GOD'S PLAY- 4 shortstory series

[Archanon8957]

short story one
   A ravaged city whose roads were obscured, and  in some cases, blocked off from collapsed

buildings slept soundlessly through the night. This city had fallen months ago from a war that stretched

across the entire continent- some have said it was a global war. The only thing that hindered the war

escalation was starvation, and both sides being short on supplies. The food and weapon shortage was

due, very simply, to the vastness of the war, for which this particular city was a microcosm. The pain

experienced on all sides- extreme starvation and lack of supplies and shelter- eventually lessened the

pain of opposition. One pain lessened another. Nobody knows the stimulus for such a war, as there

have been more religious answers than scientific, more songs and poems than theories. Some have

said God caused it, others have said God allowed it. And then, there were those few who said that

they did it. Whatever the people's speculations, they have remained such at least for the time being.

The survivors' top priority was not necessarily  to know why the  war happened, but how to live

through it. They slept in buildings which were remnants of the war's active hatred, dominated by soot

and brokenness. They were lucky, however, to find a building that wasn't completely leveled to the ground.
   On the ground were pieces of blackened concrete, cruel fragments of steal beams and twisted

rebar, and an occasional corpse which was just as black and marred as the structures. The survivors

also could not travel far, for a haze blotted out vision of more than three meters, thus compounding the

possibility of getting lost. The haze also brought a stench that wreaked of sulphur and death, which etched away at their sanity.

   However  massive this war was, there was a few, a mere handful, who led the rest. One of these

few was a  sixteen year old boy by the name of Aurelan. His mother and father had both died when he

was very young, which was twelve years before the war. His uncle took care of him in this city, though

he died in his office from a suicide bomber during the war. Aurelan was struck with the deepest

sadness and depression. His uncle was all he had left. But through the war he met three others, and

that quickly became his family. Together, they would survive this beast.

    They lived off the remaining food in supermarkets, who also brought food back to the other

survivors. They felt it a  calling to, if just for a few hours, sustain others' lives. Aurelan could not see another person die. It would  be too much for him to take.

   On one particular day, something quite different happened. Something that nobody had foreseen,

something that broke all prior arrangements, plans, and objectives. It was something extraordinary.
**----**----**----**----**----**----**----**----**----**----**----**----**----**----**----**----**----**----**   
   The early morning light  illuminated the blanket of haze, making it a toxic green in color, and

somehow making the stench of death worse. It was as if the heat put the death-blanket at liberty,

spreading the smell. Aurelan put a bony hand over his head, blocking out the dimmed brightness. Him

and his friends had gotten so used to things being dark that even the slightest bit of light hurt their

eyes to look at. Aurelan rolled over away from the light with an irritated groan. Somebody stood up, a

rustle of clothing, dust being  brushed off. Aurelan cracked an eye. It was Toro, his tall gaunt figure

looking like that of a ghost in the haze.

   Aurelan laughed a little, and shading his eyes from the brightness, " Early start?"

Toro jumped, "Heh...you scared me." He turned, " Yea...I..Im starving."

"I am too."

"Coming with?"

Aurelan groaned and rolled back on his back, "In a little bit. Can you wake Stacy and Jim?"

"Yea I can. Where did you see them last?"

Aurelan pointed  up to a pile of rubble just a few feet behind him.

"Ok ill wake them."

"Thanks."

Toro  disappeared in the haze as he climbed up the pile of rubble.


   Aurelan was left seemingly alone, encapsulated by the green fog. He took hold of a large piece of

concrete and hoisted himself from the ground, feeling groggy and weak from hunger. He had spent

three months living like this. All around him, dust, haze, rotting corpses, broken buildings. The chaos of

the war left nothing untouched. Aurelan wondered how much longer the four of them would be able to survive.
   He then heard faint voices which the haze made into dull murmurs from its thickness. Not much

later, the three of them returned, Toro leading them.

Aurelan addressed all three, " Well, who's hungry?"

Jim grumbled, "Really, is that question necessary?"

"Stacy what about you?"

She gave a glum look

"That's an answer enough...Toro, you ready?"

"yep."

"Good, then lets go find ourselves breakfast. Also remember to take back enough to feed five other

survivors. These people they're just as starved as we are, if not more."

   They made their way down into the road, weaving in between the rubble and sharp metal objects.

They would have set markers up to help guide them to and fro from the supermarket, but they were

afraid they would be followed. They did not want another group to use the markers to take away the

food that Aurelan and his friends found. They had to use piles of rubble and buildings as landmarks, an

effective improvisation. They also didn't speak for fear of being heard.

      Approximately twenty minutes later, a dirty supermarket sign broke through the haze, and

the contours of the building became recognizable."Step in silently" Whispered Aurelan

   Stacy walked in first, followed by Toro, then Jim, and finally Aurelan, who looked around outside

the door for any sign being watched. The inside of the supermarket was filthy, covered in ash and

dust, with a scent that was even worse than the haze outside. However, it was their only bet. Besides,

the four were only after the bagged and canned goods, the ones sealed away from the elements.

What food was left was, like the roads, covered over with ash and rubble. They could not escape the

reality of the war. Jim found himself in the chip aisle of the supermarket, while Stacy and Aurelan

checked the canned fruit. Aurelan wasn't certain where Toro had gone but the last he saw him was

next to the canned beans.
   
       Aurelan, after searching for a few minutes among the ash, grabbed a small bent up can of

pineapple off the shelves and cleaned the dust from it with his shirt. He then walked over to a corner of

the shelving unit and started banging the can against it to open it. Toro walked next to him with a dirty

can of beans, and picked a similar corner to open the can with.

   Stacy happened to find a can of peanuts that looked like it had been gnawed through by a  small

animal. It wasn't sealed, and there was only a few peanuts left, but she ate them.  Jim walked 

towards them all with a almost fully destroyed bag of chips.

   Aurelan suddenly heard a light thrumming noise from outside. At first he dismissed it as his own

food depraved mind playing tricks on him, but as it got louder... he couldn't ignore it.

He turned to the others, who were too busy talking and eating. "Guys do you hear that?"

"Hear what?", Toro said, clearing his mouth of the meager meal.

Jim gave him a puzzled look.

"You guys stay here ill be right back." A couple of "ok's" sounded behind him as he walked towards the

humming noise.

   He slowly emerged from the dirty supermarket, first checking the buildings outside for any sort of

device that could be making the noise. His eyes quickly went from building to building, pile of rubble to

pile of rubble. Then, in a moment that sent shivers down his spine, his eyes fixed on the misty sky. A

luminescent object stood hovering, shining blue over the thick green of the air. Then suddenly the

object disappeared, then reappeared on the ground in the form of a human. The humming stopped,

and the form started walking towards him, its blue radiance piercing the grays and the distasteful

greens. It opened its arms, and a  distinct voice  cut through  Aurelan's shock, "You can put that can of

fruit down, the starvation is no more." The figure's mouth did not move. Aurelan stood still befuddled.

Moments passed,  then suddenly a dozen questions came pouring out from him, all the while the fear of

  dying at that very moment from this thing dominated his mind.

"I...I'm...I'm sorry, but who are you?"

The radiant blue figure laughed without opening his mouth, "I am God."

He could not speak...he was dumbstruck.

A scream sounded from behind him. It was Stacy. Aurelan walked swiftly over to her saying, "Look I

think its ok...its ok.. I don't know what the hell is happening either...just, uh..." Toro and Jim followed

her, eyes going wide and legs buckling.

The figure's head turned toward Aurelan, "Tell your friends im here to save them. It might spare them

some of the fear. I would tell them myself but I can only communicate this way with you."

"Why me?" asked Aurelan out loud.

"Your questions will be answered eventually.. but for now, I think your  friends could use some

assurance." In all actuality, Aurelan didn't even know if he could trust this...this deity... at this point, but

he did so anyway.

"Guys...look, he says he is here to help us...He.."  Aurelan looked back at the radiant blue form, "He

says he's God."

Jim struggled to lift himself up from the ground, "God? H...How?" After a few moments of studying its

deific appearance, Jim spoke again, "Yea ok he's God.

Toro and Stacy walked slowly up to it, shielding their eyes slightly from the being's brightness. It

opened its grand, long arms, "Tell your friends I'm here for them, I'm here for all of you. And in just

moments, this world will become a utopia and you and your friends will never go hungry again." Aurelan

shed a bitter tear, on the verge of believing, but not wanting to believe. Aurelan told his friends what

he had said.

Toro dropped on his knees before its blue, god-like radiance. The deity took a knee and embraced him".

Tell this one his two younger brothers are safe in my arms.." Two younger brothers? Aurelan had no

idea he ever had two brothers. "Hey... Toro he says your brothers are safe with him. And that you

shouldn't worry." Toro broke down in tears. Stacy stood next to it, studying it,...calculating...trying hard,

as it could be seen on her face, not to lose control.
   "Enough crying on ash and dust, I would rather see my people crying tears of joy on plush grass

under the shade of great oaks. Aurelan are you ready?"

"I am...so many have been affected by this war...so many have suffered"

"Their suffering and your suffering will be no more"

   The deity  levitated and its light grew brighter than it ever had been, and in a great voice, one that

silenced every single noise in the back of Aurelen's head, roared out at the skies. Aurelan, being the

only one that could hear it, cringed from the being's voice. The other's reacted as if they heard nothing at all.
   Instantly, the thick green blanket above the skies peeled back, revealing the authentic blue sky

they had missed so much. The stench was replaced with the smell of flowers. The buildings

disappeared completely. Green grasses covered the ground,  and trees replaced the piles of rubble.

Never once before had Aurelan been bombarded with so much emotion at one time in his life. He was

shocked, overjoyed, afraid to believe, and questioning all at the same time. However, as he looked

across the newly formed horizon, he could not help but feel that his great being changed worlds on a

regular basis, and if that he was willing to help them, he was trustworthy.

A voice penetrated Aurelan's mind. "This is not a free ride out... you still have a duty, and there is a

point to all of this. I want the beginnings of my new army as comfortable as they can be. Though for the

time being, recover."

And God blinked out of existence,  leaving the four shocked  beyond all thinkable measure.




Short story 2
   Eyes like smoldering chips of fire stared intently at a crystal ball that showed four humans on

another world. They lie on the grass, looking at the sky and each other with joyous expressions. Then,

  a sneer, like that of a boar having tasted something foul, and a voice as penetrating as a diamond

tipped arrow, "God thinks he can stop what I put in motion...that fool.

   His lips peeled back in a severe look of disgust as he saw a rather taller one stand up and smile at

the sky as if he was smiling at God himself.  Though one of the other males, he noticed, seemed to

have mixed feelings. He seemed happy, though also distant, detached. His mind was on God. A

whisper, as swift as a serpent's tongue tasting the air, the leader.

Then in a pitying tone, "He always seems to want to make friends with the humans... he likes the

attention they give him, I suppose."

   A hand passed over the crystal orb, and shadow filled his eyes as his sat in devious

contemplation.  He started trembling in rage- a whisper escaped his lips, "It was I who started the

war....The war will be finished, along with God himself...by me. A swish of a cape kicked up a thin layer

of dust, and footsteps echoed downward, downward into the city of Hell.
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   He descended down his spiral staircase, past two motionless guards and made his way to his

council chambers. The people within the city, at the sight of their ruler, dropped to their knees, most

with an expression of supreme terror. Most of the humans living in the city of hell were not there by

choice. Other creatures such as the lizard-kin, an odd breed of half man half lizard, were there as

slaves. This made the population of the city of hell,  ironic for its name, filled with not humans but

creatures of many kinds.

   As he neared the council chambers, a walkway of odd creatures in his wake, he was greeted by

Barbarthegra, one of his most loyal advisors, "Azrael...Good to see y.." he read Azrael's face, and

slowly, his friendly façade caught aflame. "Was it the blue star?"

Azrael motioned for Barbarthegra to let him into his chambers, and Barbarthegra vigorously stepped

out of the way.

   The council chambers was lit by torches with crystal globes over them, suspended high on walls. It

fragmented the light, and dimmed what little lighting there was to begin with. The room was oval

shaped, table in the center, and on the opposite sides, the entrance and Azrael's throne.

   Azrael put a limp hand on the arm of his throne, and collapsed heavily in it. His deathly gaze fixed

on the table, then suddenly shifted to his advisor, "Go and fetch the others, Barbarthegra."

"Yes, my lord"

   Azrael leaned his head forward against his knuckles in the darkened room. For three months,

Azrael had that entire globe fizzing with fire, suffering, torment...and in a blink of an eye, God had

returned and restored it to a state even more pure than it was. It always baffled Azrael, that a being

could be that powerful, and yet care to make a connection with such a puny mortal race.

Fundamentally, it made no sense to Azrael, and he loathed him for it.

   He was sure, however, that his plan would destroy him. It would be a final confrontation between

him and that ancient blue warrior. The rewards would be full reign, forever.

   Barbarthegra returned with Azrael's remaining five advisors, creatures of many kinds, not one

human among them. Azrael motioned for them to sit, and they did so with a scattered rustle of clothing,

curious expressions on their faces.

"The blue star..." Azrael's tone grew drawn out and venomous, "has revived the planet we kept in

torment for three months. And is raising an army with the remaining survivors." A silently indignant air

circulated around the table. " I know this, he never chooses leaders unless there is some other body

of people to lead."

   A seething advisor  from under the shadow of a cloak hissed, " All we need is one command from

you, lord of lords, and the blue star's head will be put on a spit, suspended high for all to see." His

words danced in between him and Azrael for moments.

   Azrael , eyes as red as churning lava, "I have a plan. We shall make a deal with the lost souls in

Hell to come out and fight for us. We tell them they can keep the planet if they win."  Azrael laughed,

then issued a rasp as swift and damaging as an assassin's knife, "Not so, Of course!"

"The army of the dead will keep the blue star busy, and that is where you six," he pointed at the table,

"Will pin him down."

Barbarthegra smiled wickedly, "And you shall drive a knife through his heart." Azrael's eyes filled with

shadow like it was a black liquid. It mixed with the firey red of his eyes which made appear vaguely

similar to blood "No Barbarthegra...I will drive ten knives into his heart.

Loud laughs resounded from the table, echoing sinisterly against the walls.

After the laughter died out, Azrael mentioned one last thing, "And from hell, my dark brethren, I will

form a portal into their world that will transport the army of the dead, as well as us."

The hooded creature nodded, hissing in agreement.

   With that, Azrael lifted himself from his throne and just as he was about to exit, growled in a low

tone, "Follow me underground  to Hell ."



Short story 3

   Aurelan sat in the comfortable thick of the grass, a verdant green which soothed him to the core,

but not quite. His friends laughed among each other, rather separate from him, united by a different

train of thought. Aurelan could not shake feeling of abandonment, even though God had replaced a

world branded by war and death with a world without the faintest sign of it.  Aurelan had deeper

concerns, now, than whether or not he was comfortable. He was given the freedom now to choose to

deny the comfort as it didn't pose a threat to his livelihood like during the previous circumstances. He

kept on thinking on the blue figure, the way he instantly knew something about Toro that Aurelan had

not,  and his immediate compassion for Toro's losses.  Most of all, his rescuing them from the blanketed

world of ash, and its sooty relics of conflict. It all would have seemed to good to be true, if not for the

last thing God had said, "I want the beginnings of my new army as comfortable as they can be." An

army implied battle. Aurelan had not the faintest clue  what the opposing force would be apart from

soldiers from the last war. Aurelan could not be certain, and in this lied the problem. He simply didn't

know what would happen . However, Aurelan had an ever increasing feeling that the battle would

happen soon, and they needed to be ready. This feeling grew on him since God left, and perhaps,

Aurelan thought with hope, it was another way God spoke to him.

   Jim suddenly called out to him , breaking his downcast contemplation, " Care to join us Aurelan?"

He noticed the three had moved a distance away and were sitting under an apple tree, looking

perplexed. They had never seen him act this way before, alone, to himself.

   Aurelan lifted himself up from the thick grasses and walked over. When he arrived at the tree  he

noticed they all had apples in their hands, which were dominated by white craters where they had

taken bites out of them.

   At this close distance, it was quite obvious to the three that something was on Aurelan's mind.

Toro brought it up, "Is something bothering you?"

Aurelan sat down next to him, "Yea...a lot is." His gaze was on the plush fields of grass and the trees of

many kinds in the distance.

"What's wrong?"

Aurelan, with a  subtle air of discomfort at going into the specifics, "Do you know how he could only

speak with me?"

Toro cast him an envious glance, "Yes"   
 
"Well, I felt like the bond we had was more than that. And, I don't understand why he just left. Do you

think I'm meant to feel...left behind?"

Toro briefly pondered this, then said "I don't know I didn't have the sort of connection you had."

Aurelan's gaze drew downcast once again. "There is more than that Toro. I feel like he is telling me that

a great battle is coming, and that we should be prepared."

Toro shot him a questioning glance, "I do remember him saying that we are the beginnings of his new

army, but, we have no idea when it will happen. God did not give us a specific time."

Aurelan looked at him

Toro continued, "Why would he give us peace and then suddenly cause chaos? I don't think he would

do that. No one can be certain man. The army he spoke of may not even be needed in our lifetime.

Aurelan furrowed his brow at hearing these words, "I'm sorry Toro but something tells me this battle

will happen very soon. Within a couple of hours. I can hear..."

Jim abruptly cut him off, as he overheard their conversation, "Aurelan...I think you need to relax. Do you

think God would have you worried this much? Just calm down little."

   Feeling stirred within Aurelan. God had indeed said to recover. However, if it was God telling him to

prepare himself and the others for war, what could he trust more? The feeling grew stronger and

stronger by the minute and his feelings solidified into rock-solid facts. He couldn't deny it any more, he

had to tell them.

   Aurelan stood up and addressed them all, " There is a war coming. And its coming quicker

than any of you realize. Look, was I not the one God could communicate through? Why are you guys

not trusting me in this?

   He had not heard Stacy's opinion but the expression she gave him told him she had overheard the

conversation like Jim and was with the others.

   Nobody of the three answered him. Aurelan's gaze shifted between them all, searching their faces

in vain for any sign of agreement. Aurelan grew flustered, "It's a shame that we should be divided by

comfort...You guys are not aware how weak this is of us."

Aurelan turned away from the group and walked away. He did not know where he was walking

towards, but it didn't matter to him.

   Just then, a voice like that of a cool stream penetrated his mind, "Keep an eye on the

horizon...your support is near."  His eyes grew wide in shock for just a moment, but then beamed as he

smiled. He was growing accustomed to this great deity's workings, and his encouragement meant

everything to him.

   No more than fifteen minutes later, he started to feel the ground shake, and scattered voices

cheering and shouting  in the distance. He looked up. There, on a  hill with the sun churning powerfully

behind them, were at least fifty people dressed in tattered, ashen clothing. They gestured amongst

each other before  one of them  broke away and walked quickly up to Aurelan. As he neared, the

contours of his face became more detailed. He recognized him! He was one of the survivors he used to

help bring food to. As soon as he came within hearing range, he exclaimed, "Welcome Aurelan!"

Aurelan walked up to him and said, "Hey..wha...how did you guys find each other?"

He pointed up and said, "God had us find each other! We met in a central area...all of the leaders. We

each found a commonality. It was this humming noise in our ear."

After hearing this Aurelan felt ecstatic beyond belief, "You heard it too!? I was the only one in my group

that heard it!"

"Ah... not many can hear when God calls them. You should see the group behind us- its massive. We

were told to lead them here because they couldn't hear God's battle cry, just like in your group. Ill

show you."

   Aurelan walked beside the fellow survivor, saying, "I recognize you...our group used to give you

and a few others food. .remember?" He turned his head, "All too clearly, and I would not be hear today

if you didn't keep me and the others with me from starving. I'm Kronos, by the way."

He laughed, "I'm Aurelan, nice to meet you."

   Aurelan observed the line up of leaders ahead of him. As he walked closer, they waved and

nodded to him which made Aurelan  feel like a brother at first sight. It was a support he was sure they

would all need, for they would soon be fighting side by side.

   The line up parted to let  Aurelan and Kronos  pass, and just  on the other side of the hill, lie a

crowd of people that stretched as far as the eye could see. Kronos laughed when he saw Aurelan's

expression. Aurelan turned to him and breathlessly asked, "How long did this take?"

"Not long with the help of God. Though,  Aurelan, we need to get going. An opposing army should be

here anytime led by Azrael, the culprit of the previous war.

"Wait, so we have finally know who started it?! How did you find out?"

"God appeared  and told the leaders not long after we found each other. God must not have told you.

" No he didn't...but...who is this, Azrael?"

"He is the ruler in the city of Hell...Look, Aurelan I'm sure God will explain all this to you later, but as of

right now, we are short on time. Did you say that you had a group with you?

"Yes I do.. They're back relaxing under an apple tree. They didn't believe me when I told them a battle

was coming."
"Are you sure they didn't believe you?"

"I'm positive...They didn't want to believe me."

"I'm not so sure"

"Why?"

"Look behind you"

Aurelan turned around, and to his great surprise were his three companions, jogging up to them. Stacy

called out to him, "Did you say you heard a buzzing noise in your ear before?"

Aurelan smiled broadly, and the Kronos welcomed the three of them, "Welcome, noble leaders"

Toro jogged up to Aurelan and apologized, "How we let our comfort get in the way of believing you we

aren't sure...we are sorry."

Aurelan patted him over the back, "I forgive you. Are you ready?"

"For the war?"  Toro laughed, "born ready."

Aurelan saw Stacy and Jim join the line-up out of the corner of his eye after they recognized and

greeted Kronos.

   Aurelan, Toro, and Kronos all followed in line and waited, waited for God's next order.



Shortstory 4

     The deal had been made.  Azrael would use the army of the dead, the lost souls from hell, in a final

confrontation with the blue star. If things happen according to his plan, this would usher an era of

  supreme reign over the galaxy.
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   A army that stretched farther than the eye could see suddenly materialized on a thick blanket of

grass. Their clothes still smoldered from the fires of hell, and some still writhed and shook as hell's

energies had hyper-saturated their senses.  These were not truly peoples, however, but the mere

corpses of them - the undead. Those who have died but have been given the unholy breath of life,

something that only a particular sort of evil would care to arrange. Such an evil had no other wielder

than Azrael, who stood at the foot of his army cloaked in shadow, his group of seething advisors

behind him.

   In a land as pure as this, the degree of Azrael's evil was nearly tripled, so that each breath he

took felt like daggers in his lungs. Each exhale issued a thick blackness that tumbled as it descended

down to the holy grounds, burning a hole through the grass and into the mud. His eyes burned like tiny

suns and  pierced through  the shadow of his hood.  Azrael's gaze lay still, fixed at the point in the

distance where the green grasses broke into a collage of many colors. His army, Azrael thought.

   A startlingly intense blue light suddenly appeared above the multi-colored blanket of survivors.

Azrael grinned in the shadows of his hood, the only movement in him a faint rippling of his cloak from a

breeze that had just picked up.

   The blue light intensified and arced into the sea of survivors. It then thinned into a ray that spread

to the very corners of his army, and  left them glistening like an ocean of diamonds in the sun.

Azrael barked a laugh then under his breath, "Weapons and Armor are just objects if its wielder

becomes heartless . In the face of Hell's people, I can assure you, they will become so.

   Azrael's gaze narrowed. An arm lifted in the air , and all of hell started a forward motion which

shook the ground.  Azrael was soon engulfed in his army, which carried on past him, and at times

clipped his sides. Yet Azrael stood still, motionless as were his advisors. Then his arm dropped, an  end

to the blue star's reign, and Hell's army broke into a dead sprint.
--------------

      God crossed his arms, examining his newly armored warriors. Most were in a state of conflicted

panic, one that didn't really allow for an examination of their new weapons and armor, but a deep

concern for their livelihood at the sight of Azrael's army. However, some, most of which were leaders,

had their eyes fixed on God. Aurelan was one of these.

   The panic started to thicken from the masses of God's army. He had heard a woman not far from

him say, "We are not fighters!" and a older man in the distance, "Its good you have at least given us

the respect of armor if we are to get slaughtered here." Aurelan started to see a faint difference in

God's otherwise bright demeanor. There was a heaviness there that promised his understanding. God

put a hand up, silencing them, "Enough." 

   Nobody, up until this point, had heard God speak aloud. His voice was like that of thunder, and it

quickly saturated his people with confidence. He spoke, "If you, my great people, fight with your

heart...our enemies will fall to your feet without even the use of your sword." The enemy was now no

more than twenty yards away. God descended from up above to join the starting line-up of leaders,

then turned around and said, "This is a game of belief, use it! its your greatest weapon!"

   It was at that time that everything slowed. It was true, Aurelan was not a fighter, nor had he

even been in a fight. However, he drew his sword.

    Just before the two armies collided, Aurelan got a glimpse of one of their faces. His knees nearly

buckled.

   God brought his hands up high and a towering wall of ice separated them from Hell's army. He

dropped one hand and curled the other hand tightly into a fist, as if crushing the life out of them. Flame

tipped arrows suddenly plummeted from the skies and peppered the first three hundred enemies.

   The wall of ice melted and curled into a wave which washed the lifeless corpses toward the 

oncoming fiends, causing a pile up.

      The pile up, however, was quickly filled in with new, fresh opponents. God suddenly halted his

movements. It had seemed like his eye caught something in the distance, something that took

precedence over his defending the survivors. He turned and, "I will return. Your on your own for now,

though remember...fight with your heart." And God darted towards the tail end of hell's army in the far

distance.

The starting line up of leaders barely had enough time to question until Azrael's army charged them

with such a force that it knocked them off their feet.

   Aurelan tripped over a fellow leader's foot and landed on another's shield which threw the leader

off balance. The fellow leader's  guard was then down when one of the creatures lunged at him,

lodging its teeth in his throat.

     A bewildered Aurelan quickly got up, and narrowly ducked a fierce vault from an enemy whose

eyes were set on a leader behind him. He heard the solid sound of a blocked attack, and then became

affronted once more from the side. This one wielded a claymore. It brought its great sword up high,

then came down with a force that it used its entire body to muster.  Aurelan ducked dramatically under

and raised his shield. It was a solid block, but now he was vulnerable. The strongly built swordsman

kicked his shield so that Aurelan fell backward, sprawled, vitals open to a fatal attack. The berserker

raised his claymore once more and swung downward with an intensity that of several times its

previous attack.  Though, Aurelan rolled away only too narrowly. A patch of his mail undergarments

now had a gaping hole in it, with a  deep rose-colored gash underneath. It was not fatal but it quickly

began to pain him.

   Two more enemies came from either side of the berserker and threw themselves at Aurelan,

knocking him to the ground, underneath both survivors and fiends fighting for life. They quickly grabbed

his arms and pinned him firmly to the ground. He could see the berserker out of the corner of his eye

turning his blade point-down, preparing for a fatal strike to his spine. Aurelan had been finished. It

was over. There was no time for it to soak in. He would leave this world in a blink of an eye as if he

never existed at all.

   Another fiend sprinted at top speed toward him. Aurelan buried his face hopelessly in the blood-

dressed grass, grimacing in the anticipation of his death. The fiend lunged after the swordsman,

knocking him clean off his feat. He fell down hard next to Aurelan, writhing with fury  in an effort to pull

the fiend from his body.

   Confusion racked his mind, yet Aurelan responded quickly. He brought his sword up through one of

the fiend's throats, which caused instant death and split its skull. The other fiend was quickly stabbed

in the back from one of the other leaders.

   Aurelan lifted himself from the ground, taking a brief moment to examine the berserker still

wrestling with the fiend. Something about this fiend looked different from the rest.
   
    Aurelan felt the wind from another swordsman's brutal swipe  behind him. An ugly roar of

bloodlust issued from its mouth as he whirred, shield  poised . The swordsman swung at his  legs just

under his shield. The mail did nothing to stop this attack. Aurelan fell to his knees, pain shooting

through his legs. The berserker brought  its blade high in the air, ready to finish him off.

   The fiend suddenly appeared behind the second swordsman. Aurelan gave a  mixed look of utter

confusion, pain, and fear, and the fiend looked back with something strikingly similar to that of

compassion. Aurelan's brow furrowed before a cold steel blade drove through the stomach of the

berserker which halted its movements rigidly. It fell right next to Aurelan, body frozen in tension.

   He did not have any time to settle his confusion at the enemy who seemed to be on his side. He

did not think he could even manage it. The amount of blood he lost gave him tunnel vision, and at the

same time the dense masses of fighters stepped on his fingers and pushed him around, pushed him

nearer to the ground.

   The fiend, who impossibly seemed to understand Aurelan's situation, came over to him and started

vigorously licking his wounds.

   At first Aurelan recoiled, thinking of how many of his fellow leaders were killed by this same type of

creature, as it was  burnt in his mind that its teeth were a thing to be avoided at all costs. However,

when Aurelan pulled away, it looked at him with this sense of urgency, as if it knew the consequences

of not receiving help, and also knew that if he stayed on the ground for long he would be trampled to

death.

   And so, in his desperateness, without really knowing what the fiend could do to help him, he gave

in to his fiend-friend's aid. The pain, to Aurelan's confused relief, seemed to etch away as the fiend

licked at his wounds.  His fiend friend then withdrew and motioned for him to stand.

   As he stood, the fiend  made a gesture with his hand, then suddenly lunged at a creature like

himself, burying its teeth deep into its neck.

   To Aurelan's great surprise, his movements brought him no pain at all. However, this moment of

relief was short lived. A creature of at least eight feet tall locked eyes with Aurelan after crushing a

leader's skull with the top of his war-club. Aurelan was his next opponent.

   Its eyes were two deep green orbs, which were deeply sunken in its wrathful contours. There was

a charm, a murky mystery in them, a record of the sufferings in Hell. Aurelan found that his strength

gave way, and his vision suddenly grew darkened corridors. Just when he began to deny it, Aurelan's

sword fell from his hands and his knees buckled in submission. The giant laughed all to humanly, then

moved forward, dragging its heavy club in the pulverized remains of Aurelan's fellow leader.

   Aurelan lay utterly paralyzed on the bloody grasses where he awaited his doom. But just then, a

voice, like that of a whispering wind, cut through his fear, "Remember...just a game of belief.."

Aurelan suddenly felt obligated to believe but then shameful when he knew he couldn't. Those eyes,

the  massive war-club covered in the blood of others who had failed, held his body chillingly still.

   Just then, the black body of a fiend eclipsed the heavy head of the giant's war-club. A weak smile

came over Aurelan's face. He would have thought this was an enemy, but by now he knew better.

The fiend lunged into the giant's hamstring and started tearing into it with its teeth and claws. This

caught the giant off-guard, and just when Aurelan had the thought of using this to his advantage, the

voice came again, "Believe".

   With the giant's gaze off Aurelan, the paralysis lightened, and Aurelan reached and grabbed hold

of his sword. The fiend, to Aurelan's bitter favor, was getting clubbed constantly over the head, yet

continued to tear and rip away at the giant's sinews without a hint of deterrence. This sight, a mere

fiend standing up to a giant, put a white- fire in his belly. Aurelan lifted himself from the ground and

charged straight towards the hulking creature, whose arms were flailing in a vain search for the culprit

of his sudden pain. After Aurelan narrowly avoided one of its arms, he pointed the blade and thrust it

into the giant's belly. The titan recoiled, shocked by pain. It no longer thrashed vigorously about his

legs but cradled the larger wound to its stomach.

   Aurelan left his blade in the beast and backed away. The paralysis had now completely vanished,

and the beasts eyes were slowly growing darker, even more bereft of life than they were before.

   The fiend, sensing the fatal blow he dealt the beast,  gave Aurelan a quick, bloody-toothed smile,

then sprung away from the giant's leg. It quickly then disappeared into the frenzied blurs of battle.

    Aurelan watched the cumbersome beast as it took a knee, overcome by the burden of massive

blood-loss and fatigue. His sword still protruded proudly from its stomach, and he thus pulled it out

from the beast, which inadvertently caused the giant to stumble and collapse to an inanimate,

half-dead sleep. The titan would soon die, however, Aurelan's attention had been ripped away from the

giant, the fiends, the battle, and even  his own well being. It all had little significance to him, at the

sight of that blue, star-like object in the sky, shining with radiant assurance.

   The star suddenly disappeared, then reappeared in in the form of a twelve foot warrior, armed

with a claymore in each hand and which had shields welded to their hilts. Nobody thus far had seen

God take this form, yet it so quickly filled his people with spirit. Aurelan could not have smiled broader,

and it didn't matter how hard he tried to contain his relief, it just came pouring out of him. It wasn't

tears of joy, not yet, it was a heart of a lion, and a hope of victory.

   Something, however, caught Aurelan's eye. Three black objects protruded crudely from God's

chest. This wasn't part of his armor, no, they were daggers. It seemed, God had fought an enemy

when he left, but which ones? Who was capable of even coming near him? These questions, Aurelan

knew, he would have to ask later. God was on their side and fighting with them once more- this

sufficed for the need for answers.

   God, with his shields locked in front of him, charged the enemies which still sprinted directly at the

survivors as if they were physiologically incapable of feeling fear. The berserkers, fiends, giants, and

the rest were stopped dead in their tracks as they struck God's shields. It did not matter the size of

the enemy, it did not matter how fast they were traveling. Each enemy was plowed over as if they

were wheat to a sickle.

   God suddenly opened his arms out wide which seemed to magnify the size difference between

himself and the enemies.  His two claymores then came together in a scissoring motion, causing a trail

of blood to light up God's wake. After passing each other, the two swords went to their opposite sides,

then came back the other direction, causing a similar wake of blood as before.

   Aurelan's heart exploded with courage. He and the remaining leaders raised their swords, and

followed in behind the God, not a hint of trepidation in their stride.

      The dense array of enemies collapsed before even touching them, their bodies going limp

then violently crashing to the ground between them and before their feet.

   God's army lengthened their stride, a pure and holy rage beginning to consume their minds. Soon

every single survivor had caught up to God, and had clearly taken on a different form. They glowed like

arch-angels, God's own chosen army, and roared we are one, we are spirit.
---



   The earth God had renewed quickly ridded itself of stench of the defeated army. Azrael and his

advisors were contained in an energy prison God had formed. They were clearly demeaned, disarmed.

   God was still in his warrior form, and the peculiar daggers still stuck in his armor.

He spoke, " Azrael, you were foolish to even think you could bend their faith."

He hissed, a look of pure loathing in his face, " The infants were desperate for something. I could have

easily taken your place as savior, you bastard."

God laughed, "Don't you see...you cant escape me, brother. Your war caused them to look to the skies,

caused them to search for me."

Azrael's eyes churned with the rawest depth of hatred.

   God turned from the prison he made, face downcast, love flowing over from his eyes. God's

majestic face lifted, and his voice boomed out over his people, " I will banish Azrael to hell for a

thousand years. My great people, you will be perfect. Live abundant lives, connect, experience, love,

feel, and never forget what happened here."
---
   


    The sun smoldered in a bed of crimson, and reflected magnificently into God's crescent eyes. He

stood as the blue star, daggers resting beside his feet.

   Aurelan still had questions.  Who was the fiend who helped him during the war? How did God get

stabbed?  And finally, perhaps the most urgent of all, why had God called Azrael his brother?

   He walked over to him, the gentle breezes like spirits dancing with each other.

God turned around before he had reached him, then took a knee and embraced Aurelan like he was a

son.
He spoke, "You have questions, I knew you would."

" Yes I do. During the war...one of the fiends helped me, it actually fought against its own army. Why?"

God laughed, "Ah you mean Fayette? He is one of mine.  "

"How could he be? He's a fiend."

"Not quite, he is a shape shifter. He has been known to come into battles and assist the dominant

army."
" The dominant army? Didn't the creatures outnumber us?"

"Indeed, by quite a few...but Fayette sees through army size. He knew which side I was on
.
"I see..."

God promptly  reached out for the three daggers that formerly protruded from his chest "You also had a

question about these. You wanted to know how Azrael was able to come close to me, how the knives

even punctured."

Aurelan nodded

"Azrael had ten accusations against me, but only three of them were valid, were honest. Thus, I

allowed myself to be stabbed three times."

" You just let them stab you? And this wasn't against your will?"

"Nothing can be. The daggers in my chest were there by my choice, and it was only fair."

   Aurelan smiled faintly, still not quite understanding, but accepting it. He asked the final question,

"You had called Azrael your brother. How could he be?"

"We were never related in the way you might think. We were once war-brethren, bonded by a blood

pact, and we each fought for good. The world was, then, perfect. However, he betrayed me and

enslaved the people in hell to build him a city, called the city of Hell."

Aurelan remembered Kronos's brief mention  of such a city before the battle. "What will happen to the city now?"

"It will be purged of its evil. With Azrael Gone, the city of Hell will be filled with sensible people, and I

will rule it. With my new rule it will have no semblance to Hell, as Azrael would have it. Ill make a portal-

you can visit it if you want."

This sounded odd to Aurelan, "But, is not the city right next to Hell?"

God laughed , then said, "Hell is not a threat to my people. Its sealed away from everything for a

thousand years. Nobody can leave or enter for that span of time."

   The sun had burned into the darkening horizon, now a deep magenta that spoke of rest. Aurelan

yawned, then stood, his body like a sail, catching the breezes. God stood up next to him, a magnificent

blue in the corner of his eye.

    "You fought well today, Aurelan. Your body is weary, you should sleep."

Aurelan stretched, then nodded with a smile.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

You might have done better to post them as four individual posts, separated by a few days for commentary.

As it stands, there's just _way_ too much text in one lump for anyone but us masochists to read, and even I'm having some trouble...