[i]Lucien[/i] 

Chaos. Chaos and death. Lucien floated above the city, taking the break from the fighting to regain his breath. He was splattered with blood, or whatever served as the blood of the various races of Demons, and his sword dripped with it. Beneath him, humans ran or fought or hid. And died. Screams drifted up to him, and the few sounds of gunfire were being slowly silenced. While humans were the most equal out of the three, they were also the weakest. The Angels were too busy fighting for their own lives to worry about the lives of the humans, and the Demons weren't being stopped all that effectively by the few weapons they had managed to grab. The good news, he supposed, was that there were very few truly powerful Demons in the city. Four that he could sense. The Lord of Chaos, devouring those Surface Angels who challenged him. The Keeper of the Balance, though her essence was...strange. It was changing, shifting back and forth between her usual essence and the new one. Odd. The Fleshshaper, approaching the majority of the Cowards. And the final one was unfamiliar to him. It was a powerful Demon Lord, that much was apparent. But, Lucien didn't know the race or who it was. No matter. It wasn't making any move towards the fighting. 

He had lost Hazumi in the fighting, but kept her within his senses. Thus, he stumbled in midair when she suddenly [i]changed[/i]. Hazumi's essence disappeared-no, that wasn't right. It shifted, grew. It became something that he hadn't felt since the end of the Great War. Heaven's Gatekeeper. If anyone wasn't fighting for their lives long enough and listened past the sounds of combat and slaughter, they would have heard Lucien's laughter. So that's what she was! Nothing new, or strange. A vessel for the essence of the slain Gatekeeper. That explained...quite a lot, actually. Before he could revel in this unexpected turn of events, a shockwave ran through the city. Simultaneously, two Coward's essences winked out. The Lord of Chaos growing stronger, and the Fleshshaper devouring the fallen Coward he had slain. A cruel smile crossed Lucien's face and satisfaction rivaled with irritation. It was good that two cowards had died, yes, but that meant the Archangels hadn't died for their crimes. They had been slain in this battle, nothing more. 

Before he could decide which of the two Lords to kill first, he became abruptly aware of the growing amount of Demons and Cowards around Hazumi. Powerful Gatekeeper she may be, she was still his daughter. Or at least, enough of his daughter that he would protect her. So, with a flap of his powerful wings, Lucien drove himself towards Hazumi, even as her essence began to change and morph again. [i]Have to get to her, have to get to her.[/i] The thought pounded in his head, even as he dodged a winged demon's claws and eviscerated it with a flick of his blade, it's guts and body falling down on the battlefield that had once been a human city. He was within sight when the invitation pulsed throughout the city, beckoning. Which wasn't good at all. Fighting erupted between the gathered Cowards and Angels and Demons, destroying the brief moment of peace.

For a few long moments, no one touched the sword. The Lord of Chaos slowly shrunk within Lucien's senses, but didn't completely disappear. [i]Hiding? Why now?[/i] He wondered, even as the essence grew ever closer. A grim smile touched the Original's face. It wouldn't be long now.. He had just landed when another powerful being entered the world. If he hadn't been with his daughter for her final days, watching helplessly as her essence was polluted and changed, if he hadn't been with Hazumi with her subtly different essence(when he could detect it), he wouldn't have sensed the being. He would have seen the thing, easily enough. But his senses would have been..perplexed. As it was, he still didn't know what it was, but he classified it with his daughter and Hazumi before this entire mess. 

Still. He had to cut his way through a crowd of Demons and Cowards to get to it.

Demons fell, his armor was tore in various places, and his blade covered in blood once more. He pushed his way through the crowd, killing only those he who got in his way between the sword Hazumi had become and the new arrival to this lovely little Hell in the human world. Luckily for him, one of the Cowards stumbled in his path, being beaten back by a pair of Demons. For a moment, Lucien considered just letting the Archangel fend for herself. But then, he would miss the opportunity to kill the Coward. His blade flicked out again, and blocked the blow meant for the Coward. Ignoring the grateful look given to him, Lucien shoved his sword into the Demon's chest. A mistake. As he tried to pull it out, the blade got stuck as the corpse fell, and the other Demon charged into him. Claws sought openings in his armor, reaching for the flesh beneath. Pain racked down his side as those claws found his flesh. The good news was, the Demon yanked his sword free in the process of tackling him to the ground. The bad news was, there was a Demon with lots of claws on top of him and most of those claws were through the tears in his armor and digging into his flesh, and those that weren't were opening new tears in his armor. 

When he had hit the ground, his sword was knocked from his grasp. While he was reaching for it, cursing the Demon and the Gods and pretty much anything he could blame for getting in this situation, the Demon suddenly gave a shriek of pain, and fell limp upon him. The Coward pulled her sword out of the corpse, and then pulled the corpse off of Lucien(Drawing another curse as the claws were tugged out of his flesh.). Accepting her hand to help him up, he picked up his sword even as his flesh began to heal itself. Staring at her, Lucien took off his helmet. It was useless at this point anyways. It took a few moments, but recognition flared in her eyes, masked quickly. She was the youngest of the Cowards, he remembered. Couldn't have been more than twenty at the time of their experiment, their murder of his daughter. He dropped his helmet, another cruel smile crossed his face, and he shoved his sword through her leather armor, into her heart. "I told you I would kill you all." He whispered, watching as the light left her eyes. He pulled his sword free from the corpse and continued on his way.

 By the time he reached the ocean of calm where the strange being was standing, holding the sword that Hazumi had become, his armor was dented, torn, and not all of the blood that was on it came from his opponents. "Put down the sword. You don't have the right to wield it." Lucien didn't know what the being planned with it's powers, but he knew it wasn't good.