The streets of New Earth drowned in red.
The humans came first—screaming, frothing, their eyes glowing with Adam's leash. They didn't hesitate, didn't think. They threw themselves at Lucifer with knives, pipes, even their bare hands.
He welcomed them.
Lucifer's shadow lashed out in jagged arcs, cutting through bone and steel alike. One sweep and three heads rolled into the gutter. A twist of his wrist and a dozen bodies burst like crushed fruit, their blood soaking into the sigil at his feet. Every drop fed the portal, every scream turned into fuel for his gate.
The mob didn't slow.
A boy no older than fifteen lunged at him with a broken glass bottle. Lucifer caught the boy's wrist and crushed it. The bottle fell, and Lucifer shoved him back into the crowd, their stampede trampling him to dust. A woman with runes burning across her arm swung a hammer down at his skull. Shadows speared her mid-swing, lifting her into the air before tearing her in two.
