by Brian Godawa
Thamaq did not appear confident of his question, fishing for the truth with a bluff.
The Karabu never left their underground city. Only a few bands like Enoch’s ever travelled outside of the Sahand area of Eden. So only rumors and legends ever traversed the land about the secret order. There was no way that information was going to be drawn out of any of the team — even under torture.
“Very well,” said Yahipan, “torture them.”
The Nephilim guards turned to escort the prisoners away.
Yahipan added, “But keep them alive. I want the leader and his whore for myself.”
Methuselah and Edna cringed. They could only imagine the horrors he had in store for them.
“Halt, Nephilim,” said Thamaq.
The Nephilim obeyed.
“What would the Council of the Didanu advise?” said Thamaq.
Yahipan grimaced with anger. He did not want anything slowing down his plans for the two maggots.
The conjoined twin Rephaim, Sidan-and-Radan, spoke first. When they did, they spoke in synchronization. It was as if they shared not merely their middle body but also a consciousness. “We have heard the legends of the Karabu,” said Sidan, “but it seems to us mere exaggeration,” concluded Radan.
“We do not have time for such trivialities,” said Taruman. “The die is cast. The furnace is stoked. There is no turning back.”
What were they talking about? wondered Methuselah. What strategy had these creatures of damnation implemented? What diabolical madness have we happened upon?
Yahipan tried to conclude the discussion. “I will extract what I can from them and meet up with you with any important intelligence.”
“Be gone with them,” said Ulkan with the wave of his hand. “We have a war to conduct.”
A war? What war? thought Methuselah.
The team of giant killers wondered what devastation was about to be wrought upon the land as they were led out of the banquet hall in chains.
Chapter 40
Methuselah hung by chains on the dungeon wall. He had already been beaten but kept in one piece for Yahipan. Edna lay chained to a mating altar, used for the Sacred Marriage rite. Lamech and Betenos were in the next room in their own bonds.
Yahipan sat before them, staring at Edna.
“I care nothing for the Karabu,” said Yahipan. “I have no interest in extracting useless secrets of some sneaky order that exists in the fantasy and rumors of desperate and hopeless slaves.”
For the first time in their lives, Methuselah and Edna were really and truly afraid.
“No, little worm,” Yahipan said to Edna, “I am not even going to torture you.”
He paused for effect. “I am going to impregnate you and the other wench, and you will carry a Naphil in your belly till you burst at its birth and it eats your corpse. You will bear my offspring, then you will die. And I will have satisfaction.”
Methuselah struggled to free himself from his chains. It was completely futile, but he tried anyway. He would die trying.
Yahipan smiled at him. “You, I will do interesting things with. I have never forgotten the day you gave me this limp. I have plotted all these years what I would do if I could only find you again. I have some ideas I have been waiting for the right opportunity to experiment with. What a pleasure to discover I can do them also to your own son as you watch. Yes, I will have satisfaction.”
Yahipan stood up and limped over to Edna. He leaned down close to her and sniffed in deeply her scent. Then his sandy lizard-like tongue licked her face for a foretaste. Edna cringed and almost vomited.
Methuselah had no idea how he could possibly get out of this predicament. He did the only thing he could do at that moment; talk. Any amount of talk brought the tiniest delay that might result in some kind of miraculous opportunity. At least, that was his faint hope.
“Nephilim — w-were outlawed,” he stuttered through his pain. “Why did the gods allow them to build a city?”
Yahipan considered the question, and then slowly smiled. Perhaps additional knowledge would increase the pain as well, knowing the juggernaut they could not stop.
“Oh, there is more than one city,” said Yahipan. “The Gigantomachy was a hoax. It was a ruse ordered by the gods to draw attention away from their true plans; to build an army of Nephilim in Bashan, and train them thoroughly for the battle of all battles.” He paused again for dramatic effect.
“A war on Eden.”
The words hit Methuselah and Edna hard. And sank deep. They knew the reason without Yahipan needing to finish.
“We are going to storm the Garden, destroy the Cherubim, and capture the Tree of Life,” said Yahipan.
The consequences of this plan horrified Methuselah. A malevolent race of giants with the power to live forever would reach heights of evil he could not even imagine. They would be invincible in their might and omnipotent in their rule.
“How?” asked Methuselah. “The guardians…” he sought to finish his question.
Yahipan interrupted him, “Those guardians have a weakness. The gods cannot invade because their own kind, the heavenly host, outnumber them overwhelmingly. And earthborn humans cannot enter because of the Cherubim sentinels. That is why the Watchers bred the Nephilim. Nephilim are a hybrid of angel and human, a creature that exists simultaneously between heaven and earth. We can achieve collectively what our genetic sources cannot individually. And our numbers are legion.”
Suddenly, it all came clear to Methuselah. Years before, when they had killed the pack of Nephilim in the mountains of Aratta, he had wondered where their strange armor had come from and whether they were a part of a horde. Their strange armor was the insignia of this Baalbek army. They had killed a band of Nephilim scouts on a reconnaissance mission, gathering intelligence of the land surrounding Eden for their planned invasion. Enoch and his band of giant killers had stumbled upon the plan and had never realized it. And now they were about to be tortured and executed for getting in the way.
A rap on the dungeon door Yahipan’s impatience. “What is it?!” he yelled through clenched teeth.
The door opened. A soldier saluted and announced, “My lord, the goddess Inanna demands your presence at the mustering. They are about to begin the march.”
“Son of Belial!” he cursed. “I told her I was occupied.”
Yahipan might be angry at the inconvenience, but he responded immediately. One did not trifle with Inanna’s will. She once struck a high Rephaim dead for a delayed appearance before her. Yahipan turned to leave the room, but stopped, and turned back to his prisoners.
“I am going to inquire of my god. Now is your chance to inquire of yours. You might want to ask him why he cannot save you. But then I doubt he can even hear you.”
Yahipan left them alone.
Methuselah admitted to himself that the thought had crossed his mind. Edna had been praying the entire time. They both knew that Elohim owed them nothing. Every breath of life was already undeserved. Elohim gives and Elohim takes away. Blessed is the name of Yahweh Elohim.
Simultaneously, Methuselah looked up and Edna stopped praying.
The soldier had not moved. He did not leave them or even close the dungeon door. He stared at them, at Edna. Methuselah could not believe their bad luck. Nephilim knew full well that to violate a Rapha mating was instant death. But these monsters were so driven by their lusts that they would risk everything for a taste of forbidden pleasure.
The soldier walked up to Edna and took off his helmet.
It was the familiar face of Ohyah. Only it was not Ohyah, it was his brother Hahyah. He began to unlock the chains that held down Edna.
“We do not have much time. When Yahipan discovers Inanna did not summon him, we will have them both after us.”
It confused Methuselah. “Your brother betrayed us. Are you now betraying him?”
“No. He is freeing your compatriots right now.”
Edna asked, “But why do you help us?”
“Then why treason?” asked Methuselah.
Hahyah finished releasing Edna. He moved to unclasp Methuselah’s chains. “I had dreams from your god Elohim not unlike my brother’s. It was a garden of two hundred trees being watered. I believe these were the Watchers who came down from heaven, the gods. As their roots grew, the water flooded the forest and suddenly the garden became ablaze with fire and the water evaporated. I kept getting this dream night after night. And I knew it was judgment upon the Watcher gods. Then I heard of the prophet Enoch and of his condemnation of the gods. I knew the time was at hand. So when my brother finally found me, I discovered he too had been visited by your god.”
He finished releasing Methuselah. Edna leapt into her husband’s arms.
“Wait a moment,” said Methuselah. “You said you heard of Enoch’s condemnation?”
“We had received word that Enoch and some archangels had entered the cosmic mountain Hermon, and stood right in the midst of the council of the gods who could not touch them. He prophesied and it was said he was translated into heaven on a fiery chariot.”
Methuselah and Edna looked at each other with hope in their hearts and smiles on their lips. If this rumor was true, Elohim surely had a sense of irony.
“The gods are mustering their armies for war on Eden as we speak. Inanna is the Commander in Chief and the Rephaim Council of Didanu are the generals.”
Of course, thought Methuselah. Why did it not surprise me that Inanna was the force behind this atrocity?
Ohyah and the freed Lamech and Betenos arrived at the door.
“We have no time. We must leave now!” barked Ohyah.
• • • • •
Yahipan quickly made it to the command center by the gates of the city. He limped his way past the security detail with swift recognition. When he arrived at Inanna’s tableau, she stood finalizing her plans with Enki and Utu who would accompany her leadership of the forces.
Enlil had refused to be there as one of the gods under her command. Their long lasting feud over the control of the city of Nippur was known to all. She had managed to seize popular support if not political status through her machinations. If she succeeded in this campaign, she would most likely imprison Enlil in the earth and turn Nippur from the religious center of Shinar into the capital of an empire with herself at the top. Yahipan wondered if Anu had thought through the predictable consequences and whether he had prepared for such a coup.
Yahipan limped before the gods and knelt in fealty.
“My gods, Queen of heaven,” he said.
Inanna turned to look at him. He noticed a distinct lack of expectation in her face. In fact, she looked annoyed, wondering why she was being interrupted.
“What now, Hobbler?” she exclaimed impatiently. She called him that in derision because of his persistent limp, an ongoing sign of weakness and reminder that he had been hobbled by a pathetic human.
She was not expecting him.
In that moment, Yahipan knew he had been duped by that piece of baboon excrement down in the dungeon.
“Forgive me, your majesty, I only wished to alert you to the fact that my forces are ready to bring up the rear guard.”
It distracted her. “Good, do not slow us down, Hobbler, or we will leave you in the dust. Be gone with you.” She turned back to her plotting.
Once Yahipan was out of Inanna’s sight, he barreled full force back to the palace dungeon. He accommodated his handicap using a skipping movement that maximized his speed when running. Unfortunately, it made him look like a jackrabbit scampering through prickly bush. All he could think of was figuring out how a Naphil could possibly agree to engage in treason. Whatever the case, he would immediately kill the males and impregnate the females without further ado.
• • • • •
Ohyah and Hahyah led the four giant killers through the dark dungeon hallways up toward the surface. They dodged and hid in the shadows, avoided personnel, and only had to kill one Naphil guard who happened upon them by accident.
Methuselah hounded Ohyah with questions.
“How many Nephilim troops are mustered?” he asked.
“Thirty thousand.”
Thirty thousand Nephilim storming Eden? “Are the other Watchers joining the battle?” said Methuselah.
“No,” said Ohyah.
“Why would Elohim not send his heavenly host right now to stop it?”
“Because the other Watchers have employed the satan to prosecute a lawsuit in the heavenly court at the same time. So the Sons of God are required as witnesses and counsel. It was all a diversion.”
That did not quite add up to Methuselah or anyone in the group. They were not familiar with the bureaucracy of the divine council and the legal procedures that Elohim used to procure justice. They had to trust that what Ohyah was saying was true, since he had been privy to the Watchers’ plot as a son of Semjaza. They concluded that if it was not true, he would have just let them suffer their fate at the hands of Yahipan.
• • • • •
Yahipan made it to the dungeon. He discovered what he had feared most: the open doors and empty dungeon cells. He found a security detail of four guards and barked orders for them to follow him. The prisoners had escaped.
He tracked the smell of their sweat upward. He had become very acquainted with Edna’s scent. It had aroused him like none had before. He would find them. It was only a matter of moments.
They stumbled upon the dead Naphil and continued on, knowing they were close.
• • • • •
Methuselah continued his questions with Ohyah as they climbed the palace hallways toward the roof.
“How far is Baalbek from Eden?” he asked.
“About two hundred and thirty leagues.”
It would take a normal army twenty days to march that distance at a fast pace. But this was not a normal army. It was a Nephilim fighting force that could run all day with packs on their back. It would take them a third the time, perhaps seven days to make it to the perimeter of Paradise. How long then to defile it and raze it to the ground?
Methuselah felt sick. “We have to get to Eden to warn the Karabu.”
• • • • •
Below them, in the long passage, Yahipan figured it out. They were going to the roof. But why? To cast themselves off? Why did they not try to find the tunnels beneath the city? It did not matter. They would all be dead or raped soon. The Nephilim behind him had all their senses tuned in for the kill.
• • • • •
The two giants and four humans arrived at their destination, the top of the palace building overseeing the entire city. They ran to the ledge and looked out onto the plain. An awesome and frightening sight spread out before them. Thirty thousand armed Nephilim warriors filled the valley, preparing to march to war.
Trumpets sounded. A series of eerie drones blown through dragon horns created an unearthly sound befitting an unearthly horde.
The Nephilim started their march — or rather, their long distance race. One by one, huge sections of the multitude poured forward like a tsunami wave of titans.
That is what this holocaust is, thought Methuselah, a Titanomachy that will make the Gigantomachy of the past look like cub’s play.
“We cannot possibly outrun the Nephilim,” cried Lamech.
“We are not going to outrun them,” answered Ohyah. He turned and produced a screeching birdcall, unlike anything Methuselah had heard.
“We are going to out fly them,” added Hahyah.
Methuselah realized that he had heard that sound once before.
A reply screech drew their eyes into the blinding center of the sun. Out of that brightness, six large Anzu birds dropped directly toward the palace. It was the family of the Anzu bird that Ohyah had broken at the World Tree in the desert.
The Anzu landed on the rooftop. Each of the escapees got on one. The feathered felines were huge, twice the size of even the giants. They could easily carry the passengers. It would be harder for the passengers to stay on, however.
So Elohim did work all things to his own purposes, thought Methuselah. Even the Anzu bird. But what about this army of darkness assembled before them on the plain?
Yahipan burst through the rooftop access with his four Nephilim. He spotted the escaping prisoners.
The Anzu birds lifted off the roof.
Methuselah’s was the last to take off. It moved just a second too late. Yahipan leapt and grabbed its hind talons. Rephaim had iron vise grips. He was not going to let go until he sent them all plummeting to their deaths.
Methuselah’s Anzu bird lost its balance. It zigzagged a course over the Nephilim on the roof.
Yahipan smirked to himself. I have you now, Methuselah. No last second escape this time.
Yahipan focused on how he would grab Methuselah. He did not see Edna’s Anzu bird circle back.
It clamped its lion jaws on Yahipan’s strong leg.
Yahipan screamed.
He let go of the leg of the bird Methuselah rode. The biting Anzu bird let go of him at the same time. He was only about ten cubits above the roof, so he landed with a concussive thud. But he survived — and so did his burning desire to spend the rest of his life hunting down Methuselah and his little slut.
“AHHHH!” he screamed. He grabbed his leg, bleeding profusely from the wounds created by the Anzu fangs. Now both his legs were wounded. He belted out another curse of anger and wrapped up his wound. How was he going to hide this from Inanna now?
The Anzu birds ascended vertically, to reach their maximum height as quickly as possible. They leveled off and flew in formation higher than any mountain in the region.
Methuselah saw the waves of charging Nephilim far below. They looked like an army of termites. He could not imagine how Eden would withstand this onslaught. He only hoped they would not be too late.
He glanced at Edna, flying beside him. They shared a smile. Ohyah and Hahyah led the group, with Lamech and Betenos taking up the rear. It was as if the birds intuitively understood all the relationships in the group and lined up to match them. Methuselah calculated that at this height and speed, it would take them less than a day to reach the Sahand and alert the Adamite Karabu. It was their only hope in a hopeless situation.