Testament of An Archangel

Chapter 15

“He will sense us.” I pointed out.

“Remiel, he already knows we are here. We were not skilled enough at hiding it seems. Come.”

We joined Uriel. As soon as we manifested the two creations that stood on either side of Elohim stepped forward, placing themselves between Elohim and us. One had Lucifer's pale gold hair and the other reminded me of Uriel.

Michael's aura flared, a spear appeared in his hand. “You dare?”

Elohim ignored us and turned Adam and the new female towards the forest. “This is your world my children, your garden of safety. Because I love and cherish you I am gifting you with this. Here you will be safe from harm, from tainting. I have created guardians for you. They shall watch over you when I cannot. If you are ever in danger just call for them and they will appear to help you. All I ask in return my children is that you always love and listen to me, that you do what I say for I created you and know what's best for you.”

“Of course Great One,” Adam replied.

“Now what of these others?” Elohim gestured to us.

The female spoke, “They are not to be trusted. They betrayed you and will lead us astray. You created us and love us.”

Elohim finally looked at us, his lips twisted into a smile laden with superiority and utter dismissal of us. “Indeed, Eve. Well done. Go now. Explore the world I have gifted you. Everything you shall need is there.”

Adam and Eve bowed to him and walked away. None of us could manage to speak a single word. Elohim watched us for a few moments, walked in between his winged creations and up to Michael.

“The strongest one I made in your image. When you pierced both Lucifer and I earlier, I knew you would never join me. You, however, were the only one who hadn't outright condemned me or thought me mad. I wanted to honor that.”

Michael stepped away from him, “You are mad. I did not want to see it before, but now I have no choice.” He leveled his spear towards Elohim's chest. The rest of us moved away. Lavender tinted my vision, power vibrated from my hands. The air crackled and hissed as all my brothers flared their auras and prepared for a battle.

Elohim threw his head back, laughed and raised his hand. The sound of wings hammered the air around us and we were surrounded by his creations, their weapons were drawn and power resonated between them and him. “Individually they are weaker than you, but together and with me here it is a much different situation,” Elohim stated.

“Interesting,” Lucifer's calm, cold voice came from behind Elohim. “They failed to sense me though. Your skills are still lacking.”

Instantly Elohim spun and all seven of his creations shifted to surround Lucifer instead of us. Lucifer eyed the one that most resembled him, “I am disappointed brother,” Condescension dripped from his words, “I would have thought you would have made this one more hideous and used it as some sort of evil thing to scare them.”

“You may have betrayed me Lucifer,” Elohim replied, his tone wary. “But without you I could not have created either Adam, Eve or these masterpieces.”

“Ah,” Lucifer said as he walked closer towards it, “So you wanted to honor me as you did Michael?”

“Perhaps.” Elohim made a small gesture and it lunged towards Lucifer who shifted and reappeared next to it. He lifted his hand and Elohim's creation was stopped mid stride and slowly rose above the ground.

“Father!” It cried as it struggled against Lucifer's hold.

“Well?” Lucifer taunted. “Do you truly care for this thing Elohim or will you merely discard it and build another one if I destroy it?”

We felt Lucifer's power build and it started to shriek as it's wings turned black and it's feet started to resemble hooves.

“No!!” Elohim raged and the rest of his winged guardians surged towards Lucifer, but to no avail. Lucifer merely shifted out of their way while continuing to corrupt the one he was holding. Surging walls of blazing energy erupted from Elohim. We all sensed where Lucifer was going to appear next, or so we thought. Elohim spun and violently flung his arm out. A tree trunk thick stream of molten energy flowed towards where sensed Lucifer would be but Lucifer did not appear, the creation did.

It's skin was the color of charred wood, the night black wings engulfed the ground around it in shadows and it's hands had been turned into misshapen claws. Yet it's face was the most horrendous change of all. Lucifer had made it beautiful, a mirror image of his own, but had somehow stripped it of all rational thought and filled it with violence and hate. It bounded out of the way of Elohim's power and drove itself with immense wing strokes directly at him. Elohim's version of Michael intercepted it, it's sword taking the corrupted one in the chest. The scream it emitted was not filled with pain, but with a lust for battle. It grabbed the sword from the other one's hand and ripped the sword from it's chest and plunged it into the chest of the one that resembled Michael, locking eyes with Elohim as it did so.

“Enough!” Elohim snapped, “I made you! You belong to me!”

We felt Elohim reach out and try to force his will onto it. The corrupted one paused, dropped the sword and flung it's hands over it's ears. “What's happening to me? Father help!” It dropped to it's knees, shuddering then slowly collapsed in pain.

Lucifer's dark laugh caressed the air around us although we could not see him. “As I said Elohim, your skills are still lacking. He's a much better representation of me now. None of your creations are safe from me, brother. They never will be.”

Elohim clenched his fists, “My skills are lacking?” he spat out. “You only corrupt the greatness that I create. You are nothing without me! All of you are nothing!” He stalked to the one that looked like Michael, it had crumpled onto it's side as blood flowed from it's chest. Elohim bent down, healed it's wound and handed it the sword, “Kill the tainted one,” he commanded. It pushed it's way to it's feet, flexed it wings and plunged the sword through the chest of the corrupted one who gasped as all it's muscles tightened for a brief moment, then went limp.

“The universe means nothing to me now.” Elohim declared, “I have my own world, my own universe to control. If Lucifer or any of you try to take that from me, I will destroy everything we have ever created.”

Lucifer manifested in front of us, facing Elohim. “You lack the courage to do that Elohim. You refuse to even attack me, much less Michael or the rest. Fear not, they will not harm you or your world. That is my task, one that I shall dedicate the rest of eternity to. Unless you'd like to finish this once and for all.” As he spoke those words the air around him erupted into lighting and hail. Elohim's creations covered themselves with their wings to protect their skin from assault of ice and exploding earth as the lighting struck the ground around us.

Elohim's eyes dropped from Lucifer and landed on the body of the creation that Lucifer had corrupted in mere minutes. He looked at us, then at his remaining guardians. The numbers were not in his favor and he knew it. His creation of his guardians had solidified us against him. I was never sure why he thought that there could have be any other outcome once he had taken that step. He turned away from us, his guardians did the same. Lucifer brought the hail and lighting to an end.

“As I thought. Practice your skills Elohim, perhaps one day you will create something that I will not be able to turn against you.” He looked over his shoulder, his eyes were empty as he met our eyes. “Leave brothers. You have other things to attend to.”

What choice did we have?