"The demons are attacking Earth!"

"Run!! Run for your lives!"

"Somebody, save us!!"

Shouts of horror sounded throughout the streets as people began fleeing the sudden warzone.

"They're going for the Transport Tower!"

"Hades is invading!"

Axel's breathing intensified as his gaze was drawn back to the boy in his arms. Warmth soaked through his uniform as Jay's blood covered his hands and arms. "Jay..."

Jay's eyes fluttered as he fought to keep them open. "Run, Axel..." His voice was weak, but he clung to Axel as he pleaded for his friend to leave. "You gotta...you gotta get out of here."

"I-I can't leave you." Axel shook his head in protest. Getting a strong grip on his friend, Axel stood to his feet and cradled Jay in his arms as he stumbled toward a building awning.

"Listen to me, Axel. It's not...it's not safe...please...go..."

Tears entered Axel's eyes when he felt Jay's grip on him loosen. Stopping and dropping to one knee, Axel cradled Jay's head as his friend coughed up yet another clot of blood. "Jay...Jay!"

Feeling his lifeline slipping from him, Jay mustered up the remainder of his strength to say something that he had been meaning to tell Axel. "Thank you...for being...my...friend..."

Axel was filled with despair when Jay's hand dropped to his side, and his eyes fell closed. "Jay...Jay?!!" Tears flooded Axel's vision as he held Jay's lifeless body in his arms. "No, no, no...Jay...!"

Bodies lay strewn out across the streets as demons swarmed the city, massacring everyone in their path. Buildings tumbled to the ground after being shattered by bomb after bomb. Dust and fire consumed Dexys as it morphed into a battlefield of concrete, steel, and glass. The military soon began to confront the demons sweeping the city, and all forces from the Heavens present in the city at that time gave their all to protect the citizens of Dexys.

A massive explosion sounded from the city's center. Axel looked up from Jay's body to see the Transport Tower engulfed in flames. Taking down the Transport Tower connecting Earth to the Heavens seemed to be the demons' primary goal in the attack. Cutting off Earth's connection to the Heavens would prevent any extra forces from being immediately sent down to aid in the planet's defense.

A sudden rush of strangers fleeing a group of demons raced by Axel as he continued to hold Jay in his arms. "Help, please!" Axel began grasping at those passing by him, desperate for someone to save Jay. "My friend...my friend. Please, help!"

Most did not even bother to look at Axel as he pleaded for help. Some shrugged him off while others scorned him for trying to harm them. However, a pair of hands underneath his arms brought Axel to his feet, startling him.

"Pull yourself together, kid! Your friend is dead. It's time to save yourself, now," a man said as he began leading Axel away from Jay.

"No, my friend...I can't leave him," Axel protested and began fighting against the man.

"Student, listen to me," the man said, wrapping his arms around Axel's chest, keeping him from running back to the body on the ground. "Your friend would want you to live. Trust me."

The man's words caused Axel to stop struggling against him. "You gotta get out of here." Jay's words echoed through Axel's mind as he let the man lead him away from the body.

"There's nothing you can do for him right now. If you must take the body, come back in a few days once this district has been cleared."

"Jay..." Turning, Axel looked behind to see Jay's body being trampled by those fleeing from the horde of demons. No matter how much he knew the man's words were right — that he needed to flee, to run away — Axel could not stop himself from jerking his wrist out of the man's grasp and running back to Jay.

"Hey, kid!" The man called after Axel as he watched the boy try his best to push through the dense crowd. When Axel was nearing his friend, a flash of bright orange whizzed past him and struck the building beside which Jay was lying. The force from the bomb's explosion threw Axel into a body behind him.

Axel landed on the hard ground with a thud! His breath got knocked out of his body for a moment, and he grunted as he gasped for air. Axel's ears rang, and dust covered his face, neck, and body. His uniform was now stained with blood, dirt, and more blood.

Rolling onto his side, Axel heaved as his vision slowly refocused. A giant hole served as where the awning once was; Jay was nowhere in sight and was presumably now covered by the building debris. Rising to his hands and feet, Axel released a grunt as he stumbled to his feet. "Jay..."

Head swooning, Axel tripped over a piece of shattered concrete as he tried to reach the pile of debris. A weightless sensation consumed Axel for a moment as he stumbled toward the ground. But a person catching him halted his fall.

"Are you okay?" The voice was feminine but strong. Axel responded with a silent nod as his blurred vision focused. A young woman dressed in combat gear was steadying Axel upon catching him.

"Lieutenant!" A strong call sounded which immediately drew the woman's gaze to a group of soldiers who were serving as a line of defense between the civilians and invading demons. The woman flitted her eyes back to Axel and said, "Keep your head on straight," before turning and joining her team.

Axel was left stunned and alone standing among the rubble of the falling city. Never in his eighteen years of life did he expect to experience such a nightmare. Until that day, he had lived what one would call a fairly average life. Except for the dreams that haunted him, Axel had lived a normal teenage life in the world of humans, angels, and demons. And the day he finally had a friend, someone he was willing to open up to, all hell broke loose. Literally.

What kind of messed up life is this?

Axel looked around at the chaos and death that filled the streets of Dexys. Dismembered bodies lay scattered across the roads and sidewalks in the aftermath of the detonations of several bombs. Earth's space defense forces battling demon aircraft whizzed over the streets of Dexys as Earth fought with all its might to protect its citizens. The invasion had happened quite suddenly, but Earth's response was incredibly swift. Within minutes, they had forces on the ground and in the air to defend the city.

Seeing the wreckage that decorated the city in dark chaos, Axel was filled with despair. How had life changed so suddenly? It was only a few hours ago that he was in class learning about Earth's history and getting ready for exams. And now, he was standing in the middle of a warzone. He longed more than anything to wake up from this dream, to return to his average teenage life. But he knew this was no dream. The sounds of gunfire and detonations were too loud, too intense to not be real.

It was not until a middle-aged man fell over dead from a bullet in his head that Axel snapped out of his despairing trance. Seeing the middle-aged man caused Axel's heart to jump. Dad!

Taking off down the battered road, Axel began running back to his apartment. I need to make sure he's okay!

Axel mentally slapped himself for taking so long to realize that his dad was in danger, too. It had taken him a bit to realize the scale of the situation. If the Transport Tower was Hades' main goal in the attack, then his apartment should be in the 'safer zones' since it was in the poorer district, and the tower was in the middle of the city's thriving cultural center. But that did not guarantee that Hades' reach had not extended to their district.

To Axel's relief, the closer he got to his district, the fewer bombed-out buildings there were. Axel passed several groups of people running in the opposite direction as him, and gunfire rained down all around him. How he was not hit was a miracle. There were several close calls, but he somehow managed to remain uninjured. That was until he finally reached his district.

Whirring behind Axel brought his attention to a demon spacecraft racing toward him. Picking up his pace, Axel began racing toward a parking garage roughly a hundred yards ahead of him. The spacecraft began firing as it neared him. With each second that passed, Axel could hear his heart thump in his chest and his feet hit the ground as he ran for his life. Hearing the ship's trail of bullets reaching him, Axel dived into the entrance to the garage, evading the majority of the bullets. One bullet, however, found its mark in his arm.

Axel grimaced as he clutched his upper arm and saw blood oozing out of the gunshot wound. Like the bullet that killed Jay, the one in Axel's arm was glowing a reddish-orange. The light slowly faded, however, and dispersed into Axel's body. Axel watched with horrified curiosity as the light dissipated into his flesh, his vision immediately blurring, and his head pounding with pain. If he had a mirror or something that reflected his image, Axel would have seen his eyes flash red for a second.

After a few moments, the pain receded, and Axel's vision returned to normal. Knowing he needed to stop the blood oozing from his arm, Axel tore off a ribbon of fabric from the bottom hem of his school shirt and promptly wrapped it around the bullet wound. He would get the bullet out later; now, he needed to find his father.

The sun had completely set by the time Axel reached his apartment complex. The district's electric supply had been damaged during the attack, so the buildings had morphed from colorful structures to large, dark masses lining the streets. A few buildings in the vicinity had chunks missing from them due to blasts from the demon spacecraft, but his complex seemed relatively untouched. Taking the lift to Floor 20, Axel rushed down the dark corridor and went to Apartment 92015 before placing his thumb on the door's identity lock.

When the door did not unlock, Axel released a sigh. With the power out, the identity lock did not have any network to connect to and thus was out of commission. Frantic to make sure his dad was okay, Axel stepped back from the door and raised his leg. Smashing his shoe onto the door's handle, Axel broke off the identity lock and handle in one blow. The ease with which he disarmed the door shocked Axel. Since when was he so strong?

Immediately following the handle and identity lock drop to the ground, Axel burst through the door and entered the dark apartment. Going straight to his father's room, Axel entered to find it empty. The bed covers had been thrown aside, indicating his father had gotten up and left. Axel searched the remainder of the apartment to come up empty. His father was gone.

Along with the electricity, the district's tele reception was offline as well. Nonetheless, Axel retrieved the thin circle from his pocket and activated his holophone. The holograph that pulled up was blank, indicating the reception was cut. Sighing, Axel ran his fingers through his air as he slipped the small device back into his pocket.

Where did he go? Axel wondered where his father could have gone as he peered out the apartment's window. Walking to the glass pane, Axel gazed out over the dark city. Explosions of light would flash randomly as Earth's forces continued to fight the demons of Hades.

Preparing to go out and look for his father, Axel turned from the window and made his way toward the apartment door. However, a loud explosion just outside the building brought Axel's gaze back to the window. The moment Axel turned to see what the noise was about, a spacecraft gone out of control collided with the apartment building.

Thrown to the floor from the force of the collision, Axel's head hit the wall he was thrown against. The floor began to vibrate ferociously, and cracks appeared in the concrete slab as the building began to collapse. The spacecraft had hit below Axel's floor, so all the floors above were subject to structural failure. The ceiling above began to crack and chip away as the floors underneath continued to fall.

I can't die here. I have to find my dad. I can't die! Axel watched in horror as the floor and ceiling continued to crack. Knowing it was most likely futile as there was hardly anyone left in the district but desperate enough to find out, Axel cried out as loud as he could, "Help!! There's someone here! Help, please!!"

Although his call remained unanswered, Axel continued to cry for help. He was desperate, so he did not give up even when the window shattered, and the floor began to cave in. He was so desperate that he did not think it strange when a man flew through the shattered window and scooped him into his arms before running back to the window ledge and jumping into the air.