* * *
I emerged from Iobel’s tower and out on the roof. Haniel and Iobel awaited me. I nodded curtly and rose in the air. I stopped short and gasped.
The sight stunned me. My eyes beheld a wonder I had never seen and I gazed in utter awe. Before me, hovering fore, aft, and to the sides of the tower in a sea of ebbing and flowing silver and white, all the angelic orders had gathered together for the first time for war.
Banners of all the orders fluttered and snapped amidst the ocean of angels like sails of an armada. Enormous globes of light hung high in the sky like miniature moons, illuminating the city and clouds in a radiant light. Resplendent in the glow, the army of angelic warriors twinkled like a thousand, thousand candles.
“They are magnificent,” I breathed, my throat swelling with emotion.
“Indeed,” said Haniel at my side. “It does rather take one’s breath away.”
I spread my wings and headed towards the city walls. Haniel and Iobel flew on either side, Dirael trailing behind.
The sea of angels parted before me. More than half were of the most common and basic of the Nine Orders of Angels; the Angellus or Angelic class. The higher orders, or specialized classes, made up the bulk of the fighting forces.
The Principalities, one of the three orders that made up the Guardian class were the most numerous of the specialized Order of Angels. Each Principal carried a long spear and a golden shield marked with a single halo, their faces grim and determined. They would hold the center and be the wall upon which the fallen would break.
Holding the left, right, and upper flanks were the Powers, also of the Guardian class. Almost as numerous as the Principalities, they fought with sword and spear. They were more agile than the Principalities, being in looser formation, and could bend and sway to protect the flanks.
The leaders of the Guardian class were the Dominions. Each Dominus led a company or battalion of Principals or Powers and was far larger in physical stature than their Guardian class counterparts and could communicate to groups telepathically.
Outside the Guardian class, and far lesser in number, were the Virtues. Known as the ‘shining ones’, they radiated light from the sheer purity of their souls. They were interspersed among the Guardian class. Dressed in white robes edged with silver and blue, they carried staves instead of swords which they often hung banners from. Their very presence radiated blessings and could inspire acts of heroism and courage.
The Thrones, almost seven thousand in number, rode upon chariot or horse. Heavily armored, they would engage with the fallen directly and scatter them to the winds.
The Cherubim, over five thousand strong, would wage war from a distance. Their specialty was with bow, arrow, and javelin. They would protect the Guardian class and deal damage from a distance.
Of the Seraphim, there were only three. But they would do.
Those of the Angelic Order that had little or no war craft training would act as support; removing the wounded, tending the injured, providing water and food, disseminating supplies, acting as couriers, and various other functions.
Such was our army as I passed through them. A more splendid force I could not have hoped for. So determined, so magnificent. But how would they fare come the morning? A pall fell over me as I pictured them destroyed by Lucifer’s legions.
I did this to them. I killed them and they didn’t even know it yet.
Or did they?
I had to know. I had to know what they felt at that moment. I had to know if they saw through my lies. I could only hope so. I could not contain my deceit any longer.
I reached out my feelings to them.
A deluge of emotions flooded me from the ocean of souls assembled. So overpowering was the jolt that I felt like I would plummet from the sky. Hopes, fears, determination, and doubts assailed me. Those emotions I expected, and I sympathized with them all.
But there was another emotion I did not expect and it prevailed over all others. The jarring surge of it shook me to my core. It both inspired me to heights unimagined and shamed me to lowest depths at the same time.
Love.
The profound simplicity of that single, all-encompassing emotion overwhelmed me like a cup overflowing. But it overflowed from them.
Love compelled them; love for home, family, fellow-angels, freedom, and God. Love inspired them. It led them to hope, to believe. It led them to sacrifice.
And they knew. They knew they could not possibly survive. But it didn’t matter. Their resolve was firm, their strength colossal.
Was this, then, the meaning I had been searching so vainly for? It had to be.
I did not gather this army here. They gathered themselves. They made a choice, and it was influenced by love. They would fight, not for me, not because I tricked them, but because they wanted to, they needed to, in order to protect those whom they cherished most in their lives. Just as I did.
It was all so simple. It was always love.
I threw my head back and laughed.
“My lord, are you well?” asked Shoel.
“Never better, Shoel! Never better.” I pulled free my sword and raised it above my head. Light poured forth from it and it blazed like a new-born star.
A cheer rose from those gathered around me and rippled outwards until the whole army cried forth.
I said not a word, letting the light of my sword speak for me.
When I reached the walls, the light from my sword flowed and formed into a chariot pulled by four flaming horses, their hooves pawing at the air. I stepped into the chariot and sheathed my sword.
“My lord, will you go alone?” asked Dirael.
“I must. This is between me and my brother.” I flicked the reins and surged forward. The seething portal still dominated the night sky. Flickering purples, yellows, and reds illuminated the eye of the abomination. I moved out over the plains.
Lucifer was not difficult to find. A raised platform hovered in the air, resting on the shoulders on four fiery, giant demons, one at each corner. The platform resembled an open courtyard, complete with decorative arches, lush gardens, and a spring that bubbled up from a pond and trickled over the lip of the platform to the plains far below.
A simple table had been set in the center of the platform and adorned with foods of all sorts. Lucifer, his face hidden and hooded, dressed in a simple robe of white. He sat at the table, spearing an apple slice with a dagger. Only one other chair was visible and it was vacant, directly across from him.
I pulled on the reins as I neared the platform then spread my wings and rose into the sky. I crossed the short distance to Lucifer’s table and landed before him.
“Please, sit.” Lucifer gestured to the empty seat. I nodded and took it. “You’re so serious, Sariel, dressed as you are for war. Do you really want that?”
“What other alternative is there, brother?”
“For the likes of us, anything we can imagine. I tell you truly, Sariel, I have no desire for bloodshed this day.”
“Then why did you bring your legions here?”
“I told you I would and I am an angel of my word. But that doesn’t mean I have to use them.”
“I believe you swore to raze this sphere and see me dead. Do you intend to keep your word on that as well?”
“That depends on you now, doesn’t it? I spoke those words in the heat of the moment. I am willing to go so far as to retract them with a sincere apology and pretend they were never spoken.”
“In exchange for?”
He speared another apple slice and bit into it. “I think you know.”
“No. You can’t have my son.”
“Be reasonable, Sariel. I’m not a monster. I don’t want to hurt the child. You, Requel, and your little boy can come live with us. You can raise him to your heart’s content. You can live as a family, just as you did on the primordial. I know how much that meant to you. In fact, we can all be a family again. Your son will have uncles and an aunt who love him. You can have it
all. Does that sound so awful?”
“If you don’t intend to hurt the child, then let him be.”
“Well, you see, I can’t do that. Under my watchful eye, I can ensure the child doesn’t interfere with my plans. I have no assurances otherwise.”
“You have proven your might, brother. You have brought the lower spheres to its knees and prostrated it meekly before you. How can one little child be of any threat?”
“You tell me. You had the Akashic visions, and you once told me your son would undo this duality I created. Is that not so?”
I smiled. “I lied when I spoke those words. I was desperate for your aid in finding Requel.”
“You lied? I find that difficult to believe. So what is it to be, brother? Do you, Requel, and your child come live with us as honored family with every courtesy and every desire fulfilled or do I pit my infinite legions against your paltry force and still get your son in the end? The choice is yours.”
“There is another option here, brother, you may not have considered.”
“Oh? Pray tell, enlighten me.”
“You see, earlier this evening I struggled to come up with a purpose, a tangible meaning, to make our lives worthy of the sacrifice we’re about to make. I failed.”
“Of course you did. What could possibly be worth the death of you, Requel, and everyone else in your little fortress?”
“You are.”
“Excuse me?”
“You would be worth it, brother. This all started with you, and it could only end with you. Requel told me that very thing a long time ago but I wasn’t listening. I was too involved in my own self-righteousness. You see, she said an Archangel started this war and only Archangels could end it. She was right and far wiser than myself. I have a purpose now. I will kill you before this day is over.”
Lucifer dropped his knife and glared. “I come in the name of forgiveness and reason and this is how you treat me? My armies will crush you in a heartbeat. What chance do you have against me?”
“Your armies don’t impress me, Lucifer. Hide behind them. It doesn’t matter. I’m coming for you. I may not live through this day, but I’ll take you with me. I swear it!”
Lucifer bared his teeth and growled. “Then what are you waiting for? Come, strike me now! There is only the two of us. Do your worst!”
“I would if you were not speaking through someone else’s body. I can sense when someone is being possessed. You taught me that. Are you so afraid of me that you refuse to show yourself in person?”
“You will see me soon enough, Sariel!”
“Yes, but I will eat your armies first! Then Mephistopheles. He’ll not escape me either. Then I’ll come for you. You will be dessert.”
“Go back, Sariel. Go back and say goodbye to Requel and all those other fools. Come the dawn, you will see all you love destroyed. You will see me as you’ve never seen me before.”
I rose and returned to my chariot, satisfied. I had found the meaning I had been so desperately searching for, dark though it was.
It would do.
PART V
WAR
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
I had been wrong when I told Shoel that I believed Lucifer would wait until we could see the breadth of his armies. They were too numerous to be seen. They gathered in the millions. Tens of millions. A hundred million.
The sun did not rise in the morning and revive us with its brilliant splendor. If it did, it was nowhere to be found. Not a single ray pierced the permanent midnight created by the sheer volume of Lucifer’s infinite legions that saturated the sky. The sun was nothing more than another hapless victim of Lucifer’s all-eclipsing might.
Only Haniel’s glowing orbs, hanging high above like small moons, gave us enough light to see by. We watched the hovering fallen mill and writhe like an angry sea as they floated a mile or so above us. Occasional pinpricks of light in their ranks that flared from a torch or a fiery steed winked in the blackness as if mocking the stars.
The massive portal roiled in the distance and still glowed oranges, purples and reds. It bubbled and spit like a cauldron, spurting even more numberless fallen into the atmosphere.
I floated above the outer walls of the fortress in my flaming chariot, waiting for the inevitable attack. Hours passed like days. My armies floated above the fortress in a defensive formation, ranks upon ranks of angels, their shields held before them. The result was a spherical protective dome made from over a hundred thousand shields that hovered above the city.
I gazed grimly at the rippling darkness at the edge of my vision and the sight made me shiver. More hours passed. With each passing hour, a growing despair and fear grew in our ranks and emanated outward like heat from a stone. But it wasn’t just their fear and despair that concerned me. There was something else in the air, something malignant, something tangible.
A heaviness hung in the darkness that reminded me of the lower circles of hell. My intuition felt dimmed this day as if I looked through mud stained glass. My consciousness felt clouded. Doubts crept in more easily. Certainties fled. Faith slipped. It made me feel … vulnerable.
Lucifer’s dark handiwork, of that I had no doubt.
He condensed the energies in the air, in the subtle matter itself, into something that could be cut, hurt, burned, and destroyed. Angels were invulnerable in their purest form having bodies of light. Fallen were not. He had to make us vulnerable like them in order to destroy us.
My eyes drifted to the portal looming in the distance. That vile monstrosity delivered more than just fallen, I was sure of it. It vented the corruption from the lower hells into this sphere like an open window letting in poisonous fumes.
Was that how Lucifer spread his vileness from sphere to sphere and transformed each one in turn? Is that how corruption tainted the purity of angels and prevented them from fleeing to the higher spheres?
What caused the corruption? What was the malignant source of it all that could disease entire spheres?
I knew instantly; I had always known. Satan. Were they not Archangels who could remake worlds in their image?
I recalled the words of Iobel. “I curse the day God ever saw fit to create a ruling order as powerful as you!”
For the first time I agreed with him. I agreed with all my heart.
“What are they waiting for?” Dirael hovered beside me, shifting nervously.
“Patience,” said Shoel quietly. “I’m in no hurry to start this fight.”
“This waiting is sapping our resolve,” said Dirael. “Can’t you feel it? Our morale crumbles.”
“We have little choice,” replied Shoel. “We are under siege. Attacking would be futile and they know this. They taunt us with their presence. They let our fears build and wait for us to do something rash. We’ll not fall into their trap. It’s their move.”
Haniel nodded. The Seraph shone in his golden armor and helm. “I agree, it certainly looks to be their strategy.”
“I’m not so certain that is why they delay,” I said, frowning.
“How so?” asked Haniel.
“Lucifer is in command. They act according to his will. If he chooses not to attack, I believe it’s for a far more basic reason.”
“Such as?”
“I think he’s enjoying this. He’s savoring this moment.” I grabbed my spear which was propped up within my chariot beside me. “I’ll not oblige him any longer.”
I pulled my arm back and launched my spear directly above me. It hurled like a lightning bolt. A crackle split the sky as it fractured the night in searing jagged white lines. It burst against the fallen barrier a mile above us and punched a hole through it.
For an instant, shafts of sunlight spilled through the opening, pouring forth on our angelic armies. It was as if God smiled on us before the hole was sealed and darkness returned.
No matter. Despair fled in the angelic ranks. Resolve strengthened. And I felt another emotion, almost overpowering in its white hot intensity. Anger. Rage.
I recognized the source.
I smiled grimly. “Come, brother,” I muttered. “Let us end this.”
* * *
A low wail drifted from across the plains. It was a keening sound, distant and muffled. A deep and steady rolling thunder accompanied it.
“What is that sound?” Dirael tightened his shield about his arm.
I strained my eyes but saw nothing. But I felt movement off in the far distance. A lot of movement, as if an angry sea lashed towards us. “They’re coming.”
“Haniel, please take your place,” said Shoel quietly.
Haniel rose and departed. He would lead the Guardian Class. Furmiel was his second. Haniel’s Seraphim brothers, Jehoel and Zaphiel, would lead the Thrones and Cherubim respectively. Iobel was in the rear in charge of support. Shoel was our general and would relay his commands to Haniel who, in turn, would disseminate to his brothers and throughout the ranks. Dirael stayed by my side and could not be dissuaded otherwise.
The keening grew louder, as did the deepening thunder.
“Curse this darkness!” snarled Dirael. “Must we fight blindfolded as well?”
Like living shadows at the edge of the horizon barely visible to the eye, a rolling and shifting darkness flowed towards us across the ground.
“This is most unexpected,” said Shoel. “I anticipated the initial attack to come from ballistae fire or from the sky. This ground assault is something altogether different.”
“What are they?” asked Dirael.
I wished I knew. “Let us find out,” I said.
I cracked the reins and my chariot lurched forward. The keening grew louder and blended into wails and gnashing as I sped across the plains. The flowing darkness began to take shape below.
I pulled back on the reins, Dirael pulled up alongside me. A chill ran through me. There were thousands of them. Some so large that they towered over their brethren. Many flew in slow, pondering circles as they soared above the horde but most lurched forward on the ground. Many were armored and armed, many more were not.
“Demons,” I whispered.
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