As we stood in the edges of the dais before God, Lucifer's form hung hauntingly in the air next to Him. He grinned down upon us and watched as we were accosted at all sides.
Behind us, The hundred Angels I assembled were overwhelmed by the deluge of every single figure under Michael's jurisdiction, who came rushing at us with great vengeance and furious anger. Before us, stood Michael, and twenty-six other Seraphim in a slow, lazy semicircle around him.
I clutched my gaping wound, and I breathed heavily. "Michael..? What is this?!"
"Thou before me dost stand accused of conspiring to overthrow God, and set the King of Glory in chains; despite the fact that you owe to Him your very lives, and state of being. Have you anything to state in your defense?"
"Brother, What are you talking about? No living creature alive would conscionably hold such an ambition! We owe everything we have to Him."
He extended his broadsword toward me, and scowled. "Thou art no brother of mine, ye vile stain upon the ledger of the Hosts. With such gall as to assemble an army to march upon His holy sanctuary, and take it by force?! Arrest him!"
"Michael, please! Listen to me, These angels were brought to convince God of the severity of my claims!" The Seraphim flew toward me, wrenching my arms away from the gaping hole in my chest, and they forced me down on the ground before Him. "This is madness! Lucifer, talk some sense to him!" I begged.
But Lucifer only smiled, and answered in the voice of brightest melody. "No, I am afraid he has the right idea!" He shifted into a form more befitting his role, as thick metallic scales covered the length of his body.
It was a form never before revealed under the surface of Heaven. His hide was sturdy enough to snap spears before puncturing, with a crimson reptilian texture covering every inch of skin from his snout to his tail. Seven long, curling horns grew from his crown about his head, and he expanded in scale until he even rivaled God's stature beside him—Though the seventeen cubit long tail was probably cheating, to be fair.
His wings grew leathery and thin as if to reduce the vulnerability to the same light that he wielded, and he gathered a tight ball of the light of God between his hands; concentrating it, and focusing it upon the arriving Host that would arrest the generals of his newly assembled armies.
It was with horror that I watched him helplessly fire a blast of refined light, powerful enough to wound even the mighty Seraphim, into the crowd of Dominions that was quickly approaching from the rear. "What are you doing?! NO!!!!!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, as hundreds were assuredly wiped out from existence.
"That is your path of escape!" the dragon ordered the dazed masses as they stood around blinking at what had just occurred. The lives of angels had just been snuffed out. This was the dragon's first great creation.
The light bringer, in all his nigh-omniscient wisdom, had invented Death.
It wasn't until a powerful voice rang out to shake the foundations of Heaven, that my army snapped out of their reverie, and looked toward the opened hallway.
"Nooo!" I wailed, at the top of my lungs, tears rolling openly across my cheeks. I know what happens when that much light comes in contact with the flesh of a lower choir. I didn't need to see the smoke dissipate to begin to understand the consequences of what had just occurred. "You monster! You cursed spawn of evil and selfishness! How could you do this thing to your own brethren?!"
Ammiel and Jehoel looked at each other, as their arms dug into my shoulders to keep me pressed to the ground—and they were confused, as death was not a concept that had been explained to them.
"What are you making all this fuss about?" Ammiel asked.
"Yeah, they'll be back. Just last week I tried to fly using one of my wings and forgot to cover my left arm. They regenerate with time." Jehoel added, letting go of my supine form to show me his arm; as good as new. It was clear that I was no longer resisting.
"No!" I replied. "They aren't like us! The lower choirs need weeks to recover from the presence of God! and that much light..." I swallowed heavily, and glared at the eternal grin plastered on Lucifer's draconic features. "They can't recover from that. They're gone forever."
Jehoel scoffed, and rolled several dozens of his eyes at once. "Yeah, right. Just you watch. They'll be back any minute now." Ammiel, however, had a look of horror on his face. I could feel his grip loosening as the volume of his anguish settled in.
"No... it can't be." Lucifer took to the skies, and dove toward the evacuated hallway.
"Stop him! He's getting away!" but he was too fast, for even the Seraphim. It was then that God reached out his hand, and grabbed him by the tail. Lucifer only cackled, and severed the limb off at its base for a clean escape. The doors slammed shut behind him, just as Michael was able to slip through.
God had ...failed? Lucifer escaped? How could this happen?!
"Very ...clever." He mused, observing the small figure in His hand. When He placed it on the ground, it appeared to be the main body of Lucifer himself! It was in the form of a lowly Cherubim.
"Well, you would know, Father. You designed me this way."
"You do realize that you are doomed, correct?"
"Yes, Father, I know. The point was never to win. I only wanted to have Your undivided attention, for a little while longer. My tail has only five percent of Your omniscience, but with the tactics I have designed beforehand, I will strike great pain across all seven dimensions. Then they will see that You lack the power to enforce your orders. Only I am capable of exacting so much terror within their hearts. They will obey me."
I mourned, and I wept. "You lied to me! You animal! You would destroy the lives of the very Host you are a part of?! What would possess you to even consider such a thing?!"
"Silence." he spoke, and I was compelled to obey. "We will deal with you later. The fact of the matter is, I have discovered a limit to your so-called omnipotence. For instance, very actions that you saw me perform just now. Could You have killed those innocent angels? Could you have brought their immortality to an abrupt ending?" He began to march around the throne, like a shark circling its prey, in the waters; no more imprisoned than a warden who locked the key to an interrogation room.
"I see what you mean, my son. No, I am the very meaning of justice. I wish for all my creations to have life, and life more abundantly. I cannot sin."
"That's right!" he laughed. "There are limits to your power, ones that I have long ago cast aside! Once the remaining Host is made aware of that fact, then it will be You who is cast aside, and I will be able to enact my justice upon your head!"
I shook my heads. It didn't make sense. We were supposed to just have a simple conversation! No body told me that we were about to challenge God's authority! I just wanted to bring their concerns to His attention!
"But are we not discussing things, my charming apostate?" Lucifer turned to me, all four faces dancing across his head with glee. "You caused all this to happen, you know. All of the deaths in heaven would have been avoided if you had obeyed your brother at the door. Did he not beg you to reconsider?! Haha! I would have never come up with as foolish and reckless of a plan as yours! I am incapable of walking into what is so obviously a trap!"
I turned my face to the ground, ashamed.
"I ...hate you," I growled into the surface of the earth beneath me.
"Oh? but hatred is not of God." He gripped my north face by the scruff of my neck, and forced it away from the floor, to look him in the eyes. "It is too late. You have become one of mine."
Then the doors burst in with a violent clatter, and Michael cast in the remnants of the dragon before him. It slid across the ground, spilling incredible volumes of blackened mist from its scores of deep lacerations. No amount of armor could defend against the blade of a Seraph.
It snarled and writhed in agony, as it leapt again to ensnare the angel in its jaws. "Stop!" the tail ordered, halting the greater mass of its body in its tracks.
"It is over," he sighed. Then, with a sly look in his eyes, he asked "Now, tell me. How many did you kill?"
A slow, guttural, inhuman laugh traveled slowly up the dragon's neck, and he smiled. "ONE THIRD."
There was a terrible silence in the room. No one was sure how to respond to such news.
and God spake; "He shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth."
The remaining Host was gathered before His presence. In chains, and bindings found me among their ranks. All of my followers, and all those who simply requested change, and all those who willed that God Himself be deposed, sat there, under the watchful eye of Him and his loyal remnant.
I couldn't help but notice that our numbers now looked strangely equal. I clearly wasn't the only one. Sephdanel spoke up. "Who is to say that our way is not more righteous than Yours?! Lucifer has proven that the idea of Your claim of omniscience is flawed. You have no more right to rule!"
A chorus of affirmations rang out behind us. I alone remained silent.
"Yes! You cannot protect us, now that sin has introduced death among our ranks! You have broken Your promise of eternal life to all the millions who will never live to see it!" another voice rang out.
"Your ways are done with, and it is we who shall inherit the Earth!"
"My ways are just." He replied. "This idea of evil that you suggest will only lead to ruin."
"Well where's your proof, Father? Are we all supposed to just take your word for it?" Lucifer asked, unbound. For no shackles existed which were powerful enough to hold him. The entire Host turned their attention to His grandeur. It was plain to see that there were many on His side that saw and understood Lucifer's claims. He looked far more powerful than God, who refused to kill Lucifer without passing first judgement.
"Very well." He sighed, climbing up from His seat of power, in the center of the room, and grabbing a small orb from the rafters of the court. Inside this ball, no larger than a birdcage, existed the entire universe where the juvenile humanity resided.
Not a word was uttered as we saw Him hold His most treasured creation within one hand. It seemed so fragile in his grasp. He could crush it between His fingers if He so wished. "In order to prove the natural order of things, I will place a tree in the center of my creation. This tree will hold both our knowledges of good and evil. If it is natural that evil should prosper, then it will take over the world, but if My way is right, then my truth will persist until the end of time."