Michelle helped Kyle over. His left shoulder was still bleeding, but he was walking.
"Is it over?"
Isaac raised his head and looked into the distance.
There, the remaining angels were fleeing in disarray. The Demon Hunter Guild's elites chased after them, slaughtering them all the way.
But farther away, within that endless desert, something was still moving.
The day after Bartholomew's death, Sahara Desert, noon.
Raymond crouched behind a dune, staring at a cave three hundred meters away, concealed by weathered rocks.
The sun hung overhead, baking the sand until it was scorching hot. The air warped into transparent ripples.
The Purgatory creatures behind him lay prone on the ground. The Abyss Chewers buried themselves in the sand, leaving only their eyes exposed, like a pack of crocodiles waiting for prey.
Hans's voice came through the communicator. "Energy fluctuations confirmed. There are seventeen angels deep in the cave. All low-ranking, their strength has weakened to less than a tenth of normal."
Raymond rose to his feet, blue cracks pulsing beneath his skin.
"Move."
The Purgatory creatures burst from the sand with explosive speed.
The angels had barely reacted when the Abyss Chewers charged into the cave. Their massive jaws opened, biting two angels standing at the entrance cleanly in half at the waist.
Screams came from deep within the cave, mixed with the muffled blasts of holy light and the wet sounds of flesh and bone being torn apart.
Raymond followed behind them, walking in unhurriedly.
The cave was filled with the heavy stench of blood and the scorched smell left behind by holy light.
Seven or eight corpses lay on the ground. Some had been bitten to pieces, some torn apart, and several were still twitching. The remaining angels huddled together at the very back of the cave,