“My father has told me of these days, the days of old Earth,” I said. “He was twelve when the war came to our world.”
“I was five,” Damiel said. “Where did your father live when the war came?”
“Berlin, just as he does now. But he says the city was very different then.”
“The whole world was different then. I lived in old New York back then—a New York before gods and demons, before monsters and Magitech walls. And then the Immortal War came to our world. The demons knew the gods wanted our world. They didn’t know why, but they made full use of the gods’ need to own the Earth in order to lure them in. And then the demons sprang the trap.” His face hardened. “It was magic explosives. Soon, only ruins remained where New York and five other major cities had once proudly stood. The demons’ traps killed only a few gods, but they killed many humans. Millions died in that attack. My parents died in that attack.”
I set my hand on his. “I’m sorry.”
He did not draw away from my touch. “My parents died, but my brother Evander and I survived. We climbed out of the rubble that had once been our home. We hitched a ride on a train. Back then, the tracks ran all the way across the country. Back then, there were no plains of monsters. At least not yet.”
“Where did you and your brother go?”
“We went north, away from any large cities. Evander was thirteen, several years older than I was. And he was smart. The demons and gods clashed a few times while we were traveling, their battles lighting up the skies in all directions. Evander knew the demons were targeting the cities. So we hopped off the train and hiked deep into the woods, away from everything. We lived there for many years, safe from the battles. Hunting and foraging. He took care of me.”
Damiel went quiet.
“What happened?” I asked him.
“The gods and demons had brought their battle beasts with them to Earth, animals under the deities’ control. Every god or demon soldier had at least one battle beast. Beast and deity fought side-by-side on the battlefield, against their enemies. They’d been using the beasts for centuries. They’d had them completely under their control for centuries.
“But then something happened. It was several years after Evander and I fled the ruins of New York. Somehow, the gods and demons lost control of their pets. The beasts went wild, feral. They streamed across the lands, killing anything and everything they found. Destroying cities, towns, and villages alike.
“At the same time, the lands grew wild themselves. The Earth’s weather turned on its head. There was pouring rain in the desert, blizzards in summer, scorching heat in winter. Jungle vines spread across the desert, covering the sands completely with green foliage. In one place, the ocean rose up and swallowed hundreds of islands; in another, the rocky land spread across the sea, drinking up the water until there was none left. Fires burned across the prairies, scorching the land black. And everywhere you looked, there was death.
“The woods where Evander and I lived were no longer safe. Nowhere on Earth was safe. Monsters attacked our cabin. My brother died defending me. He could have run away if not for me, but I was too slow. Too weak. He held them off to give me time to get away. He shouted out for me to run. And I did.”
Guilt marred Damiel’s beautiful face.
“If you had stayed, the monsters would have killed you too,” I told him.
“Maybe. I spent years going through that day in my head, over and over again, trying to find something I’d missed. Some way I could have saved him. In that way, the two of us are a lot alike.”
“Because I like to torture myself?” I gasped.
“Because like you, I don’t believe anything is truly impossible. I could have found a way to save Evander. But I was too weak. Too stupid. And because of that, the only person I had left in the world was gone. I was twelve years old. I had no one and nowhere to go.
“But I wasn’t the only one. The war had left thousands of children orphaned and homeless. I’d heard of a nearby camp of humans, a safe haven where monsters didn’t go. We feared it was a myth, but Evander and I were about to go there when we were attacked by monsters. I made my way there alone now. And what I saw shocked me.”
“What was it?”
“A wall of magic that repelled the monsters. The beasts stalked before it, but they never came close enough to touch it.”
“The first Magitech barriers,” I said.
“Yes. The generators were enormous then, and the walls were small, hardly large enough to protect a few buildings. The monsters prowled in front of them for most of the night, but many of the beasts slept during the day. The people of that town let me in while the monsters were sleeping. And I lived there, in that tiny haven of civilization, for the next few years. Over time, our witches learned to make more powerful Magitech machines. The town grew. And so did other havens of humanity. Years passed. I was eighteen now.
“And then one day, all the monsters outside our wall burst into nothingness. They dissolved before our eyes. Some time later, we heard the monsters had been exterminated from many cities and pushed back from others. We learned that walls had been built over the years to block the beasts, walls powered by generators much bigger than our own. Humanity had reclaimed a small part of our fallen world. Our town was within one of these reclaimed territories. When the wall went up, the monsters were purged instantly.
“There were victory celebrations. We had only taken back a small piece of what we’d lost, but hope blossomed inside the ruins of humanity. Slowly, the natural elements on the right side of civilization fell back into harmony. Beyond the walls, the monsters and weather was still as wild as ever, but we had reclaimed something.
“There were cheers for the gods, who’d finally sent the demons away. The gods had put a wall between us and the monsters. We’d all forgotten that some of the monsters who’d ravaged our world had once been the gods’ beasts; people only remembered that the demons had brought the monsters to Earth. The Pilgrims, voice of the gods’ message, told humanity that the demons had set the monsters on us. That the demons had destroyed our world. They said the gods had saved it—and saved us along with it.
“People spoke of an important new organization, the gods’ earthly army. The Legion of Angels. The Legion had been instrumental in pushing back the monsters.
“The Legion’s soldiers had once been human, just like most of us, but the gods had given them magic. It was supposed to be a grueling, difficult process that many did not survive, but I didn’t allow that to deter me. I had to join. I had to gain power to be strong, to take care of myself and anyone I cared about. I had seen too many people die. I’d been too powerless for too long.
“I wanted to fight the demons who’d ruined my life, my family, and my world.”
So that was why Damiel had joined the Legion of Angels: to protect himself and others, to get revenge on the demons, and push them out. Even now, the urges which had brought him to the Legion guided his actions. That’s why he hunted down any and all traitors to the Legion.
“I traveled far to the Legion of Angels, which back then was only a single office in Los Angeles. However, Nyx would not allow me to join until I was twenty-two, when my body would be ready to receive the Nectar.”