by Pottle, Bill
Mupiel and Alizel gave their names, experience with a sword, rank and position within the hierarchy, and other details. Numinel was very thorough (which helped to explain why the line was so long), asking questions such as how fast they could fly and which hand they wielded the sword with. Alizel guessed somehow the higher ups would use all this information to design an optimal organization for their forces.
After passing through the table, they had to wait again for an escort. When they had a group of eight angels together, a stern faced angel came to bring them to the main training center.
“Follow me,” he said brusquely, “and stay close. No one is allowed in the tunnels without supervision. That’s to make sure the map doesn’t get back to Lucifer, as well as for your own safety. If you get separated, stay where you are and call for help. Otherwise, you’ll be hopelessly lost.” He was obviously impressed with the authority of his job.
“I doubt it’s ‘hopeless,’” Mupiel whispered. “We could always fly around at full speed until we’ve tried all the possibilities and we’re bound to find the right location sooner or later.”
“It would be later,” the escort said, “much later, if at all. Even without angels actively defending them, the caverns have a myriad of traps. Walls shift, rocks fall, and well…other things you can’t know about. Other things even I, who helped to construct it, cannot know about. In fact, I only know the way to the meeting place. So without further delay, let us head there now.”
Mupiel and Alizel just glanced at each other. What kinds of things were hidden away inside these rock walls?
Their escort threw out a knotted line of rope and told them each to grab hold of it so that they would not become separated. Alizel was
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last in line, and upon entering the narrow opening, immediately felt claustrophobic. Angels were meant to soar majestically, not barely flutter their wings to float by. It helped somewhat to alternate bursts on the wings so that they spiraled through. In any event, the going was not very fast.
The pathway had been lined with a luminous moss that cast an eerie glow over the whole affair. The rock was dry and gritty, and the glow was just faint enough for Alizel to make out the basic textures of the sides. As they passed by, he saw several possible defense openings. Small slits seemed perfect for thrusting a Heaven’s Blade right down at an adversary who would be powerless to stop it. The angle was such that the blades from the defenders would come in perpendicularly, while the tunnel was not deep enough for an attacking demon to raise his sword at such an angle. A knife would work, but only a few had ever been made. Such a weapon would only be effective against an unarmed angel, for angelic swordplay was a game of speed and tactics. However, even if someone did manage to get a knife through, it wouldn’t be long enough to hit the angel on the other side.
Alizel didn’t know how long they twisted and turned, but soon he realized that even with his perfect memory, the shifting route would make it difficult to find his way back. He felt the coarse fibers of the knotted rope dig into his fingers as he grasped it tighter. This was his only lifeline.
Only once did they pass another group of angels going the other way. Alizel wondered how the caverns could accommodate two groups passing each other, but there were small branches built in where one group could wait while the other group passed. As he flew through and waved to the other group, Alizel realized how effective the branches would be for hiding an ambush.
He was quite relieved when they finally arrived at their destination. They made it to a larger area that could only be the practice field. The area was much bigger than the original entrance cavern and his feeling of enclosure lessened somewhat by gazing at the high, vaulted ceilings. The rock face was still rough, and it appeared that the angels building it hadn’t wasted time with niceties. Small groups of angels were flying all around, sparring with thin metal rods.
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They landed in the middle and bid their guide farewell. “I hope you enjoyed your brief tour of the catacombs,” he said, a glint of pride in his eye. “You are to report to Verchiel over there,” he stopped to indicate the far corner of the open space, “while I take back a group who has already finished. Good luck. Formation training is important, but after traveling through our fortress, well, I think we all know what is going to win this war.”
He was sincere in wishing them luck, but Alizel could also tell that he believed very strongly in the fortress he had helped to make. Why shouldn’t he? From what Alizel had seen so far, his pride was justified.
They made their way over to Verchiel, who was assembling angels into groups of sixty-four for training. Alizel’s group was the second to last group of eight to arrive, so they only needed to wait a few minutes for one more group to get started. When they were ready, they sat down while Verchiel addressed them.
“Welcome to formation and tactical training, my friends. Here we will teach you ways to protect each other in combat, and how to break through the formations that Lucifer is likely to use against us.” Verchiel spoke loudly, confidently. Hearing him further calmed
Alizel’s fear of being in an enclosed space.
“Many of you already know how to use a sword. This is of the utmost importance. If you do not use it well, you will fall. When you do, you will create a weakness in the formation, and put the rest in danger. If one stands, all stand.”
Certain Powers came through the group and started passing out crude metal swords. Alizel had used a Heaven’s Blade a number of times, and he immediately saw that there was really no comparison. The swords were nothing but a long metal cylinder crossed with a shorter one right above the handle. A true Heaven’s Blade was light, balanced, and fit snugly in the hand. It could be commanded with the speed of thought.
“These are your practice swords,” Verchiel continued. “You will use these until you demonstrate proficiency with them. Formations are useless if the individuals in them are weak. If one stands, all stand. Do you understand?”
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“Yes, sir!” They replied in unison. “If one stands, all stand!” They spent the next several hours in small groups practicing basic
sword fighting techniques. They went over cuts from every direction, stabs, blocks for each of the cuts, evasive flapping of the wings, and what to do from the position where both swords were locked together on the inside. It took a while for Verchiel to be satisfied, but soon even those who had never held a sword before were picking it up. After the basics were complete, they started working on more advanced techniques. They chained together blocks and strikes in powerful combinations, worked on spins and flips to evade an enemy or get to a good position on them, and spent a good deal of time on fakes and deceptive movements to trap an enemy into starting an attack where he would put himself into a vulnerable position.
Alizel already knew most of the techniques and tricks from his sparring matches with Zebub, Katel, and Uriel, but it was always good to have a comprehensive review and work with other angels. The last part of the individual combat drill was sparring. Although it certainly wasn’t the same as facing an opponent with a real live blade, it was still very helpful to work with a number of different partners. They did a bit of one on one and two on one sparring, and then broke into groups of eight where one would stand in the middle and the others would stand around him and attack him from all directions.
Once Alizel got past the terror of seeing a number of angels attacking him at once, the drill was actually fun. He had to admit that he recoiled in shock the first few times that he was touched with a blade. Even though he knew the training swords couldn’t hurt him, his memories of the ambush that led to Katel being sent to the Containment made him jumpy. His perfect memory could relive every battle, every strike, every scream as the essence of an angel was sent away. He would never forget them.
After they had rotated and given
each angel a chance in the center, Verchiel called a halt to the proceedings and had everyone gather again.
“Excellent work, my warriors.” Although Verchiel’s underlings gave compliments freely, Alizel thought it was the first time he heard
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the Power himself give one to anyone from his group. “Your skills are passable, but you must take every opportunity to hone them further. Have no illusions—those in Lucifer’s camp are doing so at this very hour.”
Alizel hadn’t thought of that before, but it made perfect sense. Of course Lucifer and his army would be practicing. He had a majority of the angels that had practiced with swords from the beginning. Their training had already been going on for several days, but as they needed no rest, they were ready for more.
“Now, it is time to train in groups.” Verchiel didn’t waste any time as he continued. He was business-like, efficient. With tens of thousands of angels to train, he could afford to be nothing less.
“Watching the seven on one sparring, I saw all of the groups naturally go into a particular formation. Can anyone tell me what that was?”
One of the angels in a group opposite Alizel raised his hand and spoke. “It was a half-sphere, sir. We surrounded the target on foot while a couple attacked him from above.”
“Yes, that is exactly correct. Yet, I did not direct any of you to make a half-sphere. Why did you do it, then?”
The angel thought for a moment and then responded. “I suppose it just made sense because that was the way we could all get at a piece of him to strike.”
Verchiel nodded, seeming satisfied. “Precisely. The half-sphere is a critical formation for combat. This is the best way to attack an individual. At the same time, it is also the best way to protect an individual or an object. Just as the half-sphere attack pattern makes use of the greatest number of vulnerabilities, the half-sphere defense formation reduces the greatest number of vulnerabilities. The other reason that I made you do the seven on one drill was so you would get the idea of what it feels like to face foes on all sides. This is a feeling I hope you never have to face in combat. If we do the half-sphere correctly, then none of us will have to face an enemy coming at us from more than one direction. If one stands…”
“All stand!” the group shouted together.
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It was brilliant, and simple. With one drill, Verchiel had not only told the angels what to do, but also let them teach it to themselves. They spent the next several hours practicing all manner of half-sphere drills, forming them of different sizes with different groups of eight. The most common formation and the one that would likely be used in battle was a half-sphere that consisted of twenty-four angels on the perimeter and eight on the inside of the half-sphere. Some were standing and some were hovering. The eight on the inside were to serve as backup in case one of the angels on the outside fell. Thus, they were assured that the other forces would not break the formation if only a few angels fell. This formation was to be used on the ground, with all of the angels on the shell facing outwards.
After the half-sphere they worked on the full sphere. The full sphere was just a natural extension of the half-sphere, but for when they were airborne. The leader of the sphere was the angel on the inside who would look out and manage the fight on all sides. It was his job to make sure that each point of the sphere was reinforced as efficiently as possible.
They covered many other variations, such as when they were backed into a corner. This was actually an advantage, since it gave less surface area to defend. They kept drilling over and over, Verchiel’s subordinates flying around the spheres and trying to trick them by sending phantom enemies from each side, and darting in and out to strike with the metal blades. Alizel’s group’s job was to practice shifting angels around to reinforce the sphere where the fighting was heaviest. It took a few hours to get it right, but soon Alizel’s confidence started rising.
This might actually work.
After the exhaustive lesson on formations, they went into different scenario drills. Angels acting as enemies came at them unawares, and they had to form up spheres of different sizes depending on the circumstances. They always tried to make one big sphere, but sometimes they would be cut off from their companions and forced to make two smaller ones. When those fell, they were forced to fight with their friends back to back.
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“Halt!” Verchiel called out when he had seen enough. He had a slightly satisfied grin on his face, but his eyes still betrayed his anticipation of the dangers ahead. “We have made significant progress. You will now return to your quarters so that the next group can be brought in. You will return here for one week every seventh week, until…well, until you receive orders otherwise. In the meantime, you must practice.”
“What should we practice, sir?” Mupiel asked from beside Alizel. “I have saved this piece of information for last,” Verchiel spoke slowly, looking each angel in the eye in turn. ‘Because it is one of the few pieces of information that we know about hate. Crossing swords with an angel is the best way I know to tell if someone is playing you false. After training with you lot, I believe that you will all be true to God. What we have seen so far of the enemy is that although hate can make them nearly as strong as God’s Energy, it also tends to make them reckless. Spend no more than ten percent of your time focusing on offensive skills. Spend the majority on blocking and countering, and faking. Remember, due to the lethality of the Heaven’s Blade and the speed at which even those filled with hate may strike, the angel who bides his time and evades and counterattacks simultaneously will have the better chance of winning. Spend most of your time on
this.”
With these last few words a different angel came to get them. They spread their hands once again on the knotted rope, and were soon back at the entrance.
The return journey had been a blur. Alizel was nearly lost in thought thinking of what horrors were awaiting them on the day that Lucifer finally decided to strike.
That day didn’t come the next day or the day after that. Things continued to be much the same in Heaven. For his part, Alizel wasn’t sure if this was really a positive development at all. If he didn’t catch himself, sometimes he wondered if the waiting wasn’t worse than an actual battle. It was nearly killing him on the inside to sit and do
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nothing, knowing that at any minute Lucifer’s armies could strike. However bad the waiting was, though, he knew that the actual fighting was going to be worse. Much worse.
At least they had not squandered the time. He had made three more visits to the caverns to train, and the armor production was in full swing. Alizel had even received a set of silver arm guards and a matching breastplate. Azazel had really outdone himself on the swords, and most of the army had them now.
Putting on the armor calmed him. It wasn’t that it offered foolproof protection. Without a full set, Alizel would be lucky if it deflected even a glancing blow. It was more the feeling of putting the armor on. The protectors covered his body with a warm glow, the essence of the Father, and it was comforting to have it so compacted and close. Although he felt Him around at all times, it was a thin, mist-like feeling, nothing like approaching Him or feeling His essence infused into the armor. The first time he put it on, Alizel couldn’t help shudder with the thought of what it felt like to be touched with a sword, again remembering the fear shooting through his being during the ambush that had nearly claimed his own life along with Katel’s. He had only heard screams from angels sent into the Containment, but whether the screams were from the sensation of the blade itself or from the agony of transitioning into another state of existence, he neither knew nor cared to find out.
He was training in the gardens by himself when it finally happened.
The gardens of Heaven had deteriorated during the rebellion
. Angels no longer could afford to casually stroll down the paths, listening to trees gently swaying and gazing into streams of shimmering crystal. There were too many spots open for ambush, too many ways to separate an angel from his companions and attack him before he knew what was happening. The flowers, which previously had displayed beauty untold, bursting forth in brilliant shades and hues that no human eye would ever behold, were now dull and listless, seeming to reflect the moods of those around them. The unbridled joy of years past was truly no more than a memory.
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Alizel heard a movement behind him in the brush and spun with the speed of thought. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw that it was only Uriel, but his relief evaporated as quickly as it had arisen upon seeing his grim visage.
“I’ve been looking all over for you.” His voice and body were tense. “We need to report to Mt. Zion and form up immediately.”