Fear gripped my heart as I watched Elisabeth being swallowed up in a curtain of nothingness, but I refused to believe that I was too late.As long as I could still feel her in my heart, then she wasn’t lost to me, and I also refused to believe that God would irrevocably damage me like that.He knew that I couldn’t exist without her, and he knew the same of her.
At any rate, before I could think about it too much, a roll of thunder hit my ears as the ground shook dangerously, and I watched in stunned fascination as about fifty people materialized out of nowhere, and they looked as if they had come from every corner of the earth.I stood before them all, and the only person that I recognized from his picture was Luther Daxton.Still, seeing him among the crowd told me everything that I needed to know about who these people were and why they were here.
Ready to do what needed to be done, I was about to direct them to the other side of the chasm when another roll of thunder hit my ears, but this time, it was loud enough to rattle my brain, and I had to place my hands over my ears to keep them from bursting open.Every atom in my body was threatening to shatter into a million pieces, and if this was how the demons were going to fight, then there was no way that we’d be able to beat them.
However, just when I thought that I couldn’t take it anymore, the roar stopped, and an army of angels assembled at the edge of the chasm as I lowered my hands from my ears.Now, while I’d already seen Ramiel in all his glory, you’d think that I’d be prepared for the sight before me, but nothing could ever prepare someone for the breathtaking miracle that was one of God’s actual angels.
An immediate shrill erupted from the other side of the chasm, and it never occurred to me that a demon could actually feel agony from an angel being so nearby.All these years, I’d bought into the commercial tellings of angels, demons, and the war that they always waged against one another.How arrogant were we that we ever thought that we could describe such magnificence on paper.
When the tallest angel made his way towards me, everyone else took a step back, and while I wasn’t sure, I didn’t care.All I cared about was that Elisabeth had been taken, and I needed to get to her as quickly as possible.Nonetheless, thanks to Ramiel, I knew who the angel was, and I knew now why Revelations had to take place on holy land.There was no way that us humans could ever be in the presence of an angel and still be able to function normally.Their presence was simply too much for any one person to process.
“Michael,” I said when he was finally standing before me, my six-foot-three frame needing to look up to keep eye contact.
“Lazarus,” he replied, his voice a deep vibration of tones that shook my eardrums a bit.“Are you ready?”
I immediately nodded.“Yes.”
“Are youallready?”
I had no idea how I knew, but I did.“Yes, we are all ready.”
Looking down at me, his bright blue eyes glowing and swirling in the same way that Ramiel’s had, he said, “Just remember that you are going after her soul, not her body, and everything will be as it is meant to be.”
The shrieks on the other side were getting louder and louder, and fear gripped my heart again, afraid that they might hurt her, even though Ramiel had sworn to me that Elisabeth would be fine.They wanted her for what she was to God, and so it made sense that they wouldn’t kill her until they had what they wanted, but still.I loved her too much for reason to matter right now.
With their cries echoing louder, my right shoulder dropped when I felt the sudden weight of a sword in my hand, the perfect armament for a Biblical battle.I also wasn’t the only one to be holding such a weapon in their hand.Everyone else that’d been chosen for this were also holding swords, and they all looked ready to fight to the death to get Elisabeth back.
Suddenly, the ground began to tremble again, only this time, it was shifting, closing the chasm that separated us from Elisabeth and the legion of demons that had her.I felt Michael’s hand on my shoulder, but instead of feeling a peaceful calm that I had always imagined was accompanied by angels, his touch burned, his hand covering over half of my arm and shoulder.
“Do not look for her,” he advised.“Let her guide you.”
I nodded again, knowing that feeling her was the key.As long as mine and Elisabeth’s souls were one, then I could feel that she was still safe.
The second that the chasm closed, Michael turned from me, then let out a thunderous roar that shook the energy around us.I watched as he and the other angels raised their swords, their wings beautiful weapons of their own.
It wasn’t until they were in the air that I could see exactly what we were up against.The red eyes and black apparitions were gone, no longer the enemy on the other side.Instead, the demons were standing in their true forms, unholy creatures that resembled evil in its purest form.They were a collage of hooves, horns, talons, tails, and they really were every nightmare that you had ever dreamt of as a child.
Raising my sword, I let out a roar of my own, then raced into the fray to find Elisabeth.Immediately, the others joined me, and though some of the demons weren’t equipped with their own swords, they still all had weapons of their own, and it was clear that some of us were not going to get out of here unscathed.
Fight for your souls.
The thought echoed through my mind, and that’s when I stopped worrying about dying physically.It was finally registering what this was and what we were doing, and when the first demon came charging my way, I met him halfway, the sword in my hand having a mind and talent of its own.As it came down on the evil that surrounded us, it was obvious that our weapons were made of something more than just your common metals.Though I couldn’t feel any resistance as I sliced the demon in half, the fire that rose from within and the shrieks of anguish were a clear indication that I’d gotten this win.
Wielding the weapon like I’d been born for this moment, I raged through the crowd of demons that were trying to keep me from Elisabeth, and while I was fighting blindly, I still knew in which direction I needed to go.Slicing through the evil with no regard for my own life, I continued to carve a path through the sounds of metal on metal, war cries, and shrieks of anguish.I fought like a man possessed, but it wasn’t lost on me that we all were.
What felt like hours later, I made my way to another chasm, and my corporeal self was a bloody mess as I stood on the edge, my chest heaving, my eyes burning, the sword still heavy in my hand, and though the battle was still happening at my back, all I could see was Elisabeth standing on the other side of the chasm.
She was surrounded by four demons that I didn’t recognize, but then I wouldn’t.However, after this, I was going to learn everything that there was to know about Heaven and Hell, even if it took me the rest of my life.As long as Elisabeth was what Ramiel had called a gateway, then I wasn’t naïve enough to believe that this would be the one and only time that they’d come after her.Her soul was always going to be at risk, and as long as I had breath in my lungs, I was going to be there to protect her.
“And so he made it,” the biggest of the demons hissed, his voice somehow deeper but louder than I was used to.
Even though I knew that everyone was holding the battle at bay behind me, I still knew that I didn’t have time for this bullshit.If he was talking to me, it was to distract me from getting to Elisabeth, and that wasn’t going to happen.I also knew that Michael wasn’t going to help me with the second chasm that separated me from Elisabeth.Now, how I knew that?I wasn’t sure; I just knew it.
“And to think that we were just starting to have some fun,” a second demon hissed, and that’s when I noticed the trickle of blood that was flowing down Elisabeth’s neck.
I saw red.
Leaving everyone to fight it out behind me, I stepped back as much as I could before racing towards the edge of the chasm, then leaping over the gaping pit of darkness that led straight to Hell.With everything that I had, I propelled myself to the other side, and when I stuck my sword into the rock, it was enough to haul me over to the other side, and just as easily as it had supported me, I was able to pull it from the earth.
