by Andrew Gille
At the front, before all, in their gleaming golden armor stood the most powerful of all. The Seraphim, their highest ranking being the Elysian Seraphim who guarded Os’ home Elysian Palace. Today they stood farthest forward for all to see. Large wings spread out from their backs. These most powerful angels stood looking down upon the crowd, many of those below had never glimpsed the glory of a Seraph before.
Finally, alone, in the golden armor of the Seraphim, shining with blue striping and trim designators differentiating him as higher ranking than all the others, he stood. There he was, at the forefront of the group, the steps mere feet from him so all in the crowd could witness his great glory. His massive wings slightly spread, to give the illusion that he was even larger than he already was. Power, beauty, and dominance, before them, was the high leader. He was commander of all angelic orders, the highest of the Seraphim and cherubim, all of the archangels and every angel that stood below. He was proud and powerful. His name was known on all the planets of Heaven as God’s most loved, his chosen and his favorite. He was the most talented mage, mathematician, and astronomer in all of Heaven. He was champion of the Arcadian Duels and the Antares Battle Games. It was Lucifer, the Arch Seraph, highest angel in Heaven.
Lucifer had anticipated this day for so long now. He had managed the angels in his charge while accomplishing Os’ projects, building the cities of Heaven according to Os’ plans. He brought glory to the name of Os and had succeeded in so many things throughout the entire realm. He knew he was due his reward now. Many years ago, Os had told Lucifer about the greatness he possessed, told him that he alone was the most powerful. It was not known the exact words which Os had said, and no witnesses had understood since Os spoke to Lucifer in the ancient tongue of the Colossals that only he, Lucifer, Metatron and few others understood. In this archaic language, Lucifer claimed that Os had pronounced that Lucifer stood above all others and that none had ever achieved his greatness. Lucifer knew then that he had trusted to have equaled the most high.
After this, Lucifer was sure that if he developed his abilities in magic and made himself stronger that he would no longer be closest, no longer be equal but would surpass the powers of Os the Creator, just as Os had surpassed his creators the Colossals so long ago. He had embarked upon a campaign of self-improvement, meditations, readings, focusing on his magic, practicing it, making it stronger, carefully writing down his visions and epiphanies. He undoubtedly had the most complete grasp of magic in all of the Heavens. He possessed a commanding ability to decipher, comprehend and calculate the complicated spiritual and arcane sciences behind the magic of the Heavens.
One night, after reading several obscure scrolls, he felt a convergence of energy manifested upon him. In his visions he saw three stones, it was revealed to him that these were the Transfiguration Keys, keys which could bring power and keys which unlocked incredible celestial abilities. It was shortly thereafter that Os had summoned them all to The City of God for this announcement. Lucifer knew without a doubt that it was now time for Os to crown him King of Heaven and grant him the throne upon which Os himself had sat for so long.
Standing proud, gleaming with pride, his armor flawless, shined twice by his attendants, this was his day to receive that which he had waited so long. Lucifer, chest forward, standing with pride, knowing that this was the day that Os would reveal to the angels that he had surpassed him in power and ability. It was now that Os would hand the throne to him.
Lucifer looked out into the expanse The City of God from atop the steps of Elysian Palace. From this vantage point, he could see Excarian City, where Lucifer’s palace stood. Os had built these two cities himself before Lucifer had taken control of those types of projects. So much had been learned since their creation. When he looked upon them, he thought of ways in which they were inferior to the newest cities which he had taken part in building. He thought of how he could recreate the two cities which should have been the greatest, better and brighter.
Excarian City sat on a hill with a view of The City of God, the two largest cities in Heaven were ten miles apart, but each could be seen from the other. Os should have accounted for this and added features to capitalize on this proximity and the beauty of both cities. He would do it after he assumed the leadership of Heaven. There would be so much to do before he could even consider this.
He wondered what the creator would now do? Perhaps, he would abdicate to a position as the figurehead of the realm. Perhaps, he would enjoy the realm that he had created knowing it was now in the hands of a superior one. Perhaps, as Os included Shalos and Entera in his rulership now, Lucifer could include Os, Shalos, and Entera as a part of the council he would create containing several of the angels who had done him favors as he rose to this mighty position. Many angels complained of the absolute rule of Os, they wanted input in the running of Heaven and felt that they should be allowed to offer an opinion about issues and affairs in Heaven. Lucifer was one of these angels. In his kingdom, he would see to it that there was a semblance of representation. Of course, this council would be mere tokens, Lucifer’s instruments to placate these angels with whom he once complained about these issues. Now that he was about to assume the seat of power, it would be imperative to ensure that he appeared to listen, but did not surrender any actual control.
Os was also a problem for Lucifer. Many were unfailingly loyal to him, and he would be the second most powerful in heaven. Lucifer had not yet come up with a solution to this problem. He had initially thought that an ingratiating approach would be best, holding Os as the high and revered Old God, The Creator whose defeat of the Colossals paved the way for heaven. However, this left too much to chance. As Lucifer busied himself with the rulership of the kingdom, Os might have time to strengthen himself and overthrow Lucifer. Indeed, perhaps he planned to allow Lucifer to assume the reigns so that Os could become more powerful.
Another problem with this was that Lucifer planned to exploit a growing and devoted cult within the angelic hierarchy. Upon Aequiss, a collection of documents known as The Anatalian Letters had been discovered. They detailed a writer who supposedly worked for Metatron, the Chancellor of Heaven. He was an angel quite close to Os, and they recounted a story in which the highest Colossal, Temerian had created the angels and Os had slain him and tricked the angels into believing many falsehoods about their origin and their creators. Lucifer did not hold one word of these documents as truthful, they were preposterous, but many did. The strongest adherents to the word of The Anatalian letters believed that Os should be overthrown to prepare the way for the return of the Colossals, who had been defeated by Os in antiquity. In Lucifer’s opinion, The Colossals were long dead and inferior Gods who would never return. However, he still sought the favor of this growing and devoted group.
Os seemed to be preoccupied with a mysterious project as of late. Lucifer surmised that the endeavor to which he devoted his time was the planning of his abdication and perhaps thinking through the logistics of the change. Surely, Os had built defenses into his plan, around which Lucifer would need to work carefully. Between the loyalist angels and his powers, Os was too dangerous.
Lucifer had been working on methods of making himself even stronger than he already was. He had discovered that the stones from his vision were contained within a garden on the world of Veritas. There were three objects called Transfiguration Keys, and each would work one time on an individual. They were rumored to have been used by the Colossals to create Entera. However, he could not work through the logistics of using them to increase his own powers. They seemed only useful in improving the power of very lowly angels A long ritual needed to be performed. He had learned through his calculations and simulations, that even with the perfect alignment of the celestial bodies of Heaven, the best outcome simply destroyed the stone. Worse, it could destroy the angel who was the target of the rite. At the absolute worse, it could obliterate the entire city in which the rite was performed. At most, he might be able to create powerful allie
s from lowly angels if he needed them. Again, his calculations showed their power to be more or less equal to a Cherubim, and three cherubim were not going to keep him in power should Os, Shalos, and Entera decide to retake the throne.
He would solve all of these problems in due time. Today was a day of victory; he would enjoy the adulation of the Heavens and the chorus of every choir of angels singing his name. The angels would be writing new hymns on his behalf and erecting new monuments to him. He would see the gleaming glory of all of Heaven bowing down to his feet. Today was his day, and the announcement was nigh.
Lucifer stood proudly in his gleaming armor. He observed the crowd before him. Soon they would be his subjects. All he saw before him, the opulence and radiance of The City of God, soon to be The City of Lucifer, all of it would be under his hegemony. Now, the gate of the palace lowered as it had many times to let him in to speak to Os. It opened its last time before he would step over it as a king. The Elysian Seraphim, his kin, marched out, followed by Shalos and Entera. The Seraphim turned and covered their eyes with their wings to block out his brilliance. Lucifer did not hide his eyes. It was no longer necessary. Then in his brilliance, the light and majesty of Os emerged from the palace in his shining radiance and glory.
The crowds silenced as they beheld their God before them. His thunderous voice which echoed throughout the planet and was audible in all corners of Heaven, revealed the purpose for which they gathered that day.
CHAPTER THREE
Lucifer Visits Earth
Magic was a skill that all angels possessed, and certain spells were necessary to their existence in the Heavenly realm. However, not all angels were innately talented at magic. Much like writing or mathematics, though all possessed rudimentary and necessary knowledge of the arcane, not all were capable of complex, advanced forms of the art. Conveyance was a spell that was imperative for all angels, and it was the usual method of long distance travel for all angels. The 10-mile journey from Excarian City to The City of God was one which an angel could use his wings to travel, and Conveyance was usually reserved for travel of over 100 miles. However, Lucifer was angry and impatient and wanted to leave the city quickly.
Conveyance enveloped the angel in a transparent shield orb. Within this protective barrier, the world was silent and warm, but the entirety of one's surroundings could be seen. Angels levitated within their shield orb, and from within they could fly at incredible speeds but had to take care to accelerate at a reasonable rate, or they could be injured from being crushed against the inside of this barrier to the outside world. Within, they were protected from small rocks, particles, and other debris, however once near the ground they had to take care to decelerate and avoid obstacles, although the shield would not be damaged, anything they hit with it could, and they could be previously injured in the process, leading to hours of recovery before they were whole again. Anything they were capable of carrying could be contained within the shield and taken on the journey with them including other angels. As they accelerated, the friction of the atmosphere of a planet would cause the front of their shield to grow red hot, and a trail of vapors would follow them. Once they had reached the outer limits of the atmosphere of a planet, they were able to accelerate at incredible rates. Beyond the gravitational pull and atmospheric gasses, they could travel fast enough that they could quickly reach a speed that caused them to bend space and time. Reaching these tremendous speeds caused them to enter an alternative realm, where they were not in danger of colliding with the matter of the spiritual universe. At this velocity, they could travel the millions of miles between the worlds of Heaven in less time than it took them to ascend above the area of gravitational pull. As they reached their destination, they would come out of this realm and continue their deceleration as they entered the atmosphere of their destination planet. The Order of Powers enforced rules regarding the arrival and departure of angels using the Conveyance spell. Thunderous explosions shook the tranquility of the Heavenly cities if reasonable speeds were not observed on departure and arrival. Accelerating too quickly caused a fiery trail of black smoke and cinders to follow the shield of the offending angel. These abuses of the Conveyance spell were against the law and punishable by the Oder of Powers assigned to the cities of Heaven.
Lucifer had broken all of the transportation laws in using Conveyance to travel from The City of God to Excarian City. A thunderous explosion shook the attendants in the mall as he left and a black trail led right to his palace on the hill in Excarian City. None from the Choir of Powers met him in Excarian, both because they were nearly all deployed to The City of God for Os’ announcement and because no one dared question The Arch Seraph and highest ranking angel of Heaven.
Bitterness, hatred and contempt, the feelings were unlike any Lucifer had ever experienced before. The expectation of glory and honor, destroyed. Like a public mocking in front of all of the heavens, all of his peers, who knew him to be deserving, knew him to be superior to the Os, The Creator, saw him denied his righteous place upon the throne.
Many of them believed he was the rightful heir to the throne, they’d read the words of the Anatalian Letters, which said they were born of The Colossals just as he was, yet now he pledged the kingdom to someone else.
Lucifer seethed in the great hall of his palace in Excarian City, overlooking The City of God. He could see Elysian Palace far in the distance from the balcony that led off of the great hall. He’d disappeared from the plaza after the announcement. No one had noticed him casting the conveyance spell, rocketing skyward, the red trail of flame scorching from the speed and friction of the air behind him, straight to his palace. Embarrassed, fuming, shocked, he could not fathom the words spoken by Os.
Before all, his words echoing through every world and land, every city and every last gleaming structure in all of Heaven, Os had revealed it to them. He proclaimed his creation of a new world, a new realm inhabited by them, entirely new beings. The inhabitants were the human beings, men and women with incredible powers of creation and innovation, rivaling only Os in their abilities to bring the marvels of their creativity into existence. Their bodies were different, able to create life in a manner in which the angels could not dream. Their minds were not focused on servitude and labor, but on creativity and ingenuity. They would build fantastic things in their own world and then would bring that creativity to Heaven and transform it with their ideas and creations. It was a travesty. To think that the beautiful cities which Os himself had designed and the angels had built in glory to him would be changed, altered from their state of perfection by these abominations. It was foul and unthinkable.
The worst of what he proclaimed stated that angels role in this miscarriage of power was to be the underlings of these creatures and help and serve them in what Os called “Their mission to bring glory to their creator and all the heavens.” To think they would be made to be complicit in this disgrace was the ultimate insult.
No, it would not be, now Lucifer would have to act against his creator. There would be no period of peace after he took the throne, there would be no polite appreciation of Os before he did away with him, just as Os had done to the Colossals so long ago. Now he would take the throne forcefully. He would make war upon Os and destroy any loyal angels who did not see that he was the rightful Heavenly King and Lord of Lords.
Lucifer knew however that he could not accomplish these goals alone. Os had many angels including some of the most powerful at his side. They were his lapdogs, who refused to think for themselves. These angels were undyingly faithful to him, no matter the cost to their own. These angels would never support him and would need to be put down in any revolution.
There were, however, those who wavered, those who were unsure. Many who found Os to be dictatorial, using them for his own means. Indeed, many more would now question his motives as they were asked to prostrate themselves before his new creations, to serve them and to cast aside their interests for these weak beings.
Os’ only
motivation in creating them must have been to retain his grip on power, to use them, both to distract the angels from any sort of thought about rebellion and to use them to become more powerful. They possessed several of the same powers he claimed exclusively to himself. However, Lucifer knew he too had attained many of these powers as did his brethren. The angels could take ideas from others and apply those ideas in different ways. Perhaps he had not yet learned to craft ideas that were completely his own, but he had designed this palace based on others for which he had overseen the construction. What was creativity other than that? There were no new ideas. Lucifer surmised that Os probably created heaven based on some thoughts of the Colossals and when he’d created these things which inhabited his new realm, they were merely an iteration of his own being as well as the Colossals, as were the angels. Lucifer was certain that Os had no new ideas either. The Angels’ ability to mimic in this fashion certainly equated to the human beings creativity. Os’ ability to create too was mere mimicry. It had to be; the physical plane was a near copy of the metaphysical plane albeit with certain different rules governing the physics and rules of energy and matter. Human beings were smaller, weaker versions of angels and Os himself, who was created in the image of the Colossals. They merely were purported to be superior by Os himself, who would, of course, tout the wonder of his newest creations and rank them superior to his original works the angels. No creator wants to think that they have already crafted their greatest works and they all want to believe their newest projects are superior to the ones they’ve left behind. This time it just wasn’t the case, and Lucifer was eager to show him how he’d erred while distracted by this new project.
Now though he would have to bury his seething rage and hatred for the human beings, for an archangel, a herald, an unfailingly devoted follower of Os now flew toward his palace. Gabriel, the archangel of Arcadia, arrived. Gabriel’s visit to Lucifer’s home came as no surprise. He’d expected Os to send someone after his quick departure from the ceremony in The City of God.
