Her wings flapped strongly, increasing her speed. The harsh cold wind of Ukraine was nothing more than an afterthought as she landed at the church. She would not let Noah die in vain. She would live. She and their daughter both.
Lailah hastily made her way to their shared quarters. Luckily, they were the sole residents of the Church so no one was there to question their choices. As she ran toward it, her eyes briefly flickered to the crucifix on the walls.
The faces of the savior that they had sent to humanity was beginning to distort. An unholy grin filled with alien malice unbeknownst even to the most vile gods. Blood leaked from the crucifix's eyes.
She looked away as she focused on making her way to her and Noah's room. Lailah had abandoned all pretenses of etiquette and broke down the door. The sound of an infant crying could be heard from the crib next to their bed.
Lailah's face softened. She hastily made her way over and gently scooped her infant daughter up. Her daughter cried out. Lailah's heart broke a little at the sight. "Shhh, it's okay my lovely little star. Mommy's here…," she cooed. The ground shook violently beneath them and the church began to crumble.
The religious paraphernalia in their room ranging from the image of Mary the Mother and a portrait of Yeshua the Savior began to take on hideous twisted forms. Mocking twisted smiles and a distorted cacophony of laughter came from the portraits.
Lailah narrowed her eyes and shielded her daughter from their maddening stares. She raised her palm and blasted a hole through the wall.
However, as she was about to escape, a sharp pain stabbed through her. Her eyes widened as she nearly doubled over. Her eyes caught sight of blood trickling down her clothes and staining the floor. Lailah turned her head fearfully to see the world behind her being distorted by a spreading, dark atmosphere that had subsumed the entire church.
The world around her was dissolving, resembling a mixture of colors and textures as if someone had splashed water over a painting. The religious paintings around her had long since lost any semblance of what they once wore, being a horrific mix of colors that shouldn't exist in any way, shape, or form.
And the source of it all stood a little ways past the doorway. The shadowy entity. Its form was less of a wisp and more of a man now. Its build was similar to…
"Noah…," she whispered in horror.
The entity tilted its head and that same twisted smile appeared on its face. Its violet glowing pits for eyes bore holes through her sole as it lifted its hand and pointed at her.
"Sophia…" The word escaped its mouthless face. Its voice was grating to the ear like nails on a chalkboard and had a sound texture resembling tv static.
Her wings spread as she held her hand up.
"Oh Lord, Oh Heaven, grant me the power…" she chanted. White light and lightning gathered into her palm. She pointed it at the shadow and fired.
A sonorous blast ripped through the winter air as the entire front of the Church along with several buildings were torn apart by the ensuing explosion.
In the midst of the chaos, Lailah took her chance and flew away from the Church. She needed to get somewhere so she could teleport away from this nightmare.
As she flew, however, something ripped through the air and tore two of her wings clean off her back. The cut was so instantaneous that it almost felt painless. She plummeted to the ground. "No…!" she cast a golden barrier around her arms as her body struck the hard earth violently.
A groan escaped her lips as Lailah shakily propped herself up. Her infant daughter bawled within the barrier. Her own tears dripped on the barrier and she placed her hand on it.
"Baby… Mommy loves you very much. You must live, my little star," she said, kissing the sphere. Moving quickly before the entity could arrive, Lailah noticed she had crashed into a barn. She hobbled over, wincing with each step, to a manger. She wanted to laugh at the irony of it all. Placing her infant down in it, Lailah telekinetically moved some hay and placed it over her daughter, covering her just enough to not be seen.
"I love you," she whispered. Tears poured freely down her face as she quickly turned to face it. She silently chanted a verse and several cuboids rotated around the child, concealing it in a multi-layered barrier of light.
As if on cue, the shadow burst through the barn door. Splinters flew everywhere as it walked in, bringing with it the blackness that was now consuming the Earth and the skies.
Despite her injuries, Lailah stood her ground. Her eyes filled with resolute determination. She had gladly accepted death if it meant her daughter would survive.
"It ends here," Lailah said.
"Sophia…" the entity rasped.
"There is no Sophia here. But I won't let you go. You killed my friends… my husband," she choked out. "I won't let you claim my child."
"Sophia…"
Its body twitched before it sprung from its spot and lunged at her.
Dark light gathered around Lailah and morphed into two lances made of light. She rushed to meet this horrific being head on.
However, like her lover before her, her efforts were for naught. For all her adrenaline, the gathering of holy power into her body, she had inflicted barely anything upon it.
Lailah coughed as she fell to one knee, glaring at the shadowy being. Its mocking violet eyes looked down at her without a shred of emotion. Its arm shifted into a massive blade and it raised its arm into the air.
"Not… yet…," Lailah rasped. She raised and closed her fist.
In an instant, black light gathered around the shadowy entity. Gravity increased and condensed to a singular point. Supergravity that tore apart space and time around it. The light within the room had been sucked into it as a black sphere expanded and consumed it.