The dream. I say it's a dream since it only happens when I am asleep, but still…magic. It always starts the same, but the people and content change.

  It starts with a woman’s voice. Yeah, sounds like a bad beginning to a story, I know. But as I was saying. It starts with a woman saying “This is what it means to be a Nephilim.”

  The last human city is preparing to defend itself. Actually, preparing to make the demon army pay as much as possible, before succumbing to defeat. Everyone knew this was the last stand of the humans as a civilization. The war had been long and brutal with no quarter given or asked. There could only be one winner, and after the next battle, the winners would be the Demons. The Demons had already killed the elves and dwarves, before turning their sites on the humans. The Demon Army was led by a Demon Lord, who went from city to city destroying everything. They didn’t take anything. Not slaves, not treasure, nothing. They just killed, destroyed and moved on. They didn’t even leave anyone to govern. The Demon Lord wasn’t interested in ruling, just in killing every other enlightened race. He would rule over a world of demons when he was done. Heroes quickly rose up to defend humanity and just as quickly fell. Even mighty warriors summoned from other worlds failed. The Demon Army rolled over all opposition. Nothing could stop it. Now it was coming to the last bastion of humanity. With this city gone, the Demon Army’s victory would be complete.

  Archers and mages lined the walls, readying their arrows and spells. The army was formed up near the gate. Heavy Calvary mounted and ready to ride out. Commander Valisity meets with his officers. The mood is hard to describe. Not only desperate, but depressive and resigned. The demon army is less than two miles away and outnumbers the army four to one. They could be here in less than an hour, but they had stopped at first light to wait for nightfall. They would make the humans wait for their destruction. Demons love to attack at night, when they are at their strongest. Not that it makes a difference, since they are strong enough to overpower the defenders on the brightest day. Humanity had a good run, but tomorrow morning’s sun will rise over a broken city. Nobody expects to live through the night.

  Commander Valisity looks over the battlements to see the demon army. Over 200,000 demons formed the army. All fighters. From the Demon King to the lowest cook each was a warrior. Each would partake in the destruction of the city. When the assault begins, all of them will come. Yelling and screaming, racing to bloody their claws and teeth. They would ravage the city, killing any and all living human. Man, woman, child. It doesn’t matter to the demons. Only the blood and carnage mattered to them. The remains of the human army would delay them as much as possible, killing as many as they can. Making them pay for killing off humanity and delaying the inevitable but they won’t be able to stop them. That miracle was beyond them.

  The noncombatants were in the churches, the great houses, or just hiding. Some were getting drunk in the ale houses, knowing what the night would bring. Others were engaging in carnal pursuits with desperation in the act. However, most were praying. Praying for a miracle. Praying for a god, any god, to intervene and save them. Praying the demon army would go away. Praying to be taken away to safety. They prayed and prayed. They prayed even though they knew their gods had abandoned them ages ago. They knew their prayers would be unanswered, but they prayed anyway.

  As Valisity watched the demon army begin to stir, readying itself to move out, he saw a solitary robed figure moving toward the demon army. He used his Farsight and found it was a lone human female. Besides her robe, she was dressed in a reddish-brown light leather armor, leather pants and carried a short staff. The ground was uneven and broken purposedly, to slow down the demons when they charged the city, but she moved easily as if walking on a paved road. A demon army bearing down on the last human city and she acted as if she didn’t have a care in the world.

  She stopped about a mile distant, halfway between the demon army and the city wall.

  She stared at the camp and spoke. Her voice wasn’t loud, but everyone on the wall heard her clearly. She said “I have come for you Demon King Mestiple. I am your death this day. You have broken the pact with the Nephilim, and I am here to correct your mistake. You and your army are already dead. As the last Nephilim on Merkal, it falls to me to remove you. If you have any god that will listen to you, I suggest you pray, but pray quickly, your death comes now.”

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  She pointed her staff in the air and with a raised voice said, “Meteor Storm”. She lowered her staff to point directly at the Demon King, even though he was unseen, being in his tent.

  The first meteor was small. About the size of a marble, but it left a dark trail of smoke as it sped through the sky. It hit a demon in the front of the army, killing it instantly. A second later, it was followed by hundreds more. Killing demons and throwing up dust and dirt from their impact. The camp was thrown into turmoil. Magical barriers began to appear. First over the Demon Kings tent, then other areas, as the demon mages started to cast their protection spells. Hundreds, if not thousands of demons had already been killed by the small meteors but now the barriers held.

  Turmoil reigned in the camp, but order was being quickly restored. It didn’t stay long though because the next wave of meteors began before the first finished. The meteors were larger than the first, about the three times the size. Many barriers could not hold out and collapsed when hit. These meteors caused an explosion of rock and left craters ten feet wide. Everything inside obliterated. Thousands more of the remaining demons were killed, but thousands still remained.

  Just like a storm that starts with a slow rain, and then becomes a tempest, the meteor storm increased in intensity. Overlapping with the two previous waves, basketball sized meteors hit the demon’s camp. Or rather what was left of the camp. Explosions went off every time one of these basketball meteors hit the ground. Barriers were shredded like wet paper, when impacted. Dirt, rock, demon body part all went flying, making it impossible to see what was happening inside. Each impact resulted in a crater with a fire burning in the center. The area looked like a field of hell fire pits with demon body parts scattered over the ground. Finally, the meteors stopped. It took less than 3 minutes for the meteor shower to destroy everything. What had once been lush green pasture and farmlands were now a desolate broken burning circle of land at least four miles wide. Not a living thing existed, all killed by the meteor storm.

  Everything was dead. Everything but the Demon King. The Demon King’s barrier had held throughout the storm. He looked toward the woman and laughed. “I am still alive Nephilim. You have failed. I will be back with an even stronger army, and we will kill every human on Merkal. We will hunt them down to the last and they will not die easy.”

  The woman pointed at the Demon King and then pointed up. The Demon King looked up just in time to see a meteor the size of a small carriage headed straight toward him. It slammed through the Demon King’s barrier like it wasn’t there and straight into the Demon King. It ripped apart the King and caused an explosion that send dirt and rock all the way to the city walls. Causing the defenders to seek shelter.

  The force hitting the walls was so strong, the twenty-foot-deep walls cracked, parts of it falling off. Even entire sections collapsed. Many defenders were thrown off the wall by the force of the meteor impact. Their fall caused broken bones and other major injuries.

  Dust and debris hung in the air obscuring all signs of the Demon Army. The smoke trails of the meteors still hung in the air, as Commander Valisity tried desperately to see what happened to the woman and the demon army. He had to looked away to restored order, had the healers tend to the wounded, and called for a squad of Calvary to accompany him out to where the woman was last seen. It was slow going. The ground was even more torn up that before. Traveling toward the woman, they finally saw a glowing bubble shining through the smoke and dust. The woman was alive and unhurt inside her barrier. When Valisity reached the woman, he dismounted and knelt before her.

  “I pledge to you my life, Savior. Your actions had saved us all. Whatever you want from us, we will give to you freely.”

  The woman looked at Valisity. “I want you to be good. Save the elves and the dwarves. All enlightened beings need to be united. The Demons will come again, and you need to be prepared.” she said. Then a light started to emanate from inside her. It grew brighter and brighter. Valisity swore he heard the woman say, “it’s about time.” The light grew so bright, everyone had to turn away and cover their eyes. Then the light disappeared. After images still in their eyes, they looked for the woman, but she was nowhere to be found.

  The dreams always end the same, with the woman saying “Nephilim must fight to improve, fight to live, fight to ascend. Or Nephilim die.”

  Then suddenly, I am awake. It took me a moment to gather my bearings. That was an exceptionally vivid dream.