In Rebellion (Archangel Jarahmael and the War to Conquer Heaven, Book II)

by John J Higgins

  “What about the Almighty, won't He oppose what you are doing?” asked Jarahmael.

  “I doubt He will interfere at all,” said Luciferael. “He has seemed quite content to put His attention on these small issues such as the Earth creatures at the expense of paying attention to us Angels up here in the Heavens. And He promised to destroy the Humans if they disobeyed Him, yet He has not.”

  Noticing the trumpet weapon in Jarahmael's hands, Luciferael asked suspiciously, “How did you know to arm yourself or to come here? I thought all of this was a closely held secret.”

  “I must confess, my lord Luciferael, that I could not help but notice the shortage of Cherubim in their Sixth Heaven,” Jarahmael responded. “Looking about the Sixth Heaven for the rest of them, I found that the arms warehouses seemed to have lost a lot of weaponry. Finally, when I asked what had happened to the weapons, I was told by the Cherubim left in charge that you had come and taken a third of the weaponry recently. So I put two and two together and figured that it must be you that was arming our Angels. What do you intend to do next, my lord Luciferael?” Jarahmael asked.

  “I have split my army of rebel Angels. One half will go off to conquer the lower Heavens and then kill off the Humans and Simians on Earth, while the other half of us will head into the Heavens and conquer all the upper Heavens. Once I am firmly in place with the Heavens conquered, there will be nothing that can stop me from becoming the next Almighty. And you, my dear Jarahmael, will be along with me and perhaps earn a position of authority under my reign in Heaven. You can have your pick of assignments. Lord Jarahmael, would you like to cleanse out the Earth or cleanse out the Heavens?” Luciferael stated, proud of his battle plan.

  Jarahmael stood there and thought for a second. Despite Luciferael’s statement that he would not harm Lillith, Jarahmael imagined these rebel Angels finding Lillith in his mansion and destroying her. She would be safe for a while through the way he prepared the invisible rooms. He also had a quick vision of the Almighty's powerful Books in the Throne Room in Heaven. Someone had to keep them out of Luciferael's hands. He would have to find a way to do that. But he also knew that Luciferael would be hindered in the Sixth Heaven by the Cherubim. The lower Heavens, however, did not have any real defenses, weapons, or even awareness that a rebellion had begun. As much as he wanted to go protect Lillith in the upper Heavens, he knew he would have to try to sabotage Luciferael’s attacks heading towards the lower Heavens.

  "As much as I would like to stay with you, my lord Luciferael, I am one of the more powerful Archangels and should probably go with the other part of your army. That way I can strengthen them. I assume you will be cleansing out the Heavens?"

  "Yes, Jarahmael. That is so noble and unselfish of you to offer.”

  “Thank you, my lord,” Jarahmael said to him.

  Luciferael continued, “The Cherubim in the Sixth Heaven will most likely put up the toughest fight. That's the reason I will be going upwards with lord Sammuael and his legions. The other part of the army under lord Beelzebael should not have as much trouble even though there are more loyal Angels in number to oppose them. The Earth creatures will be destroyed quickly, and the Guardian Angels are not as strong as the higher Order Angels. Our attack will be a surprise, quick and efficient because most of the Angels in the lower Heavens are working on the pyramids on the Earth and are not even in the Heavens at the moment. I anticipate that you as part of the army will be able to run through the lower Heavens and block those Angels presently on the Earth from regaining their footing and returning to the Heavens. They will be stuck on the Earth, outcasts from their own Heavens, until they capitulate to me and agree to worship me as the new Almighty.”

  To further ingratiate himself to Luciferael, Jarahmael added, “It will not be difficult for the rest of the Heavens to worship you, my lord Luciferael, as we have been doing that for a long time when the Almighty wasn't present.”

  "Good point!" said Luciferael, his body slowly swelling up with the pride for which he was becoming famous.

  “And what about the Humans and the Simians?” Jarahmael asked.

  “They need to be destroyed in any event. I will assign you to the task as you seem to know the most about them,” Luciferael commanded.

  “Thank you, my lord Luciferael, for the assignment,” Jarahmael answered, bowing before him.

  Jarahmael raised himself up and looked off into the distance as he saw Beelzebael leading his legions from the Fifth Heaven headed towards the Fourth Heaven, then said to Luciferael, "Let me go now and catch up with the lord Beelzebael, he is on the move.”

  "As you wish Jarahmael, it's just nice to have you with me. All the Archangels should join together under me. Ariel has proven to be untrustworthy, so he is now restrained by some of my best Cherubim guards. He will remain like that until this war is over. Good luck in your assault!" Luciferael said, turning himself around and with the swoop of his wings began to fly towards Sammuael’s legions' staging area.

  Jarahmael took a few steps in the direction of Beelzebael's legions and took flight. A good part of Beelzebael's legions had already descended into the next Heaven. Jarahmael intended to just feign flying to the departing legions and then take off in another direction. Unfortunately, Jarahmael never had a chance to do so, because as soon as he was preparing to take the turn, Suriel flew alongside him.

  "Heading to lord Beelzebael’s legions, Jarahmael?" Suriel asked while watching Jarahmael closely.

  "Yes, Suriel, how did you know?" Jarahmael responded calmly.

  "I saw you talking with Luciferael and you weren't taken away by the Cherubim guards. That meant you had joined us! Isn't that right, lord Jarahmael?" Suriel asked with a slight touch of sarcasm in his voice.

  "Of course I joined! How could I pass up the opportunity to help a true Angelic cause and assist the lord Luciferael at the same time?" Jarahmael answered, being very careful not to insert any sarcasm into his voice. “We had better hurry and catch up!” Jarahmael said as he sped up his flying to join Beelzebael’s legion, leaving Suriel following behind.

  Jarahmael did not want to give his plan away, and had to be very careful with what he said and did. Deep inside he desperately wanted to go assist Lillith and protect those Books. But for now he had a guard and there was no other place to go. Lillith and the Almighty's Books would have to wait.

  Chapter 10

  RAZIEL REPORTS

  Michael and Cerebriel observed Raziel speak with Jarahmael mid-air and then watched as Jarahmael flew off into the Heavens in a hurry. Raziel flew over to the two of them and landed by the quarry. Michael and Cerebriel looked at Raziel, perplexed that Jarahmael would have flown off and just left them. Did he expect them to continue working on the pyramids and to find Adam and Eve by themselves? It was not like Jarahmael to abandon an assignment.

  Raziel quickly explained to Michael and Cerebriel the strange happenings in the Fifth Heaven. He told them that he believed that the army of Angels was assembling to destroy the Humans just like the dinosaurs had been destroyed before. And that Jarahmael had decided to return immediately to the Seventh Heaven to speak with the Almighty about it and also to make sure that Lillith was safe in his own mansion.

  Michael pondered what he had heard and then spoke. “That's disturbing. I don’t know why the Almighty would want us to find Adam and Eve if the purpose was to kill them after all.”

  “This does not make sense,” Cerebriel added.

  “Agreed,” said Raziel.

  “I should speak to the Almighty,” said Michael, “but if Jarahmael is going, there is not much else I can do.” Looking at the two Angels standing before him, he continued, “Raziel, I want you to go find the other Archangels. We still need to find those two Humans before the Angelic Host does and protect the Humans from harm until we can verify what is happening with the Almighty and in the Heavens. Cerebriel, you will come with me and we will continue the search.” Michael turned to Cerebriel and asked, “Any other suggest
ions where we should look?”

  “I don't remember ever seeing Adam or Eve use the pyramids for traveling around the Earth. And I should know, I was the primary Cherubim dealing with the pyramids. The Aegyptian pyramid is the closest one to the entrance to the Garden of Eden, I still think the Humans should be around there somewhere,” Cerebriel answered.

  “We should go back to the pyramid in Aegyptus?” asked Michael.

  “Yes, I believe that we must have missed them somehow when we looked earlier,” Cerebriel said.

  “Let's go back then. Raziel, gather the remaining Archangels and meet us there.”

  Raziel replied, “My lord Michael, Ariel stopped at the Fifth Heaven and is trying to find out what is going on with the assembled army of Angels there. He will try to sneak in and then come to us to let us know what he finds out. I know Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel are here on the Earth working with the lesser creatures. Should they try to protect the Simians too?”

  “Yes, we should. I think that if the assembled army of Angels comes down, they will most likely come down near Aegyptus, either through the Garden of Eden itself, or the main gateway between the First Heaven, which is also located near Aegyptus, or possibly even through the pyramid itself,” Michael answered.

  “It will be difficult to defend anything,” said Cerebriel, “without weapons. I can't imagine my brother Zachiel releasing weapons from the stores in the Sixth Heaven where he keeps them under the tight control of my Cherubim. Somehow we need to get to the Sixth Heaven and get weapons ourselves.”

  “True,” added Michael. “It will be extremely difficult to get through to the Sixth Heaven if they already occupy the Fifth Heaven and below. Perhaps we could sneak a few of us through without being seen, but certainly not enough to assemble a force ourselves or to possibly get enough weapons past an army of Angels to supply any meaningful force we could assemble here on Earth. To be on the safe side, let’s warn the Dominions in the Fourth Heaven to see if they can try to slow down any movement into the Heaven by Luciferael and his army. Cerebriel, do you have a Cherubim you trust that we can send up into the Heavens to warn them?”

  “Yes, that will not be a problem,” Cerebriel answered.

  “Good. Dispatch him at once, Cerebriel,” Michael said.

  Cerebriel motioned to Dubriel, one of his trusted Cherubim guards near the entrance to the pyramid, and whispered to him. Dubriel took off flying up into the Heavens.

  “Any ideas of how many Angels were assembling in the Fifth Heaven around the Hall of the Virtues?” Michael asked Raziel.

  “Approximately a third of all of the Angels, and they were from all of the different Orders of Angels including the Cherubim, Virtues, Dominions, Principalities, Potentates and the Guardian Angels,” Raziel answered.

  “Cherubim too?” asked Cerebriel. “I can't imagine that they would go without my approval. But that explains how they were able to get to the weapons. Some Cherubim must be in on this, someone who was able to get to the weapons stores undetected.”

  “Your brother Zachiel?” asked Raziel.

  “Never!” responded Cerebriel emphatically. “He would never do anything without a direct command from the Almighty or without discussing it with me. This is far too important and besides, Zachiel guards the weapons closely because he does not really like that they even exist. Whoever took the weapons either did so without his knowledge or they have done something to Zachiel.”

  “What if there are no weapons left other than what the other Angels already have?” asked Raziel.

  “We shall have to find another way then to stop them,” Michael said, the concern on his face contradicting his calm voice.

  “What about all the other Angels that are here on Earth working on the pyramids? We have the majority of the various Orders still working on the pyramids around the Earth,” Cerebriel said.

  “For now let them continue working,” said Michael. “We don't know what is occurring. And like you said, without weapons there is not much they can do anyway. Once we know what is going on, and if it is some form of rebellion, we will need to find some weapons. But we don't know that for sure yet, so there is no need to override the Almighty's last commands for the various Orders of Angels assigned to earthly duties.”

  “Should we go back through the pyramid system?” asked Cerebriel.

  “No, let's fly instead. We can't be sure if the other Angels have succeeded in blocking the portals. And we can look for Raphael and the others as we travel across the Earth at the same time. Hopefully, they will not be difficult to find,” Michael said as he stretched out his wings and took to the air. Cerebriel motioned for another of his Cherubim to come closer and whispered in his ear. The Cherubim took off towards the Heavens. Cerebriel then hurried and took flight himself and followed Michael towards Aegyptus, halfway around the world from where they were in Medius. Raziel flew off in the other direction, in his search for Raphael, Gabriel and Uriel.

  Chapter 11

  FAUMIEL AND HIS BAND

  Faumiel of the Cherubim led the small force through the gateway of the Sixth Heaven and across the skies to the Fifth Heaven below. He could see activity down by the Hall of the Virtues and was relieved when he caught a glimmer of the brown haired, blue tipped Archangel Jarahmael in the far opposite corner of the sky, almost out of sight in one of the blue clouds. So far, so good, Faumiel thought as his forty Cherubim dropped through the skies with the large sleds of weapons. They needed to stay out of sight to get the weapons down through the lower Heavens to the Earth, and this was the most dangerous stretch for them, exposed flying through the sky with an opposing army assembling itself ready and armed with weapons below them.

  Jarahmael's horn caused the distraction Faumiel had hoped for, and he and his band of Cherubim seemed to have flown through the skies of the Fifth Heaven undetected with their sleds of weapons. At least no alarm was sounded as they passed through. But as the last of Faumiel’s group got through the gateway between the Fifth and the Fourth Heavens, he noticed the glint of weapons and a force of rebel Cherubim flying off in the far distance and beginning to follow him. As his band were flying through the upper reaches of the Fourth Heaven, Faumiel could see that the rebel Cherubim who were pursuing him were led by two other Cherubim leaders, Glabolas and Haagenti.

  Glabolas was a wolf-faced winged Cherubim with a keen sense of smell, and was complimented by the bull faced Cherubim, Haagenti, whose strength was legendary. Loyal to Luciferael, they had been part of the contingent of Cherubim distributing weapons to the rebel army of Angels outside the Hall of the Virtues. Glabolas and Haagenti were returning with a group of other Cherubim Angels to the Sixth Heaven to access more weapons in the Cathedral of the Cherubim when they saw a glimmer of Faumiel's small band of Cherubim crossing the sky above them. Glabolas immediately nudged Haagenti and instructed his squadron to come with him as they would pursue the other group. Afraid that Faumiel and his sleds of weapons were getting away, he did not take the time to notify Luciferael or any of the other rebel Archangels. Besides, the weapons were already on sleds, all he had to do was capture them and bring them directly to Luciferael and his armies.

  Looking around as he was gliding through the Fourth Heaven, Faumiel realized he was being pursued by the rebel Cherubim, and he instructed his squadron to speed up. Dropping down though the Fourth Heaven’s skies, he could see an obstruction coming up at the gateway between the Fourth and Third Heavens. A small group of Dominions were building barricades led by Dubriel, one of Cerebriel's Cherubim guards. Dubriel had a reputation for being particularly fearless and he flew directly towards Faumiel to confront him.

  “Where are you going with those weapons, Faumiel?” Dubriel demanded as he confronted the group as they were descending.

  “Out of our way Dubriel! We are on our way to lord Cerebriel with these weapons on the Archangel Jarahmael's orders.”

  “How do I know that to be true, Faumiel? Most of the Angels who have remained in the Heavens are pr
eparing to wage war against us.”

  “Look behind us. We are being pursued by rebel Cherubim. And notice we are headed down through the Heavens carrying sleds of weapons, and we ourselves are unarmed as we have not had time to arm ourselves,” Faumiel said as his group continued to close the distance with Dubriel. “I fear that they are catching up to us and at this rate they will overtake us somewhere in the Second or First Heavens. If you keep challenging our intentions, they will catch up to us sooner and reclaim all of the weapons desperately needed below.”

  Dubriel looked behind Faumiel's Angels and nodded that he saw the other Cherubim formation in pursuit. Reassured about Faumiel’s loyalty, he joined Faumiel and flew along with his small band of Cherubim. He was no longer confrontational and smiled at Faumiel as he spoke. “That's a relief, Faumiel. Among other things I was sent to try to get weapons by lord Cerebriel. Seems like you have done part of my job.” He then pointed downwards as they continued to descend. “I was sent up here to put some barricades in place to stop any attack by the rebel Angels coming from the upper Heavens. At the same time some of the Principalities and Dominions are starting to put barricades in place to protect their gateway to the Third Heaven.”

  Faumiel looked concerned and said, “Dubriel, I don’t think you understand the severity of the problem. Barricades may be a good idea, but the army being assembled in the Fifth Heaven by Luciferael is large. I don't know how long you will be able to hold the gate with just a small force, and without weapons. Look behind us, the rebel Cherubim keep gaining on us. We can't slow down; if Glabolas and his larger group capture us, all will be lost. Can you help us and do something to slow them down?”

  Looking behind them again, Dubriel thought quickly as they continued to descend, passing through the gateway into the Third Heaven.