Today was the day.

The angel-kicking, ass-whooping, bloodcurdling, limb-ripping, hearing the sounds of their screams as they begged for mercy day.

And I was hype.

"We have never taken a human up to Eden on our missions, much less a pregnant one. I am unsure of how your body will cope with the temperature change," Nya said as she motioned for me to step into the leather black bodysuit that was supposed to be my protective outfit. It didn't look that protective if I was speaking the truth. It looked like another piece of skin attached to mine. "There are so many risks involved," I could feel her trembling and I looked at her to see her eyebrows quivering. "Where's the right-hand woman who threatened to kill me on the spot for calling her lord by his name?" I folded my arms and she snapped her head up to look at me.

"I—"She couldn't even finish her sentence as she blushed. "She sort of vanished when she realized that you found a reason to fight for the rest of us," She murmured and I ruffled her black hair, rubbing her horns. "No need to get all sentimental, Nicola," I sighed, ignoring her surprise when I addressed her by her name. I meant business.

"We need you at your best today." I spoke adamantly, knowing that it was no time to play games. "Whatever thoughts of reluctance you have, throw them shits out the window," I gripped her shoulders as she zipped up the suit, being mindful of the small pudge that was there. "I am strong, you are strong. Repeat after me," Nya tilted her head as I enunciated every word. "We are badass motherfuckers." She turned red at the sound of profanity leaving my lips and I motioned for her to say it. We didn't have time for her to be bashful or anything like that.

"We....are...bad a—" She blushed, stuttering further and I raised my brow, wondering why she was so nervous. "Go ahead. Maddox ain't here," I smirked as she followed through, oddly pleased with myself. "Badass motherfuckers!" She cheered, happy as hell to hear the first curse word that came out of her mouth. "And don't you forget it," I high-fived her as she patted down the suit, making sure that it on properly. "Just don't do anything rash. I don't think any of us would know what to do or how to cope if anything happened to you," She fixed me with a stern stare and I nodded, promising her that I would do my best. 

"Now here," She pointed to a set of buttons that lied on the belt of the suit. "This suit is bioengineered to your vitals so it is programmed to constantly hold a biome-barrier that will protect you and your child since you are human," She pressed a button and all of a sudden, I felt a giddy feeling coating my entire being. "Only us demons can see the barrier around you. It can take continuous hits, but you must be careful because the large beams of light that the angels can use will put a hole in this barrier, making you susceptible to injuries and things of that nature," She explained, clicking on the next button. 

"This allows you to generate your own beams of fire, light, etc, you know how we demons have our powers. This just allows you to use it as well without the repercussions on your body," She pressed the button and in the metal gloves that were on my hands, a white glow of a ball appeared. "You can aim it at the enemy. Your arm is the trajectory and the suit understands the aim," She leaned down to pick up a black helmet. I recognized as one of the helmets that the demon cops wore on a daily basis.

"This is concealed to the enemy so they cannot see your face or your eyes. They will not be able to tell who you are, which is good because I am sure Tion and everyone else knows who you are. If you press this button," She pointed to a triangular-shaped circle. "This will hide your scent so they can't tell that you are pregnant. This does put you at a higher risk because you will be considered one of us, but I rather than they all come for you because they can smell you," She continued to go through all of the powers that came with the suit, including the powered up strength that I would gain if I chose to fight in combat style.

That was the better way anyway. 

"Okay," I nodded, checking the time. My stomach was starting to hurt, so I clutched it, taking a deep breath. "That is your organs rearranging itself to make room for your womb," Nya offered in explanation and I glared at the floor, not knowing how to feel. That fucking demon lord really just up and left me as if I was just some insolent baby mama. I had words for him, that was for sure.

"Come on," I put an arm around Nya to lead her to the main room of the underground bunker that was underneath the campus. "Everyone else is waiting for us and I'm sure they're ready," I smirked. "Good afternoon, everyone. Glad to see your game faces on," I shifted into business mode as I sauntered in the large room, hearing cheers of, 'Yes, Taen!' as I came to stand in front of them on a stage. There was a big holographic screen portraying the regions that I needed to explain.

"These are the seven divisions of Eden," I pointed to them on the map that Hannah had created for me. "This one, Asmodaias, will be where Jexan's troop will enter," I pointed to the upper left-hand corner that showed a circular region. "Suseto in the lower-left corner is where Zero's troop will enter," She nodded in understanding. "Aromia, the one in the upper right will be where Pazul's troop will enter," I continued on, pointing to the destinations. "Milotos in the lower right will be where Lexica's troop will enter," I gave the proper location to each troop leader, hoping that they understood.

"And finally my troop under Nya will emerge in Zapula, the center of Eden," I aimed my finger at the center on the map where the castle was located. "Our saucers will be cloaked so that the enemy does know of our arrival until they sense us," Hannah had explicitly explained that even if the demons couldn't see us or smell us, they could sense our aura and would attack on sight. "Once we land, you are to conceal yourself and immediately disperse onto the battlefield. You can use the fighting tactics that I taught all of you as an advantage. The main key is to aim for the gland on their neck," I pointed to my jugular.

"Princess Hannah was kind enough to tell me that if you slashed it just a bit, they would die. That gland is their life source and any injury to that gland will threaten their life," I didn't need to say more because their close combat would allow for them to get a close hit on that gland. "You all need to be careful because we aren't fighting on our turf but theirs," They had the higher hand because they knew Eden better than any of us did. They may have gained new powers and new ways to scale the land.

"If you get hit by one of their balls of light or whatever the fuck you call it," I rolled my eyes, garnering a glare from Nya. "It will reveal your presence so Xani has already created a countermeasure to that. She has imprinted a seal into your neck and you just scrape it with your nail in order to activate it. This will conceal your demon heritage, your scent and allow you to assume the nature of an angel," These demons were too good, but we couldn't get cocky. "Since some of you are already experiencing eye-color changes and your wings and all that, it shouldn't too hard," I sighed, knowing that I nor Jade didn't have that luxury.

"Now that we have gotten the logistics and the safety part covered, it's time to get to the good stuff," I clapped my hands, looking every single demon in their eyes, some the color of pee, some the color of the clouds. It was becoming tolerable to look into them, I had to admit.

"The main goal of this mission is to wipe all out of the angels that will be posted in each region that you are to tend to. Once you have completed that goal, you are to come to Zapula, where we will all come together and disperse out to enter the castle," I tapped my chin, wondering how Maddox would do it. He was cunningly clever and he knew a few steps ahead of his enemies.

Well, not in this case.

"Xani, I am going to have you and Remi enter from the back of the castle. Kylar, you and Josef will enter from both sides of the castle. The rest of us will charge in. They will assume that since I am leading you, I'll just charge in without a plan," I smirked, knowing that their attention will be on all of us instead of the others sneaking in. "Jexan, you will pretend to be me," Tion would more than likely come for me first if he knew who I was. Even if he didn't, we had to make sure. "We will be able to throw him off our tracks that way," I still didn't know Tion's powers or how strong he was, so I wasn't going to put myself directly in front of him until I had a few moments to observe him.

Hannah gave me a few tips in case I decided to fight Tion head-on and I intended to use them.

"Our enemy: the current king of the paradise of Eden, Tion Vandenrei," I pointed to a picture that Hannah provided of the tall and gruffly looking male who had white hair and a white beard. "We don't know what tricks he has up his sleeve so if you manage to come in contact with him, don't act hastily. Keep your guard up and watch him carefully until one of the eight of us comes," All of the demons nodded, carefully understanding their task. They didn't have much to do: arrive in their destination, kill angels by striking their neck, and follow the compass till they got to Zapula. From there, we had to work together to kill Tion and save Maddox.

I let out a deep breath of resignation as they saluted me, watching my partner-in-crime Jade walk up to me, dressed to kill. "It's been a hectic few days, huh?" She stood next to me as every demon prepared themselves and physically. "Yea, it has, hasn't it?" I let out a sigh, knowing that we were fully ready for this. My body was craving to fight the bastard who took my dear Maddox away from me. I had to think about how everyone else felt though. Hannah and Synthella were coming together on my saucer and though she was coherent for the most part, Synthella was a wild card but she had been adamant that she came. I was unsure because they were the daughters of Tion. Even if they had shown me otherwise, this could've been a plot for them to take the upper hand.

Sigh, this wasn't the time to be analyzing what had already been done.

Jade leaned her head on my shoulder, taking a deep breath. "This is crazy, you know that?" She chuckled and I nodded. "Just a few months ago, we would've never been in this predicament and look at us now," She clicked her teeth, rubbing my arm. "Funny how life changes. I can still hear you yelling at me for kicking the cop's ass that day. You were so upset and now look at us. You don't even blink when you see me whooping their asses," I guffawed and she screwed up her nose, fighting the urge to roll her eyes. "So, Mrs. Demon Lady," She teased and I sucked my teeth, wanting her to shut up as I blushed.

"Don't they need some words of encouragement?" Jade nudged me as all of the demons stared at me, waiting for me to speak. I rolled my eyes, shrugging as I stepped forward, clearing my throat. This baby was doing cartwheels inside of me and it wasn't even fully developed yet.

"Alright, listen up walking scary movies," I tapped my stomach, cocking my knee out as I stared at every one of the demons. "I have no doubt in my mind that all of you are ready for this. You have trained, you have worked hard, you have prepared. The only thing that you should be worried about is how scared those angels will be when they see you on their turf. Be mindful and be cautious, but do what you have to do to make sure that we can get Maddox back. You're not just fighting for yourselves or for me. You're fighting for everyone else. You're fighting for the people in the world who need their demon lord back. You're fighting for that dumbass Satan, who sacrificed himself for us," They were all steel-eyed, their hearts mulling over with every word I spoke because it came from my feelings.

"These angels want to take away our freedom, take away your demon lord, kill us for all we're worth. Well, I say," I pointed to myself. "Fuck that! I'll tell you the same thing I told Maddox when I first met him. No one is gonna tell me how I live or how I die. Only I have the right to decide that," I folded my arms, wrapping everything up. "So who's with me? Who's ready to slit people's throats, burn some halos and parade in the blood of the angels?" I raised my hand, brows propped up as they all looked at each other, a bit horrified at my speech. "Come on, losers. Say it with me: fuck Tion!" I screeched and they all just pondered a moment before shrugging, realizing that they had nothing to lose.

"Fuck Tion!" 

"Fuck Tion!"

"Fuck Tion!"

I smirked at them, stepping down and walking over, opening several doors for them to exit so that they could get on their assigned saucer that was on the field above. "That's what I like to hear," I chuckled as I followed Nya to the big and round saucer that was sitting on the field, stairs ready to go. "Troy!" Someone yelled as I made it across the field, the sunny sky blinding me. "Huh?" I turned to see a crowd of the students of No Man's Land staring at me, smiles on their faces and thumbs up. "You're so cool! I wish I could be like you!" One dude in the front yelled and I raised my brow, wondering what crack he was on.

"You're so brave! Please bring the demon lord back so I can get to know him!" The blond girl next to him said and I narrowed my eyes, questioning her motive. "Please save him!" They all began to chant and I sighed, turning to face them from where I was standing. Natanya patted my shoulder with a knowing glance, entering the saucer. This was surreal how everything was so unreal. "You don't gotta tell me twice," I winked at them before turning around and getting on the sauna. Seemed like my broadcast went over really well and I had all of the confidence and faith that I needed. 

"Let's get this rolling," I said to the demon pilot whose name was Kestan. I nodded to Nya, Natanya, Hannah, and Xani, even Synthella, who all shared the same fierce glare as me. With the instant rush towards the sky, we all held our breath as we passed through the atmosphere, the tension in the air filling our bones, making us rigid as we prepared for the worst. I couldn't stop the grin that I was sporting. Soon, Maddox would be in my arms. Thus, we began our ascent to the paradise of Eden.

"All righty," I cracked my knuckles, ready to get this party on the road. I was itching to get some action and I was going to get it.

"I'll be the first to kick Tion's ass."