des is lying somewhere, in an open place, on the rocky ground. lucifer stands some distance away, in full glorified form, wings high and stiffly drawn behind him, and he sees God Incarnate, risen, the wounds still red on His ankles and His wrists, but He has been bathed and cleaned and His body is on the same scale of Lucifer, greater than human. His robes are white and fresh and His dark hair still richly colored with dried blood, but beautifully combed. it seems more light seeps through the epidermal cells of His body than before His crucifixion, and He gives off a powerful radiance, which renders the radiance of Lucifer slightly dim by comparison. the two do not fight each other, and are basically the same kind of light.
des can hear them - arguing. out of the corner of his eye he can see this is a battlefield littered with the dead. it's not the same time as the fourth crusade - this is an earlier epic, and the bodies were the armor and clothes that he connects to an early century AD, though he can't be certain which.
the dead stink. the air is filled with feasting insects and even some lowering, awkward vultures, which have come to tear at the swollen hideous flesh of the soldiers, and far off, he hears the nasty argument, in growls and barking - of contending wolves. ]
Yes, I see! [ lucifer is angry, speaking in a tongue that isn't english but one des understands perfectly. ] The gateway is open to Heaven for all those who die with Understanding and Acceptance of the Harmony of Creation and the Goodness of God! But what about the others! What about the millions of others! Has your Chosen ascended yet, to redeem them? They believe you died for their sins! They think you have already done the work for them!
[ "And once again, I must ask you," says the Son of God, "why I should care about the others! Those who die without understanding and acceptance and knowledge of God. Why? What are they to me?" ]
Your Created children, that's what they are! With the capacity for Heaven if only they could find the way! And the number of the lost exceeds by billions those few who have the wisdom, the guidance, the experience, the insight, the gift. And you know it! How can you let so many vanish into the shadows of Sheol once more, or disintegrate, or hug the earth becoming evil spirits? Didn't you come to save them all?
[ "I came to teach them how to save themselves," He says. "Again, I tell you it is a cycle, it is Natural, and for each soul that goes now unimpeded into the Light of Heaven, thousands of others must fall. Of what value is it to Understand, to Accept, to Know, to See the Beauty? What would you have me do?" ]
Help the souls who are lost! Help them. Don't leave them in the whirlwind, don't leave them in Sheol struggling for millenia to gain understanding after death by what they can still see on Earth! Make your message clear to man, let him know what to aspire to, make the path available to all! You've made things worse, that's what you've done!
[ "How dare you!" ]
You've made it worse! Look at this battlefield, and Your Cross appeared in the sky before this battle, and now Your Cross becomes the emblem of the empire! Since the death of the witnesses who saw your Risen Body, only a trickle of the dead have gone into the Light from Earth, and multitudes have been lost in argument, and battle, and misunderstanding, languishing in darkness!
[ "My Light is for those who would receive it." ]
That's not good enough!
[ God Incarnate strikes Lucifer hard across the face. Lucifer staggers back, wings unfolding, as if reflexively so that he can take flight. But they settle once again, a few graceful white feathers swirling in the air, and Lucifer raises his hand to the imprint of God's hand which blazes on the side of his face. The imprint is distinct, blood-red as the wounds on the ankles and hands of Christ.
"Very well. Since you care more for those lost souls than you do for your God, let your lot be to collect them! Let Sheol be your kingdom! Gather them there by the millions and tutor them for the Light. I say none shall dissolve or disintegrate beyond your power to draw them back into being; I say none shall be lost, but all shall be your responsibility, your students, your followers, your servants.
"And since you spite the salvation I have offered mankind, since you believe them too weak to produce a saviour such as I have prophesied, let your lot be to try and thwart my Chosen, to drive them to breaking, to renounce my name and their quest, to admit the suffering not worth my Light!
"And until such a day as Sheol is empty! Until such a day as all souls go directly to the Heavenly Gates, or until you turn six hundred and sixty six of my would-be saviors from their path, you are my Adversary, you are my Devil, you are Damned to spend your time on Earth which you love so much and Sheol or Hell, whichever you choose to call it, your Kingdom. And only now and then by my grace may you come into Heaven, and see to it that when you do you have your angelic form!
"On the Earth, let them see you as the demon! The Beast God - the God of the dance and drink and the feast and the flesh and all the things you love enough to challenge Me. Let them see you as that, if you have would have the power to stand against me, and your wings shall be the color of soot and ashes, and your legs shall be as a goat's legs, as if you were Pan himself! Or as a man only - yes I give you that mercy, that you may be a man among them, since you think it such a worthy enterprise to be human. But an Angel among them, no! Never!
"You will not use your Angelic form to confuse and mislead them, to dazzle them or humble them. You and your Watchers did that enough. But see that when you come through my gates, you are properly attired for me, that your robes like snow. Remember to be yourself in my realm!" ]
I can do it! I can teach them; I can guide them. You let me run Hell as I choose to run it and I can reclaim them for Heaven; I can undo all that your Natural Cycle has done to them on Earth. And if I prove that your path to Absolution is impossible, that you ask too much of these human souls, you will admit you have done wrong in this system of Suffering and Confusion? You will grant them a greater part of your Light and redeem them from this world of death and decay?
[ "I should like to see you do it! Send me more souls through your purgation. Go ahead. Increase my Glory. Increase the bene ha elohim. Heaven is endless and welcomes your efforts. Do what you can to turn those who would walk the path of Christ, those prospects who would willingly suffer for my Glory knowing what awaits them in the end, from their path. Make them believe the entirety of creation conspires against them and you will see that humanity will produce One who will walk unbowed beneath the weight of whatever earthly torments are brought to bear upon them!
"But you don't come home forever until one of these tasks is finished. Until the passage from Earth to Heaven includes all those who die, or until 666 of my finest saints are led astray by your delusions, or until the world itself is destroyed - until evolution has unfolded to the point where Sheol, for one reason or another, is empty, and mark my words, Lucifer, that day may never come! I have promised no ending to the unfolding of the universe! So you have a long tenure among the damned." ]
And what on Earth? What are my powers? Goat God or Man, what can I do?
[ "What you should do! Warn humans. Warn them so that they come to me and not to Sheol." ]
And I can do that my way? By telling them what a merciless God you are, and that to kill in your name is wicked, and that suffering warps and twists and damns its victims more often than redeems them? I can tell them the truth? That if they would go to you, they would abandon your religions and your holy wars and your magnificent martyrdom? They would seek to understand what the mystery of the flesh tells them, the ecstasy of love tells them? You give me permission? You give me permission to tell the truth?
[ "Tell them what you will! And in each case that you draw them away from my churches, my revelations, misunderstood and garbled though they may be - in every case that you turn them away, you risk another pupil in your hellish school, another soul which you must reform. Your hell will be crammed to overflowing!" ]
Not through my doings, Lord. It will be full to overflowing, but that will be thanks to you!
[ "You dare! Tell them what you will, Lucifer, but you will not pour your lies into my Chosen, those who the angels who serve me identify as prospects for this quest to Absolution. Twist those around them, recruit those you would from their confidants to try to steer them into sin and fear as you so espouse. But until they stand ready to cross the Waters of Lethe, you will not speak to them, nor tell them why they suffer! Let their strength and faith show you how wrong you are! They will not need the secrets of the universe to be revealed to them, they will not demand them as you have done. They will Believe in Me and My Plan." ]
Let it unfold, my Lord, as you have said it always should. Only now I am part of it, and Hell is part of it. And will you give me those angels who believe as I do, and will work for me, and endure this same darkness with me?
[ "Take them! They will be cast down with you, and you may recruit other helpers from the earthbound themselves, as I know you have already learned to do with your unholy powers - granting new bodies to spirits to make them immortal monstrosities to serve you! The Watchers who fell with you will be cast down into your pit. Take them!" ]
I will. Hobble us in our earthly forms if you will, but still we will triumph. I will bring more souls through Sheol to Heaven than you will bring by your direct Gate. I will bring more reformed souls singing of Paradise than you will ever gather through your narrow tunnel. It is I who will fill Heaven and magnify your glory. You will see.
[ they fall silent. lucifer is in a fury, and God Incarnate in a fury or so it seems, the two figures facing each other, both of equal size, except that Lucifer's wings spread back and out in the semblance of a form of power, and from God Incarnate comes the more powerful, heartrendingly beautiful Light.
Suddenly, God Incarnate smiles.
"Either way, I triumph, don't I?" God asks. ]
I curse you!
[ "No, you don't," God says sadly and gently. He reaches out and He touches Lucifer's face and the imprint of His angry hand vanishes off the angelic skin. God Incarnate leans forward and kisses Lucifer.
"I love you, my brave adversary!" He says. "It is good that I made you, as good as all else I've made. Bring souls to me. You are only part of the cycle, part of Nature, as wondrous as a bolt of lightning or the eruption of a great volcano, as a star exploding suddenly, miles and miles out in the galaxies so that thousands of years pass before those on earth see its light." ]
You are a merciless God. I shall teach them to forgive you what you are - Majestic, Infinitely Creative, and Imperfect.
[ God Incarnate laughs softly and kisses him again on the forehead.
"I am a wise God and a patient God. I am the One who made you."
the images vanish. they do not fade. they simply disappear. des lies on the battlefield alone. the stench is a layer of gases hanging over him, poisoning every breath he draws.
no subject
des is lying somewhere, in an open place, on the rocky ground. lucifer stands some distance away, in full glorified form, wings high and stiffly drawn behind him, and he sees God Incarnate, risen, the wounds still red on His ankles and His wrists, but He has been bathed and cleaned and His body is on the same scale of Lucifer, greater than human. His robes are white and fresh and His dark hair still richly colored with dried blood, but beautifully combed. it seems more light seeps through the epidermal cells of His body than before His crucifixion, and He gives off a powerful radiance, which renders the radiance of Lucifer slightly dim by comparison. the two do not fight each other, and are basically the same kind of light.
des can hear them - arguing. out of the corner of his eye he can see this is a battlefield littered with the dead. it's not the same time as the fourth crusade - this is an earlier epic, and the bodies were the armor and clothes that he connects to an early century AD, though he can't be certain which.
the dead stink. the air is filled with feasting insects and even some lowering, awkward vultures, which have come to tear at the swollen hideous flesh of the soldiers, and far off, he hears the nasty argument, in growls and barking - of contending wolves. ]
Yes, I see! [ lucifer is angry, speaking in a tongue that isn't english but one des understands perfectly. ] The gateway is open to Heaven for all those who die with Understanding and Acceptance of the Harmony of Creation and the Goodness of God! But what about the others! What about the millions of others! Has your Chosen ascended yet, to redeem them? They believe you died for their sins! They think you have already done the work for them!
[ "And once again, I must ask you," says the Son of God, "why I should care about the others! Those who die without understanding and acceptance and knowledge of God. Why? What are they to me?" ]
Your Created children, that's what they are! With the capacity for Heaven if only they could find the way! And the number of the lost exceeds by billions those few who have the wisdom, the guidance, the experience, the insight, the gift. And you know it! How can you let so many vanish into the shadows of Sheol once more, or disintegrate, or hug the earth becoming evil spirits? Didn't you come to save them all?
[ "I came to teach them how to save themselves," He says. "Again, I tell you it is a cycle, it is Natural, and for each soul that goes now unimpeded into the Light of Heaven, thousands of others must fall. Of what value is it to Understand, to Accept, to Know, to See the Beauty? What would you have me do?" ]
Help the souls who are lost! Help them. Don't leave them in the whirlwind, don't leave them in Sheol struggling for millenia to gain understanding after death by what they can still see on Earth! Make your message clear to man, let him know what to aspire to, make the path available to all! You've made things worse, that's what you've done!
[ "How dare you!" ]
You've made it worse! Look at this battlefield, and Your Cross appeared in the sky before this battle, and now Your Cross becomes the emblem of the empire! Since the death of the witnesses who saw your Risen Body, only a trickle of the dead have gone into the Light from Earth, and multitudes have been lost in argument, and battle, and misunderstanding, languishing in darkness!
[ "My Light is for those who would receive it." ]
That's not good enough!
[ God Incarnate strikes Lucifer hard across the face. Lucifer staggers back, wings unfolding, as if reflexively so that he can take flight. But they settle once again, a few graceful white feathers swirling in the air, and Lucifer raises his hand to the imprint of God's hand which blazes on the side of his face. The imprint is distinct, blood-red as the wounds on the ankles and hands of Christ.
"Very well. Since you care more for those lost souls than you do for your God, let your lot be to collect them! Let Sheol be your kingdom! Gather them there by the millions and tutor them for the Light. I say none shall dissolve or disintegrate beyond your power to draw them back into being; I say none shall be lost, but all shall be your responsibility, your students, your followers, your servants.
"And since you spite the salvation I have offered mankind, since you believe them too weak to produce a saviour such as I have prophesied, let your lot be to try and thwart my Chosen, to drive them to breaking, to renounce my name and their quest, to admit the suffering not worth my Light!
"And until such a day as Sheol is empty! Until such a day as all souls go directly to the Heavenly Gates, or until you turn six hundred and sixty six of my would-be saviors from their path, you are my Adversary, you are my Devil, you are Damned to spend your time on Earth which you love so much and Sheol or Hell, whichever you choose to call it, your Kingdom. And only now and then by my grace may you come into Heaven, and see to it that when you do you have your angelic form!
"On the Earth, let them see you as the demon! The Beast God - the God of the dance and drink and the feast and the flesh and all the things you love enough to challenge Me. Let them see you as that, if you have would have the power to stand against me, and your wings shall be the color of soot and ashes, and your legs shall be as a goat's legs, as if you were Pan himself! Or as a man only - yes I give you that mercy, that you may be a man among them, since you think it such a worthy enterprise to be human. But an Angel among them, no! Never!
"You will not use your Angelic form to confuse and mislead them, to dazzle them or humble them. You and your Watchers did that enough. But see that when you come through my gates, you are properly attired for me, that your robes like snow. Remember to be yourself in my realm!" ]
I can do it! I can teach them; I can guide them. You let me run Hell as I choose to run it and I can reclaim them for Heaven; I can undo all that your Natural Cycle has done to them on Earth. And if I prove that your path to Absolution is impossible, that you ask too much of these human souls, you will admit you have done wrong in this system of Suffering and Confusion? You will grant them a greater part of your Light and redeem them from this world of death and decay?
[ "I should like to see you do it! Send me more souls through your purgation. Go ahead. Increase my Glory. Increase the bene ha elohim. Heaven is endless and welcomes your efforts. Do what you can to turn those who would walk the path of Christ, those prospects who would willingly suffer for my Glory knowing what awaits them in the end, from their path. Make them believe the entirety of creation conspires against them and you will see that humanity will produce One who will walk unbowed beneath the weight of whatever earthly torments are brought to bear upon them!
"But you don't come home forever until one of these tasks is finished. Until the passage from Earth to Heaven includes all those who die, or until 666 of my finest saints are led astray by your delusions, or until the world itself is destroyed - until evolution has unfolded to the point where Sheol, for one reason or another, is empty, and mark my words, Lucifer, that day may never come! I have promised no ending to the unfolding of the universe! So you have a long tenure among the damned." ]
And what on Earth? What are my powers? Goat God or Man, what can I do?
[ "What you should do! Warn humans. Warn them so that they come to me and not to Sheol." ]
And I can do that my way? By telling them what a merciless God you are, and that to kill in your name is wicked, and that suffering warps and twists and damns its victims more often than redeems them? I can tell them the truth? That if they would go to you, they would abandon your religions and your holy wars and your magnificent martyrdom? They would seek to understand what the mystery of the flesh tells them, the ecstasy of love tells them? You give me permission? You give me permission to tell the truth?
[ "Tell them what you will! And in each case that you draw them away from my churches, my revelations, misunderstood and garbled though they may be - in every case that you turn them away, you risk another pupil in your hellish school, another soul which you must reform. Your hell will be crammed to overflowing!" ]
Not through my doings, Lord. It will be full to overflowing, but that will be thanks to you!
[ "You dare! Tell them what you will, Lucifer, but you will not pour your lies into my Chosen, those who the angels who serve me identify as prospects for this quest to Absolution. Twist those around them, recruit those you would from their confidants to try to steer them into sin and fear as you so espouse. But until they stand ready to cross the Waters of Lethe, you will not speak to them, nor tell them why they suffer! Let their strength and faith show you how wrong you are! They will not need the secrets of the universe to be revealed to them, they will not demand them as you have done. They will Believe in Me and My Plan." ]
Let it unfold, my Lord, as you have said it always should. Only now I am part of it, and Hell is part of it. And will you give me those angels who believe as I do, and will work for me, and endure this same darkness with me?
[ "Take them! They will be cast down with you, and you may recruit other helpers from the earthbound themselves, as I know you have already learned to do with your unholy powers - granting new bodies to spirits to make them immortal monstrosities to serve you! The Watchers who fell with you will be cast down into your pit. Take them!" ]
I will. Hobble us in our earthly forms if you will, but still we will triumph. I will bring more souls through Sheol to Heaven than you will bring by your direct Gate. I will bring more reformed souls singing of Paradise than you will ever gather through your narrow tunnel. It is I who will fill Heaven and magnify your glory. You will see.
[ they fall silent. lucifer is in a fury, and God Incarnate in a fury or so it seems, the two figures facing each other, both of equal size, except that Lucifer's wings spread back and out in the semblance of a form of power, and from God Incarnate comes the more powerful, heartrendingly beautiful Light.
Suddenly, God Incarnate smiles.
"Either way, I triumph, don't I?" God asks. ]
I curse you!
[ "No, you don't," God says sadly and gently. He reaches out and He touches Lucifer's face and the imprint of His angry hand vanishes off the angelic skin. God Incarnate leans forward and kisses Lucifer.
"I love you, my brave adversary!" He says. "It is good that I made you, as good as all else I've made. Bring souls to me. You are only part of the cycle, part of Nature, as wondrous as a bolt of lightning or the eruption of a great volcano, as a star exploding suddenly, miles and miles out in the galaxies so that thousands of years pass before those on earth see its light." ]
You are a merciless God. I shall teach them to forgive you what you are - Majestic, Infinitely Creative, and Imperfect.
[ God Incarnate laughs softly and kisses him again on the forehead.
"I am a wise God and a patient God. I am the One who made you."
the images vanish. they do not fade. they simply disappear. des lies on the battlefield alone. the stench is a layer of gases hanging over him, poisoning every breath he draws.
for as far as he can see, there are dead men. ]