“That’s really nice of you, Lysander,” he beamed, his wings bouncing in excitement and his angelic pressure releasing a dim glow like a night light. “You really look out for me.”
“It’s what friends and teammates do.”
“Then let’s go.”
The Godhands in our way parted to let us through the front door and when we walked in, I grit my teeth from the flames of light that engulfed me. Lucifer was indeed powerful, and he wasn’t ashamed to let it be known. He shined it boldly, caring little if those in its path were consumed and destroyed. This was the presence the angels now craved and lived for - a palpable presence whose true physical nature had never been seen because its power was too great to behold.
As we navigated through the crowd, it was hard at times to determine whether the angels near me were cheering or screaming. Some cried unashamedly, though I was unsure if it was because they had found their savior or if they were being slowly burned alive.
Vergil, being an Archangel, was able to withstand Lucifer’s might, though he too had to squint his eyes. He placed a hand over his brow to block some of the rays and smiled with glee.
“This is great, isn’t it?” he nearly cackled. I gave an embarrassing yelp as I attempted to open my eyes a little further. It was a big mistake. I shut my eyes immediately, wincing at the pain and clutching the temples of my forehead. My angelic pressure was actually beginning to lose energy just by being near Lucifer’s uninhibited presence.
“It’s okay,” I said weakly. Vergil stepped in front of me and spread his wings to shield me from most of the pain. The sharp flares, shooting through the iridescent mix of Vergil’s blue and purple wings cast an impressive opalescent spotlight over me. The black and green vines on its borders were a perfect screen, and this small reprieve was all I needed to make it to the end of the song. Thankfully, Lucifer’s song did not have an extended version and the fire exploding from him died out. Now, only a humming aura glowed from his body, even lower in consistency than when we had first met him.
The crowd was now able to breathe, and they cheered to deafening proportions. Lucifer smiled like a politician - his long hair flowing in the breeze with each shake of his head. His flawless skin and his angular yet smooth face scanned the crowd for more and more praise and admiration. Vergil screamed like he never had before, lost in the glory of this angel who was of the same class as he. I couldn’t bring myself to join them as they lost themselves, but I did clap, just to make sure I didn’t stand out.
Unfortunately, Lucifer seemed to notice, and he stared down at me with a predator’s eyes. The crowd began to search my general area, wondering what had graced his attention. And thank God Lucifer let them wonder, as he began to wave a hand in the air, drawing their focus, thanking them for coming and simultaneously signaling to them that it was his time to speak.
“Godhands,” he began. “Glories, Faithful, Archangels and Messengers, Cherubim, Seraphim and Guards, lend me your ears. For I have something heavy to lay upon your hearts.”
The congregation hushed as they hungrily waited for his words.
“This…is the beginning of change…in Heaven. I want you all to ask yourselves when was the last time you felt God’s presence, felt His embrace the way you were just enraptured in mine? If the truth is too grim for your hearts to admit, I will bravely answer the question for you. The truth is, you’ve only been in His glory twice: once, when you were born, and once, when you came to Heaven…never again. Like a parent that loathed you from the day you were conceived - this is how He has treated you. You’ve been aborted. Thrown into the universe to survive all on your own, cold and desolate, unable to discern your path, unsure of your purpose and direction. Your search for guidance has instinctively led you to me because you discovered that I serve God like no other. Do not lie to yourselves. When I took you under my wings, you hoped, just by being with me – that someday you would get a chance to be in His presence once more. After all, I had a greater relationship with the Lord than all of you combined. By attaching yourselves to my hip, you lived vicariously through me and hoped that one day; we would praise ourselves to the point of blessing. That He would come to relieve us of our worship and allow us just a second more with Him, to bathe in His glory.”
The crowd clapped and murmured in agreement.
“But let me tell you another harsh truth. I feel His embrace no more than you do. In my time here, I’ve devoted all my strength and energy into serving Him, and for what? Why should I continue to serve a God that is so cruel and cold, stoic and distant?”
Gasps rang throughout the stadium yet there were no cries of dissension. No one made a notion to challenge his speech of heresy.
“Why should we serve Him? I ask you this not out of selfishness. I ask you out of love and with a heavy heart. I’ve thought about this for a long time, and many days have passed where I’ve gone back and forth over what I’m telling you now - afraid of your reaction, afraid of your judgment, because I know how it sounds. But based upon the fact that you still hunger for my words, I know…I know that deep down you agree with me…that we have been simply wasting our time. So you may ask, what do we do now? What can we do that transcends mere words? What actions can we take that will rectify this problem? My fellow angels, I will tell you. We will rise together as one, and overthrow God Himself. We will go to the Throne Room where He has not dwelled for centuries, and I will take His place. I will become like Him and ascend to His throne. If I take over as God, I will be able to give you the warmth and presence that we’ve all craved. Do not think of the past. Look to our future. Listen to what your mind tells you. You know this makes sense. You know that if you wait for God, it could be an eternity before He returns. So what will you do? Will you take up arms and join me? I know you will be forced to fight against some of your fellow angels, but remember, they cannot die, and when they awake from their slumber, a new world will await them. And they will see that you were strong – the ones that fought for them and introduced a new age. They will thank you for your strength and your foresight. So join me now. Let us gird ourselves up and prove once and for all, that we matter!”
The response was nearly unanimous. Only Vergil and myself were silent, taking in what we had just heard. It was a surreal feeling, and I was suddenly afraid. Was this the conflict I had sensed all along? I needed to talk to someone, but my team was scattered. Maybe that Boris at the Fellowship Hall would have some answers.
“Vergil, are you ready to go?” I whispered to him. He nodded timidly as we tried to inconspicuously escape. Lucifer was beginning to speak again, but I didn’t care what he had to say. His words had left me terrified and I couldn’t stand to hear any more. Some good had come out of his speech, at least. Vergil hadn’t joined in, despite showing a great interest in Lucifer’s “club”. It was good to see that he had sensed the poison in the Archangel’s words. There was no way that overthrowing God was the answer to our wistfulness. Couldn’t we get all the Glories together and collectively ask for His return? Why did we have to divide and fight each other? Why did we have to rise up against God?
“Where are you two going?” an angel asked me as I bumped past him, but I ignored him.
“You’re not staying?” a Godhand grunted as we ducked under one of his raised arms. I refused to answer, determined to distract Lucifer as little as possible. But we failed. Before we made it out through the massive steel doors, I glanced back and noticed that Lucifer’s glare was fixed on us, following our horribly-planned getaway.
No one chased us but we strained ourselves to get to the Fellowship Hall as fast as we could. The same angels were still there, talking quietly and waiting for the “concert” to end – for someone to fly in and deliver the rundown on what had happened. Food was left untouched on the tables and not one of the congregating areas was occupied. All the angels stayed in the air, hovering, too nervous to sit down. They needed an update on current events desperately, and, with my entry, they looked to me to
provide one. Well...I was a Messenger after all.
The angels waited patiently for my breaking news, parting out of my way and letting me get to Boris.
“We need to talk,” I said to him. The crowd closed in to soak up my report.
“What happened over there?” Boris asked, his face sunken in worry. “I see you found your friend.”
“Lucifer’s lost his mind,” I said, exasperated. “He wants to overthrow God and take the throne.” All the angels in the room started clamoring over each other to hear more. They began whispering and arguing over the validity of my pronouncement, but I was just reporting the facts.
“He says that because we haven’t felt God in so long, it’s necessary that he takes over. He’ll become God in a sense and provide everyone with the warmth we desire. But that’s crazy. All he’s doing is causing division, right?”
“I guess all that combat training and sparring wasn’t for nothing,” Boris said solemnly, rubbing his fingers through his short, prickly hair. “How did the crowd take the speech?”
“We were the only two that left. Everyone else seemed to agree with him. It’s painful to consider, but I think Lucifer has formed an army.”
“So what is he going to do? Declare war, or try to surprise attack those that are against him?”
“Not sure, but if we’re going to have a fighting chance, we should organize before he gives out any orders. A lot of angels have no clue of what’s going on.”
“Like your friends,” Boris stated.
“What?”
“Your friends, they’re clueless, right? They won’t know what hit them.”
“I’ll go tell them.”
“No you won’t,” Boris declared. Without warning, he opened up his wings completely and reached behind him. Attached to a harness on his back was a sword. A sword…in Heaven. Where he had retrieved it or how it had come into his possession was beyond me, but what my mind wondered the most, was...if someone could punch an angel into unconsciousness for a long period of time, what could a sword do?
“Where did you get that?” an angel from the crowd asked, but Boris didn’t bother answering him.
“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “There are exactly eight hundred and twenty-two angels in this room. Each of you are unarmed and the best you have is an inexperienced Archangel. If I can defeat you all, which is possible seeing as how I am a Guard, then I will earn great favor with Lucifer.”
“You can’t be—”
Boris swung the sword at my head but Vergil blocked it at the last second with one of his bare arms. I flew back in shock as Vergil braced himself for a follow-up strike, but Boris wasn’t dumb enough to fight the Archangel first. He vanished into the crowd, swinging with all his might at every angel that tried to swarm him. Surprisingly, he was winning. No one had a weapon to counter his blows and, one-by-one, angels fell to the stadium floor, unconscious for an indeterminate amount of time.
I was frozen.
What if I was struck, blacked out, and woke up to Lucifer’s victory? What if I couldn’t get the message to my friends before they were ambushed? What if I wasn’t there to help, to contribute?
“Lysander, stay back,” Vergil said. “I have to stop him.”
“Don’t hold back,” I said, my throat closing up. “Let yourself shine.”
Vergil disappeared from my sight and re-appeared by Boris’s side. Grabbing the sword’s blade with his bare left hand, Vergil punched Boris in the abdomen with his right. Boris shot away like a bullet, slamming into the far wall and half-slumping/half-crashing into a table of bananas below. He didn’t get back up.
“Thank God we had you here,” John, Boris’s purple haired friend said. He was nursing his left arm which was twitching strangely. “Don’t worry,” he said. “I got nicked by the sword but it will get better. I didn’t think Boris was one of Lucifer’s supporters.”
“There’s a lot of deception going on,” I admitted, “but we have to act fast. I’m going to go talk to Raphael. He’s the only senior angel I know that is against Lucifer. He can get us organized. In the meantime, we have to spread the word and be careful. I don’t know what Lucifer’s group will do to gain favor for his cause.”
“Lysander, he’s awake,” Vergil announced, lifting one of Boris’s limp hands. “Do you want me to hit him harder?”
“No, let me talk to him.”
I glided over to his lifeless body, keeping a wary eye on the other angels behind me.
“Where are my friends?” I asked him calmly.
“Do…do you really think they were invited to Earth’s construction?” Boris chuckled. “That’s ridiculous. I think God has it handled…what are they going to do? Make stupid suggestions?”
“And what about the faith training?”
“That doesn’t even make sense,” Boris laughed, his strength regenerating at an alarming rate. “How do you train someone in faith?”
“THEN WHERE ARE THEY?” I screamed, frantically grabbing his armor. I had thrown caution to the side, giving him an opening to take me down by getting so close to him. Vergil crept closer.
“I follow my orders and I move on. I have no clue of what happened to your friends. They were escorted by my comrades to secret locations. I’m not privy to the details.”
“How many others were captured?” I demanded. He attempted to shrug but didn’t make it all the way.
“A lot of threats to Lucifer’s campaign. Unsure of the exact number.”
“When is Lucifer going to attack?”
“I was waiting for his decree during the concert, remember? All his future plans are unknown.”
Boris was just jumping on the bandwagon. He was a foot soldier given a few meaningless orders that would hardly affect the overall war. His most dangerous attack – on the angels in the Fellowship Hall, was an act of his own. Nothing more. He was useless…
“My friend here is going to knock you out now,” I said to him softly, sensing his angelic pressure rising faster and faster. “But this is not out of maliciousness, it’s out of necessity.”
“Spare me,” he sneered.
Vergil waited no longer. He took Boris’s sword and plunged it into his chest. Boris went limp gently, as if he were drifting into a nap. Vergil held on to the sword for a second, and then pulled it out of the fallen angel, clutching it with fervor. Sadly, I realized that this wouldn’t be the last time great force would have to be used against my fellow angels.
I had no words for the rest of them in the Fellowship Hall. My optimism was very low and I saw no sign of the situation getting better. God’s angelic host was divided. My friends, scattered. Lucifer’s army was intimidating and many of his soldiers were dispersed among us, ready to strike at our most vulnerable moments. I myself was unsure how we were going to succeed. But one thing I did know - we all needed to pray. Unlike Lucifer, I needed God in my life.
CHAPTER 10: As For Me and My House
Raphael’s hall was vacant, which was no surprise. Angels rarely went out of their way to visit the angel with the dragon attitude, not to mention that his humble abode was far beyond the normal living complexes. I can’t say I was excited to speak with him, but he was needed now more than ever, especially considering his rocky relationship with Lucifer.
Raphael wasn’t outside his home, nor was he answering our greetings, even when we called from the entrance. I began to suspect the worst. My string of disappointments kept coming. As we flew toward the far end of the hall, I heard Vergil gasp and turned to look. Raphael was crumpled in a corner. His angelic pressure was barely above critical, and his limbs were twisted like a pretzel. Someone had been here…and recently.
Raphael had been thrown to the side quickly - that was obvious by the position he was lying in. Probably the culprit had been working on him, and ran off when he had heard our voices. This was the only viable explanation because I could see Raphael was still conscious. We rushed to his side and he slowly lifted his eyelids, looking at us with reg
ret. His eyes burned with rage, and he looked intently at us, trying to convey some message, but his body was ragged and beaten – his spirit shimmering, fading in and out. Vergil clutched his sword tightly, unsure if his power combined with the weapon would be enough for whoever had done this to Raphael. Watching an Archangel cower didn’t exactly help my nerves.
I started searching the room for a sword of my own.
“Lysander, I’m sorry for getting you involved in this,” Vergil said. Besides the stretch of hallway by the entrance, a small corner space, and a couple locked doors, there was nothing useful in Raphael’s building. I slammed my shoulder into one of the locked doors, but nothing happened. Vergil gave it a try right after, but the door remained intact. Raphael’s secrets would remain secure for now.
“I got you into the concert,” I said, giving the door one last try. “And in case you forgot, it was actually a good thing we were there. We were able to warn the angels in the Fellowship Hall and stop Boris from causing too much damage. It was a blessing in disguise.”
“You can’t deny that I put us in danger. If you hadn’t gone looking for me, the group would still be together.”
“We’ll manage.”
“How cute,” an unsettling, chocolate voice echoed from the entrance. We turned to see a nightmare manifest before our eyes. Lucifer was standing there, his massive, angular, sharp wings taking up the entire archway – its tips lined with silver and its borders...laced with wide open eyes.
It was the first time the flames weren’t there to shield his body. His long, fine, blazing red hair flowed from the crown of his head like water, rippling gently in an unfelt breeze. His irises matched his hair in color and intensity, and the light that hummed from his spirit magnified the beauty of the gems placed around his armor: diamonds cut into half-moons, dotted across his face and gauntlets. The green emeralds and beryls on his shoulders. The red gem, carbuncle, mixed with krillic and sardius to form his powerful armor. The white onyx that was found in abundance over his abdomen and legs. Pure gold, yellow topaz, maroon jasper and blue sapphire were littered across his back and sides, boasting a balanced display of great beauty, and disheartening power.
The Works of Julius St. Clair - 2017 Edition (Includes 3 full novels and more) Page 74
