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  Their ship appeared in the same system as Seraphiel’s home planet. They’d purposefully aimed far enough away from the world that if it was under siege from orbit, they would get some time to get their bearings before they were shot at. A decision that turned out to be a smart one, as thousands of ships were surrounding the planet.

  "I'm reading at least three thousand vessels of various sizes, not counting one-man fighters," Chachamaru reported. "The silhouette of the ships is not familiar to me, but I can make some educated guesses."

  A holographic image of a long but narrow ship covered in spikes in places that were picked to cause dread and revulsion in those watching. The ship was made of dark metal, with the broadsides filled with the barrels of cannons, and a dozen weapons placed along the top spine of the ship. The ship was obviously designed to have minimal surface area from the front and behind, so it likely preferred to fire broadsides at the enemy. It was also covered with the iconography of Chaos.

  “I can sense someone extremely powerful among the fleet. There’s another powerful presence on the surface.” Shepard warned.

  “The combined nation of Angels and Draenei is under attack but holding. The entire nation is covered by a golden dome protecting it from any orbital strikes. By my readings, the shield is holding rather comfortably, but I don't think it can stop people from just walking through the shield." Chachamaru continued reporting.

  “The Angels used to be the dominant force in the universe. Even if we’ve fallen low, that doesn’t mean all our achievements and defenses are gone.” Seraphiel’s mother Ophiel offered in the way of explanation. “The downside is that when the protections were made, ground attacks were not considered a potential risk.”

  “I would like to point out that despite our current firepower, we cannot take on the entire fleet in orbit.” Ashredar pointed out. “Especially since we haven’t yet even completed all our calibrations, and I honestly haven’t perfected flying the ship. In a fight like this, perfect control is extra important, which I don’t have yet unfortunately.”

  "We could harass and retreat," Wrex suggested. "Would force them to focus on us instead of the planet below."

  “Start flying at them, weapons hot. Prepare for battle.” Seraphiel commanded, seemingly not listening, which she disproved with her next words. “I’ll even the odds once they’ve noticed us and are focused on us. Shepard, can you do defense? Wrex, help her. I know your powers aren’t optimized for ship-to-ship combat, but every bit helps. Teclis and Ophiel, make sure we aren’t bothered magically.” The others nodded, deciding to trust in her judgement.

  They didn’t have to wait long until a portion of the enemy fleet started turning against them. Not the entire fleet though. They didn’t take a single ship smaller than a large portion of theirs as a real risk, even one they didn’t recognize.

  Seraphiel reached with her mind towards the asteroid belt within the system and grabbed the largest and heaviest asteroid she could find. The object wasn't quite moon-sized, but it wasn't far from it either. Lifting both of her arms towards the enemy fleet, the asteroid suddenly appeared in the middle of the formation, destroying several ships with its sheer mass. She squeezed both of her hands into fists, at the same time shattering the asteroid, before sweeping both arms wide, telekinetically sending all the pieces hurtling into the fleet around the asteroid.

  The further the pieces traveled, the more speed they managed to pick up, though even the ships close to the asteroid suffered horrific damage from chunks of rock bigger than the ships themselves. Void shields were generally good defenses, but not when faced with an impact with a mass several times the ship it was protecting. Unfortunately, she wasn't the only one with powers, and the psykers on the vessels started to either protect their ships or shatter the incoming projectiles now that they could react. The attack had accomplished what she had been aiming for though, as the entire fleet was in disarray, with a large chunk of it just gone.

  Their own ship weaved through the enemy formation, all their weapons firing at full strength. Ashredar purposefully flew as close to the enemy vessels as possible, so that every shot fired at them that missed would hit the enemy instead. Against most, this would’ve been a great deterrent, but the forces of Chaos almost gleefully kept firing, hitting their own ships vastly more than what they were aiming at.

  The powerful presence among the enemy fleet suddenly seemed to exit one of the diseased-looking ships, a large figure clad in power armor, with a pair of wings on his back and a nasty-looking scythe in his hands. Seraphiel recognized the figure. "Mortarion. It seems he wants to play. Yoruichi, this one is all for you. The idiot's greatest strength comes from plagues."

  Yoruichi laughed. “Well, he’ll be in for a bad time then.”

  "Will Miss Yoruichi be ok alone?" The young Protoss Naidam asked, slightly worried, sensing the power of the enemy. “Should we not send help?”

  “Against this enemy? She will do fine. Mortarion is already weakened fighting in the void of space, but this is Yoruichi. You wouldn’t know, but Soul Reapers like her are pretty much immune to diseases that aren’t specifically designed to be used against them. And Yoruichi will not be messing around. She was the head of the squad focused on executing criminals and enemies of the Soul Society for hundreds of years. Even if Mortarion is powerful, this is not a fight he can win.” Seraphiel stated confidently. Yoruichi was strong even among other captains, because the two of them had constantly trained together when she’d been in the Soul Society.

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  As if to prove her words, Yoruichi appeared right next to Mortarion in a flash, incinerating the top half of the Demon Primarch’s body with a Kidō spell. The demonic being wasn’t defeated so easily, as it regenerated almost immediately, striking back with its scythe and a wave of plagues, but Yoruichi was no longer there. Among the Primarchs, Mortarion’s strength lay in durability, diseases, and regenerative abilities. Very notably, he was not much of a psyker, despite his latent potential. Unfortunately for him, Yoruichi specialized in speed and sheer attack power, rendering his defenses almost moot, and his attacks were too slow and ineffective to land. That was just part of why Seraphiel had picked Yoruichi. Now all that was required was for the Primarch’s regeneration to be overwhelmed.

  The rest of them didn’t have time to watch though, as several other demonic beings swarmed towards them from the vessels, noticing how futile just shooting at them seemed. “Tatsumiya, time to show them why you’re the premier demon hunter.”

  “It shall be done.” Tatsumiya appeared on top of the ship, her guns singing with speed and accuracy that nearly no one else could mimic. Any Demon that got close enough found out that Tatsumiya wasn’t any worse in close combat, and that was before Kaede showed up to help.

  “Switch!” Shepard called out to Wrex, as the incoming fire started to overwhelm her ability to protect the ship. Wrex took over, as his biotic abilities surrounded the ship.

  "I regret to inform, but some enemies managed to board us during the switch," Ashredar reported. "They are materializing in the cargo bay."

  “Naidam, Shen-Zoo, those are for you. I’m sending our new Asari allies with you for support.” Seraphiel ordered. Those mentioned suddenly got dropped into the cargo bay and engaged the enemies within.

  At the same time, Seraphiel continued her own efforts, now sending the enemy ships hurtling into each other utilizing her telekinesis. The enemy psykers might be strong enough to stop chunks of asteroids, but when she focused on the enemy ships individually, the enemy efforts were for naught. She used the larger enemy ships as battering rams until they were too damaged to be of any use, before moving on to smaller ones. She knew it didn’t ultimately matter if her plan came true, but it added to the confusion at least.

  "Can we get a better read on what's happening on the surface?" Ophiel asked, worried for her old home.

  “I read three distinct enemy forces. Chaos Demons are assaulting a large fortress in the south of the Angel’s territory.” Chachamaru started reporting but was interrupted by Ophiel.

  “That has been going on for generations. I fought at the bastion in my youth as well.”

  “Well, that attack likely intensified as the ships arrived in orbit, and is now supported by the forces dropped by these ships. Another portion of the world is being attacked by one of the locust races indigenous to this universe. Nothing special, but annoying. The problem seems to be that one of the other kingdoms of the world seems to have been overrun by the Burning Legion.” Chachamaru continued, as their ship swerved around another Chaos vessel to use it as cover. At the same time, their own weapons could fire continuously, almost without aiming with so many targets to shoot at.

  “Wait. Burning Legion?” Seraphiel asked in confusion. “I killed Sargeras. Why is the Legion suddenly a problem when their leadership is gone?” She forced her hand into a fist, crushing another enemy capital ship.

  "Ah, I can see the confusion. According to my sources, the Legion was pacified for a long time but found new leadership when brought into this universe. The Legion didn't disappear anywhere just because their leader was gone, only scattered. And there are plenty of dark gods and their ilk in this universe happy to pick up the pieces." Chachamaru clarified.

  Yoruichi annihilated Mortarion again, frying three Chaos ships at the same time with a powerful beam of Kidō, and this time the Demon Primarch’s regeneration was significantly slower, allowing Yoruichi to strike again, wiping the remains out as well. A rift formed in space, attempting to retrieve the soul of the Primarch. “Now Yoruichi!” Seraphiel practically screamed psionically, prompting Yoruichi to intercept the fleeing soul.

  There was another reason she’d picked Yoruichi as Mortarion’s enemy. After all, Yoruichi was a Soul Reaper, and the main job of all psychopomps like Soul Reapers was to help souls pass on into whatever afterlife awaited them. All souls. Even those beings that normally wouldn’t die just because their bodies were destroyed.

  Yoruichi was not called the Goddess of Flash for nothing, as she was by far the fastest Shinigami, and she pressed the hilt of a simple sword against the forehead of the mangled soul of Mortarion, performing the Konsō ritual, before quickly fleeing away. Next to the rift into the Warp, another doorway opened. Two giant doors with enormous skeletons embedded inside of them stood in the void of space, before the skeletons in the doors seemed to pull the gates open, and a giant sword lunged out of the door towards Mortarion's soul, while at the same time, an enormous, pox-ridden, green and brown hand lunged out of the Warp towards the soul.

  The results were explosive, and two enormous forces warred with one another. Nurgle, one of the four Chaos gods trying to save his chosen Primarch, and the powers of Hell trying to claim their just reward. The explosion of the two forces annihilated everything in the vicinity, wiping out hundreds of ships in seconds. The only reason Yoruichi escaped was because she’d run early and because she was the Goddess of Flash. She arrived inside the ship just as the shockwave from the explosion started expanding towards their ship, threatening to annihilate them as well.

  For a moment, those on board panicked, life flashing before their eyes, before Seraphiel simply looked at the incoming doom and said a single word. “No.” The entire shockwave just vanished, which was good because it was just about to hit the planet below as well.

  The struggle between an extremely powerful god and the powers of Hell clashed for a moment longer, before a single figure appeared above the two struggling forces.

  “Brother.” Seraphiel recognized Lucifer.

  “As both the ruler of Hell and the embodiment of the System, I judge your claim to this soul null and void Nurgle. Stop this foolishness and begone.” Lucifer gestured towards the rotting green arm, which suddenly just vanished in a cloud of ash, and the pained and angered cries of the slighted god could be heard through the rift for a moment before it closed.

  As the doors of Hell closed behind Mortarion’s soul, Lucifer winked towards their ship, before vanishing as well.

  “You planned this, didn’t you?” Teclis asked suddenly in a shocked voice. The shockwave had destroyed almost all of the remaining Chaos ships in orbit, with the stragglers quickly warping away, realizing they were outmatched.

  “I suspected. I had some reasons to assume this is roughly how it would go. Didn’t know the details of course.” Seraphiel laughed. She loved it when a plan came together. She hated the Chaos gods. Nurgle and Slaanesh especially. “Incidentally, Nurgle didn’t only lose one of his most important servants. He also lost a huge chunk of power tied to Mortarion, as well as the power he expended trying to recover the soul, fighting the power of Hell. This is a good day. We should do it again.”

  “Yeah, you’re going to have to fight the next Primarch though. The only reason I won that was because the plagues didn’t affect me.” Yoruichi stated firmly. “I really don’t want to think what would’ve happened if I would’ve fought another Primarch. And you can perform Konsō just like me. Don’t think I’ve forgotten that you have a Zanpakutō as well.” She seemed to have remembered something. “And did you say brother?”

  “Yes. That was my brother Lucifer. You might have heard of him. In several legends.” She answered a little proudly.

  “Your brother is kind of hot.” Yoruichi shot back straight away.

  Seraphiel covered her eyes in despair. “Oh no. I really don’t need the two of you spending any time together.”