The War in Heaven (43 page)

“Seize them,” said the first demon.

Their cover was blown. It was Jennifer who drew and powered her weapon first. “The time for talk is over,” she cried. She opened fire on the demon leader. Her aim was dead-on accurate. He was blasted into a million pieces that scattered across the street. “That was for Serena,” she yelled, turning her weapon on a second target.

Don’s weapon found the second target first. Then David joined the fight. Their demon adversaries never stood a chance. Within 15 seconds, all of them had been cut down and butchered right there in the street.

“To the Holy Place!” cried David, leading the charge forward.

The group ran toward the safety of the Holy Place. Still, 200 yards had never seemed so far. Already they could see dozens of demons moving to block their path. They had a firefight on their hands.

From the Holy Place itself, thousands, then tens of thousands of worshipers stopped and took note of the battle transpiring so close. Never had the battle between the angels and demons raged so near. But wait, this was not a battle between angels and demons, but between demons and fellow saints. It was a realization that filled them with horror. Many fell to their knees in prayer.

The five human warriors were about 120 yards from their goal when they realized the pure futility of their efforts. Hundreds of demons now blocked their path. Some were on foot, others flew, but all were deadly obstacles.

“They are going to launch fireballs!” warned David.

The group took cover behind a set of marble columns, the only cover between them and the Holy Place. They opened fire on the encroaching demons, cutting down a score of them. The demons responded with an equal number of fireballs.

The fireballs exploded all around them, engulfing the area in flames. None were spared the terrible burning fire of the most dreaded of demonic
weapons. All suffered horrendous burns. Yet just a few seconds later, they returned a round of equally devastating particle beam fire. It was a fight to the death in a place where death was not easy to come by.

The demons prepared to launch another volley of fireballs, yet only a few of them made it to their targets. The demonic forces were overwhelmed by a sea of humanity streaming from the Holy Place. Armed only with God-given courage and determination, the demons were trampled under foot by the swelling multitude.

The demonic forces were caught totally by surprise. They took to the air or retreated into the streets of Zion. Within a minute, the swelling mass of saints had reached their fallen brethren. More than a few had felt the thrust of a sword wielded by an angry demon along the way, yet they had not hesitated. Now borne on the loving arms of their fellow saints, David and his friends were carried into the safety of the Holy Place.

By this time the demons had regrouped and were quickly overtaking the saints who were withdrawing into the Holy Place.

“Make them pay for their arrogance!” screamed one of the demons. “Ready your fireballs … burn them all!”

The demons, thousands of them, collectively drew their swords and prepared to discharge fireballs. These humans would be made to pay for their insolence.

Abruptly, 12 men robed in white materialized between the retreating crowd and the demon hoards, forming a thin defense line. Each wore a crown and held a golden scepter.

The man near the middle who had long dark hair and dark eyes stepped forward. “Be gone from this place,” he commanded in a mighty voice. “You are forbidden to touch the children of God.”

One of the demonic multitudes flew forward, landing on the cobblestones a dozen feet before the robed human. “Who are you to make demands of us, human?”

The man never flinched. There was not a trace of fear on his countenance. “Who I am is not important. It is He whom I serve who commands you. But, if you must know, my name is Peter; I’m a fisherman.”

The demon smiled, then laughed. “I have brought fear and pain to men more formidable than you. I have made them beg for mercy.”

“Withdraw your forces,” said Peter. “I will not give you another warning.”

“No, you won’t,” snarled the demon. “Your head won’t be attached to your neck.”

He drew back his sword as Peter extended his scepter forward. The sword came down, yet it struck an invisible barrier before reaching Peter. In rage the demon stepped back and summoned forth a fireball. It was propelled toward Peter; again the weapon was deflected by the same barrier, returning it from whence it came.

The demon was engulfed in fire. He screamed a high pitched tone as he was rapidly reduced to a pile of smoldering ashes.

The other demons launched their fireballs, yet they were deflected long before they reached the crowd. The demons retreated in panic as the last of the humans crossed the threshold into the Holy Place. For the first time in days, the Holy Place was not completely surrounded by the minions of Satan.

David and his friends were laid upon the golden floor of the Holy Place. Although they were regenerating rather quickly, they were still in great pain. The crowd backed away as Peter and his 11 compatriots drew close to David and the others. Peter knelt down at David’s side and placed his hand upon his still red forehead.

“You have done very well indeed,” said Peter. “Your example caused the people of God to respond, to put away their fears and confront the forces of Satan face to face. What they have done once, they will be able to do again more easily. But for now, sleep; when you awaken your pain will be gone.”

David gazed into Peter’s eyes as the world went dark around him. He couldn’t stay awake. Then a quiet calm darkness engulfed him—a darkness without fear or pain. Then, nothing.

I
t had been 89 hours since the dropping of the bomb when a new problem started. Fully 72 million angels had made the trip from Earth when arriving angels began to complain of a turbulent and even painful trip. Within a few minutes the pathway had closed again. Another of David’s predictions had come true. But by now David was nowhere to be found. Word was that he had made the trip to the Holy Place in Zion, in the company of several others, but no one was really sure.

Still, they had accomplished miracles. They had also managed to rescue an additional 4 million angels from the other planes of Heaven. Many came through the assistance of an unknown saint, who departed even before his deed could be recognized. They now had some 117 million battle-ready angels, and their numbers were growing by the day. This represented fewer than a third of the angels of Heaven, but it was, nonetheless, a formidable fighting force. It would be several more weeks before they would be ready to go on the offensive, and even then they would be outnumbered, but for the first time there was a glimmer of hope.

Satan sat alone in his new audience chamber. He’d had his old throne and scepter transported from Hell to here. It made him more comfortable, made this place seem somewhat more familiar.

Angelic resistance to his armies had virtually evaporated on six of the seven levels of Heaven. There was still some random resistance here and
there, but it was fading. It was the second level of Heaven that posed the greatest threat. It had been little more than a mouse hole, into which the angels had been able to find refuge; now, Satan feared that it had become more akin to a fortress. It had been the second setback of the campaign.

Satan had never taken setbacks well. Word of the destruction of Sheol and the loss of some of his highest ranking minions had been the first. True, if he succeeded in conquering all of Heaven, Sheol would have been relegated to little more than a chapter in his success story. It would no longer have served a purpose. The ability to travel from Hell to Earth in spirit form would be little more than a parlor trick, a thing of the past. Why travel to Earth as a spirit when he and his minions could have used the ring at the Hall of Angels to travel there in their physical form? Indeed, he might have found it necessary to tear down the city anyway, to further isolate the angels who would eventually be relegated to Hell as its eternal prisoners.

Yes, Sheol was the source of power for the seven crystals that enhanced the strength of his armies, but he had barely touched these reserves. The fully charged crystals were, at this point, little more than an insurance policy that he probably wouldn’t need.

But still, the timing of its destruction was bad. The barrier generated by Sheol had served to keep the last two pockets of angelic resistance isolated until he was ready to deal with them. Now, he was certain that those two pockets had combined to form what might be one large and effective angelic army, the last angelic army, bringing him back to the second setback. Satan knew that, eventually, they would strike. After all, it was their move.

And where would they attack? It had been a topic of debate in his war council. Zion itself seemed the most likely target. Satan had repositioned his forces in such a way as to make mobilizing them easier; still, he was troubled. For the first time in the campaign, his victory seemed to be in question.

The altercation here in the Hall of Angels with young upstart David Bonner had been the last foul weed in the garden. David had moved himself way up on Satan’s hit list. He had done something few had ever managed to do—humiliate him in front of his followers. He would have to deal with David very soon.

Satan’s thoughts were interrupted as the first member of his war council entered his chambers. Their daily meeting was about to commence. He would have to seem positive before them. The Prince of Darkness could not be viewed as faltering or indecisive. His doubts would have to remain hidden.

In deep space between the orbit of Uranus and Neptune, the New Horizons spacecraft was accepting new commands from Earth, 2 billion miles away. It turned its battery of high tech instruments toward the new Comet Florence. It was pure serendipity. The only spacecraft in this region of space was going to pass a mere 19 million miles from the comet, close enough to gather much valuable data. It would be observing the comet for several weeks, determining its size, temperature, composition, and most importantly, its exact position. In conjunction with telescopes on Earth and from orbit, they would determine the comet’s location and orbit exactly, and hopefully confirm that it was
not
on a collision course with Earth.

Right now, the comet was 36 million miles away, closing rapidly. The powerful LORRI imaging camera detected the tiny ball of ice on the very first try, snapping its picture against the background of stars using a variety of filters and exposures.

Despite the huge increase in the number of charged particles flying through the solar system these past four days, the images were crisp and clean. Scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory were elated by the beautiful
images of the comet. It was the first time they had observed a comet at such short range while it was still so far from the sun.

Yet, observing of the comet from Earth was not nearly so easy. The skies above the Discovery Channel Telescope in northern Arizona were ablaze with curtains of shifting red and green light. This was the third day of record auroral activity, as charged particles streamed into the Earth’s atmosphere above the magnetic pole. The mystery: where were the charged particles coming from? The sun was quiet, in the midst of a Maunder Minimum. The source of the aurora was not a solar flare. But if not a flare, then what?