Chapter Twelve: Attack of the Angels Part 1

The massive Angel-class entity hovered ominously, its giant eye slowly scanning the party with cold, divine indifference.

Suddenly, every Codex on their wrists began beeping frantically.

ALERT. ALERT. ANGEL CLASS ENTITIES DETECTED. AVOID DIRECT COMBAT. AVOID DIRECT COMBAT.

But retreat was no longer an option.

The enormous magic circle behind the Watcher spun faster and faster. Blinding energy gathered at the center of its pupil.

“MOVE!” Arthur roared.

The team scattered instantly.

A devastating beam of pure white light erupted from the Angel’s eye, slamming into the ground where they had been standing. The stone and earth instantly vitrified into glass from the extreme heat. A massive heatwave exploded outward, scorching the air and forcing everyone to shield their faces.

Lancelot raised his tower shield just in time, absorbing part of the blast for Morgana behind him.

Merlin quickly chanted a barrier spell, creating a shimmering shield that deflected the radiant heat.

Zero rolled across the ground and came up in a low stance, sword ready, his eyes locked on the floating abomination.

Arthur, standing with his bastard sword drawn, shouted:

“Merlin, analyze its core! Lancelot, hold the front! Morgana, keep us healed! Zero — with me!”

The Watcher’s eye shifted, already preparing another devastating attack. The chorus of voices grew louder, almost mocking.

This was no ordinary dungeon monster.

This was something far closer to a divine calamity. 

Zero wasn’t listening.

His blood was screaming for violence.

The massive Angel-class entity charged up again. Instead of firing a single focused beam, it unleashed a barrage of rotating beams — multiple streams of divine light that swept across the battlefield like the blades of a cosmic reaper.

The ground exploded wherever the beams touched, turning sacred stone into molten glass. Even the iconic red torii gates were sliced apart, collapsing in burning sections.

“Zero!” Arthur shouted. “Fall back and regroup!”

But Zero had already dashed forward.

He moved like a silver streak through the chaos, dodging the sweeping beams with unnatural precision. One beam came dangerously close, scorching his armor and burning a line across his shoulder, but he didn’t slow down.

His eyes burned with pure battle hunger.

The Watcher’s giant eye tracked him, the chorus of voices growing louder and more agitated.

Arthur cursed under his breath and charged in to support him, while Lancelot moved to draw aggro with his shield and Morgana prepared emergency healing spells. Merlin frantically analyzed the entity from the rear.

Zero leapt high, sword raised, aiming straight for the floating eye. Zero smashed headfirst into an invisible barrier the Angel entity had erected at the last moment.

BOOM!

The impact reverberated through the courtyard. The chorus of voices hummed with pure rage — a mortal had dared to attack it directly.

Arthur charged in right behind Zero, bringing his bastard sword down in a powerful overhead strike.

CLANG!

His blade slammed against the barrier, sending golden sparks flying. At the same time, Merlin pointed his finger forward, arcane energy gathering at his fingertip before firing a concentrated beam of light into the shield.

The Angel’s giant eye opened wide in fury.

A massive omnidirectional blast erupted from it.

The force sent both Arthur and Zero sailing backward through the air. Lancelot stepped forward and caught Arthur with his massive tower shield, absorbing the impact. Morgana quickly raised her hands, casting a soothing green healing light over the team to mend their burns and bruises.

Zero slammed hard into the ground but immediately jammed the tip of his sword into the stone to stop his momentum. He stood back up slowly, breathing heavily, eyes still locked on the floating Watcher with unyielding intensity.

The barrier around the Angel flickered but held strong. The chorus grew louder, almost mocking now.

Arthur wiped blood from the corner of his mouth and growled.

“It’s protecting its core. Merlin — find us a weakness! We need to break that shield!”

Zero said nothing. He simply tightened his grip on his sword, ready for the next exchange.

The battle against the Angel-class entity was far from over.

A sudden, violent memory flooded Zero’s mind.

He had faced these beings before — these so-called “Angels.” The knowledge came not as words, but as pure instinct. How to move. Where to strike. How to survive them.

He stepped forward, adjusting his stance into something older, more primal.

The chorus hummed louder, angrier.

The massive Watcher sprouted several elongated, clawed arms from its body. The golden rings that once orbited it violently shattered and reformed into thinner, razor-sharp blades. The claws gripped these new weapons tightly.

Then, a horrifying mouth filled with jagged teeth ripped open across its lower half.

The sound that came out was not a roar.

It was a scream of pure divine wrath — a sound that sent chills down even Arthur’s spine and made Morgana flinch.

Merlin’s voice trembled slightly.

“It’s evolving mid-battle! This is beyond a standard Angel-class!”

Arthur raised his bastard sword, golden armor glowing.

“Stay focused! Zero — if you have any insight, now would be the time!”

Zero didn’t respond with words.

He simply raised his sword, eyes glowing with cold determination. The knowledge from that buried memory burned in his veins.

This thing could be killed.

And he knew how.

The Angel-class entity let out another ear-piercing screech as it began its next assault, claws and spinning blade-rings ready to tear the party apart. The chorus hummed with increasingly discordant, furious notes.

The Watcher’s jagged mouth split open wider, revealing a long, sharp forked tongue that lashed like a whip.

ALERT. ALERT. ANGEL CLASS ENTITY NOW IN THREAT MODE. EVACUATE NOW.

The Codexes on their wrists screamed the warning, but Arthur quickly silenced his.

“Useless now. Focus on the fight!”

The Angel-class entity suddenly dashed forward with terrifying speed, targeting Morgana first.

Lancelot moved like a mountain, slamming his massive tower shield into the ground just in time. The Angel smashed into it with overwhelming force. Lancelot grunted, muscles straining as he held the line.

Morgana quickly cast a protective barrier that enveloped both her and Lancelot in shimmering green light.

The Angel slashed and bashed relentlessly against the barrier, the chorus now screaming in pure rage.

Zero seized the opening. He leapt high into the air and brought his sword down in a powerful overhead strike, aiming to impale the floating abomination.

The Angel deflected the blow at the last second with one of its clawed arms, sending Zero crashing back to the ground.

He landed in a crouch, breathing steadily.

There was something very wrong with this monster.

It wasn’t just powerful.

It felt… personal. Like it knew him.

Or like he had killed its kind before.

Arthur shouted, “Merlin, find the core! We need to end this quickly!”

The battle raged on inside the corrupted Fushimi Inari Taisha, the sacred grounds now a battlefield of divine wrath and human defiance.  Zero altered his stance.

He lowered his center of gravity, eyes locked on the Watcher. Magic swirled violently around him like a maelstrom, raw and untamed.

The Angel-class entity was too focused on hammering at Lancelot’s shield, its clawed arms and spinning blade-rings smashing relentlessly against the barrier. Morgana poured more power into the defense, but it was beginning to crack.

Merlin frantically tried to analyze the creature.

“I can’t find a Magicyte core!” he shouted. “It doesn’t seem to have one — or it’s hidden too deeply!”

Zero didn’t wait.

His calf muscles tensed, fibers visibly ripping from the sheer explosive power. In the next instant, he dashed forward, leaving a cloud of debris and dust in his wake.

He ducked low under the whirlwind of blades and spinning rings, then slashed upward with everything he had at the underside of the floating Watcher.

SCHING!

The blade bit deep, carving a glowing wound across the entity’s lower half. The chorus screamed in agony and fury. Golden ichor — almost like liquid light — sprayed from the cut.

The Watcher recoiled, its giant eye narrowing in rage as it turned its full attention toward Zero.

Arthur seized the moment.

“Now! Press the attack!”

The battle had reached a critical turning point.

Zero’s instincts were guiding him true — but the Angel-class entity was far from defeated.