From Heaven To Earth (The Faith of the Fallen) (10 page)

“Lady if you don’t give me your jewels and cash, I’ll be forced to take
’em from you,” a mugger said to a thin woman swallowed by a white mink jacket.
He pointed a small pistol at her.

“You can forget it!” The woman’s voice trembled.

“So be it.”

“Leave her alone.”

Shrazz twisted the mugger’s right hand from behind, broke his wrist,
picked him up and slammed him flat on his back.

“Don’t worry.” Shrazz turned to the woman. “Everything is fine.”

He turned back to the mugger and watched as the thin, pale man
disintegrated.

“Was my acting up to par?” Shrazz asked.

The woman side kicked Shrazz’s stomach. He caught her leg.

“Your black magic smells so sweet.”

“I didn’t think you were that idiotic,” she said.

“Furs in the summer?” he asked.

“It’s freezing here.”

Shrazz pushed her leg away and attacked with a flurry of punches and
kicks. She blocked or dodged all of them effortlessly, hooked one of Shrazz’s
punches and kneed his stomach. As he doubled over, she flipped into the air and
brought a heel down on his back.

Shrazz bounced off the concrete once before coming to rest.

“I was hoping for more of a challenge than this, exous.”

Shrazz flipped up and resumed his attack.

The woman raised an arm to block one of Shrazz’s punches. Shrazz’s fist
connected with it and crunched its bones. She screamed.

Shrazz concentrated Inner into his hands. A hot-cold sensation flowed
down from his head into his arms.

The woman tried to block Shrazz’s next punch with her uninjured arm. It
exploded on impact. His next punch went through her face. Green blood poured
out of the wound onto the concrete.

“I knew it couldn’t be human.” Shrazz smiled as the woman’s body shed its
disguise.

What was left of her head grew. Her chin and ears elongated, and her body
doubled in size. Her skin became scaly and crimson. Horns protruded from the
top of her head and spines curved from her arms and back.

Shrazz stared at the demon’s body.

A darbas. I wonder why she didn’t transform. If she had, I probably
would have had a problem on my hands.

“But that doesn’t matter!” he yelled out. “There’s nothing more exquisite
than darbas.”

Should I just absorb the energy? Or do I have time to savor it?
Shrazz chuckled.

“Is that really a choice?” he asked himself.

Shrazz pointed his palms toward the demon’s body and blue flames erupted
from them. The alleyway reeked of burnt hair and flesh.

He walked over the demon’s body, pulled one of her long, clawed fingers
from her hand and tossed the claw aside. He bit the finger in half and savored
it.

This is the most exquisite meat.

He took another bite, and something strange happened. He had the urge to
say a blessing.

God, thank you for this meal. I will not let one morsel go to waste.

He saw a red parchment on the smoking corpse, brushed the ash from it and
revealed a seal he recognized to be Satan’s. His flame had not scarred the
parchment in the least. He unfolded it, read over it and smiled.

Sorry, God, looks like my thanks was misplaced.

Satan had appointed the darbas to assassinate Shrazz. He had told the
demon that transforming would not be necessary and to do so would forfeit her
payment.

“So you were the ‘representative’.”

Shrazz’s smile changed to a grin. Satan upheld his word. Leoran was only
a test then. Now, all Shrazz had to do was uphold his word and he would: after
he ate.

Drean stepped out onto the gray, wood floorboards of Riell’s apartment.

“That was much more pleasant than my trip to Earth. Just like passing
through a doorway.”

“Thanks I guess,” Riell said.

“So why did we use the enchanted key to get here if you could have opened
a portal at will?”

“Because I didn’t want to be seen by any one that might want to get at
you. Or me for that matter.” Riell released a loud sigh and removed her boots
and socks.

“Because helping me would be a traitorous act,” Drean said. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize.” Riell dismissed it with a wave of her hand. “We made
it to my quarters, so it doesn’t matter now. I control who is admitted.”

Riell’s bare feet made the floorboards creak as she walked to the couch
and sat next on her sofa. She motioned to Drean.

“Please, join me.”

Drean removed his docs and sank into the white micro fiber cushions of
her sofa.

Several filled bookshelves surrounded them. Pictures of houses from the
Orient, Europe and the Middle East were on every wall.

Drean wanted to question Riell about these, but something more intriguing
caught his attention.

“What’s that black cube?”

“A television,” Riell said. “It’s an old one. I don’t watch it very
often.”

“Come again?”

Riell laughed and picked up a remote control from her coffee table, which
looked like it had been made from black drift wood.

“I’ll show you. Now, watch the front of it.”

“It’s a black mirror,” Drean said and gazed at his reflection in the TV
screen.

Riell pushed the power button on the remote control, and the TV blipped
on.

“There are people inside the television!”

“No, no. There are people on the television.” Riell tried to suppress her
laughter.

“No, they’re trapped!”

Drean jumped up and tried to get to the TV. Riell pulled him back down.

“Wait, wait,” Riell chortled. “Before you do anything rash, let me try to
explain it.”

“You’re holding them captive in the television!” Drean accused.

Riell laughed harder.

“The people you’re seeing aren’t in the television at all!”

“Then where are they?” Drean asked.

“See this, that’s on now?”

“Yes?” Drean nodded.

“Humans recorded these images with machines, and now we are watching a
replay of those images.”

“Recorded images?” Drean rubbed his head.

“Hmm... maybe I shouldn’t try to explain it to you.” Riell was losing her
patience. She thought for a moment. “Machines are sophisticated tools created
by humans.”

“I understand the concept of machinery. God makes use of if it in
Heaven.”

“Okay. Good. So about the images... remember how I was able to view your
memories?”

“Yes.”

“These images we’re watching... these recordings, are like the memories
of those machines, and the television enables us to view them.”

Drean nodded in understanding.

“But what is its purpose?”

“Well,” Riell flipped through channels, “news from around the world can
be shown to humans in many different locations instantaneously.”

“An amazing tool indeed.”

Drean stared at the television in awe.

“It also has entertainment value.”

“There are recorded images that can entertain? How?”

“It’s going to be easier to show you than tell you. We’re going to find a
movie to watch so we can relax a little.”

Drean smiled at Riell.

“Thanks for understanding me.”

Riell stopped flipping channels, set the remote down on the couch and
smiled.

“This movie’s supposed to be really funny.”

“What is it?” Drean asked.

“It’s called
Bruce Almighty
.” Riell smiled. “You should get a kick
out of it. And I’m Riell,” she said and held her hand out.

Drean remembered the gesture from when he met Greg. He took her hand: it
was soft and warm.

“I’m Drean.”

His hands are so delicate...

She held on to him longer than she should have and drew back when she
realized it.

“Your name has a nice ring to it,” she said and took a deep breath.

“Why is your face turning red like that? Did I upset you?”

She instinctively cupped her blushing cheeks.

“No, no. I’m not upset.” She laughed.

“Then what’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” She scooted as far away from him as she could. “Let’s just
watch this movie and take a breather.”

* * *

“God isn’t like that at all!” Drean said after Riell had turned the movie
off. “I admit that these movies are impressive works, but that one was
completely untrue!”

“Well, do you think humans have witnessed God in His entirety and
actually know what He’s like?”

Drean shook his head. “Well, no but if they know nothing about God maybe
they shouldn’t make a movie with Him in it.” Drean folded his arms and leaned
back onto the couch. “They could offend somebody.”

Riell laughed. “Are you offended, Drean?”

Drean gave her an angry look. “No.”

Riell pushed Drean’s shoulder and kept laughing.

“Come on... it’s just a movie.”

Drean tried to smile but couldn’t. Riell stopped laughing and the
momentary silence between them helped Riell’s mind refocus itself. She needed
to learn what she could about him while he still trusted her.

“Will you share the rest of that memory with me?” she asked.

“I don’t know if I can right now.”

“I need to know that I can trust you, Drean,” she said. “This is the only
way.”

“You’re still unsure?” He shook his head and got up from the couch. “Just
send me back.”

“What?”

“Send me back to the bar. It seems that we have to be on different
sides.”

 
“No, we don’t,” she said.
“Sit back down. Please?”

Drean sat. He closed his eyes and tried to open himself up to Riell.

“Thanks, Drean. I just have to be sure.”

Riell had reassured herself during the movie that allowing Drean in her
apartment had been a precautionary measure and that invading his mind again was
essential to her mission, but in truth, she had merely wanted to.

“Answer me this before we start,” he said.

“Ok?”

“Are you doing this because you cannot trust me? Or because of a personal
reason?”

“I...” she started.

Riell stared past his eyes at a photograph on the wall: a beach near her
home in England. Usually it soothed her and tempered her. She could not close
herself off any longer. It was impossible.
 

“I just feel like you’re keeping me at a distance for another reason,”
Drean said.

“It’s both,” she admitted.

“I won’t press you about it. I just wanted to know,” he said. He closed
his eyes again.

Why does he make me feel so vulnerable when I’m the one poking around
in his head?

She closed her eyes and dove into Drean. Unparalleled euphoria spilled
into her again. It was agonizingly pleasurable. She could not guard herself as
she had before because she did not want to. Her surrender made it all the more
enjoyable. There was no more guilt, only desire: the need to feel more. She
drifted into his memory.

* * *

Drean looked anxiously out into Heaven’s sky and tried to see past the
cloud of smoking feathers. When it cleared, no angels could be seen. Lucifer’s
side had won but not without repercussion.

Long claws extended from their hands. Horns jutted out of their heads and
down their backs. Their corruption had even stained their armor which had
darkened and refused to reflect any light that touched it. Deep red, green and
black scales covered their bodies, and their wings had become bat-like.

Riell recognized the demons from books she had read.

Bal’droh, the green demons, were emaciated versions of their angel
selves. The reds, which had grown larger than before and had glowing scales,
were bal’dir. The blacks, the bal’duz, dwarfed the other races with their
bulbous muscles, height and over-proportional wings.

They all turned in unison to The Sanctuary and flew toward it.

“I have never seen demons like these before... these are not Hell’s
demons. I do not understand,” Drean said to himself.

Yet, he knew his comprehension was irrelevant. The Sanctuary was in
danger. It was time to fulfill his duty.

“Dominations, prepare yourselves!” he yelled. “We may be few, but the
Lord is on our side! Repel them!”

Drean dropped to his knees, closed his eyes and concentrated. The
Sanctuary’s emergency defenses needed his will to activate.

Demons chattered amongst themselves in the guttural language of demonic.
Each of the bal’dir screamed as if they were tortured by unseen hands and burst
into flame. Their screams drew his attention away.

He thought they been incinerated, but he could still hear their shrill
cries, and their burning wings still held them aloft.

Drean concentrated and every noise outside The Sanctuary faded to a
silence, like he had fallen into the depths of a deep chasm. Seconds after, he
heard a low hum as his will connected with the defensive technology of The
Sanctuary. He heard a bell’s ring waver in harmony with the hum and knew it was
responding.

Celestinite cogs whirred to life and brought thick, celestinite doors
down from the ceiling, closing off every entrance.

Atop The Sanctuary, four large turrets sprung from the roof. Drean could
see through each of them and manipulate them as if they were a part of him.

He took aim and unleashed God’s eternal light upon the demons. Demons
grazed by the blasts were seared and maimed. Those struck directly were
instantly disintegrated.

The turrets had slain thousands of demons within the first minute of
their activation, yet Drean could not relax. Lucifer’s army was vast, and he
knew he would have only a short time to diminish it.

He heard Lucifer roar over the clamor and knew his window was closing.

“To The Sanctuary!” Lucifer cried.

Lucifer’s army swarmed the building.

Dominations hold them at bay.
The Sanctuary amplified his thought
and it boomed as a deep resonate voice.

The dominations in front of The Sanctuary engaged the demons and tried to
wrestle them back, but were quickly overwhelmed. Drean did what he could before
bal’duz smashed the celestinite machinations one by one.

Drean steeled himself, gripped his celestinite long sword’s silver hilt
and drew it from its sheath. He held the sword at a salute and assumed a
defensive stance.

Demon’s pounded on the doors of The Sanctuary, bending and warping them
until they collapsed.

A group of demons flew for Drean, screaming unintelligible battle cries.

The diminutive bal’droh barreled for the seraph. Green, foul smelling
liquid seeped off of them. They split away in the midst of their dive, flitted
about The Sanctuary and growled at each other.

Drean looked from demon to demon and his eyes latched onto the bal’dir.
The demon’s red scales constantly moved over its body, like magma.

He growled at Drean.

The sound was low and resonated throughout The Sanctuary. It grew into
piercing intonations as Drean watched him. The scales on the demon circulated rapidly
and expelled flames that billowed above the demon’s head.

The bal’dir nodded to the enormous bal’duz, which swooped down upon the
angel while his comrade bode his time. The bal’duz opened his mouth and roared
with glee. Drean stood and waited in the shadow of the coming demon, though he
could see it could swallow him whole twice over.

Drean leapt into its face and extended all three pairs of his wings at
once. A pulse of brilliant golden light beamed from his wings for a moment,
blinding the demon. Each and every feather of his wings became a tongue of
golden flame. Drean gripped the hilt of his sword tightly and propelled himself
with his wings, decapitating the gargantuan demon with one stroke. Drean landed
and watched the bal’duz turn to ash.

The bal’dir shrieked a command. The four remaining demons surrounded the
angel and bore down on him. Drean jumped into the air to meet the demons, and
stretched his wings out. The demons squealed and raised their blackened weapons
to claim his wings. Their blades came an inch from his wings before their
flames roared higher, disintegrating their weapons and scalding their scales.

Overcome by bloodlust, the demons forgot all strategy and fell upon the
angel. Drean spun, became a scorching tornado of fire and did not cease until
he could hear the demons’ wails over the rushing air and fire. He removed their
heads from their charred bodies and settled back onto the ground.

“Well done,” a harsh voice said from behind him.

Drean turned to see Lucifer with an entourage of thousands of demons, and
partially changed angels with black wings.

White scales had replaced his skin. Muscle bloated his body, which had
grown to a height of twelve feet. Horns curved out of his head and spines
jutted out of his back. Dragon-like wings draped behind him. A long reptilian
tail swished from his backside. Lucifer rested the back end of his sword on his
shoulder: the once sleek, heavenly weapon had been corrupted like the rest of
him. Its black blade was slightly longer than Lucifer was tall and no longer
emitted or reflected light.

“You have betrayed us all, Lucifer. No, I will no longer address you by
your Heavenly name, demon. Our Father has given us so much. Soon you will know
what it feels like to have Him take away,” Drean said.

“You know nothing of what he has given or taken from me, seraph. Stand
aside. My qualms are not with you.”

“I will not. Prepare for the ramifications. I know not what the Lord has
in store for you, but you can be assured...”

“We knew our actions would have consequences! We are all prepared for
them!”