by Donovan Neal
Lucifer turned from his servant and spoke. "If Marduk's failure hast brought the host of heaven down to see of his actions, then Heaven may do my bidding for me. Command Zeus to assemble his legions, and move to destroy Marduk if necessary. For if Marduk defeats Michael then we need do nothing. However, if I allow Zeus to defeat Marduk then he will have acted to rid me of leadership that is rife with stupidity as to draw heaven's attention and ire. If El would send two of the Lumazi to battle over Babylonia, I will cede this land for now. I perceive that El tires of Babylon and judgment will come soon. I will not fight the Father on His terms. I command Zeus to oversee Marduk's lands, and Persia will belong to Grecia. Now go, for this battle dost does not concern me, as both are but pieces of the game that El and I will play until He is under my feet."
Ashtaroth bowed himself and left his master. Lucifer reached to the floor and picked up his toppled books and continued to read from the Holy Scriptures and turned to a verse that held particular interest to him, and spoke to himself aloud. "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." Lucifer's brow rippled as his eyes narrowed at the text in reflective thought.
"So El, what is Bethlehem that thou would makest her home to thy champion?" And Lucifer continued reading deeper to discern the plans of the Almighty.
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Gabriel arrived and touched upon the sands of the desert and when he did, he found the Lumazi fighting as one. Talus with his great strength hurled gryphons and their riders into the enemy lines. While Metatron and Azaziel moved as machetes across the fields of battle. Jerahmeel used his great powers over the elemental colds to protect and shield all from harm, and Michael - Michael lead them all. With a golden halo above his head and a sword that on his command split into seven blades and fought independently. Michael led his legions against the forces of Marduk. The ferocity of battle caused the desert sands to whip into a frenzy as God's champions of light yielded both sword and shield to beat back the darkness.
Moreover, men that knew that El was the Creator of all prayed. And when they yielded themselves to God in prayer, a mist rose above the Fallen and choked them, hindering their movement in the earth. Yet the mist caused the angels of God to move with greater swiftness and it strengthened their arms and healed their wounds, and Michael and his legions prevailed.
The night sky of the desert displayed an aurora of colors. Crackles of lightning and the booms of thunder echoed across the burning sands. Each burst was but a physical manifestations of angels at war. Each luminous brilliance, nothing more, but the clashing of angelic swords and the sparks of heaven-mined steel. Trails of light raced away from the combatants.
Jerahmeel found himself surrounded by the officers of Marduk, each salivating at the chance to bring low a member of the high council. Jerahmeel had used his powers to shield his brethren against the horde that assaulted them, and for the fifty of men's years, the groups clashed with one another. The forces of Marduk raised armies of men to fight across land and sea, to overwhelm nations with their armies. And when Jerahmeel saw men falter under the onslaught, when Marduk’s officers encamped about him that they might bring him low. Jerahmeel finally turned his hand to fight and spoke to his assailants.
"I have tried to stay my hand from battle. Yet you would not have it so. I have withheld my hand from bloodshed, often hesitant to enter into the fray with my brethren. I have used mirth, and wit to reason with madness. Yet none of it would you have—none of it would you honor. Now let my axe be my voice, my blade thy instructor, and thy death be upon thine own head."
Jerahmeel shrugged his shoulders and cracked his neck and white scales of frost and ivory formed, covering him in armor plating. The radiance of his form shimmered as freshly fallen snow. A symbol of a lion blazed across his chest, and his dual axes emitted an indigo flame, the hulking shaft of which he slammed into the desert sand.
"Come, pupils—school is in session."
The three angels of Marduk encircled him, each eying every tensed muscle, waiting for the other to attack. His wait was not long in coming and attack they did. Etrael, Harut, and Marut raced towards Jerahmeel, their swords held high.
Etrael leaped into the air, and Harut and Marut moved to run their angelic brother through with swords. Jerahmeel flung one axe as a dagger and it sailed through the air towards its target smashing into Ertael's chest. The angel fell backward into the hot sand, blue blood splattering through the air. Harut ran to cut Jerahmeel down, but the head of House Harrada lifted his hand and the sand crystallized into ice and a wave of ice shards then sailed through the air, leaving a trail along the ground and encasing his feet in ice. Harut lifted his hands to protect his face, and when he lowered his arms to gaze ahead. Jerahmeel had closed the distance between them and with axe in hand, he ducked and leg sweeped Harut, knocking him off his feet. Harut landed on his back and the smashing 'thunk' sound of Jerahmeel's indigo blade buried itself deep into the angel's chest. Marut, seeing two of his brethren brought low by the Prince of House Harada, turned to flee. Jerahmeel again lifted his hand and immediately the vapor and moisture in the air surrounding the retreating angel froze and he became encased in ice. Jerahmeel retrieved his two axes from the chests of his foes and walked towards the block of ice that now enclosed his foe.
"I would have thee serve El, but thy pride and rebellion now sees me as the hand of El in judgment. Let the lesson for rebellion be learned by all the Fallen!" Jerahmeel shouted. He then took his two axes and with the shaft slammed into the brittle ice and the encased angel shattered into a thousand pieces of frozen blood and flesh.
Jerahmeel looked up towards the sky and lifted himself to rejoin Michael, who fought with Marduk.
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Marduk's girth and size made him a formidable opponent. His obese frame absorbed blow after blow. Enraged at the loss of one of his four arms. Marduk charged towards Michael, his trunk-like legs stomping into the earth as he galloped, and he lifted his club, thinking he would crush Michael. The angelic prince easily avoided Marduk's blow, and rock and sand lifted into the air. Michael flew to Marduk's back, and when he touched the angel's skin, his own skin festered and blistered into lesions. He flipped off, dashed into the air and set down on the ground to nurse his wounds.
Marduk looked at him and laughed. "Yes, yes—touch me again! Let my caress be as a disease to you! May my embrace be an inflammation, and my radiance a burning to the holiness from your wretched frame! Come, Michael of the Kortai—come fall to the hand of Marduk!"
Marduk swung his flanged mace and when he did, he released it and sent it flying towards Michael. The Chief Prince took the blow hard into his chest, and the mace dented his armor, knocking him backward into a sand dune. Raising himself from the desert floor, his eyes beheld Marduk closing the distance between them. Michael rose and massaged his aching arm. He looked for his sword and reached out, calling to it to return to his hands. Yards away now, the mighty Arelim, charged Michael, who lifted himself into the sky. The sword of Ophanim flew through the air and Michael reached to grab the hilt and turned to plunge it into the back of Marduk, forcing all of his weight into the strike. The great angel of war screamed and he bucked like an untamed stallion tries to throw its rider. Michael flipped from the back of the angel and commanded the embedded sword of Ophanim to split.
On command, the sword separated into its seven edged forms and Marduk howled like a wounded animal. He rolled over in a vain attempt to dislodge the blade, but the swords continued to slice through his flesh, moving further away from their original center, carving long lacerations across his back, and blue angelic blood poured from him, and Marduk summoned the army of possessed men to engage the prince of angels.
Michael looked about him, and on all sides daemon-possessed men equipped with angelic weapons of war rode on horseback to cu
t him down. Hesitant to engage the image of God in the earth, Michael paused. Paused for men were but pawns in Lucifer's battle with El. Paused as these no longer held control, but were yielded to the foul will of deformed angels.
"Arggh!" Michael cried out.
One of the men had attacked him while he ruminated, and the pain from the sin-soaked blade made even his armor sizzle. He backed away. "Do not make me destroy you!" yelled Michael. "Fight the control of the daemons within! You must!"
Yet Michael's pleas fell on deaf ears, and he could hear the laughter of Marduk in the winds.
"It is too late for them, Builder of Heaven, as it is too late for you. I will have your stone and give it as a token to my Lord Lucifer!"
Michael summoned the sword of Ophanim to encircle him and its gyroscopic rotations kept him from the touch of any that might dare to venture close. For the daemons did not desire to lose their hosts if at all possible, and all recognized the weapon used to combat Lucifer, and the image made all to pause, but not retreat. It was then that Michael heard the command that would seal the decision for him.
"You will swarm the prince and bring me his head! Fear, not his blade, for though he is powerful, he cannot smite down all. Kill him for me, and you will be given another host. But bring me his head!"
And with those words, Cambyses, and his daemon army moved to take him. Michael submitted to the course that to destroy the men could not be escaped and unleashed the sword of Ophanim to cut a path that he might give distance between him and the masses that now sought to overwhelm him.
Endlessly they came. And for every ten he cut down, one hundred more walked over the corpses of the dead to attack him. From above his head, arrows covered the sky to prevent his fleeing through flight, and with shield and the sword of Ophanim, he fended off attacks from the sky, Michael found himself backed himself against the mountain wall. With his back against the rock face, he was cornered with nowhere left to go. For arrows assaulted, him from above, and there yet pushed forward tens of thousands of daemon possessed men, intent on his destruction. It was then that he saw the crack of lightening and heard the boom of thunder break the sky.
Michael looked up and upon the raising of his head saw two gleaming lights rapidly descend towards him. Michael covered his eyes and as he did, one figure smashed into the earth into the center of the throng and the impact of his fall raised both man, beast, and desert sand high into the air. Suddenly the air grew brisk and cold, and Michael's breath hung suspended in the desert air. And when the dust cleared, Jerahmeel stood before Michael and lifted his hands in the air, and a great sheet of ice rose before them and all were caught as an ice wave enveloped them and encased the feet of the army in solid ice. Gabriel too stood by Jerhameel's side and he smote his staff into the desert sand and with his striking the earth, a great sandstorm fell over the battlefield. The winds howled and brownish dark clouds and grit blasted across the dunes stripping the flesh of man and beast. Grains of sand scraped raw the bodies of possessed men who fell to their knees, as their eyes were ground out of their sockets and the flesh fell from their bones and all were entombed under granules upon granule of crystallized rock. An army of men now submerged in teeming drifts of sand.
Michael watched as men flailed helplessly as their cries for help went unanswered by their Lord Marduk, watched as fifty thousand spirits became entombed within the desert heat under 100 feet of sand. Marduk looked at the three princes and smiled.
"It matters not, as they are but fodder. You will not stop the march of my hand over this land."
Marduk stretched his leathery wings and when he did, he released from his pores, a noxious fume that raced towards the high princes. Immediately the air became foul and Jerahmeel and Michael coughed up blood. Gabriel lifted his staff over his head and spun it in a circular fashion, that it pushed the gas of poisonous air away and back towards Marduk, who laughed even more.
"I will enjoy your destruction." Marduk flexed his muscles and pieces of his armor fell into the sands and his muscular body rippled with power and a green hue radiated from his body, and he smiled at the angels he would battle.
"Withdraw, Marduk, or be destroyed!"
Marduk turned to look above the princes and saw that Zeus and twelve legions of angels followed him, all with swords and descending into the desert valley below.
Marduk frowned and replied, "I will not withdraw; these lands are mine to command. You are the prince of Grecia. You have no claim here. Lucifer hast given this region to me."
Zeus landed in front of Marduk, his legion following in his wake. A hundred thousand angels were ready to destroy, all on the order of Zeus. Ares followed as his lieutenant, and Hades stood behind his leader. "Lucifer is not here. I am. I claim these lands as mine. Your actions have loosed three of the great houses to battle thee in open conflict. I care not for their kind, but I care less to invoke the wrath of El and cause the host to fall upon us because thou possess no wisdom. You will withdraw, or the princes and I will in tandem have thy head. Or do you think you have the power to withstand all that lie in front of thee?"
Marduk looked at the assembly of angels scattered before him and scowled. "There will come a day, Zeus, when I shall ride atop the back of this world and men shall pay me homage to do so. For I will implant into the memory of man the name of Babylon until the end of time. Know that—and tremble." Marduk turned and with his great wings lifted his monstrosity of a body into the air to parts unknown.
Zeus turned to Michael, Gabriel, and Jerahmeel, and spoke, "He will return with armies, and when he does, we will destroy him. Yet Marduk is right in that the glory of Babylon will not be a thing to lightly dismiss. For he hast made a deep impression into the annals of mankind's history. Lo, I do not wish combat with the Triune God’s representatives. If El wills, I will command this land, but if not know that my master overruns the world and I am his servant."
Michael looked at Zeus and for a moment, the glory that was his brother seeped through the sin that now coated his form.
"I acknowledge that El's will would have ye as principality over these lands. But you surely know that El—nor we can stand idle whilst Lucifer roams about. There will come in the last days a time of accounting. And on that day, neither my hand nor theirs can spare thee for memory’s sake."
Zeus smiled. "Till we meet then on the battlefield." He flew atop a Wyvern, the scaly creature's wings lifted him higher, and he stood atop its back holding its reigns. Zeus turned to speak to Michael one last time. "In the last day, son of El, know that I will kill thee, but I will derive no pleasure in the deed." Then the general of Lucifer's army flew away while a host of the fallen flew as escort to their master, and the three angels of God looked on as enemies of the crown spread as locusts over the lands of men.
"There will come a day when we will have to kill him." said Gabriel.
Michael breathed heavy and sighed, with a glint of sorrow in his eye. "Lucifer's rent still tears at me to this day."
Jerahmeel put his hands on his two siblings. "There will indeed come a time when blood will be shed again—yet I am content for now to return home."
Michael nodded and cited the words to open a Ladder and smiled as he saw the appearance of the vortex that would lift them to the golden gates of Heaven, and he replied.
"Let us go home."
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Iblis moved through his Lord's lands and entered the domain of Ishtar and Shamash. He recollected as over the span of centuries as his brethren lifted themselves to be worshiped as false Gods. Each smote and or deceived men from the truth to keep them in compliance. Principalities of regions who through deceit 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. The angelic overseers of Lucifer, always moving to circumvent the existence of El and mar the image of Him in the earth.
Further Iblis flew, arriving into the territory of Pangu principality over the east
ern lands of Asia. He descended, to present himself to the local minister for passage across his lands. Presentation to the region's warlords helped to prevent war between Lucifer's governors.
Landing at the waypoint that Lucifer had established, Iblis waited at the checkpoint. Lucifer governed with an iron hand. He made it so that none could move arbitrarily or circumvent his plans to raise nations of men immune to El's influence. In his new order, Lucifer determined the order of promotion, and ruthlessness, and the ability to bring about his plans without Heaven falling down to intervene quickly caused one to ascend. More and more Lucifer divided the tribes of men, and with each division assigned familiar spirits to track families so that wherever on Earth the image of God would raise its head, Lucifer would be quick to see that it was snuffed out.
"Halt!" ordered an Arelim. "What business hast thou in the land of the Sino?"
Iblis bowed. "I am on ambassadorial duties on behalf of his Lord Traxiel. Governor of the tribes of Shem. I bring word to thy master Pangu."
The Arelim smiled and eyed Iblis, and he tucked his leathery wings behind his back. "You will give the message to me, and I will relay it to my Lord."
Iblis guffawed. "I will do no such thing. Of course, if you refuse me passage, I will simply return to my Lord Traxiel. In which case your Lord Pangu will not have the information he needs to facilitate the Godking's plan for this region and I am sure his wrath will not be appeased. I will make sure to mention your disdain for royal protocol when the seal of a principality is shown to thee." Iblis then turned away to return to his master Traxiel, when the Arelim spoke.
"Apologies...you may pass. Nevertheless, know that you have two days to complete thy task. If your charge is not complete, I will authorize the Grigori in our land to seek thee out and report of thy stewardship. Are you clear in your purpose?"