Angel in Chains
The Orion Legion's primary function was to scout for Dark life in the billions of star systems in this galaxy, and when we find it, we exterminate it and cleanse the worlds it infects. My unit got way more than we bargained for with this mission. Not only did we find the single largest infection of dark life in a single stellar neighborhood we've found so far, possibly even in this galaxy, we also were unpleasantly surprised to find one of the Adversary's primary generals working on a project to spread the abominable Dark Life deeper and deeper into this galactic arm. It had already infected 36 star systems. We were in for a hell of a battle. I wasn't fretting too much. This is what I live for. This is what my Lord and maker created me for. He gave me my holy sword, my sacred armor, my training, my wings, my intellect, and my faith to cloak and cover me in His divine protection as we continue on our seemingly endless mission to purge dark life out of the universe, destroy the rebellion against righteousness, and cripple the Adversary's grip on the innocent life and worlds he attacks and infects.
The Orion Legion usually was pretty swift. We could eradicate a dark life infestation in a star cluster in around a decade or two, give or take, but the fact that a General of Darkness and one of the adversary's chief agents was present with a significant demon legion in this sector proved to be quite the stumbling block in our extermination efforts. We fought day-in-day-out against both demon rebels as well as Dark Life beasts and creatures of indescribable corruption and filthy twisted forms. For years, we laid waste day after day against the Dark Life, and the demon rebels, and we began suffering casualties that set our mission back for a few years. Kanriel was killed, and as he died I told him to send my regards to the Archangels and our Lord and creator himself once his spirit entered into the Highest realm and was resurrected amongst the City of Light near the palace and throne-room of God. Whenever angels die, our eternal spirits return to the Highest Realm of Existence to be reformed, reanimated, and either rewarded for our valor or chastised and corrected for our shortcomings and failures. This is truly an eternal process. One all of us must go through for eternity. Sometimes we fail, sometimes we succeed, sometimes we taste glory, sometimes we taste death, but it is existence without end. As long as we learn something, and as long as we stay loyal to our Lord and Master the Creator, we will never lose purpose, we will never run out of opportunities for victory, and the Glory of the victory over darkness and the absolute, flawless Glory of God will never leave or forsake his mighty soldiers and heroes of creation. Kanriel was a good friend and great leader, and even though I knew he returned to the Highest realm, I grieved his loss still. I and the rest of the Orion Legion will have to lick our wounds and soldier on through our losses. For angels, warriors of God of immense strength and power, even one casualty is a huge setback, as a single angel can obliterate hundreds of thousands of Dark Life creatures and sentient dark beings. However, Demon rebels prove more difficult to kill. Obviously because they were angels once. Like us. Like me. They still retain their angel strength. That's how brother Kanriel died.
He died at the hand of a particularly nasty Demon named Zandruz'l. I knew Zandruz'l from the perfect age. The age of order and peace, before the Fall. Before Lucifer fractured existence into two antithetical forces, the Light of God and the Darkness of the Void, by which Lucifer, now known as the adversary, and his Demon Rebels who followed him after the fracture became its agents and slaves. Lucifer, though he leads the rebellion, is a slave to Darkness. How Ironic, for an angel whose name means "Light-bringer." Zandruz'l, a general of Darkness, was once my close friend in the perfect age. We were brothers in arms, friends and companions, and shared in the love of God before he fell into Darkness and was deceived and ensnared by Lucifer. In this Dark Life purge, I was forced to confront him after Kanriel's death. Kanriel was the general and supreme commander of the Orion Legion. I, both in a stroke of fortune and an unsettling set of circumstances, was his second in command. With his death, I became supreme commander of the Orion Legion.
Honestly I wasn't super comfortable with this. Not at this moment and on this mission I must say. Shucks, now I have to command an entire legion against this rather potent and dangerously efficient Dark legion headed by Zandruz'l. Naturally, it was only a matter of time before I met my old friend turned dark agent in angelic battle on one of these many Dark Life infested worlds. It takes so long to weed out infestations, and there is often a great sorrow to it, especially when the Dark Life destroys civilizations and wonders of True Life, the life touched and given its spirit by the Creator Himself. Zandruz'l and I dueled and clashed, dealing blow after blow against each other until the point of utter exhaustion on both of our parts. I was stronger, but Zandruz'l was quite clever. With the tip of my sword at his throat, he struck me with a wave of dark energy, tripped me, and clipped one of my wings with is Warhammer. I was taken by surprise to say the least and in my compromised state he summoned heavy black chains of enchanted galdinium steel and ensnared my wings and legs in them. He then opened a portal and drug me through. Disarmed, my sword left on that blackened, Dark Life poisoned hellhole where Kanriel died and my failed attempt to avenge him tragically took place and my shield shattered by Zandruz'l's warhammer, I was now a prisoner of war taken to the heart of the Beast's lair on a Demon battlestation on a scorched rogue planet deep in interstellar space, jettisoned from the orbit of its star by the sheer force of a wandering magnetar passing through that particular star system. Deep in interstellar space, this wandering orphaned planet experienced very little light. The nearest star was 2.45 light years away, and every day that distance grew. It was still passing through the immense vastness of interstellar space. It was almost pitch black on it's surface, and it was blisteringly cold, terrifyingly cold and dark. The perfect place for a Demon outpost.
The Demon base was about 23 miles under the surface of this rogue interstellar planet, where the hot molten core of the world provided a source of energy for the base, providing the Dark legion which operated here a means to survive. I was struggling and resisting, but the chains I was wrapped in were too strong, surprisingly strong, given the fact that they were unable to be broken by an angel of my rank. "You shouldn't tire yourself out too much Aktriel." Zandruz'l uttered in his blackened and ominous voice, his first words since chaining me. "You are wasting your energy and breath. Those chains are reinforced galdinium, and they've been enchanted with dark sorcery personally by my lord and master himself. You, old friend, are our most valuable catch this millennium. You, my noble loyalist and divine lapdog, are going to be here for a while." Unfortunately I couldn't say much in return. When he first chained me, he sealed a silencing mouthpiece to my face. I couldn't say a word. I couldn't even scream, and most certainly couldn't summon divine light with a soul-chant. I was crippled, silenced, and chained. I was, for the first time in eons, helpless and at the mercy of darkness. It was a terrible feeling. The worst defeat and subduing I had undergone in the last 324 combat tours. This was worse than the last one. Much worse. It was a disaster. I had no idea how long Zandruz'l was going to keep me here. Deep in the daunting catacombs and dungeons of this lost and derelict world, the dark general encaged me. It was only a matter of days before he began his torture and torment. For hours and hours he would humiliate me and strip me of my light and dignity. His goal was to break my spirit, and if he succeeded, he could sever my quantum connection with the city of light, and I could be drifting on this world until this universe dies, or unless the creator initiates a mercy reclamation and summons my spirit directly home. That is not as good as it sounds. It means failure and divine reprimand. That would be unacceptable. I have to escape.
Almost immediately after being put into my cell, the torture began. Physical, psychological, spiritual, you name it. Every form of torture imaginable. Zandruz'l was a vicious Demon. Probably one of the most brutal and twisted of the Fallen. As the days turned into weeks there was not any rest and reprieve from torment. the chains burned my skin. The dark sorcery of the Adversary was potent enough to penetrate my spirit-armor and sear and burn into my body. On top of it, Zandruz'l blasted screaming, crying, and sounds of mutilation and heinous sounds of the most twisted things your ears could hear around the clock. Never-ceasing forms of psychological warfare. Whispers and words uttering the most ungodly of blasphemies and phrases that directly attacked the purity and sanctity of my mind, twisting my thoughts and images, all the while the physical pain of the chains grew more and more intense as the weeks went on. They reached their limit of intensity, and I was in absolute agony. It was worse than the hell that these bastards of demons and fallen angels are destined to inherit when the final trumpet sounds in this universe and the enemies are cast into the oblivion of eternal torment. I couldn't scream. I couldn't cry. I couldn't utter anything. Zandruz'l's cruelty included keeping the seal on my mouth as he tortured me. His torture wasn't just aimless. He was trying to break the connection, and if he succeeded, and then killed me, I would be dissolved into oblivion. It is the final death. A death above deaths of sorts.
I was helpless at this point. I couldn't break free. The fear started hitting me more intensely. A dread of what might happen if the connection was severed. I've never felt a fear like this before. Battle deaths aren't nearly as frightening as having your connection to the Highest Realm severed. If that happens, you really die. No resurrections. No restorations. No return to the Kingdom. It is the only way the endlessness of our existence can be broken, where eternity is deprived of us, and our cycles of valor and tribulation and glory and reprieve and education is broken.
I began to do what you are supposed to do under these circumstances. I began to pray. I asked God for help. I knew what was coming, and then it happened. My spirit was taken from my body before the connection could be severed, and my body was destroyed. I think Zandruz'l thought I'd never actually ask for it. Mercy reclamations, after all, are highly undesirable. There's a lot of shame involved with them. It's akin to an embarrassment, a failure that in the eyes of the angels was worse than dying in battle, but sometimes they are necessary and sometimes they just have to happen.
I woke up in a room in the Angel Refuge. It is a kind of hospital for our spirits in the highest realm. It's quiet, white, and secluded. Lot's of rooms and narrow corridors. I immediately broke into tears, still reeling from the torture and the trauma of the abuse I endured before the reclamation. I also grieved because of the shame and the failure that comes with a reclamation. In my entire existence, this was my first one. I've never been captured before, and I never endured a torture quite like this. I grieved intensely for a few days. I've heard stories of the Reclamation Refuge, this angel hospital. It's different than if you die in battle. You spend quite a bit of time after a reclamation by yourself, to give you time to grieve. How much time? I wasn't so sure. There is no staff, and no other patients or comrades to interact with.
Even in the shame, the refuge is a beautiful complex. The beds are comfortable. The courtyards are in full bloom with flowers, and the food is delectable. The best food you could ever have. There are places to swim, rooms to meditate, and the mountains are beyond majestic, and the complex is by an alpine lake in the midst of the mountains. Views that take your breath away.
It's quiet, though. There is an ambient noise, almost a humming, that pervades the whole complex, and it is kind of euphoric to listen to, but it's quiet. No loud music. No talking. No movies or television. There is no one in the complex but me. I don't know why the creator does this, but it has something to do with the recovery process. He makes it so you are isolated and in quiet for an unknown amount of time. I can come and go as I please. This wasn't a prison. But I couldn't leave the complex.
As the first month passed, the flashbacks to the torture and brutalization started to get less powerful and less overwhelming, and that ambient humming noise in the background was affecting me in a different way. I realized that that noise was healing my mind. Taking away the sounds of pain and agony that the General put into me. A few more months passed and I didn't even have the flashbacks anymore.
I swam a lot in the pools and Jacuzzies of the complex, and ate a lot of food. Hiked the mountains, as far as the Creator allowed it. I still couldn't go back into the community yet. The highest realm is pretty big, too, once you go back to it, you can spend a few centuries in any of the villages or cities you want, but after a reclamation you are kept away from the realm's communities until you are deemed ready by the creator to return.
I was still alone. There were no nurses, no guards, no doctors, no other guests or patients. Just a massive, beautiful complex all to myself with an incessant and euphoric quiet humming noise always in the background. The months turned into years, and I was still alone. But I wasn't lonely. In some ways I kind of enjoyed it, but some company would be nice every once in awhile. The pain and trauma of the torture and the grief of the reclamation, as well as the anger of the failure, had substantially subsided as I entered into my 10th year of seclusion.
I was swimming in the lake one day after fishing for a bit, and I saw an old man come down from the mountain. Finally some company! I got a little excited, and I ran to meet him. In this new body I wasn't really properly dressed. I didn't have much for clothes, and since I was alone for 10 years I rarely wore any clothes at all. The old man had a pack on him, and greeted me warmly. "Hey buddy! You having a good time here?!"
I smiled and laughed a bit and said, "yeah, you can say that. I've been here for a while."
"you look a little....cold." He said with a little smile. "Here, I've got some nice, warm, clean linens for you."
He unzipped his pack an pulled out some white cloaks and a blanket, and after I got dressed, he had me follow him to the courtyard of the complex. We started a fire in the fire pit, and he cooked up some stew and biscuits.
"what's your name?" I asked him softly. "Nicolas." He answered. "What's yours?" "Aktriel" I said. "Did you enjoy the refuge?" Nicolas stirred the stew for a bit as we went deeper in conversation.
"I guess enjoy is one way to put it. It definitely helped get the screaming and the crying and the pain of that disaster I went through on that rogue planet to calm down. It's quite the place. Very quiet, it was very...isolated."
"All angels go through this, bud, at some point. You lasted longer than most, to be honest. I know the shame can be a little much for a lot of you, but trust me, this is something that just has to happen at some point."
"How much longer do I have to stay here?" I asked.
"about 3,000 years. The Creator sent me here to bring you your education requirements. In these 3 millennia, you're are to meditate on 3,000 unique forms of love, one for every year, and you are to study a full curriculum of knowledge and truth. There is to be no war, no violence, and no conquest for this time. This is a time of peace and reflection for you. You are to study peace and the knowledge and fields pertaining to peace. You will not be alone. Every year, you will be sent a companion, a friend to love dearly, so that by the end of your stint here, you will have a couple thousand friends to love dearly, play with, and learn with. I am proud to say, bud, that each friend that comes each year has something to do with that year's 'form of love' you must study. You are going to find this experience unbelievably beautiful and rewarding."
I was a little grieved at first. I really didn't want to spend three millennia here. On the other hand, His stipulations and conditions were kind of uplifting. The thought of having a new friend added every year kind of appeased me a little bit.
"This is the Creator's will for you. Don't think of it as a punishment."
After we ate, Nicolas left back up the mountains. Before he left, he said my first companion would show up in three weeks.
I honestly couldn't wait to meet him.
For now, I roam the lonely campus of the Refuge, swim in its lake, hang out in the flowers of its courtyard, and I couldn't help but notice how beautiful that humming sound was getting. More and more so every day.
Hello. I found your blog by chance. Although nothing seems coincidence. I don't speak English, I use a translator. Your story is fascinating. Although it is not fiction, it is a memory. Maybe we were in that war together.
ReplyDeleteI would like to talk with you. Please write me to josegarcianatera@hotmail.com
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