Adventures of Jacko the Conjurer

by Jamie Ott

  Chapter 10

  Jacko didn’t sleep soundly at all; he projected himself out, though he didn’t mean too. He bouced out and around the edge of the atmosphere. Desperately, he tried to pull himself back, but he stopped when he saw a man whose essence resonated deep within him, as if they were, both, made of the same body.

  Against the pull of space, he watched the man walk through dark matter as if it were solid; there was a white glowing planet behind him. Instinctively, Jacko knew it was the morning star, as it was called centuries ago by the Romans, and was currently known as the planet, Venus.

  The man was humungous with waste-length blond hair and blue eyes. His skin was as white as the glow of light behind him. He walked with purpose and each step he took was equivalent to a million space miles; even the light that glowed behind him had to catch up.

  Jacko got excited because he knew it must have been Lucem. If he was headed to Earth, then surely he’d get his blessing, and the opportunity to rescue his family. But his bubble of hope was burst minutes later when, to Jacko’s surprise, he walked just past the Earth and made his way to a misshapen grayish-white film close by.

  Wait a minute! He recognized that nearly invisible, grayish, round film because he’d been there before! Every time he’d projected, to heaven, in his sleep, he’d used that film - it was the portal to the heavens! It was a physical door-like veil through which any being could enter, if they could see or find it.

  Jacko opened his eyes with the remnants of his projection still lingering in the front of his mind. That was the doorway to heaven through which he’d escaped in his own dreams. He just never remembered it. Why didn’t he see that film when he’d projected awake? No matter. He needed to get going; if that was who he thought it was, he wasn’t wasting any more time, and especially now that he was certain Lucem would be at orchard.

  Sitting up, Jacko realized that his problems had just mounted. Not only was it dark again, but he appeared to be alone.

  Jacko’s heart nearly ruptured his chest; he wondered if the demons had tricked him again.

  “Oh no,” he said under his breath. “Guys?” he called out. “Dog? Machine? Anle? Forsi? Anyone?”

  Slowly, he stood and looked around for the red horizon – it was there! When he found it, his heart beats slowed just a tad – at least he wasn’t back in the red lands.

  Okay, so someone else had to be messing with him. He hardly imagined that demons would be allowed on that side of heaven. But he didn’t know that for sure; after all, he and his brothers made it across the red lands just fine. Still, he argued with himself, it seemed unlikely.

  His spirits were completely jarred. Not even Dog to help keep him company as he figured things out!

  “Why do you keep messing with me!” Jacko, rather, yelled more than queried to the air.

  Jacko closed his eyes and tried to conjure Dog to him, but nothing happened. He tried telepathic communication, but nothing. He walked in a large circle and looked for any clues, and found nil. Finally, with the crazy idea that the ground swallowed them, he returned to several spots where Dog and the others lay and started to dig at the ground, but all he pulled up was pulsating moss and gravel.

  Althenio mentioned that heaven could be different depending on whose space one wandered into, but, up until that moment, he’d never met another god, angel, or soul there. When they settled, as far as he knew, they were alone. Could they have wandered into someone else’s territory? He sat and thought a moment.

  One thing, even his mother told him, is that the gods don’t particularly like human beings. He knew he needed to watch out, but how would he know if he’d angered one, unintentionally?

  “Yeah but they’d never abduct us!” he argued with himself.

  But he didn’t know that for sure, either.

  His pounding heart tickled his lung as he contemplated all the possibilities; each one worse than the last. One more time, he scanned the land over, looking for signs of anything irregular or peculiar.

  A few more thoughts occurred to him, as he sat. On one hand, Jacko knew that if anything would fix this situation, it would be him, after he got his blessing and the full strength of a god. But what would that do to him? Oganat never answered his question. Would he ever be the same again? He didn’t want full power; he just wanted his family back.

  At the same time, Jacko was urgent and didn’t want to wait for a blessing, like Althenio said, he tended to act impulsively. But, if he’d acted on his instinct, back at the cabin, maybe the demons would not have got him and his family; maybe he would have arrived just in time to save them. If he’d followed his instincts, they could be on Earth not caring about the end of times war, until they had to that is.

  What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? He asked himself over and over. No answers came to mind because he was too anxious, so he lay back against a tree, emptied his mind and tried to focus.

  He could go back to Oganat? But he really didn’t want to. He’d come too far to go all the way back to the other side. So he asked heaven what to do; the way people sometimes prayed in movies.

  When that failed too, he hung his head and became pathetic. Once more, What do I do? He asked himself again.

  Then, there was the voice again. The same voice that he heard before, only louder than a whisper.

  Ask the treeees, it said.

  “Sissy?” he stood up and looked around him. “Sissy where are you?”

  Ask the trees. What does that mean, he wondered. He looked at the tree, thought how stupid, and sat back down.

  A little while passed with no good ideas. He felt extremely disappointed in himself. Why would Sissy tell him to ask the trees? Were they alive?

  They did turn red when pressed hard, and one did punch him in the face.

  Jacko continued to try and think of what the voice meant. “Well,” he said, “it’s no good just sitting here any longer.” He stood up and walked away from the bald spot and deeper into the midst of trees.

  “What do you mean, Sissy?”

  Silence.

  He rubbed his scalp hard and wondered why Sissy didn’t answer him.

  “I can’t help you, if you don’t help me. I haven’t studied this place, like you have.”

  Jacko touched a tree, and the spot turned red; he touched it harder and it turned redder. He grabbed a branch and examined its wood, which expanded and contracted just like the grass. Gently, he rubbed his finger up and down, and then pressed a spot. He could feel a pulse inside the branch.

  Standing back, he looked at a particular group of trees, noting how exact each and every one was. On Earth, such exactness was impossible. They were all the same height and width, as were their needles, color of their needles, and color of their tree trunks. In heaven, the grass and trees literally lived and breathed.

  Jacko touched the trunk again when something came back to him, a story his mother told him.

  Like most of the stories his mother told, he just wrote it off as silly, boring mythology. But, of course, lately, he continued to learn that a lot the things she told him were true, or loosely based on truths of “times long ago.” She told him that sometimes myths, though false, contained key information to the world and the heavens.

  Once, his mother told him of a race of trees that lived on Earth. She told him the modern day conception of wood nymphs was false, but that there were similar guardians. He couldn’t remember who or what she said they were, but he remembered that if one were to stab the tree, it would bleed because the guardians lived inside the tree. He pressed the trunk of the tree inward, and released – it turned red again.

  When the trees were on Earth, the gods forbade that even one should be cut down. They warned that the guardians and the trees would die, and the gods would punish anyone who hurt them.

  No one listened, of course, for the guardian trees were highly magical. It was rumored that, once cut down, they immediately petrified. If one were to build their house, c
astle, or fortress from the wood, he or she would have an indestructible home.

  Now it made sense why the tree punched him when he pulled out its twig. The trees lived and breathed, and they could, most certainly, feel.

  What was that word? Hamadryades. The guardians of a magical tree species. It was because they lived that other fern species lived on Earth. Myth said, if they died, all the trees would die. Naturally, man didn’t care, so the gods brought the trees to heaven, where they were protected.

  Jacko remembered his mother saying other forms of hamadryades might guard the trees in heaven. She told him that at one time, they covered the Earth. He even remembered a story about a king who’d send one servant to chop down a sacred tree, and then when he died, send another to collect the wood. Man did not care about sacrificing life.

 

  “Hello?” said Jacko. “Uh, my name is Jacko and I need help. I know that I hurt one of your kind before by plucking a needle, and I’m sorry. But, I need your help to save my family and save the Earth.”

  Silence.

  Feeling desperate, Jacko put his hands on the tree and massaged up and down on the trunk. “I need to know how to get to the Fig Orchard to get Lucem’s blessing. Can you hear me?”

  Jacko slid down onto his butt and sat his back against the tree. Nothing happened, except that he felt extremely ridiculous.

  Talk to them.

  “Sissy, I tried that. It’s not working.”

  Jacko pressed his ear to the wood, and within he could hear a low thudding noise.

  Tree hugging, his mother told him, was not a crazy hippie thing, but it was a way to get the hamadryades to trust humans. Once a human earned ones trust, a nymph might reveal themselves and offer favors. He turned around and put his arms around the hard, unusually smooth even red wood.

  Jacko hugged the tree for almost twenty minutes while trying various forms of communication. First he tried talking some more, and then tried to project thoughts into the trees.

  After some time, he moved on to the next tree and did the same. Unsuccessful, he again moved on to another, and then another tree.

  Almost three hours passed with Jacko hugging trees. All the while, his mind flitted between ideas of how retarded he felt. When he almost gave up from exhaustion, a deep voice rang every cell in his body.

  Hello, Jacko.

  He turned around and looked for the source. As he nearly completed a full turn, he stopped dead as he noticed a tree a few yards off that was different than all the others. The trunk was as wide as the state of Colorado and rose, infinitely, into the sky.

  What do you want?

 

  If there was a king tree of all trees, the one Jacko looked upon was it. Still, he looked for the source of the voice for he imagined that a being would arise out of the trees and talk to him, face-to-face.

  I’ll ask one more time, and only one. What do you want?

  One deep sigh, he raised his arms and leant forward to hug the great big tree.

  Stand back, boy.

  “Sorry,” said Jacko. “I want to find my brothers and sisters.”

  I cannot help you.

  “Please, if you could tell me what to do.”

  I cannot help you because I do not know. You will not get them back on your own. Seek the orchard, Jacko, and don’t look back until you get your blessing.

  The gravel in the path formed differently than it had when he was with Althenio and Manlo; this time, it formed a long stretch of line.

  “Are you still there?”

  But no answer came.

  Although he felt guilty for not trying to find his family, he did the only thing he knew he could, which was follow the path to the orchard. If he got this, so called blessing, and became all powerful, he would bring them back, safe.

  Over the next several hours, nothing happened. He followed the path without question, but all he saw was trees and trees, and more trees.

  The scene never changed, despite that he’d walked miles. What kept him going was the thought of the alternative, which was doing nothing. He had no ideas of what else to do, to help his family, so if he didn’t walk then he would do nothing.

  Still, he was a human teenage boy who needed rest. He could not continue in that way. His eyes were getting heavier, but he pushed on.

  Another mile and Jacko, tiredly, stumbled onto the ground. Though he smashed his face into the gravel, he did not feel it: he slept and he slept.

  When he woke, his mouth had bits of gravel in it. Pua! He spit and conjured water. As he drank, his fatigue ebbed away, and his muscles lost their ache.

  Clumsily, he stood up on his shaky thighs. He jumped as a bunch of some things white and feathery clipped him on the side of his head.

  A flock of feather rotating balls flew by. Jacko knew straight away that these were more angel-like creatures. They were clear with a tinge of blue, like the winged child at Oganat’s villa. Only these weren’t the shape of children, but, rather, circles with rotating balls in their centers.

  Despite Jacko’s fascination with their body, he noticed their wings had a rough and bumpy texture: their wings were covered in unblinking, non lidded, eyes.

  The cherubs paid no attention to Jacko as they flew by; however, seeing them gave him a small surge of hope that maybe he was getting somewhere. Hours of unchanging scenery made him feel as though he were walking in circles.

  He stood up and traveled a few more miles along the road. The scenery changed once more, and Jacko felt relief.

  A few feet to his left was a large grassy area stuffed with statues, similar to those at Oganat’s. Some were solid and white while others were see-through. Jacko began to understand that the clearer the god, the older.

  Some of the statues were as tall as the conifer trees, and some were so tall that Jacko couldn’t see their torsos.

  Mesmerized by the spun glass look of one of the statues, Jacko reached out his hand; its surface was smooth like spun glass, too – it even had little bubbles inside it, except they weren’t air pockets but little bits of white stone that hadn’t fully faded.

  Jacko screamed when he looked up and saw the statue he rubbed had opened its eyes and looked down at him. He could see almost entirely through this aged statue, but his eyes were solid, impenetrable, and black.

  Upon seeing that it woke, Jacko knew this was a hardened god as described by Althenio, not just in form but also hard of heart. The kind of god his mother warned him about; the kind of god that hated humans.

  Jacko breathed heavy and stumbled backward onto the ground. He rolled over onto his side and tried to push himself up when, what felt like cold solid, rock squeezed his buttocks painfully, forcing Jacko’s body to double over in a fold. He screamed in pain and saw that he was being lifted many feet off of the ground.

  Then he was turned around

  to face one of the statues humungous eyes. “Who are you?” and “What are you doing here?”

  Jacko couldn’t speak for the pain of the god’s grip. Realizing this, the god released him into the palm of his other hand.

  Rubbing his back, he said, “I’m Jacko and I’ve been given permission to cross this land. I’m going Lucem’s orchard, to seek his blessing.”

  “Permission by whom?”

  He thought fast, and pulled the first name that came to mind.

  “Oganat, heaven’s hell ambassador.”

  “Oganat does not have that kind of authority here. I do not like you, people-kinds.”

  “Well, you see,” hurried Jacko as he realized the conversation was turning bad, “I’m trying to save my family because they’ve been kidnapped by the demons.”

  “You will be given one chance to turn around and leave. If you don’t, I will trample you into dust. I repeat that I do not like you, people-kinds.”

  “Well, tough! I’m going to the orchard and you won’t stop me.”

  The statue growled, loudly. Scared, Jacko jumped off the edge of his h
and. He imagined the gravel enveloping him, softly, and smoothly.

  Mid-air, the god tried to capture Jacko back, but he conjured the god that stood next to him, and forced him to punch the god in his face.

  There was a loud crunch, like the smashing of crashing cars, from above him. He landed softly on the gravel and looked up. The god’s face had a large, long crack from ear to mouth. Jacko thought his face would split into two, but, slowly, the crack disappeared from his hardened head. The statues eyes widened as it looked left for the cause of its damage.

  “What are you doing Astraeus? Do not stop me from pulverizing this insolent child. He is but a fly, you were always a meddlesome idiot,” and he leant over to snatch Jacko up who easily ducked around his hand.

  Jacko focused and sent the other statues foot at his face.

  “AAAAAAhhhh,” it screamed and the ground shook; Jacko grabbed his ears.

  “I’m sorry Pallas but I don’t know why I just did that.”

  Pallas? The name sounded familiar to Jacko.

  Pallas, then, tried to strike Astraeus who fell backward, knocking into another similar looking statue that, in turn, knocked into another statue, all with a loud WHAM WHAM WHAM! The ground shook as tall, clear marble statues slammed heads into other statues, and then came to life.

  Jacko stood with his mouth hanging open because he’d just remembered where he’d heard the name, Pallas.

  He knew he was in trouble because he’d just knocked over a graveyard full of hardened retired Titans. Titans, as he remembered his mother telling him, were short tempered, nasty gods that ruled before their children, the Olympians, turned mutinous.

  A voice inside his head said ruuuuun!

  “Okay, Sissy.”

  He picked up fast and ran hard along the rest of the graveyard as statue after statue sent waves that bounced Jacko feet up and further along the path like a bouncing ball.

  At the end of the graveyard, he chanced a backward glance and saw the statue that had Jacko was now engaged in a battle with Astraeus. Both were trying to ram each other with spears that looked like long icicles.

  Jacko screamed and jumped when one of the spears shot some sort of red beam of anti-matter very close to him. It caused an enormous explosion and Jacko looked down where the bolt struck and saw there was nothing but a black hole.

  He turned and hurried. Thankfully, the road had continued to form without him. Fast, he ran but, then, there was a thunder of an explosion, to his right, that knocked him off the path.

  Right as he made to stand and run, again, he was picked him up off the ground. Jacko continued to move his legs in running motion until he looked down and realized he had been caught.

  Then, a hand reached out and nabbed Jacko like a fly in a fist. He was confined within the blurry marble-like fingers; they pressed in close on his flesh and there was no way he could get out.

  When, at last, the fist opened, Jacko found himself sky high and turned around to see Pallas’ gigantic onyx eyeball looking at him.

  “What are you gonna do with me?”

  “If I could, I’d kill you. But my father has ordered that you be charged with disrupting heavenly peace, an action with a punishment that is worse than death, should you be found guilty – which I’m sure you will,” and he laughed a deep, throaty laugh.

  He enclosed Jacko in his fist, pulled back his arm and threw Jacko into the clear center of one of the winged ball-like creatures with the wings of many eyes. He was trapped like a hamster in a ball, and each way he tried to walk was useless because he would only stumble and roll.

  Jacko continued to perpetually stumble and roll for a few minutes. When he started to gag, he shouted, “Stop spinning!” and amazingly it did.

  With Jacko inside, the cherub flew into the air and continued into the midst of clouds.

  “Where are you taking me?”

  Jacko closed his eyes because being separated by a thin solid layer while in flight put his stomach in his mouth. When he reopened them, they were surrounded by the dark matter of space. The sight frightened him, much; he screamed at the top of his lungs and passed out.

  A bit later, Jacko woke to a strange high pitched noise. Against his desire, he opened his eyes and saw them fly fast through little rocks and around large dark asteroids. He covered his eyes and kept them that way until he felt severe plane-like turbulence that bounced him violently inside the ball.

  He screamed and screamed while praying to god to help him. When the motions were smooth again, he reopened his eyes to find they were penetrating a white gas and liquid atmosphere. All around him was thick, cloudy white and just then Jacko, again, heard a high pitched ringing noise. The noise was coming from the cherub and an even louder, deep rumble vibrated the cherub.

  The noises went back and forth for a while. Jacko got the sense the cherub was communicating with something. Then, suddenly, right under them, a solid platform of white appeared in a patch of a few hundred square feet. The cherub stopped so abruptly that Jacko tossed fatally up and down, inside the ball.

  When Jacko no longer felt like retching, he stood and looked around at the white-ish ground and clouds. There was light blue tinge to the ground and clouds.

  After a moment of turning several 360s, trying to identify where they were, Jacko looked up and saw the atmosphere of white-ish clouds move aside. Through which, clear giants walked, like the man in his dream, with staffs, across the dark matter of space as asteroids, rocks, and stars moved aside for them.

  “Let me out!” he banged on the ball.

  A voice from everywhere said, “You may not leave the cherub’s belly, for it is what protects you while you are inside me.”

  Jacko looked around for the source, “Who are you?”

  “I am Ouranus, ancient primordial god, father to the Titans, and seventh planet from the sun in our solar system. I am everywhere around you.”

  Just then, Jacko heard more of the deep vibrations that he’d heard upon entering the atmosphere: he realized it was the planet talking to its arrivals.

  Uranus formed more surface for them to land on. He couldn’t tell how many there were, but he became more frightened as he realized that it wasn’t just Pallas’ or Astraeus who’d come to testify against poor Jacko; in fact, it looked like hundreds of Titans had come.

  Jacko knew he was in trouble and his heart pounded in his chest, his breath grew heavy, and he fell to his knees, against the angle of the cherub’s orb. He couldn’t take it, the pressure, he felt faint.

  Just as he was about to pass out, a warmth spread from within his heart, slowing its rhythm and spreading over his quivering body and mind. The warmth, then, consumed his brain and his consciousness was clouded.

  He stood up and looked about, but it wasn’t him, or, rather, not just. Jacko had no control over his body and, although he saw with his own eyes, it was like he was seeing tunnel vision. It was freaky and scary, but he also felt comforted by whatever was inside him.

  Jacko’s mouth opened, and although he heard his voice escape, it was not him who said in a majestically magnified volume, “What is the real reason you have brought me here, Ouranus?”

  When the loud voice escaped Jacko, his moment of comfort turned to horror, but the presence inside him kept his mind from going insane. Somehow, it forced his body’s natural instinct to shut down with fear and shock, to stay well and grounded. Hold onnnnn, it told him.

  The voice, Jacko realized, it wasn’t Sissy, like he thought; it was the presence, inside him, that had been talking to him, all along. Was this the voice that talked to Dog, too?

  His soul shivered, despite Lucem’s hold on him, and it almost left his mortal body, which wanted to die. The presence must have felt the weakening of his soul and body, too, because it strengthened its hold on Jacko, like forcing opposite ends of a magnet together, it kept Jacko’s soul inside his body.

  “You have disturbed the peace of my sons. You started a war between them. It is only c
ustomary that you should stand trial before me and die.”

  The entity’s comforting presence inside him turned to rage, scaring poor Jacko, and tears leaked out of the corners of his eyes, yet the presence held him firm. WHO ARE YOU??? GET OUT OF MEEEE!!! PLEEEEASE!!! GET OUT NOOOOW!! He screamed inside his head.

  But the presence ignored him.

  “You know you have no right! Ouranus!” Only Jacko wasn’t speaking English anymore, but some sort of ancient language he knew to be Latin, yet it didn’t sound like Latin of today. It was the ancient Latin of millenniums ago.

  “The boy wandered into my territory!”

  “Heaven is not just your territory!”

  “It does not matter,” yelled Pallas. “This boy caused us to riot amongst each other. Some of us were resting peacefully until he came along.”

  “But I have a destiny to fulfill.”

  “Your destiny is not important to us,” said Pallas to cheers and hand clapping. “You betrayed us when you allowed the Olympians to overrun us. We do not care about you or the humans and whatever so-called destiny. When it comes time to fight, we will fight against you all.”

  “Yeaaahh,” said many to claps and cheers.

  “The Earth was created for these hapless life forms, or so called souls, to have solid form and evolve in the universe. They were given bodies, and given to the Earth, so they could serve us, yet they have grown and changed. We cannot stop this progression, for it is wrong. You’re desire to enslave humanity is wrong and the majority of us do not agree with it! The time for monarchs is over.”

  “Says the god who tried to rule humanity and failed,” continued Pallas.

  “I never tried to rule, but only to guide and teach souls to become wise and leave their primitive state behind. I never tried to use the Earth as a place for my habitation and manipulation.”

  “It does not matter to us. This is a time of equal opportunity! We may not win, but we will try to put our stake in the future of the heavens and the Earth,” concluded Ouranus.

  “Why do you do this?”

  “Because we were wrongfully ousted from our thrones. We loved heaven, Earth and the humankind; if you remember correctly, they were all ours. We discovered these souls when they were young and my children had no right to take them from us.”

  “You have no right to take them back because your intentions are wrong.”

  “And, here, we part ways. If you try to stop us, then we will destroy you.”

  “I’m way older than you, and way more powerful! But you just try, Ouranus, you just try! The Earth will have one less planet in its solar system, and it will not be you, for I have all the gods on my side.”

  “Enough! Lucem, leave us, now!”

  “OURANUS! PUT A STOP TO THIS NOW, OR YOU’LL ALL BE SORRY. YOU ARE NOT STRONG ENOUGH TO TAKE ME OR THIS BOY!”

  Jacko’s body trembled with anger and the essence held him firm.

  “You are my father Lucem, and I honor thee, but I have long since decided that we will fight. We will take our rightful place back, in heaven and exist on Earth.”

  Jacko’s body vibrated as he felt Lucem’s anger consume his flesh. He thought his hands would explode, that his eyes would burst, and he didn’t know how much longer his mortal body could take his possession.

  Suddenly, vibration and massive quakes shook the surface of Uranus which sent the cherub, containing Jacko, to suspend in mid-air. The vibrations grew so strong that even the gods rumbled over the surface of Uranus.

  When Jacko thought his body had reached its end - that he would die-, his mind cleared suddenly and his body felt weightless as though he’d just stepped out of a pool.

  Jacko was alone again.

  He looked around as his vision adjusted from the myopic tunnel he’d had only a few moments ago. The Titans stomped, cheered, and clapped because Lucem had gone.

  A new panic rose in his chest. Why did he leave him all alone? He knew the Titans were going to kill him?

  Do not be afraid, you will not die, just yet. Go, now!

  The cherub made to take him back to Earth, but it was distracted by the sudden arrival of several additional large beings. Like Althenio and Manlo, these ones were alabaster white giants, and they looked nothing like the rogue-ish Titans, but more like beautiful Greek statues.

  They landed as more solid ground formed for them. Everyone stared as a particularly frightful looking gigantic man with a long white beard spoke.

  “Ouranus,” he spoke in Greek. Lucem left behind, knowledge of languages in his head. “You dare interfere with our prophets and destroy this boy? We will stop you!” as he shook his silver three pronged trident to the sky.

  From the sky a bolt of lightning struck the large man in the chest, who keeled over on the spot – Ouranus killed him. A moment of silence followed, and then a loud deafening roar as they all attacked one another. Tridents and spears sent antimatter and lightning bolts amuck, frying and obliterating to Jacko’s left and right. As if that wasn’t scary enough, Uranus rained down sulfur methane and continually sent lightning bolts from his sky.

  “GOOOOO!” Said a giant who scooped up the cherub and threw it into the atmosphere. They flew off into the dark as, behind them, Titans rolled and fought all about them, spilling into all levels of Uranus atmosphere and rolling throughout the clouds.

  When they made it into space, Jacko looked back and saw two large bodies rolling into the darkness as they tried to spear each other.

  More gods spread into battle, across the solar system, and some, in Jacko’s direction. They were chasing him! His cherub just missed a red flash.

  The cherub must have been frightened too because its orb started to rotate again, except a lot faster than before, and Jacko tumbled inside.

  Fight! Said Lucem.

 

  Jacko wanted to use his power to defend himself and the cherub, but its center wouldn’t stop no matter how much he yelled at it. He felt like he was inside a power ball machine.

  Several times, he nearly retched. He closed his eyes and focused on suspending himself just off the bottom of the cherub’s belly.

  Feeling better, he opened his eyes and was relieved to see they were about to enter Earth’s atmosphere.

  Just then, another red bolt from one of the spears came close to obliterating him and the angel. More of the gods threw bunches of blue bolts at the Titans that followed Jacko, and several of them were obliterated.

  Scared, he closed his eyes and concentrated all of his hatred on the Titan, closest to him and the cherub. With as much emotion as he felt at the moment, it didn’t take much explode him.

  This angered the rest of them, who ran faster at Jacko, all the while red bolts flew around them.

  Then, just as he was about to hit the cloud layer of Earth. One of the bolts struck the beryl of the cherub, and it blew apart, releasing Jacko who passed out as he fell through the sky at high velocity.

 

  Meeting Gaia