Cain: The Usurper

Cain: The Usurper by K.J.Jackson

Synopsis
Now Cain has found his army in the freed Gregori willing to serve his purpose, if for nothing else other than their own revenge, the unforgiven man sets his sights on the Kingdom of heaven and the creator who cursed him to live forever; he seeks to convince the almighty father to release him from his eternal torment or kill him to break the curse. Cain will need more than his army to break the fortress and find God, what allies will he find within the alabaster halls? And is he ready to face the consequences of his actions?

Chapter 1 – In to the Void

Shamsiel let his army of angels have their time to reunite with old friends, they had been locked in their cells for thousands of years after all; Cain watched on in stoic silence, for centuries he had contemplated the paths he could take to end his curse and for so long it seemed an unreachable dream but as he looked out over the mass of fallen angels flocked above the valley it felt more like a nightmare.
“GREGORI!” Shamshiel boomed and within moments the immense cavern fell silent; the angels began to make their way down to the ledge where Cain and their General stood.
Many of the creatures, all humanoid in shape though much larger than Cain, nodded their appreciation to their saviour as they passed by the smaller Nephilim; they had a divine beauty long faded from the centuries spent in exile from their holy kingdom, all dusty blonde locks and dull blue eyes.
“Exiled ones!” The General shouted over the gathering crowd, “Your saviour asks a favour of you, but I feel we may already be travelling the same road as he,”
“You’d have my sword Nephilim! …If I had one that is,” One of the angels stood at the front of the crowd shouted and smiled.
“Our new friend here requests an audience with our father,”
“He’s come to the wrong angels! The Lord does not listen to us anymore,” The cheeky angel quipped again,”
“Cain does not require us to ask nicely, Yaqon,” Shamsiel iterated, a mumble began to grow within the crowd.
The immortal man saw his opportunity to find the support he needed, “I wish to take the Kingdom by force, overthrow the angels and convince God to free me from my curse!” He yelled in as deep a voice he could muster, feeling inadequate for the first time in his life.
Yaqon spoke once again, “And what if God cannot be persuaded?”
“Then I can only assume his death will rid me of his curse,” Cain replied bluntly.
Yaqon, who had been smiling non-stop since his release, became ecstatic at that notion, “Hahaha! I like this man! Let’s go kill us a God!” He cheered, the rest of the angels joined his chant and the cavern erupted in noise once more.
Shamsiel pulled Cain to the side, “Yaqon likes you… that is good. That angel has a powerful influence over the others, he was the one that convinced the Gregori to unify in the defiance of God’s order to not bed human women. For now he is your greatest ally, but you must be careful as he is intelligent and fickle; a dangerous combination.
In time the cheering died down and the excitement of the Gregori subsided as a query began to whisper amongst the crowd, “How do you suppose you will get in to heaven, unforgiven one?” An angel named Penemue queried.
Cain looked at Shamsiel, “I had hoped to use the Cherub as a way in, but it would seem he was not so cooperative, do you know of a way?”
Shamsiel shook his head, “There were ways, once, but they are long since sealed; the world became a tumultuous place after the birth of the Nephilim and access to and from heaven was only granted to Angels of the highest order,”
Cain’s shoulders sank.
“Indeed that Cherub would have come in handy had you not turned it to dust!” Yaqon added.
“Not helpful Yaqon,” Shasiel interjected.
“Where is the portal?” Cain asked.
The large General motioned towards a wall in the cavern; the Nephilim made his way there and Shamsiel followed, the entire force of the Gregori eagerly tagged along behind.
The group reached the edge of the cavern; blue pulsating Enochian symbols appeared on the wall as they approached, Cain hoped his Archangel Nephilim blood would get him this one step further. The immortal man took a breath and placed his hands on the wall, just as before, the symbols writhed at his touch as if they hungered for it but the Enochian lights turned red and the immortal man was flung back from the wall clear over the gathered Gregori.
Cain came to his senses as his vision was crowded with the faces of fallen angels, he groaned from the pain but managed to spring himself back up, “Okay, any other ideas anyone?” He called out. The crowd muttered within itself for some time before it fell silent.
“Try that again?” Yaqon suggested with a smile and a shrug.
“No thanks,” Cain responded.
Shamsiel made his way through the crowd, “I don’t think we can access it from this side Cain, God and his angels have worked for millennia to seal their realm from the mortals. I thank you for freeing us but it is time you got yourself far away from us; we will be hunted and killed by the Archangels once they realise we are free,”
“I cannot give up yet,”
The huge General put a comforting hand on Cain’s shoulder, “You’ll find a way, son of Suriel; you have been granted an eternity to do it after all,” Shamsiel turned to his army, “Come now Gregori, we must find a way to protect ourselves from Heaven’s wrath!” He walked towards the tunnel that lead to the Archives below the Vatican and his angels followed, some even offered a look of condolence to Cain as they walked by.
The Nephilim couldn’t do anything but watch them go; he had their support for a short while, but they are turncoats, fallen angels, what did he expect from them? Cain contemplated locking himself in one of the cells, at least he couldn’t hurt anyone there.
Suddenly a loud crack broke the sullen silence of the cavern and a blue light bathed the Valleys of Earth, the entire Gregori army turned around at the same time.
“The gate!” Shamsiel called, “Everyone to the gate, before it closes!” He began to run, then fly and passed over Cain’s head; the other angels followed their General in to the void.
It took Cain a short while to catch on to what was happening, but the gate was indeed open and how did not matter right now, “To the gate!!!” He screamed even though he was the last one to the portal, he stopped for a moment before he stepped through, “This is it,” He whispered and took the plunge in to the Kingdom of Heaven.
The unforgiven man instantly found himself in a bright-open area, the sun was excruciating to his darkness-adjusted eyes, it took him some time to focus on the army of stunned Gregori before him; the angels had charged through the portal and stood in silence before the being that had opened it for them. Cain could not see what had stopped the fallen angels in their tracks until they bowed their submission, the huge divine being smiled lovingly at the Nephilim.

Chapter 2 – A Heavenly Father

“My boy,” The angel smiled at Cain.
“Your boy?” Cain continued to stand behind the bowing Gregori.
Shamsiel stood and greeted his commander in chief with a forearm embrace, “Cain this is Suriel, your father,”
“Azrael,” The heavenly being corrected.
“Sorry?” Shamsiel looked confused.
“I am Azrael, I could not return to heaven as Suriel so I assumed the identity of Azrael and have performed his role ever since,”
“You are Azrael now? The angel of death?”
“I am. Now, come Cain, I have much to discuss with you,”
“What about us? Yaqon asked,”
“You will all be safe here this part of heaven is quite void of life for now,” Cain’s father responded with a smile, “Well, all but St Peter that is; I like him too much to kill him,” He motioned to the gates behind him where the gatekeeper lay unconscious. The crowd of Gregori looked past Azrael to the prone Saint and all nodded their acceptance.
“I wish to come with you, Cain has no mind for war and I will need to be with you if we are to discuss how to take heaven,” Shamsiel requested.
“Oh I’m sure there will be no need for such a mind Sham but you are welcome to come also,”
Cain made his way through the Gregori towards his father.
“We will go somewhere private to talk,” Azrael placed a hand on them both and whisked them away. The remaining Gregori murmured amongst themselves, beginning to feel uncomfortable in the heart of enemy territory.
Cain and the two Gregori appeared in an immense hall filled with bookcases, the etched dark wood walls and floor were a stark contrast to the bright alabaster of the entrance of heaven.
“This is where I do my work,” Azrael stated proudly, hands stretched out wide to indicate the entire room.
“Your work?” Cain asked.
“Indeed,” Azrael sat down at his desk, a huge book sat open upon it, “The codec of life. I write and there is birth, I erase and there is death,” He bent over the book and wrote a few lines then flicked back a few hundred pages and erased a name.
“Fantastic, my father is also a murderer,”
“Murder? No no no my boy… I simply allow the death, all of man is mortal since your mother gave in to the forbidden fruit, imagine mortality without death; the phrase alone is an oxymoron but think of a world where you continued to age but never died. Where cancer consumed but never killed. If I was not to allow them a peaceful passage from such terrors what would the mortals be forced to endure? My job here is crucial,” He once again put pen to paper and hastily scrawled some names before jumping up and taking a book from the shelf next to him, flicking to a page somewhere in the middle and erased one, “Now, where were we? Ah yes… What in the depths of Lucifer’s domain were you thinking releasing these beasts on the world!?!?” Azrael stood and looked dark and terrible in his ferocity.
“Excuse me?” Shamsiel took offence, “You were one of us, at least I thought you were until I saw you escape all those centuries ago. I kept telling myself you would return but you never did,”
“Return? Why would I return? To release you all too? You were my soldiers, my brothers and you each had the tools and skills required to escape it is not my duty to tell you how to use them,”
“You left us there to rot!!” Shamsiel stepped forward, anger clear in his eyes now.
“I left you there for a purpose, and here you are serving it,” Azrael replied matter-of-factly.
“You meant for this to happen?” The General queried.
“I weighed up the odds and found it likely, yes,”
Cain snapped out of a daydream and had a question, “You knew I would do this?”“No, I did not know as such. But I know you, I know your predicament, I know the most likely way you would seek to end your predicament and I also know the only army you believe would follow you on this mission; and here we are,”
“You left your so called brothers to rot in the Valleys of Earth so your son could one day use us in his holy vendetta,”
“No no, you being here is not an end game my friend, merely the path you take to get there,”
“Enough of your riddles!” Cain spoke up, “Will you help me have this removed or not?”
“I have, I will not meddle further,”
“You’re a coward, you would not free us and now you won’t help seek vengeance for the Gregori or your own son,”
“Coward? You dare… I led the Gregori in a civil war that shook heaven in ways it hadn’t seen since Lucifer fell, I meddled in the laws and the ways of the Lord millennia ago and look what it led to. Our children tainted the world of man and brought the wrath of God on the land. Our offspring took all that was good and innocent in the world and Our Father took the rest. No, I will not meddle more than I already have to get you here,”
The three stood in silence staring at each other, Azreal’s mind was racing with memories long forgotten, his face became forlorn and he looked at his son, “We did what we did for a good reason Cain, I hope you understand; we loved the human women it was not about lust or fighting, we fought for what we believed in. I did not realise what would become of love between a human and an angel, God was right to forbid it. Your mother had my heart, Eve, she was the kindest most beautiful woman I had ever seen and when she died I lost myself in grief. As much as it ached I believed that my brothers should have the right to feel love like that, love so good you don’t care that one day it may tear your heart out,” Azreal appeared lost in his thoughts.
“Wait a minute, you’re the angel of death, surely you can take my life?” Cain interrupted the silence.
The angel was brought back to the present situation, “Unlikely my boy, the magic that created that mark is older than that which binds the mortals to this lexicon. You need a weapon more powerful than that Cherub blade; the first weapon for instance,” He motioned to a scythe on the wall above a bookcase.
“Is that?”
“Yours yes, the first blade used to take a human life. Jointly cursed with you and powerful beyond its humble design, I believe it is one of the few objects capable of killing you,”
Cain handed his Cherubim blade to Shamsiel, stepped on the base of the bookshelf and reached up to take his scythe, the tool with which he reaped the land and gave birth to the seeds of his holy blessing and that with which he took the life of an innocent lamb and his brother. It felt warm in his hand, comfortable and at home, “You could do it,” He whispered to Azrael.

Chapter 3 – To Think the Unthinkable

“Do it? Me? No no…” Azrael replied.
“Please,” He looked up at his father, “If this can take my life, you must!”
“My boy,” Azrael went to the dark depths at the back of his huge archive and returned with an old leather bound tome, he dropped it on the table and dust flew up around it. The angel of death opened the book and flicked through the hundreds of blank pages to the first page, “Here, my boy,” He pointed, “this is your name penned by the original Azrael. It is the only name left in this book and any book for many volumes, I do not wish to erase it. Once in a while I would wonder if all I could create was evil but I always looked at this book and knew your name was in here reminding me I had created a good heart too. One filled with a blood rage beyond his control but a conscience to do something about it. I am sorry for what I have done to you my boy, truly I am but do not ask me to take your life,”
“Then you,” Cain held the ancient blade out to Shamsiel.
“Are you joking? If I was to use that on you the damage would return sevenfold on me, it would remove me and my soul from existence. No, you need to find someone powerful enough to wield that weapon and ignorant of your curse or stupid enough to not care and I believe you killed the only angel that fell in to the latter category earlier,”
“So now what?”
“Continue on your original mission, that blade is also one of the few capable of putting fear in to God,”
“Can he cure me?” Cain looked at his father thoughtfully.
“I do not know Cain, the primordial magic is far beyond any angel, it is pre-enochian. Before God the universe was chaos, evil beyond imagining and good with massive power. We thought we could control the forces of magic and we fought bitterly over the resources for it. But then out of the abyss came this being, new and curious; he called himself God and he had a grasp of this primordial magic far beyond any of us, in time the forces of good flocked to him, worshipped him and came to love him whilst the forces of evil fled, were locked away or killed,” Azrael’s eyes glazed over in a daydream as he recalled the long distant past, “Some of us angels are the remnants of his followers from the dark days, others were created by him to serve purposes. I am older than him by far but that magic is something only he could understand, but judging by the way the mark has chosen it’s own path it has grown far beyond even his understanding,”
“Will killing him end the curse?”
“Perhaps, if it is still even partially his curse anymore,”
“How has God not been informed of our presence yet?” Shamsiel suddenly thought.
“Oh, he knows,” Azreal replied confidently, “Just as he knows of my escape and that I am not the real Azreal. He has become somewhat, how the humans would say, Zen about everything; Our Father no longer interferes, he believes that what happens does so for a reason and balance will be found by the universe without his efforts. God thinks that my time will come, and he likely believes that your crusade has a purpose also,”
“What possible purpose could my crusade serve?” Cain asked.
“Who knows?” The angel replied with a smile, arms stretched out wide.
Azreal quickly jotted some more names in his current volume of the mortal lexicon, erased some more from various pages of another on his desk and then reached behind him for a different volume to find and erase another name.
Cain stood in silence, he began to lose hope, what if his crusade was doomed and why would God let it happen if it did not ultimately serve his purpose? Does the Lord even know the outcome? Cain knew he surely did not, did Azreal? The unforgiven man was lost in his thoughts.
“Now,” Azrael interrupted Cain’s internal conversation, “You must leave here, it will be a long fight to the doors of Our Father but you have some of the oldest and most powerful angels in heaven behind you, not to mention the first blade and a Cherubim fireblade, what more could you need?” The angel of death smiled and suddenly remembered his duties, “I have much catching up to do, best of luck my son,” He smiled at Cain then grasped the forearm of Shamsiel, “And to my brothers, I merely left you to your destiny my friend,” Shamsiel did not seem convinced, the General locked eyes with Azrael as he ushered Cain out of the room. The lonely angel stood and watched them leave for a moment before rushing back to his desk, he took one last look at Cain’s solitary name before he closed the book and locked it in his desk drawer.

Chapter 4 – The Seven Heavens
Cain and Shamsiel were ushered out of the office and in to a corridor; the walls were white, almost too bright to look at whilst the doors were a similar dark wood that decorated Azreal’s room.
“I think we are in the fifth layer of heaven; this would be the archives, a building which stores information on everything known to the celestial beings from human profiles to old magic. This is the level of heaven that we Gregori used to live in before our banishment, I used to rule this realm but I was chosen to help lead the two hundred angels tasked with protecting the humans,”
“Great job you all did protecting them,” Cain muttered to the huge General as they walked down the corridor.
“Cain,” Shamsiel turned the Nephilim by his shoulder and looked him in the eye, “What your father said was true, we never meant any harm when we took human lovers. I believe some of the Gregori may have been fighting for the wrong reasons but most of us truly fell for humans in ways we could not understand. My wife, Thea was her name; beautiful, kind and loving,” The Gregori became distant as he recalled his love long lost, “The Archangels used her as a bargaining chip to force my hand and stop the war, I surrendered myself and my brothers for her life; they do not know that,”
“I loved once. Long ago,” Cain replied, understanding, “We had children, three boys. I was never given a chance to surrender to save them, they were taken from me in the great flood,” Cain’s fist clenched around the scythe as he recalled the events that have haunted him for so long, he suddenly could not wait to stand before the God responsible.
“He sent that flood for all of our children,” Shamsiel said empathically.
A moment of silence was shared between the two, respect and understanding growing within the partnership, before they carried on down the hallway to the room Shamsiel knew held doorways to the other realms of heaven.
Within the room were six glowing azure portals, each leading to the six heavens accessible to most angels, the pair took the doorway on the far left leading back to the first heaven and the gates that held the Gregori at bay.
Shamsiel stopped halfway through the portal, “You go and get the Gregori, I’ll keep the portal open, if we step out of it we will have to fight our way through the first four heavens to get back here,”
Cain looked back and nodded, he could see the gathered army in the distance and began the short walk over the dream-like realm-in-the-sky.
As the unforgiven man approached the small army he noticed they were quite lively, talking and arguing with someone from what he could make out. The small half-angel made his way through the crowd to find out what was going on, he reached the front and found St Peter had woken up and was displeased with his current company.
“Heretics!” He yelled at them, despite being bound, “Be gone from this sacred realm before the Archangels find you and send you somewhere far worse than the Valley!”
“We have found a way to the fifth heaven,” Cain interrupted.
St Peter let out an audible gasp, “You’re supposed to be dead!” He exclaimed and prodded his forehead, sternum, right shoulder and left shoulder with his tied hands.
“That is my aim but your God put this mark on my arm and it won’t let me!” Cain displayed his forearm, bringing the scythe close to St Peter’s face.
The Saint flinched at the blade, he had sat arguing with two hundred Gregori but the sight of the unforgiven man wielding his cursed blade brought a chill to the brave gate-keepers spine.
“Leave this old man to his duties and follow me to the gate, your leader Suriel has given us a way straight to the fifth heaven, from there we will take the sixth and push on to the throne of Our Lord!” Cain shouted over the angels.
“To war!” One of the Gregori screamed, they all yelled their approval and as one the army and the cursed man made haste to the portal held open by Shamsiel.
Chapter 5 – The Fortress of Our Father
The Gregori army flooded past Shamsiel and in to the small room on the other side, before long the first angels through had to start jumping in to the portal to the sixth heaven just to make space for the torrent of brothers emerging behind them.
Cain, flightless as always, arrived last at the portal and only had to wait for the final few to enter; Shamsiel gave a smile to the Nephilim as he passed through the portal, the huge General turned and joined his men queuing to dive in to the sixth heaven.
The Nephilim motioned for Shamsiel to enter the portal first, the Gregori leader accepted the invitation and stepped through.
“Good luck,” Came a voice from the doorway to the room, Cain spun to find the origin of the voice, “I hope you find what you are looking for,” Azreal had been stood watching.
“Have you come to join us?” Cain asked.
“I have not, my boy,” Was all he said.
“Very well,” The Nephilim turned and stepped through the portal.
Horns rang throughout the halls of the celestial archives and Azreal could hear the voices of angels in the corridors, “I must face my fate for my past misdeeds, and the one I must perform right now,” He turned to face the enforcers rushing towards him and backed in to the room, closing the door behind him. The primordial being began unravelling the magic that bound the heavens to the portals as the jailors began to break the door down behind him, “I can at least make sure all of your enemies will be in front of you Cain, none shall arrive at your back,” The magic binding the portals crumbled and the azure gateways dissipated as the doorway behind exploded in to splinters, Shamsiel held his arms in front of him finally happy to accept his imprisonment.
Cain emerged in to the unwelcoming entrance hall of the sixth heaven, Shamsiel had deftly dispatched the initial guardians and distributed their weapons to four of the Gregori. The Nephilim noticed an excited buzz amongst the warriors, the glow from the azure portal faded as the magical doorway disappeared behind him.
The unforgiven man approached the blood soaked General, “Do you know your way?”
“No,” Shamsiel looked about the large chamber with concern, “None of us have ever been further than this in to the sixth heaven, it is a need to know kind of place,”
“Oh,” Cain looked about the room trying to spot what had got the General so concerned.
“Those hatches and that shuffling sound, do you hear it?”
“This is a killing chamber,” Cain realised.
“Take cover!” Shamsiel shouted just as the hatches opened up and arrows began to rain down on the trapped Gregori.
The order was ridiculous of course, there was no cover in a killing chamber. The angels stayed central in the room, some of them fell to arrows whilst Yaqon began chanting in the ancient primordial tongue. Relief came from the bombardment as a barrier encapsulated the prone army.
“I cannot hold this long, we must find a way in!”
Cain began to feel overwhelmed by his circumstances, the reality of the ordeal started to dawn on him and he felt useless in the face of the task at hand, “I’m sorry,” he said to Shamsiel who looked back at him with disbelief.
“You have given up already?” The General asked, he could not believe the look of doubt suddenly in the immortal man’s eyes, “Oh for God sake Cain! Now is not the time!” Another arrow struck the surface of the magical shield and it began to flicker under the assault.
Cain took a moment to breathe then stepped out of the dome of protection, instantly the archers above concentrated their fire on him; one, two, three blazing arrows, precise shots to the heart. One, two, three archers fell to the curse.
“To the empty hatches!” The Nephilim called.
For a few moments the army looked in shock at Cain.
“Go!” Shamsiel ordered and the angels took flight, they filtered through the hatches, the armed angels progressed first and dispatched of the remaining archers in the room above.
“Clear!” Came the call through one of the hatches, signalling that the attacking army could use all eight of the archer’s windows to climb to the level above.
Shamsiel and Cain were the last ones in the killing chamber, it was the first time they could see their fallen, the first losses of this war.
The General stood over them and whispered a few words in Enochian then turned to Cain, “Come,” He held his hand out and the Nephilim took it, together they flew up to the room above the killing chamber to join their brothers.
Chapter 6 – A Pride Long Lost
Cain watched on as the Gregori stripped their celestial cousins of everything leaving nothing for the angel’s dignity in death, a part of him questioned if these dark remnants of a forgotten order were truly the comrades he sought but a pang of reality made him realise they were a necessary evil if he was to find his end.
The bustle for weapons and armour fell silent as the doors to the kill chamber below opened; the two hundred fallen angels, already crowded in the small chamber above, crouched below the archer’s hatches.
“Where did they go?” An angel whispered below.
Cain peered through the window above his head.
“How many?” Whispered Shamsiel.
Cain shrugged, he hadn’t thought to count, “Twelve, or so,”
“Or so?” The General replied clearly exacerbated by the man’s incompetence, “Very well,” he tapped on the floor and instantly gained the attention of his men, he signed something with his fingers that Cain did not comprehend but a moment later the immortal man was swept aside as the Gregori took positions at the archer’s windows and unleashed a maelstrom of arrows down on the unsuspecting guardians. There were screams and some semblance of commands shouted to rally the small force but before long it all fell silent.
“Archers keep watch, we will regroup here,” Shamsiel whispered, the Gregori nodded their agreement.
“My father locked us in here, he must have shut the gate behind us,” Cain pondered as he looked down at the unholy massacre below and the spot that once held the azure portal to the fifth heaven.
“He stopped an army attacking us from behind, he has locked himself in the fifth heaven and will pay for his part in our sacrilege,” Shamsiel bowed his head in reverence to his fallen leader, the centuries of feeling betrayed could not stain the millennia of friendship he had felt. Cain noticed some of the other Gregori place their hands over their hearts for his father too, the old leader truly meant something to these fallen angels even after so long.
“We have lost three so far, I only hope that what awaits them in the afterlife is better than what I imagine,” Shamsiel continued.
“Do you have a ritual for death? Words of… Er, prayer?” Cain asked.
“We did, long ago but they are mostly redundant now,”
“What are they?”
Shamsiel looked over his small army for a moment and looked almost pained at the thought, “They watched and guarded with all their might, ensured the mortals lived in light,” Some murmurs spread across the brothers as their General recalled the words long unspoken, “They fallen keeping the darkness at bay, but with the celestials their souls now play,” The crowd’s murmur turned to a unified voice raising louder and prouder, “We are the Gregori and we will defend, but our brothers’ watch has come to an end,” Cain noticed every one of the angels had their hand on their heart and a tear in their eye as they each recalled a former glory that once made them proud. He suddenly realised this could be bad for the progression of his mission.
“Is everything okay?” He asked.
“Yes,” Shamsiel replied wiping the tear from his eye.
“Do you wish to continue?” The immortal man was almost afraid to ask.
“What?” The General looked confused for a moment, “Oh! No our thoughts do not turn to a time we were proud to serve our Lord, it is of the brothers we lost and the wives we held so dear. Our resolve is clear my unforgiven friend, we will see heaven pay and return it to a glory that God has long forgotten.
Not my intention Cain thought but could hardly argue as he stood in the fortress of heaven.
“Am I right my brothers?” The huge General shouted so loud it echoed down the stairs to the corridors below and made Cain wince.
The Gregori beat their chest in time, “AAAAIIIIHOOO!” They yelled, Cain assumed it was a war cry of sorts as the small force began to move as one towards the staircase down, horns rang through the fortress ahead. The battle had started.
Chapter 7 – But a Leaf in a Storm
Cain found himself buffeted from one side of the corridor to the other, it was just wide enough for three of the fallen angels to pass through side-by-side; he held his cursed scythe but only found himself having to move it out of the way of rushing Gregori. The sound of battle was ahead somewhere and he had no idea what was going on, it taken every ounce of strength the immortal man possessed not to be swept under the feet of the attacking army.
Suddenly the floor became bumpy and had strange contours that made it even more difficult for the bouncing Nephilim to keep upright, eventually he managed to look down at the faces of the dead angels he was trampling. Cain tried to not step on the bodies but they were beginning to literally cover the floor, every one of them an angel of heaven.
The immortal man could not see through the crowd of powerful beings that carried him along with them but the vanguard at the head of the Gregori, spearheaded by Shamsiel himself, was far beyond the capabilities of the guardians; they were the oldest angels in all of heaven chosen by God to defend his precious mortals and now they stood on his doorstep.
The attacking General and his powerful lieutenants used primordial magic to defend themselves and enhance their offence, Enochian magic was banned within the walls but the wards against it could do nothing to dull the sting of the primordial powers long forgotten by most.
“Forward Gregori!” Cain heard Shamsiel’s call.
“AAAAAIIIIHOOOOOO!” They called back in a deafening bass that vibrated the walls of the fortress. Cain had to run to keep his feet under him and the charging Gregori picked up their pace, they must have cleared a path he thought.
Suddenly the angels loosened their squeeze on him and spread out, the immortal man almost fell over from the surprise of having to support his own weight again.
“Shamsiel!” Came a voice from ahead of the army, Cain squeezed his way forward and emerged next to the General, the attacking force had found themselves in a huge courtyard.
Instantly the Nephilim’s attention was drawn to the sky above the courtyard, a beautiful blue that he could not take his eyes off.
“Unforgiven man!” Yelled the same voice as earlier, this snapped Cain back to his senses.
The Nephilim was taken aback when he realised there was an army stood before him, and all around him in fact, every floor of the structure walling the courtyard had archers at the window, “Oh God,” He muttered, somewhat ironically.
“Cain, put down your scythe, allow us to return the heathens to their prison and you may walk out of here,” The angel stood at the head of the opposing army shouted across the courtyard.
The Nephilim suddenly found himself shaking, a deep hole formed in his stomach that began sapping all of the hope from his heart, “I… I…” He stuttered.
“Cain!” Shamsiel grabbed his shoulder, “Do not look at him, Archangel Michael will take all of your will to fight. Do not listen to him, he is as ruthless as they come and would sooner see you tortured for eternity than free you,”
“Oh Shamsiel, you have me all wrong. Do not listen to him Cain, he is only bitter that he lost his war to me,”
“You held my wife before me! A helpless human! You made me choose!”
“I did, and I know why you loved her so. I took her that night, and every night since until her unfortunate demise,” He smiled, “She screamed for you, pathetically,”
“Hypocrite! Arggggh!” The huge General lost his cool and began to charge the distance between the two; Michael waved his arm and a volley of arrows descended on the furious being, Shamsiel enacted a barrier in time to bounce them off and carry on undeterred.
Cain watched in horror, he could barely move as the emptiness swirled inside him. The gaze of the Archangel still held him frozen in fear.
“Take to the sky!” One of the Gregori behind Cain yelled and as one the almost two hundred strong force leapt to the sky above the courtyard.
Shamsiel’s force field shattered under the projectile assault and the next volley hit him full force, he slowed slightly but continued his run, Michael smiled coyly as he reversed and disappeared in to the angels behind him.
The frozen Nephilim began to gain his sense again and realised that his friend was about to charge in to an army of angels wounded and doomed to fall; he put one foot in front of the other, then again and again, “AAAAAAAIIIIIIIIHOOOOOOO!” He yelled at the top of his voice, it filled him with a courage as he brandished his scythe in front of him.
“AAAAAAAIIIIIIHOOOOOO!” Came a call from the sky.
“AAAAAAAIIIIIIHOOOOOO!” Shamsiel screamed as he ploughed in to the, now cowering, much smaller angels. The guardians in the General’s way were of a far lower breed than he was and were lambs to the slaughter before the might of the Cherubim blade; they fell in scores as charred heavenly bodies. A semi-circle had formed around the huge Gregori General before Cain got there, he joined his friend at the centre and faced off with the terrified defending army.
The fight for the skies still went on, some of the Gregori had come crashing to the ground as well aimed arrows found their hearts but most carried on with the assault on the walls, dive bombing the archers and taking them out one by one.
“Are you okay?” Cain asked of his friend at his back, Shamsiel didn’t reply. The immortal man turned to find the General on one knee behind him; he attempted to remove the arrows, pulling futilely at each in turn but they would not budge.
“I’m fine,” he eventually said, “The doorway to the seventh heaven, God’s throne room. It’s there… Behind them,” He coughed in his hand and coated his palm with blood.
“AAAAAAIIIIIHOOOOO!” Came another call from the sky, the Gregori had taken the archers down and began to descend on the remaining force guarding the door.
A trumpet rang out from the sky beyond the walls, Cain looked to Shamsiel for answers and found it in how the remaining blood drained from the old being’s face, “Cherubim,” Cain whispered to him. The General nodded, eyes fixed on the sky.
As one the Gregori turned mid-air and watched as the powerful guardians of heaven emerged over the wall and shot like arrows, there was only a dozen of them but their cherubim blades began to cut swathes of the powerful exiled angels out of the sky.
Shamsiel looked at the floor, visibly defeated.
“So close, brother,” Michael spoke, he was once again at the forefront of his men, suddenly the defenders seemed as if they had regained their spine.
The dying General growled but did not turn round.
“Looks like we won’t have to waste the space in the prison this time, you will all be destroyed,” Michael laughed, “tell me Shammy, why did you do this? For the woman I get… But for this slither of a being? Pathetic, lost and delusional?”
“Cain,” Shamsiel whispered, “Run for the door,”
“What?” A fear began to grip him again, the presence of the Archangel made his bones ache and his muscles freeze up, “H-h-how?”
The General gritted his teeth, “Do not freeze up on me now Nephilim!” He looked him in the eye, “I’m going to hold off Michael, you’re going to run through his pathetic angels and carry on through the doorway. You will get your audience with God, do not waste it!”
“B-b-but…” Cain started but Shamsiel screamed in pain as he stood and charged Michael.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” He screamed.
Cain’s life froze around him, The General slowly charged at the suddenly panicking Archangel; the Gregori fought bravely against the best Heaven had to offer and he just stood there, watching.
Michael drew his Arch Angel blade, a deadly blade with an otherworldly glow, brighter than a thousand suns.
A tear streaked down Cain’s face as he watched, they would throw away their lives and he would sit and observe, an audience to the most macabre play.
The immortal man closed his eyes and for the first time in centuries he could see the faces of his sons, he could watch the fear in their eyes as they drifted away. Those eyes that asked him What’s going on father? What’s going to happen to me when I die? Cain realised then that it was not time that had erased their faces but his own selfishness, he could not live with that sight, “NOOOOO!” He screamed. Before the immortal man even open his eyes he was running, scythe in hand, the angels could not back away fast enough and some fell to its draining touch. Cain forced himself to leave Shamsiel to his fight, he had to make his sacrifice worthwhile. Thud as another Gregori fell from the sky Argh! As Shamsiel accepted another stinging cut from Michael’s blade. Tears filled Cain’s eyes It all had to be worth it he shouted in his head as he barrelled through the portal and emerged on the other side a ball of emotion and just collapsed on the floor of the bright room to sob.
Chapter 8 – Our Father Who Art In Heaven
The sounds of the previous battle rang in Cain’s head for some time a he remained in a foetal position and cried, after a short while the peace and serenity of the room around him became apparent and he shot to his feet suddenly aware he was in the presence of God.
“You have come so far, son of Adam,” The old-looking man spoke, he was about as tall as Cain and lithe, shocking white hair and beard streaked with grey and tidily cut and trimmed. He wore a loose white suit and white shirt with no shoes. The Heavenly Father held a scroll in his right hand and he began to pace towards the Nephilim.
“Adam was not my dad,”
“I know, but he was a much more reputable person. Don’t you think?”
“I never knew the man,”
“Very well,” God conceded the point, “Come, sit,” He motioned at a white chair and taken a seat opposite it with a small table in between. A cloud lazily drifted by the blue sky out of the large balcony window behind him.
“I’d rather stand,”
“Okay. Why are you here Cain?”
“I-I-I,” Cain grew angry, “You know why I am here!”
“I believe I do, do you think that your own selfish needs are a good enough reason to lay waste to half of what I have built here?” God stated calmly, opening his palms as if to indicate the world around him.
“You talk of selfish needs? My entire life has been a result of your selfish needs,”
“I have rules, all must follow them, be they angel or human. Or a disgusting mixture of the two,” he said matter-of-factly, motioning at Cain, “I tried to kill you Cain, put you out of your misery and resolve the problem I had caused by making you what you are,”
“By washing away the world?” Cain screamed and his anger bounced off the walls of the brightly lit chamber.
“No, I originally tried to kill you by letting your own house fall on you. A fault in your design that you may have accidentally included due to a distraction provided by yours truly. It was the perfect plan, you would kill yourself and no one would be punished for it. But that mark of yours made you truly immortal, brought you back,” God stood and began to pace also, “The flood was to wash away other mistakes, problems caused by your dead friends out there!” He pointed at the portal.
“They’re all dead?” Cain whispered and began to feel that pit in his stomach again.
God stared coldly at the immortal man.
“Do you not care that they loved the humans?” The seething Nephilim spat.
“I forbade it!” God replied.
“You cannot forbid love!”
“I created love, I can do what I wish with it,”
“No, you created man, and man created love. You cannot tell the humans what to do with that which is theirs. They can love whomever they wish. Before man, you never loved and you believe that means you created love but it is not so. I understand what my father and the Gregori were fighting for, they had discovered the greatest gift of man and you wanted to take it away,”
“You are talking of things beyond your understanding, Cain,”
“Much like you playing with things beyond yours?” The angry man responded.
“What do you mean?” God asked, suddenly becoming agitated with the immortal man.
“This!” Cain pulled up the sleeve of his bedraggled suit and shirt to reveal his scar, “You made this from magic you didn’t fully understand and now look at where we are!”
God walked towards Cain suddenly feeling irate with the pathetic man, “You were always the inferior brother, your family did not know you were born of angel blood,”
“They knew I was different but they loved me all the same! You were the one that ruined that with your games and your rules!”
“Games! You call my work games?!” The Lord strode up to Cain then and looked him square in the eye, “I am God and I have made all that you see, including you! I have worked to build and protect all that is worth protecting in this world!”
“And discard anything that falls below your standard? I have witnessed your wrath through the millennia, My Lord. The world reads the book that survives and knows of the good you did, what happened to the bad? What happened to the works that speak of your mistakes?”
“The people believe what they choose to believe,”
“I see a God that seeks to control love, only human men and women may love each other?”
“It is the natural way,”
“You made nature, but you cannot control the course it takes!”
“How dare you speak to me like this!” God became enraged. He struck the immortal man down with a bolt of lightning. Cain’s mortal form was wracked with pain and scorched from the heat, he fell dead on the ground. God flew back and crashed through his chair smouldering from the attack caused by the curse, the Lord stood back up and watched Cain’s scar revive him. The immortal man stood back up, considerably slower.
“Powerful magic indeed,” God’s suit hung in burnt threads from his perfectly healed form.
Cain charged at the Father and swung his scythe, God stopped it mid-swing with his left hand and drew the Nephilim in close, “Now to see the end to your miserable existence,” With a flick of his right hand, holding the scroll, the immortal man was suspended a few feet in front of the Heavenly Father. God placed his left hand over the scar and closed his eye, he began muttering in a language Cain didn’t understand. The Nephilim’s arm began to burn under God’s palm but he couldn’t move to defend himself, the scythe hung limp in his hand.
After some time had passed God scrunched his face and began to mutter louder, the burning in Cain’s arm became excruciating and he began to cry out. The pain caused his inner angel to grow enraged, that foreign uncontrollable anger he had felt grew within him many times before, but he accepted it, God would remove his curse and kill him finally ending this life; through the pain Cain managed a smile as he imagined his release from the torment.
The pain began to ease and Cain felt God release his grip, “Is that it?” He asked, out of breath as hatred surged through him, he was ready to fight a losing battle against this being that ruined his life.
“No,” God stared at his hands, “No, I cannot remove it,”
“NO!?” Cain screamed at God, “NO?!”
“You created this evil and you cannot end it?” He became uncontrollably angry, “Maybe you should flood the world? Maybe that’ll solve it?”
“I cannot…” God continued to mutter suddenly looking very distant.
“You did this! If anything else in this world created a monster you would destroy it, would you not?”
“I-I tried to fix it,”
“Too late! You should die, just like my sons, just like my father, the Gregori, their wives!” Cain screamed and drew his scythe above his head, “ARRRRGH!” He closed his eyes and swung down. He felt the blade bite deep, heard the grunt of an old man accepting his fate and then he opened his eyes. It was done.
Chapter 9 – The Consequences
Cain fell to his knees, God lay dead at his feet; the mark still remained on his arm.
The immortal man noticed God’s grip on the scroll in his hand loosen and the parchment fell to the floor and unravelled, he reached down to pick it up.
“My Lord!” Came a cry from the portal.
Cain turned around, Michael stood there covered in blood and wounds.
“You cretin! You don’t realise what you have done!” Michael charged at Cain, the immortal man sat there, it did not matter if he defended himself or not it would be the same result. The Nephilim closed his eyes and braced himself for the bite of the sword, but it never came; he opened them again a moment later and Michael was falling dead off his own sword.
“Wow… You did it,” Azrael stood with Michael’s blade in his hand, Shamsiel on the brink of death hung on to his leader’s shoulder.
Cain smiled at his friend, “The others?”
“Some survived,” Azrael replied, “They are outside making sure nothing else follows us through.
A small part of the Nephilim felt relief that some had survived, he had grown fond of them in the short time they were together. Suddenly the ground beneath them began to shake and the room crumbled around them. The remaining Gregori appeared through the portal, fifty at least Cain realised.
“The fortress is collaps…. Woahhhh…” Said Yaqon as the room tipped and cracked around them.
“The scroll!” Azrael shouted over the sound of breaking rock, “So it’s true!”
The sky outside turned a blood red as the seventh heaven began to spin and tumble through the sky.
“Everyone to earth!” The angel of death called out, he grabbed Cain and put his arm around Shamsiel. The Gregori followed their leaders command and flew out of the balcony window, they watched as the once invisible fortress flickered in to reality and fell from the sky. All seven heavens blinked in to existence above the surface of the earth, filling the sky with never before seen sights of a wondrous land on the day of its extinction. Angels evacuated their heavens as the massive structures slowly lost the power to stay in the air and tumbled towards the earth.
“What have I done?” Whispered Cain as he watched from the sky held up by his father.
The red sky cast the world in to a terrifying darkness, giant cysts grew and erupted all over the earth’s surface. The first heaven struck earth and Cain watched the shockwave flatten the world around it, trees, buildings and people fell to the resonance of Eden striking the surface.
Azrael flapped his wings and hovered there in silence for a moment, he realised that Shamsiel needed help desperately, “Come on! We do not need to watch this anymore, let’s find somewhere safe to land.”
The Gregorian force, now a quarter of the size it was when it entered heaven, landed on a cliff facing out over the Pacific Ocean, they watched the rest of Heaven fall all around them, from horizon to horizon it fell beneath the waves of the ocean and all across North America and beyond.
Most of the army fell to the ground exhausted, Cain walked to the edge of the cliff and watched the fortress of the sixth heaven tumble in to the Pacific like a continent floating gently from the sky.
Azrael came up behind Cain stoically and placed his hand on the Nephilim’s shoulder.
“Shamsiel?” The immortal man asked.
“I think, given time, they can heal him,” The Gregorian leader looked back at his brother before turning to the incredible sight of heaven falling to earth, “Well, you briefly usurped the throne of Heaven, now you are a lord of nothing again, the world works in funny ways,”
“What happened?” Cain didn’t find the quip amusing right now.
“God’s deadman’s switch,” The angel of death stared out at the carnage deep in thought.
“His what?”
“God was so utterly convinced that the world needed him that his last act before he died would be to ensure the world was ruled entirely by good or evil, rendering him useless, he believed it would force the world to not need the balance he created,”
“That’s insane,”
“You met the guy,”
Cain nodded slightly, understanding, “So this is…”
“The apocalypse, yes. The scroll he held was the binding magic holding all of this at bay. All of the ancient evils he had locked away, the darkness he kept from this world it’s all free,”
“And it’s my fault,” Cain felt numb.
“Perhaps,” Azrael replied somewhat unhelpfully, “But it could be that it was his plan all along, and since the day I lay with your mum it may have been an inevitable end,”
“I do not believe that,”
“Well, all that matters now is what we do moving forward,”
“What we do? We stop this mess, surely?”
“Stop it?”
Cain nodded and turned to face the Gregori.
“Gregori!” He called, most of them ignored him but some looked up from their moment of rest, “I assume you heard all that Azrael said?”
“Yeah, apocalypse etcetera…” Yaqon shouted back, “We’re all dead…” He lay back down.
“You do not get to lie down and die, I’m going to fight this,” Cain shouted back, more certain of this than anything.
“Fight this? You and what army? This end of days is born of the same magic that made you Cain, your scar isn’t going to get you through this one!”
“You are my army,” He replied confidently.
The Gregori began laughing between themselves, “I am sorry Cain, but our duty to you is over, we have our own assess to save,”
“Why would you do this Cain?” His father asked.
The Nephilim thought back to the tiny wonderful humans that had clothed him back in Rome, Rosa and Guisseppe, “Because I have seen the evil of God and I have seen the kindness of humans. They do not deserve this fate just because God had a complex,”
Azrael looked in to Cain’s eyes, “Aye, you have me there. I’ll stand by you boy,” He clasped Cain’s shoulder with pride.
“Count me *cough* in,” Shamsiel called from beneath the hands of a few Gregori.
“No!” Yaqon argued, “You’re fools, you cannot fight this! And I will not, a Nephilim, and two Gregori, one half dead? You’re just going to fall to the first primordial being you come up against,” Yaqon turned to the army, “Who’s with me?”
A murmur spread through the crowd, they all seemed to be nodding.
“Fight with me or I will hunt you down and slaughter you one by one,” Cain said, standing his ground.
Yaqon spun on the Nephilim and the demi-angel suddenly felt very small as the powerful primordial walked up to him, “You? You will hunt and destroy a Gregorian army? What exactly are you going to do?”
Cain gathered his nerve and squared up to the larger being, “I think the question is, Yaqon, what exactly can you do to stop me?” He pressed the edge of his scythe against the torso of the angel and pushed passed to address the rest of the army. “You are Gregori! Are you not? Guardians of man, watchers of mortals!” He looked out over the exhausted army, “So rise now, regain your lost glory and protect the humans in their darkest day, become their guardians once more or fall at my feet!”
A silence spread across the cliff.
“CHOOSE!” Cain screamed as loud as he could, he turned to face Yaqon, “Choose,” he said again.
The rebellious primordial looked at the ground.
The immortal man placed the tip of his scythe on Yaqon’s chin and lifted his gaze to meet his, “What would you do if your wife was still here? The same love, life and kindness can be found in humans all over this world. Do not let them perish because you are afraid to find out what this army can once again do in the name of mortals,”
Yaqon stared at Cain for a while longer, his fingertip pushed the scythe from his chin and he stepped towards the smaller man, “You’re right,” He offered his forearm and Cain took it, “He’s right!” He screamed at the angels who had begun to stand.
Azrael smiled, “Who are we?”
“Gre-gor-I, gre-gor-I, gre-gor-i!” The crowd chanted.
Azrael put a hand on Yaqon, “Heal our wounded and get them ready to travel,”
“Whew,” Cain said as he wiped an abundance of sweat from his brow.
“You just threatened the most powerful angel sect on earth,”
“I once promised a priest that I would,” Cain stared off in to the distance, “I’ve already killed God, I don’t want to break a promise to a priest as well, that would just be wrong,” He managed a little smile to his father.
A loud crack of thunder followed a blinding flash of lightning as the sky opened up and a blackness appeared so deep it consumed all of the light around it, the pitch black portal hovered above North America.
“One of the gates,” Azrael whispered.
Through the dark portal charged four horsemen, they appeared out of the hole and it closed behind them.
“You were looking for a being ignorant of your curse and capable of killing you?” He tapped his son on the shoulder, “Him,” Azrael pointed to the fourth horseman, on a steed as pale as bone. The huge knight of darkness carried a scythe and was armoured in dark plate.
“Death?”
“Indeed,”
The Gregori all looked up at once as the horsemen floated above the earth, newly free after time immemorial they sought to wreak havoc.
Cain stared at the fourth horseman, as if it felt the weight of his gaze the ancient primordial turned to meet his stare, words were shared between the mounted men as they each went about their own business. Death’s eyes were fixed on the Nephilim and it’s horse let out an unearthly shrill that made even Azrael’s blood run cold; the beast turned and began galloping through mid-air towards Cain.
“What are you going to do?” Asked Azrael.
Cain turned to face his father, “My time is long overdue,” Hi grip tightened on his scythe.
End of Cain: The Usurper. Keep an eye out for part 3 – Cain: The End Days