The Sloth of Heaven, page 5
part #2 of The Fallen Angels Series
Even in the morning the shadows were darker than usual.
Gavriil woke up on the beach still awash in an explosion of oxytocin. That was a night he would never forget. The sensual eroticism, finalised by her disappearing in a cocoon of shadows. He had been horrified and aroused. He had experienced the night as never before.
He contently rolled over in the sand, enjoying the sun on his back. Some experience were best kept to yourself. After all, if he told anyone what had happened, they would think he was crazy and lock him up.
Nyx had simply given into pleasure, but she did not realise that she had planted the first seed of her modern resurrection.
She was as fathomless as shadows, as corporeal as darkness because that’s what she was. Nyx embraced the sky and Heaven with all her powers. She could feel the stars’ light from beyond, those strange and mystical things that confused the Gods so.
She had surrounded the Citadel, had been intent on learning all she could and perhaps even bringing in a bloody debt. But she had been thwarted. The Citadel’s defences had been activated somehow. The Citadel was usually under the command of the Queen of Heaven, and she felt sure that Hera would not activate its defences to defend the Angels. How then had the Angels managed it?
Unfortunately, it was the end of her investigations. The Citadel’s defences were unconquerable, there was no loophole to utilise, and sheer force had never worked in the past. It had been created by Primordial Gods, many long forgotten, and in many cases, they had given their lives to its power. The whole Surface or Underworld could rise up against Heaven and not make a dent. It would take a miracle for both the Surface and Underworld to work together and even then she wasn’t sure how if they could break the defences. Gaia had empowered them.
While the defences stood, the Angels were invulnerable but nor could they leave the Citadel. The design was absolute, nothing went in or out. There was no loophole for anyone to utilise.
For the moment, Heaven had no interaction with the world below.
Ereshkigal stood atop the crumbling ruins of the Ziggurat of Ur, it was but a shadow of its former glory. Or its future.
Around it, there was little left of the once great city, but that would change. The whole region would change under her control. Already the women relatives and wives of the men who had attacked her wandered about uncovered, their unbound hair flying in the wind. They were scared, with good reason, for the corpses of their male relatives walked about the ruins. She had killed all the men leaving only the boys. And as she had done many times before, she had assumed control of the bodies. She had the beginnings of an army that would terrify the world. The world had forgotten what she had done once before, she would make sure they never forgot ever again.
The men who had so foolishly attacked her were still alive and in chains, a warning to all. Their faces had been ripped off, by all rights they should be dead but she would not allow it. Death ended physical pain, and the spirit just didn’t feel it the same way. They were also her statement to all her people, God did not exist, he could not help them. She had destroyed all their Qurans to end their pitiful beliefs. It hadn’t worked, nearly all the people still prayed to God, to the Angels. She could feel it. She would break them of that habit one way or another.
It might take time, but she had plenty of it. Heaven had not responded to Hell breaking loose. If she guessed right, the Angels were suffering from the backlash of their broken Curse. Even the Primordial Gods would have been knocked out by such a powerful backlash. What containment spells had ever lasted so long or contained so many? No, the Angels were not going to be bothering the world for quite some time, though unfortunately they would be completely safe within Heaven’s protection.
But she would make her mark on the world in that time. Her hold was currently small and insignificant. Now was not the time to resurrect the ziggurat to a new glory, though she was sorely tempted to.
She was nothing if not a patient goddess.
Right now she had to cement her power base. She had chosen Ur for its historic significance and its nearness. The ziggurat would play a very important role by becoming her gate to Irkalla. The gate, in turn, would be a catalyst for mortals. They were drawn to and repelled by Underworld Gates and Death at the same time.
For her it would also give her army a direct conduit to the Surface, to spread over the region that had once been and would again be known as Mesopotamia. Ur would be her capital and she would have her empire, founded on her army of the dead. It had worked for her once before and it would work again. There was nothing like the dead to shake mortal beliefs to their core.
And that was exactly what she wanted.
The remains of the small clan she had decimated and claimed were now camped at the base of the ziggurat. Their tents were the only hint of colour and movement as far as the eye could see. Soon their numbers would grow. Tourists still came to see the ziggurat and the relatives of the clan would come looking for them. Others would also come to the site for their own various reasons. They would all be trapped.
As for her attackers they were busy digging in the hot sun. Their unrelenting task was to keep digging down through the Surface until it became viable to easily open a gate. They would not die until they did. She hated having to take the slow method but her powers were not what they had once been, oh she was a very powerful goddess in her own right but a Gate to the Underworld required an incredible amount of power. She would need to gain strength if she was going to achieve it.
She had hoped that the ruins of Ur would have plenty of corpses, but she had been wrong. There had been several stashed around but not in any significant number. The city had not been in use for a very long time. But there were other cities not far away and she had a great many plans for them.
But first of all, she needed great quantities of people to come to Ur.
Sariel was at a loss at what to do. Lucifer was still unconscious, still dead to the world. She had no idea what to do with him. She had broken his Curse, she had ripped up Hell to the Surface when she had destroyed it. It had been an overwhelming success. Apart from Lucifer.
From within the apartment, she was hiding in, she could sense others moving about in the city. Jerusalem had no idea that it was being overrun by Demons, and not just any Demons but also the Greater Demons. All the city knew was that their crime rate was spiralling out of control as people were being murdered left, right and centre. The Demons walked among them pretending to be them, though some had not. The news was rife with strange stories of ‘survivors’ from the explosion who had wandered out of the desert only to attack the nearest person. Police and military had been called in from neighbouring cities to deal with the deluge of insane survivors.
She knew them for what they really were. She could feel their brightly burning powers come and go from her senses as they passed through the city. All the Greater Demons had left, and many of the Demons were also leaving. Presumably, they did not wish to remain close to the Gate of Hell. Others had now been given the final death by either mortal means or by the magic the Daemons living in Jerusalem were wielding.
She had been successful in hiding her presence from all, but it did not alleviate her fears of being discovered. And eventually, the Angels would reappear from Heaven to sort out the Holy Land. It was after all a great source of their power. She was also terrified of being discovered by a Greater Demon. She had no illusions that they would destroy her completely, she was, after all, an Arch Angel.
She couldn’t be more wrong. The Greater Demons adored and feared her for she had set them free. They trembled at her power, and some had genuine warmth for her. Others simply respected the power she wielded enough never to try and harm her. But to them all, she was a Goddess of Redemption. She had given them a second chance, and they would have their retribution.
So she lived in fear hiding in Jerusalem, too afraid to leave. She would be vulnerable beyond these walls. She didn’t know how to teleport, she would have to rely on conventional means to leave and bring him with her. She would be horribly exposed.
She was trapped within the city, trapped within her rooms. Her only company an unconscious Angel, the television, and the codex computer. The TV was ablaze with news updates of the Dead Sea, the survivors of the explosion, the rocketing murder rate and the explosion of cryptozoology sightings. She had caused all of them. There were, however, other shows, she wasn’t sure if they were real or meant to be televised plays. But it gave her a glimpse into the Human psyche. It sometimes made her laugh. She loved the documentaries the most, she learned about Human civilisations, technology, and science. She learned about the Angels’ religions from a Human viewpoint. She also saw the amazing natural wonders of the world.
Then there was the internet, an amazing portal into the depths of Humanity and its satellite species. It was an amazing resource in finding myths about her own family, Human history and development. There was such diversity, such horrors, such perversity, such destruction. There were unbelievable miracles, beautiful images and such developments. But she could only sit on the internet or watch TV for so long before she grew detached and lethargic.
She had risked ordering food to the apartment, her powers of illusion and enchantment were sufficient enough to bamboozle a Human. She had discovered the wonders of Human food, she lost herself in the simple pleasure of cooking and eating. The food in Heaven seemed dull in comparison. Was it because Heaven was further away from the Lifestream than the Surface or was it because the recipes were old and boring?
She watched movies, listened to music from all across the ages; beautiful classical songs to pop ballads, she blasted out at full volume singing along to the songs of all genres with haunting lyrics. She read books, having managed to summon them to herself. She lost herself for hours within the imaginations of mortals. She read the classics, she read fantasy about other worlds, she read crime and started to understand the violence within Humanity. She even played games on the codex computer, marvelling at their realness. She had been warriors, sorcerers, even empires, and animals. It was crazy and thrilling.
And yet she was alone. While she relaxed, learned and lived, of a sort, Lucifer was still unconscious. She craved social interaction, but the Surface scared her. It wasn’t safe to mingle with the populace, she would stand out because she had no idea what to say to any of them, how to interact. She was also hesitant to leave Lucifer alone, without her, he was defenceless.
She sighed as she climbed into the bed next to him. Another day gone with no change in his condition. She gently stroked back his hair and gave his feathers a light preen before turning out the lights and closing her eyes.
She didn’t sleep well these days, nor did she get tired but she was lonely and scared. Turning off the lights and lying next to someone made her feel a little less alone.
Chapter 5
Tiamat looked out of their lair at the frozen land that covered this island. Behind her, Bahamut tossed in restless dreams. Sariel had done all she could do for him and his damaged spirit, the rest, only time could heal. But was it even possible to heal from such horrific and soul shattering torture? His mind had been shattered by the tears in his spirit. His body had been a monstrosity of Gabriel’s making.
Thankfully, now he had a complete body, a striking body that would suit him well once he adjusted to it. He was still having great difficulty adjusting to his new body. His natural form had been a gigantic fish, a Dragon’s body was a far cry from that. He had picked up the swimming easily enough, much like herself, water had always been, and would always be a part of his spirit. But four legs and wings were still very new to him. One might think that his time as Behemoth would help, for the creature had walked on four legs. But Bahamut’s shattered mind had controlled very little of the Monster, most of its actions were based off instinct and magical impulses. It proved the incredible strength of Gabriel’s magic that the thing had even stayed together at all. It also showed to Tiamat just how potent her own blood was. For without both her and Gabriel’s combined powers, Behemoth could never have existed.
That was something that worried her a great deal. Her blood had been a rare and extremely valued commodity for thousands of years following her physical death. Now it flowed fresh and pure through her veins, carrying potent Chaos inherent to her nature. Would others come looking for her? Would they be foolish enough to come seeking her blood? Would they try to capture and contain her or would they seek to kill her once more?
It was good that they had fled far from the Middle East. She had initially circled down around Mesopotamia but it was far too close to the Gates of Hell. It would be directly under the Angels’ scrutiny when they recovered from the backlash of their Curse.
It had no longer felt like home either. Mesopotamia was no longer hers.
She and it were no longer what either of them had once been. Her rebirth had changed her from an undefined Monstrous Primordial Goddess into a Primordial Dragon Goddess. She was no longer the Monster she had once been, for which she was both thankful and sad. She felt as though a part of her had been lost and freed at the same time. Then again being a Monster had done her very few favours, her own children had turned against her. It was more than a little ironic that their own offspring had killed them.
But now she was a Dragon, something entirely different. She had birthed many of them in her time and was no stranger to their ways. Dragons were among the most ancient species of the world, they had appeared before many of the Gods had. They were the creations, guides and friends of the Primordial Gods. They were the first living creations if the term was correct for them.
They were powerful spirits who had made a pact with Gaia to be housed in moving rock and magma. The world had been young and wild with no spark of life in it. Gaia had begun her dream of nurturing life. She had already cooled parts of the raging land, giving the world some consistency. Her siblings and cousins had begun various projects. The combined results had caused the Lifestream to split into finer streams. At first, it had seemed like a disaster, but from it, multitudes of smaller spirits had been born.
Many had been formless, lasting little more than seconds, minutes or days. They had come and gone over and over. Some had bonded with elements birthing the very first elementals. Others had bonded with environmental features, giving them power as they drew from it. Volcanoes, mountain ranges, ocean straits, rivers and crystal formations all became homes for these new wild spirits. They settled and changed. The wilder and less settled took to storms, ocean currents and the magma beneath the developing crust.
Ever newer varieties continued to appear.
The most powerful had flitted from place to place, a restless collection that could never quite find what was compelling them. In their own way, after a great amount of time they came to the realisation that they wanted to be housed in flesh, to be living. By this stage, Gaia had already produced the very first semblances of life. An achievement overlooked by most of the Primordials at the time, however, it struck a distinct chord within those lost spirits.
They had clustered around her shallow lagoons fascinated beyond belief at her accomplishment. It was then they had realised that they wanted life, to have bodies that protected them and contained them. They pleaded to the Goddess and she was touched by their plight and their joy at her creation. She had achieved a miracle and her ilk had ignored it. So she had taken their spirits and housed them in rock and magma, pouring all the life essences she had been distilling, then she had dragged them all down into the Lifestream with her.
In the core of the planet, cocooned within the Lifestream and the planet’s own spirit they had dreamed their bodies into life. Legs to walk and run, wings to fly and tails to swim. They had wanted to roam the whole world and their bodies had been designed to withstand all but the harshest of elements.
It was this achievement that the Primordial Gods, their few offspring and the other spirits had finally recognised for the miracle it was. But Gaia had given them many gifts that would not be recognised for a very long time. Their living bodies shed their cells, joining the primordial mix that was spawning the first recognisable bacteria. The Dragons discovered they could breed and so they did, learning that with each generation they changed and diversified. They were evolving.
In time, many species of Dragon were born, becoming truly alive and actually dying. Their bodies could be injured and healed, their powers waxed and waned. With time, the originals tired of life and returned to the Lifestream, but their progeny had spread far and wide, lasting up until the Middle Ages. They had survived everything the world had thrown at them except the Angels’ eradication campaign. The world had felt their loss, for they had harboured within them Gaia’s own blood. They were her gift to the world, forever shedding magic from their skin and keeping the world vibrant.
The Angels had many things to answer for, their actions had cost the world so much of its vibrancy.
But now things were changing. Sariel was the Goddess of Chaos, bringing Chaos in her wake. Her actions were upsetting the imposed order. Tiamat herself was exceptionally strong in Chaos, even for a Primordial Goddess, only Gaia had more. No non-Primordial had ever had more than a pittance of Chaos, except Hecate, who had managed to accumulate a considerable amount. She realised now that Sariel was the answer to their prayers. She had reignited the world, yes, but her actions in Hell showed a young woman with a pure heart. Something never before seen in the Divine.
Because of her, billions of tortured souls had been allowed to finally return to the Lifestream, and their power to flow through the world. Great injustices had been overturned, and the victims freed. Lucifer was no longer the Beast, Simurgh was no longer the Ziz, she and Bahamut were no longer Behemoth, Jörmungandr and Python were no longer Leviathan. Because of her actions, species that had gone extinct had been given a second chance and were now walking the Surface. Gods walked amongst Humans again, Medusa and Asterion had been freed. So had the Centaurs and Chiron.
