Castiel's immediate superior was laughing to his heart's content, but Castiel only grew more solemn. "But the Lord taught us that all beings should be given the right to choose."
Zachariah was deeply displeased whenever Castiel invoked the Lord to pressure him, but the angel was far too calculating to show it. He calmly explained.
"I did give them the right to choose! The Winchester brothers could have refused the Colt. They could have turned a blind eye to the vampires, but they still chose to get involved. The vampires could have kept quiet and refrained from retaliating against humanity, yet they still chose the most extreme response. What does any of that have to do with me? Did I force the Winchester brothers, or did I force the vampires?"
Zachariah smiled. "Neither, right? Every choice was their own. They volunteered to stand on Heaven's side, and Heaven is perfectly willing to share the joy of victory with them. All of this was within the Lord's expectations."
Several archangels had personally concealed the trail, and the whole affair was separated from Bella by several layers of indirection. Even though Bella was highly sensitive to hidden matters, she noticed nothing unusual.
The night sky was beautiful. New York was already a city that never slept, and tonight's explosions and gunfire only made it even noisier. Bella sat on a rooftop with a famille-rose tea set painted with dragons and phoenixes before her. Imitating the Ancient One, she sat facing south, slowly sipping tea while observing the entire battlefield.
Wall Street might be famous, but it was actually only 500 meters (about 1,640 feet) long and 11 meters (about 36 feet) wide, with just seven blocks from end to end. The Hulk could fart Nick Fury from one end to the other. It was absolutely tiny. Underground, however, Wall Street was vast.
The banks, insurance companies, and railroad companies were all secretly controlled by vampires, who had dug out a spiderweb-like underground kingdom beneath the streets.
The underground world covered most of Manhattan, along with parts of Queens and Brooklyn.
Seeing that the enemy had begun to counterattack, with demons now mixed among the vampire ranks, Bella ordered Bruticus into battle.
With Onslaught forming the torso, the five Decepticons rapidly combined. Bruticus sprinted several steps forward, lowered his head, and extended the barrels of the cannon battery on his back more than ten meters (about thirty-three feet), firing a shot beneath Federal Hall National Memorial.
Boom! Dust billowed everywhere. Underground stone, vampires, and even bioengineered humanoids were blasted to pieces by the shot. The tremendous shock wave even overturned the memorial aboveground.
Because the explosion had occurred underground, the sound was somewhat muffled.
Even so, the nonstop gunfire and explosions alarmed New Yorkers. Many residents called the police, who reported the abnormal explosions to the National Guard. And then? Then nothing happened.
Old Willy, who had been sleeping at home, suddenly sat bolt upright. Flecks of golden light glimmered in his eyes. He then used his personal connections with several of the president's aides to unilaterally intercept New York City's report.
To open a passage between the surface and the underground world, Bruticus stood atop a nearby high-rise and fired repeatedly down at Wall Street.
Federal Hall National Memorial and the New York Stock Exchange were both within his firing range. The already small area was hammered by high-energy cannon fire, blasting several bottomless craters twenty meters (about sixty-six feet) across into the ground. Wall Street was reduced to a wreck, and even the Charging Bull in Bowling Green was shattered by the blast waves.
Once the passage between the surface and the underground world had been completely opened, even more bioengineered humanoid soldiers carried firearms loaded with silver bullets and launched a fierce assault belowground.
They used the firing-line tactics of early modern Europe and showed no fear of sacrifice. Like a moving wall, they fired, advanced, fired again, and advanced again, steadily compressing the vampires' room to maneuver.
Ratatatat! Gunfire never stopped. The vampires were hardly defenseless. Those entrenched beneath Wall Street were elites from the various clans, formidable in speed, strength, and combat skill alike. Silver weapons were a weakness, but under cover of night they still slaughtered the bioengineered humanoid forces with abandon.
One squad even rushed out of the tunnels, circled around to the flank, and launched a fierce attack on the humans commanding the battle from the surface.
Their idea was simple: turn those humans into vampires, then completely paralyze Bella's command structure.
"Die, short-lived one!" A vampire whose face was wreathed in black energy spotted an opening. Using his great speed, he shook off several bioengineered humanoid warriors trying to intercept him. He even possessed a little spell-like ability, changing direction several times in midair as he streaked toward a human commander like lightning.
Once he came within three meters (about ten feet), before he could even reach for the human commander's neck, an iron fist suddenly appeared at the edge of his vision!
A Tyrant with a dark blue-green face sent the vampire flying with one punch, then advanced with heavy steps and threw another punch at his head.
The vampire was faster and tried to shake off the Tyrant, but his opponent had astonishing combat instincts and tremendous strength. Even a vampire with powerful regeneration did not dare take one of those punches head-on, and the battle immediately fell into a stalemate.
This was far from an isolated fight. All the Tyrants in Weyland's possession had been activated. A full twenty of them rampaged across the battlefield, killing every vampire in sight. Several even plunged underground and began hunting down vampires trying to flee.
Sweet, wine-like, delicious humans were right in front of them, but several vampire experts were blocked by the Tyrants and could not advance a single step.
"What the hell are these things?" Deacon Frost, leader of the young vampires, had planned to lead his men in a surprise attack, only to be blocked by a Tyrant at an intersection on Wall Street. A fierce battle immediately broke out. Frost's strength was about equal to the Tyrant's, while his speed was a notch higher, so he had already gained a clear upper hand. Even so, he felt no joy at all.
To a vampire, this Tyrant smelled a little better than the bioengineered humanoids, but only a little. It still reeked of a sour stench.
"Die!" Deacon Frost tore open the Tyrant's neck. From throat to chest to abdomen, he ripped away muscles as hard as steel with brute force. On the bones beneath, which had been completely transformed by the bio-organic virus, countless writhing little tendrils immediately sprouted, seemingly trying to regenerate the muscle that protected its internal organs.
Even Deacon Frost, who had seen plenty in his life, was startled. Which one of us is the monster here?
That moment of hesitation gave the Tyrant its chance.
Protecting its organs and preserving its own life were merely the instincts of the cells in its body. Killing the enemy was the Tyrant's mission. Its utterly cold eyes locked onto Deacon Frost's neck.