The dome suddenly burst apart. A hundred thousand angels showered the sky like particles of dust as they dispersed in a bid to flee. I stopped in mid-flight, disoriented by the throngs of angels.
Devils lashed out at all within their reach above the darkened city. They flared an intense red, appearing like hot knives flashing through the sky. Some fought in small knots, attacking in tight formations. They ripped into the fleeing angels. Hundreds died with each heartbeat. The clash and screams of the massacre hung in the air.
Just then, the sky fell.
Lucifer’s legions descended slowly, inevitably, as if the night itself came crashing down. And it came in the form of millions of fallen.
Welcome shafts of sunlight did not appear in the sky this time. Night had fallen. We had battled through the day and into the evening. In that moment, a desperate fear seized me and whispered we would never see the sun again.
I flew above the city. The devils appeared unstoppable. Gouts of flame sprayed wildly and randomly, incinerating everything it touched. Black lightning arced from tower to tower across the city, ripping and shredding those caught within its path. Blasts shook the night. The devils fought with sword and spear, swooping and striking, killing by the hundreds. The fallen Seraphim were too agile, too strong. The carnage was terrifying.
A devil spotted me and burst forth a streak of flame. Fire washed over me, engulfing me, scorching and blinding me with heat and light. I cried out in fury but did not back away. Instead, I drove headlong into the spewing fire. My cloak flared into ash and my breastplate glowed a deep red. The devil increased the intensity of the flames. It didn’t matter, it was nothing next to searing heat of my rage and I clove his head in two.
A chariot bore down on me. I let it. As it reached me, I swayed to the side and grabbed the steed’s harness, whipped it around, and hurled it at a nearby tower. Steed, chariot, and devil spun through air before smashing into brick and mortar. The tower burst from the impact and buckled over.
A javelin grazed my cheek. Grunting, I whirled on the attacker. A devil stood thirty feet away, drawing back his arm to throw another. I reached forward and visualized the devil’s neck in my hand. I squeezed. His neck crunched in the distance and his head snapped sideways at an impossible angle. I flung his body at a group of devils tossing lightning at a group of Dominions.
They focused on me. I growled, unleashing lightning of my own. Down it streaked, exploding into the group again and again, scattering their burned and smoking remains.
“Come to me!” I shouted with all my strength and my words boomed for all to hear. “I am Sariel of the Archangels! I’ll destroy you all!”
Devils dove and charged, homing in on me like bees to their hive. They came from all directions. I gathered what prana I could. It wasn’t much. I didn’t care. My anger lent me all the strength I needed.
I tucked into a ball, my knees to my chest, arms clasped around my legs. Black lightning sizzled around me but could not touch me in my cocooned state. Fire sprayed harmlessly over me.
More than a score of devils bore down on me. The nearest, in a chariot, was no more than fifteen feet away, its steed snorting flames.
I waited until the last possible moment and threw back my arms and legs, unleashing all my rage in the form of a single concussive force, raw and violent. It exploded from me radially.
The power of it blasted the chariot bearing down on me backward like an insect flicked from the air. The shock rippled outwards. Devils caught in its path were tossed like thrown stones. Towers nearby burst and toppled.
Just as quickly, the blast ceased. Rushing winds filled the void created by the explosion. Dust and debris whipped through the air, stinging the skin, distorting my vision. The light from Haniel’s few remaining orbs dimmed until there was barely any light to see by.
Breathing heavily, I braced myself for further attacks. They didn’t come. I reached out with my senses. The devils, still many in number, fell back. I didn’t need intuition to tell me why. I could hear them.
The fallen had descended at last in a curtain of darkness.
* * *
Ear shattering cries filled the night as the fallen roared their glee. They tore into our surviving angels without mercy, without restraint, swallowing any in their path like a ravenous swarm of locusts. Everywhere, fallen swooped and attacked in a mad orgy of flapping wings, thrusting spears, and hacking swords.
A mindless rage seized me. I wanted to hurt them for they did to us. I wanted it more than anything.
I darted towards the walls of our fortress. With what remaining strength I had left, I willed the wall to rise. My jaw clenched and a low growl escaped from my throat as I strained to lift it. I infused my will with all my anger, my frustration, my despair.
A great section of the wall burst and rose from the ground. It stood a hundred feet tall and hundreds of feet wide. I imagined lifting it up and swinging it over my head to slam it on the ground as if it was a massive tome slammed on a table.
The wall did as it was bade. It swooshed overhead, cutting a clean swath through the fallen swarm. Hundreds of fallen splattered against it. Down it came, smashing onto the ground outside the city. The crash split the din of battle and the screeching ceased. The ground exploded from the impact. Shockwaves surged outwards. The ground shook as if in the throes of a seizure.
“Attack him! Kill him!” Mephistopheles voice thundered through the din. “Destroy him!”
The fallen surged. A wave of darkness as vast as the ocean all bent on crushing me.
I staggered backwards involuntarily. Desperately, I tore another section of the fortress wall away, hundreds of feet wide. I lifted it like a shield. The dark wave smashed against it.
The wall burst into thousands of pieces. An avalanche of stone hailed. Devils, succubae, and other beings of power joined the fallen ranks.
Behind me, a tower stood aloft, the top section broken away. I reached out with my will and yanked it from the ground. I launched it like a missile at the endless fallen. It punched a neat hole through their ranks.
They did not slow.
With a cry I tore more towers out of the ground. Two, five, a dozen. Again and again I launched them upwards, tossing them like flung sticks. They twirled and spun and ripped through the fallen but their numbers did not shrink. It appeared to do nothing at all.
The fallen were almost upon me. My back was against one of the few towers left standing. I wrenched it out of the ground with the last of my will and raised it in the air before me like a great club. I swung it left and right into the press of fallen, swatting them aside by the hundreds, the thousands, with reckless abandon. I breathed heavily, my strength waning. Each swing was wilder than the last, each stroke infused with less power.
The fallen stopped attacking and kept their distance. I didn’t realize it at first. I couldn’t see them. The last of Haniel’s orbs had winked out minutes ago.
I reached out with my intuition. The fallen hovered just outside my reach.
My breath was ragged. My muscles exhausted. I hovered, my wings barely kept me afloat.
The tower shook as I struggled to keep it suspended. My strength gave. It crashed to the ground.
It was over. We had lost at last.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
I imagined, when the deciding moment finally came, I would simply accept it, be resigned to it. I thought it would comfort me in a surreal way, knowing the struggle was finally over. I didn’t have to fight anymore. I could find peace.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.
In that moment, I felt no peace. No resignation. Only frustration and an unquenchable thirst for justice, for revenge.
I wanted to punish them. I wanted to hurt them.
But I had nothing left.
Fatigued beyond measure, there was only one thing I could do, only one thing I longed to do with all my heart.
I limped in the direction of Iobel’s tower.
I created an a
ura of light about me and flared it. If I was to die, I would die in the light.
Thankfully, the fallen kept a wide berth and did not attack again. The light of my aura faded as I moved along, the last residue of strength seeping from me.
After what seemed an eternity, I spotted Iobel’s tower. A section along its length was shorn away but it yet stood.
I floated towards it and landed on the roof. Bodies of fallen lay strewn like toy dolls. Angelic armor littered the rooftop. An angel lay wounded, groaning, near the door that led down into the tower. Several fallen bodies lay around it. I staggered over to the injured angel and knelt beside him. It was Dirael.
The angel had a gash across his forehead and one side of his face was covered in blood. His right arm was smashed along with right wing which was nearly shorn off.
He smiled up at me. “I knew you’d come. I thought I’d wait for you.”
I pointed to the dead fallen around the smashed door. “Your handiwork?”
“I couldn’t let them reach Requel or your son.”
My head bowed in deepest appreciation. “Thank you.”
“We did well, didn’t we?” He coughed up blood.
My heart ached. I did this to him. To all of them. “I don’t see how we could have done any better.”
“I’m proud to have fought at your side.”
“The honor is mine, my friend.”
“Do you think they’ll fare well in the next life? Haniel, Shoel, Furmiel, and the others?”
“If there is any justice at all, how could it be otherwise?”
“It’s a nice thought. I’ll think on that for a while. Please see to your family.”
I nodded and moved down the steps.
* * *
I opened the door to my chambers. Requel stood there, the babe in her arms. She looked so beautiful. I wanted to melt into her.
I held out my arms. She spilled into them. I kissed her hair, her forehead, her lips then looked deeply into her eyes. I wanted to remember as much as I could before the last.
“Oh Sariel,” she whispered again and again. Tears fell from her eyes. “I prayed I would see you one last time. My prayers have been answered.”
“As have mine, my love.” I kissed her again, deeply, lovingly. I then looked into my son’s face. So pure, so innocent. His little fingers reached towards me and he smiled a toothless grin. I smiled back and stroked his cheeks. I had done what I could. It was all I could do.
I held them thus, either for a minute or an hour, I didn’t know which. And it didn’t matter. Time stood still and I wanted it to last forever.
Footsteps appeared behind me at some point. I didn’t let go when I noticed them.
“Lord Lucifer wishes to see you. All of you.”
Lucifer stood on the rooftop as I emerged with Requel and Admael. He had his hands clasped behind his back. He wore a black cuirass edged with silver and matching greaves and belt. A black cloak fluttered behind him. Only his helmet was absent.
Mephistopheles stood behind him as did Asmodeus. A contingent of devils hovered around the perimeter of the rooftop in a wide circle.
I glanced down at Dirael as I passed. His eyes were closed but he yet lived.
I walked up to Lucifer. Requel stayed at my side holding Admael.
“Hello Sariel,” he said.
“Lucifer,” I nodded in greeting.
“I feel the need to ask. Was it worth it? This senseless destruction? Because I did it all for you. We could have avoided this mess but it’s what you wanted. What kind of brother would I be if I didn’t indulge family now and again?”
“No, this is not what I wanted.”
“Ah yes. I stand corrected. I believe you wanted me dead. I believe you called me ‘dessert’?”
Mephistopheles chuckled.
So did I. “That is one word I had for you. I’ve thought of a few others since then.”
“I’m not surprised.” He nodded to Requel. “Hello my dear. It has been a long time.”
“Not long enough.”
He smiled sardonically. “I imagine not for you. Still, it is a pleasure to see you nonetheless. And this young lad must be your son. Did Sariel tell you that I offered both you and him a place at my side? That I offered to let you raise your son as you saw fit under my protection?”
“He did.”
“Well, my dear Requel, the offer still stands. If you come with me now, you may keep your child and watch him grow. Otherwise, I’m afraid you’ll have to die with Sariel. Which is it to be?”
I felt her tense. I turned towards her. She looked into my eyes. I silently pleaded for her to take Lucifer’s offer. She’d live. She’d raise Admael.
She continued gazing into my eyes, and knew what I wished for her. All I felt was love flowing from her. “My place is with my husband.”
“So be it,” he said, his voice hardening. “Mephistopheles, take the child.”
I looked down at the babe in Requel’s arms. I never saw anything so precious.
Lord God protect my son. May he grow to serve only Thee. I prayed it with all my heart.
Mephistopheles snatched Admael from Requel’s grasp. She moaned and reached for him. I gently caught her wrists and intertwined our fingers together. “Look at me,” I said softly. “Don’t take your eyes off of mine, no matter what happens.”
She looked into my eyes and nodded.
I smiled and lost myself in the endless depths of hers.
The spear thrust took me in the lower back. I grunted from the impact as it ripped into Requel. She cried out, her face in agony. Her eyes never strayed from mine.
A fetid breath whispered in my ear. “Dessert am I? How do I taste now, brother?”
The spear drove in further. Pain radiated through me. My legs buckled. I fell to my knees. Requel collapsed. I fell beside her.
She lay on her side, her head gently resting on stone. Her hair had fallen away from her face. Her eyelids fluttered and began to droop.
“Stay with me,” I whispered as my life ebbed away. They were the only words I could think of.
The words resonated strongly in my mind. I had heard them once before and I suddenly remembered where. God’s last words to me before I fell from grace.
Stay with me.
An abstract thought struck me. What were the odds that the last words I uttered in this life would be the exact same words God spoke to me? The odds were astronomical.
Stay with me.
Could it be coincidence? No. Coincidence couldn’t be that precise. Nothing could be that precise. Except God.
Something sparked within me…
Was it possible? Did God know what I was going to say?
Of course He knew, He must. He’s God.
The spark ignited into something I had not felt in a very long time. A thought filled me.
God didn’t tell me to stay with him in the Causal, to prevent me from falling. No, He knew it was beyond me. He knew I was going to fall. He meant for me to stay with Him, to keep Him in my thoughts, my deeds. To maintain my faith in Him after He let me go.
But let me go where? To do what?
To do this.
He knew. He knew! He knew I would be here at this precise moment in time. That’s why he showed me Requel. He wanted me to go to her. He wanted me to save her. He wanted me to rise up against Lucifer.
He knew my purpose was only ever to serve Him. But He knew something else too. God knew that of all the Archangels who served Him, I’m the one who claimed to have the most faith. But that was a lie. I knew it down deep in my heart, so did He, and He used my weakness to His advantage. If I had faith I would have surrendered to it. Instead I felt the need to fight, to protect those I loved, because faith wasn’t enough. Not nearly.
In this moment, facing death, I discovered the truth about myself.
I still served God. I had been doing God’s will all along. Yes, I had lost faith in God.
But God never lost faith in me.
Stay with me.
His words, so simple, were a gentle reminder to keep Him in my thoughts as I fell.
Tears sprang to my eyes.
The feeling that flared within me I had not felt in ages – I recognized it now. It’s what I forgot I had.
Faith.
In that moment near death, any burden of guilt or remorse or regret from any sin I committed lifted from me. I had reclaimed my faith. By God, I had faith again.
And I believed. I surrendered to it.
God was with me. God had always been with me. In every action I took, in every decision I made, in every step along the way, God was there. Guiding me whether I believed in Him or not.
Because He knew me. Far better than I knew myself.
But if all this was true, if God was with me this whole time, and He knew I was going to fall, then He knew that in this very moment when I need Him most, He would not forsake me, my wife, my son, and my people. I believed it with all the faith in my heart, mind, body, and soul …
A peal split the night.
Pure and crystalline, the clarion call sent shivers through me and lifted me up in waves of bliss. There was only one sound in all of God’s Creation that could do that.
The Horn of Gabriel.
“No!” cried Lucifer from behind me, his voice deep and terrible. “Not now. Not at this moment!” He launched himself from the rooftop followed by his retinue.
But I knew. By God, I knew…and I wept.
The peal sounded again.
The Hosts! The Hosts of God had come at last!
PART VI
REVELATIONS
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Light!
Glorious Light! It burst across the sky like a star being born. My eyes squinted against the sheer splendor of it.
Gabriel’s horn pealed again. Clarion and crystalline. Three notes rang across the heavens, painting the air with hope and renewal, like a gleaming rainbow after a fierce storm.
I glanced at Requel, her eyes wide and brimming. “Can it be?” she breathed.
Tears welled in my eyes. I merely smiled, bereft of speech.
Voices rose. Ever so faint at first like apple blossoms rustling in the breeze, then it grew. And with it, my resolve, my joy, my spirit.
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