ARCHANGELS FURY
Page 13
“Listen,” Metatron cut in, “Everyone needs to go. God chose you people to live on!”
Jim spoke. “Well, God made me the way I am and there is not a fucking chance in hell I am going to leave my friends alone when they’re in trouble, especially when they risked their necks for me. Uriel is dead; he saved my life twice. No, I’m staying!”
At that moment, Michael flew in and landed, with Amitiel, Gabriel and Luke arriving shortly after.
“Mel, listen to me,” Jim continued. “Get the kids and go! I love you very much but you can’t be here.”
The children, comprehending the situation, tried to pull their father with them as Raphael knelt down and spread his wings wide to accommodate them. A few metres away from Raphael, Metatron did the same. “Jim, you all need to go,” he said. “You don’t need to be here!”
“I’ve already given you my answer,” Jim replied.
Michael interrupted then. “Even in physical form I cannot order you men to do anything, you will always have free will, but I strongly suggest you leave!”
“Would you leave us?” Dillon asked.
Michael looked at Dillon in silence. His facial expressions conveyed his surprise that a being so inferior was able to stump him. He eventually answered, “No, I wouldn’t.”
“Lock and load,” said Dillon, one determined marine heading to the gun pits.
With this, Metatron knew they wouldn’t go, so he stood and retracted his wings.
Melinda was still protesting when Gabriel grabbed her and said, “Listen, the demons are flying here right now at six times the speed of sound and they hate you. They hate you with an intensity you couldn’t even imagine. If you don’t leave RIGHT NOW, you will endanger your kids and us.”
Melinda wiped her eyes, sniffled and reluctantly pulled the children towards Raphael. As she was leaving, Jim gave her one last kiss. “Don’t worry, we’ll be fine! Look at the guns on this guy,” he said as he reached across and jokingly squeezed Michael’s massive bicep.
Michael just looked at him, bewildered, and Melinda giggled briefly between her sobs before she and her kids were enclosed in Raphael’s wings. Only her head and eyes were visible to Jim and they stared at each other with love in their eyes as they started to disappear.
Soon after, Raphael, Melinda and the kids materialised at their house in the city. Raphael picked them up and placed them on the lounge. He immediately took a few steps back, wrapped his wings back around himself and disappeared before Melinda could question him.
END GAME
Back at Jim’s property, the men were running around with urgency in preparation for the onslaught they felt drawing nearer. They had, weeks earlier, already dug four gun pits about 10 metres apart in a single line. The pits were 50 metres in front of the house and there were no nearby walls or ceilings to jump off and virtually nothing the demons could hide behind.
They were piling every weapon and round of ammunition they could find into each pit when Raphael suddenly reappeared and fell to the ground in an effort to recover. They kept working, giving him time to recuperate. They divided up the ammunition as close to equally as they could; even the archs were helping them. They each had hundreds of rounds of ammunition, plenty of water and a will to survive that, in their minds, was the most important weapon.
Fighting alongside the archs gave the men a sense of pride they had never had before. There was no doubt they were on the right side and this gave them the will to fight as hard as was humanly possible.
The archs had no intention of shooting from a gun pit as their wings could withstand the blast of a tank anyway. It was the close-quarter hand-to-hand fighting that would bring them unstuck, simply because of the numbers they were facing. The six of them could take on 50 demons but more than 400 were approaching.
After they could prepare no more it was a matter of waiting. They nervously toyed with their weapons and yelled advice to each other.
Michael walked past each pit and threw each man a crucifix. “Have faith in it, if they get too close.”
Though they didn’t question it, the men thought to themselves, “What is this going to be able to do?” They looked into the distance; the heat had started to die down as it was late afternoon. Still, they took swig after swig from their water bottles as the nervousness was doing as much to dehydrate them as the central Queensland heat.
Roughly half an hour before the sun was to go down, the men and the archangels began to question whether the demons were coming. Their doubts were soon allayed when they looked out to the distant sky and saw several hundred demons flying in a wavy formation. Their erratic movements were synchronised as if by instinct.
“Hold your fire, they’re out of range,” Jim yelled. But a nervous Jack let off five rounds anyway.
He stopped shooting when he realised the others weren’t and waited patiently. Within a few seconds however the noise of hundreds of rounds was landing all around the men’s pits and they pulled their heads down. The archangels wrapped their wings around themselves. The sound of several rounds cracking into their wings was distracting to Jim but he tried to focus ahead instead of behind him, where the archangels were standing.
The demons were now only about 300 metres from their position and they swarmed to the ground and began walking in a massive line towards them. This was the only invitation Jim, Dillon, Bondy and Jack needed and they unleashed a wall of metal straight at the advancing demons. The sound of the four men’s M4s going off in succession was like ripping carpet. On fully automatic fire, the weapons could fire 10 rounds a second and the men were changing magazine after magazine. The majority of the demons managed to wrap one wing around themselves but at least 30 or 40 didn’t and they fell from hits sustained from the flurry of gunfire.
Bondy felt a rush of adrenalin and cried out, “YEAH, YEAH, YOU LIKE THAT, BITCHES?” as he emptied another magazine.
The Antichrist yelled the order, “HALT,” and instantly the demons stopped. The demons that hadn’t already wrapped their wings around themselves did so and stood fast.
The men continued shooting while the archangels stood still behind them with a wing wrapped around their front. Eventually the sounds of fully automatic gunfire slowed to a halt as they realised they were not inflicting casualties any more. Jim yelled, “HOLD YOUR FIRE,” as Bondy looked down, realising he had only one magazine left in his M4. He would have to resort to his sidearm and the old bolt-action rifles after that.
The demons were about 200 metres from them. They started moving slowly towards the gun pits with their wings wrapped around themselves as protection. The men started shooting again and were able to get a few hits with well-aimed shots above and below the demons’ wings.
The casualties they were inflicting were not enough to stop the demons advancing, so with a single flap of their wings the six remaining archangels jumped from their position behind the men’s gun pits to more than 100 metres in front of them. Even after everything Jim had seen, the spectacle of six archangels leaping 20 metres over his head and 100 metres in front of him was still impressive. In mid air they drew their swords from their scabbards. After landing they ran straight at the demons. They fought ferociously and demon after demon fell. The demons were being killed one after the other because they had to unwrap their wings to fight. Not only were they getting their butts kicked because of the archangels’ superior fighting ability, the men now had viable targets to shoot.
Amid all the sword swinging and gun slinging, Gabriel faced off against the Antichrist. They fought with unbelievable speed and power but Gabriel was battling more than one enemy. For every kick and punch he landed on the Antichrist he would have to contend with another demon hitting him from another direction. The Antichrist could see he was losing many of his minions but continued to fight hard.
As Gabriel finally got in close to the Antichrist he parried one of his sword swipes. He then punched the Antichrist in the face and over-hooked the Antichrist’s sword arm, effect
ively trapping it. With the Antichrist’s sword arm immobilised under Gabriel’s arm, Gabriel pointed his own sword straight at the Antichrist and said, “Enjoy your eternity in hell!”
Gabriel was a millisecond away from plunging his sword through his evil foe’s chest when the arch demon Da-en attacked him from behind, punching him in the side of head.
Gabriel instantly regained his composure, twirled his sword around in a circular motion and took up an attack stance.
As Da-en swung his sword at Gabriel’s midsection, Gabriel leapt backwards and lunged forward with a strike straight at Da-en, hitting him in the eye. In the same fluid motion he aimed a second strike straight at his neck, beheading the demon. Gabriel’s preoccupation gave the Antichrist the few seconds he needed against the mighty archangel.
While Gabriel turned to finish what he started, the Antichrist landed a massive blow on him. The force of the kick knocked Gabriel through the air, all the way back to the gun pits. Jim looked at the unconscious Gabriel lying on the ground in front of him. He immediately stopped firing, grabbed Gabriel’s wings and tried to drag him to safety in the gun pit. The angel weighed more than 300 kilograms, making Jim’s task extremely hard. Jim had to place both of his feet onto the front wall of the gun pit and use his entire body to pull him in. When he got him in, the unconscious Gabriel fell to the bottom of the four-foot-deep pit and Jim picked up his weapon and continued firing.
The fighting between the archangels and the demons was intense. The demons were trying to hit the angels from every direction but the archangels were constantly on the move. Occasionally, when the opportunity arose, they fought back to back. This gave the men in their gun pits more opportunities to pick off demons with well-aimed shots; however, they were running dangerously low on ammunition. The demons would look at the men firing on them from a distance. The men were firing only at selective targets now. The desire of the demons to use their telekinetic power on them was frustrating. The telekinetic power of the demons was useless in the presence of the archangels. As the archangels fought the demons, every now and then one would drop in front of them from a bullet wound. Before long the Antichrist stood back from the swashbuckling hand-to-hand fighting and decided he was going to make another move on the humans, who were about 200 metres away.
As the Antichrist motioned for the demons to advance, those who were not directly engaged in fighting with the archangels started moving forward with caution. Michael saw what was going on and killed one more demon with his sword before disengaging and taking a giant leap into the air. Sammael and the Antichrist were walking slowly side by side behind their advancing demons when Michael landed in front of them.
Instantly, they attacked. Sammael was trying to land a blow on Michael from behind while Antichrist kept him busy to the front. It didn’t matter; Michael was getting the better of both of them. It was as if he had eyes in the back of his head. His sword was clashing with theirs both in front and behind until eventually he landed a devastating blow. As Michael blocked a swing from the Antichrist with his sword, he simultaneously punched him in the face with his spare fist while back kicking Sammael in the chest. The force of these blows sent both the Antichrist and Sammael flying and they landed 10 metres away. The Antichrist shook his head and lay on his back; he looked up at Michael in fear, knowing he had no chance of defeating him one on one. Sammael rolled around on the ground in a ball, clutching his injured ribs. As Michael locked eyes with the Antichrist, he didn’t look behind him to where Sammael was rolling around; he simply took a few steps back until he was standing on top of Sammael. As he placed his foot on Sammael’s throat he looked at the Antichrist and said, “Ask your dad if this looks familiar.”
The Antichrist, still on his back, then looked to the side. Above him, Michael did the same and they noticed that the demons were getting close to the men. The Antichrist smiled and Michael’s protectiveness of the humans overrode his desire for vengeance on Sammael and the Antichrist.
He didn’t think for long. Using Sammael’s neck as a launching pad, he took another massive leap into the air towards the men in their pits. Sammael then alternated between grasping his ribs and grasping his neck. Nevertheless, he struggled to his feet, still in pain.
Seeing that Michael had moved, the other archangels did the same, leaping over the top of the advancing demons’ heads. They landed in succession about five metres behind the pits and began to move forward to protect the men. By now Gabriel had regained consciousness and he joined the other angels, taking up a defensive pose. It was not looking good for the archs, Jim and the other three men. The demons were now slightly more than 100 metres away and the gunfire had stopped. Jim, Jack and Dillon looked at their weapons in despair, as they had no ammunition left.
Bondy had resorted to firing one of Jim’s old bolt-action rifles. He knew he had only one round left so he waited for the smallest of openings to use it wisely. As Bondy took out his last target with a head shot, he dropped his weapon and leaned on the gun pit’s front wall. He knew he and the rest of them were now in serious trouble. He had crouched down in the pit, fully expecting a horrible death, when he noticed the crucifix Michael had given him earlier. He rolled his eyes to the side and thought, “Why not?”
Bondy began to recite the Lord’s Prayer. He remembered this from when he was a child but had paid it less than lip service since. As he started saying this prayer he decided he was not going to die cowering at the bottom of his gun pit so he stood to face his enemy with honour. He was praying out loud now and the other men could hear him from their gun pits. They looked at each other and decided to join in. By now he was a fair bit of the way through the Lord’s Prayer and the sound of the four men yelling, “THY KINGDOM COME, THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN,” infuriated the demons. The Antichrist and Sammael had recovered from their blows and the Antichrist could see that the men were out of ammunition.
He screamed out, “KILL THEM ALL!” and the demons unwrapped their wings and broke into a run. As the archs prepared to resume hand-to-hand fighting, the men continued with their prayer out loud. An extended line of 250 to 300 demons, all about 80 metres away, was coming straight at them. The demons’ pace picked up as they grew more and more excited, knowing the archs didn’t have the numbers to successfully fight them and protect the men. The men’s loud and defiant praying pissed the demons off something awful. The demons were now about 50 metres away and the men were getting terrified but they stubbornly persisted with their loud prayer.
When the demons got to about 30 metres from the men and the archs, the excitement about the kill that was to come was quickly replaced by sheer terror. Almost immediately the demons changed from a full-pace sprint to a sliding halt. They ran into each other and fell over. Some hit the ground and desperately tried to about-turn and crawl away from the men’s positions. The demons that were still on their feet tried to run in the opposite direction but they could barely walk. It looked to the men and the archs as if some invisible force was weighing them down. All of the demons, including the Antichrist, were crawling ever so slowly away from the men and the archs.
The men were dumbfounded. They stopped their prayer and looked behind them to see what had terrified the demons so. Roughly 20 metres behind their position a man was walking slowly towards them. He wore a brilliant white robe and sandals. The archangels turned around and immediately bowed down to this man as he walked past them and the men in their gun pits.
It was none other than Jesus Christ. As he walked past Jim’s pit, Jim noticed he left footprints in the dust, leaving no doubt he was there in physical form.
The demons struggled to get away. They tried to fly but couldn’t. They crawled and climbed over each other in desperate retreat when all of a sudden Jesus stopped moving towards them.
He looked up to the sky for a few seconds, paused, closed his eyes and nodded his head in agreement. Then with a simple wave of his hand all the demons and the Antichrist’s eyes began to glow red. T
hey struggled on for a few more seconds when all of a sudden, BANG, every single one exploded. The demonic blood and limbs flew through the air in every direction. Even though the men were startled, the relief quickly took away the shock. The men then realised that although the power of the demons was maybe hundreds of times greater than any human, the power of the son of God was infinite.
Jesus then turned around and looked at the archs. He raised his head towards the sky as a subtle order for the archangels. He then looked upon all the men with a pure and unconditional love that could not have been detected if it were coming from a normal human. Then, without saying a word, he disappeared.
The archangels then walked up to the men, who climbed out of their gun pits. They knew the angels were leaving. Michael said, “Remember this story but don’t let it define you.”