The golden angels were slaughtering everyone on the hill. Some tried to counter their attacks while others fell to their knees, praying for forgiveness.

Regardless of their choice of action, the angels were spreading death. Myriam and some of the other manaless bashed against the magic barrier, trying to exit and help their families.

The magic force field that my parents had raised cared little about their desperate strikes though as it was too strong. All they could do was bruise their bodies, while witnessing the deaths of everyone they had ever loved.

A sudden surge of hope rushed through me when I saw that my mother had completed her spell and one of the angels disappeared in a large pillar of light, similar to the one it arrived in. Immediately, she fell to her knees and began chanting a healing spell over my father. But her achievement did not go unnoticed.

Two of the remaining four angels, their bodies now more red than gold, took flight and charged toward her. The somatic components of the greater healing spell she was casting required her eyes to be closed, so she couldn’t see the coming attack.

I ran toward the edge of the barrier in the direction of my parents, screaming a warning at her, knowing fully that I was too late… and then something strange happened.

Everything froze. The angels stopped in midair. My mother’s healing glow was there but unmoving. My body stood solid as I was running.

It was as if time no longer existed, but I could still comprehend what was happening. And then I saw Kai walk past me and, in complete silence and as if nothing had happened, he exited the protective dome as though it wasn’t even there.

He took position in front of the coming attacks in the stead of my mother and then time resumed. The angels landed their hits unwillingly and were thrown backward again, much further than before. My parents now both started to chant the angel banishing spell with Kai protecting them.

For a moment, I thought we had a chance. Yet again, my hope died pretty quickly. By the time the second and third angels were banished, more had started to appear.

Three scores of angels arrived in bright pillars of light. These angels arrived already organized into squadrons with their apparent leaders sounding their golden trumpets of battle.

The first squadron was comprised of angels that were very similar to the ones that had arrived in our village earlier today. They had muscular bodies and massive greatswords, while their squadron leader held two lean longswords that were slightly curved on one side of their edges.

The second one was much less significant in terms of body size, but each angel was equipped with gilded longbows and quivers filled with silver arrows. The leader of this group was equipped with a stringless bow in its left hand and a golden trumpet in its right.

The last squadron to arrive seemed to be the most formidable one. Even though their bodies were not as muscular, and their weapons not as huge, as that of the first angels, something about them was ominous. Their lean golden bodies stood as straight and long as the spears they were carrying, while their leader held a lance, three times his size, with a small triangular crest banner attached near its end.

The three groups charged as three separate swarms of chaos and killed everything that moved. Their tactics made it pretty apparent that they would show no mercy.

They flanked and killed all the people that tried to flee. Nara however, was a village of spellcasters and most of the visitors were already accomplished mages.

Those who did not flee, formed circles of four to eight people, their backs against each other, trying to fend off the fury that rained down from above.

Having faith in the fact that us manaless were protected by the dome, most of them focused their efforts on banishing or outright killing the celestial beings. But there were few warmages among them and even fewer had any experience in fighting extraplanar beings.

Spikes were raised from the ground to pierce the angels’ wings while glowing magma rained down on them in thick chunks. But the lancers produced golden shields out of thin air and protected the archers from the spellcasters’ attacks.

The archers were the most deadly of them all. From what I could see, there was not a single arrow that was nocked and did not strike exactly on target.

They spread their attacks and broke the fighting formations of our spellcasters faster than any attack of the lancers or the sword-bearers would. Once disarray had been sown by the archers, death was reaped by the angels bearing the great longswords and the shining spears.

Some of the young manaless under the dome were still punching and scratching its semi-transparent protective walls, but most of them were already on their knees, sobbing over the brutal murders of their families. The people outside the mana walls were fighting with all they had, but it was futile.

For every angel banished, killed or otherwise taken out of the fight, ten more quickly took its place.

Kai was making his way toward his parents, shooting off blasts of raw magical power to the angels that were attacking him, seemingly without effort. Every time one of Kai’s mana bursts hit an angel, it was engulfed in flames and fell to the ground shrieking.

When he reached Ched and Nessa’s now lifeless bodies, time once again ceased to exist but with one difference.

This time our bodies snapped to face his direction. As my body was forcefully turned toward Kai, I caught a glimpse of Kard, my dragon-loving friend who was charging shoulder-first against the forcefield, suddenly stopping in midair and turning sideways along with me.

Kai, or whatever he was now, was within sight of each and every one of us still alive. It was as if he wanted us to see his sorrow. And see it we did.

Not only did we watch it but we also felt the despair of losing love. He held his eyes upon the desecrated bodies of his parents and golden tears started to rush from his eyes.

He fell on his knees and his body started convulsing. Slow at first and then faster and more violent. At one point the spasms were so fast that I could not recognize him as Kai anymore.

Finally, he stopped moving and got on his feet again. His body emanated a golden glow and he stood up on his toes. No matter how hard I tried, I could get absolutely no information about him from the Dark Energy. It was as if he was immaterial.

Soon, he was not touching the ground at all but was rather levitating, rising higher by the second. The higher he went, the brighter he glowed.

Time resumed once more, but nobody paid it any heed anymore. Even the angels did not dare move a muscle. Kai let out a scream that demanded everyone’s attention.

It sounded like two distinct voices. One was extremely low and booming, while the second was high and shrill. His now completely golden body ignited the robes he was wearing and arrows of mana started to shoot out of him in all directions.

Two angels were hit and instantly fell to the ground dead, the spots were they had been wounded now charred holes of emptiness.

A new push for survival began, but this time it was not mortals running away from angels, but rather everyone and everything simply running away. This release of power from Kai did not discriminate. The sudden bursts killed as many people on the ground as celestials in the sky.

Now angels and mortals alike tried to take cover from the catastrophe that was upon them, but no mana arrow or explosion was able to penetrate the force field around us. Seeing this, my parents began the chants that would create more, to protect as many people as they possibly could.

And that’s when it happened.

A magic arrow shot right through my mother’s chest and she fell limp into my father’s arms. His chanting broke, and he immediately canceled his spellcasting to hold her.

Another arrow pierced her shoulder and went on to pierce my father’s abdomen as well.

And then another.

And another.

I saw them both slip onto the cold floor, embracing each other in death.

I screamed.

I pleaded for him to stop.

But he would not hear me. He wouldn’t hear Myriam who was begging him to come to his senses. He would not hear anything.

Arrows and blasts killed everything around us. The smell of blood and burned bodies seeped even through the mana field and it only made our despair grow stronger.

Everything was burning. Everyone was dead. Piles of angels and mortal bodies. And yet Kai, or whatever he was now, was still attacking and desecrating them.

All at once, he stopped. All that could be heard was a soft stream of air and the low wailing of the people inside our protected bubble. The bubble that my parents had built at the cost of their lives.

Myriam was on her knees, her face hidden in her palms. I saw the same desperation and helplessness I had seen the first time I’d met her.

But now I knew how she felt. My parents were dead. They were killed by…

Is it Kai? Is it The Divine?

Whoever was responsible, I could do nothing to protect them. Not them, nor anyone in the village. Earlier today they had all been preparing for the feast of a lifetime, and now every single one of them was dead.

Kai stopped glowing, though his naked body remained golden. He continued hovering motionless for a couple of seconds and then started to fall from high in the sky straight onto the ground in front of us.

The moment his body hit the ground, a shockwave spread from his position and the mana field did nothing to stop it.

The last thing I saw was everyone fall down as the wave hit them. I was not even able to move. I had no reason to move. No reason to continue.

I welcomed my end.