by Brian Godawa
“Children of the Watchers, progeny of the gods! If ever you listened to me, give ear to me now, I plead with you. First, I beg your indulgence. I know I have pushed each and every one of you beyond what any god has ever asked of their servants. I know that you are hungry, exhausted, and strained to your limit. I know that many have paid the price with their lives. And for that my heart bleeds. I feel your pain. The life of one warrior is the life of all.”
A low base rumbling chant of agreement interrupted her. It was the horde’s way of uniting in morale. The thought flitted through her mind that perhaps she had finally become Anu’s equal. His oratory was impressive, but she doubted he could inspire as she was now doing.
She continued, “But today marks an achievement unheard of in the annals of history. And you, my horde, are the titans who have risen to prove your worth of becoming gods!”
The horde rumbled again in affirmation.
“We are on the verge of a war the likes of which will change the world forever. And we are the agents of change. We are the ones we have been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”
She paused again for dramatic effect. And she received it. The ground vibrated from the noise of the Nephilim.
“We are about to occupy the Garden of the mountain of God. This god, who was born with a golden spoon in his mouth, this deity who claims to own everything and leaves nothing for the ninety-nine percent of the rest of us, we are about to show him who is god!”
She paused for another moment of rumbling before finishing.
“You are about to storm a fortress guarded by mighty Cherubim. I know you are exhausted. I know you have been worked to the bone. I know you barely have anything left to give to this campaign because you have given all you have and more. But I ask you this one thing. When you are crossing the lake, when you are climbing the rocks, when you hear the horns of war bid you attack, when you find yourself battling the evil Cherubim, when you have reached the end of your strength and have nothing left to fight with, just remember one thing: tomorrow you will taste of the Tree of Life and you will be gods, and you will tire no longer -- for you shall live forever!”
The horde rumbled yet again. They caught the spirit of the moment. She knew no amount of exhaustion could quench their strength in the light of that hope. And she was proud of her ability to lie through her fangs with every single word she spoke.
Chapter 51
Methuselah woke. He looked around with curiosity, squinting at the morning light. Their sentinel wolves were gone. The people of the village were also gone. Methuselah, Lamech, and Betenos had been left all alone. It did not fit with the way they had been treated up until that moment. He tried to figure out what trick was being played on them. Did they want their prey to escape? To hunt them down like rabbits, to make the feast more enjoyable?
Methuselah’s searching gaze passed over the bush next to him.
Uriel the archangel stood there.
“What are you doing here?” asked Methuselah. Lamech and Betenos jerked their heads up to see Uriel step out in front of them.
“You sound disappointed,” said Uriel. “Would you rather I leave?”
“Praise Elohim,” said Betenos. “I knew he heard our prayers.”
“Great. But are you not here to miraculously free us?” said Methuselah.
“Oh no,” said Uriel. “I was sent to encourage you. Be strong and courageous, mighty warriors of God, for Elohim hears your prayers and will help you to endure.”
“Wait a minute,” said Methuselah. “What kind of angel shares words of encouragement but does not help us out of our bonds?”
“What, do you expect Elohim to do everything for you?” said Uriel. “While you sit and do nothing?”
The three of them could not believe what they were hearing.
Uriel said, “I just emptied the village for you! How many more miracles do you want? Respond with some faith will you?” Then Uriel walked away into the jungle.
He stopped and turned back for one last comment.
“A word to the sage, lower your demands on Elohim. He does not owe you a thing. You are blessed that he gives you anything at all.” And then he vanished into the foliage.
Methuselah watched him leave with utter incredulity.
“The gall of that archangel,” said Methuselah.
Lamech retorted, “He is right, father.”
Methuselah and Betenos turned to look at Lamech. He stood with his bonds cut loose and a knife in his hand.
“I was fixing mother’s makeshift weapon when we were caught the other night. I could not pull it out while they were watching over us like — wolves.”
Methuselah sighed. “Well, cut us loose, and let us get out of this godforsaken place. If I catch that archangel, I am going to give him a piece of my javelin.”
Lamech cut the vines. They darted into the jungle, wondering where in the valley the village lycanthropes were.
They reached the narrow ravine exit covered with vines and found their way through to the other end. They knew something waited for them there, something huge and monstrous.
Methuselah stopped Lamech and Betenos. “Stay here, I will be right back.”
Methuselah stepped out into the open and started screaming at the top of his lungs, “Over here, you son of iniquity! Come and get me!”
Lamech and Betenos looked at each other with shock. What was he doing? They heard the loud bellowing roar of Behemoth reverberate across the rocks.
Methuselah ran full tilt back to their exit. Behemoth raced after him, lunging and snapping for flesh.
They fell back as Methuselah dove into the narrow opening just out of reach of the snapping jaws. Behemoth belched out another roar that could be heard across the entire Hidden Valley. It scraped furiously at the rock, trying to get through.
Methuselah stood with his finger pointing at the beast as if it would understand him. “One day,” he declared, “I am coming back, and I am going to slaughter you and turn you into a feast for the vultures, for what you did, you instrument of evil.”
Behemoth backed up a step and roared again. Lamech swore to himself that the creature almost looked and sounded as if it had a tinge of fear.
Methuselah turned and walked back toward the Hidden Valley interior.
Lamech yelled after him, “Hey, wait a minute, father, what are you doing?”
Betenos joined in, “You just made it impossible for us to escape.”
“I do not want to escape,” said Methuselah. “I want to make the wolf tribe think we escaped.”
Betenos blurted out, “Whatever for?”
Methuselah explained, “To maintain the element of surprise. Because we are not going to escape, my lovely daughter-in-law, we are going to stay and fight.”
Understanding flooded over Betenos. Lamech smiled with pride.
Methuselah said, “It is too far for us to help fight the war on Eden. But we can fight our own war on the son of perdition. It is time we cleanse this garden of evil. You never know when we might need it someday for refuge.”
Lamech added, “That seed of the Serpent wanted a war with the seed of the Woman. Well, he has got it.”
Chapter 52
For the last part of the trial in heaven, Yahweh Elohim allowed the litigators to engage in cross examination and rebuttal. The satan stood next to Enoch before the throne. Yahweh Elohim announced the beginning of the next exchange, “Accuser, you may speak.”
The satan began with his first complaint, “On this fourth aspect of the covenant, the ‘blessings and curses,’ we find another series of un-covenantal maneuvers by Elohim, the first of which is the injustice of his capital punishment.”
The satan delivered his lines with theatrical exaggeration. It would have annoyed Enoch had they not been so self-incriminating. “What kind of a loving god would punish a simple act of disobedience in the Garden with death and exile? In the interest of wisdom, the primeval couple eat a piece of fruit and what reward do
they receive for their mature act of decision-making? Pain in childbirth, male domination, cursed ground, miserable labor, perpetual war, and worst of all, exile and death! I ask the court, does that sound like the judicious behavior of a beneficent king or an infantile temper tantrum of a juvenile divinity who did not get his way?” The satan curtsied with a mocking tone in his voice, “Your majestic majesticness, I turn over to the illustrative, master counselor of extensive experience, Enoch ben Jared.”
The satan’s mockery no longer fazed Enoch. His ad-hominem attacks on a lowly servant of Yahweh Elohim was so much child’s play. It was the accuser’s impious sacrilege against the Most High that offended Enoch — and the Most High’s forbearing mercy that astounded him. He spoke with a renewed awe of the Almighty, “If I may point out to the prosecuting accuser, the seriousness of the punishment is not determined by the magnitude of the offense, but the magnitude of the one offended. Transgression of a fellow finite temporal creature requires finite temporal consequences, transgression against the infinite eternal God requires infinite eternal consequences.”
The satan jumped in, “But why does a loving God punish at all? Is it not his obligation to forgive all transgression large or small? What kind of a loving God punishes imperfection? What kind of a loving God casts people into Sheol? That is not love, that is cruelty.”
Enoch sighed. He was already weary of hearing “what kind of a loving God” preface a horde of false accusations. But in the interest of fairness, he sought to address each one. “Firstly, I would like to establish that counsel is repeating a falsehood already laid to rest. It is not imperfection that is being punished, it is iniquity. Secondly, may I remind my accusing adversary that a just God is not obligated to forgive anyone anything. A just God rewards and punishes. Forgiveness without propitiation is the true cruelty. Worse, it is to denigrate the criminal’s own worth to nothing. For if the criminal is forgiven without the penalty being served, then both victim and victimizer have no value. But neither is “love” obligated to forgive, for that would make such actions duty and no longer gracious.”
“Ah,” interrupted the satan, “But there you are on the horns of a dilemma. For Elohim to be just, he must punish, but for Elohim to be loving, he must forgive. So if he punishes, he is unloving, and if he forgives, he is unjust. So I ask the Judge with humility, submission and deference, which art thou, cruel or impotent?”
Now that was a coup, thought the satan as he let his impeccable logic sink in to the minds and hearts of ten million “holy ones.” Holy, my rear end.
• • • • •
The moon cast its pale light on endless lines of rafts, built and portaged to the shores of Lake Urimiya. The Nephilim launched their rafts. They paddled across the watery expanse, led by seven of the Rephaim, including Thamaq and Yahipan. Inanna stood on the shores staring out on the waters with her Anzu mount next to her. She thought of what it would be like one day in the near future when she would swim across the expanse of the waters in the heavens to take Elohim’s throne. Utu stood beside her like an obedient komodo dragon, his thunderbird ready for flight. His hands held the war trumpet ready.
• • • • •
Enki on an Anzu bird and his four Rephaim generals led the expeditionary forces onto the Sahand range. Ohyah and Hahyah rode the final two thunderbirds as reconnaissance. The Nephilim forces had pieced together their sail-chutes and had crossed the volcanic terrain surrounding the Sahand. They encamped at the foot of the mountain and began their ascent.
Unbeknownst to the giants, they had trampled the volcanic rock ceiling of the underground city of Sahandria, home of the Karabu giant killers. The Adamite cave dwellers had not been warned of the planned invasion because of Methuselah’s capture. But the sound of twelve thousand Nephilim foot soldiers stomping overhead was warning enough. Lookouts had spotted the Nephilim long before they arrived, and the Karabu were already suited up and ready for battle. They simply waited for the right moment.
• • • • •
Cain was unearthed at dark. He bid farewell to his comrade-in-arms, Inanna, and her armed force of demigods. It took only a few hours to fly back to his Hidden Valley.
When he arrived, a downcast Awan and her pack of wolves greeted him. He learned that their prisoners had escaped in broad daylight. She had no idea how it happened. She had turned her head and they were suddenly gone. She wondered if they had put a spell on her and the guards. But when they had heard the roar of Behemoth signaling their exit, she knew they were either dead and eaten or long gone into the Zagros mountain range, where no doubt they were quite at home in evading detection.
Cain flushed with anger. He suppressed the emotion to maintain control of the situation.
“You said you heard Behemoth?” he asked.
“Yes,” said Awan. “But when we checked the valley exit, we found nothing. No blood, no sign of struggle.”
Cain said, “Had it entered your thoughts that they may have possibly engaged in a deceit to make you think they had escaped or were eaten?”
Awan was silent. She had not thought of it.
“Had you considered that they may in fact be hiding somewhere in this valley, waiting for a better opportunity or better course for departure?”
“No, my lord and god,” said Awan.
“I want the entire pack ready for the hunt, NOW!” he yelled.
She bowed in submission and ran to alert the others.
I had them, thought Cain. I had them in my hands, and they slipped through. It burned like a knife in his back, one that kept burning. I have sought all my life for this opportunity and now I have been betrayed by my own clan. My own clan. I have nothing. I have no one. I am alone, utterly alone. Elohim has stolen my revenge.
He heard the howls of the wolf tribe already on the chase for human blood.
Maybe I will kill the whole tribe when this is over, thought Cain.
Chapter 53
After the satan trumpeted his philosophical dilemma of an unloving or unjust God, Enoch was about to respond when the entrance of another counselor to his team interrupted him. He came from the right hand of the throne of the Ancient of Days and whispered to Enoch. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. But when he whispered, it was a still small voice heard only by his listener.
It was the Son of Man, the “second power in heaven.” The first one he spoke to was Uriel. The Son of Man whispered something to him and Uriel immediately excused himself from the throne room.
Then the Son of Man walked to Enoch and gave him counsel. Enoch could see the satan visibly shaken by the presence of this glorious being. It was as if he knew his case was instantly lost. Enoch had seen this “Son of Man” in his dreams when he was on earth, but after ascending into heaven, he came to know him. There he learned that this Son of Man was also a Son of Elohim, but not like all the other heavenly host. He was the Firstborn, a species-unique, uncreated Son of God. And now, he had joined the defense. Everything would change.
After receiving counsel, Enoch spoke, “There is a third way, not addressed by the satan’s dilemma. And that is substitutionary atonement.”
The satan scoffed with derision. He was so loud, he turned heads. “I knew he would pull this.”
Enoch continued, “The purpose of blood sacrifice is to place the penalty of the guilty upon an unblemished innocent. The shed blood satisfies divine wrath for justice, which makes forgiveness of the repentant covenant-breaker possible.”
“Barbaric!” barked the satan. “Slaughtering innocent precious animals for the bloodlust of divinity. This animal cruelty is despicable and disgusting.”
In truth, it was not despicable or disgusting to the satan or the rest of the rebel Watchers. They had set up their own religion of blood sacrifice that would substitute humans for animals. Children seemed to please them the most. C
hildren in great numbers. Cutting their hearts out and piling their bodies into a pit. The Great Goddess Earth Mother was the most voracious, with a ravenous appetite like Sheol. Her tree rings consisted of the corpses of human vermin, the virus of the planet. But the satan did not have the luxury of consistency, he was trying to win a case.
• • • • •
Lake Urimiya stretched out about thirty leagues, but was only ten leagues wide. The flotilla of Nephilim warriors crossed at the shortest point, a distance of only half the full width. It was the largest salt water lake in the entire region.
But it was also one of several key openings to the Abyss.
The Abyss contained the great waters below the earth that fed the waters above and formed the overhead to the underworld of Sheol. It was this same Abyss whose waters rose to the surface of the black lake in Mount Hermon’s bowels. It was this same Abyss that was one of the only things on earth that Nephilim feared. And that is because it was this same Abyss that was the abode of Rahab the sea dragon of chaos.
Climbing Nephilim covered the base of the Sahand range like termites on a tree. Enki on one of the Anzu birds flew overhead with a strategic eye, noting the progress of the masses below. About half of their forces were ready for the next wave.
At that moment, the Karabu slid out from their hiding places and crevice openings. They attacked the Nephilim at the base of the mountain.
The Nephilim forces were divided into two units, those climbing and those waiting to climb. But the six thousand at the bottom of the mountain would still be a difficult victory for the three hundred members of the vanishing secret order of giant killers. The battle form of the Karabu was referred to as “the dance of death,” which showed itself as the Karabu attacked. They came at the Nephilim in clothing the color of the volcanic rock around them. The Nephilim did not even know what hit them. By the time they could get their bearings on the hostile force cutting them down, they had already lost nearly a thousand giants.