Tarja stood at the pulpit watching as this thing, whatever it was, tore through her congregation like rice paper. It killed seemingly without thought or hesitation, the little lives snuffed out in its hands meaning nothing to it.

It had been less than a minute since it broke in the doors, and already Tarja could see that the dead outnumbered the living.

She watched unable to help as a few of her flock charged it with weapons they had taken from old suits of armor the Magdalenes had salvaged from a building on the other side of town.

She watched as a man she had known for ten years had his throat crushed with a careless hand. She wondered if he blamed her for what was happening. It was her fault after all, the moment it called for Cade she knew it was her fault. It was her fault it had come here, her fault that these people were here when it came, and her fault they were all dying now.

As Tarja watched the carnage, she saw something she hadn’t expected. Vijay was standing behind the monster, a rusty old sword held in both hands, its tip pointed directly at the monster’s spine.

She wanted to call out to Vijay, tell him to run, tell him to just drop the sword and get out of there. She wanted to say these things, but the words wouldn’t come. Instead she watched in mute horror, unable to do anything to stop what was about to happen.

Vijay lunged forward, his blade sinking to the hilt in the monster’s back. In that moment, Tarja could see all his rage boiling to the surface, all the nights he went hungry, all the times when those who should have cared ignored him, or worse still beat him. Tarja saw all the moments when he tried to fight back and failed. All of it was clear on his face as he drove that blade home, and for a moment, Tarja allowed herself to hope, to hope against hope that this blow would bring down the beast, but only for a moment, that was all the monster allowed her. “God judges the righteous, and he is angry with the wicked. He will whet his sword, he has bent his bow and made it ready, the instrument of your death.” Though the sound came from all the speakers in the room, Tarja knew the monster’s words could only be for one person.

“hold on to the sword Vijay,” Tarja whispered, “Hold onto it, it’s your only chance.”

Vijay didn’t though, perhaps believing he had dealt a killing blow, or perhaps he just couldn’t hold on as the monster turned Tarja didn’t know,  but before Tarja could blink, the monster was facing Vijay, looking down on him with those red eyes so filled with hate.

“The wrath of God is revealed from heaven… Against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.”

The monster reached down to Vijay. To Tarja it seemed to take an eon but was only an instant. Lifting the boy into the air, it seemed to consider him, as if it had never encountered anything like him before.

Vijay didn’t struggle, he didn’t try and fight, it was as if all his fight was in that one swordthrust, and that being done, so was he. Vijay looked into the monster’s eyes, meeting that hateful glare and seemed to accept the death it promised.  

Tarja didn’t want to watch what happened next, but she couldn’t look away. One moment the monster’s hand was resting at its side, the next it was protruding out from Vijay’s back.

Tarja had to blink away tears as the monster let Vijay fall to the ground. To it, Vijay’s life meant nothing, to it he was just one more person who was not Cade. There were likely only two people who Vijay had ever meant anything too, and Tarja doubted either would ever have the opportunity to mourn his all too short life.

The monster pulled Vijay’s sword from his back, a thick green liquid clinging to the blade as he did. No sooner was the sword out, than the wound began to seal together, the jagged ends of flesh growing back together as Tarja watched.

“Priestess, Priestess, Run,” Tarja almost didn’t hear the words over all the other sounds. Somehow Vijay was still alive. He was lying where the monster had dropped him, and he was trying to pull himself in her direction. Tarja focussed on his face, it was easier than seeing what was being left behind as Vijay crawled slowly to her.

“Run!” Vijay cried one more time before he went still.

Behind Vijay, oblivious to his last efforts The monster examined the sword that had so recently been embedded in its frame.

seeming to have made up its mind, the monster held the sword by the blade and threw, at first Tarja thought it was throwing the sword at her, as it hurtled end over end, but soon it became clear that its target was behind her.

Tarja turned in time to see the blade embed itself in the huge metal cross that hung on the wall, and acted as figurehead, and antenna for what networked technology the church had managed to assemble.

Sparks rained down as the blade hit home. the cross shuddered for a moment, its cables straining, and snapping, and then fell, bits of metal and wire rained down all around Tarja.

Somewhere something was burning, Tarja had not seen what had started the blaze, but she could smell the smoke, and feel the heat.

Maybe it was the cross falling, maybe it was Vijay’s last words, maybe it was the first glimpse of flame creeping up over one of the pues, but something in Tarja remembered she had a duty, and it was not to stand here and die, as much as she wished to at that moment.

She hurried down the halls and staircases, down to the security door to the server room. She placed her palm on the reader, and the heavy steel doors yawned open. She ran inside, closing and locking it behind her. She ran down the stairs, down into the ice-cold room. The blue glow of the server’s holographic display illuminated her breath. She punched in an emergency access code, something that would upload their database to the other Magdalenes’ encampments before destroying the servers in the room. All the data on them would be destroyed to prevent any evil from getting its hands on it. A progress bar crept across the screen. The smell of smoke from the church above, began to fill the room, despite the pressure sealed door, and Tarja began to cough as her lungs filled with the choking cloud.

There was the sound of screeching metal, Tarja didn’t need to turn around to know that the monster had followed her. Tarja knew what she had to do, she needed to hold the monster off long enough for her server to finish the upload, but how she was going to do this, she had no idea.

From the sound of it, it was only moments from breaking through the door, and once it did, Tarja would prove little obstacle to its rampage.

Tarja turned back to the servers, she had to work fast, there would never be enough time to upload it all, not nearly. The thought of all that knowledge being lost cut her as deeply as the deaths upstairs did, but just as she could do nothing for them, there was nothing she could do about this.

As the screeching grew louder, Tarja quickly started removing packets of information that was incomplete got removed, the texts of books was given priority only second to what Cade had given her. her work done, as best she could given the time she had, Tarja turned to the security door, and waitted. In front of her, the door wrapped and screeched as the monster bowed it in, behind her the server hummed as it uploaded years of research to the servers of the other Magdalenes, and in the middle Tarja waited, waited for a death that was inevitable.

When the door finally came in, with a deafening clang, Tarja was ready. She met those horrible red eyes unblinking, like young Vijay had done just minutes before.   ,The monster only met her eyes for a moment, before casually flinging her casually aside, The only reason Tarja survived was that the monster’s attention seemed to be fixed on the banks of servers.

It reached out its hand to the bank of servers. All across their displays Tarja saw an odd symbol appear, it was a Pentagram, encircled by a single Helix.

Tarja might not know what the symbol was, but she had no doubt what it meant, the monster was in her server.

“Farewell, hope, and with hope, farewell, fear.”

The monster seemed to be looking for something specific, and given its earlier demand to know where Cade was, Tarja had a good idea what it was, But it didn’t matter anymore. Tarja smiled to herself as one by one the rack of servers began to erupt in sparks and smoke, and the progress bar vanished from what displays were still active.

“Looks like neither of us gets what we want.” Tarja said, pulling herself up to a sitting position.

 “By proof we feel our power sufficient to disturb his heaven, and with perpetual inroads to alarm, though inaccessible, his fatal throne: which, if not victory… is yet revenge.” The monster’s voice started to break up, as the systems it was using to speak continued to fail. but even so, it’s angre still came through clear.

“A good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.” Tarja didn’t know why she said it, the words just came out. The monster looked over at her, seeming to remember her existence now that his goal was out of reach.

Tarja was delirious; she had to be. It was the only thing that made sense. Up in the cathedral, she had sworn this monster had been quoting the Bible. Now down in a burning server room, he was quoting Milton. Odder still, she was quoting it back at him: “All is not lost. The unconquerable will and study of revenge, immortal hate, and the courage never to submit or yield.”

As the mechanical monster continued forward, Tarja thought there were worse last words she could have spoken, and as Torque reached down to lift her crumpled form from the floor, she looked into his eyes and yelped something far less eloquent, “Fuck you…”

Upstares The church burned. The stained-glass windows cracked and shattered from the heat. The image of Einstein and his revolutionary equation fractured and fell from its frame, it’s pieces dropping from their frames to the ground. Flames poured through every crack they could, and the roof began to come down in large chunks.

Lithia’s garden held back the flames for as long as it could, but even it couldn’t keep the wickedness away forever. The flowers wilted as they were incinerated. The blocks that made up the walls came falling inward. The light from above the church bore witness as it cracked and fell, but Tarja saw none of this, the only thing she saw, before the lights went out forever, were two glowing red eyes.

Next Chapter: Chapter 34: