Baal, great god Baal, chief of the Elohim and supreme ruler of the heavens. One of the most powerful existences of all time and someone even alien lifeforms from the great chaos dared not cross. An ancient lifeform who arose in the earliest parts of known history and someone who had survived the great dragon YM's calamity.
Since time immemorial, he had obtained transcendent divine might. His progress in mastering divine power far surpassed his peers, leaving on his beloved Anat and his dreaded brother Mot as opponents. In an era which divine cultivation has been a constant for untold eons, he had been the supreme being for as long as anyone could remember.
And he was absolutely stressed beyond his mind.
The skies of the great world was full of ominous clouds. The rumbling of thunder surrounded both the heavens and the earth. Not even the countless lesser realms were spared from a universe spanning calamity.
It had come suddenly with no warning. Baal wasn't even in his palace at the time, busy suppressing an ignorant demon in the wilderness. But he learned the news and soon joined the conflict as well.
He did not understand why or how it was triggered. He didn't even know who these beings were. All he knew was that they deserved to die for defiling his sacred kingdom.
These white winged abominations, with their innumerable eyes, wheel like bodies, and their constant incessant singing. They had torched much of the mortal realms as well as parts of the divine. As the king of gods, this was a humiliation of the utmost.
BOOM!
With a furious punch, he pulverised a hundred thousand of these things, leaving them scattering in the wind as ashes.
"Husband, you are slow," Anat said as she walked up to him. She had longed annihilated the portion of invaders that had targeted her. The lesser gods of the Elohim followed after, though a portion was missing from their initial party.
"Six fell to these things?" Baal spat.
"Apologies your excellency, we were fought off guard." The captain of these group of gods bowed their heads in shame. The burnt corpses of their comrades were long scattered to the wind as ash.
Baal grew furious as mental messages reached him from his brethren across the realms. The Elohim were always spread far and wide, ruling over the cosmos. Some of their greatest champions guarded the borders to the greater chaos but otherwise, the bulk of their champions were inside. Yet these things somehow sneaked past them and launched a cosmic invasion.
His feet buried into the dirt, crushing the remnants of a town they'd been fighting atop. As a god, he was huge to the point where his body filled seas. He looked in the direction of his palace and frowned.
"Calm down, we'll reclaim our home soon enough," Anat chastized him. "We didn't leave many guarding it in the first place."
No one was dumb enough to directly attack the home of the king of gods after all. Even if they were, the natural defences in place were enough to resist even the most powerful of gods for a time. Ever since YM's challenge to the king, Baal has spared no expense on his places of living.
"Praise be, praise be, paise be!"
"Sinner! Sinner! Sinner!"
More and more chanting filled the skies as more of these winged abominations descended. All from the direction of his palace. Baal chalked them up to be auxiliaries sent to back up the small army he'd just eliminated.
It was beginning to irritate him just how many of these feathery things were infesting his world.
"Your excellency," the god from earlier spoke up. But the pressure of an irritated Baal shoved his face into the mud causing a small earthquake.
"What?"
"I've just received news. Lord Leviathan is besieging the invaders as we speak. He requests your excellency to join him and drive out these Alien invaders."
"Hmph." Baal did not need to reply to him before signalling Anat to leave with him. The minor god breathed a sigh of relief as his king turned away. He had always been a horrifying presence to face.
Baal's full focus were placed squarely on his palace and symbol of power however.
He turned to order his men to order them to follow. As one of Baal's designated body guards, as unnecessary as they were, he needed to go by his side. It was a formality really, they were there to look pretty for the godking. Baal alone could suppress any opponents, and Anat was even stronger.
"Wait," Baal said. "There's another one coming for us." His teeth rotted as divine power arose him his fists. "Bunch of annoyances."
Feeling the blazing power of more oncoming enemies did nothing but stoke his rage. Their magic seemed to come from a different fundamental so it was hard to tell them apart. Their physical appearance alone was hideous and confusing.
"My king, we shall deal with these monstrosities," the captain god of the guards boasted. While he wasn't expecting much from his king, Baal clearly approved of his confidence.
"See that you do. Then rendezvous with Leviathan's forces at my palace. By then, I shall call a council and exterminate these things once and fall all. Let us leave my love." He addressed them and Anat.
Then the enormous presences of the lord and lady of the Elohim ascended towards his distant palace. After all, with the ability of these winged beings, there was no way they can handle a god on the captain's scale. He may not be anywhere near Baal himself, but he was still reputable among the gods.
As for the captain god, he turned with expectation at the bright and burning presence flying over the ocean towards their continent. It was approaching rapidly, no doubt to aid its comrades to beat back Leviathan from his righteous cause.
Such creatures drew his pity. Their foolishness at challenging the Elohim were truly immense. Even in the vast chaos beyond their universe, it was extremely difficult to find a proper opponent. Even that rainbow snake was driven back when it flew too close.
"Holy. Holy. Holy."
Something seemed to have been said after long minutes of wait. The distant flapping of wings alongside soft chanting reached the ears of the captain god. He withdrew his spear in anticipation. "Men, stay back and let me handle it."
"Holy. Holy. Holy."
Suddenly, he lost the ability to move. All those around him became restrained. White bands of light circled around him making it difficult to think.
The thought of praying to the sky filled his mind. He felt as if he had awakened to the truth of reality. The falsehood that had mislead him his entire life. He was only a helpless mortal child. He did not belong to a world of divine powers, of magic or cultivation.
All of them resided in a world of sin and they themselves were cursed from the day they were born. Born to suffer, forever mislead into deviances themselves. They needed to seek the light, they needed to pray to light.
They needed him…It.
"NO! I am…I am a god of the Elohim!" He roared. His eyes were bloodshot when he reawakened. He was confused as to what had happened, but he understood enough that he had been attacked as soon as his excellency left.
"Coward," he called out. "You would not dare face his majesty so you target us."
"Holy. Holy. Holy." A calm voice making an indistinguishable sound reached his ears. But it was incredibly far away, from another direction entirely.
The unknown presence repeatedly said the phrase, "Holy. Holy. Holy." But the god could not understand what he was saying at all. Only that the temperature seemed to be rising.
The unknown presence was not in a hurry. It had come from a long distance away and was only know returning to the vicinity. It's pure body was free from besmirchment. No sign of the countless gods it had slain mere days prior, who's blood were offered as a sacrifice to its father.
"Holy. Holy. Holy." The figure finally entered the god's vision, but what he saw was a confusing mess of a lifeform. Four immense faces, human and animal alike, numerous eyes throughout its body, six gargantuan wings keeping it off the ground. It's wings were so bright that the god couldn't identify if it really was just six large feathered wings, or millions of small wings clumping together.
"Holy. Holy. Holy." Then it stopped.
"Im…impossible." And then the god burned.
"Filth."
…
"They do not feel like chaos aliens," Anat told Baal as they flew through the heavens.
"What does it matter, they're clearly not native. Abominations not from our creation should all die," Baal spat. The disdain he felt towards those weak alien creatures from the greater chaos had been well documented.
The Elohim had persisted since the dawn of time. Their great ancestor El may be gone for reasons that were not known, but his descendants int he Elohim inherited all his divine might. In the universe constructed around the twin mountains, its denizens could reach realms of power chaos aliens could only dream of.
FOOM!
A blinding light emanated from the palace the husband-wife duo was closing in on. Even their divine sense was disrupted momentarily.
"What is this?"
"It feels familiar?"
Baal and Anat quickly recovered their whits. After a moment of befuddlement, they quickly reached destination only to dins a seemingly desolate palace.
"That was little Yahweh, I know it…ah!" Anat commented after touching down, but afterwards she gripped her forehead at a slight headache. Baal raised an eyebrow, but otherwise nodded with relief. The young god had gone into seclusion for some time after his experiences. It may've been harsh, but they were lessons he had to learn to be a superior being of the Elohim.
"Looks like he returned int he wake of disaster. I should congratulate him." Around the king, bodies of winged invaders littered the ground. Their broken bloodied forms were a pleasant sight for him. Though the pavement was also littered with the bodies of fading gods.
Their divine bodies leaking divine essence like blood while white hot weapons from the winged invaders pierced their sides. Evidentially, the king and queen had been late.
"They're from Leviathan's domain. I see some soldiers lent from Mot as well. Hm." Anat rubbed her chin. "Husband, I appears even the netherworld's elites found these creatures difficult."
"Impossible, I've see only weaklings," Baal scoffed. "No doubt Mot's best wanted to weaken the sea's rising star." The politics of gods tend to supersede all other manners of thought.
Baal headed into the palace depths with haste. More and more bodies, thousands upon thousands lay strewn across the rooftops, hallways, courtyards. Everything had been painted red and white from both gods and invaders.
"Wait," Anat called out. She pointed towards a flight of stairs leading to the great hall they used for feasts. There, a puddle of water flowed out into a large pond. "Seawater."
"Hmph." Baal rushed ahead and slammed the great door open without waiting for his sister-wife.
"Wait!" Anat called out. Only to shake her head in amusement.
Baal examined the hall when he walked in. He was startled at a coiled creature lying in a crater. Numerous tables and chairs were blown apart, scattered across the premises. It's body was torn apart, from the stomach to the shoulder. The edges of its flesh was smouldering as if it had been burnt.
"Leviathan," Baal identified from a smoking head. His eyes were nothing but a burnt crisp and it had been his drool that was leaking out of the great hall. He found the state of his fellow god to be pitiful. He had been someone with expectations to reach the highest status of the Elohim for billions of years now, a Godhead about to breakthrough to an Empyrean. No match for a Empyrean Primarch like him but still within the same ballpark.
FOOM!
The earth shocked and Baal was nearly thrown off his feet. He glanced back and witnessed light pouring through the open doors. Gritting his teeth, he charged out. Along the way, he heard a pained scream.
"What is the meaning of this!" He roared.
Before him, the once powerful form of his sister-wife lay on the ground like a puppet with her strings cut. Her face, one of confusion. But beside her was the crouched form of his youngest brother and the true brightest talent of the Elohim.
"Huh?" Baal glanced up and saw even more distressingly, that four massive winged creatures had appeared all chanting something intelligible to his divine ears. "You dare," he growled tot he flying ones.
"Good that you're here Yah…argh!" He was beginning to say his brother's name but jolts of pain coursed through his mind. His eyes blazed with fury as he looked up at the four winged things looking dispassionately at both himself and his wife.
"Foul creatures. You dare assault me? Brother, you are not strong enough, get behind me while I deal with these things." He prepared a fighting stance as the four turned fully to him.
"Filth!"
"Sinner!"
"Monster!"
"Abomination!"
The four said in unison. Then they chanted more things that sounded like prayers oddly enough. Then, the figure of his brother stood up and turned to him.
"Huh?"
Baal was befuddled. The boy he knew, the one burned with dominion of metallurgy felt completely different. Looked just as confusing of a mess as the winged creatures he'd been fighting. As if multiple individuals were superimposed on top of each other without rhyme or rhythm thereby creating a burry figure.
His face was so bright that Baal couldn't perceive it properly. He involuntarily turned his head away. "What happened to you?"
"Yahw…Argh!" Baal gripped his head in pain again. 'I can't say or even think that name?'
"What have you done to my brother," he demanded.
"Sinner!"
"Sacrilege!"
"How. Dare. Thee. Utter. Thy. Creator's. Name!"
"Punishment!"
The four demanded back towards the king of gods.
"Children," 'Yahweh?' Said to the four in the sky. "There is no need. Hello Baal."
"Much has changed since we last spoke. How long has it been? A year? Ten? Ten thousand or ten million? You have changed from the speck of my energy that spawned you my beloved older brother.
"From the twin mountains, you should know that I discovered what needed to be done. Monsters, sinners, you all cultivating your divinity to become gods? What disgusting things. Taking my body, what was not yours and making yourselves the master of all that is mine. Do you have any idea the suffering the universe is in because of your practise?"
Baal understood as he heard those words. Despite each word being grandiose, and thus causing his head to split apart in agony. Baal could understand him. For the first time in recorded history, he felt a power beyond the Empyrean Primarch realm. This feeling his 'brother?' Gave him was the same as what a mortal would feel when he spoke to one.
"But now that can change. I can take back, fix everything. Everyone can be happy and I…I can help bring salvation to all in my care. I can be the God everyone needs, even you." The thing opened its arms in a owing tender way towards Baal. "You don't need to be this sinful abomination anymore. Accept me, I can save you, I can give you salvation."
Baal appeared baffled and in pain. He held his head and took a few breathes to compose himself. Then he stood back up with a face full of contempt. "You are behind this? You defiled the Elohim?"
"I am the Elohim!" The thing roared back causing the hall and he corpse of Leviathan behind them to disintegrate on the spot. It's body broke apart from its human form, dwarfing its winged subordinates.
"Creator!"
"Father!"
"Oh. Heavenly. Father!"
"Praise. Be. YHVH!"
Immense pain coursed through Baal as he heard the roaring words of the being in front of him. It's presence was immense, so big before even he that it was as if he were a third dimensional being witnessing a fourth dimensional being. Something beyond his scope of comprehension.
Three eyes, a feline lion of a head surrounding by the radiant arc of light. Long and serpentine with eyes running down the sides of its body. Silvery scales reflecting brilliant white light from two stars, solar and lunar orbiting it. It's name was something Baal knew and had said an uncountable amount of times before. Yet now, even the mere mention of it was impossible to him.
Even its name had become something so grand that he could not hope to pronounce. The four winged ones sung and sung their song. Fire danced around them as each manifested four faces and innumerable wings.
Soon, from a distant heaven a fifth four headed winged being descended chanting, "Holy. Holy. Holy."
It was as if the apocalypse had arrived, the world itself burned.
"Cease the Trisagion." The almighty being said. This silenced the fifth flying one but not the others who sung his name in praise.
From Baal's perspective, it was as if he was looking at will of the entire Chaos World. A creature that could only be defined as God and Heaven in the same breath. Far superior than any Emyprean lifeform could ever hope to be. He wondered if this was the strongest in existence.
Anger grew within him. Anger at realising what the boy he considered his little brother had done. Anger at the dead form of his beloved sister-wife. Anger at the possibility that all he had built would now be torn down by this thing.
"You are the abomination, Ya…Argh. YHVH, AHHHH!" Baal kneeled down in pain with every letter he tried to pronounce.
"I am the Elohim, I am YHVH, I am the Almighty!"
The Almighty was the theorised final realm beyond the Empyrean Primarchs. No one knew if it had existed for sure. Only that great ancestor El was the closest to it.
"You are the calamity that destroyed everything!" Baal roared back. "I should've killed you while you were still an egg."
"Foolish prideful pitiful things. Ignorant and helpless. In cultivating your power, you have become a sinner. Even though you may hate me, abhor me, I still love you. And I will grant you salvation." As if to prove its point, YHVH brought Anat's body high into the air. It was like she'd gained new life again as she twitched before being enveloped in bright light.
From there, a holy women merged peacefully praying to the light. All her cultivation had disappeared. The divinity she'd gained and cultivated to the Empyrean Primarch level was erased just like that. Even her soul had completely transformed.
"Accept. Love."
"Sinners. Shall. Be. Saved!"
"Renounce. Yourself."
"Embrace. Goodness."
"Follow. Father's. Light."
"I refuse!" Baal suddenly jumped at YHVH. His fist cocked as he attempted to destroy the three eyed creature. But YHVH was not deterred. It merely blew a soft breath that instantly destroyed Baal's physical form.
"GRH!" Baal's spiritual body erupted from his ashes in a mix of rage and shock. Had it truly been so simply to deal with him?
"Please brother, accept your creator's love!"
"Never," Baal manifested a substitute flesh and threw it at YHVH. But no matter what he did, he was utterly powerless in front of it. He was little more then a flea.
In an instant, he was grabbed by the thing. That was when he grew truly fearful. YHVH was not a creature that belonged in this world anymore. Baal could feel his entire body transforming, he was losing himself before that light.
"How hateful," Baal spat. "I am the lord of heaven. But before you, I'm little more then a lord of flies." As the radiant light enveloped him, his divine body disappeared. YHVH did not smile nor celebrate in any way shape or form.
It commanded it's angels to continue their work. All from the highest of seraphim, the archangels down to the lowest grunts of the angelic order. He will transform the world. Then he will save it. And he will continue saving until everything in all existence was brought into his light. All for salvation.
Everyone's salvation.
His salvation.