells.

[Legion]

The child's entire body sprung to life when the bullets came, skipping from one part of the courtyard to the others evading the bullets. The tendril was sever, splitting in two and falling to the ground before turning into a black mist that hovered through the air as small flames from the burning plant rained on the ground as the tree was tossed away by the large mech. The remaining tendrils spread out through the courtyard, ripping up concrete and hurling it into the direction of the mech as a spare tendril wrapped firmly around a water fountain and ripped it from the ground, hurling it among the concrete as the water slipped pass the debris caused by her tendrils destroying parts of the ground heading for the mechanical enemy that stood before her. The building behind them shook, and trembled. Like goosebumps spreading across a man's body amidst the chilling cold. In the next instant hundreds of abominations came flooding out of the building. Hundreds of lives taken away by the Vulture now unleashed upon the populace as some joined the fight in the courtyard and others moved around them erupting panic within the city and forcing further action from the Isafaro military. You reaped what you sowed and Vulture was about to reap everything he's sown.

A massive claw reached out to grab the head of the child but the freak would learn the same lesson as the mech pilot as the bright lights blinded his vision and the demon moved around him with relative ease while the flames engulfed its body and consumed all its flesh, forcing the mutation inside the monster's body to increase making it something even more terrible than it already is. It wasn't long until the monster rivaled the height of the mech and body was strong enough to withstand high impact firepower. Still no fear ever showed on the child's face. Instead a look of excitement crossed her face while more mutations joined the battle. The flaming freak now using the fire wrapped around its being to inflict more damage against the child pushing her back towards the mech. However the child only laughed, the same childish laugh that was the final thing the corpses around them heard before the tendrils came, tearing into the flaming body and lifting the freak into the air turning the monster into yet one more projectile launched at the anti-freak that blocked her path into the city.

[Sparda]

Translocation. The pilot narrowed his eyes, as did Nephilim. This would be more troublesome than he had hoped if she was capable of such speed, but at least she wasn't so arrogant as to simply tank his firepower. More often than not, that meant his powerfully blessed, violently explosive shells were perceived as a threat.

And if that was the case, then she'd better be afraid of the rest of his weaponry. As the girl flung a volley of concrete chunks at him, the wings upon his back splayed out sideways, the panels at their tips sliding upwards towards the upper joints to reveal six integrated banks of three laser nodes, which protected the mech with a volley of thin, lightning-fast beams of concentrated holy energy to blast the concrete projectiles out of the air. The mob of charging abominations met the same fate, a large swath of the first wave cut down and dismembered beyond recognition by a sweeping blast of these eighteen beams.

Then came the hulking beast that grew to Nephilim's height and was set ablaze by his target. Fortunately, it chose to attack her first, but was soon picked up by the black tendrils and hurled at the mech. The pilot merely smirked to himself before the energy nodes flared back into life; but this time, he unleashed not beams, but prehensile hardlight tendrils of his own that caught the freak, wrapped hard and ripped it to pieces with a single quick, almost casual tug in each direction. The flames of its holy power spread across the pieces of the corpse, incinerating them so that it wouldn't get back up, before the mech dropped the hunks of meat and the six tendrils rushed forth at Legion, smashing and cutting through the miscellaneous freaks in their path as they lashed out at her.

[Legion]

The monsters storming the city was enough to cause people to flee their home in terror while the Vulture was busy with the threat. They had zero faith in the Vulture's ability to control the situation after what the Spokesman of Insanity has done to the city and to make matters worse these were their own toys causing havoc not an unknown attacking the Vulture's troops for god knows what reason. Just as the abominations were destroyed many of the people who tried running were gunned down by soldiers who had all available exits blocked and barricaded, closing down the sector to ensure that the mutations got no farther than sector twelve. Legion watched with a twisted look of terror and excitement on her young pale features as the machine up ahead ripped the monster apart with its own tendrils before sending them hurling towards her. They were intercepted of course by her tendrils, locking around and wrestling them to the ground as the troops up ahead observed the power struggle between monster and machine. And the child wasn't backing down. Legion was every bit as powerful as the Isafaro Research Team had boasted about in their reports and as her tendrils pushed back against his, the people watching this fight was reminded of the Arashi who had left a permanent scar on all of them. Even the ones who had no first-hand experience in dealing with them were terrified at the very idea that something Isafaro had created could come close to the power the Arashi wielded. They feared the child battling in the courtyard.

“We are...”

Pain spread throughout her body as the air filled up her lungs to allow her to speak and breathe. The voice of a child spilled out into the cold air. Her breath frozen and drifted through the dark empty space between machine and beast. Her tendrils starting to gain ground, not wearing down from the generators that made up most of the field. Continuing to push back against the machine and show which one between them were the superior in that retrospect. A fire burned in her eyes and then faded away before she cried out her fury at the man.

“LEGION!”

Fire engulfed the courtyard. Leaving no place untouched as the monstrous corpses that remained on the ground were also set ablaze as their brother before them. Some bodies being lifted up into the air by an invisible force and at the center of it all was the child. Flames licking her body but not phasing her, just as the fire witnessed by Moses did not burn the bush. She could hear them. Veran, Aper, The End. They were among the voices inside her head that called out for the blood of all who stood in their way. The blood of the innocent. It was all that remained to save this world.

And who can forget the fire?

[Sparda]

The black and white tendrils continued to wrestle one another as hell broke loose around the two combatants. This outbreak was worsening by the second; if he didn't finish her off soon, there'd be nothing left to assist the rest of the containment... To hell with it, he'd have to escalate and deal with this himself.

Nephilim continued to push back against the demonic child before it eventually broke away, the white tendrils of holy energy dissipating. The wings relaxed, each bar perpendicular to the ground, before they all swung upwards on hinges, connecting to their bases and pointing upwards. These weren't merely sites for the beam nodes, they were entire energy cannons; the SUPPLICE system, the Nephilim's most dangerous weapon.

The six cannons splayed outwards, rivulets of bright white light streaking up and down their lengths as they charged. Before long, they shot six shining, flare-like projectiles that arced out across the unfolding battlefield in all directions. With a series of blinding flashes, the bolts of energy burst open in violent explosions that rained potent beams of holy energy across the ground beneath them, utterly saturating the battlefield in hallowed radiance that tore apart the fleeing abominations but left the roads and buildings untouched.

Another set of flashes, and another six bolts were fired, this time straight vertically. The Nephilim's pilot narrowed his eyes and gave a smirk as all six exploded right over the lab courtyard, raining their holy vengeance straight down on Legion from above. Unfazed, the mech continued to stare her down, the SUPPLICE cannons rotating further to all bear down upon her.

[Legion]

Legion looked up to the sky as the blinding white light attacked her vision and blurred it. Making it impossible for her to see anything and it was beautiful. As if God himself had entered the darkened skies of the city to reach out and save her. To take the innocent child among the monsters away and shield her with his saving grace but it was not God who reached out for her. Mere seconds after extending her hand up to the sky and outstretching her palm to the light, screams exit the child's body and echoed through the sector as the remaining abominations fell and there was nowhere to run for any of them. Not even Legion. Although the on-lookers couldn't see anything pass the light the screams of a child in agony was enough to send chills and feelings of remorse to even the soldiers who marched proudly and willingly beneath the banner of the Crimson Vulture before all was silenced and the child's suffering was alas put to an end. The bright lights began to fade and the soldiers could make out the ruins of what once was the lab courtyard as the bodies of Vulture's men and abominations laid against the ground and then the soldiers' eyes zeroed in on one thing in particular.

Legion lived!

From the ashes of the abominations arose new terrible monsters manipulated by the child's great and terrible power as in the same instance her hand lifted up towards Demetrius the on-board generator protecting him from the full scope of Legion's power was shattered through a sheer act of will that proved greater than even the null field could hope to suppress. Demetrius would feel his mind being raped as images of his comrades being maimed and butchered threatened to shatter his sanity and begin a descent into madness which there would be no escape. It soon spread to the others and instead of a child's screams of agony the Vulture's troops and the citizens who remained indoors watching the conflict were the ones to scream as all of Isafaro shook underneath the might of their most dangerous weapon to date. And it was set loose upon all of Genesis.

For a second time Legion's hand reached up to the heavens, only this time it was not reaching for any light. This city knew not the light, it only knew darkness and despair. The Darkness that could be felt by the man called Gabrielle was not the only darkness that had a death grip on the city. For one-hundred and fifty years since General Vulture took control the city possessed its own darkness casting an eternal night and if not for their technological prowess the people here would have died from being cut off from the sun and not being allowed to leave. As her hand stretched out to the heavens an earthquake shook the ground and the buildings all around them. The darkness that dwell within the air came flooding towards the child hand and consumed her, becoming one with her body as the unthinkable occurred. The darkness that hovered over the city was broken, absorbed into Legion and the eternal night was finally over.

Isafaro had bore witness to its first sunrise in over a century as the dual suns came up into the sky, Sol and Emmanuel's shinning lights washed over the child. An omen of things to come.

Vulture's reign was coming to an end.

[Sparda]

The pilot narrowed his eyes, wary of the silence that settled over their battlefield in the wake of the SUPPLICE's deployment. The remaining abominations had been struck down to the last, reduced to ash by the bolts of holy light... Yet stubbornly, Legion had remained. The Nephilim stepped back, the SUPPLICE cannons aiming upwards again for a third volley to cleanse the field again - then the girl raised her hand, breaking down the onboard null field generator seemingly by a sheer act of will and assaulting the distant pilot with the morbid power of the Waking Nightmare...

Demetrius Altor, far from the battle, merely smiled, unfazed. In preparation for this very eventuality, the quacks had had him infected with the Nightmare by one of their test subject hosts, and through a rigorous series of neurosurgeries - which had also greatly enhanced his reflexes and mental processing speeds - helped him overcome the visions. Legion, little more than a patchwork pseudo-host of the Nightmare, had no power over him.

"Not enough," the towering mech stated almost matter-of-factly. There came a high-pitched whine as the SUPPLICE cannons gathered energy, charging to twice their previous output, before three more volleys of holy flares were launched in all directions. These ones did not merely bombard the ground beneath with bolts of light; they exploded into tiny, star-like novas that shone continually, utterly saturating the battlefield in their holy radiance, much stronger than before.

Demetrius chuckled to himself as the SUPPLICE cannons swung forwards again, the whining of their charge raising in pitch and volume as they continued to build up energy before unleashing six blinding, overpowering torrents of holy energy straight at Legion from across the courtyard. If she dodged around him, she would still suffer under the light of the flares and he'd be ready to cut his current assault short to counter. If she ducked into the labs, he'd raze them to the ground around her.

There would be nowhere for her to run.

[Legion]

He came at her as if possessing the full power of the heavens themselves, raining down holy energy that made the abominations around her scream in terror as they died yet another agonizing death. But Emmanuel shinned down upon her, it approved of her, her existence. It empowered her like nothing else in this world could have ever done. The infinite ball of energy that was once the Second Aspect made her invincible in the face of her enemies as there was indeed nowhere to run, and nowhere to hide. Legion walked directly forward into the blast and kept coming like a true monster. Like a true Arashi. Whispering the name of her enemy which sounded into the depths of his mind.

“Demetrius...”

Her voice echoed and the sound behind it was unnerving as she continued her slow walk towards him. The visions that had plagued him by the intervention of man, the visions that had gave him nightmares beyond the imagination of mankind, began to return to the forefronts of his mind with every step the demon child took. Intensifying in power as the images played over, and over, and over again. Like they were a brand new experience for the man, threatening to tear his head apart from the inside out. Making him want to claw out his own eyes and let the blood flow down his cheeks freely. His mouth was forced opened by the screams as blood poured out and began building up from within the cockpit of the machine. Threatening to drown him inside as the machine was sealed, offering no way of escape. Becoming his prison at the same time it was inching closer to becoming his grave. They believed that exposure to the Nightmare gave them immunity.

They were wrong.

[Sparda]

The visions... Those fucking visions again! Just when Demetrius thought he'd conquered those hellish sights, this Frankenstein's monster before him proved powerful enough to break through his control of the Nightmare and force him to relive hallucinations that would break any lesser mind. The Nephilim stumbled back as its pilot struggled, growling and shaking his head.

"Sir?" one of his subordinates asked, the group all crowding around with grave concern etched across their faces.
"Stay back!" the pilot barked, staring balefully at the screen and pointedly ignoring the feeling of skeletal claws scraping at the inside of his skull. "What are these new readings?"
"A new power source, sir. It's like... It's like she's drawing vast amounts of power from Emmanuel itself."
"Then the reports are accurate. That is the remains of the Second Aspect..." He spat to his side, growing more and more disgusted by this monster. "The bitch is drawing strength from her pseudo-sibling. We've something to say about that, don't we, chaps?"

His face twisting into a malevolent smirk, the Nightmare host calmed himself, clearing his mind as best he could to wrest himself from Legion's telepathic grip. The Nephilim turned its back on the freak, the SUPPLICE cannons raising as if to aim at Emmanuel, then angled inwards very slightly. He continued to crank up their power supply, the cannons blazing with light and uttering hellish shrieks as they blazed with holy power. Finally, they fired; six intense beams of energy that lanced into the dawn sky, dozens of metres overhead.

The beams met and coalesced at a point between Legion and the incandescence of Emmanuel, a sphere of hallowed force forming and growing at the point of convergence. It shone brighter and brighter as it expanded, until it was bathing much of the city in its blinding light, entire streets and blocks seeming to radiate their own white, opalescent glow in the presence of a ball of energy that blazed like a third sun, shining even brighter than Emmanuel and supplanting its light with a holy power that would hopefully cut Legion off from this source of her empowerment long enough for the Nephilim to stop her.

The mech turned around, glaring down at the girl who was blinded by the immense light. The technological beast stood proudly before her, silhouetted completely against its third star, an angel of death with no intention of backing down from this artificial Arashi. His golden eyes boring into what vestiges of a soul might still remain in that broken husk of a girl, Demetrius raised his rifle and squeezed the trigger, unleashing a volley of explosive shells.

[Legion]

The demon child could sense the struggle coming from Demetrius from within the cockpit of the Nephilim. Living or reliving your worst nightmare was tasking on any mind no matter how strong, how disciplined. Legion would know, she was born in the Nightmare. Raised in the Nightmare. This was a child who knew not the things of dreams or childish fantasy, but hellish visions that broke the strongest of warriors, and their cries were like a siren that sounded off through the night as a warning to any who dared stand before the Arashi's might. Even the child of devils were no match for the power of an Arashi. Mankind would soon regret its impulsiveness on this matter. They would be the bringers of their own destruction. Not with a bang, but a whimper.

In the face of defeat one can always expect a last resort to be played before pulling back. This last resort came in the form of more devastating holy energy, this time aimed for the heavens to block the source of her ascension. Emmanuel. Again she was blinded by the bright lights, everyone who bore witness to the great, terrible battle was. In the next instant the Nephilim's rifle fired and blood painted the ground between them as the child's body was torn apart and fell face first into the courtyard's cement. By the time the light finally faded, Demetrius saw the demon child on the ground in a puddle of her own blood. The devil child had at last been defeated by Vulture's Anti-Freak Machine.

Then the blood began to rise. Like a great river raising up into the sky. The people of Isafaro could not believe their eyes as a tsunami of blood headed for their sector. With no time to escape before it sped past the Nephilim and collided into buildings, sending them tumbling down into rubble and slaughtering the people inside. Giving them no hope of survival. The Nightmare would follow them to death and their screams, one with existence. To be heard all the way to the Creator. As the blood filled up the streets and laid waste to life, the devil child's eyes opened and her body drifted up underneath the river of blood. The same blood that once drowned the Night Angel before she was brutally raped by the walking dead. Her eyes staring straight through the cockpit of the Nephilim and into the soul of Demetrius. Hope. It entered the heart of man at the sight of the battle, and was raped just as quickly. The darkness that had been absorbed into her body was unleashed and threatened to devour both Demetrius and the Nephilim if the river of blood didn't drown him with the rest of the sector first.