A few months later...
Armaggedon, the day of the reckoning: whenever we imagine it, it seems to be beyond reality as we know it. Wishful thinking makes us hope that we be extinct long before the day ever arrives. Some imagine the doomsday through a nuclear war, some through another ice age. The environmentalist talk of the Greenhouse effect and resource depletion, the religious fanatics speak of God's hand.
But is the doomsday really such a hypothetical concept? What if the sun is extinguished in one swift hand of God or rather a creature of God. Every day we hear conspiracy theorists explaining in details how the governments of the world are actually planning the downfall of the millions of humans. Bioengineered warfare, fusion energy weapons, artificial intelligence replacing humans, so many ways are there to eliminate man or to bog down his significance on the face of the earth or in the eyes of God. What if God preordained doomsday and wrote it down to one event or handed the responsibility to one creature?
Religions keep telling us about an overhaul of all thing natural. Whether it be the end of an age or Judgement Day every one admits that we are not here for good, we can't be. We are too weak, vulnerable and unstable to have any permanence in the order of things. We are our own doom written in the pages of history whether it be through genocide, thirst for power or misled agendas that kill thousands to prove a point. Humanity is violent and perhaps violence is its best remedy. Does humanity really need the horsemen and the angels to do what it has already started?
It sounds preposterous that one creature could bring about the downfall of an entire planet, an entire ecosystem but why not? If Man can destroy the habitat of other creatures to display his own power and accomplishments why does it feel that he would not be subject to the same when a more powerful creature decides to visit earth, provided such creatures exist! The present age is fascinated by the concept of the extra-terrestrials, those green guys with tentacles coming out from their mouths that may stumble upon our planet one fine day. But what if that is our imagination clouding our better judgment? What if they are already here, living amongst us, trying to take care of us through our insecurities and vulnerabilities? Man is not a tolerant creature. Man kills for race, creed and nationality. What if he faces a creature that is ready to do the same?
God is a myth or perhaps the all-encompassing reality, but whatever be God, the concept, has made provisions for every situation. The Revelations talk of the Angels coming down to earth to destroy those who are not of God. What if the angels do not come from God but from somewhere far away?
It all started as a scientific expedition. A celestial artefact had been found at a meteor site. Scientists of the world joined hands to decipher engravings on the artefacts. That artefact was, in reality, a beacon and an inter-dimensional teleporter that brought doomsday closer than it was ever before. The Angel of death and darkness had come down on earth and his passage through the earthly realms had been assisted by mortals. With the dark angel came fumes of darkness that engulfed space and light. Everywhere there was mayhem as people ran for their lives with nowhere to run to.
The darkness had by then submerged the horizon into perpetual gloom. The sun rarely managed to peep onto the mortals below through the thick cloud of smoke that remained due to Angel's prolonged stay on earth. Men killed men in an attempt to flee but failed. There were fear and hopelessness everywhere and that hopelessness fuelled the darkness that surrounded the earth. It spread like a toxic gas in tiny tendrils and fed on the negativity of the people. Soon sunlight was hard to come by. The darkness was suffocating. People started to die in their sleep as fear engulfed them. Mundane life came to a standstill. Most of the people lost their eyesight due to the absence of light and that absolute blindness brought on rage. Vandalism and riots became rampant throughout the world. Then the blizzards started, ice cold winds brought snow that seemed like frozen blood in all the darkness.
The energy reserves of all the nations on earth were fast depleting just to keep the inhabitants warm and sane. Only a small group of people struggled on to find the light. The scientists that had once summoned the doom now fought on to avert it. They had little to go by but they had their will which was a strong light to reckon with. With them, they had the will to live on and the faith in redemption.
The battle was finally at hand when the mortals faced the immortal. Samael, the Dark Angel brought no army with him for he fancied that he needed none. He knew that the coward that man was would fall at his feet at the slightest sign of complete annihilation. He wasn't completely right. The battlefield that greeted the Dark Angel was, in reality, an abandoned football field.
All the lights in the field were full ablaze; the light intended to weaken the alien. However, none of it was any match for the creature who controlled darkness. One by one all the stadium lights started going out. Chaos ensued among the ranks. The leader of the army tried to bring back order but he knew that fear was a weapon of the dark. He would very soon lose the men that succumbed to it.
Suddenly the black smoke slithered along the now brown grass of the field and Samael appeared before them. As soon as the dark winged creature took shape from the smoke the cowards in the troops broke rank and fled for the exit. Away from the assembly of the mortal army the darkness caught up to them and suffocated them. The General saw his men suffocate in their own fears. His jaws twitched. Nothing was visible save for darkness. Suddenly lights attached to their helmets lit up. Samael tried hard to extinguish it but failed. The General took a step towards the winged creature.
Finally, Samael recognized the mortal General. "Michael" he called out. This creature should have been lying in a thousand pieces in the middle of a desert if he had to have his way with it for this was the scientist that had assisted in his passage into this world. This was the man he had thrown from over a hundred thousand feet above the ground and yet he stood in one piece in front of him. But at the same time he wasn't just a man, was he?
"Samael," I believed my wife has informed you of me and my intentions.
"Your sympathy for these humans never seems to meet its end. Do you really wish to fight me here?" he asked knowing that it was fruitless.
"I brought you here Samael; it is time I sent you home" the general announced.
So saying Ray Sutherland, the mortal who dared to defy the Angel, pulled out a dagger of light. The crystal, producing a strong beam of light a few feet in length was a laser the power of which is unimaginable and whose own source is unseen. At the same time, Ray Sutherland transformed from the man he was to a creature no one he knew would recognize. Above his head appeared a halo in the vibgyor colours of the rainbow. From his pale blue eyes ensued a white light like the tiger's eyes glow in the dark and invisible to all humans from his shoulders protruded transparent blades that softly reflected the faint light from his glowing skin. "I am here as your doom Samael. Get ready to be destroyed" he spoke in a language familiar to the stranger for it was his own."You can't use this weapon. This wasn't supposed to be yours. It is Af's dagger. He is in hell. You can't be." said the creature.
"The name is Raymond Michael Sutherland and apparently I do exist. Of course, it might have never occurred to you that your death may not come from one of your own kind, the conceited fools that you are." Ray remarked.
Ray Sutherland picked up his sword of light and held up a crystal shield. Behind him the soldiers that were still standing brought forward similar swords of light. The alien did not know what to do. He had spent aeons searching for the weapon that could kill him and there in that field each carried the weapon.
"This is the Dagger of light or a laser as we call it, the only weapon potent enough to kill you. I procured the prototype the safe keepers and have spent the last several months creating replicas. Once I studied the weapon of your world it was easy to replicate it. My men have been trained in using the light of life. If you assume you can kill them by externally engulfing them in your darkness think again. The only way you had of defeating them was through fear. Those who were to succumb to fear have already succumbed. You may try and do your worst but I shall be the death of you." So saying Ray Sutherland signalled to his men and shouted "Charge."
Soon Samael had taken to the air trying to avoid the light of life from the soldiers, the light that was potent enough to kill him. High up in the clouds he finally dared to look behind him and saw the smirking face of the mortal he had previously brought to the clouds. "Your kind gave me a gift that saved my life. Thank her for me will you if you manage to return." So saying Ray drove his sword through Samael's heart. Instead of blood light oozed out of him.
Samael fell to the ground. The cloud of darkness surrounding him started to dissipate. Ray, through the special sight, saw the tattoos disappear from the creature's body as he fell onto the ground lifeless. A part of Ray wished to tear the creature limb from limb but he was taught to respect the dead. That was his human ways and he had chosen to be a human.
Ray swooped down and took a curtain off a nearby window and covered the corpse. As he looked up the skies had begun to brighten with the light of day. He felt the warmth of the sunshine falling on his back. He looked behind to saw the diffracted light glisten on his wings. He summoned his wings to disappear. He had been a human after all.
Soon his men appeared after him. Ray pointed to them the corpse covered with the curtain. There were many concerns about confinement. Ray wondered if killing Samael turned his Cassandra to dust. He wasn't in the mood to salvage the alien species they had managed to collect. He walked away into the rising sun.
Behind him his men stood guard at the corpse. It took a few hours for the confinement team to get ready. The sheet was finally removed from over the corpse. What remained was a pile of black soot. Was that all that remained of the mighty Samael?