As I rush back to the wreckage that was my house I look at the sky and saw what appeared to be thousands of shooting stars. The only problem is that they're all aiming straight for the city. I dig my family out of the rubble and grab my father who's chair was destroyed along with the house, Kevin takes off in the direction of the rooms after he helped James and mom. We ducked under what was left of the roof and waited for him to return.
"I don't understand!" my father yelled over the sounds of the explosions and fighting.
"The city was cloaked, even then how did the sensors not notice them before they got too close?"
He made a good point.
Ordinarily, the cities sensors would've noticed the army of despair before we could even be seen by them, the alarms would have issued a warning and went on shutdown, and the city would be automatically teleported to a different location. But this time it was different, this time there was nothing. As I was thinking Kevin returned with his bag which was full of weapons.
"I wanted to give these to you guys as a surprise after dinner but now's better than never" he yelled.
From his bag, he pulled out a new pair of prosthetic legs, and without saying anything I immediately started attaching them to my father.
"Thank you, Kevin," he said his voice somber.
He gave my mother two new shiny MK 9 silver eagle plasma pistols and tossed a kusarigama to James who looked at it with a murderous glint in his eyes. Lastly, he handed me a pair of gauntlets one was made of blessed steel and the other chaotic iron, the two metals of heaven and hell. The last weapon he pulled from his back was a black katana except this blade was double-edged. As soon as our preparations were completed my father stood up and tested his new legs on the skull of an angel foot soldier, satisfied we stood in the standard diamond formation with one goal in mind.
Survival.
As we made our way to the emergency shelters we slaughtered any who stood in our way, be they demons or angels, we had to get to the center of the city. Once we make it to the shelter we'd be able to get in a pod which would automatically teleport us to the nearest floating city. As we get closer to the inner city we see just how severe the damage is there are dead everywhere, the streets are overrun by demons and angels and we're forced to take back alleys. We took a right and realize we are right behind a squad of enemy soldiers, we back up around the corner before any of them notices, my father places his hand on the wall and closes his eye.
"Five angels, six demons, mid-rank, all armed, I'm not seeing any ranged weapons but be careful there may be archers nearby" he reports
He gives the signal Kevin, James, and I split into the usual formation: Kevin takes the front, I get the middle, James takes the rear, and mom and dad, being the backup, take out the stragglers. As soon as dad gives the signal we attack.
I go first aiming for the demon and angel closest to me and take both of them out with a single blow each, drawing the attention of all the others to me, they don't notice James and Kevin until it's too late.
Kevin, his blade crackling with electricity decapitates a demon then cuts an angel down with the same movement.
James, being the smallest fighter here, moves quickly and with precision as he uses the chain of his weapon to grab the sword of one soldier as he swung his blade, he jumps and lands on the demon's shoulders pushing its head down while raising its blade forcing it to impale itself through the skull.
He moves his body to the side as an angel attacks him from behind. James uses the blade of his kusarigama to easily slash the throat of the angel who just attacked him and in the same movement threw the blade in the air and yanked it down cutting another angel in half.
The kid may be nine but he's ruthless.
We move to finish off the remaining four and I punch a hole through one angel while Kevin deals with the other demon, I move to help James who was targeted by the last two demons but mom beats me to it by putting a hole through one of the soldier's head giving James enough time to finish off the other one.
As we move to leave I hear a click and see a shining silver arrow coming at me, dad grabs it and hurls it back at the archer killing him instantly.
"I told you to keep a lookout for archers" he scolds me.
"I know I'm sorry," I say ashamed.
"This is no longer city 8," he looks from James to Kevin and finally me.
"This is now a battleground, and mistakes cannot be made here. If they are then all of us are dead understood?"
"Sir yes sir." The three of us say in unison.
"I've been training the three of you your entire lives for days like these to ensure your survival.
I was hoping you'd all be fully prepared for it by the time another battle took place."
He looked around at the bloodied chaos that once was city 8 with sadness.
"But life hardly ever goes as planned. So I'm going to remove the seals I placed on all of us."
"Finally we get to let loose." James smiles
"We're only doing this for our survival." Mom scolded him.
"But I do admit it's nice it see how capable my boys are."
"Mom. Again loving mother or ruthless killer." James laughed.
"Little asshole."
*******
We continue to the center of the city until we finally make it to the shelter where we see that there are already groups of people going inside, suddenly the entire shelter explodes killing everyone inside.
"What the hell was that!" I exclaimed.
" That blast came from inside the shelter not outside what the fuck going on?!"
As we stand there trying to figure out what to do I feel numerous power sources headed this way.
" Dad please tell me that I'm tripping right now and that you don't sense that as well." I plead.
"Sorry son unfortunately I can, there's seven of them and they're closing in fast!"
"Shit," James said.
"Language mister" mom scolded him.
"Really mom? That's your concern?" Kevin
couldn't help but chuckle.
"There are seven beings with monstrous power headed this way and your mad cause James cursed?"
"Honestly honey I think we can let it slide this time," my dad said.
I knew we were in deep shit cause he was covered in a cold sweat. Meanwhile, the seven beings were getting closer and I was getting more and more sure that this was their destination, but the question was why? Suddenly we were surrounded by squadrons of soldiers.
"Shit we were so focused on those guys we didn't even notice these assholes" I yelled.
"Everyone back to back" my father ordered.
As we stood surrounded I noticed a tear fall down my mother's face.
"Well" she sighed sadly "at least we die as a family"
With that the soldiers charged we all brought our newly released mana to the max, mom let loose a storm of bullets each one exploding with the power of an energy grenade, James swung his kusarigama with everything he had entangling enemies and slicing them to pieces, arcs of blue lightning were flying off of Kevin's blade cutting down and scorching all in his path, dad was letting off shockwaves from each kick crushing enemies left and right, my fists we're moving like bullets punching holes in all who stood before me bodies littered the ground, angels and demons alike, we had the upper hand, for now, but they had numbers there seemed to be no end to them and our power was dropping steadily. Before long mom was wounded, she was hit in the leg with an arrow and as Kevin moved to block the next attack aimed at her when a mid-rank soldier attacked him from behind and Kevin ended up losing his right arm but still, we fought on, we fought like we were possessed we ended up reducing their numbers by more than half of the original, eventually, they became cautious and wouldn't approach us recklessly and mom took the time to apply first aid to herself and Kevin. But by then our worst fears were realized when the seven beings we sensed earlier appeared and we almost fell into despair.
"What's going on here why aren't these humans dead yet?" A deep voice boomed.
The army parted way to reveal the source of the voice, the source of the eight monstrous power levels, they were the 6 generals of the army of despair each named after the 7 deadly sins, Greed, Lust, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, and Pride.
But the most powerful force of all seven was the supreme commander of the army of despair the archangel Michael himself.