The dark angel smiled. Black blood dripped from his empty eyes. "I am perfected," the corrupted angel whispered. His voice was the Overlord’s deep, evil roar. Archangel Seraphael stood frozen on the glass bridge. His massive wings of white light trembled. His golden eyes filled with terrible grief. He lowered his lightning spear. He could not strike his own brother. Commander Oliver did not have a brother. He did not have grief. He only had a target. Oliver moved with flawless, terrifying speed. He did not speak. He did not warn the enemy. He lunged forward, thrusting his sharp titanium combat knife directly at the corrupted angel’s throat. The dark angel laughed. He simply raised one rotting black wing. The wing acted like a shield of solid iron. Oliver’s knife hit the black feathers and sparked loudly. The impact sent a painful shock up Oliver’s human arm, but he did not stop. He spun smoothly and aimed a heavy kick at the dark angel's knee. Before Oliver’s boot could land, th

The bleeding, fleshy angel smiled. Thick, dark blood dripped from its rotting teeth. Archangel Seraphael stared at the horrific copy of himself. The great golden warrior fell to his knees. He dropped his lightning spear. His holy light faded into a weak, sad glow. He could not fight a monster that wore his own face and was made of dead human hands. "Brother," the corrupted angel mocked. The Overlord’s dark voice echoed from its throat. "I have come to bring you into the dark." The creature raised its spear of black shadows. It aimed at Seraphael’s heart. Commander Oliver did not freeze. He did not feel pity. He saw the danger clearly. If the golden angel died, the squad would lose their only heavy shield. Oliver lunged forward. He kicked the heavy golden lightning spear across the glass floor. The weapon slid directly into Seraphael’s armored hands. "Pick up your weapon," Oliver ordered. His voice was cold, sharp steel. "That is not your brother. It is a biological trick. It is

The explosion of pure light and dark magic inside Commander Oliver’s fist ripped the ground apart. The fiery abyss below opened wide. Millions of tons of rock tumbled into the boiling orange lava. Oliver did not fall. He released the explosive magic from his hand. The blast pushed him straight up into the air. He grabbed the heavy, broken body of Archangel Seraphael with his human arm. "Hold on!" Oliver shouted to his squad. The kinetic shockwave carried them all. General Vega, Sergeant Miller, and the others rode the blast of hot air. They flew upward, escaping the collapsing cliff. They crashed onto a high, flat plateau of black stone. It was the tallest peak in the ruined valley. Below them, the entire continent finally crumbled. The land sank into the ocean of liquid fire. The heat was blinding, but the high plateau stood firm. Oliver laid the giant angel gently on the ground. Seraphael was barely breathing. The black curse from the Reaper’s scythe had eaten almost his entir

The cold wind screamed past Commander Oliver’s face. He was falling. The beautiful wings of light were gone. The Sword of Radiance in his hand was no longer a glowing weapon. The ancient creators had judged him. They saw the dark magic in his blood. They turned the holy sword into a heavy, useless piece of dead gray stone. Oliver dropped like a rock toward the burning abyss. He did not panic. He watched the solid stone plateau rushing up to meet him. He calculated his speed. He measured the exact distance to the ground. He waited until the last possible microsecond. Oliver aimed his pitch-black, Wraithborn metal right arm straight down at the ground. He released a massive, concentrated pulse of dark gravity magic. The invisible shockwave hit the stone floor. The opposite force pushed Oliver violently upward, breaking his fall. He crashed heavily onto the hard rock. He rolled three times through the thick gray dust. He slammed into the side of a broken boulder and stopped. For a

The dark cave was as quiet as a grave. On the cracked computer screen, two green lines spiked up and down. One line was the steady, normal heartbeat of Commander Oliver. The other line was deep, heavy, and violent. It was the heartbeat of the Overlord’s seed, growing inside Oliver’s chest. Oliver stared at the screen. He did not say a single math equation out loud. He did not list variables. The cold machine inside his mind simply looked at the hard, terrible facts. He was a cage. And the cage was breaking. "If I die, the monster hatches," Oliver stated smoothly. His metallic voice echoed in the dusty room. "If I use the holy sword, the light burns my human body faster. If I use my dark magic, it feeds the seed. The Overlord has placed me in a perfect corner." Sergeant Miller kicked a loose rock across the floor. General Vega looked away. They were brave, tough soldiers. They had fought giant stone monsters and invisible assassins. But they did not know how to fight a baby god gro