Machine
We turned a corner. A church stood before us. It was out of place, built dead center in the middle of the street. It had two towers on each side that seemed to phase through the nearby buildings as if it were overlaid on our more conventional structures.
A massive stained glass window depicting the Virgin Mary was above a heavy wooden door marked with the cross. The most chilling detail, however, was the complete and utter lack of damage or wear throughout the structure. It was unmarked, as if built yesterday.
Abruptly, Shen ran up to the middle of the road ten paces forward from our group. He swiveled around, staring at the windows, his head snapping to each frame before finally settling on us.
Roland's face creased, then he held up a hand and stilled us. Steven's brow furrowed, and he raised the rifle I had reforged for him. Kiara stepped behind him and copied the motion. I saw it too. My infrared array spotted them moving. Many figures shone with heat within the buildings besides the church.
Shen clicked his tongue. "Boys, we are so fucked." He ran back to us in a brisk jog, seemingly unbothered, excited even, at the declaration. I could feel it in the air—the chilling message that demanded we prepare.
Roland was about to bark out an order, his mouth wide open. But he couldn't. Someone walked past us.
Something long brushed by my shoulder, then kept walking down the road. It had been behind us, hidden from our gazes, hidden from my cutting-edge senses. Now, it was revealing its presence.
Had it made its attack?
Was it intending to attack?
It was a creature. A tall, thin thing, draped with a dull, pale leather that it wore like hooded robes. Its face lacked features; it was a simple cone shape that peered out its hood like the beak of a falcon. Two limbs reached past the garb. They were long and sinuous, structured like the raptorial arms of a mantid, only meaty, lacking any insect-like quality. They resembled a bird's wings, only de-feathered and weaponized. It stood on two pointed feet, closer to spikes than actual legs. Something about the graceful way it turned to face us, and the total silence of its arrival, indicated an inhuman level of grace that far surpassed any land-roaming predator.
The sky darkened, a shadow shrunk around us, then a massive impact shook the ground. A larger figure struck the earth like an arrow cast down by Apollo himself. Shattered tarmac and debris erupted. Kiara flinched back, and Steven stepped forward to cover her.
A titan stood by the long figure. It resembled it partially, covered in the same dull leather. Only this thing was broad and dense with nothing but fiercely coiled muscle. Two arms, proportioned like a gorilla's, flexed with power. Tiny feathered wings that coated his arms and interlocked began to flutter in anticipation. Its head had an almost human quality. The shape was no different than anyone else's, yet it was futureless save for a golden cross. The flesh around the object bubbled relentlessly, as if it were trying to reject it. Similar golden objects rose like wailing harpoons nailed into its back. They were the pipes of a church organ. I could hear a faint rumbling hymn push past the openings.
The muscular creature slammed a flail-like weapon into its face. A series of bells attached to chains struck the golden cross and rang out a resonant wave of sound that seemed to still the air. The bubbling of its flesh stilled, and the wings stood up straight like the hairs of mammals trying to appear larger.
Then it spoke. Sound emerged from the instruments on its back, producing a reverberant voice that held with it a strange, unsettling peace. "My name is Daniel. I am the Vicar of this church. My companion, Victor, is one of our esteemed brothers. We come in service of our bishop, bearing the word of the divine."
The elongated creature, Victor, as he had called him, craned his neck in a twitchy fashion. "Slaughter, lead me to the slaughter, our words, so I may slaughter you, you." Sound left him in a high-pitched howl that had no discernible source.
"Heretics," Roland mumbled. Kiara raised her shotgun, Steven his rifle. Idris took a step forward and shot me a nod. I nodded in return, and we focused on the foe before us.
"Friends, be at ease." Daniel hobbled forward. Victor's arms began to tremble, the bloodlust within him begging for release. But he stilled the instant Daniel placed a hand on his shoulder. "All we demand is that you turn the other way and leave. I apologize for the inhospitality, but the bishop was clear in his wishes."
"We can go around. We won't make trouble." Roland eyed the windows. He realized there were more than two. My sensors picked up a total of twelve, excluding the presence I felt within the church. That one was different—familiar.
"Try if you wish." Daniel solemnly nodded.
Roland blinked in confirmation before walking into an alley to our left. He reached the end of it, then turned a corner and vanished from our sight. The two creatures stared expectantly. Then, I heard footsteps. Roland stepped out of an alley to our left, looking absolutely befuddled.
He stepped up to me and Idris, a disturbed look on his face. "I wasn't looping around. How the fuck did I get back here?"
I did not reply. Idris shrugged and stuck his tongue out. "Maybe you can come around to giving me some codeine." Roland facepalmed in response, then looked over to the pair.
"Things aren't linear when one departs from the light of God, and so the world steers clear of our lovely church. The sorcerer and the machine hold enough of his light to breach our little space," Daniel answered, his voice easy on the ears.
"We have no food. Surely men of the cloth like you wouldn't force us to take the long way." Roland raised both palms in a well-practiced display. He was attempting diplomacy like he had during the banquet.
"And I need the bathroom." Shen raised his hand like an elementary student before the headmaster. "I am hungover and need somewhere to puke."
Daniel gripped his chin and hummed. Then he raised a finger. "I can't allow you passage through the church. However, I have some food I can give you."
Roland pulled back the hammer of his revolver. "I won't negotiate with heretics." He raised it, and almost at once I heard the clattering of rifles. The figures in the buildings leveled their hodgepodge of guns straight toward our small squad.
Each one was clad in white leather. Their bodies were all disproportionate in some way—elongated, with additional limbs. Some squat, or covered in rounded lumps. Each one was paler than normal. Most had a strange smoothness over their otherwise human faces. The details of their visages were reduced. Some were missing eyes or mouths, all wrong… yet obviously and undebatably once human.
"Yes, have some for your journey." Daniel completely ignored the new developments. He resumed his maddeningly calm tone.
Victor, upon hearing his command, reached into the thick leather of his hood and pulled out a hardened chunk of bone-white flesh he was carrying. He speared it with one of his arms, then launched it forward. The meat struck the ground, violet blood spilled around it.
It smelled of crab, only lathered in a scent halfway between red wine and honey. I knew this scent; it was mouthwatering, nostalgic. It had been so long since I had tasted the flesh of an angel.
Roland recoiled. Steven and Kiara were confused but far more focused on the guns pointed at them. I knelt down by the piece, inhaling its scent. Idris, to my surprise, did the same and looked toward it with great interest.
He rubbed some of the purple blood on his finger, then licked it in one fluid motion. His handgrip locked hard against the staff as if he were bracing for impact. His head snapped back, and he cheered audibly.
"Fucky yeah, that's tight."
Thunder crackled from his helm, and the nails began to spin. He took a small sliver. But before he could swallow it down, Roland reached forward and pulled him upright. He grumbled, and blood ran down his cheek like a crimson tear, the flow unusually small for the cruel workings of his mask. "Don't fucking eat that."
I ignored him and ripped into it. I shoveled it down my gullet, giving myself just enough time to appreciate the flavor before swallowing. My fuel cells overflowed; the excess energy vented out my joints in the form of steam.
Roland considered pulling me away but didn't dare to try.
I stood upright and watched as Daniel gave me a thumbs up. I spoke to him, attempting to understand his reasoning and perhaps gain leverage. "You were the cross, yet you willingly offer the flesh of an angel to strangers. Why?"
Daniel shook his head. "God is far higher than his messengers. When they come to take our souls, they burn through the Lord's energy. When we eat their souls, we take it in and store it within ourselves forevermore. In this way, we cling closer to God than we ever could by worshiping them."
"This stuff is extremely addictive. It's an easy way to stoke up souls, but it's mutagenic." Idris stepped beside me as he spoke. "You have become Nephilim."
"Ay," Daniel replied. "The bishop doesn't approve, but alas, we have become addicts. The Lord is forgiving."
Suddenly, a gunshot ripped through the air. The barrel of Roland's revolver smoked. "We won't negotiate with heretics." Steven and Kiara recoiled, but raised their guns at the two Nephilim the second Roland's gun swept over their napes.
Shen shot Roland a smirk, and the man stilled. He grit his teeth, then refocused his aim on the pair. "Steven, Kiara. Behind me." The two seemed stunned. In turn, I felt a subtle sense of pride at Roland's courage.
His face was red; Roland seemingly had to bite back every one of his old instincts. Then he roared, "Burn the heretics."
"What? I thought we had an agreement," David responded. However, his partner Victor had already moved.
His cone-like mouth opened up like the maw of a moray eel. It was full of tiny, needle-point teeth like those of a deep-sea predator. "Kill them all." His high-pitched voice turned into a scream which rattled its way into my frame.
The gunmen opened fire in perfect unison, each one firing a single bullet. Idris slammed the base of his staff against the floor, and the bullets froze in mid-air. He exhaled with exertion as the teeth of his helm began to bite; however, he wouldn't stop.
He raised the staff, and the bullets turned around. Finally, he spun the staff and plunged the ringed end earthwards. Each shot blasted outwards, empowered by arcane forces. They cratered into the surrounding buildings, crushing masonry and concrete like dozens of little cannonballs.
Several of the Nephilim were struck down. Red hazes of blood sprayed out the open windows. One of the creatures slumped forward and fell headfirst into the road. It oozed and steamed from a wound in its neck.
The flesh began to restore itself. The creature stirred, but Kiara was onto it. She pulled the trigger, and the body fell face flat and lifeless the second the buckshot hit.
Steven took a deep breath, steadying his shaking hands. He sprayed in bursts somehow wild, yet controlled, firing off just enough shots to keep their heads down on the right side.
Idris began to cackle. He curled his fingers as he turned his palm upwards. The nails of his helm kept biting, spraying blood in those dreadful rings. Yet he paid them no mind.
Jolts of blue lightning crackled between his fingertips, and the surviving Nephilim on the left side began to shrink back in terror.
"Witness your doom." He spread his hand wide, and searing arcs jumped forward and homed in. The Nephilim at the windows exploded on contact with the curling thunder. Giblets of burnt flesh erupted over us, raining down over Idris till he glistened.
Shen was standing partway through the alleyway, his pants down, shamelessly as he pissed on the side of the road. I wanted to drag him into the fray by force if necessary. I was eager to gauge him as he fought someone else. But he noticed my stare and smirked as he zipped up his fly. I looked away, unable to meet his eyes.
Roland tapped my shoulder and pointed to the pair. Idris began to focus an identical attack on the right side. But Roland's words turned my gaze solely to him. "We will go fight those two."
I nodded. "I am with you, Captain Roland."
He smiled warmly, genuinely. The lightning from Idris cast a haunting shadow over Roland's features. He raised his voice. "Men, follow me."
He raised his cutlass skyward and roared. I shot forward, blitzing by him as each footfall shattered the tarmac. I left sound behind as I rocketed toward Victor.
"First to come, first to die." He snickered, his long tongue sliding between his teeth. He took a fully upright stance, drawing his bladed arms up in order to intercept me.
I analyzed his intent. The world blurred as I accelerated. Then, the moment before I would breach his range, I planted both feet into the ground and halted my momentum.
He slashed, both arms crossing and snapping closed like a pair of scissors. Yet I was out of reach; I had stopped just an inch away from where I would have been had my momentum carried.
"First to falter, first to die." I replied back. He had already begun to step away, but he was too late. I had used the opening; my left wing had already folded over into a recoilless rifle.
He attempted to defend, forming a cross-shaped guard. But the HEAT round my gun spat was already far too close. It struck his head. A dirty blast wave of smoke and fire swallowed his skull.
When it cleared, his headless torso stumbled. It took a step toward me, and its left arm chopped downwards in a lazy arc. I ducked under it and sprang my sickle blade free. In the same motion, I dragged my weapon over its midsection like a gentle droplet of rain. The torso was halved, falling to the ground.
Its flesh started to regenerate. The pale matter of its skin writhed like a swarm of leeches, stretching, ripping, as it tried to reconnect with its legs. I stepped forward to finish him off, but I had to stay my hand.
The others had run past us and were approaching the church. Roland needed my assistance.
He threw himself backward as Daniel heaved his flail. The many bells shattered a lamp post Roland had tried using for cover. They resonated with the impact; the vibrations coursed through the crushed metal of the post and turned it to ash.
Roland's face went pale. But he schooled it with sheer will. He raised his revolver and fired twice. The bullets struck Daniel fully. They embedded in his face like botched piercings, but did nothing to slow him down.
Daniel lifted the flail and spun it around in a full circle before bringing it down from overhead. Roland narrowly stepped to the side, sucking in air audibly as spiderweb cracks spread across the tarmac and the air rung with a chilling chime.
He roared, cleaving with full force. His cutlass bit into Daniel's neck. Blood sprayed, but the Nephilim was utterly unmoved by the blood spraying out his severed throat.
Roland tried to pull his weapon free to no avail, tried to shoot him again to no effect. His foe grabbed his arm, holding him in place. Soon enough he would crush him like a strawberry.
I stared at Victor's regenerating body a second longer. I bit back against my instincts, my programming. I got down on all fours and dashed straight toward the captain.
Daniel had brought the flail's handle to the apex of his final swing. But I was already upon him. My blade flashed and severed his arm cleanly. I ducked down low and between Roland's legs, picking him up with my back and allowing him to ride me like a warhorse.
Daniel screamed after us, his voice sounding like all the keys of a piano struck at once as he yowled in agony. Roland clung to my neck for dear life as I ran partway up a building before diving into the streets and drifting like a motorbike.
The captain fell off me and clambered to his feet. He dry-heaved, but he held it back upon seeing his men. Steven's eyes seemed to flicker with something like respect as he looked over at Roland.
"To the church," the captain whispered out. The soldiers began to move, sprinting toward the building in unison as the captain followed.
Victor and Daniel had almost fully healed. At this range, I could take them out in one artillery barrage. I clamped my palms together as Victor's head finished reforming. My limbs began to grow red-hot. My nanomachines began to repurpose my steel. Then—
Victor fell through the ground. I heard something snap shut, one of his arm blades flew into the air, spinning as it rose up. Then the hard pavement rippled like water, and a dark figure leapt out of it like a great white shark.
The figure's bronze-colored teeth glinted in the sun as it caught Victor's blade between its jaws. It landed like the falling night before it spoke.
"It is so very rude to hunt another's quarry, angel eater." The voice was melodic, calm, full of primal violence. I recognized who it belonged to. William had reached us.
Daniel panicked upon seeing the bat-like form. He swung his oscillating weapon at his head, but William ducked it with little effort. William's massive fist rocketed in a devastating uppercut. It struck Daniel's chin and crushed his head into an almost square shape.
The shockwave shattered windows and sent glass falling in a crystalline rainstorm. But Daniel wasn't down. He was tough enough to give the soldiers a chance to escape. Last time I had fought William, I struck first using the element of surprise. Without that first blow, I may have lost. It was best to regroup.
Roland trembled; he clutched his chest as he witnessed the arrival. I grabbed his shoulder firmly and shook him out of his stupor. "Your orders, captain?"
He gulped and stared back at his men. "To the church. We must go past it." The others nodded. Meanwhile, William had taken hold of Daniel and wrestled him to the floor. He beat the Nephilim with both fists till his face was flat as a pancake. He ripped the cross out as Daniel sputtered. Before he even gave him the time to pass on, William sank his face into Daniel's belly and began to feast.
The men had their orders. They all ran toward the church. Shen was nowhere to be seen. But no one minded that. He would go where he wanted to. We reached its gate and followed the walls to circle it. Roland led the charge; I followed closely. Then, when we reached the other side and saw the road behind the church, I froze.
The men took several more steps to salvation, then stopped. "We have to go, now," Idris spat.
But I had finally recognized the presence inside the church. The nostalgia was swallowed up by the finest rage. "Go, I will join you."
"Machine." Roland held a hand out.
I looked him in the eye. "My brother waits. I must do what I was made to do."