The Angelic Wars I - Heaven

by Andrew Gille

  Outside of the gate, Machenrauch awaited the entirety of the rebel forces to arrive. One after another, angels landed with a ground-shaking shock wave. The sky behind his growing battalions appeared to be raining fire as legion after legion of golden armored troops appeared out of the air. Conspicuously absent was Lucifer, however. The lieutenants of Machenrauch and Lucifer’s forces, Moloch and Asmodeus, stood ready. It mattered not if Lucifer were too cowardly to arrive or too inept to arrive at Virgos on time, he’d begin the battle without him and lead Lucifer’s forces up the aquifer as well. No need to waste the small contingent being sent up the main road if there were no chance to embarrass Lucifer.

  Just as Machenrauch was about to give the order to line up for the beginning of the assault, a fiery streak shot out of the sky and over the heads of the assembled legions. The troops felt the heat of the flames as the fireball shot over their heads, so fast that the flames burned blue and white smoke trailed behind it. Machenrauch nearly fell backward as the fiery capsule crashed into the ground near him, sending bits of rock flying up into his face. Lucifer had arrived.

  “That was dramatic,” Machenrauch commented to Lucifer, who had emerged from a fog of white smoke that had been the vapor trail of his arrival.

  “A battle of this proportion calls for a bit of the theatric Machenrauch,” Lucifer answered as he walked in front of Machenrauch and stood before his troops.

  “Angels! Here today on Kalos, we will fight the battle that will end the tyranny of angels by a God who cares nothing about them and the traitors to their own kind who aid him. By taking Virgos, we will effectually control this planet and thus half the entirety of the Kingdom of Heaven. This battle will continue the crushing defeat of those who are still blinded by their loyalty to Os. We need only take The Citadel, and we will control this beautiful planet created by our father Temerian for us the rightful heirs of Heaven!”

  The crowd erupted into cheers, Machenrauch stood back, there was no reason to attempt to steal the attention of the group from Lucifer right now. Let him motivate them, in mere hours he’d be laying in the street pinned down by Michael’s archers and Machenrauch would have the glory of both crushing Michael and rescuing Lucifer once again. Lucifer continued on, each of his speech’s paragraph’s was punctuated by roaring cheers. If only Mulciber hadn’t so ham-handedly written his false chapter of the Anatalian Letters.

  Within the walls, they heard the thunderous sound of hundreds of thousands of angels pounding their swords against their shields and screaming in excitement. Michael had not given them words, he led with quiet resolve, determined, they stood ready while the roaring thunder of shouts went on outside. They could hear Lucifer’s voice, but they could not listen to what he said. Only that what he said gave his troops enthusiasm and excitement. Inside the gates, there was only a feeling of nervous anticipation. Michael’s plan was good, his strategy seemed sound, they quietly prayed to Os to give them strength to meet their enemies.

  “So come now children of Temerian, be strong and shout into the Heavens! We’re going to bring you down!”

  Lucifer’s final statement caused the loudest roar, Machenrauch knew that Lucifer did not believe in the Anatalian Letters, but he knew his audience and indeed used them to significant effect. Machenrauch himself almost wanted to believe, to share in the enthusiasm. At other times Lucifer could be loathsome and off-putting but this was one of the moments in which he dripped with charisma, these were the times that got other angels to rally around him. This was why he had built his reputation as the most powerful angel in heaven. The electricity of the speech was in the air, and things seemed to be moving more quickly than Machenrauch had anticipated. Angels ran in perfect unison, staying in formation as they formed the two groups that would assault the city. Now it was time for Machenrauch to take the stage, words and speeches were not his forte, he let his actions in battle speak for him.

  Machenrauch produced the ancient relic supposedly used in Shalos’ battle with Devros. The Horn of Entera, which he had stolen from the sacred room in Hesperides Castle, was now brought to his lips. He blew powerfully into the horn. Amazingly, the sound echoed throughout the city. The sound waves blasted the rock wall of Virgos creating a massive crack in the stone which made up the structure.

  Inside, angels waiting for knee deep in water in the aquifer just inside the wall felt the concussion sound and were pelted by small pieces of jagged rock as they saw their protective fence shattered above them. They could not see what was happening and could not understand where the strength had come to produce such force. They bowed their heads in prayer as they hoped that their anticipation of rebel soldiers entering their well-protected gate would go next. However, it was not to be, Machenrauch had other plans before he would order his troops into the city.

  Once again he brought the horn to his lips and its terrifying sounds rolled through the battlefield. While the last horn blast had cracked the wall, weakening it, this time the sound waves blasted a gaping hole in the wall.

  Again and again, they listened as Machenrauch’s horn blasts blew apart the wall. Inside, the collapsing walls fell on an entire legion of Michael’s soldiers, rendering them trapped or too injured to fight. Confused and panicking, the armies within the walls poured out into the wilderness, terrified of having their protective barrier fall in on them as well. Michael shouted for them to hold the line and stay within the protection of the city, but this was in vain.

  Machenrauch ordered his archers to let loose a volley of arrows down on the scattering loyalist troops. Pain and life draining slaughter rained down from the sky as many fell and others ran not knowing what to do. Machenrauch then ordered his legions to advance, Lucifer followed suit and marched directly into the now abandoned gate.

  Machenrauch’s forces met Michael’s scattered troops those not already too injured by arrow fire were scattered and isolated, cut down quickly by the advancing phalanxes. The rebel angel’s unstoppable war machine entered the city through the unprotected gate and through the chaos of the gaping hole blow wide into the west side of the wall.

  At the breach in the wall, Machenrauch’s troops met with chaos. Terrified angels fought with ferocity as the others behind them pushed them into Machenrauch’s forces. Machenrauch ordered his troops into the fray and cut down the angels in silver armor pouring out of the wall.

  In the square, Michael and Auriel ordered their troops to secure the breach. Pushing them on they focused on the chaos of the battle with Machenrauch’s legions. They became singularly obsessed with the breach and the struggle going on outside. They fought to push out Machenrauch’s forces and scatter them into the wilderness.

  Machenrauch cursed his miscalculation, he had not anticipated the panic and chaos that the falling walls would cause. He had intended on opening a larger hole in the wall before advancing into the city. A stalemate was now occurring because of this. He had also not anticipated the discipline and resolve of Michael’s forces. Machenrauch could tell that Michael had learned the lessons of his defeat. Michael had calmed his soldiers now, and they fought with discipline and resolve. The panic and surprise they’d caused by breaching the wall had subsided, and now they took advantage of their position within the city.

  Lucifer’s forces fared much better, they advanced into the gate, and marched up the main road, it was eerily empty. Lucifer continued urging on his troops as they marched through town. Asmodeus stepped from the flank with Lucifer.

  “I told you he was a strategic genius Asmodeus, we’ll be in the square before we meet any resistance. We’ll have the glory of taking the Citadel while he fends off Michael’s forces for us.”

  Asmodeus didn’t understand, why would Machenrauch self-sacrifice for Lucifer this way? There was a trap somewhere, he was confident of it. He urged caution as they marched down the empty main road toward the city square.

  Outside, Machenrauch sought to end the stalemate by opening a larger hole in the wall. He would need to accurately projec
t the horn blasts further up the wall to ensure that none of his essential troops were injured by the falling structure. He decided to leave Moloch in charge and run back to a position from which he could continue using Entera’s Horn on the wall. However, when his troops saw him running away from the breach, many assumed they were regrouping or retreating and followed him. Any ground gained was then lost as Michael’s troops poured out of the wall in unison, cutting down many golden armored rebel angels as they attempted to run away from the battle. Machenrauch screamed for them to hold their line but the effect of seeing their leader run from the fighting meant it was too late.

  Michael and Auriel noticed a surge forward as their troops gained ground, they urged them to hold position and continue the discipline which had put them in this favorable position.

  Machenrauch had no choice but to return to the front line, angry and frustrated he hacked at the opposing warriors, but for the first time since the war had started, he began to fatigue, he could not hit hard enough to penetrate their armor or shields. He could not force them backward, and he could not regain the ground he had lost. Just then he was hit with three arrows, they slammed into his left side hitting his chest, arm, and ribs. Pain seared through his body and he instantly felt weakness and draining as his angelic blood splattered those behind him. He then realized what they had done, and he wasted further energy cursing and boiling with anger that they had not thought of this idea previously. The arrow shafts were made of Innix wood, and they sapped his energy as he attempted to pull them out. The hardwood would not break, barbs had been cut into the shaft which kept it securely impaled into his body. As he wrestled with the projectiles which protruded from his body, he was hit with two more which drove through his right leg and hit his throat.

  Lucifer and Asmodeus continued walking carefully up the main road, at specific points the road became narrow, and they had to break formation to fit through, were they being attacked it would have been disastrous, but this was lost on the entirety of the group including Lucifer and Asmodeus as they had still seen no resistance at all. Now even Lucifer was puzzled as to why Machenrauch had allowed him such an easy job. They could see the city square now, and none of the loyalist angels seemed to notice that there was a contingent of rebel angels advancing toward them.

  The archers who had been positioned at the gate had left their posts and been scattered after the confusion from the collapsing wall, and no one seemed to notice at all what was happening on the main road.

  Asmodeus urged Lucifer to exercise caution, he was confident that a trap lay in store for them. The chaos of battle echoed in front of them, and they stayed just out of sight of the angels in the city square. They were not paying attention to the main road and were clearly focused on funneling into the aquifer to defend the breach in the gate. Lucifer ordered his troops to stop. He looked around at the buildings and up into the sky expecting some sort of hindrance to their advancement. Lucifer could see Auriel and Michael standing in the square. He looked at Asmodeus, Asmodeus shrugged his shoulders.

  “Attack!” Lucifer ordered as his legions poured into the city square. Michael and Auriel looked completely surprised as flashes of golden clad warriors caught the corner of their eyes. As they turned a wall of rebel angels came at them.

  Outside, Machenrauch stumbled backward as silver armored warriors pushed he and his forces further from the wall. He was weak now, his sword was heavy in his hands. He swatted ineffectually at the tide of enemy soldiers in front of him. His vision began to dim, a vignette of white circled his peripheral vision as his life force drained from his body. His blood covered his chest and leg dripping and viscous. A reminder of the fact that he was dying on the battlefield. This was not the glory that he had hoped to realize at Virgos. How had this gone so incredibly wrong? Lucifer by now was undoubtedly in a situation for which he could not escape. Indeed he was trapped somewhere probably not even halfway to the city square. After so much promise, the rebellion ended here. Without Lucifer or Machenrauch, the council would fold into fractious splinters each advocating their own position against Os. The legions they’d posted in each of their conquered territories would wrap against the well organized and now well-led forces of Michael. They’d failed at their one opportunity to use surprise and shock to overthrow the oppressive God who forced his will upon them. The secrets of how they entrapped their captive angels and held them would be revealed and a method of counteracting this technique would be developed. There was one thing Os had on his side in this war, and that was his ingenuity. Angels did not have creativity and once the secret methods they’d used had been revealed Os would not allow himself to be surprised again. With his human beings, who thought like him, he’d be able to keep the angels in subjugation for eternity and never still would the angels be able to oppose him. They’d squandered the few advantages they had, and now they would fall.

  Machenrauch, lunged at his opponents, who gave him a wide berth, two silver clad angels leaped at him, plunging their swords deep into his guts. He fell to his knees, as his vision began to fade, he heard a horn sound, it was the herald of Lucifer, he questioned why this idiot would be sounding a victory trumpet during their moment of defeat. He looked to the sky, the thunder of a warp spell sending an angel high into the stratosphere, he saw the sonic wave liquify the air as the angel rocketed upward with arrows flying behind him. Then he saw golden clad angels fire off their warp spells. Indeed, a retreat from within the walls of Virgos was imminent. These cowards left as their comrades died on the battlefield. It was never to be. But then again he heard it. The trumpet blast of Lucifer’s herald. Had Michael’s angels defeated him and now they blew it to cause confusion and to mock the rebel angels? It seemed unlikely. The angels who accosted him had left suddenly, where had they gone? Then he saw it, golden armored angels emerged flying from the breach, and coming over the wall their wings spread wide, Michael’s archers had somehow been defeated. The loyal angels who followed suit were cut down in a rain of accurate arrow fire, and the rebel angels landed, pouring out fury, drenching silver armored angels in their own blood. Lucifer had somehow beaten Michael, and now his forces emerged from the breach as they forced Michael’s angels out of the city.

  Moments before this, Lucifer’s soldiers had poured into the city square, Michael and Auriel fended them off in vicious combat, but the fresh forces of Lucifer poured from the narrow main road in an unrelenting tidal wave of swinging swords. Arrows showered down on the flanks of the army defending the breach and Michael ordered them to turn to face the flanking golden soldiers.

  Lucifer and Asmodeus themselves stayed out of the fray but watched as their motivated and energized soldiers took the opportunity to pour their hate out onto their enemies. Lucifer’s forces were being too cautious coming through the narrow street into the city square so ordered his herald to sound his trumpet to ensure they knew that the battle was turning in their favor. Now golden armored warriors filled the square growing more numerous by the second. Michael and Auriel got pushed up to the doors of The Citadel by the mass of unstoppable force crashing into the tight square. Panicking loyalist angels now tried to fly, and they were cut down by archers, slamming into the stone streets and burying their comrades as they fell from the sky.

  Auriel, pinned against the door watched as Michael fought valiantly, but he knew that the crush of the opposing forces could not be contained and that their general too would soon be smashed into the stone building, leaving him helpless. He urged him to leave, he screamed at him to go. Michael shook his head, he would not retreat.

  Auriel screamed at him, “Today they will take The Citadel, do not let them take all of Heaven, Michael! You must live to fight another day, regroup and wage your battle from Aequiss and Paradisio! You can retake this city and save us all if you do not fall today! Do it! Go!”

  Michael watched as more and more golden armored warriors entered the city, the situation was lost, and the only choice was inevitable. He flew from the steps of Th
e Citadel, avoiding the arrows which hissed past him like aerial snakes on all sides. A hissing projectile caught him in the chest, it was the first of a volley of dozens, but those bounced off the energizing shield orb, strong enough to deflect particles and meteoroids, the shield orb efficiently protected Michael from the fired projectiles. His form encased within the sphere now accelerated upwards and began to glow, beneath him he saw the chaos of battle. How had Lucifer known to use the empty street? It was an exercise in self-defeat in any other circumstance. Had they merely noticed that he was coming up they could have stopped him with one volley of arrows, but Lucifer was bolder and took more significant risks than Michael had anticipated. Again, he ran from battle in defeat, Virgos was lost, Auriel would be imprisoned by the black magic that they used to keep his troops from returning to the battlefield. How could Os allow him to fail like this? After all that he’d done to change? After keeping his faith and regrouping? He felt as defeated as he had after the fall of Azura and Oziel City. Perhaps Os was a God who no longer cared, maybe he was as powerless and ineffectual as the rebel angels claimed. Michael may have chosen the wrong side.

  Lucifer watched as a dozen of his warriors chased Michael into the sky, they took to the air with impunity, it was clear that Michael archers had now all fallen or fled. He had his herald sound another blast and shouted to the angels so they knew that they could far spread their wings and use the advantage of aerial attacks against their opponents.

  Auriel, stabbed through the gaps in his armor, lay on the steps, he bled from his joints and from beneath his breastplate, it poured out and cascaded down the steps. Lucifer ordered him stripped of the magic armor before he was trapped in Azurian Crystal.

  Machenrauch lay in a heap, the pain of the Innix arrows burning in his body. Two-foot soldiers picked him up from the ground. His strength was not returning. He saw other angels lying on the battlefield pierced with arrows and knew the pain they were now experiencing. The two soldiers helped him limp into the city. After some time they reached the city square. There Lucifer was being hoisted onto the shoulders of a legion of soldiers.