by Andrew Gille
A glowing vapor trail burned around the shield orb in which he and Lucifer were contained. This slowly dimmed as their speed decreased, then suddenly he found himself standing on the ground. He could see and hear the world, but he could not feel anything, and he and Lucifer seemed to be cloaked in a strange and shimmering light.
Upon the banks of an ocean that seemed endless, three of them stood conversing with each other, it was Machariel’s first glimpse of human beings. They looked much like angels, much like any of the hosts of heaven. Nearly identical to Machariel himself, but they were smaller and had no wings. Very few differences existed between them, Machariel did not immediately understand what made these creatures so incredible.
“They cannot see us or interact with us,” Lucifer told him, “We’re spiritual beings and of different energies than they are here. Without creating a physical form for ourselves, we can only observe here. Within a temporal netherrealm, much like the one in which we now walk this world, each of them has a spiritual component, a soul. This is the key to their superiority. Their souls are purportedly stronger than we are, they have amazing gifts. Look at what the one on the right wears around his shoulder. Since Os fought the Colossals, swords and spears have been our only weapons. The human beings have crafted this stringed weapon, a bow they call it. It fires small spears faster and more accurately than even we can throw a spear.”
“For what need do they have of weapons?” Machariel asked, “I have heard that this is a place free of conflict, Os has ensured that they do not fight with each other, that they are able to satisfy all of their needs.”
“Yes, it is true. This is a ranged weapon, it allows humans to hunt and eat prey much faster than them. Where before they were eating only fish and animals large enough to hit with a spear, they now quickly and accurately can target smaller prey and increase their ability to eat more and different types of game. It just makes things easier for them, their ingenuity has already turned this into more of a paradise than before. Where before they were able to hunt plentiful game easily, now they increase the type and quantity, thus increasing their health and their leisure time. I have taken note of this, and our new army will be equipped with these Earthly weapons we will march on The City of God with a new type of soldier called an archer, a specialist with this kind of weapon. Already the craftsmen of Kalos have been taught to create these weapons and their projectiles,” Lucifer explained.
“They are hunters?” Lucifer asked, “Could we see some of the animals Os has placed here?”
“Oh yes, let us journey out to the savanna, their sacred hunting grounds which Os has populated with a variety of game,” Lucifer smiled at this thought, he knew the trip to the savanna would sway Machariel’s mind against the human beings.
They walked for about an hour across beautiful grasslands that reminded Machariel of his garden on Veritas. The animals on this world were diverse and beautiful. He stopped to observe several bird species and a large wandering feline creature. Upon the grasslands, they happened upon a large group of peaceful furred animals with large ears. Sunning themselves at a watering hole, they chewed on the grass and looked around with few cares. A large feline like the one they had encountered earlier sat in a tree looking at them but was either too full or too lazy to pay them much interest.
“The humans call them tenrecs,” Lucifer said as the two observed the creatures going about their routine of drinking water and eating grass.
“Beautiful creatures here,” Machariel commented, “Their hunters keep the predators in check I assume?” Machariel nodded at the feline in the tree.
“You might say that,” Lucifer smirked.
An approaching band of human beings armed with the new weapon Lucifer had just mentioned crept along a ridge overlooking the tenrecs and the cat’s tree. Suddenly arrows sailed down striking four of the tenrecs killing them instantly, another missile hit the cat sleeping in the tree, and he fell unceremoniously to the ground with a dull thud.
Machariel watched in horror as the human beings came and collected the dead animals bodies.
“What was that? The cat was doing nothing!”
“Yes, yes, Machariel, Os gives them dominion over the animals, they can do whatever they want, they kill these innocent creatures because it is easier with their new weapons than killing more formidable game that could put them in danger. The cat they will not even eat, they have an abundance of meat with the tenrecs, they killed him perhaps for his skin, perhaps because it was an opportunity to boast to their friends about their prowess as hunters. They kill them with their arrows before they ever become a danger to them. What kind of stewards do you think they’ll be to our heavenly home Machariel? Now, do you see why we must control these chaotic beings? This is their behavior under Os. We must keep them from doing this to our home in heaven.”
Machariel seethed with rage at what he’d seen, he watched as the human beings dragged away from the lifeless bodies of the tenrecs while laughing and joking with each other, they didn’t do anything with the cat. The feline lay dead under the tree in which he slept his last sleep. He let this image burn into his mind as Lucifer took him to their village.
No one was sure how Os had populated the Earth with human beings, but there were now over two dozen families in the village which the two angels visited next. There, to Machariel’s horror, he found more examples of the human being’s insensitivity to animals. Animals were used for jobs that angels performed in heaven, they were whipped and ridden as transportation. Lucifer pointed out other advancements that they had made, showed Machariel ways in which Earth was more advanced than heaven, but all Machariel could see was that their animals lived in subservience to them rather than them being careful stewards of their animal’s lives.
Machariel was a shepherd to his animals, when he killed them it was out of necessity and great reverence, humans seemed to slaughter them at will. Machariel knew that the nutritional needs of the humans were different than the angels. In heaven, they ate of the plentiful mana made of heaven’s flowers, herbs, plants, and sugars. They had no need for other food but took it as a pleasure. Even if they fasted for years, they would not die, merely enter a state of energy conservation and weakness. Earth had no mana, no staples which could be eaten indefinitely to sustain one’s energy and nutritional needs. Still, the apathy and disregard these humans took in killing the animals under their control infuriated him. How would they behave toward the animals in heaven when they arrived? With similar indifference? He thought of the beautiful and beloved creatures in his garden and then thought of the humans and their newly created weapons, able to slaughter from a distance with little skill, or challenge, putting the hunter in no danger.
They walked amongst the human beings, he heard their conversations, inane blather, they used the gift of knowledge and creativity given to them by Os to make their lives more comfortable at a cost to every other creature and resource in this world. It wasn’t just the animals they exploited, the trees, the water, the very air they breathed was made worse by them. They were reprehensible, disgusting and awful. Lucifer might be in love with them, seeking their help in making himself more powerful, but Machariel only wanted to slaughter them all. He would take the powers that Lucifer offered and destroy Os for creating these things, then come here and kill every single one of them.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The Transformation
Lucifer now checked the celestial alignments of the physical universe once again, paying close attention to their positions and the gravitational effect they had on each other. He would know how to return to this very position if he needed it.
Machariel fumed with anger as Lucifer began the incantation that would allow them to traverse the celestial planes and send them to the world he wished to travel to next. The Heavenly body of Aequiss, a world known for its oceans and the variety of its aquatic life. Machenrauch vowed that when he came to Earth again, it would be to kill as many humans as he could with the same indif
ference with which they had killed the animals that they’d slaughtered.
The shield orb enveloped both angels, Machenrauch watched as they began ascending skyward, slowly at first then becoming so quick that the glowing trail returned to the air around them. The humans noticed nothing, all of it, like Machariel and Lucifer’s shimmering bodies was invisible to them. Only the most aware of them saw that powerful beings were present at all and then most dismissed that as a change in the weather.
Now the colors of planets, the gleam of stars and green and red glow of nebula swirled around them. In an instant, they had returned to the realm of heaven and then just as quickly, the world of Aequiss appeared before them. Machariel recognized it from books he’d read and models of the heavenly solar system he’d seen in museums in Antares that he’d visited. Soon they were skimming across its vast oceans and then across the land. Though known for its immense seas which covered 85% of its surface, Aequiss was also home to a massive mountain range called the Celestial Mountains, they contained some of the highest peaks in Heaven, the highest in Aequiss, Mount Honora was second only to The Lord’s Mountain in Paradisio in height.
The Celestial Mountains stretched across a continent in the Aequiss’ southern hemisphere. On the North side of a mountain called Mount Saiaticara, gleaming in the sunlight was the mountain city of Talias. Within Talias was contained a secret shrine of Os, constructed by a team of angels led by Lucifer in a major expansion of the city centuries ago. The shrine lay within the city, Lucifer cast a spell on himself, changing his appearance to that of a nondescript lowly angel to avoid being noticed as the two angels materialized within Grand Plaza an open area in the city’s center. Lucifer directed Machariel to follow him, and the two swiftly moved through the city, unbeknownst to the angels around them.
Between a temple and a massive wall that separated a garden from the street, Lucifer revealed an almost hidden door, steps went down into a hallway lit by Azurian Crystals. These crystals were grown in many places in Heaven, but the largest producer of Azurian Crystals was near the city of Azura on the planet Kalos. Thus they had earned a moniker that associated them that city. Azurian Crystals stored energy within them and glowed a bluish white. The power within them burned brightly for many years and was used ubiquitously for lighting throughout all of the Heavens. Their glow lit the halls of Elysian Palace but was plentiful enough to light even the most humble lowly angel’s domicile. When it was finally diminished, the crystal was usually recycled, being sent back to Kalos, where they were re-energized to glow again for a nearly equal duration.
Two large metal doors stood at the end of the hall, dimly lit by the crystals. Lucifer approached them and opened them both from the center at the same time. Lucifer stepped into the darkness beyond the doors. Machariel followed. Lucifer said words in an old angelic language that he had heard before, it was a language used only by high-level angels and then just in magic and worship.
The vast expanse in which they stood was illuminated instantly by torches burning blue like those in the hallway, only these were large, bright and cast an almost white light on the walls of the expansive shrine. Machariel had never seen such large Azurian Crystals, they were large, and one alone could have cast enough light to fill an entire hall. The torches lined a staircase which was nearly the only feature in the cubical room. The smooth walls, floor, and steps were made of cut stone, and the ceiling of the shrine was about 40 feet high. The stairs led back upwards to an altar which was perhaps 10 feet from the ceiling. Angelic script trimmed the stairs and platform, Machariel could not read it for again it was in the old language of the high angels.
Lucifer suspended the spell which disguised him as a lowly angel and returned to his usual form. He ascended the stairs, Machariel followed. He opened the altar which revealed a robe and crown which he put on. A staff was contained within as well. He then instructed Machariel to lay down. Producing the Mother Key from his robes, he affixed it to the staff. Machariel knew not if he had carried the stone this entire time or if he had somehow magically procured it from wherever he had it stored. His thoughts on this quickly stopped, and he grew nervous and scared focused on the ritual for which he had volunteered. Was this a trick which he would regret? He knew Lucifer to be impulsive and reactive. Was he allowing him to lead him down the same mistaken path he often took? It mattered not now, to back out of this would be an insult to the highest angel in Heaven. He could lose his garden and be relegated to one of the choirs who sang the background songs for the streets of some small city on Kalos. Bunked together with the entire choir, he’d no longer have his beautiful home in the garden, and he would only be able to visit the wondrous creatures he loved sporadically when the schedule of the rotating choir allowed. No, he was too far now, now whatever was going to happen, he must allow to happen.
Lucifer grew nervous as well, this was indeed the act that he would not be able to roll back. This was the act that sealed him as a defector, this was an act that not only destroyed a sacred artifact but proved that he intended to overthrow Os. All of the conspiracies and the talk, all of that could be forgiven, he could talk his way out of it, convince Os that he had merely taken his disappointment too far, but this was an act for which he would not be forgiven.
Now, nearly shaking, fear, a foreign emotion to him, unused to its effects upon his angelic body and mind, he began the incantation. Speaking in the old tongue, known only by the highest of angels, the language of the Colossals and Os himself, he began to speak the words of the ritual which would turn the stone to dust and ingest its power into the lowly angel’s spiritual body. His heart raced as he lifted the scepter with the stone attached, spoke the words and the Transfiguration Key began to glow, glowing red, like fire in the white lights, casting its crimson glow over the skin of the lowly angel. Lucifer could feel his heart beating faster, the energy coursing through the universe and through his body forced his body to exert itself, causing him to breath quicker and to sweat slightly.
Now it was that he had to calculate the orbits of the planets, Aequiss, on which he stood, its eccentric orbit for which he accounted, Kalos now with its inclination tipping its rings slightly higher, Nivea, the moon of Paradisio deviates ever so slightly from the elliptic plane northward. All of this needed to be accounted for, everything had to be perfect, or he could destroy the stone doing nothing, destroy the angel before him, which would no doubt lead to questions and punishment or the worst case scenario in an assessment he performed before considering this, he could destroy the entire city of Talias and himself in it. The energies moving through him caused him to nearly fall down in exhaustion from the exertion necessary to make himself a conduit for the power to enter the key.
Now, pulsating, the stone alternating between bright and dim, humming with power, the words came from his lips between breaths, he fell to his knees as the physical labor of the spell took its toll on his spiritual body.
In the exhaustion and confusion of his complex calculations, he had forgotten a strange thing occurring in the obliquity of Veritas at this time, it had tilted on its axis less this year by a variation of .0025 degrees, this orbital anomaly caused his ritual to be one quarter stronger than intended.
This should have vaporized Machariel, it should have killed him instantly, and indeed when the powers of the Mother Key coursed into him, it was painful, like his blood being boiled and injected back into him, searing hot pain shot through every nerve in his body. He screamed, his fists tightening, his jaw clenched shut, foam shot from his mouth and blood poured out of his eyes like tears. His screams nearly escaped the thick walls of the shrine. Lucifer held the scepter, knowing something was wrong. However, he had one chance, he would turn the angel to dust or turn him into the mighty angel he needed.
Machariel’s body transformed, thick cords of muscle wrapped around his legs and arms, his chest thickened, his back broadened, his eyes glowed as lighting shot from them and arced around his entire body. Energy coursed through his veins, h
e could feel the power being absorbed into his body, his flesh became impenetrable metal, his bones became like solid steel. His strength was now at immeasurable levels. The energy seething from the Mother Key arcing red light abruptly stopped, it had vaporized. Where it had been sitting on the scepter, now only the glowing pegs remained, they gave off a metallic odor, dimming to an ashen white, slightly smoking.
Lucifer trembled, he felt the power within the angel before him.
“Machariel, rise and hail the new king of Heaven,” he barely gasped as he fell to the ground, collapsing from the strain of the spell.
Machariel stood, opening his eyes, Lucifer saw them still glowing red, he spoke in a deep and powerful voice that echoed throughout the chamber.
He lay on his side as a mighty new angel rose above him. At that very moment, Machariel could have crushed Lucifer, could have destroyed him. Lucifer was terrified by the power which he had granted Machariel and realized his mistake too late as he lay unable to move on the temple floor. Were Machariel to realize Lucifer’s level of incapacitation he could have destroyed Lucifer, told Os that he had defended the kingdom from Lucifer’s traitorous plan and receive laud and adulation throughout the realm, no doubt keeping his new powers.
But then came the lower angel’s words as he rose from the altar, “Hail Lucifer bestower of power, hail Lucifer liberator of angels, hail Lucifer King of Heaven!”
