In The Crossfire

Prologue

The world as you know it, is gone.

They all believed that the end would come by human hands - bombings, radiation, disease, the stripping of all Earth's natural resources- but that is not how it happened. It was not by man that the world was destroyed. At least not entirely.

Two superior species came from a different world, descending on Earth like an inevitable disease. They were a flood of liquid fire, drowning and scorching all the same, destroying everything they touched.

Most of us perished, trapped within the crossfire of a war that was not our own.

Hellions were the first to come, nasty demonic things. Their bodies twisted, made of death and darkness. They thrived on destruction and the pain they caused. Some used humans in various horrid ways before ultimately taking their lives while others simply killed people for their sadistic pleasure.

In the beginning, some believed this to be the biblical Revelation. Believing that we would be saved from the demonic plague which moved through our world. They were wrong. No one was saved.

What came next was far worse.

Back then people called them Angels. They were gloriously powerful entities, sparking hope in all humans; people believed them to be our saviors. Angels with enormous wings, some made of glowing light and pulsing energy, and others of feathers. Their hands, feet, and faces, were like looking in a mirror, matching the humans, only far more beautiful. Everyone wanted to believe they were protectors for humanity, it was the common hope.

But Angels did not care for the humans, they only cared about exterminating the Hellions. Their war was just that, theirs. They had no concern regarding what or who stood in their way. They were the Seraphs, brutal and unyielding monsters.

At first, the humans worked to fight side by side with the Angels, their believed saviors. Unfortunately, people were nothing more than simple casualties for the Seraphs, worthy of miserable grunt work and nothing of value. And so, mankind eventually turned away from those they had placed their hope in. Their attempt at independence failed, and the Seraphs turned their weapons on humanity. They destroyed anything that could have been used against them- metal, technology and many natural resources humans would have needed to survive, gone. All of what people shared in good faith was taken away by the very beings they had put their trust in.

The Seraphs were a proud species, relying on nothing but themselves, thinking of only their own wellbeing. They turned the world into what it is now - a toxic wasteland littered with Hellions and Seraphs fighting each other.

I, on the other hand, get by living in the nooks and crannies of the entire mess.

Now humans are hunted. Both Demons and Seraphs have established their territories where they live here on earth and both have evolved to use humans as their errand dogs. They catch us, trap us, train us, and eventually we die in some horrific way. This is what is left of us.

There are a few free people who have survived in the shadows of the woods, but those numbers are slowly dwindling to nothing. The humans have resorted to traveling in small parties which are more difficult to track. They survive on their own. If caught, they are never seen again.

As for me, well, my father was human and my mother was one of them, an Angel. I am what they call a halfling, or Nephilim, and I try to survive in this godforsaken place.

This is my world now, or what's left of it.

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