Marcus…
After he had finished walking Selene home and made his way back to his own house, he stepped into the shower to clean himself off.
While he was finishing up, the hot water made him feel so relaxed that he still felt tired even after getting what he felt was a full night’s sleep in Forrosa.
When he stepped out of the shower and put on a loose shirt and shorts, he fell onto his bed and glanced at the window.
It looked like the sun was already setting in Duranell.
Considering how Forrosa was on the other side of the world and the sun had risen by the time he had woken up, it only made sense that it would be night time in Duranell by now.
However, it annoyed him that he was still as tired as he was right now.
It must have been because he had been awake with Selene all day yesterday in Duranell and then all day again when they went to Forrosa.
Not sleeping for twenty four hours must have caused him to crash by the time night came in Forrosa, and then when he woke up in the morning, he was still exhausted from the lack of proper rest.
Well whatever…, now is as good a time as ever to take a nap.
With no thoughts on his mind, he let the comfort of his mattress deliver him into a dream.
Lucifer and Cain had been wandering the world for several centuries since they had first met and looking for any traces of power they could use against God.
The fallen archangel knew that there were slight traces of the fallen primordials scattered around Terra. Drops of their blood have given birth to various gods that now roam the earth, such as the beings known as the Titans, the war gods of the North, and the gods of the desert wastes in the lands to the far south.
If by some chance, some of that blood was no tampered with, then he might be able to craft a weapon out of it.
What’s more, over the course of time that the two of them had spent together, they have become aware of the more aware of the spiritual energy residing within them.
Lucifer had thought that all his power had been taken from him when his father had burnt his wings and divested him of light. If not for that, he was even more convinced of his relative powerlessness when Cassiel took his aspect of causality, and yet…
Despite everything that had happened to him, for some reason, he still had some amount of power left to him.
He knew not what shape it would take, but it helped to increase his strength, speed, and awareness of everything around him.
Cain as well had discovered that he could harness the strength within his soul to defend himself soon after Lucifer had found him standing before a bear’s carcass.
The both of them had been on a long journey of self discovery, but with few answers to show for it.
During their travels they have discovered strange beings that ordinarily would not have existed in the world that Father had created if not for the scattered remains of the primordials.
One such creature that they have frequently run into lately were fire breathing lizards with wings known as dragons.
If memory served him correctly, Lucifer remembered that the primordial Aurgelmir had once given birth to the very first dragon during the Primordial War.
A lustful, greedy, and purely malevolent creature known only as the Dragon God Kaos. A creature so vast that its scales dwarfed the stars.
It fell at Michael’s hands and upon its death, each scale that spread across the cosmos carried dragon eggs within them.
The dragons spawned from those eggs are feral and violent upon birth that they do not discriminate on what they attack or consume. They do not shy away from cannibalizing each other either as they would consume the hearts of other dragons for greater strength. They rape, and kill, and steal from everything and anything to further their own survival.
Fortunately, they have found very few of them on their journey. He dreaded the day that dragons overtook humanity in dominion of this world.
And yet, there has been something bugging Lucifer about the state of the world. Over the past few months, the two of them had encountered fewer and fewer wildlife. Even the trees themselves have halted their growth.
Its as if nature itself was holding its breath and preparing for a disaster.
“Lucifer...does something feel off to you lately?” Cain asked as he looked up at the sky with his colorless eyes.
“Perhaps. I have noticed that things have gotten a lot quieter recently. I may have thought it was because most animals avoid you but I have seen that is not entirely the case. I’ve walked through other forests while you remained where we made camp and it is still void of wildlife. Only the insects deep in the earth remain and even they are making an effort to leave.
Cain looked around until he found an anthill. He knelt down and observed how they were moving.
“Maybe we should follow the ants and see where they take us. They all seem to be heading in the same direction, so maybe it means something important,” he suggested.
Lucifer nodded in agreement as he said, “then lets follow them.”
Over the next several days, the two of them followed the trail of ants and other insects as they slowly crawled across the dirt, all traveling towards a single destination.
The two of them then notices a clearing atop a cliff face. Cain gestured to Lucifer for them to take a look and they walked over to the edge.
Once they reached the top, Lucifer’s breath was caught in his throat at what he was seeing.
The entire forest as far as he could see had been flattened. All the trees had been cut down and been used to build a massive structure of wood.
It was as if looking at a man made island built from the forest around them. Standing around the massive structure were hordes of animals, many of which were somehow aiding in its construction.
“W-what...is this?” Cain asked, too shocked to understand what was going on.
“I’m...not sure. I’ve never seen anything like this before. What could have caused something like…,” Lucifer said before his voice trailed off as a horrible chill ran down his spine.
For some reason, despite the the sky being almost perfectly clear of clouds, he could smell the rain and lightning in the air.
His eyes drifted to a spot in the sky and stared at it intently.
“Lucifer? What’s happening?” he asked nervously before trying to follow his gaze.
“Something is coming,” Lucifer said as he stared at the empty sky.
As if on cue, what few clouds remained in the sky began to swirl and surround that spot in the sky until it became a violent cyclone waiting to touch down. From within those spiraling clouds, a vibrant flash of light shone within. Bolts of lighting sparked and illuminated the interior. From within the storm, the bolts of lightning revealed the silhouette of a person falling through it.
“Oh no…,” Lucifer said in horror as he took several steps back, preparing to jump.
“Lucifer, what are you-?” Cain began to say but he ignored him as he ran forward and jumped off the cliff and into the barren forest below.
“Lucifer, wait!” Cain said, his voice fading as the fallen angel fell.
However, he did not wait.
He knew what was coming and he dreaded what might happen if he did not rush to the aid of one of his brothers or sisters. He could not wait when one of his own kin might be suffering because of him.
The moment he hit the ground, he rolled forward to break his fall and continued running as he watched the storm and the angel within falling towards the earth.
When the cyclone bit the earth, an explosion of light nearly blinded Lucifer and the large gust of wind almost knocked him off his feet, yet he persisted.
Through the thick clouds of dust, he pushed forward until he could see the fading light leaving his fallen kin.
When the dust cleared, a fallen angel lying unmoving and wounded in a crater came into view.
Without thinking, he jumped into the crater and reached his hands out to help the fallen angel. Upon laying hands on him and turning him over, Lucifer recognized his brother instantly.
“Uriel! What has happened to you brother?!” Lucifer shouted in desperation to make sure he was okay.
His fallen Ophanim brother groaned in pain and his eyes slowly opened to look up at Lucifer.
“B-brother...you must...listen to me..,” he croaked.
“Silence Uriel! Conserve your strength!” he ordered as was about to lift him out of the crater.
Uriel would not be ignored as he reached his hand out and took Lucifer’s arm in his grip.
He shouted with all his strength, “Lucifer! Listen to me! You must listen!”
Shocked by Uriel’s demanding voice and the grip on his arm, Lucifer went silent.
“Father is...he is preparing something awful! Few humans are praying to him, and it has outraged him. I know not if it was solely because of you, but he wishes to wipe all life from this world and start over. Not just humanity, but all life. All the creatures that roam this world. He will rid this world of all of it. You must hurry and esca-”
He failed to utter another word as his flesh burst apart from the inside out and his blood turned to mist. Lucifer sat on the ground in shock, staring at the empty space where he once held his brother in his arms as Uriel’s blood drenched him from head to toe. He then looked down at his hands as they shook from fear.
Cain finally caught up with Lucifer before he suddenly paused to look at the haunting scene before him.
“What...happened here?” Cain asked as he stared at Lucifer’s body, drenched in blood.
The horror stricken fallen angel could not explain what had happened as his mind failed to accept that his brother had died in his arms in such a way.
But as if to answer Cain’s demand for answers, a body of light appeared before them.
It took the figure of a man, yet it vibrated so fast that you could not make out any discernable details as to what he looked like. What’s more, the light shining from him constantly changed color.
But something else was off about the man’s appearance. For some reason, the position of his body was constantly shifting in place, as if the light was being refracted. As if there were dozens of mirrors surrounding him, creating multiple afterimages of him.
His feet did not touch the ground as he floated towards Lucifer.
With terror in his voice, Lucifer said, “F-father…? Why did you…?”
The figure of light that had killed Uriel and appeared before them was God.
Hearing Lucifer say ‘Father’, Cain’s expression grew tight with pain and anger as he screamed in anger and ran towards God in blind rage.
When he came within only a few steps away, without even looking his way, he snapped his fingers and the air solidified as if it were sharp glass.
He did not see it coming as he walked through the solidified air and his body was split apart. He fell to the ground and broke apart into bloody chunks at God’s feet.
“Such insolence. This is the kind of company you prefer to be around my son? This not befitting of a Seraphim of the heavens,” he said with a disappointed tone of voice.
Cain being immortal and undying was still conscious. His head reformed just enough for him to spit blood in God’s face as he lay on the ground.
Disgusted and enraged by having blood soil his face, God looked down on Cain’s body and the scattered pieces of it caught fire.
Lucifer could do nothing to help him as he felt the sickening sensation of Uriel’s blood sticking to his skin and dripping down his face, his chest, and his arms. the slick blood covering his face dripped off of him.
God then returned his attention to Lucifer and his expression became confused.
“What are you so frightened of?” he asked.
“Uriel...y-you killed him,” Lucifer said shakily.
“What of it?” God asked dismissively, as if not wanting to hear the answer.
Surprised at his father’s words, Lucifer’s face became twisted in anger.
“‘What of it’? Do you not even care that you killed him?” he asked while gritting his teeth.
“Why should I? Uriel was nothing more than a foot soldier, he was not a Seraphim, but an Ophanim. An expendable life. He was less than a speck of dust compared to you. I did away with him like I would any other useless traitor.”
For the first time in his life, Lucifer raised his voice against his father as he shouted, “He was my brother! Your son! How dare you-”
Yet his words of defiance were interrupted as God’s firm hand came flying towards his face and slammed him into the ground with enough force to bury him dozens of feet deep into the earth.
Coughing in pain and struggling to stay awake, he opened his eyes in time to watch his father fly towards him faster than his mind could process and wrapped his hand around Lucifer’s throat.
He then glared at his son as he demanded, “How dare I? I am the Almighty. There is no one to question my actions. Not you, not Uriel, not one single human or angel, or creature or lesser god upon this world or within the heavens can speak out against me. My actions are nothing less than absolute, and yet still you think that you can disobey me?”
Struggling to speak with his father’s hands wrapped around his throat, Lucifer croaked, “A-and what of everyone else…? What of the...people on Terra? What of...the people you plan...to exterminate?”
Hearing this, God smiled cruelly as he asked, “What of it? Do you intend to stop me? With my light and my power stripped from you, what will be able to do?”
Lucifer tried to pry his father’s hand from his throat as he ground out, “I will stop you. I will make sure that you pay for what you’ve done!”
God let out a chuckle as he said, “You can certainly try. I will allow you to make an effort to stop me.”
He then paused for a moment, as if deep in thought before an amused expression came across his face as he said, “I will give you forty days to prepare as best as you can before I bring about a flood that will cover every piece of land on this earth. There will be no stone or tree that will be spared, no valleys or mountains that will not be submerged under water. No living thing will hope to survive. With this, I will give you a chance to succeed. If you survive and manage to save some of the humans then perhaps I'll leave this planet alone and its people.”
As Lucifer’s anger grew, he took hold of his father’s wrist and squeezed as hard he could.
“Swear it! Swear to me that you will make good on your word!” Lucifer demanded.
“You doubt me? Truly? Very well. Then upon my name as God, the father of all creation, if you succeed in living through the flood I will bring upon this world, and if you manage to save what little life remains, then I will leave this planet alone for you to rule over.”
Hearing God’s words, Lucifer squeezed his wrist even harder and managed to gain a reaction out of him as he pulled his hand away.
A small sliver of light was stripped away from his skin for a fraction of a second. Seeing this, Lucifer thought his eyes were playing tricks on him but his father rubbed his wrist nervously and the missing light was restored.
In a low voice, Lucifer said, “I will stop you.”
Hearing his son’s words, he returned his attention back to him before giving him a confident smirk as he said, “I would like to see you try.”
In the next instant, he vanished.
As if a heavy weight was lifted off his chest, Lucifer gave out an exhausted sigh and started to breathe heavily in fear of what had happened.
After a few minutes passed, Cain jumped down the hole as his body was still trying to piece itself back together. He knelt down at Lucifer’s side as he tried to pull him out of the dirt.
“What happened? What did he say?” Cain asked as he began to carry him forward.
“My father plans to drown the world in a massive flood that will not spare anyone,” he answered with dread in his voice.
“A flood…?” Cain asked as he paused.
Then, as if a sudden idea came to mind, he said, “Wait. That structure we saw earlier, before Uriel fell. Do you remember it?”
“Yes… What of it?”
“It looks to be made almost entirely of wood. Wood floats above the water! Whoever is making that must have known before hand that the flood was coming! Perhaps that is our solution!”
But then Lucifer shook his head and said, “That alone will not be enough to save us. It may be enough to keep us above the water, but it will not protect us against the violent storms that may try to destroy it.”
Cain then looked him in the eyes and said, “Then we must look for those who can aid us. The gods you mentioned before, those that live in other lands. We must go to them and warn them of the coming threat so that they can aid us.”
“Y-you’re right. We must go to them for aid, but I am not sure that it will be enough,” he said before he looked down at his hands and could see the sliver of light that he took back from his father.
Cain noticed the light shining from Lucifer’s hand and said, “Is that…?”
“It is an opportunity. One that I must not waste,” he said as the the two of them crawled their way from that hole and set off to find the lesser gods of Terra.
His eyes opened as the horrible nightmare came to an end, but rather than be greeted by the comforting light of the sun shining through the curtains of his bedroom, he was met with the cold and murderous stare of Artemis. Her icy gaze looking down on him as she raised her sword above him, ready to stab him in the heart.