by Leo Ndelle
“What did you upgrade me to, Master?” Shi’mon muttered to himself.
The Beast, Marlo and Keerim were passive observers, as instructed by The Scribe, even with Shi’mon’s amazing display of power. They each had a personal assignment, as well as a reward for completing that assignment.
Marlo watched as the spectacle unfolded in front of him. He was antsy to get his hands on his children’s killers. Judging from what he was witnessing, it was going to be impossible for him to take on both of them at once. So he would have to settle for Yehuda and if luck favored him, then he would move on to the others. Yehuda was the one who stole his soul, the father of the Bright Eyes.
Beelzebub on the other hand was dying to get his hands on Patrick, but he had to be patient as well. He thought what The Scribe had asked him to do was odd, but he would fulfill his end of the bargain. Patrick will still be around and he, Beelzebub could definitely use the extra boost.
Keerim on the other hand had no objections to being patient. He was not ready to take on Fazim, unless he got that ‘upgrade’. He was close. He could feel it, but he was not there yet. As such, he had everything to lose and nothing to gain from going after Fazim before The Scribe gave the go-ahead.
“NOW!” The Scribe’s voice sliced through Beelzebub’s mind.
Sarael felt her hand stop in mid-lash as her whip of green light appeared to have been caught on something. She spun around to see The Beast holding her whip and grinning at her. She immediately lashed out with her second whip but Beelzebub caught it as well and yanked her towards him. Sarael was still in midflight when Beelzebub zipped towards her and unleashed an uppercut directly into her chin. Her head snapped backwards violently, changing her course of flight. She felt a burning hand wrap around her left ankle and her body flying in an arc in the air before it accelerated towards the ground. She was dazed for a few seconds after she crashed face-first into the hot earth until she felt a smoldering hand grab her by the head and lift her off the ground.
Maduk saw Beelzebub lifting Sarael off the ground and teleported to her rescue. He crashed his body into Beelzebub’s, knocking The Beast to the ground away from Sarael, as she crashed to the ground.
“Are you alright, brother?” Maduk asked.
“Yes, I’m fine, brother,” Sarael replied and stood up. “This feels so awkward.”
“What is that, brother?” Maduk asked, feeling a little confused.
“You calling me ‘brother’,” Sarael replied.
The siblings smiled and readied to attack Beelzebub. They zipped towards him but their speeds were too slow compared to Beelzebub’s. From their perspective, Beelzebub became a blur before they felt the force of his attack.
Beelzebub toyed with Maduk and Sarael, delivering doses of punishment to these two with a flair he never had before. His brief possession of Lithilia had really been an upgrade for him. These two were definitely no match for him. He drew from various cocktails of essences as he made the relentless sibling fools look slow and stupid. His spawn were almost completely gone by now. He even had the moments to spare to observe the antsy Marlo and cautious Keerim where they stood and waited for The Scribe. He noticed Fazim glaring intensely at Keerim. She was honorable, in some respect, by waiting for Keerim to attack first. A fight between two paradins; that was not something one got to observe always.
“NOW!” The Scribe’s voice ordered telepathically.
The Beast summoned a dagger with a twelve-inch-blade and slashed at Maduk so quickly that neither Maduk nor Sarael could react on time. As Maduk’s head rolled away from his lifeless body, Beelzebub did what he was best at. The king of demons possessed Sarael.
Lithilia felt the disconnection from her son and turned around in time to see Maduk’s headless body slump to the ground. Everything in Lithilia’s perspective froze. She was shocked and horrified beyond words. For a moment, she thought she was in a dream until reality set in and everything went black! Lithilia let out a scream with sonic vibrations supercharged with so much pain and fury that an earthquake with a magnitude of 11.2 on the Richter scale shook the ground within a twenty-mile radius for twelve seconds. The fighting stopped and all attention turned towards her.
Behold the motivation the fourth piece of the puzzle needed! Behold the catalyst needed to forge the forth key! The Scribe watched with fascination as his gamble had paid off. Well, it was not much of a gamble; just planning and purpose coming to fruition. The sight was beautiful at the etheric level. He watched as Lithilia zipped towards The Beast, his son’s murderer. She moved in really slow steps from The Scribe’s perspective. With each step, the mother of a sinister lost her humanity. With each step, her anger and pain sparked every essence she had stolen in her life into a single essence. There was an explosion of the esoteric kind as that single essence imploded within her, providing the esoteric spark needed to awaken a dormant essence within her. The Scribe grinned as the dormant Shemsu essence within Lithilia became dominant!
The Scribe then became near-omnipresent and moved faster than the speed of thought. In that state, Creation itself moved so slow that it could as well have come to a standstill. The Scribe reached for the back of Metatron’s neck and placed his hand on the mark below Metatron’s neck. He now had half of Lunok’s key. He reached for Michael’s neck and retrieved another half of Lunok’s key. Metatron and Michael would feel the burn very shortly once The Scribe emerged from his state of near-omnipresence.
He watched Lithilia reaching for Beelzebub’s throat at a speed much faster than Beelzebub could handle. She wanted to kill him with her bare hands. Crude, but to each their own, The Scribe thought. Keerim was zipping towards Beelzebub and Lithilia. Marlo was much slower than the other creatures and therefore needed a push. The Scribe took the spear of destiny from Marlo and plunged it into Marlo’s heart. However, instead of Marlo dying by the stab to his heart, the blood of Yeshua that was on the spear prevented him from dying and gave Marlo an esoteric upgrade. Marlo felt the transmutation of his essence and zipped much faster towards Keerim, Beelzebub and Lithilia, who was still reaching for Beelzebub’s neck.
Keerim saw Fazim zipping towards him as he zipped towards Beelzebub and Lithilia. She moved much slower than he did though, which was a most welcome surprise. But why did she, a guardian move slower than he did? Was it because of Lithilia’s scream? There was something about that scream though. Keerim recalled feeling a deep transformation within him at the esoteric level. A new kind of essence was birthed in him and suddenly, he felt a connection between himself, Beelzebub, Lithilia, Sarael, Eva and even Marlo. It was very faint, but it was there.
What did they all have in common and where did he get it from? Did it have something to do with the Zarark from Celestia he had hidden within his form? So many questions, no answers. Anyway, his instructions from The Scribe were simple: prevent Lithilia from killing Beelzebub and maintain contact between Marlo, Lithilia, Beelzebub and himself. Keerim deduced Marlo and Beelzebub had similar instructions, although Lithilia’s attack must have come as a surprise for Beelzebub. Or maybe not, given his history with the creature called Lithilia.
This will only last faster than the speed of thought, The Scribe said via telepathy.
The Scribe combined both halves of Lunok’s key he collected from Michael and Metatron and teleported to Emok’s prison as Marlo, Beelzebub and Keerim all established physical contact. As soon as Lithilia grabbed The Beast by the throat, the dominant Shemsu in her connected with the recessive Shemsu essence in Sarael, who was possessed by The Beast. Keerim also carried a very recessive aspect of the Shemsu essence due to him housing Celestia’s Zarark, a Zarark that was carried by Emok before being deposited in Celestia’s Spawn Sanctuary. The esoteric blast from Lithilia’s scream activated this recessive Shemsu essence in Keerim some more, but not enough to make it dominant.
The puzzle was complete! Lithilia’s dominant Shemsu essence resonated with the recessive Shemsu essence in Keerim, Beelzebub and Marlo, causing the rec
essive Shemsu essence to become dominant for a split moment. With these four Shemsu symbionts now fully activated, The Scribe mimicked a dominant Shemsu essence and hence becoming the fifth element of the key to Emok’s prison. He was fully aware of the ramifications of his action, but the Cosmic Spark was almost nigh and nothing else mattered; nothing but perfect timing!
The key glowed in his right palm. He pressed the glowing key against Emok’s prison and instantly shattered the energy barrier of the prison. Emok, The Darkness, and the major catalyst of the vibration of chaos in this section of Creation called The Soulless Ones by The Scribe, was free. The Scribe emerged out of his state of near-omnipotence. He watched The Darkness explode in a powerful esoteric blast towards the surface, knocking everyone to the ground and plunging Earth Realm into a mayhem of mega geo-storms, tsunamis, earthquakes and total darkness as Solara was completely blocked out.
But out of this Armageddon, a man slowly walked, unbothered by the tidings of doom and gloom for Earth Realm, towards the raging dark energy that was Emok. Gasps of shock and awe came from everywhere.
“Master!” the apprentices exclaimed.
“My love!” Miryam cried.
“Father?” Sarael wondered.
“You!” The Scribe growled.
“It is good to see you, old friend,” said The Darkness in an evil baritone.
“This ends now,” Lunok, who was also Yeshua, replied and his eyes burned with a purple flame.
“And YOU are coming with me!” Akasha said as she appeared, grabbed The Scribe by the neck and disappeared with him.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
EGO
METATRON FELT THE sting behind his neck before the pain flared throughout his body. However, it was gone as quickly as it flared. Was it even real or was it merely a ping in his imagination? And did that pain have anything to do with the fact that he could no longer make more hellspawns? How odd! He was glad that he had made over a thousand hellspawn before he could no longer spawn any. He was so excited to release them in the battlefield. Half-angel, half-paradin. Metatron stood up and faced his squad of hellspawn. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Raphael and Raphael’s elite squad charging towards them. Metatron grinned. The moment could have not been more perfect.
“Take them out!” Metatron ordered telepathically and the hellspawns charged.
Raphael and his squad spotted the strange creatures outside what looked like a replica of the spawn sanctuary in Celestia. It was easy to put the pieces together. They accelerated towards the creatures, which looked like a crossover between a wingless angel and another creature. Some of the creatures broke away from the rest and accelerated towards Raphael and his squad. The two enemy groups clashed midair. The first error Raphael and his squad had made was to assume that these creatures would be easy to decimate, given the fact that they had just been spawned and therefore had had no training. Raphael and his team learned a harsh and bitter lesson pretty quickly.
Metatron was so pleased with his test run that he dispatched the rest of the hellspawn to join in the general fight. If Raphael and his group, which supposedly consisted of Celestia’s very best, were struggling against the hellspawns, then the rest of the angels from Celestia were going to be no match for these creatures. Metatron was so overjoyed at his deduction that he almost did not notice Gabriel sneaking into the sanctuary to retrieve the Zarark.
Raphael saw the rest of the strange creatures heading towards the general fight and immediately alerted Michael.
“They have the Zarark and Metatron used it to spawn some creatures,” Raphael spoke with a sense of urgency using telepathy. “Do not, I repeat DO NOT, underestimate them! They’re almost taking out my entire squad.”
“Thanks for the heads-up,” Michael replied. “Do you want me to send help your way.”
“I’ll let you know, brother,” replied Raphael’s ego.
Metatron teleported towards Gabriel and drove his right shoulder into Gabriel’s ribs. Gabriel rolled backwards and immediately took battle stance. He summoned a spiked mace and Metatron summoned a double-edged sword. Gabriel spun the mace over his head and the spiked tip came free and went straight for Metatron’s head. Metatron rolled forward and as he came upwards, he slashed upward with his sword, intending to slice Gabriel from hip to shoulder, despite Gabriel wearing an armor. Gabriel bladed his body and evaded Metatron’s attack. The spiked tip of his mace completed its boomerang path and reattached itself to the mace and Gabriel swung downwards with all his might towards Metatron’s exposed temple. Metatron instinctively blocked the mace but the force of the impact drove his body about a foot into the ground.
Metatron fumed and summoned red archangel battle flames while Gabriel summoned golden-yellow archangel battle flames. Metatron pushed Gabriel’s mace away as he rose to his feet, but left his groin exposed. Gabriel unleashed a straight upward kick into Metatron’s groin with his left foot causing Metatron to scream in pain and arch forward. It was a distraction Gabriel needed. Gabriel crashed his spiked mace on the right side of Metatron’s face, smashing off half of Metatron’s face as he summoned a sword in his left hand. The last thought on Metatron’s mind before his head left his body was his regret at underestimating Gabriel. Gabriel had certainly made so much improvement since the last war.
“Metatron is dead and I have the Zarark,” Gabriel informed the inner circle a brief moment later. “I’m returning it to Celestia before I return to the fight!”
Gabriel welcomed the inner council’s quick congratulatory messages. He then teleported to Celestia and returned the Zarark to its rightful location. Gabriel then stationed a few archangels at the spawn sanctuary to guard it with their existences before rejoining the rest of the fight.
Uriel saw the new creatures from Hell making their way to join the rest of the fight and she immediately flew to intercept them.
“On my wings!” she commanded her squad and they followed her.
Unlike Raphael, Uriel did not underestimate these new creatures, but that did not prevent the horror that unfolded before her eyes as the new spawn from Hell tore through her brothers and sisters with too much ease. It broke her core deeply and infuriated her.
“Senior archangels!” Uriel commanded via telepathy. “Converge on the new spawns from Hell and take them out! Younglings, retreat and fight the other creatures!”
There were several telepathic ‘Yes, madam!’ as they executed her orders.
Beliel, her personal assistant, had maintained her cover every step of the way, and that included ending some of her allies from Hell in the process. Watching Uriel immersed in the fight with the newest weapons from Hell Realm spelt the perfect opportunity for her to end Uriel, an opportunity she had every intention of seizing. Uriel’s back was turned towards Beliel as Beliel zipped towards her, sword drawn and ready to strike.
Uriel sensed an attack coming from behind and reacted, knowing she only had a slim chance in surviving the attack. To her utter shock, Beliel was her assailant. Her shock turned to anger at Beliel’s betrayal but even that was not enough to buy her a moment to save herself. She saw Beliel’s snarl of victory as Beliel’s sword made its way towards her neck. Uriel was so focused on her impending death that she failed to notice an angel was charging towards her and this angel was much closer to her than Beliel was. The angel crashed his shoulder into Beliel, sending Beliel flying several yards away from Uriel.
“Not our Uriel, traitor,” Gahel said as he squared off against Beliel.
“Thank you, Gahel,” Uriel said gratefully. “I owe you my existence.”
“You owe me nothing, madam,” Gahel replied, keeping his focus on Beliel. “I’m your biggest fan.”
Uriel smiled at his cuteness and returned to face the new creatures of hell. She decided to call them ‘hellspawn’ for easier reference.
“Can you handle two ladies?” Mazel asked as she joined Beliel.
“Only one way to find out,” Farel replied as she joined her dearest friend.
“Hey, Gahel, what do you say?”
“The one with the big mouth is mine!” Gahel replied.
“They both have big mouths,” Farel said and rolled her eyes. “Why do you always have to be so difficult?”
The two friends erupted in derisive laughter, clashed their spears and zipped towards their newly discovered traitors.
Eliel heard Uriel’s orders and teleported towards the area in need. He identified the hellspawn and immediately engaged them. They were good, but he was better and he was getting better with each enemy he ended. Then suddenly, in the middle of the chaos, a very beautiful and huge hound with pristine white fur appeared next to him and bared its teeth at the hellspawns. Eliel was surprised by the hound’s sudden appearance. However, the hellspawns reacted differently. They were backing away from the hound. They’re scared of this creature! He thought. Eliel turned to face the hound. Was the hound smiling? The hound disappeared and the hellspawn prepared for another round of attack.
From the corner of his eye, Eliel saw a youngling shaking uncontrollably from fear. A creature from Hell was about to strike her down and she seemed helpless against this creature. He abandoned his post and immediately went to her rescue. He ended the creature from Hell and crouched next to the terrified youngling.
“Listen, sister,” he said. “We’re in a war and you’re afraid. I understand how you feel. This is my first war too. But you must get up and fight! For one another and for Celestia! Alright?”
She nodded shakily.
“What’s your name, young sister?” Eliel asked.
But the youngling was still too terrified to say anything.
“If it helps,” Eliel said, not wanting to put any more pressure on the angel, “I want you to stay close to me. I won’t let anything happen to you. Okay?”
