“The Hellians are attacking!” an angel yelled, waking Zephyr from his sleep. Stepping outside, Zephyr looked around as dozens of portals lined the sky, with Hellian forces streaming out. Zephyr caught sight of three demons eyeing him, and readied his defences as they prepared to charge at him. Being unarmed, Zephyr was going to make the first move, but a harpy swooped and knocked him to the ground. Zephyr rose to his fight to find the three demons already in front of him.

Back-flipping to evade their reach, Zephyr then leapt forward and tackled the middle demon. He knocked the sword lose in the process, and dived for the weapon. The remaining demons charged at him, but with a quick slice they were cut down. Turning, Zephyr watched as swarms of Hellians littered the skies, carrying humans and angels with them to the portals. Zephyr tore across the ground, cutting down all the Hellians he could reach, before a winged unicorn swooped beside him.

Climbing onto the creature, Zephyr began to cut down the airborne forces, whilst dropping off the humans safely to the ground.

Zephyr watched helplessly as more and more Hellians dragged their screaming victims into the portals with them, but still he fought on, desperate to save as many as possible.

Zephyr was blinded as a bright light began to grow far off into the distance, before consuming the land and blasting the Hellians away. He watched the Hellians as they fled, noticing Heaven was protected by a large dome of light.

“What is that?” Zephyr asked the nearest angel.

“That’s an enchantment,” the angel replied. “That keeps the Hellian forces at bay, but as you noticed, it takes a little time to summon. Also, it’s possible to destroy, given a big enough onslaught. If the Hellians were ever to amass such an attack, we, the troops, would have to hold them at bay.”

Zephyr turned back to the dome, admiring its magnificence. The thought occurred to him, though, that others needed his assistance, and he rushed to help where he could.

---

Raziel was pacing back and forth. "What's taking them so long?" he asked anxiously. He had been thrown off by the Hellian attack, and knew something was wrong. His mind was on Dex and his mission. Never before had the Hellians invoked such a swift counter-attack, and Raziel knew something had gone down in Hell. "Why haven't we heard word of their whereabouts?"

Sabriel looked at Raziel. She couldn't imagine such a strong force could encounter difficulty on such a routine task. She had heard nothing but admiration for Dex and his squadron’s strength, and she had almost thought they were unstoppable.

Raziel turned as an angel stumbled into the tent. He was covered in wounds and too weak to heal himself, but Sabriel rushed to his side. She placed one hand on his shoulder and the other on his chest, and tried to heal him.

"There was... a creature..." the angel gasped. "We could not... fight it off... Dex was..." The angel dropped to his knees, and Sabriel tried to increase her healing.

It was to no avail, however, as the angel breathed his last, falling to the floor and fading to the Void.

Raziel walked over to Sabriel, who was shivering. As battle-hardened as she was, she had never had a soldier die in her arms before. "I..." she whispered.

"Forget it," Raziel cut her off. "There's no time to waste. We need to send a force into Hell right away. Maybe there are survivors."

“But I’m a…” Sabriel trailed off.

Raziel had spent so much time with his subordinate that he often forgot she was a Dark Angel. The conditioned troops, modified to be more docile, were trained to not distinguish differences in Hellian forces, and attack on sight. Raziel needed a way that he could order his troops not to attack Sabriel. “I will arrange something,” Raziel informed her, placing his hand on her shoulder.

Sabriel looked up at Raziel. "I'll ready my troops," she nodded.

Raziel then headed to the armoury, where he consulted with one of the smithies. “I need an outfit,” he informed them.

It was not long before Sabriel stood before the abyss, a taskforce of angels behind her. She wore a dark red tunic, with black designs lining it. She also wore three-quarter-length gloves and leggings, both black with similar designs in red. Considering all Dark Angels donned the same armour, Sabriel was now completely distinguishable, and would not be mistaken as one of her enemies within the heat of battle.

Clutching her bow, Sabriel let her wings flare up before leaping off the cliff and into the dark.