Entry 3: The Lost Tithe The thing about spiritual bodies is that they are exactly like physical ones except that they lack flesh. A person in his spiritual body possesses even more senses than the five that most humans feel. And much more intensely, I might add. I have heard that people who have lost limbs can feel their absent appendages. Of course they can, because the spiritual body part is still there… I wondered at the oddness of that thought as I crept behind the armor-clad fireteam that the Master sent with me. Swarms of spirits rushed past us toward the mouth of the volcano, as we quietly entered the lower dimension. Our light bodies were invisible, though the wicked ones might have noticed us if they knew we were there. The spirits of the wicked ones, though, hang in the middle between heaven and Hell, with powers stronger than the material beings, and weaker than heavenly ones. They tire easily, so perhaps their exhaustion kept them from noticing us. They hurried past quickly into the pit, arriving from every part of the world with spirits of the dead, excited to present their tithes to the Grand Prince. I hate everything about this dimension, I thought, as I glanced around the infernal cavern. God rejected this dimension because of the controversy in Heaven. Darkness beyond any earthly darkness filled the place, despite the unholy flames of fire. The screams of the tormented dead that echoed from the ceilings were enough to drive anyone to insanity, but worst of all, this place was the only place on earth, in earth, under the earth or above the earth that was completely absent of the Spirit of God. Hopelessness and despair of its inhabitants suffocated me. The Almighty meant for this place to be the punishment of the ancient beings who started the last controversy. His Hands slung them into the great abyss many ages ago. But the ones who utilize the uppermost cavern, and that wander the world freely are even more ancient than those bound in chains in the fiery abyss hidden below. They are the very ones who brought humankind into this evil dimension in the first place. I clung near the ceiling of the immense cavern, and waited for the devils to arrive with Sharon’s spirit. I scanned the horizon toward the gulf that dropped toward the center of the earth. Orange flames and glowing embers spewed out of it and created an ominous flicker that made me nauseous. The warrior leading the fireteam signaled with a wave of his hand that the time had come to begin the search, and I admired the determination that I saw in his large round eyes. He shook his black mane aside to cool his long neck, and wiped the sweat from his muzzle. I nodded. Immediately they scurried upside-down across the ceiling like spiders. I counted them as they disappeared around the stalactites that hung like drapery from sections of the lower ceilings. There were four of them, and they were fearsome. Their bodies were huge and powerful, and at the same time, graceful and nimble; everything about them was a contradiction. The fallen ones had long ago carved strange and beautiful palaces and columns into the rocky walls and stalagmites that jutted out of the ground. I recognized many of them to be replicas of the architecture from our former homes. Funny what homesickness can drive one to do, I thought. The gulf spread out to the right and left as far as I could see. Thousands upon thousands of tiny pits dotted the ground among the flames, and each one of them held the spirit-soul of a person. All of them were terrified and screaming. Freakishly deformed fiends, gigantic and minute, brutally assaulted and shamed each one of them according to the former life they lived. I tried to turn my eyes away from a pair of them as they brutalized a young girl who must have been a teenager when she died. I was mesmerized as the shorter devil, which looked to be a bear-man hybrid, held her by the neck as he scooped out her intestines with long crooked fingers and crammed the gnarled mess back into her abdominal cavity. The wound healed instantly, and the second devil, whose form was so hideous that I couldn’t tell his origin, ripped her head off and held it high in front of his face. The two of them laughed so hard that mucus spewed out of their noses. The second devil kissed her mouth, snaking his snot-covered tongue between her lips and then across her face, before shoving her very-much-aware head back onto her very-much-alive body. The girl was conscious, of course, and felt every ounce of pain and humiliation that she would feel if she still had her flesh-body. Her eyes were wide with terror and disgust. You see, the greater the emotion, fear and humiliation that the prisoner experiences, the stronger the energy that the spirit gives to the torturer, and the stronger the torturer becomes. Considering the ferocity of the war they are waging against the Almighty, they are doing their job well. In their minds, their very existence depends on victory, although in reality, they are already defeated. Their prisoners, however, cannot die; yet, they are in the constant state of agonizing death. That does not make sense, I know, but that is how it is in Hell, and Hell does not make sense. I covered my face in disgust, and then peeked through my fingers at the multitudes of fiends and victims that numbered millions upon millions, and as I watched them, I saw a dark figure standing alone in the midst of the horror, slowly and thoroughly observing everything around him. I moved across the ceiling until I came to a large group of stalactites that hung nearer to him. I peeked around and looked closer to see that the fiend appeared to have mostly the form of a large horse, as did the warriors in the fireteam that came here with me. However, the devil stood upright with muscular, but arthritic looking legs and thick misshapen arms, framed by a large set of leather-covered wings. I knew him at once by the vague markings on his face. Once, before time began, he was unimaginably beautiful. Now he was hideous. At first, I couldn’t tear my eyes from him. Memories that I had long ago forgotten came pouring back into my mind. When I opened my eyes again, I was shocked to see that he was watching me too! He knows I am here, I thought frantically as our gazes locked and I prepared to defend myself. I waited. I tried very hard not to move. The being looked up at me, as I hid high above him among the curtain of stalactites; I looked down at him as he stood among waist-deep flames that surrounded him. I felt as if I was settling into a trance. The roar of the flames and the screams of the dead subsided in my mind as the seconds ticked by, and my eyes locked to his. I saw myself through his eyes: I was clad in the golden armor. My face displayed extreme emotion- a mixture of grief, fury and pain. I swung the Lahat with all my strength, but my strength was slipping away. I fell to my knees and noticed I was kneeling in a puddle of blood… “No!” I forced myself to say aloud…I was shaking…I couldn’t allow him access to my mind. Finally, he seemed to lose interest in me and turned his hulking body toward a trio of tiny winged creatures descending from the shaft, carrying their tithe wrapped in cloth. I did not often see the magical beings from the neighboring dimension. They were once safe from the reaches of Chaos, but somehow the dragon defiled their realm as he did the material one, and now their dimension intersected this accursed dimension just as the material realm did. They too had become children of Chaos. They too were required to pay tribute to the Lord of Hell in exchange for the existence of their races, thus increasing the power of the fallen ones. The devil said nothing as he stopped in front of them. An auburn haired female anxiously stepped forward to speak. She bravely lifted her head; her eyes never left his. Her ethereal beauty was out of place in the foreboding gloom. Wordlessly, he turned and led them over a rocky bridge across a moat of flaming lava to a strikingly beautiful structure that stood austerely in the midst of the flames, making them look even more profane. It was the tallest one in the cavern and stood upon the highest point in the cavern. It was not carved into the rock, as were all the others. Instead, it was built with some sort of mirror-like, black bricks, and it reflected the flames of fire. Haven…this reminds me of Haven... I thought sadly, as I crawled upside-down across the ceiling to monitor the group. I examined the towering pomegranate-topped pillars that held up the roof of the portico, and counted the steps that descended from both sides of the tall porch. It was pitiful attempt to replicate the heavenly beauty of our ill-fated home. Dark shadows swayed upon the faeries’ tiny bodies as they climbed the steps and walked through the soaring entrance. I saw that even the massive bi-fold doors resembled the Master’s temple in Haven. I scanned the horizon, knowing I wouldn’t be able to see any of the fireteam from here. I was confident that they would find the ones that they were seeking, though to anyone else, it would be like looking for proverbial needles in a very large haystack. I dropped onto the roof of the portico and touched the smooth blackness of the bricks. I rested my hands upon them for a moment as I felt a familiar energy pass into me. Could it be? I thought as I considered where the material might have originated. I snuck into the door unnoticed above their heads. The door almost crushed me as a pair of devils struggled to pull it shut. I hid in the shadows of the high walls as I scurried behind them into a long, narrow hall lined on both sides with soaring columns. There I saw the Great Dragon himself, sprawled at the top of a stepped pyramid platform carved from a stalactite, upon a colossal throne. Odd looking beasts whose bodies were composed of a hodgepodge of different species surrounded the platform. Some had heads of reptiles, some of hyenas, and some even had mantis heads and multiple arms like spiders. The Great Dragon did not at that moment look like a dragon. Like my brothers and me, he is a shape-shifter. He is able to appear in any form. He is even able to transform himself into the appearance of an Angel of Light. Here, he had assumed his handsome Sumerian persona; a giant with a dark, squared-off beard, a long ornate robe and immense wings. I watched the faeries as the auburn-haired one reluctantly revealed the contents of her small package to one of the devils that stood at the foot of the platform. The fiend peeled back the covering to inspect the tithe and thrust it back at the female. He growled and gestured up the steps toward the dragon. She hugged the bundle tightly and took each step one at a time, resting with each step. Her face showed resolve, but tears trickled down her cheeks, betraying her sadness. The dragon chuckled wickedly. He slid to the front edge of his throne and his appearance began to change. His features slowly distorted, and the blue velvet of his robe dissolved. His beard became translucent then disappeared, as he turned himself into the form of the dragon that I once knew. However, his golden scales and colorful jeweled breastplate were gone, replaced by a wrinkled, decaying flesh. Dangerous talons replaced his once graceful hands; flesh drawn tight against his angular face revealed dead eyes and sharp fangs that dripped with stringy saliva. The horns upon his head once proudly resembled a crown that identified him as belonging to the Lord God Almighty, now they just looked profane. I was thankful that the swarm that held Sharon’s spirit had not arrived yet. I was sure that they were tormenting her, but not as she would be tormented here. The dragon leaned down toward her. Smoke left his nostrils and an eerie orange glow grew in his throat. With each step that the faery took, the more she trembled. “What are you afraid of, little insect?” The dragon snarled at her as he thumped her silvery wing, slicing its delicate surface, cutting through its veins. She still said nothing as she clutched the bundle tightly. “Give me your fear,” he demanded as she reached the foot of his throne. He was obviously dismayed at her lack of terror, even as crimson blood streamed down her shoulder. Suddenly he reached out, snatched the little bundle from her arms, and held it in front of her. The blanket fell away to reveal an infant. “I know my son must die,” she whispered across the infant’s screams. “Take his life for the sake of my clan, but please don’t hurt him,” she whimpered. Her courage melted away as she fell before him to plead for mercy toward the child. “Eww, don’t hurt him,” he mocked her. “Don’t you know it is the pain and the fear of the innocent that gives me life? Without it, death is nothing to me!” He threaded a huge claw through one of her tiny curls and tugged on it. Then he lowered his giant grizzled snout to her tiny nose, still gripping the child in between his thumb and forefinger. She was terrified but did not move. “Humans all over the world have given me their children for eons!” He growled as he worked up the flame in his bowels, ready to cook the infant, to inhale his life force. “You faeries and elves have worshipped me with the lives of your magical children since ancient times. Why do you think I have let you good-for-nothing cattle to exist?” His ugly attendants taunted the mother’s winged companions that huddled at the foot of the platform, screeching loudly and dancing circles around them. “Master, please send my brothers. Hurry…” I begged. Suddenly a devil swarm burst into the hall screeching triumphantly. This was not what I had hoped for, but it distracted the dragon from the baby. The swarm settled on the dirt floor in front of the throne and stood in a neat ranks and files. The dragon lost interest in the child and tossed him like garbage to the devil that I recognized from the eternal past. The child’s mother scrambled down the steps and threw herself onto the dirt in front of him. “He is my son! Do not hurt him!” Chills ran across my body as the devil cut his eyes toward my direction. He clutched the child in one hand and stepped back in disgust. With his hoof-like feet, he pushed the child’s mother aside as she lay in the dust, curled up and bleeding. “Well, well, what do we have here?” the dragon stood from the throne to address the newcomers. The hall grew silent except for the infant’s cries. “She was guarded by one of the Chayot,” the leader of the swarm croaked as he looked up at his god. “Really,” the dragon cocked his head, his interest piqued. “Yes, it is true.” I recognized the face of long-armed devil that stepped forward. He had the face of an old man. He gripped Sharon’s spirit by the hair and lifted her triumphantly. “An old soul,” the dragon remarked as he lifted her from his grasp and stared into her eyes. “Do I know you?” Sharon breathed rapidly as she hung by his claw, which pierced the back of her neck. She looked at him then dropped her head in defeat. Surely, her mind was still reeling with the returned memories of her eternal past. “Yes, I do know you,” his hot breath rustled her hair. “I assumed that you were destroyed in the Great Dying. How is it that you were you preserved? ” She knew why but she did not answer. “No matter,” he rejoiced. “Pity your guardian isn’t here to see your greatest contribution to our rebellion.” I watched impatiently as he scratched the shape of a crescent onto her cheek with his razor-sharp talon. The cut oozed a watery liquid. The dragon’s horde frolicked around the base of the platform, dancing and chanting low indistinguishable words. A thick energy welled up because of their sorcery, so thick that it was almost visible. “Please…hurry,” I sent my thoughts to my brothers. I looked around me on the ceiling, hoping to see them cross the invisible veil. The dragon’s body glowed sickly orange as tiny flames rose from his skin. Sharon’s spirit body rose from his claw and hovered helplessly in the air between his knotted fingers. He seized the ancient energy from her body. She raised her head as pain intensified. She looked the dragon dead in the eyes but refused to show fear. Her energy was visible as strands of blue light that crackled like static as he sucked it into his eyes, nose and mouth. She resisted as long as she could, but finally she threw her head back and her eyes rolled back in her head. She trembled violently. Extreme pain and anguish colored the scream that she at last released. The dragon was visibly strengthening. Without thinking, I emerged from behind the darkness. I had no plan, but that may be what worked to my advantage. “Protect me, Master,” I asked as I summoned the power of water. I knew that in Hell, there is no water to draw from the atmosphere, and that I needed to draw the water from my spirit, which would weaken me, but I had no choice but to try. I revealed my light body as I leapt to the ground; the armor given to me by my Master seemed to move itself. I stretched one leg behind me to stabilize myself because of the blast that would come, and stretched my wrists forward to release the powerful liquid. As the powerful jet left my body, it struck several of the devils on its way to the dragon. The grizzly beings howled as flesh peeled from them and steam rose from their bodies. Sharon dropped and tumbled down the steps of the platform as stream struck Lucifer, whose body sizzled like a hot frying pan. He hurled obscenities as he rushed toward me, although he couldn’t see me through the thick steam that rolled off his body. I spun away from him, drawing my sword, which is one of the dozen-called Lahat. I activated its whirling flame with my mind and swung it wildly at the fiends that came toward me. I struck several of the devils and stumbled over their body parts, which were frantically dragging themselves toward their owners. I slipped on the muddy slime that pooled up around them and fell on my backside, and as I looked I saw devils clambering toward me. For a moment, I was afraid. That is, until I heard the battle cries of my brothers approaching from the other side of the dimensional curtain. Hope strengthened me and I rolled onto my feet. I allowed Lahat to search out its victims, intelligently avoiding the innocent ones who stood still amidst the pandemonium. At once, the rest of the Chayot appeared from thin air and dropped lightly all around me. Our battle cries startled the evil ones that charged toward me. Fear or awe, or perhaps a mixture of both, paralyzed the evil ones briefly as our wings completed the Dasha, which is sudden sprouting of eye-covered wings upon our bodies. I felt exhilarated as I imagined the surprise the evil ones must have felt, because even I am awed when I hear the roar of the Lion, bellow of the Ox and noble cry of the Eagle. Their heavenly majesty, even though I have been one with them since before time, still exhilarates me. Just as the Master created us to do, we locked our minds together, and fought as one machine. The Eyes of God covered our bodies, increasing our senses and perception infinitely. We could see every direction at once, and smell the despair that saturated the realm. We felt every move of the enemy before they moved, and saw the sounds of their vibrations and the color of their fear and anger. We were able to react as if the battle were happening in slow motion. This was a rescue mission, and we were not interested in destruction. The Master’s orders were, “Get in there, rescue the old ones and get out!” That is exactly what we did-Hahaiah dashed through the obstacle course of confused devils to grab Sharon’s spirit while the rest of us distracted them. I couldn’t help but grin as I pictured us as Harlem Globetrotters, spinning away from the devils, ducking in and out of their grasps. “I have her,” Hahaiah spoke in our minds. He flew past me, with Sharon’s spirit tucked under his arm. We all turned to fly after him, but as we neared the ornate door of the throne hall, I remembered the faeries and their tithe. I was not sure if I should go back for them, as I was to follow the Master’s instructions exactly. Do not look at them, I told myself. Through the Eyes that covered me, though, I saw them huddled together and afraid as the devils raged all around them. “Master! What do I do?” I shouted aloud. I listened hard to the silence in my mind, awaiting instruction, but nothing came. I slowed my flight as I passed through the antechamber of the temple toward the entrance, hoping that the Master would permit me to return for them. I tarried as long as I could, but I saw the fireteam streak past with the freed hostages, as my brothers rushed out the main entrance in front of me. The Master had instructed me to stay close to them as we exited, no matter what, as I have a habit of doing things my own way. I watched through the Eyes as the devils turned their rage upon the little faeries. Temptation to return to them gripped me, but I reluctantly resisted, and I exited the temple into the cavern. Stop watching them! I scolded myself as I watched the devils rip at their tiny bodies. I tried to ignore their screams as I pushed the images of their torment from my mind. I increased my speed and resolved to leave them because they were outside of the realm of God’s protection because they did not belong to him. In my heart, though, I still pleaded for their lives as I continued to watch them in my mind through the eyes that covered me. “Yahushua!” I heard the female plead. She is calling upon the name above all names! Things will change now! I thought excitedly. Broken and bloody, she and her two companions lay upon the ground. She sobbed as she knelt over her child, using her body to shelter him. Her face to the dirt, I heard her say, “Our fathers spoke of you, Lord Yahushua. That only you were able to save the seed of Adam from this place…I do not know anything about you, but I have nothing left to believe in.” As her mud-streaked face lay on the ground, she scooped the red dirt into her hands and pressed it in her fist. “I am not of the seed of Adam, but I will hope in you.” “Go get them!” My heart leapt for joy! My thoughts were one with my brothers, and they received the same command. Hahaiah and the fireteam went ahead, but we doubled back toward the temple, and in a split second, we were through the door and back in the Dragon’s throne hall. We landed quickly amid the din. The Dragon’s attendants snatched the faeries up and brought them to the dragon. The faeries did not struggle, but resigned themselves to a horrible death, as they were the only material beings in the dimension, and they knew that they would have to die twice. However, I noticed that the female had a placid look of calmness about her, and I knew why. When she called upon the name of the savior, he saved her spirit, and it couldn’t die the second death. However, I thought for a moment, and realized that I must be wrong. She is a faery, and not of the seed of Adam. “In and out, right?” I thought to my brothers. “In and out!” they replied. In one movement, in tandem, we touched the Bracelets of Eth that we wore upon our left wrists. Immediately time stood still. All of the beings in the hall stood motionless, except for us. We moved quickly, but we had to pry the faeries from the claws of the wicked ones. Once we had them loose, I took the child from the hands of the one I once knew. I thought it curious, however, that his grip on the infant was rather gentle, but surely I was mistaken. We darted out of temple and out of their dimension. What it would seem like to the wicked ones, is that the faeries simply disappeared out of their grasps. I must say that I was glad that I wouldn’t be present when they realized that they had lost the faeries and their tithe.
Posted on: Thu, 31 Oct 2013 18:20:23 +0000
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