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JEDIAH’S HEAD BURST through the Seine River’s surface. Foul bacterial water swept in his mouth, attempting to fill his human lungs. All the while, he hugged Chloe tight and kicked desperately to keep her face above water. He was thankful for the Seine’s powerful current. Architectures and buildings flew past as it carried them both far from Elazar, but Jediah now feared a more present danger. The contaminated river’s frigid grip stabbed his entire body. He dared not think of what it was doing to Chloe.
Desperate, Jediah nearly ran them both into a docked ferry boat in his struggle for the shore. The river soon narrowed into a thin channel. There were elevated sidewalks on each side, and Jediah noticed a bridge that stretched above, one capable of providing shelter from the dismal rain.
Stroking with one arm, he reached the rough wall and dragged himself and Chloe onto the solid concrete. He tasted copper as his physical body convulsed and evicted the water.
Chloe, however, didn’t cough. Nor did she stir from the rain on her face.
Jediah hacked, but tucked her under his torso and rushed her under the bridge. Now sheltered from the storm, he plopped down, exhausted. The yellow street-lamps turned the deluge on either side of them into glinting curtains that cut them off from the rest of the world. He shivered terribly from the wet and wished his human form could activate his dormant energy. At least it would help his damp clothes dry, but a greater concern troubled him.
Jediah searched Chloe’s face for signs of life, but her willowy body laid in his arms, cold and still. His body vibrated to his own catching breaths. He fought tears as he gently tried to dry her bare head with his soaked sleeve. “Come on, Chloe. No one’s come for your breath of life yet. You’re okay. Please, just open your eyes for me, sweetheart.”
Her lips went from blue to purple. Her body became a waxen figure, and the incomplete Mark on her chest dimmed.
Jediah shook his head. He resisted it but began accepting the terrible reality. He was losing her. She’d be lost to the loving Father who loved her most. She’d be lost to a family she could have had but would never meet. Then—the ultimate death—she’d be lost to memory.
That final thought broke Jediah. The will to stay strong abandoned him. His neck and face heated. His lungs quaked as he shook and sobbed into her shoulder. The angel could do little else than hug her tighter, croaking his apologies for bringing this nightmare down upon her. “Not yet, Lord. Not yet. More time,” he pleaded. “By Your merciful nature, Yahweh. Grant her more time.”
An icy drop smacked the back of Jediah’s neck. He jolted and angrily rubbed the spot where it stung. “Curse this physical form!” he spat.
Jediah froze. Caught in the moment, he became more aware of the dying cells all across his skin—the same strange sensation he, an angel, could never get used to. Jediah re-examined his hand and its sinews, veins, and tissues. Then it hit him. When he crossed into the first realm, his being adopted the temporal limits of that temporal realm.
My being adopted the realm!
A new hope skyrocketed within him. Jediah stared at Chloe’s ghastly pallor. Is it possible? Could I bring her into the second realm and outside time’s reach? Jediah wasn’t sure what might happen with such an audacious plan. No living mortal had entered their realm—at least, not since Apostle John of the Patmos Isle was drawn into the spiritual plain to write the Scripture’s final pages. However, if it be God’s will, Jediah knew, it could very well preserve her life. It had to.
Pressing a palm to Chloe’s forehead, Jediah focused. He remembered how energy shifting worked. He wasn’t sure if his present physical form could withstand the process, but Chloe’s ebbing life couldn’t wait. It was now or never.
Jediah gritted his teeth. By a God given miracle, his angelic energy awakened, but as he suspected, his human body wasn’t designed to handle it. His organs twisted in cramped knots, as energy moved from his back to his arm. Sweat beaded his forehead. It rippled up his muscles and ate his delicate flesh alive until his energy reached his hand. His rigid fingers shook and burned, but he forged through the needling pain. Energy seeped out of his fingertips to soak through her skin, and the portions of energy he shared with her reached her soul. Chloe was ready to be drawn into his world.
“Lord,” Jediah prayed, “be glorified in this.” He shed his mortal shell, and she began to change along with him.
***
Laszio’s eyes fluttered. He felt a sticky substance drying on his brow. The shambles surrounding him formed a burrow with a single hole big enough to crawl through just ahead of him. His mind whirred to piece his memories together. Lucifer had blasted them at point blank range. He laid waste to the caves. No doubt he had reached the Abyss’s center by now or was about to.
Laszio lifted himself on sore arms. His tender knees screamed. Raising his stick in his hand, he discovered a broken cord with a frayed end attached to it and the opposite stick missing. He cast the useless weapon aside, and a sudden throbbing in his back flared. Laszio checked over his shoulder. A stump remained where his right wing used to be. Worried for Eran, he called out for him.
Eran mumbled in response. He laid just behind Laszio, and his remaining right wing twitched as he tried to unfurl it.
“Let’s go, brother,” Laszio said. “Our work’s not done yet.” Chips bit Laszio’s hands as he crawled. Meeting a slope, he dragged himself up on bleeding elbows and emerged from the mess. Realizing there were no sounds behind him, he twisted around. Eran hadn’t moved. His face still laid in the dirt.
Laszio slid back down the slope and offered a hand. “Hey. Did you hear me, Eran? We’ve got work to do. Get up.”
Eran lifted weary eyes.
Unnerved by his friend’s lost expression, Laszio scooted in closer. “Look. So Lucifer used the key and got the best of us. It’s still not over.”
“How can it not be over?” Eran said as he punched the dirt. “Our brothers are completely crushed. They trusted me. They put their faith in me, and I got them buried in gravel.”
“Hey, we failed,” Laszio corrected. “And so what? Jediah makes tough calls like that all the time. He’s not always right either. Besides, there are two things I noticed that made goading Lucifer into trashing the cave a fantastically good thing. One, God is still on the Throne. Ain’t nothin’ changing that. And two, I’m willing to bet that smart-aleck just wiped out his entire army along with ours with that stunt.”
At that, Eran’s back shot up, straight as a rod. “Really?”
“Wouldn’t surprise me a bit,” Laszio said with a grin. “It helps that I listened for once to a brilliant genius who told me, ‘God uses His weakest for His greatest glories.’” Laszio again offered his hand.
***
Jediah cradled Chloe close. As much of a feather weight as she always was, she weighed even less in the spiritual realm. It still rained in the first realm, but the weather had little sway in the second.
Jediah wandered the damp Paris streets, anxious to return her to her family, but he hit a major problem. He had no clue where to take Chloe or who to leave her with. The crash site was out of the question so long as Elazar was at large. The only human guardian he’d recognize was her grandfather. Chloe’s guardian angel was another he’d like to find, but since Elazar had impersonated him, Jediah hated to think about what he might have done to the real one. No option remained besides ‘keep moving’. She was safest so long as they didn’t linger in one spot.
Careful to support her neck, Jediah propped Chloe up with his arm, and she subconsciously snuggled into his shoulder. It had taken mere seconds for the spiritual realm to affect her. Her furrowed brow had smoothed. The tired bags under her eyes were erased, and she rested in contented sleep. A formerly lost vitality returned to the edges of her smile and glowed in her skin. Nothing could have comforted Jediah more. He even wondered, if she stayed there long enough, would it cure her illness and regrow her hair? His smile broadened. Though yet unsaved, Christ’s abounding love still showed her a measure of His grace and mercy.
A different kind of protective drive suddenly consumed Jediah, and he pondered if this was what fathers felt when holding their daughters. Though her future was a mystery and her eternity yet uncertain to him, visions of her fully grown and walking with the Lord played in Jediah’s mind. He saw her bloom. He envisioned her wedding, her children, and the family Christ might grant her.
Moved by this hope, Jediah sang. He kept his voice low and the ballad tender so as not to disturb her. His ancient melody, sung in the Celestial tongue, recounted God’s deeds through the ages, and every once in a while, he could almost swear she was awake and listening.
Minutes passed. Jediah entered a dreary garden. The miserable weather spoiled its budding flowers, and bending trees sagged from soaked bark. The walkway weaved through the weeping willows, and at the first curve, a bench came into view.
Jediah paused. Just past a curtain of leaves, Elazar sat there, staring off toward the Seine where he himself must have washed up.
Jediah wanted to bolt at first but knew losing visual on Elazar was riskier. Elazar’s empathic sense would have picked up his and Chloe’s presence already.
Hugging Chloe close, Jediah neared the bench.
Elazar didn’t turn his head as he spoke. “Foolish of you to bring her here. Much less into our realm.”
“I had no choice,” Jediah said in a tired monotone.
Elazar stood up from his seat. He walked toward Jediah, but his steps faltered, weaker than usual. Jediah realized he had a hand pressed over the wet, gaping wound in his chest—the one when he first ran him through in the ambulance.
Elazar tossed Jediah’s sword at his feet. “You dropped that,” he stated, as he raised his half-healed palms, both still scarred from Alameth’s acidic pellets. “Come. Let’s finish this.”
“And when exactly is it finished, Elazar?” Jediah shot back. “When will you ever be finished? Do oceans need to dry and the moon to bleed?”
“My vengeance isn’t complete until you’re broken. Fight me!”
Jediah stared Elazar down. He stroked Chloe’s thin arm. “I have more important things to do than to indulge your petty grudge.”
Elazar clenched his teeth. The horrid scar glowed bright crimson. “You said it yourself,” he said. “There’s nothing left in me but hate. I’m your worst enemy, so what are you waiting for? Finish what you started!”
“Is one scar truly what all this is about?” Jediah barked. “One careless scratch merits war?”
“You hate me!” Elazar screamed. “You acted like you cared about me! Acted like you trusted me! Then you lash me like an animal!” To Jediah’s bitter shock, Elazar’s mood turned on a dime. He quivered as he devolved into an emotional wreck. “You called me radical! Called me traitor! I put my faith in you... And it turned out you never cared about me to begin with.”
Taken aback, Jediah shook his head and countered in a matter-of-fact tone, “I never hated you, Elazar.”
“Stop lying to me! I orchestrated the slaughter of millions. I tormented you and you brothers. I stole your wings and your dignity. You can’t possibly not hate me.” Elazar shuddered during his rant, and tears streamed from his good eye.
Suddenly, Jediah’s eyes were opened to the leftover speck that remained of the former Elazar’s shriveled heart—the last surviving piece. Jediah’s voice warbled as he spoke, “You mourned our friendship too, didn’t you. You’re a cold creature, Elazar. There is no saving you... yet even an unrepentant heart like yours can weep for what’s lost. I didn’t consider it before, but it’s clear to me now. After all this time, you suffered from guilt just as much and just long as I have.”
“I’m not guilty, you idiot,” Elazar retorted. “I’m ashamed of nothing. Nothing!”
“No,” Jediah countered. “You’re not. And you know it.” Moistening his lips, he looked Elazar square in the eye. “Even now, you’re still scraping to wipe the guilt clean.”
Elazar dipped his chin. The angle added a sinister slant to his glare. “Shut. Up.”
“Why else hadn’t your revenge satisfied you?” Jediah asked. “You’ve so convinced yourself payback would restore your happiness, that you’ve blinded yourself from what you need.”
“I said shut up!” Elazar yelled.
Jediah shook his head. “And yet you refuse what you need.”
“What? God’s forgiveness?” the demon spat.
Jediah stared at the pavement. “You don’t want forgiveness, Elazar. You want justification. You want my genuine hate to prove you were in your rights to break your vows to God. Is that not so? If I ever do hate you, you’d get your justification... you’d win.” Jediah looked up. “I see right through you. This revenge is your attempt to clear your conscious.”
Elazar reached for his dagger. “I tire of your lies,” he growled. “Admit the truth.”
Demon and angel shared the silence.
Closing his eyes, Jediah answered in as tranquil a voice as he could. “Then hear me now, Elazar, and may God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if what I say bears any falsehood... Elazar, whether you accept it or not-—” Jediah struggled against his thickening voice. “You were my brother. I loved you. I still love you, and I’ll continue to love you. And loving you, despite what you’ve become, agonizes me more than anything under heaven. Surely, that’s enough revenge to satisfy you.”
Elazar’s mouth gaped. His grip on the dagger faltered, and his eyebrows raised in what appeared to be relief. His eye danced around, lost and unsure, but then his countenance hardened. He raised his dagger. Jediah stepped back as he pointed it at Chloe. “Sure. Go on. Keep lying,” Elazar motioned a cut across his throat. “But let’s see if you keep saying that after I kill your little princess.”
The furnace in Jediah’s depths rekindled. “You’re. Not. Touching. Her.”
Elazar scoffed. He raised his half-scalded palms, and flickering shields stretched into two long blades.
Jediah laid Chloe down on the bench. He gripped her hand. “Fear not. You’re safe.”
“Ha,” Elazar mocked. “She’ll never know safety again.”
Planting himself between her and Elazar, Jediah picked up his sword and raised it to his foe’s chin level. Their blades touched and scraped slowly. Pressure between their weapons mounted as the strength in their arms met and matched the other.
***
Laszio’s boots skidded to a halt in the Abyss’s center. Eran followed close behind.
Lucifer had passed the prison pools and now fanned his wings, showing off the extra pair for the prisoners’ adulation. “My subjects, your warden is finished, and your deliverer has come!”
Walls rumbled as demons drummed victory chants inside their cells.
Lucifer’s grand robes of blue, purple, and scarlet flowed as he walked. He set himself before Apollyon’s mountainous gates and raised his hands. “Apollyon! Your master commands you. Come forth—”
The cave echoed to a rhythmic thumping. Laszio used his single wing to bat the ground, splashing white light from its quills.
Lucifer dropped his arms and peeked over his shoulder.
“Lucifer!” Laszio called. “I demand the right of single combat! Accept my challenge or forfeit!”
Pivoting around, Lucifer grinned at him and Eran—two battered, flightless, and unarmed soldiers. “Look at you two,” he crooned. “I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.”
“You’re never opening that gate, demon,” Eran retorted. He fanned his single wing and gave the same traditional challenge Laszio had given. “Fight us or surrender!”
Lucifer rolled his eyes. He turned to the cell. “I’ll accept both your challenges in a moment.”
“Don’t try it,” Laszio warned.
Lucifer curled Jediah’s wings in. Red light charged in their roots, and the feathers vibrated so that the quills split apart in messy angles. The crimson colors climbed. Demonic shouts thundered, but then Lucifer flinched. The crowd silenced.
The Devil contorted as one of Jediah’s feathers popped and sputtered thick red. Then another five quills spewed open and caught fire. Lucifer shrieked as a hundred more of Jediah’s feathers joined the nuclear meltdown, dowsing him in the burning winepress of God’s wrath.
“Now, Eran!” Laszio sprinted forward. Eran’s feet matched his, stride for stride, but then Lucifer’s red eyes locked onto them. His remaining four wings drew him up.
Lucifer’s being gained mass, as he mutated into a twisted amalgamation of monsters yet unseen. His hundred arms and legs filled the Abyss. Barbed fur sprouted between slimed scales. Purple poison seeped from his pores. His shadow leeched the color from whatever it touched, and atop a mountain of bulbous eyes sat his grinning head and its four faces, each one set in a cardinal direction.
Laszio stiffened and stumbled backwards. He looked to Eran for encouragement, but Eran shared the same terrified gaze. Still, they clasped hands and refused to run. “Anytime you want, Lord,” Laszio prayed. “Anytime.”
The seconds ticked against them. Lucifer’s five hundred tentacles and paws wrecked the cells. Prisoners escaped with his every step, and the freed demon cherubs sprouted their claws, legs, and scorpion tails to follow him.
Shuddering, Laszio raised his fists and wrapped his single wing to protect his chest.
With acid leaking from his many mouths, Lucifer opened one of his largest four. He arched his neck and hacked up the vomit that pooled in his maw.
Pop!
A comet burst in and detonated a mist bomb between the front set of Lucifer’s eyes. Lucifer toppled, squashing some of his cherubs.
Laszio could have leapt for joy at the lightning that streaked across the ceiling. He pumped Eran’s shoulder. “He made it!”
Akela circled back, shouting, “Hey, Lucifer! How rude to check in early! Your room’s not ready yet!” He landed with a thunderclap next to his comrades. His golden wings buzzed so fast the bouncing ends of his curls crackled static. He beamed at his brothers and waved the note Eran had left for him in his satchel. “Hey. Got your message.”
Laszio clapped Akela’s shoulder. “And not a second too soon, brother.”
“We’re here too!” Nechum declared, as he and Alameth ran in. Nechum’s eyes widened at Lucifer, the lumbering monstrosity. “Um, brothers?” More black and green junk spewed from one of Lucifer’s mouths, and Nechum raised a protective shield. The gunk smothered thickly over the barrier.
***
Careful not to break his own sword with a direct clash, Jediah deflected Elazar’s blade but suffered another cut to his side.
“It’s your fault, you know!” Elazar said, as he sliced a third gash across Jediah’s brow. “She wouldn’t be on my radar if it weren’t for you.” He swiped again, but Jediah ducked. “You know, I never tasted what the human’s call the ‘joys of the flesh’.”
Jediah froze.
Elazar grinned, knowing he struck a nerve. “Maybe, after you’re out of commission, I’ll try it out on her!”
Enraged, Jediah carved into Elazar’s thigh. Then, using his spare energy, he opened a dimensional rift and tackled Elazar right through it into the third spiritual plain. At least Elazar would be that much farther away from Chloe there.
They plopped together in a field of blue-tinted grass. Elazar kicked Jediah off. He lunged, dagger in hand, and sliced a slow cut along Jediah’s jaw. Jediah grabbed Elazar’s wrist, and his arm shook as he tried to redirect the knife. Elazar leaned in and twisted it back. The point pricked the corner of Jediah’s eye and threatened to gouge it out.
Gritting his teeth, Jediah kneed Elazar in the torso. The dagger dropped. Then, after throwing Elazar off, Jediah retrieved his sword and shortened the blade.
Elazar charged.
Jediah threw his sword.
As expected, Elazar’s reflexes kicked in, and he caught it in his bare hands. “That trick won’t save you,” he mocked. His finger touched the hilt. The button triggered, and the sword ran him through; right in the exact spot of the first wound. A look of shock tore through Elazar as he fell backwards into the soft grass.
Sobered by the sight of him, Jediah didn’t withdraw the sword right away.
Elazar, glaring with wide eyes, puffed hisses through his clenched teeth.
Jediah slowly took the hilt, and despite his waning strength, his trembling hand pulled the sword out.
***
“Now,” Laszio and Eran commanded.
Nechum split open the shield. Lucifer’s muck slopped on either side. God’s unfiltered glory consumed all five angels, and their eyes and robes of burning white cast golden beams that contested Lucifer’s shadow.
Opening his hands, Alameth flooded the Abyss in fog just as planned. Their torrents subdued every escapee, chucked them back in their cells, and trapped them inside.
Lucifer howled in frustration. His poisons oozed faster, and their ink bled into Alameth’s mist. Infecting, consuming, and spreading towards Alameth.
Alameth stiffened. He grunted as he got his mist to resist the black disease to a standstill. “Whatever you’re going to do, do it quickly,” he pleaded.
Nechum jumped on Akela’s back and interlocked his legs.
Akela’s wings hummed. “Buckled in?” he asked.
Gripping Akela’s shoulders, Nechum shoved out a breath, then covered them under a pointed shield.
“Alrighty then!” Akela grinned. “Let’s do this!”
Laszio watched them strike Lucifer’s chin first. This was the best idea Eran had yet. Nechum’s invincible shield, paired with Akela’s powerhouse speed, gave Lucifer a run for his money. The Devil stumbled backwards, but before he could even begin to react, Akela and Nechum had already burst from the opposite wall, plowing a massive chunk off his biggest cheek. Lucifer’s arms swatted the air in futile circles. Then the blue-laced golden comet tore off a limb.
Laszio couldn’t imagine Akela and Nechum getting any faster, but Akela somehow split the seconds into milliseconds, then milliseconds into microseconds until his light trails became semi-solid bands. Blinding megavolts sheered away Lucifer’s hide.
Returning, Akela grounded to a halt. Nechum fumbled off his back, dizzy but otherwise okay.
Lucifer growled at the leaking holes they peppered him with. “You think this will stop-”
Akela zoomed in and chucked a bag down his gullet.
Lucifer paused mid-sentence. Bewildered and dreading what he swallowed, he stared at the messenger.
Akela grinned. “You talk too much.”
Lucifer gripped his throat as Yakum’s black mist vapored and leaked out all of his nostrils, ears, and lips. Even his hundred eyes smoked.
Akela flew back, chipper as ever. “Needed to get rid of that,” he commented.
“Alameth, strap him down!” Eran ordered.
Alameth clenched his quivering hands. Mist entombed all but Lucifer’s massive, four-faced head. The Abyss rumbled as the Devil dropped to one knee.
Laszio and Eran wrapped an arm around each other. They pulled their sides together and stretched out their single wings as if they were one complete set.
“Lord,” they both prayed. “This victory is Yours.”
They flapped in perfect sync; then gave another unison flap that rocketed them up towards Lucifer’s lower chin. They sensed God Himself overtaking them. Movement ceased to be their own. Then, without thought, their free arms recoiled. Their diamond-hard feathers wrapped, forming fisted gauntlets. Then came the punch.
Their fists hit their mark. Laszio felt his wing shattering in slow motion. Each feather rang loud before cracking and falling away, yet he felt no pain.
The resulting, shockwave rocked the Abyss’s walls and upturned chunks of stone.
The dust cleared, and Laszio and Eran—panting, wingless, and radiating the Glory of God—planted their feet on the neck of Evil Incarnate.
***
The wet tip of Jediah’s sword hovered close to Elazar’s neck. He considered lopping his head off his shoulders.
“What are you waiting for?” Elazar asked. “Do it.”
Jediah swung back, but reminding himself of what Elazar wanted—justification for his hatred—he hesitated. Seconds passed. A minute. Jediah lowered his sword. “I won’t. I won’t give you more fuel for your fire.”
Elazar swept Jediah’s feet out from under him. Jediah landed hard, and his sword thudded out of reach. Elazar stalked Jediah as he struggled to crawl back. “You’re pathetic. All those angels call you noble, yet you’ve cowered in shame behind their backs.” He kicked Jediah’s chest. “You’ve always been guilty.” Elazar struck again. “You’ll forever be guilty.” Jediah coughed up energy as Elazar stomped on his throat. “And there’s nothing you can do about it!” Shields gloved Elazar’s hands as he brought them down.
Stars flashed in Jediah’s head.
Jediah awoke on his side. Elazar’s boots were but a few feet away from him, but far beyond, he saw a vision of Chloe—in the arms of His Lord. Those pierced hands had drawn her close to His heartbeat. His smile shone upon her, both overjoyed to see her, yet saddened by a deep longing for her.
Then His Lord’s luminous eyes turned toward him, bidding the angel to rise.
Jediah forgot his injuries. He forgot Elazar, and a deeper will, one that he recognized not to be his own, moved his arms for him. As he lifted to his hands and knees, silver and gold lined his red clothes, and the tears mended themselves.
“You’re right, Elazar.” Jediah said. “I can’t escape my weaknesses or my guilt,” He raised a knee and lifted his eyes. “But God never said I had to. And I imagine... it’s the same for His redeemed people too. My weakness becomes His strength and my guilt an example of His Grace. For He does in me, what I cannot do for myself.” Stronger golds and silvers wafted over Jediah like ocean tides, and glimmering white colored his sleeves.
A rhythm like the resounding music of the seraphs revived Jediah’s spirit. Its drum became the new passion that fueled his heart. Suddenly, the ends of his reddish brown hair came to life as tongues of purple flame. His clothes were adorned in a purity so overpowering, its hidden rainbows were hidden no more. Colors of all spectrums, even those never before seen, imbued each thread.
Lightning cracked around Jediah’s eyes. Excess energy beaconed from his being. Jediah could be described right then as nothing less than a supernova—wondrous and terrible.
Elazar stumbled back.
“Jesus is Lord!” Jediah declared. “He is enough, and He’s my answer to problems and beings like you!”
For a moment, Elazar balked. He formed a spear, but God’s glory that clothed Jediah evaporated the projectile. Elazar then punched the air, sending a firestorm of red. Jediah opened an iridescent palm and blasted them to nothing. The boom knocked Elazar down. Still, Elazar’s stubbornness wouldn’t wane. Try after try, his attacks were dashed in aftershocks equal to atom bombs.
Jediah turned his pearled face to the third realm’s sky. “Lord! King of Heaven and Earth! Of the visible and invisible! I cannot deal with Elazar myself. So I leave him to Your hands and to Your judgment!”
Crystal rivers swept in. Glory expanded overhead as a pure cloud, and soon power to fill the earth entered and humbled everything into silence. Then with resounding hallelujahs and a heralding maelstrom, the Triune God revealed Himself to them in full, wrapped in the cosmos of His splendor.
Jediah fell prostrate. He dared not look directly at God’s holy face, but lifted his head enough to see His very righteousness materialize in a visible shape. It sucked him and Elazar into its endless vacuum. Jediah’s vision filled with such blinding colors that if infinite space in all its spectral stars and nebulas compacted into one jewel, it could not match one speck of it. God’s mysteries given form were an unfathomable web of interlinking, sparkling strands. Not even Jediah, an angel, could comprehend its reach, nor its length, nor its height, nor its depth. It outlasted time. It out-spanned distance. It perceived beyond thought. It outmatched all wickedness—physical, spiritual, outside and within.
Eyes brimming with tears, Jediah’s core trembled, and he bowed lower in worship.
***
The Abyss awoke. Thunder roared and snapped as the red stones vibrated white. Laszio and Eran stepped away from Lucifer, alarmed, but then they recognized the familiar, all-encompassing presence. They were all being caught up in God’s very being.
The Lord swept Lucifer far off in His inter-dimensional current. The Abyss’s cells and its prisons came to life in His presence, and the destruction reassembled, resealing the prisoners more securely than before.
Awed and speechless, Laszio along with Eran, Akela, Nechum, and Alameth bowed together in full reverence before All Mighty God—the Great I AM.
A new crag for a new prison cell broke open next to Apollyon’s. Laszio cringed for amid the tumult, a terrified screaming could be barely heard, and he caught sight of Elazar’s dissolving face being thrown inside.
The new gate slammed shut.
It barred.
Then silence.
God’s power held time in stasis. Then Laszio beheld Elazar’s cell doors fade, then disappear—lost forever.
The white glory in his clothes subsided, but Laszio’s gladdened heart continued to offer thankfulness after thankfulness to El Shaddai long after.
It was finished.