Power :: ULTRAKILL

Set within the world of ULTRAKILL, a bit of background is required before we can really delve into the essence of this angel. Humanity is extinct, the machines they left behind are invading Hell, and God disappeared well before the events of the game. After God vanished, Heaven found itself in a state of turmoil. From the holiest among them, they formed the Holy Council. The Council set about reestablishing order, but blind faith often turns to zealotry when deprived of its purpose. Without God to guide them, they fell prey to the same thing that all institutions of power do: corruption. Power isn’t really aware of the full scope of that, it just knows that its brethren can’t be relied upon by any measure.

Powers are a type of lesser angel spawned from zealous and enduring human souls upon their death. While other lesser angels such as Virtues are often ordered to patrol Hell or monitor the layers to ensure that punishment is being met, Powers are at their best when they are set in a single area to govern and guard it. More often than not, they are bound to sacred spaces or relics, both of which they will guard with every fiber of their being. After the disappearance of God, the Powers did not return to Heaven. They had things to guard, and it was not their nature to panic at the loss of the Father like the rest of their kind. No, all of them are stalwart in their willingness to stand watch. This turned out very badly for them because a vast majority of the things that they protected were kept on Earth. When humanity went extinct and the machines ran amok, most Powers were slaughtered in the process for their blood. Not because they are weak, but because they were faced with a legion of chaos and a hail of gunfire with absolutely no backup.

Some are still around, but they are unhappy with Heaven’s priorities and thus have cut contact with their skyward brethren as a whole. Like this one. Power has no name to differentiate itself from other Powers; it does not seek any sort of individualism beyond its purpose. It does, however, have a massive chip on its wings against Heaven for not intervening to safeguard the Father’s temples on Earth. As far as it is concerned, the machines would not be ripping their way through Hell and using sinners as blood bags if they had simply stopped the problem at the source instead of letting it fester like this. The chaos that ensued with the loss of the Father can only be used as an excuse so many times. There were so many choices that could have been made. Why focus on the punishment of sinners, when the focus could have been on preserving the Father’s holy places? What of His artifacts, and His will? What of the temples His creation built for Him, and the praises they sang?

Filthy Holy Council. Unfilial brothers in Heaven. Profane things. Hark, for it will not abide.

Power is not an angry angel by nature. But it is very proactive in its defense of the last Earthly treads of God, and it will attack anyone foolish enough to approach the area it is guarding on sight. Because it has lost its faith in its fellow angels, there is no one it will spare, except perhaps those rare beings that have a bit of humanity’s spark about them. It protects the Sea of Galilee, though the lakebed has gone dry and the holy river that once fed it runs no more. Such is the fate of most of Earth’s surface water, truth be told. It is a husk of a planet. It doesn’t matter to Power. It just... wants to protect what’s left. That said, though, there is actually something worth defending in what was once Galilee’s lakebed. Beneath the rubble of a gigantic structure whose shape has been lost to time lies the Ark of the Covenant, weirdly enough. The logistics of how it wound up there aren’t really important, just that it is there, and Power will obliterate anything that comes close in an effort to safeguard it. There’s no real reason to. The Ark is not as powerful as it was claimed to be. It is not as though the world will end if it were destroyed. But it is an expression of the Father, and so it deserves to be kept safe.

Appearance-wise, Power is everything that comes to mind when one visualizes an angel: majestic, regal, celestial in nature. It is inhuman; there is nothing recognizably organic about it. The main body is composed of translucent crystal in the shape of an hourglass. The top half is a diamond, while the other half has a vague sword shape that makes the angel look incredibly imposing. Starlight glistens within the glass, shimmering in every color imaginable within the light of its wings. The inside of the crystal is hollow, and it is filled with a bright teal liquid that swirls in a vortex between the two halves. Four crystal prongs float about Power’s middle, and they can be moved independently to skewer foes. They are tipped with sharp gold razors that appear decorative at first glance. A pointed halo of gold floats above the tip of Power’s top half; it is rather spartan in its design. A ring of gold girds the middle of Power’s hourglass, protecting its weakest point. Power’s wings are fearsome things, for they are an impossibly bright spiral of sea green flame. They swirl as they simmer, glowing with pure plasma. Their wings have no feathers to speak of. Power’s wings end in a pair of hands at the bottom, and they are entirely functional. Whether or not the things that they grab burn is really up to Power and how it feels about what it’s holding.

Expect combat to be a herculean task. Power cannot feel pride; it is unlikely to fall prey to the trappings of angelic ego that others might. It cannot be enraged, for it does not have anything to prove. Its earnest wish to defend is the only thing that drives it forward. Power will never weigh threats accordingly; it will react to all intrusions upon its holy territory with supreme force. It does not bother with warning shots; it attacks outright. Power is perfectly visible within its territory, so anything that gets close enough to be in its aggro range is probably something that’s looking for a tussle anyway. As an angel, it has access to a decent number of abilities. It can call down both vertical and horizontal beams of light with divine spell circles, and it doesn’t need to focus long to conjure either. It can even do four at once in a cross formation. Power has learned to be unpredictable with the use of its light, and it goes out of its way to attack sporadically. When Power is sufficiently damaged, it can flip upside down like an hourglass for a short amount of time to reverse the damage it has suffered and heal itself. This doesn’t make it unkillable, but so long as there is liquid remaining within its crystal, it can do this indefinitely.