With that, Ichab disappeared into the bush.
“We should watch out for that man,” Varak said. “Friend or no friend, we might find ourselves losing our valuables.”
Arcana sighed.
As Ichab entered the bush however, he was smiling. They thought they had caught him, but a good treasure hunter always had a plan. Ichab used his fingers to feel through his other pocket, and felt satisfied at what he had collected. While Varak had been distracted with the silver that he stole, Ichab had stolen some gold coins from Varak’s own purse.
Well, it’s not like it would hurt Varak, considering the soldier had much more gold in his pocket. Why, the soldier should be thankful that Ichab had not taken it all. And besides, it was all for a good cause.
Ichab ran deeper into the bush and back at the camp, hearing the sound of the stream fading away.
Back by the stream, Arcana and Varak continued to discuss the mysterious money bag.
“If you can learn this Knowledge,” Varak started, “what do you hope to use it for?”
“Imagine Varak,” Arcana said, “if we can build something big enough for a man to come through. Then we can traverse great distances. That would make it almost impossible for us to get caught by our enemies.”
“But we’re not yet sure where this will take us,” Varak said. “And we don’t know what’s waiting on the other side of that portal.”
“True,” Arcana said. “That’s why we will find out.”
Chapter 22 – Sky Jerusalem
After days of being unconscious, Judas finally awoke. The group filled him in as to what happened. His experience with the Immortal King’s memories made him feel disoriented, even troubled at times. While he initially thought Shaul’s memories were bad enough, there was no comparison to what the Immortal King had done.
Judas tried to push all that away, because for now, Gabriel was finally taking him to Sky Jerusalem. As it turned out, Arcana had made a Covenant with Gabriel in exchange for her healing the angel’s shoulder while the Immortal King was chasing after them. That meant Arcana’s secret would still remain one.
Gabriel had called for a merkavah to come to him, though it took several hours of waiting. It seemed like the merkavah’s could run on their own, without anyone piloting them.
By now, Judas was used to the merkavah’s speed and paid it no mind.
The merkavah moved up to a speed several times faster than that of a horse, and after a few moments, Gabriel stopped the ship and landed in front of a large clearing.
The angel disembarked and Judas followed. “There are very few humans who have ridden a merkavah,” Gabriel said. “There’s Enoch, Elijah, Sid, and Sesonchusis. And there’s Solomon. Now there’s you.” Judas had heard about Enoch and Elijah as great prophets. He had heard of Solomon as a great king too. But Sid and Sesonchusis, those two were names that he was not familiar with. The names sounded completely foreign to him, perhaps they belonged to other races.
Judas looked around, but there was nothing nearby that looked anything like a ship or Sky Jerusalem for that matter. It turned out that Sky Jerusalem was a flying ship.
“Where is the larger ship?” Judas asked.
Gabriel pointed to the skies, but Judas could only see clouds.
Then suddenly, a heavy darkness filled the skies. The clouds parted, and something invisible came through the clouds, leaving a hole in the middle that caused the clouds to spiral downwards.
It was similar to what Judas and Arcana had met many days ago, when they were being chased by the jinn. There was a time when there was a similar sensation, like that of an invisible mountain in the skies.
Then, the air shimmered, and it revealed a ship much larger than the merkavah came through. Judas couldn’t help but gape in awe. The larger ship, like the merkavah, did not look like any ship he had ever seen. From below, it appeared the ship was made of metal, and it was bigger than any ship Judas had ever seen in all his life. But the upper part was shaped like a dome, and it was semi translucent blue, like a sapphire stone. The bottom part was dark metal, similar in color to the merkavah. Judas squinted, and he swore he could he could vaguely see through the blue dome many strange house-like structures within.
The magnitude of Sky Jerusalem was hard to describe.
While the merkavah was only two strides long, this ship was probably several tens of thousands of times larger. He estimated that it was as large as the largest city he had ever been in, probably larger.
Sky Jerusalem.
The city-ship floated a few feet above the ground, and there was a low, glowing fire underneath. Again, he wondered why angel ships needed fire underneath.
“So it’s like a floating city,” Judas finally said.
Gabriel smiled. “Sky Jerusalem,” Gabriel said in a deep, majestic voice that befitted an angel of the highest ranks. “The name means the ‘Sky City of Peace’.”
Judas looked at the floating city again, shaking his head in wonder. He had been meaning to ask a question for a while. “How does the merkavah and this larger ship travel?” Judas said.
“You will come to learn that,” Gabriel said, “but maybe another day. There is a lot you have to learn first.”
Judas looked up as a door opened from the higher part of the ship, and from the door, bright light beamed downwards until it reached the ground.
Without any hesitation, Gabriel stepped on the stairs of light as if they were solid stairs.
Judas hesitated.
How could this be?
He could see through the stairs. And yet, for some reason, it was able to support the angel’s weight.
Judas tested the stairs of light with one foot. When his foot touched the surface of light, the immediate area turned an even brighter hue. Despite how it looked, it felt solid and stable.
How could one step on light itself?
He started climbing the stairs and followed Gabriel up towards what appeared to be a door, though an unusual one.
Halfway up the path of light, he looked to either side. If he fell down from this height, he would probably end up with more than a few broken bones. He steered himself away from the edges and kept himself in the middle, where it was safer.
After a while of climbing, Gabriel reached the door and Judas followed closely behind, but his feet were still on the path of light. Judas looked down nervously. He felt nauseous. For a moment, he swore the path of light became rubbery rather than solid. Judas wanted to call out to Gabriel, but the angel didn’t seem to notice anything wrong.
The round door opened and Gabriel entered. Judas hurriedly stepped away from the path of light and on to the sturdier metal floor. The second his foot left the path of light, it disappeared. Judas had to hold on to the metal handholds for fear that he would fall back.
“You look distraught, what’s wrong?” Gabriel said.
“The stairs of light seemed to disappear, I thought for a moment I would fall,” Judas said, nervous.
Gabriel reached out and pulled Judas towards the door. “I sense something…” Gabriel said, scanning the horizon, “strange. But it is gone now” Then the angel shook his head. “It may be nothing.”
Judas was just relieved that he had not fallen.
As Judas passed through the entryway, he noticed that the door was perfectly round, and the corners were metallic too like the rest of the ship. The metal felt solid, and appeared to be moulded into one with no seams. Once through, the door started closing behind them.
Startled, Judas moved away from it. The strange door just now seemed to close in on itself, it did not swivel, instead it was like the walls grew and stretched itself to cover the entryway, that by the time it closed, there was no sign of the opening at all. The door was as smooth as a wall. Judas touched the now-vanished opening, and felt the coldness of metal. No cracks, no joints, nothing.
Suddenly, there was a humming sound, and immediately after the sound of thunder emanated from everywhere, echoing in the ship’s m
etallic walls. Everything around him seemed to shake. “What is happening?” Judas said, panicking.
“The ship is now travelling to the skies, but do not worry about the shaking,” Gabriel said. “It’s only while the ship launches upwards.”
True to Gabriel’s word, the initial shaking was only temporary. Gabriel continued, walking deeper into the ship through a narrow passageway, which led to a more spacious room. In the room, Judas observed there were many windows, and even the windows were round-shaped. There were no candles anywhere, but the entire room was lit up as bright as day.
“What is this room?” Judas said.
“You are in heaven,” Gabriel said. Judas coughed, trying to suppress a laugh. But it turned out that Gabriel was serious. Gabriel gestured for Judas to come closer to the window. The windows looked clear as glass.
Judas looked and gaped at the sight. The clouds were beneath them, speeding away like a white carpet and stretching as far as the eyes could see. Above, the wide expanse of the blue skies was the deepest blue he had ever seen in his life. And as for land, there was no land to be seen.
“You might be more interested in the opposite window,” Gabriel smiled.
Judas doubted there was anything that could interest him more than what he just saw, but he hurried to the opposite side of the room—while the first window showed the skies, the other window showed what was inside of Sky Jerusalem.
Judas gaped.
What lay before him was an incredible city of great expanse. The structures and buildings were shaped in an unusual manner, but somehow, they looked beautiful. The rooftops were green, like the color of glass, no, perhaps it was indeed grass; the walls of the houses were a bright white. Where there were no buildings, there were trees of every kind, each tree majestic.
Sky Jerusalem was divided in twelve sections. And at the edge of each section, there were twelve massive buildings.
“What are those twelve buildings for?” Judas asked. “The ones that surround the city.”
“Those twelve are the Energy Nodes,” Gabriel explained. “They are the source of power for the entire city, making it possible for us to have light, to travel the skies, and to support the whole city with the work that we do.”
“And what’s that?” Judas said, pointing to the middle of the city where the twelve sections met. There, stood something more majestic than even the city.
It was a giant structure, a tall spire, stairs twisting around the spire. The sides of the stairs protruded like thorns going slightly upwards in a helix. The top of the spire was a bright blue dome, like a—
“The Blue Rose,” Gabriel announced. “It’s the Command Center of Sky Jerusalem’s angels,” Gabriel said. “From there, we engage in missions all over the world, keeping the world from the greatest dangers that threaten it.”
Judas turned to The Blue Rose again. The structure watched silently over the vast expanse of the city sprawled around Sky Jerusalem. He could vaguely make out small figures moving, people riding on merkavah’s going about, though it appeared to be different from the one that Gabriel rode on—these merkavah’s moved slower and only skimmed slightly above the ground. None of the merkavah’s within Sky Jerusalem seemed to fly any higher than the buildings.
“The city, is it all angels?”
Gabriel shook his head. “Aside from the 72,000 angels,” Gabriel said, “most of the population are humans. Most of the angels stay on The Blue Rose. In some cases, there are angels who go down to the city are those who manage the city.”
Judas took a deep breath at the majestic view.
“Those angels,” Gabriel continued, “are the Archangels and the Overlords.”
Chapter 23 – Archangels And Overlords
“Archangels and Overlords?” Judas wondered.
“You will learn more about them later,” Gabriel answered, then gestured for Judas to follow. They went through another entryway, and down a ladder of light, this time leading down to the city’s interior.
“Sky Jerusalem is a city built as a home for 144,000 humans,” Gabriel began. “It is divided into twelve sections.”
“Each section,” Gabriel continued, “is led by two angels. There are twelve angels of light, the Archangels. And there are twelve angels of chaos, the Overlords. At the center of all the sections is The Blue Rose tower.”
Angels of chaos? And twelve of them? Judas wondered why there was a need for such angels here. Surely, chaos was not something that was approved of in Sky Jerusalem?
Judas stopped, almost bumping against Gabriel’s back; Gabriel had paused to let a column of merkavah riders pass through. The roads were metallic too, and there where lights that blinked along both sides. The merkavahs here were, indeed, much slower, smaller, and flew closer to the ground than Gabriel’s merkavah. Perhaps the function was different inside Sky Jerusalem, than those merkavahs used outside the city.
“Each section is governed by its own unique rules, set by the two angels keeping watch over that section,” Gabriel explained. “Citizens of Sky Jerusalem are free to choose which section they will stay, and they are able to move across different sections as they wish.”
“The Archangels and the Overlords each have absolute power in their sections,” Gabriel said, though Judas sensed a hint of dissatisfaction in the angel’s tone when he mentioned the word ‘Overlord’.
They crossed the road, giving Judas the chance to see one of the buildings up close. Even the buildings were made of metal, though white in color, and as Judas peered inside, he saw the people there poring over desks. They passed several buildings like those, each building only slightly different. The people inside either pored on desks, worked with metals, built merkavah’s, and other strange artifacts.
“At which section are we right now, and who is the leader of this section?” Judas asked.
“I am,” Gabriel said. “This is the section of order, laws, and justice. The section of most peace in all of Sky Jerusalem. Everything must be governed by laws, otherwise, the city will fall apart.”
Judas sense, for a second time, that there was a hint of dissatisfaction in Gabriel’s tone.
“The angels of chaos, the Overlords,” Judas began, suspecting that Gabriel’s dissatisfaction came from them, “what about their sections?”
Gabriel stopped, frowning. “Those sections are as chaotic as their leaders,” Gabriel said. “They are without law, worse, they turn the laws upside down. This time, there was a hint of something stronger, but in a moment, Gabriel’s face was calm again.
“But why are they allowed here in Sky Jerusalem?” Judas asked.
Gabriel smiled. “So you understand, Judas, “ Gabriel said. “Perhaps, once you gain power here, you can join me and take power away from the Overlords. We shall see.”
Judas didn’t know the whole story, but that’s what he planned to do.
So, it turned out, conflict persisted even here in Sky Jerusalem. Even angels were not at peace amongst themselves.
Judas wondered something. “You said that the city is for 144,000 citizens, what happens when new people are born?”
“The ideal population is 144,000 otherwise if we exceed that it will put a strain on our resources, but that is only a guide,” Gabriel said. “If the population exceeds that, then we simply put a limit for couples to have only one child each. That way, the next generation will be of a smaller population.”
“On the other hand, if there is a severe lack of population, Sky Jerusalem will be undermanned, production and maintenance will suffer,” Gabriel continued. “In that case, we allow couples to have more children. Otherwise, it will affect our operations on Earth. From the collection of metals, the building of merkavah’s, and administrating over the events of Earth, the human population here is important to everything that we do.”
“If, however, the population is close to ideal,” Gabriel said, “and we seek to maintain the population across generations, we can put the child limit to two.”
Juda
s nodded, that made sense, and he thought it was fair enough. But Judas had another question. “You mentioned a two-child limit to maintain the population, does that mean that people still die here?”
Gabriel nodded, sadly. “It is natural for humans to die, but here in Sky Jerusalem, you can live your Full Life.”
“Full Life?”
“A life of a thousand years to five thousand years, or more,” Gabriel answered. “A life as long as Adam’s, Seth’s, Noah’s, or Methuselah’s. Your ancestors used to live much longer lives than present humans on Earth.”
“How come?” Judas wondered. “What makes Sky Jerusalem different from Earth?”
“Earth has been corrupted,” Gabriel said, grimacing. “It is no longer as it used to be.” Judas wondered what Gabriel meant when he said ‘corrupted’, but they were about to cross another street. Streets here seemed dangerous, what with the merkavah riders passing through at such speeds. As they entered deeper and deeper into the city, the sides of the streets became more and more packed with people. Then they stopped in front of one of the buildings. They entered the building and went several flights up, each floor had many doors, and it was on one such door that they stopped.
Gabriel handed him what appeared to be a talisman, with inscriptions on it that Judas could not fathom. However, there was a similarity in the inscriptions on the talisman as the symbol outside the door in front of them.
“This is your room,” Gabriel announced. “And what you hold is a key, as long as you possess the key, the door will open for you. The key answers only to you, even if someone possessed it, they would not be able to open this door.”
Judas nodded. “Where do I put this key in?”
“Just hold it in your hand, and command the door to open,” Gabriel said.
The Lost Book of Chaos: How to Divide the World (The Secret Wars of Angels 1) Page 18
