CHAPTER 10 
CHAPTER 10 Five long hell years went by. Revenge, rage and bitterness had consumed her dark heart and had given birth to murderous hatred. Murderous hatred led her to breed the most evil offspring that she could. Lilith raised her Nephilim on Kenneth’s regenerating carcass and chemaworms—a truly disgusting meal that they ate as if it were a five-star dinner. They grew big, nasty, and evil. She trained them every day and if hell rotated, she would have trained them all night too. They became sharp, extremely dangerous, and volatile. The lone planet in outer darkness revolved around the lone red dwarf star five times. Lilith evaluated her children as she prepared them for the coming assault.
Emim was the baby but the biggest of the siblings. He towered at 8’10” and weighed 680 pounds. He was built like an offensive lineman and loved to eat. He wasn’t the smartest, but what he lacked in intelligence, he overcompensated for by being the most aggressive of the three.
Emim loved to eat. It was his favorite thing. He loved to scavenge for his own food, even though Kenneth and the chemaworms were readily available. Kenneth was his absolute favorite. He loved the sweet taste of roasted human meat and had eaten Kenneth to the bone on more than one occasion—leaving very little, if any, for his older brother and sister. Soon they forced him to search for his own food if he was still hungry after meals. And search he did.
The Ottocom Desert had been his feeding grounds for the past year. He’d dig up the caskets of the tortured souls and pry them open with his bare hands. He’d pull the soul from the casket and wait for it to regenerate, which took a few hours, and then he’d devour it. Soul and all.
He was never bothered after the first set of demons crossed his path. A new pair of demons, Ghan and Taziel, had replaced Nicor and Raum on patrol and had approached the four-year-old Nephilim and was never heard from again. After about four days when Ghan and Taziel failed to report to General Deviat, he sent yet another replacement patrol. Ubriel and Qa, who were a bit sharper than their predecessors, decided not to approach whatever was out there but monitor the action from the sky.
They hovered above and saw Emim eating a human soul, and they could hear the screams over the howling desert wind. Ubriel and Qa watched the beast, code-named him Soul Eater, and followed him back to Lilith’s cave. Afterward, they reported all that they saw to General Deviat. Deviat was shocked to learn of the hybrid walking about hell, but decided that since the creature wasn’t freeing souls but eating them, they should not interfere until he decided its fate. Deviat was surprised, however, that a Nephilim lived with Lilith. She was a known troublemaker and an outcast, but this was high treason.
In the year that General Deviat knew of Soul Eater, he did nothing, allowing Emim to eat his fill of human flesh and souls in peace. As was his routine, Emim walked alone in the hot hellish sun, salivating about his upcoming feast. He walked until he came across someplace new where he’d begin to dig. He had never been to this area of the desert. He decided that he’d dig here and wondered what kind of savory human he’d find to satiate his ravenous hunger. He knelt and scooped massive heaps of sand with his hands rather quickly, thanks to a technique he developed. This allowed him to conserve energy while still being able to haul loads of sand. Emim would typically dig some six to nine feet to retrieve a coffin.
Emim kept digging until he got to the eighth foot and came across something hard, but neither metal nor hollow, which was what the coffins typically were. This object was solid and thick. It matched the sand and even shared a rough sandpaper or gravel texture. Emim stomped on the object and used his massive weight to crack the surface, but when he did, it shook violently.
The sand rumbled and caved in at certain places and moved in other places. There was clearly something inside the sand, and Emim figured it was a serpent of some kind. He stumbled backward away from the commotion, and then suddenly, out shot a mother giant chemaworm.
Her name was Chema Maw. She was sand-colored with a hooded, pointed head that made it easier for her to travel under the sands like a spear through the air. Chema didn’t have teeth but had no use for them; she swallowed her victims whole, and the deadly acid in her digestive system killed her prey within a few hours. She screeched and shrieked over eighty feet into the air before sliding back into the sand. Emim was unsure of what to do as the enormous Maw circled him while he stood there. Suddenly it stopped.
Out came the worm from a distance of about twenty feet away, and it launched right at Emim and dove deep into the sand, taking the young Nephilim with her. Emim rode on the tip of her head and held on for dear life until she shot back into the air. He lost his grip on the 100-foot-long worm and fell from more than sixty feet onto the sand. The worm’s forward momentum carried her into the depths of the sand.
Emim tried to regain his poise and prepare for another assault, which he knew was coming but didn’t know from where. Once again Chema Maw blasted through the sand, but Emim lost his balance and fell to the ground while trying to avoid being carried into the air again. However, he quickly rose to his feet and jumped on the worm’s tail, but as Chema Maw began to nose-dive deep into the sands, her tail flipped the giant more than a mile into the air. Her strength was truly immense.
He stabilized himself as he free-fell back to the Ottocom Desert, but Chema Maw shot out from the sands like an anti-air missile. Preparing to devour her prey whole, she opened her gullet. Emim dove to increase his terminal velocity, and they collided in midair. Emim was in the belly of the beast with no apparent way out. He had a few hours before the acid would begin to have its effect on him.
Chema Maw slinked back into her hole, satisfied in the demise of her prey. But before Chema Maw could savor her victory, she rose back to the surface and began dry heaving onto the deep orangey dunes. The only thing that came out was a little blood but no giant. She tried to spew out Emim, but after a few minutes she passed out. She lay there incapacitated and eventually the impression of Emim’s hand and foot could be seen on her giant belly.
Suddenly a small wound appeared on the belly, and it gradually got bigger, piece by piece, until Emim began ripping open the giant chemaworm. Emim fell forward and landed on his hands and knees, trying to catch his breath. He was covered in blood and guts, and had bits and pieces of worm flesh in his mouth.
When he had gathered enough strength, he stood and looked at the worm once more. He put his hand deep into the body of the giant chemaworm. Feeling his way around, he finally smiled, as if he had found what he was looking for and pulled it out. He held it at the handle and kept pulling until it was out. It was a six-foot-long hammer covered in blood and entrails.
The long staff of the hammer weighed close to eighteen pounds, and the hammerhead weighed twenty-three pounds. It was a powerful and heavy hammer that once belonged to a warrior demon that had obviously fallen victim to the once mighty worm. Emim took it and began his long journey home. His only regret was that he didn’t have a bigger stomach to devour the rest of the fallen Maw.
General Deviat bided his time for a whole year until it was the perfect opportunity to strike. Information traveled well in the underbelly of hell, and rumor was that Anzu was waiting for an opportunity to bring Lilith down. Anzu was not a patient demon, but he had no choice. He was but one demon and didn’t have the cachet to demand an audience with Lord Satan. Only generals or very old, wise, and terrible demons could request such a petition and have it granted. And since he was neither, there was no way he could make a case against Lilith without certain proof—proof that was nearly impossible to come by.
When General Deviat got wind of Anzu’s ambition, he met with him in his private chambers in the city of Sheol.
“General, you do me a great honor by stepping foot in my humble home.”
“Yes, I do.”
Anzu bowed low and the general sat in Anzu’s personal chair. Deviat’s two personal bodyguards took the other seats, leaving Anzu no other place to sit.
“Sir, would you and your servants like something to drink?”
“No, I’m fine. So are they.”
“Perhaps something to eat then?”
“Listen very carefully,” the general said. “We are not equals. I only eat and drink with Lord Satan and other generals. Do you really think I would allow myself to be seen being entertained by the likes of you?”
“N-No, sir,” Anzu said, barely above a whisper.
“Good, you are wise to know that. I did not come here to be entertained. Now dispense with the pleasantries and let’s get down to business.”
“Yes, sir.”
“So I hear that you are looking for a way to bring down Lilith. Is this true?”
“Yes, sir, it is.”
“Why?”
“She is sneaky, my lord. Planning something I know it . . . bordering on treason.”
“Anzuuu . . . That is an extreme allegation. Even for one held in as little regard as she.”
“I know it is but . . .”
“But do you have proof. That is the only thing that I care about. Furthermore, if you go to Lord Satan with nothing but your charm and accusations he will surely throw you into the Sea of Fire as a reward for wasting his time . . . I’ve seen it happen.”
“Sir . . . I have nothing else.”
“What if I told you that I have proof?”
“Sir?”
“Yes, Lilith has been raising a Nephilim for the past five years.”
“A giant? Well, what in the world for?”
“That is what I will find out.”
“I beg your pardon, my lord, but don’t you mean ‘we’?”
“What did you hear me say?”
“. . . You will find out.”
“And that is exactly what I meant.”
“Yes, my lord . . . do you have a plan?”
“I will go and see Lilith with a dozen of my best servants, and we will capture this abomination and bring her to Lord Satan for sentencing.”
“That is a most excellent plan, sir.”
“Of course it is.”
“What do I do in the meantime?”
“You wait till I send word to you.”
The general turned to his bodyguards.
“We’re leaving. I will summon you to my manor in two days.”
They all rose in unison and headed toward the door, but Anzu asked them one last question before they left.
“My lord?”
“What?” Deviat said halfway out the door.
“When she is captured, please don’t forget to mention me to Lord Satan.”
General Deviat kept walking but assured him he would be promoted for his assistance.
General Deviat headed to his palatial estate for the night and left for the Ottocom Desert with twelve of his best warrior demons first thing in the morning. They departed from the Forest of Deviance, named after the general, for the Ottocom Desert. The desert was a part of his official jurisdiction, but he left Lilith alone as part of an unspoken peace treaty.
They arrived just outside the mouth of the cave and waltzed in like they owned it. Lilith had no time to hide her beloved children as they all sat around a stone table, eating a meal of chemaworms and Kenneth.
“Lilith!”
The general walked in like her cave was simply an extension of his own home.
“Deviat,” Lilith said in a surprised tone.
“You will address him as General Deviat,” said Roth who was the captain of the guard.
“It’s alright, Roth. We can’t expect manners from this wench.”
When General Deviat insulted Lilith, the three Nephilim grunted as if preparing to make him pay for his disrespect.
“Easy, my children. Eat your dinner.”
“Heeelllp . . . mmeeee,” came a voice from the stone slab. It was Kenneth. But Anakim shut him up immediately by smashing a fist into his face, and Kenneth was no longer able to speak, see, or hear.
“Well, well, well, you have been busy.”
“I have.”
“I thought you had one abomination, but as it is you have three. Lord Satan will be pleased to have this brought to his attention.”
“No, sir, please don’t.”
“I didn’t think you would wench.”
“That’s two,” said Rapha.
“That’s two?”
“That is the second time you have insulted my mother, and there will not be a third.”
“Rapha!” Lilith said sharply.
“She is feisty . . . she must get that from you . . . I wish to sit.”
“I don’t have an extra chair.”
“Don’t bother. I wasn’t speaking to you.”
Roth looked at one of the armed guards and made a notion with his head, and the guard got on his hands and knees at the stone table and Deviat sat on him.
“I like this one. What is your name?”
“She is but a child . . .”
“I didn’t ask you Lilith. Now what is your name, child?”
“Rapha.”
Rapha was the middle child and the only girl. She wasn’t nearly as depraved as her brothers, and she was by far the most intelligent. She was also extremely beautiful and resembled her birth mother Andrea, but with deep black and brown hair. She had learned the art of manipulation and seduction from Lilith and was trained to not only use her fighting skills to overcome enemies, but to outthink and conquer them. She stood 8’ tall, but her weight was kept a secret.
“You are very beautiful, Rapha.”
She said nothing.
“Are you a virgin, Rapha?”
“General . . . ,” Lilith said quietly.
Deviat shot Lilith a look.
Deviat used to be an angel of love and decency, but when he decided to join Lucifer in the great war of heaven, he changed his name to Deviat. He perverted himself and became the demon that inspired molestation and deviance—hence his name. He was a very beautiful angel, but he had changed since his fall and had become a very fat and ugly demon. Once stirring romantic love, he now motivated lust.
“Have you ever pleased a man?”
“No,” Rapha answered quietly.
“Do you want to?”
“General. Please,” Lilith said quieter still.
“Lilith, I will not have you interrupt me again.”
“Anakim, Rapha, Emim. Leave us.”
The Nephilim rose at the behest of their mother.
“Rapha stays,” Deviant said. “They can leave.”
Both of her strong boys looked at their mother as she reluctantly nodded her approval, and they left. They headed for the private chambers, and once they were gone only the general, his royal guard, Lilith, and Rapha were left.
“Sir, is it not enough that I give myself to you as payment for the land that I graciously and humbly live on?”
“Let me educate you on the parameters of our relationship. I am as the mortals say the ‘landlord.’ And you are the . . . the . . .”
“‘Tenant’ is the word I believe, sir.”
“Thank you, Roth. ‘Tenant.’ You are the tenant and whatever payment you were offering to live here in a desert that was given to me by Lord Satan himself has just increased. . . . Do not forget your place. You are at my mercy. What you are doing here with these . . . these abominations is treason of the highest order, or have you forgotten all the trouble the Nephilim caused nearly 9,000 years ago? Perhaps I should tell Lord Satan of all you have done here?”
“No,” she whispered.
“So then we have an understanding?”
Lilith said nothing.
“. . . I will have her. One way or another.”
A single tear fell from Lilith’s face for she had waited millennia upon millennia to be a mother, and for the past five hell years, she was one. She fought to protect her children from the likes of many demons, making many disappear over the past few years, but here she was dealing with a demon that she couldn’t just kill. This was a general, a demon that walked and talked with the Evil One. If he went missing, there would be a search party.
Lilith couldn’t protect the sanctity of her daughter and that burned a hole in her heart. She may be a demon now, but there was a time when she was once a human with all the emotions, complexity, love, and beauty that all women who exist today possess. This simultaneously made her one of the most emotional and complex demons in all of hell, but the love she held for these three creatures made her powerless.
“Mother . . . ,” Rapha said. “Mother, do not cry. I will do this . . . I want to.”
“You don’t have to do this.”
“Yes, she does.”
Lilith begged the general with her eyes, but he would not be moved. Lilith kissed Rapha on the forehead while fighting back tears. She rose and went to her private chambers. She couldn’t bear to see her baby walking off with the father of deviance.
“Good, it is settled then. We leave at once.”
General Deviat stood up as the two brothers were walking out of their private chambers. They eyeballed Deviat with murderous intent. He felt a cold chill going up his spine and wanted to leave as soon as he could.
“Get up—ahem,” he cleared his throat as his nerves formed a knot that made it hard to speak.
“Get up,” he said clearly to the demon that was exhausted from holding up the massive weight of the portly general for the length of the conversation. But he either would not or could not move; in either case, General Deviat was in no mood to wait. Emim and Anakim closed in on the drained demon that had collapsed on the floor.
“Leave him.”
Roth ordered the other eleven guards to exit the cave, and they did so with General Deviat, Rapha walking behind him with nothing but her dark brown, hooded cloak. The two brothers viciously attacked the tired demon before the company left. His screams made the general and his demons leave even faster. Rapha smiled.
General Deviat and his company gated to a spot about a mile away from his luxurious castle. There they climbed into a carriage being pulled by two enormous beasts that resembled Kuyel. They would ride the rest of the way through the Forest of Deviance. Rapha had barely explored hell. She knew how unsafe it was for her and her brothers, knowing they could end up in the same situation she found herself in right now or worse, even though being in this situation was not any fault of her own but due to Emim’s gluttony. Rapha had told her brother on many occasions that his overindulgence was going to bring danger to the family, and so far she was right.
Her whole existence for the past five years had been that of training. Training to kill a being named Seraph and avenge the death of her father, Ornias. But here she was wasting her time entertaining a general because he liked virgins. What is a virgin anyway? She pondered. I don’t know, but when I find out what it is, I will kill it.
“Do you like the view?”
Rapha looked up and saw the forest.
She continued to look and suddenly the forest’s beauty showed its true hideous nature. Men and women of all kinds were buried deep in the trees as if they were a part of the bark. What Rapha believed to be the wind howling was actually the guilty, moaning in unison and buried deep within the trees. They were being eaten alive by worms and demonic ravens, and some were being hacked by demons trying to build their strength, every second of every hour of every day.
She reached out of the carriage and grabbed a chemaworm. It squirmed in her hands, and she ate it in front of the general, who was slightly disgusted. They continued riding and she noticed souls also hanging from the trees—by their feet, necks, arms, and even their waists. Some were being eaten by gigantic black ravens. Others were healing and growing new bones, body tissue, muscle, and tendons, just waiting to be completely healed so that they could once again offer themselves as a daily sacrifice.
“Do you know why they are here?”
“No.”
“Aha, she does speak. Would you like to guess?”
She said nothing.
“They are here because of the sins they are guilty of committing on earth. . . . Well, that is not entirely true. Every soul in hell ends up here because they have chosen to reject the salvation our Father has provided through his son, Jesus.”
She hadn’t heard these stories about The One. Lilith had only told her that they were the creator of all she saw, and if she was ever blessed enough to meet them, she should show them the utmost respect and reverence. For whatever reason, her mother hadn’t told her any stories, so General Deviat had her undivided attention.
“Really?”
“Yes, there are two books. The first is Torah and the other is the Lamb’s Book of Life. And in this book is written every name of every soul who has been forgiven by the blood of the Lamb, but all of those souls are with The One in heaven.”
“Who is the Lamb?”
“It is another name for The One. Jesus, in particular.”
“Is your name in this book?”
“No . . . my name is in another book. That book is only for humans.”
“What happens if a name is not written in the book?”
“I was just getting to that. If your name is not in the Book of Life then you are judged by the Torah.”
“What is Torah?”
“Torah is the instructions or the Divine Law of the Creator. Instructions by which all mankind should live.”
“And . . . if they don’t keep this Torah, these . . . instructions?”
“Then they come here to be judged by Lord Satan for their sins. We have a multitude of the guilty here. The sins of the guilty are as diverse as they are endless. Guilty of murder, stealing, lying, fornicating, and sexual perversions of all kinds, including homosexuality and bestiality or incest, those who eat the unclean and abominable thing, idol worshippers, Sabbath breakers and even Satan worshippers.”
General Deviat laughed heartily at the irony of that one.
“What are these people guilty of?”
“I thought you’d never ask. These guilty have molested and raped other souls on earth. They are sentenced here because they gave into my temptations and committed deviant acts against other men, women, and even children. All of their victims were powerless to defend themselves, and in turn they are molested by our chemaworms and these magnificent ravens, and now they are powerless to defend themselves. Amazing, isn’t it?”
She said nothing.
“Do you feel sorry for them?” the general asked.
“No, if what you say is true then they deserve their punishment.”
“You see, here in hell everyone is guilty of something great or small, and the punishment always fits the crime.”
“I see.”
The carriage stopped at a black gold gate and behind it was the most magnificent palace she’d ever seen. It was a large sixteenth-century medieval castle with a drawbridge and moat filled with a portion of the Sea of Fire.
They walked from the carriage through the main gate and onto the drawbridge. Rapha stopped to look at the moat, and the slick, black, boiling oil popped, as if eagerly awaiting a victim.
“Careful not to fall,” said Deviat with a chuckle.
She kept walking and then found herself in the middle of Deviat’s courtyard. There must have been thirty demons, not including the royal guard that they traveled with. Deviat’s castle was well fortified.
General Deviat escorted Rapha into his personal chambers. They were finally alone with only two of his elite guards standing watch outside his room. Rapha looked around the room; it had a lot of black gold everywhere, from the tables, to the chairs, to the mirrors, and the bed frame. The bed was a canopy with sheer burgundy coverings and black gold rope ties. It really was beautiful and she would have felt very comfortable if it weren’t for the simple fact that Deviat was going to try to have sex with her. She noticed that he had many accomplishments by the number of gifts on his wall. The gift that caught her attention was the dual sword and shield set that hung over the bed frame.
There were big tall windows that showed a great view of the dark forest. Even the sky was beautiful. Deviat lived on a part of hell where it was a perpetual twilight, making the sky a wonderful orange pinkish color. It was quite peaceful until you realized that souls were in constant torture and pain just outside.
Deviat took off his sheathed sword, laid it against the stand, and climbed into bed.
“Rapha. Come.”
Rapha turned to him and stood at the edge of the bed.
“Remove your cloak.”
She had a nearly perfect body. She was very toned with an overall athletic look. She looked very strong, but still very sexy; her feminine features were present and accounted for. She wore a low-cut shabby gray halter top and tight dingy shorts, which is what she wore almost every day. There wasn’t much of a selection of clothing for her to choose from.
“Wow . . . you are more stunning than your mother.”
General Deviat’s hefty frame lay resting on his bed and was only held up by pillows. With his finger he commanded her to approach and she did. She stood over him and began dancing, hoping that Deviat would continue to become increasingly more comfortable.
“Ah yes, now kiss me.”
She kissed his lips, then his cheek, then moved to his neck, and bit a huge chunk out of it.
He hollered in excruciating pain, which made both of the guards outside his room rush in. Deviat grabbed his neck to try to stop the bleeding, but Rapha just sat there straddling him. With his skin still in her mouth and blood dripping down her neck, she looked behind her.
The demon guards were in shock. They were used to dealing with humans and were not afraid of them. But most demons hadn’t seen Nephilim in over 9,000 years, and many more thought they were simply legend.
Rapha spit out the flesh and stood up, her back to the guards. She took possession of the two ceremonial short swords mounted on the wall and calmly stepped off the bed. Deviat rolled off the bed slowly, still holding his neck. He grabbed his sword and disappeared through a secret escape door.
The demons rushed her and attacked in unison, but Rapha was so graceful and so much stronger than they, that dispatching them was one of the easiest things she had ever done. She exited Deviat’s private chambers and screamed his name to let him know that she was coming for him and his death was at hand.
More demons met her and she chopped them down. One by one, two by two, and even three by three. They stood no chance as she blocked, parried, and slashed her way through the lot. Many of the demons where utterly destroyed, some were badly injured. Wings were torn and limbs hacked.
Finally, the last demon fell at her hand. She looked down from the balcony and saw Roth and Deviat trying to leave. As he was being carried to safety, Deviat watched in horror with one arm over Roth’s shoulder. They were by the main entrance leading to the courtyard, and their plan was to get Deviat safely over the drawbridge.
Rapha jumped from the balcony and looked at them; Roth stopped before they could make it out the door.
“Master, you need to make it over the bridge. I will hold her off.”
“No, Roth, we can make it together.”
“I must hold her off or she’ll kill us both.”
Deviat was truly afraid for his existence. He had lost thirty of his best men and now Roth was about to sacrifice himself. Or perhaps he could win, after all Roth was quite an accomplished warrior. He not only fought in the great war in heaven, but he was also involved with the Nephilim civil wars more than 9,000 years ago. He was strong, aggressive, and had been a wise first officer for countless millennia.
“Make it to Lord Satan and tell him of what you’ve seen here.”
“Roth . . .”
“GO!”
Deviat stumbled out the door into the courtyard, barely able to move without the aid of his best friend. Roth stayed inside the main hall of the castle and closed the door behind him. He took out his sword and assumed a battle stance. Rapha could have ended it all by killing them both as they spoke, but she hated the idea of cheating herself out of testing her limits.
Roth cried, “Ok . . . monster, it is just you and me.”
Rapha smiled. “No. It’s just me.”
Roth went on the offensive with a magnificent flurry-filled fury. Rapha didn’t even break a sweat as she dodged most of his attacks. Roth misstepped and created an opening that Rapha took advantage of, backhanding him, and he flew across the floor and into a wall. Roth had been hit hard before but had never been hit that hard. However, he got up because he knew the longer he stood against her, the more time Deviat had to get away. So he would take as much punishment as he could.
When Roth was fully on his feet, Rapha was just a step away. He swung but she caught his fist in one hand and punched him in the gut with the other one. Then she punched him in his face and pummeled him until he spat blood. He futilely fought back, missing one attack and blocking the other. She hit him with her knees and massive legs, sending him flying from one place to the next. Roth was knocked into columns and beams and other various structures that held the house up.
Eventually the house began to crumble around them. Roth was exhausted and physically spent. This was definitely the worst beating he had ever received. As Roth lay there on the floor of the main hall, she grabbed his sword and stabbed him in the back. The sword went through his back and came out on the other side into the floor. He was stuck and could not move. Rapha’s work here was done, but she still had unfinished business with Deviat. Before she could leave, Roth spoke to her.
“You and your brothers—” Roth had to pause, his body wracked by a terrible cough, “will suffer a fate worse than hell itself. You will die—” again painful coughing interrupted him, “like your people before you. You will destroy yourselves—” he coughed, “and when you die, you will be utterly destroyed. . . . Soulless abominations, there is no heaven or hell for you in which to find rest—” a final cough seized him, “or punishment. . . . Annihilation is your destiny.”
“We have learned from the mistakes of our ancestors,” Rapha said. “We will not destroy ourselves. We shall be fruitful and multiply, subdue the earth, and claim it as ours. The union of the sons of God and the daughters of men will once again reign upon the earth as the dominant race.”
Rapha left the castle and it crumbled with Roth still inside. She walked with a purpose away from the destruction, never turning around as if she were afraid she would turn into a pillar of salt if she did. She followed the blood trail and noticed that the drawbridge had been lowered.
General Deviat was stopped in his tracks. He should have been long gone by now and would have been if Anakim had not been waiting on the other side of the drawbridge, daring him to cross. Anakim was the first born and most promising of his triplet siblings. He was 8’4” tall and 390 pounds of rock-solid muscle. A natural born leader, almost as smart as Rapha, and almost as dangerous as Emim, he was most certainly the best warrior. He was extremely overprotective of his siblings, and the need to protect was the reason he was standing before General Deviat now.
Deviat was in shock and dared not move. He turned around to see Rapha walking toward him.
“Please . . . please forgive me. Can’t we work something out?”
Neither Rapha nor Anakim said a word.
“I will not tell Lord Satan of your existence. . . . I won’t even tell him how my men were slaughtered or how my home was destroyed. . . . I will make sure you are left alone . . .”
Still no word.
“I will no longer harass Lilith.”
“DON’T YOU EVER SAY HER NAME!” Rapha screamed.
Anakim grabbed General Deviat’s sword and sheath, and Rapha stabbed him in his heart and chopped his head off his body. General Deviat fell to his death over the drawbridge and into the Sea of Fire moat.
“What are you doing here?” Rapha asked her brother.
“I could not stay home knowing that this fat slob could be violating you.”
“Thank you, but I can take care of myself.”
“Clearly.”
“Did mother send you?”
“She did not . . . come now we must get back. This much devastation will not go unnoticed.”
“Then let us leave this place.”
On the morning of the second day, Anzu left his humble home in the city of Sheol and set out toward General Deviat’s estate in the dark Forest of Deviance. He walked to the outside of the city limits and gated to the dark forest. When he arrived he saw a pillar of smoke rising into the sky and his black heart dropped. He sprinted and when he reached the gate he could see that the extravagant estate was no more. It had crumbled to the ground with various fires that needed to be put out. Lilith. She had always been seen as a recluse, but she wasn’t considered a betrayer. She had clearly become a traitor and was planning sedition. Brazenly attacking a high general in this manner was crossing the line, even for her. Once Lord Satan finds out about this there will be literal hell to pay. The only problem was that he had to prove that Lilith was somehow connected to all this. Without actual proof of her involvement, it could be explained away as a human rebellion. Human uprisings were not uncommon in hell. Though the demons were clearly more powerful, they were outnumbered fifty to one. Every now and then a human would free himself and incite a rebellion. Each time, however, they were crushed.
Anzu walked all over the estate and looked for any evidence that would lead to Lilith’s involvement. He poured over the footsteps. There was indeed a struggle here, but not nearly enough footprints to suggest a human uprising. There were demonic footprints and prints of one or two others, neither belonged to Lilith. Dead end. Not willing to give up so easily, he bent down and inspected the prints more closely. Dipping his finger into the bloody mud, he noticed that red dirt was mixed in with the fertile ground of General Deviat’s estate. He had encountered this red dirt in one other place: Lilith’s cave. I’ve got you. He knew it was a stretch, and not nearly what he would call evidence to present to Lord Satan, but it was a viable lead in his mind. Anzu knew what he had to do to find more concrete evidence. He had to go see her. He flapped his massive raven-like wings and rose off the ground. Higher and higher he rose until he was well on his way to the Ottocom Desert.
“YOU DID WHAT?” Lilith yelled pacing back and forth while her brood sat at their table.
“We . . .”
“I heard you . . . I just didn’t want to believe that you both could be so stupid.”
“Mother . . .”
“Quiet, Rapha. . . . Have you the slightest clue of the danger you have put us all in? Deviat wasn’t just some insignificant low-level demon. He was a general. One of Lord Satan’s best. He will send a battalion to come looking for him, and when they find out what we’ve done, Lord Satan will surely throw us all into the Sea of Fire,” she panicked.
“I think I speak for all of us when I say we do not fear him.”
“Anakim, that is because you are too stupid to not know any better. . . . He is the vilest, most untrustworthy, and evil being in the entire universe . . .”
Silence.
“Do you not think that you should be careful how you speak about a being that tempted the Lord for forty days in the wilderness?”
More silence.
“Mother . . . You’ve always told us that we are the only ones of our kind and that we should protect each other. How could I just sit back and let that pervert violate my sister?
Lilith had no answer for Anakim.
“Mother, tell us what we should do and we will do it,” he asked.
“I . . . do not . . . know. I am certain that he will send his troops to march on us . . . millions . . . maybe even tens of millions.”
“Then we do not just sit here and let them come for us.”
“And where do you suggest we go? Plead our case to The One in heaven?” She laughed nervously.
“No, we go to earth.”
“And do what, Rapha?”
“You told us that our people once ruled earth nine millennia ago. We should go and reclaim it as our ancestors once did.”
“What Rapha says is good, Mother,” Emim chimed in. “We can take it territory by territory. We will bring down their kings and generals, and crush their cities.”
“Their men will be our slaves and their women shall bear our offspring,” Anakim added.
Lilith thought about the plan and was genuinely impressed by it. She had surely trained them well and they obviously were amazing students.
“Mother, are you with us?” Anakim asked.
“. . . Yes, I am. That is truly a genius plan. I have been seducing the sons of Adam far too long. . . . It is time for them to become useful. . . . After you take the first city, I will lead a horde of incubi and succubae to help further our cause.”
“Yes, Mother . . . ,” Rapha agreed.
“Where shall we strike first?” asked Anakim.
“New York. There is a very powerful warrior there. His name is Seraph.”
“Is he the one who killed our father?” Emim questioned.
“The very same. If we kill him first, then the rest of the world will offer little resistance.”
“Then we will destroy him,” Anakim confirmed.
As the four of them discussed plans to overtake the earth, Anzu walked into the cave and called out.
“LILITH!”