The Lost Book of Chaos: How to Divide the World (The Secret Wars of Angels 1) (14 page)

“Sky Jerusalem...” Judas said, disbelieving. He had been looking for it all along and had found little to no clues. And now, an angel was here to bring Judas there.

Twelve legions... If Judas remembered correctly, a legion was about six thousand soldiers, that meant...

“There are seventy two thousand of us angels,” Gabriel finished.

“Seventy two thousand,” Judas echoed.

He couldn't quite get the number in his head.

Struck with awe and excitement, Judas was caught off guard as the ship blasted off. Had it not been for the metal surface that held his feet in place, he would have fallen off, because when the ship started moving it sped faster than a horse. Even comparing this to a horse was an understatement, he could barely recognize the ground with the speed that the black
merkavah
travelled.

The winds rushed loudly against his ear, and he felt his hair and face being blown backwards.

Going to Sky Jerusalem was good and all, the only problem was...

“Can I do one more thing before we continue?” Judas shouted so he could be heard. With how fast this thing moved, they would be able to catch up to Arcana and Varak. Gabriel stopped the
merkavah
. Judas tipped a bit forward, but the black metal held the feet of Judas in place.

“What is it?” Gabriel asked.

“I owe two people my life,” Judas explained, “and now they are in danger.”

Gabriel looked thoughtful. Judas feared Gabriel would decline, and if the he did, Judas could do nothing about it.

“Very well,” Gabriel said.

Relief filled Judas.

Judas pointed to Gabriel the place where he had left the dagger and amulet that Judas buried. Judas wondered if Gabriel would recognize the blade of the Zohar, but he didn't have much of a choice. He had to save Arcana. He would have to deal with any problems that arose from Gabriel meeting Arcana. Judas knew that Arcana was running away from all angels, but this was an angel who worked with his Master after all. Gabriel could be trusted.

As the ship moved forward, Judas wanted to learn more about Sky Jerusalem.

“What do seventy two thousand angels do?” Judas asked, raising his voice. The view below passed them quickly, they were pretty high up far above the foliage of trees.

Gabriel slowed down the Merkavah, so they could talk and the howl of the wind in their ears wouldn't get in the way.

“We watch over the Earth and the people,” Gabriel answered. “Each angel is assigned a different area of the Earth, and each angel watches over different groups of people.”

“So all these seventy two thousand,” Judas said, “they protect all people? I mean, I know there's several times that number of men and women in the cities alone, let alone the other Kingdoms.”

“True,” Gabriel said, “You can imagine how difficult it is for us to manage everyone. So we have a system of prioritization—we put higher priority on protecting those who live the righteous way of life.”

“And who are the righteous?” Judas asked.

“Anyone who shows compassion,” the archangel said.

“So you are not particular,” Judas began, “with what belief, religion, faith, or lack of faith of the person that you protect?”

“No,” Gabriel answered. “Occasionally, we provide guidance and set up new religions, new systems of belief, but it all means the same thing—compassion for one another.”

Judas was thoughtful.

“But why set up different religions?” Judas said, “Why not just one? Wouldn't it be simpler?”

“We are bound by the Covenant Of Confounding,” Gabriel said. “That means we are required every 49 years to introduce new languages, new religions, and new belief systems.”

“Why?” Judas said.

Gabriel didn't immediately answer.

“Unity under a single tyrant is dangerous,” Gabriel said, a hint of pain in his voice. “Power, when concentrated in one person or leader can easily be abused.”

Gabriel wore a distant look on his face, as if recalling something from very long ago.

“Once,” Gabriel continued, “The world was almost destroyed because of unity. Two thousand years ago, Marduk, the angel tyrant, once ruled the Earth and led a revolt against Sky Jerusalem. In his desire to conquer not only Earth, but also Heaven, he assembled the angels and humans of the Earth to build his own Sky City—The Tower Ship Of Babel.”

“You know this story,” Gabriel said.

“I am not sure I've heard of it,” Judas said.

“The story of the Tower of Babel,” Gabriel explained. “But the war raged on until the time of Sodom and Gomorrah. Those two cities were destroyed as a result of the war.”

“But,” Judas said, “wasn't Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed because of their wickedness?”

“They were wicked because they followed Marduk who was also wicked,” Gabriel said, this time, a hint of anger was in his voice. The angel assured Judas it wasn't because of him. “When the angels of Sky Jerusalem fought back,” Gabriel continued, “we destroyed Marduk's cities one by one. Marduk's cities in Mesopotamia, in Sumeria, in the Sinai Peninsula, we destroyed them all.”

“Of course,” Gabriel said, “Marduk fought back. The angel tyrant used the Forbidden Weapon to destroy many of our cities too. The war desolated the Earth, leaving behind an evil radiation. Eventually, with the help of your forefather Abraham who led the Cavalry of Sky Jerusalem, we pushed back Marduk and his people. Then with Marduk defeated, we had to deal with the kings who sided themselves with the tyrant king. We offered them peace, but when they refused, we...”

Gabriel wore a sad expression.

“We destroyed them all,” Gabriel said, sighing deeply.

“What is ra...di...yay...shun?” Judas asked.

“Radiation is not visible to the normal eye,” Gabriel said. “You can think of it as an evil wind. A wind that is carried over throughout all the world, and anything it touches dies, while those that do survive die slowly, their nails and teeth falling off. This is known as radiation sickness.”

Judas nodded. “Like an invisible plague?”

Gabriel nodded.

“We won the war,” Gabriel said, “but our victory was short lived. The war had desolated the Earth. As a result, the world experienced severe famine. Not to include the fact that many lands were no longer arable, because the radiation had damaged the land itself.

“Thus,” Gabriel said, “we guided the survivors and Abraham's tribes to Mitsrayim, the land you now know as Egypt. Mitsrayim was one of the few surviving cities that was left untouched by the radiation. We led you there, so you could survive for 400 years, enough time for the radiation to wear off.”

“We sent Joseph,” Gabriel said, “the youngest son of Abraham to pave the way ahead, so by the time Abraham could get there, Joseph had already placed himself as a leader among the Egyptians. For one hundred years, you lived as respected citizens of Mitsrayim, and their citizens welcomed you as brothers. Egypt was a haven for you. Where the world experienced famine, you experienced abundance there.”

“But when Joseph died,” Gabriel said, “and the Pharaohs who knew Joseph also died, no one protected you anymore. The next generations forgot the brotherhood between Abraham's people and your people.”

“In that time,” Gabriel said, “unfortunately, you experienced slavery. We tried influencing the pharaoh's, but they would not listen. Worse, a group of angels took hold of Egypt, and another group of angels sought to take it away from them. War erupted between the angels, and Egypt was caught in the crossfire.”

Gabriel turned to Judas. Judas couldn't believe that Gabriel's eyes were teary.

“We are sorry,” Gabriel said, bowing humbly, “that you had to experience such hardships in Egypt.”

Judas was dumbfounded. An angel was bowing to him. He hurriedly asked Gabriel to stand. Judas did not deserve it. And besides, Egypt had happened so long ago.

“Do you see now the burden that we carry?” Gabriel said.

Judas nodded.

“This,” Gabriel said, “is why we continue protecting you. For you are the Children of Abraham. Because Abraham and his cavalry stood by our side in the Great Battle, we have promised him that we would watch over you.”

“Can you see now why we must divide you?” Gabriel said.

“I still...” Judas said, shaking his head.

“If humans and Earthborn angels are united,” Gabriel said, “an angel tyrant, or a human tyrant, will once again rise. If there is only one nation, the tyrant will have absolute power and no one can challenge him. Even if that tyrant rules with justice and he doesn't abuse his power, what of the next generation? When the just King of the world dies, his children... Will they also rule the world with fairness? Or will they succumb to bickering and senseless power struggles?”

Judas was beginning to see now, though there was still a tiny piece of doubt.

“Thus there is a need for division,” Gabriel said. “Because of that, there are seventy seven provisions for Confounding. The most obvious to you would be language, religion, culture, beliefs, kingdoms, classes, education, technology, faiths, spiritualities, scriptures, visions, dreams, prophecies, and so on.”

Judas wanted to know what the other provisions were, but he was curious of one other thing.

“You said you protected the righteous,” Judas said, “but what about the wicked?”

Gabriel sighed. Judas felt a sense of tiredness in Gabriel's eyes.

“When we can,” Gabriel said, “we save the righteous
and
the wicked alike. Remember, even when Cain killed Abel, we protected Cain so he could take his tribe elsewhere in the world. Angels of Sky Jerusalem believe that even the most wicked deserve many chances at repentance. But you can imagine, we have the whole Earth to cover.

Judas had no idea how big the Earth was, but it must be really far and wide. He had travelled for many years with the Master, but they still had not covered the whole of it.

“With how large the Earth is and how many people there are,” Gabriel continued, “Each angel is assigned a portion of the land. The areas with higher population density are assigned with more angels.”

Seeing that Judas was not satisfied, Gabriel continued.

“Imagine this situation,” Gabriel said, “when a human king raises an army of four hundred thousand men. Then that king wages war against the other kingdoms.”

“In such situation,” Gabriel continued, “How can we angels save everyone?”

Judas thought about it.

“There are only seventy two thousand of us angels,” Gabriel said, “In such case, it is difficult to save everyone. We are not gods. There's a limit to our power, even with our technology it continues to be a challenge to manage the Earth.”

“So first,” Judas said, finally seeing the big picture, “you prioritize saving the righteous, then when you can, the angels save the rest.”

Judas had another idea.

“But in such a case,” Judas said, “why not just defeat the tyrant king who is leading the war in the first place?”

“We are not allowed to engage in war with humans,” the angel said, “we cannot kill the king. Even if we were allowed to, it's not as easy.”

“Why?” Judas asked.

“Because of the Earthborn angels,” Gabriel said. “They are the angels who are outside the rule of Sky Jerusalem. They have chosen not to side with us.”

Judas wore a blank expression.

“The angels are not all united,” Gabriel explained. “We are mainly divided according to the angels of Sky Jerusalem, and the Earthborn angels.”

“We have a sensitive peace pact with the Earthborns,” Gabriel explained, “Unfortunately, they number far more than us. Some of them are peaceful, some of them keep to themselves and don't want anything to do with us, while others interact and influence humans, secretly raising human armies to once again rise up against us.”

Judas shook his head, still finding it hard to accept all these. By now, they were close to where Judas had left the place where he had hidden the sacred blade and amulet. Gabriel had slowed down the
merkavah
so they could talk, otherwise it would have been difficult to communicate over the howl of the wind. The
merkavah
sped up, or rather, sped down, since they were from far above.

However, as they approached the place, Judas saw a figure of a plump, bald man digging around the area and just about finding the two items.

Judas grumbled under his breath as he recognized the man immediately.

“ICHAAAAAAAAAB!” Judas yelled.

The bald man gave out a bewildered cry, looking for the source of the noise. Seeing nothing because Gabriel and Judas were still invisible, the bald man continued digging, but faster this time. Gabriel nodded to Judas, and the black
merkavah
let go of the feet of Judas so he could step off.

Ichab jumped in surprise at the sound of Judas landing. The man scurried away, but in his panic, Ichab's feet became tangled and he fell. Ichab tried to scramble away, but Judas caught up to him immediately.