Due to advice, I have received from a trusted source I have decided to put in here before the...
Born Of An Umbral Star [DxD Quest]
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Story Start
Due to advice, I have received from a trusted source I have decided to put in here before the story actually begins that this is technically just an Altera-expy.
The Idea, however, is that you are still the bad civ hating, Scourge of God being, White haired Altera. You just have a different name and station in life.
You are War.
You are an accident, a mere coincidence of civilization.
When mankind first thought, it was a thought of want. When humans want what they do not have, they take it from those that do.
You are Destruction.
You are Followed by Death, leaving less in your wake than there is in front of you.
Mankind's second thought was one of Selfishness. When Humans have what others need, they lord it over those that want to enlarge the value of simple necessities.
You are Progress.
You are the end of stagnation, when all else fails and the world stills, you push it forward heedless of the cost.
When Humans manage to protect what they have from the ones that take, they think that from now on they will always have what they could ever want.
You are The Answer.
You are what all turn to for help when pushed to the brink.
When humans fight for what they want and what they have they use you as The Means, The Reason, and The Excuse.
You were all of these things and none of these things from birth.
When you were born the sky was black as night for when you came into existence none but the stars knew of what would become of you, all the stars in the sky turned away in shame of what would be made in their light.
All except one that is.
A star clouded by shadow, the only star not saddened by the prospect of its light being used for such evil and terror, In fact, it was excited by this prospect, for what was it but the greatest of evils in the sky?
This dark star had many names, many a terrible title indeed.
Ranging from the Harvesting Star to the Light that Hates.
None, however, were as meaningful as what it would later become known as.
The Umbral Star, for it was the first being in creation to come into existence outside of the light of Gods' great gaze.
It would not be the last.
But, when was this birth under these shameful stars, and who were you to be cursed to such a fate by the stars themselves?
[ ] You were born with Humanity, the last of God's great Seraphs. (Earliest start date allowing you to be more impactful into the setting as a whole, Bound to be fighting a lot of higher tier opponents that you can contend with power-wise.)
[ ] You were born with Civilization, joining the ranks of God's elite 10 winged angels. (Middle start date with less of an ability to impact most setting important events, Fights will be easier and your opponents less powerful.)
[ ] You were born an unwanted human, under their towers of steel and stone ever reaching towards the heavens. (Late start date around the time of Canon DxD, due to not being Issei you're not going to be a major player for quite some time, Fights will be easier due to the much weaker power of everyone involved.)
Despite your nature as all that humanity hates, you do have a name, you remember what it was, don't you?
[ ] Altera
[ ] Sephyr
[ ] Abaddon
[ ] Apollyon
[ ] Write-in
Alright, so I've planned this for a long time, since the first time I saw @Magery's great Raynare Quest in fact, and let me tell you it feels really good to actually start doing something with this idea even if my writing isn't super great.
I wanted this first installment to be a little longer but I can't really do much more with this until I know what start we are going with.
Now a fair warning this is going to be really AU with actual canon DxD so if you know a lot of that don't think that it is going to be a great indicator of what is going to happen or how some characters fit into the world.
I feel it might be important to point out that in the human start you won't be wearing anything close to resembling Altera's usual outfit for hopefully obvious reasons.
and as far as names go I'm fine with anything as long as it has basically nothing to do with Atilla, primarily because in none of these starts are you Atilla the Hun.
The Idea, however, is that you are still the bad civ hating, Scourge of God being, White haired Altera. You just have a different name and station in life.
You are War.
You are an accident, a mere coincidence of civilization.
When mankind first thought, it was a thought of want. When humans want what they do not have, they take it from those that do.
You are Destruction.
You are Followed by Death, leaving less in your wake than there is in front of you.
Mankind's second thought was one of Selfishness. When Humans have what others need, they lord it over those that want to enlarge the value of simple necessities.
You are Progress.
You are the end of stagnation, when all else fails and the world stills, you push it forward heedless of the cost.
When Humans manage to protect what they have from the ones that take, they think that from now on they will always have what they could ever want.
You are The Answer.
You are what all turn to for help when pushed to the brink.
When humans fight for what they want and what they have they use you as The Means, The Reason, and The Excuse.
You were all of these things and none of these things from birth.
When you were born the sky was black as night for when you came into existence none but the stars knew of what would become of you, all the stars in the sky turned away in shame of what would be made in their light.
All except one that is.
A star clouded by shadow, the only star not saddened by the prospect of its light being used for such evil and terror, In fact, it was excited by this prospect, for what was it but the greatest of evils in the sky?
This dark star had many names, many a terrible title indeed.
Ranging from the Harvesting Star to the Light that Hates.
None, however, were as meaningful as what it would later become known as.
The Umbral Star, for it was the first being in creation to come into existence outside of the light of Gods' great gaze.
It would not be the last.
But, when was this birth under these shameful stars, and who were you to be cursed to such a fate by the stars themselves?
[ ] You were born with Humanity, the last of God's great Seraphs. (Earliest start date allowing you to be more impactful into the setting as a whole, Bound to be fighting a lot of higher tier opponents that you can contend with power-wise.)
[ ] You were born with Civilization, joining the ranks of God's elite 10 winged angels. (Middle start date with less of an ability to impact most setting important events, Fights will be easier and your opponents less powerful.)
[ ] You were born an unwanted human, under their towers of steel and stone ever reaching towards the heavens. (Late start date around the time of Canon DxD, due to not being Issei you're not going to be a major player for quite some time, Fights will be easier due to the much weaker power of everyone involved.)
Despite your nature as all that humanity hates, you do have a name, you remember what it was, don't you?
[ ] Altera
[ ] Sephyr
[ ] Abaddon
[ ] Apollyon
[ ] Write-in
Alright, so I've planned this for a long time, since the first time I saw @Magery's great Raynare Quest in fact, and let me tell you it feels really good to actually start doing something with this idea even if my writing isn't super great.
I wanted this first installment to be a little longer but I can't really do much more with this until I know what start we are going with.
Now a fair warning this is going to be really AU with actual canon DxD so if you know a lot of that don't think that it is going to be a great indicator of what is going to happen or how some characters fit into the world.
I feel it might be important to point out that in the human start you won't be wearing anything close to resembling Altera's usual outfit for hopefully obvious reasons.
and as far as names go I'm fine with anything as long as it has basically nothing to do with Atilla, primarily because in none of these starts are you Atilla the Hun.
Last edited:
Awaken Oh Sleeper 1-1
If you were to ask any member of the devout whether God could make mistakes they would firmly shake their head and resolutely with no hesitance what so ever tell you,
"No."
That is however incorrect, You are living proof of God's fallibility after all.
You are Anath, Seraph of War. When you were made as a byproduct of the creation of humanity, you were born flawed.
You could not sing as well as the others, neither could you act in a play deserving of the magnificence of heaven.
While these were things that you could not do there was something that of all angels, Seraphim or not, you could do second to none.
Fighting, you were the most powerful of all of God's great creation for in his absence of your creation you lost the ability to create, replaced only by the power to destroy.
Until you, this position was held by Uriel or perhaps even Helel on those days when his ever-flowing luck would come to pass.
But Uriel was of Flame and Helel of Stars, both destructive in their capability to destroy for sure, but it is you the one of War that possesses the most refined and pure control of destruction.
When you were younger you would sit with the smiths and potters of heaven wishing to help wherever possible in creating there at least more tangible creations.
That ended when heaven ran out of craftsmen who would accept the notorious destroyer of clay and metal.
It was their fault for using such brittle material if you had any say in it.
After you ran out of craftsmen to pester, you tried the dancers and composers.
It turned out that being the best at outmaneuvering someone in a dogfight while shouting at the top of your lungs was a poor substitute for the fine control and poise the great artists of heavens had naturally.
It wasn't much longer after you managed to burn an entire palace down when trying to cook dinner for a guest, that you gave up on your hopes of creating anything beautiful and worthwhile.
Nowadays you've learned to enjoy your alone time in your room until someone inevitably wants help with one of the few skills you are good at.
Like channeling the light of God into spears, the others thought it was a wasteful pursuit, after all, what use would a spear be in heaven but to collect metaphorical dust in a metaphorical closet.
You were happy to report that no actual dust would gather on the weapon though, it just sorta burned it from existence when you last tried to let it gather.
On the bright side, you even managed to convince Helel of light based weapon making, when you last talked to him he had even managed to make a trident out of the light, which was something that even you couldn't do.
So what if Remiel said that to use the light of God in such a manner was shameful and rude to father, Remiel isn't the archangel now is he.
The fact that Metatron had said the same thing didn't really help you feel better though.
"Are you done yet?" You were interrupted from your thoughts by the annoyed voice of Baraqiuel to your right.
Being who you were, you merely answered him with a nod and a silent gesture to continue the relatively short flight to your destination.
Weeks earlier there was a pair of two winged angels that had made an apparently large blunder against the Mesopotamian Pantheon. You never really got all of the details but Micheal had said something about a bull, a king, and a clay puppet.
What any of those things had to do with the next you can't even pretend to know, but even still with the perceived slight against one god or another, father had sent you and two ten winged angels to see about setting things right and also to get the two angel that got themselves captured out from the dungeons from these upstarts.
Why these arrogant gods felt they could demand anything of heaven you didn't know, but that's not your place as the dignitary involved.
No, your place is to correct that thought, not wonder why they had it in the first place.
Such was fathers will.
As you neared the large palace of the gods, you began noting the large variety of towers and buildings surrounding the large citadel.
The most notable of which being the large tower spiraling absurdly high into the sky seemingly reaching for the sun, and if your eyes weren't suddenly failing you, there was even construction going on at the top of the tower to continue its ever reaching grasp for the sky.
"I hope those two are okay." and that shaky voice would be none other than young Sachiel to your left.
"They will be if these gods have even a modicum of sense, we have more than enough power in us three alone to blow away there entire civilization let alone the rest of heaven." That would be Baraqiuel as stiff and stern as always.
"Yea, but what if they think they're better than us and they try to hurt them, what then?" You don't mind these two, not really, but they do talk far too much for your liking.
As those two deliberated between their opinions on the subject at hand you were deciding the plan that would be used by your tiny diplomatic envoy.
On one hand, these giants were notoriously egotistical about anything that dared challenge their authority, so then it would make sense to come at this diplomatically and politely.
On the other hand, you were Anath, and you weren't particularly good at politely asking for anything or even talking in general honestly.
You could just fly in and force the prisoners from them, you certainly had enough power that of their gods only about three or four should be able to challenge you in combat.
For the others however, that wasn't the case, because while Baraqiuel and Sachiel could perhaps fight evenly against most of these gods, bar a select few, they definitely couldn't handle them all at once, and that's not even thinking about the two angels in the prison who most certainly couldn't fight back against most of the gods in any reasonable terms, let alone one on one.
With this information, the choice was obvious in your mind.
[ ] The best course of action is clearly to let Sachiel and Baraquiel do most of the talking while you stand threateningly to the side, no better place for the war machine of heaven after all than next to gods children.
[ ] Clearly, you must impress upon these arrogant gods the power of heaven and the might of its heavenly host. Descend upon the gathered court with all twelve of your wings arrayed behind you and the demands of your heavenly father upon your lips.
[ ] write in.
AN: if anyone tells you writing is easy I want you to turn around and smack them in the face for me.
I had a lot of trouble with this one and had to rewrite it more than once.
However, I eventually decided that it was done enough and just needed to be posted or I would never post it in the first place.
Basically, if you notice anything you don't like point it out to me so that I can improve how I do this in the future and fix this one.
Anyway, this is also where you can see the first few AU aspects of the setting come into place here.
For one Lucifer hasn't fallen yet, and neither has Jesus been created yet.
Also instead of the canon ten, I went with thirteen Seraphs in total with twelve of them planned and you the accidental thirteenth.
"No."
That is however incorrect, You are living proof of God's fallibility after all.
You are Anath, Seraph of War. When you were made as a byproduct of the creation of humanity, you were born flawed.
You could not sing as well as the others, neither could you act in a play deserving of the magnificence of heaven.
While these were things that you could not do there was something that of all angels, Seraphim or not, you could do second to none.
Fighting, you were the most powerful of all of God's great creation for in his absence of your creation you lost the ability to create, replaced only by the power to destroy.
Until you, this position was held by Uriel or perhaps even Helel on those days when his ever-flowing luck would come to pass.
But Uriel was of Flame and Helel of Stars, both destructive in their capability to destroy for sure, but it is you the one of War that possesses the most refined and pure control of destruction.
When you were younger you would sit with the smiths and potters of heaven wishing to help wherever possible in creating there at least more tangible creations.
That ended when heaven ran out of craftsmen who would accept the notorious destroyer of clay and metal.
It was their fault for using such brittle material if you had any say in it.
After you ran out of craftsmen to pester, you tried the dancers and composers.
It turned out that being the best at outmaneuvering someone in a dogfight while shouting at the top of your lungs was a poor substitute for the fine control and poise the great artists of heavens had naturally.
It wasn't much longer after you managed to burn an entire palace down when trying to cook dinner for a guest, that you gave up on your hopes of creating anything beautiful and worthwhile.
Nowadays you've learned to enjoy your alone time in your room until someone inevitably wants help with one of the few skills you are good at.
Like channeling the light of God into spears, the others thought it was a wasteful pursuit, after all, what use would a spear be in heaven but to collect metaphorical dust in a metaphorical closet.
You were happy to report that no actual dust would gather on the weapon though, it just sorta burned it from existence when you last tried to let it gather.
On the bright side, you even managed to convince Helel of light based weapon making, when you last talked to him he had even managed to make a trident out of the light, which was something that even you couldn't do.
So what if Remiel said that to use the light of God in such a manner was shameful and rude to father, Remiel isn't the archangel now is he.
The fact that Metatron had said the same thing didn't really help you feel better though.
"Are you done yet?" You were interrupted from your thoughts by the annoyed voice of Baraqiuel to your right.
Being who you were, you merely answered him with a nod and a silent gesture to continue the relatively short flight to your destination.
Weeks earlier there was a pair of two winged angels that had made an apparently large blunder against the Mesopotamian Pantheon. You never really got all of the details but Micheal had said something about a bull, a king, and a clay puppet.
What any of those things had to do with the next you can't even pretend to know, but even still with the perceived slight against one god or another, father had sent you and two ten winged angels to see about setting things right and also to get the two angel that got themselves captured out from the dungeons from these upstarts.
Why these arrogant gods felt they could demand anything of heaven you didn't know, but that's not your place as the dignitary involved.
No, your place is to correct that thought, not wonder why they had it in the first place.
Such was fathers will.
As you neared the large palace of the gods, you began noting the large variety of towers and buildings surrounding the large citadel.
The most notable of which being the large tower spiraling absurdly high into the sky seemingly reaching for the sun, and if your eyes weren't suddenly failing you, there was even construction going on at the top of the tower to continue its ever reaching grasp for the sky.
"I hope those two are okay." and that shaky voice would be none other than young Sachiel to your left.
"They will be if these gods have even a modicum of sense, we have more than enough power in us three alone to blow away there entire civilization let alone the rest of heaven." That would be Baraqiuel as stiff and stern as always.
"Yea, but what if they think they're better than us and they try to hurt them, what then?" You don't mind these two, not really, but they do talk far too much for your liking.
As those two deliberated between their opinions on the subject at hand you were deciding the plan that would be used by your tiny diplomatic envoy.
On one hand, these giants were notoriously egotistical about anything that dared challenge their authority, so then it would make sense to come at this diplomatically and politely.
On the other hand, you were Anath, and you weren't particularly good at politely asking for anything or even talking in general honestly.
You could just fly in and force the prisoners from them, you certainly had enough power that of their gods only about three or four should be able to challenge you in combat.
For the others however, that wasn't the case, because while Baraqiuel and Sachiel could perhaps fight evenly against most of these gods, bar a select few, they definitely couldn't handle them all at once, and that's not even thinking about the two angels in the prison who most certainly couldn't fight back against most of the gods in any reasonable terms, let alone one on one.
With this information, the choice was obvious in your mind.
[ ] The best course of action is clearly to let Sachiel and Baraquiel do most of the talking while you stand threateningly to the side, no better place for the war machine of heaven after all than next to gods children.
[ ] Clearly, you must impress upon these arrogant gods the power of heaven and the might of its heavenly host. Descend upon the gathered court with all twelve of your wings arrayed behind you and the demands of your heavenly father upon your lips.
[ ] write in.
AN: if anyone tells you writing is easy I want you to turn around and smack them in the face for me.
I had a lot of trouble with this one and had to rewrite it more than once.
However, I eventually decided that it was done enough and just needed to be posted or I would never post it in the first place.
Basically, if you notice anything you don't like point it out to me so that I can improve how I do this in the future and fix this one.
Anyway, this is also where you can see the first few AU aspects of the setting come into place here.
For one Lucifer hasn't fallen yet, and neither has Jesus been created yet.
Also instead of the canon ten, I went with thirteen Seraphs in total with twelve of them planned and you the accidental thirteenth.
Last edited:
Awaken Oh Sleeper 1-2
"...and what of the tower, even if they were to give up those two we still have that damn tower to worry about."
You were starting to feel as if this entire argument would never end, it had been going on since you had first spotted the Mesopotamian city and they just would not stop going over this same damnable loop of reasoning over and over and…
"If they don't give us what we want we'll just take those two out of there and leave, who cares about their heretical tower."
And then Sachiel will say that father does,
"Clearly Father does, he's the one that told them to stop when they first started building it."
Because of course, he would.
"Then we blow it up and them get them out of there, simple as that."
"We don't even know if they're alive, what do we even do if they are dead?"
You've had enough of this loop, you were almost there anyway so it was time to end it.
"War."
This being your first word throughout the entirety of the trip it was enough to throw them off just long enough to explain further what you meant.
"We are not a peaceful delegation meant for politely trading between Factions."
It was true, you knew that Father knew that you were never good at what the others were.
If he had wanted this resolved peacefully at all costs he would have sent Micheal or Raphael.
But he sent Storms, Law, and War.
"Father wants this done quickly, legitimately and easily," it felt weird having to even explain these things, "and if they refuse us any of these then the spirit of destruction will already be in their homes."
It would seem that at least this had quieted them down long enough to get there in blessed silence.
Once you had actually made it into the city proper you could make a proper look about the place. Though at first, you didn't know where to land it was made very quickly obvious by the huge gathering of people around the three large thrones out in the open air.
The city of Babylon itself was beautiful, filled with many trees scattered around the tall palaces and towers that make up the skyline of the city. There was a serene river flowing gracefully through two sky colored plazas filled with plants of all shapes and sizes that were constantly attended to by servants running to and fro. The walls and houses themselves were even painted blue and white, attempting, and almost succeeding, to match the majesty of your holy father's sky.
It was all ruined by the gargantuan tower leading ever upward into the sky, mocking the size of even the mountains themselves.
You didn't want to be the one to destroy this place, but what else is there to do as Heaven's hammer, but to remove the nail in the wall forever catching and prodding at its betters.
The crowd on the ground had seen your approach by now, so as you descend in front of their presumable king you willed the very light around you into a weapon fitting the seraph of war, showing these egotistical gods that though you do not carry bow or spear you are not unarmed.
As you hear the other two land behind you the burly man on the blue center throne speaks,
"Who are you to intrude upon the divine assembly of the Anunnaki?"
"I am Anath, Seraph of War, and you have two children of our heavenly father in chains."
You say this as you say everything, harsh and straight to the point, what is the point of waffling about with words when you could not win a battle with them.
"Ah, so this isn't about your insulting claim to our sky." This came from the skeleton thin one on the red throne to the left.
At this Sachiel to your left spoke up."No, this is about that as well." Sachiel was speaking more firmly on the ground than in the sky earlier, why you had no idea.
"Our father is tired of your transgressions upon his earth." Baraquiel spoke loudly and to the point, clearly ready to get the two prisoners out and leave.
"Our transgressions?" The center one was not about to let this go of course.
"It is not us who has slighted your heavenly father, but he who has questioned the power of Babylon." The sarcastic tone in which he had talked about your father was not inspiring hope that it would not be you to tear down their great city today.
"The prisoners, now." You were tired of this, as far as you were concerned this trip had only one outcome and it didn't concern this much talking.
"Yes, yes, I know better than anyone the impatience of your kind."
It was this comment that caused you to escalate the argument.
As the Spear of condensed light blew the back of the throne out from behind him, faster than lightning or sound, you merely took another step forward all while there was another already in your hand.
The man on the right green throne quickly looked to the crowd and called for a god by the name of Ninazu to retrieve the prisoners.
As you waited for this Ninazu to come back with your brother and sister the center god had finally stood back up from his crumbled throne.
"That is three times now," He was shaking and red, on the verge of doing something regretful, no doubt.
"Three times have you angels slighted Enlil, Chief of all Anunnaki." In the face of his anger and wrath stood you, uncaring and cold.
"First, you think to forbid my people from our very skys, commanding my people to tear down our great tower." It was almost comical how high and mighty they thought they were.
"Next you prevented the death of our traitorous puppet." You knew then how this day would end.
"Then you think to come to my city, armed and ready for war." With the streets of Babylon filled with the corpses of the young and the damned, its great tower destroyed, and its walls turned to ash.
"But yes, you may have your two wretched servants back, alive even." As he was saying these words you could see Ninazu returning back with, what you would normally have assumed were two humans, being dragged in chains from a small building to the right.
"Bare witness to the mercy of Enlil."
At first, you assumed all was well with them, so you gestured for Baraquiel and Sachiel to help the two up.
It was the twisted smile on Enlil's lips that first alerted you to something being wrong.
It was Sarachiel's gasp that fully told you that all was not well.
As you glanced sidelong at one of the angels it became clear as to what had happened.
"As your father forbids my people from my sky, so to do I forbid his servants from my sky."
Their wings were gone, ripped cruelly from them by these enemies of God.
Enlil began to say something else, likely one snide comment or another, you didn't feel overly much like listening, however.
Where once stood Enlil, Chief of all Anunnaki, lord of Babylon and the Northern sky, there now sitting upon his throne of rubble was nothing but ash.
You had already ended the vile enemy of God before the sound could even leave his mouth.
Panic was beginning to ensue as the crowd was able to finally react to their great king being burned from existence before their own eyes.
You had two options now, slaughter them here or return to heaven and let God decide their punishment.
[ ] Tell Baraquiel and Sachiel to fly the prisoners to Heaven as fast as possible while you stay behind to show those unworthy the power of God's wrath.
[ ] Return to heaven with your brothers and sister to show your Father what has happened in Babylon, let him decide the fate of the sinners.
[ ] Write-in (QM discretion as to what the write-in can be.)
I'm not particularly happy with this, but it should be good enough at least.
In any case, there was the next chapter of the Mesopotamian incident I hope it was at least readable if not much else.
You were starting to feel as if this entire argument would never end, it had been going on since you had first spotted the Mesopotamian city and they just would not stop going over this same damnable loop of reasoning over and over and…
"If they don't give us what we want we'll just take those two out of there and leave, who cares about their heretical tower."
And then Sachiel will say that father does,
"Clearly Father does, he's the one that told them to stop when they first started building it."
Because of course, he would.
"Then we blow it up and them get them out of there, simple as that."
"We don't even know if they're alive, what do we even do if they are dead?"
You've had enough of this loop, you were almost there anyway so it was time to end it.
"War."
This being your first word throughout the entirety of the trip it was enough to throw them off just long enough to explain further what you meant.
"We are not a peaceful delegation meant for politely trading between Factions."
It was true, you knew that Father knew that you were never good at what the others were.
If he had wanted this resolved peacefully at all costs he would have sent Micheal or Raphael.
But he sent Storms, Law, and War.
"Father wants this done quickly, legitimately and easily," it felt weird having to even explain these things, "and if they refuse us any of these then the spirit of destruction will already be in their homes."
It would seem that at least this had quieted them down long enough to get there in blessed silence.
Once you had actually made it into the city proper you could make a proper look about the place. Though at first, you didn't know where to land it was made very quickly obvious by the huge gathering of people around the three large thrones out in the open air.
The city of Babylon itself was beautiful, filled with many trees scattered around the tall palaces and towers that make up the skyline of the city. There was a serene river flowing gracefully through two sky colored plazas filled with plants of all shapes and sizes that were constantly attended to by servants running to and fro. The walls and houses themselves were even painted blue and white, attempting, and almost succeeding, to match the majesty of your holy father's sky.
It was all ruined by the gargantuan tower leading ever upward into the sky, mocking the size of even the mountains themselves.
You didn't want to be the one to destroy this place, but what else is there to do as Heaven's hammer, but to remove the nail in the wall forever catching and prodding at its betters.
The crowd on the ground had seen your approach by now, so as you descend in front of their presumable king you willed the very light around you into a weapon fitting the seraph of war, showing these egotistical gods that though you do not carry bow or spear you are not unarmed.
As you hear the other two land behind you the burly man on the blue center throne speaks,
"Who are you to intrude upon the divine assembly of the Anunnaki?"
"I am Anath, Seraph of War, and you have two children of our heavenly father in chains."
You say this as you say everything, harsh and straight to the point, what is the point of waffling about with words when you could not win a battle with them.
"Ah, so this isn't about your insulting claim to our sky." This came from the skeleton thin one on the red throne to the left.
At this Sachiel to your left spoke up."No, this is about that as well." Sachiel was speaking more firmly on the ground than in the sky earlier, why you had no idea.
"Our father is tired of your transgressions upon his earth." Baraquiel spoke loudly and to the point, clearly ready to get the two prisoners out and leave.
"Our transgressions?" The center one was not about to let this go of course.
"It is not us who has slighted your heavenly father, but he who has questioned the power of Babylon." The sarcastic tone in which he had talked about your father was not inspiring hope that it would not be you to tear down their great city today.
"The prisoners, now." You were tired of this, as far as you were concerned this trip had only one outcome and it didn't concern this much talking.
"Yes, yes, I know better than anyone the impatience of your kind."
It was this comment that caused you to escalate the argument.
As the Spear of condensed light blew the back of the throne out from behind him, faster than lightning or sound, you merely took another step forward all while there was another already in your hand.
The man on the right green throne quickly looked to the crowd and called for a god by the name of Ninazu to retrieve the prisoners.
As you waited for this Ninazu to come back with your brother and sister the center god had finally stood back up from his crumbled throne.
"That is three times now," He was shaking and red, on the verge of doing something regretful, no doubt.
"Three times have you angels slighted Enlil, Chief of all Anunnaki." In the face of his anger and wrath stood you, uncaring and cold.
"First, you think to forbid my people from our very skys, commanding my people to tear down our great tower." It was almost comical how high and mighty they thought they were.
"Next you prevented the death of our traitorous puppet." You knew then how this day would end.
"Then you think to come to my city, armed and ready for war." With the streets of Babylon filled with the corpses of the young and the damned, its great tower destroyed, and its walls turned to ash.
"But yes, you may have your two wretched servants back, alive even." As he was saying these words you could see Ninazu returning back with, what you would normally have assumed were two humans, being dragged in chains from a small building to the right.
"Bare witness to the mercy of Enlil."
At first, you assumed all was well with them, so you gestured for Baraquiel and Sachiel to help the two up.
It was the twisted smile on Enlil's lips that first alerted you to something being wrong.
It was Sarachiel's gasp that fully told you that all was not well.
As you glanced sidelong at one of the angels it became clear as to what had happened.
"As your father forbids my people from my sky, so to do I forbid his servants from my sky."
Their wings were gone, ripped cruelly from them by these enemies of God.
Enlil began to say something else, likely one snide comment or another, you didn't feel overly much like listening, however.
Where once stood Enlil, Chief of all Anunnaki, lord of Babylon and the Northern sky, there now sitting upon his throne of rubble was nothing but ash.
You had already ended the vile enemy of God before the sound could even leave his mouth.
Panic was beginning to ensue as the crowd was able to finally react to their great king being burned from existence before their own eyes.
You had two options now, slaughter them here or return to heaven and let God decide their punishment.
[ ] Tell Baraquiel and Sachiel to fly the prisoners to Heaven as fast as possible while you stay behind to show those unworthy the power of God's wrath.
[ ] Return to heaven with your brothers and sister to show your Father what has happened in Babylon, let him decide the fate of the sinners.
[ ] Write-in (QM discretion as to what the write-in can be.)
I'm not particularly happy with this, but it should be good enough at least.
In any case, there was the next chapter of the Mesopotamian incident I hope it was at least readable if not much else.
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Awaken Oh Sleeper 1-3
"Baraquiel, Sachiel get them out of here!"
Before Enlil was even dead you were already ordering your companions to help the former prisoners back to heaven.
Baraquil had only responded with a nod before he was already in the air with your wingless brother.
"I- But what about…"
"Now, Sachiel."
Sachiel had merely clenched his fist, closed his eyes and nodded before he was also off with your sister.
You could already hear the sound of horns and drums off in some further off corner of the town.
If you had to make a guess, someone had alerted the guards and whatever else was stationed here to protect the city.
It was no matter they were all sheep to the slaughter, it wasn't them who would die undeserving today.
You had to move before any of the gods managed to get away, as it was you could already see a group of six trying to run towards the central palace.
Deciding that the idea of hunting them down wasn't to your liking, you hoisted your spear, took aim, and threw.
When the spear left your hand the very air around it cried in fear of the wrath of the god, but the spear alone would not kill them all.
Faster than many that day could see, you took off behind it.
To any humans that had witnessed it, it would have looked like two suns had suddenly been born for a split second before suddenly with a loud crack, three gods had simply disappeared, the others soon chased down and ended by you.
All within the length of a single breath.
Behind you, there was the sound of a hundred different gods trying to shout orders, ready for a fight, or simply to find a place to hide.
You would let none escape Babylon.
Most of the gods were unable to even hope to fight back, a few even managed to stop your spear with whatever weapon they managed to find before you got to them.
It would gain them naught but a moment of struggle before death.
The humans that were trying to fruitlessly help their gods were cut down on the streets, their arrows filling the sky as yet more would attempt to shoot down the lights that would appear for seconds before disappearing only to reappear elsewhere.
Throughout it, all your face portrayed was nothing but uncaring indifference, as if you had simply been bored and were disinterested with the systematic destruction of an entire mythos.
To those that survived this day, you would be known as the winged judgment, for before you none could escape and at the end, you would be waiting for all.
To the humans that weren't fighting, you were a thing to be avoided and sidestepped.
To the humans that fought, you were a thing to expect and to fear.
To the few gods that survived you were a thing to loathe, to hate, but most of all, to respect.
But for you, for you this was torture.
With every swing, every throw, and every breath more died that only tangentially deserve it.
With every building that collapsed, every body that fell on the streets. The more you wished to simply say stop, to not continue, yet continue you did.
For this is the will of God, none but he may stop this now.
At some point, you had found the other two that had been on the thrones.
They fought back harder than the rest, with axe and bow, they matched you blow for blow.
They could fly, lords of the winds as they were, it was due to this that they were able to bring with them all the strength they could muster.
You stopped every strike that you could but they were the equals of Enlil, and unlike him, they were prepared.
You learned their names before the fight had started how you had done so, whether it be through them telling you or through the myriad of prayers from the humans, was a mystery to you.
Great Ea, lord of the Southern Sky fought with bow and arrow, those his strikes were weak, they persisted and he would weave his way around every swing as if he were the water of the oceans themselves.
His armour was red and his body was thin, no matter what happened he was calm and steady, his will unshakeable, and his loyalty unquestionable.
Then there was frightful Anu, Lord of all skies and the mover of creation, despite his lofty titles he was a coward that was only good at being a coward.
Such was his power that his strikes would break your spears and crack the ground, but he was always unsure of using it, any time you focused on him he would only run or try to pitifully block the light, usually failing, and if it wasn't for Ea, he would have been dead a hundred times over.
It was this duo that had nearly seen your mission unfinished, yet still, you fought on, despite the many arrows now embedded in you, you fought on.
Despite the cleaving and hacking motions that just barely made it through your spear and past the clothes that you wore, you fought on.
Yet no matter the strength you had, you were failing, individually you could have bested them easily, but together they were a metaphorical mountain to climb, and this was after the marathon you had already run to kill the rest.
The only saving grace that you had was that they seemed to be missing a third of their group, likely Enlil.
The only thing alerting you of this was the openings that were left open or the length of time in which you had to breathe and be ready, all of which are things that would have likely been kept up with by the third person.
You shudder to think of what they would have been like if all three were still alive.
It was through the most recent bought of trying your best to not be bisected by Anu's giant axe that you were caught of guard by more arrows from Ea.
Though you had managed to fend off the arrows before Anu took advantage of the opening it was clear that you were slowing faster than they were.
Where before you were seemingly dancing as the lightning would now you were frantically throwing yourself through the air at ever slowing speeds, the damage you could do to them was becoming minuscule compared to what they were already doing against you.
It was this that allowed Ea to push his attacks to the next level.
At first, all was still, the ever present smoke and the sounds of screams from the humans below had seemed to just vanish, when suddenly the air itself was screaming at you, all around you swords, axes and spears were being formed by the very air and brought against you.
Yet still, you managed to avoid that which you could, the light of your spear did nothing to stop that which was not material.
Like everything he had done in this fight, it would not have been enough to end you alone, but he was not alone.
For Anu, the grand coward that he was, had been preparing his next attack to be the last.
One moment you were alone in the sky, save for the screaming weapons of Ea, the next Anu was already upon you, swinging with all his might, so fast was he that even if you had not been in the middle of the process of dodging two arrows and an armies worth of melee weaponry, you were unsure whether you could have stopped him weakened as you were.
For a second you thought that this would be the end, that the only thing you would have brought into the world was a legacy of failed destruction.
This however, wasn't the end for when Anu brought down the axe he found not weak and injured you, but strong and fresh Uriel.
The axe that had caused you such trouble before had simply melted on impact with Uriel, so bright was his flames.
"That will be enough of that I think, How are you holding up sister?"
Uriel turned his head to look at you, clearly unconcerned with Anu, weaponless as he was.
"I'm fine, brother." That was probably a lie but it wasn't the time to be worrying about it.
"Are you sure, we have healers with us, you shou-"
You had forgotten about Ea and he would not idly sit by while his comrade got roasted alive by his enemies new ally.
"Look out!' you wouldn't be able to alert him fast enough for him to move away from the hammer flying towards his back, so you did the obvious.
You pushed him out of the way, you wouldn't be able to get out of the way after doing this but you were already pretty much out of the fight anyway, so hopefully it won't be overly much of a burden on Uriel to finish it without you.
The hammer of wind had more strength behind it than you had anticipated.
You were thrown backward in the air, now normally you could catch yourself, but normally you weren't this tired, so when you went spiraling downwards and through the side of their horrendous tower you could only watch numbly as your brother and your enemies seemed to grow smaller and the ground bigger.
After you collided with the roof of one building or another, you decided that laying inside the rubble of a broken house was a nice idea, after all, you could do with a rest.
Before you were able to fully pass out though you heard the sound of a footstep crunching on the broken stone behind you.
You stood up as fast as you could and readied your weapon at the throat of … a …
Child.
There was a young girl standing behind you clearly petrified in fear of the monster that had crashed into what was left of her home.
"Why haven't you left yet?" You couldn't understand why any who were innocent would still be here, surely her parents would have brought her out of the city by now.
"I don't know the...the way." The child was stuttering, poor thing was just lost and confused, that was all, yes that had to be all.
"You're lost, come here I can take you there." Though the girl flinched when you picked her up it didn't deter you from gathering up what energy you had left to take her outside the walls of this place.
As you took flight with the girl in arms you were able to take in the city now that you were no longer in the thunderous fight up above in the clouds.
It was chaos, their tower was falling apart, an entire section of the city was on fire, the bodies of the dead were everywhere.
But what stood out to you the most was that there were so many people who were just not leaving everyone was hiding or running about, why were they not leaving didn't they know that they didn't have to die with their gods, they should have left.
You could see past the wall and into the sky a great many of your siblings flying into the sky towards Uriel. Also next to them you could see Gabriel reading from some scroll out loud what the purpose of it was, you didn't know.
As you set the girl down at what was left of the gate you took to the sky once more.
You wanted to see if you could the rest of the innocent out without a fuss.
Seeing as they couldn't get out on there own you decided that the only way to get them to leave was to force them to.
As you were in the air looking down on them silhouetted by the sun you noticed more than a few of them pointing and shouting at the one angel paying them any attention.
You needed to get them to pay attention to you so you did what came naturally.
"Listen to me!" you shouted as loud as you could and yet still only a few more were looking at you.
Deciding that since that was not working you needed a new approach.
As you created the last light spear you could manage right now your vision blacked out a bit, but it came back before you could fall out of the sky.
Since they wouldn't listen to words you decided to show them the way out.
You reared back your arm and took aim at the wall bordering the river.
Though your voice couldn't get them to pay attention, the sound of an entire section of their once mighty city's wall exploding outward in an explosion of light and rubble sure did.
"Hear me, Hear me and flee, flee you innocent of Babylon, you need not die for the sins of the mother." it was enough for at least some to start running, and once some started they all started in.
You watched as the people of Babylon escaped in great lines, as the sound of the fight above was beginning to peter out you started to lazily float towards Gabriel.
"...because of the disaster, I will bring on her. And her people will fall."
You only caught the tail end of whatever message from God she was reading.
As she was rolling the scroll back up she caught sight of you hovering next to her.
"Oh hey sister, are you okay, you don't look so good?"
Oh, sweet Gabriel always so worried about how others were doing.
"Don't worry about me, I'll be fi…" it was at this point that you had fainted on the spot.
The last thing you heard was Gabriel shouting your name as she caught you from falling to the ground.
When you next woke up, you were in your bed in Heaven.
You could tell from the familiar empty feeling that your whole house had around it.
As you got up you noticed all the little aches that persisted after long bouts of healing magic.
Outside the weather was as perfect as it always was.
You could faintly hear the sound of the smiths and painters at work outside your house.
When you figured out that making things wasn't a thing that was among your skill sets you decided to have a house near the place of work of those who it was.
It reminded you that not everyone was as cursed as you were.
Sadly despite the fact that you would love to do nothing but sit here and listen to them work, you still have to go and ensure that the rest of the Seraphim knew that you were up.
Who would you go to first?
[ ] Helel, it was likely he would try to drag you into some fishing trip or another but well you can't deny that of all your siblings you loved him the most, so it was only reasonable that you told him of your health first.
[ ] Gabriel, The poor girl was probably worried sick about you collapsing as you did, it would do well to let her know you were fine.
[ ] Uriel, Though you don't talk to each other much there was no denying that you to were siblings and besides you do need to thank him for saving you back there.
[ ] Azazel, he would probably appreciate the first-hand account of Babylon and what the power of their gods was like, plus maybe he'll even say hello before he starts asking questions this time.
[ ] Write-in, just name a Seraph and why you wanted to talk to them.
It took longer than I wanted it too and I wrote a lot of it while half asleep, but I like most of it.
If you notice any typos let me know and they'll be fixed.
Before Enlil was even dead you were already ordering your companions to help the former prisoners back to heaven.
Baraquil had only responded with a nod before he was already in the air with your wingless brother.
"I- But what about…"
"Now, Sachiel."
Sachiel had merely clenched his fist, closed his eyes and nodded before he was also off with your sister.
You could already hear the sound of horns and drums off in some further off corner of the town.
If you had to make a guess, someone had alerted the guards and whatever else was stationed here to protect the city.
It was no matter they were all sheep to the slaughter, it wasn't them who would die undeserving today.
You had to move before any of the gods managed to get away, as it was you could already see a group of six trying to run towards the central palace.
Deciding that the idea of hunting them down wasn't to your liking, you hoisted your spear, took aim, and threw.
When the spear left your hand the very air around it cried in fear of the wrath of the god, but the spear alone would not kill them all.
Faster than many that day could see, you took off behind it.
To any humans that had witnessed it, it would have looked like two suns had suddenly been born for a split second before suddenly with a loud crack, three gods had simply disappeared, the others soon chased down and ended by you.
All within the length of a single breath.
Behind you, there was the sound of a hundred different gods trying to shout orders, ready for a fight, or simply to find a place to hide.
You would let none escape Babylon.
Most of the gods were unable to even hope to fight back, a few even managed to stop your spear with whatever weapon they managed to find before you got to them.
It would gain them naught but a moment of struggle before death.
The humans that were trying to fruitlessly help their gods were cut down on the streets, their arrows filling the sky as yet more would attempt to shoot down the lights that would appear for seconds before disappearing only to reappear elsewhere.
Throughout it, all your face portrayed was nothing but uncaring indifference, as if you had simply been bored and were disinterested with the systematic destruction of an entire mythos.
To those that survived this day, you would be known as the winged judgment, for before you none could escape and at the end, you would be waiting for all.
To the humans that weren't fighting, you were a thing to be avoided and sidestepped.
To the humans that fought, you were a thing to expect and to fear.
To the few gods that survived you were a thing to loathe, to hate, but most of all, to respect.
But for you, for you this was torture.
With every swing, every throw, and every breath more died that only tangentially deserve it.
With every building that collapsed, every body that fell on the streets. The more you wished to simply say stop, to not continue, yet continue you did.
For this is the will of God, none but he may stop this now.
At some point, you had found the other two that had been on the thrones.
They fought back harder than the rest, with axe and bow, they matched you blow for blow.
They could fly, lords of the winds as they were, it was due to this that they were able to bring with them all the strength they could muster.
You stopped every strike that you could but they were the equals of Enlil, and unlike him, they were prepared.
You learned their names before the fight had started how you had done so, whether it be through them telling you or through the myriad of prayers from the humans, was a mystery to you.
Great Ea, lord of the Southern Sky fought with bow and arrow, those his strikes were weak, they persisted and he would weave his way around every swing as if he were the water of the oceans themselves.
His armour was red and his body was thin, no matter what happened he was calm and steady, his will unshakeable, and his loyalty unquestionable.
Then there was frightful Anu, Lord of all skies and the mover of creation, despite his lofty titles he was a coward that was only good at being a coward.
Such was his power that his strikes would break your spears and crack the ground, but he was always unsure of using it, any time you focused on him he would only run or try to pitifully block the light, usually failing, and if it wasn't for Ea, he would have been dead a hundred times over.
It was this duo that had nearly seen your mission unfinished, yet still, you fought on, despite the many arrows now embedded in you, you fought on.
Despite the cleaving and hacking motions that just barely made it through your spear and past the clothes that you wore, you fought on.
Yet no matter the strength you had, you were failing, individually you could have bested them easily, but together they were a metaphorical mountain to climb, and this was after the marathon you had already run to kill the rest.
The only saving grace that you had was that they seemed to be missing a third of their group, likely Enlil.
The only thing alerting you of this was the openings that were left open or the length of time in which you had to breathe and be ready, all of which are things that would have likely been kept up with by the third person.
You shudder to think of what they would have been like if all three were still alive.
It was through the most recent bought of trying your best to not be bisected by Anu's giant axe that you were caught of guard by more arrows from Ea.
Though you had managed to fend off the arrows before Anu took advantage of the opening it was clear that you were slowing faster than they were.
Where before you were seemingly dancing as the lightning would now you were frantically throwing yourself through the air at ever slowing speeds, the damage you could do to them was becoming minuscule compared to what they were already doing against you.
It was this that allowed Ea to push his attacks to the next level.
At first, all was still, the ever present smoke and the sounds of screams from the humans below had seemed to just vanish, when suddenly the air itself was screaming at you, all around you swords, axes and spears were being formed by the very air and brought against you.
Yet still, you managed to avoid that which you could, the light of your spear did nothing to stop that which was not material.
Like everything he had done in this fight, it would not have been enough to end you alone, but he was not alone.
For Anu, the grand coward that he was, had been preparing his next attack to be the last.
One moment you were alone in the sky, save for the screaming weapons of Ea, the next Anu was already upon you, swinging with all his might, so fast was he that even if you had not been in the middle of the process of dodging two arrows and an armies worth of melee weaponry, you were unsure whether you could have stopped him weakened as you were.
For a second you thought that this would be the end, that the only thing you would have brought into the world was a legacy of failed destruction.
This however, wasn't the end for when Anu brought down the axe he found not weak and injured you, but strong and fresh Uriel.
The axe that had caused you such trouble before had simply melted on impact with Uriel, so bright was his flames.
"That will be enough of that I think, How are you holding up sister?"
Uriel turned his head to look at you, clearly unconcerned with Anu, weaponless as he was.
"I'm fine, brother." That was probably a lie but it wasn't the time to be worrying about it.
"Are you sure, we have healers with us, you shou-"
You had forgotten about Ea and he would not idly sit by while his comrade got roasted alive by his enemies new ally.
"Look out!' you wouldn't be able to alert him fast enough for him to move away from the hammer flying towards his back, so you did the obvious.
You pushed him out of the way, you wouldn't be able to get out of the way after doing this but you were already pretty much out of the fight anyway, so hopefully it won't be overly much of a burden on Uriel to finish it without you.
The hammer of wind had more strength behind it than you had anticipated.
You were thrown backward in the air, now normally you could catch yourself, but normally you weren't this tired, so when you went spiraling downwards and through the side of their horrendous tower you could only watch numbly as your brother and your enemies seemed to grow smaller and the ground bigger.
After you collided with the roof of one building or another, you decided that laying inside the rubble of a broken house was a nice idea, after all, you could do with a rest.
Before you were able to fully pass out though you heard the sound of a footstep crunching on the broken stone behind you.
You stood up as fast as you could and readied your weapon at the throat of … a …
Child.
There was a young girl standing behind you clearly petrified in fear of the monster that had crashed into what was left of her home.
"Why haven't you left yet?" You couldn't understand why any who were innocent would still be here, surely her parents would have brought her out of the city by now.
"I don't know the...the way." The child was stuttering, poor thing was just lost and confused, that was all, yes that had to be all.
"You're lost, come here I can take you there." Though the girl flinched when you picked her up it didn't deter you from gathering up what energy you had left to take her outside the walls of this place.
As you took flight with the girl in arms you were able to take in the city now that you were no longer in the thunderous fight up above in the clouds.
It was chaos, their tower was falling apart, an entire section of the city was on fire, the bodies of the dead were everywhere.
But what stood out to you the most was that there were so many people who were just not leaving everyone was hiding or running about, why were they not leaving didn't they know that they didn't have to die with their gods, they should have left.
You could see past the wall and into the sky a great many of your siblings flying into the sky towards Uriel. Also next to them you could see Gabriel reading from some scroll out loud what the purpose of it was, you didn't know.
As you set the girl down at what was left of the gate you took to the sky once more.
You wanted to see if you could the rest of the innocent out without a fuss.
Seeing as they couldn't get out on there own you decided that the only way to get them to leave was to force them to.
As you were in the air looking down on them silhouetted by the sun you noticed more than a few of them pointing and shouting at the one angel paying them any attention.
You needed to get them to pay attention to you so you did what came naturally.
"Listen to me!" you shouted as loud as you could and yet still only a few more were looking at you.
Deciding that since that was not working you needed a new approach.
As you created the last light spear you could manage right now your vision blacked out a bit, but it came back before you could fall out of the sky.
Since they wouldn't listen to words you decided to show them the way out.
You reared back your arm and took aim at the wall bordering the river.
Though your voice couldn't get them to pay attention, the sound of an entire section of their once mighty city's wall exploding outward in an explosion of light and rubble sure did.
"Hear me, Hear me and flee, flee you innocent of Babylon, you need not die for the sins of the mother." it was enough for at least some to start running, and once some started they all started in.
You watched as the people of Babylon escaped in great lines, as the sound of the fight above was beginning to peter out you started to lazily float towards Gabriel.
"...because of the disaster, I will bring on her. And her people will fall."
You only caught the tail end of whatever message from God she was reading.
As she was rolling the scroll back up she caught sight of you hovering next to her.
"Oh hey sister, are you okay, you don't look so good?"
Oh, sweet Gabriel always so worried about how others were doing.
"Don't worry about me, I'll be fi…" it was at this point that you had fainted on the spot.
The last thing you heard was Gabriel shouting your name as she caught you from falling to the ground.
When you next woke up, you were in your bed in Heaven.
You could tell from the familiar empty feeling that your whole house had around it.
As you got up you noticed all the little aches that persisted after long bouts of healing magic.
Outside the weather was as perfect as it always was.
You could faintly hear the sound of the smiths and painters at work outside your house.
When you figured out that making things wasn't a thing that was among your skill sets you decided to have a house near the place of work of those who it was.
It reminded you that not everyone was as cursed as you were.
Sadly despite the fact that you would love to do nothing but sit here and listen to them work, you still have to go and ensure that the rest of the Seraphim knew that you were up.
Who would you go to first?
[ ] Helel, it was likely he would try to drag you into some fishing trip or another but well you can't deny that of all your siblings you loved him the most, so it was only reasonable that you told him of your health first.
[ ] Gabriel, The poor girl was probably worried sick about you collapsing as you did, it would do well to let her know you were fine.
[ ] Uriel, Though you don't talk to each other much there was no denying that you to were siblings and besides you do need to thank him for saving you back there.
[ ] Azazel, he would probably appreciate the first-hand account of Babylon and what the power of their gods was like, plus maybe he'll even say hello before he starts asking questions this time.
[ ] Write-in, just name a Seraph and why you wanted to talk to them.
It took longer than I wanted it too and I wrote a lot of it while half asleep, but I like most of it.
If you notice any typos let me know and they'll be fixed.
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Awaken Oh Sleeper 1-4
Now I didn't intend for this to take a week but I had a lot of issues with this chapter from day one, it's not the best, primarily because I'm not very good with dialogue at the best of times.
But I would rather it not take another week, so without further ado here it is.
You didn't quite manage to just leave your house and trot off to Uriel's unaccosted.
Much as you would have wanted to just shirk off all responsibility and see how things had gone after you were taken out of the fight, you were a Seraph and so had at least some semblance of responsibility.
Even if yours was mostly just seeing how everyone was doing in your flock.
When God created the Seraphs, he decided that as the greatest of his children, they would all lead his weaker and less magnificent children.
All angels were created to be good at something, those who were good at the same things were merged into a flock, A flock was headed by a Seraphim who was 'Ideally' the best at what the flock was good at.
The Seraphim were led by the four great Seraphs, who themselves were led by the Archangel.
The Archangel was the right hand of God, his greatest of Children at any one time, Currently that title was taken by Helel.
When God had decided whos flock would be who's you hadn't even been born yet.
As such, you got left with the Remainder of Sariel's flock who didn't quite fit in with the rest of his Gardeners.
Ironically to some but mostly just depressingly to you, you got the smiths and the jewelers of Heaven.
Due to the odd disparity in what you can do in comparison to your flock you just sorta let them do what they will as long as they told you if anything might catch on fire or something equally devastating within the next few days.
Thankfully things only exploded once every few decades or so.
The fact that you had been helping in all of those cases had nothing to do with it, nothing at all.
Thankfully, however, no one needed your help this time, though young Mairon did say that his newest ring might need some more apprentices to fully flesh out the final product, you can only hope that he gets the help he needs, the ring was turning out quite lovely even as it was right now.
Truthfully, you didn't hate this part of being a Seraph, if anything it just made not being able to create things that much more nice when they actually did, it was like living through them while you did father's more physical jobs.
All told, it only took a few hours to finish up with your flock, before you were able to start out towards Uriel's place of residence.
Uriel's house was… well, his house was actually rather small, it was just the large field it was situated in that was gigantic.
As such getting to Uriel was a chore if you didn't catch him before or after one of the Heavenly councils.
Still, you did like meeting with him at his house every once in a while, he served great drinks after all.
Standing in front of his door you were beginning to have second thoughts about talking to him, however.
While you used to visit each other quite often, the lingering guilt of not quite matching him at anything but just killing sorta ruined any chance of a healthy brother-sister relationship.
You still remember the years when you were younger when he tried to teach you his magic.
It was actually quite similar to how your spears were made, it just required a different mindset than you possessed is all.
There was also the time when he tried to teach you to sing, the birds still haven't forgiven you for that.
So vivid were the memories that it almost seemed like he was standing in front of you with that same old smile of his and his arms outstretched ready to hug you to the brink of suffocation.
...You're ashamed to admit that it took you until he already had you in the air to realize that he wasn't a vivid figure of the past.
"Please let go of me, Uriel." This wasn't okay just because he was bigger than you by a couple orders of magnitude did not mean he was allowed to manhandle you in such a manner.
"Oh, come on sister, it's been six decades since you last appeared at my doorstep, does big brother Uriel not get a hug from little Anath anymore." Him imitating your younger self with the forced baby talk did not lessen the embarrassment of this situation in the slightest.
You did not do hugs, you were Fathers seraphim of war and destruction after all, what self-respecting angel of war let her big brother hug her.
...it was with great shame that you decided that this was a battle that you couldn't win, and so with a great sigh, you hesitantly patted his back in some misguided attempt to appease Uriel.
From him laughing his usual deep and boisterous laugh though it would appear to have won you the day at the very least.
"Ha ha ha, that's the spirit sister." Why did you come here again, surely it wasn't worth this whatever it was.
"Anyway come in, come in, I already have tea on." He's never going to put you down is he, dear father what did you do to deserve this disrespect.
"I would, but I can't seem to gather my footing brother, if only you would set me down for a second perhaps?" Maybe he'll take the hint this time, all you can do is pray and hope.
Oh, now he's just walking you towards the back porch with you in his arms still.
"I'm just making sure you don't run away this time, dear sister."
How can he say that with a straight face, it's not okay, nothing about this is okay damn it.
"I won't run away if you would just set me down please."
"That's what you said last time Anath, You're really bad at lying you know." You were going to kill him, damn the consequences you were going to kill him if he didn't set you down right n-
You were interrupted by your thoughts by you squealing as he dropped you onto a seat overlooking the back half of his lawn.
It was just as you remembered it, with that same vast lake in the middle that he taught you fire magic on or the same dead spot of grass where you crashed one of his chariots.
While you were reminiscing you failed to notice that Uriel had left until he had sat down a tray of freshly brewed tea on your lap.
You absent-mindedly siped at the tea as you both gazed out past his lawn and into what was, and what could have been.
"Thank you."
It came out almost as a whisper, nearly too quiet to be heard.
"Oh, for what, dear sister?" He looked at me while saying this, his eyebrows quirked up.
"For saving me, I'd be dead if it wasn't for you showing up when you did." The events of yesterday seemed like they had all happened in haze almost as if it happened in a dream more than anything else.
"Hmph, well you saved me right afterward, so I say we'll call it… even, does that sound good?"
"Yea, Yea that sounds wonderful Uriel." I was strange to talk this much to him after all this time.
For a time you just sat silently next to each other, drinking tea and just enjoying the company more than anything else.
"Do you know what happened to the two that we saved?" You had almost forgotten to ask after your earlier conversation, but, well you can't deny that you had been curious as to how they were doing.
"Who?" he paused as if to remember who it was you destroyed an entire civilization for.
"Oh, yea those two, they left heaven not to long ago, something about wanting to protect a… Gilded mesh or something, I wasn't really listening much, to be honest with you."
It took you a bit but after a long half a minute of glaring at him, he relented enough to tell you why he wasn't listening to the council meeting that must have happened while you were out.
"Look I was more worried about you, okay, I don't what I'd do if you were seriously hurt after taking a hit for me."
You gave him a dubious look at this.
"You mean more to people than you think Anath, there's no need to get all depressing about it."
He punctuated the end of his sentence by messing up your hair, undeterred by the fierce glare you gave him of course, the fiend.
After this, there was silence for a time until it was broken by him letting out a great sigh.
"You know, there were quite a few humans that escaped Babylon."
You would assume so based on the fact that you were the one to let them out of the city.
"Some were even soldiers, they were there fighting you with their gods."
You took a moment to remember the events as best you could but well you always got like this when doing things you'd rather not, blurring it out and just forgetting it as best you could.
"They have stories of you now."
That was a strange look he was giving you, perhaps this was more important than just telling you that some humans had escaped Babylon.
"The apocalypse they're calling it, the end of the world." He had ended the sentence with his arms outstretched and his voice flaring out dramatically.
He then gave you a sad look as he started to stop being so overly dramatic.
"They're saying that at the end you will be there ready to usher in a new age, ready to finish off the rest of this world."
Ahh, yes that was a thing wasn't it, perhaps you had finally managed to make something lasting.
Fitting that it was a legacy of fear and destruction.
"Ow!" you had been slapped upside the head by him.
"Now now, no need to to be thinking like that, there was nothing that you could have done better in this situation."
You couldn't help but disagree with him, after all, you being who you were there was probably something that somebody who wasn't a complete failure of a Seraph could have done that you would ha-
"Agh… will you stop hitting me!" Standing up to whirl around and look at him as you shouted at him.
"Just as soon as you stop thinking like that dear sister."
Sigh it was hard to stay mad at Uriel whenever he acted like this.
"I know, it's just hard to not let these things bother me is all."
"Hey, it's alright nobody is going to blame you for that, Anath."
Oh, he was messing your hair up again.
You'll forgive him this time.
Only this time however, next time he'll get punted across Heaven for it.
After couple more hours of just enjoying your time together before life made meetings like this inconvenient again, you were about to head home when Uriel abruptly stood up with a sound of elation.
"I know what we can do to brighten up your mood!"
"Huh?" you were very eloquent when someone just randomly started shouting weren't you.
"No no, listen I know what to do."
"What's gotten into you brother?"
You were smiling, it felt nice considering you didn't manage to work up the want to do this often.
"Come on, we have somewhere to be!"
He said this while he was dragging you by the wrist towards the door.
"What, where are we going?" you managed to get your wrist out from his hands while you were asking him this.
"To the town Anath, we are going to make something."
He sounded very happy about setting Heaven on fire, it almost struck you as funny.
"And what are we going to make, Dear Brother?" You said this in as sarcastic a tone as you could manage.
"Well, Dear Sister, we are going to make…"
He gave a pause as if to build suspense for an audience that wasn't even here.
"An Answer!"
What.
"What."
Clearly, he wasn't in the mood for your perfectly reasonable questions based on the way you were being dragged again.
"I'll explain on the way come on."
"A force multiplier?"
"Yes, that's what I said."
By the time you got to the center of the city that Uriel lived somewhat near to, he had managed to explain that though he had won the fight against the gods you had fought above Babylon, it was not a clean victory and more than a few of the two winged angels that had come to his aid had been hurt in the process.
"Isn't magic supposed to do that though?"
"Well, yes but not everyone can do magic particularly well."
He pointed at you for an example of this, it was true you were not magically inclined, it wasn't that you didn't have the potential, you had that in spades, you just couldn't get the right mindset down.
"So what do I have to do with this?"
You were curious as to why he thought you had anything close to magic.
"Simple, if not everyone can shoot lightning from there hands, then those who can't will throw a spear at the enemy instead."
So he wants you to ignore what Raphael wants and just teach people how to weaponize God's light.
If it makes Raphael mad, the world can only be a better a place for it.
"Alright, so how are we going to do this?"
He took in a deep breath and just shouted for all to come and gather around.
Now normally nobody would care, but if a Seraph was yelling at you to show up in the middle of town the only sane reaction you could have was to start sprinting.
Such was the case when you already had quite the sizable audience surrounding both of you within the minute.
"How am I supposed to teach everyone this?"
"Well you'll start with me then we'll go from there."
He smiled at you as he said this in as casual a manner as he could.
"Oh, al-alright well lets start then I suppose."
All things considered, Uriel took to the spear rather easily, after all the difference between his fire and creating the spear was mechanically not particularly different
When you used magic it was rather simple, it was all about the intent, you could be able to reproduce all the circles you wanted to burn down a building, but if you didn't actually want to burn down that building than even the best circle ever produced wouldn't save the spell.
The spear was different though, while you needed the intent to use it that was the only thing needed to actually start forming it, it was just wanting a weapon and then reaching inside yourself and forming the light that God made your body and soul with into that weapon.
It was almost like praying to father, only more tangible in its results somehow.
By the time you and Uriel had gotten close to finishing up with the rest of the angels, the moon was already starting to come out in the sky.
As you were finishing up with the last few who were still struggling to pick it up, you had noticed a sound coming from the sky.
It sounded almost like someone yelling.
Was it getting louder?
"Uriel!"
Thinking about it, it almost sounded like Metat-
"Uriel!"
Oh, it was Metatron, why was he shouting for Uriel.
"Hello Metatron, how are you today?"
Once he had landed it became clear that he had come here in a hurry, his usual pristine hair was all over the place and he was breathing heavily.
"Not now we don't have time," he took a second to gain his breath before standing up straight again to tell you exactly why he had flown halfway across heaven seeking out Uriel.
[ ] He comes bearing an order from father to gather at the throne room.
[ ] He comes with a message from Micheal asking for help with something urgent.
[ ] He comes from eath with grave news, of a powerful enemy that threatens to tear down heaven itself.
None of these options happen simultaneously, so there is no worry of helping Micheal only to let the enemy of Heaven just gain strength.
You're just choosing what Metatron has to say to you and Uriel.
Tell me what you think about the chapter.
But I would rather it not take another week, so without further ado here it is.
You didn't quite manage to just leave your house and trot off to Uriel's unaccosted.
Much as you would have wanted to just shirk off all responsibility and see how things had gone after you were taken out of the fight, you were a Seraph and so had at least some semblance of responsibility.
Even if yours was mostly just seeing how everyone was doing in your flock.
When God created the Seraphs, he decided that as the greatest of his children, they would all lead his weaker and less magnificent children.
All angels were created to be good at something, those who were good at the same things were merged into a flock, A flock was headed by a Seraphim who was 'Ideally' the best at what the flock was good at.
The Seraphim were led by the four great Seraphs, who themselves were led by the Archangel.
The Archangel was the right hand of God, his greatest of Children at any one time, Currently that title was taken by Helel.
When God had decided whos flock would be who's you hadn't even been born yet.
As such, you got left with the Remainder of Sariel's flock who didn't quite fit in with the rest of his Gardeners.
Ironically to some but mostly just depressingly to you, you got the smiths and the jewelers of Heaven.
Due to the odd disparity in what you can do in comparison to your flock you just sorta let them do what they will as long as they told you if anything might catch on fire or something equally devastating within the next few days.
Thankfully things only exploded once every few decades or so.
The fact that you had been helping in all of those cases had nothing to do with it, nothing at all.
Thankfully, however, no one needed your help this time, though young Mairon did say that his newest ring might need some more apprentices to fully flesh out the final product, you can only hope that he gets the help he needs, the ring was turning out quite lovely even as it was right now.
Truthfully, you didn't hate this part of being a Seraph, if anything it just made not being able to create things that much more nice when they actually did, it was like living through them while you did father's more physical jobs.
All told, it only took a few hours to finish up with your flock, before you were able to start out towards Uriel's place of residence.
Uriel's house was… well, his house was actually rather small, it was just the large field it was situated in that was gigantic.
As such getting to Uriel was a chore if you didn't catch him before or after one of the Heavenly councils.
Still, you did like meeting with him at his house every once in a while, he served great drinks after all.
Standing in front of his door you were beginning to have second thoughts about talking to him, however.
While you used to visit each other quite often, the lingering guilt of not quite matching him at anything but just killing sorta ruined any chance of a healthy brother-sister relationship.
You still remember the years when you were younger when he tried to teach you his magic.
It was actually quite similar to how your spears were made, it just required a different mindset than you possessed is all.
There was also the time when he tried to teach you to sing, the birds still haven't forgiven you for that.
So vivid were the memories that it almost seemed like he was standing in front of you with that same old smile of his and his arms outstretched ready to hug you to the brink of suffocation.
...You're ashamed to admit that it took you until he already had you in the air to realize that he wasn't a vivid figure of the past.
"Please let go of me, Uriel." This wasn't okay just because he was bigger than you by a couple orders of magnitude did not mean he was allowed to manhandle you in such a manner.
"Oh, come on sister, it's been six decades since you last appeared at my doorstep, does big brother Uriel not get a hug from little Anath anymore." Him imitating your younger self with the forced baby talk did not lessen the embarrassment of this situation in the slightest.
You did not do hugs, you were Fathers seraphim of war and destruction after all, what self-respecting angel of war let her big brother hug her.
...it was with great shame that you decided that this was a battle that you couldn't win, and so with a great sigh, you hesitantly patted his back in some misguided attempt to appease Uriel.
From him laughing his usual deep and boisterous laugh though it would appear to have won you the day at the very least.
"Ha ha ha, that's the spirit sister." Why did you come here again, surely it wasn't worth this whatever it was.
"Anyway come in, come in, I already have tea on." He's never going to put you down is he, dear father what did you do to deserve this disrespect.
"I would, but I can't seem to gather my footing brother, if only you would set me down for a second perhaps?" Maybe he'll take the hint this time, all you can do is pray and hope.
Oh, now he's just walking you towards the back porch with you in his arms still.
"I'm just making sure you don't run away this time, dear sister."
How can he say that with a straight face, it's not okay, nothing about this is okay damn it.
"I won't run away if you would just set me down please."
"That's what you said last time Anath, You're really bad at lying you know." You were going to kill him, damn the consequences you were going to kill him if he didn't set you down right n-
You were interrupted by your thoughts by you squealing as he dropped you onto a seat overlooking the back half of his lawn.
It was just as you remembered it, with that same vast lake in the middle that he taught you fire magic on or the same dead spot of grass where you crashed one of his chariots.
While you were reminiscing you failed to notice that Uriel had left until he had sat down a tray of freshly brewed tea on your lap.
You absent-mindedly siped at the tea as you both gazed out past his lawn and into what was, and what could have been.
"Thank you."
It came out almost as a whisper, nearly too quiet to be heard.
"Oh, for what, dear sister?" He looked at me while saying this, his eyebrows quirked up.
"For saving me, I'd be dead if it wasn't for you showing up when you did." The events of yesterday seemed like they had all happened in haze almost as if it happened in a dream more than anything else.
"Hmph, well you saved me right afterward, so I say we'll call it… even, does that sound good?"
"Yea, Yea that sounds wonderful Uriel." I was strange to talk this much to him after all this time.
For a time you just sat silently next to each other, drinking tea and just enjoying the company more than anything else.
"Do you know what happened to the two that we saved?" You had almost forgotten to ask after your earlier conversation, but, well you can't deny that you had been curious as to how they were doing.
"Who?" he paused as if to remember who it was you destroyed an entire civilization for.
"Oh, yea those two, they left heaven not to long ago, something about wanting to protect a… Gilded mesh or something, I wasn't really listening much, to be honest with you."
It took you a bit but after a long half a minute of glaring at him, he relented enough to tell you why he wasn't listening to the council meeting that must have happened while you were out.
"Look I was more worried about you, okay, I don't what I'd do if you were seriously hurt after taking a hit for me."
You gave him a dubious look at this.
"You mean more to people than you think Anath, there's no need to get all depressing about it."
He punctuated the end of his sentence by messing up your hair, undeterred by the fierce glare you gave him of course, the fiend.
After this, there was silence for a time until it was broken by him letting out a great sigh.
"You know, there were quite a few humans that escaped Babylon."
You would assume so based on the fact that you were the one to let them out of the city.
"Some were even soldiers, they were there fighting you with their gods."
You took a moment to remember the events as best you could but well you always got like this when doing things you'd rather not, blurring it out and just forgetting it as best you could.
"They have stories of you now."
That was a strange look he was giving you, perhaps this was more important than just telling you that some humans had escaped Babylon.
"The apocalypse they're calling it, the end of the world." He had ended the sentence with his arms outstretched and his voice flaring out dramatically.
He then gave you a sad look as he started to stop being so overly dramatic.
"They're saying that at the end you will be there ready to usher in a new age, ready to finish off the rest of this world."
Ahh, yes that was a thing wasn't it, perhaps you had finally managed to make something lasting.
Fitting that it was a legacy of fear and destruction.
"Ow!" you had been slapped upside the head by him.
"Now now, no need to to be thinking like that, there was nothing that you could have done better in this situation."
You couldn't help but disagree with him, after all, you being who you were there was probably something that somebody who wasn't a complete failure of a Seraph could have done that you would ha-
"Agh… will you stop hitting me!" Standing up to whirl around and look at him as you shouted at him.
"Just as soon as you stop thinking like that dear sister."
Sigh it was hard to stay mad at Uriel whenever he acted like this.
"I know, it's just hard to not let these things bother me is all."
"Hey, it's alright nobody is going to blame you for that, Anath."
Oh, he was messing your hair up again.
You'll forgive him this time.
Only this time however, next time he'll get punted across Heaven for it.
After couple more hours of just enjoying your time together before life made meetings like this inconvenient again, you were about to head home when Uriel abruptly stood up with a sound of elation.
"I know what we can do to brighten up your mood!"
"Huh?" you were very eloquent when someone just randomly started shouting weren't you.
"No no, listen I know what to do."
"What's gotten into you brother?"
You were smiling, it felt nice considering you didn't manage to work up the want to do this often.
"Come on, we have somewhere to be!"
He said this while he was dragging you by the wrist towards the door.
"What, where are we going?" you managed to get your wrist out from his hands while you were asking him this.
"To the town Anath, we are going to make something."
He sounded very happy about setting Heaven on fire, it almost struck you as funny.
"And what are we going to make, Dear Brother?" You said this in as sarcastic a tone as you could manage.
"Well, Dear Sister, we are going to make…"
He gave a pause as if to build suspense for an audience that wasn't even here.
"An Answer!"
What.
"What."
Clearly, he wasn't in the mood for your perfectly reasonable questions based on the way you were being dragged again.
"I'll explain on the way come on."
"A force multiplier?"
"Yes, that's what I said."
By the time you got to the center of the city that Uriel lived somewhat near to, he had managed to explain that though he had won the fight against the gods you had fought above Babylon, it was not a clean victory and more than a few of the two winged angels that had come to his aid had been hurt in the process.
"Isn't magic supposed to do that though?"
"Well, yes but not everyone can do magic particularly well."
He pointed at you for an example of this, it was true you were not magically inclined, it wasn't that you didn't have the potential, you had that in spades, you just couldn't get the right mindset down.
"So what do I have to do with this?"
You were curious as to why he thought you had anything close to magic.
"Simple, if not everyone can shoot lightning from there hands, then those who can't will throw a spear at the enemy instead."
So he wants you to ignore what Raphael wants and just teach people how to weaponize God's light.
If it makes Raphael mad, the world can only be a better a place for it.
"Alright, so how are we going to do this?"
He took in a deep breath and just shouted for all to come and gather around.
Now normally nobody would care, but if a Seraph was yelling at you to show up in the middle of town the only sane reaction you could have was to start sprinting.
Such was the case when you already had quite the sizable audience surrounding both of you within the minute.
"How am I supposed to teach everyone this?"
"Well you'll start with me then we'll go from there."
He smiled at you as he said this in as casual a manner as he could.
"Oh, al-alright well lets start then I suppose."
All things considered, Uriel took to the spear rather easily, after all the difference between his fire and creating the spear was mechanically not particularly different
When you used magic it was rather simple, it was all about the intent, you could be able to reproduce all the circles you wanted to burn down a building, but if you didn't actually want to burn down that building than even the best circle ever produced wouldn't save the spell.
The spear was different though, while you needed the intent to use it that was the only thing needed to actually start forming it, it was just wanting a weapon and then reaching inside yourself and forming the light that God made your body and soul with into that weapon.
It was almost like praying to father, only more tangible in its results somehow.
By the time you and Uriel had gotten close to finishing up with the rest of the angels, the moon was already starting to come out in the sky.
As you were finishing up with the last few who were still struggling to pick it up, you had noticed a sound coming from the sky.
It sounded almost like someone yelling.
Was it getting louder?
"Uriel!"
Thinking about it, it almost sounded like Metat-
"Uriel!"
Oh, it was Metatron, why was he shouting for Uriel.
"Hello Metatron, how are you today?"
Once he had landed it became clear that he had come here in a hurry, his usual pristine hair was all over the place and he was breathing heavily.
"Not now we don't have time," he took a second to gain his breath before standing up straight again to tell you exactly why he had flown halfway across heaven seeking out Uriel.
[ ] He comes bearing an order from father to gather at the throne room.
[ ] He comes with a message from Micheal asking for help with something urgent.
[ ] He comes from eath with grave news, of a powerful enemy that threatens to tear down heaven itself.
None of these options happen simultaneously, so there is no worry of helping Micheal only to let the enemy of Heaven just gain strength.
You're just choosing what Metatron has to say to you and Uriel.
Tell me what you think about the chapter.
Last edited:
Awaken Oh Sleeper 1-5
"Father is asking for all the Seraphs to gather at the throne room, he has an urgent message."
After taking a second to process this you and Uriel both nodded to show that you both understood.
"Do you know what Father wanted?" Uriel asked the question you were both thinking.
"Not a clue sorry, all I was told was to gather all of us," Metatron said.
"Got it, we'll head out now, we were essentially done here anyway." Urial said.
And with that Metatron gave one final note of farewell and took off into the distance, opposite the direction of the throne room, likely to inform whoever was still unaware.
As you both took off into the sky you had a realization, Why was Metatron the one telling you this.
"Why did father not ask for us himself?" Perhaps Uriel would have some Idea why Father would delegate it to Metatron instead of just using telepathy.
"Noticed it did you, I'll admit I'm curious my self." Though it was hopefully just a minor reason you couldn't help but feel apprehensive about it.
"But, I'm sure it's nothing to be worried about." He sounded self-assured, however, you can't help but question his confidence in this just a little bit.
The rest of the flight to the throne room was relatively silent.
--------------------------------------------
The throne room would be to most people actually rather disappointing, there was a lack of pomp to the whole thing, there wasn't even a throne it was just what the seraphs called it.
'The throne room' was still a better name than 'That room that God happened to talk to his children in occasionally that was used for nothing else.'
The only actually impressive thing about it was the 13 marble pedestals arrayed around the room, this was where the Seraphs stood, though to be honest even they were rather plain.
Throughout the entire history of heaven so far it was used all of three times, first when God created humanity and subsequently you, second when he gave up on humanity, and lastly when he caused the flood that was meant wipe the slate clean.
If you have noticed a pattern here it is because there is one, he only ever uses this room whenever humans are involved.
By the time you and Uriel arrive only Metatron and Sandalphon have yet to arrive, the other eleven were already arrayed on their respective pedestals, you and Uriel separate to join the array, his place the third closest to God, being the third born, and yours as the youngest is the farthest from God.
At the front was Helel Archangel of God, nobody who would enter this room would be able to miss him, he was known as the Morning Star for a reason after all, ever shining and imposing he truly was the greatest of God's children.
Next was, Micheal the second born, kind and compassionate, he was the wisest of God's four greatest children.
After him was Uriel, God's fiery General should war be needed, you the tool with which it was waged and Uriel the Soldier who would use the tools where and when they were most needed.
And lastly was Raphael, God's Healer, though others could and do heal such as Micheal or Gabriel, Raphael is known as the best for a reason, Doesn't stop him from being insufferable though.
Once Uriel took his place near the front it only took moments for the Seraphs to start bickering about one thing or another.
Raphael and Uriel about 'Corrupting' God's children with my 'disgraceful' weaponry, you would say you were surprised he already knew about that, but It's Raphael if any Angel knew what was happening in heaven as it was happening it would be him.
Helel was arguing with Micheal quietly about something you could only vaguely hear but from what you could gather it had to have something to do with Babylon but past that you couldn't say.
Across The throne room, all of God's Seraphim seemed to be at each other's throats, well, they were until the sound of a pair of footsteps came from outside the chamber.
In an instant, it was if nothing had happened, all the angels that had previously looked as if they were about to start a war in heaven were suddenly standing as pristinely and still in their places as if they were beautiful statues, with hair of gold and eyes of jade, except for you of course, you were made of unpainted stone and uncut gems.
In walked Metatron and Sandolphon, Sandolphon took his place two spots ahead of you, silently and with grace.
Metatron quickly and clumsily barreled into the back to presumably let Father know that everyone was assembled and ready to start.
You had still been unable to shake that awful feeling that something must be going wrong, but everyone else seemed as calm as usual, so perhaps you were overreacting maybe all was well.
It only took a few more seconds for Metatron to return and take his place on his pedestal.
After a scant few beats of silence later Father walked out of the back where his personal chamber lay.
With only you as the exception all angels were blonde with green eyes, they had unmarred alabaster skin, and hair that would make even silk jealous to exist.
Father was none of those things, Father had hair similar in color to most humans, that odd mix between dirty brown and bright black that no angel had any similarity to, his skin was imperfect with color and life in places that no angel could even begin to have life and color in.
If he was to appear in a crowd of humans, though it would be disgraceful to point this out, he would be able to blend in and out with ease, appearing to only be an average middle-aged man who didn't quite get enough sleep the night before.
Father was not alone, which was unusual in and of itself, what really set you off, however, wasn't that he was with someone, no, it was that the person that he was with was didn't have wings, blonde hair or the telltale Halo that even you had.
If you didn't know any better you would even say that it was a human.
…
…
...Why was Father bringing a human to the meeting!?
You were Helel, firstborn of your heavenly father, Morningstar of Heaven, and Archangel of God.
Currently, your entire world was falling down around your ears.
First, Anath, your sweet beloved little sister was sent by Michael on a supposed mission from God to punish some nascent humans and their heretical gods.
Originally you thought he was just trying to spite you by killing the mortals that you at least tangentially rather liked, and rubbing salt in the wound by having your sister be the one to do it.
That, however, was proven false when Father himself showed his face again after at least a decade of locking himself away, only to confirm that he actually did command Micheal to go past you in Babylon's destruction.
Of course, if that wasn't bad enough, he then sent Urial, Gabrial, and an armies worth of two winged angel's to 'save' Anath.
While you have no doubt, that might have been Urial and the armies mission, you knew that the only reason Gabrial was sent was to add another layer of punishment to the humans.
When you first heard the decree that he had sent with Gabrial you had been rightfully aghast, after all, why wouldn't you be, he was taking away an entire species ability to communicate with each other altogether.
You had only just been able to convince him to lessen the punishment enough to at least let them communicate as groups and communities.
But that was yesterday, this was today.
Today was worse, far worse.
You could only numbly listen to Father speak of the future, of his grand plans for Humanity as a whole.
You felt empty inside, hollow as if Anath had grabbed a spoon and tried to 'gently' pry out your insides.
You couldn't help but keep repeating the previous scene over and over again.
How he had just waltzed in with his new 'child' Yeshua or whatever he had called it. Now that wouldn't be so bad, no if anything the fact that he was finally willing to even let a human be conscious in heaven at all was a good thing and a step in the right direction.
No, where he had gone too far was when he chastised you in front of everyone for being too 'considerate' to the heretical children and their false gods.
Oh, but that wasn't all, no of course that couldn't be all, he just had to go that extra mile didn't he?
You are Helel, firstborn of God, former Archangel of Heaven, and the first flockless Seraph.
You were Anath, Youngest Seraph of God, and former Seraphim over the Craftsmen of Heaven.
Now, you are Anath, Seraphim of the newly christened Heavenly Host.
The meeting had started like all meetings with Father.
Awe-inspiring, breath-taking, and larger than life.
Whenever he talked one could do naught but listen and understand.
Or at least, that's how it had been for the two you had been apart of before.
This one had only started as such though.
After getting over seeing Father again after so long a hiatus, you noticed that there was clearly something wrong going on.
He looked tired and almost, dare you say it, old.
But that was just his appearance, a thing to be ignored or set aside, no, that wasn't what made you think that things were absolutely going wrong right now.
It was his 'plan' you did not agree with.
The humans had gone too far in Babylon according to him, we were to punish all equally, be it human or god, innocent or guilty, all would suffer until only he stood in victory.
You did not complain, though you do not agree, after all, what are you to father but another child to instruct, for Father knows best of course.
You were to teach, to command the other angels into a grand host, an army like no other, one with no equals.
You hated it.
Why, why was what the humans doing wrong?
Why were the angels to be forced to destroy as you do?
Does he not understand that it is only in their nature to create, to enjoy?
Why was Helel punished and rebuked merely for sympathizing with the innocent?
But most importantly, why did it have to be you?
You do not want this, you do not want to kill or to destroy.
Why do you have to be the one to make that happen, to make your brothers and sisters good at fighting and killing, just as they are good at singing and dancing?
You will still follow his instruction for he is Father and Father is always right, even when he seems wrong.
You are a tool for Father, it is not your place to question.
It is your place to do as he instructs, not to do as you wish.
If it were, you would be good at doing what you wish and not what you hate.
War is coming to the gods of earth, but first, an army must be forged, how will you do this? (this will determine what the army will be good at on a macro and micro level)
[ ] You will teach every angel everything you can from the ground up.
[ ] In Heaven, Angels specialize for everything, it only makes sense to do so in war as well.
[ ] Write-in
You are to choose assistants for there are too many angels in Heaven for you to manage alone.
Choose three.
[ ] Helel
[ ] Baraqiuel
[ ] Sachiel
[ ] Kokabial
[ ] Write-in (must be above a two wing but below a twelve wing)
Longer than I wanted it to take but at least it is before December.
I had planned for there to also be an interlude, but that would extend the release date on this, so expect that a few days from now.
After taking a second to process this you and Uriel both nodded to show that you both understood.
"Do you know what Father wanted?" Uriel asked the question you were both thinking.
"Not a clue sorry, all I was told was to gather all of us," Metatron said.
"Got it, we'll head out now, we were essentially done here anyway." Urial said.
And with that Metatron gave one final note of farewell and took off into the distance, opposite the direction of the throne room, likely to inform whoever was still unaware.
As you both took off into the sky you had a realization, Why was Metatron the one telling you this.
"Why did father not ask for us himself?" Perhaps Uriel would have some Idea why Father would delegate it to Metatron instead of just using telepathy.
"Noticed it did you, I'll admit I'm curious my self." Though it was hopefully just a minor reason you couldn't help but feel apprehensive about it.
"But, I'm sure it's nothing to be worried about." He sounded self-assured, however, you can't help but question his confidence in this just a little bit.
The rest of the flight to the throne room was relatively silent.
--------------------------------------------
The throne room would be to most people actually rather disappointing, there was a lack of pomp to the whole thing, there wasn't even a throne it was just what the seraphs called it.
'The throne room' was still a better name than 'That room that God happened to talk to his children in occasionally that was used for nothing else.'
The only actually impressive thing about it was the 13 marble pedestals arrayed around the room, this was where the Seraphs stood, though to be honest even they were rather plain.
Throughout the entire history of heaven so far it was used all of three times, first when God created humanity and subsequently you, second when he gave up on humanity, and lastly when he caused the flood that was meant wipe the slate clean.
If you have noticed a pattern here it is because there is one, he only ever uses this room whenever humans are involved.
By the time you and Uriel arrive only Metatron and Sandalphon have yet to arrive, the other eleven were already arrayed on their respective pedestals, you and Uriel separate to join the array, his place the third closest to God, being the third born, and yours as the youngest is the farthest from God.
At the front was Helel Archangel of God, nobody who would enter this room would be able to miss him, he was known as the Morning Star for a reason after all, ever shining and imposing he truly was the greatest of God's children.
Next was, Micheal the second born, kind and compassionate, he was the wisest of God's four greatest children.
After him was Uriel, God's fiery General should war be needed, you the tool with which it was waged and Uriel the Soldier who would use the tools where and when they were most needed.
And lastly was Raphael, God's Healer, though others could and do heal such as Micheal or Gabriel, Raphael is known as the best for a reason, Doesn't stop him from being insufferable though.
Once Uriel took his place near the front it only took moments for the Seraphs to start bickering about one thing or another.
Raphael and Uriel about 'Corrupting' God's children with my 'disgraceful' weaponry, you would say you were surprised he already knew about that, but It's Raphael if any Angel knew what was happening in heaven as it was happening it would be him.
Helel was arguing with Micheal quietly about something you could only vaguely hear but from what you could gather it had to have something to do with Babylon but past that you couldn't say.
Across The throne room, all of God's Seraphim seemed to be at each other's throats, well, they were until the sound of a pair of footsteps came from outside the chamber.
In an instant, it was if nothing had happened, all the angels that had previously looked as if they were about to start a war in heaven were suddenly standing as pristinely and still in their places as if they were beautiful statues, with hair of gold and eyes of jade, except for you of course, you were made of unpainted stone and uncut gems.
In walked Metatron and Sandolphon, Sandolphon took his place two spots ahead of you, silently and with grace.
Metatron quickly and clumsily barreled into the back to presumably let Father know that everyone was assembled and ready to start.
You had still been unable to shake that awful feeling that something must be going wrong, but everyone else seemed as calm as usual, so perhaps you were overreacting maybe all was well.
It only took a few more seconds for Metatron to return and take his place on his pedestal.
After a scant few beats of silence later Father walked out of the back where his personal chamber lay.
With only you as the exception all angels were blonde with green eyes, they had unmarred alabaster skin, and hair that would make even silk jealous to exist.
Father was none of those things, Father had hair similar in color to most humans, that odd mix between dirty brown and bright black that no angel had any similarity to, his skin was imperfect with color and life in places that no angel could even begin to have life and color in.
If he was to appear in a crowd of humans, though it would be disgraceful to point this out, he would be able to blend in and out with ease, appearing to only be an average middle-aged man who didn't quite get enough sleep the night before.
Father was not alone, which was unusual in and of itself, what really set you off, however, wasn't that he was with someone, no, it was that the person that he was with was didn't have wings, blonde hair or the telltale Halo that even you had.
If you didn't know any better you would even say that it was a human.
…
…
...Why was Father bringing a human to the meeting!?
You were Helel, firstborn of your heavenly father, Morningstar of Heaven, and Archangel of God.
Currently, your entire world was falling down around your ears.
First, Anath, your sweet beloved little sister was sent by Michael on a supposed mission from God to punish some nascent humans and their heretical gods.
Originally you thought he was just trying to spite you by killing the mortals that you at least tangentially rather liked, and rubbing salt in the wound by having your sister be the one to do it.
That, however, was proven false when Father himself showed his face again after at least a decade of locking himself away, only to confirm that he actually did command Micheal to go past you in Babylon's destruction.
Of course, if that wasn't bad enough, he then sent Urial, Gabrial, and an armies worth of two winged angel's to 'save' Anath.
While you have no doubt, that might have been Urial and the armies mission, you knew that the only reason Gabrial was sent was to add another layer of punishment to the humans.
When you first heard the decree that he had sent with Gabrial you had been rightfully aghast, after all, why wouldn't you be, he was taking away an entire species ability to communicate with each other altogether.
You had only just been able to convince him to lessen the punishment enough to at least let them communicate as groups and communities.
But that was yesterday, this was today.
Today was worse, far worse.
You could only numbly listen to Father speak of the future, of his grand plans for Humanity as a whole.
You felt empty inside, hollow as if Anath had grabbed a spoon and tried to 'gently' pry out your insides.
You couldn't help but keep repeating the previous scene over and over again.
How he had just waltzed in with his new 'child' Yeshua or whatever he had called it. Now that wouldn't be so bad, no if anything the fact that he was finally willing to even let a human be conscious in heaven at all was a good thing and a step in the right direction.
No, where he had gone too far was when he chastised you in front of everyone for being too 'considerate' to the heretical children and their false gods.
Oh, but that wasn't all, no of course that couldn't be all, he just had to go that extra mile didn't he?
You are Helel, firstborn of God, former Archangel of Heaven, and the first flockless Seraph.
You were Anath, Youngest Seraph of God, and former Seraphim over the Craftsmen of Heaven.
Now, you are Anath, Seraphim of the newly christened Heavenly Host.
The meeting had started like all meetings with Father.
Awe-inspiring, breath-taking, and larger than life.
Whenever he talked one could do naught but listen and understand.
Or at least, that's how it had been for the two you had been apart of before.
This one had only started as such though.
After getting over seeing Father again after so long a hiatus, you noticed that there was clearly something wrong going on.
He looked tired and almost, dare you say it, old.
But that was just his appearance, a thing to be ignored or set aside, no, that wasn't what made you think that things were absolutely going wrong right now.
It was his 'plan' you did not agree with.
The humans had gone too far in Babylon according to him, we were to punish all equally, be it human or god, innocent or guilty, all would suffer until only he stood in victory.
You did not complain, though you do not agree, after all, what are you to father but another child to instruct, for Father knows best of course.
You were to teach, to command the other angels into a grand host, an army like no other, one with no equals.
You hated it.
Why, why was what the humans doing wrong?
Why were the angels to be forced to destroy as you do?
Does he not understand that it is only in their nature to create, to enjoy?
Why was Helel punished and rebuked merely for sympathizing with the innocent?
But most importantly, why did it have to be you?
You do not want this, you do not want to kill or to destroy.
Why do you have to be the one to make that happen, to make your brothers and sisters good at fighting and killing, just as they are good at singing and dancing?
You will still follow his instruction for he is Father and Father is always right, even when he seems wrong.
You are a tool for Father, it is not your place to question.
It is your place to do as he instructs, not to do as you wish.
If it were, you would be good at doing what you wish and not what you hate.
War is coming to the gods of earth, but first, an army must be forged, how will you do this? (this will determine what the army will be good at on a macro and micro level)
[ ] You will teach every angel everything you can from the ground up.
[ ] In Heaven, Angels specialize for everything, it only makes sense to do so in war as well.
[ ] Write-in
You are to choose assistants for there are too many angels in Heaven for you to manage alone.
Choose three.
[ ] Helel
[ ] Baraqiuel
[ ] Sachiel
[ ] Kokabial
[ ] Write-in (must be above a two wing but below a twelve wing)
Longer than I wanted it to take but at least it is before December.
I had planned for there to also be an interlude, but that would extend the release date on this, so expect that a few days from now.
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Expanding on the Assistant choice
That's a good point.
In order,
Helel will help with getting the Angels to follow orders, and just be generally nice to have another seraph around for you, but he'll probably hate doing this just as much as you do.
Baraqiuel will be better for getting the angels used to more powerful magic.
Sachiel will be more helpful for Anath when it comes to scheduling and organizing things but as far as actually teaching the troops he will be not particularly helpful.
Kokabial will be best for getting the Angel's mindset ready for war, He is the person who will help turn the propaganda that is currently more "just be pro-God" into "Hate all that are not pro-God"
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Dog's of Heaven 2-1
Wow this was a long time coming, nearly two years later and I finally got around to doing something about this, and fair warning I've not written anything since the last chapter of this, so I am quite rusty.
Before the chapter though I'd also like to thank @ConfusedCanuck for being the one to ask me to continue this (even if it took a bit longer then I told him it would to finish the chapter.)
but in any case I'd like to present to you after about, 30 different attempts and many more rewrites, the continuation of Born Of An Umbral Star.
It became immediately apparent that you would need help, because as powerful as you were, you couldn't train an army by yourself.
You knew that you could rely on the other seraphs for help when it came to any combat applications of their flock's main domain.
The problem however, and the reason why you didn't ask the seraphs to help with the training is that of the twelve seraphs only you, Uriel, Helel, Michael, and Azazel could have put your immense power into combat applications without help first.
Michael was too busy as the new Archangel to spend his time focusing on the army, not that he was unwilling to help, he did offer every willing and able member of his flock as assistants where you needed them, as Michael's flock was of teachers, this was a boon that you were very willing to accept.
Uriel had readily jumped at the opportunity to be on the field teaching those of the angels that were more magically inclined, most couldn't cast very strong offensive magic in the heat of the moment yet, but any magic is better than none, even if just as logistics to get supply from heaven to the front lines.
Azazel had flatly refused to help train the Seraphim, stating that his magic was better taught by Uriel then him, he instead would be creating weapons and armor to help even the odds between the six wings and below against the more powerful pantheon's minions.
Helel was lost without the previous responsibility of leading his flock and being Archangel, unlike the other Seraphs who had offered up what they could during the meeting, Helel had been too upset and distracted to really offer anything at the time.
While you could have ignored him in favor of just using Uriel as your second in command, you didn't want to, as Helel was your favorite brother.
Where others had been distant and judgemental of one so wrong at first, Helel had been accepting and kind, it had been him who took you on fishing trips at the pond in front of his house, it had been Helel who defended you when Rapheal had judged you so harshly.
Even Uriel, kind as he was now, was once young and hotheaded, there was even a time when you had both hated each other, it had only took the creation of a distant and deep ravine down on earth for tempers to cool and eventually reverse.
It was that fact more than anything else that had led you to Helel's home ready to ask him for help. Helel lived on the level of heaven nearest to the actual physical entrance in what was once eden.
Once upon a time, there was a plan to fill this level with the human souls which Father had decided were 'Holy' enough. What that meant you couldn't quite say, as all your experience with humanity was filled with killing and suffering.
Helel lived in a house that was usually immaculate and, by mortal standards, extravagant. Currently however the morning star's stone carved abode was looking almost rundown and forgotten.
Passing by the lake near the front entrance always brought fond memories of your brother teaching you how to fish up to the surface. It was a nice time, a time when you thought being accepted would fix the problem.
"Anath?" You were brought out of your memory by the sound of the familiar voice of your brother.
You turned towards the sound of his voice to see him near the entrance of his home, his hair was disheveled, his skin was paler than usual.
"Shouldn't you be out making an army, right now?" he was walking towards you while he said this a weak smile plastered on his face.
"That's what I wanted to talk about," there was more hesitation when you were around Helel, then when you talked with your other siblings.
You took a breath in and looked back into the lake, after you let it out you continued.
"I was hoping to be able to convince you to help me." you could hear him shuffle and sigh before responding.
"Anath, I really don't think I'm ready just yet to.."
"That's fine!" You interrupted him before looking back at him and continuing.
"I-I understand." you wanted to leave, it was clear that this was uncomfortable to him, and yet.
"In that case, do you still have our old fishing poles around?"
You continued anyway, even if your brother was unwilling at the time, maybe later he would become more receptive to the idea.
He gave a grateful smile and a nod before responding.
"They should be around here somewhere, wait here and i'll go have a look."
------
It had taken nearly a month of convincing, and Helel was still sore about the removal of power and the perceived lack of trust from Father.
But after some time for him to think and recover some confidence you were able to, if barely, convince him to help out as your second in command, even if he was unlikely to be in as confident a mood as he had once been.
Moving on however, the first order of business was to get the rest of the Seraphs combat ready, so you had left Azazel to monitor and outfit the non twelve winged angels with newly made armour and other assorted supplies.
With him you had left Sachiel and Baraquiel as assistants, it only made sense as both were already a part of his flock to begin with.
Even if they weren't, they would still have likely been your choice to help bring up the ten wings and below anyway, as Baraquel was a genius with lightning based magic, and Sachiel's skills with logistics would be an unparalleled help in speeding up the endeavor.
It was quickly decided that the best way to go about getting the ranks of the seraphim up to par with your enemies; would be to split up the seven others between you, Uriel, and Helel.
This task was rather easy in some ways as there were some very clear groups that would end badly when paired together; for example, Rapheal was pretty much immediately handed over to Uriel, as he would have likely not listened to you at all and Helel would have just started bickering with him to the point that the effort of training would have been wasted entirely.
Similarly Gabrial and Raguel were paired off with Uriel, Gabrial being particularly good at defensive and healing magic made the prospect of being taught by you, unlikely to be a good idea, to say the least.
The problem with Raguel however had less to do with what he was good at and more to do with the fact that Raguel was talkative and wordy to the point that you were fairly certain that he just liked his own voice more than you cared to deal with.
This left you with the choice of two of the four remaining Seraphs.
The first choice was cheerful and exuberant Metatron, Messenger of Heaven. He has done many things for you in the past, including being the only seraph to have thought it prudent to inform you of the flood that father had planned for the humans. It would perhaps not be remiss to pay it forward by teaching him what you can of warfare.
The next choice was graceful and serene Sandolphon, Heaven's Song. It is said that of every angel that resides in heaven there is none that represents the greatness of God's children quite as much as Sandolphon. Uriel, to a mortal man, would be considered gigantic being the height of one man then half his height again. Sandolphon was to Uriel as Uriel is to most of humanity.
Your third choice was distant and alien Sariel, caretaker of the Earth. Sariel and his flock were Father's chosen gardeners of Heaven and Earth's wilderness, there is some lingering resentment between the two of you, because of all the outcasts of Heaven's myriad flocks none were quite so numerous as the gardeners of Sariel that preferred colourful metal and uncaring stone to drab dirt and temperamental life.
Last and most memorable of all was Father's last planned child, youthful and energetic Remiel, Herald of God's Wrath. Where you were God's answer to the unfaithful and heretical forces of earth, Remiel was the warning sign of your descent.
Where she went storms of hail and thunder would follow, even in Babylon the days before your arrival were preceded by endless flooding and wailing thunder caused by the middle daughter of Father's Seraphim.
Choose two of the four remaining Seraphim to teach, the remaining two after you choose will be taught by Helel who will focus on how to command the common angel over the personal strength of arms you will teach.
[ ] Metatron, Messenger of Heaven.
[ ] Sandolphon, Heaven's Song.
[ ] Sariel, Caretaker of the Earth.
[ ] Remiel, Herald of God's Wrath.
Though your main focus at the time was on teaching the Seraphs, at least at first anyway, that did not mean that you were not teaching the rest of the angels as well.
The difference primarily lied in that fact that you were teaching them more on a unit by unit basis instead of the more personal and up close teaching of the Seraphim. Your time was spread thin to put it lightly, from dawn till dusk you were helping somebody with something.
That day was not one of those days however, That day was the first test of the heavenly host sans Seraphim.
The test was a simple mock battle presided over by Uriel, Helel, and Michael.
In attendance as well was Raphael and Azazel the former for medical purposes, and the latter to gather 'live' data on the armour he had crafted for the ten winged angels.
The battle was to take place in a more or less empty section of heaven, it was originally intended to be the resting place of the not quite 'holy' enough human souls, with a playing field marked to be at around twice the size of Babylon.
On one side in the air was the force marked as the Heavenly Host, it was to be led by Samiel and Kokabiel.
Samiel was a member of Helel's once flock who you mostly remember as your brother's friend and lieutenant, it was said that "where The Morning Star goes the Serpent is not long behind".
Kokabiel was a ten winged member of Azazel's flock who had taken to the idea of war perhaps a little too well, in your opinion at least.
In the air on the other side was one person.
You.
You were not allowed to attack them outside of grabbing a bell on a rope wrapped around the waist of every angel in the air.
They were allowed to use whatever means necessary to get your rope or bell from you, whenever a bell, yours or theirs', is taken the person whom the bell is tied to is immediately teleported to Raphiel and the other medics of the host.
You saw far on the ground kilometers away Michael talking to Uriel and Helel, though you could not hear what was said. Across from you Samial was arguing with Kokabial there was pointing and gesticulating abound, you would have to make the arguing stop.
The sky was suddenly lit up in fire, Uriel's signal. Immediately after the flames had receded you were off, flashing forward at a speed most would think impossible.
You got most of the way towards them before the thousands of angels decided it was time to fight back, in an instant you had a spear in hand batting away many multitudes of spears being launched your way.
Despite your skill however you knew that to stand here and merely deflect what you could would merely end in you being skewered eventually, so onward you went closer and closer toward the great host.
Once you were a mere hundred feet away from the front line of angels, you could hear orders being shouted from the host, though not precisely what words were being said only that they were being said.
The angels scattered, what was once an orderly formation in the sky was now a cloud of people rushing forward and backwards, in an attempt to space out the amount of damage you could do at one time perhaps.
It would not work.
In a normal battle it would perhaps allow them to move more freely to dodge and make attacks as they wish, this was not a normal battle.
You merely needed to reach out a hand to grab the first bells of the match from a two wing that had flown closer to the sun then one of his stature should have, the resulting disappearance was the only signal you needed to take advantage of the now willing prey.
With a burst of speed you seemed to be everywhere at once, most of the angels were trying to keep their distance merely throwing spears your way whenever you were dealing with whatever foolish angel thought they could contend in a hand to hand fight.
It was mildly worrying that the ones that could probably slow you down enough to allow someone to take the bells were not attacking you up close, the ten wings were noticeably absent.
In minutes what was once a dark cloud of bodies and spears was already starting to thin out, you were faster and stronger than all of the people in this cloud combined, what could they hope to do against you.
The answer came shortly afterwards however, as with a thunderous crack, followed by the smell of ozone you were made aware of the one thing that you did not beat them in.
Magic.
The lightning strike managed to hit you, though only barely, the fact that it not only hit you but it stung at all clued you into who was likely behind the strike. With a turn you saw Baraquiel on the ground beneath you with a large number of mages already beginning to ready another spell.
You took off knowing that if you were to succeed you had to stop them at all costs.
You got not even a foot closer before you were made aware of the fact that they were not alone, being forced to parry a spear from above you, though you could not see quite who made the throw as you were distracted by a shout from Kokabiel behind you.
"You're mine!" he was charging you, someone had to afterall, the bells wouldn't take them themselves.
You parried his first strike with relative ease, though the second came soon after another spear from above, you also managed to stop that blow in its tracks.
The third, however, got through when a great blast of fire from below distracted you, though combined he mearley scratched you and the fire resulted in only slightly singed hair.
You could tell that you were being pushed back, if this kept up it was very likely that you wouldn't be able to get any of the three combatants bells before one of the three was finally able to get a significant enough strike to slow you down.
You had to do something and fast.
Something must be done, what did you do?
[ ] Take out the spears from above, does it really matter if you don't know who they are? they can't match you.
[ ] Stop the mages on the ground, Baraquiel and his mages are a significant enough force that if they were to keep it up they would not even need Kokabiel to distract you.
[ ] Push the advantage onto Kokabiel, he is likely to chase you no matter where you go, at least here you can stop him relatively alone.
[ ] Let them win, It's only a test after all, not a real battle, Father taught you that mercy was above all other virtues. The likes of Ra and Shiva would give them no quarter, so you shall prepare them for such fights by crushing them.
The Star Hungers.
The time has come, though it has taken more time than you would have liked to get the army to a point that father was willing to let the host march to war, it was finally happening.
Father has informed you of the main targets of his crusade, though eventually they are likely to come together, right now you have the advantage of being able to fight them one at a time.
There are four Pantheon's that you have the choice of attacking, there are more, but none others with the power to fight heaven alone.
First is the young Olympians in the Aegean sea, ruled over by Zeus, god of thunder. Once this spot would have been taken by Kronos, father of Zeus and lord of time, however some time in the last few centuries Zeus and the other Olympians had taken over, though how exactly this was done you are unaware.
The Olympians are the weakest of these four at the moment, being young and new to their divinity, however if what father says is true, it would not do to let them sit unhindered for too long, as while they lack in power right now they make up for it in absurd potential.
Second is the Egyptian gods of the Nile, led by Ra, Lord of the Sun, of all of the pantheons, Egypt is perhaps the one most equal to Heaven. That is only if you don't count father however, as while Ra is a combatant you are somewhat hesitant to believe you could beat alone, Father would not have any issue with him; Father will not be fighting however, as he is still weak from the birth of Yeshua.
Other than Ra the egyptians have an advantage in sheer firepower, as all of their gods besides a select few are at least the equivalent to the hosts eight winged angels, you have one hundred and sixty angels with eight wings, they have far more gods. The host however has the advantage in mobility and utility, the magic of heaven can achieve much and while they may have more heavy hitters, you outnumber them greatly overall.
Third is the Chinese Celestial Court, Ruled by the Jade Emperor, you know very little of the Court in all honesty, what you do know however is that they outnumber heaven by an amount that you would consider blatantly false if it wasn't Father who told you this.
The Court however is likely weak overall with only a select few Deities who could oppose the Seraphim, worth noting however is that those deities that can, are almost Fathers equal, so if you choose to attack them first, it is worth proceeding with caution as the balance of power could very suddenly shift depending on who is fighting.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly is the Devas of the Hindu Faith. This would perhaps be the hardest fight by far, you are outnumbered, outgunned, and outmanned by the Deva. The war from three hundred years prior had proven that, with even mere humans being enough to give you pause. However you would have a possible advantage if they have not recovered from that; they lost over a billion soldiers, the fact that you think there is a chance at all that they have recovered in only three hundred years should speak volumes.
This does not even take into account the Trimurti, the trio of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva.
To put it bluntly Father is unsure if he can defeat any one of the three in an even fight without being grievously injured, as there are three of them, this is a problem. If the Trimurti gets involved in the fight it is already over, as Father is not yet ready to fight even Ra, it would perhaps be best to push this fight off until Father is ready and the host is more experienced.
The year God unleashed the White Titan and her forces upon the earth. Who did she choose to destroy first?
[ ] Zeus's pretenders and all of the peloponnesian lands, may his sky fall around him.
[ ] Ra's children of the Nile and their human playthings, may the false sun be eclipsed.
[ ] The Jade Emperor's Court and his useless magistrates, may their arrogance be their downfall.
[ ] The Trimurti and their Heroes of legend, may their creation be devoured.
Before the chapter though I'd also like to thank @ConfusedCanuck for being the one to ask me to continue this (even if it took a bit longer then I told him it would to finish the chapter.)
but in any case I'd like to present to you after about, 30 different attempts and many more rewrites, the continuation of Born Of An Umbral Star.
10 Years ago
It became immediately apparent that you would need help, because as powerful as you were, you couldn't train an army by yourself.
You knew that you could rely on the other seraphs for help when it came to any combat applications of their flock's main domain.
The problem however, and the reason why you didn't ask the seraphs to help with the training is that of the twelve seraphs only you, Uriel, Helel, Michael, and Azazel could have put your immense power into combat applications without help first.
Michael was too busy as the new Archangel to spend his time focusing on the army, not that he was unwilling to help, he did offer every willing and able member of his flock as assistants where you needed them, as Michael's flock was of teachers, this was a boon that you were very willing to accept.
Uriel had readily jumped at the opportunity to be on the field teaching those of the angels that were more magically inclined, most couldn't cast very strong offensive magic in the heat of the moment yet, but any magic is better than none, even if just as logistics to get supply from heaven to the front lines.
Azazel had flatly refused to help train the Seraphim, stating that his magic was better taught by Uriel then him, he instead would be creating weapons and armor to help even the odds between the six wings and below against the more powerful pantheon's minions.
Helel was lost without the previous responsibility of leading his flock and being Archangel, unlike the other Seraphs who had offered up what they could during the meeting, Helel had been too upset and distracted to really offer anything at the time.
While you could have ignored him in favor of just using Uriel as your second in command, you didn't want to, as Helel was your favorite brother.
Where others had been distant and judgemental of one so wrong at first, Helel had been accepting and kind, it had been him who took you on fishing trips at the pond in front of his house, it had been Helel who defended you when Rapheal had judged you so harshly.
Even Uriel, kind as he was now, was once young and hotheaded, there was even a time when you had both hated each other, it had only took the creation of a distant and deep ravine down on earth for tempers to cool and eventually reverse.
It was that fact more than anything else that had led you to Helel's home ready to ask him for help. Helel lived on the level of heaven nearest to the actual physical entrance in what was once eden.
Once upon a time, there was a plan to fill this level with the human souls which Father had decided were 'Holy' enough. What that meant you couldn't quite say, as all your experience with humanity was filled with killing and suffering.
Helel lived in a house that was usually immaculate and, by mortal standards, extravagant. Currently however the morning star's stone carved abode was looking almost rundown and forgotten.
Passing by the lake near the front entrance always brought fond memories of your brother teaching you how to fish up to the surface. It was a nice time, a time when you thought being accepted would fix the problem.
"Anath?" You were brought out of your memory by the sound of the familiar voice of your brother.
You turned towards the sound of his voice to see him near the entrance of his home, his hair was disheveled, his skin was paler than usual.
"Shouldn't you be out making an army, right now?" he was walking towards you while he said this a weak smile plastered on his face.
"That's what I wanted to talk about," there was more hesitation when you were around Helel, then when you talked with your other siblings.
You took a breath in and looked back into the lake, after you let it out you continued.
"I was hoping to be able to convince you to help me." you could hear him shuffle and sigh before responding.
"Anath, I really don't think I'm ready just yet to.."
"That's fine!" You interrupted him before looking back at him and continuing.
"I-I understand." you wanted to leave, it was clear that this was uncomfortable to him, and yet.
"In that case, do you still have our old fishing poles around?"
You continued anyway, even if your brother was unwilling at the time, maybe later he would become more receptive to the idea.
He gave a grateful smile and a nod before responding.
"They should be around here somewhere, wait here and i'll go have a look."
------
It had taken nearly a month of convincing, and Helel was still sore about the removal of power and the perceived lack of trust from Father.
But after some time for him to think and recover some confidence you were able to, if barely, convince him to help out as your second in command, even if he was unlikely to be in as confident a mood as he had once been.
Moving on however, the first order of business was to get the rest of the Seraphs combat ready, so you had left Azazel to monitor and outfit the non twelve winged angels with newly made armour and other assorted supplies.
With him you had left Sachiel and Baraquiel as assistants, it only made sense as both were already a part of his flock to begin with.
Even if they weren't, they would still have likely been your choice to help bring up the ten wings and below anyway, as Baraquel was a genius with lightning based magic, and Sachiel's skills with logistics would be an unparalleled help in speeding up the endeavor.
It was quickly decided that the best way to go about getting the ranks of the seraphim up to par with your enemies; would be to split up the seven others between you, Uriel, and Helel.
This task was rather easy in some ways as there were some very clear groups that would end badly when paired together; for example, Rapheal was pretty much immediately handed over to Uriel, as he would have likely not listened to you at all and Helel would have just started bickering with him to the point that the effort of training would have been wasted entirely.
Similarly Gabrial and Raguel were paired off with Uriel, Gabrial being particularly good at defensive and healing magic made the prospect of being taught by you, unlikely to be a good idea, to say the least.
The problem with Raguel however had less to do with what he was good at and more to do with the fact that Raguel was talkative and wordy to the point that you were fairly certain that he just liked his own voice more than you cared to deal with.
This left you with the choice of two of the four remaining Seraphs.
The first choice was cheerful and exuberant Metatron, Messenger of Heaven. He has done many things for you in the past, including being the only seraph to have thought it prudent to inform you of the flood that father had planned for the humans. It would perhaps not be remiss to pay it forward by teaching him what you can of warfare.
The next choice was graceful and serene Sandolphon, Heaven's Song. It is said that of every angel that resides in heaven there is none that represents the greatness of God's children quite as much as Sandolphon. Uriel, to a mortal man, would be considered gigantic being the height of one man then half his height again. Sandolphon was to Uriel as Uriel is to most of humanity.
Your third choice was distant and alien Sariel, caretaker of the Earth. Sariel and his flock were Father's chosen gardeners of Heaven and Earth's wilderness, there is some lingering resentment between the two of you, because of all the outcasts of Heaven's myriad flocks none were quite so numerous as the gardeners of Sariel that preferred colourful metal and uncaring stone to drab dirt and temperamental life.
Last and most memorable of all was Father's last planned child, youthful and energetic Remiel, Herald of God's Wrath. Where you were God's answer to the unfaithful and heretical forces of earth, Remiel was the warning sign of your descent.
Where she went storms of hail and thunder would follow, even in Babylon the days before your arrival were preceded by endless flooding and wailing thunder caused by the middle daughter of Father's Seraphim.
Choose two of the four remaining Seraphim to teach, the remaining two after you choose will be taught by Helel who will focus on how to command the common angel over the personal strength of arms you will teach.
[ ] Metatron, Messenger of Heaven.
[ ] Sandolphon, Heaven's Song.
[ ] Sariel, Caretaker of the Earth.
[ ] Remiel, Herald of God's Wrath.
5 Years ago
Though your main focus at the time was on teaching the Seraphs, at least at first anyway, that did not mean that you were not teaching the rest of the angels as well.
The difference primarily lied in that fact that you were teaching them more on a unit by unit basis instead of the more personal and up close teaching of the Seraphim. Your time was spread thin to put it lightly, from dawn till dusk you were helping somebody with something.
That day was not one of those days however, That day was the first test of the heavenly host sans Seraphim.
The test was a simple mock battle presided over by Uriel, Helel, and Michael.
In attendance as well was Raphael and Azazel the former for medical purposes, and the latter to gather 'live' data on the armour he had crafted for the ten winged angels.
The battle was to take place in a more or less empty section of heaven, it was originally intended to be the resting place of the not quite 'holy' enough human souls, with a playing field marked to be at around twice the size of Babylon.
On one side in the air was the force marked as the Heavenly Host, it was to be led by Samiel and Kokabiel.
Samiel was a member of Helel's once flock who you mostly remember as your brother's friend and lieutenant, it was said that "where The Morning Star goes the Serpent is not long behind".
Kokabiel was a ten winged member of Azazel's flock who had taken to the idea of war perhaps a little too well, in your opinion at least.
In the air on the other side was one person.
You.
You were not allowed to attack them outside of grabbing a bell on a rope wrapped around the waist of every angel in the air.
They were allowed to use whatever means necessary to get your rope or bell from you, whenever a bell, yours or theirs', is taken the person whom the bell is tied to is immediately teleported to Raphiel and the other medics of the host.
You saw far on the ground kilometers away Michael talking to Uriel and Helel, though you could not hear what was said. Across from you Samial was arguing with Kokabial there was pointing and gesticulating abound, you would have to make the arguing stop.
The sky was suddenly lit up in fire, Uriel's signal. Immediately after the flames had receded you were off, flashing forward at a speed most would think impossible.
You got most of the way towards them before the thousands of angels decided it was time to fight back, in an instant you had a spear in hand batting away many multitudes of spears being launched your way.
Despite your skill however you knew that to stand here and merely deflect what you could would merely end in you being skewered eventually, so onward you went closer and closer toward the great host.
Once you were a mere hundred feet away from the front line of angels, you could hear orders being shouted from the host, though not precisely what words were being said only that they were being said.
The angels scattered, what was once an orderly formation in the sky was now a cloud of people rushing forward and backwards, in an attempt to space out the amount of damage you could do at one time perhaps.
It would not work.
In a normal battle it would perhaps allow them to move more freely to dodge and make attacks as they wish, this was not a normal battle.
You merely needed to reach out a hand to grab the first bells of the match from a two wing that had flown closer to the sun then one of his stature should have, the resulting disappearance was the only signal you needed to take advantage of the now willing prey.
With a burst of speed you seemed to be everywhere at once, most of the angels were trying to keep their distance merely throwing spears your way whenever you were dealing with whatever foolish angel thought they could contend in a hand to hand fight.
It was mildly worrying that the ones that could probably slow you down enough to allow someone to take the bells were not attacking you up close, the ten wings were noticeably absent.
In minutes what was once a dark cloud of bodies and spears was already starting to thin out, you were faster and stronger than all of the people in this cloud combined, what could they hope to do against you.
The answer came shortly afterwards however, as with a thunderous crack, followed by the smell of ozone you were made aware of the one thing that you did not beat them in.
Magic.
The lightning strike managed to hit you, though only barely, the fact that it not only hit you but it stung at all clued you into who was likely behind the strike. With a turn you saw Baraquiel on the ground beneath you with a large number of mages already beginning to ready another spell.
You took off knowing that if you were to succeed you had to stop them at all costs.
You got not even a foot closer before you were made aware of the fact that they were not alone, being forced to parry a spear from above you, though you could not see quite who made the throw as you were distracted by a shout from Kokabiel behind you.
"You're mine!" he was charging you, someone had to afterall, the bells wouldn't take them themselves.
You parried his first strike with relative ease, though the second came soon after another spear from above, you also managed to stop that blow in its tracks.
The third, however, got through when a great blast of fire from below distracted you, though combined he mearley scratched you and the fire resulted in only slightly singed hair.
You could tell that you were being pushed back, if this kept up it was very likely that you wouldn't be able to get any of the three combatants bells before one of the three was finally able to get a significant enough strike to slow you down.
You had to do something and fast.
Something must be done, what did you do?
[ ] Take out the spears from above, does it really matter if you don't know who they are? they can't match you.
[ ] Stop the mages on the ground, Baraquiel and his mages are a significant enough force that if they were to keep it up they would not even need Kokabiel to distract you.
[ ] Push the advantage onto Kokabiel, he is likely to chase you no matter where you go, at least here you can stop him relatively alone.
[ ]
The Star Hungers.
Present time
The time has come, though it has taken more time than you would have liked to get the army to a point that father was willing to let the host march to war, it was finally happening.
Father has informed you of the main targets of his crusade, though eventually they are likely to come together, right now you have the advantage of being able to fight them one at a time.
There are four Pantheon's that you have the choice of attacking, there are more, but none others with the power to fight heaven alone.
First is the young Olympians in the Aegean sea, ruled over by Zeus, god of thunder. Once this spot would have been taken by Kronos, father of Zeus and lord of time, however some time in the last few centuries Zeus and the other Olympians had taken over, though how exactly this was done you are unaware.
The Olympians are the weakest of these four at the moment, being young and new to their divinity, however if what father says is true, it would not do to let them sit unhindered for too long, as while they lack in power right now they make up for it in absurd potential.
Second is the Egyptian gods of the Nile, led by Ra, Lord of the Sun, of all of the pantheons, Egypt is perhaps the one most equal to Heaven. That is only if you don't count father however, as while Ra is a combatant you are somewhat hesitant to believe you could beat alone, Father would not have any issue with him; Father will not be fighting however, as he is still weak from the birth of Yeshua.
Other than Ra the egyptians have an advantage in sheer firepower, as all of their gods besides a select few are at least the equivalent to the hosts eight winged angels, you have one hundred and sixty angels with eight wings, they have far more gods. The host however has the advantage in mobility and utility, the magic of heaven can achieve much and while they may have more heavy hitters, you outnumber them greatly overall.
Third is the Chinese Celestial Court, Ruled by the Jade Emperor, you know very little of the Court in all honesty, what you do know however is that they outnumber heaven by an amount that you would consider blatantly false if it wasn't Father who told you this.
The Court however is likely weak overall with only a select few Deities who could oppose the Seraphim, worth noting however is that those deities that can, are almost Fathers equal, so if you choose to attack them first, it is worth proceeding with caution as the balance of power could very suddenly shift depending on who is fighting.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly is the Devas of the Hindu Faith. This would perhaps be the hardest fight by far, you are outnumbered, outgunned, and outmanned by the Deva. The war from three hundred years prior had proven that, with even mere humans being enough to give you pause. However you would have a possible advantage if they have not recovered from that; they lost over a billion soldiers, the fact that you think there is a chance at all that they have recovered in only three hundred years should speak volumes.
This does not even take into account the Trimurti, the trio of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva.
To put it bluntly Father is unsure if he can defeat any one of the three in an even fight without being grievously injured, as there are three of them, this is a problem. If the Trimurti gets involved in the fight it is already over, as Father is not yet ready to fight even Ra, it would perhaps be best to push this fight off until Father is ready and the host is more experienced.
The Year is 2710 B.C.
The year God unleashed the White Titan and her forces upon the earth. Who did she choose to destroy first?
[ ] Zeus's pretenders and all of the peloponnesian lands, may his sky fall around him.
[ ] Ra's children of the Nile and their human playthings, may the false sun be eclipsed.
[ ] The Jade Emperor's Court and his useless magistrates, may their arrogance be their downfall.
[ ] The Trimurti and their Heroes of legend, may their creation be devoured.
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