In Rebellion (Archangel Jarahmael and the War to Conquer Heaven, Book II) (12 page)

Chapter 16

Jarahmael was free even if he was flying in Heavens already captured by Luciferael and his rebel legions. As he flew, he reviewed the previous day’s events in order to make sense of what had been occurring. It had been quite a day.

The rebels under Luciferael’s command had begun the war from the Fifth Heaven at the Hall of the Virtues and quickly overran any resistance left
there.
Beelzebael took half of the rebel legions with him and moved to conquer the lower Heavens, while Luciferael and his legions headed up and attacked the Sixth Heaven with the purpose of getting to the Seventh Heaven as soon as possible. At the end of the first day Beelzebael had already conquered the Fourth Heaven and was heading towards the Third Heaven while Luciferael was still fighting his way through the Sixth Heaven.

Earlier, in
order to get weapons out of the Sixth Heaven, Jarahmael enlisted the help of Faumiel of the Cherubim. Then Faumiel had to get the weapons down through the lower
H
eavens, particularly the Fifth Heaven where Luciferael’s rebel legions had assembled. Jarahmael
assisted by making a
distraction that allowed Faumiel and his
b
and
of loyal Cherubim
to pass through. Jarahmael’s distraction was to enter the Fifth Heaven in a grand way and offer his services to Luciferael. Jarahmael acted as though he wanted to join Luciferael and his rebel legions, and was placed in Suriel's legion
. Suriel’s legion was assigned as
part of Beelzebael's army heading to conquer the lower Heavens. Fortunately, an opportunity finally came where he could escape, and now Jarahmael was back to his original purpose, which was to get back to the Seventh Heaven. He intended to save both the Book of Creation and the Book of Life contained in the Throne Room so Luciferael could not possess them and their power. And most importantly to Jarahmael, he intended to get Lillith out of harm’s way since she was still in his mansion in the Seventh Heaven.

As Jarahmael slipped back into the Fifth Heaven, he noticed that there had not been any damage in this Heaven.
It was clear that a
ny resistance put up by the Order of the Virtues was quickly overrun by the legions led by Beelzebael before any real fighting could have begun.
They were certainly caught by surprise,
Jarahmael thought to himself.

He remembered, too, that the Archangel Ariel was held captive in the Hall of the Virtues. Jarahmael flew to the Hall and then secretly slipped along the wall and confirmed that Ariel remained under guard in the Hall of the Virtues. Ariel was not resisting and appeared to be resigned to being under guard for the moment. Trying to free him now would just call attention to himself. If he succeeded in freeing Ariel, then the rebel Angels would know that someone was loose in the Heavens they believed conquered and that would start a search. For the moment, the rebel Angels thought Jarahmael to be captured or worse and he did not want to discourage them from thinking so. He would return for Ariel when, and if, he could. But Jarahmael also made a mental note that there were still only four rebel Cherubim Angels guarding Ariel.

The harder part was yet to come. Jarahmael would have to get in front of Luciferael's legions to get to the Throne Room before him. Flying up and into the Sixth Heaven, Jarahmael found that he was in again in luck.

Now on the second day of the rebellion the battle still raged between the loyal Cherubim Angels led by Zachiel and the rebel legions led by Luciferael. The loyal Cherubim were armed in this Heaven as they had access to the remaining weapons used in the destruction of the dinosaurs. Of all the Angels to wage war, these Cherubim were tall and more muscular than any other Order of Angels. Spying from afar, Jarahmael saw Luciferael and part of his Auxilium around him at the rear of his attacking legions. There was tremendous clatter as the sound weapons were being used on both sides and were creating walls of sound impenetrable by either side, at least as long as the trumpets and harps were being used. Occasionally an arrow launched by one of the harps would penetrate the opposing side’s defenses. If an Angel was hit, the arrows would sometimes overwhelm the light waves within the Angel and cause it
s body
to explode in a burst of light. A ghostly image of the shape of the Angel would then rise up and out of the Heaven.
Not sure where that part
of the Angel
goes,
Jarahmael thought.
did it return as part of the Almighty or go somewhere else?
Another question he would have for the Almighty.
Other Angels would be stunned and
helpless
for a while when struck full on by the sound weapons
.

It was a stalemate, with Zachiel’s forces thwarting Luciferael’s rebel Angels from advancing, and the rebel Angels preventing Zachiel’s Cherubim from pushing Luciferael’s legions back into the Fifth Heaven.

As Jarahmael flew past,
he noticed the
fighting seemed to be c
entered
by the Cathedral of the Cherubim. Luciferael must be trying to get his hands on all the remaining weapons. It was a big mistake when Luciferael had not made arrangements to take all of the weapons before the rebellion began. If he had them all, the loyal Angels would be defenseless and overrun easily. Knowing Luciferael, his pride would not allow him to think that anyone would be able to effectively resist him.

Jarahmael wondered if
Zachiel succeeded in loading all the weapons and were included in the cache
sent down with Faumiel to the lower Heavens
.
Those weapons would be critical in pushing Luciferael's and Beelzebael's' armies back and out of the Heavens.
Most importantly, he
hoped the weapons had made it down to the Earth and that his colleagues were preparing themselves for Beelzebael's attack.

Jarahmael saw that the clouds in the Sixth Heaven were dark with a purple hue, almost black, similar to what storm clouds look like in the midst of a ferocious thunderstorm cell. The increased darkness helped him conceal himself as he flew from one cloud to another and rose up through the Sixth Heaven. He stopped on a particularly dark cloud that hid him well just before the entrance into the Seventh Heaven.

Thinking of weapons, he felt the Crystal Prism within his tunic. The Almighty had mentioned something about these crystals when he met alone with Him and Lillith. The Almighty was careful about speaking about them, so that no one else, including Lillith, would know about them and their powers. The Almighty told him that when the time came, fourteen crystals would appear, all with different powers. Each would have an inscription that only Jarahmael could read and understand; even if others could read the inscription, the messages would only make sense to Jarahmael.

Jarahmael took the Crystal Prism out and looked at it. It was beautifully clear, so clear that it resembled water, ebbing and flowing even though it was one of the hardest crystals in the Universe. He double checked the inscription that appeared along its side, and it still said
“Carcer Pro Cohibeo Res Lux Lucis.”
A prism for confining Beings of Light.
Knowing that the Almighty relied upon spoken words to create and transform the Universe, he surmised that in order to make the prism work all he needed to do was to say the inscription aloud. He was not sure which way though to point the p
rism
to make it work, or if he had to point it at all in order to capture an Angel.

As he prepared to fly up on the last leg to the entrance to the Seventh Heaven, he heard a loud blare of the trumpet, magnified many times. Looking down, he saw Luciferael had gathered a number of the Potentate Angels around him. They were connected to Luciferael by flashes of light from their orb-like bodies. When he blew the trumpet it magnified the power of the sound waves at least a hundred fold. Where the trumpet sounds had failed to push back the Cherubim before, now the sound was amplified by the Potentate Angels. Their added energy made the sound much stronger and blasted the defending Cherubim back and away from their Cathedral
.

Jarahmael knew that the loyal Cherubim's defenses may not hold out much longer. He must get into the Seventh Heaven before Luciferael or his Angels and seize the Books stored in the Almighty's Throne Room. As Jarahmael flew quietly into the entrance, his heart raced when he saw a small squad of rebel Angels off to his left heading to the entrance, too. They were heavily armed with swords, spears and maces. They had to be part of Luciferael's legions, he thought to himself, as he hadn't seen maces in the hands of any other Angel before. Those maces must have been stored or made somewhere in the Cathedral.

Jarahmael calculated quickly and knew that he could not out race this squad of Cherubim Angels, seize the Books, and then get clear of the Throne Room. Perhaps he could throw them off their mission, but first he needed to ascertain the purpose of their mission. Were they Angels that had moved ahead of Luciferael's lines? Scouts for the rebel Angels’ army? Or the beginning of the planned invasion force?

Jarahmael pulled his tunic up over his hair and used extra folds of the tunic to cover his colored wing tips, so they would not know who he was as he approached them. He was gambling that Beelzebael and Suriel hadn't seen through his ruse at the Fourth Heaven's battle and still believed him to be captured or destroyed, so no one was searching for him. Jarahmael did not want to lose that advantage if he didn't have to.

Jarahmael walked forward as they landed in the entrance way. He noticed all ten of them were Cherubim.

“Greetings Cherubim!” Jarahmael said as though he was expecting them.

The lead Cherubim walked forward and stopped too close to be polite.

“What are you doing here?” barked the lead Cherubim. “Who are you?”

Ten would be difficult to handle, and all were armed. He did not allow himself to rise to his full stature, for Archangels were some of the tallest of the Angels who lived in the Heavens. Standing at his full height would have revealed that Jarahmael was an Archangel, and he did not want to reveal that as of yet.

“I am keeping watch on the entranceway to the Seventh Heaven, sir,” Jarahmael responded.

“And for whom, or against whom, are you watching?” demanded the Cherubim leader.

The remaining Cherubim in the squad moved up, and placed their hands on their swords, ready to unsheath them as they carefully watched Jarahmael in his disguise.

Jarahmael looked straight into the lead Cherubim's eyes, trying to read his intent. For the moment the rebel Cherubim’s mind was not clear to him. Then he realized that he was talking to Paimon, one of the rebel Cherubim Angels that he had seen in the past with Sammuael and Mammonael in the Throne Room during the morning ceremony. Stepping back, Jarahmael bought some distance between them before he answered.

“Speak!” demanded the Cherubim as he started to unsheath his sword.

Before the sword was a third of the way out of its sheath,
Jarahmael cut through
Paimon and the other nine Cherubim
severing their bodies with
five fast and well-aimed cuts from
his two
light swords.
Rather than explode as he had witnessed the demise of the Angels struck by the arrows earlier, the ghostly images of their shapes appeared to leak out of their body parts, reassemble themselves, rose up and disappeared, leaving remnants of their severed light bodies before him.

Better not leave any evidence that there was an attack here,
Jarahmael thought
. Let me try the Crystal Prism.
He sheathed his swords and reached into his tunic and then took out the prism. Aiming it at their bodies he
called out the words of the inscription. Immediately,
the parts of
the
bodies of the
ten rebel Cherubim were swirling like wisps of smoke, then silently pulled into the prism.
He looked at the prism knowing it contained what was left of those rebel Angels.
What happened to the rest of them, the images that floated up and away higher into the Heavens?