“Son of a bitch! Cease fire!” Gaius roared, but he was too far away, and the fog of battle was everywhere.

The shores of the Styx were complete chaos. Gaius saw no less than a dozen pontoon bridges spanning the mighty river. Soldiers flowed across those bridges to march on Seere’s besieged Keeps. The loyal soldiers manning those Keeps were fighting for their lives. To them, anything and everything was a target, including a few hundred unknown men flying toward them.

Gaius tucked his wings in and dived. He was a moment too late. “Ugh!” The nearest shell exploded and he felt it rip into the armor of his flank. His power went to work healing the wound, but even that small amount would be sorely missed. He needed every drop available to hold together the Kingdom.

The five soldiers around him weren’t as lucky. Their lifeless bodies fell from the sky as Gaius and what remained of his guard flew under the exploding shells and toward the Keep where General Lee’s banner flew.

The structure wasn’t much more than a large tower with a stone wall surrounding it and a large courtyard. The courtyard was hard, dry, flattened clay worn down by thousands of boots. It was packed with soldiers rotating up onto the ramparts to fight and die.

“Archers!”

Gaius cringed as he heard the command. If the defenders were down to using archers their status was dire.

“Belay that order!” A familiar figure stepped out from the Infernal Iron gate of the tower and waved off the hundred men pointing poison-tipped arrows up at Gaius. “Make a hole!” He made a sweeping gesture and the men scattered. The emptiness formed a landing zone.

Gaius landed hard and sent spider-web cracks across the ground. He was winded, but he didn’t want to show weakness around the troops. He stood tall as he surveyed them, but he instinctually felt his side where the exploding shells had cut through his armor. It was still slick with fresh blood, but the skin had knit itself back together beneath.

“General Icilius.” General Lee approached.

The general commanding the defense of the Styx was not a large man. His hair and beard were long, white, and his face was too kind to belong in Hell. Despite being in Hell less than two centuries, the renowned military strategist had risen quickly to command his own legion. Most of that original legion had been hacked to pieces defending the banks of the Styx, and only his ability to outmaneuver the enemy was keeping them alive. Even that seemed to be coming to an end.

“General Lee.”

The two generals shook hands openly. Normally, such a casual exchange was just asking for a dagger in the chest, but these were desperate times.

“Please follow me.” General Lee waved for Gaius to follow him. “See to these soldiers. They’ve fought well and traveled a long way.” He commands his own troops to assist what remained of Gaius’ guard.

No one approached Gaius or the throne on his back. Lee didn’t even bring it up until they were alone in his war room.

“So, the Capitol has fallen.” It wasn’t a question but a statement.

“Yes,” Gaius sighed as he eased the golden throne off his back and plopped down onto it.

To sit on Seere’s throne was blasphemy of the highest order, and would have resulted in the swift removal of his head, but with Seere gone no one gave a shit. All Lee did was raise an eyebrow.

“Can we use that?”

Gaius just shook his head. They’d tried everything before retreating from the Capitol. Nothing had worked. Even in the war room, in the depths of the Keep, the constant barrage of artillery pounded the area like thunder. Gaius gauged it at a shot every five seconds. A quick bit of simple mathematics and…

“We’re almost out of ammunition.” Lee got there first. He spread his hand over a stretched piece of velum and the battlefield sprang into view. “Only six of the keeps are still standing.”

It was worse than Gaius suspected.

“We’re holding the line here.” Lee drew a blood-red line across the map. “I’ve got interlocking fields of fire so the enemy can’t slip around into our rear. I was hoping for resupply, but if the Capitol has fallen then I guess that is out of the question.”

“We’re it,” Gaius laughed bitterly.

“Two hundred men are better than nothing.” For a General of Hell, Lee was fairly optimistic.

“We need to talk exit strategy.” Gaius ran a hand through his dirty, sweat-drenched hair and stepped off the throne. “We need to get as many men and supplies as we can out of here.”

“And go where?” Lee looked at Gaius and crossed his arms across his armored chest. “We have Cain’s forces pressing us hard on the front, but my scouts are reporting more than just his cursed soldiers in the assaults. I’ve had three confirmed sightings of magnificent-looking women riding serpent steeds and slaughtering my men.”

Gaius cringed at the news.

Cain ruled the kingdom directly across the Styx from Seere, but the man cursed by God’s territory was small and his legions were few. He’d used that power wisely over the years and made alliances. The rot in his kingdom made the land inhospitable to others while he still lived, but Seere’s lands were always rich and fertile. Cain made deals with his northern neighbors to stay on their good side.

Two kingdoms butted up against Cain’s: Belial’s and Lilith’s. If the reports of women riding serpent steeds were correct, then Lilith was putting some flesh in the game. She’d never been on great terms with Seere, but she was an occasional lover of Lucifer. From what Gaius heard, it was more of a love-hate relationship, but that bond had kept her out of Seere’s hair for centuries. With Seere gone, that arrangement was over.

Her titles were: Mother of Serpents and God’s Mistake. To be acknowledged as a mistake by God was the first reason Gaius never wanted to mess with the Infernal Lord. If the rumors were true, Lilith was the first wife of Adam. She’d been the one that tempted her ex-husband with the apple and murdered Eve.

Gaius chuckled.

She ruled over the Gardens of Decay, a twisted version of God’s original vision of Eden with her own unique touch. Forty nine legions followed her. The souls drawn to her kingdom were malevolent women; women that had been slighted by men and committed acts terrible enough to swing the karmic balance of their souls toward Hell.

Everything Gaius had ever heard about her screamed to stay away, and now a vanguard of her warriors were laying siege to his keeps alongside Cain’s skeletal warriors.

“Where? Where are we supposed to go?” Lee repeated as the Keep rumbled around them. A serious assault was taking place.

Gaius tabled the question for the moment as the two generals rushed outside. They hadn’t taken more than two steps outside the door when a flaming pile of bones dropped into the center of the courtyard.

“Take cover!” They yelled, and followed their own advice.

Gaius warped his weakened Infernal Iron armor into a shield, but still leapt behind a wooden cart laden with supplies. He made sure his injured side was facing away from the bones. Two seconds later the bones exploded. Men yelled and screamed for their mothers as bone shrapnel punched through flesh, but that wasn’t the worst of it. Gaius knew those bone bombs, and their lethality wasn’t in the shrapnel.

Everyone standing within a few feet of the blast had been killed, but those that were wounded, even lightly, started to convulse and seize on the ground. Their flesh started to rot and roll off their bones as they thrashed around in pain. The bone bomb was infused with Cain’s curse, and dead was a welcome substitute to a life of eternal decay.

“Kill them before they turn!” Lee roared as he dove into the fray with his cavalry saber. He removed one skeletal soldier in the making’s head, and the things crumbled into ash.

His men roared and followed their general. The battle was over quick, but the end result was more of Seere’s men dead, and without their Lord’s power they weren’t coming back.

“Tighten up the air defense!” Lee spewed out orders that his men quickly followed. Gaius had to give the other general credit, his men were going to follow him to the end. Somethings from life followed men into death. Lee was always a popular one.

If they weren’t losing a civil war, Gaius would have planted his sword in the man’s spine sooner rather than later, but right now he needed him. Acknowledging that reminded him of the question burning in both of their minds.

The generals were heading back into the tower when a great ripping sound shook everything. The ground trembled, the Keep seemed to sway from the shockwave, and the very air vibrated. Both men dropped flat onto the ground in the prone position. It wasn’t a dignified reaction, but if a round of bone bombs had just gone off it was critical to avoid that shrapnel.

It wasn’t bone bombs. Bone bombs would lead to terror-filled screaming and pain. The screams of dying men didn’t follow that great ripping sound. Silence did.

Gaius scrambled to his feet and back out into the courtyard to take a better look.

The men manning the walls had stopped hacking away at the enemy. Their weapons hung limply at their sides as their eyes looked upward. Gaius followed their eyes and found himself staring at a slash of gold that looked like a giant axe had cut into the gray veil that was Hell’s sky. Radiant light streamed through the Rip, which gave it the golden hue, and it was so bright that everyone had to look away after a few seconds.

Gaius snapped out of it quicker than the others.

“Lee…Lee,” he shook the other general’s shoulder. “I want every airborne asset you have gathered in this courtyard now!” His orders spurred men into action on both sides.

The skeletal warriors were getting their own orders. They were falling back.

Gaius dashed back into the Keep to where the golden throne sat. He was still large enough to carry it, and he had Lee help strap it between his wings.

“What’s the plan?” Lee asked as they marched back into the courtyard where armored men with wings were arriving by the dozens. With the fighting on hold, they were able to maneuver more freely.

“There,” Gaius pointed at the Rip, “that’s the plan. That’s where we are going.”

Lee looked at the Rip, back at Gaius, up at the Rip again, and then back at Gaius. “You’re insane.” He shook his head. “If you go up there you’ll die.”

“Something tells me I won’t.” That something was a gut feeling, but Gaius was willing to roll the dice. After seeing how he’d been lied to about flying over the sea, a lie that had cost him the Capitol, he had to imagine there were other things Seere had kept from his generals.

“And you’re going to take all of my air support with you on this suicide run.” Lee looked out over the gathered airborne soldiers.

They were young and week, the oldest hadn’t been in Hell more than seventy years, and with their Lord’s power gone they wouldn’t get any stronger. It was a piss pour fighting force.

“Come with me, Lee.” Gaius grabbed the other general’s forearm. “I’ll need you. I’ll need your leadership, and I’ll need your power.” He didn’t mind admitting that. Right now, Lee was probably the second strongest person remaining from Seere’s forces. Gaius could put that power to good use.

“I won’t leave my men.” Lee’s answer was immediate and absolute.

“Then you’ll all die.” Gaius kept his voice low. Lee knew it, the soldiers knew it, but it wasn’t something the generals should be proclaiming. They executed people for that kind of defeatism.

“Then I’ll die with honor.” Lee replied, and pulled his arm away from Gaius.

“At least give me fire support,” Gaius bargained. “Cover me until I enter the Veil.”

Lee chewed it over for a second. “I’ll cover you until the enemy resumes the attack, but then you’re on your own.”

Gaius nodded and moved quickly. He didn’t thank Lee. Thanks meant he owed the other general something. Gaius owed him nothing.

“Listen up.” He stepped into the middle of the formation.

The airborne soldiers had crowded the courtyard and forced the foot soldiers against the walls. They were packed in there ass to nuts, but even then Gaius tallied his entire force’s strength at about seven hundred. He focused on the positive. He’d tripled the strength of his remaining guards.

“Our mission is that.” He pointed at the golden Rip, which was already starting to be overwhelmed by the gray veil. “Be quick, be ruthless, and get it done.”

There was no cheer from the gathered soldiers. Just nods of acceptance. It was either die up their or die down here. Gaius didn’t care what they thought as long as they followed orders.

“Move out!” He beat his powerful wings and steadily gained altitude.

His men formed up around him in a battle square. The faster scouts flew out ahead and to the flanks for the rising formation. A little warning before an attack was better than nothing. His guard formed up at the core around him. They were better armed and trained. He would willingly sacrifice the riff-raff so those better men could get through.

His plan was based completely on conjecture, but you wouldn’t have known that from the look on his face. He’d mastered exuding confidence no matter the situation a millennia ago.

“Double-time!” He beat his wings twice as fast and picked up the pace.

The mass of men moved quickly toward the closing Rip…but they weren’t alone. There was a screech from below and three massive creatures lifted off the ground.

The three creatures were larger than the Keep’s central tower. These weren’t what Lee’s scouts had seen. These were their big sisters.

The serpents had thick armored scales covering their entire body, and clinging to those scales were hundreds of skeletal warriors. About a third of the way down the body giant, leathery wings spread out and beat at the air. From his height, Gaius saw mini cyclones pick up and throw away soldiers that were unfortunate enough to be too close.

The flying serpents reared their diamond-shaped heads, complete with two ten-foot fangs descending to the bottom of their jaws, and hissed a Gaius. Giant forked tongues licked the air as the beat their wings faster and headed toward the Rip. At the head of each serpent sat a twenty-foot armored woman steering the massive beasts.

Those flying serpents were supposed to be a final deathblow to the Keeps, but the Rip, and Gaius’ rush too it, had diverted them from their original mission.

“Intercept them! Hold them off!” He passed the orders.

There was hesitation before the orders were executed. Gaius kept an eye on the leaders of those units. If they made it out of this alive he’d have their heads.

Half of the formation peeled off and charged the serpents. The charge was brave, but pointless. The serpents spit globs of acid at the men. It melted flesh and got under armor. Over a hundred men dropped before they even reached the serpents. Those that did had to deal with the women. One whipped out a giant scythe and decapitated half a dozen men so fast Gaius missed it. Another pulled out duel blades and turned the air around her into a whirlwind of amputated limbs. The last woman used her bare hands to crush skulls and drive her spiked gauntlets through armor. The spikes shrunk and grew at her will. She was the one Gaius was most afraid of, and she was captaining the beast closest to his formation.

Those that didn’t get melted by acid or slain by the women were overwhelmed by the skeletal passengers. In minutes, the entire assault force was decimated, but those were precious minutes. Two of the three serpents were stalled by the attack. A few brave soldiers struck some blows on the creatures’ wings before they were taken down. One beast returned to the ground, while the other settled into a hover while its captain looked her over. Only one, the one Gaius most feared, continued its pursuit.

Thanks to the sacrificial move, Gaius reached the Rip first. He had to close his eyes as he passed into it. The golden rays were too much for his hellish eyes to take. At first, he didn’t even know he’d passed into the Veil. Nothing felt any different aside from the return of warmth. It felt like all those times he’d been in his Lord’s Great Hall. He opened his eyes just in time to see a giant hoof hurtling toward him.

He didn’t even have time to yell a warning. The hoof crashed through the center of his formation, just barely missing him, but it shattered his guard. Dozens were carried to the ground and crushed underneath the massive creature that had suddenly appeared before them.

It put the flying serpent to shame. It had a thick, brown armored hide covered in fur. Twin white tusks protruded from its face that held two giant intelligent eyes. Gaius was entranced by those eyes, so captivated that he nearly missed the barbed tail swinging around toward them.

His formation was scattered from the first attack, but the tail obliterated three dozen more men as it passed through the air around them. The creature was so massive that anywhere it attached it was going to hit something.

“Climb!” Gaius couldn’t keep the fear from his voice this time, and no one held it against him.

He looked down the get his bearings. The smoky gray Veil was gone. All that was here was wide open plains. It reminded him of the Elysian Fields except no souls tended them, and they didn’t have a giant beast roaming freely.

He looked up and his eyes bulged. Tall metal structures were plunging down towards him like daggers. The scenery of another world spread above him all the way to the horizon. The landscape grew greener as it got farther away from the buildings, and little gray lines spread everywhere like arteries away from a beating heart. Another Rip was blazing above them near the tallest metal tower. There were several others standing tall, but most looked jagged and broken. It had all the hallmarks of a battlefield. That was the last place Gaius wanted to be, but it was his only destination.

he reminded himself as he pushed himself and his remaining men hard.

The great beast made a few more swipes at them, but they’d drawn out of its range, and it had a new target. The flying serpent emerged behind them and the beast bellowed a fresh challenge at the new invader.

All that mattered was what lay ahead of him.

“Form up! Tighten the formation!” He bellowed to the few remaining unit commanders.

This time there was no hesitation. They all knew they were heading into the unknown. There was no telling what they were waiting for, but if the visuals were any indication it was another fight.

There wasn’t time to do more than consolidate before they reached this Rip, and this time Gaius definitely felt a change. His stomach flip-flopped as the word did a one-eighty. It went from the pleasant, background warmth of this in-between place, to a burst of cold air. Smells assaulted his nose, foreign sounds tried to confuse him, and the golden light of the Rip vanished and was replaced by the Moon.

Gaius was momentarily speechless. He’d died under the light of the moon fighting for Caesar. He’d grown up in Rome, the greatest city in the world, but what was below him looked nothing like his old home. A new fear welled up in his gut, and it had nothing to do with civil war, flying serpents, or his diminished fighting force.

He was home. He was back on Earth, but it looked just as foreign to him as Cain’s jungle kingdom.

Earth wasn’t home. Home was the burning wreck he’d left behind.