by Leo Ndelle
“Besides, the demons ain’t the worst part of y’all’s problem,” Eliel added.
“What possibly could be worse than an onslaught from Hell?” Tau’ma asked rhetorically.
“Humans turning on one another,” Eliel replied bluntly.
Eliel noticed the confused expression on their faces but ignored it.
“Zukael, the one y’all call The Beast, is here already,” Eliel explained. “And he’s about to cause a massive shift in the polarity of billions of y’all, particularly those who are inclined towards the dark side. To his victims, this shift will feel like having a private jet at your disposal when you’ve been used to catching the bus ya whole life.”
“The mark of The Beast,” Shi’mon muttered to himself.
“In my opinion, that is a far greater threat than the upcoming onslaught from Hell,” Eliel added. “And honestly, I don’t know how one angel or archangel can handle a situation like that. That’s the second reason why we can’t send any help y’all’s way. It’s gonna be pointless. But if we decimate the creatures of Hell Realm quickly enough, then maybe your kind stands a chance at survival. Looks like we ain’t not as cold as y’all might’ve thought we were after all.”
Yehuda had a few choice words for Eliel but he chose to stay his tongue. And then, Shi’mon’s ring with the green crystal suddenly started pulsating so brightly until it shattered to pieces.
“What is it, brother?” Yaakov asked.
“Something has happened to The Beast, his prison-” Shi’mon replied.
“Or both!” Yehuda completed Shi’mon’s sentence.
Yochanan let out a few curse words.
Shi’mon’s private phone rang and he knew it was Fr. Antonio. He brought the phone to his palm using telekinesis, connected the call and placed it on speaker.
“Yes, Antonio,” Shi’mon said sternly.
“Father Supreme, we have a very serious problem,” Father Antonio sounded both frantic and petrified.
Fr. Antonio hesitated before he continued.
“Our detectors have picked up a…,” Team Shi’mon could hear him swallow on the other end, “shower of falling angels heading our way!”
“I’ll get back to you, Antonio,” Shi’mon said. “Put the word out; I want every agent to drop whatever they are doing right now and prepare for an all-out attack. That’s an order!”
“Affirmative, Father Supreme!” Fr. Antonio said and ended the call.
“Where’s the rest of your team?” Eliel asked, referring to Miryam and Sarael.
“On an errand,” Shi’mon replied.
Eliel summoned them immediately.
Miryam, Marissa and Cahen appeared in the room together with Lithilia. The hostility towards Lithilia was immediate and intense, but Miryam stepped in.
“What is she doing here?” Shi’mon hissed as he took a few steps towards her.
“Please, brother, let me explain,” Miryam tried to intercede but Shi’mon was deaf to her.
Miryam had to grab Shi’mon by the shoulders before he stopped.
“Please, brother!” she pleaded. “Believe me when I say that no one wants her dead more than I do.”
Lithilia visibly flinched at Miryam’s words.
“But if she’s here with me, shouldn’t it count for something?” Miryam asked.
Shi’mon relaxed only a little.
“I’m not asking for her to be a part of the team, brother,” Miryam continued. “But we could use all the help we need. I know Archangel Eliel is not here on a fun visit.”
“Eliel,” Eliel said.
“As you wish,” Miryam replied as she let go of Shi’mon’s shoulders.
She then met the gazes of the rest of the team and pleaded with her eyes. The team would go along with whatever Shi’mon decided.
“Whatever you decide, brother,” Miryam continued. ‘Then so be it. But, please, I ask you not to send her away.”
Shi’mon heaved a heavy sigh.
“Do you vouch for her?” Shi’mon asked.
“Yes, brother,” Miryam replied. “I vouch for her.”
“Then she will be your responsibility from now on,” Shi’mon said.
Miryam thanked him profusely. Lithilia visibly relaxed and let out a long breath she did not realize she was holding in.
“Where is he?” Eliel demanded, stepping towards Lithilia.
Lithilia had survived Team Shi’mon, thanks to Miryam. But there was nothing Miryam could do regarding Eliel and the look in his eyes reminded Lithilia that she better be on her best behavior in the presence of the famous Archangel Eliel.
“I don’t know, sir,” Lithilia replied respectfully. “He left before we came here and I cannot pick up his signature.”
When Eliel kept glaring at her, she took an unconscious step backwards.
“I swear to you, on my son’s life,” Lithilia said. “I am telling you the truth!”
“I can confirm her story Archangel Eliel,” Miryam said.
“Eliel,” Eliel said with unhidden exasperation.
“Sorry,” Miryam said. “It may take a while.”
“Gotta go now,” Eliel said. “Best of luck to y’all and hope we meet again.”
And without waiting for any replies, Eliel teleported to Celestia.
“Brother, what’s going on?” Miryam asked Shi’mon as he sank into a seat.
Team Shi’mon did the same. They all wore a common look of helplessness and despair on their faces. Yehuda gave Miryam a quick summary of the situation.
“What do we do now, brother?” Yehuda asked Shi’mon after a few minutes.
Shi’mon sighed and massaged his temples in frustration. Master, Yeshua, had paid him a visit and he had received and upgrade right before Eliel had given them news of doom and gloom. All of this was no coincidence. He would go with is instincts, because that was all he had left.
“We head south,” Shi’mon said finally. “To the pyramid.”
Team Shi’mon followed their leader to the pyramid in Antarctica. There was no fear, no concern or worry as they followed him. There was only unwavering faith in their action. They gathered together in silence not knowing what to think, say or do. Cahen pointed towards the sky and Team Shi’mon saw many streaks of fire blazing down towards Earth Realm like a meteor shower. But this was no meteor shower. This was a rain of demons, tens of thousands of them, maybe more, diving towards Earth Realm with a dictum of decimation and death. And all Team Shi’mon could do was watch helplessly. But then, that feeling of helplessness was replaced by a different feeling.
Shi’mon was the first to feel it. It was impossible, but true. He turned his gaze to the right and everyone looked in the same direction. Even as the promise of death dove closer, no one cared anymore as the feeling of despair turned to elation and hopelessness turned to victory.
Sarael wanted to run towards the object of their most welcomed shock. Instead, she crumbled to her knees as tears of pure joy traced down her cheeks and melted the snow upon contact. Even Miryam cried for joy while the rest of the team was shocked to immobility.
Patrick ignored Shi’mon’s hand on his shoulder and walked past Shi’mon’s team as they gazed upon him in shock, joy and near-reverence. His eyes were a pair of black orbs and he glowed with a dark aura around him. There was a pureness in the power that radiated from his body like none of them had ever felt before. His black overcoat swayed violently in the merciless winds of the Antarctic until he turned his face towards the direction of the wind. As if by silent order, the winds immediately died off. Patrick took a few more steps forward and looked up to the skies. He saw the rain of demons and scoffed.
“Not today,” he said quietly. “Not in my realm.”
Patrick raised his open right hand in the air and a ball of pure white light coalesced in it. The ball of pure white light grew brighter and smaller into half the size of a golf ball. When Patrick closed his right fist around the ball of light, he sucked up more than half of all the electrical p
ower in Earth Realm. The dark side of the realm went pitch black and almost everything that functioned on electrical power, including backup power sources, came to a sudden halt. Patrick infused the electrical energy he had just consumed from Earth Realm with etheric energy. He then punched into the snow-covered ground with his right hand and Earth Realm literally stood still.
One…
The energy flowed from his essence and into the earth until it reached the core of the realm, where he had lost his esoteric signature and met Mother.
Two…
The energy flowed outwards from the core of Earth Realm. By the time it reached the surface, its power had increased exponentially as it morphed into cosmic energy. Yes, Mother herself had endorsed her chosen one’s decision and Mother was proud her chosen one was taking responsibility! When the cosmic energy hit the surface, it returned the borrowed electrical energy back to Earth Realm and everything resumed around the globe, as if a brief electrical failure had been resolved. Earth Realm also resumed normal rotation.
Three…
The rest of the exponentially increased cosmic energy accelerated towards the skies. Team Shi’mon felt the energy rush through them as if they were in a reverse free-fall. Every sentient and non-sentient creature on Earth Realm was hit by this wave of cosmic energy as it accelerated towards the rain of demons. Patrick rose to his feet and turned his pitch black orbs upwards towards the skies.
“Signed, sealed and delivered,” said the resurrected Patrick, Guardian of Earth Realm.
And with those words, his pitch black orbs glowed in a fiery whiteness that would make a cloudless noonday look like a moonless midnight.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
STELLAR SPECTACLE
LIMBE, CAMEROON: SUNSET
ETUKE SAT ON the stairs outside of her friend’s parents’ mansion on a hill overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. She had no interest in whatever her teenage peers where doing inside the house. Being there, staring blankly and mindlessly at the ocean was her moment of serenity. The world could burn to the ground for all she cared; maybe not to that extent, but oh well. She was oblivious to everything else in her immediate surroundings. This was where her very good friend lived; well, her almost-best-friend, in fact. It was heaven, compared to the tiny two-bedroom shack she shared with her parents and two other siblings.
Etuke was the middle sibling and the brightest of the three. As broke as they were, they were a very happy family. Sometimes, Etuke marveled at her friend’s lack of appreciation of how blessed her friend was, not because her friend’s family was wealthy, but because her friend’s family was located so close to the peace and serenity of mother nature. What more could anyone want? She could sit here all day and not be distracted by the cares of the world. She turned to her right to appreciate the beauty of the setting sun.
Suddenly, something caught her attention and she raised her eyes to the sky. At first, she thought she was dreaming but that thought quickly disappeared. She rubbed her eyes, just to make sure. Nope, her eyes did not deceive her.
“Guys, you need to see this!” she called out to her friends.
When no one responded, she yelled louder and with more urgency.
“Guys! Better come out and see this before it’s gone!”
“What’s going on?” one of them said as he stepped out of the house. “Oh my God! GUYS!” he yelled as he dashed back into the house.
If it’s not on camera, it never happened, someone once told Etuke. But she did not care. And while her friends whipped their phones out and took pictures and videos of what looked like a meteor shower to post on their social media, Etuke had a strange foreboding that this was no ordinary meteor shower.
KAMCHATKA PENINSULA, RUSSIA: CLOSE TO DAWN
Who in their right mind would want to spend their entire night outside in this corner of the globe? Andrei Letchkov, Ph.D. It was one thing to be passionate about one’s career but there was a stark difference between passion and insanity. However, there was no such difference when it came to Dr. Letchkov. He was desperate to prove his theory that Mount Opala, a dormant volcano, was beyond past due for not just an eruption but a mega-eruption by at least a decade. Thus, the good Doctor of Philosophy in geology and geo-thermodynamics was out in the middle of one of nature’s phallic extension from the mainland, gathering the data he needed to support his claim.
Dr. Letchkov’s reputation had taken a dive from nationally acclaimed and respected academic to clinically insane genius because of an event he preferred to erase from his memory. He had also lost his wife and custody of his kids in a smooth and painless divorce. He had mourned his losses for about a week before returning to the wife and children he truly loved; his research.
Suddenly, in the darkness of the night, there was a brightness in the sky that caught his attention. He looked up into the night sky that was a herald to dawn in the next two hours. He let out some expletives as he stood up and gazed at the unbelievable event of a lifetime that was unfolding. This was an opportunity he could not let go by undocumented.
“Sorry, my love,” he said to Mt. Opala. “I’ll just have to cheat on you tonight.”
***
RBS News reporter:
…There have been claims all over the world of what many people are calling a ‘meteor shower’, despite expert opinion that this ‘meteor shower’ did not display the normal characteristics of a meteor shower…
KPT Network reporter:
…Videos shot from all over the world seem to suggest that an astounding number of what looked like balls of fire were trailing the skies in the same manner in which meteors do when they enter the Earth’s atmosphere….
TCB reporter:
…But many experts and non-experts share a common view that this was NOT a meteor shower. Meteors do burn upon entry into Earth’s atmosphere. But it is impossible for an entire meteor shower to explode in unison as if they all hit some kind of ‘invisible wall’…
Al Hassud News Network reporter:
…And even not only did this global meteor shower seem to collide with an invisible wall, but there are claims that the meteor shower was actually slowing down! Last I checked, and I admit that my knowledge of geography and physics are not the best, when an object freefalls due to gravity, it doesn’t slow down on its own. What’s that Newton’s law of motion again?
Preacher at a church:
My fellow brothers and sisters! Most, if not all, of you have already heard the news and seen the footage for yourselves. When I saw the images, I knew it in my heart that the time is nigh! And the Good Lord spoke to me. He said, ‘Son! Tell the people, that my time is nigh! Tell the people that the day of reckoning is here! Tell the people, the sheep must be separated from the goats! Now is the time for my justice to come full circle! Behold the end of days!’
And the congregation thundered a big ‘AMEN’…
UFOLOGISTS:
I never thought I’d see the day in which our planet as a whole would open its eyes! They have been watching us for thousands of years and they have been fed up with the way we are treating the planet. They had decided it was time to cleanse the planet of the virus called humanity. But they failed to realize that we, humans, have some pretty cool, secret technology of our own!
Who are the ‘they’ you speak off?
Aliens, dummy! But either they now know they are messing with the wrong planet, or we just really pissed them off…
***
The China National Space Administration:
“Madam!” the lead director of telecommunications called out as he barged into his boss’ office with a piece of paper in his hand.
His boss stretched out her hand and he handed her sheet of paper. She stared at it for a few seconds and tossed it on her desk.
“So it’s true,” she said calmly and tapped her perfectly manicured and nail-polished left index finger on her lips a number of times.
Her subordinate stood in front of her desk waiting for her orders. She seemed to b
e oblivious of his presence. A few endless seconds went by before he decided to catch her attention and hopefully make her realize the gravity of the situation.
“Madam,” he said in near-frustration. “This is-”
“A serious situation,” she interrupted him. “I am fully aware of that, Juan.”
“What are we going to do about it then?” he asked almost disrespectfully.
Her private line started ringing and she gave him a very stern look.
“Watch and learn!” she said with an air of arrogance.
She pressed the speaker button on her phone and grinned broadly.
“Hello Susan,” she said in perfect English, “I was wondering when you were going to call me.”
She could taste her caller’s panic across the phone’s speakers.
“Hello Li,” replied her counterpart at NASA. “I assume after our little chat, we will be calling our superiors, won’t we now?”
“Aren’t you psychic,” Li said and both women laughed out loud.
***
Patrick smiled as he watched the demons getting wiped out by the auric shield of cosmic energy he had released their way, like mosquitoes landing on a hot, electrified mesh. He was pleased! He could only imagine how the media and the rest of the world were going to react to this. He watched until the last of the demons got snuffed out before he turned around to face Team Shi’mon.
The looks on their faces would make an amazing work of art, he thought. He knew they wanted to hug him into the snow and cry for joy. But no one approached him. Maybe it was the color of his aura and eyes? But even before he blinked and the aura around his body and color of his eyes disappeared, Shi’mon was already walking towards him. He had never seen Shi’mon so happy as Shi’mon started running through the snow towards him. Patrick had never felt a hug that carried so much emotion in all his life like the one Shi’mon gave him.
“I thought you were dead, my son,” Shi’mon whispered in Patrick’s ear.
Patrick felt something wet trickle down the back of his neck. He finally realized how much Shi’mon had revealed in that short moment and was so surprised and moved that he himself shed a tear.
