**Chapter 12: The War in Heaven**
Darkness swallowed Marverick, but within it flickered memories not his own—visions etched into his bloodline, primal and raw.
***He saw the heavens rupture.***
Archangel Michael, his armor forged from dying stars, clashed with Lucifer amidst constellations. The Morning Star's wings—once iridescent, now charred and bleeding—scattered galaxies as he fell. Celestial fire rained onto Earth, birthing craters that steamed with divine wrath. The rebels, stripped of grace, writhed as their forms twisted into horrors: talons, scales, eyes like cracked obsidian. *Demons*. Their screams became the first hymns of hell.
***He saw the Nephilim.***
Giants born of angel and mortal, their existence a scar on creation. Heaven's purge razed them, but some survived—hidden, diluted, their power thinned yet simmering in human veins. Marverick's veins.
***He saw her.***
The woman from the void—**Lilith**, first wife of Adam, mother of monsters. She watched empires rise and burn, her laughter a shiver in the bones of saints and tyrants alike.
***Then, the present.***
Marverick gasped awake, his lungs filled with the stench of burnt ozone. Ava knelt beside him, her palm pressed to his chest, her eyes wide with fear. "You stopped *breathing*," she hissed.
Dave Riggs loomed nearby, his cane's gem dimmed. "Welcome back, Nephilim." The word hung like a curse.
Marverick's wings—fractured, smoking—twitched. "I'm no half-breed."
"Aren't you?" Lilith materialized from shadow, her form flickering between serpent and queen. "Your ancestors bedded angels fleeing Michael's purge. You carry their *taint*. A failsafe, should heaven ever need…*leverage*."
Ava's dagger pressed to Lilith's throat. "Talk faster."
Lilith smiled, unblinking. "Michael's host grows weak. Lucifer's heirs claw at the gates. And you—" Her nail traced Marverick's brow, icy as a grave. "—are the key to a door that should stay sealed."
The visions surged again—*Nephilim armies razing Eden, the Elysium Stone shattering realms, Lilith whispering treaties in God's ear*. Marverick recoiled. "I didn't ask for this."
"**No one does,**" Lilith snarled. "But here you stand: Heaven's mongrel, Hell's mistake. Choose a side, or *burn* between them."
Ava stepped forward, her blade steady. "We choose *us*."
Lilith's laughter peeled the bark from nearby trees. "Romantic. Futile." She turned to Marverick. "The Stone's shards still pulse in the void. Reforge it, and you could unmake this war. Or—" Her gaze slid to Dave. "—let the Riggs distill your blood into a weapon. Either way, you die. The question is…*how loudly*?"
Dave's cane sparked. "Enough theatrics. The boy's coming with me."
A shot rang out. Dave crumpled, crimson blooming on his thigh. Cassandra emerged from the smoke, her revolver smoking. "Family reunions are *tedious*."
Chaos erupted. Demons resurged. Angels dove. Marverick grabbed Ava's hand, their bond flaring—not with the Stone's unstable fury, but with something older, wilder. *Nephilim rage*.
"We don't choose sides," Marverick growled, wings spreading. "We *end* them."
Lilith's grin split her face. "**Finally.**"
As they charged into the storm, Ava's voice cut through the din. "You sure about this?"
Marverick's answer was a roar, his wings carving a path through the horde. The war had birthed him. Now, he'd bury it.