The Fall of Elfen High (IC, Closed)

[Nightkill the Emperor]

"Nazareth once." Zoryana replied. "I went with some friends in the 1990s, when a lot of them were leaving Ukraine and Russia for Israel. I decided that I may as do some travelling while I was there. I didn't go to Bethlehem though - there was an outbreak of violence in the West Bank when I had been there, and I decided it would be a bit too much trouble to potentially deal with on my vacation."

Suddenly, someone appeared behind the pair of them. Zoryana had seen him a few times before, but perhaps hadn't had a direct conversation. It was Calliel, an angel who stayed at Elfen High. He had been there in the last month, occasionally seen practising his fighting skills in the gymnasiums or simulators, or talking to Crowley in his office. He also had been with Daniel at Armenio, so Daniel would remember him.

"Hello, priest. It is good to see you again, as well as your companion." Calliel said with a polite nod and speaking in his gravelly toned voice. "I have to speak with you, if you have a moment. It is about Armenio. We have found some new developments regarding the moon." He paused, struggling to phrase it. "The moon has disappeared. It is just simply not in the sky of Hell anymore."

Daniel raised his eyebrows, trying to be serious, but a kind of wry smile kept flitting across his face. Now if only I were surprised. Reckoning, old man. All things now have their reckoning. The wheel turns.

The priest nodded briefly. "Interesting," he murmured. "Why, I wonder? Set was there looking for the Heart of Merlin, but we know that the Heart isn't there any more." Daniel had the gemstone on his person at that moment, in fact, hidden beneath his cassock on a chain around his neck. When an ancient god threatens revenge, you don't lose track of the one thing that lets you see him. The priest shook his head slowly. "So are they still looking for something else there, and have they found it? Or is this disappearance just a way for them to facilitate their search? Or are they not searching at all? Perhaps this is just a test, the way that nations test a new bomb: take an unimportant backwater and make it your victim, to ensure that the weapon works." Daniel paused, shook his head, snorted. "For heaven's sake," he added, "who even is they? Do you think that this is Set's work? Or does Uriel have a hand in all of this?" The priest glanced between Zoryana and Calliel. "Basically," he concluded, "what do we know here?"

Calliel shrugged. "We truthfully aren't entirely sure." he admitted. "Set's motives are quite unclear to all of us. We think he may be working for the Titan called Kronos, an old god of time itself. But that's speculation. The fact that Set can remove himself from our memories makes things more difficult." he gave a nod to Zoryana. "Zoryana showed us her notebook containing pictures of Set, but that's only added to our puzzlement, to be completely honest."

Crowley appeared next to the three of them, having finished his speech/argument of sorts on the podium. The people who had assembled had started to disperse to have a day of rest before the battle. "So what we know is that Set has been everywhere pretty much since film was a thing. And even before that - I had an encounter of sorts with him in ancient Egypt. May have told you two of that, not sure." he addressed Zoryana and Daniel. "It was an interesting time, caused by time travel. So he's been around for quite a while."

Calliel paused. "Wait. Hold on. Crowley, paper and pencil please." the angel said. Looking bemused, Crowley brandished it to Calliel, who had teleported a desk in from somewhere. Crowley paused.

"Wait, that's my desk-"

"I'll return it soon." Calliel responded. He opened Crowley's laptop, mentally preparing himself to see pornography and being surprised to see something completely different. It was Cy Endfield's Zulu, paused near the middle of the film. Calliel looked at Crowley, his face expressing a question.

Crowley gave a sheepish smile. "It's a classic." he responded. Calliel opened a new tab on the browser, going to a picture of two moons in the sky. One moon was the moon of Earth, the familiar one orbiting us everyday.

One other moon was different - vegetation and landmass could be seen. "This is an old portrait." Calliel muttered. "Apollo drew it, based on vague memories of the end of the Fae War."

The angel scribbled down some calculations on the paper Crowley had provided, the numbers odd and bizarre and not clearly understandable to most of them. Crowley nodded though, getting it. This was very old maths, magical maths. It didn't follow a structure similar to the maths we understand today.

In frustration, Calliel crumpled up the paper and burnt it. "That can't be possible." he said.

"It could be." Crowley responded, pausing and thinking. "It actually could...Hold on." Crowley took the laptop from Calliel, opening up another tab. He typed in "Armenio" into Google, clicking on the Images. He then clicked on the picture of the moon as seen from Hell. He placed the tab of Armenio next to the painting by Apollo.

The second moon in Apollo's painting was a dead ringer for Armenio.

"Time travel." Calliel said in realisation. "They moved the moon out of its current time."

[Nightkill the Emperor]

"Several, actually." Horn said. "You just went through four cigars in the last five minutes, by the way. That's actually somewhat concerning. Don't relapse back on that habit, it'd be bad for you." he advised. "Anyway, let's go check on the angels." he stood up, pulling a lever on his desk. A big red lever that had been there. Astounding nobody noticed it.

After pulling it, the chair swooped downwards into the ground, landing in some sort of underground base throughout Bethlehem. "I give you-" declared Horn in dramatic English. "The Science Room!"

Thunder was heard in the background though they were underground and it was a sunny day aboveground.

All around them lay angels on bedsheets, dead and still, in various states of robotification. Some were almost completely steel, some were very nearly ordinary. And some were mishapen, misformed shapes masquerading as humanoid. Horn gestured at one slimey tentacle protruding from one such specimen. "I think Uriel's been busy modifying his soldiers. But why? And why send them down?"

"As to why he's modifying him, perhaps there are some rebellious thinkers in Heaven. Maybe he's trying to keep his people in line, or make them into better soldiers," Alice replied. "As for why he's sending them down... maybe they're escaping, or maybe it's a kind of warning. Who knows?"

Francois shrugged. "Well, whatever is going on, we'll figure it out eventually."

"Most likely." Horn replied, taking a seat. "So, Brazeneck's funeral. How did that go? How you settling in without him?"

Merlin paused, absorbing Damien's story. "God? There are millions of them. Mind, the number is shrinking rapidly because of this bloody war." he sighed. "Again, you were dead. You got reincarnated. How you regained your memories is an interesting story, as well as why you forgot the memories of your prior life. You may have been a farmer in Egypt with a family who has no idea where you are. Or perhaps a soldier who sailed to Albion to aid in the battles. And I know what Elfen High is, as well as Aleister Crowley. You are right that he does not yet go by that name." Merlin shrugged. "I am a prophet, Damien Seward. I get visions of the future, or of possible futures. It rather relies on whether my plan and Fixban's plan for the Gotterdammerung can work properly."

"Now, Excalibur? Now that's an interesting story...it is a sword of my last king, Arthur. He disappeared twenty years ago. The sword vanished with him, supposedly, though it has made reappearances." Merlin frowned. "Which is a concerning thing in and of itself."

"Fixban? He was Crowley's mentor," Damien replied. He sighed, resuming his seat on the bed.

"I'd like your help in finding Excalibur. Maybe even Arthur, if he's alive. I was tricked into serving the Fae, before I was killed. Not my proudest moment, but I never really had any proud moments. I'm not a proud moment guy. Anyways, enough first date talk. I've used magical swords like Excalibur before. I was a spy in the Fae ranks trying to get one back from them. If I can get it, I can help fight. And then your plan - whatever it means and entails - could have a greater chance of succeeding."

The boy rubbed his temples. He had a headache from all of this. It was a damn shame that there wasn't any drugs in this time - but there were women.

No, he needed to get his mind off of that. At least for now.

"Clearly your plan works, otherwise I wouldn't even be alive," Damien muttered.

I have a chance to do something for Crowley, he thought. And for Lewis.

Merlin frowned. "Time isn't solid. There's a chance we could still fail despite your presence - then you'd be erased from history. It's very odd stuff. But I'll see if we can find Excalibur, and discover why and what you're here for. First, I should take you to Stonehenge, where we found you." he stood up slowly, raising himself to his impressive height. "It's a very important site. It predates me, even."

[Constaniana]

William knocked on the door to the game room, telling Daisuke he was there before letting himself and Hilde inside. "Right, so, battle simulator. Fun stuff," the knight remarked, stopping for a moment when he noticed Dai was in the middle of caressing Ciel's chest, before shrugging it off. He had seen far stranger things that this anyway. "It's not too late for Hilde and I to pop into the simulation, is it?" He inquired, briefly glancing around the chamber.

[Nude East Ireland]

"As well as we can," Alice replied coldly. She finished her cigar and let out a smoke-filled sigh. "Death is hard. Incredibly so. But we're dealing with it."

Francois, having finished his poutine, chimed in. "We're very eager to deal with the Heaven problem. Obviously."

Alice stood up and dusted off her coat. "Alexander, it's been a real pleasure. But if there isn't anything else, we need to return to Faerie University."

---

Damien stood up. There was a sword in the room, which he grabbed and strapped onto his hip. Fun fun fun. Let's hope that this guy's body is as functional as mine was. He looked down at his waist. Well... I feel a little insecure now.

"Alright, Merlin," he said. "Let's get to business ASAP. 'Time isn't solid', right?"

[Zarkenis Ultima]

As her eyes opened, Emi saw a whole different world around her. Never had she been in Islamabad, and being immersed in a whole new place was overwhelming, not to mention the virtual demons trying to kill them.

"Not a clue." Emi replied to the Demon Lord, gently lifting her sword out of its sheath and wrapping her hand around the exposed blade. In one swift movement she not only drew her sword, but her own blood as well, which was thrown out in a wide semicircle in front of her. As soon as it touched the ground, it began to sizzle and produce a thick veil of smoke.

"Well, same here." Ciel shrugged, before looking around. There was a lot of smoke now, so she couldn't properly see the demons that were, supposedly, approaching, but that apparently didn't keep Alastor and his demon soldiers from firing away at will.

"We should probably get to the top floor to get a good look around the city and why the hell do I feel aroused all of the sudden?" She said, before shaking her head to clear her thoughts.

"That would be a wise plan. Going to the top floor, of course." Alastor remarked, taking a moment to pull out a spent battery and slide in a fresh one. "If you need any help, I'm fairly sure we can do without a soldier or two out here. These demons are primitive. Pitiable, truly." He said while shaking his head in annoyance.

"Eh, I can take care of myself." Ciel replied, kicking the door to the hotel open and looking around. "You two coming?" She asked Emi and Fen while trying to get a good look at her surroundings.

[Nightkill the Emperor]

William knocked on the door to the game room, telling Daisuke he was there before letting himself and Hilde inside. "Right, so, battle simulator. Fun stuff," the knight remarked, stopping for a moment when he noticed Dai was in the middle of caressing Ciel's chest, before shrugging it off. He had seen far stranger things that this anyway. "It's not too late for Hilde and I to pop into the simulation, is it?" He inquired, briefly glancing around the chamber.

Daisuke shook his head. "No, not at all." he said, pointing at two empty chairs. "Have a seat. When you do, and you put the helmet on, you'll be in the sim."

Once William and Hilde did so, they would find themselves teleported in, standing next to Alastor as the demon hordes rushed at them.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

Daisuke shook his head. "No, not at all." he said, pointing at two empty chairs. "Have a seat. When you do, and you put the helmet on, you'll be in the sim."

Once William and Hilde did so, they would find themselves teleported in, standing next to Alastor as the demon hordes rushed at them.

"Chancellor. Sir William." The Demon Lord greeted with a polite nod before going back to shooting astray kinsmen with magitech guns.

[Swith Witherward]

As her eyes opened, Emi saw a whole different world around her. Never had she been in Islamabad, and being immersed in a whole new place was overwhelming, not to mention the virtual demons trying to kill them.

"Not a clue." Emi replied to the Demon Lord, gently lifting her sword out of its sheath and wrapping her hand around the exposed blade. In one swift movement she not only drew her sword, but her own blood as well, which was thrown out in a wide semicircle in front of her. As soon as it touched the ground, it began to sizzle and produce a thick veil of smoke.

"Well, same here." Ciel shrugged, before looking around. There was a lot of smoke now, so she couldn't properly see the demons that were, supposedly, approaching, but that apparently didn't keep Alastor and his demon soldiers from firing away at will.

"We should probably get to the top floor to get a good look around the city and why the hell do I feel aroused all of the sudden?" She said, before shaking her head to clear her thoughts.

"That would be a wise plan. Going to the top floor, of course." Alastor remarked, taking a moment to pull out a spent battery and slide in a fresh one. "If you need any help, I'm fairly sure we can do without a soldier or two out here. These demons are primitive. Pitiable, truly." He said while shaking his head in annoyance.

"Eh, I can take care of myself." Ciel replied, kicking the door to the hotel open and looking around. "You two coming?" She asked Emi and Fen while trying to get a good look at her surroundings.

Fen's eyes settled momentarily on Emi before flickering back to Ciel. A wry smile played about her mouth and eyes. Aroused? Oh honey, come room with us for a week. You'd be surprised at how hot things can get when she's hungry. The temperature around the Polynesian began to drop and the smoke closest to her took on a glittering effect as it was condensed into a deeper fog.

"After you," she replied to Ciel. She didn't bother with weapons or armor. She'd have plenty of ammunition once Emi's swords started slicing. Unless, of course, these things didn't bleed.

[Constaniana]

Daisuke shook his head. "No, not at all." he said, pointing at two empty chairs. "Have a seat. When you do, and you put the helmet on, you'll be in the sim."

Once William and Hilde did so, they would find themselves teleported in, standing next to Alastor as the demon hordes rushed at them.

"Chancellor. Sir William." The Demon Lord greeted with a polite nod before going back to shooting astray kinsmen with magitech guns.

"Hullo there Lord Alastor," Sir Nilark replied cheerfully, firing a barrage of radiant blasts at the charging demons as he drew Excalibur. The knight swung Excalibur in a horizontal arc, sending another large blast of magic towards the oncoming foe before charging towards them, grinning as he began slashing at the other demons.

[Norvenia]

Calliel shrugged. "We truthfully aren't entirely sure." he admitted. "Set's motives are quite unclear to all of us. We think he may be working for the Titan called Kronos, an old god of time itself. But that's speculation. The fact that Set can remove himself from our memories makes things more difficult." he gave a nod to Zoryana. "Zoryana showed us her notebook containing pictures of Set, but that's only added to our puzzlement, to be completely honest."

Crowley appeared next to the three of them, having finished his speech/argument of sorts on the podium. The people who had assembled had started to disperse to have a day of rest before the battle. "So what we know is that Set has been everywhere pretty much since film was a thing. And even before that - I had an encounter of sorts with him in ancient Egypt. May have told you two of that, not sure." he addressed Zoryana and Daniel. "It was an interesting time, caused by time travel. So he's been around for quite a while."

Calliel paused. "Wait. Hold on. Crowley, paper and pencil please." the angel said. Looking bemused, Crowley brandished it to Calliel, who had teleported a desk in from somewhere. Crowley paused.

"Wait, that's my desk-"

"I'll return it soon." Calliel responded. He opened Crowley's laptop, mentally preparing himself to see pornography and being surprised to see something completely different. It was Cy Endfield's Zulu, paused near the middle of the film. Calliel looked at Crowley, his face expressing a question.

Crowley gave a sheepish smile. "It's a classic." he responded. Calliel opened a new tab on the browser, going to a picture of two moons in the sky. One moon was the moon of Earth, the familiar one orbiting us everyday.

One other moon was different - vegetation and landmass could be seen. "This is an old portrait." Calliel muttered. "Apollo drew it, based on vague memories of the end of the Fae War."

The angel scribbled down some calculations on the paper Crowley had provided, the numbers odd and bizarre and not clearly understandable to most of them. Crowley nodded though, getting it. This was very old maths, magical maths. It didn't follow a structure similar to the maths we understand today.

In frustration, Calliel crumpled up the paper and burnt it. "That can't be possible." he said.

"It could be." Crowley responded, pausing and thinking. "It actually could...Hold on." Crowley took the laptop from Calliel, opening up another tab. He typed in "Armenio" into Google, clicking on the Images. He then clicked on the picture of the moon as seen from Hell. He placed the tab of Armenio next to the painting by Apollo.

The second moon in Apollo's painting was a dead ringer for Armenio.

"Time travel." Calliel said in realisation. "They moved the moon out of its current time."

"Good movie," Daniel grunted, then took a step forward to study the images. "Hm." He glanced back and forth between the two pictures of Armenio. "So," he said slowly, "someone pulls Armenio out of Hell's present and sends it back to Earth's past, where Apollo paints a picture of it centuries ago. But Armenio obviously isn't up there in the night sky anymore, so it must have vanished at some point - in our timeline - after the picture was painted, probably during the Gotterdammerung. At which point - huh - I suppose it goes back to Hell at the original point of divergence. So for a given range of times, the moon is orbiting Hell, and for another given range of times, it's orbiting Earth. And whenever each range reaches its endpoint, the moon is transported back to the start of the other range. Infinite loop. It's the only way this works without the grandfather effect coming into play."

"Now." Daniel studied the images a moment longer. "The moon goes back in time to before the Fae War. That means that if you went back with it, you could theoretically contact everyone who was around back then - including the Egyptians." Daniel paused for a beat. "Set was an Egyptian."

The priest raised a finger. "Moreover, the only person who could pull off a stunt like this is Kronos, right? And Set may be working for Kronos now." Daniel trailed off for a second, thinking of a massive, armored figure, ghostly, whispering from within the screen of a movie theater. "Is it possible," he asked carefully, "that someone might be using Armenio as a giant time machine? That they're riding its time loop not in order to get from Hell to Earth, but in order to get from our post-Gotterdammerung reality to a time before the Fae War?" The priest glanced from Zoryana to Crowley to Calliel. "And if so," he added deliberately, "why?"

[Zarkenis Ultima]

Fen's eyes settled momentarily on Emi before flickering back to Ciel. A wry smile played about her mouth and eyes. Aroused? Oh honey, come room with us for a week. You'd be surprised at how hot things can get when she's hungry. The temperature around the Polynesian began to drop and the smoke closest to her took on a glittering effect as it was condensed into a deeper fog.

"After you," she replied to Ciel. She didn't bother with weapons or armor. She'd have plenty of ammunition once Emi's swords started slicing. Unless, of course, these things didn't bleed.

"Well I'm already inside, so that stands to reason, you know." Ciel replied, before focusing on her surroundings. The walls were painted a pleasant white, which served to accentuate the collection of works of abstract art adorning said walls, all of them created entirely in red. Maybe a bit of Pakistani, as well. The potted plants next to the double doors through which she had accessed to the hotel were, strangely, untouched, though that didn't last long as a corpse that had apparently been hanging from the roof with its intestines just collapsed right over one of the plants. It was made of plastic and was entirely artificial, which made for a nasty effect as the body got itself impaled.

Not that it was the most gruesome thing that happened during the Abrahamic war.

Wiping away some blood that fell on her cheek with her sleeve, Ciel walked in cautiously. Well, no, that's a lie. She strolled in briskly, catching the attention of a demon who was behind the reception desk, nibbling on the face of a woman who was lying on the ground next to a bloody burkha which had been presumably thrown off because even feral, brutish demons like this one have good enough taste to reject clothing. Snapping to attention, the demon charged at Ciel, who merely gave a mental shrug and tossed her flute right at it without breaking her stride. The flute hit the demon right on the forehead, causing massive cranial trauma and a lot of hemorrhaging which promptly killed the demon, while the flute itself merely bounced back, allowing itself to be catched by its thrower in mid-air.

"Like a damn pro." She complimented herself, before walking over to the reception desk and bashing the bell thingy repeatedly, attracting the attention of some more demons who were nearby.

"No point in going up if we're gonna get trapped, right?" She said casually to the other two girls as she looked at the approaching forces. Some demons were entering from the shattered windows, not minding the broken glass. Some more dropped from the stairs. And an alarming number of them were coming out from the bathrooms, for some reason.

"...I don't wanna know."

"Hullo there Lord Alastor," Sir Nilark replied cheerfully, firing a barrage of radiant blasts at the charging demons as he drew Excalibur. The knight swung Excalibur in a horizontal arc, sending another large blast of magic towards the oncoming foe before charging towards them, grinning as he began slashing at the other demons.

Alastor ordered a ceasefire and sighed audibly at the knight's antics. "I knew it. Nobody can study on that god damned school for an extended period of time without turning into a complete maniac." The Demon Lord said annoyedly, before ordering using a telepathic command to order his Zealots to take up a different position, so that they wouldn't accidentally shoot William. It wasn't like they needed Alastor's matter-denying barrier, anyway. Their own armors were certainly sturdy enough to resist whatever the demons were going to throw at them.

Alastor, himself, put away his magic gatling gun and pulled out his sword instead, joining the mad knight in his wild charge. It wasn't often that he got to do this, anyway. He might as well enjoy the battle.

"So, Sir William, if we are going to go through with this nonesense, we might as well draw attention away from the ladies inside the hotel, would you not agree? I am fairly certain they will have their own share of problems, anyway." The Demon Lord asked while blocking the weapons of two enemy demons, pushing them back and slashing them in half in one swift motion.

"Damn right!" Came a shout from inside.

"See?" He said, holding up an enemy demon by its scalp and overloading it with magic energy, causing it to explode gorily. They were all Azazel's pawns and traitors to the race, anyway. There wasn't much of a need to be considerate with them. Thanks to that he had the Zealots, after all. And this was a simulation anyway.

[Nightkill the Emperor]

Sanchez excused himself from his current inspection of some notes regarding the upcoming war. He needed a moment or two to rest, to be by himself. To achieve this, he figured he'd head off to one of the better places for solitude. He headed off to his bedroom (being a general, he got one inside the base). He looked around at the rather starkly spartan room, decorated only by a bed and a writing desk. On the desk lay some documents, as well as a laptop on sleep mode. The only personal items (four of them) was a picture of a Sanchez family reunion in San Juan. The second item was a picture of himself, Megan and Alexander in San Antonio, Texas. They all grinned at the camera, holding glasses of beer in their hands. The picture had been taken by a rather terrified onlooker, who later changed his name and went in hiding in Nebraska.

Those had been good days. And to some extent, Sanchez kept trying to relive them.

He was a grown up man who was just playing general, and he had gotten lucky. He was smart, he figured that. He had done well at college, after all. He had a science background, which is why he was in the ISSR - it was just because he was a soldier. And even then, he wasn't sure if he had ever wanted to be a soldier. He just had never really questioned it. His family had been in the military since as far as they could remember - whether they worked for Spain or they worked for America. So when Sanchez had been called to join the military, it wasn't a decision he had protested. He had signed up for his country without hesitation, throwing his other concerns out of the way.

So Rick Sanchez went to Afghanistan. And there lay the third personal item. A picture of himself in a soldier's uniform, medals pinned to it, standing alongside some other members of his unit. His friends. He had been through life and death with them. He had told them things he had never told anyone else before or since. He had showed them pictures of his family, his friends, Megan.

They fought, and they marched. They served as best as they could, through the days and the nights and the nightmares.

Then there was the fourth picture. Sanchez, still in uniform, stood smiling next to a beaming Afghan man. "Danny", they had called him. He had another name, but it was some Persian name that they had all found difficult to pronounce, so the Afghan had shortened it to Danny.

Danny was a good man. He was a father, a gentlemen, a teacher, an imam. He worked with the US military in trying to find extremists and keep them down before they caused harm. His position as an imam left him uniquely capable of helping with that. Regardless, Danny was a great man. Sanchez admired him - he was an American educated teacher who had returned to his country in its time of peril to help the way he best could. He was a honest man, someone who tried to save lives rather than let them come to harm.

Then he died. But it wasn't a terrorist incident, not at all, though the military and others pretended for a long time that it was.

Sanchez, Danny and others had been sitting on a bench at a military base, just chatting and laughing. A sting operation had gone very successfully, netting some important and high ranking Taliban operatives. It was a huge success, as these fugitives had been wanted by the US and Afghani governments for a long time, and they had been caught before they could cross back over into Pakistan.

Then everything had gone wrong. Some portal had opened up before the stunned soldiers, who had seen nothing like it.

"Holy shit!"

"Mother of God! Shoot the motherfucker!" Bullets flew through the air at those...things. Two were tall, seven feet, covered in yellow scales, had red eyes and two large horns of it's head. One looked as if a tiger had just learned how to walk on it's hind legs, and the last looked like a rhino with four arms and the ability to walk on it's hind legs.

A dozen demons passed through the vortex that had materialised, looking around and charging at the soldiers. Sanchez and his friends had fired at the monsters, but then Sanchez noticed something happening. The monsters fired energy beams - which had held some success, since the soldiers were entirely unaware of how to deal with this- but there were just a dozen that passed from this portal. They could deal with this...

Sanchez ducked an energy blast that flew directly toward his face. It hadn't been fired by any of the current demons, who he had kept an eye on. No, it came from somewhere else. Sanchez turned his face in shock to see another portal open. Then another.

How many demons were there? How many of these monsters? Because at heart, Sanchez knew that these were absolutely demons. He prayed regularly, and he had attended his church in San Juan. Though he had always believed in a loving god, his time in Afghanistan had began to change his views. He had started to have nightmares, dreams of portals opening, of creatures coming through to kill him and everything he knew. He had dreams of fire and burning. He never told these dreams to anyone - but God had listened. And He brought them to life.

Sanchez had pointed his gun, firing away at the monsters, who did fall when bullets struck them. He watched dispassionately as they fell, the shock of the moment not yet reaching him. Then they started to get back up. Perhaps this hadn't happened in real life. Perhaps this was something his brain had added later on, as he revised the memory over and over in his mind. He had done so so many times that it had changed in the retelling to himself.

And every day, he revisited that day in his mind, wondering what had happened. But he was getting ahead of himself, ultimately. Because then he saw how and why the demons had been summoned.

Danny stood, glowing. He winced, looking at Sanchez. "Rick." Danny had told him through the haze of shock Sanchez had been feeling. "I am very sorry. But please put your gun down, I have a reason for this-"

"Did you summon them?" Sanchez had whispered, his gun now pointing at Danny. "Why? Why did you?"

Danny sighed, his body glowing. "Rick, I'm afraid there's a story to this, and-"

"I trusted you." Sanchez said quietly, uncomprehendingly. "I admired you. You brought them here?"

"Rick." Danny pleaded. "Please listen to me-" He was cut off as bullets pierced through his body, his blood falling down on the ground behind him onto the sands of Afghanistan. Rick was dimly aware of the blue glow leaving Danny and of the portals closing at once. The demons left over had been wiped clean by the approaching soldiers. Rick hardly noticed. He sat down on the sands of Afghanistan, all chatter in the background of his own inner demons.

An approaching general stared at him, snapping his fingers in Sanchez's face. Sanchez looked up, startled. He stared at the general, who spoke. "You didn't see any of this, alright? You saw none of it. It was just a breakdown. We won't give you a dishonourable discharge, you'll get an honourable one. But don't talk at all about this."

Sanchez had protested, his exact words now lost to the fog of memory and age and retelling. But it was too late. Rick Sanchez had been sent home, told that what he had seen was nothing, just a dream. He didn't protest. That's not what he did, after all. Rick Sanchez had gone to war because he was told it was what was done - and he had left war because he was told that was what was done.

He dismissed his vision as just a breakdown, and tried to be grateful he was not given a dishonourable discharge. He was given a therapist who he talked things out with. He learnt that Danny wasn't a wizard - Sanchez was just dealing with the shock of his close friend turning out to have been a terrorist informant this whole time. Magic wasn't real, that was just absurd. He went back to civilian life. He got a job as a scientist of sorts. It wasn't bad - it paid decently and he had held an interest in this stuff. And he tried to forget all about magic and demons. He contacted his old friend Megan Jameson, one of the few who had the ability to make him feel good at all times. He had trouble making friends easily beyond the ones he already had had. After Danny's betrayal, how could he trust anyone anymore?

Then, of course, everyone learnt magic was real, and so was demonkind. That discovery had stunned Sanchez. The fact that he had been right all along, but had convinced himself he had been wrong, wrong, wrong? The fact he had never had a breakdown nearly drove him into a real one. But he refused to give in. He went digging. He joined the ISSR as a way to understand what had happened to him, and why these outsiders had interfered in his life. After years of intensive research, he learnt that Danny was indeed a wizard. He had been somehow caught by Azazel's forces, and been threatened by them to create a way to break through.

Finally, the truth. After all this time, the truth. It had come as an astonishment to him. But it had convinced him that humanity had to remain safe - and not by purposeful ignorance this time. The world governments had been aware for some time that magic was real, but ignored or covered it up for their own interests for a long time. But now the truth was out, and humanity needed to protect itself. Danny had been threatened into becoming a slave. God knows how many people had been threatened the same. Sanchez was determined to make sure that never happened ever again.

He returned then to reality, staring at the picture of himself and Danny, realising he had been doing so for five minutes straight. He placed it back down on the desk. He stared back into space, trying to remember that night. He relived himself pulling the trigger that killed Danny. He saw his friends slaughtered by beasts and creatures they had no knowledge or understanding of, ripped apart. His breath caught in his throat as he breathed faster and faster, the memory in his mind's eye.

In a way to calm himself, he grabbed the picture of himself, Horn and Megan. He breathed slower again, calming himself by returning to the old days, the days when things made sense. He fixed his face, wiping away the sweat that had formed, and the tears that had begun to form. Had to remain presentable, after all. Stiff upper lip, soldier's calm.

He had had his calm. Sanchez opened the door, exiting his room. "Alright everyone!" he barked, throwing out orders and commands again confidentially and charmingly, as though he had no doubts about what he was doing.

[Nightkill the Emperor]

Calliel shrugged. "We truthfully aren't entirely sure." he admitted. "Set's motives are quite unclear to all of us. We think he may be working for the Titan called Kronos, an old god of time itself. But that's speculation. The fact that Set can remove himself from our memories makes things more difficult." he gave a nod to Zoryana. "Zoryana showed us her notebook containing pictures of Set, but that's only added to our puzzlement, to be completely honest."

Crowley appeared next to the three of them, having finished his speech/argument of sorts on the podium. The people who had assembled had started to disperse to have a day of rest before the battle. "So what we know is that Set has been everywhere pretty much since film was a thing. And even before that - I had an encounter of sorts with him in ancient Egypt. May have told you two of that, not sure." he addressed Zoryana and Daniel. "It was an interesting time, caused by time travel. So he's been around for quite a while."

Calliel paused. "Wait. Hold on. Crowley, paper and pencil please." the angel said. Looking bemused, Crowley brandished it to Calliel, who had teleported a desk in from somewhere. Crowley paused.

"Wait, that's my desk-"

"I'll return it soon." Calliel responded. He opened Crowley's laptop, mentally preparing himself to see pornography and being surprised to see something completely different. It was Cy Endfield's Zulu, paused near the middle of the film. Calliel looked at Crowley, his face expressing a question.

Crowley gave a sheepish smile. "It's a classic." he responded. Calliel opened a new tab on the browser, going to a picture of two moons in the sky. One moon was the moon of Earth, the familiar one orbiting us everyday.

One other moon was different - vegetation and landmass could be seen. "This is an old portrait." Calliel muttered. "Apollo drew it, based on vague memories of the end of the Fae War."

The angel scribbled down some calculations on the paper Crowley had provided, the numbers odd and bizarre and not clearly understandable to most of them. Crowley nodded though, getting it. This was very old maths, magical maths. It didn't follow a structure similar to the maths we understand today.

In frustration, Calliel crumpled up the paper and burnt it. "That can't be possible." he said.

"It could be." Crowley responded, pausing and thinking. "It actually could...Hold on." Crowley took the laptop from Calliel, opening up another tab. He typed in "Armenio" into Google, clicking on the Images. He then clicked on the picture of the moon as seen from Hell. He placed the tab of Armenio next to the painting by Apollo.

The second moon in Apollo's painting was a dead ringer for Armenio.

"Time travel." Calliel said in realisation. "They moved the moon out of its current time."

"Good movie," Daniel grunted, then took a step forward to study the images. "Hm." He glanced back and forth between the two pictures of Armenio. "So," he said slowly, "someone pulls Armenio out of Hell's present and sends it back to Earth's past, where Apollo paints a picture of it centuries ago. But Armenio obviously isn't up there in the night sky anymore, so it must have vanished at some point - in our timeline - after the picture was painted, probably during the Gotterdammerung. At which point - huh - I suppose it goes back to Hell at the original point of divergence. So for a given range of times, the moon is orbiting Hell, and for another given range of times, it's orbiting Earth. And whenever each range reaches its endpoint, the moon is transported back to the start of the other range. Infinite loop. It's the only way this works without the grandfather effect coming into play."

"Now." Daniel studied the images a moment longer. "The moon goes back in time to before the Fae War. That means that if you went back with it, you could theoretically contact everyone who was around back then - including the Egyptians." Daniel paused for a beat. "Set was an Egyptian."

The priest raised a finger. "Moreover, the only person who could pull off a stunt like this is Kronos, right? And Set may be working for Kronos now." Daniel trailed off for a second, thinking of a massive, armored figure, ghostly, whispering from within the screen of a movie theater. "Is it possible," he asked carefully, "that someone might be using Armenio as a giant time machine? That they're riding its time loop not in order to get from Hell to Earth, but in order to get from our post-Gotterdammerung reality to a time before the Fae War?" The priest glanced from Zoryana to Crowley to Calliel. "And if so," he added deliberately, "why?"

Crowley paused. "A lot of people went missing at the end of the Fae War. Dead, we had guessed. And the dragons and Fae had disappeared. I raise this merely as a hypothesis, but Set could be bringing them here to our time-" he paused. "Which does make a sort of sense, though it starts to hurt my head to consider it."

Zoryana frowned, furrowing her brow. "I think there's a lot of information we're missing here." she said. "We can't solidly try and claim we know what's happening."

"Yes, that's what a hypothesis is." Crowley snarked, shutting Zoryana up for the moment. He sighed. "It's something else we'll need to consider. I'll see if I can get someone to go talk to Apollo and Athena and figure this out with them. They were there, at the last battles. Apollo drew the painting, so he obviously remembers somethings. Athena's quite intelligent and can help us deduce this. I'll assemble a party for that soon. Calliel, when did Armenio go missing?"

"Two hours, four minutes and forty two seconds ago." the angel replied promptly.

Crowley frowned. "Then that may disprove the army theory. Logically, the army from the past should be here already. But time travel is always hard. Set and Kronos may have overshot and gone a century later than they should have, and we'll have a nasty surprise in 2130. I can't risk that, unfortunately." he paused, thinking. "The first priority should likely be Heaven though. That's something we can understand."

[Constaniana]

"Hullo there Lord Alastor," Sir Nilark replied cheerfully, firing a barrage of radiant blasts at the charging demons as he drew Excalibur. The knight swung Excalibur in a horizontal arc, sending another large blast of magic towards the oncoming foe before charging towards them, grinning as he began slashing at the other demons.

Alastor ordered a ceasefire and sighed audibly at the knight's antics. "I knew it. Nobody can study on that god damned school for an extended period of time without turning into a complete maniac." The Demon Lord said annoyedly, before ordering using a telepathic command to order his Zealots to take up a different position, so that they wouldn't accidentally shoot William. It wasn't like they needed Alastor's matter-denying barrier, anyway. Their own armors were certainly sturdy enough to resist whatever the demons were going to throw at them.

Alastor, himself, put away his magic gatling gun and pulled out his sword instead, joining the mad knight in his wild charge. It wasn't often that he got to do this, anyway. He might as well enjoy the battle.

"So, Sir William, if we are going to go through with this nonesense, we might as well draw attention away from the ladies inside the hotel, would you not agree? I am fairly certain they will have their own share of problems, anyway." The Demon Lord asked while blocking the weapons of two enemy demons, pushing them back and slashing them in half in one swift motion.

"Damn right!" Came a shout from inside.

"See?" He said, holding up an enemy demon by its scalp and overloading it with magic energy, causing it to explode gorily. They were all Azazel's pawns and traitors to the race, anyway. There wasn't much of a need to be considerate with them. Thanks to that he had the Zealots, after all. And this was a simulation anyway.

"Aye, certainly," William agreed loudly over the roar of battle, grinning and firing off some more radiant blasts from his right hand as he continued slicing through the virtual hordes of Azazel. "So, did you have any specific plans on distracting them, or is it just a general 'smash the bugger's heads in' type of tactics?" The knight asked.

[Nightkill the Emperor]

Gwen received nothing but silence when she tried to contact Gabriel. Gabriella also focused, hoping to be able to contact her past self, but to no avail. "He needs to be alive." she reasoned. "He can't have died yet because he's supposed to die in front of you, my Queen, and transform into myself. So he's just somewhere else right now."

Smoke formed behind them again, twisting and turning into a new shape. A large black owl appeared behind them, staring. "I am the Strix." it growled through its beak. The creature stood at three metres tall, its wingspan an equal length. It was a massive beast. "What are you doing here, humans and angels?"

Gwen kept Excalibur out of its scabbard, eyeing the overgrown owl in an alert manner. "We'll tell you when you will tell us where our angelic companion is right now. He disappeared after walking into the smoke from which you just appeared. Were you the one who abducted him, then? Tell us, Strix." she replied with a forceful tone.

"Perhaps." the Strix replied, twisting its head. "And perhaps not. What do I have to tell you, Gwen of Britain? Why is my duty to tell you secrets? I don't see why I should."

Suddenly, its head moved swiftly forward and looked directly at Caspian. "You are a time traveller." it said in a matter of fact tone. "You've time travelled quite a bit, haven't you? Interesting." its head zoomed backwards. "I will allow you to pass and perhaps tell you where your friend is as well. However, in this prison, there are beings locked in cages. You cannot open any of these cages as you travel, except for the one your friend is in. You cannot attack any guards of these cages. If you don't, they won't attack you. Best if you don't even look at them. If you do, hell will descend upon you. Understood? I will permit you to explore this prison, leave as you please, and do as you wish if you can follow those golden rules."

[Nightkill the Emperor]

"As well as we can," Alice replied coldly. She finished her cigar and let out a smoke-filled sigh. "Death is hard. Incredibly so. But we're dealing with it."

Francois, having finished his poutine, chimed in. "We're very eager to deal with the Heaven problem. Obviously."

Alice stood up and dusted off her coat. "Alexander, it's been a real pleasure. But if there isn't anything else, we need to return to Faerie University."

---

Damien stood up. There was a sword in the room, which he grabbed and strapped onto his hip. Fun fun fun. Let's hope that this guy's body is as functional as mine was. He looked down at his waist. Well... I feel a little insecure now.

"Alright, Merlin," he said. "Let's get to business ASAP. 'Time isn't solid', right?"

Horn shrugged. "Sure. Not too much on my side. Just try to be here tomorrow again, when we begin the invasion."

---

Merlin paused. "Yes. It's a bunch of timey-wimey wibbly-wobbley stuff, frankly. That's a quote I heard when I looked at the future. No idea where it's from, but I quite like it." He opened the flaps of the tent they were in, revealing that ancient England also held a dark sky, and cool temperatures, and generally resembled a depressing shithole.

In other words, home for Damien.

Two horses were in front of them. Merlin got on one. "Can you ride?"

[Nude East Ireland]

"As well as we can," Alice replied coldly. She finished her cigar and let out a smoke-filled sigh. "Death is hard. Incredibly so. But we're dealing with it."

Francois, having finished his poutine, chimed in. "We're very eager to deal with the Heaven problem. Obviously."

Alice stood up and dusted off her coat. "Alexander, it's been a real pleasure. But if there isn't anything else, we need to return to Faerie University."

---

Damien stood up. There was a sword in the room, which he grabbed and strapped onto his hip. Fun fun fun. Let's hope that this guy's body is as functional as mine was. He looked down at his waist. Well... I feel a little insecure now.

"Alright, Merlin," he said. "Let's get to business ASAP. 'Time isn't solid', right?"

Horn shrugged. "Sure. Not too much on my side. Just try to be here tomorrow again, when we begin the invasion."

---

Merlin paused. "Yes. It's a bunch of timey-wimey wibbly-wobbley stuff, frankly. That's a quote I heard when I looked at the future. No idea where it's from, but I quite like it." He opened the flaps of the tent they were in, revealing that ancient England also held a dark sky, and cool temperatures, and generally resembled a depressing shithole.

In other words, home for Damien.

Two horses were in front of them. Merlin got on one. "Can you ride?"

Alice snapped, and two the FUers vanished.

---

Damien smirked. It was just like home for him.

"Yeah, I can," he replied, as he walked forward and hoisted himself up onto one of the horses. "Though I much prefer cars. Actually, couldn't you just... teleport us to Stonehenge?"

Normally Damien wouldn't question the powerful old man. Well, that's a fib. Damien always questioned the powerful old man; after all, most typical villains were powerful old men. In real life and fiction. Damien preferred young men anyways. And young women were even better.

[Nightkill the Emperor]

Horn shrugged. "Sure. Not too much on my side. Just try to be here tomorrow again, when we begin the invasion."

---

Merlin paused. "Yes. It's a bunch of timey-wimey wibbly-wobbley stuff, frankly. That's a quote I heard when I looked at the future. No idea where it's from, but I quite like it." He opened the flaps of the tent they were in, revealing that ancient England also held a dark sky, and cool temperatures, and generally resembled a depressing shithole.

In other words, home for Damien.

Two horses were in front of them. Merlin got on one. "Can you ride?"

Alice snapped, and two the FUers vanished.

---

Damien smirked. It was just like home for him.

"Yeah, I can," he replied, as he walked forward and hoisted himself up onto one of the horses. "Though I much prefer cars. Actually, couldn't you just... teleport us to Stonehenge?"

Normally Damien wouldn't question the powerful old man. Well, that's a fib. Damien always questioned the powerful old man; after all, most typical villains were powerful old men. In real life and fiction. Damien preferred young men anyways. And young women were even better.

"Because it'd be stupid to have a super magical site one could just teleport to. That means anyone could abuse it. Having to physically walk and best the defences keeps away abuse. By which I mean it's actually impossible to teleport into Stonehenge. There's a shield preventing that." He explained as the horses trotted along.

It started to rain, because this was England, and of course.

[Nightkill the Emperor]

They approach, closer and closer.

Oberon walked through the sands of time upon his nightmare steed. This was not a mere descriptor - the horse was covered in shadows, twisting and swirling as almost to appear intangible. It fed upon the dreams and terrors of millions and billions. It walked upon the ground, and where its hooves touched life died, and would never grow there again.

Oberon was ready to re-enter this world. He had been here once, so very long ago. The ancient king smiled, though it could be hardly seen behind his helmet. He had been fed small sacrifices over the millennia, an arrangement that had kept him and his forces at bay for some time. But it could no longer be enough, or near enough. They had grown.

And they now needed to enter. The Fae had been running for a very long time, running from their own monsters. And those were approaching them as well, closer and closer. Oberon knew that time was short. And his horse did as well, as it moved in an agitated way, neighing and twitching.

"Patience." Oberon whispered in a long dead tongue. "It will not be long now..." he held up a small crystal orb in his hand, looking into the world he approached, and he smiled.

Oberon watched in his crystal orb, seeing the face of Death looking back at him, distracted from his conversation with another. This was a tall red-haired woman, sword in her hand, blood on her face, green eyes wild. War.

The Horsemen gathered.

[Nationstatelandsville]

There was a knock on Daisuke's door.

"Open up or I will shoot it down, goddamn it!" D shouted, "No, really, do actually need to run some weapons' tests and..."

"AND WE HAVE YOUR MOTHER!" HAL shouted.

"We don't have your mother," D said.

"NO, I'VE GOT THIS!" HAL insisted, "WE HAVE YOUR MOTHER!"

"HAL, shut up," D growled.

[Agritum]

Gwen kept Excalibur out of its scabbard, eyeing the overgrown owl in an alert manner. "We'll tell you when you will tell us where our angelic companion is right now. He disappeared after walking into the smoke from which you just appeared. Were you the one who abducted him, then? Tell us, Strix." she replied with a forceful tone.

"Perhaps." the Strix replied, twisting its head. "And perhaps not. What do I have to tell you, Gwen of Britain? Why is my duty to tell you secrets? I don't see why I should."

Suddenly, its head moved swiftly forward and looked directly at Caspian. "You are a time traveller." it said in a matter of fact tone. "You've time travelled quite a bit, haven't you? Interesting." its head zoomed backwards. "I will allow you to pass and perhaps tell you where your friend is as well. However, in this prison, there are beings locked in cages. You cannot open any of these cages as you travel, except for the one your friend is in. You cannot attack any guards of these cages. If you don't, they won't attack you. Best if you don't even look at them. If you do, hell will descend upon you. Understood? I will permit you to explore this prison, leave as you please, and do as you wish if you can follow those golden rules."

Gwen sighed. She had to play by the rules, and not doing that would have meant something very nasty for herself and the small group trailing her. And even then, said rules were quite hard and risky to follow.

Shielding her eyes with her hands, Gwen proceeded down the hallway. "Gabriel, where are you!? Give us a shout if you hear us!" she began calling out, while making her way in the corridor.

[Nightkill the Emperor]

There was a knock on Daisuke's door.

"Open up or I will shoot it down, goddamn it!" D shouted, "No, really, do actually need to run some weapons' tests and..."

"AND WE HAVE YOUR MOTHER!" HAL shouted.

"We don't have your mother," D said.

"NO, I'VE GOT THIS!" HAL insisted, "WE HAVE YOUR MOTHER!"

"HAL, shut up," D growled.

Daisuke opened up the door, the various group within the simulation blissfully engrossed within the virtual reality and unaware of the real world. He looked at D. "What do you need?" he asked.

[Nationstatelandsville]

There was a knock on Daisuke's door.

"Open up or I will shoot it down, goddamn it!" D shouted, "No, really, do actually need to run some weapons' tests and..."

"AND WE HAVE YOUR MOTHER!" HAL shouted.

"We don't have your mother," D said.

"NO, I'VE GOT THIS!" HAL insisted, "WE HAVE YOUR MOTHER!"

"HAL, shut up," D growled.

Daisuke opened up the door, the various group within the simulation blissfully engrossed within the virtual reality and unaware of the real world. He looked at D. "What do you need?" he asked.

"Well," D said, "you seem pissed at me about the company, and some other things, maybe. Which is no way to run an army, feuding soldiers."

D welcomed himself in, stomping up to Daisuke's hardware. He looked over it and frowned.

"You know," he said, "if you would just replace the wires with the SNS rig I built in August, things would be much more efficient. Not to mention realistic. But I digress."

He tapped his foot impatiently, waiting for something that would never come.

"OK, I lied," D said, "I'm not here because of the war, I'm here because... fuck it, I don't want you to be mad at me when one of us dies. There. Happy?"

[Nude East Ireland]

Alice snapped, and two the FUers vanished.

---

Damien smirked. It was just like home for him.

"Yeah, I can," he replied, as he walked forward and hoisted himself up onto one of the horses. "Though I much prefer cars. Actually, couldn't you just... teleport us to Stonehenge?"

Normally Damien wouldn't question the powerful old man. Well, that's a fib. Damien always questioned the powerful old man; after all, most typical villains were powerful old men. In real life and fiction. Damien preferred young men anyways. And young women were even better.

"Because it'd be stupid to have a super magical site one could just teleport to. That means anyone could abuse it. Having to physically walk and best the defences keeps away abuse. By which I mean it's actually impossible to teleport into Stonehenge. There's a shield preventing that." He explained as the horses trotted along.

It started to rain, because this was England, and of course.

As the rain fell down Damien's face, he looked ahead at the landscape.

"So what is Stonehenge? Something left by an old and dead god?" he yelled over the pour. "I don't think anything could be older than the Fae War. Well, anything that's still around in my time, at least."

[Lazarian]

"Perhaps." the Strix replied, twisting its head. "And perhaps not. What do I have to tell you, Gwen of Britain? Why is my duty to tell you secrets? I don't see why I should."

Suddenly, its head moved swiftly forward and looked directly at Caspian. "You are a time traveller." it said in a matter of fact tone. "You've time travelled quite a bit, haven't you? Interesting." its head zoomed backwards. "I will allow you to pass and perhaps tell you where your friend is as well. However, in this prison, there are beings locked in cages. You cannot open any of these cages as you travel, except for the one your friend is in. You cannot attack any guards of these cages. If you don't, they won't attack you. Best if you don't even look at them. If you do, hell will descend upon you. Understood? I will permit you to explore this prison, leave as you please, and do as you wish if you can follow those golden rules."

Gwen sighed. She had to play by the rules, and not doing that would have meant something very nasty for herself and the small group trailing her. And even then, said rules were quite hard and risky to follow.

Shielding her eyes with her hands, Gwen proceeded down the hallway. "Gabriel, where are you!? Give us a shout if you hear us!" she began calling out, while making her way in the corridor.

Ivy rolled her eyes.

The Queen of England's Royal Spaceship was walking down a corridor, hands over her eyes, calling for an angel. And it looked stupid.

"She's going to hit that wall." Ivy sighed to Caspian, slightly resigned. "I don't even see the point of doing this, really. Knowing the universe, we're going to have all the guards attacking us in minutes anyway. Not to tempt fate or anything, but...honestly, she's just as likely to walk into them."

She sighed in exasperation, put her hand over her eyes, and walked after Gwen. She was so done with this. Ten years ago, she would have been terrified. Travelling through an abandoned prison filled with universe-controlling abominations and god-knows-what. But...honestly? Now? She was tired of this. All this bullshit. Waking up in the middle of Purgatory. Being an angel. Whatever. She just wanted to see Calliel again, dammit. That was the one thing in her life she cared about. The rest just seemed like a distraction.

"If we all die because of her, I'm going to kill her." she mumbled to herself.