Chapter Four: A Bad Dream, Part 3: The Great Battle at the Beautiful Gardens, Jehovah’s Side of the Battle: The Final Countdown
Jehovah threw a straight right punch. Lucifer moves his head from the center line, narrowly dodging the glowing blue fist. He never takes his eyes off of it, not even for a second.
Jehovah takes this chance to surprise Lucifer and follows up with a head kick from the same side. He partially blocked it. The kick's power is strong enough to blast Lucifer’s guard away, creating an opening.
Jehovah cocked his fist back once again, releasing his fist at faster than light speed.
Lucifer had been unable to open his eyes until this moment. They opened; they shimmered red.
His pupils were replaced with the lines that formed the invocation circles known as the "Cycle of Pie." Six overlapping circles blossomed in the eye; each circle is divided into six intersecting lines and has six symbols. They resemble six pie charts in his eyes, with symbols in the middle of those charts, transparent on the inside, relaying massive amounts of data to Lucifer at the attosecond.
Lucifer had to enhance his perception by using several of the Cycle of Pie’s innate skills in combination to get away from Jehovah.
The Lion's Heart *activated* Ill Will *activated* Symbolic Prayer *activated* The Symbol for Unknown ““*activated*. His eyes pulsated and snapped four times, with each ability going off in a chain of succession.
The Lion’s Heart: Doubled the user's strength, speed, durability, endurance, and the brain's total processing capabilities upon activation, taking roughly nine months away from Lucifer's lifespan. Ill will was a backup plan contingent on whether he was hit. Whatever will befall Lucifer could also be ejected out of the eyes of the beholder. Essentially, he can inflict just as much damage as was dealt to him by anything he is seeing at the time, pinpointing and then becoming a condenser of force. This chipped two months away from his lifespan. Symbolic Prayer: A fortification blessing that was used for healing and overall defense came in the form of translucent prayer hands that slapped around, encapsulating Lucifer in a pod. He was kept protected within the imaginary hands. This power needed five months. The Symbol for the Unknown’s skill was never found out, but Lucifer believes it had something to do with luck. It was only discovered because it had double the amount of generic ‘A’ masses when compared to the other known skills held in the Cycle of Pie itself. The cost for the unknown was unknown; the rough estimate was one hundred years.
He manages to get his head on the outside of the punch. The blowback from Jehovah's attack caused high winds that increased in speed. Boulders were being tossed from the ground way up, and trees were detached from their roots.
Lucifer opened his wings and was taken away, not being able to control himself. He put them at rest, backflipping as he fell from the sky. He slid upon landing. Mid-slide, Jehovah appeared and took Lucifer's hand, raising it above their heads like how a man might a woman at a ball, signifying he was leading this literal dance.
From his side, he sweeps Lucifer's legs. Lucifer manages to catch his fall, backhand spring, and land perfectly before backing up again, creating a distance of about 3 feet.
Lucifer was huffing to get some oxygen back into his body. Sweat perspires profusely from his face. He couldn't hold on much longer. The facade was over. Unable to keep up with the overwhelming power at hand.
"Are you tired?" Jehovah asked in a sort of menacing way.
One word shook Lucifer to the core. His hands began to tremble, his eyes rattled, and the pumping of further blood to the heart made breathing the only necessity. The scare had caused significantly more exhaustion on top of the fatigue setting in.
Jehovah approached forwardly, and Lucifer, in response, walked back into the southpaw position, raising his right hand to his head, just in case of an incoming attack. A response that comes from years of combat and a little fear.
The young God vociferates, "Woah, Lucy!" He acted both surprised and startled. He sounded, oddly enough, as though he had just awoken from a nap. That was the way in which God was weary. Jehovah showed Lucifer his hands, saying that he was no harm. He said, "I just want to talk."
Lucifer couldn't intervene, even if he wanted to.
Continuing, Jehovah spoke. "It was a genuine question, you know. If you are tired, Lucifer, go to bed. We can discuss this in the morning, but right now, it is rather crucial we end this, don't you think?" He stopped himself from losing control. You could see it in his face. He wanted to rip his heart right there. Give up, but he could not. He cleared his throat while standing tall, took a moment to gather himself, and said, "I do not have time for games." He wiped his shoulders, dusting them off. "I'm going back to the Kabala. You will stay put, and we will go to the New World. You will receive your punishment there. What that is, I do not know myself."
With his right hand to his heart now, he shook his head. Whether the motion made was in denial, shame, or woe, he does not remember. But he did not have to speak when he could pontificate anything to Lucifer. The way he interacted with others, the choices he made, and his wants. It spoke to him in a way that only he could understand. The telltale signs of idiocy, Lucifer could see, but the rest of heaven could not.
It was attributed to how well they knew each other, a test that could only be assessed over time. One did not know more about the other; they had sufficient knowledge of each other in every way except opportunity.
Jehovah, walking up with his hand still at his heart, said, “Soon everything will be back to normal, and we will still... well, we will still be."
The borders between good and evil became a neutral zone of action and reaction, cause and effect. There were no sides in actuality, and this was winner-take-all.
The opposed bit his lower lip till it bled. Regenerating instantly, he clenches his fists. He asked Jehovah mulling it over in his mind while not letting the degradation take over entirely. He said, "What about the ones already gone?" He said it as a sort of advocate. Indifferent to the original idea.
Lucifer may survive this unscathed, living to fight another day, but his hood will be hooded away. The pride he was so proud of, the rebellion, the war. What would it all have been for if he had given up now? He had asked the question as a question for a thousand others.
The young God stepped closer and pointed out his injury. "You're bleeding for one," he said. It was not an act of quarrel but of aid. Lucifer deeply inhales just to keep the distance between them. Jehovah stops to show his hands, as he did before. "Okay, I get it," he said. Jehovah appeared to have scoffed. Staring at his opponent, he agreed. "I'll answer you this one question." He closes both fists limply. "There is nothing to be done about the dead. We move forward, take what we can, and run. I'm running too, you know?" He paused, then emphasized. "It was the best I could think of. This isn't just about YOU."
Lucifer could not stand for such hypocrisy. "I know this!" He said it offendedly: "The ones who are dead... that's... it was everything. Our home is everything, and you're letting it all go to waste as if it were trash. Not me, you. You imbecile!" He began to rant. "I knew about the void far before even you. I've known about the unnamed fundamental components of the heavens and the universe and proposed the very theories that are accepted as facts today!" He poked at his chest, knocking on it like a door, and quickly said it with even more aggression: "I was the one who brought to light the wish inscribed in the vestiges of the 9th circle. It was me! Not you!" He used all the energy he had gained. He finished with, "And I know, oh, I know your dirty little secret."
Jehovah shook his head in confusion and replied, "What are you on about? You've finally lost it, haven't you?"
Lucifer spoke inaudibly through the dream. At that singular moment, Jehovah had no choice but to choke Lucifer, picking him up by the neck with his right arm before a reaction could ever be made. He was triggered now and in a blind rage, he forcibly shut Lucifer’s windpipe.
Lucifer struggled, kicking his legs and attempting to pry with his two hands, the one. His face became overcome with the blood that rushed out and locked in his head. Warm red hemoglobin squirted from the nose. The hand charged its power and in doing so overheated turning the water molecules within the air into a sauna-like steam that barricaded over the appendage. It was a geyser of condensation, a chimney producing smoke.
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The hand imprinted on Lucifer's neck. He struggled further, punching him out of desperation. He could not be budged.
A dark, septic green blade, rigid and battered, was stabbed through Jehovah's stomach from behind.
His hand charged to completion. Clasping Lucifer's neck and breaking it.
The blade ran up the stomach and passed the chest, cutting the throat vertically and the head like half an apple. Jehovah struggled to stand up the way he was now. He waddled side to side, back and forth, his movement similar to that of a toddler's. His organs and head which were hard to fall out of stayed intact spilling minimal amounts of blood.
Lucifer wielded a katana. He admired the blade putting it close to his face and licked God's blood from the Yaibi (the cutting edge).
Lucifer: "I didn't think you fell for things like that anymore, not ever since reaching the level of perfection you have."
Jehovah turned around like a penguin would. Squared off with Lucifer, he quickly began to heal from the stomach up, stitching himself back together. Lucifer gave no time to rest, dashing to slice Jehovah’s head off. In the same instance, Jehovah pointed his index finger at the weapon, turning the blade floppy.
"What the f*ck, how did he do that?" Lucifer cursed in confusion.
This surprises Lucifer, changing his course of action. He jumped above, spinning and flipping in such a way that the floppy blade tied a noose-like knot around Jehovah’s neck. Lucifer pulls on the handle of the Katana, dragging him to the ground. The weapon stretched longer. Thinning kept its integrity. Lucifer opened a considerably large portal tossing the hilt of the sword inside. The noose around his neck tightened and pulled only the line he was dragged upon. Like a fish hooked and reeled.
Lucifer consoled his old friend as he kicked and ripped at his neck for release. He now struggled to breathe, as Lucifer did, but in a different way.
Lucifer said it to him softly yet sternly. "Did you ever think, when we were younger, it would've ever been like this?"
Jehovah wheezed out. "Stop."
His right hand motioned up, fluttering a bright blue before dimming back down to its natural state. He looked at his hand and with the other tried to release the tie. He raised his back again, but this time Lucifer kicked his hand away.
Lucifer explains, "The commandments won't work. Your healing factor is being zapped away at a hundred different angles. Your super-analyzing right hand, or whatever that thing is, can only do so much. I've killed you approximately a dozen times."
He approached the portal. Lucifer glanced at the right hand of God like he had a thousand times before. In deep thought, Lucifer revised a new hypothesis. The right hand of God wasn't an angelic gift or an angelic power. It was possibly a sentient hand that could combat any endeavor.
"I just mean, did you ever stop to think that it would be me? Who defeated you? And if you didn't, then it is you who are the ignorant one, is it not?" He entered inside. "Goodbye, Jehovah," Lucifer said.
The tunnel was slowly sealed. Lucifer turned around. Limping off of the battlefield and clasping his shattered left arm.
Jehovah pierced back through the other end. His right hand separated the noose, but it did not detach it completely. He brought with him a large, dark hand that pulled on his face from behind. His hand steamed over, supercharging itself to the point that all there was to be seen was smoke coming from the appendage. He freed himself from the noose, but whatever was on the other side threw him back.
Before closing, a large monstrosity came running out of the portal. In his hands, Jehovah was being squeezed in the face. He stood about nine feet tall. As the dark black skin of the hand may have suggested, he was made of pure muscle. Stocky and gorilla-like were his two definitive features, nothing else. He was an animalistic, crazed, and sadistic. He was untamable. Lucifer was not his master; he was merely a manipulator.
Jehovah blasted the beast in the chest with a small beam that came from his right hand.
"Level 1,” he said.
He was released. Landing, he did the technique in repetition; this time he put his wrists together, hands open, and a much bigger energy blast disintegrated the beasts from the waist up.
"Level 3," he said this time.
In order for Jehovah to do this technique, he first put his wrists together, then extended his arms outward, and finally gathered energy between his hands, forming a sphere. The energy sphere appears as a pulsating, glowing blue orb, the same intense color as his hand.
The sphere reached its climax and could not grow anymore. Jehovah thrust his hands forward, releasing the energy in the form of a concentrated blast directed at the beast. The attack travels at high speed, leaving a trail of energy in its wake, and upon impact, it generates a massive explosion that inflicts significant damage to the surrounding area and any opponents caught in its path. The blast is able to blow a hole through a quarter of the infinite heavens.
The rest of the beast fell. Because the beast was so close, he only took the center impact of level 3. The concentrated amount the beast absorbed was enough to take his upper half clean off, and Jehovah achieved such a feat with ease, like he was a red-hot knife passing through cold butter. Both the young god’s palms were glowing red and smoking from the energies releasing from them. They cooled down immediately and returned to normal.
Lucifer, in a surprise attack, flies at high speeds, picking up Jehovah from the side of his head. He flies upwards past the skyline.
Jehovah breaks Lucifer's levered-out arm, climbing on him and grabbing hold of Lucifer's left-wing side, ripping one of them off during the fall. Jehovah punches him in the face, sending Lucifer back to land. The ground rose, and debris flew up. A dirt cloud was made.
On top of that, Jehovah used the commandment, "Down!" His voice was amplified. It sounded as though there were a hundred of him saying that one word at the same exact time.
The gravity in the area multiplied, smashing the dust cloud down. Rocks and mounds of dirt rained on Lucifer.
Lucifer forces himself to sit up, but the pressure is too much.
Jehovah, now enraged, yelled out from the sky. "I should have realized you wouldn't give up that easily!" He lowers himself, saying, "There is one way to end this."
The black beast had regenerated and jumped, snatching Jehovah out of the sky.
"I thought he'd never shut up." Lucifer spoke. The commandment ended with this distraction. He got up, cleaning himself off, before flying out of the hole he was in.
The beast hugged Jehovah tightly, trapping both arms and gnawing on his head just outside the hole. Lucifer summoned several dark matter spears around the two, sending them off and piercing both friend and foe. The beast was killed instantly from a stray to the head. The spear nailed his head to the floor.
They were eating shish kebab together. Jehovah was stabbed through both legs, both arms, and two spears that went in the opposite direction from the chest to the back and vice versa. He was pinned in place and to the black beast's body.
Jehovah screams. "Down!"
Lucifer was brought to his knees. The same commandant now affects Lucifer directly.
"Release me," Jehovah said, just to say words with the power behind them. He added, "Listen to me, Lucifer. This is your last chance. If you don't stop, give me the wish. I'll help you realize what the second catalyst of true power is. Do you think that toy on your chest is going to save you for long?" God laughed hard to breathe, shallow and short. "You think I'm scared of you? You're powerless!" He puked out red, green, and black poisonous blood mixtures from his mouth in that staked position.
"The blade's secondary phase is kicking in, the Black Plague." Lucifer smirked with a big, bright snicker and spoke: "You need to stop talking. You're ruining this for yourself."
"PUSH!" Jehovah used his last commandment using the tidbit of oxygen left in his lungs; it was a screaming, weak wheeze of what was being said.
Everything repelled off Jehovah and was pushed out with excessive force.
Lucifer mustered up all his willpower not to listen. Putting his hands on top of each other, they faced different directions. The thumb lay over the pinky finger on one side, and on the other side, his pinky over the thumb was parallel. Flashbacks flooded into Lucifer's head.
Through brimstone and fire, never-ending deserts, with Jehovah by his side, build brick by brick humanity's cathedral. But then, as the story goes, one of the two believes the other wasn't doing enough, that he could do better, and if this was the end of the world, he was the one who was going to save it.
Flashes of a woman—so small and so sweet—came to him. He knew what he was doing this for. Thy betrayal he was forced into, and how there was no excuse, but he had one. It fell upon deaf ears, and Lucifer remembered that God did what he did too. He may have been wrong, but so was he.
This was a clash of either two truths or lies.
Another flash showed the promise he made to the sweet, small woman. He had told her while holding her. His finger was running down through their silky brunette hair and looking into her beady, dark brown eyes, under the moonlit and twinkled cosmos. He would not crawl. He was to serve no one, and it was to be he whom ushers in the New World.
"I refuse to listen to you," Lucifer said to Jehovah.
Searching deep within the Law Defyer, Lucifer found a new rule to add to his collection.
"THE RULES OF NATURE: #25 Ikigai, The Perfect Balance." He spoke aloud, word by word, slowly.
A hush came down through the valley in an abrupt silence. A swishing in the ear as things turned off in the distance, natural or not, just stopped. The spirit of the north wind dares not release his air over the land at this moment. It held its breath, for it had known this was a moment to be feared and nothing else.