Battle Sky (The Battle Series, Book 4)

by Mark Romang

  But now with no reason to battle, and with Satan deposed, Michael felt a grin stretch his mouth. His grin turned into a smile and then to a laugh. And then he began to do something he once did all the time. He sang.

  Chapter 61

  Nathan Banks spun on his heels and looked all around. The past few minutes had been a whirlwind to say the least. He was no longer in Seattle’s Westlake Park. He’d been teleported to Jerusalem. And so had Brooke, C.J. and Tanner, as well as Mary and Gretchen. Mary was at the throne now. Jesus was talking to her, and judging by His smiling face, Mary would soon enter the “sheep” group.

  Banks suspected the geography around Jerusalem had changed to accommodate the huge assembly of people. They stood outside in a massive courtyard in front of the temple. A throne had been placed outside for Jesus to sit on. And one by one he placed each person into one of two groups.

  Banks’ first encounter with Jesus had been amazing. Seeing the Lord up close and looking into His kind face made all the difficulties of the past seven years seem insignificant. Jesus hugged him tightly, the type of hug that family members and loved ones give each other. And then Jesus had said, “Well done, Nathan, you have been a good and faithful servant. You are my brother and one of my sheep, and no one can pluck you out of my hands.”

  An angel then escorted Banks into a large group that Brooke happily told him were the “sheep.” There was another large group of people not far away. These were the “goats,” as Brooke explained.

  The two groups were kept separate. Angels fiercely guarded the people making up the goat assembly, and kept them from trying to infiltrate the group Banks stood in. It didn’t take a genius to know that standing among the “goats” was akin to a death sentence. These people were all headed for everlasting torment.

  Banks tried not to look at the goat herd. He kept his eyes on the group he stood in. There were all kinds of joyous reunions going on. Saints mingled with their relatives and friends standing in the “sheep” crowd. Hugs and kisses were exchanged. Laughter and praises rang out continuously.

  The saints were easy to spot. They had a glow about them, and wore linen robes whiter than undisturbed snow. Banks had been looking for Jenny, but hadn’t yet spotted her.

  Brooke squeezed his hand. “Do you see her yet?”

  “Not yet. I feel like she’s close though.”

  Brooke suddenly let go of his hand and threw her arms around a man, and then a woman. Banks guessed the saints were Brooke’s parents. Tanner and C.J. joined the family reunion, and it became a hug-fest. Banks found himself smiling just watching Brooke and her brothers reuniting with their parents. He didn’t feel jealous at all, just happy for them.

  “Nathan?” a woman’s voice called. Banks turned. His eyes settled on a woman he hadn’t seen in seven years. Jenny came up and gave him a big hug. He held her for a long time. Then he pulled away and looked at her. Jenny looked fabulous, stunning really. She must’ve spent a lot of time around Jesus, because she’s glowing, he thought.

  “You were right all along, Jen. I should’ve listened to you when you tried to lead me to Christ. We could’ve both been in Heaven at the same time.”

  Jenny shook her head. “I think maybe God hardened your heart for a reason, Nathan. I think you were supposed to hang back.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Because you made surviving the Tribulation easier for the whole world when you brought down the drones. Only you could’ve done that. I am so proud of you,” Jenny said, her face beaming.

  “What happens now, to us?”

  “We serve the Lord, all of us in some capacity. But you and I cannot be husband and wife. I have a resurrected body, and cannot give myself in marriage. But you, Nathan, still have a mortal body. You can marry and have children, lots of them. The world has emptied. This is a huge crowd you see here. But this is the world’s entire population. And that group over there…they’re going away…forever. God adores people, and he wants the earth to fill up with people again, people who will love and serve only Him.”

  Jenny looked at Brooke, who chatted happily with her parents. Jenny leaned up and whispered in his ear. “I know you care for Brooke. She is a wonderful woman, a godly woman. And she cares for you too. If it works out, you and Brooke can have the children we never had a chance to have.”

  Banks didn’t know how to answer that. So he didn’t. “Will I see you around?”

  “Of course, we are all one family now. Death has been swallowed up. Nothing can ever separate us again from the ones we love.”

  Banks smiled. He’d only just begun his new life in the Millennial Kingdom. And already he could tell everything was going to be far better and more satisfying than he ever imagined it to be. Never again would he experience loneliness. Never again would he have to look over his shoulder, never again would he have to run for his life and live underground in a bunker or storm drain. All threats had been removed. Fear had been taken away from him forever.

  And in fear’s place…he’d been given love. The kind of love that never withers, but only grows stronger with time.

  ****

  Mary felt her skin tingle. The glow shining off Jesus warmed her and made her feel safe. She luxuriated in the feeling of safety. For so long she’d been like a hunted animal, the prey for a predator.

  “Mary, you didn’t have much, but what you had you used to advance my kingdom. So because of your faithfulness, and because you believed in me, I give you the right to eat from the tree of life, and to drink from the river of life. You will never experience hunger or thirst again. You told others how to receive my forgiveness, even though doing so put your life in danger. Well done my good and faithful servant. Because you were faithful with little, I will give you even more responsibility.”

  Mary gazed into the Savior’s eyes. So much love shined back at her from those eyes. It was as if Jesus looked into her soul and read her thoughts, hopes and dreams. Jesus knew her better than she knew herself. He understood her completely, and made her feel important and special. She wasn’t just a number among the saint population, or a single face in a sea of faces. She’d become so much more. Her homeless rags were gone forever, replaced by a robe of righteousness.

  “I love serving you, Jesus. Serving you gives me purpose and contentment. I just wished I would’ve started sooner.”

  Jesus smiled at her. “There are many rooms in my Father’s house. Your room is completed, Mary. Go and live in it.”

  Chapter 62

  The Abyss—six days later

  The darkness sped by him at hundreds of miles per hour.

  Still bound tightly by the heavy chain, Lucifer couldn’t move his limbs or wings. He’d been completely immobilized, and had long since given up trying to wriggle free from his bondage. There was simply no escaping this maximum security, cell-less prison. I am the master schemer, and not even I can find a way out.

  His only solace was that parole would eventually come. The door would someday open. And out of the escaping black smoke, he would step out. He would be a thousand years older by then. But that wouldn’t matter. A thousand years is like a second in eternity time.

  Usually time meant nothing to him. He never kept track of it. That is until now. Though no sunlight or moonlight ever shone into the Abyss for him to track the time, his inner clock told him when a day ended and another one started. He hated this ability.

  998 years and 359 days to go until he reached parole.

  Lucifer whiled away the time by thinking. He recalled his successes and failures, and debated over what he could’ve done differently to destroy even more humans and more families. His biggest regret or mistake, was not trying harder to keep Jesus from being born.

  Oh, he tried numerous ways to sabotage the Jewish lineage. And sometimes he got close to succeeding, like when he ordered his fallen angels to corrupt the human race in the days of Noah. But ultimately his attempts unraveled.

  Lucifer convinced Cain to kill Abel, Phar
aoh to try and kill Moses, Saul to try and kill David, and Haman to try and eradicate the entire Jewish race. Unfortunately, Mordecai and Queen Esther got wind of Haman’s plot and foiled it at the last moment.

  Once Jesus was born, Lucifer stirred up fear in Herod and convinced him to kill all male children two years old and under in Israel. Yet, Jesus escaped the slaughter and grew into a young man. Lucifer then tried to starve Jesus in the desert, tried desperately to get him to leap off the pinnacle of the temple, and even tried to tempt Jesus to worship him.

  One day Lucifer riled up a crowd in a synagogue to push Jesus off a cliff, but Christ escaped through the angry mob somehow. Finally, he persuaded Judas to betray Jesus in the Garden for only thirty pieces of silver. The plan actually worked, and Jesus was arrested and later killed in a barbaric manner.

  Unfortunately, Jesus came to life on the third day. And no matter how often and how hard Lucifer tried, he couldn’t defeat God.

  In hindsight, would I do it all over again? Would I try to usurp God and take over heaven again? Yes, absolutely yes. And I will wreak havoc again. I will deceive and destroy humans again. I will steal, kill and destroy once more!

  But until then he had to fall through this bottomless, stinky pit for a millennium. But look out world, I am coming back. And I am coming for you!

  Epilogue

  Tanner Mason twisted and flipped through the air with ease. Every aerial trick he tried he performed flawlessly. The crazy thing was…he never practiced, because he never repeated the same trick twice. He continually invented new aerials, extremely difficult tricks that no mortal could’ve ever pulled off before Jesus came back.

  Every person is gifted by God in some way. And Tanner figured most believers will continue to use their gifts in the Millennial Kingdom and beyond into eternity. Tanner had been a gifted snowboarder before the end of the age, and now he was an even better snowboarder. He continued to perform his tricks for saints and, best of all, for the King of all kings.

  He couldn’t be happier with his assignment.

  Things were also going fabulous for his siblings. C.J. and Gretchen were a couple now, and so was Brooke and Nathan Banks. A double-wedding was in the planning stage. His parents were so excited and couldn’t wait to be grandparents many times over.

  Tanner didn’t know if God wished him to marry or not. If it happened or didn’t happen, he was cool with it. Because discontent never surfaces in the Millennial Kingdom, nor envy.

  I am perfectly happy to perform snowboarding aerials for the Lord. And I don’t even need snow or a mountain to do them.

  Today, Tanner performed his routine in the sky at an altitude where passenger jets typically fly. He performed frontside and backside flips with limitless rotations. There was really no way he should be able to defy gravity like this, and no explanation for how his lungs operated normally at this height. They just did.

  Tanner didn’t think other believers were able to do this. Maybe some saints could, but he didn’t know for sure. It just didn’t make sense. And he’d given up trying to figure it out.

  Although he lived in the Millennial Kingdom now, he was still a mortal. Yes, it was possible he might live another 1,000 years, but still the fact remained he lived in a mortal body. So he could only surmise that God had made an exception with him.

  Tanner peeked to both sides. He smiled at what he saw. He had company. Angels flew in and out of the clouds, imitating his tricks.

  What an amazing life I have, he thought. I’m flying with the angels.

  ****

  The destruction of weapons continued to take place out on the Megiddo Plain. Andrew Maddix and Coleton Webb had teamed up to oversee the total destruction of the modern war machines and weaponry. It had been a colossal job, but they had recently completed the task.

  Maddix, Spencer, and Webb now stood alongside Michael and Vallen and watched as the ancient weaponry was destroyed.

  Massive forges crammed the plain and blazed with superheated fire and molten metal. Talented blacksmiths pounded melted swords, spear-tips, daggers, battle-axes and flail balls into plowshares and pruning hooks. The sounds of hammers striking iron filled the air.

  In the Millennial Kingdom, conflicts no longer arose between countries.

  With Satan and his demonic hordes banished from Earth, goodwill passed between the nations like a race baton, and a pacifist attitude fostered a peaceful and friendly atmosphere among all people groups, even ones that were once enemies. The animal kingdom followed suit. Lions and tigers ate grass and slept next to cattle, just as wolves and bears slept in pastures with sheep.

  Jesus made all this possible. He ruled the entire world from the temple in Jerusalem. Likewise, the saints ruled individual nations, territories, cities, towns and counties. And so the weapons of war and violence had lost their usefulness.

  Maddix didn’t know what his next mission was. But he knew the Lord would eventually give him another one. Because that’s what saints do: they serve. But a question burned in his mind, a question he wished to ask Michael. He’d put off asking Michael the question for some time. But now the time seemed right. “Michael, I have a burning question I wish to ask you.”

  The archangel turned to face him. “Speak your mind, Andrew. Ask me anything you like.”

  Maddix nodded. “What does a warrior do when there are no more battles to fight?”

  “I will do whatever the Lord asks of me,” Michael said. “That will never change. I was created to serve Jehovah. Like you, Andrew, I had a beginning. And like you, I have no end. So I will serve always. It doesn’t matter to me whether I serve in battle or in peacetime.”

  “I know one thing Michael and I will be doing. We used to do it continuously before Lucifer led his revolt in Heaven,” Vallen said.

  Maddix looked at the legendary archer. “And what would that be?”

  “Singing praise songs to God and Jesus.”

  In the transition from mortal to saint, Coleton Webb never lost his sense of humor. He still kidded everyone, including Michael. “Please tell me you weren’t a tenor, Michael.”

  The archangel shook his regal head. “I am a baritone.”

  “There is nothing wrong with tenors,” Maddix said.

  Webb started laughing uncontrollably. “The mighty Mad Dog, slayer of demons, is a tenor?” he said after regaining his composure.

  “Sing us something, Dad” Spencer said joining in on the ribbing.

  Before Maddix could respond, Vallen interjected. “I’m a tenor also, all we need now is a bass to have a quartet.

  Maddix eyed Webb. “Your deep and powerful voice gives you away, C-Dub. Surely you are a bass.”

  Webb nodded. “I sang bass in high school choir. But that’s the last time I performed a number.”

  “I wouldn’t worry about being out of practice, Coleton. Vallen and I will drown out your squalling if we have to,” Michael said, half-serious.

  Webb laughed. “I think that would be best for everyone involved.”

  “I can’t wait to hear this,” Spencer said, still grinning.

  Maddix eyed the forges out on the plain. He witnessed a blacksmith pull a molten sword blade out of a forge and pound it on an anvil. “But you will have to wait, son. We still have work here to finish. There are still weapons that need to be turned into farm implements.”

  Spencer wrapped an arm around him. “That’s okay, Dad. I can wait. I got all the time in the world. I can wait forever if I need to.”

  “Somehow I knew you would say that.” Maddix secretly didn’t care whether Spencer held him to it or not. He was simply ecstatic that Spencer would be with him forever. As a parent it didn’t get any better than that, to live eternally with your son or daughter in Heaven, never having to worry about their health or safety, or even your own. “I will sing, Spencer. But you have to join in with us on occasion.”

  “You got it, Dad. Singing for God with you and Uncle Webb and Michael and Vallen will be a blast.”

&nb
sp; Maddix nodded. “Yes, Spencer, it will be fun.” More than fun, it will be an honor, he thought. I am indeed a blessed man.

  The End

  Thank you for reading Battle Sky. I hope you found it enjoyable. I have another book series you may be interested in. These books do not involve the End Times. They are more traditional thrillers. I have enclosed the first few chapters of The Grace Painter, Book One in the Grace Series, for you to preview. This sample starts on the next page.

  The Grace Painter

  By Mark Romang

  Copyright © Mark Romang 2012

  Kindle Edition

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Cover design by Robin Ludwig, Inc.

  Prologue

  Manhattan, New York

  January 18, 2006

  “I need help, Matt. Come quickly. Come alone.”

  These desperate words tormented Matthew London. The words kept repeating in his head like a skipping CD, and not even his jackhammering heart could drown them out.

  London screwed his mind shut against the persistent voice and hustled down a snow-drifted sidewalk. Adrenaline shoved at his back. He didn’t notice the bitter cold nipping at his skin, the snowflakes twirling in the black sky and landing in his wavy hair. Minor discomforts didn’t register, only the dark foreboding corkscrewing in his gut.