Enid’s golden irises flashed and Helen, Neffi and Cindie appeared on the steps of a building with white stones columns that rose around them. Between the columns red banners with a white circle and black swastika swayed in a light breeze. This building would have been surrounded by SS officers on a normal day, but on this night it was quiet save for the distant sound of thunder. Enid knew it was really tanks trying to kill her younger self quite unsuccessfully. The Nazi SS were busy trying to stop her rampage. The three pre-20th century vampires looked around themselves. Neffi spoke first.

“What manner of place is this? It looks of Rome but smells of death.”

Enid motioned to the banners.

“We’re in Berlin, Nazi Germany, 1942. That sound you hear is machines of war trying to kill me… my younger self.”

Helen drifted closer to her mother.

“Why are we here mother? I see and sense no demonic presence.”

Enid nodded.

“I chose this place for a very specific reason, one, it is empty of innocents, two, in about ten minutes the Soviets are going to bomb the living hell out of it, along with a flight of RAF bombers that are targeting the wrong place.”

Cindie shook her head.

“You speak of nonsense, my Lady.”

Neffi nodded.

“I do not like this place. I sense great evil. Great suffering clings to every surface.”

Enid nodded.

“Which is exactly why when I rip down the walls of hell the demons and fallen angels will flock to it. They will sense the vileness and be drawn to it.”

Helen blinked and stumbled back from Enid.

“Mother, you can’t!”

Enid shook her head.

“I am sorry Helen, it is the only way. The demons will flood into the streets, the bombs will obliterate them and since Hell will literally be on earth… they have no place to return to and will die in vast numbers. Those that survive you three will keep them off me while I deal with their leader, my brother, Lucifer, the Lightbringer. When he dies all living creatures for a mile around will die, this includes all the demons. No more fallen angels, no more demons, no more need for Hell. No more fractures in reality… Then I repair the damage and we go to the 29th century.”

All three looked at her suspiciously as she spoke the last words. Helen spoke first, feeling the most comfortable confronting the woman, she saw as her mother.

“You aren’t being honest.”

“I am being as honest as I am willing to be. Neffi and Cindie, you have your orders. Anything but the four of us is open season, do you understand?”

The pair drew their swords and nodded.

“Yes.”

Helen frowned and spoke softly.

“Yes, Empress.”

Neffi and Cindie looked to Enid. Enid frowned at Helen.

“Please Helen, I am doing what I need to, this isn’t about… you or me. It is about creation itself.”

Helen drew the Silwrath dueling blade Enid had created for her.

“I don’t understand, mother, but I’m with you.”

Enid touched Helen’s cheek.

“You will always be like my own flesh and blood.”

She stepped away from the group and glanced back.

“Prepare yourselves.”

Neffi spoke as Enid reached the last step.

“Why did she call you Empress?”

Enid paused and glanced back again.

“Because my father is gone and named me his successor.”

Enid’s eyes began to glow and she reached out her hands. Veins of blue, black, purple and green moved through them. The ground began to shake and there was a terrible scream. Demons of all shapes and sizes started popping into existence. The vampires didn’t waste any time starting to cut them down. Each was a blur as they weaved through their prey like scythes in a field full of briars. Puffs of black miasma clouded the air. The din of the battle was suddenly overtaken by the whine of an air raid siren and the drone of bombers. Enid called out.

“To me!”

The vampires flicked out of existence and appeared near Enid who held out her hands. Her eyes flared blue and the familiar veins appeared in her hands and a shimmering bubble of force surrounded them. The whistle of the bombs sent chills of the spines of the three vampires who had never seen the like. Around them explosions rocked the ground. Enid held the shield through the unyielding barrage of the Allied bombs. Demons were obliterated in the thousands as they tried in vain to shield themselves and flee the rain of destruction. The streets that had been packed wall to wall with demons pressed together were now clear save for a few that managed to seek shelter. Some survived but their limbs had been blown off.

Neffi, Cindie and Helen looked around themselves. Each had blood tears dripping from their eyes. They now saw what the human race was capable of and they wept at the thought of such power in the hands of mortals. Enid dropped the bubble. Through the smoke and dust a pair of white wings shimmered. She spoke loudly over the roar of flames and the screams of dead and dying demons.

“You know what to do, Lucifer is mine.”

Enid advanced towards the Lightbringer. His once kind blue eyes burned with impotent fury as he surveyed what remained of his armies. He snarled when he saw Enid.

“You!”

“Who were you expecting? Seraph?”

“You are like that whore Lilith!”

He reached out his hand. Nothing happened. He screamed.

“Impossible.”

Enid laughed and reached out her hand forming her Staff. Then her body shifted into Seraph’s her platinum battle armor covering her. Lucifer stumbled back.

“You…”

“I remember you were more eloquent than that, your years imprisoned under my boot heel seem to have dulled your wit.”

Lucifer summoned his own divine weapon and lunged at Seraph who parried his blow with her staff. They traded blows back and forth for what seemed like an eternity. Neither gaining the advantage. Enid had forgotten her seers were there until she heard Helen’s voice cry out.

“Mother, Behind you!”

Enid dodged to the side and vile black blade narrowly missed her. When she saw who was wielding it she realized why she hadn’t seen it coming. The only other being that existed completely outside creation had joined the battle. The Black Son had appeared. She hadn’t foreseen it because she could never for see his actions. Lucifer laughed.

“It is your turn to be trapped under my boot heel!”

Enid blocked an attack from the Black Son, then swiftly swept her staff in a wide arc smashing Lucifer in the face causing his angelic blood to spray across the charred pavement. Cronos used the distraction caused by her attack and managed cut through one of Enid’s wings. Stellar plasma started to leak out sizzling as it struck pavement and liquified it where it struck. The blood damaged the blade. The wound healed quickly afterwards. She blocked a blow from Lucifer while reaching her hand out towards the Black Son who howled as he went flying backwards and was impaled by several thorny vines that rapidly grew out of the ground.

Lucifer lunged at her again. She sidestepped his telegraphed blow with ease and grabbed his neck lifting him up willing the power of entropy into him he started to scream as black veins rippled through him. She threw him into a wall and he lay there struggling to stand. His body tried desperately to heal the rapid degeneration as the energy of pure destruction ripped through him.

Cronos freed himself by the time Enid turned back to him. His wounds had healed, and he smiled at her. Enid’s staff transformed into a blade of light and she charged forward. They exchanged blow after blow. She sensed a strike coming from behind and side-stepped Lucifer’s sword. She waved her hand, she used her telekinesis to fling him at a half-destroyed building, impaling him on twisted rebar. The distraction cost her dearly as Cronos sliced into her abdomen. More stellar plasma leaked out this time it disintegrated the blade he was wielding. The wound healed rapidly.

She capitalized on the loss of his weapon and after several mighty blows she left Cronos off balance enough for him to be on his back her sword at his throat. He started to laugh at her. This gave Enid pause. In the distraction she was almost hit by another blow from Lucifer who had freed himself from the rebar. She fell into a defensive stance. Cronos reached out his hand and formed another blade. She shifted her sword back into a staff and let the pair fighting her take the offensive. She knew giving up momentum was bad, but something felt off.

The trio continued their epic melee for several minutes. None of them would ever tire from physical exertion. Lucifer was try his best to end her. As they battled Enid noticed something. Cronos was leaving himself open again and again. At first she thought it was to lure Enid into taking the bait and being struck by Lucifer but it started to become clear, he wanted her to win. She wasn’t sure why. Lucifer was noticing it too and seeming to wait for her to take the bait. Enid waited until Cronos left himself open again and feinted a strike with her fist. Lucifer fell for it and tried to strike her. Enid grabbed his sword arm and pressed her staff under his chin and ignited the beam. He screamed as his head evaporated. His body followed shortly. Cronos stumbled away from him when Enid turned her eyes in his direction. She reached out her hand and flung him away with her telekinesis he was once again impaled on thorny vines. She approached him free of distractions this time and pointed her staff at him.

“I am done with you too.”

The tip of her staff lit up. Then she lowered it. Something was off, Cronos looked frightened, but… it was hollow. And this was too easy. He glared at her.

“What are you waiting for? End it!”

Enid stepped back. He wanted to die… then she realized that she would be killing him before, and she’d killed him… a paradox that would rip creation apart. There would be no way to repair the damage to the timeline. He would win… He freed himself and lunged at her. She raised her hand and spoke.

“Stop.”

Everything stopped all of creation paused in an instant in time. Much like the temporal bomb Sextus had detonated in Atlantis, only on a scale that encompassed every part of creation. She stood there staff in hand and closed her eyes. She realized the only way to understand, to see a way through this would be to open herself up to everything that she had ever been. Seraph would solve this, not Enid and in doing so she would be sacrificing her identity. The death she had foreseen. She opened herself to all of space and time. Slowly what used to be Enid evaporated and was replaced by the primordial entity that had hidden itself in her mortal form. When her eyes opened again they had nothing of humanity in them.

Seraph touched Cronos on the chest and he fell to the ground the thorny vines evaporating in wisps of green. Seraph tapped the ground with her staff.

“I see now you will not stop. You will keep trying to destroy that which I have created.”

Cronos smiled when he heard the voice he had missed for so long.

“You’re back finally. Join me, let us build a better creation, one we rule instead of him.”

Seraph shook her head.

“You do not understand the order of things, you never have. He who stands above, stands above for a reason, just as you continue to exist for a reason, just as Lucifer must exist. You are a cog in the machinery of creation. My mistake was not that I let you continue to exist, my mistake was expecting you to understand your place and follow the rules I set out. I must adjust the rules accordingly.”

“Stop, you don’t have to do this…”

Seraph held up her hand.

“You should have reasoned with my mortal avatar; She would let emotions color her judgment. My purpose is all that matters. And for my purpose to continue you must be leashed, as must Lucifer once I bring him back. You are like wild animals, refusing to be brought to heel.”

“Insolent child! You will never contain me.”

“I am all, I am the creator. You are a tool and you will serve your purpose willingly or not.”

“I made you!”

“I am beyond you as I have always been since I came to be.”

Cronos became enraged and rushed at her. Seraph flicked her finger sending him flying. And spoke in his direction.

“I am done with you, you may leave.”

“No! You will listen to me and heed me.”

“The futility of your actions and words would amuse me if I could feel such things.”

“You cannot contain me!”

“You are correct. I can however create a new rule set, every time you or a demon that slips his leash changes reality in a way I find… detrimental, a new version of the universe will form in parallel and be destroyed. My mortal avatar was quite correct. She was fighting an infinite battle against an enemy that was fighting a finite battle. It is time the tables were turned as she would say. Now you will be fighting the infinite battle, and you won’t even realize it once I finish the modifications to the system. There will be some… loss of mortal lives in this universe but from it will blossom infinite lives in infinite universes. It is done.”

Cronos shook with rage as a flash of purple energy rippled out from Seraph and through him. He vanished. Seraph vanished shortly afterwards. As the wave of energy struck Helen, Neffi and Cindie they all collapsed. When the woke shortly before dawn they did so in a city bereft of all life and with little memory how they got there, or why they were even in the city. The only hint of the battle was the lingering echoes of the millions that perished in the aftermath.

To be Continued…

The story will continue in Children of Atlantis – Book 3 – New Beginnings