Welcome to a secret world that hides beneath the surface of the mundane. It is a world of urban legends and rumors, a world of astonishing deeds and epic battles. Meet its enigmatic inhabitants. Learn their secrets, their desires, their beliefs, their hopes and their dreams. Listen to the tales of pain, injustice, compassion, kindness, courage, cooperation, love, sacrifice and hope. Meet the guardian angels, the warriors, the philosophers, the priests, the phantoms and the wanderers. But remember – once you enter this world, you can never truly leave it.

BOOK OF SOULS: Angel

December, 1941.

My trench coat flaps furiously in the wind as I move to greater and greater heights.

Stretching out beneath me is Lake Ladoga, a body of water so large those on the shore might mistake it for a sea.

For a beseeched city that lies to the west of it, it is the only hope.

When the Nazi troops invaded this part of Soviet Union, they found that the city’s resistance was too tough to crush in an outright assault.

They were not pleased.

They surrounded the city, cutting off any hope of escape, trapping millions of innocent civilians within its walls.

They subjected the city to vicious bombings, driving its inhabitants into hiding and damaging the infrastructure. Electricity and heating became precious communities.

And, in a series of coordinated strikes, they destroyed the food storages.

For months, the people of the city desperately fought for survival. As thousands of them died from bombings, starvation and causes too gruesome to even contemplate, thousands more struggled to keep the city going, to ensure that it would have the resources to hold out.

Despite the bombing, despite the shrinking rations, despite the repeated attempts to bury them in the ruins of the city, they held out hope that somehow, someway, they will endure.

The winter set in, harsh, cold and unforgiving. In the city deprived of heating and medicine, hundreds were frozen to death while hundreds of others succumbed to diseases that would have otherwise been relieved by modern medicine.

Yet the winter brought about an unexpected blessing. It was so cold that Lake Ladoga froze over, creating a solid bridge between the Soviet front and the beseeched city.

The Red Army organized a convoy of trucks to cross the sea that would deliver much-needed supplies.

They would have the support of artillery and what remained of the Soviet air force.

The occupying army was undeterred. It was determined not to let the supplies cross.

The time was now. From up in the sky, I see the first trucks hesitantly rolling onto the ice.

My powers protect me from the bitter cold, the chilling wind and the punishing, whip-like snowflakes that rain upon the frozen lake. They shield me from bullets and bombs.

The drivers below didn’t have any of those advantages.

I stretch my senses across the lake, pushing them to the limit.

The Nazi planes fly into the vicinity.

The Soviet planes zoom in to counter them.

Both sides fire their cannons.

Soon, the air is filled with bullets, bombs, fire and smoke.

The trucks drive on.

A German plane breaks through the Soviet formation and dives towards the trucks.

I concentrate a portion of my power into a ball of energy and toss it into the plane’s tail.

It spins out of control, crashing into the ground.

The ice shutters.

I concentrate the power back into my hand and use it to ease the tremors.

After all, I don’t want the ice to break.

A Soviet plane falls, burning, to the ground. I reach out with my power, steering it as far away from the trucks as I can.

Several artillery shells fail to reach their targets, plummeting into the ice sheet. I change the gunpowder within into water.

Several German planes zoom in unexpectedly. The Soviet planes don’t have time to change direction as the German planes unleashed the deadly barrage of bombs and bullets.

I use my powers to manipulate the air currents, forging them into a powerful, invisible shield. Then, I concentrate a portion of my energy into a ball, split it into several sections and send it towards the attacking planes.

Four trucks are spared from the onslaught. One is riddled with bullet holes. There is no chance the driver survived. Another truck is trying to drive past the wreckage, but the constant bombardment makes it next to impossible.

It stumbles and falls.

How many supplies did those trucks carry?

How many men, women and children will have to go without food because those supplies never made it?

No time to think about it now.

I use my powers to collect stray static electricity from the clouds and focus them into spark-like balls of energy. With a simple wave of a hand, I send them towards the Nazi planes closest to me.

As they hit their targets, the balls of energy phase into the hulls, sending powerful shocks through every metallic component it can reach.

The planes plummet.

A machine gun! Shooting at me! How? I’m supposed to be invisible!

No time to worry about that. No time to see if it was a Soviet plane or a Nazi plane. I simply direct a portion of my power into the air around it, forcing it to veer sharply to the left.

Straight into the path of the Nazi bomber.

CABOOM!

The chunks of debris fall right into the path of one of the trucks. I use my power to slow it down…

…While a shell from a Nazi cannon downs another truck.

I fling the debris towards the incoming fire.

How many lives will be lost? How many?

Another German plane tries to make a run for the trucks. A Soviet plane intercepts it before it has a chance to get anywhere near it’s target…

…While another shell strikes dangerously close to the trucks’ route.

Another shell hits the back of the convoy. One truck is blown apart. Others are damaged.

I focus my power on the ice, reigning in the damage and fusing the cracks together before they can spread any further.

Another bomb. And another. And another.

The ice starts breaking again.

If the shells keep on pounding like this, it won’t matter how many times I fix it.

I fly higher, hoping to get a better look at German positions. I know that their cannons and their trenches are well camouflaged. After all, no one wants to advertise their position to the enemy bombers. I could have just used my powers to find their cannons, but it would put the strain on my ability to watch the airspace around the lake.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Three cannons fire from German positions. I shoot a quick look toward the location of the sound. There!

I focus the energy around me in the palm of my hand. My own energy bends around it, isolating it from the external forces as it builds up power….

…While the shells continue striking dangerously close to trucks.

I can’t divert my focus. If I do, I would never be able to build up enough power to eliminate the cannons.

The Soviet mortars fire back, shooting down several planes.

The energy builds up in the palm on my hand, buzzing with excitement.

NOW!

It moves at about half of the speed of light. Too fast to be affected by gravity. Too fast to be diverted.

BOOM!

Another German plane zooms in, dropping bomb after bomb at the trucks.

No time to reach it….

The trucks weave past the bombs. Most escape unharmed.

A pair of Soviet planes quickly put an end to the German bomber.

I take a deep breath.

The cold is starting to creep through my defenses. Not good. It means that my powers are waning.

One of the fundamental laws that govern our world is that energy can’t be created or destroyed – only changed. Normally, I use the energy from my own reserves or from the surrounding environment.

I’ve been doing too much of the latter.

Besides, my body is basically human. All that energy I’ve been channeling wears it down as much as physical work would.

I have to keep it together. No matter how much it takes. The trucks have to get through.

A German plane viciously cuts down a Soviet plane.

I grab the energy from the burning fuselage…

A few meters away, another Soviet plane’s tail is damaged in a firefight. Nothing too severe, but up in the air, it threatens to send it spilling out of control.

…I use the energy I gathered to repair the crippled tail.

I spend the next hour watching over the convoy of trucks, diverting explosives, helping Soviet defenses and hindering German attacks.

I am not always successful.

But, in the end, most of the trucks make it to the opposite shore.

The German troops call off their offense. The Red Army returns to their positions to lick their wounds.

I fall towards the surface of the lake, using what little was left of my energy to slow down my descent.

How many Soviet soldiers and truck drivers perished?

How many innocent men, women and children will have to go without vital nourishment?

How many of them will die as the result?

Thousands.

Yet, how many trucks made it through?

How many pilots survived?

How many men, women and children will get the food they need to last another day, perhaps another week?

How many of them will get another chance to survive this nightmare?

Thousands.

Perhaps millions.

As soon as the trucks arrive, they will start distributing supplies.

The next day, they will go back to where they came from, ferrying some of the younger, more vulnerable residents of the beseeched city to safer pastures. Despite the Nazi bombardments. Despite the bullets and air strikes. Despite the fact that some of them will die before they can reach the other side.

I will be there. Watching over them. Protecting them. Helping to keep them safe.

I will mourn the for those who died

And I will rejoice for those who live.

It’s what I do.