Rise of the Fallen Read online

  There was an edge in Tren’s voice that Validus wasn’t sure how to interpret. Validus looked over at the guardian, his new superior. He didn’t seem all that spectacular. There was nothing striking about the angel except his cool approach to everything. He was a little shorter and not as well built as Validus, which was usually the case. Validus reminded himself not to judge on appearance. Some of the most courageous and adept warriors he had known through the centuries were less impressive looking than Tren. His brown eyes and fair hair were a striking contrast.

  Although he hadn’t dealt with guardians for more than a few hours at a time and on specific missions, Validus got the sense that they preferred not to work with warriors. He felt it right now.

  “What can you tell me about him? I need to know everything if I’m going to help you.”

  Tren stared at Validus for a moment, then nodded. “Drew is a good kid but has faced some tough situations. His father died when he was twelve. It was a hard few years.” Tren looked away as if recalling details about that time. “His mother never remarried, but a man named Jake Blanchard, his father’s best friend from his time in the Army Rangers, became a key part of Drew’s life. That’s about when I was reassigned to a different charge.”

  Tren stopped. Sorrow etched his brow, and Validus guessed it had something to do with his follow-on assignment.

  “Tough one?”

  Tren turned his back on Validus and gazed out the window again. In spite of a thousand harrowing battles he had experienced over the millennia, Validus knew that the job of a guardian was the most difficult mission of all angel orders, as they were called to defend the most innocent of humans—children. Bound by the Genesis and Noahidic Accords, they were limited by how much they could intercede on behalf of their charges. In many cases, because of the evil hearts of other humans around them, their missions were simply impossible. When a guardian was overrun by too many Fallen, oftentimes he fought a desperate, hopeless fight until he was dissolved to Mount Simcha. But that only left the child open to more attacks than before, so the best of the guardians fought the urge to sacrifice all so that they could fight for the child again another day. It was an anguishing duty, and each guardian lived for the day of blessing when his charge reached the age of reason and gave his or her heart to Yeshua. Unfortunately those missions were far less frequent than the converse.

  In the challenge of their duty, their solace was in seeing the face of Elohim each morning at sunrise. Validus could tell when a guardian had returned from his time with Elohim, for his face shined as bright as the morning sun.

  “He’s leaving,” Tren said.

  Validus watched as Carter left the grocery store and made his way to his car. It was difficult to tell from this distance, but something about his gait made Validus wonder if something was amiss.

  “My follow-on was cut short, and I spent two years in heaven waiting for my next assignment,” Tren continued. “During that time I served as a special assignment guardian, protecting adults when the prayers of the saints moved Elohim’s hand.”

  They both watched as Carter drove out of the lot and onto the road that would take him home. The lead Fallen stepped through the glass wall of the grocery store and looked after the car. The other two materialized through the wall to stand beside him.

  “That’s not good,” Tren said.

  After a moment, the lead Fallen gave orders to the other two and they dispersed in separate directions, but none of them followed Carter.

  “Well, looks like he hasn’t drawn their complete attention yet,” Validus said. “What kind of special assignments?”

  Tren kept his eye on the leader of the Fallen as he departed. He crossed his arms. “One of my assignments was Drew Carter.”

  “Who was praying for him? Who in his life is one of the saints?”

  Tren shook his head. “I don’t know. Perhaps one of the other students.”

  Validus pursed his lips. “What happened?”

  “The prayer was so sudden that I barely made it in time. Drew had finished a football game and stepped out of the locker room and into a parking lot just as a drunk driver careened into him. I had just enough time to throw him into a corner of the building.” Tren shook his head again and huffed. “I thought I had lost him. I could only stay a few minutes, but it was good to see that he had grown into a decent young man. He has a good mother, and Blanchard had obviously been a positive force in his life.”

  Both angels were silent for a moment.

  “This doesn’t make sense,” Tren said. “I’ve never heard of a guardian and a warrior being assigned to the same person, at least not for any length of time.”

  The edge was there again, but in spite of it, Validus knew exactly what he meant.

  “This isn’t a special assignment for me,” Tren continued. “It’s permanent.” He turned and looked at Validus. “And you …”

  Validus nodded. “Agreed. It doesn’t make sense. At least not to us and not now. So what happened to Carter between that special assignment and now?”

  “From the little research I’ve done in the past few days, Drew had a rough go of it in high school. An accident in a car he was driving killed a friend, and he was blamed. Ended his football dreams and severed his social life, though that’s not always a bad thing. Went to college at Drayle University, then had another accident in a physics lab that blinded him.”

  Validus raised an eyebrow. “Looks like he was driving that car just fine to me.”

  Tren looked over at Validus. “As near as I can tell, he is fully recovered.”

  “And you don’t know if the recovery was natural or by the hand of Elohim.”

  Tren nodded again. “We need to keep our distance unless convinced that he’s in danger. We can’t let the Fallen know that he has a permanent guardian.” Tren looked Validus up and down. “Let alone a warrior assigned to him.”

  “Agreed. Anything else I should know regarding Carter?”

  “There’s a girl.”

  “Of course there is,” Validus said with a snort.

  “No, there is something different happening. She’s a believer … a strong believer.”

  “Who’s influencing whom?” Validus asked.

  “A little of both, but the relationship is innocent so far. It’s just that …”

  Validus waited. “Just that what?”

  “Her name is Sydney Carlyle. Ruach Elohim is strong with her. I’m not sure why we aren’t assigned to her instead.”

  Validus furrowed his brow. He obviously had a lot of learning and observing to do. “I’m heading back to headquarters,” he said. “It will take me a few weeks to transition the leadership before I can get back to you. Once I return”—Validus took a deep breath and forced the words out—“I won’t be leaving.”

  Tren cast a blank stare at him, then spoke. “Very well. I’ll keep my distance and keep him safe. While you’re at headquarters, see if any of your men have heard anything unusual regarding the Fallen in this sector.”

  Validus cringed inwardly. He wasn’t used to taking orders. He resisted the urge to make a snarky reply. “I would know if there was anything unusual already, but I’ll check into it.”

  Validus kept to the ground until he was well clear of Rivercrest, then morphed his wings and took flight.

  His mind filled with questions. An ordinary young man in an ordinary little town in Kansas. What could possibly make him more important than commanding an entire continent of warriors in the war with the Fallen? Validus prepared himself for a decade of monotonous guardian duty.

  He couldn’t escape the nagging thought that he was being reprimanded. It was true that the battle for America was not going very well, at least not since the great victory of the formation of the nation of Israel. He had lost some major battles: removal of prayer from the public school system, widening acceptance of homosexuality, and the battle for the unborn were daily agonizing torments to his spirit. Perhaps he really didn’t have what it to
ok to lead the North American forces.

  Validus settled onto the roof of Living Waters Fellowship Church in Colorado Springs. In the span of his lifetime, his command of the continental forces had been short, a mere seventy-three years. He felt discouraged, as though he had failed Elohim in his duty.

  He took a deep breath. In spite of his melancholy, his men needed to see a steady, confident commander, and that was what he was going to give them. Malak wasn’t really ready to take command, but he would have to do. There was no one else.

  Validus decided to make a few reassignments before relinquishing command. If his new assignment turned out to be more than what it appeared to be, he wanted angels and resources in positions he could count on, and his old friend Persimus was at the top of his list.

  11

  THE BATTLE OF THE PURGE

  2348 BC

  Angels from all across heaven were gathering above and below the dome of the Hall of Vision.

  Validus was confused at first, for though he knew the Battle of the Purge must have begun, the vision above the dome was not of the battle but of a distant view of earth far into the space of the second heaven. It wasn’t until he and Persimus made their way into the hall that they realized why.

  Persimus grabbed Validus’s arm. “Look!”

  The vision of the hall was following a massive rock hurtling toward the firmament of the earth. Seconds later it shattered the thick icy shell of the firmament and continued its plummet toward the planet. The firmament began to collapse inward, following the burning mass of rock down to the earth. And as the massive icy fragments fell, the ice became water, and the water became rain.

  “What of Noah?” one of the angels called out. “What of our brothers?”

  “Validus, take the portal,” another angel nearby said.

  The crowd separated to allow Validus access to the portal, and his hands and fingers moved deftly across the marble slate. He swept down after the burning rock, moving past it at blinding speed to see where it would impact the fragile earth.

  After confirming it would land in a large sea on the far side of the planet from Noah, Validus accelerated the vision around the circle of the earth so fast that many of the angels momentarily closed their eyes.

  At last he slowed as he swept down and into the Valley of Tamak. There were thousands of men and women gathered around the ark Noah had made, taunting and ridiculing the man and his family.

  During the past sixty days, some of every kind of living creature on the earth had begun migrating to the ark Noah had built. In spite of the obvious peculiarity of such animal behavior, the wicked hearts of the people refused to hear the words of warning Noah preached to the people. Now, as the earth stood on the precipice of annihilation, the hardening of their hearts was complete, for those nearby were becoming riotous and abusive toward Noah and his family. The rest of humanity had continued to eat and drink, marrying and giving in marriage unto this very day, ignorant of the battle for earth.

  The magnitude of this battle was nothing compared to the Battle of Kish, but the consequences were far greater. Eighty angel warriors against three thousand Fallen—every single one desperate for victory.

  Validus maneuvered toward the door of the massive ark, lain open to the ground like a ramp, where General Jorill was rallying his men for their final stand. Beside him the man Noah was kneeling in prayer, his hands and eyes lifted toward heaven.

  “Here is where we will stand or fall together, my brothers,” the mighty general called out. “Though the world has fallen to Apollyon, this one righteous man stands firm in his faith and has found favor with Elohim.” Jorill drew his sword and held it high. “We will not fail him! We will not fail Elohim!”

  Eighty swords thrust into the sky with shouts of acclamation.

  “By the power of Elohim, the forces of hell will not prevail. We will stand! We will endure!”

  The warriors of earth shouted praise to Elohim as the prayers of Noah lifted up to God. A bluish shaft of brilliant light shot down from heaven onto the servant of God and spread out to fill the bosoms of the angelic warriors around him.

  Moments later, the sounds of war crashed in upon them as General Jorill gave orders to his four commanders.

  “Collapse your quadrants inward, but do not break line! I want two warriors from each company with wings atop the ark for any demons foolish enough to try aerial.”

  He looked at Noah and the crowd pressing in on the man’s family. Even still, Noah stood at the base of the door with two of his sons, pleading with the people to hear his words of truth from Elohim. Stones began to fly, and his sons pulled him back and up the massive door toward the interior of the ark.

  Jorill turned toward Commander Danick. “Danick, have the Fifth Company protect them until they are inside. Then close and seal the door!”

  Danick hesitated. It would be a clear violation of the Genesis Accord. “But the people will see.”

  “They’ll all be dead by the end of the day. Besides, the accord has been fulfilled. Do it!”

  Danick saluted, but before he could move, an earth-rumbling demonic roar filled the air. A droxan was charging from the north. Concern creased the faces of all the commanders.

  “Brandt, it will hit your line first,” Jorill called. “You must stop it!”

  Commander Brandt clenched his teeth and exploded toward the line to rally his men for the coming attack. The other three commanders ran to join their men as the darkened forces of Apollyon descended on the ark of Noah and his protectors.

  Validus saw Cadriel and six other warriors join Commander Danick at the door. They deflected stones that would hit Noah and his sons. A man from the frenzied crowd began running up the doorway after them, not to enter the ark but to thrust a knife into one of their backs. A winged demon screamed in with the man on attack.

  Danick drew his short sword and lunged into the air to meet the demon while Cadriel ran to meet the man. In one powerful motion, Danick swung his sword to deflect the flying demon’s blade, then thrust his short sword into the demon’s torso. The demon immediately dissolved into a greenish vapor that fell downward to the heart of the earth.

  Simultaneously Cadriel swung his blade at the feet of the attacking man, tripping him. He fell onto his own knife and rolled off the edge of the door.

  A draeger reached into the body of the man as he took his last breath, sinking long talons into his chest and arm. The man’s spirit looked up in horror at the face of the draeger. Within seconds he was dragged across the earth toward the nearest tunnel to Hades.

  “Hurry them,” Danick commanded and pointed to Noah.

  Cadriel and two others pushed Noah and his sons along the door, whisking them up the last few feet and through the doorway. All around them waves of the Fallen crushed inward, and the valiant warriors of Elohim fought, retreated, and held, but their lines did not break.

  Danick looked up, and Validus followed his cue. The pinkish hue of the sky began to fade to darkness, and a new phenomenon enveloped the earth. Droplets of water started to fall from the sky. All the people stopped and looked up, astonished.

  The demons renewed their attack to a frenzied level, for the waters that they desired and yet hated fell and burned them. It was holy water from the heavens, purified by the fiery heat of God’s wrath on all the wicked of the earth, both of mankind and of the Fallen.

  Water, the life-giving substance on earth, was the antithesis of sin, the life-robbing element infused into creation by Lucifer. God’s eternal curse on the Fallen was unquenchable thirst never to be satisfied, for the waters they desired always burned. It was why the Lower Realm, Hades, created for the Fallen, contains not one single drop of water.

  Though a thousand demons had fallen, two thousand more came onward. The mighty angel warriors were now less than fifty, and their lines began to falter. Validus could hear the carnage of the droxan on the north side of the ark, but the door was too important to leave. He hoped against hope that Commande
r Brandt and his men would stand.

  Commander Danick shouted orders for his men to reinforce a near breach in the line, then closed his eyes and screamed as his wings morphed out from his back through the slits in his armor. Validus had never seen an angel form wings so quickly. Before they were fully expanded, Danick went to the massive door of the ark. For only one angel to move such physical mass was nearly impossible.

  Validus circled the portal, keeping Danick as the focal point and thereby capturing a view of most of the rest of the battle. Hundreds of thousands of angels in heaven held their breath as the final moments of the battle for earth played out. The view settled on the sweat-soaked face of Danick as he knelt down and placed his hands beneath the door.

  In the background, at the doorway of the ark, stood Noah, his face turned upward. The righteous man knelt and lifted his hands toward heaven. The power of Ruach Elohim shot down from the Holy Mount in a column of arcing blue fire, enveloping Noah. He stretched forth his hands, and the blue flame reached down toward Danick. The angel’s wings beat in powerful strokes, strengthened by the power of Ruach Elohim. Slowly the two-thousand-pound door lifted from the ground. The men and women looked on in stunned disbelief, and demons screamed their curses at Noah and at God.

  “Hurry, Danick!” General Jorill shouted, but it would be his last command. General Tarsis plunged his blackened sword into the heart of the great Genesis general.

  “No!” Danick screamed.

  His wings beat harder and faster, and the massive door rose up and up until the thick, solid planks thumped into place and the blue flame of God sealed the door and the lower frame of the ark so that none could pass, not man nor demon.

  “To the ark!” Danick shouted.

  The remaining thirty-some angels leaped up onto the deck and reformed their lines. There was no falling back now.

  Validus chanced a quick sweep toward the north just as a beastly screech pierced their ears. The portal caught Commander Brandt withdrawing his sword from the side of the droxan at the edge of the deck. It plummeted backward and then dissolved into a vapor that fell through the water below.