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

by John J Higgins

  “I am going to stay here for a while longer,” he said as he walked around in the mirrored room admiring his own form. “The rest of you go back to your palaces and rest. There will be more than enough to do once we finish off the war. Enjoy yourselves.”

  Each of them bowed down to Luciferael and he acknowledged each one in return with a nod of his head.

  They turned and walked down the hallway to Jarahmael's entrance and then flew off, each in the direction of their own palaces.

  Luciferael had accompanied them and watched each of them fly off.

  Lillith could see that Luciferael was content being by himself, especially if he had mirrors to look at himself in.

  He returned to the room with the mirrors and began to address himself as though his reflection was an Archangel separate from himself.

  “Nice to be by ourselves, don't you think, lord Luciferael?”

  “Yes, and you look particularly powerful today, my lord,” Luciferael said to his reflection, doing half turns so he could see his own profile.

  “You are now in control of the Heavens and it will not be long until you are in charge of the Earth and then the rest of the Universe. Who needs the Almighty, when I can make myself as powerful and take the Throne away from Him? He certainly did not put up much of a fight. I must have obtained great skills to beat the Almighty so easily. I must remove Him and keep Him out of the Heavens as well as the other loyal Archangels. Deny all of them access to the Earth so this fighting can stop. They should just surrender and join with me, as defeat for them is imminent!”

  Lillith watched how Luciferael went up to his own mirror and examined the mirror and its frame more closely. Spontaneously, Luciferael spoke to himself aloud.

  “Jarahmael, your workmanship has exceeded all expectations. You were the most wonderful artist. It’s a shame you are gone from the Heavens and the Universe.”

  Luciferael's words were too much for Lillith’s emotions — she could not help but start to sob. And despite any self-protective instincts she had, she stood in place and watched as Luciferael heard her sobs and looked around to see where the sound was coming from. Despondent, she no longer cared about what happened to her. Whether she was hidden or not, what was the point of staying here alone, without her wonderful Archangel Jarahmael?

  Chapter 33

  THE FIRST BORN

  Luciferael heard the sobbing again. Where was that coming from? Who was doing that? He walked out of Jarahmael's room of mirrors and looked down each direction of the hallway, but did not see anything. Yet he heard the sobs yet once again.

  "Who is sobbing?" he called aloud. "Show yourself or I will destroy this entire palace and whoever is here inside!"

  One last sob came out, before Luciferael saw a Human woman emerge from what appeared to be one of the palace walls. She looked very different from Eve, not brown-haired and brown eyed, this one was blue-eyed and blonde-haired. Luciferael remembered Eve well, and how easily she was tricked into eating the forbidden fruit.

  This one shouldn't be much more difficult to control, he thought to himself, still with his disdain for the Humans. But the longer he looked upon her, the more attractive she became.

  "Who are you?" he asked, not quite masking his annoyance that he did not know who she was by sight. The Almighty should have shown her to him long ago.

  “I am Lillith," she responded while adjusting her hair. "I am the First Born of the Humans, first mate of the Human Adam. Now I am mated to the Archangel Jarahmael who saved me and brought me here to stay with him."

  Luciferael had developed a great deal of hatred and envy of the Humans in the Garden of Eden. But here was one of the most beautiful earthen creatures, standing in front of him. And she belonged to Jarahmael? Why was Jarahmael given a Human? It was he, the lord Luciferael, who would soon be called the Almighty, who should have been given the Human. So it was right that everything in the Heavens now belonged to him, and soon everything on the Earth would as well. Then in time, everything else remaining in the Universe would also be his.

  As he thought further, Jarahmael was gone and anything Jarahmael would have owned would now be Luciferael's. Lillith became even more attractive to him as he thought he would be taking her from Jarahmael, another prize given by the Almighty.

  Now that he was in charge of the Heavens it was all up to him, and the fate of this creature was within his own hands. The Almighty had elevated these Humans above Luciferael and his kind, the Angels, the Beings of Light. Therefore, it was only just and fair that the First Born of the Humans fell into his lap, one more benefit for Luciferael ruling the Heavens. This Earth woman would worship him or perish, but he could have some fun with her first. He would take her as his own.

  “I have very bad news for you, Lillith. Your Archangel lover lord Jarahmael has fallen in battle. We lost him when he led the charge against the Angels loyal to the Almighty. He was taken, and the only remnant of him was his spear, found where he disappeared. We believe he was destroyed by the Angels loyal to the Almighty, making them the responsible ones. My followers and I had embraced him in our ranks when he joined us."

  Lillith's sobs intensified upon this confirmation of her lover’s demise.

  Luciferael observed her as she cried. At one point her tears stopped and he could feel a wave of anger coming through her. He did not realize this was an emotion the Humans were capable of, and he had never observed the emotion arise before with this intensity. Sammuael, at times, seemed to have the same emotional energy when he had to do or deal with something he did not want to, like the initial order to kill off the dinosaurs. It amazed yet disturbed Luciferael that these Humans could have so much in common with the Beings of Light, even having the same types of emotions. It’s a good thing we will destroy these Humans, he thought, they could be very dangerous.

  Then Lillith blurted out, “How could Michael and the other Archangels destroy Jarahmael? They seemed to care so much for one another?”

  Luciferael's heart softened when he heard her get angry at Michael and the other Archangels. Perhaps having a common enemy would override his hatred for the special treatment the Almighty had been giving the Humans. Perhaps this Human could be an ally to him, to finish the job of keeping the Almighty out of Heaven, as well as those Archangels and other Angels who remained loyal to the Almighty.

  Now looking upon her differently, he answered her, “Michael and the others do not think for themselves, Lillith. They only do the bidding of the Almighty. The Almighty has lost his way, and is not taking care of the Heavens, the Earth, or the Universe properly. I intend to correct that and make the Universe more like it needs to be.”

  Luciferael moved forward a few inches and looked at her more closely as he spoke. “I can see you are stronger than Adam and certainly Eve. You are more like me, aren't you, the First Born of your species. You see, I am the First Born of the entire Universe, and have been around since before the Creation. So you see, we have a great deal in common!” he added.

  “How do you mean that?” asked Lillith.

  “I was created to help the Almighty make the other Angels as well as the Heavens above. The Almighty decided at some point that my part of the creation was not enough. He needed to have Earth-based Beings creating on the planet and he made the Simians. When they failed to meet his expectations, he made you, and Adam, then eventually Eve, all three of you to have what he called ‘free will’ — the ability to choose one path over another. But that ability to choose was a mistake and a very dangerous thing. And with Adam and Eve’s failure to obey, Humans have been sentenced to death and the rest of the whole universe has changed.” A wave of sadness swept over Luciferael, causing a tear to roll from his eye, and he felt compassion for Lillith at that moment – he reached out to touch Lillith on her cheek, to help console her.

  “And you, Lillith, were created as part of a pair, correct? But you were also replaced by someone else, another Human woman named Eve. Have you ever seen her?” Luciferael ask
ed Lillith.

  Lillith nodded her head, looking back into the Archangel's eyes.

  “And did you feel angry?”

  Lillith nodded again.

  “And wanted to dispose of her?”

  She nodded her head again, indicating “yes.”

  “And you felt betrayed?”

  Lillith nodded her head yet again. “How do you know these things?” she asked.

  Luciferael ignored the question and continued. “Do you want to get even? To make both Adam and the new woman Eve suffer, since you were so easily replaced?”

  “Yes!” she shouted back, no longer sobbing. Anger emerged from her, a steeliness settling deep into her eyes.

  “Then you are the only creature who knows exactly how I felt when the Almighty created your special type of Humans. The Simians who were running around the Earth were never a threat to me or my kind. They were just another set of animals. But you and your special kind of Humans showed us the Almighty did not value us as much as he valued you and your kind. We weren't even given ‘free will’ like you were. The Almighty never told us that we could refuse to do something He wanted us to do, or to disobey any of His commands.

  “I will guess that your feelings towards the Archangel Jarahmael come in large part from your desire to harm Adam? Don't they?”

  She shook her head “no” firmly.

  Luciferael paid no attention to her response and continued. “You thought how jealous Adam would be that you found a lover who was of the older creations, those with powers far above Human, one who could fly. And, I would venture that Jarahmael was far more handsome than any Earth-bound Human or Simian confined in a cave. Jarahmael is far more handsome than Adam!”

  Luciferael watched her eyes soften.

  Luciferael continued, “You don't realize it, but Jarahmael could never understand these feelings of yours. He would never understand the anger and rage that comes when someone is replaced.”

  Luciferael stretched his wings outward as he moved even closer to Lillith, his tall frame making her look up at a steeper angle. He could feel the heat coming off her body from where he now stood.

  “Jarahmael was wrong about 'free will.' He believed that ‘free will’ is about choosing the Almighty’s narrow path. But it exists for you to choose a life full of experiencing all the things in this Universe. Remember when you were created, there were no commandments about not eating things in the Garden. You were already gone from the Garden of Eden and in the Seventh Heaven by the time the Almighty's requirements for abstaining from certain fruit within the Garden of Eden were imposed. . . Think about it, Lillith, what kind of Almighty creates rules that make it easy for His loved ones to fail, and with terrible consequences? Adam and Eve have failed, were cast out of Eden, and now will die.”

  Luciferael looked into Lillith's eyes and saw that she had opened herself up to him. He knew she would be his, and that they were meant to be together, even though she was Human. It made him want to ravish her.

  Now unrestrained, he picked her up to his own height, pulled her tightly up against himself and kissed her. Their arms entwined as did their bodies, passion swelling between them. Luciferael relished this feeling, sweetened by the fact that he was taking what the Almighty had already given to the Human Adam and then to the Archangel Jarahmael. Luciferael alone would decide what was his to take. He continued to kiss her, holding her tightly against his body as he laid her down on the floor in the room with the surrounding mirrors, watching himself out of the corner of his eyes as he took her, and found a new pleasure for himself.

  Chapter 34

  A GIFT OF WINGS

  Luciferael spent the night with Lillith in Jarahmael's palace. Surrounded by Jarahmael's fourteen mirrors, he enjoyed Lillith all night. They had little rest and he decided to remain in the palace to spend the following day together.

  Luciferael's comment that she was the First Born of Humans just as he was the First Born of the Beings of Light ran through her mind — the two of them had that very much in common. She knew that she loved Jarahmael, but he was gone. She did not want to be alone anymore, and here was Luciferael, a powerful creature, one who had told her he had conquered all the Heavens. And he wanted to be with her. He could keep her safe, and with him she could have anything she wanted.

  There was something dangerous about Luciferael though, even though he had an immense level of love all around him. She could feel that love coming off his very being without him saying or doing anything. It reminded her of something. Searching her memory, she finally recalled where she had felt that level of love: in the presence of the Almighty Himself. But Luciferael also had this pocket of energy within him that was closed off, self-contained, focused solely on himself. She sensed that this side of him was a seductive trap, he could attract someone in, and then turn on them, and destroy them without the slightest compassion or remorse on Luciferael's part. Like Adam, he was concerned about his own pleasure and not hers. Not like Jarahmael, who was open and giving with his love towards her. But that wave of sadness swept across her again: Jarahmael is gone, she reminded herself. This Archangel is here, he is alive, and he is with me.

  She could speak freely with Jarahmael, tell him about what she felt, what she had experienced, what she was thinking. With Luciferael it was nothing like that. He did not want to hear much about her. He wanted to talk about himself and his successes in his war and conquest of the Heavens.

  “We have won the Heavens and tomorrow we will finish the conquest when we attack and take over the Earth,” he said to her, repositioning himself as he rolled over so he could see himself in the opposing mirror. He ran his fingers through his hair, getting all his golden locks back in place. “The loyal Angels will not last long under our attacks. We went right through their legions, forcing them out of the Heavens one right after the other. Now they are trapped on the Earth and they do not have the advantage of knowing their own territory there. It should not be a long set of battles before Beelzebael and my lieutenants have them all captive.”

  He broke his gaze off himself in the mirror to look down into Lillith's eyes. Taking his hand, he brushed her hair off her forehead. “Then we will take care of the remaining Simians and Humans.”

  She shuddered deep inside when he said those words. Was she one that was going to be destroyed?

  After a moment Luciferael continued. “They are not as beautiful as you, Lillith. What should I do with them?” he asked her, stroking her forehead as one would stroke the hair of a pet. She sensed that he did not care what her answer would be, because he already had his mind set on destroying them. She needed to be cautious with her answer, as this creature might have the ability to destroy her as well.

  “Whatever my lord Luciferael wants to do with them is fine. I am not like them anyway. The Simians on the Earth were never of the same class as Adam and I, and now, even Adam and Eve are both mortal from what you have told me. I have nothing in common with them anymore,” she said, watching his eyes carefully, her voice tentative, making sure she was providing him with the answer he wanted.

  “Good,” he answered. “I am going to destroy them all, actually. I had to destroy my creatures the dinosaurs to protect the Humans at the Almighty's orders. They needed too much attention, and they cannot travel or move like us, the Beings of Light!” He pulled Lillith closer with his one hand. “You don't look very happy here in Jarahmael's palace.”

  “I am not, my lord. I have been trapped up here for days and days with no way to get out. I am sure these palaces are wonderful for you Angels. But I miss the Garden of Eden, with the running streams, trees, plants and animals. I am a creature of the Earth and not of the Light.”

  Luciferael looked into her eyes. And for a brief moment she felt that he genuinely cared about her, felt compassion for her.

  Luciferael then continued, speaking softly. “I am in charge of the Heavens now. I can give you the entire Garden of Eden if you like, Lillith. Adam and Eve have been cast out. The Gua
rdian Angels have the rest of the First Heaven for themselves and I am sure they have little interest in residing in the Garden of Eden, just as you have little desire to live in an Angel's palace.” He started to laugh, “Your idea of paradise and our idea of paradise are much different.”

  He thought for a few moments more and then said to her, “Come to think of it, it’s a shame you don't have wings, Lillith. You could fly yourself back and forth if you like. I wonder if there is some way I can remedy that.”

  “Could you give me wings?” she said, suddenly excited at the prospect that he may be able to turn her into an Angel, too.

  “Perhaps,” he said while he was still thinking.

  “I would do anything to have wings!” she said. She thought how wonderful it would be to be changed into an Angel, a Being of Light, to fly on her own, and to have the powers that the Angels had.

  He thought back to the Words he used to alter details on the dinosaurs when he created them using spells from the Book of Creation. “Stand up! Let's try this. What was that spell again? Muto Somes Habeo Pennae!” As the words left his lips, Lillith began to grow wings. They grew proportionate to her smaller body size. Luciferael stood back and admired his handiwork.

  Lillith moved closer to one of the mirrors and moved around so she could see her new wings from various angles.

  Luciferael was delighted that he could make her body sprout wings. “You look even more beautiful!” he said to her.

  As she walked around she said to Luciferael, “These wings are beautiful. But they have me off balance, I feel like I am going to fall.” Then she looked down. “My lord, my feet!” she shrieked. “You have ruined them!”

  Lillith's feet had changed into a bird's talons. The delight of new wings was eclipsed by the horror of losing her beautiful feet. “You have turned me into a bird!” she said angrily.

  “Silence! You forget yourself! You are never to speak to me in that tone!” he bellowed. His presence overwhelmed her as his anger turned his body from a light golden hue to a deep shade of red.