***
The demons took two more months to arrive with their armies, and by then, the Jehovan army was as ready as it would ever be. Guns dotted the high ground on either side of the plains, and angel wings and weapons were pressed tight against the mountain, under camouflaged tents and brush.
Lucifer peered over the top of the mountain at the demons below. Across the valley, along the mountain range, he waited for the signal to lead his negotiators onto the field. He shifted his red-and-black zinanbar-plated armor and motioned to Sal and Michael to join him.
“Michael, look at their faces down there,” Lucifer said. “I don’t think they’ve stopped to camp in days. They look exhausted.”
“Yeah.”
“This plays into our hands,” Lucifer said. “Give me five minutes in front of the officers of the First Legion, and I’ll win them over. Eranos is obviously not listening to his subordinates. The first thing they teach you at the academy is that an exhausted army is a dead army.”
Sal gurgled and spat in response.
“Yeah, but these guys aren’t pulling triggers.” Lucifer said. “You see the units with their wings held rigidly parallel to the ground? Those are shielders. It takes a lot of effort and concentration to protect a phalanx of troops from projectiles and wing-based strikers. And look at those strikers in the center. You see the ones with their wings dragging in the dirt? They’re not supposed to do that. They’re exhausted. What is Eranos thinking?”
“Maybe he has his own oracles telling him that timing is of the essence,” Michael suggested.
“Or maybe Eranos is as mad as they say he is.”
“Raphael, Uriel, and I will be providing the fireworks on our side,” Michael said. “After you win the First Legion over, we’ll be focusing on the wizards.”
Lucifer nodded.
More of the regiments marched into view, and then came an ostentatious platform carried by wingless lesser demons. On top of the platform sat two demons in gilded chairs, one wearing a fur-lined robe and crown, and the other bright green battle armor with blades coming out of her arms. In front of them knelt a chained demon, and beside him was an executioner binding his wings.
Sariel looked roughed up and unconscious. His suit was in tatters and there was dried blood on the front of his white undershirt. Lucifer glared at Eranos before noticing the trinket hanging around Rabishu’s neck.
“Is that it?” Lucifer asked. “The trinket there on her neck. Is that the anur quppu?”
“Yeah, I think it is,” Michael said.
“Something that small can hold an entire universe?”
Michael shrugged. “Jehovah believes it’s a real threat, and Eranos is willing to risk his best legions to bring it to Order. I would say that’s enough for me to take it seriously.”
“When I get back to the Chaos Library, I’ve got some reading to do.”
“My brother?” Michael asked. “Turning into an academic?”
“Let’s keep that between you, me, and Sal over here.”
“My lips are sealed,” Michael said as he put an arm around him.
“It’s not too late to come back home, you know,” Lucifer said. “Chaos needs you.”
Michael dropped his arms to the ground and played with the dirt. “I’m committed to Order, Luke.”
“Then help me convince Jehovah that Chaos with me leading it is not an enemy of Order. You’re still my twin. I don’t want us to be at odds.”
“You’ve killed me like five times, now!”
“Yeah,” Lucifer said, “but I knew you’d be reborn. I don’t actually want you dead. I came to Order to avenge you—not watch you bleed out in a fruitless civil war between the Kadingirs. If my cousin and brother want their own kingdom, I can live with that. Can you?”
Michael nodded.
Lucifer searched the side of the mountain for Anne and saw her walking with Gaea. Her blue-and-white armor reflected the illumination of the scarlet vortex around her. She held herself well for someone five months pregnant.
Her eyes grew wide, and she turned to Gaea. She pointed at her stomach and made a kicking motion. Apparently, his son was performing some type of acrobatics inside her tummy. She smiled as she realized Lucifer was staring.
“You’ve been a changed demon recently,” Michael said. “We should have gotten you married years ago.”
Lucifer chuckled. “Sal, I need you to do something for me.”
“Anything, friend,” the fish-head gargled a response.
“I need you to protect her at all costs,” Lucifer said.
“But Jehovah …”
“As a favor to me,” Lucifer implored him. “She’s my life, and my son is my future.”
“But surely, you would prefer someone with wings,” Sal said. “I can only do so much.”
Lucifer took off the armor plating on his left leg and exposed the scarred wound from the gunshot. “I think you’ll do just fine. Have some of our card buddies grab a few zinanbar shields to protect against chaos bolts and metal weapons. If things get hairy, retreat. Keep her safe, and don’t let her assassin instincts get her into trouble.”
Sal saluted. “I’ll do my best.”
“I know you will.”
He watched Sal scurry off and collect some of his scaly friends. They ran toward the armory and lifted some shields above their heads before scampering off toward Anne. She hugged Sal and rubbed him on the head before waving back to Lucifer.
Across the valley, a white signal came up. Lucifer gathered a few angels, attached a white flag to two of his wings, and motioned for them to follow. Time to confiscate an army.
“After the First Legion defects,” Lucifer said to Michael, “let me move them out of harm’s way before you open fire. I’ll signal.”
“Makes sense.”
The five immortals left Michael and walked with their wings down the mountain. Lucifer could see the tension mounting in the demon forces. The officers in the First and Second legions would know that the valley was a compromised position. Training dictated an orderly retreat to higher ground. Unfortunately for them, both mountain ranges were occupied with gunners.
Rabishu left her seat and glared at him as he moved in front of the Chaos army. Eranos chewed on a fingernail and motioned toward one of his lieutenants to join the parley. Lucifer watched warily as Eranos barked and sputtered incomprehensible remarks to those around him. He really had gone mad.
A group of officers approached from the Chaos side and slowly wing-walked up to the Order negotiators. Lucifer fought back a smile from creeping across his face as he recognized each of the three officers from the First Legion. Sepu, the commander, was among those crossing the battlefield.
“Lucifer,” Sepu nodded.
“Hello, old friend,” Lucifer said. “Chaos is in need of an army.”
“It has one. It stands before you.”
“It sags in front of me,” Lucifer said. “The strikers can barely hold their wings up. How long have you been marching without rest?”
“Two weeks,” Sepu said, despite the coughs and protestations of the Second Legion commanders. “But they’ll still fight for their king.”
Lucifer smiled. “We’ll see. Gentlemen, around you and situated in these mountain ranges beside you are formidable defenses. Retreat and you’ll be spared. Fight and you will die here in this valley. These are the terms.”
“Higher ground isn’t enough to defeat a disciplined Chaos army, Great Prince,” a Second Legion commander said. “You would need overwhelming numbers.”
“Or secret weapons,” Lucifer said, pointing toward the mountain range that bordered the First Legion. “Those hills over there are entrenched with a new invention, one capable of shearing immortal flesh from a distance.” He removed his leg plate and showed his grisly scar to the demons. “They are very effective and cover the battlefield with death against any kind of attack or pursuit.”
He didn’t look at Sepu until after his statements were fin
ished.
“We’ll present your terms,” Sepu promised.
“Thank you,” Lucifer said. “I don’t want to see innocent demon blood spilled here. Let’s return to our homeland, where great changes await each and every one of us.”
The Second Legion commanders turned immediately and began walking back to the pavilion, but Sepu and his two lieutenants remained. They each nodded to Lucifer before pivoting on their red and purple wings and joining the others.
“You think it worked?” one of the angels asked him.
“Yes,” Lucifer said. “I believe so.”
They hustled across the valley on their wings, and Lucifer turned around briefly when he heard Eranos scream.
“We are not turning back home,” Eranos yelled. “First Legion,” he pointed in the direction of the adjacent mountain range. “Second Legion,” he indicated Lucifer’s own range.
The platform slowly moved toward Lucifer. Time to go.
Lucifer evaded striker wings that pierced the ground around him, and leapt across the mountain range, drawing the chaos bolts from the wizards. He checked behind momentarily to make sure the Second Legion was still heading toward the entrenched position where Uriel, Raphael, and Michael were. So far, so good.
He crossed the valley, far out of range of the strikers, and kicked up dust as he sped toward the opposite mountain chain. As he neared the First Legion, the 50,000 demons executed a perfect phalanx, zinanbar swords and pikes pointed ominously at him.
“First Legion,” Lucifer commanded. “Form up and mirror. Sepu, send a signal to the other side. All clear. Open fire.”
A set of red tendrils shot into the air and obediently formed the commands to the positions across the valley.
“Strikers,” Lucifer said. “Pin down the Second Legion. Nothing fatal unless in self defense. Shielders, keep us safe. Let’s guide them back home, boys. Charge!”
The legion broke into a sprint, but the soldiers maintained their internal distances. A perfect formation. Lucifer galloped ahead of them, both zinanbar blades held in front of him. A shadow passed overhead. White wings and shielded. The wizarding core surrounding Eranos’s platform opened fire, but the bolts ricocheted off the angel and into the wall of the vortex above.
“Batarel?”
But that wasn’t right. He had seen Batarel’s new body before they took off from New Eden. It was red and horned. The figure ahead of him was fair-skinned and brown-haired. It was Jehovah.
“What are you up to?” Lucifer asked aloud.
He tried to launch, but he was in range of the Second Legion strikers now. He fended off their tendrils with his own, but their impact sent him to the ground. He rolled wide right and tried to flank them. More wings and chaos bolts this time. He deflected them with his wings as his feet skidded across the dirt and metal of the revolving plates.
He broke into a sprint on three wings while the other five kept strikers and wizards at bay. Across the mountain range, gunners opened fire, and a thousand demons dropped to the ground.
“Stop!” he yelled to the Second Legion. “Go home! The battle is lost!”
But they continued forward. Lucifer looked for Jehovah and found him beside Anne. He was berating the fish-heads and ordering them elsewhere.
“What is he doing?” Lucifer asked the air around him. “Batarel, where are you?”
The fish-heads protested, but Jehovah swept them aside with his wings. Anne and Gaea scolded him, but he turned and followed the fish-heads out of sight, a red-faced Gaea right on his heels.
“Anne!” Lucifer screamed. “Get out of there.”
But she couldn’t hear him. A fresh salvo of wizard bolts broke his concentration, and he was forced to divert from his current direction and roll under wings and magical bombardments.
“Go home!” Lucifer yelled at the Second Legion, which was now turning around to deal with the perceived threat from the First Legion. “Go back to Alurabum and wait for my coming!”
But Eranos was yelling his own incomprehensible commands. Beside him, Rabishu stared into the mountain range. She said something to the King, and then unfurled her wings through slits in the back of her vibrantly-colored leather and zinanbar-plated armor.