Book 1, Chapter 5: Death’s Folly

I walked and flew about my realm. My wings were intact, the place was barren, and I was alone and had all the time in the universe.

Many days had passed since I arrived here. I had fashioned a palace for myself out of the red dirt. I then burnt the dirt till it was transformed to pure silica and left me with a gleaming dark fortress that rivaled the Palace at my old home. I called it Pandemonium.

I did not like the idea of being a farmer. I was a prince and would transform the fields into my kingdom.

I wondered if my banishment was actually as bad as it looked. With a wave of His hand, the All-Father had made me, Angel Lucifer, the new master of a fundamental realm, an Ancient!

He had lifted me to His standards. It was the greatest gift I could ever have asked for.

No, He preferred Michael as His second-in-command. He told me that I was too powerful; greater the power, greater the responsibility, for raw power of this magnitude was highly unstable and whilst it was incomprehensible to the untrained one, it was too easy to manipulate for the seasoned one.

If too much power is put into one purpose, the power loses its own hold on reality and can be easily harvested by someone who knows how, not that anyone actually could do it without the All-Father’s command. The All-Father would never place so much power in my hands. Power corrupted too easily.

Every day I discovered more and more about this place. It was a wondrous realm. Not that it possessed any ‘wonder’ per se; rather it was completely empty. But it was this emptiness, this absence of anything that made it so rewarding to the one soul that existed there.

Being from the blue realm and still my former self, I retained all my memories. Now on still ground, I was able to look across to my old home. I also knew about the humans now; about free will, of Father’s disappearance and of Cain’s rebellion.

And now that I was the master of this realm, my power magnified many times over, adding to that my knowledge of the ancient scriptures, I finally began to understand the intricacies of time travel.

The information simply flowed into me. It was the way we angels were made. When we were old enough to be able to learn about something, the information would automatically flow into our brains, like it was always there. The same thing happened with the creation of humans.

One does not bend time. Time is a relative concept and does not really exist. Since the beginning and end of universe are the same, I understood that I could simply jump amongst the wings of the infinity bulbs breaking out of the flow of time and thus arriving at the future or the past of any place or being.

But it was not easy, jumping from one time to another required the use of wormholes, or I would simply become a part of the flow of time and land on my target in the present, that is, nothing would happen. It was hugely dependent on luck and timing.

With little else to do, it did not hurt to experiment.

***

I had been experimenting with time scrying for many days. Today, I finally touched the lips of success.

I went back to the point where Death had arrived at Perdition. But it was not Azrael, it was indeed a Lady. I saw that Satan did not have access to the blue realm. It seemed that the realms were exclusive to each other.

While I stood mesmerized at the marvel I had achieved, an interesting chain of events started unfurling before me.

‘Good day to you sister‘, spoke Satan, ‘I trust you are enjoying your stay.’ Death stared silently at him. Satan continued ‘as I’ve already told you, I’ve been waiting for you a long time. For you, dear, are now plane-touched, you have tasted all three worlds. And with your blood, I shall too.’

With that Satan flew at her. Death was caught completely unawares. She had no chance. Satan tore at her back as she ran. He was an Ancient; she could not claim his life. And he was more heavily built than her. She had no chance against him unarmed.

She willed herself to be teleported many feet away, but Satan managed to land his paws at her back; tearing through her robes and drawing blood from her spine.

He gave a maniacal laugh and lapped his tongue at her blood dripping from his claws. As soon as the blood touched his tongue, he vanished from the realm. All that was left were the echoes of his lingering laughter.

Lady Death stood ashamed of her weakness. She trembled as she invoked an unknown spell. ‘With my father Lord Fate and my mothers Lady Eternity and Lady Infinity as witness, I stand ashamed and unworthy of the mantle of an Ancient. I hereby rescind my power to one they would deem worthy. It is time for our children to take up our mantles. Lord Creation, I choose your son Azrael’. And with that she was gone too.

I was left standing alone in the vast wasteland again.

So that’s how Death was older than the All-Father! Azrael really was His son, an angel who had stepped into the shoes of Lady Death and taken up the mantle of an Ancient!

Through her blood, and therefore her soul, Satan must have gained access to the blue realm. He had departed in a flash of light, obviously into the blue realm, exploring everywhere and everywhen, hungry for the knowledge. All his control over the power of the red realm lost in an instant. That much power really was very unstable.

So the Ancients’ power was transferable. That mean Lord Judgment’s seat was now empty. Or was it? Had my entry into the red realm bestowed his power upon me? It must have!

I returned back to my own time trembling with knowledge. Lord Judgment’s power was now flowing through me! I was now one of the Ancients!

That would explain how I could jump through time now. I had finally stepped up and entered the league of my Father and Azrael. I was now the master of a realm! I was now one of the Seven Ancients! And I had a feeling I was more powerful than my other counterparts.

So, the ‘Ancients’ were not eternal beings, they were actually just positions of power! The beings that have filled these positions must have been countless!

This upsets everything we have ever known. The Universe could be much older than we realize! Who knows how many times this cycle of renewal of Ancients must have repeated itself! Father is not a God then! He is just occupying God’s throne for the current cycle!

Moreover, I was presumably the most powerful Lord of Judgment ever. Through my Father, my brother and my own realm, I had access to all the three fundamental realms!

***

Then it hit me.

It must have been time for the All-Father to move on. He was tired of being an Ancient. He had to choose his successor. In His retirement, He must have gone after Satan, whom presumably He was not fond of. That is the only thing that made sense now.

Free will, the true power of the Ancients, made it impossible for them to control one another. Hence it gave rise to a conflict among them. This much I knew from my study of the Ancients’ scriptures.

After this, I could only speculate:

Satan was thought to have dispersed himself into the blue realm, losing his being but spreading his essence. It must have dealt a fatal blow to All-Father, as Satan was his opposite and must have caused the negation (and therefore, destruction) of his energy.

His continued existence must cause a threat to the blue realm, and so it must have been that Father went after him to ensure a peaceful future for us.

Michael was the obvious successor, only he did not know that yet! The All-Father had not sent me into exile. It was His plan! He had made me an Ancient. He had ensured perpetual peace between the three realms by appointing three brothers as the rulers!

But where did the humans fit into this equation? That is something only time would tell.

And thus it was that I, Lucifer Morningstar, sat upon the throne of Satan and donned the mantle of Lord Judgment.

The brightest of the angels had become the prince of darkness.