The pilot and gunners responded simultaneously, the former pitching the helicopter sideways. The latter briefly ceased firing as they found the threats – then opened up again. More rounds ripped through metal, and the men crouching behind it. Wu felt another surge of cruel satisfaction as bodies were flung backwards amidst flying shrapnel. Their fancy armour may have made the Nephilim invulnerable in ancient times, but it was useless against modern weaponry.

One gunner sent his stream of bullets after the other warriors, catching a giant in the back, but the rest leapt over the side to take cover beneath the fortress. The danger they posed had just risen hugely, Wu knew; the dragon was so large they could reappear from anywhere and shoot before the miniguns could target them. ‘Pull back and land,’ she barked. ‘Ground troops, get ready!’

The Z-20 drew away from the fortress. As Wu had predicted, a warrior emerged from under its tail section and fired his weapon. The sizzling energy burst shot past, missing by a metre. Wu held on as the aircraft pulled up sharply to land behind a building, then threw open the main hatch. ‘Move out!’ she shouted, grabbing a rifle. ‘Flanking positions, keep in cover – and if any of those monsters shows its head, blow it off!’

The hammer blows on the hull warned Gadreel he was running out of time. The humans were attacking from their flying machine; soon they would begin a ground assault.

He readied the vimana-kal as much as he could, but, like its parent craft, it needed the touch of a priestess and the resurrection key to bring the crystal at its heart fully back to life. He ran back into the throne room. Chaos greeted him. The clamorous assault had stopped, but the room had been devastated by the humans’ weapons. One warrior had lost his legs, the wounded man moaning and twitching near the altars where he had crawled on a trail of blood. Gadreel could not spare him more than a pitying glance as he rushed to the mausoleum stairs, Zan following hesitantly.

Below, he saw the first of the newly woken Nephilim, bleary and confused from their revival. ‘Sidona, I need you in the vimana-kal. How many more have you awoken?’

‘Another ten,’ his wife replied. ‘I can still wake more—’

‘It will have to do. Come, quickly! You, Zan – bring the tracker.’

Zan regarded the heavy machine with dismayed resignation. ‘Yes, my lord.’

Sidona hurried to her husband, bearing the key. He led her towards the smaller craft. She gasped at the sight of the wounded man. ‘Their weapons – they are too powerful! We cannot stand against them!’

‘We can,’ Gadreel growled. ‘They are like everything human – crude and savage. But we have a power they do not, and we will use it to turn their own weapon against them!’