In the depths of the underworld a certain Egyptian deity paced in place. Her nervous demeanor and involuntary sweating was clear to everyone that passed.
“I’m dead, I’m dead, I’m dead, I’m so dead, I'm fired! I’m dead.”
Muttering to herself she completely ignored the deity that had walked behind her, waiting for her.
“Ms. Osiris,” the voice said softly.
“ACK!” The warden jumped in place and moved her hands as if she was about to use kung fu on the would-be assailant. “Arawn! Don’t do that! You know I can’t sense you.”
Arawn lowered her head in shame; she wore a white mask with giant black eye sockets. You could see the iris of her eyes but only if she wanted you to. Most of the time she hid them on purpose.
“Sorry, Ms. Osiris, I was standing near you for a few minutes but you didn’t notice me. I also didn’t want to scare you or interrupt your muttering.”
Osiris now lowered her head in shame. Arawn was the death deity for the Celtic; she was one of the younger deities and at the time was not given an area of the underworld to govern. Instead, she was placed under the tutelage of Anbius. But Anbius defected from the deities of Elysium, causing his assistant Osiris to take his place.
Now Arawn was under the tutelage of Osiris, which Osiris wasn’t too happy about. She wanted a teacher of her own to guide her, not be one. Still, Arawn was a great deity whose Celtic honor truly shined when she completed every duty with excellence.
“Osiris, you seem more nervous than usual. Do you know what this meeting is about?” Arawn asked as she lifted her mask up showing her gray skin and Celtic face markings. She thought this action would help ease her teacher's nerves.
For the first time since the Great Rebellion, all the wardens of hell and their assistants were meeting together. What made it worse was that no one knew why.
Osiris thought that the jig was up, they found out what she did with the human soul and she was going to be casted aside. The more she thought about it the more her bandages started to unravel.
Noticing the bandages Arawn picked them up and started to wrap them back on her teacher.
“I’m dead. This is probably a meeting to execute me,” Osiris muttered.
Arawn tied the ends of the bandages together to make sure they would stop unraveling. “Orrrr maybe they decided to expand the underworld and give me my position of warden.”
“We could only hope,” Osiris said, visibly shaking. Arawn sighed and pushed her teacher into the meeting hall.
///
Arawn and Osiris were the last to enter the hall. An all-star lineup of deities were each in their seats waiting for the meeting to start; they sat in front of a long curved table.
Warden Hades and his assistant, Thanatos. The Greek death deities.
Warden Mictlantecuhtli and his assistant, Ah Puch. The Aztec and Mayan death deities.
Warden Zhong kui, who had no assistant. He was the assistant to the original Chinese Warden Yama, who was part of the deities that stayed in Eden.
Warden Odin and his assistant, Lady Hel. The Norse death deities.
Warden Kali, who also had no assistant because she believed she didn’t need one. The Hindu death deity.
Warden Mors and her assistant, Pluto. The Roman death deities.
And of course the last two to take their seats, Warden Osiris and her current assistant, Arawn. The Egyptian and Celtic death deities.
As they sat down Arawn leaned in. “Wow, all the wardens really are here! Even Zhong kui— doesn’t he have to prepare for the Tryfing?”
Osiris face made a pout. “He’s the model warden, he can do everything, hmph.”
Arawn shook her head. “You're still jealous of him.” She pulled her mask down to cover her face. “He's been doing all his duties by himself, maybe you should look up to him instead and follow his example.”
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The student was scolding the teacher, a common occurrence between the two. As Osiris was about to talk back to the young Celtic, Hades got up from his chair and clapped his hands together, sending a small shockwave of energy through the room.
“Okay, so it's been awhile. I hope everyone is doing great.” No one spoke in response; a cough was heard awkwardly. Hades pushed his glasses up and sighed.
“Just get on with this meeting. I need to return to helheim, we got way to many corrupted souls for me to be wasting time,” Odin said.
“Most be so difficult for poor Hel to have to deal with you Odin. If it were me, I would have taken care of all those souls more efficiently.” Kali laughed.
“Your solution would be just to destroy them! It’s our job to make sure souls are cleansed and shepherded back into the cycle!” Odin shouted.
“Honestly, Odin, you could have come to me and begged for some help. I don’t mind helping my lessers.” Mictlantecuhtli sneered, and his assistant Ah Puch snickered at the comment.
Hel smacked the table in anger. “Stop bad mouthing my lord, he is more of a warden than any of you.” She was red in the face.
“Oh boy, looks like Odin got you wrapped around his finger,” Mors said. “What did he tell you? He promised you a piece of Valhalla if you slept with him?”
Hel stayed red but this time in embarrassment. “How—”
They all started to bicker and shout at each other. Conversations about who was a better warden, who had the most soul cleansed, or how many souls they sentthrough the cycle.
Hades just sat back down and let the wardens bicker.
Osiris and Arawn sat in their seats unable to truly get into the conversation with the other wardens. “No wonder we never have meetings anymore,” Osiris said.
Zhong kui pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head, looking at Hades. They both shared a look of understanding and used their powers at the same time to send another shockwave to silence everyone in the room.
“Please, I beg everyone to be quiet,” Zhong Kui demanded. No one said another word. “Hades, why are we here?”
“Oh, I don’t know.”
The wardens all had confused faces. If not Hades then who called them all.
Just then the doors of the hall opened and three figures stood in the doorway. As the figures moved into the hall every warden and their assistant couldn’t believe who had just entered.
“Warden Anubis?” Osiris said.
“I’m glad to see you are still alive, Osiris,” Anubis said. Behind him stood the African twin deities of death, Gamab and Gaunab.
Warden Kali jumped out of her seat and used her four arms to summon her four swords and went straight for Anubis' neck.
“What are the traitors doing here!” Kali hissed.
“Always so angry and quick to judge,” Anubis sighed. “We were invited.”
“By whom?” Zhong kui said; he held his favored weapon ghost-catcher in his right hand. Most of the wardens and their assistants were in battle stances.
The twins summoned their weapons; one was a sword that was shaped like a sickle and the other was a long spear. The twins and the Hindu deity of death clashed.
“Why are you here, Anubis! You left me, Ra, and all the other Egyptian deities.” Osiris stood up and made her way to Anubis.
The twins and Kali were still struggling with their blades; using her multiple arms Kali was able to hold the twins in place, allowing the young warden to reach Anubis.
Grabbing the collar of his shirt, angry and tearful eyed Osiris let out her frustrations. “You have no right to be here, Anubis.” She turned her head toward the twins Gamab and Gaunab. “None of you!”
What Osiris said was how the other wardens felt, they wanted these dissenters, these traitors, out of their home.
A light started to shine down from the top of long ceiling of the meeting room. A portal had open and a beautiful beam of radiant energy poured out, causing every deity to look up.
This figure made sure that everyone knew he had arrived; angel feathers started to fall out of the portal and a mystical and majestic figure floated down.
This figure had two small angel wings that covered his chest, they looked like they were part of his outfit. He had another set of wings positioned in the traditional area that angels had them at. These were silver, almost mechanical-like and very sharp, like they could be used as swords.
The angel’s beautiful black hair was rampaging wildly, thanks to the wind coming from the portal.
Everyone noticed the area the portal opened from, they could feel the aura of their old home from the beam of light.
It was a portal from Eden. For the first time since the end of the Great Rebellion, the deities in this room got a glimpse of Eden.
Osiris, though, didn’t feel the same as the others. No, instead she had started to sweat and her bandages started to unravel.
Her knees couldn’t stop shaking and she fell on them, unable to get the strength to hold herself up. All she could think about was Ra’s warning.
“I’m dead. I’m so dead.”
As the angel’s feet landed on the table, his pitch black and yellow eyes bore into the wardens’ souls.
“Do not attack the guests I invited,” the angel commanded. Kali instantly jumped back and de-summoned her weapons.
“Metatron… God’s right hand,” muttered Osiris.
///
Osiris couldn’t stop shaking, all she kept saying to herself was why. Why was the right hand of God here? Metatron was the second angel ever created, the first being Lucifer. He was created to stay by God’s side and protect him. During the rebellion he did enter the main battle but focused on taking down the armies of created curses and demons.
He was instrumental in turning the tide in their favor. Being the only angel created for God to embed his ather to. God at the moment was embedding his ather into Achilles for the Tryfing, leaving Metatron to be without his ather for the moment.
But even without the grace of his father, he was still feared. Everyone knew not to mess with Metatron. Arewn herself started to act like Osiris, she had never seen him face to face, and his power and form made her tremble.
Metatron put his index finger to his mouth, commanding the wardens to be quiet. “Lucifer’s seal has weakened and two of his Nephilim are currently hiding on Earth.” Metatron’s beautiful lips didn't move, he instead spoke into the minds of everyone in that room. All the wardens except Hades had a look of shock and worry, something Zhong kui picked up on.
Ah, now it makes sense why he wanted me to find a retainer so quickly, Zhong kui thought.
“Anubis, I invited you here to give you and the rest of the deities on the moon a warning. If you cowards are harboring and helping Lucifer in a way…”
Metatron floated down and got close to the three deities from the moon, looking straight into the eyes of all at the same time. At least, that's how it felt to them.
Metatron’s lips moved this time. “I and my Judicators will rain judgment on all of you.”
He turned his head and looked at the wardens. “That goes for all of you as well, helping Lucifer or…” He turned his body towards Osiris and stared at her, “allowing a soul to be tampered with, will cause swift judgment to rain on you.”
HE KNOWS! Osiris fainted at that moment, unable to hold the little composure she generally had. Arewn was able to finally move and used her body to prop Osiris up so that she didn’t look any more suspicious.
“The seal is able to keep one part of Lucifer inside. When he appears on Earth in his ethereal form, his physical form stays in his prison. Understand?”
The deities in the room nodded their heads in agreement.
“Do your best to make sure no other Nephilim escape and to hold Lucifer’s seal. After the Tryfing we will have another meeting, and God will be there.”
The others wouldn't believe what they had just heard. God had not been seen since he closed the gates of Eden. Metatron then looked at the deities from the moon. “Leave and make sure you tell every deity that left God’s side what I told you today.”
Anubis growled at the angel and then looked at the wardens of hell. “You can always leave and join us or any of the other deity groups that left. Our so-called Father has no respect for us and has failed us for these silly humans.”
He spat on the ground in front of Metatron “We aren’t helping Lucifer but he was right, so I hope whoever is helping him can break that silly seal.”
The three warped out of Elysium, and the link allowing them to enter broke. Metatron started to fly back up to the ceiling, and a portal started to open back up. “Keep up the good work, wardens. Our Father needs these souls to be vetted through the cycle.” Metatron snapped his fingers and disappeared into the portal, the portal also disappearing when he was gone.
The wardens just stood, no one able to say a thing.