Minerva’s crimson eyes sparkled with hope upon hearing the soldier say they would go. With those weapons she knew something could be done against the angelic beast preying on the village.

“Michael, stay here you hear me?!” She turned to the soldiers. “Come this way!”

She left him speechless before leading the group of six soldiers through the trail she just made by using her lightning magic to melt most of the snow.

“Did you do this?” The frontmost soldier named Oliver asked her. “If so, how?”

“Lightning magic! I had to get to the capital as fast as I could.”

“It was a good call, it’s our duty to protect the people, but we wouldn’t ever know there was something going on up there until it was too late.”

Once they climbed the slope and reached the top, the devastation it had brought was unimaginable, in mere minutes the village was turned into a graveyard of sprawled mangled bodies and red sprayed against the white snow and around the tree trunk. None of them seemed to move and even if they did none of the soldiers would have any courage to help from the severity of the wounds.

“No…” Despaired, Minerva rushed forward and shouted from the top of her lungs. “JAKE! JAKE! WHERE ARE YOU?!”

“Hey! HEY!” One of the soldiers grabbed her by the shoulder. “Don’t go off shouting! If a death angel is really here you’ll get its attention! Do you want all of us to die?!”

“Settle down, something isn’t right.” Oliver silenced the soldier before raising his hand prompting everyone to carefully listen. “Can you hear that?”

It was like a whistle coming from afar that gradually became louder and louder until Minerva looked to the sky just in time to see a blurred object falling down towards them and violently slamming into the ground in front of them. Snow was lifted up over the group of startled soldiers and once it had settled one look was all it took for her to notice what, or rather, who it was.

“J- Jake…?” She fell with her knees on the snow. “No… no, no, no!”

The mangled body beyond recognition was the young man’s, his clothing was something she wouldn’t mistake for it was his only option to wear everyday. Her legs trembled, cold sweat started to form on her brow as an urge to scream was building up stuck in her throat.

Oliver and the other soldiers looked up and noticed a big white bird-like figure flying in circles around the enormous tree as if waiting for prey.

“Is that… the death angel?!” One of the soldiers started to panic and began to run towards the capital’s walls. “Fool! If you run out like that it’ll-!” The sergeant tried to stop him but it was too late. The moment he stepped out of the tree’s shade the white figure came in a blink of an eye and snatched him like how a bird catches worms. “Dammit! Stay in formation, prepare your rifles!”

The four other soldiers were shaking in their boots but Oliver’s rallying voice made them listen to his commands as everyone ran underneath the tree for better cover.

“Sergeant, what are we going to do? Wait until it flies away?”

“We’ll be dead before that happens.” The young elf had another plan in mind. “No, we’ll strike back at it.”

“Huh?! Sir, with all due respect but are you out of your mind?! Our rifles may do short work of a wild wolf or even a bear with sufficient steel and shot but it's a death angel we’re talking about!”

“Calm down, listen. We have the ammunition and she has lightning magic, have you forgotten what happens to flesh once struck by lightning?”

“Are you suggesting we trust our lives to ‘this’?” The soldier pointed at the young woman clutching her head between her legs. “I’d rather shoot myself.”

Oliver shook his head before heading over Minerva and kneeling beside her. He placed his hand over her left shoulder and gave her a firm squeeze.

“Miss, we need your help. If we are all to get out of this place alive, we’ll need your powers. With your magic combined with our rifles I’m sure we’ll at least be able to stun it long enough for us to run.”

“Do you think… do you think anyone else might’ve survived?”

“I’ll be frank with you, there is no way to know without checking each cabin one by one. But with that thing flying around, none of us will be safe. Will you lend us your power?”

Both of her hands closed into tight fists as she stood up.

“Let’s give it hell.”

The plan itself was rather simple at least on paper, bait the death angel into attacking by shooting at it before giving it a good dose of lightning magic to stun it.

“How are we going to bait it though?” One of the soldiers asked whilst looking at Oliver. “You’re not counting on us to serve as decoy now are you?”

He glanced at the mangled body just in front of the tree.

“Listen, you may not like this but your friend’s body, if we toss it on the snow I don’t think the death angel will be able to discern between a living person or a corpse.”

At first her eyes went wide with the inhuman suggestion, while it was true that Jake was no longer in this world she just couldn’t justify doing that to the body of her former brother.

“I…”

“If we don’t do something it might come down to hunt us instead.” One of the soldiers grabbed the body’s mangled leg and threw the limb which detached itself from the hip. It left a trail of blood as it rolled on the snow. “Listen, I don’t get paid enough for this, I am not dying her-”

The air crackled around them as if they were inside a storm cloud, all eyes darted to Minerva who had both her fists clenched in anger as lightning arced from her arms and legs to the ground and tree.

“See! I knew it!”

The other soldier pointed his rifle at her and was about to fire.

“Stop!” Oliver shouted. “Don’t shoo-”

Before he could even finish his sentence with a dry sound of snow and a thin cloud of white engulfing him he was pushed forward face first into the ice as something landed behind him.

“Ah… haaaa!”

Upon lifting his face from the snow, he noticed two of the soldiers in front of him back away with pure terror in their eyes. The hulking death angel was right behind him, however, thankfully to the dismembered limb on the snow it wasn’t looking at him yet. He stumbled away from the angelic monster and raised his own rifle.

“What are you waiting for?! Fire!”

His commanding shout made the four armed soldiers to fumble with their rifles and fire at different intervals, thankfully at that range the bullets managed to pierce through its hide, however it was barely enough to be called a deadly blow, only serving to get its full attention instead.

“Get out of the way!” Minerva shouted as she quickly lifted both hands together and pointed to the monster. “Spirits of thunder, grant me thy might, Lightning Bolt!”

The soldiers ducked just in time as the spell finished charging between her palms and she released it in a burst of blinding bright green thunder. The spell’s sheer power was enough to leave their ears ringing as it arced for a millisecond before hitting against the death angel’s bare chest making the copper bullets lodged inside of the beast to heat up prompting it to thrash its snake headed arms around from the pain.

“Reload! Take aim!” Oliver shouted again. “Fire!”

Forming a semi circle around the young woman the soldiers this time fired a more concentrated barrage of bullets hitting the death angel’s chest dead center, the resulting impact made it stumble backwards as Minerva was charging the next spell with both hands.

“Spirits of thunder, upon my foes unleash heaven’s wrath, Thunderbolt!”

At first there was a bright burst of light as a myriad of lightning strikes formed from her fingertips before arcing towards and electrocuting the angelic monster with an unimaginable force. The resulting unbearable pain made it flee but as it flew away its spasming muscles failed to take flight and instead the beast pummeled into the frozen ocean.

“I… did… it…”

Minerva muttered as she fell backwards unconscious on the snow.

“Hey! Are you alright?!” She could only hear Oliver’s voice as the silhouette of his body was looming over her closing eyes. “Quickly, give me a hand, we have to carry her out of here!”

The last thing she remembered was feeling multiple hands lift her body from the cold snow.

‘My life was never the same after that day…’