Nova - 🗯

Most people's hope lay in belief: praying to a deity who would save them and make everything better. But what if that deity caused them to lose hope? What if their only salvation was, in reality, their downfall?
Angels, beings biblically described as saviors, sent by their beloved deity, God. But God had abandoned them, or had shown them the true face of things. Or perhaps He grew weary of seeing so many sinners breathe freely and decided that mercy didn't come without a price.
Angels, beings two meters tall, sometimes five, roamed the world, hunting and devouring humans, destroying civilization. A Divine Apocalypse, where angels were dangerous in human eyes. Entire cities had been abandoned, ghost towns of the once-populated places they once were. Humans tried to hide in small villages, far from where angels were most frequently sighted.
And in one particular town lived Nova, a teenager who believed the adults were exaggerating, that it was stupid to bury crucifixes and silence those who prayed, as if angels could smell desperation disguised as faith. He lived with his parents, who forbade him from going out. He hated that; he wanted to go out, see an angel, prove they weren't a threat like they said, and he was going to do it.
One night, his parents were asleep and he was awake. He grabbed his backpack, packed food, water, clothes, and cameras, and left. He had managed to loosen the barricade on one of the windows. He left silently, disappearing into the deep, somber forest near the village. Once he was far enough in, he took out a crucifix, held it aloft, and began to pray what he remembered; he had been forbidden to pray so many times that he didn't even remember how to do it properly.
-What was that?
He said to himself, turning quickly at the sound of a strange, inhuman noise. He lowered the crucifix, trembling, wondering if it had been a good idea to get lost in the woods like this. He looked up and there he saw it: an angel... you.