From deep within the recesses of the Earth, tendrils of crimson vines spun out to the surface. No one on the face of Earth could see them, but the nodes at the top spewed forth energy from the underworld and took new energy back into the vines in an endless cycle of exchange. At the center of this root system lay a woman, with black hair and red eyes. She fed off the vines, sampling the energy from each root, getting stock of all the life and commotion above. She would then direct the flow of energy to vines which needed it, keeping all things in balance. The woman was not a parasitic drain on the system, she was its conductor. She has gone by many names, but the one she was most fond of was Jessamine.
Jessamine was not supposed to be the conductor. That supposedly sacred duty was performed 3 billion years ago by an ancient titan, who now was dead. Her corpse was used by the Seraphim who slew her to make a large mountain range in the Southern Hemisphere. For the last few billion years this enviable job was passed off to the lesser angels, rotating between individual celestial beings every million years or so. If no one handles this job, eventually all the energy on Earth will concentrate at its center and would probably cause all of reality to disintegrate into a singularity. Despite its importance, the head angels of the universe believed it was, per official decree by the Council, “Not Our Job” even though it was they who made it a problem in the first place. Hence, the duty was pushed off to women totally untrained in this task. Jessamine was halfway through her assignment. Jessamine is a Luminary. Her real job is to know things, absorb and retain knowledge of everything, even forbidden secrets that Seraphim don’t know. Once mortals came about around 1 billion years ago, she was to subtly influence mortals with inspiration and dreams to either push them to divine truths or away towards madness, whichever she was asked to do. She was not trained to move bits of energy around tubes constantly. Already fed up with the Council and their arrogant self-regard, being drafted into this job was the final straw for the celestial. But revenge against gods is tough, even when one is a god herself.
Luckily, being trapped down in the dirt for 500,000 years gives a woman time and space to think. By year 50,000, Jessamine had formulated a plan. By year 100,000, she was slowly implementing that plan. Through manipulating the energy flow in subtle, small ways, she can concentrate small amounts in herself safely and without anyone noticing. In a hundred thousand years, she was able to exercise that power to visit humans in dreams. Not her visage, but she could influence the progression of them and their character. This could still have an impact. Give a priest nightmares about his congregants and he’ll snap and kill some of them, damaging the Temple’s oh-so-important reputation. Produce a deep-seated fear of angels among popular movie stars so they talk about it. Normalize aversion to the idea of an angel. It didn’t happen overnight, but Jessamine slowly atrophied faith in the celestials above Earth without them even realizing or caring.
Now, it’s been 256,789 years since her assignment began. By this point, she can influence millions at a time. Humans have only been around for a few hundred thousand years, but now they swarmed Earth, far more than the other mortals who once inhabited the surface eons ago. Through their dreams she feeds off the mortals directly, their fear and anguish from the terrors she subjects them to empowering her still. She can break free from the roots and leave, using some of her power to direct flow between vines automatically, an innovation she developed 50,000 years ago but neglected to share. When I kill the Seraphim, I’ll rule the heavens. No one else will have to do this shitty job anymore, the angel thought.
Jessamine used her endless downtime to think about what to do with the mortals, too. She had over the course of her preparation realized their immense potential as a source of power. Individually, none of them mattered. They were less than dust to her. But as a group, there were just so many that a great deal of the universe’s energy was tied up in their minds. Their silly, pointless thoughts take up quite a bit of psionic energy. To harvest this (all thought, not just fear) was obviously a way to gain power, but even better is to farm them. Take control of them and nourish their minds. Elevate them and their ability to do things, make things, discover things. Make them want more and let their silly little brains overthink. For instance, she observed a rather curious effect whereby a mortal finds herself wanting something, and the moment she gets it, she immediately agonizes over whether it really is enough for her to feel satisfied. Inevitably, she’ll up wanting more, and she knows this will happen yet she agonizes over it all the same. Such a massive effort of thought over something so fleeting and insignificant. To harness this power was tantalizing for a divine being like Jessamine. And she had been doing exactly that for millennia.
A Seraphim that went rogue would likely have just killed off all the mortals, since they can be unpredictable and flighty. It was this shortsightedness that Jessamine will use to crush her overlords. Then, she will reign for eternity, keeping the mortals as a protected, infinite source of delicious, dynamic energy. And she would treat her pets well, ensuring all had plentiful food, security, health, electricity. They would love her, and worship her for it.
Jessamine focused for a few years on directing the energy, relishing in the fantasy of controlling everything, when suddenly she felt a presence trying to reach her. Only a few ever bothered these days, and she already knew who this person was.
“Ylagog. Can you hear me?”
A voice came from one of the vines, a little muddled but loud enough for Jessamine to hear, “Yes, I can, Jess. Keeping up?”
Jessamine chortled, “Well enough, I suppose. How’s the unfolding of divine knowledge?”
A chuckle came through the vine, “Barely doing any of it, lately. Breonna keeps jutting in to re-direct me every time I see a mortal with talent. I just want them to travel to space already! We were supposed to get them out there fifty years ago!”
“Yeah that sounds like her,” Breonna was as conniving as they come, and was undoubtedly wasting Ylagog’s time to make Sophia look bad to the rest of the Council. “Maybe one day Sophia will get off her lazy ass and finally behead that witch,” Jessamine imagined the scene with satisfaction.
“Well, funny you mention Sophia. I’m not just making a social call. I’m here to warn you. I think they know.”
Jessamine’s heart lurched. I’m not ready. “Are you sure?” She asked, warily.
A brief pause on the vine was followed by, “I overheard Sophia and Breonna talking a little bit ago. Your name came up. So did talk of nightmares and accounting errors for energy flow from the last 100,000 years. They’re at least at the stage of asking questions about your activities. And just now, I saw Sophia went to the mortal realm. She hasn’t gone there in 18,000 years!”
The Luminary grimaced, knowing the jig was up. It’s now, or never. She asked her old friend, “If she went, then she knows I’m up to something. Where has she landed?”
“Peshrim”
-
Getting Sophia out of the revolving door was a bit of a challenge for Amelia. The woman went through behind her, but decided to just run around it like a hamster on a wheel for a minute or so, hollering with gleeful abandon. Eventually, she stepped out, showing no signs of nausea. “Ahh… so much fun! You mort- I mean Peshrimites ought to put these things in every building you have!”
Amelia chuckled at that thought, “Yeah I guess that’d make going to the bar more interesting. Are you sure you don’t need to sit down or anything? That was a lot of spinning.”
“Oh, you are so considerate! I’m fine, thank you. Now, where is--”
The blonde woman stopped her sentence, her joy vanished from her face as she looked around frantically. “She’s here,” she spoke low, almost a growl.
Amelia was concerned, “Who? Who’s here, Sophia?”
Sophia could not respond to the question because the entire city began to shake. Earthquakes weren’t common in this part of the country so people broke out in panic. Sophia stayed fully upright, looking up at a point in the sky. Amelia looked at her as she held onto a parking meter, hoping no debris from the bank building finds their way to the street below.
“HAHAHAHA” The laugh, booming and maniacal, rung out in everyone’s mind. Amelia looked up to where Sophia gazed and nearly vomited on the street. Slowly, a naked woman appeared. Nearly a mile tall, she dwarfed even the largest skyscraper in the city. The laughs streamed from her as she slowly descended onto a small neighborhood. Amelia screamed as she heard the unmistakable sound of buildings collapsing into rubble. The woman had just crushed a part of the city!
“Hello, Sophia! I know you’re here! Let’s see who’s really the strongest now!”
Amelia shot a look of disbelief at Sophia, who for her part wore a face of fury. “Sophia, is she addressing you? What are you?”
The short woman didn’t break her gaze at the massive black-haired woman, “I am an old associate of hers. Her name is Jessamine. She is a danger to you and all the mortals here.”
Amelia thought she was still dreaming. Mortals? Is she not a mortal?
Jessamine prevented further questioning as she violently threw out her left foot like she was kicking a football. Her toes barreled over a row of high-rise apartments, undoubtedly killing hundreds, if not thousands, of people in a single movement. Amelia slapped herself to try and awake from the nightmare, but no relief came. This was real.
Jessamine laughed once more, drowning out the screams and sirens near the buildings she demolished. “Come and see, Sophia! See what you abandoned!”
Amelia wanted to run inside and cower, “W-what are you going to do?”
Sophia locked eyes with Amelia, “I’ll deal with her. You offer help wherever it is needed. Mother light your path, Amelia.”
Amelia nodded, the archaic blessing offered a bit of comfortable stability to assuage her terror, “Mother guide your steps, Sophia,” she responded in the traditional way.
Sophia rolled her shoulders and spoke forcefully, “Stand back.”
Amelia’s body complied with the order before her mind could process it, as though Sophia had taken control of her legs. She watched as the unassuming blonde woman began to get taller. Her black suit shimmered and disappeared, turning into a white tunic that ended at the knees. On top, she had a bronze breastplate adorned with runes. Brown sandals cushioned her bare feet and grew along with her. The tunic revealed that the woman was lean and strong, her thighs thick with muscle, with broad shoulders and developed biceps. Sophia grew and grew until she reached nearly five stories tall, whereupon she held up her hand and shouted, “H’EREV!” Her voice nearly popped Amelia’s eardrums, the windows of cars nearby shattered. A sword, the hilt as gold as the hair of the woman wielding it, appeared. It’s blade glistened and suddenly caught flame. Sophia lowered the sword to her waist, then crouched to the ground. Amelia ducked, her senses telling her something violent was about to transpire. Wings, the span of a ferry, emerged from the giant woman’s back. They’re real. She’s an angel! Amelia was transfixed by the divine figure before her, but she could only admire the warrior of light for so long, as Sophia suddenly launched into the air, the shockwave made from her takeoff sending Amelia to her back. As the winged figure flew straight towards the titan above, Amelia took stock of those around her. Panicked humans, cowering inside or behind cars, all looked up at the raven-haired woman who crushed the neighboring block. Spying an old man who had clearly hit his head in the commotion, Amelia ran over, calling for a medic. She said to help. Who am I to disobey?
-
Sophia ascended towards Jessamine, the demoness now having revealed herself. She does not wield a weapon, Sophia noted. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter if she only used magic. Sophia was certain she could kill this insolent lesser angel no matter her abilities. But still, Sophia wanted to say she killed Jessamine while she had something dangerous. Eons of training and I never get a real fight. At least she’s big enough to be a bit of a challenge. Sophia formulated a straightforward attack plan: run the giant through with her flaming sword. Confidence surging, she flew straight at Jessamine’s chest, the tip of the sword aimed right at her heart.
SLAM
A pale wall of flesh stopped all of Sophia’s momentum, and she found herself tumbling down to the streets below. Her mighty sword flung from her hands, landing tip first in a row of apartments, the buildings nearby engulfed in pure flame. The angel herself crashed in another row of buildings, a cluster of high-end boutique shops in the wealthiest part of the city. She felt dozens of people turn to paste under her body. Damn. I’m supposed to minimize damage! The council is not going to be happy.
Sophia stood as she heard a booming laugh. “That’s your plan, little bird? I’m the size of a mountain and you think you’ll just shank me?” Jessamine was staring straight at the angel, wearing an expression of smug amusement. “Tormenting the mortals is fun and all, but I’m glad you inferior celestial beings are joining in, too!” She took a step forward, crushing another row of buildings. “I’m far beyond you now. Your ilk have no power in this realm!” Jessamine raised her hand as a dark ball began to form next to her. Sophia’s heart lurched as she realized what the ball was made of: mortals! The dark angel flicked her wrist up and caused the ball to launch forward. It was aimed straight towards Sophia! Sophia held her hand out and called her sword again. The massive blade flung from its landing spot, slicing more buildings in its wake as it returned to its master. Blade in hand, Sophia planted a foot on the broken street in front of her and braced. She swung right as the wad of mortals reached her. The fiery sword cleanly cut the ball in half, tearing hundreds of people in two and setting more alight as the survivors splattered to the sides of the angel. Her robes, already damaged by the giant’s smack, now were speckled with gore. Jessamine’s smirk dropped, clearly not expecting Sophia to so cleanly block her attack.
I need to get closer, Sophia thought. Placing her palms together, she concentrated on Jessamine’s form. She paid mind particularly to where in the city she was. With a burst of energy, Sophia teleported to the block behind the demoness, the force of the teleportation shredding the nearby buildings. Hundreds were buried in rubble or torn to bits by the shockwave. Sophia didn’t pay them much mind; rather, she produced her sword and tried a more magical strategy. Uttering dreadful words in the language of the angels, she summoned great shards of ice and launched them into the giant woman’s ankles and feet. Jessamine had turned around by this point, and the icy spikes shattered on her toes and skin. What? That should have impaled her! Jessamine laughed maniacally, “HAH! Think I wouldn’t expect your magic? Silly little Seraphim, you have no idea of true magic!” She snapped her fingers, and the ice spikes rematerialized, suddenly shooting backwards toward Sophia. Bringing her sword up, she engaged in a flurry of superhuman parries, just barely able to break the spears and stop her from being skewered. Unharmed but clearly shaken, Sophia once again took to the sky, lobbing magical element after element at the dark-haired demon, but to no avail. Fire, light, ice, earth, nothing worked. The giant just threw everything back, Sophia pushing the limits of her ability to dodge just to stay breathing (her equivalent of breathing, at least).
Eventually, Jessamine seemed to tire of Sophia’s pathetic attempts at resistance. She taunted the angel, “Look. I can pester, too,” and pointed her index finger. A beam of dark purple emerged from the finger, striking Sophia right in the chest. She flew back, flattening buildings as she skidded on her ass over two blocks. Jessamine kept firing the beam, a fixture of pure death energy, pinning Sophia down, slowly disintegrating the breastplate. Running out of time, Sophia racked her brain trying to find some weakness. She can block my attacks. She has to be using her own energy as a shield. If I can find what form her main reserves are, I can nullify them. Sophia felt the breastplate begin to dent, the straps on the side coming loose. A Seraphim is fearless, but she understood that if she were mortal she might be afraid right now. That’s it! Sophia felt the city, felt the minds of its inhabitants. Though she couldn’t read them this way, she could feel thoughts and emotions tumbling out of them in a messy soup of psychic signals. That’s her power. Mortal minds! She uttered an old spell, and a trickle of light emerged from her head. Slowly, little lights popped from the heads of nearby mortals, their thoughts and emotions leaving their minds and traveling to her. She felt everything, now reading their thoughts, emotions, every reaction to the present moment, all at once. It was almost too much to bear, even for her. But soon, the energy was topped off, and she screamed, unleashing the psychic energy at Jessamine just as her mighty breastplate shattered from the assault. The blast of energy struck Jessamine before she could step out of the way. Losing her balance, the Luminary fell over, crushing nearly a quarter of the city in an instant as her backside crashed into the Earth. She quickly recovered, her stomach covered in burns and her back scratched up. Her defenses were down.
There. Now, time for a real fight, Luminary.
Sophia launched into the air, her beating wings generating gale force winds that blew away cars nearby. She charged Jessamine again. Sophia banked left, and Jessamine moved to intercept her. Lightning! The angel sprung her trap. The titan twisted as she prepared another powerful slap when suddenly she was struck in the back by a massive thunderbolt. The jolt stunning her, she offered no resistance as the comparatively small woman took a sharp turn right and dug her sword deep into the giant’s thigh. Riding her momentum, Sophia dragged the flaming sword up to cut a 400 foot gash in the demon, void-colored blood spewing forth onto the ruined street below. “AHHHHH!” Jessamine screamed, the shout so powerful it knocked over the already weak buildings nearby. Her massive hands descended to the wound, desperately trying to staunch the bleed. Pulling the blade out, Sophia tried to fly out of the way but was clipped on the wing by the giant’s hand. Losing stability, she tumbled down to the block she launched from, miraculously landing on her feet. There she spied Amelia, organizing a first aid station just outside the lobby of the bank she met her outside of. That’s a good mortal! Her admiration for the Samaritan was brief, as the titan behind her growled, “BITCH. You didn’t care about these mortals at all before me! You can’t have them!” She limped over to the nearby downtown, letting her hands free of the wound, blood gushing from the thigh drowned the mortals below her. Bending down, she ripped a skyscraper from its foundation. Holding it in one hand like a javelin, she aimed at the angel and threw. The massive building grew larger and larger in Sophia’s eyes as she realized she didn’t have time to dodge it. Rushing over to Amelia, she hunched over her and the other mortals, wrapping her wings around them. Speaking a prayer in the ancient language, a white bubble surrounded them, filling the mortals with an unnatural sense of warmth. Sophia closed her eyes and focused.
CRASH
Dust and fire enveloped the entire block as the skyscraper smashed into the ground. The bubble flexed and warped as debris struck it, but nothing penetrated. The humans all screamed in terror, but they were safe. As the debris settled, Sophia let the bubble dissipate, seeing the dust rush in. “Do not be afraid. I will take you all to safety,” she tried to comfort the terrified people below, but their fear surged even higher as a shadow cast over them. Jessamine, returning from downtown, brought her leg up and hovered her foot over the street. Sophia reached for Amelia and dodged away just as the giant woman’s toes smashed right on top of where they cowered. The other humans were popped into red mist under the pads of the demoness. Jessamine, her face scrunched with pain, looked wildly at the warrior angel. She let out a cry of frustration mixed with agony. Rather than continue to try and crush her, however, she simply stood up straight, blood still surging out from her thigh, and floated again, her hands clasped together. Not here. You’ll kill them all! Jessamine shouted an incantation, her words slurred and slow. Static built up around them, the air took on a smell of ozone. Sophia again brought her shield up, wrapping Amelia tightly against her collarbone, as Jessamine disappeared in a massive boom, a violent shockwave emerging from where she floated. The explosion ripped through the city, disintegrating buildings and shredding streets down the bedrock. Sophia crouched, trying to comfort the terrified woman in her hands as she witnessed the utter destruction of proud city of Peshrim. Just as quickly as it started, the chaos ended. There was nothing but rubble and smoke.