by Donovan Neal
"Hang on!" screamed Michael. Shouting above the roar. Slowly Enoch's grip loosened and Michael knew that he would lose him to be crushed within the rotating monsters pivoting discs. He summoned the sword of Ophanim from its sheath, and the sword roared to life, and floated in the air awaiting mental command from Michael.
Immediately the Ophanim backed away and it spoke from each four faces.
"Ophanim!" said the eagle face.
"Ophanim!" roared the face of the man.
"Ophanim!" yelled the bear face.
"Ophanim!" screamed the ox face.
Michael assented the sword to split and it did, and razors for teeth bared themselves and eyes within the blade twirled and the Sword of Ophanim was alive and formed a rotating wheel between the duo and the creature.
"It is Ophanim?" asked the eagle.
"It does not scream like Ophanim," said the man.
"It has no wheel it must be born of Kilnstone," said the bear.
"This one is neither angel nor Ophanim," said the ox.
"Yet the minister of flame handles Ophanim!"
"How is the thing done?"
"Take the flesh thing. It will know."
"Yes we will make it tell us."
"Take it."
"Yes, take it."
The creature screamed and Enoch was torn from Michael's grasp, and Michael thinking Enoch would be killed released the sword to attack, and the sword flew towards the Ophanim's wheels and the sword locked and the wheels stopped and when they did the faces fell to the ground. Instantly Enoch, and Michael and all their gear dropped to the cavern floor.
The Ophanim screamed and when it did the wheels resumed their rotation, and the sword flung backwards and Michael dodged the blade as it whizzed past barely missing him.
"Michael!" Enoch screamed.
Michael watched as Enoch was ripped from the cavern, and held aloft by the creature. Quickly the Ophanim backed out of the cave, and lifted into the air. Michael ran to the edge and lightning smashed above him temporarily blinding him and sending rocks and boulders tumbling down the sides of the mountain. Yet even in the whiteness the Ophanim could be seen dodging bolt after bolt and flying upwards. Michael summoned his sword to his waiting palm, looked at the streaks that raced across the sky and jumped from the cliff to fly after his captive friend.
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Chronos flew across the northern hemisphere of the planet and landed at the northern pole. He surveyed the surroundings and wind and bitter cold danced about his frame. He was an angel, and his kind could not be phased by the physical realm unless they shifted out of their celestial form. The wind roared, howling at nothing but providing entertainment to the listening ears of Chronos. Waters and shifting sheets of ice floated past him. Iblis had asked to meet him in the quiet of where the Earth shifted. Its axis pointed towards the mountain of God. The only place on Earth where a member of the fallen might come closest to being aligned with home.
"Thank you for meeting me Chronos," said Iblis as he materialized through a sheet of ice.
"You said you have information?" Chronos replied.
"Yes there are a tenth of the fallen who work against the purpose of Lucifer. A small cell who when able provide means to weaken the Usurper."
"We do not have much time; tell me quickly about thy master's plans."
Iblis frowned. "I know I stand condemned for my crimes. I deserve the judgment given me. El be praised. I submit to the will of the Almighty even in this thing. Perchance he might find mercy to grant entry back into the realm immortal. For if, Lucifer knew of our betrayal. He would surely have our heads."
Chronos replied, "The information Iblis, before we are discovered!"
"Iblis reached into his pouch and pulled from it a scroll, and handed it to Chronos who opened it.
"What is a 'Hellforge'?"
It is a place where abominable weapons are made to fight against the Host. It is rumored that within the Forge itself, even ones kiln stone can be changed to tap powers latent within. Lucifer would see Heaven fall and he creates within the bowels of the creature a place where even angels dare not assault. For who would brave Hell's maw to destroy such a place? Within he crafts, and commits sorceries that he might bring El low."
Chronos paced as he read the scroll further, his brow wrinkled as he continued to pour over the parchment. "Who is this Moses ye are targeted to destroy?"
Iblis hunched his shoulders and quickly looked to his left and to his right. "The thing is not known to me. What is known is that the Grigori who now stands at Lucifer's side has the gift of foresight. He has told the master about this Hebrew and when Lucifer learned that he was to be a prophet to a nation of God. He was enraged and demanded that he be found, and that a daemon inhabit the human. Even now he searches for the bloodline of the child."
"You have done well Iblis. Now go before you are discovered and I will tell thy prince the service you have provided Heaven today."
Iblis ghosted and was gone blending seamlessly into the polar winds that drifted snow across the icy waters.
Chronos looked to the sky, the clocks within him moved, and he was gone in the twinkling of an eye. Unbeknownst to him an angel watched him rise in the distance, and took out a lens and held it to his eye and he saw the misty trail that showed the direction of Iblis, now traveling to the south side of the planet. He would track this traitor and in due season bring his head to his master Lucifer.
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Higher Michael flew into the voltage—latticed sky. Thunder crashed around him and ahead he saw Enoch struggling against the Ophanim held captive in its grip. Flashes and crackles of white darted and each spark of lightning illuminated nothing but grey skies and even more branches of lightning further ahead. Michael could not catch the creature, but his sword could. Michael pointed to the creature and the sword obeyed. Lightning struck it, and it glowed for a moment as if absorbing its power and the bolt of electricity bounced off the blade and arced away. Michael dodged and weaved doing all he could to not be struck. He motioned again and the sword split and hurtled towards the Ophanim. Seven blades bathed in blue flames bolted across the skies and thrusted into the gyrating wheels of the creature. The rotating circles cracked and the sound of glass shattering echoed across the sky and a wave of light exploded into Michael's eyes. The Ophanim roared in pain and plummeted, and with its fall, it released Enoch and he fell to the earth.
Michael dashed between bolts and recalled the swords to heel, and he dived towards Enoch who plunged unconscious through the sky. A flash erupted and Michael looked to his rear and several Ophanim chased him. Lunging forward he hurtled to reach Enoch, caught him and flew up the side of the mountain with his companion in his arms. Lightning pelted the mount and Michael weaved through bolts of heated plasma, shutting his inner ears so as not to be deafened by the roars of thunder.
And then all went quiet and time was still.
One second.
Three Ophanim were behind him, closing fast, and above him was a lattice of electricity that seemed impossible to pass, and the sky was lit with arcs and branches of voltage.
Two seconds.
He commanded his sword to split and it rotated as a shield before him.
Three seconds, another flash, the sword whirled in spinning fury as he shot to the roof of the known sky.
Impact.
The sword severed what looked like an electric net, the sky lit at once and arcs of lighting suddenly stopped as both the sword and Michael punched through the charged barrier. Ripples of power oscillated through the sky and suddenly there was no lightning, no thunder, and no chasing Ophanim. Michael could see the top of the mountain and jutting out from its top a great aerie.
Scores of Ophanim flew across the skies, and they flew as darts and all around them their wheels moved and changed colors. When they rotated, the wheels disappeared and sparks flew from them as a trail and the creatures turned into prismatic light and shot across all Heaven
, and Michael beheld the secret of this realm of Heaven, and stared in wonderment and awe. For, thousands upon thousands of ladders ascended and descended to the clouds and escaped the roof of Heaven, and the marching realization opened Michael's eyes to the truth that none but God and Lucifer knew.
The Ophanim were the ladders.
Chapter Four
Underground
Michael flew to the aerie and as he did, Ophanim stopped their buzzing and the gyration of wheels and all turned their red eyes towards him. Michael landed on the soft ground and gently placed Enoch on the ground. Quickly dozens, then hundreds of Ophanim descended to surround him, and their rotating wheels were as the buzzing sound of locusts adrift on the wind. Michael slowly reached into his pouch to withdraw the glass jar, and the shimmering parchment scroll that was sealed within.
"He is not Ophanim," spoke one.
"He is not the Chief Prince," said another.
"No, he is not."
"Kilnborn has trespassed upon the Holy Mount!" an Ophanim screamed.
"Rewind the Kilnborn!"
"A fleshling, too...destroy the fleshling."
"Rewind them both," said one.
Michael watched as the group of Ophanim encircled him, as jackals assessing prey. He pulled the glass jar from his pouch and lifted it above his head.
"Rewind them!" The chant came. First, it came from one, then from dozens until all repeated the refrain. "Rewind them!"
Dust and rocks lifted from the ground and light flashed in wispy static sparks. "Rewind them!" Prismatic light appeared all about Michael and Enoch, and he knew that he was being Laddered. Light surrounded him and the air heated and the colors of the rainbow sprinkled themselves between flashes of red, greens, and blues, and the roar of a Ladder pounded in his ears, and Michael sensed that there were but moments before Enoch and he would be removed from the Aerie.
"Argoth this had better work." He muttered and he took the hourglass and smashed it in the ground.
A funnel cloud appeared from beneath them, and when the parchment hit the ground it lit into flame. A great pyre erupted and turned into a pillar of fire, and it snuffed out the prismatic light of the Ladder into nothing, and it roared as high as the eye could see. Searing heat made all to stand back, and Michael for a moment was inside the eye of two great storms, and the Ladder dissipated and Enoch and he stood surrounded in spiraling embers of fire, and from the pillar a voice bellowed from the flames.
"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end."
Immediately all motion stopped and the Ophanim's wheels stopped their gyration and they halted from moving and the eyes of the creatures turned from red to blue, and looked upon the pillar of fire. None spoke, and there was silence round about. Michael kneeled down, for he recognized the voice of God from the fire.
El's voice bellowed like thunder for all to hear, "The human stands as candlestick, and witness to this minister of flame. Eladrin shall judge this one, if he is worthy to be Chief Prince. For I am the Lord thy God."
Immediately the pillar of fire sizzled to nothing. Michael looked about him, and the Ophanim was still bowed, and he saw that Enoch was awake. Slowly all the Ophanim turned and just stared at them.
"I take it this is the place?" Enoch questioned.
Michael nodded and they watched as the Ophanim resumed gyrating, and then lifted into the skies. The duo heard a sound from their rear, and when they turned to look. They saw a figure emerge from the darkness of the aerie. It stood 200 meters high, and its shadow enveloped them, and the thing was a giant wheel within wheels. Gyroscopes rotated within and without and gears and levers moved within it. Moreover, it floated with no wings, but all about it moved discs, and Michael was awed.
"Wow," Enoch said, his mouth gaping in abject wonderment to the sight they both beheld.
Michael then turned to the giant Ophanim and said, "Who art thou?"
Formed from the flakes of God's omnipresence, the creature turned to face Michael. He moved in a circular fashion and it had a multitude of faces that changed as he moved, and it spoke with the sound of the voice of rushing water.
"We are the King of the Ophanim. We are Eladrin and we swim in the sea of eternity and fly in the skies of the infinite. We are time in the flesh, the expanse of dimension—the wheel within the wheel."
Michael was overwhelmed, for he saw all around him the Ophanim carried not just stars, but whole galaxies were propelled by their movements. Michael, looking out from the roof of Heaven, and saw ladders shoot across constellations, and land in the Ophanim's nest. And it was then that Michael realized that when the Ophanim heard the command of El, it was they who Laddered to bridge time and space. For the Ladders where not empty chutes and slides, but sentient creatures that did the will of God, and moved as commanded. The second heaven was latticed with their kind as they shot back and forth from one place to the other.
And Eladrin King of the Ophanim, orchestrated it all. For he turned and whole seasons changed. When his face turned to the right, Michael saw the passage of time in the heavenlies and galaxies birthed and die. As Eladrin moved the Ophanim, El Himself moved all: a whole race of Elohim who moved the universe at the command of God. Michael once more learned anew that El merely showed a portion of himself to them. For the Ophanim were as the shoes of El, and they moved backward and forward, and side to side, and all of Creation was turned as they moved, and El turned them. Star system after countless star system was bridged, and the Ophanim heard the call of angles as if they were notes of music, and whenever they heard a summons, they fell from their perch on the mountain of God. Moreover, when they fell they turned in whirling tornadic winds of prismatic color and raced across the circle of Heaven to scoop up angels and transport them wherever they were bidden. Michael was astonished that of all in Heaven, only he among all angelic kind knew that though his kind moved stars, the Ophanim moved the galaxies.
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Now the Lord had raised up Abraham, and gave him a heritage, and promised him a land, but because there was a famine in the land, Jacob had commanded that they settle at the order of Joseph, Jacobs’s son in the land of Egypt.
Now these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls, for Joseph was in Egypt already. And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation. And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them.
Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. And Lucifer moved over him to tempt him to bring burden to the people of God, and provoked him to cull the line of God in the earth, and made Pharaoh to speak unto his people, "Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we. Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land.” Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh the treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses.
But the Lord protected the people even in bondage, and the more the Egyptians afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel. And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour, and made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.
And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah. And he said, "When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him, but if it be a daughter, then she shall live." But the midwiv
es feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive. And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them, "Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men children alive?" And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, "Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women, for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them."
Therefore, God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty. And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that He made them houses. And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, “Every son that is born, ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.”
Soldiers on command of Pharaoh went all through the land of Goshen, and at the command of Pharaoh pulled from the arms of mothers, and barred the obstruction of fathers to execute their lord’s will. And throughout the land the cries of children could be heard and Lucifer was pleased, for the blood of Shiloh he would see spilled in the earth.
And there was within the land of Goshen a man by name of Amram and his wife Jochebed, and the couple would not submit to the will of Pharaoh.
So Moses' mother hid her child and placed him along the river Nile away from the eyes of the Pharaoh’s soldiers, watched over by his older sister as he drifted. After a time, he was pulled from the river by the daughter of Pharaoh. And Pharaoh's daughter took pity upon the child and raised it as her own, and named the child Moses. And the child of Hebrew slaves grew to not know his people and was brought up in the house of Pharaoh as a prince of Egypt.
And Argoth beheld these things and knew, that the vision Michael had shown him was slowly coming to pass.
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