by Donovan Neal
Into darkness it went, moving from one reality to another. Crossing dimensions for a second time. A living mountain of fire and brimstone that was returning to its place of birth: Heaven.
Upward it ascended from the lower depths of the Earth and downward it plummeted from the sky of Heaven. A great fiery meteor, the likes Heaven had never known. And a third of heaven was positioned directly under it as the great mountain fell. Its plumes trailing the sky and its harrowing wail filled dimensions and angels knew that Hell was once again returning to the realm immortal.
The Ophanim moved as one sensing the threat. Moving as a people and straining to outrun light itself. And Eladrin and his people surrounded the mountain. Prismatic funnels twisted and twirled about the volcano that was Hell. Like flies the Ophanim flew. Buzzing and zig zagging to create a rainbow colored net that covered the whole mountain.
Gabriel and his people flocked and lifted many on griffin back. All the people that could fly flew, and those that could run, ran to escape the dark shadow that quickly descended upon them. The redeemed teleported and set themselves back towards the mountain of God and reestablished their ranks, while all watched the living volcano be moved by the Ophanim so it would not destroy the city. And the movers of solar systems edged the great rock to the outskirts of heaven and released it and it crashed into the ground.
Fire erupted and a wall of heated smoke and ash raced like a moving waterfall towards the city.
“Brace yourselves!” yelled Michael.
The whoosh sound of a thousand funnel clouds screamed past the denizens of heaven as the shock wave of the mountain’s fall made many to tumble over and or grab for objects to hold onto. Glass panes blew out from the cities towers and, and steeples fell crashing to the ground. While some buildings were spared; those near the crash site were obliterated, and the Michael looked in dismay that even the golden streets of translucent gold had fissured. Pyroclastic debris fell from the sky: bombing all and destroying buildings. Ash fell over the faces of all. And both Horde and Host alike looked in the distance to see something that none had ever seen before. The great mountain moved towards them pulling itself on towering tentacles of lava and brimstone that dragged it across the earth. The mountain opened its stygian mouth, and fire and moving rows of teeth could be seen, and embedded in the gums were emaciated screaming angels and humans who were as tartar beneath its gums.
Lucifer looked upon the devastation of Hell’s return to the realm immortal. Like a boiling cauldron of bitterness he spoke into Heaven.
“Destroy it all Sheol! Feast upon all that your eyes see and destroy it all!”
Ashtaroth looked at his master with concern and spoke, “My Lord forgive thy servant but the beast will devour our own people as well as the Host. We will be left with no one to fight!”
Lucifer smiled and lifted his hands towards the mountain as if to present it for inspection. “No…we have endless soldiers to do my will. For everyone that she devours becomes my slave to control. Behold!”
The Dark Prince raised his hands and the beast created cave-like openings about her craggy sides. And immediately out came a flood of millions upon millions of daemons, emaciated angels and human undead. Waves of the spiritual undead flowed out of what seemed like a never ending tap. As a dam that had been breached the carrion of Hell raced from her pores. Maggots that set all they touched aflame. Each creature wailed in blood curdling screams as it crossed the field of battle. Like regurgitated food did the souls of all entrapped spew out of the mountain. The ghosts of men, and shades of angels crawling, running, leaping and flying to accost the living.
To possess and consume alive all that breathed.
Lucifer laughed and cried out in murderous glee, “I am coming Yeshua! For you rose and vacated the whole of Paradise. Behold how I have stalked thee, and have now emptied Hades at thy very door! Your angels cannot stop me…your redeemed men cannot stop me! Dread the return of your exiled son and know that I am coming!”
Ashtaroth feared his Lord as he stood trembling and watched his master.
Lucifer lifted himself and landed atop of the mountain peak of God’s vengeance. A fiery recompense he now sought to return to the Father.
Lucifer’s angelic form radiated through the physical body of Leto and all of Heaven heard him pronounce with finality; the famous mantra with which he expected to bring to reality.
“I WILL BE GOD!”
Hell roared her starved presence into the sky and Lucifer rode upon her back to destroy them all.
✽✽✽
Vantress watched Elizabeth die.
Her head flung back as the bullet pierced her skull. Her body slumped to the ground as a pool of blood collected at her corpse.
He had seen humans die before. In battles with the Horde, human soldiers were often fodder for the enemy. He had seen the prophets of old sacrifice their lives to advance the cause of El. But never had he been assigned to one human. Never responsible to see to one’s spiritual awakening to turn from the lies to the truth. His assignment gave him a great appreciation for guardian angels whose task was to protect and keep their humans safe. To help them move towards the light.
His was the duty of a soldier. To seek out, infiltrate, and destroy the enemy’s capacity to wage war.
And war was a cold affair.
Vantress had always maintained a level of rational detachment from the death of brethren he had fought with. The war had taught him that any one of them could be returned to the dust of the Kiln or to the mists at any time. Therefore, never did he concern himself with the humans who were caught in the middle of his races angelic conflict. Never bothered to truly feel the pain that the humans suffered until Michael had reassigned him.
And now, the first human ever to be given over to his charge was dead.
Eridu shouted at his rival from a distance. “Goodbye Vantress. The master musters all to the assault of Heaven. Enjoy the bitterness of defeat and know that soon Heaven itself will fall under our might.”
A ladder then materialized to sweep him away and the angel was gone.
Vantress looked down in despondence. For Eridu his nemesis had won. He had eliminated the house of Foley. The line that was responsible for modern man’s access to the word of God.
But Vantress had heard her confession and it was clear. She was now a child of God, a servant of Yeshua. She had confessed Yeshua as Lord, prior to her murder. Vantress put comfort that in time he and she might see one another again if his tour of duty permitted. Nevertheless, his heart ached for the personal pain he witnessed. Her struggles with depression, the contempt from her peers, the taking away of her family only to be placed in the house of a stranger. To yearn for the touch both emotionally and physically and be betrayed by someone who merely feigned to care for the sake of one’s selfish gratification. And worse the exploitation of emotional suffering that originates with ones peer group.
The breaking of her physical body would now release her spirit to ascend into the presence of the Lord.
His charge was dead. His duty now done. He could give his full attention to what he understood and knew best, the disruption of the enemy and particularly the dissolution of Eridu.
He turned his face back towards the bleachers to see if his enemy was still present. But Eridu had indeed vanished; his trail of light still twinkling in disappearing embers.
He sighed, but believed that there would come a time that El would allow recompense to be made. Now however was the time to return home, give report and seek reassignment. And to see if the boast of Eridu had substance.
He lifted his face skyward and spoke the Elomic words to ascend home. Sparkles of light glittered around his frame and the sudden funnel cloud of the Ophanim draped around him. The wakes of the Ophanim took him from the planet Earth and carried him through space past the canopy of the second Heaven into the third.
Heaven approached fast and even from a distance of a trillion miles It was clear that she was engulfed in war
. Great explosions rippled as he descended rocking him. The Ophanim moved to bring its trajectory away from the cliffs of Argoth but Vantress could see that a Horde camp had taken position in an attempt to ambush any incoming angels that were not of the Horde.
He could not land there.
The trail of the ladder that had brought Eridu to Heaven was still fresh. Not fully dissipated yet. He turned to fall near the place of his rival. To continue his fight in Heaven.
In the seconds that flashed before him he made the decision to escape the funnel with which he was safely within, and broke the prismatic barrier. The funnel dissipated into rainbow glass-like shards and Vantress plunged into the airspace of heaven tumbling unable to control his descent.
He smashed into a grassy knoll, and the ground erupted around him upon impact. Both Horde and Human ground warriors drew back unsure of what new enemy might now accost them. Smoke and steam lifted from the crater that Vantress momentarily couched, and he rose to his feet his body now bloody and sore. He surveyed his surrounding and noted that redeemed human warriors where on one side and an angelic group of the Horde on the other. His eyes recognized in the distance the Prince of Darkness atop the great living mountain of Hell. While undead human and Elohim came forth from openings in the mountain’s sides. A rushing river of teeth and wings: a flood of undead celestial life that poured down upon them as puss from a slit abscess. A legion that in moments would overrun their position. And his enemy Eridu smiled in the distance at him. Nodding as if he understood.
Vantress felt his sword’s pummel and grip.
He shook himself and unsheathed his sword.
He was now in the familiar territory of combat. The recognizable terrain of an enemy that sought to destroy all that he loved. Here he could unleash his pent up fury. Here he could hurl his disdain for evil with every swing of his blade. Here he could perhaps avenge his friend Olen, and strike on behalf of the family of Elizabeth Foley.
He smiled and turned to his human companions behind him and spoke.
“I see the dead come to assault the living. I am not inclined to join their ranks this day! Fight! Fight for your lives!”
Vantress then launched himself forward towards the Horde lines, and to smite his adversary Eridu.
He cut through minions and human redeemed fought along his side. With armor and shield they battled. The clank of shields hitting shields permeated the air. But the stench of death and decay is what many would remember this day. The slippery mud of heaven soiled with the blood of angels and men in combat.
The undead were coming. Teeming masses of maggots and daemons that longed to possess the bodies of the living. A torrent that could not be stopped. Vantress looked off in the distance and saw that the legendary Mists were also in battle. The fog of war that lived underneath the mountain of Heaven. The sky above them was as stretched glass and he saw what looked like a kaleidoscope of other realms. Each fighting, each destroying the ground of Heaven as they knew it. But he could not concern himself with what was beyond him. Only that which was before. He pressed forward, hacking and slashing; punching until at last he was face to face on the battlefield once more with his rival, Eridu.
“You have a relentless need to die El lover.” Eridu said.
Both angels were short of breath and huffing as the battle carried on around them.
“No Eridu, I have a relentless need to see you dead.”
The angel charged at Eridu who unleashed his Urumi. Eridu twirled the flexing sword and the clangs of its blade against Vantress’s shield twanged into the air. Eridu kept his distance to make maximum effect of the weapons killing range. But Vantress had seen this style of combat now and was ready for his adversary.
Eridu kept his body low protecting his vital organs and he elongated his body only enough to strike and retract. To attack him successfully Vantress would have to close the distance and allow himself to be struck.
He noted as the two observed each other probing for weaknesses in their stances and attack styles. That Eridu had no weakness…save one. The style similar to all martial arts assumed the adversary would not risk being struck. Vantress released this notion knowing that to break their standoff he must offer his flesh.
He tucked his shield in towards his breast and he stretched forth his sword arm as bait.
Eridu’s urumi deflected the blade as expected. He knew what would happen now. He would lose his arm. But he could use his shield to land a crushing blow to his head.
Vantress lunged a second time exposing his sword arm for dismemberment.
Eridu swung his urumi and as expected the blade sheared Vantress’s arm at the elbow and it fell to the ground. Spiting the pain Vantress pressed closing the distance and unleashed a crushing blow with his shield to the head of his enemy.
Eridu staggered back but not before flicking his blade that would decapitate Vantress where he stood. Vantress held his arm and also wobbled losing his footing and was momentarily defenseless.
The Urumi blade of Eridu stretched forth to smite its foe. To reach with an elongated snap and coil around Vantress’s neck with its fatal bite.
But Eridu would be denied; for instead a sword intercepted its bite.
The blazing white sword of Elizabeth Foley.
Her eyes were white and she wore a white robe that all the saints wore. A robe conformed to her body and with the living armor that augmented her already now resurrected strength.
She pulled her sword towards her and the whip of Eridu came flying from the angels hand and the shank of the thong of the weapon wrapped itself around her blade. She then flicked her sword and the angelic weapon sliced in two.
A second sword then emerged from her other arm and she spoke to the surprised and now weaponless angel.
“I know you.” Her eyes searched the angel’s features and the word of knowledge filled her mind as the Holy Spirit activated her capacity to understand, and she spoke in familiarity.
“You are Eridu.”
Eridu smiled as he looked at the girl who stood over the injured Vantress. Memories of her family’s spiritual assault were accessed, and she could see into the past all that the angel had done. Her eyes were fire and she soured in her voice. “You realize that on this day I am going to have to kill you twice.”
Eridu wiped the blood from his eyes that dripped from the injury he’d earlier sustained from Vantress and smiled, “You are exhibiting hubris young woman. But I will entertain this youthful notion of yours. How will this come to pass?”
“I’m going to kill you now. Then you will join the undead and I will have to kill you a second time.”
Eridu chuckled, “Come child I do not need a whip to kill you. I’ve already murdered you once. I will enjoy it even more now.”
Elizabeth jumped at Eridu and Eridu stepped back and he took a short sword from his side and deflected the maiden’s blows. To his left he parried and to his right she lunged. Each punching and blocking in hand to hand combat. A flurry of sword slashes and fists.
Each countering the other and Eridu smiling. “You are strong girl. But you are not adept in the ways of a thousand years of battle.”
He swung at her face and the tip of his blade drew blood from her cheek. He then moved back as the young girl staggered.
He stopped to observe his handiwork.
“I like the look child. Scars become you, they match the ones I provoked you to make on your wrists over the years. Yes, I do like the look.” He smiled and Elizabeth did not reply save with wiping the blood from her cheek. Determined even the more she gritted her teeth and pressed her attack. Advancing as the army of undead advanced towards them both.
Pressing forward she twirled her swords in acrobatic flare each twirling in slicing motions that caught the angel off guard, and she stalked him reciting the word of God aloud so that he could hear, “Blessed be the Lord my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight.”
She swung high, and then slashed low. Eridu m
oved but to evade but Elizabeth's movements were planned anticipating him to expose his chest, and upon seeing her opening; she front kicked the angel sending him reeling. Like a stunt-man pulled back by a cable; so too did Eridu fly backwards from the unexpected power of her kick.
She followed and released into the air her sword which whirled through the air.
Eridu fell back from the power of her kick and before he could react the flung sword of Elizabeth found its mark, broke this protective armor and pierced his chest.
Elizabeth moved towards him sword raised, as Eridu held the blade in agony.
She grasped the blade as well and thrust it deeper into his chest until the angel expired. The breath of life lifting from his lips as a small vapor.
Vantress was amazed to see the maiden’s attack watched while other humans walled themselves in a defensive position to defend him. Each fighting back the few remaining members of the Horde that remained for them to fight.
He watched as his nemesis of a thousand years was felled by the same woman he had come to guard. His eyes were wide but only for a second as the undead were moments away.
“All of you!” He screamed. “Link hands quickly! And touch me.”
All did as commanded and Vantress yelled into the air.
“Se-la shing tau chi!”
