Chapter 179 Chapter

They were mine now, they were Michael's and I had claimed each and every one that the light now touched. As I scanned the tide of faces I saw how many there were, how very many I had found, how many I was about to save. The beams of light stretched out like an incandescent spider-web and I felt everything they felt as I pulled them up out of the crowd and they rose up, following the luminescent pathway towards me. As the light absorbed them whole, I felt so elated, so triumphant and totally drunk on what I had finally managed to do, that I didn't see the demons advancing. I failed to see how they had infiltrated the crowd, how they dug their claws into the backs of the ones left behind for the next Judgement, how they whispered into their ears. I didn't see any of it until it was too late. Unable to touch me themselves, the demons did what they did best and spread their lies like a virus, which swiftly spread through the awaiting souls, infecting each one in turn and transforming faces