The Third Heaven Series Boxed Set: Books (1-3)

by Donovan Neal

  Sandolfon a Kortai rushed into the council chamber of the Lumazi bowed before Argoth and spoke.

  "My Lord, word has come from the eastern front that a contingent of the Fallen has found the prison of Zephon."

  Argoth frowned, "How is such a thing possible? Zephon's prison moves about the course of the second heaven. His position is hidden."

  "The thing is not known my Lord, but it is surmised that members of the Grigori who side with Lucifer hast seen the cavern of ice with which he's encased and have relayed his position to their Lord."

  Argoth frowned and he slumped in a chair, sour that members of his own kind would work to circumvent the Almighty. Argoth reached within his Kilnstone and pulled out his own book, and from it ripped a page, and gave it to Sandolfon.

  "Here are the coordinates of his prison. Go with a unit to the site immediately," he said. “I want them intercepted. They cannot be allowed to release Zephon from confinement."

  Sandolfon nodded and gathered his forces, assembled his detail at a waypoint and laddered to a galaxy where no stars shone. The squadron exited from their flumes with great flashes of light, each with swords drawn; they floated on the field of space awaiting the regiments of the enemy to come.

  "Hold position and scan for any sign of the adversary!” Sandolfon said. With eyes that peered into deep space; each angel fidgeted; muscles tensed with hearts racing ready to engage in battle at a moments notice. Yet no adversary could be found and the silence of neutrinos and cosmic dust was all that echoed in the gripping coldness of space.

  Magiel a lieutenant spoke, "Where are they?"

  "No enemy is here," said Sandolfon. "Come let us go to make sure the prison of Zephon. He turned and flew with hundreds behind him and they came upon the giant frigid comet of Zephon's prison that hurtled through space. Trails of rock vapor and out gasses blossomed in bursts of color, as the polar form of Zephon was encased frozen in chains and fetters of ice. His mouth sealed to prevent utterance of Elomic commands, and his eyes crusted over and wrapped in blindfolds of sheeted ice. He laid motionless entombed deep within the speeding glacier.

  "There is nothing amiss here," said Sandolfon. "Is it possible that Argoth was mistak…"

  Sandolfon heard the cry of his lieutenant yelling that they were besieged, and he looked to his rear and a horde of the fallen was upon them, and at their head Charon flew as the vanguard of death and smote down all that barred his path. Two legions of fallen angels flanked him while ladders materialized all around them.

  "My God!” Sandolfon said.

  Everywhere Sandolfon looked, he beheld the erupting plumes of prismatic ladders that burst into the blackness. A swarm of shouting warrior angels all with axes, maces and swords drawn, descending like rain upon them all.

  "Take up a defensive position around the prison! Do not let them breach your lines!"

  Heroically the squadron moved to post themselves around the comet, that held Zephon, but there were too many and the angels were run down by the sheer numbers and power of the masses that descended upon them. And the battalion of Sandolfon was run through, and the screams of angels could be heard even in the silence of deep space. Echoes of which would carry upon the solar winds for eons to come. Bravely they fought back, but Sandolfon knew that they could not defend their position, and the Warden of Hell himself descended menacingly towards him.

  Sandolfon knew he could not bring down the angel of Death and moved himself from harm, yet stood atop the comet in the vain hope that somehow he might stop him. Vapors and trails of light rushed past him. His cheeks were flushed and his chest heavy from exertion. For far away in the universe away from the eyes of men, an angel rode backside of a comet to prevent what lied within from escape. While thousands of his own people battled ten thousand to the death.

  Charon headed straight into the plume of the falling star. Its tail-ejected gas and dust flung at speeds that would destroy any that entered the gaseous lane, but the particles were nothing to the angel of Death and he reached to grasp the icy tomb that encased Lucifer's servant. Charon seized the ice and dug his bony hands deep within the frozen gas. The touch of Death accelerated the age of the comet in seconds, and fissures erupted across its frigid scalp. Tiny beams of light escaped from each nook and cranny until a giant Arelim could be seen writhing within, struggling for escape. Charon dug his rusted tentacled barbs deeper and pulled the polar shell apart. The icy shell split and all manner of particulates, rock and great shards of ice exploded in all directions. The comet broke up and the shock wave of the blast flung both friend and foe alike in all directions.

  Zephon emerged from his frigid tomb and stretched his mighty wings, whilst the chains about his wrists and the leggings that manacled his ankles snapped and floated away into the blackness of space. And all about him, shards of ice and angels still locked in combat raged against him. Sandolfon watched in horror that the great angel of fire lifted from his tomb of ice freed.

  Charon stood aloft from him and stared.

  Zephon looked upon him and spoke, "Ferryman? To you do I owe my freedom? And if so where is my master?"

  Charon nodded in acknowledgment and motioned for Zephon to follow and turned his back from him. A ladder opened to take the duo back to Earth and they entered. Sandolfon watching raced to enter and when he did, the ladder closed behind them.

  The legions of Lucifer also turned seeing their prize released and those few remaining of Sandolfon's squad watched in relief that the Horde left them to their own devices.

  "How did they find us?' said one.

  Magiel spoke. "We led them here. They did not know where Zephon was exactly, but as soon as we checked his prison to see if it was secure, they knew. Our own light gave his position away. We have been outplayed. We must return for further instructions. For the angel of Fire hast been unleashed unto man.” And a soldier turned to Magiel and spoke.

  "But what of Sandolfon? He entered the ladder with them."

  Magiel summoned a ladder that they might return home. "Only El can save him now." and Magiel and his forces turned to journey home.

  *********************

  Sandolfon saw that the ladder of Charon hurtled them towards the Earth and that in moments Zephon would stand at Lucifer's side and bring ruin to the planet. He spoke the Elomic command to summon a ladder of his own hoping against hope that his tactics would work and not just end in his death. And so he spoke the words to open a ladder within a ladder. A prismatic chute formed over him and when Sandolfon felt the pull of the ladder against him, he grabbed the heel of Zephon and held tight. Zephon turned surprised that he would be handled within the fall of the ladder and kicked at him. The newly formed ladder spliced into the one that carried the trio and snatched Sandolfon and Zephon away and they careened through the depths of space in combat.

  Charon roared in anger seeing his charge torn from following him and was moving too fast to help Zephon, but it was too late for his ladder had now reached Earth and opened and he dropped from the sky as his great wings opened as giant sails to slow his fall. He landed yards from Lucifer. Lucifer stood as the angel of Death landed as wind and debris raced towards him. Charon looked back at the ascending funnel, roared angrily, and marched towards his captor.

  Lucifer noticed that Zephon did not ladder in with him and spoke. "Well? Where is he? Where is your charge?"

  Charon pointed skyward and hunched his shoulders

  "Arrggghhhh!” Lucifer shouted. He turned from Charon and marched away blaring obscenities.

  The mare smiled and slowly followed him.

  *********************

  Sandolfon tried to return to a point of space where he knew he could receive reinforcement. But Zephon began to utter an Elomic command, and Sandolfon reached for his sword and plunged it deep into the shoulder blade of his quarry.

  The scream from Zephon's cry made the ladder collapse. Light sparked as tinder and great waves of heat flashed and the ladder collapsed and exploded in a detonat
ion of color, and fire. The two ejected near a pulsar and fell in an uncontrolled descent falling into the rotating neutron stars gravity. Zephon grabbed Sandolfon by the arm and pulled ripping the ligaments from his body. Sandolfon screamed as they plummeted into the radioactive stream of stellar gas. Sandolfon beat at Zephon but the Arelim was too strong and Zephon grabbed hold of the general’s head and squeezed as they grappled with one another tumbling into the heart of the star. Sandolfon smiled as he could feel the pressure of Zephon hands begin to crush his skull. With a sigh he surrendered to what he knew was the inevitable and spoke his final words. "Delay you...I have...my people...they...they will find you..."

  Zephon cried enraged as the skull of Sandolfon crumpled in his hands. He released his dead adversary, and yelled triumphantly, "Arrrrrggggggggg! I am Zephon, and fire shall be upon my enemies!” His cry echoed across the region of space.

  He watched as the lifeless body of Sandolfon floated to fall deeper into the star. Brain matter of his adversary fell as meteorites into the celestial furnace. Zephon then turned himself spaceward that he might gain bearing on his location to ladder to his master’s side.

  He saw the constellations about him and faintly gained cognizance of his position. He opened his mouth to recite the Elomic command to send him to earth, but silence was all that was heard. His throat felt constricted and he coughed up blood. He looked at his shoulder wound and noted that a substance oozed unbeknownst to him. "What ruse is this?” he said. He tried again to utter an Elomic command but no ladder formed, and he felt virtue leave him as his power slowly dissipated from the stab wound to his shoulder.

  Realization dawned on him. That Sandolfon had poisoned him. His vocal cords quickly constricted unable to pronounce the words to summon a ladder. He turned to the stars that in the distance beyond showed the galaxy that housed Lucifer. He flexed his great wings and the solar winds carried him aloft and he ruminated reprisal for the enemies attack upon him.

  "Though it take me millennia to travel the tides of space. I am coming Lucifer. I will be bitterness to El, and to the man shall I be a curse. I shall reach El's beloved hovel for the man and when I do; my death shall be as wormwood to him."

  And Wormwood traveled silently in the black; a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp destined to fall upon the people of Earth in the millennia to come.

  ********************

  Argoth rushed to the throne room, panting as he entered and bowed before the Lord of all things. "My Lord King I have seen the fallen move upon the sons of men, and they have created abomination: a creature that is of mixed blood!"

  Argoth was in the midst of telling El what his watchers had seen when Gabriel entered the throne room, bowed his head and spoke. "Lord the enemy hath sown tares amidst the ground of men. For lo a new race arises from the union of Elohim and men, and left unchecked will fill the earth."

  The Lord replied, "Is the thing not known? Fear not, for my spirit, shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years." God then shortened man's life that Lucifer's plan would be slowed and the spread of the Nephilim would not cause man to be overrun.

  Lucifer was hindered, yet knew that he had helped to lower the image of God in the man, for he no longer possessed long life as initially willed by El, and the plague of sin reigned within man's flesh. Moreover, in the sum of time the children of men grew, and from the offspring of angels and men came giants that were called Nephilim. In the course of time, they grew to such power and influence and spawned with such speed that more were the children of the Devil than those that belonged to God. The Nephilim became a scourge that spread through the line of Adam. And all who were not Nephilim, Lucifer moved to corrupt in mind so that man became vain in his imagination, and his heart darkened, that instead of worshiping El, Lucifer marred man's knowledge that he became as a fool and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God gave them over to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. As men had changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator. And when members of the Lumazi interceded for man's will to be curtailed, the Lord replied. "Lo, I have set before him life and death. Will I remove from him choice, that he might do as he wills?"

  So the Lord would not supersede man's desire to do evil, for to lose choice would rob man further of God's image and for this cause God gave them over unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.

  And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. "It repenteth me that I have made them. For there is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one."

  And the Lord said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for the way of peace he does not know."

  Michael spoke to the Lord, "Is there no other way, must they all be destroyed?"

  "Creation can not sustain them, the pestilence of sin, hast advanced as to leave the entirety of my image warped and foul. My image cannot be abused for Lucifer's ends.

  "Lord destroy him please!" pleaded Argoth.

  "There is a time and a season for his end and the time is not yet nigh."

  Enoch looked at Michael "Will you not intervene on behalf of the sons of men? Wilt thou stand idle and lift not thy voice that my people might be saved?"

  Michael grimaced at the rebuke and was torn for he knew that man was helpless to stand before Lucifer and his brethren. Yet Michael thought to himself. It is man that will sunder the Almighty, perhaps if El destroys Adamson then all will be well, and Michael held his peace.

  Enoch was wroth for the angels of the Lord saw man as nothing but to be swept aside as dung and ran before the Lord and bent his knees and spoke.

  "I have tarried and listened to the speech that has echoed in these halls. The hall from which all justice flows, for lo who am I to speak in the presence of the Ancient of Days, and his mighty host? For what place doth youth hath in the midst of the aged? Yet greatness of days doth not always bring understanding, nor might swiftness to perceive. So I speak that I might intercede to my God, and speak for my people. For will the Lord not remember thy word to thy servant Jared, for if the enemy hear of thy intent he will say to the people, 'see for the Almighty holds no sway over the hearts of men to bring them to his cause, and what doth prevent the Almighty to simply destroy all of creation? See are we naught but refuse to him? The Almighty is not just, nor worthy of rule. For behold the Lord changeth. And thy actions bring dishonor to the name of the Lord. For who be a greater killer among men but God himself?' Mark my words my Lord this the Satan will say. He will speak into the ears of his people and they will mouth that God is a murderer. But consider thy servant Noah who is of my line. He yet walks upright amongst his people. For wilt, the God of all the Earth destroy the just with the wicked? I pray you, spare me this pain, and let my line not perish from before thine eyes."

  And the thing which Enoch said pleased the Lord, And the LORD said, "See my servant Enoch for he speaks as my oracle and gives voice to stand between judgment and mercy. Because thou has voiced this thing I have hearkened according to thy word as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD." And the Lord held back his wrath for a time and
visited Noah in the earth.

  Thus, Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. For Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.

  God said unto Noah, "The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of. The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it. Moreover, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and everything that is in the earth shall die. But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee. And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive. And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee, and it shall be for food for thee, and for them."

  Thus, did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.

  ***********************

  In the six-hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the Lord spoke, and said the time hath come to end Satan's plan to bring the Nephilim to Heaven. And the Lord God commanded, the winds to bring forth rain and God broke up the deep places, and on that same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the Lord caused it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights. And the Lord with his own word destroyed all that lived on the face of the Earth. And all of Heaven watched as El extinguished the life that he had created, save those on the ark.