The Holy Dark

by Kyoko M

  Thousands of voices hummed through the air as I ascended the massive hill in the astral plane. The constant murmur abated as soon as the top of my head rose over the horizon and the angels could see me. They were decked out in their holy armor—traditionally silver, lightweight, and each styled to suit its wearer. Their wings arched several inches above their shoulders. The occasional white feather floated among them, rising upward on an odd breath or movement. I let my eyes rove over the massive assembly of angels, took a deep breath, and spoke from the heart.

  “Thank you for gathering here at such a trying time. I know many of you are anxious and confused about why you’ve been assembled. I’m going to clear the air.”

  I licked my lips. “Moloch has declared war on the Garden of Eden. You have been called into action to defend it. He seeks to use hellfire to burn it to the ground and we are not going to let him. Eden represents life. It is the holiest place on earth and it must be protected at all costs.”

  “Protected, huh? Like how you protected Gabriel?” A harsh female voice shouted back. Several angry mutters joined hers until I had to raise my hand to silence the rabble.

  “I’m prepared to address that as well. I will not deny that it is my fault that Gabriel was murdered. I was not prepared. I apologize for letting you down. You deserve a more worthy Commander, and that you will find in Raphael.”

  “Yeah, because he’s not married to Belial’s servant,” a male voice said. Again, the angels bristled and grumbled amongst themselves. I stared at my once-loyal followers and decided that today was not the day to walk on eggshells. Screw it. I’d already gotten demoted. I had nothing else to lose.

  “I will apologize for what I have done wrong,” I said in an even voice. “Nothing more. I came here to tell you the truth and so I shall. And the truth is, if you don’t like that I’m married to Jordan Amador…you can kiss my ass.”

  A hush fell over the crowd. Several hundred mouths dropped open. I hadn’t ever cursed in front of them, not in all my time as their leader.

  “I don’t expect you to understand romantic love the way that I do, but no one said that you had to in the first place. It’s none of your damn business what I do in my personal life. Has being married to a Seer affected my role as an archangel? Yes. Of course it has. It is impossible to keep every aspect of life separate from one another. You all only know me as Michael the Prince of Heaven’s Army, not Michael the man. My time on Earth has changed me. Life in Heaven taught me that everything is black and white. Life on Earth taught me that there are some grey areas, and some of those grey areas have made me a different person. No better, no less than the angel many of you came to know. I will not stand here and lie and say that I am not ashamed of my mistakes. No one is infallible, least of all me. I refuse to make excuses for what I’ve done. I intend to pay for my crimes and serve out whatever sentence comes my way. In the meantime, all that I ask of you is your help and your sense of reason. Moloch wants a war. He wants the rivers choked with blood. He wants a mountain of corpses on which to build his castle. We cannot and must not give in. Invading the Earth to hunt him down will only lead to unnecessary bloodshed—both ours and the humans’. We will fight him. We will stop him. We will avenge the deaths of our brothers and sisters. We will overcome. I swear it on my soul. Do I have your cooperation or not?”

  Silence. Then, one woman raised her sword.

  “For Gabriel.”

  A second one joined hers. “For Gabriel.”

  A third. A fourth. A fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, until every single weapon was raised into the air, glinting back at me hard and unwavering, like the eyes of every soldier present.

  Their voices lifted in unison. “For Gabriel.”

  I bowed my head to them. “Thank you. We will end this war in his name.”

  I turned and walked back down the hill where Raphael was waiting for me. Raphael’s armor was pure copper with an emblem of the sun surrounded by angels holding hands carved into the chest plate. The color blended well with his medium-brown skin and loosely-curled black hair. His twin axes were strapped to his back underneath his shield.

  He laid a hand on my shoulder again. He wasn’t smiling this time. Determination filled his features, reflecting my own. “You know that it should be you leading them instead of me.”

  I shook my head. “You’ve still got their trust. Use it well. I’ll be behind you the whole way.”

  “I’m a healer, not a fighter. You’re the only one with the skill to defeat Moloch. Can you beat him?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then that’s all I need to hear.” He handed me one of his axes. It was a brilliant bronze and about the length of my arm from fingertips to shoulder. The edges of the blade were silver and sharpened to perfection.

  I hefted it and spun it around twice, testing the weight. It had been a while since I’d used anything other than my sword to fight. I had a borrowed weapon to match my borrowed armor, as my sword was linked to my holy armor and both were in Moloch’s grasp for now. It was dark grey, lightweight, and tied to my body with thick leather straps, complete with a large, round shield that clipped onto my back.

  “Fight well, brother.”

  I nodded to him. He turned to head for the battle brewing on the world below. Moloch wanted hell on earth. And he was about to get it.

  My sword was not just one of untold power—it had the ability to create a portal between the astral plane and wherever I wanted it to connect to on earth. Moloch had stolen it in order to allow his infantry access to the Garden rather than using the physical entrance. After Adam and Eve were forced to leave, Eden was relocated miles underground to avoid ever being discovered. Ever since their expulsion, the angel Uzziel looked after the animals still living there and kept the grounds under control. He didn’t make contact with the outside world and had never needed to until now.

  The astral plane was more than the void between Heaven and Earth—there was one between Hell and Earth as well, what people commonly referred to as the River Styx. Moloch had probably assembled his best troops and told them to wait there while he went through the physical entrance. All one needed was an angel’s feather to gain access, and I theorized Belladonna had provided one of hers.

  However, there was one other way to enter the Garden besides those two methods—the gates. God had built a shortcut between the two planes during the days of Creation by making a bridge between the gates of Heaven and the gates of Eden.

  The bright golden lights of heaven’s gate vanished and I opened my eyes to the gates of Eden. The pit of my stomach dropped open.

  The gates were mangled almost beyond recognition. The beautiful gold was burnt and gnarled like a knot in the branch of a tree. They were spread apart as if there had been a large explosion of some kind, swinging back and forth with a high creaking sound like they were screaming. Then my eyes beheld Eden itself.

  Fire.

  Everywhere.

  The grass near the entrance was smeared with blood, mud, and ashes. The trees were curled up and wrapped in flames. The stench of sulfur permeated the air, burning my nostrils. The once shimmering pools of the river that surrounded the grounds were stained red with the blood of dead animals whose bloated corpses floated along the surface. Deer, rabbits, sparrows, lizards, all with their fur, feathers, and scales scorched. They had run out of the forest to escape the fire. Their very homes were burning them alive. God.

  Raphael met my eyes, and I wasn’t surprised to see tears in his as well. Still, he swiped his hands across his face and I did the same. We could mourn later. We had work to do.

  “I will lead the main brigade through to stop the fire,” Raphael said, clearing his throat. “You go after Moloch. Make him pay, brother. Make him pay dearly.”

  “This I promise,” I replied, and then spread my wings. The ash-choked air kicked up beneath my boots as I leapt upward, pulling my helmet down further over my face to help keep the smoke out of my eyes.

  The cave was
several hundred miles long, as the Garden was built much like an animal sanctuary. Each section of Eden had its own environment tailored to support the wildlife living there. The entrance was made for common breeds that lived in Northeastern climates of the United States. I stayed high in the air, coughing and squinting through the blaze to spot any sign of Moloch. He would be leading the procession through as he’d know it was only a matter of time before we showed up. Still, I needed to find Uzziel as well. He would have been alone when Moloch arrived, and though he was an unparalleled fighter, he might have gotten overwhelmed.

  The jungle terrain was also in ruins, but I could finally hear voices towards the outskirts of where it ended. They held torches in their hands and stopped every so often to light a tree or bush on fire. Most of them had cloth or gas masks over their faces so they wouldn’t succumb to the smoke. Any of the predators that attacked were no match for them and that hurt worse than anything I had seen. The wildlife here was meant to have peaceful lives in paradise. Aggressive outsiders were a new concept to them.

  I stretched forth my energy as I continued flying above the Garden, searching for either Moloch or Uzziel’s signatures. The icy lump in my gut grew larger as I approached the center of the Garden where the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge resided. I couldn’t help myself. I had to know if they had survived.

  I landed in the clearing to the enclosure, readying Raphael’s axe in my hand when I saw there was someone here. Uzziel.

  He was seven feet tall with dark grey hair, striking blue eyes, and bronze skin. He wore his sterling holy armor, but it was stained with blood. He held a spear in one hand as he fought off seven demons who had cornered him in front of the Tree of Life, and a large round shield in the other to defend against the gunfire.

  As soon as the demons spotted me, they opened fire. I raised my shield and flew at them, using brute force to knock two of them over. Once they were down, I slashed one’s throat with the axe and decapitated another with a bellowing roar. Three of them fled the clearing, shouting to others that reinforcements had arrived, while the other two concentrated on us.

  Uzziel joined me and we crept forward, shields up, driving the demons back from the trees. Uzziel launched his spear at a break in the gunfire, killing the one on the left, and I hacked at the knee of the one on the right. He fell backwards screaming and I silenced him with a swift stroke. I plucked the axe from his corpse and slid it into the sheath on my back, facing Uzziel.

  “You’re hurt,” I said after noting the deep gash beneath a gap in the chassis of his armor on the right side. The blood was partially dried, meaning he’d been like this for a while.

  “I shall live,” the big angel said in his booming bass voice. He retrieved his spear, wiping the head off with his thick fingers. “These heathens concentrate their efforts around this place. Thou art late, Commander.”

  I winced. “I’m not the Commander anymore.”

  His expression didn’t change. “Sayeth who?”

  “The angels.”

  “Until thy Father sayeth it, it is not truth.”

  I almost smiled. He was a stubborn fellow. I’d forgotten. “Has Moloch been here?”

  “That mongrel came past not ten minutes ago. It was he who gave me this.” He gestured towards the gash, and I noticed a pain that flickered across his face when he lifted his right arm.

  “The angels are here now. You need medical attention. They can defend the Trees in your stead.”

  He shook his head. “This place is my home. I shall defend it until the last drop of blood leaves my corpse. Go forth, Prince Michael. Moloch is not far. Take every life we have lost out of his flesh.”

  “Consider it done, old friend.”

  Once more, I rose up into the air on my wings, flying past the clearing where man had first sinned. The land was flat, rolling plains for at least a mile, scattered with patches of dead grass and flowers. It stretched out into an oasis, and miles past that, I came to the desert region. I flew beyond the last section of demon infantry after I left the oasis behind, and then I felt him.

  Moloch.

  I found him standing on top of a sand dune in the middle of the oppressive heat. The heat was a result of the artificial light overhead in the cave. It took only minutes for my armor to get hot enough to scald flesh, and I suspected that was why Moloch had chosen this spot to face me.

  He stood holding my sword, his other hand up near his face. A scorpion the size of a rat crawled across his knuckles, over the gigantic ruby ring on his finger, and then down his arm. It eventually scuttled off into the sand, disappearing as if it had never been there to begin with.

  Somehow, he looked at home in the desolate wasteland in his white tank top and army fatigues. Sweat glistened on his bare skin, but he showed no other signs of feeling stifled by the heat. The Judas dagger was sheathed at his waist on the right side, just waiting to be used.

  “Welcome home, Michael,” Moloch said. “Does this place bring back memories for you? Being the human’s shepherd. Their friend. Their nanny.”

  He lifted his dead eyes with those slitted pupils to the landscape as the wind ruffled his white-streaked hair. “Eden represents everything overripe and indulgent in this world. The animals have grown fat with laziness. The land reeks of overabundance. The atmosphere is sickly sweet. I cannot imagine what it would have been like if Adam and Eve had stayed. Humanity was meant for suffering. Is it so hard to understand why I wish to rule them?”

  He fixed his gaze on me and then cocked his head to the side as if sizing me up. “Then again, maybe it is hard for you. You love them. You love their flaws. They make you feel superior on some unconscious level. Perhaps that is why you love her.”

  “I’m not here to listen to you talk, Moloch,” I said over the howl of the wind. “I’m here to cut out your tongue, gut you, burn your corpse, and salt the earth where you die. I don’t need your lecture or your monologuing. I need your blood. I need your heart in my hand. I want to watch you take your last breath and know that it was because of me.”

  A slow smile crept across Moloch’s thin lips. “Then you are ready. Let us settle the score, boy.”

  “Gladly.” I stripped off my helmet and tossed it aside. The chest plate, the thigh straps, the shin guards, all of it hit the sand. I was left in a black sleeveless shirt and pants. I held the shield in my left hand and the axe in my right. The wedding bands on my left ring finger and pinky glinted under the light.

  We stayed motionless for a long while—each man analyzing the other and considering the rules of engagement. Offense or defense. Who would make the first move?

  Moloch twirled my sword once and then dove for me. I brought the shield up high, blocking the stroke aimed at my forehead. I slammed it into his gut and brought my axe down at his face, but he dodged to the side. He swiped at my unprotected back and I bent at the waist. The blade swept past. I kicked his ankle out from under him and brought the axe down again, hoping to catch him as he fell. He let the momentum take him into a back roll and rose to his feet, shaking sand loose from his hair.

  Our blades met again. Vibrations from the sheer power of each movement shot up my arm and down my sides. Sweat dripped over my forehead, plastering my hair against my skull. The heat burrowed its way inside me and filled my body. I swore I saw fire exit my lungs with every breath.

  We broke apart after a vicious bout where neither of us landed a hit. Moloch tilted the hilt of my sword in his enormous hand. “I must say, I enjoy wielding Celeste. She is more beautiful than either of us is worthy of holding. The craftsmanship is flawless.”

  “She was a gift,” I said without thinking.

  Moloch glanced at me. “Oh?”

  “She was given to me the day I was named Commander. Gabriel smelted her himself. He always was good with his hands.”

  “There are always casualties in war, Michael. You know that better than most. You cannot save everyone. Death conquers all. Even our time is limited. We are not t
rue immortals. As much as you love and worship your Father, even He must have a time. Gabriel lived a long and prosperous life, and he was given a warrior’s death.”

  Fury engulfed my senses. “A warrior’s death? What sort of honor could he find in being stabbed in the back by a traitor? There is no worth to be found in his murder, you posturing, repugnant peon. You are a coward masquerading as a warlord. You are mangy dog that is too stupid to know when to lay down and die. You could not rule this world if it were given to you on a silver platter. That is the only truth you need to know, Moloch.”

  I lunged for him and attacked with all of my might. The blows rained down from every angle, faster than I had ever fought, because all I could see was my brother’s ashen face after the Judas dagger pierced his gut. All I could see were his eyes—the brightest blue in the universe—dimming in death. My brother, who had fought with me since the inception of the angels, who had taught me kindness and humility, who had encouraged me in our darkest hours. My brother. My blood. My fault.

  Finally, my muscles were too weak to continue and I heaved myself back a couple of steps, panting from exertion. Sweat poured from every inch of exposed skin. My shirt clung to my shoulders, my chest, to the valley of moisture between my abs. The axe and shield felt beyond heavy in my hands.

  “Do you feel that your righteous anger will give you the ability to defeat me, boy? I assure you it will not.”

  I let out a weak, vindictive chuckle as I met his gaze. “No, actually, I don’t. I just had to get that out of my system.”

  He narrowed his eyes at me. “What are you talking about?”

  I pointed to the small cut I’d made with my axe along his left bicep. It was about an inch long and relatively thin, but the blood dripped down his arm with plenty of pressure thanks to the adrenaline. He glanced downward to find it pooling next to his boots in the sand. Confusion surged across his hardened features.