War still raged in the Fertile Crescent and beyond. Erra’s great forces decimated many, his opposition beginning to crumble in the face of such savagery. That evening saw the King of Sunset upon his throne in the temple at the center of Akkad. The grand city, fashioned after Paradise when Erra shared those secrets to the Lost, had been built in his name and thus his power was at its greatest here. With every victory, faith from his people became stronger, a veritable force he felt skimming across his skin like a touch the moment he returned to the metropolis.
His return was perpetuated by the conclusion of his time in Babylon. Understanding the Seven Warriors gifted to him by Anu were more a detriment to his cause, Erra had used much power in sealing them, leaving their power trapped in totems that represented their aspects. These he buried deep within the earth, so that they may rest and be undisturbed until such a time he chose to restore them. If he ever did. Needing a quick recovery so he might continue his brutal conquest, he came home. Or, as close to home as ever there would be for him in this world. Met with gifts, praise and offerings, it was with a malevolent warmth that he beheld his throne room, blood still wet splattered the tile where a sacrifice in his name had been made.
The silence was disturbed by the appearance of Ishum, his trusted attendant. The lesser deity had a look of pinched reserve across his features as he stopped before Erra’s throne and bowed. “I bring tidings,” he announced.
“Speak,” Erra replied.
“The Almighty...He has created something new,” Ishum began. “Celestials, of such Grace...possessed of light and virtue. Bound by duty to He on High...they are warriors, and their very presence makes some of our more wicked allies hiss and recoil in pain.”
Erra leaned forward slightly, attention well earned by the news. “He’s created again?” he whispered. The Almighty seemed less inclined towards Creation after He brought forth Erra and his siblings. Perhaps Erra’s crime burdened Him more than He let on, and stifled that former passion. Now it was Erra’s war that moved His hand and he felt a swell of pride that it should be so. It meant the Almighty grew wary of his progress, and Erra would want for nothing more than to frighten Him. Save to kill Him, of course.
“He has. Word came in that one such of these...angels is coming here. Dare we let it enter?” Ishum inquired.
“Of course, I would see this new design and find what threats are meant to be issued in order to get me to call off my war.”
“Majesty,” Ishum said with another bow before taking his leave.
An hour was nothing for one possessing immortality and yet, given the situation, Erra felt each minute as an eternity. Finally, Ishum returned and at his side was a creature possessed of such excruciating beauty, grace and light that Erra immediately detested it...for it made him yearn for those aspects of himself that had been lost. When this burst of rage subsided he could observe the visitor more objectively. He was powerful, Erra could
feel it, but not of a strength that outmatched his own. It would have to be a careful fight should it come down to it, but one he was confident he would win. Of his appearance, he was every bit divinity in his form. Unlike Erra with his ash-colored skin, dark claws and twisted horns, the angel possessed flowing hair, silvery-white as the moon. Azure eyes held all the majesty of the distant stars, a face of adrongynous wonder and brilliant white wings that seemed to draw in light.
Ishum bowed and the angel did as well. At least etiquette was observed.
“I welcome you to the Temple Shamash. I am Erra, King of Sunset. I would know your business here.”
The angel straightened. “I thank you. I am Helel ben Shahar, the morning star, called Heosphoros by some, Lucifer by others.”
“Shining one...Light Bringer,” Erra sneered. “Of course it would be you to seek an audience with me...why have you come here?”
“You must know why I come,” the angel replied. “It is for the death you cause, I seek its end. You and the monsters you’ve unleashed...it is time to quell your rage. I came to seek a peaceful means for this, but I am prepared to lead my warriors against you if diplomacy does not interest you.”
Erra scrutinized this eager peace-seeker and smirked. “An odd means to go about it, an olive branch disguising the sword. You don’t want this to end peacefully at all, rather...you’d like a chance to prove yourself, hm?”
Ishum claimed this new creation was bound by duty, and Erra did not doubt his attendant’s information, but it seemed as though Lucifer may not be so duty-stricken as he should be. Wonderful. He could relate to that, better he could use that. Upon his first look at this beautiful thing he knew how much effort the Almighty had exerted to bring these angels to light. These weapons of He on High would be crafted with especially sharp edges, it was only natural Erra should seek to turn those edges against their maker.
“I have no need to prove myself, for I have His love and it is enough for me.”
Erra scoffed, the vestiges of his temper stirring within again. He once had that love, no longer. Never again. “You have it for now,” he replied, the venom he meant to inject into his words replaced instead with that quiet melancholy that existed beneath his wrath. “But you...there is a spirit you possess not unlike the one which led to my exile. Tread carefully with your ‘doting’ Creator, His love is as fickle as a feather caught in the wind.”
It struck the angel, Erra could see that it weighed heavily behind that noble brow. There like a flash of lightning before hidden by stoic serenity once more. “You will not end your campaign, O’ King of Sunset?” he asked.
“No, Helel ben Shahar. I will not, I am a blight upon the world and I will consume it all.”
“Then I shall meet you on the fields,” the angel said, bowing once again.
“So shall it be,” Erra agreed, waving a hand to dismiss him. “Ishum, see that he is escorted safely from Akkad.”
“My king,” Ishum responded, taking his leave with the angel.
Sword met spear in a harsh clash, so strong that sound burst outward from them like a clap of thunder. Erra grinned viciously, shifting his grip on the shaft of the spear and using his immense strength to push Lucifer away from him. The angel expanded brilliant wings, halting the momentum of the shove to remain in striking range. He thrust with his sword, Erra was ready, however, and stepped aside. Below his immense form, his followers clashed with the army of the Almighty. Those humans who fought for him were little match to the angels, but the likes of the Fomorians and his fellow deities made it clear this would soon become a war of attrition. For the love of carnage possessed by Erra’s forces, this mattered not at all. To die in battle would be a glorious end, to live to fight longer just as well.
Even Erra and Lucifer became locked in a contest where fortune may favor the outcome rather than skill. Erra was stronger, but his large size made him slower than the angel, who was a master of flight as well as with the sword. In the end, it was the interference of another that decided the battle that day. Lucifer managed to get in close and slashed, the blade catching Erra’s cheek and splitting skin. While it excited him to have such a challenge, it was an injury that moved Ishum to join the fray. Erra had lashed out with the end of his spear, something Lucifer may have blocked or avoided had Ishum not fired a flaming arrow at the angel, calling out to his king in concern. Lucifer dodged the arrow, but the brunt of Erra’s blow hit him heavily and sent him careening through the skies before he crashed down into the earth. Erra’s blazing eyes locked on Ishum.
“Do not overstep your bounds!” he snapped. “I would call on you if I needed you! Now support our left flank, it’s being overrun!”
Ishum pressed his lips together to keep words at bay and nodded, rushing off to do as he was bid. Erra made his way to where Lucifer fell and came across the injured angel at the base of a large rise. He hunkered down, seeing that the magnificent, golden breastplate was cracked and blood trickled from his mouth, starkly contrasting with pale skin.
“I imagine that would cause some internal damage,” Erra said conversationally. “It is a pity you did not have a fair means to prove yourself. I
should kill you were you lay—”
“Then do so! I will die in His name if that is my fate!”
“Oh cry off with such nonsense,” Erra chided. “I’m not going to kill you. I would have another battle with you, just you and I. Do you accept?”
A long pause followed the question, before he answered “yes.”
They would not meet for many moons.
When they did, it was at E-gish-shir-gal, the house of the great light. Not a place of war, but one of worship. Erra had gone to Ur to dictate orders to his generals before retiring to this place. Silence was rare this fortnight past and he took this moment to relish the absence of calamitous dins. Lucifer did not attempt to catch him unawares, rather coming heavy of step before calling out to him in greeting. Erra turned to face him, and saw grievous injuries were no more.
“Would you bring the burden of war to such a place?” Erra asked.
“I did not come to fight,” Lucifer admitted. “I...I have questions.”
Erra assessed him a moment, then invited him closer. Lucifer stepped under the archway and joined Erra at the center of the temple. “What questions?”
“It is forbidden to speak of you in the Silver City,” the angel began. Erra wrinkled his nose at the comment, but did not interrupt. “Yet I wonder if...perhaps He has gone too far.”
When Lucifer fell silent after this declaration, Erra sighed. “Wonderfully gifted as I am, reading thoughts is not one of my talents. Be forthright, angel of God.”
“He speaks of...massacre. Starting anew. Making this world
His world. Free of the influence of your kind, your followers destroyed, your deeds erased. He says it is necessary for true peace, to make this paradise that mirrors the glory of God. In order to do that, everything about you must cease. It has me wondering...what was it that you did to earn such harsh measures?”
Erra stared coldly at the angel. The Almighty would stay hidden no doubt, striking down from above to finish what Erra started and destroy the world. It would be forgotten, his history struck from thought as all those who knew him would be gone. And He would claim it a mercy, He would declare it
good even if he took as many lives as Erra had. They did not sing praise unto the Alpha and Omega and thus, they were not worthy in His eyes.
“I would normally tell another who asked that it is not their story to know. But for you who possesses enough sense to doubt...know that what I did was hardly a crime at all. Before me, before your God, before everything there was darkness. It sang a lonely dirge and I, I thought to give it form. Something of my own. Although God forbade me and my siblings from Darkness, He did so because it was something He did not understand. While I’ll admit my motivations were mostly selfish, I also wished to soothe His worries by presenting Darkness in a form liken to our own. Instead...He stripped me of my light and made me a poison, a blight on the world. It is now my nature to wage war, to stir chaos, and I would see this world destroyed if it meant getting my freedom from what I once nurtured and now, never can again.”
“You opposed His will,” Lucifer replied.
“Yes,” Erra hissed. “Because I judged that it was
good to question. He is not infallible, son of morning. He only demands that you treat Him as if He is! Think of what He plans! To sow destruction the same as I but it is not for the good of this world. No. It is so that He can make this
His world as you said, because His greed and His need to control is indomitable and it may yet ruin us all!”
“I...I should not have come here.”
“Why? Because the truth is difficult to hear?”
“Sometimes the right thing...may seem like the wrong until after the task is done…”
“You may refer to His plan but I say it better applies to free will. Your free will. You have it, and perhaps all the angels do but none who even realize it beneath their piteous need to cleave to duty.
Use it. Trust your instincts, Lucifer. It may carry consequences, but so too does it carry reward. I am no longer blinded by faith and love for a Creator who loves only Himself.”
Lucifer shook his head, backing away until he was out under the open sky again. Great wings beat and lifted him from the temple, taking him away into the night.
The end began with something new. She as bright as he once was, a goddess of the sun. Loathsome creature, he despised her immediately for suspecting his prior essence was gifted unto her by the Almighty, her father. She distracted Darkness, took Erra’s creation away and stirred that heart to flame, and thus Solaris became a name spoken as a curse. It was Erra who struck at his own creation, at the source for all this conflict. And this signalled a change, it signalled He on High to act.
The skies were set ablaze; choking, suffocating and unfit for human life. The water became toxic; both in touch and in drink and thus the thirst claimed the more resilient. Cities were wiped from the face of the earth and without the faith of the populace to sustain them, many of the pantheons crumbled apart and faded from thought. The grounds opened beneath the feet of those more inhuman forces, casting the likes of the Fomorians to the deep, trapped beneath the heavy, roiling oceans that became fiercely treacherous. In a last effort for survival, those more powerful pantheons retreated to their seats of power to ride out this storm, but of humanity…
It was no more.
The world was left barren. The only life remained in those realms beyond the mundane one, but their ways were closed; fear keeping them locked tight.
He survived. Stubbornness made him survive. But he no longer had his people and without them, his power diminished until he could no longer sustain his true form. He instead took on a human guise, a face he would possess for eons to come. And he wandered that barren earth that now matched his corrupted state, lamenting the fact he had no chance to face the Almighty directly. If He did not hide behind the gates of the Silver City…
The sun emerged again eventually, and with it the genesis of life repeated; vegetation, trees, oceans settled and rivers ran anew, and then there came animals. Birds flitting across skies no longer gray, but blue.
In the ruins of the Shamash Temple, which now also served as faithful Ishum’s tomb, he let his hatred and his anger consume him.
So when Lucifer came to the Temple, Erra lashed out and set his fingers digging in the alabaster skin of the angel’s throat. The flesh turned a brilliant red, as nothing would extinguish the heat of the scorching sun. “What do you want?” he demanded.
“P-please,” Lucifer choked out, and weariness more than mercy stayed Erra’s hand and had him loosen his hold. “I think you were right.”
“It’s too late for it to matter now.”
Lucifer pressed on anyway. “He has spoken His plan of Divine Incarnation to us, the Heavenly Host. That a nature, lower than us, is to be united to the Person of God the Son. After all we did for Him, the pain of the war and He wishes for us to bow and sing praises...to His humanity. And what of our sacrifices? They are not counted at all for it is our
duty and we should feel pride in carrying it out. I lost so many, too many, in our war, King of Sunset, to take this as anything but an insult. Perhaps He thinks we’re incapable of more, but I could show Him...”
“That you’re closer to Him than He thinks? You are you know, so was I. I think you could stop Him, He’s busy planning a new creation, yes? But it’s up to you.”
“My mind was already set on the matter. I have many of the angels on my side and we will strike soon, I just...if I should end up cast from Heaven. May I find you here again?”
Erra laughed. “What, so we can spend eternity brooding together? I care not what you do. If you Fall and I’m in the mood for your company, you’ll know then. If you succeed...well, perhaps we’ll know then.”
Lucifer surprised him somewhat when he held a hand out to him. Erra regarded it a brief moment before he took it. “I believe He did not want us to speak of you because your punishment was unjust. If I am to fail, I do not think it will be a great failure should you permit me to learn more from you.”
“Then my company you will keep...but only if you fail,” Erra replied. “Embrace your free will then, Lucifer, and raise your head rather than bow it.”
Lucifer nodded and they released their hands as Lucifer vanished in a rush of wings to challenge the Almighty.
⚜
