Chapter 145: Manhattan Crisis - Part 12
The order had been given. The moment had come.
The street trembled under the boots of holy warriors. Metal rang, voices rose, and the sky itself seemed to part under the command of a faith too bright to ignore. At the head of the column, the leader of the Horizon Initiative raised his radiant sword once more. Its blade seared the air with each movement, cutting not just through smoke and ash, but through the very fabric of the unholy influence that blanketed the battlefield.
A blinding ring of sanctified force rippled outward from him as he shouted:
"Forward! For the Throne of Heaven and the Covenant of Flame!"
Around him, a legion of paladins roared back as one.
"Deus vult!"
The Knights of the Horizon Initiative surged forward, shields locked and swords drawn, their banners whipping in the infernal winds, glowing with sigils of protection and defiance. Gold and white armor gleamed like sunfire against the blackened skyline. Their war hymn echoed over the city: no instruments, no artificial amplification, just voices, chanting a verse older than any modern scripture:
"Where darkness walks, light follows. Where evil reigns, Heaven strikes."
To their sides, the chaos was total.
Demons crawled over shattered buildings, vomiting fire and shadow in every direction. Their bodies, twisted amalgamations of bone, teeth, and rotting symbols, screeched and gibbered in languages that never belonged to Earth. The demons snapped and lunged at anything that moved. Blood painted the ground.
But the charge did not slow.
Clef walked in the middle of the holy formation like he had no business being there. With his coat unbuttoned and a stubby revolver half-tucked in his belt, he tossed a glance toward Lina, who was already transforming. Her skin rippled with mutations, her limbs reshaped into weapons of carnal precision. She didn't speak. She didn't need to.
"Told you the end of the world would look religious," Clef muttered with a grin, then activated three stacked devices on his arm. They flared with green and violet light, forming an invisible barrier around him.
Then they ran.
Lina sprinted forward in a blur, faster than any knight. She vaulted over a mound of burning corpses and plunged her blade-arm through a demon the size of a truck, rending it from mouth to spine. Its body shattered like glass infected by meat. The holy charge slammed in behind her.
From every direction, Foundation and GOC agents opened suppressing fire.
Snipers from the coalition perched in broken windows and dropped high-value demonic targets with anti-materiel rounds infused with holy water. Explosives detonated behind enemy lines, disrupting infernal summoning circles.
The Wolves crashed into the front lines next, dozens of them, armored in thick white plates inscribed with Crusader-era iconography, each one moving with inhuman strength and precision. Led by Samuel, they tore into the demonic ranks, hacking down nightmare after nightmare with blades wreathed in holy fire. Shields deflected spines and bile. Warhammers shattered demonic bones.
"Push forward! Do not break ranks!" Samuel shouted, his voice distorted by a helmet lined with Psalms.
Adnan's Shepherd Corps fanned out, intercepting incoming flanks, their polearms slicing through demon spawn trying to encircle the main force. The Scribe Corps behind them weaved defensive miracles, redirecting flames, mending wounds in real time, and purging curses before they could latch.
The street was now a warpath.
The Horizon knights advanced in disciplined waves, crushing the enemy under an avalanche of righteousness. Their formation rotated with calculated precision: wounded pulled back, fresh blades surged forward, and divine strikes landed with relentless rhythm.
"Shield wall, pivot left!" one knight barked.
"Blessings incoming!" cried a Scribe.
Lina was deep in the melee, her mutated body glowing with internal energy. A horned demon the size of a subway car lunged for her. She ducked low, rolled forward, and pierced its skull with a bone spike from her shoulder, riding the corpse down as it collapsed. She landed on her feet and kept running.
Then, the battlefield cracked.
A wave of dark energy pulsed from the Archdemon ahead, a scream of contempt that sent dust flying and made weaker agents falter. One Horizon knight disintegrated mid-step, his armor exploding outward in a spray of gold and blood. But the rest held fast.
"STAND!" the leader of THI bellowed, his blade slamming into the ground.
A dome of golden force erupted around them, deflecting the worst of the Archdemon's wrath. Fire licked at the barrier but did not pass. The path opened, however briefly.
And in that moment, they saw it.
The Archdemon loomed at the far end of the boulevard, hundreds of meters away, surrounded by wings, flame, chains of bone, and entire armies of his lesser kin. He saw them coming. He laughed with mouths that did not match, with eyes that spun like galaxies.
He raised his clawed hand and pointed at the leader.
The Knights did not falter.
"WE MOVE!" the leader roared.
The ground trembled beneath their feet.
At the head of the holy charge, the leader of the Horizon Initiative raised his glowing blade, its white light cutting through the ash-filled sky like a divine beacon. Around him, his last squad of armored knights moved in lockstep, shields raised, swords braced. Lina sprinted alongside them, her body reshaping violently with every breath, forming new weapons of bone and sinew. Clef moved at a relaxed pace just behind her, humming something completely out of place, his shotgun hanging casually in one hand.
They cut a straight path through the battlefield. The wide avenue between crumbling towers and overturned vehicles became a corridor of slaughter. Demons, both towering and insect-like, surged from alleyways and broken subway entrances, shrieking with hatred, only to be ripped apart by sacred steel, Sarkic blades, and Foundation gunfire. The surrounding armies, GOC strike teams and combat units, Shepherd operatives, and Foundation MTFs held the flanks, pressing inward, ensuring the central charge did not falter.
Lina lunged forward and drove an elongated bone spear through the chest of a leaping demon. It screeched and exploded into burning sludge. She didn't stop. She twisted to the side, tore a demonling from the air, and slammed it into the pavement. Behind her, Clef fired once. The shot tore through a pack of four lesser demons with surgical precision.
The leader of the THI remained silent now. He focused, his expression grim beneath his golden helm. Each swing of his blade vaporized monstrosities. The radiant barrier surrounding him flickered under pressure but held. Two knights beside him fell to claws and shrieks, torn from formation, their screams lost in the storm of war.
"Sir Samuel's flank is collapsing!" one of the remaining knights shouted.
"Let it," the leader said, not looking back. "The path is forward."
A massive demon slammed into them, a horned beast taller than a tank. A knight threw himself into its path and was crushed instantly. Before it could attack again, the THI leader leapt high, sword raised overhead, and cleaved the monster in half with a single stroke, a column of light erupting upward into the sky.
They were close now. The battlefield around them changed.
And there it stood.
The Archdemon.
Two hundred meters of flesh, fire, hatred, and madness.
Its wings spanned like veils of smoke and agony. Chains of molten bone hung from its wrists. Dozens of faces, human, demonic, divine, screamed from its chest. Its mouth opened once, and the sound that came forth was neither scream nor roar. It was a storm of despair, and it shattered the windows of every standing building for blocks.
One of the knights vomited blood and collapsed, his helmet cracking. Two others gripped their heads as the pressure of its mere voice cracked their minds.
"Now," the leader of the THI said.
He raised his blade again, and a second wave of light burst from it, shielding his group for just a moment longer.
Lina's body twisted again, blades growing across her back like wings. Clef's smile vanished. He muttered something in another language and reloaded his shotgun.
And then, they charged.
A thousand demons surged forward from the Archdemon's feet, forming a living wall of claws and teeth. The small group met them head-on. A knight was instantly pulled apart, screaming. Another stabbed downward, severing a demon's spine before being ripped backward into the horde. Lina leapt high, slicing downward in a trail of blood and bone. Clef moved forward with cold efficiency, firing into skulls, then smashing his gun like a club when ammo ran dry.
The THI leader fought like a burning sun. His sword carved through five at once, holy fire pouring from every wound he opened. But they were being overwhelmed. Their formation began to bend. They were surrounded now, within sight of the Archdemon itself but it watched silently, unmoving.
The group pushed on. Through burning flesh and dying screams. Through pain and fire and sacred defiance.
Then, the Archdemon began to move.
Its eyes opened one by one, gleaming with a sickly radiance, and in that moment, the entire battlefield paused as if holding its breath.
Then came the flame.
Not fire in any earthly sense, but a wall of cursed inferno, deep black with streaks of void-light, sweeping across the street like a tidal wave of annihilation. Three Foundation agents and a pair of GOC soldiers were incinerated instantly, their bodies reduced to shadows on scorched stone. Two of the surviving knights raised their shields, screaming invocations, and were still blasted backwards, armor melting from their bones.
The Archdemon stepped forward.
Each footfall shattered the ground and birthed fresh waves of heat and corruption. Every movement tore at reality itself. Demonic glyphs floated in the air around its body, pulsing with malice, infecting the minds of those who stared too long.
The leader of the THI stood his ground.
He raised his glowing blade again and leapt, soaring in a streak of holy light toward the monster's chest. With a roar, the Archdemon swung its clawed hand. The blow struck mid-air, light met fire and a thunderous crack tore the air apart. The holy knight was thrown backward, crashing through a ruined building. The shockwave flattened half the street.
Lina didn't hesitate. She sprinted into the breach, her hands morphing into jagged blades, her back covered in bony protrusions like insect wings. She jumped, slashed the demon's shin, leaving a burning gash but the flesh immediately closed, hissing with sulfur.
A tail of black iron shot from the Archdemon's back and impaled a GOC soldier mid-run. His scream stopped abruptly as he was lifted into the air and torn in half. A knight tried to reach his body only to be caught by a second tail and thrown like a ragdoll against the wreckage of a school bus.
The THI leader emerged from the rubble. His golden armor was cracked, scorched, and leaking light. He lifted his blade again, breathing hard. Every step toward the Archdemon was forced, deliberate, like pushing against a collapsing star.
The demon turned toward him.
The glyphs around its head flared red. One of the surviving knights dropped to his knees, screaming uncontrollably, blood pouring from his eyes and mouth as his soul was unraveled.
The leader of the THI launched again.
He flew like a comet, striking the Archdemon's upper arm. His blade carved a deep wound this time, black ichor burst outward like boiling tar, hissing where it landed. The Archdemon snarled, swinging with a flaming chain. It struck the knight across the chest and slammed him into the ground, carving a thirty-meter crater.
He coughed blood, rose shakily, and blocked a second blow, barely.
All around, the battlefield was chaos. THI fighters were locked in melee with demon hulks. Flame met flesh. Light met corruption. Lina ducked under a swing, carved open a demonic neck, then leapt backward as a boulder of cursed fire shattered the ground near her.
Clef moved along the flank now, muttering insults through gritted teeth. His shotgun fired again and again. He reached for a sphere of silver metal on his belt, twisted it once, and tossed it high into the air. A sudden field of silence spread outward, interrupting one of the demon's incantations for only a second.
It was enough.
A few meters away, the THI leader struck again, leaping high, blade in both hands. He buried it deep into the Archdemon's collarbone. A pillar of divine fire erupted from the wound but the demon retaliated instantly. Flames surged up its body and engulfed him. He screamed, a sound torn from his chest not in fear, but in pain and defiance.
Lina roared, her own skin blistering as she charged through the aura. She slammed her claws into the demon's ankle, buying him a second. Clef fired twice at a rune hovering above the demon's shoulder, it cracked, and the curses faded briefly.
The leader fell, burning.
But he rose again.
He stood at the base of the Archdemon now, his armor melted, his skin blistered, his blade dimmed but his eyes still burned with unwavering resolve.
He pointed upward.
And whispered,
"You will fall today, Wicked."
The Archdemon laughed.
And the battle raged on.
The Archdemon's flame dimmed for a heartbeat as it exhaled a foul gust of heat, sweeping dust and blood through the cracked foundations of Midtown. A brief lull, deafening in the absence of screams.
The leader of THI, smoldering and battered but still upright, strode toward Clef.
His heavy boots crunched ash and bone beneath him.
He leaned in close, too weak to raise his voice, and whispered something directly into Clef's ear. Clef's brow furrowed. He listened, silent, then gave a sharp nod.
Without hesitation, he raised his voice through the comms:
"Foundation units, fall back! Now!"
No one questioned him. Through the haze and fire, surviving agents disengaged from battle and pulled back behind the broken tram lines. Lina glanced at him once, teeth bared, then withdrew reluctantly. She knew what was coming.
The battlefield opened like a theater.
At the center stood the Archdemon, wings curled high, chains of flame writhing around its arms. Its presence bled corruption. Symbols of heresy and pain spun above its head, alive with ancient hunger.
And in front of it, alone but not forsaken, stood the leader of the Horizon Initiative.
He drew a second blade, a shorter one, hooked at the edge, engraved with burning verses and crossed both in front of him. Holy fire began to rise from his feet, swirling around his form, healing some of the open wounds by sheer force of faith.
Then he spoke, not loud, but clear, and every knight still standing heard him.
"Brothers. Formation Five. Guard the light."
Ten remaining knights answered as one.
They moved without hesitation, stepping into a circular formation around the field. One by one, they engaged every demon that surged forth from the shadows. Each kill was clean, blessed steel through bone. One knight was torn apart by three lesser fiends, but he dragged two of them down with him, laughing through his blood.
Then the leader charged.
He ran straight into the Archdemon's reach, dodged a flaming tail, and launched upward with a burst of divine energy. His twin blades clashed against the demon's arm, each strike pushing back the massive creature by inches. Sparks and embers exploded from every contact, divine fire meeting cursed flesh.
The Archdemon roared.
A glyph detonated beneath the knight's feet, flinging him back but before he hit the ground, two of his kinghts caught him mid-air with overlapping shields, redirected the impact, and hurled him back upward like a comet.
He landed on the demon's shoulder, plunged both blades into its neck.
Black ichor sprayed across the ruins. The Archdemon shrieked, grabbed at him but the knight dropped, sliding down its back, carving a deep gash along its spine as he went.
A tail whipped toward him, another knight intercepted it with his body and exploded in light, self-destructing to buy his commander a heartbeat.
The THI leader rolled, rose again, and threw his short blade like a spear.
It spun through the air, pierced the demon's upper arm, and burst into a radiant column of light. The limb caught fire from within. For a moment, the demon's arm hung limp, crackling.
The Archdemon retaliated with its chain.
It swung a searing length of fire, striking the ground and carving a twenty-meter trench. The shockwave threw two knights into walls, crumpling them like tin. The leader ducked, then leapt into the air again, his main blade extended, light trailing behind like a burning meteor.
They clashed mid-air.
The Archdemon's clawed hand met blade once more. Fire and light collided in an explosion that cracked the asphalt and shattered windows for four blocks.
The leader screamed a battle cry in a dead language.
The demon shrieked in rage, then chanted an inverted hymn in the tongue of the abyss.
Wings met flame. Shield met tail. Blades met hate.
And the battlefield watched in silence as the heavens and hells warred through the hands of two champions.
But the fight was far from over.
---
Above the broken skyline of New York, a formation of Foundation helicopters cut through the fog like blades through wet paper. The rotors chopped the thick, shimmering clouds of SCP-2911-JP's influence, distorting light and sound into something alien. Through the twisted windows, flashes of crimson fire danced across Midtown, the streets below drowning in chaos, corrupted flesh, and Tartarean flame.
Inside the lead helicopter, Leonard sat in full tactical gear, the matte-black Resh-1 combat suit molded perfectly to his frame. The sigil of the Foundation glinted faintly from his shoulder. He was silent, eyes locked on the hellscape outside.
Graves' personal team was with him, eight hardened operators, each armed with foundation rifles and sidearms, equipped for high-tier reality events. None spoke. Their armor bore the marks of recent combat; some still had streaks of dried ichor, not blood, across their plating.
Léonard radions crackled.
"TA, you see that thing?!" DC's voice cut in, harsh and fast, panic-tinged.
"A archdemon, it just manifested inside the dome!"
Leonard clicked the comms on. His voice was calm, unreadable.
"I saw it. It's tearing through our front lines."
"Yeah, no shit," DC hissed. "I called in reinforcements. Now that all those demons are pulled into the influence zone, we can deploy more assets. Our allies from the Hope System are focusing on civvies, keeping them alive and blind. Thank God the dome pumps out that gas, it's jamming visual and electronic signals from the outside. To the world, this is just a chemical terrorist attack. Explosions, screams, bodies, all blamed on some rogue and very well organized terrorist cell. Typical cover."
"But," he continued, "we've still got a major witness containment problem. People caught glimpses of these hellbeasts, some filmed it before we could respond. I'm going to need Foundation amnestics and brainwashing protocols. Hard quarantine. Gas exposure excuse. It's a bureaucratic nightmare."
Leonard nodded slowly, eyes unmoving.
"Any intel on the Archdemon itself?" asked DC.
"Some," Leonard replied. "According to my subordinates, the thing is a CEO from some company in Hell. They think its summoning was done by a high-ranked Insurgent… possibly the Chaos Insurgency's leader himself. The ritual was probably accelerated by the concentration of the Sin of Greed in the zone due to the concentration of capitalists and businessman in said area, It fueled Tartarean energy. There may even be a pact involved."
There was a pause.
"Wonderful," DC muttered. "Fucking demons with business cards. Anyway, good news, the Holy Order of Knights Templar, Reformed and the Confraternity of Saint George's Knights are inbound. They're moving with the Army of Divine Revelation from the Horizon Initiative."
"What's their objective?" Leonard asked.
"From what I got, they're planning to consecrate a Divine Sanctuary inside the dome. Seal the Archdemon inside and rip it out of our dimension permanently. But the THI leader's buying us time, he's actually holding the line."
Leonard's eyes narrowed.
"Good. I'm heading into the dome."
A beat of silence.
"…Why?!" DC's voice spiked. "You're not on the op sheet!"
Leonard realized his slip. He couldn't tell the truth. Not here. Not now.
He couldn't tell DC that a Supreme Divinity was inside the dome, something so incomprehensibly dangerous that even knowing it existed could be fatal. Especially the kind that kills anyone who becomes aware of it the self-concealing kind like a certain cosmic starfish. There were names you didn't speak. Shapes you didn't look at. Beings you didn't acknowledge.
So he lied.
"I want to kill that Chaos Insurgency bastard with my own hands."
DC didn't hesitate.
"Fine. Just make the prick suffer for me."
Leonard smirked slightly.
"Wouldn't dream of doing otherwise."
Below them, the flames surged higher. The echo of unearthly screams rose into the sky. And at the heart of Midtown, where the dome was thickest and the night deepest, the Archdemon waited, fire dripping from its horns, blood soaking the concrete beneath it.
Leonard adjusted his harness.
"Prepare to drop."
---
The air within the dome burned with a pressure unnatural to Earth. Light itself warped and twisted, refracted through sheets of heat and malevolent will. The ground cracked under every step the Archdemon took, a mountainous beast of flame, metal, and wrath. Its horns curved like broken towers, its wings dragging trails of molten ichor as they spread wide. Flames erupted from its joints. Every breath was a furnace.
Standing before it was the leader of the Horizon Initiative.
Around them, the holy knights held the perimeter like a bulwark. Their formation had tightened, circular, reinforced by overlapping lines of sight. No demon passed. Every snarling beast that approached was met by blades, shells, or evaporated by coordinated Holy Water jets. Combat chants rose into the sulfur-thick air, forming a weave of counter-entropy thaumaturgy that slowed demonic regeneration and dampened flame-based assaults.
A shadow passed overhead, then a missile streaked from the sky and slammed into the Archdemon's shoulder. The explosion sent up a geyser of smoke and sparks. Flesh and armor tore away.
The Archdemon stumbled but roared.
It did not fall.
Instead, it turned its entire body and swung its molten tail, a whip of flesh and metal that carved through the air and shattered a nearby building into ash and cinders.
The THI leader didn't flinch.
He raised one hand. The glyphs along his vambrace flared golden, and a divine shield shimmered around him, absorbing the raining debris, the burst of heat, and the wave of unholy force.
Then he charged.
His boots cracked the burning concrete, every step echoing with divine pressure. As he closed in, the Archdemon reared back and vomited a torrent of black fire, flames that shrieked, corrupted, cursed.
The knight raised his sword, spun it once, then slammed it into the ground.
A radiant circle bloomed outward, a akiva field, the black fire stopped mid-air, then collapsed inward, consumed by holy energy.
He leapt.
Mid-air, he spun, bringing the full weight of the sword down in a single strike. The blade landed with a boom of divine thunder, cleaving across the Archdemon's chest. Sparks and ichor sprayed outward.
The Archdemon howled.
In retaliation, its hand surged forward, claws extended, massive, curved talons drenched in flame and hellish scripture. The leader twisted in mid-air, slashing upward with a blinding arc. Steel met claws.
A shockwave tore through the area, leveling nearby cars and half-toppled structures.
He landed hard, but without breaking stance. The Archdemon stumbled, its hand gashed, burning holy.
Another rocket-propelled grenade soared from the edge of the perimeter, this one silver-infused. It struck the Archdemon's thigh and detonated in a blinding pillar of light.
A second support knight shouted something in Latin and fired a shoulder-mounted bolter, sending explosive fragmentation rounds into an encroaching demon swarm. The other knights cut down anything that drew close, blades swinging with discipline sharpened over centuries of sacred warfare.
The THI leader pressed the assault.
He whispered a prayer under his breath and the words themselves twisted the atmosphere, displacing sulfur with ozone. His next strike ignited in white-blue flames, hotter than anything the Archdemon had conjured. The sword sank into its side.
But the beast did not die.
It grabbed him mid-motion, one clawed hand wrapping around his body like a steel trap. Then, with a roar from the depths of Hell itself, it slammed him through a sword, the vehicle folding like paper. A shockwave flattened two holy knights and scattered rubble across the square.
The THI leader struggled but instead of resisting, he uttered a single name.
A divine backlash erupted point-blank.
The Archdemon reeled, screeching, clutching its face as if blinded and the THI leader tumbled back, landing on his knees, blood dripping from his armor, cracked at the chestplate.
He rose again.
One of his knights ran toward him, raising a glowing vial. He shook his head, waved the man back, and readied his sword once more.
He was bruised. Bleeding. Cursed.
But not broken.
The Archdemon snarled. Black smoke erupted from its body and dozens of hellspawned Imps burst forth, small creatures of claw and fire that surged toward the line of holy defenders.
The knights shouted in unison.
"NO PASARÁN!"
And they held.
The battlefield had erupted into chaos, flames and curses streaking through the air like falling stars. The leader of THI, his armor scorched and dented, drove his sword into the chest of a horned demon and turned to face the Archdemon again. Every step forward was a storm of blood and death, his knights thinning under the monstrous fury of their opponent.
Then, everything froze.
Not literally, flames still burned, bullets still screamed but the Archdemon had stopped moving.
Its blazing gaze locked suddenly onto a single point in the chaos. A direction. A presence.
Lina felt it before she saw it, a cold sensation down her spine, like the silence that comes before something dangerous awakens.
She spun around.
A group of figures was walking casually through the battlefield, completely untouched. Each of them wore advanced suits that shimmered unnaturally in the firelight. The way they moved was unnatural, silent, focused, lethal. They walked through ranks of stunned fighters from THI, the GOC, and the Foundation, who stared wide-eyed. No one had seen them arrive. No one had heard a sound.
Lina's eyes widened.
Resh-1 "Seat of Consciousness."
But that wasn't what made her freeze.
At the center of the formation… was it.
A humanoid figure made entirely of shadows, shifting like smoke, yet clearly shaped like a man. Two blindingly white eyes shone from the darkness of its face, and they locked onto Lina.
Her body screamed in instinct. Her heartbeat faltered.
The shadow… smiled. "It's a pleasure to see you again, SCP-8888."
Her throat dried. Her limbs tensed. "D-Do I know you…?"
The figure halted mid-step. The smile on his face was as inhumanly white as his eyes.
"Oh. My bad. I forgot… you can't recognize me like this.
I'm the Administrator."
Lina snapped to attention, despite the chaos. Her heart pounded like a war drum.
"Sir!"
The Administrator tilted his head slightly. "Have you seen Dr. Clef?"
A rumble came from beneath a heap of rubble and broken bodies.
"I think you're looking for me, Boss," came Clef's voice, disheveled but cocky.
Around him, the Resh-1 operators tightened their grips, their weapons humming subtly. Even through the helmets, their disdain for the casual tone was clear. Clef didn't flinch.
The Administrator simply nodded. "Follow me. We have a crisis to resolve."
"Yes, Boss."
And then they walked.
Through the battlefield, as if they owned it.
Every demon froze. Even those in the middle of a killing frenzy. They moved aside, instinctively aware that something older and stronger had entered the field. No one dared challenge them.
Through broken ruins, fire-lit rubble, and the remains of twisted creatures, the Administrator and his group walked until they reached the flames surrounding the Empire State Building, flames conjured by the Archdemon's own magic.
One of the Resh-1 operators raised a gloved hand and snapped his fingers.
The flames vanished. Instantly. As if they'd never existed.
Then the Administrator snapped his own fingers.
A large detachment of Resh-1 rushed forward, their movements fluid and impossibly fast, disappearing into the tower's broken lower levels like ink vanishing into water.
The remaining ten operators, along with the Administrator and Clef, rose into the air. They floated silently, lifting higher and higher toward the ruined rooftop, untouched by the wind or fire.
Then, the Archdemon roared.
A sound of fury and disbelief that shook the heavens and cracked the streets. It was not rage at a challenge, it was rage at being ignored.
It thrust its massive hand toward the floating group, flames spiraling into a storm of destructive hellfire. A miniature sun roared through the sky toward the Administrator.
One of the Resh-1 operatives raised his arm.
The flames twisted in mid-air and flowed into his palm, like a whirlpool collapsing into a single drain. The air sizzled and then, silence. The fire was gone.
Then the operator pointed the same hand toward the Archdemon.
And snapped.
An instant later, an immense hellfire erupted from the Archdemon's own arm, the same arm it had used to attack.
The beast's shriek was earth-shattering. Its charred flesh cracked and hissed under the power of its own magic.
It didn't hesitate. In a savage act of desperation, the Archdemon raised its blade with its other arm and severed the burning limb. It crashed into the battlefield below, crushing dozens of lesser demons and igniting them like dry leaves.
The Archdemon glared into the sky.
Its eyes filled with pure hatred. But it didn't move. It didn't dare.
Below, the leader of THI stared up in disbelief, rage burning in his eyes as the Administrator and his entourage ascended without resistance.
"Fucking hell," he muttered through his teeth. "He just showed up to aura farm, that asshole…"
---
Leonard floated toward the top of the Empire State Building, surrounded by Clef, Graves, and the remaining Resh-1 operators. Silent, controlled, and unwavering in their path through the smoke and charred air, the group rose like wraiths above the battlefield.
What remained of the observation deck barely resembled its original state. Entire floors had collapsed inward; jagged steel beams pierced through shattered concrete. Above them, at the very top floor, a massive red cocoon pulsed and shimmered like a living heart stitched into the bones of the tower.
Leonard turned to Graves, his voice sharp and absolute.
"Graves. Take Clef and your squad. Clear every floor below. Don't stop until I'm done with the bastard upstairs."
Graves stepped forward immediately. "Boss, it's too dangerous. Let me come with you."
Leonard's eyes didn't waver. "Out of the question. There's a Supreme Divinity present. I can feel it. Only a Supreme Divinity can fight another. We can't afford collateral."
Silence fell for a moment. Graves clenched his fists. His jaw tightened. "Understood, boss. But if you're even close to death, we're coming. No matter what."
Clef let out a low whistle, standing with arms casually crossed.
"Wow. An operator of Resh-1, publicly threatening to disobey the Administrator, in front of the Administrator. That's one for the history books."
The group turned cold. Eyes like blades turned toward Clef, all except Leonard's. Clef smirked, unbothered, and gave a mock salute.
Leonard simply reached to his side and summoned the lyre, SCP-4112. Fingers moved with a memory not entirely his own. Music filled the air like vibrating strings of energy, and Leonard floated upward through the twisted framework of the ruined spire.
Behind him, the others crashed through the remaining glass and vanished into the abyss of the lower floors.
Leonard ascended.
The observatory came into full view. Or rather, its remains. The floor was half-collapsed, twisted into irregular geometry by both fire and thaumaturgy. Shattered glass crunched underfoot. Shadows writhed unnaturally across the surfaces. The pulse of the red cocoon above them echoed like a second heartbeat.
In the middle of the broken chamber stood a man in a long, blood-stained coat. Tall. His back straight. Eyes like pits of coal burning silently in the dark. His aura crushed the space around him like invisible gravity.
Leonard hovered in place, locking eyes with him. The aura of the Administrator shimmered faintly around him, holding back the suffocating presence.
Then, within Leonard's mind, a voice echoed. Familiar. Absolute.
"I can now confirm.
This man holds a fragment of a Supreme Divinity."