Like Lambs To Slaughter

The scene shifted and suddenly Russel found himself in a bustling city at dusk. He looked around and found himself drawn to a man and woman sitting on the chest, a baby pressed into the woman's breast as she nursed it. Russel walked over and tried to speak to the couple, but found himself unable to use his voice.

"It's like everyone has almost forgotten…" The man remarked as he watched the stream of people walk past.

"You know they haven't. But it has been almost fifty years since we were forced to settle down in this world. Even if they had forgotten, forgotten all of the blood and tears that were shed, would it be a bad thing?" The woman asked him, rocking the baby in her arms.

"No… I suppose it wouldn't be…" The man sighed. "But we need to be ready. Those bastards won't rest until one of our races dies. Even if we wiped them out, they'd probably haunt us just to continue to torment us."

"Everyone still trains Mende, they know there may be an attack. But, they are trying to enjoy the life they have in the meantime. Even if they can never leave this secret city." The woman reasoned, passing the now fed baby to her husband. "It wouldn't hurt you to allow yourself to enjoy life again, like you used to before the war."

Mende looked down at the baby with an unreadable expression hanging on his face. He looked relieved, inspired, but also sad. The baby started to giggle and tried to grab his nose. Mende dodged playfully but the baby persisted.

"You'll never get my nose so give up now Russel!" He yelled playfully.

The Russel who stood in front of him smiled at the scene. He watched himself as a baby playing with his father, his mother beside them lightly laughing at the scene, her hand in front of her mouth to conceal the smile she wore. But as he continued to watch a feeling of dread came over him, a feeling of knowing. He would never get to make any memories like this, happily living with his parents, surrounded by their own kind, in their own little slice of heaven so to speak. Though any meaning the expression may have had in the past fell flat for Russel nowadays. This was merely a vision of a happier time, if you could call a situation akin to a bird being trapped in a cage happy. His thoughts continued to drift along until he realized that his family was no longer in front of him. He started to look around before he spotted his mothers silhouette disappearing into the crown. He started to run towards them, wanting to absorb the life his infant self once had further. When he finally caught up he found himself having a hard time weaving through the crowd of people to stay behind his family. Though he stopped being careful when a man simply walked straight through him.

'I guess that makes sense…' He thought. 'Right now I'm something of a ghost in this vision'

He gave up on being careful and started to walk straight through people himself, allowing him to walk right alongside his family on the busy road flanked by market stalls on either side of him. He continued to smile lightly as he walked alongside his family listening to the conversation between his mother and father, the type of conversation one would enjoy having, but not remember much about due to nothing of consequence either happening or being discussed. A type of conversation that Russel never had the opportunity to have. As they walked Russel absorbed the scene around him. The city which he knew was simply a pile of rubble in his own time, was a vibrant, loud and densely populated haven for demons. The streets were full of families and couples, as well as teenagers down in the dumps with lovesick expressions adorned on their faces. The wide street was flanked by both market stalls full of crafted items and foods, while also having two story buildings with brick and mortar shops underneath the home of the ones who ran it. If you looked up you could see lines of laundry hanging between buildings, and a few children laughing as they tried to hold their balance and not fall off. Off in the distance you could see a large field full of young demons training, claws extended and spells firing, yet no one payed this sight any mind, while in a normal city people would be screaming and running for the hills.

'If only it were still like this…' Russel thought sadly as he took it all in.

He followed his family inside of a building near the middle of the long street and was greeted with a familiar old man. The three sat across from him and exchanged greetings before Omar ran off to make some tea for them. Russel scoffed at the old man's behavior and leaned against a nearby wall as he watched Omar return from the kitchen.

"What's the purpose of this unexpected visit? A friendly greeting I could understand, but things must be different with you here Mende." Omar chuckled.

"And why is that old man?" Mende scowled slightly.

His mother sighed in exasperation and placed her hand on her husbands to calm him down. Omar just smiled sweetly lifting his tea cup to his lips, an out of character move if Russel had ever seen one.

"It seems I need to remind you that you are older than I by over two thousand years." Omar reminded him, putting his tea cup down.

"That may be true but you're the one who looks two thousand years older." Mende scoffed.

"Mende!" His mother snapped. "Have some manners."

"Sorry Aliyah…" Mende apologize.

"Now then, shall we return to the purpose of this visit?" Omar suggested.

"That would be very much appreciated." Aliyah nodded. "We came to ask you more on what the elder means by Russel being the 'Child Of Rapture'. We simply want insight from someone who knows the elder as well as anyone could."

"So a familiar acquaintance like myself. That man truly is a cold one…" Omar sighed.

"No need to remind us. We know that very well ourselves." Mende sighed, leaning his face against his hand.

"Well, if he thinks that Russel is the one from the prophecy then we can't take it lightly…" Omar stated, taking another sip of tea. "It could very likely be that he is the one from the prophecy. He is a fallen angel, though not the last as of now, that would be you and your other siblings Mende. He is also the son of a high class demon, also known as a demon lord. For that you fit the bill perfectly Aliyah."

"So are you saying that he is the one from the prophecy?" Aliyah asked, voice slightly trembling in concern.

"Not quite, I am merely saying it may be likely. It will all depend on the coming years and if the angels manage to find us if they haven't already, and if they make a move on us. It could also happen that the prophecy never comes to pass, let alone have your child be the one to bear it." Omar explained.

'Yeah right. Turns out your hopes didn't amount to much old man.' Russel thought.

"If you want to know what he was thinking or implying, I'm afraid I can't be of much help. It could be that we will hear that the so called child of rapture will appear every time a baby meeting the condition of a fallen angel and a demon lord as parents is born, the old fool could be bored out of his mind and is trying to entertain himself, or he may even be going senile. Regardless, it is impossible to say for sure." Omar finished his explanation, along with the last of his tea immediately after.

"You know, you have an uncanny ability to talk forever but never answer the question." Mende yawned.

"I'll choose to take that as a compliment." Omar smirked.

"If that's how you choose to interpret it, it's less trouble for me." Mende sighed, getting up and reaching a hand towards Aliyah, who took it.

"Thank you Omar." Aliyah bowed slightly.

"No need for courtesy. After all, both of you outrank me tenfold." Omar chuckled, waving goodbye.

The family left Omar's house and emerged back onto the heavily crowded street. Russel sighed heavily and folded his arms as he followed his family through the streets once more.

'That old man chuckling and being courteous? What happened to Omar? He probably wouldn't have let Oliver die that time… How does one guy change so much?' Russel wondered.

All of a sudden day turned to night, causing a panic among those on the street. Russel looked around frantically to see what had happened but was only greeted by the red glow of a blood moon that had taken the place of the sun. Just a suddenly as the sky changed, he felt an immense pressure that forced him down onto a knee and caused him to clutch his head. He struggled to move his head, but forced himself through the sharp pains and the terrible cracking noises coming from him. He scanned around him for his family only to see them running into the distance.

"Wait!" Russel tried to shout, but was only able to mouth.

Intense bright lights started to flash all around him, to the melodious echo of screams of pain, panic, and fear. Russel forced himself to his feet and looked around, seeing burnt corpses littering the streets that not long ago were vibrant, and either destroying or setting uncontrollable fires to the buildings around them.

'It's just like Eastcliff…' Russel thought in horror.

He started to see tens of angels clad in their golden armor, soaring towards the ground on their large white wings. Each of them looked as intimidating as Arthur had during their fight, and when scanning the angels Russel found Arthur in their midsts. He eyes flew open in rage and he tried to deploy his wings, finding that that too was impossible at that time. Knowing there was nothing he could do for anyone around him, he started to run under the immense pressure in the direction that his parents had.

After a few moments he finally caught up to the pair who were conversing with a very old looking man, most likely the elder whose words they had been trying to make sense of earlier.

"You must take the child and run." He ordered. "That child is our last hope, the angels have made their move. There is no time to think of anything else or try to fight them! Now run!"

His parents nodded and took off down the street, leaving the elder behind. Russel ran over to the man who was looking straight towards him with an expression of disgust. At first Russel was surprised at the thought that this old man could see him, but he was brought back to his current reality when he saw an angel fly right through him, and with a single flourish of his sword, cut the old man in two.

"Arthur you dolt! We could have gotten information out of him!" A voice yelled from behind him. "I know you enjoy swinging your sword, but think before you do so."

"I could say the same for you with that spear of yours Jospeh. Has it not crossed your mind that throwing it into crowds could kill someone important." The angel who had killed the elder mocked the other.

"Don't mock me you fool. One day one of your mindless killings is going to make us fail." The other angel scowled.

"I'm no fool Joseph." Arthur scowled. "We will continue this later. For now, I must go find the demons that ran off. I have a feeling that they are two fun ones!"

"Those demons were Mende and Aliyah Diabolous, along with their son." The angel, Joseph informed him.

"Their son? Well then its an extra vermin to eradicate." Arthur said gleefully.

"You best eradicate it. That child is apparently thought to be foretold in a prophecy. 'The Child Of Rapture' he has been dubbed. At least that is what Adam says." Jospeh sighed.

"So that old man has more to him than manipulating time…" Arthur mused.

"Just get going. I assume you'll want to handle this on your own?" Joseph asked.

"But of course. If anyone tries to get in my way I'll simply kill them." Arthur smiled.

With a spin Arthur flew away at lightning speed. Russel had not once taken his eyes off Arthur's detestable face, not even to look at this other spear bearing angel named Joseph. He sprinted as fast as he could, trying to keep Arthur in sight. But it was a fruitless endeavor as soon he lost sight of the angel. However, despite this he continued to sprint forward, even as his muscles seemingly screamed in agony as they quivered from fighting the incredible pressure that surrounded him. When he finally stopped it was in horror upon discovering the mutilated corpse of his mother, with neither Arthur or Mende in sight. He dropped to his knees next to her and listened to her shallow and pained breaths.

"Mom…" He whispered, reaching out for her hand.

He placed his hand on hers and looked at her sadly. She slowly moved her head and looked directly at him. She smiled slightly and removed her hand from his, reaching up and cradling his face in her palm. Russel felt himself start to tear up as he felt the rapidly fading warmth from her hand against his face.

"You grew into such a handsome young man Russel…" She said, barely managing a whisper. "I'm sorry I won't be able to stay there with you…"

Once she finished saying the last word in her sentence, her arm went limp and fell back to her side. His face contorted as he reached and cradled his mothers corpse in his arms. He didn't know how it was possible, but as he felt his mothers lifeless corpse in his arms he felt an intense pain in his chest, almost as if his heart were splitting in two, the emotional pain and feelings of distress and despair worse than any he had ever experienced. He felt tears start to stream down his face, but was unable to make a sound once more, not even a sob could escape. He stayed there for a few moments, holding on to the already cold body, until it slipped out of his grip and straight through him. He started to scowl and rose to his feet, sprinting down the muddy path until he came across a large cliff at the very edge of it. Without thinking of the consequences he jumped straight off the side and landed on the ground a couple hundred feet below without a sound. He continued his sprint before finding himself in a clearing, greeted by the sight of Arthur standing over yet another body, that of his father. Russel grabbed a rock that lay next to him on the ground and jumped forward silently, smashing the rock into Arthur's head, knocking him out. But as Russel was about to hit him again, the rock simply fell through his hand. He clenched his fist in frustration and walked over to his fathers body, finding that the head lay ten feet away from the rest of the corpse. He turned his back to the scene and started to walk back towards where he had came.

'Those damned angels… They massacred people trying to live innocently… Not only here but in Eastcliff too, and who knows where else? They are the ones who deserve to die. That's right. I'll kill them. I'll kill them all!' Russel thought, grinning wickedly.

"Everyone died not only because of the angels, but because of ourselves. We never should have all been in one sanctuary, and we never should have stopped acting like we were at war. Because no matter what anyone said, when the moment came to fight once more, we weren't prepared, and we were wiped out because of it, like lambs to the slaughter.." Russel heard his father's voice echo. "You are the one hope we have, because while demons may still exist and be living among the mundane races, they are more feral beats without leaders. The fallen angels have always been the ones who lead the demons, while Satan was their king. You are the only one that can bring us back Russel, bring the demon race back to a unified clan of warriors that fights for our right to live. You are our last hope, because you are the Last Of The Fallen."